CLASS OF 1994 | 2019 | ISSUE 1
Hello, Class of 1994. Welcome to the latest edition of the class notes. Kristen Woronoff, our class liaison in University Relations at Wesleyan, wanted me to mention the upcoming Reunion. It promises to be a great time to not only reconnect with old friends but to meet classmates that you never knew.
Chris Bartley directs the music program at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, teaching music history and conducting two choirs, including one that is partnering with his local symphony for a production of Carmina Burana at the end of April. Chris teaches indoor spin classes, plays poker, and is trying to get his new dog, Olive, to sit. He hosted Eric Hung ’96 and Leah Bartell ’95, who gave a violin-piano duo concert on his campus. They reminisced about learning to conduct from the late Melvin Strauss. Chris got together with Ben Mahnke at a Celtics-Bucks game in Boston.
Elizabeth Rand Ehrlich’s handmade kippot (yarmulke) business, Kids Kippot, has been growing tremendously. One of her creations was featured in the show, Items: Is Fashion Modern?, at the Museum of Modern Art.
Elizabeth attributes her success to the skills she learned at Wesleyan. Elizabeth had dinner with Elizabeth Toohey and Sam Schneider ’91 and enjoys talking with John Pollock when they can both carve out some time from their busy schedules.
Adam Handler welcomed a second daughter, Danielle Max, to join big sister Josephine Flora. He reconnected with David Niles, Joe Pirret, Steve Frail, Jonathan Bernstein Sidhu, and Sean Mazer. Adam is looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends at Reunion.
Steve Henn and Emily Johnson Henn live in Menlo Park, Calif., and are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. Their oldest daughter, a senior in high school, will attend Wesleyan. Steve left public radio to start a company, later acquired by Google, where he is eating more than his share of free food. Emily practices law at Covington & Burling. They hiked near Sausalito with Brooke Singer this summer. They are close with Andrea Seebaum ’92, who Emily says “models so well what life without kids could have looked like.” They enjoyed seeing Annelise Wunderlich and Jeff Kwan, and Sid Espinosa, whom Emily first met on the WOW trip. They visited with Scott Laton and family during an East Coast trip and are excited about Reunion.
John Lewis lives in Newton, Mass., with his wife, Suzanne, and three kids. He sees Jon Bender, Josh Protas, Tomer Rothschild, and Gabe Meil pretty regularly, as well as Sean Mazer and Aaron Yeater. John visited Julia Lazarus ’95 in Rhode Island and met her new baby daughter, Eleanor. John took a new job at Sound Physicians after 17 years at Athena Health, which has been a big change but good.
Julie Nersesian has retired after 20-plus years of teaching, primarily social studies middle school. She is leaving soon for Oaxaca, Mexico, to be a sunbird for the rest of January. She toasts all those engaged in education and action for social justice. “It is exhausting work but so important!”
Martin Reames and his family were relocated by his company, to Guadalajara, Mexico, for a year. He writes that “living in Mexico is quite different than visiting a week at a time” as “driving in Mexico is adventurous, and riding in a taxi is calm compared with negotiating other drivers’ unexpected maneuvers.” Martin’s 10-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, has attended a Spanish-English school since kindergarten, and speaks Spanish quite well, while he and wife Nicole are far from fluent. Nicole took a one-year sabbatical from work to focus on Spanish classes, yoga, and spending time with Elizabeth. They enjoy living in Mexico, especially the fantastic restaurants in Guadalajara; hiking in Copper Canyon in Chihuahua; and visiting the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán where they saw “countless millions of butterflies—it was truly magical.” They are sad that it’s been six months already and they’ll be headed back to Minneapolis in just half a year.
Aram Sinnreich’s third book, The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property, will be published by Yale Press this May.
Sondra Youdelman, in Brooklyn, joined the staff team of People’s Action (peoplesaction.org) as their national campaign director working on housing, health care, and climate issues.
Shalini Shankar’s book, Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal about Generation Z’s New Path to Success, will be published in April with Basic Books. It is based on research she conducted over six years at the National Spelling Bee, with spellers and families.
So long for now. Send Samera and me your news, notes, and updates—we’d love to hear from you.
Samera Syeda Ludwig | samera.ludwig@gmail.com
Caissa Powell | cdp2000@hotmail.com