Felicia Tillman
"I have big, big, big faith," Felicia Tillman says. The 34-year-old Jackson native believes that becoming the author of two plays was a spiritual thing for her.
Surina R. Dixon
After three months on the job, and before she coached a single basketball game, Texas State University fired head women's basketball coach Surina Dixon in 2008. Dixon charged that her termination was a result of her calling foul on the university over what she believed was gender bias.
Arden Barnett
Since the fall of 2011, Duling Hall has pushed its way to the forefront of the live music scene in Jackson. The man leading the charge is promoter Arden Barnett.
Da Chief
At a crowded house party in 1994, full of teenagers and loud, blistering music, two things were happening: dancing and a rap battle. That was the first opportunity for Alex Guillermo Jr., aka Da Chief, to rap his original song "Ecclesiastes." He was surrounded by a small group of people. "I had butterflies for a couple of bars, then they went away," he said.
Drew Brees
New Orleans and Drew Brees are playing chicken while driving at full speed. The New Orleans Saints are running out of time to get quarterback Drew Brees a long-term deal. Under the collective-bargaining agreement, teams have until July 16 to sign players to multi-year deals that were franchise-tagged. NFL teams can franchise a player to keep him from signing with another team, but the team must pay him an average of the top five salaries at the player's position.
DeSean Dyson
DeSean Dyson planned on being a lawyer. Less than a year before he graduated from college, however, Hurricane Katrina struck. His TV screen filled with negative images of young black men in New Orleans.
Joyce Jackson
On Feb. 14, Joyce Jackson finished with enough votes in the Ward 3 special election to get her name on the ballot with frontrunner LaRita Cooper-Stokes for a Feb. 28 runoff election.
CJ Rhodes
When the Rev. CJ Rhodes told his professor he wanted to study philosophy, he was met with surprise. His professor assumed that someone with Rhodes' Baptist and Pentecostal background wouldn't be interested in thinking deeply and philosophically about religion--that only aspiring Catholic or Anglican theologians did that.
Zachary Bird
The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Zachary Bird, a recent Murrah High School graduate, with the 296th pick in the ninth round of the Major League Baseball Draft.
Melissa Edwards
Melissa Edwards grew up surrounded by the influence of architecture through her two uncles who work in design. She did not know of any female architects who could serve as role models, however, but that didn't stop her from entering the field.
Kristen Dupard
Years of learning how to bring poems to life for an audience paid off for Kristen Dupard this spring, as she took home a national trophy for her poetry-recitation skills.
Bryan Fedrick
Bryan Fedrick was not always fond of snakes. In fact, he was afraid of snakes until age 12 or 13. Now, however, the 34-year-old is a herpetologist who has been teaching snake safety since 2003.
Eric Stringfellow
Eric Stringfellow has his work cut out for him. As a Jackson Public Schools public-affairs consultant, the district has given him the task of selling an unpopular rezoning plan that will close one school and require students at several other schools to transition to different locations next year.
Holly Smith
Holly Smith has fond memories of her father, who passed away two years ago from Alzheimer's disease. He was an electrician with a love of history and an outgoing, friendly man. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in his early 60s and passed away at age 68. Smith's aunt has also been diagnosed with the disease.