Fall 2017

Engage with your alma mater

Ashley Carter, director of alumni and constituent engagement. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Fall is such a wonderful time, with the start of a new school year, changing leaves, cooler days and fun traditions. Just recently, I watched as the returning students moved back into sorority houses and dorm rooms and the rookies arrived to leave their parents for the first time. To see the excitement for a new year on each of […]

Statham named new Alumni board president

Brooke Statham, WC '00, 2016 Alumni Reunion Weekend

The Brenau Alumni Association is pleased to announce the board’s new president for 2017-18, Brooke Bargeron Statham, WC ’00. Brooke will serve in this role for the next two academic years. Other board members include: W. Carl Blackburn, BU ’94 Christelle Christian, WC ’92 Jennifer Dell, BU ’15 Zoe Scheffrin Durden, WC ’14 Erin Mundy, BU ’95 Susan […]

David Miller: A professor and a politician

David Miller, Lumpkin County Commissioner. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

David Miller is a Brenau professor of health care management and a Lumpkin County Commissioner. The two positions may seem random, but Miller uses his experiences to the benefit of Brenau students and his constituents. David Miller had never considered running for political office. Yet the Brenau professor of health care management is about half […]

Hail to the Chief, Carol Martin

Gainesville Chief of Police Carol Martin, WC '88, talks with some attendees during a Coffee With A Cop event. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Brenau alumna Carol Martin improves the beat for women in law enforcement At 21 years old, Carol Martin, WC ’88, became a Gainesville police officer because of the retirement benefits. “My dad was big on that,” she says. “But I also wanted to join this department because it’s always been busier than other agencies, and […]

LaSharn Hughes is not finished yet

LaSharn Hughes, executive director of the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce, BU '98, BU '04 poses for a photo with the Georgia State Capital in the background at her office in Atlanta. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)
Brenau alumna LaSharn Hughes aims to improve health care access in Georgia’s underserved areas Soft-spoken and poised, LaSharn Hughes, BU ’98, ’04, keeps a giant map of Georgia above her desk so she can visualize her projects. She points to Echols County in south Georgia and says, “See that town called Needmore? Well, they do, [...]

Competition Without Conflict

Ken Frank and Mary Lou Frank pose for a portrait. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

For more than 15 years, Brenau has had a competitive team unlike any other on its campus. Vying to be the best peacemakers in the nation, students on the mediation team practice their conflict resolution skills in national and international tournaments. This fall, Brenau will host mediation teams from across the globe in two international […]

Mary Ross: The Job of a Lifetime

Mary Ross, WC ’58, at the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion. (Gerry Melendez/For Brenau University)

Volunteering leads to decades of service alongside S.C. governors, their families With a Southern accent worthy of Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara, coupled with a timeless elegance always just beyond Miss O’Hara’s grasp, Mary Ross, WC ’58, worked alongside six governors and their families for three and a half decades at the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion. […]

C.S. Lewis gift honors Women’s College alumna

Dr. Warren Jones poses for a photo with Don W. King, professor of English at Montreat College and noted scholar of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, after a question and answer panel for Love Letters to Jack, Love Letters to God: An Exploration of the Works of Joy Davidman & C.S. Lewis. Brenau University has recently acquired a premier collection of titles by and about C.S. Lewis. Presented in honor of Brenau Women’s College alumna, Bobbie Jean Collins Jones, Ph.D., WC '64, the collection was made possible by the generous gifts of her husband, Dr. Warren Jones. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

The Brenau Trustee Library recently acquired a premier collection of titles written by and about British writers C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. More than 100 books were donated by Warren Jones, who presented the generous donation in honor of his wife, Bobbie Jean Collins Jones, WC ’64. Jones’ gift also helped fund a two-day symposium, […]

Higher education is great for America

Brenau University President Ed Schrader addresses graduates.

There is a lot of naysaying, blaming and finger-pointing going on in the world today. But the most dangerous, malicious, egregiously erroneous, anti-American lies propagated by some are that education is not as useful as it used to be and that educated folk tend to have an agenda. Those notions are simply not true. Such […]