summer 2012 / 43
CLASSNOTES
Daniel Miles
of Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., completed his Ph.D. last
year at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki in Greece.
Stites & Harbison PLLC has
hired attorney
Brian Neal
as an
associate at the firm’s Nashville
office. Neal is a member of the
Business Litigation and the Torts
and Insurance service groups at
the firm. He received a master’s
degree from the University of
Edinburg, Scotland, and a J.D.
from the University of Michigan
Law School.
Lindsey FordTanner
was named
to the Birmingham Business
Journal’s “Top 40 Under 40” in
its Feb. 3, 2012, issue. She is
senior executive recruiter of Vaco
Birmingham LLC, specializing in
contract and direct hire placement
for accounting and finance
professionals.
’99
AshleyWilkinson Meyer
has
been commissioned as the new
director of United Ministries,
a social service agency. She
earned a master’s degree from
Duke Divinity School and has nine
years of experience in nonprofit
work, counseling, community
organization, and outreach.
HolleyTankersley
was awarded
tenure and promotion to associate
professor of political science at
Coastal Carolina University last
year. She was appointed to serve
as associate dean of the Edwards
College of Humanities and Fine
Arts during the 2011-12 academic
year.
AshleyWarrenToole
of
Montgomery was recently named
chief of staff to Chief Justice
Charles Malone of the Alabama
Supreme Court.
’00
Amy Miller Brennan
is employed
with the Actors Playhouse in Coral
Gables, Fla. She recently starred
in its theatre production of “Joseph
and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
TammiWard Carr
recently
received an educational specialist
degree from the University of
Montevallo in teacher leadership.
She was also nominated
Teacher of the Year at Oak
Mountain Intermediate School in
Birmingham.
Nadia Khattak Feeser
is the new
administrative services director
for Pismo Beach, Fla., where she
will oversee the city’s finances as
well as its information services and
risk management program. She
previously worked for the city and
county of San Francisco. Feeser
has an MPA from the Rockefeller
College of Public Policy, State
University of NewYork at Albany.
PhillipVelinov
and his wife,
Natalia, have been working as
principal dancers with the Louisville
(
Kentucky) Ballet since 2006. They
are the parents of five-year-old
Gabriella and one-year-old Raphael.
’01
Dr. Cody J. Morris
is now a
radiology resident at Emory
Hospital in Atlanta. He graduated
from the University of Illinois-
Chicago Medical School last year
with honors.
’02
David Fleming (MPPM grad)
is the new president and chief
executive officer of Operation
New Birmingham, a downtown
advocacy organization. He worked
for ONB for three years before
going to work for Sloss Real Estate
and returning to ONB as vice
president for planning and urban
development. He left to start Main
Street Birmingham in 2004, where
he also is chief executive officer.
Rev. Evan Garner
has been
named rector at St. John’s
Episcopal Church in Decatur.
Garner has served at St. John’s
in Montgomery since 2006 as
associate rector. He earned a
master’s in theology from the
University of Cambridge, England,
and a diploma in Anglican studies
from Virginia Theological Seminary.
He and his wife,
Elizabeth Graffeo
Garner
,
have three children:
Frances, Edison, and Sam.
Marta McLellan Ross
currently
serves as the foreign policy
advisor to Sen. JimWebb of the
Commonwealth of Virginia.
’03
Brittany Miller Chinnici
and her
newlywed husband, John, live in
Philadelphia where they moved
following her graduation from
Columbia University’s Teachers
College with a master’s degree in
psychological counseling.
Ingwersen &Taylor LLP, an Atlanta-
based tax and estate planning
law firm, named
Robert “Bo”
H. Harris
as an associate to the
firm. He formerly was an attorney
in the business and transactions
group at Christian & Small LLP of
Birmingham. Harris also earned
degrees from the Cumberland
School of Law at Samford
University and the University of
Miami School of Law.
Rachel Higgins
of Brooklyn, N.Y.,
has shown her sculpture and
installations widely, including in
Berlin, NewYork, Philadelphia,
and Washington, D.C. She
spent a summer making a large
installation at Socrates Sculpture
Park in Queens, N.Y. Her piece,
made with salvaged construction
materials, was included in the
parks’ annual Emerging Artist
Fellowship Exhibition, which was
held from September 2011 through
March 2012.
Scholarly support
—
Dr.Tynes
Cowan ’85
,
assistant professor of
English at Birmingham-Southern, won
the 2011-12 Bob Whetstone Faculty
Development Award, given by the Office
of the Provost. Named for the professor
emeritus and college alumnus and former
longtime chair of the education division
at BSC, the annual award recognizes
a non-tenured faculty member who
demonstrated excellence in teaching
during the preceding academic year.
Cowan received a cash award for
professional development and travel.
He used his award to fund a trip to
Charlottesville, Va., in January to conduct research at the Mary
Johnston Archives at the University of Virginia. He delivered a
paper (“Mary Johnston vs. Mrs. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson: On the
100
th Anniversary of The Long Roll”) at the Society for the Study
of Southern Literature Conference in Nashville this past spring.
Cowan joined the BSC faculty in 2002. He received tenure and
promotion to associate professor this fall.
