Class Notes

Rachel Permut, LA02, joined Gridiron as chief strategy officer in Houston, working on the ­development of a portfolio of distributed energy companies.

Sarah J. (Kocinski) Luem, BU03, a shareholder with Capes Sokol, was recently named chair of the firm’s business and finance practice group as well as the real estate practice group. She also was named to St. Louis Small Business Monthly’s 2022 list of Top 100 St. Louisans You Should Know to Succeed in Business. Luem implemented a program providing for Capes Sokol’s attorneys to collaborate with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri to staff a clinic at Grace Hill Women’s Business Center and provide counseling to minority entrepreneurs.

Nathaniel Dempsey, BU04, was promoted to enterprise strategy analyst at Minnesota ­Management and Budget. He and his wife, Julie (Schroeder) Dempsey, have two children, Miles and Isabelle — who are the grandchildren of Paul Schroeder, LA68, and Darlene ­(Schneemann) Schroeder, LA68, and the great-grandchildren of Frederick Schroeder, BU31, and Mildred (Maetten) Schroeder, LA31.

David E. Kronenberg, LA04, has joined Blank Rome LLP as a partner in the firm’s finance, restructuring and bankruptcy practice group and as a member of the cross-practice energy industry team. His focus is on the intersection of energy hedging, financing and bankruptcy law. Kronenberg previously was counsel in Sidley Austin’s energy group.

Maggie Konich Fiock, LA06, GR08, with her husband, Frank, and their daughter, Susie, ­welcomed Rosanna (“Rosie”) Bernardine to their family and St. Louis home, Nov. 3, 2021.

Samuel Jaffee, GR06, marked nine years on the Spanish faculty at the University of Washington, which recently honored him with the 2022 Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest university-wide recognition for innovative instruction, curricular development and mentorship. He writes that he’d welcome news from any of his former WashU students, whom he thanks for their generosity, good humor and patience with him in class.

Jessica Pryde, LA07, published her first book, a collection of essays titled Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters (­Berkley, ­February 2022). Pryde writes that her studies in the Interdisciplinary Project in the ­Humanities and the undergraduate honors fellowship at WashU spurred her desire to gather and edit this collection. Publishers Weekly wrote about Pryde’s book: “The collection’s strength is in its thoughtfulness and wealth of perspectives. The result is as unique as it is heartfelt.”

Oliver Glen Ancheta, LA08, is the director of geriatric consultation and ­co-management at University Hospitals, Cleveland (Ohio) Medical Center, and an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of ­Medicine.

Stephanie Willerth, SI08, SI08, was elected to the Canadian Society for Senior Engineers. Willerth is a professor and Canada research chair in biomedical engineering at the ­University of Victoria, Canada.

Jessica Kronstadt, LW09, was recognized by the Los Angeles County Bar ­Association as one of its Women’s History Month ­Honorees in March. She is deputy district attorney at the Los Angeles County ­District ­Attorney’s Officeandimmediate past president of Women ­Lawyers Association of Los ­Angeles. ­Washington University School of Law ­r­ecognized her accomplishments with a ­Distinguished Young Alumna Award in April 2019.