2009-10 Honorees

Lelan Statom

Lelan Statom (’86) is an Emmy-award-winning meteorologist and talk show host for NewsChannel 5 in Nashville.

Ron Frieson

Ron Frieson (’81) is the senior vice president for external affairs for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and a retired senior executive of BellSouth Corporation.

Alan Wilson

Alan Wilson (’80) is the chairman, president, and CEO of McCormick and Company Inc.


Colonel Hank Hartsfield, Jr.

Colonel Hartsfield (UT Space Institute, 1971) is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force pilot.


Jerry Johnson

Johnson graduated from the College of Engineering in 1994. After earning his MBA from Harvard, he served as a White House fellow under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and now serves as vice president for RLJ Equity Partners in Washington, D.C.

Dale Dickey

Dickey is an accomplished actress who has appeared in television and film productions. She starred in Clarence Brown Theatre's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in September 2009.

Chris Grabenstein

Grabenstein worked in advertising for almost 20 years, writing commercials for America’s top agencies and serving as executive vice president of Young and Rubicam in New York. Several years ago he began writing mystery and thriller books for adults as well as a series of books for children and young adults. His most recent work, “Mind Scrambler,” has been nominated for a number of awards.

Gene Wojciechowski

Wojciechowski is senior national sports columnist for ESPN.


Alan Gottlieb

Alan Gottlieb is a nuclear engineering graduate of the University of Tennessee, but he has built a successful career in communications and politics.

Randy Hopper

Hopper, a 1976 graduate in psychology, began his career working on a White House-sponsored urban education program, “Communities in Schools,” in inner-city Atlanta and the Bronx and Harlem neighborhoods of New York.

Clay M. Jones

Jones is the president and CEO of Rockwell Collins Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rockwell designs, produces, markets, and supports communication and aviation electronics for commercial, military, and government customers, and is the U.S. Army’s leading provider of handheld global positioning systems (GPS). The company is No. 24 on BusinessWeek’s annual list of the 50 best performing companies.

A. Scott Pearson

A West Tennessee native, Pearson received his undergraduate degree from UT before receiving his medical degree at UT Health Science Center. For the last 10 years, he has been a member of the surgical faculty at Vanderbilt University, specializing in cancer research and the clinical practice of surgery and teaching the importance of the patient's narrative in medicine. Pearson was on campus recently to discuss his first novel, Rupture, a medical thriller set in Memphis.

Victor Ashe

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Poland Victor Ashe served as the mayor of Knoxville for 16 years and was recently appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees operations of international broadcasting.

John Stevens

Stevens, a graduate of the College of Engineering, is vice president and general manager for Illinois Tool Works, a Fortune 200 company.

Lisa Ford

Ford, an alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences, is a professional speaker with more than 20 years of experience presenting to businesses, associations, and governments; her main focus is customer service.

Dewayne Scott

Dewayne Scott is president and CEO of SRS Inc. in Nashville, Tenn. SRS grew from $150,000 in sales in 2001 to $24 million in 2007 and was named the Small Business Administration 8(a) Company of the Year for the state of Tennessee in 2005. It is the largest African-American owned firm (by revenue) in Middle Tennessee and the region’s third largest minority-owned company.

Michael Strickland

Strickland is the founder and CEO of Bandit Lites, a global leader in the entertainment lighting industry that has offices in Knoxville, Nashville, London, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Taiwan.

Janice McKinley & Laura Barnes

Janice McKinley is the vice president and chief nursing officer at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville. Under her leadership, Parkwest has won eight “Top 10 Hospital” designations, the VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence, and numerous other awards.

Laura Barnes is the vice president for patient care services at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Barnes is the recipient of numerous awards including the Tennessee Hospital Association Nurse of Distinction Award and the College of Nursing Outstanding Alumni Award for her accomplishments in the areas of management/administration and community service.

Jason Houser

Jason Houser currently serves as assistant director for legislative affairs for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. In this position he works as a liaison between the department and Congress on a portfolio of issues pertaining to science and technology, intelligence, and domestic nuclear detection.

Joe Emert

Joe Emert is president of First Choice Medical in Maryville, TN. For the benefit of future nurses, whose practice is likely to require intercultural experience, Emert and his wife, Cindy, have established the Clariece Stewart Emert and Betty Simpson Papp Endowment for Intercultural Healthcare Opportunities in the College of Nursing.

Everett Medling

Everett Medling was a member of the first graduating class of the School of Architecture at the University of Tennessee in 1969. His projects have included such high-profile structures as the William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, the US Embassy in Moscow, the CIA Headquarters Addition, the Pentagon North Addition, and the Jack Daniel Distillery Visitors Center in Lynchburg, TN.

Clint Boyd

Clint Boyd Jr., an industrial engineering grad, has worked with such clients as the Tennessee Titans, Nissan North America, and a variety of religious and educational groups through Higher Ground Training Inc., a personal and professional training company he started with his wife and business partner in Nashville.

Brent Hubbs

Brent Hubbs is known around East Tennessee as a UT athletics and recruiting expert. He publishes volquest.com and is a two-time recipient of the Tennessee Sportswriter of the Year Award.

Kellie Jolly Harper

Kellie Jolly Harper played for Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols during their run of three consecutive national championships, and now she has enjoyed great success in her first year as head coach of the women’s basketball team at North Carolina State University.