Alumni Notes | Wisconsin Alumni Association | Taylor-Hibbard Club History

Michael Aliber (PhD '00) writes, "our daughter, Talia Zara Aliber, was born on 21-12-02.  Hiltrud and I are delighted to welcome her into our lives. I was in Uganda in September 2001 and saw John Okidi (PhD '97) wearing a tie, which was a bit disorienting, but otherwise really nice.  Unfortunately, I recently got weak-kneed and applied for a job, and now am hopelessly mired once again in a large South African bureaucracy. "

Steve Boucher (PhD ''00) was granted tenure at the University of California, Davis in April 2008.

  Natalia Caldes (MS '01) gave birth to Gabriela Perez Caldes on June 20, 2008.  She writes, "a s you can imagine, Rafa and I are really, really happy (and a bit tired too!). She is really sweet!!!"

Luisa Ferreira (PhD '92) writes, "after 7 years at the World Bank in Washington DC as a senior human resources economist dealing with education and poverty in East Africa and Latin America, we decided to take a sabbatical in Europe, myself at the European Investment Bank and Pedro at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. The family has doubled with the arrival of Miguel in January 2000, to play with Tomaz, now 3 years old. Life is hectic but lots of fun. My email address is luisa_ferreira@yahoo.com Look forward to hearing from you."

Robert Hanson (MS '96) writes, "Greetings from Dakar, Senegal, where I am currently working as Regional Agriculture Attaché for the Foreign Ag Service of USDA."

David Kaimowitz (PhD '86) was named Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research in March 2001. In bringing this good news to the attention of his former professors, Ian Coxhead reminds us that David wrote a dissertation on agrarian structure in Nicaragua. As a historical footnote (and a measure of how far we travel in a mere decade or two) the preface includes the following: "This dissertation is dedicated to the national leadership of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) and all of the heroes and martyrs who died in the struggle for a free Nicaragua. Without their efforts, sacrifices, and wisdom there would be no revolutionary process to discuss and improve upon. " See more about David's current work at: www.cifor.cgiar.org

Anna Knox (MA '98) married Carlos Caula Encinosa (hailing from Havana) on October 19, 2001. Reyes Aterido (MS '00) attended the reception, as did Kristin Mahrt (MA '98) and her husband Martin Shields (PhD '98), so there was good UW-AAE representation. Anna continues in her position at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Christa Lachenmayr (MS '07) has taken a new job with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leaving her position with Nathan and Associates in July 2008. 

Winnie Luseno (MS '96) spotted Michael Carter in an airport in June 2008, and later writes, "I applied for admission to the University of North Carolina School of Public Health's Maternal and Child Health Doctoral Program. I am happy to report that soon after my return from Kenya I heard that I was admitted. I am very excited and believe this is a great opportunity for me.  Many of the skills I learnt as an Agricultural and Applied Economics graduate student and my experience working with ILRI and Tegemeo/Egerton University have been invaluable in my public health work.  I am therefore hoping I can minor in Health Policy or Health Economics."

John McPeak (PhD '99) took a tenure-track position at Syracuse University in 2002, and he and his wife Margaret have a beautiful baby girl, Kathleen Herkento McPeak, born April 18, 2002.  Photos of this child were recently viewed in Taylor Hall, along with pictures of John and Margaret's elaborate wedding ceremonies in Kenya.  John lectured in fall 2003 on his current research for the AAE Development Workshop.

Tewodaj Mogues (PhD '05) won an Honorable Mention from the AAEA for her dissertation The Accumulation of Social Capital:  Implications for the Dynamics of Inequality and the Management of Shocks written under the supervision of Michael Carter.  Congratulations, Tewodaj!

Sanjukta Mukherjee (MS '98) writes, " I am based in Moscow, Russia with my husband. We got married in Feb 2008 in Kolkata, India in a traditional Hindu ceremony. My husband's family from Germany joined in the festivities as did friends from all over the world, making the wedding unforgettable. I am currently working at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), private sector arm of the World Bank Group. As the Survey Team Leader for the Business Enabling Environment of the Private Enterprise Partnership division of the IFC, I coordinate SME surveys for countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region based out of the regional office in Moscow. After several years in Asia-Pacific, it is interesting to explore this part of the world!" Sanjukta formerly worked for the UN International Labour Organization in Bangkok and at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.

Dan Mullarky (PhD '97) took a position as a Natural Resources Specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA and is residing in Vienna, Virginia.

Kurt Paulsen (MA '99) has returned to Madison to take a faculty position in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Tingjun Peng (PhD '06) announces the birth of his baby boy in September 2007. He has been promoted to Associate Professor within the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, and he and his wife bought a house in Beijing llast year.

Victoria Rames (MS '01) writes, "I partcipated in the SANREM meeting with Ian Coxhead and Doug Southgate.  Actually I traveled to the SANREM Ecuador debriefing in January of 2004 and gave a
presentation on social capital and livelihoods in Cotacachi, Ecuador."

Kari Rojas (MA '01) writes "Yerko and I were blessed on February 24, 2003 with our son Nicholas. We are living in Buenos Aires, where I am the Agricultural Attache at the American Embassy.  This is a very busy post. In addition to covering Argentina, the third largest soybean producer in the world, I also cover Uruguay and Paraguay.  My main responsibility here is commodity analyses, but each day brings its own surprises. In the morning I could be briefing the Ambassador on Argentine/US trade issues, and in the evening attending a Tango show with US Congressmen.  It is exciting! I will be here until December 2007; should anyone come down this way, please look me up!"

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler (PhD Development '01) and Ricardo Sabates (PhD Development '02) announce the birth of  baby Asher on October 25, 2007, in Brighton, England.  Rachel is teaching and researching at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton, and Ricardo is working at the Center for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning at the Institute of Education in London. Asher and his four-year-old brother Oliver both celebrate their birthdays in October.

Ricardo took a new position as Senior Lecturer in International Education and Development at the University of Sussex in fall 2008.

 

 

 

Martin Shields (PhD '98) writes, "In 2005 our family grew again with the addition of our third daughter, Serena Xiu Jin Shields. Serena was born in Xiu Shan, China, and we will celebrate her 4th birthday in August.   In other news, I left Penn State in August 2006 after 8 years for a position at Colorado State's Economics Department. At CSU my research and outreach programs focus on economic growth in northern Colorado."

Fiorenza Spalatro (MA '98) is currently working as a researcher at Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, joining AAE alums Riccardo Scarpa (MA '95, Forestry PhD '99) and Marco Castillo (PhD '01). She co-authored a paper, " An Analysis of Minimum Frontage Zoning to Preserve Lakefront Amenities," with Bill Provencher in Land Economics, November 2001.

Robert (Bob) G. F. Spitze (PhD '54) enjoys retirement with Hazel, his spouse of 57 years, in Urbana, Illinois. Bob's agricultural economics career included the University of Tennessee, stints at the University of London Wye College and the Economic Research Service of USDA, and 32 years at Illinois, with interests in public agricultural and food policy. Hazel retired after 25 years in the Illinois Home Economics Teacher Education program. He writes, "participation in professional meetings, most recently the annual AAEA and the 24th International Association of Agricultural Economists conference in Berlin, 2000, brings nostalgic visits with Badger classmates and former students from around the U.S. and the world. Retirement provides more time for several charitable and volunteer activities so critical in our culture, including political. Hazel and I especially enjoy contacts with and programs we support at the several land grant universities important in our lives, including Wisconsin. I am concerned at the increasing corporate and other private intrusion into the public domain, including land grant research and education."

Denise Stanley (PhD '96) announces the birth of Nicolas Jose Salgado Stanley on Thanksgiving, November 21, 2001, "weighing in at a whooping 9 lbs., 3 ozs." Denise is currently on the faculty of the Economics Department at Cal State Fullerton.

Deborah Streeter (PhD '84) wrote recently to department chair Rich Bishop, "I've been on the faculty at Cornell for about 17 years (thanks to a chance lead from Gerry Campbell I got some industry experience first).  I have just been promoted to full professor here and thought I would let the department know.  I know you are now chairman at UW and I thought you might like to share the news with others who may remember me from that era. Hope all is well with the department.  Thanks for launching me!"

Reefat Sultana (MA ' 02) writes, "I teach at a private university opened by BRAC-Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee...it's a pretty large NGO here, and they opened the university two years ago. I teach the introductory macroeconomics and intermediate microeconomics classes there. It's going ok so far, and I must say that you have to have a lot of patience to be a teacher!"

Yoshito Takasaki (PhD '00) won Honorable Mention from the AAEA for his dissertation, "The Microdynamics of Conservation and Development in Tropical Forests," in August 2001. He is currently at work publishing chapters of his dissertation and teaching at the Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Yoshito also reports that he and his wife Izumi are the proud parents of a new baby daughter, Haru, who was born on January 12.

Tsung-Hsiu Tsai (PhD '98) writes, "work is a bit overwhelming, but other things are just fine.  Did I tell you I am also the dean of student extracurricular activities? I do admissions, teach three new courses and do research.  I just bought a four bedroom apartment facing a lake and a park, which makes me think of Madison."

Shinn-Shyr Wang (PhD ' 04) won the prize for Outstanding Dissertation awarded by the AAEA for his work, "Strategic Behavior under Asset Value Maximization:  An Empirical Assessment of the U.S. Retail Margarine and Butter Markets."  Kyle Stiegert supervised the research. 

Yang Yao (PhD '96) writes, "we are having a busy life here. I will teach two courses this fall (at the Chinese Center for Economic Research, Beijing University) and have two major projects to run. Besides, I am the editor of our center's academic journal, China Economic Quarterly. My son begins his junior high this fall."

Lucy Yeung (MS '02) writes, "my new workplace is one of the top business and economics schools in Brazil (Ibmec, Sao Paulo).  It's a new school that has hired several professors from the university and many other young professionals with international degrees.  I'm teaching microeconomics, but in fact, my main duty here is to work as the assistant to the undergraduate coordinator.  I "take care" of all the 600 students and 75 professors/instructors in the school, not to mention about trying to improve the ranking of our programs.  It's been fun...  Just found out that I love teaching."