Alumni

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Three Transylvania alums were recent recipients of Fulbright program awards and honors to further their educational and professional pursuits. Ashley Duncan ’05 was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant for 2008-09 for her project, “Exploring the Finnish Model of Farm Animal Welfare,” which is based on the hypothesis that the European Union gives more protection to farm animals than does the United States. Duncan, a graduate of the University of Louisville Brandeis Law School, is spending nine months in Finland researching the laws, regulations, and court opinions of the European Union and Finland to determine the standard of welfare mandated for farm animals there. By studying in a European Union country that has more extensive laws for farm animals, she hopes to learn about the legislative history, policy, and scientific evidence that influenced the laws. She is conducting field work and interviewing farmers who have been directly affected by recent changes in the laws, with the long term goal of using the information to improve the treatment of farm animals in the U.S. Duncan’s interest in animal welfare issues was sparked in high school. “From the moment I learned about the treatment of animals raised for food, I knew I had found my life’s calling,” she said. “I became very passionate about the issue and looked for a way to integrate my passion with a career that would allow me to improve the lives of animals.” Duncan experienced a deepening

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—During Transylvania’s recent Alumni Weekend celebration, long-time professors James Miller and Richard Thompson and alumnae Betty Scrivner Lollis ‘58 and Sarah Wyatt ‘58 received the University’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding service to Transylvania, and four alums—William Christopher Hobgood ‘58, Lee Rose ‘58, Robert P. Dillard ‘63 and Carla Roberts Whaley ‘83—received the Distinguished Achievement Award for excellence in their profession or community service. James Miller, professor of computer science, has been a member of the Transy faculty for 42 years and was honored for his unfaltering commitment to the students and alumni and for his service to the community. Since 1992, Miller has helped coordinate Immanuel Baptist Church’s annual construction of a Habitat for Humanity house. He also has served on the boards of the Living Arts and Science Center, Central Baptist Hospital and the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation. Richard Thompson, in his dual role at Transylvania as a professor of sociology and as a dean of students, has had great influence on the lives of hundreds of students. He has also has left a mark on the Lexington community, serving with the Episcopal Diocese AIDS Ministry and as a member of the Institutional Research Committee at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital. Betty Scrivner Lollis’ service to Transylvania has taken various shapes and forms. She has served Transylvania as director of alumni and parent programs, president of the Alumni Executive Board, coordinator of the Thomas Jefferson Scholars Program,

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Harry Stephenson, who has been associated with Transylvania as a student, coach, administrator, and teacher for 70 years, will be honored with a reception and dinner on Thursday and Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry has proclaimed the day Harry S. Stephenson Day. Stephenson came to Transylvania as a student in the fall of 1936 and never really left. With the exception of three-and-a-half years for military service during World War II, two years playing professional baseball, a year of graduate school, and another year of high school teaching, Stephenson has enjoyed an uninterrupted association with Transylvania as a student, teacher, administrator, and coach that now spans a remarkable seven decades. Today, in his role as special assistant to the director of athletics, Stephenson is celebrating the 70th anniversary of his love affair with Transylvania. When Stephenson enrolled at Transylvania in 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and the nation was struggling to climb out of the Great Depression. A basketball grant helped make Transy affordable for Stephenson, who became a star player, making the All-Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament team as a senior. Though Transylvania did not field a baseball team at the time, the game was Stephenson’s first love and a sport he pursued on the professional level, first during his college summers as a shortstop and second baseman in the Ohio State League at Findlay and with the St. Louis Cardinals organization in Springfield, Missouri. World War II put

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