Graduate Schools

Accountancy Class Secretary – Kim Talianko; ktalianko@alumni.nd.edu

Architecture

As I start the 41st year of writing this column, the following abstract of an item featured in the winter issue of this magazine is a prime example of one of the reasons for creating this column, which is to draw attention to the diversification in the application of an ND architecture degree. John D. Dowd ’83 of Provincetown MA is a highly-regarded, award-winning oil painting artist. The summer of his graduation he spent “at the beach” before accepting a waiting position in an architectural office. That summer he sold his first works of art and he has been painting and selling ever since. In any gallery showing, 80 percent of his paintings have sold before the show even opens. His painting images are “nostalgic and picturesque, pared down and classic. Each work of art is rigorously composed. The underlying precision of architectural details allows his architectural credentials to shine. Structures almost always figure into his paintings, whether they are cottages, barns, industrial buildings or lighthouses but people never do.” Thomas M. Dietz, RA, ’01 has his own consulting firm in Chicago specializing in urban infill real estate development. He’s also editor of the ND School of Architecture Alumni Network web page on LinkedIn. Recently from his web page: Danielle Murphy ’13 won the first-ever student prize at the 2013 Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) Stanford White Awards for her thesis, an Environmental Studies Center for West Park NY, completed in Prof. David Mayernik’s studio. Joan M. Soranno ’84 FAIA, VP with HGA Minneapolis, led the design of the Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum in Minneapolis that recently won a 2014 AIA National Honor Award for Architecture. “The 24,000 square foot two-level Mausoleum opened in early 2012 and is built into a hillside with nearly three-quarters of its massing underground to preserve Lakewood’s pastoral quality.” She also won an AIA National Honor Award in 2006 for the Bigelow Chapel for the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in New Brighton MN. Congratulations also to Michael P. Pfeffer, AIA, ’01, of Chicago who was selected for the 2014 AIA Young Architects Award. Michael was also recently promoted to director of SOM, Chicago, making him one of the youngest architects in the firm’s history to hold that position. Jeffrey F. Murray ’79 of Pittsburgh is a design principal and the director of science and technology for IDC Architects (a CH2M-Hill Company). He is a CH2M-Hill technologist fellow, one of three client-focused roles within the firm. As a technologist fellow, Jeff supports the other two firm professional groups, business development and project delivery. He focuses on innovative ways to improve the firm’s design process and approaches, as well as the firm’s knowledge of innovative solutions for science and technology focused facilities around the world. In attendance at the Healthcare Design Conference in Orlando FL in November, I saw Hugh Campbell, AIA, ’80 who is a principal with Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) Architects in their New York City office; Glenn S. A. Gall, AIA, ’81, supervisor, health facilities review for the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Sacramento; and Joseph C. LaVigne ’81 medical center facilities operations, assistant director, U of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester NY. After 16 years in New York City, Marc Clemenceau Bailly ’97 has moved wife Nicolette and family to Seattle, where he opened a new architecture practice, Bailly & Bailly, at Pier 56. He has a diverse practice of residential, corporate, retail and institutional clients. He still maintains clients and his office in New York City. Edmond G. Gauvreau, AIA, ’79, chief, planning branch, US Army Corps of Engineers, Washington DC, will chair the public architects workshop at this year’s AIA national convention in Chicago. The workshop will be two half-day pre-convention sessions. – Orlando T. Maione, FAIA, FACHA, NCARB; 27 Bucknell Lane, Stony Brook NY 11790-2521; 631-246-5660; fax 631-751-7598; omaione@optonline.net

Biological Sciences

The past quarter has seen welcome contact with three recent graduates from the laboratory of Dr. Mary Ann McDowell. Michael Donovan ’07PhD followed his doctorate at Notre Dame with a JD from Arizona State U and lives in Phoenix. Michael met his wife while in law school at ASU; they are a “mixed” marriage in that he did his undergraduate studies at the U of Michigan, while his wife attended Ohio State U. After a few years with a Phoenix law firm as a patent attorney, Michael recently joined a research enterprise, TGen (Translational Genomics) Research Institute, using his experience to work in intellectual property/technology transfer. He is excited to be back closer to life science research and anticipates a fulfilling experience working to bring novel products and processes to the marketplace through his patenting efforts. A member of the TGen Board of Directors is Cindy K. Buescher Parseghian ’77BBA, who serves as president of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. Rachel E. Kasuboski Polando ’09PhD began a college teaching career at Manchester College in Indiana (now Manchester U) following receipt of her degree and has recently moved from her home in Warsaw IN to the shadow of the Dome, Mishawaka. Rachel reports great satisfaction in teaching small classes of students different courses in the life sciences. A special program at Manchester, one we would all envy, allows Rachel to take about a dozen biology majors on field trips to Australia during a special three-week January academic term. In addition to teaching and advising students, Rachel supervises undergraduate research projects in areas of vitamin A, macrophage, and cytokine biology. Rachel mentions that her brother, James “Jamie” Kasuboski ’11PhD, out of Dr. Kevin Vaughan’s lab, is early in his own career as a postdoctoral fellow at Pfizer in Boston after being at the Salk Institute in La Jolla. James Whitcomb ’09PhD also resides close to Notre Dame, in Edwardsburg MI and works in Elkhart IN in medical diagnostics manufacturing for Siemens Health. James supervises R&D in the bioconjugants area and also oversees the laboratory animal facility in a physical plant in Elkhart that older alumni will recall as the sprawling site of Miles Laboratories, then Bayer. Growing up in Evanston IL, James did his undergraduate studies at the U of Illinois-Chicago Circle and then took a position with Abbott Laboratories. It was during this period that James met his wife, a Navy nurse stationed at Great Lakes. – Joan S. ’71MS and Philip B. Carter ’67, ’71PhD; 12916 Barsanlaw Drive, Raleigh NC 27613; 919-848-2192; fax 919-848-3166; Phil@ncsu.edu

History Class Secretary – Mary Linehan ’91 PhD; mlinehan@uttyler.edu

Mathematics Class Secretary – Patti Strauch;

255 Hurley Hall, Notre Dame IN 46556; bus 574-631-7083; strauch.1@nd.edu

Master of Nonprofit Administration

Congratulations to the January 2014 MNA graduates: David Adams, Douglas Bielemeier, Father Michael Callaghan, Greer Hannan, Seamus Kennedy, China Kirk, Mary Liebman, Carrie Morrow, Marian Diaz-Munoz, Mark Odenwelder, Robert Penrose and Meghan Walsh. We also celebrate the arrival Nov. 23 of John Charles to Juliana Gaither ’08 and her husband, Jack, and the arrival Jan. 19 of Caroline Elizabeth to Amy and Steve Ponzillo ’10. Congratulations to everyone on these wonderful life events. – Anne Hayes; 105 Main Building, Notre Dame IN 46556; ahayes2@nd.edu

Political Science Class Secretary – Charlie Kenney;

2724 Meadowbrook Dr., Norman OK 73072; 405-360-2090; ckenney@ou.edu

Graduate Degrees

Shanti Michael ’13MS, sacred music, is co-founder of the Landis chamber choir, based in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. The group is seeking to revive the tradition of sacred music in the Catholic Church, balancing it with an appreciation of traditional local music. She says, “We can’t simply perform the great music of our Catholic heritage at the expense of a local tradition, because we are such a multicultural country.” At Notre Dame, Ms. Shanti was a graduate assistant for the Notre Dame Folk Choir. James T. LaFrance ’82MBA was elected chairman of the board on Dec. 12 of Vermillion Inc., a multivariate diagnostics company focused on gynecological cancers and woman’s health. LaFrance has almost 30 years of diagnostic industry experience. Most recently he was head of digital pathology and acting CEO of Omnyx, LLC for GE Healthcare. John Klebba ’83MBA, president and chairman of the board of Legends Bank in Linn MO, has been elected to the board of directors of the American Bankers Association. Klebba is the third generation of his family to head Legends Bank. Anthony J. Blasi ’74PhD, sociology, retired from Tennessee State U in Nashville in 2012. He is now a visiting professor at the U of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Blasi is the editor of Toward a Sociological Theory of Religion and Health (2011) and is the author of A Secular Fascination with Religion, which is scheduled for publication this year. He is the co-author of an introductory sociology text with Anton K. Jacobs ’85PhD, sociology, who is the author of Religion and the Critical Mind (2010). In the fall of 2013, while teaching at St. Mary’s U in San Antonio, Dr. Blasi became acquainted with Armando Abney ’83PhD, sociology, chair of the criminology department who has done important research on elderly inmates. Also in 2013, Gilberto Cardenas ’77 PhD, executive director of the ND Center for Arts and Culture, lectured at U of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. William Paul Miller ’05MS, environmental engineering, is with the National Weather Service Colorado Basin River Forest Center in Salt Lake City as a senior hydrologist. I recently heard from Carolyn ’70SMC and Richard Greff ’68 about a missionary appeal at their parish, St. Mary’s Mexia, in the Austin diocese. The missionary bishop, Rev. Robert Muhiirwa ’93MA, theology, began his remarks by saying, “Go Irish.” He appealed for financial help for his Ugandan diocese of a million Catholics with a seminary of 800 students. The Greffs felt that readers of this column might want to contribute to a Notre Dame bishop in need. His address is Rev. Robert Muhiirwa, PO Box 914, Fort Portal, Uganda. Thomas Cavanaugh ’95 PhD, philosophy, received the U of San Francisco’s College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Scholar Award for his book Double-Effect Reasoning: Doing Good and Avoiding Evil (Clarendon: Oxford). The award comes with a purse and course release for research. Carleen Reck ’69MA was chosen by the Missouri Association for Social Welfare for its annual statewide Elaine Aber Humanitarian Award for her sustained advocacy for social justice, especially within criminal justice. Carleen is executive director of the Criminal Justice Ministry in St. Louis. – Marvin J. LaHood ’58MA, ’62PhD English; 93 Parkhaven Drive, Amherst NY 14228; res 716-691-4648; mlahood@roadrunner.com