Sept/Oct 2004

It's back-to-school time, so to recognize classmates who are hitting the books again, I'll begin with some graduate school news. Nisheeth Ranjan (nisheeth@cs.stanford.edu) is pursuing a master's degree in computer science with a concentration in artificial intelligence at Stanford. Nisheeth went back to school after six years at Netscape, where he had his hands in engineering Netscape versions 6.0, 7.0, and Mozilla. Douglas Post (douglas_post@yahoo.com) planned to collect his MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business. Theresa Soriano (soriat01@yahoo.com) graduated from Mount Sinai School ofMedicine in New York in 2001 and planned to complete her residency training in internal medicine at the U. of Miami School of Medicine/Jackson Memorial Hospital in June 2004.

Tamarra Strawn, JD '01 (tamarra@unckless.com) is working as an AmeriCorps attorney with Legal Aid of Western New York in Geneva on a one-year renewable grant. She's matching area law school students with meaningful volunteer opportunities in underserved communities. Tamarra was living with Rob Unckless, MS '99, and Heather Fiore ("roommates again after six years!"). At Jenn Thom's August 2003 wedding to Josh Santelli, Tamarra saw classmates Brad Marshall, Esra Acet, and Rob Glesmann. After opening her own law firm last year in Miami, Rebecca Cantor Amster (Rebecca@amsterfamilylaw.com) is keeping busy outside of work as well: she's pursuing a master's in marital and family therapy at Nova Southeastern U. and completed the Walt Disney World Marathon--her first--last year. Rebecca caught up with Chad Levitt at their high school reunion over Thanksgiving 2003. Also in Florida are Melissa Pinto Heller and husband Mike, who welcomed daughter Alexandra Nicole on December 20.Melissa is doing municipal bond work for the CFO of Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale).

Under the "footloose and fancy free" category, David Hollman (dah8@cornell.edu) quit his job at Sapient and planned to travel before throwing his hat back in the employment ring. So far, he's off to a good start, traveling to Mt.Marcy in the Adirondacks, the Presidential Mountains in New Hampshire, and Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Doug Herman (hermando33@yahoo.com) is living out his "childhood dream of being unemployed in Los Angeles," after moving from Connecticut in August 2003.Writes Doug, "I'm getting my retirement years out of the way while I can still enjoy them."

Caroline Giroux Ziegler (carolinevziegler@hotmail.com) is working in hotel management in San Francisco. Also in San Fran, Nathan Zaslow (zaslow2002@alumni.law.ucla.edu) is an attorney practicing immigration law. Dan Vené (danvene@hotmail.com) is a vice president at Thomson Financial in NYC.He keeps up with Hunt Doering, Per Heilmann, Ari Cooperman, Ari Chopra, and Nick Rizzo. In Boston, Nina Menezes (nmenezes@alum.mit.edu) works at Massachusetts General Hospital as a research fellow focusing on neurology and musculoskeletal MRI. In 2002, Nina finished her PhD in medical physics from MIT.

Idil Ustun (iu11@cornell.edu) is director of marketing and business development at Emirca Technologies, which offers technology solutions such as Web content and document management, e-business and intranet/extranet strategies,Web portal design and development, and application integration. Idil's responsibilities include global marketing strategy and public relations, brand and market positioning, and sales. She keeps in touch with classmates in Europe, including Celia Koukouli and Nathalie Picquot, and New Yorkers Nicole Pappas, Giovanni Revedin, Arthur Bruhmuller, and Emin Ozgur.

Wedding updates: France-Marie Exantus married Sheldon Jordan on April 25, 2003. Kauai, HI, was the setting of Mei Lee Gallagher (meipurvis@yahoo.com) and Doug Purvis's wedding in August 2003. Classmate Hanako Tokunaga was among the guests. The couple, whom Wente Kao, MS '98, introduced four years ago on a water-skiing trip, reside in Arizona, where Mei is a quality engineer at Amersham Biosciences and Doug is a process engineer with Motorola.Mei and Doug are also avid scuba divers, having made dives at Australia's Great Barrier Reef, in Bonaire, and in Curaçao. Kevin Wilcox and Kathryn Greenberg tied the knot in Washington, DC, on December 6, 2003. Kevin is general manager of the District's Café Deluxe; the couple lives in Chevy Chase,MD.

Nicole Smith and Samuel Chevalier were married August 10, 2003 in Westport, CT. They returned home to West Haven, CT, after honeymooning in Montreal. Nicole works for a family foundation and Sam is a consultant based at IBM. Finally, Dave Rodin, MD '01 (daverodin@yahoo.com) and wife Heather got married in Miami over Thanksgiving weekend last year. Classmates joining the celebration included Sami Lewin, Harley Dresner, Adam Chazan, Jesse Slanksy, Paul Massaro, Marc Schiffman, and Michael Lifland, MRP '98. Both Dave and Heather work at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, he as a urology resident and she as a medical resident.

Are you going back to or finishing up graduate school? Moving? Vacationing with college buddies or honeymooning somewhere exotic? Did you recently welcome a future Cornellian into your family? Your classmates want to know about it! Please pay your class dues (helps ensure we get plenty of space for our class column) and send in your news! -- Erica Broennle Nelson, ejb4@cornell.edu; Sarah Deardorff Carter, sjd5@cornell.edu.