Classmate Update: Holley Johnson Grainger

After graduating from John Carroll, Holley Johnson Grainger attended the University of Alabama. She graduated in 2001, and moved to Charleston, South Carolina to complete her dietetic internship at the Medical University of South Carolina.

 

After her internship, she moved back to Birmingham and began working as a registered dietitian and Food Editor at Oxmoor House, the book publishing division at Time Inc. (then called Southern Progress).

 

During her more than 10 years at Time Inc., Holley was the Food Editor at Southern Living magazine and then the founding Food and Nutrition Editor at MyRecipes.com and CookingLight.com.

 

In 2009, she married Brent Grainger, a Homewood High School grad, who ironically knew just as many people at JCHS as Holley. They now have two little girls, Ellie, 6 and Frances 3.

 

Nearly five years ago, Holley founded HJG Communications, LLC. She works as a nutrition and lifestyle consultant, speaker, and spokesperson for various brands and commodities. She is also a food/mommy blogger at Holley’s Kitchen. Her job allows her the flexibility to be a fulltime mom, a fulltime business woman, and an entrepreneur. She’s been on numerous local and national television shows and has hosted more than 800 online cooking videos – both for herself and the Time Inc brands. Her job has allowed her to travel all over the country and the world including:  Prague, Vienna, Madrid, Vancouver and more.

 

Holley is the lead planner for the JCHS Class of ’97 Reunion and she can’t wait to see the months of planning come to fruition this weekend.

 

 

Classmate Update: Jametta White

After graduating from John Carroll, Jametta White attended Clemson University, where she also worked with the university athletic department in the Football Recruitment Office for three years. Jametta graduated from Clemson in 2001 with a degree in Marketing with a sports concentration.

 

Following graduation, she was accepted into Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, where she focused her studies in labor and employment, and sports law. After receiving her juris doctorate in 2004, Jametta began her career in the labor and employment litigation department at an internationally-recognized law firm in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon leaving her firm, she assumed her current position as general counsel for one of the largest minority-owned accounting firms in the southeast.

 

After eight years as a practicing attorney, Jametta’s personal passion for sports propelled her toward a transition into the sports industry. In 2013, she became a certified contract advisor with the NFL Players Association and a certified Sports Life Coach. She also founded Journey Sports Management, LLC – a lifestyle and career management firm focused on helping athletes reach sustainable lifestyle and career goals, by creating and driving integrated, big-picture strategies through life coaching, education and training, and career development.

Classmate Update: Karen Smaha

After graduating from John Carroll, Karen Smaha attended the University of Montevallo, earned a degree in Early Childhood Education and taught at a Montessori preschool for three years.

 

However, she decided she needed a change. So, she went to work for Southern Cal Transport – a trucking company in Birmingham. Karen was a planner there for seven years before she decided to follow her dreams. Her love of service work and traveling the world led her to quit her job and join Peace Corps.

 

She served in the Philippines for 27 months – the length of PC service. She taught English and sports, and became involved in community outreach within her city and province. Karen helped promote education and awareness for HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, and STI.

 

While in the Philippines, Karen worked with Stop Hunger Now (now called Rise Against Hunger), where she packaged meals to be used in school feeding programs and emergency response. She loved the organization and their work, and she believed in their mission.

 

When she returned home, she moved to Atlanta to work for them as a Global Logistics Coordinator. In her role, she is able to combine her passion for international humanitarian work with her love of logistics. It also provides her with the opportunity to continue traveling and seeing the world.

 

Karen can’t attend the reunion because of a work event in Atlanta that same night, but she enjoys keeping up with everyone through the blog posts!

 

Classmate Update: Julie Wehby Little

After graduating from John Carroll, Julie Wehby Little attended the University of Montevallo and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Elementary Education. She taught in Shelby County Schools for eight years as an 8th grade English teacher and a boys’ soccer coach. She earned her Master’s in Education from the University of Montevallo in 2004 and moved to DeKalb County. In 2009 she got married and worked as a school counselor at Collinsville School in Collinsville, Alabama.

Julie went back to school one more time and received a Master’s in Counseling in 2010 from the University of West Alabama. She also coached the boys’ soccer team there for six years. In 2013 her team won a state championship, becoming the first public school in 1A-4A to win a soccer championship, the first 1A school to win a soccer state championship, and the first all-Hispanic team, in any sport, to win a state championship.

 

After getting divorced in 2014, Julie was recruited by Albertville High School to take over their girls’ soccer program. She moved to Albertville in 2015, where she became the 2nd grade counselor in addition to coaching soccer. She recently moved to the middle school, where she is the 7th grade counselor, but she’s still coaching at the high school. Her team made it to the Elite 8 her first year at Albertville and to the Sweet 16 last season.

 

Julie said she did not go to college to be a soccer coach, she got recruited into it during her first years of teaching, and it stuck. She spends her summers volunteering with the Muscular Dystrophy Camp – the place she went 22 years ago to complete her John Carroll service hours. She’s been back every summer since.

 

In addition to coaching and volunteering, Julie plays adult league soccer in Birmingham, referees soccer, and spends as much time with my four nieces and 4 four nephews as she can.

Classmate Update: Jeniese Hosey

After graduating from John Carroll, Jeniese Hosey earned her undergraduate degree in Public Relations from the University of Alabama in 2001. Upon completing college she started working in retail and PR to gain experience.

 

Once she established herself in the public relations career field, Jeniese launched her fashion blog, The Jenesaisquoi, in 2010. She said although she had no idea what she was doing, she knew she wanted to express herself through fashion.







Jeniese is on the far right. She won the Redbook 2015
"Real Woman, Real Style" contest.

Jeniese took a blogging break to earn her MBA, but resumed it again upon her graduating in 2013. Two years later she won the “Real Woman, Real Style” contest hosted by Redbook Magazine, and she appeared on the cover. She describes it was the best moment of her life.

 

Jeniese said her blog has allowed her to travel, meet new people, and work with so many of her favorite brands. She’s part of the reunion planning committee and she can’t wait to see everyone.

Classmate Update: Chad Weaver

After graduating from John Carroll, Chad Weaver attended Auburn University for two years before completing his Finance degree at the University of Alabama in 2002. He went on to earn an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2005, followed by three years of active duty military service in the United States Air Force, as a Medical Service Corps Officer.

After leaving the Air Force, Chad returned to Birmingham and accepted a position with the Internal Revenue Service. He went back to school one last time to take the necessary accounting classes required to sit for the CPA exam. During that time, he moved from the IRS to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, where he currently works as a CPA –  doing accounting, internal control, and enterprise risk management.

Chad met his wife Clarissa in 2001 when they were both in Tuscaloosa. They started dating until 2009 and they were married a year later. Clarissa will graduate from UAB with a PhD in Chemistry August 12, and the Weavers are looking forward to celebrating at the JCHS reunion.

Chad and Clarissa plan to relocate to Ann Arbor, Michigan later this year, because Clarissa accepted a post-doctoral research fellowship with the University of Michigan Life Science Institute. They have three pets – a cat named Holly, a white Boxer named Kama, and an American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit Bull), named Nicky Lou. In his free time, Chad enjoys traveling, tennis, and studying the JFK assassination.

Classmate Update: Lee Ann Heaton Fuller

After graduating from John Carroll, Lee Ann Heaton Fuller attended Emory and Henry College in Virginia, where she also met her future husband, John. She graduated in 2001 with a degree in mathematics and economics.

 

Lee Ann and John got married after graduation and subsequently moved back to Birmingham, where Lee Ann became a math teacher at John Carroll. In 2003 she earned a master’s from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Lee Ann is now the chair of the JCHS math department, and she and John have two children: Anna Grace, 11, and Joseph, 8. Their kids attend Our Lady of Sorrows, where they are very active in sports and other activities. John is also a teacher and he taught at John Carroll for six years.

In these graduation photos, Lee Ann is posed with a few of her students from the John Carroll Class of 2017 -- including Jacob Ford, Kristie Heard Ford's oldest son.

Classmate Update: Ginny Heaton McMillian

When Ginny Heaton McMillian left John Carroll for Missouri in 1997 she never planned to live in Birmingham again. She earned a degree in science from the University of Missouri-Rolla, but decided she needed a job that made a more immediate impact so; she got a master’s in counseling from St. Louis University in 2004, and planned to become a high school counselor. Ginny said her decision to pursue counseling was because of the influence Nancy Harley had on her at JCHS.

 

Ginny got married, lived in St. Louis and had a baby. Needing to be near family, she gave in and moved back to Birmingham. Still never planning to work anywhere near family or John Carroll, she worked for four years as a school counselor. Then life shifted and she needed a job. Her twin sister Lee Ann said, “Well there’s this job opening at John Carroll, but no one would ever want to do that.” (All the while Lee Ann had been teaching there in Mr. Dunsmore’s classroom since 2001).

 

In 2009 Ginny started the new Academic Counseling program at John Carroll. She now works with students who have diagnoses that require a small amount of accommodation to be successful. In the eight years that she’s been at JCHS, she’s helped teachers, and the diocese, understand different learners, and she has helped bring accommodations and learning support to Catholic schools.

 

While working at John Carroll, Ginny met her current husband, Chris. Blending their families together, Ginny, Chris and their kids – Amelia, 12, Sienna, 10, Aria 15, Kendrick, 12, and Elijah, 9 – became another Brady Bunch. Ginny and Chris then completed their family by adding a baby of their own, Jayden, 2.

Classmate Update: Claire Rumore

After graduating from John Carroll, Claire Rumore attended Auburn University which took her to Kathmandu, Nepal in early 1999, where she studied medical anthropology. She then studied sexuality, gender & identity in Amsterdam on a Morris K. Udall scholarship in late 1999. For three months in 2000, Claire studied Spanish on a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship in Costa Rica. Claire ultimately graduated from Auburn in 2001 with dual degrees in sociology and Spanish, and a minor in women’s studies.

 

After graduation, Claire moved back to Birmingham and started an environmentally-friendly house cleaning company, which she ran for four years. She also became a Feng Shui practitioner and had a private practice during that same era. In 2005 Claire moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. While living in California she became trained in life coaching, somatic psychotherapy, non-violent communication, and relationship counseling, which she used to develop a coaching/counseling practice focused on relationships and sexuality with a Tantric Buddhist focus.

 

She was married to an Italian man for nine years and has dual citizenship.

Claire speaks three languages – English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese – and has traveled to more than 40 countries. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, blues dancing, yoga, personal development and spiritual studies.

Classmate Update: Kristie Heard Ford

After graduating from John Carroll, Kristie Heard Ford started her college career at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY, where she also met her future husband, Matt. Kristie moved home after a year away and finished at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She graduated with a degree in psychology in 2001, and soon after, she and Matt got married. She then began a hodgepodge of jobs – from PE teacher to church secretary – while adding to their family.

 

After their third child, she finally decided what she wanted to be when she grew up:  a speech-language pathologist. She earned her master’s in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Montevallo in 2009, and she practiced in both the school and hospital environments, before finding her dream job, working with children with Autism and other developmental delays, at the UAB Civitan Sparks Clinics, where she has worked since 2011.

 

In addition to her working mom duties, Kristie is actively involved at Our Lady of the Valley Church, where she serves as the youth athletic director and coaches volleyball through the Toy Bowl league.

 

Although she doesn’t travel much – other than trips to the gulf or visiting family in Kentucky – Kristie stays busy chauffeuring her five boys – Jacob, 18, Owen, 14, Isaac, 12, Kieran, 8, and Asher, 3 – around to various activities throughout the city. Kristie and Matt are excited that although their oldest son will be leaving the nest for Auburn University in August, they will be filling his spot with their newest addition in November. Kristie said she can’t wait to see everyone in a few weeks!

Classmate Update: Michelle Henderson Gordon

After graduating from John Carroll, Michelle attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she met her future husband, Patrick. Michelle graduated from UAB with a degree in Marketing and Patrick became an attorney in the U.S. Army. They got married in 2002 and have three children:  Lauren, 10, Nicholas, 7, and Zachery, 6.

In 2005 Michelle was accepted into the Department of the Army Public Affairs Internship Program. She graduated from the program a year later, and has served as a civilian Public Affairs Officer for the past 11 years. 

Throughout her career Michelle has worked at four different military installations as a PAO. She is the installation liaison for local and national media outlets, serves as a writer/editor for military publications, and is the administrator for several military social media platforms. Patrick is now an Army Major stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and Michelle recently accepted a position as a PAO with the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General in Alexandria, Virginia. As a military family the Gordons have moved six times in the past 15 years and Patrick has deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. In her free time Michelle enjoys photography, party planning, and exploring our nation’s capital.

Classmate Update: James Drysdale

After graduating from John Carroll, James attended college at Birmingham-Southern College, where he met his wife, Peyton. He travelled and even spent a semester abroad in France. Then, he moved to Chicago to attend law school at DePaul University. While in law school, James clerked for a Federal Administrative Law Judge in Washington, D.C., the Vice Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. After graduating and passing the bar, he moved to D.C. to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the General Counsel. Since 2008, he’s represented the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in matters pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. James was admitted to the bar of that court, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

James and Peyton now reside in Knoxville, Tennessee. He continues to work in D.C., but he works remotely most of the time and returns to D.C. as needed – usually for court. Peyton is a stained glass artist and together they have three kids – Quinn, who is almost 7 and will be in first grade in the fall, Duncan, 5, and Clara, almost 3. James said that since his wife is from Tennessee and his kids are growing up in Knoxville, they are all Tennessee Vols sports fans, which he tries not to hold against them, too much.

 

Work and kids keep him busy, but James said he plays tennis on a regular basis. He also enjoys doing yard work and he’s been trying to perfect his landscaping for several years, with varying degrees of success.

Classmate Update: Libby Vaughn Laws

After graduating from John Carroll, Libby attended Auburn University, where she earned her degree in Fashion Merchandising and Design.

 

In 2001 she graduated from Auburn and moved to Nashville, Tenn. Libby fell in love with both the city and her future husband, Chris Laws. Libby and Chris got married in 2009 and they currently live in Nashville with their Pug, Mocha.

Chris owns Harpeth Springs Pool Company and Libby works as a Specialty Pharmaceutical Rep. Together they enjoy traveling, hosting parties, working out, cooking and Auburn football. Libby said as one of the “non-Facebookers," she can’t wait to see everyone at the reunion!

Welcome to the blog!

Welcome to the John Carroll High School Class of 1997 Blog! We realize that not everyone is on Facebook so, we created this blog as a way to keep everyone involved in the 20th reunion planning process. In addition to reunion details, we will also spotlight classmates periodically. The goal is to have a blog post about every member of our class, along with a high school photo and a recent photo. To be featured, please complete the 1997 Reunion Blog document and email it to:  jchs97reunion@gmail.com