Kara Hammond was inducted into the Westerville North High School Hall of Fame on April 6.
Westerville North High School inducted three alumni into its Hall of Fame at a luncheon and ceremony held April 6 – Kara Hammond, Brian Custer and Maggie Smith-Beehler. The school’s Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee selected those honored from a pool of applicants who graduated at least 10 years ago, have demonstrated success in their career, and have made significant contributions to their community.
Superintendent John Kellogg meets with the Student Advisory throughout the school year. He praised the pupils for their honesty and respectful perspectives that help identify and find solutions to district-wide concerns. He also thanked this year’s group of Hall of Fame inductees for the example they have set.
Kara Hammond graduated from Westerville North in 1997. As a high school student, she focused on music and school spirit. Her involvement in the band program led to her participation in the All-State Band and the Ohio State Honors Band, as well as the OMEA Solo & Ensemble competition. She also participated in the National Honor Society and Buckeye Girls State. Hammond attended Miami University where she completed her B.S. in Accounting in 2001. She became a public accountant after graduation and is currently a Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) based in New York City, providing auditing services to large multinational public companies in both the the consumer and industrial products industries. Her powerful advocacy for diversity and gender equality is evident both within PwC and in the wider community. Hammond is committed to the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio as a volunteer grant reader, where she serves on their Finance Committee. She co-chaired the PwC Earn Your Future program in the Ohio and New Jersey offices. Through these programs, Hammond delivers financial literacy lessons to many students. Her sister, Kristen Patton, nominated Hammond for this honor.
Brian Custer graduated from North in 1989. In high school, he focused on sports and the Warrior Way. He attended Hampton University, where he completed a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism in 1993 and became a lifelong member of Kappa Alpha Psi. Custer began his career as a sports anchor and play-by-play broadcaster. He worked as a news reporter for WSYX/WTTE Columbus and as a sports anchor for CBS 11 KTVT Dallas-Fort Worth and SportsNet New York. Custer is currently employed by Showtime’s CBS Sports, where he hosts boxing and college basketball and is a play-by-play announcer, a position for which he has won multiple Emmy Awards. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013, it has become Custer’s mission to eradicate the disease. As a cancer survivor and spokesperson for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, he talks nationally about prostate cancer awareness. He said most of what he has accomplished came from what was instilled in him by his principals and coaches at Westerville North, and all the lessons he learned from the Warrior Way. Teacher/coach Kevin Thuman nominated Custer for this award.
Maggie Smith-Beehler graduated from Westerville North in 1995, where she participated in choir and Key Club. She also focused there on writing poetry and sharing her work with a few friends and teachers. She attended The Ohio State University where she completed a B.A. in English with a focus on Creative Writing from Ohio Wesleyan University, and an MFA in Poetry from OSU. She eventually became a nationally recognized poet, having published three books of poetry with a fourth in progress. Smith-Beehler received a prestigious literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; five Individual Excellence Awards in Poetry from the Ohio Arts Council; and financial support from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. In 2016, she was named the Ohio Poet of the Year. And in 2017, her book of poetry, Good Bones, was named by the Washington Post as one of the five best collections of American poetry. Smith-Beehler lives with her husband and two children in Bexley. She was nominated for the Alumni Hall of Fame by educators Chris Willmore and Jim Grannis.