Class Notes

Brandon Possin (Col ’05 CM) moved to Tokyo, Japan, in 2021 to serve at the U.S. Embassy. Possin will lead the mission’s health, biotechnology, space, science and computing diplomacy initiatives. Among his goals are developing plans for U.S.-Japan lunar surface exploration missions, tightening cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, finalizing civil space negotiations, advancing U.S.-Japan cooperation in Latin America and Africa, boosting U.S.-Japan research collaboration in quantum computing, attracting venture capital to fuel the growth of Japanese startups and advancing bilateral cancer research programs. He will also serve as the post representative for the White House-led Joint High-Level Science and Technology Committee.

Katherine Read Knaus (Engr ’12, ’21 CM) began her post-doctoral research fellowship in the Cardiac Mechanics Research Group of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego in 2021. She, her husband and their daughter are enjoying life in La Jolla, California.

Austin Randolph Palmore (Col ’15, Com ’16) graduated in May with a Juris Doctor degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law. After sitting for the July 2022 Virginia Bar Examination, he will begin a one-year clerkship for the Honorable Judges of the Henrico County Circuit Court in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, followed by a two-year clerkship for the Honorable Randolph A. Beales, Judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals in Richmond.

JoAnne Mancini (Col ’90 CM) was admitted to the Royal Irish Academy on May 20, 2022. Chartered in 1785, the RIA is Ireland’s leading body of experts in the sciences and humanities. Membership is by election and is considered the highest academic honor in Ireland. Mancini lives in Dublin and Berlin, and is the 2021-2022 Terra Visiting Professor at the Department of Culture, John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin. https://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/en/faculty/culture/persons/index.html.

David Logan (Law ’77 CM), a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, debated leading first amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams and Professor Mary-Rose Papandrea of the University of North Carolina School of Law on whether the Supreme Court of the United States should revisit the iconic decision New York Times v. Sullivan. The program was a part of the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section.

Brian Madden (Col ’91 CM) and Colleen Madden are proud to share that their daughter Kathleen “Ann” Madden (Com ’22 CM) has graduated with distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce.

J. Hagood Tighe (Col ’87 CM), a partner at the national labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips based in Columbia, S.C., has been sworn in as president of the South Carolina Bar. The ceremony was presided over by U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs during the bar’s annual assembly May 12.

As president, Tighe will serve South Carolina’s expansive legal and business communities by working to uphold the integrity and honor of the legal profession, advance the science of jurisprudence, promote quality legal education and services to the public, and continually improve the administration of justice throughout the Palmetto State. He will serve a one-year term.

At Fisher Phillips, Hagood is co-chair of the firm’s wage and hour practice and an active member of the firm’s class and collective action practice. In recent years, he has handled over 40 class and collective actions throughout the country, many of which involve wage and hour issues. Hagood recently led a team that won one of the nation’s largest WARN Act class actions in recent history. He also has extensive experience defending single plaintiff lawsuits alleging wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. While Hagood maintains an active litigation practice, he also focuses on providing practical and proactive advice designed to minimize the risk of litigation. He enjoys working with companies to help them avoid problems before they arise. This takes many forms including advising on handbooks, policies, employment agreements, investigations, layoffs, and terminations. 

To learn more, click here.

L. Roger Boord (Col ’88) and Fran Gaddin Boord report that their daughter, Nina Marie Virginia Boord, is a freshman at Stanford University studying engineering.

Linda Fisher Thornton (Col ’83 CM) was awarded the Itzkowitz Family Distinguished Adjunct Faculty award by The University of Richmond School of Professional and Continuing Studies, and was the faculty speaker at the 2022 SPCS Commencement. 

Daniel J. Hoffheimer (Law ’76 CM) had the privilege of commissioning a new work by renowned American composer and violist, Nokuthula Ngwenyama. Her Piano Quartet for violin, viola, cello, and piano received its world premiere at Linton Chamber Music in Cincinnati on April 3, 2022. The composition, entitled “Elegy,” in twelve minutes tells the story of African-Americans from their first arrival as slaves in 1619, through slavery, Civil War, emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, and into the present backlash against Critical Race Studies. Dan is board chair of Linton Chamber Music, now in its 41st season. He practices law in Cincinnati.

Suzannah Evans Comfort (Col ’03 CM) was promoted to associate professor in the Journalism unit of the Media School at Indiana University.

J. Dapray Muir (Law ’64) has more than 35 years of experience in corporate and securities law. His practice included counseling a wide range of commercial enterprises with respect to securities law, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investment transactions, contracts and litigation. He has served as lead counsel in numerous public and private offerings of securities.

Mr. Muir served one year as law clerk to a federal trial judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and two years as Assistant Legal Adviser for Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. From 1981 to 1985, he was chairman of the D.C. Securities Advisory Committee. He was a member of the American Arbitration Association’s Panel of Commercial Arbitrators from 1995 to 2015, serving as sole arbitrator or panel member in more than 40 proceedings.

John G. Wilder (Col ’62 CM) published Wagons, Gold and Conflict, a chronicle of the adventures of Captain Alfred Davenport in the Trans-Mississippi West from the 1840s through the 1860s. The book will appeal to lovers of history, travel and adventure, especially those interested in California from 1846 to 1861 and the western theater of the American Civil War.