Class Notes

Cheryl Reever Moore (Com ’85) has been named chief communications officer for BD Consulting Group, specializing in CEO and executive training and crisis and reputational-risk communications for the financial services, healthcare, engineering and technology sectors. Moore serves on the boards of several Virginia-based nonprofits: the United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, the Chesterfield Public Education Foundation, and Caritas, an organization that supports those struggling with addiction, housing insecurity and unemployment.

CJ Bowie (Com ’14) and Kathleen Judge Bowie (Col ’13, Nurs ’20 CM) welcomed a son, Henry William, on Feb. 23, 2026. He joins his big sister, Chloe, and the family cat, Honey. The family lives in Reston, Virginia.

Kyle Wingfield (Col ’98) recently joined Holland & Knight as a partner in its Richmond, Virginia, office, where he focuses his practice on state and local tax controversy matters. Wingfield is chair of the Virginia Bar Association’s Tax Section and is involved in the American Bar Association.

Paulette Jones Morant (Col ’74 CM) was featured as artist of the month in a solo photography exhibition in March at the Nelson Gallery in Lexington, Virginia. The collection, Contemplation, included architectural designs, seascapes, skyscapes and portraits. One of the portraits, “Mamacita,” won second place in the Nelson Gallery’s 2026 Juneteenth show.

Gregory C. Harrell (Col ’95 CM) was sworn in as president of the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers for 2026-2027 on June 24, 2026, at the association’s annual summer conference in Orlando, Florida.

Juliane Smith (Law ’12) was appointed to the State Bar of California’s Committee of Bar Examiners. The committee oversees California’s attorney admissions process, including the bar exam, and accredited and unaccredited law schools in the state. She is a solo attorney representing small businesses in California and Virginia through her firm, Wordsmith Law, and also serves on the board of the Queen’s Bench Bar Association of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Stephen Rademaker (Col ’81, Law ’84, Grad ’85 CM) has been elected chairman of the Board of Directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). RFE/RL is an international news organization based in Prague whose programs, including digital, television and radio, reach a weekly audience of more than 44 million people in 18 countries and 24 languages.

Jeanne M. (Lyons) Liedtka (Col ’91, Law ’94 CM) received Villanova University’s 2026 Lindback Award, which was presented at Villanova’s Commencement ceremony. Her husband, Stephen L. Liedtka (Com ’91, ’93 CM), was honored with the same award in 2022, making them the first Villanova couple to both receive this distinction. Jeanne and Stephen have also been selected by graduating seniors to deliver the university’s “Last Lecture,” in 2025 and 2022, respectively.

Justin Hicks (Darden ’21) exchanged his role as an equity and listed options trader at JPMorgan’s trading desk on Wall Street in New York City to the flight deck of an American Airlines Group jet as a first officer. Hicks now flies the skies based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Wahoo swag on his flight bag.

Lauren McQuistion (Arch ’11) has been awarded a 2026 Graham Foundation Grant to Individuals to support “Skyline: Rereading an Architectural Tabloid,” a collaborative research project with colleagues at the University of Minnesota and Texas Tech Univesrity. Their work examines the publication Skyline and the architectural culture it helped shape in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their project was selected from more than 600 applications. McQuistion has just completed her first year as a tenure-track assistant professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico.

Emma Radcliff (Col ’22) earned a Master of Philosophy in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Heath Brockwell (Col ’89 CM) has moved his law practice to Woolsey Morcom in Ponte Vedra, Florida. He continues to practice as a personal injury trial attorney. Brockwell also serves as the president of the Jacksonville Beaches Bar Association and as an assistant district legal officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. He and his wife, Becky, live in Atlantic Beach, Florida; they have six kids together.

Suzannah Evans Comfort (Col ’03) published The Environmental Beat: Inside the Struggle to Legitimize the Environment as News with the University of Missouri Press in June. The Environmental Beat is a groundbreaking sociology of environmental journalism in the U.S., tracing its origins to the sporting narratives of the 19th century and following the challenges to the beat since its formalization in the 1960s. Comfort is an associate professor of journalism at Indiana University.

Katie Rogers (Col ’18) and Will Dozier (Col ’18) got married at St. Paul’s Memorial Church on the Corner in Charlottesville in October 2025. They celebrated their wedding with family, friends and many fellow ‘Hoos. Charlottesville-based band Kendall Street Company performed at their after-party at Live Arts Theater on the Downtown Mall. The couple met in a Shakespeare seminar as second-year students.

Hasan Ahmad (Col ’10 CM) serves as vice president and associate chief medical information officer at Parkview Health, a 15-hospital healthcare system spanning Indiana and Ohio. As a board-certified hospitalist physician and clinical informaticist, he leads enterprise efforts to improve how physicians use technology, including advancing the responsible adoption of AI across the health system. He has presented on clinical informatics and AI at national venues, including Epic user meetings and the Becker’s Healthcare conference.

Monroe Mills (Educ ’25) and Olivia Barnes were married on May 16, 2026, at Hazy Mountain Winery in Afton, Virginia. Mills and Barnes graduated from Texas Tech University. The bride is a graduate physician assistant student at Mary Baldwin University. The groom is completing graduate studies at UVA, where he is on the football team.

Shelley Burnside (Educ ’03) has completed her second full year as an instructional assessment and analysis specialist at Atlee High School in Mechanicsville, Virginia. She has over 19 years of experience as a secondary-level math teacher.

Caroline Dundervill (Educ ’20 CM) graduated from West Virginia University School of Medicine in 2025. She is currently a second year OB-GYN resident at the University of Kentucky.

Jay Pendarvis Jr. (Col ’24) wrote and directed a short film, See You, Soon, starring Asante Blackk (When They See Us, Euphoria) and Isaiah John (Snowfall). The film premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival and has since been selected for Palm Springs International ShortFest, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, and Five Film Fridays. The project serves as a proof of concept for Pendarvis’ first feature film, Brother’s Keeper, which is currently in the financing stage through Antigravity Academy with producers Carlos López Estrada and Valerie Bush. The feature has Asante Blackk attached to star and Isaiah John attached as both cast and executive producer. Now studying at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Pendarvis is a former competitor on the Virginia Track & Field team.

Thomas Gorman (Col ’82 CM) recently celebrated his 40th year of continuous, full-time employment.

Seth McElroy (Nurs ’17) appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy! on June 5, 2026, fulfilling his lifelong dream of competing on the show. A watch-party was held in Charlottesville.

Peter DiGiacinto (Engr ’81) retired as head of global research and development with a major chemical company after 45 years in the industry. Starting in process design with Ethyl Corporation, DiGiacinto went on to become a leading expert in Linear Alpha Olefin technology, helping design and commission several world scale units. During his career, he held several upper-level positions including technology manager, project general manager, and site manager with companies including Albemarle Corporation, Amoco, BP Chemicals, and Ineos. In retirement, DiGiacinto intends to pursue his love of mountain biking in northwestern Arkansas.

Teri Lovelace (Col ’82 CM) retired in 2020 as founder and president of Locus Impact Investing, a community-driven consulting and investment advising firm. Since then, she’s managed her father’s herd of 140 black angus cattle at Wallace Gap Farm in Madison, Virginia. The farm sells all-natural, pasture-raised beef direct to consumers.

John Chilton (Col ’75) and his spouse, Carolyn Moomaw Chilton, have written Even the Stones Will Shout: Shrine Mont at 100, about the history of the titular open-air cathedral in Orkney Springs, Virginia. The couple celebrates their 52nd wedding anniversary in 2026. After living and working around the globe, the couple retired to Carolyn’s hometown of Orkney Springs.

Ebony Walden (Arch ’06) will publish her memoir, Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents, with She Writes Press in September 2026. Walden is also the creator and host of Black Beyond Borders, a travel documentary series exploring Black identity, culture and belonging across the African diaspora. Season one premiered in fall 2025, and season two is slated to premiere in February 2027.

Mary Katherine “MK” Mawyer King (Engr ’02 CM) was appointed to the Albemarle County Planning Commission by the Board of Supervisors in January 2026. King is a central Virginia real estate broker and community advocate who brings more than two decades of experience in residential construction, land use, housing and community development. Through this role, she will help guide recommendations on growth, land-use policy and long-range planning for the county.

Zachary “Tyler” Carrico (Com ’16) and Kari Heavenrich (Com ’16) welcomed their first child, Bryn Leigh Carrico, on June 21, 2025. Bryn Leigh’s grandparents include John Carrico (Com ’86, Darden ’91 CM) and the late Sheri Leigh Carrico (Educ ’87 CM). Tyler is managing partner of Thayer Investment Partners in San Francisco; Kari is a vice president at Rockpoint. The family lives in Larkspur, California.

Woodfin Ligon (Grad ’70) is enjoying retirement after three decades at General Electric’s Global Research Center. He has more than 40 peer reviewed scientific papers, including a requested review paper on mass spectrometry for the journal Science. He also has 14 U.S. patents. He retired in 2007 to his homeplace near Farmville, Virginia. He is married to Ann Crumrine Ligon, with whom he has two children. His son, Tom, who graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MIT, is a senior manager at X-energy. His daughter, Claire Ligon (Educ ’12), graduated from the University of Richmond and UVA, and is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University. The Ligons have two grandchildren.

Rebekah Edwards O’Dell (Col ’04, Educ ’05) has accepted the position of master teacher for strategic cultural partnerships at the College of William and Mary. O’Dell, who has spent 21 years in the classroom, is the founder of the Moving Writers Community and the author of four books on writing instruction.

Griff Thomas (Col ’81) is living in St. Petersburg and Delray Beach, Florida.

Derek Baxter (Col ’95) published his second book, The Forgotten World War: Exploring the Secret History of the American Revolution, from Spain to India and Back Again.Baxter tells the story of the Revolutionary War not only as a colonial uprising, but as a vast war fought across four continents. He traveled to many of these places around the world where the war was fought, showing how deeply interconnected America’s story was with events unfolding across globe. His first book, In Pursuit of Jefferson: Traveling through Europe with the Most Perplexing Founding Father, received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

Suzette Bishop (Grad ’87) recently published three poetry chapbooks, Eyes of Some Robbers, Unbecoming, and Were-Jag. Bishop has an MFA from UVA and a Doctor of Arts from the State University of Albany.

Andrew G. Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) published his 16th textbook, Consultations in Neuro-ophthalmology, as well as Neuro-ophthalmology Update. Additionally, he is proud to celebrate the May graduation of his daughter, Virginia Lee (Col ’26), an Echols Scholar.

Ellen Morris Prewitt (Col ’79 CM) released When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women, a New Orleans-based fantasy whose protagonist, Etoile, inadvertently calls forth a prince, a saint and her three ancestral grannies. Etoile enlists her grannies to help return the prince to his own time, but turning to three murderous women might not be her best idea. Prewitt, who weaves her Southern life—and family secrets—into her writing, was named to Salvation South‘s “Best of 2025” list for an Honorable Mention on her essay “Granddaughter of the Instigator.”

Mimi Montgomery (Col ’14 CM) will publish her debut novel, Murder Bites, with Penguin Random House on August 4. Murder Bites is a charmingly quirky and clever murder mystery about a death that happens on the set of a reality TV show about dogs. It was named one of Lit Hub‘s most anticipated books of 2026, as well as one of GoodRead’s buzziest debut novels of 2026. Montgomery lives in Washington, D.C., where she’s a reporter at Axios.

Ken Ginader (Engr ’76 CM) was appointed to the board of the National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) Enshrinee Nominations & Selections Committee. Committee members vote to enshrine aviation leaders, pilots, teachers, scientists, engineers, inventors, governmental leaders and other individuals who have contributed to the establishment and/or advancement of aviation in the U.S. NAHF seeks to promote a better sense of appreciation of the origins and growth of aviation.

James M. Thunder (Grad ’74) and co-author K. Chris Todd wrote United States Attorneys for the District of Columbia, 1801-2024, published by the Historical Society of the D.C. Circuit in April. The book is a compendium of 49 biographies, including Francis Scott Key, and UVA alumni Morgan H. Beach (Law 1884), David G. Bress (Col 1928), Stanley S. Harris (Com ’51, Law ’53), Roscoe C. Howard Jr. (Law ’77), Kenneth L. Wainstein (Col ’84), and Channing D. Phillips (Col ’80). Thunder and Todd thank Anne C. Causey, Randi Flaherty (Grad ’08, ’14), and Cecilia Brown of UVA Special Collections for their assistance in researching the book.

Brooke Brower (Col ’00 CM) joined Johns Hopkins University as the director of an initiative on democracy reforms for the recently established School of Government and Policy. From 2023 to 2025, he was the executive producer of ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, which earned four Emmy nominations during his tenure.

Lara Call Gastinger (Col ’98 CM) published her book, A Perpetual Journal Practice, with Timber Press in June. The book guides readers through the transformative practice of the perpetual journal—a forgiving, incremental, long-term approach to connecting with the natural world through drawing. It features introductory techniques and 52 spreads from Gastinger’s own perpetual journal. Some of Gastinger’s first botanical sketches were in the gardens at UVA. Gastinger gabe a book talk at the CODE Building in Charlottesville on June 27.