Download Current Issue - SAIS

professorial lecturer in the
SAIS Latin American Studies
Program since receiving
her Ph.D. in 1998. She
works full time as lead
labor markets specialist for
the Inter-American Development
Bank in Washington,
D.C., where she publishes
frequently on Latin
American labor markets
and social policy. Mazza led
SAIS Western Hemisphere
Studies students to Beijing
this past spring and will be
teaching U.S. Foreign Policy
Toward Latin America
in spring 2012.
Scott D. Tollefson ’84,
Ph.D. ’91 has been an associate
professor of national
security affairs at the Center
for Hemispheric Defense
Studies at National Defense
University in Washington,
D.C., since April 2010.
1985
Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla ’85,
Ph.D. ’92 was reappointed
in March to a fourth term
as executive director
for Argentina and Haiti
at the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB).
He continues teaching a
course on the history and
operations of the IDB at
The George Washington
University’s Elliott School
for International Affairs in
Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth “Lisa” Klein
McKenna ’85 has been a
sales director at the commercial
open-source software
company Zenoss since
June. She plays tennis and
enjoys music, stage, film
and food. She lives in the
San Francisco Bay Area
with her husband and three
rescue dogs.
G. Christopher Welton
B’84, ’85 has been living
and working in Europe
98 SAISPHERE
since 1990 and has made
Paris his home since
September 2000. Welton
handles global investor relations
for Vinci, a member
of the French stock market
index CAC 40.
Gunnar Wiegand B’84,
’85 left the European Commission
and joined the European
External Action Service
of the European Union in
January 2011. He is now
director in charge of Russia,
the Eastern Partnership
(Eastern Europe and South
Caucasus), Central Asia,
regional cooperation and the
Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe.
Wiegand lives in Brussels.
1986
Susan K. Brems ’86, Ph.D.
’93 became senior deputy
assistant administrator
for the Bureau for Global
Health at USAID in July
2010. She served in that
position until July and is
now USAID mission director
in Lusaka, Zambia.
Brems is a career member
of the USAID Senior
Foreign Service, rank of
minister-counselor.
Mary M. Dickens
Johnson ’86 and her husband
recently moved from
Deerfield Beach to Tavernier
on Key Largo in the
Florida Keys. She continues
to teach contracts management
at Villanova University
School of Continuing
Studies online.
Ronald W. Peppe II JHU
’83, ’86 was elected in June
to the city council of Falls
Church, Va. Peppe previously
served as the chairman
of the school board in
Falls Church and remains
vice president for legal and
human resources for Canam
Steel Corp.’s U.S. operations.
1987
Jean Curran Benedict ’87
and Mitchell Benedict ’87
are in Freetown, Sierra
Leone, where Mitch is deputy
chief of mission at the
U.S. Embassy, and Jean is a
country manager for USAID.
This summer, their daughter,
Collin, in her final year at
Phillips Academy, was an
intern in the embassy’s public
affairs office. Their son, Cole,
also at Phillips Academy, was
in Sierra Leone volunteering
at the Tacugama Chimpanzee
Sanctuary.
Angelo Capozzi B’86, ’87
has been living in Maastricht,
Netherlands, with his wife,
Ingrid, and daughter, Cecilia,
since 2005. Since November
2008, he has worked in
global business development
at Goodpack Europe, focusing
on the global trade of
fruit juices and concentrates.
After 40 years in international
relations, mostly
within the Swedish Foreign
Service, Winni Fejne ’87,
former consul-general of
Sweden in Guangzhou,
China, retired to her hometown
of Helsingborg, Sweden,
in January 2011. She
enjoys staying in touch with
fellow alumni and plans to
consult in East Asia affairs
with a focus on China and
the Pearl River Delta.
Kay Halpern B’85, ’87
and Jean Luning-Johnson
B’82, ’83 enjoyed a minireunion
at Zaytinya restaurant
in Washington, D.C.,
in January 2011. Halpern is
a senior analyst at the U.S.
Government Accountability
Office, and Luning-Johnson
is retired.
1988
Casual triathlete Lynda
Kristen Barrow B’87, ’88
completed the Register’s
Annual Great Bike Ride
Across Iowa in July. She is
an associate professor of
political science at Coe College
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Katherine Penchuk
Grabbe B’87, ’88 is married
and living in New York City,
where she has worked for the
Federal Reserve since September
2009. She has fond
memories of Italy travels,
Bologna shoe shopping and
her year at SAIS in Washington,
D.C. She extends a hello
to her classmates from the
class of 1988.
This past June, Timothy
D. Hoyt ’88, Ph.D. ’97 was
named John Nicholas Brown
Chair of Counterterrorism
Studies at the U.S. Naval War
College in Newport, R.I.,
where he has been a professor
for 10 years.
In July, Denise A. Rollins
’88 returned to work in the
United States after 23 years
abroad with USAID. She
has served as a U.S. foreign
service officer in Jamaica,
Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria,
South Africa and, most
recently, as mission director
in Bangladesh. She now holds
the title of senior deputy
assistant administrator for
Asia based at USAID’s Washington,
D.C., headquarters.
In April, Jonathan Stern
’88 became the manager of
media and communications
for the Global Alliance for
Vaccines and Immunization
(GAVI) Alliance in Washington,
D.C., after a long career
as a business journalist. GAVI
is a Geneva-based international
organization devoted to
increasing children’s access to
immunization in the world’s
poorest countries.
Belinda Theriault ’88 was
appointed executive director
of the Fulbright Commission
in Iceland. She has been
working on a project that