Class of 1996 | 2014 | Issue 1

Let’s start with news from Julia Morrison, who wrote in for the first time! She produced, wrote, and edited her first narrative feature film, the indie romance Hank and Asha, which won the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival and will be released in spring 2014. Watch the trailer at www.hankandasha.com and follow at facebook.com/hankandasha.

Sally Lee lives with her husband and two sons, Zach (4) and Marcus (2), on the Lower East Side. Her organization, Teachers Unite, just produced a documentary, Growing Fairness, about how schools are stopping the school-to-prison pipeline with restorative justice. Check it out at teachersunite.net.

Kirsten Greenidge’s play Luck of the Irish was at the Huntington in 2012 and Lincoln Center Theater in 2013. It won an Independent Reviewers of New England Award in May. Kirsten also received a PEN/America Laura Pels Award for midcareer playwright and a New England Theater Conference Special Award. She was happy to exchange a big hug with Lauren Elmore at a post-show discussion of Kirsten’s play Splendor in Boston, in the same afternoon that Kirsten got to see the closing performance of Ginger Lazarus ’96’s production of her play Burning, also in Boston.

Chung Ma moved from NYC to Virginia when he accepted a new role at the Virginia Retirement System in Richmond, managing an emerging markets equity and currency portfolio. The entire family (Emily, Zoe, and Desmond) moved in mid-August. He writes, “It’s a big change from NY, as we’re living in a place that is three times the size at the same price. We’re going to miss our friends in NYC, but we hope to come up and visit regularly.”

Jimmy Liao is in his fifth year as a professor of biology at the Whitney Lab for Marine Biosciences at the University of Florida. He just received his second grant and tells us that he is also “fishing bass tournaments at the semi-pro level and surfing badly.”

Kelly Bird Pierre is director of enrollment and admissions, K–12, at The Hewitt School in NYC. Children Oona, 11, and Jacques, 8, attend public school in New Jersey, where the family lives.

Emma Jacobson-Sive is still in Los Angeles, sometimes acting and often doing PR for a local museum. She regularly sees Ariel Levy (godmother to her daughter, Charlotte Eve Lapin, named after Eve Crowell), as well as Rebecca Cutter, Mike Stabile, and Kenny Barnett ’94.

Justin Navarro writes, “I recently became a homeowner in Cheshire, Conn., a mere half hour from ol’ Wes! After moving back to Connecticut with the husband for his residency training at Yale back in 2007, we decided to settle down here. Not coincidentally, I’m working for the Yale School of Medicine doing Web project management. Speaking of resettling, I accompanied John Favretto on a cross-country drive from Washington, D.C., to Santa Fe, N.M., where he has now lived for almost a year. Last but not least, I was thrilled to attend Chris Shepard’s wedding to Christopher Norwood this month.”

Ashraf Charania has been with Virgin Galactic for over a year now, as their business development manager, based in Washington, D.C.

Elura Nanos Kish’s reality-TV series, Staten Island Law, completed its first season on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Elura has also been making weekly TV appearances as a legal analyst for Fox News, HLN, Sirius Radio, Current TV, and HuffPostLive—where she aims to bring that Wes-brand of common sense to legal news. Elura still lives in South Jersey with her husband and two kids. She also serves on the board of several charitable organizations and plays piccolo in the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey.

Maria Lourdes Chen Quinn now lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Chris Quinn, and their four children (a son and three daughters). Her youngest child was born in August.

Merry Weaver reports that her son, Adam, was born on Aug. 20, joining his sister, Danica (who turned two in October).

Sarah Wildman writes: “Ian Halpern and I welcomed a baby girl in mid-June (Hana Dorothy Wildman Halpern—named in honor of Ian’s grandfather Harry and my grandmother Dorothy), joining big sister Orli. We’re very conscious of our grandparents’ generation, it seems. I am working on a book for Riverhead/Penguin press on the lover my grandfather left behind when he fled Vienna (tentatively due out in fall 2014).”

Congrats to all on the exciting news! Keep the updates coming.

DARA FEDERMAN and DACQUE TIRADO
darasf@yahoo.com
dacquetirado@yahoo.com