www.andover.edu/intouch telling me about her family’s busy summer (thank you, Kinn!). Kinn, her husband, Jose, their 8-yearold son, Bo, and 5-year-old daughter, Ahn, were able to meet up with several Andover friends when they rented a cottage in Gloucester, Mass., in July. The family was in the Boston area to see physicians for Bo, who has microvillus inclusion disease, a genetic disorder, and to visit with several families whose children are also affected by the disease. While in Gloucester, Kinn and family met up with Erin Twomey and her boyfriend, Chris, at the Cape Ann Brewing Company. Kinn reports on what an amazing mentor and teacher Erin is at Quincy High School, using both “her deadpan wit and her earnest faith” in equal measure. Traveling to Andover a few days later, the Chan-de Velarde family met up with Donna Coppola and her husband, who have recently relocated from Los Angeles. Since her move back east, Donna has taken a new job as chef at a literary/arts club at Harvard. For the last stop on Kinn’s trip east, the family stayed in Newton with Alex Techet and her now 2-year-old triplets, Henry, Lydia, and George. As though Alex needed something else to keep her busy, she is also a tenured associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at MIT. Kinn was able to spend some time with Fran Contreras back in Michigan, when Fran was visiting Kalamazoo for a corporate budget exercise. The two met up at Kinn’s neighborhood pub and, Kinn wrote, “We compared notes as multicultural students at Andover and now in multinational corporate America.” A few days later in Chicago, Kinn had lunch with Jessica Gonzalez, who is working at BP as an in-house counsel, and tea with Sara Su Jones and her boyfriend, Dennis. Juliet Sorensen, husband Ben Jones, and children Sophia, Hugh, and Thea are also in Chicago, where Juliet is a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. This past summer, the whole family spent a month in Paris, where Juliet taught at Sciences Po on a faculty exchange. Fran Contreras wrote in with news of his recent move from San Jose, Calif., to Raleigh, N.C., after a promotion at work. At this writing, Fran and his wife, Veronica, are expecting their fourth son in November. (Fran, I can tell you from experience: Four boys are the best!) Phil Bellizia, who lives in Vermont with his wife, Bridget, and their kids, gave Fran some recommendations and tips on mountain biking. Fran keeps in touch with Ran Sarkar, who enjoys cycling around his hometown of Somerville, Mass. As a class agent, Fran has been able to catch up with several friends all over the country and beyond: Craig Der Ananian, who is living in Arizona and working for a French company; Josh Russo in Alabama; Erin Eggert Brenner in France; Jason Haas in California; and Mike Day and Amy Ferraro in Massachusetts. James Elkus lives in Connecticut with his family and is a managing partner at Longstone Capital Advisors. Gant Asbury has moved to Sweden with his wife. Fran also spotted Daniel Lee in a Bank of America commercial. Thanks for the update, Fran!
Our ranks of future alums have grown since our last report, with the arrival of some new and adorable babies. Chad Taylor has been busy! He married sweetheart Stephanie in June and the couple happily welcomed daughter Zandaya in September. Andy Frankenberger also had an eventful summer. He got engaged to Martha Fortune in July, and son Leo was born (a few weeks early!) in August in New York. Also in July, Amanda Mettler Goodrich and husband Jonathan welcomed Remington (Remy) Goodrich to the world and to their home in Beverly Hills, Calif. Their first “baby”—their dog, Milo— loves his new playmate and eagerly anticipates the time when Remy can move around more. Elizabeth Hui von der Goltz came to visit the family, traveling from NYC, where she is a senior vice president at Bergdorf Goodman. Last March in Dubai, baby Hamza was born to Uzma and Taimur Hadi, joining big sister Kinza. I hope that all these updates have inspired you all to come to reunion in June. And if you haven’t already made your plans, please do so soon! Until then. —Hilary
1992 Allen Soong 1810 Burnell Drive Los Angeles CA 90065 asoong@post.harvard.edu
As I write these notes, it’s back-to-school time again. Those of us who are parents are relieved to have made it through the summer laboring to keep our kids entertained, exercised, edified, and out of trouble. Tip your caps to Kira Nurieli and Julie Suhh Chung, who managed this feat with five little ones each! Lots of other news to report in this edition, as other classmates have been keeping themselves equally busy with new ventures. This summer saw the first season of HBO’s new original show, Ballers. It stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but the name that caught my eye in the opening credits was that of the casting director, Susan Abramson! For Susan this is merely a follow-up to her work on another little HBO show you may have heard of, Entourage. Hilary Potkewitz now has a regular byline in the Wall Street Journal, writing features in the “Personal Journal” section. In April 2015, she had a front-page story about couples having meltdowns at Ikea (sound familiar to any of you?). The article went viral and spread to dozens of publications around the world. She also writes a regular column called “What’s in Your Bag?” In it, she finds interesting people who travel a lot for work and asks them what they pack. “It’s a neat way to profile a person, through the things they carry,” she says. “So if you have any cool ideas, send ’em my way!” T.K. Baltimore and her husband, Jay Konopka, are still happily living in Jersey City, N.J., with their 1-year-old daughter, Tesla; their
13-year-old, one-eyed dog, Gir; and their 17-yearold corn snake, Jagger. T.K. is director of product technology at Advance Digital, where she has worked for more than 12 years, and the whole family still enjoys spending time on Cape Cod in the summer, as T.K. did when she was a child. A little farther up the New England coast, Holly Parker writes that, in between weekends spent moonlighting as a schooner bum and otherwise “making merry” in Portland, Maine, she became the coordinator of academic innovation at the University of New England in February 2015. She says, “My job is to improve affordability and accessibility of higher education through new models and to help educate a workforce that can drive the regional economy. With Maine turning its eyes toward the Arctic (Portland is hosting the international Arctic Council in 2016), I am off to Iceland in October for the Arctic Circle Assembly with a contingent from Maine. I pledge not to eat anything cute—Icelandic delicacies include lamb, minke whale, and puffin (gasp!)—so I may have to go veggie while I am there.” Holly also reports, by the way, that Justin Lattanzio’s wine (featured in the last notes) is superb; you can claim your own bottle(s) at www.lattanziowines.com. Fellow Mainer Shannon Christensen, whom Holly visited over the summer, is a part-time bookkeeper at a landmark public library in Bar Harbor. She writes, “I’m a caregiver and mom, and I dabble in writing and other miscellaneous hobbies that involve making something from very little. My life is small and simple and not at all what I thought it would be—and I’m so glad.” Shani Evans has found an unexpected second career freelancing as a fashion manicurist on photo shoots, commercials, and fashion shows, writing, “I’ve worked runway shows for major fashion houses, the Met Gala, and every New York Fashion Week for the past three years. My work is featured regularly in Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. It’s fun as hell, plus the contact fumes can make for some loopy color-theory inspiration.” In August, Alex Lippard celebrated his birthday at Chelsea landmark rooftop bar Gallow Green, with Nur-ul Haq among those in attendance. By the time you read this, Alex will have opened his new massage-therapy practice, Wellness by Alex (book online at his website: www.wellnessbyalex. com), and will, he hopes, have found a producer for his new musical, Queen of Mean, the unknown story of New York’s notorious hotel queen Leona Helmsley. In the meantime, Melissa Davis Balough is relocating from Boston to the Bay Area. Exactly where, though, she is not quite sure as of this writing: “I don’t know where I am living yet—I am trying my hand at being spontaneous. *Deep breaths,*” she writes. Speaking of spontaneous, in early September Barry Bhola was in Washington, D.C., on business from Trinidad and Tobago, and managed to catch up with Darryl Cohen for breakfast on short notice. Earlier in the summer, Barry and his son Andover | Winter 2016
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