Transitions

• 1960s
• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s
• Deaths

1960s

Patricia Price, BA History ’69, retired as chief counsel to the chair of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board after 35 years of government service. She recently completed a certificate in landscape design from George Washington University and is enjoying gardening and traveling.

1980s

Peggie Albright Shore, MEd Counseling and Development ’84, has accepted a position with the U.S. Coast Guard Group/Air Station in Astoria, Oregon, as the education services officer who maintains the Learning Center for active duty Coast Guard personnel and their families.

George Harold Waxter, MS Electronic and Computer Engineering ’89, continues to work as a locum tenens physician and has completed a year working in New Zealand. While there, he won three silver medals at the Pan Pacific Master Games in track and field and cross country, as well as competed in the Rotorua International Marathon and the Goat Alpine Race, the Auckland Harbour Swim, and the six-kilometer Hamilton River Swim.

1990s

Maria K. Bachman, MA English ’91, was named South Carolina Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. She is an associate professor of English and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Coastal Carolina University.

Barbara Benoit, MS Systems Engineering ’91 and PhD Information Technology ’93, was named a principal in the Patent Prosecution Group of Fish & Richardson P.C. in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

Robert Coursey, BA English ’92, was elected to partner in the national law firm of Fisher & Phillips LLP.

Carolyn Janette, MEd Health Education ’92, and husband, Philip Ryan, have launched their Irish tour company, Inroads Ireland (www.InroadsIreland.com). The couple lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Matthew Abel, BS Biology ’93, and Jason Dinter, BA Anthropology ’95, completed the Miami Half Marathon in January in 2 hours and 19 minutes, and they are both registered for next year’s race.

Ailsa Ware Burnett, BS Public Administration ’93 and MA Sociology ’96, and her husband, Alvis, welcomed their new son, Howard Alvis, who was born on December 21.

Nick Fiegoli, BS Economics ’93, and his wife, Julie LeBlanc Fiegoli, BS Psychology ’92, welcomed their son, Andrew, who was born on October 10. Andrew has two big brothers, William (7) and Michael (5). The family resides in New York.

William E. Allmond IV, BA English ’94, was appointed director of government relations at the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association, a national trade association representing batch chemical manufacturers since 1921. He will lead its six-person government relations department in Washington, D.C.

Susan Bodilly, PhD Public Policy ’94, is director of Rand Education, an Arlington, Virginia-based division of Rand Corporation that works with the public and the private sectors to improve education policy and practices.

Lynn McAlister Bunn, MPA ’94, was appointed to lead Booz Allen Hamilton’s Privacy Center of Excellence, five years after establishing the firm’s privacy consulting business. In 2006, she and husband Todd Bunn, JD ’86, and their six-year-old son, Colin, welcomed the arrival of new family member MacKenzie.

Sean Drury, MA International Transactions ’95, was promoted to claims supervisor for ACE USA in August 2006. He received designation as a chartered property casualty underwriter in December 2006.

Chris Nicholson, BA Communication ’95, is a public relations manager in Acton, Massachusetts, for SeaChange, a worldwide supplier of digital video systems to broadband, broadcast, and satellite television operators.

Allison Oakley, BA English ’95, is the reporter on board Sky Fox for WTTG (Fox 5) in Washington, D.C. She is married to Bill Michaels, also an airborne reporter and photographer in Washington, D.C. They have a son, William, and the family lives in Virginia.

Byron Derringer, BS Health Recreation and Fitness ’96, had his idea for an innovative airport runway incursion and debris detection system patented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This technology is available through exclusive and nonexclusive license opportunities by Runway Technologies, the company Derringer founded to improve aircraft safety by reducing minor and catastrophic runway events.

John M. Monahan, JD ’96, has been appointed partner in Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP, a law firm with offices in Buffalo, Amherst, and Rochester, New York, and Phoenix, Arizona. John is in the firm’s Labor and Employment, and E-Discovery and Records Management practice groups.

Josh Scandlen, BA Economics ’97, was awarded the chartered retirement plans specialist designation from the College for Financial Planning. He is a certified financial planner with Smith Barney in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and is married to Charlotte Rooney Scandlen, BA Government and Politics ’96. The couple has two young daughters and a newborn son, and lives in Harrisonburg.

Joe Little, BA Communication ’98, and his wife, Stacey Little, BS Psychology ’99, have named their newborn son, Mason Alexander, a tribute to the university where they met in 1995.

Stephen A. Whitlock, MBA ’98, was named director of its new Whistleblower Office by the Internal Revenue Service.

Conaway Haskins, BA Government and Politics ’99, has been named deputy state director for Senator Jim Webb (D-VA).

2000s

William H. Roberts Jr., Certificate in Community College Education ’00, completed a DA in community college education and a DA in public administration in May.

Debra D. Roby, JD ’00, has been made a partner in Jennings Strouss & Salmon’s Energy and Utilities practice group in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

Nicole Ciccone, BA English ’01, graduated with an MPA in January ’07 and was promoted to assistant director of Mason’s MBA programs.

Lynne Minami Johnson, BA Communication ’01, and Nickolas Johnson announce the birth of their daughter, Kendall, born September 1.

Cindy J. Grady, BS Integrative Studies ’03, married Joshua McCarthy, BA Theater ’02, in December. The couple now resides in Los Angeles.

Chris Pyhtila, MS Software Engineering ’03, and his wife, Jessica, have had their first child, Marie Christina, who was born on January 15.

Kathleen Toomey Jabs, MFA Creative Writing ’04, had her short story, “Deep Water,” published in the March 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

Danielle Deulen, MFA Creative Writing ’05, won a 2006 Dorothy Poetry Prize from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial fund for her poems “For My Sister in the River” and “For You.”

Megan Bohrer, BA Music ’06, was selected by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for its prestigious internship program this past winter as part of the Kennedy Center Institute for Arts Management.

Ryan Effgen, MFA Creative Writing ’06, was awarded one of five $5,000 fiction fellowships by the Virginia Commission on the Arts. His story, “Loved Ones,” can be found in Best New American Voices 2007, edited by Sue Miller.

Benjamin P. Hurwitz, JD ’06, was hired as an associate by Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds where he assists the firm in patent preparation and prosecution in the areas of mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as computer technologies.

Arin Karimian, BA Government and International Politics ’06, works as an assistant producer for USAToday.com’s sports department.

Eubert Querubin, BS Accounting ’06, has joined the Atlanta-based public accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC as a staff accountant on the audit team.

Deaths

Marva Joann Hurd Falls, MEd Educational Leadership ’98, January 16, 2007

Jill Rickard Mills, BS Business Administration ’80, February 23, 2007

Kyle Wilson, BS Athletic Training ’05, April 16, 2007