Class Notes - 2000s

2000

Sarah Griffith B.A completed her PhD in history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is a visiting assistant professor at Willamette University, where she teaches courses in Asian American history, modern China, and Pacific Rim history.

Román Hernández JD joined the board of directors of the Oregon Community Foundation for a four-year term. He is an attorney with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt in Portland.

2001

Jacqueline Jacobson JD is an administrative law judge with the Workers’ Compensation Board in Portland. She was most recently a sole practitioner representing injured workers.

Erik Knight BA is a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State. After training at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia, he will be sent on his first assignment abroad this year. He would love to keep in touch with any ’01 grads.

Matthew Kristofco JD has formed the Kristofco Law Firm, in Golden, Colorado. Recognized as one of the best young attorneys in Colorado, he was selected as a Colorado Super Lawyers Rising Star in civil litigation.

Allison Machlis Meyer B.A. earned a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010. She is now an assistant professor of English literature at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she teaches Shakespeare and early modern literature.

Micah Risher BA is based in Islamabad and doing “some cool public diplomacy stuff with the U.S. Mission in Pakistan.” He assists socio-economically disadvantaged youth find meaningful jobs or gain entry into universities so that they can eventually become decision makers in their communities. Risher is also expanding the U.S. Mission’s teacher training outreach across Pakistan.

John Villavicencio B.A., a Berkeley (California) High School faculty member, was recently featured in a school newspaper story about staff who participated in athletics while in college. “It was a chance to direct a little love toward L&C football and track.” Click here to view the article. This summer, Villavicencio will serve as the team leader for a Habitat for Humanity project in Hawaii. By participating in Habitat for Humanity projects in Argentina, Guatemala, and Alaska, he feels he has gained a new understanding of what it takes to build and maintain a home.

2002

Kristin Larson J.D. started a law firm, Hansen-Larson, in Bend with fellow graduate Kelly Hansen JD ’06.

David Penoyer JD opened a law practice in Lake Oswego.

Shawna Peterson JD is executive director of physician integration at Saint Alphonsus Health System in Ontario, Oregon.

2003

Alexis James J.D. opened the law office of Alexis D. James, specializing in plaintiff’s employment issues. She and her husband, Adam James, and sons, Zachary and Noah, live in West Hills, California.

Kathleen Kapla JD established her solo practice, Kapla Law, in Seattle, focusing on renewable energy project development and real estate.

Jonas Lerman BA married Kristin Mjolsnes last summer in Bolinas, California. They met in 2002 while studying abroad in Siena, Italy. Lerman graduated in 2010 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), where he was editor in chief of the Law Review. The couple now live in New York City, where Mjolsnes works as an architect and Lerman clerks for Judge Gerard E. Lynch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Joshua Ross JD received the Multnomah Bar Association’s 2010 Young Lawyers Section Award of Merit.

2004

Donald Altman MA is a psychotherapist, former Buddhist monk, and adjunct instructor at Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling and Portland State University. He is the author of a new book, The Mindfulness Code (see also Bookshelf, p. 31).

Kimberly Griffith JD is the new director of the Multnomah County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section. Griffith is a commercial litigator with Cosgrave Vergeer Kester and was previously a judicial clerk for Judge Malcolm F. Marsh of the U.S District Court for the District of Oregon.

Yi-Kang Hu JD opened the Spectra Law Group in Beaverton.

Whitney Yazzolino JD opened her own firm, the Law Office of Whitney Yazzolino. She is secretary of the Oregon State Bar Elder Law Section executive committee.

Marlene Yesquen J.D. was appointed to an empty seat on the seven-member Medford School Board. An attorney with Black Chapman Webber & Stevens in Medford, she will serve through June 30, when she may seek election to the seat. She is the only Hispanic serving on the school board, which sets policy for the largest district in southern Oregon, about 12,300 students, a quarter of whom are Hispanic.

2005

Sharl Azar BA is in his first year of internal medicine residency after graduating from Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in June 2010. He plans to pursue a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology with an additional fellowship in palliative care. Editor’s note: In our winter 2011 issue, we inadvertently referred to Mr. Azar as female rather than male. We regret the error and extend our sincere apology.

Abelyn Broughton B.A., a former member of Lewis & Clark’s varsity crew team and a Rogers Scholar—along with her rowing partner, Ursula Grobler, a former triathlete from South Africa—hope to win a gold medal in women’s lightweight double-scull rowing in the 2012 Olympics. If they win the gold, it would be a first for the United States in this event. Broughton won a silver medal with her team in the lightweight quadruple scull at the FISA World Rowing Championships in New Zealand last fall.

Travis Harper BA lives in Seattle and is enrolled in the secondary teacher education program at the University of Washington. He’s on track to become a certified Japanese teacher this year and aspires to earn his MAT in 2012.

Sierra Jenkins BA is the Los Angeles–area communications director for the California Charter School Association. She also supports the growth of the association’s parent advocacy organization, Families That Can. Jenkins previously worked as a field representative for state Senator Gloria Romero, chair of the education committee.

Karl Lukhaup B.A. is lead carpenter at the historic restoration firm Wanamaker Restoration in Burlington, Vermont. This spring, he began a master’s degree program in historic preservation at the University of Vermont.

Collin McKean JD received the Multnomah Bar Association’s 2010 Young Lawyers Section Award of Merit.

2006

Anna Brones B.A. is a writer and new media strategist. She cofounded Under Solen Media, where she develops new media marketing strategies to “positively align brands, causes, and adventurers.”

Elisa Dozono J.D., an attorney with Miller Nash, was selected chair of the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission. As chair, she will head the group that has operational oversight of the Oregon Convention Center, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, and the Portland Expo Center. She has served on the commission since 2007.

Kelly Hansen J.D. started a law firm, Hansen-Larson, in Bend with fellow alumna Kristin Larson JD ’02. Hansen is an experienced divorce attorney and trial lawyer.

Joanne Ko JD started the Ko Law Firm in Seattle. Her practice focuses on immigration advice, naturalization, and estate law. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Joseph Petroni BA has brought a partner to Causeit, the coaching, consulting, and branding firm he started shortly after graduation. He also owns Fliptography, a firm that has made 35,000 flipbooks and employs 15 people. In his “spare time,” he organizes multiday LGBTQ spiritual gatherings, studies cyborg anthropology, and generally makes “a well-intentioned doofus of myself in the game of life.” He’s about to celebrate his fourth year of partnership with Michael Reed. They live and work in southeast Portland.

2007

Jennifer Bragar J.D. coauthored “The Augean Stables: Measure 49 and the Herculean Task of Correcting an Improvident Initiative Measure in Oregon” in the spring 2010 issue of the Willamette Law Review.

Gillian Kindel BA moved to Chicago last summer and is working at an advertising agency. After graduation, she worked at a small ad agency in New York. During the first half of 2010, Kindel and her boyfriend traveled throughout southeast Asia and southwest China.

2008

Jennifer Woodhouse JD received the Multnomah Bar Association’s 2010 Young Lawyers Section Rookie of the Year Award.

2010

Brad Elkins BA is both special assistant to the CEO and development associate at the Truman National Security Project, a national security leadership institute.

Emily Nelson BA served as the National Symphony Orchestra intern in the Kennedy Center’s education department during the last four months of 2010. Before interning at the Kennedy Center, she presented her undergraduate senior thesis, “ ‘Music Isn’t About Anything’: Issues of Program in Leonard Bernstein’s Second Symphony The Age of Anxiety,” at the American Musicological Society Chapter Meeting in Calgary, Canada.

Aron Steinke MAT is the author of The Super Crazy Cat Dance (Blue Apple Books, 2010), a children’s comic about a cat. He has also written Neptune (Sparkplug Comic Books, 2010), a comic for third- through eighth-graders.

Aaron Upsal BA is part of the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program “helping to teach English in the boonies of Nara prefecture.” He says “the kids are awesome, and the people are incredibly nice.” He thanks the professors and staff at Lewis & Clark for their help and support.