Notes from the Class of 1978

Barron’s magazine ranked James Moore (Fin) among the top financial advisors for 2015. He works as a managing director of investments for the Clayton, Mo., Wells Fargo branch and was ranked 12th in the state of Missouri. James, who has 36 years of experience in the brokerage industry, lives in St. Louis with his wife and five children.

President Barack Obama nominated Gayle Smith (Engl) this spring as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Of her work, the President said, “I’ve worked closely with Gayle for nearly a decade, and for the past six years Gayle has served as a senior leader on international development, humanitarian crisis response and democracy issues on my National Security Council staff.” Since 2009, Gayle has served as special assistant to the President and senior director for development and democracy on the National Security Council staff, where she is responsible for global development, democracy and humanitarian assistance issues.

The U.S. Department of State swore in ambassador Arnold Chacon (IntlAf) as director general of the Foreign Service and director of human resources. Arnold has been a career member of the Foreign Service and over 33 years has worked as ambassador to Guatemala, deputy chief of mission in Madrid, Spain, and deputy secretary in the executive secretariat. He has also worked in Honduras, Mexico, Chile, Italy, Peru and Ecuador.

Craig Clark (CivEngr) was promoted to vice president of economic development at Alfred State College in New York. He has been associated with the college since 1979, and has served in a variety of teaching and administrative capacities, including professor and chair of the civil engineering technology department, interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of the school of applied technology on the Wellsville campus.

Earlier this year, Joel Berger (PhDBio) was named one of six finalists for the 2016 Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation; Jane Goodall is a past recipient. A scholar at Colorado State University, Joel studies why populations of tundra land animals, such as muskoxen and wild yaks, are declining and what can be done about it. He helped lead the creation of America’s first federally sanctioned wildlife migration corridor, the Path of the Pronghorn, in Yellowstone National Park. Joel has also helped reevaluate rhino conservation tactics in Africa and aided efforts to conserve Mongolia’s saiga antelope populations. He lives in Colorado with his wife and daughter.

Jack Turner (Bus) was elected to the Explorers Club, a renowned organization whose members include the adventurers who were the first to reach the poles, the summit of Mount Everest and the moon. Jack’s grandfather Ansel F. Hall was the first chief naturalist of the National Park Service and also a member of the club. Jack is the founding director of California-based Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition Onward. The project is completing fieldwork in Arizona and Utah and working on 3D modeling techniques and virtual-reality tools to recreate the experience and surroundings of the expedition, including what was discovered and by whom. The result will be a museum exhibition at multiple U.S. venues.

In honor of Leonard Mermel’s (EPOBio) 60th birthday and his commitment to patient care for the citizens of Rhode Island, Governor Gina Raimondo proclaimed June 15 “Dr. Leonard Alan Mermel Day” in the state. Leonard has spent his career advocating for patient safety by preventing infections in hospitals through national and international teaching and his extensive research. Leonard is a professor at Brown University, an adjunct professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals.

In December Cardno, Inc., an infrastructure and environmental services company based in Australia, named Ted Tomasi (Econ; MA’79) vice president and director of national practices. He is based at the company’s Newark, Del., office. Ted, who has more than 30 years’ experience as a natural resource economist, also has worked as professor at the University of Michigan, University of Minnesota and Michigan State University.

In November William A. Baltz (Hist) published a book, Spiritual Nexus: Discovery in America’s Heartland. It’s about five spiritual centers with connected histories nestled in southwest Michigan on the outskirts of Three Rivers. The co-founder of one of the retreats, Nancy Hector (A&S’58), is also a Forever Buff, as is Nancy’s sister, Joan Hector (A&S’52), an artist and teacher known for her stained slab glass installations.

Kim Rothstein (Advert) writes that she is happily retired from a successful career in food advertising and marketing. She lives in Sebastopol, Calif.

Boulder County district attorney Stan Garnett (Hist; Law’82) has decided not to make a second run for Colorado Attorney General. He ran unsuccessfully in 2010. Stan is now in his third term as Boulder’s DA. In March, he and his wife, Brenda, celebrated their 39th anniversary. The couple lives in Boulder.

At the Lippin Group, a brand communications firm, Pamela Ruben Golum (Comm) has managed notable client accounts, including Dick Wolf and his Law & Order franchise, various projects for the Disney Channel and the Emmy Awards. Previously Pam worked as a journalist with Fairchild Publications and at radio station KBOL in Boulder. She and husband Rob live in Los Angeles, Calif., with their two daughters, Caroline and Jennifer.

After more than 32 years, Robert Garcia (Art) retired in May from his position as graphics editor at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the largest newspaper between Denver and Salt Lake City. Robert has received more than three dozen awards for newspaper design and graphics from the Colorado Press Association and the Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters organization. He writes that his mid- 1970s experience in Boulder with the campus minority student newspaper El Diario de la Gente was the foundation for his success. In 1995, Robert, a fifth-generation Coloradan, was designated a CU Hispanic Alumni Association Distinguished Alum.

In April, Katherine Leonard (Chem, MCDBio) presented results of her research study “The Meaning of Touch to Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy” at the United Health Services 25th Annual Oncology Teaching Day in Owego, N.Y. The research was previously published in the Oncology Nursing Forum in September 2015. Katherine is a nurse practitioner with SUNY Upstate’s adult oncology medicine group’s outpatient clinics. She retired from Upstate Hospital in 2012.

For more than 40 years, Bill Lerner (Comm) has helped grow and develop iPark, his family’s parking garage business (previously known as Imperial Parking Systems), into New York’s largest garage and parking facilities operator. Bill also started the organization Billy4Kids to provide shoes for underprivileged children around the world.

Bill Green (MechEngr’78), president of the Denver-based mechanical engineering company RMH Group, was named one of 20 industry leaders chosen as a 2018 inaugural class of Design-Build Institute of America Fellows. The fellowship is the highest level of DBIA certification and acknowledges the achievements of the nation’s most accomplished design-build professionals. Bill was inducted during a ceremony held on Nov. 8 in New Orleans.

Composer and multi-media artist Pamela Z (MusEdu) was awarded the Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize for musical composition last April. The prize includes an 11-month fellowship in the Italian capital. Pamela is considered a pioneer of digital looping, and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004.

Jeff Mehan (Econ) of Stamford, Connecticut, has been resurrecting dual-slalom professional ski racing, taking it back to the days of Billy Kidd (Econ’69) and Spider Sabich (A&S’71). Some of his more recent competitions included races in Vail, Steamboat and Eldora, Colorado. Jeff works on Wall Street in the international financial derivatives markets.