“Publication” Class Notes

Ritt Deitz (Col ’88 CM) published a novel, Settle Down, through Ten16 Press. The surreal sense-of-place novel follows a young Wisconsinite, freshly graduated from UVA, who comes home to find he must rediscover what it means to be from the Midwest. UVA alumni who worked for University Catering in the 1980s will recognize glimpses of the Birdwood Pavilion kitchen and Newcomb Hall. Deitz is Distinguished Teaching Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has taught French since 2000.

Jim Harshaw (Col ’99, Educ ’99 CM) published the 500th episode of his podcast, Success for the Athletic-Minded Man. He interviews world class performers including Olympic gold medalists, Navy SEALs, New York Times best selling authors and others (including several Wahoos). Episodes can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well as his website, JimHarshawJr.com.

Ruika Lin (Col ’11 CM) launched Fieldnotes from a Watcher, an independent literary journal that publishes creative nonfiction stories monthly. Fieldnotes from a Watcher explores many of life’s timeless moments that seem to be shared by many yet voiced by few. Themes include families of origin and of choice, belonging, parenthood, grief, cross-cultural musings and the creative process. Lin invites fellow UVA alumni to sign up as a member of the journal, and/or become a guest writer.

Ann M. Ryan (Grad ’87) published The Ghosts of Mark Twain: A Study of Manhood, Race, and the Gothic Imagination with the University of Missouri Press. Ryan examines Twain’s writings and his uneasy relationship to Black culture and masculinity, even as he imagines a future in which Black men will gain an authentic voice and agency. The work investigates the tense intersections of white fathers, Black men, the histories they reflect and the future they promise, as expressed in Twain’s life and writings. Some of the works considered in The Ghosts of Mark Twain are not widely known: “Which Was It?,” “The United States of Lyncherdom,” No. 44: The Mysterious Stranger and the Morgan manuscript of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Written into the record of these fragments is Twain’s desire to be a different kind of white man, just as their incomplete nature demonstrates how often he stumbled in that effort.

Elizabeth Atwood (Grad ’83) published Deadline: 200 Years of Violence Against Journalists in the United States with the University of Missouri Press. In her book, Atwood offers the first comprehensive look at the history of fatal attacks against journalists in the United States between 1829 and the present. She was inspired to explore the pressing issue of violence against American journalists after the tragic death of one of her colleagues at the Baltimore Sun, Rob Hiaasen, in the Capital Gazette shooting in 2018. Throughout, she demonstrates that distrust of the media and violence against the press in the United States are hardly new developments. Her work examines how intimidation, violence, and censorship have, in fact, been used against the American press since both its and the nation’s founding.

Mauricio Velásquez (Col ’88 CM) published his first book, Tackling Toxicity: A Skill-Based Guide to Addressing Toxicity, which provides strategies for professionals to create healthy and successful workplace environments, as well as for people navigating difficult family and social situations. The book won an April 2025 International Impact Book Award. Velásquez is president and founder of the Diversity Training Group, and has decades of experiences in diversity and inclusion and harassment prevention.

Mike McGrew (Col ’75) published his second picture book, The Boy Who Would Be Santa, with Kharis Publishing. The book tells the story of Saint Nicholas, including his struggle after the death of his parents, his teenage journey of discovery, his kindness and charity, the miracles he performed and his evolution into Santa Claus. The book serves as a resource on the historical origins of Santa and as a model of kindness for children.

Tina Schust Robinson (Col ’94) will publish her first book, Developing Your Business Leaders: A Guide to Investing at All Levels in March 2026 with ATD Press. In the book, Robinson discusses the leadership qualities and outlines the reasons and methods for investing intentionally in leaders. As a seasoned public speaker, workplace consultant and executive coach, she’s grateful every day for her Virginia education, particularly the UVA English department.

Charles Snyder (Grad ’73, ’79) published Murder at Knebworth, a cozy historical murder mystery novel which follows an American couple navigating English high society in the post-American Civil War period.

Scott Gakenheimer (Engr ’86, Darden ’90 CM) has published his first book, A To-Do List (And Some Don’t-Do’s) For Building Wealth. Gakenheimer shares the lessons and learnings from his own personal finance journey that allowed him to reach financial independence at a young age and retire at 54 years old. Though the book is aimed at recent college graduates, it provides financial advice for people of all ages. In retirement, Gakenheimer splits his time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Lucie André (Col ’89 CM) published her debut novel, Never Ready, which tells the story of protagonist Henri Drake’s experiences with love and loss in the New York City dance scene in the 1990s, which is likened to “working at a circus during a plague.” Described as “mythic and modern,” it has been featured in readings at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina, the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York and Spalding Nix Fine Art gallery in Atlanta. The novel was inspired by André’s time working at a leading modern dance company in NYC when it lost two of its nine men to AIDS.

Jane Everson (Educ ’80, ’83 CM) has retired from a long career in academia. In retirement, she has been elected to a position on her local school board and has published a non-fiction book exploring the lives of women who have influenced her life, titled Everyday Women, Extraordinary Wisdom.

Greg Coxson (Col ’80) has published his first book, Optimal-Peak-Sidelobe Polyphase Codes, co-authored with long-time collaborator Jon Russo, and published by ArTech House. Coxson is a research engineer at the United States Naval Academy (USNA), where he teaches electrical engineering courses. Prior to working at USNA, he worked as a radar systems engineer at Hughes Radar, Lockheed Martin and the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington, D.C.

David Powers (Law ’82) published his memoir, Power Lines: My American Story, recounting his youth in Washington, D.C. and his career which took him around the globe. The memoir started as a collection of light-hearted anecdotes shared with friends and evolved into an exploration of inherited personality traits based on over 200 years of family history, observations on America’s shifting political and social values, and a healthy dose of humor. Power Lines was edited by Dallas editor Nina Flournoy and published by NFES Publishing in Dallas.

Ted Weihe (Arch ’79) published his book, What Is Lost with the Demise of USAID: Personal Reflections. The book discusses what is lost with the demise of USAID, reflecting on its impact on American leadership, poor and rural communities and humanitarian relief efforts. It includes chapters covering the voter registration campaign in Chile that defeated Pinochet and the successful formation of cooperatives in Poland, Albania, Barbados, South Sudan and Uganda. Weihe has written 12 self-published books which cover ancestry, sailing, chocolate and cooperative development, among other topics.

Lewis “Sandy” Rock (Col ’66, Med ’70, Res ’72 CM) published a memoir, The ADHD MD — A 70’s Memoir. Written over a period of thirty or forty years, the book begins with the author’s honorable discharge from the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy as a conscientious objector before covering his decade as a physician in a U.S. Navy hospital, a rural Virginia pediatric mobile clinic, the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, and ultimately the Appalachian portion of Southwest Virginia. Along the way, he built a house, raised two sons and twenty-two Great Danes, made house calls on horseback, got divorced, got married, got divorced again, and picked and grinned on guitar and banjo with a group of locals and “local outsiders.” Central to the book is the author’s experience with ADHD, as he gradually realizes how the disorder both benefitted and challenged him throughout his journey.

Charlene Wang (Law ’15) will publish her debut novel, I’ll Follow You, in October through Mindy’s Book Studio, actress Mindy Kaling’s book and development imprint with Amazon Publishing. Wang’s psychological thriller explores the complex and dangerous friendship of two young women looking to escape their dead-end town.

Stephen C. Mercado (Col ’84 CM) recently published his second book, Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons: How Noborito’s Scientists and Technicians Served in the Second World War and the Cold War (Pen & Sword Military, 2025). He is also the author of The Shadow Warriors of Nakano: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Elite Intelligence School (Brassey’s, 2002), a dozen articles and several dozen book reviews on intelligence and other subjects.

Andrew Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) recently published his 14th textbook, Ophthalmology of Sports. Additionally, Lee’s daughter, Virginia Lee (Col ’26), an Echols Scholar, will be graduating next year.

Michael J. Hightower (Grad ’07) has written two biographies since 2021, both released to critical acclaim by the University of Oklahoma Press. At War with Corruption chronicles the career of former U.S. Attorney Bill Price, who spearheaded prosecutions of Oklahoma county commissioners in what became the most extensive case of public corruption in FBI history. Hightower’s subsequent book, Justice for All, tells the story of Dick T. Morgan, a frontier lawyer in Oklahoma Territory, six-term congressman (1909-20) and father of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who was ahead of his time in promoting fairness for all Americans. Hightower lives with his wife, Judy, in Charlottesville and Oklahoma City.

George M. Dougherty (Engr ’91, ’93 CM) wrote Beast in the Machine: How Robotics and AI Will Transform Warfare and the Future of Human Conflict, to be released by BenBella Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster in August. Booklist states that “Beast in the Machine is an incredible resource for raising public awareness and education around this revolution in warfare.” Dougherty is a senior military leader in U.S. Air Force science and technology and a consultant to companies facing disruptive change in their industries.

Justin Black (Col ’11), Will Gemma (Col ’11 CM) and Dietrich Teschner co-directed two documentary films about the James River in Virginia, Headwaters Down Part 1 and Part 2, which were recently picked up by Virginia Public Media and nationally by PBS. The two-part series follows their five-person crew as they paddle the entire 350 miles of the James River, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay. The films highlight environmental disasters, lesser-taught history, camaraderie and misadventures along the way. Headwaters Down Part 1 screened during the Virginia Film Festival in 2023 to over 500 people in the Culbreth Theatre on Grounds. The series is now available to stream online via the PBS app and on the Headwaters Down website.

Sarah Rovang (Arch ’10 CM) wrote her book, Through the Long Desert: Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright, to be released by Rizzoli Electa in September. Though the two heroes of 20th-century art and architecture never collaborated, they maintained a friendship and mutual admiration, exchanging roughly two dozen letters during their lifetimes. This unique meditation on American artistic expression explores the nature of intellectual kinship, as well as home, place and material. Rovang includes a look at O’Keeffe’s time at UVA in the early 1910s, exploring the resonance of her campus watercolors with Wright’s renderings of the same period.

John M. Bowers (Grad ’73, ’78 CM) published his second novel, Legion of the Daggerstone, which follows a 21st-century analogue of J. R. R. Tolkien. His protagonist, an Iraq War combat veteran and UVA English professor, publishes a bestselling trilogy of fantasy novels, only in Charlottesville instead of Oxford. Bowers also published his most recent scholarly book, Tolkien on Chaucer, 1913-1959, with Oxford University Press.

Latorial Faison (Col ’95 CM) will publish her poetry collection, Nursery Rhymes in Black, on July 15. Faison was awarded the 2023 Permafrost Poetry Book Prize, judged by renowned poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, for the manuscript. Blending tradition, memory and resistance, Nursery Rhymes in Black reimagines familiar childhood rhymes through the lens of Black history and lived experience. The volume has received acclaim from some of the most esteemed voices in literature, including Joanne Gabbin, Judy Juanita, Glenis Redmond, Trudier Harris and Cedric Tillman, who praise Faison’s ability to transform the rhythmic echoes of youth into a resonant and necessary cultural reckoning.

Dan Reiter (Col ’00) published his debut collection of surf-themed non-fiction, On a Rising Swell, through the University Press of Florida in April. Kirkus Reviews awarded it a star, calling it “a surfing classic fit to sit beside John Long’s The Big Drop (1999) and William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days (2015).”

Christina Shawn (Educ ’08) published her children’s picture book: And Then Came You: When Families Grow Love Grows Too with Chronicle Books in April.

Families grow and change, but what if you like things just the way they are? What if you aren’t ready to welcome in a new parent, a messy pet, or a baby sister who cries a lot? Change can be scary, but even a full heart has room to grow.

Both hilarious and heartwarming, this endearing children’s book is a powerful tool for helping little ones understand that there are often silver linings to the changes life brings. Even when things are initially uncomfortable, an open heart paves the way and teaches us that a family can be full of love at any size.

Liz Garton Scanlon, author of Caldecott Honor winner All the World called Shawn’s book “A lyrical love letter, written to families of all shapes and sizes.”

Shawn received her master’s degree in reading education at UVA before becoming a reading specialist, literacy coach, and author. Originally from Long Island, New York, she now lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, three kids, and two fuzzy bunnies.

For information about Shawn’s book tour and local events visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

Jack Bailey (Col ’88 CM) published his first work of fiction, Harold the Hairy Herald and the Adventure of a Lifetime. This middle-grade novel tells the story of Harold, an inexplicably hirsute apprentice herald working in the castle of King Thymos. When Harold joins the search party tasked with locating the King’s missing son, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very existence of the Kingdom of Dazain. To save the Kingdom, he must find his way to the Pandemonium for a fateful conversation with the mysterious goddess Aletheia.

Harold the Hairy Herald and the Adventure of a Lifetime is a classic hero’s journey in which a boy navigates a dangerous world and discovers what he’s capable of in the face of difficult challenges.

Jordan Gruber (Law ’88) co-wrote Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance, with James Fadiman, “the father of modern microdosing.” The book was published through St. Martin’s Press. According to Rick Doblin, the founder of Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, it is “the most comprehensive and data-based book on microdosing ever written.”

Jason Sisney (Col ’95 CM) published his article, “California’s Olympic Financial Failure: The 1960 Winter Games,” in the Journal of Olympic History in May. Seven years of research went into his analysis. Sisney is a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians and is a senior staffer for the California State Assembly. He advises elected assemblymembers on the state budget and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Kara O’Brien Cox (Col ’89 CM) published her debut novel, Another Summer, under her pen name Kara Kentley. A second chance contemporary romance, Another Summer follows Avery, who returns to the Maine lakeside resort where she worked in college and comes face to face with her first love, Miles, who ghosted her after breaking her heart a decade ago. As they work together to help a friend, Avery begins to question everything she thought she knew about Miles, their past, her future and herself.

Cox and her husband, James P. Cox III (Law ’83) reside in Charlottesville.

Clare Short (Educ ’12) released her debut children’s book, Bo the Boat, this spring. A pediatric speech-language pathologist and mother of three young children, Short wrote this lift-the-flap board book to support early speech and language skills for young children. Readers will join Bo and his trusty companion, Captain Mo, as they cruise through the sparkling waves, embarking on a bustling workday full of surprises and friendly faces. With charming illustrations by Paula Rodriguez and engaging rhymes, Bo the Boat is the perfect voyage for curious minds ages 0-3. Short lives with her husband, Chris Short (Engr ’08, ’12), in Atlanta, where they cheer on the Wahoos with their children.

Greg Hansard (Col ’03) published his second book, Virginia Cider: A Guide from Colonial Days to Craft’s Golden Age (University of Virginia Press, October 2024). The book looks at the history and techniques of making the iconic Virginia beverage from the colonial era to today. Included in the book are a guide and map of all the cideries in the state. Hansard says that inspiration for the book came from a work experience in 2014 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, where he worked in collaboration with breweries, meaderies and cideries to brew recipes from the museum archives.

Oneya Fennell Okuwobi (Col ’01 CM) released her first monograph, Who Pays for Diversity? Why Programs Fail at Racial Equity and What to Do about It with University of California Press, on March 18, 2025. Drawing on accounts of employees from across the workplace spectrum, from corporations to churches to universities, Who Pays for Diversity? details how the optics of diversity programs undermine the competence of employees while diminishing their well-being and workplace productivity. Okuwobi argues that diversity programs have been a costly detour on the path to racial justice, and getting back on track requires solutions that provide equity, dignity, and agency to all employees, instead of defending the status quo. Dr. Okuwobi is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati.

Corinna Barrett Lain (Law ’96) published Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection (NYU Press 2025). Based on seven years of deep research, this exposé takes readers into the notoriously secretive world of American executions, using shocking revelations about lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly. The story of lethal injection is a story of state law-breaking and cover-ups, fake science and torturous drugs, gross incompetence by woefully inept executioners, and a stunning indifference to the way prisoners die at the hands of the state. She examines all the ways that the state cannot be trusted with the power to take life, and all the ways it has tried to cover that up.

Lain is the S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore professor of law at the University of Richmond School of Law.

Meena Khandelwal (Col ’85, Grad ’88, Grad ’95) has published her second ethnographic monograph, Cookstove Chronicles: Social Life of a Women’s Technology in India. It examines traditional, biomass-burning mud stoves, the women who build and use them, and the experts who have been trying to ‘improve’ them for decades. She answers the question of why so many Indian women continue to use wood-burning, smoke-spewing stoves when they have other options. Khandelwal, a professor of anthropology, recently won the 2025 President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Iowa, her third teaching award.

Duncan Clarke (Grad ’70 CM) has published a new novel, Murder on the Appalachian Trail. The novel follows a criminal law professor who works with his beloved German Shepherd, a runaway teen and the FBI to solve a series of murders on the Appalachian Trail. Clarke, who has hiked the Appalachian Trail twice, draws on his experience and love of the trail in his writing. Murder on the Appalachian Trail can be found online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is published by Bell Isle Books. Clarke is a professor emeritus of international relations at American University and is a member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Walter Lee Fanning (Med ’70) has published Microbial Mysteries: A Rocky Road, under the pseudonym Lee F. Walters MD. Microbial Mysteries is the third release in a trilogy of semiautobiographical medical thrillers published by Friesen Press in Vancouver. The novel follows the Walter couple, whose medical careers are caught between an unstable associate and a mafia boss. It is available at various online book sellers.