Alumni elected, appointed to GAA Board

Posted on June 3, 2022

David C. Keesler ’84 of Charlotte has assumed office as chair of the GAA Board of Directors, succeeding Dana E. Simpson ’96 (’00 JD) of Raleigh. W. Lowry Caudill ’79 of Durham is chair-elect.

Keesler is a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina. Keesler, who earned a law degree from the University of Virginia, served on the board as first vice chair (2017-18) and as an N.C. district representative (2013-16). He also chaired the Membership Development Committee and is a former co-chair of the Charlotte Carolina Club’s annual William Richardson Davie Scholarship Dinner. He attended UNC as a Morehead Scholar, was chair of the Undergraduate Honor Court and was a member of the junior varsity soccer team, Order of the Golden Fleece, Order of the Old Well, Order of the Grail and Phi Delta Theta and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Caudill is the chair of Tennwood Holdings LLC in Durham. He received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2008 and the GAA’s Distinguished Service Medal in 2014, was on the University’s Board of Trustees (2011-2019), including chair (2013-15), and is co-chair of the Campaign for Carolina. He received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from UNC in 1979 and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Indiana University in 1983.

 

Other new board members elected by Carolina Alumni members or appointed by the board also have taken office.

Phillip Lee McAlpin ’75 of Greensboro is first vice chair, and Judith Hippler Bello ’71 of McLean, Virginia, is second vice chair.

McAlpin previously represented the district for Forsyth and Guilford counties. In 2017, McAlpin retired as general manager of Norse Sports Properties at Northern Kentucky University, a Learfield/IMG College subsidiary. Before working at NKU, he served as executive director of the Victory Club Foundation and the newly created Aggie Athletic Foundation at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He also worked for the United Negro College Fund. McAlpin has been a key player in UNC’s Black Alumni Reunion, is a member of the Board of Visitors and is a founding member of the Carolina Alumni Black Issues Council.

Bello is a retired executive vice president with the PhRMA Foundation. She was previously elected to a three-year term representing out-of-state alumni. She is a past recipient of the Overall Excellence Award D.C. Bar Committee, the Meritorious Public Service Award of the U.S. Coast Guard and was named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington by Washingtonian Magazine in 2001. At UNC, she was class valedictorian, president of Valkyries, co-chair of the UNC exchange program with the University of Toronto, a Richardson Fellow, chair of Tom Bello’s 1970 campaign for student body president, a member of the UNC Women’s Student Association and a cheerleader.

 

Elected to three-year terms representing N.C. districts:

Bernadine Alston Cobb ’84 of Durham to the district for Durham, Granville, Person, Vance and Warren counties. She is senior vice president of the State Employees Credit Union, a former chair of the GAA Black Alumni Reunion and current chair of the BAR’s sponsorship committee. Cobb’s also a founding donor of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, a member of the Light on the Hill Society Board, a member of the Triangle Park chapter of The Links Inc., a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She’s a board member of YESICAN college preparatory program, a member of the Elizabeth City State University Foundation Board and a treasurer and trustee at Wake Chapel Church in Raleigh.

Stephanie Poole Nieman ’06 (’10 MBA) of Chapel Hill to the district for Caswell, Orange and Rockingham counties. She is managing director of Leeds Illuminate. At UNC, Nieman was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece, president of the MBA Entrepreneurship Club, an opinion columnist and reporter for The Daily Tar Heel, a member of Alpha Phi Omega public service fraternity, a UNC Public Service Scholar (now the Buckley Scholars program) and a recipient of the Kenan-Flagler Business School Core Value Award. She also created an MBA Board Fellows program to teach students how to serve effectively on nonprofit boards of directors. She’s on the board of the N.C. Council for Entrepreneurial Development and a member of B Lab’s Standards Advisory Council.

Danya Ledford Vanhook ’00 of Waynesville to the district for Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Stokes, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin and Yancey counties. Vanhook is president of the Haywood Women’s Small Business Alliance. At UNC, Vanhook was senior class president, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, a member of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority, in the Order of the Grail-Valkyries, in the Order of the Old Well, in Student Government and won the award for the highest GPA in the department of Slavic languages and literatures. Vanhook was a district court judge (2009-2011) and was president of the N.C. Bar 43rd Judicial District (2018-2020).

 

Elected to three-year terms representing out-of-state alumni:

David Wayne Jernigan ’00 of Atlanta to the district for Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Jernigan is the president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta; co-chair, education day, Leadership Atlanta; and a board member of Hands on Atlanta. He is a recipient of the GAA’s Distinguished Young Alumni (2011) and the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Outstanding Young Alumni (2003) awards. He was named Georgia Trend Magazine’s “Top 100 Most Influential Georgians” and to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “40 Under 40.” He received the Morehouse College Alumni Association’s Dr. Joseph Draper Service Award.

Jennell S. McIntosh ’15, (’18 DPT) of Louisville, Colorado, to the district for Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. McIntosh is a physical therapist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. At UNC, McIntosh was president of the University’s chapter of the NAACP, a member of the Black Student Movement, a scholar and board member of the Light on the Hill Society Scholarship, a Buckley Public Service Scholar, a member of the BSM Gospel Choir, a member of UNC Allied Health Ambassadors and a member of the UNC Student Physical Therapy Association’s diversity and inclusion committee. She’s a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and secretary and social media chair for the Light on the Hill Society Scholarship and a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.

Robert L. “Bob” Wynn II ’76 of Madison, Wisconsin, to the district for Florida, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Wynn is president of Akamai LLC. He’s the board secretary for the American Players Theater, president of ProSquared LLC, a managing member of Upside Capital LLC, founder and president of CLIMB USA and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. At UNC he was a member of the North Carolina Fellows, Order of the Grail, a volunteer tutor with the Campus Y, a Morehead-Cain Scholar, a fellow with the Center for Creative Leadership, an intern for the N.C. General Assembly, a member of the Black Student Movement and a counselor with Upward Bound.

 

Elected to a three-year term on UNC’s Athletic Council:

Russell Babb ’96 (’99 JD) of Raleigh, an attorney with Tharrington Smith, LLP and president of the Tenth Judicial Bar. Babb served on the Wake County Board of Directors (2014-2016) and on the strategic planning committee of the Wake County Bar (2015 and 2018). At UNC, he was an offensive lineman on the football team and the recipient of the Jim Tatum Award for top senior scholar in the ACC, first team academic All-ACC, the James Southerland Team Captain Award, the Best All-Around Senior Award and the Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award. He also was named an American Honda Scholar athlete and to the CFA/Hitachi Scholar Athlete Team.

 

Appointed as at-large directors to three-year terms:

John Elliott Dervin ’96 of Durham is a stay-at-home father. He currently is on the Board of Directors for the N.C. Governor’s School Foundation, a room parent and volunteer, on the elementary and middle school PTA, and is a parent activist and advocate for non-neurotypical children. At UNC, Dervin was president of the UNC Association of Student Governments and an ex-officio member of the UNC Board of Governors. He was also in the Order of the Golden Fleece, a recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Chancellor’s Award for humanitarian service and a member of the Marching Tar Heels band. Dervin was formerly chief of staff for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a health and human services policy adviser in the Office of the Governor and a partner in Ginsberg Lahey LLC.

Sen. Todd Johnson ’00 of Monroe is president of Johnson Insurance Management, which was founded in 1991. He was elected to the N.C. Senate in November 2018 and was a Union County commissioner from 2010-2014. Johnson serves on the N.C. State Board of Community Colleges, the Jesse Helms Center Board and the Monroe-Union County Economic Development Board, among others.

 

 

 

Also appointed:

Rudolph Colloredo-Mansfeld ’87 as the board’s faculty representative. Colloredo-Mansfeld is senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and served as chair of the department of anthropology (2013-2017). He’s been on the faculty at Carolina since 2008. He received his doctorate and master’s of arts in anthropology from UCLA. Colloredo-Mansfeld was a Morehead Scholar and his scholarly research and teaching focus on Indigenous peoples, consumer cultures and local food systems.

Dana E. Simpson ’96 (’00 JD) as counsel. Simpson, the immediate past board chair, is a partner with Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan. For his firm, Simpson co-chairs the Government Relations practice and regularly represents clients before the N.C. General Assembly and state agencies. Before law school, he served as special assistant for communications and policy to the Speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives. He served as a member of the N.C. Rules Review Commission (2003-2006). Simpson served as first vice chair (2018-19) and as an at-large director (2013-16). As a student, he was a member of Order of the Golden Fleece, Order of the Bell Tower and president of Graham Residence Hall. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and, as a law student, was on Law Review. He is president of the School of Government Foundation and former member of the School of Law Alumni Association board and the UNC Board of Visitors.

Dwight M. “Davy” Davidson III ’77 of Greensboro was reappointed treasurer, and Richard T. “Stick” Williams ’75 of Huntersville was reappointed assistant treasurer.