Profile: Class of 2005's Virtual Reunion

Edited by Caroline Lieber

“I gave a talk at SLC last winter and they have this nice new building and had pictures of many SLC classes hanging on the walls. I noted that we were missing and Caroline said she'd put up our class picture if we could get one to her. So, if anyone has a picture of our class, please send it to Caroline.”
—Heather Hempel

Thus started an engaging and very satisfying exchange with the members of the class of 1995. I share with you here the pictures and comments from this class. Let's start with Heather.

Heather Hampel: This is the only picture I have at work—my boys are the two on the left (with their cousins who are the same age on the right). Aidan is almost 6 (as he will gladly tell you) and in kindergarten and Gavin is three (and causing me a lot of gray hair). Here’s the 411 on me: I’ve been at OSU doing cancer genetics for the past 10 years since leaving MSKCC in NY. I’ve been married for 12 years and have 2 boys (I don’t think Keith has an X chromosome as he is one of 4 boys and his brother also has two boys)! Love to all, Heath

Lori Correia: Good to be in contact and get caught up with all of you! I am living in Boston, and have been for most of the last 13 years. I finally bought property; I love my place. After over five years of seeing patients, I went to work in industry. The last two companies you may be familiar with. I am currently working at Shire Human Genetic Therapies, Inc., as a Clinical Project Manager for treatments for genetic conditions. I have been there since August 2007. Prior to that I work as a Principal Clinical Research Associate at Genzyme on the Myozyme Program; Myozyme is a treatment for Pompe Disease. It was a great three-and-a-half-year experience. Now Shannon is working with some of the patients that were on my study! Small world!

Dawn Cardeiro: Hi all, Long time no see. I finally stopped moving around (was in NY, MA, PA) and have settled in RI. Recently joined Myriad (and get to see two of our fab classmates on a regular basis).

Dawn St. Amand: Hi All, I have really enjoyed catching up with everyone virtually so I thought I’d shared what I have been up to the last few years. I have been living in Salt Lake City, UT (no I am not Mormon and no I am not a polygamist: everyone asks so I thought I should just get that out of the way!) for the last eight-and-a-half years and have been working at Myriad Genetics. Over that time I have been an RMS, Account Executive and am currently the Manager of Sales Development (this is a fancy way of saying sales trainer). I finally decided that my stint in Salt Lake is not as temporary as I once thought so I bought a house just three weeks ago. I am in the thick of having new floors put in, the entire interior painted and getting packed to move. No kids, only a toy poodle (if anyone wants photos of Montana Andrea’s boys have thousands of them). This allows me the freedom to travel quite a bit. Since moving to Salt Lake I have been to Fiji, Bali, all over Europe, South Africa, many islands in the Caribbean and camping/hiking in much of northwest Canada and the western US. That’s about it and probably more than any of you care to know about me. It has been great catching up!

Marcy Jodah: Hey everyone, My 411: I have been in Tampa for ~10 years and for the last four and a half have been with Genzyme. Was doing ¾ clinical & ¼ lab until Jan 2008 when I went back to full-time clinical. Dating a guy from Long Island for the past two-and-a-half years—he moved to Tampa in July 2007. No kids at this time (unless you count Moya, the dog). It's been great to hear what everyone is doing. Would love to have in-person reunion. Take Care, Marcy

Judy Hull: Heather, I am really happy you sent out your plea! It is really great being back in touch with everybody! The 411 on me is that Dan and I are still married, we have two kids: Hazel is 10 and Dexter is seven. We bought a house in Dobbs Ferry eight years ago, about 10 minutes from SLC, which is great because this is my fifth Spring leading a small group discussion class for Caroline. I left MSKCC a few years ago, and after a couple of years playing pretty-good-for-a-genetic-counselor tennis, resisting calls to volunteer for the PTSA, taking GREs and thinking about another round of graduate school (aack!), I started working again as a patient care liaison for Genzyme Therapeutics. Our classmate Shannon Barrett hooked me up! I will be at ASHG in the Fall and hope to see you there!

Angela Muial Fay: Left San Fran, California for a Jersey Guy April 2005…now living at the Jersey Shore, Cancer Genetics, Married to Michael Patrick Fay June 2005, Daughter Michaela Grace August 2006. Liam Francis was born on May 2008; pictured here in September 2008.

Joy Larsen Haidle: Hey Gang. Derek and I have been married for 12 years and have Alex (nine) and Olivia (five). They keep us busy chasing after their activities. I now know where every ball field in Maple Grove is located and am trying to figure out the world of dance with all these hairdos and funky costumes. Yikes! I worked at the University of Iowa for eight one-and-a-half years in peds, adult, cancer, neurogenetics, connective tissue (the whole range) and then moved back to the Twin Cities at the end of 2003. I am only doing cancer now and really like it. I live about 30 minutes away from my family so that has been a nice change. For those of you that didn't know, my mom was diagnosed with stage-three kidney cancer last January. It feels really different being on the other side of the counter as a care giver/patient! She is doing well and her scans are clear at the one year mark. She is an energizer bunny! Derek now has a job that is about as difficult to explain as defining GC some days. In a nut shell, he is an e-detective and helps find info from hard drives, email, voice mail etc for the big legal cases. I am sure he will laugh at that description, but it is the best I can do and it sounds way more exciting than it is ;) Hope to see you soon!

Daragh Conrad: This has really made my day! Thank you so much Heather for starting this! I am still living in NC and still working at Wake Forest, but about two years ago I left the genetics department to work for the OB/Gyn department as they opened up a new prenatal diagnosis center which I now coordinate. I love my job and the people that I work with and especially love my flexible hours. I have been married to Cecil for almost 10 years now and we have two children, Ainslee is five and in Kindergarten, and Ryan is seven and in second grade. Basketball season ended last weekend, baseball starts next weekend and then it will be time for golf and then football, clearly sports are a huge part of our lives! As many of you know, Ainslee was diagnosed with type-one diabetes the day after she turned four, so that is another big focus of our lives. As is supporting JDRF, and now that I have everyone's email addresses I will hit you up when it is time for our “Walk to Cure Diabetes”. Stay well, Daragh

Lori Wells: Hello! Wow! This made my day too. I love to hear what everyone is doing with their life. I am married to Paul for almost 10 years now and we live in Mullica Hill, NJ. Claire is six-and-a-half and in kindergarten, and Grace is now 17 months old (this may be news to some of you: she is a happy and healthy little spitfire). When pregnant with Grace I did some contract work with Genzyme, but am now a full-time—stay-at-home mommy. I even joined a mother's club ! While I would love to return to a more “traditional GC” job due to the demands of Paul's job, traveling and the needs of the kids we have decided it is best for me to stay at home. However, I must say that sometimes I just have to laugh because through all my experiences raising Claire (who I think all of you know has DS) I have learned more about “genetics” than I ever could have in a job. I could go on forever, but I will try to share just a few things with you and as many have suggested I should probably write a book some day of my adventures.

Claire has been taking a “creative movement” class for four years now. This year in her class is another student with DS, two with spina bifida, one with William's syndrome and another with hypomelanosis of ito—somedays you just want to cry and others you just have to bust out laughing—such characters! This year Claire is in a regular kindergarten half-day and a self-contained class the remainder of the day. It is interesting to see how she fits into both groups of kids. She has a best buddy in the morning class who is a typically developing little girl who even slept over the other night. Her best friend in her self contained class has Hunter syndrome and another child has Angelman syndrome (and of course Claire complains everyday that this child pulls her hair). Getting to know all of these children and their families has been such an amazing experience. I have also become quite an expert on IEP's, IDEA and advocating for special needs children in the school, community and healthcare. I think I need to become a consultant Well, I have probably shared more with you than you wanted to know already, but I will try to attach our holiday letter so you can be bored with my life even more—ha!

Melissa Gabriel:Congrats Angie! I am at Genzyme in LA, married for almost 10 years with four-year-old twin girls. Here they are some photos of my gals, Ava and Ellie. Lori, Good to have you join in! I know you attached the Christmas letter, but since I haven't seen pictures of Claire since she was about rwo and none yet of Grace—do share! Terri, great to see that you came through on your grad school nickname! Is there a country called Rory Dolan's for my relocation? I have been having so much fun hearing about everybody. I think we should continue on with our own mini-listserv!

Dana Doheny: I just finished reading all the email catch-ups from the weekend, and I really have had a wonderful start to my day! This virtual reunion has been wonderful! Thank you all for participating!

Shannon Barrett: Okay, so I’m apparently the Kevin Bacon of the group (you know, six degrees…) So, I think I have seen many of you at professional meetings, but to recap: I left Maimonides in June 2005 to join Genzyme Therapeutics as a Patient Care Liaison (PCL), which is basically working with individuals, families, and health care providers (Debbie!) who deal with the LSDs for which GZ manufactures treatment (Gaucher, Fabry, MPS I and Pompe). At the time, I covered the entire Northeast. After a couple of years of working from home in NYC and traveling , I furthered my grand plan to get out of NYC when GZ decided to split up the Northeast and hire more PCLs (enter Ms. Judy Hull…my recommendation and a fabulous hire!), I opted to keep New England and moved to Boston last summer.

I bought a condo and am very happy with the change of scenery. I get to see Lori on a regular basis, our gal, Dawn C, is just south of here in RI and of course, I get the pleasure of Judy’s company on a regular basis. When I covered NYS, I got the chance to catch up with Andrea in Rochester and a meeting in Salt Lake City had me in stitches with Ms. St. Amand (not to mention a trip to Park City)! In addition, I am slated to be the Godmother of Angie’s so-called ‘bun”…a great honor for me. J I also have seen Mrs. Wells nee Reed in Philly from time to time…I look forward to her input to this conversation.

Caroline will be interested to know that I work closely with Laura Niewiadomski (SLC grad of 1997)…on a huge on-going project at GZ…we stole her from Chicago Children’s a while ago to work with GZ as a PCL, and she is fantastic. No particular man of significance to report on and no kids….but I am thinking of getting a dog, if that’s of interest to anyone. I’ve never been better and will also be at the GZ Med Info booth at ASHG with Judy. I will leave you with a photo of me at last years national meeting in Bermuda (pictured with a couple of Sales guys whom I love). If you find yourself in New England, let me know…I’m rather mobile. Yesterday was my birthday (I’m 28 if you were wondering!) and all of this was a lovely birthday gift… I agree, it’s a lot of fun to catch up. I’m very proud of all of us, and to echo Heather’s words, there is a reason that Joan thought we were the best class she ever had…because we were and are! Be Well. I hope to see you all soon!