Class Notes

the social and cultural connections between Asia and America. Robert retired in 2021. He visited TAS in May 2023 with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Maxwell.

Bob Heath '66 just completed his book "Growing Up Army," published in June 2023. Two chapters are devoted to their time in Taiwan.

Robert Lee '65 is the Associate Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Brown University. His focus areas include Asian Americans, popular culture and racial formations, Asian American displacements and diasporas, and daughters, Leila and Eliana, in 2022. They join big sister Lina, who is already 3 years old. Congratulations to Issa!

Roger Strickland '66 retired in May 2022 after teaching Economics and Business Administration courses for 42 years at Santa Fe College, Gainesville, Florida.

Valerie Saint-Rossy '68 has taught Chinese characters since 2006, focusing on the 50 characters found most frequently on Chinese restaurant menus. In addition, as a foreign language copy editor, she is hired by book publishers to proofread characters in Englishlanguage books.

Susan Lee '69 retired in 2011 after working as a CPA for several federal agencies. She would love to locate Nora, Sirilak, Jeanette, and anyone else in the Class of 1969. Please contact Susan through the Alumni Online Directory.

H. Lynn Raley '71 is an associate professor of music history at Millsaps College, a liberal arts college in Jackson, MS. Lynn visited TAS for the first time in a decade in May 2023, his last visit in 2012-13 when he was a Fulbright Scholar to Taiwan. Lynn is visiting Taiwan as an instructor for the Summer Mini-Semester, a collaboration between the Consortium for Study Abroad in Taiwan (CSAT), which is a part of Fulbright Taiwan, and the International College at Tunghai University in Taichung.

Rose Chan Loui '78 started her new job as the inaugural Director of UCLA Law's Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits in October 2022. She is excited about the opportunity to use her nonprofit law expertise and nonprofit board experience to have a broader impact on the world of philanthropy and nonprofits. She is also in her second year as board chair of East West Players, the longest-running Asian American theater designated by the Ford Foundation as one of "America's Cultural Treasures." A dedicated Cardinal alumna, Rose co-chairs the 40th reunion of the Class of 1982, interviews applicants to Stanford, and just completed her term as co-President of the Stanford Club of Pasadena.

Freda Fung '79 introduced the Special Olympics to TAS students, faculty, and parents in May 2022. Freda is currently the President and Managing Director of Special Olympics East Asia (SOEA), which includes China, Hong Kong, Macau, Chinese Taipei, Korea, and Mongolia. Founded in the U.S. in 1968 by Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Special Olympics is a global movement creating a new world of inclusion and community where everyone is accepted and welcomed, regardless of ability or disability. Freda hopes to invite the TAS community to partake in Special Olympics Chinese Taipei events once events are resumed. In addition, the Special Olympics will be holding its next Summer World Games in Berlin, Germany, from June 17-25, 2023, where over 7000 athletes from 170 global programs will compete.

Michelle Bos-Lun '84 (left) was recently reelected to her second term in the Vermont House of Representatives. She serves on the Corrections and Institutions Committee, working on corrections reform, restorative justice, housing development, and sustainability. She continues to teach part-time and runs a nonprofit called Bihar Educational Change Foundation which supports two schools in north India.

Immer Liza Ravalo '88 shares, "I have served as a Clark County School District educator in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the past 25 years. As a middle school principal for the last 7 years, I will celebrate retirement this summer. My husband and I look forward to traveling worldwide soon!"

Yasunari Hagiya '90 (second from left) lives in Taipei with his family and has a daughter who attends the Taipei Japanese School. His sister Kumi Hagiya '93 (center) lives in Tokyo, Japan, with her family. She and her husband have two children. She attended TAS from 1989 to 1993. Yasunari and Kumi revisited TAS in May 2023.

Class Agent Sherry Hsia '92 published her first book, MBTI- 我 和我的使用說明書, in March 2023. In addition, she is well known for her popular YouTube Channel "Sherry's Psychology Blog" 「雪力 的心理學筆記」. Sherry explains how MBTI does not predict anyone's future but can help us understand our current situation.

Matt Davies '92 recently published his second novel. In Things We Bury, three siblings discover the cost of unspoken truths when old wounds and long-buried family secrets are finally dragged to the surface. Connect with Matt and learn more about his writing from his website at www.matthew ryandavies.com.

Maki Hsieh '92 is the classically trained violinist and 13-language soprano Maki Mae. She was one of three Asians broadcast on the 65th Annual Grammys telecast on CBS with her violin. The other Asians were pop star Olivia Rodrigo and Samoan Dwayne Johnson. Learn more about Maki at www.makimae.com.

Kurt Yoder '92 writes: "I married in 1999 and have three children. The oldest is about to turn 21. I've been a professional I.T./computer nerd since 1997. I founded my own company in 2016."

Issa Massoud '94 and his family recently welcomed new twin

Deseree "Dez" Lo '95 competed in Season 10 of Top Chef Canada, which premiered on September 26, 2022, on the Food Network. Dez attended The French Culinary Institute in New York and worked her way up through restaurants in New York and Los Angeles, eventually moving to Vancouver in 2016, becoming the Executive Sous Chef at CinCin Restaurant and Head Chef at Old Bird Restaurant before the pandemic. She is currently a Consultant/ Catering Chef at Blank Canvas Catering, a division of the Joseph Richard Group.

Melanie Ansley '97 is a writer/ producer for film and television and a novelist. After TAS, she spent years in Vancouver, Beijing, and L.A., and now lives in Australia with her husband and two children.

Judy Lo '97 is Executive Director of Ecube Design in Taipei, LEED AP and WELL AP certified Designer in Architecture and Interior Design, and Consultant in Sustainability and Wellness. She and her husband, Danny, an Architectural Designer and Sports Facility Consultant, have two daughters.

Charles Yeh '97 co-produced the world's longest-running musical, The Fantasticks 《夢幻愛 程》 which ran from September 23-November 13, 2022, at the Songshan Creative Park Theater.

Jonathan Huang '99 is the Director of Enrollment and Marketing at the LEAP Foundation. LEAP Week is a summer youth leadership and entrepreneurship program at UCLA for high school students and young adults that will run July 16 - 22nd, 2023. Learn more about the program at www.leapfoundation.com/ collegelaunch. To receive a USD 50 TAS community discount, please contact Jonathan directly at jh@collegelaunch.com.

Melinda Hwang '99 and Edward Fu '99 moved from Los Angeles to Taipei in July 2021, and their kids have now joined as little TAS Tigers in Grades 1, 2, and 4! During the pandemic, they launched a reusable, highfiltration mask business called Happy Masks and continue to run the business from Taiwan. They look forward to spending more time with both sets of grandparents in Taiwan, reconnecting with old TAS classmates, and, on the business front, expanding their business to other Taiwan-manufactured products.

In July 2022, a few alumni had a small gathering in Boston to celebrate Jeff's belated surprise 40th birthday: (from left to right) SAS alumna Cecilia Lam '99, Debbie Chou '00, Jennifer Fang '02, and Mari Kobayashi '00 and Mari’s daughter. Thank you for sharing, Mari!

Ryah Whalen '01 gave a TED Talk in Scotland on decarbonizing the airline industry called "3 Ways to Make Flying More ClimateFriendly" in June 2022. Ryah is the Innovations Senior Director at Boston Consulting Group and leads the day-to-day operations of Innovations@BCG, BCG's engine for business model innovation.

Fred Chang '02 and his wife ended their 18 months of nomadic life by welcoming twin boys into their life in November 2022. They now reside in the Washington DC metro area after taking the longest (in both duration and length) road trip ever from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Gordon Kung '02 started a new position as a senior marketing specialist at Seasonic, a premium brand manufacturer of consumer and industrial power supply for P.C.s, in March 2023.

Class Agent Edward Wang '99 is the inaugural chairman of the Beijing Tsinghua University EMBA Alumni Association in Taiwan. Under his guidance, the association has flourished and received recognition by winning several awards from Tsinghua University.

Nathan O'Konek '00 is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Redwire Space, where he leads the company's legal and mergers and acquisitions efforts and oversees strategic initiatives to support company growth. Redwire is a new leader in mission-critical space solutions and high-reliability components for next-generation space systems and infrastructure. Nathan visited TAS in May 2023 and was glad to be reunited with his former teachers, Mr. Arnold, Mr. Abernethy, and Ms. Tenebrini. Nathan and his family live in Jacksonville, Florida.

Jenn Melyan '02 was featured in the Huffington Post in June 2022 for her article entitled "Yes, Fat Asians Exist — And I'm One of Them."

Principal Megan Grehl '03 and her studio Re-ad were named finalists. They subsequently won the 2022 NYCxDESIGN award in the residential transformation category for their West Village Townhouse renovation project. Congratulations to Megan!

Alexandra Heagney '03 is Senior Education Officer at the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, Australia, part of the Taronga Conservation Society. She has been hosting virtual zoo tours for students in Australia and beyond during the

COVID-19 epidemic, bringing the zoo experience to classrooms worldwide. Both in 2021 and 2022, Alex has made zoo visits to Lower School classrooms. Thank you for your hard work, Alex!

Jessica Kay Lee '03 is a certified meditation coach, mindfulness teacher, and maternal wellbeing educator who offers 1-1 private coaching, group classes/ workshops, and customized community meditation circles. She is also the proud parent of two TAS lower school students. For more information on Jessica's work, visit her website at www. thelotuspond.org.

James Hwang '04 is a founding member of the Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New Yorkbased performing arts company tasked with reviving five thousand years of culture through classical Chinese dance and orchestra. James is a violist who has performed with Shen Yun for over seventeen years. He visited Taipei with Shen Yun and performed at the Taipei Performing Arts Center from March 21-26, 2023.

Lower school art teacher

Stephanie Lee '04 married her fiance in a traditional Taiwanese engagement and wedding ceremony in April 2023. Congratulations to Stephanie!

21, 2022. They reside in San Francisco and hope to return to Taipei soon to bring Jay to visit TAS.

Melvin Su '05 and his husband welcomed their son Jay, a true Tiger, via surrogacy on December faculty Mr. David Badgley and Mr. Andre Huang. Thomas graduated in December 2021 from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.A. in architecture, and he is now heading to Yale for his master's in architecture.

Dr. Cindy Tsai, MD '06, gave a TEDx talk on integrative medicine in November 2023. Watch it to learn about body intelligence and share the importance of an integrative approach for optimal health and wellness with others. Her book So Much Better: LifeChanging Strategies to Develop Calm, Confidence & Curiosity to Become Your Own Inspiring Success Story was published in April 2022 and has become a #1 bestseller in multiple categories on Amazon. She is excited to share this with the TAS community. So Much Better is a transformative self-help book that offers a research-based process to help high-achievers fulfill their dreams. Expertly written by Dr. Tsai, who is board-certified physician, keynote speaker, and life coach, this practical guide explores many strategies to help readers overcome anxiety and burnout, reprogram their brain's default, and become the inspiring success stories they were meant to be.

Dr. Andy Huang '07 visited TAS with his girlfriend Amy in February 2023. Andy now lives in Sydney, Australia, where he recently finished his residency and is practicing psychiatry.

Lillian Lin '08 is co-owner and COO of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry in New York City. She works with Taiwanese independent farmers to bring their food to the world. She was featured on "Game Changers," an original TaiwanPlus series that highlights young Taiwanese all over the world who are making a difference. In April 2023, Lillian and her Yun Hai co-founder Lisa Cheng Smith welcomed President Tsai Ing-wen to their shop on her stopover in New York City during her tour of the Americas.

Ashley Bernal '09 has a baby son Grayson who turned one year old in May 2023. Along with being a new mother and being promoted to a Product Security Engineer, she has just celebrated the fifth anniversary of her bakery, Love and Baking. They moved into a beautifully renovated commercial kitchen for the occasion and have been featured on two T.V. shows and local news. Check out Ashley's bakery here: www. loveandbaking.com.

Congratulations to Ashley!

Caitlin (Beer) Hall '09 writes, "I recently changed careers and am now working as an instructional designer at 280 Group, a training and consulting company specializing in product management. While I miss teaching drama, this has been a much-needed career change. We had our second child in January 2021, and the four of us (plus our dog Sandwich) recently adopted a cat named Mochi to round out our family. We are looking forward to a move this summer to Washington state."

Jeff Hsiung '10 and his wife welcomed their son Jasper in October 2022. Congratulations to Jeff!

Janice Jiang '10 is a pastry chef at Butter& in San Francisco. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Jonathan, and her eight-monthold daughter Hailey. They visited Taipei in April 2023.

Adrian Yao '10 is celebrating eight years as the Co-Founder and CTO of EnPower, Inc. He is starting graduate studies in Material Science & Engineering at Stanford University.

Tiffany Chatham '12 has worked in the entertainment industry and was recently promoted to Associate Art Director. Tiffany and her team won one of the Clio Awards for creating the trailer for the James Bond movie "No Time to Die." Tiffany was also selected to be a part of the team to develop the movie trailer for the Harry Potter film "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore." Congratulations to Tiffany!

Albert Chen '12 is a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College at Cambridge. Albert wants to thank TAS for providing excellent teachers and environments to help develop their enthusiasm. Albert's research combines genetic data from living species with anatomical data from living and fossil species to infer probable evolutionary relationships and patterns, creating a foundation for understanding the origins of modern biodiversity and organismal responses to critical events in Earth's history.

Tiffany Lay '12 returned to TAS as an alumni volunteer and led Nature Workshops with various art classes in November and December 2022. She instructed students in nature design and logos, making eco-prints, and natural weaving.

Nick Yeh '13 (center left) became engaged to his long-distance girlfriend, Christal Liu, a fellow educator, in June 2022. Nick's brother, Matthew Yeh '15 (center right) also proposed to his long-time girlfriend, Sarah Park, in April 2022. Congratulations to Nick and Matthew!

In July 2022, TAS Director of College Counseling Melanie Hamre and Upper School Director of Academic and Personal Counseling Ryan Haynes reunited with TAS alumni Jacci Yin '12 (center left) and Duanduan Hsieh '15 (left) at the annual conference for the International Association of College Admissions Counselors (IACAC). Jacci and Duanduan represent Admissions at Scripps College and Occidental College.

Cheryl Kao '13 taught the Advanced User Experience Design course at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in the fall of 2022.

Class Agent Naomi Leong '13 has moved to Ann Arbor, MI. She now works as a Multilingual Data Annotation Specialist with Qualtrics. She leads groups of multilingual data annotators on several NLP data annotation and data audit projects, including NER, Key Phrase Extraction, Keyword Detection, and more.

Xiao Yang Kao '15 was recently named in the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Manufacturing & Industry as part of his company's efforts to build technology for the manufacturing industry. He is excited to bring transformation to sectors that are traditionally behind in adopting new technology, especially one as critical as manufacturing.

Rebecca Persson '15 (center) works at Visa as a Fintech & Payments Consultant and lives in New York City. She visited TAS in April 2023 and reconnected with former teachers Ms. Chen and Mr. Brown.

Darren Chien '16 is on the planning committee for Taipei Blockchain Week, which took place December 12-17, 2022.

Jonathan Hau '19 is a senior at Brandeis University. He is a part of the Brandeis University men's track and field team, which came in third in their second meet of 2023, the Branwen Smith-King Invitational at Tufts. Jonathan placed eighth in the 35-pound weight throw. Congratulations, Jonathan!

Rem Yang '19 is graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign this spring. He will head to MIT for a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the fall of 2023. Congratulations to Rem!

Kevin Lin '15 is working on his master's degree in clinical mental health counseling, specializing in expressive arts therapy at Lesley University in Boston. He graduated from UC Irvine in 2019 with a bachelor of arts degree in Drama, a minor in Management, and a certificate in Arts Management. Kevin is pursuing a career in counseling for seniors with depression and mental health issues. Kevin invites us to visit his Instagram page @etableble, which is dedicated to introducing expressive therapies into people's lives, especially for those unfamiliar with this field who can benefit and heal through expressive therapies.

In September 2022, TAS alumni at the University of Pennsylvania welcomed the latest students to join them with a big family-style dinner. Attendees included Andrew Hu '17, Katherine Tseng '17, Catherine Chang '19, Charlotte Chou '19, Sharon Kuo '19, Rowena Lu '19, Austin Wang '21, Kaitlyn Hu '22, Yvonne Kuo '22, and Matthew Kuo '22

Thomas Chen '18 made a digital visit to the Upper School's architecture and design classes through Zoom in April 2022 at the invitation of upper school art history in December 2022. The championship win made national headlines as coach Julianne Sitch, in her first year as head coach of the Maroons, also became the first-ever female head coach to win a men's collegiate soccer championship. build a large-scale gravity-fed water distribution network for the Nyabohanse community in Kenya. Currently, nearby locals' water supply is either too little, too far away, or is not clean. This multi-year, multi-phase project will begin with expanding the small existing distribution network, placing storage tanks at a new distribution location near Reverend David Duveskog Primary School, and supporting MIWASCO (the country's water utility) to increase energy sustainability and self-sufficiency for their facilities.

Celine Hsu '20 has been releasing new music under the name Celineh as a producer-songwriter. She released her debut single in February 2023. Celine hopes to collaborate with fellow alumni who work in Drama, film, and music to pitch songs. Follow Celine on Instagram (@celinh. music) and Spotify.

Kelly Phil '20 (left) and her University of Michigan classmate Rafael Pierry earned second place at the collegiate National Debate Tournament in April 2023. Unfortunately, the duo lost to Wake Forest University in the final round of the tournament. Phil and Pierry, who ended the season with a 77-9 record, also received the Rex Copeland Memorial Award, given to the top-ranked collegiate debate team in the country after the 2022-23 regular season. Congratulations to Kelly!

Ethan Go '22 was nominated for two awards at the All-American High School Film Festival (AAHSFF). AAHSFF is one of the world's largest and most wellrecognized high school film festivals, attracting the best and brightest. Ethan entered with "Parasomniac," a film that he created independently in the TAS Summer Academy Film Portfolio class during quarantine, which makes his nominations an even more significant accomplishment, as most of these categories are dominated by top-notch teams of filmmakers. He had limited equipment, no crew but his family, and he had to shoot the whole thing in his house. Ethan is in his first year at USC film school and proudly represents TAS!

Dhirpal Shah '20 is a part of the University of Chicago men's soccer team, which claimed the first Division III National Championship in the program's

Laura Hwa ’22, a freshman at Princeton University, is working with Engineers Without Borders on a service-learning project to

Over the summer of 2022, lower school Associate Principal Rick Rabon bumped into Isaac Song '22 at the International Boys School Coalition Conference held at St. Mark's School of Texas, Dallas, TX. A St. Mark's graduate, Isaac served as a panelist for a plenary session. Isaac attended TAS from 2014 to 2018 and started his freshman at Georgia Tech in August 2022.