“Job” Class Notes

Capt. Jenny Sigel Burkett (Nursing ’97 CM) assumed command of Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command, Camp Pendleton, California, on Aug. 4, 2023.  She is the first Nurse Corps officer to command the hospital.  She lives in Oceanside, California, with her husband C. Allen Burkett Jr., and children Emma, Lizbeth, and Clarence.

Steven Betz (Grad ’98) has joined the University of Michigan-Dearborn as government relations director.  In this role, he directs all university interactions with federal, state, and local officials.

Sharon E. Crane (Grad ’84) has joined Haynes and Boone, LLP as counsel in their Life Sciences practice group in Washington, D.C. Crane’s practice focuses on intellectual property matters in the biotech and pharmaceutical fields. She advises clients on drafting patents, challenging competitor patents and defending against infringement claims.

Robert Muckenfuss (Col ’93 CM) has been appointed as chair of McGuireWoods’ Financial Services and Securities Enforcement Department. Previously, Muckenfuss chaired the Commercial Litigation Department. He has over 20 years of experience representing financial institutions nationwide. 

Linda Lakhdhir (Col ’81 CM) has joined the NGO Climate Rights International as its legal director. CRI was founded in 2022 to focus on the intersection between climate change and human rights abuses, using on the ground research, detailed documentation and strategic advocacy to press for needed change. Lakhdhir previously served as Asia legal adviser for Human Rights Watch.

Juliana Yee (Col ’10 CM) has been promoted to partner at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson.

Juliana focuses her practice on high-stakes disputes, including class actions, mass actions and trials in state and federal court and across a wide range of industries, including technology, entertainment, higher education and financial services. She helps companies navigate their most challenging and high-profile matters through all stages of litigation. Juliana also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigration matters and civil rights. She is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and currently serves as the co-chair of the Development Committee of the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion.

Before joining the firm, Juliana clerked for Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2019, she completed a three-month fellowship as a volunteer assistant district attorney for the San Francisco District Attorneys’ Office, first-chairing four criminal jury trials to a verdict.

Jane E. Hardy (Col ’85) was recently named senior associate dean at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Jessica Bantom (Col ’98 CM) recently joined integrated design firm DLR Group as their global leader for equity, diversity and belonging. This role is the culmination of her career spanning management consulting, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and interior design consulting. She released her first book, Design for Identity: How to Design Authentically for a Diverse World, in April 2023, and is currently teaching a course based on her book at Marymount University.

Joe Averbach (Col ’09) has been promoted to partner at Potomac Point Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in transformative initiatives across the housing finance industry. This election underscores his substantial contributions to the firm and the immense value he has brought to its clients in the financial services industry since joining the team in 2013.

In his ten years with PPG, Joe has steered initiatives with precision and a deep understanding of his clients’ specific challenges. He has led teams through major organizational, process, and technology efforts across both the single and multifamily housing markets. Joe’s experience encompasses a wide range of functions, including originations, servicing, asset management, and securitization.

Before joining PPG, Joe worked as a strategy consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he spearheaded business process improvement efforts for Department of Defense clients. Before that, he was an in-house operations consultant at Freddie Mac.

 McCauley Williams (Col ’11) has launched Alma Del Jaguar Tequila, a company committed to wild jaguar preservation in northern Mexico. Williams was inspired by his uncle Rick, a wildlife photographer who moved to Mexico in the 1990s to study wild jaguars and co-founded the Northern Jaguar Project, a bi-national effort between conservationists from the U.S. and Mexico to preserve and recover the world’s northernmost population of endangered wild jaguars and their unique habitats.  

Alma De Jaguar’s second release is a handcrafted 100% Blue Weber Agave Tequila Reposado that is sustainably produced and additive-free.

Alma del Jaguar’s Reposado and its first release, Alma del Jaguar Blanco, are available online nationwide.

Learn more at www.almadeljaguar.com.

Heather Wishart-Smith (Engr ’96, ’98) was elected to the board of directors of Orion Energy Systems, which provides energy efficiency and clean tech solutions, including LED lighting and electric vehicle charging. Wishart-Smith is also on the board of Group PMX, a private program and construction management company, and facilitates partnering sessions for large construction projects with GCC, LLC. Wishart-Smith was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2022, and earned her National Academy of Corporate Directors Directorship Certification this year. She is a Fellow of the Society of American Military Engineers, for which she served as national President in 2020, and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Keller Smith and children Glory, Nick, and Alexandra.

Anne E. McCall (Col ’81 CM) was named president of The College of Wooster, effective July 1, 2023. Her inauguration is scheduled for October 28, 2023.

An inspirational and values-driven administrator with a track record for building innovation through inclusive excellence, a dedicated teacher and mentor, and internationally recognized scholar of nineteenth-century French fiction and life writing, President McCall is the second woman to lead Wooster since its founding in 1866. She also is a tenured professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies.

McCall previously was provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana—ranked fifth among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the U.S. according to U.S. News & World Report and first among all institutions for the number of African American graduates completing medical school and multiple Ph.D. programs.