Dr. Brian Ari Cole ’86 of Boston was appointed to serve a one-year term as a United Nations main representative for Germany. Cole is an observer on climate change and the environment for the UN Social and Economic Council as well as an observer for the UN Security Council, where he is working with British diplomats. He has a background in the medical field and, in 2019, was promoted to Chief of Medicine within a United Healthcare subsidiary.

John L. Collar, Jr. ’86, founding shareholder at Boyd Collar Nolen Tuggle & Roddenbery in Atlanta, was named among Georgia’s Super Lawyers for 2020 in the area of family law. Collar represents clients in high net worth divorce cases and complex custody matters, and he is one of only a few Georgia lawyers who are also accountants.

Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr. ’87 was recently featured on the Day 1 Podcast, formerly the Protestant Hour Radio Broadcast. Allen serves as the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.

Edward B. “Ted” Strong ’88 joined The Neutral Solution, a community of professional mediators and arbitrators headquartered in Birmingham. A graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law, Strong specializes in corporate transactional work, workers’ compensation, defense, and insurance coverage issues.

Carolyn Patton Rabbani ’89 was highlighted in a Homewood Star feature on The Dance Foundation, a Homewood nonprofit. Rabbani spent a decade teaching at TDF after graduating from BSC and returned to teach in 2016. She is now one of the organization’s longest-tenured teachers and teaches her courses with live music.

Valerie Jacobs ’90 was named chief growth officer of LPK, the third-largest branding firm in Greater Cincinnati. Jacobs has been with LPK for 15 years, most recently as chief insight and innovation officer. In her new role, she will oversee business development, external relations, and marketing strategy. Jacobs is on the board of ArtWorks and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning, where she earned her master’s degree.

Courtney French ’96, a senior partner at Fuston, Petway & French LLP and a BSC Trustee, was featured in Birmingham Times for his 2017 purchase of radio station 900 Gold WATV-AM. French rebranded the station as myV94.9 FM and allows the Birmingham community to drive and form the content. While the station does cover some national topics, it focuses on local and community news and often broadcasts live from events and meetings around the city.

Ansley Collins Browns ’01 was recently selected as a payload facility manager in the International Space Station Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Browns coordinates teams at NASA centers across the country to ensure that the science facilities on the Space Station are working well to support experiments performed by the astronauts on-orbit. She has been at NASA since graduating from BSC and has supported several different areas of human spaceflight over the years, including fulfilling a lifelong dream of working in Mission Control.

Jansen Voss ’02, a partner at the Birmingham law firm Christian & Small LLP, was chosen as a member of this year’s Birmingham Business Journal “Top 40 Under 40” class. Voss serves the mental health, eldercare, nonprofit, and social services sector. He regularly represents healthcare professionals, mental health facilities, nursing homes, psychiatrists, and psychologists with business matters, regulatory issues, risk management and lawsuits. He has received numerous honors in the past, including BBJ “Rising Star Lawyer” and Birmingham Magazine “Top Attorney” awards.

Kyle Whitmire ’02, an Alabama Media Group columnist, was named one of three finalists for the national Scripps Howard Award for opinion writing. Six of Whitmire’s columns on “Life, Politics and Corruption in Alabama” were chosen. The Scripps Howard Foundation presents $170,000 in prize money to the winning organizations and journalists.

Meg Milam Chamblee ’03 was hired to lead strategic direction and operations at technology consulting firm UDig’s new office in Franklin, Tennessee. Chamblee and business partner Matt Dean have worked together in consulting for six years and will co-lead UDig’s office. She serves as president of Women in Technology of Tennessee and is the cofounder of the Emerging Leaders in Technology program at the Greater Nashville Technology Council.

Rebecca Beers ’04, a partner at Rumberger Kirk & Caldwell, was chosen as a member of this year’s Birmingham Business Journal “Top 40 Under 40” class. Beers focuses her practice in the areas of securities litigation and commercial litigation and represents broker-dealers and registered investment advisors in state and federal courts and in FINRA arbitration.

Samantha Dubrinsky-Clayton ’13 took over as the permanent executive director of the Levite Jewish Community Center earlier this year after holding the interim position since 2018. Dubrinsky-Clayton hopes to make the LJCC the “kitchen table” of Birmingham’s Jewish and broader communities as she leads the center’s team, fundraising, and vision.

Astha Berawala ’18, along with BSC Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr. Kate Hayden and current BSC students Lee Bowman and Rachael Motamed, published research in BioTechniques. Their paper examines a method to determine pH optimum in a coupled enzyme assay.

Dr. Amy Cottrill, Denson N. Franklin Associate Professor of Religion at BSC, attended a conference at the University of Rostock in Rostock, Germany, in January. The conference, titled “Between Endurance and Wholeness: Resilience Narratives in the Old Testament,” brought together an international group of Hebrew Bible scholars who are interested in discussing the texts through the lens of trauma and resilience. Cottrill presented her paper, “Reading the Psalms Through the Lens of Creative Resilience.”

Judge Elisabeth French, the newly elected Presiding Judge over Jefferson County state courts, is the first woman to hold this position since the Jefferson County judicial system’s beginning in 1821. French is also the first female African American Presiding Judge in Alabama. In this role, she will oversee the courts as well as continue to hear cases. Her husband, Courtney French ’96, is a BSC graduate and trustee.

Melinda Rainey Thompson, assistant lecturer of English at BSC, published her fifth collection of essays, “If I Were the Boss of You,” this month. The book contains charming reflections, funny observations, and nagging worries we all share about our day-to-day existence.

Katie Sack Lloyd ’11 and her husband, Trent Lloyd, adopted Elizabeth Ruth Tamara on Nov. 13, 2019. Eliza was born on July 25, 2019.

Kathryn Belyeu Hardin ’46 of Birmingham on Feb. 23, 2020. Hardin was an active member of the Birmingham Music Club, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. She was a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

Howard Linwood Underwood ’50 of Birmingham on Feb. 5, 2020. Underwood attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania after graduating from BSC. He served as a long time trust officer at AmSouth Bank and as the owner of Qualified Pensions/Profit-Sharing Consultants, Inc. He also retired as a colonel from the Alabama Air National Guard. Underwood was a long time member of Woodlawn United Methodist Church. His wife, the late Merle Whitehead Underwood ’90, and his mother, the late Mary N. Underwood ’25, both attended BSC.

John Louis Sims ’56 of Hoover, Ala., on Feb. 22, 2020. Sims attended BSC for two years before serving four years in the U.S. Air Force. Upon his return, he completed his degree in business administration. He spent 40 years at Protective Life Insurance Co. and spent his retirement years traveling, completing sixteen trips to Europe, Russia, China, South America, Africa, and Alaska. Sims was a season ticket holder with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and a generous BSC supporter as an Endowment Builders Society, Ginkgo Society, and Arts Alliance member. He was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church, where he served on the administrative board and sang in the Men's Chorus for many years.

Charles “Charlie” Lawson Hayes ’61 of Hoover, Ala., on Feb. 7, 2020. Hayes attended Harvard Law School before returning to Birmingham in 1964, where he began practicing law at his father’s firm, Dumas, O'Neal, and Hayes. He was a specialist in municipal finance, rated as an A lawyer in Martindale-Hubbell. After retiring in 1998, he loved to go hiking, play golf, and travel – he visited all 50 states and six continents. Hayes was an active member of Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church.

Charles Dewey Mitchell, Jr. ’86 of Hoover, Ala., on Feb. 8, 2020. Mitchell studied accounting at BSC. He loved Nascar, Alabama Football, and working with his co-workers and the management staff at Galleria Days Inn on Highway 150.