News for this section may be submitted online through the class notes submission form. Please include your current name, name at registration, degree and class year. You also may send us news or update your address and other biographical information electronically through Vanderbilt’s online alumni community, VUconnect, at vuconnect.com. Your submission will be posted in Vanderbilt Magazine, print and online, unless otherwise specified. We reserve the right to edit for length, style and clarity.
Class Notes: 1950's-1960's
-
’57
Sam T. Lewis, BA, of Bells, Tenn., has served 34 years as a magistrate and commissioner in Crockett County, Tennessee. He has been a court-appointed county judge, county executive and juvenile judge, served on numerous civic, corporate and religious committees and boards, and helped to keep the city of Bells in excellent financial shape. He and his wife, Jo Carolyn Sherrod, have been married 51 years and have two children and two grandchildren.
-
’58
David Halpern, BA, of Santa Fe, N.M., recently had more than 800 of his images of America’s national parks acquired by the archives of the National Park Service History Collection at Harpers Ferry, W.Va. As a photographer, Halpern has held four artist residencies at Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado), as well as residencies at Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah), Glacier National Park (Montana), Black Canyon of the Gunnison (Colorado), Acadia National Park (Maine) and Bandelier and Salinas pueblo missions (New Mexico). Over the years, Halpern helped the park service create residence programs and served on artist selection committees. To date, he has visited 40 of the 63 National Parks and an additional 100+ federally supervised sites throughout the United States.
-
’61
James M. Geeslin, BA, of Atlantic Beach, Fla., recently published his first novel, Where is God’s Hand. The novel is a historical account of the 37th Alabama Infantry during the Western Campaign of the Civil War and a treasure hunt that followed. The book is available on Amazon, Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
Ira Denton, BA, of Broomfield, Colo., recently published his first novel, Team Bangkok: Hearts on Ice (July 2022), available from Amazon and other booksellers. He and his wife, Judy Shanks, BA’65, voyaged around the world with Semester at Sea a decade ago, ending up living for months at a time in Thailand. Memories of those times create the setting atmosphere for the novel.
-
’64
Charles J. Hurst, BA, recently published America’s Hardscrabble General: Ulysses S. Grant from Farm Boy to Shiloh (Southern Illinois University Press). It is his fifth book and the fourth to have a Civil War focus. He writes, “After working for the Nashville Tennessean, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Chicago Tribune, I now live at Lancaster, Tenn., with my wife of 51 years, Donna, a former secretary to the late U.S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina." -
’67
Charlotte McDaniel, BSN, of Pittsburgh received the Fulbright Association Award for Outstanding Chapter (former) Leader at the annual conference in Bethesda, Md., in October 2022. She was recognized for her presidency of the Georgia statewide Fulbright chapter and as founding president of the Central Virginia Chapter, which was the recipient of an Outstanding Chapter Award in 2018.
Martha Smith Tate, BA, of Atlanta completed an exhaustive account of the May 24, 1968, slaying of classmate Billy Gourley’s (BA) father, a successful Nashville automobile dealer, and the trial that took place during the summer of 1969. The book, The Last Ride: Murder, Money, and the Sensational Trial That Captivated Nashville, had its official rollout at a retrospective of the case presented by the Nashville Bar Association on Nov. 3, 2022, at the Nashville Public Library.
-
’68
W. Ben Kibler, BA, MD’72, of Lexington, Ky., was honored by the Vanderbilt University Department of Orthopedic Surgery with the establishment of the annual W. Ben Kibler Lectureship in Sports Medicine, established in recognition of Kibler’s 45-year body of work in patient care, research and medical education, which has led to significant improvements in the scholarship and clinical practice of sports medicine, and of his continued involvement in the educational programs in Vanderbilt’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery. The first Kibler Lecture was on Feb. 10.
-
’69
Forrest Lammiman, MDiv, of Chicago writes that he is almost retired after 39 years as a business bankruptcy and business litigation lawyer and five years of teaching religious studies and philosophy after earning a Ph.D. from Yale. He and his wife, Barbara, have been married 47 years and have a daughter, Kirstin. “I was in many of the biggest Chapter 11 cases in the country for many years, and like the favored worker in Ecclesiastes, found joy in my labor under the law’s sun. I treasure my time and learning at VDS, which elevated my personal faith and intellectual background in many ways, with the help of wonderful mentors such as Lee Keck, Jim Laney and Walter Harrelson. Despite some health problems, I am a happy man and lucky to have been so blessed.”
Dan C. West, DDiv, was the Founders Day Speaker on Oct. 21, 2022, at Lyon College, Batesville, Ark. It was the 150th anniversary of the college’s founding. He was the 14th president, from 1972 until 1988.
Class Notes: 1970's
-
’70
Larry Sharp, MDiv, DMin'72, MA'81, writes that “after practicing law in Dallas for 37 years, I have set up a small office at home and am happily semi-retired.”
-
’72
Brent Blue, BA, was on the ballot twice in Teton County (Jackson Hole), Wyoming, in November 2022. He was elected to his third term as coroner and his first term on the St. John’s Health Board of Trust. He still practices family medicine and is an active pilot for Dog Is My Copilot, a dog rescue organization.
-
’73
50th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
-
’75
Chris Borreca, BS, of Houston received the Friend of AASA Award (the School Superintendents Association) at its national conference in February in San Antonio. The award is given by AASA’s executive director to a non-educator who has consistently helped the association accomplish its goals to advocate on behalf of public education and assist with the professional development of its members. Borreca is a founding partner of law firm Thompson & Horton, where he works for clients in special education and general school legal matters.
Terry Fife, BA, of Oklahoma City organized and led a “living history” re-enactment march in October 2022 of her high school’s student-led Jan. 26, 1970, march to the Oklahoma State Capitol to support the local millage vote, when the opponents of integration and busing attempted to defund the Oklahoma City Public Schools. The students and the voters for the millage prevailed, and the schools were spared in 1970. The participants in the 2022 rally and march included the high school’s current students, teachers, local political leaders, community members and advocates for public education.
Margaret Tiller Sherwood, BA, MA’76, was named a 2022 Distinguished Alumna of Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis for her business accomplishments, which include being the first woman to chair the International Association of Consulting Actuaries.
-
’78
45th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
-
’79
Greg Miller, BA, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., recently had two books published: Now and Then Here and Now: New and Selected Poems 2022 (Sheep Meadow Press,) and as co-editor with Anne-Marie Miller-Blaise of the Nouvelle Sorbonne, Edward and George Herbert in the European Republic of Letters (Manchester University Press).
Rudy Moeller, BA, MBA’80, of Louisville, Ky., recently joined mergers and acquisitions firm Calder Capital as an adviser to open a branch office covering Kentucky and southern Indiana.
Class Notes: 1980's
-
’80
J. Mike Brown, MS, PhD’80, of Austin, Texas, retired as vice president of technology for Calfrac Well Services in March 2022. Since graduating with degrees in physical chemistry from Vanderbilt, he has enjoyed a 42-year career in chemistry research in oil and gas, and industrial water treatment.
John Tishler, BA, JD’88, of Nashville joined law firm Epstein Becker Green in November 2022 as a member of the firm’s Health Care and Life Sciences practice.
-
’81
Stephen Jaskoski, BA, of Wellsville, Pa., retired in 2021 after 39 years of federal service. In July 2022, he presented a paper, “Intelligence Delivery: The Case of Ultra Distribution to the Army Echelon in Operation Husky,” to an online conference of the North American Society for Intelligence History.
Steve Owens, JD, of Flagstaff, Ariz., was confirmed unanimously Dec. 13, 2022, by the U.S. Senate to be the chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
-
’82
Marty Edwards, MBA, of Winston-Salem, N.C., published Douglas Battery: A Family Legacy co-authored with Tom Douglas in December 2021 through Library Partners Press of Wake Forest University.
Ken Gause, BA, of Alexandria, Va., published his first novel in May 2022 titled McMinnville under the pen name Derrick McCartney. It is about a detective trying to solve a mystery behind two old photographs of a UFO.
-
’83
40th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Duncan McDougall, BA, of Waterbury Center, Vt., retired in April after 25 years as executive director of the Children’s Literacy Foundation, a nonprofit he founded in 1998. CLiF has inspired under-resourced readers and writers up to age 12 in every corner of Vermont and New Hampshire through author visits, writing workshops and storytelling events and has given away more than $10 million in new books to children in shelters and low-income housing.
Melanie Hall Morris, BSN, MSN’86, of Nashville earned a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Tennessee–Knoxville in 2018.
Olivia Miller Smith, BSN, was a panelist for “Trauma and Addiction: Breaking the Cycle for Women,” part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum, in September 2022. She is a personal development coach and founder of Write a New Story in Nashville.
-
’84
Robert Campbell, MEd, moved to Virginia in 2020 to marry his lost love of 35 years after doing social work and teaching in the foster care systems in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama for 36 years. Now, he is a social worker providing services to keep seniors out of nursing homes.
Debbie Dunn Gregory, BSN, of Nashville was promoted in August 2022 to principal at Smith Seckman Reid Inc., with a focus on health care innovation consulting.
Robert Wynne, BS, of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif, recently published The Persuasion Business: How Public Relations Really Works (Dawning Press).
-
’85
Melissa Wert, BE, MBA’91, PhD’02, of Nashville is in her 10th year working at Thistle Farms, a nonprofit serving women with histories of prostitution, trafficking and addiction. As director of innovation and training, she works at Body and Home, the social enterprise side of the business, developing new products and processes and training the workforce. She went on a two-week rafting trip through the Grand Canyon in summer 2022 with six college friends. “It was the trip of a lifetime. Put it on your bucket list,” she writes.
-
’86
Robert Black, BE, of Moorpark, Calif., for the second consecutive year has had one of his books named to the list of Best STEM Books sponsored by the Children’s Book Council and the National Science Teaching Association. Edward Lorenz and the Chaotic Butterflies tells the story behind the discovery of Chaos Theory, popularly known as “the Butterfly Effect.” It follows last year’s book, Benoit Mandelbrot: Reshaping the World, which recounts the discovery of fractal geometry. Both books are part of his Mathematical Lives biography series for teens published by Royal Fireworks Press.
Karin Walwork Tramm, MEd, recently retired from the Department of Defense Education Activity. Karin began her teaching career with DoDEA in 1986 in the Philippines. She went on to teach in Bamberg, Germany; Naples, Italy; and Rota, Spain; and she ended her career in Vicenza, Italy. Her first book, 100 Days Smart (Elva Resa), was released in February. It focuses on her experiences as an expat and educator on an American army post in northern Italy during the initial COVID outbreak of 2020.
-
’87
Linda Bennett Davis, BS, MS’90, of Northbrook, Ill., will publish Food Fight (Fitzroy Books/Regal House) in June. In the book, a three-day class trip becomes a survival mission for a picky-eating student with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Food Fight showcases the challenges of living with this lesser-known and misunderstood eating disorder.
Charles Powell, BA, is the office managing shareholder of labor law practice Littler’s Birmingham office. He began his appointment Jan. 1.
-
’88
35th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Class Notes: 1990's
-
’90
Shari Walter, BE, of Wilmington, Del., writes to announce that her daughter, Alaina, has earned the rank of Eagle Scout in Scouts BSA, the first young woman to do so in her school district.
-
’91
Mike Gunter, BA, of Maitland, Fla., recently published Climate Travels: How Ecotourism Changes Mindsets and Motivates Action (Columbia University Press, March 2023). He is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Rollins College.
Don Mabry, MBA, recently completed the acquisition of his supply chain software-as-a-service company, ClearTrack, by MercuryGate International, a global provider of transportation and logistics management software. In the combined entity, he will lead the global trade solutions group as senior vice president and continue to reside in Nashville with his wife, Amy, and children Cara and Sam.
-
’92
Paula Kapp Greene, MEd, EdD’95, of Prescott, Ariz., in October 2022 published UNSUNG: Quiet Voices of the US Navy’s EOD Warriors and Their Families. Co-authored by Joseph E. Shaffer III, the book is a compilation of stories told by Navy explosive ordnance disposal operators and their families. It is available on Amazon.
Neil Heatherly, MBA, recently was promoted to president of the main campus of South College in Knoxville, Tenn.
Apelu Po’e, MA, PhD’99, of LaVergne, Tenn., recently published The Hidden Secrets of the Master’s Mind: How You Can Live with God’s Time (Create and Write Publishing, February 2023), available on Amazon.
Umair A. Shah, BA, recently completed his second year as the state secretary of health for Washington, where his team has launched the Department of Health Transformational Plan: A Vision for Health in Washington State. He writes that “my family has traded in the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast for a kayak, hiking/skiing and lattes of the Pacific Northwest.”
Steve Tapper, JD, of Charlotte, N.C., is an educational consultant with Fine Educational Solutions, assisting students and families with all aspects of the college planning process.
-
’93
30th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Shay Ralls Roalson, BE, of Austin, Texas, began Jan. 1 as director of Austin Water.
-
’94
Robert J. Buckla, MEd, EdD’04, leads the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools Office of Alumni Relations and Development as associate director, a position he began Feb. 6. Previously, he was vice president of advancement at Lake Forest Academy, a diverse day and boarding school on the North Shore of Chicago.
Alycen Moss, BA, recently was appointed co-chair of the Global Insurance Department at law firm Cozen O’Connor. She also co-chairs the firm’s Property Insurance Group and is the managing partner of the Atlanta office.
David Neal, BS, was recently named president of Georgia-Pacific Gypsum, the fourth largest domestic gypsum manufacturer with mills in 11 states across the U.S.
Julie Lott Wood, MSN, is owner of and provider at Diabetes Management Associates in Mount Pleasant, Tenn., a practice that specializes in adult care.
-
’95
Stacie J. Bell, PhD, of Denver was appointed in January by the Lupus Research Alliance as executive vice president to lead Lupus Therapeutics, the organization’s clinical research affiliate.
-
’96
Lisa Dwyer, MBA, of Atlanta recently was promoted to the role of director, Strategic Operations, at GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
Brooke Taylor, MSN, is a women’s health nurse practitioner at Austin Regional Clinic in Texas.
-
’97
Jonathan Harris, BA, recently joined national employment law firm Jackson Lewis as a principal in the Nashville office. He has more than 20 years of experience representing public and private employers in labor and employment law matters.
Sarah Pohlmann Johnson, BS, of Vail, Colo., in December 2022 was named president and CEO of Roundup River Ranch, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the lives of children with serious illnesses and their families by offering free, medically supported camp programs.
Keith Weseli, BS, recently accepted a position as commissioning, qualification and validation project director with Stevanato Group, a manufacturer of vials, syringes and other glass components for use in the pharmaceutical industry at their plant under construction in Fishers, Ind., where Weseli lives with his wife and three children.
-
’98
25th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Champ Crocker, BA, was elected district attorney of Alabama’s 32nd Judicial Circuit (Cullman County) on Nov. 8, 2022, and assumed office on Jan. 16.
Anthony Petrosino Jr., PhD, is associate dean for research and outreach at Southern Methodist University’s Simmons College of Education and Human Development.
-
’99
Julie J. McArdle, MA, recently was named Professor of the Year at Greenville Technical College in Greenville, S.C. This year marks her 20th year teaching art history at the institution.
Bill Norton, EMBA, of Birmingham, Ala., in August 2022 published a memoir of South Africa during apartheid titled Sojourn on the Veld. Norton was both engineer and missionary in the Tswana homeland. His memoir can be found on Amazon and at Insight Press.
Julie Pazina, BS, of Henderson, Nev., was elected to the Nevada State Senate in November 2022 representing District 12. She was helped in her campaign effort by Jennifer Nagel Suttmeier, BA, of Cranbury, N.J., who writes, “I’m so proud of my Vandy roommate and plan to bring my children to Carson City to see her on the floor in action!”
Class Notes: 2000's
-
’01
Bedelia Russell, MSN, was promoted to full professor at Tennessee Technological University’s Whitson-Hester School of Nursing in Cookeville and appointed as the associate provost for online education and faculty development in the university’s division of academic affairs in July 2022.
-
’02
Viral Patel, BE, ME’04, of New York has founded Radish Health, an employer add-on concierge health platform that puts dedicated primary care physicians, mental health therapists and dietitians on speed dial for each employee.
Karen Petersen, MA, PhD’04, was named the 13th president of Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., in January. She will begin her appointment in June.
Sam Shallenberger, EMBA, of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., has been promoted to CEO of Barrett Firearms after negotiating the sale of 100 percent of its equity to Australian defense contractor NIOA Group.
-
’03
20th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Melanie Mihara See, BA, of Shoreline, Wash., and her colleague, Drew Lieberman, BA’01, of Encinitas, Calif., attended an inauguration celebration in Honolulu for Hawaii’s new governor, Dr. Josh Green, elected in November. The celebration was hosted by their employer, strategic communications consulting firm Strategies 360.
-
’04
Nancy Bach, EMBA, of Evansville, Ind., opened financial services firm Cottage Wealth Advisors in March 2022.
Jacob Grier, BA, of Portland, Ore., recently co-authored Raising the Bar (Chronicle Books, November 2022), which guides readers through more than 200 cocktails while explaining how to stock a home bar one bottle at a time.
Randi Beth Singer, MSN, received the Emerging Researcher Award from the American Public Health Association Public Health Nursing Section in November 2022. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development Nursing Science at University of Illinois, Chicago, where she is the principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health-funded study, “Centering Those Engaged in Transactional Sex: A PrEP Innovation for Getting to Zero.”
-
’05
Mike Croley, BS, of Crossville, Tenn., recently was selected as a finalist in the 2023 Presidential Management Fellowship program. As a fellow, he will be appointed to a two-year, full-time federal position with salary and benefits, where he will engage in leadership development training that includes experiential learning, cohort-based interactive training and optional rotational experiences.
Meghan Mucklow Pietrantonio, BA, was named by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in November as one of Atlanta’s 40 Under 40 for 2022. She was part of a team launching the Truist Foundation after the merger of SunTrust and BB&T into Truist Bank. She and her husband, Kyle, reside in Atlanta with their three children.
-
’06
Victor Czerkasij, MSN, earned a doctor of nursing practice at Graceland University in Independence, Mo., in 2022. He is also part of a surgical reconstruction team in Ukraine for soldiers wounded in the war and has been invited to conduct a series of dermatology lectures there. He and his wife, Rene, live and volunteer in Cleveland, Tenn.
Ilka Gregory, MBA, recently joined HQ Digital as head of wealth advisory, working with preeminent crypto, blockchain and DeFi entrepreneurs, investors and family offices.
Anne Miller Morris, BS, of Dallas launched a female, family-owned business in January called AR Reserve, which shares her family’s recipes with the world. The first product is AR Reserve Original Vinaigrette. She is joined in this venture by her mother, Suzanne Rich Miller, BA’80, and her sister-in-law.
-
’07
Julie Granillo, BS, EMBA’13, recently was named president of Paul Werth Associates, a strategic communications firm in Columbus, Ohio, which was founded by her grandfather and which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023.
Amy Lynn, BS, MSN’09, is a women’s health nurse practitioner for the Defense Health Agency at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C. She has had eight years of active duty military experience, including assignments in Germany, Kenya, California and Mississippi, as well as a deployment to Southwest Asia.
Monique Moultrie, MA, PhD’10, recently published Hidden Histories: Faith and Black Lesbian Leadership (Duke University Press, March 2023). She is associate professor of religious studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
LeTizia Baxter Smith, MSN, co-presented “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Psychiatry 2022” at the DNPs of Color conference in October and became co-
recipient of a Vanderbilt University Sesquicentennial Grant for “Project SHARE: Sharing Strategies for Academic Faculty and Student Recruitment” in the fall. -
’08
15th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Erin Elfers, MEd, is the interim coordinator of the Applied Behavior Analysis certification program at Northern Kentucky University. She teaches classes and runs a consulting and supervision business in the Greater Cincinnati area. She lives with her husband and three small children in Northern Kentucky.
Kristina Kitko, BE, PhD’18, recently joined Eli Lilly and Co. as associate director of venture science, where she focuses on early-stage biotech investment. She is based in the San Francisco area.
Anna Samuel, MSN, authored an article published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners in June 2022. She is an inpatient cardiovascular nurse practitioner at the Texoma Medical Center in Denison, Texas, while pursuing her doctorate of nursing practice at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Class Notes: 2010's
-
’10
Biko Mandela Gray, MTS, published Black Life Matter: Blackness, Religion, and the Subject in November 2022 (Duke University Press). He is assistant professor of religion at Syracuse University in New York.
Hartman King, MBA, of Laguna Beach, Calif., was awarded U.S. Patent 11,369,106 for developing a novel technology using AI and computer vision to detect and deter agricultural pests.
Katy Lanz, DNP, of Pittsburgh was chosen as one of four people (and the only nurse) to represent the inaugural health care services advisory team for Dollar General. The news was covered by Becker’s Hospital Review, Business Wire and Chain Drug Review.
Elizabeth Pratt, DNP, is director of clinical effectiveness at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis, Mo., where she provides leadership and strategic direction toward best practices in improved clinical processes.
-
’11
Abraham “Abe” Benavides, BA, of Dallas has been promoted to partner with McCall Parkhurst & Horton, a Texas-based public finance law firm.
Kristabel Doebel-Hickok, BA, of Marina Del Rey, Calif., competed in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2022 as a member of UCI Women’s World Tour Team EF Education-Tibco-SVB. In 2023 she marks her first decade as a professional cyclist.
Lindsay Rothrock Haynie, BS, of Charlotte, N.C., recently launched Terrascope Public Relations. She and her business partner have more than 20 years of combined marketing and communications experience.
Madeline Myers, BMus, of New York has composed a musical, Double Helix, about the scientist Rosalind Franklin and the race to secure the discovery of the structure of DNA. Its world premiere opened the 2023 season for Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, New York, and was reviewed in The New York Times.
Ravi Singh, BA, of Brooklyn, N.Y., premiered The Invite, a film short that he wrote, produced and acted in, at the first-ever South Asian House hosted by SXSW in Austin, Texas, on March 12.
-
’12
Grayson B. Cassada, BA, recently joined Christian & Barton, a broad-based civil practice law firm in Richmond, Va., as a litigation associate.
Jen Kiggans, MSN, was elected to the U.S. Congress in November 2022, representing Virginia’s 2nd
Congressional District.Mirini Kim, BMus, MSN’14, is the head of nursing for Pocket RN, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.
Laura Sidlinger, MSN, is director of medical sales at Valeo Behavioral Health Care in Topeka, Kan., which assists adults with severe and persistent mental illness, treatment-resistant depression and opioid use disorder. She is studying for a master’s in clinical psychology.
Katrina Anderson Wu, MSN, is director of the nurse-midwifery program at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minn.
-
’13
10th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Margaret Bowers Arwood, BA, and Michael Arwood, BA’12, of Atlanta announce the birth of a daughter, Eleanor “Ellie” Joy Arwood, in November 2022.
Mackenzie Bell, BA, recently was named corporate counsel at Home Depot in Atlanta.
Yi Gu, MBA, of Singapore is now the service business head of Zeiss, a global manufacturer of optical and optoelectronic technology.
Brock Hardesty, MBA, with his brother, Ross, launched a company in August 2022, Chapman Lake Knives, specializing in high-end, custom everyday carry knives made with all-U.S. materials from their shop in Bloomington, Ind. The company will be exhibiting at events across the country.
Florencia Kantt, MSN, completed an adolescent medicine fellowship through Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital in June 2022 and was accepted into the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She co-authored a chapter on sexual and reproductive health in a textbook and accepted a position as assistant professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health and Sciences University’s School of Medicine and the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.
Chrysa Kovach, BMus, of Los Angeles has co-facilitated the Cochlear Implant Music Hour, an initiative of the University of Southern California’s Bionic Ear Lab, since August 2020. The CI Music Hour is a weekly virtual music appreciation group for cochlear implant users to learn about music and practice listening with similar-hearing individuals. Her study examining the relationship between the music hour, musicianship and well-being was recently published in the International Journal of Community Music.
Rebecca Silvers, MSN, DNP’21, of Oakland, Calif., co-received a Best Abstract Honor at the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies conference in July 2022. In September, she was named inaugural director of the Center for Global Nursing at the University of California San Francisco, where she is a pediatric neurosurgery and critical care nurse practitioner at the Benioff Children’s Hospitals and assistant clinical professor in the School of Nursing.
-
’14
Kevin Bush, BE, of Renton, Wash., in January was named a Breakthrough Energy Fellow, a program of Breakthrough Energy, the network founded by Bill Gates that aims to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and in other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Bush is CEO at Molten Industries, a company developing a process to create low-cost hydrogen that avoids carbon emissions while consuming seven times less renewable electricity.
Seth Friedman, BS, of New York, recently joined Stripe, a financial technology company, as engineering manager of their mobile payments organization. He has previously held roles as senior engineering manager and staff engineer at Cash App, and senior engineer at Amazon.
-
’15
Lauren Cardenas, BS, and James Conner, BA, were married June 18, 2022, in Maine.
Colleen Maleski, MPP, of Tippecanoe, Ohio, recently started a position as a senior associate at GBSM, a management consulting and public affairs firm, supporting nonprofit, government and corporate clients.
Elizabeth Ortlieb, BA, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was a featured speaker and podcaster at the 2023 AHR Expo, the world’s largest HVAC-R marketplace. She hosted a Refrigerant Briefing event live in person at the expo on Feb. 8.
Caraline E. Rickard, JD, and Curt M. Masker, JD’17, recently teamed up to form Rickard Masker, an employee rights law firm based in Nashville. The firm represents workers in discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination cases throughout Tennessee.
-
’16
Arianna Yarritu, BA, and Eric Rabinowitz were married Nov. 19, 2022, in Atlanta. The wedding was attended by several Vanderbilt alumni and former and current undergraduate admissions officers. The couple resides in New York City.
-
’17
Matthew K. Brown, MBA, of Nashville and his wife, Michelle, announce the birth of their son, Luke Stephen Brown.
Lauren Egan, BA, of Washington, D.C., joined Politico’s White House reporting team in December 2022. Previously, she was a White House reporter covering the Biden presidency for NBC News.
Mary Grace Johnson, BMus, in March premiered a violin concerto by Nicky Sohn with Kinetic Ensemble in Houston that she commissioned with funding from Houston Arts Alliance and Mid-America Arts Alliance. The sold-out performance was featured on Houston Public Radio, KPRC Houston, Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, Houston City Book and more. In the fall, Johnson will begin a tenure-track position as assistant professor of violin at West Virginia University.
Ngoc Nguyen, MBA, started working for Meta Platforms Inc. as an internal auditor for product and integrity in January 2022. In November 2022, she and her spouse welcomed Ha Ngoc Tran to their family.
Gregory M. Seraydarian, JD, of Denver is an associate at law firm Holland & Knight, a position he started in August 2021.
Scott Wright, MBA, of Sayville, N.Y., left information technology firm Cerner when it was acquired by Oracle and accepted an offer to join New York Life as corporate vice president of workforce planning and strategy in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. He leads the Technology Workforce Management Center for Enablement and Resource Management Office.
-
’18
5th Reunion November 2–5, 2023
Daria Berstell, BA, and John Biffl, BE, were married Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C.
Simona Black, DNP, of Lorton, Va., was the commencement speaker at Auburn University in December 2022. The news was covered by The News Courier.
Maggie Hinchliffe, BMus, is the staff collaborative pianist at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Previously, she was the pianist for Boulder Opera Company in Colorado and University of Colorado, Boulder, School of Music.
-
’19
Jenna Barnes Caron, MSN, is a primary care nurse practitioner at Cornerstone Medical Group in Dalton, Ga.
Andrea Hill, DNP, is an assistant professor at Touro University Nevada in Henderson, in its master’s in nursing science and doctor of nursing practice programs.
Emily Voorde, MPP, of South Bend, Ind., was appointed to the National Council on Disability in September 2022 by President Joe Biden.
Class Notes: 2020's
-
’20
Brian Frelix, MTS, was installed as the pastor of Foss Avenue Baptist Church in Flint, Mich., on March 26. He writes, “God showed me the city where my abilities can best be used. All prayers are welcome.”
-
’21
Esther Adedokun, MSN, is a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Rebound Behavioral Health in Lancaster, S.C., and Gastonia, N.C., where her scope of practice is adults of all ages.
Patty Donley, DNP, is vice president of WellSpan Health and president of WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon, Penn., positions she began in February 2022.
Emily Habeck, MEd, of Cambridge, Mass., has a first novel titled Shark Heart: A Love Story publishing in August from Simon & Schuster.
Andrew Roth, BS, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, was interviewed for a Fast Company article in February: “What really makes Gen Z different from older generations? We asked a 24-year-old brand consultant.”
Isabell Stoltz, DNP, is an assistant professor at University of Texas Health in San Antonio, where she specializes in undergraduate and graduate nursing education.