The University of Georgia Magazine September 2012

September 2012 • Vol. 91, No. 4 Magazine

The University of

In this issue:• A town-gown partnership

means more performing arts for the Athens community

• Alumnus leads effort to combat methamphetamine use in Georgia

A leg in faithJarryd Wallace sacrificed a limb two years ago to pursue a dream. He’s now a U.S. Paralympian.

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SEPTEMBER 2012 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE 1

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Live “forever young” near the college town of Athens, Georgia, just 45 minutes from Atlanta! CNNand Fortune praise Athen’s low cost of living, world-class healthcare, and cultural activities. Familiesenjoy the best schools in the state. Seniors can audit classes at UGA for free. Take a “golf cart” fromhome to 27 holes of golf, award-winning club with resortpools, fitness center and tennis.

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ADMINISTRATIONMichael F. Adams, PresidentJere Morehead, JD ’80, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and ProvostTom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87, Senior Vice President for External AffairsTim Burgess, AB ’77, Senior Vice President for Finance and AdministrationPUBLIC AFFAIRSTom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, Vice President Alison Huff, Director of Publications GEORGIA MAGAZINEEditor, Kelly Simmons, MPA ’10Managing Editor, Allyson Mann, MA ’92Art Director, Lindsay Bland Robinson, ABJ ’06, MPA ’11Advertising Director, Pamela LeedOffice Manager, Fran BurkePhotographers, Paul Efland, BFA ’75, MEd ’80; Peter Frey, BFA ’94; Dorothy Kozlowski, BLA ’06, ABJ ‘10; Robert Newcomb, BFA ’81; Rick O’Quinn, ABJ ’87; Dot Paul; Andrew Davis TuckerEditorial Assistant, Chase MartinGEORGIA MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARDVOLUNTEER MEMBERSCecil 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; Leneva Morgan, ABJ ’88, Georgia Power; Swann Seiler, ABJ ’78, Coastal Region of Georgia Power; Robert Willett, ABJ ’66, MFA ’73, retired journalism faculty; Martha Mitchell Zoller, ABJ ’79EX-OFFICIO MEMBERSTom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87, Senior Vice President, External Affairs; Tom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, VP, Public Affairs; Deborah Dietzler, Executive Director, UGA Alumni Asso-ciation; 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 [email protected] to send story ideas, letters, Class Notes items:Georgia Magazine286 Oconee St., Suite 200 North Athens, GA 30602-1999E-mail: [email protected] site: www.uga.edu/gm or University of Georgia Alumni Associationwww.alumni.uga.edu/alumniAddress changes:E-mail [email protected] or call 888/268-5442FINE PRINTGeorgia Magazine (ISSN 1085-1042) is published quarterly for alumni and friends of UGA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:University of Georgia, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North,Athens, GA 30602-5582

In compliance with federal law, including the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amend-ments 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 non-discrimination 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.

September 2012 • Vol. 91, No. 4

Magazine

The University of

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Departments5 Take 5 with the President President Michael F. Adams on the performing arts

6 Around the Arch Campus news and events

GEORGIA

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ON THE COVER Jarryd Wallace pauses to rest and focus during an evening practice at Spec Towns Track on the UGA campus.

Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski

Members of CORE Concert Dance Company rehearse for their spring show, “Awakening.” Under the direction of Bala Sarasvati, the company performs traditional modern, postmodern, theatrical and interdisciplinary works.

Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski

Features

16 On with the show!A UGA-Classic Center partnership means more and better performing arts for the community

22 Fighting for the futureJim Langford and the Georgia Meth Project work to keep Georgia youth from trying methamphetamine

Class Notes36 Alumni profiles and notes

28 A leg in faithJarryd Wallace sacrificed a limb two years ago to pursue a dream. He’s now a U.S. Paralympian.

14 Pumped upStudent Anna Watson turned down a lucrative fitness modeling contract because she didn’t want to take a steroid

sCloseups12 And the beat goes on

Lee and Linda Butts have spent four and a half decades helping keep Redcoats connected


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Q: Why are the performing arts important to a national research 1 institution?

A: The performing arts are important at a place like this because they greatly enhance the social and cultural life of a great university. The arts also implicitly encourage students, faculty, staff and administrators to pose and ponder big questions. Western culture is in many ways embodied in the messages of music and art and drama and dance.

Q: In your opinion does having the arts at UGA improve the quality of the Athens community?

A: It’s not accidental that this community is on virtually every list of great places to live for everyone from Millennials to retirees. A great part of that is the cultural life here in Athens. There are few if any places of 100,000 people in population in America where you have the breadth of art, music, dance and drama available to you that we have in Athens. It runs all the way from the very best classical music to hard rock to, dare I say it, redneck rock. One of the great strengths of Athens is its cultural diversity.

Q: In a bad economy, how does a state institution like UGA keep up its performing arts programs, which do not bring the significant federal funding like the sciences?

A: We simply have to depend on our friends and benefactors. The people heading those UGA units know that in today’s world fundraising is one of their primary responsibilities, and I make that very clear to them. I don’t know of any place in the world where the arts pay their own way. Many countries support the arts better than we do in this country, and I believe that our state and federal governments are missing an important economic development opportunity by not investing more money in the arts.

Q: How have you seen the schools of performing arts change since you arrived 15 years ago?

A: They have changed dramatically both in facilities and personnel. We have built the new Lamar Dodd School of Art, significantly improved the facilities for dance and drama and raised the money for a much-needed expansion of the Georgia Museum of Art. We have seen a great broadening of offerings at the Performing Arts Center under the leadership of George Foreman. In all these areas—art, drama, dance, music, performing arts—we have highly capable, dedicated faculty and leaders who are talking together and working together more fully than ever before. I still believe, as I have mentioned before, that this university would benefit from a school or college of the fine arts.

Q: What opportunities do the arts provide for UGA students, both on and off campus?

A: They are literally unlimited. We have seen in the past couple of years a significant uptick in the number of students taking advantage of the on-campus cultural activities. When you add to our offerings the offerings of the greater Atlanta community as well as the academic community there, there may not be a richer series of opportunities for students in America. One of our jobs is to get students to see beyond their normal classroom routines and sporting events. Never again in a student’s life will he or she experience the kind of cultural offerings available on a university campus, and I hope they take advantage of that.

UGA’s Wind Symphony, conducted by Gregg Gausline, performs throughout the Southeast and includes undergraduate music majors, music minors, and gifted non-majors who are preparing for careers in performance, music education, or a life-long involvement with music.

Michael F. Adams

TAKE — President Michael F. Adams on the performing arts5

DOROTHY KOZLOWSKI

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm6

TighT squeeze

Sandra Patterson’s hugs are famous across campus. A cashier at Snelling Dining Commons, she gives everyone who comes through her turnstile a big smile, an enthusiastic greeting and a hug. She greets students by name and asks them about their classes and their day. She’ll even call out to wish them luck on their tests as they leave. Patterson describes herself as a “fill-in mom” for all the students away from home. “Sometimes they actually come here in tears,” she said “And I have to hug ’em and let ’em know it’s gonna be okay.” Daniel Ivey (BS’06) remembers the difference Patterson made for him. “Sandra made my experience at UGA feel like I had a mother or grandmother, even though I was away from home,” he said. Patterson received a customer service award from the Divi-sion of Finance and Administration in 2007, but says that she doesn’t worry about awards. “They are my reward,” she said about the students she sees day-in and day-out. All of the students give good hugs, but the football players can be a little too enthusiastic. “Sometimes they hug me so tight they pick me up,” she said with a laugh. “And I have to tell them ‘put me down, boy.’ ” —Sara Freeland (ABJ ’05)

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Sandra Patterson (right), a food services employee, hugs Audrey Runnels, a sophomore exercise and sports science major from Bainbridge, at Snelling Dining Commons. Students set up a Facebook fan page for Patterson and her hugs.

New DegRee iN phARmACy

The College of Pharmacy this fall is offering a new degree program for students seeking a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences. The degree is among only 18 such programs in the country and only the second in the Southeast, and is in response to the growing need for highly skilled life sciences professionals to support research, development and manufacturing operations in the pharmaceutical industry. The program’s four-year curriculum begins with coursework in mathematics and the basic sciences of chemistry, biology and physics. Advanced coursework in pharmaceutical sciences will include aspects of drug design, mechanisms of action, drug targeting and delivery, pharmacology, toxicology, drug development, manufacturing, quality assurance and regulatory compliance. Laboratory work will be dedicated to pharmaceutical manufacturing, basic biological testing and quality assurance/quality control testing of pharmaceutical products. The field of life sciences, which includes the pharmaceutical industry, ranks as the fifth largest employer in the state of Georgia and is its fastest growing segment—at a rate of more than 20 percent per year. Learn more about the College of Pharmacy’s department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences at http://pbs.rx.uga.edu.

DOROTHY KOZLOWSKI

www.pbs.rx.uga.edu


New fROm ugA pRess

Altamaha, A River and its KeeperUniversity of Georgia Press (2012)By Dorinda G. Dallmeyer and Janisse RayPhotographs by James Holland

This recently released book from UGA Press captures in words and photographs the rich diversity of the Altamaha River, which was formed by the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers. The Altamaha is the largest free-flowing river on the East Coast and has been designated as one of the Nature Conservancy’s 75 “Last Great Places.” Co-author Dorinda Dallmeyer is director of UGA’s Environmental Ethics Certificate program. To purchase this book or to browse other UGA Press publications, go to www.ugapress.org.

UGA libraries acquires almost century-old films UGA may have acquired the earliest movies taken in the state of Georgia through a partnership between the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection and the Pebble Hill Plantation Foundation in Thomasville, Ga. The reels of 28mm, 16mm and 8mm films in the donation span from approximately 1917 into the 1960s. Pebble Hill Plantation was the winter home for the Howard Melville Hanna family of Cleveland, Ohio. Elizabeth “Pansy” Ireland Poe, granddaughter of Howard Melville Hanna, was the last family member to live in the plantation’s main house until her death in 1978. Earlier, she created a foundation to ensure the property became the historic house museum and environmental preserve it is today. Pebble Hill’s trustees donated the family’s films to the university in order to protect their unique scenes of the family and property. Many of the home movies feature “Miss Pansy” and extended family members at home, as well as friends and plantation workers, a summer home in Maine, and the many animals that were part of life at Pebble Hill. Always on the lookout for films that depict Athens, UGA, Georgia and the Southeast region to add to the visual history of the South, the media archives will host a Home Movie Day screening on Oct. 20 from 2-4 p.m. at the Richard B. Russell Building. Another Home Movie Day will be held Nov. 3 from 1-3 p.m. at the White County Public Library in Cleveland. For more information, go to www.homemovieday.org.

BORDeR BAsh fOR BlOOD

UGA students and alumni donated at least 140 units of blood and those from the University of South Carolina another 85 units during a “border bash” competition in honor of Aimee Copeland (BS ’10), who is recovering from a bacterial infection that led to the amputation of one of her legs, her foot and both hands. The UGA Alumni Association sponsored blood drives in Copeland’s honor at Memorial and Reed halls in June. Copeland, who was treated at a hospital in Augusta, contracted the bacteria in early May when she fell from a homemade zip line and into a North Georgia River, suffering a serious cut on her leg. In early July she left the hospital to begin rehabilitation at a treatment center.

Plaid about U Looking for a unique Christmas present for a Georgia grad? UGA now has an official Tartan plaid, in red and black, recognized by the Scot-tish Register of Tartans, an agency of the Scottish government. The Tartan was designed by Walter Estes (AB ’77, MEd ’98) who donated it to the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. A student committee was formed to determine the best products to de-velop from the design. The first product, a necktie, is available at the UGA bookstore and on line at Collegiate Tartan Apparel, www.collegiatetartan.com. Other products may be available soon. FACS receives the royalties on all products using the Tartan and will put the money toward scholarships and other programs to benefit students.

www.ugapress.org

www.homemovieday.org


BesT iN shOwA BARK OuT TO

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… Natarajan Kannan, a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar, who received an NSF CAREER Award of $969,822 over the next five years to gain an in-depth understanding of the evolution of kinases, a protein that controls cellular signaling pathways.

… Donna Alvermann, a Distinguished Research Professor in language and literacy education, who received the 2012 Computers in Reading Research Award from the International Reading Association.

… Bethany Moreton, associate professor of history and women’s studies, who was one of 25 professors nationwide selected this year to join the speaker’s bureau of the Organization of American Historians, the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history.

… The Georgia Museum of Art, which received national awards for two of its publications: first prize for “Facet,” its quarterly newsletter, in the American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition, and first runner-up for its book One Hundred American Paintings from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards in the art category.

… Billy Hawkins, a professor of sport management and policy, who was elected to the board of directors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Forum for the Scholarly Study of Intercollegiate Athletics in Higher Education.

… UGA Food Services, which received a gold Loyal E. Horton Dining Award for residential dining concepts and honorable mention for catering-online menu from the National Association of

College and University Food Services.

… Allan Armitage, professor of horticulture, who received the American Horticultural Society’s Liberty Hyde Bailey Award.

… Michael Ferrara, a professor of kinesiology and founder and director of UGA’s athletic training education program, who was inducted as a 2012 member of the Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association’s Hall of Fame.

KANNAN

HAWKINS

FERRARA

UGA Foundation trustee dies Don Perry (ABJ ’74), a UGA Foundation trustee and member of the Georgia Magazine advisory board, died July 27 at his home in Lithonia, Ga. Perry was vice president of public relations for Chick-fil-A, where he had worked since 1983, starting as the company’s first public relations professional and building its public relations division. A graduate of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in public relations, Perry was a member of the Grady Board of Trust. He had served on the UGA Foundation board since 2005 and last year received the Blue Key Service Award from UGA’s Blue Key Honor Society. Perry also received the Grady College’s John Holliman Jr. Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement and was inducted into the Grady Fellowship, which was created in 2008 to recognize individuals whose lives and careers lend measurably to the college’s reputation. Perry’s survivors include his wife Marilyn, their sons Brandon, Jason and Kristian, and grandson Alex. The June 2012 issue of Georgia Magazine included a profile of Perry. It is available online at www. http://uga.edu/gm/ee/index.php?/single/2012/06/1573.

PETER FREY

www.uga.edu/gm/ee/index.php?/single/2012/06/1573


At your service For the sixth straight year, UGA has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This honor is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service learning and civic engagement. During the 2010-11 academic year, more than 26,000 UGA students, staff and faculty contributed more than 445,000 hours of service—the equivalent of nearly $9 mil-lion in volunteer time—through com-munity projects, student organizations and academic service-learning courses. The 2012 Honor Roll highlights several UGA service projects, including the Campus Kitchen Project, a student program that provided more than 1,500 meals to the aging population of Athens, and IMPACT, which engaged more than 324 students during academic breaks in weeklong service-learning projects that focused on education, hunger and afford-able housing in 19 different locations nationally. In addition, more than 300 UGA faculty, staff and students partici-pated in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service hosted by HandsOn North-east Georgia and Community Connec-tion. Learn more about service learning at http://servicelearning.uga.edu/.

Flag returns safely home Georgia National Guardsmen, who trained with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences last year, returned to campus this summer to present the UGA flag they flew over their barracks in Afghanistan. The university had given the flag to the guardsmen when they completed their training last year. The flag was signed by 55 members of the 201st Agribusiness Development Team, including four UGA graduates: Gary Church (BSFR ’94), Carmen Benson (BSA ’09), George McCommon (DVM ’90, BSA ’95) and Catherine Tait (EdD ’04). While at UGA, the team learned about agriculture-related topics such as irrigation, crop production, pest management, soils assessment, livestock management and food storage. The team was the first of three to be sent to Afghanistan from Georgia to increase agricultural education. CAES trained the second team, which is currently deployed, in November 2011. The third team will train at UGA Tifton in September.

Georgia National Guardsmen with the 201st Regional Support Group’s Agribusiness Devel-opment Team hoist a UGA flag over their base in Logar Province, Afghanistan.

Sarah Jackson harvests peppers from UGArden which supplies produce for Campus Kitchen.

NO BReAsT milk? TRy hAzelNuTs

A UGA researcher has found that infant formula made from hazelnut oil may be the best substitution for human breast milk. Casimir Akoh, a Distinguished Research Professor of food science and technology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, developed a new nutrient based on hazelnut oil that better mimics the structure of mother’s milk, which makes it better suited to nourish infants. The results of his study were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. UGA is currently working to develop an infant formula using the modified molecule. To read the article, go to http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf3012272.

DOT PAUL

SPECIAL

www.pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf3012272

www.servicelearning.uga.edu


AROuNDThe

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flyiNg DeBRis

UGA’s Marine Extension Service and the Georgia Sea Grant will begin educating children in Georgia about the sources and effects of marine debris. Through the program, called Reading Between the Lines, marine specialists will visit Georgia schools and libraries to read “The Flying Debris,” a story about sea animals that live on an island of trash. Readings are scheduled for Athens-Clarke County as well as counties along Georgia’s coast. The program is funded by the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative. To schedule a reading in your community, go to http://georgiaseagrant.uga.edu or email Jill Gambill at [email protected].

Going solar Alumni returning to campus this fall may notice a little more “green” on North Campus. As part of the renovation of the former visual arts building on Jackson Street, workers installed rooftop solar panels to generate renewable energy. The Solar Demonstration Project will serve as a living laboratory for the building’s new inhabitant, the College of Environment and Design. Once fully implemented, the project will be accessible in person and online via a virtual “building dashboard” serving as a teaching and learning tool. The panels are expected to provide nearly 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year—about enough energy to power 90 fluorescent T8 lights for 10 hours a day or 189 laptops for 8 hours a day for an entire year—and is anticipated to pay for itself over the next two decades through reduced electricity costs. The project was funded with a $5,000 grant received by the Go Green Alliance student organization as well as money from the Office of University Architects and the Office of Sustainability. The UGA 2020 Strategic Plan calls for a reduction in energy consumption by 20 percent, the implementation of strategies to significantly reduce carbon emissions and the infusion of sustainability into formal and informal educational opportunities throughout the university. The UGA Finance and Administration Strategic Plan 2021 further calls for improving and maintaining facilities and infrastructure to provide excellence in instruction, research and service and enhancing UGA’s commitment to sustainability, operating as a good and responsible steward of natural resources. Learn more about UGA and sustainability at www.sustainability.uga.edu.

Installers from Turnsol Energy of Watkinsville, Ga., install solar panels on the new home of the College of Environment and Design as part of renovations to the building.

Catching shrimp, saving turtles A turtle excluder device (TED), created by a coastal Georgia fisherman in conjunction with the UGA Marine Extension Service (MAREX), has been certified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for use on commercial trawlers. The Boone Big Boy is designed to allow sea turtles to escape shrimp nets more quickly and reduce the unwanted bycatch of finfish, sharks, rays and ecologically important invertebrates like horseshoe crabs. MAREX tested the Big Boy against the industry standard during 44 two-hour trawls, which were funded by NOAA and the Georgia Sea Grant, and found that the new device reduced overall bycatch biomass by 46.6 percent. In the U.S., all shrimpers must use TEDs in trawl nets. The Big Boy TED offers shrimpers an option that could result in fuel savings, less wear and tear on gear, less time and energy sorting the catch and a better quality product. Since 1970, MAREX has collaborated with fishermen to protect coastal resources and sustain local livelihoods.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

www.sustainability.uga.edu

www.georgiaseagrant.uga.edu

SEPTEMBER 2012 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE 11geORgiA mAgAziNe is ONliNe AT www.ugA.eDu/gm

JusT A CliCk AwAy

fiND us ON fACeBOOk!

Get updates on UGA news, campus life, student activities, alumni happenings and athletics at www.facebook.com/pages/Georgia-Magazine/79478407420

Jarryd Wallace tells the story of his quest to make the U.S. Paralympic Track & Field team in a multimedia production by UGA photographer Dorothy Kozlowskihttp://photo.alumni.uga.edu/multimedia/MM00067_paralmp/

UGA cheerleader Anna Watson talks about her decision to forego a modeling contract on ABC’s “Good Morning America”

http://bit.ly/Ipcig1

The Redcoat Marching Band performs in Sanford Stadium during the 2011 football seasonhttp://bit.ly/OjWBnS

www.uga.edu/gm

www.facebook.com/pages/Georgia-Magazine/79478407420

www.bit.ly/OjWBns

www.bit.ly/lpcig1

www.photo.alumni.uga.edu/multimedia/MM00067_paralmp/


CLOSE UP

Watson learned valuable lessons while recovering from surgery on her Achilles tendon. “Being

humbled to the point where I can’t even open a door for myself anymore really opened my eyes to other people who have disabilities for life,” she

says. “Because this is something that will sideline me for six months, but these people will be in wheelchairs or paralyzed for their entire lives.”


Pumped upShe’s famous for her biceps, but student Anna Watson finds strength in her faith

by Allyson Mann (MA ’92)

photos by Peter Frey (BFA ’94)

Anna Watson was recovering on her parents’ couch when she became famous. It was January, the day after she’d had surgery to repair her right Achilles tendon—which the UGA cheerleader snapped during a tumbling run—and she was still woozy from anesthesia when her friends texted to tell her that she was featured on Yahoo.com.

She was, frankly, horrified.The story covered Watson’s decision to turn down a $75,000

fitness modeling contract. The agency offering the opportunity had asked her to take a legal steroid that would increase muscle mass, but she refused.

“When I realized that my worth is in the Lord and is not in photographs and is not in however much money they offer me, then I was more at peace about saying no,” she says.

Watson started her college career in fall 2009 as a cheerleader on scholarship at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu. Self described as “stocky” when she arrived, stress and an unbalanced exercise regimen caused her to shed 30 pounds. When she went home for Christmas, her mother looked at her and cried. The next year she began lifting weights and taking a more balanced approach to nutrition and exercise, which helped her regain the weight she’d lost.

But in spring 2010 her scholarship program was cut. During the summer, before she continued her education at the University of West Georgia, she was contacted on Facebook by a model who referred her to an agency for a job that included a hefty paycheck and a three-day photo shoot in Europe. Watson, who already paid close attention to her body image, began training specifically for the gig. She worked hard during her year at West Georgia and continued when she transferred to UGA, arriving last August. When her initial quick progress hit a plateau, the agency wanted to speed up the process with a steroid. Watson said no, The Red & Black wrote a story about it and her life changed almost overnight.

Less than a week after her surgery, “Good Morning America” flew Watson and her family to New York for an interview. She told her story to anchor Robin Roberts, emphasizing the importance of her Christian faith in making the decision. She also appeared on “Inside Edition,” where she arm-wrestled—and beat—correspondent Les Trent. Headlines called her the “strongest cheerleader in the world.”

Watson stayed focused on her recovery. In May she returned to the gym, where she resumed lifting and continued to rehabilitate her ankle. In addition to staying healthy, she had another goal—being able to wear a pair of turquoise and black 5-inch platform heels purchased a week after surgery.

“One of the questions I asked my trainer after surgery was, ‘Will I ever be able to wear heels again?’ because when I wear heels, I go big,” says the 5-foot-9-inch junior from Fayetteville.

To her relief, the answer was yes.“Those are my true victory heels. When I can wear those, I

say that I’ll be completely better.”But there have been benefits to her injury-induced break.

Watson had more time to study for two difficult science classes during spring semester. She spent more time with friends. And since she couldn’t drive, she learned to accept help from others—something that had been difficult in the past. She’s noticed a change in herself since getting back in the gym.

“I used to be more stressed about numbers and time in the gym,” she says. “After I’ve taken a break I’ve seen that it’s something I missed but not something I had to do. It’s more of an enjoyment now, so I’m able to go and just kind of celebrate what the Lord has given me.”

The 21-year-old is majoring in exercise and sports science and wants to work in strength and conditioning training for athletes. She’s also interested in starting a ministry with personal training for women.

“I think it’s so important for women to have confidence on the outside in order for them to be able to discover who they really are on the inside. There’s a lot of lies in the world that tell women they have to be a certain way or a certain mold,” she says. “Through my journey I’ve been 30 pounds underweight and 50 pounds overweight, and either way I wasn’t satisfied with the way I looked.”

She believes the healthiest approach is not to seek perfection, but to find confidence and joy through exercise.

“When the body operates the way it was created to be, then it’s a beautiful thing, and it feels good.”

The UGA junior eats healthy, but has a fondness for red velvet cake and chocolate. “You have to be able to have a little happiness,” she says. “You only live this life once.”


CLOSE UP

And the beat goes onRedcoat alumni stay connected with UGA as they continue to march and play

by Brittany Biddy (ABJ, AB ’12)

It all started 45 years ago at a Redcoat Band practice. Lee Butts (BBA ’71) introduced himself to Linda Anderson (BBA ’71). The rest is music history. The two have been overseeing the Redcoat Band Alumni Association (RBAA) since 1974.

“The purpose of the group is to support the Redcoat Band in a lot of ways, including communicating with the alumni things they would be interested in,” Lee says.

The RBAA’s main task over the past 38 years has been to help raise money for things the Redcoats need. For example, they worked with the UGA administration to secure a dedicated practice field for the band.

“Space on the university campus is very scarce,” Lee says. “The result of that effort was the Redcoats were able to have that space for the largest classroom on campus.”

In addition to helping the Redcoats, the Butts have been instrumental in helping keep Redcoat alumni connected. Lee created and maintains the RBAA website, which now tracks about 4,000 Redcoat alumni.

The website also helps Redcoat alumni plan the annual homecoming football weekend, which the Butts have attended for all 38 years. They even skipped a trip to China one year in order to make the event.

“The day basically sets up so alumni can come back in the morning, enjoy seeing each other, rehearse, and get to play the pregame show just like the Redcoats do on homecoming day,” Lee says of the group.

However, that one day in the fall is not the only time Lee and Linda pull out their instruments. Now members of “The Greater St. Petersburg Awesome Original Second Time Arounders Marching Band”—believed to be the largest adult marching band in the world—the Butts travel and play during the year with other UGA alumni from around the country.

The first Redcoats to join the “Rounders” in 2007, Linda and Lee hold leadership positions in the organization. Linda is co-section leader of the flutes and piccolos and even performs as a majorette. Lee is the section leader of the trombones and drum major this year. The two marched with the Rounders in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

“It starts with a rehearsal at three in the morning on Herald Square and you actually then stay up until your performance,” Linda says. “Television cameras are everywhere—it’s quite a thrill.”

The Rounders have traveled from San Antonio to Ireland to Canada, but Athens will always have a special place in the hearts of Linda and Lee Butts. They continue to contribute to the university through their passion for playing and commitment to the Redcoats.

Former members of the Redcoat Marching Band, Lee and Linda Butts now maintain the Redcoats’ alumni website and return each year for homecoming.

PETER FREY


(Left) Lee Butts performs with The Greater St. Petersburg Awesome Original Second Time Arounders Marching Band.

(Below) The Butts performed with the Rounders in the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

The Redcoats march for the first time on their College Station Road practice field in 2009. CONTRIBUTED

CONTRIBUTED

BETH

NEW

MAN

16 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

On with the show!Collaboration between UGA and The Classic Center raises the bar for performing arts in Athens

By Mary Jessica Hammes (ABJ ’99)

Traditional Irish band the Chieftains played a show at Athens’ Classic Center in February, part of their 50th anniversary tour. Formed in Dublin in 1962, the band has won six Grammy Awards plus an Academy Award for their work on the soundtrack to the 1975 film “Barry Lyndon.”

17SEPTEMBER 2012 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Just days after The Chieftains released their 50th anniversary album last February, they packed the house at The Classic Center with their Grammy Award-winning brand of traditional Irish music. Band founder Paddy Moloney kept the chatty banter as fast as his uillean pipes, and Irish dancers—both long-time Chieftains dancer Cara Butler and a troupe of young, sprightly and slightly starstruck-looking local guest dancers—occasionally thundered across the stage in a sequined blur.

Athens residents Alan and Heather Dean were there on date night, a rare treat for the parents of a young child.

“It was great,” Heather Dean says. “I loved hearing (Moloney’s) stories, just hearing him talk, and that the band had such interesting stories themselves. It wasn’t just the music, it was the whole

show that was entertaining… It was just really nice to see someone we admired on our home turf. We didn’t have to travel anywhere. If they were playing in Atlanta, we wouldn’t have gone. It was really exciting—a great night.”

In late April, Pascale Riley, an Ath-ens preschool teacher, went to UGA’s Performing Arts Center’s Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall to see author, humorist and radio show host Garrison Keillor. It was a sentimental performance for Riley, who followed the show when she lived overseas.

“We once drove all around Ireland listening to ‘A Prairie Home Compan-ion,’” Riley says. “We were thrilled when we heard he was coming to Athens… The show did not disappoint. He is an amazing storyteller. How he manages to keep track of all his story lines and wrap

them all together in the end is amazing. He even told some stories that I was familiar with in a different way. It was just him and a microphone, but it never got boring.”

Those world-class evenings were possible due to a partnership between UGA’s Performing Arts Center and The Classic Center, which started working together to bring big-name acts to Athens with the 2010-11 season. That first Celebrity Evenings showcase featured performances from Tony Bennett, Doc Severinsen and Lyle Lovett and His Large Band. The 2011-12 Celebrity Evenings welcomed The Chieftains and Keillor; this coming season, the UGA-Classic Center partnership is bringing Willie Nelson, The Boston Pops and Blue Man Group to Athens.

Paul Efland


hat’s in addition to existing stellar lineups from The Classic Center (including its Broadway Series of “West Side Story,” “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” “The Midtown Men” and “Dreamgirls”) and UGA (with performances from Itzhak Perlman, Sir James Galway, Bela Fleck and the Tokyo String Quartet). And while Athens is already renowned as a music town, the UGA-Classic Center partnership is something special.

Kathryn Lookofsky has been executive director of the Athens Downtown Development Authority for six years. She’s noticed a difference in just the few years the UGA-Classic Center partnership has been active: “There’s definitely more buzz and excitement” about going downtown to see a show, she says.

The idea for such a collaboration was already taking root when musicologist and conductor George Foreman became director of the UGA Performing Arts Center in 2009.

“When I hired George Foreman, I

told him that I did not believe that we were maximizing the arts community in Athens or on campus,” says UGA President Michael Adams. “I wanted him to be a catalyst in that area, and I believe he has done so. The Classic Center had done its thing and we had done ours, but we are all stronger when we work together to serve the greater community.”

Foreman was on board from the start. “I definitely wanted the Performing

Arts Center to have more exposure in the community,” he says. “Developing collaboration was a real priority with me. One of the first things I did when I got here was get together with Paul Cramer to explore the possibilities… it worked out beautifully.”

Cramer, executive director of The Classic Center, has been pleased to share the financial risk in order to bring more high-profile shows to Athens.

“Rather than two similar entities competing with each other, we have found a way to create a true collaboration that dramatically benefits this community,” Cramer says. “Tony Bennett, the Boston

Pops and Blue Man Group would all be impossible without sharing the risk.”

The biggest expense of an event is the performer’s fee, which leaves venues vulnerable to losing money if enough tickets aren’t sold, explains Philip Verrastro, assistant executive director and booker at The Classic Center. And “high quality acts tend to be expensive,” he says.

Audience member Carol Warnes, an instructor in UGA’s math department, joined the Cornell Gunters Coasters onstage during a February performance at Hugh Hodgson Hall.

Musicologist and conductor George Foreman took over as director of UGA’s Performing Arts Center in 2009.

PETER fREY

andREW daVIS TuCKER

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When it’s time to plan the Celebrity Evenings shows, “We sit down and talk about wish lists, groups that either one of us would love to have but are a little risky,” Verrastro says. He and Foreman come up with a list of 10-20 acts and try to acquire three or four of them for a season, sometimes planning years in advance. They’ll test ideas, gauging interest and getting feedback from UGA

student unions or the 400-member-strong Classic Center Cultural Foundation.

“It’s driven us to see what is that town-gown act that’s going to appeal to a wide segment of the population,” Cramer says.

The experience of creating those wish lists—of just tossing world-class names out there for consideration—is both heady and practical.

“It is very exciting and stimulating,” Foreman says. “At the same time, the whole thing is filtered through what we realize is potentially achievable and what is not. We’re always interested in raising the bar and striving to do better things. It does get filtered through a reality check. (There’s) the glamorous view of the business… what you don’t see is all the spreadsheet and financial projections.”

There’s also the altruistic part of the business: knowing what your audience wants and delivering it.

“With everything we’re doing we have to think about the university,” Cramer says. “It’s such a huge part of the population of Athens that I don’t think we ever do a show where we don’t think

about the university.”Of course, it’s not only the university

community attending these shows. At the B-52s 35th anniversary concert in February at The Classic Center, the crowd ranged from young to old, from folks sitting down in khakis and button-downs to those raucously dancing in candy-colored beehive wigs, feather boas and the odd assemblage of Christmas lights and glow-sticks.

“That was a super concert,” says Don Nelson, communications coordinator at Athens Technical College and frequent patron of The Classic Center and UGA shows. “The sound was so good. Keith’s guitar was so nice, and the rhythm section—man! It was a lot of fun, and it was nice seeing folks older than we are and younger than we are all standing up, dancing to the music.”

Nelson and the thousands of people who attend shows at The Classic Center and UGA aren’t just having a great time—they’re stimulating the economy and, indirectly, the cultural atmosphere of Athens.

“We once drove all around Ireland listening to ‘A Prarie Home Companion.’ We were thrilled when we heard he was coming to Athens... The show did not disappoint.” —Pascale Riley

In April, Garrison Keillor brought his one-man show to UGA’s Hodgson Hall. “An Evening of Story Telling” featured anecdotes about growing up in the American Midwest, the people of Lake Wobegon and late-life fatherhood. Keillor is a best-selling author, host of the radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” and winner of a Grammy, a Peabody and two Cable ACE Awards.

Paul Cramer, director of Athens’ Classic Center, and Foreman forged a partnership that allows them to bring big-ticket acts to the community.

Paul Efland

PETER fREY


he Classic Center sells about 700-800 season tickets a year, “and those people will buy an entire season,” Cramer says.

And all of those people come downtown to see a show. Many of them will eat and shop downtown and get hotel rooms. (When Widespread Panic plays at The Classic Center, as they do fairly often, almost every hotel room in Athens is filled, Cramer says.) It’s estimated that every Classic Center guest spends an average of $200 in hotels, restaurants and shops for every night they stay in Athens, based on data from both the state and the Selig Center in the Terry College of Business. The Classic Center has generated $10 million a year to the downtown area in direct visitor spending, says Cramer—and that’s before the Center’s current $24 million expansion, due to be completed in March.

The UGA-Classic Center partnership is not only an economic stimulus for Athens. It offers another, less tangible but still vital benefit: an improved quality of life.

“The quality of life is major for business recruitment—Caterpillar is a great example,” Lookofsky says, referring to Caterpillar Inc. recently selecting Athens as the site of a new manufacturing plant. “You can pretty much operate a business anywhere these days because of modern technology… One of the things that makes people relocate to Athens is the great quality of life, and part of that is because of the partnership between The Classic Center and UGA.”

“For the community at large, it adds immensely to the wonderful quality of life here,” Foreman says. “There aren’t so many places the size of Athens that have

the cultural opportunities, the wonderful resources the university makes available to the community… People who live here may not wake up every day and think of the wonderful opportunities that are here. But if you visit some place of comparable size that doesn’t have a university or a Classic Center, and ask people what opportunities are available to them, you’d see a difference.”

And of course, the partnership bolsters Athens’ reputation as a thriving creative community.

“It’s nice not to have to go to Atlanta or New York City or the larger cities to see these shows,” Nelson says. “We are the cultural center of Northeast Georgia. I think that people from all around our area come here for that… It’s nice to have this small-town feel and yet have this collection of fine arts.”

Heather Dean says she hopes

UGA’s Wind Symphony, conducted by Gregg Gausline in April 2011, performs throughout the Southeast and includes undergraduate music majors, music minors and gifted non-majors who are preparing for careers in performance, music education or a life-long involvement with music.

dOROTHY KOZlOWSKI

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Focus on artsUGA will spotlight arts on campus over a nine-

day period in November featuring concerts, theater and dance, art exhibits, book readings, lectures, author panels and book signings. Highlights include the opening of an exhibition of works by artist Jack Davis, concerts by the Atlanta Symphony and the UGA Symphony, a theater production of Rita Dove’s play “The Darker Face of the Earth” and performances by Blue Man Group, Bela Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio. Assembled by the UGA Arts Council, which was created by the Office of the Provost earlier this year, the arts festival, which will run Nov. 3-11, is intended to showcase the wealth of performing and visual arts available to the UGA and Athens communities.

For dates, times and ticket information, go to http://pac.uga.edu.

the collaboration will encourage more big acts to include Athens on tours.

“Big-name bands will start to look at Athens more as a place to go,” she says. “I think a lot of bands might say, ‘Well, we did Atlanta, we’re done with the South’ and be on their way. Maybe they’ll be more likely to stop in Athens too, if they know other big-name acts are playing here.”

In the end, a partnership that brings those top acts to Athens will only continue to encourage the thriving homegrown music scene.

“Many of the most successful young performers in the music scene have either come out of UGA or have come here because of the reputation of the community—the open, expressive university culture that nurtures and supports creativity,” Adams says. “I am reminded of Richard Florida’s work on the role of the arts in elevating society. On any given week in Athens, we have access to everything from rock to classical to Broadway to gospel—all influenced by the diversity and plurality in the overall musical and cultural scene. People feel largely unfettered to produce what they want to produce; that’s the kind of environment that lends itself to creativity. There is broad awareness of Athens as an artistic community, and that is good for all of us.”

Learn more about the performing arts at UGA at http://pac.uga.edu.For information about events at The Classic Center, go to www.classiccenter.com.

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In March, internationally acclaimed piano duo—and twin sisters—Christina and Michelle Naughton performed at Hodgson Hall for about 500 second- and third-grade Clarke County school students.

Blue Man Group will perform at the Classic Center Nov. 6-7.

Paul Efland

www.pac.uga.edu

www.classiccenter.com

www.pac.uga.edu


Jim Langford Leads the campaign against meth in georgia

by Allyson MAnn (MA ’92)photos by dorothy kozLowski

fighting for the future


Jim Langford Leads the campaign against meth in georgia

by Allyson MAnn (MA ’92)photos by dorothy kozLowski

The crowd of about 35 children at the Lay Park Recreation Center in Athens reacts strongly to the image projected on the screen at the front of the room: “Ewwww.” “This is what we call meth mouth. Everybody say meth mouth,” says Syreeta Thibodeaux, community outreach specialist with the Georgia Meth Project (GMP). “Meth mouth,” the kids reply. On this July day, during one of GMP’s many outreach programs, the kids have heard about the history of meth, ingredients, street names, common forms and how meth affects dopamine production in the brain. But the image of several meth users’ mouths—featuring rotting teeth and sores—really gets their attention. Thibodeaux explains that meth use leads to a lack of saliva, decrease in blood flow to the gums, teeth

grinding, bad hygiene and a poor diet, which culminate in meth mouth. Then she moves on to meth mites, or crank bugs. Meth users hallucinate that they have bugs on or even under their skin and they pick at it, leaving scars, scabs and weeping sores. There’s a photo for that too—a young man covered in sores lies on a dirty mattress, digging at his arm. This is pretty rough stuff for a young audience, but for the Georgia Meth Project it’s business as usual. Executive Director Jim Langford (ABJ ’74) is intimately familiar with some of the darkest statistics and most disturbing stories the state of Georgia has to offer. Like the GMP volunteer from Carroll County who told him she doesn’t know anyone that’s not on meth. And the fact that in Gordon County, Langford’s home county, 100 percent of child deprivation cases

are meth related. And the story of the UGA senior, a few years back, who used meth to study for exams. Instead of starting law school the next fall, the young man ended up in jail. And then there’s the subgroup of women users in their 30s who abandon their children. “They are over the cliff. They’ve just gone nuts and destroyed their lives and their children’s lives,” he says. “And you’ve got grandparents now caring for those children. I know several people like that.” With stakes like these, Langford believes GMP can’t afford to downplay anything. “We need as a society and these young people need to recognize there are some things you just don’t need to do, that you just need to stay away from,” he says. “The consequences are too severe.”

The Georgia Meth Project was born with a split-second decision by Lee Shaw, CEO of Shaw Asset Management and chairman of the Shaw Family Foundation. In June 2008 he was invited to a meeting by Georgia’s then-attorney general Thurbert Baker, who wanted to talk about the state’s methamphetamine problem. At the meeting with Baker, Shaw (M ’79) learned that Georgia at that time had the third worst meth

problem among teens in the nation, costing the state an estimated $1.3 billion annually. He listened as law enforcement and other officials described the impact it was having on jails, courtrooms, hospitals and other agencies. He learned that more than 70 percent of foster kids in many Georgia counties had been placed in foster care because of a meth-related issue. Baker’s next words really got his attention: “If we don’t do something about this problem, meth will destroy the state.”

The prediction hit home. Shaw grew up in Cartersville and lived

in Dalton for 20 years, where he had served as an executive with Shaw Industries. Though he’d moved to Atlanta, he still had strong ties to northwest Georgia—where the meth problem was particularly bad—and felt a strong sense of responsibility. He sat

there, stunned, convinced that someone needed to take action

but not sure how he could help.

That’s when Tom Siebel got up to speak. An executive at Oracle and founder of Siebel Systems, he was well known in the business and technology worlds and had turned his attention to philanthropy. The Siebel Foundation had five initiatives, one of which was the Meth Project. In a nutshell, Siebel was good at selling things and thought that he could un-sell meth. He’d put together a team including psychiatrists, marketing professionals and Hollywood producers that had launched a campaign in Montana to reduce first-time meth use. In the first few years they’d reduced the rate by 65 to 70 percent, and subsequently they’d introduced the program in other states. At the end of his presentation, Siebel said he’d be glad to help in Georgia but noted that it was his third trip to the state. “If you want help let’s decide to do it now,” Shaw remembers him saying. “Otherwise I’ve got other things to do.” As Shaw watched Siebel pack up and walk out, he had one thought—Georgia’s best chance to beat meth was leaving. “As he was walking out all I could


envision was this window of opportunity that was getting ready to close, and the question that I had was ‘What am I going to do about it?’” he says. “And that’s when I got up and followed Tom down the hall, tapped him on the shoulder, introduced myself to him and said ‘We’ll bring this program to Georgia.’”

In fall 2008 Jim Langford got a phone call from his friend Lee Shaw, who wanted to talk about his new project. Langford already had too much on his plate, but Shaw insisted on meeting. “Give me 30 minutes,” he said, and Langford agreed, not realizing that his life was about to change. After his meeting with Siebel and Baker, Shaw had spent some time thinking about who could lead the Georgia Meth Project. He needed someone with a high level of professionalism, a great set of skills and excellent interpersonal abilities. Only one name came to mind—Jim Langford. After graduating from UGA Langford had worked on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign then segued into political work for Coca-Cola. Later he worked in marketing operations at Coke while based in locations like Puerto Rico and Argentina. He earned a master’s degree in business at Harvard and chose to return to Georgia, where he began helping to create and manage technology companies. One was an early electronic commerce firm that offered companies a way to conduct business through electronic data interchange.

It captured 90 percent of the national electric utility market and went public in 1995. When he wasn’t creating or running technology firms, Langford was pursuing his other passions—protecting historical sites, revitalizing public land and preserving greenspace. Since 1986 he’s run the Coosawattee Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to increase public awareness of archaeological resources and landscapes. To date, the group has educated about 25,000 children and adults about cultural origins and environmental resources in northwest Georgia. From 2004-07 Langford served as Georgia state director of the national nonprofit The Trust for Public Land, where he helped design and create the Atlanta BeltLine’s system of connected public parks. Now he’s founder and president of the board of directors for the MillionMile Greenway, another nonprofit that helps communities conserve and connect local greenspace. In addition to his executive skills and passion for improving communities, Langford had one other qualification—firsthand knowledge of how meth can devastate a family. About eight years before Shaw’s phone call, the Langford family had taken in a foster daughter. The 2-year-old was the great-grandchild of the woman who’d cared for Langford when he was young. The girl’s parents were both in jail—the father for dealing and the mother for using meth. What started as a 90-day visit turned into five years and a mentoring relationship that still continues.

“Not Even Once” is the slogan of the nonprofit Georgia Meth Project, brought to the state in 2008 by Lee Shaw (left), who serves as chairman. Shaw (M ’79) recruited Jim Langford (ABJ ’74) (right) to serve as executive director.


So when Lee Shaw was 20 minutes into his promised 30 at their meeting, Langford stopped him. “Lee, I get it,” he said. “I understand.” Although he’d just started two new nonprofits and had no intention of taking on another, Shaw’s description of the scope of Georgia’s problem troubled him. And Siebel’s involvement convinced him that the project was going to be worthwhile. “Oh my gosh,” he said to himself. “I’m going to have to quit everything else I’m doing, and I’m going to have to work on this.”

“I picked up a tree limb, and I started hitting him with it. Busted his head open, and I think it broke one or two of his ribs, broke his nose. I didn’t think nothing about it, I just left him laying there. I turned into a horrible person, I guess.” This is Devin, a former addict from Georgia, describing how he attacked his brother while they were smoking meth. He started using at the age of 10.

His story is part of a series of radio ads created by the Georgia Meth Project. It’s lunchtime on a day in early June, and Langford is meeting with the Midtown Atlanta Rotary Club. He’s just finished playing Devin’s ad, as well as some TV ads. “I’m not going to play all of these,” he says, and someone in the crowd of more than 50 responds. “Good.” The reaction is understandable. Meth Project ads are known for their take-no-prisoners approach. Directors like Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan,” “Requiem for a Dream”) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Biutiful,” “Babel”) loaned their talents to create spots that are horrifying but informative, illuminating the common consequences of meth use—everything from paranoia, hallucinations and convulsions to betraying friends and family members to criminal behavior like stealing and prostitution. Langford is unapologetic for the campaign’s hard-hitting style because he knows the statistics. The campaign’s

initial polling found that 35 percent of Georgia’s kids thought there was little or no risk in trying meth. “This is a drug five times more powerful than cocaine, instantly addictive for some people,” he says. “And once they’re addicted, there’s only a 5 percent success rate for getting them off the drug.” Because the success rate for treatment is so low, the Meth Project focuses on preventing meth use among 12- to 17-year-olds. The program’s slogan is “Not Even Once.” “There’s no need to experiment with [meth],” Langford says. “It could be an experiment you cannot recover from.” Some ask if he’s running a scare campaign, but he doesn’t see it that way. “We’re running an education campaign. We don’t have to make up anything scary,” he says. “Let these kids tell the real stuff. It’s much more horrifying than anything we could make up.” Langford knows how disturbing the reality of meth can be because he is constantly hearing stories. People pull him aside after presentations like today’s

Georgia Meth Project ads are known for their hard-hitting style, like this print ad depicting the condition known as meth mouth. Despite the serious consequences of meth use, a 2011 GMP survey found that 56 percent of Georgia teens said their parents had never talked to them about meth.


to tell him about a friend or relative on meth. Others submit stories to the GMP website or via email. “You just hear every terrible story you can imagine, and it usually ends in death, jail, and this terrible downward spiral, and people end up dying,” he says. “As one of the girls said in one of the radio ads, there are no 80-year-old meth addicts out there. They all die fairly young.” Conditions like these warrant drastic measures, Langford says. “I hope that what we end up doing is creating this generation of kids who understand how dangerous this drug is.”

“Hi, my name is Ellen. I’m a volunteer for the Georgia Meth Project. I’m a volunteer because I watched my cousin die because of meth.” This is how 17-year-old Ellen Rittiner begins her presentations about meth. In 2006, Rittiner watched her 26-year-old cousin Kelly transform from a bubbly, outgoing, fun young woman into an addict who had violent outbursts and stole from her family.

“It was really sad, and she ended up dying alone on the side of the road,” she says. Fueled by grief, Rittiner began learning more about meth, making it the subject of her school papers and projects. “They never do anything at school about it, ever,” she says. “And so I just felt like I needed to tell people.” She volunteered for GMP, manning tables and handing out T-shirts. Eventually she began giving presentations, including one at Creekview High School in Canton—where she graduated in June—and one at the Capitol last summer alongside Gov. Nathan Deal. This summer, while preparing to attend UGA in the fall, Rittiner continued to work with GMP’s staff on presentations to camps and other youth programs. GMP Program Manager Latrina Patrick says Rittiner is a valuable member of the team. “She’s practically irreplaceable,” she says. “She has such a passion because of her experience.” Rittiner’s age also helps, according to Langford. This year he started a

Langford (left) and Rick Sellers (AB ’76) work a Calhoun excavation site in June. Langford is passionate about archeaology and stays in touch with UGA faculty, sponsoring field schools for undergraduate students. And he has additional ties to UGA: daughters Kate Langford Johnson (BFA ’08, MAEd ’12) and Claudia Langford (AB ’11) also graduated from UGA. Daughter Ava Langford attends Brown University.

Rittiner-led YouTube program about meth that’s since expanded into Girls Leading Against Meth, aka the GLAM Squad, which empowers young girls to lead the fight against meth since studies have shown that girls are more likely to try it. Langford misses communicating directly with kids, but he feels that his role should be behind the scenes. “I love going into classrooms, but they don’t want to hear from an old guy like me,” he says, laughing. GMP regularly visits Georgia schools and by the end of 2012 will have reached 35,000 young people in middle and high school classrooms. If you’re not in one of those classrooms, though, you might think the program is no longer around. During their initial 2010 advertising campaign, GMP ran 19,658 ads during primetime TV, 21,382 radio ads and 288 billboards. These days, however, they’re not nearly as visible to the general public. The program’s target demographic lives online and communicates primarily through social media, so GMP shifted their focus online as well. In fall 2011 GMP launched their “Ask” website, which gives kids the opportunity to educate themselves by learning the answers to questions like “What does meth do to your brain?” and “Does meth have long-term effects?” plus offering more stories from former meth users. The key, says Langford, is eschewing the usual educational formats and allowing kids to choose the information they want. With 16,000,000 video hits in Georgia alone, the online advertising, social media and website strategy seems to be working. “The kids aren’t going to listen to that policeman. They’re not going to listen to a principal in high school,” he says. “But they will listen to somebody who’s a former addict, and they’ll listen to younger people tell their personal stories. That’s why that thing’s loaded up with personal stories. Let them talk to each other.”


“You watch who you roll with, ok?” Back at the Lay Park Recreation Center, Lt. Terrie Patterson of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department has just explained to the kids that if they’re in a room where meth is found on a coffee table, they can face criminal charges. The same is true if they’re riding in a car with someone who has meth. “You can be charged from two years to life. Two years to life in prison,” she says. “Don’t let it cost you your life.” Next, recovering meth addict Sandy Howington puts a face on the facts they’ve heard today. She doesn’t look anything like the addicts they’ve seen in GMP ads, but appearances can be deceiving, she says. Howington was hooked instantly after a friend gave her meth. She began smoking it and within a year was injecting it. At the age of 25 she’d lost almost all of her teeth—only six remain. “What you see today are dentures and about $10,000 worth of dental work that my mom had to pay for,” she says. She lost all of her eyelashes, and her eyebrows fell off. In the summer of 2005

she was six feet tall and weighed only 98 pounds. Her kidneys failed, and she was told that she might be on dialysis for the rest of her life. She lost her job, her home and her family. Now sober for seven years, Howington tells the children that sobriety is not an easy path. “Once you have an addiction, every single day of your life becomes a struggle just to survive. I suffer today from anxiety and paranoia. I still have problems from the drugs that I used. But I know I’m very lucky. Very few people ever recover from this drug,” she says. “I hope you think of me every time someone tempts you—and you will be tempted. I hope you think of me and my story and the Not Even Once message if you’re ever tempted with drugs.” While Howington drives the message home Langford sits off to the side, content to let her take the spotlight. Perhaps he’s thinking about GMP’s future—developing a curriculum that can be implemented in schools so they can reach every child in Georgia. “We’re really good in a classroom of 20 kids, but how do we get to 800,000?

That’s what the next step is,” he says. “If we’re doing our job well, we put ourselves out of business but find a way to sustain the message.” It might be a long way off, but they’re well on the way. In 2010 Barron’s ranked Tom Siebel and the Meth Project number three on its list of top 25 philanthropies that address urgent causes. When Georgia no longer needs the Meth Project, Langford will spend more time on the projects he put aside. But until then, he’ll work to keep future generations of Georgians off meth. That means he’ll continue to hear sad and shocking stories on a daily basis, but he’s decided he can live with it. “I didn’t come back to Georgia to just play golf or go rest at the beach somewhere,” he says. “I came back to Georgia because it’s a place I love and a place where I want to see great things happen. If we’ve got an epidemic in Georgia, then I need to do something to help fix that if I can.”

www.georgiamethproject.org

Lt. Terrie Patterson of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department “deputizes” kids attending a Georgia Meth Project outreach pro-gram in Athens in July. After receiving “badges” that were actually stickers, the kids pledged not to use meth and other drugs.

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Runners gather at the far side of the track as time nears for the men’s final in the 400 meter dash. The 105 degree temperature from two days earlier has abated

somewhat, but at 10 a.m. the sun is beating down from the Indiana sky with mid-summer intensity.

Jarryd Wallace warms up for the race with a push off the starter’s blocks and short jog. He kneels, his elbow on his knee, Tim Tebow style, and says a quick prayer before returning to the blocks to get into position.

A few minutes later, the race is over. Wallace’s time, 55.38 seconds, is a personal record for that distance. But he finishes in fourth place.

It is his third final in three days and his last chance to place in the top three runners for an automatic spot on the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team that competes this month in London.

It is not the finish he had hoped for, nor the one he had all but planned for two years ago June when he had his right leg amputated so that he could continue running. When he told his parents he wanted his name alongside the other record-holding Paralympians on the U.S. Olym-pic Committee website. When he told USOC Paralympic track and field director Cathy Sellers he would be on her team in 2012.

Yet, he’s smiling as his family and friends approach af-ter the race. “Awesome,” he says of the trials in Indianapo-lis. “All these guys are (veteran runners). I’m the rookie in the bunch.”

That night in a closed-door meeting—USOC officials and competitors only—Sellers nears the end of the list of athletes who will be on the 2012 team.

“She said, ‘We’re taking Jarryd Wallace.’ I got the last spot,” he tells his parents, reducing them all to tears.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”“Really, I didn’t think I’d be in there,” he says. “It’s

just humbling. It’s unbelievable.”

Jarryd Wallace heads to the Paralympic Games just two years after giving up a leg so that he could continue to run

by Kelly Simmonsphotos by Dorothy Kozlowski

A leg in faith


The son of accomplished athletes—Jeff Wallace (BSEd ’85) lettered in tennis at UGA and has coached the women’s

tennis team for 27 years; Sabina Horne Wallace (BSEd ’86) was an All-SEC cross country runner—Wallace has been training since he was an infant. Sabina Wallace pushed him in the jogging stroller as she and Jeff trained for their first marathon, the Rocket Run in Huntsville, Ala.

When he was a little older he would join her on evening runs or run with the track team she coached at Athens Christian, where Wallace and his sister Brittany attended elementary school.

“He was the littlest one out there,” Sabina Wallace recalls. “He ran his little heart out.”

He was playing tennis at a young age and during middle school was home-schooled for a year so he could participate in U.S. Tennis Association junior competitions.

As a freshman at Oconee High School he played on the tennis team that finished second in the state in the class AAA division.

That fall he decided to run cross country as a way to stay in shape for spring tennis. He excelled at cross country, placing third in the state as a sophomore. In the spring, he played tennis and ran track.

It was too much at once and his parents encouraged him to focus on one sport exclusively. He could be good in both sports in high school. But “you have the potential to be great in one,” they told him.

Parents Sabina and Jeff Wallace flank their son for a family photo after Jarryd Wallace completes his fifth run—the 400 meter dash—during the U.S. Paralympic Track and Field Trials in Indianapolis.

STEVE EHRETSMAN


“That was kind of the deciding factor. I was going to stop playing tennis,” he says.

He focused solely on track, sometimes running twice a day to build his strength. Soon he was plagued by a pain in his right leg. The diagnosis: stress reaction, a condition that causes the bones in the leg to become inflamed and typically occurs when a runner increases his training too quickly.

In March 2007, eight weeks before the regional high school competition, he had to take a break. He stayed in shape running on an underwater treadmill at UGA.

He went on to set personal records in both the one and two mile events at regional Class AAA competition. But in the state finals a week later he came in 6th place in the two mile event and 10th in the one mile.

During his junior year of cross country, he had a similar experience, with stress reaction causing him to miss the state competition.

He started training later in 2007 for

the spring track season. That year he was the state high school champion in the 800 and 1600 meter runs.

Buoyed by the success, he began cross country his senior year with a vengeance, eager to make up the time and miles he’d missed the year before. Again, stress reaction flared just before the end of the season.

“I told my doctor, ‘I’m going to run through it,’” he says.

In pain and sick on his stomach from ibuprofen, he managed to barely stave off the second place runner to win the regional 1600 meter cross country meet. But two weeks later he finished 10th in the state competition.

It would be his last race for almost four years.

A doctor in Atlanta diagnosed chronic exertional compartment syndrome, in which the muscles inside the compartments of the leg swell and restrict blood flow to that area. Sabina Wallace was familiar with the condition, having suffered it at UGA. After surgery on both legs, in which doctors made

incisions on the insides of her calves to relieve the pressure, she was able to compete with no further problems.

The syndrome was in both of Wallace’s legs as well, but worse in the right.

“Let’s do one (leg),” he decided, looking forward to spring track. “I’ve got to be able to defend my state title.”

The surgery was Nov. 29, 2007. Wallace estimated he would need four to six weeks recovery time and be back on the track with no further problems. Three days later he was back at the hospital with an infection. Doctors opened both sides of his leg and discovered that 60 percent of the muscle from the knee down was dead. They were now in rescue mode to save the leg. Wallace wore a wound vacuum for six weeks and lay in an oxygen chamber each morning to encourage the healing process. Skin grafts would follow.

“When I left the hospital for the first time the doctor told me there was a good chance I would never be able to walk again,” he says. “I said, ‘That’s all right, I don’t need to be able to walk again I just need to be able to run again.’”

Talk to anyone who knows Jarryd Wallace and you’ll hear the same

descriptive words—positive, upbeat, determined, committed.

“He’s a very determined, positive guy,” says Dr. Janos Ertl, the surgeon who removed Jarryd’s leg in 2010. “This guy’s a motivated kid. His life was taken away from him overnight.”

But there were dark moments as Jarryd worked through the stages of grief.

One beautiful Sunday in April 2008 he was having lunch with his family after church when he had a horrible realization.

“It was the first day it really hit me I was never going to be able to run again,” he says.

He walked to the high school track, jumped the fence to get inside and tried to run. He could only hobble around the oval.

Jarryd Wallace, far left, competes in a preliminary heat of the 200 meter dash during the U.S. Paralympic Trials. He placed fifth in the 200 meter finals. In the lane to Wallace’s left is Jerome Singleton, who placed third in the event; next to Singleton is Blake Leeper, who was first. All three men will represent the United States at the Paralympic Games in London.

STEVE EHRETSMAN


Raised in a strong Christian household, Wallace always had faith in God. But this was challenging that faith.

“I fell down in tears. I was pretty mad at God,” he says. “‘Why me? Why now? If this is the kind of God you are I don’t want to have anything to do with you.’”

He started at UGA in fall 2008 with a track scholarship he was awarded before his surgery. He went to workouts and meets, supporting his teammates as much as possible. But without a focus on running he turned to other distractions—alcohol, drugs and girls. He was “running from God,” trying to figure things out on his own, he says now.

His parents watched, feeling helpless.“He had to deal with it at some point,” Sabina Wallace

says. “We could tell it was starting to hit him in a different way. I think that was part of the process and we had to let him experience that. There wasn’t anything we could do.”

Months passed and he endured more surgeries. He spent two months confined to his house with his leg and foot pinned into special frames that would be gradually adjusted to realign his foot with his leg.

When the frame came off he was walking fine—for a while. He continued to lose muscle and the foot turned inward again.

Following a training session, Wallace recovers at home with a Normatec pneumatic compression device that rhythmically inflates and deflates to help increase circulation in his legs and allow them to recover faster. Canine pals Sadie and Ripples (not pictured) keep him company.

Wallace rubs ice on the end of his amputated limb to help reduce swelling following a training session. In his down time he maintains a website, www.aleginfaith.com, and tweets to his followers on Twitter.


In October 2009 he had his 10th surgery to try and repair the leg. This time doctors lengthened his Achilles tendon by two-and-a-half inches, released the joint capsules in the foot and transferred his posterior tibula to the other side of the leg. Then they fused everything in place.

He was back to a neutral state, walking well but needing a brace to do any activities.

Around this time he became reacquainted with a girl who had been a childhood friend. They began hanging out together, playing music and singing at venues around town and at church. Wallace was falling in love and was ready

to tell her that.“Literally, as I was getting ready

to say the words, she said, ‘Jarryd, I’ve been praying about our relationship and I don’t think the Lord wants us to be together anymore.’”

He was devastated. Back to ground zero with God. When she left his apartment, he slammed the door and hit the wall.

“I was like, ‘Lord, what else are you going to take from me. You’ve taken the two things I loved.’”

In that moment, Wallace says he felt God sending him a message: “I’m right here. I always have been. I’m just waiting for you to stop running from me.”

“I just said, ‘Lord I’m not going to run from you anymore. I’m going to run for you.’ That’s how I’ve decided to live my life from now on.”

It was Jan. 6, 2010.“That’s when everything changed,”

he says. “Everything began making sense.”

In February, he traveled with his parents to Madison, Wisc., to see Dr. William

Turnipseed, a vascular surgeon with expertise in compartment syndrome. Turnipseed had reviewed Wallace’s medical records before the visit and was forthright.

“I said, “Look, you’re a nice guy,

Stephen Schulte, owner of Prosthetic Care Inc. (Pro Care), inspects the base of Wallace’s leg before fitting him for a new socket to hold his prosthetic leg and running blade. Looking on is Steve Ehretsman, vice president for marketing and business development for the company, who lost his right leg 11 years ago in an accident.


you’re going to get married some day. Do you want to have your kids running around you instead of playing with them?’” Turnipseed asked Wallace.

“You’re going to be an old man at 30. You need to decide if this is how you want to live, or you can jettison the leg and get on with your life.”

Turnipseed’s words resonated with Wallace. “In that moment I made the decision to have my leg amputated,” he says.

As soon as he got back to the Marriott hotel where his family was staying, he Googled Paralympics and looked up the times of the world’s fastest amputee runners.

“I want my name to be next to this one day,” he told his parents.

He spent the next four months researching the amputation process and looking into prosthetic legs. He became friends with double amputee and Iron Man Triathlete Scott Rigsby (BSFCS ’93) who connected him with Pro Care Prosthetics and Orthopedics in Buford, Ga., which had built Rigsby’s prosthetic legs and running blades.

Since it was elective surgery, the family had time to plan. They selected Ertl, in Indianapolis, to do the surgery based on recommendations from doctors and therapists. Ertl’s technique involves reconstructing the amputated leg by connecting a bone bridge between the lower limb bones. This allows the socket connecting the prosthetic leg to the limb to

fit better and allows the limb to bear more weight. “I was excited about it. I was ready to go. It’s something

I can’t explain or expect people to fully understand,” Wallace says. “I had a certain peace about it. I was going to have my life back.”

It was a little tougher for his parents. “The first time you hear (amputation), you’re like, don’t

even go there,” Jeff Wallace says. “But you see somebody that athletic, almost being crippled and addicted to pain killers, unable to do the little things we take for granted. ”

Jeff Wallace says he could tell the kind of athlete his son hoped to be, and told him, “You’re never going to be that with that leg.”

As he had with his previous surgeries, Wallace carried a Bible his mother had given him into the operating room. Just before he was put under, he prayed over his family, asking God to help them be strong and at peace with his decision. In the operating room he prayed over the doctors and nurses.

“It was the beginning of the next chapter,” he says.When Wallace woke up he found his right leg shortened

to just 17 centimeters below the knee.When his parents came to the room to see him, Wallace

saw an opportunity to lighten the mood. His mom sat down on the bed where his right foot would have been, and he yelled “Ow, ow, ow,” making his mother jump. “You sat on my leg,” he told her mischievously.

Even when he wasn’t running Wallace kept up a strict regimen of strength training in the weight room at the Coliseum Training Facility.


An intravenous nerve block, similar to an epidural, kept him pain free for three days until they eased the drip.

“The fourth day was the most painful day I’ve ever had in my life,” he says.

The doctor told him he would be able to walk in two weeks. Fortunately, Wimbledon and the World Cup of soccer gave him something to look forward to as he spent his days on the sofa, flanked by the family dogs, Ripples and Sadie.

Six weeks and a day after his surgery Wallace took his first steps. At 12 weeks and a day he ran around the Buford building that houses Pro Care.

His first run, with his dad, lasted six minutes before his foot began to drag.

The next week he went to the track to race a mile. His time: 6 minutes, 15

seconds. He then mapped out a four-mile route for himself in the Five Points and Cobbham neighborhoods.

“Let’s see what happens,” he thought. “I’m just going to go for it.”

“It was awesome.”In January 2011 he decided to begin

training for the Paralympic Track and Field Trials, a year and a half away. He asked Ross Ridgewell, an 800 meter runner from Australia who had come to the U.S. to run at UGA, to coach him.

Ridgewell was back in Athens to see Wallace run on his prosthetic leg for the first time.

“Within 12 months he was among the top three (amputee) runners in the country,” Ridgewell says.

He was there when Wallace won the gold medal in the 100 meter dash at the Parapan Games in Mexico in November

2011. And he was in Indianapolis when Wallace was selected for the U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team.

Also watching: Jan Ertl, who walked over from his office in the hospital where he removed Jarryd’s leg two years earlier.

“He wanted to run. Nothing was going to take that away from him,” Ertl says. “He has the opportunity to help other people understand and motivate amputees to do great things. Most of these people can make a difference in the world if they want to.”

Want to watch?

For live coverage, schedules and results during the 2012 Paralympic games Aug. 29-Sept. 9 go to www.paralympic.org.

Ross Ridgewell, a former UGA runner from Australia, coaches Wallace during one of his final training sessions before the Paralympic Trials. A tattoo on Wallace’s right side depicts the U.S. Track & Field logo and a Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 9:27: “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”

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CLA

SSN

OTE

SAlumna named U.S. Poet Laureate

Natasha Trethewey (BA ’89), who won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2007, takes her seat this month as the U.S. Poet Laureate for 2012-13, as selected by the Library of Congress. The Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, Trethewey has maintained close ties to UGA, contributing to the Georgia Review and participating in readings and workshops sponsored by the university. Her 2010 book, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a personal profile of the devastation of hurricane Katrina in her home region, was published by the UGA Press. Captain of the cheerleading squad while at UGA, Trethewey earned her undergraduate degree in

English from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. She went on to earn a master’s degree in English and creative writing from Hollins University and a master of fine arts in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

For more on Trethewey, read the GM profile from 2007, when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize: www.uga.edu/gm/artman/publish/0709stories.html

CLASS NOTESCompiled by Brittany Biddy, Emily Grant and Chase Martin

1945-1949Harold W. Berkman (BBA ’49) was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in February. This title is a sign of France’s gratitude and appreciation for Berkman’s role in the liberation of France during World War II. Joe Bradford (BBA ’49) and wife Alice of Sea Island celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary June 12.

1950-1954Kay Huston Hind (BSHE ’51) of Albany was recognized as 2012 Distinguished Older Georgian by the Georgia State Legislature for more than 40 years of work as executive director of the SOWEGA Council on Aging.

1955-1959Edward Ingles (ABJ ’58) of Freeport, N.Y., received the John Holliman Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication annual Alumni Awards brunch in May. He serves as a professional-in-residence at Hofstra University.

1960-1964Justice George Carley (AB ’60, LLB ’62) of Decatur was sworn in as the 29th chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Carley held the position until his retirement in July. N. Harvey Weitz (BBA ’63, LLB ’66) of Savannah was honored with the Distinguished Service Award presented by the State Bar of Georgia.

1965-1969A. Mark Smith (ABJ ’66) received the

Domestic Work, 1937

All week she’s cleanedsomeone else’s house,stared down her own facein the shine of copper--bottomed pots, polishedwood, toilets she’d pullthe lid to--that look saying

Let’s make a change, girl.

But Sunday mornings are hers--church clothes starchedand hanging, a record spinningon the console, the whole housedancing. She raises the shades,washes the rooms in light,buckets of water, Octagon soap.

Cleanliness is next to godliness ...

Windows and doors flung wide,curtains two-steppingforward and back, neck bonesbumping in the pot, a choirof clothes clapping on the line.

Nearer my God to Thee ...

She beats time on the rugs,blows dust from the broomlike dandelion spores, each onea wish for something better.

—Natasha Trethewey, from her first collection of poetry, Domestic Work, published in 2000.

2011 MAGnolia Award in management from the Magazine Association of the Southeast. A. J. “Buddy” Welch (AB ’66) of McDonough was honored for his service presiding over Henry County’s Juvenile Court. He has been Juvenile Court judge since 1975 and is also a senior partner of Smith, Welch and Brittain. Judson C. Mitcham (AB ’69, MS ’71, PhD ’74) of Macon was appointed Georgia’s newest poet laureate by Gov. Nathan Deal. Mitcham is a professor of writing at Mercer University.

1970-1974Alton C. Ward (BBA ’70) of Tampa was named to the 2012 Florida Super Lawyers and the 2012 Super Lawyers Business Edition lists. James Penick Marshall (BLA ’71) and Nancy Parker Marshall (BSEd ’75) of Eatonton attended the spring 2012 graduation

GET MORE

PETER FREY

www.uga.edu/gm/artman/publish/0709stories.html


ALUMNI PROFILE

Bunco!

Two friends with a love for the game of Bunco create the first and only scorekeeping app for the popular game

by Emily Grant (ABJ ’12)

Ever tried to keep score during a fast-moving game of Bunco? Well, now there’s an app for that.

“Buncolator” creators Catherine Shaw (AB ’03) and Lindsay Forlines (ABJ ’03, JD ’08) got the idea for the app after participating in a group that met once a month to play the dice game.

“Keeping score kind of stunk,” Forlines says.Their first idea for a Bunco scorekeeping device was similar to a

stopwatch, which they pictured as pink. But after talking to a friend’s dad, they realized it would cost $20,000 to $30,000 to make the device. (In comparison, the Complete Box of Bunco, by Winning Moves, costs less than $15 on Amazon.)

“We liked the idea but not the costs,” Forlines says. “We decided on a different route: an app.”

Shaw contacted a friend of hers from high school who is in the app creation business. The development cost was $5,000. It’s now available from the iTunes app store for 99 cents.

Bunco, which began in England in the 18th century, came to the U.S. in 1855 as a gambling parlor game. It requires three tables of four people each, two to a team. Players take turns rolling three dice, in the first round trying to roll all ones, in the second round all twos and so on until they have completed round six. Teams score points based on how many times in a round they roll the select number, with a round ending once a team has reached 21 points.

“Bunco is a simple game to socialize with, but it’s hard to socialize when you’re having to keep score,” says Shaw.

The simple app has a blue side and pink side for the different teams. Team names include Bettys versus the Veronicas and the Marilyns versus the Jackies. The app keeps score throughout the game and has an “oops” button for any mistakes made. When a team reaches 21 points and wins the game, the app shouts “Bunco!”

There are other Bunco apps, Shaw says, but those don’t keep score. “They just play the game on the app. There was nothing out there to help alleviate the stress of scorekeeping.”

“What is unique about our story is that people have ideas like this all the time, but they don’t go for it,” Forlines says. “We’re two friends who got together and decided to go through with it even though it was not in our field.”

GET MORE

Learn more at www.buncolator.com.

Lindsay Forlines and Catherine Shaw

of their son, James Matthew Perrin Marshall (BBA ’12), a cum laude graduate of the Terry College of Business. Matthew will be employed by KPMG in the Atlanta office. Bill Loyd (BS ’72) of Cornelia was named associate vice president for institutional advancement at Piedmont College. Loyd came to Piedmont from South Carolina Bank and Trust, where he served as senior vice president and public relations consultant. William J. Bradbury (AB ’73) of New Bedford, Mass., became priest in charge of All Saints’ Church in Chelmsford, Mass. He served for 20 years as rector at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Washington, N.C. David A. Garfinkel (AB ’73, MPA ’75) of Jacksonville, Fla., was named to the Florida Super Lawyers list for 2012. Cheryl Gosa (ABJ ’73) retired at the end of 2008 as a Presbyterian minister after 25 years of service. Gosa is now a real estate agent at KW Commercial in Atlanta.

1975-1979Judy Randle (BSA ’77) of Albany was named the Small Business Administration’s 2012 Women in Business Champion of the Year for both Georgia and SBA’s Southeast Region IV. Randle is owner and president of Central Monitoring Inc. Charles “Chuck” Williams (BSA ’77) of Watkinsville was hired as a business development officer by First American Bank and Trust. He previously served as president and CEO of North Georgia Bank. Jimmy Barge (BBA ’78) of Old Greenwich, Conn., chief financial officer of media giant Viacom, was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Terry College of Business. Jim Burns (ABJ ’78) celebrated 30 years as primary anchor for the Emmy-winning morning news program “The Breakfast Show” at KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Anne Hydrick Kaiser (ABJ ’78) of Rome was appointed a member of the Berry College Board of Trustees. Mike O’Bea (BSEH ’79, MEd ’84) of Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., presented a paper May 24 in London, England, at ITEC 2012, an annual defense, training and education conference.

SPECIAL

www.buncolator.com


CLASSNOTES

The fall semester has begun, which means campus is once again filled with the bustling activity of a new academic year. The students are anticipating a fruitful academic year, faculty and staff are working to improve on the university’s already excellent work, alumni are reminiscing about their days back on campus and we all are excited about another promising athletics season. The UGA spirit is alive and well and is shown through your participation and involvement. Feel free to show your spirit, as your Alumni Association has some exciting events coming up in the next few months. On Sept. 20, alumni and friends will gather for lunch at the Georgia Aquarium to celebrate the second annual 40 Under 40. Visit the Alumni Association’s website to view the 40 Under 40 Class of 2012. Congratulations to this year’s honorees and to all of those who were nominated. I’m very proud that our university’s young alumni are already making such a positive impact on their communities, representing their alma mater with excellence. In October, we will release the fourth annual Bulldog 100 list of fastest growing Bulldog businesses. We are looking forward to the most dynamic and diverse group of alumni and industries yet! We will recognize these honorees at a celebration banquet in Atlanta in January 2013. Stay tuned to the Association’s website to view the class list and for registration information for the banquet. I also want to say a very special thank you to a very dedicated group of UGA alumni: the UGA Alumni Association Board of Directors. Somehow in their busy schedules they find the time to commit to meetings, volunteer at events and passionately support Alumni Association programs. I would especially like to share my appreciation for those board members who have completed their terms. Thank you for dedicating your time, talents and treasures to the association. You have made a great impact on the Alumni Association and the University of Georgia. And thank you to all alumni and friends for playing your part in continuing the success of our beloved UGA. Finally, as many of you have heard, this upcoming academic year will mark the end of the tenure of our distinguished president, Michael Adams. We appreciate President Adams’s vision and leadership over the years. In a future column, I will provide additional information on how you can join me in thanking him for all he has done for UGA. Go Dawgs! —Steve Jones (BBA ’78, JD ’87), president UGA Alumni Association

Deborah Dietzler, Executive DirectorALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERSSteve Jones BBA ’78, JD ’87President, AthensTim Keadle BBA ’78Treasurer, LilburnRuth Bartlett BBA ’76Asst. Treasurer, AtlantaHarriette Bohannon BSHE ’74Secretary, Augusta Vic Sullivan BBA ’80Immediate Past President, AlbanyALUMNI ASSOCIATION WEBSITEwww.uga.edu/alumni

800/606-8786 or 706/542-2251To receive a monthly e-newsletter, enroll at: www.uga.edu/alumni

ADDRESS CHANGESE-mail [email protected] orcall 888/268-5442

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Steve Jones

®1980-1984Cornelia Bargmann (BS ’81) of New York City was the recipient of the 2012 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. The Kavli Prize, which includes a $1 million award, is given biennially for outstanding achievement in advancing knowledge and understanding of the brain and nervous system. David Dadisman (AB ’82) of Great Falls, Va., was named the new publisher of The Daily Herald. Steven Cadranel (BBA ’83) of Marietta was named president of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. Cadranel will serve a two-year term as president of the MJCCA’s advisory board. Timothy Campbell (BSAE ’84, MS ’85) of Cumming was named CEO of Atlanta-based SecurAmerica, a contract security services company. Julie Humphries (BSEd ’84) was named the market leader for Mercer’s central market. Mercer offers human resource counseling and related services. Scott G. Sink (BBA ’84) of Birmingham, Ala., was named the 2012 Risk Management Alumnus of the Year at the Insurance Banquet hosted by the Terry College of Business’ Risk Management and Insurance Program. Laura Wilson Spinella (ABJ ’84) of Boston was named a Romance Writers of America RITA Finalist, Best First Book, for her Athens-set novel Beautiful Disaster. William Floyd Thorne (ABJ ’84) of Washington, D.C., was named senior vice president of communications and public affairs for the National Retail Federation. Marshall Welsh (ABJ ’84) of Winterville was named a finalist for Educator of the Year by Career Education Corporation and Le Cordon Bleu College in Atlanta.

1985-1989Laura Mays Coble (M ’85) of Augusta was inducted into the Georgia State Golf Association’s Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. Randolph M. Cooper (BBA ’85, MS ’96) of Helena, Ala., was elected lieutenant governor of marketing for Toastmasters International (District 77). Condace Pressley (ABJ ’86) of Marietta was named a Pioneer by the members of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists (AABJ). She is

www.uga.edu/alumni

www.uga.edu/alumni


ALUMNI calendar

To learn more about the UGA Alumni Association or find a chapter or club in your area, go to www.uga.edu/alumni.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

2012 40 Under 40 Awards Luncheon

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Celebrate the 2012 40 Under 40 honorees and nominees at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The 40 Under 40 recognizes the university’s outstanding young alumni. For more information, visit alumni.uga.edu/40U40.

For more information:

Athens area events: Wanda Darden at [email protected] or (706) 542-2251

Student programs: Julie Cheney at [email protected] or (706) 542-2251

Atlanta programs: Rosemary Brown at [email protected] or (404) 814-8820

Chapters: Meredith Carr at [email protected] or (404) 814-8820

Parents and Families: Diane Johnson at [email protected] or (706) 542-2251

he is responsible for company websites and providing social media guidance. He joined the company in 1995 and has worked in the communications department since 2004. Stephen Jones (BFA ’94) of Marshallville was elected a director at large by the general membership of the Georgia Professional Photographers Association Inc. Jones runs Creative Pro Studio and has been a member of the GPPA since 2008. Lt. Col. Matthew D. Williams (AB ’94) was appointed base commander at Camp Humphreys, South Korea.

1995-1999Mark Bullock (ABJ ’95) of Montgomery, Ala., was promoted to evening news anchor at WSFA 12 News. Patrick B. Webb (ABJ ’95) joined the Atlanta office of Burr & Forman LLP as counsel in the firm’s banking and real estate practice group, where he focuses on all aspects of commercial real estate including loan transactions, leasing and real estate development, financing and investing. Nathan Franklin (BSEd ’96) of Loganville was appointed the Walton County Board of Education’s new assistant superintendent. He was previously principal at Loganville High School. John C. Sexton (BFA ’96) of Lawrenceville was promoted to senior marketing design specialist at AtHomeNet, a website design and development company in Suwanee. Paxton Poitevint (BBA ’97) of Bainbridge graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. Greg Asman (BBA ’98) of Atlanta joined CNN as vice president of research and analytics for CNN Digital, where he provides research strategy, analysis services and methodological oversight for CNN’s Digital Network. Ashley Sharee Harris (ABJ ’98, AB ’99) of Atlanta took the oath of office June 13 as the newest appointee to the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. Harris serves as the lawyer representative on the commission. Trey Prophater (BBA ’98) of Atlanta has joined White Horse Advisors as business development associate, where he will focus on advising clients and

the assistant program director for News/Talk WSB. Carl Sweat (BBA ’86, MBM ’88) of Roswell was named CEO of The FRS Co., a Foster City, Calif.-based company that sells energy, protein, immunity and weight-loss drinks. Sweat has also held top positions at Coca-Cola, Fuze Beverage LLC and Starbucks. Scott Alan Houston (BSA ’88) of Tallahassee, Fla., is the new head football coach for John Paul II Catholic High School. He was previously an assistant coach at Godby High School. T. Alan Kendrick (BSA ’89) was appointed to the Murray County Board of Education for District 1. Kendrick, a vice president at Cohutta Banking Co. in Chatsworth, previously served on the board from 2001 to 2004. Natasha Trethewey (AB ’89) of Decatur was named the U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2012-13 by the Library of Congress.

1990-1994Lisa Ryan Howard (ABJ ’92) of Brooklyn, N.Y., received the Henry W. Grady Mid-Career Alumni Award at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication annual Alumni Awards Brunch in May. She was most recently publisher of Billboard. Della Garner Ream (AB ’92) competed for the title of the Inaugural Ms. World International 2012 in August. Katy Arrowood (BSFCS ’94) of Athens was named director of the Clarke County School District’s Athens Community Center Academy. Jay Gemes (ABJ ’94) of Columbus opened Jay Gemes State Farm on March 1. Scott Grant (ABJ ’94) and Lisa Grant (BSEd ’02) of Gainesville, Ga., welcomed their second daughter, Rebecca Belle Grant, Jan. 15. Chad Johnson (AB ’94) of Thomasville was promoted to managing director of electronic communications and social media for Flower Foods, where

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WHYIgive“When the lights were down—then, selectively lit again, the minimalist music of Philip Glass was heard. The dancers began their movements—and—I was transformed—at one with the performers… These words express what it means to me to participate as a member of the audience… I am always somehow lifted to another realm of being… It is vibrant. It is vital to existence.”

— Ethel Tison Chaffin (MA ’81) in a letter to Bala Sarasvati, Jane Willson Professor of the Arts and CORE Dance Company director, after attending a dance performance.

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

Ethel Tison Chaffin studied modern dance, has met renowned founders of modern dance and taught in her own dance studio at one time. With her husband, Professor Emeritus Verner Chaffin, she now supports the Department of Dance through generous annual gifts and through The Chaffin Dance Enhancement Endowment established in 2008.

SPECIAL

with other veterinary practices in the area. Elijah Wade Connell (BS ’99) of Monroe was named athletics director of Monroe Area Comprehensive High School. Allison Farr Crutcher (ABJ ’99) of Greenville, S.C., was hired by Crawford Strategy, a full-service marketing and public relations company. Crutcher will serve as an account executive. Tzu-Chuan Jane Huang (AB ’99) of Athens joined Northeast Georgia Cancer Care in December 2011. Previously, she spent three years at the M.D. Anderson NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center in Houston. Charu Kumarhia (ABJ ’99) of Arden, N.C., welcomed her son Akash Kumarhia Eggers Jan. 21. Morgan Johnson Norwood (BFA ’99) of Reston, Va., will have a solo exhibition of her nature-inspired paintings at North Gate Vineyard in Purcellville, Va., from September to January 2013. Andrea Pritchett (ABJ ’99) and Ross Pritchett (BSFR ’99) of Atlanta welcomed son Charles Michael Pritchett April 4. Molly Purvines (AB ’99) of McDonough earned the Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) designation from the Professional Photographic Certification Commission. She started Purvines Photography in October 2005.

2000-2004Alicia Arnett Loadholt (BSA ’00) and her husband Justin of Alpharetta welcomed their daughter, Katherine Anne, March 26. Kate joins her sister Lucy, 2. Brigette Bailey Rabitsch (BS ’00) of Norcross and husband Don Randall Rabitsch welcomed their daughter, Kaitlyn Sarah Rabitsch, April 2. Thomas Barrett (BSFR ’01) and Alicia “Red” Barrett (BSEd ’03) of Soperton welcomed their first child, Bradllee Thomas, May 2. Toby Carr (BBA ’01, BSAE ’01) of Decatur was appointed the state’s transportation planning director by Gov. Nathan Deal. Shelly M. Hipps (BBA ’01) of Snellville earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation in 2011. Dr. Jonathan Kulbersh (BS ’01) of Charlotte, N.C., is opening a new, state-of-the-art Carolina Facial Plastics office in

CLASSNOTES

new business development. Shannon Ferrell Register (BSFCS ’98) is a nominee for UGA’s Alumni 40 under 40. Her real estate brokerage, Register Real Estate Advisors, was established in 2010. William Russell II (BBA ’98) of Atlanta is chairman of the board of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce. Russell was CFO for Russell Landscape Group. Andrew Taylor (BSFR ’98) is working on a master’s degree in forestry at UGA. His research involves a shoal bass population assessment in the lower

Flint River. Hines Ward Jr. (BSFCS ’98) of Atlanta was presented with a proclamation by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, who honored the retired Pittsburgh Steelers player during an event at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. Kimberly Lewis Carney (BSA ’99, DVM ’01) of Tazewell, Tenn., was recognized as a Young Achiever by the Alumni Association of UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine. She works at Harrogate Hospital for Animals and spearheaded an effort to create a shared emergency service

www.externalaffairs.uga.edu/os/makegift


Charlotte, with plans for a future office in his hometown of Columbia, S.C. Jessica Lambert Smith (ABJ ’01) of Mableton was named senior director of marketing at Ted’s Montana Grill. Richard M. Squires (BBA ’01) and his wife Sallie of Decatur welcomed their son, Lucas Richard Squires, May 30. Lucas joins his sister Adalyn, 4. Todd K. Banister (BBA ’02) of Atlanta was named Harry Norman Realtors top agent company-wide for homes sold in 2011. Michael T. Bergquist (BS ’02) and Kimberly Smith Bergquist (BSEd ’02, MEd ’04) of Jefferson welcomed their daughter Annabella Elise Bergquist May 15. Christine Lorraine Green (AB ’02) of New York City joined the legal affairs team at Teach For America as associate general counsel. Richard Wellborn (BSEd ’02) of Monroe was named a 2012 Georgia Master Teacher. Wellborn teaches 5th-grade mathematics and science at Youth Elementary School in Walton County. Todd Wiggins (BSA ’01) and Anne Kaufold-Wiggins (AB ’02) of Mableton welcomed Kathryn Elizabeth Wiggins to the family. She joins sister Laurel, 2. Mary Beth Chew (AB ’03) is the economic development coordinator of Perry. Larry Dougherty (BS ’03) opened a dental office in San Antonio. Colin Owens (ABJ ’03) of Atlanta was hired as marketing and business development manager for Jackson Spalding. He was previously a marketing manager for Hay Group Inc. Nathan Parry (BSFR ’03) of Anchorage, Alaska, works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its Natural Resources Conservation Service. Parry is a soil scientist, finishing a two-million acre soil and ecological survey at the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Park and Preserve. Umang Patel (BBA ’03) is founding principal and COO of Indusa Investments, which was recognized as one of the UGA Alumni Association’s Bulldog 100: Fastest Growing Companies. Autumn Lee Withers (ABJ ’03) of Myrtle Beach, S.C., made her film festival debut at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival in April with her short film “Autumn and George.” Stephanie Stadler

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CLASSNOTES

Wonderlick (ABJ ’03) of Vienna, Va., joined Red Hat, the world’s largest open-source software company, as director of corporate communications. Greg Bluestein (ABJ ’04, AB ’04), a reporter for the Associated Press in Atlanta, was hired to cover business at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bluestein will cover commercial real estate and economic development. Marshall Guest (AB ’04) of Atlanta was included in James Magazine’s Most Influential edition, appearing on the list of Young Guns for 2012. Guest serves as press secretary to

the speaker of the House of Georgia, David Ralston. Jessica Taves (AB ’04) was promoted to clinical supervisor of Youth Villages’ Intercept intensive in-home services program. Taves was previously a family intervention specialist in Atlanta for Youth Villages. Alex Wallace (ABJ ’04) of Atlanta received the John E. Drewry Young Alumni Award at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication annual Alumni Awards Brunch in May. He is an on-camera meteorologist at The Weather Channel.

2005-2009Christopher Davis (BLA ’05) and wife Jennifer Davis of Gray are expecting their second child, due Oct. 31. Douglas Harden (AB ’05) of Warner Robins was promoted by the Department of Homeland Security in the National Programs and Protectorate Directorate in Arlington, Va. Harden also received Sigma Chi Fraternity’s Mark V. Anderson Character in Action Award. David Rathbun (AB ’05, BS ’05) of Griffin is the associate pastor/minister to youth and children at Lisbon Baptist Church. Christopher Ryan McShane (AB ’06) of Atlanta and Site Services Group LLC successfully completed the 1,200 acre Phase 1 land assemblage for LakePoint Sporting Community & Town Center in August 2011. James “Michael” Taylor (AB ’06) of Mundelein, Ill., was ordained a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., on June 9. He was promoted to captain in the U.S. Army and started serving as an active duty chaplain following ordination. Amanda Deaton (AB ’07, MPA ’09) of Macon was promoted to assistant chief administrative officer of budget and strategic planning for the city of Macon. James Forrest “Tripp” Kirk III (BBA ’07) of Atlanta won the first-place prize at the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s St. Louis event, taking home $190,961. Luis Miranda (BSFCS ’07) and Katie McCarver (BMusEd ’08) of Marietta were married June 2. Craig Page (AB ’07, MEPD ’11) of Athens received this year’s Alec Little Environmental Award, given for environmental responsibility. Page is executive director of Promoting Local Agriculture and Culture Experiences and is also a founding board member of the Athens Farmers Market and Slow Food Athens. Rebekah Jenni Dunham (BSEd ’08) and Steven James Connors (BBA ’07) were married on March 31 at the Carl House in Auburn, Ga. Connors works for AT&T, and Dunham is a special education preschool teacher for the Hall County School District. Elizabeth Rankin Elmore (ABJ ’08, BBA ’08) of Nashville, Tenn.,

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ALUMNI PROFILE

The magic of ESP

UGA alumnus runs a special program for children in the Athens area

by Emily Grant (ABJ ’12)

A lot can happen in seven years. Laura Whitaker (BSEd ’07, MEd ’10) earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in special education, got married, had a son and has another child on the way. She managed to do all of this while serving as the executive director of Extra Special People.

“I believe I was created for this position,” Whitaker says. “I’m exactly where I need to be.”

Whitaker started volunteering with ESP during her undergraduate years at UGA, and she became close with its founder, Martha Wyllie.

In 2004 Wyllie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died that fall. In December of 2005 Whitaker was asked by the interim director to plan an ESP camp. In 2006, the college junior was named executive director of the organization.

“ESP is our family,” says Whitaker. “This is more than a job. It has to be that way.”

Now a quarter century old, ESP began after Wyllie, who worked as a special education teacher in Clarke County, saw that kids with special needs had limited options for the summer. Wyllie believed those children deserved a summer camp as much as children without special needs.

Children with special needs tend to regress faster over the summer without activities to keep them busy, Whitaker explains.

“Martha wanted to create a camp with recreation and educational activities, and she started with eight families in a church.”

From the summer camp, ESP evolved into a year-round program with once-a month activities. Now it offers daily afterschool activities throughout the academic year.

“ESP is not a daycare,” Whitaker emphasizes. “The kids are thriving. They do art, yoga, swimming. They have grown tremendously.”

The program focuses on the entire family. The Bridge of Family Support program offers families an opportunity to meet each other and network with other families of special needs kids. Two psychologists facilitate discussion sessions with families.

“The kids need us, but families do too,” Whitaker says.

The hardest part of the job, Whitaker says, is turning kids away because of a lack of space. The program

operates now in a building on VFW Road in Watkinsville. ESP is in a capital campaign that hopes to raise $5 million to buy land and build a larger facility. An annual Big Hearts Pageant in February that featured ESP participants raised $35,000. Quarterback Aaron Murray and other UGA football players were volunteers at that event.

Other fundraisers included a 5K race on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, a golf tournament in March and a program called “Jump, Fly, Be Different” in April that offered donors who gave or raised $500 a chance to sky dive.

In addition to a larger facility, Whitaker hopes to offer a full-blown afterschool program, like the Boys & Girls Clubs, to more area children.

“This is a place where kids with disabilities are wanted,” she says. “When they come here, their disabilities go away, and they are just cool kids.”

GET MORE

Learn more about ESP at www.extraspecialpeople.com.

Laura Whitaker ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

www.extraspecialpeople.com


ALUMNI PROFILE

Illustrating life

Alumna Sarah Hobbs draws from real life to create quirky, creative photographs

by John W. English

The cover photograph of Sarah Hobbs’ recently published book focuses on an empty, unmade bed with dozens of Post-it notes hovering above it. Each floating yellow note details a source of anxiety that would leave any occupant sleepless. The title of the photo: “Insomnia.”

It’s a perfect illustration of how Hobbs (AB ’92, MFA ’00) takes a common affliction, conceptualizes it in a 3-D installation and then gently pokes fun at it through her elegantly composed, large-scale photographs. In her book, wryly titled Small Problems in Living, Hobbs explores a range of psychological states of mind—phobias, neuroses, foibles, compulsions, quandaries, fixations, angst—with a signature twist of humor.

Hobbs spent two years compiling photos for the book, which was published in Milan, Italy, and is soon to launch a book tour through her gallery, Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta.

Hobbs’ book presents some two dozen depictions of interior lifescapes. Her photo “Indecisiveness” shows a room covered in color samples from the paint store. “Perfectionist” shows a writing desk almost buried in crumpled-up sheets of discarded paper. In “Short Attention Span,” a wall is covered floor to ceiling with paint-by-number projects, none finished. Hobbs’ wit and playful exaggeration counter and relieve any discomfort or emotional tension her photos create. While she works on a personal level, the simple truths she explores are universal.

Hobbs hails from Columbus, Ga., but now lives in Marietta with her husband and two children, ages 2 and 5. During an interview in her tidy studio, she talks about her art: “In grad school I started photographing an old house in the country and realized that empty spaces had psychological weight to them. That’s when I began adding things and devis-ing narratives.”

Hobbs says her creative process typically begins with a concept. After ruminating about it, she picks the materials she’ll use in a set-up and the light she wants. She admits she exercises tight control over her finished image. It took a couple of days for her to create the content for her photo “Overcompensation,” she says. The image shows stacks of unopened gifts, all wrapped with pristine white ribbons and Tiffany-style blue paper, on a simple dining-room table.

“I use domestic spaces because they are real,” she says, “but I manipulate them to get the effects I want. The pres-ents are all wrapped professionally and the blue color is a bit cold. It’s over-the-top lavish.”

Hobbs says she constantly frets about whether the photo be-ing composed is clever enough to be good or just a weak joke.

She’s developing new projects, site-specific installations, which give viewers a full experience of a work, not just a 2-D representation on the wall. Her first installation, “Flight in Place,” was part of the Westabou Festival in Augusta. She redecorated a bedroom in a historic home to illustrate how a young woman who yearned to travel but didn’t want to leave home might live. She had a bookshelf of travel books, walls of maps, a collage of postcards.

She also is working on an installation in a storage unit that will examine what people want to hide away, things that have been stolen, secrets. And she’s planning to redo a hotel room for a germaphobe “with cleanliness to the max!”

SPECIALSarah Hobbs

“Overcompensation” SARAH HOBBS

GET MORE

Learn more at sarahhobbs.net

CLASSNOTES

www.sarahhobbs.net


was promoted to account executive for McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations. She was previously an assistant account executive for the firm. Pamela Michelle Haight (BSEd ’08) of Alpharetta was named Overall Teacher of the Year for Fulton County Schools. Haight is a 5th-grade teacher at Alpharetta Elementary School. Jay Hall (BSEd ’09) of Roswell completed a master’s degree in physician assistant studies in Savannah and accepted a position as an orthopedist at Athens Orthopedic Clinic. Tiffany Hobbs (ABJ ’09, AB ’09) of Dallas, Texas, recently completed her MFA at Southern Methodist University and has been added as a new actor to the Brierley Resident Acting Company. Elizabeth Judd (ABJ ’09) of Atlanta was promoted to associate manager of digital marketing and ecommerce at Newell Rubbermaid. Heather Saleeby (BBA ’09) of Peachtree City was awarded a 2010 Elijah Watt Sells Award by the American Institute of CPAs. She is an employee of PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York.

2010-Matthew Lavender (BBA ’11) of Dunwoody was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy after graduating from the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., in March.

GRAD NOTES

Agricultural and Environmental SciencesMatthew Spangler (PhD ’06) of Friend, Neb., was named one of the Top 10 industry leaders under the age of 40 by Cattle Business Weekly. Spangler is an assistant animal science professor and beef genetics specialist for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension.

Arts and SciencesJoseph P. Hester (PhD ’73) of Claremont, N.C., was appointed to the editorial board for the Journal of Values-Based Leadership published by the College of Business Administration at Valparaiso University. Sandra J. Learn more at sarahhobbs.net

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CLASSNOTES

Dead Man’s FlowerYawn’s Publishing (2012)By Jill Jennings (AB ’69, MA ’75)

Poems of loss, long-ing and grief mix with the mystery and intrigue of Hawaii in Jennings’ second full-length book.

Faces of HopeOtter Bay Books (2012)By Allen All-noch (MMC ’96)

Through per-sonal profiles of individuals, Faces of Hope tells the story of Living Hope, a non-governmental organization dedicated to HIV care and prevention in Cape Town, South Africa.

Conversations with My DaughteriUniverse (2012)By Robert Veres (AB ’73, MA ’77)

In this substitute for traditional parenting guides, Veres offers his own inspirational and often humorous approach to child rearing through imag-ined parent-child conversations.

Thinking Small: The Long Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle Random House (2012)By Andrea Hiott (AB ’04)

In Thinking Small, Hiott traces the history of the Beetle from its pre-WWII con-cept to its status today, weaving in the stories of the men who helped create this international icon.

The CatcherCreateSpace (2012)By Gary Towers (ABJ ’75) and Genevieve Frazier (BSA ’74)

In this thriller leg-endary private eye Clayton Russell must leave retirement and team up with his ex-partner and es-tranged lover to find the whereabouts of a sixth-grader who has been kidnapped by child traffickers.

Least Worst Musings from the Dust BucketLulu Press (2012)By R. Grayson Brice (MA ’08)

A collection of short stories and poems with themes rang-ing from love and Audrey Hepburn to oddity and Georgia gymnastics.

BramblemanThornbriar Press (2012)By Jonathan Grant (AB ’76)

Down-and-out Atlanta writer Charlie Sherman has no idea what madness awaits him when a mysterious stranger convinces him to finish a dead man’s book about a horrific crime that’s gone unpunished for decades.

Two Winters in a Tipi: My Search for the Soul of the ForestLyons Press (2012)By Mark Warren (BS ’69)

After his farmhouse burned down, Warren decided to follow his childhood dream of living in a tipi, which began a two-year adventure of struggle, contemplation and achievement.

Remaking Wormsloe PlantationUniversity of Geor-gia Press (2012)By Drew A. Swan-son (PhD ’10)

Swanson’s in-depth look at the Wormsloe planta-tion, located on the salt marshes outside of Savannah, explores landscape preservation while revealing the broad historical forces that have shaped the low country South.

Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of ComicsTwoMorrows Pub-lishing (2012)By Dewey Cas-sell (BS ’83) with Aaron Sultan

An illustrated biog-raphy of one of the most respected women in comics, whose career spanned 30 years and included everything from production and coloring to penciling, inking and art direction.

Dixie Mafia Gangster: The Audacious Criminal Career of Willie Foster SellersPublishAmerica (2012)By Max Courson (ABJ ’58, MA ’59)

This book tells the story of Sellers, a gang leader for the Dixie Mafia, a loosely connected group of mostly Southern men who liked to steal cars and rob banks.

NEWBOOKS

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

SUBMISSIONSSubmit new books written by UGA alumni to [email protected]. Please include a brief description of the book and a hi-res pdf or tiff of its cover.

FacesofHope

A teenage mother who named her child “No Hope” – then changed it to “Jesus Is Our Hope.” A young man who overcame a family tragedy to become an infl uenti al children’s minister. Twin sisters who are taking a standfor Christ in a blighted community where He is desperately needed. Through the ministries of Living Hope, God has broken despair and transformed the lives of these people and many more across Cape Town, South Africa’s South Peninsula. Hear their stories. See their faces. Celebrate hope.

A llen Allnoch is a Georgia-based writer. He was a LivingHope volunteer from 2008-10, serving as a life skills educatorin the Red Hill community, andas a teacher and counselor at Living Grace.

Faces of H

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Bringing Hope, Breaking Despair for the People of Cape Town, South Africa

In Faces of Hope we meet just a few of the thousands of people whose lives have been touched and changed by one pastor and his congregati on who chose not to walk by “the beggar laid at their gate”but stopped, instead, to minister Christ’s love to him. Living Hope isshowing people the love of Christ and bringing the Good News to the poor. But this is not a story about just one church – it’s a story about any local church that earnestly desires to be God’s agent of change. This could be the story of your church. – Rich Stearns, President, World Vision U.S., and author of The Hole in Our Gospel

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By ALLEN ALLNOCH

www.uga.edu/gm


ALUMNI PROFILE

To soar above the rest

Historic preservation graduate now directs an Athens trapeze studio

by Chase Martin

Melissa Roberts (MHP ’01) knew the earth couldn’t ground her.

Despite her degree and position as an adjunct pro-fessor at the UGA College of Environment and Design, she took to the sky in 2002 after attending an aerial dance performance at Canopy Studio, a trapeze center in Athens that celebrated its 10th anniversary in April.

“I’ve been a gymnast my whole life, but gave it up when I went to college. I always felt like there was some-thing that was missing,” Roberts says.

Once she saw her first aerial performance, she knew she had found what she was missing.

“It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do with their body. I wanted to do it, and I wanted to be good at it,” she says.

Roberts began attending classes and trained with various circus outfitters around the country when she traveled. All of the work paid off when she took over as director of Canopy Studio three years ago. Since then, Roberts has moved the focus of the nonprofit to community outreach, putting aside the impression that trapeze is just a circus act.

“Our focus on outreach has been the biggest change in the 10 years since Canopy’s founding. In the last four or five years we have had such a solid sense of structure that we can now make a difference in the community,” she says.

The Canopy Studio Repertory Company puts on two shows a year, but its impact is in its community involvement, Roberts says.

Classes are offered to all ages and skill levels, using trapeze as an alternative form of fitness rather than a high-flying stunt.

“There aren’t many aerial dance community centers in the country. Most are circus schools,” she says. “My goal as director is to create more and more op-portunities to get people into the studio, to experience the power of dance and the power of movement.”

And while trapeze may be planted in the circus-crazed minds of kids, adults enjoy the fun too. Roberts says most of her students are older than 30, and some are even in their 50s. Most adults find that trapeze provides unique strength train-ing that challenges them to move their bodies in previously unimaginable ways.

While committed to making aerial dance accessible to the Athens community, Roberts hasn’t completely forgotten her interest in environmental design and his-toric preservation. She frequently visits historic sites, her favorite being cemeteries, to garner inspiration for future aerial acts and studio ideas.

Roberts has become interested in site-specific choreography, which takes aerial dance out of the studio and places it onsite, be it downtown or under a bridge. This gives the public a chance to experience both the beauty and useful-ness of trapeze while exhibiting the studio to the community it serves.

A very diverse community, at that. “You never know who you’ll see flying through the studio,” Roberts says. “It

could be your dentist or your psychology professor.”

Melissa Roberts

Jordan (MA ’80, PhD ’91) of Haddock, who is provost and vice president of academic affairs at Georgia College & State University, was named chancellor of the University of South Carolina Aiken. Steven Mark Van Wieren (BS ’93, MS ’95) of Cumming joined Ultimate Software as their principal statistician and lead data scientist. Dimon Kendrick-Holmes (MA ’96) of Columbus was named vice president and executive editor of the Ledger-Enquirer. Michallene McDaniel (MA ’96, PhD ’11) was named to the Princeton Reviews’ top 300 list of the nation’s best professors. She is an associate professor of sociology at Gainesville State College. Edward Valeev (PhD ’00) received the $75,000 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The award supports young faculty of exciting potential or early accomplishment who have demonstrated commitment to education. Daniel Guyton (MFA ’04) of Fayetteville wrote the play “ATTIC,” presented in the Atlanta Fringe Festival in May. Guyton’s play won the Kennedy Center/ACTF Short Play Award in 2004. The play was directed by fellow UGA alum Joelle Arp Dunham (MFA ’04) and starred Scotty Gannon (MFA ’09).

PETER FREY


BusinessGeorge Slusser (MBA ’79) of Blue Ridge was named executive vice president of business development for Xceligent, a nationwide provider of commercial real estate information. Lance Nail (PhD ’96) of Lubbock, Texas, was named dean of Texas Tech’s Rawls College of Business.

EducationSherman R. Day (EdD ’67) of Dawsonville is stepping out of retirement to serve as the executive director of University Center-GA 400, an instructional center being developed jointly by North Georgia College & State University and Gainesville State College. J. Wayne Fears (MEd ’71) of Owens Cross Roads, Ala., was inducted into Garry Mason’s Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame for his success as a master outdoorsman and nationally acclaimed outdoor writer. Charles “Chuck” R. Anderson (BSA ’74, MEd ’75) of Appling won the Conservation Educator of the Year Award from Columbia County Soil and Conservation for his work maintaining Harlem High School’s agriculture program. Patricia White Widdowson (MEd ’75) of Pilot Mountain, N.C., was appointed to the board of trustees for Surry Community College. Dorothy Ann Battle (MEd ’83, EdD ’87) of Statesboro retired as professor of educational psychology from Georgia Southern University after 22 years of service. Nanci Bateman (MEd ’85) of Delmar, N.Y., became a registered/licensed landscape architect and has a firm called EnviroVisions Studio. She was president of the NYS Council of Landscape Architects from 2001-11. Alan Sikes (BSA ’85, MEd ’87) was named Grower of the Year by the Vidalia Onion Committee. Mitchel Loy Barrett (EdS ’86) of Cleveland, Ga., received the Excellence in Education Award from The Piedmont College Alumni Association. He has served as superintendent and principal for the Mountain Education Center for the past five years. Donald Robert Dengel (PhD ’90) of Eden Prairie, Minn., was named to the Scientific Advisory Board for WellBalance, a

CLASSNOTES

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The Ride to Save Lives When Bethany Diamond (BSHE ’81) founded the

nonprofit organization Ovarian Cycle in 2004 she had a simple goal in mind—to raise money for the development of a test for the accurate diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Diamond was motivated to found the organization with her Sigma Delta Tau sorority sister, Ellen Fruchtman (ABJ ’81), after they lost their childhood friend, Debbie Green Flamm, to the disease a year earlier. Since then Ovarian Cycle has raised over $1 million for ovarian cancer research through its signature indoor cycling events. The Atlanta Ride to Change the Future is a six-hour ride and has a training protocol preceding the event. “It is indoors so it’s very easy for many kinds of people to participate whether they’re undergoing treatment or whether they’ve never considered riding a bike before,” Diamond says. “Because it is indoors, it is not based on weather and can happen anywhere in the country.”

The program now is in five cities in addition to Atlanta: New York, Birmingham, Dallas, Seattle and Tallahassee. The New York event, called Ready. Set. Ride! is only one hour. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 21,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year in the United States—15,000 of them die. Learn more about Ovarian Cycle at www.ovariancycle.org.

—by Brittany Biddy (AB, ABJ ’12)

SPECIAL

Board members for the Ovarian Cycle are, from left, Carla Dunn (AB ’95, ABJ ’95), Bethany Diamond (BSHE ’81), Melissa Northrop (ABJ ’03) and Ellen Fruchtman (ABJ ’81).

health organization that runs summer weight loss camps and community outreach programs for adolescents aged 10-20. Pamela Anthony (MEd ’96) of Douglasville is Iowa State University’s dean of students. Anthony previously worked at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Spelman College and Georgia State University. Sanford Chandler (EdD ’96) was honored with the designation president emeritus at Chattahoochee Tech by the state board of the Technical College System of Georgia. Ann Marie Krejcarek (MEd ’96) of Boca Raton, Fla., became president of schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco. David G. Lorenzi (MA ’98) of Latrobe, Penn., assumed the position of president-elect for the Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Lorenzi is an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Physical Education at Indiana University of

Pennsylvania, where he directs the Special Needs Activity Program. Paul Johnson (MEd ’99, PhD ’11) received the 2012 Gwinnett County School District’s Mary Joe Hannaford Counseling Advocate of the Year Award. Johnson is assistant principal of Peachtree Ridge High School. Jared A. Russell (MA ’99, PhD ’02) received the 2012 Social Justice & Diversity Young Professional Award from the Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Russell is interim director of student development and associate professor of kinesiology at Auburn University’s College of Education. Bryan Long (BSEd ’95, MEd ’00, EdD ’04) of Jefferson was named principal of Dacula High School, effective April 2. John Cheney Robinson IV (MEd ’00) of Jacksonville, Fla., completed his Ph.D. in administration of higher education at Auburn University in May. Robinson was also

named director of baseball for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Jacksonville. Don Jenrette Jr. (EdD ’04) of Bonaire attended the Harvard School of Public Health’s effective risk communication training in May. Jenrette is the Air Force Reserve Command’s Drug Demand Reduction Program manager. Kelly Crisp Paynter (BBA ’99, EdS ’04) earned a doctor of education degree from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Brian Culp (BSEd ’99, EdD ’05) received the 2012 Mabel Lee Award from the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Culp is assistant professor in the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Brant Chesser (MEd ’05) of Spring Hill, Tenn., was selected as Independence High School’s Teacher of the Year. Chesser teaches AP English literature and is

www.ovariancycle.org


CLASSNOTES

Alumni win public relations award

Larry Bowie (left) and Karin Koser (right) were recognized for their work on an educational video series about spinal cord and brain injuries. The two were honored with a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence in the health care services category, presented by the Public Relations Society of America. Created by the Shepherd Center and KPKinteractive, the video series targets families and loved ones of those affected by catastrophic injury. Bowie (ABJ ’97) is director of marketing

and public relations at Atlanta’s Shepherd Center, a nonprofit hospital specializing in spinal cord and brain injury. Koser (ABJ ’81) is owner of KPKinteractive, the video and interactive division of Decatur-based KPK & Company, a marketing communications firm. The series, “What you need to know about brain and spinal cord injury,” took a year to make and was distributed to 140 hospitals and associations nationwide. Above, Bowie and Koser pose with author and activist Lee Woodruff, whose husband Bob sustained a catastrophic brain injury while serving as a reporter imbedded in Iraq. Woodruff makes a special appearance in the video.

SPECIAL

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Registering at www.servga.gov is quick and can be done within minutes. Name, address, contact information and occupation type completes the

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terms of service, and then will be asked to provide information specific to you and your skills.

This information will be used to establish your emergency credentialing level and to contact you in

the event of an emergency.

For additional information e-mail the SERVGAsystem coordinator at [email protected]

DEP

ARTMENT OF

PUBLIC HEALTH

www.servga.gov


University of GeorgiaFood Servicesfoodservice.uga.edu(706) 542-1256

University of GeorgiaFood Servicesfoodservice.uga.edu(706) 542-1256

nourishment withculinary spirit

GEORGIA

ServingGEORGIAGEORGIA

ServingServing

76NATIONAL AWARDS

chair of the English department. Kim Osborne (PhD ’06) is head of research communications for the Federal Highway Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. Mike Robison (MEd ’06, EdS ’08) of Loganville was chosen as the new principal for Loganville High School. Erin York (BSEd ’04, MEd ’06) and Michael York welcomed their daughter, Vera June, Oct. 18. Sarah Donaldson (MEd ’07, PhD ’11) of Lookout Mountain was appointed assistant professor of education at Covenant College. Tinisha Parker (BSEd ’00, EdS ’07) was named 2012 Secondary Counselor of the Year. Parker is a counselor with Gwinnett County Online Campus. Stephanie Hawkins Watts (AB ’04, MEd ’07) of Marietta received the Georgia High School Counselor of the Year Award at the Georgia School Counselor Association conference in November. William F. Bishop (EdS ’08) was named principal at Norcross High School by Gwinnett County Schools. He previously served as assistant principal at Duluth High School. Jennifer Frum (PhD ’09) was named vice president for public service and outreach at UGA. Frum is the first female to hold this position and has worked in outreach administration since arriving on campus in 1995. Michael R. Stanton (MEd ’09) of Dacula received the Teacher of the Year Award at Bethesda Elementary School in Lawrenceville. Stanton was also named a top 25 semifinalist in the Gwinnett County Public Schools system. Brandee Appling (EdS ’11) received the 2012 Gwinnett County Middle School Counselor of the Year Award. John W. Mitchell (EdD ’11) was named president and CEO of ICP-Association Connecting Electronics Industries.

Journalism and Mass CommunicationKathy B. Richardson (MA ’83, PhD ’92) of Mount Berry was named Teacher of the Year by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Small Programs Interest Group.

LawOtis A. Brumby Jr. (LLB ’65) was honored with the Cobb County Lifetime Achievement Award. Brumby is the publisher of the Marietta Daily Journal and Neighbor Newspapers. William J. Self II (BBA ’71, JD ’74) of Macon plans to retire at the end of 2012. Self served as Bibb County probate judge for 20 years. John Thompson ( JD ’78) was honored in Atlanta Magazine’s Georgia Super Lawyers 2012. Thompson was also featured in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2012. Fred Johnson (BBA ’76, JD ’79) of Atlanta was appointed as an administrative law judge with the U.S. Social Security Administration in January 2012. He was assigned to the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Greensboro, N.C. D. Albert Brannen (MBA ’82, JD ’82) was honored in Atlanta Magazine’s Georgia Super Lawyers 2012. Ertharin Cousin ( JD ’82) of Chicago became executive director of the United Nation’s World Food Program. She was previously the U.S. representative to the U.N. agencies for food and agriculture. Janet E. Hill ( JD ’82) was named one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Georgia for 2012 by Atlanta Magazine. Hill was also named a Super Lawyer in the employment and labor category. Bert Poston (BBA ’89, JD ’92) of Dalton was named the new district attorney for the Conasauga Judicial Circuit. He has been acting district attorney since former DA Kermit McManus stepped down in January. Tara R. Simkins ( JD ’92) of Augusta was selected by WAGT 26 as a Woman to Watch for the positive impact she leaves on the local community. Sarah Clarkson ( JD ’93) of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., founded Clarkson Law PLLC, with a primary focus on business and real estate transactions. Joan T. A. Gabel ( JD ’93) of Columbia, Mo., was named dean of the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business. Scott E. Hitch (BS ’96, JD ’99) joined the Atlanta office of Burr & Forman LLP as counsel in the firm’s environmental practice group, where he focuses

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CLASSNOTES

ALUMNI PROFILE

Thinking big

Alumnus Larry Wheeler has steered the N.C. Museum of Art for 18 years with the people of the state in mind

by Bill Krueger

Larry Wheeler is embarrassed to admit it, but he never set foot inside the Georgia Museum of Art during his years studying European history at UGA. His plans then were to become a university professor, and his primary interest in art was in what it had to say about a culture or a time period he was studying.

Yet today, Wheeler (PhD ’72) is the director of the N.C. Museum of Art, one of the first in the country to receive state funding—a $1 million appropriation from the N.C. General Assembly in 1947. The museum, which sits on a 164-acre park of public trails, public art and a performance amphitheater, has blossomed since Wheeler took charge in 1994. It has hosted blockbuster exhibitions on artists such as Rodin, Monet and Rembrandt, while building significant collections of European, American and contemporary art. In 2006, the museum nearly doubled its exhibition space with a 127,000-square-foot expansion that is surrounded by sculpture gardens and reflecting pools.

Wheeler is almost giddy as he reflects on what the museum has become in the past two decades. But his excitement is less about the 28 works of Auguste Rodin that were recently given to the museum, the contemporary piece by Anselm Kiefer that he bought at auction for $574,000 shortly after he took the job or the works by African artist El Anatsui that were shown this year. Wheeler is thrilled that the museum has been embraced by the local community and people throughout the state, and that there is an anticipation about what exciting new show or addition the museum—and Wheeler—will cook up next. After all, he says, this is the people’s art collection.

“I don’t care about building palaces for rich people,” he says from his office overlooking the park that surrounds the museum. “I care about building opportunities so that everyone can have a natural relationship with art. That’s why I care about it.”

It was prisons, not palaces, on Wheeler’s mind when he became director. The museum was built on the western edge of Raleigh, not downtown as some had proposed, with a youth prison as its closest neighbor.

“The prison was up there with prisoners and barbed wire and guard towers, and that was the front door to the museum,” he says. “And we had all this raw land out here. What can we make out of this? How it all came together is a miracle, really, because it was just a matter of opportunities and political connections and seizing the moment.”

Wheeler is not an art historian, the more traditional background for a museum director. Instead, he is someone who understands politics (from years of working for the state Department of Cultural Resources after giving up on his short career as a college professor), has a keen sense of marketing and fundraising (from a nine-year stint as director of development at the Cleveland Museum of Art) and an uncommon willingness to think big. The prison was soon closed, and a wealthy patron agreed to foot the bill to have it removed when the state was short of funds. He finished the amphitheater, which he calls “our first expression that our mission is beyond the walls of the museum.”

He also put together blockbuster exhibits on Matisse and Picasso and, finally, steered the completion of the new building through the byzantine process of state government.

“I’m very impatient with low productivity,” he says. “I want big ideas. I want action and I want people to buy into it. Enlarging the picture, that’s what I do.”

—Bill Krueger is the senior associate editor of N.C. State Magazine at North Carolina State University.

Larry Wheeler and Gov. Beverly Perdue

on environmental litigation. Colin McRae ( JD ’99) was honored in Atlanta Magazine as a Georgia Super Lawyers 2012 Rising Star. Patrick Millsaps ( JD ’00) was named Newt Gingrich’s campaign chief of staff in February. Millsaps is a partner with Hall Booth Smith & Slover P.C. Brian M. Rickman ( JD ’01) was appointed to the Board of Public Safety by Gov. Nathan Deal. Lisa Michele Taylor ( JD ’01) of Silver Spring, Md., received the Sanctae Crucis Award from the College of the Holy Cross. Todd Stanton ( JD ’02) created his own practice, Stanton Law LLC, a law firm focused on the practice of employment law from the employer’s perspective. Terri Stewart (BBA ’03, JD ’06) was honored in Atlanta Magazine as a Georgia Super Lawyers 2012 Rising Star. John P. Jett ( JD ’08) of Atlanta was appointed to the national board of the Young Lawyers Division of the Federal Bar Association. Jett is an associate with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton’s Atlanta office. Katie Sheehan ( JD ’08) was elected member-at-large of the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia for 2012. Sheehan is a legal fellow at UGA’s River Basin Center.

PharmacyVirginia Hollingsworth Fleming (PharmD ’06) of Athens is now an associate professor at UGA’s College of Pharmacy after completing a one-year residency at the Medical College

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CLASSNOTES

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A happy, healthy lifestyle

At UGA Linda Kamm (ABJ ’78) could be found managing the men’s wrestling team. Now her time is spent managing Happy and Healthy Products, the company she created 21 years ago. Kamm says she started watching her calorie consumption and becoming more health conscious after college. She initially took a job in sales and ended up working for a food company. “I worked with a competitor, and I thought if I could come out with my own product and market it my own way then it would be very successful,” she says. That led her to the creation of Happy and Healthy, which offers its Fruitfull Frozen Fruit bar in 24 flavors, hand-dipped chocolate bars, trail mixes and a gluten-free line. The company is different from most frozen fruit bar companies, Kamm says, in that it targets women because they are the biggest consumers of frozen fruit bars nationally. Happy and Healthy also has a strong presence on college campuses, since students often are in a hurry and need to grab something on the go. Happy and Healthy has franchisees in 25 states, as well as Hong Kong and England. The company is a certified women’s business enterprise and was ranked on Franchise Business Review’s top 30 food franchises list for 2011.

—by Brittany Biddy

SPECIALLinda Kamm

of Georgia and a one-year residency at the University of Texas Hospital in Austin. Fleming also heads the college’s clinical program at St. Mary’s Hospital.

Public and International AffairsAnthony Crotser (MPA ’10) of Atlanta was chosen by Better Homes and Gardens to have his home featured in a special interest publication.

Veterinary MedicineBilly Myers (DVM ’79) of Good Hope received the Pfizer Animal Health’s Diversity and Inclusion council first annual Customer Diversity and

Inclusion Award for his work on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Myers started Countryside Hospital for Animals in Covington. Michael Zager (DVM ’79) of Ellijay was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus by the Alumni Association of the College of Veterinary Medicine. Zager is a mixed-animal practitioner known for his expertise in camelids. John R. Glisson (DVM ’80, MAM ’83, PhD ’85) of Watkinsville was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus by the Alumni Association of the College of Veterinary Medicine. Glisson retired in 2011 as head of the UGA Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center.

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Whether you’re having fun with your local chapter, supporting scholarships and endowments, or plugging into a worldwide network of more than 270,000 graduates, the UGA Alumni Association is the best way to stay connected with YOUR alma mater!

We invite you to support your University and your Alumni Association by making a gift to the Georgia Fund for the UGA Alumni Association.

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“In some ways theatre is an escape. It’s an escape for the audience to go someplace for a while. It’s an escape for the actor to be somebody else for a while. I think at its heart that is probably why I was

attracted to it… It was a place where I felt safe and comfortable and being weird was okay because you weren’t going to be yourself. It was okay not to be yourself. And that was exciting.”

—George Contini on what led him to pursue a career in the theatre. Learn more about him at www.georgecontini.com.

George Contini

Associate professor of theatre and film studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

B.A., theatre and English, Baldwin-Wallace College, OhioM.F.A., film production, University of Miami, Florida

Richard B. Russell Award for Undergraduate Teaching, 2008

Photo shot by Peter Frey at the UGA photography studio in the Georgia Center.

www.georgecontini.com

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