Class Notes

Eric Coonrod, BSBA ’03, a veteran and innovator of the investment banking industry, was appointed managing director and senior vice president of Iconic, where he will lead its sales efforts. Coonrod was managing partner and owner of Integral Capital Advisors, which was acquired by Iconic. In his new role, Coonrod will transition Integral’s growing mergers and acquisitions activities to Iconic and develop a firm-wide business development program.

Gowri J. Krishna, AB ’ 01, joined the faculty of Fordham University School of Law in New York City as clinical professor of law. Krishna directs the Community and Economic Development Clinic and is in her 11th year of teaching.

John McCurdy, MA ’00, PhD ’04, penned Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh (Johns Hopkins University Press, June 2024). The book tells the compelling story of male intimacy and provides an unparalleled glimpse inside 18th-century perceptions of queerness. McCurdy is professor of history at Eastern Michigan University.

Marc A. Hertzman, AB ’00, wrote After Palmares: Diaspora, Inheritance, and the Afterlives of Zumbi (Duke University Press, September 2024). The book tells the rise, fall and afterlives of Palmares, one of history’s largest and longest-lasting maroon societies that existed during the 17th century in what would become northeast Brazil. Hertzman is associate professor of history at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and author of Making Samba: A New History of Race and Music in Brazil.

Raylene DeWitte Grischow, JD ’98, was unanimously voted by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Illinois 4th District Appellate Court bench. She was sworn in July 8, 2024, and immediately commenced her new position. Grischow was previously a circuit court judge in the 7th Judicial Circuit Court in Springfield, Illinois. She was elected to the circuit position in 2020.

Sharon Wahl, MFAW ’97, wrote Everything Flirts: Philosophical Romances (University of Iowa Press, November 2024). At the heart of the stories in Everything Flirts are some of life’s trickiest questions: Why is it so hard to make the first move on a date? How do we find the person we will love? Wahl is a writer and documentary film producer. Her stories, poems and essays have appeared in the Iowa Review, Chicago Tribune and Harvard Review among other publications.

Jeffrey S. Siegel, BSBA ’96, was named “Lawyer of the Year” and “Best Lawyer”by The Best Lawyers in America 2025 in the employment law, labor law and litigation areas. Siegel is an attorney with Morgan, Brown & Joy.

Heather Mefford, BS ’94, was awarded the American Epilepsy Society 2024 Basic Science Research Award in December 2024. It is the highest research award given by the society. Mefford, a physician-scientist at the Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has significantly advanced the understanding of the genetic causes of epilepsy, particularly in children with rare and complex forms.

Andrew Lyons, AB ’94, published his latest novel, a young adult thriller, Furies Rising (Book One: Hollow Valley, October 2024). His other novels include 2020 and Darkness in Him, which was set at a St. Louis–area university.

Edya Kalev, AB ’92, is currently living in New York City and teaching gentle self-care called The MELT Method. The care involves gentle massaging techniques along with soft tools that increases fluid flow through the body’s connective tissue, reducing pain, stiffness, stress and tension. She also taught MELT classes in Nicaragua in a retreat center designed by Wyly Brown, assistant professor of architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at WashU.