alumni & friends
New members join Board of Trustees
The college’s Board of Trustees recently welcomed new members Keith Shurbutt, Dr. Lauranne Buchanan and Dr. Sonya Gaither ’93. Linda Cole has returned after rotating off one year. Ex-officio members include Zsa Zsa Heard representing the Leadership Council, Rhett Yates ’99 with the Alumni Executive Council and Nia Johnson ’22 as Student Government Association President. Shurbutt is an audit partner in KPMG’s Atlanta office, specializing in audits of not-forprofit organizations, institutions of higher education and healthcare providers. He earned a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Georgia and began his career with KPMG, being named a partner in 2006. In addition to his client service responsibilities, he also has served as one of the firm’s audit sampling methodology specialists and as an instructor of the firm’s single audit methodology.
Shurbutt is a certified public accountant and a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Georgia Society of CPAs. Dr. Buchanan is associate professor of global marketing at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona. Her expertise is in international marketing, channel management, customer satisfaction and global value measurement. She earned a bachelor’s in communications from the University of Georgia, a master’s in advertising from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in business administration from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Prior to her work at Thunderbird, Dr. Buchanan was a faculty member at Arizona State University, the University of Illinois and a visiting professor at the University of Florida. She has served as a project director for Marplan Research, where she worked closely with international suppliers in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
At LaGrange College, she has been a member of the Leadership Council since 2015, serving as president in 2020-21, and a member of the 3D Journeys committee. Dr. Gaither is dean of libraries at Clayton State University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from LaGrange College, a master’s in library science from Clark-Atlanta University and a doctorate in educational administration from Georgia Southern University. Her previous experience includes director of library services at Gordon State College, as well as positions at Georgia Southern, including library assessment officer, learning commons director, instructional technology librarian, information services librarian and assistant government documents librarian. Dr. Gaither was on the adjunct teaching faculty at Georgia Southern for 10 years, as well as an internship site supervisor at Gordon State College and adjunct higher education professor at Strayer University. She was named to the Wall of Outstanding Alumni in 2007.
2017 Drew Cantrell of LaGrange is the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at LaGrange College.
2017 Dr. Shelby Lynn Givins of Pine Mountain received her doctorate from Harrison School of Pharmacy at Auburn University.
2017 Amanda Sugermeyer of LaGrange was featured in “20 under 40” by LaGrange Daily News. She is the event manager/ gathering coordinator for Highland Park.
2017 Terry Craft III of LaGrange toured with DE’WAYNE supporting Willow Smith's Life Tour. 2017 Wesley Dismuke of Helena, Alabama, was accepted to the doctoral program in community health promotion at the University of AlabamaBirmingham.
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2017 Amy Goodson M’17 of Opelika, Alabama, has been nominated for teacher of the year 2022-2023 for Long Cane Elementary School. 2017 Lauren Venters Knowles M’20 of LaGrange is the Assistant Director of the LaGrange College Fund.
2017 Brianna Phillips White of Pensacola, Florida, is the human resource coordinator for Allen Turner Automotive Family in Pensacola and Crestview, Florida. 2018 Maggie Ivester of Dunwoody is a senior financial analyst for Interface.
