Class Notes

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.

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.