Hanko Kiessner BA’91 MBA’92 received the 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year award from business networking organization MountainWest Capital Network Utah. The annual honor recognizes a Utah entrepreneur who has built an industry-leading company. Kiessner is the co-founder and CEO of Packsize International, a Utah-based packaging company.
Charmelle Green BS’91 is deputy athletics director for Internal Operations and chief operating officer for Utah Athletics. A veteran of more than 20 years in intercollegiate athletics administration and coaching, Green had spent the previous 10 years at Penn State, most recently serving as a senior associate A.D. Green is a former U Softball All-American and member of the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame.
Note from the editor: We erroneously merged the biographical information of two successful attorneys in the Fall issue of Utah Magazine. Our sincere apologies. Here are corrected items for both women.
Andrea Martinez JD’03 (B.A.’97, UCLA) is a criminal defense attorney with her own law office in Salt Lake City. She served nearly six years over two stints as a deputy district attorney in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office. She also spent more than six years as a senior associate with Utah Juvenile Defender Attorneys and almost four years as a trial attorney with the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association.
Andrea T. Martinez BA’98 JD’01 was recently appointed Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah. Martinez is the third woman and first Latina to hold the position and has served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for more than a decade. She was the First Assistant United States Attorney for one year prior to her appointment as the Acting U.S. Attorney. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Martinez was involved in the full spectrum of violent crime prosecution. She began her career at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
Michelle (Elbogen) Hofmann BS’94 MPH’97 is one of two deputy directors for the Utah Department of Public Health. Hofmann joined the UDOH in August 2020 as the manager of the Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Program and has directed the state’s COVID-19 response in long-term care facilities. Hofmann was a gymnast with the Red Rocks at the U and now has 17 years of experience as a pediatrician and physician leader.
Blake Hills JD’98 has been appointed to a full-time five-year appointment on the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. Hills had most recently served as a prosecuting attorney with the Summit County Attorney’s Office. He also serves as an instructor at Salt Lake Community College.
Lindsay Barenz HBS’99 is president of business operations for the Washington Spirit, a women’s professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. Barenz previously served as the vice president of business development for the National Women's Soccer League, where she led the sale of the league’s broadcast rights to CBS and Twitch.
Carl Churchill BA’85 MBA’04 has sent more than 19,000 bags of java to deployed troops through his company Alpha Coffee, cofounded with his wife, Lori. A Bronze Star-awarded former U.S. Army Military Intelligence officer of more than two decades, Churchill drank a lot of “crappy” coffee on deployments and grew over the years to appreciate truly great craft brews. So when he and Lori started their own company, he says, “We decided part of our mission would be to donate some of our amazing coffee to those deployed in combat.” From an online business run out of their home basement (with the help of their two then-teenage kids), Alpha has now grown to three namesake cafes around the Salt Lake Valley and is served in several locations at the U.
Cristina Ortega JD’02 was appointed to a 2nd District Court judgeship by Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox. Ortega was previously a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City. She is an advisory board member for the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the U and has served on its board of trustees.
Patrick Newman BA’03 MPA’10 is the new CEO and president of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Newman brings more than 14 years of public gardens experience, serving most recently as executive director of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center since 2016. Prior to that he was Red Butte Garden director of programs for more than nine years.
Sui Lang L. Panoke BS’03 is the new senior vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Zions Bank. Panoke previously worked at Rethink International, a global social enterprise and international training organization.
Engels Tejeda JD’06 is the 2021 recipient of the Raymond S. Uno Award from the Utah State Bar for the Advancement of Minorities in the legal profession. A partner at Holland & Hart, Tejeda is a trial lawyer focusing on consumer claims defense, cybersecurity and privacy litigation, banking litigation, and creditors’ rights in bankruptcy. He leads the firm’s Pipeline Mentor Program, which provides diverse law students access to career development advice and guidance.
Alex Smith BS’04 retired after a 16- year career in the NFL culminating in an improbable comeback from devastating injury and leading his team to a playoff berth. Smith suffered a gruesome compound leg fracture and complications in 2018. The Washington Football Team quarterback endured 17 surgeries for the injury, considered life-threatening, before defying expectations and returning to play. He was awarded the Comeback Player of the Year at the 2021 NFL Honors. Smith considered joining the Jacksonville Jaguars and playing for his former coach, Urban Meyer. But ultimately, he decided to leave the pro game on this high note. He joins Brett Favre as the only quarterbacks since 1950 to start on three or more teams and have a winning record with each one.
Ana Antunes MFA’09, assistant professor in the U’s division of Gender Studies, was honored by fellow members of the Urban Research Based Action Network leadership team for her community-engagement and social justice work. Antunes develops participatory projects with young people of refugee and immigrant backgrounds in after-school settings.
Mohamed S. Abou Donia PhD’10 received a 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for his research leadership on the impact of the microbiome of humans and other organisms on host health, disease, and ecology. The award celebrates the early-career work and research contributions of immigrant scientists in the U.S. Donia is an associate professor at Princeton University.
Sadie Hoagland PhD’15 has published her first novel, Strange Children. Using the perspective of eight adolescent narrators, the story explores how people use faith to justify cruelty, and how redemption can come from unexpected places. Hoagland is also the author of a short fiction collection, American Grief in Four Stages. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and directs its creative writing program.
Cynthia Wilson MS’16 is part of a project examining the lifestyle of inhabitants of the Bears Ears Region. Wilson is the traditional foods program director of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit supporting indigenous communities in protecting their culturally significant, ancestral lands.
Comments
Comments are moderated, so there may be a slight delay. Those that are off-topic or deemed inappropriate may not be posted. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).