Fulbright College Announces 2005 Distinguished Alumni

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Dean Donald Bobbitt has selected six graduates of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas as distinguished alumni for 2005, in recognition of outstanding achievements in fields ranging from public relations to public service, medicine, information technology and journalism.

This year’s distinguished alumni are Paul Berry, Betty Anderson Guhman, Edith Irby Jones, Randy Mott, Ron Robinson and Louis Steplock.

“These alumni reflect just how versatile and diverse our graduates are. They are remarkable for their contributions to industry, government and their communities. Their accomplishments serve to inspire our current students, who look to such role models as they prepare to embark on their careers,” said Dean Bobbitt.

Paul Berry operates his own government consulting and public relations firm, Berry & Associates, which he established in 1992. A 1964 graduate in history, Berry served as campaign director for U.S. Sen. David Pryor’s re-election campaign in 1984, and was a member of the Arkansas Finance Committee during the 1992 Clinton for President Campaign. He was senior vice president of Union National Bank of Little Rock for 18 years. Currently he represents clients in a variety of lobbying efforts with the Arkansas General Assembly, including Entergy Corp. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. From 1993 until 1998, he was vice president of Global USA, Inc., a Washington, D.C., public affairs and lobbying firm. Berry currently serves on the board of directors of One Banc of Little Rock, a locally owned community bank.

Betty Anderson Guhman, a native Arkansan and former UA professor of social work, returned to Arkansas in 2005 following eight years of public service in Washington, D.C. For two years, she served as chief of staff to Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For over 30 years, Guhman has been a dedicated public servant and social worker, investigating child abuse and neglect in northwest Arkansas and providing service training to social workers across the state. While at the U of A, Guhman also served as director of the undergraduate Social Work Program and, from 1987 to 1999, as the director of the Fulbright School of Public Affairs.

One of today’s most accomplished physicians, Edith Irby Jones has forged a career of firsts: in 1952, she was the first black graduate from the University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences, was unanimously elected as the first female president of the National Medical Association and was the first black female resident at an all-white school, the Baylor College of Medicine. In 1962, she set up a private practice in inner city Houston, and later founded the Edith Irby Jones Foundation to fund scholarships for the needy. She is a charter member of Physicians for Human Rights, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. She established and supports a clinic in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and helped set up a clinic for the poor in Haiti. In 1998, the American Society of Internal Medicine recognized her as the Internist of the Year. Jones is currently chief of medical staff at Riverside General Hospital in Houston.

Randall Mott is senior vice president and chief information officer for Dell Inc., a $49.2 billion supplier of information technology. Mott is responsible for managing Dell’s global information-technology infrastructure, including the backbone of its extensive Internet, supply chain and Web-based capabilities. After graduating from the U of A in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, Mott joined Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as a programmer for distribution systems. Subsequently, he held numerous leadership positions at Wal-Mart Stores, including senior vice president and chief information officer. Mott was instrumental in developing many of the company’s world-class systems and its information-technology strategy. In 2003, President George W. Bush named Mott to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee.

Ron Robinson is former chairman and chief executive officer of Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, a Little Rock marketing agency he joined in 1970 after working 11 years in journalism and as a public information officer. After spending five years as a sportswriter for the Arkansas Gazette, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the U of A in 1965. In 1966, he studied public relations at the Boston University Graduate School of Public Communications. He is a charter member of the National Public Relations Network and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Advertising Federation. In 1989, the Advertising Federation presented him with its Distinguished Public Service Award for contributions to the communications community. In February 1995, Robinson was named "Business Executive of the Year" by Arkansas Business.

After earning a bachelor of science degree with honors in 1972, Louis Steplock began medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans, and in 1981, completed a residency in general surgery at the Ochsner Clinic. In Memphis, he completed a residency in cardiac and thoracic surgery in 1983 at the University of Tennessee for Health Sciences. He moved to Casper in 1985, becoming the only heart surgeon at the time in Wyoming. While at St. Peter Hospital in Washington from 1991 to 1997, he began a new heart surgery program. During his career as a heart surgeon, Steplock has performed about 5,000 open heart operations and has operated in six states. He is a member of the American Medical Society, the American College of Surgeons and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He is currently the medical director for cardiac surgery at Wyoming Medical Center.

These graduates will return to campus April 23, to visit with students and faculty and attend a dinner in their honor at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House.