ALUMNI NEWS
Santa Barbara, California.” Traci also served as our fearless leader and president of the KYPO Board this year. Amy Spalding Urquhart is still working at PaperCity Magazine and is eagerly anticipating the arrival of Baby Urquhart, due September 2012! She and her husband Robert recently moved into a house in Briargrove and are loving being in Houston near family and friends. Amy also recently started a side business called The Sweet Ginger (how cute is that name?) making delicious sweet treats of all kinds (cake balls are her specialty!) Shannon Feste Werme is still working in sales for Direct Energy. She and her husband Les welcomed their second child, Anna, in January. Shannon’s older daughter Blair (two) is loving being a big sister. Finally, on to your other class correspondent, Alyssa Gardner Kilpatrick. This will mark Alyssa’s third year working in Public Relations at Neiman Marcus in Houston. She and her husband Brian are thrilled to be expecting a baby in late November. Until then, they plan to make the most of the summer by traveling and taking their two Great Danes to the Hill Country to cool off in the Guadalupe. As for me, Michel Miller, I am still serving as the Client Services Manager at Thompson & Knight’s Houston office. Much to my (and everyone else’s) surprise, I’m still enjoying working with lawyers after 6.5 years in the legal marketing profession. Over the past year, I have enjoyed serving on the KYPO Board and taking some fun trips – most notably to Paris for our dear friend Lucas’ unforgettable wedding to Thierry. I’m now looking forward to planning my own wedding to Philip Mullett in March of next year! As always, many thanks to all the girls who wrote in. Alyssa and I love hearing from you every year, so keep the updates coming!
2001
Lindsey Boyd Houston, Texas lindseysboyd@yahoo.com Catherine Gutermuth Houston, Texas cgutermuth@gmail.com Let’s jump right in… Stacy Soefer just celebrated her one-year anniversary of living in Portland and loves it. Stacy heads
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up marketing and communications for the World’s largest producer of maraschino cherries and is exploring all the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Congratulations to Jennifer Steen who got married in June at the Wynn Las Vegas! She is still a lawyer working in Houston doing pharmaceutical litigation. Harris Masterson and his wife Megan are still living in Houston. He is coming up on his fifth year at Gulfstream Trading Ltd, a refined products trading company based in Houston. In the afternoons, Harris coaches lacrosse at Memorial High School. Marshall Porterfield, and his wife Cassie had a daughter, Isabelle Kate “Zizzy Kate” Porterfield, on September 20, 2011. Eileen Jones is still living in Los Angeles and working in entertainment. She’s busy finishing up her masters degree in creative writing, and became engaged to filmmaker Tyler Gillett in May! Barrel Barbour Jones and her husband Jacob are enjoying their first year of marriage and are excited to be homeowners in Dallas this summer. Completing her first year of Baylor College of Medicine’s Physician Assistant Master’s degree program, Laura Sheedy is enjoying life studying and learning a lot. The summer will be a whirlwind for Iman Houston. She’s busy planning a summer wedding to the love of her life, James Farrior, a honeymoon getaway to Bora Bora, and working on the interior design of her new house, all while lawyering at ExxonMobil by day! Whew! Sarah Lucas Macready is slowly working through a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She and her husband Dave have just moved to Coogee Beach!
to Colombia, South America! Kameron Averitt Swithin still works at Baker & McKenzie LLP as a Corporate & Securities Associate. Kameron and her husband Eric recently sold their home in Montrose and are looking for a house in the Memorial area. They have enjoyed a trip to Costa Rica and are enjoying life one day at a time! Last summer John and Katherine Tropoli Plumb had their first baby, a daughter, Mary Fraley Plumb. She is about to turn one and Katherine has been busy chasing after her! Katherine is still working for Deloitte. Brett Simchowitz just finished his third year of medical school at University of California San Francisco and will be taking next year off to do an MPH at Berkeley. Congratulations to Brett and his wife who are expecting their first child in October! Completing a deployment to the Philippines and his wife’s deployment to Afghanistan last year, Teresa and Tyler Scharar are glad to be at his first Navy orders in a non-deploying unit. Tyler’s new job at Public Works Department, Naval Base Point Loma manages construction and service contracts for the submarine base in San Diego. They are looking forward to the three-year hiatus from deployments and the upcoming California summer. Things are good in New York for Matthew Rosenberg. Still living in the heart of the city, Greenwich Village/Soho, Michael Constantiner and Matthew are getting ready to launch their company’s new product: Cameo (cameoapp.com). Their team is up to nine people and still growing. Matthew invites anyone who reads these updates to come visit. Katie and Johnny Forney are still in Houston with their two boys, Charlie and William.
Still a Landman, Justin Van Keppel recently started at Murphy Exploration & Production Company.
Kate McCormick still works for Elliott Marketing Group, a small arts marketing consulting firm. She moved to Austin and loves it!
Jonathan Fischer currently works at Allianz in Richmond, Virgina, as a Network Development Specialist. He helps develop relationships and contracts with hospitals around the world for the company’s Travel Insurance and Healthcare business. Jonathan has a twoyear-old pup and will have a bit less connection to Houston come November when his parents move
Congratulations to Blair Swick Andres who married Jon Andres in May at The Franklin Institute, a museum in Philadelphia. It was everything they dreamed of followed by a honeymoon in Hawaii. Still living in Connecticut, Blair still works for Bank of America in their marketing department supporting the Merrill Lynch brand in New York City.
Robyn and Phillip Winfrey just had their second child, William Isaac. Laura Stephenson is moving to London this summer, where she’ll be working at Royal Bank of Scotland in capital markets. Anyone in London, or know people in London, Laura would love to connect! Mollie Schall is working for State Senator Joan Huffman as her Administrative and Communications Director and still dividing her time between Austin and Houston. Still in Houston, Todd Moore currently works at The Stan Johnson Company in Real Estate Investment Sales. Life is good. Alyson Weaver is still living and working in Los Angeles. Mark Frachtman is continuing to grow his tutoring company, Math Geeks & Science Freaks(TM), which doubled in size from last fall to this spring. He has plans to expand to other cities in the near future. Taking up music production, Mark has started making music video parodies for YouTube under the name, “Imitation Beats(TM).” Michael Gucwa got married in September to Janelle Namwong and is enjoying the married life. Stuart Pradia is still coaching at Gettysburg College, but looking to return to the lone star state, or the golden one. Finally, it’s my turn – Lindsey Boyd loves life being engaged, living in the Clear Lake area, volunteering with the Junior League and working for Pennebaker. Thanks to all who contributed to our class update!
2002
Ariana Nizza Chapman Houston, Texas ariananizzachapman@gmail.com Ted Sangalis New York, New York tsangalis@gmail.com Royce Ballard celebrated his eleventh year with Chick-fil-A and his fourth year as Owner/Operator. In February 2011, Royce opened a Chick-fil-A location off the Southwest Freeway at the West Airport exit in Stafford and the location is doing really well! Contact Royce for catering needs! Also, last November Royce got married and is living with his wife in the Sugar Land area. Liz Mims Bender is