Class Notes

Dexter Davis has been named chief diversity officer and senior director of talent management for Securian Financial Group, an insurer and financial services firm based in St. Paul, Minnesota. He joined the company in 2015 as director of enterprise procurement

Julie Carpenter is the new executive director at the Cincinnati chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Craig Bjerke has been promoted to executive vice president and CFO of the Methodist Hospital System in Dallas, Texas. He lives with his wife, Heather, and five children in the Dallas suburbs.

Kathleen Leigh married Dave Lewarchick in June 2019. This is a second marriage for both, and they have blended a family of two children.

Amy Albrecht Beldotti was named associate superintendent for teaching and learning for Stamford Public Schools in Connecticut. She is the former principal of Toquam Magnet Elementary School in Stamford.

Amy Ray co-owns a mobile spa business in Springfield, Ohio, that offers homemade bath & body products, essential oil and herbal blends, CBD products, and an oxygen bar for rent.

Peter R. Tyksinski represented his firm, Momo-o, Matsuo & Namba, Tokyo, Japan, as a delegate to Interlaw’s 2018 Annual Global Meeting hosted by UGGC Avocats in Paris, France, in October 2018. Momo-o, Matsuo & Namba is the sole Japan member of Interlaw, an elite-ranked international law firm network comprised of independent law firms.

Cathy Pederson, Wittenberg professor of biology, was honored with the Warrior Award at the NeuroConnect Summit held in May 2019 in Washington, D.C. Pederson and her daughters, Lily and Kate, have raised more than $100,000 for research related to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) through their foundation, Standing Up To POTS.

Leigh Pawling’s artwork was on display in September 2019 in an exhibit entitled Create- Maintain-Destroy at the Art E Fekts Gallery in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Pawling owns her own studio and business and also paints outdoor murals.

Janet Kirkpatrick Holdsworth co-authored the children’s book Please Pass the Skin Color, published in November 2018 by Archway Press.

Shuly X. Cawood’s second book, 52 Things I Wish I Could Have Told Myself When I was 17, was published in November 2018.

Lt. Col. Gregory Reck has contributed a chapter on the Malayan Emergency to A Global History of Relocation in Counterinsurgency Warfare by Edward J. Erickson. The book will be published in December 2019 by Bloomsbury Academic. After 25 years with the U.S. Army, he is retiring as a lieutenant colonel, Special Forces. An avid snowboarder and runner, he has completed several ultramarathons and has qualified to the Boston Marathon

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Rhonda Watkins, principal environmental specialist with Collier County Pollution Control, to the state’s task force that will investigate how to combat red tide

Liz Shute Odmark received a Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Grant that allowed her to travel to India with a group of educators in the summer of 2019.

Tim Jebsen, executive director of Midland Community Theatre (MCT) in Midland, Texas, received the Art Cole Lifetime of Leadership Award at the American Association of Community Theatre Festival in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in June 2019. The award recognizes leadership at the local, regional, and national levels. Under his leadership, MCT was the first community theatre in the United States to produce The Producers, Rent, and Les Misérables, among others.

George Doorley has been appointed controller-treasurer for the County of Santa Clara, California. Often referred to as Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County has 1.8 million residents, a $7 billion budget, and a AAA rating.

Albert Bryan Jr. was elected governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands in November 2018.

The American Pet Products Association (APPA) has elected Alice Tillett, CEO of Doskocil Manufacturing, to serve as chair of its board of directors.

Todd Sweda was named superintendent of secondary education for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in May 2019. He has 30 years of experience in Catholic education in Ohio and Maryland and holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University and a doctorate from Seton Hall University.

Cynthia “Cindy” Kelly married Toby Hendricks on Jan. 19, 2019, in Houston, Texas.