Class Notes

Todd Saxton (Col ’85 L/M), with M. Kim Saxton and Michael Cloran, published The Titanic Effect: Successfully Navigating the Uncertainties That Sink Most Startups. The book is a guide that helps new businesses avoid the “icebergs” blocking their path to success. The Titanic Effect was written for founders, startup employees, investors and entrepreneurship enthusiasts. Todd Saxton is a professor and Indiana Venture Faculty Fellow at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Maggie Thornton (Col ’08, Educ ’11, ’21 L/M) married Nathan Reeder (Law ’17) on June 29, 2019, in Radford, Virginia. The couple will live in Philadelphia. Thornton is a doctoral student in educational leadership and policy at UVA, and Reeder is an attorney with Duane Morris. The wedding party included Rachel Savoy Caldwell (Col ’11, Educ ’11), Kathryn Golcheski Givens (Educ ’11), Alexa Miller Quinn (Col ’11, Educ ’21), Casey Paul Resnick (Col ’09, Educ ’15), and Hannah Trible (Col ’09).

Deborah M. Awai (Col ’81, Law ’84 L/M) was appointed as the chief financial officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. As senior vice president for the finance and statistics groups, Awai oversees multiple business groups, including financial planning, accounting, procurement, supplier diversity, depository institution reserve requirement compliance and data collection and analytics.

Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) published a book, The Dr. Phibes Companion: The Morbidly Romantic History of the Classic Vincent Price Horror Film Series, which recently won the Rondo Hatton Memorial Award for Book of the Year. 

Brian Sayre (Col ’75 L/M), Craig N. Thomas (Col ’82), and Cody Pennetti (Engr ’07, ’25) contributed to the publication of the fourth edition of The Land Development Handbook as reviewer, legal contributor, and co-editor and contributor, respectively. The handbook is a reference for design professionals, students, and private and public land developers. Authored by Dewberry and originally published in 1995, the first three editions have sold nearly 40,000 copies. The new edition and accompanying books are available through McGraw-Hill, Amazon and other retailers. 

Jennifer Rodgers was recognized as 2018-2019 Teacher of the Year for Loudoun County, Virginia. Jennifer is a social science and global studies teacher at Dominion High School in Sterling, Virginia.  

Laura Belmonte (Grad ’91, ’96) was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech University, beginning Aug. 1. Belmonte currently serves as associate dean for instruction and personnel at Oklahoma State University.

Holly Hodder Eger’s (Grad ’84) book, Split Rock: A Martha’s Vineyard Novel, won the 2019 International Book Award for Best Women’s Fiction. The book also received the Independent Publisher’s IPPY Silver Medal Award for Best Adult Fiction E-Book and was a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Awards for both Best Women’s Fiction and Best Regional Fiction, Northeast.

Mike Mayes (Arch ’99 L/M) joined BCG Digital Ventures in April as a product director, leading corporate innovations and incubation activities for BCG clients. Previously, he ran his own product innovation consulting practice from 2013-2019 focused on fintech, HR tech and entertainment client digital transformations. He and his wife, Caroline Cundiff Mayes (Col ’99 L/M), live in Santa Monica, California, with their two daughters, Phoebe and Eliza.

Nicholas Knodt (Arch ’14) joined the Washington, D.C., office of Quinn Evans Architects as a staff architect. Knodt has extensive experience in the design of higher education, museum, and theater facilities, primarily in the Northeast. 

Lynne Barnard Tickle (Col ’84 L/M) and Emily Lewis Wilkinson (Com ’81 L/M) started Concierge on Call in 2018. The company, based in Richmond, Virginia, provides organizational, de-cluttering and downsizing assistance in Richmond and throughout the Northern Neck of Virginia. After 32 years in banking, Tickle retired in 2017 as senior vice president of TowneBank.

Derek Douglas (Col ’99 L/M) and his wife, Meredith, welcomed their first child, Evelyn Nell, on Dec. 18, 2018. The family lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Linsey Davis (Col ’99), with Joseph Bottum and illustrator Lucy Fleming, will receive a Christopher Award for their book, The World is Awake: A Celebration of Everyday Blessings. The book is a lyrical, rhyming story for young children intended to make them feel safe and joyful.

Pete Hardesty (Col ’97 L/M) finally figured out how to be an adult (barely) and published a book, Adulting 101, in March 2018. It became an Amazon #1 bestseller within a week.  The book covers topics like the purpose of life, money, time management, how to interview and get a job, how to become a millionaire, relationships, sex and dating, professionalism, how to be wildly successful at work, and much, much more.

Sarah Harris Wallman (Col ’00 L/M) was awarded the Juniper Prize for Short Fiction by UMass Press. Her collection “Senseless Women|” will debut in Spring 2020.  

Jordan Wenger (Com ’04) married Gregory Foster Brown on Jan.19, 2019 in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The couple, along with stepson, Bruce, age 6, lives in Newport Beach, California. Jordan completed her masters from the Kellogg School of Management in 2014 and is a retired strategy consultant. Greg is a commercial debt and equity broker with HFF.

Carl K. “Trey” Dowdey III (Col ’95), an attorney with Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers, was selected to take over command of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 10th Legal Operations Detachment, which falls under the U.S. Army Reserve Legal Command out of Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dowdey’s appointment will take effect on June 22, 2019, and will make him one of just 23 Legal Operations Detachment commanders nationwide. In addition to this announcement, Dowdey will also be promoted to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Vivian Lerner (Col ’74) published Stories of My Aunt Greta: A True Survivor. The book tells a series of stories about Greta, who grew up in pre-Nazi Austria before her family had to leave suddenly. Ending up in Lima, Peru, she found herself in a strange new world of new language and new customs. Her attempt at adapting is told with honesty and humor. The story then follows her move, at age 21, to New York. The book tells a survivor’s story of a life well-lived. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and local bookstores.

Mike Lynn (Col ’72 L/M) of the law firm Lynn Pinker Cox and Hurst has been recognized as a distinguished alumni of SMU Dedman School of Law in private practice for 2019. He has also been recognized as one of the “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America” from 2015-2018 by Benchmark Litigation. Mr. Lynn has been named one of the “Top 500 Lawyers in the US” by Lawdragon in 2015 and is consistently ranked in Chambers and Partners as a Band One commercial trial lawyer.

Mr. Lynn obtained a $146 million jury verdict for Mesa Petroleum (an entity controlled by T. Boone Pickens), making it the third consecutive year the firm has obtained one of the largest jury verdicts in the United States. In 2014, Mr. Lynn lead a team that recovered a jury verdict of over $935 million.

Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst was named a Top 10 Litigation Boutique in the nation by  Benchmark Litigation  for two years and to the 2019 Best Law Firms list by Best Lawyers. The firm is also one of five litigation firms in Texas ranked Band One by Chambers and Partners. Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst continues to be recognized by leading publications as one of the top litigation firms nationwide.

Leonard Benade (Col ’66 L/M) received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for his professional achievements in biomedicine and law.

Walter “Casey” King (Engr ’89) recently organized the 12th annual HGTC Addiction and Recovery lecture series.  As a person in long term recovery, King created this event as a way to give back to the local recovery community.  Over the last 12 years, he has been able to work with celebrities in recovery, such as Meredith Baxter, Louis Gossett, Danny Trejo and Mackenzie Phillips to deliver the message of recovery at the college level. All events are free and open to the public. 

Richard Fowler (Col ’56, Educ ’60 L/M) recently completed the third volume of the previously unpublished history of Laurens County, South Carolina through 1900 as chief writer and editor. He served as president of the South Carolina Education Association in 1973 and served as editor of the Virginia Literary Magazine in 1958.

Sharon Rubin Kressel (Col ’05, Med ’12 L/M) and her husband, Jason, welcomed their first son, Aaron Holtz, in March 2018.  The family lives in Atlanta, where Sharon is an OB-GYN practicing at Northside Hospital.

Sophia Ximena Ahl (Col ’15) and James J. “Jimmy” Sloan (Engr ’14) were married on Feb. 23, 2019, at Catedral de Santa Catalina de Alejandria in Cartagena, Colombia, the bride’s maternal ancestral home country. Jimmy is a great grandson of the late Dr. Claude C. Coleman, professor of neurosurgery and founder of the department at the UVA School of Medicine. Thomas L. Johnson (Col ’14) was best man. Other Cavaliers in the wedding party were: Mary Kate Amato (Col ’15), Whitt Clement (Col ’14, Com ’15 L/M), Madelyn Flinn (Com ’15), Zander Geronimos (Com ’14), Charles Gillock (Col ’14 L/M), Story Hinckley (Col ’15), Jake Ingrassia (Col ’13), Peter Kiernan (Col ’14), Maisie Vere Nicoll (Col ’15 L/M), Beau Perona (Arch ’13) and Julia Sroba (Col ’15, Educ ’16).

In total about 100 Virginia alums made the trip to the tropics for the Ahl-Sloan nuptial celebration. After an Asian honeymoon, the couple resides in New York City.

Steve Odabashian (Col ’91) and his wife, Maggie, welcomed their third son, Raffi Aram, on Jan. 21, 2019.  Steve is the owner and head tutor of Main Line Test Prep and Tutoring, where he helps kids (both locally and worldwide) with standardized test prep and other academic needs. He officially takes the SAT and ACT on a yearly basis and consistently scores in the 99th percentile. He has helped dozens of UVA alumni children maximize test scores.  

Eric C. Rudenshiold (Grad ’90) was named a director at the National Security Council in the South Asia Directorate. While serving at the White House, Rudenshiold will be on leave from the United States Agency for International Development and George Washington University’s Elliott School of Foreign Affairs. 

Earl Mark Watts (Col ’79, Med ’84) was installed as Delegate for the Virginia Chapter to the Congress of Delegates of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has practiced Family Medicine for the past 30 years in the Roanoke Valley and was recently appointed Family Medicine Clerkship Director for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. 

Renee Brooks Catacalos (Col ’85 L/M) joined Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) as Membership and Strategic Partnerships Manager. SAFSF strengthens connections, fosters collaboration, and builds capacity within the philanthropic and impact investing sectors toward ensuring that all resources invested in food and agriculture systems enhance our collective well-being. Catacalos published The Chesapeake Table: Your Guide to Eating Local in October 2018. 

Kevin M. Passerini (Col ’02 L/M) and his wife, Megan, welcomed their son, Grant Michael, on Jan. 11, 2019. Grant joins big sisters Reese Mary and Maeve Alice.  The family lives in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where Kevin is a partner with Blank Rome and Megan is a senior media strategist at Health Union.