Class Notes: September 2023

This collection includes news from September 2023. Class Notes are published monthly on The BSC Blog to provide timely updates for friends and alumni of the College.

Submit career updates, weddings, births, and in memoriam news here.

To register your child or grandchild for BSC’s Seedlings Program, find more information here. Children will receive a special birthday card each year from the Office of Alumni Engagement, as well as invitations to age-appropriate events if they live in the Birmingham area.

Scott Phelps ’76 is the new president pro tempore of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. He has represented Alabama’s Fourth Congressional District on the Board since 2015 and has served as chair of the Finance and Legal Affairs committees. Phelps began his career as an attorney at Bradley Arant in Birmingham. In 1995, he joined Greene Group Inc. in Tuscaloosa, where he is vice president. A member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phelps earned his J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law.

Dr. Justin Cotney ’02, associate professor in the University of Connecticut School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, will receive the 2023 Marylou Buyse Distinguished Scientist in Craniofacial Research Award from the Society for Craniofacial Genetics and Development Biology. He is being awarded for his research enhancing the understanding of craniofacial development and disease. A biology major at BSC, Cotney was a cheerleader and a member of Sigma Nu. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Emory University. Read more about him and his award here.

Dr. Kyle Hoffman ’14 has joined the general surgery team at Memorial Hospital in Sweetwater County, Wyo. A chemistry major at BSC, he attended the UAB School of Medicine and recently completed a general surgery residency program at Ochsner Health in New Orleans. Read more about his new role at Memorial Hospital here.

Carol Copeland Adams ’89 of Birmingham on August 30. A native of Florence, she majored in psychology at BSC and studied Early Childhood Education in a master’s program at the University of North Alabama. For the last 13 years, Adams was a pre-K teacher at St. Mark’s Early Learning Center, where she taught 150 children. She was also involved in the children’s ministry at St. Mary’s on the Highlands, where she was a member for 22 years. Adams is survived by her husband, Brooks Adams ’86.

Julie Vacarella Ciulla ’84 of Birmingham on September 27. Born and raised in Birmingham, she graduated cum laude from BSC with a degree in microbiology and chemistry. Ciulla deeply loved and enjoyed her work in microbiology at Baptist Health System and Laboratory Corp. of America. A lifelong Catholic, she was a member of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church.

Dr. Joseph E. Johnson ’55 of Knoxville, Tenn., on September 29. From 1990 to 1999, he served as the 19th president of the University of Tennessee System. Johnson was considered the architect of the system’s structure and the creator of the university’s decades-long partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. One former colleague called him “among the greatest, if not the greatest, president of the University of Tennessee, at least up to this point.” Johnson worked at UT for more than 50 years in a variety of roles. A history major at BSC, he served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army in Korea and worked in Nashville as executive assistant to Tennessee Gov. Buford Ellington. He held a master’s degree in public administration and an Ed.D. in higher education and industrial management from the UT Knoxville, and received BSC’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1994.

Frances Padalino of Birmingham on September 25. A former staff member at BSC, she also worked at Engel Mortgage Co. and Royal Oldsmobile in her early years. She served West Birmingham at St. Margaret’s Catholic Church and the Catholic Center of Concern, and volunteered at Prince of Peace’s school cafeteria.