2000s
2000s
00 Fun Times Ahead
Happy fall, everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the cooler weather, kids back in school, and, of course, football season! Many of you will be heading back to campus to catch a game or two and meet up with friends for some tailgating. Many of our classmates are planning to attend the Class of ’00 Tailgate in the Stadium Lot before the Louisville game. We also have more fun to look forward to! As many of you read in the email that was sent out in June, the countdown to Reunion 2025 has begun. Are we really old enough to celebrate our 25th reunion? It will be held May 29 - June 1, 2025 (visit reunion.nd.edu for the latest updates). It will be a weekend full of festivities, friends and fun. If you are interested in a Class officer role, or wanting to help plan the Reunion or volunteer, please reach out to Melissa (Tacey) Goodwin at mjtacey13@yahoo.com. Now your social calendars are set! Speaking of being social, Tom Cullen’s wedding provided a fun time for a few classmates to celebrate together. Back in May, Tom married Hannah Cavicchio in Detroit. Tom is an electrical engineer for Ford, and Hannah is a physical therapist. Groomsmen included Josh Bourgeois, Brian Christ, Evan Edinger and Shaun McKiernan. Jennifer (Jablonski) Bourgeois also participated in the festivities. It was a beautiful ceremony with the reception in the ballroom at the Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit. The happy couple ventured off to Italy for their honeymoon. Congratulations, Tom and Hannah! A group of Badin gals also met up for a great time in UT in July: Loubel (Cruz) Gailik, Lizz (Mattingly) Kirzeder, Erin (Stauffer) Catalina, Krista (Guziec) Emmons, Lisa (Gadwood) Buckley and Mailen (Miguel) Yen. The group hiked in Deer Valley, shared memorable meals and convinced a few folks they were celebrating their 10th reunion. Such a fun time was had by this great group of gal pals! I hope you all enjoy raking those leaves and cheering on the Irish! See you at the tailgate, and send me your brags, news and updates! — Laurie (Strotman) O’Malley; ndbug3@hotmail.com
00MBA Class Secretary — Mike McDaniel;
mba2000@alumni.nd.edu
00JD Class Secretary — Daniel Hardwick;
danhardwick@gmail.com
01 Celebrations
Jacob Manning was ordained as a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston on June 7. The ordination was held in Charleston WV and was celebrated by Bishop Mark Brennan and two of our classmates, Drs. Stacey (Leicht) and David Young, attended. Ann (Miller) 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. Jamie Sablich joined Liberty Bank in New Orleans as the VP of the commercial lending group in June. He has now been in New Orleans for 15 years, and his wife, Karen, and three children, Jude (13), Claire (11) and Jacob (4), are doing great. Please continue to share photos via @nd2001alumni (via Instagram) or Class Notes via email to classof2001@alumni.nd.edu — Michael Anselmi; 415-860-7130; manselmi@alumni.nd.edu; classof2001@alumni.nd.edu
01MBA Class Secretary — Dominic Pang;
dpang@panglaw.com
01JD Class Secretary — Jonell Lucca;
cell 602-677-3266; jonelllucca@yahoo.com
02 Politics, Investing and Other Adventures
John F. Cowen Jr. (aka “Cowboy”) has been elected as the mayor of Brownsville TX. John has hosted many dignitaries at their border town including President Biden earlier this spring. After spending his career in the investment banking and private equity industries, Tim Trostle started his firm last year. Partners, based in Indianapolis, is an investment bank that provides middle market transaction and strategic advisory services. Tim works with many ND alumni. John McKiernan and Dillon residents Andrew Dayton, Chris Taggart, Coleman Lechner, Jeff Szklarek, John Patrick Camardo, Travis Colburn and League “Commissioner” John Randles (who should stick to his day job as a gastroenterologist) fumbled through the 2023 NFL fantasy football season. Since he dominated the loss column, John McKiernan is pleased to offer a life update to our Class. After finishing law school at ND and earning a graduate degree in theology at the U of Oxford, where he was on the men’s varsity judo team, John began a career in higher education administration. After stops at Seattle U, Yale Law School and Loyola U Maryland, John is currently chief of staff at Wilmington College (OH). You can follow John’s cooking adventures and reserve your curated dining experience on Chris Taggart’s boat through John’s Instagram (@mckiernanj). — Peter Countryman; pcountry@gmail.com
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 Congratulations
Amee (Falbo) and Steve Christ recently celebrated their 15-year wedding anniversary in the Cheese Capital of the World, Plymouth WI. Cheers to you both on your marriage milestone! Hope to see you at our mini-reunion at the Louisville game. Go Irish! — 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 Recap
What a fun 20th Reunion Weekend we had back on campus! The weekend kicked off with an intimate Class Mass in Keough Hall Chapel; special thanks to our classmate Rev. Aaron Michka, CSC, for presiding, as well as Lauren Fowler, Kristine Lam, Athena Kwey McPhillips, Charlie D’Sousa and Mimi Lundgren for serving in various capacities, along with Nicole Bernal Ruiz and Lisa DeLorenzo for leading us in the beautiful music which made us feel like we were right back home under the Dome! Huge shout-out to our Class Vice President Tommy Gaeta for helping organize and donating wine from Terlato Wines (where he serves as VP of marketing and DTC) for our special Class wine tasting on Saturday afternoon. And of course, a big thanks to our President Jazmin (Garcia) Smith and Treasurer Katie (Conklin) Myatt for helping to organize the weekend’s festivities! Our Class of 2004 dinner on Saturday night in the new Stayer Center was so well attended that we had to bring in extra tables and seating to fit us all! A personal highlight for me was the tour of the new ACE Remick building hosted by Frankie (Beecroft) Jones, newly promoted associate professor at ND, with fellow ACE ’11 grads Sarah Finch, Chelsea (Madison) Perri, Chris Broughton, John Bacsik, and Lauren (Wons) and husband Ryan Bradley ’07 with their daughter Kate — what a fantastic view of the Dome from the terrace! Next time you’re on campus, be sure to check it out! I was also so happy for how Reunion weekend provided a chance to reconnect with buddies from fall London semester abroad, including Kate (Lutkus) Levy, Meghan (Ford) Single, Dave Harmon, Sean Miller, Emily (Hawthorne) Stephenson, Colleen (Rivard) Hunt, Chloe Risto, Kerry (Heffernan) Perez and Mark Bescher. From Friday night at the Backer, to Saturday night at Corby’s, with all the Alumni Association events in between — Saturday lunch at the stadium, breakfasts back at North Dining Hall, and so much more — it was a fantastic chance to catch up with so many classmates. I got a lot of great feedback about how you all love reading the Class Notes, but of course I was having too much fun over the weekend to write down anything specific to include in this column. So your homework is this … shoot me an email about an old pal that you reconnected with at the Reunion, and what he or she is up to now. I got zero updates submitted this quarter, so let’s not let this Class Notes column remain empty next time! — Carol (McCarthy) Martino; carolmartino10@gmail.com
04MBA Down in the Big Easy
In June, Jamie Sablich joined Liberty Bank in New Orleans as the VP of the Commercial Lending Group. Jamie and his wife, Karen, settled in NOLA 15 years ago and have three children: Jude (13), Claire (11) and Jacob (4). Everyone is doing great. Keep the updates coming and Go Irish! — Harry Howisen; hhowisen@gmail.com
04JD Hanging His Own Shingle
Jonathan Polking launched his own law firm in April of this year. Based in Charlotte NC, Jonathan’s firm provides estate planning and probate services, corporate and business law, as well as commercial real estate. Off the field, Jonathan celebrated 23 years of marriage in July. He and his wife, Stephanie, have five children ranging in age from 22 to 6. Following in his father’s footsteps, their oldest son is a senior at the University. It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since we graduated from that magical place. Thank you all for making my three years there so special. — Katie (Wharton) DeFerrari; katiedeferrari@gmail.com
05 Make Your Plans for Reunion
Congratulations to Andrea Wolfe, who was named president and CEO of Mass Insight Education and Research in April. Mass Insight is a Boston-based national nonprofit that partners with state education agencies, districts, schools and communities to implement customized strategies and build capacity to advance equity and opportunity in K-12 education. Are you interested in hearing about all of the other exciting things our classmates have been up to since 2005? You’re in luck! The Class of 2005 is planning an unforgettable weekend of events May 29 - June 1, 2025, to celebrate our 20th Reunion. We hope you will start making plans to join us on campus for an amazing weekend with your Class, and we are also looking for some creative ideas for social activities during the weekend. What would you love a chance to do with your classmates? If you have any ideas or would be willing to help in any way with Reunion planning, please email ndclassnotes05@gmail.com. We also need some classmates to help replenish our Class of 2005 Fund to cover the cost of our Class hospitality tent and other exciting Reunion ideas. These donations are tax deductible and count towards your ND annual giving. To make a gift to the Alumni Class of 2005 Class Fund: 1. Go to giving.nd.edu. 2. Put in the amount of your gift and continue. 3. Under “designation,” put in the search box to the right “2005” and select Class of 2005 (Alumni Association). Continue entering your information and payment. 4. We are not able to see donor names, but please email ndclassnotes05@gmail.com if you have made a donation to our Class Fund so we can list you as a Reunion Sponsor when we thank everyone who helped make this Reunion a success! I’ve already marked my calendar for May 29-June 1 and hope you will too! Visit reunion.nd.edu and 2005.undclass.org for the latest updates. — Caroline Meehan; ndclassnotes05@gmail.com
05MBA Class Secretary — Himanshu Gosar;
hgosar@alumni.nd.edu; ndmba2005-owner@googlegroups.com
05JD U2 Live at the Sphere
As we head into football season, there are a couple recent job changes to note. Out in Portland OR, congratulations go out to Anna (Smith) Helton on becoming the assistant general counsel for SAIF Corporation, the State Accident Insurance Fund of Oregon. Kudos also go out to Vince Pecora, who made the move from in-house to Winthrop & Weinstein PA as counsel, where he will continue to practice in the areas of securities and M&A. On a personal level, my wife and I had the pleasure of seeing U2 live at the Sphere in Las Vegas with Beth and Chad Silker in late February. We welcomed our son, Andrew Jonathan, to the Notre Dame fan club on May 29. Indeed, it was “A Beautiful Day” … Go Irish! — Adam J. Russ; Houston TX; adamjruss@gmail.com
06 New Additions
Alexandra and Alex Borowiecki welcomed their fourth child, Roger Alexander Borowiecki, to the family on May 28. Roger is getting along swimmingly with his siblings Olivia (5), Peter (3) and Lucy (2), and dog brother Luca. Things at home are full of peace and serenity. Everyone is getting 10 hours of sleep a night and the older kids basically take care of Roger on their own. Both Mom and Dad work at Amazon and have been in Seattle for 12 years. Please let them know if you’re ever in the Pacific Northwest as they’d love to play host, although they recognize a household of four kids 5 and under and a dachshund may not fit everyone’s ideal Airbnb search settings! Crista and Will Fischer had a baby boy, William Joseph Fischer IV (“Liam”), on June 24. Big sisters Annie (4) and Amelia (2) are very excited! The Fischers are still living in Brookfield WI. — 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 — Brian E. Hammell; behammell@yahoo.com
07 Many Blessings
Drs. Lisa and John Corker welcomed their first child, Eloise Anne Chiu Corker, on Feb. 9. Born on Lunar New Year, despite some tense moments, Eloise came roaring into the world like the little Dragon that she is. Eloise has truly been the blessing for whom her parents have prayed. Sheldon Dutes and John’s sister Andrea Corker are her godparents, and Ellie can’t wait to visit them in FL and Switzerland, respectively. After visiting several countries in the womb, Ellie used her own passport for the first time in June, and appears to share her mother’s love for gelato. Before that trip, the Corkers’ incredible village celebrated Eloise’s first 100 days with her first trip to a brewery. Her fur brother, Tui, anxiously awaits the day that she proves her worth by throwing a ball. Until then, he maintains his skepticism. Jana (Stewart) Newman and her husband, Adam, welcomed their second child, Orson Abraham, on Feb. 19 in Austin TX. Justin Rice completed a hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2022 and just started as palliative medicine division chief at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn NY in March. Clare (Duncan) Boulet and her husband, Stephen, welcomed their first child, Jane Catherine Boulet, on May 3. Eileen (Duffy) and Rico Farmer welcomed their third child, Liam Patrick Farmer, on June 23. Liam is the Farmers’ first baby born in the Chicago area and joins older siblings Quinn and Jack. A few weeks later, Katie (Murphy) and Mark DeSplinter ’05 also welcomed their third child. Mary Cornelia DeSplinter was born July 15 and joins older siblings Jack and Mickey. July was an exciting month for Patrick Corrigan. Notre Dame Law School granted Professor Corrigan tenure on July 1. Patrick teaches Business Associations, Securities Regulation and a seminar on venture capital financings and initial public offerings. He joined the law school’s faculty in 2019 after practicing law at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in NYC. On July 21, Patrick and his wife, Tess (Bone) Corrigan ’09, celebrated the baptism of their second child, Patrick Thomas Corrigan, at the Log Chapel on campus. Rev. Bill Lies, CSC, was the celebrant, and godfather John Corker was also in attendance. AJ Cedeño was cast in Sony Pictures Television’s highly competitive Diverse Actors Program. The initiative, which happens on the historic Sony lot in Los Angeles, invites thousands of actors nationwide to audition. AJ was one of only 10 candidates selected to participate. Over the course of the summer, AJ and the other actors networked and rehearsed with Sony casting executives. They wrapped up their program with a performance for top industry professionals. Please keep sending updates to the address below. Go Irish! — Sheldon Dutes; 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 Achievements
Garrett Mandeville had dinner with Kevin Powers ’12MEd, Greg O’Donnell and John Biddle on June 25. They hit up The Exchange in downtown South Bend (check it out), ran into a merger/acquisition party that was private, acted like they were part of the merger, and came away with some tight lanyards. Andrina “AJ” Ong reached her 175th country: Yemen, where she spent a week off the grid and camped underneath the stars and dragon’s blood trees. As mentioned in June, she is in the running for Class of 2008 most interesting member. Also in the running are Louis Gularte and Cassie Belek. There are several classmates who are not in the running. These folks include: Andrew Zeiser. Rick Loesing is the new director of mission advancement for the Napa Institute and was a featured speaker along with his former dorm mate, Matt Paprocki ’05, at the institute’s annual conference. Erin Locke dropped us a line and reports that she went to graduate school, worked hard and earned her MD. She practices medicine and public health in Topeka KS and lives with two males: her husband, Ian, and their 7-month-old infant named Finnian “Finn” Locke Cummings. Finn is pumped to be a member of the ND Class of 2041. In March, Erin Buckley spent a fun DC day visiting Mike Jordan Laskey, director of communications at the Jesuit Conference. Included in the visit was a tour of the AMDG podcast recording studio. Check out the Jesuit Media Lab online as a gathering spot for creatives ignited by the Ignatian spirit. Erin is also looking forward to a June trip to Salt Lake City to visit ND roommate Natalie (Rodden) King and her family. Christina (Holmstrom) Valenzuela published her first book with Our Sunday Visitor in the spring. The title is The Language of Your Body: Embracing God’s Design for Your Cycle, merging her love of biology and theology, which both flourished under the Dome. She hosted her very first book signing with fellow ND author Jessica Mannen Kimmet ’09 at the Hammes Bookstore. Andrés Valenzuela didn’t publish a book, but he did celebrate an advancement to principal research scientist within the Atlas team at Boston Dynamics. What he is most famous for, however, is Mallorca in April 2007. Caitlyn (Caster) Bentrott and her husband, Mark, welcomed their third daughter, Molly, on May 13. Her big sisters Annie and Emily are in love with their new baby and look forward to showing her around campus at the Stanford game. Go Irish, beat Cardinal! Michael Hennig ’07 wants to be in the Class of 2008. So does Nate Origer ’06. Rev. Sarah Smith is the next head chaplain at Holland Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa OK. Sarah will also serve as an assistant strength coach and division chair of religion at Holland Hall and as an associate priest at Christ Church Tulsa. Sarah is a sixth-generation Oklahoman and is in the running for most famous Class of 2008 member, along with Mary Claire (Sullivan) Mandeville. Kara Brennan is still impressive. Nick Kluesner continues to embarrass his legendary wife, Megan (Julien) Kluesner, who continues to receive remarkable accolades for her volunteer work. She (does not) love(s) the attention. Kelsey (Montalto) Klupchak and Julia (Vogelheim) Hudac are sharing a hotel room for Francisco Castillo-Fierro’s wedding in November. They roomed together in ACE; their room was a converted living room with no doors and many windows. Didier Lewis, Zach Labrecque and Liz Brown Lockwood did not holler at us. Analisa Arizpe found her old iPod from college. The iPod had Bubba Sparxxx, which she listened to. Drew Whiting and Lawrence Sullivan sent Andrew Zeiser 8x12 signed photos of themselves via registered mail, which Andrew did not sign for. Did anyone get Pangborn or Fisher Hall bricks? If so, holler. — 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
Andrew Matasic and Craig Wiborg hiked Cotopaxi earlier this summer, continuing to cross outrageous adventure items off of their bucket lists. 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