Class Notes

Chara O’Neale (Col ’04), director of talent management and diversity and inclusion at Charlotte firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, received an inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Award presented by North Carolina and South Carolina Lawyers Weekly. O’Neal was recognized as an attorney who is advancing diversity, inclusion and the dignity of all people in the Carolinas’ legal profession and the community.

Jeffrey Toney (Col ’81) has served as the chief academic officer at Kean University since 2011 and is currently provost and vice president for research and faculty. He was named visiting professor in the Department of Philosophy and Linguistics at MIT in June 2019, and he will be visiting scholar at Harvard University beginning June 2020.

Kenneth R. White (Nurs ’13), associate dean for strategic partnerships and innovation at UVA’s School of Nursing, was voted president-elect of the American Academy of Nursing. White, a palliative care nurse practitioner at UVA Health, will serve as the academy’s president-elect through fall 2021, then assume the two-year presidency in 2021. White, an endowed professor at both UVA’s School of Nursing and Medical Center, holds joint academic appointments in the School of Medicine, Darden School of Business and McIntire School of Commerce.

Karen Roarty-Dansfield (Engr ’79 L/M), who retired after 33 years in materials development for the U.S. Navy, published The God of Choice under the pen name Kaye Byrd. The story centers around two families, the descendants of poor Irish immigrants and the descendants of privileged English ones whose sons cross paths during World War II. This is the first of three planned volumes that will follow the characters through the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Lucas Conley Hopkins (Engr ’08) and Sara Hutter Hopkins (Com ’08, ’09 L/M) welcomed their first child, William James, on Oct. 22, 2019. The family lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Jen Pitotti (Col ’06) and her husband, Drew Lawrence (Col ’04 L/M), welcomed their first child, Thomas Andrew, on Oct. 29, 2019. The family lives in Denver, where Jen is an OB-GYN with CU Rocky Mountain OB-GYN and Drew leads a sales team for Xactly Corp. 

Travis W. Markley (Engr ’04) opened TrialHawk Litigation Group in Reston, Virginia, with his law partner in February 2018. Markley and the law firm focus their practice on complex medical malpractice litigation on behalf of injured patients and their families. In 2019, Markley and his colleagues secured nearly $10 million in medical malpractice settlements and judgments on behalf of their clients. Markley is the son of Nancy M. Markley (Col ’79 L/M) and the brother of Brian J. Markley (Educ ’09).

Molly Grover (Col ’01 L/M) was promoted to managing director at Accenture, a global professional services company. She is a leader in the customer insights and growth practice specializing in leveraging data to support customer experience and increase revenue growth. Grover, who is the sister of Bryson Grover (Col ’05), lives in Washington, D.C.

Joe Morrissey (Col ’79), a former commonwealth’s attorney for the Richmond, Virginia, and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, was elected to the Virginia State Senate in November 2019. Morrissey stated that during the upcoming 2020 General Assembly Session, he will focus on both criminal justice reform issues as well as establishing a Clean Energy Standard in the commonwealth. 

D. Darell Dones (Educ ’04) is retired supervisory special agent and FBI Academy instructor with the FBI Behavioral Science Unit and current owner and senior consultant for Dones Global Solutions. Dones recently published Terrorist Recruitment of U.S. Gangs: Global Alliances and Biological Weapons.

Elizabeth Marcon (Col ’99 L/M) and her husband, Joshua Hauck, welcomed their fourth child, Marlowe Elizabeth Marcon, on May 27, 2019. Marlowe joins brothers Jed Hauck, 7, Lawton Hauck, 5, and sister Eve Marcon, 2. The family resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Marcon is an attorney in the Bethlehem law firm of Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt & Cappelli.

S. Rutherfoord “Ruddy” Rose (Col ’78 L/M) received the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, which is awarded for sustained contributions to the academy and the practice of clinical toxicology. Rose is professor of emergency medicine, chief of clinical toxicology, and director of the Virginia Poison Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.  

Kim Tuten Gallagher (Col ’84 L/M) founded Blue Book Essays, a national college essay coaching business for university and graduate school applicants. Helping “students excel, parents exhale,” Blue Book Essays works with public, private, parochial and boarding schools across the country. Gallagher is an advertising creative director and copywriter who builds brands including Catholic Relief Services, Charter Communications, Royal Mystic Soft Drinks and Juices, The Maryland Lottery, Paper & Packaging Board, National Archives, American Psychological Association and Britches of Georgetown. 

Andrew Joyner (Col ’97 L/M) started as assistant director of development at the Curry School of Education Foundation in December 2019.

Stephen Smithson (Engr ’90, ’96 L/M) recently became a member of the governing council of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He also selected as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He works as general counsel for a group of environmental consultancies, where he finds that his UVA degrees in chemical and civil engineering are an immense benefit.

Stephanie Clark (Col ’11 L/M) bought a home in Richmond, Virginia, and has begun a position in financial operational risk. She became a certified anti-money laundering specialist in 2018.

Amy Ansong (Col ’01) recently completed her Doctorate in Education from George Mason University. She currently resides and works in Italy and the Middle East.

Justin Woodruff (Col ’07) and Martha Gray Woodruff (Col ’06, Darden ’11 L/M) welcomed their second child, Gray Somerville, on Oct. 23, 2019. Gray joins big sister Virginia, and the family lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Katherine Gekker (Col ’72, Grad ’73 L/M) published a poetry collection, In Search of Warm Breathing Things. Her poems have appeared in Little Patuxent Review, Delmarva Review, Broadkill Review, Apple Valley Review, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net. Gekker’s poems, collectively called “…to Cast a Shadow Again,” have been set to music by composer Eric Ewazen. Composer Carson Cooman has set a seasonal cycle of her poems, “Chasing the Moon Down,” to music.

Frank R. Scheer II (Col ’72) retired from the U.S. Postal Service Supply Management Department in February 2019, after nearly 29 years. He previously worked at organizations including the U.S. Railway Association and Virginia Electric & Power Co. Scheer continues to teach a supply chain management course for the University of Maryland Global Campus. He also devotes time to the Boyce Railway Depot Foundation and the Railway Mail Service Library Foundation, of which he was the organizing secretary-treasurer.

Nelson Neal (Educ ’85) gave presentations on Hemsley Winfield, the first African American modern dancer, to the students and faculty in the dance departments at Hofstra University, SUNY Purchase, and Marymount Manhattan College in November 2019. Neal is the author of Hemsley Winfield: The Forgotten Pioneer of Modern Dance, An Annotated Bibliography and the authority on the career of Hemsley Winfield. Neal lives in San Diego, California, and is an assistant coach for track and field at La Jolla Country Day School. 

Christopher P. Crum (Col ’70, Med ’74 L/M) received the 2019 Society of Gynecologic Oncology Innovation Award, which acknowledges creative contributions to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of gynecologic cancers. Dr. Crum is a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and senior pathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Colleen Colby Allen (Col ’02 L/M) and Colin Allen (Col ’03 L/M) welcomed a son, Holden Emmet, on May 6, 2019. Holden is little brother to Margaret, Eleanor and Cabell, and is the grandson of Conway Allen (Com ’74 L/M), the nephew of Sherrie Colby (Educ ’06 L/M), and the cousin of Ashton Looney (Arch ’18 L/M) and Mckenzie Canard (Educ ’18). The family lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Yuan Chou (Com ’94) was promoted to tax partner at BDO USA, an assurance, tax and advisory firm. Chou has been with BDO since 2008 and serves as the technical practice leader of the Accounting Methods group within BDO’s National Tax Office. Chou assists clients with optimizing core accounting methods, interacting with the IRS on making changes in accounting methods and periods, implementing the new revenue recognition and leasing standards, and advising on the tax treatment of M&A transaction costs.​

Amy Finstein (Arch ’02, ’09) is assistant professor of modern architectural and urban history in the Department of Visual Arts at College of the Holy Cross.

John Russo (Engr ’89 L/M) was promoted to the position of vice president, engineering operations for Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, Arizona. In this capacity, Russo is responsible for financial performance and support service execution for Honeywell’s worldwide engineering organization. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Gilbert, Arizona, with their two children.

J. William Lewis (Law ’68) has published a genealogy of the Lewis family, Anthony Lewis of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. If others in the UVA family are descendants of Anthony Lewis (b. 1664), William would like to hear from you at jwl@seamancapital.com. Among the other Wahoos in Anthony Lewis’ line of descent are Deirdre Lewis Mason (Col ’98), M. Scott Lewis (Col ’98 L/M) and Logan Wilson Mercer (Col ’23).

James T. “Jim” Currie (Grad ’69, ’75) was honored with the 2019 Robert Brutsche Award for his service to the Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service. Currie has served as executive director of the association since April 2014.

Austin Diduch (Col ’16 L/M) and Alex Ern (Col ’17) DJ and produce music as a duo called CHOVA (combining the Charlottesville airport moniker and Virginia). They say that the name, which combines the Charlottesville airport moniker and their home state, is about giving back to the people who helped us all along the way and it is also a tribute to all the ’Hoos. They will be on tour this year and would love to hear from fellow alumni.

Richard “Shark” Forsten (Com ’85, Law ’88) received the 2019 Delaware Volunteer of the Year Award from Gov. John Carney. He has served eight years as a member of the school board (including five as president), and served on the boards of Goodwill of Delaware, the Everett Theatre (including two years as president), Ronald McDonald House of Delaware, and two boards for the Delaware Ministry of Caring. Forsten previously served as president of the Delaware State Bar Association, serves on the Delaware Supreme Court Rules Committee, and is a past vice-chair of the Access to Justice Commission’s subcommittee on pro bono service. He is also the long-serving general counsel and parliamentarian for the Delaware Republican Party, and the co-chair of the Delaware General Assembly’s Administrative Law Task Force.  

Kevin LaPorta (Engr ’09) and Jennifer Murphy LaPorta (Col ’10) welcomed a son on Oct. 17, 2019. Dylan Patrick joins his big sister Lillian, age 3. The family lives in New Jersey, where Mr. LaPorta is an associate director at KPMG and Dr. LaPorta is a primary care physician.  

Charles Platt (Col ’75 L/M) is retiring from the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where he was the head of the firm’s New York office for nearly eight years, and has litigated and tried complex civil cases for large corporate clients around the country. Still thinking he is of youthful mind and spirit, he will be embarking on a new career as the general counsel of a recently-formed specialty finance company, which is in the business of treating litigation as an asset class and monetizing legal risks. He is looking forward to a new adventure and the challenge of learning something new and different.       

Christopher Haddad (Col ’91 L/M) finally decided to pursue his dream to become a high school teacher. In the fall of 2018, after 23 years in the law, including the last 13 in the Connecticut Attorney General’s Antitrust Department, Haddad accepted a faculty position with the Religion Department at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. In the fall of 2019, Haddad was promoted to the Northwest Catholic Leadership Team as the school’s director of campus ministry.

Leslie Fitzgerald McMurray (Col ’01 L/M) and her family recently moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, following her husband’s retirement from the U.S. Navy. McMurray has joined Cameron Carmichael, a boutique retained executive search firm specializing in healthcare and private equity backed portfolio company opportunities.