Alumni Association To Honor Outstanding Young Alums Nov. 7

The Baylor University Alumni Association will honor five Baylor University graduates as Outstanding Young Alumni during Pigskin Revue at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, at Waco Hall. This year's honorees are Brad Carson of Claremore, Okla.; Tim Gibbs of Roeland Park, Kan.; John L. Howard Jr. of Washington, D.C.; Yifei Li of Beijing, China; and Joey Seeber of Tyler.
A 1989 Baylor graduate, Carson was elected to represent Oklahoma's Second Congressional District in 2000. After graduating with honors from Baylor, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Baylor Chamber of Commerce, Carson was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He earned a master's degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford in 1991 and then graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1994. Prior to his election to Congress, he practiced law as an attorney in private practice and spent two years as a White House fellow assigned to the Pentagon. Carson is the only enrolled Native American tribal member (Cherokee Nation) of the U.S. House and is the vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus. He and his wife, Julie, live in Claremore, Okla.
Gibbs, a 1989 Baylor graduate, has worked as an advocate for Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a cause the hits close to home. Both of his daughters, ages 5 and 6, have the genetic neuromuscular disease, for which there is currently no cure. Gibbs and his wife, Natalie, established a benefit run that has raised more than $65,000 in the Kansas City area. A residential remodeling contractor in the Kansas City area, Gibbs also travels to raise to money to find a cure and has testified before Congress to receive more funding. He and Natalie live in Roeland Park, Kan., with daughters Lauren and Claire.
Howard, a 1985 Baylor graduate, is the federal environmental executive for the United States, having been appointed by President George W. Bush in April 2002. Previously, he was associate director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and served on the Bush-Cheney transition team as the environmental policy coordinator. Howard went to Washington from Austin, where he served then-Gov. Bush as policy director for environment and natural resources from 1996 to 2000. After graduating from Baylor with honors, he attended the University of Texas law school, where he was administrative editor of the Texas Law Review. He graduated in 1988 and practiced law as an environmental attorney to industry, financial institutions and local governments for four years. He and his wife, Ann Gill Howard, have three children: Patricia, Susan and John III.
Yifei Li, who earned a master's degree from Baylor in 1987, is the CEO of Viacom's MTV China, where she had previously been a senior vice president and managing director. Before joining MTV, Li was managing director at Burson-Marsteller China, where she counseled multinational clients. A native of Beijing, Li was a national Tai Chi champion at age 13 and attended the city's most elite foreign-language university, the Foreign Affairs Institute, before coming to Texas to earn a master's in political science from Baylor. For several years she lived in New York City, working at the United Nations and then for an international law firm. In 2001, she was named one of 25 rising stars in global leadership by Fortune magazine and was featured on the cover. Li and her husband, Wang Chao Yong--who is CEO of China Equity Advisory Inc.--live in Beijing.
The mayor of Tyler, Seeber earned both an undergraduate and law degree from Baylor. He practiced law in Tyler for five years before returning to the roots of his undergraduate major at Baylor: entrepreneurship. He previously owned Tyler Transmissions Inc., which he sold in 2001, and now owns WC Supply Co. Seeber's philanthropic activities have included organizing the Tyler chapter of Parents for Public Schools, serving as president of the Baylor Alumni Association and the East Texas Baylor Club, serving as deacon for First Baptist Church of Tyler, and volunteering for numerous educational and political causes. At Baylor, Seeber was president of the student body, a member of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce, an Outstanding Senior Man and permanent class president. He and his wife, Kris Witt Seeber, ('85, MSE '91) have two sons, Joseph and Witt.
The Outstanding Young Alumni Award is given annually by the Baylor Alumni Association to recognize professional achievement and distinguished service to Baylor by alumni 40 years old or younger.
For more information, contact Cheryl Allen of the Baylor Alumni Association at (254) 710-1121 or (800) BAYLOR-U, option 6.