Alumni news

Tom Barden, a three-time U.Va. English alumnus (BA 68, MA 72, Ph.D. 75), has been appointed director of the University of Toledo's Honors Program. The program, with over 800 students, serves all the university's undergraduate colleges and delivers a student-centered curriculum that includes study abroad, service learning, and undergraduate research opportunities. Tom is the editor of Virginia Folk Legends (University of Virginia Press, 1991), serves on the editorial board of Steinbeck Studies/The Steinbeck Review, and is general editor of the University of Toledo's Urban Affairs Center Press.

Rebecca Dunham (English 1994) is an assistant professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa and Assistant Editor of the North American Review. Last year, Rebecca was the Jay C. and Ruth Halls Fellow in Poetry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her first book of poetry, The Miniature Room, won the 2006 T.S. Eliot Prize and was published by Truman State University Press. Rebecca was recently awarded an NEA Fellowship in Poetry for 2007. She received her MFA in Poetry from George Mason University and her PhD in English with a creative dissertation from the University of Missouri, Columbia. 

Kristine Hankinson (English 1998) is the North American Brand Manager of Penfolds, one of Australia's most prestigious wineries. The position in based in Napa, CA, and it has given her opportunities to travel to Australia. Kristine pursued a marketing career in the wine industry after graduating from U.Va. in 1998, and she earned her MBA from Duke University in 2005.

Sarah Lyman Kravits (English 1988) co-authors a series of textbooks for Prentice Hall on student success and study skills for college freshmen. She is currently working on the 6th edition of the flagship text of the series, entitled Keys to Success.  With these texts she and her co-authors impart commonsense wisdom on topics ranging from learning styles and time management to how to take notes and succeed on tests. When not writing and researching in her home office, she encourages her three children to read books, magazines, and the backs and sides of cereal boxes.

Catherine Petrini (English 1984) has a new book out. Dragons, published by KidHaven Press in December 2006, is a nonfiction book for ages 9-12. The book examines dragon myths from around the world, discusses different kinds of dragons, and looks at dragons in popular culture. This is Petrini's twenty-eighth book; most have been fiction and nonfiction for children and teenagers. She has a master's degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Nicole R. Pickens (English 1998) operates her own public relations firm which she started in Hawaii, where she has two clients: Pure Hapa beauty products and Tahiti Blew jewelry. After working for seven years in Manhattan at various public relations firms, Nicole took a  “leap of faith” and moved to Hawaii, taking a second leap to start her PR firm. She is very happy with what she has accomplished since her graduation from U.Va., and she is always pleased to see the  “wow” on people's faces when they here that she is a UVa alumna.

Christina Schust Robinson (English 1994) is a senior performance development consultant at a healthcare software company in Los Angeles. On top of her organizational development and HR generalist work she struggles, among other things, to teach developers and help desk consultants the difference between  “that” and  “which” and to convince the business world “incentivize” is NOT a word. Fortunately, she married a magazine editor, so she can argue grammar to her heart's content at home. Despite a graduate degree from the University of Michigan, Tina is still a Wahoo at heart, singing the words to the Virginia fight song whenever she hears Auld Lang Syne.