WACO—A Texas Baptist hospital executive, a former Waco pastor who heads a global humanitarian ministry and a religious liberty advocate are among the latest inductees to the Baylor Alumni Association Hall of Fame.
Joel Allision, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System, received the George W. Truett Church Service Award, presented to individuals who exemplify the life and career of the late church leader George W. Truett and reflect the true meaning of Baylor’s motto, “Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana.” Allison is a 1970 Baylor University graduate and earned a master’s degree in health care administration from Trinity University in 1973.
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Joel Allison
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Allison’s career includes more than three decades in health care management. He joined Baylor Health Care System in 1993, and served as Baylor’s senior executive vice president and chief operating officer before being promoted to president and CEO in 2000.
John Wood received the Abner V. McCall Humanitarian Award, which recognizes Baylor University alumni who have exhibited a Christian response to sitations and people around them in ways exemplified by the life of the former Baylor president.
Wood is president of International Medical Educational Foundation and of John Wood Ministries. His approach to missions has resulted in a network of physicians traveling across the globe, so doctors on the far side of the world can benefit from the expertise of American surgeons. Wood has paired American hospitals with those in Ukraine to improve heart surgery techniques. The result has been a reduction in the mortality rate from heart bypass surgery in Ukraine, accompanied by an increase in the number of life-saving surgeries.
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John Wood
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A pastor for 35 years, Wood began traveling to Ukraine after he left the pastorate of Waco’s First Baptist Church in 1992. In addition to his undergraduate degree from Baylor, Wood holds master of divinity, master of theology and doctor of ministry degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., (see top photo) received the Abner V. McCall Religious Liberty Award. It honors alumni or friends of Baylor who, by their lives and actions, have exemplified McCall’s courage and dedication to the belief in and commitment to religious liberty.
In receiving the award, Walker praised McCall, who was a justice of the Texas Supreme Court, for his work supporting religious liberty, and he insisted the award really belongs to the Baptist Joint Committee.
Walker is a graduate of the University of Florida, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Stetson University College of Law.
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Walker has testified before Congress numerous times and regularly appears as a guest on national news programs. He has taught at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond since 2003. He joined the BJC as associate general counsel in 1989, became general counsel in 1993, and has been executive director since 1999.
The Baylor Alumni Association also recognized three distinguished alumni: James R. Daniel, vice chair of BancFirst Corporation in Oklahoma City, Okla.; Jennifer Hilton Sampson, president and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas; and Nick Strimple, associate professor of choral and sacred music at the University of Southern California and director of music at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, Calif.
The association presented the W.R. White Meritorious Service Award to Bettie M. Battle, retired manager of the Baylor Athletic Dining Hall; Ervin Davis, barber at Baylor Barber Shop; and Norman Gilchrest, retired barber at Baylor Barber Shop.
Brian McCall, chancellor of the Texas State University System in Austin, received the Price Daniel Distinguished Service Award.
Herbert H. Reynolds Outstanding Young Alumni Awards went to Lori Thompson Coulter, founder of Lori Coulter Made-To-Order Swimwear in St. Louis, Mo.; and Kellie Key Fischer, executive vice president and CFO of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club in Arlington.
The Nelson-Dudley-Boulet family received the First Families of Baylor Award. The family includes six generations of Baylor graduates.
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