Class Notes & In Memoriam | GW Magazine | The George Washington University

Class Notes

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1960s & Earlier

Malcolm Lawrence, BA ’48, MBA ’51, who served as a radio operator and gunner on a B-17 bomber during World War II, published Something Will Come Along: Witty Memoirs of a Foreign Service Officer with Nine Children (Ivy House Publishing Group, February 2015). The memoir is now available digitally on Amazon.

Phyllis Strawbridge, BS ’50, retired in 1987 as a project control officer for the life sciences flight experiments office at NASA, which studied the effects of zero gravity on animals.

A. James Rudin, AA ’53, BA ’55, published Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Stephen S. Wise (Texas Tech University Press, December 2015). Mr. Rudin is the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, a visiting professor of religion at Judaica at Saint Leo University, and a former Air Force chaplain.

Frank Burtnett, MA ’65, EdD ’77, published Career Errors: Straight Talk about the Steps and Missteps of Career Development (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, August 2014), a guide to the rights and wrongs of job success.

William E. Olewiler, BA ’66, finished his nine-month interim pastorate at Georgetown United Methodist Fellowship in Georgetown, Fla. Mr. Olewiler and his wife celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary on April 26, 2015.

James Korman, JD ’68, of Bean, Kinney & Korman P.C. in Arlington, Va., was recognized as a 2015 Virginia “Super Lawyer” for family law.

Mahmoud Zawawi, BA ’68, MA ’70, published two Arabic books on American film: Hollywood Ironies, Part 2 and The Best 100 American Films, 2011-2013, Part Six.

Peter Lighte, BA ’69, a sinophile and founding chairman of JP Morgan and Chase Bank in China who sits on the advisory committee for the Elliott School of International Affairs, published Host of Memories: Tales of Inevitable Happenstance (Acasual Books, May 2015), a collection of personal stories about the author.

1970s

Weldon Vlasak, PhD ’70, wrote a technical article, “Computer Modeling of Atomic Forces,” that was accepted by the 2015 International Conference on Computer Science and Information Engineering.

Jerome L. Wolf, BA ’70, a partner at Duane Morris, presented in June at the 2015 American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. In July, Mr. Wolf taught courses on asset protection and businesssuccession planning at the 56th Annual Florida Graduate Trust and Wealth Management School in Orlando, Fla.

William Alexander Hamilton, MS ’71, and his wife, Penny Rafferty Hamilton, were recognized by the Nebraska Alumni Association for outstanding achievement in their careers and communities. Mr. Hamilton serves as president of the Friends of the Granby Airport Inc., and as a representative for the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association.

Lawrence Hott, BA ’72, received a Fulbright Specialist grant to teach a series of documentary-film seminars and workshops in Vietnam. Mr. Hott is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who has received two Academy Award nominations.

Brooke C. Stoddard, MA ’73, published Steel: From Mine to Mill, the Metal that Made America (Zenith Press, July 1, 2015), a narrative of iron and steel from prehistory, through the industrial revolution, and into today.

Michael G. Kushner, BA ’74, LLM ’82, joined Blank Rome LLP as of counsel in the Corporate, M&A and Securities group, based in the firm’s New York office.

Mary L. Westcott, MA ’74, published Fluttering on Earth: A Journey of Healing and Recovery through Poetry (BalboaPress, 2015). Dr. Westcott is retired from the National Institutes of Health and has published five books of poetry.

Steven L. Cantor, JD ’75, is a managing partner of Miami-based Cantor & Webb P.A., which received the Tax Advice Private Client Award in March at the 2015 WealthBriefing Family Wealth Report Awards. Omega C.

Logan Silva, RESD ’75, received a Commitment to Excellence Award from the American Medical Women’s Association. She served as AMWA president from 2000 to 2002.

Howard L. Sollins, BA ’75, was ranked in the 2015 edition of Chambers USA as one of the nation’s top lawyers. Mr. Sollins, an attorney at Ober/Kaler, specializes in health care law. Timothy Cousounis, MA ’76, has been appointed managing director of DAI Palliative Care Group, a national consultancy that advises hospices on becoming accountable palliative care organizations.

Charles W. L. “Chip” Deale, BA ’76, executive director for the National Press Photographers Association, has been selected as an American Society of Association Executives fellow. Fewer than 250 individuals have received the honor since its inception in 1986.

Anita L. Auerbach, PhD ’77, has been elected president of the Virginia Psychological Association.

Gary Shaffer, BA ’77, published A Study of Prehistoric Soapstone Vessels of the Middle Atlantic Region of the United States (Archaeopress, 2015), a monograph about prehistoric soapstone-vessel technology in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

James Schroll, JD ’78, of Bean, Kinney & Korman P.C. in Arlington, Va., was recognized as a 2015 Virginia “Super Lawyer” for bankruptcy and creditor/ debtor rights.

Barbara G. Werther, JD ’78, was ranked in the 2015 edition of Chambers USA as one of the nation’s top lawyers. Ms. Werther is a principal in Ober/Kaler's Construction Group.

1980s

S. Craig Holden, JD ’80, was ranked in the 2015 edition of Chambers USA as one of the nation’s top lawyers. Mr. Holden is chair and chief executive officer of Ober/ Kaler and a principal in its health law group.

Jeffrey L. Nash, BA ’80, opened the Nash Law Group, a full-service, general-practice law firm focusing on the advancement of community-based projects, neighborhood redevelopment and revitalization in Camden, N.J., Southern New Jersey and the Philadelphia region.

David M. Anderson, BA ’81, is the editor of Leveraging: A Political, Economic, and Societal Framework (Springer, 2014), which defines the three major kinds of leverage and how they influence the world.

Robert C. Hubbell, MBA ’81, has been named vice president of sales and marketing at Coastal Risk Consulting LLP.

Jill A. Kotvis, JD ’81, a managing partner of Jill A. Kotvis, P.C., in Dallas, has been appointed as a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law, a network of law and policy experts that works to protect nature.

Meryl Bloomrosen, MBA ’82, was appointed as senior vice president of policy, advocacy and research of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Azim Eskandarian, BS ’82, PhD ’91, was named head of Virginia Tech’s department of mechanical engineering. Previously, he served as director of GW’s Center for Intelligent Systems Research, as well as its National Crash Analysis Center.

Eric Federing, BA ’82, was appointed an honorary member in the General Division of the Order of Australia. He is the founder and director of the Uni-Capitol Washington Internship Programme, a pro bono endeavor established in 1999 to further the political links between Australia and the United States.

Rick Hinkemeyer, MPA ’82, published When Waters Wept (A Minnesota Mystery) (Maple Creek Media, March 2015). Mr. Hinkemeyer is a three-time winner of the Maryland Writers’ Association’s contests for best mystery novel.

Raymond Dorado, JD ’83, was appointed executive vice president and deputy general counsel, head of enterprise bank regulatory at Citizens Bank.

Carol Scanlon-Goldberg, MS ’83, competed as part of a two-woman team in the 2015 Air Race Classic, flying 2,500 miles in four days in a 54-team field. Founded in 1929 as the First Women’s Air Derby—Amelia Earhart finished third—the ARC advocates, encourages and promotes women in aviation.

Elliott Kugel, MS ’83, managing director of investments at Merrill Lynch in Bridgewater, N.J., was named as one of “America’s Top 1,200 Advisors” by Barrons. Financial Times also ranked Mr. Kugel as one of the top 400 advisers in the United States.

David Shelledy, JD ’83, received the attorney general’s Distinguished Service Award for his work on the $13 billion dollar settlement—the largest with a single entity in U.S. history—of fraud claims against JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Shelledy is chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.

Kimberly Lonergan Couch, JD ’84, was recognized in the 2015 edition of Chambers and Partners as a leading lawyer within the field of labor and employment. Ms. Couch is an attorney at the Portland, Maine, office for Verrill Dana.

Earl H. Tilford, PhD ’84, published Turning the Tide: The University of Alabama in the 1960s (University of Alabama Press, January 2014), which documents the University of Alabama during a turbulent decade defined by desegregation, the civil rights movement, and antiwar sentiment.

William Doyle, BBA ’85, was selected as a 2015-16 Fulbright scholar and will lecture on and study global education and media in Finland. He co-authored Navy SEALS: Their Untold Story (HarperCollins, 2014) and co-produced the companion PBS documentary.

Joseph P. McCarthy, JD ’85, a partner at Stoel Rives’ Real Estate and Construction Group, has been elected a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

Michael Patenaude, MS ’85, was hired as corporate security director of information assurance by Orbital ATK, an aerospace and defense technologies manufacturer.

Sergio Coletta, MEA ’86, is a member of the Project Management Institute. He lives in Dubai and works as a lead civil engineer, supervising five other engineers for a $2 billion dollar gas-treatment plant project.

Michael J. LaRosa, BA ’86, and Frank O. Mora, BA ’86, edited the third edition of Neighborly Adversaries: Reading in United States-Latin American Relations (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, March 2015). LaRosa and Mora are professors at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

Jennifer Burrell, BA ’87, a professor of anthropology at the University of Albany (N.Y.), published Central America in the New Millennium: Living Transition and Reimagining Democracy (Berghahn Press, 2012) and Maya After War: Conflict, Power, and Politics in Guatemala (University of Texas Press, 2013).

Marla H. Norton, JD ’87, a director at Bayard, P.A., in Wilmington, Del., was ranked in the 2015 edition of Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in the field of corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Dana Goldman, JD ’88, was elected commissioner of Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. Ms. Goldman is of counsel at Shutts & Bowen LLP’s Miami office and represents national and regional homebuilders, handling matters relating to the development of their condominiums and planned-development communities.

James C. Hewitt Jr., BA ’89, joined Verifone as senior vice president of Latin America and Caribbean. He will lead strategy and business development for the region. Previously, Mr. Hewitt worked as a managing director of financial technology for Citigroup.

1990s

Deborah Dubois, MBA ’00, was named chief development officer at the Center for Public Integrity, a global nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in Washington, D.C.

Dennis Wischmeier, BA ’00, will be the next U.S. Navy Congressional Fellow. As a lieutenant commander, he will work for one year on the staff of a senator who serves on a defense-related committee before returning to the Pentagon’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

Arthur Blain, MBA ’01, is the new chief medical officer of Mountain Health and Community Services in Alpine, Calif.

Jason B. Blank, BA ’02, a partner at Haber Blank LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was selected to the National Council of Arts and Sciences for the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. He also was recently appointed to the Broward County (Fla.) Human Rights Board by the county commission.

Jonathan R. DeFosse, JD ’02, has joined Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP as a partner in the intellectual property and litigation practice, based in the Washington, D.C., office.

Erica Hageman, JD ’02, is executive vice president and general counsel of the legal department at Interstate Hotels and Resorts Inc. in Arlington, Va.

Asa J. Herald, JD ’02, was elected and promoted to partner at the international law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. Mr. Herald focuses on structured finance and securitization. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Christie, and their three children.

Malou Tiquia, MA ’02, was named a CNN Philippines talk-show host. She hosts Agenda and covers a variety of public-affairs topics. The show airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m.

Michael Akin, BA ’03, MBA ’07, was recognized by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce as the 2015 Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Mr. Akin is president of Reingold LINK, a fullservice strategic-communications and stakeholder-engagement firm based in Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Black, MS ’03, was named a Northrop Grumman Senior Faculty Fellow by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. Mr. Black is an associate professor of aerospace and ocean engineering in the College of Engineering. He also is associate director of research for aerospace systems at the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia Tech.

Aaron M. Flynn, JD ’03, was promoted to partner at Hunton & Williams LLP. He focuses on environmental and administrative law, with an emphasis on regulation of visibility impairment, climate change and national air quality under the Clean Air Act.

Tammy B. Georgelas, JD ’03, has joined the Salt Lake City office of Parsons Behle & Latimer. Ms. Georgelas is of counsel and focuses on complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on representing creditors’ rights.

Brian Krause, BA ’03, has become a partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Mr. Krause represents clients on a broad range of U.S. and international tax matters, with a particular emphasis on crossborder transactions.

Eliot M. Bassin, BS ’04, was appointed by the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants to serve as a member of its advisory council for the organization’s 2015-16 activity year. Mr. Bassin is a partner with Bregman & Company, P.C. in Stamford, Conn.

Caitlin Bergmann, BA ’04, joined MediaCom’s Innovation group as director of content and creative in New York. Erik Kane, JD ’04, has been elected to counsel at Kenyon & Kenyon LLP. Mr. Kane, based in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, focuses on providing clients, primarily in the computer arts, with litigation, licensing and counseling services.

Dawinder S. Sidhu, JD ’04, a University of New Mexico law professor, was elected as a term member to the Council on Foreign Relations. Therese Farmer, BA ’05, received her MD from Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Ga., and started her residency at the University of Tennessee.

Jennifer (DiMarzio) Gaynor, JD ’05, joined Dickinson Wright. Ms. Gaynor, based in the firm’s Las Vegas office, focuses on broad gaming, regulatory and legislative advocacy and was featured in the April edition of Casino Enterprise Management.

Matthew Kulkin, JD ’05, was appointed principal at Squire Patton Boggs LLP in Washington, D.C. He focuses on financial services, public policy and regulatory matters.

Andrew Novak, BA ’05, published The International Criminal Court: An Introduction (Springer, 2015), which explores a new and distinctive criminal-justice institution, which has the power to prosecute government officials, including heads of state.

Denise R. Russo, MBA ’05, was promoted to director of engineering triage for SAP's global cloud platform HCM LoB.

David Shay, JD ’05, joined Bowman and Brooke LLP as an associate.

Mónica María León, JD ’06, is vice president and senior corporate counsel of Interstate Hotels and Resorts Inc. in Arlington, Va.

Jason Roberts, JD ’06, was promoted to partner at Philadelphia-based Rubin, Fortunato & Harbison, P.C. Mr. Roberts focuses on employment litigation and also counsels human resources departments on best practices and employment policies.

Kristin LaRoche, BA ’07, was selected by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce to participate in its Boston’s Future Leaders program. Ms. LaRoche is director of policy and federal affairs for Delta Dental in Boston.

Blake M. Macon, MS ’07, was promoted to engineering team lead at the Defense Contracts Management Agency Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Macon leads a team of software specialists performing software-engineering surveillance activities on F-35 Joint Strike Fighter software products.

Joshua Meredith, BA ’07, was named an adjunct faculty member at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, in the Master’s of Professional Studies, in the Human Resources Management program. He will teach workplace ethics courses.

Gillian Moldowan, JD ’07, was promoted to counsel by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. She practices in the firm’s executive compensation group in New York and recently advised on Comcast’s bid to acquire Time Warner Cable.

Elizabeth Salerno, MA ’07, was recognized by Forbes in its “30 under 30” and ReCharge “40 under 40” for her contributions in the field of renewable energy. After serving as vice president at the American Wind Energy Association, she now provides market and product strategy for Siemens Wind Power & Renewables.

Brooke Shemer, BA ’07, joined Ober/ Kaler as an associate in its Baltimore office. She practices in the firm’s estates and trusts group.

Nathan Brill, BBA ’08, joined Kelley Drye & Warren LLP’s Washington, D.C., office as an associate attorney. He focuses on corporate and real estate law.

Joshua Suchoff, BA ’08, was picked as a Wexner Field Fellow in Class 28 of the Wexner Foundation's Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program. The fellowship aims to build professional leaders for Jewish communal organizations in North America.

Zachary Williams, JD ’08, of Bean, Kinney & Korman in Arlington, Va., was named a 2015 “Rising Star” in general litigation by Super Lawyers.

Aaron Davis, LLM ’09, of Thornton, Davis & Fein in Miami, was named a 2015 “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers. He also was selected to the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section NOW! Fellowship. Mr. Davis focuses on

2000s