CLASS OF 1999 | 2019 | ISSUE 3
Eve Fox is helping to tackle our single-use plastic pollution crisis as the digital director of Beyond Plastics, a new effort started by Judith Enck, former EPA regional administrator (under President Obama) that’s based at Bennington College. Also, in New England, Erin Falkevitz Almond is married to Steve Almond ’88. They have three kids together, and live outside Boston. Her first novel, Witches’ Dance, is being published this October.
Mia Lipman Irwin and her husband welcomed their daughter, Alma, on June 7. Alma was born two weeks early at almost nine pounds. “She lights up our lives every day (so does our rescue dog, Etta, who’s equal parts jealous and protective of her little sister).” They live in Seattle, where Mia is the director of content at the University of Washington and Chris works as a 3D artist at a video game studio.
Classmates on the move: Kevin Black and his family moved to Madison, Wisc., last year after he and his wife were recruited to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They started their new positions as full professors of physics. After spending his first 18 years in California and his next 23 on the East Coast, they are now living in the Upper Midwest and enjoying their new city.
After 20 years on the East Coast, 20 years in NYC, and 15 years in Harlem, Leevert Holmes, has officially moved back to the West Coast. Although he chose not to return to Los Angeles, (“great place to visit”), he and his wife, Kerri-Ayn Seow, are settling into the Bay Area. Kerri is the new principal of Franklin Elementary School in East San Jose. Leevert is a middle school math teacher at Keys Middle School in Palo Alto. Leevert is looking to engage and connect with Bay Area and West Coast Wesleyan graduates. One of those Bay Area people could be Allegra Jones, who was promoted to special counsel for international law firm Duane Morris LLP. She is working out of the firm’s San Francisco office, Allegra specializes in employment law, civil litigation, and white-collar criminal defense, and her practice recently expanded to include cannabis law (a topic likely of interest to many classmates . . .).
Amelia Rachel Hokule’a Borofsky is winning the geography game. She lives in Hawaii and the Cook Islands. Amelia finished her doctorate in community psychology a while back and runs a consulting company seaofislandsconsulting.com. “Most exciting, I’m now the mother of two daughters, Yinale and Reva, who turn 2 and 1 in September. As a solo super mama of two under 2, I don’t have much time, but am an avid surfing mom (surfingmums.com).” Amelia completed a collaborative short documentary, Our Atoll Speaks, about the island of Pukapuka and indigenous climate knowledge (talcualfilms.com). She shared her update in hopes to network with awesome Wesleyan folks around her projects. “Come visit Hawai’i or send me a virtual message! Mahalo!”
Like your faithful class secretaries, Rachel Afi Quinn didn’t make it to the Reunion. However, she didn’t let that stop her from sharing an update! Rachel is an assistant professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. She just completed a year-long Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and was in NYC for the month of July on a fellowship from the New York Public Library, to do research at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for a second book project. “I hope to have my first book, Dominicana-Dominicana: Visualizing Contemporary Dominican Women’s Lives in Santo Domingo, finalized for publication in the year ahead.”
As for your class secretaries, we’re still in shock that two full decades have passed since we left Middletown. Kevin is a couple of months into a new gig as COO of Quartet Health in New York City. Quartet is working hard to bridge the gap between physical health care and mental health care. That work has already brought him back in touch with Matt Goldstein, who is building out a health care executive search practice at True. Matt is helping Quartet with a couple of C-level talent searches.
C. Darryl Uy | darryl.uy@gmail.com
Kevin Kumler | kevinkumler@gmail.com