Class Notes Spring 2020

2010s

Ethan Altmayer (19BBA) is an accounting rotational business associate with CNA Insurance in Chicago.

Lauren E. Augustin (12MBA) is vice president of product transformation and delivery at Grinnell Mutual in Grinnell, Iowa.

Sara M. Bultsma (19BBA) is an investment analyst with BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago.

Patrick Cornally (12BBA) is vice president of investment banking at Barclays in New York.

Megan Schultz Feskens (12BBA) is a human resources generalist for Abacus Data Systems, an international information technology company in San Diego.

Jeffrey S. Grote (15BAS) is a substitute teacher at Chopticon High School in Morganza, Maryland, and was recently honored as Brave of the Month by the school.

Nathan Haas (18BSE) is a roadway designer focusing on Illinois tollway projects for Hanson Professional Services in Chicago and serves in the Illinois Army National Guard.

Donté K. Hayes (19MA), a Georgia-based ceramicist, received the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art from the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina.

Leyuan Li (19BBA) is a property accountant at Cushman & Wakefield, a Chicago-based commercial real estate services company.

Gage Miskimen (19BA) is a reporter for the Des Moines Register covering the city's west suburbs.

Kristen Radtke (12MFA), art director for The Believer magazine, earned a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant for her forthcoming book Seek You: Essays on American Loneliness, which will be published by Pantheon Books.

Rachael Mullins Steiner (15MBA) is president and CEO of Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport, Iowa.

Sydney E. Wientjes (19BBA) is a search marketing specialist at Power Equipment Direct in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

2000s

Nicole Petersen Gattas (02PHR), director of experiential education and associate professor at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, received an Emerson's Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the St. Louis area.

Laura Itle (01BSE), a researcher for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia, was a member of a research team that earned an honorable mention award in the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center Challenge. 

Ken Jones (06DDS) is the dental director for the River Hills Community Health Center in Ottumwa, Iowa, and serves on the Delta Dental Foundation board.

Dora Malech (05MFA), assistant professor of poetry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is author of a new book of poetry titled Flourish, published by Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Laura Parrish (04JD), an attorney with Miller, Pearson, Gloe, Burns, Beatty, & Parrish in Decorah, Iowa, has been appointed an Iowa district court judge by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Ian Stansel (05MFA), director of the creative writing program at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, published a longform story titled The Caller in the 2019 issue of Ploughshares journal.

Daniel Vakulskas (05BA), a lawyer in Sioux City, Iowa, has been appointed district associate judge for Plymouth and Sioux Counties in Iowa.

1990s

Gina Arquilla DeBoni (97BA), a partner with Romanucci & Blandin law firm in Chicago, has been named to U.S. News' Best Lawyers in America for 2020 list.

Shawn Gillen (94BA) is city manager of Tybee Island, Georgia.

Shannon Brinton Heim (94BA, 96MA), a communications attorney at Moss & Barnett law firm in Minneapolis, has been appointed to the Minnesota Governor's Task Force on Broadband.

Hayley L. Hillman Harvey (94DDS, 96MS), section chief and director of dental education at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, received the 2019 Service Recognition of the Year from the UI College of Dentistry.

Dennis Herrick (98MA) published his ninth book, a biography titled Esteban: The African Slave Who Explored America, with the University of New Mexico Press.

Lila Igram (92BA) is founder of ConnectHer, a fundraising platform for nonprofits led by women and presenter of the annual Girls Impact the World Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Rachel Taylor (95DMA), who is an adjunct professor of piano at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, and teaches at her piano studio in Georgetown, Kentucky, was selected as the 2019 Teacher of the Year by the Kentucky Music Teachers Association.

1980s

Susan Bennett (88BM, 92JD), chief legal officer at IRI in Chicago, will become chair of the UI Center for Advancement Board's Development and Engagement Committee in April and serve through 2024.

Thomas M. Cook (87PhD) is author of Clubfoot: The Quest for a Better Life for Millions of Children, published by Ice Cube Press.

Kevin Donly (81BS, 84DDS, 86MS, 86PedoS) is president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

David James (80MA), who has published eight volumes of poetry, has taught writing, literature, and peace studies for 35 years at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Keith Krell (81DDS, 83MS. 83EndoS), an adjunct clinical professor at the UI College of Dentistry, is president of the American Association of Endodontists.

Joseph LeValley (89MBA), a retired health care executive in Dallas County, Iowa, is author of the murder mystery Burying the Lede, which was published by BookPress Publishing and won a Book Excellence Award; his second novel, Cry from an Unknown Grave, will be published in mid-2020.

Greg Miller (86BS) is an account executive for the BIC Alliance, where he provides consultative sales for Business and Industry Connection Magazine in League City, Texas.

Daniel Schwallie (82MA, 84PhD) is co-author of the Cash Balance Plan Answer Book, fourth edition, and has written recent articles for the Journal of Deferred Compensation, the Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance, and Benefits Quarterly.

Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier (81BA, 85JD), a partner with the Snell & Wilmer law firm in Phoenix, was the recipient of the 2019 Alumni Service Award from the UI College of Law, inducted into the Maricopa County Bar Association Hall of Fame, named to the Women Achievers of Arizona list by the Arizona Capitol Times, named a Phoenix Chamber Athena Finalist, and named Phoenix Gaming Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America.

Bob Steckel (80BSCE), a structural engineer and goat farmer in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, led a mural project in Sigourney, Iowa, commemorating Chas "Goatman" McCartney, the late traveling preacher.

Leslie Jansa Williams (82BSN), founder and CEO of the biotechnology company ImmusanT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, received a 2019 Honorary Alumni Award from the UI College of Pharmacy, where she has served on the executive leadership board.

1970s

Sidney Ayabe (70JD) retired from his insurance defense practice in Honolulu and now serves as a mediator and arbitrator, member of the Lawrence University Board of Trustees, and president for the Mediation Center of the Pacific.

Patricia Barber (77BA), a jazz pianist, singer, and composer in Chicago, was inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences this past fall in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Rita Dove (77MFA), a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, received the Wallace Stevens Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

Edith Gawara Garner (77BA) and Jac Garner (76BBA) received the 2019 Tocqueville Society Award from the United Way of Dane County, Wisconsin, which honors local philanthropic and volunteer champions.

Francis Hamit (72BGS, 76MFA) is developing a new film script titled The All-American, about B-17 Flying Fortress bombers during World War II, and has written a book titled Out of Step: A Memoir of the Vietnam War.

James Harris (76BS, 79DDS), a former adjunct UI faculty member and dentist in Washington, Iowa, posthumously received the 2019 Leadership of the Year Award from the UI College of Dentistry.

David C. Holmes (73BS, 78DDS, 91MS, 92PeriS), professor and department executive officer for the UI Department of Family Dentistry, has been named 2019 Dental Educator of the Year by the UI College of Dentistry.

Gary Keoppel (71BBA), a former UI baseball player and longtime member of the executive committee for Cedar Rapids' minor league baseball club, has been inducted into the Cedar Rapids Baseball Hall of Fame.

Janice Carter Larson (77BA), who recently retired as vice president of clinical resources and consulting for Encompass Group of McDonough, Georgia, received the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Healthcare Textile Management.

John C. Lee (72MD, 77R, 97F), an ophthalmologist in Decatur, Illinois, designed a seven-foot-tall eyeball for the interactive exhibit, Peek Inside, at the Children's Museum of Illinois.

1960s

Albert Howard Carter III (67MA, 69MA, 71PhD), a retired professor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is author of the new book In Peril: All People, All Life, Our Earth/In Prospect: Better Healthcare and Medicine.

Nancy Corson Carter (68MA, 72PhD), a retired professor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is author of the new book A Green Bough: Poems for Renewal.

Gordon Eggleton (67MA, 71PhD), professor emeritus of chemistry at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma, has been inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society Hall of Fame.

Richard Hynes (64DDS), who practiced dentistry for more than 35 years in Forest City, Iowa, has been named the 2019 Dental Alumnus of the Year by the UI College of Dentistry.

Thomas Kirlin (68MA, 74PhD) received the 2019 William Meredith Award for Poetry at the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., for his second book of poetry, Enabling Love.

Rolly McGrath (68BA), a retired physician and professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, is author of the recently published book Rain Boy Too: Living with an Autistic Son.

Sandra Hammers Przybylski (68BS), a speech language pathologist with the Missouri First Steps Program serving families with special needs children, received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who, a publisher of biographical profiles.

James Simon (69DDS) is director of the Division of Operative Dentistry at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry in Memphis.

Donna Parsons Williams (66MA), who worked for 37 years as an Iowa music teacher, retired as a choir director in March 2019.

1950s

John Buzzell (55PhD), an Army veteran and retired research chemist in State College, Pennsylvania, was recently honored by Penn State University at a veterans luncheon.

Rosalind Gold Charlesworth (58MA), a retired professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, has published two new textbooks, Understanding Child Development and Math and Science for Young Children.

faculty & friends

Gail Bishop, professor of microbiology and immunology at the UI Carver College of Medicine, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general-scientific society.

Ramprakash Govindarajan, clinical assistant professor at the UI College of Pharmacy and director of pre-formulation and formulation development at UI Pharmaceuticals, received a College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year award.

Kashelle Lockman, a clinical assistant professor at the UI College of Pharmacy and the Carver College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine and a clinical pharmacy specialist at UI Hospitals & Clinics, received a College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year award.

Dave Roman, UI associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics, received a College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year award.

Jerry Schnoor, UI professor of civil and environmental engineering, received the Lifetime Achievement in Environmental Chemistry award at the 10th National Conference on Environmental Chemistry at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. 

Mary Schroeder, UI associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, received a College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year award.

Fred Skiff, professor and chairman in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy, was appointed to the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Steven Vercande received the 2019 Honorary Recognition of the Year Award from the UI College of Dentistry for his instruction and service in the Department of Prosthodontics.