To honor his ancestors, Native American Bryan Printup ’99 designed and participated in the 2013 Tuscarora Migration Project, a 1,300-mile trip from North Carolina to New York. The venture served as a memorial to the path taken three centuries ago by members of the Tuscarora nation, who migrated north in 1713 when faced with hostility from European settlers. Beginning in late March, the project’s 70-day journey was broken into smaller segments that included hiking, biking, running and canoeing, so others could join along the way. . . . While a student at Notre Dame, Mary Meg McCarthy ’80 co-founded the Center for Social Concerns. Now an attorney and executive director of the Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), she has been named as the 2013 recipient of the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award. Previous recipients, honored for their commitment to peace and justice, include Dorothy Day, Martin Sheen and Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ. Headquartered in Chicago, the NIJC and its pro bono attorneys provide legal services and advocate for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. . . . Ohio native Katie Beirne ’98 was appointed deputy director of communications for the White House in July. The former investment banker at Lehman Brothers most recently was staff director of the Democratic Policy and Communications Center. . . . Amazon has named After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story by Michael Hainey ’86 as one of the “top 10 books of 2013.” The memoir explores Hainey’s efforts to learn the facts about his father’s death. . . . President Obama nominated John R. Phillips ’66, a Washington lawyer known as an authority on whistleblower cases, as ambassador to Italy and the Republic of San Marino. Phillips is married to Linda Douglass, a former ABC News reporter and Obama administration spokesperson. . . . Photographer Camilo Jose Vergara ’68 visited the White House in July to accept a National Humanities Medal. He was honored for his “stark visual representation of American cities . . . By capturing images of urban settings over time, his sequences reflect the vibrant culture of our changing communities and document the enduring spirit that shines through decay.” Among other honorees at the ceremony were Frank Deford, Joan Didion and Marilynne Robinson. . . . New Jersey Governor Chris Christie named Jeff Chisea ’87 to temporarily fill the state’s U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by the June death of Frank Lautenberg. Chisea, the former state attorney general for the District of New Jersey who calls himself “a conservative Republican,” said he would not be a candidate in the October special election that will fill the seat. . . . 1973 Saint Mary’s College graduate Nora Barry Fischer ’76J.D. received the college’s 2013 Distinguished Alumna Award. Fischer, a U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, was honored for “exemplifying the standards, ideals, and mission” of the college, as well as for her service to its alumnae association. . . . Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization, recently named Matt Knott ’92 as president. The Chicago-based organization is a nationwide network of food banks that feeds more than 37 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across America. Knott joined Feeding America in 2008 and was previously the charity’s chief operating officer. . . . Punk rocker Ted Leo ’94 was the cover boy for the July 26th issue of Agenda, a new entertainment guide produced by the Chicago Reader and Chicago Sun-Times. Ted Leo and The Pharmacists were chosen as the Concert Pick(s) of the Week for their Chicago appearances at Subterranean and the Wicker Park Fest. The band’s most recent CD was its 2010 The Brutalist Bricks. . . . William R. Reagan ’57, founder of LoJack Corporation, died in July at the age of 78. A former police commissioner in Medfield, Massachusetts, he developed the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System in the 1970s. More than 1,800 law enforcement agencies across American use LoJack Police Tracking Computers to trace stolen vehicles. . . . When the NBC 5 Investigates team members in Dallas/Fort Worth, led by reporter Scott Friedman ’94, checked on patrol car crashes, they discovered that many involved police officers who were using dashboard mounted computers while driving. The team’s “Driven to Distraction” series, which aired on NBC 5/ KXAS-TV, resulted in police department policy changes to address the issue. In June, the series also earned a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Continuing Coverage, Large Market Television category. . . . In August, journalist Tom Condon ’68 picked up his own national award, the 2013 Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award, sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Urban Journalism Foundation. The award recognized his “high quality urban medical reporting, critical analysis and research . . . in urban life and culture.” Condon is a columnist and deputy editorial page editor with the Hartford Courant. . . . One of the stories that distressed campus last year was the report that ND honors student Patrick Mikes Jr. had killed his father, Patrick Mikes ’79. On August 7, in Oakland County, Michigan, Circuit Court, the younger Mikes pled guilty but mentally ill to second-degree murder in the beating death of his father. Prosecutors said the son had killed his father in the family’s Troy, Michigan, home and then moved the body to a field, where it was later discovered. Sentencing was to take place September 10.