Skidmore College - Scope Magazine Spring 2019

47 SKIDMORE COLLEGE Seas cruise lines since September. A member of the ensemble, Nicole understudies the lead role and is happily singing, dancing and acting her way through the tropics until this September. Caitlin Mahony is an art conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Objects Conservation depart- ment. She is responsible for the care and study of art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Caitlin enjoys seeing so many Skidmore alumni in NYC, and hopes to see even more at reunion this spring! Gaëlle Mourre is a London-based producer, writer and director who creates branded content for Mandarin Oriental hotels as well as high-speed rail company Eurostar. Her short film, “The Feast,” starring Katie Leung (“Harry Potter,” “Strang- ers”) was screened at the London Short Film Festival and won Best Production Design at Underwire Film Festival last fall. Gaëlle co-wrote and directed her first virtual reality film, “Mechanical Souls,” a Sundance and SXSW selection. Austin Siegert and Karim Othman ’14 opened two businesses in Brooklyn Heights this year. As of Now Gallery focuses on emerging NYC artists and curators. A second venture, Brooklyn Only Foods, is a farm-to-bodega grocery and deli that carries artisanal products produced in the borough. Austin, an artist himself, believes the businesses make sense together “because people who want local, sustainable food are probably more likely to value local artists.” Tanner Kaufman Tanner.Kaufman@gmail.com ’12 Jay Brett earned a Ph.D. in oceanography last May from the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program. He spent six months at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., before starting a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Ross Lovern ross@lovern.com ’13 David Solomon is pursuing a master’s in environmental manage- ment at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in New Haven, Conn. Margaret Myers margaretgmyers@gmail.com ’14 REUNION ’19 Eva Hagan is director of artistic operations at the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine. She also fills in playing the “almglocken,” specialty tuned cowbells used for the orchestra’s Alpine Symphony concerts. A newlywed, Eva married Michael Tartaglia on Sept. 29 in Biddeford Pool. Jessica Strasser jessiestrasser@gmail.com ’15 Masum Rumi , an independent data analyst and consultant, specializes in data visualization and machine learning. Previously a data science fellow at tech training academy General Assembly, he focuses on predictive modeling and Python/SQL program- ming languages. He also shares his expertise as an instructor for online tech academy BAiNYC. Masum is familiar to users of Kaggle, a cloud-based public “workbench” for data scientists, where participants compete to solve statistical and machine-learning challenges. Jeannie Prounis launched her own line of jewelry. Prounis Jewelry is “a luxury brand, reminiscent of the Etruscan and Greek era.” Creat- ing designs based on classical art, Jeannie’s jewelry was featured in fashion magazines WWD and Martha Stewart Weddings. Jeannie became fascinated with jewelry making in studio art and art history courses and grew into a realization of her “true passion.” View her work at prounisjewelry.com. Melvin Alvarez is an environmental policy consultant at U.N. Environ- ment in Washington, D.C. Melvin coordinated outreach to institu- tions represented at Fourth United Nations Environment Assembly in March. He is a key contributor to the UN’s new policy document on food loss and waste in North America. Melvin’s senior thesis at Skidmore also focused on those issues. Angela Botiba is a data analyst for the Faculty Group Practice at NYU’s Langone Health Center. Her work helps the center monitor and evaluate the quality and safety of clinical care. Jess Dunning jldunning11@gmail.com ’16 Wai Ting “Winston” Cheung is a treasury analyst at Payoneer, a global online payment solutions company. Despite living several time zones away from most of his classmates, Winston continues to maintain strong Skidmore connections and develop new ones. Instrumental in launching the Skidmore-Hong Kong alumni group, he hosted a dynamic a reception for Philip and Marie Glotzbach during their 2016 Asian tour. Alex Hagney and two friends launched She’s Not Sorry, an online forum for women to share experienc- es of gender-based inequality. Alex and her colleagues want to inspire women to “defend our place and space in the workforce.” For more information, visit shes-not-sorry.com. Office of Alumni Relations alumni@skidmore.edu ’17 Rashan Smith is a software engineer at the NYC office of Merge IT Solutions, a global firm that offers custom digital and business systems. Although Rashan’s work is focused on cloud technologies, she also conducts research on international develop- ment. A mentor for young women interested in tech careers, she is active in the Black Girls Code program and ProjectCSGIRLS. Blair Warren blairshields15@gmail.com ’18 Interested in staying connected with classmates? You may be just the person to serve as office class scribe. For more information on this fun and staff- supported volunteer position, contact class notes editor Mary Monigan at 518-580-5617. Office of Alumni Relations alumni@skidmore.edu MALS Poet and teacher Cara Benson lost her partner, John, last year. After putting the home they shared on the market, Cara is acquiring a former church property in Grafton, N.Y. She welcomes hearing from other Skiddies at caralynnbenson@ gmail.com. We are so sorry for your loss, Cara, and send our deepest condolences. Lisa Chalidze spent three weeks in the impoverished rural town of Memel, South Africa, with NGO Memel Global (https://memel.global) . The organization’s mission is to eliminate the pervasive legacy of apartheid through education and employment opportunities, public infrastructure projects, sustainable agriculture and health care. Lisa arrived in Memel carrying 30 pounds of books she donated to a new school library. Before leaving, she spent three days on a camera safari. Judi Lerman judilerman@hotmail.com