Class Notes
Frank Macgill (Com ’91)
Frank S. Macgill (Com ’91) was recently recognized as 2021 Legal Elite by Georgia Trend.
Georgia Trend, a statewide business publication, recently published its annual issue honoring Georgia’s leading attorneys for their achievements in various practice areas. Legal Elite is compiled by attorneys submitting their nominations through the publication’s website, and the listing is determined solely by attorneys’ votes.
Georgia Trend’s Legal Elite issue can be found at www.georgiatrend.com.
Ann McMillan (Col ’81)
Ann McMillan (Col ’81) has been named president of Caplin & Drysdale, a law firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C providing a full range of tax, tax controversy, and related legal services to companies, organizations, and individuals throughout the United States and around the world.
Ms. McMillan is a member of the firm’s bankruptcy group and long-time member of the board of directors.
Ms. McMillan joined Caplin & Drysdale in 1991 after serving as corporate counsel for a California corporation. She works with Caplin & Drysdale’s bankruptcy group representing claimants’ committees in mass tort bankruptcies. Ms. McMillan also advises approximately 30 trust advisory committees for the trusts that are formed at the conclusion of the bankruptcies. Additionally, she counsels both for-profit and nonprofit entities on corporate governance issues and contractual matters.
Michael Smith (Arch ’05)
Mike Smith (Arch ’05) was honored in Mass Transit magazine as a member of the 2021 class of the publication’s “40 Under 40.” The annual feature recognizes 40 up-and-comers in the public transportation industry for their contributions, innovation, leadership, and community impact. Currently serving as Chief of Safety for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, Mike was selected out of over 150 nominations representing a cross-section of disciplines from across the U.S. in both the public and private sectors. He is proud of his humble beginnings as a student driver at UVA’s University Transit Service, a position he held both through all four years of study as an urban and environmental planning major in the School of Architecture, and also after graduating, on a part-time basis limited to late nights and weekends. He has worked in a variety of roles in a 20-year career, in operations, safety, regulatory compliance, and project management.
Brandon Thompson (Col ’20)
Brandon Richard Thompson (Col ’20), Donald Cooper (Col ’20) and Joanne Lee (Com ’21 CM) are contributing authors to Social Class Supports: Programs and Practices to Serve and Sustain Poor and Working-Class Students through Higher Education. Their chapter was based on the Hoos First Look program and how similar institutions can adopt the program into their universities. Thompson has been working in the consultant space since graduating in May 2020 and will be pursuing Ed-Tech based jobs going into 2022.
Casey Chalk (Col ’07, Educ ’07)
Casey Chalk (Col ’07, Educ ’07) published his first book, The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands. (Sophia Institute Press)
Kristen Watson (Col ’07 CM)
Kristen Peters Watson (Col ’07 CM) and Tripp Watson welcomed their son, Thomas Clyde Watson, on November 11, 2021. Thomas joins big brother Robert and is the grandson of Randy Alan Peters (Col ’78, Med ’82 CM). The family resides in Birmingham, Alabama.
Eve Lindemuth Bodeux (Grad ’89)
Eve Lindemuth Bodeux (Grad ’89) was elected for a second three-year term to the Board of Directors of the American Translators Association (www.atanet.org), and will serve through 2024. ATA is the nation’s largest professional organization for translators and interpreters with over 9,000 members in over 100 countries. Eve has been active in the translation industry for over twenty-five years. She is an ATA-certified French-to-English translator and also works as an independent project manager for a diverse global client base. She is also the author of the book Maintaining Your Second Language and was co-host of the Speaking of Translation podcast from 2008 to 2021. She has a graduate degree from the Université de Lorraine (France), an MA from the University of Virginia, and a BA from Lebanon Valley College.
Simrat Jassal (Col ’21 CM)
Simrat Jassal (COL ’21 CM) is the president and founder of Premed Peers, a nonprofit that is providing free and affordable MCAT tutoring to students across the nation. Premed Peers has reached over 2000 students across the nation and provided them with mentorship and support during the medical admissions process. The nonprofit also provides students with essay, resume, and private tutoring help. Simrat will continue the efforts for Premed Peers and is hoping to give back to the Charlottesville community. You can get involved with the program here: https://www.premedpeers.org/get-involved
Premed Peers is a national nonprofit that provides free and affordable tutoring to premedical students across the nation. We are a group of undergraduate and medical students across the country who have all struggled, yet succeeded, on the MCAT and want to give back to other fellow pre-meds. We offer a low-cost prep course called MCAT101. The courses are lecture-style that cover high (and low) yield topics on the MCAT and run for approximately 1 hour. We believe that medical educational barriers should not deter students from pursuing medicine.
Jim Ambuske (Grad ’16)
Jim Ambuske (Grad ’16) is co-creator and co-writer of the new podcast series, Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Intertwined is an eight-part docuseries that tells the story of the more than 577 people enslaved by George and Martha Washington, through the lives of Sambo Anderson, Davy Gray, William Lee, Kate, Ona Judge, Nancy Carter Quander, Edmund Parker, Caroline Branham, and the Washingtons. It is available wherever you get your favorite podcasts and at www.georgewashingtonpodcast.com
Steven Nesbit (Engr ’80 CM)
Steve Nesbit (Engr ’80, ’82 CM) is serving as the 67th President of the American Nuclear Society, the organization for nuclear science and technology professionals. ANS works to advance, foster, and spur the development and application of nuclear science, engineering, and technology to benefit society. Elected by the society in 2020, his term of office runs through June 2022.
Carole Sargent (Grad ’92, Grad ’94 CM)
Carole Sargent (Grad ’92, ’94 CM) has written Transform Now Plowshares, a book about the nun who committed the largest breach in U.S. nuclear security history. It will be published in December 2021 by Liturgical Press. In August, 2020, in time for the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Georgetown University Press published A World Free From Nuclear Weapons – The Vatican Conference on Disarmament, co-edited by Sargent under the guidance of one of Georgetown’s Jesuits who advises the Holy See on disarmament issues. Their article on the book in The Conversation was published in hundreds of newspapers worldwide. Sargent’s article in The Conversation about Sister Ardeth Platte, who inspired the character of Sister Jane Ingalls in Orange is the New Black was also published in hundreds of newspapers. Sargent is a literary historian of early modern women’s political thought and founding director of Georgetown University’s Office of Scholarly Publications.
Winfrey Blackburn (Col ’61, Law ’64 CM)
Winfrey P. Blackburn (Col ’61, Law ’64 CM) and R. Scott Gill have published Gideon Shryock: His Life and Architecture – 1802-1880, the first and definitive book about Shryock, Kentucky’s first formally-trained architect and one of the most important architects of his era. It chronicles the peaks and valleys of Shryock’s life and work, all within the fascinating historical context of 19th-century Kentucky. Order online at www.butlerbooks.com.
A.J. Frey (Col ’08)
A.J. Frey (Col ’08 CM) has joined the Washington, DC, office of international law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a partner in the Investment Funds practice. A.J. joins Gibson from Greenspring Associates, a diversified venture capital platform with over $13B in Assets Under Management, where he served as General Counsel. His practice focuses on the formation and operation of private investment funds across a variety of fund strategies, including private equity, growth equity, venture capital and real asset funds. A.J. resides in Washington, DC with his wife, Brenna, and their two boys, Felix and Max.
Shane Rau (Res ’08)
Dr. Shane Rau (Res ’08) works for Array Behavioral Care, a nationwide telepsychiatry company, as Vice President and Associate Medical Director for the Scheduled Care and AtHome Care lines of business. In this role, he provides telepsychiatry services to adults in multiple states and supervises 60 clinicians providing similar services. He also directs quality management projects for these lines of business to establish systems of data analysis to ensure Array’s clinicians are improving lives. He is proud of Array and his position within it and attributes a good deal of his leadership ability, clinical skills and clinical knowledge to his time as a resident in Psychiatry at UVA Health System, and, in particular, the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences! He and his life, Melinda, live in Williamsburg.
Caroline Massie-DeJarnette (Col ’13 CM)
Caroline Massie-DeJarnette (Col ’13 CM) and Richard DeJarnette (Com ’13 CM) welcomed their first child, Hugh Irey DeJarnette, on August 29, 2021. Hugh is the grandson of William Elliott DeJarnette (Col ’73 CM) and Barbara Jeanne DeJarnette (Educ ’78, ’81 CM) The family lives in Richmond.
Michael Pillow (Col ’79)
Michael Pillow (COL ’79 CM) has published his second novel, Summer Brush Men. The novel tells parallel stories of a younger man and an older man “coming of age” in their own ways. Michael has retired from his day job and lives with his partner Stephanie in Crozet.
Monica Tucker-Schwartz (Nurs ’10)
Monica Tucker-Schwartz (Nurs ’10) earned her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Health System Executive Leadership from the University of Pittsburgh in December 2021. Her project titled The Impact of a Professional Practice Model at a Large Academic Medical Center was presented on November 1, 2021.
Monica lives in Boston, Massachusetts with her husband Jason Tucker-Schwartz (Engr ’08, ’10 CM) and children Isabel “Izzy” (3 1/2) and Scott Jefferson “SJ” (15 months).
Emily Barksdale (Batten ’21)
Emily Barksdale (Batten ’21) started in October as an analyst in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Planning and Budget. She is working with other Batten and UVA alumni and has relocated to Richmond.
Natasha Saje (Col ’76)
Natasha Saje (Col ’76) published Terroir: Love, Out of Place (Trinity UP, 2020), a memoir-in-essays that was a finalist for Pen, Lambda, CMLP, and Indie Book Awards, and was awarded first prizes for the essay by Foreword Reviews and IPPY/ebook.
Aaron Peters (Engr ’01 CM)
Aaron Peters (Engr ’01 CM) and his wife, Stephanie, had their third child, Grace, in February this. She’s especially cute in all the hand-me-down UVA clothing from her brother and sister, Jude and Avery.
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