The Return of the
Bright Brigade

Dubbed the “bright brigade” by Emory Magazine in 1982, the far-flung members of the first group of Emory College Woodruff Scholars graduated fifteen years ago this May. Here’s a quick look at what they’re doing now.

J. Russell ”Russ” Bailey ’85C is an electrophysiologist–a cardiologist who specializes in rhythm management–in Charlotte, N.C. “Cardiology affords the opportunity to apply a lot of thought to problems and also has, for lack of a better phrase, a lot of neat tools to apply to fix those problems. It’s an area of rapid technological innovation.”

Photos: Then and Now. Members of the original class of Woodruffs were profiled in Emory Magazine in 1982. They included (top row, from left) Russ Bailey, Sonye Danoff, Lynne Harwell, Mark Fernandez, (center row) Rose Marie Eiland Smith, Scott White, Elizabeth Carmichael Mokulis, Gina Greco, (bottom row, from left) Stu Seidman, Haynes Brooke, and Shef Rogers.

With an M.D./Ph.D. completed and a year of research left as a fellow in pulmonary and critical care at Johns Hopkins University, Sonye K. Danoff ’85C has been applying for grants in hopes of staying in academe. “I’ve spent a great deal of my life doing science and research. It makes all the difference that I had the exposures to liberal arts and the people [at Emory].”

“Diversity issues have been my work, my vocation, and even my life,” says Lynne Harwell ’85C, executive director of the Albert G. Oliver Program, a nonprofit organization that helps to send academically talented, low-income African American and Latino students to predominantly white independent schools in New York City and the East.

General, vascular, and thoracic surgeon Marc E. Fernandez ’85C describes his work as “good old-fashioned surgery.” He lives in the rural community of Inverness, Florida, with his wife, Heather Heintz Fernandez ’85C, and three young children. “This is a don’t-lock-your-door, the barber-knows-you kind of place,” he says. “Life is worth living.”

Rose Marie Eiland Smith ’85C has left Wall Street for her native Silver Spring, Maryland, where she is vice president of the St. Paul Companies insurance firm and a bond analyst. “My goals are more spiritual,” says this church choir member and prison ministry volunteer. She is active in the D.C. alumni club.

Decatur resident Scott M. White ’85C-’93G has chosen to emphasize family, church, and faith over a fast-track career. After a stint as an independent computer consultant, he recently joined LightSpeed Consulting as a computer systems administrator currently serving Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Elizabeth Carmichael Mokulis ’85C is an infectious disease doctor in Florence, Alabama. After earning her M.D. at Harvard Medical School on scholarship from the U.S. Air Force, she served on active duty for nine years and has settled in the South for good. “The pace of life is a little bit slower. We like the sense of community.”

Gina Lyn Greco ’85C is associate professor of French at Portland State University in Oregon, an urban campus that supports a mixed group of students who pay their way and whose ages range from eighteen to seventy-four. “I’m very happy here,” says this mother of twin girls whose husband is also an academic. “I like the fact that my students bring their experiences to the classroom.”

Manhattanite Stuart N. Seidman ’85C-’89M is a psychopharmacologist—a psychiatrist who specializes in medication treatments. An assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, he conducts psychoendocrine research and co-directs the Brain Behavior Clinic. “The intellectual excitement at Emory was contagious,” he says.

Actor, writer, and musician Haynes M. Brooke ’85C has appeared in theater (including his first self-written solo show this year), film (including Fried Green Tomatoes), television (including Northern Exposure and Home Improvement), commercials, industrial film, and children’s theater. “I’ve loved being an actor, and I may still do it for years to come, or I may not.”

Candler S. “Shef” Rogers Jr. ’85C reports via e-mail that New Zealand is “as pretty as all the pictures make it look,” and he is content to remain on the earth’s underbelly as lecturer in eighteenth-century literature at the University of Otago, having completed a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.

Editor’s Note: Emory Magazine was unable to track down Toby Meek ’85C, also an inaugural Woodruff Scholar.