Influential Georgians

From her years in the Tri-Hi-Y Club growing up in Millen, to raising her son, John, and daughter, Jamison, to chairing the board of directors for Memorial University Medical Center (MUMC) in Savannah, Pannell, 58, has sought ways to fill…

Despite standing front and center as senior vice president of communications for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (MACOC), Esther Campi, 36, claims she’s actually an introvert. “People who know me laugh when I say that,” she says. “I guess…

In wine LINGO, Martha Ezzard could be described as “rounded,” a term defined as “well-balanced and complete,” but how does Ezzard describe herself? “By profession I’m a writer and lawyer,” she says, “Both [husband] John and I are risk-takers that…

One of the hottest seats in the Georgia House of Representatives during this year’s session belonged to Rep. Vance Smith, Republican from the 129th District. No surprise, considering that Smith chaired the House Transportation Committee, and transportation funding and governance…

It was a stealth visit to Mercer University’s campuses in Macon and Atlanta that soothed Bill Under-wood’s initial reluctance to become the university’s president. “I’d been contacted by [then president] Kirby Godsey about becoming the president, but I told him…

Immediately after Luke Morgan graduated from the University of Georgia in 1975 with his business degree in hand, he returned to Douglas, the small town in Coffee County where he was raised. “I’ve never regretted it,” says Morgan, executive vice…

His second year on the job in 2008, Culpepper “Cully” Clark, dean of the prestigious Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, bought a television station. Technically, the University of Georgia Research Foundation, a UGA-affiliated…

In November 2004, Eric Tanenblatt helped launch Hands On Georgia, a network organizing community volunteer efforts statewide. The launch coincidentally followed a contentious electoral cycle, George W. Bush vs. John Kerry, and at the time Tanenblatt said he hoped promoting…