Thomas Christopher Drake of Chapel Hill was named to the dean's list the spring 2008 semester at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. He is the son of John Drake of Chapel Hill and Lisa Ferguson Drake of Durham.

Stephanie Willis, school health coordinator of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, has been named the School Nurse Administrator of the Year for 2008 by the School Nurse Association of North Carolina.

A school nurse since 1990 and health coordinator for the last five years, Willis is an advocate of the coordinated school health model. She created a coordinated school health Web site for staff access to the policies, procedures and programs. She also established a partial day treatment program in one of the high schools, and spearheaded a pilot nurse practitioner program to help reduce absences for students unable to receive medical assistance in the community.

Phillip V. Patterson of Chapel Hill graduated from the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers School (SNCOS) conducted by Hargrave Military Academy on Aug. 23.

He is the son of Phillip and Janet Patterson of Chapel Hill.

The Senior NCOS provides leadership training specifically for Hargrave's junior class members who are interested in seeking leadership positions within the Corp of Cadets during the new school year.

Junior class Cadets hold the highest non-officer rank at the Academy, which is led by senior class officers. Within Hargrave's military system, juniors provide direction from the Cadet senior officers to various members throughout the Corps.

Leanna Kendall, a science teacher at East Chapel Hill High School, was recently selected as an Amgen-National Science Teachers Association Fellow in the New Science Teacher Academy (NSTA).

She was chosen from hundreds of applicants from across the country to participate in NSTA's year-long professional development fellowship program.

One of seven fellows selected from North Carolina, she will receive a comprehensive NSTA membership package, online mentoring with trained mentors who teach in the same discipline and the opportunity to participate in a variety of Web-based professional development activities, including Web seminars. In addition, she will receive financial support to attend and participate in NSTA's 2009 National Conference on Science Education in New Orleans.

Valerie Murrah was inducted into the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Alumni Hall of Fame.

She is a professor of diagnostic sciences and dentistry and chair of that department at the UNC-Chapel Hill, with joint appointments in pathology and laboratory medicine and otolaryngology. She also directs the Division of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology and serves as director of the oral and maxillofacial pathology diagnostic lab.

She is a fellow of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, a fellow of both the American and International College of Dentists, and a diplomat of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. She is president of the American Academy of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology and is the first woman to be elected to that position.

Brian D. Strahl, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the UNC School of Medicine, is one of 38 scientists nationally to receive the first grants in a new federal program called EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration).

The National Institutes of Health program is aimed at funding exceptionally innovative research projects that could have an significant impact on many areas of science.

The program will provide Strahl about $200,000 per year for four years to help test novel, often unconventional hypotheses or tackle major methodological or technical challenges.

Strahl's research involves DNA packaging and how it becomes organized in the nucleus of each cell in the body by a group of proteins called histones.

Strahl joined the UNC faculty in 2002. He was one of 15 scientists chosen as a 2004 Pew Biomedical Scholar by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of California at San Francisco. In 2003, he also received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and in 2006 he was named a Jefferson-Pilot Fellow in Academic Medicine.

Rebecca Calderera, a 2008 graduate of UNC, has been chosen as a USGA Fellow, a post-graduate position with the United States Golf Association in its two-year leadership and service fellowship program.

USGA fellows work in the grants initiative office of the USGA, aiding in the $65 million the USGA has given to junior golf programs as well as golf programs for individuals with disabilities.

Susanne Gaddis of Chapel Hill has earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation. Established in 1980, the CSP is the speaking profession's international measure of speaking experience and skill. Fewer than 10 percent of the speakers who belong to the International Federation of Professional Speakers hold this professional designation.

The CSP designation is conferred by the National Speakers Association and the International Federation of Professional Speakers.

Gaddis is a communications expert and a former professor of Communications at the University of Houston.

She is one of 41 professionals to earn the CSP in the class of 2008.

Please send announcements for Notables to Sheri Farmer at sharmer@nando.com