March 20, 2008

LIVINGSTON, Ala.--The University of West Alabama recently inducted two distinguished alumni, Jeanette B. Adams of Butler and Andrew L. Coats of Birmingham, into the Society of the Golden Key at its annual Honors Day Convocation. Induction into the society, founded in 1963, is the highest honor bestowed upon a UWA graduate or faculty member.

Jeanette Adams of Butler holds a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees from UWA. She retired in 2002 as headmaster of Patrician Academy. In addition to her time spent in the high school classroom, she also served on the UWA languages and literature faculty.
 

Adams is a member and past president of Delta Kappa Gamma, the Alabama Independent School Headmasters’ Association and the UWA chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. She was also affiliated with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Alabama Independent School Association and the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. Adams has been honored by Who’s Who in American Education and recognized with UWA’s College of Education Alumni Achievement Award.
 

A member of the Choctaw County chapter of the UWA National Alumni Association, she serves on the Alabama Southern Community College Foundation Board. Adams is also involved in Choctaw County’s chamber of commerce, arts council, historical society, healthcare think tank committee and Business and Professional Women’s organization. She served on the Leadership Choctaw Board of Directors.
 

Adams serves as a Sunday school teacher and church organist at the First Baptist Church of Butler. She and her husband Jimmy have two daughters, Melanie Farmer and Angie Brownlee, and five grandchildren.
 

Andrew Coats is a 1973 UWA social sciences graduate. He is founder and president of Occupational Health Dynamics, a Birmingham-based company that sells and services high-end instrumentation of industrial hygiene and occupational health diagnostic equipment. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member at both the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
 

The 2007 recipient of the UWA College of Liberal Arts Alumni Achievement Award, Coats is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and the American Industrial Hygiene Association. He is as Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church elder and youth sports coach. A former board member of the Center for Urban Missions and the Prison Fellowship, Coats currently serves on the advisory board of Restoration Academy, an inner-city Christian school in Fairfield.
 

Coats and his wife Katharine are the parents of five children, Mary Catherine Pritchett, Caroline Woods, Elizabeth, Andrew and Caitlin.