CLASS OF 1988 | 2016 | ISSUE 2

Hillary writes for this issue.

Lisa Renery reports that she recently left Ancestry.com for a design research role at UBER’s San Francisco headquarters. She is one of two other Wes alums on her team (Jenny Lo ’10 and Hilary Hoeber ’96). Lisa’s been having fun commemorating/commiserating with classmates Rick Stein, Paulette Taylor and Brad Kramer about their (our!?) milestone birthdays.

Laura Wiessen writes in for the first time(!), sharing that after years of being a news and documentary producer in New York and Chicago (with a stint in Jerusalem), she married in 2008 and is living in Gloucester, Mass., with her husband and two girls. Laura says this move is quite a change from her urban lifestyle, and wants you to let her know if you’re in Gloucester.

Majora Carter’s company, StartupBox, and Birch Coffee will open a new café in the South Bronx. StartupBox also acquired a historic rail station and plans to transform it into a restaurant incubator. Majora says “both of these projects are part of my theory about self-gentrification, i.e., the creation of great economic development projects, by and for the people currently living in low-status communities, before they get traditionally gentrified, builds resistance to brain drain because the smart, hardworking people born and raised in those communities (the ones like me, who were taught to measure success by how far they get away from their hometowns) will want to re-invest in their own communities instead of fleeing as soon as they can.”

Andrea Gural has been busy “managing life and general chaos with four boys.” She recently switched jobs and is now working as director of Budget and Analysis at NYU Global Programs, which is NYU’s study-away program. She had been looking for a move to nonprofits and education, and says this is a good fit with her global work experience.

Rob Wilder’s first novel, Nickel, will be published by Leaf Storm Press in September. Author Augusten Burroughs states that “no one has ever written about the pains of being a teenager—physically and psychologically, inside and out—quite like Robert Wilder in his startling debut novel. He has created indelible characters in Monroe and Coy—funny and sad and strong and broken—and Nickel is about as real as it gets.”

Christina Pugh received a 2015–16 Guggenheim fellowship in poetry, and has two poetry books in the works: Perception and Stardust. She will share more info with us when the books are available.

PETER v.s. BOND | 007@pvsb.org

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com