Alumni Class Notes - December 2019

Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

 Professional Achievements:

Natalie Klar ’19  was named Emory Athletics' Athlete of the Week. 

 
Actress Jayne Atkinson ’77 was featured in TV Over Mind.

Jabari Owens ’19 is featured by the University of Chicago among five of his peers in the Class of 2023.

Heather (Hill) Foster ’87 started a new job as the Associate Director of Development at Sun Valley Community School, a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 boarding school in the heart of Sun Valley, Idaho. 

Dr. Sapir Karli ’07 has joined the Eye Surgeons and Consultants team in Hollywood, Florida.

Autumn Clark ’16 was selected to the All Northeast Conference (NEC) Second Team. Autumn and her teammate, Mya Donnelly, are the first Wagner womens' soccer athletes to be recognized by the NEC since 2015. 

Allison Findeiss ’10 was interviewed by Money Matters Top Tips Podcast with Adam Torres recently. She spoke about the journey to launching her business, Ally Bee Design. 

Carl Case ’11, the Senior Director of Sales at GRUBBRR was a guest on the Money Matters Top Tips Podcast with Adam Torres.

Lance Oppenheim ’14 will have his film, "Some Kind of Heaven," premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Lance directed and is a co-editor to the film, with his sister Melissa (Oppenheim) Lano ’08 serving as one of the producers. 

Brett Koolik ’17 is working on a study that uses his passion for music to work with young children, some of whom are on the autism spectrum. Learn more here.

Shelby Shenkman ’10 (Photo credit: Sam English) will be performing in Giselle as Giselle for the Louisville Ballet on Saturday, Feb 15, 2020. 

Danielle Gilbert ’04 spoke at Florida Atlantic University recently. In her presentation, "The Problem of Political Kidnapping," she provided an overview of the empirical phenomenon of hostage taking, based on her research and policy engagement on the problem of political kidnapping. Danielle is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and a fellow with the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at the George Washington University.  

Spotted:

Alumnus and former Chair of The Board of Trustees John Leech ’56  (center) performed the coin toss at the Panther football final home game. He is photographed with Jeff Johnson, Athletic Director (left), the team captains, and Joseph Walters ’95, Upper School Head (right).  John was inducted into Pine Crest's Hall of Fame in 1985 and was the team captain of the School's first football team.

Taylor Hamilton ’99, Jesse Tomalty ’99, and Avery Pack ’96 spoke with the junior and senior classes in the ICI recently. They spoke to students about their roads to entrepreneurship.

Friends from the Class of 1988, Debbie (Morningstar) Bernstein, Erica (Zeig) Chrissy, Tara (Monteleone) McGinn, Lee Pressley, Allison (Smith) Iosia, Leslie Perez, Vivian (Schneider) Sklar, Holly (Hudson) Bodenweber, Charley (Buntrock) Zeches, Natalie Umbert, and Jodie (Thorz) Dawson visiting Furthermore Wines,  Charley Zeches' winery in Sonoma, California.

Former Pine Crest soccer players Isabelle Turner ’16, Natalie Klar ’19 and Sophia Danielson ’16 met on the field as opponents recently.  Isabelle and Sophia play soccer for New York University (NYU), who traveled to compete against Emory University, where Natalie is a freshman starter. Emory won the match 3 - 0 where Natalie scored her ninth goal of the season and is the lead scorer for the Eagles.  Isabelle is NYU's team captain and is also having a terrific year, leading the Violets with 5 goals and 3 assists.

Katie Needle ’08 will compete on Jeopardy on January 9, 2020.

Marriages:

Ashley Hammond ’12 wed Lewis Gray in a private ceremony on September 17, 2019 in Southampton, England. 

Heather (Hill) Foster ’87 married Jesse Foster on December 12, 2019, in "a true Idaho-style puffy wedding!" They are joined here by Heather's step sons, Conrad and Bryce.

Babies:

David ’97 and wife Stacey Abeles welcomed their daughter Naomi Emma Abeles on January 6, 2020.

In Memoriam:

We are saddened to share that Katherine Spear '77 passed away on January 17, 2020 in Randolph, Vermont.