Class Notes
Christina Shawn (Grad ’08)
Christina Shawn (Educ ’08) published her children’s picture book: And Then Came You: When Families Grow Love Grows Too with Chronicle Books in April.
Families grow and change, but what if you like things just the way they are? What if you aren’t ready to welcome in a new parent, a messy pet, or a baby sister who cries a lot? Change can be scary, but even a full heart has room to grow.
Both hilarious and heartwarming, this endearing children’s book is a powerful tool for helping little ones understand that there are often silver linings to the changes life brings. Even when things are initially uncomfortable, an open heart paves the way and teaches us that a family can be full of love at any size.
Liz Garton Scanlon, author of Caldecott Honor winner All the World called Shawn’s book “A lyrical love letter, written to families of all shapes and sizes.”
Shawn received her master’s degree in reading education at UVA before becoming a reading specialist, literacy coach, and author. Originally from Long Island, New York, she now lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, three kids, and two fuzzy bunnies.
For information about Christina’s book tour and local events visit her website or follow her on Instagram.
Polina Chesnakova (Col ’14)
Polina Chesnakova (Col ’14) will publish her cookbook, Chesnok: Cooking from My Corner of the Diaspora: Recipes from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia on September. The book explores life and cooking in the Soviet diaspora through her family’s immigrant story and recipes. It can be found through several major online retailers. She will host a series of events in November to celebrate the book launch.
Chesnakova and her husband, Lee Eschenroeder (Col ’11, Med ’17 CM), recently moved from Seattle to Rhode Island. They are expecting their second child in July.
Andrew Arthur (Col ’88 CM)
Andrew Arthur (Col ’88 CM) was invited by The Oxford Union Society of Oxford University to participate in its June 5, 2025, debate on the topic “This House Believes No One Can Be Illegal on Stolen Land.” The Oxford Union, founded in 1823, has hosted a range of speakers from the Dalai Lama, to President Nixon and the late Queen Elizabeth II. Arthur partnered with David Seymour, Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand.
David Doukas (Col ’79 CM)
David J. Doukas (Col ’79 CM) was awarded the title Professor Emeritus at Tulane University after a distinguished four-decade career in medical ethics and family medicine. His scholarship focuses on the areas of professionalism, primary care bioethics, genetics and end-of-life care decision-making. He is the originator of the concept termed the Family Covenant (1991) and the co-developer/author of Values History (1988). He held the James A. Knight Chair of Humanities and Ethics in Medicine at Tulane from 2017 to 2024 and was founding director of the Program in Medical Ethics and Human Values at Tulane University’s School of Medicine. Doukas was also the past executive director of the Master of Science in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Tulane. He previously worked at the University of Louisville, serving as the William Ray Moore Endowed Chair of Family Medicine and Medical Humanism, the director of the Division of Medical Humanism and Ethics, and founding co-director of the Interdisciplinary Master of Arts in Bioethics program from 2004 to 2013.
Patrick Wheaton (Col ’86 CM)
Patrick Wheaton (Col ’86 CM) was named president of the Southern States Communication Association during their 95th annual convention in Norfolk, Virginia in April. SSCA is a regional association of academics and professionals in the fields of human communication. Wheaton is a professor of communication studies at Georgia Southern University, teaching courses in rhetoric, argumentation, public speaking and political communication.
Ian Marcus Amelkin (Col ’04)
Ian Marcus Amelkin (Col ’04) is joining the faculty of the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University as a tenure track associate professor teaching first year criminal law, criminal procedure and other criminal justice related seminars. Amelkin joins the faculty after more than a decade as a public defender at the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc.
kari miller (Educ ’07)
Kari Miller (Educ ’07) was featured in an interview with CharlottesvilleFamily Magazine, in which she talks about International Neighbors, the Charlottesville-based non-profit she founded. International Neighbors works to help ease the transition to life in the Charlottesville community for immigrants and refugees.
Michael Uebel (Grad ’97)
Michael Uebel (Grad ’89, ’97) published Seeds of Equanimity: Knowing and Being, through Mimesis Press. This innovative introduction to the philosophy and psychology of equanimity challenges the view that equanimity is the effect of a method aiming at states of impartial stillness and solidity. Responding to the sharp increase in writings on mindful living, Uebel blends both Eastern and Western philosophies, generating a rich constellation of ideas framing equanimity as an epistemological mode and existential condition.
Adam Olenn (Col ’95 CM)
Adam Olenn (Col ’95 CM) launched a special program for job seekers, StoryStrengths, through his business, Rustle & Spark. This online course, created in response to the mass layoffs of federal employees, combines resume polishing and specialized coaching to communicate career accomplishments through the power of business storytelling. He offers a discount for StoryStrengths to UVA alumni.
Charley Watts (Arch ’79 CM)
Charley Watts (Arch ’79 CM) recently retired after selling his firm, Watts Leaf Architects, a Charlotte-based regional architecture practice specializing in multifamily housing. The firm was acquired by Kaas Wilson Architects of Minneapolis, which shares a similar client base and sought to expand into the Southeast. After two years of transitioning clients and staff, Watts is now enjoying retirement, focusing on personal projects and spending quality time with his wife of 46 years, Karen, along with their children and grandson.
With Watts Leaf Architects, he designed countless dwelling units across the East Coast from Maryland to Georgia. His contributions to the profession earned him multiple lifetime achievement awards from both the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association and the Mecklenburg County Building Department.
Jack Bailey (Col ’88 CM)
Jack Bailey (Col ’88 CM) published his first work of fiction, Harold the Hairy Herald and the Adventure of a Lifetime. This middle-grade novel tells the story of Harold, an inexplicably hirsute apprentice herald working in the castle of King Thymos. When Harold joins the search party tasked with locating the King’s missing son, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very existence of the Kingdom of Dazain. To save the Kingdom, he must find his way to the Pandemonium for a fateful conversation with the mysterious goddess Aletheia.
Harold the Hairy Herald and the Adventure of a Lifetime is a classic hero’s journey in which a boy navigates a dangerous world and discovers what he’s capable of in the face of difficult challenges.
Jeffrey Clements (Col ’81 CM)
Jeff Clements (Col ’81 CM) recently retired from a 42 year career in local and state government.
He was inspired to pursue a career in public service due to a college spring break internship with then-city manager Cole Hendrix, an opportunity arranged by Professor Larry Sabato. Following graduation from UVA, he earned his Master of Public Administration from the University of South Carolina. He moved to Jacksonville, Florida with his wife, Lee Ann Jerome Clements (Col ’81 CM). He took a position in the Jacksonville City Council Research Division, serving in that division for 36 years and rising to chief of research. He was elected president of the Jacksonville and Columbia, South Carolina chapters of the American Society for Public Administration.
He is spending his retirement singing in choirs and choruses, staying active in the UVA Club of Jacksonville, and serving as a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Fine Arts and Humanities at Jacksonville University.
Marshall Fawley (Col ’98 CM)
Marshall Fawley (Col ’98 CM) was named partner and principal of Lehrman Beverage Law, a boutique law firm specializing in servicing the alcohol industry.
Suzanne Goldlust (Col ’90 CM)
Suzanne Goldlust (Col ’90 CM) competed on Jeopardy!, America’s Favorite Quiz Show, in June 2023. She won one game, winning $18,700. She also participated in the Champions Wildcard tournament in February 2024.
Page Robinson (Col ’86 CM)
Page Robinson (Col ’86 CM) and Anthony Donovan (Col ’84 CM) were married May 2024. Page is the granddaughter of Norborne Thomas Nelson Robinson Jr. (Col 1898) and the great-granddaughter of Norborne Thomas Nelson Robinson (Col 1856). Anthony is the son of Gerald Madison Donovan (Col ’52, Med ’60). Other relatives of his include A. Hugo Blankingship (Col ’52, Law ’57 CM), Wyatt Blankingship (Engr ’60), Page Blankingship (Col ’79 CM), and A. Hugo Blankingship III (Col ’82 CM).
The couple resides in Washington, D.C. and Santa Barbara, CA.
Andrew Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM)
Andrew Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) was recognized with a YouTube Silver Creator Award for his YouTube channel, “Neuro-Ophthalmology with Dr. Andrew G. Lee.” There are over 113 million active channels on YouTube, and Lee is proud to be among only 400 thousand channels to receive the YouTube Silver Play Button. With frequent uploads and a wealth of knowledge, Lee’s channel is great for those interested in all things neuro-op.
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01)
Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) has co-authored a new book, Salem’s Lot: Studies in the Horror Film (2nd Edition), published by Centipede Press. The book includes interviews with major figures of the 1979 Salem’s Lot miniseries, dozens of rare photographs, and discussions of various unused script materials.
Jordan Gruber (Law ’88)
Jordan Gruber (Law ’88) co-wrote Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance, with James Fadiman, “the father of modern microdosing.” The book was published through St. Martin’s Press. According to Rick Doblin, the founder of Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, it is “the most comprehensive and data-based book on microdosing ever written.”
Andrew Wozniak (Col ’00)
Andrew Wozniak (Col ’00) just returned from leading a research expedition to the East Pacific Rise (EPR) deep ocean spreading center. Wozniak and two other passengers in the HOV Alvin—a deep-ocean submersible—had the tremendous fortune to be the first to ever witness a clearly active undersea volcanic eruption at a mid-ocean ridge.
Wozniak is an associate professor of chemical oceanography at the University of Delaware and lives in Lewes, Delaware with his wife and daughter. He and his team were at the EPR to study how the organic geochemistry of hydrothermal vent ecosystems influences ocean chemistry.
Mackenzie Duncan (Col ’17 CM)
Mackenzie Karnes Duncan (Col ’17 CM) and her husband, William Earnhardt Duncan, welcomed their first baby, William “Hales” Duncan on March 9, 2025, weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz. and stretching 20.5 inches long. Mackenzie sings the “Good Old Song” to Baby Hales as his evening lullaby.
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