View more Class Notes and tell your own story at Liberty.edu/ClassNotes.
1980s
’81 MICHAEL CARDERELLI is a Computer Resources Specialist at Rockingham County Public Schools in Harrisonburg, Va.
’82 RANDY M. LONG is Founder and CEO of Long Business Advisors in Wilmington, N.C. Randy is author of “The BraveHeart Exit,” designed to help business owners create and execute a roadmap for a successful sale or transition out of a business.
’85 TROY NELSON has accepted the position of Executive Pastor at Crosslakes (Minn.) Evangelical Free Church in the Whitefish Chain of Lakes Region of North Central Minnesota. Troy also recently finished his third 100-mile race, The Booneville Backroads in Iowa.
’89 CHUCK WANAMAKER serves as Vice President of Commercial Banking at Republic Bank in Southern New Jersey.
1990s
’90 LEC COBLE became Station Manager at KMSB (Fox) and KTTU (MNT) in Tucson, Ariz., in 2019. He previously served as Vice President of Marketing and Audience Development for Raycom Media.
’90 FRANK HACKETT is Vice President of National Account Management at CorVel Corporation in Philadelphia, Pa. CorVel is a national provider of workers’ compensation solutions to employers, third-party administrators, insurance companies, and government agencies.
’91 BRYANT JOHNSON recently published his second science fiction novel, “Moral Compass: To Be or Not to Be.”
’92 CRAIG T. EDWARDS, Esquire is an attorney (Pa.), Real Estate Broker (Pa., N.J.) and President of the Liberty Development Companies and environmental remediation entity: Land Group LTD. He and his wife, Kathy (’92 – Education), have four children: Alexis, a recent LU graduate and former cheerleader; Cross, a junior aviation major and member of the Club Sports men’s volleyball team; Charis, a current digital media and journalism student at LU; and Court, who is also hoping to attend as a freshman in Fall 2025.
’92 JIM WEST serves as President of Total Life Counseling Center with offices in central Florida and Dallas, Texas. Jim has appeared as an adolescent and family expert on the Fox News Channel, Oprah Winfrey Network, ABC’s Medical Minute, and local television programs.
’92 JON YATES is Vice President of Operations for the Dufresne Spenser Group in Memphis, Tenn., which owns and operates more than 40 Ashley Home Stores, four Stash Home stores, and 14 distribution centers in 10 states in the southeast.
’93 BILL HARRINGTON is Vice President and Chief Actuary of U.S. Commercial Healthcare for Cigna in Philadelphia, Pa.
’93 JONATHAN PETERS is Director of Sales at Metro Merchant Services, an ePayment solutions company in Wilmington, Del.
’93 TONY PHILO is Marketing Asset Activation Manager-Sports and Entertainment for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Ga. Tony and his wife, Becky (’94), have four daughters; one is a 2017 Liberty graduate.
’93 AVERY SMITH joined the faculty of Washington State University in 2019, teaching and researching within the Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship Department (MISE) of the Carson College of Business. Avery retired from Hewlett Packard as an Engineering Program Manager after 27 years of employment with HP.
’94 CHARLES MALLORY is a retired Army Chaplain and Free Methodist Associate Pastor in Motley, Minn. He recently published his first book, “Are You Watching Me?,” a short story narrative encouraging parents and children to read together and spend more quality time as a family.
’94 JENNIE OWENS recently published “Dancing with a Porcupine: Parenting Wounded Children without Losing Yourself,” which describes her family’s experience with parenting three foster care children.
2000s
’01 MELISSA HODGE-PENN serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor for the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
’03 CHARLES CUMMINGS serves as Officer for CRM Applications and Salesforce at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C.
’05 ANDREW HUFF has published a suspense novel, “A Cross to Kill,” through Kregel Publications. A thriller that pits a man of God against terrorists, the novel is an exploration of the moral quandaries of those who choose to follow Christ in an often violent world. Andrew is a two-time finalist in the American Christian Writers Genesis Contest for unpublished authors and won the 2015 Best Screenplay award at the 48 Hour Film Festival in Richmond, Va. He lives in North Texas with his wife, Jae, and their two boys.
’05 DAVID PEYTON is a professor at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C, teaching business analytics, intermediate business statistics, and international supply chain.
’07 VIRGINIA THRASHER SLOCUM is the Strategic Operations and Planning Manager at Chesapeake Regional Healthcare in Chesapeake, Va., reporting to the president and CEO. Her duties include managing the organization’s long- and short-term strategic plans, Certificate of Public Need (COPN) applications and projects, plus other diverse strategic planning initiatives.
’08 MOLLIE YODER is the Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Trevecca Nazarene University, a Christian university in Nashville, Tenn.
2010s
’10, ’12, ’18 EARL JACKSON recently celebrated seven years of serving as an Associate Minister in Willingboro, N.J.
’10 MICHAEL S. SHAW serves as Pilot and Senior Captain for the University of Alabama, providing air travel needs for the president and chancellor along with athletic and university staff.
’12 JONATHAN D. MILLS was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Baptist State Convention at the 2019 annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C. He also serves as a deacon and Sunday school director at First Baptist Church in Gaston, N.C. Jonathan and his wife, Krista, have two boys: Ayden, 12, and Dawson, 2.
’12, ’14 IAN MINIELLY serves as pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. In March 2019, Ian published his first book, “Emily’s Tears,” a story of love in triumph over injustice when an adopted girl is taken from her family by state officials who conspire to sell her for profit to a relative. Ian was a member of the U.S. Intelligence community and has served as a Green Beret in the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and a Ranger.
’12 MATT BELL won a seat on the Chatham Town Council in Chatham, Va.
’12, ’14 KATHERINE BRUCE is founder of Christian Arts Ministries in Orlando, Fla., focusing on biblical precepts, preaching, teaching, Gospel music, and prayer. Katherine has provided pastoral care and counseling to University of Central Florida mathematics exchange students from China.
’12, ’16 ADAM WINGATE serves as Director of Digital Engagement at Members Credit Union and Professor of Marketing/Management for the Patterson School of Business at Carolina University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
’13 KAREN BAECHLE, a former missionary for 20 years, has recently become a published children’s book illustrator in “The Legend of Theodore E. Bear,” by Annette L. Parkhurst. The story is about a 500-year-old bear that walks faithfully with the Lord. It provides the opportunity to teach a young audience about the importance of a relationship with God.
’13 ANDREW GEORGE won the Technology Champion of the Year Award for 2020 while working in service level management with the Science Applications International Corporation.
’13 SUSANNA SPURGEON is editor at the Morocco World News in Rabat, Morocco.
’14 LISA BOSSERT serves as Business Coordinator at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas.
’14 JOSH EAGAN recently teamed up with his 14-year-old daughter, Anika, to write and illustrate, respectively, their first children’s book, “The Adventures of Ninja and Luche: The Great Piggy Rescue,” based on characters created by Anika and her sister Evelyn more than five years ago. Josh is owner and publisher of Roanoke Valley Family magazine in Roanoke, Va., where he lives with his wife, Andrea, and two daughters.
’16, ’19 EMMANUEL NTIBONERA, currently of Nashville, Tenn., is a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who met a great need in his homeland by organizing large shoe drives, including one that raised 10,000 shoes in one day during a Liberty Convocation with NBA star Stephen Curry in 2017. Ntibonera recently released a book titled “Congo Sole,” about his life as a refugee during the Great War of Africa, along with co-author and fellow Liberty alumnus Drew Menard (’09, ’15). The book has been featured in Christianity Today. Just before the pandemic shut down much of the world, Emmanuel brought 50,000 pairs of shoes to the Congo as well as other critical supplies. He is the founder of the Ntibonera Foundation, which shares the love of Christ while bringing hope and relief to those suffering in the Congo and throughout Africa.
’20 JESSICA SHORT released a self-help relationship book, “Rhythms of Relationship: A Guide for Creating Purposeful Patterns to Strengthen Your Marriage,” which was written to help couples make real progress toward the marriage of their dreams.
IN MEMORIAM
Alumni:
’75 FRED HELMICK, of Washington, Pa., died Jan. 4. He was a member of Liberty’s first graduating class and served as a pastor for 46 years, from 1974-83 at Albemarle Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., and at The Wolfdale Bible Church in Washington, Pa., until his passing.
’85 MICHAEL ‘SCOOTER’ REID, of the Bahamas, died Dec. 28, 2020. He is a former Flames basketball player who went on to coach in high school before joining the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture in the Bahamas.
The Liberty family:
BRENDA BONHEIM died on Sept. 14, 2020, at the age of 81. She is remembered as a pioneer for women’s athletics at Liberty. She helped start the women’s basketball and volleyball programs, serving as both programs’ inaugural head coach, and was Liberty’s first Senior Woman Administrator. She was inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.
DR. CLINE HALL died on Oct. 19, 2020, at the age of 83. Cline served as a professor and administrator for Liberty’s Department of History for over 34 years, including 18 years as department chair. He also acted as co-director of Liberty’s Civil War Seminar held each spring and was on the board of directors for the National Civil War Chaplains Museum on campus.
DR. WILLIAM EDWARD MATHENY, Ph.D., died on Jan. 26 at the age of 88. Matheny was a Korean War combat veteran as an enlisted Marine and later served as a Navy Lieutenant in the Caribbean during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After 17 years as a missionary in Peru, Matheny taught religion at Liberty from 1978-85 and history courses from 1987-2011.
HAL JERRY ‘BUDDY’ SHEARER JR. died on Dec. 5, 2020, at age 62. He was an 11-year employee at the Jerry Falwell Library and was a critical contributor to the creation and operation of its Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS).
