Exes News Notes

Wayne Anderson ’84 was embedded as a free-lance reporter with the 1157th Transportation Company of the Wisconsin National Guard in Baghdad during the month of June this summer.  Wayne is the first journalist in western Wisconsin to go to Iraq. He is a columnist for the Inter-County Leader.

Bill Fairley ’49 retired some time ago after 33 years at the Star-Telegram.  He still writes “Bill Fairley’s Chronicles,” a column on the history of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Jenny Langford ‘02 married Eric Redding on June 23.  Jenny, who formerly worked for Sen. Evan Bayh, is currently employed at Chemonics International, the leading implementer of projects for USAID.  She works with African and Eastern European projects.

Adrienne Elrod ’98 after almost a decade in media-related political posts in Washington, has been named chief of staff of Florida Rep. Ron Klein

(Julie) "Renee" Peterson Trudeau '88 just launched a national women's initiative focused around her new book "The Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal: How to Reclaim, Rejuvenate and Re-Balance Your Life." Women's life coaching groups (called Personal Renewal Groups) are forming in the U.S., Canada and Europe using the "Guide" as their manual for change. Trudeau is the president of seven year-old Austin coaching/consulting firm, Career Strategists (www.careerstrategists.net) and her recent work has been
featured in American Way, Parenting, Working Mother, Plum, Family Circle and AARP magazines and in numerous broadcast and online business and lifestyle media. She lives in Austin with her husband John and five-year old son, Jonah. You can read more about Renee at www.reneetrudeau.com.

Blake Sims ‘97 has changed careers after almost a decade as a photographer, with the Natchez (Mississippi) Democrat, the Birmingham Post-Herald, and Southern Living Magazine.  Blake is completing dual master’s degrees – a master’s in health care administration and an MBA at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.  But the biggest news in Blake’s life is that he and Melanie are the parents of a new baby girl, Alison Dee, born on Feb. 20.

Sheila (Berry) Johnston ‘03 recently arrived in Iraq (she’s in the Air Force) to work in public affairs. Sheila writes Newsworthy:”I am dealing supremely in press releases as we're one of the release desks for a variety of units here.  I have interaction daily with country representatives from the U.K., Poland, the Republic of Korea along with U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines.  This is probably one of the biggest duties I could have at this point in my career since it involves all these players and the heavy load of information we send out to interested media.  Here, I get to see what's going on all over Iraq via reports and releases from Public Affairs staffs throughout the country.