Class Notes
This is a place to find out the recent activities of our many graduates. If you are an alum, please help keep us and your fellow grads up to date and add a note of your own. Email ehgrad@u.washington.edu.
Class of 1974
Robert Tuch reports: I am working as a senior analyst for a technology company. My role is to assist in the development of computer support systems for population health in the military health support system. Currently working on systems that support the storage and retrieval of environmental information, industrial hygiene information, medical surveillance, bioterrorism issues, patient safety reporting systems, food safety, and veterinary services. I enjoy my job very much, but have had a recent personal tragedy. My wife of over 30 years passed away from ovarian cancer in May of this year. Posted 7/11/05 Robert can be reached by email at: bobtuch@hotmail.com.
Class of 1976
James Beaumont retired from being a professor at UC Davis in 2000 and started a 2nd career with the California EPA in Sacramento. He is currently reviewing the environmental and occupational epidemiology evidence that ingested hexavalent chromium might cause cancer, as suggested in the Erin Brokovich movie. Posted 10/12/06
Class of 1979
William Lawrence, after more than 15 years with the King County Hazardous Waste Management Program, in November 2004, was promoted to the postion of manager of the Environmental Hazards Section within the Environmental Health Division of Public Health. He misses the one on one contact with the many business partners he had over the years as IMEX coordinator and an outreach worker to the business community but is also enjoying his new challenging role in management. Posted 10/12/06
Carol Christiansen-Wang started a new career in 2000 as an 8th grade science teacher and loves it! Her fourth and last child is a senior in high school this year Posted10/12/06
Class of 1980
Roy Steven Nakashima reports:
After working for 5 years on my MSPH and with the Sea-King County Health Department, I left the Northwest in 1980. With my former wife, Cynthia Hall, I moved to New England and became director of the municiple health department in Gloucester, Massachusetts. We did a lot of skiing, hunting, sailing and canoeing.
In 1987, I began my overseas work with a job as the sanitation and public health coordinator for a large refugee camp in Northeast Thailand. In 1988 I returned to Gloucester and also completed a Masters in Public Adminstration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cindy and I separated in 1990.
In 1991. I moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh with CARE International to start an Environmental Impact Assesment unit for a large USAID rural infrastructure project. There in Dhaka, the dating capitol of the world, I met my present wife, Sophie deCaen of the United Nations Development Programme and we married in Toronto, Ontario in 1994. I also started an expat band called the Commitments- the Diplomats of Doo Wop. While a sanitarian with Sea-King, I never would have expected to be playing bass guitar in Dhaka at the Charity Ball for Diarrheal Disease Research fifteen years later.
Since our time in Dhaka, we have lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka and also New Rochelle, NY as a result of Sophie's work with the United Nations. In New York, I worked with the University of Connecticut as an extension educator to train local municipal land use decision makers about non-point source pollution, land use planning and GIS.
We moved to Cairo, Egypt in 2001 where Sophie is the Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Egypt. It is quite an interesting place to live during this very tumultuous period of current world affairs. We are learning the Arabic language , visiting the Pyramids, sailing the Nile and horseback riding at the Red Sea.
We then moved from Cairo, Egypt to Yaounde, Cameroon, with Sophie and my son Cedric (9) and daughter, Camille (10). I am now working with the United Nations and other international donors to coordinate their responses of assistance with the Government of Cameroon's request for help after a recent outbreak of Avian Influenza.
My efforts to develop wild and domestic bird surveillance complement my other mandate which is to reinforce the surveillance capacity of the public health sector for outbreaks of the avian influenza. In my spare time, I developed the first Little League baseball program in Cameroon as a great past-time for me and my son and a means to broaden my French vocabulary.
After 26 years I still miss the Northwest. I also miss the dungeness crabs and views of Mt. Rainier and the Olympics.
Best regards to my former classmates and colleagues in Seattle.
Cheers, Steven
He can be reached at nakacaen@cloud9.net. Posted 10/12/06
Rick Gleason after graduating worked for OSHA and WISHA for 13 years and then for a private consulting firm. He has been a CIH and CSP for the last 25 yeras. For the last 11 years Rick has been teaching at the UW in the DEOHS and for the UW Region OSHA Training Center. Rick and his wife Suzanne are trying to keep up with their grandchildren. Posted 6/29/07
Class of 1981
David Chawes graduated from Seattle University School of Law in 2004, and was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 2005. He is now employed at the Seattle law firm of Preg O'Donnell & Gillett, where he practices construction defect and personal injury litigation. Much of his practice involves mold-related health issues. Posted 1/11/05
Mary Sullivan reports: Starting my ninth year teaching science, after 10 years in Industrial Hygiene. Both daughters are grown! One is married & attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute in MA, studying Technical Communications; the other will be a freshman at Scripps College in CA starting Fall 2004. Am still happily married to Joe Sullivan... almost 24 years! Posted 7/9/04
Dale Rhodes reports: I'm finishing my 19th year at the Neptune Beach ConocoPhillips refinery west of Ferndale, WA this August. My daughters have finished their educations. One is a local area high school counselor and the other graduated from WWU and is working as a graphic artist. My son is the last "child" at home. After spending last summer at the Long Island University School of Cinema and Performing Arts he decided to head off to that other university in Washington State (at Pullman) to study at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communications. That should make Apple Bowl extra interesting during the holidays. Now as a senior technical resource person for ConocoPhillips refining worldwide, my responsibilities have grown with the growth of this company to a strong international organization. At work we just finished a study of crude oil derived mercury exposures and fate in one refinery study and have been studing chromium VI exposures in our worldwide facilities under various work practice and control situations. This work has been carried out separately and partly in conjuction with the American Petroleum Institute. Last fall I shared an inexpensive technique for creating facility noise maps with color coded isopleths at the 2006 NWOHCE. Posted 6/29/07
Class of 1982
Steve Hurley reports: Since January 2003, I have been working at Amgen Washington as the Manager of Environmental Health and Safety. Posted 4/21/05
Michael Krause reports: Left UW in 1979. Worked for OSHA, Boeing, then four years at SAIF in Oregon. CIH since 1982. Started and ran a large consulting firm HAZCON from 1986, for a while was the largest employer of UW IH grads. Sold to Clayton Environmental in 1995. Worked for them, primarily supporting Boeing and asbestos training through 2002. Now a consultant for GlobalTox, mainly servicing law firm and insurance clients in cases involving chemical or mold exposures. Living in Seattle in Montlake. Married to a UW art history alumnus. Two kids, Matt, starting at UW in 2002 and Andrea, 16, at Garfield HS. I also own a small consulting firm part time on my own called H2R (Health Hazard Remedies) with a noise division called HUH? doing noise measurement and dosimetry (Q300s).
Michael can be reached at . Posted 7/17/02
Class of 1983
Carl Lukens reports: Having fun raising two girls in Ashland, Oregon, playing my saxophone, gardening, playing volleyball and of course, working. . . Posted 6/16/05
Class of 1984
Jude Van Buren is manager of the Assessment Section in the Office of Maternal and Child Health, Washington state Department of Health. After graduating from UW, she earned master's and doctoral degrees in Public Health from Johns Hopkins. Her research has included work in childhood lead poisoning and later in waterborne disease agents.
Carl Lukens is enjoying the challenges of reducing injuries in a health care setting. He is raising two girls, and enjoying spending time with them. He tries to stave off father time by running, playing volleyball, biking, skiing, hiking, playing saxophone, and having fun with his girls. Posted 10/12/06
Class of 1985
Carolyn Wisdom, BS is a consultant in occupational health in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Class of 1986
Francis Geissler has moved back to the Pacific Northwest after residency training 3+ years ago and is currently opening a private practice in Tacoma. He and Alberta have 2 great kids and love living in Olympia. He can be reached through email at: eyedoc@w-link.net Priscilla Zieber (Anderson) is working as a toxicologist for Integral Consulting, specializing in human health risk assessment, MTCA regulatory compliance, and petroleum risk assessment. Posted 10/12/06
Busy year for Steve Magasis and his family, Naoko, Esther, and Zev: http://magasis.tripod.com. Steve can be reached through email at magasis@foxinternet.net. Posted 7/10/02
Terry Northstrom is the Business Unit Manager for Energy Northwest Environmental Services. They are a full service analytical laboratory and environmental consulting group. They perform radiological and non-radiological environmental monitoring, waste management, water and wastewater treatment, habitat assessments, NPDES compliance monitoring and workplace drug screening. Posted 10/12/06
Class of 1987
Eileen Kirkpatrick worked for Dorothy Stansel briefly as a private consultant, before moving to Labor & Industries. She worked first as a compliance inspector, and then an IH consultant there for over ten years. She and Nancy Beaudet took the CIH exam in Boston in 1992. Since 1998 she has worked for Puget Sound Energy, job-sharing with Pam Deutsch for the first 3 years. Her son is a sophmore at Garfield. Her husband, Noel Howes is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, (1996 UW MN program), for DESC. She served as Local Education Chair of the PNS-AIHA from 1998-2004, and enjoys going to these gatherings to learn and to visit. Chris Ballew, class of 2006, is her summer intern.
Class of 1988
Gavin Murray reports: After 12 years of working for international and domestic petroleum operators, Gavin and his wife Michelle now own and operate a small consultancy specializing in environmental health and safety management for companies with interests in petroleum, chemical, transportation, manufacturing, agricultural, and major project development. Gavin also provides technical support for occupational health and safety-related litigation, and teaches part time with Central Washington University's Occupational Health and Safety bachelors degree program. During his free time, Gavin is developing a small shellfish farm near his home on Fidalgo Island in Skagit County. Posted 7/11/05
Class of 1992
Kerry MacGregor Serl writes: Worked for four years as an Environmental Toxicologist at Kleinfelder, Inc. largely on lead/arsenic smelter sites. I worked for six years as a Epidemiologist/GIS Analyst at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department working on a long-term groundwater monitoring project, the Tacoma Asarco Smelter Footprint Study, and tracking STD, TB, and family planning services when TPCHD privatized services. I am staying at home now with my son, Nathaniel, who was born August of 2002. Kerry can be reached through email at . Posted 8/19/03
Cynthia Rogers reports: I recently (February 2005) was transferred to Singapore where I work with our SE Asian business units as an auditor and an IH in preparation for being a lead auditor on the retirement this fall of my colleague. I'm really enjoying it over here. I've had to have extra pages added to my passport from all the international travel! Posted 6/16/05
Class of 1993
Bradley Evanoff continues to do research in work-related musculoskeletal disorders; current projects include a large prospective study of carpal tunnel syndrome, a study of lower extremity disorders in construction workers, and a fall prevention curriculum in residential carpenters. He continues to collaborate with colleagues at UW SPH in this and other work. He has been dusting off my old MPH course syllabi because I direct a new Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation degree program at Washington University in St. Louis. He has found that starting a new degree program entails many unanticipated challenges. His MPH and RWJ Clinical Scholars Program experiences at UW have served him well in these efforts 10/12/06
Class of 1995
Larry Shaw recently became a fulltime professor in the Health Science Department at BYU Idaho. Posted 1/7/05
Shunan Li along with her husband, graduated from UW. Seattle is the 1st place they both came to in the USA. They always think about UW,Seattle and all people who sincerely helped them. They would like to thank everyone for all wonderful memories!
They are doing very well, their 2 sons are going to attend college soon, hopefully they will have a chance to go back to UW. Posted 10/12/06
Jeffry Shirai is in his tenth year in the Kissel Lab (as staff, 12th if you count graduate school) after working in a public health consulting firm for 2 years immediately following graduating with his master's degree. Still loves Seattle! Posted 10/12/06
Class of 1996
Jason Wong reports: After graduating, I joined the Air Force as a Public Health Officer. I moved to Oklahoma for a year and then to Washington DC for another 3 years. As I was writing software and using computers extensively in the Air Force, I went back to school and got a computer science degree. After completing that in 2001, I joined BBN Technologies as a software engineer and have worked there since.
Since graduating, I have also gotten married and have two daughters, born in 1999 and 2001. Posted 7/9/04
Scott Bartell reports: I recently finished my doctoral work in epidemiologic methods at University of California, Davis, and moved to Atlanta to join the faculty of Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. He may be reached through email at: . Posted 8/9/04
Class of 1997
Tommey Meyers is currently completing Masters of Arts in Security Studies w/focus on Homeland Defense and Security at Naval Post-graduate School in DHS sponsored program. Posted 7/11/05
Class of 1998
Clint Farr reports: I work in Air Toxics and general air quality issues with the State of Alaska. I've focused much of my time on ultra low sulfur diesel implementation, transportation, energy, and air toxics source inventories. I am married to DEH graduate Denise Koch, who runs Alaska's cruise ship wastewater program. Please see www.deniseandclint.homestead.com to see wedding and honeymoon pictures. We are well and happy. Hope you are too. Posted 7/16/02
Class of 1999
Michelle Catlin, PhD was the Chief Project Officer on the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Report on Drinking Water, which will have far-reaching effects on the EPA's efforts to revise the national drinking water standards.
Joshua Porton reports: After graduating in 1999, I joined the Navy as an Industrial Hygiene Officer. I am currently at the Shipyard in Bremerton and will be heading to the USS John C. Stennis soon as the Assistant Safety Officer. I have two boys (6 and 4) and am expecting a baby girl in Feb 2005. Posted 11/8/04
David Canton recently transferred from position as Chief of Operational Medicine, US Coast Guard MLC Atlantic to become Chief Medical Officer for National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). Posted 6/14/05
Gabriela DePavia reports: After I graduated with my MS in Environmental Health, I moved to Manhattan where I worked for two years in an Environmental Consulting Company. After that I moved to Houston, Texas where I have worked for 4 years at Envirotest, an Environmental Consulting company and Laboratories as the Indoor Air Quality Projects Coordinator. Recently I have become the Director of Religious Education at a Catholic Church where I coordinate the Catechism classes of 1,200 children. Although this has been the dream and vocation of my life for a long long time, I do not want to put aside my passion for Public Health and therefore I am working closely with STD prevention programs in the city and have become a bilingual trainer to eduate about HIV prevention in several churches and schools in Houston.
Class of 2000
Michael Box is a graduate of the Industrial Hygiene and Safety program. He is currently a U.S. Public Health Service officer detached to the U.S. Coast Guard in Alameda, CA and providing environmental health and industrial hygiene services and training to the Coast Guard units in northern California.
Keone Pang is currently attending Multnomah Biblical Seminary. Posted 7/16/02
Class of 2001
Anne Caughlan, MS and her husband welcomed an addition to the family on 7/31/05. Caitlin (11/16/02) is very pleased with her new baby brother, Dillan. Anne is currently working at Veritox (formerly GlobalTox) mostly by telecommute in order to also care for the little ones. Posted 10/11/05.
Kimquy Kieu, MD, MPH is the Manager of the Environmental Hazards Section at Public Health Seattle and King County.
Francesca Hudson, PhD and Jason Van Loo (MS 1997) welcomed their second son Eric in February 2005. Noel and Jason currently live in Houston, TX, where Jason practices environmental law with the firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, while Noel is taking a break to care for the new baby and Ian, born August 2003.
Maria Majar is a Commander in the United States Navy and is the Officer in Charge of small family practice out patient clinic. She became a Certified in Industrial Hygieniest in Fall 05.
Class of 2003
Amanda Zych, MS is Working in Everett at the Snohomish Health District as an Environmental Health Specialist on the West Nile virus team. Posted 6/27/03.
Class of 2004
Marie Martin lives in Dallas and develops curriculum and instructors for the OSHA Training Institute Education Center for Region VI. Posted 7/11/05
Heather Day (formerly Heather Bost) is currently living in Troy, NY, and working on another Master's degree, while her husband completes postdoctoral training at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). This degree wil be an MA in Teaching Biology, from Sage College. Heather is currently teaching an undergraduate Microbiology Lab at Sage, and working with elementary aged children as the Environmental Educator at Dyken Pond, a county park and education center. She recently published an article, "An Evaluation of the Alignment of New York State’s Living Environment Mandated Lab Activities to the MST Standards," in the Science Teachers' Association of New York State's Spring 2006 Science Teachers Bulletin. She is interested in helping students learn about the scientific process, and is currently working with her coauthor, Dr. Dorothy Matthews, on another article investigating the way in which scientific inquiry is assessed on standardized tests. When she isn't busy teaching and being a student, Heather is enjoying exploring New York's beautiful outdoors. Posted 10/12/06
Class of 2006
After graduating from UW, Troy Ross moved to Ft Hood, TX to take the position as the Chief of Preventive Medicine for that installation.
Class of 2007
Michael Sigmon is the commander of the Medical Element for Joint Task Force Bravo at Soto Cano Air Base near Comayagua, Honduras. He wishes best of luck to everyone. Posted 06/29/07
