“Award/Recognition” Class Notes

Three UVA alumni who work for Brooks Pierce were recognized for their legal work. Jeff Oleynik (Law ’83 L/M) was named to Business North Carolina’s 2020 “Legal Elite” for his work in bankruptcy. Mark Davidson (Law ’83) and George House (Law ’72) were named to the journal’s hall of fame for business and environmental law, respectively.

Chara O’Neale (Col ’04), director of talent management and diversity and inclusion at Charlotte firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, received an inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Award presented by North Carolina and South Carolina Lawyers Weekly. O’Neal was recognized as an attorney who is advancing diversity, inclusion and the dignity of all people in the Carolinas’ legal profession and the community.

Kenneth R. White (Nurs ’13), associate dean for strategic partnerships and innovation at UVA’s School of Nursing, was voted president-elect of the American Academy of Nursing. White, a palliative care nurse practitioner at UVA Health, will serve as the academy’s president-elect through fall 2021, then assume the two-year presidency in 2021. White, an endowed professor at both UVA’s School of Nursing and Medical Center, holds joint academic appointments in the School of Medicine, Darden School of Business and McIntire School of Commerce.

S. Rutherfoord “Ruddy” Rose (Col ’78 L/M) received the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, which is awarded for sustained contributions to the academy and the practice of clinical toxicology. Rose is professor of emergency medicine, chief of clinical toxicology, and director of the Virginia Poison Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.  

Stephen Smithson (Engr ’90, ’96 L/M) recently became a member of the governing council of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He also selected as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He works as general counsel for a group of environmental consultancies, where he finds that his UVA degrees in chemical and civil engineering are an immense benefit.

Christopher P. Crum (Col ’70, Med ’74 L/M) received the 2019 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Innovation Award, which acknowledges creative contributions to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of gynecologic cancers. Dr. Crum is a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and senior pathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

James T. “Jim” Currie (Grad ’69, ’75) was honored with the 2019 Robert Brutsche Award for his service to the Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service. Currie has served as executive director of the association since April 2014.

Richard “Shark” Forsten (Com ’85, Law ’88) received the 2019 Delaware Volunteer of the Year Award from Gov. John Carney. He has served eight years as a member of the school board (including five as president), and served on the boards of Goodwill of Delaware, the Everett Theatre (including two years as president), Ronald McDonald House of Delaware, and two boards for the Delaware Ministry of Caring. Forsten previously served as president of the Delaware State Bar Association, serves on the Delaware Supreme Court Rules Committee, and is a past vice-chair of the Access to Justice Commission’s subcommittee on pro bono service. He is also the long-serving general counsel and parliamentarian for the Delaware Republican Party, and the co-chair of the Delaware General Assembly’s Administrative Law Task Force.  

Geoff McDonald (Col ’86), founder and principal of Richmond, Virginia, firm Geoff McDonald & Associates, received the 2019 Father Figure Award from The Relationship Foundation of Virginia, a regional non-profit organization dedicated to fostering and educating men on fatherhood. McDonald and his wife, Shannon, have seven children ranging in age from 12 to 23 years.

Brian Drummond (Col ’80 L/M) has been selected to Northern Virginia Magazine’s Top Lawyers edition for 2019 in the area of criminal law. He continues to serve on Virginia Bar Council. Drummond and his wife, Bebe, live in Falls Church.

Simon Bloom (Col ’93, Law ’97 L/M) was one of five attorneys from his firm, Bloom Parham, to be selected as 2019 Georgia Super Lawyers. Bloom was recognized in the business litigation category.

Jill Mitchell (Com ’03 L/M) received the American Accounting Association/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize in the two-year college category. Mitchell has taught at Northern Virginia Community College since 2008 and has been an adjunct at George Mason University since 2009. She is a past president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Accounting and Financial Women’s Alliance and is a former member of the Virginia Society of CPA’s Board of Directors. She is a certified internal auditor and began her career with Ernst & Young in Miami, Florida.

Jack Ray Gallagher (Educ ’68) has been appointed editor of Current Trends in Clinical and Medical Sciences. He also co-chaired the session on gynecological oncology at the PCS Fourth Global Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2019 Congress where he spoke about his real-world observational studies and artificial intelligence enhancements. His presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncologists Congress 2018 on adverse events of a PARP inhibitor, a new type of ovarian cancer treatment, was selected by OncLive for publication and distribution to oncologists around the world. He currently directs Clarity Pharma Research, a scientific research organization.

Melody Robertson Weigel (Col ’06) was elected as the 2019-20 staff senate president of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She also serves as the adviser for the OutLaw Legal Society at the university’s William H. Bowen School of Lawworks and works in the admissions office.

Michael D. Steger (Col ’89, Law ’93, Grad ’93 L/M) has been appointed co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Litigation Committee. He was also recently named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Steger practices copyright, trademark and entertainment law in New York City.  

Jill Stein Tietjen (Engr ’76 L/M) was inducted into the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame in the 2019 inaugural class. Her latest book, Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies, was released in 2019.  

Curry Pajcic (Col ’91 L/M) was named Trial Lawyer of the Year for Florida by the American Board of Trial Advocates. The award is given for an attorney’s cumulative body of work over the past year. Among Pajcic’s accomplishments in 2018, he was the lead attorney in a trial where his client was awarded a $4.3 million verdict in Duval County. Pajcic, who served as president of Jacksonville’s ABOTA chapter, also wrote multiple letters to the press defending attacks on the judiciary, including Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. Defending the independence of the judiciary is another mission of ABOTA.

Dr. Raymond B. Dyer (Col ’74, Med ’77, Res ’81 L/M) was honored with the creation of an award in his name by the Department of Radiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he has been on the faculty for 36 years. The award is given annually to a resident who has made an outstanding contribution to radiology education.