“Award/Recognition” Class Notes
Diane Wilkin (Col ’77)
Diane Smith Wilkin (Col ’77) was named the 2021 Pennsylvania Art Educator from the National Art Education Association. This award, determined through a peer review of nominations, honors an outstanding member from each state or province association whose service and contribution to art education merits recognition and acclaim. Wilkin worked with the Bristol Township SD for 24 years as a high school art educator and also served her state organization in numerous positions, including president, and most recently completed three years representing 13 states as Eastern Region Vice President for NAEA. The award was presented during the [Virtual] NAEA 2021 National Convention.
Katie Lacey (Col ’87 CM)
Katie Lacey (Col ’87 CM) was named to the board of directors of Designer Protein, a sports, nutrition and active lifestyle brand.
Ron Skufca (Com ’92 CM)
Ron Skufca (Com ’92 CM) was selected to the 2021 Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite in construction law. He was also recognized as a 2021 North Carolina Super Lawyer in the area of construction litigation. Skufca is managing attorney at Skufca Law in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he represents businesses and individuals in business, construction, motorsports and family law.
Matthew Oblas (Educ ’01 CM)
Matt Oblas (Educ ’01 CM) was awarded the Virginia Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Virginia State Athletic Director of the Year Award. Oblas has worked as the Athletic Director at Riverside High School in Leesburg, Virginia, since the school’s opening in 2015.
Andrew Lee (Med ’89 CM)
Andrew G. Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) was selected as a 2021 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Awards established by the University of Texas Medical Branch McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine. The awards recognize faculty who excel in teaching students and residents in clinical settings, modeling the ideals of compassionate, scientifically sound, patient centered care, exemplified by Sir William Osler.” He writes, “I am proud to receive this award and nothing has been more challenging as an educator than teaching during a quarantine, a lockdown and a global viral pandemic.”
Kim Curtis (Col ’00 CM)
Kim Curtis (Col ’00 CM) was appointed to the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board, a gubernatorially appointed board that serves as the central advisory body for historical records planning and related projects developed and carried out by the state.
Amelia Wehunt (Engr ’07 CM)
Amelia Gunn Wehunt (Engr ’07 CM) was announced as a shareholder of Timmons Group, a multi-disciplined engineering and technology firm. Wehunt is the leader of the Timmons Group urban planning and design practice. She specializes in urban infill and redevelopment projects and neighborhood improvement projects, as well as stormwater management design and compliance. Much of her work, outside of designing and preparing construction plans, involves stakeholder coordination and work sessions, representation at public meetings, and providing construction support services.
Andy Poarch (Col ’93, Law ’03 CM)
Andy Poarch (Col ’93, Law ’03 CM), chief operating officer of Alliance Group, was honored by Virginia Business Magazine on their list of “100 People to Meet in 2021,” a prestigious annual list of impact-makers in Virginia’s business community who are leaders in their respective industries helping to drive innovation and growth across the Commonwealth.
Paul DeBarry (Engr ’82)
Paul DeBarry (Engr ’82) received the Outstanding Practitioner in Water Resources Engineering Award from the American Association of Water Resources Engineers for his outstanding work and significant contributions as an engineering practitioner, author, and educator in water resources engineering. Mr. DeBarry, who will be partially retiring from engineering consulting in 2021, has been a director of geospatial technologies and watershed management and project manager responsible for hydrologic and hydraulic studies, geographic information systems, and stormwater management plans. Mr. DeBarry was also an adjunct lecturer for Pennsylvania State University’s engineering and surveying department at the Wilkes-Barre campus. He and his wife of 39 years have two children and two grandchildren.
Mark Scharf (Col ’84 CM)
Mark Scharf (Grad ’84) won Best Play for The Monroe Doctrine in the 2020 Southwest Theater Production’s Male Lead Competition.
Khalil Simon Andraos (Com ’06)
Khalil S. Andraos (Com ’06) is an accomplished financial advisor for Bank of America Merrill in Reston, Virginia. In 2020, he was named a Top Retirement Consultant by the Financial Times magazine for the fourth consecutive year, adding to his previous professional honors from Forbes as a Top Next Generation Wealth Advisor and a Best-In-State Wealth Advisor. A native of Springfield, Virginia, Andraos holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® designation among others, and is Senior Vice President of The Andraos Group. He specializes in consulting on defined contribution and corporate retirement plans.
Michael Ebner (Grad ’66, Grad ’74 CM)
Michael H. Ebner (Grad ’66, ’74) is the recent recipient of the Chicago History Museum’s J. Young Scammon Award for Exemplary Service. A museum trustee for 30 years, he has served on three presidential search committees and is the founder of the Chicago Urban History Seminar, sponsored by the museum since 1984. Ebner is the James D. Vail III professor of American history, emeritus, at Lake Forest College where he taught from 1974 until 2007 and served as senior adviser to the president. He previously taught at Herbert H. Lehman College and The City College, campuses of City University of New York.
Jonathan Morgan (Col ’91 CM)
Jonathan Q. Morgan (Col ’91 CM) was recently promoted to full professor in the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has also been appointed to a two-year Albert and Gladys Coates Term Professorship in recognition of his accomplishments, contributions and service.
Marc Lefar (Com ’85 CM)
Marc Lefar (Com ’85 CM), McIntire Advisory Board member and CEO of RentPath, is the inaugural recipient of Atlanta-based non-profit Open Doors’ Threshold Award for his work fighting homelessness. Lefar envisioned an app that could match people who desperately need affordable homes with properties that are eager for new residents. Lefar recruited teams of volunteer software engineers and product experts to effectively build the digital marketplace, known as the Property Navigator App.
Emily Russell (Col ’08)
Emily Russell (Col ’08) was selected by Virginia Lawyers Weekly as an “Up and Coming Lawyer” for 2020, which recognizes the work and community engagement of attorneys in their first 10 years of practice. Emily is an assistant county attorney for Chesterfield County, Virginia, and a graduate of Tulane Law School.
L. Gracik (Com ’75 CM)
L. Michael Gracik (Com ’75 CM) was named the Virginia Society of CPAs’ outstanding member for 2020. Gracik is the second member of that class to receive the award. Harry D. Dickinson (Com ’75, Grad ’76) received the award in 2018.
Yvener Petit (Com ’09)
Yvener J. Petit (Com ’09) recently joined EY-Parthenon’s Los Angeles office and will become a director in the corporate and growth strategy practice in the fall. He joins the L.A. office after working as a strategy consultant with the company’s San Francisco office as a mainly focused upon clients in technology, media and telecom. He earned his MBA from University of California, Berkeley.
Matthew Reames (Educ ’15)
Matthew Reames (Educ ’15) was awarded the Stewart Bell Jr. Excellence in Teaching Award by the Handley Board of Trustees in September, 2020. He is currently a math teacher at Daniel Morgan Intermediate School in Winchester, Virginia, and an adjunct associate professor at Shenandoah University.
Myron Steele (Col ’67, Law ’70 CM)
Myron Steele (Col ’67, Law ’70 CM), a lawyer with Potter Anderson & Corroon, was recognized by the the Delaware State Bar Association with the organization’s First State Distinguished Service Award. He was also recognized in the summer 2020 edition of Senior Lawyer News, published by the Virginia State Bar, as a recipient of the organization’s Fifty Year Award. Steele is the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware. Previously, he served as a judge of the Superior Court and a vice chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery after 18 years in private litigation practice.
Deniz Ataman (Col ’09)
Deniz Z. Ataman (Col ’09) scored the music for the film, Bottled, written, directed and starred by Christine Sloan Stoddard. Now available on Amazon Prime, the film has received press coverage from Broad Street and Shades of Long Island and was selected by the 2020 NYLIFF, SHIFT:ibpcpa/Scotland, and CelebrateWomxn845.
Deniz and Christine also collaborated on the poetry film, Butterflies (2020) starring Disnie Sebastien, which was selected as a 2020 Visual Poetry Project. The film was scored by Deniz, directed and written by Christine and written by Teri Elam.
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