Class Notes

Eric Kalkhurst (Col ’68 CM) has been accepted into the M.A./Ph.D. psychology, religion and consciousness program of Pacifica Graduate Institute for fall 2025.

Chris Langhorne (Engr ’99, Darden ’05 CM) has recently taken on the role of chief strategy officer at Almarai, the Middle East’s largest food and beverage company. In this role, he is leading strategic initiatives across mergers and acquisitions, long-term planning, and expansion into new categories and markets. His work is focused on driving sustainable growth and positioning Almarai for continued success in the region.

While Chris is based full-time in Saudi Arabia, his wife, Brooke, and their three children remain in Houston. Brooke has been instrumental in ensuring a strong foundation for the family during this transition, creating the best environment for their kids while also exploring new passions, including floral design and travel. She enjoys visiting Chris in Saudi Arabia, and as a family, they love traveling together—most recently spending Christmas in Dubai and ringing in the New Year in Saudi Arabia.

Their eldest son, CJ (15), is a ninth grader who has a deep passion for baseball and photography. Cameron (13), in seventh grade, is an avid basketball, football and baseball player and enjoys creating home movies. Morgan (11) is a dedicated gymnast, spending much of her time training and perfecting her routines.

Chris and his family continue to embrace this exciting chapter, balancing life between Houston and Riyadh while making time for shared adventures along the way.

Justin Ruth (Col ’97 CM) has been appointed as associate circuit judge in St. Louis County, Missouri, by Gov. Mike Kehoe.

John Via III (Engr ’84 CM) was elected a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) in October 2023 and was elected to the ASEM board of directors in January 2025. Via was also elected director of graduate program certification and will lead ASEM’s Master of Engineering Management certification team. Via is currently a professor of practice and associate director in the Master of Engineering Management & Leadership program at Rice University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) and a Certified Professional in Engineering Management (C.P.E.M). He and his wife, Jennifer, live in Morgan’s Point, Texas, a suburb of Houston.

Jerry Chen (Col ’14 CM) and his wife, Susan Russell, welcomed their first child, Millicent “Millie” Chen, in January. The family lives in New York.

Debbie Levy (Col ’78 CM) has published A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight Over Science in Schools, the first of three books she will publish in 2025. Levy will also publish Photo Ark 1-2-3: An Animal Counting Book in Poetry and Pictures and The Friendship Train: A True Story of Helping and Healing After World War II.

Levy’s previous books for children and young adults have put her on the New York Times bestseller lists and earned awards including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Virginia Library Association’s Jefferson Cup Award.

Philip Whitman (Col ’04 CM) was raised to the sublime degree of master mason on Sept. 21, 2024 and currently is serving as junior deacon of Bremond Lodge #241 in Newport News, Virginia.

Joan Burcher Green (Educ ’62 CM) reports that her son, Chad Green, was elected to the Virginia General Assembly, House of Delegates, in 2023. Green serves the 69^th District.

Zachary Brown (Col ’22) has launched a production company, ZHB Productions, and is in the process of shooting “Up the Waterspout,” an animated short to be released in 2025. Brown performed in “When the Rain Stops Falling” as a fourth-year student at UVA, and the experience inspired him to pursue theater and acting as well as create movies and art. He is happy to have learned from such people as Cortney Lowinski (Grad ’23), Brian Willis (Grad ’23) and Mark Edmundson.

Cara Goodwin (Col ’07 CM) has recently been published in CharlottesvilleFamily magazine. Her article is about the science behind toilet training. After a deep dive into current medical research, she distilled the findings into easy-to-understand action items to help parents. This is part of an ongoing series for the publication and will include future articles on sleep in childhood, parenting styles, mother burnout, developmental milestones, childhood anxiety and more. A licensed psychologist, Goodwin is the founder of Parenting Translator and the mother of four young children.

John Maze (Arch ’91 CM) was awarded the Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award by the University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning. Maze is an associate professor of architecture and has been at Florida since 2001 following four years teaching at the UVA School of Architecture. He recently served as juror for final reviews at the end of the spring 2024 semester at UVA, and was elated to find the work is still among the best he has seen in the country. Maze credits Peter Waldman amongst other great educators at UVA for his success as an educator and continues to send students from Florida to UVA for their graduate studies. Once a ’Hoo, always a ’Hoo!

Billy Wynne (Law ’04) will publish The Empty Path: Finding Fulfillment Through the Radical Art of Lessening, with New World Library on March 18. Wynne and his family live in Colorado. His daughter is a first-year student at Cornell.

Andrew Ceperley (Grad ’89) has published Tone Setters in the Academy: How to Build an Inspired Life as a University Administrator.  The book offers practical strategies, known as “tone setter mindsets,” to help administrators dealing with challenges such as campus politics, the lack of promotional opportunities, and workplace dynamics cultivate their unique tone, manage energy, and build resilience. Ceperley is a seasoned university administrator, consultant, and a professional certified coach for individuals and teams serving colleges and universities throughout the world.

John E. Ludlum (Law ’98) has joined the law firm Cozen O’Connor in the labor and employment department. Ludlum brings nearly three decades of experience advising and representing national and Utah business clients in compensation and tax matters ranging from executive compensation to mergers and acquisitions-related tax issues. He will work in the firm’s Salt Lake City office.

Ludlum comes to the firm from Holland & Hart, where he was a partner in the tax and benefits group. Before joining the legal profession, Ludlum was an officer/aircraft commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he executed search and rescue, law enforcement, pollution response, ice patrol, and medical evacuation missions domestically and internationally, including service in Operation Desert Storm.

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.

Michelle Trong Perrin-Steinberg (Col ’01 CM) has published Kindly, Michelle, a book that seeks to assist law students, early career lawyers, and others with inspiration and encouragement on their journey. The book details her path to becoming chief legal counsel at a global technology company, explaining how she grew up differently and fell into export control and sanctions regulatory compliance. Through family stories—including from her father, Michael T. Perrin (Com ’75 CM)—and practical advice, Perrin-Steinberg explains that uncovering one’s values is key.

Anant Das (Com ’19 CM) is a co-producer of the U.S. national tour of the Broadway musical “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.” Das is also producing two shows on Broadway this season: “Gypsy”, with Audra McDonald; and Steven Spielberg’s “Smash.” Das recently celebrated the four-year anniversary of his theatre subscription box company, Broadway Boxed Up.

Matthew Morris (Col ’16 CM) has published The Tilling, a collection of essays which explores questions of race, identity, family history and love. The book won the 2024 Deborah Tall Lyric Book Prize, founded in 2017 by the editors of Seneca Review to support innovative work in the essay form, including cross-genre and hybrid work, verse forms, text and image, connected or serial pieces, and/or beyond category projects. It was published by Seneca Review Books, an imprint of Hobart and William Smith Colleges Press.

Stefan Sittig (Col ’94 CM) was recently nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for outstanding choreography for In The Heights at NextStop Theatre Company in Herndon, Virginia and a Broadway World Award for best direction and best choreography for Xanadu at Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia.

Sittig is a director, choreographer, fight director, intimacy and movement coordinator, educator, performer and podcast host who has been involved in more than 125 productions in New York (off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway), internationally in Brazil, Uruguay and Canada, and at various regional theaters across the U.S. He has also worked in most of the major theaters in the Washington, D.C. area including The Kennedy Center, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre, 1st Stage, The Washington Savoyards, The Atlas Performing Arts Center, Adventure Theatre, Creative Cauldron, Open Circle Theatre, The American Century Theatre and many more.

He recently completed 30 years of teaching at the college/university level and is honored to have trained hundreds of theater students at various institutions including George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, George Washington University, James Madison University and Georgetown University. He is currently writing a book titled Latinidad in Musical Theatre: From Carmen to Lin Manuel Miranda, to be published by Bloomsbury UK/Methuen Drama in August 2025.