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Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes Spring 2006
Alumni News
1993 La Follette School of Public Affairs graduate Brad Kelly received the Legislative Staff Person of the Year Award from the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. A research consultant for the Minnesota House’s Democratic Farm Labor Caucus, Kelly holds a master’s in public policy and administration. He staffs these House committees: Civil Law and Elections; State Government Finance; and Government Operations and Veterans Affairs.
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The La Follette School wants to hear about the accomplishments of our alumni and friends. If you have news about yourself or a classmate to share, let us know. Send news to .
Journal, lawyers recognize La Follette alum for leadership
La Follette School alum Timothy F. Nixon received the Wisconsin Law Journal’s “Leaders in Law” award and is included in the 2006 “Best Lawyers in America.”
Timothy F. Nixon
The law journal award is for leadership
and education during the transition to new
bankruptcy laws. The “Best Lawyers” listing is based
on a peer-review survey of 16,000 attorneys
throughout the country.
Nixon received a master of public affairs degree and a law degree in 1990. He is a shareholder and lead attorney for the Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. law firm’s business finance and restructuring group in the Madison office.
Nixon’s practice includes advising Dutch, Russian and Australian clients on American bankruptcy law, as well as advising American clients on foreign insolvency issues and practice. He has represented clients in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and in bankruptcy courts throughout the United States. He has lectured and published extensively on bankruptcy law issues.
While attending graduate school, Nixon was an intern with the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C. Prior to graduate school, Nixon served as a ship’s officer in the Merchant Marine for nine years.
Next winter, Plume/ Penguin is to publish an anthology edited by 2000 alum Jessica Berger Gross. The collection of 22 essays is titled About What Was Lost: 22 Writers on Miscarriage and Pregnancy Loss. This spring she is teaching a class at the Harvard Extension School on memoir and the personal essay. Her writing has appeared in Salon, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and Healing Lifestyles & Spas magazines. She and her husband are adopting a baby from India, and she is writing a column about international adoption for Literary Mama, an online magazine.
2004 graduate Michelle Woolery is a research associate at the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She presented a paper, “Federalism and Equality: The Impact of State Fiscal Policies on Local Governments,” at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Paul Neumann is with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Bureau of Management and Budget, where he is awash in the Water Division’s budget and policy issues. The 1995 alum worked as a budget analyst for the University of Wisconsin System, and the Wisconsin departments of Commerce and Revenue.
Katie Croake wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post that she looks forward to her three-mile walking commute in Washington, D.C.: She reads a book while she treads Connecticut Avenue. “I read In Cold Blood totally on foot. Now it’s a biography with tiny type that’s a bit of a challenge while moving,” she says in the Post. A 2003 grad who taught in Lebanon before enrolling at La Follette, Croake returns to Madison periodically and shares stories about her work as an analyst with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Alex Conant is also in Washington, D.C., with a new job as spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. Since graduating in 2003, he also served as a speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Commerce and as press secretary for U.S. Sen. John Thune.
After working for the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, Kari Jo Zika, class of 1993, finds herself in Texas enjoying the warmer clime. As the city of Denton’s new benefits administrator, Zika handles all health, life, vision, dental and disability benefits for about 1,200 employees and 100 retirees.
Back in Madison, Ginny White, class of 1996, is enjoying her retirement after 30 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.
Since graduating in 1998, Kendra Lodewick has crisscrossed the country, working in social policy research and evaluation, primarily on welfare reform and workforce development. After graduation she worked for Berkeley Policy Associates, in Oakland, California, then for Abt Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts, each for three years. In fall 2004 she moved to Eugene, Oregon, and started Program and Policy Insight LLC with a colleague from Abt Associates. They specialize in social policy research and program evaluation.
Edward F. Potter, class of 1974, is halfway through his two-year term as a trustee for the village of Mount Pleasant, the second largest in Wisconsin. He, the president and five other trustees govern the affairs of the village, which is just west of Racine.
Stephen Patton Scott, 1998, and Veronica Robles Scott, 1998, welcome their first baby, Lucas Alexander Scott. Stephen and Veronica met at La Follette and married in 2000. Stephen is assistant to the city manager for the city of Long Beach, and Veronica is an analyst for the county of Los Angeles Community Development Commission.
Becky Webster was among the representatives of more than 10 tribes and Native American advocacy organizations who participated in a La Follette School conference, “Tribal Interaction with State Government,” in December in Wausau. Now an attorney with the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Webster is a 2003 alum of the La Follette School.
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Index to La Follette Notes spring 2006