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James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison Magazine - Summer 2008 - Index

Watts recruits medical and nonmedical
residents to serve as volunteers
in the Medical Reserve Corps.
She plans and coordinates various
volunteer training to prepare the
Chesterfield, Powhatan and Colonial
Heights areas for public health
disasters. ✱ Laurie Tusing Phillips,
who has 22 years of teaching experience,
was named the 2007 Shenandoah
County
Teacher of the
Year. “It’s so
awesome, I
can’t believe
it,” Phillips
says about
being honored
by peers. “I
Laurie Tusing
Phillips (’85)
know the caliber
of teachers
with whom I
work.” Phillips teaches at Stonewall
Jackson High School, the same
school she graduated from in 1981.
To help ease students’ move to high
school, Phillips started a “Transition
Day” program for rising ninth
graders who are enrolled in special
education. They take a day to get
familiar with the school’s layout and
practice changing classes. Phillips
also serves as the junior class sponsor,
the Child Study Committee
chairperson, a Standards of Learning
re-mediator, and a special education
inclusion teacher for summer
school in biology and earth science.
Read more about Phillips at www.
jmu.edu/Madisononline.
Mark R. Miller accepted
86 a position at Children’s
National Medical Center in
Washington, D.C., as director of
philanthropic marketing and communication.
After advising President
Bill Clinton, CEos and nonprofit
leaders, Miller is using his communications
experience to help kids — by
raising money and forming partnerships
to help provide world-class care
and research at one of the nation’s
top children’s hospitals. ✱ Michael
Sullivan was promoted to director
of internal/external communications
for CareFirst Blue Cross,
Blue Shield. He oversees all media,
employee, physician and health
communication for the Mid-Atlantic’s
largest health insurer. Sullivan
and his wife, Joanna, are also proud
to announce the adoption of a boy,
Maxim Patrick, from Ukraine. The
family lives in Baltimore.
pHoTograpHS SubmiTTed
Debra Yeagle accepted the
87 position of business development
director for Department of
Defense programs at Solutions Made
Simple Inc. in Reston. After 25 years
as a civilian in DoD, Yeagle has
moved to private industry, working
for a small business that specializes
in data management software and
services. She and nine other life/
business coaches have co-authored
A Guide to Getting It: Vibrant and
Lasting Relationships, the ninth book
in the Guide to Getting It series.
20th Reunion Year
88 Donna Akers Warmuth
presented an author talk at the Virginia
Festival of the Book in Charlottesville
in late March. She has
written four books about her hometown
of Abingdon and two books on
Boone and Blowing Rock, N.C. Her
fifth book with Arcadia Publishing
is due to publish in late spring, and
she’s hard at work on a Watauga
County book of historic images.
Bruce Hinson Jr. was pro-
90 moted to senior national
account manager with Frito Lay
headquarters in october. He and his
wife, Stacy, and their three children,
Brittany, 11, Ashley, 8, and Bruce
III, 2, relocated to Plano, Texas,
in January. Stacy begins a medical
residency in oB/GYN in Dallas
in July. ✱ F. Kevin Schultze says
he has “launched the last independent
bookstore” in Key West, Fla.
Voltaire Books bucks the trend that
independent bookstores are a “thing
of the past.” ✱ John Wallingford has
been named finance director for the
City of Suffolk, Va. He previously
served as supervisor of fiscal operations
for the Prince William County
School Board. He and Roberta (’86)
moved to Suffolk from Manassas.
Charles F. G. Day earned
91 his M.B.A. from the University
of Maryland’s Robert H.
Smith School in August. ✱ Michael
Donlan and his wife, Jessica, moved
to Singapore with their sons, Jack
and Chris. The family left Washington,
D.C., as part of Donlan’s
promotion to general manager for
Asia Pacific at Microsoft Corp. ✱
Cindy M. Sabato accepted the position
of advertising coordinator at
the University of Rhode Island. She
says that she is happy to be back in
her field of choice doing marketing
‘Cousin Jemmy’
Madison is in these grads' blood By Carly LeDuc (’08)
M
Meredith Rosanelli (’07) and her brother, Peter Rosanelli (’04),
have a connection to James Madison University that runs deeper
than most. The Rosanellis descend from President James Madison’s
great-uncles — his grandfather’s brothers.
James and Dolley Madison never had children of their own.
President James Madison’s grandfather, Ambrose Madison, had two
brothers, John and Henry Madison. The Rosanellis are related to the
Madison family through the progeny of these two brothers.
Here's how: Henry had two sons, Henry Madison Jr. and George
Madison. Henry Jr. then had a son named Edgar, who himself had a
son named Roger. George had a son named John Albert Madison,
who in turn had a son named John Thomas Madison. John Thomas
had a daughter named Etta Thomas, who married Roger Madison.
This couple is Meredith and Peter Rosanelli’s great-grandparents.
Eight generations after Ambrose, the Rosanellis can now call President
Madison “cousin.”
Meredith Rosanelli entered JMU as a freshman in 2003, fully
aware of her connection in the James Madison family tree. She graduated
last May with a B.B.A. in marketing with a business-to-business
concentration. “As I remember, I have always known that I was related
to Madison, but it didn’t become important to me until I began looking
at colleges,” she says.
Being related to “Jemmy” wasn’t the main reason Rosanelli chose
JMU. “I feel that my brother was a much bigger influence,” she says.
“I came to JMU to visit Peter a couple of times and loved it. I felt that
being related to James Madison would hopefully give me a unique
edge that recruiters would remember.”
Rosanelli devoted most of her time to Alpha Sigma Tau and served
as the sorority’s president in 2006. She was a member of the National
Society of College Scholars, and only a few of her friends knew her
connection to JMU was deeper than it seemed.
“They thought it was pretty cool that I am related to Madison and
chose to go to JMU,” she says.
Unfortunately, Rosanelli has never met any other Madison
descendants or visited Montpelier, the family home. “James Madison
has such a huge legacy that I could not even begin to compare myself
to,” she says. “By attending JMU, I feel like I have learned how to carry
out a small portion of that legacy. JMU is all about ‘Being the Change.’
I think in my own way I have made a small difference, and I hope I can
continue to carry out Madison’s legacy throughout my life.”
Meredith ('07) and Peter
Rosanelli ('04) can claim
President James Madison
as "one of the family."
SUMMER 2008
ClassNotes 75