Distinguished Alumni Academy 2005

In 1999, the College began offering Distinguished Alumni Awards, in recognition of the talents and accomplishments of Fulbright College graduates.

These distinguished alumni were inducted into the Fulbright College Alumni Academy for 2005. Congratulations to them all.

History: PAUL BERRY

Paul Berry operates his own government consulting and public relations firm, Berry & Associates, which he established in 1992. A 1964 graduate of the U of A, Berry served as campaign director for U.S. Senator David Pryor’s re-election campaign in 1984, and was a member of the Arkansas Finance Committee during the 1992 Clinton for President Campaign. He was senior vice president of Union National Bank of Little Rock for 18 years. Currently he represents clients in a variety of lobbying efforts with the Arkansas General Assembly, including Alltell Corporation, Entergy Corporation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. From 1993 until 1998, he was vice president of Global USA, Inc., a Washington, D.C. public affairs and lobbying firm. Berry currently serves on the Board of Directors of One Banc of Little Rock, a locally owned community bank.

School of Social Work: BETTY ANDERSON GUHMAN

Betty Anderson Guhman, a native Arkansan and former UA Professor of Social Work, returned to Arkansas in 2005 following eight years of public service in Washington, D.C. For two years, she served as Chief of Staff to Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For over thirty years, Betty has been a dedicated public servant and social worker, investigating child abuse and neglect in northwest Arkansas and providing service training to social workers across the state. While at the U of A, Guhman also served as Director of the Undergraduate Social Work Program and as the Director of the Fulbright School of Public Affairs from 1987 to 1999.

Pre-Medical Studies: EDITH IRBY JONES

One of today’s most accomplished physicians, Edith Irby Jones has forged a career of firsts: in 1952, she was the first black graduate from the University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences, was unanimously elected as the first female president of the National Medical Association, and was the first black woman resident at an all white school, the Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals. In 1962, she set up a private practice in inner city Houston. She later founded the Edith Irby Jones Foundation to fund scholarships for the needy. She is a charter member of Physicians for Human Rights, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. She established and supports a clinic in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and helped set up a clinic for the poor in Haiti. Jones is currently chief of medical staff at Riverside General Hospital and medical director of the Universal Healthplan of Texas, Inc.

Mathematical Sciences: RANDY MOTT

Randall Mott is senior vice president and chief information officer for Dell Inc., a $49.2 billion supplier of information technology. Mott is responsible for managing Dell's global information-technology infrastructure, including the backbone of its extensive Internet, supply chain and Web-based capabilities. After graduating from the U of A in 1978 with a B.S. in mathematics, Mott joined Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as a programmer for distribution systems. Subsequently, he held numerous leadership positions at Wal-Mart Stores, including senior vice president and chief information officer from 1994 to 2000. Mott was instrumental in developing many of the company’s world-class systems and its IT strategy. In 2003, President George W. Bush named Mott to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee.

Journalism: RON ROBINSON

Ron Robinson is former chairman and chief executive officer of Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, a Little Rock marketing agency he joined in 1970 after working 11 years in journalism and as a public information officer. After spending five years as a sportswriter for the Arkansas Gazette, he earned a B.A. degree in journalism from the U of A in 1965. In 1966, he studied public relations at the Boston University Graduate School of Public Communications. He is a charter member of the National Public Relations Network and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Advertising Federation. In 1989, the Advertising Federation presented him with its Distinguished Public Service Award for contributions to the communications community. In February 1995, Robinson was named "Business Executive of the Year" by Arkansas Business.

Biological Sciences: ALBERT LOUIS STEPLOCK, JR.

After earning a B.S. degree with honors from the U of A in 1972, Albert Louis Steplock, Jr. began medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans, and in 1981, completed residency in General Surgery at the Ochsner Clinic. In Memphis, he completed a residency in Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Tennessee for Health Sciences in 1983. He moved to Casper in 1985, becoming the only heart surgeon in Wyoming. While at St. Peter Hospital in Washington from 1991 to 1997, he began a new heart surgery program. During his career in heart surgery, Steplock has performed about five thousand open heart operations and has operated in six states. He is a member of the American Medical Society, the American College of Surgeons, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He is currently the Medical Director for Cardiac Surgery at Wyoming Medical Center.