CLASS OF 2006 | 2023 | FALL ISSUE

Nyasha Foy shares, “I recently celebrated one year at Sotheby’s, as vice president and assistant general counsel, supporting NFTs/digital art and luxury. Outside of work, I have been re-engaging with my passion for art and music, both by joining the Save the Music Foundation Board, while also pursuing creative projects like writing a children’s book and TV shows. Professionally, I am in my second year as board member for the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA), while participating in speaking panels across London, NYC, and Rome. As I start my final year as an alumni-elected trustee, I am enthusiastic about continuing to serve our alma mater.”

Erin Reding Glaser enjoyed getting together with Kate McCrery and Jane Maxson Hendrickson in February for a very fun girls’ weekend. Jane and Erin brought along their daughters, Grace and Ivy, which made for an even more memorable experience. Lots of fun was had by all and they are also looking forward to attending Homecoming Weekend at Wesleyan this year and hope to see other alumni there too! Finally, if anyone lives in the Philadelphia area and is interested in learning more about wheelchair basketball, please contact Erin Reding Glaser. Her daughter plays on a team and they are always looking for more players. It is very fun and inclusive. They even have program chairs that people can borrow if needed.

Dana Wollman writes, “I am living in my hometown of Brooklyn, where my partner and I welcomed our first child, a daughter, earlier this year. I’ve been working at the tech news site Engadget since 2011, where I’ve been editor in chief since 2018.”

Steven Wengrovitz, along with his husband, Dan Freeman, welcomed their second baby girl this August. They’re all enjoying life in Beacon, New York.

Zach Strassburger received the Champions of Diversity Award from the City of Philadelphia Law Department for their work, including creating an inclusive language guide to make legal writing more inclusive and approachable for diverse populations. It can be found at https://www.phila.gov/media/20230530134433/Inclusive-Language-FINAL.pdf. Zach is a deputy city solicitor in the Appellate Litigation unit for the City of Philadelphia Law Department, doing election law, First Amendment law, and more.

Mark Liew is living in China with his wife and three young children, ages eight, six, and four.

Juan Sebastian Moreno completed his third year as a virtual English language educator with English Language Programs, an education exchange program of the U.S. Department of State. The project, sponsored by EducationUSA Panama, helped students in Panama prepare for exams required by universities in the USA. Juan has also accepted the role of ESL/Bilingual Department coordinator at Torrington High School in Connecticut, where he is a teacher of ESL and bilingual STEM. This summer he went with his family and five-year-old son, Hai-Nam, to the three-day 160th Gettysburg Battle Reenactment in which his father participated as Union infantry.

Vivian Lew Hsiung lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two boys. When she’s not working on her counseling practice, she’s outdoors fighting to save her vegetables from slugs.

Arielle Edelman McHenry writes, “I continue to live in Minneapolis with my husband, one-and-a-half-year-old, and six-year-old. I love my work in public health, drug policy, and harm reduction—and talking with Wesleyan students who are interested in the same. Meeting up with Steve Rubenstein and his family for pizza picnics at the lake is a new favorite summertime tradition.”

Nate Baumgart and his wife took a year to travel around the world and blog about it, and now own a food tour company in Denver called Delicious Denver. They had a daughter during COVID who is almost four and he runs the Alumni Association here for Colorado. Any Wes graduates headed out West are welcome to contact him for recommendations about food and dining in Colorado!

Keitaro Nakamoto works as an acute care surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. He sees Serkan Parlak and his family regularly and hopes to get an opportunity to catch up with everyone IRL sometime soon!

Jane Maxson Hendrickson abandoned any hopes of studying medicine immediately after college in pursuit of a career in the nonprofit sector, which recently resulted in being promoted to her first executive director job. She has three kids and chickens, lives in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut, and is happy to serve as the class secretary so that she can keep in touch with all of you! Please send in notes to keep everyone updated!

CLASS OF 2006 | 2023 | SPRING ISSUE

It was good to hear from several ’06ers.

During summer 2022, Tyler M. Franklin was promoted to partner at Rubin and Rudman LLP. At the practice he advises clients on land use, environmental, and regulatory compliance issues. He is a member of the firm’s Environmental, Litigation, and Real Estate Departments.

And while one is settling into a legal career, another looks elsewhere. Daniel Dykes has retired early from big-law-firm life, and spends his time studying languages, hiking, traveling, and catching up on the books he previously hadn’t had time to read since he started law school more than a decade ago.

Life celebrations are taking place too. Conor Galvin reports he is “getting married in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, in December to Samata Narra. Wes alums, Warren Clanton, Quincy Francis, Jimmy Koutroumanos ’05, and Khalia Frazier ’07 will be there.” And on a vacation to France in August 2022, Jesse Young proposed to his girlfriend of five years, Michele Viterise. They plan to get married in fall 2023 in Washington, D.C., where they both live!

In the realm of education, Kate Angell was hired as associate professor and assessment-data management librarian at the City University of New York (CUNY). And Mara Baldwin has “taken a new teaching position teaching drawing at Bard College, where I’ve joined my partner, Sarah Hennies, with our child, Ellis, born in June 2019. I’d be happy to connect with other Wes alumni in the Hudson Valley! In June 2023 I’ll have a solo show at the Everson Museum in Syracuse.”

Also on the East Coast, Julia Kleinman Horowitz shared, “I welcomed my third baby, a girl named Lily, in 2021. My older two children are Charles (five) and Arielle (three). After living in Los Angeles for many years, I relocated closer to Wesleyan and now live in Greenwich, Connecticut. I am vice president and head of content at Epic, the leading digital book platform for kids that grants free access to a 47K library to all students and teachers.”

Erin Glaser wrote: “I now live in the Philadelphia area with my husband Scott and two children Ivy (eight) and Otto (four). Ivy plays on a wheelchair basketball team known as Katie’s Komets. The team is always looking for new team members. Anyone between the ages of six and 18 with a physical disability is welcome to come and try it out. I’m happy to answer any questions folks have about the sport and team. It is very fun and inclusive!

“I was recently appointed to the Abington School Board in Pennsylvania. I am now one of nine school board directors. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and serve the community. I just celebrated my one-year anniversary at Veeva Systems as the talent development program manager. In my role I get to design and deliver training for our over 6,000+ global team. My role focuses on leading training in areas such as leadership development, DEI, coaching and feedback, and building healthy teams. It has been a fun and fulfilling role. We are hiring all the time so if you know of anyone interested in a remote opportunity with a very healthy and growing tech company please reach out.”

Hannah Gay Keao had a lot of challenges and wins this year, from fighting to pass an open-carry ban as a city councilwoman (which passed!) to managing her then 18-month-old through Guillain-Barré Syndrome and multiple hospitalizations this summer. She is so grateful to all her Wes friends for their support, especially Jackie Asadorian Fishbein, Megan Lesko Pacchia, Marianne Reyes Lima, Maggie Elliott Martin, and Allison Joe Offutt who helped Hannah and her husband Brandon so much through the summer. Everyone is healthy and home now!

And finally, Andrew Flint has been disputing a nonsense eBay claim from a sketchy seller, but he’s enjoying nearly every moment of life. At least two out of five moments, which he considers legit. While living in the middle of nowhere he’s developed a satisfying relationship with the various restaurants surrounding him. Just last week he devoured a fish and chips dinner so decadent that it would have made Tallulah Bankhead and Mata Hari blush, probably at the same time. He welcomes your texts. 413.822.1456. “Hit me up if we were friends way back when.”

CLASS OF 2006 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

 For this edition, I’m changing it up by placing births first! Steven Wengrovitz and his husband Dan welcomed their daughter, Elise Lucca Wengrovitz-Freeman, to the world on July 20, 2020. They can’t wait to show her around campus someday soon! 

Please be sure to pick up Drew Berkowitz’s first book Framing School Violence and Bullying in Young Adult Manga: Fictional Perspectives on a Pedagogical Problem, released in November 2020 via Palgrave Macmillan. This title analyzes the ways in which young adult Japanese manga has influenced patterns of violence and 

bullying in K–12 schools.

Kyle Gardner finished his PhD in South Asian history at the University of Chicago in 2018 and moved to D.C. to work for a consulting firm. Keep an eye out for his forthcoming book, The Frontier Complex: Geopolitics and the Making of the India–China Border, 1846–1962, which will be available in January 2021 via Cambridge University Press.

Amanda Thieroff is single and childless but she does not live with her parents (writer’s note: huge congratulations on that end)! Her small vegan ice cream company Fiddlehead Creamery, based out of Port Townsend, Washington, is weathering the COVID-19 storm and she is happy to be providing a small amount of joy in these wild times. She also adopted the most wonderful puppy in the world: Finlay. When she and Finlay are not hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, they enjoy growing and cooking food, and trying to stay positive through the power of human connection.

Be sure to add the letters “M.D.” after Stephanie Diana Garcia’s name. Diana is happily thriving in Los Angeles and works as a family medicine resident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. She recently had her research published in a prestigious journal. 

Also on the West Coast is Alix Sleight, who just survived a wild pandemic cross-country move with her family. She started a new job as an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she’ll be developing a new health behavior counseling program for underserved cancer survivors. She’s living in Malibu now and looking forward to reconnecting with all her old Wesleyan friends in SoCal.

Natalie Finegood Goldberg is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a private practice in Beverly Hills, California. While she has been an AASECT certified sex therapist since 2015, she’s now also an AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor. Although the move to online counseling was daunting, her practice has been running smoothly.

The U.S. Department of State announced the selection of Juan Sebastian Moreno for a virtual fellowship engaging with English language learners online in Panama at Education USA. Moreno is among the first to be selected for the Virtual English Language Fellow Program, a new program created for the 2020–2021 academic year. 

Hayley Stokar relocated to Washington, D.C. with her husband and two-year-old daughter to join the Social Work Department faculty at Gallaudet University.

Maggie Elliott Martin moved to Nashville this summer with her husband for his job at Vanderbilt. Post-pandemic, they’re looking forward to exploring the city and spending some time with Jessie Morris, Brian Adams ’04, and Brent Taylor ’07.

Pia Silva has launched her podcast Show Your Business Who’s Boss. The podcast seeks to educate service business owners and consultants about what it really takes to be the boss of their businesses, instead of at the mercy of clients. She also recently did a TEDx talk titled “Taking Leaps Is The Only Way To Bank True Confidence.”

And here’s a quick mention of a Wesleyan alum abroad. Smith Louis moved to Berlin, Germany in February 2020, where he works as a product manager at a tech company in the content management space.

And now I’ll be stepping into the third person role. Calvin Cato has remained in high spirits by keeping in touch with friends Sophie Karp, Mariana Brewer, Gabrielle Tynes-Labonte, and Alana Liskov (who recently completed her counseling psychology doctoral program at the University of Denver). Beginning in September 2020, he is currently co-hosting and producing an outdoor, socially-distant comedy and music variety show in the northwest end of Prospect Park called Disco Tree Variety Show. If you live in NYC and can travel safely and own a picnic blanket, feel free to come by! The show accepts donations where proceeds have gone to support mental health charities as well as BIPOC and LGBTQ organizations. 

Finally, Fazal Yameen is currently the vice president of Product at Stash, a financial technology and financial services start-up in NYC. He sends his best regards and hopes that everyone is all well, healthy, safe, and staying close to their loved ones, whether in person or virtually.

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com

CLASS OF 2006 | 2020 | ISSUE 2

Hello, Class of 2006! At the time of this writing, I know we’re all going through various stressors considering the current climate, so I hope these notes will be a good palate cleanser.

Since so many of us are stuck indoors, you should consider picking up some books written by our fellow classmates. Sam Han is the author of (Inter)Facing Death: Life in Global Uncertainty, a work that analyzes the nexus of death and digital culture in the contemporary moment in the context of recent developments in social, cultural, and political theory. The book analyzes diverse phenomena, including the mourning of celebrity deaths and online suicide pacts. Sam currently works as a senior lecturer at the School of the Social Sciences/Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

For another interesting read, seek out The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities by Tara Fickle. This work discusses how gaming and game theory has played a role in our understanding of racial identity and marginalization. Tara is an assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon and an affiliated faculty in ethnic studies, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and the New Media and Culture Certificate program.

In January 2020, Jesse Young completed his master’s degree in international policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. He works on climate change advocacy at the international nonprofit Oxfam America.

Daniel Dykes is very grateful for family as he quarantines with his parents and his sister’s family in Connecticut. He is working remotely as an investment funds associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Manhattan office.

Jenevive Nykolak joined the faculty of California State University, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor of modern and contemporary art history this past fall. After a brief stint in San Francisco, she is very happy to be in LA!

Kristy Elliott graduated grad school from Sacred Heart University. She earned her master of education and certification simultaneously and now teaches computer science and technology.

In the fall, Mel McCrea will start work on her master’s degree in counseling psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is open to housing leads, odd jobs, and dating setups (women, nonbinary, and genderqueer) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Alex Pfeiffer Reynolds successfully manages to stay connected with her classmates. She’s had happy hour Zoom calls with Adam Maxwell in Steamboat Springs, Colo.; Anthony Gray in Minneapolis, Minn.; Mike Walsh in Palm Springs; Morgan Blum in Boston; Matt Smith ’06, MALS ’11 and Reid Jewett Smith in Vermont; and Jordan Funt in Florida. These happy hours have helped them share many laughs and memories.

Alex Altman is celebrating the launch of her private therapy practice, Alex Altman Therapy LLC, in Bethesda, Maryland. Congratulations to Alex as she also celebrates her recent engagement to her fiancé, Nicholas Sherman.

Rachel Berger is living in Brooklyn with her husband, Ari Jankelowitz, and two children, Colin and Sadie. In October 2019, she became the director of nutrition at the NYC Department for the Aging.

Congratulations to Eleanor Rodriguez (formerly Eleanor Conger-Milnes), who had her son, Cosme Jeremias Rodriguez, on April 12. She and her husband, Jesus Rodriguez, are delighted with Cosme, who weighed an impressive 10 pounds, three ounces. She is eternally grateful to Emily Mulqueen, who has been an amazing support into motherhood.

Sophie Karp and Evan Katin-Borland, along with 3-year-old Lucy, welcomed Clara May Borland in January. Despite the current lockdown in Brooklyn, they are grateful to have their health and each other.

Emily Frost and Nick Bullard welcomed Phoebe Frost Bullard into the world in June 2019—perfect timing to join Wesleyan class of 2041 alongside Neva Peck, daughter of Shaine Truscott and Stacy Peck. Shaine currently works for the health care workers union SEIU in Seattle. Emily, Nick, Phoebe, and Phoebe’s older brother Henry (4 years old) moved to Concord, Mass. over the winter. Emily works as a producer for the podcast company Wondery. Nick continues to do strategy work for Deloitte.

Alexandra Loh is happy to have it all! In 2019, she and her husband welcomed baby Evelyn into the world. And in 2020, they purchased a beautiful house that they’ve made into a happy home.

I hope you are all staying safe and sane in these times!

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com

CLASS OF 2006 | 2019 | ISSUE 1

Jennifer Low is celebrating a well-earned victory after being declared the winner on an episode of Netflix’s cake decorating show, Sugar Rush. Jennifer is the owner and lead pastry chef of The Frosted Fox Cake Shop. Based in Philadelphia, this delightful store is best known for creating wedding and specialty cakes. Definitely check out Frosted Fox Cake Shop for your confectionary needs.

Kristy Elliott is going back to work now that her four children are old enough to be in school. She teaches third grade in Connecticut and is enrolled in the MAT program at Sacred Heart University, where she is working towards her teacher certification.

Rebecca Morse graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2016. She spent a year clerking in Houston, during which she visited Amelia Long in Austin, before moving to Los Angeles, where she lives with her partner, Tim, and works for the city attorney’s office.

Anna Moench enrolled at the University of California San Diego, where she completed her MFA in playwriting. She got married, had a baby, and she resides in Los Angeles, where she is adapting a novel to the screen for Universal and Michael DeLuca Productions. Her new play, Man of God, had its world premiere at East West Players on Jan. 31.

Joseph McElligott supported alumni development for the Trinity Pawling School in 2018 by endowing the Joseph B. McElligott IV Scholarship. The scholarship’s sole purpose is to provide financial aid for students attending the school. Kate Angell was awarded tenure and an associate professorship at Long Island University Brooklyn. Devin Ludwig completed an intensive course in web development. He is seeking full-time programming work. Get in touch with Devin for your programming needs!

Jenny Weinar got married in December. In attendance were Alex Altman, Adam Rizzo, and Jane Morley ’05. Congrats and best wishes!

Congratulations to Luke and Jessica Basta, who welcomed their third child into their family. Baby Heidi joins her siblings, Jonah and Theo. Another round of congrats are in order for Hayley Stokar and her husband, Alexander, who welcomed their first child, Clarissa, in May.

Noah and Elizabeth Isaacs ’05 welcomed their second child, Jonah Hudson Isaacs, into the world on Nov. 20. Jonah is studying ceiling fans in Brooklyn while his 3-year-old sister, Vivienne Langston Isaacs, tries to affectionately eat his toes. Noah works as a director of behavioral health at NYC Health and Hospitals, helping the public hospital system combat the opioid epidemic. Elizabeth works as a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau.

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com