Class Notes

After serving five years as Colorado’s lieutenant governor, Joe Garcia (IntlBus) has stepped down and will serve as president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a Boulder-based advocacy organization. He also serves as executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. Earlier in his career Joe was president of Colorado State University-Pueblo and Pikes Peak Community College. He served as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary’s representative for the Rocky Mountain states, as executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies and was the first Hispanic partner in the 100-year history of Denver-based law firm Holme Roberts & Owen.

Ohio Super Lawyers magazine named R. Mark Jones (PolSci), a partner in Roetzel’s Cleveland office, a 2016 Ohio Super Lawyer in the defense category of personal injury and medical malpractice.

California formal verification services company Oski Technology, Inc. appointed Dave Perry (ElEngrCompSci) chief operating officer. He previously served as vice president of engineering at Arteris. He also worked for Silicon Graphics, Inc., serving in multiple development and leadership roles for multiprocessor systems. Dave has seven granted U.S. patents and one pending in microprocessor, system and SoC design.

Marc Rayman (MPhys; PhD’85) is the chief engineer and mission director at NASA for an exploration of the two largest uncharted worlds in the inner solar system. Following his nuclear physics research at CU, Marc worked for JILA on experimental tests of special relativity and atomic and laser physics. In 1986 he joined the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and worked on optical interferometry missions to detect planets around stars and designed a mission to return samples from Mars. Asteroid Rayman was named in recognition of Marc’s contributions to space exploration.

In October, former Colorado Solicitor General Timothy Tymkovich (Law) became the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which covers six states. He is the first chief judge of the circuit from Colorado in 75 years. Timothy served the past four years as chair of the committee on judicial resources for the Judicial Conference of the United States, the governing body of the judiciary. As solicitor general, he represented the State of Colorado in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. While at CU, Timothy was managing editor for the University of Colorado Law Review. He is now an adjunct professor at Colorado Law. Timothy is married with two adult children.

Erie, Colo., resident Nancy Blackwell-Grieder (Psych) competed in the inaugural World Figures Championship in Lake Placid, N.Y., Aug. 28-29, finishing in eighth place among a strong field of former national champions and Olympians. As one of the inaugural competitors, she was inducted into the World Figures Hall of Fame and ranked eighth in the world. Figures skating, once a compulsory part of national, international and Olympic skating, involves carving specific patterns into the ice. Figures are seeing a resurgent interest in figure skaters worldwide. Nancy teaches figure skating at two ice rinks.

In 2005 Victor Pearn (MEngl) established the book publishing company Pearn and Associates, Inc. It has two publishing imprints: Burning Daylight, for prose, and Indian Paintbrush Poets, for poetry. The prose titles are also available as Kindle editions. Last year, Victor published two books: Ever After, a novel by Anita Sullivan, who previously won the Western States Nonfiction Award in 1986, and The Aloe of Evening, a book of poetry by John Knoepfle, professor emeritus of literature at the University of Illinois-Springfield. Victor plans to publish three or four new titles in 2016.

After receiving a fellowship at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland, novelist Susan Stinson (Engl) spent the month of January with five other writers in a 17th-century house attached to a 15th-century castle. She spent the time working on an historical novel.

After working for 30 years in sales and marketing, Laurie Marschall (Mktg) is now the owner of Lakama Travel Cruises and Tours in Phoenix. Lakama Travel specializes in small ship cruises — river, ocean and adventure expeditions. Laurie lives in Phoenix but works with clients nationwide. Her website is lakamatravel.com.

In December Sam Reese (Mktg) was named CEO of San Diego-based Vistage Worldwide, a company that assembles and facilitates private advisory boards for CEOs, senior executives and business owners. Sam previously was CEO of Miller Heiman and also is the author of two books on account management.

In April George Codding (IntlAf; Law’89), a healthcare fraud prosecutor with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, will become president of the International Association of Arson Investigators, an 8,500-member group of fire investigators. He is also a volunteer firefighter and fire investigator with the Louisville, Colo. Fire Department. He has provided training on investigation methodology and practices in the U.S., Canada and overseas.

Amparo Ramos Humphrey (Span; MA’89) has retired after teaching middle school and high school in Adams County, Colo., for 25 years. She published her first book, Wicked Eden, under the pen name Alura Ruhu. It’s available on Amazon.com and Createspace.com. She writes that she enjoys life as a “yoga ninja.” Contact her at aluraruhuwriter@ gmail.com.

The city of San Jose, Calif., appointed Jacky Morales-Ferrand (A&S; MPubAd’97) housing director. She previously served as assistant director, overseeing planning and operations for programs with a combined annual budget of $62 million, a portfolio of $800 million in loans and grants and a staff of 62 employees. She has also served as director of housing and neighborhood development in Denver and as homeownership program manager for Boulder.

Tamara Brady (Law), a chief trial deputy for the Colorado Public Defenders Office, represented James Holmes, the Aurora, Colo., theater shooter, sparing him the death penalty. After the case, Tamara took five weeks off, spending time with family and helping her daughter move into college. She is an advocate for proper treatment of mental illness and removing its stigma. Tamara and husband Mark Rapp (Law’91) live in Greeley, Colo., with their daughter.

Nick Stavrianoudakis (MEcon) was named athletic director of Modesto Junior College, where he leads more than 4,000 MJC athletes and 21 teams. Previously he worked as a player agent in pro football, as a baseball card collector and business owner, as economic advisor to three counties and one city and as director of public affairs for the Yosemite Community College District. He was a student at CU when the Buffaloes won the 1990 NCAA Division 1-A football title and credits that exciting time as the inspiration for his career in collegiate athletics.

Last year Burt Rashbaum (MEngl) wrote The Ones That I Know, a novel about loss among a group of baby boomers, and a volume of his poetry was published, Blue Pedals. He also is the author of a novel about Alzheimer’s disease, Tear for My Mother, and a volume of short fiction, Becoming an American. Burt worked for CU from 1976 to 2007

Brian Watson (RelEst) is founder and CEO of Northstar Commercial Partners, a commercial real estate company in Denver. The company has turned its focus to converting vacant properties and other structures into charter schools. The company was featured in the Wall Street Journal in October 2015.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education named Laurel Anderson (PhDEPOBio) and Catherine Kleier (EPOBio’92) 2015 U.S. Professors of the Year. Laurel is a professor of biology and microbiology at Ohio Wesleyan University, and Catherine is an associate professor and biology chair at Regis University in Colorado.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper appointed Elizabeth Maulton Brodsky (Soc; Law’97) to a seat on the Boulder County Court. Previously Elizabeth served as a magistrate judge, presiding over domestic relations cases. She was in private practice until 2011.

DJ Chamberlain (MAeroEngr) started a mountain campus above Fort Collins for growing cannabis through responsible hydroponic and horticulture techniques. He aims to expand and share knowledge of new techniques for growing and breeding cannabis and cannabis oil extraction. His privately held company, H.A.S.H., helps individual growers with proper, pestfree growing. DJ’s book, Aromatic Cannabis, outlines many advances in growing and harvesting.