CLASS OF 1988 | 2014 | ISSUE 3
Peter writes for this issue.
Kellina (Kelli) Craig-Henderson reports: “I am currently representing the U.S. National Science Foundation in Asia, specifically Japan. I will be here for the next year or two, and I would welcome hearing from any classmates or Wesleyan alum traveling through or residing in Japan.”
Steve Almond shares: “We are now a family of five, having welcomed Rosalie Almond to the world last June. Older sis Josie (8) and brother Judah (5) are thrilled. Wife Erin ’99 is tired but heroic. We’re living in a shoe outside Boston and welcome all visitors brave enough to enter. This fall, just in time for the NFL opener, my new book, Against Football, will come out. It’s a short, sharp manifesto about the medical, economic, and moral dangers of America’s favorite sport. And it pretty much guarantees that I’ll be slaughtered by the world’s hard-core jocks, perhaps live on ESPN.”
Matthew Palmer advises: “My first novel, The American Mission, was published by Putnam/Random House at the end of June. The reviews have been pretty good, but publishing is a brutal business. I think I’ll keep my day job. Speaking of which, we will soon be moving back to DC from Belgrade after (another) three years in the Balkans. I’ll be taking over the Multilateral Affairs office in the State Department’s East Asia bureau. That includes responsibility for the South China Sea, which is pretty hot right now. Look forward to seeing all of our Wes friends in DC and New York.”
Daniel Rosenberg and Mai-Lin Cheng welcomed their second child, Beatrice, on Feb. 8, 2014. Daniel is on leave from the University of Oregon for a residential fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin in the fall.
Ben Junge continues to teach anthropology at SUNY–New Paltz, doing research on citizenship and urban life in Brazil and HIV/AIDS here in the U.S. He stays in touch with Schuyler Frautschi, who’s busy being a daddy to a sweet newborn boy and with Laura Thomas, who is basically the mayor of San Francisco as far as he can tell.
Jenifer McKim started a new job as assistant managing editor and senior reporter at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news center based out of WGBH TV/radio and Boston University. She is teaching, writing, and editing and loving the new venture into nonprofit journalism.
Carol Gray shares: “I just finished a Fulbright Scholarship at Concordia University’s Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability in Montreal, Canada. I loved living in Montreal with my husband, Jeff ,and my son, Cameron, age 9, who was in a French school for the year and came away from the experience speaking French. My Fulbright project is based on an oral history I did of an Egyptian human rights organization when I was living in Cairo in 2010-2011, having moved to Cairo with my family as Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar. While in Montreal, I ran an internship program for 50+ students. My family and I have now moved back to our home in Amherst, Mass., and I’m writing a book about the Egyptian human rights organization. The tentative title is Human Rights from the Courts to the Square: A History of Egypt’s Hisham Mubarak Law Center.”
Majora Carter has launched a new social enterprise called: StartUp Box #SouthBronx (sbsq.org). The purpose is to locate jobs and economic activity related to NYC’s tech boom within under-performing communities—starting with entry-level jobs in software testing in the Games Industry, jobs that are often off-shored. Majora is urban on-shoring, generating revenue, and expanding the talent pool for one of America’s fastest growing economic sectors. “The project is incubated under a nonprofit called Hometown Security Labs, and we welcome your contributions at sbsq.org.”
Dave Silverberg writes in from Ohio: “I’m now director of the Telego Center for Educational Improvement, which is based out of Ashland University, Ohio, and provides outreach to K–12 schools across the country and abroad. I currently have a book out, called 10 Models of Teacher Evaluation and have begun work on a follow-up book called 10 International Models of Teacher Evaluation (it’s due out 2015). Stephanie and I live in Cleveland and we have two kids, Cal (7) and Tessa (5).”
Amy Tai advises: “I have recently become an abolitionist in the stop-porn-culture movement which has everything to do with modern day slavery and a multibillion dollar porn industry that is using the Internet as the selling block for millions of women and children, and some men and boys as well. I am currently educating myself on the issues. When I am not doing this work, I am ‘raising’ my 8-year-old son (although sometimes I think I am learning far more than he!), homeschooling him and teaching Suzuki violin at the Suzuki School of Newton, and teaching and leading in the Re-evaluation Counseling Community, an international peer counseling community that is committed to reclaiming our intelligence through the healing of past hurts.”
Meanwhile, my wife, Zahra, and I (PVSB) have relocated from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Providence, R.I., where I am now developing loyalty and personalization strategies at CVS/Caremark with the Extra Care program. While walking the campus at Providence College, where my wife is working, we ran into Greg Waldron, who is the SVP of institutional advancement. Jim Maynard reached out to me during our first week in Rhode Island to suggest a mini ’88ers reunion. We are looking forward to reconnecting with our New England family and friends.
PETER v.s. BOND | 007@pvsb.org
Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com