Kudos! March 2023
March 7, 2023
By
W&M Alumni Magazine
Congratulations to William & Mary alumni who are making moves in the world. This is where we celebrate awards, job changes, promotions, recognition and other career and civic engagement news we collected between Dec.1, 2022, and Feb. 28, 2023. For more updates from your classmates, check out the Class Notes at magazine.wm.edu/class-notes and in the print edition of the W&M Alumni Magazine!
If you would like to submit an item for Kudos, email the W&M Alumni Magazine staff at alumni.magazine@wm.edu.
Awards and Recognition
Jim McGlothlin ’62, J.D. ’64, LL.D. ’00, Victor Branch ’84 and John Asbury M.B.A. ’98 were included in Virginia Business Magazine’s “Virginia's 50 Most Powerful and Influential Execs.”
Job Changes and Promotions
Paul Amakihe ’17, Nate Atkins ’19 and Ted Hefter ’21 were hired as assistant coaches to the Dayton Flyers at the University of Dayton in Ohio.
Jeff Barnes ’81, J.D. ’86 was signed by Allen Media Strategies for representation. Allen Media Strategies will help Barnes’ book “Mingo,” winner of the 2022 Readers Favorite International Book Contest Gold Medal for Southern Fiction, reach a wider audience.
James Black J.D. ’02 was appointed as senior vice president and general counsel at Florida-based Terran Orbital Corp., a global leader in satellite-based solutions primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries.
Adin Brown ’68 was hired as goalkeeper coach for the San Jose Earthquakes ahead of the 2023 Major League Soccer season. Brown most recently served as goalkeeper coach for Chicago Fire Football Club (2020-22), where he helped develop teenager Gabriel “Gaga” Slonina into one of Major League soccer’s best young players.
Sheyna Burt ’98, J.D. ’01 was welcomed as chair of the executive board at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia. Burt also serves as president at institutions including Old Bridge Chamber Orchestra and Youth Orchestras of Prince William.
Webb Estes ’06, M.Acc. ’07 was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Estes Express Lines. Now the fourth generation of his family to lead the Richmond, Virginia-based company, Estes joined the business about 15 years ago, starting as a truck driver and gradually gaining experience throughout the company, including running its information technology department, human resources and customer engagement divisions before his recent promotion.
Jay Hamric ’97 was announced as the next principal of Steamboat Springs High School in Colorado. Hamric has served as a school administrator for the past 18 years, including roles as a high school principal in West Virginia, school director in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and elementary, middle and high school principal at schools in China.
Catherine Hance ’93 has joined Denver-based Mission Hill Hospitality, which invests exclusively in the select service and extended stay hotel sector, as general counsel. In this newly created role, Hance will oversee and manage Mission Hill’s legal matters and play an active role in portfolio development and management.
Claire Hogan ’22 joined the social visuals team at The New York Times. She joined the Times as a fellow in May 2022 and quickly proved herself an invaluable member of the video department by producing, writing and editing videos and graphics for the company’s core news social media accounts.
Josh Jackson M.B.A. ’02 was appointed as senior vice president of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) Army Business Unit. Jackson will be responsible for leading strategy, business development and program excellence across the Reston, Virginia-based company’s portfolio of solutions and services delivered to a wide range of U.S. Army customers.
Anna Killius J.D. ’13 was named executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state legislative commission advising the general assemblies of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia on matters of concern related to the bay.
Kevin Leslie ’10, M.S. ’13 was named Old Dominion University’s first associate vice president for innovation and commercialization. Leslie will improve ODU’s technology transfer operation to better identify, develop and market faculty, staff and student intellectual property and startups. He also will lead federal and other grant applications related to innovation and ecosystem building.
Stephanie Coleman Linnartz M.B.A. ’97 joined Under Armour, Inc. as president, chief executive officer and member of its board of directors, as of Feb. 27. In her previous role as president of Marriott International, she was responsible for providing strategic leadership for all aspects of Marriott’s global strategy, including brand management, sales (including e-commerce), marketing, revenue management, customer engagement, information technology, digital functions and emerging businesses.
Todd Pfannestiel Ph.D. ’01 will be the next president of Utica University in Utica, New York. Pfannestiel has been at Utica for five years, previously serving as provost and senior vice president of academic affairs.
Allen Plummer M.B.A. ’06 has joined private equity firm the Carlyle Group as global managing editor and head of content for the company. Splitting his time between New York, Washington, D.C., and his home just outside Philadelphia, Plummer will oversee content on environmental, social and corporate governance, investor relations, employee relations and content marketing while building an in-house team supporting content marketing and communications.
Jen Psaki ’00 is launching a new show with MSNBC starting March 19. Psaki will use her inside knowledge of how public policy discussions are shaped to break down big issues. She will also devote a new recurring segment, “Weekend Routine,” to coverage of the lives of notable lawmakers and thought leaders, shadowing the subject of her report as that person moves through their regular activities.
Elka Scordalakes-Ferrante ’98 has been appointed as chief of the Science Policy and Planning Branch (SPPB) at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Scordalakes-Ferrante started working at NIDCD in 2014 as a health science policy analyst and was appointed as the SPPB deputy branch chief in 2018.
Ellen Stofan ’83, D.Sc. ’16 has been named a 2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Stofan was honored for her distinguished contributions to the field of planetary science, particularly regarding Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and for significant community service and leadership.
Blanca Tyler ’09 was honored as a recipient of William & Mary’s Values in Action award, which recognize student organizations, faculty and staff who epitomize the university’s values of belonging, curiosity, excellence, flourishing, integrity, respect and service. Blanca is the administrative and language house coordinator for W&M’s Department of Modern Languages & Literatures.
Lamia Wahba ’06 joined The Rockefeller University as a tenure-track assistant professor and head of laboratory. She was highlighted in Rockefeller’s announcement for discovering a key mechanism of nongenetic inheritance in the nematode C. elegans, and has since launched a deeper investigation into the mysteries of nongenetic inheritance.