2000s

00 Living the Dream

I hope all of you are enjoying your winter, and had a great holiday season. As someone who lives in the Chicagoland area, I am now starting the longest part of the winter . . . January through June. You think I am kidding. However, I will once again try to embrace the snow and the cold, find a good pair of waterproof mittens, and go throw some snowballs. Someone who will not have to throw any snowballs is our classmate Nate Medland. After a couple of decades in corporate America — Nate and his family sold most of what they own, bought a boat and have set out to sail the world full-time, despite having virtually zero sailing experience. After learning the ropes in FL a bit last hurricane season, this year the Medland family has sailed from the States down to Grenada. They’ll stay there for a couple of months and then make their way west, go through the Panama Canal, and hopefully next year across the Pacific to New Zealand. They are chronicling their adventure on YouTube, if anyone would like to follow along: youtube.com/@sailing_scout. Talk about walking the walk, not just talking the talk! Nate, I just hope you guys have a great sunscreen routine and know where the life vests are. We take a little bit of a sharp turn for David Spinola, who is living more of a dry land dream in Parkland FL with his wife, Kelly, and twin daughters. Last fall he was able to take his daughters to their first game, along with his father John Spinola ’65, his first game in about a decade. David is still working at SproutLoud Media Networks, a marketing software company in south FL, where he was recently promoted from CFO to president and now oversees sales, customer service, operations and finance. Congratulations on your promotion, David! Whether it is sailing the world or getting promoted to president of a company, our Class truly is having some great adventures. I think my greatest adventure this winter will be sledding down the community sled hill head first . . . I know, I really know how to live it up. That being said, I would love to hear all of our adventures, no matter how big or small. Email me and brag about what is going on with you. I would love to hear it!     — Laurie (Strotman) O’Malley; ndbug3@hotmail.com

 

00MBA 25 Years Since We Started

Hello friends! I just realized that it’s been 25 years since we started our MBA journey together. It’s amazing how casual contacts we made because we were thrown together by a class project or international trip have become lifelong friends. Speaking of lifelong, I was thinking about how football season starts in the heat of summer, endures through rainy fall and ends in freezing winter, yet teams adapt and press on throughout it all. It’s a great analogy for life. We have all achieved great things and played through all kinds of adversity, but few of us have had a perfect record. This too shall pass. What matters is how we lift up those around us while we’re here. I didn’t receive any updates this quarter (like Christmas cards, are updates really necessary now that we have social media?). But I did want to highlight an incredible program on campus in case anyone is interested. I had the opportunity to attend the Experiential Classroom Clinic on campus the last week of September. (Not a home game weekend, but still great to be back on campus in the fall.) This clinic is for entrepreneurship educators and program managers to learn how to help students experience entrepreneurship rather than just learn about it. It’s being offered through the Keough School of Global Affairs (across the quad from COBA), which is doing some great work helping to solve global social problems. One way is through social entrepreneurship, helping launch nonprofit organizations around the world. Check out this link for more info: https://mckennacenter.nd.edu/global-programs/entrepreneurship/experiential-classroom/. Please send any personal and/or professional updates to the email address below. — Mike McDaniel; mba2000@alumni.nd.edu

 

00JD Busy in Missouri

I was glad to receive an update from Michael Rizzo who reports that he and Katie (Meierotto) are in Kansas City, and Mike just closed his private practice of 20 years to accept a job at Legal Aid of Western Missouri. Katie is still doing corporate law. Mike and Katie have three kids aged 13, 15 and 17 — who keep them busy. Please send updates! — Daniel Hardwick; danhardwick@gmail.com

 

01 No News

I have no news to report at this time. Enjoy the winter! Please continue to share photos via Instagram at @nd2001alumni or class notes via email at classof2001@alumni.nd.edu. — Michael Anselmi; 415-860-7130; manselmi@alumni.nd.edu;

 

01MBA Class Secretary — Dominic Pang;

dpang@panglaw.com

 

01JD Class Updates

Our class was well represented at the Navy game in Dublin! I was thrilled to be able to go to Ireland along with classmates Amiee McGimpsey, Rebecca Brown, Marjorie High, Katherine Plante, Rudy Monterrosa, Joe Czerniawski, Billy McMurtrie and Michael Johnson. An amazing time was had by all! As of Oct. 1, Beth Hughes is a partner in the Houston office of Morgan Lewis in the Litigation, Regulation, and Investigations Practice Group. She has been with the firm for 17 years as an associate and of counsel, specializing in toxic tort litigation. And as of Nov. 1, Zach Hughes began a new position at Chevron as managing counsel of global compliance. This is a big change after working in litigation for the last 22 years at Baker Botts and Chevron. The Hughes family was recently back on campus for the first time in many years with Nolan (12th grade) and Ella (ninth grade) for the Ohio State game, and they had a fantastic time . . . until the last three seconds. Although they didn’t see any classmates that weekend, in a cosmically ordained twist of fate, they randomly ran into Lisa and Tom Henry and their kids, Mikey and Megan, this summer at Frontier Days in Cheyenne WY (and it wasn’t their first rodeo!). Please remember to send me any news updates for our column. — Jonell Lucca; cell 602-677-3266; jonelllucca@yahoo.com

 

02 Class Secretary — Lisa (Sestile) Corcoran;

lsestile@alumni.nd.edu

 

02MBA Class Secretary — Melissa Hurd;

hurdmc@yahoo.com

 

02JD Remembering Ron

By now most of you have heard the sad news that our classmate Ron Banerji passed away unexpectedly at his home on Sept. 10 at the age of 49. At the time of his passing, Ron was assistant district attorney, Appellate Division for the El Paso District Attorney’s Office. Among the cases he was handling was the 2019 El Paso Walmart mass shooting. Ron also previously worked for the El Paso County Public Defender’s Office and in private practice. Ron’s story is remarkable. He was born in Khewra, Pakistan, moved to the United States in 1977 and dedicated the majority of his career to public service. On a personal note, I have fond memories of chatting with Ron back in our law school days and enjoyed having the opportunity to reconnect with him over the past few years through writing this column. I am sure I speak for all of us when I extend deepest sympathies to Ron’s wife, Amanda, and their children, Samantha and Alex. Ron, you will forever be in the hearts of the Class of 2002. — Ryan D. Costantini; 414 S. Notre Dame Ave., South Bend IN 46617; mobile 574-339-8050; ryan.costantini@gmail.com

 

03 Happy News

Brian Hammell and his wife, Lynne (Francis) ’04, welcomed their first child, Clare Helen Hammell, in July. They can’t wait to get her out to ND down the road. Andrew Moody and his wife, Kim (Dunham) ’06, welcomed their first child, Francis John, on Easter Sunday. Frankie was baptized at the Log Chapel in September, with classmate and Mr. Bookstore 2003, Brian Ostick, serving as godfather. Congratulations to the new parents! — Josh Gentine; jgentine@alumni.nd.edu

 

03MBA Class Secretary — Rosemary Guillette;

9 Messenger St., Unit 7, Plainville MA 02762; rguillette@alumni.nd.edu

 

03JD Class Secretary — Lawrence A. Ward;

206-903-8817; ward.lawrence@dorsey.com

 

04 Reunion Fast Approaching

I can’t wait to see many of you back on campus the weekend of May 30-June 2! If anyone has ideas or is interested in helping to plan fun activities for the weekend, shoot me an email. Only one update submitted this quarter . . . keep ’em coming! Katie (Hurley) and Derrick Durrah celebrated the baptism of their son Kent Edward Burnell Durrah on June 25 at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Dyer IN. His godparents are Katie’s best friend since kindergarten, Shawna Hallinan, and Katie’s brother Tim Hurley ’00. Kent is 3 1/2 years old, and enjoyed this wonderful experience! Big brother Dean (7 1/2 years old) proudly stood by to witness and support his little brother. — Carol Martino; carolmartino10@gmail.com

 

04MBA At the Buzzer

The winter column wrapped up at the buzzer. Sam Stapleton kept our Class’s Jeopardy! connection going when he was invited back to compete in the Jeopardy Champions Wild Card. Sam breezed through the quarterfinals and won his semi finals matchup against Lawrence Long on a stop filming and triple check Final Jeopardy answer. After further review, Lawrence’s answer was deemed incorrect due to an added word that was factually incorrect and Sam advanced to the finals. The two-day finals event was a duel, and Sam was in prime position to catch up and win. As fate would have it, Sam selected the last Daily Double of the game. As we learned from our professors in 2004, “Esperanza means hope,” and Sam faced a defining question that would have placed him neck in neck with Josh Saak and given him more than hope for winning. Sam did not answer correctly and neither of his competitors pulled a Cliff Clavin in Final Jeopardy. Congratulations to Sam on representing us well and for coming within an eyelash of qualifying for the Tournament of Champions. Our 20-year reunion is this upcoming summer. The dates are May 30 through June 2. Information will be posted as it becomes available on reunion.nd.edu. Lastly, if you have a chance, read through some of the class columns for classes in the 1950s and 1960s. Those columns are a glimpse of where we will be in 20 to 30 years. I had the opportunity to live in South FL before attending Mendoza, and a lot of the updates for those classes are not just names, they are alums I knew, and it struck me that when I first met them they were in their late 40s, early 50s and early 60s just like we are today. My challenge to our Class is to get involved with your local Notre Dame Club and pass on the Notre Dame spirit to our young alums like those alumni did for us 30 years ago. Also, one recurring theme among those classes is the need for a person to send updates to Notre Dame Magazine. Harry Durkin ’53 often stated, “You have your learning years, your earning years and your returning years. The challenge is to make your returning years span your entire life.” As part of your returning years, reach out to some of those classes and offer to help them with their class columns. Alums of that era have a difficult time seeing, hearing and typing. However, they love to talk and you will be amazed at the stories you hear about Notre Dame from them. Keep the updates coming. — Harry Howisen; hhowisen@gmail.com

 

04JD A Career of Service

Congratulations to Kevin Govern, who was appointed associate dean of academic affairs for Ave Maria School of Law. After being a professor of law since 2007 at the FL school, Kevin received his appointment in June. Kevin’s impressive legal career includes serving as an Army judge advocate for 20 years and as an assistant professor of law at the United States Military Academy. Best wishes as you embark on this next chapter. Please keep the updates coming! — Katie (Wharton) DeFerrari; katiedeferrari@gmail.com

 

05 Lordy, Lordy, Look Who’s Forty

So many celebrations this year as we all reach that milestone 40th birthday! Former and forever Lyonites Emily (Chaten) Smith, Stevie (Didier) Dennis, Michelle Celli, Shantha Ready Alonso and Sarah (Perez-Stable) Cooney all gathered in Paducah KY with host Dr. Van (Tran) Meeks for a fun-filled weekend earlier this year to celebrate the big 4-0. The friends are scattered across the country, from Seattle to Naples, but they try to get together as often as they can for a “Leo Regis Weekend” (dubbed in honor of rector Sister Susan Dunn’s beloved dog). Stevie’s actual 40th birthday took place during the reunion weekend, and the crew celebrated with dinner at Freight House, a local farm-to-table restaurant run by Top Chef contestant, Paducah celebrity and Van’s good friend Sara Bradley. Dinner was followed by a night on the town with a mini bachelorette party for Michelle, who’s marrying fiancé Scott Dale this upcoming May in Bonita Springs FL. The following day, after a tour of Paducah’s downtown area, the group threw a small baby shower for Shantha, who’s expecting twin boys (and future Domers?) with husband Jaime in January. The weekend continued with a trip to the Meeks family’s lake condo and a sunset cruise on Barkley Lake, lots of conversation, loads of laughter, and even a Notre Dame victory against Duke! As their old dorm chant goes, “It’s great to be from under the arch,” and that’s certainly true because it brought these lifelong friends together. They are eagerly awaiting their next reunion weekend. Another group of lifelong dorm friends getting together to celebrate their 40th birthdays this summer were the Lewis Hall Chicks of 3 North. Lindsay Till Hoyt hosted Jalana Ballen, Deanna Sortino, Annelise (Sucato) Raaf, Erin (Cox) Fricker, Ashlee (O’Donnell) Barrett, Jessica (Beguin) Yonto, Sheila (Dawes) Wheeler and Sarah (Sheehan) Graham at her family’s lake house in New Buffalo MI in July. The group, decked out in Lewis Crush tropical attire and coordinating fanny packs designed by Deanna, spent a day in South Bend visiting old haunts, including stops at Lewis and the Backer. In September, many of Pasquerilla East’s “7A” group gathered in Austin to celebrate their 40th birthdays. The weekend included karaoke, a pool party and 11 different renditions of “Happy Birthday” as they sang their way through the birthdays in sequential order for Natalie Tenner, Jessica Brock, Kate (Stewart) Pichon, Tricia (David) Hale, Jacquie (Dammann) Odelson, Melissa (Richert) Brown, Cat (Schmidt) Doherty, Kara (Whitaker) McClyde, Stephanie (Aberger) Shultz, Jennifer Burns and Chrissy Habeeb. They also threw a surprise bachelorette party for Chrissy, who married Brian Bailey in May 2020 in an intimate ceremony just after dawn in Seattle’s sculpture garden. The 7A girls loved belatedly celebrating Chrissy’s bachelorette days as well as watching a recording of the beautiful wedding ceremony. I got the chance to hear about this trip firsthand in October from Jennifer and Natalie when we all caught up in DC at the home of Maeve Carey and her husband, Will Larson. Maeve and Will live on Capitol Hill and both work for the federal government (Will for the Department of Treasury and Maeve for the Congressional Research Service). They are parents to Liam (3) and Rileigh (born in July 2023). Our classmate Kate Rumsey is running for a seat in the TX state legislature (House District 115 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area). Kate is a former federal prosecutor and a JAG officer in the Air Force Reserves and lives in Coppell TX with her husband, David, daughter Vivienne and stepson Alex. Be sure to check out her website (www.katerumsey.com) for more info on her campaign! — Caroline Meehan;  ndclassnotes05@gmail.com

 

05MBA Class Secretary — Himanshu Gosar;

hgosar@alumni.nd.edu; ndmba2005-owner@googlegroups.com

 

05JD Class Secretary — Adam J. Russ;

Houston TX; adamjruss@gmail.com

 

06 Good Times

Jorge Fragoso was appointed as judge to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Branch 23 by WI Gov. Tony Evers. Since 2021, Fragoso has been an associate at Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP, focusing on criminal defense, appeals and civil litigation. After the pandemic cancelled 2020 plans, Katrina (Anderson) Wilkinson got together with Joy (Doverspike) Davis, Raquel (Ferrer) Harrison and Anne Marie Fayen for a girls’ weekend in Jackson Hole in May 2022. In October, Katrina hosted a number of ’05 alumni for an annual reunion, including John Anderson, Amelia (Hoffman) Anderson, Jenny Scherer, Joe Schuster, Ben Marley, Matt Warchol, Laura Fraczek, Charles Miller, Bill Coffey, Jon Kocarnik and John Baker. Everyone had a stellar time, Jenny won a trophy, and no injuries were sustained during a friendly kickball game! — 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 Back in Action 

After a hiatus, I hope to be able to help bring to the class regular updates in these notes. Jill (Weidner) Collins recently became Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Boston U School of Law where she’s been aiding students outside of the classroom since 2012. Outside of work, she and her husband Matt are kept busy with their two boys and their dog! Molly Meacham reports that she is the Vice President of People and Legal at Edge Case Research in Pittsburgh, an autonomous system safety company that helps developers and operators measure, manage, and insure the risks posed by software driving in the real world. She is also the current President of the St. Thomas More Society of Pittsburgh, and spends her free time coaching her two sons in basketball. Molly (Ward) Newrones lives in Billings MT and runs her own Social Security disability firm. Molly is also on the board of Off the Streets, a housing first organization dedicated to ending homelessness in Billings. She and her husband Roland ‘03 enjoy traveling and watching ND drop 48 points on USC. As for me, I have recently left a downtown Boston firm to serve as the Assistant General Counsel for the Archdiocese of Boston. I have been busy staying connected with NDLS as an adjunct professor of law for the Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate and as a member of the NDLA Board. — Brian Hammell; behammell@yahoo.com

 

07 Class Secretary — 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 Winter Wishes

Congratulations to the Hon. Judge Mimi Kendrick! After five years as a probate court magistrate, Melanie “Mimi” Kendrick was chosen and appointed by the governor of IN to be a judge of the Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis. Mimi presides over family law cases, including but not limited to divorces, child in need of services cases, paternity cases, termination of parental rights and juvenile delinquencies. Taylor Claggett made ND proud on Jeopardy! in July, winning $34,000! Earlier in the year, Taylor helped coach Highland Park men’s lacrosse to a Division 1 state championship. Taylor also helps coach the Dutch men’s national lacrosse team, which he started doing when he lived in Amsterdam in 2014. In 2023, the team finished 14th in the world, eight spots higher than their prior world performance. Gefeliciteerd, Taylor! Carolyn Plou Rodriguez is still living in beautiful San Diego with her two spunky daughters, Elena and Zoey, and her husband, Andrew. She is a pediatric physical therapist providing free therapy to patients paid by San Diego County. “Here Come the Irish” randomly came on in her car the other day, and it brought a smile to her face! Caity Schneeman founded her own 501(c)(3) nonprofit theater company, Theatre 202, with a mission to create social justice theater with, by and for young changemakers in our nation’s capital. Caity serves as executive director while continuing to teach theater at Cardozo Education Campus in DC. Check out theatre202.org. Joy and Tim Rooney welcomed baby Luke and are officially outnumbered. Siblings Hannah and Noah love their baby brother and can’t wait for him to actually do stuff. José Manuel Gustavo Beguiristain was born in April 2023. Parents Jessica Rodriguez Beguiristain and Joseph Beguiristain are anxiously waiting for the next 18 years to see whether he will be a Domer or a ’Cane. Farley’s Finest Kelsey Montalto Klupchak, Amelia Ulmer Saettele, Molly King, Shannon Morrison Shriver, Eri Tsukamaki Haworth, Caitlyn Caster Bentrott, Kristin DeAmbrosio Brandtner, Shields Duss Hoida and Meghan Sweeney Bean reunited in NYC for their annual “Camp Farley” tradition. Like true Farley girls, they spent most of the weekend sober in a common room without any boys in sight. Last year they reunited in Cabo San Lucas where the same theme applied — very minimal debauchery, but plenty of camaraderie! Drew Whiting, Andrew Zeiser, Brian Sullivan, Pat McInerney, William Kearney, Matt “Spicy” Mattare and Chris Garibaldi spent June arguing about the existence of giraffes: how are they actually real with horse-like features, leopard spots, necks 10 times larger than a horse’s neck but with the disproportionate leg size? Similarly, how are sharks and crocodiles relatively immune to evolutionary change? Andrew also asked how it is possible that narwhals and rhinos are real, but unicorns are not. Spicy likewise asked how tunnels are made to span large bodies of water: is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel humankind’s greatest achievement? Drew believes that pandas should not exist: their fur is the opposite of camouflage. Drew likes wearing camouflage pants because his favorite band, Lit, sometimes wore them. Send us your updates at — 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

In June 2023, Allie Calabrese and Anthony Fiorino visited Knute Rockne’s statue in Voss, Norway. The friends remain extremely close to this day, and even though Anthony lives in NYC and Allie lives in CO, they usually take a big trip together every year. It was so exciting to get to bring a little ND nostalgia to their trip this year with the visit to Knute’s statue. Erica (Sanchez) Haas and Thomas Haas welcomed their second child, a daughter named Vivian, in September. Vivian joins big sister Mila, who was born in March 2021. Joe Kwaczala has been hard at work creating and releasing his album Funny Songs & Sketches. It features great comedians and actors including Patton Oswalt, Andy Richter, David Cross, Ayo Edebiri, Nick Kroll and a lot more. The website The Laugh Button reviewed the album and said Joe was a “brilliant craftsman of the absurd” with a “great ear for phrasing.” The album can be bought directly from the label, streamed on Spotify or listened to on a variety of platforms. He also released a music video for the album’s country song called “Unless.” And, according to Joe, it’s one of the best videos he has ever made. Check it out on YouTube! The ND ’09 Fantasy League group has begun its exciting seventh year, comprised of ’09 alumni buddies Joaquin Cigarroa (reigning champ), Matthew Wieser, Stephen Beach, Daniel Kirkconnell, Adrian Gonzalez, Keith Creasy, Chris Kosinski, Faustin Weber, Carlos Romero, Conor Bossy, Conor McLaughlin and honorary ND ’09 alumni Christopher Haupt. League Manager Keith Creasy is currently in dead last place with no wins and the other league members are not surprised. 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