CLASS NOTES | FALL 2024 | 69 at LCarino@att.net or connect on Facebook at Laura (Schwamb) Carino. Your classmates and I are eager to catch up! Stay tuned for more updates this winter! ’03 Jessica DeSantis-Berg, jessicadesantisberg@yahoo.com Thank you to everyone who has shared quick updates on our Class of 2003 Facebook page. If you’re not there, come join! You can reconnect with classmates and see occasional updates about Lehigh. Steve Vescio is currently working in heavy highway construction in NYC and is mayor of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. He entered the construction and real estate industries following graduation. In his community, he’s been fire department captain, EMT, on the Planning Board, and then on the Board of Trustees. Steve was the youngest mayor elected in Briarcliff Manor village history and is now in his third term. Earlier this year, his advocacy was successful as the state approved $20 million to improve a stretch of Route 9A. If you search Briarcliff Manor news, you can find all sorts of information on the impact he’s had on his community. I’ve also learned that Erin (Pokrzywa) Cusmano went on to earn a master’s degree in school psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She briefly moved to Virginia before meeting her husband and settling in southern Maryland. Erin is in her 18th year working as a school psychologist in Charles County. She has two bonus children who are grown. She spends most of her evenings and weekends on the sidelines of baseball and soccer fields cheering on her two youngest boys. That’s it for this edition. See you next time—or on Facebook! ’04 Lloyd Henderson, lloydjr04@gmail.com ’05 Jessi (Schimmel) McMullan, jessi.mcmullan@alum.lehigh.edu I recently caught up with Maura (Kutner) Walters and Michelle Paitich, who have stayed close and are doing amazing things. Maura said, “After graduating Lehigh with a BA in journalism, I landed my dream job at Redbook magazine. I worked in national media for more than a decade at publications like Harper’s Bazaar, NY Magazine and Conde Nast Traveler before starting my company, Ignite Studio. We’re a full-service marketing firm bringing big-brand energy to small female-founded businesses. I have another side of my business that I’m extremely passionate about: mentoring female founders. I run a number of group mentoring programs throughout the year, write a column for Inc. magazine about being self-employed, and speak regularly on panels about how women can successfully work for themselves. “I still keep in touch with a number of women from my Alpha Phi pledge class, and I’m still close with my freshman year roommate, [Michelle]! We met on a tour in 2001 before school started and decided to room together. Through different sororities, activities and friend groups during our four years at Lehigh, we managed to stay great friends. More than 20 years later, despite living on opposite coasts, we’re still very tight. “I live in Port Washington, N.Y., with my husband, David, our two little girls, Vivienne (8) and Maeve (4), and an adorable pug named Penny.” Michelle said she “moved to NYC right after Lehigh for four years. In 2012, moved to San Francisco to get my MBA at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. After that, moved to Hong Kong for a few months before coming back to San Francisco when I moved into partnerships in the technology sector. I spent several years at Salesforce and then Twilio leading partner teams. Seven months ago, I started at 8x8 (a publicly traded business communications software company) as global channel chief, where I’m responsible for 8x8’s go-to-market strategy with a global network of thousands of channel and resell partners. “I live in Marin County with my husband and two kids. Living in Marin County is amazing for getting outdoors, and I completed a 30K trail run in the winter that started and ended at Stinson Beach.” They recently partnered on a pro bono project for a nonprofit called HEROES (heroesland.org/), an organization providing free HIV resources and education to Black communities in the rural South. Michelle explained, “My sister-in-law, Lisa Lomax (then Biagiotti), had filmed a documentary about HEROES years ago called ‘Deepsouth,’ and introduced me to Monica [the group’s founder] to help her build a business plan and fundraise. I reached out to Maura because I know she’s a very talented storyteller, and she also looped in other women to support the project. “As a result of our engagement, Monica was able to secure funding and buy the land to create the community center.” Thanks to you both for being the incredible women you are and making such a positive impact on the world. ’06 Kevin Frost, Kevin.Frost@alum.lehigh.edu In this Olympics year, we had a few classmates check in with athletic updates. Kimberly Zubris sent the following message: “Earlier this year, I was training with the U.S. national team in track cycling during a selection camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Then in July I won three championship titles in the Omnium, Points Race and Elimination Race at the USA Cycling Elite Track Cycling National Championships held in Los Angeles. I’ll be continuing to train for the World Championship this coming October.” We will be rooting you on at the Worlds! Congratulations to Ben Bishop and John Stout! They paired up in July to win the 61st Invitational at Westbrook Country Club in Mansfield, Ohio. The Invitational is a member-guest golf tournament where they beat out 75 other teams to win the championship over two days, culminating in a six-hole final shoot-out. Not bad for a couple former Lehigh wrestlers! Winning a member-guest is something they’ll remember forever. This is a golf-friendly column, so please continue to send in your golf accolades or recaps of exciting trips around the world. I won’t give the previously threatened hole-byhole breakdown of the Pebble Beach trip that Justin Shady and I took in May, except to say it was an excellent trip. We played Pebble twice, plus Spyglass and Cal Club. And enjoyed some pre-golf time in wine country with Kai McFarland and dinner in Tiburon with Kai and Fred Nytko. And with this in mind, I’d like to start a Class of 2006 golf list. Many of us are fortunate to have access to courses and would be willing to host classmates traveling in their area. Email me if you want to be included. I’ll build a Google Sheet to share with names, locations and contact info. In the meantime, email me if you’re traveling through the seacoast of New Hampshire. Adam Stokar checked in with this update: “In November 2023, I launched Talent Llama to help companies overwhelmed with job applications. Our platform uses conversational AI to conduct
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