2002

Happy summer, folks, and thank you for flooding me with news this time around! Jennifer Koch and Kate Cochrane are thrilled to announce the arrival of their daughter Augusta Jane. Kate gave birth to “Gusty” on Christmas Day. The family of three is returning this summer to Hanover, where Jennifer will begin her residency in psychiatry. Our class president Vanessa Green is getting married to Chip Sinders July 4 at Dartmouth. The couple met in Washington, D.C., more than three years ago. Michael J. Lee recently got engaged to Jerrlyn Iwata on the beach in Grand Cayman at sunset. Lizzy Carroll will pursue her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the urban superintendents program starting in July. She recently got engaged to James Jenkins (Davidson ’02), another teacher she met through Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. Lizzy reports that Sarah Myers is getting married this summer to Graham Pingree (Williams ’01), a friend of Lizzy’s from nursery school. Sarah’s bachelorette weekend in Deer Valley, Utah, included Tracy Wilson, the new head of school at the Sugar Bowl Academy in Tahoe, California; Katy Cuneo, a business school student at UNC-Chapel Hill; Lynnie Rudner, an M.D./Ph.D. student in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Ali (Piper) Fox.

Kelly Murphy ran the Boston Marathon on behalf of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and to honor her late aunt, who passed away last April after battling breast cancer for years, and her friend Sharon, who continues to fight the disease. She raised approximately $20,000, including corporate matching gifts, which is more money than any other runner in the program to date. She completed the marathon, her first, in four hours and 43 minutes and reports having loved every second of the experience.

Classmates to congratulate for their graduate school accomplishments include Adam Ziegfeld, who is currently finishing up his Ph.D. in political science at MIT and will start a three-year postdoc at Nuffield College at Oxford in September. Molly Miranda is finishing up her first year of business school at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where Henry Ford was in her cohort this fall. This summer she will be headed to Malaysia to work forjobstreet.com, the monster.com of Asia, with a couple of other Sloan students on marketing and strategy initiatives for the company. After six years in graduate school Dana Polanichka is finally finishing her Ph.D. in medieval history at UCLA in June, and will then start an assistant professorship in medieval history at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Asa Tapley has been living in Lima, Peru, since January, doing Fulbright research related to poverty and tuberculosis. In June he will start a Berkeley-UCSF joint program to earn both an M.S. and M.D. He is also in the market for tips on the Bay Area and potential housemates.

The class newsletter announced the launch of the Dartmouth College Class of 2002 Distinguished Service Award to recognize an alumnus who has distinguished him or herself through professional or public service. Nominations are now being accepted for the 2009-2010 award. E-mail Anne Delaney (asdelaney@gmail.com) or Saleela Salahuddin (saleela@gmail.com ) with any questions.

I’m excited for the next few months—particularly the June 20 graduation of Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School’s very first class of eighth graders—and of course the juicy tidbits I’m sure to get about your summer adventures for inclusion in the column this fall. Lonnie Threatte has agreed to be our next guest columnist. Send him submissions at lonnie.threatte@gmail.com, but be forewarned that he has reserved the right to make entries he deems boring more exciting with his own flourishes and commentary. Sweet, Lonnie, can’t wait. As if we’d expect anything less.

229 East 21st St., Apt. 16, New York, NY 10010; jt.leaird@gmail.com