CLASS OF 1989 | 2017 | ISSUE 1

NEWSMAKERS | 1980s NEWSMAKER LAURA HARDIN ’89 Laura Hardin ’89, a damages expert for international arbitrations with Alvarez & Marsal Disputes and Investigation, recently testified for the Federal Republic of Germany in the case of Vattenfall AB vs. the Federal Republic of Germany. This case is related to Germany’s decision to shut down all nuclear plants by the year 2022, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Hardin notes, “This case was very significant. It was the first time the Federal Republic of Germany has been sued by an investor under any type of investment treaty arbitration.” A Russian major at Wesleyan, she earned her MBA from George Washington University and has 20 years of experience calculating damages for international arbitrations.

Class of 1989 Scholarship 

Joanna Korpanty ’18, Chemistry

I am happy to share the names and locations of our classmates who reported on their participation in Women’s Marches on Jan. 21.  While we also received many lovely and moving observations about the day, as well as reports about family and friends who joined, we unfortunately lack the space to include it all here.

At deadline, we heard the following: Stephan Kline, Colleen McKiernan, John DiPaolo, Phineas Baxandall, Jane Randel, Robin Allen McGrew, Kelly Morgan, Rachel Harrison, John Hlinko, Laura Rosen, Stuart Ridgway, Betsey Schmidt, Oona Metz, Elysa Gordon, Saul Halfon, Jacqueline Wheeler Lee, and Karen Turk in Washington, D.C.

Tonya Gayle, Doug Abel, Nan Sinauer, Eileen Mullin, Jennifer Zaslow, Sarah Chumsky, Mike Rempel, Claire (Hoopes-Segura) Burns, Liz Melhado Ward, Caroline Gessert, David Milch, Tzvi Mackson, Stephanie Dolgoff, Natalie Dorset, Phoebe Boyer, Naomi Minkoff, and Jonathan Fried in NYC. Holly Adams in Ithaca, N.Y. Kristen Montast Graves in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Kim Bruno, Sarah Madsen Hardy, Joan Werlinsky, Stephen Buchanan, Peter Badalament, Donna Steinberg, Laura Cherry, Chris Zurn, Lee Ann (Jacob) Gun, Liz (Gisela) Blicher, Amy Wolf, and Kate True in Boston, Mass.

Liz Marx and Michele Barnwell in Los Angeles, Calif. Mark Mullen and Nancy Ross Mullen in San Diego, Calif. Andrew Shear, Lynne Lazarus, Alison Keene, Laura Flaxman (with Hazlyn Fortune ’86) in Oakland, Calif. Amy Randall in San Jose, Calif. Marisa Cohen in Santa Ana, Calif. Ellen Ross Shields in Sacramento, Calif. Amy Berk and Lara Karchmar in San Francisco, Calif. Steve Lewis in Chico, Calif. Emma Gardner in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Joel Brown, Julie Strauss, and Julia Winter in Chicago, Ill.. Kathryn Steucek and Ellen Forney in Seattle, Wash. Maida Barbour in Austin, Texas. Eric Simon in Manchester, N.H. Rachel Heckscher in Maui, Hawaii. Lila Polur Wrubel in Denver, Colo.. Tullan Spitz in Portland, Ore. Susan Turkel in Philadelphia, Pa. Brian Kassof in Fairbanks, Alaska. Dave Keller in Montpelier, Vt. Diane Purvin in Hartford, Conn. Jennifer Levine in Park City, Utah. Michelle Gonzalez in Providence, R.I. Amy Redfield in St. Louis, Mo. Ethan Vesely-Flad in Asheville, N.C.

From abroad: Josh Drew in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gretchen Long in London. Sherry Lehr Föhr in Heidelberg, Germany. Laura Safran Shepard and Andrew Shepard in Paris. Melissa Herman in Berlin.

In other news, Robin McGrew and her family moved back to D.C. after three years in Athens, Greece. She joined the architecture firm, Cunningham Quill, to work on housing projects focusing on energy efficient buildings and conserving natural resources through landscape design. Her daughter just started at Swarthmore; and her son is finishing high school and applying to college. She feels good to be back, but is already imagining a return to Greece.

Kelly Morgan is working in Boston, managing IT analysts, and raising twin 7-year-old daughters with her husband. From Oakland, Andrew Shear and Lynne Lazarus report they are doing well. He is a deputy state public defender representing death row inmates in direct appeals to California’s Supreme Court; she is a family medicine doc at Kaiser Permanente, but with a new practice in Oakland. Andrew took their son to Wes for his college tour, including a steamed cheeseburger at O’Rourke’s.

Dave Keller is raising two amazing daughters, performing with The Dave Keller Band, and teaching guitar. His sixth CD, Right Back Atcha, is available at davekeller.com.

James Eli Shiffer tells the story of the Gateway District, the oldest quarter of Minneapolis, in The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis (University of Minnesota Press).

Melissa Herman and her husband are on sabbatical with their kids in Germany. She’s researching identity and achievement among binational and bi-ethnic children, and leaving soon for a Fulbright Fellowship in Balti, Moldova.

Russ Cobe is surprised to find himself turning 50 with a stepson graduating college. He’s been in Charlotte, N.C., for 15 years, where, in addition to his day job, he is the lay leader for Temple Solel, a tiny Reform Jewish congregation. Over the past five years, he has led bar and bat mitzvahs, baby namings, and, unfortunately, one funeral. Apparently unable to escape his religion and music degrees, Russ leads bi-weekly Friday night services with song, prayer, and fellowship for his congregation.

Indy Neidell’s YouTube channel, The Great War, recently passed 500,000 subscribers. He does interviews about the war and hears from teachers who use the series in their classes. He is still doing voice overs, DJing a few times a month, touring periodically, and is launching a company making effect-pedals for guitars and other instruments.

Alex Chee’s novel, The Queen of the Night, is now in paperback. He also has an essay in the Best American Essays 2016, as well as a new 15th anniversary paperback edition of his first novel, Edinburgh. He joined the faculty of Dartmouth College as an associate professor of English. He and his partner of seven years, Dustin Schell, were married on Jan. 7 in their cabin in the Catskills. They chose to marry before Trump took office so that they could be married during the Obama Administration.

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com