Class Notes

Dr. Reginald J. Sanders (Col ’81 CM), was recently named President of the American Society of Retina Specialists. The ASRS is the world’s largest organization for retina specialists, and Dr. Sanders is the first African American to serve as President. His other achievements include being elected into the Retina Hall of Fame as a charter inductee in 2016.

Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) has been nominated for a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Book of the Year for his recent biography George Pal: Man of Tomorrow. 

Sarah V. Schweig (Col ’07) has won the 2023-24 Jake Adam York Prize for her second collection of poems, The Ocean in the Next Room. The collection will be published by Milkweed Editions in January 2025. Schweig’s first poetry collection, Take Nothing with You, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2016. 

Charles Avery (Col ’72) has been leading The Nehemiah Project DC, a federally funded housing program which helps men transition to society following incarceration, while also consulting on other mental health matters. He also serves as the president of the Loudoun Douglass School Alumni Association and co-chaired the effort to preserve and restore the school, which has been designated as a historic landmark. Avery, who was valedictorian of the last class of the segregated school, received a 2023 Charles Hamilton Houston Equity and Justice award from Loudoun County NAACP in recognition of his work. 

Avery took on these projects after completing 11 years as the executive director of Veterans On the Rise, a non-profit dedicated to providing a holistic system of care to fight veteran homelessness in the Washington D.C. area.

Melanie Avery (Col ’99 CM) is leading a large data transformation and decision support team for BAE systems as Technical Program Manager for a cross-functional team of data scientists, software developers and business analysts in a data transformation and decision support division at DHS. She took on this role after serving at Veterans on the Rise, a 501(c)3 non-profit, for nine years while also working as a Management Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

Justin Humphreys (Col ’01) has been nominated for the Theatre Library Association’s Richard Wall Memorial Award for his book George Pal: Man of Tomorrow. The award recognizes performing arts scholarship with exemplary use and interpretation of library and archival collections. 

Paul Alp (Arch ’91) has joined the law firm of Adams and Reese, where he serves as one of the co-leaders of the new Adams and Reese Aviation and Aerospace Team.

In addition to traditional matters for airlines and manufacturers, Alp focuses a substantial portion of his law practice on complex airworthiness, compliance and enforcement issues. He is an author of numerous articles on legal issues affecting the aviation and aerospace industry. He also holds a commercial pilot certificate and has worked as a flight instructor.

Arp received a J.D. from George Washington University and an LL.M. with a specialization in Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice from American University. He served as a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block and as legal counsel at The Boeing Company.

Paul practices in the Washington, D.C. office.

Ryan McNeilly (Col ’20 CM) and Chelsea Guillory (Col ’19 CM) were married in Pensacola, Florida on May 2, 2023.  The two met at the Aquatic and Fitness Center in 2018.  They recently celebrated their marriage back in Charlottesville on Jan. 13th, 2024 with many ‘Hoos in attendance. The couple lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mills Kelly (Col ’82 CM) will be a Fulbright Scholar at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany during 2024. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History.

Byron Dickson (Arch ’63 CM), was inducted into the Salem (Virginia) Educational Foundation and Alumni Association Hall of Fame on April 26th, 2023. The five inductees were recognized for major achievements in their chosen fields of education and architecture.

Henry Legard (Com ’17 CM) and Niel Ketkar (Engr ’19 CM) have founded Verisoul, a platform that identifies fake accounts and bots by using Artificial Intelligence to analyze email, network, device, and user behavior. The product prevents sign-up promotions from being abused, reduces cybersecurity risk, improves user experience, and more.

Legard and Ketktar have raised $3.25M from investors, and are always looking to connect with fellow ’Hoos – either customers or potential employees.

Erica Stephenson (Nurs ’11 CM) and Caleb Stephenson (Com ’08 CM) welcomed their daughter, Isabel Charlotte Stephenson, on Sept. 27, 2023. The family lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Thaddeus Minshall (Col ’03) received a Design-Build Award from the New England chapter of the Design-Build Institute of America for Connolly Brothers Inc.’s design and construction management work on New England Academy’s new South Shore campus in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Minshall is vice president of real estate/development at Connolly.

Joe Essid (Col ’83) published “Writing Centers & the Dark Warehouse University: Generative AI, Three Human Advantages,” in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies: Vol. 2, 2023.

Jim Roche (Darden ’06 CM) has been named president, BRP and CEO, Underwriting, Capacity, & Technology Operations at Baldwin Risk Partners, one of the largest insurance brokers in the United States.  

Roche has been at BRP since 2019, when he joined as part of the acquisition of Millennial Specialty Insurance (MSI), a firm which he founded in 2015.

Additionally, he has purchased a farm in Charlottesville near Foxfield to serve as a full-time residence upon retirement.