Alumnae Spotlights

Serious accident wipes out graduation memory
Mick Strong
Most people regard their college graduation as one of the most memorable times of their lives, but after a serious accident, LSUS alumna Allison DeFatta (B.S. '95) was striped of these joyous memories.

About a week after her May 1995 magna cum laude graduation, she was leaving Books-A-Million with the programming book, Apple Talk - computer programming was one of her hobbies. As she pulled up to the red light at Airline Drive and Shed Road in Bossier City, an out-of-control car sideswiped hers.
DeFatta spent the next week in the hospital and was left with not only the task of relearning how to walk, but also with a few holes in her memory.

"Because of the wreck, I lost some memory and don't remember graduating from college, " DeFatta said. "But had my college major not been exercise science, I don't think my recovery would have been so quick. I remember lying in Bossier General Hospital's ICU talking to my mother, telling her I had to keep moving my legs."

If it weren't for DeFatta's belief that as one door shuts another door opens, she may not be where she is today - vice president of sales for ShreveNet.

To entertain herself during her recovery she played around on a computer and started to learn how to program.

DeFatta eventually landed a job at Softdisk, where she worked for a year in technical support on Macintosh computers and started learning the ins and outs of sales.

"I fell in love with working with people and making sales," DeFatta said. "So it was only natural that after a brief meeting with (ShreveNet owner) Allen Marsalis, I made the move to his small ramp-up company."

It wasn't long after her employment that Marsalis gave DeFatta the title of vice president of sales.
"It was like a wild roller-coaster ride during the growth period," DeFatta said. "For this phenomenal period, the company doubled in size every year."

The most valuable thing DeFatta said she ever learned at LSUS was how to communicate well through reading and writing. She was president of the Student Activity Board, a member of the Student Organization Council, Student Government Association, Phi Mu, and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. This, DeFatta said, helped build the foundation for her work ethic, and helped her become one of the leaders of Shreveport's Science and Technology Council.

Beth Williams Heaton top 'insider' at Phillips
E. W. "Beth" Williams Heaton (B.S. '75) is general auditor in internal auditing for Phillips Petroleum Company. She was named to this position in 2001 having served prior to this as finance manager for Exploration and Production, Americas division, since 2000.

Heaton began her oil career in 1979 with Aminoil in Houston. She joined Phillips in Denver in 1985 as a staff accountant for exploration and production and held various positions in the Bartlesville home office beginning in 1986.

She served as manager of oil and gas revenue accounting in 1990, joining Refining, Marketing and Transportation in 1992 as the finance manager for transportation services. In 1993 she was named manager of state and excise tax compliance, corporate financial staffs, and in 1995, finance manager of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL).

She was named audit manager, corporate financial staffs, for the E&P group as well as for Gas Processing and Marketing (GPM Gas Corporation) in 1997. In 1999 she served as finance manager of Marketing and Transportation.

Born in 1953 in Alexandria, Heaton was raised in Shreveport. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from LSUS in 1975. She is a certified public accountant, a certified internal auditor and is currently a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors.

She is a past chairman of the Bartlesville Community Center Trust Authority, the immediate past president of the board of Women and Children in Crisis and a member of the Service League of Bartlesville.