The 187th annual Founding Day Convocation at Emory & Henry College was celebrated on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Each year, Founding Day is celebrated with a keynote speaker and awards ceremony honoring distinguished alumni and philanthropic members of the community.
“Founding Day is the time in which we recognize those individuals and organizations that conceived of and built Southwest Virginia’s first higher education institution in 1836 and its impact on the region,” said Mark Graham, Vice President for Administration and General Counsel at Emory & Henry.
This year’s keynote speaker was Stephen and Jessica Callahan ’11. As undergraduates at Emory & Henry, they first found love for one another before building upon their collective passion for business and entrepreneurship as alumni. In 2014, the Callahans founded their first business, Tennessee Hills Distillery, in Jonesborough, Tennessee. In 2021, they expanded their brand, product, and location with Tennessee Hills Brewstillery serving craft beers in Johnson City, Tennessee, which opened in 2021. In recognition, the Emory & Henry Alumni Association awarded Stephen and Jessica Callahan ’11 the 2022 A.L. Mitchell Young Alumni of the Year Award. In August 2022, the Callahans and Tennessee Hills broke ground on their newest expansion project in Bristol, Tennessee. The new location will offer multiple bars, a museum, a new “creamstillery” and corporate headquarters. They anticipate that the new location will be operational and open to the public by May 2024.
Following the keynote, the College recognized the Virginia Highlands Festival as its Service Citation Recipient. Robert Porterfield, founder of both the Virginia Highlands Festival and the famed Barter Theatre, State Theatre of Virginia, held the first Festival in 1949 on the grounds of the Martha Washington Inn in downtown Abingdon. His purpose was to preserve and celebrate the cultural heritage of this area, while promoting Abingdon as a tourist destination for the arts. The Festival has grown in scope to represent all of Southwest Virginia. Now it not only preserves the arts, crafts, and skills that developed in this region, but it also imports talented artists and performers from around the world for creative exchange and the enjoyment of area residents and visitors. More than 100 volunteers work year-round planning events, tours, performances, and exhibitions for the annual Festival. They staff information booths, take up tickets, shuttle out-of-town performers to their programs and represent the Festival to local media. Many notable Emory & Henry faculty, staff, and alumni have contributed to the Festival’s remarkable 75 year run by performing, organizing workshops or concerts, showing works of art, or serving in leadership roles in this region’s premier summer attraction. Local tourism that centers around culture and history has helped Abingdon, Virginia and the Virginia Highlands Festival stand out for 75 years.
“We acknowledge the role that local individuals and groups had in supporting Emory & Henry for nearly two centuries by recognizing civic leaders in our community annually during Founders Day,” said Graham.
In conjunction with the time-honored celebration of Founding Day, the Emory & Henry Alumni Association selected annual honorees to award various Distinguished Alumni Awards. “Alumni engagement is important for Emory & Henry because our alumni are important to us,” said Monica Hoel, alumni director. “We are so proud of what our alumni do in the world, and we are grateful that so many will continue to give back to their alma mater as donors, mentors, career connections and volunteers.”
The honorees for this year are Susan Matthis Johnson ’75 for the Carl and Ruth Looney Humanitarian Award; Dr. Major Warner ’91 for the Distinguished Achievement Award; Dr. Stephanie Edwards Compton ’16 for the A.L. Mitchell Young Alumnus of the Year Award; Dr. Jack Wells for the James A. Davis Faculty Award; and Chuck Alexander ’89 for the Fred Selfe Distinctive Service to Emory & Henry Award.
“It is very difficult to choose just a handful of alumni to honor each year because we have so many who are worthy of praise and respect, but each year, we receive nominations from people who tell stories of the alumni they hope the selection committee will pay close attention to,” said Hoel.
Susan Matthis Johnson, E&H Class of 1975, is an educator who taught AP English language and literature, speech, and broadcast journalism and managed the only PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Lab in West Virginia. Before retiring in 2016, she was named the Nicholas County Teacher of the Year, and the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University named her West Virginia Journalism Teacher of the Year. She writes columns for the Nicholas Chronicle and the Charleston Gazette-Mail. In 2016, she began efforts alongside other Richwood, West Virginia community members to save the local high school after a devastating flood. Her efforts not only saved the school but also paved the way for Richwood to become a thriving destination town.
Dr. Major Warner, E&H Class of 1991, was named Superintendent of Fauquier County Public Schools in 2023. He is a 30-year veteran in education who began his career as a school counselor in Loudon County Public Schools. He taught at Liberty High School, spent 2 years as assistant principal at Park View High School in Loudon, served as assistant principal at Battlefield High School in Prince William County Public Schools, and served for 10 years as principal of Kettle Run High School in Fauquier. He was deputy superintendent of the Fauquier school division before being named to the top position. He earned his doctor of education degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Chuck Alexander, E&H Class of 1989, is the principal and managing director for the U.S. division of Burness, a global team of communications experts supporting non-profit organizations. He previously worked for National Public Radio managing national outreach campaigns and promoting NPR programs. A native of East Tennessee, he was a political science major at E&H and earned his master’s degree in public communications from American University. He has served Emory & Henry in countless ways, providing assistance to recruiting efforts, serving as a mentor for career services, providing networking and career opportunities for recent graduates, and hosting events for alumni in his community of Georgetown. In 2017, he established a student scholarship at Emory & Henry, honoring the memory of his mother, Carolyn.
Dr. Stephanie Edwards Compton, E&H Class of 2016, received her Ph.D. studying ovarian cancer metabolism in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise at Virginia Tech, studying Molecular and Cellular Science. Her research involved investigating obesity, substrate utilization, and metabolism in ovarian cancer. She has finished an ISPP dietetic internship at Virginia Tech and is a registered dietician. She is doing post-doctoral work in cancer research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. In 2018 she earned a Master of Science in Behavioral and Community Science and Dietetics from Virginia Tech.
To make future nominations, view the alumni awardee acceptance speeches and see past recipients, visit www.ehc.edu/alumni/get-involved/alumni-awards.
