News & Updates from Brookers Around the Globe
1960s
Richard Underdahl-Peirce ‘61 retired in 2012 after serving as a Presbyterian minister for 44 years in Minnesota, Kansas & Indiana. He now lives in Minneapolis, MN and volunteers with the American Red Cross and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance during tragedies such as hurricanes, wildfires & mass shootings.
1970s
Karl Young ‘71 visited with Ken Tan ‘71 and his wife Joanna at Karl’s home in Olympia, WA in Sept. 2021. “It was a very nice visit with a lot of catching up” (pictured above).
1980s
Stephen Anderson ‘82 is currently serving as the World Food Program Country Director in Myanmar where he and his team have a goal of feeding 4 million people every month. During Homecoming Weekend in October, he received our school’s Alumni Achievement Award. Read more about Stephen’s work here.
Tracy Schlachter ‘84 welcomed her first granddaughter in June and is “loving this phase of life!” This year marked her 30th anniversary working at HBO. She is looking forward to taking a month-long sabbatical in Florida this Feb., reading books by the pool and visiting spring training–”basically practicing for retirement!”
Kevin Kunst ‘89 is in his fifth year as Head of School at Evansville Day School in Indiana. He recently published an article, “New Wave: Understanding the Digital-First Generation of Parents” in the fall issue of Independent School magazine. He has also been accepted to present on the same topic at the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference this Feb. in Las Vegas.
Matthew Shields ‘89 has been living in West Yorkshire, England since 2006 with his wife Nancy, son Rowan, daughter Nora, and dogs Tuck and Ruby. He is working in technology.
1990s
Dave Metz ‘96 and Robbie Marvin ‘96 arm-wrestled earlier this month. Dave won, but questions surrounding his elbow contact with the table, raised by Paul Ciofrone ‘96, marred the victory.
Seth Kuhn’s ‘99 screenplay “Friday, We’re In Love” made it to the second round of the Austin Film Festival in Oct. He just celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary and is living in Orchard Beach, ME, working as a solution architect for a cloud ERP software.
Dave Marvin ‘99 has worked in residential real estate for the last 10 years. He is currently a broker assoc. with eXp Realty. He celebrated 7 years of marriage to Betsy this month and has two daughters: Nora (4) & June (1). They are expecting baby girl #3 this April!
2000s
Joe Rulli ‘02 just started a new job with Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone’s Administration, working on a new public safety initiative.
Matt Fumuso ‘03 moved to Denver in 2011 after spending his whole life on the east coast. He earned his MBA at the University of Colorado–Boulder with a focus on Impact Investing. During that time, he married “an amazing woman,” Jen, and they now have two beautiful girls: Ada (7) & Evie (5). They enjoy an active lifestyle that includes camping, skiing, and all things Colorado. Matt had the pleasure of returning to Stony Brook this past summer and was able to show his girls SBS and share with them some wonderful memories. He continues to utilize many of the life lessons he learned at SBS, “including imparting “Character Before Career” to my kiddos.”
Jason Ho ‘03 took a group of University students from Taiwan and visited NYC and Parsons School of Design this summer. “It was a great cultural experience for all of them because most of my students never travel abroad. I was also very excited because I had the chance to bring my wife Helen to visit SBS.” While at The Brook, Jason caught up with Will Lingle ‘02, reuniting with his ISP partner (pictured above).
Dan Anderson ‘04, wife Denise, and children Isaiah (3) and Lucia (1) are living in North Philadelphia. Dan founded a welding job training program called Reignite Philly that aims to offer welding education opportunities to those who typically don’t have access. Through the program, he also hosts fabrication classes that build projects for local non-profits while studying scripture and building communal resiliency.
Alex Massad ‘04 is an assistant professor of World Religions at Wheaton College. He is in charge of the religions of the world certificate and developing new courses along with establishing a vision for Wheaton to become the leader in evangelical and Christian engagement with non-Christian religions.
Hannah Powlison ‘04 is enjoying life near Zagreb, Croatia with her husband Matija, their two kids Ezra (9) and Olivia (3), and their dog Ulla. After 12 years in Zagreb, they moved this year out of the city to a nearby farm where they have enjoyed growing a big garden, harvesting from the property’s old orchard and grapevines, and foraging for wild mushrooms in the woods. Hannah is the Creative Director for their coffee company, Cogito Coffee Roasters, which has four locations in Zagreb, two in Dubrovnik, one in Dubai, and one in Philadelphia. They will soon open an eatery/cafe called Salo in downtown Zagreb in partnership with some incredible local chefs, focusing on reviving Croatian food traditions by sourcing excellent ingredients and emphasizing the farm-to-table connection. They are not back in the U.S. very much these days but welcome any classmates visiting Croatia to get in touch. “I know a few spots to grab a great cup of coffee ;)”
Nicole Spurlock ‘04 welcomed her first daughter Olivia Joy Andrews in July. She and Bliss Maki ‘04 get their babies together whenever they can. She is living in North Carolina with her husband, Doug, and works with a variety of large associations and corporate groups to book and plan their conventions and meetings.
Priscilla Addison ‘05, and her sister Kimberly ‘08, launched their ’57 Chocolate U.S. website in November: www.57chocolateus.com. It’s a mobile-friendly site created for their customers in America.
Lisa (Cook) Bastian ‘05 lives in Naperville, IL with her husband, Zach. They have 3 girls: Isabel (4), Julia (3) & Sophia (8 mos.). She works part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Family Practice.
Mike Fink ‘05 works at the Freeport School District as the Director of Instructional Technology. He lives in Oakdale, NY with his wife and two children.
Michael Hickey ’05 was recently in Dublin, Ireland in his work as a Scrum Product Owner supporting Liberty Mutual’s Global Digital Ecosystem (pictured above). Stakeholders and leaders from Liberty Mutual’s offices in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland convened to align work efforts for a multi-national joint venture with one of Spain’s largest banks. Mike lives with his wife, Betsy, and daughters Nora (7) and Kate (5) in Strafford, NH.
Mike Juhas ‘05 has been living in New Canaan, CT since 2019 with his wife Steph, daughter Shay (3.5), daughter Rory (1.5), and their dog Perry. He is the Head of Client and Optimization Services at an Adtech company.
Tim McIvor ‘06 lives in Ocala, FL. He has been a school psychologist for the last 10 years and the owner and founder of Schoolpsych.com for the last 5. He has won various school psychologist awards, including the Massachusetts Rookie of the Year Award and Nevada’s Outstanding School Psychologist Award, and was a nominee for National School Psychologist of the Year. He still meets up with friends from SBS, including a trip up to see Peter Song ‘06 and Jason Webster ‘05 this past summer (pictured above), and a trip later this month to see Tony ‘06 and Mike Borruso ‘07.
Kevin Howley ‘07 joined JP Morgan Chase as the VP of Branch Marketing Strategy this year.
Sarah (Kratz) Baker ’07 had a baby named Daisy Lane Baker (pictured above), born on Sept. 18, 2022. “She joins me, my son Forrest Gray Baker (born on 10/15/20), and my husband, Matthew Baker, and completes our family!”
J.T. Minogue ‘07 married his wife Hannah in 2015 and welcomed baby Jacob Levi in 2019. He has been at PGP (Professional Group Plans) for 15 years and opened up PGP’s first Florida office. He has lived in Naples, FL since 2021.
Lou Pizzichillo ‘08 is a pastor at Community Church in Babylon. He and his team are busy preparing for their Christmas services.
Liz (Koubek) Duggan ‘09 has a 1 y.o. son and has worked in the PR world at her own small firm since 2020, consulting for CPG and beauty brands.
Colby Esposito ‘09 moved to Huntsville, AL this year and opened a private practice for mental health counseling. This year he also was engaged and married to his wife, Mary.
Tshepo Malete ‘09 is currently the team lead for the Audio Visual Technician team for the Alexion Pharmaceuticals Boston site. In addition, he is part of a songwriting organization called Writing Sessions America, where he is developing as a songwriter, rap lyricist, and independent entrepreneur.
Valeria Naymark ‘09 graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with an MBA in Health Care in 2019. She works at EyeMed as a Sr. Manager of Compliance Monitoring and Oversight. Valeria and her husband Clayton have 2 wonderful children: Skyler (5) and Bella (1.5).
Rod Odom ‘09 went back to Vanderbilt University to get his MBA after playing professional basketball in Greece, Italy, France, and Russia. He recently started at Morgan Stanley in the Fixed Income Division in their Special Situations Group.
Danielle Spiliotis ‘09 is finishing up her second Master’s degree in clinical therapy. She is working at Thrive Long Island with Debbie Abrahamsen (SBS Registrar and P’10, ‘13, ‘15).
2010s
Tory Abrahamsen ‘10 is “figuring out life as a parent of a one-year-old.” He is the program director at Camp Spofford in NH and set a goal to sell out their youth camp by 2025, a milestone they almost reached last year. He sees a great opportunity to minister to kids dealing with depression, loneliness, and isolation coming out of COVID.
Esther Luoh ‘10 has been with Disney since January 2014 after graduating from Purdue. She has been with her current Studios Finance team for just over a year.
Jason Sutjiawan ‘10 is in Indonesia, working at Cargill, a U.S. company based out of Minnesota. He is helping run their investments in Indonesia in the Food & Agri sector.
Raphael Alterman ‘11 was recently Engaged to Molly Anne Warner. They plan to be married in Jan. 2024. Raphael received his MBA from UNC Chapel Hill in 2020 and now works in Real Estate Development for a family office (St. John Properties), where he is a Partner in Training. He is slated to start their Dallas office in Jan. 2024. In 2021, he won the Urban Land Institute’s Partnership Forum Case Competition in Baltimore with a team of other young real estate professionals in the Baltimore area.
Forrest Hull ‘11 got married about a year ago and started his own business as a My Eyelab franchisee at about the same time. They moved to Philly and bought a house about a month ago, “so it’s been a busy couple of years!”
Kara Lee ‘11 moved back to NY in 2019 after working in San Francisco following her time at Harvard. Recently, she was part of the Finance & Tech Panel for the Intercollegiate Business Convention, hosted in Boston. For the last 10 years, she has worked in the digital music space, combining her passions for music and math. Sitting at the intersection of content, strategy, and product in the ever-evolving world of streaming media, she’s held a variety of roles at the biggest music companies during key moments of change. She has been a program manager at Pandora, a content strategy manager at Apple Music, and is now with Spotify as a product lead.
Jon Wentling ‘11 and his wife, Maureen, are living and working in Paris. Their daughter will turn 1 in Feb.
Richie Armand ‘12 is in his 6th season with the New England Patriots as the Player Operations & Engagement Assistant. See our interview with Richie in the latest Bulletin.
Jerome Washington ‘12 started a general contracting company in NJ. He enjoys competitive kickboxing on the side and is looking to transition to MMA soon.
Kelsey Wentling ‘12 completed a Master’s degree in environmental science at UMass Amherst and is currently working as a River Steward to protect and restore the Connecticut River, the longest river in New England and largest source of freshwater to the Long Island Sound. Her work includes advocacy, community engagement, and environmental monitoring of the river and its tributaries. She points to her experiences at Stony Brook, participating in trash clean-ups and the Hurricane Irene recovery, along with her AP Environmental Science class, as providing the opportunity to participate in the stewardship of the natural world and piquing her interest in and love of environmental conservation. Outside of work, she traded a soccer ball for a disc and now plays and coaches competitive ultimate frisbee. She also organizes cyclists in her area to advocate for better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
Allie Damianos ‘13 is getting married this week and is the Director of Operations at the Damianos Realty Group.
Cem Hayurli ‘13 just defended his dissertation in Health Policy Management at Harvard Business School and will return to the medical school for his MD.
Gianna Scavo ‘13 is currently working at Sotheby’s in London, where she is a part of the Valuations Dept., helping museums, galleries, and private collectors across the globe manage their art collections. She married her husband, Elliott, in 2021. They currently reside in Oxfordshire, where they enjoy exploring the Cotswolds and all the English countryside has to offer.
Sydney Braat ‘14 and Andrew Daniel ‘14 were engaged in October!
James Drueckhammer ‘14 graduated from Columbia Law School in 2021, and has since been working for the Senate Finance Committee as a Trade Fellow. In this role, he advises Senators on international trade and investment issues. He drafted a report on supply chain resiliency in the wake of COVID-19’s disruption of international trade. In this role, he also accompanies Senators as they meet with foreign government officials, including Singapore’s Minister of Trade and Industry.
Ayan Mandal ‘14 is currently an MD candidate at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He published a book in September entitled A Stethoscope for the Brain. Check out our recent profile on Ayan here.
Margot Rashba ‘14 is currently a doctoral student in history at Boston University, studying dress and fashion history primarily in 18th and 19th century Britain and Scotland. This past September, she got engaged!
Ali Rothaar ‘14 is a criminalist with the NYPD and lives in Mineola, NY.
Justin Sinclair ‘14 finished his MBA program over the summer and started a new job with Con Edison in NYC on their Electric Vehicle team as the city pushes to get more EVs on the road.
Dietz Toennies ‘14 started as the Head of E-commerce & Business Development at the Hubert Burda Media company (BurdaVerlag) this year, one of Germany‘s publishing houses.
David Bishop ‘15 earned Bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and economics from Stony Brook University and graduated as class valedictorian. He then moved to Yale, where he earned 2 Master’s degrees and is working on research leading to his PhD in Economics. He also contributes to the department by teaching introductory and advanced game theory courses. “I take the teaching component of my job very seriously and try to emulate many of the great and caring faculty I observed at SBS.” This past summer, he visited UC Berkeley for the Behavioral Economics Annual Meeting, attended the 33rd Annual Conference in Game Theory at Stony Brook University, and served as co-organizer and host for the 2022 Young Economist Symposium. Next summer, he will be working at a large hedge fund, applying his knowledge to the financial sector.
John Desan ‘15 just finished a fun internship with NYC Environmental Law Dept. and will work in project finance, primarily renewables-focused, for Norton Rose Fulbright’s NYC office.
Erik Holvik ‘15 is currently the Senior Business Development Manager at a company in Boston called EnergySage. Their work connects homeowners with local installers to find the best option for their homes. He currently lives right outside Boston.
Max Pitsch ‘15 is on his way to becoming an MD and is in his 4th year of studies at Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria. He will be in Florida from Feb-June 2023 and invites any Brookers to connect with him while he is stateside. “I was only at Stony Brook for 10 months as an ASSIST student, but having felt and been part of the incredible community makes me want to go back in time.”
Emily Pius ‘15 has been working at the Pius Realty Property Management office, her family’s business, since COVID. She works primarily as the property manager, while also learning all aspects of the business and utilizing her real estate license by doing rentals and sales. She graduated from LIU Post in 2019 with a Business Assoc. degree and a focus in Marketing.
Deanna Bottomley ‘16 is currently working as a full-time graphic designer and content manager for OneBoat, a digital publishing company that creates destination web and magazine content for the Outer Banks, NC, Tahoe, CA, and Reno, NV. She and her fiancé are living in Jacksonville, NC, where Sam is stationed with the Marines. They are expecting a baby girl in January!
Kyle Broomes ‘16 is currently working in New York as a Wealth Management Associate at Merrill Lynch. He graduated from Baruch College in May 2020 with a BBA in finance.
Rosa Jones ‘16 recently graduated from Howard University with a Master’s in Public Health. During her time there, she had a chance to play for the inaugural women’s golf team in 2021. Upon graduating in 2022, she accepted a fellowship working for the Advocate’s Professional Golf Association. The APGA is a non-profit organization that works to provide top-level tournaments and resources to minority professional golfers. She works as the manager for both the youth foundation and player development program, coordinating clinics across the country for teenagers, primarily in the inner-city, and ensuring those in the program have the resources they need to be successful. She also helps out with tournament operations and coordinates the Junior Series. She is also looking to start her PGA certification as well! Her long-term goal is to start her own line of women’s golf apparel.
David Lee ‘16 graduated from NYU in 2020 and has been working as a business analyst at Samsung. He also DJs on weekends as a hobby and currently lives in Long Island City, NY.
Annie Skorobohaty ‘16 graduated from the Univ. of Delaware in 2020 and took a job with Merrill Lynch in Florida. She is a Registered Wealth Management Client Associate with Merrill Lynch holding her SIE, Series 7 & 66 licenses.
Charles Tankeh ‘16 attended the University of Hartford, where he majored in Economics & Finance and ran Division I track, where he set the school record for the 60m dash in a time of 6.96 seconds, giving him a 5th place finish at the 2017 America East Indoor Championship. He currently works for Aetna as an Associate Underwriter in their Pharmacy department. He lives on the Lower east side of NYC, where he enjoys all the city has to offer, from the MoMA to the Statue of Liberty. His hobbies include playing soccer at Chelsea Pier on the weekends and running a not-for-profit networking group to increase career and student advice in minority cities in NY, NJ, and New England.
Benjamin DiRuggiero ’17 graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 2021 with a BS in Foreign Area Studies. He is currently a Second Lieutenant stationed in Texas, where he is training in the Special Operations “Pipeline” to become a Special Tactics Officer. He remains extremely thankful for the values instilled during his time at SBS.
Vivian Jiang ‘17 has been living in Brussels, Belgium since last March and working at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. She coordinates social media for key NATO leadership on content relating to news and public messaging on the Alliance. In addition, two of her poems will be published in a digital journal in the new year.
Daniel Nye ‘17 was a project engineer on the Long Island Rail Road Third Track project from May 2020 to October 2022 (pictured above). He worked closely with the project manager on the $50 million project in the areas of track installation, safety, quality control, and environmental conformance. “This was my first project after graduating from NYU, and I couldn’t have gotten this far without the foundations that SBS provided!” He will spend the next 2 years rebuilding the Clearview Pump Station in Bayside, Queens.
Joshua Martin ‘17 and Mac Bohuny ‘17 met up in Boston in November (pictured above). Joshua is the team photographer for the Detroit Pistons, and Mac is an associate with State Street Global Advisors.
Ben Tom ‘17 is currently at Morgan Stanley, working in the Private Wealth Analysis Division, focusing on risk mitigation.
Michael Cao ‘18 went to Columbia University and just moved to San Francisco this year. He is working in investment banking.
Miranda Harrigan ‘18 is working full-time in Washington, DC and pursuing a law degree from George Washington University in the evening. She is about to wrap up her first semester.
Christina Manzo ‘18 graduated from Columbia University in May with a degree in Computer Science and East Asian Languages. She has been working at SeatGeek, a ticketing company, as a product manager for the last 4 months. She lives in the downtown Brooklyn area.
Briana Kilkenny’18 recently started full-time as an Environmental Policy Analyst for Onondaga County and has been working on writing policy relating to Climate Smart Communities. She also volunteers with the Central New York Land Trust and tries to enjoy the great outdoors of Upstate NY as much as she can.
Eji Mbanefo ‘19 is a senior Finance Major at Morehouse College. After a successful summer at Bank of Montreal, he accepted an offer to join their analyst program in their commercial bank after graduation. He is also launching a graphic design brand, JOFO Studios, which caters to the music industry, specifically focusing on artist branding.
Chris Swiatek ‘19 is currently a senior at the University of Warwick (UK), majoring in Systems Engineering. He is continuing to pursue his passion for aviation while working part-time at the national carrier LOT Polish Airlines in data analytics, as well as finishing his Private Pilot License training. He played 3 varsity sports at SBS and is carrying on his love of competition through triathlons. He recently completed a half-Ironman and is preparing for the TCS London Marathon in 2023. He is also on the soccer (football) team at university.
2020s
Chris Loo, our Co-Director of College Counseling, met up with alumni in California in November: Seamus Scanlon ‘19 (Loyola Marymount), Louise Lin ‘21 (UCLA) & Bernie Luan ‘21 (UCLA). (Pictures above)
Oscar Houseago ‘20 is reading International Relations and Politics in his third and final year at university and is currently researching his final dissertation project. Inspired to be a self-made entrepreneur by his high-achieving friends at SBS, he started a real estate business last year. Focusing on the UK student rental market, the company successfully purchased its first luxury rental property at the beginning of April. He has settled in with a great free church in England, carrying forward his incredible discovery of Jesus thanks to the SBS Driven Retreat in 2020. He looks forward to returning to New York in the summer of 2023 to reconnect with his SBS family after three years.
Leslie Kang ‘20 is a Public Policy major at Duke University and spent the summer working for NYC’s 2nd District to bring NYC agencies together to make parks cleaner. She also did budget policy work for NYC’s leading AAPI non-profit. “It has been so cool to see more students from SBS come to Duke! I love seeing more familiar faces.”
Martin Lee ‘20 finished his internship at London Alley and Netflix Animation during his first two years at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He has worked on projects with 2K Games, PGA/Tiger Woods, Atlantic Records, Sony, and Applebee’s. On campus, he is a TA in two film classes and a tech dispatcher. He also started his own company called MRTLE LLC., which houses production, apparel, and automobile business under its umbrella. In the future, he hopes to pursue an MBA and a dream job of directing at Pixar. “It all started at SBS with a yo-yo and a camera.”
Wura Obasanjo ‘20 is currently studying abroad at King’s College London. At Johns Hopkins, she is doing research at the Hopkins Bayview Stroke Intervention Clinic, looking at the impacts of physical activity on the cognitive recovery of stroke patients. She also just got her EMT certification and plans to work as a volunteer EMT once she is back in the States.
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