Our Highlanders are using their education to do extraordinary things. Every other week, we’ll highlight some notable mentions from local, regional, national and international news media. Whether our students, alumni, faculty and staff are featured as subject matter experts in high-profile stories or simply helping make the world a better place, we’ll feature their stories.
Walking up the “Hall”
When the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame announced its inductees for 2025, two names on the list came from Radford University’s rosters – J.D. Mundy ’20 and Casey Hodges.
In total, five players were honored at the Hall of Fame ceremony held Feb. 2 at the Salem Civic Center.
The event was covered by WSLS-TV and by WFXR.
An infielder from Roanoke, Virginia, Mundy was on Radford’s team during his junior and senior years before signing with the Baltimore Orioles, with whom he spent two seasons and ascended to the AA level.
“I’m really excited to be here,” Mundy told WFXR. “You know, just all the hard work I put in throughout the years, you know, stuff like this makes it really pay off.”
Hodges, a pitcher and infielder, played for Radford in 2005 and was later drafted by the Atlanta Braves, playing 100 games across four seasons.
“My dad was inducted in 1993, so getting to share that with him, it’s pretty special,” Hodges told the station.
That story also appeared on Newsbreak.
Banking on success
Atlanta magazine said it spends months compiling its annual list of its city’s most powerful figures, narrowing Georgia’s capital’s population of about 511,000 down to just 500 names.
To do that, they consult experts and conduct research as they consider a wide range of fields – arts, sports, entertainment, real estate, education and healthcare, religion, nonprofits, government, infrastructure, restaurants and hospitality, but also business.
In this year’s rankings, released Jan. 30, that last category includes Mike Donnelly ’88, a branch banking regional executive for Wells Fargo, “one of the company’s top three markets in total consumer households served,” the magazine said.
“An active civic leader, [Donnelly has] held leadership positions with the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, the Buckhead Coalition, the Woodruff Arts Center and the University of Georgia Board of Visitors,” the editors wrote.
The item also notes that Donnelly has chaired campaigns for United Way of Greater Atlanta and is a past chair of Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and Leadership Atlanta, reportedly one of the oldest sustained community leadership programs in the nation.
While getting the nod from Atlanta certainly must be gratifying, it’s an honor with which he’s somewhat familiar – the magazine’s archives show that he’s been a fixture of the list each year dating back to 2019.
Head of the class
Across a career in education that’s spanned nearly a quarter of a century, Hallie Groves ’95 recently hit a milestone – the longtime seventh-grade history instructor was recently named Warren County Public Schools 2024 Teacher of the Year.
“Groves embodies the very best of what it means to be an educator,” Warren County Middle School Principal Chris Johnston said in a media release. “Her deep commitment to our students, families and school community has transformed lives and enriched Warren County Middle School in immeasurable ways.”
In a story on the award that ran Feb. 2 in the Northern Virginia Daily, Groves told the paper: “I am very humbled just to think that the staff I work with chose me, then the school board office chose me.
“I don’t do it for that, but to be thought of in this way, it is quite an honor,” she said.
The article also noted that, as a student, Groves wasn’t a fan of the subject of history until she reached college.
“A history professor at Radford, Mary Ferrari, piqued Groves’ interest … by challenging the students in her class with one simple question — Why?” the story said. “That question… drove her to research more and more about history and gave her a new perspective and love for the subject.”
As Groves delved deeper into her eventual major, American colonial history, she discovered family ties to Peter Lehew, the founding father of Front Royal, Virginia, the town where Groves’ school is located; she also learned that her ancestors first arrived in America sometime in the 1730s.
Groves’ honor was also covered by Front Royal’s Royal Examiner.