46 / ’southern
CLASSNOTES
Nashville will display their artwork
at BSC Nov. 1-26 at an exhibition
called “Chroma.”
’01
Jay de los Reyes
is the new
chief operating officer at Trumbull
Memorial Hospital in Warren, Ohio.
De los Reyes earned master’s
degrees in health administration
and business administration from
UAB.
Watson Donald III
is now director
of government affairs for Southern
Research Institute in Birmingham.
He previously spent 11 years in
Washington, D.C., including nine
years as a congressional staffer for
U.S. Senators Richard Shelby and
Jeff Sessions and Rep. Jo Bonner,
and two years as a lobbyist with a
governmental affairs firm.
Ann Patton Nelson Hornthal
has
been recognized again as a North
Carolina Super Lawyer Rising Star
in the practice area of civil litigation
defense. She was recently
promoted to partner at Roberts &
Stevens P.A., a full-service law firm
in Asheville.
Mary Stewart Nelson
has
transitioned to a full-time position
at the workers compensation
defense law firm Fish Nelson LLC
in Birmingham. She has launched
a new Real Property division of the
firm, where she is offering services
such as real estate closings as
well as continuing her practice in
corporate and contract law.
Trey
Cotney ’09
recently joined the
firm as an associate, where he
represents employers in workers’
compensation matters. He also
dedicates part of his practice to
planning and administering clients’
estates.
’02
James Drysdale
was admitted to
the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court
on Oct. 3, 2012. He is an appellate
attorney with the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs in Washington,
D.C.
The
Rev. Allison
Sandlin Liles
is
the new executive
director of the
Episcopal Peace
Fellowship (EPF)
in Ithaca, N.Y.
A graduate of
Virginia Theological
Seminary, Liles
joined the EPF National Executive
Council in 2006—her ordination year
as priest—and was vice chair for public
witness for three years. She served
two churches in Alabama for five years
before resettling with her husband and
two children in Crozet, Va.
’03
Dr. Matthew Caine
of Columbia, S.C.,
presented the interest session “Where
10 or 12 Are Gathered: Strategies for
Smaller Church Choirs” at the 2013
National Conference of the American
Choral Directors Association held this
past spring in Dallas, Texas.
James
Seay ’02
of Northport, Ala., presided
over the session.
’04
Dr. Michelle Downing
completed
a fellowship in cardiothoracic
anesthesiology from Duke University
Hospital in June and has returned to
Birmingham to join the faculty of the
UAB Department of Anesthesiology.
Lawyers of
Color recently
named 100
early-to mid-
career minority
attorneys under
the age of 40
to its inaugural
Southern
Region Hot
List. Maynard, Cooper & Gale P.C.’s
Stephanie Houston Mays
was among
them. Mays received her JD degree
from Samford University’s Cumberland
School of Law. She is an associate
in the Birmingham firm’s labor and
employment practice group.
’05
Revs. Stacey Henry Rushing
and
Dalton Rushing
of Decatur, Ga., were
recently ordained during the North
Georgia Conference of the United
Methodist Church. Stacey is the
pastor of University Heights UMC,
and Dalton is serving as pastor of
North Decatur UMC.
ElizabethYost
is now assistant
professor of sociology at the
College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Va.
’06
Justin Hallock
graduated from the
University of Tennessee College of
Medicine in May and is continuing
his training as an orthopaedic
surgeon at the Campbell Clinic in
Memphis.
Rev. Kelsey Grissom Johnson
of Birmingham was selected
to serve on the editorial board
of The Young Clergy Women
Project, an international and
interdenominational network of
the youngest ordained female
clergy. She is serving as an editor
of Fidelia’s Sisters, which publishes
fresh and evocative articles
written by, for, and about young
clergywomen.
Reese Julian Jr.
is head of the
Circulation Department for Smith
College Libraries in Northampton,
Mass.
Dr. George A. Nelson IV
was
recently selected chief medical
resident for the UAB Tinsley
Harrison Internal Medicine Program
for 2014-15.
’07
Wedgworth
Companies
LLC recently
hired
Sean
Ballinger
as
a realtor to
manage its
new projects
in the Over
the Mountain
area of Birmingham. Wedgworth
specializes in custom
homebuilding.
Nearly a century old
—
Vivian HarringtonWhitt ’52
will
turn 100 years old Oct. 30. As
this milestone draws closer, her
family is preparing for a grand
celebration. Whitt was born in
1913 in Ft. Scott, Kansas, as
the middle child of 10 children,
experiencing an era that survives
only in vintage film clips and black-
and-white photographs. During
World War II, she served overseas
in the Women’s Army Corps.
Whitt was a non-traditional student
at Birmingham-Southern and
graduated with a degree in biology. She worked as a hospital
medical technologist in Birmingham for several years. Soon
after marrying in 1963, she and her husband, a U.S. Air Force
chaplain, moved to England. Whitt now resides in Roff, Okla.
She always enjoyed gardening and reading. Family members
include niece
Judith Smith Stacey ’63
, of Hayneville, Ala.,
great-great niece
Megan Stacey Snider ’12
, of Tuscaloosa, and
great-great nephew Brett Snider, who is a junior at BSC.
