Owls in the World
Jeff Mills (’79) lives in Johor Bahru Malaysia, just across a bridge from Singapore, where he teaches at an international school. We talked about how families globally value education for their children, and the similarities and differences between Overlake in the 1970s, and the growth of new schools globally where Jeff has spent the last twelve years of his career. He has two children, one in Thailand, and one studying in Bellingham. Jeff’s undergraduate degree from Lewis & Clark was in natural science, which involved advanced biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, as an onramp to medical school. After receiving his BS, he changed course and got a master’s degree in International Business, which is where he spent his the earlier part of his career. He shares how he decided to teach and also a wonderful adventure on the set of The Empire Strikes Back from his Overlake days.
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Lauren Russell Nkuranga (’05) lives in Kigali, Rwanda with her husband artist Emmanuel Nkuranga and their two small children. She is the founder of GET IT, an e-commerce food distribution company whose mission is “to bring food security to East, West, and Central Africa.” We talked about the arc of Lauren’s journey from the Pacific Northwest to the landlocked republic nestled between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, her time at Overlake, Yale, and the Nike Foundation on her way to taking up capitalism as a tool for change.
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Catherine Yeh (’18) recently completed her undergraduate studies at Williams College, majoring in Computer Science with a concentration in Cognitive Science, and is now at Harvard University.
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Gail Stewart (’74) recently retired from a career in nursing. We had a chance to catch up as she was unpacking from her move to Spokane.
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I'm in Boise, Idaho talking with Gavin Morrison, Class of 1982. We've been looking at Overlake yearbooks and all the pictures of us when we both had long hair. (Laughter) Gavin, after you left Overlake, where did you go to college?
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He's been Overlake's Athletic Director for many seasons, but his journey began as an Owl in high school. John WIley ('83) has been on the sidelines of thousands of athletic events here at Overlake, but as you'll learn, success off the field is just as important as a "W" for this alum.
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Megan Halbrook is an infectious disease epidemiologist and current PhD candidate at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her website states that she is “interested in infectious disease dynamics, anthropogenic factors in disease emergence, outbreak response and understanding emerging (and re-emerging) infectious threats in a complex and interconnected environment.”
Overlake is fortunate to have Megan serve as the school’s infectious disease epidemiologist, acting in an advisory role along with fellow Owl alum Dr. Samantha Hillyer (’00), to help the school navigate the COVID-19 crisis using the best science and public health data and practices to keep everyone in The Overlake School community safe.
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When last we spoke, Chap had launched rerouted.co to provide a way for outdoor enthusiasts to buy and sell quality used clothing and equipment, reduce environmental impacts, and support nonprofits. Here, he gives an update on developments in the past several months.
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Karthik is not yet an alum, but his work as a student is so relevant to our world right now, it made sense to share this with our alumni community.
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Ashwin Appiah ('06) explains his long and winding road to get to work on Microsoft Teams. Read more here
Katherine Spiers ('00) works as a food journalist. Read more about her work here.
Meet our Distinguished Alums
Since 2018, the Alumni Board chooses an alum to honor yearly for the way they exemplify the mission and values of The Overlake School. Please join us in congratulating past Distinguished Alums.
Meet Kara Brown ('07), Overlake's first Distinguished Alum honoree.
Meet Dr. Shivani Srivastava ('04), Overlake's Distinguished Alum honoree for 2019.
Meet Cora Nally ('89), Overlake's Distinguished Alum honoree for 2020.
Meet Dr. Jeffrey Herron ('05), Overlake's Distinguished Alum honoree for 2021.
Meet Allison Barto ('94), Overlake's Distinguished Alum for 2022.
Meet Sahar Fathi ('01), Overlake's Distinguished Alum for 2023.