Class Notes

Sara Miller, BU17, started a student organization while attending WashU called Student Organ Donation Advocates (SODA), having been inspired after her older sister’s organ donation saved a life. SODA now has more than 50 chapters across the country on high school, college and graduate school campuses.

Beth Miller, GR17, penned The Most Painful Choice: A Dog Owner’s Story of Behavioral Euthanasia (McFarland Publishing, March 2023), which tells her family’s experience with Champ, a rescued German shepherd. Champ suffered physically and mentally from neglect and trauma from his first years of life. As well as recounting her family’s attempts to help Champ, in the book Miller discusses behavioral euthanasia as a compassionate choice for unmanageable aggression, reactivity, biting or severe anxiety.

Julia (Soscia) Lowery, EN17, SI18, and Christopher Lowery, EN16, SI16, who met on campus during Julia’s sophomore year, in July celebrated their first wedding anniversary. They write that they are grateful to WashU for bringing them together and hold the university and St. Louis dear to their hearts.

Christine Lung, LA16, is a health-care investor at Valspring Capital, formerly Bain Capital Ventures, making growth equity investments within the health-care ecosystem.

Briana Bostic, LA16, recently defended her dissertation — “Geographic Context and Teacher Perceptions: Associations with Teachers’ Job Demands and Resources, Classroom Quality, and Child Outcomes in Head Start Settings” — at The Johns Hopkins School of Education and was awarded a doctorate in education. Last year, the publishing company she founded, The Black Heron Company, released two children’s books, To Fly by the Sun and Martin from Mars: Making Time. The books provide instructional guidance for learning in any setting, highlighting the infinite imaginative power of young Black children.

Arian Jadbabaie, LA15, gave science demonstrations at the Los Angeles Maker Faire and City of STEM Festival in April. Jadbabaie has been involved in science outreach activities and events since his undergraduate years at WashU.

Alicia Olushola Ajayi, GA15, SW15, writes that her research on the history of America’s first majority Black incorporated town — Brooklyn, Ill., founded in the early 1820s — was highlighted in Architectural Digest. In the article, Ajayi discusses how Black town-building was a tool for Black autonomy and freedom, and how it raises questions about Black ownership 

Travis Weirich, EMBA14, who started a hedge fund and is developing an options trading system, is currently raising capital.

Steffan Triplett, LA14, a teaching assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh, instructs his students how to be fearless writers. A psychology major at WashU, Triplett earned a minor in creative writing thanks to encouragement from James E. McLeod, former vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

Nathan Ivy, GR13, a nonprofit professional who for two decades has worked on behalf of the disadvantaged and marginalized, was named executive director at Episcopal City Mission in St. Louis. The mission, which dates to 1894, provides programming and support for children and teens in the juvenile justice system. Previously, Ivy was a project director
at Vision for Children at Risk in St. Louis.