CLASS OF 2002 | 2016 | ISSUE 3
I can’t believe it’s almost time for our 15th Reunion already! Excited to see you all there! On to the notes:
Congratulations are definitely in order. First, to Lin-Manuel Miranda for his multiple Tony Award wins this year for Hamilton. His takeover of the world continues! And I am personally excited to hear his contributions to the Disney animated flick, Moana, out Nov. 23!
And congrats to Dawn Papacena for running the TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 6! She says “I would have never made it this far (and to the finish line) without the support of my Wesleyan family cheering me on: Nina Laing, Anthony Rosario, Carlos Rojas, Steve Gray ’01, Emy Rodriguez ’01, and Korin Mills ’01.”
Speaking of Anthony Rosario, he has a new job as a community outreach associate at Achievement First Charter School. He helps manage student recruitment, the lottery process, and elected official engagement for a portfolio of schools in Brooklyn. He lives with his partner of four years and their amazing dog, Randy, in Bushwick.
Lots of new children in our Wes world: On Jan. 5, Lara Everly, with her husband David, welcomed a baby boy, Leo Kahlil, into the world. He came two months early, but is quickly growing “into a huge dude.” Lara’s been touring film festivals with her documentary, Free to Laugh, about the power of comedy after prison. She continues to act and direct, focusing on female-driven comedies.
Lily Lung has a baby daughter, Ethel, born in February. Lily published two pieces of choral compositions this summer: one by Boosey & Hawkes and the other by BriLee (Carl Fisher). She was accepted to the online DMA program for music education at Boston University and began this fall. She is still teaching music full-time in the Glastonbury Public Schools in Connecticut.
Diana Pasquali welcomed her second child, Noah, to the family earlier this year, and her daughter just turned 2. She is back to work, doing nonprofit consulting in Oakland with national progressive organizations on training and grassroots strategies.
Brandon McBeth and his wife, Sharmin, had a baby girl, Mikayla Asha McBeth, born on Apr. 27.
Kimberly Nelson moved with her husband to Boston from Seattle in August 2014 after she received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Washington. Since then, she has been promoted to an assistant professor position in the psychiatry department at Brown University. She has a baby boy, Jules Nelson, born on Aug. 3!
And we had a lot of our classmates on the move! Paul Smaldino moved to central California in July with his wife, Emily, and their 2-year-old daughter, Lyra. Paul is the assistant professor of cognitive and information sciences at the University of California, Merced. This summer he trekked up to Alaska to visit Micah Allen, who is pursuing his MFA at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Paul Kim celebrated his one-year wedding anniversary with his wife, Mirjam. The couple moved to Brooklyn from Evanston, Ill. And Ben Allen earned his PhD in political science from UC, Berkeley in May 2015, moved to D.C., in December, got married this past February, and joined Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore as a microfinance programs researcher in September.
Julia Matsudaira is back in San Francisco, and is loving the Bay Area more than ever (“even though SF proper is a bit nuts!”). She works in wealth management, focusing on philanthropy and impact investing strategies for clients. On the fringes, she is helping Leah Ralph check off items from her SF bucket list before making the move across the pond next year, “all in celebration of 18 years of friendship and life since move-in day at Wes!”
Sasha Martin is a 2016–17 research fellow at the University of Tulsa through the Center for the Humanities. Her research will center on expressions of peace at the global table, culminating in a poetry and art show this spring. More details at globaltableadventure.com/2016/08/23/a-fellowship-of-food.
In other news: Hilary S. Jacqmin reports, “In the years since Wesleyan, I earned my MA from Johns Hopkins University and my MFA from the University of Florida. I live in Baltimore where I work as an associate production editor at Johns Hopkins University Press, and where I was married in October 2015. My first book of poems, Missing Persons, will be released by Waywiser Press in March (look for it on the Ides of March).
Lauren Gottlieb Lockshin lives in NYC with her husband, Noam Lockshin, along with their 2-year-old daughter, Abigail, and 6-month-old daughter, Elisheva. She is finishing her PhD in European Jewish History at Yale.
Peter March recently married and is working as a dentist north of San Diego in Carlsbad, Calif.
That’s it! See you all on campus in May!
Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com