class notes

Over the last 18 months, Ashlea Mittelstaedt moved to Oakland, had a baby, got married, bought a house and moved again. Despite having the same job, she is on her fourth new boss. At the same time. Somebody, please hand her a margarita.

Heather I. Scott, Ph.D., is proud to announce after a successful 10 years at Kennesaw State University as a tenured professor and administrator, she is now serving as assistant dean of SUMMIT Inclusive Leadership Curriculum and Co-Curriculum at Agnes Scott College. Her days are filled with supporting Scotties through their leadership journeys and cataloging her gray hairs as she has encountered working with some of the children of her Scottie classmates!

Helayna Hoss Trask’s oldest child, Cole, was accepted at Texas A&M in engineering this fall. Helayna continues to edit and teach Spanish, music and chapel in a preschool near Dallas.

Liza McDaniel Fewell started her own freelance copywriting business, Hand-in-Hand Copy, in January 2022. She offers copy for blogs, newsletters and other marketing materials for local businesses. Following a successful surgery for achalasia in September 2022, she is ready to grow her business bigger this year! In other news, after seven years of home schooling plus two years of online schooling, her kids will be entering public high school for the first time this August. Xander (17) will hopefully be completing his senior year at Central Gwinnett, and Indy (14) will start their first year at Gwinnett’s School of the Arts.

Amelia Tomlinson has been your class secretary since 2009 and has loved being the conduit for your news. However, her current work travel schedule makes continuing on untenable — as you’ve likely noticed, given she hasn’t gotten your news into the last two editions! Thus, Liza Fewell is her new hero, as Liza has volunteered to take up the mantle for the rest of this term until our 25th reunion.

’00

Yalonda Rice yalondarenee@gmail.com

During the 2022 Circle K International Convention in Austin, Texas, Jennifer Long Hethcox was awarded the Circle of Service award by the International Board of Trustees. This is the highest award any one person can receive from Circle K International and is only given once in a lifetime. Jennifer received this award for her work as district administrator of the Carolinas District of CKI and longtime CKI alumni. During college, Jennifer served as Agnes Scott College CKI club secretary and club president. She was the first governor to hail from Agnes Scott College and was immediately followed by Carol King Milligan ’01 and Rebekah Baum Knowles ’02.

Yalonda Rice accepted the position of executive director of the literary magazine Philadelphia Stories, focused on publishing work from writers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Saycon Sengbloh proudly served as the speaker for Agnes Scott’s spring 2022 commencement exercises, where she received an honorary doctorate. In addition, Saycon returns this summer as Lillian for the second season of ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years,” also starring Don Cheadle, narrating the series as adult Dean Williams; Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean Williams; Dulé Hill as Bill Williams; Laura Kariuki as Kim Williams; Julian Lerner as Brad Hitman; Amari O’Neil as Cory Long; and Milan Ray as Keisa Clemmons. ’01

No identified class secretary. Please send any news to share to alumnae@agnesscott.edu.

No news was submitted. Please send your news to your class secretary.

’02

Deborah Vincent Scianna deborahscianna@yahoo.com

On Dec. 2, 2022, Selyka Givan became a professional female bodybuilder and won the Overall Female Bodybuilding award at the National Physique Committee National Championships in Orlando at the age of 43. Currently, she is living out her passion as a health and fitness coach at Snap Fitness Decatur, right next to Agnes Scott College.

Erica Robinson was named one of the top attorneys in San Antonio by Attorney Intel and featured in Vanguard Legal Magazine.

Jenny Williams recently moved to Denver, Colorado, with her family, where she coordinates social justice initiatives at a Jewish communal organization. She has guest rooms — Scotties, come visit! :)

Over the summer, Rebecca Baum Knowles was promoted to director of development for

Academy Prep Center of Lakeland, a private middle school specifically for students from lowincome backgrounds. She continues to live in her hometown of Lakeland, Florida, with her children, Clayton (14) and Alison (10). They love meeting up with Scotties vacationing in the Sunshine State!

Sisters Laynea Allen and LoraBeth Allen ’15 visited Houston at the end of December to help Deborah Vincent Scianna celebrate her birthday and ring in the new year in style! Highlights of the trip included a visit to Space Center Houston and The Museum of Natural Science, dinner at Ninfa’s, and ghostly fireworks seen through epic sea fog on Bolivar Peninsula.

Amanda Shopa successfully defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota in January. Her dissertation, titled “My Easy Year: Breast Cancer, Narrative Reckoning, and the Art of Creating a Dissertation,” explores how artistic practices can be used to make sense of the existential crisis a serious illness can bring on.

Dana Neiger published her first book, “Before I Knew It, They Were Gone: A Jewish FirstGeneration American Woman’s Journey through the Darkness,” in January 2023. She has owned HIVE Talent Acquisition Firm, an HR and recruiting consulting firm in Sandy Springs, Georgia, since 2017 and just accepted a two-year term as Temple Emanuel president. She is the loving mother to the amazing Deagan (6), and her husband, Dustin, was just promoted to VP with his transportation engineering design firm HNTB. Dustin is the program director for the Major Mobility Investment Program with Georgia Department of Transportation fixing infrastructure.

’03

Anla

Gisclair Etheridge

butterflyanla6318@gmail.com

Kendrah Underwood has been married for seven years to Terrence Underwood, and together they have a 13-year-old son, Malachi. She and her family currently live in St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally, she is the VP of schools at Kairos Academies.

April Carter-Chau is the new deputy chief of recruitment advertising and marketing at her federal government agency. She also was selected to be a national delegate representing the Nation’s Capital Girl Scout Council at the 2023 Girl Scouts National Convention.

Jenny Townes made it through the pandemic, even with a feral pandemic toddler. She joined Emory University Libraries as the Open Access librarian in 2022.

Tiff Troutman and her family moved back to Georgia in August 2022 and have no intentions of ever leaving again.

Christy Conway has moved to Columbus, Ohio, and is pursuing a doctorate in special education.

Brigid Scarborough lives with her partner, Ermis Zayas, and was recently promoted to manager at Deloitte, where she works as an organizational design consultant within the government public sector practice.

Alicia Przygocki has been married for 13 years. She has a career as a stockbroker at E*TRADE by Morgan Stanley and three fur babies.

Jen Garnett and her partner, Amanda, live in Bristow, Virginia, with their four teenagers, Daniel, Alexis, Autumn and Ray, their two Frenchies, Gus and Jaq, and their two cats, Oreo and Eve.

In 2021, Whitney Peoples became the inaugural director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In July 2022, she married Jason Walker in Detroit. They were married by fellow Scottie Zeena Regis ’02, and fellow Poison Ivy classmate Brigid Scarbrough was also in attendance.

Amanda Balaz Owens currently resides in Cumming, Georgia, with her husband and two cats. She has been working as an elementary school counselor in high-poverty schools for more than 15 years and enjoys her work.

Faith Garlington is working as a technical strategic project manager in financial services and fintech. She recently cofounded a multigenerational, co-living community in San Francisco, 1.5 blocks from the iconic Painted Ladies and Alamo Square. The community currently has three co-parents; two formerly homeless LGBTQ youth (both 20); and two kids aged 9 years old (one boy; one nonbinary; one foster; and one biologically connected to Faith and her partner).

Gretchen Deitze is recovering from a partial hip replacement and about to start a temporary position in her company in the Real Estate and Land Management Department as a real estate