Matthew O'Brien, '15 MA English - Creative Writing, and former adjunct professor at UNLV (2012-16), has a book due out in October with Las Vegas-based Central Recovery Press. Dark Days, Bright Nights: Surviving the Las Vegas Storm Drains is an oral account from people who lived in the city’s underground flood channels and got out and turned around their lives. These redemption stories cast light on a rarely seen side of Las Vegas and offer a portrait of homelessness and recovery in America. (The book was edited by his classmate, Dan Hernandez, '15 MA English.) He also is the author of two other books, Beneath the Neon (Huntington Press 2007) and My Week at the Blue Angel (Huntington Press 2010). Additionally, he is the founder of Shine a Light, a program that provides housing, counseling, and other services to the people in the drains. Part of the proceeds from Dark Days, Bright Nights will benefit Shine a Light. From 2017 until this July he was a teacher and tutor with Escuela Americana. His hobbies include reading, working out, hiking, traveling, and urban exploring. He lives in San Salvador, El Salvador.  

Benjamin C. Montoya, '00 BA and '04 MA History, will publish a book, Risking Immeasurable Harm: The Diplomacy of Immigration Restriction in U.S.-Mexico Relations, 1924 to 1932, this spring with the University of Nebraska Press. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2015. He studies U.S.-Mexican relations. He also has published several articles and book reviews, and has served as a co-editor of and contributor to Beyond 1917: American Legacies of the Great War, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. He is an assistant professor of history at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Reuben Wadsworth, '09 MA History, is the author of the recently released book Red Rock Recollections, Volume 1: Fascinating Stories of Utah’s Dixie (Scrivera Press, 2019), which delves into the history of interesting places in Washington County. It is a compilation of stories he wrote as part of a series he did for the St. George News.  Subjects in the book include Confluence Park, the Hurricane Canal, Smith Mesa, Terry Ranch, the Brigham Young Winter Home, and the shuttle system at Zion National Park. The last was the subject of his master's thesis. A second volume, focusing on places in the region outside Washington County, is forthcoming. At UNLV, he worked closely with history professors Andy Kirk and the late Hal Rothman. He is a middle school English teacher and Dixie State University adjunct history instructor.  

Amy Van Voris McGehee, '06 BA Psychology, has joined MendenFreiman as an associate. MendenFreiman is a business law and estate, trust, and tax planning law firm. She lives in Atlanta.