Class of 1991 | 2014 | Issue 1
We’ll start off Notes with not one, but two reports from campus:
Tibby Erda Mahler went to Homecoming 2013 and watched Wesleyan beat Williams and win the Little Three outright. A former student of hers plays on the team and Tibby’s son is a quarterback, so she has a whole new appreciation for football. “Campus looked awesome. We ventured down to the ‘new’ fieldhouse and watched volleyball, as my 12-year-old is a player and wanted to see a college game. Felt great to be back on campus. Hard to believe either of my kids could be there in five or six years. I’d be honored, as would my husband and my dad.”
Meanwhile, our very own Trustee, Dan Prieto, has been up to campus twice for board meetings. He’s been impressed by campus and the students. Dan serves on the University Relations Committee, focused on improving career resources for students and improving connectivity between students and alumni in their fields of interest. Dan asks, “If any folks from our class are willing to engage students to get them interested in particular career fields, let me know. We’re starting career-centered Facebook groups to bring alumni and students together. First one out of the gate is WesCareers Finance.”
Moving into the world of art and entertainment, Evie Manieri reports that the mass market paperback of her debut novel, Blood’s Pride, comes out from Tor Books in late January 2014.
Suki Stetson Hawley has been making films with her husband, Michael Galinsky, and partner David Beilinson, for 15 years under the company name Rumur. Together, they’ve made five documentary features and lots of shorts. Three recent efforts include: Battle for Brooklyn, shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2012. It’s the story of reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for a basketball arena and the densest real estate development in U.S. history. Along the way, he falls in love, gets married and starts a family while living in a vacated building in the heart of Brooklyn. Who Took Johnny premiers at Slamdance in January 2014, and examines the infamous case of Johnny Gosch, the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. Finally, they are launching a kickstarter campaign for Story of Pain, delving into the state of mind-body medicine in our culture and healthcare system.
Eva Pendleton has a new position as Manager of Integrative Health at NYU Clinical Cancer Center, responsible for developing and overseeing programs to help support patients during and after their cancer journey, including massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga and meditation.
Alisa Rosen is celebrating the first birthday of her daughter, Sophie Anna, in February.
Deborah Sue Mayer is concluding a nine-month deployment as a commander in the U.S. Navy assigned as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. By the time of publication, she will be back to her job as the director of investigations for the Committee on Ethics, U.S. House of Representatives, and her new house in Alexandria, Va.
Lindsey Cowell Parsons is now the program coordinator at the Center for Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University. Speaking of New Zealand, Kristin Elisabeth Sandvik Lush announces an open invitation to couch surf in Aotearoa.
Finally, a bit of news about me: After years in policy and politics, I needed a change. I took some time off and worked on a long-standing project, trying to figure out where in “Russia” my family originated. It became an obsessive, fascinating project ranging across multiple countries in Eastern Europe. Friends asked me to help them, then friends started paying me to help them, and easterneuropeanmutt.com was born. Never in a million years would I have predicted I would become a genealogist! I absolutely love learning the history of family migration, and finding the little stories that make each experience unique.
All the best to everyone—don’t forget to write!
Renée K. Carl
rcarl@wesleyan.edu