Notes from the Class of 2004

Boston-based attorney Colin Boyle (Phil’04) was selected as a 2018 Massachusetts Super Lawyer. Colin, an associate at the law firm Morgan, Brown & Joy, was selected as a “Rising Star” for his practice in collective bargaining and labor law. 

Super Lawyers magazine named Colin Boyle (Phil) one of its 2019 Massachusetts Super Lawyers for his work at Boston labor and employment law firm Morgan, Brown and Joy. 

For the second year in a row, Alex Howell (Mktg) was named one of Forbes’ Best-in-State Next Generation Wealth Advisors for his work at the La Jolla, California, branch of UBS Global Wealth Management. 

Ashesh Thaker (BioChem, Engl) and Anuradha Kumar (CompSci’05) gave birth to their second son, Valmik, in October 2019. They recently moved to Denver, and Ashesh is a physician and faculty member at the School of Medicine at CU Anschutz.

In April, Corry Lee (ApMath, EngrPhys) published her first novel, Weave the Lightning. The fantasy novel tackles issues of authority, revolution and trust, set in a backdrop of romance and magic. Corry lives in Seattle.

Matthew Arentsen (IntlAf) has been named shareholder of Denver’s Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck law firm.

While his grandmother battled COVID-19, Corey Cappelloni (Law) dropped everything and ran — literally — to be there for her as best he could. An experienced ultra-marathoner, Corey spent seven days running the 220 miles from Washington, D.C., to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which was the equivalent of an ultra-marathon each day. In the process he raised over $25,000 for his nana’s nursing home. He spoke to her through a megaphone from outside her fifth-floor window when finished his quest. “I think this will be the highlight of my running career,” he told Runners World this summer. 

To say that Kyla Duffy (Mktg, Span) has been keeping busy since graduation would be an understatement. After a two-year stint as the national sales manager at Eldorado Climbing Walls in Boulder, Kyla started a publishing company, earned a master’s degree and began teaching sales management at CU. In 2012, Duffy joined a circus in Japan and stayed with it for seven years, meeting her husband. Most recently, she moved to Mexico, launched her own business and wrote Launch a Powerful Job Search in 7 Days, released in 2020.

Dave Simeone (Engl) was recently hired as a digital project manager at Loptr LLC, western New York’s leading cybersecurity firm. 

Mike Carter-Conneen (Jour), a former D.C. TV reporter and anchor, is now director of corporate communications at CarbonCure Technologies. In April, the company won the $20 million Carbon XPRIZE for its innovations in carbon dioxide removal, transforming concrete into a climate solution.

Managing partner Patrick A. Salvi II (Mgmt) of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard in Chicago was selected as the 2022 U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs. He was also listed in the 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for personal injury litigation. Patrick launched a new podcast, Beating Goliath: A Plaintiff’s Pursuit of Justice, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at some of his firm’s biggest trials. 

Cerno, a lighting business, was started by Bret Englander (Jour’04) — resident of Laguna Beach, California — and two of his childhood friends. Cerno products are inspired by nature and manufactured in California. Bret serves as the company’s director of sales and marketing.

Appellate lawyer Kendra N. Beckwith (Jour, PolSci’04) joined Lewis Roca’s litigation practice group as a partner. Kendra has briefed and argued almost 60 cases nationwide in both state and federal courts and deals with a variety of issues relating to employment, insurance law, commercial litigation and more.

National Institute of Standards and Technology physicists Ian Coddington (PhDPhys’04) and Kevin Cossel (PhD-ChemPhys’14), along with Nathan Newbury, were finalists for the 2022 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal in the science, technology and environment category. They were recognized for developing a revolutionary system to detect methane gas leaks from oil and gas production facilities in addition to identifying other pollutants that contribute to global warming. Working with collaborators at CU, this technology has been transferred to a startup company that has made strides in expanding its capabilities and deploying the system in key oil and gas-producing states.

Jonathan Lucero (Fin’04; Law’07) and his wife, Brittany, welcomed a third addition to their family. Zoé Sofía Lucero was born three months premature, and Jonathan writes she has made a miraculous recovery. Judge Lucero serves as a municipal court judge in Aurora, Englewood and, occasionally, Castle Rock, Colorado.

Patrick Salvi II (Mgmt’04) was named president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. In 2007, he graduated from Notre Dame Law School and joined Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. as an attorney, where he was named managing partner of the Chicago office in 2017. Patrick concentrates his legal practice on cases involving personal injury, medical malpractice and masstorts. He also serves as a board member of Legal Aid Chicago, an organization that provides free legal services to people living in poverty. In recognition of his outstanding legal work, Patrick has been listed in Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America, an elite guide in the legal profession, for the past six years.

After living in London for nine years, Merici Vinton (PolSci’04) moved to Washington, D.C., to join the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) at the White House. Over the past year, she has led Child Tax Credit Implementation for USDS. After graduating from CU, Merici received her MBA at University of Denver and then went on to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and set the digital and data strategy for its first director, Elizabeth Warren. Her family lives on Capitol Hill and loves visiting Denver and Boulder.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published Clean Energy Innovators: NREL People Working to Change the World, a softbound book written by NREL’s Ernie Tucker. The book, which can be downloaded online for free, tells the stories of NREL’s people and the technologies they’ve advanced to help confront the climate crisis. The book features several CU alumni including catalyst researcher Kim Magrini (PhDChem’88), hybrid electric vehicles researcher Rob Farrington (PhDMechEngr’92), battery system researcher Matt Keyser (MechEngr’91) and Olympic biathlete Tim Tetreault (MechEngr, MS’04).

Law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck named Patrick Berry (Comm’04) as a shareholder in the firm’s corporate department. Patrick’s work has included private middle-market mergers and acquisitions, as well as joint ventures and partnerships. Patrick is based in the firm’s Denver office.

Jamie Kreiner (Hist, Mus’04), a history teacher at the University of Georgia, released a new book, The Wandering Mind. The book recounts how medieval Christian monks identified distraction as a fundamental challenge — and how their efforts to defeat it can impact people today. The book received praise from Time, The New York Times and The New Yorker.