Tag: 1992

Adam writes: Greetings all! Hope everyone is doing well. I just finished my first year as a housemaster at a graduate dorm at MIT, living with 550 graduate students. It’s been quite a year for us but my family is having a great time. The space is great not just for entertaining graduate students but others as well—in January, I hosted a talk by Associate Professor of Religion Mary-Jane Rubenstein for about 50 Wes alums and current students. It was great to see so many folks there and I hope we can do it again in the future.

Andrea Lachenmayr lives in DC with her husband, Tom Russell, and their 11-year old daughter, Cecilia. After 15 years practicing in big law firms (primarily doing infrastructure finance), she is starting her own law practice to focus on the needs of charter schools and other education innovators.

Alfred Culliford is director of plastic surgery at Staten Island University Hospital in NYC. Currently he is also pursuing a physician executive MBA degree and will graduate in Dec. 2014. He is living in New York in a blended family with his 8-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and his partner and her 9-year-old daughter.

Katheryn Berla still lives in Louisville and saw Hal Skinner and Whitney Witt and their children Halcyon and Sammy over the holidays. The two families were able to spend the night and ring in the New Year together when Hal and Whitney were on their way back to Madison, WI.

Kevin Prufer remains professor of English and director of graduate studies of The Creative Writing Program at The University of Houston. He has two new books coming out this year: Churches (Four Way Books, 2014) and Russell Atkins: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Unsung Masters Series, 2014)

Moving to the West Coast, Mouncey Ferguson is married, living in L.A. with his wife, Elise Robertson, and their kids, Stella (8) and Sadie (7). He produced an independent horror/thriller, Donner Pass, directed by his wife, which came out in 2012 and is airing on Showtime and available on Netflix. Mouncey and his wife are finishing up a short web series for Nickelodeon which will be available on nickmom.com, called The Wisdom of Children. The rest of the time, he works in advertising.

Also in L.A. is Stephanie Ivy, who is still working for Goldman Sachs. She remarried in June 2013. Stephanie reports that she sees Scott Hatter occasionally as they work in the same building.

Ziba Kashef writes that after the last decade in San Francisco, she is heading to the East Coast. Her husband, Tony, just landed a job at the University of St. Josephs and they, and their two kids, are going to move to West Hartford in August. She’d love to reconnect with any Wes alums in the area and can be reached at: zkashef1970@gmail.com

Also on the move is Jody Sperling who writes, “This May-June I will be embarking on a six-week journey to the Arctic as research for a choreographic project entitled “Ice Melt.” I’ll be accompanying a scientific expedition aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy that will be studying the relationship between the thinning Arctic sea ice and increased phytoplankton blooms that may be altering the polar ecosystem. Upon my return I’ll be developing a dance-theater piece for my company, Time Lapse Dance, that will focus on the dynamism, fragility and loss of sea ice. This is the longest I’ll have ever been away from my daughter Evie, now 2 1/2. I will miss her dearly, but the voyage is an exciting (and unexpected) opportunity. I plan to use my experience as much as possible to increase awareness of climate science.”

That’s all the news for now. Please send updates to me or Paul—we’d love to hear from you!.

ADAM BERINSKY | berinsky@mit.edu

PAUL COVIELLO | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Greetings and salutations from Washington, D.C. It’s a beautiful late fall day here with white stuff on the ground, and cancellations and closings on the radio. Michele and I are focused on Nutcracker shows for Julia and piano recitals for Peter, as we pack for a trip to see family and go skiing.

Jeremy Hornik adopted a baby boy at birth, Adler Bishop Quirke Hornik, in September. Jeremy continues to live in Chicago, where he is designing slot machines and running Donna’s Good Things charity honoring the memory of his daughter, Donna, with the goal “to find hope, give back, get inspired. We want a movement, not a charity!”

Maurice Harris, member of the faculty of the Judaic Studies Department at the University of Oregon, recently celebrated the release of his second book, Leviticus: You Have No Idea (Cascade Books). His first book, Moses: A Stranger Among Us, came out in 2012. Maurice and his wife, Melissa Crabbe, are raising two adoptive children, Clarice and Hunter Harris, in Eugene, Ore., where they get to hang out with Randall Phelps, who lived with Maurice in The Bayit: Randy has put away his rubber chicken antics for a career in developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Oregon Health and Science University.

James Wilton lives in the Charlotte, N.C., area where he is in his seventh year as executive director of RCS Corporation. RCS is celebrating its 20th anniversary and is expanding into new business lines around oil/gas, solar and other energy verticals. Give James a ring to connect if you are in the energy business or want to know what it is like to be the father of a teenage boy.

Lastly, I heard from Oliver Ryan, well known bachelor/magazine reader/plant care-giver and therapist, on his way to Louisville, Ky., where he was planning to meet with Juliet Cooper Gray and her husband, Mathias. Oliver and Mathias are working together to launch Count It, a new kind of workplace wellness app. Jonathan Bush is on the board of Count It, as is Larry Sosnow, Meg Sosnow’s father. Back at home in NYC, Oliver shares a desk with Dave Kane, who himself is up to his neck in a cool startup, Village Power, founded by Ty Jagerson. If all goes well, this update will be spotted by one of the members of the Wes Mafia who are running the venture capital scene in New York these days!

ADAM BERINSKY and PAUL COVIELLO
berinsky@mit.edu
coviellop01@alum.darden.edu