Class Notes

Janay (Sanders) Woodruff, UC16, curated, produced and performed in an all-Black showcase at an empty State Theatre in Portland, Maine, to celebrate Juneteenth and raise funds for local organizations that empower the Black community. During the show, she released “Feared,” an uplifting pop/rock song about conquering fears. The performance raised more than $10,000 for Indigo Arts Alliance (indigoartsalliance.me) and Black Owned Maine (blackownedmaine.com), which promote and support the state’s Black artists and Black-owned businesses and nonprofits.

Maxwell Wang, EN16, was a 2020 recipient of a Hertz Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded annually to graduate students in science and technology with the greatest potential to create transformative solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. A doctoral student in neuroscience and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, Wang is conducting research aimed at understanding how brain networks change during neuro-interventions.

Jordan Mendoza, LA16, is a senior community engagement associate at NowPow, a health-care technology company in Chicago.

Nicole McAmis, EN16, a fourth-year medical student at Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University graduating in May 2021, joined with the university’s women’s basketball team to help raise awareness of Rett syndrome during the Bobcats’ game against Fairfield University. Rett syndrome, which McAmis researched while at WashU, is a rare, noninherited genetic postnatal neurological disorder that occurs primarily in girls. Recently, she also wrote articles on human trafficking in emergency medicine magazines Common Sense and EM Resident. 

Shyam Kiran Akula, LA16, was selected to receive a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. The $90,000 graduate school fellowship is awarded to outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants in the United States. After graduating from WashU, Akula joined the Harvard-MIT MD/PhD program to train as a physician and scientist. He is currently conducting his PhD research on rare genetic diseases of cortical malformation to understand how specific genes influence normal human brain development.

Orchideh Abar, LA16, is a resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology at Abington-Jefferson Health in Abington, Pa.

Xinyuan Zhang, LA15, is a resident physician in urology at the University of Washington.

Benjamin Sass, EN15, and Aliza (Jaffe) Sass, LA15, welcomed a son, Leo Uriel Sass, June 9, 2020. Proud family members include grandparents Ezra Jaffe, LA89, and Marla (Zissman) Jaffe, OT89; uncle Jeremy Rose, LA12, and aunt Paula (Sass) Rose, LA12; and aunt Monica Sass, LA19.

Willie Pudvah, BU15, was promoted from universal banker to credit analyst at Gateway Bank, where he has worked since 2018.

Blake Marggraff, LA15, is CEO of CareSignal (formerly Epharmix), a St. Louis firm that offers risk-based interventions using automated phone calls or text messages to manage patients’ health conditions while collecting disease-specific data. CareSignal’s partners include Mercy, BJC HealthCare and SLUCare Physician Group.