“Job” Class Notes
Kristin Ogburn (Col ’89 CM)
Kristin Decker Ogburn (Col ’89 L/M), a litigation lawyer for Horack Talley in Charlotte, North Carolina, began her term as the chair of the bankruptcy section of the North Carolina Bar Association on July 1, 2017. The bankruptcy section promotes networking and education for practitioners in all areas of bankruptcy practice and among members who practice in the three federal bankruptcy districts. Ms. Ogburn focuses her practice in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and commercial real estate. She represents secured and unsecured creditors in consumer and business bankruptcy cases throughout North Carolina and South Carolina.
Luis Pedraja (Grad ’94)
Luis G. Pedraja (Grad ’94) was appointed president of Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Heather Wood (Grad ’00 CM)
David Maxwell (Engr ’94) has been promoted to senior vice president at Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm. In this position, Maxwell is responsible for leading the civil engineering operations of the firm’s southern Virginia and North Carolina offices. In this role, he works closely with Dewberry’s local leadership to set operational and growth strategies in the Southeast. He continues to serve as the manager of the firm’s Richmond and Virginia Beach offices. With more than 23 years of experience, Mr. Maxwell’s background includes the management of full-service term contracts and large multidisciplinary teams to bring unique engineering solutions to his clients. He is a registered professional engineer and a LEED Accredited Professional BD +C.
Leo Fernandez (Engr ’97 CM)
Leo Fernandez (Engr ’97 L/M) has joined the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti’s New York office as a vice president in the Weidlinger Transportation practice.
Brian Dunkel (Col ’03 CM)
Brian J. Dunkel (Col ’03 L/M) has joined Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry as an Atlanta-based associate in the firm’s tax controversy and litigation practice. Mr. Dunkel brings nine years of tax experience, of which more than five were spent working in-house at national accounting firms. Mr. Dunkel focuses his practice on international tax controversy and litigation, representing individual and corporate taxpayers in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service during all phases of the tax controversy and litigation process. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, his law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law and his master’s in taxation from Georgetown University School of Law.
Jack Murray (Col ’16, Com ’17)
Jack Murray (Col ’16, Com ’17) has joined Skyway Capital Markets, a boutique investment bank in Tampa, Florida, as an investment associate.
Alice Taylor (Engr ’78)
Alice Taylor (Engr ’78 L/M) has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Charles River Center, a $25m non-profit social services organization supporting people with developmental disabilities, based in Needham, Massachusetts. The Charles River Center was founded in 1956 and is an accredited chapter of The Arc. It serves over 450 individuals daily and offers other services and supports to over 900 children, families, and adults with ID/DD and autism. A notable CRC accomplishment was the creation of Wings for Autism®, a coordinated airport rehearsal program designed to ease the stress of flying for persons on the autism spectrum and others with intellectual/developmental disabilities. The program is now offered at airports nationwide.
Alice is an attorney (Boston College Law School, 1996) with a solo practice in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the parent of three adult children, one with autism.
Robert Gordon (Darden ’91)
Robert J. Gordon (Darden ’91) has been promoted to partner at his Miami firm, Investor Solutions, where he has been since 2007. Investor Solutions advises on retirement planning and fiduciary investment management, and Mr. Gordon specializes in helping organizations provide employees with meaningful retirement benefits. The firm manages over $800 million dollars in client assets and contributes a significant percentage of their revenue to charities each year.
Art Fuller (Engr ’86 CM)
Art Fuller (Engr ’86 L/M) has been promoted to Vice President and Executive Client Partner at SapientRazorfish. Mr. Fuller leads the financial services business for the firm’s north region, where he drives marketing and technology innovation for banking, insurance and wealth management clients.
Lincoln Bisbee (Law ’07)
Lincoln Bisbee (Law ’07) has been promoted to partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in the labor and employment practice. Effective October 1, 2017, Mr. Bisbee, who resides in Washington D.C., will join 31 newly elected partners from 12 offices and 10 practices. Lincoln represents employers in a broad array of employment litigation matters, including class actions and individual-plaintiff cases involving wage and hour, discrimination, and employment tort claims in federal and state courts and arbitration proceedings.
Jessica Gienow-Hecht (Grad ’90, Grad ’95 CM)
Jessica Gienow-Hecht (Grad ’90, ’95 L/M) has been acting chair of the history department in the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Freie University Berlin since 2013. This term, she holds the Alfred Grosser Chair at the Paris Institute for Political Studies, known also as Sciences Po.
Robert Nalls (Arch ’77 CM)
Robert E. Nalls (Arch ’77), of Nalls Architecture, Inc., has been elected Chair of the Board for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). Mr. Nalls has been involved with SCUP for 22 years, most recently as an At-Large Director. The nonprofit association provides resources on best planning practices and more for senior higher education administrators who are responsible for the integration of planning on their campuses. Mr. Nalls’ firm specializes in higher education clients with focused expertise in science and healthcare projects promoting sustainability. The firm is located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.
John Nader (Col ’02)
John Nader (Col ’02 L/M) has joined the Washington, D.C., office of McGlinchey Stafford PLLC. He joins the firm’s commercial litigation and consumer financial services litigation groups as of counsel.
Mr. Nader represents financial institutions and servicers in mortgage- and consumer lending-based financial services litigation in state and federal courts, with a particular focus on mortgage lending and related commercial disputes. He advises clients on all aspects of complying with state and federal banking, foreclosure, and consumer protection laws, including the Dodd-Frank Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and Regulations X and Z.
He also has experience in construction litigation and has represented large general contractors, developers, and owners in construction matters and related commercial disputes.
“John is a welcome addition to our nationwide Commercial Litigation team. His experience with consumer financial services statutes and his perspective as former inside counsel will allow us to more effectively serve banks, loan servicers, and other financial services industry clients across the United States,” said Rudy Aguilar, Managing Member of McGlinchey Stafford.
In addition to his private practice experience, John has served as chief legal counsel for an SBA 8(a) general contractor specializing in government construction, renovation, design/build, and perimeter defense work.
Joseph Minock (Col ’06)
Joseph Minock (Col ’06) of Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial was promoted to member. Mr. Minock’s practice centers on civil litigation with an emphasis in construction litigation and class action litigation. He has represented owners, sureties, architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors in numerous complex design and construction cases. He is also experienced in foodborne illness cases and is currently serving as lead counsel for a national restaurant franchise in connection with a multi-state Hepatitis A outbreak. Mr. Minock received a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law. He received the Dean’s Award for legal writing, research and advocacy program, and served as Executive Managing Editor for the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal.
Erin Girdler (Col ’91 CM), James Lewis (Grad ’94)
Binney Girdler and James Lewis, two Kalamazoo College faculty members with University of Virginia ties, have been promoted from associate professors to full professors.
Girdler, a biology professor, earned her bachelor’s degree at Virginia. She focuses her research on studying the structure and dynamics of terrestrial plant communities such as shoreline communities, grasslands and forests. She’s also interested in applied conservation biology, and develops relationships with area natural resource agencies and non-profit conservation groups to match her expertise and students with their research needs.
Girdler is a member of the Ecological Society of America and the Society for Conservation Biology. She has taught courses in environmental science, ecology and conservation, plant biology, population and community ecology, and senior seminars in environmental studies.
Lewis, a history professor, earned his Ph.D. at Virginia. He has taught courses in U.S. history, Native American history, American environmental history, Revolutionary America, the American frontier and Western history, the history of U.S. foreign relations, post-World War II America, American political culture, the trial in American history and a senior seminar in history. Lewis is a professional member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. He has written books including: The Louisiana Purchase: Jefferson’s Noble Bargain? (2003), John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union (2001), The American Union and the Problem of Neighborhood: The United States and the Collapse of the Spanish Empire, 1783-1829 (1998) and The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis due out this fall.
“Both Dr. Girdler and Lewis are respected teachers and scholars in the best tradition of the liberal arts and sciences,” Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald said. “This promotion recognizes their sustained excellence and the impact they have had and will continue to have on Kalamazoo College and our students.”
Derek Knerr (Col ’01)
Derek Knerr (Col ’01) has joined eBay Inc. as senior legal counsel at its headquarters in San Jose, California. In his new role, he advises the company (which includes the eBay Marketplace, StubHub and Classifieds platforms) on a variety of commercial and intellectual property matters.
John Northup (Col ’96 CM)
Bouhan Falligant LLP announced today that John Northup (Col ’96 L/M) has become an attorney with the firm. Northup’s practice will focus on commercial real estate, banking, corporate and litigation.
Prior to joining Bouhan Falligant, Northup worked as an attorney at Morris, Manning and Martin, LLP. He has extensive experience handling a wide range of matters for commercial banks and non-depository lenders, and also represents real estate developers in all aspects of their practice, including acquisition and development, zoning and land use, economic development, and commercial litigation. Prior to entering into private law practice, he was a vice president of a financial services-focused investment bank in Tampa, Fla., where he specialized in capital offerings and mergers and acquisitions for community banks and thrifts.
Northup earned his law degree and an M.B.A. from the University of Georgia, and his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia. Admitted to practice law in both Georgia and South Carolina, he is a founding member of the Metropolitan Savannah Rotary, a board member and past president of the University of Virginia Club of Savannah, and a board member of the Alumni Board of Savannah Country Day School.
Karen Rauch (Grad ’96)
Karen L. Rauch (Grad ’96) has been named associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. She had served as interim associate dean since July 2015. She has been with the university since 2001 and served as the chair of the department of modern language studies from 2010 to 2014.
Eric Kalkhurst (Col ’68 CM)
I have assisted in starting a business for sustainable grazing of cattle that restores the pastureland. It will be operating in the Southeastern States in numerous ranches. We hope to be operational by the forth quarter of this year.
Michael Reed (Grad ’79)
Michael D. Reed (Grad ’79) Joins Mette, Evans & Woodside as Shareholder
The law firm of Mette, Evans & Woodside is pleased to announce that Attorney Michael D. Reed has joined the practice. Mr. Reed has been practicing in the fields of construction law and litigation, as well as general commercial litigation and administrative and procurement law, for thirty-six years. He also has extensive experience in mediation and arbitration, both as an advocate and as a neutral. He is certified as a mediator in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and has also completed the course work for mediator certification in the State Supreme Court of Virginia.
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