Class Notes

Nerissa Neal Rouzer (Col ’06 CM) and Garett Michael Rouzer (Arch ’05 CM) welcomed their second son, Owen Alexander, on December 13, 2021. The family lives in Charlottesville.

Jennifer Balinsky Armini (Col ’91 CM) was sworn in as the Massachusetts State Representative for the 8th Essex District on January 4, 2023 in the historic House chamber of the Massachusetts State House. Armini, a Democrat, won a hotly-contested six-way primary and ran unopposed in the fall. 

Julie Kleckley Hummer (Col ’90 CM) was elected to the Anne Arundel County Council in November 2022, representing 85,000-plus residents in District 4. She is the first woman to hold that seat. Previously, she served on the Anne Arundel County Board of Education from 2015-2020. She and her husband Jon and their five children live in Laurel, Maryland.

Ben Krakauer (Col ’03) has recorded an album of original banjo music called Hidden Animals.The album will be released March 22 by Adhyâropa Records. The music moves between blazing bluegrass romps, conversational jams, harmonically tender daydreams and chaotically cohesive grooves. It’s an album of gratitude, grief, hunkering down and celebrating the beauty of friendship, nature and human expression during a time when nothing can be taken for granted. 

Chapman Hood Frazier (Grad ’94) has recently published a collection of poetry entitled The Lost Books of the Bestiary. The collection of poems explores animals, culture, myth and the spirit through unusual perspectives. The book was a finalist for the V Press LC Award. 

The poems have won awards from The Virginia Poetry Society and some have appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Southern Poetry Review, The South Carolina Poetry Review and other publications. 

Spencer R. Allen (Col ’05 CM) has joined Fox Rothschild LLP in Denver, CO as an Associate in the Litigation Department. Spencer represents clients in a broad range of complex commercial disputes with a focus on environmental and natural resources litigation. 

Javier Escudero Rodríguez (Grad ’88, ’92) has published a photography book entitled Pierre Fatumbi Verger: United States of America 1934 & 1937 (Bologna, Damiani 2022). The book presents a collection of 150 photographs by Verger, as well as an introductory analysis that contextualizes the collection in the Great Depression. 

In the introduction, Javier Escudero Rodríguez discusses Verger´s important contribution to modern photography as well as the lasting relevance of this previously unknown collection of iconic images of the Great Depression. The 150 images, the majority of which are published here for the first time, were selected from among 1,110 negatives in the archive at the Pierre Verger Foundation in Salvador after laborious and meticulous research. 

Terry Bailey (Educ ’71, ’90 CM)  has authored and published two books: Forged by Coal: A Family’s Story and The Gooney Otter.

Forged by Coal is a memoir about family life in the coal camps of Southern West Virginia from 1945 to 1959. The book portrays cultural changes and the impact of automation and technology as the coal camp system declines in the last decade when “Coal was King.” 

The Gooney Otter is a children’s picture book about river otters in Southern West Virginia. Watercolor illustrations provide a close-up view of the life of the river otter.

Both titles are available from Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

William “Billy” Skrobacz (Col ’13, Educ ’14, Darden ’21 CM) and Emily D. Skrobacz (Educ ’15 CM) welcomed Charlotte Anne “Lottie” Skrobacz to the world Feb. 8, 2023. 

Casey King (Engr ’89) recently concluded the 16th annual HGTC Addiction and Recovery lecture series at Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway, South Carolina. Casey created the series in 2008, two-and-a-half years into his own recovery from addiction, as a way to reduce the stigma associated with addiction and to show recovery in a positive light. This year’s keynote speaker was actor/producer Todd Bridges, who spoke about his own recovery. 

In 2019, Casey was awarded HGTC Professor of the Year and FAVOR Community Advocate of the year for his dedication and work with the series. 

Dr. Vanessa M. Barnabei (Grad ’81, Med ’85 CM) recently retired from the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences after 10 years as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She served as Chair of that department from 2012-2020 and as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs from 2020-2023. She currently holds the title of Professor Emerita. 

In January 2023, she relocated to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and is happy to be back on the East Coast and closer to family and friends. In retirement, she hopes to get back to playing tennis and piano, volunteering and finding ways to give back to the community.

Brian C. Drummond (Col ’80 CM) has been elected to the board of trustees of the George Mason University Foundation for a three year term. Brian is currently serving his second three year term on Virginia Bar Council. He continues to practice law in Northern Virginia, and he divides his time between his homes in West Falls Church and Cocoa, FL. 

Katherine Snider (Col ’94 CM) is the CEO of Good+Foundation, a national nonprofit that uses a multi-generational approach to address family poverty. Good+Foundation meets the short-term needs of mothers, fathers and caregivers living on low-incomes while also helping families create pathways for long-term, self-determined success.

In her fourteen years with the organization, Katherine has led the development and launch of several new initiatives including the organization’s Fatherhood Initiative, the publication of a Child Support Toolkit, a $900K microgrants program to provide cash assistance to parents who are struggling to pay for basic necessities and the Good+Training Academy which trains social workers, home visitors and frontline workers to intentionally engage fathers in their case work. 

Anne Newgarden (Col ’83 CM) has published Adventures of a Soul: Psychics, Mediums, the Mystical, and Me. The book is memoir chronicling her explorations in the metaphysical realms and how they transformed her worldview and her life. The book features Dr. Jim Tucker and the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies’ work investigating children’s past life memories. 

Newgarden’s other published works include Becoming Jane: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen, as well as Christmas in New York and Christmas Around the World, pop-up books with artist Chuck Fischer. 

Mary Brancaccio (Col ’81 CM) has published her first poetry collection, Fierce Geometry. Her poetry travels the emotive back roads and roadside attractions of one woman’s journey through longing, love and loss. 

Brancaccio’s poetry has appeared in Naugatuck River Review, Minerva Rising, Edison Literary Review, Lake Affect Magazine and Adana, among others. Her poem, Unfinished Work, was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is included in several anthologies of poetry, including Writing the Land: Maine, Writing the Land: Northeast, Farewell to Nuclear, Welcome to Renewable Energy (a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster) and Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women. 

Frank Sica (Arch ’78) was honored with two awards from the American Institute of Architects. Sica received AIA New York State’s prestigious Henry Hobson Richardson Award,  which recognizes AIA members practicing in the private sector who have made significant and transformative contributions to the quality of New York public architecture. He also received this year’s Robert and Louise Bethune award from the Buffalo/WNY AIA in recognition of a lifetime of notable contributions to the profession of architecture through practice, mentorship, and community leadership.

Julia Truelove (Nurs ’14, ’15) and David Ensey (Engr ’14) were married on October 6th, 2022 in Washington, D.C. The couple became friends after he invited her to interview for the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. Truelove is the daughter of Margaret Kositch (Col ’83 CM) and Graham Truelove (Col ’83). The wedding party included Amanda J. Ray-Fehlinger (Engr ’13 CM), Patrick Greco (Col ’13, Law ’16), and Kathryn (Kingsbury) Greco (Col ’15 CM), with many other ’Hoos joining to celebrate. The couple lives in Washington, DC, where Truelove is a nurse in the Burn/Trauma ICU at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, and Ensey is the Director of Data Analytics at Optoro, a reverse-logistics technology firm. 

Marlene W. Hall (Col ’96 CM) has joined Real Brokerage LLC in McLean, Virginia. Licensed in Virginia and Washington, D.C., Hall is an Air Force veteran raised in Northern Virginia with eight years of experience as a real estate agent.

Holly Donahue Singh (Grad ’05, ’11 CM) published her first book, Infertility in a Crowded Country: Hiding Reproduction in India (Indiana University Press), an academic monograph based on long-term fieldwork in North India.

In Lucknow, the capital of India’s most populous state, the stigmas and colonial legacies surrounding sexual propriety and population growth affect how Muslim women, often in poverty, cope with infertility. Singh draws on interviews, observation, and auto ethnographic perspectives in local communities and Lucknow’s infertility clinics to examine access to technology and treatments and to explore how pop culture shapes the reproductive paths of women and their supporters through clinical spaces, health camps, religious sites, and adoption agencies.

Singh is a faculty member at the Judy Genshaft Honors College at the University of South Florida. 

For more information about the book: https://iupress.org/9780253063878/infertility-in-a-crowded-country/

Above left: Singh presents a copy of the book to Dean Charles Adams (Grad ’79, ’85) of the Judith Genshaft Honors College at the release event at USF.

Ed Coleman (Col ’04) was selected to the 2023 “Legal Elite” list by Business North Carolina magazine for his litigation law practice. Inclusion is based entirely on peer review and fewer than 4 percent of the lawyers in North Carolina are recognized on this list. Coleman is a partner at Ragsdale Liggett PLLC in Raleigh, North Carolina and practices in civil litigation defense.

Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) wrote the introduction to a new edition of The Man Who Fell to Earth, published by Centipede Press. 

Alison Deich (Col ’10) has been named to Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PPLC’s partnership. Deich is a partner in the law firm’s antitrust practice, where she represents a wide range of plaintiffs in antitrust, civil rights and environmental litigation. She is currently working on a number of high profile antitrust cases such as Jien v. Perdue Farms, where the firm represents a proposed class of poultry plant workers. 

Dr. Mark W. Dewalt (Grad ’86 CM) published an article in The Journal of Plain Anabaptists Communities this past fall, entitled “Amish Mortality Rates in the Twenty-First Century.” 

John W. Via III  (Engr `84 CM) has joined Rice University as a Professor of Practice and Associate Director of the Master of Engineering Management and Leadership (MEML) program, based out of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL). The in-person version of the MEML was launched in 2021 and the online program was launched in 2022. The program honored its first graduates in December 2022. 

Via also continues to serve as a Trustee for UVA’s School of Engineering. 

Carolyn Oare (Col ’17 CM)  married David Wilkes on November 12, 2022 at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Washington, DC. In attendance were Jean Wang (Col ’18 CM), Henry Hull (Arch ’16, ’17), Morgan Hull (Col ’17) and Kathleen DiSanto (Col ’05). Carolyn and David are living in Arlington, Virginia while David is stationed at Andrews Air Force Base.

Bhakti Patel (Col ’99) has been appointed as Managing Principal of the Austin, Texas office at CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, which is a top ten professional services firm offering assurance, tax, consulting and wealth advisory services.  

Valorie Young (Col `04 CM) has launched two CBD brands: Uncle Yogi’s and Kadii (pronounced caddie). The products contain zero THC. Uncle Yogi’s is a health and wellness brand that focuses on all natural and organic skincare. It’s named after Valorie’s late brother, nicknamed Uncle Yogi, who struggled with an opiate addiction after a back injury. In his honor, the brand donates 5% of all sales to organizations around Charlottesville that aid in combating opiate and drug addiction.

The second brand, Kadii, is inspired by golf. The products are based on Valorie’s husband’s experience as a professional golf caddie. Through his work, he came to understand the problems golfers have with their physical and mental game. Kadii offers products to help with both. 

Peter Garvey (Darden ’02) has been appointed mid-Atlantic growth officer at Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. Garvey has spent more than 16 years with the firm in various roles, including technical leader for water and wastewater, lead for northeast water business growth initiative, and business unit manager for the firm’s Boston office and New England operations. He has also developed and led the firm’s client management and business development training initiatives for senior managers. As mid-Atlantic growth officer, Garvey will help Dewberry continue its expansion in the region, focusing on maintaining and developing relationships and opportunities with state/local, commercial, and federal clients.

Joseph A. Fry (Grad ’70, ’74) has published Letters from the Southern Homefront: The American South Responds to the Vietnam War (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2023). This edited collection of letters provides a voice to southerners from across the region expressing a broad range of political, economic, racial, and cultural views on the war and its domestic impact. 

Matt Trogdon (Col ’04 CM) and Sarah Devine were married on June 18, 2022 in Washington, DC. Matt is a financial advisor at Craftwork Capital, LLC, an independent advisory firm in the DC area. Sara is a foreign service officer at the U.S. Department of State. The couple currently lives in Washington with their beloved rescue pup, Maisie.

James Lewis (Col ’76 CM) has been elected to a two-year term as Chief Judge of the Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

Alana Malick Ritenour (Col ’02 CM) and her husband, Rhodes Ritenour (Col ’00, Law ’05 CM) have published a children’s book called The Adventures of Rhodes and Alana: School Bus Secret. Eight-year-old Rhodes and Alana miss the school bus, leading to an exciting journey and an opportunity for Rhodes to tell Alana about living with type 1 diabetes. As a result, a new friendship is formed between these two spirited and confident kids. Proceeds benefit the American Diabetes Association, JDRF, and TheDiabetesSupportGroup.org. For more, visit www.RhodesandAlana.com.

David Massey (Col ’81, Law ’84) released his sixth album of original music – Darkness At Dawn – in August 2022. The record peaked at number 4 on the Roots Music Report’s Country/Americana album chart and at number 15 on the RMR’s Country album chart. Darkness at Dawn and David’s five previous releases are available on the major streaming platforms; several videos are available on youtube, and reviews and other information are at www.davemasseymusic.com.

Steven Schaikewitz (Col ’70 CM) recently coauthored “Variations on a Theme: Georgia’s Evolving Test for Interlocutory Injunctive Relief”.  The article appeared in the August 2022 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.

Jim Flinn (Col ’76, Grad ’98) looks forward to catching up with classmates in 2026 at the 50th anniversary reunion of the class of 1976.

Matt Coleman (Col ’03, Darden ’11 CM) has joined The Demex Group as chief risk officer. Demex enhances the climate resilience and economic value of companies and people by designing, underwriting, and executing weather risk transfer products. In addition, Coleman was honored as a 125th Anniversary Fellow by Penn State University’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Matt was nominated by the Department of Meteorology for his pioneering leadership in financial weather risk, insurance-linked securities investing, and diversity and mentorship.