Class Notes
George Snyder (Col ’85 CM)
George T. Snyder (Col ’85 CM) was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.
TMA Pittsburgh is a group of professionals dedicated to the local corporate renewal, restructuring, and turnaround management community.
Michele Walsh (Col ’92 CM)
Michele Bresnick Walsh (Col ’92 CM) has been elected as chair and CEO of the law firm Gordon Feinblatt LLC, effective July 31, 2024.
Walsh is the first woman to occupy this role in the firm’s 71-year history. She began as an Associate at Gordon Feinblatt in 1997, as a business and securities lawyer. Over time, she has become an integral member of many of the firm’s practice groups, including forming the EMERGE practice group for emerging businesses. She currently chairs the firm’s Business and Securities practice groups, serves on the firm’s Executive Committee, and chairs the firm’s Finance Committee and Talent Acquisition Committee.
Walsh is also a tireless advocate in the community where she is involved in the leadership of many philanthropic organizations, including There Goes My Hero Foundation, Lawyers’ Campaign Against Hunger, Executive Alliance and many others. She relates to those looking to “seize the day,” and has done just that in her professional and personal life.
Howard Edwards (Engr ’71, Med ’77 CM)
Dr. Howard Berryman “Berry” Edwards (’71, Med ’78 CM) published BehaveNet.com, an encyclopedia of psychiatry, including sleep medicine and addiction medicine, since 1995.
Paul Terpak (Col ’77, Law ’80 CM)
Paul B. Terpak (Col ’77, Law ’80 CM) has been named to the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame, an honor given to about one tenth of 1% of lawyers in Virginia every year. The Hall of Fame honors Virginia lawyers who have been in practice for 30 years. Criteria for inclusion include career accomplishments, contributions to the development of the law in Virginia, contributions to the bar and to the commonwealth at large and efforts to improve the quality of justice in Virginia.
For the fifth time, Terpak was named Best Lawyers 2024 Eminent Domain and Condemnation Lawyer of the Year for the Washington D.C. area. He practices with Blankingship & Keith in Fairfax.
Kaitlyn Badlato (Arch ’13 CM)
Kaitlyn Badlato (Arch ’13 CM) and Oscar Granberry Adams IV were engaged March 16, 2024 at Maine Maritime Academy, Adams’ alma mater.
Badlato is the daughter of Julie Kruger-Badlato (Com ’82 CM). Adams is the son of Nancy Bizier Adams (Col ’78 CM). The couple met in 2022 and live in Arlington, Virginia. Badlato works as a medical planner and architect at HKS Architects and Adams works as a management consultant in Deloitte’s Government and Public Sector practice.
John Valliere (Engr ’76 CM)
Retired Col. Richard Kingman (Col ’74 CM) and fellow Air Force ROTC alumni from 1973 to 1977 attended the 2024 Joint Service ROTC Awards Ceremony at UVA to present the inaugural Colonel James A. Ball Outstanding UVA ROTC Instructor of the Year award. The award is named after Colonel James A. Ball, who served as the assistant professor of Air Science at UVA from 1971-1975 and is a lifelong friend, mentor, and example to the officers he helped train, as well as someone who reflects the best traditions of the U.S. military, the Air Force, and UVA.
The award was the brainchild of Kingman, who solicited support for the effort and endowment from fellow alumni. Also attending the April 16 ceremony were retired Col. Barry Bryan (Col ’76), retired Col. James Holaday (Col ’75 CM), retired Lt. Col John Valliere (Engr ’76 CM), Bruce Webster (Engr ’74 CM), and Michael Skojec (Col ’ 76 CM).
Ball presented the award to USAF Major Tim Robles of AFROTC Detachment 890 for his outstanding efforts over the 2023-2024 school year demonstrating “instructional and counseling abilities, civic engagement, and overall contributions to [his] ROTC unit.”
Ben Arthur (Col ’95)
Ben Arthur (Col ’95) is launching the sixth season of his podcast, SongWriter, in which an author reads a song and a songwriter performs a song written in response. Past seasons have featured artists such as Questlove, Susan Orlean, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Roxane Gay, Joyce Carol Oates, Steve Earle, and others. This season will focus on elements of human flourishing like forgiveness, polarization, and empathy. SongWriter is also available as a live performance series.
Bill Crutchfield (Com ’65 CM)
Bill Crutchfield (Com ’65 CM) will be honored in May with a Virginia Senate Joint Resolution recognizing the 50th anniversary of Crutchfield Corporation, an electronics retailer based in Charlottesville. Crutchfield founded the company in 1974 when he was unable to find a modern stereo for the Porsche 356 he was restoring. He was named Ernst & Young’s Master Entrepreneur of the Year for Virginia in 1999 and was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame in 2007.
John Flagg (Col ’19 CM)
John “Jack” Flagg (Col ’19 CM) has joined the law firm of Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A. as an associate in the Tort & Insurance Litigation Department. He will handle insurance defense claims involving premises liability, automobile, and personal injury matters from the firm’s office in Fort Myers, Florida. Flagg is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law and a member of the Lee County (Fla.) Bar Association.
Ashley Bartley (Col ’06 CM)
Ashley Bartley (Col ’06 CM) has released two additional titles in her social emotional learning children’s book series published by Boys Town Press. Jasper Lizard Wants to Stay Home (2023) helps young children experiencing separation anxiety and Molly and the Runaway Trolley (2023) offers children strategies for managing anxiety at home and at school. Both books include tips for caregivers, and companion resources are available from Boys Town Press. Bartley is a school counselor, author, and curriculum writer who lives with her husband and three young boys in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She is the owner and creator of the online business Counselor Station, providing curriculum and resources for school counselors.
Issa Moe (Col ’03 CM)
Issa K. Moe (Col ’03 CM) has rejoined Moss & Barnett, a multi-disciplinary law firm with offices in Minneapolis and St. Cloud, Minnesota. Moe returns to the firm after serving as general counsel for ACA International, a trade association for the accounts receivable management industry. He focuses his practice on representing clients in litigation and providing counsel to clients on compliance, risk management, and general business matters. Moe advises clients on compliance with consumer financial laws and regulations, including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and Telephone Consumer Protection Act. He also represents clients in class action litigation and regulatory actions brought under those and similar financial laws and regulations.
Richard Kast (Col ’70)
Rick Kast (Col ’70) has published Romance With Variations, a novel concerning the relationship between Robert, a lawyer who is a classical music lover, and Anna, a pianist. There are many mysteries in Anna’s background that she is reticent about. After she disappears, Robert has to confront and resolve them to try to find her. Kast is a lawyer and classical music lover himself. He retired from the UVA General Counsel’s Office in December 2015 and lives in Charlottesville.
Whitney Athayde (Col ’05)
Whitney Garrison Athayde (Col ’05 CM) has been promoted to managing consultant at AmPhil, where she helps mission-aligned nonprofits strengthen civil society by scaling their fundraising operations. She works from a farm just north of Charlottesville where she and her husband also homestead and homeschool their four children.
Donald Slesnick (Col ’65 CM)
Don Slesnick (Col ’65 CM) delivered the graduation address for Florida International University in December 2023, when was also awarded the FIU Medallion For Outstanding Alumnus. Slesnick, the former mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, received the Excellence in Public Service Award from the Gables Good Government Committee in March 2024. His late wife, Jeannett, a former city commissioner, was also honored posthumously.
Jill Tietjen (Engr ’76 CM)
Jill S. Tietjen (Engr ’76 CM) has published Duty Calls: Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service, a memoir co-authored with the first female and first Hispanic U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello. Dr. Novello recounts her childhood illness and her life of service as well as lessons learned – as U.S. Surgeon General, as Commissioner of the Department of Health for the State of New York during 9/11, and through hurricanes, earthquakes, and the pandemic in her native Puerto Rico.
Kaitlyn Witman (Col ’12 CM)
Kaitlyn (Houck) Witman (Col ’12 CM) has been named co-CEO at Rainfactory, the company she co-founded in 2014. Rainfactory is a marketing agency for new technology product launches, crowdfunding, and pre-sales. She lives in Vienna, Virginia with husband Ben Witman (Engr ’12) and their three children.
Steven Fox (Engr ’81 CM)
Steven Fox (Engr ’81 CM) is co-founder and Luke Fox (Engr ’15 CM) manager of eViation and Drone Academy, which provides classroom, flight training, and hands-on experience focused on the emerging Unmanned Aviation Systems and electric “green technologies” aviation markets. Opened in January 2024, the Academy is located at Hampton Roads Executive Airport in Chesapeake, Virginia. Its mission is to prepare students for the FAA Part 107 UAS Operator examination and to also provide specialized drone training for select use cases.
The Academy has agreements in place with Old Dominion University, NASA, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, Virginia Tech, Hampton University, Community College Workforce Alliance, school divisions in Virginia Beach and York County, Virginia, and New Horizons Regional Education Centers.
Kathleen Biggins (Grad ’82)
Kathleen Biggins (Col ’82 CM), founder of C-Change Conversations, a non-partisan group devoted to educating people about the science and risk of climate change, spoke on Capitol Hill as a keynote speaker at the National Affairs & Legislation Conference.
Biggins spoke alongside Sens. Kristen Gillibrand, Mazie Hirono, Edward Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse and Reps. Debbie Dingell, Garret Graves and Brian Mast. Approximately 400 delegates from around the country attended.
Justin Watkins (Col ’02 CM)
Justin Watkins (Col ’02 CM) has been promoted to major in the U.S. Army. Maj. Watkins currently serves as an appellate defense attorney at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He previously served in South Korea, Kentucky, Iraq, Germany, and Kuwait. Next year, he will attend the Army’s Judge Advocate Officer’s Graduate Course in Charlottesville for a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Military Law.
Susan Martin (Educ ’99)
Susan Martin (Educ ’99) has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Leadership. The Golden Apple Foundation is the leading Illinois nonprofit committed to preparing, honoring and supporting great educators who advance educational opportunities for students. Five finalists were chosen from more than 100 nominations. Martin is principal of Reservoir Gifted Academy in Peoria, Ill.
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