Class Notes

Christina Keenan (Col ’12, Educ ’12) and Jack Keenan (Col ’11 CM), welcomed their son, Myles Eslin, Jan. 19, 2023. He joins his big sister, Charlotte Anne, who will turn 4 in December. 

Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (Col ’04, Educ ’04) wrote a short story, “Ripen,” that was included in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, edited by Lisa Unger and Steph Cha.

Bernier has been writing short fiction set in her home island of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, since she was an undergraduate student at UVA. Bernier returned to the Virgin Islands after graduating from UVA, but currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and children. 

Rayotis Perkins (Col ’88 CM) received a ‘Hoos Making a Difference’ honor by the Virginia Football Alumni Club. Dr. Perkins was nominated for his positive contributions as a leader and dedication to community service. 

Dr. Perkins played football as a defensive tackle during the 1980’s for the late coach George Welsh. After his collegiate career, he continued his passion for football as a free agent with the National Football League to include brief stints with the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals.

Dr. Perkins is currently an assistant principal and athletic director with Tolleson Union High School in Phoenix.

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.

Tink “Buddy” Johnson (Col ’78 CM) has retired from private practice in urology after 35 years in Statesville, North Carolina. He has been appointed as an assistant clinical professor of urology at Wake Forest University and will be working at the VA Medical Center in Salisbury, North Carolina. He will be responsible for patient care and urology resident training. Buddy and his wife Margaret will continue to live in Statesville.

Caroline Higgins Languasco (Engr ’11 CM) and Jon Languasco (Engr ’15) welcomed their second child, Archer James, on January 19, 2023. Archer has already visited Grounds twice. Big sister Jules is elated.

Joe Iriarte (Com ’09, ’10) married Katherine Mize on Sept. 30, 2023 at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. They met in New York City and live in Boston with their pup Alfie.

Kris Nanda, (Col ’81, Law ’85 CM) of Ottawa, Ontario recently retired from the Canadian federal government where he worked for nearly 22 years.  Before that, his career included six years as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State , with postings in Toronto, Panama and Ottawa.  From 2017-2021, he served as manager of environmental petitions for the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, helping Canadians convey their environmental concerns to federal cbinet ministers.

In August 2023, Kris and his wife Alison volunteered at A Rocha France’s study and retreat centre at Domaine des Courmettes in the Les Alpes Maritimes high above the Cote D’Azur and Nice in Southern France. A Rocha is a Christian organization with a twofold objective – conservation and raising public awareness on the need and reasons for being good stewards of creation.  The Les Courmettes facility was built over 100 years ago with a donation from former UVA student Paul Goodloe McIntire, who also funded the McIntire School of Commerce at UVA and after whom McIntire Amphitheatre is named.

Nora Stone (Col ’07) has published her first book, How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960-2022. 

Since the 1960s, documentary films have moved closer to the mainstream, thanks to the popularity of “rockumentaries”, the independent film movement, support from public and cable television, and the rise of streaming video services. Documentary films have become reliable earners at the U.S. box office and ubiquitous on streaming platforms, while historically they existed on the margins of mainstream media. How do we explain the growing commercialization of documentary films and the conditions that fueled their transformation?

Streaming and the growing interest in reality TV are usually offered as initial explanations whenever a documentary enters the cultural conversation or breaks a box-office record, but neither of those causes grapple with the overlapping causal mechanisms that commercialized documentary film. How Documentaries Went Mainstream provides a more comprehensive and meaningful periodization of the commercialization of documentary film. Although the commercial ascension of documentary films might seem meteoric, it is the culmination of decades-long efforts that have developed and fortified the audience for documentary features. Author Nora Stone refines rough explanations of these efforts through a robust synoptic history of the market for documentary films, using knowledge of film economics and the norms of industry discourse to tell a richer story. This periodization will allow scholars to compare the commercialization of documentary film with other genres. Drawing on archival documents, industry trade journals and popular press, and interviews with filmmakers and film distributors, Stone illuminates how documentary features have become more plentiful, popular, and profitable than ever before.

Kristin Kisska Mehigan (Com ’90 CM) published her debut novel, The Hint of Light, under her pen name Kristin Kisska. The book follows a grieving mother who, after learning that her late son may have fathered a child, desperately searches for the granddaughter she never knew existed. The novel is in the UVA Authors Collection in the Rotunda Dome Room.

Mehigan, who lives in Richmond with her family, including her daughter Elyse Mehigan (Col ’23 CM), has also published mystery and suspense short stories under her pen name.

Steve Nesbit (Engr ’80, ’82 CM) was one of six American Nuclear Society members elevated to the rank of Fellow in September 2023.  The ANS past president (2021–2022) and founder of LMNT Consulting LLC was recognized for being a prominent and effective leader and spokesperson for the beneficial use of nuclear technology.  The society highlighted Nesbit’s work to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium by converting it to mixed oxide fuel and using it in commercial nuclear reactors.