CLASS OF 2002 | 2017 | ISSUE 3
Greetings from Los Angeles! First, some birth announcements:
Dana Sirota and husband Josh Schiffrin welcomed their third child, Jesse, to the crew in June. Dana works as a pediatrician in Washington Heights, NYC. Natasha Joseph gave birth to her daughter, Rebelle Harmony Siddhartha Hall, on June 18 at UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital. On March 26, Rachel Kriger and Nick Corso welcomed their second baby, Ayla, into the world in their home, just minutes before their midwife arrived. It was a powerful experience. “We are so grateful to have Ayla in our family,” she said. You can read the whole birth story here at pointsofreturnacupuncture.com.
And here’s a quick update on me (Justin Lacob): My wife, Melanie, and I welcomed our second daughter, Juliette Violet Lacob, on October 4, joining our 2-1/2-year-old Scarlett in our expanding family!
Now onto our classmate updates:
Joel Nichols works in strategic initiatives at the Free Library of Philadelphia and is really excited about their project designing early literacy play spaces in three neighborhood libraries. He works on library impact evaluation and sometimes gets to work with Sarah Costelloe ’00. His book, Out of This World Library Programs: Using Speculative Fiction to Promote Reading and Launch Learning, was published last spring, and has a short story in a forthcoming small-press children’s anthology in the spring. He and his boyfriend, Ray, have a four-year-old named Jamie, and see their neighbors, Philip Gentry and Mary Peacock and their beautiful kids, not nearly enough!
Mary is the medical director at Banfield for multiple veterinary hospitals in the region, while Phil has a book coming out in January called What Will I Be: American Music and Cold War Identity. From Amazon: “In the wake of World War II, the cultural life of the United States underwent a massive transformation. At the heart of these changes during the early Cold War were the rise of the concept of identity and a reformulation of the country’s political life. A revolution in music was taking place at the same time—a tumult of new musical styles and institutions that would lead to everything from the birth of rock ‘n’ roll to the new downtown experimental music scene. Together, these new cultural and musical trends came to define the era. Author Philip M. Gentry travels through four very different musical scenes: the R&B world of doo-wop pioneers the Orioles, the early film musicals of Doris Day, Asian-American cabaret in San Francisco, and John Cage’s infamous 4’33”. The lives of musicians, composers, critics, and fans reveal how individuals negotiated the social changes sweeping the country in the initial days of the Cold War.”
Sebastian Kaplan joined a new legal firm, Gerard Fox Law, P.C., and will be opening their San Francisco office. The firm litigates high-stakes commercial and intellectual property disputes. Sebastian says, “It’s an exciting move and I’m looking forward to establishing the firm’s presence in the Bay Area. The other major change this year is that all three of my daughters—Zoe, Juliette, and Naomi—are now in school. Zoe just started kindergarten and one of the other parents in the class is Cindi Stephan ’96.”
Kasia Newman Deuel finally completed her advanced degree, which was a long, part-time endeavor, during which she worked full-time and started a family. She now has a master’s in environmental management and sustainability from Harvard Extension School. Although she developed a fond relationship with Harvard, Wesleyan is still her first love. She was sorry to miss Reunion, but was attending Harvard commencement the same weekend. She lives north of Boston with her husband and three-year old son, and works for The Pew Charitable Trusts on ocean policy.
Ernie Hartner went to Spain with a family of four and returned with a family of five only two weeks before Irma hit Miami. They rode out the hurricane in their new house a week after moving in and are all doing well.
That’s it for this time around. Please send me updates so I can publish them in the next issue!
Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com