“Other” Class Notes

Rory Francisco (Col ’07 CM) and his wife, Kristin, welcomed a son, Charles Theodore, on Jan. 8, 2015. The family resides in Richmond, Virginia.

Andrew Cookingham (Col ’05 CM) has been selected for inclusion in the 2015 Texas Rising Stars in the area of business litigation. He is an attorney at Thompson & Knight in Dallas, where he represents healthcare providers, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and other clients in state and federal court, as well as in appellate courts and in arbitration proceedings.

Daniel Mazanec (Law ’04) has joined the Miami office of Greenspoon Marder Law as senior counsel in the litigation practice group. He has more than 10 years of experience representing and advising corporations, financial institutions and entrepreneurs in complex commercial disputes and high-profile litigation matters, including class actions, multidistrict litigation proceedings and cross-border business disputes. Mr. Mazanec previously practiced at an international law firm with offices in Cleveland, New York City and Miami.

Luca Sciullo (Col ’03) and Caroline King Sciullo (Col ’03 L/M) welcomed a son, Eric Easton Sciullo, on March 12, 2015. He joins siblings Luca “Luc” Jr., 7; Marc, 5; and Sophie, 2. The family lives in Ashburn, Virginia, where Mr. Sciullo is a managing partner at ASET Partners in nearby Alexandria. Mr. Sciullo also runs Zeds Books, an online book retailer that specializes in rare antiquarian, first edition and leather-bound books.

John Gekas (Law ’03) has received the Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service from the United States District Court in conjunction with the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He is a partner and a member of the litigation practice group in the Chicago office of Arnstein & Lehr. Mr. Gekas also serves on the board of directors of Housing Opportunities for Women, an organization dedicated to permanent solutions for poverty and homelessness.

Harris Freier (Col ’03 CM) and Lily Morris Freier (Col ’05 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Georgia Grace, on Dec. 16, 2014. The family resides in Cranford, New Jersey. Georgia is the granddaughter of Jerold L. Freier (Col ’67 L/M) and James T. Morris (Col ’73).

Richard Wallace (Col ’02 CM) has joined the Morgantown, West Virginia, office of Littler Mendelson, a large global employment and labor law practice. He focuses on employment litigation and traditional labor law and has experience in employment litigation in both state and federal courts. Mr. Wallace’s trial experience includes matters involving race, age, sex and disability discrimination; wrongful discharge; workplace harassment; violations of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act; and breaches of the duty of loyalty.

Rick Ramsey (Com ’01, Darden ’07 CM) has been named president of Engineered Steel Products, a structural steel manufacturing company headquartered in Sophia, North Carolina. He also serves as operating partner of New Page Capital, a private equity firm that he established with Adam Duggins (Darden ’08). Engineered Steel is the first major acquisition for New Page Capital.

Emily Leitch (Col ’01 CM) has been promoted to partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, where she advises clients on securities matters, corporate finance and general corporate transactions. With a primary focus on capital markets, she represents issuers and underwriters in public and private offerings of equal securities, high-yield debt securities and investment-grade debt securities.

Zachary Gemignani (Darden ’00) has published Data Fluency, a book that outlines the importance of changing the way organizations view and use data. The book serves as a guide to help any organization transform into a data-fluent culture where any individual or team can easily consume data, make informed decisions and take immediate action to positively affect business.

Stephen Ziegler (Engr ’97 CM) and Katharine Miller Ziegler (Col ’99 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Charlotte Amelia, on Dec. 23, 2014. Charlotte joins big brothers Owen, 6; and William, 3. The family currently resides in Clifton, Virginia.

Mark Zaffarano (Col ’77 CM) was selected by the Delaware Judiciary as court administrator of the Superior Court of Delaware, effective June 1, 2015. He previously was deputy-in-charge for the U.S. District Court, San Jose Division of the Northern District of California.

Katherine Dinh (Col ’93 CM) has been elected chair of the board of the National Association of Independent Schools, which represents 1,700 independent private schools and associations of schools. She has served as head of the Prospect Sierra School, a K-8 private school in El Cerrito, California, since 2007. Prior to that, Ms. Dinh was principal of the middle and upper schools at Metairie Park Country Day School in Louisiana. She has worked in boarding, day, single-sex and co-ed schools and was a founder of a public charter school in Boston.

Jack Wolf (Col ’91 CM) received Clemson University’s 2015 Alumni Master Teacher Award for outstanding undergraduate classroom instruction. Mr. Wolf, an associate professor of finance in Clemson’s College of Business and Behavioral Science, was nominated by the student body and selected by the student alumni council. His scholarly interests lie in valuation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and shareholder voting, and his research has been published in the Journal of Finance, Financial Management and the International Review of Financial Analysis, among others.

Geoffrey Weiss (Engr ’91 CM) will take command of the U.S. Air Force 505th Test and Evaluation Group, located at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, on June 29, 2015. Col. Weiss is currently the deputy director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization, in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. He and his wife, Karen Gonsky Weiss (Col ’92, Educ ’92 L/M), have three children: Alison, who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in May 2015; Scott Weiss (Engr ’17 L/M); and Brian Weiss (Engr ’19).

Melanie Nix (Col ’91 CM) was a featured speaker at the Young Survival Coalition’s YSC Summit, a national conference focused on young women with breast cancer, in March 2015. Ms. Nix, a triple-negative breast cancer survivor who is also a speaker, author, life coach and health advocate, spoke at three sessions, including one titled “Giving Yourself Permission to Change.” She continues to run the Breast Cancer Comfort website, for breast cancer patients and survivors.

Deborah Lewis (Col ’90) has published an essay, “The Weight of Ash,” in There’s A Woman In The Pulpit: Christian Clergywomen Share Their Hard Days, Holy Moments & the Healing Power of Humor, a collection edited by Martha Spong. Rev. Lewis also is the director and campus minister for the Wesley Foundation at the University of Virginia.

Christopher Graney (Grad ’90) has published Setting Aside All Authority: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the Science against Copernicus in the Age of Galileo, an account and analysis of seventeenth-century scientific arguments against the Copernican system, with the University of Notre Dame Press. Mr. Graney’s research calls on newly translated works by anti-Copernican writers of the time to challenge the idea that opponents of the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus and Galileo were motivated by religion or devotion to an outdated intellectual tradition and instead proposes that science played an important, even predominant, role in that opposition. Mr. Graney is a professor of physics at Jefferson Community and Technical College in Louisville, Kentucky.