Class Notes

CLASS NOTES Alumni Class Notes

Bishop Lynch alumnus Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale ’69 does it again with his incredible generosity and a giant heart. A touching video of Mattress Mack giving to his community during COVID-19 with the BL choir’s rendition of “Here I am Lord” was shared virtually with our community during quarantine.

Gary Jones ’70 and his son Spencer Jones ’96 were able to isolate from COVID-19 for a week this summer at their lake house in East Texas. Spencer lives in California and works for ADP, and Gary has been retired for two years.

George Taylor ’72 has had much more time to dedicate to his woodworking during quarantine. Take a look at this beautiful piece he has worked on in his free time.

Matt Nevitt ’73 and Kathy Hemmi Nevitt ’73 took their Friar spirit to the front lines of COVID-19 volunteering to administer CDC COVID-19 tests to Cistercian monks. Kathy has been a nurse at Cistercian for several years and Matt joined her to help administer tests.

Congratulations to Tim Mathews ’87 who was awarded the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA) Outstanding Eagle Scout Award. The NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award is a prestigious recognition granted by the local council NESA committee to Eagle Scouts who have demonstrated outstanding achievement at the local, state or regional level.

Congratulations to William George-Twyman ’98 who received his doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Oklahoma School of Music.

Jennifer Makins ’98 is the director of STEM at Parish Episcopal and was asked to do an interview for Suzy Solis of KRLD for her series Difference Makers. Jenn and her counterpart, Dave, are making face shields and intubation boxes for doctors fighting COVID-19. Jenn was also honored last fall, along with 124 other women in STEM, as IF/THEN ambassadors for The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

After 15 years in the EMS field, Tommy Walker ’00 finally reached his goal of becoming a flight paramedic in Oregon. He currently works for Life Flight Network, which is based in the Pacific Northwest, covering four states and has 26 bases. Additionally, he has been the only civilian medic to be brought into the SWAT team for the Lincoln County Sheriff Department. In May 2020, Tommy was inducted into Collin College’s Collin Theater Center Hall of Fame. He was heavily involved in the theatre program during his time at BL and continued that passion in college.

Congratulations to Melissa Kalka ’01 who was named in the Texas Monthly Magazine as a top 50 Female Attorney Under 40 and a Rising Star in Mergers and Acquisitions!

Gene Davis ’02 brought music, dancing and songwriting to children across the United States via quarantine birthday parties on Zoom and was featured in an article in the Advocate.

Stacey George ’03 and Sasha Kovacic Spivey ’03, lifelong friends and Bishop Lynch alumni, recently launched a line of leather goods called Frankie Ray. The impressive duo and their road to success were featured in D Magazine.

With a background in fine arts and a love for cosmetics, Holly Jo Ensminger Harris ’04 has spent 13 years developing an intuition for her client’s make up needs, a quick eye and precise hand, as well as a passion for being a part of their special day. Holly Jo is known for possessing a unique and highly adaptable artistic ability on all skin tones and ages for headshots, film and theatre, special occasions, and specializes in on-location bridal and destination weddings.

Taylor Johannesen Sanchez ’04 and her husband recently opened a new restaurant in Dallas called Chirps Chicken Shack. Jumping on the Nashville hot chicken trend and located on Greenville Ave across from the Granada Theater, this place is sure to fuel your hunger!

Mark Vehslage ’08 and his wife Maria have transformed their passion for design into a new business, MMV. They were recently interviewed and featured in VoyageDallas.

Congratulations to Marcy Olsen Kirtland ’09 who became an Official International Game Fish Association World Record Holder for women’s red snapper on 8lb test line for 2020!

Paige Allred ’10 is a teacher in Garland ISD and shared her experience learning how to teach and connect with her students throughout COVID-19. Great job, Paige!

“I teach kindergarten at Cooper Elementary in Garland ISD. The transition to online /distance learning has been a challenge, but successful in the end. At first, when we began the online learning, I had to learn how to adapt to a brand new online learning platform, teach my 22 students and balance my time. I used a platform called SeeSaw to assign work and held daily Google Meets with my students so that I could ensure they received that “face to face” time with me and their classmates. As we adjusted to the fact that this was our new “norm,” it gradually became easier to teach my students. With hard work and dedication, I was successful in teaching my students the content they needed to learn and they were successful in learning the content.”

Danna Callahan ‘10, an algebra II teacher at WT White High School in Dallas, has taken her classroom knowledge to YouTube and is sharing lessons and tips virtually on her page. Like and subscribe to her page and promote creative learning during quarantine!

After graduating from Bishop Lynch, Caroline Wommack Gadeke ’10 attended the University of Arkansas and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in nursing. She has worked as an emergency room nurse in Springfield, MO, Dallas, TX, and now Fayetteville, AR. She lives there with her husband Danny and young son William.

Alexa Hardick ’10 will be adding a new role to her impressive post-grad career as the new girls’ basketball coach for Moscow High School in Moscow, Idaho.

Victoria Ehlinger ‘10 completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of California - Berkeley in September 2020. She will be going to work as a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Barrington Hwang ’10 works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is one of the media editors for the American Journal of Psychiatry Residents Journal. He has released a podcast episode on psychiatry and mental health in homeless populations. He also has episodes on sports, and future episodes on the mental health structure in Peru, minority populations, history of addiction, and how that relates to the current opioid epidemic, mental health in pregnancy, and other topics.

Jessica Ashcraft Johnson ’10 has found great success with her popular Instagram blog! Read below how she got into the Instagram world and follow along on her journey! @missjessicanicoleblog

“Immediately after I graduated from North Texas, I started working as a Speech Language Pathologist - Assistant with ECI and worked there for about two years. When our daughter (Julianne) was born, I decided to stay home with her which ended up being a harder transition for me than I ever thought! Being able to stay home with my daughter is such a blessing, but also can be very lonely at times and I found myself needing an outlet. At the time, we were doing small house projects here and there to update our home and I’ve always loved interior design and was constantly decorating our house for fun, so I decided to start sharing some of our projects on Instagram! I didn’t really have any expectations from it, but it ended up being such a fun hobby for me and I was meeting some amazing people in the process. Once brands started to reach out to me asking to collaborate, I realized what I could actually turn this into and started taking it a little more serious! It’s been a huge learning curve and is definitely more work than I ever imagined, but I really enjoy sharing my ideas with people and I am super grateful for the community that it has introduced me to!”

Sarah Munger ’10 recently released her new EP, “Dainty by Design”. Check it out and her entire album on Spotify and follow her on Facebook at Sarah Munger Music.

“I start off all of my songs on my family’s baby grand piano, there is something about its sound that just really clicks and keeps the creativity flowing. Then I get together with my producer, Josh Goode, who I am incredibly lucky to work with. We sit down and I explain the song and the feelings and where I want the music to go and he builds tracks around it. It’s a very open setting, we are very good at communicating musically to lay down the tracks the way I intended. It’s been a lot of hard work finding my voice and my sound, especially because as my influences grow and change so does my music. With this EP, I have poured so much of myself into these songs- it’s been a two-year journey and I’m excited to see people’s response to my songs. I hope people are able to relate to my music. I would love if even just one person is able to connect with my songs and feel their own experiences through them. We all feel so much stress in our relationships and everyday life; for me my music is how I cope with all of that. It’s how I am able to express my frustrations, my joys, really all my emotions. I would love if my music could do the same for someone else.”

Congratulations to Annie Bourne ’11 who has been recognized by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association as one of its Thirty Under 30. Annie has been an assistant women’s basketball coach at DePauw University since 2015. This special recognition program was established to honor 30 of the up-and-coming women’s basketball coaches age 30 and under in the sport at all levels of the game.

Caroline Johnson ’11 has been doing some incredible things since her time at Bishop Lynch.

“After leaving Bishop Lynch, I graduated from the Catholic University of America with degrees in social work and music in 2015. Inspired by examples of living service I’d seen during my time both at Bishop Lynch and Catholic U, I spent a year living and working in Alajuela, Costa Rica with the Franciscan service organization, FrancisCorps. While there, I worked as a caregiver at a non-profit children’s hospital offering dignity of life care to some of Alajuela’s most vulnerable children. The experience working in Costa Rica’s health care system marked a turning point in my life, leading me to earn a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University in 2018, specializing in global maternal & child health. While at Columbia, I co-founded a leadership development organization focused on bridging the industry gap between public health’s high proportion of female professionals and its low proportion of female executive leaders. Columbia Women’s Leadership is in its third year of providing mentoring opportunities to graduate-level women, leveraging the experiences and professional lessons from some of Columbia University’s most successful faculty leaders. Although I was only at Bishop Lynch for my senior year, my experience as a Friar was indelibly marked by the servant leadership and powerful character examples of a few faculty members including Tricia Roos, Raquel McKinney and Terry May. These women welcomed me as a new student my senior year and provided invaluable guidance in forming lasting friendships, pursuing my passions and diving into community spirit - all values which I carry with me today.

Today, I am a proud DC resident, working for an international development firm called Palladium where I manage economic growth activities for a USAID-funded project in Sub-Saharan Africa. From a foundation in social work, to hands-on experience in Costa Rica, culminating in my present work in economic development, I have carried with me the principles of service to and solidarity with others that I first learned at Bishop Lynch. From Dallas to the Dominican Republic (a research stint in grad school) to DC - once a Friar, always a Friar!”

Dr. Cara Pritchett MD ’11 completed her first-year residency at Northwestern Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Cara graduated magna cum laude from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 2019, with outstanding achievements and awards, including Bilingual Health Scholar, Global Health Scholar, AMWA’s Glasgow-Rubin Achievement Citation, Distinguished Student Award in Pediatrics, The John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine Award, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. After completing her residency, Cara plans on completing a Fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology. If not busy enough, Cara and Aaron Kern ‘11 are planning their wedding for March 2021. Their original wedding date of April 18, 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sebastian Alexander Gajardo ‘14 is working as a researcher doing a study on children with autism spectrum disorder. After graduating from BL, he attended Austin College in Sherman where he received his bachelor’s degree in biology. Sebastian is now working at the University of Texas at Dallas as a researcher. His main study focus is to understand the effectiveness of a parent-mediated early intervention program on a child’s social and communication skills. He works with children 0-5 years of age and their parents to help elicit more social responses from the child.

Jesse Hageman ’17 is currently a senior at Centenary College of Louisiana. She is currently on course to graduate in the spring with a double major in biology and neuroscience with a minor in psychology. Jesse is also applying to the LSUHealth Shreveport’s Physician Assistant Program in hopes of attaining an enrollment spot for the upcoming May 2021 start date. She is enjoying her time back on campus while fulfilling her roles in many organizations, such as Centenary Student Ambassadors, Student Government Association Conduct Review Committee, and Beta Beta Beta (Biology National Honor Society). Jesse is most excited for this summer, when she will marry her high school sweetheart.

Kate Schindel ’17 recently graduated from the Texas Tech Health Science Center with her BSN in nursing. She has accepted a nursing position at the UMC hospital in Lubbock, TX.

Allegra Norman ’20 is currently dancing in Kilgore, Texas, as a Kilgore Rangerette. She recently made the high kick and will be able to perform on the field during the traditional entrance. Allegra is majoring in early childhood education.