Class Notes

CRC Press has released a book titled “Managing Environmental Data:  Principles, Techniques, and Best Practices” written by MC Alum Gerald Burnette.  The book provides expert guidance on proper methods for managing environmental data, as well as detailed information about database management systems, proper database design and implementation, and creation of custom environmental data management applications.  CRC Press will be encouraging academic Environmental Science programs around the world to use this text as source material for advanced classes.

Deb and I are were almost empty nesters!! Our youngest has gotten her MSW from UPENN and has moved back in for a while to help kill some student debt (at what she owes, I could have gone to Maryville 3 times back in the day!!! We miss everyone and maybe, just maybe, we can get back there soon. I hear the mountains calling!

has been named Executive Director of the South Carolina School Improvement Council (SC-SIC) by the Dean of the University of South Carolina College of Education. Tom served as SC-SIC Associate Director, and more recently as Interim Executive Director, since 2007. SC-SIC provides member training, assistance, and resources for the community-based School Improvement Councils in each of South Carolina’s K-12 public schools. Prior to joining the SC-SIC staff, Tom had a 20-plus-year career in communications, public information, and media/constituent relations in the public, private, and education sectors. He is immediate past president of the SC Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association and is a federal appointee to the Selective Service System Board for Richland County (SC). Tom is a 2010 Diversity Fellow of The Riley Institute at Furman University (SC), and is a 2012 Education Policy Fellow of the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, DC. He and his wife, Alisha, live in Columbia, SC, with daughter Emily (18). Tom’s sons, Matthew (26) and Palmer (26) live in Athens, GA, and Lancaster, SC, respectively.