CLASS OF 1999 | 2014 | ISSUE 3

Jeff Blumenthal started graduate school at San Francisco State University for geography with a concentration in natural resources management. Dan Shotz’s wife, Emily, gave birth to twins, Zelda and Zachary, on July 10, 2014, in Los Angeles. They join 4-year-old Lily. “Everyone is doing well, except for the part of us that likes to sleep. We have been fortunate to have many Wes friends come to visit the Zs, including Ted and Nora Grip Boretti who flew from Mass. with their girls soon after the arrival. Lindsay Grajewski Beros and her husband, Alex, welcomed their third child, Olivia Jane, in July. Divya Kumar has been doing postpartum support work in the Jamaica Plain area for the past few years and currently oversees prenatal and postpartum programs at a local agency that provides a wide range of programs for children and families. She facilitates support groups for new parents and works as a postpartum doula and lactation counselor in the JP area. Additionally, she created a pilot program to prevent postpartum depression and provide postpartum support for new moms and their families. The program received a second year of funding from the state to support staff in four community health centers across Massachusetts, including Divya’s local health center, Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center (where she also serves as a staff member). The center provides comprehensive perinatal support for all patients—screening new moms for postpartum depression and other perinatal emotional complications, offering information and education, and connecting families to resources both within the health center and in the community. By offering all of this within the health center, they are changing the way they care for new moms and families by reducing barriers to services and information and increasing access to necessary support and resources. Last December, Divya wrote a piece for MotherWoman’s Huffington Post blog about the importance of support groups for new moms. Here’s a link: huffingtonpost.com/motherwoman/it-takes-a-village-to-rai_b_4393052.html. And finally, Divya and husband Dan Koulomzin celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary this past August! Their little ones are 7 and 5. In other health-related news, Ed Holzwarth founded a new company, Pattern Health Technologies, to build preventative health apps for individuals and software for healthcare professionals to better manage chronic health conditions, track important health metrics, and prevent serious health events. He continues to lead his other company, Little Green Software, which is a mobile app development firm. Aimee Dawson and husband Ewan welcomed a baby girl, Tessa Munro MacKenzie, in December. She enjoyed six camping trips around Québec this summer snuggled in the tent with her big sister, Fiona. Being north of the border, Aimee still basks in maternity leave, but will take up her dental drill again soon. Liz Shulman and her husband, Andrew Mastronarde, have also become expatriates. Liz joined the faculty of the psychology department at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. They are enjoying the Niagara region, which features friendly people, lots of wineries, and very few guns. Marianna Ellenberg will appear in the fall issue of Cahiers du Cinéma. She will be featured in the article “New York Girls” with an interview about her new film The Deflowering of Ariella Von. Liz Garcia and her husband welcomed a baby boy, August, this summer. He joins older brother Wilder. In June, Liz participated in the Shasha Seminar on the Road: Wesleyan Women in Hollywood. Not only did she get to share the panel with Jan Eliasberg ’74 and Jane Goldenring ’77, but she loved meeting recent graduates and catching up with Dan Shotz, Jim Gilbane, and Chris Chambers. Professor Jeanine Basinger put President Michael Roth ’78 on the spot and made him agree to a Wes women in directing seminar. Classic Jeanine and an all-around lovely experience. Seth Dellinger writes: “I have just become certified as a teacher of Awareness through Movement, the group learning format of the Feldenkrais Method. This method is a unique form of movement education that uses novel sequences of actions to stimulate the formation of new motor patterns in the brain, making it possible for the nervous system to reorganize itself. Because the brain controls the muscles, this work creates the possibility for students to release long-term habitual muscle contractions and discover flexibility, better posture and more lightness and ease in movement. It has been effective in improving the quality of life of patients with central nervous system disorders as well as raising the performance level of world-class athletes and musicians, and all manner of people in between these extremes. I am now teaching Awareness through Movement classes in Washington, DC. To learn more about my classes, check out my Facebook page (Seth Dellinger, Awareness through Movement) or my blog: movelikeachild.wordpress.com, or contact me directly at sethbdellinger@gmail.com. Thanks!” Kim Varner Wetzel welcomed her second child, Cecil, in April and a new job in August with a fast-growing Alaskan telecom company, GCI. Tim Higgins, a certified financial planner who lives near Boston, has written another book, Unconventional Investing, this time with co-author Michael Hajek. Kirkus Review calls it: “Wise, authoritative and carefully documented; should stimulate deep thought in those who are willing to break free of the conventional investing mode.” You can find the book and more info on Amazon as well as at unconventionalinvesting.com For Kevin, life as a family of five is not easy, by any stretch, but at least is beginning to seem normal. Despite an amazing admissions cycle with a 63 percent increase in applications, it was the summer of transitions for me. Not only did my dean announce that she will be stepping down at the end of November, but I also had to hire seven new staff members. Happily, one of my newest admissions counselors is Maurice “Mo” Hill Jr. ’14, so Wesleyan is slowly taking over the Kenyon admissions office. I will serve as the interim dean of admissions and financial aid come December while the search for a new dean is underway. Kevin and I enjoy hearing from you, so please continue to share your news with us! C. DARRYL UY | darryl.uy@gmail.com KEVIN KUMLER | kevinkumler@gmail.com