Byron W. Lubenkov ’04 recently married Sarah Gillaspey in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 20th, 2022. They currently live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Plenty of Titans were in attendance celebrating, including: Alexander J. Laurie ’03 (Best Man), Elizabeth (Fischer) Laurie ’04 , Erin Milligan ’04, Tyler Bennett ’04, Jake Osterberg, Justin Gorson ’07 (groomsman), Jon Charak ’05, Jessica (Hohl) Achstetter ’07, Tim Achstetter ’06, Sean Moran ’05 (groomsman), Jeni Jena ’05, Prakrit Jena ’05, and Ajeet Bajaj ’04.

Van Miller started his new job as IWU’s Associate Director for Advancement on March 1st. Congratulations!

Lavanga Wijekoon ’04, attorney in the Chicago office of Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has been elevated to shareholder, effective January 1, 2022. Lavanga handles district and appellate level actions in state and federal courts in Illinois and Iowa, and before agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the Illinois Human Rights Commission. He also provides strategic advice and counsel to multinational employers on a wide range of international employment and compliance matters, including areas such as human rights compliance, global mobility programs and expatriate workforces, employment aspects of global M&A deals, general employment advice on workforces in the Asia-Pacific region and more.

Bethany Wasik ’04 was recently promoted to acquisitions editor at Cornell University Press and is acquiring books in the subject areas of Classics, Archaeology, Modern European History, and Military History. Bethany joined Cornell University Press in 2015 as an editorial assistant to transition into scholarly publishing after receiving her PhD from Indiana University in molecular biology and genetics and completing two postdoctoral fellowships at Yale and Cornell Universities. Congratulations!

Laura O’Connor ’04 has an art show opening on November 20th at the Blue Moon Gallery in Grayslake, Illinois. The show is called “Embroidery as Testimony and Dissent.” It is a collection of embroidered and cross-stitched pieces that primarily focus on society’s treatment of women and the use of embroidery as resistance.

Gwydhar Gebien recently released a book on June 28, 2021. The book is Enfant Terrible: Opening Acts.

Synopsis: Damen Warner is the front man for a metalcore band who has hit the skids. Hard. His record label dropped him, his manager has gone missing and now his agent won’t return his calls. In a last-ditch effort to revive his career, Damen returns to Chicago on the promise of playing Lollapalooza and his life quickly spirals into a vortex of sex, drugs, rock and roll, colorful language, explicit content and poor taste. Antagonizing everyone in his path, Damen struggles to reinvent himself and reconnect with his estranged family while plummeting face-first to rock bottom. You can find the book here.

Jill Jackson ’04, a managing director in transaction services for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, was promoted to partner in June 2021. Jill co-leads the PwC U.S. Contracts and Closing Mechanisms practice and focuses on advising clients regarding the accounting-related aspects of sale and purchase agreements.