Alumni Post-it Notes (in alphabetical order)

AM: Annual Member of the Alumni Association
LM: Lifetime Member of the Alumni Association

–Excerpted from a 11/3/07 Salt Lake Tribune article by Derek P. Jensen

KUER producers Elaine Clark MA’98 and Doug Fabrizio BA’88 were honored by the Utah Broadcasters Association with a 2007 UBEE award. The two won a Silver for Best Feature Story or Program (“Convicting Polygamy”), which they share with Morning Edition host and producer Dan Bammes.

Clark, RadioWest senior producer, received her master’s degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Utah, which included a year of academic research and work for an education NGO in the West Bank. Before joining KUER, she was director of public relations and marketing for Repertory Dance Theatre.

Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER since 1987, and became news director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of RadioWest, a one-hour conversation/call-in show. He is also the host of the weekly television broadcast Utah Now on KUED Channel 7, and has served as a guest host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation.

KUER FM90 is a noncommercial public radio station licensed to the University of Utah. KUER has a staff of 18 full-time radio professionals and broadcasts 24 hours a day. Its format Monday through Friday is news-information and talk during the day, with jazz music in the evenings. Weekend programming on KUER is a mix of news, entertainment, and jazz programming.

Cheryl K. Contant BS’77 (magna cum laude), Ph.D., has been named the new vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean at the University of Minnesota, Morris, following a national search. Contant had previously served since 1999 as professor and director of the City and Regional Planning Program in the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. During the 2006-2007 academic year, she served as an American Council of Education (ACE) Fellow at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Contant holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering and a doctoral degree in civil engineering, both from Stanford University. She has worked with the Soil and Water Conservation Society, the Institute for Alternative Agriculture, and the American Water Resources Association. She is the author or co-author of several articles and publications on the topics of policy, planning and the environment, most recently co-authoring Seeking Signs of Success: A Guided Approach to More Effective Watershed Programs.

Justin Flack BS’05 has joined The Orton Group as account coordinator, providing community relations, event promotion, copywriting, and account services for clients. Flack previously worked as a marketing coordinator and then the manager of public relations at FranklinCovey, where he was responsible for writing and editing all external communications as well as the planning, marketing, and coordination of the company’s annual symposium events. He has experience in the national media market and a strong knowledge of event planning, product marketing, and public relations.

Pyper Garff BA’89 MEd’93 received a 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Utah Education Association. Recipients each receive a $1,500 check, courtesy of sponsors Pat and William Child (chairman of the board of R.C. Willey Home Furnishings), and a crystal award. Honorees are nominated by their peers and chosen based on their work with individual students or groups of students. At William Penn Elementary School, teacher Garff transforms her first-graders into “super scientists” as they engage in a year-long study of investigation. Using their five senses, hypotheses are formed and data collected. Sunflowers, apples, and homemade slime are among the materials that have played a part in the experience to record and discover what lies around them in their own backyards. LM

Conan Grames HBA’72 has joined the law firm Hunton & Williams LLP as one of four partners in its food and drug practice. He will generally focus on issues under the Food and Drug Administration’s authority, such as food, drugs, dietary supplements, and medical devices. Grames was previously vice president and general counsel at Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the leading pharmaceutical industry association. Before that, he was head of the international law section at the Salt Lake City firm Kirton & McConkie and was a vice president with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Grames holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. LM

Heidi Gordon BA’03 JD’07 has joined the VanCott law firm as an associate with the firm’s business section. Gordon began her legal career in 1985 as a legal secretary. She has substantial experience assisting with tax, estate planning, commercial real estate, and municipal law matters. Gordon holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Utah and her J.D. from the U of U’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. While at law school, she worked as a summer associate for VanCott and as an extern for the Utah Supreme Court, and was executive text editor of the Utah Law Review. Her admission to the Utah State Bar is pending.

Scott F. Hansen BS’73 MD’76 has been named assistant medical director of LDS Hospital. Hansen’s current patient care activities are centered at the LDS Hospital Health and Fitness Institute and the LDS Hospital Sports Medicine and Orthopedic clinics. He is board-certified in internal medicine, emergency medicine, and sports medicine. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Salt Lake County Medical Society in 1997 and the Wyeth-Ayerst Physician Award for Community Service by the Utah Medical Association in 1998. Hansen created the “Practical Action” fitness and wellness program management system. He served as a 2002 Winter Olympic Games venue medical officer and as a team physician for the U.S. speed’skating team from 1999-2003 and 2006-2007.

David L. Harmon BS’81, C.P.A., has been named chief financial officer for CirTran Corporation, a full-service, multinational contract manufacturer of IT, consumer, and consumer electronics products. Harmon had most recently served as SEC manager for Investools Inc. (NASDAQ: SWIM) of Salt Lake City. Previously, he held controller, treasurer and CFO positions with Utah-based UCN, Inc. (NASDAQ: UCNN), Traco Manufacturing, Inc., and publicly traded Gentner Communications Corporation. He also spent nine years with two C.P.A. firms in the Salt Lake City area.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson ex’62’s The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success is recognized in the National “Best Books” 2007 Awards from USA Book News, an online magazine and review Web site for mainstream and independent publishing houses, in the Business: Writing/Publishing category. Howard-Johnson has previously been recognized regionally and nationally for her fiction, nonfiction works, and poems.

Joel Long MFA’93’s chapbook Saffron Beneath Every Frost was published last May by Elik Press. His poem “Keeping Time” appeared in the Spring 2007 Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts; the poem “Lesson from the Amazon” in the Spring 2007 (Issue 32) Roanoke Review; and the poem “Leaving my Mother in my House” in the Spring 2007 (Issue 19) Blue Mesa Review. The poem “The Value of Breath” is forthcoming in Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, and the poem “The Healing” is forthcoming in New Orleans Review.

Greg Lowe BA’99 has joined Dyersburg Regional Medical Center (DRMC) in Dyersburg, Tenn., as the hospital’s chief executive officer. Originally from Utah, Lowe has worked in the administrative side of health care for nine years. He began at the University of Minnesota before moving on to HCA Inc. in Nashville. For the last two years, he had been in Easton, Penn., as the assistant CEO at Easton Hospital, which like DRMC is owned by Community Health Systems. Lowe holds both an MBA and a master’s of health care administration from the University of Minnesota. He and his wife, Lee, are the parents of three boys.

Jacqueline Lyons PhD’04 has a group of poems in the anthology Oh One Arrow (Flim Forum Press, 2007), and two poems from the collection Lost Colony appeared in the summer 2007 Colorado Review. Her poem “My Life in Quebec” won the 2007 Indiana Review poetry prize, judged by Joy Harjo. Lyons received $1,000 and publication of her poem in the Winter 2007 issue of the magazine. She is on the English faculty at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Robert L. Martin BS’92, ENP, MPC, has joined e-Copernicus as vice president of business development. Martin was most recently executive director of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), a 7,000-member organization dedicated to the advancement of 9-1-1 service, where he had worked for the past three years. A certified Emergency Number Professional (ENP) and previously executive director of the National and International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, Martin has 20 years of association management, coalition building, marketing and publication, and organizational communication experience, with emphasis in public safety and emergency services. In addition to his bachelor’s degree in business marketing, he holds a master’s in professional communication from Westminster College.

Jill Miller BA’87, managing director of Sundance Institute, has been named to fill the Media Arts Representative chair on the Utah Arts Council board of directors. Miller joined Sundance in 1991 as director of administration for the Institute and associate managing director of the film festival. In 2001 she was promoted to her current position. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations, she holds a MBA in International Finance from the American University in Washington, D.C.

Miller was nominated to the Utah Arts Council board by Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. and approved by the Utah State Legislature this past October. The Media Arts Representative chair is one of nine art-genre specific seats on the policy-making board, which also includes four at-large seats. Board members are appointed for a four-year term, with the possibility of being re-appointed for a second term. Because Miller is completing former representative Anne Watson’s term on the board, she is still eligible for an additional two full terms.

Patrick Moench BS’02 BS’02 JD’07 has joined the VanCott law firm. Moench gained valuable experience interning at the Office of Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., helping prepare committee hearings on postconviction DNA testing, online music copyright infringement, and campaign finance issues. He later worked as a summer associate for two local law firms, including VanCott, where he researched and drafted memoranda in connection with civil litigation, complex bankruptcy, and pro bono matters. He received his J.D. from the U of U’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in May of this year. His admission to the Utah State Bar is pending.

R. Alexander Mohr MD’01 has joined the University of Connecticut Health Center as assistant director of the Comprehensive Spine Center at the New England Musculoskeletal Institute. Mohr’s area of specialty is operative treatment of spinal disorders including disc degeneration, spinal trauma and fusion. An assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the UConn School of Medicine, Mohr has a special interest in the biomechanics and the biology of fusion of the cervical and lumbar spine. After receiving his medical degree, Mohr served his internship and residency in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics. He completed a spine fellowship in the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. As an undergraduate, Mohr played Division I football at Utah State University, where he was an Academic All-American majoring in biology.

Michael O’Reilly MFA’06 is under contract to write a book about Utah for 8th and 9th graders as part of Globe Pequot Press’s “Myths and Mysteries” series, including stories about the lost Rhoades Gold mine and other Spanish mines, the 1857 Mormon Handcart disaster, haunted Utah locations, and tales of Butch Cassidy and other scandalous characters. His poem “Genre Genetics” appears in Vol. 9, Issue 2 of the HazMat Literary Review (www.hazmatlitreview.org/).

Scott Parker BS’80 MBA’81 has been appointed senior vice president of sales for Avanex Corporation (NASDAQ:AVNX), a pioneer of intelligent photonic solutions that enable next-generation optical networks. Parker has more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the optical and semiconductor industries and a strong track record in driving sales growth and leading customer-focused teams. He previously served as the vice president of sales and marketing at Integration Associates and as CEO at Chelsio Communications, both start-up companies funded by Sequoia Capital. Prior to that, Parker served as senior vice president of sales and marketing for JDSU, where he integrated the sales and customer service teams from numerous acquisitions.

Derek Pollard MFA’04, now a doctoral candidate in English at Syracuse University, presented work at the tenth annual Writing By Degrees Conference sponsored by Binghamton University in September. A sequence of poems from the collaborative manuscript Inconsequentia, written with Derek Henderson (U of U doctoral candidate in poetry), is forthcoming in Issue 05 of Caketrain; two poems from the same manuscript are featured in the latest issue of Word For/Word; the poem “An Elegy for the Innumerable” is forthcoming in the anthology The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel - Second Floor; the poem “The Night of the Iguana” is forthcoming in Contrary; two poems, “In Praise of...the Biro” and “To Abjure,” are forthcoming in Moria; and his interview with Claudia Keelan appeared in the Summer 2006 Barrow Street.

Michelle Roybal BA’97 JD’00 received a Hearts and Hands Award (recognizing significant philanthropic service) at the Philanthropy Day luncheon in November presented by the Utah Society of Fund Raisers and the Utah Non Profits Association. Roybal was nominated by Utah Law Related Education (Utah LRE), which provides law-related and citizenship education for Utah’s youth and communities through interactive educational experiences. Roybal, an administrator and staff attorney at the U.S. District Court for the State of Utah, is president of the Utah LRE board. She is also president of the University of Utah Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Board.

Tracy A. Stevenson BS’77 has been appointed an independent director on the board of Vista Gold Corp. Stevenson is a senior mining executive who for 26 years worked for Rio Tinto plc and related companies and has been involved with many major exploration, development, and financing projects. Stevenson has served as global head of Information and Technology and global head of Business Process Improvement for Rio Tinto plc; senior vice president, Finance and Control, at Kennecott Corporation; and executive vice president, Financial Services and Strategy, at Comalco Limited. A CPA, he also spent four years with a predecessor to the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Craig D. Swenson BS’77, Ph.D., president-elect of Argosy University, has been appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education to serve a three-year term on the 15-member National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which advises the Secretary of Education on matters related to accreditation and to the eligibility and certification process for institutions of higher education. Argosy University is an accredited private academic institution with 18 campus locations in 12 states. Swenson previously served as provost and vice president of Academic Affairs for the Western Governors University in Salt Lake City.

Ingo Titze BS’63 MS’65 (both in electrical engineering), along with a doctorate in physics from Brigham Young University, has been awarded the Silver Medal in Speech Communication from the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. The Silver Medal is awarded periodically by the ASA for contributions to the advancement of science, engineering, or human welfare through the application of acoustic principles. At the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Titze is the executive director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, the only voice research and clinical care facility in the world that is a division of a performing arts organization. At the University of Iowa (UI) in Iowa City, he is a UI Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, in joint appointment with the UI School of Music.

David Tucker BA’88 is majority chief counsel for the U.S. House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He previously worked on the committee as health subcommittee staff director. Before coming to Capitol Hill, Tucker spent 12 years working for the Paralyzed Veterans of America as the senior associate legislative director. He also worked on the 1992 Clinton-Gore transition team and had a brief stint in the Clinton White House working on the health care task force. A native of Los Angeles, Tucker holds a law degree from the College of William and Mary.

Connie Voisine PhD’00’s second book of poetry, Rare High Meadow of Which I Might Dream, will be published by University of Chicago Press in February 2008. She is also one of 35 poets (including Paisley Rekdal, a U of U associate professor of English) whose work is being featured in “Manual Labors” in the Denver Art Museum’s The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar alongside manos, the palm-sized grinding stones once used to grind grain in the southwest regions of Colorado. Voisine is associate professor of English at New Mexico State University and advises La Sociedad para las Artes, the English Department’s outreach organization.

Nicole Walker PhD’06’s essay “Slip” appeared in the Spring 2007 (No. 71) Crazyhorse; the essay “Dam” in the Spring 2007 (Vol. 9, No. 1) Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction; and the essay “Dissociation” in AGNI 2007 online. Her essay “The lyric said nothing” is forthcoming in Seneca Review’s Deborah Tall memorial issue, and she has poems forthcoming in Review, failbetter.com, and Third Coast. She will be reading at the Center for Book Arts, December 7, in New York City and at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, February 15, 2008. She recently presented on a panel at NonfictionNow at the University of Iowa with fellow alumni Matthew Batt PhD’06 and Steve Fellner PhD’04 and will be presenting in New York on an AWP panel in early 2008 with Margot Singer PhD’05, former U of U English professor Robin Hemley and others. She is assistant professor of Creative Writing in the Department of Writing at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.