2006 and 2007 Graduates

• Lauren Banks works in a program that helps teens transition into socially adjusted adults.  She continues to do art and animation.
• Kristen Bergquist is a laboratory and research specialist in the Department of Neurology at UVA.
• Emily Burke worked for nine months as a medical assistant in a dialysis center, before enrolling in the nursing program at Marymount University.
• Cara Cherry, Susan O'Brien, Sarah Mouri, and Jennifer Summerfield are in veterinary school.
• Kendra Hawkins is in medical school in Texas.
• Suzy Harvey is in a Ph.D. program in Biomathematics at NC State University.  She is a teaching assistant for the introductory statistics course that serves more than 700 students each semester.  Suzy invites students interested in biomathematics to contact her (ask Dr. Fink for Suzy's email address).
• Jennifer Jones is teaching middle school science in Tennessee, and Nicole Traylor is in a graduate program in teaching at UNC Charlotte. 
• Stephanie Scherer teaches riding.  Denise Uribe spent a year working for Blue Ridge Equine Clinic in Charlottesville, then worked as a barn manager and riding instructor in Staunton, and is now back in school taking more science classes.

Graduate School and Research

• Amanda Watts '05 is in the graduate program in Forensics at George Washington University.
• Kelsey Holzman '05 completed her M.S. degree in Biology at Old Dominion University.  She worked on rat snakes with a mutation that causes them to lack scales.
• Stacey Maddox '04 entered the Microbiology and Immunology Pre-Medical Certificate Program at the Medical College of Virginia in Fall 2007.  Stacey previously worked in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics at the University of Virginia.
• Kelly Robinson '04 completed her M.S. in Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries at the University of Florida, and is now in a marine science Ph.D. program at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab of the University of South Alabama.  Kelly's research will focus on the effects of climate change on plankton food web dynamics..  Between her SBC graduation and entering graduate school, Kelly completed a 10 week research apprenticeship at the Friday Harbor Laboratory of the University of Washington.
• Biology alumnae from 2003 who entered Ph.D. programs are Courtney Arnott Silverthorn (melanoma metastasis and resistance to radiation therapy, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine ), Laurel Speilman Rodgers (heart valve development, Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Arizona, anticipated completion date December 2008), Rita Thomas (Molecular Cell Biology, Washington University, anticipated completion date March 2009), Stephanie Jefferson (spinal cord injury rehabilitation, Neuroscience, University of Florida), and Julia Schmitz (Microbiology, University of Alabama).   Courtney has published two papers and presented her work at a research congress in The Netherlands.  Julia is first author on a paper in The Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, coauthor on another paper in Gastroenterology, and will begin a postdoctoral fellowship in Balfour Sartor's lab at UNC Chapel Hill in August. Laurel is first author in a paper entitled "Differential growth and multicellular villi direct proepicardial translocation to the developing mouse heart" published in Developmental Dynamics.  Rita received an NIH predoctoral fellowship, and her research is characterizing the function of a mammalian non-coding RNA in the metabolic stress response.
• Laura Reither (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology '02) is working on poliovirus in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.
• Brandi Whitley Hilder (B&MB 1999) completed a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, focusing on breast and ovarian cancer invasion and metastasis.  She is now at Cato Research in North Carolina, conducting drug development trials.
• Jennifer Lear '99 completed an M.S. in Marine Science at Old Dominion University, and is continuing to do research on spiny lobsters for her Ph.D. 
• Rachel Cooper Gray '96 is a lab manager for a research project evaluating neuroprotectants in nonhuman primates, at the US Army Medical Research Institute for chemical Defense (USAMRICD) in Edgewood MD.  She has authored a paper in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, and in 2005 she received her Masters in Biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University.
• Gigi Ostrow '96 is a postdoc in the Genomics Division of the University of Florida's Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR).  Gigi is the Scientific Coordinator for the Gene Expression - Microarray Core group.

Conservation and Environment

• Following graduation, Jenn Wiley '06 spent six months in Alaska as a Fisheries Observer with Alaskan Observers, Inc. 
• Hailey Hickman Hermosa '03 completed an M.S. degree in Environmental Science from Old Dominion University.
• Angela Browning Montgomery '01worked on watershed management plans for the Alabama Coastal Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization.
• Lynne Boyd '99 graduated from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment in 2003 with Master of Environmental Management and Master of Forestry degrees.  She spent a year and a half as a Conservation Management Apprentice at the Jones Ecological Research Center in Georgia, before working for the Lee County, Florida, Department of Parks and Recreation.
• Fionna Matheson '98 is a commissioned officer in the NOAA Corps.  She is a member of the Photogrammetry team of the Protected Resources Division at NOAA's Southwest fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California.  Her group focuses on applied research in marine mammal management, and she has been collecting data on gray whales during their migration along the California coast.  Before this billet, Fionna completed a tour of duty on the ship Ka'imimoana, which had her at sea about 300 days a year, cruising from Mexico to the Marshall Islands.

Health Care Professions

• Kaba Berhanu '97 completed a four year residency in Internal Medicine / Family practice at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, followed by a year of hospitalist work at Washington Hospital Center in D.C.  Kaba is now back in Norfolk as a hospitalist.
•  Other recent M.D.s include Nicole Kelleher Linkonis '97 (received her M.D. from the Medical College of Virginia and entered a radiology residency there),  Brieanne Vogler Midura (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology '01, George Washington University Medical School with a pediatrics residency), and Rachel Bratlie '99 (Math major, Biology minor, a resident in psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina).
• Other alumnae physicians include Margaret M. Sanders '71 (radiology), Erin Katz '91 (urology), Gwen Fisher Glew (pediatrics, conducting research on autism and cerebral palsy at the University of Washington), Ashley Celis Cavalier '93 (dermatology), Molly Becherer Hasty '95 BMB (pediatric emergency medicine), Laura Lee Rihl Joiner '96 (Biology minor, ob-gyn), Jenn Swisher Lynes '97 BMB (pediatrics and obstetrics), Kristy Winstead '98.
• Tamara Himelright '05 is in the graduate program in Physical Therapy at Shenandoah University.  Other physical therapists include Annette Dusenbury '97 (UVA HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital) and Wendy Stevenson '93.
• Darelle Pfeiffer '98 is a podiatrist with Ocean County Foot and Ankle surgical Associates (NJ). 
• Marie Bandy Walls '96 is a dentist.  As of fall 2006 she was heading to Germany for three years where her husband is an army orthodontist.
• Jenny Smith Hargett '03 completed her M.S. in genetic counseling at the University of Cincinnati and is a genetic counselor in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Michi Krohn '03 is in a chiropractic program in California.  Michelle Dunn '02 is in a doctorate program at Northwestern College of Chiropractic.  Signee Hoffman Swartley '91 is a chiropractor in California.
• Alumnae pursuing nursing careers include Susie Gross Leroy '96 (Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville), Katie Wood Rea '01 (ICU, Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville), Anna Yankee '03, and Charlotte Higgins '98 (medical surgery, Duke University Hospital).

Veterinary Medicine

• Natasha Ungerer '02 completed her DVM in 2006 at NC State and is working in a small animal practice in Richmond VA.  DVMs Regan Blackwood '02,  Shannon Smith '99, Stephanie Belk Loter '98, and Cassie Thomas Campbell '97 have also joined veterinary practices.
• Lisa Aumiller '98 is a partner in a veterinary practice in New Jersey, and writes an "Ask the Vet" column in her local newspaper.
• Elizabeth Mattingly Goldsmith '89 received her D.V.M.in 1994 and is in practice at Old Dominion Animal Health Center in northern Virginia.
• Close to completing veterinary school are Jamie Mays '03 (University of Tennessee), Christy Pitts '03 (Oklahoma State), and Heather Benhard Zander '97 (UC Davis).

Education

• I had a long conversation with Chris Weiss Pfeil '74, Cathy Weiss Thompson '74 and Professor Emerita Elizabeth Sprague during Homecoming 2006.  After graduating from Sweet Briar, Cathy earned an M.S. in Environmental Biology from the Ohio State University and worked for several years as an education coordinator at the Columbus and Toledo zoos.  After moving to Virginia with her family, she shifted careers away from zoology, but continued to be active as a volunteer with the local humane society.  Chris took graduate courses in Resource Ecology at the University of Michigan and worked as a naturalist in the Cleveland Metroparks System, before moving to her current position as a science instructor at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
• Shannon O'Neill '02 is teaching students how to do research at the Central Virginia Governor's School in Lynchburg. 
• Sarah Butcher '95 owns Wings of Joy Butterfly Farm and offers educational programs about butterflies and other insects.  Sarah is also the market manager for the South Riding Farmers Market in Loudoun County.
• Marlena Koper '00 is an Academic Advisor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and teaches in the biology department.  Marlena received an M.S. in Zoology at Miami University of Ohio, writing her thesis on wolf spider behavior. 
• Middle and high school science students have SBC alumnae as teachers in Virginia (Salina Woodard '03 and Katie McNamara '02), Utah (Erin Packard '01), Maine (Andrea Capano '99), Maryland (Angela Walton '99), Colorado (Tracie Burroughs '98), and Texas (Angelina Alongi '00). 
• Imogen Slade '96 is teaching middle school English, and Amy Ross Hendrix '94 teaches elementary school and is a consultant for Everyday Mathematics.
• Kim Leach Burge '00 is a Wildlife Education Specialist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.  She teaches environmental and wildlife education to all age groups at the Centennial Campus Center at North Carolina State University.  She is also taking graduate classes at NC State and working towards her NC Environmental Education Certification.
• April Collins Potterfield '96 is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Westminster College in Missouri.

Industry and Business

• Jessica Thistlethwaite '04 and Jenn Wiley '06 are both employed as scientists by for PPD (Pharmaceutical Product Development) in Richmond VA.  PPD is a contract research organization that analyzes samples for large pharmaceutical companies to expedite the FDA approval process. Jessica is a Bioanalytical Chemist in charge of cell culturing/harvesting and FACS analysis for their biologicals department.  Jenn was hired in February '08 as an Associate Scientist and will be located in NJ for several months of training before starting in Richmond.
• Emily Black Burns (BMB '01) is a product marketing manager for TIBCO Software, Inc.  She is responsible for marketing software including iProcess Modeler, iProcess Decisions, and iProcess analytics.
• Lori Kovatch '01 is QC Senior Analyst in the Microbiology Department at ImClone Systems, a biopharmaceutical company developing oncology medicines.  Lori recently completed her M.S. in Microbiology at Seton Hall.
• Leigh Wilson '97 earned an M.S. in Biology from UNC-Greensboro and conducted colon cancer research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, before moving to GlaxoSmithKline where she conducts cell pharmacology research related to diabetes
• Juli Bechard '96 works for Life of the south Insurance in Jacksonville FL.
• Gretchen Vida '95 sells stents for Medtronic.
• Jennifer Colomb Sener '93 is a lead auditor for ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 environmental and quality standards for Det Norske Veritas, an international provider of services for managing risk.  She is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey.  After Sweet Briar she taught English in Japan for two years, and then received a Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University.

Riding and Horsemanship

• Lizzy Meyer '03 is a certified Equine Touch Practitioner and continues to manage a horse ranch in southwest Colorado.  She is taking online courses towards a registered veterinary technician's degree.
• Beth Goldring '05 is Barn Manager for the riding program at Goucher College.
• Crystal Matusevich '96 is a trainer in Alabama.

Defying Categorization

• Charlotte Formichella '06 and Lynn Scharf are the progressive folk duo, True North.
• Renee Gunn '97 received graduate degrees in music and is now a music therapist.
• Dawn Leary '95 is a crime scene technician in the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
• Shelly Kellogg '02 is an agricultural inspector of cargo freight for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, based in Charlotte.  Twice in the winter of 2005-06 she was the inspector on duty when Professor Brower came through with live monarch butterflies from Mexico for his research.  Fortunately his paperwork was in order!  Shelly completed an M.S. in Entomology at the University of Kentucky.