“Job” Class Notes
Chris Payne (Engr ’87, Engr ’96 CM)
Chris Payne (Engr ’87, ’96 CM) was appointed as president and chief executive cfficer of MBP, a nationally recognized construction management and consulting firm. As president and CEO, Payne will focus on long-term strategic goals, growing the firm’s market share, and meeting the needs of clients in a continually evolving industry.
Kristin Duggan (Col ’98 CM)
Kristin Zielinski Duggan (Col ’98) was promoted to partner at Hogan Lovells. Based in the Washington, D.C. office, she is a member of the firm’s global regulatory group.
Martha Peters (Col ’90 CM)
Martha Cabell Peters (Col ’90) was appointed assistant provost at Montana State University.
Joan Herlong (Col ’81)
Joan Herlong (Col ’81), a real estate agent based in Greenville, South Carolina, is launching a Clemson office of Joan Herlong Associates Sotheby’s International Realty to better serve clients in South Carolina’s Upstate.
Marcus Ruscetti (Col ’08 CM)
Marcus Ruscetti (Col ’08 CM) recently began teaching as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Cell and Cancer Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. His laboratory investigates the dynamic interactions between tumors and the body’s immune system in cancer.
Nayna Agrawal (Col ’98)
Nayna Agrawal (Col ’98) has worked on six animation shows this year with Netflix, Mattel, DreamWorks and Apple. Her plays were workshopped and/or received readings with several Los Angeles and New York theater collectives. Her radio play, Plucker, was featured in an LA Times article and was selected for production by L.A.’s Antaeus Theater Company. She has been selected from 850 applicants to participate in the inaugural XYZ Salon for South Asian artists in Hollywood and will be paired with veteran comedy writer, Vera Santamaria for the year. She is currently a 2021 Cimientos playwright with NYC-based theater, Iati. She just signed with Disney to write on a new animation feature film.
Michael Burger (Col ’90 CM)
Michael Adam Burger (Col ’90) is currently a partner in the law firm of Santiago Burger and a managing member in Neutral Mediation Group, both concentrating in the resolution of commercial and fiduciary relationship disputes. Mike is also a volunteer firefighter. He lives in Brighton, New York, with his wife, Anne, and their daughter, Jane. The family hopes to visit Grounds in 2021 for the 30th reunion, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Kevin Doyle (Educ ’99 CM)
Kevin Doyle (Educ ’99 CM), has been named the dean of the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies outside Minneapolis and will begin in early 2021.
Steve Williams (Col ’86 CM)
Steve Williams (Col ’86) continues his work at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia as dean of the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, the Jesse B. Michie Professor and Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Enterprise Senior Vice President for Post-Acute and Rehabilitation Services at Jefferson Health.
Shannon Reaves (Col ’97)
Shannon Reaves (Col ’97) was promoted to partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s Washington, D.C., office.
David Landin (Col ’68, Law ’72 CM)
David Craig Landin (Col ’68, Law ’72 CM) has established the Landin Law Group, for which the primary office is in Richmond, Virginia.
David Williams (Col ’78, Darden ’82 CM)
David M. Williams (Col ’78, Darden ’82) joined Commonwealth Commercial Partners, a national commercial real estate and real estate private equity firm, as a senior vice president at the firm’s headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. He and his wife live in Richmond, and their son, Preston Williams (Engr ’11), lives and works in Boston.
Gunes Hopson (Col ’97, Law ’01 CM)
Gunes Ozcan Hopson (Col ’97, Law ’01 CM) has joined My Path Unwinding Travel as an independent travel concierge and advisor, specializing in luxury and family travel. Gunes continues to enjoy writing for her travel blog, fotogenictravel.com, and offers photography services through fotogenicrichmond.com. Additionally, she still practices law full-time as associate general counsel at Automattic, Inc.
Lachlan McLean (Col ’89 CM)
Lachlan McLean (Col ’89 CM) is now the primary afternoon news anchor for Spectrum News 1, a cable news network serving the entire state of Kentucky. He previously hosted sports talk radio shows in Louisville for the last 16 years.
Douglas Varley (Col ’83, Law ’94 CM)
Douglas Varley (Col ’83, Law ’94 CM) was named president of the law firm Caplin & Drysdale in September 2020.
Charles Sparkman (Arch ’12)
Charles Sparkman (Arch ’12), an architect with Quinn Evans and former faculty member at the UVA School of Architecture, was recently promoted. Sparkman has completed design projects nationwide in the higher education, cultural and institutional markets.
Shannon Baxter (Col ’92 CM)
Shannon Baxter (Col ’92 CM) joined Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton as a partner. She will be a member of the Atlanta firm’s corporate department and its expanding leveraged finance and private equity teams. She was previously with Dentons US. Baxter has nearly 25 years of experience representing creditors and borrowers in financing transactions. Her clients include large U.S. and non-U.S. banks, finance companies, private equity and hedge funds, and public and private companies.
Charles Pesant (Col ’99)
Charles Pesant (Col ’99) joined global law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner in the corporate department and the securitization practice group. Pesant focuses his practice on highly complex domestic and cross-border structured finance deals. Over the course of his career, Charles has represented many of the world’s leading financial institutions, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and a variety of public and private corporate clients.
Bryan Braswell (Col ’93 CM)
Capt. Bryan Braswell (Col ’93 CM) completed a successful tour as commanding officer of Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station, Pacific in August. He and his wife, Tracy, live in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is assigned to the Navy Personnel Command as the division director of Information Warfare Community Assignments. Their sons, Brandon and Alex, are college students in the Carolinas.
Jeannette Lichner (Com ’79, Grad ’80 CM)
Jeannette Lichner (Com ’79, Coll ’80 CM) joined the board of the UK Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates the financial services industry, as a non-executive director. This role is in addition to her non-executive director roles at Miller Insurance Services, the Local Trust which supports 150 of the most left behind UK communities, the International Women’s Forum UK, and Elucidate GmBH a start up regulatory technology company. She is also an executive coach and has published numerous articles on leadership, governance, and personal finance. Lichner is a member of the McIntire Global Advisory Board. She and her husband live in London, England, where she has lived since 1984.
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