Alumni News continued

2013

Wesley Maddox has completed a tremendous educational career. Wesley earned a BS in Systems Biology and a MS in Statistics from Case Western University. He earned a MS in Data Science from Cornell University and a PhD in Machine Learning from New York University. Along the way he earned several awards, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and a NYU Data Science PhD Fellowship, and published four articles. Wesley is currently employed as a Quantitative Analyst for Jump Trading LLC in New York.

2015

Brielle Smith graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in May 2023 with her MD. She will be pursuing a career in Neurology and will be completing her four year residency at MUSC beginning in July.

2016

Christy (Newton) Epps graduated from the University of Georgia in 2020 with a BS in Public Health. She is currently attending the University of South Carolina-

Aiken, pursuing a nursing degree. Christy married her best friend and college sweetheart Josh in May of 2021.

Jackson Rivers graduated from the University of West Georgia in 2019 and answered the call into ministry, accepting a youth pastor position at Ephesus Baptist Church in Villa Rica, Georgia. He received a Master of Divinity Degree from Liberty University in 2022. Jackson currently serves as the Director of Student Ministry at Thomson First United Methodist Church. Jackson and his wife Erica have been married for four years and celebrated the birth of their first child, Emma, in 2022.

2017

Julia (Pruitt) Kershner married high school sweetheart and classmate Noah Kershner after their college graduations (Clemson University and the University of Georgia, respectively). The Kershners currently live in Atlanta where Julia works in graphic design and marketing and Noah works for Reformed University Fellowship at Georgia Tech, a ministry they both love to serve together.

2018

Charis (Puckett) Barnett married Andrew Barnett on August 6, 2022. She recently graduated from the University of Georgia with a MS in Speech-Language Pathology. Charis and Andrew live in Augusta with their dog, Dolly.

2021

Cara Chiswell currently works as a social media intern for a professional Overwatch team, the Washington Justice, in Washington DC. She attends George Mason University with an expected graduation date of May 2024.

2016 Rod Bayliss, III

Westminster alum Rod Bayliss, III (‘16) was named a 2022 Hertz Fellow in May of 2022. Bayliss is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of California Berkeley. He is a power electronics researcher who is designing more efficient and power-dense electronics, a step toward reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Bayliss received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While a student at MIT, he developed new kinds of inductors, which store energy. He also focused on power electronics design during internships at Apple Inc, Tesla, and SpaceX.

Westminster is proud of the amazing work that Rod is doing, and we can’t wait to see what he accomplishes in the future!