Class Notes

Your news is important to us. We want to hear the latest on your business ventures, career moves, honors, awards and family news. Email your news, along with a high-resolution photo, to alumni@upike.edu. Submit by October, 2019, for the fall/winter 2019 issue of UPIKE Magazine.

1960s: UPIKE Trustee Emeritus Bill Baird ’66 was recognized by the University of Kentucky College of Law Alumni and presented the Community Service Award at the Kentucky Bar Association Convention.

1980s: Donnie Jones ’89 was named men’s basketball head coach by Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. Jones is a former Marshall University (2007-10) and University of Central Florida (2010-16) head coach who worked this season as a University of Dayton assistant. The Point Pleasant, W.Va., nativeʼs coaching career began as an assistant at Pikeville College where he spent two seasons before moving on to Marshall as a graduate assistant. Jones says he appreciates the opportunity to help build a culture and a style of play that will be exciting and fun to watch.

1990s: Chris Johnson ’95 has been promoted to the position of Senior Vice President/Credit Analysis Manager at Community Trust Bank. He has worked in the banking industry with Community Trust Bank for 21 years and has been an accounting assistant, staff accountant and a credit analyst. Johnson earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from UPIKE where he graduated with a double major in accounting and business management.

Christopher E. Kidd ’95 is celebrating 25 years of marriage to Stephanie Kidd ’95. They currently reside in Auxier, a Floyd County community just north of Prestonsburg, Ky. Their youngest child, Dexter, recently graduated from Pike County Central High School. Christopher says he enjoys playing in the Winds of Appalachia community band, in which he has been a member of for more than eight years. He is starting his third year as a remote software developer for Resolver, a company based in Toronto, Canada.

2000s: Adam Hall ’01 recently became a partner at Vanover, Hall and Bartley, P.S.C., a law firm in Pikeville. He is an adjunct professor at UPIKE teaching Sports Business Law. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Kentucky Bar Association, the Kentucky Justice Association and the Pike County Bar Association. He also serves on the board of directors of the Appalachian School of Law.

Pikeville High School math teacher, Ashley Adams ’03, was a teacher honored as Valvoline Teachers of the Year for her dedication to the Pikeville Independent School students, parents, colleagues and community.

J.C. Hensley ’04, married to Brooke McGehee Hensley, D.O., KYCOM ’13, is celebrating his 15 th year as a financial/wealth advisor for Edward Jones.

Jennifer J. Short ’04, now Jennifer Perkins, just began her 10 th year as a public defense attorney serving the London, Ky., area.

Michelle Noel, D.O., KYCOM ’05 has joined the medical staff at Clinton Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, Ohio, as a neurologist. She will practice with Dayton Center for Neurological Disorders and will be seeing patients as part of Clinton Neurological Services. Noel specializes in general neurology and treats a variety of conditions.

Rodrigo “Rod” Puebla ’02 was selected as Coach of the Year by the Peach Belt Conference. Puebla is the coach of the Flagler College Women’s Tennis Team, an NCAA Division II school in St. Augustine, Fla. He has been the head women’s coach for three seasons and has guided the team to a 15-5 overall record and program-best winning percentage in the league.

2010s: Whitney Compton ’11 is a graduate with a Bachelor of Science in religion, communication and English. At Pikeville College, she played basketball and softball from 2007-2011. She was a 2018 Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee. Compton currently resides in Grundy, Va., and is a teacher at Grundy High School where she also serves as the head varsity basketball and varsity softball coach.

Ryan Jones '11

Ryan Jones ’11 has been named Director of SOAR Innovation at Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), Inc. He will lead SOAR Innovation, a new partnership between SOAR and the Kentucky Innovation Network of Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. Jones comes to SOAR from Alltech, where he worked as a project coordinator, area sales manager and business development manager for the beverage division. Jones earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from UPIKE and is also co-owner and co-founder of Lincoln Road, LLC, a coffee retailer, supplier and distributor in Appalachia.

Kyle Collier ’10 with WYMT Mountain News, was recently nominated for an Emmy for his work in broadcasting. Before working at WYMT, he worked on UPIKEʼ-s campus newspaper as a reporter and layout editor. He says he is grateful that the family at WYMT gave him the opportunity to serve his mountain family.

Dr. Haley Sernandez UPIKE ’15, KYCOM ’19

Dr. Haley Sernandez UPIKE '15, KYCOM '19, is currently an orthopedic surgery resident physician at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y. Her recent orthopedic research, Sternoclavicular Joint Dislocation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, was published in the Journal of Orthopedic Trauma in Vol. 33, No. 7, July 2019. She says she wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon since she was 18 years old after watching her first surgery, an above-the-knee amputation. It has been quite the endeavor, given only 4 percent of practicing orthopedic surgeons and 14 percent of orthopedic surgery residents are female. She says, “I am helping to pave the way for other females, just like myself, who will come after me.” Haley is married to her biggest supporter, Marcos Sernandez Fondelius ’15.

Jeffery Justice ’15 has been named a Business and Innovation Champion of SOAR Innovation. He will serve Pike, Letcher and Harlan counties and works out of an office at Bit Source, a Pikeville, Ky.-based Google-certified agency. Justice comes to SOAR from First Commonwealth Bank, where he worked as a financial analyst. He also served as Chair of Electronic Communication for Rotary International Club of Pikeville. Justice says he was a first-generation college graduate who found a future in Appalachia.

Buddy Forbes ’15, current Youth Director at Justiceville Bible Baptist Church, is now a reporter for WYMT Mountain News. Born and raised in Pike County, his love of storytelling brought him to WYMT, where he looks forward to serving the people of Eastern Kentucky.

Josh Little ’15 was named Director of Operations at the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. In his new role, he will keep the community informed on the happenings of the Chamber and its members via the Chamber’s website, social media, news releases, email blasts, monthly newsletters and more. Little graduated from UPIKE with a Bachelor of Arts in communication. For the past three years, he was employed by Appalachian Newspapers, Inc., where he served as a staff writer for both the Appalachian News-Express in Pikeville and the Floyd County Chronicle and Times in Prestonsburg, Ky. Little said he is excited to be able to serve in the region in which he was born and raised, and will forever call home.

Stefan Morales ‘15 of Kissimmee, Fla., is the offensive line coach at Dakota College at Bottineau. He coached the last four years at Liberty High School, helping them finish 9-2 in 2018. Morales was an all-conference football/track athlete at UPIKE.

Kimberly Little ‘16 was one of 31 nurses honored with departmental Nurse of the Year awards at Pikeville Medical Center’s Nurse of the Year Ceremony in May. Little was recognized for her role in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

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