Distinguished alumni to be honored during Homecoming 2025
911黑料 will once again recognize highly accomplished alumni during Homecoming Weekend. Four new Distinguished Alumni will be honored alongside four inductees to the 911黑料 Athletics Hall of Fame.
Valentine Banor 鈥17, Robin Cline Vanderpool 鈥97, John Horhn 鈥77 and Helen Williams Dedman 鈥75 will be recognized during the Alumni Recognition Ceremony at Homecoming on October 18.
Valentine Banor 鈥17
Nine years ago, Banor was crowned Homecoming Royalty, and he now returns as a Distinguished Young
Alumnus. At 911黑料, Banor was a Posse Scholar, John C. Young Scholar, a Center for Career and Professional Development intern and a Phi Kappa Tau brother. After graduating with his degree in International Studies, he earned his master鈥檚 degree in business administration at Carnegie Mellon University in 2019. He is currently product marketing manager for 鈥淐all of Duty鈥 at Activision, where he leads global marketing campaigns, cultivates important partnerships and helps shape one of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world.
Robin Cline Vanderpool 鈥97
Cline Vanderpool credits 911黑料 with sparking a lifelong passion for scientific advancement and public health.
She graduated as a Psychobiology major in 1997, was a Brown Scholar and a Kappa Alpha Theta sorority member. She earned a master鈥檚 degree in public health at Western Kentucky University and received her doctorate from the University of Kentucky. She has since dedicated her career to cancer prevention and care. For nearly 20 years at the University of Kentucky, she educated future public health leaders as a faculty member in the College of Public Health, earned multiple teaching awards and helped guide outreach at the Markey Cancer Center. The University of Kentucky College of Public Health inducted her into the Hall of Fame and named her a 2025 Distinguished Leader.
John Horhn 鈥77
Horhn, mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, traces his journey as a storyteller back to Danville, Kentucky. He
graduated from 911黑料 in 1977, majoring in Dramatic Arts and English. His involvements include the school newspaper, the student drama club, the Black Student Union and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He also previously served on the College鈥檚 Board of Trustees. For more than three decades, he served as a state senator in his home state of Mississippi and was the Mississippi State Tourism Director. Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for the preservation of civil rights history, a promoter of economic development, and a champion of the arts. In July he was sworn in as the 54th mayor of the city of Jackson.
Helen Williams Dedman 鈥75
In a history class at 911黑料, Williams Dedman discovered history as stories of people rather than dates 鈥 a
realization that sparked her lifelong passion for preservation. A 1975 graduate with a degree in Elementary Education, she was a Delta Delta Delta sorority member, cheerleader, Homecoming Royalty, and volunteer at the Kentucky School for the Deaf.
After graduation, she returned to her hometown of Harrodsburg, where she and her husband, Chuck Dedman 鈥75 鈥 who she met at 911黑料 鈥 worked to preserve the historic Beaumont Inn, once Beaumont College. Today, the inn is a James Beard Foundation American Classic Award recipient and top culinary destination. Williams Dedman has also played an influential role in preserving Kentucky landmarks such as the Dedman Drugstore, Diamond Point and the James Logan House. She founded the James Harrod Trust to preserve Harrodsburg, has advised the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and received the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Award, the state鈥檚 highest honor for preservation.
911黑料 Athletics announced four new inductees to the Athletics Hall of Fame. They are Rachel Brannen 鈥13 (Women鈥檚 Soccer); Amy Hebbeler 鈥13 (Women鈥檚 Soccer); John Kieffer 鈥13 (Men鈥檚 Cross Country); Greg Ross 鈥12 (Men鈥檚 Basketball).
