CLASS OF 1997 | 2024 | SPRING ISSUE

Hi Everyone,

We have very sad news to share. Madeleine Perez wrote, “Our classmate Greg Pedersen passed away suddenly in July. He lived in Sonoma, California, and left behind his wife Rachel Kowal Pedersen ’98 and their two kids. This site has more info: https://www.gregpedersen.com/.” We send our deepest condolences to Greg’s family and friends.

Sara Kate Gillingham wrote, “I send love and peace to all from Brooklyn, where I just ran the NYC marathon for the second time. Both times I ran in support of the American Liver Foundation; in 2017 I gave half my liver to Dave Kane ’92—now that’s a story! After 20 years in food writing, I decided to make a huge career change; I’m about halfway through a master’s degree program to become a psychotherapist—here’s to graduating at 50!—and recently completed training to work in psychedelic assisted therapy. I have a 17-year-old daughter named Ursula, and we live with our black lab, Connie, in a brownstone in Bed-Stuy with a big disco ball over the door.” Congratulations Sara—just wow! And extra congratulations on your James Beard writing award! You join at least one other ’97er (Mei Chin) in that stellar category! Go ’97!

Lauren Porosoff wrote: “I wrote a new book called Teach for Authentic Engagement, about how teachers can design instruction so students connect with the content, their work, and each other. I think it’s the best book I’ve written and I’d love to hear what my Wes classmates in the education field think of it. When I’m not writing or giving workshops, I’m fielding phone calls from my kids’ schools, pretending to know how to grow vegetables, and watching every sci-fi/fantasy show I can find on the 84 streaming services we still subscribe to even though the pandemic is over.” Good luck, Lauren, with the book! We are sure it will be helpful to many educators and their students.

Tony Schloss wrote: “Our family punk rock band once again played a set to kick off the after party of the Barnacle Parade, a community event celebrating the community resilience that emerged after Hurricane Sandy in Red Hook, Brooklyn. AYUB will be releasing a two-song EP this spring, entitled Two Many Songs, featuring original compositions ‘Too Many Jerkos’ and ‘Too Many Tabs,’ the latter a treatise on web browsing and hallucinogenic drugs. The band features my sons, 14 and 11 years old, on bass and drums. Their six-year-old sister is currently in training to take over guitar duties. Michael Lenore ’97.5 was in attendance.” How amazing is that!

We send you all our best wishes and we look forward to hearing from you, so please reach out anytime with updates.

Sasha and Jess