West Virginia Wesleyan College will recognize alumni who have contributed to their communities and alma mater during Homecoming 2024. Awards will be presented during the Founder’s Day Ceremony on Oct. 11 in Wesley Chapel.
Alumni Service:
Adena D. Barnette-Miller ‘03
Adena Barnette-Miller graduated from Ripley High School in 1999 and earned her undergraduate degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2003. Barnette-Miller was named the 2011 WV James Madison Memorial Foundation Fellow which funded this degree and provided her graduate-level instruction in American constitutionalism. She has won awards including the 2021 Gilder-Lehrman Institute’s West Virginia History Teacher of the Year, the 2016 WV Daughters of the American Revolution’s Outstanding Teacher of American History and third place in the 2016 National DAR Outstanding Teacher of American History contest. In 2023, the DAR presented Barnette-Miller with the Woman in American History Award. She also teaches AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics for the WV Department of Education’s Virtual School program. She is married to David W. Miller. Their shared passions include watching Cincinnati sports and working together to create a place-based YouTube Channel entitled “WV History with Mrs. B.” where they share stories about the Mountain State of West Virginia, its people and its history. She is an ambassador for WVWC wherever she goes.
Dr. Benedict Tantillo III ‘74
Dr. Tantillo graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1974. His post-college endeavors were initiated as a NJ secondary-school English, Social Studies, and Phys Ed teacher which also included the start of his football and baseball student coaching passion. In addition to all of his professional achievements that would follow, this sideline extracurricular effort resulted in him being named NJ’s 1983 Baseball Coach of the Year. That tribute occurred the year he resumed his NJ teaching career after a three-year interim return to Wesleyan with his college-sweetheart wife Barbara (Liske, ’75). Here they were again part of the Wesleyan community, this time on the faculty side, Barb in the Counseling Department, Ben as Wesleyan’s assistant football coach while attaining his master’s degree. Following his first retirement in 2010, an opportunity led to five additional years as Superintendent of Schools in Duxbury, Massachusetts where his revered direction led to Duxbury High School being designated as one of the top three public high schools in the state (out of 405) by The Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Department of Education commending Duxbury Public Schools for their high state-testing status and the National Association of Music Merchants acclaimed Tantillo’s Massachusetts region as one of the country’s best music programs.
Within three years of his term at Duxbury, he was the recipient of the 2013 Administrator Award presented by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and the Massachusetts Technology Committee. His lifelong advocacy of the value of education also includes all four of his children receiving their Bachelor’s Degrees, all from different universities.
Alumni Achievement:
Rhonda Holyfield Mangieri ‘74
Rhonda Holyfield-Mangieri, a Cincinnati, Ohio resident, is a 1974 graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College. Rhonda was named the 94th President of The Cincinnatus Association. For Cincinnatus, she served as VP, Treasurer and co-chair of the prestigious Donald and Marian Spencer “Spirit of America” Awards. Cincinnatus is a 104-year-old nonpartisan and non-profit organization located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mangieri also served on the Board of Directors of the FBI Cincinnati Citizens Academy Alumni Association. She also volunteers for the International Friendship Inc., AARP and provides pro bono resume and career support for individuals and leadership development training to nonprofit organizations. Over the years she has been recognized for her outstanding service. She received an Outstanding Pittsburgh Society of Association Executives Award and Slippery Rock University’s President Award for Outstanding Service. In 2021, she received AARP’s Ohio’s 2021 Andrus Award for Community Service. She has been an AARP volunteer since 2014 and has been featured in several AARP articles. For the past 36 years, she has been active in her churches, teaching Sunday school, developing curriculum, serving as a youth and missions leader and teaching adult Bible Studies. She is a frequent speaker, panelist and moderator for various non-profit and civic organizations.
Lance M. Lindauer ‘06, MBA ‘07
Lance graduated from WVWC with his BS in both International Business and Economics in 2006 (minor in Spanish) and MBA in 2007, where he was the Graduate Assistant for the Housing & Residence Life Department. While an undergraduate, he received the undergraduate International Business Student of the Year, an Outstanding Senior and the Rao Global Awareness Award winner, among other academic accolades, and participated in two study abroad programs. Lance Lindauer has spent his career working across the public, private, nonprofit and academic sectors, all of which involved roles and initiatives related to public policy, innovation and emerging technology, notably AI. Lindauer is presently the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Partnership to Advance Responsible Technology (PART), a Pittsburgh-based non-governmental organization dedicated to integrating responsible and ethical technology and innovation into solving global problems via research, education and consultation. Along with co-founding PART, he worked at the RAND Corporation for 10 years, holding roles in National Security (Director of Operations for the National Defense Research Institute) and Innovation Architecture (Principal Consultant). Lindauer is also Founder and CEO of Lindauer Holdings where he advises clients in areas such as AI, finance, healthcare and defense manufacturing.
Dr. Rebekah Reed Honce ‘16
Honce graduated Summa cum Laude in 2016 as a biology major with a concentration in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. She immediately entered the Integrated Program in Biomedical Sciences: Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, in the laboratory of Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry at the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She earned her PhD in 2020, defending her dissertation entitled “Attenuation of Interferon Responses in the Obese Host and Ramifications for Influenza Virus Evolution.” In 2021, Rebekah received the Young Investigator Award from the American Association of Immunology. In 2020, Rebekah was interviewed with Dr. Katherine Wu in The New York Times’ “Studies Begin to Untangle Obesity’s Role in Covid-19,” and again in 2021 in The Atlantic’s “Why No One is Sure If Delta is Deadlier.” Honce is also an accomplished artist. She has contributed cover art for the Jan 15, 2019 issue of the Journal of Virology. Honce also wrote and illustrated the children’s coloring book, “Connie has Corona Virus.” Through her professional affiliations with the American Society for Virology and as coordinator of the Burlington, Vermont chapter of Science on Tap, she is involved in communicating and clarifying scientific findings to the public and policymakers. Outside of the laboratory, you can find her hiking with her rescue dog Maple, trying to teach tricks to her two tabby cats or concert-going with her partner Chris (who is also a WVWC grad).
Phyllis J. Smith ‘13
While at Wesleyan, Phyllis Smith interned at WDTV in Bridgeport, West Virginia. She was hired as a weekend reporter in her junior year at Wesleyan. She continued to work there for two years, eventually becoming a full-time reporter and anchor. Phyllis learned the ropes at WDTV and met some of her closest friends. During her time at WTAP, Phyllis won four Ohio Associated Press awards, one West Virginia Broadcasters Association Excellence in Broadcasting award and one Virginias Associated Press award. Other awards include: Best Anchor Small Market West Virginia Broadcasters Association 2024 first place, Best Producer Ohio APME 2022 second place, Best Broadcast Writing Ohio APME 2022 second place, Best Anchor Ohio APME 2021 second place, Best Producer Ohio APME 2021 second place and Best Producer Virginia’s AP Broadcasters 2021 second place. She has been at WTAP for nine years and enjoys being the 6 and 11 p.m. anchor and producer in her hometown of Parkersburg. Smith has been the emcee for several charitable organization events. Smith represents Wesleyan wherever she goes in a positive light.
