Alumni Special: Michael Logan
Michael Logan is a husband, father and Navy Surface Warfare Officer on an NROTC shore tour that has him traveling almost every Sunday–Thursday as he visits and assesses Navy ROTC programs around the country. After serving in the Navy for 13 years, he began eyeing a master’s degree and decided his shore tour was a...
Alumni Special: Justin Murphy
Chief Warrant Officer Justin Murphy has been a legal administrator for the U.S. Army JAG Corp for nine years and is currently serving in Italy. He’s originally from Seattle, but his service has taken him all over the map. In 2011, he worked at Fort Irwin, California, about halfway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles...
Alumni Spotlight: Ben Ellis
From the stage of graduation to the screen of the Bama Theatre, Ben Ellis is making his mark on Tuscaloosa. This retired air traffic controller returned to his childhood town of Tuscaloosa and is the sound engineer of the independent documentary The Strip: Tuscaloosa’s Most Colorful Quarter-Mile. He is also a 2013 graduate of The...
Student Spotlight: Beka Wright
A Tennessee native, Beka Wright took a leap and began pursuing her Master of Arts in Journalism in 2017 through The University of Alabama’s online program. Beka earned her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Journalism and American History from Tennessee Tech University. After completing her undergraduate work in 2016, Beka knew she...
Alumni Special: Payton Hamby
Payton Hamby graduated from Shelton State with her associate degree in Nursing in May 2018 along with one of her best friends, Brooke Robertson. After graduation, Payton immediately began working at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, as a registered nurse on the cardiac unit. Even though Payton had begun her career, she and Brooke...
Student Spotlight: John Murray
John Murray is a systems engineer at L3Harris Technologies near New York, where he has lived all his life. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics at a prestigious private Jesuit university in 2016 and wanted to pursue graduate studies in aerospace engineering, but he also wanted to begin his career. He knew online...
Alumni Special: December Guzzo
December Guzzo recently graduated with her Master of Social Work from The University of Alabama’s primarily online program. She is now using the degree to advance her work as a child forensic interviewer specialist/coordinator at the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC), where she interviews children ages 3-19 who have experienced some type of abuse. She also interviews adults...
Alumni Special: Darrick Carr
Originally from Chicago, but having spent most of his life in Alabama, Darrick Carr describes himself as a “diehard Alabama fan.” He moved to Tuscaloosa after high school in Vernon, Alabama, and began pursuing a bachelor’s degree at The University of Alabama in 1992. He was a first-generation college student, and the first of his...
Student Spotlight: Franky Knepp
Franky Knepp is currently earning her bachelor’s in Human Environmental Sciences all the way from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she works as a civilian HR specialist for the Army. In 2018, she transferred to The University of Alabama from a school in Alaska, where she was living before her family moved to Fort Bragg. A veteran...
Alumni Special: Michael Demes
Michael Demes is a family man and the director of sales at the Hilton Garden Inn in Boca Raton, Florida. He’s a Navy veteran and Boston-born longtime Florida resident. And now he’s also a college degree-holding certified member of The University of Alabama alumni family, after he graduated in August 2019 with his bachelor’s in Hospitality...