The Berea College Alumni Association enjoys hearing from Bereans from all over the world. The “Class Notes” section of Berea College magazine reports verifiable news you wish to share with your alumni friends and associates: careers, weddings, retirements, births, and other items of importance to our alumni. Please include your class year and name used while attending Berea. Notes may be edited for style and length. While we will make every effort to put your information into the next issue of BCM, some delays may occur. We appreciate your understanding.
Submit class notes and photographs here or via email: alumninews@berea.edu.
Tap or click on the arrows beside each year below to display Class Notes and photos.
1961
Ann Wadsworth’s second novel “Libretto” was released by Wheatmark Press in September 2022. The lush environment of central Italy infuses this grand opera of a novel, in which an ailing composer, a music critic in search of an elusive story and a struggling stage director join forces to save a production headed for disaster. Available online in all formats and in selected bookstores.
1966
E.G. Moody retired Sept. 1, 2022, after practicing law with the firm Hawkins, Moody, Bingham & Miller in Kingsport, Tenn., for 35 years and serving as the Chancellor of Sullivan County Chancery Court for the past 16 years.
1972
Janet Ballengee Estep and her husband, Larry Estep, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Dec. 20, 2022 at Monte Vista Hotel in Black Mountain, N.C.
1973
Andrew Baskin thanks Blount County, Tenn., for allowing him the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the county’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.
Phillip Huddleston and his wife, Pat Moreland Huddleston, are retired. They live in Frankfort, Ky. They have a daughter, a granddaughter and a grandson.
1977
Leslie Whittington retired from the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and is living in Weaverville, N.C.
1978
John Alexander was at the Hungry Mother Festival in October, showing the world how he makes the world a better place one broom at a time. He has been passing down the trade to his children and grandchildren. Alexander learned broomcraft at Berea College. Read more.
1982
Rebecca McClure Isaacs ran for election to the Berea City Council. Read more.
1984
Alonzo “Lonnie” Allen, Alumni Executive Council member, won a seat on the Georgetown (Ky.) City Council.
Chaplain (Colonel) Joey T. Byrd is retiring from the U.S. Army after 32 years of military service to our nation as an Army chaplain. His most notable senior leadership accomplishments were serving as the command chaplain for the U.S. Army Central Command, Third Army headquartered in Sumter, S.C., from January 2018 until June 2020, followed by serving as the command chaplain for the U.S. Central Command headquartered in Tampa, Fla., from July 2020 until April 2022. Chaplain Byrd had extensive experiences throughout the Middle East.
His military awards include the Defense Superior Service medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.
Joey and Carol Jaynes Byrd ’82 are clergy of the Presbyterian Church (USA.) The Reverend Dr. Carol J. Byrd is serving as parish associate for congregational care at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C. The Byrds plan to reside in Columbia upon Joey’s retirement.
Timothy Setters has retired from VZW as of May 2019.
1985
Joy Faye Raymer Heines was inducted as the 136th member of the Kentucky Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association (KTCCCA) Hall of Fame. She joins Berea College coach Mike Johnson as another Mountaineer with this distinction. In a Jan. 7 ceremony in Lexington, KTCCCA assistant executive director Tim King hailed Heines as “the matriarch of elementary cross-country and track in Jefferson County.”
Heines, who retired from Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in 2018 after 33 years as a physical education teacher and coach, started the first JCPS elementary school cross-country team at Hite Elementary School in Middletown, and encouraged other P.E. teachers to follow suit. Within a few years, several JCPS elementary schools had formed cross-country and track teams and the “fever” was spreading throughout the state. Heines was instrumental in the implementation of a state meet for elementary school cross-country and track, and her teams appeared on the podium many times as state champions, runners-up or top-five teams. Her boys’ track team won the first-ever Kentucky elementary school state meet.
Many of Heines’ cross-country and track alumni have gone on to compete in high school and college. She is the former coach of several Division I NCAA athletes. She continues to help coach a local post-season cross-country running club, the Louisville TigerSharks, who have won several national titles in various age groups.
Heines resides with her husband Rob Heines ’86, at 148 Running Creek Circle, Shepherdsville, KY 40165. She and Rob have three children. Betsy is a graduate of Transylvania University with a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Tennessee, and she works for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as an analyst for the Office of the Inspector General. Helen Joy, a teacher, and librarian with JCPS in Louisville, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Western Kentucky University and a master’s in library science from the University of the Cumberlands. Isaac earned his bachelor’s degree and Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Bellarmine University in Louisville and practices at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Elizabethtown, Ky.
1992
Dana Murray Patterson was named chief diversity officer at Wingate University. Read more.
1993
Melinda Glenn is the new principal of Wittenburg Elementary School. Read more.
1995
John Payne ran for reelection to the Berea City Council. Read more: http://bit.ly/3mazA2w
April Townsend Pieper was named director of state schools by the Kentucky Department of Education. As director of the division of state schools, Pieper will provide oversight of the operations and management of the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville and the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville, while also providing support to school leaders and working with stakeholders to improve student outcomes. Read more.
1997
Jane Cinnamon was one of 400 teachers selected by the Fiesta Bowl Organization’s annual tradition of honoring, supporting and celebrating educators throughout Arizona. Fiesta Bowl Charities granted 400 teachers $2,500 each through the Palo Verde Fiesta Bowl Charities Wishes for Teachers Draft Day. Cinnamon is currently a special education teacher at Ray Borane Middle School in Douglas, Ariz., and wishes to use the funding to purchase new books for special education classrooms. Read more.
2000
Jessica Blankenship is now the executive director of the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame Museum, as well as Mt. Vernon-Rockcastle County Tourism.
Robert Hayes successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in December 2022 at the University of Kentucky.
Kisha Lashley became an associate professor of strategy at Harvard Business School. Read more.
2003
Steven M. Goodpaster, MAI, MRE was appointed by Knox County (Tenn.) Mayor Glenn Jacobs to the Knox County Ethics Committee to serve a four-year term beginning Nov. 1, 2022.
2004
Anna-Jeannine Kemper Griesacker was appointed interim executive director of the Center for Applied Drama and Autism in August 2022. She is a master’s candidate in arts administration at the University of Akron. Her continuing research explores how the pandemic affected theaters in the northeast Ohio region for her forthcoming thesis “Growing a Viral Culture: The Evolution of Performing Arts Administration in the Age of COVID-19.”
2005
Ashley Miller Anderson, a 2001 graduate of duPont Manual High School, was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2020. Read more.
2007
Princess Nash earned a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her dissertation was a mixed-methods study focused on female veterans’ healthcare
experiences and related outcomes using Veterans Affairs healthcare. Dr. Nash works as a health research scientist for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
2008
Micah Smith received a Doctor of Philosophy in Education from the University of Kentucky in December 2022.
2012
BIRTH: a son, Rowan Berea Smith, born Dec. 1, 2022, to Katie Smith and Micah Smith ‘08.
2014
Victoria Barbour has completed a book collaboration. The book is called “Elevation to Queen Status” and can be found on Amazon.
2015
BIRTH: a daughter, Jaclyn Kay Holland, born Oct. 17, 2022, to Cinda Holland and Rick Holland ‘18.
Preston Tucker is attending Life West Chiropractic College in Hayward, Calif.
2016
Joscelin Rocha-Hidalgo successfully defended her Ph.D. at Georgetown University in lifespan cognitive neuroscience in June 2022. Her dissertation was titled “Bilingualism and Memory Processing during Infancy and Early Childhood.”
2018
Guerds Indjine Jean and her twin sister recently opened an online clothing store called JEANie Couture. At JEANie Couture, the Jean twins pride themselves on bringing customers styles that bring out the best in them. Their business provides luxury on a budget. JEANie Couture pieces allow you the luxury of being committed to YOU and your growth.
Olivia Cundiff is based in Washington, D.C., where she works at the U.S. State Department on issues related to Pacific Islands. Cundiff completed her M.A. in Asian studies at George Washington University, supported by a U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, which provides a generous stipend in addition to covering the costs of tuition. She then was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship—the U.S. government’s flagship leadership development program for advanced degree holders across all academic disciplines, which recruits and develops future government leaders by providing a two-year, full-time, paid fellowship at a federal agency. This year, Cundiff will transition to the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she will research emerging technology and export control with regard to China. “Thanks to Berea,” Cundiff says, “I now get to dabble in a bit of everything in East Asia!” Cundiff welcomes contact with any current students who share her interests in Asia, policy and security issues.
