Class Notes 1990s

1990s

1990

Brad Avakian JD ’90 geared up for his second bid to become an Oregon House representative for District 34, which includes most of Beaverton and Aloha.

Michael Belcher ’90 is a partner at Larry Harvey Public Relations, a Tualatin-based public affairs and marketing firm. Previously, Belcher worked in marketing with the Walt Disney Company and McDonald’s Corporation.

Laura Kaelke ’90 recently married Ralf Schroeder and lives in Munich, Germany. She works at PeopleSoft as a human-capital-management-product-strategy manager for central Europe.

Judi Lowrey JD ’90 has been assigned to the Jackson County branch of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, the goal of which is to prosecute drug traffickers in federal court. Lowrey also continues as deputy district attorney for Jackson County.

Mark Richardson ’90 and Janet Goldsmith ’90 live in Beaverton. They have two children, Rebecca, 4, and David, 2, and recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. Mark earned a master’s degree in library science and now cares full time for their children.

Susan Segerstrom ’90 recently received the 2002 Templeton Positive psychology Prize for her study of optimism on psychological and physical health. She is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky.

1991

Kathleen Copeland MAT ’91 has been named principal of East Orient elementary School in Gresham.

Laura Reeves Ford ’91 and Jess Ford ’91 moved near St. Louis. Their first son was born last summer. 

Jennifer Frey ’91 earned master teacher certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching standards. She spent 500 hours compiling a portfolio documenting her teaching skills and passed a six-hour nationwide examination. Since 1999, Frey has taught in Alameda, California. 

Tammy Gibson ’91 graduated from Seattle University School of Law in May. She lives with her husband in Seattle and is looking for employment. 

Vernon McCray JD ’91, a partner in the Camas, Washington, firm of Boyd, Gaffney, Sowards, McCray & Treosti, was recently elected to the Washougal School Board.

Laura Mundt ’91 recently completed training as a lactation educator. She teaches breastfeeding, childbirth preparation, newborn care, and sibling preparation classes at Providence Portland Medical Center. Mundt’s husband, Anthony “Tony” Paolucci ’91, works as a systems engineer at Network Appliance. They have one daughter, Tomin, 3.

Wendy Levy Rush ’91 and her husband, Eliot, live outside Boston with their two children.

Maya Sen ’91 is an assistant professor of psychology and director of the gender studies minor at Northern Michigan University.

Deborah Shannon ’91 is a marketing associate at Cushman & Wakefield. She develops proposals and presentations for new and existing clients and acts as liaison to the firm’s national marketing group. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Shannon worked with McGregor Millette & Associates, a multifamily brokerage firm in Portland.

1992

Elizabeth Conachy ’92 works as a child therapist on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Arizona. She lives in Flagstaff.

Laurie Craghead JD ’92 is assistant county counsel for Deschutes County. She tackles issues related to community development, land use, tax, special districts, and mental health commitments.

Charles Dunn ’92 is an assistant professor of mathematics at Linfield College.

Heidi Gordon ’92 attends the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Iphigenia “Jenny” Johnson ’92, MAT ’95 took last year off from teaching elementary school in Portland to travel and rock climb in Asia, Mexico, and the United States. She now teaches at the Taipei American School in Taiwan.

John Kodachi JD ’92 has joined Kell, Alterman & Runstein in Portland, where he focuses on corporate and immigration law. Previously, Kodachi spent seven years with Kobayashi, Sugita & Goda in Honolulu.

Donna Miller Peterson ’92 is director of outbound marketing for Tektronix’s instruments Business Unit, where she develops worldwide outbound strategies and activities for core product lines.

Mark Peterson ’92 received his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2000. His dissertation was titled “Brewing Technology and the Beer Trade in Medieval Germany.”

Kristin Richman ’92 works as a neighborhood coordinator in Vancouver, Washington’s community services department.

Marybeth Cruikshank Stewart-Scots ’92 lives in Bend and is planning a trip to India.

Julie Venables ’92 lives in Denver, where she works as a traffic coordinator at Infinity Broadcasting.

1993

Sung-Yong “Steve” Ahn ’93 earned a JD from Hofstra University and lives in Bayside, New York.

Gustavo J. Cruz Jr. ’93 was named a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine in Portland. He focuses on securities law and corporate finance.

Jane Fox ’93 returns to law after pursuing a career as a standup comedian and script-writer. Fox has taken a job at the Metro Public Defender, where she feels she can lend a voice to the disenfranchised.

Mark Froehlich ’93 earned a master’s degree in business administration at Northeastern University in Boston.

Gary R. Johnson JD ’93 is now in the Redmond office of Hoffman, Hart & Wagner. Johnson, who has a certificate in environmental law, works primarily in insurance defense, construction litigation, and real estate .

Virginia Lindemann ’93 was one of 10 U.S. teachers awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in Turkey. The six-week summer program focused on Turkish history, economics, culture, and current political issues. She studied at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and traveled throughout the country. She currently teaches social studies at Conifer High School near Denver.

Jeffrey Renshaw JD ’93 has opened his own firm in Portland. His practice will continue to focus on domestic relations.

John Riutta III ’93 lives in Scappoose and writes “From Under My Hat,” a column in Washington’s South County Spotlight newspaper. Riutta, a communications and information specialist in Portland, has been married for nine years and has one daughter. He and his family are active in their church.

Erica Schafer ’93 is the human resources manager at Montalvo, an arts center in the San Francisco Bay area. She is pursuing her master’s degree in counseling psychology at the Institute of trans-personal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. She lives in Santa Cruz.

1994

Robert Earhart ’94 moved to the Netherlands to attend Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University. He is enrolled in a master’s degree program in business administration with a specialization in international economic development.

Scott Shapiro JD ’94 has been promoted to partner in the Sacramento-based firm of Downey, Brand, Seymour & Rohwer. He specializes in natural resources law, with an emphasis on water issues.

Stephen Shropshire JD ’94 recently received the multnomah Bar Association Young Lawyer Section’s Award of Merit for outstanding service.

1995

Walt Blomberg ’95 has been named superintendent of the St. Helens School District. Blomberg was previously executive director of personnel and administrative services at Woodburn School District. Blomberg studied for his Standard Administrative License in Lewis & Clark’s Department of Educational Administration.

Andrew Bobzien JD ’95 is this year’s Michael E. Haglund Young Lawyer Award winner for his volunteer work at the Domestic Violence Project. This honor is bestowed on young lawyers with an outstanding record of pro bono service.

Alice Cuprill-Comas JD ’95 has joined the business department of Ater Wynne, where she focuses on mergers and acquisitions, as well as on corporate finance and security.

Jason Fellows ’95 works in sales for his family’s sewing company. He and his wife live in Bend.

Michael Henderson ’95 teaches civics and global studies in Centennial School District in Gresham.

Susan Kirtley ’95 earned her PhD in English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in May. She is an assistant professor of English at Western Oregon University.

Joseph S. Makuch JD ’95 earned his position as principal in the firm of Marger Johnson & McCollum with his expertise in computer-related patent prosecution.

Arika Stephan ’95 and her husband, Michael Menzies, opened Oregon’s Braeside Farms, which specializes in community-supported agriculture. They manage 21 acres of sustainable organic farm products. They are also active members of the Taoist Tai Chi Society in Portland.

1996

Ever Carradine ’96 is an actress living in Los Angeles. She made guest appearances in the TV series Diagnosis Murder,then won recurring TV roles in Conrad Bloom (Nina, Bloom’s sister), Veronica’s Closet (Pepper, airhead assistant), Once and Again (Tiffany, Jake’s girlfriend), and Party of Five(Rosalie, Julia Salinger’s romantic rival). Carradine also appeared in the 1999 David Spade comedy Lost & Found.She’ll be seen in the upcoming independent film releases Lucky 13 and Rope-walk, and in the Sarah Jessica Parker–Harry Connick Jr. comedy, Life Without Dick.

Justin Delaney JD ’96 has been promoted to assistant general counsel for Standard Insurance Company. In addition to continuing his oversight of legislative and regulatory affairs, Delaney will provide legal support to the company’s office of general counsel.

Brooke Donald ’96 lives in Washington, D.C., where she works as a reporter for the Associated Press. On weekends, when she’s not biking or hiking in Virginia, she tries to get up to New York to visit Maiya Shaw ’96, Mara McClelland ’95,and Joannie Bottkol, who was briefly at Lewis & Clark in the mid-1990s. Shaw and McClelland both work in interior design/architveecture. Bottkol works as a financial adviser and continues to make pottery. They keep in touch with Beth Leger ’96. She is completing her PhD at the University of California at Davis, where she studies the California poppy. Also in the Golden State is Don Lareau ’96.

Lesley Apple Haskell JD ’96 has become the first nonfamily shareholder in the newly renamed firm of Wyers & Haskell in Hood River. Haskell has expertise in employment law and will assist Teunis Wyers Jr. in his position as county general counsel.

Harlan Levy JD ’96 is a staff attorney for government affairs at the Oregon Association of Realtors, where he monitors legislative and regulatory activity relating to land use.

Andrea Nichols JD ’96 assisted with an article titled “The Yucca Mountain Fight Is Far From Over,” published in the February 2002 issue of Nevada Lawyer. 

Jana H. Sibson JD ’96 recently resigned from Robinson Russell, where she had practiced plaintiffs’ civil rights law for over five years.

1997

Victoria D. Heinrich Blachly JD ’97 joined the Portland office of Lane Powell Spears Lubersky as an associate in the litigation department. She previously clerked for both Federal District Court Judge Helen J. Frye and Multnomah County Circuit Judge Harl H. Haas.

Anne Bunn ’97 and Sam Thompson ’97 live in Boston. Thompson is enrolled in Babson College’s M.BA program, and Bunn works in publishing.

Dayna Messenger Christian JD ’97 has joined the David Slader Law Firm in Portland. She previously served for more than five years as a prosecutor for the Multnomah County District Attorney, where she specialized in prosecuting crimes of domestic violence.

Mercedes Binh Ly ’97 is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings.

Debbie McInturff ’97 completed a medical technology program at Oregon Health & Science University in 1999 and works for Portland’s Providence Hospital System.

Matt Wojcik JD ’97 is an associate in the Seattle office of Williams, Kastner & Gibbs, where his practice centers on intellectual property, products liability, and commercial litigation. 

1998

Andrew Beckham ’98, MAT ’01 teaches art at Beaverton High School and continues to restore Volkswagens.

Melissa Boge JD ’98 joined the Portland office of Preston Gates & Ellis. She represents clients in the areas of technological development and licensing, e-commerce, and related intellectual property issues.

Laura Elly ’98 lives in Sitka, Alaska, where she is an admissions counselor at Sheldon Jackson College. After graduation, she lived in Bangladesh for six months as a Peace Corps volunteer; returned to the States to study massage therapy in Los Angeles; and lived in Guatemala for a year as a young-adult volunteer with the Presbyterian Church.

Kristen Fletcher JD ’98 is director of the National Sea Grant Law Center/Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program. In June, she gave the keynote address at the National Fisheries Law and Policy Symposium at Roger Williams University School of Law in Briston, Rhode Island.

Megan Hylton ’98 lives in Munich, Germany, where she is assistant director of Lewis & Clark’s Year of Study in Munich program. She’s an avid motorcyclist and scuba dives whenever possible. Recently, she lived in Spain for six weeks, took an intensive language course, and then traveled to Portugal.

Noel Johnson ’98 finished her second year of teaching kindergarten at a private school in West Covina, California.

Juliet C. Laycoe JD ’98 received the George C. Marshall Leadership Award, given to the Clark County, Washington, resident under the age of 35 who best represents leadership, community service, vision, and honor. Laycoe earned this honor for her work at Blair, Schaefer, Hutchison & Wolfe, the Rotary Youth Leadership League, and the Southwest Washington Forward Thrust Board. 

Jeffrey Nerdin ’98, JD ’01 is an associate attorney for the Portland office of Ater Wynne.

Heyke Nickerson JD ’98 was recently promoted to vice president and community banking district manager for Wells Fargo Bank.

Erin Prince MEd ’98 has been named principal at Bryant Elementary School in Lake Oswego.

1999

Steve Bruno ’99 is a program manager at Butherman World Relief, an international development and relief agency. Recently, his work has taken him to Kenya, Tanzania, and Thailand, including refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. In addition, Bruno is pursuing a master’s degree in nonprofit management at the University of Maryland. 

Kittee Custer JD ’99 has opened her own firm, Custer Law Office, in Pendleton after almost two years in the city’s public defender’s office. Her practice will focus on criminal defense and domestic relations.

Dave Dorman ’99 has been named principal of the new Fern Hill Elementary School in the Forest Grove School District. He studied for his Basic Administrator License in Lewis & Clark’s Department of Educational Administration.

Justin Duling ’99 recently returned to the States from Australia, where he was head baseball coach at the University of Western Australia and ran a development program for kids. His baseball team won two back-to-back championships. He now imports Australian baseball and softball gloves.

Alicia Gilbert ’99 was a director for Madelaine, Lorraine, and Bergstrom halls at St. Norbert College, where she swam the Fox River Relay for Life and participated in the Kiss a Cow program to benefit the American Cancer Society. She’s now enrolled in a master’s degree program in student-affairs administration at Ball State University, where she works as a hall director.

Jennifer Keehn ’99, MAT ’00 finished her third year as director of bands at Henley High School in Klamath Falls. She directs six bands: two fifth-grade bands, two sixth-grade bands, a high school concert and marching band, and a high school jazz band. She bought a house that she loves.

George Kline ’99 works at Solomon Smith Barney in San Francisco as an asset manager specializing in tax-deferred retirement rollovers, corporate 401(k) accounts, and IRAs.

Dana Roach Krawczuk JD ’99 has joined the Ball Janik Law Firm in Portland. Her practice emphasizes land use, environmental, and natural resources law.

Melissa Mecca ’99 received her commission as a naval officer after completing Officer Candidate School at Naval Aviation Schools Command, Naval Air Station, in Pensacola, Florida. During the 13-week program, Mecca received extensive instruction in navigation, ship handling, engineering, naval warfare, and management.

Lili Panarella JD ’99, an associate in the Portland office of Stoel Rives, is proving that a lawyer can have a life. As a mother of two, Panarella is blazing new trails for the family-oriented lawyer by staying on the partnership track at one of the Northwest’s most prestigious law firms while working only 60 percent of the hours worked by full-time associates.