“Job” Class Notes

James Tattersall (Col ’63 L/M), professor of mathematics at Providence College, will be a visiting fellow at Wolfson College and a visiting mathematician in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Cambridge University for the 2017 Easter Term.

Danita Rountree Green (Col ’85) is vice chair of the Richmond Public Library Board of Directors and co-convener of (CTTT-RVA) Coming To The Table, a national organization dedicated to racial healing and social equity. As an author, radio personality and entrepreneur, she focuses her time and talents on issues important to marginalized communities. Her latest endeavor is The Love Locked Down Theatre Project – a play that addresses the affects of prison culture on society, particularly the lives of women; it is based on her novel by the same name. She is the art specialist for the City of Richmond (VA) creating therapeutic art programming to serve an ever-changing and diverse community. Green is also CEO of her own small press, TBL Publications, which is “dedicated to telling common stories in an uncommon way.”

Her personal statement—
“Language leads change and creates the narrative for our personal histories and the legacy that we leave for the next generation.  I believe that when we live in a story that is inclusive and embraces, respects and acknowledges the lives of others, we lead more fruitful lives ourselves.”

This nomination afforded me a platform to talk about some important issues such as restorative justice and social equity.  All good.  Here is a little bit about the Love Locked Down Theatre Project that will have its hard open at the Gottwald Theatre, Richmond Center Stage in October.  I am working to get the dates included on local university syllabi.  This video was made by one of my interns.

The Love Locked Down Theatre Project
Love Locked Down/ Satiafa speaker
Dinner with Satiafa

Colonel Geoffrey F. Weiss (Engr ’91 L/M) was chosen by the U.S. Air Force to command the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma in June of 2017.  The 552 ACW operates Air Combat Command’s fleet of E-3 Sentry (AWACS) aircraft as well as the Control and Reporting Centers which provide tactical command and control for world-wide combatant commanders.  He is also proud to announce the graduation of his son, Scott Christopher, from UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science in May.  Scott will earn a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a commission in the U.S. Air Force where he will serve as an Air Force Civil Engineer.

Garth Wermter (Col ’96) has been named Chief Technology Officer of and a Partner in Infranet Technologies Group, a global technology firm with offices in Wilmington, NC; Raleigh, NC; Rocky Mount, NC; and Richmond, VA.

Sean Suder (Arch ’00, Law ’04) has joined the law firm of Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP as a partner in its Cincinnati office.  Sean practices commercial real estate, land use, zoning and historic preservation law, and  leads the firm’s zoning consulting affiliate, Calfee Zoning.  He was named a 2017 Ohio Rising Star in the category of land use law. Sean will be presenting on the topic of zoning for re-population at the American Planning Association (APA) National Conference in New York City, and on the integration of zoning and historic preservation at the Michigan Historic Preservation Conference in Petoskey.  

Shannon Montague (Col ’05 L/M) is excited to return to Charlottesville after being named Head of the Learning Village (PS-8) at St. Anne’s-Belfield School. Previously, Shannon served as Middle School Dean of Students and Drama Coordinator at The Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Maryland.

Scott Dillon (Com ’96 L/M) founded The Twisted Shrub in Minneapolis, MN. The Twisted Shrub specializes in the hand-crafted production of shrubs. Shrubs, also known as ‘drinking vinegars,’ are cocktail and soda mixers made using apple cider vinegar, fresh fruit and cane sugar. Scott founded the company after attending a cocktail class in Minneapolis and is an avid consumer of his own product to help him cope with constant stress of UVA athletics. Prior to launching the company in 2015, Scott spent 19 years in Sales at General Mills. He lives in Edina, MN, with his wife, K.C. Danzansky and their two children, Drew, 10 and Benji, 8.

Colonel David Walsh took command as the Program Manager, USMC Light/Attack Helicopter Program, on March 9, 2017. Colonel Walsh is currently stationed at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, where he lives with his wife Christina and their youngest son, Luke. Their oldest son, Riley, is a first-year student at UVA.

Michele Hamilton Meiners (Col ’92 L/M) founded The Meiners Law Firm, PLLC, in Fairfax, Virginia, in January 2017. Her practice focuses on representing commercial and residential landlords on all tenant related litigation. She litigates in all state, federal and appellate courts in Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, including all local bankruptcy courts. After graduating from the University, she attended law school at George Mason University (JD 1998), in Arlington, Virginia. She lives in Burke, Virginia, with her husband, Michael D. Meiners (Engr ’91 L/M), and her two children, Joseph, 16, and Lizzie, 13.

Linda Choe (Col ’07) is associate at Bean, Kinney & Korman in Arlington, Virginia. She represents individuals in divorce and other family law matters, and also serves on the board of directors for the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project. Previously, Ms. Choe worked as an associate at Hottell Family Law Group and at Legal Services of Northern Virginia.

Lauren Parker (Col ’05, Law ’08) has joined UVA Law School’s Career Services team as director. Ms. Parker, who participated in on-Grounds interviews as a student and later as an employer, will now help prepare students to launch their careers. Previously, Ms. Parker was a commercial litigation and antitrust attorney for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Washington, D.C. In her new position, she will advise students and alumni on private-sector positions; help them evaluate practice areas, firms and legal markets; and help them develop strategies to compete for the positions they target. She will also help students create resumes and cover letters and prepare for interviews.

Catherine “Lisa” Davis Rawls (Engr ’04 L/M) was named partner of KPMG in October 2016. She first joined KPMG’s risk consulting practice upon graduating from the University, and now leads the practice’s enterprise governance risk and compliance services group and is recognized as a global leader, helping companies proactively manage risk and improve business performance. Ms. Rawls lives with her husband in Falls Church, Virginia. In her free time, she serves on several committees at N Street Village, a homeless and rehabilitation center for women in Washington, D.C., and is a mentor through the Global Give Back Circle to a Kenyan University student. Ms. Rawls is the sister of Christopher James Davis (Col ’99 L/M) and the daughter of James Charles Davis (Col ’69 L/M).

Brian C. Barry (Law ’04) has been appointed chief compliance officer for EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany. Mr. Barry will be responsible for the ongoing development and implementation of the company’s comprehensive compliance program and will also be a member of the  organization’s leadership team.

Rachel Kay Walker (Col ’02), assistant professor and nurse scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing, has received a Career Catalyst Research award totaling $450,000 from the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, the world’s largest nongovernmental breast cancer research organization. Ms. Walker will work with a multidisciplinary team over the next three years to develop new technology to support breast cancer survivors, building on research she conducted at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, during her postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Innovative Care in Aging. While five of these awards were given to researchers this year, Ms. Walker’s was the only nurse-led team to receive the award.

Ryan Howell (Col ’02 L/M) has been promoted to counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels in Des Moines, Iowa. Mr. Howell is a trial attorney and member of the firm’s food and agriculture litigation team, playing a leadership role in the crop nutrient/fertilizer segment. He was honored as a “Rising Star” in the food and drugs segment of Great Plains Super Lawyers in 2016 and serves as president of the UVA Club of Iowa.

Kyle Wood (Col ’00) has joined Perkins Coie as senior counsel in the firm’s technology transactions and privacy practice in the Dallas, Texas, office. Mr. Wood will focus on complex transactional technology, intellectual property, data protection and cybersecurity matters. Previously, he was counsel at Andrews Kurth.

Sallie E. Lin (Law ’00) and Alyssa M. Petroff (Law ’09) have joined Stoel Rives as OnRamp Fellows, a re-entry program for experienced women in the legal and financial services industries who want to return to those professions after a period of time away. The fellowship offers participants career development through education, training and one-on-one coaching with career experts. Ms. Lin, who will be joining the Seattle, Washington, office, focuses her practice on real estate law and is a member of Washington Women Lawyers and the Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association. Ms. Petroff, who will be joining the Portland, Oregon, office, focuses her practice on business law and is a member of Oregon Women Lawyers.

Brian G. Muse (Col ’98 L/M) has joined the Richmond, Virginia, office of Sands Anderson, bringing his private practice into the employment law team. Mr. Muse focuses on counseling, mediating, arbitrating and litigating matters involving employment issues such as discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour claims. He has extensive experience representing businesses in issues related to the public accommodation and access requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mr. Muse lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, and serves clients throughout the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas.

Gregory M. Mullin (Arch ’95) has joined PGAL, an international architecture, engineering and planning firm, as principal of its Atlanta, Georgia, office.

Amy Moore Ring (Col ’91) became the director of planning and zoning for Isle of Wight County, Virginia, on January 1, 2017. With more than 20 years of planning experience, Ms. Ring has been certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners. She earned her master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Commonwealth University after completing her bachelor’s degree at the University in 1991.

Alex C. Kepley (Col ’89 L/M) is head golf coach at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the team won back-to-back Division I Ohio Golf State Championships in 2015 and 2016. This makes three Division I state championships since 2008 for St. Xavier, the largest Jesuit high school in the country. Mr. Kepley also is vice president at CBT Co., where he has been employed for 27 years. CBT is a leading independent industrial distributor of automation, electrical, power transmission and material handling/conveyor equipment. Mr. Kepley, who dislikes cold weather, lives in Naples, Florida, from November through June and in Cincinnati from June through October.

Andrew B. Stein (Col ’86) has left a successful career in banking to pursue the spirit of philanthropy fostered during his time at the University through the Orphaned Starfish Foundation. Founded by Mr. Stein more than 15 years ago, the foundation is now helping more than 10,000 orphans—victims of abuse, trafficking and poverty in 25 countries worldwide—to escape their cycles of abuse and poverty through education, job training and job placement. Mr. Stein and his foundation were honored in the fall by a three-part feature as part of the CNN Freedom Project.

Van T. Chen (Col ’86, Med ’90 L/M) has been named chief medical director of the rehabilitation hospital division of Vibra Healthcare. Vibra is the fifth-largest provider of rehabilitation services in the country by net revenue. Dr. Chen will advise and work with the company’s leadership about inpatient rehabilitation facilities across the country. He will continue as medical director of Ballard Rehabilitation Hospital, one of the company’s hospitals in San Bernardino, California. Dr. Chen and his wife live in Riverside, California.

David Chambers (Col ’85 L/M) founded and is CEO of Carpamus, a management consultancy in Reston, Virginia. Carpamus leads high-value, complex sales at critical stages (capture, proposals, orals). Mr. Chambers has spent more than 25 years in sales internationally (Europe and the Middle East) and nationally, particularly to the federal government. Previous employers include Deloitte, Accenture, and BearingPoint. At the University, he studied Arabic and Persian for an independent major that helped pave the way for the Middle East Studies program. Having lived and worked in the region for nearly a decade, he continues to use those languages today. He has served as vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Alumni Association. Currently, he serves on the community advisory board of the Kennedy Center, the advisory board of the PostClassical Ensemble, and the alumni advisory board of the University’s media studies department.

Renee Hom Neary (Col ’83) is an associate with Boyd Collar Nolen & Tuggle in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Neary will serve clients in a range of family law issues including divorce, division of property, alimony, establishing child support, complex custody litigation and the negotiation of pre- and post-nuptial agreements. She is an active member of the State Bar of Georgia (family law section) and the Atlanta Bar Association, and is a founding member of the Georgia Asian Pacific Bar Association.

Jerome L. Rubin (Col ’66 L/M) has joined the Seattle, Washington, office of Williams Kastner. A leading labor and employment attorney, Mr. Rubin brings more than 30 years of experience to the firm. He will join the firm’s labor and employment practice group. He concentrates his practice in National Labor Relations Board proceedings; union negotiations; equal employment and discrimination claims before agencies and courts; employment at will; Federal Contractor Compliance; wage and hour issues; unemployment and workers’ compensation cases; general personnel management and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

John Sheehan (Law ’08) has joined UPMC as a staff attorney in the Insurance Services Division. UPMC, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is the largest non-governmental employer in Pennsylvania and provides insurance services to over 2 million members. He spent the previous two years as a stay at home parent to his daughters Molly and Kate. John and his wife Alexis previously lived in Austin, Texas where John worked as an associate at Andrews Kurth LLP, a staff attorney on the Third Court of Appeals, and the writer and director of the independent feature film, For Serious.

Benjamin A. Garcia (Grad ’05) was recently promoted to Full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Garcia’s research involves the development of novel analytical approaches for investigating protein modifications during important cellular functions. He has been the recipient of several awards including the NIH New Innovator Award, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Dr. Robert Arceci Scholar Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Michael Todd (Grad ’07) has been named Associate Vice President for Research for the University of North Carolina system.

Kimberly Smith (Col ’91) and A.J. Smith (Com ’92, ’96) are both CPA’s and have lived in the UK for the past 10 years. They have returned to Charlottesville and have started a tax preparation and consulting practice for US citizens living abroad, Vagabond Tax.