Distinguished Alumni 2024
Stephanie Byrum is a graduate of the AHS class of 2000. She was a member of the band, color guard, softball team, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Byrum continued her education at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a Chemistry and Mathematics minor. A prestigious summer student fellowship to perform undergraduate research at the graduate level opened the doors to a Master’s and PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
Dr. Byrum is currently a Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UAMS and the Director of the Arkansas Data Science Core. Her duties include supporting research faculty with data analyses by investigating changes in genes and proteins that contribute to all forms of cancer, and teaching and mentoring graduate students. As part of this program, Dr. Byrum mentors both faculty and students in data science across the sixteen undergraduate institutions in Arkansas.
When Stephanie is not analyzing data, she enjoys being outside hiking through the Ozarks or riding the many bike trails. She is also a volunteer with Partners Against Human Trafficking in Little Rock.
Dr. Byrum is the daughter of the late Rebecca Moulton and granddaughter of the late Carrel Byrum and Dean Byrum.
Trevor Swanson Distinguished Alumni 2024
Dr. Trevor Swanson, a 1992 graduate of AHS, has been deeply involved in giving back to this community since he moved back to Atlanta after chiropractic school. He served as a board member for the Atlanta Softball and Baseball Associations where he volunteered countless hours at the fields and coached Little League and All-Star teams for many years. He served as board member and past president of the Atlanta Athletic Booster Club where he was dedicated to fundraising efforts promoting Atlanta sports. He spent countless hours as a volunteer coach to teach pole vaulting to AISD students and helped the coaches with track meets.
Dr. Swanson is owner of Swanson Family Chiropractic - Advanced Spine, Sports and Rehab - in Atlanta, and loves to extend his chiropractic service and knowledge to students. Typically he treats student athletes for free because wants them to receive the best care he can provide to make them better athletes. He also works with area school athletic trainers so they can also provide excellent care for the students.
Swanson attended Stephen F. Austin University, Tyler Junior College, and Parker College of Chiropractic, where he received a Doctorate of Chiropractic in 1998. In 2016, he was awarded ATL Magazine’s “Best Chiropractor.” Trevor is married to Jana Stanley Swanson, and has three children, Sydney, Cooper and Chris.
Thank you, Dr. Swanson, for your years of dedication and service to our student athletes and community!
Nancy Chambless “Mrs. C”
Distinguished Service Award 2024 For 31 years, Nancy Chambless was the beautiful face of Atlanta Primary School. She knew every parent, every grandparent, every child AND their siblings by name and she created a loving environment that instantly welcomed any one who walked through the doors of that school. If anyone needed anything done, Mrs. C, as she is affectionately known, would make sure that it was done. Her kind and loving demeanor put all parents at ease as they started their children’s educational journey in AISD.
She worked as receptionist and special ed aide for five principals: Donald Ray Brown, Gus Schuhmann, Melba Foster, Kirby McCord, and Donna Rice, before retiring in 2018. She was a principal’s dream..... she was a forward thinker, a taskmaster, a scheduler and a fixer of all things. Her greatest asset was her servant’s heart. She is a giver and she always made everyone feel important.
Mrs. C was also a practical joker. Once when Principal Donna Rice walked into the office....a skeleton dressed in Atlanta Rabbit gear was seated at the front desk with a sign on it that said....”Mrs. C at 100 years old.” She was also a lover of John Wayne and had a life size cut out of him that she used often in the front office. No one could sport a cowboy hat like Mrs. C and she and John Wayne always made such a lovely couple standing in the front office!
Chambless was raised in Savannah, Georgia and graduated from Windsor Forest High School. She and her husband, Jimmy, moved to Atlanta in 1983 and raised their son, Keith, who is a graduate of the AHS Class of 1995. She has two grandsons, Jackson and Liam Chambless, a sister, Carla Godwin, and a very special friend, Janice Prator.
Mrs. C says “GO RABBITS!” and that she loves her AISD family very much. Thank you, Mrs. C, for your dedicated years of hard work and loving on the children
of APS.