Alumni News - November 2024

During a playwriting course with (now retired) theater professor Lisa Warren, Steve Franco ’89 (right) was asked to come up with a play title so compelling it would entice people to go see the show. His idea: “In-laws, Outlaws & Other People (That Should Be Shot).” 

Some 20 years later, Franco developed that title into a full comedy about a family Christmas Eve dinner that turns into a hostage situation. The play has been staged in five countries and in 39 states across the U.S., and it recently celebrated its 600th show. It will be staged again at Showtimers Community Theater in Roanoke County, Va., from Dec. 12-22, 2024. Tickets are on sale now on the theater’s website.

Franco, who holds a theater arts degree from Roanoke, is the theater arts director at Glenvar High School in Salem, where he gets to pass his love of the craft on to students. He’s also a founding member of the Roanoke County School for the Performing Arts. Franco has directed more than 100 productions during his career, and he has served as technical director for many plays, operas, ballets and concerts.  

“I currently have two scripts in publication, two more that are in queue to be published, and three others that are currently under consideration,” Franco said. “None of that would have been possible without the expert teaching of Dr. Warren and the guidance that she offered to all of us at Theatre Roanoke College.” 

Play poster courtesy of Showtimers Community Theater.

Melissa “Mel” Puppa-Lasher ’08 won gold in her age group at the World Triathlon Championships in Torremolinos-Andalucia, Spain in October 2024. Puppa-Lasher said she started a swim club at Roanoke College, competed in her first triathlon in 2019 and took up cycling more seriously in 2020-21. “It was a lot of early morning and long afternoon workouts around a busy work schedule” to prepare for her win, she said. Puppa-Lasher holds a B.S. in biology from Roanoke and a Ph.D. in applied physiology from University of South Carolina. She is an associate professor and researcher in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Memphis.  

Mel Puppa-Lasher competes in the World Triathalon Championships in Spain. 

Dr. Michael Zeger ’00 has joined Prime Medical Evaluators as a chiropractic and medical-legal specialist. The company specializes in delivering detailed medical-legal assessments for personal injury, workers' compensation and other cases. Zeger earned a degree in physics at Roanoke, where he was a member of Pi Kappa Phi, and a Doctor of Chiropractic from Cleveland Chiropractic College of Los Angeles. He is CEO and Doctor of Chiropractic at IMED Downtown LA and, since 2011, he has served as a State of California Licensed Qualified Medical Examiner, specializing in settling medical disputes in workers' compensation cases.  

Zeger still keeps up with some friends from college days. He is pictured below with Ian Kohlenstein ’01 (left) and Jeff Krental ’02 (center) near Yosemite Valley in September 2024. 

Mason Wheeler ’21 (left) was awarded a three-year, $127,000 Ruth Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Wheeler, who earned a degree in psychology with a minor in biology at Roanoke, is a doctoral candidate in Virginia Tech’s Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program. The fellowship will support Wheeler’s study of the molecular mechanisms of diabetic heart disease in the Pfleger Lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech-Carilion.

Photo of Mason courtesy of Clayton Metz | Virginia Tech