Notes from the Class of 1994

The flute became a lifelong passion for Peggy Bruns (MMus’94) after she received her first $50 instrument. She wanted to share her love for music with others and in 1995 started a music school, the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts, with Kathy Kuscan (MMus’90, PhD’95) who she met at CU. The school serves 600 students a week and is a joint organization with the Colorado Music Festival, which gives people more opportunities to follow their musical dreams. Peggy lives in Longmont, Colo.

Climber Jeff Evans (Anth’94) and his team made it to the finale on last summer’s adventure show Expedition Impossible, which aired on ABC. It featured 13 teams racing through the deserts, rivers and mountains of Morocco. His longtime friend and blind teammate Eric Weihenmayer have been climbing together for 20 years, with Jeff acting as his friend’s eyes on the mountain. They have participated in other adventure races around the world and climbed Mount Everest together. Jeff lives in Boulder.

At CU Janet deGrazia (MChemEngr’94, PhD’98) teaches a course about cutting-edge areas of science with applications in health and society. The course, “Creative Technology/Social Impact,” enrolls more than 400 students a semester. She lives in Boulder.

Brett Duryea (EnvSt’94) is co-owner of PC Autotune, a software application that tunes and updates personal computers automatically. Users pay a small yearly price for the program. Brett lives in Louisville, Colo.

Cancer researcher Kevin Mills (MCDBio’94) was promoted to associate professor at Jackson Laboratory. He studies the fundamental processes relating to the stability of the genome, focusing on understanding the mechanisms that manage genome instability and how the failure of the mechanisms leads to diseases. He is working on “genetic chemotherapy” to develop precise, targeted cancer treatments that induce cancer cell self-destruction. He also is developing new drugs for treating cancers. Kevin lives in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Denver resident Salvador Quintana (Bus’94) opened the Quintana Law Firm, which provides legal representation in the areas of business/corporate law, real estate law, wills and trusts drafting and estate planning. Before starting the firm, he was an associate attorney at a Denver law firm and practiced real estate law and contracts law. He also served as counsel for Mines & Associates and has worked in public relations, fundraising, management and marketing for corporations and nonprofit organizations.

Awareness about Celiac Disease is important to Alek Komarnitsku (MBA’94). He has raised funds for the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research by creating enormous light displays for his house for Halloween and Christmas. To view his elaborate holiday decorations or his travel photos, visit komar.org. Alek lives in Lafayette, Colo.

After founding her own firm to focus on real estate law, Amy Eisenhuth Brimah (PolSci’94, Law’00) joined the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as counsel in the real estate department. She focuses on finance, lending, commercial real estate transactions and development projects. The Denver resident is a board member of the Denver Children’s Advocacy Center, an organization she has been involved with for more than a decade.

On Feb. 1 Joe Beauprez (Mktg’94) and his wife Erin MacGregor Beauprez (Soc’98, MPubAf’11) welcomed their daughter Claire Caperton. Claire joins a family of three generations of CU alumni including her great-grandmotherAudrey Thomas Paul (Art’73), grandfather Bob Beauprez (PE’70), grandmother Claudia Beauprez (Edu’71) and aunt Melanie Beauprez Fuller (Hist, PolSci’02). Joe and his family live in Denver.

Former Washington, D.C., chapter leader Geoff Davis* (Econ’94) moved with his family to Costa Rica. Geoff and his wife Susan, daughter Lyla and twins Alex and Macey took a trip up to La Paz Waterfall Park near the Poas Volcano National Park. They live in Santa Ana, Costa Rica.

Fast Company’s 2012 list of 100 Most Creative People in Business named Laura Mather (ApMath’94, MCompSci’96, PhD’98) as No. 16. Laura has worked with many businesses in web security and is founder and chief strategy officer of Silver Tail Systems, which uniquely maps all users’ behavior at a site such as StubHub to spot crooks. She has a son, Alex, and lives in Palo Alto, Calif.

Boulder resident Robert Schaefer (ElEngr’94) is the CEO of AlsoEnergy, developing software to manage and monitor the effects of renewable energy technologies. “We are providing the monitoring systems for educational purposes for a large number of schools in the Arizona area,” Robert told the Daily Camera, describing one of the company’s projects.

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory April Dennis Carman (Chem’94) works as a scientist and project manager for the team that redesigned the CO2 scrubber for U.S. submarines. Her team received the 2012 Federal Laboratory Consortium-Inter-Partnership Award and the 2013 American Chemical Society Team Innovation of the Year Award. April lives in Richland, Wash.

After earning her Marine Corps officer commission, Keri Berman May (EPOBio’94) attended training in Quantico, Va., where she chose her Marine Corps occupational specialty, naval flight officer. After completing flight training in Pensacola, Fla., Keri was selected to fly in the F/A 18D Hornet in San Diego, becoming the first female Marine to be assigned to fly in fighter jets. After two deployments to Japan and three years at Marine Corps headquarters, she left active duty in 2005. Keri and her family reside in Sandusky, Ohio. She is featured in the book Military Fly Moms(Tannenbaum Publishing).

Last fall Christopher Teuton (Engl’94) published his book Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club (University of North Carolina Press).The book is a collection of stories, conversations and teachings about Western Cherokee life and culture. Christopher lives in Colorado Springs.

Denver resident Kenzo Kawanabe (PolSci’94) is a commercial litigator who represents clients in contract disputes, business torts, products liability and intellectual property. He also was board chair of Colorado Lawyers Committee, dedicated to assisting children, the poor and other disadvantaged groups. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Kenzo to the 2013 Japanese American Leadership Delegation for being a top Japanese American leader in the nation. The delegation will meet with individuals at the highest levels of Japanese government, business administration and civil society.

Linfield College honored psychology professor Tanya Tompkins (Psych’94) with the Samuel H. Graf Faculty Achievement Award. The award recognizes a faculty member who has made an outstanding contribution to the life of the college that extends beyond her regular duties. Described as a remarkable teacher, she has engaged more than 20 students in collaborative research during the past two years and initiated a brown bag program called Research Experience in Psychology to showcase student research. Tanya lives in McMinnville, Ore.

Along with almost 1,200 Marines and sailors of Combat Logistics Battalion 8, Lt. Col. Chris Hrudka (Hist’94) wrote in July to say he and First Lieutenant Zachary Knight (Anth’09) were finishing a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan in July. They provide ground transportation, organic and intermediate maintenance, supplies, engineering, medical logistics and support services to the 9,600 Marines and sailors in Regional Command Southwest for the 13-1 rotation of Operation Enduring Freedom. In the United States Chris lives in Jacksonville, N.C.

Author William O’Brien (PhDHist’94) wrote the book Merchants of Independence: International Trade on the Santa Fe Trail, 1827-1860. In the book William looks at the complexity of U.S. and Mexican trade alliances from 1827 to 1860 and how they built consensus among individuals and various governmental and economic systems. He lives in Tucson, Ariz.

Peggy Bunker (Engl’94) joined the NBC Bay Area station to anchor its midday newscast, NBC Bay Area News. She also serves as general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor for Today in The Bay, the morning newscast. Previously Peggy anchored for World News Now and America This Morning for ABC News in New York, Good Day Colorado at Fox’s KDVR in Denver and The Daily Buzz in Los Angeles. At KOMO 4 News in Seattle, she received the 2012 national Gracie Award for reporting. She lives in Larkspur, Calif.