1980s
Following a career in marketing and communications leadership in IT and consulting services industries, Kelly Cunningham, BFA ’81, joined TWR (formerly Trans World Radio) to serve its global ministry in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Based in Cyprus, Kelly is responsible for International Church development and strategy. TWR proclaims the gospel using media in 230 languages across 190 countries. Contact at kcunningham@twr.org.
Bob Roberts, MPA ’81, a former CFO of Baptist Health, joined Legacy Capital of Little Rock, AR, as chief operating officer.
Laura Runge, BA ’81, of Dallas won the artist label contest for Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Her painting, Joyous Crush, began appearing on wine bottles Nov. 21, 2019. It is expected to appear on more than 1 million bottles.
Dr. Steve Currall, BA ’82, president of the University of South Florida, joined the board of directors of the Moffitt Cancer Center Institute, a Tampa-based facility that is one of only 51 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers.
Jeff Dorrill, BBA ’83, JD ’85, is an elite triathlete and runner in Dallas. He became the national champion in his age group (55-59) at the Ultra-Distance Triathlon National Championships in Grand Rapids, MI, less than a year after a bicycle crash at a national championship race that prevented him from running or swimming for four months. Dorrill is gearing up to compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in France and Hawai`i. He is a partner with Haynes and Boone LLP.
Valerie Reardon, BBA ’83, was named executive vice president, chief operating and continuity officer at Blue Cross of Idaho. She had served as the interim COO since March 2019, in addition to her role as senior vice president, chief compliance and privacy officer for Blue Cross of Idaho. Prior to joining Blue Cross of Idaho, she served as senior vice president for compliance at Emblem Health.
Glenn Gaines, BBA ’84, of Plano, TX, was elected chairman of the board of e3 Partners/I Am Second, a faith-based ministry that establishes thousands of new churches each year globally, presents the Gospel with hundreds of thousands annually and produces high-impact videos focused on real-life restoration testimonies.
Annie Cunningham Hall, BBA ’84, MBA ’93, of DeSoto, TX, recently closed her custom bakery, Annie’s Culinary Creations, to teach full-time as a professor of business at Eastfield College in Mesquite, TX. She also teaches at Collin College. Contact at annie.hall03@yahoo.com.
An insurance agency owned by Terry Strickland, BBA ’84, was voted Waco’s No. 1 agency by the Waco Tribune-Herald’s Reader’s Poll. Strickland has been a State Farm agent for more than 33 years. Contact at 2411 Lake Air Drive, Waco, TX 76710 or terry@terrystrickland.com.
Shawn Todd, BBA ’85, CEO of Todd Interests, continues his work of adaptive reuse of buildings in downtown Dallas. He is set on tackling the biggest project yet, the historic First National Bank Tower, which, at $450 million, will be the state’s largest historic renovation. His first downtown adaptive reuse project was the landmark Dallas U.S. Post Office and Courthouse. Todd was recently featured in D Magazine.
Barbara Shergold Britton, BS ’86, of Brookfield, WI, released her fourth book of Biblical fiction. Lioness: Mahlah’s Journey begins a three-book series on the daughters of Zelophehad from the book of Numbers into the book of Joshua. Five orphaned sisters changed history, but few know their story.
Jeff Mills, BBA ’86, of Sandy Springs, GA, created The Jeff Mills Family Endowed Scholarship Fund in Entrepreneurship to provide scholarship support to entrepreneurship and corporate innovation students in the Hankamer School of Business. Jeff has three children: Lauren, Riley, BSN ’19, and Joshua.
Kelly Brookbank, BA ’86, writes, “We’ve moved! We are now ‘coastal Texans’ living by the ocean and loving it! Missing Texas and our children but enjoying a new way of life. Come visit!” Contact at 102 Windmere Drive, Summerville, SC 29483 or brookbank.kelly@gmail.com.
Mark, BBA ’86, MTax ’87, and Debra Lindsey Rountree, BSEd ’89, of Dallas created The Debra and Mark Rountree Endowed Scholarship Fund in Communication Sciences and Disorders and The Rountree Family Endowed Scholarship Fund for Accounting Graduate Programs. Mark is a member of the University’s Board of Regents, and he and Debra also serve on the National Steering Committee for Baylor’s Give Light Campaign.
Robin Russell, JD ’86, discussed the importance of diversity, women in leadership roles and the future of the law profession in a Q&A with the Houston Chronicle (Aug. 14, 2019). She is deputy managing partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. Russell’s nearly 32-year career primarily has focused on bankruptcy and restructuring and a broad spectrum of related transactional work.
Peyton Smith, BBA ’86, JD ’89, a labor and employment partner with McGuireWoods LLP, was appointed office managing partner for the firm’s Austin office. Smith has practiced law in Austin throughout his career. He has been married for 29 years to Beth Nance Smith, BSEd ’87, who works for Accenture and has served as the program associate manager for the Texas Medicaid Project since 2013. They have two children: Lincoln Smith, BBA ’17, and Scarlett Smith, a Baylor sophomore.
Steve Thevenin, MBA ’87, is executive vice president of leader and organization improvement (LOI) at Maine Pointe, a global supply chain and operations consultancy. Thevenin spent more than two decades at IBM, where he was an executive consultant focused on improving and sustaining the effectiveness of executives, managers, and employees for IBM and its clients.
The Denver Business Journal named Jay Voncannon, BBA ’87, the large company chief financial officer of the year as a part of the publication’s 2019 C-Suite Awards. Jay is CFO of CoorsTek Inc., an advanced ceramics company, wholly owned by the Coors family and headquartered in Golden, CO. Jay lives in the foothills of the Rockies with his wife Christine and daughters Matilda and Georgia.
Dr. Randall Barron, BS ’88, joined Brownwood Regional Medical Center and One Source Health Center in Early, TX, as a family medicine physician. He attained his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Allen Griffin, BA ’88, JD ’92, joined the Dallas office of the boutique family law firm Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson LLP as an associate with a practice covering a range of family law litigation matters. He is a former Dallas assistant city attorney, and before that, practiced family law at his own firm as well as with several prominent Dallas law firms.
Paintings by Lee Mulcahy, BA ’88, were exhibited in September 2019 at the 24th annual community show in Redstone, CO. Mulcahy’s paintings also were exhibited at Art Basel Miami in December. His gallery and studio are located in Aspen, CO. His family charity, Africa Water Wells, are drilling four more water wells and will be installing computer labs with used laptops donated by the Dallas and Aspen communities at schools outside Sotik, Kenya. They are raising funds and requesting nurses, teachers and volunteers for their Kenyan trip in February. More info at leemulcahy.com and africawaterwells.org.
Chad Patterson, BBA ’88, CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Big Pines, spoke of the core values of leadership and the behaviors that drive impact, change and results at the Greater Marshall [TX] Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership HEART business professional luncheon Aug. 30.
Chris Talley, BA ’88, chief communications officer at USAA in San Antonio, was promoted to senior vice president. Contact at
rctalley@swbell.net.
Steve Francour, MSEd ’89, is the women’s tennis coach for Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. Francour recently picked up his 500th career victory as the Vikings downed Cornell College in a Midwest Conference match. Francour, in his seventh season at Lawrence and his 30th season overall, has 199 wins in his women’s coaching career and 301 victories coaching men. Contact at steven.a.francour@lawrence.edu.
Stacy Repult, BBA ’89, is a principal at Dallas- based private equity firm Juniper Capital Management. Repult has more than three decades of financial experience and contributes to the firm’s strategic leadership. Most recently, she was chief financial officer of Nimbix Inc.