Class Notes Summer 2019

2010s

Mary Kate Schmitt Beardsworth (14BA), head trainer at Orangetheory Fitness in Cedar Rapids, supported UI Dance Marathon with a fundraising run/row-a-thon earlier this year.

Breanne Benson (16BA), a wish coordinator for Make-A-Wish Iowa in Clive, Iowa, is pursuing her Master of Social Work degree from the UI.

Nathan Bogert (11MA, 13DMA), an assistant professor of music performance at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, is treasurer-elect of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

John Corbeil (10BBA, 12MHA) is chief executive officer of HCA Houston Healthcare's Kingwood Medical Center.

Lauren Delzell (15BS), a staff nurse at UI Hospitals and Clinics, traveled to Marrakech, Morocco, this past winter as part of Delta Gamma's service learning experience.

Kelly Gallagher (15MFA), an assistant professor of film at Syracuse University in New York, provided animation for the documentary Words from a Bear that was featured at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and created a short documentary titled My Gossip that received the Jury's Stellar Award from the Black Maria Film Festival.

Megan Greenwood (11BSE) is the founder of Greenwood Brewing, a craft brewery in Phoenix.

Timothy Gupton (10PhD), associate professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of Georgia in Athens, received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant for research in the Dominican Republic in fall 2018.

Teresa Ball Krueger (10BS, 12MSN) is a family nurse practitioner at Washington County Hospitals and Clinics in Washington, Iowa.

Denise Martinez (11R) is associate dean for cultural affairs and diversity initiatives in the UI Carver College of Medicine.

Frederick Newell (10BA), founder of the Dream Center in Iowa City, was recently featured on the Big Ten Network's Live BIG series for his community outreach work.

Valerie Nyberg (12PhD), associate principal at Cedar Rapids Washington High School, was named the 2018-19 Iowa Assistant Secondary Principal of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa.

Stephen Page (11DMA), assistant saxophone professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is secretary-elect of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

Jeffrey Palmer (12MFA), an assistant professor of film at Syracuse University in New York, directed the documentary Words from a Bear, which was featured at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Jon Raftis (10BBA, 15MBA), an account executive at the Dana Company in Des Moines, received the Young Alum of the Year Award from the UI Tippie College of Business in recognition of his service to the college's Young Alumni Board.

Josie Rudolphi (17PhD), an associate research scientist at the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin, is a 2019 Rural Health Fellow with the National Rural Health Association.

Bo Ties (11MA, 18DMA), a piano teacher in Iowa City, recently released an album of piano music written by French composer Gabriel Dupont through the independent record label MSR Classics.

Lauren Tompkins (12MA), a financial advisor at Stonegate Financial in Cary, North Carolina, recently performed in the North Carolina Opera's production of Carmen.

Farah Towfic (11PHR), senior manager of CEO engagement for U.S. Pharmacopeia in Rockville, Maryland, received the Genesis Alumni Award from the UI College of Pharmacy.

Kevin Velovitch (12BBA), a manager in the international network planning department at United Airlines in Chicago, received the UI Tippie College of Business' Young Alum of the Year Award for his service to the college's Young Alumni Board.

Jessica Voigt-Page (13MA), founder and director of Saxophone Academy in Austin, Texas, is president-elect of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

Gretchen Bruesehoff Wiles (11MA), a professional voice coach and an adjunct music instructor at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, recently performed in North Carolina Opera's production of Carmen.

2000s

Thomas Blodgett (04BSN, 06MSN, 13PhD) is an assistant professor of nursing at Valparaiso University and a hospitalist nurse practitioner at Franciscan Health Hammond in Indiana.

Nicole Brogden (03BS, 07PHR), an assistant professor at the UI College of Pharmacy, received the college's 2018 Genesis Alumni Award.

Lila Byock (04MFA), a screenwriter and producer, recently earned a Writers Guild of America Award in the Outstanding Writing Original Long Form category for the Hulu show Castle Rock.

Mark Lafferty (04MFA), a screenwriter and producer, received a Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing Original Long Form earlier this year for his work on Castle Rock.

Jane Merten (00BBA, 06MBA) is owner of All Out Naturals, a North Liberty, Iowa-based company that makes organic personal care products.

Thomas Mulrooney (03BBA, 05MHA) is chief operating officer at Des Moines-based UnityPoint Health—Iowa Lutheran Hospital and Methodist West Hospital.

Sam Shaw (04MFA), a screenwriter and executive producer, recently received a Writers Guild of America Award in the Outstanding Writing Original Long Form category for the Hulu show Castle Rock.

Nathan Sondgeroth (04JD) is executive director of the Vera French Foundation and Vera French Community Mental Health Center in Davenport, Iowa.

Kate Stewart (05MA, 07MS) is an archivist at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson and author of A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport, published by Little A.

Karsten Temme (02BSE, 04MS) is the co-founder of Pivot Bio, an agricultural startup in Berkeley, California, that provides farmers crop nutrition solutions.

Marie Todd (04BBA), a business advisory services leader for Slalom consulting company in Austin, Texas, recently hosted a Future Workplace session at the South by Southwest Festival.

Vinnie Wilhelm (04MFA), a screenwriter and producer, took home a Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing Original Long Form earlier this year for the show Castle Rock.

1990s

Audra Kerr Brown (97BA), associate fiction editor for New Flash Fiction Review, was included in The Best Small Fictions 2018 anthology for her winning story "The Way of the Woods."

Craig Cannon (97BA, 00JD) is partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton law firm in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Jake Chung (96BA) is superintendent for Salt Creek School District 48 in Villa Park, Illinois.

Jacqueline Zenor Johns (99BA, 01EdS), a certified school psychologist for the Collinsville, Oklahoma, School District, was named the 2018 Oklahoma School Psychologist of the Year for her advocacy of mental health services and recently hosted a workshop at the American Association of Suicidology's annual conference.

James Klein (95BBA, 03MBA) is president of Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust.

Eduardo Magalhães III (91PhD), a political science professor at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, will begin a four-year term in July as chief reader for the College Board's Advanced Placement Comparative Government and Politics exam.

Michelle Rodgers Niermann (94MA) is president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids.

R. Saffin Dunn Parrish-Sams (93BBA, 98JD), an attorney at Soldat & Parrish-Sams in West Des Moines, is president of the Iowa Association for Justice.

Justin Quinn (99MA, 00MFA, 01MA) was selected as a McKnight Printmaking Fellow at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis.

Pete Schulte (96BFA, 07MA, 08MFA), an associate professor of art at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, was awarded a 2019 artist residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.

Todd Thompson (98BSPh) is founder of SmartScripts, a Washington, Iowa-based pharmacy company that helps patients manage their daily medications.

1980s

Mark Buthman (82BBA), retired chief financial officer of Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark, received the Alum of the Year Award from the UI Tippie College of Business in recognition of his service to the college.

Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet (87BGS, 90MA, 92MFA), an artist-in-residence at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, was the featured artist at a recent exhibition at Box Gallery in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Trudy Griffeth Laffoon (85BSN, 94MA), a nurse manager at UI Hospitals & Clinics, received the UI Health Care Culturally Responsive Health Care Award.

Marilyn (80BSPh) and Matthew Osterhaus (80BSPh), pharmacy owners in Maquoketa, Iowa, and adjunct faculty members at the UI, received a 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award from the UI College of Pharmacy.

Tom Scholz (88R, 91F), pediatric cardiologist at UI Stead Family Children's Hospital, received a Friend of Pediatrics Award from Medical Associates Pediatrics in Dubuque, Iowa.

Gayle Simmons (80BS), a physician with Amita Medical Group at Hinsdale Hospital in Hinsdale, Illinois, was named one of the top doctors in obstetrics and gynecology by Chicago Magazine.

James Woods (80MS, 80OrthS) is passing leadership of his orthodontics practice in Paducah, Kentucky, to daughter McKenzie Woods and will continue to assist at the clinic part time.

Kyle Zimmer (82BA), president and CEO of the nonprofit social enterprise First Book in Washington, D.C., took part in the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

1970s

Elizabeth Cave Chrischilles (79BSPh, 81MS, 86PhD), a UI professor of public health, head of epidemiology, and director of the Health Effectiveness Research Center, received a 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award from the UI College of Pharmacy.

Dave Dierks (70BA), who has served as vice president of principal gifts for the UI Center for Advancement, gave the university's annual Life with Phil lecture this past spring on the importance of philanthropy.

Joel Greer (75BA, 78JD), an attorney and member of the Iowa Law School Foundation board of directors, is mayor of Marshalltown, Iowa.

Francis Hamit (72BGS, 76MFA), a professional writer in Sherman Oaks, California, has written a new screenplay called Love in a Time of War and has a film in development.

Joy Harjo-Sapulpa (78MFA), professor and chair of excellence in creative writing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has been named a chancellor for the Academy of American Poets.

Shelley Haven (76MA, 78MFA), an artist and teacher in New York, was featured in a solo exhibition titled "Shelley Haven: The Architecture of Nature" at Wave Hill House in the Bronx.

Margo Hemphill Kren (79MFA), professor emeritus of art at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, is author of an e-book highlighting her husband's photography titled A Gathering in the Arts: Midwesterners Photographed by George M. Krenpublished by New Prairie Press.

Susan Neely (78BA), was appointed to the board of directors of Entercom Communications, a Philadelphia-based broadcasting and radio network.

John Penny (73BM), a Minneapolis-based guitarist and composer, debuted a new composition titled "Scenes From Heaven's Little Faces" this past winter with Minnesota Sinfonia, a professional chamber orchestra.

David T. Peterson (78BS) recently retired as an elementary school principal in Ames, Iowa, after a 40-year career as a teacher, counselor, and administrator.

Trudy Huskamp Peterson (72MA, 75PhD), an archival consultant in Washington, D.C., received the Emmett Leahy Award from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for her pioneering work in the field of records and information management.

1960s

John T. Gatten (65MFA), a retired writing instructor, wrote an article titled "Reading, Writing, and 'Riffmatic': Using Twain in a Writing Class," published in The Mark Twain Annual by Penn State University.

Susan and Patrick Keefe (69BSPh), volunteers and board members for the nonprofits Friends of Batahola and Hope for Kabingo, received the 2018 Humanitarian Award from the UI College of Pharmacy.

John Staley (69MA, 74PhD) retired after a 45-year career at UI Hospitals & Clinics, most recently serving as senior associate director.

Jerre Stead (65BBA, 11LHD) was named executive chairman of Clarivate earlier this year after the merger of his former company, Churchill Capital Corp, with Clarivate Analytics.

Stephen Walsh (63MD), a retired clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, plays jazz piano with two music groups.

1950s

Wesley Pippert (55BA), a former Middle East correspondent for UPI and retired journalism faculty member at the University of Missouri, was co-author of two articles in recent years that were finalists for the Syracuse/Newhouse Mirror award.

faculty & friends

Kelly Baker, UI assistant professor of occupational and environmental health, has been appointed to a three-year term on the National Academies Board of Global Health.

Jordan Cohen, former dean of the UI College of Pharmacy and an emeritus faculty member, received the college's 2018 Osterhaus Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

Jane Glafka Downer, a volunteer and philanthropist in Iowa City, recently was named one of the Corridor Business Journal's 2019 Women of Influence.

James Howe, a UI surgical oncologist, has been elected 2019 chair of the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society.

Teresa Judge-Ellis, associate professor at the UI College of Nursing, received the 2019 American Association of Nurse Practitioners Iowa State Award for Nurse Practitioner Excellence.

Jerald L. Schnoor, the Allen S. Henry Chair in Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UI, has received the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology.

Fred Stern, UI professor of mechanical engineering, received the 2018 David W. Taylor Medal for Notable Achievement in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

Luke Tierney, a professor of mathematical sciences in the UI Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, received the Statistical Computing and Graphics Award from the American Statistical Association.

Steven M. Varga, a UI professor of microbiology and immunology, has been named associate dean for academic affairs and graduate student development at the UI Graduate College.

Dale Wurster, a professor at the UI College of Pharmacy, is president of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.