Alumni Profiles

After graduating from Whitfield, Danielle attended Stanford University where she earned a B.A. in Political Science and a Master in Organizations, Business and Sociology. Danielle Kayembe is a female futurist and serial entrepreneur with a focus on projects at the intersection of women, innovation, and impact. Her expertise in technology, blockchain, and global economic policy makes her a frequent speaker at CES, SXSW, Cannes Lions, Blockchain Unbound, and the United Nations. Through her company GreyFire, she has an established track record of mentoring startups and advising large corporations on identifying overlooked and underrepresented initiatives. She is also currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Nike.

Brandon K. Smart ‘03 is the president of SmartEquity, Inc, a full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm based in St. Louis. He holds a B.A. in Business from Lake Forest College. In 2021, Brandon was selected to St. Louis Business Journal's "40 under 40" which recognizes emerging St. Louis-area business leaders, change-makers, and innovators who are highly engaged with the St. Louis community. Brandon's first job after college was as a student success coach at City Year, an AmeriCorps program that helps students build on their strengths and cultivate social, emotional, and academic skills that are important in school and life. He is married to Nikol, and they have two children.

Cory Spielberg ‘94, Founding Partner at Visionary Capital, is a full-time real estate and private equity professional with over 22 years of investment experience. Cory's most recent passion was a start-up in the golf space called The Press Golf. Cory graduated with a Business degree with an emphasis on Marketing from Saint Louis University in 1998. He is a member of Whitfield’s Board of Trustees. Cory has two boys, Julian (6) and Xander (8).  His brother, Tony Spielberg, graduated from Whitfield in 1990.

Sarah Kellerman ‘07 graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts in 2011 with a degree in Architecture & Urban Design. She then earned a Master of Urban Planning and Policy in 2014 from the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.  Sarah is AICP and LEED GA Certified and was named one of Building Design and Construction Magazine's 40 Under 40 in 2020. Currently, Sarah is the Chicago Studio Director for Interface Studio, an urban design and planning firm. Her work with Interface Studio has earned her the following awards: APA 2020 Sustainable Communities Division Awards for Excellence in Sustainability - Pittsburgh EcoInnovation District; APA 2018 Pennsylvania Chapter Daniel Burnham Award for a Plan - Pittsburgh EcoInnovation District; 2017 International Downtown Association Pinnacle Award, Grand Rapids Forward; South Elgin Bike-Pedestrian Plan, and many more. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer for the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, and a Program Associate for UIC’s Master of City Design Program. Her brother, Greg Kellerman, graduated from Whitfield in 2005. Sarah and her husband, Patrick, have two children, Keller (2.5 years) and Etta (6 months).

Meg Bradbury Stowe ‘92 attended Whitfield from 8th through 12th grade. She studied Biology & Studio Art at Denison University, which included a study abroad experience on the Great Barrier Reef at University of Queensland, graduating in 1996. She earned her M.Ed. from Lesley University in Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on Adolescent Education, Integrated Curriculum Design & Project-Based Learning. Several of Meg’s family members attended Whitfield: her mother, Elizabeth Woods Bradbury ‘63; her uncle, David Woods ‘62; her sister, Elizabeth Bradbury Pollnow ‘90, and her brothers, Slade and Trask Bradbury, who attended from 1989 until 1991.

Brian Chao ‘08 earned his BSBA from Washington University’s business school in 2012 and his Masters in Accounting in 2013. He worked in internal audit for several years before becoming the CFO at Starkloff Disability Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering people with disabilities to discover and advance in careers they love and educate workplaces and our communities to be more inclusive. In 2019, he was one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s 30 Under 30. Brian has five siblings, three of whom also went to Whitfield:  Allison (Chao) Reichart ‘04, Jenny (Chao) Gansner ‘06, and Emily (Chao) Duddy ‘10.

Ron Fox ’74 graduated Magna cum Laude from Washington University with a B.S. in Psychology and then earned his J.D. from St. Louis University School of Law in 1981. After law school, he clerked for Missouri Supreme Court Judge A.J. Higgins.  From there, Ron began his career as a trial lawyer, defending doctors, hospitals, product manufacturers, railroads, and other companies.  Around 1987, he began to generate clients in the Inland River Maritime Field.  He has specialized as a maritime defense lawyer for over 30 years. He is a Proctor in the Maritime Law Association of the United States, has been recognized as Best Maritime Lawyers in Missouri, and was recently recognized as an ICON of the Missouri Legal Community.  Ron has led his own law firm of 15 lawyers for over 20 years.  He has been a speaker at numerous national seminars on the topics of trial techniques and maritime law issues. At Whitfield, he served on the Board of Trustees from 1994-2000 and joined the Board again in 2020. He was appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees in July 2021, serving as the first alumnus Board Chair. Three of Ron’s children are Whitfield graduates: Jay Fox ‘01, Liz Fox Philbrick ‘03, and Annie Fox Bardon ‘07. His son Nathan is currently a sophomore at Whitfield.

As a new tradition, our first alumni newsletter of each school year will spotlight our most recent graduates and introduce them to the alumni community. Here you can learn where the members of the Class of 2021 are and what they are currently interested in studying as well as a favorite Whitfield memory. Let’s cheer these new alumni on in their next adventure!

Robert Glassman ‘02 graduated from Bucknell University with a BA in English (2006) and went on to Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, graduating in 2009. Rob is a trial attorney in Los Angeles and litigates large and complex personal injury, wrongful death and product defect cases on behalf of individuals. He has been recognized among the Best Lawyers in America®, named 2018 “Rising Star” in Personal Injury litigation by Law360 and recognized as a “Rising Star” by the Super Lawyers publication since 2013 where he has been consistently selected as one of the “Up-and-Coming 100 Southern California Rising Stars”, the list of lawyers who rank at the top of the Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars list. Robert lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Layla, and their two daughters, Ella and Zoe.

Will Macon ‘10 transferred to Whitfield for his junior year. Will graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2014 with a degree in Human and Organizational Development. He is currently the Manager of State Development & Communications for Best Buddies International, a nonprofit working to ensure that neurodiverse individuals are included in every facet of life. Will designs the organization’s communications strategy, creates content, and works with 60 offices across the country to adapt and implement their marketing plans.

Julie Serot ‘03 graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2007 double majoring in Physical Anthropology and PNP (Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology). She then earned her Masters of Philosophy in Marine Mammal Biology from Hong Kong University. Her sister, Jennifer Serot, graduated from Whitfield in 2004.

Julie is the founder and CEO at The Dharma Circle, which is an organization that supports ambitious women with transformation. Her flagship program is called MAYA--Money Alignment Yoga Academy, and her students call themselves the "MAYAns".  The program supports female entrepreneurs internationally to create extraordinary financial transformation in their businesses using ancient Yogic principles, proven strategies, and proprietary transformation techniques. 

Paul Ellebrecht ‘06 attended Carleton College where he earned a B.A. in International Relations. In 2012, he earned his M.S. in Information Science from the University of Michigan, and in 2018, he earned his MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California. 

Danny Ellebrecht ‘08 graduated from USC in 2012 with a B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Managing Human Relations. 

David Ellebrecht ‘11 attended USC as well and earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Music Industry in 2015.

David, Danny, and Paul are pictured with their dad, Mark Ellebrecht.

After earning a degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kristin Thompson Poelker ‘07 became a financial advisor and joined Renaissance Financial in the fall of 2011. In 2017, she became a certified financial planner.  In addition to her work at Renaissance, Kristin has been recognized multiple times for her leadership and contributions to the St. Louis community. In 2013, she was inducted as a member of the Regional Business Council’s Young Professionals Network Leadership 100 and was selected to join the 2015-2016 class of the FOCUS Leadership St. Louis Program, where she joined other civic-minded business and nonprofit leaders from across the region in exploring issues such as economic development, education, social services, and the arts. In 2018, Kristin was recognized as a future leader in the area by being named a St. Louis Business Journal 30 Under 30 honoree.

Shane joined Whitfield in 7th grade and graduated in 2011.  At Washington University in St. Louis, he studied chemical engineering, computer science, and nanotechnology in the McKelvey School of Engineering.  He graduated in 2015 with two Bachelor of Science degrees, summa cum laude, and a Master of Science in Computer Science.  Shane's research in computational chemistry was published at the International Conference on Machine Learning and in the Journal of Chemical Physics.  After interning at Microsoft in Seattle for two summers, Shane joined Google in early 2016, where he now works as a Senior Software Engineer in Internationalization Engineering.  His work focuses on scaling technology to the next billion users.  His team at Google is based in Mountain View, California and Zürich, Switzerland.

After Whitfield, Ryan Mango ‘09 attended Stanford University where he earned a B.S. in Human Biology in 2013. A decorated wrestler, while at Stanford, he was a two-time NCAA Div. 1 All-American, two-time Pac12 Champion, and four-time NCAA Div. 1 Qualifier. Currently, he is a Sergeant in the United States Army World Class Athlete Program. Ryan’s wrestling accomplishments are vast: he was a U.S. World Team Member in 2019, finishing 7th as the World Wrestling Championships, five-time National Team Member, Military World Silver Medalist (2017), two-time U.S. Open National Champion (2018, 2019),  and Pan-American Games Champion (2018). He is also a Board Member of the Black Wrestling Association

Madison Walsh began attending Whitfield in 6th grade and graduated in 2017. She is currently a senior at the University of Louisville majoring in Political Science with a track in Law and Public Policy. Madison is also a member of Louisville’s fifth ranked Division 1 Field Hockey team.

After graduating from Whitfield in 2008, Shaun Vaid attended The George Washington University where he double-majored in economics and religion and minored in statistics. In the twelve years since graduation, he has held several roles in the medical field, in both St. Louis and Florida.  Additionally, he has flexed his entrepreneurial muscles as an app designer and founder of CommuniCare+, a project that engages patient social circles to enhance chronic disease management. While earning an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis Shaun interned with Google and was offered a full-time finance position, which he accepted. He lives in St. Louis and works remotely.

Tim transferred to Whitfield as a sophomore and graduated in 1994. In addition to owning and managing his own construction company, Wright 11 located in Los Angeles, California, he is currently enrolled at Pepperdine University where he is working on a BSM and an MBA. His sister also attended Whitfield before the family moved to Colorado.

After graduating from Whitfield in 2004, Amanda attended St. Louis University and graduated with a bachelor’s of exercise science with a certificate in visual communications in 2008. In 2010, she earned her doctorate of physical therapy.  After graduating from SLU, she joined St. Luke’s Hospital and has been an outpatient physical therapist there for almost ten years. She treats mostly general orthopedic diagnoses but also specialize in treating the oncology population. Eight years ago she helped to implement and develop a physical therapy-based oncology rehab program to help people during cancer treatments. 

Amrita Nanda graduated from Whitfield in 2007.  She went to the University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine six-year combined undergraduate and medical school and graduated in 2013.  She then did her residency in Emergency Medicine at Baylor Scott & White and Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) College of Medicine. Today, she is an Emergency Medicine physician in Dallas, Texas.

Amit Nanda graduated from Whitfield in 2011.  He also attended the six-year combined undergraduate and medical school program at the University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine and graduated in 2017.  Currently, he is a third year Internal Medicine resident at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, and is in the process of applying for a cardiology fellowships

Andrew Foglia graduated from Whitfield in 2005 with his triplet brothers Matt and Stephen.  He majored in political science while at Davidson College (’09) and then attended Duke Law School (’13) on a full academic scholarship. After law school he clerked for a federal judge in the Southern District of New York and then for a judge on the Third Circuit.  He currently works in New York City specializing in copyright litigation, defending tech and media companies.

Nick Funke graduated Whitfield in 2004, attended Pomona College in Claremont, CA, and graduated with a B.A. in Mathematical Economics in 2008. He currently owns and operates Stone Turtle Restaurant and Whiskey Bar in Dogtown, St. Louis (stoneturtlestl.com).

Jaspal Ricky Singh graduated from Whitfield in 1998. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at The George Washington University. Ricky was recently named Vice Chair and Director of Interventional Spine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

Caroline graduated from Purdue University in 2016 with a B.S. focused in Industrial & Systems Engineering and a minor in Psychology.

Kegan Fisher graduated from Whitfield in 2003 and went on to earn a Bachelors of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute (New York, NY).

David Pepose ‘04 graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., where he studied American Studies, creative writing and theater arts, as well as the prestigious Columbia Publishing Course in New York in 2011. A crime and politics reporter turned comic book creator, David is the Ringo Award-winning writer of SAVAGE AVENGERS at Marvel Comics, SCOUT'S HONOR at AfterShock Comics, SPENCER & LOCKE and GOING TO THE CHAPEL at Action Lab Entertainment, and THE O.Z. on Kickstarter. He has also worked in television and film at Netflix, CBS Entertainment and Universal Studios. After finishing his studies at Whitfield in 2004, David was followed by triplet siblings Max, Sam, and Morissa Pepose, who graduated from Whitfield in 2013. David currently lives in Los Angeles.

Raj Bhuyan '86, our guest speaker at Commencement for the Class of 2018, has been active and engaged in the life of the school since his graduation. He served on Whitfield’s Board of Trustees from 2011-2017 and was the recipient of the Elizabeth Woods Bradbury Outstanding Alumni Award in 2015.

Scott ’98 and Kristen Deffaa ’99 Rhodes are one of our newest legacy families—their oldest child, J.R., is Whitfield Class of 2024.

Katie Harris '14 graduated from Vanderbilt University in May 2018 with a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development. She accepted a job offer from Google and joined the company as a Human Resources Associate.

Jay Gard ’08 graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Tulane University where he double majored in English and Film Studies. Today, he lives in Los Angeles, CA where he pursues his life-long passion for filmmaking.

Bis earned her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine, an M.S. in clinical and health services research from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and B.S. in biochemistry from Mount Holyoke College.