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Class Notes

Kenneth Holland (Col ’71)

Academic Accomplishment announcement on August 6, 2025
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Kenneth Malcolm Holland (Grad ’71) was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Program grant by the U.S. Department of State. He will travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in fall 2025 to complete a four-week project at the Institute for Advanced International Studies, an institution that trains diplomats, supports curriculum development in American studies and fosters institutional partnerships. Holland is an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Utah and previously served as president of the American University of Afghanistan. He had previous Fulbright Awards in Japan and Burma (Myanmar).

Charlene Wang (Law ’15)

Publication announcement on August 5, 2025
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Charlene Wang (Law ’15) will publish her debut novel, I’ll Follow You, in October through Mindy’s Book Studio, actress Mindy Kaling’s book and development imprint with Amazon Publishing. Wang’s psychological thriller explores the complex and dangerous friendship of two young women looking to escape their dead-end town.

Desmond Cormier (Col ’73)

Retirement announcement on August 5, 2025
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Desmond Cormier (Col ’73) has retired from a 26-year career as an art teacher in Charlottesville City Schools. He and his wife are spending their retirement raising sheep, chickens and bees on their farm in Keswick, Virginia. Along with working on the farm, he is also working on a children’s book and teaching at the Center at Belvedere, a senior community in Charlottesville. Last year, he published a memoir, My Summer Vacation on the Cambodian Border, which explores his years as an adolescent in Vietnam.

Stephen Mercado (Col ’84 CM)

Publication announcement on August 5, 2025

Stephen C. Mercado (Col ’84 CM) recently published his second book, Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons: How Noborito’s Scientists and Technicians Served in the Second World War and the Cold War (Pen & Sword Military, 2025). He is also the author of The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Elite Intelligence School (Brassey’s, 2002), a dozen articles and several dozen book reviews on intelligence and other subjects.

Olyvia Christley (Col ’11, Grad ’17, Grad ’22 CM)

Job announcement on August 4, 2025
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Olyvia R. Christley (Col ’11, Grad ’17, ’22 CM) joined the faculty of Washington State University’s School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs as an assistant professor. She previously held a tenure-track line at Florida Atlantic University. Her research focuses on the intersection of nationalism, xenophobia and gendered attitudes and their influence on public opinion and political behavior across Europe and the United States.

Andrew Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM)

Publication announcement on August 4, 2025
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Andrew Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) recently published his 14th textbook, Ophthalmology of Sports. Additionally, Lee’s daughter, Virginia Lee (Col ’26), will be graduating next year as an Echols Scholar.

Maxwell Greer (Darden ’21)

Job announcement on August 1, 2025

Maxwell Greer (Darden ’21) joined the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) as a research staff member in the Science, Systems and Sustainment Division of IDA’s Systems and Analyses Center in Alexandria, Virginia. IDA is a nonprofit corporation that operates three federally funded research and development centers in the public interest to answer challenging U.S. security and science policy questions. Greer, before studying at UVA, earned his bachelor’s in computer science from James Madison University in 2011.

Trey Cox (Law ’95)

Award/Recognition announcement on August 1, 2025

Trey Cox (Law ’95) has been named a finalist for Texas Lawyer‘s Texas Lawyer of the Year. So far in 2025, he has helped secure over $3 billion in verdicts and dismissals on behalf of clients. On the plaintiff side, he led two high-profile trial wins: a $667 million jury verdict for Energy Transfer against Greenpeace and a $46 million compensatory award for Gala Capital Partners. On the defense side, Cox obtained two major summary judgment victories, defeating over $2 billion in securities claims against Energy Transfer and securing dismissal of $400 million in fraud claims against GE Vernova.

Daniel Barnes (Col ’92 CM)

Job announcement on July 27, 2025
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Daniel Barnes (Col ’92 CM) was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to serve as a judge of the New Jersey Superior Court. The New Jersey Senate confirmed the nomination on June 30, 2025. Barnes began judicial service on July 21, 2025. He is assigned to the Law Division, civil part, where he will hear primarily civil litigation matters.

Michael Hightower (Col ’07)

Publication announcement on July 25, 2025
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Michael J. Hightower (Grad ’07) has written two biographies since 2021, both released to critical acclaim by the University of Oklahoma Press. At War with Corruption chronicles the career of former U.S. Attorney Bill Price, who spearheaded prosecutions of Oklahoma county commissioners in what became the most extensive case of public corruption in FBI history. Hightower’s subsequent book, Justice for All, tells the story of Dick T. Morgan, a frontier lawyer in Oklahoma Territory, six-term congressman (1909-20) and father of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who was ahead of his time in promoting fairness for all Americans. Hightower lives with his wife, Judy, in Charlottesville and Oklahoma City.

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Brian “Kal” Munis (Grad ’20 CM)

Birth announcement on July 20, 2025

Brian “Kal” Munis (Grad ’20 CM) and his wife, Zoe, welcomed their daughter, Vera Mae, in February 2025. Munis keeps his fingers crossed that Vera Mae will be a member of  the UVA Class of 2043!

George Dougherty (Engr ’91, Engr ’93 CM)

Publication announcement on July 20, 2025
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George M. Dougherty (Engr ’91, ’93 CM) wrote Beast in the Machine: How Robotics and AI Will Transform Warfare and the Future of Human Conflict, to be released by BenBella Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster in August. Booklist states that “Beast in the Machine is an incredible resource for raising public awareness and education around this revolution in warfare.” Dougherty is a senior military leader in U.S. Air Force science and technology and a consultant to companies facing disruptive change in their industries.

Adrian Talley (Educ ’86 CM)

Award/Recognition announcement on July 16, 2025

Adrian Talley (Educ ’86 CM) was named the 2025 DuPage County Regional Office of Education Educator of the Year and Administrator of the Year. Talley is currently in his sixth year as superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204, the fourth largest school district in Illinois. He was recognized for his work in expanding mental health services, amplifying student voices and expanding STEM opportunities for students.

Patrick Melmer (Col ’12, Med ’17 CM)

Academic Accomplishment announcement on July 16, 2025

Patrick D. Melmer (Col ’12, Med ’17 CM), was promoted to associate program director of the General Surgery Residency at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is an assistant professor in the Division of Acute Care Surgical Services and also serves as the director of Surgical Simulation for VCU’s Center for Human Simulation and Patient Safety.

David Thompson (Com ’01 CM)

Job announcement on July 15, 2025

David Scott Thompson (Com ’01 CM) has joined the Atlanta office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. as a partner in its litigation section. He will continue to represent corporate clients in all aspects of complex litigation, including trucking, premises liability and automobile accidents.

Justin Black (Col ’11)

Publication announcement on July 14, 2025
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Justin Black (Col ’11), Will Gemma (Col ’11 CM) and Dietrich Teschner co-directed two documentary films about the James River in Virginia, Headwaters Down Part 1 and Part 2, which were recently picked up by Virginia Public Media and nationally by PBS. The two-part series follows their five-person crew as they paddle the entire 350 miles of the James River, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay. The films highlight environmental disasters, lesser-taught history, camaraderie and misadventures along the way. Headwaters Down Part 1 screened during the Virginia Film Festival in 2023 to over 500 people in the Culbreth Theatre on Grounds. The series is now available to stream online via the PBS app and on the Headwaters Down website.

Sarah Rovang (Arch ’10 CM)

Publication announcement on July 13, 2025
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Sarah Rovang (Arch ’10 CM) wrote her book, Through the Long Desert: Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright, to be released by Rizzoli Electa in September. Though the two heroes of 20th-century art and architecture never collaborated, they maintained a friendship and mutual admiration, exchanging roughly two dozen letters during their lifetimes. This unique meditation on American artistic expression explores the nature of intellectual kinship, as well as home, place and material. Rovang includes a look at O’Keeffe’s time at UVA in the early 1910s, exploring the resonance of her campus watercolors with Wright’s renderings of the same period.

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Eugene Resnick (Col ’10 CM)

Award/Recognition announcement on July 10, 2025

Eugene Resnick (Col ’10 CM) was recognized in the “2025 LGBTQ+ Power Players” list, released by PoliticsNY, a daily news outlet covering New York politics. Members of the LGBTQ+ Power Players list range from business executives to nonprofit directors to public officials, who not only serve as inspirations to the queer community, but whose impressive contributions shape the lives of New Yorkers and people across the country. Resnick serves as the deputy director communications director and spokesperson of the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

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Jennifer Redmond (Col ’84 CM)

Award/Recognition announcement on July 9, 2025

Jennifer Redmond (Col ’84 CM) has been elected as a fellow of the American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers (ACLEL), a prestigious honor reserved for top-tier attorneys who have made exceptional contributions to the field over at least two decades. Redmond, a partner at Sheppard Mullin in San Francisco, represents major employers in complex workplace matters, executive transitions and sensitive internal investigations. Her clients include leading tech firms, financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies.

John Bowers (Grad ’73, Grad ’78 CM)

Publication announcement on July 9, 2025

John M. Bowers (Grad ’73, ’78 CM) published his second novel, Legion of the Daggerstone, which follows a 21st-century analogue of J. R. R. Tolkien. His protagonist, an Iraq War combat veteran and UVA English professor, publishes a bestselling trilogy of fantasy novels, only in Charlottesville instead of Oxford. Bowers also published his most recent scholarly book, Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-1959, with Oxford University Press.


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