College recognizes six individuals with top alumni awards

For Immediate Release
Apr. 12, 2018

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— Birmingham-Southern College will honor its 2018 Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni during its 100 Years on the Hilltop Centennial Celebration April 28.

The Distinguished Alumni awards recognize alumni who have achieved outstanding success in their chosen professions. The college will award the distinction to Joelle James Phillips '89, Ellen Woodward Potts '88, and Frances Osborn Robb '58, 2018 Outstanding Young Alumni Award honorees Paul Davis Fancher '97 and Jose David Vega '04, and Rising Star honoree Rachel Buchan '15. The awards will be presented at the Alumni Awards Brunch at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 28, in Bruno Great Hall of the Norton Campus Center.

Tickets cost $25 per person and may be purchased before April 25 by contacting Mackenzie Quick in the Office of Alumni Engagement at (205) 226-4917. Student tickets will be available for a discounted rate of $10.

2018 Distinguished Alumni Award honorees:

Joelle James Phillips ’89
Named president of ATT Tennessee in 2013, Phillips is the first woman in the company's 100+ year history in the state to hold that position. Phillips graduated summa cum laude from law school in 1995. After working in private practice for approximately five years, she joined Bellsouth and served as state operations counsel for several years in the company's regional headquarters in Nashville. In 2010, following BellSouth's merger with AT&T, Phillips was promoted to general counsel for Tennessee.

Phillips serves on the boards of the United Way of Middle Tennessee, Martin Methodist College, the Tennessee Business Roundtable, the Nashville Repertory Theater, the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum, Leadership Nashville and Leadership Tennessee. Joelle has been honored several times by Nashville Business Journal in its annual "Best of the Bar" rankings of the city's top attorneys. Nashville Post Magazine named her one of Nashville "Most Powerful Women." In 2016, the Nashville Business Journal named Phillips to its "Power 100" List of the 100 most influential leaders in Nashville. In December 2016, Nashville Business Journal named Phillips its "Newsmaker of the Year.

Ellen Woodward Potts ’88
Currently the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity's Tuscaloosa Affiliate, Potts has distinguished herself as a leader in community service. Potts graduated from BSC with a degree in finance, and received her MBA at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. While working for Infirmary Health Systems there, Potts developed and opened the first industrial medical clinic to serve the city’s ship-building industry; she was also active in her church, Springhill Presbyterian. In 1997, Potts joined the adjunct faculty of the University of Alabama Honors College, where she still teaches courses on Alzheimer's disease and non-profits.

In 2013, she was named Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity in Tuscaloosa. Under Potts' leadership, the organization has partnered with Nick's Kids Foundation, the official charity of the Nick and Terry Saban family, to build a Habitat Home for each of the University of Alabama's National Championships. Habitat Tuscaloosa has completed over 50 homes since the January 27, 2011 tornado. Potts and her husband, neurologist Dr. Daniel C. Potts ’88, wrote A Pocket Guide for the Alzheimer's Caregiver and started a dementia education company called Dementia Dynamics. Through this organization, they conduct caregiver training conferences and other educational events. Potts was a contributing author for Seasons of Caring, the first multi-faith collection of meditations for dementia caregivers. Rotary International's Tuscaloosa chapter honored Potts with the Rotary Rose Award, which goes to an unsung heroine of community service. Potts was designated an Architect of Change by Maria Shriver, and blogs monthly on Shriver's website, MariaShriver.com.

Frances Osborn Robb ’58
Robb graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from BSC in 1958, and went on to earn graduate degrees from the University of North Carolina and from Yale University. She has served as a curator at the National Gallery of Art, taught formally at four universities, and curated many exhibitions in Alabama. Robb’s Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography, 1839-1941, and a List of Photographers, published by the University of Alabama Press, is the result of decades of research, writing, and production, and has been described as “an insightful document of photography as both a communicator and creator of social, cultural, economic, and visual history.” Since 1989, she has been a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Alabama Humanities Foundation, addressing more than 150 groups in at least 45 counties. One of these addresses, In View of Home: Alabama Landscape Photographs, was funded by an Alabama Humanities Foundation Exemplary Grant from NEH and went on to win the 1989 Schwartz Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the best statewide humanities program.

2018 Outstanding Young Alumni Award honorees:

Paul Davis Fancher ’97
After graduating from BSC, Fancher earned his law degree at Vanderbilt University Law School. He went on to practice securities law on Wall Street for one of the world's largest law firms before moving to Atlanta and joining Troutman Sanders LLP, an Atlanta-based law firm with more than 600 attorneys. Fancher became a partner at Troutman in January 2011. He has received the Southeastern Chapter Young Lawyer Ethics & Professionalism Award, among numerous other honors. Fancher, in addition to providing numerous nonprofits with pro bono legal service, has served on the board of the Atlanta Children's Shelter, and the Advisory Committee ACLU of Georgia Foundation.

Jose David Vega ’04
Vega graduated summa cum laude from BSC in 2004 and earned his law degree from Wake Forest School of Law in 2007. For more than a decade, Vega has represented commercial businesses and financial institutions in litigation matters throughout the country. Vega advises clients about privacy and security compliance issues, working to ensure the integrity of their systems and to provide investigative and remediation services in the wake of a data breach. He is a member of Bradley's Privacy, Security and Innovation team, which is part of the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group. In addition to his primary practice, he represents pro bono international clients under the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (otherwise known as the "Hague Convention") and works to secure the immediate return of wrongfully removed children. He is a member of International Association of Privacy Professionals, and a member of various boards including the Charlotte Center for Legacy Advocacy, Pat's Place Child Advocacy Center. Vega has been selected by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star from 2015-2018.

Rising Star honoree:

Rachel Buchan ’15
Buchan earned a BS in Psychology and Religion with Honors Studies in Music from Birmingham-Southern and completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Turkey. Prior to joining Capstone LLC in 2017, Buchan served in The Office of Barack and Michelle Obama, helping establish the President and Mrs. Obama's post-White House procedures for their personal office. At Capstone, Buchan leads the outreach team. She serves as research coordinator for policy days, conference calls and private equity projects. Buchan’s top priority is identifying key policy makers, stakeholders and industry experts to give clients a holistic understanding of how evolving policy and regulation can impact the market. She has also worked for the Office of Congressman Matt Cartwright, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Human Rights First.