Class Notes

Tom Johnson and Laura Indzeris Johnson ’01 welcomed their second daughter, Elizabeth Virginia, in September! They live outside Harrisonburg, Virginia, where Laura works in marketing and Tom teaches Astronomy and Earth Science.

Best wishes to Dianna Rowell! Dianna married Rich Boschulte on July 11 just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey. She was so happy that Stephanie Primmer traveled from Virginia for the wedding!

Leigh Brockman Horowitz and her husband, Jeremy, welcomed Oliver Samuel Horowitz on October 8. Leigh continues to work as a paralegal in New Orleans, teaches dance at Loyola University, and has her own dance company, the Storytellers Dance Project.

Liz Rodriguez Ortner and her husband, Mike, live in McLean, Virginia, and welcomed baby Mary Therese on September 29. She joins siblings Gabriel, Julia, Luke, Mikey, and William. Liz stays busy homeschooling the older three kids and is enjoying learning all over again with them.

Marcie Pierson Brandriff is back in Virginia after husband Kevin became the executive director of Headwaters Foundation in Sperryville. Marcie’s daughter, Lily, is now three, and they all enjoy living in farm country and having cows as close neighbors.

Julie Newell Leslie traveled extensively this fall. While in Mexico, she visited the Aztec ruins of Tetochititlan. Highlights from Julie’s trip to Guatemala included a hike up the smoldering Pacaya volcano, and an overnight jungle trip to watch the sun rise at the Mayan ruins in Tikal. Julie rang in her birthday in Cusco, Peru, kicking off a 10-day trip to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. I was excited to see Julie over a lavish brunch in July when life had me in the D.C. area for a weekend.

To celebrate our milestone birthdays, Kira Stchur Villarreal and I travelled to Vis and Split in Croatia, and Rome, Montalcino, and Florence, Italy with our husbands and some non-Mary Wash friends. We enjoyed fantastic weather, fine wine, great food, lots of laughs, and a lifetime of memories. I cannot recommend the island of Vis enough; I was completely enchanted by the beauty of both the vistas and the people. My husband and I stayed on in Europe for another week to attend Oktoberfest in Munich with my mother and sister. I made a major career move in January, returning to the IT industry after an 11-year run in healthcare. I am now in product management with Code42, a software company in Minneapolis specializing in cloud based data backup and disaster recovery solutions.