Alumni Stories

Loran Livingston ('77)

The son of a North Carolina railroad worker, Loran Livingston grew up in Wadesboro, about 50 miles east of Charlotte. At the age of three his family joined the small congregation of L. L. Reeder and became members of the Church of God. It was at age of 7 that Loran first felt urgency toward God, but not until the spring semester of his freshman year at Lee, in 1971, did he have a conversion experience while sitting in the basement of Medlin Hall. Two days later, on March 28, he accepted his calling to be a minister.

In the summer of 1973 he married a young woman that he first met at church youth camp, Sandra Weatherby, the daughter of Rev. G. E. Weatherby. Soon after, the two left Lee to accept a Youth Evangelism position and Loran finished his degree through continuing education. Loran and Sandra spent their early ministry as evangelists traveling the state of Ohio.

It was in Ohio one evening in December of 1976 that Loran received a call from a group back in Charlotte asking him to minster the next Sunday. He did, and when that group called him every week for 3 months asking him to be their pastor he finally relented. In April 1977 Loran became the pastor of the newly formed 22-member Central Church.

Thirty-five years later Central Church has 7300 members and is the largest North American congregation in the Church of God. Loran can be heard each Sunday on the international radio program Forward in Faith, and is a familiar favorite in Lee University chapel. He has served on the Church of God Executive Council and is currently serving as a member of the North Carolina State Council. He and Sandra have four daughters and five grandchildren.

In 1991, Loran was named the Lee University Alumnus of the Year.

Steve Dorman (’79)

When Steve finished Lee in 1979 he went on to complete his Master of Public Health and his doctorate in health education both from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. From there he served for a year as a health education supervisor for the Onslow County Schools in Jacksonville, N.C. Following that position Steve accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Science Education at the University of Florida in 1986. Two years later he became the Co-Director and founding faculty member of the Center for Cooperative Learning in Health Science Education at the University of Florida. In 2000, Texas A&M University recruited Steve as their Division Chair in Health and Safety before promoting him to Department Head in 2002. At A&M, Steve directed over 85 faculty, 30 support staff, and 65 graduate assistants with a total budget of $5 million. In 2006 the University of Florida lured Steve back to Gainesville as the Dean of Health and Human Performance where he works today.

In June 2012 Steve was named the 11th president of Georgia College & State University. He is celebrated as a scholar and leader in the field of public health. In addition to being widely published in his field, Steve has also been honored in his role as an outstanding college administrator. Steve was the Lee University 2007 Alumnus of the Year.

Herbert Parker ('80)

Herbert Parker began his career as a staff accountant at the global power and technology company ABB Group in Chattanooga. For 28 years he was promoted through a series of positions of increasing responsibility. In 1994, he became Segment Controller for ABB China in Beijing. In 1998 he was promoted to Vice President and Business Controller for ABB in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2002, Herbert was named Chief Financial Officer of the $12 billion global automation division based in Norwalk, CT.

From 2008 to present Mr. Parker has served as the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Harman International Industries Inc., a company that designs, manufactures, and markets audio products. In 2012 he was elected to the Board of Directors for TMS International Corp., North America's largest provider of industrial outsourced services to the steel industry.

Herbert earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Lee University. He continued his education at Harvard Business School, completing the Executive Education program in Financial and Business Management and the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. In February 2009, the magazine, Black Enterprise, named Mr. Parker one of the most powerful corporate executives in America. He currently lives in Weston, CT and is married and with two children, a 14 year old daughter and a 12 year old son.

P. Jeffrey Conn, PhD (’81)

After graduating from Lee with a B.S. in Psychology, Jeff Conn attended Vanderbilt University where he completed his PhD in Pharmacology before entering Yale for his postdoctoral work. In 1988 he joined the faculty at Emory University where he was promoted to full professor while researching the relationship between neurotransmitter receptors and neurological disorders. In 2000 Dr. Conn joined Merck and Company as the Senior Director of neuroscience before returning to Vanderbilt in 2003 as the founding Director of the Vanderbilt Program in Translational Neuropharmacology and the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery.

Dr. Conn serves on numerous editorial boards and provides scientific oversight to several national organizations including the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. He is recognized as a pioneer for his innovative approach to drug discovery which calls for collaboration between research universities and drug companies in order to produce superior medical solutions. Dr. Conn is the Lee E. Limbird Professor of Pharmacology.

Jeff was the 2008 Alumnus of the Year. He and his wife, Dr. Anita Ball Conn (‘81), have three children and live in the Nashville area.

Cyndi Joiner ('82)

After graduating from Lee with a BA in Communications, Cyndi earned an MBA from Pfeiffer University and completed the School of Negotiations program at Harvard. In the business world she quickly developed a reputation for saving money by rethinking how the purchase of goods and services could be streamlined at the corporate level. Eventually her talents were spotted by the global finance giant GMAC, now Ally Financial, where she saved the company more than $150 million. In 2004 she went to work for the Chicago-based Huron Consulting before being hired by the turnaround management specialists, Alvarez & Marsal. Today Cyndi is a Managing Director at A&M and a 15-year consulting veteran credited with saving companies more than $350 million.

She and her husband, Randy (’80), live in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Brad Blackmon (’98)

After finishing Lee with a BA in Communications and Public Relations, Brad went to work for a property management firm out of Chattanooga that took him to Madison, Wisconsin and Spartanburg, South Carolina. His skills as a motivator and team leader took him to the India based communications firm, Lowe Lintas, then to global advertising leader, Wunderman, where he oversaw the Microsoft account while living in London. Brad was promoted up through Wunderman finally reaching VP, Account Director at Washington based RTCRM, a subsidiary of Wunderman. One co-worker said of Brad, “He is a shining star in the agency world.”

In 2010 he spent a year at the Chicago-based agency Draftfcb before being recruitedby advertising giant Ogilvy and Mather to lead a development team responsible for North American print, TV and web advertising for blue-chip client IBM. Today Brad lives in Manhattan, NY with his wife, April (Nicole) Daniels Balckmon (’99), and their son.

Jessica Usherwood ('99)

Jessica Usherwood, soprano, began her vocal studies at Lee University under the guidance of Virginia Horton. Upon graduation with a Bachelor of Arts in music, she studied with Valija Bumbulis of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and completed a master’s degree in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University.

Jessica has appeared with the Chicago Opera Theater, at the Chicago Cultural Center, and in the celebrated Harris Theater, credited for contributing to the performing arts renaissance in downtown Chicago. Recently she inaugurated Lee University's Distinguished Alumni Recital Series, where she presented a program of American art songs.

Jessica is the soprano of the International Chamber Artists (ICA). With ICA she has performed works including Mozart's Requiem, Britten's Les Illuminations, and Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915. During the 2010-‐2011 ICA season, Jessica performed works including Ralph Vaughn Williams' Ten Blake Songs and Giovanni Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University.

Nathan P. Chapman (‘01)

Nathan grew up in the music industry. He started playing guitar at age 3 and was recording in the studio by age 14. The son of a well-known Christian duo, Nathan was also part of a Nashville church that gave the gospel world names like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. As a boy he sat in studios watching legendary figures like Don Potter and Gary Hedden produce and engineer for world famous artists. But by the time he reached high school Nathan was burned out on the music industry. He was ready to get away from the Nashville setting.

After hearing a Lee University choir in a local church he decided to enroll at Lee. He declared a major in English and began having thoughts of one day becoming a professor. But at Lee, Nathan’s love of music started to return. He led worship in chapel using his skills as a writer and musician to connect with the audience. By the time he graduated, Nathan was ready to return to the world he knew so well.

Today Nathan Chapman is a sought-after studio musician and Grammy award winning record producer. He has his own studio and works with a wide range of artists including Point of Grace, Taylor Swift, Sara Evans, Jewel, Stephanie Chapman, Shania Twain, and Colbie Caillat. When asked what one piece of advice he would give to aspiring Lee grads, Chapman replies, “Work really hard.”