Class Notes

Tomer Vandsburger (Col ’08) has been promoted to partner at Perkins Coie, a global law firm headquartered in Seattle. Vandsburger is a member of the business practice, with a focus on employee benefits and executive compensation. He advises clients with Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Internal Revenue Code, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, COBRA, and Affordable Care Act issues. He also counsels on employee benefits issues arising in mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions.

Jessica Beebe (Col ’91 CM) has published her first novel, Muddy the Water, co-written with her brother, Matt Barrows (Col ’95 CM). Shown from three perspectives, killer, detective, and reporter, Muddy the Water brings readers inside the newsroom of a struggling small newspaper on the bucolic South Carolina coast and speaks to the concept of identity—and whether anyone ever shows their true self.

Sherrie Westin (Col ’80 CM) was named chief executive officer of Sesame Workshop, the global nonprofit behind “Sesame Street.” Westin is the first woman to lead Sesame Workshop since its co-founder, Joan Ganz Cooney. Westin had served as president of the organization since 2021 before being named interim CEO in February.

Wilmah M. “Bill” Getchell, Jr. (Col ’67) was awarded the 2024 Morgan Wing Trophy by the National Beagle Club of America at a meeting held in November in Aldie, Virginia. This “Unsung Hero” award is given annually in recognition of contributions to the sport of beagling. Getchell is on the hunt staff of the Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles, kenneled near Berryville, Virginia.

Jack Bailey (Col ’88 CM) has published Nobody’s Coming: 21 Essential Truths for Taking Control of Your Career, a book for adults aged 18 to 35 in the early stages of their professional lives who want more autonomy but don’t know how to produce it for themselves.

The book offers a collection of wisdom gathered from three decades of experience in the working world. Bailey’s intention is to help others by sharing lessons he learned the hard way that can help others transform their jobs into careers.

M.L.(Peggy) Herring (Col ’74) has published Born of Fire and Rain, an illustrated exploration of the Pacific temperate rainforest, a region of giant trees, exploding mountains, disappearing owls, megafires, tsunamis, and lessons on living on a rapidly changing planet. Published by Yale University Press, the book recalls Herring’s undergraduate work with UVa ecologist Bill Odum, before she migrated to the Pacific Northwest as an ecologist, artist, and writer. This is her seventh book.

Book Details

mlherring.org

Jack Totty (Col ’17 CM) is founder and CEO of Antigua Threads, a company on a mission to bring high quality, artisan-made belts to market while supporting local communities in Guatemala with fair wages and skilled jobs.

The company’s belts are handcrafted using traditional Mayan weaving techniques and finished with premium materials, a process that produces meaningful, sustainable fashion and empowers artisans.

More information is available at https://antiguathreads.com.

Chuck Ross (Engr ’80, ’83, ’88 CM) recently had the honor of officiating the wedding of his former research student and close friend Garrett Josemans. The wedding of Josemans and his bride Taylor Krause was televised on Season 7 of the popular Netflix show “Love is Blind.” Ross is professor of physics and dean emeritus at Longwood University.

Nia Zalamea-Ducklo (Col ’98 CM) serves as an assistant professor of surgery and director of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Global Surgery Institute. In 2021 she was appointed assistant dean in the Office of Student Affairs at the UTHSC College of Medicine. She also maintains a global practice and serves as board chair, vice president and general surgeon with the Memphis Mission of Mercy, an NGO founded by her parents that provides medical and surgical care to the poor through annual or biannual trips to the Philippines. She is the mother of two boys, Thomas (5) and Noli (3). Her husband, Matt Ducklo, is founder and gallerist of TOPS Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Capt. Marvin Heinze (Arch ’79 CM) has been selected to serve as first vice chairman of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). The association is an independent, nonprofit, politically nonpartisan organization with 360,000 members from every branch of uniformed service — active duty, National Guard, Reserve, retired, former officers, and surviving spouses. MOAA advocates for a strong national defense, plays an active role in military personnel matters and proposes legislation affecting the career force, the retired community, and veterans of the uniformed services.  It also provides career transition assistance, military benefits counseling, and educational assistance to children of military families through its charities. Heinze is serving a six-year term, from 2020 to 2026.

Rear Adm. Cathal O’Connor (Col ’88 CM) joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as an adjunct research staff member in the Strategy, Forces, and Resources Division of IDA’s Systems and Analyses Center.

IDA is a nonprofit corporation that operates three federally funded research and development centers in the public interest. IDA answers the most challenging U.S. security and science policy questions with objective analysis leveraging extraordinary scientific, technical and analytic expertise.

Now retired, O’Connor commanded a warship in San Diego, California, a squadron of warships in Japan, and a strike group of warships, landing craft, helicopters, and jet aircraft, again in San Diego.

O’Connor was commissioned an ensign from the UVA Naval ROTC unit after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English. He rowed lightweight crew and was a member of Chi Psi fraternity.

David Cadaret (Col ’93, Educ ’04 CM) recently joined the faculty of the University of Washington School of Law as an associate teaching professor. Before accepting the appointment, Cadaret taught at the University of Oregon School of Law for 11 years.

Kate Granruth (Col ’21, Law ’24) has joined the law firm of Hollingsworth LLP as a first-year associate. During law school at UVA, Granruth was managing editor of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, a student participant in the Innocence Project Clinic, and won the First Year Legal Research & Writing Best Brief Award.

She was also a participant in the Environmental Law & Community Engagement Clinic, a law clerk at Equal Rights Advocates, a legal research assistant at Southern Environmental Law Center, and an intern at the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center.

Based in Washington, D.C., Hollingsworth LLP is known for work that focuses the courts on sound science, particularly the lack of scientifically reliable causation evidence.

John K. Brown (Grad ’88, ’92 CM) has published Spanning the Gilded Age: James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge, the daring, improbable story of the construction of the St. Louis Bridge. Begun in 1867 and completed in 1874, it was the first structure of any kind—anywhere in the world—built of steel. Its three graceful arches broke world records for their span lengths; its stone foundations were the deepest yet constructed. It also the story of the career of Eads, one of the most influential engineers of the nineteenth century. Eads not only overcame the physical and technical challenges posed by construction of the bridge but employed equally imaginative design skills to finance the project.

Brown taught history, applied ethics and writing in the UVA School of Engineering’s Department of Engineering and Society from 1992 to 2015.

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12518/spanning-gilded-age

Howard M. Turner Jr. (Engr ’97) was hired as senior director of preconstruction and risk management for energy and technical Services at McKinstry, a national construction and energy services company dedicated to innovating waste and climate harm out of the built environment. Turner will lead preconstruction and risk management efforts for energy, sustainability, and decarbonization projects across the U.S., with a focus on existing facilities.

Byron Dickson (Arch ’63 CM) captured top honors in watercolor at the League of Roanoke Artists annual showcase, held at the Jefferson Center in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. His winning entry, “Wind Surfer,” was among the 94 works featured in this year’s event. Acclaimed professional artist Dana Phillips of Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia judged the contest.

Edward Castillo (Col ’18 CM) has joined the Raleigh, North Carolina office of law firm Ogletree Deakins as an associate.

Chris Frey (Engr ’85) completed service as assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 30. In this presidentially nominated and U.S. Senate confirmed role, he also served as the agency’s science advisor and as co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Environment. He previously served ORD as deputy assistant administrator for science policy. To advance the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment, Frey provided strategic direction for research and science translation that addressed priority needs of internal and external EPA partners on climate change, environmental justice and contaminants of immediate and emerging concern, among other areas.

Frey returned to North Carolina State University Oct. 1, where he joined the College of Engineering’s leadership team in a new role as associate dean for research and infrastructure. He is also continuing in his previous role as the Glenn E. and Phyllis J. Futrell distinguished university professor of environmental engineering in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. He returns after a leave between 2021 and 2024 for his service at the EPA.

Since joining N.C. State’s faculty in 1994, Frey has established a research portfolio focused on measurement and modeling of human exposure to air pollution and vehicle emissions, as well as applications of probabilistic and sensitivity analysis methods to emissions estimation, technology assessment, and risk assessment.