Class Notes

Zoe Mercado, AB ’24, was selected to be part of Carnegie Mellon University’s inaugural cohort for the Rales Fellows Program. Launched in 2023, the program is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of STEM leaders and driving innovation by increasing access to a life-changing graduate education. Rales fellows receive a comprehensive, cohort-based experience, faculty mentorship, exclusive professional development, networking event opportunities and a financial award that covers tuition, as well as a monthly stipend for living expenses.

Carlos Cepeda Gómez, BArch ’24, is the first recipient of the Eugene J. Mackey III Travel Scholarship. This scholarship honors the legacy of Mackey Mitchell Architects founder Eugene J. Mackey III, BSAS ’60, BArch ’62, and his belief in the transformative power of architectural travel and drawing. The scholarship allows deserving students of architecture, particularly those who might not otherwise have the opportunity, to pursue their passions and expand their knowledge through travel.

Scott Hershberger, AB ’20, completed a master’s degree in science communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in summer 2024 with a focus on climate change communication. He is now the forestry communications specialist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension, where he works to empower individual and family forest owners to manage their woodlands sustainably. In addition to developing educational materials and programming to help owners address the changing climate, he is involved in multistate efforts to better integrate climate change into the work of the Cooperative Extension Service.

Lydia Paar, MFAW ’19, published her debut essay collection, The Exit Is the Entrance: Essays on Escape (University of Georgia Press, September 2024). The essays explore her attempts to evade or transform the lower-middle-class American experience across varied cityscapes, towns and in-between places. Poets & Writer’s Magazine featured it as one of five books in its annual New Nonfiction roundup of 2024 (September/October issue)

Erin Egan, AB ’19, earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in May 2024 and started residency training as a family medicine physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Puji Anur, AB ’17, married Bobby Kahlon, AB ’17, on June 1, 2024, in Sonoma, California. Both grew up in the Bay Area and met at WashU as biology majors. Anur works at Maven, a women’s and family health company, and Kahlon is completing a gastroenterology fellowship program at California Pacific Medical Center. The couple resides in San Francisco.

Kahan Chavda, BS ’16, had his INVERSA Ethical Exotics leather materials debut at Paris Fashion Week in September 2024 in designer Gabriella Hearst’s products. INVERSA creates its products from non-native, invasive species that are ruining ecosystems in Florida, the Mississippi River basin and the Caribbean coral reefs. Backed by leading conservation and government organizations, the company works only with suppliers that use ethical and humane supply chain methods.

Christine Cronin, MSW ’15, MPH ’15, penned Nature Is Our Nurture: A Picture Book of Empowering Life Lessons for the Child in All of Us (Archway Publishing, August 2024).The book seeks to spread hope and healing to the world. It encompasses more than 50 empowering life lessons through analogies in nature and integrates beautiful artwork in each lesson.

Sara Potter, PhD ’13, wrote Technified Muses: Reconfiguring National Bodies in the Mexican Avant-Garde (University of Florida Press, October 2024). The book uses the idea of the muse from Greek mythology and the cyborg from posthuman theory to consider the portrayal of female characters and their bodies in Mexican art and literature from the 1920s to the present. She is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Texas in El Paso.

Traci Krasne, AB ’13, has joined Fox Rothschild in New York as an associate in the labor and employment department. She defends clients in employment disputes and provides strategies to mitigate workplace litigation.