Alumni Showcase 2018

Alumni Showcase 2018 is coming up soon!  This biennial event brings back Governor’s School alumni to speak to current students about life after high school.  These were all of this year’s amazing speakers:

Shephali Agrawal (’96) – UVA; currently working with the Art of Living Foundation

Esther Atkins (’04) -Case Western Reserve University (Music & Cognitive Science); Olympic-Trial-qualified professional marathoner

William Bartle (’14) – Longwood; will start attending the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School in August 2018

Steve Bryant (’95) – William & Mary, NYU (Master’s); freelance writer, newspaper writer, online tech reporter, men’s lifestyle reporter, NBC, started a publication, founded a consulting agency, work with large brands like Google, Amazon, Salesforce on content strategy

Molly Campbell (’05) – Mary Washington (BA); founder of MVM, a line of handmade leather accessories

Rasheeda N. Creighton (’95) – University of Michigan (JD); attorney; currently overseeing Capital One’s newest venture: a building in Shockoe Bottom that is home to a high-growth startup incubator; also the creator of the Capital One Intrapreneurship program, which teaches associates how to solve business problems like an entrepreneur

Kate Dydak (’06) – Wake Forest (Political Science); urban planner currently working in construction project management

Jessica Escobedo (’96) – Kenyon College, California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Neuroscience) ; Director of Science Policy at Ripple Effect Communications (a science consulting firm)

Molly Farrar (’07) -UVA (English), Boston University (Master’s in Gastronomy); editor at America’s Test Kitchen

Greg Faust (’02) – Drexel (did 4.5 years out of a 5 year engineering program), VCU (Philosophy); political campaign manager, then started a business creating digital training materials for nuclear power plant operators; currently doing tree care

Chris Fields-Johnson (’99) – Virginia Tech (BSc Summa Cum Laude in Forest Resource Management, PhD & MSc in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences); currently a Technical Advisor for the Davey Tree Expert Company providing scientific support for tree care and preservation in the Mid-Atlantic from Richmond to NYC and teaching programs for the tree care industry across the US and Canada

Christine Gao (’13) – William & Mary (double major in Biology and Computational Applied Math/Statistics); currently a first year medical student at Johns Hopkins, MD-PhD program.

Anderson Gould (’02) -UVA (BA in Psychology), VCU (Master’s of Social Work); Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Callie Guy (’10) – Northeastern University; currently a law student at University of Richmond

Alex Guzmán (’07) – William & Mary; Director of Fair Housing at HOME of Virginia

Austin Higgs (’09) – VCU; worked in the VCU Office of Equity & Access, currently attending graduate school and working at the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation

Eve Howe (’08) – VCU (BS in Mechanical Engineering and Physics); engineer at Naval Reactors in Washington, DC, separated as Lieutenant (O-3) in August 2017, joined Casa Ruby in August 2017, starting at Harvard Law in fall 2018

Katie Houston (’04) – George Washington University, VCU (BA, RN); currently completing Family Nurse Practitioner degree

Kathleen Kostandin (’07) – University of Delaware; event planning, retail management

Mala Kumar (’03) – Virginia Tech; Technology for International Development (ICT4D), mostly at the United Nations

Spencer Law (’17) – JMU (Honors College; SMAD & History); current college freshman

Kristen Simonsen Lewis (’03) -William & Mary, Duke Law School (JD); in-house counsel for UNC Chapel Hill

Deirdra McAfee ’95 – MFA in Fiction, MA in English; former GSGIS teacher, now a writer and editor

Stefan McFayden (’08) – JMU (Geography); head brewer at Three Notch’d Brewing/RVA Collab House

Bruce McRoberts (’11) – Mary Washington; archaeologist with the Jamestown Rediscovery Project

Laura Merriman (’11) – UVA (History); Americorps at the International Rescue Committee in Silver Spring in the Intensive Case Management Program

Charles Merritt (’03) – Virginia Tech, VCU Brand Center; startup founder (currently working on Buddy)

Cass Morris (’03) – William & Mary (English), Mary Baldwin (MLitt in Shakespeare & Performance); worked in the Education department at the American Shakespeare Center; currently preparing for the publication of From Unseen Fire, a historical fantasy novel set in ancient Rome, and working on the rest of the trilogy

Stinson Mundy (’96) – JMU (BA); attorney; served as General Counsel for a national transportation company before opening Linden Legal Strategies in 2016

Ellen Nicholas (’09) – (J. Sargeant Reynolds, Guilford College); worked in the offices of the Lt. Governor and the Governor of VA, currently working at Mobelux

Tommy Nicholas (’07) – VCU, UVA (BA in History); CEO of Alloy, a fintech company based in NYC

Dileep Rajan (’95) – George Washington University (BS in Mathematics), Iowa State University (Master’s in Mathematics); founder of SharedLending

Amy Rector (’99) – UVA; paleoanthropologist at VCU

Kent Rollins (’14) – William & Mary (Government, Marketing), William & Mary (Master’s in Business Analytics); founder of Candid Campus Tours; recently accepted a job at Riot Games

Shalin Sood (’02) – UVA, University of Richmond School of Law (JD); worked as a Judge Advocate with the United States Marine Corps, also served as the Aide de Camp to a Commanding General; currently working as an attorney at a DC law firm but is still in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as a team leader for a Civil Affairs team responsible for handling humanitarian crises around the world and advising combatant commanders about civilian considerations in the battle space

Catherine Tatum-Hirsh (’07) – George Washington University (American Studies, Criminal Justice); University of Dayton School of Law (JD)assistant public defender in the Newport News Public Defender’s Office

Shweta Tembe (’14) – UVA (Psychology); AmeriCorps college advisor at Louisa County High School; volunteers as a middle school facilitator with Side by Side, an LGBTQ+ group based in Richmond

Abbey Thibeault  (’08) – Davidson College (B.A., History) Temple University School of Law, (J.D.); assistant public defender in the Maryland Office of the Public Defender

Jackie Tissiere (’11) – Tufts (BA in Religion); executive pastry chef and kitchen manager at Whisk bakery in Shockoe Bottom

Meagan Toiaivao (’05) – BYU (Illustration, Russian); currently working as a dishwasher and trying to figure things out

Jessica Walters-Wright (’06) – Virginia Tech (BS, PhD, DVM); Boarded Poultry Veterinarian (DACPV) for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Dale Edward Wolf II (’11) – William & Mary (English); communications director for Dan Ward’s campaign for House of Representatives

Tim Wright (’96) – VCU; worked for many years at the National Building Museum; currently runs Attucks Adams Tours

Thank you to our Alumni Steering Committee volunteers Misty Clark (’96), Bryce Lyle (’99), Leo Rohr (’99), Karen Setzer (’99), and Erin Ortiz (’06).  We couldn’t have done it without you.