Au Courant
Spring 2011
Created 2011-04-01
Grant Plemons ('64)
I am still working full time in my psychology private practice in Campbell and Santa Cruz, California, but am beginning to ramp it down a bit and inch my way towards retirement. Donna DeGrande and I have been together for eight years now and have a lovely home on the river in the redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Donna keeps very busy running her two HR consulting businesses and we travel frequently, most recently to Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, France, Portugal and, closer to home, Hawaii and tropical Mexico. Donna has loved our Paris reunions, and also a high school reunion in Portugal. In our spare time we like to hike along the ocean and in the redwoods, garden, and make a barrel or two of red wine every year. This year it's a bordeaux blend and a "super rioja" with Spanish and French grape varieties from California. Cheers!
Perla Pultuskier Karney (‘65)
I was a seventeen year old freshman when I came to study at the American College in Paris for one year from 1964-65. My roommate was Cynthia Hale. We are still very close friends although she lives in Florida and I have lived in Los Angeles since November of 1965. As a matter of fact Cynthia is came to visit me on March 18th for a few days. I came to Los Angeles to continue my college education but ended up getting engaged six weeks after my arrival and getting married July 3rd 1966. Our honeymoon took us to many destinations including Paris which I had left a few months earlier very young and carefree. I continued my college education part time while married and raising two children, a boy and a girl two years apart, finally graduating from UCLA in 1977 with a degree in Liberal Arts. I have always loved English literature so I enrolled in a graduate program of English Literature at Loyola Marymount University. Since that time (I will speed up my life story) I am still married, became a successful theater producer in Los Angeles where I produced plays that had social relevance and were educational. Since 2004 I have been the artistic director of the Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel where I am in charge of the art and cultural programs (www.uclahillel.org). Both my children are married and I am the grandmother of five. My husband also received his degrees from UCLA (BA and MBA) and our son has his PhD from UCLA and is a professor there in Social Psychology. Our daughter has her undergraduate and law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. I am very involved in the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust where I am the vice-president of the board. I am also on the board of the UCLA Fowler Museum and a founding member of the largest synagogue for the arts in the country-Temple of the Arts.
Harry Herget (‘67)
The family's principle residence is in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Harry and Brenda are immensely proud of all their children and their spouses who are healthy and successful in their own fields, which range from medicine to retailing to teaching to corporate management to law enforcement. Their grandchildren have also excelled early in academics, sports and music. Harry and Brenda are entrepreneurs and are still engaged in several of their businesses, the flagship company being a leader in the fast changing world of software development. Family comes first. Travel, dining, art collecting, interior designing, gourmet cooking, reading, writing, exercising...are all bundled up in second place.
Photo taken at the Herget home in Little Rock, AR, Dec. 2010.
Harry and Wife, Brenda (center front); Mother, Mary Esther (left, front, 91 yrs.), with their four children (Hallie,Ted, Shawn and Nate, l to r, standing), their spouses, three grandsons (Harrison, 6; Brady, 1; Davis, 11), and four Cavalier King Charles Spaniels; Jazz, Bentley, Babe and Zoe
Bob Hertzka (‘69)
At the moment we are hard at work on a total redesign of my web site: Resorts Online, www.resortsonline.com and hopefully it will be ready by the time this Spring issue is out. ROL is the leading site for luxury hotels, resorts and lodges around the world designed to link directly into each property’s web site. We also have made some great progress on our non-profit project in Kenya which my wife started, the Global Give Back Circle, www.globalgivebackcircle.org. In September one of the girls from GGBC who is on scholarship to university in the US was invited by one of our sponsors, Microsoft, to attend a seminar at the Clinton Global Initiative (we were part of the opening ceremony in 09 along with Matt Damon and introduced by President Clinton) to join in a live teleconference with one of the labs Microsoft built for us in Nairobi. Microsoft then featured eight of our girls on the cover of their Corporate Responsibly newsletter and the NASDEQ billboard in Times Square in October. We have also received a large grant from the Master Card Foundation and a huge grant from USAID plus amazing support from the local business community in Kenya and the US Embassy there. Please visit our web site and if there are any alumni who would like to be mentors to one of the girls or help in some way please let me know.
^TOP
Jim Bednar (‘74)
He is expanding his horizons, moving to Colombo, Sri Lanka in January 2011 as Mission Director with USAID, the U.S. government's foreign assistance agency. It's his first excursion into Asia after 35 years of development work almost all in Africa. It's also his first time dealing with a post-conflict country, with the conflict in Sri Lanka ending after almost 30 years. Also new is the family beginning to spread on three continents with one son studying in Massachusetts, another in Holland and his daughter in Colombo.
^TOP
Elisabeth Schuler Russell (’80)
I spent 24 years in the Department of State as a Foreign Service officer and retired from that career in December 2008. I am now the Founder and President of Patient Navigator LLC, a company that helps patients and families navigate and overcome obstacles in the American healthcare system. I am the Vice President of the National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants. I invite my colleagues to visit my website at www.patientnavigator.com. We work with families throughout the U.S. and have assisted clients from overseas as well.
Ebru (Ebbie) Barutçu Gökdenizler (‘81)
She is currently the Director General for Americas at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara, covering bilateral relations with a total of 35 countries in North and South America. Ebbie expects to be posted abroad in the coming year. She spends her free time relaxing with yoga and pumps up the beat with latin dances, an addiction she picked up while on a tour of duty in Mexico between 1999 and 2001. Prior to Mexico she served at the Turkish Mission to the United Nations in New York. Her husband is the Turkish Ambassador to South Africa. They are DINK’s.
Karen Albright Lin (‘84)
She has been married 24 years to a wonderful man from Taiwan. She has two sons and will be an empty-nester as of August 2011. Karen consults and edits for published and yet-to-be-published writers. She’s been busy speaking at writers’ conferences on many subjects. She’s currently negotiating with a Hong Kong based director about feature screenplays and webisodes, and has had one short script produced. She is an award-winning writer and author of numerous screenplays, novels, short stories, and cookbooks as well as articles in newspapers and magazines. Her writing and interviews have been featured in national, international, and web publications. www.karenalbrightlin.com
Anna Poulier Férotin (‘86)
20 years after my last job for J.P. Morgan in Paris, and a divorce, I had to find a job. It was easy to find one, but I had to start from the beginning even though I have a BA in International Business (‘86) and a French diploma, a DESS in Finance (‘92). I'm still looking for another job in a bank, in the area of Aix en Provence.
Gregg and Susan Tate
Gregg Tate ('87)
Just realized that this is the first year that the graduating seniors from AUP were not born yet when I graduated in 1987! I've got three daughters in college this year - a freshman, Rianna; a junior, Julia; and a grad student, Carinda, who is graduating in May with honors and will become an elementary school teacher! My lovely wife, Susan, and I are still living well and happily in Arlington, Virginia, and I'm still working as the head IT geek for Marine Barracks Washington. Last but not least, we still have our six cats, Venus, Patrick, SpongeBob, Madonna, Endora, and Larry Tate. I've heard from many of you lately via Facebook. Hope everyone is doing well!
(Tod) Damian Labrie (’88)
I attended AUP from 1987 to 1988 as a sophomore. I am presently living in North Andover, Massachusetts with my wife and our two young sons. I am self-employed working out of my house/garage as a Volvo & Mercedes-Benz mechanic and also contemplating if I should continue (once again) working as a paramedic for a local ambulance company. Decisions, decisions. I have not heard from Laurence Slama nor Hannele Runda in years. Does anyone know where they are?
Elizabeth Tobias (‘89)
Elizabeth Tobias recently earned a Durfee Grant for completion of an art installation addressing the rampant scale of hunger in Los Angeles. The exhibit will travel from California to Harvard's Carpenter Center in the fall. Curated by physics laureate, Lisa Randall, the group project explores interpretations of scale in art.
^TOP
Dana Chertoff Deighton
Dana Chertoff Deighton (’91)
Since graduation in 1992, Dana has worked at National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., presently as the Marketing Director for National Geographic Kids magazine. Fortunately work has provided fun travel back to Paris and beyond, including South Africa, Australia, Peru and more. Dana lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and three kids, ages 10, 8, and 6.
Nathalie El Rayes (‘94)
I am blessed God gave us a very cute little boy named Anthony attached is his picture. I hope he will go to the American University of Paris also.
Anthony El Rayes
Suzanne Aaronson (‘94)
Suzanne's passion for "finding the best and leaving the rest" began in her early twenties. Over the years, tips from savvy friends and notes from international hotspots grew into a prolific, in-demand knowledge base and eventually evolved into Suzanne's Files, a successful business which enjoyed an impressive international following. She and her board sold the company in January 2010 and she then formed whatsworthit.com (Subscribe to the free weekly email!) A consultant to two ‘luxury’ sector blue-chip companies, is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post with her column titled “What’s Worth It” and is co-hosting the 2011 Luxury Briefing conference. Suzanne lives in Greenwich, Connecticut (as of May 2010) with her partner Yann, their chocolate brown toy poodle named Henry, Spanky the regal chestnut horse, Dolly a miniature horse with attitude, two giant Flemish/German rabbits named Mathilde & Bunny... and a couple of chickens! She and her partner are committed to home-grown food sources with a growing vegetable and herb garden – which also provides a new challenge. Active pursuits from tennis to kayaking keep her feeling great, and cooking for (and with) friends and family literally feeds her soul.
Camilla Norman Field (‘94)
After returning to school in 2009, I wrapped up two coaching programs this past October, and am now focused on starting my client business here in San Francisco (www.camillafield.com). This exciting endeavor, along with raising two high-energy boys (Alex - almost 6, Owen - almost 3) with my husband, Matt, certainly keeps me busy! Fortunately, life has allowed me to be back in France twice these past 2 years for family friends' weddings. It's always a joy to go back to a place that brought me so much happiness during my gap year (1993-1994).
Dev Nainani (‘97)
After completing his degree in IBA, Dev returned back to Hong Kong in 1998 and got into the export business. Currently he deals with consumer products manufactured in China for export into markets such as Europe. His products include Gifts, Gadgets, Promotional & Premiums Household, Electronics, Stationery, Gardening as well as customized projects of specially designed items. His retail products are for chain stores, web shops, mail order catalogues, TV sales and promotional items for the corporates. Dev has had several tie ups in Europe with distribution companies and he recently set up a business in India to sell products to the masses in this growing economy. Dev got married in 2004 to his wife Verina. He travels a lot around mainland China and takes frequent trips to Europe and India.
Christopher Pavel and Sarah Koch
Christopher Pavel (‘99)
Christopher has been living in Düsseldorf, Germany for more than seven years now and currently works as a Managing Director in the renewable energy business. He just got engaged to his big love Sarah Koch. They are getting married next year in June in the south of Germany and are currently excited to be organizing their special day.
Nao (Ueshima) Bombard (‘99)
I still live in Sapporo, Japan and had our first son on Aug 1, 2010. His name is Kentaro Matthew Bombard.
Kentaro Matthew Bombard
Karyn K. Heavner (‘99)
I had a son (Phinn Samuel Heavner-Phillips) on November 2010. My boyfriend and I also started a public policy, epidemiology and statistical consulting corporation (Populi Health Institute) in the fall of 2010.
^TOP
Karina Craig ('05)
Karina was married on April 24,2010 in Abaco Bahamas, where she was living with her husband John Pinder. They are joined here by fellow AUP Alumni Marion Craig Morisson ('85), Franklin Craig ('81), Emilia Farias ('06), Francesca ReDavid ('02), and Na Ryung Kim ('05).
Marion (Craig) Morisson ('85),
John Pinder, Karina Craig ('05), Franklin Craig ('81)
Emilia Farias ('06), Francesca ReDavid ('02),
and Na Ryung Kim ('05)
Louise Kahrmann (’05)
She continues to live and work in Paris. She is currently PR for France and the UK, at Haute Couture house ELIE SAAB.
Godwyn Manful
Godwyn Manful (’05)
Since graduating with my IBA degree and a pocket full of French in May 2005, I continued to stay in Paris, interned in a couple of communication agencies, taught business English at a language centre and then headed back to Ghana in July 2007. It’s been a smooth roller-coaster ride; (fast but no sharp turns nor bumps) – first, I helped to launch a private cable TV operator and thereafter joined Nestlé Central and West Africa HQ as the culinary brand assistant in Jan 2008. Since then I’ve held various positions: Asst. Brand Mgr, Culinary Brand Mgr (MAGGI brand) in Nestlé Ghana. Now, I fondly reminisce about the life defining moments while at AUP from my new office as Channel Category Sales Devt. Mgr.; i.e. Trade Marketing. Travel remains my No.1 hobby and as and when I make time, I visit new places –Tokyo, Cairo, Dubai ...normal for an AUP’er I guess!
Christina Perri ('05) and Juliet Carter ('05)
Christina M. Perri (‘05)
I am still an American living in Paris after 8 years. I continued a post graduate degree from Sciences Po after graduating from AUP, and over the course of my studies fell in love with a Frenchman – surprise, surprise! We are not married (yet) but enjoying life as young yuppies in the most beautiful city in the world. I work in finance at a boutique asset management firm called Financière de l’Echiquier, and although it can be very difficult to gain the right to work in France, it is possible. The best news I have to share is that I made some wonderful friends at AUP and continue to have strong relationships with them in Paris but also from abroad. Here we are, two AUP American alumni, living and working in France….
Stefan Pellech (‘06)
He graduated from AUP in 2006 with a BA in Economics and Business Administration and has worked in East Africa, the Middle East and China in Finance and Strategy Consulting. He completed a MSc. in International Management from ESADE in Barcelona in 2009 and has been working since in Hyderabad, India for Intellecap, a social investment advisory firm, working with corporations, NGOs, foundations and government institutions on "market-based solutions" to ensure economical and social development. His focus has been on exploring opportunities for the private sector in climate change resilience building and most recently is working on a project of providing off-grid energy to the poor in Asian countries.
Ignacio Paz and Simon Walkowiak
Ignacio Paz (’09)
Since completing his Masters in European History at University College London, Ignacio has been working part-time at the London Science Museum and tutoring high school students in history. He is planning on either applying for a doctorate in history this fall or going into teaching secondary school history. At the same time, he's looking into returning to his other passion - musical theatre. He is living in central London with his amazing partner Simon Walkowiak. The two got engaged in Krakow, Poland last November and feel blessed to have each other. They are looking forward to the future with excellent spirits!
Update your profile directly on AUP Alumni Online
Read our regular Alumni Spotlights and Updates
Update us with your news at alumni@aup.edu
^ TOP