Page 54 - Southern Magazine-Winter/Spring 2013

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CLASSNOTES
’87
Rev. Sarah “Sally” McCleskey
Allocca, founder and executive
director of P.E.E.R. Inc., was
recently recognized as a
Strengthening Food Security
Champion of Change. She was
selected by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and traveled to
Washington, D.C., to visit the
White House and accept the
prestigious award. Allocca has
been instrumental in increasing
access to fresh, healthy food and
other resources in the East Lake
area of Birmingham.
‘88
Suzanne SchmithVanWyk has
been appointed an administrative
law judge for the Florida Division
of Administrative Hearings. She
was formerly a shareholder with
the law firm of Bryant Miller Olive
in the Tallahassee (Fla.) office. Van
Wyk also has been certified as a
specialist in city, county, and local
government law by the Florida Bar.
‘93
Lynn
Compton
Chapman of
Birmingham
has been
elected to
her first
term on the
National
Council of
Zeta Tau
Alpha Women’s fraternity for the
2012-14 biennium. Chapman was
a member of the Alpha Nu chapter
of ZTA at BSC. She was installed
as vice president collegiate II July
1 at the ZTA national convention in
Louisville, Ky. The National Council of
ZTA formulates the policies by which
the fraternity functions and coordinates
the activities of the entire fraternity. The
vice president collegiate II supervises
regional officers and college chapters in
seven states.
Dr. Clint
Peinhardt started
out his eighth year
of teaching at the
University of Texas
at Dallas with a
2012 UT Regents
Outstanding
Teaching Award
recognizing his
performance in the classroom and
dedication to innovation and advancing
excellence. Peinhardt was one of two
university faculty members honored
this fall. He teaches in the School of
Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences
at UTD.
Susan SheltonVigon of Manhattan
Beach, Calif., is vice president of
business and legal affairs for Fox
Networks Group in Los Angeles. Vigon
was previously corporate counsel for
Hearst Television Inc. in NewYork City.
She and her husband, Carlos, have a
son, Carlos Paxton “Pax,” who is almost
three.
‘94
Scott D. Perry, owner of Contri Bros.
Gift Basket, is the new board chair
of the Vestavia Hills Chamber of
Commerce.
’95
Christopher P.
Couch has joined
Haskell Slaughter
Young & Rediker
LLC as a member
of its Transactional
Practice Group.
Couch received
his J.D. magna
cum laude from the University of
Alabama School of Law, where he
served on the Alabama Law Review.
He was named in 2012 as one of
Birmingham’s top attorneys in the area
of corporate finance by Birmingham
magazine, and was honored as
a “Rising Star” in the areas of
banking and business/corporate in
the 2011 edition of Alabama Super
Lawyers.
Dr. Adrian DiVittorio was chosen
as one of the winners of Mobile
Bay’s “2012 Class of Forty
Under 40.” The honorees have
distinguished themselves through
their leadership, professional
excellence, and community
service.
In her debut
collection,
Skinny (Kore
Press, 2012),
poet Carolyn
Hembree
creates a
world at once
immediate
and
recognizable yet imbued with
nostalgia. The title character of
Skinny leaves the South and a
beloved, dying matriarch for New
York City—a “far-off island dream.”
Hembree’s poems have appeared
in Colorado Review, jubilat, Verse
Daily, and The Southern Poetry
Anthology, among other journals
and anthologies. She is an
assistant professor of English at
the University of New Orleans.
Dr. Benjamin Roberts completed
his residency in ophthalmology at
UAB and Callahan Eye Foundation
Hospital in 2003 and a fellowship
in vitreo-retinal surgery in 2005. In
2011, he returned to Kenya with
his wife and three boys, where
he is serving at Tenwek Mission
Hospital. He had spent four
previous years working there. The
sponsoring organization is World
Gospel Mission, which began
the hospital in 1959. “I am the
only ophthalmologist here, and
work with a local staff of about
15 people,” he noted. Read
more about his work in Africa at
www.benandjennyroberts.com.
A family of white coats—Proud papa Robert
T. Cale Jr. ‘70, MD, of Whitefish, Mont., is pictured with his
daughter, Heather, who graduated from Emory University and
recently matriculated at the University of Washington Medical
School in Seattle. All new medical students have a “white
coat ceremony.” Robert’s family has quite a history of white
coats as well as Birmingham-Southern graduates, including
his mother, Ruth Cale ’48 ; his late father, Robert T. Cale Sr.
’42, MD; his brother, Thomas V. Cale ’73; and his cousin,
John Cosper ‘69. Robert’s late maternal grandfather, Reid
Varnon, attended BSC back in the days when it was still called
the “Birmingham Boy’s School.” “If Heather makes it through
medical school, she will be the fourth consecutive generation to
bear the name ‘Dr. Cale,’” said Robert.
Courtesy of ZTA