1960s
Joan Perry Brock ’64 was appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to a five-year term on the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Board of Trustees in February. Brock, of Virginia Beach, is a community volunteer and philanthropist. She served as chair of the board of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk from 2004-06.
Zealous advocate for abused children honored in Chesterfield
A Chesterfield County facility where child abuse victims can be interviewed in a safe, neutral environment bears the name of Bonnie Davis ’71 (in blue suit).
The Davis Child Advocacy Center, named in May after approval by the county Board of Supervisors, honors Davis’ zealous advocacy of child abuse victims and her longtime effort to establish the facility. More than 400 interviews have been conducted in the center since it opened in January 2018.
Davis retired after 23 years as a juvenile and domestic relations judge in 2016. During her 10 years as an assistant Chesterfield County commonwealth’s attorney prior to her judgeship, she prosecuted many child abuse cases.
Davis began lobbying for a child advocacy center in Chesterfield in 1986 after touring the first such facility—now the National Child Advocacy Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. Her boss at the time wasn’t interested, but she didn’t give up. More than 25 years later, she finally found someone who agreed the idea had merit—a deputy county administrator—and the pair formed a steering committee.
Trained professionals from multiple agencies, including social services and the police, conduct interviews at the center. The three-person staff includes a forensic interviewer, a family advocate and an administrator of the center.
Davis, the 2018 recipient of Longwood’s Thomas Jefferson Professional Achievement Award, joined Longwood’s Foundation Board in July.
1970s
Beth Blanchard Turnbull ’73 is retired after working in a magistrates’ court in Norfolk. Early in her career, she worked in the Norfolk juvenile court as a probation officer. She lives in Norfolk.
1980s
Donna Nuckols Kidder ’81 was selected in June by her peers as the 2019 Teacher of the Year for the upper school (grades 6-12) at Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School in Powhatan. Kidder is an English and French teacher at the school, where she recently began her fifth year. She taught previously in Cumberland, Powhatan and Chesterfield counties and Benedictine College Prep School in Richmond.
Dr. Clara James Scott ’83, a retired educator and school administrator, is running for the South Anna District seat on the Hanover County Board of Supervisors in November. Throughout her career, she’s worked in Newport News, Hanover and Richmond at schools for preschoolers to adults. Scott, who lives in the Montpelier area, serves on the advisory board for Longwood’s Andy Taylor Center for Early Childhood Development. She has a master’s from Virginia State University and a doctorate from Virginia Tech.
Denise Moore Ferrell, M.S. ’84, was a music instructor this summer at Kids Kollege, an enrichment program in South Boston sponsored by the Parsons- Bruce Art Association. She taught the weeklong “Say It With Music” class for ages 5-7. Ferrell is the music teacher at Cluster Springs Elementary School in Alton. She also is music director at Main Street United Methodist Church in South Boston and has sung with The Prizery Singers and Community Choir.
Scott Marshall ’85 is director of risk management for Capital One. He has worked for the company for 22 years.
David Mulherin ’85 was named manager of business development for Web Teks, in Chesapeake, in February. He previously worked in senior sales and sales management for Secure Computing Corp., Oracle Corp. and IBM.
Daphne Southall Weaver ’86, M.Ed. ’00, began a position in January as a behavioral consultant with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority’s REACH crisis stabilization program, based in Chester. She began her career as a job-placement counselor with the Sheltered Workshop of Farmville, now STEPS, in 1986, and then administered a number of programs in the behavioral health area, including, most recently, at Crossroads Community Services, where she was intellectual disabilities services director. She lives in Petersburg.
Tina Barrett ’88 was promoted in June to head coach of the Ottawa University Arizona’s men’s and women’s golf programs. She had been assistant coach for the last two years. Barrett entered coaching after serving for more than eight years as director of programming and special events at The First Tee of Phoenix, teaching golf and life skills to youths ages 7-17, which followed a 19-year LPGA career. A member of Longwood’s Athletics Hall of Fame and the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) Hall of Fame, Barrett was a three-time NGCA All-American and a two-time NGCA national champion.
(Photo by Mike Kropf ’14)
Nurturing small businesses has been alumna’s calling for almost 30 years
Sheri McGuire ’91 has been involved with the Longwood Small Business Development Center—which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year— almost since its inception. She didn’t even wait to graduate.
McGuire began with the SBDC as a student intern in 1990. In 1992, a month after graduating, she was hired as program coordinator and business analyst. She later became associate director and has been executive director since 2005.
“It’s a different case study every day—like putting pieces of a puzzle together,” she said of her work with the center. “I enjoy providing the resources that can bring that puzzle together.”
McGuire, who has an MBA from Virginia Tech, has been Longwood’s associate vice president for community and economic development since 2016.
The SBDC provides education, consulting and economic research to support potential and existing small business owners throughout Southside Virginia. It serves 20 counties and five cities. In 2018, the center consulted 363 entrepreneurs, held 55 training seminars, created and retained 91 jobs and was responsible for generating more than $6.8 million in new capital.
(Photo by Joel Isimeme/Liberty University)
Humorous dictionary helps demystify Southside slang
If you’re not from Southside Virginia, some of the expressions Cindy Martin Schmidt ’92, M.S. ’95, routinely uses in conversation might leave you puzzled. But don’t worry—you can look them up in the dictionary.
Schmidt and Josh Waltman decided to take their coworkers’ advice after repeatedly getting puzzled looks when they’d use expressions from their Southside upbringing like “I’m gonna grab some nabs” or “Why are you up on your high horse today?”
“They would say, ‘You should write a dictionary,’ so we started jotting down words on our lunch break,” said Schmidt, an academic librarian in Lynchburg who taught in Longwood’s school librarianship program from 2006-10.
Southside Slang: A Dictionary of Southside Virginia for Yankees, City- Slickers, and Other Oatsiiiders, was self-published through Amazon in April.
“The book, which is equal parts informative and humorous, was a fun passion project,” said Schmidt, who grew up near Keysville in Lunenburg County and now lives in the Cullen area of Charlotte County.
“Words change from generation to generation, and as librarians we wanted to document the culture and language.”
Available in paperback and as an e-book, the 124-page dictionary also has callouts on Southside culture. For more information, visit Facebook.com/southsidecountryva.
—Kent Booty
Alumna leads team charged with uncovering government corruption
Katrina Moulton Goodman ’97, M.A.’01, was appointed chief of investigations for the Virginia Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) in March.
Goodman leads a team of five special agents and one forensic analyst who conduct criminal and administrative investigations of government fraud, waste, abuse and corruption. She also oversees the agency’s State Fraud, Waste and Abuse Hotline.
“What I like about law enforcement is helping people, and no two days are ever the same,” said Goodman, who made a name for herself in 2000 as an undercover officer in Roanoke County’s undercover “Operation Babyface” sting.
The investigation was prompted by reports of drug dealing and alleged gang activity at a high school. Goodman was chosen for the yearlong operation— which resulted in 54 criminal charges against eight students and five adults—because she had a youthful face and was new to the area. “I was a 25-year-old pretending to be a 17-year-old high-school junior,” said Goodman.
Prior to joining OSIG as a special agent in 2017, Goodman was senior special agent with what is now the Virginia ABC Authority. She also has been a detective and police officer in Roanoke County and a police officer in Lynchburg.
Goodman attended Longwood with her twin sister, Kimberly Moulton McManus ’97.
1990s
Dr. LaTonya Nixon ’90 was appointed vice president of student services at Beaufort County Community College in Washington, North Carolina, in August. She had been dean of student services at Roanoke-Chowan Community College since 2017. She previously worked in student support services at Pitt Community College and Tidewater Community College. Nixon has a master’s from Norfolk State University and a Ph.D. from Walden University.
Kathleen Early ’92 was named corporate secretary for the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation in August. She had been manager of governance for the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, and she was director of legal services and assistant corporate secretary of the American Farm Bureau Federation from 2006- 18. She served on Longwood’s Alumni Board from 2008-15, the last two years as president. Early, who has a master’s from Trinity University, is currently a member of the Athletics Advisory Board.
Mike Taylor ’92 is running for re-election as Pittsylvania County sheriff this November. If he is elected, it would be his fourth term. He joined the sheriff ’s office in 1975 as a deputy and also has been an investigator, chief investigator and a lieutenant. Taylor lives in Ringgold.
Brenda Rodgers Weeks ’92 was named the 2019 Franklin County Teacher of the Year in May. Weeks has for the last three years been an instructional coach at Lee M. Waid Elementary School, where she mentors new teachers, helps with classroom strategies, facilitates parent involvement, coordinates SOL testing and administers a teacher-enrichment program. Weeks taught third grade at Lee Waid Elementary for 15 years. She has a master’s from Virginia Tech.
Christy Brown ’97 is senior process manager for Capital One. She has worked for the company for 18 years.
Dr. Jan Medley ’97, M.S. ’03, who had been principal of Amelia County Middle School, was promoted in June to director of pupil personnel and federal programs for that school division. She has been with the Amelia schools since 2000, starting as a special education teacher at the high school. Before switching to an education career, Medley was a certified therapeutic recreation specialist. She has an Ed.D. from Virginia State University.
Kathryn Falls Roberts ’97 was appointed to the Danville Community College board in March. One of three members representing Halifax County (she was appointed by the Halifax County Board of Supervisors), she is serving a four-year term on the nine-member board. She also serves on the Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital board. Roberts, who lives in South Boston, is chief operating officer for Rob Land Development & Construction Ltd. In addition to her Longwood degree, she has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia.
Army Lt. Col. Jerome “Jay” Barnard ’98, then commander of the Defense Logistics Agency Distribution Center in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal in May. In that position, he led 179 Defense Logistics Agency civilians, managed an annual operating budget of more than $15 million and was responsible for material worth $10.4 billon. Barnard, who was transferred in late May to Fort Knox, Kentucky, had worked at Tobyhanna since 2016; the center was awarded the Michael E. Yost Distribution Center of the Year-Medium Award for 2017. A member of Longwood’s ROTC program, he was commissioned an ordnance officer upon graduating.
Sean Gates ’98 is the author of a historical fiction novel, The Dark and Lonely Road. The novel takes place in 1959 in King George County, where Gates grew up and still lives. The book focuses on business transactions—which he said “look like shady deals”—that preceded an airstrip being forced to relocate when the nearby Dahlgren Navy base expanded, resulting in the property being sold to developers. Gates, an art major, designed the book’s cover and did the typesetting.
IT exec’s skills transfer from finance to biscuits
Biscuits, investments, insurance and gasoline. When you work in IT, the work is surprisingly universal regardless of the corporation or what it’s selling.
Take John Young ’00, for example.
In May, he became vice president of technology and transformation for Biscuitville Fresh Southern, which operates more than 60 restaurants in North Carolina and Virginia. He had been a technology consultant for the company for six months.
Young was previously global information officer at Static Control Components. He also has held high-level IT positions for several Fortune 500 companies, such as Circle K (IT director for North America), a global convenience store chain and Genworth Financial. Early in his career, before transitioning from the finance industry to IT and project management, he was vice president of operations for a Merrill Lynch subsidiary.
“What continues to draw me to IT is how smart tech companies continue to change lives,” he said. “A leading example is how the food industry—grocery stores, convenience stores and restaurants—has been impacted by the use of smartphones as a virtual point of sale. Nearly every product-driven or service industry is using technology to better serve their customers.”
Young works at Biscuitville’s headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina.
April Aldridge and her daughter, Cora Belle (left); Colby Lopez and her daughter, Rosa Lia (right)
Former roommates still do everything together with baby girls born only 12 hours apart
April Marks Aldridge ’08, M.S. ’10, and Colby Tomlin Lopez ’07 have been best friends since sixth grade. They roomed together at Longwood all four years and briefly lived together before marrying and going to work at the same school.
On Feb. 25—despite their due dates being five days apart—they went in labor within 30 minutes of each other, and their baby girls were born only 12 hours apart.
“My dad joked, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if the babies were born the same day,’ but I said that would never happen,” said Lopez.
Rosa Lia Lopez and Cora Belle Aldridge each weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces, with only a quarter-inch difference in height. When Lopez’s nurse found out she and Aldridge are best friends, she put them in side by- side postpartum suites.
“We got up and walked into each other’s rooms. It was like being roommates all over again at Longwood Landings when our rooms were side by side,” said Lopez with a laugh.
Aldridge is a speech therapist at Tye River Elementary School in Nelson County, where she and Lopez met as children. Lopez, who graduated a semester early from Longwood, travels among all four of Nelson’s public schools, including Tye River, as an English as a second language teacher. The two women’s moms, both also teachers, retired in June after teaching at Tye River.
“They joked that they had to retire since they had new grandbabies,” said Aldridge.
2000s
Kevin Kuebert ’00, a realtor in the Vail Valley of Colorado, joined Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate this summer. The current chair of the Vail Multiple Listing Service Board of Directors, he had been an owner-broker at Keller Williams Mountain Properties for 10 years. Before that, he worked for The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch and FirstBank of Vail.
Craig Rose ’00 launched a cultural resource management consulting firm, Dominion Research Group, in October 2018. Rose, who lives in Midlothian, was principal investigator for the Longwood Institute of Archaeology from 2015-18. He has a master’s from University College London Institute of Archaeology.
Jeffrey Walters ’01 was appointed assistant principal of Dinwiddie High School in August. He has taught in the Dinwiddie County school division since 2003, beginning as a Virginia and U.S. history teacher and department chair before becoming director of student activities in 2011. Prior to his educational career, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has a master’s from Central Michigan University.
Brendan Burke ’03, associate director of archaeology at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum in Florida, gave a presentation on “Wonderful Wooden Wrecks and the Mysteries Within” in September in the Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series hosted by the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Science. Burke, a maritime archaeologist with a master’s from William & Mary, has an avid interest in wood use throughout the history of boat and shipbuilding, and he has collaborated with Lee Newsom of Flagler College to examine historic shipwrecks based on their timbers. His primary research interests include the history of shrimping and the shrimp trawling industry; he is coauthor of Shrimp Boat City. Burke is the son of Dr. Helen Warriner-Burke ’56, a former rector of the Longwood Board of Visitors, and former Longwood history professor Pat Burke.
Jessica Jones ’03 joined the Greensville/Emporia-Virginia Cooperative Extension staff as head of the local Family Nutrition Program for Youth in June. She had worked as a social worker in child protective services in Brunswick County for nearly 12 years. Before that, she taught kindergarten for two years in Brunswick. She is the author of Devastated But Not Destroyed, which she described as “inspirational and motivational.”
Chris Updike ’03 is product manager for core business platforms with Car-Max. He has worked for the company for 13 years.
Amanda Renwick Lloyd ’04 was recognized in June as one of 30 “Millennials on the Move 2019” by CoVaBiz, a business magazine based in Virginia Beach. The award recognizes young people who have “taken their professional game to the next level while making Coastal Virginia a better place to live.” Lloyd, who lives in Norfolk, is director of the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence at Tidewater Community College, president of the Junior League of Norfolk-Virginia Beach and a member of the Virginia Historical Records Advisory Board.
Ryan Marable ’04 was named head coach of the boys varsity basketball team at Powhatan High School in May. Marable, who played basketball at Longwood for three years, has been a head coach at Caroline, Tomahawk Creek and Manchester middle schools and Benedictine College Preparatory School. He founded Local Legends Sports, a youth basketball developmental program.
Evan Weinstein ’04 was promoted to partner at Incline Equity Partners earlier this year. Weinstein received Longwood’s Young Alumni Award in 2015.
Joey Hearl ’05, graduate licensure, became principal of Early College and Forsyth Middle College in Winston- Salem, North Carolina, in July. He had been principal of Meadowlark Middle School in Winston-Salem.
Kimberly Mason Holcomb ’05 recently became an assistant principal of J.G. Brumfield Elementary School in Fauquier County. She had been assistant principal of Alvey Elementary School in Prince William County for two years and also was an administrative intern for the Prince William school division. Holcomb, who has a master’s from George Mason University, previously taught health and physical education in Prince William, Fairfax and Chesterfield counties for a combined 10 years.
Casey Petit ’05 was appointed director of property accounting and lease administration for Stanton Partners. She joined the Norfolk-based commercial real estate company in 2012 as a property assistant for three years, then rejoined with her recent position. She previously was marketing director and corporate assistant with Continental Realty Service and most recently was assistant operations manager with Pure Barre in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Brian Raska ’07 was named principal of Hartwood Elementary School in Stafford County earlier this year. He had been an assistant principal in the county for four years. He taught previously in Prince William and Arlington counties. He and his wife, Ashley Theado Raska ’07, welcomed their third daughter, Mary Grace Rose Raska, on April 18 in Fredericksburg.
Brad Robertson, M.S. ’07, retired from the Danville Police Department as a lieutenant in the Patrol Division in August 2018. He has started a new career as a criminal justice instructor at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, North Carolina.
Lisa McCoy Rode ’07 was named the 2019 Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Elementary Teacher of the Year in June. Rode, a sixth-grade teacher at Kings Glen Elementary School in Springfield, beat out nominees from each of the 141 elementary schools in FCPS, Virginia’s largest and the nation’s 10th-largest school division. She shares her expertise in technology integration through professional development courses at her school and in FCPS, she has been invited to lead professional development programs on STEM topics around the country and she teaches a robotics class at a community center for upper-elementary and middle-school students. She has done workshops and presentations for the Computer Science Teachers Association and the International Society for Technology in Education, and she has written articles for EdWeek and Hello World magazine.
Kim Luckey Daugherty ’08 is one of four candidates in the Democratic Primary in June 2020 for Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. This is the first run at public office for Daugherty, a lawyer who lives in Fauquier County and has practiced family law in the Daugherty Law Firm, based in Manassas, since 2011. She is a cum laude graduate of Florida Coastal School of Law.
Douglas Palmer ’08 was hired recently as a vice president with Ascend Capital Group.
Jennifer Gifford, M.S. ’09, is a librarian/ media center specialist at Central Elementary School in Fluvanna County. She began her job this fall.
Stephanie Whitley Lee ’09 was appointed an assistant principal at Anthony Burns Elementary School in Stafford this summer. She had been a fifth-grade teacher at Stafford Elementary School for 10 years. She is a member of the Stafford County Public Schools’ Division Leadership Team and was a member of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee. She has a master’s from the University of Mary Washington.
(Photo by Ted Hodges ’85)
Tracey Ridpath ’95 (left) and Rick Ridpath ’95 (center), parents of two current Longwood students, shared detailed stories of Oktoberfest past at this year’s bonfire. Drawing on memories from her mother, an alumna from the 1960s, Tracey recounted one Oktoberfest tradition that has gone by the way: the ceremonial introduction of class mascots Sammy and Sally (for the red classes) and Gangreen and Gus (for the green classes). The mascots were life-sized dolls made of cloth, wood or papier-mache and were passed down from one class to the next. ‘As campus tradition dictated, the mascots were fair game and were often kidnapped as pranks and held hostage,’ Tracey told the crowd around the fire. Kevin Napier ’18 (right) assisted at the podium.
2010s
Dani Basye ’10, a trooper with the Texas Highway Patrol, earned the highest score for women in the state’s Department of Public Service Javier Arana Jr. Top Trooper competition. She was one of about 15 women in the 2019 competition, which featured three events (shooting, driving and physical fitness) and interviews testing job knowledge. As the top female trooper, she attended the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in October in Chicago, where she was recognized. She has been a Texas Highway Patrol trooper since August 2017, based in Gatesville. Before moving to Texas in February 2017 to attend the Department of Public Safety Academy, she was an athletic trainer at two high schools in Charles County, Maryland, for six years.
Tori Owens Gelbert ’10 was named principal of Emerald Hill Elementary School in Culpeper earlier this year. She had worked the past eight years for the Madison County schools, starting as a fifth-grade teacher, then as a middle-school STEM teacher and finally as an assistant principal. She has a master’s from James Madison University and is working on a doctorate through the University of South Carolina.
Rachel Manikus Langston ’10 is a special education teacher at Thomas Dale High School in Chesterfield County, where she earned her high-school diploma. The last two summers, in a six-week program sponsored by Chesterfield County and the Chester YMCA, she has taught reading and writing in the Hispanic community to children preparing to enter prekindergarten and kindergarten. Her husband, Tom Langston ’10, is a commercial sales and leasing associate with S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. in Richmond. He also is secretary/treasurer of the Profit Partners chapter of Business Networking International. The couple lives in Chester.
Dr. Juvenal Abrego-Meneses, M.A. ’10, was named principal of E.S.H. Greene Elementary School in Richmond in June. He is a former high-school and elementary-school assistant principal.
Shelley Mays-Couch ’11, a licensed clinical social worker, is CEO of Love Over Crisis and executive director of Light of Christ (LOC) Family Services. Love Over Crisis, which she founded in 2015, provides consumer-directed services to elderly and disabled patients. LOC Family Services, which she cofounded in 2018, is a community-based re-entry program. Both programs are based in Farmville and serve the surrounding area. Last year LOC Family Services received a $500,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Second Chance Act. Mays-Couch, who lives in Prince Edward, is a certified sex-offender treatment provider and was ordained as a minister last year by the Full Gospel of Christ Fellowship.
Alexa Oswald Adams ’12 joined the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., as the organization’s office services assistant in July. She had previously been a receptionist and office assistant for H. Beck Inc. in Rockville, Maryland.
Alissa Baldwin, M.S. ’12, is running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2020. Baldwin, who lives in Lunenburg County, is a civics/history teacher at Nottoway County Middle School. She has been an adjunct instructor in Longwood’s Department of Education and Special Education since 2014.
Laura Crump Anderson ’13, an equestrian fitness specialist, is the author of two articles that have appeared in a national publication. One article, “Why Barn Work Does Not Count as Exercise,” appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Eventing USA magazine, published by the United States Eventing Association, and was republished online in March. Another article, “Moving Slow to Build a Stronger Position,” appeared in the same magazine in May/June 2016. Anderson, certified as a trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine, is a strength training instructor at InForm Diagnostics in Leesburg, where about half of her clients are equestrians. She and her husband, Harold Anderson ’13, program coordinator at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland, live in Lovettsville.
Ashley Harris ’13 was accepted into the doctoral educational leadership program at the University of the Cumberlands earlier this year.
Julie Stevener ’13 was married Oct. 26 to Maxxwell Davis. Stevener, who lives in Columbia, Maryland, is business development manager for Cision, a public relations software firm in Beltsville, Maryland, where she has worked since graduation. Three years ago, she cut off 12 inches of her hair and donated it to St. Baldrick’s Foundation; she will do so again shortly after she returns from a 10-day honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean in December. Stevener attended the Oct.12 wedding of a Longwood friend, Kelly Cook Guice ’13, in Virginia Beach.
Cami Williams Trainham ’13 was hired as corporate communications manager for HHHunt Corp. in May. She had been marketing manager of THInc. IT. Trainham, who lives in Chesterfield County, was a member of the steering committee for the Richmond Technology Council from March 2018 until this May.
Macrae Hammond ’14, M.S. ’15, and Steven Robertson III were married June 30 in Powhatan. Hammond is senior project manager for strategic operations at Longwood, and Robertson, better known as “Lancer Pants,” who worked in Longwood’s athletics marketing area from 2014-18, is associate director of experiential innovation for University of Central Florida athletics. Members of the wedding party included Lisa Bartol ’13; Madison Gandee ’16; Brandon Hennessey ’12, MBA ’17; Danielle Hennessey ’11, M.S. ’15; and Mike Kropf ’14.
Macrae Hammond ’14, M.S. ’15, and Steven Robertson III
Megan Baltzell ’15, a former Longwood softball star, was one of 20 women chosen for the 2019 USA Baseball Women’s National Team in August. She played later that month in the COBAPE Pan-American Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, a qualifier for the 2020 Women’s Baseball World Cup. The USA team won the gold medal; Baltzell, playing right field, was named to the all-tournament team. Baltzell, the reigning USA Baseball Sportswoman of the Year, also participated with the USA team in the 2018 World Cup, the highest level of women’s international baseball. She led the team in batting average (.500), home runs (two), runs batted in (10) and runs scored (10) over nine games in the tournament in Viera, Florida. She also played in the 2016 Women’s World Cup, where she batted .440 with one home run and 13 runs batted in.
Blake Carter ’15, a former Longwood golfer, was the Amateur Match Play champion in the Roanoke Valley Match Play Championship in August. He won the same title in 2014.
Colleen Lee, M.Ed. ’15, who recently began her fifth year as the librarian at Greenfield Elementary School in Chesterfield County, writes a blog (knowledgequest.aasl.org) for Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians. She sponsors her school’s Writing Club for fourth and fifth-graders, which is participating in National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writers Program. The rest of the school year, the club works on the school newspaper, Dragon Dispatch. Lee previously taught English at the elementary and middle-school levels.
Paige Rollins ’15
Paige Rollins ’15 received a master’s in business and advertising, with a concentration in experience design, from the VCU Brandcenter in May. She began working as a brand experience strategist in Longwood’s Office of Marketing and Communications in July, leading and managing a variety of strategic brand-related initiatives and projects. One of her major priorities this year is looking at the entire admissions visit experience. Rollins previously worked as assistant director of live digital events in the Office of Alumni and Career Services.
Cainan Townsend ’15, M.S. ’19, was appointed by Gov. Ralph Northam to the newly created Commission on African American History Education in August. Townsend has been director of education and public programs at the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville since 2016.
Kyle Thomas Caskey ’16
Kyle Thomas Caskey ’16 graduated from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in June and is an officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. His duty station is Dulles International Airport.
Ryan Quigley ’16 was named interim co-managing editor of Hockey Wilderness, a blog community for the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild, in August. Quigley has worked since June 2017 for SB Nation, a sports blogging network, and also is managing editor of SB Nation’s Knights on Ice, covering the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.
Kirsten Van Petten ’16 began this fall as a first-grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Fluvanna County.
Olivia Castleman-Dry ’16, M.S. ’17, and Kyle Roberson were married Aug. 17 at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg. One of the bridesmaids was Molly Scoggin ’16, a Zeta Tau Alpha sister (the wedding doubled as what Castleman-Dry called a “mini- Zeta reunion”), and Jimmy Venti ’19 was the videographer. Castleman-Dry is in her second year as a special education teacher at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach.
Amelia Cohen Kirchgessner ’16, the music teacher at Chamberlayne Elementary School in Henrico County, was named her school division’s 2019 First-Year Teacher of the Year in May. She taught as a long-term substitute in several Virginia school divisions before joining the Chamberlayne faculty.
Taylor Woody ’16 is a content marketing specialist for the Medical Society of Virginia.
Tabitha “Tabby” Bryant ’17 worked as a seasonal U.S. park ranger at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina from May through October. Most of her time was spent at or around Cape Lookout Lighthouse on South Core Banks, and she also interacted with visitors on another island, Shackelford Banks, home to wild horses. Bryant—who plans to continue working as a park ranger, preferably at a park with a cave—described her job as “historian, teacher and tour guide.” She served internships with the National Park Service in Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks in 2018 and at Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska in 2017.
Cidney Blaine Cher ’17, a Richmond- based paper and book artist, had an exhibition of new works at Studio IX in Charlottesville from July 5-28. The exhibition, Six Pan: Smoked Paper and Wash Studies, includes a work of handmade paper that undergoes washes in black ink and then is smoked by being placed on top of a fire.
Catherine Ciucci ’17, an English teacher at Chickahominy Middle School in Hanover County, was named her school division’s 2019 Beginning Teacher of the Year in May.
Jason Clark ’17, graduate professional endorsement, who had been an engineering and technology teacher at Heritage High School in Lynchburg, became an assistant principal at the school in June.
This watercolor by Kristen Mosley ’17 was used on the invitation to an LCVA donor event this June.
Kristen Mosley ’17, who taught art at Cumberland Middle School for two years, began new duties as the community engagement coordinator at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts in February. Her job includes managing the website, promoting the LCVA on social media and photography. She “fell in love with the inner workings of an art museum” as a Longwood student, during which time she volunteered at the LCVA for more than 200 hours and, as a student worker, was a gallery attendant and summer art studio teacher during the summers of 2015 and 2016. Twelve other works by Mosley—mostly acrylic and watercolor paintings—are currently displayed in the advancement hall of the Maugans Alumni Center. This January Mosley began a master’s program in art history and visual culture through Lindenwood University.
Kira Davis ’19 is a new admissions counselor at Longwood this fall. She is managing the recruitment of future Lancers from the Northern Neck and Southwest Virginia areas.
Louis Gould III ’19 is a history teacher at Prince Edward County Middle School and is active in the community as a volunteer and youth mentor. He is president of the Fresh Boyz Club (FBC), an officially recognized nonprofit whose mission is to help young men grow into leaders and productive citizens.
Maria Reynoso ’19 began as a Longwood admissions counselor this fall. She is focusing her recruitment efforts in the Arlington, Alexandria, Washington, D.C., and southeast Maryland areas.
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