ALUMNI NEWS
Kyle Coates, ’07, is an athletics trainer for Seymour (Indiana) High School. Alicia Hunter, ’07, has been selected as instructional supervisor for Madison County (Kentucky) Schools. Emily Childers, ’08, Versailles, Kentucky, has been named as manager of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association. She had spent the previous nine years in various event management roles. Angela Cherie Barger, ’09, is a manager of digital and social marketing and a working mom to a 3 ½-year-old child. Lauren Pingleton, APRN, ’09 ’13, an advanced practice provider, has joined the staff at the Ephraim McDowell Garrard Clinic, working with Dr. Steven Green. Kerrie Bal, ’11, received the WHAS-TV ExCEL Award for Elizabethtown (Kentucky) Independent Schools. The annual award recognizes excellence in classroom and educational leadership. She teaches at T.K. Stone Middle School. Frank Magnera, ’11 ’15, has been named fire chief for Canandaigua, New York. Most recently, he worked as a corporate security fire protection lead analyst for Avangrid’s New York state territory. Erica Childress, ’12, and Robbie Marye, ’11, were married in October 2017. They met on campus in 2010 when Robbie was part of the Theta Chi fraternity and Erica was in Kappa Delta Tau. Amanda (Pierce) Shelton, ’13, and Lynsey Shelton, ’12, were married in December 2016 after having met in Walters Hall, where both lived. They reside in Louisville, are excelling in their respective careers and are in the licensing process to become foster parents. Brittany Phelps, ’12 ’15, started teaching English online to students in China, enabling her to stay at home with her Future Colonel. Jessica Mueller, ’13, Newport, Kentucky, has been promoted to senior client lead with 84.51°, Cincinnati, a customer engagement firm. She is responsible for the creation and execution of customer-focused client plans for consumer packagedgoods clients. Previously, she worked as a subject matter expert with 84.51°. Brooke Powers, ’13, was one of 44 nationally and the only Kentuckian to win the prestigious Milken Award, which was described by Teacher magazine as the “Oscar of Teaching.” She teaches at Beaumont Middle School in Lexington, Kentucky. Jessika Turner, ’14, is the new executive director of The Gladys Project, an early childhood literacy and kindergarten preparedness program. Cassie Scott, ’15, has been named assistant vice president, operations manager for WealthSouth, a division of Farmers National Bank of Danville, Kentucky. Lawrence Weathers, ’15, is the new police chief for Lexington, Kentucky. For the past year, he has served as director of law enforcement for Fayette County Public Schools after 27 years with the Lexington Police Department.
CHRYSSA ZIZOS, ’94
ALL ABOUT PRESENTATION No matter how smart, motivated or creative you are, you won’t get far in business without a little stage presence. Chryssa Zizos has capitalized on that fact, coaching Fortune 100 business leaders in the art of public speaking through her Washington D.C.-based company, Live Wire Media Relations. Zizos’ expertise as a speaking coach — honed by years of media appearances and training sessions with clients — is unquestioned. During the 2016 presidential election, she appeared on news segments throughout the country, deftly analyzing the subtleties of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s stump speeches and debates. Today, the entrepreneur is betting big on a new venture that combines her expertise with advanced artificial intelligence. Partnering with a Mumbai-based tech company, Zizos is pioneering a software that records users’ speeches and presentations and provides automated, real-time feedback. This new technology is poised to revolutionize the way corporations train their employees in public speaking. Zizos will split her time between her new venture and Live Wire, while also planning a wedding. She recently got engaged to Briana Scurry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who played on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team for 15 years. The two met several years ago, when Scurry was a client. A field hockey scholarship brought Zizos to EKU, where she studied journalism and served as a sports editor for the Eastern Progress. She founded Live Wire in 1998 after a whirlwind start to her career that, at one point, saw her serving as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s publicist at the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. While Zizos has always had an entrepreneur’s spirit, she credits two retired EKU journalism professors for helping her utilize it to its fullest: Dr. Libby Fraas and Dr. Liz Hansen. “Those two were both examples of strong, successful women. Dr. Fraas was a tough, edgy, strong woman, and Dr. Hansen was very compassionate, warm and kind,” she said. “They equally shaped who I am today as a woman in business.” n
EKU MAGAZINE 49
