Tag: 1992

Greetings, all! It was so great so see so many of our class at our 25th Reunion in May. Drinks were flowing pretty freely so my recall of what everyone was up to may not quite be up to snuff, but I will do what I can. And if I didn’t get your news in this column, please write to Paul or me—especially if we haven’t heard from you for a while. It’s always great to hear from long-lost classmates!

With that in mind, I start off with Mary Newton Lima, who has written in for the first time ever (Go, Mary!). After living in Madison Wisc.; Miami, Fla. (where she got a master’s and met her husband); Boulder, Colo.; and Seattle, Wash.; Mary has been living on Cape Cod since 2003. She and her husband have two daughters. Mary works at a nonprofit organization focused on reducing the environmental impact of fishing industries.

After a long absence from the notes, Tony Brita caught me up on his life. He started a new job in March as an executive director at The NPD Group, which is a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. His eldest son, Teddy, is finishing up his first year at Regis High School in New York City.

More news from the longtime MIA! Chris Arndt and his wife, Patty Jen Arndt, have two boys, Alden (7) and Graham (6). Chris spent most of his time in New York, helping to grow an investment management firm, but left in 2010 to work on clean energy. In 2015, Chris and Patty moved to Telluride, Colo. Chris continues to work on clean energy issues, and also wrote a book, The Right’s Road to Serfdom, The Danger of Conservatism Unbound: From Hayek to Trump.

Matt Glotzer is the CFO and head of Strategy of Intertrust, a tech company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., although he lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife, son and daughter. Also in the New York area, Sasha Wilson, the co-director of the Bronx Community Charter School, lives in the Bronx with his wife and two daughters.

My Clark 3 roommate, James Wilton, is Collabera’s national account manager. He handles IT staffing and professional services placement. He has a large team across the U.S. and travels to a variety of destinations including San Fran, Dallas, NYC, and Chicago. James’s son, Jack, 16, is just about ready to drive. His middle daughter, Carley, is 13 and his youngest, Lola, is 11. In other Clark 3 news, Karen Salvini and her husband live in California and just celebrated their 18th anniversary.

Simon Fulford moved to Portland, Ore., last July with his wife, Clare, and two of his three sons. Simon is working on criminal justice reform efforts and is loving being back in the U.S. after 12 years in the U.K.

Alison Miller got tenure at The University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her daughter, Ella, just graduated from eighth grade. Her son, Wesley, finished third grade and is a massive basketball fan—taking after his dad, Scott (a fact I can attest to on both counts).

In further news on the academic promotion front, Shura Pollatsek just got promoted to full professor of costume design at WKU, and is working on a second book.

Tamara O’Neil is retiring from the military in 2017, after 20 years as a Navy JAG and excited about taking the next step in her career, which is TBD. In January, Kate Edwards started as a research scientist at Datacolor, where she makes instruments to measure the color of paints and textiles. She still lives in Pennington, N.J., with her family. Also on the East Coast, this fall Diego von Vacano ’93 will be a visiting associate professor of political science at Yale.

Wendy Moore Hershey reports a plethora of life changes. In 2016, she remarried and she joined Asset Consulting Group. She is a consultant to nonprofit foundations and endowments, but will also work with family offices and private clients.

Dan Fortmann moved to Paris last year and has been front office manager at Hapimag since January. Anyone who is planning a trip there should look him up!

In other globetrotting news, Elizabeth Liang has continued to tour her intercultural solo show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, which has been all over the U.S., Panama, Iceland, Spain, South Africa, and Singapore. It was made into a movie that will be available on DVD this summer.

I close with news of additions to the Wesleyan family. Sarah Tunik teaches high school English and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Dan Oppenheimer ’89. Their eldest son, Simon ’21, is headed to Wesleyan this fall!  Also joining the campus is David Meek’s son Daniel ’21. David’s wife is Lisa Brown ’90, so that’s two multi-generational Wesleyan couples in one class!

That’s all for now. Be sure to keep Paul and me updated with your news!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Greetings, all! It was so great so see so many of our class at our 25th Reunion in May. Drinks were flowing pretty freely so my recall of what everyone was up to may not quite be up to snuff, but I will do what I can. And if I didn’t get your news in this column, please write to Paul or me—especially if we haven’t heard from you for a while. It’s always great to hear from long-lost classmates!

With that in mind, I start off with Mary Newton Lima, who has written in for the first time ever (Go, Mary!). After living in Madison Wisc.; Miami, Fla. (where she got a master’s and met her husband); Boulder, Colo.; and Seattle, Wash.; Mary has been living on Cape Cod since 2003. She and her husband have two daughters. Mary works at a nonprofit organization focused on reducing the environmental impact of fishing industries.

After a long absence from the notes, Tony Brita caught me up on his life. He started a new job in March as an executive director at The NPD Group, which is a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. His eldest son, Teddy, is finishing up his first year at Regis High School in New York City.

More news from the longtime MIA! Chris Arndt and his wife, Patty Jen Arndt, have two boys, Alden (7) and Graham (6). Chris spent most of his time in New York, helping to grow an investment management firm, but left in 2010 to work on clean energy. In 2015, Chris and Patty moved to Telluride, Colo. Chris continues to work on clean energy issues, and also wrote a book, The Right’s Road to Serfdom, The Danger of Conservatism Unbound: From Hayek to Trump.

Matt Glotzer is the CFO and head of Strategy of Intertrust, a tech company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., although he lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife, son and daughter. Also in the New York area, Sasha Wilson, the co-director of the Bronx Community Charter School, lives in the Bronx with his wife and two daughters.

My Clark 3 roommate, James Wilton, is Collabera’s national account manager. He handles IT staffing and professional services placement. He has a large team across the U.S. and travels to a variety of destinations including San Fran, Dallas, NYC, and Chicago. James’s son, Jack, 16, is just about ready to drive. His middle daughter, Carley, is 13 and his youngest, Lola, is 11. In other Clark 3 news, Karen Salvini and her husband live in California and just celebrated their 18th anniversary.

Simon Fulford moved to Portland, Ore., last July with his wife, Clare, and two of his three sons. Simon is working on criminal justice reform efforts and is loving being back in the U.S. after 12 years in the U.K.

Alison Miller got tenure at The University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her daughter, Ella, just graduated from eighth grade. Her son, Wesley, finished third grade and is a massive basketball fan—taking after his dad, Scott (a fact I can attest to on both counts).

In further news on the academic promotion front, Shura Pollatsek just got promoted to full professor of costume design at WKU, and is working on a second book.

Tamara O’Neil is retiring from the military in 2017, after 20 years as a Navy JAG and excited about taking the next step in her career, which is TBD. In January, Kate Edwards started as a research scientist at Datacolor, where she makes instruments to measure the color of paints and textiles. She still lives in Pennington, N.J., with her family. Also on the East Coast, this fall Diego von Vacano ’93 will be a visiting associate professor of political science at Yale.

Wendy Moore Hershey reports a plethora of life changes. In 2016, she remarried and she joined Asset Consulting Group. She is a consultant to nonprofit foundations and endowments, but will also work with family offices and private clients.

Dan Fortmann moved to Paris last year and has been front office manager at Hapimag since January. Anyone who is planning a trip there should look him up!

In other globetrotting news, Elizabeth Liang has continued to tour her intercultural solo show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, which has been all over the U.S., Panama, Iceland, Spain, South Africa, and Singapore. It was made into a movie that will be available on DVD this summer.

I close with news of additions to the Wesleyan family. Sarah Tunik teaches high school English and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Dan Oppenheimer ’89. Their eldest son, Simon ’21, is headed to Wesleyan this fall!  Also joining the campus is David Meek’s son Daniel ’21. David’s wife is Lisa Brown ’90, so that’s two multi-generational Wesleyan couples in one class!

That’s all for now. Be sure to keep Paul and me updated with your news!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Greetings and salutations from Paul in D.C., where nothing (and I mean nothing) is normal. Luckily just down the road is a sign of light—the 25th Reunion where we can all gather to talk about anything else. I’m already psyched up, and the posts on our Facebook page suggest I’m not alone. If you haven’t done so already, join our page, Wesleyan University Class of 1992. Folks are planning pre-events and there’s an effort to round up some duffers to play some golf. Please just tell Sam Longley that high score does not win.

Christopher F. Arndt ’92 argues that conservatism is not what it pretends to be and that the American Right created Donald Trump in The Right’s Road to Serfdom: The Danger of Conservatism Unbound: From Hayek to Trump (Bulkington Press).

In case you need some ice-breaker material on the latest from your classmates:

In November, Jeff Kipnis and Lightning Squirrel, along with other comic book creators, participated in a fundraising effort for Barnabas Health Hospice and Palliative Care Center, a nonprofit agency that delivers advanced disease management and quality end-of-life care. Proceeds benefit patients and families served by BHH.

Unbuttoned: The Art and Artists of Theatrical Costume Design, by E. Shura Pollatsek ‘92, with photographs by Mitchell D. Wilson, is out now from Routledge Press.

Doni Gewirtzman, law professor at NYU, made his CNN debut in January to explain the powers given to the president and answer the question of what Trump can and cannot do legally. I’m thinking he may be asked to come back…often.

Bill Kim, oncologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also hit the TV. He runs a research lab that was featured on 60 Minutes for their work with IBM Watson and how to apply artificial intelligence technology to cancer genomics and patient care. Search for “Robot Sofia” on the CBS News website and you can see him about 10 minutes into the episode.

A Tilted World, a book of poems by Carol Gabrielson Fine MALS ’92, is out now from Antrim House Books.

After two years of living in London, Anne Paris and family are back in Oregon, where she is teaching art, writing, and getting deeply involved in local activism in Portland. Speaking of Brexit (OK, that was a stretch), Simon Fulford, his wife, Clare, who he married in 2016, and his sons, Max and Alec, also recently relocated from London to Portland. For the past six years, Simon ran the UK arm of a South African NGO, Khulisa (khulisa.co.uk), delivering high-impact, short-duration violence-reduction and offender rehabilitation programs in English prisons and schools.

Sasha Cummings accepted an appointment at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as a circuit mediator and is an adjunct professor at USF School of Law teaching civil procedure and mediation.

Joan Matelli took a break from her year of wanderlust to canvass for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire with Ilana Wind Newell ’94. After the holidays she hit road for a week in Cuba with William Kirsner ’91.

Karl Mergenthaler lives in Westport, Conn., with wife Stephanie, and their two kids, Camille and Elise. He got together for dinner with Christine Padian Bolzan, who is heading up the committee for our Reunion. Christine also serves on the President’s Council.

Chris Arndt and his wife, Patty, and their two children, Alden and Graham, moved from NYC to Telluride, Colo., two years ago. He recently published his first book, The Right’s Road to Serfdom, The Danger of Conservatism Unbound: From Hayek to Trump. He also had a piece in Guardian Liberty Voice that mentioned Wesleyan.

Mike Gaddis has been named a principal at Fish & Richardson in the intellectual property litigation group. His practice includes complex business litigation, with a particular focus on trade secret litigation and qui tam/whistleblower litigation.

Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley teaches Chinese history at San Diego State University.  Kathryn is married to an American Baptist pastor, Van Tarpley, and they have two boys, Peter and Isaac.

So you’re now caught up. Make your reservation and we will see you at Reunion.

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Greetings and welcome to the latest edition of the class notes. I’m looking forward to seeing you all at our 25th Reunion this spring. In the meantime, here is a taste of what your fellow classmates have been up to.

Ruthbea Yesner is still living in Brookline and is enjoying her job as the founder and practice lead for her company’s worldwide smart cities strategies practice. She’s doing research and consulting for cities on how to use emerging technologies to solve urban problems from traffic to clean water to crime, some of which will be published in a chapter in the book, Managing for Social Impact: Innovations in Responsible Enterprise, published by Springer.

 Maria Rosa Truglio remains on the faculty at Penn State. Her co-edited volume, Modernism and the Avant-Garde Body in Spain and Italy (Routledge), has been published, and her monograph on Italian children’s literature is forthcoming (also with Routledge). Both her sons, Anthony, 25, and Thomas, 24, graduated from Penn State and are out making their way in the world. Also, in the world of academia, Abby Smith Saguy is a professor of sociology at UCLA and lives with her husband, Dotan, and their daughter, Claire, who just started high school and their son, Jonah, who is in seventh grade. She recently gave a faculty lecture at UCLA family camp in June, where two other Wesleyan alumni, Ben Lee ’95 and Sheila Spencer ’83, were also vacationing.

 Kevin Prufer is a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Houston. His newest book, Churches, made The New York Times list of the 10 best poetry books of the year. His next book, How He Loved Them, will be out “sooner or later.”

 Carolyn Parkhurst Rosser’s fourth novel, Harmony, was published in August by Pamela Dorman ’79 Books, an imprint of Viking Penguin. She is still living in D.C., with her husband, Evan Rosser, and their two children, Henry and Ellie. Also in D.C., Robert Allbritton keeps busy (especially this election year) with Politico. He reports that Politico is doing well and is considering opening in Sacramento to cover California politics. His wife, Elena, is back practicing dermatology while simultaneously being super mom to Alex (9), Katie (5), and Tory (3).

Anne Jennings Paris just returned to the Portland, Ore., area after two years in London with her husband, Marc. She is returning to teaching art and writing at a public charter school part-time, and their son, Duncan, is starting middle school in the fall.

 Aaron Vieira and his wife, Renya Larson, had their second child, Gavin Rayne Vieira, in July. It was a busy summer for Aaron, as he also finished a master’s in organizational psychology at Columbia University, and started a new job at Columbia University Medical Center.

Jody Sperling continues to choreograph, perform, and direct her company, Time Lapse Dance. She served as choreographer, creative consultant, and dance coach for the French feature film, La Danseuse, which was screened at Cannes and premiered in Paris in September. She’s also excited to be guest teaching at Wesleyan in the fall. She lives in New York City with Doug Fox and their daughter, Evie, 5.

That’s all for now. Looking forward to hearing more from you all. Send Paul and me your news, notes, and updates—we’d love to hear from you!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Greetings and salutations from D.C. Michele and I are enjoying the beginning of summer and continue to plan for a two-week vacation in Yellowstone. You’ll have to come to our 25th Reunion to learn more! It’s only a year away… and it’s a biggie. I know some of you pooh-poohed the 15th and 20th anniversary, but no excuses. You’re expected to attend, so brush up on the info below in case you are quizzed.

Heather Nash continues to lead a double life—clinical psychologist by day and poet by night. She recently published her second book of poetry, Parts per Trillion (Aldrich Press, 2016) under her middle name Claudine Nash.

Darcy Dennett’s documentary about the pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring, The Champions, is still screening around the country and is now available on Bluray/DVD, iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix. The film was invited to Michael Moore’s film festival, The Traverse City Film Festival, and was recently screened at 20th Century Fox.

Joan Matelli is off to Europe and North Africa for three months starting in August. Give her a ring if you have a major itch to do some traveling.

Shura Pollatsek has big new that her first book, Unbuttoned: The Art and Artists of Theatrical Costume Design from Routledge/Focal Press, is being released in August 2016. She writes, “The book is written for a genåeral audience and also for costume students and professionals. It features the photography of Mitchell D. Wilson, winner of many awards including National Press Photographer of the Year, Peabody and National Primetime Emmy. Unbuttoned explores the creative collaboration between costume designers and costume makers in all aspects of the process from sketch to stage, and features interviews with leading professionals in New York, Paris and Santa Fe.”

Susan Hunt Stevens is living in Newton, Mass/, where she guides WeSpire, the technology company she founded five years ago. WeSpire was honored recently to be named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year for New England.

Grant Brenner, assistant clinical professor, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, was recently honored as the first recipient of the Ivan Goldberg Outstanding Service Award presented by the New York District County Branch of the American Psychiatric Association.

Since 2003, Maurice Harris has been a congregational rabbi and a writer in Eugene, Ore. He and his wife, Melissa Crabbe, and their two kids are now getting ready to move to Philadelphia, where he’ll begin working at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He is working on his third book, following Moses: A Stranger Among Us (Cascade 2012) and Leviticus: You Have No Idea (Cascade 2013).

Speaking of Philly, Sam Robinson continues to live in Philly with his wife, Shari Hersh, and their 12-year-old daughter, Bella. Shari plans innovative, community engaged, public art projects and Bella keeps them both busy with all her sports, friends, violin lessons, etc! Sam started his own architecture firm five years ago. He does mostly residential renovations in and around the city.

Jonathan Bell co-founded DUAL, a new architecture office in Providence. DUAL’s focus has been on small, complex projects and creative reuse of underused buildings. The firm’s current work includes the adaptive reuse of a 19th-century brewery into a theater and artist-focused community; and a new 3-screen art cinema, which is in the planning stages.

Sarah Leavitt continues to stalk me around DC. House parties, book signings, dropping our kids off for summer camp—you name it. She seems to be everywhere I go now. I missed her at the Paul Simon concert but it looks like she had fun and I’m jealous.

Jody Sperling, artistic director of Time Lapse Dance, launched an Indiegogo campaign for her project “Bringing the Arctic Home.” Last spring, Jody got to dance on Arctic sea ice while serving as choreographer-in-residence aboard the icebreaker USCGC Healy. The experience was the inspiration for Ice Cycle (Phase I), a dance expressing the dynamism and fragility of the Arctic icescape performed at JCC Manhattan, June 20–21.

Check out Tim Ellis’s music/comedy video Casual Pimpin’, a smooth jam about men’s summer fashion! (With hot new remix!) Shot mostly in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. You can find it on youtu.be/PyGaeMp5_F4.

Have a great summer and fall and we’ll see you next year for Reunion.

ADAM BERINSKY | berinsky@mit.edu

PAUL COVIELLO | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Adam writes: Greeting to all. Hope that all is well with you and yours. Things are chugging along for me in Cambridge: still at MIT and still serving as a housemaster at a graduate dorm on campus. My call for notes generated a lot of news, so here goes…

Michelle Elisberg just celebrated her 10-year anniversary as a pediatrician at Family Health Centers, a federally qualified health center in Louisville. The bat mitzvah of her oldest daughter, Elena, occasioned a reunion of the Havurah, with Lara Small Laurence ’90, Jen Hammer ’91, Sarah Leavitt and Jenny Simon Tabak ’93 in attendance. Michelle returned the favor by attending Sarah’s son’s bar mitzvah in Maryland, where she caught up with Sue Beals-Simon and Jessica Feierman.

Recently (though I use the term loosely) on the move was Hal Skinner, who de-camped with his family to Chapel Hill, N.C. He is director of epidemiology for Truven Health Analytics, where he has been working primarily on developing measures of healthcare quality for a federal government client. Also in the health industry in North Carolina is Morgan Bain, who works as medical director for outpatient palliative care at Duke University Medical Center, where he has been since 2013. He enjoys caring for patients and teaching young medical students/doctors/nurses. Since Morgan hadn’t written in since the 1990s, he had a big update, including news about his marriage (since 2005) to his husband Jonathan Brady, a theater director who has started his own theater company, Bartlett Theater, in Durham, N.C., this past year. Recently Morgan bumped into Bill Kim at a Barnes and Noble store in Durham. Bill is an oncologist conducting research at UNC.

I had another update from a classmate who hadn’t written in for a while. Kevin Heckman left his last theater job in 2010 to get his MBA at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. After graduating in 2014 he joined Bain & Company as a management consultant, where he has been working since. He recently moved to Geneva, Ill., with his wife, Christine, and their 6-year-old twin daughters, Arianna and Noelle .

Lots of news this month from the world of academia. Bradley Herling became chair of the division of humanities and social sciences last year, and just published the second edition of his textbook, A Beginner’s Guide to the Study of Religion (Bloomsbury, 2016).

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd published two books in 2015: Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (Princeton University Press) and Politics of Religious Freedom, co-edited with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Saba Mahmood, and Peter G. Danchin (University of Chicago Press). wesconnect.wesleyan.edu/s/1318/L3parent_social.aspx?sid=1318&gid=1&pgid=3211

Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley is an associate professor of history at San Diego State University. Her research area is modern Chinese history, and she travels to China or Taiwan most summers to hit the archives there. She is married to Van Tarpley, who pastors an American Baptist church in the San Diego area. They have two little boys, Peter (9) and Isaac (6). Kate got to return to Wesleyan last spring to take part in an event marking the retirement of Professor Vera Schwarcz, who sparked Kate’s passion for Chinese history.

Sidra Smith moved to suburban San Diego last summer to become the assistant head of school for Pacific Ridge School, a 7–12 independent school founded in 2007. While most of her work is with adults, she also teaches 7th grade English and participates in a service learning program.

Josh Sitzer accepted a position as chief marketing officer of Unanimous A.I., a Silicon Valley-based startup that uses artificial swarm intelligence to pool the intelligence of individuals to make better decisions and predictions. He works remotely from Kansas City, where he lives with wife Amy and kids Eli (9) and Zoe (5).

Mark Hunter just moved to Vermont and bought a home near Lake Champlain. He just published his first book and is expanding his company, Pinnacle Coaching (Pinnacle-Coaching.net) to include more keynote speaking in addition to corporate leadership coaching.

Dina Amsterdam is spending the year in Cambridge as a visiting scholar in the Social Computing group at the MIT Media Lab. Her company, Leadership Within, is the business end of this project. She’s also part of an innovative network of K–3 schools, Wildflower, which is growing globally.

Grant Brenner published a book, Irrelationship: How We Use Dysfunctional Relationships to Hide from Intimacy, and, with partners, started a business, Neighborhood Psychiatry.

Also with a new book is Shura Pollatsek. Unbuttoned: The Art and Artists of Theatrical Costume Design will be available summer of 2016. It explores creative collaboration during the costume design process, between the designer’s sketch and the final costume on stage, and features the photography of her husband, Mitchell D. Wilson.

Chris Chesak is the executive director of the Family Travel Association. Linda Perlstein remains in Seattle and works on the team developing Amazon’s bricks-and-mortar bookstore. She oversees the nonfiction buying and is involved in strategic planning, too. Ken Lefkowitz just started as the CEO of NetIX, a telecommunication start-up

My frosh hallmate Anne Jennings Paris reports that, along with husband Marc and son Duncan, she moved to London in May of 2014. This past fall, she completed a book of paintings and descriptions of the places they’ve encountered (A Long Walk to a Good Pub: Post Cards from an Expat Year). Duncan, 11, attends the local state school and Marc works in software consulting. They plan to return to the Portland, Ore., area later this year.

And speaking of Clark 3, I close with very sad news: Lori Robbins passed away in January. I will never forget her warmth and infectious good humor. She will be missed. On behalf of her friends, I’ve been working with University Relations to erect a memorial in her honor for our 25th Reunion next year. If you would like to contribute, please let me know and I can pass along the details.

ADAM BERINSKY | berinsky@mit.edu

PAUL COVIELLO | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Paul writes this time.

Greetings and salutations from Washington, D.C. I hope you all had a wonderful summer. Michele Greenstein and I have been busy with our two kids, Peter and Julia, and enjoyed a week up in Boston and Cape Cod, where we ate great Italian food and lobsters and got chased out of the water by a Great White Shark.

So anyway… the news (I’ll start in New England):

I heard from Susan Hunt Stevens, who is living in Newton, Mass., where she is busy with her two kids, now in third and fifth grade, and WeSpire, the technology company she founded five years ago. Susan was honored recently as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year for New England and travels to San Francisco a lot, where she gets to see Andrea Seebaum and her husband, who recently published Drink Your Carbs. Susan also sends word of recent visits with Kara Fisher Bohnsack, whom she sees for annual girls weekends; Michelle Connolly Specht, her weekly Soulcycle partner; Kathryn Walker Hall, who is back stateside from Switzerland; and Melissa Frankel, my former high school and Wes classmate, who is building a house on the Cape. Hi Melissa!

Jonathan Bell co-founded DUAL, a new architecture office in Providence. DUAL’s focus has been on small, complex projects and creative reuse of underused buildings. DUAL’s current work includes the adaptive reuse of a 19th-century brewery into a theater and artist-focused community and a new three-screen art cinema.

In addition to raising four small kids, Jen Humphreys Rohde was recently elected the Future Council Director for Girls on the Run, Maine Chapter, a self-esteem building, running program for “tween” girls. Jen is excited to use her lawyer/running coach background to lead this newly forming nonprofit, which will help young girls positively navigate negative social messages through growing physically strong.

Chris Chesak may not be in New England anymore… but he is pining to return. He’s taken a new position as executive director of the Family Travel Association and living in Cincy.

Lisa Turner Laing, her three boys, husband, and dog are living in Wisconsin. She is expecting her second novel to be released just before Thanksgiving under the pen name Lisa McLuckie.

Chadwick Canedy and his wife, Bona Yoon, welcomed their first child, Declan Solchan Canedy, on April 20th, 2015. Chadwick is living in D.C., where he is a research physicist and his wife does medical research for the VA hospital system.

Darcy Dennett’s independent documentary about the pit-bulls rescued from Michael Vick’s dog-fighting ring was recently premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival. You can read more about the project at championsdocumentary.com. The documentary was awarded the Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless award and Cherry (one of the dogs featured in the film) got to walk the red carpet!

Andrew Draper is still living in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where he does database migration for hedge funds and freelance copyeditor/writer work. He spends a fair portion of the year near Burlington, Vt., where his kids, now 9 and 12, live, and Cape Cod, where his parents live. He’d be happy to connect with alums in any of those regions.

Kevin Prufer’s new book called Churches was recently named one of the “10 favorite poetry books of the year” in the New York Times Book Review. And last but not least, Ken Lefkowitz has joined the board of NetIX Communications, a European startup that operates a global Internet exchange.

ADAM BERINSKY | berinsky@mit.edu

PAUL COVIELLO | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Adam writes: Hi, all: It’s time for the next round of updates from the class of 1992!
First up is my frosh year roommate, James Wilton, who lives in Charlotte, N.C. He was recently named head football coach for sixth grade at Sun Valley Middle School. He is working for Collabera as an account manager, interfacing with Bank of America. James’s wife, Tracy, is enjoying being at home with their three children—Jack (soon a high schooler), Carley, and Lola.

Also on the former roommate front (the now gone A-1 LoRise 10-person unit), Darcy Dennett got married and just returned from a mini-honeymoon, which involved a few days of challenging hiking in Canyonlands, Utah.

In another blast from the A-1 past, Sarah Guernsey reports that she had a “college day” at her middle school. Teachers made signs completing the sentence, “when you go to college…” and shared pictures of themselves from college (she reports that it was really hard to find ones that could be shared with middle schoolers!). The whole experience got her excited for the fall when she will take her son Jake to Wes for “Sons and Daughters of Alumni” weekend for high school juniors.

Juan Luque and his wife, Marie, welcomed Eva Maria Luque, who was born on April 2, weighing 7 lbs., 11 oz. Juan is also leaving his tenured position at Georgia Southern University and starting a new position as an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, beginning in August 2015.

Also welcoming a new addition, Stephanie Ivy Sanford and her husband, Junius Sanford, were expecting a baby in July.

Michele Eisenberg was host to a mini Wesleyan reunion at her daughter Elana’s bat mitzvah in April. Lara Small Laurence ’90, Jennifer Hammer ’91, Sarah Leavitt, and Jenny Simon Tabak ’93 were all there to sing “Havdalah” and dance the hora.

In February 2015, Shelly Gray was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Texas 2015. During her tenure she will make dozens of appearances and speeches, and compete for Ms. Wheelchair America in Des Moines in July. She is still practicing employment law with a State agency, and living with her 8-year-old son in Austin, Texas.

Vida Towne lives in Seattle with her husband, Andrew Chiodi, and their 9-year-old son, Dominic. Her days of Ultimate ended when her son was born in 2005, but she played high level Club Ultimate for many years, winning the World Championship with teammate Cory Pike ’89 in 1997 and 2002, and the National Championship in 2004. From time to time she runs into former Rugby teammate Corinne Drumheller, who has two young children and also lives in Seattle.

Shura Pollatsek is associate professor of costume design and technology at Western Kentucky University. She just had a sabbatical, during which time she began writing her first book, with the working title of Behind the Costume: The Art and Artists of Costume Design. The book is a collaboration with her husband, award-winning photographer (and DGA director and cinematographer) Mitch Wilson. She also did additional research and interviews in Paris (putting that French BA from Wesleyan to good use!). Shura also still does professional costume design, most recently for Christopher K. Morgan & Artists in the D.C. area.

Tamara O’Neil met up with Laurel Korholz and Greg Vinton in Princeton, N.J. for a terrific afternoon. Tamara is finishing her next-to-last tour in the Navy JAG Corps this September as senior counsel at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and then she’ll be moving to the field of disability policy and law through the Secretary of the Navy’s Council of Review Boards at the Washington Navy Yard. Her husband, Cameron, is retiring from the Army in the next year, so they are both getting excited to join the civilian workforce.

Andrew Draper’s job in database implementation has a new home after his company was bought out. He still lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Chris Foster works at Harmonix, and is having fun working on Rock Band 4 with Greg LoPiccolo ’83 and Nicole Lewis ’96. In his spare time, he is also working on a videogame at home with his 6-year-old son.

Kevin Prufer’s new book, Churches, was cited in The New York Times Book Review as one of their “Ten Favorite Poetry Books of 2014.”

Abigail Smith Saguy was promoted to full professor of sociology at UCLA, effective July 1, 2015.

Finally, even given our advanced age, we have some adventurous folks making big changes in their life. Alfred Culliford went back to school and earned an MBA last year from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Currently he is director of plastic, reconstructive, and hand surgery at Staten Island University Hospital and site-director for the North Shore/Long Island Jewish Plastic Surgery Residency Program. Turning to the Northwest, Linda Perlstein is leaving the world of education and will be working for Amazon.

That’s all the news for now. But please send Paul and me your updates. We’d love to hear from you!

Adam writes: Greetings, all! As I write this, my kids are home from school for the sixth day in the last three weeks and I’m looking at 30-foot pile of snow from my window. It was so big that it actually made the local news as it became a makeshift neighborhood ski slope. It’s been a heck of a winter here in Boston. Otherwise, though, things are well. I continue to live in a 500-person graduate student dorm at MIT with my family and remain gainfully employed as a political science professor.

Last November, I went to D.C. to give a talk at George Washington University and spent a day with my old housemates Chris Heikemian and Jon Pratt. It was great to catch up, but even better, just a couple months later Jon got engaged to Bridget Lines. Jon and Bridget met in Pakistan, both working for the State Department, and will be posted together in China as their next assignment.

It was great to hear from a bunch of my old Clark 3 hallmates as well. Ruthbea Yesner Clark lives in Brookline, Mass., and has a terrific job —as a smart city expert—writing, researching, and consulting with cities and vendors around the world about emerging technologies in urban environments. She is planning her first trip to Saudi Arabia for a project there. Sam Robinson lives in Philadelphia with his wife and daughter, 11. Sam has been practicing architecture in Philly since 1998. In 2011, he started his own firm, and in 2013 formed a partnership with Jane Ahn—Ahn + Robinson Studio. They do primarily residential renovation work in the city. Finally, Anne (Jennings) Paris and her family (husband Marc, son Duncan, 10) are taking a hiatus from their lives in Portland, Ore. Over the summer, they moved to London, where they plan to be for two years. They are renting in Kew near the Thames and living out every English major’s fantasy of getting to know England. Duncan is enrolled in a state primary school. Marc works as a software design consultant, and Anne is a part-time teacher at a small private school. She keeps up with what’s happening in the States by reading Sarah Guernsey’s and Adam Blumer’s live coverage of major cultural events and trends on Facebook.

Jill Slater proudly (though belatedly) announces the birth of Slater Ande Schwartzberg. She and Jill share a birthday of 12/12. Slater is 14 months old and loves to dance. Jill continues to develop her second career as a sustainable food systems consultant, building on her first career as a city planner.

Mark Hunter is moving to Burlington, Vt., in April with his wife of six years. He published his first book in 2014 and his executive leadership coaching company (Pinnacle Coaching) is 10 years old this year and going well. Also on the publishing front, Kristina Milnor’s second book came out last January: Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii (Oxford, 2014).

In other New England news, Dina Amsterdam is a visiting scholar at MIT, bringing the practices and principles of InnerYoga to a variety of projects at the MIT Media Lab. She’s normally based in San Francisco and Marin County.

Also in New England, Jonathan Bell wrapped up his first year of running his own architecture practice in Providence. Alongside teaching drawing and design studios at RISD and Roger Williams University, he has been occupied with a number of projects, including an addition to a 1950s Better Homes and Gardens plan house, and renovations to a 1920s service station, to be repurposed as a natural-chewing-gum company’s headquarters.

Maurice Harris started a new job as rabbi/senior educator with InterfaithFamily (interfaithfamily.com), a national Jewish nonprofit organization supporting interfaith couples and families and providing training and resources to Jewish community organizations on welcoming and inclusion of interfaith families. He still lives in Eugene, Ore., with his wife, Melissa Crabbe, and their two children, Clarice and Hunter.

Amy Larson continues to practice law at a small firm in Portland, Ore. She and her partner welcomed their first child into the world in September. Also, Amy had the chance to see Eric Leach ’92 a while back at his wedding in NYC.

Also on the West Coast, Rick Barot has been living in Tacoma, Wash., for 10 years now, directing the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at Pacific Lutheran University. His third book of poems, Chord, will be published by Sarabande Books in July 2015. He’s also the poetry editor for New England Review. Corinne Drumheller lives in Seattle with her husband, David, and their two children, Talia (7) and Zane (2).

Chris Chesak just took a job as director of partnerships with Intrepid Travel and reports that he, Karen Cacase, and Mike Flynn ’93 received a warm and vibrant welcome from Costas Darras during a recent chance meeting at a restaurant in Harlem.

In November Jennifer Schonborn attended Wesleyan’s Sons and Daughters weekend, which allows Wes alums to come to campus with their kids who are juniors in high school. She brought her daughter Charlotte (an overdetermined member of the class of ’20 since Jennifer’s husband is Rik Treiber ’91), and had a great time being on campus, seeing all the new buildings, and having a nice talk with our frosh dean Meg Zocco. While there, Jennifer ran into David Kane ’92. Though they didn’t know each other at Wes, they had a great time together with their kids.

Speaking of David, he writes, “Ty Jagerson (CEO) and I are partners in an investment crowdfunding platform for clean energy projects called Village Power. Ty and the team cover the West Coast from the home office in Palo Alto, while I run East Coast operations from NYC. We recently won a SunShot grant from the Department of Energy for promising new solar finance models.”

David Shadrack Smith continues to helm a production company in New York, part2 pictures, which just showed its first narrative feature film, I’ll See You in My Dreams, at Sundance this January. Part2 is entering its ninth year and it’s best known for the series This Is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN. This fall, his series, Belief with Oprah Winfrey, will get to air after three years in production around the world.

Heather Claudine Nash continues to practice psychology. Her short collection of poems, The Problem with Loving Ghosts (published under her middle name Claudine), was recently released by Finishing Line Press.

Byron King joined, as director of software engineering, a company providing hardware and software services to credit unions across the country.

Noelle Nelson enjoys living in Atlanta and working at the CDC on vaccine research and policy in the US and globally, with a focus on hepatitis vaccine. She recently returned from Sierra Leone and the Ebola emergency response.

Wendy Moore Hershey was part of the closing bell ceremony at the NYSE on Jan. 29 because of work she does as a field consultant to nonprofit clients at Mercer Investments The biggest fans? Wendy’s kids, ages 6, 6, and 5 who went crazy “seeing Mommy on TV.”

That’s the news for now. Don’t forget to write to me or Paul—we’d love to hear from you!

ADAM BERINSKY | berinsky@mit.edu

PAUL COVIELLO | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Elizabeth Liang has been touring her intercultural solo show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, nationally and internationally. It had its world premiere in Hollywood, in May 2013. Elizabeth brought it to Wesleyan in April 2014 and has also performed it at Princeton, M.I.T., Williams, Augustana, S.D., and Carleton; theatre festivals Off Off Broadway and in San Francisco; conferences in Chicago and Tyson’s Corner, Va.; and in Panama and Iceland. For more info: aliencitizensoloshow.com

Darcy Dennett writes: “My entire life has been about work for the past year—and will likely be for coming months as well! Still living in NYC despite what appears to be a massive population explosion.” She’s producing and directing The Champions, her first independent documentary feature, which will be released in 2015. Here’s the summary: “All the odds were against the 22 pit-bulls rescued from star quarterback Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring. Forced to fight for their lives, they were considered so dangerous that PETA and The Humane Society wanted them euthanized. But what no one counted on was their courage—and their story inspired a nation.”

Caitlin Boger-Hawkins has worked for Connecticut’s community college system since the late ’90s, and lives with her husband Rick, 14-year-old daughter, Julia; 12-year-old son, Thomas; and dachshund, Minerva, in beautiful Litchfield County. She would love to connect with others in the Northwest Corner!

ADAM BERINSKY | berinsky@mit.edu 

PAUL COVIELLO | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu