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The Park School Class of 1985Twenty-Fifth Reunion BiographiesWhitney Wood BylinI am very sorry to miss the 25th Reunion. Ithas been great seeing all the familiar names ine-mails, and I just wish I could be there in personto see the faces. I live in Palm Beach, Florida,with my husband, Eric (whom I met in 1989!),and our two boys, Alexander (7) and Johnny (4).We moved here 10 years ago from New York sothat Eric could open up an office, and we werepleased to find out that there are many peopleunder 65 in the neighborhood. But even better,being 40 in this town is like being 20 in Boston —we will be “juniors” for a good decade more.When we moved here, I kept my job as aproducer and director for a New York-based documentaryproduction company and continued totravel to New York or elsewhere when necessary.I have made films on a wide variety of topics,including ancient and survival cannibalism,archaeology, medical innovations, wildlife conservation,and natural history. I feel lucky that Ifound a job that combined my love of travel andmy interest in writing. Before starting my careerand after graduating from Brown, Eric and I tooka year to travel around the world. That experiencereally shaped my interests and eventuallyled to my job as a filmmaker. My work has alsotaken me all over the world — from the Outbackof Australia to film saltwater crocodiles toEcuador to film struggling climbers; from Zimbabweto film sick elephants to Uruguay to interviewsurvivors of the famous plane crash in theAndes that resulted in heroic feats of survival. Ilove interviewing people, learning about differentworlds, and then trying to figure out a way toexplain it all in film and narration. After havingour second son in 2005, I cut way back on worktravel and focused more on writing and developingprojects. I am now focusing my work onwildlife conservation films and spending moretime on the kids because I am all too aware ofhow quickly it goes by. I am on the board of thePalm Beach Zoo and help them produce films ontheir international and local conservation projects.I am also developing a film on an elephantsanctuary that will be built near where we live.We are lucky to live in a place that is warmmost of the year. Our kids have a much differentlife than I did in Chestnut Hill. They surf allyear round, they know how to bait a hook andfish by themselves, and seeing snow is a onceortwice-a-year treat. We do make sure to getthem on skis at least once a year, and we spend alot of time in the summers visiting family in NewEngland. The only drawback to living here isthat I am not closer to family and friends, but Ido stay in touch with Nancy [Baker Cahill] (whois even farther away in L.A.!), and occasionallyI get to see old Park friends who visit Palm Beachin the winter, including Diana [Walcott] andMissy [Daniels Madden]. I wish I could be thereon the 8th. Enjoy, and I hope to see many of youover the next few years.Jamie FolsomClass of 1985—25th Reunion. Top: Rachel Levine Foley, Adam Greenberg, GretchenWeissman. Bottom: John Barkan, David Ball, Jen Hershfang, Abbott Lawrence, Jess Greenfield,Melissa Daniels Madden.It’s wonderful still to be so close to friends youmade a quarter century ago. It’s a sign of ourcollective good taste in my book, as is the choicesome of us have made to put down roots in theBoston area. Of course, it’s great to have the oldkid network in far-flung locales, too: San Franciscoand Nanshan [China], to name two.After Park, Boston Latin School, VassarCollege, and Southern France, I spent a year asa teaching intern at a N–9 school on GoddardAvenue in Brookline. I split the remaining yearsbefore 2010 between careers in foreign languageteaching (first locally, then with the Peace Corpsin Guinea, West Africa), and technology, as aprogrammer, trainer, and manager.My wife, Beth, and I live in West Roxburywith our boy, August, who will be 1 just beforeour reunion in May. Looking forward to it!Elisabeth Morse GiovineWhile I attended Park only for one year, it wasan important and memorable year for me. Everyoneat Park welcomed me into the community onthe first day and made my transition there soeasy. I was able to make friends easily becauseeveryone was so incredibly kind and friendly. Iam sorry to miss the reunion, as I would love toreconnect with all of my classmates.After Park, I returned to Seattle with myfamily and completed high school at LakesideSchool. I attended the University of Virginia(class of 1993) and then moved to New YorkCity, where I worked in investment banking forMorgan Stanley and then Allen & Company.I earned an MBA from Stanford in 1999 andthen moved to Los Angeles. In 2001, I marriedTom Giovine and we now have three children,Dylan (age 6), Piper (age 5) and Cosimo (age3.5). We live in Pacific Palisades. If anyone livesin Los Angeles, I would love to reconnect, or ifyou are visiting, look us up!!Jennifer HershfangHow to sum up 25 years? I don’t have anythingto share in the handsome husband and cutekids department (let me know if you happen tofind them!), but the rest of life has kept me busyand happy.My career path has been totally serendipitousyet, in retrospect, surprisingly coherent. AfterThe Park Bulletin | Fall 2010 39