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.
When cats purr and dogs invite more, more, more tummy scratching, their human friends assume the animals are enjoying themselves. But we have no ultimate proof that animals feel pleasure. Research scientist Jonathan Balcombe (Knoxville ’91), who has spent years studying animal behavior, posits in his book Pleasurable Kingdom that humans aren’t the only animals capable of feeling pleasure.
My bleary eyes gazed through a plate-glass mirage as the runway of Las Vegas’s airport drew a literal line in the sand. Sometimes the line between life-changing dreams and nightmares runs thin as the queen of hearts.
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.
Three UT alumni, Carl Wolfson, Leanne Morgan, and Dale Henry, are making their livings by making others laugh.
Despite an occasional lull in the procedure and conversation about UT sports, the surgical team in the operating room at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville focuses on the task at hand: implanting an electronic device into the inner ear of an 11-year-old boy to help restore hearing to his left ear.
Teresa Harman Bell appears to have it all—she’s a professional pharmacist, a wife, and the mother of four. You would never guess that a car accident 17 years ago, while she was a UT Martin student, changed her and her family forever. Bell may be haunted by the disastrous car crash, but thanks to friends at UT Martin and in the Martin community, her good memories outweigh the bad.
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.
A career in natural resources management conjures up thoughts of working in serene settings, protecting the environment, being a friend to wildlife, and teaching young and old to appreciate the outdoors. Jereme Odom (Martin ’98) does all that and more as a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer. He enforces hunting, fishing, and boating laws, manages state-owned land, and conducts youth programs.
Seizing opportunities is nothing new for William Mackall (Martin ’90). The UT Martin Hall of Fame football player and award-winning undercover police officer was ready to answer the call when he came upon a man who was choking. Mackall, 40, was raised in Panama City, Florida, where he played several high-school sports and eventually caught the eye of college football recruiters.
Adam Vicars never expected to follow in his older brother’s paw prints when he got to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, but he did. Adam, 22, who graduates in December with a degree in logistics, spent about 4 years—from 2003 to 2007—as UT’s costumed mascot, Smokey. Adam’s brother, Jason, ’01, was Smokey for 2 -and-a-half years and won the Universal Cheerleaders Association Mascot National Championship in 2000 and 2001. Adam and Jason Vicars are the only brothers ever to have served as Smokey, according to Joy Postell, UT mascot director.
We would all have to agree that, were it not for our UT education, our lives would be different. As Debbie Ingram, president of the UT Alumni Association, travels to alumni events throughout the country, she solicits stories about how the lives of UT alumni have been transformed by education. Tennessee Alumnus introduces you to some of the UT graduates who’ve shared their experiences.
Perhaps no name in commerce is as well known as that of Wal-Mart, and Don Frieson (Knoxville ’90) has mapped his way to the company’s top echelon. Frieson recently moved to Bentonville, Arkansas, as senior vice-president in charge of operations in Wal-Mart’s central division. Previously the UT business grad was a vice-president and regional manager in Maryland.
Ask conservation ecologist Dr. Luke Dollar to describe the moment when he felt farthest removed from the University of Tennessee campus, and he’ll likely cite Madagascar, where he’s logged nearly 6 years researching mammalian predators. Chief among them is the enigmatic fossa (pronounced “FOO-suh”), a 20-pound carnivore that blends a mountain lion’s agility and cunning with the sheer bellicosity of a mongoose.
The UT National Alumni Association gets alumni together for Homecoming, pep rallies, and chapter meetings—you knew that, right? Do you know what else we do? We do some pretty neat stuff, and we’re adding new services all the time.
