“Award/Recognition” Class Notes

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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. 

M. Dawes Cooke Jr. (Col ’76 CM), a lawyer with Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms, was included in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers of America and was named one of the Best Lawyers of the Year in the area of mediation for the Charleston metro market. Best Lawyers has named Cooke as a Charleston Lawyer of the Year nine times since 2009 in the areas of arbitration, mediation, bet-the-company litigation, and personal injury litigation.

Jaime Vasquez (Com ’03), a shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s San Antonio firm, was recently named Lawyer of the Year in tax litigation and controversy for the 2021 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Vasquez concentrates his practice on federal, state, and international transactional and tax controversy matters. Vasquez is also Certified Public Accountant and has provided defense in criminal tax matters, successfully resolving cases before the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.

Frank S. Macgill (Com ’91), an attorney for HunterMaclean, was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2021. He was also recognized in this year’s publication as “Lawyer of the Year” in the practice area of tax law. Macgill has been selected for Best Lawyers since 2007 and recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” 7 times.