CLASS OF 1995 | 2016 | ISSUE 3
Hi from your new class co-secretaries: Bo Bell and Katy McNeill! We’re delighted to take the baton from former secretary, Dwayne Busby. Thanks again, Dwayne, for your many years of service! This is a fun way for us to help everyone in our class to keep in touch with each other from all our various locations, with Bo from his home in New York and Katy from her (new) home in the U.K. Here’s the news this round and we look forward to keeping in touch with you into the future!
Bo writes, “I’m living in the town of Cold Spring in the lower Hudson Valley of New York and working in New York City, leading the digital team for an advertising agency. My wife and I are raising two fun kids, a hound dog, and a small flock of chickens. I semi-regularly meet up with Mike Kleinsteuber over burgers and beers at the Old Town Bar near Union Square, and caught up with Kiersten Miller on her annual summer visit back to NYC from her home in Rome, and with Ben Harbert ’97 and Alison Brody ’97 on a work jaunt to D.C. Finally, huge shout out to Michelle Duff, Liz Fernandez, Rachel Hunt, and the rest of the 1994 ECAC Champion Wes Womens’ Soccer team, 2016 inductees to the Wesleyan Sports Hall of Fame!”
Rob Armstrong writes, “I’ve been living in London for close to three years now, where I write editorials for the Financial Times. When you write anonymously, no one knows you’re American. My twins are 7 and have no accents. I am, despite their efforts, in touch with my former housemates, Russell Agle and Jen Quest-Stern, who have turned out better than anyone expected. If any of you are in town, let’s have a pint.”
David Biello writes, “I’m publishing my first book in November. It’s called The Unnatural World. It’s about the idea that humans have started to make changes on a planetary scale, like the glaciers of an Ice Age or an asteroid crashing into Earth, and what we might do with this new knowledge of our world-changing impacts.” A link to purchase can be found here. “I’m still married and have a daughter and son who are growing like weeds. I got a new job as the science curator for TED Talks, hoping to help spread some good ideas.”
Matt Duffy writes, “I am still out in Oakland. I just started a new job as the superintendent of schools for the West Contra Costa Unified School District, a public school district of 30,000 students in the East Bay, centered around Richmond, Calif. Crazy and amazing! My boys are now 5 and 8, and life is very full.”
Alexis Greeves writes, “I’m living in Minneapolis, working as a mental health therapist for deaf and hard of hearing children. I have a small private practice (hopenandhealingmn.com). David and I have two daughters and are trying to figure out what it means to be raising Midwestern children.”
Ana Maria Kleymeyer writes, “A couple of years ago, I moved back to the D.C. area, where I finished producing a music documentary and continued my work on international climate change negotiations. I’m enjoying the schizophrenic life of a musician/lawyer who refuses to give up the groove.”
Anne Bellows Lee writes, “I am in Santa Monica with my husband, Greg Lee, my two little girls (3 and 5), and three big cats. Working at UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs as a research projects director in substance abuse treatment, also working on getting my LCSW license.”
Michelle Sachs Limaj writes, “All is well in Massachusetts. I took a great job in-house for one of my clients, Agenus, an immuno-oncology company. My kids see a lot more of me, which is extra good because Idriz (whom you’ll recall I brought home with me after the 1999 war in Kosovo, without a college degree or even good English) is now COO for a system of four hospitals in Baltimore. So he commutes home for the weekends, and the rest of us chill M–F on Mommy Time.”
Brandon Patton writes, “My wife had a baby this year, Sylvia Pearl Patton Schroeder. Emily Essley also had a baby earlier this year, Lily Rose Essley.”
Lisa Hastings Rosenman writes, “Burt Rosenman and I celebrated our 17th anniversary this year. We live in western Massachusetts with our two daughters, Hannah, 11, and Leah, 14. Burt is a biology professor at Western New England University, and I’m a school librarian in Hartford.”
Christianne Meneses Jacobs writes, “My only news is that I traveled to the East Coast this summer. I visited with Lauren Sitzer Avery and her family in Boston. Hung out with Ryan Knox in New Haven and we watched Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention while drinking wine. I also stayed with Jeff Levinson and his wife in New York. It was also awesome to see Mark Quinones and his wife, Rachel, when they were visiting Arizona.”
Ethan de Seife writes, “My wife, Laura, and I welcomed a son, Levon Ray, in August 2015. He is cute and round-headed, and he loves to watch birds. When he was about 9 months old, we packed up everything—dog, cats, nursery, a million books and records—and moved from Burlington, Vt., to Santa Rosa, Calif., where Laura got a great job in a local hospital. It’s beautiful here and we hope not to move again for a long time.”
Eric Meyerson writes, “I was in Chicago over the summer with the family, where we got to visit the incredible Temperance Brewing Co. started by Josh Gilbert. Josh and I also got to spend a wacky weekend in New Orleans last fall with Adam Borut, Jason Walta, and Greg Walter ’96. I just started a new job in July. I’m running marketing for media and video at Facebook.”
After a decade teaching at the Department of Performance Studies at New York University, Tavia Nyong’o is now a full professor in American studies and theater studies at Yale. He is dividing his time between Connecticut and NYC.
Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com
Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com