Class Notes Winter 2020

students

Andy Jatis, a fourth-year student in the UI College of Pharmacy, was selected to serve on the American College of Clinical Pharmacy National Student Network Advisory Committee as a member-at-large for 2020-21.

Levi Kirby, a PhD student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has received the E. Wayne Kay Graduate Scholarship from the Society for Manufacturing Engineers.

Rebecca Lara, an undergraduate at the UI College of Education, was recently awarded the 2020 Gilman Scholarship to study abroad in Spain next year.

2020s

Isabela Flores (20BA) is coordinator for the UI Latino Native American Cultural Center.

2010s

Lucy Campie Bucket (14BSN) is a traveling nurse who served for eight weeks at Langone Medical Center of New York University earlier this year in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Brain DeHoff (14BA) is an elementary school teacher in Cedarville, Ohio.

Kaleb Farnham (19BA) is a teacher at Paradise Honors High School in Surprise, Arizona.

Jeffrey S. Grote (15BAS) is a student at the University of Maryland Global Campus, where he's pursuing a degree in health services management.

Yaa Gyasi (14MFA), the award-winning author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom who's a native of Ghana, was named a 2020 Great Immigrants honoree by the Carnegie Foundation.

Neal Hausmann (18BA, 19MAT) is a chemistry teacher at Vernon Hills High School in Illinois.

Sylvea Hollis (18PhD) is assistant professor of African American history at Montgomery College in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Claire Honsey (18BA) is a fourth-grade teacher at South Prairie Elementary in Grimes, Iowa.

Madelynn Hanrahan Krall (10BA), director of development for the College of Public Health at the UI Center for Advancement, was named to the Corridor Business Journal's "40 Under 40" list.

Maria Kuznetsova (17MFA), an author and assistant professor of creative writing at Auburn University, is the fiction editor for the Southern Humanities Review, a literary magazine housed at Auburn.

Yuanqiu Mo (19PhD) was named one of five finalists for the Young Author Prize at the International Federation of Automatic Control World Congress 2020 in Germany.

Andrew Nelson (15MPH, 16PhD) is a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Maurice Payne Jr. (13BS, 19PhD) works in chemical and biological security at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Kevin Schleich (11PHR), a pharmacy specialist in the Department of Family Medicine at UI Hospitals & Clinics, received the College of Pharmacy's Preceptor of the Year Award for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience.

Barbara St. Marie (19MS), assistant professor at the UI College of Nursing, was named a 2020 fellow by the American Academy of Nursing.

Krista Wahlstrom (17MA), a UI doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, received an Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award from the National Institutes of Health.

2000s

Lila Byock (04MFA) was co-executive producer for HBO's Watchmen, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series.

Vince Ellison (09MBA) is vice president and general manager for the Iowa market at Knutson Construction.

Kaitlin Emrich (07BS, 09MPH), an epidemiologist for Linn County Public Health in Iowa, was named to the Corridor Business Journal's "40 Under 40" list.

T. Mike Farley (02BS, 07PHR), a clinical pharmacy specialist at Mercy Iowa City, received the UI College of Pharmacy's Faculty Preceptor Excellence Award.

Kari Hobbs Harland (01BA, 04MPH, 10PhD), director of research operations in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the UI Carver College of Medicine and adjunct assistant professor with the Department of Epidemiology at the College of Public Health, received a College of Public Health 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award.

Ryan Hesseltine (02BSE) is principal systems engineer at BAE Systems in Cedar Rapids and is pursuing a Master of Science degree in space systems engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Rebecca Imes (05PhD), associate professor of communication at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, is author of the book Communication and Care Coordination for the Palliative Care Team: A Handbook for Building and Maintaining Optimal Teams, published by Springer Publishing Company.

Amanda Falk Mather (09BS, 13PHR), an adjunct assistant professor in the UI College of Pharmacy, received the college's Preceptor of the Year Award for Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience.

Nicholas O'Brien (02BA, 10MAT, 18MA) is dean of students at Denison Middle School in Denison, Iowa.

Kelly Kierath Schieltz (01BA, 06MA, 13PhD) is an assistant professor in school psychology at the UI College of Education.

Kim Sullivan Sumrak (07BSE), a civil engineer at Hanson Professional Services' Chicago regional office, has been named a 2020 Rising Star in Multidiscipline Engineering.

Rachel Cain Trevizo (08BBA, 10MBA, 10MHA), vice president of revenue cycle services at MediRevv in Coralville, was named to the Corridor Business Journal's "40 Under 40" list.

Gabriele Villarini (08PhD, 18MBA), director of the UI's IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering, has been named editor-in-chief for the journal Advances in Water Resources.

Michael Wiebler (06BA, 06BBA) is director of content strategy for the National Football League's Club Media Group in Los Angeles.

1990s

David Bissinger (90BA), co-founder of Houston-based firm Bissinger, Oshman & Williams, received recognition for his work in commercial litigation in The Best Lawyers in America, the oldest legal guide in the United States.

Ty Borders (95MA, 99PhD, 01MS), a professor and director of the Rural and Underserved Health Research Center at the University of Kentucky, received a UI College of Public Health 2020 Outstanding Alumni Award.

Laura Matter (97BA) provides online one-on-one reading intervention services for students through her company, Reading Matters, based in Batavia, Illinois.

Gabriela Gomez Cruz Rivera (99MA), associate director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the UI Tippie College of Business, has been inducted into the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame by the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs and the Iowa Department of Human Rights.

Jerald Walker (93BA, 95MFA, 02PhD), a professor at Emerson College in Boston, is a 2020 National Book Award finalist in nonfiction for his new book, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays, published in November by The Ohio State University Press.

Thomas J. Wickham Jr. (90BA, 94JD) retired as head parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives after 25 years.

Julie Wilder (90PhD) is a principal member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in the International Biological and Chemical Threat Reduction Group in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1980s

Luisa Caldwell (86BA), a Brooklyn-based artist who was featured in a i5olation, a digital print portfolio of works by 50 women artists at i5olationportfolio.org, recently presented a public art piece titled I Spy Butterfly for Treasure Hunt at Art Prospect, a citywide arts festival in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Peter Schmitt (83MFA) is author of a new collection of poetry titled Goodbye, Apostrophe, published by Regal House Publishing.

1970s

Kathleen Coen Buckwalter (71BSN, 76MA), professor emerita in the UI College of Nursing, received the Living Legend Award, the highest honor presented by the American Academy of Nursing.

Cindy Hanken Dawson (75BSN), the chief nurse executive at UI Hospitals & Clinics who planned to retire in December after 44 years with the university, was named a 2020 fellow by the American Academy of Nursing.

Lowell Handy (71BA, 74MA) is author of Josiah: From Improbable Stories to Inventive Historiography; his eighth academic book.

David Hindt (79BBA), a retired Air Force Officer, is executive director of the F-111 Memorial Foundation, which aims to design and fabricate a new memorial for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Mark Johnson (73MA) is executive producer for AMCs Better Call Saul and Netflix's El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which were nominated for Emmy Awards in Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Television Movie, respectively.

Joel Telpner (78BBA, 83JD), a partner at Sullivan & Worcester law firm in New York and chair of the firm's fintech and blockchain practice, was named to Law360's 2020 Fintech MVP list, which highlights four lawyers who are pioneering thought leaders and dealmakers.

1960s

Earl E. Fitz (68BA, 70MA) and Julianne Volkens Fitz (71BA, 72MA) received the 2020 Dr. Gail Addlestone Community Building Award from the Nashville affiliate of Gilda's Club—a cancer support community co-founded by Iowa alumnus Gene Wilder (55BA)—for their volunteerism and advocacy.

Phillip E. Jones (67MA, 75PhD), former UI vice president for student services and dean of students, is author of the memoir Nothing Beats Failure But a Try.

Patrick (69BSPh) and Susan Kay Keefe, of Cincinnati, are recipients of the 2020 International Impact Award presented by UI International Programs for their humanitarian work in their community and overseas.

Sarah Dunkerton Lande (60BA, 83MBA), of Muscatine, Iowa, received the 2020 International Impact Award presented by UI International Programs for her work in citizen diplomacy.

1950s

John (52BSC, 10LHD) and Mary Pappajohn of Des Moines received a 2020 Community Enhancement Through Architecture & Design Award from the Iowa Architectural Foundation for their advocacy for architecture, art, and design.

1890s

Zada Mary Cooper (1897PHG), a former UI College of Pharmacy faculty member and pharmacy pioneer, posthumously received the Women Lead Change Women of Achievement Award, which recognizes the contributions of historical Iowa women, and was honored with a plaque on the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge in downtown Des Moines.

faculty & friends

Stephen Bloom, author and UI professor of journalism and mass communication, received the Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, marking the first time a UI instructor has earned the honor.

Ken Brown, professor of management and entrepreneurship and associate dean of the UI Tippie College of Business, received the 2020 Academy of Management Learning & Education Decade Award, given to the most highly cited AMLE paper published in the last 10 years.

John Culshaw, the UI's Jack B. King University Librarian, is serving a one-year term as president of the Association of Research Libraries, a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in Canada and the U.S.

Anja Kampmann, a writer and critic based in Leipzig, Germany, and a Max Kade Fellow in the 2010 International Writing Program fall residency, was named a finalist for the 2020 National Book Awards for translated literature for her debut novel, High as the Waters Rise.

Don Letendre, dean of the UI College of Pharmacy, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy and will be inducted into the college's Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

Alberto Ortiz Díaz, UI assistant professor of history and global health studies, is a 2020-21 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, through which he will work on a book manuscript about rehabilitative corrections in the Caribbean at the University of Puerto Rico-río Piedras.

Tom Peters, UI professor of occupational and environmental health, has been elected to serve as a director on the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists 2021 board.

Jeffrey Quinlan, formerly of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, joined the UI Carver College of Medicine as chair of the Department of Family Medicine.

Pilar Quintana, a Colombian author and participant in the 2011 International Writing Program's fall residency, was named a finalist for the 2020 National Book Awards for translated literature for her novel The Bitch.

Sean Sullivan, associate professor at the UI College of Law, won the international Concurrences Antitrust Writing Award for best academic article in antitrust economics.

Chad Triplett, a clinical pharmacy specialist in the Family Medicine Clinic at UI Hospitals and Clinics, received the College of Pharmacy's Preceptor of the Year Award for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience.