Class Notes

Robert Levy (Col ’80) has retired from the practice of optometry after 40 years. Levy graduated from UVA with a degree in psychology and got a Bachelor of Science degree in visual science and his Doctor of Optometry degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. He practiced in Richmond and Northern Virginia, finishing his career at Grove Eye Care in Richmond, where his colleagues included Dr. Laura Schwartz (Educ ’13 CM).  His retirement plans include continuing to play bass guitar and sing in his Richmond band TrainWreck, doing more kayaking, more traveling, and moving down to “the Rivah” with his long-suffering girlfriend Debbie.

Ben Rosenthal (Com ’05 CM), CEO and co-president of Standard Meat Company in Fort Worth, Texas has been named an Entrepreneur of The Year® 2024 National Award winner by Ernst & Young. The award, established in 1986, recognizes entrepreneurs who are revolutionizing industries and leading businesses that will shape the future. Ten national winners were chosen by a panel of independent judges from a group of 214 regional winners, representing 185 companies across the U.S. The candidates were evaluated based on their demonstration of building long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.

Standard Meat Company is a meat processing and packaging firm with four plants in North Texas. It has been owned and operated by the Rosenthal family since it was founded in 1935.

Tomer Vandsburger (Col ’08) has been promoted to partner at Perkins Coie, a global law firm headquartered in Seattle. Vandsburger is a member of the business practice, with a focus on employee benefits and executive compensation. He advises clients with Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Internal Revenue Code, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, COBRA, and Affordable Care Act issues. He also counsels on employee benefits issues arising in mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions.

Jessica Beebe (Col ’91 CM) has published her first novel, Muddy the Water, co-written with her brother, Matt Barrows (Col ’95 CM). Shown from three perspectives, killer, detective, and reporter, Muddy the Water brings readers inside the newsroom of a struggling small newspaper on the bucolic South Carolina coast and speaks to the concept of identity—and whether anyone ever shows their true self.

Sherrie Sandy Westin (Col ’80 CM) was named president and chief executive officer of Sesame Workshop, the global nonprofit behind “Sesame Street.” Westin is the first woman to lead Sesame Workshop since its co-founder, Joan Ganz Cooney. Westin had served as president of the organization since 2021 before being named interim CEO in February.

Wilmah M. “Bill” Getchell, Jr. (Col ’67) was awarded the 2024 Morgan Wing Trophy by the National Beagle Club of America at a meeting held in November in Aldie, Virginia. This “Unsung Hero” award is given annually in recognition of contributions to the sport of beagling. Getchell is on the hunt staff of the Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles, kenneled near Berryville, Virginia.

Jack Bailey (Col ’88 CM) has published Nobody’s Coming: 21 Essential Truths for Taking Control of Your Career, a book for adults aged 18 to 35 in the early stages of their professional lives who want more autonomy but don’t know how to produce it for themselves.

The book offers a collection of wisdom gathered from three decades of experience in the working world. Bailey’s intention is to help others by sharing lessons he learned the hard way that can help others transform their jobs into careers.

M.L.(Peggy) Herring (Col ’74) has published Born of Fire and Rain, an illustrated exploration of the Pacific temperate rainforest, a region of giant trees, exploding mountains, disappearing owls, megafires, tsunamis, and lessons on living on a rapidly changing planet. Published by Yale University Press, the book recalls Herring’s undergraduate work with UVa ecologist Bill Odum, before she migrated to the Pacific Northwest as an ecologist, artist, and writer. This is her seventh book.

Book Details

mlherring.org

Jack Totty (Col ’17 CM) is founder and CEO of Antigua Threads, a company on a mission to bring high quality, artisan-made belts to market while supporting local communities in Guatemala with fair wages and skilled jobs.

The company’s belts are handcrafted using traditional Mayan weaving techniques and finished with premium materials, a process that produces meaningful, sustainable fashion and empowers artisans.

More information is available at https://antiguathreads.com.

Chuck Ross (Engr ’80, ’83, ’88 CM) recently had the honor of officiating the wedding of his former research student and close friend Garrett Josemans. The wedding of Josemans and his bride Taylor Krause was televised on Season 7 of the popular Netflix show “Love is Blind.” Ross is professor of physics and dean emeritus at Longwood University.

Nia Zalamea-Ducklo (Col ’98 CM) serves as an assistant professor of surgery and director of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Global Surgery Institute. In 2021 she was appointed assistant dean in the Office of Student Affairs at the UTHSC College of Medicine. She also maintains a global practice and serves as board chair, vice president and general surgeon with the Memphis Mission of Mercy, an NGO founded by her parents that provides medical and surgical care to the poor through annual or biannual trips to the Philippines. She is the mother of two boys, Thomas (5) and Noli (3). Her husband, Matt Ducklo, is founder and gallerist of TOPS Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Capt. Marvin Heinze (Arch ’79 CM) has been selected to serve as first vice chairman of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). The association is an independent, nonprofit, politically nonpartisan organization with 360,000 members from every branch of uniformed service — active duty, National Guard, Reserve, retired, former officers, and surviving spouses. MOAA advocates for a strong national defense, plays an active role in military personnel matters and proposes legislation affecting the career force, the retired community, and veterans of the uniformed services.  It also provides career transition assistance, military benefits counseling, and educational assistance to children of military families through its charities. Heinze is serving a six-year term, from 2020 to 2026.

Rear Adm. Cathal O’Connor (Col ’88 CM) joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as an adjunct 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.

Now retired, O’Connor commanded a warship in San Diego, California, a squadron of warships in Japan, and a strike group of warships, landing craft, helicopters, and jet aircraft, again in San Diego.

O’Connor was commissioned an ensign from the UVA Naval ROTC unit after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English. He rowed lightweight crew and was a member of Chi Psi fraternity.

David Cadaret (Col ’93, Educ ’04 CM) recently joined the faculty of the University of Washington School of Law as an associate teaching professor. Before accepting the appointment, Cadaret taught at the University of Oregon School of Law for 11 years.

Kate Granruth (Col ’21, Law ’24) has joined the law firm of Hollingsworth LLP as a first-year associate. During law school at UVA, Granruth was managing editor of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, a student participant in the Innocence Project Clinic, and won the First Year Legal Research & Writing Best Brief Award.

She was also a participant in the Environmental Law & Community Engagement Clinic, a law clerk at Equal Rights Advocates, a legal research assistant at Southern Environmental Law Center, and an intern at the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center.

Based in Washington, D.C., Hollingsworth LLP is known for work that focuses the courts on sound science, particularly the lack of scientifically reliable causation evidence.

John K. Brown (Grad ’88, ’92 CM) has published Spanning the Gilded Age: James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge, the daring, improbable story of the construction of the St. Louis Bridge. Begun in 1867 and completed in 1874, it was the first structure of any kind—anywhere in the world—built of steel. Its three graceful arches broke world records for their span lengths; its stone foundations were the deepest yet constructed. It also the story of the career of Eads, one of the most influential engineers of the nineteenth century. Eads not only overcame the physical and technical challenges posed by construction of the bridge but employed equally imaginative design skills to finance the project.

Brown taught history, applied ethics and writing in the UVA School of Engineering’s Department of Engineering and Society from 1992 to 2015.

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12518/spanning-gilded-age

Howard M. Turner Jr. (Engr ’97) was hired as senior director of preconstruction and risk management for energy and technical Services at McKinstry, a national construction and energy services company dedicated to innovating waste and climate harm out of the built environment. Turner will lead preconstruction and risk management efforts for energy, sustainability, and decarbonization projects across the U.S., with a focus on existing facilities.

Byron Dickson (Arch ’63 CM) captured top honors in watercolor at the League of Roanoke Artists annual showcase, held at the Jefferson Center in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. His winning entry, “Wind Surfer,” was among the 94 works featured in this year’s event. Acclaimed professional artist Dana Phillips of Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia judged the contest.

Edward Castillo (Col ’18 CM) has joined the Raleigh, North Carolina office of law firm Ogletree Deakins as an associate.

Chris Frey (Engr ’85) completed service as assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 30. In this presidentially nominated and U.S. Senate confirmed role, he also served as the agency’s science advisor and as co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Environment. He previously served ORD as deputy assistant administrator for science policy. To advance the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment, Frey provided strategic direction for research and science translation that addressed priority needs of internal and external EPA partners on climate change, environmental justice and contaminants of immediate and emerging concern, among other areas.

Frey returned to North Carolina State University Oct. 1, where he joined the College of Engineering’s leadership team in a new role as associate dean for research and infrastructure. He is also continuing in his previous role as the Glenn E. and Phyllis J. Futrell distinguished university professor of environmental engineering in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. He returns after a leave between 2021 and 2024 for his service at the EPA.

Since joining N.C. State’s faculty in 1994, Frey has established a research portfolio focused on measurement and modeling of human exposure to air pollution and vehicle emissions, as well as applications of probabilistic and sensitivity analysis methods to emissions estimation, technology assessment, and risk assessment.

Dr. Christopher Mitchell (Col ’04 CM), was recently promoted to Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Mitchell is an active duty emergency physician and combat veteran with four tours in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. He is the program director for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Cavazos, Texas.

Fang Guo (Grad ’16, ’17) has been promoted to principal at Cornerstone Research, a leading provider of economic and financial consulting and expert testimony. Guo consults on antitrust and competition, consumer fraud and product liability, intellectual property, and statistical sampling matters, primarily in the life sciences and health care industries. In these contexts, she has analyzed class certification, liability, market definition, market power, and damages, among other issues. She also assesses alleged anticompetitive delays of generic entry, estimates the competitive effects of vertical mergers, and evaluates alleged price fixing and pass-through along the supply chain.

David Tarleton (Col ’93) was hired as the chair of the Department of Film and Media Arts at Syracuse University. He also teaches film directing in its nationally ranked film program. Previously, he served as the director of graduate programs in film at Columbia College Chicago. He has thirty years experience in the film and television industries as a producer, director and editor. He produced and directed the feature film, Hunter, and produced and directed the television series, Dark Secrets. He was executive producer and director for the streaming series, Dorkumentary, and worked with The Muppets for Disney. He and his wife, Adria Dawn, received an Emmy nomination in 2023 for Identity, their film project about transgender youth. Recently, he has been making Kids Matter, a series of socially relevant films for kids. After graduating from UVA, he studied film at New York University and received his M.F.A from the University of Southern California.

Laura B. Truesdale (Col ’08 CM) of Moore & Van Allen PLLC was named to the 2024 Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation list. The 500 X list, now in its second year of publishing, recognizes future leaders in law and those who, according to Lawdragon, “have eyes turned toward the future and an undiminished belief in the opportunity to make an impact.” Truesdale’s practice focuses on advising clients – such as real estate developers, lenders and financial institutions, contractors, and buyers/sellers of contaminated properties – on the environmental aspects of a wide range of real-estate-related matters.

Thomas C. Grant (Col ’92) has been named to the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers in America in the practice area of commercial litigation. Grant is a partner at Freed Grant LLC, where he focuses his practice on complex business litigation, commercial real estate, probate, appellate, and insurance defense matters.

Dr. Erika Werner (Col ’98, Engr ’99, Res ’08 CM) was appointed president of the faculty practice at Tufts Medicine and Tufts University School of Medicine, where she is also the chair of obstetrics and gynecology and Louis E. Phaneuf Teaching and Research Professor.

Dr. Werner lives in Barrington, Rhode Island with her husband W. Frazier Bell (Educ ’98) and their two daughters.

Jessica Somers (Com ’04) has joined Aledade, the nation’s largest network of independent primary care, as chief financial officer. Somers joins Aledade from Evolent, a publicly traded company that specializes in improving health outcomes. At Evolent, Somers led the development and execution of strategic growth investments, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic partnerships.

Lauren Nguyen (Com ’15 CM) has been named controller and vice president of finance at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. Nguyen oversees the organization’s finance and accounting functions, including accounts payable, grant reporting, audit and tax filings, and financial reporting, ensuring the Aquarium’s financial excellence and integrity. She also plays a crucial role in developing the aquarium’s economic strategy and sustainability planning.

Nguyen is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with previous experience at EY (formerly Ernst & Young) and 50CAN, an education advocacy nonprofit.

Wesley Marshall (Col ’85, Law ’88 CM) was elected to a three-year term as chair of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission, effective July 1. Marshall was appointed to the Commission in 2012. He also served as commission chairman from 2015-2018.

Marshall serves on the executive committee of the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators (SAWCA), the board of directors of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC), and the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary (NAWCJ) and was a founding member of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation American Inn of Court. In 2015, he was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers.

From 1988 to 2012, he was an attorney in private practice, primarily representing plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, employment matters, and other civil litigation.

Brendan Gillen (Com ’06 CM) has published his debut novel, Static, released via Vine Leaves Press in July.

“A High Fidelity for our millennium…” — Dan LeRoy, author of Dancing to the Drum Machine: How Electronic Percussion Conquered the World and The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique (33 1/3)

“Static is a heartfelt, moving debut about the downtown New York music scene.” — Elizabeth Gaffney, author of Metropolis and When the World was Young

“Static reverberates with the drumbeat of why we make art.” — Will Musgrove, author of Asphalt Dreaming

For Paul, stealing is easy. When he’s hungry, he strolls into a bodega and steals lunch. When rent’s due, he steals records and flips them for cash. As a lonely kid growing up in Ohio’s Rust Belt, stealing was the only way he could score the hip hop records and production equipment that fueled his musical dreams.

Now he’s in New York City fighting to keep his once-ascendant band alive and his life from falling apart. His bank account is flatlining. The love of his life has broken his heart. Bunky, his bandmate, is ditching him for Eloise, a soulful vagabond with an intoxicating voice. When financial trouble forces his parents from their lifelong home, Paul ramps up his stealing to save his family from collapse. And in a fever of creativity, he begins to steal from the voices in his life to make the music he’s sure will save his soul.

Set against the modern music industry, where a single social post can change your destiny, Static is alive to the weight of familial expectations, the pursuit of our deepest hopes and dreams, and the struggle to make meaningful connections in the anxiety of the digital age.

Originally from Charlottesville, Gillen is based in Brooklyn, New York and earned his M.F.A at City College. His fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions and appears in the Florida Review, Wigleaf, Necessary Fiction, Maudlin House, New Delta Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and X-R-A-Y, among others. Static has earned coverage in Electric Lit, Write or Die, Full-Stop, and elsewhere. As an Emmy-winning writer/director in the film and advertising space, he has written and creative directed content for ESPN, Conde Nast, Fox Sports, US Open, Anheuser-Busch, Resy, and many other brands. You can find him online at bgillen.com and on Twitter/IG @beegillen.

Jules P. Manger (Col ’03, Res ’14 CM) has been recognized by Newsweek in the first annual ranking of America’s Best Prostate Cancer Surgeons.  The list recognizes the 150 best prostate cancer surgeons in America based on outcomes data and peer review.  Dr. Manger lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife Linda (Williams) Manger (Col ’03 CM) and three sons.

Paul Hodskins (Col ’12 CM) and his wife, Katie, celebrated the birth in August of their son, James Roger “J.R.” Hodskins, who joined two-year-old Addison at home in Leesburg, Virginia.

Arun Rao (Col ’98 CM) has joined Mayer Brown as a partner in its exceptional Global Investigations & White Collar Defense practice, effective October 28. He looks forward to working with his new colleagues and guiding clients through the complexities of the global regulatory environment.

Selina Horsley (Col ’17, Educ ’18 CM) and Benjamin Stone were married April 13, 2024. Selina is the daughter of Garrett Horsley (Col’ 86 CM) and Helen Hamilton Horsley (Col ’87 CM), sister of Lily Horsley (Com ’21), granddaughter of Waller Horsley (Col ‘53, Law ’59), and niece of Stuart Horsley (Col ’82 CM).  Waller Horsley served on the Board of Visitors from 1988-1992. Selina and Ben live in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is an ESL teacher at East Lake Elementary and he works for Cigna Healthcare.

Marlene Hall (Col ’96 CM) was named one of the top 10 producing real estate agents for the state of Virginia for eXp Realty LLC for the month of June 2024.

Jordan Dotson (Col ’05) has published his debut novel, The Ballad of Falling Rock, a work of literary magical realism available on Sept. 24th from BHC Press:

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect hymn. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it died of a broken heart.

Yet, more than anything else folks ponder in the town of Trinity, one question lingers: why did this angel-toned preacher’s son, just as his fame seemed ready to light the Appalachian nightsky forever, disappear completely?

In 1938, the decisions Saul makes will alter his family’s story for generations. He and his eerily talented descendants ignite religious fear throughout Red Pine County. They navigate chapels, decaying sanatoriums, high school hallways, and a lingering myth from their Cherokee heritage that follows them wherever they go.

In the end, however, it’s Saul’s precocious grandson, Eli, who must find answers to these heartbreaking questions, who must enter this world rich in music and voices, where people die to hear the unspoken, and salvation is only found in the not-yet sung.

Dotson was born and raised in Appalachian Virginia. After graduating from UVA, he moved to China to study classical poetry and folk music. Over fourteen years in Asia, he worked as a journalist, musician, and writing teacher, and eventually earned his MFA in Fiction from City University of Hong Kong. His lone co-written screenplay won the Jury Award in Narrative Shorts at more than thirty film festivals worldwide, and though he now teaches in Boston, Jordan still considers Southwest Virginia home.

The Ballad of Falling Rock is available wherever books are sold.

“This was the most beautiful story ever written about the saddest song ever sung. I was taken on a journey across generations where love, family and music, however complicated, overpowered all else. I am absolutely blown away…”

—@Kneecolereads

“Even in the novel’s darkest moments, Dotson’s sentences crackle on every page and are infused with a joy and love for the region and its people. This heartbreaking and tender debut is not to be missed.”

—Sybil Baker, author of Apparitions

“A fabulous, wild, and wonderfully spun tale that invites us to see ‘the world through a pool of tears,’ because everything’s ‘just a story in the end.’ A truly original debut, we look forward to much more from this powerful voice of a very talented writer.”

—Xu Xi, author of That Man In Our Lives

“Dotson’s way with words is absolutely breathtaking. I can hear the characters and feel the music. This is a must read book, without doubt.”

—Goodreads Reviewer

“This song of a novel is the perfect harmony of poetic prose and storytelling, as Saul Crabtree’s legacy unfolds across generations. With an ear for the language of Appalachia, and an eye for sensory and historical details, Dotson’s ‘Ballad’ echoes in the mind and on the heart long after the last song is sung.”

—Amy Clark Spain, author and co-editor of Talking Appalachian

Chanlee Luu (Engr ’17 CM) has published her debut poetry collection, The Machine Autocorrects Code to I, coming out on October 8, 2024.  It won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2024 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize. The book launch will be held at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C. on October 13.

Nerissa Neal Rouzer (Col ’06 CM) and Garett Michael Rouzer (Arch ’05 CM) welcomed a daughter, Alexandra Elise, on April 10, 2024. She joins big brothers Ethan and Owen. The family lives in Charlottesville.

Julie Dauksys (Educ ’99, ’10) has retired after 33 years in public education in both Hopewell city and Hanover County, Virginia. Dauksys served as a literacy specialist and coach in grades K-8 for 27 years. In 2022 she completed her Ph.D. in curriculum, culture, and change at VCU. In retirement,  Dauksys will continue as a part-time associate professor of literacy at Randolph-Macon College and serve as co-president of the Virginia Literacy Educators Association.

Dorothy Shea (Col ’88 CM) was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations with the rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.  She was pleased to have several close friends from the UVA class of 1988 in attendance at her Aug. 16 swearing-in ceremony, which U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield officiated.  She took up her new duties in New York on Aug. 19.