Praecellemus!

The Official Newsletter of the LSMSA Alumni Association Volume IX, No. 1, January 1999

Features Almuni Updates

Class of 1985 Class of 1990 Class of 1995
Class of 1986 Class of 1991 Class of 1996
Class of 1987 Class of 1992 Class of 1997
Class of 1988
Class of 1993
Class of 1998
Class of 1989 Class of 1994  

Class of 1985

Clay and Teresa Carroll are the proud parents of three children: Elizabeth, Jeff, and Brandon. They are both attorneys in Jonesboro, LA.


Class of 1986

Dave Williams attended the 5 year reunion and disappeared shortly thereafter into the Army, where he studied Korean language and intelligence interrogation, but actually wound up playing saxophone in the army band. He's in Tacoma, WA but will be leaving soon. He gets out of the service in September, then he'll go to Korea for a year or two to teach English (the Dyer-in-Japan-type thing).


Class of 1987

Upon completing his Bachelor of Music degree in 1991 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, Shane Anderson moved to Austin, TX, and was married to Amy Brannon of Dallas, TX. He completed a Master of Music degree in 1993 and will complete the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin in the Fall of 1998. Currently, Shane teaches piano for a private piano studio in North Dallas and resides in Farmers Branch with his wife and their two children.

Alison (Schaff) Bowes married Todd Bowes in an amazingly glitch-free wedding on March 28. Angelic Rodrigue ('87) was stateside from Japan for the month, and was here to be the maid of honor. David Guidry ('87) and his wife Triona, as well as Dzung Hoang ('86) were there for the big day.

Gene Gutenberg works for Citibank on short-term assignments in the emerging markets (presently he is in South Africa).

Charles Ottenweller is living happily in "the district" working for stuffy lawyers and brewing beer.


Class of 1988

William Turner has joined the law firm of Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum Perlman and Nagelburg. He will concentrate his practice on matters of corporate, securities, and real estate law. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1995, where he served as Articles Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review, and his Bachelor of Arts degree (with honors) from the University of Chicago in 1992. He was admitted to the bars of the State of Illinois and the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, in 1995.

Julia Watkins-Davis (Arts '88/Loyola BMus '92) is living in LA [for the time being] with her husband Richard Davis (a NOCCA alum), performing, auditioning and writing music together. Though usually singing operatic repertoire, this year she has enjoyed a movie performance/songwriting credit or two and has been known to make money as a music editor for animated shorts. She worked on the last season of "Casper" and on Dreamworks' "Invasion America" and "Toonsylvania", though she tries not to make it a habit.


Class of 1989

Blair Whitney Barter completed an M.A. in the History of Art at the University of Texas at Austin in 1995. In 1996, she married Jack Barter. They are currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio where she works as a Seinor Technical Writer for Structural Dynamics Research Corporation. Jack has a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and works in research and development for General Electric Aircraft Engines. Over the last five years, Blair has become an avid runner. Last year, she ran the Chicago Marathon, and she is currently finishing her training for the 1998 Columbus Marathon.

Eve Gibson was recently released from the US Army Active duty after spending four years in Germany as a Captain in Military Intelligence.

Nicole (Candell) Landon just started Job-Sharing with another mom she works with, and she loves being a full-time mom, student, and part-time journalist! She's still at CNN, working as a news editor, and attending Mercer University working on her Masters in Elementary Education. She will student teach this spring, and hopes to be out of news and into the classroom by August of 1999. Rob ('88) is still working with Xcellenet, Inc. (although they were just bought out by Sterling Software) as a programmer and loves his job. Their daughter, Julia, will be a year old in September and is into everything! Nicole will be serving as the contact person for the 10 year reunion, so please e-mail her with any information you have! (including the whereabouts of your class of '89 president, Mark Chretian :)

Mary (Gagnon) Peyton married Robert Peyton in 1995. She graduated from Tulane Law School, cum laude in 1996. Currently she is a medical malpractice/insurance defense attorney in Metairie, Louisiana, with the firm Blue Williams, LLP. Mary and Robert do not have any kids yet, and instead take care of their 2 year old Siberian husky. Mary also rides Saddlebred horses and occasionally does portrait photography. Robert is an attorney and plays soccer religiously.

Kimberly Anastasia Wiley graduated from La. Tech in Finance and then earned her J.D. at LSU law center. She also graduated with an L.L.M. in international business at McGeorge University while studying and working in Salzburg, London and Sacramento. She is living in Winnfield now working in the trenches of the general practice legal field. She has her own office and handles many different types of cases. She is currently paying off her debts and then will be relocating to another city and hopefully a 9 to 5 job with a steady salary and no expensive overhead.

Kristal Wright is engaged to be married sometime next summer, 1999, to her fiance Tim. Tim started Medical School in the Fall of 1998 and Kristal has about a year to go before she graduates with a PhD in Medical Sciences. Her dissertation research is on a transgenic model of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Her interests are in the role of inflammation in AD, in particular the complement system. When she's not in the lab she likes to spend time with Tim and their puppy, Buddy, a golden retriever. She and Tim enjoy SCUBA diving in their spare time as well as watching their favorite football team, the Florida Gators, kick butt!


Class of 1990

From Kacy Anderson Burge: "Much to the surprise of many people, we are still working together after 3 years (Sept.23). I think it may be easier now that I don't have so much to learn about the restaurant business! It's not much like surgery, which I was doing when we met! After 2 unsuccessful attempts at staying somewhere long enough for a 4-yr. degree, I finally graduated from a surgical technology program ("scrub tech")-and moved to Little Rock 2 weeks later. This business is pretty exciting when you get past the "family-owned" part-that can be VERY stressful. Our customers include Jim Guy Tucker's lawyer, Joycelyn Elders, Corliss Williamson, & THE Mr.Dillard, so you never know who might show up. Little Rock, at least this area, is, oddly enough, like a small town. You know people everywhere you go, which can be good or bad! We haven't gotten around to kids yet, but we do have an adorable, spoiled rotten cat named Oscar, whom Jay traded for a ham (sort of) on our 2 week anniversary."

For the past four years Ryan Crawford has been asked to speak to a master level counseling course dealing with minority issues in counseling. He has worked with the Philadelphia Center (an HIV/AIDS organization in Shreveport, LA) as a HIV Pre/Post Test Counselor for more than four years. Currently, he is in his last semester at LSU-Shreveport and will receive his B.S. in psychology in May. He is the acting assistant coach for the LSUS Debate Team. After having worked full time at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport for 5 1/2 years he chose to resign from working full time to going to school full time. In the past year he has worked on a journal article with one of his professors (Dr. Georgia Wills). That journal article was accepted for publication last Fall (1997) by the Journal of Homosexuality. Last February he presented this paper to the Louisiana Academy of Science at their annual meeting in Hammond. He is currently the assistant instructor of PSYC495 (senior seminar) and the student manager of the Psychology Department's Testing and Evaluation Clinic. His future plans are to continue on with his education. He is looking to pursue a M.S. in Counseling Psychology at U of Houston and then go on to achieve a PhD in Counseling Psychology.

Yvette Delahoussaye is still doing cancer drug research and loving the West Coast, thought she does make it in for a LSU football game every year.

Angie Drobnic graduated from University of Texas at Austin with a major in Plan II. Since then, she's worked for the alternative newsweekly in Albuquerque, NM, and will be attending Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in the fall of '98.

Tom Kim graduated from Emory University in May 1994 with a B.A. in philosophy and psychology. He is currently working at National Business Group as a network systems engineer.

For the past five years, Jason Thorne has been working at Sam's in Baton Rouge. In June he was promoted to area manager over the fresh meat and produce departments. He still does a little bit of freelance programming for various people, just to keep him from going mad in the cultural Mecca that is Baton Rouge.

This past summer Niescja Turner taught her first college class, "An Introduction to the Solar System," at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and loved every minute of it. After teaching, she went to Finland for a month-long collaboration with researchers at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, working on solar-terrestrial physics. She's still working towards her PhD in space physics, which she hopes to complete by the end of the millenium.


Class of 1991

Merisa E. Aranas graduated from Agnes Scott College (that women's college in Atlanta) in 1995 with a BA in Classical Studies and Art History. She studied abroad in Rome, Italy through Stanford University in the fall of 1994. She graduated this past May, 1998 from Emory University's Public Health school with a Masters in Public Health in Heatlh Policy and Management. She is now working as a Post Graduate Fellow for the President/CEO of Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital.

Claire Curole packed her worldly goods into the Goldsmobile, slapped on some new bumper stickers, and drove off into the sunset in June 1997. She landed in Portland, Oregon where she is keeping the rent and the light bill paid through secretarial temping. Temping doesn't pay well enough, so she thinks she might go back to school as soon as she figures out what she wants to major in this time.

Adele (Babin) Hammack graduated in 1995 from LSU with a BA in mass communications and has since taken on management duties at the satellite lab where she has been working since a month after LSMSA graduation. Her remote sensing duties include the areas oceanography, meterology and hurricane emergency support. Future plans are to let LSU pay for a master's degree which might only take 8 years part-time! Married in July 1995, Adele and Howard have been located in and around Baton Rouge ever since.

Jeetendra Patel is a 2nd year dental student at LSU school of dentistry in New Orleans.

Mike Spivy graduated from Texas A&M in May 1997 witha M.S. in mathematics. He is currently working towards a Ph.D. in statistics and operations research at Princeton.

Tony Stanley had far too much fun at the University of New Orleans to actually accomplish anything worthwhile (outside of graduating summa cum laude in '95 with a BA in Anthropology *what was I thinking?!*). The graduation party was so wild that it obscured the next three years of his life. When he came to his senses, dazed and dreadfully hungover, he was receiving his M.Ed. in Social Studies Education from NSU. (People tell him that he spent a year in a history grad program there, but that is merely conjecture.) With the "GRAD SCHOOL PARTY TRAIN" coming to an end, as did a blazing addiction to nicotine, Mr. Stanley accepted a teaching position at, of all places, Stanley High School in Stanley, LA (not the accused's hometown, btw.) For the last year, Tony taught high school social studies, helped coach baseball ("what's the little round thing?"), and avoided lawsuits. And the kids all think that his guitar playing RIPS.

After graduating from LSU in May of 1996, Stephanie Thorne decided to go to LSU's Continuing Education Department for their Paralegal Studies Program. She graduated from there in May of 1997 and began working at the law firm of Matchett, Verbois, Futrell & Henchy in Baton Rouge in June of 1997. She still works there as a paralegal and just finished working on a huge plaintiff's case in the Civil District Court of New Orleans that has consumed most of the time that she has been at the firm. After living in a hotel in New Orleans for the better part of two weeks, she is glad to be home. And before anyone asks, no, she does not have any intentions on going to law school now.

Tiffany Johnson Wagnon graduated cum laude with a BSN in nursing from NLU in '95, and has been working as an oncology nurse in Baton Rouge since then. She's testing in September '98 to be an OCN (oncology certified nurse). She got married in June of '97 to Rob Wagnon.


Class of 1992

Sarah Neau graduated cum laude with my BS in Kinesiology from LSU in May 96. She went on to receive her MS in Kinesiolgy specializing in Exercise Physiology/Cardiac Rehabilitation also from LSU in May 98. In June 98 she took the American College of Sports Medicine Exercise Specialist exam and passed. She is not currently using her degrees. She works as a part-time Editorial Assistant for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and also full-time as a campus minister at Christ the King Catholic Student Center on LSU's campus.

David Rudy is in the Army reserve, currently on tour in Mannheim Germany. On the civilian side, he is still working for Sun Microsystems. He will return to the states in October.


Class of 1993


Class of 1994

Logan Boyd is the Computer Services Director for the Republican Party of Louisiana State Headquarters for the past 3 years. He is a freelance photographer for various campus newspapers, covering sporting events. He is the online newspaper coder for the Advocate Online.

Micah Luftig graduated from LSU with a BS in Microbiology in the Spring of 1998 and is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Virology at Harvard Medical School.

Caleb Martiny graduated with a BA in history from Lousisiana Tech in August 98. He is currently a communications/computer systems officer with the Air Force. He is stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ. working, checking out concerts, skydiving, picture taking, and having a ball!


Class of 1995

Michael Pruett lives in a cardboard box near Alameda in Downtown Los Angeles. He distrbutes copies of his paper on Henry Mancini, written at LSMSA for Dr. Findley's class, in exchange for black tar heroin.

Amy Sherrill is at Dell Computer as a Financial Analyst


Class of 1996

Danny Bougere interned with IDX Systems Inc. in Boston this summer, and will continue to pursue a degree in Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Cathrine Hoelstad is currently a junior at St. Olaf College in MN. She is a nursing and premed major, and has just finished an excellent cross country season, and will soon start training for the track season. She no longer lives in LA but has moved back to Norway.


Class of 1997

Lori Dupre' dove into the US Air Force shortly (3 weeks) after graduating from LSMSA. She is currently stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS and soon (November 21, 1998) to marry Chris Leininger of Norfolk, VA.

Arlana Lee is entering her first year at the United States Air Force Academy after graduating from the USAFA Preparatory School.


Class of 1998

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Praecellemus! The LSMSAAA Official Newsletter

Volume IX, No. 1, Januar 1999
Brian Beavers, Recording Secretary