ALUMNI NEWS
four kids. Kathleen says her boys are fully immersed in sports, while her daughter is on a competitive tumbling team. The year, thus far, has been busy, but incredible. Summer brought a little reprieve from the chaos; but not for long, as Kathleen will have her four kids at three different schools! And I, Christina Wilson Altenau, am still living in Houston with my husband Matt and three kids Anna (7), Blake (5) and Jack (3). We took a few trips this summer to the beach and mountains and are looking forward to a fun fall. It has been great hearing from everyone and wishing you all a wonderful year ahead!
1998 Amy Parker Beeson
Houston, TX amyparkerbeeson@gmail.com Hi everyone! Thank you to all of you who came to our big 20th Reunion this year. Mary Kay and Jeb Bowden were such nice hosts and the planning committee did a wonderful job making it a special evening. There are lots of new little Falcons and a few updates from classmates we haven’t heard from in years. Liz Riddle Anders and her husband David Anders ’97 are living in Houston and doing great. Their son Oliver ’31 just finished his Pre-K year at Kinkaid and he is very excited about Kindergarten this fall. Their daughter Franny turned two this spring and is such a joy! Liz’s art advisory and appraisal business keeps her busy! Liz loved helping out with the class of ’98 reunion and wanted to thank the Bowdens again for hosting all of us! 2018 marked a number of milestones for Meredith Hopson Beaupre (in addition to our 20-year reunion, which she loved attending and seeing so many old friends!). She and her husband Andy celebrated their five-year wedding anniversary, five years back in Houston after returning from the Midwest and 16 years with J.P. Morgan Chase (including one year in her newest role at the bank). Her daughters Lauren (almost 4) and Brooke (2) continue to keep life exciting for her and Andy! Alex Curlet and his wife Catherine are excited to report they are expecting their second little girl in November. They are all looking forward to the summer and have a trip planned to Italy for a family wedding in July. The Curlets continue to live in Washington, DC, where Alex works for Skansa US Building. Heather Heidemann Deiss was unfortunately one of the many victims of Hurricane Harvey. She and Scott have since sold their flooded home
“as is” and are currently enjoying stress-free apartment living until they find their next home. Despite the hardship of the situation it has changed them for the better. Work and flood recovery put a damper on their usual vacation plans, but they recently celebrated their anniversary in St. Louis, MO, where Scott has been traveling for work, and enjoyed a much needed relaxing beach vacation in Mexico this summer. Christian Easterling and wife Kate keep busy with work and their three children Reese (7), Sloan (5) and Harrison (1). Christian is on his third local start-up venture and currently serves as the Director of Operations for Dent-Well, a company that operates dental offices on large corporate and university campuses. Kate is a senior litigation attorney with McDowell Hetherington LLP. Jade Sachs Fea continues to live in Madison, WI, where she works as a bilingual resource specialist in Spanish in the Monona Grove School District to support the Latino community. Outside of work, she is busy raising her two boys Boden (11) and Tatum (7), playing soccer, bike riding and learning to play the spoons in the hopes of joining a bluegrass band sometime soon. Grayson Fitch recently started working for MP2 Energy, a subsidiary of Shell Energy North America, as Director of Reporting & Analytics. He is enjoying his new commute in The Woodlands since the office is 15 minutes away from home as opposed to an hour and a half at his previous job. Grayson and his wife Kristi are looking forward to a vacation in Costa Rica this summer and are enjoying spending time with their baby girl Presley. Laurie Riley Heins and her precious family are still enjoying life in New Jersey. Maggie (7), Caroline (6) and Patrick (2) are keeping her and Neill busy as ever! Charles Houssiere and his wife Lisa are happy to say they have a new baby boy in the family. Beau Ashton was born last November. Their oldest Cash (2) is very happy to have a little brother and is already helping him race around the house in his F1 walker. Cash is also excited to be enrolled at St. Francis this fall. Charles’ team at Biotex Medical is continuing to design, develop and commercialize cutting-edge medical devices for use in the US and overseas. Brooke McGuyer Hutson is busy working as an interior designer with her company Brooke McGuyer Interiors and keeping up with her kids Parker (8) and Caroline (4). She and her family are looking forward to travelling to Montana this summer to enjoy some family time and beat
the Houston heat. Ran Jones continues to enjoy life in Santa Monica, CA with his wife Cristina and their daughter Juliette. Ran recently started his own production company and is excited to announce that he and his wife are expecting their second little girl this summer. Andrew Lee has been with BHP now for six years and is enjoying his role as head of Business Development for their Commercial Midstream team. He is looking forward to the summer and planning to do some travelling. Erika Palmer Mandel and her husband Jed welcomed their third son Sonny Palmer Mandel on April 30th. Sonny fit right in from the start with a full head of hair just like his brothers. Jack and Max are crazy about their new brother, as are Mom and Dad. Erika started her own sales and strategy consulting business, Leap Intuit, after leaving KPMG last year. She helps clients in oil and gas, healthcare and consumer products reach a new level of sales growth, and she is loving what she does. John McInnes and his wife Deborah welcomed their fourth child Banks O’Connor McInnes last September. Fortunately Banks did not arrive on his scheduled due date during Hurricane Harvey, but it was pretty close! John reports that he is now well versed on how to perform a home birth via hours of “how to” videos on YouTube. Additionally on the life change front, John recently moved companies after 12 years at ConocoPhillips. He now focuses on strategy and business development for crude oil trading at Motiva, an Aramco affiliated company. He has enjoyed the new gig, and really likes being in downtown Houston. John also took the reins this year in planning our big 20-year reunion and wants to thank everyone who came out. Hopefully it won’t be another 20 years before we all see each other again. Gavin Roseman and his wife Ashley have had a busy summer with their oldest Sari (8) going to camp in North Carolina and Brooke (6) and Davis (4) staying busy going to camp in town. Sari ’28 and Brooke ’30 will be going into third and first grade at Kinkaid. Gavin has been at Stellus Capital for 12 ½ years where he is a Managing Director. When she has time, Ashley is managing her business, Calm Living, where she provides professional counseling and home organization. Jimmy Simon is living in South America with his wife Natalia. They are developing residential real estate together and enjoying life on a ranch about an hour outside of Medellin, Columbia. After graduating from SCAD,
ANNUAL REPORT SPRING SUMMER 2015 2018
Christine Reddick moved to Japan to teach English and practice martial arts. She returned to the US in March of 2011 to evacuate from the hurricane and tsunami, and she started the enlistment process into the US Army for Military Intelligence. She served three-anda-half years Active Duty, two of which were near the DMZ in South Korea. When she moved on to her next assignment at FT Hood, she started the application process for Army ROTC at Texas A&M and graduate school at the Bush School of Government and Public Service. She graduated and commissioned as an Officer into Texas National Guard in May of 2017 and bought 10 acres of land in Bryan, TX with her husband. Yolanda Finegan Sutherland lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. She earned her BA in Clinical Psychology and MPH in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Tufts University. Yolanda is published in the British Medical Journal and has worked as an epidemiologist and a scientific editor. As an epidemiologist, she produced analyses for pharmaceutical drug developers on the descriptive epidemiology of major drug indications in mature and developing markets. As a scientific editor, she provided substantive editing of medical manuscripts for non-native English speakers. Today, Yolanda stays busy with her sons, ages 8 and 4, who are science, art, Lego and bug enthusiasts. Layla Zafarnia Vela reports that life in Dallas is great! She is loving working in the MBA Admissions office at SMU. As a family, they are looking forward to some exciting milestones over the next few months – Aria turned 7 in June; Arman turned 5 in July; and she and Kevin will celebrate their 10-year anniversary in the fall! Lindsay Green Wallace and her husband Sam celebrated their fiveyear wedding anniversary in March and are still madly in love with their one-and-only Miller who turns three in August! Lindsay is still with Schlumberger here in Houston and was grateful for the short commute to our awesome 20th Reunion bash! Laura Kamas Wheeler and her husband Erik welcomed a daughter to their family in July of 2017. Sutton joins big brother Mason who just turned three. Michael Winningham and his wife Leyla Abou Samra recently welcomed their third child – a little girl named Rima Tenzin Abou Samra Winningham. Rima joins big brother Moustapha (8) and big sister Nour (5). Michael’s growing family is enjoying life in South Austin, where he continues to design homes and make music under the name Palo Duro.
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