Class Notes

Shelley Ann Edson Cobb, BFA ’05, has run her own tutoring business in San Diego county since 2014. She tutors students from elementary through college with an emphasis on Spanish and mathematics, while focusing on life skills such as organizational strategies and self-advocacy. She supports students who attend a variety of schools from public to home school.

Ryan Nieuwendaal, AM ’04, PhD ’08, recently celebrated his 15th year of service at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Materials Science and Engineering Division. Nieuwendaal started as an NRC-NIST postdoc after graduating from WashU and has been employed at NIST ever since. In May 2025, he will serve as chair of the Practical Applications of NMR in Industry Conference at the University of Maryland.

Bill O’Neil, JD ’03, was named managing partner at Winston & Strawn’s Chicago office. He concentrates his practice on trial work and as a strategic adviser to some of the nation’s largest corporations and private equity funds.

Edward Carr, MBA ’03, wrote and self-published Time of Departure: A Time Travel Story (June 2024). In the book, Carr asks: What would happen if a modern jumbo jet and its passengers and crew mysteriously landed at the St. Louis airport in the days of propeller planes? How would the passengers adapt to a society they’ve only known as history? What can the crew do to return to their own time without modern tools? Carr has taught at St. Louis and Maryville universities and currently writes for an aviation news and media group in Washington, D.C.

David Busby, MBA ’03, is a senior credit officer at Midland States Bank.

Martin Padilla, MArch ’01, joined the ownership group of Trivers, a St. Louis–based architecture, planning, urban design and interiors firm. Padilla was a project designer at Trivers early in his career and returned there in 2017 as a senior project architect and associate. He is currently a licensing adviser for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and a member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis. From 2011 to 2022, Padilla served as the assistant director for career services in architecture at WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Angela Levy, AB ’01, is a federal criminal defense attorney representing indigent defendants. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is currently writing a book about her experiences as a trial advocate and the much-needed reform in the criminal justice system.

Cody Carpino, BS ’01, is currently serving as the president of American Institute of Architects (AIA) Central Valley, which covers 17 counties in Northern California. He works for Brailsford & Dunlavey, an owner’s rep company providing advisory and implementation services primarily to educational facilities including K-12, community colleges and universities. Carpino was recently promoted to the position of director and currently manages local school bond measures in California.

John O. Brandon, MFAW ’01, penned a new novel, Penalties of June (McSweeney’s, December 2024). The book centers on a young man who’s just finished a prison sentence he both did and didn’t deserve and is looking to start a new life. But will he be able to shake his shady past? Brandon also wrote Arkansas, which was adapted into a film starring Vince Vaughn, Liam Hemsworth and John Malkovich; Citrus County; A Million Heavens; Further Joy; and Ivory Shoals. He has been awarded the Grisham Fellowship at Ole Miss, and his short fiction has appeared in ESPN the Magazine and the Oxford American, among others.

Michael J. Gallo, BSBA ’00, graduated from Wharton’s MBA program for executives last year in San Francisco, where he also took weeklong courses focused on sustainability in the United Kingdom, Thailand and India. Gallo recently became the director of business development for Renewable Properties, working on partnerships and mergers and acquisitions. The company is focused on building and operating small-scale utility and community solar, EV-charging and battery storage projects throughout the United States.