UofL Alumni board adds most diverse class to date

With five new members joining in July, the UofL Office of Alumni Relations now has its most diverse board of directors yet.

The 2021 alumni board class is:

• Ahmed Awadallah ’11, ’12
• Wilson Chan ’90
• Ben Donlon ’12, ’16
• DeShara Doub ’10, ’18
• Goetz Kloecker ’02

“We have worked with our alumni network to diversify our board so that it better represents the vast experience of our alumni family worldwide,” said Josh Hawkins, assistant vice president for alumni relations. “Each of these new board members brings outstanding perspective, insight and determination to help us make this university and our alumni family stronger.”   

The Board of Directors is a representative group of the Louisville Alumni network, serving as their voice to the university and advising the office of alumni relations regarding the implementation of organized initiatives and programs.

The new board terms begin July 1, with a new Board Chair position filled by Amy Farnsworth ’92, ’95. The new executive committee will consist of Farnsworth, Tommy Nolan ’03, Will Baumgardner ’10, Dwayne Compton ’07 and Rosalyn Carothers ’85, ’90. The Louisville Alumni board of directors also recognizes the retirement of six members: Doug Kemper ’86, Barbara Nichols ’67, Norb Paulin ’70, Lowell Katz ’68, ’72, ’76, Kelly Hodges ’93, ’01, and Shellie Branson ’84, ’86.

Incoming board members

Ahmed Awadallah ’11, ’12
Awadallah is a two-time graduate from the Speed School of Engineering. An 11-year veteran of Yum! Brands, he is Director of Operations for Pizza Hut Express and Pizza Hut company-owned restaurants. Beyond his strong involvement in the Dallas community and serving as the UofL Dallas chapter alumni leader, Awadallah is an active participant in multiple non-profit boards and sports philanthropic causes. He founded AFWB Camps with fellow UofL alumni Breno Giacomini and Gary Barnidge, an organization that outreaches to underprivileged communities around the world bringing free football and leadership camps. He also is actively involved with MEP Sports, a non-profit that helps marginalized international students to get scholarships opportunities to study in the United States and play basketball.

Wilson Chan ’90
Chan is a graduate of the Speed School of Engineering and has served in numerous volunteer roles with the university since graduating. He is heavily involved with the Cincinnati UofL alumni chapter and continues to volunteer his time with the Speed School. Chan is the sales executive for Veritas Technologies for Healthcare and Public Sector where he focuses on enterprise data management, data protection and digital compliance across customers' private, public and hybrid cloud implementation. He has been in technology sales, and formerly pre-sales engineering, for over 25 years.

Ben Donlon ’12, ’16
Donlon is a two-time graduate, earning his bachelor’s in finance, actuarial mathematics and computer engineering from the College of Arts and Sciences and his MBA from the College of Business. Donlon is the chief analytics officer for Metro United Way in Louisville where he is responsible for using higher-level data techniques to analyze financial and outcome data that informs decision-making. As an undergraduate, he received multiple awards, including “Who’s Who Among Students,” 2012 University of Louisville Volunteer of the Year, Southeastern Greek Man of the Year and the top undergraduate in his national fraternity.

DeShara Doub ’10, ’18
Doub is a two-time graduate, earning her bachelor’s in communication, with a minor in Pan African Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences and a master’s in social work with a specialization in couple and family therapy from the Kent School. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Vision of Promise LLC, a Louisville-based counseling and consulting agency. Doub has been an active alumni volunteer with the Kent School alumni council and the African American alumni council and is a member of the Black Alumni Summit planning committee.

Goetz Kloecker ’02
Kloecker graduated with a master’s in public health and completed his medical residency at UofL in 2003. Kloecker served as tenured professor on UofL’s faculty until 2020, when he started at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky. His professional goal is to improve the lives of patients with lung cancer and he cofounded a chapter of the lung cancer alliance in Kentucky, receiving the Kentucky Colonel award for his health-promoting community services. In addition, he initiated lung cancer screening at UofL and started immunotherapy as a breakthrough treatment for lung cancer in Kentucky.