Being national professor of the year is a momentous honor. But for Donna Boyd (Knoxville ’81, ’84, ’88), the award has added significance. She’s a “second generation” professor of the year, having studied under a UT anthropology professor who won the honor in 1985.
Most of us have some special accomplishments of which we’re proud, and so does Nan Schumaker. Her accomplishments are just a little more spectacular than most people’s. They include graduating from the FBI Academy, leading investigations, and contributing to a national championship.
SENATE LAWYER BECOMES UNPAID SMOKIES MEDICAL RECEPTIONIST! I fully expected to see this newspaper headline. Most of the things I worked on made national news. But maybe not this time.
A book about butterflies, solving the mystery of The Big Bopper’s death, a fat camp for pets, and other stories in this issue’s installment of UTopics.
It was an unforgettable moment. As he knelt in a pile of damp, moldy leaves in the heart of Tennessee’s majestic Smoky Mountains, Dennis Desjardin (Knoxville ’89) got the surprise of a lifetime when he realized that some of the tan-and-gold–patterned leaves on which he was kneeling weren’t really leaves--they were actually a pair of copperheads.
“There’s no front line in Iraq. Everywhere we stayed was the front line,” said Dr. Joan Sullivan, a member of the National Guard, describing her 2005 tour of duty. As a surgeon for the 42nd Infantry Division, the 1987 graduate of the UT Health Science Center was deployed to Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. The division’s deployment marked the first time a National Guard unit had been sent into combat since the Korean War.
Blair Pancake (Knoxville ’05) won the Miss Tennessee title, UT Chattanooga alumnus Leslie Jordan won an Emmy, and we catch up with two Katrina evacuees who were featured in the Summer 2006 issue—that and more in this installment of UTopics.
A top government administrator, a technology company founder, and a scholar of Renaissance literature. That’s not three people, but just one—UT alumna Lurita Doan. Doan (Knoxville ’83) is the first woman ever to head the massive U.S. General Services Administration.
