University of Georgia Magazine December 2009

the university of

GEORGIA December 2009 • Vol. 89, No. 1

Breaking the cycle

First-generation college students are getting a boost from Coca-Cola

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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GEORGIA THE UNIVERSITY OF

Cecil Bentley, BBA ’70, UGA journalism staff; Valerie Boyd, UGA journalism faculty; Bobby Byrd, ABJ ’80, Wells Real Estate Funds; Jim Cobb, AB ’69, MA ’72, PhD ’75, UGA history faculty; Richard Hyatt, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer; Brad King, MMC ’97, BVK Communications; Fran Lane, AB ’69, MEd ’71, retired director, UGA Visitors Center; Bill McDougald, ABJ ’76, MLA ’86, Southern Living; Nicole Mitchell, UGA Press; Leneva Morgan, ABJ ’88, Georgia Power; Donald Perry, ABJ ’74, Chick-fil-A; Chuck Reece, ABJ ’83, consultant; Swann Seiler, ABJ ’78, Coastal Region of Georgia Power; Robert Willett, ABJ ’66, MFA ’73, retired journalism faculty; Martha Mitchell Zoller, ABJ ’79, WDUN-AM

December 2009 • Vol. 89, No. 1

ON THE COVER

Cortney Ralston, Tiffany Reed and Ricky Patel are three of the UGA students that received first-generation scholarships from the Coca-Cola Foundation. Here they pose in front of the old Coca-Cola bottling plant in Athens, now a retail complex called The Bottleworks.

photo by Davis Tucker DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE 2 Andrew

Around the Arch Campus news and events

After numerous surgeries and months of rehab, a UGA alumnus has no regrets about his decision to serve his country

by Josh Darnell (ABJ ’04)

26 Breaking the cycle

First-generation college students

are getting a boost from Coca-Cola

by Kelly Simmons

32 Setting the standard

Athlete Phil Southerland is out to

prove that anything is possible for diabetics

by Allyson Mann (MA ’92)

CLASS NOTES 38 Alumni profiles and notes Thanks to wireless internet at the Miller Learning Center, sophomore education major Erin Trinidad (at right with laptop) can scan the web on the first day of professor Jerry Hale’s fall speech communication class. Next to Trinidad is sophomore political science major Blair Beck. photo by Andrew Davis Tucker

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In compliance with federal law, including the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or military service in its administration of educational policies, programs, or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. In addition, the University does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation consistent with the University nondiscrimination policy. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the director of the Equal Opportunity Office, Peabody Hall, 290 South Jackson Street, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822.

Need-based scholarships

FEATURES 18 Fighting back

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FINE PRINT Georgia Magazine (ISSN 1085-1042) is published quarterly for alumni and friends of UGA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: University of Georgia Alumni Records, 394 South Milledge Avenue, Suite 100, Athens, GA 30602-5582

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EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Tom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87, Senior Vice President, E­ xternal Affairs; Tom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, VP, Public Affairs; Art Dunning, VP, Public Service and Outreach; Deborah Dietzler, ­Executive ­Director, UGA Alumni Association; Alison Huff, Director of Publications; Eric Johnson, ABJ ’86, Director of UGA Visitors Center How to advertise in GEORGIA MAGAZINE: Contact Pamela Leed: 706/542-8124 or pjleed@uga.edu Where to send story ideas, letters, Class Notes items: Georgia Magazine 286 Oconee St., Suite 200 North Athens, GA 30602-1999 E-mail: GMeditor@uga.edu Web site: www.uga.edu/gm or University of Georgia Alumni Association www.alumni.uga.edu/alumni Address changes: E-mail records@uga.edu or call 888/268-5442

DEPARTMENTS 5 Take 5 with the President

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GEORGIA MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD VOLUNTEER MEMBERS

MAGAZINE

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ADMINISTRATION Michael F. Adams, President Arnett C. Mace Jr., Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Tom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87,

Senior Vice President for External Affairs Tim Burgess, AB ’77, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration PUBLIC AFFAIRS Tom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, Vice President Alison Huff, Director of Publications GEORGIA MAGAZINE Editor, Kelly Simmons Managing Editor, Allyson Mann, MA ’92 Art Director, Cheri Wranosky, BFA ’84 Advertising Director, Pamela Leed Office Manager, Fran Burke Photographers, Paul Efland, BFA ’75, MEd ’80; Peter Frey, BFA ’94; Robert Newcomb, BFA ’81; Beth Newman, BFA ’07; Rick O’Quinn, ABJ ’87; Dot Paul; Andrew Davis Tucker Editorial Assistants, Caroline Buttimer and Jackie Reedy

GEORGIA GEORGIAMAGAZINE MAGAZINE• •DECEMBER DECEMBER2009 2009

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The

GeorgiaC lub

CLASSIC LIVING IN THE HEART OF BULLDOG COUNTRY

Make a Complete Weekend Out of Your Visit to Athens

.Golf our 27-hole Chancellors Course

.Enjoy Clubhouse Dining for lunch, dinner or Sunday Brunch (Reservations recommended!) .Tour our Model Homes Sundays 1 p.m. to 4:00 p.m For more information please call 770.725.8100 or visit www.LivinginBulldogCountry.com 4 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

The Georgia Club is located off University Parkway (Hwy 316), 12 miles west of campus. Homes of distinction from the $300,000s to $1+ million.

TAKE

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— President Michael F. Adams on need-based scholarships

Q: Since most UGA students come in with the HOPE Scholarship and can keep it by maintaining a B average, why does the university need to provide further scholarships?

A: First of all, remember that HOPE covers only tuition and some fees, and that both the fee structure and the room and board structure for pricing will continue to go up in future years. We have thousands of students with outstanding high school records who apply each year who need support for books, computers and basic living expenses among other needs. While some portions of our student body are affluent, there are certainly significant portions that need and deserve more financial aid than we can currently provide.

Michael F. Adams

Q: How has UGA sought funding for need-based aid?

A: We’ve done something almost every day over the past 13 years. It ranges from direct personal appeals to fundraising letters to phone-a-thons to the use of endowment money. I remain a strong supporter of HOPE, but one of the downsides is that it has lulled many of our supporters into thinking that there’s not a need for additional aid and I can assure you that is anything but the truth.

Q: Do some populations benefit more from these scholarships and is that by design?

A: I think at least three groups benefit from need-based aid. First of all, we are still the place of choice for most bright students from rural Georgia, and many of them have grown up in communities where incomes do not fully support attendance at UGA today. Second, our minority population continues to grow and while certain elements of that population are themselves affluent, large numbers of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans who desire to attend UGA need and deserve additional financial aid. Third, most young people who are of a quality to be admitted to UGA receive multiple scholarship offers, both merit- and need-based, from many of our competitors, and especially from private institutions. We need to be more competitive in landing that group, and need-based aid is a crucial element.

Q: How does having need-based aid benefit the student body and the university as a whole?

A: I believe that it helps us diversify. It brings people of different backgrounds, personalities and ethnicities to the classroom. In those cases, group discussion is enhanced, broader perspectives are debated and the entire social culture and social climate is enriched.

Q: Have you seen the need for additional aid increase in recent years?

DOT PAUL

A: Undoubtedly. We had the largest increase in Pell Grant recipients in modern memory this year—39 percent. (The Pell Grant is a federal financial aid program for students from low-income families. - Ed.) We also had a number of young people, unfortunately, who “traded down” to other institutions because the travel and living expenses closer to home were more within their means. Numerous, probably thousands, of college students and their families have been directly affected by the state’s economic downturn.

Cortney Ralston, a Coca-Cola first generation scholar, studies enzymes in Professor Bill Lanzilotta’s lab.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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Local kindergarteners gather round “Johnny Appleseed” during an annual fall program at the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center in Blairsville.

LIFELONG LEARNING Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you have to stop learning. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UGA, a part of Learning in Retirement Inc., offers opportunities for seniors to continue learning on a non-credit basis with no exams, papers or grades. Participants attend structured courses taught by experts in their fields. Previous courses have included strength training, Italian/Mediterranean cooking, anthropology, 20th century theater and Windows XP. The institute also offers trips for seniors to places like the High Museum and Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. Social activities include dinners and lunches at Athens restaurants and a holiday dinner at the Georgia Center. And there’s so much more. To learn about all the great opportunities and to find out how you can get involved, go to www.olli. uga.edu.

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DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

SPECIAL

Apple time in North Georgia More than 700 kindergarten students visited the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center in Blairsville for its annual Johnny Appleseed program.

Held over five days in September, students enjoyed narrated wagon rides through the apple orchards, apple picking, and even had the opportunity to meet “Johnny Appleseed” himself, a local volunteer portraying John Chapman.

This event is staffed by nearly 75 volunteers and is one of many outreach and education programs available to students and adults at this College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences research facility. Each year the center serves nearly 3,000 people through monthly adult education programs and seasonal field experiences for area school children.

The GMRE Center grounds cover 415 acres of orchards, test plots, pasture land, specimen and preservation gardens, historic sites and forests at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. The growing season there is similar to that of southern Canada, and UGA faculty use it to conduct ongoing research and education projects.

Visit www.caes.uga.edu/center/gmrec to learn more.

Trumpeter Mills dies; scholarship created Renowned trumpet player and Hugh Hodgson School of Music Professor W. Fred Mills died in September following injuries from a traffic accident. He was 74 years old. The accident occurred in Walton County as Mills was returning to Athens following an overseas trip to perform.

Born in Guelph, Canada, Mills studied at the Juilliard School in New York City and went on to play with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the Air, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Musica Aeterna Orchestra of NANCY EVELYN FRED MILLS the Metropolitan Museum, the Marlboro Festival Orchestra, the Casals Festival Orchestra, and the New York City Opera Orchestra.

A founding member of the Canadian Brass, he joined the UGA School of Music brass faculty in September 1996. Mills performed for 25 years in the great concert halls of Europe, North America, and Asia and made more than 40 recordings as a member of the Canadian Brass on the ACA, RCA, Sony, BMG, and Philips labels. At UGA Mills also coached a graduate brass quintet, the Bulldog Brass Society, which is comprised of graduate assistants specifically selected in a national competition. In 2001, he was named first recipient of the William F. and Pamela P. Prokasy Professorship in the Arts.

UGA has established a scholarship to honor Mills. To contribute to the W. Fred Mills Award please contact Suzi Wong at (706) 542-9867 or swong@uga.edu. of Fred Mills.”

HAVE SCHOLARSHIP, WILL TRAVEL Three UGA Honors students were awarded National Security Education Program David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarships for language study abroad during the 200910 academic year.

Laura Eaton from Watkinsville and Daniel Jackson from Marietta both are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in international affairs and Arabic language and literature. Eaton is studying Arabic at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. Jackson is taking courses on the Arabic language at Qasid Institute in Amman, Jordan. Dan Healy, from Milton, is studying both international affairs and Chinese language and literature. He is spending a year at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, where he is pursuing courses in the language, culture and literature of Mandarin Chinese.

The merit-based NSEP Boren Scholarships were created by the National Security Act of 1991. The scholarship aims to give recipients the tools and skills to work in fields deemed important to U.S. national security through the study of less commonly taught foreign languages and immersion in those cultures. In exchange for the travel-study opportunity, the recipients agree to work for one year for the U.S. government.

Information on the NSEP Boren Scholarships is available at www.borenawards.org.

GIMME A

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The new and improved G Book made its debut during fall semester. As the official traditions handbook for students, the G Book includes campus history, fight songs, background on UGA traditions, points of pride and advice from alumni.

UGA’s Alumni Association, which republished the book, solicited students to give the manual a makeover. The original G Book existed from the early 1920s to the late 1940s as a guide on all things Georgia. The pages were filled with rules and regulations that all university students had to abide by, and men were actually required to carry the book in their left front pocket.

The updated G Book includes space for students to fill with their own photos and memories, creating a living testament to their time spent at UGA.

GOING ABROAD? International travelers now may apply for passports at the UGA Tate Student Center.

The UGACard office in November began accepting passport applications on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. Applicants may also have their passport photos taken at the office for an additional fee. Applications are taken between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Additional information, including fees and documentation requirements, is available at www.passport.uga.edu.

Application forms may be downloaded directly from the State Department at http://travel.state.gov.

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BEST IN SHOW A BARK OUT TO

… Graduate Jessica Van Parys, a UGA Honors student who earned combined bachelor’s/master’s degrees in economics and a bachelor’s degree in political science in May, received a Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. … Four UGA cancer researchers were selected as Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists by the Georgia Cancer Coalition for 2009-10. They are Kevin Dobbin, assistant professor of biostatistics, College of Public Health; Natarajan Kannan, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Institute of Bioinformatics; Mandi Murph, assistant professor of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences, College of Pharmacy; and Jia-Sheng Wang, professor and department head of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health.

JESSICA VAN PARYS

… Kecia Thomas, senior advisor to the dean for inclusion and diversity leadership in the College of Arts and Sciences, who won the Janet Chusmir Service Award from the National Academy of Management. ... Recreation and leisure Professor Douglas Kleiber, who received the Society for Park and Recreation Educators’ Distinguished Colleague Award—the group’s highest recognition. … Education Professor Juanita Johnson-Bailey, interim director of the Institute of Women’s Studies, who was named to the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009.

KECIA THOMAS

… Tull Professor of Accounting Linda Bamber, who received this year’s Outstanding Accounting Educator Award from the American Accounting Association. … William A. Mann, professor emeritus at the College of Environment & Design, who was inducted into the Council of Fellows for the American Society of Landscape Architects. … Housing and consumer economics Professor Brenda Cude, who was named a Distinguished Fellow by the American Council on Consumer Interests. … Accounting Professor Mark C. Dawkins, associate dean for academic programs at the Terry College of Business, who was one of five faculty members nationwide selected to receive the inaugural Ernst & Young Inclusive Excellence Award for Accounting and Business School Faculty.

GWYNN POWELL

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… Counseling professor Gwynn Powell, who received a Diploma of Honor from Mari El’s Ministry of Education for collaboration in education through the Camp Counselors Russia Study Abroad Program. Powell pioneered UGA’s first study abroad program in Russia.

DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Speak easy Six new instructors are teaching classes at UGA in languages the federal government deems critical for national security: Pashto, Urdu, Persian, Indonesian, Turkish and Bengali.

The instructors—from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Turkey and Bangladesh—are experienced teachers in their own languages and also fluent in English. The new classes are funded by the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program, sponsored by the Fulbright Program and the Institute of International Education in New York.

Although UGA already offers four years of courses leading to an Arabic major, interested students can take a full two years of classes in these additional languages, thereby fulfilling their language requirements. Even after having taken only one year of these languages, undergraduates will be in a position to obtain federally funded scholarships for study abroad in countries where these languages are spoken. Graduate students taking these languages in addition to their own field of study can receive federal scholarships for language study at UGA. For more information, see the Boren NSEP scholarship program at www.borenawards. org.

GOT MILK?

XUEXIAN LI

The image shows cell with a defective meiosis I, leading to aberrant chromosome segregation and chromosome imbalance in progeny.

Understanding birth defects At conception, parents provide an embryo with chromosome information—23 each, for a total of 46. But when there are extra copies of chromosomes, or fewer than the normal 46, birth defects can occur. UGA researchers have developed a model system for plants and animals that shows that the loss of a key structural protein can lead to the premature separation of one DNA copy called a chromatid.

The new model shows for the first time that the loss of this protein can lead to birth disorders caused by extra or too few chromosomes. Best known may be Down syndrome, which is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. Many errors in chromosome transmission are so severe that miscarriages usually occur.

“As we know, human females have all the eggs they will ever have from the time of birth, and so as they age, the protein structures on chromosomes also age,” said Kelly Dawe, UGA geneticist and plant biologist. “If an egg is fertilized late in life, the final stages of chromosome separation may not occur properly. The goal of the work, which was done in maize, is to find out which parts of the chromosomes are most sensitive to failure. We now believe that proteins in a structure called the kinetochore are among the most sensitive to degradation or mutation. That may be a clue as to why older women have more problems with these kinds of chromosomal disorders when giving birth than younger women.”

The research was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology. Co-author on the paper is Xuexian Li (PhD ’09).

UGA received a $2.2 million grant to explore the role vitamin D plays in children’s health.

The grant follows an August report in the journal Pediatrics showing 60 percent of children and adolescents had insufficient levels of vitamin D. Rick Lewis, professor of foods and nutrition in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences, says the report confirms his findings that female children and adolescents have lower levels of vitamin D than are recommended and that those levels drop as they grow older.

Research on older adults also has shown links between vitamin D deficiencies and cancer, diabetes and obesity.

During the two-year study, Lewis and fellow UGA researchers Emma Laing and Dorothy Hausman will team with researchers at Purdue University in providing varying doses of vitamin D supplements to boys and girls ranging in age from 9-13, ages deemed as being on the cusp of rapid growth periods.

The grant was awarded by the National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

For more information on the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, go to www.fcs.uga.edu.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

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GOING GREEN BRINGING IT IN? TAKE IT BACK OUT

Janine Duncan, a planning coordinator in the grounds department, began the effort to preserve the cemetery three years ago.

PETER FREY

Recognition for Old Athens Cemetery Thanks to the work of a UGA employee, the Jackson Street Cemetery on the UGA campus has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Janine Duncan (MA ’07) began the effort to preserve the cemetery three years ago, when she was a graduate student in the School of Environmental Design.

The effort included cleaning and repairing many of the 800 graves on the twoand-a-half acre site and clearing away overgrown vegetation. The cemetery, on Jackson Street near the visual arts building, was used primarily between 1810 and 1856. Buried there are merchants, tailors, ministers, children of UGA faculty members, families of state government officials and two UGA presidents, Robert Finley and Moses Waddel. Duncan is working with anthropology faculty and students to identify unmarked graves in the cemetery. Also known as the Old Athens Cemetery, the site is the eighth UGA property to be placed on the national register, compiled by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

UGA appealed directly to football fans this fall asking them to police their own tailgates and leave the campus trash free at the end of game days. In an effort to improve trash collection on game days, the university distributed 12,000 trash bags in parking lots and around campus before home games. Volunteers also walked through tailgating areas encouraging fans to bag their trash and put it in nearby trash and recycling receptacles provided by the university. UGA increased the number of disposable trash boxes on campus from 1,200 to 1,500 on game days and also brought in large roll-away dumpsters to collect trash from tailgaters.

American Stadium Services, the firm hired to clean the campus on Sundays following a football game, began sending initial crews through North Campus during the first quarter of games to collect trash set aside by fans. In addition, UGA increased the number of port-a-johns available on campus to dissuade visitors from using bathrooms in campus buildings.

For more on UGA’s game day recycling program, go to http://sites. google.com/site/ugagamedayrecycling.

IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY A working group of UGA faculty, staff, and students in October released a report cataloguing the university’s efforts to promote sustainability and making proposals to enhance those efforts across campus.

The 69-page document identified more than 60 degree programs related to sustainability, more than 300 faculty members from academic departments across campus with research interests in relevant fields, and a series of critical accomplishments in building design and operations.

The report recommends many ways to promote better communications and tell the story of how sustainability is modeled by the university’s faculty, staff, and students. President Michael F. Adams already has acted on one recommendation of the study—instructing faculty revising the university’s strategic plan to incorporate sustainability into that plan. Adams also is reviewing a student proposal for a mandatory green fee that would pay for sustainability initiatives. You can review the working group’s report at www.uga.edu/UGA_Sustainability_Report_Oct_09.pdf.

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JACK DAVIS

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SPECIAL

William Kamkwamba with his handmade windmill.

Professor’s book inspires teenager A science textbook written by UGA education professor Mary M. Atwater is being heralded as the inspiration and guide for a 14-year-old African boy’s quest to build a windmill that provided electricity to his family and village.

Eight years ago, William Kamkwamba’s native Malawi suffered through one of its worst droughts. Thousands died. Others were surviving on one meal a day. William dropped out of school when his family couldn’t pay the tuition but spent his days at the library, where he found a book with photographs of windmills.

That book, Using Energy, was Atwater’s 8th grade science textbook, first published in 1993. It was one of dozens donated to his village in Malawi. Inspired by the diagrams in the book and pictures of windmills, William decided he would bring electricity to his family’s home, a luxury only 2 percent of Malawians are able to afford.

Using Atwater’s book, he built a windmill out of a broken bicycle, tractor fan blade, old shock absorber, a pair of flip flops and the tower out of blue gum trees. The windmill generated enough electricity to power four light bulbs and two radios.

Subsequently, William moved on to work on projects to prevent malaria and provide clean water, solar power and lighting to his village.

In late 2006, a Malawian newspaper wrote about William and his windmills. In 2007, a documentary film titled “Moving Windmills” was released. Now 22, William is a student at the African Leadership Academy, an elite South African school for young leaders. Donors pay for his education.

Provost Arnett Mace will step down in January, retiring after 18 years at UGA, the last seven as chief academic officer for the university.

Mace began his UGA career in 1991 as dean of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. In 1995, he also took on the role of associate director of the Georgia Experiment Station and Georgia Cooperative Extension Service. Prior to that he was director of the School of ForARNETT MACE est Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida and head of the department of forest resources at the University of Minnesota.

After retiring as provost, Mace will continue working parttime for two years to put in place the university’s medical education partnership with the Medical College of Georgia at the Navy Supply Corps School property. He has led UGA’s efforts to establish the partnership, which will train new physicians and health workers for the state.

Jere Morehead, vice president for instruction and Meigs Professor of Legal Studies at UGA, will take over as provost on Jan. 1.

SCHIZOPHRENIA DRUG COULD HELP TREAT ADDICTION Researchers in the College of Veterinary Medicine have found that D-Serine, an amino acid being tested for the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions, may also be useful in treating addiction. John Wagner, a professor in the department of physiology and pharmacology, graduate student Lakshmi Kelamangalath and postdoctoral fellow Claire Seymour found that D-Serine promoted learning during drug withdrawal. Wagner said overcoming an addiction requires not only a withdrawal from the substance, but new learning that “extinguishes” the need or desire for it.

Wagner’s lab looked specifically at cocaine because currently there is no FDA-approved treatment regime. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and UGA’s interdisciplinary toxicology program, was published in the early online November edition of the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

Learn more about the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine at www.vet.uga.edu.

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We keep growing and growing

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

College of Pharmacy new Pharmacy South addition

The start of the fall semester saw three new buildings or additions open on UGA campuses—two in Athens and one in Griffin.

• The College of Pharmacy expanded into its new Pharmacy South addition, adjacent to the Robert C. Wilson Pharmacy Building on south campus. The $44 million, 93,288-square-foot facility, which has biodiesel generators, is registered for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification, the national benchmark for design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

• The University Health Center moved into its expanded and renovated space, which increased the building’s size by 30,000 square feet. The $17 million project includes new clinic and office space, allowing the center to add a Vision Clinic to its existing health services.

• UGA at Griffin moved into its 33,000-square-foot student learning center, funded in large part through a $10 million special purpose local option sales tax approved by Spalding County voters in November 2005.

UGA now offers seven undergraduate degree programs at the Griffin campus and two graduate programs. For more, go to www.uga.edu/griffin.

MINORITY DOCTORAL DEGREES UP

DOT PAUL

Expanded and renovated University Health Center

DOT PAUL

UGA at Griffin Student Learning Center

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DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

UGA is ranked 17th in the nation for the number of doctoral degrees awarded to African-American students—up from 18th last year, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine, which does the rankings. The latest ranking reflects efforts by the graduate school to recruit underrepresented students, retain and graduate them, UGA administrators say.

Since 1999, when the Graduate School began formal inclusiveness programs, enrollment of African-American graduate students has consistently grown, increasing six percent in 2008 over 2007 alone. African Americans represent 10 percent of the total enrollment of UGA graduate students. The Graduate School Outreach and Diversity Office provides a mentoring program to assist first-year graduate students and help set their expectations for graduate study. In addition, the office hosts networking activities to provide conversational settings for graduate students, workshops for academic success, and brown bag lunches to discuss topics related to developments in higher education. For more information on outreach and diversity programs at the Graduate School, go to www.grad.uga.edu.

REACHING RECORDS IN RESEARCH

PETER FREY

Doug Peterson in the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources has developed a cost-effective and sustainable method of farming Siberian sturgeon for caviar in Georgia.

Saving sturgeon Caviar is one of the world’s most prized delicacies, but overfishing has pushed wild sturgeon to the brink of extinction. A new, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable method for farming sturgeon pioneered by a UGA professor has the potential to protect wild sturgeon populations while creating a lucrative agricultural commodity.

“Historically, farmed caviar has comprised two percent of the world’s market while 98 percent has come from wild sturgeon,” said Doug Peterson, associate professor of fisheries and aquaculture.

“We’re trying to flip the market so that in 10 years it will be 98 percent farmed and two percent wild. That’ll be good for wild sturgeon populations and for farmers.”

Domestic white sturgeon have been successfully farmed in northern California for decades, but attempts to farm Russian species in North America have been stifled by high start-up costs and the tendency of farmed caviar to have a muddy or “off” taste. Peterson has created a new method of raising Siberian sturgeon that combines readily available aquaculture technology with a highly efficient filtration system and fresh spring water from the mountains of northwest Georgia. The result is environmentally sustainable caviar whose taste rivals that of wild-caught.

The UGA Premium Siberian Sturgeon Caviar is sold

by Inland Seafood of Atlanta in containers that bear the UGA Athletics Association logo. All proceeds support sturgeon conservation and aquaculture research at UGA.

UGA research funding reached a record high last year with researchers receiving more than $173 million from external sources. The previous peak, $150.6 million, was reached in fiscal year 2005. UGA ranks among the top 100 public and private research universities for federal research and development expenditures, placing 94th in the most recent National Science Foundation rankings, based on figures from fiscal year 2007.

Sponsored research funding stems from contracts and grants awarded to the university primarily by federal, state or local government agencies; state, national or international private foundations; or individual donors from Georgia and elsewhere.

Economics experts at UGA estimate that every research dollar brought in by UGA researchers generates almost $2 that is spent in Georgia on services, equipment and support personnel. Of the $173 million received by UGA in fiscal year 2009, $100.6 million, or 60 percent, was from federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Education, Defense and Commerce.

Complete information on award data can be found at www.ovpr.uga.edu/communications/facts/reports/2009.

TRAFFIC INSTITUTE GETS TRAINING GRANT The UGA Traffic Injury Prevention Institute received an $836,470 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to continue education and training programs. The institute has four main training and community education initiatives: Child Passenger Safety Technician certification, Georgia Teens Ride with PRIDE (Parents Reducing Incidents of Driver Error), CarFit, and the Online Safety Store.

Each area is designed to reach target age groups or address a critical traffic safety issue. For more information, see www. ridesafegeorgia.org.

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UGA FORGES PARTNERSHIP WITH LIBERIA UGA and the government of Liberia have signed an agreement to work together to expand government and agriculture assistance programs in the African country.

The basis for the agreement came from meetings in Monrovia between UGA President Michael F. Adams and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and senior officials from each side. UGA has provided public sector training in Liberia through its Carl Vinson Institute of Government since 2007.

Together, CVIOG and the Liberian officials have worked directly with Liberia’s National Legislature on public finance training for members of the legislature.

BETH NEWMAN

A FIELD OF THEIR OWN The Georgia Redcoat Marching Band now has its own field to practice for football Saturdays.

UGA dedicated the new field off College Station Road to the band in November.

Work on the field began last year and included installing a retaining wall, drainage system and perimeter lighting to enable night practice. Funding for the renovations came from the President’s Venture Fund.

When not in use by the Redcoat Band, the field will be made available to the department of recreational sports for intramural activities.

Learn more about the Redcoat Band at http://bands.music.uga.edu/redcoats/.

Go to http://photo.alumni.uga.edu/multimedia/redcoatband/ for an audio slideshow.

H1N1 AT UGA More than 1,540 students had been diagnosed with H1N1 virus as of late October but health officials at the University Health Service indicated the number of students coming in weekly was starting to decrease to below 113.

More than 1,800 students and employees had received seasonal flu vaccines. The university had not received any H1N1 vaccines as of Oct. 28.

For updates on H1N1 and seasonal flu at UGA, go to www.uhs.uga.edu/healthtopics/influenza.html.

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THEATRE RISING Georgia Theatre owner Wilmot Greene in early November took media on a tour of the inside of the Georgia Theatre, which was gutted by fire on June 19.

Greene has announced plans to rebuild the theater and has launched a fundraising drive to cover the cost—estimated to be upwards of $3 million. To raise money he has partnered with The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to restore buildings of historic and cultural importance. The Georgia Trust has established a fund to accept tax-deductible donations toward rebuilding the Georgia Theatre. To contribute, go to www.georgiatrust.org/preservation/georgiatheatre.php.

A documentary of the theater, which dates back to the 1920s and has hosted more than 10,000 musical acts, also is in the works. For more information on the effort to restore the theater go to www.georgiatheater.com.

DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

EVANS HONORED BY BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS UGA Athletics Director Damon Evans was inducted into the Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s Alumni Hall of Fame in October in recognition of his years of support of America’s youth. Named to head the athletics department in December 2003, he has since received several honors including the Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal’s “40 Under 40 Award” and Sports UGA SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS Illustrated’s “101 Most Influential MinoriDAMON EVANS ties in Sports.”

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America provides community outreach organization across the nation. More than 4,300 individual facilities help some 4.5 million children between the ages of 6 and 18.

LOVE FOR DIAZ Georgia head men’s tennis coach Manuel Diaz was named USOC National Coach of the Year for Tennis. Diaz was honored as part of the ceremonies at the U.S. Open tennis championship in September. Each year, Olympic and Pan American sport organizations select their nominations for the National, Developmental, Volunteer and/or Paralympic Coaches of the Year. The program seeks to elevate the status of coaching as a profession and recognize the best coaches in the United States. Coaches are judged based on coaching performance, the ethics and character of the coach, the attitude of athletes, service to the sport, and volunteer work within the sport. The 2009-10 season will mark the 22nd year for Diaz as Georgia’s head coach. He has led the Bulldogs to four NCAA Championships including their second consecutive title in 2008. Georgia has reached the NCAA final 11 times under Diaz, and he owns a career winning percentage of .830 (488-100).

UGA SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS

MANUEL DIAZ

GRIDIRON RIVALS, CYBERSPACE PARTNERS UGA and 11 other Southeastern Conference institutions joined to launch the SEC Academic Network, a Web site designed to promote academic endeavors. The site—www.secacademicnetwork.com—was established by the SEC in partnership with ESPN and the member universities.

“A focus on the quality and variety of the SEC’s academic and service endeavors was important to my fellow presidents and me during the negotiation of this landmark contract with ESPN,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “The launch of the SEC Academic Network Web site with ESPN 360 is an opportunity for us to tell the story of how our institutions are having a direct and positive impact on this region and the world.”

The Academic Network, developed using technology and coordination from ESPN Digital Media and Origin Digital, will feature content from every institution ranging from research, innovation and economic development to community partnerships, civic engagement and service.

BETH NEWMAN

FOR THE TROOPS Georgia Bulldogs wore stickers on their helmets honoring the Georgia-based 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team during their game against South Carolina in September. The 1-inch by 1.5-inch sticker was a replica of the combat team’s shoulder sleeve insignia. The 48th IBCT is comprised of about 3,000 Georgians and is currently deployed in Afghanistan with the mission of training and mentoring the Afghan Army and Police. The brigade, which is part of the Georgia National Guard, is headquartered out of Macon, with subordinate battalions based in Calhoun, Forsyth, Griffin, Savannah, Statesboro and Winder.

Additional company level units are from smaller towns throughout the state.

The 48th IBCT soldiers who have been killed in action are: 1st Sgt. John D. Blair; Maj. Kevin M. Jenerette; Sgt. 1st Class John C. Beale; Sgt. Brock H. Chavers; Sgt. Issac L. Johnson Jr.; Sgt. Jeffery W. Jordon; and Sgt. Raymundo P. Morales.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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The new college classroom How technology molds education at UGA

by Matt Weeks (ABJ ’05) photos by Andrew Davis Tucker

A

student picks up her pen, looks at the teacher, waits for a minute and presses a button on her table.

A camera trains toward her seat and the microphone at her station buzzes to life. “I have a question,” she says to the teacher, whose image is on the theater-sized screen at the front of the classroom.

This is a regular scene at the College of Pharmacy, where distance learning is a part of life. The students, who have long kept track of their social lives on Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, are increasingly using cutting-edge advances to bolster their academic pursuits as well.

Welcome to higher education version 2.0.

“We built this building with this technology in mind since distance learning is so pervasive to us,” said Sarah Jones, a program coordinator in the College of Pharmacy. “We have six classrooms equipped with cameras and microphones that are capable of videoconferencing to our remote sites, and we use them on a weekly if not daily basis.”

Linking the college’s students and faculty to each other requires stacks of computer equipment, continuous upkeep and two full-time personnel, but it’s worth the effort, Clinical professor Dr. Henry Cobb teaches a class on pharmacokinetics to classes on campus and in Augusta. Using a PowerPoint presentation (on screen at left) that is shared via videoconferencing, he speaks to students in an Augusta class using a microphone on his lab coat.

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DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

especially as the students fan out in their fourth year to take residency positions across the state, Jones said.

In a sense, it’s a microcosm of the challenges and opportunities that technological advances provide for modern universities.

The culture itself is undergoing many changes.

The use of technology and social media in particular is changing the landscape and culture as a whole, and that’s seeping into the classroom,” said Nelson Hilton, director of UGA’s Center for Teaching and Learning. “It brings up a whole new question, not only where is the classroom, but what is the classroom?”

Face-to-face instruction, long the sole practice of teaching, is no longer always necessary. According to the CTL’s David Noah, learning can take place even in virtual communities. One such space, a program called Second Life, is an online 3-D world built and operated by more than six million users worldwide. CTL owns a virtual “island” in the program where students can meet for class, listen to lectures and interact through digital human representations called avatars.

“The sense of engagement you get in a virtual world is very real. You really do become your avatar,” Noah said.

“I have several avatars. They vary by race, gender and species. It’s been eye-opening to see how my interactions in Second Life vary with the type of avatar I’m using.”

Avatars can also visit the virtual home of the Georgia Museum of Art, which currently is closed for renovations.

Its space in Second Life is a close replica of its real-life counterpart, complete with high-resolution images of the artwork housed in its galleries.

Juniors Catherine Henry (left) and Taylor Sauls ask a question during Cobb’s pharmacokinetics class. Henry and Sauls are in the Pharmacy South Building on campus, but the class is also broadcast to students at the Medical College of Georgia UGA Clinical Pharmacy Program in Augusta.

“It’s very real. People will walk in, stare at a painting and analyze it just like they do in real life,” said Jenny Williams, public relations coordinator at the museum. “I feel that art appreciators in Second Life act very similarly to how they act in the museum.”

As lines between the “real” world and the “virtual” world become even more blurred, it’s important that students and faculty understand not only how to operate within both worlds but also how to enhance them, said Casey O’Donnell, who oversees the UGA Video Game Lab in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s New Media Institute.

The lab is a project that started last year as a means to help students harness video games, which are fast becoming a viable communications medium.

“I consider myself an anthropologist. My research

focuses on how interdisciplinary people come together and make things,” O’Donnell said. “I happen to like games as a way of showing that because they’re fun, and I have a knowledge on how to make them.”

Currently he’s working with Kathrin Stanger-Hall, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, on a project that tasks UGA students with creating 2-D and 3-D video simulations of hard-to-visualize biological processes like membrane potentials, glucose homeostasi, and filtration dynamics.

“I’m a big believer in the idea that students do more work and work harder if you give them the resources and the tools they need to create something and make them do it,” he said.

And games, which force the user to become a part of the experience, are a perfect example.

“If you’re reading a book, you’re getting a story but you’re not interacting with it,” he added. “When you play a game, you’re in a way living that story. It happens as you make it happen. It’s a completely active experience.”

Perhaps the hardest part of educating a generation of young people who are increasingly wired and mobile will be parting with the centuries-old lecture-and-learn teaching format.

Maybe there will be an app for that. GM —Matt Weeks is senior reporter for the UGA News Service.

GET MORE For more on multimedia instruction at UGA, visit the Center for Teaching and Learning Web site at www.isd. uga.edu.

A user’s avatar glimpses paintings at the Georgia Museum of Art’s online home in Second Life, a usercreated digital world. UGA’s Center for Teaching and Learning owns a virtual island in Second Life, which is available free online.

COMPUTER CAPTURE

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

17

Fighting back

Darnell (left), accompanied by Cpl. Ashley Shelton (second from right) and an unidentified language assistant (far right), talks to a shop owner in the village of Pir Zadeh in the Maiwand District of Afghanistan. The cigarette packages nailed above the door of the shop let shoppers know what brands are sold.

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18 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE 18 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

After numerous surgeries and months of rehab, a UGA alumnus has no regrets about his decision to serve his country Editor’s note: Josh Darnell was assistant editor of the Georgia Magazine from August 2004 to February 2006. He joined the U.S. Army in March 2006 and was commissioned as an infantry officer seven months later. He deployed to Afghanistan on June 13, 2008. He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal on Jan. 9.

by Josh Darnell (ABJ ’04)

T

he shopkeeper’s leathery face is still and set; he’s doing his futile best to conceal his anxiety.

His gaze flits nervously from my rifle, to the face of my language assistant, to the motorcycle churning its way down the mud-choked streets of Hutal, a small town about 80 kilometers west of Kandahar City.

GEORGIAMAGAZINE MAGAZINE •• DECEMBER DECEMBER2009 2009 GEORGIA

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“I chose this path because, quite simply, it seemed like the best way for me to do my part. The resulting journey has not always been a pleasant one, but it has refined me in countless

SPECIAL

ways.”

20 DECEMBER DECEMBER2009 2009 • • GEORGIA GEORGIAMAGAZINE MAGAZINE 20

“Have you had any trouble recently with the police asking you for illegal taxes? Has anyone demanded money from you?” I ask. My language assistant, a former Afghan National Army officer who trained at Fort Benning before realizing he could better support his family on a contractor’s salary, relays the question in Pashto.

The old man shakes his head and mutters the Pashto equivalent of “no,” casting his eyes over the assortment of trinkets on display in front of his shop while carefully avoiding my gaze.

I sigh. It isn’t the first curt negative I’ve received today. It probably isn’t even the fifteenth. If you interact much with the hapless locals of southern Afghanistan, you grow accustomed to seeing the peculiar expressions of men who desperately want to tell you the truth, but feel compelled to lie.Violent Taliban reprisals for cooperating with U.S. Army forces are commonplace throughout Afghanistan, and while securing the civilian populace is any military unit’s priority, it is simply not possible to be everywhere all of the time. Arriving in July 2008, we are the first Army unit to set up permanent shop in this traditional Taliban stronghold. As a result, roadside bombs and wary civilians hinder our daily efforts.

“All right, thank him for his time,” I tell my assistant. I step out from the shade of the old man’s shop and into the noisy street where the commerce is beginning to taper off on this brisk January day. I scan the road and I see the soldiers of 1st platoon, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment standing guard at loose intervals up and down both sides of the street. They are hard-edged, tough beyond their years, aggressive, and often too smart for their own good. They hail from wildly different social, economic, and educational backgrounds, yet share a grim swagger born from the realities of the dangerous profession for which they have volunteered. As

their platoon leader, they are my charge and responsibility. In their courage and dedication, I find glowing traces of hope for an apathetic generation.

Most of these soldiers enlisted to do something of substance for a post-9/11 world. In that respect, I am no different. I chose this path because, quite simply, it seemed like the best way for me to do my part. The resulting journey has not always been a pleasant one, but it has refined me in countless ways.

From Basic Combat Training to Afghanistan, I would not trade a step of it for anything.

“Seven, this is Six,” I radio to the platoon sergeant. “I think we’re done for the day.” We have been in the Hutal bazaar for nearly two hours, which is plenty long enough to spend in a neighborhood of such dodgy repute.

Hutal has the dual distinction of housing the Maiwand District’s largest commercial bazaar while also being the seat of district government and law enforcement. Unfortunately, the area’s increased police presence is little deterrent to the area’s Taliban operatives and sympathizers, who use the bazaar as a playground for drug trading, extortion, and general thuggery. Assisting and protecting the local populace means exposing yourself and your soldiers to myriad dangers. We begin walking down the street toward our company outpost. I turn to a squad leader and make some flippant remark, the exact memory of which is erased in the next moment.

Explosions in movies always rumble with the textured basso profundo of digital surround sound. All I hear is a pop, momentary silence, and then the ringing in my own ears. I feel extreme heat and then a sensation of drifting weightlessly through mid-air, transmitted by senses too sluggish to keep pace with the moment. My left shoulder crashes to earth, followed by the rest of me, and my senses snap back

to real time.

I hear things above the ringing: the screams and cries of terrified or injured civilians, the agitated shouting of soldiers trying to gain control of the situation, the pounding of my own heart, the stifled gasps of my lungs as they try to refill with air. The warm droplets I feel running off my arm and hip tell me I’m hurt, but little more.

I lift my head and see a soldier on the ground in front of me, bloodstains forming on his shredded uniform. I whisper a feverish, incoherent prayer, the gist of which is, “Not here. Not like this.” A “Let me see my wife again” slips in there somewhere.

I wiggle my toes inside of my boots, and realize I can move. An attempt to swing my right leg around is met with sharp pain and a crunching sensation, so I try to plant my hands to lift myself off the ground. The left one responds, the right one lays impudently in the dirt.

“You okay, sir?” shouts Sergeant Christopher Styron, a 1st platoon team leader. The best I can say is “I don’t know.” He hoists me to my feet. My right arm hangs dead at my side while my right leg drags in the dirt, unable to swing at the hip. He puts me on the back of an ATV next to another soldier who is unconscious but still breathing.

For the first time, I behold the entire surreal scene. Bodies, uniformed and civilian, are scattered about the street, most of them writhing or struggling to their feet. Several lay terrifyingly still. Several shops on the southern side of the street burn silently. A suicide bomber has detonated on our position. Twenty-three civilians are dead or wounded. Fourteen of my soldiers are injured—three of them fatally.

We speed toward the company outpost. I lean my head back and watch the blue sky as I resume my whispered prayers. Within minutes, the company aid station is the cacoph-

SPECIA

From a hill overlooking the southwestern portion of the Maiwand District, soldiers can see Highway 1, Afghanistan’s primary route for commerce and travel. It also is known as the “IED (improvised explosive device) capital of the world.”

onous epitome of controlled chaos.

The most seriously injured, including myself, are moved inside to await evacuation by helicopter. Other soldiers and civilians are on stretchers and blankets in the gravel outside. Medics strip our burned and blood-soaked uniforms away with trauma shears, start intravenous fluids, apply tourniquets, and curse the helicopters for not being there yet.

Staff Sergeant Lester Medina, Charlie Company’s chief medic, darts from patient to patient. Medina, a diehard Crimson Tide fan, used to joke that he would let me bleed to death unless I publicly stated that ’Bama was better than Georgia.

“I won’t say it, Medina,” I tell him through gritted teeth. “Don’t even ask.”

“Don’t worry about it, L.T.,” he says. “Georgia Bulldogs are better than the Crimson Tide.” A moral victory for me, though I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to keep me awake and fighting.

As the medics do their best to slow my bleeding, I struggle to maintain consciousness as an icy cold creeps steadily up my arms and legs. I am thirstier than I have ever been, and I

can’t help but think of the old westerns in which the wounded and dying always beg for a gulp of water from a leather canteen. I think about how easy it would be to close my eyes, and then I hear the rapid, percussive thumping of helicopter rotor blades.

Thirty minutes later, I am in triage at the Kandahar Airfield Field Hospital. It is a NATO facility, so the staff is a mix of nationalities, uniforms and accents. They swarm around me, and I hear things like “slow the bleeding” and “rush him to surgery.” A pretty, redheaded nurse with a vaguely Irish accent stands at my head and strokes my matted hair. I think, ‘If she’s the last thing I see on this earth, I guess that’s not such a bad deal.’ Immediately, I visualize my wife, her blue eyes rolling in playful reproach of her idiot husband.

After 72 hours and three surgeries, I am stable enough for an evacuation flight to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. In the hours before the flight, I learn the specifics of my injuries. The blast obliterated my right elbow, causing serious vascular and nerve damage. A piece of shrapnel entered my right hip and passed

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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SPECIAL

From left, Command Sgt. Maj. Antoine Overstreet and Lt. Col. Dan Hurlbutt visit with Darnell after his first surgery in Kandahar.

“During my four days at Landstuhl Regional Medical Cener I drift in a miasma of painkillers, surgeries, and failed attempts to sleep. There is little the staff there can tell me beyond the fact that my arm will likely be amputated and that I will probably never walk normally again.”

22 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

SPECIAL

The Purple Heart medal is pinned onto the bandages on Darnell’s right arm. He received it within 24 hours of the explosion when he was heavily sedated.

through to the other side, causing muscle and tissue damage but miraculously missing my intestines. My right eardrum is essentially gone, my legs and right shoulder are peppered with shrapnel bits, and my face and neck are pink and puffy with flash burns. In short, I am outrageously lucky. Given my proximity to the blast, I should have been much worse.

I learn that Staff Sergeant Joshua Rath, Specialist Keith Essary, and my language assistant were among the dead. The knowledge registers flatly, like news of a fatal car wreck involving strangers. I reason that my brain, already near its stress limit, is enacting fail-safes to stave off the onslaught of grief. I know that somewhere down the road I’ll pay my emotional debt.

The flight to Germany is truly hellish. I am placed on a stretcher and stacked like luggage with other wounded soldiers in a stuffy, noisy aircraft. Tubes run in and out of our injured bodies, jostling painfully when the plane strikes turbulence. The medical crew does its best to make us as comfortable as possible, but there is only so much that can be done. The priority is expedience.

During my four days at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center I drift in a miasma of painkillers, surgeries, and failed attempts at sleep. There is little the staff there can tell me beyond the fact that my arm will likely be amputated and that I will probably never walk normally again. “But,” they add, in happy punctuation, “we’ll let the doctors in the States decide all that.”

Sometime in the early afternoon of January 15, my flight home touches down at Bush Field in Augusta. The cargo door yawns open, and Georgia air dances in my lungs for the first time in a long time. I am wheeled inside for a battery of X-rays and tests before being placed in a cozy room on the ninth floor. My wife, Melissa, appears within the half hour. Despite all that

DOT PAUL

Occupational therapist Sgt. Thomas Hewett assists Lt. Josh Darnell during a rehabilitation session at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon in Augusta. Darnell receives rehabilitation therapy three times a week on his wounded arm.

could be said and all that needs to be explained, we sit silently in wordless relief.

Over the next seven weeks, I am the full-time guest of Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Fort Gordon, Ga. My days are scheduled around intravenous antibiotic treatments to suppress the infection in my wounds.

Two or three times a week, I am wheeled to the operating room so that Army orthopedic surgeons may piece together my shattered arm, one excruciating procedure at a time. They graft skin, reroute arteries to give blood flow to dying tissue, and bridge nerves in an effort to restore control and sensation to my deadened arm. The repetitive surgeries are tedious, painful, and remarkably effective. After three weeks, my fingers once again twitch on command.

Darnell stretches his wrist during a recent rehabilitation session.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

DOT PAUL

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DOT PAUL

Josh and Melissa at a home football game this year.

DOT PAUL

Darnell visits the granite memorial located at the entrance of Fort Gordon’s Freedom Park. It bears President Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address to the Army and serves as an inspiration to Darnell and other soldiers.

“To ‘keep going’ may be the only thing I can do to properly honor the courageous men with whom I was so fortunate to serve. “

Melissa is with me every step of the way as I begin to walk again. Initially, a slow trudge around the ninth floor nurse’s desk leaves me exhausted and stinging with pain. As new red blood cells are born and muscle tissue heals, I find I can make two trips around that same desk. Eventually, I complete the daunting hike to the third floor vending machines. I take my place among the great endurance athletes of all time as I bite into a hard-

24 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

earned Snickers bar.

At night, I wage a new war in my own mind. Feelings of relief battle pervasive guilt as I struggle to reconcile my own survival with the loss of two soldiers under my charge. Staff Sergeant Rath was smart and goodnatured, a consummate professional who quietly did work that would quail most men. Specialist Essary was dedicated and amiable, as gifted in carpentry as he was in mimicking Will Ferrell’s famous Harry Caray impression. Both deserved so much better of an end. I repeat to myself the words my company commander said to me that day in the aid station: “It’s not your fault.” I hope that someday I will fully believe them. Like thousands of military leaders before me, I spend a lot of time asking myself what I could have done differently.

In March, after nearly two months and double-digit surgeries, I am transferred to the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s Active Duty Rehabilitation (ADR) Unit near downtown Augusta. The ADR is a new concept in military medicine, allowing soldiers who are still on Active Duty status to recuperate amongst their injured peers in an actual Army unit.

I live at the VA hospital for the next four months while my occupational therapist, Lisa Dowling, attempts to torture the functionality back into my hand and wrist. Each day involves a painfully intense regimen of stretching and cranking, forcing dormant tendons to stretch and innervate. I am made to pry tiny beads from wads of putty with my nerve-addled fingers for what seems like hours on end. The maddening treatment works like a charm. My grip

strengthens, and once-dead fingers begin to move with dexterity and coordination.

With my nerves recovering and my infection controlled, the surgeons bolt the disjointed bones of my arm together with metal plates and screws, leaving me with a sturdy, inflexible limb. In late July, I am released back to Fort Gordon’s Warrior Transition Battalion to await a medical retirement.

This new assignment affords me weekend trips to Athens and plenty of time to reflect on the seven-month journey since I returned home on a stretcher.

I don’t know what comes next for me professionally, but to stay in the public sector seems like a good answer.

To that end, I study for the GRE and hope to seek a master’s degree in public administration at UGA. My fight in uniform is over, but that doesn’t mean that my service to country shouldn’t continue in other ways.

In an effort to unhinge the flab accumulated during seven months of inpatient lethargy, I take evening jogs

DOT PAUL

While wife Melissa looks on, Darnell plays fetch with Maggie, their German Shepherd/ Husky mix during a weekend visit home to Watkinsville.

around post. I always hated running, but now I look forward to it. I feel a wistful sense of connection with the young trainees marching in tight formation past plaques commemorating units that have since moved on

Darnell and Melissa share a laugh during a fall tailgate party behind the Life Sciences Building on south campus.

DOT PAUL

or deactivated. On occasion, I detour through Fort Gordon’s Freedom Park.

At the entrance, there is a large granite slab inscribed with an excerpt from President Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address to the Army. He mentions his admiration for the soldiers and their continued service, the nostalgia he will always feel for his days in uniform, and then he closes with a simple imperative: “Keep going.”

To “keep going” is the only thing I really want to do now. To “keep going” may be the only thing I can do to properly honor the courageous men with whom I was so fortunate to serve. It is certainly the only thing I can do to pay respect to those who lost their lives, and the only way I can truly thank the surgeons, therapists, friends, and family who helped me put my own life back together. I look at my scars now, and they don’t bother me as they did at one time. They are my constant, sacred reminder; my own personal monument to a time when I walked a distant land with brave men, of my journey since then, of my road ahead, and of how very, very blessed I am to have made it back home. GM

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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Breaking the Cycle First-generation college students are getting a boost from Coca-Cola

by Kelly Simmons

Outside the classroom, Reed is learning sign language through “Hear My Hands,” the American Sign Language Club at UGA.

PAUL EFLAND

26 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

When it came time for college, Reed knew she wanted to attend UGA. She assumed she’d take out loans and work part time to pay the difference between the Hope Scholarship and federal grants or resign herself to living at home and commuting to a local college.

Then a letter arrived in the mail. It was from the CocaCola Foundation, and it said Reed had been selected to receive a scholarship for first generation college students— those who are the first in their immediate family to attend college. The $5,000-a-year award would easily cover the gap between her Hope Scholarship and the Pell Grant.

“I just needed a boost,” Reed says. “Coca-Cola was more than a boost. It was like a vault up for me. I knew I wanted to be here. I never thought something like this would happen.”

Now in her second year, Reed is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in social work. She has a 3.65 GPA, well over the 3.0 required to keep Hope and the Coca-Cola awards.

UGA is one of 400 colleges and universities across the country selected by the Coca-Cola Foundation for its First Generation Scholarship program, which began in 1993.

Since then the foundation has awarded more than $14 million in scholarships to more than 1,000 students.

Students don’t apply for the grant. Recipients are selected from a group of admitted students who have indicated on application materials that they are the first in their families to go to college.

Coke began the program in 1993 after hearing college presidents complain that their student bodies were not diverse—racially, ethnically, demographically or socioeconomically, says Ingrid Saunders Jones, Coca-Cola’s senior vice president for global community connections and chair of the Coca-Cola Foundation.

“There were too many instances where they were having to turn students away (because of funding) or could not retain them because they were focused on surviving and Reed, who is half black and half Filipino, says she enjoys the diversity of students involved in the UGA Karate Club.

PAUL EFLAND

T

iffany Reed had her share of struggles growing

up. Her parents divorced when she was 4, leaving

her without a father in the home. For a while, her mom worked a 2 p.m. to midnight shift at the Georgia World Congress Center—which meant she wasn’t there when Reed and her older brother Michael got home from school, had dinner and went to bed.

When her class at Mount Zion High School in Clayton County went on field trips to the Georgia Aquarium and Six Flags, Reed stayed behind, sure her family couldn’t afford such frivolity.

She even passed up a chance at the state high school accounting championship after winning her school’s competition. The $100 cost of the trip was again more than she thought the family could afford.

“My teachers asked, ‘Why didn’t you go?’ ” she recalls.

“I said I just didn’t want to go.”

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

“I just needed a boost.

Coca-Cola was more than a boost. It was like a vault up for me.”

—Tiffany Reed

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“These young people are highly motivated. Many of them realize that their going to college is a transformative moment in their family’s history.”

—Ingrid Saunders Jones, senior vice president for global community connections at Coca-Cola

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ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Patel observes as Dr. Ben Patrick and his assistant Tiffany Wells bleach a patient’s teeth.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

working and couldn’t maintain full class loads,” she says.

“These young people are highly motivated. Many of them realize that their going to college is a transformative moment in their family’s history.”

The program is especially significant at UGA, which offers little need-based aid. The lottery-funded Hope Scholarship, which covers tuition, some fees and provides a book stipend, is based on merit, as are the Ramsey and Foundation Fellow awards, the university’s highest honors.

Students in the lowest economic class are eligible for federal Pell Grants, which provides a maximum of $5,350 a year. But Hope and Pell do not cover the full cost of attending UGA. Many students have to take out loans or work to make up the difference.

“UGA is underfunded when it comes to need-based scholarships,” says Jere Morehead, vice president for instrucPatel, who played golf in high school, spends some time working with Quaverian Smith at the UGA driving range. It was Smith’s first experience with golf.

tion and incoming provost. “This program provides substantial scholarships to students who have demonstrated financial need. It supports a group of students who otherwise may not go to college.”

The Coca-Cola funding covers 48 students—12 entering freshmen each fall from 2007 to 2010. Each student gets $5,000 a year as long as they maintain a 2.8 GPA their freshman year and a 3.0 in subsequent years. In addition, the students receive special permission to register for classes early and are grouped together for a seminar during their freshman year. They also may adopt an emeritus faculty member as a mentor.

Sylvia Hutchinson, professor emeritus of higher education and reading, organizes the 20 mentors, mostly retired faculty still living in the Athens community, who volunteer their time to help the first-generation students navigate the university system. She also serves as a mentor to some of the students.

“I tell them to think of me as their academic grandmother,” Hutchinson says. “I give them all my cell phone

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

29

DOT PAUL

Ralston was the rare freshman hired to work in Professor Bill Lanzilotta’s lab. Three years later, she’s one of his more experienced research assistants.

“This is a more unpredictable population.

We’ve really layered a lot of mentorship and advice for them.”

—Jere Morehead, vice president for instruction

number. I take mine out to eat, to gymnastics meets and to baseball games.”

It was Hutchinson who connected junior Ricky Patel, who plans to go to dental school after completing his bachelor’s degree in microbiology, with Athens dentist Dr. Benjamin Patrick. Patel shadows Patrick at his practice, observing his work and his relationships with patients.

Patel also considered teaching and spends an hour a week mentoring a third-grader at Gaines Elementary School.

“When they remember something at the end of the

30 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

semester that you taught them at the beginning, it really feels good,” he says.

However, a mission trip to Central America last winter with a volunteer group of dentists cemented Patel’s commitment to dentistry as a career.

“Once you actually get to see something it lets you know if it’s something you want to do,” Patel says.

Like Reed, Patel knew he wanted to go to UGA but wasn’t sure how he would afford it. He also wondered whether he would fit in at such a large school and whether he would measure up to students from more affluent high schools, who came to UGA with many more college credits than he.

It wasn’t easy and he struggled as he tried to adjust to the rigor of college work. A poor grade in chemistry pushed his GPA below the acceptable level and he lost his Hope Scholarship eligibility after the fall of his freshman year.

“I never thought I’d lose Hope,” says Patel, who refocused, improved his grades and regained Hope the next semester. “If I did I would have worked harder, like I do now.”

Despite their academic accomplishments in high school, first-generation students are considered more at-risk of dropping out or failing than their peers whose parents or siblings have been to college. Advisers to the Coca-Cola scholars keep a close eye on their academic records and step in if it appears one is straying off course. Of the 36 scholars, four of them lost the award for failing to maintain the required GPA. “This is a more unpredictable population,” Morehead says. “We’ve really layered a lot of mentorship and advice (available) for them.” In fact, UGA’s support system has so impressed Coca-Cola that Jones says the company is planning to use it as a model for other schools.

There are many success stories.

Cortney Ralston, a junior from Ellijay, is studying for the MCAT—Medical College Admission Test—which she plans to take in the spring. Also in the Honors program, Ralston has a 3.81 GPA, despite a course load that has included Honors biology and organic chemistry.

In addition to schoolwork, she has stayed busy since arriving in Athens as a freshman, immersing herself in the town-gown culture. The fall of her freshman year she played trumpet in the Redcoat Marching Band and still ended the semester with a 4.0 GPA. She was accepted into the Honors Program that spring semester.

“I was very focused,” she says.

Ralston also mentors children in a local elementary school about two hours a week and works as an undergraduate research assistant in a biochemistry lab. She applied for the lab position when she was a freshman. The job description specified that applicants must have lab experience. It was not until she got to the interview with Bill Lanzilotta, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, that she learned her freshman chemistry lab didn’t count.

He told her he typically didn’t hire freshman, adding “you’d better be a diamond in the rough,” Ralston says.

Two years later she is one of the experienced assistants in Lanzilotta’s lab and has found that her work there helps her better understand what she’s learning in class.

Like Reed and Patel, Ralston was raised in a home where the question wasn’t whether they would go to college, but where. Her father, a construction worker, and her mother, a clerical worker, didn’t go to college and knew that their daughter’s future demanded that opportunity.

When Ralston would complain about her school work, she says her parents would remind her, “You could always be out digging ditches.”

“I knew they couldn’t pay for it, that was never a question,” Ralston says. “They left it up to me. I applied for every scholarship under the sun.”

She’s passing that message on to her younger siblings, Joseph, 8, who says he wants to be a veterinarian, and her

sister Faith, 9, who wants to be a lawyer.

“Every time I come home on the weekend, I remind them, You’re going to college,’ ” Ralston says.

Reed’s brother Michael refocused his life as she was preparing to move to Athens two years ago. He joined the Army and entered boot camp just a week before she began her freshman year in Athens.

Her mother, who Reed calls her best friend, was suddenly alone in the house and got a dog for company.

Reed has settled into UGA, finding friends, learning sign language and practicing karate. A few weeks ago she and her mom drove to Fort Bragg to say goodbye to Michael before he left for Iraq.

“It’s significant to me that we (left home) at the same time,” she says, “The fact that we were doing it together, I really enjoyed that.” GM GET MORE For more on Coca-Cola’s education initiatives, including the first generation scholarship program go to www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/education.html To contribute funding for need-based scholarships at UGA, contact Keith Oelke at 706-542-8179 or koelke@uga.edu

PETER FREY

Ralston, Miss Apple 2005, returns to Ellijay each fall to participate in the Apple Festival Parade. Ralston participates in scholarship pageants to try to win money for medical school.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

31

Setting the standard Athlete Phil Southerland is out to prove that anything is possible for diabetics

by Allyson Mann (MA ’92)

32 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

P

hil Southerland is constantly on the move. As co-founder and CEO of cycling’s not-for-profit Team Type 1, he spent September in San Francisco; Orange County, Calif.; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Atlanta (home base, though he spent only one day there); Miami; Milwaukee; Newark, N.J.; and New York. September’s itinerary is typical; this year Southerland (BSA ’05) spent more than 200 days and 100,000 flight miles on the road, working via phone and computer to direct his team’s mission of helping diabetics live better lives.

But on this day in August he’s at Camp Kudzu near Cleveland, Ga., where kids with type 1 diabetes—like Southerland—come to play and learn how to better manage their disease. Tonight he’ll give a formal talk and share what he has learned as an athlete with diabetes, but for the moment Southerland, 27, is just another (big) kid having fun.

His arms and legs are painted with large red dots, the result of walking by art class at the wrong time. He’s gotten crafty, helping to create wooden battleships and felt pillows. He’s engaged in mock fights and been robbed repeatedly of his backpack. He’s pretty much the most popular guy here. Maybe the kids sense that Southerland is giving them something that he has very little of to spare—his time. And in the midst of pre-dodgeball chaos, he doesn’t miss an opportunity to share his mission. When one of the kids asks about Team Type 1, he doesn’t hesitate.

“I’m all about the Team Type 1. It’s for everybody with diabetes,” he says.

“You’re part of it.”

The wrath of Joanna

PHOTO BY POBY

Phil Southerland (BSA ’05) and Joe Eldridge (left), both cyclists with type 1 diabetes, founded Team Type 1, a not-for-profit cycling team with the goal of educating others about the importance of controlling diabetes.

“One Shot,” a documentary about their quest to place a diabetic rider in the 2012 Tour de France, is scheduled for release in November 2010.

Southerland was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, at the age of seven months. He was nursing constantly but losing weight; doctors told his mother, Joanna Southerland, that he had the flu. When his symptoms persisted she took him to the emergency room. His weight was down from 21 pounds to 14, his skin was grey and his breathing was labored. Just hours away from death, he was finally diagnosed correctly.

“Phil was so young when he was diagnosed that the mortality rate for anyone at that age was 99.9 percent, so it was by the grace of God that he lived,” his mother says.

Diabetes is a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose (or sugar) resulting from insulin resistance or defects in insulin production. Type 1 diabetics like Southerland produce very little or no insulin and depend on daily injections to control the levels of glucose in their blood. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all diagnosed cases and results when the body is deficient in or fails to properly use insulin. Type 2 diabetes often can be controlled with changes in diet and exercise, along with oral medication and sometimes insulin.

Phil’s diagnosis was just the first step in a long journey. The good news was that he would live; the bad news was that doctors didn’t expect him to live past the age of 25.

Joanna Southerland received this news about her son in 1982, well before the Internet made it easier to network with others in the same situation. Over time she learned how to make sure that Phil’s glucose level didn’t get too low— leading to seizures, passing out and possibly death—or too high—courting complications including amputation, blindness, heart disease and renal failure.

Using the tools available at the time, she tested his glucose with urine she would

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

33

“The disease is incredibly frustrating. You think that you have everything under control, and then you don’t, and you don’t know why.”

—Joanna Southerland

SPECIAL

Joanna Southerland, above with son Phil at the Roswell Criterium in April, maintains the Team Type 1 Web site (www. teamtype1.org).

Senior Danielle Crawford, front, and other UGA students have a sack race with students from an after school program funded by the Amy Biehl

wring from his diapers. When he was a year and a half old, blood glucose monitors made testing more accurate. In the beginning insulin took two hours to kick in, but gradually it got faster. And she discovered that Phil’s tendency to be active was helpful.

“It became increasingly evident as Phil got older that the more he moved around, the more his blood sugar would stay in a normal range, as long as you balanced it with food.”

At 12, Phil’s bike became a way to enjoy his favorite Snickers bars and to escape his mother’s nagging. He would ride his bike to the store, eat a Snickers, pedal around the neighborhood and come home with his blood sugar at a normal level. That meant he and Joanna wouldn’t have “the diabetes fight.”

Exercise was important to Joanna, who’d been a competitive water-skier and began teaching exercise classes while Phil and his younger brother, Jack, grew up. Phil was a natural athlete—he played football and baseball but discovered that coaches wouldn’t use him because he was “sick,” so he gravitated toward more individual sports. He was a swimmer and later a state racquetball champion, but in high school he got serious about cycling. After noticing that his performances improved when his blood sugar was under control, his competitive nature became an asset in the fight to manage his disease.

Phil started competing in races in their home of Tallahassee, Fla., and eventually traveled to races in other states.

Joanna was nervous but prepared. His friends received a three-page document—she calls it The Wrath of Joanna— that outlined everything they needed to know.

34 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

“The disease is incredibly frustrating. You think that you have everything under control, and then you don’t, and you don’t know why,” Joanna says.

“God bless Phil, he never ever complained about diabetes. He just kept on keeping on.”

Survey says?

Team Type 1 was born in 2004 during a 300-mile bike ride from Athens to Tallahassee. While riding home for Christmas during his senior year, Phil Southerland contemplated the good feeling he’d gotten by helping his friend Joe Eldridge better manage his diabetes. The two met while racing—Southerland for UGA and Eldridge for Auburn University—and started comparing notes about their diabetes. Southerland noticed that Eldridge wasn’t managing his blood sugar very well and enticed him with a bet—whoever’s blood sugar was higher after a race would buy the other dinner. Eldridge bought burrito after burrito for three months before he finally took control, checking his blood sugar frequently and staying on top of insulin injections.

“Joe told me, ‘Hey man, thanks for your help. I’m going to change my life, I’m going to see my grandkids grow up,’” Southerland says. “That really struck a chord because I’d always been racing bikes just for me—to make money and have fun. Now I was like ‘I could race bikes for a reason.’”

Southerland and Eldridge formulated plans for a cycling team that would give them an opportunity to educate others about the importance of controlling diabetes. Using what they had learned, they would provide an example, proving that through diet, exercise and the use of the best treatments and technology available, any dream is achievable. They set a lofty goal—getting a rider with diabetes in the 2012 Tour de France, cycling’s premier road race.

In January 2005, Southerland began an agribusiness management class with Professor James Epperson. One third of his grade would be based on a business plan and though the students were supposed to develop ventures for profit, Southerland wanted to focus on a not-for-profit—

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Team Type 1. When Epperson challenged him to prove there was support for such a venture by conducting a survey, Southerland spent a day at the Mall of Georgia and came back with $400.

“He astonished me with his survey,” Epperson says.

“He was already getting people ready to give him money, just in the class project survey. Not just saying that they would—they were ready to go.”

It was an early indication of the success Southerland would have in recruiting sponsors. His first big challenge was to raise $250,000 so the team could compete in the Race Across America, a grueling event of more than 3,000 miles from coast to coast. After raising money and forming a team of eight riders, Team Type 1 placed second in the 2006 race, its first big event. They came back the next year and won, then repeated that victory in 2009 with a recordbreaking pace of five days, nine hours and five minutes.

This year’s race was also the debut of Team Type 2, a group of non-professional cyclists with type 2 diabetes who completed the ride in seven days.

In just five years, Team Type 1 has expanded to include a pro men’s team, a pro women’s team, an elite team for developing new talent, a triathlon team and Team Type 2.

That means 56 athletes, 65 percent of whom are diabetic.

Collectively, the teams spend 900 days in the field each year working with and speaking to health care providers and educators as well as diabetes patients.

Southerland prepares for a game of dodgeball at Camp Kudzu, a non-profit summer camp for kids with type 1 diabetes.

“The kids kind of look at you like you’re a superhero,” says Morgan Patton, a member of the pro women’s team.

Patton was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 7. At 15, a self-described “brat,” Patton let her blood glucose level get well above the well above the American Diabetes Association’s recommended rate. Her doctor was concerned that she was doing irreversible damage to her body, and her parents were searching for answers when fate brought Patton’s mother and Joanna Southerland together one Friday during happy hour at a bar in Tallahassee.

After discovering that they both had diabetic kids, the two compared notes and Southerland had an idea. Phil was preparing for Team Type 1’s first Race Across America— perhaps Morgan could volunteer on the crew. When Phil said they were overstaffed, Joanna’s response was “Make room.” Patton flew to California and did grunt work like laundry and cleaning water bottles. She noticed the riders and crew checking their blood sugar a lot more than she ever had. And she set a new goal—becoming a cyclist.

“I was like, ‘I want to do that. I want to be faster than Phil,’” she says.

During the next two years Patton managed her diabetes aggressively, bringing her blood glucose level below the recommended rate and getting better results on the bike.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

35

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Jackson Graham, 9, checks out Southerland’s Navigator in the woodworking area at Camp Kudzu. The Navigator is a continuous glucose monitoring system that warns Southerland if his blood sugar is getting too high or low, allowing him to take preemptive action.

“Because of her we have a women’s pro team,” Phil Southerland says. “She’s now a role model and ambassador for young women struggling out there the way she did.”

Now 20, Patton says she doesn’t know where she would have ended up if she hadn’t found Team Type 1, but she suspects it might have been the hospital.

“It’s taught me that having diabetes is your disease, and only you can control it,” she says. “It’s given my life a positive direction.”

PHIL’S STATS A1C*...........................................4.8 in September, a personal best Past nickname........................Junior the Punk Current nickname.................Hollywood Checks blood sugar..............50 to 80 times a day with Navigator Lifetime finger sticks............approximately 118,000 Lifetime injections.................approximately 58,000 *A1C is a three-month average of blood glucose; the American Diabetes Association’s recommended rate is less than 7

36 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Doors and windows

2009 has been a big year for Team Type 1. The organization’s major sponsor, Sanofi Aventis (maker of Lantus long-acting and Apidra rapid-acting insulin, both of which Southerland uses), gave them a two-year commitment that will allow them to move the team’s headquarters to Atlanta next year and expand the roster. Team Type 2 achieved its goal of finishing the Race Across America, the first step in a campaign to reach out to an audience of 25 million type 2 diabetics. The pro men’s team earned its 100th victory.

And Southerland and Eldridge appeared on the cover of the September issue of Diabetes Forecast magazine. But in the midst of all this success, Phil Southerland quietly has been accepting that his cycling career is over.

Southerland was sidelined last year by iliac artery endofibrosis, a condition not uncommon among elite cyclists and marked by damage to the arteries of the pelvis, groin or lower leg. The repetitive hip flexion, aerodynamic cycling position and high blood flow sustained during

hundreds of hours of training causes the arteries to stretch, narrow or kink. During high-intensity exercise the blood flow decreases due to constriction or obstruction, causing numbness and lack of power. In May 2008 doctors operated on Southerland’s left leg, cutting through three layers of abdominal muscles to reach the artery.

After six months of rehabilitation and a winter of training, he was ready to race. But the numbness returned in March during the third stage of the Tour of Taiwan, the same place he first experienced the symptoms last year.

“It was 20 kilometers into the race, and when it happened it was like a knife into my back,” he says. “I knew the problem was back. Mentally that was a very tough pill for me to swallow.”

Southerland continued to ride, returning to Athens in April for the Twilight Criterium—his favorite race, and the reason he wanted to attend UGA. But by the end of the month it was clear that the problem was severe, and testing revealed that the blood pressure in his left leg was weaker than it had been before surgery.

“That was that,” he says. “This is what I’ve been working for for many years now, but the last four years were completely dedicated so that I could race my bike… It was pretty crushing.”

Eventually, he started thinking about what to do next.

“One night I decided ‘Screw it. I can’t ride, but that doesn’t mean I can’t live,’” he says. “So I signed up for the New York marathon.”

He started running the next day, hiring a coach and making plans to launch a Team Type 1 running team in 2010. Now he sees this as just another detour on a larger journey. So does his mother.

“I can’t imagine that he’s not pained by all this, that it’s not going to be him riding in the Tour de France,” Joanna Southerland says. “It just breaks my heart, but he now has 77 people working for him who are going out with this message of hope, and maybe he needs to take care of that.

Maybe that’s why.”

Being Phil

At Camp Kudzu, the kids test their blood sugar several times a day under the supervision of staff. Southerland makes it into a game, asking each camper to guess his or her blood sugar before testing.

“Remember, it’s just a number,” says Alex Allen, Camp Kudzu’s executive director.

“Unless it’s perfect,” adds Southerland, “and then it’s…”

He rolls his eyes upward and pushes his palms in the air, raising the roof.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Southerland’s autobiography will be published in June 2011, but at Camp Kudzu’s lunchtime sing-along he’s just another (big) kid having fun.

“Phil’s specialty is being Phil,” Allen says. “He’s more engaged with the kids than the typical outside speaker. He sits with them at meals and talks to them; he’s very good at connecting with them.”

Southerland also connects with Team Type 1 fans via Facebook and a blog. He writes honestly about his struggles with diabetes control, encouraging others to use the tools at their disposal—diet, exercise and technology—to improve their lives. Their responses indicate that he’s making a difference.

“After seeing you in Diabetes Forecast, I now officially feel that anything is possible,” wrote one Facebook friend.

“Keep up the good work… you’re my hero!”

Whether he’s riding in the team car during the Tour of Ireland, being interviewed on NBC or leading a conga line during a lunchtime sing-along at Camp Kudzu, Southerland is always working toward making his vision a reality.

“I fully believe I was put on this Earth to do something special in the diabetes world and help people live better lives,” he says. “Every second of every day that I can remember, I’ve dealt with this. I’ve done things right, I’ve done things wrong—I just hope that I can share my experiences and my mistakes with others so that they can do it better than I did.” GM

GET MORE Team Type 1: www.teamtype1.org Phil Southerland’s blog­: http://philsoutherland.blogspot.com Camp Kudzu: www.campkudzu.org UGA Cycling: www.uga.edu/cycling

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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NOTES CLASS

Iron Dawg Haley Chura (ABJ ’07, BBA ’07) was one of 1,800 athletes who competed in the Ford Ironman Championship in Kona, Hawaii, in Ocober. One of the most punishing events on the planet, the Ironman includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. In her age group, Chura finished first for the swimming leg with a time of 53:33 and 12th overall with a time of 12:32:58.

A member of UGA’s 2005 national championship swim team, she qualified for the Ironman by winning her age group at a half-Ironman in Rhode Island in July. When she’s not training, Chura works as an auditor HALEY CHURA at Atlanta accounting firm Bennett Thrasher.

CLASS NOTES Compiled by Caroline Buttimer and Jackie Reedy 1940-1944 Quentin Kicklighter (BSA ’40) tends his tomatoes, strawberries, bell peppers, cabbage and rose bushes at the Oaks of Brevard nursing home in Brevard, N.C., every day. He is a World War II veteran.

1950-1954 Mildred Wilcox (AB ’50) received the Alfred W. Jones Sr. Award for her years of commitment to the St. Simons community and to the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce. She operates two art galleries and a museum.

1955-1959 J. Carrol Dadisman (ABJ ’56), of Jefferson, retired president and publisher of the Tallahassee Democrat and former editor of newspapers in Columbus and Marietta, is in the Florida Press Association’s Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame.

He is a board member of The Red and Black.

1960-1964 Robert Lamb (BSEd ’61) of Columbia, S.C., was a winner in the 2009 South Carolina Fiction Project for his short story “R.I.P.” The award brought a cash prize and publication of the story in

38 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Charleston’s The Post & Courier. Armon B. Neel Jr. (BSPh ’61) of Griffin received the 2009 Armon Neel Senior Care Pharmacist Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists during the opening ceremonies at the 2009 ASCP Midyear Conference and Exhibition.

Named after Neel, the award recognizes individuals who apply their knowledge of geriatric pharmacotherapy to significantly improve the quality of care for the senior population. Robert Hatcher (BBA ’64) is the chair of the board of regents for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

1965-1969 Allen Hazlett (AB ’68) of Bellmont, Mass., received the Publicity Club of New England’s John J. Molloy Crystal Bell Award for lifetime achievement as a public relations professional and educator. He was elected into the Public Relations Society of America’s College Fellows in recognition of his “demonstrated superior capabilities as a public relations practitioner and educator.”

According to PRSA Bylaws, College of Fellows candidates “must have 20 years experience or more in the public relations industry and exhibit exceptional personal and professional qualities while advancing the state of the profession. Stebin Horne (AB ’68) is a sales manager for CareSouth Homecare Professionals. Richard Dorschel (BBA ’69) is the president and

SPECIAL PHOTOS

CEO of Dorschel Group. He was inducted into the Rochester Business Hall of Fame in 2007. Dorschel was also selected as a General Motors Dealer of the Year and received GM’s Jack Smith Leadership Award each year from 2002 through 2007. Jacob Gavronsky (BSPh ’69) of Jacksonville, Fla., is co-owner of Advance RX Compounding Pharmacy. He and his wife Kerry spend their free time on a 16acre ranch retreat in Brunswick.

1970-1974 John K. Carson (AB ’70, MA ’76) and James B. Carson (BBA ’76) continue to operate Carson Bros. Laundry and Dry Cleaning in Tifton. Their father, James M. Carson (AB ’31), established the family business in 1947. Richard D. Robinson (EdD ’71) of Columbia, Mo., received the William H. Byler University Distinguished Professor Award from the University of Missouri-Columbia for his outstanding performance as a senior faculty member. Dale A. Prosch (BBA ’72) is a certified public accountant and partner of Dent, Baker & Company accounting firm, which was awarded the 2009 Best in Business Award by the Birmingham Business Journal.

1975-1979 Robert Goodrich (BS ’75) is the Mohave Community College surgical technology program director. Fred Boyles (BSEd

ALUMNI PROFILE

Spreading the word Scott Vaughan has built a career from his communication skills and his faith

by Kelly Simmons

If you see a visitor standing in the vestibule of your church, speak to him.

It might be Scott Vaughan. And if you ignore him he might put that in his report.

As a church communications strategist, Vaughan travels the country visiting churches, helping them improve guest relations, communicate with members, and connect with communities.

He’s an invited and paid guest of the churches he visits and he networks with more than 2,400 churches throughout North America.

“My first question is ‘where’s the pain,’ ” Vaughan says when churches contact him. For some churches it’s growing pains, he says. But most are just at a place where there is a disconnect with the communities they serve.

“I’ll show up Sunday morning like a guest and evaluate how they treat people,” he says. “I know what it’s like to go to a church and nobody speaks to you.”

A 1981 graduate of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and a newspaper reporter and editor for almost 20 years, Vaughan says he was called to church communications when he was editor of the Lexington Dispatch News. Pastors would bring in ads and press releases for their churches and Vaughan “knew those ads weren’t going to do what they wanted them to do.”

Using the chamber of commerce conference room, Vaughan began holding free monthly meetings to help churches and other nonprofits better understand advertising strategy.

As far as he could tell, there was no one then doing the kind of church communication strategy that he felt was needed. In 1994, he left the newspaper business to explore communication ministry. His first work was a part-time position writing news releases for the South Carolina Baptist Convention in Columbia. The next year he became the state convention office’s director of church services.

When the state convention office created a marketing department in 1997, Vaughan was head of it. It wasn’t long before he was getting calls from churches of other denominations seeking his help.

In 2003, he resigned and started Scott Vaughan Communications. Since then he has worked for churches across the country representing more than 24 different denominations and faith organizations. He jokes, “I serve faith

SCOTT VAUGHAN

AL BEARD SOUTHERN SPORTS

groups I didn’t even know existed.” He was licensed to the ministry in 2005.

Churches hire Vaughan to visit their church, review their communications materials, talk to their staffs and congregations and determine what they need to do to grow more strategically. It was during a 2005 visit that he realized he had found his calling.

“I was sitting in a service and I thought, what is this boy from Cumming, Georgia doing in this church in Gig Harbor, Washington,” he says. “That was a real defining moment for me. I knew I was absolutely doing what God put me on this earth to do.”

Beyond site visits, Vaughan is a frequent speaker, across the country, using humor, stories and anecdotes to help church leaders understand the value of communication to the effectiveness of today’s church.

“I’m not a preacher, I’m not a missionary,” Vaughan says. “But I understand the work of the church and I have a newspaper background so I understand communications and I can bring them both together.”

For more on Vaughan’s work, go to www.svministry.com

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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CLASSNOTES

Recently I was chatting with a good friend of mine, Dr. Chip Moree (BS ’74), of Albany. When talking about UGA, he was thinking about the beauty of our campus, our outstanding academic reputation, the success of our athletic teams, and the many other wonderful aspects of the University when he chuckled and said, “We have an embarrassment of riches.” Well, with the budget issues, rarely these days do we talk about riches, and nothing about UGA makes me embarrassed, but his sentiments have merit when you consider the good fortune with which UGA has been blessed.

Vic Sullivan

Looking forward, the future is bright for UGA as it prepares future generations of Georgia graduates to lead our state and region.

Have you walked around campus lately? The trend toward creating more green space has expanded the beauty of campus well beyond Old College. You’ll also see new buildings and venues that have carried the best of our architecture throughout campus. The new Pharmacy South building, Tate Center Expansion, Lamar Dodd School of Art, and the in-progress addition to Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall are among recent projects that are adding to the vibrancy of campus.

To those who recognized that our young people needed a great educational opportunity right here in Georgia, we will always be grateful. UGA is an economic engine for our state as graduates have a high likelihood of starting and running businesses nearby. It is an investment in our future that will continue to be among our best.

As alumni of UGA we have to keep in mind that much of what makes our university a special place is because of the graduates and friends who were willing to reach out and help make it better. The future of UGA depends on similar efforts, and your ongoing support of the school and your Alumni Association is a big part of that.

An embarrassment of riches? Well, if you think about the many blessings of being a Bulldog, I think Chip has it right. During this holiday season, let’s count our blessings and support the things that mean the most to us. Your Alumni Association thanks you for including your university on that list and wishes you and your family the very best.

—Vic Sullivan (BBA ’80), President UGA Alumni Association

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Deborah Dietzler, Executive Director ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Vic Sullivan BBA ’80 President, Albany Steve Jones BBA ’78, JD ’87 Vice President, Athens Tim Keadle BBA ’78 Treasurer, Lilburn Harriette Bohannon BSFCS ’74 Secretary, Augusta Trey Paris BBA ’84, MBA ’85 Immediate Past President, Gainesville

40 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WEB SITE www.uga.edu/alumni To receive a membership brochure, call: 800/606-8786 or 706/542-2251 Annual membership: $35 (single), $50 (joint) To receive a monthly e-newsletter, enroll at: www.uga.edu/alumni ADDRESS CHANGES E-mail records@uga.edu or call 888/268-5442

’76) is the superintendent of Camden County’s Cumberland Island National Seashore, the largest barrier island in Georgia at 36,000 acres. Anne Cardella (BBA ’76) is the 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year for the Valdosta city school system in Valdosta, Ga. Don C. Lively (BSEd ’76) of Waynesboro, received the Joe Parham Trophy as first place winner for best humorous column for 2009 in the weekly division by the Georgia Press Association.

His column appears in the Waynesboro (Ga.) True Citizen. Rick Roberts (BS ’76) was inducted into the prestigious Municipal Government Hall of Fame by the Georgia Municipal Association, a nonprofit organization that provides education, lobbying and other services to city governments. He is the executive vice president and chief financial officer for Cherokee Bank. Steven A. Benham (BS ’78) is the executive director for the Hopewell Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Judy Moraitakis Grant (ABJ ’78) of Atlanta is the regional sales director for Working Media Group, which provides strategic media planning and buying services to advertising agencies in the Southeast. She is a veteran of Atlanta’s advertising community, having worked with local, regional and national clients for over 15 years. Jonathan Davis (BBA ’79) is the president of the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation.

1980-1984 Gwendolyn Taylor (ABJ ’80) is assistant director for the Exceptional Students Program. Bruce McLellan (ABJ ’81) is the managing editor for Decatur Daily. Carla Wennberg (BSA ’81) was recognized as the Professional’s Choice American Quarter Horse Association Professional Horsewoman of the Year. LeCretia Johnson (BBA ’82) of Atlanta received a Governor’s Commendation for Excellence in Customer Service from Gov. Sonny Perdue. Johnson is the director of Georgia’s Office of Child Support Services’ contact center. Emily Ann Munnell (ABJ ’82) of John Portman and Associates was chosen by The Greater Georgia Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association to join a leadership committee in support of MDA. Jerry Ragan (BBA ’83) is executive vice president of commercial banking for Georgian Bank. James Michael Brown

ALUMNI calendar (BS ’84) joined the Sutter Family Practice in Chatsworth. He is certified as a diplomate with the American Board of Family Medicine and completed his residency and internship at Floyd Medical Center.

Troy Schmidt (ABJ ’84) wrote, produced and hosted a new documentary appearing on the latest Bible software called GLO. Titled “In His Shoes: The Life of Jesus,” the three-and-a-half-hour documentary was shot in Israel and includes interviews with Max Lucado, Norman Geisler and William Paul Young.

1985-1989 Brad Thompson (BBA ’86) is chief investment officer at Stadion Money Management Inc. Guy W. Millner (BBA ’88) is deployed to theater with Big Army, USARCENT in support of Central Command. He is the operations officer handling aviation issues for both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

1990-1994 William Jobert (BMus ’91) is coordinator of music education at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He received Wright State’s Presidential Distinction Award as the outstanding instructor for 2008-09. Jobert continues his positions as instructor of bassoon and music education and is assistant director of bands at Wright State University. Tammy Anderson (BBA ’92) of Columbus, is assistant principal at Rothschild Middle School.

Kelly Reece (BBA ’92) of Norcross, and husband Daren celebrated the birth of their son, Benjamin Robert. Reece is manager of project managers/client services at Inovis Inc. Mitch Wilson (BSA ’93) of Dahlonega-based Georgia Image LLC is certified as a Georgia professional soil scientist. Holly Macmillian (BBA ’94) is on the marketing team at Stadion Money Management. Vance Leavy (AB ’94), executive vice president of The Brunswick News, received the Chairman’s Award for his exemplary level of commitment to the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce.

1995-1999 Mark Bullock (ABJ ’95) received the 2009 Southeast Regional Emmy Award for Best Television News Anchor. Bullock

Friday, December 11 Women of UGA Year End Celebration Lunch Please join the Women of UGA from the Metro Atlanta area for a year-end celebration at Maggiano’s-Buckhead.

Friday, January 22 - Sunday, January 24 5th Annual Alumni Leadership Assembly Leaders of Alumni Association chapters and clubs, please join us for a weekend of educating, networking and fun.

Wednesday, January 27 Founders’ Day Lecture Celebrate UGA’s 225th anniversary with alumni, students, faculty, esteemed guests and members of the community at the University Chapel.

Saturday, January 30 Bulldog 100 The Bulldog 100 Program encourages entrepreneurship by celebrating the success of the top 100 fastest growing businesses owned or operated by University of Georgia alumni.

Saturday, March 20 3rd Annual Dawg Trot 5k Run/Walk Start training for this scenic run through our beautiful campus.

For more information about events in the Athens area, please contact Wanda Darden at wdarden@uga.edu or (706) 542-2251.

For more information on programs and events in the Atlanta area, please contact Meredith Carr at mcarr@uga. edu or (404) 266-2622. For programs in all other areas, please contact Tami Gardner at tgardner@uga.edu or (706) 542-2251.

SPECIAL

Veteran and first-time runners alike enjoy the Dawg Trot 5k.

To learn more about the UGA Alumni Association or find a chapter or club in your area, go to

www.uga.edu/alumni.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

41

CLASSNOTES

WALTMAN NAMED ARCH TRUSTEE The Arch Foundation for the University of Georgia elected Susan C. Waltman of Pelham, New York, to its board of trustees. Waltman (BS ’73, MSW ’75) is executive vice president and general counsel for the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents more than 250 public and not-for-profit hospitals and continuing care facilities. She holds a law degree from Columbia University School of Law. Waltman has been an advisory trustee to the Arch Foundation since 2008. She also serves on the Board of SPECIAL Advisors to the UGA College of Public Health and the UGA Honors Program. She succeeds former Arch Foundation trustee Frederick E. Cooper of Atlanta, who was appointed to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents by Governor Sonny Perdue in August.

is an anchor for WSFA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Montgomery, Ala. Billy Olson (AB ’95) is a staff attorney for the Athens Justice Project. Jonathan J. Tuggle (BBA ’95) is a partner of Boyd Collar Nolen & Tuggle, an Atlanta divorce and family law firm. He previously served as a managing partner at Warner, Mayoue, Bates & Nolen. Throughout his legal career, Tuggle has served in leadership positions in the State Bar of Georgia. He is a memberat-large on the executive committee of the State Bar of Georgia, Family Law Section. In 2004, Tuggle founded the Family Law Committee of the Younger Lawyers Division of the State Bar, which annually raises tens of thousands of dollars for abused and neglected adolescents in Atlanta. He is a frequent lecturer at professional seminars and continuing legal education courses and has authored numerous articles on a range of domestic relations issues. Shondra M. Harris (BS ’98) was a guest speaker for the annual Mission Day program at Mt. Zion First A.B. Church in Cordele. Jason Love (BSFR ’98) is on the National Park, Parkway and Forests Development Council.

He was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Nicholas Sears Jr. (AB ’98) is an associate with the McDougall Law Firm.

Matt Stinchcomb (BBA ’98) and David Greene (BBA ’05) joined the Seacrest Partners Inc. new Atlanta office. Greene retired from the NFL in 2008 after playing for the Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts. Stinchcomb retired from the NFL in 2006 after playing seven years as offensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Jamie Jones (ABJ ’99) is editor of Dalton Magazine. He is a 10-year veteran of The Daily Citizen. John H. Sumner (AB ’99) of Savannah, opened Pursuit Real Estate Group LLC, a real estate company specializing in brokerage services, for both residential and commercial properties, and property management in Georgia and South Carolina.

2000-2004 Brigette Bailey (BS ’00) married Don Rabtisch on June 6 at First Baptist Church Atlanta. She practices optometry with Georgia Eye Associates in Tucker.

42 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

WE WANT YOUR MUSICAL MEMORIES

CHERI WRANOSKY

The Normaltown Flyers (who performed many nights at the old Allen’s in Normaltown) recently had their 30th anniversary show at the Melting Point in Athens.

Pete Buck from REM (right) and David Blackmon (seated left) were among those who joined them onstage during the performance.

Did you have a memorable music experience in Athens?

Whether it was hanging out listening to tunes at the old B&L Warehouse, enjoying local bands at Allen’s, or seeing breakout bands REM and Widespread Panic at the Georgia Theater, we want to hear from you. Georgia Magazine plans to publish a special March issue themed around music, looking at how the Classic City first got its music city status and how the university has benefitted from the influence of music in the community.

Please send your stories (and photos) to editor Kelly Simmons at simmonsk@uga.edu by Jan. 10.

Samuel D. Almon (BBA ’01) is an associate for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm’s litigation group.

Robert M. Day (BBA ’01) qualified for Waddell & Reed’s annual Circle of Champions conference, recognizing the company’s top financial advisors. Reese McFaddin (BS ’01), the president of Workplace Benefits, was named one of Charleston’s Forty Under 40, an honor given annually by the Charleston Regional Business Journal recognizing outstanding community and business leaders and young professionals who take community service to the next level. Brent Meyer (BA ’01) serves in the North American network of subject matter experts who write test questions for the social work licensing examination used in the United States and Canada. Kristine Mull (BS ’01) is a chief resident in Floyd’s Family Medicine Residency Program. Todd Banister (BBA ’02) of Atlanta married Betsey Wofford (BCS ’02) of Atlanta on June 27. Tara Howell (BS ’02) is a chief resident in Floyd’s Family Medicine Residency Program. Todd Larsen (AB

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

43

CLASSNOTES

’02) and Eric Teusink (AB ’03) formed the law firm Larsen & Teusink PC in the East Atlanta Village neighborhood of Atlanta. The firm focuses on real estate, wills and trusts, bankruptcy and taxation law. Brad W. Merry (BSA ’02) is married to Martha Sylvester Merry and has two children, Ford and Tellis Merry.

Amy-Katherine Gray (BA ’03) earned her master’s degree in finance from Georgia State University. She is a senior associate of KPMG’s southeast advisory practice. Brandon Bowers (BBA ’04) of Alpharetta, received his chartered property casualty designation. Erin Grizzle (AB ’04, ABJ ’04), competing as Miss Georgia, won the Miss United States title in Las Vegas.

2005-2009 Eric Hammons (BSA ’05) graduated from the University of Tampa with a master’s of science in innovation management. He is regional sales manager for Florida for Timac Agro USA, a division of the Roullier Group. Ellen Little-

john (BS ’05) is interning in internal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Melissa Ryckeley (BLA ’05) is the assistant project manager at Jacobs Engineering. Emily Griffin (AB ’06) graduated from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law in Macon. Cheney Maddox (BSHP ’06) is the marketing coordinator at Hilton Head Health, one of the nation’s leading weight loss and health resorts, located in Hilton Head, S.C. Jennifer Klockman (M’ 07) is a newly licensed real estate professional for Weichert Realtors Signature Group. Amanda Barbee (BLA ’09), an avid golfer, nailed two holes in one. The first was on The Woodlands course at Chateau Elan (#13), and the other was on the par 3 course at Chateau Elan (#3). Tyler Kelly (BS ’09) received the National Science Foundation Fellowship and will use it to work on a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania. Madeline Jane Mitchell (BBA ’09) is attending the UGA School of Law. Zachary Murphy

(BSA ’09) is a loan officer in the Quitman branch office, where he is serving the financing and insurance needs of residents of rural Brooks, Echols, Lowndes and surrounding counties.

Margaret Strickland (BFA ’09) exhibited photographs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her images will become part of the national museum’s permanent collection. Kristen Tullos (AB ’09, AB ’09) received the Robert W. Woodruff Scholarship from the Emory School of Law. GRAD NOTES Agriculture Thomas J. Koske (PhD ’77) of Baton Rouge, professor and horticulture specialist, retired from the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service after 32 years of service.

Arts & Sciences Larry Durrence (PhD ’71), a retired community college president from Lakeland, Fla., served as interim president of Owensboro Community & Technical College. Warren Cole Smith (ABJ ’80, MA ’85) is on the board of trustees of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. Steve Elliott-Gower (MA ’83, PhD ’89), director of the honors and scholars program and associate professor of political science at Georgia College, is the faculty vice president of the Georgia Collegiate Honors Council. Kelly Zappas Dedeaux (ABJ ’00, MA ’03) and Glenn Dedeaux III (MAcc ’00) welcomed their first child, Claire Isabelle, on May 20. Xiaorong Lin (PhD ’03) received the 2009 ICAAC Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Microbiology. The award recognizes early career scientists for research excellence and potential in microbiology and infectious disease.

Business Jason Herskowitz (MBA ’96) is the vice president of product management at Lime Wire.

Education Miriam Adderholdt (PhD ’84) made a presentation to teachers, parents, admin-

44 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Where are

theynow?

Visualizing a better world Rhodes Scholar Adam Cureton (AB ’ 03, MA ’03) has found a niche in the study of ethics and disabilities

by Allyson Mann (MA ’92)

Adam Cureton is interested in ethics, particularly social rules and the small moments of everyday life that reveal larger truths. For example, what happens when someone doesn’t hold a door open for us?

When someone cuts us off in traffic? Our reactions— maybe a dirty look or a muttered obscenity—reveal something about our society.

“There are laws, and then there are the informal rules we teach our children and enforce among ourselves,” he says. “I’m interested in thinking about what kind of rules we should aim for.”

A former Foundation Fellow and UGA’s 19th Rhodes Scholar, Cureton now is pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His interest in ethics dates back to his time at UGA, and he credits political science Associate Professor Alex Kaufman and a course on American philosopher John Rawls—a leading figure in moral and political philosophy—with sparking his enthusiasm.

“I fell in love with it,” he says. “It really laid the foundation for what I think will be my life’s work in philosophy.”

While earning a degree at Oxford, Cureton was immersed in a different tradition of philosophy, one with a utilitarian spirit and less focus on rights and liberties. Today he’s taking insights from both UGA’s and Oxford’s disciplines and creating his own framework for exploring ethics and also issues of disability. Cureton is co-editor of Disability and Disadvantage, a book of essays published in August that investigates the moral and political issues concerning disability.

“It seems to me that in the past, a lot of this has been dominated by medical thoughts about disability—that it’s a problem to be solved,” he says. “I kind of think, maybe from my own experiences, that how we should handle people with disabilities has to do with giving them opportunities and helping them help themselves.”

Cureton is legally blind, the result of a condition called ocular albinism, in which the retinas lack enough

SPECIAL

Adam Cureton and his wife, Julie Rash Cureton (BSEd ‘02), are the proud parents of son Carson, 3, and daughter Riley, 2. While Adam was earning a degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, Julie taught preschool at Oxford’s Somerville College. She had quite an impact on her students, whose parents said they came home with “peculiar” accents and used words like “y’all.”

pigment to judge depth and see distances or details.

Despite the visual challenge, he is a long-time racquetball player.

“I’m still not sure how I’m able to do it,” he says.

He figures the game is so fast and he’s played so long that he is able to guess where the ball will go. At work, Cureton doesn’t talk about his condition—in fact, his students don’t know—but clearly it has affected his academic interests.

“There are all sorts of cool issues that could help us improve all sorts of things in society, like the codes of ethics of teachers and doctors and social workers,” he says.

“That’s just one example of how thinking about disability might help us to have real-world impact.”

He’s already having an impact through his teaching, where he emphasizes the importance of respect in considering and debating issues of modern life. After graduating in 2011, he hopes to continue that work by joining a university faculty.

“I’ve developed a strong love for teaching, and it seems to me a very important way in which I can have an influence on people and apply some of the theoretical insights that I’m working on in my research.”

Where are they now? is a feature in GM that spotlights students who made a name for themselves while at UGA. Have a standout classmate you’d like to catch up on? Email Kelly Simmons at simmonsk@uga.edu.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

45

CLASSNOTES

ALUMNA GETS GENIUS GRANT

COURTESY OF THE JOHN D. AND KATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

Beth Shapiro (BS ’99, MS ’99) was a 2009 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award—a $500,000 no-strings-attached grant given to 24 people throughout the world each year. She is the first UGA alumnus to win the award.

Shapiro, a Foundation Fellow at UGA, also was the university’s first female Rhodes Scholar, winning that award in 1999. She earned her Ph.D. in zoology from Oxford University in 2003 She currently is an assistant professor of biology at Penn State University.

UGA can lay claim to one other MacArthur grant. In 2003, Eve Troutt Powell, then UGA associate professor of history, became the first UGA faculty member to receive the fellowship. Powell now is on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.

istrators and gifted students at the 2009 N.C. Association for the Gifted and Talented and Partners for the Advancement of Gifted Education conference in Winston-Salem. Kurt R. Hoffmann (MEd ’92) received the annual A.E. Lange Award for Distinguished Science Teaching from Whitman College, where he is a professor of physics. Eric Hart (MEd ’99) married Erin Leighanne Hill of Baton Rouge, La., in June 2008. He is working as the associate athletic director for academic services for athletes at Delaware State University in Dover, Del. Pamela Sheppard (PhD ’01) is teaching and working with staff at Pretoria University in Pretoria, South Africa, in program development. She volunteers at a local orphanage to aid in facility enhancement and travels extensively throughout South Africa lecturing in several different cities and venues. Earle Graham (PhD ’07) is the Rockdale County High School athletics director.

Environment and Design Erik Nelson (MLA ’95) of Portland, Ore., is a principal in Yellow Mountain StoneWorks Inc. and supplied cladding material for the Microsoft West Campus in Redmond, Wash.

Law Edmond I. Adams (LLB ’56) of Adams & Ivey received the 2009 Dr. I. Beverly Lake Public Service Award. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

David C. Hagaman (AB ’69, JD ’73) was named by Chambers USA as a 2009 leading individual for labor and employment law. Dorothy D. Wilson (JD ’75) is deputy assistant general counsel in the division of operations-management of the office of the general counsel in Washington. Patricia G. Griffin (AB ’79, JD ’82) was named by Chambers USA as a 2009 leading individual for labor and employment law. T. Kyle King (AB ’90, JD ’97) of Hampton, is registered as a neutral with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution and serves as a mediator in civil and probate cases.

Angela B. Hitch (JD ’98), Scott E. Hitch (JD ’99), and Patrick B. Webb (ABJ ’95) formed Hitch & Webb LLC in March. Leigh G. Hildebrand (JD ’00) is

46 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES ALUMNI PROFILE

Putting down roots A career in the oil exploration business took Luke Corbett all over the world, but at home he’s known as Mr. Oklahoma

by Kelly Simmons

When Luke Corbett left UGA in 1970 he knew he wasn’t going home to Pearson.

The tiny south Georgia town, with fewer than 2,000 residents, had little to offer other than farming. Corbett (BS ’70) hoped to put his math degree to work as a geophysicist.

“I learned early on if you have options and opportunity you can have a lot of fun in your life,” Corbett says.

He has had a lot of all three in his 30-year career.

In 2006, Corbett retired as CEO and chairman of KerrMcGee Corporation, a worldwide oil and gas exploration and production company that he led to record earnings. When the company was acquired that year by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Corbett had been at its helm for more than 10 years. He remains a member of the board of Anadarko and OGE Energy Corporation.

Becoming the head of one of the world’s top oil companies was not what Corbett expected when he left Georgia after graduation. Engaged to Becky Rountree (BS ’72), a St. Simons native he met during a math study session, Corbett’s first job was as an engineering assistant for Western Electric, which would later become Lucent Technology.

“I hated it,” Corbett recalls of the job that required countless hours at a desk.

With the Vietnam War in full swing, and holding a low draft number, Corbett decided he would join the Marine Air Corps Reserves. But before he signed up, he got a call from Pan American Petroleum. They were looking for a geophysicist for the New Orleans office. His interview—coincidentally with a fellow Georgian who grew up just eight miles from Corbett’s hometown—resulted in a job offer. “That was an eye-opener to a guy from Pearson, Ga.,” he says of New Orleans. He stayed with the company 11 years, becoming one of four regional head geophysicists in the country.

That was the starting point for a series of jobs that had Corbett climbing the corporate ladder and moving throughout the mid- and southwest. Between 1970 and 1985, when Corbett joined Kerr-McGee, he and Becky lived in New Orleans, Tulsa, Chicago and Houston, with Corbett holding management and vice president level jobs, and traveling throughout the U.S and world.

They were settled in Houston, living with their two children in suburban Woodlands, for five years when it become evident to Corbett that they would have to move again. The company he worked for, Aminoil, was being sold.

LUKE CORBETT

KELLY SIMMONS

“I had always told Becky, regardless of where we are don’t put roots down, we may have to go again,” he says. “They had put roots down in Woodlands.”

When a job as a geophysicist came through with Kerr-McGee, the family moved again, this time to Oklahoma City.

“In business, you reach different levels, you set different goals,” he says. “I knew I wanted to be in some higher level of management.”

Carrie, then 9, and Brad, 5, were easily bribed.

“If you’ll go and try to be happy I’ll buy a home with a pool,” Corbet says he promised. “We were leaving Houston with everybody crying. I’m feeling like the biggest jerk in the world. Becky didn’t speak to me for a year.”

But soon they began putting down roots in Oklahoma, becoming active in civic and sporting events. Corbett was appointed to the Oklahoma State Board of Education and was active in trying to improve K-12 education in that state.

The Georgia grads adopted Oklahoma University and bought a sky suite for home football games. Now a devoted Sooner fan, Becky has the front door of their house wreathed in red and black decorations and small OU flags.

Corbett moved up the ladder quickly at Kerr-McGee, becoming president and CEO in 1995, and chairman and CEO in 1999 after Kerr-McGee’s merger with Oryx Energy Company in 1999.

The company that had $3.6 billion in assets when Corbett arrived had $18 billion when he retired in 2006.

In 2007, Corbett and partners purchased a game ranch in South Africa. An avid hunter—heads and skins of big game fill his two-story home office—he travels frequently to the 75,000 acre ranch “eZulu,” which means “African Heaven” in Xhosa, the dominant tribe in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

“I lived the American dream,” he says. “I’ve experienced the good times, the bad times and the ugly times. It’s all about your faith and your family and your friends.”

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

47

NEWBOOKS The Business Mechanic: 9 Simple Ways to Improve Your Business Blue Duck Publishing, 2009

By John Minahan (BBA ’98) As a business owner whose quickly growing private media and advertising company was recently ranked #20 in the Inc. 500

by Inc. Magazine, Minahan guides others to achieve entrepreneurial success.

The Cracker Queen–A Memoir of A Jagged, Joyful Life Gotham, 2009

By Lauretta Hannon (AB ’92) Hannon describes her impoverished childhood in a dysfunctional family in Georgia, her college experience at the University of Georgia and her career in marketing while simultaneously reminding her readers of the importance of love, forgiveness and gratitude.

Political Campaigns & Political Advertising: A Media Literacy Guide Greenwood Press, 2009

By Frank W. Baker (ABJ ’77) This timely text examines the historical role of the media in past and present campaigns and how fear has been used in political advertising. Baker, a national media education consultant, designed the book to raise the media awareness and media literacy of citizens.

Soap, Soap, Soap ~ Jabon, Jabon, Jabon Raven Tree Press, 2009

By Elizabeth O. Dulemba (BFA ’91) A young boy is sent out to the store to buy some soap, but gets very muddy along the way. Hugo comes home only to discover that his mother plans to use the soap on him! The story is presented in English text with embedded Spanish.

Tybee Roads Low Country Publications, LLC, 2009

By Michael Connor (BBA ’95) This book tells the story of a battle between two patriot brothers, Ben and John Linton, and a Tory named James Barrett. The rivalry begins during The Battle of Savannah of The American Revolutionary War and pits two families against each other for years to come.

Shaping the American Landscape University of Virginia Press, 2009

By Stephanie Foell (MHP ’96) A rich portrait of the art and architecture of Charles A. Platt, this book describes the role he played in shaping American cultural identity for the masses.

48 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Moon Atlanta Avalon Travel Publishing, 2009

By Tray Butler (ABJ ’97) Butler takes his reader on a tour of Atlanta as he describes unique trip strategies for travelers. Butler gives the inside scoop on everything Atlanta, from the bustling financial district in downtown to the hip-hop scene, and he mentions every landmark along the way, including the World of Coca-Cola, Zoo Atlanta and Centennial Olympic Park.

Beaverball: A (Winning) Season with the M.I.T. Baseball Team Aventine Press, 2009

By Brooks C. Mendell (PhD ’04) The story of a remarkable team of unlikely “winners,” Beaverball details the season in which the M.I.T. baseball team—known more for its SAT scores than its batting average—won its first ever championship game.

Critical Companion to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2009

By Sharon L. Jones (PhD ’96) An examination of the life, literary works and historical context of Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American woman writer associated with the period known as the Harlem Renaissance, who published fiction, autobiography and drama during the 20th century.

Walking Autumn Bicycle Publishing

By Dianne Hayter (ABJ ’75, MHE ’77, MEd ’79) This memoir chronicles a year in the life of Autumn, a collie/golden retriever mix, and her human, recounting the adventures they create while living and walking together in western North Carolina. One dollar of every book purchased benefits the Avery County (NC) Humane Society.

ONLINE Find more books by UGA graduates at www.uga.edu/gm

SUBMISSIONS Submit new books written by UGA alumni to simmonsk@uga.edu. Please include a brief description of the book and a pdf of its cover.

CLASSNOTES ALUMNI PROFILE working as a Stennis Fellow for the 111th Congress Stennis Congressional Staff Fellows program, which is a bipartisan leadership development experience for senior-level staff of the U.S. Congress.

She is exploring ways to improve the effectiveness of those who work on Capitol Hill, focusing on the future challenges of Congress as an institution and the leadership role played by senior congressional staff in meeting those challenges.

Hildebrand continues to serve as an assistant parliamentarian for the U.S. Senate. Robert Fortson (JD ’05) joined Turner Bachman & Garrett, a law firm in Marietta and Griffin, representing public and private clients in the areas of education, legislative and regulatory law, public contracts and procurements, general civil litigation, and labor & employment.

Pharmacy Jennifer Leisel Davis (PharmD ’03) of Portland, Ore., received the Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award at the Oregon State Pharmacy Association Convention and Annual Meeting for her individual excellence and outstanding contribution to the pharmacy association and community.

Psychology Kenneth Jackson (BBA ’79, MAcc ’80) is the vice chairman of the University of Georgia Foundation, a group that oversees the university’s endowment funding.

He also is the vice president and chief financial officer for Shaw Industries and has served on the 35-member board of trustees since 2006.

Social Work Ann Montgomery Pitts (MSW ’92) is a clinical associate and instructor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School.

She provides psychotherapeutic treatment to patients in the departments of psychiatry and infectious disease at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. Pitts also acts as a supervising faculty member to medical students, residents and fellows in the department of psychiatry.

Obituaries can be found online at www.uga.edu/gm

Taking it to a new level John Cochran turned his home brewing into an (almost) overnight sensation

by Jackie Reedy

John Cochran is a beer geek.

He loves the taste of beer, the smell of beer, and he loves sharing and talking about beer with others.

Cochran (BBA ’93) is the co-founder and president of Terrapin Beer Company.

Cochran started home brewing in college, but it wasn’t until he moved to Seattle to sell life insurRICK O’QUINN ance that he realized his fascination JOHN COCHRAN and awe for the brewery business.

“I was amazed by the number of breweries in the Northwest,” Cochran says.

“There was such a variety and quality to the beers, and I knew I wanted to play a part in bringing that to the South.”

So Cochran moved back to his home in the peach state and started volunteering in Atlanta microbreweries, sweeping floors, cleaning kegs, and working on the bottling line, anything to learn the ropes of the beer business.

In 1998, he met Brian “Spike” Buckowski, another home brewer. The two men developed a plan to open their own brewery. Buckowski would work on the formulas, and Cochran would do the marketing and long-term strategic planning.

Having no luck attracting investors, they started the company as a contract brewery, using other companies’ equipment to brew their beer. In Spring 2002, they released their first beer, the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale, at the Classic City Brewfest. Six months later the Rye Pale Ale was awarded the American Pale Ale Gold Medal at the 2002 Great American Beer Festival.

“It was so cool because people started calling us and wanting to find out where they could get the best American Pale Ale, and I just kept telling them, they’d have to come to Athens because that was the only place selling it on tap,” Cochran says.

In January 2008, Cochran and Buckowski opened their new 45,000 square foot Terrapin brewery, named after Buckowski’s favorite Grateful Dead album “Terrapin Station.” Cochran said they knew they had to be located in Athens. “It’s a great beer town with a great music scene,” he says. Terrapin went from producing 160 barrels of beer in 2002 to about 12,000 in 2008.

Terrapin gives tours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. “There’s always live music and beer sampling,” Cochran says. “It is a great time and for us, a way to showcase our beer and tell people how we got started.”

The Terrapin tasting room is meant to jump start the evening. “People can come and taste our beer, and then from here, they hopefully go out and buy beer and food from our clients downtown,” he says.

While the company still can grow, Cochran says it will stay local.

“It is unreal to walk into a place that was your idea, and see that your dream came into fruition,” he says.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

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50 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

I

CLASSNOTES

WHY give

“

At UGA, individuals with handicaps can have all of the experi-

ences—educationally, socially and emotionally—that are a part of being a bulldog. This is not necessarily true elsewhere. I was able to completely enjoy and be part of the Georgia experience and as a result, I received a good education, a good job, retirement I can enjoy and

”

made great friends for life. This is all because of UGA.

—Wayne Milton Kimberly Born with cerebral palsy, Wayne Kimberly was a special needs student at UGA before the existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which now provides access and assistance to enable disabled students to complete their college studies. Thanks to assistance and support from roommates and friends he was able to earn his degree, participate in campus activities and go on to have a successful 30-year career with Gracewood State Hospital in Augusta. He has created a legacy gift to the university, which will benefit UGA Disability Services and provide unrestricted funds to benefit all students.

Want to give? Go to www.externalaffairs.uga.edu/os/makegift.

Wayne Kimberly

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

SPECIAL

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52 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

ALUMNI PROFILE

A “responsibility” to get involved to raise money in Georgia for Sen. Dick Gephardt’s campaign.

When Gephardt left the race, Stolz went to work for Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young as a lobbyist for the city and was actively involved in the city’s successful bids for the 1996 Olympic

by Kelly Simmons Games and the 2000 Super Bowl.

Robert Stolz had been in In 1989, Tom Perdue, chief Charlotte just a couple of weeks of staff for Georgia Gov. Joe when a group of older men from Frank Harris while Stolz worked the business community came for Young, asked Stolz to help to visit him. him start up a series of small

They handed him a list of banks in metro Atlanta counties. organizations—the state DemoStolz found himself again in the cratic party, the state Chamber fundraising role, pursuing invesof Commerce, Leadership North tors to launch the banks. Soon Carolina—and suggested he get after the banks were established, involved with them. they were sold to SouthTrust. It

Stolz (AB ’85) told them was time for Stolz to move on thanks, he’d look into it. That once again. wasn’t good enough apparHis wife’s father had a busiently so they made the message ness selling lumber to furniture clearer. makers. He asked Stolz to run

“If you live here and do ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER his small branch office in Charbusiness here you don’t just ROBERT STOLZ lotte and expand the company. live here and do business here,” “I knew nothing about the Stolz says he was told. “You have a business, ” Stolz says, “but I knew enough to surround responsibility to get involved.” myself with good and smart folks.”

Since then he has been very involved. Currently chair He and wife Anne Gray Howard (BSEd ’85) moved to man of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, Stolz Charlotte and Stolz hit the road once again, opening branch also has served as chair of the State Economic Developoffices of Charlotte Hardwood Center throughout the Southment Board and the board of directors for the N.C. Departeast. In seven years the company grew from one branch ofment of Commerce. He also is a member of the board of fice to nine and from $5 million in revenues to $55 million. directors of Novant Healthcare and Charlotte Country Day

In 1999, the Wurth Group, a family-owned company School. out of Europe, offered to buy the company. Stolz liked the

Meanwhile he’s helped grow a lumber company into people and agreed to sell, planning to stay on for just a few part of a major conglomerate with subsidiaries in 84 counyears. He has been there ever since, and as the company tries. has continued to grow he has moved from head of U.S.

This was not the career he expected when he left UGA operations to overseeing operations throughout North in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

America. He’s now on the company’s management board,

“I was going to law school,” says Stolz, whose dad providing the strategic vision for the different companies and grandfather were lawyers and served terms as state within the corporation. judges. His brother is a lawyer and his mom a paralegal.

“It’s all about people,” says Stolz, now an advisory

“I went to law school. I hated it and dropped out,” he trustee for the Arch Foundation at UGA. “You’re leadsays, adding that the decision was not a popular one at ing people, motivating people. The trick is to hire people home. smarter than you.”

It was 1987 and campaigns for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination were in full swing. Stolz signed on

Entrepreneur Robert Stolz isn’t just about his business—he’s also working for the good of North Carolina

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2009

53

CLASSNOTES

KEYS TO THE DAWG HOUSE SEND US YOUR NOTES! Help UGA and your classmates keep up with what’s happening in your life—both personally and professionally—by sending Class Notes items to one of the addresses listed below.

And please include your hometown to help us keep our alumni database up to date.

If you send a photo, please make sure it is a resolution of 300 dpi.

Due to the volume of submissions we are not able to confirm that we have received your note. Please be patient. It can sometimes take a few months for a note to appear in the magazine after it has been submitted.

PAUL EFLAND

High school sophomore Darby Calhoun, her brother Will, a seventh-grader, and mom Laura (AB ’88) talk to UGA Alumni Association President Vic Sullivan (BBA ’80) at “Keys to the Dawg House” held at Deerfield-Windsor School in Albany in early November. Darby is interested in the Music Business Certificate Program in the Terry College.

More than 400 middle and high school kids from southwest Georgia turned out in November to learn what they need to do now to become Bulldogs in just a few short years. Sponsored by the Alumni Association in partnership with the admissions office, the “Keys to the Dawg House” event, held at Deerfield-Windsor School in Albany, gave kids a chance to talk to people with real UGA experience—alumni.

The young students had a chance to hear about scholarships, amenities—like the expanded Tate Student Center—and study abroad opportunities. Six “Keys to the Dawg House” events have been held so far. More are being scheduled for 2010.

Check the Alumni Association Web site regularly for upcoming events: www. alumni.uga.edu/alumni.

54 DECEMBER 2009 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Quickest way to send us Class Notes E-mail: GMeditor@uga.edu Fax: 706/583-0368 Web site: www.uga.edu/gm UGA Alumni Association Send e-mail to: btaylor@uga.edu Web site: www.alumni.uga.edu/alumni Or send a letter to: Georgia Magazine 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-1999

Want to reach the Bulldog Nation? Advertise in Georgia Magazine.

Published quarterly and mailed

to the household, your advertising message reaches your audience directly, giving you one of the strongest demographic buys in the region.

For information on advertis-

ing in the award-winning Georgia PAUL EFLAND

Carey Clinton (AB ’03), assistant director of admissions, tells the crowd of southwest Georgia middle and high school students what it takes to be accepted as a student at UGA.

Magazine, contact Pamela Leed at 706/542-8124 or pjleed@uga.edu.

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BACK PAGE

“A

student came by who was transferring up from Georgia Southern. I asked her how she found out about food science.

She said ‘my dream job is to work at M&M/Mars.’ I said I heard something on NPR about a new book on chocolate.

She said ‘yes, The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret Life of Hershey and Mars.’

I I didn’t think much about it. Just before Christmas break she stopped by, and she gave me a gift. It was the book.

Sometime over the Christmas vacation I got the brilliant idea that chocolate might make a better freshman seminar than spoiled food. ” —Robert Shewfelt, on how his less-than-successful freshman seminar on food spoilage 10 years ago evolved into the wildly popular “Chocolate Science” seminar offered today.

ROBERT SHEWFELT

Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor & Undergraduate Coordinator Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences B.S., in Food Science, Clemson University; M.S., in Food Science, University of Florida; Ph.D. in Food Science, University of Massachusetts Photo shot on location at UGA’s Photography Services studios

by Andrew Davis Tucker

DECEMBER2009 2009 •• GEORGIA GEORGIAMAGAZINE MAGAZINE 56 56 DECEMBER

Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID University of Georgia

University of Georgia Alumni Records 394 South Milledge Avenue, Suite 100 University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-5582 Change Service Requested

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