2000s
2000s
00 Short but Sweet
I hope you all are enjoying the start of spring! This time of year is always so great because we start to thaw out, come out of our homes, and shed the winter gear. Our kids start playing outside again, and the days are noticeably longer. Of course, we are all very busy at all times of the year, and feel like we run on the treadmill of life, day in and day out. Whether it is our jobs, our kids, our families, or the endless commitments, we all have reasons to feel stressed out, busy, and overwhelmed. Hopefully, all of you can find some spare seconds, minutes, hours, or days to appreciate the little moments and find what may make you happy. I know, so cheesy (or as my kids say, “So cringey!”), so I won’t go on. However, I hope you all are doing great, getting outside, and enjoying the spring! Please email me your updates. I would love to hear you brag about yourself, and share some happy moments in your life! — Laurie (Strotman) O’Malley; ndbug3@hotmail.com
00MBA Tons of Updates!
It’s been a while, but we are up and running again! Here are recent updates: Brendon Scott writes that he met up with Andrew Tuite, Eric Ruch, Will Callard, Donnie Gay and John Casserly for the Clemson game, and what a game to watch! Brendon currently owns a premium cigar company called Ferio Tego, as well as the Timeless and Metropolitan cigar brands. Jorge Redhead relocated to Denver and is CFO for the Americas Region of Gold Fields. Chris Smith has started a new job as quality engineer for Saint-Gobain in Athens GA. Mike McDaniel completed his PhD in 2021 and is now assistant professor of management at LSU’s Shreveport campus, teaching strategy and management classes and publishing articles on social entrepreneurship. His wife, Amanda, has been promoted to VP of marketing for Expo Home and she says hello. Owen Gwin started his own engineering company called Gwin Engineering and lives on 70 acres in OK. The Gwins and McDaniels met up this season for the Cal game and some great meals in Amish country. They got a chance to have drinks with Brian Lohr, who says hello and that we were his favorite class to recruit (but don’t tell anyone). Christian Schultz returned to private law practice at Arnold and Porter in Washington DC after 10 years as a trial lawyer with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. Stephanie Welch lives in Washington DC, teaches at Howard U Middle School of Mathematics and Science, is working on her EdD at the U of Dayton, is learning Swahili, and celebrated her recent birthday by climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro! She now has a granddaughter (Vivianna) and says that God has been kind. Giovanni Jimenez designed and patented a device that detects and identifies a user (customer, vendor, employee) in a subtle and non-invasive way, and is now launching a startup to commercialize the solution (www.greetsolutions.com). Rachel and Jonathan Puskas live in Oregon where she is on the city council and he leads all Naval Reserve personnel assigned to the US Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan. Jonathan finished his first 100-mile ultramarathon in Leadville CO and travels a lot visiting various sites for Google, but says their door is always open if anyone is ever in the Portland area. Carol Anderson is publishing her first book, Why JOY Matters, which unveils one woman’s intentional path of joy to create a life of awe and fulfillment no matter the circumstances (available for purchase soon). Carol’s firm Andersson Finance Consulting does finance and strategy consulting, and she will soon be joining the speaking circuit as an extension of her coaching efforts to business professionals. Kaan Mert got married last year and moved to Luxembourg to work at the European Investment Bank as a senior adviser. Mike McComb reports that things in San Francisco are good and his door is always open if anyone wants a tour of the town (reach out to realestate@mikemccomb.com). In fact, everyone above said to please reach out if you are in their area, as we would all love to stay connected. Please send any personal and/or professional updates to the email address below. — Mike McDaniel; Mike.mcdaniel@lsus.edu
00JD Class Secretary — Daniel Hardwick;
danhardwick@gmail.com
01 Sad News
Meghan (Dunne) and Matt Reynolds have relocated (again) back to Northern CA, this time to Palo Alto. Meghan is now a partner with Altimeter, where she is responsible for capital formation for the venture capital business. In different job-related capacities, she recently interviewed both Arianna Huffington and Andre Iguodala of the Golden State Warriors. Matt is now trying to rid Silicon Valley of white-collar criminality. Since returning to the Bay Area, they’ve caught up with Chad Greene, Christine Kraly and Brian D’Arcy ’08. Ann M. Hanlon, executive director of the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts, has been named in Georgia Trend’s “Notable Georgians 2023” list of the 100 Most Influential Georgians. Demetria Mae (Mitchell) Smith passed away on Jan. 2 after a long fight with multiple sclerosis. She is survived by her husband, Brian Smith, and their 8-year-old son, Jude. Brian is very grateful for all of the thoughts, prayers, messages, and support from our graduating class. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Demetria’s honor to Walk MS: South Bend 2023 at mssociety.donordrive.com/team/teamdeme23. Thanks to everyone for sharing photos via @nd2001alumni and please email classof2001@alumni.nd.edu or manselmi@alumni.nd.edu with any new updates or news. Hope to hear from you soon. — Michael Anselmi; 415-860-7130; manselmi@alumni.nd.edu; classof2001@alumni.nd.edu
01MBA Class Secretary — Dominic Pang;
dpang@panglaw.com
01JD Navy Game
JonMarc Buffa was promoted to senior counsel to Commissioner Summer Mersinger at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Tom Mauch is trying to get a group together to go to the Navy game in Ireland so reach out to him at 574-339-6327 if you are interested! I hope you and your families are staying healthy. Please remember to send me any news updates for our column. — Jonell Lucca; cell 602-677-3266; jonelllucca@yahoo.com
02 Happy Spring
Despite being separated by many miles and a pandemic, Megan Griffin, Megan Murphy Kenny, Shauna Morin, Malia Lam Shimokawa and Katy Wilcox have been able to stay connected regularly with Zoom gatherings twice a month and an in-person mini-20th ND reunion of their own in 2021. Megan Griffin lives with her husband, Terry, and their two daughters in Spokane WA and is an associate professor at Whitworth U. Megan Kenny is a professional violinist and mom of twins with Ryan Kenny ’03, residing in Fayetteville NC. Shauna and her husband, Sankalp, are settled near Raleigh NC; she consults on religious diversity and inclusion in higher education through Interfaith America, a Chicago-based nonprofit. Malia is a former-Army-now-civilian pediatrician and lives with her husband, Greg, and their three children in Honolulu. Katy remains active with the theater community in NYC and ran the Brooklyn half-marathon in May, where she lives with her husband, Jeff, and their daughter. Jocelyn Allison was selected as one of eight journalists from around the world to participate in the 2023 Journalists in Residence program at the U of Chicago’s Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. Jocelyn will audit classes at the Booth School of Business on U of C’s Hyde Park campus and participate in special lecture series and workshops to fill gaps in her business knowledge. She will take a three-month leave of absence from her job as a business editor at the Chicago Tribune this spring to complete the program. In addition to Jocelyn’s role at the Tribune, she also serves as a board member for the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors. Jason Braun reunited with John Buckreis ’01 in December to officiate a fall commissioning ceremony for the U of Miami’s Air Force ROTC program. Jason is finishing up three years as its commander. Since that wasn’t enough school, he’ll move to DC in the summer to attend the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy for 10 months. Recently, he and his family were able to kick back and watch the Jan. 15 SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch while visiting Chris Caldwell and his crew. During COVID, Salvatore (Sam) Dziekan and his brother started a hot sauce company called Hook and Arrow (www.hookandarrow.co). They launched in April and have already won a number of awards including two Screaming MiMis and two Scovies. Additionally, a portion of the sales supports First Descents, a nonprofit that takes young adults with cancer and MS on life-changing, weeklong adventure trips. Thanks so much for the updates. — Lisa (Sestile) Corcoran; lsestile@alumni.nd.edu
02MBA Class Secretary — Melissa Hurd;
hurdmc@yahoo.com
02JD Class Secretary — Ryan D. Costantini;
414 S. Notre Dame Ave., South Bend IN 46617; mobile 574-339-8050; ryan.costantini@gmail.com
03 News for the New Year
John Brosious is now a board-certified plastic surgeon practicing in Las Vegas. He is the co-founder of Vegas Plastic Surgery Institute, which opened its doors in April 2022. The focus of his practice is complex reconstruction, gender surgery, and cosmetic surgery. John is the first surgeon in Nevada to perform genital surgeries for transgender patients. His practice website is VegasPSI.com. Tona Boyd most recently served as special counsel and special assistant to the president in the White House Counsel’s Office in the Biden-Harris administration, where she worked to advance President Biden’s agenda related to racial justice, equity, and judicial nominations. She has been named associate director-counsel for the Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s leading civil rights law organization. Missy (Spurr) Lah was promoted to associate clinical professor of medical and molecular genetics and associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the Indiana U School of Medicine. She sees patients in the genetics and metabolism clinics and is the primary investigator in all the clinical trials in her department. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Dan, and their two kids, Claire and Matthew. I am sad to share the tragic passing of Mike Knudsen in early December. Beloved son of John and the late Mary Ann Knudsen; dear brother of Patrick Knudsen; dear uncle to Theodore and Grady Knudsen; dear cousin and friend to many. Mike was born and raised in St. Louis. He attended Chaminade College Preparatory School and after receiving his bachelor’s degree in finance at ND he spent nearly 20 years in California focusing on a career in real-estate and entrepreneurship. Mike was a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, the St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams, and the St. Louis Blues and he was a diehard ND football fan. He will be truly missed. — Josh Gentine; jgentine@alumni.nd.edu
03MBA Class Secretary — Rosemary Guillette;
9 Messenger St., Unit 7, Plainville MA 02762; rguillette@alumni.nd.edu
03JD Wedding Bells
Angel Pineda and Sasha Guzman were married on Oct. 7, 2022, in Sacramento. Darrell Taylor officiated the ceremony. On Oct. 6, 2019, David Daftary married Nitela Shehu in San Diego, California. Darrell also officiated the Daftary’s nuptials. — Lawrence A. Ward; 206-903-8817; ward.lawrence@dorsey.com
04 New Partner and New Author
Congrats to Sarah Finch, who was voted into the partnership of Riley Safer Holmes and Cancila, a Chicago-based litigation boutique where she practices civil and criminal defense. Katie (Hughes) Runde had her debut novel, The Shore, published in May 2022 by Scribner. It’s a family and coming-of-age story set at the Jersey Shore, and the book received some good press including a New York Times review that called it “absorbing, lucid, and true.” It was the Barnes and Noble discover pick for June, an NYT editors’ pick, and an Indie Next pick for June. Please keep your updates coming! I skipped the winter issue since nobody had provided me with any announcements—I think it was the first time in 19 years that our class missed an issue! Let’s not let that happen again. Hard to believe our 20-year reunion is a year away, and looking forward to seeing many of you back on campus in summer 2024, but before then, please email me updates to share with our classmates. — Carol Martino; carolmartino10@gmail.com
04MBA Quiet Time
It has been slow times for updates over the last three months. Usually, we get a few updates from class members who meet up at Mendoza while tailgating before a football game. Unfortunately, there has not been an MBA Tailgater in Mendoza since pre-COVID. Hopefully that will change for 2023 and the 17-year MBA Tailgater tradition returns this fall (hint hint, nudge nudge). Please keep your updates coming for the summer edition and keep an eye out for 20th class reunion information, which should start coming out this summer. — Harry Howisen; hhowisen@gmail.com
04JD A Snowy Visit
In November, Dan Bubar was sighted at the Law School after being asked to speak to current students about his practice. Dan serves as the first assistant United States attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina. He moved back to Raleigh in 2022 after serving in the same capacity in the Virginia United States Attorney’s Office. His visit to campus happened to coincide with a late-November snowstorm, much to the excitement of his family (wife Allison and sons Jackson and Caleb) who were also in tow. Dan agreed to let me write an update about him only with the promise that I’d include an update about myself. So here goes: I’m excited to be on campus again at the beginning of August for the intensive trial advocacy course. Please reach out if you will be in the area, as I would love to say hello and talk you into being mentioned in one of these notes. — Katie (Wharton) DeFerrari; katiedeferrari@gmail.com
05 Adventures Near and Far
In September, Tim Culbertson completed a five-month thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada. His route was roughly 2,600 miles long, traversing NM, CO, WY, ID, and MT. This latest trek follows his 2016 thru-hike of the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail. Tim has returned to work at Philips Ultrasound in central PA, enjoying down time with his partner, Gerry, and daydreaming about the next long hike. Moving from the wilds of the trail to the familiar environs of South Bend, Pete Gaffney reports that he was and still is a “townie,” helping hold down the fort in South Bend and on the front lines as an oncology nurse. He is happy to see classmates whenever they are back in town. Pete and his wife, Christine, welcomed their fourth child, Jude Samuel, a few weeks ahead of schedule on Oct. 16. Pete reports that Jude’s older siblings Owen (9), Leon (6), and Noelle (3) love him to pieces. Pete had returned from ushering the Irish loss to Stanford only a few hours before baby Jude couldn’t wait any longer to make his debut. Luckily, Pete got to see an amazing victory over Clemson three weeks later thanks to Jude’s early arrival. Keep the updates coming! — Caroline Meehan; ndclassnotes05@gmail.com
05MBA Class Secretary — Himanshu Gosar;
hgosar@alumni.nd.edu; ndmba2005-owner@googlegroups.com
05JD Job Changes and Recognition
As winter gives way to spring, several of our classmates had job changes and received recognition for their outstanding work. Out in CO, Angela Petrucci ’98, ’05JD serves as the chief administrative officer and general counsel of National Bank Holdings Corporation, including its operating subsidiary, NBH Bank. Since July 2020, she oversees legal, compliance, BSA/AML, marketing, and human resources functions for the organization. She joined the company in 2015 as associate general counsel and has served as the general counsel of NBH Bank since 2017. She previously was senior corporate matters counsel at Accenture and an associate at Chapman and Cutler LLP in Chicago. The role is a perfect fit for Angela, who worked as a commercial banker for First Chicago Bank (now JP Morgan Chase) in Chicago prior to returning to Notre Dame to attend the Law School. Thomas Bruder returned to private practice and joined the public finance group of Kutak Rock in Los Angeles. He previously had served as a deputy attorney general for the CA Department of Justice. Heading to the in-house world, Kate O’Scannlain ’99, ’05JD joined The Boeing Company in September 2022 as vice president and assistant general counsel. She most recently was a partner in the Washington DC office of Jones Day following completion of her stint as solicitor of labor in the US Department of Labor. Finally, Julia Hilliker, a partner at Hodgson Russ LLP in Buffalo, was named in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers in America for her work in commercial litigation and production liability litigation for defendants. Julia was also ranked in the 2022 Upstate New York Super Lawyers list for her work in business litigation. Congratulations, Julia! — Adam J. Russ; Houston TX; adamjruss@gmail.com
06 Congrats to Paul
In November 2022, Paul Jancha was elected as a District Court judge in the Trial Court of Berrien County MI. He had previously been appointed as the county’s chief public defender. — Anna (Skoien) Lall; annagracelall@gmail.com
06MBA Class Secretary — Mike Lloyd;
651 Nathaniel Chase Lane, Herndon VA 20170; cell 312-388-0501; mt_lloyd@yahoo.com
06JD Class Secretary — Amir Hassan Sadaghiani;
sadaghiani@alumni.nd.edu
07 Let The Good Times Roll
Dr. Sagar Navare married Dr. Anna Krieger in New York City on Sept. 3, 2022, surrounded by the best friends and family in the world. In attendance were Mark Doucette, Patrick Gettings, Stephen Hansen, Michael Hennig, Dan Turnure, Brian Seremet, Matthew Smith, Tom Hanrahan, Eric Sabelhaus, and Dr. Daniel Stypula. Dr. Chris Hanlon, John Corboy and Patrick Wolohan danced like hooligans but Dr. Mark Stypula ’77 helped keep them in line. It was a great celebration after these years of being apart from our ND family and made us look forward to seeing more of each other in the future. Caroline (Marcotte) and Dr. David Tagler welcomed their second child, Sophia Juliette, on Thanksgiving. Bradley Shervheim married Astrid Shervheim in Ecuador in October 2022 (the bride hails from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and opened a beauty salon in MN in 2022). The groom’s Sorin roommate George Chamberlain ’09 and ND friend Scott Tagwerker ’06 attended the celebration. This crew then ventured to the Galápagos Islands after the wedding. A penguin bumped into Scott! Bradley graduated from UC Berkeley with an MBA in 2020, and was hired at Microsoft in June 2022. Hoping for kids in 2023! On Dec. 31, Sarah (Glatt) Villaseñor celebrated one year of owning Rise and Shine Pediatric Dentistry in Denver. It’s a family affair, with husband Mario Villaseñor ’02 being the best marketing chief as he hands out his wife’s cards to all his co-workers at UC Health (and pretty much anyone he sees with a child). Meanwhile, kids Eloise (6), Alice (4), and Noah (almost 2) volunteer to grace the walls of the practice with their photos, choose all the prizes for patients, and see how many buttons they can find to push every time they’re at the office. She is very grateful for the support of so many Irish classmates in Denver who trust her with the care of their children! A high percentage of the practice are Domers in training. Please send future submissions to NDClassNotes2007@gmail.com. God Bless and Go Irish! — Stephanie Pelligra; ndclassnotes2007@gmail.com
07MBA Class Secretary — Tim Ponisciak;
tponisci@nd.edu
07JD Class Secretary — Patrick A. Salvi II; Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C., 161 N. Clark St., Suite 4700, Chicago IL 60601; 312-372-1227; psalvi2@salvilaw.com
08 The 15-Year Reunion June 2023!
Can you feel it? Our 15-Year Reunion is upon us! We cannot wait to see you all (except Andrew Zeiser) June 1–4! Contact us at Classof2008@nd.edu with suggestions and to get involved. Visit reunion.nd.edu to register. Fisher Hall has already scored several Reunion commitments. Will you be next? Send Jesse Brawer a beverage via snail mail. By the time of publication, he will have had his second baby. Kerry Renz is still overseas, and his wife is still more attractive than he is. Congratulations to Father Innocent Smith, OP (Philip Carl Smith) who completed his doctorate in liturgical studies at the Universität Regensburg in 2021. Father Innocent is now serving as assistant professor of homiletics at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. Buried in the Class of 2008 inbox, we discovered that Patrick Lasseter married Sarah Reid way back in December 2017. Andrew MacKrell, Katie (Lydiatt) MacKrell, Christopher Wilson, Sean Pietrini, Dan Avants, Kelsie (Thompson) Avants, Matt Barcus, Anna (Pursley) Barcus, Kevin Gallin ’10, ’15, Allison Fullenkamp ’09, Mary Beth Lasseter ’99, Sarah Lasseter ’02, Brian Dean ’02 and Bill Bastedo ’83, ’85 attended. They welcomed their first son, William, in February 2020 and their second son, Reid, last March. Ali Frogameni and Braden Turner welcomed their second daughter, Zoey, on July 13. Three-year-old Lucy is adapting to life as a big sister. Matt Mattare thinks that the sandwich power rankings begins with Potbelly, with Jersey Mike’s a close second. Andrew Zeiser agrees but would not place Jersey Mike’s as second, since it serves Pepsi products. William Kearney went to a dud Jersey Mike’s, so his top spot is Jimmy Johns. Drew Whiting agreed with all that Quiznos is off the list since the vegetables are not toasted. Brian Sullivan, while generally one with great taste, misses the LaFortune Subway. Pat McInerney disagrees with Brian, noting that Subways have a wide variability, and the bad ones are really bad. Mike Lee ’09 disagrees because many of the Subway subs have merely 6 grams of fat. Dan Straface added nothing to the conversation. Andy Mastroe and his wife, Julie, welcomed twins to their family in October. Future members of the Class of 2044, Clare and Declan enjoy listening to their big brother, Conor, sing the Notre Dame fight song. The family’s dog, Gipper, keeps watch over the new additions. John Donovan has not planned his friends’ reunion, and many are upset. Chris Garibaldi still has a great smile and better laugh. Mike Reilly called Pat O’Brien for the first time since college. Pat Ryan was not on the call, nor was Taylor Clagett. Becky (Antas) Smith and husband Nick welcomed their third child, James Thayer Smith, in June. James’s first getaway was to visit campus a few weeks after he was born. Zero surprise, he loved it, and the whole family is thrilled to have another Irish fan. Garrett Mandeville, Francisco Castill-Fierro ’10MEd, Greg O’Donnell, Phil Rovnak ’10M.Ed., Kaitlyn O’Leary and Eamon Hollahan ’10MEd reunited in Phoenix in January to celebrate their friendship and old life in Chile. Their Spanish was mediocre. Their jokes, worse. Chris Liedel is still tall. Dalton Shaughnessy is moving to MI. Julia (Vogelheim) Hudac traveled to TN on a road trip with her husband, Nate Hudac ’07. They sunk some money on their two little ones, taking them to the Titanic museum. See you at Reunion and keep the updates coming! — Patrick O’Brien; classof2008@alumni.nd.edu
08MBA Class Secretary — Megan Ulrich;
meganlouisefitzgibbons@gmail.com
08JD Class Secretary — Marie-Therese Mansfield;
mt.mansfield1@gmail.com
09 Doing Better Than Fine
Susanne DeSantis married Peter McMurrer on Aug. 6, 2021, in Northern VA. Betsy (Dilla) Bella ’10 and Erin Rider ’11, who both lived in Lyons Hall with Susanne, attended in person. Lindsay Gilmour and Monica (Tarnawski) Taramani attended in spirit, watching live on the church’s YouTube channel! The couple resides in Burke VA. Craig Wiborg and Andrew Matasic are back on their travel game post-pandemic and island-hopped through Greece before running the original marathon together. Kevin Archer recently returned from a 10-month deployment with the US Special Operations Command as part of his role as a US Navy intelligence officer. While deployed, he was the team lead of a counter threat finance team targeting illicit financing of terrorist activities. Additionally, in his civilian life Kevin works at S&P Global Ratings in the public finance group analyzing credit risk for US municipal bond issuers and was recently promoted to director. Last but certainly not least, Kevin and his wife, Natalie Bui ’10SMC, welcomed their third child while Kevin was away in addition to their 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. The family resides in Orange County CA and all are so grateful to be back together again after Kevin’s time away serving our country. We are so proud to call you our own, Kevin—thank you for your service. Please visit the Notre Dame Class of 2009 Facebook page to reconnect with members of the class. If you have any additional news or announcements, please contact me. Go Irish! — Megan Flynn; megflynn7@gmail.com
09MBA Class Secretary — Shawn Pulscher;
801-336-7344; spulscher@alumni.nd.edu
09JD Class Secretary — Josh Rinschler;
josh.rinschler@gmail.com