News from our alumni
Constance K. Barsky, PhD 1975, was the first woman to earn a doctorate from WashU’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. After a 42-year career that spanned industry, academia, and government, she retired and lives with her husband Steven G. Katz, AB 1970, MA 1971, in a retirement community in Granville, Ohio. Steven’s primary hobby is amateur radio, where he holds the call sign N8WL.
Karen Bernstein, AB 2004, is practicing labor and employment law, representing unions and individuals primarily in the airline and sports industries.
Cole Bishop, AB 2014, has been doing geochemistry work at Lawrence Livermore National Lab as part of its Graduate Research Scholar Program.
Sussane Borchet, AB 1986, continued her studies in environmental geology at the University of Tübingen in Germany. She cites Bob Dymek’s work with rare earth elements as an inspiration.
Molly Chaney, AB 2016, received her PhD from Princeton University and now works as a data scientist at Momentum Solar, a residential solar panel company in Chicago, Illinois.
Megan Flanagan, PhD 1994, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started a new job as a senior research geophysicist at the Kirtland Air Force Base Research Laboratory.
Michael Geistler, AB 2020, is in his second year of law school at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has also begun working as a law clerk at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Rich Gierman, AB 1973, is enjoying his seventh year of retirement. He continues to focus his leisure time on places of ancient times and mystery.
Paul Giesting, AB 2001, MA 2002, accepted a job at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming, last summer.
Katie Goodall, AB 2002, serves as academic dean at The School for Field Studies (SFS). In true liberal arts fashion, she is also a professional photographer, documenting families, farms, and artisans in New England.
Matthew Guiang, AB 2015, graduated from law school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and moved to Chicago, where he is beginning a position as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Tim Hays, AB 1973, has been active in collecting, studying, and lecturing on subjects related to antique Balkan, Anatolian, and Levantine textiles since his retirement in 2017.
David Heezel, PhD 2011, joined the Bureau of Reclamation’s Technical Services Center as a geophysicist.
Diana Hutcherson (nee Goeller), AB 2013, accepted a position running the State Resilience Program for the Oklahoma Army National Guard.
Blair Johnson, AB 2016, received her master’s in environmental management with a focus in water resources management from Duke University. After spending the summer relaxing and traveling, she will pursue a career in the water resilience and infrastructure field.
William Judd, MA 1968, recently worked on a study of an apparent remnant impact structure of a large asteroid in southeast Missouri. The study speculates on ways the Precambrian impact structure still influences modern public health.
Michelle Kirchoff, PhD 2006, was promoted to lead research scientist at Southwest Research Institute.
Gary Knapp, AB 1979, retired in January 2022 after working 41 years in the oil and gas industry. He and his wife Charmaine moved to Flower Mound, Texas, to be closer to children and grandchildren.
Jeffery Marlow, AB 2003, is in the Caribbean Sea exploring deep hydrothermal vents with the newly refurbished Alvin submersible.
Kady McFadden, AB 2011, started her own consulting firm, McFadden Strategies, where she works with environmental funders, organizations, and clean energy companies to promote climate solutions.
Aine Mines, AB 2007, spent time in southeast Alaska looking at sites damaged by a major storm in 2020 under FEMA’s permanent rehabilitation program.
Andrew Mitchell, AB 2011, was recently selected as the next assistant vice chancellor and director of sustainability at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Dan Niosi, AB 1999, was promoted to manager of the Planning and Environmental Quality Division for the National Park Service’s Intermountain Regional Office in Lakewood, Colorado.
Magdalena Osburn, AB 2007, was granted tenure and is now an associate professor at Northwestern University.
Kelsey Prissel, PhD 2020, is working as a research scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She and her husband, Tabb, welcomed a baby boy, Parker, in spring 2020.
Benoit Rivard, PhD 1990, retired in June 2020 and is now professor emeritus. He remains active in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.
Amy Roth, AB 1993, MA 1995, was recently promoted to vice president at Wilcox & Barton, Inc., an environmental and civil engineering firm. Erich Roth, PhD 1998, is vice president of engineering at Onset Computer, a leading manufacturer of data loggers and environmental monitoring equipment. Amy and Erich live on Cape Cod with their daughter, son, and two dogs.
Kelsi N. Singer, PhD 2013, was promoted to principal scientist at Southwest Research Institute and project scientist on NASA’s New Horizons Mission.
Joy Schalders-Burton, AB 1995, is continuing in her 16th year as the executive director and lead clergy member at Living Earth Church in Denver, Colorado.
Mary Schubert, AB 2005, retired from Mammoth Cave National Park in April. She now engages in scientific cave research, such as cave biota inventory, documenting prehistoric and cultural historic cave wall markings, and searching for Mississippian period shark fossils.
Karyn Sper, AB 1994, leads Fannie Mae’s multifamily green financing team, developing and promoting loan products that encourage owners of apartment buildings to make their properties greener.
Rose Stockmann, AB 1980, retired from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2016 and has since been enjoying retirement. She and her husband are excited to become grandparents to a baby girl in December.
John Strebeck, MA 1982, and his wife retired from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2014. For his contributions and leadership over 31 years, he was presented the Defense Meritorious Service Award. This summer, he and his wife were volunteer rangers at the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
Marc B. Taub, AB 1997, co-edited the textbook Applied Concepts in Vision Therapy 2.0. He continues to be the editor-in-chief of Optometry & Visual Performance, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal.
Jacqueline Treiger, AB 2015, started a new job as campaign manager of climate and transportation at the Oregon Environmental Council in January and moved to Portland, Oregon, in April.
Meenakshi Wadhwa, PhD 1994, was appointed as a distinguished visiting scientist and the Mars Sample Return principal scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
S. Shawn Wei, MA 2012, received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to conduct a series of seismic attenuation studies on regional and global scales.
Laura Whorton, AB 2005, spent the summer as the acting manager at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Colin Wilson, MA 2010, accepted a new position as director of the Berkshire Science Commons at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Craig Zeff, AB 2000, became senior environmental scientist (specialist) last year. He is a statewide mitigation and conservation banking coordinator for the state of California.