As this issue of the UMW Magazine came off the press, Forbes magazine named Aspetto founders Abbas Haider and Rob Davis to its 30 Under 30 list. In honoring Haider and Davis, Forbes noted their Mary Washington roots. … [Read more...]
Grads Embraced Computers, Found Career Success
November 13, 2017 by
Eva Teng Marcus worked at David Taylor Naval Research and Development Center, where she used Fortran programming to aid research into the motion and noise of Navy ships. She stayed home while her three daughters were young, then updated her computer skills through community college classes and resumed her career. She created computerized systems to capture and archive inspection reports for the Maryland Department of the Environment. Marcus passed away in 2015. Marilyn “Marty” Spigel Sedoff started her career with IBM in Richmond. She earned an MBA in 1980. Today she lives in Edina, Minnesota, where her career included computer programming, systems analysis, and computer consulting. She retired as an IT project director in the financial services industry. Terry Caruthers started her career at a Bell Labs subsidiary, Bellcomm Inc., a company formed to advise NASA Headquarters in the mission of getting a man on the moon. There she learned to program computers using the Fortran … [Read more...]
Alumni Seen
November 13, 2017 by
#MWForeverTrue Mary Washington has a lasting impact spanning beyond your years spent as a student. Lessons learned here influence your personal and professional development. Friendships made here last a lifetime. An entire family embraces you for years to come. You can always come home to Mary Washington. You can always count on Mary Washington ideals to serve you as you transition from student to alumni. You are always welcome and encouraged to engage with the place that helped shape the person you have become. What does “Mary Washington, Forever True” mean to you? Learn more and share your story at alumni.umw.edu/MWForeverTrue. … [Read more...]
Lacy Directs HBO’s Spielberg biography
November 13, 2017 by
Susan Wagner Lacy ’70 brought talent and experience in documentary biographies to her most recent project – Spielberg for HBO. But even to agree to make a movie about one of the world’s best-known directors, she also had to summon her nerve. “I tried really hard not to think about it,” she told The New York Times. “I would have been absolutely frozen.” The Times featured Lacy as the director behind the film, which premiered on HBO in early October. The paper wrote of Lacy, “She’s owned the field of documentary biography for more than 30 years, beginning at PBS – where she created the series American Masters, winning 28 Emmy and 11 Peabody Awards.” Lacy moved to HBO in 2013 with a promise from Spielberg to cooperate with her on the project. Spielberg sat with Lacy for 30 hours of interviews that resulted in the 2½-hour film. His parents and sisters participated, as did A-list Hollywood directors and actors including Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin … [Read more...]
Alumni Award Winners
November 13, 2017 by
Winners of the 2017 Alumni Awards were announced during Reunion Weekend, June 2-4. John Anstey ’93 of the Anstey Hodge advertising and design firm in Roanoke, Virginia, earned the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Anstey is a marketing and communications expert, a member of the Public Relations Society of America, and the founding chair of UMW’s College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board. He has contributed pro bono work for numerous nonprofit organizations in the Roanoke area. Tara Corrigall ’82 received the Frances Liebenow Armstrong ’36 Service Award for her tireless work for Mary Washington and its alumni. A former member of the Board of Visitors, Corrigall has served as an Alumni Association board member, a regional network leader, and a class agent. She was on the advisory committee responsible for hiring UMW President Troy D. Paino. Virginia Atkinson ’03 was named Outstanding Young Alumnus for her work in disability rights and civic engagement. She is senior access and … [Read more...]
Mills Leads VT Engineering Alumni
November 13, 2017 by
Angela Mills ’01 was named director of alumni relations for the Virginia Tech College of Engineering in December 2016. In that role, she is a liaison among development, departments in the school of engineering, and nearly 70,000 living VT engineering alumni. Mills joined Virginia Tech in 2013 as director of alumni relations for the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, overseeing the college’s alumni program, the student ambassador program, and numerous college events. Mills studied business administration with an emphasis in marketing and theater at Mary Washington. Today she serves as president of the UMW Alumni Association. She began her professional career in development working with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Mills earned a master of public administration degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and worked for UT in many capacities in alumni relations and development. She is an … [Read more...]
King Honored as Palm Beach Leader
November 13, 2017 by
The Executive Women of the Palm Beaches awarded Nellie King ’92 its 2017 Women in Leadership Award for the private sector. The award honors women who have demonstrated extraordinary achievements and leadership in the Palm Beach, Florida, community. A noted criminal defense lawyer, King has held local, state, and national roles in legal organizations. She has been president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and worked with President Barack Obama’s Clemency Project. The clemency initiative focused on minimum-mandatory sentencing policies, which had resulted in the incarceration of thousands of Americans for nonviolent drug offenses. King is a past president of the Palm Beach Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is on the boards of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Boys Town South Florida, and the Criminal Justice Commission. … [Read more...]
Grad School Support for Madison Fellow
November 13, 2017 by
Colleen Miller ’08, who studied history at Mary Washington, earned a James Madison Memorial Fellowship for 2017, supporting graduate study of American history by secondary school teachers of history, government, or civics. Miller, a high school teacher in Rhode Island, was among 53 educators chosen for the competitive fellowship. Recipients receive awards of as much as $24,000 to fund coursework toward master’s degrees, including a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the U.S. Constitution. The fellowships are intended to recognize distinguished teachers and to strengthen their knowledge of the origins and development of American constitutional government. Founded by an act of Congress in 1986, the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation of Alexandria, Virginia, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government. … [Read more...]
Mikhalevsky Named Provost; Other Top Positions Filled
November 10, 2017 by
The University of Mary Washington has a new provost and a special adviser to President Troy D. Paino. In addition, the colleges of education, business, and arts and sciences all have new leadership, and there’s a new interim vice president for administration and finance. UMW Professor of Philosophy Nina Mikhalevsky became provost in July after serving in high-level administrative positions and teaching at UMW since 2006. As provost, she is the university’s chief academic officer, responsible for oversight of all academic programs, planning and budgets, and faculty matters. She works with the deans and the faculty to lead university initiatives in teaching and research. Her areas of academic expertise and research include aesthetics, ethics and political theory, women in STEM, women’s education and pedagogy, and the history of women’s education. Jeffrey W. McClurken ’94 became special adviser to the president in May, assuming many of the duties of chief of staff Martin A. … [Read more...]