Class Notes

After 18 years in entertainment management, including work with Broadway tours and Cirque du Soleil, Kate Amberg (Ling) has started her own business. Following a long-time interest in family history, storytelling and genealogy, she started Creating Memories Now, which digitizes and stores family photographs and documents. Kate, who has lived in Las Vegas for 10 years, is a member of APPO, the Association of Professional Photo Organizers.

Beebe Bahrami (MCDBio) works as a fulltime freelance writer specializing in travel, food and wine, archaeology, spirituality and outdoor adventure pieces. In March Beebe gave a reading at the Boulder Book Store to promote her two new books, Café Oc: A Nomad’s Tales of Magic, Mystery and Finding Home in the Dordogne of Southwestern France and Café Neandertal: Excavating Our Past in One of Europe’s Most Ancient Places. She visits with family in Boulder several times a year.

Donn Calkins (Hist; MA’91; Law’96) retired from his law career in 2012 and is now pursuing a PhD in biomedical science, with a focus on virology, at The Ohio State University. The Greeley, Colo., native lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Steve Fleischli (Econ, EPOBio) is senior attorney and director of the water program for the Natural Resources Defense Council. His work focuses on water quality, the role of water security in climate-preparedness programs and the relationship of water to energy production.

Albert Flynn DeSilver (Art), a poet and nonfiction writer, has written a new book, Writing as a Path to Awakening: A Year to Becoming an Excellent Writer & Living an Awakened Life. It is scheduled for release in September. His memoir, Beamish Boy, recounts his struggle with addiction and how he overcame it. Albert returns to Colorado every year to teach at the Shambhala Mountain Center.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Tim Wieland (Jour) has been news director at CBS4 in Denver since 2004. He serves as guest faculty at the Poynter Institute and on the board of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. He was recognized in 2010 by the Denver Business Journal as a 40 under 40 winner for his work in the community.

In February, Matthew Alvarado (Span) spoke at the second annual Latin America Port Expansion Summit in Cali, Colombia. Matthew works for Musco Lighting, a company that specializes in sports arena and event lighting. His role is promoting brand development in South and Central America.

Valerie Arnold (Engl; MA’97; Law’00), a broker with Windermere Real Estate in Fort Collins, Colo., was recently named a trustee of the Poudre River Public Library District and to the transportation board for the City of Fort Collins. Valerie also was selected for Leadership Fort Collins, a program that educates participants on the needs of the community and strengthens leadership skills.

Sara McCabe (Anth, Econ) produced the feature documentary 3 Hikers, the story of three Americans imprisoned in Iran and their families’ fight to rescue them. The film involves scholar Noam Chomsky, political expert Gary Sick, boxer Muhammad Ali and actor Sean Penn. Sara and husband Eugenio live in California with their son, Ronan.

David M. Dye (PolSci), founder of Trailblaze, Inc., works with people in leadership roles to teach them how to build successful and engaged teams of employees. Since graduating, David has served as president of the Colorado chapter of the National Speakers Association and recently released an award-winning book, Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul.

The CU Men's Rugby Club will celebrate their 50th anniversary during Labor Day weekend. Alumni are encouraged to attend. The weekend's highlight will be the alumni match on Sept. 2, which will include Shane Brown (AeroEngr'95; MS'99). Kickoff will be at noon on the CU Business Field. For more details and to register for the event, contact Nic Williams (CompSci'18) (club president) at curugby@colorado.edu.

In March, the president of Colombia appointed César Ocampo (PhDAeroEngr) director of the nation’s Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation. He has previously worked for NASA and as a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jagged Peak Energy, Inc., recently named John Roesink (Geol; MS’05) its vice president of development planning and geoscience. John lives in Denver with his wife, Heather

Of his latest book, Ultimate Glory, David Gessner (MEngl) writes: “It is the story of the 15 years of my life I spent dedicated to playing Ultimate Frisbee braided together with a history of that strange sport. The last six of those years were spent playing for the Boulder team, and Colorado plays a key role in the book… Wildness has always been a key theme for me and those were wild years. But this is also a book about nonconformity during the age of Reagan, about what it means to dedicate yourself to something that many others consider ridiculous. In this way it is a portrait of an artist as a young Ultimate player. And, more directly, it is also about my own simultaneous struggle to become a writer, another ‘ridiculous’ pursuit.”

In April, Chris Newton (Engl), director of ecommerce for Stonebridge Companies, published a book on growing online businesses titled How to Acquire Your First Million Customers: Scaling Your Online Business by Laying the Foundation for Growth. At Stonebridge Chris is in charge of digital marketing for more than 50 hotels across the U.S. His career allows him to merge passions for travel and digital technology. Chris loves spending time with his wife and two kids, traveling and hiking. He has been recording music in Boulder with Motion for Alliance, a band he and friends started in college.

R. Ashby Pate (Engl), a former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Palau, an island country in the western Pacific, has returned to Alabama, where he is of counsel at Lightfoot Franklin & White in Birmingham. As his firm puts it, “Ashby may have the most interesting resume of any lawyer practicing in the State of Alabama.” He’s also recorded two albums of music and written a children’s book. Ashby and wife Christine have two daughters.

Michael Chessa (Engl) and Alison Herlands were married on Feb. 11 at the Loeb Boathouse in New York’s Central Park. Michael works as a trial lawyer with Gersowitz Libo & Korek in Manhattan. The couple met in January 2011 during a criminal-law orientation at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

Filmmaker Michelle Kantor (Film) is co-founder of Cinefemme, a nonprofit organization that supports female professionals in the film industry. Michelle is currently working on a documentary titled Red Star and a narrative feature titled The Rebel.

Graham Frank (Fin; MBA’07) joined Breckenridge Grand Vacations as vice president of real estate development. Graham joins BGV from Vail Resorts, where he oversaw project management. He and wife Shawnna have two children.

Christine Peck (EPOBio) is co-founder of Wannaplé, a company whose goal is to provide children with access to the benefits of play. She recently launched Silly Street, a line of games and toys to help children develop curiosity, empathy and creativity. She lives in Minneapolis, Minn., with her husband, Stephen.