c l a ss n o t e s
clASS OF 1987 A British Arctic exploration/adventure film that Celia Carey produced and wrote for the Outside magazine/TV is now online for free at www.snagfilms.com/films/title/ice_challenger/. Winner of an Explorers Club award, the story, which aired on BBC and OLN, follows a wealthy British Scientologist real estate mogul who decides that he wants to set a world record, and that his record will be “driving” across the Bering Strait.
clASS OF 1988 Hanelle Culpepper Meier’s second feature film, the suspense thriller “Deadly Sibling Rivalry” starring Charisma Carpenter and Kyle Richards, aired on the Lifetime Channel in August. Lauren Wainwright quit her job as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Goldman Sachs and is now getting her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale School of Drama.
clASS OF 1990 Edwin Marty is now Executive Director of the Hampstead Institute, a nonprofit organization in Montgomery, Ala., that creates healthful, sustainable community features and events; establishes farms and networks to supply fresh, local food; and educates the region about healthy, responsible growth. Marty previously founded and was Executive Director of Jones Valley Urban Farm, a nonprofit educational and working production farm in Birmingham.
clASS OF 1992 Jon Cohn is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Texas and lives in Austin with his wife and two children, ages 9 and 11. Laura Thomas’ first novel, Shadow Swans, was published this summer. She lives in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where she’s currently working on her fifth album of original music (www.laurathomasband.com). To support her creative habits, she also works for the National Geographic Channel, she quips.
clASS OF 1995 Aimee Dawson MacKenzie just moved from Halifax to Quebec City, Nova Scotia (with her husband and infant child), as she accepted a tenure-track position on the dental faculty at Université Laval. Before her move, MacKenzie received a 2011 Rising Star Award from the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI). She was honored for her work with the Junior League of Halifax as an advocate for new immigrants, providing them with vital dental care and nutritional information through a triage program she ran out of her Halifax dentistry practice. The award was made at AJLI’s annual convention in Philadelphia in May. Fran Hutchins is in her second year of the MBA and Public Policy Program at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She spent the summer in Boston doing a non-profit finance internship and spending time with Martin Tobias ’95 and Amy Sheridan ’95. “I am busy this fall doing the Danskin Women’s Triathlon, teaching a class at UMass, becoming an aunt, and purchasing a house with my wife, Laura, in Easthampton!” she writes. “Sadly, I’ll miss the alumni party over winter break as we’ll be spending December and January in Paris, where Laura is doing research.”
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Jan Jander designs and builds sculptural furniture, splitting his time between Chicago and Birmingham. This summer, he received his first museum commissions from the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art in Demorest, Ga.
clASS OF 1997 After living in Nashville for several years, Melissa Fortson left her work in the aging and disability communities and returned to Alabama to pursue a graduate degree in library and information studies. She now works as a Research and Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Alabama Libraries. Fortson sings with Tuscaloosa’s Prentice Concert Chorale and is engaged to Brad Green, an Assistant Curator at the University’s Paul W. Bryant Museum. Lindsay Frost-Bhasin writes, “I have had many changes in 2011! My husband, Sam Bhasin, and I welcomed our son, Dhru, into the world on March 23. After several years of bouncing around from Boston to Phoenix to Charlotte, in June we moved to Maryland, where we plan to settle permanently. I also just took a position as the Director of the Annual Fund at Garrison Forest School, an allgirls school north of Baltimore.”
clASS OF 1998 George Jones sends greetings from Pittsburgh! In May, he received his MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He and a classmate have formed Echelon Equity, an investment fund focused on locating, acquiring and operating a low-mid market business. They are currently raising search capital and expanding their network of business owners. “We’re conducting a nationwide search, so this venture could very well bring me back to Birmingham,” he writes. “Look me up if you have any tips or general entrepreneurial advice. Wish us luck!”
clASS OF 2003 Alex McPhillips writes, “Since 2010, I’ve been happy to join other Springs alums (including several ’03s) who are working hard to make it in busy New York City. There I serve as a press advisor and speechwriter for Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Working at the UN is a challenge; above all, it takes patience and belief in the importance of engaging energetically in our interconnected world. I’m glad to say Indian Springs taught me early on how to live and work alongside peers from different countries. It also taught me the foreign capitals. Thanks, Scholars Bowl!”
clASS OF 2004 Sunny Ovson married Brent Ammons on July 2, 2011. They recently moved to Tupelo, Miss., for his job with Darden Foods. (Left) Sunny Ovson ’04 on her wedding day with Justin ’01, Riley, David ’69 and Anne Ovson