“Other” Class Notes

John Wilder (Col ’62 CM) has published The Mover: The Travels of Charles Wilkins in 1838, the fictional story of a young carpenter from the English Midlands who emigrates to the American Midwest. After securing passage on a merchant ship, Wilkins is asked by the ship’s captain to take over the duties of the injured ship carpenter, and adventure ensues. Mr. Wilder, a history buff, was inspired to write the book after reading a family diary from 1831.

Casey Stein (Col ’10 CM) and Daniel Rooney were married on Sept. 20, 2014, in Reston, Virginia. Ms. Rooney is the daughter of Janet Weissbecker Stein (Col ’79 L/M). The couple lives in New York City, where Ms. Rooney works at the nonprofit American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee while studying at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Mr. Rooney is an associate at J.P. Morgan.

David Walsh (Engr ’91 CM) has been promoted to colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. He serves in the H-1 program office at Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland.

Steven Semes (Arch ’75 CM) is an associate professor and director of the graduate program in historic preservation at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. He is editor of the Classicist, the annual peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, and from 2008 to 2011, he was academic director of Notre Dame’s Rome studies program. Mr. Semes is also the author of two books, The Future of the Past: A Conservation Ethic for Architecture, Urbanism, and Historic Preservation (2009), and The Architecture of the Classical Interior (2004); numerous journal articles; and a blog, The View from Rome. He splits the year between Rome and the Notre Dame campus.

Lynne Benzion (Col ’85) has been appointed vice president of strategic planning for the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a Certified Economic Developer who works on a variety of business attraction, retention, expansion and entrepreneur development projects. Ms. Benzion served for 10 years with Rockville Economic Development in Rockville, Maryland, where she held a variety of positions, including deputy director. She lives in Hollywood, Florida, with her husband, Ira Benzion; they have two adult children.

Anne Schmidt (Com ’05 CM) and Mike Schmidt (Com ’05 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Marie Virginia, on April 6, 2015. The family recently relocated to Austin, Texas, where Mr. Schmidt is a senior brand strategist at McGarrah Jessee and Ms. Schmidt owns Scout Digital, a web development firm.

Darrin Witt (Com ’98 CM) was promoted to general partner at WEDGE Capital Management in 2014. He also serves on the board of directors at Bless Back Worldwide, a nonprofit organization serving communities in Haiti and Nicaragua. Mr. Witt lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, Heather, and their three children, Charlie, 10; Emma, 9; and Jake, 6.

Matthew Baer (Col ’07 CM) and Elizaveta Budko (Col ’10) were married on March 29, 2015, in Morris Township, New Jersey. Jonathan Falk (Col ’07) officiated. The couple lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Kirsten Francis (Col ’03 CM) and Spencer Francis (Engr ’03 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Adry Virginia, on April 25, 2014. Adry joins sisters Lane Margaret, 5; and Nora Mackenzie, 3.

Wilmah Getchell (Col ’67) has been named honorary whipper-in for the Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles, a subscription pack kenneled in Berryville, Virginia.

John Warburton (Col ’00) and Kimberly Bareford Warburton (Col ’01, Educ ’01, ’03 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Katherine “Kate” August, on March 26, 2015. Kate joins brothers Ben, 6; Max, 4; and Will, 1.

Sean Dwyer (Col ’78 CM) has been named founding director of the Center for Executive and Professional Development at Louisiana Tech University. An associate professor of marketing, he teaches classes at the undergraduate, M.B.A. and Ph.D. levels, and previously founded and served as director of Louisiana Tech’s executive M.B.A. program. Mr. Dwyer is also active in his community, having served on the executive boards of the local chamber of commerce and the Cedar Creek School. He has lived in Ruston, Louisiana, with his wife, Linda, and their sons, Connor, Ryan and Sean, since 1996.

Erin Liss (Col ’05, Educ ’06) and her husband, Casey, welcomed a son, Declan James, on Oct. 29, 2014. The family resides in Richmond, Virginia.

Paul Grabb (Col ’84, Med ’88 CM) has been named chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, effective summer 2015. He and his wife, Brenda Costello Grabb (Col ’86, Med ’90 L/M), recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They have two sons, Declan, a junior at Vanderbilt; and Gavin, a freshman at the University of Alabama.

Ravi Shankar (Col ’96 CM) has published a new book of poetry, What Else Could it Be. Mr. Shankar is a professor of English at Central Connecticut State University and in the master of fine arts program at City University of Hong Kong. He has received a number of awards for his work, among them a Pushcart Prize. A founding editor of electronic arts journal Drunken Boat, one of the first electronic arts journals on the web, he also served as co-editor for W.W. Norton & Co.’s Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond. Mr. Shankar’s other books include Instrumentality, a 2005 Connecticut Book Award finalist; and Deepening Groove, winner of the 2011 National Poetry Review Prize. His work, which he has performed around the world, has been featured in the New York Times and the Paris Review. Mr. Shankar has appeared on PBS, BBC and NPR, and has held fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Jentel Foundation and the Blue Mountain Center.

David Vitto (Col ’05 CM) and Dawn Page Vitto (Col ’10 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Charlotte Deanna, on Jan. 28, 2015. The family resides in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Krystal Clemons (Col ’05 CM) received a doctorate in counselor education from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 9, 2015. Her dissertation title is African-American Pastors and their Perceptions of Professional School Counseling. In addition to serving as a professional school counselor in Norfolk, Ms. Freeman travels throughout the U.S. and abroad, giving presentations and guest lectures regarding school counseling and African Americans.

Christie Rears (Col ’97 CM) and Christopher Charles Andrew Ashlee were married Dec. 31, 2014, in Denver. The couple splits their time between homes in Seattle, Washington, and Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

Amy Rosenberg (Col ’95 CM) and her husband, Marshal Allshouse, welcomed a son, Jacob Rosenberg Allshouse, in May 2013.

Jessica Dunne (Engr ’00, Engr ’03) and Christopher Washburn (Grad ’04) welcomed a son, Bryson Richard Washburn, on Feb. 27, 2015. Bryson joins big brother Logan, 6; and big sister Ivy Rose, 3.

Brittany Williams (Engr ’10 CM) is an associate on Goldman Sachs’s credit risk management and ratings advisory team based out of London, United Kingdom, where she has lived since 2012. In this role, she is responsible for managing the firm’s lending and overall credit risk to more than 150 clients within the consumer retail and diversified industrials sectors. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling throughout Europe.

Melissa Richards (Col ’93 CM) has been named vice president for communications at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she oversees all aspects of university communications.

Jason McDougall (Com ’03 CM) and Juliana Stein McDougall (Col ’04, Educ ’04 L/M) welcomed a son, Ryan William, on Nov. 7, 2013. Ryan joins big sister Madison Lily, 4. Ryan and Madison are the grandchildren of Joseph Stein (Col ’77 L/M). The family currently resides in New York City.

Jennifer Geoghegan (Col ’94 CM) has joined The Colony Group as the firm’s first chief marketing officer and advisor coach. She will lead growth efforts for The Colony Group’s Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Florida offices.

Aaron Parker (Engr ’99) was named a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the world. His practice focuses on patent litigation before U.S. district courts and counseling clients on global patent litigation strategies. Much of Mr. Parker’s work relates to medical device technology and technology related to the sports and fitness industry.

Katherine Greiling (Col ’01 CM) and Eric Greiling (Col ’99, Educ ’00 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Stella, in July 2014. Stella joins big sister Katie, 2, and is the niece of Chris Holbert (Col ’95). The Greilings live in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Eric Greiling (Col ’99 CM) and Katherine Griffin Greiling (Col ’01 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Stella, in July 2014. Stella joins big sister Katie, 2, and is the niece of Chris Holbert (Col ’95). The Greilings live in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Deborah Gramiccioni (Law ’97) has resigned from her position as deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a position she has held since 2013, to make way for a single chief executive to lead the agency. She had shared day-to-day leadership responsibilities with executive director Patrick Foye. Ms. Gramiccioni, former chief of the commercial crimes unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office under then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and former director of the Division of Criminal Justice for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, will head the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University Law School.

Stephanie Merritt (Col ’96 CM) was elected a general district court judge in Virginia’s 9th Judicial District. Judge Merritt presides in Gloucester, New Kent, Mathews and Middlesex counties.

Salman Tajuddin (Com ’95 CM) and his wife, Mahnaz, welcomed a daughter, Camila Gisele, on Dec. 15, 2014. Camila joins big sister Inara, 3. The family resides in Arlington, Virginia, where Mr. Tajuddin is managing director at Capstone Advisory Group, a restructuring and turnaround advisory firm, in nearby Washington, D.C.

Joan Polaschik (Col ’91 CM) was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria on Aug. 15, 2014. A career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Ambassador Polaschik has served in Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Jordan, Azerbaijan and Libya, in addition to assignments in Washington, D.C.

Thomas Estes (Col ’90 CM) is an associate justice of the Northampton District Court in Massachusetts. He was nominated in January 2014 by former Gov. Deval Patrick and was confirmed on March 26, 2014, beginning his term the following day. Judge Estes previously served as a public defender for 16 years.

Nathan Damweber (Col ’04) and his wife, Lindsey Stuart, welcomed a daughter, Lucy Rose Damweber, on Oct. 10, 2014.

Elizabeth Larus (Grad ’89) received a Taiwan Fellowship for 2015 to conduct field research in Taiwan on U.S.-China-Taiwan relations. Ms. Larus is a professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Paul Meurer (Com ’87 CM) was named 2014 public company CFO of the Year in San Diego by San Diego Business Journal. Mr. Meurer has served as chief financial officer of Realty Income Corp., the 15th-largest real estate company in the U.S., since 2001. He resides in Coronado Island, California, near downtown San Diego, with his wife, Lysa; and their two teenage children, Annika and Nick.

David Evans (Grad ’87, Grad ’94) was selected to serve as president of Southern Vermont College beginning Jan. 1, 2015. He previously served as vice president of Buena Vista University in Iowa, as dean of the Petree College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma City University, as chair of the department of English, speech and journalism at Georgia College & State University, and on the English faculty at Cornell College.

S. Rohrer (Grad ’85, Grad ’99 CM) published Jacob Green’s Revolution: Radical Religion and Reform in a Revolutionary Age, a biography of independent-minded Presbyterian minister Jacob Green, with Penn State University Press. The book takes a look at Green’s life and illuminates the strong but complicated connections between religion and politics at the dawn of the American nation.

Jane Hardy (Col ’85) was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of Spanish at Wabash College. Ms. Hardy joined the Wabash faculty in 2006, having taught previously at Indiana University, St. Michael’s College, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and at the Slovenian Ministry of Defense’s School of Foreign Languages. Her teaching focuses on second-language acquisition, language teaching methodology and study abroad. Since 2008, she has accompanied Wabash students and faculty to Ecuador as part of the Wabash Ecuador Summer Study Program.

Eric Paltell (Col ’83, Law ’87 CM) was inducted into the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers in November 2014. Mr. Paltell is a partner in the labor and employment law group at Kollman & Saucier in Baltimore, where he represents public and private employers and mediates employment disputes for both private litigants and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He and his wife, Kristina Auth Paltell (Col ’83 L/M), have two daughters, Skyler, a senior at the College of William and Mary, and Katherine Charlotte “K.C.” Paltell (Col ’17 L/M).

Rita Sheffey (Col ’78 CM) has been appointed assistant dean for public service at Emory University, effective January 2015. Previously, Ms. Sheffey was a partner in the Atlanta office of Hunton & Williams, where she worked for 27 years and spearheaded the development of the firm’s pro bono program, including the foundation of the Southside Legal Center, a pro bono clinic that serves area residents.