Class Notes

W. Lee Jones (Arch ’82) has been awarded the AIA Charlotte Citizen Architect Award by the Charlotte American Institute of Architects. The award recognizes the work of architects who serve as elected or appointed officials, public administrators or institutional leaders and establish and contribute to the development of laws, regulations, policies, or initiatives that promote excellence in architecture. Jones serves as park and recreation director for Mecklenburg County, N.C.

In addition, the county’s Park and Recreation Department received the Great Public Space Award for Romare Bearden Park at the City of Charlotte’s Urban Design Awards. The goal of the local awards program is to recognize and celebrate quality urban design in Charlotte, while encouraging continued community discussion around what makes for unique and great places.  This is the second year in a row that the department has received an award from the organization. Last year, the department received the Merritt -New Construction Award for the Eastway Regional Recreation Center.

Steve Collins (Col ’83) has been named Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association. He is the state house reporter for the Sun Journal, in Lewiston, Maine, and a co-founder of Youth Journalism International, a Maine-based nonprofit that teaches and publishes students around the world.

Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM) published her second book of short stories, Paris Gold: Ten Tales of Treasures Lost and Found in 2022. Like the first, Casablanca Blue, Paris Blue is a collection of fiction and fantasy based on her experiences and travel. Judith has worked as a foreign service officer, professor and journalist. She is also the author of the non-fiction Media Access and the Military.

Dr. Kern Jackson (Col ’87 CM) was delighted to return to UVA and be recognized by the Virginia Film Festival for the screening of Descendant on Nov 5. Descendant was awarded the Special Jury Award: Creative Vision in the U.S. Documentary Competition during the Sundance Film Festival. Netflix has acquired the documentary, co-presenting the film with former President and First Lady Michelle and Barack Obama’s media company Higher Ground. In addition, the vision, support and partnership of Participant Media continues to inspire the visibility of storytelling. Co-writing and serving as co-producer for this film elevates the visibility of a collection of Jackson’s archived oral histories and interviews with informants – an accomplishment and sacred honor. As a folklorist, Jackson’s preoccupation is with the nuances, the nooks and crannies of culture, as inspiration for honoring the ancestors and the people of Africatown, U.S.A., in Mobile, Alabama.

Robert F. Graboyes (Col ’76 CM) is now owner and president of RFG Counterpoint, LLC in Alexandria, Virginia. Through his firm, he does economic consulting, journalism, and music production. He publishes BASTIAT’S WINDOW, a Substack journal devoted to economics, ethics, health, technology, and culture. He is also a FAIR in Medicine Fellow (where FAIR = Foundation Against Racism and Intolerance). His musical performances and compositions are on his YouTube channel.

Paul W. Hobby (Col ’82 CM), founding partner of Genesis Park and GP Capital, has been inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation. The foundation honors the accomplishments and contributions of outstanding business leaders by celebrating and telling their stories.

John Guerard, (Grad ’76 CM) has published two books: The Leading Economic Indicators and Business Cycles in the United States: 100 Years of Empirical Evidence and the Opportunities for the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), and the third edition of Quantitative Corporate Finance (Springer, 2022). Guerard, who taught at the McIntire School of Commerce from 1979 to 1981, has retired after 15 years as director of quantitative research at McKinley Capital Management in Anchorage, Alaska. He and his wife, Julie, have settled in Bluffton, South Carolina. 

Brian Stengel (Col ’89 CM), competed in the 2022 Mongol Derby, a 10-day 1,000-kilometer endurance race across Mongolia on native feral horses.  

Dwight Sullivan (Law ’86) has written Capturing Aguinaldo: The Daring Raid to Seize the Philippine President at the Dawn of the American Century, published by Stackpole Books.  Capturing Aguinaldo tells the story of five U.S. Army officers who disguised themselves as POWs.  Their “captors” were actually Filipino soldiers loyal to the United States.  Following a grueling 90-mile forced march, the ruse allowed them to infiltrate the enemy headquarters, helping to bring the Philippine-American War to an end.

Howard Turner (Engr ’97) was named North American Director of Energy Preconstruction Services for Trane Technologies. Turner and his team are responsible for conceiving, designing and ensuring the constructability of projects that enable clients to achieve their decarbonization and sustainability goals.

Mary Beth Paradise (Educ ’93) has published Beach Santa, a children’s picture book which explores what Santa does on the day after Christmas. Paradise is donating 25% of the profits to Team LeGrand, which supports spinal cord injury research and quality-of-life initiatives. Out now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ4RNHY8.

Craig W. Sampson (Col ’90, Law ’93 CM) has been named president of Barnes & Diehl, P.C. in Richmond, Virginia. Sampson serves on the board of governors for the Family Law Section of the Virginia State Bar and is a coauthor of Family Law: Theory, Practice, and Forms, a volume in the Virginia Practice Series that is published annually by Thomson Reuters. Sampson is the son of Thomas W. Sampson (Col ’64) and parent of Sabrina Sampson (Col ’21 CM).

Kimberly Kenna (Col ’79) has an upcoming debut middle-grade novel, Artemis Sparke and the Sound Seekers Brigade, which will be published on Feb. 2, 2023, by Fitzroy Books. The book follows a group of underdogs who conjure up the ghosts of historic ecologists to help save a Long Island Sound salt marsh and appease Mother Nature. The second book in the Brave Girls Collection, Jett Jamison and the Secret Storm, will be published on Aug. 3, 2023, by Black Rose. Kenna’s poems and short stories have been published in American Writers Review, Mused, Plum Tree Tavern and Rubbertop Review.

J. Kevin Moore (Col ’83 CM) has been named to the 2022 Northern California Super Lawyers list for construction litigation. He is an attorney at Bold, Polisner, Maddow, Nelson & Judson in Walnut Creek, California.

Madeleine McDonald (Col ’17 CM) was married to Anthony Fontana in 2021 and graduated from Mercer University’s Physician Assistant Program in 2022, receiving the faculty’s distinguished student award among other academic honors. Madeleine and Anthony live in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is employed as a physician assistant in an internal medicine practice.

Travis McDonald (Arch ’80 CM) received the UVA School of Architecture’s Distinguished Alumni Award for 2021. The award recognizes exceptional graduates from the School of Architecture who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership and vision in their body of work, as well as in their service to UVA. McDonald has directed the restoration of Thomas Jefferson’s retirement retreat Poplar Forest since 1989. McDonald has also served on the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee for the University since 2007, and his book on Jefferson and Poplar Forest will be published by the UVA Press in the spring of 2023.