“Award/Recognition” Class Notes
William Gentry (Col ’81 CM)
William C. Gentry (Col ’81 CM) of Gentry Law Firm LLC in Marietta, Georgia has been elected to serve as secretary of the 54,000-member State Bar of Georgia. Gentry was installed June 10 during the organization’s annual meeting in Savannah.
Gentry also serves on the state bar’s executive committee and has represented the Cobb Judicial Circuit on the Board of Governors of the State Bar. He earned his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law and was admitted to the state bar in 1986.
His law practice focuses on family law, including divorce, high asset property division, child custody and alimony cases. He serves as chair of the state bar’s Senior Lawyers Committee and is a past president of the Cobb County Bar Association.
Edward Coleman (Col ’04)
Ed Coleman (Col ’04) has been named in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers in America for his practice in insurance litigation and personal injury. Inclusion is by peer evaluation only and fewer than 6% of all U.S. lawyers are included in this annual publication.
Thomas Grant (Col ’92)
Thomas C. Grant (Col ’92) has been named to the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers in America® in the practice area of Commercial Litigation. Grant is a partner with Freed Grant LLC in Atlanta, where he focuses his practice on commercial litigation, commercial real estate, and insurance defense matters. He received his law degree at Emory University School of Law.
About Freed Grant LLC www.freedgrant.com
About Best Lawyers www.bestlawyers.com
Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication company in the legal profession. Their lists of outstanding lawyers are compiled by conducting exhaustive peer review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
Alvin Garcia (Col ’88, Nurs ’06 CM)
Cmdr. Alvin Garcia (Col ’88, Nurs ’06 CM) was selected for Commander in the Navy Nurse Corps. He is a pediatric nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist. He is attending the Naval Postgraduate School to obtain his executive M.B.A. degree.
Wolfgang Drechsler (Grad ’86 CM)
Wolfgang Dreschler (Grad ’86 CM) and co-authors Rainer Kattel and Erkki Karo have won the Academy of Management’s 2023 George R. Terry Award for their book How to Make an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation Needs Bureaucracy. The George R. Terry award is granted annually to the book judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the last two years.
Mark Snell (Col ’97 CM)
Mark Snell (Col ’97 CM) was recognized in May 2023 by Atlanta Business Chronicle as the Atlanta CFO of the Year, Mid-Sized Private Company, in recognition of his efforts leading digital forensics company Grayshift through rapid growth and its strategic growth investment from Thoma Bravo.
Andrew Lee (Med ’89 CM)
Andrew G. Lee, MD (Col ’85, Med ’89) was named as one of the top 30 ophthalmologists in the United States by Newsweek’s America’s Best Eye Doctors for 2023. America’s Best Eye Doctors 2023 – Ophthalmologists (newsweek.com)
Rodney Hobbs (Com ’94 CM)
On June 6, 2023, Rodney Hobbs (Com ’94) appeared on “The Price Is Right” and won the Showcase, for the 2nd time! His first appearance and win occurred in May 2012. His latest prizes included a refrigerator, and trips to Bali & New Orleans, which he will be taking later this year with his wife, Freda Johnson Hobbs (Col ’94 CM).
Tara Osborn (Grad ’84 CM)
Col. (Ret.) Tara A. Osborn (Grad ’84 CM) has been appointed to serve an eight-year term on the Military Justice Review Panel, a blue-ribbon commission chartered by Congress to conduct independent periodic reviews and assessments of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the military justice system. Osborn is a former chief trial judge of the U.S. Army and a current faculty member of the National Judicial College.
Kent Bennett (Engr ’00)
Kent Bennett (Engr ’00) has been included in The Boston Globe’s second annual list of the most influential people in the New England tech sector.
The leaders spotlighted in the selective Globe Tech Power Players 50 List have demonstrated innovation and resourcefulness and have contributed heartily to keeping their sector thriving during challenging economic times.
Boston Tech Leaders: Kent Bennett, Bessemer Venture Partners – The Boston Globe
Bryan McGrath (Col ’87 CM)
Bryan McGrath (Col ’87 CM) has been nominated to serve on the National Commission on the Future of the Navy. The Commission is tasked with providing recommendations to Congress on force structure and shipbuilding no later than July 1, 2024. McGrath is a retired naval officer, commissioned through the UVA Naval ROTC program. He commanded the destroyer USS BULKELEY (DDG 84) on active duty and retired in 2008.
Adam Titrington (Arch ’06)
Adam Titrington (Arch ’06) became a partner at Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects in Newport, Rhode Island. Since joining the firm in 2015, Titrington has designed contemporary homes across New England and Long Island, with an emphasis on simple, innovative design that integrates healthier, low-energy, fossil-fuel free solutions. His work has received awards from the American Institute of Architects AIA Rhode Island & New England. The Quahaug Point home was recognized by Residential Design Magazine with a 2023 citation award. The Cape Cod Hemp House, completed this year, was built with hempcrete insulation in the roof and walls, drastically lowering embodied carbon. Titrington lives in South Kingstown, Rhode Island with wife Laura Erban (Col ’06) and their two children.
Virginia Frischkorn (Col ’06 CM)
Virginia Frischkorn (Col ’06 CM) was recently named one of the top 10 innovators in the event tech industry by Bizbash, for her work on Partytrick, a web-based platform that provides anyone with the tools and confidence to host exceptional experiences.
Alexander Rothenberg (Col ’04 CM)
Alex Rothenberg (Col ’04 CM) is this year’s recipient of The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award For Teaching and Research, the highest honor given to untenured faculty at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. An assistant professor of economics, Rothenberg is senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. His research focuses on the effects of urban transport policies on commuting outcomes in Jakarta, Indonesia; long-term growth and development outcomes in Indonesia’s outer islands; the impacts of rural migration programs on diversity and identity; and how transport improvements affect firm entry and employment.
Rothenberg joined Maxwell in 2018 after serving as an economist at the RAND Corporation in Washington, D.C., as well as a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He and his wife, Sarah King, live with their two children in Manlius, New York.
Lara Gastinger (Col ’98 CM)
Lara Call Gastinger (Col ’98 CM) is featured with fellow artists Giselle Gautreau and Elizabeth Perdue in a group exhibition, Mirabilia naturae (Wonders of Nature), at Charlottesville’s Second Street Gallery. The exhibition, which runs through May 19, examines how art can be a powerful tool for engaging with nature and the natural landscape. Through the lens of beauty and wonder, the works of these artists provide a personal and profound experience of the natural world. In doing so, they hope to inspire viewers to take action to protect and preserve it. Gastinger is an artist and botanical illustrator from Charlottesville, and was the chief illustrator of the Flora of Virginia, a botanical reference. She has been awarded two gold medals (2007, 2018) at the Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art shows in London and her work is in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. Her artwork appears in the latest Peterson’s Field Guide to Mushrooms and American Society of Botanical Artists Botanical Art Techniques Handbook. She has gained international recognition with the creation of her “perpetual journal” that has inspired naturalists around the world to start their own.
Ryan McEnroe (Arch ’09)
Ryan McEnroe (Arch ’09) has been elevated to the American Institute of Institute’s (AIA) College of Fellows. The honor recognizes architects who have “achieved a standard of excellence in the profession and made a significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.”
McEnroe’s work at Quinn Evans includes designing several renewal projects at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park, the new National Native American Veterans Memorial at the National Museum of the American Indian and the U.S. Botanic Garden Production Facility for the Architect of the Capitol.
McEnroe has been active with the AIA’s Young Architects Forum, where he served as national chair in 2020. He’s also previously served as the knowledge director and regional director.
McEnroe holds a Masters in Architecture and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia.
Jennifer Waldera (Educ ’19 CM)
Anwar Allen (Col ’08) and Laura Allen (Col ’06) have recently been recognized as a Virginia Wine & Country Life Artisan for their baking business, Allens Scottish Shortbread. The magazine shared Anwar and Laura’s new flavor announcement and the details of their exciting collaboration across the pond with Harney & Sons Fine Teas to create unique tea-infused shortbread flavors.
Elizabeth Ferry (Engr ’03 CM)
Beth Ferry (Engr ’03 CM) will be inducted as a member of the U.S. Army’s Senior Executive Service during a ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland April 17.
The Senior Executive Service was established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, as a cadre of executives with shared values, a broad perspective of government and possession of solid executive skills. In the Army, senior executives are the civilian counterparts of general officers.
Ferry was recently appointed director of the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center’s Engineering and Systems Integration Directorate. She began her career with the Army in 2003.
Warren McCarty III (Law ’13)
Warren McCarty (Law ’13) of Dallas-based Caldwell Cassady & Curry has been recognized on the 2023 Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars list of the state’s top young lawyers based on his work in intellectual property. You can read more about McCarty in this announcement: https://caldwellcc.com/2023/03/attorneys-from-dallas-caldwell-cassady-curry-named-among-best-in-texas-4/
Lettie Bien (Batten ’19)
Lettie J. Bien (Batten ’19 CM) has received the 2023 Military Hero award from the American Red Cross, Central Virginia Chapter. The “Military Hero” has been awarded to individuals, veterans, and civilians whose body of work to support active-duty military members, their families and veterans in our community and has made a significant impact.
The award will be presented to Colonel Bien at the 2023 Help Can’t Wait-Celebration of Heroes breakfast April 20.
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