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CLASSNOTES
Alum
News
’96
BrookeTanner Battle
was one of five startup
business owners who took
home prize money in the
2014 Alabama Launchpad
Startup Competition.
She, alongside five other
teams, which included
Blondin Bioscience (
Brad
Spencer ’86
), advanced
to the finals of the
statewide competition with winners announced during
the Alabama Launchpad Innovation Conference in
Birmingham on Sept. 26. Finalists endured an intense
spotlight that included a “shark-tank” style investor pitch
before a panel of judges. Battle’s software company,
Swell Fundraising, formerly called SMART Party,
received the highest award amount of $89,000.
Swell Fundraising, based in Birmingham, provides
nonprofit clients with a suite of tools— including an
online application—that will create a peer-to-peer
fundraising game at a live event. The platform allows
supporters to connect to the event from any location
and rewards participants for fundraising and awareness
building. Battle developed the software and company
because of her personal experience with nonprofit
fundraising and the difficulty reaching new donor
groups; use of the tool increased individual giving to
events by 50%.
The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama
Foundation puts on the contest each year in Birmingham
to promote, reward, and increase the pipeline of high-
growth, innovative ventures in the state.
“While the process alone was beneficial to the
company, winning this grant from Alabama Launchpad
might just be one of the best moments for me
professionally,” said Battle, who graduated from BSC
with a degree in political science and serves on the
college’s Board of Trustees. “The preparation was
intense, which made the excitement and relief that
much greater.”
Battle also has a successful 15-year career in private
equity real estate finance and has served on numerous
nonprofit boards including Friends of the Railroad
District Inc., Oasis Counseling for Women and Children,
Alabama School of Fine Arts Foundation, and The
Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham.
She has been recognized by the Birmingham
Business Journal as a 2002 “Top 40 Under 40” honoree
and was included in a 2009 feature by The Birmingham
News as one of the Top 15 Emerging Leaders in
Birmingham and in a 2012 feature by B-Metro magazine
titled “Women Reshaping our Community.”
50 / ’southern
New Orleans. Smith’s first work
of art, a mural called “People
Dancing,” was executed in purple
crayon at age three. Since then,
he’s completed hundreds of private
and commercial commissions and
is well experienced in a breadth of
media. His BFA degree from BSC
afforded him the opportunity to
continue his work as an artist and
set designer in the South and at
the University of Massachusetts-
Amherst Theater Department. He
now resides in the New Orleans
Arts District.
Bayou Lafourche by Will Smith Jr.
’95
Anna-Katherine Graves Bowman
recently joined Synovus Family
Asset Management in Birmingham
as a senior relationship manager.
’99
Dr. M. Hunter Manasco
was
tenured and promoted to associate
professor of speech-language
pathology at Misericordia
University in Dallas, Pa., this
year. Manasco is an author,
educator, and researcher in that
field who joined the university
in 2008. His areas of expertise
include neuroanatomy, traumatic
brain injury, dementia, stroke, and
autism. He teaches a range of
courses on the anatomy of speech
and hearing, neuromotor disorders
of speech, and more. Manasco
earned a master’s degree in
speech-language pathology from
the University of Montevallo and
his Ph.D. in speech-language
pathology from the University of
South Alabama. His textbook,
An Introduction to Neurogenic
Communication Disorders
, was
recently published by Jones and
Bartlett Learning.
’01
Lindsay Roten Cardella
of League
City, Texas, recently published
a revision and update for two
of her international multicultural
cookbooks.
The Multicultural
Cookbook for Students
and
Holidays of the World Cookbook
for Students
are both published
under her maiden name, Roten.
Lawrence Pippins
and his wife,
Jeidi, opened a Sweat Fitness
Studio in Huntsville in 2012 after
his 11-year career as a medical
sales
professional.
Beyond his
duties at
their family
business, he
is a financial
advisor
associate
with Morgan Stanley in Huntsville.
The couple has a son, Lawson,
who is nine, and a daughter,
Emery, who is four.
’02
Dr. Manu
Sancheti
has
been appointed
assistant
professor of
surgery at Emory
University in
Atlanta. He is
a specialist in
thoracic surgery.
’03
Eric Hudgens
has been serving
as vice president of operations
and a principal owner of Sloan
Utility Contracting Inc. in Hokes
Bluff, Ala., since 2010. Hudgens
began serving as vice president
of the Alabama Utility Contractors
Association this year. He resides
in Vestavia Hills with his wife,
Christy; daughter, Grayson, who