Class Notes

Laura Pilati will be graduating in May of 2016 with a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Studies from the University of Richmond.

Emily Begin moved to San Francisco in July of 2015 after having lived in D.C. for five years and currently works for Accenture as a Change Management Consultant in their Communications, Media, and Technology group. Prior to Accenture she spent five years working at Booz Allen Hamilton as a federal consultant.

Brandi Rollins Gerstner married Grant Gerstner in December of 2014. They currently reside in Lexington Park, Maryland.

Mary Bennett earned a Master of Occupational Therapy degree from Radford University in December of 2015.

Hassan Abdelhalim has made over 250 connections on LinkedIn. Also, he was featured on the History Channel game show “Pawnography” and won over $18,000 in prizes. Contact him to buy Erte art.

Edward “Dirk” Lynch, Environmental Scientist with MSA, P.C. in Virginia Beach, obtained his Class 4 Wastewater Operator license. This allows him to operate wastewater systems that have hydraulic capacity greater than 0.04 Million Gallons per Day (MGD) but equal to or less than 1.0 MGD. This is a new license for Lynch and it complements his Class 6 Drinking Water Operator license obtained in 2014. He can now take on entire water systems from the water source through consumer usage to wastewater treatment and disposal. With a Bachelor of Science from the University of Mary Washington, Lynch has a background in environmental sciences with an emphasis in chemistry as related to groundwater and environmental health.

Erin Burke Kauffman received a Master’s in Education and an Educational Specialist Degree from the College of William & Mary School of Education. She currently works as a School Psychologist for Fairfax County Public Schools. Erin married Daniel Kauffman ’10 on August 8, 2015, in Williamsburg, Virginia. Diana Weigel was the maid of honor and Justin Weirich ’10 was the best man. Akhil Rachamadugu ’10, Jim Platner ’10, and Neil Burke ’13 were groomsmen, and Mary Catherine Thompson Ortolani and Alex Coppelman ’06 were readers in the ceremony. Erin and Daniel currently live in Fairfax, Virginia.

Lindsay Meredith graduated in May of 2015 from Virginia Commonwealth University with her Masters of Education in Counselor Education. She will be a school counselor in Bedford Public Schools.

Samantha Luffy graduated with her MPH from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in May of 2015. Her graduate work focused on the intersection of health and human rights with a special focus on HIV in correctional populations and the consequences of unintended pregnancy on young women’s lives in Nicaragua. She now works as a Program Analyst within the Office of HIV/AIDS in the Bureau for Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, D.C.

Kira Lanewala is a Group Home Manager for the RACSB in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She is concurrently pursuing her MPH from The Milken Institute of Public Health at George Washington University and expects to graduate in the spring of 2017. She is relocating to the Orlando, Florida, area in January of 2016.

Grace Small graduated with a Master’s Degree in Nursing from Emory University in December of 2015. She is an Adult-Gero Primary Care Nurse Practitioner and plans to remain in Atlanta, Georgia. She will begin working in an Endocrinology practice this spring.

Linda Guzman-Tacaraya was accepted and started graduate school at American University for a M.S. in Analytics with the Kogod School of Business. She recently accepted a new position with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Congratulations to Kyle Allwine ’12, MBA ’15 and Libby Baker, MBA ’15, who became engaged on November 7, 2015. Libby and Kyle met in the University of Mary Washington MBA program, and each completed the program in July of 2015. Congratulations also to Amy Leap, who married Adam Miller (JMU grad) on August 22, 2015.

Colleen Reynolds, of Potomac Falls, Virginia, is scheduled to graduate with her Master’s Degree in Psychology with a concentration in Human Factors and Applied Cognition from George Mason University in May. Upon completion of her studies, Colleen will begin working full time as a User Experience Analyst for comScore, Inc. in Reston, Virginia.

Conan Smeeth is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Moscow, Russia, working with kids and teens.