Class Notes

It has been a while since I have written Class Notes and I’m happy to be back at it. Reflecting on Mary Washington and its beautiful community of people (still very much present in my life) always fills me with tremendous gratitude. For the past year plus I have been teaching design and illustration at Pratt Institute while also continuing my design and illustration business–10 years strong this past fall. One recent project close to my heart was to design the cover for my dear friend Kristen Green’s New York Times bestselling book Something Must be Done about Prince Edward County, published by Harper in 2015 and adopted as a UMW common read for incoming freshman in 2016. In the fall of 2016 Kristen Green’s book won two awards: the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award for Nonfiction and the library’s Literary Award for Nonfiction.

In October, Kristen and I returned to the Mary Washington’s gorgeous new campus together to speak to a bright group of UMW design and journalism students about our respective roles in the cover design process while also reminiscing about our early days working alongside each other in the Bullet office! Inspiring full circle moment.

Another ’95 alum also published by Harper is Sarah Walpole Gray, who published her book, A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy’s Gift to Medical Science, in the fall of 2016.

Donald Rowe is yet another author who has been busy! He just published his third novel, Kashan Kashmeeri—the final novel of his Tessera Trilogy, set in Arabia and he is working on a sequel to the trilogy, The Next One, featuring offspring of major characters in the trilogy.

Mike Charnoff married Katie Valentine ’04 on Memorial Day Weekend 2016. The wedding party included an all-star UMW Alum lineup including Katie’s bridesmaids: Bevin Reinen ’04, Katie Fry Charnoff ’00, Mike’s Best Man Steve Charnoff ’99, groomsmen Jason Chipman ’95, Jim Murray ’95, and Tim Landis ’93. Mary Washington alumni wedding guests included Donna Sheehan Gladis ’68, Patti Kemp ’69, Gayle Petro ’79, Jenifer Blair ’82, Dan Hudson ’82, Colette Crabill Chipman ’94, Mark McClure ’96, Travis Russell ’96, Lee Ann Reaser ’98, Mark Thaden ’02, and Jay Sinha ’07. Mike and Katie reside in Arlington, Virginia where Katie teaches 4th grade and Mike practices civil litigation with Perry Charnoff PLLC. Mike became Immediate Past President of the Alumni Association on July 1, 2016.

Brendan Kelly and his wife Corrie Kelly ’96 are excited to share that their daughter, Elizabeth Kelly, has been accepted Early Decision to UMW and is thrilled to be part of the class of 2021! She was the first committer to the 2021 class of the UMW swim team after an exciting recruitment process. Their son Jack is now a high school freshman and avid golf and baseball athlete. Brendan enjoys his job as an analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency and Corrie is in her second year of employment as an assistant professor of education at Longwood University.