Together at Tech
Couples, Best Friends Find Joy in Shared Careers
From lifelong best friends to 20-year marriages, Georgia Tech is the setting for love of all sorts. Read on to see how a few employees have started or nurtured relationships on campus.
Sam and Taylor Shapero outside the Ferst Center for the Arts, where they first met.
Sam and Taylor Shapero in 2008.
Taylor and Sam Shapero
Taylor and Sam first met at Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center for the Arts when they were both attending graduate student orientation the day after moving to Atlanta. An administrator told everyone in the theater to scoot toward the middle to meet new peers, and they ended up sitting next to each other.
“We talked a little, then we all went over to the Student Center to get our BuzzCards,” Taylor said. She spotted Sam again in line there, and they continued chatting.
That was 2008, when both were starting Ph.D. programs. The couple married in 2012, and Sam started working at the Georgia Tech Research Institute the following year. In 2020, Taylor joined him.
Sam, chief scientist for GTRI’s Applied Systems Lab, works at GTRI Headquarters on 14th Street. Taylor, a senior research scientist for GTRI’s Advanced Concepts Lab, works in the Centennial Research Building on 10th Street. But the couple often commutes to campus together, either by car or by bike. When one of them goes to the other’s building during the workday, they make a point to find each other.
Their children both got their start at one of Georgia Tech’s on-campus childcare centers, and Taylor and Sam have enjoyed the past six years sharing a workplace.
“We have loved the opportunity to grow our family and careers together here,” Taylor said.
LaJauna and Kevin Ellis outside of the Van Leer Building, where Kevin picked her up for lunch early in their relationship.
LaJauna and Kevin Ellis
The Ellises have shared a workplace for 15 years. LaJauna boasts a rare 30-year career on campus, which began in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She and Kevin met at church, and he first picked her up for lunch at the Van Leer Building in 2003.
Now, LaJauna is the director of strategic operations in the College of Engineering, and Kevin works in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering as the director of business operations. They share a commute at least four days a week, discussing work in the car, but they try to minimize the workplace talk once they’re home.
“Our commute gives us plenty of time to talk, pray, and solve all the world’s problems,” LaJauna jokes. “We speak the same higher education language, so neither of us has to explain what we do.”
Georgia Tech has found its way into their family in other ways. The Ellises are football and basketball fans, take their grandchildren to games, and buy them Tech swag. One son-in-law is a Tech graduate, as is their oldest grandson.
“Family gatherings always involve some conversation about Georgia Tech, especially with grandchildren who are at the college application stage.”
The couple also makes it a point to lunch together on campus once a month, usually in the John Lewis Student Center.
Heather and Stefen Kutzman at the Howey Physics Building.
Stefen and Heather Kutzman when they were engaged.
Heather and Stefen Kutzman
The Kutzmans’ story began in 2002 at the Howey Physics Building, where Heather and Stefen met in an Introduction to International Relations class.
Stefen, then a sophomore, asked to borrow Heather’s syllabus after missing the first class. The conversation continued, and it never really stopped. Stefen eventually proposed at Howey, and after several years in different industries, they’ve both found their way back to Georgia Tech.
Heather has been with the Georgia Tech Foundation since 2021. The following year, Stefen took a job at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Their work lives don’t intersect, which helps keep the work talk to a minimum at home. They commute separately since their work hours and locations vary, but one thing that aligns is their vacation time.
“We love that we have the same vacation schedule,” Heather said. “As avid travelers, it’s a huge bonus. We both previously worked in industries that prevented us from even requesting time off in December, so the winter break truly feels like a luxury for us.”
And though they don’t often cross paths on campus, they make a point to have lunch together when the weather is nice for the walk.
As students, Heather and Stefen bonded going to Tech sporting events with each other and friends, many of whom they keep up with today. This June marks their 20th wedding anniversary, and Tech athletics are still a favorite pastime.
Bri Evans Lopez and Kara Ussery meet up at the Coda Building.
Kara Ussery and Briana Evans Lopez
For Kara Ussery and Briana Evans Lopez, Georgia Tech has become the latest setting in a long “Galentine’s” story. The two met when they were 15 and were both dropped off at McDonald’s for lunch. They’ve been best friends ever since, through highs, lows, and moves across the country and back.
Three years ago, they sat together one night as Kara, then a graduate student at Middle Georgia State University, had just been offered an internship with Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing. Around the same time, Bri started a temporary position on campus in the College of Computing.
“I remember giggling in our pajamas on her couch that we were going to ‘manifest’ that in a year we would both have full-time positions at Georgia Tech, living our best lives in the city, carpooling to work,” Kara said.
The two started a friendship over McDonald's and have been friends for 15 years.
Manifest they did. Now, not only do both work on campus full-time, but they’re also roommates, carpool buddies, and each other’s biggest supporters. Kara is a business development manager in the Office of Commercialization, and Bri is a program support coordinator in the Office of Student Achievement.
They may talk about work on their commute if one of them has a rough day, but most of the time is spent singing and sharing long-running inside jokes. On campus, their offices are far apart, but they’re never more than a Teams chat away.
“Kara hasn’t just been my best friend all these years, she’s also become an incredible godmother and auntie to my daughter,” Bri said. “We haven’t always had the opportunity for so many areas of our lives to overlap, so I feel extremely fortunate and grateful that our circumstances landed this way in the present. We tell each other all the time that we think our younger selves would be ecstatic about the life we have now, so I’m soaking in as much of that joy as I can for them.”
Credits
Written by Kristen Bailey
Photos by Joya Chapman