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.
Covering the bases
Last summer, former San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Kevin Fagan was named the 11th coach of Radford’s softball program.
That was July, and in the nine months since, he’s been busy with the job. But gridiron stardom rarely fades quietly into the background, and indeed, an early line from an April 6 profile of Fagan in The Roanoke Times poses the question: “How did a guy with Super Bowl rings in his safe wind up coaching softball?”
The piece goes on to address that question in great detail, but the short and sweet answer is: His kids got him into it.
“Fagan coached all four of his daughters in travel-ball softball and coached three of them in high school,” the story explains. “He then moved up the college ranks, rising from head coach of a junior college to head coach of an NCAA Division II school to head coach of Division I member Radford.”
It’s a bit more complicated than that, of course, but the profile covers the bases, including Fagan’s athletic background past and present; his road to Radford; his working alongside his youngest daughter, Cameron Fagan, who’s his assistant coach; and his effect on the team over the past year.
“He brought new life to Radford softball,” senior infielder Cassi Barbato told The Roanoke Times of Fagan. “We all want to … win for him because we see how much work he puts in.”
‘All’ music
Freshman Claire Daniel is currently studying geology with a minor in history, but a recent interview on the site downersclub.com reveals yet another aspect of her busy schedule – in late March, she released a country music single.
While Daniel pens tunes herself, she said the sunny, yearning “All I Need” was written for her by her father, who’s a musician as well, and in the interview, she talks about her creative process, her work with her family and the forces that drive her.
“I started singing when I could talk and am rarely not doing either of those two things today,” Daniel said. “My major inspirations … are Faye Webster, Sierra Ferrel, Adrian Lenker, Lizzy McAlpine and, of course, Dolly Parton.”
“My biggest challenge as an artist has always been finding myself,” she explained. “I can copy any singing style and do any genre, but I am still discovering what my artistic vision is.
At 19, Daniel has a lot of room to explore that quest, and she said that some of her goals for the rest of 2025 are to record and perform even more.
“All I Need” is available on such platforms as YouTube and Apple Music.
Warren pieces
Before he retired as a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service, Rob Warren was a dogged investigator delving into financial crimes.
Today, he’s an assistant professor of accounting and a deeply prolific writer and analytical media resource who specializes in cases involving theft and fraud within ecclesiastical contexts.
Warren recently weighed in on the matter of a New York priest convicted of stealing $500,000; an Iowa clergyman who’s been charged with six counts of fraud totaling $164,000; the scandal surrounding an archdiocesan investigation in Connecticut; and a local story for Cardinal News regarding a debt default at a university in Danville, Virginia.
He and a co-author, business instructor Vilson Dushi, are also frequent contributors to Tax Notes, an online subscription site that concentrates on tax news and information.
Recently, however, he topped even his own prodigious word count with an appearance on “The Conor Gallagher Show” podcast.
Warren’s episode, titled “The Silent Scandal: How Parish Fraud Goes Undetected for Years,” dropped on April 2 and is a conversation that runs well over 2 ½ hours.
It’s divided into numerous searchable chapters that touch on several recent criminal cases, as well as such issues as prevention, treatment and motivations.
The podcast’s individual video page also offers shorter clips of the interview, which range from four to 12 minutes in length.
“I enjoyed the podcast format,” Warren told us this week, “because it allowed me to delve deeply into the need to develop robust internal controls to prevent parish-level fraud.”
Badges of honor
In mid-March, we told you about the impending retirement of Blacksburg Police Chief Todd Brewster ’94, who plans to step down from his post in July.
But Highlanders who go into law enforcement have a distinct tendency to rise to the top and, before the end of the month, it was announced that yet another Radford alum would soon be taking charge of a different local department, with James D. “Jim” Moore ’89 sworn in on April 7 as Bedford, Virginia’s new police chief.
A March 26 report by WDBJ-7 noted that Moore has spent more than two decades as a supervisory special agent with the FBI but also worked as a deputy sheriff in Goochland County, Virginia, and most recently served as a coordinator for the Chesterfield (Virginia) County Police Department.
“I look forward to working side by side with the outstanding men and women of the Bedford Police Department in service to this wonderful community,” Moore said in a town news release. “Keeping Bedford a safe place to live is my top priority.”
Other Highlanders who direct efforts to protect and serve around Virginia include Appomattox County Sheriff Robert “Robby” Richardson ’06, Nelson County Sheriff Mark Embrey ’99, Christiansburg Police Chief Chris Ramsey, M.S. ’97, Culpeper Police Chief Christopher Settle ’97 and Salem Police Chief Derek Weeks ’96, among others.