Author: classnotes

Hi, ’04—sincerely appreciate you taking the time to send me some updates for this round of notes.

Stephanie Mandell tells us: “Work and family life in Burbank, California, are going well. I continue to play a ton of ultimate and got to compete in nationals in the grandmaster (e.g., old person) division last summer. This was after a lovely visit out East where I saw Josh Kaye, Megan Ridley-Kaye ’05, and Jon Lashley. Looking forward to our 20th Reunion!”

Adam Hodge says: “I just wrapped up my time serving in the Biden administration as spokesperson for the National Security Council and assistant United States trade representative for Public Affairs. Enjoying a nice break with family before figuring out what’s next!”

Raven Maldonado has been settling into her new home in Yonkers, New York, with husband Charlie Goodman, nine-year-old son, Wesley (Wes for short), and two-year-old daughter, Gabriela. She recently started a new position as global people engagement director at Heifer International and is building a consulting practice in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and organizational development. She recently became an ambassador for her upcoming 20-year Wesleyan reunion and is excited to reconnect with classmates in May. Where has the time gone?!

Additionally, Amy Todd moved recently to Portland, Maine, with her husband and two young kids. She mostly parents, works from home for an environmental research organization, and finds some time for other hobbies like beekeeping and biking. She’d love to connect with other Wes alum in the area. 

Nick Vincent is approaching his second anniversary as executive director of the undergraduate career center at Columbia University and is loving life in higher ed. Nick’s son, Leo, is in kindergarten and flourishing in the NYC public school system; validation that taxes are inherently good.

Ashley (Elia) Weller reports she “started a small animal mobile veterinary acupuncture practice two years ago that continues to grow and, she says, has been so rewarding! Also, we are due with our (surprise!) third baby this spring!”

Mark Schindler launched OtterBear Enterprises, an advisory service to help companies navigate the complex landscape of SaaS. Mark offers strategic guidance, organizational design, product development support, as well as innovation and communication improvement strategies. Mark’s goal with OtterBear is to demystify the tech world for successful business leaders stepping into SaaS for the first time, offering them a guiding hand through the complexities of the industry.

Tim Ridout joined the U.S. Navy in January 2022 as an officer. He is currently stationed at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and lives in northern Virginia.

That’s about it for now! As always, if you’ve got class notes, please share them with me at wes04classnotes@gmail.com.

Roberta Pereira was recently appointed the Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, located at Lincoln Center. The library holds one of the world’s most extensive research collections in theater, film, dance, music, and recorded sound, as well as a wide array of circulating and reference materials. Roberta lives in New York City with her six-year-old daughter, Bianca, who also loves going to The New York Public Library and using her Spider-Man library card.

John Graham lives with his wife and three children in Tbilisi, Georgia, where he runs a cultural and hiking travel business. When traveling to Vermont this past summer, he saw Ari Wolfe, Adam Tuck ’05, and Josh Dankoff ’02.

Matt Kushner is currently working on installing Illuminarium Experience’s fourth venue, this time in the Wynn Hotel in Macau, China, after a successful opening of the first international venue in Toronto, Canada, in August. Lauren Kushner (Brown ’04) continues to create interactive animations at the American Museum of Natural History and is preparing for the production of the next planetarium show. Kids, Mimi and Tessa, are doing great in third and first grade respectively. They are both performing in dance and winter showcases at school.  

 Please write to your class secretary. 

Great to hear from you as always.

Mattitiyahu Zimbler writes, “I recently accepted a faculty position in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Boston College. As part of my teaching, I had the absolute honor of having Kate McGrew, Megan Bartlett, and Eric Rueter ’99 provide incredible guest lectures for my classes. Their relevant expertise has made my classes all the better for it!”

From Matt Earp: “I’ve been pursuing immersive experiences ever since I moved back from Berlin in 2016 and returned to Oakland. For the last five years, I’ve been in Reality Labs at Meta working on immersive experiences for the Quest Virtual Reality headsets. I’m a content designer on the Metaverse team, which means I focus on defining new concepts and then working with [the] team to figure out how to build them. It’s been a wild ride, with a highlight being creating concerts and events in Horizon Worlds, including for Post Malone. I’ve also continued to DJ professionally since college, and now have a duo act called sw00se with my wife, Sara (also a DJ herself). Or maybe now it’s a trio since we welcomed our daughter, Rhye, into the world a year ago. Her favorite toy is a Fischer Price record player and she adores music of all kinds. I still trade tunes with Tim Jones ’02 who also lives in Oakland—we’ve kept our blend of hip-hop and electronic music alive since our WESU radio show days and he still inspires me.”

Nora Friedman writes, “My news is that in May I became the director of the Suzuki Program at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in Park Slope, where I’ve been on violin faculty for the last 12 years. I would be thrilled to hear from any Wesleyan alums thinking of enrolling their children in bass, flute, violin, guitar, cello, or piano lessons in our program! My email is nora.friedman@bkcm.org.”

Congratulations to Emily Barth Isler for her second book for middle school-aged readers coming out this March, called The Color of Sound. Focusing on a neurodivergent character, the book “explores intergenerational relationships through time travel, and depicts Jewish identity and traditions in an accessible, thought-provoking way.” I see praise already piling up, with best-selling author John Cho writing, “The Color of Sound is a valentine to families everywhere. Isler explores multiple intergenerational relationships lovingly and honestly, while keeping a gifted and vulnerable girl firmly at the center. It’s hard to imagine a book that I would want both my parents and my children to read, and yet, here is one.”

Best,

Mara

Dear Classmates,

Thank you for sharing your submissions. We hope that this finds you and yours well, even as world events continue to be challenging. Please enjoy hearing from our class below.

From Demian Szyld: “We are enjoying the school-age phase: Lila is in third and Riki is in kindergarten this year here in Cambridge. One of our new family traditions is apple picking at Lyman Orchards since that is halfway to New York, and I must say that I do enjoy the nostalgia that comes with driving near Middletown.”  

From Luke Davenport: “I got married and moved to Peekskill, New York, in 2020, and now have a wonderful two-year-old daughter. I’m still running a small company, analyzing data for NYC public schools.”

Josh Sohn reports that he is holding things down in Brooklyn, tutoring, writing, and playing as much ultimate as is humanly possible. He’s also proud to note he just notched 2,000 students tutored and has supported over 150 students through the college application process. Five of those students ended up at Wes. . . .  Just sayin’.

From Leora: A Mad Libs-inspired microshare:

“I have been ______________ and am listening to _______.”  

“I have been managing a persimmon tree harvest for the past month or so and am listening to a lot of PJ Harvey.”

Our best wishes,

Serena and Leora

Congratulations to Ross Stafford who was inducted into Wesleyan football’s  1990s All-Decade Team. Ross lives in northern New Jersey, has two daughters (ages four and seven), and works as a PMP-certified project manager. He is also a business owner and launched a digital marketing agency last spring.  

Eve Fox is the digital director at Beyond Plastics, where she works with Megan Wolff trying to halt the petrochemical industry’s build-out in the U.S. and reduce the negative environmental, health, climate, and environmental justice impacts of plastic pollution. Eve is also coming up on her sixth year serving on the board of the Woodstock Day School, where she is currently the president, and trying to roll with the punches of parenting both a teenager and a tween.

Michael Hakim lives in Los Angeles and has been working with his former quarterback, Scott Hevesy ’97, on some media opportunities. Michael launched a real estate property technology company by converting an office building into a mix-use residential hotel with a rooftop lounge. He is exploring opening an art gallery in some vacant available space, and he also opened a modern synagogue for young Jewish professionals in Los Angeles. Michael also collaborated with an art director to design the largest mural in Beverly Hills on South Beverly Drive in honor of his grandmother who passed away in 2022.

Chris Varmus married Mara Jebsen, a poet and professor, in 2021, under the crabapple tree in his backyard in Brooklyn. He is getting a second master’s degree (first one was in social work) in fine arts, specializing in large-scale ink and mixed media collage works. Check out his work on Instagram @christophervarmusart (available for sales and commissions) or visit his studio in Brooklyn.

Adam Birnbaum and his wife, Alem, live in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Adam works as a commercial litigator in a Wall Street area firm. Alem is pregnant with their third child.

Robert Carrillo was the brainchild and an executive producer for the documentary Lucha: A Wrestling Tale, which had its world premiere at America’s largest documentary film festival, DOC NYC, on November 11, 2023. It won the festival’s coveted Metropolis Grand Jury Prize and was a runner-up for the Audience Award. Robert was also one of the wrestling coaches in the film.

Ari Gerzon-Kessler lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Sashi. They were thrilled to welcome their first baby, Selah Dove Gerzon-Rose, who turned one in October. Ari is in his seventh year leading the Family Partnerships Department for the Boulder Valley School District. A lover of books since his first job at age 11 in a bookstore, he is overjoyed to share the news of the publication of his book, On the Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families Together (Solution Tree, December 2023). Ari coaches the leaders of these families and educators together teams at 23 schools—a new model for school-family collaboration that is changing teachers and school leaders’ practices for partnering with diverse families and transforming the experiences of underrepresented families in our schools. 

Chris Hanssmann lives in the Bay Area, currently teaching at UC Davis. He published his first book, Care without Pathology, with University of Minnesota Press. In addition, he has been working as a member of Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. Chris signed the alumni petition demanding Wesleyan’s divestment from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and hopes other alums do the same!

Leila Buck and Adam Abel ’98 continue to ride the waves of exhaustion and joy as they learn how to parent their two-year-old daughter. They’ve been devastated by the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and the ongoing atrocities of the Israeli army and settlers since then. They are doing their best to support loved ones in Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel from their time living and working in all three places, and they are calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire and continuing to work for a just peace in our time. Leila is teaching, writing, and occasionally performing while caring for their daughter and supporting her mom in the wake of her dad’s death last year. She knows many of us can relate to the sandwiching of child and eldercare, and to the navigation of personal and collective grief in these times. Sending wishes for comfort, healing energy, and support to all. 

Kevin and I hope that the year ahead is full of promise and possibilities. We look forward to connecting with many of you at our 25th Reunion in May!

Hi fellow classmates,

Benjamin Rubloff wrote in to report he has been living in Berlin since 2004, working as an artist and art teacher. He received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for painting, which has him on sabbatical from teaching, and he has a book forthcoming. He describes his art as: “Making  paintings of tiny fragments of graffiti. I photograph the places where the graffiti was found and am writing about time, memory, and history in relationship to place.” He says that living overseas, he has lost track of the Wes community and it would be a lot of fun to reconnect!

No other updates to report this time, so I’ll just say how thankful I am for my time at Wes with you all. Please send in your updates and sightings any time!

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 

Hi friends! Just a quick update this time around.

Rallie Snowden shares that she is still living in Shenandoah Valley with her just-turned 13-year-old and her 5-year-old. She keeps in touch with Anne Brockelman in Boston.

Sally Lee (NYC) and Kate Baker (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) have been advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza, and recently signed the alumni petition demanding that Wesleyan divest from Israeli interests.

Nina Erlich-Williams writes: “I visited Hilary Hoeber and her sweet family in Davis, California, for a sunny weekend in September. We had a very active weekend that included celebrating Mexican Independence Day at a hops farm, strolling through charming downtown Davis, and lunch with Hilary’s parents (including fellow Wesleyan grad Tom Hoeber ’63). It was a great visit and a wonderful chance to celebrate more than three decades of friendship.”

And the next generation of Wesleyan students continues! Deborah Mahoney tells us that she and her husband Joseph Mahoney ’94 “had a fabulous time dropping our frosh son, Noah, off at Wesleyan this August for pre-season cross country with his new college team! He is living in Foss—which looks exactly the same as it did in 1994—and wishes the Usdan dining hall were a little closer. We lamented the closure of MoCon, but then were surprised at how fabulous the new dining options and meal plan are for the kids these days. We got to observe the first cross-country practice (running a time trial on a track) and then we went home to Minnesota. Later, we were surprised that we got to watch Noah at cross-country nationals while we were out East visiting my mom in Philadelphia! He got pretty sick the day before the race, ended up running anyways, but felt terrible. It was fun for him to be invited, however. Joe and I also met up with Sara Berenbom (now Friedman) whose son, Zach, was running there too—for Tufts!  It was such a blast. Joe and I are still working as physicians in Minnesota. We have a high school sophomore daughter, Isabel, at home. She’s aiming to run Division 1 at some school that is NOT where her brother attends. We’ll see!”

Hope everyone is doing well!  Keep sending us your news!

Katy writes: Glad to close out 2023 with updates from our fellow classmates. We all have things going on in our lives and communities—big and small. This issue features some great snapshots of everyday life, including from some first-time contributors.

Carolyn Renzin writes, “Nothing much has changed in YEARS. . . . I’ve lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, for 13 years, with my husband of 21 years, Lee, and our two kids—one a college freshman, the other a high school junior. Maggie McLean Suniewick ’97 and Josh Suniewick ’97 also live in Hastings-on-Hudson . . . we were all friends from the pool/swim team/water polo/lifeguarding days and now our kids hang out! I love watching the next generation from town head off to college—many to Wes. [A] college visit this fall to Wes for my daughter had me texting old friends: Rachel Hitch, Jieho Lee, and Susannah Kerest, as thousands of memories flooded in. And work (I’m lawyering at online betting company, FanDuel) and life continue apace with gratitude as we—the sandwich generation—parent our kids and care for our aging parents.”

Marc Schleifer writes, “Update on my end is that after nearly 20 years in D.C. (how that happen?), have relocated to New York after my wife took a job here. We still have our place in D.C. and my work is still there, so I haven’t entirely cut the cord. But it’s wonderful to finally be in the Big Apple, only took 28 years after graduating from Wes!”

Brandon Patton moved to Seattle in 2020 and connected with former Wesleyan Spirit Michael Roufa ’96 after the pandemic ended, getting roped into performing in an Earth, Wind & Fire–themed performance of the story of Esther for Purim at a local synagogue in 2023. The rabbi wore platform heels and Bootsy Collins sunglasses.

Jason Segal writes, “All well here in Manhattan. Approaching our 15th anniversary of our climate-focused merchant bank, Javelin Capital—welcome all Wes grads who are fighting the good fight against climate change and undergrads interested to work in the space to reach out. Children Julia (10) and Ari (8) are doing great and all enjoying life in the city.”

Rick Meyerson writes, “I’m still living in San Francisco with my wife, two teens in our public schools, and a weird dog, [and] working in climate tech. My older kid is a senior in high school, and we had the honor of touring Wesleyan in October. It’s amazing how beautifully both the campus and Middletown have evolved. I visited Klekolo World Coffee and I donated a 30-year-old business card, advertising a logo contest, from when they first opened. My daughter loved the campus tour, especially the WestCo kids who launched into a wild improvised breakup scene from their balcony when they saw our tour walking by. Why did they need to cancel legacy admissions this year of all years? (Kidding. Kind of.)”

Lara Tupper is one of 11 authors included in a charity anthology, Maine Character Energy (Rogue Owl Press). The book features stories and poems that celebrate Maine’s small towns, rugged wilderness, rocky coasts, and the everyday characters that make the state special. All proceeds from the sales of the book will support Everytown for Gun Safety, in honor of the victims, survivors, and families affected by the Lewiston-Auburn massacre that took place in October 2023.

Finally, a couple of alumni encounters of my own. Recently I was glad to run into Jessica (Gerald) Young at our town’s high school orchestra concert (where her son, Joey, was playing violin in a group along with my eldest). And last month I had the fortune to see alumni, staff, President Roth, and others at Boston’s Celebration of Something Big. The event was a fun chance to see acquaintances old and new, and I enjoyed saying hi to Brendan Coughlin. The evening culminated at the Wes alum–owned Cantab Lounge, with a performance—featuring President Roth on the keyboards—of a spirited rendition of the Beatles’ “Money (That’s What I Want),” encouraging our support of Wes.

Take care everyone, and best wishes to you and your loved ones for 2024.