Fall 2005
Table of Contents

CLASSNOTES

John C. Prouty, J.D. ’82
by Christianna McCausland

A simple, black-and-white painted sign humbly proclaims “John C. Prouty, Attorney-At-Law,” but the home office appears abandoned. Although it is a weekday, the lawyer is busy in his barn, stacking hay bales in the stifling summer heat in bare feet and a green baseball cap. Prouty, J.D. ’82, is a country lawyer who splits his time between two passions, farming and practicing law, both on the 300 acres of farmland in southern Maryland his family has owned for at least 200 years. When tobacco farming stopped being lucrative, he began yet another endeavor: farming flowers.

Prouty finds it humorous that anyone would take notice of his rural pursuits. “In terms of what I’ve done in my ‘legal career,’ there are many people who have done a lot more in the profession,” he says, pointing to classmates who are now judges or who are practicing in major firms.

Growing up, Prouty was always the child who wanted to know all the answers; he looked upon law school as the place to find them. However, even as a law student, he knew he wanted an unconventional career—one that would let him continue farming while making an impact on his local community through law.

Huntingtown, Md., is a minuscule town on the banks of the Patuxent River. In a small community, word of mouth is the best advertising, and Prouty obtains most of his clients through the community grapevine.

His focus is on real estate closings with an emphasis on land preservation, but his priorities move with the seasons. As his crops grow, he becomes more of a phantom in his office, leaving the mechanics of the office to his assistant in favor of his fields.

In 2000, Prouty participated in the state’s tobacco buyout, thereby agreeing to never grow the crop again. But he needed something to replace the income the product once gave the farm. “My partner, Roxana, and I spent many an evening on the porch, drinking a beer, trying to decide what to grow,” he recalls.

Not surprisingly, he decided to do something a little different. After attending an association meeting for cut flower growers, it was decided.

“My conclusion was that I didn’t know a lot about growing flowers, but I knew a lot more about growing things in general than these people did,” he says.

Under the skeptical eye of his father (a fellow farmer who is now his son’s greatest marketer), Prouty replaced the tobacco fields with more than 100 flower varieties that bloom from Mother’s Day until the first frost. The gardens, protected by a buffer of rye, contain neat rows of phlox, zinnias, lisianthus and dahlias, as well as swarms of contented dragonflies and butterflies. A former tobacco barn now houses a refrigerated storage room for the cut flowers where they can be assembled into bouquets and prepared for delivery to the local grocery store or farmer’s market. Although he cannot compete with large wholesalers’ discount prices, Prouty offers customers straight-from-the-farm freshness and quality. And his customers appreciate knowing where the wares they are buying have originated.

“I think it is important for customers and farmers to have direct contact with each other,” he says. “It helps everyone understand where the other person is coming from.”

When it comes to direct selling, Prouty tries to keep his lawyer’s persona out of the farmer’s market. “People often buy $10 worth of flowers and think that’s a retainer fee to ask a whole bunch of convoluted legal questions,” he says with a chuckle.

While farming and lawyering may not often mix, Prouty claims that the critical skills he received at the University of Baltimore School of Law affect everything he does. “Guys I went to law school with I can still call; you build a great network,” he says. “And I learned the process of thinking analytically, which is the most important thing anyone can get from law school.”

And while his use of a law degree may not be conventional, he sees this as part of its beauty. “A law degree gives you a tremendous amount of options,” he says. “It’s good if you want to go into business, politics, teaching—anything. Every day, the legal system becomes a bigger part of everyone’s life; having that background enables you to go in so many different directions.”

Jahangir “Jon” Ghajar, B.S. ’76
by Elizabeth Schuman, M.A. ’94

Perhaps it’s fitting that Persian and Oriental rugs are his trade. Although his plans were to become a leading entrepreneur in his homeland of Iran, destiny had other ideas. Moreover, in what could only be called a twist of fate, Jahangir “Jon” Ghajar, B.S. ’76, has made a life selling textiles steeped in history.

Once Ghajar, 62, completed his bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Baltimore in 1976, he returned home. “Life was like a dream,” he says of Iran during that time. “I had a new job. Business and the economy were booming. Then, the anti-Shah strikes and demonstrations began.”

That was the start of the Iranian Revolution, when opponents of the Shah of Iran—led by Ayatollah Khomeini—overthrew the government in 1979. Shah supporters and most Westerners, including the American general manager of the ice cream factory at which Ghajar worked, fled the country.

Learning that he was in line to assume the general manager role, Ghajar told his supporters that he needed a vacation before starting his position. Instead, he left, heading back to the United States with a single suitcase and a prayer that he would one day return to Iran. “I had a front seat to the Iranian Revolution,” he says. “I didn’t want to stay [there] under those unknown circumstances.”

Fortunately, his American girlfriend—now his wife—had secured a furnished apartment for him. His first goal was to find a job; after turning down numerous entry-level positions, he turned to a skill he acquired while a UB student years before.

“In 1973, friends purchased an existing art and frame shop and I helped by buying a few rugs for the store,” Ghajar recalls. In time, he became an expert in oriental rugs, learning from professionals about weave, design and materials. While he never had plans to stay in the rug business, it had made for a good living during his years as a UB student. 

When Ghajar returned to the United States in 1979, he turned to what he knew and began selling rugs again, this time with an entrepreneurial bent. “I didn’t want to work for anyone,” he explains. “I took $400 and bought a station wagon that I was told would last six months.” The car actually lasted a year, allowing him to begin building his business.

In 1987, he opened SHAYAN Oriental Rugs in Chantilly, Va. In addition to a large clientele in the Washington, D.C., region, he has also furnished rugs in Baltimore—including those for Anne McCarthy, dean of UB’s Merrick School of Business. “From one suitcase, I now have a half million-dollar inventory, an American partner and, most importantly, my children,” he says. “They are my greatest strength.”  

His oldest daughter completed her master’s degree at The George Washington University, while a second daughter is earning her bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia and is planning to complete her master’s degree in economics in London. His son is a freshman at the University of Virginia.

While years and distance separate Ghajar from his time at the University of Baltimore, he carries the lessons with him. “I remember learning in Marketing 101 that the customer is always right—that stuck in my mind,” he recalls. In addition, he says, the concept of seeing all viewpoints is essential: “If you have blinders on—marketing myopia—you can’t have a panoramic view of the marketplace.”

Certainly, Ghajar’s life gives him a multi-faceted view of politics and history. His family tree can be traced back 300 years and is of royal lineage. Today, his brother—once a minister in the Shah’s cabinet—is retired by the Caspian Sea.

But Ghajar’s world is here, he says—though he’s still wistful for his native land. “It’s a place of passionate, hospitable, polite and complimentary people,” he explains. “They are trying to find a religious, democratic and independent government. My time back there was a sweet dream.”

Perhaps, destiny has shaped his world. Certainly, however, Ghajar has played a hand as well. “If you set your mind on a goal, that goal is achievable,” he says. “Any time I’ve wanted something, I’ve set my mind and gone for it.”

Leroy “Rocky” LeVee, B.S. ’99
by Paula Novash

Leroy “Rocky” Levee, B.S. ’99, likes solving people’s problems.

“That’s what my business is about,” he says. “People come to us because they have a logistical issue, and we help them figure it out.”

To paraphrase Dr. Suess, Levee is an expert at moving things from there to here, and here to there. His company, Epiphany, specializes in disassembling, packing and shipping over-dimensional cargo all over the world. The company figures out how to transport huge machines, among other things, in crates that can be more than 20 feet wide and 16 feet tall. Some items weigh as much as 350,000 pounds.

For example, there’s a helicopter that Epiphany has shipped back and forth from the United States to Russia, Scandinavia and other sites around the world.

“It’s owned by an oil exploration company,” Levee explains. “I send it where they need it, the pilot flies in and uses it, and then we pack it up, bring it home and send it somewhere else.”

Epiphany is based at the Port of Baltimore, and Levee works with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and all types of manufacturers. Because customers are always coming to him with different items to be sent to out-of-the-way places, he says every day is an adventure.

“That’s really my favorite part of it—there’s always some new challenge,” he says.

Levee’s career pre-Epiphany has been full of adventure, too. He went to work right out of high school and over the years held a variety of jobs, from retail sales positions to being a weights-and-measures tester for the Department of Agriculture.

“You know how there’s supposed to be a gallon of milk in a container, or a gallon of gas when you pump it?” asks Levee. “I was the guy who made sure that was accurate. I even weighed McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.”

While checking the accuracy of trucking company scales, he learned how to drive a tractor trailer. A gypsy wanderlust took hold and he decided to drive for a living, visiting 40 states in two months and transporting an oil rig to the Yukon territory while the Alaskan Pipeline was being built.

“The Yukon is the coldest place I’ve ever been—70 degrees below zero,” he recalls. “When you stopped driving, you had to plug the truck into a heater or it would freeze.”

On occasion, Levee’s then-new wife, Joyce, would travel with him. But after the truck he was driving lost its brakes on a mountain in Denver, Colo., and raced down at more than 120 miles per hour before crashing into a snowbank, “she got out, took a plane home and never got into a truck again,” Levee recalls of his wife of 26 years. 

Soon after that, Levee opened his own business, a precursor to Epiphany. He decided to go back to school, attending a local community college before going to UB at night while working full time. 

“I wanted to be more marketable,” he recalls. “The ’90s were an excellent time to be back in school because the technology revolution had taken hold.”         

Levee, who majored in corporate communications, credits his UB education with helping him make Epiphany a success. (The company, which he started in 1998, has tripled its sales and revenue.)

“I learned how to be comfortable with computers, and how that knowledge translates into a thought process for running a business today,” he says. “I realized how much I could operate from a desktop. It’s a different world from when I first went into business.”

As an older student, Levee says he always felt comfortable at UB. “I enjoyed the other students,” he remembers. “We accepted each other—our experiences were different, but that made it interesting,” he recalls.

Levee and his wife are the parents of daughters Audra,  Allison and Abigail and a son, Jack Nicklaus—all of whom range in age from seven to 22. An avid golfer in his spare time, Levee jokes that he looks for jobs that take him near great courses.

A recent trip turned out to be especially eventful. “A few months ago, we were moving a heat exchanger system around New Orleans when the police tried to take a shortcut and led us the wrong way, up a down ramp on the highway,” Levee recounts. “We backed up the interstate for more than 24 miles—and the Louisiana governor’s motorcade was stuck in the traffic.”

Stephen P. Hall, J.D. ’79

“I decided on law school without any intention of ever practicing law,” says Stephen P. Hall, J.D. ’79. “It turned out to be a really good decision that was pretty much based on air.” Which turned out to be particularly fitting, seeing as how Hall’s current career success is entirely based on air—in a manner of speaking.

As the president of Columbia, Md.-based Hallmark Aviation Ltd., Hall spends his days negotiating the sale, purchase, lease and charter of long-range corporate aircraft for VIPs all over the world. He has assisted a certain internationally known sultan in the installation of a $200 million aircraft interior, including hot tubs, and made sure the sultan of Oman obtained a plane large enough for falcons—yes, falcons—to roam freely during flights. He deals in everything from helicopters to 747s and uber-swanky Gulfstream IV jets, and his client list includes Formula One racing tycoon Bernie Ecclestone; one of the Maktoum brothers of the United Arab Emirates; President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria; and President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon.

Oh—and the plane that whisks Donald Trump away at a moment’s notice on NBC’s The Apprentice—Hall procured the craft for “The Donald” back when the billionaire was married to his first wife, Ivana … and, as per her instructions, outfitted the plane with a red velvet interior as well as marble and then brass floors. (The marble floor didn’t hold up under Ivana’s collection of stiletto heels, unsurprisingly.)

A law degree may not seem like the most common means of preparation for a career in aviation, but for Hall, a Washington, D.C., native who was raised in Silver Spring, Md., it made perfect sense. “I decided in my senior year as a business major at the University of Maryland, College Park that I would have a greater chance of a successful career with a broader education,” he explains now.

While selling kitchen appliances to construction companies during the day at General Electric, Hall spent six years earning his law degree at night.

“I probably had the lowest GPA in UB history of any student who was still allowed to graduate,” he jokes, “and my wife and I had two children during that time.” But the time was well spent; he did, in fact, graduate from UB, and he also honed his contract and negotiation skills thanks to GE. “It was fabulous training; I didn’t have to know anything about the product and was selling to people who knew even less about it,” he says.

And thus a consummate salesman equipped with a law degree was born. Hall left GE as its top salesman out of 400-some employees and continued to fine-tune his sales craft at an architectural products company before spotting an ad in the paper for a position at an aircraft sales company in Rockville, Md. “I had no interest in aviation; absolutely none,” he says. But the challenge of a new industry promised to test the range of his sales skills, and Hall stepped up to the plate. His next two positions would be as vice president of sales for Omni International Corporation and as president of The Jet Trading Floor, the two largest general-aircraft brokerage companies in the world at the time.

Though it took two years for Hall to sell his first plane, “after that, it seemed like I sold one every two weeks,” he says. “People who have normal egos aren’t going to buy private jets, and you really have to work hard to learn different cultures and meet the needs of everyone from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies to foreign governments.”

In February 1995, Hall branched out and started his own company, Hallmark Aviation. For the past 10 years, his business has catered to the same exclusive clientele to which Hall is accustomed, and the requests have remained just as eccentric (and unfailingly amusing)—along the lines of luxury planes equipped with dance floors, disco balls, cargo areas for flocks of sheep and even glow-in-the-dark zodiac signs painted on the walls.

Amazingly enough, Hallmark Aviation is only a two-person operation; his wife handles the finances and Hall, naturally, takes care of the negotiations. “No matter how many other attorneys with whom I work, I always feel well prepared and never left behind; my law degree is invaluable,” says the 57-year-old, who has also served as a mentor at the law school.

’60s
’61
Marvin L. “Hank” Majewski, B.S. ’61, owner of Wakefield Valley Golf and Conference Center in Westminster, Md., has been inducted into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame.

’65
Edward W. Yoder, J.D. ’65, of Greensberg, Pa., is a consultant in contracts management.

’67
Gerald K. Kandel, B.S. ’67, of Las Vegas, Nev., has retired from the Transportation Security Administration at McCarran Airport as an administrative officer. He had previously worked as a foreign services officer for the State Department for 30 years, during which time he served at U.S. embassies around the world.

’70s
’70
Louis A. Becker III, J.D. ’70, was appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to the Howard County (Md.) District Court. • Steven A. Gershman, B.S. ’70, a shareholder with Katz, Abosch, Windesheim, Gershman & Freedman in Baltimore, was honored as a “2005 SmartCPA” by Baltimore SmartCEO magazine. • Richard G. Lubinski, B.S. ’70, was elected president of the Northern Ohio Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers. • Paul F. Schlining, B.S. ’70, of Towson, Md., has taken early retirement and is re-discovering writing and traveling.

’71
Charles N. Curlett, B.A. ’71, is a marketing executive at Latshaw Real Estate, a Towson, Md.-based real estate brokerage. • Marvin N. Robbins, J.D. ’71, executive director of the Maryland Inmate Grievance Office in Pikesville, Md., and secretary of the Maryland Sundry Claims Board, was elected president of the Maryland and District of Columbia Association of Administrative Law Judges.

’72
David Burnell Smith, J.D. ’72, has been a practicing lawyer in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 1983. In November 2004, he was elected to the Arizona State House of Representatives. He received a master’s degree in judicial studies from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1995.

’73
William J. Kolodner, B.S. ’71, J.D. ’73, has retired from Baltimore City’s Zoning Enforcement and Administration Department.

’75
Frank Giordano, M.B.A. ’75, is teaching accounting courses at Montgomery College in Germantown, Md., as an adjunct.

’76
James H. Barnes Jr., B.S. ’76, has joined Simplex Grinnel Company as the service sales manager. Simplex Grinnel sells and services fire protection systems, access control, communication systems and time control. • Jeffrey M. Coleman, J.D. ’76, of Weil, Akman, Baylin & Coleman in Timonium, Md., was elected treasurer of the Baltimore synagogue Netivot Shalom. 

’77
Raymond E. Bialek, B.S. ’77, was promoted to billing information services manager for Advance magazine in Wilmington, Del. • Anthony Osian, M.S. ’77, has retired with the Delta Broadcasting Television in Nigeria and has now returned to the United States. He currently lives in Elkridge, Md.

’78
Joan Bossman Gordon, J.D. ’78, was installed as president of the Bar Association of Baltimore City in May 2005. It was erroneously noted in a previous Classnotes entry that she had been appointed an administrative law judge for the Office of Administrative Hearings; in fact, she held that position from 1997-2005 and was most recently appointed as an associate judge for the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in January 2005. • Patrick B. Nixon, J.D. ’78, chief executive officer and acting director of the Department of Defense Commissary Agency, has received the National Military Family Association’s Anna C. Chennault Award for his continued support of the association’s Very Important Patriot Award program.

’80s
’80
Dominick A. Garcia, J.D. ’80, a solo practitioner in Dundalk, Md., is the incoming president of the Baltimore County Bar Association. • H. Terry Hancock, B.S. ’80, managing partner of Clifton Gunderson’s Mid-Atlantic Client Service Center, was recognized as one of the region’s best CPAs by both the Baltimore and Washington SmartCEO magazines. • Nancy J.F. Prue, J.D. ’80, was elected vice president for the board of directors of Baltimore-based Petroleum & Resources Corp.

’83
Chester J. Kleinman, J.D. ’83, is deputy district director for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Baltimore.

’84
Anita M. Sheckells, B.S. ’84, a shareholder with Katz, Abosch, Windesheim, Gershman & Freedman in Baltimore, was honored as a 2005 SmartCPA by Baltimore SmartCEO magazine. She also received a 2005 Special Leader Award from the YWCA of Greater Baltimore.

’85
Robert A. DeAlmeida, M.S. ’85, was named president of the board of directors of Hamilton Federal Bank in Baltimore. • Stephanie J. Monroe, J.D. ’85, was nominated by President George W. Bush to be assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. • David J. Smith, J.D. ’85, is a program officer in the education program at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. • Michele P. Toth, M.S. ’85, was named vice president, human resources and administration, for Northrop Grumman’s information technology sector.

’86
Barbara Anderson, M.B.A. ’86, was promoted to general sales manager at WBAL-TV in Baltimore. • Sheryl L. Davis-Kohl, M.P.A. ’86, president of Beacon Staffing Alternatives in Aberdeen, Md., was named to fill a seat in the state House of Delegates by Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. • Cheryl Rodriquez, B.S. ’86, was named regional manager at the Shelter Group. She will handle the operations of more than 1,500 apartment units in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

’87
Eduardo E. Silva, B.S. ’87, was appointed senior vice president of corporate development at the Washington, D.C., office of IDL Solutions, an IT consulting firm. • Elizabeth A. Frey, J.D. ’87, is president-elect of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association. She is a nurse-attorney at Jack H. Olender & Assoc. in Washington, D.C. • Michael J. Mayhew, M.P.A. ’87, is chief of community planning for the Baltimore County Office of Planning in Towson, Md. • Edmund G. Skrodzki, M.S. ’87, was appointed executive director of safety and security for The Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus. He previously served for 22 years with the Secret Service, the last four years of which were as special agent in charge in Baltimore.

’88
David C. Gaskill, J.D. ’88, was appointed to represent the mayor and town council of Berlin, Md. • Sheila T. Matthews, M.A. ’88, is a case manager at Baltimore City Community College.

’89
Wanda G. Caporaletti, J.D. ’89, is president of the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland. • Tracy A. Gilmore, J.D. ’89, has joined Bodie, Nagle, Dolina, Smith & Hobbs in Reisterstown, Md. Her practice will focus on family law.

’90s
’91
Edward J. Leyden, J.D. ’91, is of counsel to Hartel, Kane, DeSantis, MacDonald & Howie in Greenbelt, Md. • Catherine M. Sampsell, J.D. ’91, is an assistant professor in the history department at the United Arab Emirates University.

’92
Kevin B. Collins, J.D. ’92, has joined the Washington, D.C., office of Covington & Burling as of counsel. He represents clients in patent and trademark disputes. • Laura Helinski Eskenazi, J.D. ’92, was appointed chief counsel for operations at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in Washington, D.C. • Linda C. Goldberg, M.B.A. ’92, is vice president for people management at Lumenos, a consumer-driven health care company in Alexandria, Va. She was appointed by Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to a five-year term as a trustee of the board of the Community College of Baltimore County. • Melvin G. Moore, M.P.A. ’92, is the executive director of the Fort Meade Alliance. • Robert M. Ward, J.D. ’92, a senior special investigator in the Federal Reserve Board’s Special Investigations Section, was recognized by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his contribution to a post-Sept. 11 interagency initiative. As a special investigator, he conducts investigations involving illegal and suspicious activities relating to domestic and foreign financial institutions. He received a certificate of recognition from Alan Greenspan.

’93
Maritoni “Nini” Sarmiento, M.A. ’93, is co-owner, along with her husband, of Home Anthology, a Catonsville, Md., store selling vintage mid-century modern furniture and accessories.

’94
Ian C. Burdette, M.S. ’94, has joined the rates group within the global markets division of Deutsche Bank Securities in New York City. • Patrick M. Byer, M.B.A. ’94, a partner in Clifton Gunderson’s Washington, D.C., office, was recognized as one of the region’s best CPAs by both the Baltimore and Washington SmartCEO magazines.

’95
Robert A. Scott, J.D. ’95, was promoted to counsel at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll in Baltimore. • Dolores V. Sisco, B.A. ’95, is an assistant professor of English literature at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. • Gina M. Snee, B.S. ’95, a CPA at Gorfine, Schiller & Gardyn in Baltimore, was appointed Second District representative to the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission.

’96
Okan Arikan, M.B.A. ’96, is CEO of ASA Global. As an entrepreneur, he initiated the first co-op direct mailing packs and started the first coupon clearing house in Turkey. • Todd A. Feuerman, M.B.A. ’96, was named the “2005 Outstanding Accounting Alumnus” of Towson University. He is an accountant at Ellin & Tucker and is vice chairperson of the firm’s construction services group. • Frank J. Mastro, J.D. ’96, was promoted to partner at Whiteford Taylor & Preston in Baltimore.

’97
Warren B. Duckett, J.D. ’97, is partner at Mulrenin/Frances in Annapolis, Md. • Ephraim M. Juskowicz, M.S. ’97, is an analyst with Buckingham Research in New York City. • Grace H. Kraemer, J.D. ’97, is an associate in the employee benefits practice of the Baltimore office of Ober/Kaler. • John C. McMeekin II, J.D. ’97, of Rawle & Henderson in Philadelphia, was named a “Super Lawyer” in the fields of class action/mass torts in the June 2005 issue of Philadelphia magazine. • Bethany Mundis Whitsell, B.A. ’97, is a psychometrician for the Cornerstone Program at The Johns Hopkins University’s Bayview Campus. She is attending the graduate program in applied psychology at UB.

’98
Jennifer R. Busse, J.D. ’98, an associate in the real estate section of the Towson, Md., office of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, was appointed to the board of directors of the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce for 2005-08. • Melissa Copeland-Bryant, J.D. ’98, was appointed deputy division chief of the narcotics unit for the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office. • Marjorie L. Hitchcock, M.B.A. ’98, was promoted to vice president and relationship manager of the regional recruitment and retention sector within the human resources division of Provident Bank. • Laura Lillicotch, M.S. ’98, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Owings Mills, Md. She specializes in individual adult clients. • Gregory S. Weiner, J.D. ’98, is an associate in the business department of Tydings & Rosenberg in Baltimore.

’99
Richard E. Loiselle, B.S. ’99, is senior analyst with Wells Fargo in Columbia, Md. • Florante Santos, M.P.A. ’99, is a clinical research associate at Clinical Trials & Surveys in Baltimore. • William H. Woolworth III, M.B.A. ’99, is vice president and director of internal audit at Ferris, Baker, Watts in Baltimore. • Arnettia S. Wright, J.D. ’99, has formed the Wright Law Group in Washington, D.C. The practice will focus on real estate, bankruptcy, probate and wills. • Michael S. Yang, J.D. ’99, attorney at Gorman and Williams in Baltimore, was elected vice president of Maryland Lawyers for the Arts for the 2005-06 term. MLA is a nonprofit organization that provides lawyer referral services and pro bono legal assistance to income-eligible artists and arts organizations.

’00s
’00
Mary Elizabeth Bimbra, B.A. ’00, is an executive assistant at Publicis in New York City. • Charles T. Dillon, J.D. ’00, has rejoined the corporate and tax department as counsel of Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz in Baltimore. • Peter J. Kochanski, J.D. ’00, an attorney at the Law Office of William R. Levasseur in Towson, Md., was elected to a second one-year term as president of Santa Claus Anonymous. • Vasilios Peros, J.D. ’00, an associate with Venable in Baltimore, was elected chair of the Intellectual Property Law Committee within the American Bar Association’s TIPS Section. He was also appointed chair of membership for the Bar Association of Baltimore City. • Lisa M. Reese, M.P.A. ’00, is president and CEO of Lisa’s Consultancy in Sarasota, Fla. • James B. Smith, M.P.A. ’00, is the new director of the Community Action Council, a Howard County, Md., quasi-governmental anti-poverty agency that administers such programs as Head Start and a food bank and assists people who are behind on rent and utility bills and facing homelessness. • Michael B. Snyder, J.D. ’00, was named partner at Snyder Slutkin & Snyder in Baltimore.

’01
Blair L. Brannock, B.S. ’01, is payroll manager for Random House in Westminster, Md. • Carlos A. Braxton, J.D. ’01, is an associate in the litigation practice group at Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz in Baltimore. • Christina R. Cantu, J.D. ’01, of Phoenix, Ariz., was promoted to enrollment manager for Laureate Education. • Amy Lillis-Konopacki, B.S. ’01, is a client manager at T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills, Md. • Teeradate Manasviyoungkul, M.S. ’01, is the manager for solution consulting at Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia in Bangkok, Thailand. • Ian M. Smith, B.S. ’01, is a mutual fund wholesaler at T. Rowe Price in Baltimore.

’02
Kathleen R. Pedersen, J.D. ’02, is with T-Mobile USA in Parsippany, N.J. • Courtney J. Tilque, B.S. ’01, M.B.A. ’02, is a contracts administrator with ViaSat in San Diego, Calif.

’03
Andrew L. Bareham, B.S. ’85, M.S. ’03, senior tax manager in Clifton Gunderson’s Baltimore office, was recognized as one of the region’s best CPAs by both the Baltimore and Washington SmartCEO magazines. • Keith D. Barrack, B.S. ’79, M.B.A. ’03, is an auditor specialist at Northrop Grumman. • John S. Butler, B.A. ’03, a medical duty officer with the Howard County (Md.) Department of Fire and Rescue Service, was named the 2005 American Legion’s Maryland State Emergency Medical Services Provider of the Year and the 2005 Veterans of Foreign Wars’ National Emergency Medical Services Provider of the Year. During his career, he has also earned three Gift of Life awards for saving people whose hearts had stopped beating as well as a Medal of Valor, the department’s highest honor, for rescuing a woman in the midst of a gunfight. He serves as the leader of a tactical medic group that provides assistance for the county’s S.W.A.T. team, leads the county fire department’s Honor Guard, is enrolled in the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program and continues to serve in the Marine Forces Reserve. • Linda L. Gregory, B.S. ’02, M.S. ’03, is risk management-education coordinator for the Maryland Medicine Comprehensive Insurance Program. • Elif Kaya, M.B.A. ’03, is an accountant with NEKA in Fairfax, Va. • Tracy M. Laubach, M.A. ’03, is director of marketing and communications for the American Red Cross in Baltimore.

’04
Shawna T. Bobetich, B.S. ’04, is a registered client associate at Merrill Lynch in Baltimore. • Paul J. Burkhart, J.D. ’04, has opened a solo practice in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. • Tahlala X. Mason, B.A. ’97, M.S. ’04, is a branch manager with Lab Corp in Tallahassee, Fla. • Thomas R. Rucki, J.D. ’04, is law clerk to the Hon. Arrie W. Davis in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.