Executives at SBC Southwestern Bell, CenterPoint Energy Arkla Join UAMS Development Board

By todd

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Ed Drilling, president of SBC Southwestern Bell, and Kathy Alexander, senior vice president of CenterPoint Energy Arkla, are new members of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Foundation Fund Board.

The UAMS Foundation Fund Board offers support and advice to the Chancellor of UAMS and the vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs. John Schlereth of Little Rock is chairman of the board.

Drilling joined Southwestern Bell in 1979. He spent 15 years in various operations positions including customer service and marketing, and seven years in external affairs.

Drilling is involved in many statewide and community organizations, including advisory boards or executive committees of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, Sam M. Walton College of Business, and UAMS Arkansas BioVentures, as well as the Governor’s Information Technology Oversight Committee. He also serves on the boards of the University of Arkansas 2010 Commission, Public Education Forum of Little Rock, Region’s Advisory Board, the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee, Pulaski County United Way Campaign Cabinet Committee and the Big Brothers Big Sisters Executive Committee. A native of Morrilton, Ark., Drilling holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and is a graduate of Emory University’s Advanced Management Program.

Alexander handles regulatory, legislative, and legal affairs for CenterPoint Energy Arkla in five states. She joined Arkla, the predecessor company to CenterPoint Energy Arkla, in 1985 as assistant general counsel and assistant vice president. She was general counsel and vice president from 1986 to 2000, when she became senior vice president. She was named one of the Top 100 Women in Arkansas by the newspaper Arkansas Business in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.

She is a member of the boards of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (CARTI). She has served on the boards of numerous other organizations in Arkansas, including the Keep America Beautiful Commission, Ballet Arkansas, the Visiting Nurse Association, the Society for the Prevention of Blindness and the Central Arkansas Area Agency on Aging. Alexander holds a law degree and a B.S. in business administration from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a master’s in education from the University of Alabama.