Class Notes

Benjamin S. Abella, AB ’92, was appointed the Mount Sinai Professor and System Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In this role, he has oversight responsibility for the seven emergency medicine clinical sites and two emergency medicine residency programs in the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

Thomas Velek, MA ’91, JD ’91, was recently named deputy director, programs and facilities chief for Lowndes County Recreation in Columbus, Mississippi. He oversees two athletics complexes and the recreational/athletics programs of the department. Velek coached soccer in the community for more than 20 years at the youth, competitive and high school levels before stepping down in 2022 to focus on administrative roles. He continues to serve as director of coaching for Columbus United Soccer Club, a club he helped found in 2010. 

John Kelley, AB ’91, assumed command of the 620th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in December 2023 as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. His battalion is in historic Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, and he manages approximately 500 soldiers assigned to Army reserve units stationed across the area. Kelley is honored to serve alongside two other WashU alumni, second lieutenants Sarah Xie, AB ’24, and Richard Sims, AB ’23.

Allison Harris, AB ’90, is executive director of the Institute of Judicial Administration as well as the Center for Labor and Employment Law, both at New York University School of Law where she earned a JD. She previously practiced law in the aviation and real estate fields. She is also a mom and a wife.

Edward Schwarzschild, AM ’89, PhD ’94, co-authored Job/Security: A Composite Portrait of the Expanding American Security Industry (MIT Press, August 2024). The book is a collection of candid interviews with and photographs of workers in America’s burgeoning security state, featuring workers in homeland security, border patrol and the secret service. The book led to a full-scale museum exhibition at the University Art Museum at the University at Albany. Schwarzschild is currently the director of creative writing and a fellow of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Jennifer Boylan, MA ’89, was reelected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 2024 for a second term to represent House District 66 (Riverside, Barrington). Boylan has been a strong advocate for protecting the environment; mitigating the effects of climate change; and supporting common- sense gun laws, reproductive freedom and small businesses. 

James Bailey, MA ’89, PhD ’91, the Hochberg Professor of Leadership at the George Washington University, has received many accolades. They include the following: the Outstanding Contribution Award from the GWU Executive MBA program, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Law Association and the Best Practitioner Article Award from the American Philosophical Society. He has been named the GWU Outstanding Educator of the Year 10 times, and he published articles in Harvard Business Review in 2023.

Robert Berlin, JD ’87, was reelected to a fourth term as state’s attorney of DuPage County, the second-largest county in Illinois. A career prosecutor since 1987, Berlin’s mission is to protect the public and defend the rights of crime victims. 

Alexander S. Douglas II, AB ’86, was named 2025 Elder Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Orlando, Florida. He is a partner with the law firm of Shuffield Lowman.

Tracy L. Wise, AB ’85, wrote her first novel, Madame Sorel’s Lodger (Type Eighteen Books, February 2025). The book is about a tormented artist who arrives in a village in southern France to begin painting again. No one understands the artist — what he sees, how he paints or why he stays — and their confusion increases as he becomes increasingly erratic, plagued by forces growing out of his control.