ALUMNI NEWS
public charter school system. After four years of teaching 1st and 2nd grade in Houston, Katie Schlesinger moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 2011 to get her master’s degree in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. She will be moving back to Houston this summer and is hoping to find a job working with a school district. After receiving his J.D. cum laude from The University of Texas School of Law in 2010, Martin Simchowitz stayed in Austin and clerked at the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Texas. He just moved back to Houston this spring and is now practicing commercial litigation law at Christian Smith and Jewell, L.L.P. After having lived in Tucson, Arizona for the past five years, Jennie Simmons just moved back to Houston. She graduated from the University of Arizona law school in May and is currently studying for the July Texas Bar Exam. I n September, Jennie will start as an associate at Locke Lord. Other than that, she is still running and horseback riding, and she is excited to be back in Houston. Morgan Steen is in Houston working at Martha Turner Properties. After spending five years in New York, Lauren Strange will be returning to Houston this summer! She graduated from Columbia University with a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology in May. She will be joining Capgemini Consulting as a Senior Consultant in the People and Performance practice this fall. While in New York, Lauren worked at Duke Corporate Education and, most recently, oversaw the administrative team in the Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School. She is looking forward to a big return to Texas and reconnecting with old friends! Yee-haw! Mary Beth Tyler lives on Capitol Hill at Eastern Market in Washington DC. She is a member of Junior League of Washington volunteering with Bright Beginnings, a local nonprofit that serves the homeless children population in DC. In September she joined Accenture’s consulting force and works on a local federal client. In 2011 she was nominated and selected for the University of Georgia Terry College Young Alumni Board and supports business school with local and national alumni efforts. Fallon Ukpe is in the final year of an MD/MBA program at Duke. She
finished the MBA this May and is completing the last clinical year of medical school. This summer, she will begin applying for residency programs and plans to specialize in ophthalmology. She is thrilled to hear how the Class of 2003 has been doing and looks forward to seeing everyone at the ten year reunion next April!
in Atlanta. Emily is a sixth grade language arts and social studies teacher at Trinity School. Emily has been traveling to Houston frequently to hang out with her new niece, Kaylee! Recently, Emily and her husband have been asked to move abroad for Brody’s job at KPMG. They will be moving to London in the fall!
Kelly Eisenman Unger lives in Dallas with her husband Jacob, who is a plastic surgery resident at UT Southwestern. Kelly is an event planner and recruiting consultant. She has recently traveled to Hawaii and the Bahamas to plan corporate meetings. She also writes a blog called Newlymeds (www. newlymeds.com) about what it is like being married to a doctor.
Bailey Thomas Haidamous is currently working as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at The Parish School in Houston. She will be moving to Austin his fall where her husband will pursue a MBA at The University of Texas at Austin.
Frank Vargas is getting married in September to Rachael Pool, his girlfriend of almost four years. They will both continue to live in Washington, DC. After three years conducting disaster logistics planning for FEMA, Frank has accepted a new position at U.S. Customs and Border Protection where he will lead a program evaluation team. In December, he will be receiving his MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Alex Weaver has been working with Drilling Info in Houston since moving back from DC nearly two years ago. He’ll be starting the fulltime MBA program at Rice this fall. Daniel Zeplain moved back to Houston in October 2008 to take over his family insurance brokerage company, Treyled Insurance Group where is he now president, and he says “the business is doing extremely well”. He also recently got engaged to Brittany Werme, a native Houstonian who went to Memorial High School. Daniel and Brittany plan on getting married this New Year’s Eve.
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Jordan Allison Houston, Texas jordan.p.allison@gmail.com Emily Catherine Jeter Houston, Texas Emily.Catherine.Jeter@gmail.com David Alviar completed his third year stent with Teach for America in HISD. He is joining Rice University full-time as Director of Operations and Communications in the Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship. Emily Hoppe Connolly and her husband Brody are currently living
During this past year, Valerie Grainger Henderson graduated from South Texas College of Law and passed the bar. She also started as an associate at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz in the Houston office. She is practicing in the area of business litigation and really enjoying it. Charles Lawrie spent the fall of his last year of medical school studying at Washington University in St. Louis and Stanford University. He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society, and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine Medical School with high honors. Since graduation, Charles traveled to Sydney, Australia, and is diving the Great Barrier Reef. He will be moving to Miami in mid-June for his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Miami. James McCelvey is working as a designer for Horton Wison Deepwater, which is an offshore oil company. Kimberly Heine Nettles and Charlie ’05 moved back to Houston last summer. Kim is currently at the University of Houston pursuing a master’s in speech-language pathology. Whitney Rape is starting her fourth year at The Vault Mortgage Company and still loves it. She is actively involved in the Houston Rodeo on the Mutton Bustin’ Committee. Whitney is a member of the Kinkaid Young Professional Organization Board and is starting her fourth year on the board of The Young Friends of CanCare. Nellie Hoppe Reed has had a very busy year. She married Marshall Reed in Horseshoe Bay at Escondido. They had a baby named Kaylee Reed who is four months old. They are living in The Heights and she loves her new
family. Nellie is the Office Manager at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Eleni Pappas moved back to Houston a little over a year ago, and is working at a small engineering firm doing traffic engineering and transportation planning. Meredith Pickett just finished her first year of graduate school at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU. She is enjoying living in New York for the first time and is looking forward to completing her policy studies next May. This summer Meredith is interning at the New York City Council before spending some time in Cape Cod and home in Texas. Brittany Sakowitz is practicing corporate law at Baker Hostetler and recently launched NewfortheNight. com, a designer dress rental boutique. Brittany is engaged to Kevin Kushner and will be married in the fall. Christina Scharar returned to Houston in May after graduating from Michigan State University College of Law. She will spend the summer studying for the Texas Bar Exam and will begin work in August at Deloitte. This past semester, Tyler Scully clerked at the First Court of Appeals for Justice Jennings and his staff attorneys. Tyler will graduate from law school in December. Andrew Watt returned from Afghanistan in January and is finishing up with the Marines. He will be attending Harvard Business School in the fall. Mallory Gershen Wynne took the Louisiana Bar Exam in July and began working for LeBlanc Bland, PLLC, a boutique oil and gas law firm, in New Orleans in August. She was married on March 24 at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I, Emily Catherine Jeter, am working at United Way of Greater Houston as a Donor Relations Manager. I just completed my fourth year as a Kinkaid Young Life leader. I recently got engaged to Ben Riggs, class of 2002, and we will be getting married next June. I, Jordan Allison, just completed my second year as a kindergarten and first grade teacher at The Parish School. I will begin my third year in August. I will also begin my fourth year as a Kinkaid Young Life leader in August. I am still living in Houston with fellow classmate Mary Catherine White.
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