Russell C. Howard – President

pronouns: he/him/his

Russell Howard is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he attended Shelton State Community College and The University of Alabama. Mr. Howard enjoys being an advocate for his community. Currently he serves as President of The University of Alabama LGBTQ Alumni Association, founding board member and Immediate Past President of Druid City Pride, he is also on the Board of Directors for Five Horizons Health Services, and the Diverse Business Council Steering Committee for The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. Professionally, he is the Office Manager of RealtySouth – Tuscaloosa and has been named one of Tuscaloosa’s 40 under Forty Business Professionals by The Tuscaloosa News.

 

Ryan Flamerich – Executive Vice President

pronouns: he/him/his

Ryan Flamerich grew up in Chelsea, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 2013, majoring in Chemical Engineering and Political Science. He served as a Senator for the College of Engineering for three years and was the first Speaker of the Student Senate in the SGA. Ryan obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2021 and graduated as a Dean’s Award winner, the highest distinction conferred on a graduating student. Professionally, Ryan has worked in management consulting for over seven years. He has led global teams and advised Fortune 500 C-suite leaders in the areas of organization design, strategic sourcing, and sustainability. Personally, Ryan lives in New Haven, CT with his fiance. He loves cooking, photography, and all things planes.

 

Austin Gaddis –  Vice President – Executive Committee

pronouns: he/him/his

​

 

Joe Tomlin –  Vice President, Finance

pronouns: he/him/his

As a 2005 graduate of the Capstone there a few passions that I hold more dear than my passion for the University of Alabama. I have stayed involved with the University is some capacity since graduating, most noticeably of which is with several alumni chapters. I have served in the past as Chapter President for the Columbia, SC NAA Chater and for the past two years I have served as Treasurer for the UA LGBTQ NAA Chapter. The Chapter has already proven to be successful with creating two fully endowed scholarships within a three year period and is only poised to grow and touch more alumni in the future. I would love the opportunity to continue to serve for its mission of bringing more awareness of the LGBTQ community to the University along with connecting more Alumni across the country.

 

Jenny Allon – Vice President, Communications

pronouns: she/her/hers

I’m a former social worker turned communications professional with five years' experience in communications and marketing.

 

Ebony Burnett – Vice President, Events

pronouns: she/her/hers

Ebony Burnett is a 2003 graduate from the University of Alabama, a California native currently a Navy Civilian. Former San Diego pride co-chair and events coordinator in the community.

 

Jon Chappel – Vice President, Career & Community

pronouns: he/him/his

Jon Chappell is a native of Birmingham and a 3x UA alum (BA ’11, MBA/MS ’13). In his day job, he is a Cloud Specialist at Microsoft focused on operations management and process improvement. Jon lives in Seattle with his 3-year-old Boston Terrier, Barney.

 

Clayton Lawing – Scholarship Chair

pronouns: he/him/his/they/them

Clayton Lawing (he/they) is a 2020 alum of the University of Alabama. Clayton calls Udon Thani, Thailand and Montgomery, Alabama home. After graduating with their B.S. from the College of Human Environmental Sciences, Clayton went on get an M.Ed in College Student Affairs Administration at the University of Georgia. Clayton recently moved to New Orleans, Louisiana where they began their first year of law school at Tulane University. Clayton plans on returning to higher education after law school to continue working on their passions related to Title IX and student-led activism. However, Clayton is also very open to the whatever the future may bring during the next three years of law school.

 

Kyle Richardson – Fundraising Chair

pronouns: he/him/his

I have been promoting and planning social events for over 15 years. I own Tuscaloosa’s only Gay Bar Icon and work with the Mystic Krewe of the Druids and Druid City Pride.

​

Hillary Moore – Communications & Marketing Chair

pronouns: she/her/hers

Hillary Moore is a native of North Carolina and a 2011 graduate of the University of Alabama. She was active in both New College and the Honors College as a student at UA. She later graduated from American University in Washington, DC with an M.Ed in Education Policy and Teacher Leadership. Hillary current lives in DC, where she is an elementary school teacher.

​

Ben Tomlin – Communications & Marketing Chair

pronouns: he/him/his

I’m a digital designer with roughly 7 years of agency experience. I am very passionate about design and the work I produce. I currently work for Beasley Media Group in St. Pete, FL. Beasley is a full scale ad agency and houses a handful of radio stations in the Bay area. I am the sole in-house designer, responsible for the ads the digital department produces as well as anything the radio stations need for events, social media or print. My past experiences have taught me design, branding, digital and print marketing and social media content creation and strategy. I’m very organized and haven’t really ever known anything but a quick workplace environment and hard deadlines. I am looking forward to potentially helping bring awareness to the chapter for future LGBTQ alumni and giving back to the university that helped me get to where I am today.

 

DJ Jackson – Membership Chair

pronouns: he/him/his

DJ Jackson grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He works professionally as the Assistant Director of Multicultural Recruitment in Undergraduate Admissions at The University of Alabama. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in American History, a Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration and an M.B.A. from UA. He currently serves as the President of Capstone Alliance, UA’s LBGTQ+ faculty, staff, and graduate student association and a Board Member of Druid City Pride, West Alabama’s pride organization. He is also a founding member of The University of Alabama LGBTQ Alumni Association Chapter.

 

Cokie Thompson – In-State Events Chair

pronouns: she/her/hers

Cokie Thompson spent six years as a student at the University of Alabama from 2013-2019. After graduating with a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Higher Education Administration, she moved to Baton Rouge to facilitate leadership and service programming at LSU where she facilitated a variety of events, led the Tom W. Dutton Scholarship committee, and managed the LSU Food Pantry. She returned to Tuscaloosa in 2021 as the assistant director of the Blackburn Institute where she facilitates a variety of student programming including social events, lectures and panels, the Don and Barbara “Bobbie” Siegal Scholarship. Since 2020, she has served as the Vice Chair for Research and Assessment for the American College Personnel Association’s Commission for Student Involvement. In this role, she coordinates the Interchange, the Commission’s blog, administers the Commission’s annual research grant, and supports Commission programming online throughout the year and in person at ACPA Convention in March.

​

David van der Griff – Out-of-State Chair

pronouns: he/him/his

David received his B.A. from the University of Alabama in 1988. He is a Senior Attorney with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and resides in Sacramento, CA with his husband Steve Palmer, who is also a UA alum. While at UA, David served as a President of Gay/Lesbian Support Services, now known as the Queer Student Association. He is one of the founders of the Elliott Jackson Jones Memorial Scholarship for LGBT Activism and considers it one of his proudest accomplishments.

​

Amy Hurd – Career & Networking Chair

pronouns: she/her/hers

Dr. Amy Hurd is a federal mitigation specialist and social worker in Virginia. She holds an AM in clinical social work from the University of Chicago and a DSW in organizational leadership from the University of Alabama. Amy is employed by the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Virginia, where she works on behalf of clients charged with federal crimes ranging from misdemeanors to capital-eligible offenses. Amy’s research on social work within public defense has been published in Social Work and presented to legal, social work, and university audiences nationwide. Her mitigation investigations have taken her across the United States and internationally to Austria, Canada, and Japan. Amy is the recipient of the 2023 Milestone Achievement Award from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago and the 2021 Award for Writing to Advance Social Work Practice and Social Justice at the University of Alabama School of Social Work. Amy lives in Norfolk, Virginia, with her partner, Holly, and tiny cat, Norma Jean. She is forever searching for more art, candy apples, and the remote control.

​

Eli Strong – Nominations Chair

pronouns: he/him/his

Born in raised in Alabama, Eli Strong (he/him) is an avid lifelong Bama fan who attended the University of Alabama from the fall of 1999 to the spring of 2005, earning both his BSW and MSW. During that time he co-founded Safe Zone, was an active member of the (then) GLBTA, and was a member of the Zeta Chi Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho. He then lived in Washington, DC for a decade, where he was the facilitator of the DC Area Transmasculine Society. Eli now lives in rural North Carolina with his wife and child but he stays active within the UA queer community, speaking at conferences and events like the Southeastern Student Leadership Conference, Druid City Pride, and Lavender Graduation.

​

Alexus Cumbie – University & Government Relations Chair

pronouns: she/her/hers

Alexus M. Cumbie (she/her) is a strategist and policy consultant from Birmingham, Alabama with a background in public policy, strategic storytelling, and corporate social responsibility. Her work aims to ascend communities in the margin into political power and mobilize communities to challenge the public’s sociopolitical conscience through impactful storytelling. Leaning into her passion for grassroots organizing to inform legislation and address inequities in the Deep South, she advises companies on how to leverage their digital footprint to implement strategic campaigns and programming centered on social impact, social responsibility, civic engagement and community empowerment. Through the power and joy of storytelling, she merges her love for poetic verse and social justice. In her personal practice, she travels across the south performing in and hosting poetry slams to highlight the importance of self-expression, the beautification of social commentary, and the humanity that stems from crowding into a room to listen to a potpourri of narratives. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Commerce and Business Administration with dual studies in political science and human resources from the University of Alabama and her graduate degree in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Political Communication.