70. Marisol Barrero

Cincinnati, Ohio · Arts and Sciences

marisolb51@gmail.com

Tell us about what you're doing with your life.
I am lead ergonomist for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, where I am responsible for developing standards, tools, and systems through which Toyota creates ergonomic processes in North American manufacturing operations. I often travel to plants across the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as to Japan. Prior to the seven years I have spent with Toyota, I worked in ergonomics consulting for five years. I work in Northern Kentucky, but live across the Ohio river in Cincinnati, Ohio. I have been married to Jack for almost ten years and have two little boys. Julian is two and Marco is four. There is little spare time, but when there is, I love to exercise, cook, and find the next great bottle of wine. 

What was your favorite class at Cornell, or the one you found the most useful?
Wines and Cooking were extremely useful courses that I use in everyday life. The one that defined my career path, however, was DEA 150 (Intro to Human-Environmental Relations) with Gary Evans. I took it senior year and wished that I had taken it sooner as I was so fascinated with ergonomics, product design, and the physical environment. I actually went back to Cornell in 1998 for a Masters in DEA, concentrating in ergonomics, and I have been in the field ever since.

What is your favorite memory of your time at Cornell?
So many…freshman year football games, walks to and from my North Campus low rise from Collegetown, the BIG snow storm sophomore year when they shut down classes, living with my 11 awesome housemates in one big house senior year and the wine and cheese party we had there in the fall, senior year Spring Break trip to Jamaica, and all Slope Days. Most of all, walking through the campus super tired and stressed at times but still marveling in the beauty of the campus and the architecture.

What are you most looking forward to at Reunion 2015?
I hope Hot Truck will be around—there's a WGC out there with my name on it. I also can't wait to show my kids the beautiful area where mommy spent seven years for undergrad and grad, and begin to explain why "Ithaca is Gorges"!

71. Alanna Coughlin

Guilford, Connecticut · Human Ecology

alanna_coughlin@hotmail.com

Tell us about what you're doing with your life.
I live in Connecticut with my husband and two sons, working as a pediatrician in private practice and at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. 

What was your favorite class at Cornell, or the one you found the most useful?
I was a student-teacher through two College of Human Ecology human development courses in the same Ithaca first-grade class. I especially enjoyed working with several of the students who had special needs related to medical and developmental diagnoses. It gave me a preview of how great it can be to work as an advocate for children. 

What are you most looking forward to at Reunion 2015?
I am thrilled that the Dairy Bar reopened after its renovation! For our 10-year reunion we arrived and drove straight there, having a large cup of what I consider the best ice cream ever – vanilla raspberry chocolate chunk. Would love to do the same thing for our 20th! 

Which Cornell classmates do you keep in touch with?
Happy to report that fellow 95ers (and fellow Cornell Med 99ers) Melissa Held Tobin and Dan Tobin live a few miles up the road with their two children.  Also lucky to have another 95er a few miles in the other direction, Lisa Brodbeck.

72. Ginny Ryan Buresh

Coralville, Iowa · Human Ecology

Name at Cornell
Ginny Ryan

ginny-ryan@uiowa.edu

Tell us about what you're doing with your life.
I lead a fairly crazy existence trying to stay a half step ahead of my four kids, clinical and research roles at a Reproductive Endocrinologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals, and community work on the board of our local Girls on the Run council. Finding time for my husband and my physical health is a rare bonus! My life is frenetic but extremely gratifying.

What is your favorite memory of your time at Cornell?
Times spent running through the beautiful trails of Ithaca with teammates and friends from the track and cross-country teams.

What advice would you give to a student starting at Cornell this year?
As much as possible while preserving your sanity, take advantage of all the once-in-a-lifetime academic, extracurricular, and community opportunities at this amazing school!

What does being a Cornell alumnus mean to you?
I am incredibly proud to be an alum, and I look forward to encouraging my children to begin a legacy of attendance. I am certain that I would not be in this very privileged position without my Cornell education and experience!

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone's holiday season was safe and happy and that your first week of 2014 has been good.  We also hope you're enjoying meeting (or re-meeting) your fellow Class of 1995 graduates. So far we've featured 23 members of the class from every college and from all over the world.  

While it may seem like a long way off, our 20^th Reunion is next year – June 4-7, 2015. We hope you're planning to make the trip back to Cornell to reunite with us in person. Maybe we can even beat the 20^th-year attendance record of 447 held by the class of 1992.

In the meantime, you can connect with the class on Twitter (@cornell95) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cornell1995). If you know of classmates who aren't on social media, drop them a line and make sure they know about this blog. And, of course, keep in touch – if there's a classmate you'd like to see featured here, let us know at cornell95faces@gmail.com. Our class is spread all over the world doing all kinds of things, but we'll always have the time we spent together at Cornell to unite us. Let's head toward our 2015 Reunion as a connected, engaged community!

73. Tara Uzra Dawood

Every few weeks, Cornell '95 Faces features a profile of one of our class officers. This week, meet the Vice President for Communications/Secretary. 

Global · Arts and Sciences

Name at Cornell
Tara Dawood

tudawood@gmail.com
Twitter: @tudawood

Tell us about what you're doing with your life.
I am President of Dawood Global Foundation, aka LADIESFUND, and we inspire-connect-educate women entrepreneurs and professionals. Our latest project is Educate a Girl, with a mission to educate 1,000 girls in Pakistan in vocational media scholarships to give women a voice in media. Each scholarship is $100 one time and in the donor's name. Top scholars get placed in media outlets for sustainability.

What are your duties as class officer and what have you enjoyed about the job?
I have been on Class Council since graduation in positions like Vice President (1 term), then Secretary (2 terms) and currently VP Communications/Secretary.  It is pure pleasure to be a part of a fabulous Class Council and group of classmates who really love Cornell and our class and want to facilitate connecting with each other and our alma mater. The best part is staying in touch with everyone and the friendships I've made that have strengthened through the years.  As my role is to pass on announcements and communication to classmates, it is a real privilege.  Can't wait for reunion to catch up in person.

What was your favorite class at Cornell, or the one you found the most useful?
Psychology 101. I loved learning from Prof. James B. Maas and realize this subject affects and addresses almost all areas of life. I also loved my English Lit classes with Prof. Lydia Fakudiny and Prof. Stuart Davis.

Which Cornell classmates do you keep in touch with?
Our Class Council , of course. As well as dear friends like James McCloskey, Sonia Ali, Nadie Batcha, Jim Whitaker, Katrina Bailey, et al. Too many to name. Have also made lovely friends from the Cornell Club of Toronto such as Onah Jung, Tyler McManus, Justin Tung, Paul Pederson, Peder Jacobson, et al.

What random or surprising encounters with Cornell or Cornellians have you experienced since you left?
When I was the President of the Cornell Club of Toronto, I interacted with Cornellians of all different graduation years as well as interests, and often had to call an invite an alumni I had never met to attend one of our events. It amazes me how successful and diverse our alumni body is, and how happy to hear from one another we always are.

74. Neal Kaplan

Queens, New York · Industrial and Labor

Relations

nhkaplan@hotmail.com

Tell us about what you're doing with your life.
I am currently Vice President, Deputy General Counsel for the New York Mets. I work with the General Counsel and two other outstanding lawyers on all legal matters for the organization. In addition to doing work for the team and the Mets business operations, we handle legal issues for our home ballpark, Citi Field, our spring training facility in Florida, our training complex in the Dominican Republic, and the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team and its ballpark in Coney Island. Significant matters that I’ve worked on since joining the Mets in 2003 include the creation of the SNY television network; the financing, construction, and operation of Citi Field; the sale of minority interests in the team; and baseball salary arbitration. I live in Queens, New York with my beautiful wife and high school sweetheart Ginny; our children Samantha, 9; and Will, 6; and our cat Maz, 13.

What is your favorite memory of your time at Cornell?
Without question, graduation day. Getting through Cornell was such hard work, often under difficult circumstances, and I remember having such a feeling of accomplishment at reaching graduation in one piece. I was fortunate enough to be one of the ILR degree marshals and help to lead my school into the football stadium, and the first moment I saw the stands full of graduates’ families, friends and loved ones, including my own, is one of my most cherished memories.

Which Cornell classmates do you keep in touch with?
My three closest friends are all Cornell class of 1995: Rob Friedman, David Quigley, and Jonathan Perry. Rob and I have been friends since freshman year in ILR, I met Jon right at the end of senior year, and I didn’t meet David until law school. All three of us went to Harvard Law School, but I think that something about the Cornell experience, or maybe something about the kind of person who would go to Cornell, is the same for all of us, and is at the heart of our friendships.

What advice would you give to a student starting at Cornell this year?
Aside from bring the heaviest coat, gloves, boots, and hat you can find? Take advantage of the opportunity to take classes in different schools, and to meet people whose interests are very different than your own. I was in ILR, but my transcript includes classes like Intro to Acting, Psychology & Law, Ancient Seafaring, Art from 1940 to 1990, and Science in Western Civilization. I tried to make the most of Ezra’s “any person, any study” philosophy, and I’m glad I did.

75. Erin Harty

Baltimore, Maryland · Agriculture and Life

Sciences

eharty@gmail.com

Tell us about what you're doing with your life.
After working as a staff writer/editor for an equestrian magazine and an online pet magazine, I went freelance in 2002. I've done a mixture of writing, editing, and online community management, mostly for equestrian magazines, but also for a lacrosse magazine here in Baltimore. In 2008, I wrote a book on horse care for the Humane Society of the United States.

Those jobs took me from rural Virginia to Phoenix to Annapolis, then finally to Baltimore, where I bought a decrepit 100-year-old rowhouse that has now been completely gutted and redone. I can see Camden Yards from my house!

I still ride horses, although my current horse, Chief, is older and semi-retired now—his show name, when he was still competing, was Ithaca! I also do a lot of volunteering in animal rescue, and currently have a pit bull and an ever-rotating gang of foster cats.

Which Cornell classmates do you keep in touch with?
Through the magic of Facebook, most of U-Hall 3, 4th floor. The folks I actually make a point of visiting with whenever the opportunity arises: my senior year roommates (Thelma Romano Kranyak, Erica Chapman, Aylin Ozmelek Lewallen, James Boglioli), Elana GIlaad, Jennifer Keene, and Concert Commission cronies Tom Lyon, Sanjoy Biswas, and Erika Eason.

What random or surprising encounters with Cornell or Cornellians have you experienced since you left?
Even though none of us were really "runners" while at Cornell, my senior year roommates (Erica Chapman, Aylin Ozmelek Lewallen, Thelma Romano Kranyak, and James Boglioli '94) and I are all now into long-distance running. In 2012, we all got together for the first time in a decade to run a half marathon, and it's given us a reason to meet up periodically for races. James and Erica also convinced me to run my first full marathon in Baltimore in October, and Thelma and her whole family came to cheer me on!

What are you most looking forward to at Reunion 2015?
Besides the obvious -- catching up with old friends -- I love spending time on campus and in Ithaca. As much as it has changed (and holy cow, has it changed!), it always feels like home.