Honoring yesterday, inspiring tomorrow. in this issue: - Winchester ...

class notes
addition to being a mom, Erin
continues to teach
second grade in the Fairfax
County Public Schools
in Northern Virginia.
erinthurston@hotmail.com
visit with Meredith Deluzio
Pettigrew ’97 and her family
and Lauren Phillipi Jones ’97
took place at Station Square
this summer.
stancza@hotmail.com
1992
Diana Hellman is an engineer
at IBM in Tucson and hikes,
skis, bikes, and travels during
her free time. Diana visits K-12
schools encouraging students,
Erin Herward Thurston
continues to enjoy mother-hood,
especially during summers
which she spends at home with
Patrick. Erin was very excited
to see the new Upper School
and catch up with some of her
former teachers and colleagues
on a visit to WT. Patrick would
have been impressed, but he
slept through much of it. In
especially girls, to get involved
with science by demonstrating
a repertoire of simple
experiments to spark student
interest. Diana is committed
to reaching out to students,
delivering the message that
math and science are very
much a part of their lives,
and that they can indeed do
math and science. She is also
passionate about explaining
what engineers do, which
she believes is a mystery to
many people. She has her own
blog, www.thinkinglogically.
com, that strives to improve
the world through logical
thinking. Diana credits her
ability to communicate well
as a scientist and engineer
to her WT education. The
skills and confidence that she
developed at WT give her an
unusual edge in the scientific
community.
diana@evolvingdreams.com
Mara McFalls moved to
NYC in 2006 and scored a
modeling gig as the face of
vanilla NUGO bars while
working as a producer for
the MTV show, MADE. She
had some articles published
in magazines (thanks to WT
writing courses) and got her
big break when cast to be on
a show called Stormchasers
on the Discovery Channel,
airing in October 2007. She
basically plays herself, a writer
embedded with a group of
nutball stormchasers and
scientists. They spent eight
weeks chasing tornadoes in
tornado alley throughout the
Midwest. Mara married a
writer, John Falk, this fall. “He
has written magazine pieces,
books, movies; he’s a stud, and
I dig him mucho,” writes Mara.
maramcfalls@hotmail.com
1991
Esther Long is an assistant
professor of Geography at
Morehead State University
in Morehead, Kentucky. She
travels a lot internationally
and just returned from a
month in Ukraine.
esther.long@gmail.com
Kathleen Metinko and
Jan Rogers Kniffen were
married on February 24,
2007, at the One and Only
Ocean Club on Paradise
Island, Bahamas. She was
attended by matron of honor,
Alunda Grzybek Edmonds,
and flower girl, Veronica
Noel Edmonds. Dorothy
McLaughlin Sachs also
joined in the weekend’s
festivities. Kathleen and Jan
enjoyed a May honeymoon
in Paris and on the Amalfi
Coast. The couple resides in
NYC. Kathleen was admitted
to the partnership of Deloitte
Tax LLP as of August 26, 2007.
kmetinko@DELOITTE.com
1989
Katherine Brentzel has been
in the Washington, DC area
for almost seven years. She
works for the U.S. Government
Accountability Office, the
investigatory arm of the U.S.
Congress. Kate works in the
international affairs and trade
group at the GAO, mostly
assessing the Department of
State and other agencies with
an international mission.
kate.brentzel@gmail.com
38 Thistletalk Autumn 2007