CLASS OF 1993 | 2021 | ISSUE 1
Hi, all! I heard from lots of people for the first time this go-round. Yay! So without further ado . . .
Jason Fischer received his PhD in counselor education and supervision from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas this past December.
Cain Dimon writes, “After 16 years in private practice I have gone into academics. I have joined the Duke University School of Medicine as an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology. I moved to Durham in December. So far all is going very well. Enjoying teaching and the warmer climate of North Carolina versus Michigan.”
Isaac Kaufman writes, “I have been practicing law in the Twin Cities since 2003. Last year I launched Red Cedar Consulting, a solo practice with a focus on workplace investigations and professional development. This coming June my wife Kimberly Ferencik and I will be celebrating our 20-year wedding anniversary.”
Alicia Bassuk writes, “As a mother of two 23-year-olds, I am happily empty nesting with my soulmate. I channeled my COVID concerns into co-authoring a COVID Roadmap with a bipartisan team led by the Harvard Ethics Center, and am having my most professional fun working with NBA players, coaches, and front office execs, for which I was awarded an NBA Championship Ring by the Toronto Raptors in 2019!”
Diego von Vacano spent most of the year 2020 as an advisor to the Luis Arce presidential campaign in Bolivia. Socialist Arce eventually won in October in a landslide of 55 percent of the vote. Thanks to Dennis White (Wes class of 2019), he collaborated to work with Bernie Sanders, who provided crucial support during the interim de facto government preceding Arce’s win. Diego continues to advise Arce on a range of issues, from academics, to relations to the U.S., to the emerging lithium sector for green energy.
Emmanuelle C. Slossberg is now the vice president of marketing for the Durst Organization, a 100-year-old family-owned real estate owner, developer and operator. The company sets new standards of environmental stewardship and is dedicated to the principles of innovation, integrity, community and sustainability. She’s also joined the board of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU.global) a collaboration between UN Habitat and the design and civic community that shares global best practices for how to design, maintain and plan the built environment.
Jacob Bricca is celebrating the release of the feature documentary Missing in Brooks County which he produced and edited. It has played at over a dozen film festivals, winning Best Southern Documentary at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and will have its broadcast premiere in fall 2021 on PBS’s Independent Lens. He is at work on a book called How Documentaries Work for Oxford University Press.
Speaking of documentaries, Aaron Matthews writes, “A documentary I recently made, The War and Peace of Tim O’Brien, is set for release on March 2. The film follows renowned author and Vietnam veteran, Tim O’Brien, struggling to write one last book. That book incidentally started when Bill Shapiro ’87, who was the editor-in-chief of Life at the time, encouraged Tim to pen an essay for the magazine about becoming a father at a late age. That was 20 years ago, and my documentary chronicles Tim writing the book that grew out of the essay for Bill. Jennifer Mittelstadt ’92 is the producer on the film.”
And furthering the theme of documentaries: Dan Crane stopped being a print journalist to become a documentary filmmaker. In late 2019, he began working with Matt Tyrnauer ’91, producing a documentary for Showtime that should air in late 2021. He spent most of lockdown working remotely from his new home in a small town in northern England, where he wrote and directed a documentary titled Let Me Be Me about an autistic boy who undergoes an experimental treatment and grows up to become a fashion designer (produced by Wavelength Productions). His three-year-old daughter has picked up an English accent, and he is trying to master the art of making Yorkshire puddings.
Paul J. Darcy writes, “After eight years leading marketing for the job site Indeed, I left to become CMO of the fast-growing software company Miro. Despite the job change, I am happy to be staying put in downtown Austin with Gray (18), Ellis (17), and Lia (12) and my partner Patricia. We feel lucky to be able to safely work and go to school during these crazy times.”
Andy Nordvall writes, “I’ve been enjoying walks along the Los Angeles River, weekly take-out brunch, and surviving the pandemic. My podcast Burn After Pitching now streams on the Grand Geek Gathering Twitch channel. Last year, I signed with a literary agent and took out one picture book (Fjork the Viking) and one middle grade graphic novel (Better Than Dinosaurs!), with more works in the pipeline, and I’ve been teaching English remotely.”