Class Notes, Summer 2025

2020s

Aaron Cashman (22BS), a former University of Iowa men’s wrestler, is head coach of the St. Xavier High School men’s wrestling team in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Grace Clouser (23BS, 24MA), a former Hawkeye rower, is the top assistant coach for the University of Minnesota Crookston softball team.

Rory Gallagher (23JD) is an associate at Stinson law fi rm in Minneapolis.

Xochitl Gonzalez (21MFA), author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last, had her novel longlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Daniel Groeneveld (24MFA) is a multimedia journalist for WNEM TV-6 in Saginaw, Michigan.

Kaylyn King (24MA) is a donor relations, stewardship, and special events coordinator for the University of Northern Iowa.

Juliana Lamy (23MFA) received a 2024 Community of Literary Magazines and Presses Firecracker Award for her novel We Were Watching from the Sand.

Spencer Lee (21BS), a Hawkeye Wrestling Club member and former Iowa wrestler, has been inducted into the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League Hall of Fame.

Ruben Reyes Jr. (21MFA), author of There is a Rio Grande in Heaven, was a finalist for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Repeat Returns

This past spring, the University of Iowa Center for Advancement helped reunite not one but two Hawkeyes with their long-lost class rings.

In February, Joan Koch found an Iowa Varsity Club ring in a Waterloo, Iowa, parking lot. It was engraved with the name Gregory Sieh, but Koch struggled to track him down until she found an article online that mentioned a Hawkeye swim team letter winner by that name. She reached out to the UICA for help and was soon connected with Sieh (69BBA, 73JD), who previously owned a CPA firm near where the ring was found. It had been missing for 37 years.

“I remain shocked by this whole deal and grateful to a wonderful giving lady,” says Sieh.

Around the same time, Charlie Duncan (20BBA), a district manager for Aldi in the Cedar Rapids area, had a different lost ring on her hands. A 1968 Tippie College of Business ring bearing the initials WRS had been found in the bathroom months earlier, but the owner hadn’t returned. Duncan called Tippie, which contacted the UICA, which soon matched the ring to Cedar Rapids resident Wayne Shaw (68BBA). He had lost the ring several years prior and given up on finding it.

The two rings were returned to their owners within a week of each other in April.

LEFT PHOTO COURTESY JOAN KOCH; RIGHT PHOTO: HANNAH HILGENKAMP/TIPPIE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Joan Koch with Gregory Sieh; Charlie Duncan with Wayne Shaw

2010s

Conner Bassett (15MFA), a professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, launched his publishing company, Bench Editions.

Jamel Brinkley (15MFA), a UI assistant professor of creative writing, received the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for exceptional prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Signe Coombs (11BA), a former Hawkeye volleyball student-athlete, is director of athletics at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.

Declan Doyle (18BBA), a former offensive student assistant for Hawkeye football, is offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears.

Reice Haase (11BA) is director of the state of North Dakota’s Department of Water Resources.

Alex Hoffman (15BA) is the founder of Stateside Solar Energy, a solar installation company based in Des Moines.

Micah Ariel James (14MFA) is director of UMass Downtown in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Jamil Kochai (19MFA) is an assistant professor of creative writing at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Afabwaje Kurian (18MFA), author of Before the Mango Ripens, was a finalist for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Ayana Mathis (11MFA), a New York-based novelist, is a 2025-26 Mary Mackall Gwinn Hodder Fellow at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

Sean Powell (10BA, 16JD) is a partner with the Faegre Drinker law firm in Chicago.

Miles Taylor (17BA), a former Hawkeye defensive back, is co-defensive coordinator for University of South Dakota football.

Mason White (19BSE), an assistant project manager at M.A. Mortenson construction and development company in Minneapolis, was named a 2024 Rising Young Professional by Finance & Commerce.

2000s

Ladell Betts (01BS), a former assistant for Hawkeye football, is running backs coach for the New York Giants.

Nicole Brogden (03BS, 07PharmD), the Ting-Fong and Nei-Jia Chin Professor in Pharmaceutics at the UI College of Pharmacy, has been named to the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences’ PharmSciTech journal editorial board.

Michael Garms (04BA) is author of the children’s book Carrie’d Away.

Lisa Hanneman (01BA) is chief development officer of Blessings in a Backpack, a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides weekend meals for children.

Karla Kelsey (01MFA), a poet, released her lyric documentary book Transcendental Factory: For Mina Loy.

Wesley Kisting (04MA, 07PhD), an English professor, is provost and dean of the faculty at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Nam Le (06MFA) had his debut poetry book, 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem, named to The Guardian’s list of the 25 best Australian books of 2024.

Reagan Lund (06BBA) is the executive director for the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter in San Jose, California.

Tom McAllister (06MFA) is an assistant teaching professor of English and communications at Rutgers University.

Lucas Moffitt (03BA), head wrestling coach at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and a former Hawkeye wrestler, has been inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Jerry Montgomery (03BA), a former Hawkeye football letter winner, is a defensive line coach and run game coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals.

David Puderbaugh (06DMA) is director of choral activities and associate director of graduate studies at the UI School of Music.

Emily Dannenberg Rodman (01BA, 03MS) is director of planning and community development for Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Lisa VanderWilt Shileny (02JD) is president and CEO of Hills Bank.

Matthew Warner-Blankenship (04MS, 11JD) has been elected to the board of directors for Dentons Davis Brown, a Des Moines-based law firm.

Service and Scholarship

PHOTO COURTESY CRYSTAL GROUP UI student veteran Thomas Lutz with UI President Barbara J. Wilson

Thomas Lutz, a U.S. Navy veteran and University of Iowa College of Engineering student, attended the commissioning ceremony this past spring in Groton, Connecticut, for the USS Iowa, a new fast-attack nuclear-powered submarine. Lutz attended as a guest of Crystal Group, a Cedar Rapids-based military technology manufacturer that produced equipment for the new vessel.

“I feel honored and lucky to have been chosen to attend the commissioning ceremony,” Lutz told Iowa News Now. “I’m exceptionally glad to be sponsored by a company that I can relate to—I have seen firsthand the effects of reliable avionics.”

An Iowa native, Lutz served as an aviation structural mechanic petty officer second class while in the Navy. Today, he volunteers at the Iowa Veteran Education, Transition, and Support center on the UI campus as a tutor and mentor for other veterans adjusting to college life. The chemical engineering student, who will be a senior this fall, attended the commissioning ceremony alongside UI President Barbara J. Wilson (pictured above).

1990s

David Bissinger (90BA), a partner with the Houston law firm Bissinger, Oshman, Williams & Strasburger, has been named to Lawdragon’s 2025 list of 500 Leading Lawyers in America.

Hannah Brenner Johnson (94BA, 98JD) is dean of the Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School in Carbondale, Illinois.

Michael Carnahan (93BM), band director at South Tama County High School in Iowa, has been named the 2025 VFW Department of Iowa High School Teacher of the Year.

Peter Craig (93MFA), a Hollywood screenwriter, has partnered with producer Bryan Unkeless to launch the film and TV banner Night Owl.

Charlie D’Ambrosio (91MFA), a UI professor emeritus of creative writing, received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Award of Merit Medal for the Short Story for lifelong achievement in the genre.

Heidi Deininger (94BA) is superintendent of West Carroll School District in Carroll County, Iowa.

Bruce Gleason (95PhD), professor of music at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota, published his latest book, Cold War Cadence: A Military Musician’s Berlin Memoir, 1988–1991.

Shawn Griffin (94MD), CEO of health care accreditation company URAC in Washington, D.C., has been named to Modern Healthcare’s list of 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

McCeil King Johnson (94BA, 99MA, 99JD), vice president for accreditation and regulatory compliance at the University of Phoenix, is a diversity and inclusive excellence committee co-chair for the UPCEA online and professional education association.

Mary Sackett (98BA) is president of the Marin County Board of Supervisors in California, where she represents San Rafael.

Melvin Shaw (97MA, 04JD) is president of the Iowa State Bar Association.

Ed Stevenson (94BA), director of golf at DuPage County Forest Preserves in Illinois, has been named the 2024 Illinois PGA Executive of the Year.

Suzanne Yoon (98BA), founder and managing partner of Kinzie Capital Partners private equity firm, has been named to the 2025 Crain’s Chicago Business Women of Influence list.

Heidi Zahner-Younts (97BA, 19MA) is the director of talent and organizational development at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.

1980s

Ruth Bardon (82MFA) has released her debut poetry collection, Witness, which was a finalist for the 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize.

Susan E. Bennett (88BM, 92JD) is chief legal officer and secretary of E2open supply chain software in Chicago.

Scott Chadwick (84BS) is dean of the John E. Simon School of Business at Maryville University in Missouri.

Fred Crawford (87MBA), who recently retired as the former president and COO of Aflac Insurance, is the first executive in residence at the UI Tippie College of Business, a position that brings experienced business leaders to work with students and faculty.

Brad Penrith (89BGS) a former Hawkeye wrestler, has been inducted into the Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame in New York.

Jim Skogsbergh (82MA) received the American College of Healthcare Executives 2025 Gold Medal Award for his 16 years as CEO of Advocate Health Care.

Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier (81BA, 85JD), a partner with Snell & Wilmer law firm in Phoenix, has been named to iGaming Business’s 2024 list of Most Influential Women for her work improving diversity in the gaming law industry.

C.J. Williams (85BBA, 88JD), chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids, published his true-crime novel A Monster in Mount Pleasant: A Story of Murders and Justice.

1960s

Elliott Brack (62MA) has been inducted into the Gwinnett County, Georgia, Preservation Hall of Fame for his 50 years of work as a local journalist.

Daniel Van Tassel (64MA, 70PhD) is author of Beyond Barron: A Memoir.

Faculty & Friends

Kaveh Akbar, UI associate professor of English, received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for his novel Martyr!

Lisa Bluder, former Hawkeye women’s basketball coach, has been inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame.

Mark Blumberg, UI Distinguished Chair in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, received the Sleep Research Society’s 2025 Distinguished Scientist Award.

Jan Jensen, the head Hawkeye women’s basketball coach, has been named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s 2025 Spalding Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year.

Tim Stalter recently retired after 26 years as the UI director of choral activities.