Class of 2004 | 2014 | Issue 1
It’s a Reunion year, ’04, so please give early and often to those Wesleyan fundraisers who call you in the evenings (not an easy job!), and also mark the weekend of May 23–25 on your calendars for our 10 Year Reunion! Live socializing to come; in the meantime here’s what our classmates are up to:
Jhanelle C. Allen is now living in southern Florida and very thankful for snowless winters, as she begins her new work as a fully independent emergency physician.
Eliza Wentworth is a digital producer for Weber Shandwick in Boston.
Jenna Flateman Posner and her wife, Saburah, just celebrated the arrival of their twin boys! Jenna is currently the VP of brand strategy for Curalate, a visual marketing company in Philly.
KJ Iribe is living and working in Old Town Alexandria and engaged to marry Jim Woodsome ‘06 on July 5th.
Lelah Baker-Rabe had her first romance novel, Love Unlocked, published under the name Libby Waterford, by Decadent Publishing in December 2013. Check out this romantic suspense story set in the world of art theft.
Shanta Cortez-Greig finished her master’s in social work, is a professional musician, and has an advice column radio show called ‘Help Me, Shanta!’. Soon she will get a “real” job…
Dave Stone has spent the last two years training to qualify for the Boston Marathon and accomplished that goal last year at the LA Marathon. This April, he will be running in honor of his friend, Jamen Amato, who passed away from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2009 at the age of 24. They grew up together, and although he was his younger brother Evan’s best friend, and three years Dave’s junior, Dave learned more from Jamen than he realized. Jamen was talented, determined and one of the fiercest competitor’s Dave’s ever known. A star on Dave’s hometown soccer team, Jamen eventually captained the Boston College team. He was bright, energetic, and passionate about life. Dave says that playing with Jamen and knowing him was an honor, and so his inaugural Boston Marathon will be to return the favor to this great friend, brother and person. Online donations to support Dave as he runs in Jamen’s memory for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society can be made at pages.teamintraining.org/ma/boston14/dstonel4l8.
Mark Hatch-Miller finished his clerkship for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and started working as an associate at the New York office of Susman Godfrey LLP, a Houston-based law firm that specializes in commercial litigation. In October, he got married to Emily Ross in Beacon, N.Y. Lots of alums from various years were present, including ’04 classmates Aaron Schoonhoven, Andrea Garcia, Carl Cervone, Emma Alpert, Kathryn Schoendorf, Krishna Andavolu, Noah Nattell, Peter Thilly, and Steve Gravatt.
Michael Aylward just moved to San Francisco to work on renewable energy strategy and policy for PG&E (Northern California’s electric utility). He is loving California life, enjoying the beautiful scenery and decadent food and drink. He got to see his buddy Tim Harrington ’03, with his fabulous wife and awesome little son. Before moving to the west coast Michael spent a weekend backpacking the Appalachian Trail with Justin Freiberg. Any Wes alums in the Bay Area up for an adventure can reach him at maylward@umich.edu.!
Greg Heller recently got engaged to Diana Lind, with a wedding planned for next May. He also recently began a new job as interim president and CEO of American Communities Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on social-impact real-estate to revitalize low-income communities across the U.S. His book Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia, released in the spring, and has been getting good reviews. [Ed. note: See p. 16]
Carl Cervone recently returned to the United States with his wife, Kidist Zebene, after spending the last 10 years in East Africa. Carl worked with the international development organization TechnoServe and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to design a strategy, and then execute an eight-year initiative to help more than 200,000 coffee farming families double their income. Carl spent most of his time in Ethiopia, opening the program’s office there in 2008 and building a team of more than 200 local coffee professionals. He continues to work with TechnoServe, but now on a more global scale and based out of New York. If you are a coffee aficionado (and particularly if you seek out boutique, single origin Ethiopian coffees), you’ve probably tasted beans produced by farmers that Carl has worked with.
Alonzo Davis is no longer a private wealth advisor at Goldman Sachs after ending his 7+ year stint in finance to focus on entrepreneurship. He has created the first social network focused on sexual health, Just Been Tested (JBT)—think of it like sexual health meets Facebook. JBT encourages people, mainly those in the 18–24 year old demographic, to know their status through the use of rewards and incentives. It’s a new, creative approach to reducing the stigma associated with getting tested and preventing the spread of infection. STIs are on the rise, and he thought many of the ways to get people tested were depressing or just out dated. JBT aims to change that. They organize free HIV testing that includes a social event and creative incentive for people to know their status. JBT also verifies when someone was tested for an STI, and then this verified date is then added to the profile page of the JBT member. They have recently launched the nonprofit JBT Foundation, Inc. and will be busy next quarter raising funds to become self-sufficient.
After four years as an associate at the law firm Cleary Gottlieb, Rebecca Weinstein changed jobs and is now an in-house corporate counsel at Colgate-Palmolive in NYC.
Josh Garrett lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Robyn, and dog, Dylan. He earned an M.P.A. in environmental science and policy from Columbia University in 2012, and currently works at The Nature Conservancy as the marketing manager for its North America Energy Program.
Philippe Gosselin has been enjoying life in San Francisco, having rekindled his love of acting recently with roles this past year on stage, film and TV. He has a new website highlighting some of his work, at phillipegosselin.com. Philippe is very proud of his fellow Wes film majors, and their extraordinary work and achievements this past year! At the time this is published, he will be in the middle of a three-month trek through South America.
Mairead Ahern Salsich married Bob Viégas in November. The wedding was in Wayland, Mass., near where she grew up in Natick. From our class, Cora Peterson, Alyssa Kagel, Laurel KemperKennedy, Liza Harrison Ashbrook, Mary Livingston, and Sarah Pradka attended. Nina Romá-Agvanian ’06 and Deirdre Salsich ’07, her sister, also attended.
As I (Meeghan Ward) write these Class Notes, I’m enjoying some wine in our London flat while my husband, Daniel Creeden, works on a project for his MBA program at London School of Business and Finance, and dogs, Reggie and Mr. Sox, lounge adorably at our side. In August, we married under two old-growth willow trees facing the Boston skyline from Thompson Island in the harbor. TI is a nonprofit organization with an Outward Bound Education Center, and they also throw a mean clambake with proceeds going back to their wonderful programs for kids from the local community (thompsonisland.org) Linda Caparyan, Amy Posocco, Ashley Elia Weller, and Liz Walsh MacMillan were beautiful bridesmaids! Several other members of the Wes family were in attendance, staying at the camp for the weekend and bringing the festivities to a new level. This included: Nora Bowman ’05, Patrick Carroll ’03, Allyson Miller Coppola ’02, Whitney Ebbeson ’02, Kamica Lewis ’03 Joshua Pelletier ’04, Marielle Lesnevich Silk ’04, Shay Bernius Squeglia ’02, Shaleen Bowman Thody ’03, Jeremiah Tracy ’03, and Basketball Coach Kate Mullen. Our little family moved to London in the fall, as I began my new role as senior HR business partner for Advent Software Europe and Middle East. Feeling grateful; life is good!
Jenina NuÑez and Meeghan Whooley Ward
meeghan.w.ward@gmail.com
jenina.nunez@gmail.com