Albert Williams-Myers ’58, professor emeritus of Black Studies at
SUNY New Paltz will be honored on May 4, 2019 at the Dr. AJ Williams-Myers
African Roots Library.
https://www.facebook.com/events/980720835472480/
Michael Brown ’63 is happily retired
in Arizona and winding down his involvement with a consulting group, which works with public space managed care organizations (Medicaid, CHIP). His wife, Sylvia, is retired from the University of Arizona School of Public Health, though continues to do some work with the Hopi Tribe in northern Arizona. They have been splitting their time between Tucson and back east, currently in Chapel Hill, NC, to be near their newest grandchild. They have been traveling a lot in the last few years, with the most recent a cruise to three ports in Cuba. Next up, an Alaskan cruise with their older grandchild (and his parents).
Art Hoge ’67 has been retired for 10 years. He spent
many years selling movable shelving and contracting work, building 20 houses! He is currently living in northern Georgia
and loves to travel the country. He has
three children and 12 grandchildren. Art stays busy by volunteering at the
Hunter Museum of Modern Art in Chattanooga, TN.
Ken Schmoll ’86 directed a production of “Tiny Beautiful
Things” at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven which ran for two weeks in March. It was a production that Off Broadway
audiences loved and so too, many Long Wharf audiences did as well! It is based
on the book by Cheryl Strayed and adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos.
Sean Reilly ’84 is living in
Rutland, VT with his wife of almost 30 years, Karen. They have two children, a daughter Erin
working in the DC area and a son, Aidan, attending and playing lacrosse at Ohio
Wesleyan. Sean is a partner at Northeast Sales Solutions, which is a
manufacturers rep agency representing companies that sell products to
industrial and construction supply distributors.
Kristen Westmoreland ’84 says “It was a busy year with my eldest
graduating from high school and heading off to college. He is a ballet dancer,
so we crisscrossed the country for auditions. He finally decided on the
University of Utah and plans to double major in classical ballet and Russian.
His experiences remind me of my years at Watkinson when so many of my
classmates would head off to Hartford Ballet each afternoon. At the time I had
no idea of the commitment and perseverance it took! I would love to hear where
some of their careers took them in the ballet.”
Gary Saklad ’85 is president of PIF Technologies in
Hooksett, New Hampshire. PIF is a
systems integrator of enterprise content management and business process
automation solutions. They focus on
paperless office, document management, advanced capture, electronic forms,
variable print that are both affordable and adoptable.
Kevin Lahah ’87 is
living in North Attleboro, MA. He is working as a Senior Project Manager for
NEI General Contracting- He has 3 kids Isabel -14, Madelyn -10 and Owen -5. He
is looking forward to getting back to Hartford for a visit to Watkinson.
David Nathan ’88 has started a talent management company
called DD Endeavors. It is based in New York City, Los Angeles and Nashvillle.
His company is working on developing talent across all entertainment
platforms.
Jennifer Drescher ’90 has founded a company called The Bolder
Company based in West Hartford. The Bolder Company connects
individuals to themselves, to each other, and to the futures of their
organizations. They combine fully experiential, improvisation-based
learning with grounded, outcomes-focused content to produce lasting behavioral
change. Committed to helping people build trust, courage, and levity, the
organizations they work with become collaborative, generative environments.
Their most popular programs and workshops focus on empowering the confidence, clarity,
ease, and power of emerging leaders and
executives.
David Ariosto ’98 authored and published a book – “This is
Cuba: An American Journalist Under Castro’s Shadow”. David now lives in
Manhattan with his family, and has worked for National Geographic, Reuters,
CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera America, and Brut. He is currently Executive Producer at
GZERO Media at Eurasia Group, and continues to make regular trips to Cuba as an
independent reporter and photographer.
Renata Roye ’98 is keeping busy with her job as a Global Buyer at Edgewell Personal Care. The rest of her time is spent being a devoted soccer mom to six-year-old son, Landon. When time allows Leighton (Husband), Landon (Son) and Renata enjoy vacationing anywhere warm!
Jill Rehm-Craine ’99 opened the Glisten & Glow store in Bristol, Connecticut. This new retail store displays the behind the scenes of Glisten & Glow! Customers can see their favorite polishes in person, smell and test all the fragrances/products in their nail care line up. Glisten & Glow online was established in 2010 and will be turning 9 years old.
Congratulations
to Jessica Johnson Hinman ’01 on her
new job as the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Pratt & Whitney.
Jessica will be responsible for connecting key partners and executive
leadership across Pratt & Whitney business units and functions to ensure
alignment and coordination of all internal and external communication programs
with a focus on creating a stronger Corporate Citizenship identity.
Emma Tattenbaum-Fine ’03 is keeping very busy! In just the last month she has written a gala script for the New York Theatre Workshops’ 40th Anniversary show, appeared in a short film entitled “Artist’s Apartment”, scripted a series of videos for Intuit shot by Refinery29, emceed a book launch for Queerspawn Anthology and much more. Check out everything she is up to at her website. https://www.emmatattenbaumfine.com/?fbclid=IwAR0ZOSbWi4XL1Zmn5YPAdPfhs6ekGVajpU3_ZbOppkGg7UClilr9Q1Uw160
Tim Wochomurka ’05 became a new dad at 12:46am on the 21st
of February. Her name is Sophie Lyn.
(photo labeled Tim)
David Bray ’06 recently accepted a position as an
account manager for Red Thread in East Hartford. Red
Thread helps organizations and their partners create work environments that
support productive, engaged employees.
Tyler Dornenburg ’07 started a new job as the US Partner for
LOB.com.
LOB makes it possible for enterprises to programmatically send physical mail at
scale. Tyler is also getting married this September in Malibu, California.
Maggie Blackburn ’11 (photo labeled Maggie)is working as a youth development volunteer in the south of Morocco through the Peace Corps. She works mainly on girls development, mentoring and life skills. Maggie returned to Watkinson in January and ran a phenomenal class- sharing her experiences as well as her path to the Peace Corps and ran a great activity comparing and contrasting our cultures (US and Chinese) with Morocco.
On April 15th,
2019 Kira Shaikh ’11 will be running
the Boston marathon for an organization called Dream Big!. Dream Big! is a
non-profit organization that helps young female athletes from low socioeconomic
backgrounds to participate in sports and physical activities that contribute to
their health, education, and overall well-being.
Anna Everett ’12 is a mediator with the Health Care
Division of the Attorney General, Maura Healey’s, office in Boston. She
advocates for consumers’ rights to healthcare. Her favorite part of the job is
collaborating with attorneys fighting the prescription opioid epidemic. In her
free time, she runs an LGBT women’s Meetup
in Providence, RI, in which they gather weekly to network and build
community.
Arjun Kapur ’12 (photo
labeled Arjun) After graduating from Harvard in 2016, Arjun was named a
Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. During his time
there Arjun had the privilege to moderate a fireside discussion with former
Secretary of State John Kerry.
Tafari Duncan ’13 is a software engineer for Capitol One
who volunteered with the company’s “Capital One CODERS” program. Pictured here is Tafari helping students from
a Staten Island school build mobile apps. ( photo labeled Tafari)
Congratulations
to Amelia Maggio ’13 who received a
research grant through the University of Iowa! Beginning in December of this
year, she will be spending about four weeks in New Zealand studying the longfin
eel.
Cory Wilson ’14 traveled to the Dominican Republic twice with Watkinson during her time as a student. Those two trips had an immense impact on her life. She graduated from High Point University and entered the graduate program. She will design her thesis around the Dominican Republic and the people there that are in such desperate need of help. (photo labeled Cory)
In Memoriam
Crystal Mathena ’00
Tracey Gamer Fanning ’88
Jacqueline Lewis Peters ’82
David Stoner ’74
Anne Aas-Salamenta ’73
The Shape of Things to Come
The Watkinson Strategic Plan Update
To read more etc.visit the Watkinson Story Vault
