Prof. Kendrick Brown, who received his MA in 1996 and his PhD in 1998 from the University of Michigan, is the new Associate Dean of the Faculty at Macalester College.

Formed Ginsberg Jacobs LLC, a boutique transactional firm in Chicago with 11 attorneys, including several partners from his former firm. GJ specializes in commercial real estate, corporate, hospitality and tax credit transactions.

Undeterred by negative economic news, Christopher A. McVety, a dual degree holder from the University of Michigan (BA ’98, JD ’00), recently launched an innovative gourmet food company, Beyond the Shaker LLC (www.beyondtheshaker.com). McVety, along with dozens of other Midwest business partners in graphic design, print media, packaging and photography, worked for over two years developing the Beyond the Shaker concept. The company’s unique aim is to introduce home cooks to an extensive array of natural sea salts from around the world. In addition to educating consumers with blog articles and recipe ideas centered on the use of salt, Beyond the Shaker’s website offers an original line of chef-crafted gourmet blends that pair unrefined sea salts with premium organic, sustainable and locally-produced ingredients.

The Beyond the Shaker retail website makes available for purchase over twenty different varieties of salt, including eleven original salt blends that were created in collaboration with a chef from Traverse City, Michigan.

John H. Wilson recently completed the one-month Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Harry Ransom Center, the University of Texas at Austin. Wilson’s research topic was “Evelyn Waugh in the Military and the Church.”

The suspense novel “If I Should Never Wake” by Jeanene Heidenreich Cooper has been selected by the Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards as the bronze medalist for 2009’s Best Regional Fiction. The novel details the unexplained disappearances of working women from a secluded island in the Straits of Mackinac. First published in October of 2008 through Booksurge, a subsidiary of Amazon, the second edition is due for release in August of this year and will be available at Amazon.com

Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman has been hired by the College of the Holy Cross as a new faculty member in economics for the 2009-10 academic year.

Congdon-Hohman earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University, his M.A. from the University of Michigan, and is expected to complete his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in August 2009. His research interests include labor economics, public economics and health economics. He previously taught macro- and microeconomics at the University of Michigan. His accomplishments at the University of Michigan include a grant from the Michigan Retirement Research Center; a Departmental Letter of Commendation for Excellence in Teaching, Top Ten GSI; and a Rackham Regents Fellowship.

Julie DiMambro has been promoted to Director of Finance for McGraw Wentworth, a Michigan-based group benefit consulting and brokerage firm. In her new position, DiMambro is responsible for financial reporting and forecasting, revenue analysis, facilities management and vendor relations. Joining the firm in 2006, DiMambro previously served as Controller for McGraw Wentworth.

DiMambro, a resident of Sterling Heights, is a graduate of The University of Michigan with a BSA in finance and economics. She received her MBA from Wayne State University with a concentration in accounting. A licensed health and life agent and a Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), DiMambro is pursuing CMA and CFA certification in accounting.

Renowned longtime film and TV star Sonja Dunson (‘The Female Spike Lee’) releases “You Can’t Buy Love,” the companion seven-track music soundtrack to Dunson’s similarly-named, to-be-released movie. Set in Detroit, “You Can’t Buy Love” is, in Dunson’s words, “an interracial love story triangle” in which the principals are a Black woman from a well-to-do family and a White male. “The parents disinherit her because he’s poor, not because he’s White,” explains Dunson, whose impetus for creating “You Can’t Buy Love” was “to portray the upper-class Blacks.”

One of Hollywood’s earliest successful Black film and television stars, Dunson has a distinguished history in Tinsel town. The former “Miss Michigan Universe” winner was a regular on three long-running television series – “Lohman & Barkley,” “D.A.” and “Emergency,” and appeared in over twenty commercials while being represented by the prestigious William Morris Agency.

Copies of the CD soundtrack of “You Can’t Buy Love” are avaiable at cdbaby.com/cd/sonjadunson

The American Bar Association has published a book by Brad Dashoff, a senior Real Estate associate with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Northern Virginia. Dashoff co-authored “The Commercial Real Estate Lawyer’s Job: A Survival Guide” with Pillsbury colleague John Antonacci.

Copies of the book are avaialable at: https://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5150436