Class Notes
Ilina Ewen (Col ’91)
Ilina Das Ewen (Col ’92) founded Seen & Heard, a youth-powered advocacy nonprofit organization that amplifies young people’s voices and lived experiences around health, education and joy. Inspired by the values of leadership and community she learned at UVA, Ewen leads efforts to ensure youth are seen and heard with the tools, platform and access they need in order to influence policies about their future.
Lawrence McCrank (Col ’74)
Lawrence McCrank (Grad ’74) completed his lifelong work, The Tarragona Vortex: Conquest and Reconquest, Liberation and Restoration of Christendom in the Frontiers of Arago-Catalunya. It is included in the Mediterranean Studies in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages series, released by Trivent Publishing. The Tarragona Vortex began as a dissertation in medieval history at UVA under Professor Charles Julian Bishko. Volumes 1-3 are out, and volumes 4-6 are forthcoming in hard copy and as e-books.
Andy Claybrook (Com ’78 CM)
Andy Claybrook (Com ’78 CM) retired in December from 45 years of service as a CPA, the last 28 years of which he spent as a self-employed personal financial specialist (PFS) and certified financial planner (CFP). He has lived in Franklin, Tennessee, since 1982. He and his wife, Rene, have eight grandchildren, all boys. He and Rene are looking forward to spending more time with them, traveling and relaxing.
William Gerstmyer (Arch ’79, Arch ’83 CM)
William Gerstmyer (Arch ’79, ’83 CM) has been sailing from Maine to the Caribbean. He is currently in Ocean City, Maryland. This is his sixth round trip from Maine, where he spends his summers.
Shawn Grain Carter (Col ’82 CM)
Shawn Grain Carter (Col ’82 CM) was honored as one of the recipients of The HistoryMakers 2025 award for her distinguished career as a buyer and senior executive in the fashion and retailing industry over several decades. This award recognizes outstanding professional accomplishments, innovation, exemplary leadership and contributions to society through mentoring partnerships and engagement to promote success among talented youth. Grain Carter, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, is the inaugural donor for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Social Justice Scholarship.
John Howard (Col ’83 CM)
John Howard (Col ’83 CM) has published the 75th anniversary edition of Southern literary classic The Bitterweed Path, by Thomas Hal Phillips. Howard is emeritus professor of arts and humanities at King’s College London. He studies queer cultures, critical race theory, environmental humanities and the American South.
Byron Dickson (Arch ’63 CM)
Byron Dickson (Arch ’63 CM) participated in the 2025 Spirit of Virginia Award ceremony at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, on June 10. Dickson was the project designer of the memorial, which was dedicated in 2001. In recognizing the staff and volunteers of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, Governor Glenn Youngkin said, “Their educational programs and commitment to remembrance inspire future generations, and it’s an honor to recognize their contribution and service to Virginia and our nation with this award.”
Bob Johnson (Col ’77 CM)
Bob Johnson (Col ’77 CM) released a new EP, Purer Eyes: The Songs of Bungalow Stokes, now on Spotify, YouTube, Deezer and Apple Music. The first track is about a painting on a wall in a Lambeth apartment in 1977; the artist was Asher Roth (Col ’77), whose art also adorned Newcomb Hall’s Pavilion XI for several years.
Laura Griffin (Col ’00 CM)
Laura G. Griffin (Col ’00 CM) has been appointed clerk of court for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, becoming the court’s senior executive. She has served the court as the chief deputy clerk of court since 2023 and first joined the court as the chief deputy clerk of operations in October 2021. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, widely known as “the rocket docket,” handles some of the country’s most prolific cases involving national security and civil rights and has divisions in Alexandria, Norfolk, Newport News and Richmond.
Rowan Moody (Col ’13 CM)
Rowan Moody (Col ’13 CM) has been appointed chief advancement officer of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. As chief advancement officer, she will lead the museum’s advancement team in support of its mission to celebrate Maine’s role in American art, spearheading their upcoming comprehensive capital campaign and guiding strategies to grow philanthropic engagement and sustain long-term institutional growth. Moody was previously the deputy chief officer for patrons at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She has also worked at The Frick Collection in New York City, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and UVA.
Cara Goodwin (Col ’07 CM)
Cara Goodwin (Col ’07 CM) published her article “Kids and Sugar, Does it Equal Bad Behavior?” in CharlottesvilleFamily Magazine. The article discusses research showing little correlation between sugar consumption and small children’s behavior and gives advice on how to handle sugary foods in a child’s diet. Goodwin, a licensed clinical psychologist, lives in Charlottesville with her four children.
Anant Das (Com ’19 CM)
Anant Das (Com ’19 CM) was honored as one of the recipients of the 2025 Norman Vincent Peale Award for Positive Thinking as lead executive producer and general manager of In My Own Little Corner Productions. In My Own Little Corner Productions produced both a professionally filmed musical and a documentary about the making of the aforementioned musical. The two films share the story of Broadway, TV and film actor Chryssie Whitehead as she confronts her Bipolar II diagnosis.
Jenny Hoffmann (Engr ’07 CM)
Jenny Hoffmann (Engr ’07 CM) published her first book, Open Up!: Step Into the Leader You Are Meant to Be. In Open Up!, she draws on her journey—from surgical suites to boardrooms, horseback trails to hospital rooms—to offer a fresh framework for leadership rooted in vulnerability and authenticity. Her book invites readers to lead from a place of wholeness, turn personal challenges into collective growth and build trust without losing their voices.
Robert Weinberg (Col ’01 CM)
Robert D. Weinberg (Col ’01 CM) was promoted to partner at Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti. Weinberg focuses his practice on family law and estate and trust litigation. A devoted advocate for children, he regularly handles custody matters both within and outside Pennsylvania, always centering the best interests of minors. He describes his approach as “aggressively reasonable,” favoring resolutions that balance pragmatism with principled advocacy, while retaining the willingness to litigate when necessary. He earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.
Lee Manion (Grad ’08)
Lee Manion (Grad ’08) published his second book, The Recognition of Sovereignty: Politics of Empire in Early Anglo-Scottish Literature, with Cambridge University Press. Situating medieval and early modern Scotland and England in a broader imperial context, the book shows how established discourse prevented more equitable political unions. Combining formal analysis with empire studies, international relations theory, and political history, Manion reveals the significant consequences of literary writing for political thought. Manion is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri.
Ritt Deitz (Col ’88)
Ritt Deitz (Col ’88 CM) published a novel, Settle Down, through Ten16 Press. The surreal sense-of-place novel follows a young Wisconsinite, freshly graduated from UVA, who comes home to find he must rediscover what it means to be from the Midwest. UVA alumni who worked for University Catering in the 1980s will recognize glimpses of the Birdwood Pavilion kitchen and Newcomb Hall. Deitz is Distinguished Teaching Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has taught French since 2000.
Frederick Greene (Col ’66, Med ’70 CM)
Frederick L. “Rick” Greene (Col ’66, Med ’70 CM) was named the inaugural 2025 1819 UVA Medical Alumni Society Award by the University of Virginia Medical Alumni Association. This award recognizes professional accomplishments, outstanding innovation, exemplary leadership in the fields of medicine and science, and contributions to society by alumni who graduated from the UVA School of Medicine over 50 years ago. Greene is the medical director of Cancer Data Services for the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Katie Stefanic (Col ’09, Arch ’18 CM)
Katie Stefanic (Col ’09, Arch ’18 CM) and husband, Alex, welcomed their first child, Claire McCarthy Stefanic, in June. The family lives in Midlothian, VA.
Peter Mina (Col ’98 CM)
Peter Mina (Col ’98 CM) has founded The Mina Firm, a law practice focused on federal sector employment law and civil rights litigation in Washington, D.C. Mina spent more than 14 years working at the Department of Homeland Security, where he served as deputy officer in the Department of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He also was chief of the Labor and Employment Law Division of the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Jim Harshaw Harshaw (Col ’98, Educ ’99 CM)
Jim Harshaw (Col ’99, Educ ’99 CM) published the 500th episode of his podcast, Success for the Athletic-Minded Man. He interviews world class performers including Olympic gold medalists, Navy SEALs, New York Times best selling authors and others (including several Wahoos). Episodes can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well as his website, JimHarshawJr.com.
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