Brandeis Magazine

Dorathy “Dottie” Mullikin was named executive director of Isabel’s House, a facility in her native Springfield, Mo., that provides a safe-harbor alternative to state-run foster care for young children in crisis. Dottie, the mother of seven adopted children, had earlier served as the director of prevention at the Missouri Department of Mental Health and was the first director of Mental Health First Aid. Best Lawyers 2013 named Carol Schrier-Polak Lawyer of the Year in family law mediation in the Washington, D.C., area. She is senior counsel at Bean, Kinney & Korman, limiting her practice to consultations and alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration and neutral case evaluation. Carol is widely recognized for her work in establishing spousal and child support guidelines. Nicholas Racheotes, a member of the board of directors at National Braille Press in Boston, was named chair of the board’s publications strategic-planning committee. Nicholas, who has read Braille since age 11, is a professor of history at Framingham State University. Allen Katz has joined the offshore drilling company Transocean, where he is serving as interim senior vice president and general counsel through June 30. He has been an adviser to the company since June 2010. Previously, Allen was managing partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson. Pat Gordon Lamanna retired after 20 years of teaching human services at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and is pursuing her longtime hobby of folk singing and songwriting. She recently released her second album, “Do I Know My Song Well Enough to Start Singing Yet?” For more information, email Pat at patla42@gmail.com. You can hear some of her songs at www.myspace.com/patla. Stephan Meyers married Adina Lawson on July 29, 2012, at the Ravella Hotel on Lake Las Vegas. The couple had a second celebration at Temple Beth El in Eureka, Calif. Stephan is an attorney, and Adina is a retired theater and English teacher. They live in Palm Desert. Judith Lasker is a professor of sociology at Lehigh University. Along with Ed Collom of the University of Southern Maine and Corinne Kyriacou of Hofstra University, she wrote “Equal Time, Equal Value: Community Currencies and Time Banking in the U.S.” She will be in residence at the Brocher Foundation near Geneva, Switzerland, for three months in 2013, writing about the impact on host communities of receiving short-term health-care volunteers.