Notes from the Class of 2004

Former student government tri-executive Richard M. Murray (Phil, PolSci; Law’07) was named by ColoradoBiz magazine as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Young Professionals in Colorado.” He was featured in Law Week Colorado and in Colorado Super Lawyers. He works in Denver for the firm Polsinelli, representing individuals and companies in business litigation. In July, he will serve as the first vice president of the Denver Bar Association. He and wife Elizabeth Murray (Psych’07) have a young son and newborn daughter.

An estimated seven million pieces of data are generated per second in the United States. At Virginia Tech University,Chao Wang (PhDElEngr) and a colleague are trying to develop new resource management tools for big data processing. They have a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Chao is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Early this year Denver resident Nate Ragolia (Engl) published his first novella, There You Feel Free, which details the day-to-day lives of five Millennials. Nate heavily draws on T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland” for the book. It is available at blackhillpress.com.

Producer Heather Richardson (Soc) joined the Chicago-based editorial firm Cutters in January. For nine years, she worked for Cosmo Street Editorial in New York as a producer of high-profile commercials for clients that included ESPN, Verizon and Geico.

Rhodes College professor Chris Seaton (PhDMath) was awarded Rhodes College’s highest faculty honor for outstanding teaching and research. Chris is an associate professor in the college’s math and computer science department. He studies orbifolds that are formed when a surface gets folded on itself, particularly those with seven-dimensional surfaces in 10-dimensional space. Chris has had 20 manuscripts published or accepted since 2007 and has presented his work internationally.

A reporter for ABC7 News, Mike Carter-Conneen (Jour, PolSci) won his first Emmy award a day after reporting on the Obergefell v. Hodges same-sex marriage ruling. A week later, he married his husband, Torey Carter-Conneen, surrounded by friends and family in Washington, D.C.

From his college apartment, Nathan Seidle (ElEngr) built and sold his first circuit boards. Twelve years later his company, SparkFun, sells 100,000 circuit boards a month, offers 2,000 different products and has annual revenues of nearly $33 million. This summer SparkFun opened its first offline store in Niwot, Colo., catering to small-scale buyers interested in kits and parts.

Lindsey Wilson (Thtr) accepted the position of Dallas city editor at CultureMap, a digital magazine. She previously worked as the Texas regional editor for Where Traveler and as theater critic at D Magazine.

Last summer Jeffrey Tomlinson (PolSci) was a featured performer at OUTspoken!, Chicago’s monthly LGBTQ storytelling event. He is the dean of instruction at Noble’s Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy in Chicago. He specializes in coaching, developing and supporting 16 English Language Arts and humanities teachers. Jeffrey’s teaching career has brought him to Washington, D.C., Denver, the Dominican Republic and Dallas.

In September Giordin Perlman (AeroEngr) gave a talk at the CU Discovery Learning Center on autonomous systems. Giordin is the chief engineer for Northrop Grumman. Her team made aviation history in April 2015 with the first autonomous aerial refueling demonstration of an unmanned air vehicle. Giordin and husband Steven married late last year. They live in California.

Nathan Seidle (ElEngr) received the Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Graduate Award at the CU Boulder Alumni Association’s 87th Annual Awards Ceremony. In 2003, Nathan opened a one-man business reselling circuit boards from Europe. His Boulder-based firm SparkFun now employs more than 100 people. He lives in Boulder.

In January attorney Aron Beezley (PolSci) was made partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Washington, D.C. Aron focuses his practice on government contracts and construction law.

Alexander J.A. Garcia (Acct, PolSci) has been named partner in law firm Perkins Coie’s trademark, copyright, media and brand protection practice. He helps clients in the selection, clearance and maintenance of trademarks in the United States as well as abroad. Alex and wife Jennifer live in Denver with their two children.

J. Ernesto Ortiz-Diaz (MSpan) has received tenure at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. His interests include Latin American and 19th-century literature with a focus on narrative and poetry.

San Francisco resident Max Kiefer (Mgmt) was named director of business development for Healthy Buildings, a consulting firm. Max, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sustainability from Harvard University, is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Building Owners and Managers Association and the National Resource Defense Council.

Denver resident Jonathan M. Lucero (Fin; Law’07) was appointed to sit as a part-time magistrate in Denver County Court. Outside his judicial duties he continues in his private practice as a senior associate with the law firm of Hernandez & Associates.

Film editor Nick Houy (Art) won the 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Single- Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or Movie for the miniseries The Night Of. Nick lives in New York.

In August, attorney Patrick A. Salvi II (Mgmt) won a record-breaking $148 million jury award for a young woman who was paralyzed when a pedestrian shelter outside O’Hare International Airport collapsed on her in 2015. It is the most a jury has awarded in a personal injury case against the city of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Brandi N. Ring (MCDBio, EPOBio) was elect National Junior Fellow Vice Chair for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Her term began in April 2018 and will run for three years. Brandi is an obstetrician and gynecologist for Mile High OB/GYN in Denver.

Crystal R. Watson (MCDBio) is a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She specializes in public health risk assessment, crisis and risk-based decision making, public health and healthcare preparedness and responses, biodefense and emerging infectious disease preparedness and response. From 2012 to 2013, she served as the program manager for the Integrated Terrorism Risk Assessment program for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.