CLASS OF 1984 | 2014 | ISSUE 3
Roger was at the Reunion, and gives this report:
Our class had a strong and lively turnout for our 30th Reunion on Memorial Day weekend, with the numbers picking up substantially by Saturday night, just in time for the open bar reception in Usdan’s west dining wing. A surprise performance by the Wesleyan Cardinals, joined by founding member Mark Randles, was one highlight that evening. Classmates figured prominently in the weekend’s programming, with Karen Donfried receiving a Distinguished Alumna Award and speaking at the Phi Beta Kappa initiation, ESPN executive Rob King appearing on the WESeminar panel “The Changing Face of Sports,” and marine biologist and author Ellen Prager giving a WESeminar talk entitled “Dive into the Story: Ocean Science and Storytelling, Fun for All.” He reports that everyone enjoyed catching up with one another and, in some instances, meeting classmates’ spouses and children. He noted an especially impressive contingent from the 1980–81 Foss 9 freshman dorm, including David Booker, Liz (Buffy) Martin Brouckman, Jim Glickman, Ina Jacobs, Lee Markowski, Cindy Schultze Newell, the aforementioned Mr. Randles, and Heidi Ravis.
Stefan Selig was confirmed as Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade in June. According to the Commerce Department press release, he will “help lead our recently launched NEI/NEXT initiative—a program to build on export achievements under President Obama’s National Export Initiative to help even more businesses reach the 95 percent of customers who live outside our borders.”
Mike Lewyn reports that he is spending the 2014–15 academic year in Kansas City as a visiting professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
Arya Francesca Jenkins gives us an interesting update: “I am living in McDonald, Ohio, a remote region of this state and the world, where I have the opportunity to write to my heart’s content. I write jazz fiction for an online quarterly, Jerry Jazz Musician, and regularly publish nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in literary journals and magazines. A few months back, I was elected a director of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Initiatives, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the living conditions of female Tibetan Buddhist monastics. Our programs benefit young and aging nuns and orphanages in Tibet and India. As I have long been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and a friend of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, whose work has inspired DGLI, I am thrilled to be part of this endeavor. A New York tour is planned for December 2014 and January 2015 that will include stops at the Rubin Museum and The Tibet House in New York City, so perhaps some Wesleyanites will join us there.”
Vicky Fish sends in a short and sweet update to say she and her husband, Hugh Huizenga, are sending their twins off to college. Noah is going to Hamilton and Andrew to Wesleyan, where he has been assigned to Butterfield, just like she was as a freshman! Her first book of short stories, A Brief Moment of Weightlessness, was published in June by Mayapple Press.
Margaret (Marmie) Bowman is still working at the Walton Family Foundation as deputy director of their environment program. She is focused primarily on addressing the problems of water scarcity in the Colorado River basin. She lives in Tacoma Park, Md., with her husband and two kids, both of whom are in high school, so most of her life is spent at sporting events and other parenting adventures.
David Blauer recently gained Series A venture capital for his third software start-up, called Bjönd. Based in Boston, Bjönd makes novel workflow automation, decision support, and behavior change software that applies to most industries. Their first application, called BjöndHealth, invents and automates hyper-personalized workflows that clinicians, social workers and family members execute collaboratively to intervene with patients suffering complex diseases and conditions. The Bjönd staff includes other Wesleyan alumni—CTO and co-founder, Ben Flynn ’03, and engineer, George Bennum ’09.
Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu
Roger PincuS | rpincus84@wesleyan.edu