spring 2019

HILL LAURA CHODOS, AG49, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from New York State Archives Partnership Trust on October 1, 2018, in Saratoga Springs, NY. For seventeen years, she represented the Fourth Judicial District on the New York Board of Regents. She was the first woman over two centuries to head its Committee on Higher Education and the Professions.

ENGINEERING EDMUND BURKE retired on October 31, 2018, from TRC Environmental Corporation, Windsor, CT, after sixty-two years. He spent his first fifteen years in the aircraft industry and his last forty-seven in environmental consulting. He is a registered professional engineer in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island, and lives in Pocasset on Cape Cod.

ENGINEERING JAMES L. NEWMAN, owner and managing partner of Newman Consulting Group, LLC, in Farmington Hills, MI, was honored with the Engineering Society of Detroit’s TechCentury Image Award at the organization’s annual dinner on June 20, 2018. The award is presented annually “to individuals who have helped promote the engineering and technical professions through involvement in the community, mentoring, public service, public speaking, and presentations to various groups.”

DENTAL EDWIN GALKIN started his third around-the-world flight in his single-engine Cessna 210 on October 26, 2018, to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Association. For more information about the trip, the cause, and how to donate, you can visit aroundtheworldagain3.com. Galkin also practices periodontics in Woodbridge, NJ.

ENGINEERING EDWARD M. BLOOM is a partner at Sherin and Lodgen LLP and was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyers for his practice in real estate law.

ENGINEERING HAROLD K. HAAVIK, see HILL 1968

HILL JOHN BELLO, A13P, hosted Jumbos at his home in Rye, NY, last summer for his annual “Bello Bash.” Pictured below, from left to right, are GARRETT WEINSTEIN, A18, BRETT RASKOPF, A19, JOHN BELLO, AUSTIN BENDETSON, A17, and TAYLOR NORDAN, A18.
 

HILL NAN (TAYLOR) HAAVIK and HAROLD K. HAAVIK, E67, who met in the band at Tufts, recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary at the historic Lyman House, in Waltham, MA. After graduation, Harold went to work in Indiana, while Nan finished her senior year as a math major and was a housemother at Anthony House. A week after Nan’s graduation, on June 15, 1968, they were married in New London, CT. In the photo below, Nan is in the second row, seventh from left; Harold is directly behind her. Other Jumbos present were BONITA (NAHMIAS) MESSMAN, J70 (in the second row, third from left) and KRISTIN MARY BUTLER, D86 (in the second row, second from the right).
 

HILL MARILYN KALLET was named Knoxville, TN’s new poet laureate in June 2018. Kallet is an acclaimed poet and professor in the University of Tennessee’s English department, where for years she was the director of the creative writing program. She has published eighteen books, including How Our Bodies Learned, The Love That Moves Me, and Packing Light: New and Selected Poems.

HILL ARNOLD J. HURLEY, AG75, recently won the first-prize drawing award at the Eighty-Fifth Annual International Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature. The award was given to him by the Miniature Painters, Sculptors, and Gravers Society of Washington, DC, at Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda, MD. His paintings and drawings can be seen at fineartamerican.com.

HILL RICHARD E. VEILLEUX, professor of horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ School of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been named professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. Veilleux conducted genetic research on potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, tobacco, and orchids that contributed significantly to Virginia Tech’s knowledge of plant genetics and genomics.

HILL BETSY BANKS EPSTEIN, AG74, A01P, is happy to announce the publication of her book Still Becoming: Conversations with People in Their Sixties. Epstein, a freelance writer for many years, coauthored the book with her sister-in-law, psychologist Elinor Svenson.

HILL NANCY SHILEPSKY was selected by her peers for inclusion in the 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyers. She is a partner at Sherin and Lodgen LLP, and was selected for her practice in employment law, individuals, management and litigation, and labor and employment.

HILL David Harte, D78, was named Clinician of the Year at the 2019 Yankee Dental Congress, New England’s largest conference for dental professionals. He is the founder of and national spokesperson for the Comprehensive Masonic CHIP program, which puts together kits to help identify missing or injured children. He maintains a private practice in Milton, MA.

HILL DAVID LAIRD recently published his second novel. Curves is an internet dating site murder mystery and is a sequel to his first novel, The Dragon’s Fire.

HILL GINNY RUSSO DICKEY was elected mayor of her hometown of Fountain Hills, AZ, on August 28, 2018. She has also served as a member of the local school board and a councilwoman.

HILL SCOTT FRASER is the next president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association. Fraser, from North Scituate, MA, most recently operated his own full-service public relations agency, Fraser Communications Group, for nearly ten years.

ENGINEERING SUSAN CERRONE ABELY joined the Aldersbridge Communities Board of Trustees.

HILL KEN BRESLER has authored H.H. Richardson: Three Architectural Tours. The tours of the work of America’s predominant architect center on Boston’s Copley Square, Harvard University and Harvard Square in Cambridge, and the Green Line in Newton, MA, Richardson’s hometown.

HILL JODY GASTFRIEND recently released a book titled My Parent’s Keeper: The Guilt, Grief, Guesswork, and Unexpected Gifts of Caregiving. Published by Yale University Press, the book has been praised by Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, as “the ultimate GPS for family caregivers.”

HILL TAMSIN KAPLAN is an employment lawyer and business litigator at Davis Malm. She was selected by her peers for inclusion in the 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyers.

HILL STEPHEN LABATON has been appointed executive vice president for corporate affairs at Booz Allen Hamilton. In this position, he will be responsible for overseeing the firm’s external relations, including marketing and communications, government relations, media relations, and community partners. He was also recently appointed chairman of the board of Juvenile Law Center, a leading national organization that advances the rights of youth in the legal and welfare systems

HILL LLOYD KHANER saw the world premiere of his play, Life Boat, performed March 22 through 24 in New York City at Theater 54 at Shetler Studios as part of The Riant Theater’s Strawberry Theatre Festival. Both heartbreaking and topical, Life Boat is a modern morality play based on a true story of when a young boy is killed by a company’s product and the executive committee is pushed to the extreme: save the company or save themselves.

ENGINEERING RONNA K. JABLOW, who died of cancer in September of 2015, was recently honored with the establishment of the Ronna K. Jablow Mediation Fellowship. A lawyer during the early part of her career, Jablow went on to become a community mediator in Maryland, and served as the director of the alternative dispute resolution program at the Baltimore City Circuit Court.

HILL ELANA VARON has published The Ultimate Side Hustle Book: 450 Moneymaking Ideas for the Gig Economy. Her book is a resource for anyone whose plans for 2019 include earning extra cash, financing a hobby, developing new skills, or trying out a business idea.

HILL JOHN YANNIS is general manager of Blue Heron, one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles for Renaissance music. This past September, the group and its director, Scott Metcalfe, won the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award in the early music category, making it the first non-European group to win in the forty-one-year history of the prestigious award, often called the “British Grammys."

HILL MAJOR GENERAL MARIA BARRETT became the commanding general of the army’s Network Enterprise Command at Fort Huachuca, AZ, in November. This organization, which consists of more than fifteen thousand military and civilians deployed across US Army bases in twenty countries, operates, secures, and defends the army’s networks. Barrett’s previous assignment was as the deputy director for operations at US Cyber Command, Fort Meade, MD.

HILL HOMER VENTERS, a physician who led the health services in the New York City jails, has written about the health risks of incarceration in his first book, Life and Death in Rikers Island, which came out in February 2019.

GRADUATE GAIL SCHECHTER, AG90, is the new executive director of Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly in Chicago, providing intergenerational housing and community services to allow low-income seniors to live independent and socially engaged lives.

HILL AMY GINSBERG, an educator and academic administrator, has joined William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, as dean of the College of Education. Dean Ginsberg previously served as dean and associate dean of the School of Education and chair of the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at Long Island University Brooklyn.

HILL SCOTT J. WORTMAN recently became a Florida Bar board-certified condominium and planned development law attorney and a Florida Bar board-certified real estate attorney.

HILL FRANCESCO A. DE VITO was selected for inclusion in 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyers. He is a real estate lawyer at Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster.

HILL GREG SKURA recently relocated to Atlanta, GA, to serve as the first communication coach for the Savannah College of Art and Design.

HILL AIMEE ADLER has been promoted to partner at Akin Gump in New York.

HILL AMY EAST, a research geologist for the United States Geological Survey, became editor-in-chief of JGR: Earth Surface on January 1.

HILL STEPHANIE L. CARMAN assumed the presidency of the Dade County Bar Association (DCBA) in July 2018. The DCBA is one of the largest voluntary bar associations in the country and has served the Miami-Dade community for more than one hundred years.

HILL NATASHA BAKER, Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP partner, has been honored with the 2018 First Decade Award by the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), a Washington, DC–based group whose members provide legal assistance to accredited higher education institutions throughout the US, Canada, and beyond. The award is given annually to a member in his or her first ten years of membership who has “made a significantly innovative contribution to NACUA or provided outstanding service to the Association and to the practice of higher education law.”

HILL IFY MORA has joined the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) as director for program operations. Mora, previously director of operations at the Barr Foundation, will work to support and enhance the grantmaking process, tools, and operations at MACP, which is based in Minnesota.

ENGINEERING BLAIR A. SILVER joined Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., as an “of counsel” attorney in its Washington, DC, office to bolster its appellate, patent trial, and appeal board and general litigation practices. Previously, Blair practiced intellectual property and appellate litigation at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, as well as at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

MEDICAL DREW J. BROWN, MD, will be joining Laser Spine Institute, a national spine surgical center with seven locations. A board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon, he will serve patients out of the company’s Tampa, FL, facility. He previously worked in Ghana as an associate professor and volunteer spine surgeon at FOCOS Orthopedic Hospital.

HILL MAX FELKER-KANTOR published his book Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD in November. He depicts the dynamic history of policing, anti-police abuse movements, race, and politics in Los Angeles from the 1965 Watts uprising to the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion.

HILL JOE GOODRICH has published his first children’s book, Ellie and Her Emotional Dragons, which teaches kids emotional intelligence skills with the help of friendly emotional dragons. He is donating 50 percent of all book proceeds to The Wingman Foundation, a nonprofit that helps US Navy and Marine Corps families that have lost aviators in the line of duty.

HILL ILYA BUBEL has been elected partner in the international law firm Winston & Strawn, based in New York City. He focuses on mergers and acquisitions and other complex business transactions on behalf of private equity sponsors and other financial investors, as well as public and private companies.

HILL ALEXANDRA CAMPAU has returned to Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies after serving as White House special assistant to the president for health policy. She will lead the health care practice as principal and director of health policy in Washington, DC. Since January 2017, Alexandra has served as a special assistant to the president on the White House Domestic Policy Council.

ENGINEERING JAMES KAKLAMANOS, EG10, EG12, received tenure and has been promoted to associate professor of civil engineering at Merrimack College in North Andover, MA. He was also recently honored nationally by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of the Top Ten New Faces of Civil Engineering and received the ASCE ExCEEd New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award.

SACKLER VICKI LOSICK has been named the inaugural recipient of an award from the William Procter Scientific Innovation Fund. It will support her research at the MDI Biological Laboratory on age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in older people.

HILL JASON YEAGER released his fourth album in 2018, titled All at Onceness, with saxophonist/composer Randal Despommier. He also got engaged to longtime girlfriend Julie Benko, a singer and actress. He continues to work as a pianist and composer in New York, while visiting Boston often as an assistant professor of piano at Berklee College of Music.

HILL ALYSSA IRIZARRY has been promoted to executive director of Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs. Bow Seat is a Boston-based nonprofit that works to activate the next wave of ocean leaders through the arts, sciences, and advocacy.

ENGINEERING NATALIE VARNER MATSON, see ENGINEERING 2016.
 

HILL JUSTIN PEQUEÑO was appointed to the Environmental Management Commission for the County of Hawaii in June 2018.

HILL Attorney RYAN K. O’HARA is an associate with Bacon Wilson’s litigation team, where much of his work is focused on contract and business matters, land use litigation, and accidents and injuries. Ryan previously spent one year clerking for Justice C. Jeffrey Kinder of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

ENGINEERING RICHARD MATSON,EG16, and NATALIE VARNER MATSON, E10, welcomed their new baby, Hans Everett Matson, on October 19, 2018. He was born at 11:08 a.m., and was 7 pounds, 11.8 ounces and 20.75 inches long.

HILL GABRIEL TERRACCIANO, a violinist, has been named the newest member of the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island String Quartet. Previously, he placed third in the International Zbigniew Seifert Jazz Violin Competition, won the 2018 DownBeat Student Award for Pop/Rock Soloist, and was a finalist for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at UCLA in February 2016.