CLASS OF 2015 | 2023 | FALL ISSUE

Marjahn Finlayson was recently named as a climate change science pioneer by King Charles III in his address to the nation for the 50th Independence of The Bahamas (her home country). She has been working as a climate change specialist for about 10 years. For more information about her work, check out climateedubahamas.com.

Kate Gilpin and Alex Kamisher ’17 got married September 2023 with lots of Wesleyan friends by their side. They are moving from Brooklyn to Long Island (“please still be friends with us!”) so that Kate can start medical school.

Nikki Dodd is helping Lynx Mitchell ’18 raise funds to support her in her fight against ME/CFS (a chronic and debilitating illness), and invites anyone who might want to contribute to reach out to Nikki directly at nikkizdodd@gmail.com.

Camille Casareno and her husband, Gordon Petty, just moved to a new place in Harlem. Gordon had his dissertation defense on August 4, finishing up six years of a PhD in neurobiology at Columbia University.

CLASS OF 2015 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE

Evan Bieder is teaching fourth grade and coaching cross country and track at Greens Farms Academy. He and his wife Britney have a one-year-old son named Zen. Evan had a few beers at Foxwoods with Eric Arsenault ’17 over the winter.

Sara Warnock and Brent Packer had their auras cleansed during a Denver sound bath.

CLASS OF 2015 | 2023 | SPRING ISSUE

Dana Louie and Jonathan Coombs got married this fall in Nahant, Massachusetts. Several classmates came to celebrate with them. They live in Boston with their two cats, Biscuit and Bun.

Iliana Ortega, Davion Hounchell, and Lizzie Jáuregui would like to congratulate Vicky Hill (née Ramos) and her husband Harry Hill on the birth of their daughter, Ivy Amelia Hill, on November 13, 2022.

Alicia Gansley is an engineering manager at crypto analytics firm Chainalysis in New York City.

Chris Tugman is enjoying his time in London, U.K., where he’s spent the last four and half years. Chris enjoys exploring Europe and still manages to play basketball a couple of times a week. He leads strategic partnerships for Xero, a global financial technology company located near King’s Cross. If any alums are visiting London, he’s always up to connect and grab a pint.

Marjorie Hunt shares she “started an MA program in history at Cal State LA this fall, and I also just moved into a co-op house in Northeast LA.”

Mary DePascale graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in May with a PhD in Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. This summer she was awarded a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship grant, and she is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College, conducting research on family math engagement in early childhood.

CLASS OF 2015 | 2022 | FALL ISSUE

’15ers had lots to share this round:

Kate Linde wrote in to say that she is “a bicoastal media mogul who works for Wunderkind, loves a California sunset, but can never resist taking a bite out of the Big Apple.” Kate also had updates on other Wes friends:

Alexa Burzinski is now an international art swindler at Marlborough, with ties to Mexico City and Chelsea, Manhattan. . . . Haley Keyko ’16 just got her learner’s permit . . . for the third time! She won’t drive anything but carbon-efficient vehicles. . . . As a doctor at Mount Sinai, Lauren Nelson has been preventing brain injuries by day and learning to drive ambulances at night. (Thanks for the news, Kate!)

Ming Zhu shared: “I first left Shenzhen for Middletown when I was 18, and after having been abroad (Middletown, Boston, San Francisco, Dubai, and back to Boston) for over a decade, now I’m finally back in Asia. I recently graduated from Harvard Business School with my MBA and have since relocated to Singapore to work at Innosight, a global strategy consulting firm founded by an HBS professor, Clay Christensen, focusing on innovation and growth strategy consulting. The four years I spent at Wes was the most formative period of my life so far, where I built the core of network; and that thought got reinforced once again when I moved to Singapore this June and quickly found myself having dinner and drinks with many of my Wes friends who are also based here, as if no time had passed since many of us last met. I appreciate all the friendships and this tight community, and hope we’ll continue to sustain and nourish it together wherever we might be. If you are routing through Singapore, do drop me a note!”

Jessica Seidman recently relocated to New York City, where she joined Condon & Forsyth LLP as an associate attorney in their aviation litigation practice group. She would love to connect with more Wes folk in the area, so feel free to reach out and say “hi!”

Kate Gibbel started a letterpress postcard operation in March 2022 called Send Me Press (https://sendme.press). She publishes one poem every month as a limited-edition letterpress postcard. Earlier this summer, the project was profiled in The Boston Globe! She first got the idea for Send Me Press while chatting with Virgil B. G. Taylor, James Gibbel ’19, and Alex Kelley ’13 in May 2015. Kate looks forward to seeing many of you at the five Wesleyan weddings she is attending this calendar year.

Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein said, “It’s been an incredibly exciting year for me, so it feels like a good time to send in my first class note. After six or seven long years of graduate school, I’ve successfully defended my PhD thesis in astronomy, and will be moving to Los Angeles to start a postdoctoral position at Carnegie Observatories in September. More importantly, I just got married!”

And Steven Susaña-Castillo reports that he moved to San Francisco in July 2022 and is excited for his new adventure.

CLASS OF 2015 | 2022 | SPRING ISSUE

Angela Slevin and Tim Gallivan met on the last day of classes during the spring of their senior year. They didn’t meet until then because Tim spent a lot of time in Olin and Angela spent a lot of time on Fountain and at the Nest (maybe it was the other way around . . . ?). They will be getting married in Virginia this July surrounded by many beloved Wes friends!

Sara Warnock is preparing for ACL surgery following an accident at Breckenridge and wants to throw out a friendly reminder to stop your ski day when your legs get tired. She’s looking forward to frolicking around Denver and/or San Diego with Amelia Mettler this spring.

This spring, Marissa Castrigno is graduating from UNC Wilmington with an MFA in creative writing. She wrote her first book—narrative nonfiction about riding the New York City subway, among other things. Her goal this year is to get a job she doesn’t hate.

Earl Y. Lin has been busy: “I left my job in DC and moved to Minneapolis to start law school at the University of Minnesota. On the personal front, I also got engaged to my now-fiancée before we moved out here, and we’re excited to be living in the Midwest—a whole new part of the country for both of us—and getting to know the Twin Cities as law school, the cold, and COVID all permit.”

Rebecca Wyzan is “head of development at the Brooklyn-based production company Present Company, co-founded by Dan Janvey ’06 and Paul Mezey. We launched in December of 2021.”

Melissa Luning writes: “I just started my first semester in the Advanced Standing BSN Program at Farmingdale State College. I am interested in pediatric and neonatal care. I am excited to begin the journey to becoming an RN (and to be able to do it all in person)!”

From Jamie Hall: “I’ve been living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with my partner Kaylen and my cat Seven (not Steven). I completed a successful Dry January, which I’m extending into February, and I’m growing out a winter beard that is mostly brown with some auburn parts. I also started a new job conducting research and analysis for a solar and storage company. Hope the whole Wes fam is staying healthy and doing well!” 

Kehan Zhou says: “I am the CEO of Terrascope, Inc. We are building the first AI real estate agent with deep learning and computer vision technology. My co-founder, Julian Compagni Portis, and I started the company in 2020. Terrascope has been featured in 17-plus publications and podcasts. This year we are hiring more machine learning scientists and raising a seed round. Happy to collaborate with alums working in the Proptech and VC sector.”

 

CLASS OF 2015 | 2021 | ISSUE 1

Winnie Yung recently graduated from Fullstack Academy’s cybersecurity boot camp and is also a current scholarship recipient of the SANS Institute and ICMP’s Diversity Cyber Academy. She would love to connect with any alum working in cyber or infosec. Or if anybody is interested in learning about the field (it’s really cool!), they can feel free to contact her.

     Camille Casareno is finishing up her MPH from Columbia this May and is looking forward to entering the public health field. Though we missed our official 5th year class reunion last year, Gordon Petty and Camille have been keeping close with Eley Rosenthal, Ali Rosenberg, and Brendan Cole through their monthly-ish Zooms. They are hoping to do a beach hangout again this summer, with masks and social distancing of course!

     Grace Nix is acting in a series shooting in the Bay Area, and making videos for an environmental nonprofit that uses hair, fur and fleece donations to make hair mats that naturally clean up oil spills! Check it out, MatterofTrust.org. Pro-Tip: Collect your hair from the shower and stick it in a little bathroom hair jar, wait a few months and you’ll save an otter’s life.

     Rebecca Seidel is making podcasts for Marvel in her hometown of Queens, New York, where she may or may not be neighbors with Spider-Man. In her spare time, she’s making more podcasts! She co-produced and sound designed Season 3 of the independent podcast Other Men Need Help, alongside a stellar team (including Ben Goldberg ’17). She’s also working on an audio series about bridges.

CLASS OF 2015 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

After a successful first run of our primordial beings dance tour in the fall, Andrew Hove, Julia Chanin, and Zia Grossman-Vendrillo have had to postpone their second run because of the pandemic. Despite this setback, life has flowed on and they are still in the process of creation! They are all currently living together in a tiny home on Mt. Tam with their pet turtle. They are dedicated to exploring sentience through dance in public again soon. Stay tuned!

Mateusz Burgunder finished his MBA at INSEAD, which felt like a small hub of Wesleyan alumni. He is now continuing his studies in management at MIT Sloan and looks forward to reconnecting with friends in Boston.  

LaDarius Drew got promoted to director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, making him the first Black administrator since The Frederick Gunn School’s founding in 1850, despite its founder being an abolitionist.

Marco Martinez writes: “I’m disappointed that we did not get a chance to celebrate our 5-year together and hope that can happen in the near future. I started a new job at Twitter as a research analyst and it’s been a wild experience onboarding and working remotely for the past six months but I feel that this work has never felt more relevant given the current climate. Currently I’m hunkered down in Los Angeles, which has been home for the past two years; riding my motorcycle and dancing have been my favorite escapes and I recently rode solo up the coast through central California. I hope everyone is holding up the best they can. Drop me a line if you ever want to catch up!

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2015 | 2020 | ISSUE 2

Katherine Lu has hit all the quarantine milestones, including, but not limited to, panic-buying eggs, making focaccia, baking banana bread, cutting her own hair, celebrating her birthday over HouseParty, buying Animal Crossing, and redecorating the house. In between these activities, she dreams of one day being able to congregate in groups of more than three and make breakfast for her friends.

Eric Lopez and Andrew Kang send warm wishes and positivity to all the frontline workers. They’ll be playing Call of Duty: Warzone and cooking food to make their moms proud for the foreseeable future.

Amy Zhang is a segment producer at Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, gearing up for the quarantine version of their show. She also helped start a fundraiser for NYC Chinatown businesses called “Dumplings Against Hate”—check it out, share, and donate if you can!

Caitlin Bray ’15, MA’16 married James Tracht on April 26 in a quarantine wedding. They had to cancel their original wedding plans so decided to get married and throw a party later. They had a friend from high school take pictures, and another friend as the officiant. They all met up in Caitlin’s parents’ backyard and Zoomed the wedding to their family. It was a great day even if everyone couldn’t be there. They are happy to have each other and look forward to being able to celebrate whenever they can.

Dana Louie and Jonathan Coombs are passing the time in lockdown in Cambridge, Mass., with their two Siberian kittens, Biscuit and Bun. Jonathan is working remotely at Liberty Mutual, and Dana is finishing up her first year at Harvard Business School via Zoom. They are thankful for the grocery store two blocks away that has allowed them to try their luck at cooking creative meals. They cannot wait to simply go to a restaurant again.

Marianna Illgan has been spending quarantine advising Wesleyan undergrads via Cardinal Connections (a really fun way to help out—ask Jim Kubat for info!), and developing an unhealthy obsession with the K-drama, Crash Landing on You (CLOY). She and Xian Hui Ang send each other CLOY memes daily.

I know the Class of 2015 laments the loss of our fifth Reunion weekend, but this gives us more time to plan for next year! If anyone is interested in being part of that planning, reach out to Steph Velarde, Wesleyan liaison, at svelarde@wesleyan.edu. The Reunion Committee looks forward to when we can celebrate together. For now, make sure to share some throwbacks on Instagram and use #wes2015.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 2015 | 2020 | ISSUE 1

Ryan Gardner moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco and started working in video games and interactive tech.

Peter Cornillie wrote in to say that he has been working way too much and not drinking nearly enough.

Jessica Seidman recently passed the Connecticut Bar Exam and was sworn in as a licensed attorney. She is now working at an asbestos litigation law firm in New Haven, Conn.

As a passion project, Julia Chanin, Andrew Hove, and Zia Grossman-Vendrillo have formed an experimental dance company inspired by the lives of primordial beings. Their first installation explores themes of sentience and godliness. They can be spotted in urban centers across the upper-middle West Coast over the summer.

Katherine Lu spent the holidays in South Africa and Madagascar with Maurice Lee, where she saw lemurs and whale sharks and realized she much prefers the great indoors. She also started a new role at Taco Bell to redesign its website. She still hasn’t been to a Taco Bell.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu