Meet the Members Monday- Lauren S

Hi, my name is Lauren Simmons and I am the wife of Sean Simmons (MS2). Sean is a Naval Academy graduate with prior service in both the Navy and the Army. Sean and I met while doing our medical school pre-requisites in Philadelphia (where we also met the lovely Sam and Eva Burns). We have been married for two and a half years and live in NE Washington DC with our son, Raylan (20 months), and two stinky (but cute) dogs, Masoud (crazy mutt from Afghanistan) and Clio (smelly Rhodesian Ridgeback from the Dirty Jerz).

I was born and raised outside Philadelphia, PA. I did my undergraduate degree in history and Spanish at Davidson College in North Carolina. After working in reinsurance, I decided to make a career change and pursued a post-baccalaureate certificate in health studies. When Sean and I moved to DC for Sean to attend USUHS, I decided to do my Masters in Public Health and in May 2012 graduated from George Washington University with a MPH in Global Health Epidemiology. Currently, I work as a research epidemiologist investigating health disparities in Latino immigrants/refugees in the DC metropolitan area.

In my free time (all 30 minutes a week) I enjoy reading, cooking, running, and relaxing with Sean, Raylan, and our pups. I look forward to meeting everyone at future SSC events.

Meet the Members Monday- Angie D

Hello SSC Members,

Angie Dunn, here. I was asked to introduce myself to this wonderful organization by your friendly Publications Editor, Ms. Yoder. So a “few” years ago I met a soldier, fell in love (a terrible affliction, by the way) and then I married him! I’m still crazy about Noel! He is my number one supporter and the one who challenges me to do better. I love him for that! We have two terrific kiddos- Amelia and Mark, ages 20 months and 2 months (yeah our house is a bit chaotic!). Noel is in the Class of 2015, his branch of service is, you guessed it, Army. We’ve been associated with the Army for some time- Noel was commissioned in 2001. We’ve lived in such exotic locations as Ft. Hood, TX, Ft. Benning, GA, Ft. Bragg, NC, and Ft. Lewis, WA. At each installation, Noel served as a leader, alongside his soldiers on the ground. I had the privilege of knowing his men and their families and came to care deeply about their well-being as if they were my own family. I suppose the gain of those kinds of relationships made up for the perceived “losses” of military life, namely the consequences of frequent moves. But I don’t dwell too much on the negative and found a way to have the kind of life I wanted, you might say despite, but I would say because of the military.

About the time Noel deployed again to Iraq, I got into medical school out in Washington (state). I was very much a part of the military family, and I thought if he could have all the fun, I might as well, too. So I joined the Army in 2008. He deployed and I went to officer’s basic leadership course in San Antonio (where a lot of your spouses had to go before they started medical school). And when I wanted to complain about the heat, and the MRE’s, and the blisters on my feet, I’d think about how Noel was probably much less comfortable wherever he was. (But I still complained a little, it was freaking hot!) A few years later during my third year of med school our daughter was born and a few months later we moved out to DC. I pieced together my rotations with local physicians, gave birth to our son and voila! I am now an intern (a physician fresh out of medical school) at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The life I wanted because of the military. This is over the word limit so- give a shout if you have questions (angeladunn137@yahoo.com) about any of the above Army posts, want to talk career/kids/moving/weather in San Antonio! Happy to help those in this great USU-SSC organization! 

Meet the Members Monday- Elisa B

Hi, my name is Elisa Miller and I am married to Chris Bickett. We were married two months ago at a beautiful ranch in Wyoming. Chris is currently a second year student in the Army, with a long background in the military starting with the US Navy and the Naval Academy and then eight years in the US Marine Corps. Although, I only met Chris when he interviewed for USUHS two years ago, so I am new to the military life.

I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona and will always call the southwest home. I grew up riding my horse Sadie and playing basketball in school. While in Arizona I attended the University of Arizona for two years studying Biochemistry and working as an EMT before making a huge change in my career path and enrolling in Brooks Institute of Photography in California. I completed my education at Brooks majoring in Visual Journalism. This career brought me to Washington, DC over four years ago to work as a freelance photographer. I have spent this time working mainly for the New York Daily News covering politics. While living in Bethesda my roommate and USUHS student introduced me to his buddy, Chris, who was interviewing at USUHS. We hit it off from there. After dating long distance for seven months Chris finally moved to Maryland to start school and it has been an awesome journey with him since that first introduction. We enjoy running, brewing beer and hanging out with our dog Gabby when ever there is free time.

It has been great meeting new people at the Student Spouses Club and learning about life in the military. I can’t wait to meet more great people and learn about military medical school spouse life. 

Meet the Members Monday- Joanna H

Hello USU SSC members! I'm Joanna Hart, married to Dan Hart, MS1 (Army). Dan and I met in high school in CA, but it was not until we “re-met” after his graduation from West Point that we fell in love and got married. That was almost 15 years ago (Dec 1997)! Since then we have thoroughly enjoyed being an Army family, being stationed in Germany, Ft. Benning, GA (three times!), Ft. Campbell, KY, Ft. Leavenworth, KS, Ft. Wainwright AK (yes it is miserably COLD, but beautiful!), and most recently before coming to USUHS, Ft. Bliss, TX (not my favorite!). Along the way, in the midst of moving quite frequently and three deployments, we have managed to have 8 kids and are expecting #9 after Thanksgiving! We have 4 girls and soon to be 5 boys ranging from 13 to 2 and they are awesome! As you can expect, life can be pretty crazy at our house (which isn't SO conducive to studying. . .we're planning lots of road trips the weeks prior to a final exam!), but the military has been a great environment for our kids to grow up in and experience SO many places and things that most people don't ever get the chance to do. Homeschooling has allowed us the flexibility to experience a lot of wonderful things as well. Military kids in general are some of the most resilient, well rounded people, and my kids love to tell stories about all the places we've lived.
     We are very excited about this new career path (Dan was pre-med at West Point, but chose to go Infantry, so it's not entirely surprising, but a HUGE change for us nonetheless!). We're thrilled to just live in one place for four years!! We are looking forward to meeting everyone and getting to know you throughout our time here. We're the ones who live crazy far away, but we have a great fun place to explore and soon to be goats and chickens, so we'd love to have you bring the kids and hang out!
     PS In my “spare time” I enjoy cooking, quilting, visiting friends, date nights with Dan and being entertained by our kids antics!

SSC Halloween Party!

The leaves are changing and the time has come for us to gather together for some Halloween fun!  On October 24, the Parent Tot Committee will host its annual Halloween Party at USUHS.  We will meet in the Small Cafeteria at 11 for food and games (Pin the face on the Pumpkin, Witch's Hat Ring Toss, Ghost Hunt) and then parade through campus at 12 as we trick or treat in Building A.  Bring your own trick or treat bag or decorate one at the party!  If you have a favorite appetizer or Halloween treat, please bring it to add to our spooky spread.  It should be a ghastly good time!  Please RSVP to the Evite so we know how many goblins are planning to attend.

Thanks and hope to see you there!
Victoria
Parent-Tot Chair

Meet the Members Monday

A big hello from the Erickson's. My name is Melanie. My husband, Davis, is a MS1 Air Force, no prior service.  Davis and I celebrated our four year anniversary in September. We have a two year older daughter with beautiful strawberry blond girl and a handsome 9 week old baby boy. We are most recently from Groton, Mass. However, I was born and raised in Mesa, AZ. A few of my hobbies include sewing, knitting, cooking, running, hiking, and cross country skiing. Davis and I met at Brigham Young University where I studied Family Life and Human Development with a minor in gerontology. Since graduating I have been blessed to be a stay at home mom. 

These first few months in the military have been quite a whirlwind. We moved here in June when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant. Davis went to COT for five weeks leaving me alone in a new house, a new city, 9 months pregnant with a 2 year old to care for. We were hoping that the baby wouldn't come until his due date which was after Davis would be back. However, babies come when they want and our baby happened to come a couple weeks early. Luckily my mom and sister were in town from Arizona. In all honesty having the baby without my husband there was not the hard part. The hard part was rejoicing over our precious son without him there. Davis came home 5 days after the birth.  Being a military wife, even for only a few short months, has made me stronger. I am happy to be here supporting my husband and feel that the sacrifices we have made and will make are well worth it. I am excited to be here on this crazy journey and glad I will be making it with so many awesome spouses like you. I looked forward to meeting more of you. Happy Monday!

Meet the Members Monday

Hi friends! My name is Jessica, and I’m married to a first year Navy medical student. My husband, Jesse has prior service with the Navy, completing several deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa.

Jesse and I technically have two “how we met” stories. The first time we met, Jesse was in the middle of his first deployment when we were introduced via AOL Instant Messager (yes, some people still use it) by mutual friends. I sent Jesse a hello message to introduce myself. Little did I know, Jesse had just signed up for AIM and thought it was a spam message. Thankfully he responded.

Fast forward four months to the second time we met. Jesse had just come home from deployment and I had just moved into my new apartment. Jesse called me the Saturday after he returned to see what my plans were for the weekend and whether I wanted to meet. The next day, October 14, 2007, Jesse drove to Washington, D.C. from Virginia Beach to take me out on our first date. For those of you who aren’t from the area, the drive between D.C. and Virginia Beach is about six hours round trip. We both agree, however, that this first trek was well worth it because now we get to live happily ever after – we were married in August of 2011.

I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1999 to attend school at the George Washington University. I haven’t left the city since. I even went so far as attending my Masters program on the Washington, D.C. campus of Johns Hopkins University. I currently work on federal policy for a government relations firm. In my free time I enjoy running – on October 13 I will run in my 18^th marathon (I’m hoping to run a marathon in every state one day). I also love date nights with Jesse, reading, yoga, cooking and baking, and following Domino’s Pizza Tracker online.

Meet the Members Monday

Hi! My name is Eva S. My husband is Topher, an army MS2. I was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. Topher and I met at Gustavus Adolphus College, a small liberal arts college in southern Minnesota. I'm sure there's a good joke to make about the fact that we met in chemistry class, but I've never quite been able to figure out what it is! After college, we moved together to Boston for two years, then spent a year apart with him in Baltimore and me back in Minneapolis, and then he got into USUHS. We got engaged in August between summer training and the start of classes, I moved to D.C. in November, and we got married in Minneapolis in December. It was a busy couple of months! Luckily, things have settled down since then. Topher and I live in Bethesda with our standard poodle Loki. 
I am a CPA and I work as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers. It may not sound too exciting, but I really enjoy it. The work is interesting, I get to travel, I've worked on some fun jobs (auditing Elvis Presley Enterprises and getting a VIP tour of Graceland currently tops the list!), and they were great about transferring me from the Minneapolis office to D.C.

Topher is non-prior, and pretty much my only experience with the military prior to USUHS was hearing my dad talk about how my grandpa flew planes in Europe in WWII! However, Topher has two brothers in the military (a pediatric dentist and a chaplain) so we're trying to use their knowledge as much as possible. So far, being connected to the military has been great, but I'm not looking forward to Topher being gone six months for rotations next year. I am, however, looking forward to visiting him for a few weeks in Hawaii!

I haven't had a chance to spend too much time with the SSC due to a busy spring and summer, but I am looking forward to getting involved with the club this year!

Meet the Members Monday

Hello!  My name is Sarah Schexnayder, and I’m the wife of Brian Schexnayder, a first year Navy medical student.  We have a 2 year old firecracker daughter, Hannah, and are thrilled to be here.  While we may be new to USUHS, we’re not new to the military or the Navy.  Brian is a ’05 USNA grad, who was a Captain in the Marine Corps up until last year.  We met the summer of our freshman year of college at a candy store I was working in on Main Street in Annapolis, where my parents still live.  I moved there my senior year of high school, but still consider myself a Floridian as that’s where I grew up.  Brian’s from Louisiana, so we’re winter wusses together.  Brian and I have been together for 10 years.  Since we met, he was a midshipman in the Navy, commissioned in the Marine Corps, stationed in Camp Lejeune, NC (not my favorite place), and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (not my favorite life events).  After he returned from Afghanistan, we were married and then almost immediately moved to San Diego (infinitely better than Camp Lejuene).  I’ve been blessed to be working in sales for a software integrator based in downtown Silver Spring since graduating college from UMD College Park.  They were so supportive that when we were stationed at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego for two years, they allowed me to continue working for them from home.  It’s hard to sometimes have a career as a military spouse, but with telework I think it opens up a lot more doors.  Nonetheless, my family wasn’t the only group of people happy that we were relocating nearby.  When I’m not busy juggling work and sweet Hannah, I love seeing my sister’s family in Arlington and my parents in Annapolis as much as I can.  I love planning vacations (real or not) and I’m shamefully addicted to all things Groupon and Living Social.  And, after paying for civilian health insurance this past year, I’m thrilled that I can relocate that high monthly premium (Thanks, Tricare!) to those addictions.