Sally Fletcher Murray wrote that her children and grandchildren from CA, FL and AK celebrated Don’s 80^th birthday with a family reunion at Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA. A highlight was the announcement by their 51-year-old son and his wife (36) that they are expecting their first child in January. Sally’s sister Nancy (Hood ’59) came from Australia for her annual visit. Sally continues to serve on the Governor’s School Foundation Board and the County Electoral Board. She walks her dog two miles a day, reads constantly, enjoys daily emails from Hood classmates…and takes a nap every day!

Chris Laborde married Susan Tow on July 27, 2013 at Chris’ aunt’s farm in Adamstown, MD. Chris and Susan currently reside in Anchorage, Alaska where Susan retired from the Air Force. Chris works as a government contractor in Emergency Management. Chris and Susan are one of five couples suing the State of Alaska to recognize their marriage – the case is Hamby et al. v. Parnell et al. Chris can be reached at CDLaborde@gmail.com.

2012
Ashley Nokes
hc2012reporter@gmail.com

Laura Saad
hc2012reporter@gmail.com

Hello from the class of 2012! It was another exciting year for the members of our class and we are excited to share it with you. Carley Altenburger graduated from the Univ. of Pittsburgh with a master of library and information science degree in archives, preservation and records management and has started a second master’s degree program in the history of decorative arts at Smithsonian-George Mason Univ. Jamal Bell is now a licensed realtor and is starting his career in realty. Jarred Braxton is halfway finished with his graduate program at Tisch School of the Arts in New York City aiming for his master’s degree in cinema studies. Adrienne Gladden started a new job as a student adviser for StraighterLine, Inc., an online education program located in Baltimore. Janet Gainesearned a certified supervised counselor alcohol and drug certification and is in the master of social work program at the Univ. of Southern California. She is working as a lead counselor at Gale Recovery, Inc. Claire Gogan will be entering a master’s degree program in history at Virginia Tech in the fall on a full scholarship. Kelly Harris married Matthew and they welcomed a baby girl Sofia Grace in October 2013. They moved back to New Jersey to be closer to family. Hilary Lawch planned to enroll at McDaniel College in the fall to pursue her master’s degree in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She plans on using her master’s degree to work for a nongovernmental organization that helps immigrants adjust to their new lives in the United States. Lauren Miller married Galen McGrane April 12, 2014, in Frederick. Carter Reitman is currently in his second year of service with the Peace Corps in Morocco. Kenneth Rupert published a book in December 2013 and two more in the first quarter of 2014. He is writing one book that will be published this summer and two more in the fall. Kasey Smith will be leaving Frederick County Public Schools after two years of teaching special education for a new teaching job on a Native American reservation in Mandaree, N.D. She will  teach special education for a year. Maria Smith will be starting a new job in the fall as a middle and upper school French teacher at Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, Md. Mollie Widdowson is working for the Washington County Department of Social Services in foster care and has been there since September 2013. Emily Wilson planned to attend Arcadia Univ. doctor of physical therapy program in August. What a year it has been for our incredibly accomplished class! Please keep your class reporters updated so we can inform you of the amazing things our class continues to accomplish every day.

2010
Alison Kelley
kelley@hood.edu
5th reunion, June 5-7, 2015

Erica Royer recently graduated from Saint Joseph’s Univ. with a master’s degree in experimental psychology focusing on animal behavior and cognition. Her thesis research on dominance hierarchies in Caribbean flamingos was published in Behavioural Processes in Spring 2014. Currently, she works as an animal keeper with rare and endangered birds at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. Her primary areas include Guam rails and Micronesian kingfishers, both of which are extinct in the wild. Emily Heflin is still working at The Summit School and will start the 2014-2015 school year as the social studies coordinator; she was also promoted to school coordinator assistant! In December 2013 she got engaged to Arslan Khan. They had a traditional Pakistani religious ceremony and in summer 2014 she planned to have a traditional American wedding. She recently moved to Alexandria, Va. Ali Kelley started a new position as the assistant director of annual giving at Hood. She is also in her third year of coaching cheerleading at Maryland Allstars. Alyssa Moore recently accepted a new position at J. Spargo & Associates as a registration account manager and started in June 2014.

2009
Christie Fincham Flora
christiefincham@yahoo.com

Lillian Dean Miller was married to Chris Miller in June 2013. She bought a house in Mount Airy, Md., in May 2014 and works as the regional wellness merchandiser for MOM’s Organic Market, an independently owned organic grocery store with 11 locations in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Rebecca Hunter earned a doctor of philosophy degree in analytical chemistry from the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in July 2014. She is moving to Charleston, S.C., where she will be an assistant professor of chemistry at The Citadel. Danielle Lee Sgro is starting a new job as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in the environmental tort litigation section on Sept. 8. She is currently a law clerk at the United States Court of Federal Claims. Andrea J. Raffauf lives in Denver, Colo., but got engaged on April 30, 2014, to J. Garrett McGinnis with a planned wedding for May 2015. She is working as a medicolegal death investigator for the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner in Colorado. Andrea is certified on a national level and a diplomat with the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. Amanda “Mandy” Bunting, C’11 earned a master’s degree in applied sociology at the Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County and is enrolled at the Univ. of Kentucky’s sociology doctoral program for the fall. She lives in Lexington, Ky. Katelyn Vaughan has two children Romand, 4, and Hadrian, 1. She started working in the finance department for Legal and General America, America’s third largest and most successful life insurance company. She is raising her boys and finishing the final part of her master’s degree at Hood. Kinsley Wilde is engaged and was getting married on Sept. 27, 2014, to David Bowman and working as a child and youth program coordinator for the Maryland National Guard. Andrew C Weiss is working on special government projects for The Johns Hopkins Univ., Applied Physics Lab and he owns and operates REDRHINO, an epoxy flooring company providing floor coatings to five states. Kathryn Anne Thomas Yager graduated from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in May 2013 and graduated with a master’s degree in public health from Virginia Tech in December 2013. She married Cody Yager (a classmate from veterinary school) Jan. 4, 2014. She also bought a house in Ohio in April 2014 and has been working as an associate veterinarian in Ohio since October 2013. A year after graduating from Hood, Tracy McIntyre Leach married her wonderful husband and obtained her master’s degree in public health. Her second son Levi was born June 20, 2013. Her first born Quayden is already 5 years old! She works for the State of Maryland as a licensed environmental health specialist and with her husband owns a family business, Xtreme Liquid Designs, LLC. Samantha Henderson Lowery married Michael on April 12, 2014. After five years of teaching special education, she now teaches sixth grade language arts. Ilyse Kaplan celebrates five years with the Social Security Administration as a performance management specialist. She is certified in human resources through the USDA Graduate School. She bought a house on Rosemont Ave. in Frederick and is learning to grill and garden. She recently finished building a bamboo fence in the backyard.Christie Fincham Flora is the mid-Atlantic training store manager for Columbia Sportswear and is working on a master of business administration degree at Mount St. Mary’s Univ.

2008
Megan Phillips Rosier
megankrosier@gmail.com

Sarah Haney Koons
sjh6@hood.edu

This past February April English returned from 1.½ years of missionary service in Montevideo, Uruguay, where she worked to help stop violence against youth and taught English and crochet in a local youth center. Andrew Randall ’09 and Stephanie Hearn ’09, M.S. ’14 are getting married Aug. 30. They share a love of history and antiques so they are saying ‘I do’ at the historic Mar-Va Theater in Pocomoke, Md. Megan Lamm ’09, Leif Vestermark ’09, Josh Nelson ’09 and Terrence Sullivan ’09 are all in the wedding party. Stephen Koons ’07, M.A. ’08 and Sarah Koons ’08 welcomed a daughter Olivia Madison in January. Ashley Nick Wilson and Nate Wood-Wilson ’05 were married June 21, 2014, in Brownsville, Md. April Street started working for the state of Maryland in the department of juvenile services in 2012 as a case management specialist. She started graduate school in fall 2012 and is working on a master’s degree in counseling psychology.

2007
Melissa Barrick Estes
melissadestes@gmail.com

It is my great pleasure to share a lot of good news from the class of 2007. Amanda Earp Hayes recently purchased a new home in Baltimore with her husband Toby and 2-year-old son James.  She works at home as a freelance writer and editor and has published two short works. Laura Smith graduated from a two-year post-graduate certificate program for psychodynamic psychotherapy through the Washington School of Psychology in Washington, D.C. She works with a practice in Frederick and is starting a private practice in Bethesda, Md. Jessica Palmer Biggs and her husband Josh live in Jacksonville, Fla. They welcomed twins, a son Mason and a daughter Aubrey, Aug. 31, 2013. Julia Blickenstaff, M.S. ’14, graduated from Hood with her master’s degree in management of information technology in May 2014. She currently lives in NYC. Congratulations to Katie Chick who was recently promoted! She is now the director in career management at The Advisory Board Company where she has been working for more than seven years. Laurie Burrier Atwell was married at Hood in July 2010. She and husband welcomed a son Colton in August 2011. She now lives in Smithsburg, Md., and is a history teacher at Smithsburg High School. Amber Guzman, M.A. ’08, earned her master’s degree in thanatology from Hood in 2008 and her doctor of psychology in clinical psychology from the American School of Professional Psychology in 2013. She is working as a psychologist in the Geriatric Care Clinic at the Leavenworth, Kan., VA Medical Center. She also recently bought a home! Sarah Fortney Marshall and her husband welcomed a son Cameron Jay Marshall Aug. 8, 2013. Adrienne Lawrence is the new operations and conference director for the Journalism and Women Symposium. JAWS is a national association that supports the professional empowerment and personal growth of women in journalism and works toward a more accurate portrayal of the whole society. Christine Layton earned her doctor of philosophy in plant pathology and plant-microbe biology from Cornell Univ. She moved to St. Louis, Mo., to take a new job at Monsanto Company; she is also engaged to Courtney James, brother of Megan James ’06. Emmanuel Osong Noumbissie is now married and has two children, Quinn and Liam, both under the age of 2. He graduated with his doctor of philosophy this year in epidemiology from Walden Univ. and started a pharmacovigilance consulting company, NEOPha, Inc. in 2010. Kimberli Smith O’Connell and her husband Daniel welcomed son Desmond Ward O’Connell June 10, 2013. Stephanie Cowen Eisenberg and her husband moved to Las Vegas in September 2013. She is now the executive producer of the morning show on KLAS-TV. She has been working in TV for the last seven years, including jobs in D.C. and Orlando, Fla. Laura Duncan, MBA  ’09 is now Laura Duncan, Esq. She works as an associate for Poffenbarger and Weddle and as an attorney for the Maryland Appointed Attorneys Program. Amy Duvall, M.S. ’13, earned her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Hood College in September 2013. Chelsea Henkel earned her master of public policy degree from Vanderbilt Univ., Peabody College of Education and Human Development and started a new job as a policy analyst with an education advocacy group in Denver, Colo. She also got engaged to Julien Ross. Jaclyn Stielper Pek and husband Kevin welcomed a daughter Lucille Luise Pek May 11, 2014. Congratulations to Derrick Harrigan, MBA ’14 who earned his master of business administration degree from Hood College in January 2014. Charis Loomer, M.S. ’13 married James Beavers July 4, 2014. They are expecting their first baby in October. Charis is a pre-school teacher at Monocacy Elementary School. Heather Holder Kuriga married Alexander Kuriga July 14, 2012, and moved to Florida on Feb. 4, 2013. Your class reporter, Melissa Barrick Estes, and husband Casey moved back to their hometown of Middletown, Md., just in time to welcome a son Adam Joseph in July 2013.

2005
Leslie Beck Hughan
lhughan@gmail.com
10th reunion, June 5-7, 2015

Class of 2005, we have a lot of news this issue. It seems like everyone is so busy. Yet again, there are new degrees, marriages, new jobs, babies, moves, but no extreme couponers, which honestly, surprises me. I thought for sure we would have one class member who clips a ton of coupons for impressive savings. My hope was that our class extreme couponer would pass along some practical saving advice to the rest of us so we can start saving for our 10-year reunion next year! Can you believe it? Those 10 years flew by in the blink of an eye. I am a little excited to see you all again, if you cannot tell. So, let it come as no surprise if our next few columns mention reunion weekend 2015. You turned to this page not to be bombarded with reunion information, but to see what our friends have been doing, so let us get on with the updates. MaameYaa Boafo earned a master of fine arts degree in acting from Rutgers Univ. in 2009. She married Jeremiah Abiah and they are living in New York City. You will currently see her starring on the hit web series An African City and this fall she will be performing Off-Broadway in LIFT by Walter Mosley. You also may spot her in national commercials. Jillian Kotmair Bright along with husband Andrew and daughter Juliette welcomed twin girls, Alexandria Marie and Josephine Lily March 14. Cassie Dukes and husband John Tagliamburis are preparing to welcome a baby in early December. Danielle Rodman Giannandrea, M.A. ’08, C’07 and husband Frank purchased a new home in Frederick, which was featured in a nationally airing Remax commercial. Jennifer Harmon got married and her new last name is Nachtrieb. In addition to being a newlywed, she started a new job as the coordinator of the Community Research Center, Fairbanks North Star Borough in Alaska. Recently, her job brought her to Pittsburgh, Pa., for a conference where she was able to catch up with former roommate Rachel Lubkin Zeminski, M.S. ’07. Sarah Hoover is in a master of business administration program for international relations at Southern New Hampshire Univ. Melanie Howell reported life is sweet. In December, she became engaged to John D. Grantham, whom she dated for the past 10 years. They are getting married at the Cloisters Castle in Pikesville, Md., this October and look forward to spending the rest of their lives together. Kristen Heisey Leiter welcomed a baby girl, Katherine, into her family June 4. Georgette Sirak Prichard’s husband received a promotion last August and they have since purchased a house. They are living in Spring Lake, N.C., near Fort Bragg with three very loveable dogs who make life interesting. Sadly, her cat Smudge, aka, Fatty Fat Cat, who lived with her and Sarah Robinson Rathbun in their off-campus apartment senior year, passed away. He was 16 years old. Sarah Robinson Rathbun and her family moved from Nashville to San Francisco in June. Tiffany Still Grant, M.A. ’07, C’08 married David Grant Oct. 13. Make sure you visit our online column to see a photo of Tiffany and her husband. Charlene Vestermark was accepted for a gastroenterology fellowship at the National Capital Consortium Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., which begins in August. Janelle Stevens Weddle, C’09 claims it is not newsworthy but celebrated 10 years of marriage with Jeremiah July 17. I say she is wrong. Congratulations, Janelle and Jeremiah! And now a special note of thanks from Jennifer Dunn Brown. “I was humbled by the love and support I received from my Hood girls when my mom passed in February. Whether it was a note on Facebook, a card in the mail, a phone call, a donation to the American Cancer Society or a show of support at the funeral, I was truly grateful to know I had so many people thinking about me and praying for my family. I am beyond grateful for my Hood family.” Nate Wood-Wilson and Ashley Nick Wilson ’08 were married June 21, 2014, in Brownsville, Md. As always, if you have news to share in the next issue of the Hood Magazine, please send it to me via email at lhughan@gmail.com or via Facebook.

2004
Chanda Gilmore
chandagilmore@gmail.com

Michelle B. Donati-Grayman
mdonati@arizona.aaa.com

It was wonderful for the class of 2004 members who were able to attend the 2014 Hood reunion this summer. Class reporters, Chanda Gilmore and Michelle Donati-Grayman were honored with the 2014 Outstanding Recent Alumna Award for their professional accomplishments during a special luncheon at the reunion. A special congratulations to Jennifer Smith Miller and her husband on the birth of their daughter Zuri Elizabeth April 23. Congratulations to Maya Laws on her marriage to Justin Barney July 11. Congratulations to Susan Nasr on graduating from the Univ. of Rochester Medical School in May and her marriage to Dr. Alexandre Tchekhovskoi, also in May. They now live in Oakland, Calif., and she is completing her residency at Alameda County Medical Center. Classmates Sara Lewis and Kitty Chotoo were in attendance for both events. Congratulations to Sara Lewis and her family on purchasing a new home in Montclair, N.J., in March 2013. Sara is currently coordinating a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant, Project LAUNCH as part of the Essex Pregnancy and Parenting Connection. Essence Jones, M.A. ’07, C’07 is now the quality assurance manager and hospital liaison for Contemporary Family Services, Inc. Lauren Davies Rosario has a new job as senior marketing analyst at PAR, a psychological assessment developer and publisher. Elizabeth Waggoner Miller and family are now stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan for the next three years.

2000
Suzanne Benson
suzanne.isabella@gmail.com
15th reunion, June 5-7, 2015

More babies, new houses and jobs for the class of 2000! Lynn Whelchel-Wilson, M.S. ’07, her husband and baby bought their first home in Lititz, Pa., in April 2014. Lynn is proud to announce her new full-time job as a stay-at-home-mommy to Farrah Ripley. Lea Meyer and her husband Scott welcomed a baby boy, Asher Camden Horwath, on Dec. 26, 2013. Kayden Horwath, 2, is so excited to be a big sister. Jennifer Lidie Babu is still at Verizon and was promoted to manager last September. She is also active in her boy’s activities and volunteers for Pack 39 and Purcellville Baptist Church. Erica Crispens Sowash is working as a registered nurse at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She works on the bone marrow transplant unit and finds assisting in the care and treatment of this patient population to be both challenging and rewarding. Katie Ellison ’01 bought her very first home in the Beaverdale area of Des Moines, Iowa, this past November. She was remarried on April 26 to Rob Johnson and they are expecting their first born son on September 18. She still works at the Veteran Affairs hospital as the only low-vision therapist in the state and was just accepted into the Regents Alternative Pathway to Iowa Licensure teaching program! As for me, Suzanne Benson, I recently left my finance role at The Johns Hopkins University for a position (working from home!) as director of marketing and business development for 858 Flooring, LLC (www.858flooring.com). I also blog about family-friendly news and events in the Baltimore/Maryland/Virginia/DC/Pennsylvania area on my “Baltimore Mom” blog (www.baltimoremomblog.com). I still live with my partner/one-day-hubby and three daughters (9, 4 and 1½ years old) in our Parkville home, just north of Baltimore and continue to keep in touch with other fellow Hoodlums, collecting news for the Hood magazine and networking on social media. See you next issue!