Class Notes

After 14 years of working with the University of Colorado Foundation and the Alumni Association, Lianna Bodzin (Film’96) will be taking on a new challenge as assistant director of Advancement Services at Colorado School of Mines. She lives in Boulder.

Former U.S. Olympians and husband-wife duo Alan Culpepper (Geog, Soc’96) and Shayne Wille Culpepper(PolSci’97) lead an after-school running program at Boulder’s Douglass Elementary School. The volunteers helped prepare more than 200 children from kindergarten to fifth grade for the 8th annual Douglass Jog-a-thon and the Bolder Boulder in the spring.

Under the leadership of CEO Jud Valeski (CompSciAp’96), Boulder-based Gnip specializes in gathering data from public social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. With this data the company provides real-time content to a variety of firms in industries such as social media monitoring, business intelligence, government and finance. Jud lives in Boulder.

President and founder of Boulder Business Advisors, James Graham (Psych’97) joined the board of trustees of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder Country. His business is a CPA firm specializing in the provision of accounting, payroll and virtual CFO services. He lives in Boulder.

Ball Aerospace appointed Boulder resident Jeff Osterkamp (MEngr’97) vice president for engineering. Jeff will provide strategic and operational leadership for all disciplines of engineering at the company, including manufacturing, testing and supply chain management.

A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Luis Alberto Urrea (MEngl’97) uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore themes of love, loss and triumph. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago and lives with his family in Naperville, Ill. He was featured in the June 2011 Coloradan.

On Aug. 10, 2011, Jonathan Wimmer (Engl’97) and his wife welcomed their third child and first daughter, Eloise Cullen Johnson Wimmer. The family lives in Knoxville, Tenn., and writes they are thrilled to have her.

Mother and lawyer Leslie Danks Burke (Hist, IntlAf’97) is running for Congress in New York. Leslie, a former CU student government tri-exec, is the only Democratic candidate in the race who has worked in Washington, D.C. She worked on Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign and presidential campaign as well as for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. She lives with her family in Ithaca, N.Y.

In January Eben Clark (Law’98) joined Johnson & Repucci as counsel. Eben’s practice consists of land use, resort development and project financing, real estate and commercial litigation. He lives in Boulder.

Director of family wealth planning at Crestone Capital Advisors, Randi Grassgreen (Law’98) joined the board of trustees of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. He lives in Boulder.

Erie, Colo., resident Jennifer Spitz (Law’98) was named to the Colorado Super Lawyers list as two of the top attorneys in Colorado for 2012. She practices in areas of trust and estate planning, taxation, probate, charitable planning, real estate and business law.

Louisville, Colo., resident Clint Wells (Psych’98) ran in the Bolder Boulder in May. He placed eighth with a time of 32:16.

Crossing the East River, Gaffney Peglar Barnett (Humn’99) and her husband and two boys moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn in May. She stays in touch with a number of Buffs who live in the New York area.

Born & Raised is an independent feature film directed, edited and co-produced by Joshua Dragge (Film’99). The film is about a young man in a small seaside town who learns a thing or two about love, luck and life from his well-traveled outlaw grandfather. Born & Raised was shown  at this year’s Breckenridge Festival of Film on June 9. Joshua lives in Torrance, Calif

Melton Construction announced the addition of Clay Dusel (EnvSt’99) as a project development manager. Clay has more than 10 years of construction experience and owned his own custom home building company. He also has extensive knowledge of the design/build process, green building practices and Boulder County building codes.

Estey Realty Group announced Stephanie Fairchild (Psych’01) joined the company as broker associate and executive assistant to Dan Estey. For eight years Stephanie has been a licensed realtor and broker associate. She lives in Boulder.

Award-winning teacher Ross Haenfler (PhDSoc’03) is associate professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi. His courses include social movements, deviance and youth subcultures, men and masculinities and political sociology. At this year’s Conference on World Affairs Ross spoke at such panels as “Modern Media and the Teenage Mind.” He lives in Oxford, Miss., with his partner, Jennifer, and daughter.

Los Angeles resident Nick Loritsch (Film’03) is writer, co-producer and actor in the filmBorn & Raised. The independent feature is about a young man in a small seaside town who learns a thing or two about love, luck and life from his well-traveled outlaw grandfather. Born & Raised was shown at this year’s Breckenridge Festival of Film on June 9. To view the trailer visit bornandraised.com. Read a profile on him on page 57.

Couple Cortney Bass and Timothy Shadel (MCDBio, BioChem’03) were married in March in San Francisco. Timothy is a lab manager. The two celebrated with a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. They live in Forest City, Calif.

At California Lutheran University, assistant professor of mathematics Christopher Brown (PhDMath’04) received tenure in May. He lives in Camarillo, Calif.