CLASS OF 1989 | 2018 | ISSUE 1
Class of 1989 Scholarship
Joanna Korpanty ’21, Chemistry
Newlywed Anjulika Chawla writes that after 15 years and four kids together (ages 6, 10, 12, and 17), she and her now-husband Ron decided to “take the plunge and get married”—which they did on Sept. 2 at the Rhythm and Roots Festival. “The ceremony was 20 minutes, and the party about 11 hours.” Anjulika is a pediatric hematologist oncologist at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and an associate professor at Brown University. She stepped down as the interim chair of the division after four years, and has cut her time to about 10 percent. She is joining a biotech firm in Cambridge to work on a project using gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease.
In Boston, Abby Smuckler ran into Russ Cobe at Shabbat services at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial! Quite a feat considering there were about 5,000 people in the convention hall, and they hadn’t seen each other since graduation. Russ lives near Charlotte, N.C., and Abby is outside Boston in Needham.
Marisa Cohen spent 13 months on the road with her daughter, Molly—who was in the national tour of Matilda the Musical. They returned to New York last summer and got right back into the swing of things. Now Marisa is freelancing at Real Simple. In November she had “an amazing visit to Wes” for Alumni Sons & Daughters Weekend with her older daughter, Bellamy—who got to sit in on a class with Marisa’s old music professor, Neely Bruce, and is excited to apply for the class of 2023. (Sidebar: 2023? I give up. We’re speaking in Blade Runner-esque graduation class years at this point. Can we pace ourselves please?! Geez!) Marisa says she genuinely “loved catching up with so many classmates who are also going through the nerve-racking college admissions game with their kids while I was there.” Solidarity, sis!
Robin Alexander has been living with her husband in Brooklyn for the past 10 years after having lived in Jerusalem for five. She works as a therapist and clinical social worker, and, most recently, as a mental health consultant for child protective services and the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.
Peter Knight has assumed volunteer leadership in his appointment to the board of directors for Connecticut Legal Services. The agency is dedicated to helping low-income families and individuals meet their basic needs and be assured equal access to opportunities and justice. This new role is in addition to Peter’s role as the chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the law firm Robinson+Cole—where he’s a member of their Environmental, Energy and Telecommunications Group.
Jim Levine marked his 50th birthday by moving to Alaska. You guys, ALASKA…from Middletown, Conn., where he had been living. I love everyone’s updates. And this one too…so much! In his own words: “After 15 years back in Connecticut, working around the corner from WesU, the younger of my two kids graduated from high school and flew the coop. So…I sold my empty nest and moved solo to a rural area in southcentral Alaska, three hours from Anchorage, where I’m working in the emergency department of a small hospital, in a town called Soldotna. It’s beautiful here, and life is definitely slower and quieter. I’ve been here almost a year now.”
Susan Turkel is working part-time as a social sciences librarian at Villanova University. “It’s a very different environment from Bryn Mawr College and the University of Michigan, my beloved previous institutions, but I like it! My other major preoccupations are square, English, and contra dancing, and weekly visits with my parents (they’re 87 and almost 83, still living independently despite health challenges). Is anyone else going through the elderly parent struggle? It goes from frustrating to rewarding and then back again…but I’m grateful that they’re still around, that we’re close, and that I can be helpful to them.”
Topiary Landberg is in her fifth year of a PhD at UC, Santa Cruz in Film & Digital Media, working on her dissertation about urban landscape documentary and a media project about San Francisco. She is “loving being at Santa Cruz, teaching, researching and somehow becoming a full-fledged academic. Next stop: job market.
Next year is our 30th Reunion, y’all. Why don’t we round up our fellow ’89 Wes friends and head to campus next year? We’ve got a year-ish from now to plan our long-weekend escape and Wes campus takeover. I think we should take over the dorms. Seriously. Pajama-jammy-jam anyone?! We can fire up some ’80s tunes (“It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock anyone?) and dance it out together!
We do really enjoy hearing from each of you and appreciate you sharing your news with all of us! Cheers, classmates! Until then, so happy to hear from you. Keep the updates coming!
Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com
Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com