Notes from the Class of 2013

As a project manager of a global procurement fund, Katie Razavi-Shearer (ArtHist) helps expand access to hepatitis treatment and diagnostics around the world. She will receive her master’s degree in public health from CU Anschutz. Katie also founded Azghadi Body Shop, a small-batch beauty product company based in Lafayette, Colorado. 

It’s no surprise that Savannah Sellers (Jour) considers herself a news junkie. Since graduation she has become host of NBC’s “Stay Tuned,” a twice-daily news show on Snapchat, and is a correspondent for MSNBC. Savannah is based in New York City. 

This year, Kumar Thurimella (ApMath) was awarded the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which is presented to students with outstanding leadership and academic skills who wish to pursue a post-graduate degree from the University of Cambridge. The scholarship is worth $250,000, and will help Kumar obtain a PhD in biotechnology. After graduating from CU, Kumar went West, becoming a software engineer for Uber. His desire to practice medicine pushed him to receive a master’s degree from Cambridge in 2018, and he is scheduled to complete medical school at CU Anschutz after his scholarship period.

In May 2020, Christine Thai (Fin, IntPhys;MBA’17) co-founded and became the CEO of Therapeasy, a mental health organization helping people find therapists. To date, the platform has on-boarded over 140 Colorado mental health providers and facilitated over 830 client matches. 

After serving as a judicial clerk in the U.S. district court for the Southern District of New York, Samantha Smith (Psych) established her insurance recovery and commercial litigation practice at Anderson Kill. In February 2021, she joined Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna, a boutique insurance recovery law firm, as an associate.

In 2014, Brittni Laura Hernandez (EthnSt; MEdu’18), Bethy Leonardi (MEdu’08; PhD’14) and Sara Staley (PhDEdu’14) launched A Queer Endeavor, an organization that works to make schools safe and humanizing for all young people by giving teachers the resources necessary to support LGBTQ students and to have meaningful classroom conversations regarding gender and sexuality. In July, the trio collaborated with graduate students and faculty from the School of Education to bring together about 450 teachers for the third Educator Institute for Equity and Justice. 

Video artist, photographer and performance artist Jenna Maurice (MFA) was chosen to project her large-scale experimental video on the wall of the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. Her work, “Non-Verbal Secret Confession Booth,” explores people’s nonverbal reactions to the secrets that they keep. In June, Jenna told Westword magazine that by showing her work she was “opening up a whole new genre for the audience that the Still [Museum] gets.”

The.com, a user-friendly website building platform with $4.4 million in funding, was founded by Jeff McKinnon (Econ’13) and his brother. The platform allows for community website building and remixing. Before founding their business, Jeff began website building as a freelancer. While at CU Boulder, Jeff was the president of the CU Alpine Club.

Kate Kohnen Krukowski (Phil’13) joined Quarles & Brady as an associate in the law firm’s Phoenix office. Kate is experienced in personal injury, wrongful death and criminal defense lawsuits and has represented clients in areas such as breach of contract and fiduciary duties, employment disputes, construction litigation, negligence and products liability.

CU Boulder’s track and field program had three alumni compete in July at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Emma Coburn (Mktg’13) placed eighth in the world for the women’s steeplechase after picking up her tenth U.S. steeplechase title in June. Joe Klecker (BioChem’20), who won his first U.S. title in the men’s 10,000 in May, finished in ninth place. Puerto Rican 400-meter dash national champion Gabby Scott (Mgmt’19) advanced to the semi-finals.

NBC News anchor and host of the network’s Stay Tuned show, Savannah Sellers (Jour’13) married Alex Yaraghi in Tuscany, Italy, on Sept. 16. The couple hosted 80 of their friends and family members at a villa for a three-day celebration. The couple met in 2017 in New York City’s West Village.

DU law school graduate Meaghan Evans Fischer (PolSci’13) passed the bar exam and began working at law firm Wegener, Lane and Evans in 2017. She was recently named partner at the age of 29 years old.

Vincent Mangiere (Fin’13) and Andrew Geller (Psych’05) met in 2020 and were engaged in November 2022. Vincent has had a successful career in finance and Andrew in dentistry. The couple plans to wed in Aspen in March 2024. They live in the West Village of New York. 

Emily Higgins Rippeteau (MBA’13) is owner and founder of Rippeteau Consulting, which helps small craft breweries and distilleries with their day-to-day accounting needs. Her clients have expanded beyond Boulder to as far as Alaska and have included Ratio Beerworks and Crystal Springs Brewing Company. Emily lives in Longmont. 

After graduating from CU, Cassie Langhals (Psych’13) received her master’s of medical science in anesthesia from South University in 2016 and began working at the University of New Mexico (UNM) as a certified anesthesiologist assistant. In 2020, she received her master’s of educational leadership from UNM, and in December she graduated with her doctorate of education in health science education from the University of St. Augustine. In 2019 she took on the role of clinical coordinator for the UNM Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, and in July became the inaugural program director for the first master of science in anesthesia program at UNM, which she opened with Christopher Arndt (AeroEngr’90). The program is the first of its kind in New Mexico and has a mission to serve the Southwest population.

Julie Surfus (ChemBioEngr’13) and Jeff Willich (Fin’13) met at a football watch party for Houston alumni in 2014. In September 2023, the two were married in Boulder, coincidentally on the same day as the Rocky Mountain Showdown. They co-lead the Houston chapter of Forever Buffs.