Class Notes

Robert “Cham” Light Jr. (Col ’76 CM) continues to serve his community in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is serving his third term on the board of trustees of the Library of Virginia, and he serves as president of the board of trustees of the Jones Memorial Library. He is beginning his 17th year as an adjunct professor at Liberty University School of Law teaching courses in land use, insurance law and real estate transactions and development. Mr. Light is chair of the bicentennial committee at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and is serving his third term on the Lynchburg Planning Commission.

Geoffrey F. Weiss (Engr ’91 CM), a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, will publish first book, The New Art of War: The Origins, Theory, and Future of Conflict in September.

Anna Burnley (Grad ’89 CM) was recently promoted to associate professor of education and also serves as ESOL Specialist at Flagler College in Tallahassee, Florida. She has presented at conferences in the U.S., Canada, England, Germany and Scotland.

Robert C. Hauhart (Grad ’82), professor in the Department of Society and Social Justice at Saint Martin’s University, has published two books in 2021: the Routledge Handbook on the American Dream, co-edited with Mitja Sardoc, and Connections and Influence Between the Russian and American Short Story, co-edited with Jeff Birkenstein. Hauhart received a Fulbright Scholar Award to Slovenia in 2019, where he maintains a relationship with the Postgraduate School and Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana as a visiting research fellow.

Marcia Thompson Friedman (Col ’89) recently published her second cookbook, The Essential Jewish Cookbook. The book includes a brief history of Jewish culinary traditions along with 100 recipes. Her first cookbook, Meatballs and Matzah Balls: Recipes and Reflections from a Jewish and Italian Life, was published in 2013. In June 2021, she received the honor of membership in Les Dames d’Escoffier, a prestigious international culinary organization.

Tony Medley (Law ’65 CM), a member of MENSA, was recently admitted as a member of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry, or The Thousand®. The society is the third oldest high IQ society in the world and, with 600 members worldwide, is more exclusive than MENSA. Here’s how the society describes itself:

ISPE is the oldest 99.9% Society in the world. ISPE is the third oldest high IQ society in the world after Mensa (98%) and Intertel (99%). The only criterion for admission is a score on any standard psychometric test of intelligence reflecting ability at the 99.9th percentile.

So while MENSA members are comprised of people in the top 2% of IQ, ISPE is comprised of people in the top one-tenth of one percent.

Leigh Carter Cockram (Col ’02 CM) was named the the 2021 North Carolina Economic Developer of the Year by the North Carolina Economic Development Association. 

Danielle Childress MacRae (Col ’16, Batten ’17 CM) and James MacRae (Engr ’14 CM) were married at James Monroe’s Highland in Charlottesville on June 12, 2021. The couple was grateful to return to Virginia for their wedding after a recent cross-country move to Los Angeles.

Jared Deane (Engr ’94 CM) was named dean of nursing and health sciences at the College of DuPage. He also completed the Civic Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Elisabeth Kearney (Engr ’10) wrote an update about her path to graduation and what she’s doing now: “I was originally scheduled to graduate in 2005, but at the end of my 2nd year, my father, Michael Kearney (Engr ’72), died, and I had a hard time being in school for a few years following that. After living in Los Angeles for a couple of years, I moved back to Charlottesville and re-enrolled at UVA and graduated in 2010. After attending naturopathic medical school in Tempe, Arizona, and opening my first practice in Carlsbad, New Mexico, I moved back to Charlottesville last fall to open my practice here and settle down closer to family.”

Craig W. Sampson (Col ’90, Law ’93) has coauthored Family Law: Theory, Practice, and Forms, 2021 ed. (Vol. 9, Virginia Practice Series). Sampson is a shareholder at Barnes & Diehl P.C. in Richmond and parent of Sabrina Sampson (Col ’21).

Marsha McElrath Taylor (Nurs ’77) and her husband, Brad, are pleased to say that their grandson Logan Taylor (Col ’24) will be flying in early to spend time with friends and family before joining his second year classmates on the Grounds for in-person classes.

Caroline Higgins Languasco (Engr ’11) and Jon Languasco (Engr ’15) welcomed a future UVA engineer, Juliana Rose, on March 9, 2021.

Gunes Ozcan Hopson (Col ’97, Law ’01 CM) has joined Geronemus Law as of counsel. Geronemus Law is a law firm that provides concierge in-house attorney services. The firm provides dedicated legal services without the cost or commitment of a full-time general counsel, working with companies of all sizes and industries. Hopson also continues to enjoy providing concierge-level travel planning services through My Path Unwinding Travel, specializing in luxury and family travel. 

Kemi Ogidan Tignor (Com ’98) founded Little Likes Kids in 2018. The company designs, creates and produces toys for kids ages 0-6 that are inspired by—and reflective of—the lives of today’s kids. She writes, “No gifting moment should come and go without an opportunity to share items with your child that reflects who they are. So we create toys and playful images that reflect kids like my son and his wonderfully diverse gaggle of friends.”

Cassandra L. Hill (Col ’94 CM), who has served as dean of Northern Illinois University College of Law since July 2019, received the 2021 Association of American Law Schools Section Award for the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research. The award, sometimes described as a lifetime achievement award for legal writing education, recognizes Hill for her significant contributions to the field of legal writing and research. Prior to joining NIU Law, Hill served as an administrator and faculty member at Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. Most recently, she served as the associate dean for academic affairs. She also was appointed by the then-university president to serve on a three-member leadership team with the law school’s acting dean. In addition, she held positions as associate dean for research and faculty development and director of legal writing.

Chantale Fiebig (Col ’02) has joined the Washington, D.C., office of international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges as a partner in the complex commercial litigation practice. Fiebig joins Weil from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Her practice focuses on complex litigation in federal court relating to business disputes in the finance, media and technology sectors. 

Thomas Gorman (Col ’82 CM) recently celebrated his 35th year of continuous full-time employment.

Anna Caritj (Col ’12) published her debut novel, Leda and the Swan, in May 2021. The book follows Leda, a sorority girl in her third year at a Southern university. Leda’s crush, Ian, is implicated in the disappearance of a fellow classmate, Charlotte Mask. As the campus rouses itself to respond to Charlotte’s disappearance, rumors swirl, suspicious facts pile up, and Leda’s obsession with Charlotte grows. She soon finds herself reassessing her commitment to Greek Life and all that it entails. Her allegiances and motivations begin to blur. The novel examines contemporary youth culture and the dynamics surrounding sex, consent, risk, regret and power.

Luke Fox (Engr ’15) and Paige McGraw, a graduate of Texas Christian University 2015, are engaged to be married on Nov. 6, 2021, in Austin, Texas. They met while attending UVA’s Semester at Sea, Summer 2014. Both have earned master’s degrees; Luke from Old Dominion University and Paige from University of Texas. Luke is the managing engineer and director of operations at Hampton Roads Executive Airport and Paige is employed as an international business development manager with the Virginia Beach Economic Development Department. The couple lives in Virginia Beach. 

Richard “Shark” Forsten (Com ’85, Law ’88 CM) began his third five-year term on the Appoquinimink School District School Board where he has served as board president for the last six years. Shark is a partner in the Wilmington, Delaware, office of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, where he practices in land use, commercial real estate and litigation. He and his wife live in a 182-year old historic farmhouse south of Middletown, Delaware, and his golf handicap remains much too high.

Elizabeth Snyder (Grad ’14) has joined the cybersecurity and privacy practice in the New York office of Maynard Cooper & Gayle. 

Andrew Taylor-Troutman (Grad ’11) has published a new book. Hope Matters: Churchless Sermons in the Time of the Coronavirus is a collection of weekly editorials he wrote for the local newspaper over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part memoir, part social commentary, he draws on biblical interpretation and theological reflection to make connections with a reading audience beyond my faith community in a time in which we were all tested. One hundred percent of the profits support a food assistance ministry in his community that began during the pandemic: the church partners with a local farm and restaurant to provide nutritious meals to people living with special needs.

Greg Van Patten (Col ’92 CM) will serve as the interim dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences at Middle Tennessee State University starting July 1, 2021. The college is MTSU’s largest college and is home to more than 5,500 students and 210 faculty. Van Patten is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and has served as the chair of that department since 2012.

David Meredith (Com ’03), CEO and board director of Everbridge, was awarded Best CEO by the 2020 Comparably Awards for large companies. Everbridge, Inc., the global leader in critical event management, was awarded Best Company Culture.

Everbridge CEO David Meredith was listed in the Best CEO category including honorees such as Zoom’s Eric Yuan, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Apple’s Timothy Cook, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.  Everbridge received exceptionally high ratings from its employees including an overall A Rating for Company Culture and a CEO Rating of A+.  The awards reflect sentiment ratings of employees based on 20 core metrics (e.g., leadership, environment, compensation, team, outlook, career growth, work-life balance, and benefits.) View the full list here.  Everbridge ranked top 50 in the largest company category, including Adobe, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Zoom, for Best Company Culture.

Kevin B. O’Connell (Col ’78 CM) retired in April after 35 years with Delta Air Lines. He flew his final crossing of the Atlantic, from Madrid to New York City, after accumulating more than 17,000 hours on the 757/767 aircraft alone. Prior to working for Delta, O’Connell spent eight years on active duty with the U.S. Navy. He participated in combat operations off Lebanon in 1983-1984, and he was recalled to active duty for the first Gulf War as an A-6 pilot.  During the air war in Kosovo he provided expeditionary logistic support to the Sixth Fleet and NATO units while operating at forward support sites in both Greece and Italy. He completed his naval service with more than 2,000 hours in the A-6 Intruder and 401 carrier landings and retired as a captain in the Naval Reserve in 2001. With his wife of 35 years, he is retiring to East Orleans, Massachusetts. on Cape Cod, where his retirement goals include not being attacked by a great white shark while surfing at Nauset Beach. He would also like to avoid falling off the family tractor while mowing the fields on Pochet Island and injuring himself severely. Finally after 43 years of being subject to random alcohol and drug testing at work he would like to blow as much dope as is humanly possible.

Michael D. Huffstetler (Arch ’87) was invested in the 2021 class of the Society of American Military Engineers Academy of Fellows. The academy recognizes members who have rendered dedicated and outstanding service to the society, military engineering and the architecture, engineering and construction professions. 

David A. Thompson (Engr ’51 CM) writes: “Just checking in on the 70th anniversary of my UVA graduation. I received a BME in mechanical engineering in June 1951. I was in the Naval ROTC Squadron that graduated that yaear and was launched into the active Navy upon graduation and sent to sea to fight the Korean War. I found my UVA engineering training very valuable in my service as a Naval Officer, both in gunnery operations and in command and control duties. Upon return from wartime operations, I put my GI Bill credits toward advanced graduate work, earning a PhD from Stanford University, and was awarded and emeritus professorship in the management sciences and engineering department. As i went through my active military involvement in the Korean War, graduate work and a 27-year professorship at Stanford, I would find problems similar to and extensions of my UVA training, and appreciated the timely assistance of that earlier training. So, thank you again, Virginia, for a great start in a very complex world.”

J. Hagood Tighe (Col ’87 CM) was named president-elect of the South Carolina Bar. Based in Columbia, South Carolina, Tighe is a partner at Fisher Phillips and co-chair of the firm’s wage and hour practice group, In this role, Hagood will further the bar’s mission to serve more than 17,000 members and the public by advancing the legal profession through high quality education, continuous innovation and facilitating improvements in the administration of justice. He will assume the role of President of the South Carolina Bar in May 2022. 

Khalilah L. Brown-Dean (Col ’98) was promoted to full professor in the Department of Political Science at Quinnipiac University. She was also appointed as the inaugural associate provost for faculty affairs. Brown-Dean is the author of Identity Politics in the United States and co-author of the forthcoming book, Protesting Vulnerability: Race and Pandemic Politics. She is host of the radio show and podcast, Disrupted, for Connecticut Public Radio. 

Michael Scott Doyle (Col ’75, Grad ’81 CM) was received the highest award conferred by Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, and was inducted into the Order of Don Quijote. Doyle is a professor of Spanish in University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Department of Languages and Culture Studies. The award is conferred annually upon only 1-3 people worldwide and past honorees include renowned literary figures such as Carlos Fuentes, Carmen Laforet Fernando Arrabal. 

Marc Olsen (Com ’01 CM) and his wife, Emily, are thrilled to announce the birth of their third child, Vivienne Gray, on Jan. 2, 2021. (Not a 2020 baby!) Marc is president of one of the largest COVID-19 testing networks in the Southeast and manages a multitude of testing and vaccine medical clinics in Georgia. His wife is an epidemiologist at the CDC, studying on COVID-19. The family happily resides in Atlanta.

David Theisz (Engr ’04) and Erika Chiang (Col ’04 CM) welcomed their second child, Haley Shing-Yu, on May 1, 2021. Haley joins big brother Henry, and is the granddaughter of Gordon Frederick Theisz Jr. (Engr ’59, ’66) and the niece of Gordon W. Theisz (Med ’98). The family lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Dawn Newton (Educ ’87) recently published two books. Winded: A Memoir in Four Stages (2019) chronicles her journey with stage IV lung cancer while taking targeted therapy for the vulnerable EGFR mutation. The Remnants of Summer (May 2021), a literary novel, explores the guilt and grief of 14-year-old Iris Merchant, who must deal with the aftermath of her younger brother’s drowning death in southeastern Michigan in the 70s. Both books were published by Apprentice House Press of Loyola University Maryland. 

Kim Nelson (Col ’78) began serving as pastor of North Scituate Baptist Church in August 2020. He previously served for 10 years as associate pastor of Barrington Baptist Church. Nelson and his wife, Nancy, live in Rumford, Rhode Island. They have two grown children and four young grandchildren.

Robert “Bob” Rose (Com ’60) received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for his more than 10,000 hours of volunteer and community service work through 2020. Approved by the White House and Florida governor’s office, he was recognized at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, in April 2021. After graduating from UVA, Rose continued his education with graduate work at George Washington University. He spent more than 33 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., in addition to positions in the steel and electronics industry. He has pursued a variety of public volunteer and community service activities over the years concerning the environment, animal welfare, education, and more. He has participated in numerous community board functions including county planning and town council positions. He has also established a Sustainable Environmental Grant Program through the Community Foundation of Sarasota, Florida, for the benefit of future generations.

Caitlan Smith Wilber (Col ’07 CM) and Michael Wilber (Col ’09) welcomed a son, Harrison Elias, on July 6, 2020. Harrison joins doting older sister Arden Adela. The family lives in Rochester, New York, where Michael is a fellow in cardiovascular disease at the University of Rochester.

Deborah E. Sheetenhelm Hammond (Arch ’82 CM) published her 24th novel, These Foolish Things. The second in her Someone to Watch Over Me series, the book brings to life the story of Victoria Sloan and Matthew Madison. They met at the wedding of her best friend, Alexandra Wesson and sparks flew. The problem is, Victoria lives in New York City and owns a marketing firm. Matthew lives on a horse farm in rural Virginia and rescues people in peril for a living. Can these two seemingly diverse lives mesh and if they do, will the precarious nature of Matthew’s vocation endanger them both?

These Foolish Things is available on Amazon.com along with the prior 23 novels of the author and at local book signings and events in the tri-state area. For more information, contact the author at downtongirl13@gmail.com  on Facebook at dhammondbooks and Twitter @DeborahHammon18.

A Falling Waters, West Virginia, resident, Hammond was also recently appointed to a four-year term on the West Virginia Broadcasting Foundation Board of Directors. She also serves on the Eastern West Virginia Home Consortium and has worked as a fundraiser for United Way of the Eastern Panhandle for six years.