ALUMNI
News & Notes continued Lemuel “Life” LaRoche (BSW ’02, MSW ’03) received the School of Social Work’s 2016 James Dodd Distinguished Alumni Award. He also received the UGA President’s 2015 Fulfilling the Dream Award for significant efforts to build bridges on behalf of civil and social justice. LaRoche also presented a 2015 TEDxUGA lecture titled “Chess and Community: The Power of a Single Hour,” which may be viewed at bit.ly/tedxugalaroche. LaRoche is founder and director of Chess and Community, a non-profit organization based in Athens that uses chess to teach critical thinking skills to at-risk youth. Lemuel “Life” LaRoche Credit: Alex Menendez/NBC
In June 2015, Jen Liam (MSW ’02) competed on the seventh season of the NBC sports game show American Ninja Warrior. For her qualifying round, filmed in Orlando, Florida, Liam and other contestants had to navigate an unusual obstacle course in a short time. Although she didn’t qualify, she said she plans to attempt the course again in the show’s next season. Liam is a clinical social worker in Atlanta specializing in work with families, parents, young adults, adolescents and children. An interview filmed for the show featuring Liam, her wife Debbie Lillard Liam (MSW ’91) and their daughter is at bit.ly/JenLiam-ANW7.
Jen Liam on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior
Georgia Trend Magazine named Carla Smith (MSW ’05) to its list of “40 Under 40” outstanding Georgians in October 2015. She is a human resources, policy and talent management director for Signature HealthCARE, a long-term nursing care provider. Col. Jeff Yarvis (Ph.D. ’04) was appointed deputy commanding officer of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Foot Hood, Texas. He is also chief operating officer for the center, which includes a team of nearly 4,000 military and civilian personnel and has an annual operating budget of $330 million.
Carla Smith
Jeff Yarvis
2010s USA Today featured Carol Britton Laws (Ph.D. ’12) in a November 2015 story that highlighted a new UGA program for students with special needs. The full story is online at usat.ly/1Mir6KA. Laws is an assistant clinical professor and coordinator of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Education in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Carol Britton Laws
In 2015, Shauna Taylor (BSW ’12) was selected as social work graduate student intern for Chicago’s Heartland Alliance Northern Tier Anti-Trafficking Consortium. Taylor has served as a Community Fellow at the University of Chicago’s International House for the last two years. Shauna Taylor
›› Send your updates to Harold Waters (ABJ ‘98,) Alumni Development Director, hwaters@uga.edu or (706) 542-5450.
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