Class Notes

 Lauren Santana (Col ’06, Educ ’07) has founded Curated Concierge in Charlottesville, helping families and professionals manage their busy lives. She recently launched Curated Campus to support UVA students and their families with move-in, move-out and summer storage. After 13 years as an elementary educator, she is excited to pivot while continuing her work of supporting families in a new way.

Steve Huntoon (Col ’78, Law ’82 CM) published his 100th trade press column on the electric power industry. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Wilmington, Delaware, and Boston, near their grandchildren, and in Miami Beach during the winter. He will be co-hosting a celebration of the Declaration’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026, at Jefferson Hall, West Range, on Grounds.

Scott Lambridis (Col ’99) will publish his debut novel, St. Ulphia’s Dead, with Regal House Publishing in July. A literary novel with a speculative edge, St. Ulphia’s Dead follows two researchers investigating an outbreak of apparent possession on a remote island, where the boundary between science and belief begins to erode. Lambridis, a former neurobiology student, lives in Washington state and earned his MFA from San Francisco State University.

Eugene Resnick (Col ’10 CM) has been selected as a finalist for the Social Action Award from the British Council‘s Study in UK Alumni Awards 2026. Resnick is an alumnus of The London School of Economics and Political Science and a graduate of a United Kingdom university.

Peter Gallagher (Engr ’96) was elected a partner at Egon Zehnder, a global leadership advisory firm. He works with boards and CEOs of public and private equity companies on executive search and leadership development, with a focus in biotech, pharma and the life sciences.

Erin Anderson (Col ’00, Educ ’04, ’15 CM) was appointed the William and Sheila Konar Director of Urban Education Success at the University of Rochester. Previously, she was an associate professor at the University of Denver. She has authored 39 journal articles, book chapters, reports and books, including the book, Leading Continuous Improvement in Schools: Enacting Leadership Standards to Advance Educational Quality and Equity, co-authored with former UVA researcher Kathleen M.W. Cunningham and current UVA professor David Eddy-Spicer.

Pamela Norsworthy (Col ’80 CM) published her second historical fiction novel, The Florentine Entanglement, in January. The Florentine Entanglement is a thriller involving the U-2 incident during the Cold War. Norsworthy previously received a nomination for Georgia Author of the Year for her debut novel War Bonds. Both books earned “Get It” tags from Kirkus Reviews. Norsworthy turned to fiction writing after many years as a journalist, with stints at CNN, WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, and other outlets. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, Cameron Gray Norsworthy (Col ’79), a retired Presbyterian pastor, musician and poet.

L. Flick Hatcher (Col ’77 CM) has published his second novel, Romancing Normal, with Bookbaby Press. A work of fiction that is alternately light-hearted and heart-breaking, the story follows Drew Carter’s quest to date gay away by finding the woman who so captivates his heart that his lust  for men is obliterated, leaving him free to fulfill “The Plan”: a great job, beautiful wife, 2.5 kids, white picket fence and Ford Country Squire station wagon. Maybe a pony. Set primarily at a fictionalized University of Virginia, the story follows Drew from straight to gay to grey. He discovers the joy of living authentically, fulfilling a plan even greater than he’d hoped for, proving that nice guys don’t finish last.

Thomas Siu (Law ’21), a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, was named Junior Officer of the Year for fiscal year 2025 at Defense Service Office Southeast in Norfolk, Virginia. He has served on active duty since 2021 and at Defense Service Office Southeast since 2023, where he represents those charged at courts-martial. He will transfer to the Navy’s appeals unit this summer.

Lynn Rivera (Engr ’83) has written Love in the Time of Autism: A Memoir, a collection of haibun essays about raising her son who has been diagnosed with autism. Sometimes funny, sometimes painful, her stories run the gamut of human emotion as she searches for answers to the questions of parenting a son on the autism spectrum. Though she offers little advice, she describes implicitly the transformation of her family, the growth of understanding and patience, and ultimately, the power of love.

Neil Liebowitz (Col ’78 CM) wrote his first novel, Deception: A psychiatrist’s stolen journal, under the pseudonym Aaron Riley. It follows two early career psychiatrists in their journey to balance the needs of their patients with their own needs. Liebowitz is a retired psychiatrist and founder of the Connecticut Anxiety & Depression Treatment Center. He has also written a memoir, Psychiatry in Techno colors: A psychiatrist’s memoir of lessons learned.

Sarah V. Schweig (Col ’07) completed her Ph.D. in philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Her dissertation, “Measures of Disorder: Poetry and Aesthetic Corruption in the Age of AI,” engages with the work of Stanley Cavell, Richard Rorty and Charles Taylor, among other philosophers and writers.

Don Slesnick (Col ’65 CM) was honored with the eponymous Don Slesnick Civic Vision Award by the Coral Gables Art Cinema at their annual gala. Slesnick, the former four-term mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, received the award from current mayor, Vince Lago. The award reads, “With gratitude for his vision, leadership, and enduring legacy.”

Caroline Dundervill (Educ ’20 CM) graduated from the West Virginia School of Medicine in May 2025. Dundervill is currently a first year OB/GYN resident at the University of Kentucky.

Andrew G. Lee (Col ’85, Med ’89 CM) was honored with a 2026 Voluntary Clinical Faculty Award from the Baylor College of Medicine chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha, a national medical honor society. He was first inducted as a student member of Alpha Omega Alpha at UVA School of Medicine in 1989 and is now the Herb and Jean Lyman Centennial Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at the Blanton Eye Institute at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas.

B. Cameron Webb (Col ’05) was appointed to a four-year term as health commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health by Governor Abigail Spanberger (Col ’01). Webb is a health policy expert and internal medicine physician. He assumed the role in January 2026.

Pamela Schmid (Col ’87 CM) has announced the creation of a study-abroad scholarship in honor of her late sister, Patti Schmid (Col ’89 CM).

Patti spent the 1987-88 academic year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and her time there sparked a lifelong desire to make a difference in the world. In 1994, after graduating with a B.A. in history, she traveled to a remote village in Namibia to work as a volunteer English teacher. Tragically, after two years there and only days before her expected return home, Patti contracted a severe case of Hepatitis A. She passed away on Dec. 17, 1995, at age 28.

The Patti Schmid Scholarship (PSS) is the first named inbound study-abroad scholarship in St. Andrews’ 700-year history. The effort was sparked by family and friends from Patti’s days at UVA and St. Andrews. As of late February, more than $87,000 of the $145,000 needed to endow the scholarship has been raised.

The PSS offers financial support to students pursuing a semester or academic year study-abroad opportunity at St. Andrews. Based on financial need, the scholarship honors the unique qualities that exemplified Patti’s life, including curiosity, zest for life, love of learning, and desire for cultural understanding.

Olivia J. (Kiers) Stone (Col ’12) announces her exhibition, A Weather Eye: Art and Early Modern Meteorology, at the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, which will run from March 28 to June 28, 2026. As assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, Stone gathered more than forty prints, including maps, graphic satires and more, to chart the dramatic scientific and societal shifts in Europe and America’s collective understanding of weather from the 16th to early 19th centuries. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue she co-edited with curator of contemporary art Samantha Cataldo, titled Facing the Elements: Visualizing Weather Then, Climate Now (Hirmer Verlag, distributed by the University of Chicago Press).

Michaela Barnett (Engr ’22) is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District. A Democrat, she is competing for the longest continuously held Republican seat in the country. She previously completed an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship in science and technology policy in Congress in 2025.

Stacy Landis Hackney (Law ’01) will publish her debut adult mystery, The Primrose Murder Society, with HarperCollins on March 3, 2026. Set in Richmond, Virginia, the novel follows Lila Shaw, a newly single mom who moves into a luxurious retirement building with her crime-obsessed daughter and reluctantly agrees to investigate a decades-old murder in the building. When another resident is killed and Lila becomes the prime suspect, she must team up with her elderly neighbors to catch a killer.

Nancy Hudgins (Law ’78 CM) will release a biography, Books Good Enough for You, the Storied Life of Ursula Nordstrom, Editor of Extraordinary Children’s Books, with Abrams Books on March 24, 2026. Nordstrom, the 20th century editor at Harper & Brothers, edited Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web, Where the Wild Things Are and Harold and the Purple Crayon, among many other children’s classics. Books Good Enough for You, recommended for children ages 10-14, tells the story of Nordstrom’s life and her advocacy for children’s right to read.

Charles Garrettson (Col ’75, Grad ’86) wrote A Stroke of Luck: an Exercise in Meaning, about his experience with a stroke. Garrettson wrote it on his iPhone, using the index finger on his non-dominant hand. A Stroke of Luck draws from the philosophy of Viktor Frankl, whose book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Garrettson credits with transforming his life from one of crisis to opportunity.

Kimberly Pryor (Col ’94) was selected as the Chief Financial Officer of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). VDOT is the third largest state department of transportation in the country.  Pryor is responsible for the agency’s $8.3 billion annual budget and nearly 180 team members serving VDOT’s financial planning, capital investment, asset management, federal programs, fiscal management, public-private partnerships and tolling programs.

Cynthia Alam (Col ’19 CM) recently facilitated an executive presence workshop for senior leaders at Microsoft through her company, PRSNCE Command. During the workshop, she guided participants in building composure, clarity and influence in high-pressure situations, skills that drive stronger leadership and more effective decision-making. PRSNCE Command helps leaders and teams translate executive presence into measurable impact in any high-stakes environment.

Walter (Casey) King (Engr ’89) retired after 31 years as physics professor at Horry-Georgetown Technical College (HGTC) in Conway, South Carolina. In addition, Casey ended the HGTC Addiction and Recovery Lecture Series after 20 successful years of bringing the message of recovery to college campus with such notable celebrity speakers as Craig T. Nelson, Danny Trejo, Meredith Baxter and many others over the years.

Allison Geller (LaMothe) (Col ’12) published her debut crime novel, Dirty Metal, with Flatiron Books in February. Dirty Metal, set in New York City in 1992, features crime reporter Parker Snow as she investigates the Russian mafia and a string of women’s murders. Kirkus Reviews called it “a bold debut befitting its bold heroine” in a starred review, while CrimeReads named her “a startling and original talent” in its 2026 “Most Anticipated” list.

Frederick Schutt (Col ’04, Law ’13 CM) was elected as a principal at Woods Rogers, a Virginia-based law firm. Practicing our of the firm’s Richmond office, he focuses on labor and employment matters. In addition to defending employers before federal and state agencies, he conducts workplace investigations, negotiates employment-related agreements and advises on effective workplace policies.

Pietro Sanitate (Col ’12 CM) was elected as principal at Woods Rogers, a Virginia-based law firm. He advises on complex disputes and litigation across a wide range of practice areas, including commercial disputes, intellectual property, insurance defense, construction and government contracts. He practices out of the firm’s Richmond office.

Lisa Langhoff Fitzpatrick (Col ’97 CM) has become a partner in the the insurance practice group at Chaffe McCall’s New Orleans office. Fitzpatrick advises insurers and businesses facing complex coverage matters.

Will Barksdale (Col ’05, Law ’08 CM) was elevated to partner at Jenner & Block. Barksdale, a lawyer in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, focuses his practice on helping clients navigate Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigations and enforcement actions. He also represents clients pro bono in affirmative and defensive asylum cases in the United States.

Anna Kovatcheva (Col ’12) will publish her debut novel, She Made Herself a Monster, with HarperCollins Mariner on February 10, 2026. The novel, set in nineteenth-century Bulgaria, follows a self-proclaimed vampire slayer—in truth, a traveling con artist—who joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster deadly enough to vanquish their own demons. The novel is a story of female community, fortitude, and rage set against a backdrop of Slavic vampire folklore, inspired in part by the course on Dracula and other representations of the vampire that Kovatcheva took in the Slavic studies department at UVA with Dr. Jan Perkowski in 2009.

Kovatcheva will appear in conversation with Professor John Casteen (Col ’93) at New Dominion Bookshop in Charlottesville on February 13, 2026, to discuss the book.

Laura Thigpen (Nurs ’68 CM) traveled to Antarctica in December. She takes her UVA spirit with her wherever she goes, including Antarctica!

Jianyi Lee (Col ’08, Grad ’13 CM) and Kevin Mo (Engr ’09 CM),along with their two young sons, published Portugal: A Kid’s Travel Adventure through Kindle Direct Publishing in September. Inspired by exploring the world together as a family since the COVID-19 pandemic, the book is told from the perspective of their children and blends real-life travel experiences with history, geography, food and cultural discoveries. They are excited to share this first project with the alumni community and hope it inspires families and children to nurture curiosity and a strong sense of adventure. The family lives in Summit, New Jersey.