Class Notes

Michael Mecham '70

Mike Meacham recently completed editing Looking Back to Look Forward: AUPHA at 70 - a history of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, which celebrates its 70th year in existence this year. He served as editor (and wrote two chapters) at the request of the Chairperson of the board. He also serves on the Board of Directors. This is his second book project, having published From Backpack to Briefcase: Professional Development in Healthcare Administration in 2015. He is also co-author of an upcoming management text for health administration students.

Kristina Harter Cosden '75

My husband Darrell and I have been living on the road in a 21-ft. camper since August 2017. We are volunteering and so far have worked at Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, and the St. Joe Wild and Scenic National Forest as rangers. We have also visited about eight other national parks and forrests. What an experience - it is a blast!

Heather Garing Robinson '88

Heather Robinson and her family are heading back to their home in the USA after 4 years in Mexico. What a fabulous experience! Feeling happy to be coming back to be closer to family.

Justin Bowles '91

Justin Bowles is the Assistant Director of Student Support at Christian Brothers University in Memphis where she coordinates mentoring and tutoring. Justin is also a working artist and most recently has shown her work at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis and The University of Mississippi in Oxford. You can check out her work at www. justinautumnbowles.com.

Samara Taher '95

Samara Taher and her husband Ajay David took an incredible trip to Ethiopia, Botswana, and South Africa this May. The trip was inspired by Samara and Ajay’s daughter Dessa Taher David, who passed away in February 2018. She will always be their Shining Star.

Jessica Slutsky Macari '99

Jessica Macari recently joined the North Carolina Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General in the Health Services/ Medical Facilities Section.

Laura Clark '01

Laura Clark spent five years teaching English in Madrid, Spain, and has relocated back to the United States to pursue new opportunities. In June, she joined ArborBridge in Los Angeles as Associate Director of Tutoring, where she works directly with families around the world to coordinate and manage ArborBridge’s top-quality SAT and ACT test preparation services.

Jake Kraft '02

Jake Kraft just completed his PhD in Pharmaceutics at the University of Washington in Seattle. He recently became engaged to Dr Oumou Diallo, M.D. The wedding will take place this fall in Mali, Africa with celebrations to follow in Paris. Jake is continuing his post-doc work at the UW Institute for Protein Design. His fiancée is an anesthesiologist with a private practice group in Seattle. The couple plans to remain in Seattle.

Ruse Brown '03

Ruse Brown was recently promoted to Sr. Vice President – Wealth Management and earned the title of Portfolio Manager. He was also named to the UBS 35 Under 35 for the Calendar Year of 2017.

Megan Greaves Geherin '03

Megan Geherin graduated from Denver Seminary in 2009 with MA in Counseling Psychology and gained license in professional counseling and addictions counseling. She is currently managing a team of behavioral health clinicians at Anthem, Inc. She is married to Patrick Geherin and has daughter Ella Geherin.

Joseph Cooper '04

Joseph Cooper just welcomed his first child into this world, Cash Joseph Cooper.

Chris Varenhorst '05

Chris Varenhorst has now started his own tech company after a five-year-career at Dropbox when the company went from 40 to 2000 employees. Lingt.com helps foreign language educators create speaking assignments and assessments for their students. "Happy to give WCS teachers a free account if they’d like to try. Say hi if you’re in San Francisco!" Continued on next page

IN MEMORY Ryan Hendrix '00 Harold Kruger, former faculty and alumni parent Steve Miller '68

Deborah Stephens '69 Dirk Wormhoudt '69

Bo Dunne '06

Bo Dunne and his wife Megan are blessed to announce the birth of their firstborn, Natalie Olivia Dunne. Natalie was born on May 17, 2018 at 8:08 am cst at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX, weighing 6.0 lbs and measuring 17.7”.

Perry Malzahn '07

Perry Malzahn and her family have relocated back to Wichita from Kansas City and she is working as a Mental Health Therapist at HopeNet. She is still working PRN (as needed) as a therapist for a mental health and substance use dependence hospital in Kansas City.

Ryan Dahlke '08

Ryan Dahlke has a new job in downtown Kansas City as a Software Development and Operations Engineer for Alight Analytics, a marketing data company.

Rachel Klingenberg '11

Rachel Klingenberg is working at Behavioral Link and has become engaged. In Rachel's words: "Working with kids that have behavioral problems has its ups and downs along with rewards and embarrassments. One such time involving all the aforementioned is how I met the love of my life. At work with a group of kids, I took them to eat, where they proceeded to think I was flirting with the waiter. In fact, I was giving him information to get a job at my company since it was his dream job. The kids started their normal teasing, eventually gaining the entire restaurant's attention, including said waiter. The waiter, Joshua Behrens, came over and told the kids to, I quote, stop teasing your worker, who I'm sure is one of the most beautiful people I have seen, also smart, and very kind. Of course, this encouraged the kids to take it farther and they told me and Josh to trade numbers. The rest is history and the wedding is set to take place in September 2020!"

Parker Smitherman '11

Parker Smitherman became engaged to Erin Hedrick in November 2017, to be wed November 2018 in Dallas, Texas. Parker and Erin met at SMU during a Kappa Sigma/Alpha Chi Omega event. Parker is working as an Assistant Editor for Republic Editorial and Erin is a Brand Manager for The Richards Group.

Tyler Dobbs '12

Tyler Dobbs, brother to Gabrielle '18 and Michael Dobbs '26, holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and master's degree from the University of Oxford. He recently became engaged to Isabel Nelson, proposing to her in Rome on Easter Sunday. The wedding will take place in 2019 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Hayley Cusick '12

Hayley Cusick has accepted a position to teach Kindergarten at Cloud Elementary School for the 2018-2019 school year.

Macrina Castrisos '13 and Andrew Bayless '13

Macrina Renee Castrisos and Andrew Craig Bayless, both of the Class of 2013, married on June 23, 2018, at St. George’s Orthodox Christian Cathedral. The reception followed at the Wichita Country Club. WCS teacher Troy Fischer’s band, Lucky People, performed at the reception. Alexandria Bayless '17 (sister of the groom) was maid of honor and Brandon Lee '13 was a groomsman. The couple will enjoy a trip to Jamaica for their honeymoon. Andrew is an Account Coordinator at Printing Inc. (R. R. Donnelly Co.), and Macrina is a realtor with J. P. Weigand. They plan to reside in Wichita.

Ryan Emmitt '14

Ryan Emmitt is engaged to be married to Monica Vandenbark on July 13th, 2018 at the LDS Temple in Kansas City, Missouri. Ryan is going to be a 5th year senior at Kansas State University, graduating in May 2019 in Elementary Education, with a specialization in Science. He is also an equipment manager for the Kansas State football team! This summer, for the second year in a row, Ryan is coaching a little league baseball team.

Jake Barrett '14

Jake Barrett has completed his chemical engineering degree at North Carolina State University. He just started his job in Winchester, Virginia with Procter and Gamble. He will be working on all things Swiffer as a Process Engineer.

Ahmed Alshamary '15

Ahmed Alshamary published a book, Bits & Prejudice: Finding Problems and Solutions of Bias in Technology.

Tyler Anderson '17

Since graduation, I have: • Started my own music production company,

Shattered State Productions (shatteredstateproductions. com) • Worked with several very talented musicians and groups, including Berklee College of Music graduates and touring musicians • Created a musical collective called Polyscape to encourage musicians across the world to

collaborate on original projects and covers (see our Facebook page for more info) • Edited, performed in, and released my first music video in collaboration with Black

Bile Productions, under the

Polyscape name • Released my band's first single on Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes,

Bandcamp, etc. called "From

The Fall" by Cure for Colors • Mixed, mastered, and produced my first single prepared for release • Made the Dean's List at CU

Boulder • Earned my first endorsement deal as a drummer for the

UK-based company Collision

Drumsticks.

Gracie Moore '17

Gracie Moore, a rising sophomore at Elon University, will be inducted into Phi Eta Sigma, a national college and scholastic honor society for first year students. This is the highest academic honor Elon University can bestow on a first year student. Phi Eta Sigma was founded in 1923 at the University of Illinois and encourages and rewards high scholastic achievement. Students eligible for this society have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.8 to 4.0 during their first year and are of good standing and character.

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Send your professional or personal updates to Susan Klingenberg at sklingenberg@wcsks.com.