Alumni Class Notes

Class of 2007

Dana Agmon lives in New York City and works as an associate in institutional equities for Brown Brothers Harriman.

Paulo Alcaraz is living in Mexico City.

Melissa Amir-Arjomand lives in Chicago and works as a program manager for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

Sarah Anzia lives in California and is continuing her education at Stanford University.

Andres Arias is a financial administrator at the University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Division.

Samina Asghar lives in Chicago and works for the Federal Reserve Bank.

Julie Bannester lives in Seattle and is a Presidential Management Fellow in the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Drew Louis Beres lives in Chicago and works for Deloitte Consulting.

Sishir Bhattarai lives in England and works for the government.

Ross Biank lives in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Margaret Bogenrief lives in Chicago and works as the director of marketing and client relations at Last Atlantis Capital Management.

Christina Braganza lives in New York City and works in Newark, New Jersey for Rise Academy, a KIPP School.

Brian Burnheter lives in Chicago and works as an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Francisca Penna Bustos lives in Santiago, Chile.

Joe Costa lives in Israel and is studying for a master’s in Middle Eastern history at Tel Aviv University.

Celia Cui is continuing her education at ChicagoGSB.

Rachel Currans-Sheehan lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and works as a budget and policy analyst in the Division of Health Care Financing at Wisconsin’s Department of Health and Family Services.

Jordan Cutler lives in Chicago and works as a policy advisor to the governor.

Neil Danberg lives in Washington, D.C., and works as a program examiner with the Office of Management and Budget.

Aimee Dawson is a newlywed living in Chicago and is a consultant in the Public Sector Strategy Group at Deloitte Consulting.

Nicole Donnelly lives in Chicago and works at MAXIMUS.

Sheleda (Ruff) Doss was married on July 7, 2007. She lives in Springfield, Illinois, and works as a project manager for the development of a senior independent living facility.

Annie Dude (PhD) is pursuing her medical degree at Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago.

Sarah (McLaughlin) and Gene Emmans are living in the D.C. area and are working, respectively, as an independent researcher for the Brookings Institution and a budget preparation specialist at the Office of Management and Budget.

Cynthia English lives in Omaha, Nebraska, and works as a consulting specialist for the World Poll at SRI Gallup, Inc.

Ricardo Estrada lives in Mexico City and works as a research associate at the think tank CIDAC.

Rebecca Fitzgerald lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and works as a learning strategist at Odyssey Charter High School.

Erica (Ernst) Fleischer is a newlywed living in Chicago and is a Presidential Management Fellow working as an emergency preparedness specialist at the Administration for Children and Families (HHS) in Chicago.

Erich Fritz lives in Austin, Texas, and works as a senior financial analyst at Dell Inc.

Cristobal Gacitua lives in Chicago and works as a research analyst at the University’s Chapin Hall Center for Children.

Ian Galloway lives in San Francisco and works as an investments associate at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Nate Gannon lives in Washington, D.C., and is a 2007-08 Public Policy Fellow at LMI Government Consulting.

Cesar Ghorayeb lives in Chicago and works as a consultant in higher education financial management and strategy at Huron Consulting Group.

Kammie Gibbs lives in New York City and works as an associate in capital management at Swiss Re.

César Gomez lives in Venezuela and works as an assistant treasurer for General Motors.

Patricia Grey lives in Mexico City and works for Nacional Financiera.

Melissa Hafner lives in Boston and works as a program analyst in the Office of Evaluation and Inspections for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Thomas Han lives in Chicago and works as a policy analysis at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Ann Hanson lives in Chicago and works as a program associate in the National Policy Group at the Ounce of Prevention Fund.

Yuya Hasegawa lives in Tokyo and works as the deputy director of the Trade Policy Bureau in the APEC Office for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Jarrod Hazelton writes he is "definitely missing campus life...and [the Harris School] is a life-changing and eye-opening two years." He is working as an investment strategist with a hedge fund in Westport, Connecticut.

Olivia Herman lives in New York City and works as a program analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Cate Hight lives in Paris and works in Mission Climat (Center for Analysis and Research on the Carbon Economy) for Caisse des Depots.

Julie Hootkin lives in New York City and works as a vice president for the Global Strategy Group.

Anne Hurst lives in San Francisco and works as a test form coordinator at WestEd.

Min Joo Kang lives in Washington, D.C., and works at the World Bank.

Katie Kelly lives in Chicago and works as a budget analyst for the Chicago Transit Authority.

Delal Khairy is temporarily living in Columbus, Ohio, until she relocates for work.

Duncan Kisia lives in Brooklyn and works as a senior economist at Louis Berger Group in New York City.

Daniel Kreisman lives in Chicago and is working towards his PhD at the Harris School.

Lindsey Leininger (PhD) is a newlywed living in Chicago and is a postdoctoral fellow at Harris School’s Center for Human Potential and Public Policy.

Yu Li lives in Chicago and works as a financial analyst at Polsky & Associates.

Ana Leon Lince lives in Chicago and is working towards her PhD at the Harris School.

Christina Loukas lives in Minneapolis and works as an associate at Faegre & Benson.

John Maloney lives in Chicago and works in finance and administration for the state’s Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Tonya Mann lives in Chicago and works at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Dennis Marshall lives in Evanston, Illinois.

My'Ron McGee lives in Chicago and works at Resolute Consulting.

Peter McMahan lives in Chicago and works as an independent researcher for John Padgett, a professor in political science at the University.

Karla Mendoza lives in Mexico City and works as the deputy director of coordination with external organizations at the government agency CONEVAL.

Jacob Nelson lives in Chicago and works as the manager of Health Information Services for The Village of Oak Park.

Scott Nelson lives in Chicago.

Awo Osei-Anto is in the process of training for a half-marathon to raise money for research for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (LLS). “I am not much of a runner, but felt compelled this year to get involved in a cause that I truly believe in. If alumni would like to sponsor me, my link is http://www.active.com/donate/tntnca04/Awo.”

Justin Palfreyman lives in New York City and works for Goldman Sachs.

Nathan Paufve lives in Chicago and works as an associate at Quadel Consulting Corporation.

Mary Perushek lives in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) and works as a legislative assistant for the DFL Caucus in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Amanda Posner lives in Chicago and works as the internship coordinator for the City of Chicago’s After School Matters.

Alvin Quiñones lives in Chicago and works as a senior consultant in the Revenue Services Division of MAXIMUS.

Ben Reeves lives in Chicago and works as an associate at McKinsey.

Lisa Reynolds is living in Chicago and working as an analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Arezoo Riahi lives in San Francisco and works as a senior program associate at the Institute of International Education.

Julia Richman lives in Boston and works at Deloitte Consulting.

Harmony Ridgley lives in England and is pursuing a master’s in public health at the University of Cambridge.

Alex Ruder lives in Chicago and works for the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in workforce and economic development policy.

Melanie Shank lives in Chicago and works at ENVIRON.

Debra Stulberg, MD, lives in Chicago and works as an instructor of medicine in the Department of Family Medicine in the University’s Biological Sciences Division.

Kate Tomford lives in Chicago and works as an environmental policy advisor to Illinois’ Lieutenant Governor.

Megan Tulikangas lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and works as a program and policy analyst in the Department of Health Care Financing in the Bureau of Managed Health Care Programs for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services.

Rafael Ugaz lives in the Washington, D.C., area and works as an associate at Bechtel Enterprises.

Preeti Upadhya lives in New York City and works at Deloitte Consulting.

Felicity Vabulas lives in Chicago and is working towards her PhD at the Harris School.

Kevin Van Dyke lives in Evanston, Illinois, and works as a research associate at the Health Research and Educational Trust of the American Hospital Association.

Stephanie Waldhoff (PhD) lives in the Washington, D.C., area and works as an economist in the Office of Air and Radiation in the Climate Change Division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Mara Werner lives in Chicago and works as a policy analyst in the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Tiffani White is a new homeowner living in Atlanta and works at Deloitte Consulting.

Lindsay Wilhelm lives in New York City and works as a senior project manager in research and analysis at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Chris Wood lives in Chicago and is a Presidential Management Fellow working at the Social Security Administration.

Wladimir Zanoni lives in Chicago and is working towards his PhD at the Harris School.

Class of 2006

Kandie Berridge, MPP'06 recently accepted a new position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as special assistant to the first vice president. She has worked at the Chicago Fed for over a year as a senior business strategist. Berridge writes, “I work on projects and issues related to operations and the financial services we provide to the banking industry. I've been able to exercise virtually all of my Harris-developed skills but as of late, my cost-benefit acumen has really come in handy!”

Alaina Harkness, AM/AM (SOC)’06 is living in Chicago and working as a Program Officer for The Partnership for New Communities, a donor-advised fund of the Chicago Community Foundation.

Class of 2005

Nicole Lee-Kline, MPP'05 is working for United Airlines' Corporate Social Investment group primarily on the American Cancer Society Discovery Ball 2008. The Ball is chaired by Jackie and Glenn Tilton, United Chairman, President, and CEO. “I am also working with the department on strategic planning for the company's overall corporate social responsibility profile.”

Christina LiCalsi, MPP/AM(SSA)'05 a research analyst at the Chapin Hall Center for Children, writes, "I am working on a study funded by the Children's Bureau at HHS looking at the use of comprehensive family assessments in order to improve outcomes for families coming into the child welfare system in Illinois.”

Amanda Cage, MPP'05 and Emile Jorgensen are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter, Novella Sophia Jorgensen Cage, a.k.a. Novie, on Tuesday, March 25 at 8:28 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz. and is 21 inches long—a big girl for a little momma!

Class of 2004

Pushina Kunda Ng’andwe, MPP’04 has moved to D.C. from Lusaka, Zambia, and is a young professional in the South Asia Management Unit of the World Bank. In Zambia she was a research associate at Changa Management Services.

Ankur Sarin, PHD’04 has left Mathematica where he was a researcher to become an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India.

Michael Pih, MPP’04 has moved to the public sector in the Office of Management and Budget for the City of New York. Previously he was a research analyst at MDRC.

Class of 2003

Sara Puro, MPP’03 and Amanda Helin write, “With great joy and with the sincerest hope that our child may be one more redeemer, we welcome Elijah Helin Rosner Puro. Eli was born on October 31 at 12:19 pm. He weighed 6lbs 6oz and measured 20 inches long. Everyone is home and doing well. Nascent blog can be found here: http://elijahhelinpuro.blogspot.com/.”

Class of 2002

This fall Phil de Imus, MPP/MBA’02 and Yazmin E. Osaki, MPP’01 moved from New York City. Phil writes he and Yazmin “decided to relocate again. This time to Washington, D.C. I started today [October 3] at the International Monetary Fund in the Monetary and Capital Markets Division. Yazmin will still be at the New York Fed.

Class of 2001

Jill Corcoran, MPP/MBA’2001 is a Class of 2008 Fellow at Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC). Fellows participate in an intensive ten-month program to study key challenges facing the Chicago region. According to the LGC website, “The Fellowship year is leadership development at its best for high-potential people in greater Chicago's companies, nonprofit organizations, and government. It offers an unparalleled opportunity for in-depth learning about complex urban issues, and the partnerships and analytical skills needed to address them. Fellows make lifelong connections with diverse leaders that help them advance professionally and in civic affairs.”

This fall Phil de Imus, MPP/MBA’02 and Yazmin E. Osaki, MPP’01 moved from New York City. Phil writes he and Yazmin “decided to relocate again. This time to Washington, D.C. I started today [October 3] at the International Monetary Fund in the Monetary and Capital Markets Division. Yazmin will still be at the New York Fed.

Class of 2000

This summer Eric Diamant, MPP’00 left the GAO Washington, D.C., to become a bank examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Class of 1999

Joel Brennan, MPP’99 writes he has started a “new adventure as…the President/CEO of Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin, located on Milwaukee's lakefront. I have enjoyed all the opportunities I have had to work on great projects [in] the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee. Discovery World is a place of exploration, adventure, innovation and education, and I hope to help make it an even greater community asset and one that is accessible to the entire community as a resource and a destination.”

Class of 1998

Surge Sen, MPP’98 moved from the Chicago Fed where he worked as a risk coordination team leader to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in D.C. as a consumer financial services supervisory analyst in the Fair Lending Enforcement Section, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs.

Class of 1997

Beth Carey, MPP’97 writes that she “left the government about 6 years ago” where she worked as a public health analyst in the Office of Women’s Health at HHS. “I'm now a full-time massage therapist, and do some health policy consulting on the side.”

Kathy Im, MPP’97 has been promoted to Director of the General Program of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She is responsible for a domestic and international portfolio that includes the Foundation’s work in independent media, technology and its impact on users, and special initiatives. Kathy has been with the MacArthur Foundation for seven years.

Class of 1996

Beatriz E. Rendon, MPP’96 is the CEO of Education Support Services for the Tucson Unified School District, which serves over 58,000 students, 8,000 employees in over 108 schools. She is responsible for managing a $358 million M&O Budget along with all the business units that support the district's educational mission.

Class of 1994

Jonathan R. Will, AM’94 has worked for the Canadian government since he graduated from the Harris School. In February he became the director of operations for the Economic and Regional Development Policy Secretariat at the Privy Council Office.

Class of 1993

Rob McMonagle, MPP’93 is pleased to announce the publication of his new book, Caribou and Conoco: Rethinking Environmental Politics in Alaska’s ANWR and Beyond (Lexington Books, 2008).

The summary of the book states, “Step by step, this book shatters the myth that important environmental energy debates in the United States have been driven by forces too complex for the average American to comprehend. Although made up of a number of contributions, Robert McMonagle’s book makes sense of the underlying political and societal forces driving contemporary environmental energy debates including the critical case of whether to drill for energy sources at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.

“This book aims to answer two questions by examining four case studies of the policy-making process: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; drilling on public lands in the Western United States and in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico; along with a proposal to develop a commercial wind farm off the Massachusetts coast. First, what political and societal forces have shaped modern, contentious environmental energy debates in the US? Second, what do the findings reveal about the way in which environmental energy policies are made, about our institutions of government, and about the influences of the public versus elites in making policy? Dr. McMonagle finds that partisan voting in Congress is a critical factor in policy shifts, especially when symbols are used to define policy issues. Further, public opinion and the print media remain important factors in defining issues leading to legislative policy victories.” Read more about the book (Amazon, Barnes & Nobel)

Class of 1992

Bob Manogue, AM’92 is a career “diplomat currently working in the Economic Section of the United States Embassy in Bogotá. He is an expert in international trade issues, and his portfolio includes issues related to the free trade agreement between Colombia and the United States. Before coming to Colombia, [he] served in the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, where he worked on macroeconomic and money laundering issues.”

Wendy Weber, AM’90 has lived in Trinidad and Tobago since 1994. She is currently the managing director and a career counselor at Career Consult Limited.

Class of 1990

Steve Karam, AM’90 writes “Good news… I'm moving from the Middle East North Africa Region to the Urban Anchor at the [World] Bank leading the Local Economic Development/Urban Economics practice of the Bank.”

Class of 1985

In October, Kenneth Gotsch, AM’85 received the Bill Wise Award from the Council of Great City Schools at their annual chief financial officers meeting in Miami, Florida. This annual award is given in recognition and honor to outstanding urban school business officials who have distinguished themselves through services to urban education.