FallMagazine2014_FB96_2

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class notes
st. lawrence university magazine | fall 2014
Erin Coakley Lassial,
Andrea McDonough and Amy
Clemens joined 33 alumni and
students from various classes on
campus last spring to celebrate
the 10-year reunion of the SLU
Dance Team, which they started
as first-year students. “The cur-
rent team hosted a weekend full
of dancing, bonding and reminisc-
ing – and even a Dana brunch,”
said Erin. “Yum!”
Guin Seaward has been busy
with her new job at Grant Thorn-
ton, the fifth biggest accounting
firm in the U.S. “I'm still doing
state and local tax law and I love
it,” she said. “I've been lucky to
share wedding celebrations with
Erika Gutfreund, Cat Ramsey
'08, Jenna Houston '08 and
Cathleen Turcotte '10, as well as
former staff member Marna Red-
ding,” who will be Guin’s matron
of honor at her upcoming fall
wedding – more on that in the
winter issue!
Sarah Kechejian, Jessica
Engster, Liz Olmstead Miner '07,
Jenn Gross '08 and Andrew Spahr
'09. Congratulations, Chris and
Amanda!
2007
Megan Bernier
3 Mildon Road
Canton, NY 13617
404-617-7851 (cell)
Next Reunion: 10th, 2017
The summer months were busy
for our classmates, so let’s get to
their news!
Tahiré Edirisinghe moved back
to New York City at the end of
last year. “It's been fantastic meet-
ing up with old friends from St.
Lawrence and being able to make
the SLU networking events again,”
she said. She attended a recep-
tion with President Fox in May
with other Laurentians, including
Kanti Shrestha.
conducting a prescribed burn,
I am taking advantage of Colo-
rado's endless winters and skiing
every chance I get.”
Chris Morris is living in his
hometown of Saranac Lake, N.Y.,
after leaving that community’s
Adirondack Daily Enterprise and
North Country Public Radio, and
is the communications manager
for the Adirondack Foundation,
a community foundation serving
the whole Adirondack region.
Chris has developed a crowd-
funding website for nonprofits
and communities called Adiron-
dack Gives
gives.org) and has written a
report on the economic impact
of the North Country's nonprofit
sector. Chris notes that “It's been
a challenging career change,
but incredibly rewarding and a
lot of fun. I'm also volunteering
as chairman of Dewey Mountain
Friends, which oversees program-
ming and operations of Dewey
Mountain Recreation Center in
Saranac Lake. We just finished a
$350,000 capital campaign to
build a new base lodge, and we're
looking to the future to see what
kind of programs we can develop.
I'm most definitely enjoying the
mountain life.”
I want to end with an apology
to Chris Barone for missing
this note in my last submission.
I overlooked it, and thankfully,
Chris resubmitted. He married
Amanda Ruddick on July 27, 2013,
at the Olde Mill Inn in Basking
Ridge, N.J. The wedding party
included Brian O'Shea, Tom
Gipson, Sean Regan and Joe
Bertino. Several other Lauren-
tians were there to celebrate the
day, including Jason Miner,
finance manager for metroCon-
nections in Bloomington, Minn.
Mandie Barney got engaged
to Mike Remington on May 31.
Mandie and Mike live in Hopkin-
ton, N.Y., and Mandie works for
the Franklin County Department
of Social Services.
Kira Krumhansl married Jonah
Bernstein in August. They recently
moved to Vancouver, British
Columbia, where Kira started a
postdoctoral fellowship in marine
conservation biology at Simon
Fraser University.
Colleen Callahan-Panday and
husband Prajjwal ’05 welcomed
their first child, a son, Suryan, on
October 14, 2013. He was born
on Dashain, the biggest Nepali
holiday of the year, which Col-
leen equated to being born on
Christmas! She was promoted to
associate director for interna-
tional students and scholars at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute in
Worcester, Mass. Prajjwal finished
his Ph.D. in geography from Clark
University last year. They live in
Providence, R.I.
Dan Allen, happily settled in
Colorado Springs, Col., is a natural
resource technician with the
Coalition for the Upper South
Platte, a non-profit organization
that conducts forest health, wild-
fire mitigation and flood control
projects in the Upper South Platte
River Basin. Dan writes, “The
basin provides drinking water to
the Denver metropolitan area, so
its protection is imperative. When
I am not cutting down trees or
where she sees Laura Quandel
’08 regularly. Kate McNulty
Lion visited them last spring for a
mini-SLU reunion. Jamie spent the
summer in Europe after spending
some time in Tokyo and then visit-
ing friends and family in America.
She encourages any friends who
might be traveling in Hong Kong
to connect with her.
Nick Mannella sold the com-
pany he founded in 2009, Knot
Clothing & Belt Co., in early 2013
to a private equity firm out of
Philadelphia. Nick remains the
creative director and serves on
the board for Knot, which created
a special “Scarlet & Brown” belt
that is sold in Brewer Bookstore
as part of the Alumni Council’s
SaintsWear Collection. Nick has
moved to San Francisco, and is
one of the lead short designers
for “Chubbies”
horts.com). He has connected
with fellow West Coast Lauren-
tians Hadley Quish, Janney
Kline and Alex Meek ’07.
Katrina Franz Hansen and Erik
welcomed a daughter, Gretchen
Amelia, on February 16, 2014. They
are all doing well and were able
to attend Reunion in May and
reconnect with many classmates.
Katrina is working for the State of
New Hampshire, in public health
services. She works primarily with
the Healthcare-Associated Infec-
tions program, which focuses on
surveillance, outbreak investigation
in healthcare facilities, and collabo-
ration with local, state and federal
partners to reduce infections and
improve healthcare quality.
Kaia Klockeman Ellis and her
family moved to Apple Valley,
Minn., in December. She started a
new job in March, as the assistant
of Appeals, which was intense but
fun. This summer my boyfriend,
Jon, and I planned trips to Acadia
National Park, Nantucket, Long
Island and Philadelphia. For my
dad’s 70th, we also planned an
East Coast road trip to visit his
brothers in Delaware and Georgia.
I have appreciated and loved
hearing from everyone. If you
wish to become our class report-
er, please follow the instructions
at the top of this report.
2006
Adam Casler
Hennepin Road Apts.
515 Loudon Road
Albany, NY 12211
518-782-6582
Next Reunion: 10 th, 2016
Hello, classmates! Spring and
summer seem to have been busy
for everyone, and I’m happy that
so many of our updates contain
great personal and professional
news for our classmates.
Randy Olivo and I were recon-
nected in June at Canaras, since
we are both serving on the St.
Lawrence Alumni Executive Coun-
cil. We work with the University
in admissions, career services and
development. If you’re interested
in being nominated for member-
ship on the AEC, or want to sup-
port St. Lawrence more informally,
please contact Randy or me.
Jamie Dyer Ford and her
husband, Kyle, are in Hong Kong,
email response said that she was
filming in British Columbia to
help keep a dam out of the Peace
River. Feel free to learn more at
pongomediaproductions.com.
I saw a job announcement for
Stephanie Weishaupt, a fellow
Chi O, who joined the Baylor Uni-
versity Louise Herrington School
of Nursing Student Services De-
partment as their new coordinator
of the Pre-Nursing office in Waco,
Texas. She moved from Utica, N.Y.,
to accept the position in May.
Tanya Mollova has a new job.
Since October 2013 she is the
executive director of CIBC World
Markets in New York.
Clementine Vitek and husband
Hendrik Buyle have moved to Cal-
ifornia, where Hendrik accepted
a job with Google. They drove
across the country when they
moved and made a fun trip of
that. They have since participated
in some 5Ks and skydiving.
I had a serendipitous run-in with
Susan Comley when we were
both called to the same jury. She
had a wedding planned for this
past summer with her long-time
boyfriend Justin Jordak. They live
in Averill Park and have a puppy.
I won an award in journalism from
the New York State Associated
Press Association for a business/
finance package written with our
newsroom staff. I also ended up
assisting Bloomberg with the
coverage of the fracking case in
June at the New York State Court
a blast,” said Smith, who lives in
Philadelphia. “We closed down
the Hoot and ordered Sergi’s by
dialing the number from memory
and had it delivered straight to
the flagpole by Sykes. Great times
had by all.”
Megan Reeve said she went
for the 40th anniversary of the
Kenya Program, which she had
participated in. “They really did a
fantastic job putting the weekend
together. It’s always great to be
back on campus,” said Reeve,
who is getting married October 18
in Middleburg, Va., to Justin Snair.
Wedding bells are also in the
future of Hilary Hartson . She
and Andrew Wall met at North
Carolina State, where she re-
ceived her master’s. “I knew it was
meant to be when he took me to
a Hurricanes hockey game for our
first Valentine’s Day together,” she
said. They are planning a summer
2015 wedding in either Raleigh,
N.C., where they live, or Keene,
N.Y., where Hartson grew up.
My good friend and former
Chi Omega roommate Sarah
Schmidt said she is also engaged.
“During our beautiful trip to Ber-
muda, Dan [Stanley] popped the
question. Clarkson/SLU wedding,
summer 2015,” said Schmidt.
In baby news, Marc Tapscott
and his wife, Jackie, from Geneva,
N.Y., welcomed their son, Charles
Robert Tapscott, on May 3.
Ronak Desai, M.D., said he is re-
turning to Massena, N.Y., to join his
father’s internal medicine practice.
His wife, Dr. Janki Shah, joined
Massena Memorial Hospital in July.
While I did not hear directly from
Jenny Nichols, her automatic
3: The 5th Reunion group
brought a high level of energy
to the parade. 4: The Class
of 1974, clearly enjoying
itself, gets organized prior to
stepping out for the parade.
Haruyoshi Udagawa, right of
center in the gray cap, came all
the way from Tokyo, Japan, for
his 40th Reunion.
1: The signs tell us what
was in the news back
when the 50th Reunion
Class of 1964 were
students. 2: Sometimes,
even with all the pro-
gramming, the best part
of Reunion Weekend is
simply hanging out with
old friends.
1 2
3 4
71
Tahiré Edirishinghe '07 arranged a photo of herself and several alumni from her era at
a reception with President Bill Fox '75 (center) in New York city last May. For more, see
the 2007 class report.