Chemistry Alumni

Bob Hankins
Bob attended ASTC from 1947-1951. He was a student of Cordrey’s and pointed out that Cordrey would invite students over to his house at 1725 Bruce Street for hamburgers and french fries. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri (Analytical, research emphasis in atomic spectroscopy), Bob worked for two years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He then joined the faculty at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA and remained at McNeese throughout his career first as faculty member, then department chair, dean, and finally Vice-President and Provost. Bob was Chair of the Department of Chemistry at McNeese when Joe Smith left ASTC as Professor and Head of Physical Science in 1964 in order to join the chemistry faculty at McNeese State University. Bob reflected on his own time as a faculty member and said that at least once per semester, when asked a question by a student, he would say that he didn’t know the answer (even at times when he actually did know the answer) but would find out and get back to the student. He said that he was trying to make the point to students that faculty members don’t know everything and that they are learning every day, just like the students are. Bob is currently retired and resides in Little Rock where he is close to his brother and his good friends, Mary Good and Anne Butler.

1952

John Nelson
After graduation from ASTC, John went to graduate school at the University of Missouri and then worked for City Service Oil Company (now Citgo).

1953

Bob Butler (1953 chemistry alumnus) and Anne Halter Butler Hickman (1951-53 chemistry major)
Anne Hickman (maiden name Anne Halter, first married name was Anne Butler, married name is now Anne Hickman): Anne was a chemistry student at ASTC from 1951-1953 and then went to the University of Missouri and earned a BS in Chemistry (ACS-certified) at the age of 19, in 1954. She then went to Buckeye Cotton Oil in Memphis, using monochloroacetic acid to combine with cellulose to form carboxymethylcellulose, which is used as a bulking agent in ice cream. She married Bob Butler in 1955 and Bob then went to work at Lion Oil Company in El Dorado. In 1961, they moved to St. Louis, MO and she raised two kids during this time. Bob then decided he no longer wanted to be a chemist and they moved to Florida where Bob opened an auto/boat repair shop and she taught AP chemistry from 1981-1999. She earned a masters in physical/inorganic chemistry in 1986 at the University of Southern Mississippi during the summers. The title of her thesis was “Electrolytic Oxidation/Reduction Chemistry of Chromium.” While teaching in Florida, she won the Chemistry Teacher of the Year Award, awarded by the state of Florida, in 1997. While she was teaching in Florida, she completed a summer workshop in 1986 at UC Berkeley where she met Glenn Seaborg. She recalls Seaborg had retired as president of Berkeley, but he would still come into his office while he was in his 80s. Seaborg told her “never to apologize for being a high school chemistry teacher because you are the source of our university students!” Bob died in 2003. She then taught chemistry at Sacred Heart School in Morrilton and Scotland High School in Scotland, AR. Anne recently married James Hickman, a 1954 graduate of ASTC. In Anne’s 1951 Conway High School annual, James (Jimmy) Hickman wrote “I never would have made it in chemistry without your help.” She has a son, Les Butler, who has been on the chemistry faculty at LSU since 1982, where he is an expert in NMR and XRF. He received a B.S. from UA-Fayetteville, a Ph.D. at Illinois and did a post-doc at Cal Tech. She also has a daughter who is a family practice doctor in Columbus, Ohio, and a granddaughter who has a Ph.D. in physics and works at Los Alamos. This granddaughter is a twin and her twin sister is a business attorney in DC who has served in India as an advocate for women’s rights. She also has a younger granddaughter, who is in graduate school in biology at Harvard.

Richard Scalon
Anne Butler said that Richard Scalon went to chemistry graduate school at the University of Arkansas and was there from 1953-56, but was not sure whether he graduated since she lost touch with him. Anne thinks that Richard moved to the Houston area.

Allen Robinette
Allen was the son of C.V. Robinette, long-time chair of biology at ASTC, and grew up only a few blocks from the ASTC campus. He was a neighborhood friend of Bob Hankins, a 1951
alumnus. Robinette’s family were close friends with Harvel Wright (1956-58 ASTC faculty member) and his family. Anne Butler (oral interview) said that there were three chemistry graduates in 1953: Bob Butler, Richard Scalon, and Allen Robinette and all three of them went to chemistry graduate school at the University of Arkansas. All of them began in 1949 and had Cordrey in class. Bob Halter reported that Cordrey was a “laid-back, friendly person” and that Bob “thought the world of him as a teacher and a person.” Allen earned a masters degree in chemistry from the University of Arkansas in 1956 and served on the ASTC faculty from 1956-1964. He left his faculty position at ASTC in 1964 to return to Fayetteville and completed his Ph.D. there. Allen was then employed by Teva Pharmaceutical in northwest Arkansas.  Allen taught physical chemistry and during the 1964-65 academic year there was no one on the staff to teach this course so students enrolled in the course offered at Hendrix. Art Hoyt (personal e-mail) recalls having Allen Robinette for general chemistry and remembers that Allen had one finger missing as a result of an explosion during his work in industry. Denver Prince (personal interview) noted that Allen’s daughter taught geology for the physics department in the Lewis Science Center.

1958

Dennis Faulk
Dennis grew up on a farm near Kensett, Arkansas and stated “working on a farm without modern herbicides and harvesting equipment produces a strong incentive to go to college.” He worked his way through Harding and ASTC as a projectionist in movie theaters in Conway and Kensett. After graduation from ASTC in 1958, Dennis was accepted to medical school but decided to take a position with Gulf Oil in Port Arthur, Texas, where he developed lubricating greases. After 3.5 years there, he decided to further his education and attended graduate school in chemistry at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He then accepted an industrial position with Shell Oil with a salary that was the highest in the history of any Ph.D. graduate of the University of Arkansas Department of Chemistry. He worked for Shell for 16 months where he enriched p-xylene in feedstock for use in making polyesters. Dennis then decided to pursue an academic career (referring to it as a “calling”), so he accepted a position as a faculty member at Central Missouri State University in 1967. He then served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Central Missouri for 17 years, retiring in 1998. He and his wife, Emily, are currently retired in Hot Springs Village where they enjoy playing golf.

1963

Jim Howard
For the first two years, after graduation, he taught high school chemistry, in Texas and Arkansas. Since 1966, he has worked for the same company, as an Analytical Chemist. Like UCA, in these 52 years, the company has changed names several times, but it is still located in Louisville, KY and now is known as Clariant. He has worked in many areas of analytical chemistry. Including classic “wet” chemistry, physical measurements (surface area and pore volume), gas chromatography, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. For the last 32 years, He has worked with X-ray diffraction. His titles have been Chemist, Analytical Chemist, Senior Analytical Chemist, Group Leader, and now Senior Research Scientist.
Jim was married 54 years to Sharon Asbury Howard (d. Oct 2017). Sharon attended ASTC, one year. They had 3 children. Two sons, 49 and 46, there was also one daughter, who is deceased, and 4 grandsons.

1966

John David Richardson
John David taught in the public schools in northeast Arkansas for many years and is currently retired.

Karen Shewbart
Karen received an MS in Chemistry from UALR (GIT) in 1969 and then moved to Texas and went to work for Dow in analytical services. After 7 years, Karen moved to Environmental Services for Dow and ultimately became the Environmental Manager for Dow’s Texas Operations. Karen moved to Urethane Manufacturing for 3 years managing isocyanate and Polyol manufacturing and then to Epoxy Manufacturing in 1990 and was responsible for all of Dow’s $250 million dollar Epoxy business. In 1996, Karen became the Global Training Manager responsible for uniting the Dow and Union Carbide folks under one standard system. Karen retired in June, 2001 and has become a golfer full time. In 2004, she won the Executive Women’s Golf Association Houston Championship, went on and won the state of Texas tournament in San Antonio, and placed second in Nashville at the Nationals. Karen spends lots of time with the granddaughters, traveling (with golf clubs) and playing lots of golf. Karen has been on the Governor’s Commission on Education, the Governor’s Commission on Environmental Policy and other state boards. In December, 2002, she gave the Commencement address at the Univ. of Texas in Austin. Karen is currently Chair of the University of Texas in Austin, College of Natural Science, Advisory Board.

1967

Cecil Ritter
Cecil and his wife, Ann, began teaching in the Crossett Public Schools after graduation. Cecil taught chemistry and physics and also completed an MSE degree at UCA. In 1995 he moved to the UAM Technical Campus Crossett as an instructor and retired from there in 2002. Cecil serves on the city water commission and on several committees concerned with school and educational improvement. Cecil and Ann have two children, Beth and Daniel, as well as seven grandchildren. Cecil says, “I have only fond memories of my time at UCA and in the chemistry department. It prepared me well for a career which I enjoyed very much as interacting with the brightest kids in the district helped keep me young! I often run into former graduates and am always interested to discuss ‘old times’ with them as well as their successes.”

Bill Shewbart
Bill did graduate work at the Univ. of Arkansas in Little Rock for 1.5 years. He went to work for Dow Badische in 1969 doing Pilot Plant R&D Nylon chemistry and transferred to Dow Chemical Hydrocarbon Process research in 1971 where he worked with hydrocarbon catalysts, and light hydrocarbon processes. In 1981, Bill changed to Urethanes Research and worked with proplyene and butylene oxide chemistry, catalysts for polymerization of oxides. Bill moved to the safety area for R&D in 1985 and became North American R&D Safety Director in 1988. In 1990, he became Global Reactive Chemical Manager for Dow and promoted programs for safe handling of chemicals and investigated chemical reactivity incidents. Since retiring from Dow in Sept 1994 at the age of 50, traveling with wife, golfing, and grand kids keep him busy. We have 2 children and have been married 38 years now. Their son Andrew lives in Taipei, Taiwan and owns 3 schools teaching English to Chinese children, mainly elementary age kids. He is completely fluent in Chinese. Their daughter lives near them in Houston, is married, and has two daughters, 4 and 1.5 years old. His wife is a CPA. Bill reports that they try to see the grand kids as often as possible.

1968

Bill Shipp
Bill received a doctorate in health physics from Purdue University. He served in a variety of positions at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago before transferring to the Hanover Labs in Washington where he currently works.

Jim Irving
Jim taught chemistry in the public schools in Pulaski County for many years. He is currently on the faculty at Pulaski Technical College.

1969

Gary Canada
Gary graduated in the summer of 1969 with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. He was active in the ACS Student Affiliate. After graduation his first job was teaching 7th and 8th grade math in Wrangell, Alaska where they commuted by boat to work. After one year there he and his wife (Hanna Boles who also graduated from UCA in 1969) moved back to England, Ark. where he taught chemistry, biology, physics and coached at England Academy until 1973. He retired from teaching and went to work at the Bank of England as a teller. He became president of the bank in 1989. Gary and Hanna have three children and seven grandchildren.

Marvin Tanner
After graduation Marvin taught in the public schools for a few years and then took over the family dairy farming business.  He currently resides in the Heritage Nursing Home in Conway.

Pat Cowger Finkenbinder
Pat returned to Dardanelle after graduation and went to work in the lab for a chicken feed company. That company was ultimately bought out by Tyson. She then transferred to a supervisor position in the Tyson processing plant in Russellville.

Gary White
Gary received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. He worked for Exxon and Nalco in the United States before accepting a position as chief oil field chemist for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabi. After travels over much of the world Gary returned to Conway where he taught chemistry at Conway High School and also served as an adjunct faculty member in chemistry at UCA.  He is currently retired.

Richard Thompson
Richard went to work for the Ecology and Pollution Department of the State of Arkansas. Although the name of this branch of state government has changed several times over the years, Richard has remained employed there.

1970

George Dilbeck
George (Gay) received a Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University. He was employed with EPA in Las Vegas for a number of years. He has recently moved to Alabama where he works in nuclear monitoring and cleanup for EPA.  George died in his sleep in December of 2010.

Patsy (Yeats) Baynard
After graduation from UCA Patsy received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from the University of Arkansas in 1973.  She then completed a reactor engineering program through the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in 1977.  She received an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology in 1979 and completed the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth in 1981. Patsy has held a number of technical and managerial positions in government and industry primarily in the area of energy beginning with Nuclear Power.  In the fall of 2010 she was employed by Wind Energy Transmission.  This is a startup electric utility doing project development on electric power transmission facilities to support bringing the wind energy resources in West Texas to load centers. She started the company and has run it for the past 15 months, reporting to the Board of Directors.  She is responsible for getting projects through the regulatory process, permitted, engineered, real estate, construction and ultimate operation.  She spent three years working for St. Petersburg College in the 1990’s building a new college campus focused on distance learning, running the campus for the first year and then going on to do their institutional effectiveness work. She left to pursue an opportunity to do consulting in nuclear for the Department of Defense. She has two sons.  William is at the University of Florida working on his PhD in Mathematics.  Robert is at the University of South Florida working on a Masters in Media Studies and does consulting in technical writing and editing.

1972

John Mitchell
John worked for the Ecology and Pollution Department. He retired a few years ago.

Joe Barnes
Joe lives in Vilonia and is currently retired from the Arkansas Crime Lab.

Don Riddle
Don lives in Vilonia and works at the Arkansas Crime Lab.

Scotty Cook
Scotty received an MD from UAMS. He has practiced medicine and has also held a variety of faculty positions in medical schools including UAMS.

1973

C.C. Garner
C.C. received an M.D. degree from UAMS and when last heard from was practicing in Florida.

Gary Dallas
Gary obtained a position with the Arkansas State Crime Lab where he has been head of the drug section for a number of years.

1974

Dennis “Carl” Harris
Carl received a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from UA-Fayetteville. He worked as an environmental chemist with the Tennessee Valley Authority, followed by working on plant corrosion
with Arkansas Power and Light in Little Rock. Dr. Harris then developed and conducted initial and continuing training for the chemistry positions at the Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) facility in Russellville for 18 years, followed by seven years of emergency planning at ANO, and then retiring from ANO in 2007. Dr. Harris then served as a visiting assistant professor at Arkansas Tech University until 2014.
He and his wife, Mira, whom he met during his sophomore year at UCA (then the State College of Arkansas), live in Russellville. While a student at SCA, he played music at gatherings at the Manions’ house and he continues to play guitar and banjo today. He is enjoying retirement, sailing on Lake Ouachita, and spending time with grandchildren.

Jerry Wilson
Jerry worked as a musician after graduation, then joined the Navy and became a pilot. After his tour of duty Jerry became a pilot for a commercial airline.

1975

Richard Daily
Richard received an M.D. from UAMS and then practiced medicine in Harrison.

David Matchett
David obtained a position with the Arkansas Department of Ecology and Pollution and has been employed there for a number of years.

Ron Shephard
Ron grew up in Benton. In 1975, he graduated from UCA where he was a Trinity Foundation Scholar. He received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Utah in 1980 under the supervision of Prof. J. Simons where he developed and applied electronic structure methods. He was a Battelle Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow under the supervision of Profs. I. Shavitt and R. J. Bartlett at Battelle Columbus Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio. His research involved the development of the COLUMBUS Program System in collaboration also with Prof. Hans
Lischka who was a visiting faculty member, Prof. R. M. Pitzer, and then Ph.D. student F. B. Brown at The Ohio State University. He joined the Theoretical Chemistry Group at Argonne National Laboratory in 1981 under the supervision of Dr. T. H. Dunning, Jr. Argonne is a Department of Energy laboratory, and his research group studies combustion chemistry. “We have both experimentalists and theoreticians in our group. I am a theoretician and I do mostly method development in electronic structure theory, but I sometimes do some applications and work in other areas of physical chemistry such aspotential energy surface fitting, vibrational wave function calculations, or chemical kinetics. I also publish some applied mathematics and numerical methods work from time to time about things like data compression and eigenvalue calculations.”  Ron was recently promoted to Senior Scientist in the Gas Phase Dynamics Group at ANL where he develops and applies electronic structure methods to address combustion chemistry problems. Ron’s research work is recognized internationally and in 2009, Ron was chosen as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ron and his wife have a son who is currently a senior in high school. His hobbies include playing pool in local leagues and in tournaments. He sometimes plays in pool tournaments when he travels for work. He also referees some of the professional and amateur tournaments.

1976

John Alred
John was a physics major, but he took six semesters of chemistry and worked many hours as a chemistry lab assistant and stockroom clerk. After graduating from UCA, John received an
M.S. in physics from UT-Austin and a Ph.D. from Baylor. He joined NASA JSC in 1981 for several years, then taught at Texas A&M and the University of Houston while being a consultant to NASA. After the aerospace depression of the 1990s, he worked a couple of years as a generic engineering/science consultant before being hired by Lockheed Martin in 1996 to work on a project in Denver. He transferred to LM in Houston working on the International Space Station. That led to a job at Boeing supporting ISS on space environmental effects on materials. After seven years, he rejoined NASA in 2006. His job now consists of three parts and threatens to add another with the new Lunar/Mars programs. He says, “All in all, it has been fun, however non-linear the path has been.”
John is married and has three sons. “The oldest is in college and plans to be a doctor; the middle son wants to major in biomedical engineering; and the youngest wants to be rich (lawyer). So, within two years, I will have three kids in college at the same time – what was I thinking!!”

Bob Beaton
Bob received a masters degree from ASU-Jonesboro and then received an MD from UAMS.

William Deese
After graduating from UCA in 1976, Bill attended graduate school for five years in Fayetteville (Ph.D, 1982). He has taught at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana since the fall of 1981 where he is now the C. W. Ray Johnson Professor of Chemistry in the College of Engineering and Science. Since the late eighties, his research interests have been mainly in chemical and science education. He spends summers conducting professional development institutes for middle school and high school science teachers. For exercise, he enjoys playing basketball and juggling. He has been married to Evelyn Archer whom he met in Dr. Manion’s organic class, since 1979. They have one daughter, Nicole who shares his passion for juggling. Bill won the 2010 Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach, which recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of public outreach by a member of the ACS. This award was made at the Fall, 2010 ACS meeting in Boston. Bill Deese remained in close contact with Jerry Manion after leaving UCA. Bill and Jerry regularly shared ideas about chemistry demonstrations and even put on a show in the spring semester of 2014 on UCA’s campus.

Mike Houchens
Mike obtained a position in the laboratory for Maybelline in Lonoke and he currently has overall responsibility for quality control at the plant.

Elizabeth Howard
Elizabeth also obtained a position in the laboratory at Maybelline.

Alan Irby
Alan has been employed by Abbott Laboratories for the past 25 years working in North Carolina, Texas and New Orleans. He currently is part of international supply chain management for Hospira, the hospital products division of Abbott in Lake Forest, IL. His children are grown and he and his wife of 27 years enjoy living in the Chicago area. He remembers New Orleans fondly and visits there frequently. He hopes to retire to the Hot Springs area.

Jim Justus
Jim obtained an MD at UAMS and practiced for several years. He became seriously ill and died several years ago.

Gerhard Laule
Gerhard Laule teaches chemistry at Seminole State College, where he has been since January 1988. He received an M.S. from the University of Arkansas Graduate Institute of Technology in 1986 and then spent a year working on his doctorate in Physical Chemistry at the University of Oregon. As a faculty member at SSC, he has served as chair of the Math/Science/Engineering division and has continued graduate work at Oklahoma State University in Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Education. Currently he devotes most of his time to teaching General Chemistry I and II and Introductory Chemistry as well as serving as an Adjunct Chemistry Instructor at Oklahoma Baptist University where he teaches the labs for health sciences chemistry. Hobbies include competitive bicycling racing, hiking, camping etc.

Laquetta Moore Purkiss
Laquetta and her husband,David, live in Lubbock, TX where they are both employed by Texas Tech University. Laquetta is responsible for laboratory classes in general and organic chemistry.

John Shore
John received a PhD from the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville.  He has been employed in the chemistry industry.

Ricky Stamps
After receiving an M.S. degree from the University of Alabama in 1981, Ricky went to work in Texaco’s research labs in Port Arthur, TX where he worked in industrial lubricant and grease development. He transferred to Shell’s Westhollow Technology Center in 1988. He is currently a Senior Chemist, Lubricants with Shell’s global technology organization, Shell Global Solutions, where he is a team leader supporting industrial, transport and aviation greases. He also serves informally as the building computer geek. His work with a global unit has allowed him to travel extensively. Ricky and his wife live in Katy, Texas and have three sons (two in college and one in high school). Ricky’s hobbies include building computers, refurbishing vintage hi-fi speakers, and playing an occasional game of casino black jack.

1977

James Duke
Jim graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine in 1981 and practiced Emergency Medicine until he entered a 3-yr Residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, TX in 1989. He moved to Colorado in 1992 and is currently an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and
Associate Director of Anesthesiology, Denver Health Medical Center. Jim’s responsibilities include educating medical students and supervising residents in anesthesiology in the operating room. He is the editor of two anesthesia textbooks, “Anesthesia Secrets” currently in third edition, and “Anesthesia Pearls.” He has been accepted into the Executive MBA program in Health Administration at the University of Colorado.
When James left UCA, he applied to 10 graduate schools in chemistry and one medical school. Jerry Manion fondly remembers “I remember that you were awarded a very lucrative fellowship at the University of Nebraska.” Jim Duke agreed. Jerry Manion then pointed out “And about the same time you received acceptance into medical school. I have used this an as example with students since then that you came in and you had a very difficult decision to make between those two and I told you that was an easy decision. Difficult decisions were when you did not have any options.”
Jim has been married to Renee for over 10 years and they serve at the beck and call of two cats, Desi and Audrey. Jim enjoys roaring through the Colorado mountains on his Harley Davidson Road King and is taking 2-step country dance lessons at the Grizzly Rose, recently named the Country Music Association Honky Tonk of the Year! Jim skis a little, gardens a lot, reads all the time and tries to get a nap in every day, though sometimes this doesn’t work out.  Jim has the fondest of memories of my times in the UCA Chemistry department and says that “if I had to do it again, I would.”
Sadly, Jim passed away on November 5, 2014. His wife, Renee, wrote to the chemistry department “Thank you for having a hand in helping Jim become the wonderful, brilliant man he was.”

Jim Fraser
After graduation in 1977 , Jim worked briefly as a lab tech in a private wastewater lab in Little Rock and in quality control at Maybelline. He worked in R&D at Reynolds Metals for five
years until they relocated and then two years for a petroleum refinery in Shreveport, LA. He returned to Arkansas, to work for AP&L as a chemist in the lab at the nuclear plant in Russellville. He moved from there to the corporate tech support group in Little Rock after a couple of years and was there 6 years until Entergy relocated that group to New Orleans. He began work in 1992 for Calgon selling water treatment chemicals to power plants. Calgon has since merged with Nalco for whom he is currently involved with water treatment in a variety
of industries. In 1996 he received a MS in Operations Management from the University of Arkansas.  Jim and his wife, Debby, live in the middle of 200 wooded acres outside of Batesville where he is an avid bow hunter with an emphasis in turkeys. His children, Ryan and Lana Lawrence, live in Vilonia along with his 4 grandchildren.

Steve Graham

Gerald Hook
After graduation Gerald obtained employment in the chemical industry in the St. Louis area where he has been very active in the local ACS section.

Bill McKelvey
Bill taught school at Heber Springs for one year before going to the State Crime Lab, where he was a Chemist for two years. In 1981, he moved to Russellville and joined the staff at Arkansas Nuclear One as a chemist. At Nuclear One he has served as Chemistry Supervisor, a Chemistry Superintendent and Industrial Safety Superintendent. He has been the Employee Concerns Coordinator since 2004. He describes this as kind of a camp counselor, complaint department and whistle blower office all rolled up into one.
Bill’s wife, Shelia, is a 1980 graduate of UCA, with a degree in early childhood education. They have been married for 28 years and have two sons. Tim is a senior education major at UCA (and is going to be a great football coach). Philip is a freshman at the University of Arkansas majoring in business.

Susan Rongey

Eddie Shiller
Eddie went to work for Alcoa in Benton upon graduation.

Tim Thomas

1978

Rusty Degges

Tom Ezell
After serving in the military Tom returned to UCA to take a teacher training program.

William (Bobby) Floyd
Bobby’s goal when he came to UCA was to return to Nashville and work in the concrete manufacturing plant there. He did so and had been there ever since. His son, Tyler,entered UCA in the fall of 2007.

Mike Jones

Jay Kemper
Jay has held chemist positions at the Arkansas Crime Lab and at the Plant Board.

Rosalyn Riding
Rosalyn taught high school chemistry northeast part of the state for a number of years.

Becky Stewart
Becky completed dental school and is currently practicing dentistry.

Carol Wiedower

1979

Joe Allison
Joe received a Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry from Purdue University in 1983. He then obtained a job with Conoco (now Phillips-Conoco) where he has held a number of positions and is currently the Director of Catalysts Development for the Gas-To-Liquids R&D Department.  Joe was selected as the outstanding chemist in Oklahoma in 2008 and was recently promoted to research fellow at Conoco-Phillips, which provides him with wide latitude in the choice of projects on which he works.  In 2010 Joe was named as an ACS fellow at the Fall National Meeting in Boston.  He also was recognized as a 2010 outstanding alumnus by the Chemistry Department at Purdue University where he earned his Ph.D. degree.  Joe also was recognized as distinguished alumnus of UCA 2012.

Chet Barber
Chet is currently employed as a pharmacist.

Richard Davis

Laura Hollenbeck Allison
After graduating as the 1979 top overall UCA graduate in chemistry, Laura attended Purdue University on an NSF predoctoral scholarship in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. After receiving an M.S. degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy in 1981, Laura worked at BioAnalytical Systems as a Research Chemist from 1981 to 1983. Since 1983, she and Joe have lived in Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1983 where she is a Senior Scientist in the Analytical Services Department specializing in Mass Spectrometry for Conoco (now ConocoPhillips). Joe and Laura have two children: Brent, 22, at Oklahoma State University majoring in Finance; and Tara, 19, at Hendrix College (yes, ironically she is in Conway) majoring in English/Anthropology.

Charles Stotts
Charles worked in Huntsville, AL for a number of years for a company that manufactured solid rocket fuels. He is currently employed in a plant in Fort Smith and enjoys a piece of land he bought on the Mulberry river.

Richard Walser
Richard taught in the public schools for several years and has been active in the Arkansas National Guard. Most recently he serves as the manager of Ricks Armory in Little Rock.

1980

Slaton Fry
After graduating from UCA in 1980, Slaton spent a short time with Phillips Petroleum and then returned to graduate school at the University of Arkansas and completed a Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry under Dr. Norbert Pienta in 1985. He then worked for Halliburton Services and finally Eastman Chemical in Batesville, AR for 16 years before leaving to work for UAMS Arkansas BioVentures biotechnology incubator and to return to school for an MBA at UALR. He also worked for Safe Foods Corporation as the VP, Logistics and Operations. In 2006, Slaton returned to Batesville and worked for FutureFuel Chemical Co. (formerly Eastman) as the executive Director, Commercial Operations until 2014.  From there he moved to Baytown, TX, to work as VP, Administration for Nippon Gohsei USA, a manufacturer of EVOH barrier polymers. In 2017 he and his wife returned to live in Conway.  Slaton is currently the chief operations officer at SafeFoods in North Little Rock.  As the name implies, SafeFoods is a company that manufactures and provides food-safe disinfectants used in food processing industries.

He married Diann Curiel in 1984 and they have two children, Evan and Elise. Evan has attended UCA off and on since he graduated from high school. Elise has been accepted and has decided to attend Hendrix College in the fall of 2015.

David Purkiss
David went to graduate school at Texas Tech University and is currently the instrumentation specialist in the Chemistry Department there. His primary responsibility is the operation and upkeep of NMR spectrometers in the department.

Randy Solomon
Randy received his masters degree from UALR. He currently works in environmental chemistry in the Dallas, TX area where he lives with his wife and three sons.

Randy Tucker
Randal (Randy) Tucker, graduated in 1980 and then worked for Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, OK for a short while before returning to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1982 in order to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. He did his research on snake venom components and the venom of the Brown Recluse spider. He received his PhD in Chemistry with specialization in Biochemistry and then went to the LSU Eye Center in New Orleans for postdoctoral training. He returned to Arkansas where he worked for the Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas State Crime Lab as a mass spectrometrist in the areas of environmental chemistry and toxicology. He helped to establish the first forensic DNA laboratory while at the Arkansas State Crime Lab after receiving training at Life Codes in Stamford, Connecticut, Applied Biosystems in San Franscisco, and Promega, in Madison, Wisconsin. He now works for the US Food and Drug Administration in Jefferson, Arkansas where he uses both high and low resolution mass spectroscopic techniques for the analysis of ultra trace levels of chlorinated organic toxins in foods. You can contact Randy at randaltucker@gmail.com and viceroy@arkansas.net .

1981

Craig Cummins
Craig received an MD from UAMS and is currently a family practice physician in the Bannister-Lieblong Clinic in Conway.

Teresa Madley
Teresa is the Chemistry Superintendent over the Chemistry Department at Arkansas Nuclear One. There are 31 in the department including Supervisors, Specialists and Chemists. She has been at ANO for 24 years. Teresa began work at ANO in 1981 as a Chemist two weeks after graduating from UCA with a B.S. in Chemistry. She also held the positions of Chemistry Specialist and Site Human Performance Lead at ANO. She has two children, Lauren (age 21) and Justin (age 18). Lauren is a senior at Arkansas Tech University and Justin will be a freshman at ATU in the fall 2005. Her daughter is majoring in pre-med and music and her son plans to major in biology.

Dan Meatheny
Dan is employed at Entergy, Arkansas Nuclear One. He originally chose the job because it was close to his girl friend and has been there ever since. He and his girl friend, Kim, are now married and and have one son, Kyle. They recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a trip to Egypt and Kenya. At Nuclear One, Dan is in charge of the steam generators. Specifically he tests for possible breakdown in the Inconel tubing with which they are plumbed and which are under 2250 psi of pressure.

Ray Schichtl
After graduate school at GIT (UALR) Ray got a job with an electronics manufacturing firm in Maumelle.  Ray currently lives in Conway.

Jim Whitaker
Jim attended graduated school in chemistry at the University of Oregon.

Mark Woods
Mark started his career as a research chemist with Phillips Petroleum Company in 1981. Mark holds several US and foreign patents for Ryton® and other plastic resin inventions. In 1995, Mark became the commercial manager for Phillips’ Ethylene Business which became Chevron Phillips Chemical. Mark was responsible for over $2 billion in annual sales as the Ethylene Director. Mark applied analytical and mathematical skills from his research and development background to model the commercial and economics aspects of ethylene markets. During his tenure, Mark successfully negotiated over 8 billion pounds of ethylene sales into long term contracts and sold/purchased over 1 billion pounds of short term spot ethylene.

Mark joined Old World Industries (makers of Peak© antifreeze) in 2003 to become Director of Business Development. Mark helped
restructure Old World’s ethylene purchasing. In 2004,
Woods lead an effort to develop a physical hedge for Old World’s significant energy exposure by starting up an independent oil and gas exploration company. Ventum Energy was formed in late 2004 to implement strategies to reduce the volatility and cost of Old World’s energy consumption.  Ventum Energy was involved in the early stages of the current shale oil and gas boom.
In 2007, Mark identified a significant need in the North American Ethylene market for an independent consultant to provide strategy development, analytical modeling, and commercial trading expertise. Mark created Ethylene Strategies International, L.P. (ESI) to provide confidential one-on-one consulting/advising to help companies evaluate, design and implement business strategies in the olefins markets.  ESI developed a set of proprietary models to track supply and demand and statistical trading trends of ethylene. ESI licenses these models to commercial (trading) participants in the ethylene, ethylene derivative, and natural gas liquids markets. ESI also works with senior management teams to provide a strategic advisory service.
Mark married Denise Coleman in 1987 and have three boys (Stephen (24), Daniel (22), and Philip (20)). Stephen is a forestry major at Stephen F. Austin State University. Daniel is an engineering major and Philip is a finance major at Oklahoma State University.
Read more here.

1982

Ray Black
Ray went to law school and currently practices in Little Rock.

Gary Gibson
Gary worked at the crime lab for a time, then went to pharmacy school.

John Gilliom
After receiving an M.S. in mathematics from Ohio State University John attended seminary and is currently involved in work with his church.

Bob Lashlee
Bob has received a degree in engineering and is currently retired from the air force.  He currently resides in Colorado and works as a private consultant for the aerospace industry.

Brad Lemay
Brad went to medical school at UAMS.

Danny Reese
Danny completed medical school at UAMS on a Navy scholarship. After several years as a navy physician during which he completed a residency in anesthesiology Danny joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky medical school where he served as Chief of Staff. He is currently employed full-time at the VA Hospital in Lexington.

1983

Cathy Bates
Cathy completed a degree program in Occupational Therapy and she currently resides in Conway.

Gary Skiles
Gary did graduated work in chemistry at the University of Dallas and currently works in industry in the Dallas area.

Lessie Spurrier
Lessie is an owner of a private testing laboratory in Little Rock.

Tim Tipton

Michael Woods
Michael practices obstetrics in Conway.

1984

Randall Black
Randall graduated first in his medical school class and currently practices medicine in northwest Arkansas.

Clark Davis
Clark graduated with a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Texas A&M in 1989, working under Kenn Harding. His employment history has included stints with Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Union Carbide and he is now working for Dow Chemical following the Union Carbide-Dow merger. Clark and his wife Karen recently relocated to the San Francisco area when he took a position with Dow Agrosciences in their Pittsburg, California facility.

Larry Eoff
Larry completed his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry at the University of Arkansas under Dr. Norbert Pienta in 1989. He has been employed by Halliburton Energy Services in Duncan, OK for 15 years (with two years in Houston with a chemical company from 1994-96). “Work at Halliburton has been very good and has allowed me travel all over the world, which I have really enjoyed.” Larry and his wife, Jessica, two sons, Jeremy (15) and Jared (12). He stays active, playing softball in the summers and more recently playing golf, which Jessica has taken up also.

Michael Joaquin Jessup
Joaquin went to med school at UAMS and then did a residency in Wichita, Kansas. He is currently practicing Ob-Gyn in Cape Girardeau, MO

Deanna King Hopson
Deanna received her M.D. degree from UAMS in 1988 and completed residency in Family Medicine at the AHEC Fort Smith Residency Program. She worked in the ER of Howard Memorial Hospital at Nashville, AR and later at a rural clinic in Stephens, AR . She was a Faculty Physician at the AHEC South Arkansas Family Medicine Residency Program for 7 years in El Dorado, AR. Since December 2004, she has been serving uninsured patients at the Interfaith Clinic in El Dorado. Deanna and her husband, Rodney, have four children, Audra Claire, Benjamin, Nicole, and Hannah.

Luke Setzler
Luke lives in Conway and is an air traffic controller at the Little Rock Airport.

Timothy Troup
After UCA Tim attended the UA Graduate Institute of Technology  and ran the chemistry and microbiology labs at the Little Rock water utility until 1991.   Since that time he has been doing safe drinking water act work including lead surveillance, chemical terrorism and preparedness work, and emergency food response work with the Arkansas Public Health Lab at the State Department of Health.  He is currently the Inorganic Chemistry Unit manager.  Tim continues to live in his hometown, Congo, in Saline county.
Several alumni have worked in the Arkansas Public Health Lab over the years including 2 inorganic managers (Gerhard Laule 1976 and Timothy Troup 1984) and  1 radiochemistry manager (George Dilbeck 1970).   Other chemists at APHL over the years include Randall Tucker 1980, Louis Poposky 1989, Terry Lipsmeyer 1990, Phillip Shewmaker 1996, Lori Stacks 1998,  Vi Huyen (Le) Do 2007, and Lindsay Pack 2007

Bill Williams
Bill attended medical school at the University of Mississippi from 1985-’89. Following graduation, He did an Ob-Gyn residency at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa from 1989-’93. He moved to Searcy in July 1993 and continues his practice there.
Bill married Ruth Taylor, a 1985 graduate from the UCA Dept. of Physical Therapy. Bill and Ruth have five children: Benjamin, Meredith, Stephanie, Emma, and Daniel.

1985

Tom Anderson
Tom completed a Juris Doctorate with honors at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law in 1995. He entered the Arkansas Air National Guard shortly after graduation from UCA and in October, 2008 was appointed as commander of the 188th Fighter Wing stationed in Fort Smith. The 188th recently changed from Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters to Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack and close air support aircraft. The 188th is scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.

Hoang Bui
Hoang attended medical school at UAMS.

Laura Donaldson
Laura taught in the Mayflower and Conway public schools. She and her family currently live in Alaska.

Kelli Rutledge
Kelli accepted a position in sales with Waters Associates.

Gary Sherwood
Gary and his brother, Edwin currently operate the emergency medicine for White County Hospital in Searcy.

Steve Wampler
Steve attended medical school at UAMS.

1986

Troy Harpole

Brooks Lawrence
Brooks received his M.D. degree from UAMS in 1990 and did a residency in family practice at the US Air Force Regional Hospital at Eglin AFB in Florida. After serving in the US Air Force from 1990 to 96 he returned to Conway where he currently has a private practice as a family physician.
He is married to his high school sweetheart, Pam Berry, and they have four children: Benjamin, Caleb, Anna, and Elizabeth.

Joe Massey
Joe is married to Karen Buddenberg (B.S. ’86). He received M.S.and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Arkansas in agronomy, specializing in the environmental chemistry of pesticides. From 1995 to 2000, He worked as a research chemist at DuPont Crop Protection in Wilmington, DE. and is currently an associate professor at Mississippi State University (20% teaching, 80% research). He teaches graduate-level courses in Herbicide Physiology & Biochemistry and the Environmental Fate of Herbicides and serve as the program coordinator for MSU’s Environmental Science program, which involves teaching Introduction to Environmental Science to undergraduates. His research investigates the environmental fates of pesticides, emphasizing water-quality issues. Karen works as a CPA at a local hospital.

Mike Miller

Jerry Palmer
Jerry received an M.S. in analytical chemistry from the University of Alabama. After graduation, she spent a few years at Eli Lilly & Company in Lafayette, Indiana and then returned to Arkansas to work for Eastman Kodak in Batesville (the site is now FutureFuel Chemical Company).

Maria Skinner

Lisa Sparkman
Lisa worked at the Arkansas State Crime Lab in a variety of capacities including trace analysis.

1987

Marc Anderson
Marc graduated from pharmacy school in 1990. He served in the Arkansas Air National Guard from 1990-98 where he was an F-16 fighter pilor from 1993-98. Marc currently lives in Conway where he is a pharmacist for Kroger.
Marc and his wife, Jill, have two children, Mallory and Madeline.

Gary Fuller
After finishing at UCA, Gary completed a master degree at UA/GIT.  While in graduate school,he  worked for American Interplex part time for a couple of years. running their special testing.  He worked for a few years at UAMS doing NMR/MRI research and then went to work managing the information systems for the UAMS Pathology Dept.   In 1999, he moved to Florida to install a system for Y2K at Memorial Healthcare (www.mhs.net), and as a bonus to the project, got married.
About 3 years ago he started brewing beer,  got into the whole brewing competition circuit, and now holds certification as a Beer Judge.

Steve McKim
Steve completed his Ph.D. degree in chemistry at the University of Kansas and currently is on the faculty at Central State University in Oklahoma.

Alao Serifat

1988

Mona Churchwell
Mona went to work for NCTR in Pine Bluff.

Terri Claiborne

Cindy Gierach
Cindy attended medical school at UAMS.

Donna Short
Donna has a position in pharmaceutical sales in Memphis.

Mike Stage
Mike worked for the Arkansas State Plant Board for 3 years after graduating from UCA. He went to the State Crime lab for 5 years, then came back to the plant board where he is currently employed.

1989

Anders Amelin
Anders returned to Sweden.

Shelly Catlett Bradley
Shelly worked at UCA as manager of the chemistry storeroom for several years. She is currently director of laboratories at Hendrix. Shelly was featured in Chemical and Engineering News (June 28, 2010, pp. 14-20) in an article that highlights CPT’s emphasis on safety in its new (2008) guidelines.  The article includes a picture and interview of Shelly as well as a summary of how Hendrix College has incorporated safety into their chemistry curriculum.  Read the article here!
Shelly gave a talk at the spring, 2010 ACS meeting in a division of Chemical Health and Safety (CHAS) symposium about what she is doing at Hendrix to comply with the new safety guidelines. As a result she was invited to submit a paper for a special issue of the CHAS journal highlighting undergraduate safety sometime in the winter of 2010.

Brian Clark
Brian completed a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry at the University of Tennessee in 1995. He was chosen the top graduating analytical student. He went to work at Alcon Laboratories (world’s largest ophthalmic pharmaceutical company). Where he was promoted to the level of Assistant Director of Analytical Development. In 2006 became the Director of Analytical Sciences with United Therapeutics (Biopharmaceutical company), located in Research Triangle Park, NC.
Brian is married (wife’s name is Summer) and they have a son, Matthew. His wife is attending Duke University in their Masters program in Nursing. Eventually she will be a pediatric nurse.

Sandra Coles
Sandra began her career in the QA lab of ConAgra Frozen Foods in Batesville. She was responsible for nutritional testing of finished food products and ingredients as well as quality control testing for the on-site chicken feed mill. She was promoted to Senior Chemist and made was responsible for coordinating the pesticide testing and wastewater analysis programs in the lab. In 2001, Sandra left ConAgra and went to work for Entergy, Incorporated as the Chemistry Supervisor at the Independence Plant in Newark, Arkansas. In May of 2005, Sandra moved to The Woodlands, Texas to work in the Environmental Services group for Entergy Fossil. In her role there, she serves as the Federal Issues Lead for Water Media and is the Water Lead for Texas Environmental Support. Her job includes working with the Water Leads from Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana Environmental Support offices to coordinate NPDES permitting and compliance and Toxic Release Inventory reporting for 29 fossil fueled power plants and 2 hydroelectric dams.

Brad Griffin

Tony Jones

Louis Poposki
Louis is employed by the Arkansas State Department of Health.

1990

Susan (Arrowood) Kadlubar
Susan was actually a biology major, but took a number of courses in Chemistry and did research with Dr. Arthur Hoyt.  She  received a PhD in Toxicology in December of 2003 at UAMS, and then accepted an Assistant Professor position at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY.  After two years she married Fred Kadlubar and returned to Arkansas.  She took an Assistant Professor position in the UAMS College of Public Health in 2005 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006. She is now in the Division of Medical Genetics at UAMS.  She began what is called the “Spit for the Cure” cohort for breast cancer research.  So far, over 25,000 women in Arkansas have given saliva samples for DNA extraction and questionnaire data on breast cancer risk factors.  Plans are to extend recruitment to men so that gene-environment interactions for the four major cancers affecting Arkansans: breast, lung, colorectal and prostate can be examined.  She is now widowed, but remains busy with 5 children and 12 grandchildren and her work

Lora Burge

Brenda Cook

Jeffrey Howard
Jeffrey attended medical school at UAMS.

Terry Lipsmeyer
Terry completed his Masters at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at UAMS.  He lost his life during a home invasion in 2014. www.arkansasonline.com/obituaries/…/terry–lipsmeyer-20

Kathy Wilson

Cindy Willingham
Cindy attended medical school at UAMS.

1992

Russell Everett
After completing his Ph.D. degree at the University of Arkansas in 1996 Russell held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Hawaii (1996-1998) and the University of Kansas (1998-2000). He then joined Cedra, a pharmaceutical contract research organization based in Austin, TX. In 2004, he moved back home to Greenbrier and is now president of his own CRO business, BerTek, Inc.
Russell and his wife, Timsey, have three children: Kassidy, Brandy and Wesley.

Jill Jennings
Jill completed a degree in Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University. She currently teaches in the Marshall Public Schools.

Brett Krepps
Brett received an M.S. in chemical engineering in 1994. Two years later he applied to medical school and received his M.D. from UAMS in 2000. He completed a residency in orthopedic medicine at the University of Kansas Medical School in 2005. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and practices orthopedic surgery in Indiana.
Brett and his wife, Joanne, have two sons, Evan and Aiden. He says, “All-in-all, it’s all worked out okay for me…so far.”

Susan Kuzma Kelso
After graduating in May 1992, Susan joined Eastman Kodak Co. in clinical chemistry & sales. She was a diagnostic & laboratory sales representative and sold blood chemistry analyzers to veterinarians, physicians and small hospitals. In August 1994, She married and relocated to NW Arkansas where she worked for the City of Bentonville Wastewater Treatment Plant as laboratory manager before going to Beaver Water District as a laboratory technician. She has since joined the “Wal*Mart Community”. Her employer, Design Accents, is a supplier to WalMart. Her job duties have included domestic and import experience, sales & analysis, category management, and brand and product development for our wide assortment of products. She and her husband, Jerry, have two sons, ages 7 & 3 and have just recently moved Sherwood to be closer to family and friends.

Roger Smithson
Upon graduation from UCA Roger took a position with Buckman Laboratories. Buckman Laboratories is a specialty chemical company based out of Memphis, TN with a focus in the pulp and paper industry. His primary chemical focus has been microbiocides and polymers that aid in the papermaking process. His first position in Buckman was as a district sales representative. He is currently the southern sales director over a sales force of 60 people.
Roger and his wife, Michelle live in Greenbrier with their two daughters (Shali and Sofie).

1993

Justin Dodds

Jonathan Paladino
Jonathan completed a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Missouri at Rolla. He then attended medical school at UAMS.

1994

Chris Abrams

Marcus Babbs

Becky Weston Edwards
Becky received a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi in February of 1998 and began work at Eastman Chemical Company, Arkansas site, as an analytical chemist in March 1998.  The Arkansas site was sold in 2006 and became FutureFuel Chemical Company.  After 15 years in the analytical laboratory as a chromatographer, Becky moved to the Health, Safety, and Environmental department where she currently is responsible for coordinating OSHA’s Process Safety Management regulations at the site.
Becky is married to Matthew Edwards and they have two children: Wendell Adam (July, 1999) and Weston Andrew (April 2004). Becky and her husband Matt have a house on her family’s farm in Izard County. Between church, community and farm activities, they stay very busy! At church, she plays the piano and leads the choir, and Matt teaches Sunday School and serves as a deacon. Matt runs the Mt. Pleasant summer baseball/softball program in addition to coaching two baseball teams. Wendell plays t-ball and soccer, and Weston thinks he should be able to play too. “I spend most of my time at the games keeping him off the field! We have also ventured into the cattle business so we get to ‘rodeo’ every now and then when it’s time to work the cattle.”

Cheryl Fossler

Sam Mackintosh

Larry Mathys

Steve Puyear

Crissy Rhodes (Chaparro)
Crissy completed an MS in chemistry at Duke.  After working for a while she returned to graduate school at North Carolina State University where she finished a PHD in biophysical chemistry in 2007.  Crissy and her husband, David Chaparro, have two daughters, Isabel and Sofia.  They live in Raleigh, NC where he is employed as a construction engineer and Crissy works for a pharmaceutical company.

Craig Sharp

Tiffny Stewart
Tiffny received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from U.C.A. in 2003 and began working for Conway Therapy Services. She has plans to specialize in Women’s Health Physical Therapy. She and her husband, Brian, have two children, Sydney Alena and Zachary Aaron. Brian and Tiffny live in Oxford, Mississippi where Brian works as a pharmaceutical sales rep for UCB Pharma and she currently stays at home with the children. They are assisting in the formation of Grace Bible Church of Oxford.

Teddy Townsend
Teddy is currently the Environmental, Health and Safety Coordinator for Bryce Corporation in Searcy, Arkansas. His work involves maintaining compliance with various EPA, DOT and OSHA regulations, Radiation Safety, Food Safety and Security. He is married to Linda (Johnston) Townsend, who graduated from UCA in 1997 and teaches Elementary Music at Pangburn Public Schools.

1995

Derek Boahene
Derek graduated first in his class in medicine at Meharry in Nashville, TN. Following that he did a a 5 -year surgical residency in otolaryngology head and neck surgery followed by fellowship training in Facial plastic and reconstructive surgery which covers cosmetic surgery of the face as well as reconstruction of congenital and acquired defects in the head and neck region. Some of the surgeries he performs include repair of cleft lip and palate, distraction osteogenesis (growing new bone by distraction) minimally invasive approaches to removing tumors of the anterior base of the brain, microvascular tissue transfer (transferring tissue from one part of the body to another with suturing of hair-thin blood vessels and nerves), cosmetic surgery of the aging face etc. His family has grown to 5.his wife Ruth, a daughter and 2 twin boys. He just joined Johns Hopkins University Hospital as an assistant professor. “Besides my clinical practice, I am active in teaching medical students, residents and Fellows the art and science of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. I am also actively involved in tissue engineering research. I recently won the top honors in facial plastic surgery in the country for attaining the highest score in our specialty board exam.”  Dr. Boahene was recognized as a distinguished UCA alumnus in 2015.  His career was summarized in a 2013 CNN video.  In 2021, the Foundation for Special Surgery founded by Dr. Boahene broke ground on a new specialized surgery clinic in Accra, Ghana.  In the press released, Dr. Boahene noted, “[The new clinic will] … provide people with access to quality and affordable surgical care without having to travel miles.”

Jody Buckholtz
Jody earned an MS (1999) and PhD (2007) in analytical chemistry from UAF. Jody is currently on the faculty at Northeast Oklahoma in Talequah, Oklahoma.

Darrin Gainer
Darrin taught AP chemistry and AP physics among other classes for 26 y at Greenbriar High School. He completed some graduate work in chemistry at UALR.  In 2016, Darrin was recognized as the GHS Teacher of the Year.  In 2021 Darrin moved to teach chemistry and AP chemistry at Pottsville High School.

Blane Graves

Trey Heath
Trey went to graduate school at the University of Illinois where he graduated with an M.S. Degree in chemistry. He is currently working in the St. Louis area.

Holly Jennings

Larry Mathys

Tom Noor

Cheryl Redden

Jim Sanders

Brian Taylor
Brian completed a PhD from the University of Tennessee in computational/physical chemistry in 2000. His doctoral research focused on theoretical investigations of rotationally inelastic He + LiH collisions; these collisions may have played an important role in the colling processes that allowed primordial molecular clouds in the early universe to condense and form stars. While at Tennessee Brian received the Chemistry Department’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998, a Departmental Research Merit award in 1999, and the Eugene John Barber Fellowship in Chemistry in 1999. In 1999 he was also selected as the Outstanding Teaching Assistant by the Student Affiliate Chapter. While completing his dissertation, he gained teaching experience at Maryville College.
He became a tenured Associate Professor of Chemistry at The University of Texas at Tyler teaching General Chemistry and Physical Chemistry and maintaining a research group involving undergraduate students. He also served as faculty advisor for the UT-Tyler Student Affiliates Chapter, which has received several national citations for excellence. In 2005, Brian received the University of Texas Chancellor’s Council Teaching Award, the highest recognition for outstanding undergraduate teaching available to faculty serving in the UT system.
Brian and his wife, who he met at UCA, have two boys. Brian was found dead in his home on November 3, 2008.

1996

Shandy Campbell

Bobby Brock

Chris Dietrich
Chris graduated from Southern College of Optometry in May of 2001. After briefly practicing in Conway, he purchased a private practice in Mtn.View, AR and has been in solo private practice since. His office is on the courthouse square in Mtn. View.  Chris and his wife, Kalah, have two children, Eli Gibson and Mabry Grace.

Cindy Hopp

Alex Lovelace-Chandler
Alex completed an MS in Chemistry at the University of Missouri – Columbia and is pursuing a doctorate in education there.

Patrick Rainey
Patrick completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at Texas A & M. He is currently employed with a laboratory in North Carolina.

Philip Rice
Philip began working as a chemist by Georgia Pacific Resins in Crossett, AR.  He has since moved to work in Atlanta at GP’s corporate headquarters.

Phillip Shewmaker
Phillip went to work for the State Department of Health and worked in blood alcohol before settling in radiochemistry.  Phillip died at home in 2016.

Kevin Williams
Kevin completed a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas and then worked for Tokusen in Conway.

Neal Yowell
Neal received an MS in Environmental Science from the University of Colorado. He has been employed as an environmental chemist for Colorado Springs Utilities since 1997. He works in the inorganic section and has completed method development for low level mercury detection using cold-vapor atomic fluorescence. He has two beautiful daughters, Katarina and Isabella.

1997

Bobby Brock

Rusty Cutts
Rusty received an M.A. in inorganic/polymer chemistry in 2000 from the University of Virginia. He began work with Ana-Lab Corp, an environmental testing company, in Kilgore, TX
In 2006, Rusty moved to Siemens Corporation in Bartlesville OK. Siemens manufactures process gas chromatographs in Bartlesville and he currently works in the methods development group determining what types of columns or applications will meet customer needs. In 2018 he began work as a Chemical Technologist for ABB Upstream Oil and Gas Solutions, also in Bartlesville. Rusty met his wife, Heather, (UCA Biology) in an organic chemistry lab while at UCA. They have two sons, Charlie and Calvin

Sheri Dobbs
Sheri went to medical school at UAMS. She is currently working as a physician in Alabama and is expecting her first child.

Ann Gains

Leah Horton
Leah completed an M.S. degree at Emory University.  She served as the founding resident master of the STEM Residential College at UCA. She is currently teaching biology and serving as Assistant to the Chair in the Biology Department at UCA.

Chris Larson
Chris worked with Young Life after graduation and then went to medical school at UAMS.

Jason Skinner
Jason has completed his medical training at UAMS and is now employed as an ER physician at Conway Regional Hospital.

1998

Theodore Couch

Donnie Golden
Donnie enrolled in culinary school in Charlotte, North Carolina. He worked for several years as a chemistry staff member a California State University, Fresno.

Missy Garrett (Snodgrass)
Missy completed her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry under Marcetta Darensbourg at Texas A&M. She spent two years working with Prof. Bernadette Donovan-Merkert at UNC Charlotte, on an NSF-funded teaching/postdoctoral appointment. In Fall 2006, she began a position as tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at California State University, Fresno and is currently a tenured associate professor at CSU Fresno.

Ronnie Hefley
Ronnie completed an MS in Chemistry at Youngstown State University.

Michael Julian
After receiving his Ph.D. from Texas A&M Michael held one year teaching positions first at University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and then at California State University, Stanislaus. He is currently (2008) in a two year position at Rhodes College in Memphis where he will be teaching organic and directing undergraduate research. Michael and his wife are expecting their second child in January of 2009.

Eddie Spicer

Lori Stacks
After working for a time at the Arkansas State Crime Lab, Lori entered Pharmacy School.

Suat-Nee Tan
Suat-Nee returned to China where she was employed as a chemist. She returned to school there and completed an MBA degree.

Greg Taylor

1999

Brittnaie Bell
Brittnaie is currently a graduate student in chemistry at the University of South Carolina. She previously taught high school chemistry in Dallas.

Beverly Boyer

Amy Lasater

Tony Luistro
Tony went to medical school at UAMS.

Aaron Kuperman
Aaron received his M.D. from UAMS and then completed a residency in internal medicine. He is currently practicing in Pine Bluff.

William Parsons
I’ve been working at the Arkansas Regional Laboratory (on the NCTR campus) for seven years now. I currently work in food sanitation and decomposition, performing fluorometric analysis for histamine. My wife and I are currently living in North Little Rock.

2000

Charity Billingsley
Charity is in graduate school in chemistry at the University of South Carolina. The last word was that she was defending her thesis on November 15, 2005 and expects to graduate on December 12, 2005.

Michael Johnson
Michael is teaching high school chemistry in the Little Rock area.

Scott Miller
Scott is working on a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Texas – Austin.

Andrea Phelps Hamilton
After graduating from UCA Andrea completed a Ph.D. at Texas A&M in August, 2005.  She worked under the direction of Dr. Donald J. Darensbourg and studied the copolymerization of epoxides and CO2 to produce polycarbonates and the copolymerization of aziridines and CO to produce poly-b-peptides. The work involved organometallic synthesis of metal-based catalysts and kinetic and mechanistic studies utilizing in situ ReactIR.
Upon completion of her Ph.D. she accepted up a job with BASF in their PDP program. The PDP program involves working at two different plant sites for nine months apiece, and after this time getting a permanent position. She ultimately was located with BASF in Charlotte, NC.
Andrea married Patrick Hamilton, who she met in the chemistry department at Texas A&M. They were married on October 15th, 2005 in Conway, AR at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.  Upon completion of his Ph.D. Patrick also obtained a position with BASF.  In September 2010, Andrea resigned her position with BASF to be a full-time mother to her young son, Owen.  She hopes one day to teach at the high school or college level.

Pamela Seamans

Taimur Shaikh
After Taimur graduated from UCA, he got married to Marcy Major, spent a year at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, and continued working with YoungLife. He was employed at CTEH as an analytical chemist but also worked on GIS projects and emergency response. He then moved to Lexington, KY in July of 2001 to work on a Ph.D. in main group chemistry with Dr. David Atwood at the University of Kentucky. His primary focus has been on the synthesis of arsenic dithiolate systems with a purview towards biological mimics and future drug use. Last word was that he hoped to defend in August or September of 2006. He and his wife have a son and he is still involved with YoungLife.

2001

Micah Abrams
Micah received his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and did postdoctoral work with Dr. T. Daniel Crawford at Virginia Tech. He joined the UCA chemistry faculty as a theoretical chemist beginning in the fall, 2006 and served at UCA for two years. He then left UCA for a position in the private sector in the Washington, DC area in 2008. In collaboration with Dr. Will Slaton (UCA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy) Micah established several initiatives supporting undergraduate research at UCA.  One of these, the Advancement of Undergraduate Research in the Sciences (AURS) program, recognizes outstanding student research theses and financially supports summer research experiences for UCA students with faculty.

Nick Alsbrook

Michael Arvin
Michael attended the University of Arizona graduate school in chemistry.

Ryan Dossey
Ryan completed a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at the University of Arkansas and currently serves as Vice President of Operations for Heritage Environmental Services  in Haskell, Arkansas.

Kim Flora

Jody May

Jody is an Arkansas native, growing up in the Marche Community in North Little Rock. After graduating from UCA with his chemistry BS (December 2000), Jody took a brief internship at Tokusen USA in Conway, AR (Spring 2001) then enrolled at Texas A&M joining the analytical chemistry research group of Prof. David Russell. Jody’s dissertation work involved designing and constructing several analytical instruments based on the ion mobility and mass spectrometry techniques. Jody completed his Ph.D. at Texas A&M in the summer of 2009 and accepted a postdoctoral position at Vanderbilt working with Prof. John McLean who presented a seminar at UCA in the spring of 2009. In 2011, Jody was appointed to the Research Faculty in the Vanderbilt Department of Chemistry where he continues to design and construct new instrumentation and mentor the next generation of analytical scientists in the McLean Laboratory. Jody presented a seminar at UCA in the fall of 2013.
Jody met his wife, Stacy Sherrod, while at Texas A&M. Stacy is a researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt where she works on microfluidics and artificial organ constructs. They were married in 2009 and currently live in Nashville.

Shelby Carlow (Stephens)
Shelby is working as a chemist at the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana.

2016

Jordan Blackstone
Jordan is an Analytical Chemist/Shipping Bench Analyst at Porocel Industries LLC, a manufacturer of desiccants, specialty catalysts, and alumina products. He performs analytical testing on business development samples, calibrates and maintains a variety of instrumentation, assists in method development, provides analytical support for quality investigations, and maintains the spent sample evaluation program. He will be pursuing a Masters in chemistry part time next year at UALR and intends, God and grades willing, to pursue a PhD sometime down the road.

Ashton Cheatham
Ashton will begin his work on a Pharm D degree at UAMS in the fall.

Charles Deckard
While a student at UCA, Charles was the starting catcher on UCA’s most successful baseball team.  Charles completed a PhD in biochemistry from Texas A&M University (October 2020 thesis defense).  His graduate research investigated chromatin (a DNA/protein pairing) in living cells.  Chromatin is central to the stability and function of DNA.  Currently he is at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. There he works as an Institute Research Investigator within a platform called TRACTION (Translational Research to AdvanCe Therapeutics and Innovation in ONcology). His group essentially acts as a middle man between pharma/academia and the clinic. Their goal is to generate pre-clinical data that supports the advancement of experimental therapies into clinical trials, with efforts

mainly focused on rare cancers and cancers that don’t respond to standard treatments.  He currently works within the Technology & Innovation group, meaning he gets to work on developing several new technologies with biologists on a bunch of different drug programs. A main focus has been to develop methods that utilize fluorescence microscopy to quantify drug responses. This includes methods for quantifying cancer cell death in real-time as well as measuring pharmacodynamic biomarker levels upon treatment with experimental therapies.

Katherine Demaree
Kat returned to her home state of Colorado where she spent several years as a quality control chemist for Noosa Yogurt. In 2022 she completed a masters degree in environmental engineering from the University of Colorado (at Boulder).  Kat is continuing this trend to focus on sustainable water use in Colorado by working with the Deloitte Climate Innovation Collaboratory at CU.  Read about it here in Colorado Today.

Nicholas Hunter
Nic is considering a career in pharmaceutical sales.

Clement Mugenzi
Clement will be pursuing employment as a chemist.

Sam Petty
Sam is currently working for Arkansas Analytical.

Raynin Phomakay
Raynin will be spending 2016 preparing to apply to medical school with a planned start of Fall 2017.

Amber Rolland (Manion Award winner)
After graduating from UCA, Amber spent a summer working at the National Center for Toxicological Research (a branch of the FDA) on a project developing imaging mass spectrometry methods to study the distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs with cardiotoxic side effects in heart tissue. In fall 2016 she began her graduate studies in chemistry at the University of Oregon, where she was selected as both a Dean’s First-Year Merit Award recipient and as an ARCS Foundation Scholar. Amber worked for Jim Prell at UO, utilizing native mass spectrometry to investigate the interactions and dynamics of membrane proteins and lipids combined with computational theoretical models to interpret her experiments.  Amber was selected for the UO Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship for 2021-22.  She completed her doctoral degree in 2022 in physical biochemistry.  Later that year, she joined Albert Heck’s lab at Utrecht University in the Netherlands as a postdoc to work on de novo sequencing antibodies purified directly from human donor samples.