Notes from the Cornell Class of 1991 - 2012 May/June

Class Notes, 2012 May/June

May/June 2012

When I wrote for the fall column, everything I heard from fellow 1991 classmates was about work and life balance. This round of updates celebrates some of our professional accomplishments.

Johanna Sagarin works as a psychologist and as the clinical director of Children's Friend Inc., a nonprofit providing services in the areas of mental health; adoption and foster care management, training, and education: and parenting, grief support, and childcare. She fills her after-hours time with her family and is starting to travel with husband Philip Villars and the kids. Jungsoo Kim has become a Roman Catholic priest, serving in northern New Jersey. He answered this calling after working for nearly eight years at P86. His nephew is now at Cornell, so he feels more connected to campus than ever.

Laura Hubbert DiCarlo is a professional volunteer: PTA president, green team co-chair, family fun co-chair-the list is extensive. She fondly remembers walking from Collegetown over Cascadilla Gorge and would like to be in touch with Ana Quinonez, ME '93. Angela Shope Stiefbold is a member of local economic development and historic preservation commissions. Her husband, Mark, leads a team of project managers for Siemens and continues to serve in the Army Reserves. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in February 2011. They both look forward to making a pilgrimage to Ithaca.

Pablo Quinones has become a partner at Reed Smith LLP, on their global regulatory enforcement group. He works out of their New York office. Before this he was an assistant attorney in the criminal division of the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. E. Bradley Bosart wrote to let us know that he owns Bosart Investment Consulting Group (of Wells Fargo). He and wife Sherri also host an annual tennis outing at Bloomfield Open Hunt Club to raise money for Penrickton Center for Blind Children; they have raised nearly $40,000 over the last five years.

Sonya Savkar Xu has lived in Hong Kong for the past seven years. She and her husband have a daughter, 8, who attends an immersion bilingual Mandarin/English school. They were at Cornell in the summer of 2010 and were happy to see that while there has been more building since graduation, the beauty and spirit of Cornell is unchanged (and the ice cream is still delicious!). Tim O'Hara and wife Robin continue to direct the sustainable learning center that they founded in Costa Rica more than a decade ago. They live there with their daughter Sole, 3, and their projects continue to go well. Their work is at www.ranchomastatalcom. They visit Ithaca every fall and stay connected to their roots in Upstate New York.

Amanda Telford has opened Tahana Confections, which makes handmade, artisan caramels that are "luxuriously satisfying" according to one person. You can find them at www.tahanaconfections.com. Carl Thorne-Thomsen is proud to announce the opening of Story, his new restaurant in the Kansas City area. Carl is the chef/proprietor. Story serves contemporary seasonal American cuisine in elegant surroundings. Please visit the website at www.519rykc.ggm.

Douglas Fudge, MAT '92, spoke at a satellite TED conference in Guelph, Ontario. Doug is a professor at the U. of Guelph and lives with wife Esta Spalding and their daughter, Gemma, in Guelph, Ont. Dan Harrison started a new job as EVP of scheduling at Fox Broadcasting, working with (and for) Kevin Reilly '84. Heather Atwood Forrest and husband Richard '89 welcomed their third daughter in July 2011. Heather has returned to her position as senior vice president with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Richard is senior counsel at PAREXEL Int'l. The family lives in Newton, MA.

In 2008, Danny Espinoza founded CardStar, a successful (more than 2 million active users) mobile app company; it was acquired in January 12 by Constant Contact. He lives in Washington, DC, with wife Lisa (Trovato) '93 and daughter Ava. Jeffrey Pease, BA '89, MBA '91, has returned to Oracle as vice president of Oracle Applications Labs, after consulting for Cisco and Microsoft last year through his business, Message Mechanics, and speaking at the Cornell Leadership Conference. Part of his responsibility is running the Oracle@oracle program, which shares best practices for using Oracle technology, based on their own internal deployment. Curtis Ellett, MA '95, has been supplementing his education with a certificate in Web development from UMass Lowell. He also edits a webzine devoted to fantasy literature (www. swordsandsorcerymagazine.com). He lives in Weymouth, MA, with wife Jennifer (Neustadt) '92, MS '94, and their daughter, 9, who says she wants to go to Cornell someday.

Steve Cicci '90 and wife Tracy provided a social update. Steve, Tracy, and their kids Griffin, Ryan, and Tomlin were visiting the West Coast, which prompted a gathering of several Class of 90/91 parents and their children. Dinner at the home of Skip '90 and Anna Doyno Tague included John and Lisa Munter Clarke and their children Nick and Anna; Jen Smith '90 and husband Vince Angotti '90 and their children McKenna, Tatum, and Hope; Drew Fraser '89, wife Catherine, and their kids Payton, AJ, and Colin; and Mike Milmoe '89, wife Rickie, and kids Jessica, Luke, and Morgan. Quite a crowd and loads of fun, including a parent-child basketball knockout game in the dark.

Back on the work front, Holly Hauser now writes for the National U. Integrative Health Review. She also volunteers as the medical director of the Scleroderma Foundation, Greater San Diego Chapter. She has systemic scleroderma and underwent an experimental stem cell transplant in 2010. She has been married to Stephen Williams for 17 years, and they have two sons, 11 and 14. Holly continues to volunteer as a CAAAN representative.

Todd Poisson, BArch '91, is a partner at BKSK Architects LLP, a full-service architecture firm in New York City. They have received accolades in the last few years, including National AIA design awards for two key projects. Todd is particularly proud of his work with BKSK for the incredible 52nd Street Project, a nonprofit that matches kids in Hell's Kitchen with professional theatre artists to create original work. They now have their own permanent professional theater and after-school clubhouse from BKSK designs. Todd has lived in Manhattan since 1993, and is currently on the Upper West Side with wife Rachel and daughter Sylvie, a future soccer star.

I can attest to the continued effort to balance work and life here in Maine! Have a great summer, and we hope to hear from you soon. *Wendy Milks Coburn, wmilkscoburn@me.com; Tom Greenberg, twg22@cornell.edu; Charles Wu, ccwu@mac.com.