Alumni News

1980s

Congratulations to Lisa (Schneider) Freudenheim ’86, J.D., who was named Dean of New England Law Boston, where she has served as Professor of Law, Director of Academic Excellence, and other positions since 2010. In addition, she founded Legal Writing Consultants to market her specialty—legal analysis, predictive and persuasive legal writing and research skills. Lisa has also taught at Boston College Law School and Suffolk University.

1990s

Seth Ament ’99, Ph.D., Associate Professor at University of Maryland School of Medicine, co-authored 3 of the 17 papers in the October 2021 issue of the scientific journal Nature. The issue focuses on the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network, which aims to identify and catalog the diverse cell types found in mammalian brains. The papers present a comprehensive cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex, a region of the brain responsible for movement. The atlas defines the molecular, anatomical, and physiological identities of specific cell types, while also revealing where they reside in the motor cortex tissue. Seth leads a research group within the Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His group researches genetic and genomic mechanisms of brain function and brain disorders.

2000s

Kristin (Jochems) Montville

’05, has served in the U.S. Air Force for nearly 13 years, 8 of which have been in the Air Force Reserve. She was recently selected for a 3-year Active Duty tour at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. She will pursue her second Masters degree, her first being a Masters of Arts in Strategic Intelligence Studies from American Military University. In 2022–2023, she will earn an accelerated Masters through the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in Leadership and Counseling and will follow that with a 2-year tour as an Air Officer Commanding at USAFA. In her role at USAFA, she will be in command of approximately 100 cadets and responsible for guiding them as they develop as "Leaders of Character" on their path toward commissioning into the Air Force. Congratulations to Anthony and Karissa (Soby) Giovannini ’08 on the birth of their son Lincoln Joseph, born in September. (And, congratulations to uncle Josh Soby ’08 too!) Karissa said, “Creating this little life is one of our greatest accomplishments, and we love getting to know him.”

2010s

2012 classmates Allisa Dalpe, Ph.D., and Marney Rathbun connected at Falmouth Academy on Alumni Networking Day. Allisa was a comoderator of the Engineering table. She works at WHOI as a research engineer in the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department. Marney taught 11th grade English during the 2021–22 school year at Falmouth Academy.

Congratulations to Jane Earley ’18, who helped her Middlebury lax team win its 8th national title. Jane set season records for Middlebury in points and goals and was named National Tournament MVP, in addition to First Team NESCAC and Player of the Year, and First Team All American. Way to go, Jane!

Jillian Igoe ’18 graduated Magna cum Laude from College of the Atlantic and is now working at Associates of Cape Cod as a laboratory technician. Earlier this year she interned as an undergraduate researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory. The scientist she is working with, Loretta Roberson, was Jillian’s own FA Science Fair mentor. Coincidentally, a current FA student, sophomore Evan Freedman, worked on his project in the same lab. Jillian’s research interests lie in bridging multiple disciplines to assess the interconnectedness between marine environments, cultures, policies, and the histories of coastal communities.

2020s

Congratulations to Isabelle Santamauro ’20 on being awarded the Ellert-Brauner Essay award from UMASS. A double major in Biology and German in the UMASS Honors College, Izzy won the award based on an essay she wrote in German.

FA Alumni Named Tops in Their Fields

It’s no secret that the professional world thinks highly of Falmouth Academy alumni, and it’s always rewarding to see our former students celebrated for their work. Within one month, three of our alumni were recognized as tops in their fields. Congratulations to Tim Wadman ’09 (Boyle | Shaughnessy Law) and KC Hopkinson ’02 (Curran Antonelli, LLP) for earning a spot on the top lawyers lists in Boston (Boston Magazine) and Tampa (Tampa Magazine), respectively. KC was also named a Woman of the Year in 2021 by Orlando Style Magazine. Give a big shout out to Caroline Cotto ’10 on being named one of Forbes’ “2022 30 Under 30” in the Food and Drink category. Congratulations also to Michaela LeBlanc Weber ’03, who was nominated for the 2022 EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) Symposium’s Rising Star award, and has made the shortlist, as of this writing. The award recognizes inspiring women making waves in the industry and beyond. Michaela is a Senior Vice President, Enterprise Partners at WorldPay in London, where she works in e-commerce.

Alumni Roundtable Speaker Series Debuts

The new Alumni Roundtable Speakers Series launched virtually in April with a timely discussion on impact investing and sustainability featuring Megan Starr ’06, managing director and global head of impact at the Carlyle Group (also a Falmouth Academy trustee and chair of the investment committee) and Nathan Twichell ’02, executive director of the Sun Valley Institute for Resilience. The event was moderated by Steven Heslinga ’04, first vice president and investment officer of The Heslinga & Tate Private Wealth Group of Wells Fargo Advisors.

Megan set the stage with a little background on impact investing. In the 80s, investors started being interested in socially responsible investing, where they made decisions to not invest in certain types of industry such as weapons or hydrocarbons. This negative-screening approach was haphazard and tended to underperform.

In the last decade, investors shifted to holistically assessing a company based on its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) record to ascertain risk. For example, companies that don’t have oil spills will likely have less financial risk, thus potentially outperforming overtime. She said, “The more efficiencies and less waste a company has, the more attractive it is.”

Megan explained that ESG is how a business operates (how it manages people, energy consumption, etc) and impact is the environmental or social good it does. “The interesting thing is where profitability and impact converge. It’s narrow now, but more entrepreneurs are showing up, trying to solve things like inequality and climate change.”

Want to learn more? The recording can be viewed at vimeo.com/704559482 and read about Nathan Twichell’s work on page 23.

Alumni Networking Day

Fifteen alumni returned in December to speak with juniors and seniors about college and careers. Director of College Counseling Ruth Slocum led a panel discussion on college life and then alumni led roundtables on business, science, and engineering. Thank you to the following for participating: Tony Bowen ’05, Allisa Dalpe ’12, Lukas Fenske ’20, Liadan Gallagher ’20, Paul Heslinga ’07, Steve Heslinga ’04, Jillian Igoe ’18, Emma Keeler ’19, Lucca MacDonald ’21, Chloe LaPierre ’20, Saniya Rajagopal ’21, Chloe Starr ’04, Ellie Thomas ’21, Zephy Thompson ’20, and Ryan Waite ’21.

New President and Slate of Alumni Council Members

Congratulations to Sam Amazeen ’07 who was elected President of the Alumni Council. He is the third president serving since the group was formed in 2011. Joining Sam are Vice President Kristin (Jochems) Montville ’05, Secretary Lily Patterson ’14, and members David Aronson ’96, Emily Birdwhistell ’98, Carlo Bocconcelli ’14, Tony Bowen ’05, Chris Buccino ’02, Lindsay Child ’11, Becca Cox ’18, Abigail (Hollander) Donovan ’12, Steven Heslinga ’04, Yuki Honjo ’90, Luke Johns ’14, Mary Kate Jones ’17, Keegan Krick ’12, Graham Littlehale ’13, Isabelle Stewart ’18, Lyon Van Voorhis ’11, and Tim Wadman ’09. If you are interested in joining the Alumni Council and helping to guide Alumni programming in outreach, fundraising, and DEI, contact Barbara Campbell, bcampbell@falmouthacademy.org. ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

Ellis Barrera ’16, a research assistant at Boston Children’s Hospital, was co-author of an article for the JAMA Network, “The Medical Implications of Banning Transgender Youth from Sport Participation,” on December 6, 2021.

A Boston Globe piece showcased Kendall Currence ’18 on January 18, 2022 in an article titled “A Courageous Leader for Northeastern Women’s Basketball.”

Oliver ’04 and Sam ’06 Moore, directors of Moore Brothers Company were featured on January 18, 2022 in SCUTTLEBUTT Sailing News in an article, “From Nearly Flying to Fully Flying,” which talks about their latest venture— working with Regent Craft Inc. to build sea gliders that float and fly.

CORRECTION | In describing Saramaria (Berrgren) Allenby’s job as Director of Whole Life Learning at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Falmouth in the last issue of The GAM, we incorrectly said that she promotes the role of faith in treating addiction. The 1983 grad told us, “I teach spirituality and spiritual practices to help people in their lives. I choose to share the concepts of hope, loving kindness, forgiveness, compassion, grief, etc.”

Nate Twichell ’02 Making a Case for Sustainable Business

On any given day, Nate Twichell ’02 could be visiting cows at a local dairy farm to discuss raw milk production or roaming alfalfa fields to promote regenerative agriculture in the hope of turning those acres into produce-growing fields. The next day he could be measuring the carbon footprint of transporting meat from Hailey, Idaho, to a production plant across the country and back again to sell at local markets.

A former science teacher and school administrator, Nate is Executive Director at Sun Valley Institute for Resilience (SVIR), which guides impact investors on how to help communities be sustainable into the future by enacting change and growing understanding in the areas of food, water, and energy.

He loves his job.

Nate works with investors, local farmers, and owners who are interested in sustainably growing their business. SVIR gives low or no-interest loans rather than grants. “If you help the recipients build their business acumen and grow in a smart, measured way, loans are the way to go. Loans actually require accountability, which makes the business more resilient and sustainable for the long run as opposed to just receiving a grant,” said Nate. “We feel impact investing is a more sustainable way to build our businesses in the long run.”

The question Nate faces every day is: What is it we need to do here in our valley and our region to make us more sustainable and resilient? “It’s a case of think globally but act hyper-locally. We hope to be a long-term model that people can look at in other places.”

He said, “I love to think about the data aspects of what we’re doing and also watch businesses work through the riddle of how to use the capital to create a solution.”

With the dairy farm, for example, Nate has to consider what kind of criteria they need to lower impact. He thinks about quantifying methane output, the carbon footprint required to bring products to market, and the ultimate amount of food this farm will produce for the local food system.

An aspect of his job that Nate really likes is being able to take these “onthe-ground” stories and share them with donors and impact investors. “It’s really easy to have a conversation with a donor when you believe in what you’re doing.”

Nate’s work has terroir, or a sense of place. Generally, it is a term used to describe the essence of wine or food, with notes of the climate or soil condition of a particular region. It’s also a feeling or sense of the reason you do the work. This sense of place informs his work.

Nate said he and his family love living in Hailey. “Eliza and I came for a winter when we graduated from college, and, after a brief return to New England, never left. We have been here for almost 15 years.”

SVIR serves Blaine County residents, but the area of impact is the ecosystem and businesses that support that. This gives them the flexibility to move into all of Southern Idaho. “This local model of impact investing is special. If you can focus on something that’s really local and show how you can mobilize capital locally, you can have a really profound impact on a specific region. Then if we knit that together throughout the country, throughout the world, that’s another model of thinking small to big to have an impact.”

Nathan Twichell ’02 Deputy Director Sun Valley Institute for Resilience

“There’s a ton of my FA education that still serves me well to this day!

I took Rhetoric and Persuasion as a senior and the skills I learned in that class to really make your words come off the page is something I use to this day. I do a lot of foundational grant writing now, and I also do a fair amount of public speaking. There’s a comfort of being in front of a group that my Falmouth Academy education really helped me with. That’s the key. Falmouth Academy brings education into the real world so that kids can excel in college and be prepared for life. A lot of your formative ability to think happens in middle and high school. I think that’s something that Falmouth Academy does really well. It did really well for me. That’s what I want for my kids, for them to have an education that endures for a lifetime.”

Jerry Humphrey ’79 A Lifelong Dream Becomes a Quest to Ease Cancer

When Jerry Humphrey ’79 met his then-girlfriend Kim he knew he was all in, especially when she started to experience blinding headaches, which turned out to be caused by a glioma tumor in her brain. Spending much of their newly married life at Mass General, Jerry knew he wanted to give back for the great care Kim received from staff.

An avid motorcycle rider, Jerry had always wanted to take a long road trip, so he decided to ride cross country to raise funds for the Mass General Brain Cancer Research Center. His goal was to raise $5,000 to support research into easing side effects from cancer treatments.

Starting from his home in New Hampshire on September 5, Jerry made his way to Chicago where he picked up the beginning of the historic Route 66, a trail that would take him 2,400 miles to Santa Monica, CA. Along the way, he learned a thing or two about himself, made many new friends, got a bee sting, and visited some interesting sights (“a collection of psychedelic Cadillacs half-buried in a cornfield, anyone?”).

After riding through a wet Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania (“a verdant wonder”), Jerry made it to Cleveland and stopped in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where he picked up a guitar and jammed to “Sympathy for the Devil” with a couple of guys.

On September 10 in Chicago, he started at the beginning of Route 66. About midway to Oklahoma City, he picked up a nail in one of his tires and had it repaired at Skunkwerx in Nixa, MO— and he wasn’t charged a thing!

“Brad from Skunkwerx was a good dude,” said Jerry. “If this country is made up of people like this, then we have nothing to worry about. Folks have been really supportive and kind during my trip, and that has really blown me away.”

On September 14, Jerry set out for Tucumcari, NM, about 400 miles away. He said Route 66 was definitely not a superhighway. “But when I did have to go on interstate roads, I felt like a jet ski in a shipping lane.”

By September 17, Jerry first reached Needles, CA, where it was 109 degrees, and after 3,400 dusty and exciting miles altogether, he finally arrived at his destination.

Route 66 was established in the mid-1920s and runs from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to California. It was a well-traveled route, especially for Midwesterners trying to escape the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

Jerry shipped his bike and flew home after his adventure, having surpassed his goal by raising nearly $6,000. Kim is doing fine, though mindful of the twice-yearly scans she must undergo. Jerry said that along the way he met so many kind and supportive people who, after hearing his story, shared their own experiences of a loved one who had fought or lost to cancer.

He said, “I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. I’ve never gone on a road trip like this before. But it is nothing compared to the journey folks with brain cancer take. It may not be much compared to what they’ve all been through, but doing it makes me feel less powerless.”

Kendall Currence ’18 A Portrait of Courage

Falmouth Academy alumna and Northeastern senior guard and team captain Kendall Currence ’18 was named the 2022 Pat Summitt Most Courageous award winner by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. This annual award honors a player, coach, official, or administrator of amateur basketball who demonstrates extraordinary courage. Kendall is the first member of the Colonial Athletic Association to receive this award, which was conferred on Friday, April 1 in Minneapolis during the Women’s Final Four. She also received the Most Inspirational Award from her teammates.

Known for her skill, sportsmanship, and leadership on the court, Kendall is this year’s top scorer for the Huskies with an average of 16 points per game and a career-high of 31 points on January 28. While at Falmouth Academy, Kendall netted 2,310 points making her the state's ninth all-time leading scorer. She was honored with this award not just for her athletic achievement but for her strength of character, courage, and perseverance in the face of adversity.

Kendall was born with a congenital condition requiring numerous surgeries for a cleft lip and palate and related cardiac anomalies. She underwent dozens of surgeries throughout childhood and high school. Any one of these conditions might deter a less determined person from pursuing a competitive basketball career, but not Kendall. Despite undergoing a botched jaw surgery at the beginning of her senior year of high school, which left her in constant pain, Kendall became the first player on the Cape to score over 2,000 career points.

Kendall is eligible to play one more year of college ball due to an eligibility allowance made by the NCAA in light of the pandemic. She graduated this spring with a psychology degree and will play in her fifth year of eligibility for Temple University while pursuing a master’s degree. She has great respect for her coach, Bridgette Mitchell, who is equally fond of Kendall. Mitchell describes her as a woman of character who has overcome great adversity, and who will continue to change the world. After college, Kendall hopes to continue playing basketball on the professional level.

Photos from Northeastern Athletics and the FA Archives