“Other” Class Notes

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.

Diane Wilkin (Col ’77) was recently elected president of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association. Previously, she served on the PAEA board as both secondary division director and awards chairperson. Ms. Wilkin is a high school art teacher in the Bristol Township School District in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where she instructs students in studio and critical design thinking through crafts and design, sculpture, general arts and both digital and film photography. She exhibits her own creative work and serves as a board member for the Rittenhouse Square Fine Arts Association in Philadelphia.

Joni House (Col ’77 CM) was recently named executive vice president of Alexander Proudfoot, a global operations management consulting firm. She has more than 20 years of experience in directing organizational change that focuses on increased productivity, reduced costs and improved financial results. Previously, Ms. House served as assistant vice president—client executive at Aricent, a KKR-owned engineering and software services company, and as president and chief executive officer of The Grayfen Group Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in cost reduction.

Jill Tietjen (Engr ’76 CM) has been named chief executive officer of the National Women’s Hall of Fame, which is located in Seneca Falls, New York. She has a long affiliation with the hall, having attended every induction ceremony since 1994, and has served on the hall’s board of directors since 2009, most recently as president.

C. Hein (Col ’76, Grad ’82 CM) has been named to the board of trustees of the George C. Marshall Foundation, which perpetuates the legacy of George C. Marshall through various conferences and symposia, a museum, a research library and archives, and more. Mr. Hein is a professor of religion and philosophy at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where he has taught since 1983.

Christopher D’Angelo (Col ’75, Law ’78) recently served as moderator and speaker for the 2014 International Corporate Counsel College, organized and presented in Europe each year by the International Association of Defense Counsel. The “Data: The Gold of the XXI Century” conference was held in Milan, Italy, and explored the legal and practical challenges faced by multinational companies in the creation, use and protection of data as a corporate asset, privacy issues, information governance and asset protection, cybersecurity, crisis management, the “butterfly effect” and cyber risk and insurance. Mr. D’Angelo is chair of Montgomery McCracken’s international practice and co-chair of the firm’s product liability, toxic torts and catastrophic events practice. He serves as national counsel for several major U.S. clients and represents foreign concerns in the U.S. and U.S. concerns abroad.

Herbert Slatery (Col ’74 CM) was sworn in as the 27th attorney general and reporter of the state of Tennessee on Oct. 1, 2014. The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. David Bowen (Col ’74), Mr. Slatery’s close friend and former UVA roommate. Previously, Mr. Slatery served for four years as chief legal counsel to Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee and before that worked as an attorney for 30 years in the Knoxville, Tennessee, law firm of Egerton McAfee Armistead & Davis.

David Rojohn (Engr ’74) recently retired after providing more than 40 years of civil engineering, construction and maintenance services to Gulf Oil and Bettis Atomic Power Laboratories near Pittsburgh. Interested in future endeavors, he retains his Professional Engineer designation. He recently collaborated with his sister, his son and a friend on a published short story, “Journey of the Piggyback Flight Pilot,” which tells of his father’s heroic aviation efforts during the “Piggyback Flight” of World War II. Mr. Rojohn plans to continue writing and publishing with his wife, Sharon, while in the meantime polishing a rusty golf game.

Frank Riggs (Law ’74 CM) was named “Lawyer of the Year” 2015 by Best Lawyers in America for litigation in construction law in Atlanta. A partner in the construction group of Troutman Sanders, he focuses his practice on construction law matters, including the counseling of public and private owners, general contractors, construction managers, equipment suppliers and more. Mr. Riggs is also a fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers.

Susan Schmidt (Grad ’73) published a coming-of-age novel, Song of Moving Water, set in 1970s Virginia. The book tests whether new environmental laws can save a river from a proposed dam. She also published a new collection of poems, Salt Runs in My Blood, which tells her personal journey: she recalls bright parrots, big trout, sea gales, Celtic ancestry, old loves, traveling the world, learning to navigate and more. Ms. Schmidt currently works as a book editor, but previously worked as a science policy analyst, sailboat captain and professor of literature and environmental decision-making.

David Lavine (Med ’72) was recently honored by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Association of Plastic Surgeons for his proposal for the “ICON Project,” a video project that will honor living pioneers in the field of plastic surgery. Among the subjects Dr. Lavine has interviewed for the project is Dr. Milton Edgerton, who in 1970 established the department of plastic surgery at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and went on to break new ground in many areas of plastic surgery, including craniofacial surgery, head and neck tumor and reconstruction surgery, and gender reassignment surgery. Gerard Grau (Med ’72) and Mark Constantian (Med ’72 L/M) provided research assistance and support for the project.