CLASS NOTES | FALL 2023 | 67 I was honored to be able to play the organ for that service and to talk with some of our classmates about the history of the church and the pipe organ. After a block party on the Hill, we came together as a class for our 25th reunion dinner at SteelStacks on the former Bethlehem Steel property. We were treated to a short talk by our reunion class award winner and faculty member Dr. Henry Odi ’98G, who spoke about changes on campus since we graduated. While we were dancing to the deejay, Lehigh President Helble came in to offer a short welcome to us for coming back to campus. It was great to catch up with many of you throughout the weekend, and I would like to thank Eric Kolasa, Carlos DaSilva, Joshua Levine, Jessica (Burne) Davis, Glenda Trujillo, Jamie (Lieberman) Jacobs, Brad Mauro and our Lehigh staff contacts, Stephanie Fisher and Amy Gross, for a job well done in planning the reunion! Alan Fornwalt reports he enjoyed the reunion while catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. He and his family are also excited for his son, Ben, to start his own Lehigh journey later this month as part of the Lehigh University Class of 2027! His sisters, Megan and Emily, are anxious to catch up with him on family weekend and home football games this fall. Christopher Miller wrote in: “At the end of 2022, I was named to principal for Stantec Architecture and Engineering, running the Philadelphia Workplace and Commercial Studio and being one of two principals running the Mid-Atlantic architecture and interior design practice for those sectors. This coming year, I will have projects wrapping up with the Pan American Health Organization in D.C., and we continue to support UPenn at the Pennovation campus in Philadelphia. The workplace market continues to be in a state of change. It makes for an exciting time, as organizations learn how they operate, how their people feel about being in the office and how to make the office a better tool.” Please continue to share your news, and I will make sure that it makes our class column. Stay tuned to the FB page and your email for photos from our 25th reunion! Class of 1998 Facebook Page: facebook.com/groups/ Lehigh98/ My Lehigh (Class of 1998): mylehigh.lehigh.edu ’99 Karen (Smith) Fischer, kms5lehigh@gmail.com Hello, Class of 1999! I hope this again finds you and your families healthy and happy. I’m so excited to report that Scott Meyers reached out recently! Scott shared that he currently lives in South Bend, Ind., with his wife, Kerry, and two boys. They met at Chrysler (DaimlerChrysler back then) in Auburn Hills where they both worked and went to school at night and have been very happily married for 22 years. Currently, Kerry is a professor in the college of engineering at Notre Dame, and Scott has been working for the federal government since 2010. Their two boys, Andrew (14) and Zachary (12), keep them busy in the fall and spring with soccer, cross-country and track. As a family, they love to ski in the winter and travel in the summer. And they also love attending sporting events at Notre Dame whenever they have time—men’s and women’s soccer and basketball and football. Scott offered that if there are any ’99ers out there who are ever near Notre Dame and want to see the campus or go to a game, they should definitely reach out. He would love to show them around and catch up! Thanks so much for the update, Scott! I look forward to hopefully hearing from more of our class. As always, wishing you all the best! ’00 Corina Fisher, (732) 688-3671 (C); corina_fisher@yahoo.com Greetings, Class of 2000! It’s hard to believe how much time has passed since our class last shared any updates. I hope all of you and your families are healthy, happy and prospering. Danielle (Linney) Wood lives in Wycoff, N.J., with her husband and two sons. Danielle was recently appointed assistant principal for Ridgewood High School, the largest public high school in Bergen County. Congratulations! Please take a few moments to contact me with an update about yourself or about a friend in our class. Feel free to send me an email or a text, or check out our Facebook page. I look forward to hearing from you soon! ’01 Abby Dawes Columbo, abbywdawes@gmail.com Now that the summer Alumni Bulletin arrived in your mailbox and you have my email address, I’m waiting for the updates to roll in. In the meantime, the people I reached out to all gave me great updates, none of which they consented to me printing. One of my favorite updates was “95% of the class is going to say the same thing … I’m exhausted. I have two or three kids who drive me insane … I wish I were back at Lehigh … at the Ho or Leon’s.” If this is you, I hope you feel seen. I am holding hope at least 20% of our class is out there thriving and making this world a better place with your love, your brains, your hands your beauty. #thisis44 ’02 Laura (Schwamb) Carino, lcarino@ att.net Greetings, Class of 2002 alumni! I have an update on two of our classmates, so let’s get right to them! Alissa (Thomas) Marushak and her husband, Derek, moved to Center Valley, Pa., two years ago so they could have more space for their two kids, Allen (4) and Anna (2). Their house was a bit of a fixer upper, so they’ve been remodeling. Alissa leads the product development team for Aetna CVS Health’s individual insurance exchange business. She graduated in 2010 with her MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon. Alissa was excited to make it back to Lehigh earlier this year to lead a discussion on overcoming imposter syndrome during the Lehigh Women’s Summit. Monica Malhotra moved to Aberdeen, Md., right after graduation to work for the Battelle Memorial Institute. They are the largest independent nonprofit applied science and technology organization in the world. Over her 20-year career, she has supported various contracts for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. She has put her chemical engineering degree to work doing testing and evaluation, chemical modeling and providing training and support to warfighters. She’s currently a program manager, managing a portfolio of projects that focuses on chemical and biological defense. ’03 Jessica DeSantis-Berg, jessicadesantisberg@yahoo.com Back in June, several of my Lehigh friends, my husband and I returned to campus together to enjoy reunion festivities for our 20th and share the campus and memories with our spouses and children. On Saturday morning, Kerry (Gertler) Alzate arrived from Caldwell, N.J., with her husband, Alex, and their twin 9-year-old daughters and 5-year-old son. It was an especially meaningful experience for Kerry since years ago
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