Notes from the Class of 2005

Denver resident Jennie Dorris (MMus’05) is founder of Telling Stories, an award-winning ensemble that features words and music. It is produced as a radio show for Colorado Public Radio.

After attending CU Karl Obermeyer (ApMath, MS’05) earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has joined northern Colorado-based Numerica as a research scientist providing track-processing support for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s National Team B. Before joining the company, Karl developed and implemented algorithms for unmanned aerial vehicle control at the U.S. Air Force Research Lab in Dayton, Ohio. He is a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He lives in Fort Collins, Colo.

The public relations firm Scott Circle Communications welcomed Jordan Stinnett (Jour’05) as an account executive. She creates media strategies for clients, pitches to the media for social media campaigns and does event planning. She is a graduate student at Georgetown University where she creates marketing communications plans for many nonprofits and trade associations and designs quantitative research plans in new media.

The employee-owned investment-management firm Turner Investments named Kevin Sun (PhD Bus’05) quantitative research analyst and quantitative portfolio manager. He creates screens of the company’s domestic and quantitative models, provides technical analysis on individual stocks and market sectors and manages more than $18 billion in assets. He lives in Philadelphia.

Freelance travel journalist Juliana Broste (Jour’05) and her mother completed a 21-day, 4,500-mile tour of the United States with Rand McNally and USA Today’s “Best of the Road” competition. While the pair didn’t win the grand prize, they became “fun experts” from their adventures in small towns across the country. Juliana works for Citizen Pictures on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and lives in Littleton, Colo.

Race director for Boulder Racing Lance Paniguitti (Hist’05) took over coordination of the Superior, Colo., Morgul Classic. Boulder Racing will partner with the USA Pro Cycling Challenge to increase exposure for amateur cycling. “They’re going to help market our event through their media channels — they have that broad audience,” Lance told the Boulder Camera. The Morgul Classic was held in May. Lance lives in Boulder.

In May the 2006 Bolder Boulder winner Sara Slattery (Bus, Econ’03, MEdu’05) ran in the Bolder Boulder’s International Team Challenge for Team Colorado. Sara works at the wellness program for WhiteWave Foods, a Broomfield company that makes soy milk and organic foods. “I really enjoy being able to use my business degree but also staying involved with running and getting people involved in the sport,” she told The Denver Post.

Littleton, Colo., resident Catherine Boone’s (PhDAstro’05) innovative payload launched into orbit on Endeavor’s final mission, STS-134. Her project, named STORRM (Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation), aimed to verify her team’s development of a new navigation and docking system that will ensure safer, more accurate docking operations for future spacecraft. She works at Lockheed Martin.

Caplan and Earnest announced that Coulter Bump (Law’05) joined the firm. She practices law in the areas of business, education, real estate and lifestyles of health and sustainability. Coulter lives in Englewood, Colo.

At the Albuquerque Duke City Marathon in 2010 Adrian Chavez (MCompSci’05) qualified to participate in the 2012 Boston Marathon. In April Adrian finished the marathon with a time of 3:29:51. He lives in Albuquerque.

Davis Graham & Stubbs announced Andrew Fiske (PolSci’05) joined the finance and acquisitions department as an associate. He concentrates his practice on middle-market mergers and acquisitions, commercial finance, emerging growth and venture capital transactions representing both buyers and sellers in health care, energy and technology. He lives in Denver.

Since graduating Jeremy Gruber (Film’05) writes that he is on the front lines of advancing and protecting the rights of medical marijuana patients. He lives in Boulder and wrote a letter to the editor that appears in this edition of the Coloradan.

In February Kevin Heinz (Jour’05) performed at Loaded Joe’s in Avon, Colo. In 2011 he released his self-produced album Kevin Heinz & Friends, which features a full band recorded in professional and home studios across the state. Kevin lives in Vail and performs his original music with friends and fellow musicians.

Jeffrey Tabor (IntlAf’05) lives in northern Spain and owns an English academy with his wife. He writes that he would like to get in contact with CU alums who live in Europe.

Local Table Tours started a cheese-tasting tour with Boulder cheesemonger Molly Browne (Anth, Engl’05). Molly introduces people to a cheese plate and wine pairing at a local restaurant, a taste of a chef’s cheese-inspired dish and a private tour of Cured, a cheese shop in Boulder that she manages.

On Aug. 4 Keith Jones (Fin’05) and Abra Fine (Jour’06) tied the knot in Deer Valley, Utah. The couple met five years ago at a CU-Boulder alumni event in New York City and has been together since. Keith is a member of the Leeds School of Business GOLD Board and a vice president at Barclays. Abra is an account manager at Google. The couple lives in New York, N.Y., and continues to stay involved with the local alumni chapter.

In October Olivia Chadha’s (MEng’05) book Balance of Fragile Things (Ashland Creek Press) was published. Her novel is about a multicultural American family living in upstate New York that encounters the difficulties of survival and assimilation. “Here is a new voice in American literature worth celebrating,” wrote book reviewer and author Greg Ames. Olivia lives in Superior, Colo.

Davis Graham & Stubbs added Anna-Liisa Mullis (Jour’05, Law’11) to its trial department. Previously Anna-Liisa served as a law clerk for the honorable Judge Gale T. Miller of the Colorado Court of Appeals. During law school she was elected to the Order of the Coif, served as articles editor for the University of Colorado Law Review and worked as a teaching assistant for civil procedure. Anna-Liisa lives in Denver.

The dean’s office at the College of the Holy Cross hired K.J. Rawson (MEngl’05) as assistant professor in the English department. Since 2010 K.J. has been a lecturer at the University of Kentucky for writing, rhetoric and digital media. He is co-editor of Rhetorica in Motion: Feminist Rhetorical Methods and Methodologies (University of Pittsburgh Press) and has published several articles.

Graduate student Miles Jon McKenna (Jour, PolSci’05) had his article “Realizing Public Diplomacy Potential for Pacific Island Countries: The Case of the Commonwealth” published in USC’s biannual Public Diplomacy Magazine. The magazine is one of the world’s leading journals for diplomacy, with such contributors as Joseph Nye and top state department officials. Miles also started a nonprofit in London called Pacific Island Society dedicated to delivering programming that stimulates interest in Pacific affairs. His sister Carrie McKenna (Psych’13) worked at the Alumni Association for four years as a student, playing a critical role in assisting with e-mail marketing and statistics.