Class Notes

Tyler Survant, AB ’06, received a 2024–25 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award to conduct applied architectural research in Nepal. Rapid development in the Himalayas risks being environmentally unsustainable and culturally erosive. Survant’s research, “Conscientious Construction in Urbanizing Nepal,” aims to compare the methods of the country’s contemporary construction sector with its rich architectural traditions and proposes models for merging local knowledge with principles of modern building science. Survant is an assistant teaching professor in the College of Arts & Architecture at Montana State University.

Shannon Puopolo, AB ’05, a stockholder and hiring chairperson at Henderson Franklin, was recently sworn in as president of the Southwest Florida Bankruptcy Professionals Association. The appointment highlights her dedication to bankruptcy law, creditor’s rights and business litigation, as well as her leadership within the Southwest Florida legal community. She was also named to Florida Trend Magazine’s Notable Women Leaders in Law for 2024.

Florencia (Smith) Robertson, MSOT ’04, penned Unexpected: A Novel of Change and Friendship (Writeway Publishing, September 2024). The fictional novel finds a 40-plus-year-old woman at the door of a career-changing promotion, but an unexpected pregnancy shatters her confidence. A poor start to nursing her baby lands her in a lactation support group where she acquires unexpected friends — and a foe — in her totally changed life. The book is available on Amazon and the ebook through Kindle.

Sam Hirst, AB ’04, wrote Against the Liberal Order: The Soviet Union, Turkey, and Statist Internationalism, 1919-1939 (Oxford University Press, June 2024). The book grew directly out of his studies in history and Russian at WashU. Hirst is an assistant professor of international relations at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.

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.