Class Notes

David Meredith (Com ’03) was named on Comparably’s Best CEO 2022 list in the largest company category for his work at Boomi. The annual ranking derives from 15 million anonymous ratings from employees across 70,000 companies. 

In 2022, Comparably also awarded Meredith Best CEO for Diversity, and recognized Boomi for Best Company Culture, Best Company Career Growth and Best Company Happiness. 

Meredith previously ranked in the Top 50 for Best CEO 2020 also in the largest company category during his tenure as a NASDAQ public company CEO in the Russell 1000 Index.   

Anne Holub (Col ’99) has published her first chapbook of poetry, 27 Threats to Everyday Life. The poetry book was a semi-finalist in the press’ New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition, and the collection includes the poem “Mudslides,” which was chosen as runner-up in the 2021 Mountain West Writers Contest by the Western Humanities Review. After attending UVA, Anne earned a MA from Hollins University and a MFA from the University of Montana in creative writing. She now writes and lives in Montana. 

Dr. William T. “Bill” Sheahan, MD (Engr ’81, Med ’85 CM) has published A Doc Who Jots: The More you Know About Your Patient’s Story, his fourth collection of unique, uplifting or funny patient encounters. Proceeds will be donated to the Fisher House Foundation, which builds comfort homes at military and VA medical centers so families can stay free of charge while a loved one is in the hospital receiving treatment.

First-year suite mates Jordan Lasker (Col ’14 CM) and Julia Monahan (Com ’14 CM) competed together on The Price is Right in Los Angeles. The episode aired in January 2023. Unfortunately, the only one in their group “called down” was Jordan’s brother – a Hokie.

Jeremy Ebrahim (Com ’00 CM) and Alexandra Hume Ellen Ebrahim (Col ’00 CM) welcomed a son, Westley Tucker Hume Ebrahim, on October 24, 2022. Westley joins big brothers Jameson, Preston, and Carter. The family lives in Chatham, New Jersey.

Allison Raymond (Nurs ’11 CM) and Michael Raymond (Grad ’22) welcomed their son, Luke Christopher, on March 3, 2023. The couple lives in Boston.

Rachel Kessler (Col ’22 CM) has joined the Walt Disney Company as a conservation guide at Epcot. She has delivered hundreds of conservation messages about sustainable agriculture, wildlife conservation, and the Disney Conservation Fund to guests from around the world while bringing the magic of nature to life. 

Ted Koerth (Col ’99 CM) has joined Uber as senior counsel -autonomous mobility & delivery within Uber’s Chicago office. He will focus on commercial transactions and building strategic relationships with alliance partners within the autonomous vehicle industry.

Kirsten Randall (Col ’95) has joined the Law Office of Beverly Allen in Tacoma, Washington as a paralegal, specializing in immigration and family law.

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.