10 minute read
Class Notes
ClassNotes
1941
Bernice Beckner Rexrode is celebrating 80 years since her graduation from Madison College. Her grandson, Dave Rexrode (’01), is a public policy and administration graduate from the political science department.
Rexrode (’41) by the entrance to Wilson Hall as a student at Madison College.
Bernice Beckner Rexrode (’41) with her grandson, Dave Rexrode (’01).
1973
Eddie Bumbaugh and two friends completed the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail in July 2020 after 20 years of hiking sections of the trail covering 14 states. Prior to his retirement last year, Bumbaugh served as director of public relations for Hotel Madison and Shenandoah Valley Conference Center. He currently is president of the board of directors of Build Our Park, whose mission is to create an urban park in downtown Harrisonburg, and he serves on the Arts Council of the Valley Performing Arts Task Force.
(L-R): Eddie Bumbaugh (’73), along with his friends, Andy Huggins and Dick Wettstone, completed the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail in July 2020 after hiking sections of the trail for 20 years.
Phillip Updike is an associate broker with Harrisonburg Referral Realty, a division of KlineMay Realty in Harrisonburg. He also serves as senior (’80, ’96M) consultant to the Harrisonburg Homes Team of KMR. Updike semiretired in 2015 after working for WHSV-TV for 12 years, followed by 30 years as a fulltime Realtor. He and his wife, Tina (’73), founded the Beck Fellowship in the School of Art, Design and Art History in 2002.
1980
Jacquelyn LaFever Ragland ('96M) recently retired from a 30-year career as a school-based speech language pathologist. She is very excited to be returning to JMU in the fall, this time not as a student, but as a clinical educator in the communications sciences and disorders major. She will be a part-time graduate student supervisor at the Audiology and Speech-Language Clinics.
1981
William H. Church is retired from fulltime teaching after an incredibly satisfying career in higher education. A professor of chemistry and neuroscience at East Carolina University and Trinity College, he was blessed to interact with countless incredible students and colleagues. Church has relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, to “use his brain in a different way”—and work on his golf game and his beach tan.
In 1983, sorority members gather on the Newman Lake bridge by Greek Row.
1989
After nearly 30 years teaching in public schools in Wisconsin and Utah, Barbara Antonetti was hired as associate Uni-Serv director of the Granite Education Association. GEA is the local teacher’s association for educators in Granite School District, which serves approximately 67,000 students in Salt Lake County, Utah.
1991
Tracey Jewell won a Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools 2021 Outstanding Employee award. Jewell, director of information technology support services at Sprague Technology Center, was recognized as an Outstanding Non School-based Leader. One of Jewell’s colleagues described her as unflappable, positive, collaborative and resilient, adding “We quite literally might not have had a school year in 202021 without her.”
1993
David Meredith was named Best CEO by the 2020 Comparably Awards for large companies. Meredith is CEO of Everbridge Inc., which also won Best Company Culture. A global leader in critical event management, Everbridge received exceptionally high ratings from its employees, including an overall “A” rating for company culture and a CEO rating of “A+”.
1990
Lisa Matthews, assignment manager of U.S. video for the Associated Press, was elected the 114th president of the National Press Club on Dec. 4, 2020. Matthews, a 20-year veteran of the Associated Press, vowed to continue the Press Club’s efforts to elevate marginalized voices and recruit a more diverse membership. She also pledged to use her platform as president to help combat misinformation and mistrust of the media, and to keep the focus on the Press Club’s vital function as an advocate for press freedom at home and abroad. Matthews has won two Edward R. Murrow Awards and the AP’s Oliver S. Gramling Spirit Award for service to clients. The Press Club, founded in 1908, held an inaugural gala for Matthews on Jan. 30, 2021.
1994
Angela Orebaugh (’99M), a faculty member in the University of Virginia’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, won the school’s Adelle F. Robertson Award for excellence in teaching, public service or scholarship. Prior to joining the faculty at UVA, she was an executive at Booz Allen Hamilton for 15 years. “After spending the first half of my career in industry as a cybersecurity consultant, I set the goal to spend the second half of my career in academia,” Orebaugh said.
1995
Jay Colavita started Vertosoft LLC in 2016 to focus on driving emerging technology into the government market. The firm has been growing rapidly and over the last several years has recruited at JMU for both summer interns and full-time employees. Four 2020 JMU graduates joined Vertosoft last year. n Jennifer E. Michael, former chief of the Industry Guidance branch in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Counsel to the Inspector General, has joined Bass, Berry & Sims as a member of the firm’s health care practice in Washington, D.C. Michael draws on her government experience to help health care providers and life science companies avoid potential fraud and abuse hazards and navigate government investigations under the False Claims Act.
Last year, 2020 JMU graduates Jenna Weltz, Michael DiPlacido, Mary Dawson and Andrew Hinebaugh joined Vertosoft LLC, the company Jay Colavita (’95) started in 2016.
1998
David Forbes has been promoted to senior division vice president for sales at ADP. In this role, he will head sales and marketing for ADP’s Smart Compliance Solutions, Employee Financial Solutions, WorkMarket Solutions and Data Solutions. Forbes joined ADP in 1998 and has served on the Global Executive Steering Committee for ADP’s Business Resource Group, Cultivate for African American Associates, and is an ally for Women in Sales Leadership. He sits on ADP’s D&I Talent Taskforce Executive Committee and serves as the Worldwide Sales & Marketing (WWSM) executive sponsor for diversity improvement in sales.
2000
Rebecca Church Carroll and former fellow P.C. Dukes employees Sharyn Casapulla Zimmerman (’99), Kathy Carls Lawson (’98), Christina Henningan Cashman (’99) and Elissa Adams Hilton (’96) each participated in the virtual Duke Dog Dash during Homecoming 2020. Together they contributed 27 miles to the Alumni Association’s goal.
Lavely Miller was one of 10 national finalists for the 2020 Bennett Prize, which spotlights women who paint in the figurative realist style. Miller’s portraits narrate the effects of trauma, exploring visual cues that speak to loss, suffering, recovery and salvation. A practicing artist with a BFA in painting and drawing from JMU, she also holds an Ed.D. and M.Ed. in clinical mental health. She exhibits throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C., in addition to group and juried shows across the U.S. Her paintings can be found in the collections of the University of Virginia, the New Salem Museum, the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C., and in the TwentyFirst Century Fox and News Corp. Building in New York City, among other public and private collections. She lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. More at www.lavelymillerkershman.com
Lavely Miller (’00) was one of 10 finalists from a field of 674 entrants for the 2020 Bennett Prize, an award which recognizes women figurative realist painters. (Left): Miller's portrait God Shot Me in the Face and Then I Saw.
2006
Erin Rafferty Madrinan and Thomas Madrinan welcomed a daughter, Alexandra Joy, on May 5, 2021.
2009
Michelle L. W. Dawson (’09M) was honored with the Louis M. DiCarlo Award for Outstanding Clinical Achievement by the South Carolina Speech Language Hearing Association. Prior to receiving her award, Dawson published her first book, Chasing the Swallow: Truth, Science, and Hope for Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Disorders. “These events were possible due to the excellent foundation for my career that I obtained at JMU,” Dawson said. “None of it would have been possible without JMU!”
2017
Vine Adowei (’19M) graduated with a M.A. in Communication Advocacy with a concentration in strategic communication. When not working on a new post for her blog, SimplyVine, Adowei likes cooking vegan dishes, learning to play the guitar, singing and taking a challenging step class. She currently resides in Houston, Texas, with her family.
Maggie Williams was a recipient of The Washington Post Star Nurse award for 2021. Williams works at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Vine Adowei (’17, ’19M) is all smiles as she relaxes on the Quad after her 2019 graduation.
2019
Meghan Osborne (’20M) was named Loudoun County (Va.)’s New Secondary Teacher of the Year for 202021. Osborne, who teaches sixthgrade history, works at Stone Hill Middle School, which she also attended. Osborne used memes, videos and digital scavenger hunts to help her students feel like a part of the classroom even when they could not physically be there.
Meghan Osborne (’19, ’20M) celebrates being named Loudoun County's New Secondary Teacher of the Year.
A journey well written
BY BRITTANY BELL (’21)
When Lavaedeay “Vad” Monlique Lee (’15) graduated from JMU, he was faced with the decision every athlete must make at some point: Do I continue chasing the game, or do I find a more stable career? His journey to the decision led him to become a motivational writer and mentor.
Football has a been a passion of Lee's throughout his life. At JMU, Lee was the starting quarterback. He took the Dukes to the FCS playoffs in 2014, setting JMU's singlegame passing, completion percentage, singleseason touchdown, passing, and totaloffense records, in addition to receiving the 2014 Dudley Award and being named a 2014 Associated Press Third team FCS AllAmerican. His senior year was just as successful, until an injury sidelined him for the rest of the season.
Vad Lee (’15) runs with the ball during a game against FBS foe Southern Methodist University in 2015.
After graduating, Lee continued to play football on-and-off. His transition to a more normalized career has helped him realize and foster his other passions in life. Lee had always loved writing, but it wasn’t until he had the chance to sit down and plan a book that he really got to explore his talents. Now, he has two published books under his belt, with the desire to continue writing more.
“I never had dreams to become an author, never thought that I would be capable. I didn’t think that I would ever do that, but some things that you don’t think you’ll do you end up doing it,” Lee said. “That’s the beautiful thing about life, you discover passions in your transition.”
His first book, That’s My Friend, is a children's book based on his oldest daughter, Saraiah, and her friendly and outgoing spirit. It tackles diversity and inclusion, encouraging unity among people and supporting different cultures. The book was his and his wife, Khayla's, response to the Black Lives Matter protests last year, written to help others process their emotions and fears. Despite being a children’s book, it has received positive feedback from people of all ages.
Lee and his wife, Khayla, share his first two books: That’s My Friend and Purpose Over Passion.
“I think that is an appropriate message for us to receive, even as adults,” Lee said. “To be able to encourage one another and love one another despite our differences, despite our backgrounds and our upbringings. If we approach situations where we can love first and figure out later, then I think we’ll be a lot better off.”
Lee’s second book, Purpose Over Passion, tackles a different theme. As a faith-based inspirational and motivational book, it aims to help athletes and anyone else going through a huge transition in life find purpose beyond their original plan or passion.
Lee uses his own journey as an inspiration for the book. When he got injured his senior year at JMU, Lee had to switch roles from being a player to a motivational speaker. He began giving speeches to his teammates before games to encourage them. “That was the greater purpose behind it,” Lee said. “Even though my position as an athlete is no longer available, my purpose as a motivator and inspiration was still there.”
Purpose Over Passion follows his journey throughout his football career and goes into his injury and transition into the real world. The book deals with finding a new purpose beyond your original passion, and being happy with your path in life. Lee originally started writing the book in 2017, and after four years of hard work, he was finally able to see it in print this year.
Lee has plans to write more books. With the success of That’s My Friend, Lee wants to write another children’s book based on his younger daughter. He is also currently writing another inspirational book that’s geared specifically toward athletes who are transitioning out of their sport. He’s taking his own experiences with the struggle in order to help others with theirs.
“Sports has given me a platform to be able to share messages of encouragement,” Lee said. “I want to encourage people to move beyond just the jersey, and more walk into the heart of the person with the jersey.”
When he isn’t busy writing books, Lee works as a campus director for Young Life at the University of Maryland. He’s also a motivational speaker and life coach who mentors middle and high school athletes in his free time. Lee enjoys helping others along their journey, whether it’s sports-related or professional.
“I’ve been able to kind of redefine success in my life, and it’s been a journey, a journey worth living.”
