Engineer a Rising Star

Federal Computer Week (FCW) magazine named Emily Antos ’11 a 2016 “Rising Star.” The award honors exceptional federal IT workers early in their careers who are seen by peers and supervisors as talented, rising leaders. After graduating in math, Antos joined the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Dahlgren Division, where she did classified engineering work. Motivated by her desire to do more design, the Massachusetts native earned a master of systems engineering degree from Old Dominion University. That led her to Washington, D.C., and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, where she is lead engineer of the Sea Warrior Mobility Program. Her team focuses on designing mobile apps that deliver mandatory training and career management to sailors. In an interview about the award, Antos told FCW that the Navy needs to get information to sailors quickly and in a way that’s easy to access. To do that, her team used what all sailors already had in their pockets – smartphones. So far, Antos and … [Read more...]

Closing Column

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Book Report

Books by alumni: Passing On By Nancy Porter Atakan ’68 This monograph by American-Turkish artist Nancy Atakan accompanied her solo exhibition at London’s Pi Artworks gallery last year. The show investigated a series of professional women who were born in the Ottoman period, who matured and worked in the Republic, and whom Atakan believes should be rememberd. The book includes 23 drawings and a neither fictional nor factual story about one woman. – Kehrer Verlag, February 2016       A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy’s Gift to Medical Science By Sarah Walpole Gray ’95 When Gray received the devastating news that her unborn son Thomas had a terminal condition, she arranged to donate his organs for research. Her grief and intellectual curiosity led her to delve into the world of medical research and the valiant scientists on the horizon of discovery. – HarperCollins, September … [Read more...]

Artist Honored for Teaching

The Virginia Art Education Association named Mary “Ginna” Burks Cullen ’67 art educator of the year for 2016. Cullen is an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and is a retired art teacher from Louisa County public schools. VAEA President Linda Conti called Cullen “a quiet warrior for art education, working constantly in the trenches on her own work, guiding others, and setting a gold standard for how to teach art and art education to teachers, who then pass this knowledge on to their students.” Cullen majored in studio art at Mary Washington, then earned a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. At VCU, she works with the Office of Continuing and Professional Education, supervises student teachers, and teaches a professional development class in book arts for K-12 teachers. … [Read more...]

Digital Whiz

Grace May ’16 spent last summer as a junior fellow at the Library of Congress – one of 38 selected from 800 applicants. She was chosen in part because of hands-on experience she gained working with UMW’s Digital Archiving Lab. May spent 10 weeks working on digital projects to make library materials more accessible to users online, including a display in the U.S. Presidential Inaugurations Collection. As part of her work, the history major got to see artifacts including President Lincoln’s inaugural Bible. She also worked on the website for the library’s main reading room. … [Read more...]

Photojournalist an Environmental Journalism Fellow

Photojournalist Joanna B. Pinneo ’76 will research and report on the effects of household air pollution and the implementation of clean cookstoves as a recipient of this year’s Ted Scripps Fellowship for Environmental Journalism. As a Scripps Fellow, Pinneo is spending nine months at the University of Colorado-Boulder auditing classes and working on her in-depth journalistic project. Pinneo has traveled to 66 countries as a freelance photographer, sharing her work in National Geographic, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Time, St. Petersburg Times, Geo, and other publications. Her award-winning work has appeared in book collections and is included in National Geographic’s 50 Greatest Photographs. She is a member of Ripple Effect Images, a collective of photographers who document the lives of women in developing countries, especially as they combat the impact of climate change. … [Read more...]

Dallas Attorney Named Minority Business Leader

Dallas attorney Henry Talavera ’86 is among 25 recipients of the Dallas Business Journal’s 2017 Minority Business Leaders Award, recognizing professional accomplishments and contributions to the community. He practices with the Polsinelli law firm, focusing on employee compensation and executive benefits. He’s represented clients before the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. Within the law firm, he has developed diversity programs, mentored young professionals, and championed work-life balance initiatives. He’s also supported diversity beyond office walls, serving on the board of directors of the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation. Talavera has been the Hispanic National Bar Association’s liaison to the American Bar Association. He also provides pro bono services to Communities in Schools, a program in which attorneys mentor underprivileged students. “Henry is a tremendous asset to the firm, the community, and the legal industry as a whole,” said Jon Henderson, … [Read more...]

Act II: Environmental Advocate

John W. McCarthy III ’84 has joined the staff of the Piedmont Environmental Council in Warrenton, Virginia. As senior adviser and director of strategic partnerships, he works with state and local governments on environmental issues including water, transportation, zoning and land use, and conservation. The environmental council is a community-based environmental group that helps nine counties in Virginia’s Piedmont area to conserve land, strengthen communities and rural economies, celebrate historic resources, protect air and water, promote sustainable energy, improve people’s access to nature, and more. Before joining the environmental council, McCarthy was county administrator for Rappahannock County for 28 years, retiring in June 2016. He has chaired nonprofit groups including the Fauquier Hospital Board, a community health group known as the PATH Foundation, and the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation. In January, the Virginia General Assembly honored him with a resolution … [Read more...]

Library of Virginia Extols Journalist’s Literary Nonfiction

Journalist Kristen Green ’95 won the Library of Virginia’s 2016 Literary Award for Nonfiction for her book Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County, which deals with segregation-related school closures and their legacy in her home county. A press release announcing the award said the judges felt that the book “demonstrates the truth of William Faulkner’s adage that the past isn’t even past – as the perceptions of scarcity, competition, and fear that were employed to justify segregation appear in today’s headlines about schools, resources, and fair treatment.” Green grew up in Prince Edward County, which closed its schools for five years rather than desegregate. At Mary Washington, she majored in American studies and was an editor on the student newspaper. She earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Green’s book was UMW’s first-year common read in fall 2016. It has been on The New York Times’ education and civil … [Read more...]

UNCG Celebrates Poet’s Lifetime of Work

Kelly Cherry ’61 received the 2016 lifetime achievement award from the alumni association of the University of North Carolina–Greensboro, where she earned a master of fine arts degree in 1967. Cherry, a former poet laureate for Virginia, is the author of 27 works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her work has been published in more than 200 anthologies, and she has written more than 100 reviews for such publications as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Independent. She was a professor at the University of Wisconsin for more than 20 years before retiring in 1999. UNC–Greensboro’s lifetime achievement award recognizes the recipient’s life of service, continuous personal growth, and a willingness to embrace the changing world. The award also recognizes outstanding achievement and service to one’s profession, community, and university. … [Read more...]