On The Move
22 South Carolinians Chosen to Begin Intense Leadership Program
Jul 28, 2010
Liberty Fellowship Announces Class of 2012
GREENVILLE, SC - July 27, 2010 - Significant community involvement,
success in their chosen field and a commitment to improving South
Carolina characterize the newest class of Liberty Fellows. Chosen from a
pool of 400 candidates spread across the state, these class members
represent business, government and nonprofit sectors of South Carolina.
“The class of 2012 is extremely capable of meeting the challenges and
capitalizing on the opportunities in the lifetime Fellowship program,”
said Hayne Hipp, founder of Liberty Fellowship. “More important to our
state, not one of them is satisfied with the status quo. Each has a deep
desire to take action to improve South Carolina.”
The integrity of each Liberty Fellowship class depends largely on the
blend of differences and diversity of perspectives of the individual
leaders. Finding the right mix is a key focus of the Liberty Fellowship.
“The members of this class span a broad and interesting spectrum. They
are established leaders who represent a mosaic of backgrounds, skills
and experiences,” said Jennie Johnson, Executive Director of Liberty
Fellowship.
In addition to attending four seminars over the two-year period,
including one Aspen Institute global seminar with leaders from around
the world, each class member commits to completing a personal project
that will have a positive impact on the state.
“The Fellow projects and collaborative leadership approach truly have an
impact at the state level,” continued Hipp. “The vision of Liberty
Fellowship is to identify leaders who are respectful of other points of
view so they can work together to move the state forward.”
Following are the members of the Liberty Fellowship Class of 2012:
Pamela A. (Pam) Baker is a shareholder with the McNair Law Firm, P.A. in Columbia, where she
represents clients involved in state and federal environmental
enforcement and permitting actions. Prior to attending law school, she
worked for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental
Control in the areas of environmental enforcement and regulatory
compliance. Pamela was appointed by the Governor in 2009 to the South
Carolina Commission on Women. She also serves on the board of Sexual
Trauma Services of the Midlands and is an active member of the Columbia
Chapter of The Links, Inc., an international nonprofit organization of
professional women of color that is one of the nation’s largest
volunteer service organizations.
Pamela is a graduate of Leadership South Carolina and a newly elected
board member. She earned her Juris Doctor cum laude from the University
of South Carolina School of Law and her Bachelor of Science in Biology
from the University of South Carolina.
Daniel J. (Dan) Ballou is a founding member of Hamilton Martens Ballou & Sipe, LLC, a law
firm in Rock Hill. A litigator focused on business and civil cases, he
was previously a partner with Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman,
LLP.
Dan is board member and secretary of Keystone Substance Abuse Services
of York County and is vice chair of the York County Regional Chamber of
Commerce Government Relations Task Force. He serves on the Lake Wylie
Marine Commission, chaired the Rock Hill/York County Martin Luther King
Task Force and is a board member of Common Cause of South Carolina. He
previously served on the South Carolina Real Estate Commission and is
past president and board member of Pilgrim’s Inn. He also is past
president of the York County Bar Association and a member of the South
Carolina Bar House of Delegates and the Bar's Judicial Qualifications
Committee.
Dan earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School
of Law and his Bachelor of Arts in History from Princeton University.
Russell W. Booker is Superintendent of Spartanburg County School District Seven. He
previously served as superintendent of York School District One. He has
worked as a teacher, counselor, coach, principal and district level
administrator.
Russell received the Wingate University Outstanding Young Alumnus Award
and the Citizen of the Year Award from the Greater York Chamber of
Commerce. In 2009 he was recognized as South Carolina’s Superintendent
of the Year by the Career and Technology Division. He is a graduate of
the Diversity Leaders Initiative through the Riley Institute and the
Spartanburg Regional Fellows program. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi
Fraternity, Inc., Rotary International, The Urban League, and the NAACP.
He is on the boards of Wingate University, the Urban League of the
Upstate, the Boy Scouts of America (Palmetto Council), the Charles Lea
Center Foundation and the United Way of the Piedmont.
Russell received his Bachelor of Science in Education from Wingate
University and his M.Ed., Ed.S., and Ph.D. from the University of South
Carolina.
John F. Castile became City Manager of Greenville on July 1. He previously served as
Deputy City Manager and Assistant City Manager. Prior to his service
with the City of Greenville, John was the Executive Director for Within
Reach, Inc., a non-profit agency designed to provide coordination of
social service delivery in at risk communities. His experience also
includes positions with BI-LO Grocery Stores, The Greenville News and
Sunbelt Human Advancement Resources, Inc.
John’s community involvement includes Rotary Club of Greenville, 100
Black Men of Greenville and Greenville County Schools Shining Star
Teacher Recruitment Initiative. He has served on the boards of Main
Street Events, Greenville Urban League and Bridges to Augusta. He is a
graduate of Leadership Greenville and has served on its Board of
Regents.
John earned his Master of Public Administration from Walden University
and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Furman University.
James S. (Jamie) Fulmer, Jr. is the Vice President of Public Affairs for Advance America, Cash
Advance Centers, Inc. in Spartanburg, a NYSE traded company. Prior to
joining Advance America, he served in several managerial roles with
Collins & Aikman Products in Charlotte.
Jamie serves on the board of the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg
where he is the immediate past chair and is on the Board of Governors
of the Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce and the Advisory Board of the
Urban League of the Upstate. He is a graduate of Leadership Spartanburg
and formerly served on the Spartanburg Methodist College Board of
Trustees, Wofford College Terrier Club Board, Converse College Board of
Visitors, City of Spartanburg Planning Commission, Spartanburg Little
Theatre Board and The Piedmont Interstate Fair Board.
Jamie earned his Bachelor of Arts in Government from Wofford College.
Richard J. (Rich) Gaton is the Co-founder and President of BDI Pharma, Inc., a national
distributor of specialty biopharmaceuticals established in 1995 and
headquartered in Columbia. His business focuses on the specialty
pharmaceutical class of therapies inclusive of biotherapeutics,
chemotherapies, vaccines, plasma protein therapies and injectables.
Rich is on the board of HDMA, a national association representing
primary, full service healthcare distributors. He also supports
patient-based associations including National Hemophilia Foundation and
Save One Life, both related to his line of business. He is on the board
of Heathwood Hall and has previously served on the board of the
Salvation Army in Columbia.
Rich earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Tanya A. Gee is the Clerk of Court for the South Carolina Court of Appeals. She
began her career as a Law Clerk for the Chief Judge of the Court of
Appeals and then moved on to be the Chief Staff Attorney, supervising
ten staff attorneys.
Tanya helped author the appellate guidebook for self-represented
litigants and organized a project to help indigents prepare wills. Her
community service also includes being a Guardian Ad Litem and tutor at a
local elementary school. She also has worked on the Kids ID project.
She was recently named one of the “Top 20 Under 40” by The State
newspaper and is the recipient of the 2009 Silver Compleat Lawyer award.
Tanya earned her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina
School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Winthrop
University.
Mary H. Hipp is a community activist. She was campaign manager for both David
Childs and Hayne Hipp in their races for Greenville County Council. Her
career also includes Data Quality positions with Instill Corporation, a
supply chain management company, and Chef/Instructor at Tante Marie’s
Cooking School in San Francisco.
Mary is the chair of the Friends of the Zoo board and serves on the
boards of the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, Friends of
Brookgreen Gardens, Greenville Women Giving and Metropolitan Arts
Council (incoming chair). She is a graduate of Leadership South
Carolina, the Riley Institute Diversity Leaders Initiative and
Leadership Greenville. She formerly served on the boards of the
Greenville Humane Society, Greenville Chamber Board of Regents and
Project Host.
Mary earned a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Washington and Lee
University and a Certificate in Culinary Arts from Tante Marie’s Cooking
School.
J. Blanding (Blan) Holman IV is a Senior Attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)
and co-founder of SELC's Charleston office. He also teaches
environmental law at the Charleston School of Law. Prior to joining
SELC, Blan practiced with a law firm in Washington D.C. and served as a
law clerk to United States Judge Lacy Thornburg in Asheville.
Blan is a founding board member for the Conservation Voters of South
Carolina. He has published articles in national and local magazines as
well as law journals. He earned a Juris Doctor from the University of
Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Political
Science from the University of North Carolina, Phi Beta Kappa. He is a
Harry S. Truman Scholar and visited Harvard Law School as a 2010
Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow.
R. Michael (Mikee) Johnson is CEO and President of Cox Industries, a privately owned business
specializing in manufacturing and global distribution of
pressure-treated wood. Previously, he was an Associate Vice President
with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Inc.
Mikee is chair of the Orangeburg Chamber of Commerce and on the
executive committee of the Indian Waters Council of the Boy Scouts of
America. He is state membership chair for the Young Presidents’
Organization and was recently named one of the “Top 20 Under 40” by The
State newspaper. He served on the Downtown Revitalization Association
board, has been a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and served as
chairman for the Orangeburg County March of Dimes.
Mikee earned his Master of Business Administration from the University
of South Carolina and his Bachelor of Arts in English and Political
Science from Furman University. Additionally, he has a Masters in the
field of Family Business from Kennesaw State and is pursuing a DBA in
the same field.
Amy E. Love is Deputy Executive Director of New Carolina – South Carolina's Council
on Competitiveness. She was part of the start-up team that launched New
Carolina in 2004. Before joining New Carolina, Amy worked in Europe for
German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom.
During graduate school, Amy developed and ran the public information
program for USDA Rural Development in South Carolina. She has a Masters
in Public Relations from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor
of Arts in English from Furman University. She studied German at
Middlebury College and the Goethe Institute in Bonn, Germany.
Amy is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, the South
Carolina Economic Developers Association and the Leadership South
Carolina Board of Trustees. She is a Richard W. Riley Institute
Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI) graduate and serves on the DLI
Emerging Leaders Advisory Committee.
Nicolas D. (Nick) Muzin is Senior Vice President of Legal & Government Affairs for The
InterTech Group, a private equity conglomerate in Charleston. He also is
a physician at the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic. Prior to
joining InterTech, Nick worked at the law firm Williams & Connally
in Washington D.C. He also has worked on policy issues for the Food and
Drug Administration and as a physician at Westchester Medical Center in
New York.
Nick worked in the Counsel’s Office of the Republican National Committee
during the 2004 election, served as senior medical advisor for the
McCain for President campaign and was the finance chairman for the South
Carolina Republican Party Commission on Debates. He earned his Juris
Doctor from Yale Law School, his MD from Albert Einstein College of
Medicine and his Bachelor of Arts from Yeshiva University.
Susan D. Newman is Assistant Professor in the
College of Nursing and College of Graduate Studies at the Medical
University of South Carolina. She previously worked as a staff nurse at
Roper Rehabilitation Hospital in Charleston. Today, her career is
focused on community-based rehabilitation and health promotion
intervention research with people with spinal cord injuries.
Susan volunteers with groups such as Anchors Away/Adaptive Water Sports
and Achieving Wheelchair Equality. She partners with the disAbility
Resource Center, a Center for Independent Living, both in helping people
with disabilities and in conducting her research.
Susan earned her PhD and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Medical
University of South Carolina College of Nursing and her Bachelor of
Fine Arts from Clemson University. She is a Registered Nurse.
Scott E. Porter is Section Chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Oncology at Greenville
Hospital System University Medical Center and holds an Adjunct Assistant
Professorship in the Department of Bioengineering at Clemson
University. He is one of only two orthopaedic oncologists in the state
of South Carolina. Additionally, he has been actively engaged in
understanding South Carolina’s political landscape.
Scott earned his MD from the Yale University School of Medicine and his
Bachelor of Science in Biology from Morehouse College. He is pursuing an
MBA at the Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University.
Patricia S. (Tricia) Ravenhorst is the Director and Immigration Attorney of the South Carolina
Immigrant Victim Network, a program of the South Carolina Victim
Assistance Network. She remains Of Counsel at the law firm of Wyche,
Burgess, Freeman & Parham, which she joined out of law school. Her
prior work experience includes internships with the South African
Secretariat for Safety and Security in Pretoria, South Africa and
clerkships at several law firms.
Tricia is on the boards of La Alianza para la Colaboración con la
Comunidad Hispana and the Center for Developmental Services and is a
former board member of Safe Harbor (chair) and Leadership Greenville
Development Board. She is a graduate of Leadership Greenville.
Tricia earned her Juris Doctor and Master of Arts in Political Science
with a Certification in Latin American Studies from Duke University and
her Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs summa cum laude, Phi Beta
Kappa from Florida State University.
Vaidehi A. Shah is a founder of Velocitas Partners, Inc., an advisory firm partnering
with social investors including venture capitalists, foundations,
pension funds, family offices, individuals and other socially-motivated
investors. Her prior experience includes positions with Eton Park
Capital Management, The Carlyle Group, The World Bank and Goldman Sachs.
Vaidehi earned her Master of Business Administration from Harvard
Business School and her Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude and Phi Beta
Kappa in Mathematics and Economics from Wellesley College.
James E. Smith, Jr. received his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School
of Law, began his legal career with Nelson Mullins Riley &
Scarborough, LLP and is currently the principle of James E. Smith, Jr.,
P.A. Elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1996,
James has served as Assistant Minority Leader, Chief Minority Whip and
House Minority Leader. After serving eight years as a JAG officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard, James resigned his commission, re-enlisted and became an Infantry Officer. As a Captain, he served in Afghanistan’s Zabul and Khandahar Provinces where he earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals.
James serves on the boards of the Alston Wilkes Society, Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority, Congaree Riverkeepers and United Way and is a former board member of the South Carolina First Steps and Prevent Child Abuse. James was recently awarded the Outstanding Alumni Award by the University of South Carolina College of Art and Sciences.
Robin B. Stilwell is a State Circuit Court Judge for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.
Prior to being elected judge, he was a shareholder in Hunter Tomaszek
& Stilwell, P.A. He also has served as Chief Judge, Mauldin
Municipal Court, and Associate Judge, Greer Municipal Court. His
experience includes founding his own law firm and serving as Associate
Attorney at Anderson Fayssoux & Chasteen and The Stilwell Law Firm.
Additionally, he represented indigent defendants as an Indigent Defense
contract attorney for the County of Greenville.Robin served on the boards of the Greenville Literacy Association, Eastside YMCA, Mental Health Association of South Carolina and Greenville Hospital System Patewood Advisory Board. He was an Infantry Officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard for over 20 years and was deployed to Afghanistan where he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and a Bronze Star.
Robin received his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts in English from The Citadel.
Gustavo A. (Gus) Suárez is
an Associate Attorney with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak &
Stewart, P.C., where he practices immigration compliance law, employment
law and product litigation. He also teaches Immigration Law at
Greenville Technical College. Gus serves on the boards of Pendleton Place Children’s Home and the International Center for the Upstate and on the Greenville Technical College Multicultural Advisory Council. Recently, he completed the Riley Institute’s Diversity Leadership Program.
Gus earned his Juris Doctor magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in Political Science and History from Furman University.
Laura G. Varn is Vice President of Corporate Communications and Media Relations for
Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s largest provider of electricity with
more than two million customers. Under her leadership, Santee Cooper
was named the utility with the best communications of all utilities in
the nation in 2009. Prior to joining Santee Cooper, she served in media
relations and corporate communications roles with Southern Company,
Delta Air Lines and Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, all
based in Atlanta.Laura is on the Executive Committee of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, leading their ThinkTEC Innovation Division. She is a graduate of Leadership South Carolina, Diversity Leadership Initiative and Leadership Berkeley County. She formerly served on the Youth Communication, Metro Atlanta board and Georgia 100 Mentoring Association as well as the Habitat for Humanity board in Atlanta.
Laura earned her Bachelor of Science summa cum laude in Journalism from Ohio University.
Peter B. Waldschmidt is Founder and CEO of Gnoso, Inc., a software product design and
development company. Prior to founding Gnoso, he co-founded TetraData
which built the market-leading data warehousing and analysis solution
for U.S. school districts and state education departments. In 2006 this
company was acquired by Follett Software.Peter is Co-Chair of the NEXT Innovation Center Initiative and was a driving force behind this successful incubator for entrepreneurs. He also serves on the board of the Greenville Local Development Corporation and was chairman of the TEDxGreenville Conference held for the first time this spring. He is a founding member of the Upstate Carolina Angel Network.
Peter is pursuing his Master of Business Administration from Clemson University and earned a Bachelor of Science magna cum laude in Electrical Engineering from Bob Jones University.
Thad H. Westbrook is a Partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, where
his practice is focused on business litigation, class action defense,
and consumer finance litigation. Previously he was as law clerk to U.S.
District Judge G. Ross Anderson, Jr.Thad is on the Board of Trustees and is former vice chair of the Board of Visitors at the University of South Carolina. He is immediate past board chair for Lexington Medical Center and now serves on the Lexington Medical Center Foundation Board. He is a former member of the Board of Visitors for the Medical University of South Carolina and is on the South Carolina Supreme Court's Committee on Character and Fitness. He was named one of the “top 20 under 40” by The State newspaper in 2009.
Thad earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Political Science from the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina.
About Liberty Fellowship
Liberty Fellowship is a statewide leadership initiative founded by Hayne Hipp, Wofford College and The Aspen Institute. The program seeks to inspire outstanding leadership in South Carolina, empowering the state’s leaders to realize their full potential. Fostering a values-based approach, Liberty Fellowship exposes rising leaders, ages 30-45, to diverse perspectives, critical thinking, and intellectual and personal development through an intense two-year program. For more information: www.libertyfellowshipsc.org
