2024 Neshaminy Alumni Achievement Awards
Six Neshaminy School District alumni were honored at the Third Annual Neshaminy Alumni Achievement Award Ceremony on Monday, November 25. This is the third year for this ceremony, which was created to "...honor outstanding lifetime achievement in post-graduation personal and professional pursuits among the alumni of Neshaminy School District as an inspiration to the current students of Neshaminy and the entire Neshaminy community." Nominations were drawn from the community and from Neshaminy district staff. The final selection was made by members of the Alumni Committee of the Neshaminy Education Foundation, which sponsors the ceremony.
The recipients of the 2024 Neshaminy Alumni Achievement Awards are:
Hon. Denise Bowman
Neshaminy HS Class of 1991
Denise graduated from Neshaminy High School in 1991 and is a member of Neshaminy’s Athletic Hall of Fame. She attended the University Delaware from which she graduated magna cum laude. She then attended Temple University School of Law where she was Co-Executive Editor of the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review. For the next 20 plus years, Denise practiced as a business litigation attorney, spending much of her career as a partner in two Bucks County law firms. She also served as pro bono counsel to plaintiffs in domestic violence matters and volunteered for the Red Cross, YWCA, United Way, and Youth Orchestra of Bucks County. She has served as Board Chair for the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce. In January 2020, Denise was sworn in as a Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge. She sits in both Family Court and Juvenile Court. Denise is married to Jason Bowman. They are the proud parents of two adult sons, Ryan and Zack, who also graduated from Neshaminy High School. In her spare time, Denise enjoys golf and spending time with her family and their dog, Shirley, at the beach.
Dr. Morgan Hennessy
Neshaminy High School Class of 2005
Dr. Morgan Hennessy graduated from NHS in 2005 as Valedictorian of her class where she treasures many memories of playing sports, going to Friday night football games, learning from many incredible teachers, and spending time with friends. She went on to earn a BS in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in her Junior year. She then joined the NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program at Harvard/MIT where over eight years she completed a PhD studying the serotonergic system in the brain as well as her MD. She realized a passion for surgery and matched at the Massachusetts General Hospital for residency in General Surgery, considered one of the best, if not the best, surgical residency in the nation. Upon graduation from surgical residency, she moved to Baltimore where she trained at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Surgical Critical Care and Trauma Surgery at one of the highest acuity trauma centers in the country. She is now double-boarded in General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care Medicine. She currently practices as an Acute Care and Trauma Surgeon and Surgical Intensive Care physician at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California where she lives with her boyfriend, Nick, and their two dogs Chase and Backstrom and cat, Higgs.
Andy Laub
Neshaminy HS Class of 2005
Andy was born thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, a 2,000-mile journey that sparked a passion for nature and capturing stories connected to it. Andy has since hiked & filmed over 10,000 miles of remote backcountry. As an independent documentary filmmaker, he has produced multiple Emmy nominated feature-length films and series that have been featured on the Discovery Channel, BBC World, National Geographic, PBS National, Amazon Prime, Outside TV and Hulu. Andy continues to hone his craft with the goal of exposing audiences to stories connected to the natural world. When Andy’s focus isn’t a camera, you can find him playing outside with his kiddos, trail running thru the desert with his dog Chaco or noodling a guitar on his front porch.
Andy has also been kind enough to return to one of his Neshaminy alma maters, Maple Point Middle School, to share his passion for the outdoors and filmmaking with the students in Kevin Hastings Social Studies classes.
Roy Nelson
Neshaminy High School Class of 1966
Roy Nelson’s long association with Neshaminy began as a student attending Lower Southampton Elementary School. He graduated from Neshaminy High School in 1966. He earned his Bachelors and Masters Degree in Music Education from West Chester State College, now West Chester University, and shortly after began his music teaching career at Neshaminy Middle School. He taught vocal and instrumental music at Neshaminy for 33 years, in addition to five years as a vocal music teacher at Villa Joseph Marie High School.
During his career at Neshaminy, he taught middle school vocal and instrumental music for 16 years, elementary music for 7 years, and high school vocal music for 10 years. He was the high school Musical Director for ten years, assistant Director of Neshaminy Summer Stock for four years and Summer Stock Director for eight years. He was also Assistant Marching Band Director for seven years.
In 2002 his Neshaminy “Chanticleers” choir was selected to perform at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Convention. He has received multiple awards and accolades for his work, and admiration from the entire community, his colleagues, and generations of students.
Roy has been active in church choirs since he was a sophomore in college and continues in a leadership role to this day at St. John’s Ivyland, where he directs three vocal choirs and four handbell choirs. He has served as director of the Tri-County Community Concert Band, Director of the Community Barbershop Quartet Chorus, and Musical Director of the Neshaminy Valley Music Theater.
Though “retired” from music education, Roy continues to be a welcome presence at Neshaminy High School where he regularly attends choral concerts and special events and occasionally takes the stage as a guest conductor.
Claire Smith
Neshaminy HS Class of 2001
Claire Smith graduated from Neshaminy High School in 1971, then attended Penn State University and Temple University. She has been a pioneer in sports journalism ever since. She started her career as a sportswriter for the Bucks County Courier Times and the Hartford Courant. She was the first female Major League Baseball beat writer, covering the New York Yankees from 1983 to 1987. In 1990 she became the first national baseball columnist for the New York Times, holding that position for eight years. She moved on to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1998, where she served as an assistant sports editor and columnist until 2007. She then took the position of coordinating editor at ESPN, working for the multimedia giant from 2007 to 2021. She has covered all but two World Series since 1982. Claire is now an Assistant Professor of Practice for Journalism at Temple University, where the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media at the Temple University Klein College of Media and Communication is a world class academic center focused on teaching, training and research in the areas of sports journalism, advertising, public relations and production.
Claire is the recipient of multiple awards for her work over the years. In 1997 she was named Sports Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2017 she was honored with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, bestowed annually by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The same year she was presented with the “Robie Award” for Lifetime Achievement by the Jackie Robinson Foundation. She was named as a member of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame Class of 2021, and was a recipient of the Red Smith Award given annually by the Associated Press Sports Editors. She has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, one for team reporting at the Hartford Courant and the second for general assignment reporting at the New York Times.
Dr. Rachael Truchil
Neshaminy HS Class of 2000
Rachael Truchil, MD, MPH graduated from Neshaminy High School in 2000. She then graduated from Brown University where she studied Community Medicine and went on to earn an BA and MPH. She moved back to Philadelphia where she attended medical school and residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating she initially practiced primary care at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA before being recruited back to Penn where she has worked for over 8 years.
She became particularly interested in working with patients with substance use disorders given the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia and became board certified in Addiction Medicine. She provides integrated primary care and addiction medicine services at Penn and has been involved with various harm reduction and community projects with Philadelphia Ambulatory Care Services, Prevention Point Philadelphia, and the Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy at Penn. She also is a champion of educating the next generation of health care providers on how to treat patients with substance use disorders and is involved in medical student and resident education efforts at Penn. When not doctoring, Rachael lives with her partner and two children in Wyndmoor, PA and still loves to play the piano occasionally in addition to walking their dog, listening to audiobooks, and knitting.
