Jacquie Lawing Ebert thrives in the Washington, D.C., milieu. It’s been her niche for more than 20 years—beginning in the office of then-Senator Al Gore and later working as Gore’s issues director in the 1992 Clinton–Gore campaign, chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and now as a partner at the strategic communications firm GMMB.
If you expect flash and swagger when you meet David Freeman, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The majority owner of the Nashville Predators looks like—and is—just a regular guy: a regular guy with a lot of money to invest in a National Hockey League franchise.
This is a tale of two cities—Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tennessee—and the two associate vice-presidents who represent the University of Tennessee in this season of darkness and light. Anthony Haynes is the director of state relations and heads UT’s Nashville office. Kurt Schlieter is director of federal relations and heads UT’s Washington office. In these times of tight budgets and uncertain politics, both at home and across the nation, Haynes and Schlieter are the university’s liaisons with the state and federal governments.
The spider hung from a leafy tree branch. It was bright green, and it brandished a giant claw designed to attack the insects on which it fed. Staring at the creature through the glowing light of her headlamp, Rosemary Gillespie (Knoxville ’86) could hardly believe her eyes. There was only one spider in the world with a claw quite like that—the rarely encountered Doryonychus raptor, which had been scientifically collected only once, by an obscure British naturalist in 1901.
You can count on finding a riot of color among the blooms and foliage at the UT Gardens in Knoxville. This year, though, you’ll see more silver among the beds of annuals, perennials, herbs, and trees that abound throughout the 5 acres along Neyland Drive. The UT Gardens is celebrating its 25th, or silver, anniversary. In honor of the occasion, curator James Newburn (Knoxville ’95, ’08), gardens interim director Dr. Sue Hamilton (Knoxville ’80, ’95), and students are growing such silver plants as artemisia, dusty miller, and silver sage on the agriculture campus. They are also joining with the Friends of the Gardens to dedicate a new Friendship Plaza, a sweeping entryway designed to welcome the 50,000-plus visitors the gardens host each year.
When you ask them about their careers, twins Wes and Ches Jackson are quick to point out that no one really graduates from college and aspires to sell hot dogs. But in 1982, with UT Martin business degrees in hand, that’s exactly what they sold—along with other Reelfoot Packing Company products. Their father, Billy Joe, had worked for the Union City, Tennessee, Reelfoot plant most of his career, and his sons naturally gravitated there for jobs during high school and college to help finance their college educations.
Pearl is the “Cow of the Month” at the Hatcher Family Dairy. Her hobbies are sunbathing and chewing cud. The 2-year-old Holstein is pregnant for the first time and spends her time relaxing on the farm. Since 1831, five generations of the Hatcher family have lived on and worked its almost-500-acre farm in College Grove, Tennessee. When Dr. Jennifer Hatcher graduated from the UT College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005, she became the third generation of UT graduates to join the family business that includes a dairy, a milk store, and Rock-N-Country Animal Clinic, a mixed animal practice her father, Dr. Charlie Hatcher, started when he graduated from veterinary college in 1984.
This year’s officers of the UT Alumni Association are an experienced lot, and two of them are second-generation alumni leaders.
Summertime is prime time at theme parks—a vacation to one of these magical destinations might well be in your plans. These UT alumni who work with Disney, Dollywood, and Sea World Orlando would love to welcome you.
The majority of students can succeed at math and science. “They just need to be taught how,” says Dr. Saundra McGuire, a UT alumna and recent winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
McGuire is director of the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University. She says the earlier students learn how to learn, the better.
Tearing through the halls of Gatlinburg’s Mountain View Hotel, 10-year-old Ford Little relished the freedom afforded him by the UT Alumni Association.
Educating students to succeed in the global workplace isn’t just a lofty slogan. Today it’s a necessity. Hundreds of UT Knoxville alumni work in China or travel there frequently. Tennessee Alumnus thanks the many alumni who sent information about their experiences. Unfortunately we couldn’t feature all of them. Here are a few that represent just what a small world our planet has become.
America’s palate is becoming more sophisticated, and Alan Wilson is big into the business of supplying the spices to satisfy the nation’s taste buds. Wilson (Knoxville ’80) is the new CEO and president of McCormick & Company Inc., the world’s largest spice producer, headquartered in Baltimore with operations in such diverse locales as India and France.
As Debbie Ingram, UT Alumni Association president, travels to events, she solicits stories of how education has positively influenced the lives of UT alumni. Though their stories are different, Kayvon Sadrabadi and Paige Pettit credit education with altering their lives.
Richmond taps Ayers as president, Mears dies in Knoxville, Geier joins university—these and other stories in this edition of UTopics.
