CLASS NOTES | FALL 2024 | 67 locale since they all turned 40. Tracy (Costaldo) Gardner’s son Dylan is a freshman at the University of Tampa, and her daughter Ally is a freshman in high school. Chris Hobbs and his wife, Dr. Ali Hobbs, have two children. Their daughter Caroline (17) is a junior at Mercersburg Academy, and son Christopher (15) is a sophomore. Chris was elected as a Pennsylvania trial judge in 2021 and is in the third year of a 10-year term. Hilary (Brown) Tabish works at McGill University with a team that is developing the first-ever master’s degree in health entrepreneurship. She is also an adjunct professor at William Paterson University in the Department of Public Health. She has three teenagers and lives in Madison, N.J., with her husband, Doug Tabish. Dare I say, see you at Lehigh-Lafayette? ’95 Bridget O’Connell, 1840 Sycamore St., Bethlehem, PA 18017. (610) 868-6605 (H); bmo3@lehigh.edu It was great to hear what is going on in the lives of our classmates! Jillian Blanchard shared that after 20+ years as an energy and natural resources attorney running her own firm, she started a nationwide climate change program called Lawyers for Good Government that works with states and local governments to expedite the country’s just transition to a green economy. Last year, her network of over 125,000 legal advocates in all 50 states helped over 700 state and local decision-makers implement clean energy projects like EV fleet transition, solar, wind and climate resilience projects. Her organization works with communities, with local sustainability officers, with mayors, with 25 state governors’ offices and with federal agencies to help reverse global warming. She noted it’s by far the most rewarding work she’s ever done. Molly (Hover) McCooey shared that life has been busy with the sports and social schedules that come with having tweens, along with the recent launch of her own business. After many years running corporate social responsibility at J.Crew, she started The CSR Shop to support businesses in building and growing their purpose and giving platforms. She also had a bunch of wonderful get-togethers with ’95 classmates/Gamma Phi sisters: Jen (Lev) Dreyer, Lizzie (Brode) Harris, Jules (Steel) Bing, Mollie (Moran) Sheppard, Karen (Sayer) McCarthy, Meredith (Thorpe) Pringle and Gretchen (Miller) Ake. Susan (Gardner) Belangee launched a new consultation and training business, Dynamic Growth Counseling and Consultation Services, LLC, based in the Atlanta area. She is working with U.S. and global businesses to help improve productivity, communication and morale among leadership teams and employees. And in other exciting news from the other side of the world, David Roberts has been traversing New South Wales exploring bakeries, watching kangaroos and serving as a locum on psychiatric wards. ’96 Jen (Crimmins) Keen, 17 Windsor Drive, Foxborough, MA 02035. (508) 543-5036; jen@keensense.com Hi, Class of ’96! I am finally hitting the last of the updates that I received last spring. Thanks to those below who waited over a year for their information to hit the press. I now need information for future Bulletins, so, as always, please send any info my way! Bob Fyrer is still living in Bethlehem with his wife and two sons, the older of whom just finished his sophomore year at Belmont University majoring in audio engineering and the younger of whom just graduated from Bethlehem Catholic and will be attending Washington and Lee University majoring in biology/premed. Bob is working for DuPont’s Nomex Business as the business development leader for the Americas in electrical infrastructure and auto EV segments, focusing on grid resiliency and expansion with eMotor development. He also has a stepson who is married and lives in Colorado with his wife and Bob’s almost 7-yearold grandson! He and his wife Carrie are looking forward to being empty nesters and being able to travel to see all of the kids! Kyle Yerk and wife Shannon welcomed their first child on Feb. 22, 2023. A girl, named Charlotte Jeanne. They are living in Stockton, N.J., near the Delaware River, where they have a small farm that they are fixing up. (Stolen from his email footer … Kyle is the principal client engineering/business technology leader in the Financial Services Market at IBM.) Christine (Stackpole) Joachim is the vice president for global mission at Environmental Defense Fund, where she has been for 19 years. There she serves as the chief steward of their matrixed programs, ensuring they operate with the governance, metrics, convening platforms and norms needed to achieve their mission of a vital Earth, for everyone. She is celebrating her 11th wedding anniversary, and she loves to spend time with her husband and dogs, hiking and paddleboarding. Elizabeth (Hotchkiss) Tong lives in Stamford, Conn., with her husband, William, and three children, Eleanor (18), Penelope (16) and Alexander (13), one wire fox terrier (Celeste), a green cheek conure (Bandit) and various fish. She is a tax lawyer at Diageo, a drinks company, where she has been for the past 11 years. She states: “Although I haven’t been back for any Lehigh reunions, I pass through Bethlehem each summer when I take various of the kids to summer camp in Reading, Pa., and the kids always enjoy the obligatory driving tour of Lehigh—in fact, my daughter Eleanor has it on her list as she will be applying for college this fall. I also keep in touch periodically with former roommates Melissa (Piehl) Knoll, Andi (Lord) Beausang and Roswitha Graser. I actually had the chance to see Melissa and her oldest daughter, Phoebe, earlier this summer as they paid a visit on their tour of various colleges in Connecticut. In addition, I was delighted to see Peter Navario (fellow French major) and his husband, Travis, this past fall. Peter moved to Stamford in the fall of 2019, and we haven’t caught up as frequently as we would like as a result of COVID, but are planning to do better going forward! I also saw Melissa and her lovely family on a trip to Maine, and Andrea stopped by for a brief visit to the eastern seaboard from her home in Alaska (unfortunately, I didn’t get to see her family as she was on her own).” That’s all folks, as for me, I’m looking forward to getting back to Lehigh a lot more now that my son, Harry, will be a freshman! ’97 Lopa (Patel) Zielinski, Madison, NJ, Lpzielinski@gmail.com Daniel Zarrilli will serve as Columbia University’s first chief climate and sustainability officer. He joined Columbia in 2021 as a special adviser on climate and sustainability issues and has spent the past several years in a consulting role at the university. Before his appointment at Columbia, he spent eight years serving in senior climate-related roles with the mayoral administrations of Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio. Dan also
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