Page 61 - fall2011

FALL 2011 . ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 59
Cl as s Notes
Huising Ouellette, and their baby Kolja, born
in April.
Outside of Reunion, I saw Michael Buckley ’04,
Shelley and their baby Maddie, born in June. Mary
McMeen got married not too far from me in
Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to Josh Kohan on June 18.
And Pam Hughes graduated from The George
Washington University in D.C. with a Master of
Public Policy, with honors. She is working full-time
at a federal government consulting firm. She was in
Tokyo last March when the earthquake struck, and
her flight was the only one allowed to leave Narita
International Airport for several days, she said.
Tricia Bacon Raiti and Jason welcomed their
son, Owen Chase, on January 18, 2011.They live in
Cincinnati, Ohio, where she is an assistant direc-
tor in the Career Services Center at Xavier Uni-
versity. She was sad to miss Reunion, especially
since it was her father’s 30th (Ron Bacon ’82), but
was looking forward to a Laurentian mini-reunion
at my four-year SLU roommate Rachel Arey’s
wedding in July.
Justine Peters reports “Lots of change for me
this year. I left the Active Duty Army as a logistics
captain in January, about six months after my sec-
ond tour to Iraq with the 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 10th Mountain Division, which was from
2009-2010. I moved from Fort Drum, N.Y., to Se-
attle,Wash., and commenced my first job outside
of the military.” She’s working for the Department
of Defense as a property administrator at Boe-
ing. She drills with theWashington State National
Guard one weekend a month as a member of the
66th Theater Aviation Command.
“So far, she says, “I really enjoy the Northwest;
nothing beats the scenery or salmon, everyone
is very friendly, and we get all the good concerts.
However, I will say that I’ve promised myself two
vacations a year so I can get my dose of consistent
sunshine! Vegas was in May and Mexico is planned
for November. In the meantime, a little sunshine
is heading my way as my dearest friend, Esther
Aubry, will be visiting me the last week in July,”
she wrote in June.
Douglas Smith was
awarded the Doctor of
Osteopathic Medicine
degree by Philadelphia
College of Osteopathic
Medicine at graduation
ceremonies on June
5. He is continuing his
medical training in emer-
gency medicine at Albert
Einstein Medical Center,
also in Philadelphia. He
was a neuroscience ma-
jor, a Dean’s List student, a member of the men’s
crew team and a First Responder. He’s married to
Amanda Church ’04.
I moved from Albany to my hometown, Troy,
N.Y., in June. I found an old brick row house near
the Little Italy section. I attended Emily Stahl
Grimes’ wedding in August and was the maid of
honor in a wedding in Maine a couple of weeks
later. And, as you are reading this, I will be in Great
Britain with a small group of SLUzers and fam-
ily members for Clementine Vitek’s wedding in
Northern Ireland.
2006
Adam Casler ’06
Hennepin Road Apts.
515 Loudon Road
Albany, NY 12211
518-782-6582
adam.casler@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 10th, 2016
Hello classmates! I hope that you all are well
and had a great summer. It was wonderful to see
such a great turnout for our class at Reunion in
June. Hard to believe that five years has gone by
already.
Lauren Nuffort is still in Minneapolis. She
graduated from law school in May 2010 and is an
associate attorney at Terhaar, Archibald, Pfefferle &
Griebel, LLP in Minneapolis. She practices primar-
ily in the areas of general insurance defense litiga-
tion and healthcare litigation.
Kendall Landers Wilson and husband Scott
are the proud parents of a new daughter, Alex-
andra Marie, born on January 17, 2011. This is
Kendall’s second daughter (and second future Lau-
rentian?). Kendall and Scott live in Ogdensburg,
N.Y., where Kendall works for the cancer center
at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center.
Kate Byrne recently accepted a new position
as an outlet buyer and assistant operations buyer
for Horny Toad (http://www.hornytoad.com) in
Freeport, Me. She loves her new position and is
still enjoying life in Maine. Kate has also started
writing and has a couple of projects under way.
I was happy to hear from Carol Gross ’66, moth-
er of Hilly Gross, that “Hills is in her second
semester of a doctoral program in veterinary
medicine at Ross University on St. Kitts in the
Caribbean. She reports to her parents that she is
studying unbelievably hard and her grades reflect
that. However, she has sustained several foot in-
juries from dancing barefoot on the beach in the
dark, which suggests tiny breaks in the program!
She gets home to California for two weeks every
few months, for those planning a San Francisco
visit. Harold ‘Buzz’ Sammis and his broth-
er AJ ’09 visited briefly on a whirlwind trip. AJ is
working in law enforcement in Burlington,Vt., and
Buzz is a chemical engineer with an international
‘clean water’ company and paper mill.” Thank you
for the update, Carol, and keep up the good work
(and fun) Hilly!
Jen Howard has accepted a new position at
the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Jen is
company manager for the D.C. production of
Shear Madness. Set in present-day Georgetown,
Shear Madness combines up-to-the-minute impro-
visational humor and a mixture of audience sleuth-
ing to deliver a unique performance each night. It
is the second longest-running play in the history of
American theater. If anyone is in DC, be sure to
check out Shear Madness.
Mia Hutchins-Cabibi has relocated to Bris-
bane, Australia. Mia writes, “I am studying for my
master’s in international public health at the Uni-
versity of Queensland. Simultaneously, I am a re-
search assistant looking into the effects of trauma
and adversity in women and children at particular
points in the life course. I have a trip to Thailand
coming up shortly and otherwise I am just loving
life and making the most of each day.”
Lizzy Salomon and Steve Watson ’05 were
married in Scottsdale,Ariz., last March 26. “We’re
so glad that many of our college friends were able
to travel across the country (and some from out-
side the country) to celebrate with us,” she wrote.
“The wedding was absolutely magical. It was ev-
erything that we had hoped for and more.” Lizzy
was sad that she couldn’t attend Reunion, but not-
ed that they were at another St. Lawrence wedding
with a strong SLU contingent present.
Crystal Ellis was married to David Preston at
the Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on
February 12, 2011.
On to the fun-filled weekend of Reunion 2011!
So many classmates were there that it was impos-
sible to get caught up with everyone, so I’ll try to
fill in as best as I can.
Trish Smrecak will be moving to Michigan
this fall as she begins work on a Ph.D. at Michigan
State University. Trish is excited about the move,
and is looking forward to joining a new roller
derby team.
Trevor and Elizabeth Keyes Duffy were
both at Reunion, and Biz was happy to report that
she andTrevor are expecting their first child! Both
are excited about becoming parents and welcom-
ing their new little Laurentian to their family.
Tim Akers and I were able to catch up during
Reunion when I ran into him in Payson Hall. Tim
was recently promoted to senior assistant direc-
tor of admissions. His travel assignments have him
going all over the country, the main areas being Los
Angeles, Seattle and New Orleans. Tim went out
to Boulder in July and was hoping to meet up with
any Laurentians in the area.
Tim has become experienced in using social
media applications with prospective students and
their families, and will be discussing this at a few
conferences, including the National Association of
College Admissions Counselors (NACAC). Tim
led the team that developed the St. Lawrence Ad-
missions App (www.stlawu.edu/admis/mobile). If
you download, Tim shared that you can access a
secret game by tapping three times on the SLU
shield on the main menu!
Outside of work,Tim’s passion for cycling is still
a big part of his life. He started a coaching and
promotion company, NorthernEnduranceCoach-
ing.com; he coaches cyclists and triathletes along
with promoting MTB, Cyclocross and road cycling
events. Tim added that he is a cat3 racer (he as-
sures me that cyclists will know what this means).
Jess Henty and fiancé Mark Ridilla made the
trek to Reunion fromWest Lafayette, where both
are in Ph.D. programs at Purdue University. Jess
and Mark report that their work is going well, and
they are enjoying being at Purdue. Both will finish
their degrees within the next one to two years.
A summer 2012 wedding is planned near Jessica’s
home in Central NewYork.
Heather McCauley-Kleszczynski and
wife Renee were also at Reunion. Heather and
Renee still reside in southern New Hampshire.
Heather is starting a new position as a research
and evaluation associate at the Institute on Urban
Health Research at Northeastern University. She
will be responsible for evaluating three federally
funded programs that focus on substance abuse
treatment and HIV prevention. She is writing her
doctoral dissertation on similar issues along the
U.S.-Mexico border, making the move to North-
eastern University an exciting next step. She
leaves her position at Harvard with over a dozen
publications on violence and reproductive health.