“Job” Class Notes

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.

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, earning four Emmy nominations and maintaining the show’s #1 position among total viewers during his tenure.

John Culver (Col ’81 CM) has joined the Jim Pattison Group as U.S. General Counsel. The Jim Pattison Group, based in Vancouver, Canada, is one of North America’s largest privately held companies, with operations spanning automotive, advertising, media, food and beverage and entertainment. Culver previously spent 35 years as a litigation partner at K&L Gates and its predecessor firm.

Michael Gragnani (Col ’99 CM) has been named CEO at Diversified Trust, a $14 billion wealth firm. Gragnani is currently the managing principal of the firm’s Atlanta office. He will assume his role as CEO in January 2027.

 Lauren Santana (Col ’06, Educ ’07) has founded Curated Concierge in Charlottesville, helping families and professionals manage their busy lives. She recently launched Curated Campus to support UVA students and their families with move-in, move-out and summer storage. After 13 years as an elementary educator, she is excited to pivot while continuing her work of supporting families in a new way.

Peter Gallagher (Engr ’96) was elected a partner at Egon Zehnder, a global leadership advisory firm. He works with boards and CEOs of public and private equity companies on executive search and leadership development, with a focus in biotech, pharma and the life sciences.

B. Cameron Webb (Col ’05) was appointed to a four-year term as health commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health by Governor Abigail Spanberger (Col ’01). Webb is a health policy expert and internal medicine physician. He assumed the role in January 2026.

Kimberly Pryor (Col ’94) was selected as the Chief Financial Officer of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). VDOT is the third largest state department of transportation in the country.  Pryor is responsible for the agency’s $8.3 billion annual budget and nearly 180 team members serving VDOT’s financial planning, capital investment, asset management, federal programs, fiscal management, public-private partnerships and tolling programs.

Frederick Schutt (Col ’04, Law ’13 CM) was elected as a principal at Woods Rogers, a Virginia-based law firm. Practicing our of the firm’s Richmond office, he focuses on labor and employment matters. In addition to defending employers before federal and state agencies, he conducts workplace investigations, negotiates employment-related agreements and advises on effective workplace policies.

Pietro Sanitate (Col ’12 CM) was elected as principal at Woods Rogers, a Virginia-based law firm. He advises on complex disputes and litigation across a wide range of practice areas, including commercial disputes, intellectual property, insurance defense, construction and government contracts. He practices out of the firm’s Richmond office.

Lisa Langhoff Fitzpatrick (Col ’97 CM) has become a partner in the the insurance practice group at Chaffe McCall’s New Orleans office. Fitzpatrick advises insurers and businesses facing complex coverage matters.

Will Barksdale (Col ’05, Law ’08 CM) was elevated to partner at Jenner & Block. Barksdale, a lawyer in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, focuses his practice on helping clients navigate Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigations and enforcement actions. He also represents clients pro bono in affirmative and defensive asylum cases in the United States.

Trey Cox (Law ’95) was elected to the executive committee at Gibson Dunn. Cox looks forward to helping shape firm strategy and supporting lawyers and clients in an increasingly complex legal landscape.

Gunes Hopson (Col ’97, Law ’01 CM) is excited to share that she now has her own law firm, GFH Law, representing businesses, entrepreneurs and travel advisors. In addition, Hopson still owns a luxury travel agency, Luxe Travel by Gunes. She is happy to assist clients on both the legal and travel fronts.

Mindy Colden (Engr ’08 CM) has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of Faulconer Construction Company, a heavy civil construction firm based in Charlottesville. Colden began her tenure with Faulconer in 2006 as the firm’s first intern while studying civil engineering in the E school. She has since seen Faulconer nearly double in size and has overseen the growth of Faulconer’s North Carolina operations for the last 8 years. Colden lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, Trip Colden (Col ’05 CM), and their two daughters.

Larry Wilson (Col ’99) was promoted to equity partner at his law firm, Evert Weathersby Houff (EWH) in the Buckhead district of Atlanta. Wilson joined EWH’s Atlanta office after serving on the Bellwether trial teams for multiple trials in multi-district litigation and working in Cleveland, Ohio, as a SAG-AFTRA franchised agent.

Larry Ebert (Engr ’85 CM) recently contributed an essay “Systems Thinking Mindset in the Age of AI,” to AI and Consciousness in Organizations and Society, published by Palgrave Macmillan. He also wrote “The Promise and Perils of AI in the Arts,” included in The World Remade by Artificial Intelligence, published by McFarland. Ebert teaches courses on agentic AI and the impact of AI on critical thinking and creativity at the University of San Francisco. He continues to work as a management consultant and professional musician.

Margaret “Margie” McManus (Col ’89) has been appointed the inaugural chief academic advancement officer at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, effective December 1, 2025. Working in the Provost’s office, she will lead efforts to align philanthropic initiatives with UH Mānoa’s strategic academic and research priorities, develop a multi-year advancement strategy, and advise campus leadership on donor relations and long-term development goals. McManus currently serves as professor of oceanography and director of the Uehiro Center for the Advancement of Oceanography. Since joining UH Mānoa in 2003, she has been instrumental in building endowed and programmatic funds that support faculty and students, strengthen research and education, and expand the university’s global impact.

Cynthia Lawson Malhotra (Col ’02 CM) continues to grow Art & Forge, the luxury brass and bronze decorative hardware brand she co-founded with her husband, Rish Malhotra. Rooted in her enduring love of Virginia’s history and craftsmanship, she recently debuted the Williamsburg hardware collection, created in partnership with Colonial Williamsburg and inspired by the region’s timeless architectural and decorative traditions.

Susan Monaco (Com ’85 CM) was elected president of the Eastern Lenders Association (ELA). The ELA is the largest non-profit consortium of Federal Housing Administration-approved lenders and industry partners who are active in the financing and servicing of HUD-insured multifamily properties. Monaco is the managing director and Federal Housing Administration chief underwriter at Dwight Capital. In addition to her professional responsibilities, she is a certified health coach, helping people get and stay well naturally.

Ilina Das Ewen (Col ’92) founded Seen & Heard, a youth-powered advocacy nonprofit organization that amplifies young people’s voices and lived experiences around health, education and joy. Inspired by the values of leadership and community she learned at UVA, Ewen leads efforts to ensure youth are seen and heard with the tools, platform and access they need in order to influence policies about their future.

Laura G. Griffin (Col ’00 CM) has been appointed clerk of court for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, becoming the court’s senior executive. She has served the court as the chief deputy clerk of court since 2023 and first joined the court as the chief deputy clerk of operations in October 2021. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, widely known as “the rocket docket,” handles some of the country’s most prolific cases involving national security and civil rights and has divisions in Alexandria, Norfolk, Newport News and Richmond.

Robert D. Weinberg (Col ’01 CM) was promoted to partner at Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti. Weinberg focuses his practice on family law and estate and trust litigation. A devoted advocate for children, he regularly handles custody matters both within and outside Pennsylvania, always centering the best interests of minors. He describes his approach as “aggressively reasonable,” favoring resolutions that balance pragmatism with principled advocacy, while retaining the willingness to litigate when necessary. He earned his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Peter Mina (Col ’98 CM) has founded The Mina Firm, a law practice focused on federal sector employment law and civil rights litigation in Washington, D.C. Mina spent more than 14 years working at the Department of Homeland Security, where he served as deputy officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He also was chief of the Labor and Employment Law Division of the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Lucas Hobbs (Law ’98 CM) was elected president of the Association of District Court Judges of Virginia at the Association’s annual meeting in October. He previously served as the Association’s secretary and as its treasurer. He is a General District Court Judge in Virginia’s 28th Judicial District, and lives in Bristol, Virginia, with his wife.

Lea Jih-Vieira (Engr ’24) joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as a data science fellow in the Information Technology and Systems Division of IDA’s Systems and Analyses Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Jih-Vieira earned her bachelor’s degree in information science from Cornell University in 2023 and her master’s degree in systems engineering from UVA in 2024.

Tuan “Megan” Doan (Col ’24) joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as a research associate in the Cost Analysis and Research Division of IDA’s Systems and Analyses Center in Alexandria, Virginia. IDA is a nonprofit corporation that operates three federally funded research and development centers that seeks to answer the most challenging U.S. security and science policy questions. At UVA, Doan studied applied statistics.

Kieran Carter (Col ’06 CM) launched her own firm, Oakgrove Legal Strategies, which focuses on tax law, high-stakes litigation and legacy planning. The new practice helps clients design sophisticated wealth management strategies that prepare families, founders and fiduciaries for generational transitions. Kieran draws on her 15 years of government experience, including serving as a senior trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division, where she litigated complex tax cases across the country. She also served in DOJ leadership, advising the deputy Assistant attorney general on tax policy and sensitive tax matters involving the IRS, Congress and the White House.

Katie Walker (Educ ’12, ’18), the former associate vice president and chief budget officer at UVA, was named vice chancellor for finance and administration at Indiana University. She currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with her husband, Andrew Walker (Arch ’12) and her children, James and Lily.

Asmau Ahmed (Engr ’00) was named the first chief artificial intelligence and data officer for Varo Bank, the first all-digital nationally chartered bank in the U.S. She will lead company-wide AI and machine-learning efforts. Asmau has led teams and delivered products over the past 20-plus years, most recently sitting on the leadership team at Google X, where she led the development of new technologies. She has also served on the boards of various companies, including the Creative Arts Agency, the Yale Board of Advisers, QuinStreet, Pony AI and blackcomputeHER.

Austin Palmore (Col ’15, Com ’16 CM) recently completed a two-year clerkship at the Court of Appeals of Virginia, where he was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Randolph A. Beales (Law ’86 CM). Palmore is now a litigation associate with the broad-based civil practice law firm Christian & Barton, LLP in Richmond, Virginia.

Nakita Reed (Arch ’06) and Ryan McEnroe (Arch ’09) have both been promoted to associate principal at Quinn Evans, an award-winning national design firm.

Reed’s past projects include the revitalization of Baltimore Penn Station. She is also the host of the Tangible Remnants podcast, which seeks to demystify the process of transforming historic buildings into thriving spaces that honor the past while serving the present. She is a member of the Association for Preservation Technology, a co-chair of the of the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Historic Buildings, and a past president of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation.

McEnroe has contributed to the design of the Bird House at the National Zoological Park and the National Native American Veterans Memorial at the National Museum of the American Indian, both in Washington, D.C., for the Smithsonian Institution. He was elevated to the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows in 2023, is a member of the National Architectural Accrediting Board and is a co-founder of AIA|DC’s Christopher Kelley Leadership Development Program.

Daniel Cooper (Col ’00, Law ’05) has joined Sterlington as a partner and head of its private wealth practice. Cooper is known for his deep experience advising clients on wealth preservation, estate and gift tax planning, family business succession and philanthropy. He is recognized by the Chambers High Net Worth Guide for private wealth law in Pennsylvania.