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In January, I was named interim editor of Georgia Magazine and charged with continuing the magazine’s tradition of excellence until a new editor could be hired. Bridging the gap between former editor Kent Hannon—now editor of Terry Magazine at UGA’s Terry
College of Business—and a new editor was a pleasure, and I’m happy to announce that in May Kelly Simmons came on board as the new editor of Georgia Magazine.
Kelly was a staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1998 until joining GM. She began her work with the AJC reporting on Cobb County government and the state transportation beat, and since 2001 has been the paper’s higher education reporter, based in Athens and covering primarily the University of Georgia and the Board of Regents.
“Kelly Simmons has proven herself to be a thorough professional in her coverage of higher education in general and the University of Georgia in particular,” says Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs. “We are most pleased to add her journalistic talents and broad knowledge of UGA and higher education to our institutional advancement team.”
Kelly began her career as a reporter with the City News Bureau of Chicago, a wire service owned by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. She was public information officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health in Chicago, and immediately prior to joining the AJC, was a reporter for eight years with the Greensboro (NC) News & Record. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1986 with a bachelor of arts in journalism.
In February, Georgia Magazine garnered several awards at the 2006 Council for the Advancement and Support of Education District III awards competition. GM won an award of excellence in the alumni magazines II category and a special merit award in the category of educational fundraising projects for the June 2005 issue on the Archway to Excellence campaign kickoff. And photographer Dot Paul won an award for her photograph of surgery on a teddy bear at the College of Veterinary Medicine open house, which also appeared in the June issue of GM.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Jim Butler, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell, the late Georgia House of Representatives Clerk Jack Ellard and filmmaker Hadjii have one trait in common: passion. Coverdell and Ellard exercised theirs in the political arena, each leaving a legacy that will endure for generations. Coverdell’s is far too prolific to describe here, but the most recent addition is UGA’s new Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, dedicated in April. Ellard’s legacy lives on through a gift made by his widow, Edna Ellard, that endows student internships at the Capitol.
Jim Butler, who endowed a scholarship at the School of Law, is passionate when it comes to representing victims in products liability cases. “What plaintiffs’ lawyers do helps a lot in terms of safety,” he says. “The Wall Street Journal and the right wingers are always bitching about what the tort system cost the country, but curiously enough they have a different attitude when one of their family members gets killed senselessly.”
And triple-threat Hadjii—who wrote, directed and starred in “Somebodies”—took the fruits of his passion on the independent film festival circuit, where it garnered accolades from Park City, Utah, to Paris.
Enjoy.
Allyson Mann (MA '92)
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