Class Notes

Martin Padilla, MArch ’01, joined the ownership group of Trivers, a St. Louis–based architecture, planning, urban design and interiors firm. Padilla was a project designer at Trivers early in his career and returned there in 2017 as a senior project architect and associate. He is currently a licensing adviser for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and a member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis. From 2011 to 2022, Padilla served as the assistant director for career services in architecture at WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Angela Levy, AB ’01, is a federal criminal defense attorney representing indigent defendants. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is currently writing a book about her experiences as a trial advocate and the much-needed reform in the criminal justice system.

Cody Carpino, BS ’01, is currently serving as the president of American Institute of Architects (AIA) Central Valley, which covers 17 counties in Northern California. He works for Brailsford & Dunlavey, an owner’s rep company providing advisory and implementation services primarily to educational facilities including K-12, community colleges and universities. Carpino was recently promoted to the position of director and currently manages local school bond measures in California.

John O. Brandon, MFAW ’01, penned a new novel, Penalties of June (McSweeney’s, December 2024). The book centers on a young man who’s just finished a prison sentence he both did and didn’t deserve and is looking to start a new life. But will he be able to shake his shady past? Brandon also wrote Arkansas, which was adapted into a film starring Vince Vaughn, Liam Hemsworth and John Malkovich; Citrus County; A Million Heavens; Further Joy; and Ivory Shoals. He has been awarded the Grisham Fellowship at Ole Miss, and his short fiction has appeared in ESPN the Magazine and the Oxford American, among others.

Michael J. Gallo, BSBA ’00, graduated from Wharton’s MBA program for executives last year in San Francisco, where he also took weeklong courses focused on sustainability in the United Kingdom, Thailand and India. Gallo recently became the director of business development for Renewable Properties, working on partnerships and mergers and acquisitions. The company is focused on building and operating small-scale utility and community solar, EV-charging and battery storage projects throughout the United States.

Gessica Silverman, AB ’98, an abstract painter, was awarded a prestigious Traveling Fellowship by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts for her artwork. Silverman will travel to Granada, Seville and Cordoba in southern Spain to tour such sites as Alcazar Palace, Casa de Pilatos and Alhambra. Silverman seeks to observe how Jews, Christians and Muslims used art, architecture, textiles and ceramics to express their coexisting beliefs. See her work at: www.gessicasilverman.com and on Instagram: GessicaSilverman.

Arthur Kwok, JD ’97, joined ­Houston-based Catalyze in April as their executive vice president, structured finance. Founded in 2017, Catalyze is on a mission to accelerate the large-scale transition to clean, renewable energy by making it easy and profitable to integrate smart energy resources into new and existing infrastructure. Backed by private equity firms EnCap and Actis, the company has been in Houston for five years, after spending more than 20 years in New York. Kwok, who sits on Catalyze’s management team and leads capital raising, was previously at Sunnova Energy.

Hunvey Chen, AB ’96, who recently celebrated her 18th year at HOK, was promoted to senior principal. Based in Los Angeles, Chen is the regional leader of health care, and her current work includes UCLA Neuropsychiatric Replacement Hospital, City of Hope Orange County Hospital, and VA Long Beach Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health projects. She continues to be an avid Los Angeles Kings fan and rec league hockey player, most recently skating with the University of Southern California Women’s Ice Hockey team.

Stacy L. Leeds, AB ’94, was elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS) in 2024. Election to the American Philosophical Society honors extraordinary accomplishments in all fields. The APS is unusual among learned societies because its membership is composed of top scholars from a wide variety of academic disciplines. Leeds is dean of Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. (For more on Leeds, see the 2023 Washington Magazine article “Empowering next-generation Indigenous leaders”: https://source.washu.edu/2023/08/empowering-next-generation-indigenous-leaders/.)

Shelli Altopp-Miller, MSW ’94, penned Where Your Treasure Lies (Westbow Press, June 2024), a novel set in rural Eastern Kentucky where Altopp-Miller and husband Phil Miller, MSW ’94, lived after graduating from WashU. The story centers around a young single mother, Candy Ratledge, who works for a home-health agency; an elderly homebound patient, Mr. Solomon, who has a storied past; and Dean, an outsider from Lexington, who is pursuing a relationship with Candy. The story explores themes of cultural norms and identity, betrayal, regional history, family conflict, faith, addiction, forgiveness and what one truly needs to be content. Shelli is a behavioral health therapist, and Phil is a college professor and in private practice. They live in the Finger Lakes region of New York.