Class Notes - 2000’s
2000
Class Correspondent: Sierra Hutchinson
Liza Rietz BA taught herself how to sew after graduating from Lewis & Clark with a sociology/anthropology major and then entered the fashion world. Reitz now has a branch of her line in Portland’s Nob Hill neighborhood. Her vision for her line is to keep clothes artistic, “made-to-fit,” and in small production scale. Reitz’s motto is, “Do it if it’s fun and work hard in the process.”
Jeremy Skinner BA is the new library director of Curry Public Library in Gold Beach, Oregon, his hometown. He previously served more than 15 years in the Special Collections and Archives at Lewis & Clark’s Watzek Library. During his tenure at the college, he earned two master’s degrees and coauthored three books and countless articles, exhibit catalogs, finding aids, and informational material. He also headed the steering team of Northwest Digital Archives and served as a member of many committees and organizations.
2001
Class Correspondent: Katie Clarkson
2002
Yumi O’Neil JD was elected president of the Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation for 2013–14. O’Neil works in the legal and regulatory affairs department at Moda Health.
Neil Weare BA founded We the People Project, a nonprofit working to achieve equal rights and representation for the nearly five million U.S. citizens living in U.S. territories and Washington, D.C. See Marriages and Unions.
2003
Maya Crawford JD began her three-year term as board director for the Multnomah Bar Association on July 1, 2013. She is an attorney with Legal Aid Services of Oregon.
Sayuri Sasaki Hemann BA can visit her three-dimensional underwater exhibit, Tidepools, at the Portland International Airport on Concourse D (home to international flights), where it is permanently featured. The work is dedicated to those affected by the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. A studio art major, Hemann credits Lewis & Clark with allowing her to explore a variety of interests before following her passion. “I especially loved taking drawing classes from Debra Beers,” Hemann said. “I took technical lighting and drafting classes, which helped me create my senior art project. I also appreciated being surrounded by friends with so many different interests. I would never get that from going to an art school.”
2004
Arts & Sciences Reunion
June 19–22, 2014
Class Correspondent
Diana Wiener Rosengard
Magdalena Cohen BA starts year seven at the Riverside County Public Defender’s Office. After celebrating her 30th birthday by hiking the Inca Trail with Cassandra Lydon BA and Jennifer Slaton BA ’05, she looks forward to new adventures and helping plan the class of 2004’s 10th reunion. She hopes to see you all there!
Diana Wiener Rosengard BA, JD ’09 kicked off January 2013 with a new career. After almost three years working in insurance defense litigation, she left the law and moved into Web technology. She now works at the Portland offices of Acquia. She works with Amye Scavarda BA ’07 and Grant Gaudet BA ’05, proof that you don’t need a computer science degree to work in digital technology. Her husband, David Rosengard, former area director of Forest, is in his second year at Lewis & Clark Law School, where he focuses on animal law. They live 15 minutes from campus with their housemates,
Joseph Reed BA ’13 and Nicholas Erickson BA ’13, and their four cats. Diana is really excited to see everyone at the reunion in June 2014.
Jessica Stern BA returned to Portland after a year of travel in West Africa and Europe. She is currently consulting in the arts and culture community and looks forward to reconnecting with fellow classmates this summer at the 10-year reunion.
Terra Tolley BA has used her sociology/anthropology degree “as a disaster anthropologist in the Gulf of Mexico post-Katrina and the BP oil spill.”
2005
Nathan Kabanuck BA was a contestant on the CMT show Sweet Home Alabama, a reality TV show based on finding love. He was one of the final two chosen to win contestant Kelsey Smith’s heart.
Parna Mehrbani JD, shareholder in Lane Powell, was elected chair of the trade names subcommittee for the International Trademark Association, a nonprofit membership association dedicated to the support and advancement of trademarks and related intellectual property as elements of fair and effective commerce. Mehrbani has been an active member of the committee since 2009.
2006
Flavia Arsenault BA raised more than $4,600 for a new venture on Kickstarter, surpassing her fundraising goal of $3,000 with the help of nearly 120 backers. With these funds, she plans to print “UCards: Letterpressed Micro Moments” to increase “unexpectedly positive and conversation-inspiring” interactions. Read more about the project on www.kickstarter.com/projects/flavia/ucards-letterpressed-micro-moments.
Chelsie Yount-Andre BA was awarded a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant and Osmundsen Award from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to carry out ethnographic and linguistic research in Senegalese households in Paris and Dakar. Her research explores socialization into economic moralities through language and food-sharing practices in transnational Senegalese families. This fieldwork will provide data for her PhD dissertation in anthropology at Northwestern University and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
2007
Class Correspondent
Aron Phillips
Merrill Maiano JD was honored with the Multnomah Bar Association Young Lawyers Section Public Service Spotlight for her volunteer work with Oregon Food Bank’s Nutrition Education Program. An attorney at Wyse Kadish, Maiano’s practice focuses on estate planning and administration. She attended culinary school and worked in the restaurant business before attending law school. Maiano volunteers periodically to teach program participants the skills necessary to make healthy and affordable meals in their own homes.
2008
Class Correspondent: Maura Walsh
Rebecca Clayton BA was inspired to enroll in a program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies to receive a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages after tutoring at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization in Portland. Her graduate studies included two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa, where she started a small library and taught English in a small village. She is pursuing a career teaching refugees and immigrants in Santa Rosa, California.
Amanda Philips BA, MAT ’11 qualified for the Boston Marathon after winning the Camarillo Marathon in early January 2014. Philips beat the qualifying standard by 43 minutes, bested the top male finisher by 14 minutes, and was 32 minutes faster than the female runner-up.
2009
Arts & Sciences Reunion
June 19–22, 2014
Benjamin Bateman BA is a campaign specialist at Indiegogo, an international crowd funding site where anyone can raise money for film, art, small businesses, or other projects. He focuses on promoting strategies and tactics to help the campaigns raise funds more effectively. Bateman has worked with some of Indiegogo’s largest campaigns.
Mac Cooper BA is illustrating for a long-form comic book project/graphic novel titled “White Knuckle Birthday (www.whiteknucklebirthday.com).
Alec Kerins BA is a recent resident of Denver, where he teaches 11th-grade physics at KIPP Denver Collegiate High School. Upon graduation, he joined Teach for America as a 2009 Bay Area corps member and taught 9th- and 10th-grade biology. After finishing his corps commitment, Kerins moved to Helena, Montana, and served as the director of education at ExplorationWorks, Montana’s Science Center. When not lesson planning and grading, he spends his time exploring the Colorado mountains and the area’s many craft breweries. He is excited to relive college life during his five-year reunion this summer.
Cassady Osterweil BA settled in Boulder, Colorado, almost three years ago after spending time in Australia and San Francisco. Osterweil is a business administrator and co-owner at Namaste Solar by day and an avid participant of Oregon Trail reenactments at night. You can expect to see her in full pioneer garb at her five-year reunion in June.
Shane Rivera BA is finishing his second year teaching math in Cleveland through Teach for America. After graduation, he spent two years doing missionary work in South Africa and Botswana with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is excited for the five-year reunion and hopes to see you there. And yes, he still gives out free hugs!
