Alumni Updates

Please enjoy reading the following personal and professional news about fellow alumni, and be sure to share your own updates – or news about your classmates – by writing to alumni@horacemann.org.

Former Major League Baseball star Pedro Alvarez ’05 returned to Vanderbilt University to earn a degree in medicine, health, and society. An article about his journey back to campus recently appeared on the Major League Baseball Players website:  https://www.mlbplayers.com/pedro-alvarez

Fur, a company founded by Lillian Tung Amoruso ’01 and Laura Schubert ’01, was recently featured in a Women’s History-inspired article on coveteur. com. Fur creates and markets all-natural beauty products for the head, face, underarms, pubic hair, and legs and is on the shelves at Neiman Marcus, Goop, Revolve, Credo, Free People, Ulta, and Urban Outfitters, among others. The brand's promotion of body positivity and self-love is part of the driving force behind its growth. In 2020, Lillian and Laura appeared on an episode of Shark Tank seeking $500,000 for 2.5% equity and ultimately made a deal with Lori Greiner. For more information and to purchase a Fur product, visit https://furyou.com/products/fur-oil.

Max August ’16, an investment professional at General Atlantic, is included in this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Israel list. A portion of the English translation of the article reads:

Already at a very young age – only 24 – Max is helping to lead the investment strategy of General Atlantic in Israel – one of the largest private investment funds in the world, which currently manages about $86 billion. Until recent years, the old global fund, which has been active since 1980, has not invested in the Israeli sector, but today it has already signed on to local investments in Israeli companies amounting to $700 million. Max took a significant part in helping to manage and close several of these deals. “My mission is focused on improving Israel's image in the world,” says August. “I strongly believe in the power of Israeli innovation and feel lucky to work with the most influential entrepreneurs in Israel - in order to establish companies that will not only change the perception of Israel but will change the entire world itself.”

Tucker Murray Caploe ’11 was a member of the ensemble that backed up LeAnn Rimes and Mickey Guyton in their Carnegie Hall performance at the 2022 Paramount Upfront.

James Chang ’18 will be a member of the Class of 2026 at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. 

Andrea Cortes Comerer ’01 and husband Paul Burkey welcomed their second child, Arthur Nelson Burkey, on February 10, 2022. Three-year-old daughter Penelope adores her little brother. While expecting, and during COVID, Andie also completed her Certificate in Change Management through eCornell.

The PFRANKMD Heals Foundation, a nonprofit started by Dr. Paul Frank ’87 and Annie Frank ’93 and associated with their dermatology practice PFRANKMD™, is helping to fund humanitarian medical aid to Ukraine via Direct Relief. The organization donated $10,000 to Direct Relief, an organization that “works to equip health professionals in resource-poor communities to meet the challenges of diagnosing and caring for people in need” (directrelief.org). The PFRANKMD Heals Foundation has firmly established relationships with the Ukraine Ministry of Health and other nonprofits responding to the crisis in the region.

Jim Freund ’52 has recorded a reading of his one-act play title The Joke Tutor in the blog he writes and shares with family and friends. As he explains, he “borrowed the concept of one man rewarding another for his help in a physical emergency from Bruce Jay Friedman’s terrific short story, Show Biz Connections.” If you enjoy the play and would like a free copy of Jim’s Choice Jokes (his 2017 joke book from which all these jokes have been lifted), email Jim at  jim.freund@mac.com and provide your mailing address. You can access The Joke Tutor by clicking on this link:  https://www.jimfreundblog.com/blog-readings/the-joke-tutor.  Jim also shared a link to his essay, My Slack Moment in Shackleton’s Shadow, which was inspired by the March 2022 discovery of the ship HMS Endurance at the bottom of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. He writes, “The ship’s 1915 sinking led to a great tale of leadership by Captain Ernest Shackleton and the survival of his entire crew. Well, back in 1956 I had my own Weddell Sea rendezvous with Endurance’s destiny – except that, as contrasted with the heroism of Shackleton and his crew, my role was marred by a serious personal dereliction of duty that still vexes me today.” To read Jim’s essay and explore more content, click here: https://www.jimfreundblog.com/blog-essays/my-slack-moment-in-shackletons-shadow

Michele Tetenbaum Goodman ‘08 and her husband Brandon welcomed a daughter, Olivia Luna Goodman, on February 21, 2022.

Ed Holtzmann ‘54 shared the happy news that he married Gloria Neimark in January of 2021. This was Ed’s first marriage. He says he waited because he didn’t want to get married when he was too young.

Ben Jacobson ’09 is running his first NYC Marathon this fall and raising money for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. You can contribute to Ben’s fundraiser via the following link:  https://dogood.t2t.org/fundraiser/3818337

At some point during his junior year at Horace Mann, Nick Mencher ’74 lent his classmate Andy Lippman ’74 his copy of American Sports Car Racing, which he had checked out of the school library. Almost 50 years later, Andy returned the book when he stopped by Nick’s home in Asheville, NC, on a Spring 2022 cross-country road trip. The school has graciously waived the overdue book fine, which (at a nickel a day from May 1973 to the present) amounts to more than $894!

The Alumni Office received some exciting news from professional photographer Flo Ngala ’13. Flo was invited by Vogue to attend and photograph the MET Gala on May 2nd. She is the first-ever Black woman to be commissioned to shoot the event.

Rachel Okin ’18 was featured in a Brown University Data Science Initiative article about the work she has done this year for Connect For Health, an organization that addresses the root causes of poor health outcomes in Providence, RI. Her research resulted in the creation of a dashboard populated with real-time data signaling trends. The article states that “having an understanding of trends in [Connect for Health’s] data will make it easier for the organization to plan in advance, giving staff a better sense of what months of the year will be busiest, for example.” Rachel is finishing her senior year at Brown.

Chidimma Okpara ’19, a junior at Dartmouth who plays on the women’s tennis team, was named Second Team All-Ivy Singles. She received All-Ivy Academic Team honors as a neuroscience major with a 3.51 GPA. 

Aramael Pena-Alcantara ‘12, a PhD candidate at MIT, held the public presentation and defense of his dissertation on Zoom on April 15, 2022. He designed the presentation of his dissertation – entitled “A Subject Based Methodology for Measuring Interclass Bias in Facial Recognition Verification Systems” – for a general (non-expert) audience and answered questions prior to adjourning to a closed meeting with his thesis committee.

Joseph Pinion III ’01 was nominated by New York State Republicans as the party’s candidate to run against Charles Schumer for Senate. He is the first Black man to run for Senate in the state. He is a former political commentator, clean energy strategist, and business executive with 15 years of experience in tech development, non-profit health services, and poverty intervention.

Abby Jo Sigal ’87 has been appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as executive director of the newly renamed Office of Talent and Workforce Development. As a recent press release explained, “Sigal will lead the city’s effort to connect New Yorkers to quality jobs, as outlined in the recently released plan, ‘Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery.’ She will work with stakeholders from the public and private sectors to reimagine the city’s talent development system so that it promotes the economic security of every New Yorker, meets the talent needs of employers, and contributes to a robust and inclusive economy. Sigal will work across multiple agencies, launching, convening, and staffing the ‘Future of Workers’ taskforce, a working group of industry experts — including higher education, job training providers, research institutions, labor, and employers — to develop a citywide, early-education-to-adult talent development vision to address short-term recovery needs and long-term structural challenges.  The office will seek out opportunities to streamline and improve coordination among the more than two dozen city and state agencies that manage workforce programs, as well as The City University of New York (CUNY), the New York City Department of Education (DOE), nonprofits, intermediaries, and employers.”

Alan Sklar ’52 helped to organize a Class of 1952 luncheon held in mid-April in Manhattan. As Alan shared before the get-together, “We will have a fine time, renewing friendships. And we will do some strategizing about our 70th Class Reunion (no tuxedos this time), which we’ll probably hold in September with wives and significant others.”

Former HM faculty member Donnette Atiyah wrote to share that her daughter, the Reverend Gaea Thompson ’86, was honored by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Presbyterian/Montefiore Hospital with a 2 Champions award as “an extraordinary individual who champions [the] well-being of seniors through innovative efforts to influence the spiritual and well-being of the seniors, caregivers, and their families.” Gaea is the manager of pastoral care at UPMC Presbyterian/Montefiore Hospital.

Geoff Tudisco ’93 writes, “Over a month ago, I dropped everything and flew to Romania and Ukraine to provide humanitarian relief. I just returned and would like to share my experience with how ineffective traditional NGOs are at using our donations to provide aid to those who need it. As a result, I helped create a new type of organization that has directly helped thousands of Ukrainians. It is called The Driven Ones. We start by saving one person. Then, their family or team. Their neighborhood or squad. Their village or platoon. Eventually, their entire town or battalion. Over time, what we deliver will exceed the quantity of pallets and containers. We created a map to document our activities, and were interviewed for a German documentary about the war. The teaser is now on youtube. If you’d like to learn how an HM alum is making a positive impact on the war in Ukraine, please contact me at 917-912-5697.”

Please email your personal and professional news to alumni@horacemann.org so it can be included in future editions of The Lion’s Pride.

Return to The Lion's Pride - Spring 2022