Notes from the Cornell Class of 1991 - 2006 July/August

Class Notes, 2006 July/August

Once again, alumni from the Class of 1991 have been busy with families, careers, and adventure in general. I know that many of you had the chance to catch up during our spectacular 15th Reunion in Ithaca last month. Stay tuned to the Sept/Oct issue for a full Reunion Report.

Ina Kurcz moved to Marina Del Rey, CA, last December to join her fiancé David. Another new Californian, Kim Nguyen, MA '94,moved to Santa Clara with his wife Thuy and their 2-year-old son Liem. Kim is VP, Finance at Intel. After a dozen years of living in New York City, Matthew Joseph recently moved to Harrison, NY, with his wife Michele and their kids Morgan, 4, Tyler, 2, and 1-year-old Cole. Matthew is a partner at a structured finance practice at the law firm McKee Nelson LLP.

Sharlyn Carter Heslam is happy to report that Kristin Hurley Van Riper, Jenny Harris, and she all had babies within two weeks of each other last August and September. Kristen welcomed her second baby boy, Cory; Jenny's son Jonathan welcomed new little sister Emily; and Sharlyn celebrated her newest family member, daughter Clara. Sharlyn traveled from Boston to meet the other two for a brunch at Jenny's place in New York City, and they were joined by Kari Ginsberg Nesbit and Cynthia Lee Dow. They had such a good time that they promptly reconvened in January for a long weekend in the Berkshires, joined by Kristen Sciacca and all of their families.

Todd Merkle and his wife Sarah (Gallagher) '92 (Santa Monica, CA) celebrated the first birthday of son Thomas. G. Michael, JD '94, and Cheryl Jacobson Favale, MILR '94, celebrated the birth of their third son, Matthew, late last year. Matthew joins older brothers Nicholas, 5, and Joseph, 2. Cheryl notes that the family relocated from New York to Richmond, VA, where she is a human resources director and Mike is an assistant attorney general.

Allison and Jason Bernbach, JD '94, and big sister Ryan, 4, celebrated the first birthday of son Bryce. The entire family lives in Millwood, NY. Frank and Elena Yotides Fechner live in Worcester, MA. Elena recently changed jobs to work for Genentech Inc. Though her new company is based in San Francisco, Elena telecommutes from home, allowing her more time with her daughter Katarina, 2. Betty Ng-Beckler and husband Laurence welcomed their second son, Gordon, in February. Gordon's big brother Harrison, 3, named him after his favorite Thomas and Friends train! Betty and her family continue to live in New York City, and she plans to return to her job as VP of Derivatives Sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. Roberta "Birdie" Matern married husband Stephen last year and celebrated the birth of her first child, Kai, in February. She will soon be returning to part-time work as an attending family physician at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ.

April Horowitz Moulaert writes that daughter Aurora, 1, is "just perfect."April took a new job managing the State of Vermont Wetland Protection and Restoration Program in the Vermont Dept. of Forest, Parks, and Recreation. She reports that earlier this year she visited Beth Huizenga Shaz and Alice Michael in Boston. Beth has a son Andrew, 1, and Alice has daughter Sadie. Emily Kramer Neill and husband Dayton welcomed baby girl Addison into their family last November. Emily is living in the suburbs of Boston, and is VP of Business Development for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Ardrell Mannings (Frederick, MD) is happy to report the birth of his son Kyndl and the fact that he was promoted to VP of Human Resources at the Chase Card Services division of JP Morgan Chase.

Craig Miles rang in the New Year by making partner in the law firm of King & Spalding, where he practices international arbitration in the firm's Houston office. Last March, Seth Briskin was elected partner at the Cleveland law firm of Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis. Seth provides labor and employment counsel to unionized and nonunionized companies and was named to Crain's "Cleveland Business 40 Under 40." Seth also serves as chairman of Cleveland Bridge Builders and serves on the executive committee for the Center for Employment Training, the American Jewish Committee, and the Cleveland Jewish News. He is also a member of the American, Ohio State, and Cleveland Bar associations, and was recently named by his peers as an Ohio Super Lawyer.

David Kadosh moved to start a new job as ass't prof. at the U. of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology. Emily Jordhamo was promoted to VP, Client Services for Quintiles Medical Communications in Hawthorne, NY. Kate Pierson Lundin is working at MTV in their business development group on the launch of a new channel. She reports that she and husband Steve are still living in New York City and loving it! After four years of working with Morgan Keegan in Memphis, Brian Mellone was elected managing director. Brian is also head of the fixed income capital markets taxable banking group. Gayle Kaufman, MS '92, lives with husband Kevin Bell '90 in North Carolina and has two children, Emily, 6, and David, 2. Last spring Gayle was promoted to assoc. prof. of sociology at Davidson College and is currently on sabbatical, working on a project about fathers' experiences with work/family conflict.

Julie Nielsen Lindsey is pleased to report that she "finally" finished her medical residency last June and has been enjoying working part-time as a family physician in Chapel Hill, NC. She spends the rest of her time raising her children, ages 5 and 3. She also manages to do some local road races and play tennis. James Mister has worked at Cargill Risk Management since receiving his master's in international studies from the U. of Pennsylvania Wharton School. James lives in São Paulo, Brazil, with his wife of two years. Geoffrey Moskowitz has lived in Moscow, Russia, for the past nine years with his wife Madeliane and their kids Ivan, 5, and Mikaela, 4. He founded and manages Tip-Top Cleaning Co. Keith McAfee has once again relocated back to the West Coast, this time to San Diego. He found a great opportunity with Intuit, creator of TurboTax and Quicken software, and boasts that the weather is fantastic. Keith is still playing soccer, and though he is sorry that he missed everyone at reunion, he notes that he could not resist the siren's call of the World Cup in Germany!

Emily Kaplan married Gregory Dodge a year ago at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara, CA, a destination wedding weekend of festivities for the happy couple and their friends and family from the East Coast. Classmate Philip Pilla and his wife Leah were in attendance, and their daughter Sophia was a flower girl in the ceremony. Also in attendance was head football coach and family friend Jim Knowles '87. Kevin Rosas was married to Cristiane da Silva in Brazil last December. The newlyweds have since moved to Cooperstown, NY, where Kevin has accepted a job as an orthopedist.

Becky Levine Leibowitz lives in Scotch Plains, NJ, with her husband and two children, Jonah, 3, and Sam, 1. Becky works in the research and development division at Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson. Mayra Jimenez Lucero writes that she has been a management recruiter for the Capital Group Companies for 11 years. She joined Capital in New York City and then relocated to San Francisco, where she lives with her husband Marcelo and their children Gabriel, 3, and new daughter Natalia. Mayra also enjoys being a mentor to Bay Area Cornell freshman Angie Morel '09 and plans to attend some of the upcoming Cornell Silicon Valley/Cornell Entrepreneur Network meetings. Mayra reminisces that nearly 15 years after she graduated from Cornell, her deepest friendships remain with those people she met during her first couple of years at Cornell. Keep in touch. Corinne Kuchling, kuccori@hotmail.com; Nina Rosen Peek, nsr5@cornell.edu; and David Smith, docds30@yahoo.com.