After graduation, dancer Jolie Long trained in NYC and earned an MFA at Florida State University. She returned to Virginia to direct the Chatham Hall dance program, then became a professor of dance at Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga. Jolie recently reconnected with UMW theater professor Jean Hunt and saw a performance in honor of ballet professor Sonja Dragomanovic Haydar. Katherine Aaslestad and John Lambertson of Morgantown, W.Va., met at MWC. Katherine teaches history at West Virginia University; John teaches art history at Washington & Jefferson College. They have three children, Morgan, a Goucher College senior; Raef, a University of Richmond freshman; and Alaine, a high school junior. They sometimes see Abas Adenan and Eileen Brown Adenan ’88 and their girls. Renee Allen Kuntz works for the federal government and lives near Baltimore. She and husband Scott celebrated their 25th anniversary in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, rang in the New Year running a 5K, and had tickets for opening day at Camden Yards. Renee belongs to UMW’s Baltimore/Annapolis Regional Alumni Network, sees Kathy Goeller Booth at work, and ran into Sigrid Skrivseth Houston in Annapolis. Our son Sean graduated college and works in Seattle. Daughter Lauren has another year of college here in Wisconsin and hopes to teach. I work with high school ELL students. Husband Scott is finishing his Ph.D. in military history. Hopefully, he and Lauren will graduate together. I connected with Jessie Jones Lease and Alice Feely Wilson and her husband of Milwaukee. Hope to hear from you next time!
1986
Lisa A. Harvey lisharvey@msn.com
Grad Student Fosters Pet Project Pepper was about to be killed when Christine Exley ’09, then 17, fell in love with the 20-pound pit bull. The dog, shoehorned into a crate, had survived a month − three weeks longer than average − among the constant influx of strays at the animal shelter. “She never lost her spirit,” Exley said. “I took her home.” Eight years later, the doctoral student of economics at Stanford University is trying to save dogs on a larger scale. To do so, she’s applying a lesson learned in a freshman economics class at Mary Washington. Shawn Humphrey, associate professor of economics, taught his students that the discipline could be used to solve real-world problems – and ultimately help make the world a better place. With so many people looking for pets, and with millions of dogs being killed every year, Exley thought the problem to be solved was in matching them. In early 2012, she and fellow animal-lover Elena Battles started Wagaroo.com, a company that helps bring together dogs and the humans who want them. But the flood of pets and people who can’t find one another − what Exley called a “massive market failure” − wasn’t the only problem. “No SPCA is related to another SPCA, no humane society is related to another humane society,” she said. “It’s an incredibly fragmented market. It can be hard to find a dog with characteristics you At 11, Exley played want.” with Lucky, her A clearinghouse family’s first rescued for shelters, rescue dog. Lucky lives organizations, and pet with Exley’s parents owners trying to find today, 14 years later. responsible breeders and new homes for their dogs, Wagaroo.com allows people to search all of these at once by breed, size, age, gender, and other specifications. Exley, CEO and chief of research, posted on the company website, “In regard to both economics and Wagaroo, I believe in testing everything, and then pursuing what works and changing what does not.” That’s something she practiced at UMW. A four-year Washington Scholar who received the merit scholarship that covers tuition, room, board, and fees, Exley had planned to major only in math. Then Humphrey’s belief that economics could
Christine Exley ’09 is using her UMW economics training to help match homeless dogs with people to love them. The Stanford University Ph.D. candidate graduated from UMW with departmental honors in economics and math and received the 2009 Darden Award for highest grade point average. change the world turned her into a double major. She “fell in love with the economics way of thinking,” she said, and worked in Honduras with Students Helping Honduras (SHH) building roofs on villagers’ homes before the rainy season. When she told Humphrey about SHH and the humanitarian work there, he wanted to lend a hand. Humphrey collaborated with Exley and SHH. Eventually they established La Ceiba Microfinance Institution, a student-run nonprofit group that provides loans and educational support in Honduras. “What I was doing at Mary Washington is what graduate students are usually doing at a larger school,” said Exley, who has undergraduate degrees in math and economics. She believes her hands-on economics experience helped her get into Stanford. She plans to finish her Ph.D. in 2015, and she wants to teach, like Humphrey. “I don’t think there’s anything more rewarding than helping a student on an individual basis,” she said. But just as much as teaching, and maybe more, Exley said, “I want to save dogs. I want to pursue Wagaroo. I know we don’t have all the answers, but I think we can find a lot of them.” − Kristin Davis
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