Alumni Notes
The 2000's

2000
Aiken, Allison: BA, completed her first marathon, The San Diego Rock-'n'-Roll marathon, in June 2005. She also trained for the marathon with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program and raised $3,700 for the society in the process. 

McCullough, Carrie: BA, was promoted to publisher with Harbor House, a publishing company in Augusta, Ga.  She began working for Harbor House in February 2004 as marketing director and managing editor.

Muldrow, Ben: BA, is designing and implementing branding systems for cities, towns and counties in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Vermont and Michigan, and he is hoping to expand to other areas. 

Swartz, Katherine: BA, has joined Camp Kudzu, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation in Atlanta, Ga, as development director.  Camp Kudzu serves Georgia’s 2,500 children living with type 1 diabetes with a variety of camp programming offering educational, recreational and peer-networking opportunities.  Katherine has previously worked with both the Georgia Utility Contractors and the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association.  She is an active member of the Georgia and American Societies of Association Executives and a past board member of the National Association of Women in Construction Atlanta Chapter. 

2001
Douglas, Denille: BA, was hired as an account executive for Jeff Dezen Public Relations (JDPR), a full-service marketing communications consulting agency headquartered in Greenville, S.C.  Her responsibilities include account management, local/regional media relations and creative development for the company’s clients. She has worked as director of integrated communications for the Girl Scout Council of the Congaree Area prior to her position with JDPR.  Douglas serves on committees with the United Way and the SC Chapter of Public Relations Society of America, and she is a 2005 member of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce “Leadership Columbia” class. 

Simmons, Arlecia Deandra: MA, is a doctoral student and Dean’s Graduate Fellow in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Iowa.

2002
Vergakis, Brock: BA, has taken a new job in Salt Lake City covering the Utah legislature for The Associated Press.  He previously worked as a metro reporter at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. 

2003
Beanland, Rachel Moyle: BA, is the public relations manager at Riverbanks Zoo & Garden in Columbia, S.C.  This December, she passed the Examination for Accreditation in Public Relations, an achievement typically reserved for public relations practitioners who've been working in the field for five or more years.  She was also recently named 2004 Rookie of the Year by the South Carolina Public Relations Society of America. Personally, she and her husband just welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Gabriel, from Guatemala.

Hart, Meredith Lindsay: BA, is a member of the account services team at LHWH Advertising & PR in Myrtle Beach, S.C. 

Pearson, Tonia E: BA, was appointed the community relations associate of the Central Carolina Community Foundation, a community trust maintaining more than $62 million in endowments to benefit the Midlands and surrounding counties.  In this role, she serves the Foundation by providing support with grant making and programmatic functions, scholarship coordination, affiliate-related activities and special event coordination. She previously served as administrative assistant with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) of South Carolina.   

2004
Collins, Nancy Joy: BA, began working at Arcadia Publishing, publishers of local and regional pictorial history books, as a sales associate for national accounts in March 2005 and was recently promoted to publicity manager.  She is one of four publicity managers, managing the publicity of books published on towns in the southern region of the United States. Arcadia Publishing’s corporate office is in Charleston, S.C., and has three other offices in Portsmouth, N.H., Chicago and San Francisco.

Harper, Brandalyn: MMC, serves as the corporate communications coordinator for SC Farm Bureau Insurance Companies, located in Cayce, SC. Her responsibilities include internal communications, publication management, special event planning and graphic design. She serves as secretary for the SC Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators and is a member of the Public Relations Society of America. Harper is married to Terry Carter and has one daughter, Taylor Linden Carter.

Ingram, Amanda S: BA, has recently moved back to South Carolina to work as the circulation marketing promotions manager for The Spartanburg Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, S.C.

Soto, Evelyn Kay: Is working on-air in Atlanta at WKHX Kicks 101.5, one of the largest country music stations in America, owned by ABC/Disney.

2005
Beeker, LaDonna: BA, started a career with Harbor House, a publishing company in Augusta Ga.  She is the assistant to the publisher, Carrie McCullough. Her duties include selling, marketing and attending national trade shows to represent Harbor House.

Santilli, Katie E: BA, is the development associate for Catholic Charities Bureau Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla., where she has worked to plan special events and manage the donor database.  She has also been working with the organization to provide Hurricane Katrina relief. 

Snipes, Anne: MMC, completed a public relations practicum at Chernoff Newman Silver Gregory and was brought on as an account coordinator in May 2005.