Class Notes

Jason Cottrell (Educ ’16 CM) was recently appointed the data coordinator for postsecondary education at the U.S. Department of Education. In this role, Cottrell will work to improve data quality and maturity by working with data stewards, assessing the needs for data literacy training, and managing data practices for the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) while developing a governance model for data collections and analyses within OPE. He previously served as lead research analyst in the Office of Postsecondary Education.

Cottrell was also elected to a 3-year term as the vice president for membership for the American College Personnel Association—College Student Educators International.

He received all of this news as he returned home from a 2-week trip to London and Paris where he and his husband celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary and their 25th anniversary. 

Cecelia Tomko (Col ’92, Educ ’92 CM) has published Sacred Stones, a novel set in her adopted home of Butler, Pennsylvania, where a man inherits his great-grandmother’s house. When his 10-year-old daughter begins to experience strange visions of the past, each glimpse of her ancestors leads the family closer to bringing long-buried secrets of theft, deceit and betrayal into the light.

Tomko moved to Butler in 2010. Impacted by the closing of a major steel railcar company almost 30 years earlier, much of its Main Street was boarded up. Tomko fell in love with the town and its history, as well as the surrounding beauty of western Pennsylvania. She hopes the book, which is packed with history and descriptions of local gems, will bring positive attention and tourism to the town.

Ross Rommel (Col ’69 CM) is enjoying retirement in the Texas Hill Country after 30 years as a partner with the law firm Hunton Andrew Kurth in Houston. Rommel and his wife Deborah live on seven acres in Hunt, Texas, with 13 chickens, 70 peach trees, and an abundance of vegetables.

Rommel served as general counsel at Hunton Andrew Kurth for 12 years and as head of its trial division for seven years. In 2019, he received the University of Houston Law Center’s Lifetime Achievement in Advocacy Award, which honors an individual who contributed significantly to teaching the art of advocacy to law students.

Rommel was a prosecutor with the Harris County (Texas) District Attorney’s Office for seven years before joining Hunter Andrews Kirth. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a platoon sergeant before attending law school at the University of Houston Law Center.

Rommel wrote a book, Of Tight Lines and Cupped Wings, which recounts his adventures in the outdoors with family and friends. He’s currently taking voice and cello lessons at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.

More than 50 years after they won their race at the Head of the Charles Regatta, David Critchfield (Col ’74 CM), Sandy Harris (Col ’74, Darden ’76 CM), Lindsay Stewart (Col ’74), Thor Strong (Col ’74), and Trennie Walker (Col ’74 CM) competed again in the prestigious event in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In October 1972, the UVA rowers won the intermediate four-oared shells with coxswain division, beating second-place Harvard University by eight seconds. They returned in October 2024, rowing in the grand master fours division in a shell that their class donated to the Virginia Rowing Association, named in honor of a deceased member of their crew, Todd Tisdale (Col ’74 CM).

Scott Weinrich (Engr ’20) has joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as a 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.

Megan Haase (Engr ’24) has joined the Institute for Defense Analyses as a 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. Haase is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and the American Society of Biomechanics. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biomedical and health science engineering from North Carolina State University in 2020 and holds a doctorate from UVA in biomedical engineering.

Mike Kerrigan (Col ’93, Law ’96 CM) has been named managing partner of the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Hunter Andrews Kurth. Kerrigan leads the firm’s capital finance and real estate team, focusing on the purchase, sale and trading of loans, securities, claims, derivatives and other interests in domestic and international companies in, near, or emerging from financial distress. He joined Hunton Andrews Kurth in 1996 and has spent his entire legal career with the firm.

Alison Flood (Com ’06 CM) has been promoted to partner at Goldman Sachs, one of 95 in the 2024 class. Partners are selected based on their commercial effectiveness, leadership and impact on firm culture. Flood works in the firm’s global banking and markets business in New York.

Joanne “Joleen” Searles (Col ’99 CM) has joined the Sarasota, Florida office of the law firm Shutts & Bowen as partner in the private client services practice group. Searles focuses her practice on complex estate planning, trust and estate administration, settlement and probate, high net worth planning, as well as federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning.

Audrey Fahlberg (Col ’20) has been awarded a 2024-25 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship. Fellows spend one year researching and providing in-depth reporting on their chosen topics surrounding the principles of a free society. The fellowship is named after the late Robert D. Novak, renowned columnist, CNN broadcaster and reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. Novak Fellows have gone on to become leaders in journalism as Pulitzer Prize winners, leaders of national outlets and authors of bestselling books. Fahlberg is a political reporter for National Review.

Jim Thunder (Grad ’74) retired from law in 2022.  Thunder has nearly 300 publications to his credit covering law, public policy, history, biography, ethics, and religion. They include The United States Attorneys for the District of Columbia 1801-2024, “Quiet Killings in Medical Facilities: Detection & Prevention” (Issues in Law & Medicine, 2003) cited by Justice Neil Gorsuch in his book on euthanasia, and a recent exposition on the bicentennial of Lafayette’s 1824-25 national tour focusing on visits with Thomas Jefferson and to the University of Virginia (New Oxford Review). Jim, his wife Ann of 50 years, and their children, including Dr. Megan Swanson (Col ’98 CM), and Kateri Thunder Southall (Col ‘02, Educ ‘02, ‘11 CM), and grandchildren all live in Charlottesville.

Ellen Finkelstein (Col ’88 CM) has been named CEO of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America. With more than 300,000 members worldwide, Hadassah works to advance women’s health, supports a strong Israel and instills Jewish values in future generations.  Hadassah is helping women find their voices to advance health equity, fight hate and antisemitism in the U.S. and model shared society in Israel.  Thanks to the medical system in Israel that Hadassah helped create, new treatments and scientific breakthroughs are saving lives around the world.

Michael Ross (Col ’70, Law ’77 CM) has published volumes eight and nine of his collections of quotations from literary fiction, Ross’s Spiritual Discoveries and Ross’s Literary Discoveries. Ross has been collecting gems from his reading of literary fiction since the 1970s, seeking pithy observations and perspectives from a diverse group of authors across the globe. Quotes are often thought-provoking, humorous, or both. The collections illustrate the value of quotations, introduce readers to authors and books that they do not know, and provide the perfect pocket-sized gift for readers and booklovers.

Emily Waterfield (Col ’05 CM) has been appointed head of school at The Common School in Amherst, Massachusetts. A progressive, independent elementary school entering its 60th year, The Common School seeks to advance equity and environmental justice through joyful learning, community, and emergent curriculum. Waterfield holds a master’s degree from Columbia University, is a graduate of the Inclusive School Leader Fellowship, serves as adjunct faculty at Tulane University and has two decades of experience as an educator and school system leader. She moved to Amherst from New Orleans, Louisiana along with her husband Chris and their three children.