Alumni News
Compiled by Paula Wagner Apfelbach '83

80s

Pat (Pascal) De Luca PhD'80 is the new president of Marycrest International University in Davenport, Iowa. Since 1987, he has been the superintendent of the North Scott Community School District in Eldridge, Iowa, and has also worked in school districts in Madison and Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Rockford, Illinois.

The Luxury of Skepticism: Philosophy and Dialogue in the English Public Sphere, 1660-1740 (University Press of Virginia) is a new book by Timothy Dykstal '80, an associate professor of English at Auburn [Alabama] University.

Bethany House Publishers has produced Gardening Mercies: Finding God in Your Garden by Laurie Ostby Kehler '82 of Los Altos, California. Growing up in Madison as the daughter and granddaughter of award-winning gardening mavens, Kehler asserts that the "act of gardening can be a deeply individual experience in personal and spiritual growth. It's the place where we are up close to the daily miracles of creation, death, and rebirth - life itself!"

Amy Vedder MS'82, PhD'89, a director at the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Bronx, New York, and UW Assistant Professor of Geography Lisa Naughton-Treves '85, MS'87 are among the editors of African Rain Forest Ecology and Conservation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Yale University Press).

In recognition of her work as a producer and director of television commercials, Chicagoan Carey Lundin '84 recently won three national awards. For the Illinois Organ Donor Program, she earned both a Silver Telly Award and a Chicago International Film Festival-TV Competition Award of Merit, and for a spot for a referendum in Ohio, she won a Bronze Telly.

Writes David Shavzin '84, "After twelve years with the global pharmaceutical firm Aventis, four of those living in Paris, I have moved from the large, corporate world into small business. I have become a partner and the president of Federated Wholesale in the Atlanta area. Federated supports the nation's veterans, needy, homeless, and disaster victims by providing them with low-cost, customized personal-care packages, as well as promotional thank-you gifts for dedicated volunteers who support their efforts."

Here's a short, but sweet update from a Badger mover and shaker: "Lev Spiro '84 has been directing the award-winning WB series Gilmore Girls, as well as episodes of Jack and Jill, Dawson's Creek, Arli$$, and Popular. He lives in Los Angeles with his spouse, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, and dog, Zuma, who firmly believes that she is queen of Benedict Canyon."

This spring, Chesapeake Academy in Irvington, Virginia, announced the appointment of Seth Ahlborn MS'85 as its ninth head of school. For the last seven years, he has held positions at Brewster Academy, an independent boarding school in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire; his most recent post was dean of community life.

The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968 (University of North Carolina Press) came out this spring. The author is Kari Frederickson '86, an assistant professor of history at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

"As an avid reader of Alumni News, I wanted to keep you apprised of a not-so-famous UW alumnus: me!" writes Tom Innis '86. "Au contraire," we reply to Innis, who has recently been promoted to director of sales for Norstar International, a Cedarburg, Wisconsin-based manufacturing firm serving the global plastics industry. "Of p articular note," he adds, "is the use of my Spanish, which was my college major, in the recent negotiation of joint venture agreements with partners in Mexico." Innis lives in Milwaukee with his spouse, Marcia Hall Innis '86, and their two-year-old daughter, future UW alumna Katherine.

Western Michigan University has published and awarded the 2000 New Issues Poetry Prize to Elizabeth Itkin Powell '87's The Republic of Self, a meditation on both the public and private American self. The poet has worked as a journalist, teacher, and congressional aide and resides in Burlington, Vermont.

Lynn Tuttle Gunney '88 let us know about her new venture as the principal of Gunney Orchestrated Marketing Communications, a consulting firm in Livermore, California, that specializes in strategic programs for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.

Alumni News: 40s-50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s

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