Class Notes

Dwight Stevens, LA68, retired after 27 years as the founding and senior pastor of nondenominational Paramount Church, Palm Beach, Fla. He continues as president of Missions of Mercy, Inc., and has directed 31 medical missions to third-world countries. His most recent trip, in July 2023, was to the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, where he treated Indigenous Quechua Indians. His 2017 book Atheist Doctor to Palm Beach Minister details his journey from the practice of medicine to full-time ministry.

Jack J. Schramm, LW59, managing director of International Development Counsel LLC, is now semi-retired. Schramm had a long career in public service, environmental policy and the law, spurred by a curiosity about life. Looking back, Schramm shares that he completed volunteer military service during the Korean War, and after, he motorcycled 3,000 miles across the Middle East from Baghdad to Pakistan. At WashU, he was on the debate team and voted by his classmates to be the first recipient of the Carter-Tedrow Memorial Award. He served eight years in the Missouri legislature and in 1976 was appointed a regional administrator at the EPA. Then, Schramm used his expertise in environmental policy and law to work in some 25 countries on five continents.

Liese Rapozo, LA48, writes that she is retired after an illustrious career that took her from St. Louis to Chicago to Hawaii to the San Pedro Valley of California, teaching primary school for 20 years, then “retiring” to a second career teaching English as a second language. She and her husband, Wallace Rapozo, were marathon and ultra-marathon runners who traveled extensively and “ran on every continent.” They also competed in biathlons and triathlons, and served as volunteers at two Olympic venues. She writes, “I am finally able to enjoy my rocking chair but still keep busy — for the grandkids and great-grandkids.”

Jake Steinberg, LA22, is in the graduate acting program at Columbia University in New York City, pursuing a master’s degree in fine arts.

Charis Railey, GR22, runs a small dance company in St. Louis centered around the arts of the African diaspora, specializing in dances of Brazil, the U.S. and the Caribbean. She makes the company’s dancers available for Carnival/Mardi Gras, school shows, bachelorette parties, dance history lectures and other Black dance-focused events.

Sarika Talve-Goodman, SW20, edited Your Hearts, Your Scars (Bellevue Literary Press, January 2023), a book of essays by her late sister, Adina Talve-Goodman, LA09, that was published posthumously. Adina, who was born with a congenital heart condition and had survived multiple operations including a heart transplant at the age of 19, died in January 2018. The book’s seven essays are filled with curiosity, humor and compassion, and they tell the story of her chronic illness and her search for meaning and love, never forgetting that her adult life was tied to the loss of another person, her donor.

Aliza Shatzman, LW19, president and ­co-founder of The Legal Accountability Project, visited more than 20 law schools in fall 2022 to share her nonprofit’s resources, designed to transform the clerkship application process — and the legal profession — for the next generation of attorneys. She will visit more law schools, including WashU Law, this spring. At these events, Shatzman shares her negative clerkship experience to foster honest dialogue about the clerkship experiences on law school campuses.

Meenakshi Jha, GF19, won the Mother Art Prize 2022’s International Artist Award. The award comes with a group show at Zabludowicz Collection, London; an International Residency Award consisting of a one-month residency at the Mother House Studios in London; and mentoring sessions with Sylvie Gormezano, director at Picture This Productions and chair of the Association of Women Art Dealers. 

Bambi Hall, GL19, was named public affairs director for the State Bar of Texas. She’s finally able to marry her legal education with her work, having more than 25 years’ experience as a marketing and communications professional. A certified master public information officer, Hall has held positions with the city of New Orleans; the state of Louisiana; Gulf Engineers and Consultants, Inc.; and Texas Southern, Dillard and Xavier universities.

Maya Sorini, LA18, won the 2023 Press 53 Poetry Award for Boneheap in the Lion’s Den, which beat out almost 400 other manuscripts. Press 53 is publishing her book this month, and Sorini will receive a $1,000 advance and 53 copies.