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calls Kansas home now, where she and her boyfriend work for the University of Kansas. Margie was just accepted into the master’s of higher education program at KU, so she will soon become a Jayhawk, officially. (But who will she root for come basketball season, I wonder? We’ll discuss at the reunion.) Two of our classmates are out in Texas. Anne Hart is living in Houston, and is the director of paid search at a digital marketing agency. She is also an aspiring dog owner. Michelle Sutton graduated with an MBA from UT-Austin’s McCombs School of Business in May 2016. She has been working at Dr. Pepper Snapple Group since graduation as a brand manager for Canada Dry. She is engaged to be married in October 2017 in Chapel Hill. Out west in Boulder, Colorado, Tara Gilboa works in higher education, building online learning experiences. Tara and her partner enjoy taking their dog on hikes, and she is even training for her second triathlon! And now for our classmates living internationally: Gracelee Lawrence just recently left Texas after finishing her MFA in sculpture at UT-Austin in May 2016. She is currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on a Luce Scholars Fellowship. She teaches contemporary art practice at Chiang Mai University, but will return to the US in the fall after two solo exhibitions in Asia. Terry Hsieh lives in Beijing, where he is a professional jazz musician and studio musician. Terry is the director of the Blue Note Beijing Jazz Orchestra. Grace Holtkamp has just finished her Ph.D. at Oxford University. She is starting a career in corporate communications and
public affairs in London, at the UK’s leading public affairs agency. She still manages to watch UNC basketball, even with the time zone difference. Cora Lavin lives in Venezuela, where she is an English teacher and teacher trainer. Given the country’s political instability, it took Cora three attempts to renew her visa, but was able to continue her work. Over breaks, Cora enjoys traveling, and has visited a total of 38 countries! Brooke Hartley Moy has been living in Melbourne, Australia, for the past year, but also loves to travel throughout the country and to other parts of Asia-Pacific with her husband. She warmly extends an open invitation to our class to come visit her. Brooke works for Slack, which gives her some opportunities to head back to the States for conferences. I, Becki Feinglos Planchard, was lucky enough to see Brooke for a total of 45 minutes during one of those conferences where we happened to overlap in San Francisco in March. I will graduate with a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago Harris School this spring. I’ve spent the year working for the City of Chicago in early education, specifically on mayoral initiatives to increase pre-k enrollment across the city. I also have two dogs and a husband, and they’re all very important to me. That’s a wrap, folks! See you at the reunion in October!
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Samantha Leder leder.samantha@gmail.com Thanks to my classmates for letting me bug them year after year for updates. I appreciate everyone giving us a glimpse into your
outstanding lives. Ashley Brasier recently completed her first year of the MBA program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She plans to spend a portion of the summer working with Carlsberg in Vietnam. Jennifer Hambric is a digital marketing strategist at ABC11 Eyewitness News. This summer she looks forward to curating fun seminars in the Triangle area to help brands and small business owners leverage opportunities with branding, content development and a comprehensive digital strategy. Ben Hattem won a New York Press Club award and wrote a cover story for Politico Magazine. This fall, he will be starting at Stanford Law School as a 1L. Caitlin Burk graduated from the UNC School of Medicine in May and is thrilled to begin her training in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (where her mother also did her pediatrics residency) in June. She is excited to once again live in the same state as her sister, Laurel Burk ’09, though she thinks that the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins are significantly more fun to watch than the Eagles, Phillies, and Flyers. Leslie Ogden is entering her final year at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. While working full-time at a strategic communications and marketing firm, Leslie is able to apply her MBA studies in corporate social responsibility and sustainability to her day job, working with a global Fortune 100 company on sustainable agriculture programs, and also working with FEMA on climate change communications. Leslie is excited for a summer of travel celebrating DA weddings, and also consulting for a company in Spain
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on carbon pricing. Brennan Vail graduated from medical school at the University of California San Francisco this May and is continuing her training there as a pediatric resident physician. She is hoping to specialize in neonatology and is working on a team implementing and evaluating neonatal resuscitation simulation training in Bihar, India. Brennan is looking forward to marrying her fiancé, Chris Higgins, next summer. Emilia Sotolongo is excited to begin her third year of teaching at Neal Middle School in Durham. This year Emilia will serve as the ESL department chair as well as the head of the school improvement team. Emilia continues to volunteer with World Relief, a refugee resettlement agency in Durham, and works with local organizations to advocate for immigration reform both locally and nationally. Alexandra Davidson Palmer is finishing up her second year at The Hill Center and planning a move to Greensboro. She will be starting the school counseling program at UNC-G in August and could not be more excited! In the past year, Lauren Bronec moved to Boston and completed her first year at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She has enjoyed exploring her new city, getting to know her classmates and taking advantage of MBA travel opportunities to Japan and Israel. This summer she will be headed out west to Portland, OR, where she will be interning with Nike’s supply chain strategy team. Gabrielle LaForce finished the first year of her MBA at Kenan-Flagler. She will be in New Jersey this summer interning with the operations team at L’Oreal. Yates Sikes and his
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