“Job” Class Notes

Harriet J. Kiers (Col ’19 L/M), daughter of Susan Wingo Kiers (Col ’85 L/M) and sister of Olivia J. Kiers (Col ’12 L/M), is working a 10 month apprenticeship at Champagne Lacroix Triaulaire in Aube, France, to learn the champagne-making process.

Chris Ferenc (Col ’05 L/M) was promoted to partner in the intellectual property group at Katten Muchin Rosenman. Ferenc has been with Katten since 2010, assisting clients in resolving complex patent and technology-related disputes in the federal courts and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Denice Heller Wardrop (Engr ’79, Grad ’87 L/M) was selected as the executive director for the regional science collaborative, Chesapeake Research Consortium. Wardrop replaces Bill Ball (Engr ’76). 

Melissa Farmer Richards (Col ’93 L/M) was appointed vice president for communications and marketing at Hamilton College in September 2019.

Alex Roosenburg (Col ’04, Educ ’05 L/M) followed a dream and started her own school after spending a decade in schools around the world. Capitol Learning Academy opened to the first cohort of students in Fall 2019 and provides a progressive education for the future. Roosenburg intends to use the model as research in order to create a scaled model that can be offered to public and charter schools nationwide. 

Nayna Agrawal (Col ’98) is a 2019 ABC Disney TV Writers Program fellow. She is one of eight selected from 2,000 applicants. She recently joined ABC’s new rom-com hour-long show, The Baker and The Beauty, as a staff writer. Her play, Dharma, was selected for the Athena Reading Series in NYC in September. 

Kendall Jones (Col ’89 L/M) has been hired as senior corporate counsel of California Pizza Kitchen at its corporate headquarters in Playa Vista, California. Jones lives in Thousand Oaks, California, with her three children.

Robert W. Karow (Arch ’86) joined Quinn Evans Architects as a senior associate and director of technical services in their Washington, D.C., office. He will advise on projects nationwide, bringing more than 30 years of experience in the design of educational, government, and institutional facilities, as well as complex historic preservation projects.

Kevin Whitaker (Col ’79 L/M) returned to the United States in August 2019 after five and a half years of service as U.S. Ambassador to Colombia. The longest-serving ambassador to Colombia in a century, he oversaw U.S. relations with Colombia during a historically significant moment—the peace process with the FARC terrorist organization—and worked with two U.S. and two Colombian administrations.  Ambassador Whitaker entered the Foreign Service immediately after graduation from UVA. Prior to his confirmation as ambassador in 2014, he served in various senior positions in his 40 years of service, and attained the rank of career minister, the second-highest rank in the Foreign Service. 

Murielle de Wekker (Educ ’14) founded FranceUS Connect, an independent consultancy that promotes business and cultural partnerships between the United States and France. She teaches in the French Department at the UVA.

James Erickson (Col ’08) was appointed chair of the Visual Arts Department at Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry Forest, Virginia. He and his wife, Jenna Erickson (Nurs ’10), moved to campus with their five children in July.

Erin Avery (Col ’11 L/M) combines her love of travel and performing with her degree in English literature in her career as cast manager and lead vocalist and dancer in production shows with Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Entertainment division. This fall marks her seventh year with the company – she appreciates the drive & hard work ethic instilled in her from both her upbringing and her time at UVA. She has been able to achieve several of her career and travel goals; in addition to her time with Carnival, Avery has worked within the events industry and travel concierge sphere. UVA is and always will have a special place in her heart. The lessons learned and connections made there in Charlottesville impacted her in a way she will never forget. She looks forward to what the future will continue to bring and cannot wait for the next time she is back on land so she can make a return trip to her alma mater! 🙂

Bryan Caplin (Col ’98 L/M) has joined Andela as chief revenue officer. Andela invests in Africa’s most talented software engineers to help companies solve the technical talent shortage and build high-performing distributed engineering teams. In just under 5 years, Andela has grown to nearly 2,000 people with tech campuses in Lagos, Nairobi, Kampala, and Kigali. Backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV and Spark Capital, Andela is powering global engineering teams while catalyzing the growth of tech ecosystems across Africa.