Atlanta Education Foundation

Dr. Cortney Youens Lee

Dr. Cortney Youens Lee, AHS Class of 1996, attended Southwest Texas State University, graduating
Magna Cum Laude in three years with a major in Biology and minor in Chemistry. She then completed
medical school at Texas Tech University School of Medicine, earning recognition as a member of the
national Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society as well as election as President of the Texas Tech
Health Sciences Center Student Senate.

During her time at AISD, she received academic awards during all four years of high school, participated
in band, served as majorette and rifle captain, was an active member of the tennis team, competed in
one-act play and poetry interpretation, and was president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

She and her medical school classmate, Jimmy Lee, served as co-coordinators for a medical mission trip
to Mexico. Following graduation, they married and moved to Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Lee completed 5
years of General Surgery Residency at the University of Kentucky and was chosen for both Intern of the
Year (shared with her husband) and Administrative Chief Resident. She returned to Texas to complete
specialized fellowship training in Endocrine Surgery (surgery of the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal
glands) at Scott & White Clinic before joining faculty as an Endocrine Surgeon at the University of
Kentucky in 2011.

Since then, she has risen through the academic ranks to Professor of Surgery, currently serving as Head
of Endocrine Surgery. In addition to her job as a surgeon, she teaches both medical students and surgical
residents. She serves as Clerkship Director for the College of Medicine, overseeing surgical education
for University of Kentucky Medical Students on four different regional campuses throughout the state.
During her time at UK, Dr. Lee has received numerous teaching awards, and credits her mothers’
influence (who is a retired AISD teacher) with her success as an educator. In addition to her focus on
medical education, Dr. Lee’s clinic has been recognized for achieving the top 25% in patient experience
nationwide. While she wears many hats, her passion remains patient care: serving the patients of
Kentucky.

Dr. Lee and her husband (an Abdominal Radiologist at UK) and are enjoying their 12 th year as faculty at
the University of Kentucky in Lexington. They have 2 children (Ashton 9 th grade and Adalyn 4 th grade).
They are active members of their church, enjoy traveling with family and friends, and love watching
their children play soccer and dance.

Lt. Col. Cole Clements

Lieutenant Colonel Cole Clements, AHS Class of 1999, graduated from Texas A&M and was
commissioned as a Marine Corps officer in 2003. After attending The Basic School for Marine officers in
Quantico, Virginia, Clements completed the Infantry Officer Course, which trains newly selected infantry
and ground intelligence officers in the knowledge, skills, and leadership required to serve as infantry
platoon commanders in the rifle company and to provide advanced employment and training
considerations of weapons company platoons.

After graduating from Quantico in September 2004, Clements served the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment at Camp Pendleton, California. During this tour, Lieutenant Colonel Clements deployed three
times – in support of Operation Iraqui Freedom in 2005 as a Rifle Platoon Commander, as part of the
31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in 2006 as Weapons Platoon Commander, and as part of the 11th
Marine Expeditionary Unit in 2007 as 81mm Mortar Platoon Commander.

From 2008 through 2011, Clements served as Inspector Instructor and Company Commander for
Company F’s Anti-Terrorism Battalion. In 2011 he was selected to attend the U.S. Army Maneuver
Captain’s Career Course at Fort Benning, Georgia.

In March 2012, Lieutenant Colonel Clements reported to 2d Marine Division in Camp Lejeune, North
Carolina, where he deployed twice more in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Helmand
Province, Afghanistan. The first as commander of Kilo Company, 3d Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment then
again in 2014 as Battalion Operations Officer for 1st Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment.

Upon his return from Afghanistan, Clements was selected to attend the Naval Postgraduate School in
Monterey, California where he received a Master of Arts Degree in Security Studies with a specific focus
on Southeast Asia. After graduating in 2017, he was designated as a Southeast Asia Regional Area
Officer and assigned to G3, Marine Corps Forces Pacific at Camp Smith, Hawaii. During this tour,
Clements served as action officer for U.S. Marine Corps interests in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific
and directly oversaw annual Marine Air Ground Task Force deployments to the Northern Territory of
Australia.

Following his tour in Hawaii, he was assigned to the 23d Marine Regiment in San Bruno, California as the
Regimental Operations Officer. In December 2021, Lieutenant Colonel Clements deployed to Fort
Pickett, Virginia, in support of Operation Allies Welcome, overseeing the resettlement of Afghan
refugees following the largest Noncombatant Evacuation Operation in the nation’s history. In
September 2022, Clements was reassigned as the Inspector Instructor for 23d Marine Regiment in San
Bruno.

Lieutenant Colonel Clements’ personal military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with
gold star in lieu of second award, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars in
lieu of third award, and the Combat Action Ribbon with gold star in lieu of second award.
Clements is married to Atlanta native Sunni Barr Clements and has three children - Barr, Shep, and Willie
Katherine. He is the son of Nancy Clements Allday and the late Fran Clements of Douglassville. Clements
and his family currently reside in Burlingame, California.

Hope Thompson

Hope Thompson, AHS Class of 2004, is a three-time Women’s Professional Rodeo Association team roping
World Champion. Thompson attended Northeast Texas Community College in Mt. Pleasant and then received
a rodeo scholarship and attended McNeese State in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She won the College National
Finals Rodeo in 2008 in the Breakaway and was named National Champion Breakaway Roper. Thompson,
who is also a professional horse trainer, is responsible for training the great breakaway horse Super Chrome
Ink, which won the American Quarter Horse Association Reserve World title. Thompson is also the highest
earning athlete in the World Champions Rodeo Alliance history, with $229,000 in earnings in the last three
years alone. She was also named the Women’s Rodeo World Championship All-Around Cowgirl.

While growing up, Thompson attended the Josey Ranch All-Around camp near Marshall and knew that she
wanted to someday be a rodeo clinician. After meeting the Josey family, young Thompson began learning
from them and worked her way through the ranks of women’s professional roping. Around 2010, she put it
all on the line and moved to the Guy Ranch in Abilene, Texas. Since then, Thompson has continued to work
hard to become one of the most influential roping competitors and coaches in the world.

Some of her other career highlights include breakaway titles in the Louisiana Rodeo Cowboy Association, the
Tri-State Rodeo Association, the Wendy Ryon Invitational, the Wildfire team roping, the Spicer Gripp
Memorial, and the Three Star Memorial. Thompson was also a National Finals Breakaway Qualifier.

Thompson says, “I didn’t grow up in a rodeo family at all. My mom rescued these horses and brought them
home, and my dad was like, ‘We don’t even have a fence.’ She goes on to say, “They took me to watch a
playday and I fell in love with it and wanted to do it. I always wanted to rope. I carried a rope around but my
parents didn’t know enough to teach me. I started out with the speed events—ran barrels, poles, all of that
at the playdays.” She credits local Jim Murdock with her early basic training.

Thompson still resides in Abilene, and along with her continuing rodeo career, she now trains world class
rodeo horses and travels the world teaching hands-on roping clinics and private lessons. Thompson helped
found the Rope Like a Girl Foundation, whose mission is to encourage female western athletes to dream big
and work hard. Throughout her career she has helped “Rope Like a Girl” to become a movement for women
in the rodeo industry, and today the foundation awards scholarships to upcoming rodeo athletes.

Leigh Walker Stanley

Leigh Walker Stanley is the 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for her 34 years of
dedicated and diligent work in education as a classroom teacher and her current 6 years of volunteer
work on the Atlanta Education Foundation. Stanley, an Atlanta native and lifetime Rabbit, attended
Atlanta schools all 12 years of her youth graduating in 1974. Mrs. Stanley taught 32 of her 34 year
teaching career in an Atlanta ISD classroom- 28 years at Atlanta Primary and 4 years at Atlanta
Elementary.

During her years as a classroom educator, she served on numerous campus and district leadership
committees composing mission statements, school mottos, and campus plans while other times
contributing on panels, search teams, and writing grants. Surrounded by phenomenal and insightful co-
workers, Stanley and her colleagues introduced, implemented, and embraced innovative teaching
methods, the latest technological tools and top-notch language arts and mathematics programs for
Atlanta’s young learners. Each teaching strategy established a valuable foundation for Primary and
Elementary students that enabled them to achieve success.

Over the years, Mrs. Stanley’s Primary classroom experience ranged from a grade level self-contained
concept to a departmentalized setting which included instructing GT classes, designing a second grade
science lab, co-leading a Junior Master Gardener afterschool program, and eventually becoming a math
interventionist at the Elementary. In the classroom, Stanley utilized the whole language approach as
well as rote memorization techniques, incorporated visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles in
her lesson plans, investigated science phenomena and explored social studies events with her students.
Literature, science, and social studies were Mrs. Stanley’s beloved subjects as was evident in her
classroom environment, creative projects and unique student portfolios. Mrs. Stanley is immensely
proud of the success of her many former students that continued their education and are now skilled
tradesmen, doctors, nurses, lawyers, architects, engineers, bankers, businessmen, government officials,
preachers, writers, principals, and, especially, classroom teachers!

Since her retirement in 2016, Leigh has joined her husband, Danny, as a board member of Atlanta Grade
School Friends. This volunteer group has worked tirelessly to stabilize, rehabilitate, restore, and
preserve one of Atlanta’s historic buildings, the 1936 Atlanta Miller Grade School.

The Stanleys are active members of First Baptist Church, Atlanta. Danny (AHS Class of 1973) and Leigh
(AHS Class of 1974) have been married for 47 years. They have two children, Jill Howard (AHS Class of
1997) and husband Cody (AHS Class of 1996), and Bret Stanley (AHS Class of 2001) and wife Stephanie.
The Stanleys are proud grandparents of Kade and Madelynn Howard Hill (AHS Class of 2020), Brooklynn
(AHS Class of 2022) and Hollan Howard (AHS Class of 2026), and Blaire and Walker Stanley of Houston.
Leigh is the daughter of Don and Biddy Walker formerly of Atlanta and both Rabbit graduates, Class of
1947 and 1949 respectively.

They say, “To teach is to touch a life forever” …….. in Leigh Stanley’s case it was her life that was
profoundly and forever touched the most by her Atlanta educator mother, her Atlanta educator daughter,
and especially by the extraordinary students and staff of Atlanta ISD.