Class Notes
July 2005
Send your updates to dbusler@mail.utexas.edu.
Announcement
Jorge Garces ('77) is the
winner of the LBJ School Alumni Association's 2005 Distinguished
Public Service Award, to be presented at the annual alumni reception on
August 26 in the LBJ Library and Museum. Jorge currently serves as the
Deputy Managing Director for the Inter-American Development Bank in San
Antonio. [read
more]
Class of 1976
Al Giles has taken a temporary
position with the Crisis Corps in Namibia, Southeast Africa, where he
is working as a member of a team establishing a nationwide AIDS/HIV training
program. He plans to return to Austin this fall.
Class of 1979
Edward Sponberg is an Auditor
in the Medicaid Fraud Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office
in Houston.
John Rooney lives in Miami, where
he is a Partner with Shutts & Bowen, LLP.
Class of 1980
The LBJ School is fortunate to have Florita Sheppard
return for the second of a two-year assignment as Diplomat-in-Residence
and guest scholar. [read
more]
Class of 1982
From Blaine Bull: "I want
to share some exciting news with you. The four of us have been friends
and colleagues for many years, and this was an opportunity to fold our
individual companies into one and work as a team." The new Austin
company is named ViaNovo, and the four principals are Blaine, Matthew
Dowd, Tucker Eskew and James Taylor ('87).
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Karen
Neuwald to the California Public Employees Relations Board. Her
most recent position was Chief of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
for the state's Public Employees Retirement System.
Class of 1983
John Campbell is the Executive Director of the InterAcademy
Council and will be relocating from Washington to Amsterdam to assume
his new responsibilities.
Sue Stendebach is the Senior Policy
Advisor for International Programs with EPA's Office of Transportation
and Air Quality.
David Hobbs has left the White House
to start his own business, The Hobbs Group, leaving him a bit more family
time. "Left the WH on February 7, and life is definitely calmer,
although a little less exciting. More time at home with Gretchen and the
baby."
Class of 1984
Kim DeRidder, working with USAID, has lived in Sri Lanka
for two years, working on peace building and conflict transformation activities
associated with 20 years of civil war in that country.
Thanks to LBJ Information Technology Services
Director Caren Troutman for passing along a very special tribute to Steve
Spinner "This is a random e-mail from out of the blue, but I was
a close childhood friend of Steve Spinner back in Stony
Brook, NY—from Cub Scouts to jazz and just having fun—and
I think it's wonderful that UT has seen fit to honor him in this
way (the Spinner
Internship Fellowship). He was a great friend,
trombone player and bright light all around."
Class of 1988
Scott Hodges teaches social studies
in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District in California's
East Bay.
Class of 1989
Leo Gomez, featured on the front
of the San Antonio Express News Business Section on May 10, has
left Toyota Manufacturing and rejoined the San Antonio Spurs. "When
Leo Gomez left the San Antonio Spurs to work for Toyota, he said, ‘How
many times can you go from the world's greatest job to another world's
greatest job?' Apparently he can do it twice. Gomez has jumped back
to the San Antonio Spurs after leaving the team in December 2003 to be
the head of administration for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas. He returns
to the team—resuming his old duties and adding some new ones—after
spending the last 18 months recruiting workers for the $800 million Toyota
truck plant on the city's South Side . . . [T]hey are still defining
Gomez's new role with the team, but it will involve working with
Bexar County officials and the SBC Center's East Side neighbors."
Clark Talkington works with EPA's
Coalbed Methane Outreach Program. "The job is primarily international,
and I have traveled all over the world in the last three years . . . Kathy
is working on contract for the Association of Immunologist Managers, a
kind of subsidiary of the Association of State and Territorial Health
Officials."
Class of 1990
Joe Loveland is thriving in Minneapolis, working as Senior
Vice President for Health Care/Public Affairs at Weber Standwick Worldwide,
the largest public relations company in the world. "It's not
as important as it sounds. If it is, they are in big trouble."
Class of 1992
Carey Fitzmaurice continues to work for the EPA, and
among other duties, serves as the Designated Federal Official for one
of the subcommittees of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee.
David Firestein is back in Washington
working as an International Economist and Speechwriter for the U.S. Department
of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Office of Economic
Policy.
Class of 1993
Don Brown is the External Communications Manager for
the Public Service Company of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Class of 1994
Irving Ashford was one of four
young professionals featured on the cover of the April edition of Eclipse
Magazine. "The African-American presence in corporate America
is growing exponentially, as HBCU's (historically Black colleges
and universities), Ivy League colleges and state universities graduate
masses of high achievers ready to excel in their chosen fields. Our yearly
‘Color of Corporate Success' feature highlights a few of those
hungry, eager prodigies creating waves in corporate America. Eclipse
is proud to present a few of the young, but accomplished, African-American
executives making power moves in the state of Texas. These driven and
focused individuals represent the best and brightest in the world of business,
helping to shape the way the African-American community is viewed and
serviced by some of the largest corporations in the country, and thus
the world. These high-ranking executives are the personification of hard
work, discipline and tenacity that characterizes the African-American
spirit. Giving back is more than just a part-time activity for Irvin Ashford,
Jr.—it's his job. As Vice President of Public Affairs and
the Texas Community Reinvestment Act Manager for Comercia Bank–Texas
Division, Ashford manages economic and community development projects.
‘It's my responsibility to create linkages and synergy between
the bank and outside community groups,' Ashford says. It's
also his job to invest in communities that Comercia serves and to create
beneficial programs."
The feature led to a reunion with classmate Angela
Mazzie, who saw the magazine and met Irv when he traveled to
California.
Kwame Acheampong, based in Missouri
City, Texas, is President and CEO of GhanTex Holdings Limited, working
in international trade and infrastructure development, primarily in Ghana.
Class of 1995
Betty Padilla is "still in the process of adaptation
in Portugal. I teach in two different private universities and I am a
postdoctoral fellow still working on Brazilian immigration."
Class of 1996
Josh LaPorte is working for the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, located in Sarajevo.
Ex-Patriot classmate Melissa Rendler-Garcia
is a Technical Officer in Communications and Advocacy for the World Health
Organization in Geneva.
Sheila Cavanagh Olmstead, mother of
identical twin boys, is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics
at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Corene Kendrick's letter to
the editor of the New York Times has been zipping around on e-mail.
Thanks to Dan Lieberman for sharing. "To the Editor:
The attempt by Phil Kline, the attorney general of Kansas, to seize women's
and girls' private medical records ostensibly to obtain evidence
of alleged crimes committed against them (editorial, Feb. 28) is an unparalleled
attack on medical records privacy and hits the very core of the doctor-patient
relationship. His move should be identified for what it is: a highly ideological
act violating not only these particular women's civil liberties,
but potentially all citizens' civil liberties. If Mr. Kline can
seize these medical records, what will be next? Seizing the records of
people being treated for suicidality to pre-emptively lock them up before
they hurt themselves (suicide, absurdly enough, is still a crime in some
states)? The records of people in drug treatment programs to see if they
are still using an illegal drug? This isn't a pro-choice/pro-life
issue; this is an issue of whether we still live under any pretense of
freedom in the United States."
Class of 1997
Chad Clanton has been recruited to serve as Communications
Director for the New York mayoral campaign of Fernando Ferrer. A March
11 New York Times article included this introduction: "Double
doggone it. Chad Clanton left his signature Tony Lama cowboy boots at
his bachelor pad near Union Square, so the only proof that he's
a terminal Texan toiling as a temporary New York City political operative
for the mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer hails from his barbed-wire body—he's
a tad bowlegged inside those broken in blue jeans—and hard-wired
twang. Yep, he says git for get. Repeatedly. Endearingly. As in ‘We
need a mayor who gits it, and Mayor Bloomberg just doesn't git it.'
Oh, and there's one other giveaway. His fist is soldered to a can
of Dr Pepper, a beverage to which he is shamelessly addicted and with
which, he announces with reverence, he shares a hometown: good ole Waco
. . . Mr. Clanton was barely done licking the wounds from the failed presidential
campaign of John Kerry, for whom he served as a senior aide and spokesman,
before being recruited in January as communications director for Mr. Ferrer's
mayoral bid. Strong medicine, maybe, for what ails him."
Michelle McLaughlin is the Assistant
Director of the Educational Issues Department with the American Federation
of Teachers in Washington, D.C.
LaMarriol Smith is the Director
of College Relations for Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
Amy Dingler has gone back to
work for GAO's Atlanta Regional Office.
Class of 1998
Sam Arieff has "6 years
down and 3 to go with the Air Force, and I'm still flying C-17s
here at McChord Air Force Base (near Seattle)."
Wei-min Wang is a Program Officer
working in the area of children, families and communities for the David
and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Jennifer Allis is working for the
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in the Division of Intergovernmental
Relations.
Jessamy Taylor is a Research Associate
with George Washington University's National Health Policy Forum.
Class of 1999
Jim Lindley is back in Moscow, this time working in the
private sector.
Class of 2000
Nick Brunick is directing all
of the affordable housing work at Business and Professional People for
the Public Interest (BPI) in Chicago. "BPI is a thirty-five year
old non-profit, public interest law firm and policy center. Our board
is made up of business owners and developers and other professionals in
the Chicago region concerned about equity and social justice issues. We
use litigation, legal and policy advocacy, policy research and community
organizing to make a positive impact on public issues like affordable
housing, public housing, public education, living wages, the revitalization
of low income neighborhoods, etc."
Jeffrey Goveia and his wife Heidi
have returned to Africa. "On Monday, I began a new position as the
Associate Director for Education for Peace Corps in Uganda. Heidi came
with me and immediately headed north for Southern Sudan where she'll
be assisting with the development of a new teacher education curriculum
there off and on for the next six months. We are extremely excited about
this new change. I was able to work on a Uganda project in my last position
with AED and couldn't pass up the opportunity to live here for a
few years."
Rebecca Christie is covering the Pentagon
and the military industrial complex for Dow Jones Newswires. In May she
participated in a panel on defense and aerospace issues hosted by Women
in Government Relations.
Jose de la Torre is a Research Data
Analyst with Decision Information Resources in Houston.
Class of 2001
Concetta Bencivenga is the Vice President for Finance
for Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. "We are the children's
museum for the City of Philadelphia, and we are getting ready to get a
whole lot bigger."
Vanessa Mitra has left Austin to join
BearingPoint Consulting in Washington, working in the area of homeland
security and intelligence.
Kristin Hull is a Project Manager
for Jeanne Lawson Associates in Portland, Oregon.
Class of 2002
George Hittner has thrown his hat into the political
ring. He is a candidate for a Houston City Council seat, representing
District C.
Steven Johnson is working for the
Texas Association of Community Colleges in Austin.
Cassius Johnson is Chief of Staff
for Texas Representative Dora Olivo.
Angela Hernandez-Marshall is a Senior
Associate with the Council of Chief State School Officers in Washington.
Class of 2003
Gina Amatangelo is the Legislative Director for the office
of Texas Representative Mike Villarreal.
Zsuzsa Iwanicka continues to work
on her doctorate at Politechnika Krakowska in Krakow, Poland.
Major Bruce Ferrell is halfway through
a deployment to southern Iraq.
Class of 2004
Nick Harris lives and works in Prague. "I've
been offered a position as conference producer with a company called Marcus
Evans. I know, you hear ‘producer,' and instantly think of
fame, fortune, luxury, cars, fanfare, groupies and so forth. I'm
afraid that I'll have to disappoint you. While the life of a conference
producer could potentially be an interesting one, I don't see such
things on the horizon. My areas of expertise will be European utilities,
telecom and oil industries. Every five weeks or so, I am given a topic
related to one or more of the aforementioned areas. I then have to intensively
research the topic, prepare sixteen lecture themes related to the topic
and then recruit speakers. Allegedly, I will fly often to London and Barcelona
where conferences on these topics typically take place (don't know
why) to ensure that everything goes according to plan."
Kristen Glenn is working on Capitol
Hill for Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave from Colorado.
Gabriela Erickson is a Senior Associate
with Moody's Investor Service in Dallas.
Dorie Pickle is a Telecommunications
Regulatory Analyst in the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association
in Arlington, Virginia.
Sarah Brownstein and Alvaro
Torres-Crespo, engaged last Christmas in the Philippines, are
back in Costa Rica planning their eco-tourism hotel.
Andy Redman is back from his year
in Cambridge and has accepted a consulting job in Washington, D.C.
Jamie Hall is a Law Clerk with Alvarez-Glasman
& Colvin in West Covina, California.
Margaret O'Neill Escabi is a
Senior Development Associate with the Mental Health Association of Minnesota.
The Newly-Minted Class of 2005
Hamid Ali and Moses Garcia have taken
a position with GAO in Dallas; Lindsay Welter will work
in the Washington, D.C. office.
Luis de la Mora has joined the government
of the State of Jalisco, Mexico.
Karen Dultiz has found a job with
the help of an alum, John Nelson ('79), and will
work for Moody's Investors Service in New York.
Camellia Falcon plans to work for
Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Virginia.
Susan George has returned to India
to resume her work for the Ministry of Finance.
Elizabeth Green is headed to Dallas
to work for Vinson & Elkins.
Nora Herrera is a Senior Consultant for Maximus.
Jennie Kerr has accepted a position
with BearingPoint Consulting in McLean, Virginia.
Sarah Kirby is the Director of Leadership
Initiatives for The Texas High School Project with Communities Foundation
of Texas in Dallas.
David Lara will work for the New York
State Budget Office in Albany.
Tim O'Brien manages the Austin
complex of SBC Communications.
Stacy Pogue continues her work with
the Texas Department of Insurance through the summer.
Kelly Shanahan has been chosen as
a Fulbright Scholar and is off to Mexico.
Maggie Sheer is headed to New Orleans
to clerk for Judge James L. Dennis of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
Sydney Townsend has joined MTG Management
Consultants in Austin.
