Class Notes

John Berra, BS ’69, published Turning the Giant: Disrupting Your Industry With Persistent Innovation (Forbes Books, March 2024), in which he shares his life’s journey: a shy, uncertain university student who becomes the chairman of Emerson Process Management. In the book, he also reveals the giant challenges he faced along the way. Berra has received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the McKelvey School of Engineering. He is an emeritus member of the engineering school’s national council and has served on the Austin Regional Cabinet.

Lawrence Millman, AB ’67, published another book, Outsider: My Boyhood with Thoreau (Coyote Arts LLC, March 2024), his 22nd title.

Julie Wosk, AB ’66, is curating the exhibit Imaging Women in the Space Age on view at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, through Sept. 8 (and was previously at the New York Hall of Science). Wosk, a professor emerita at State University of New York, Maritime College, lives in Manhattan. She also has a summer home in the Berkshires, where she once enjoyed concerts with her late-husband, Bill. Her newest book, Artificial Women: Sex Dolls, Robot Caregivers, and More Facsimile Females, was published in April 2024 by Indiana University Press.

Robert J. Levy, MD, AB ’66, delivered the first Robert J. Levy Basic Science Lecture at “CARDIOLOGY 2024, the 27th Annual Update on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease,” in Scottsdale, Arizona. Levy, who is the William J. Rashkind Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cardiology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, presented “The Role of the Serotonin Transporter in the Progression of Heart Valve Disease.” Levy is also professor of pediatrics and professor of systems pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Charles P. Bubany, JD ’65, was honored with the creation of the Charles P. Bubany Endowed Professorship at Texas Tech University School of Law in recognition of his more than 50 years of service as a professor.

Robert Zaller, MA ’63, PhD ’68, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Drexel University, published his fifth collection of poetry, After the Fire (Moonstone Press).

Jaime Yrastorza, DMD ’57, turned 93 in December 2023. In 1989, Yrastorza started a nonprofit organization called Uplift Internationale, which brings a team of professionals to mostly rural Philippines and provides corrective surgeries free of charge to disadvantaged children with cleft lip deformities. He also recently wrote From Fire to Freedom, a book that chronicles his upbringing in rural Philippines during the invasion of the Japanese during WWII. Yrastorza currently lives in Littleton, Colorado, with his wife of 66 years, Patricia. The couple has five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.

Maya Yildirim, AR23, is pursuing a master’s degree in architecture at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. 

Cathy Wiesinger, LA23, was hired as digital media director for U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York’s 13th congressional district.

Minju Lee, EN23, SI23, was named to the 2023 “Inno Under 25” list (Inno is a spinoff publication of St. Louis Business Journal). Lee is the founder of Mozi, a startup focused on creating an app to bring people together for events and hangouts. He also recently started as a management consulting analyst with World Wide Technology and has served as chief financial officer for student medical technology incubator program Sling Health.