Class notes

1965

Frank Merceret, A&S '65, '72 (PhD), published his first novel, CATSPAW, in June. The story follows a high-speed trading wizard and a renegade physicist battling investment executives over building a prototype time machine. Its science fiction elements are informed by Merceret's background as an atmospheric physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

1971

Rich N. Westcott, A&S '71 (MLA), published his 27th book, Amazing Phillies Feats: The Greatest Player Performances in Philadelphia Phillies History, in June under Summer Game Books. Former part-owner of the Philadelphia Phillies Bill Giles wrote the foreword. A newspaper and magazine writer and editor, Westcott began writing books nearly 40 years ago and has appeared in 10 documentaries about baseball, including six produced by Major League Baseball.

1973

Stanley Winer, A&S '73 (MA), '75 (PhD), became the Emeritus Canada Research Chair Professor in Public Policy in the School of Public Policy and Administration and the Department of Economics after 43 years at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He is currently working on a book about political competition and public economics for Cambridge University Press' Cambridge Elements Series.

1978

Ernesto D. Bustamante, Med '78 (PhD), '81 (PGF), a molecular biologist, was elected a member of the Parliament of Peru for the legislative period 2021–26.

1982

Julie Gottlieb, SAIS '82 (MA), retired from her position as associate dean for policy coordination at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. During her career, Gottlieb became a national leader in the field of conflict of interest in academic medicine. She co-founded the national organization for professionals in the field, the Forum on Conflict of Interest in Academe, which became part of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Paula Anne Mihok Schaefer, Ed '82 (MS), released her book, Hiking to the Edge: Confronting Cancer in Rocky Mountain National Park, under the name Paula A. Moore in February. The book pairs photos and poems to capture the struggle and inspiration she found on a life-changing trek through the park just after being diagnosed with advanced uterine serous cancer. Schaefer is a cancer outlier and is planning a sequel.

Judy Schneider, Peab '82, retired after 32 years as the catalog and systems librarian at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. She first fell in love with librarianship while working at the Peabody music library.

1984

Mark F. Teaford, Med '84 (PGF), a professor and vice chair of basic sciences in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Touro University in California, published a book of haiku poems and photography called Staring at the Midnight Sky with Red Moon Press in October 2020.

1988

Tom Finegan, A&S '88, is the author of a book on leadership called Amplifiers: How Great Leaders Magnify the Power of Teams, Increase the Impact of Organizations, and Turn Up the Volume on Positive Change, published by Wiley in September. Finegan is the founder and CEO of Clarkston Consulting, a leading management and technology consulting firm for life sciences, consumer goods, and retail companies.

1989

William Woodcock, A&S '89, Bus '95 (MS), was appointed the chief administrative officer of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Woodcock served for more than 25 years in research and academic program management and leadership roles at the National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, among others. Woodcock also served as the chief operating officer of the Baltimore City Health Department and is a certified career, leadership, and executive coach in private practice.

1991

Craig D. Blackstone, Med '91 (MD), '94 (PhD), became the chief of the movement disorders unit in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2020.

Maura L. Gillison, Med '91 (MD), '92 (PGF), HS '96, Med '97 (PGF), SPH '01 (PhD), a distinguished professor of medicine and a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas scholar in cancer research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, received the 2021 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture. The award recognizes an oncologist who has made outstanding contributions to cancer research, diagnosis, or treatment.

1993

Andrew L. Chen, A&S '93, Engr '94 (MMSE), Med '97 (MD), was named the chief medical officer of USA Nordic, the governing body of four Olympic national teams. Chen was an Olympic team physician for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and will be serving in the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

1994

Francis Park, A&S '94, after two years at the Joint History Office at the Pentagon, is now the director of the Basic Strategic Art Program at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where he will be responsible for educating the Army's strategists before they go out into the force. Before coming to the U.S. Army War College, he spent six weeks in Qatar at the rear headquarters for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, where he archived almost 15 years of operational records before the end of the Afghanistan campaign.

1996

Saminaz Akhter, A&S '96, a partner at law firm Blank Rome LLP, was elected as city lead in Washington, D.C., for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a role that serves to further promote the group's mission of advancing diversity and building a more equitable legal profession throughout the United States. At Blank Rome, Akhter focuses her practice on corporate and securities law, with an emphasis on acquisition and divestiture transactions in a variety of industries. In addition to her legal practice, she is dedicated to assisting clients in achieving their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and developing programming that has included a U Street walking tour of civil rights and cultural landmarks in the Shaw neighborhood in Washington.

1997

Ravi Rao, SPH '97 (PhD), a speaker and management consultant on the scientific underpinnings of emotion and the business applications of emotions, recently gave a TEDx Talk on the subject of workplace stress and corporate emotional culture called "Let Out Your Tears … At Work."

1998

Derek Stikeleather, A&S '98 (MLA), was appointed chair of the appellate practice group at Goodell DeVries. A leader in appellate advocacy, Stikeleather frequently briefs and argues appeals in medical malpractice, commercial, product liability, and class action matters. He has argued on behalf of physicians and several prominent hospitals before the appellate courts of Maryland and Washington, D.C., and in the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Beyond the region, he has also successfully argued class action and commercial appeals in the California Courts of Appeal, New York's Appellate Division, and the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Stikeleather also makes time to brief and argue federal immigration appeals pro bono. In April, he successfully petitioned the 11th Circuit to review and reverse the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision denying asylum to a Cuban dissident journalist.

2000

Gregory "Rocky" Goins, Bus '00 (MBA), president of Leading Light Development and Construction Consulting, which develops senior living communities, was elected to be a trustee of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation. Goins is the president of the Tulsa chapter of the USNA Alumni Association, which earned a Distinguished Chapter Award for 2021.

2001

Steven S. Chang, A&S '01, Med '05 (MD), HS '12, was named vice chair of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery for the Henry Ford Health System.

Joshua Kampf, A&S '01, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch, was named to Forbes' 2021 "Best-In-State Wealth Advisor" and Barron's 2021 "Top 1,200 Financial Advisors" lists for the second year in a row. Continuing his grandfather's and father's legacy, Kampf joined the GKH Group in 2004, making the firm a three-generation family team.

2005

Ron V. Cummins Jr., Bus '05 (MBA), was appointed senior vice president and chief operating officer of the University of Maryland Medical Center, the academic flagship of the 13-hospital University of Maryland Medical System. In this position, Cummins will oversee the daily operations of the medical center's downtown and midtown campuses and serve as a key member of UMMC's executive leadership team. Cummins previously served as vice president of operations at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the academic flagship of Penn State Health, where he provided strategic leadership for a diverse portfolio. During his tenure, the medical center significantly improved its member score percentile rank, from 49th to 96th nationally in Vizient, an organization that analyzes operational performance for university health systems.

Michael J. Shumski, Engr '05, '06 (MME), an ophthalmology specialist in Orlando, Florida, is president of the American College of Elective Surgery, a recently established organization that will advocate for patients to receive the highest quality of care in elective surgery. The organization is currently working on a website to educate patients about cataract surgery, the most common elective surgery performed in the United States.

2008

David L. Winstead, Bus '08 (MS), a lawyer at Ballard Spahr, was elected to the board of the National Federal Development Association, a national association whose members are private property owners or service providers that lease or provide service to government tenants. Prior to joining Ballard Spahr, Winstead was appointed by President George W. Bush as commissioner of public buildings at the U.S. General Services Administration. As commissioner, he was responsible for the asset management, construction, and operations of a portfolio of 1,500 federal buildings, as well as 190 million square feet of space leased to accommodate over 1 million federal workers.

2009

Amanda Schoch, A&S '09 (MA), was named chief communications officer at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Previously, Schoch was the chief communications officer and assistant director for national intelligence for strategic communications at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington, D.C. In her new role, Schoch will develop and execute a communications strategy that elevates the lab's visibility, recognition, and support as a world-class research organization. She will lead a team of communication and technical publishing professionals who are responsible for creating communications products and providing strategic communications counsel to the laboratory's internal and external stakeholders and collaborators.

2011

Bruce Friedrich, Ed '11 (MAT), founder and president of the Good Food Institute, was named a 2021 American Food Hero by EatingWell magazine, in recognition of his effort to fundamentally change the food system with alternative proteins. The Good Food Institute is calling on governments around the world to fund research and invest in alternative proteins as a key climate solution that simultaneously addresses the increasing risk of pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and food insecurity.

Lindsay Anne Sternad, A&S '11, received her Master of Public Health from Vanderbilt University with a concentration in epidemiology. Her thesis was titled "Parental Primary Language, Access to Care, and Developmental Delays in Neonates," and she completed her practicum at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. Sternad moved to Atlanta this fall to serve as an assistant professor of neonatology at Emory University and as an investigator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

2012

Damani A. Piggott, Med '12 (PGF), assistant dean for graduate biomedical education and graduate student diversity at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, became the inaugural director of the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative and associate vice provost for graduate diversity and partnerships, an effort to address historical underrepresentation in STEM. The $150 million initiative will provide permanent funding to add a sustained cohort of approximately 100 new slots for diverse PhD students in Johns Hopkins University's more than 30 STEM programs.

2014

David McCloskey, SAIS '14 (MA), former CIA analyst and consultant at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, released his debut spy novel, Damascus Station, published by W.W. Norton & Company in October. The novel follows CIA case officer Sam Joseph as he is dispatched to Syria to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy.

2016

Johanna Kvam, Peab '16 (MM), was appointed full-time pianist and music coordinator for Kentucky Opera, where she will serve as primary pianist and répétiteur for all opera programs. Additionally, she will be responsible for music operations for opera programming and general music administration, working closely with all departments to fulfill the mission of Kentucky Opera.

Braveen Ragunanthan, SPH '16 (MPH), is an attending pediatrician for the Delta Health Center in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, the oldest federally qualified health center in the United States. He was previously chief resident at the UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He and his wife, Nina, welcomed a daughter, Priya, in July.