CLASS OF 1994 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

Greetings from Chicago! The pandemic continues and I hope that everyone and their families, friends and loved ones are all safe. I continue to practice law in Chicago—mostly remotely these days—and was recently named my firm’s administrative partner. As many are, I am negotiating working from home with two kids who are schooling from home! I caught up with my sister Humera Syeda ’90 in Albany, New York with her kids and our parents over the summer. I reconnected with frosh hall mate Amy Grundt whose daughter started at Wesleyan this year! Also, I had great fun being a guest on Peter Chandler’s cooking show where Lourdes Arista also made a cameo experience. Check out Peter’s show on Facebook!

Evan Sils writes that he relocated to Los Angeles after 20 years in NYC. He is heading up the in-house legal department and business affairs team at a media company. 

Josh Thomases writes that he is living in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons. He helps run a small school in Brooklyn (El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice), leading the small schools effort in NYC where he helped open 350-plus schools and currently leads a small organization providing high dosage tutoring and mentoring to secondary schools in five cities on the East Coast. Josh keeps in regular contact with our classmates Monique Sully, Terry Johnson, Mike Goodman and Ben Pappas.

Aram Sinnreich announced that he and Jesse Gilbert are writing a new book called The Secret Life of Data, based on an article they published in the International Journal of Communication in November: They recently signed a book contract with MIT Press and hope to have it in print in 2022–23. Congratulations!

Congratulations also to Joel Gershon whose first feature-length documentary film, entitled Cirque du Cambodia, is set to have its world premiere at the United Nations Association Film Festival in October! Cirque du Cambodia is about two teenagers from Cambodia who became determined to be the first Cambodians to take the stage with Cirque du Soleil after seeing one of their videos. The teens learned how to become circus performers at a special school for the arts near their home village and later moved across the world to Canada where Cirque du Soleil is headquartered to attend the world’s most elite circus school after receiving full scholarships. Joel started work on this film in 2011 and tracked the two main characters for more than six years as they continued to try to fulfill their dreams, filming in four countries in three languages! Check out information about the film at cirqueducambodia.com.

It is always wonderful to hear from you all. Please continue to send in your updates!

Samera Syeda Ludwig | samera.ludwig@gmail.com

Caissa Powell | cdp2000@hotmail.com 

CLASS OF 1993 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

Greetings from Naples, Florida! We have some exciting news from classmates, including travel, moving across the Atlantic, and career updates. Please continue sharing your news!

Lee Ayrton writes, “I have gone into voluntary exile in the bleak, rubble-strewn, and desolate post-industrial wastelands of northern Rhode Island, where for the good of the realm I have been living a monastic life of solitude, Netflix, and take-away pizza. September will see me employed again by AMC Studios on a new series, my last having departed for the great syndication market in the sky, cut down after a mere two seasons.” 

Darren Linkin writes, “Hi class of ’93. No change in job, location, etc., but enjoy reading about everyone else’s interesting adventures!”

Noah Rosen emails, “I remain an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra. My primary job is program director of the neurology residency and the director of the Headache Center. This year I was elected to the board of the American Headache Society and I became a voting board member of the UCNS (United Council of Neurologic Subspecialties). I’m continuing on my work to make Headache Medicine recognized by the federal government.”

Jodi Samuels writes, “My spouse, Evan, and I are working full-time from home, and our cats are loving the extra daily attention. We’ve cut way back on our travel, of course, but we have managed some local trips for wine tasting and hiking in Lassen Volcanic National Park as well as visits to family in Denver and Austin (no travel restrictions or quarantine requirements for those areas, thank goodness). Our weather in Sacramento has included some nasty heat waves and lots of terrible air quality with smoke from the multiple wildfires that have already broken records even though the peak of wildfire season isn’t typically until next month. Hmm . . . record temperatures, un-breathable air, global pandemic, economic downturn, racial injustice . . . hard to find bright spots and beauty and joy in the world these days, but we’re trying!” 

Antonia Townsend emails, “After nine years in San Francisco, we are moving to London. I’ll continue to run my lingerie business, Enclosed, in the land where they understand the word knickers. Please reach out if you are visiting the land of winkle-pickers and over-cooked vegetables.”

Finally, it is with great sadness that we learn of Adam Ford’s passing on July 10, 2020. We will provide more details as we hear them.

Suzanna Henshon | suzannahenshon@yahoo.com 

Sarah Estow | sarah_estow@hotmail.com

CLASS OF 1992 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

Greetings and salutations from D.C. It’s Election Day minus 35 and I am just recovering from watching the first presidential debate. I’ve showered, taken a stiff drink and can now share with you some news of our classmates. Let’s hope this goes more smoothly.

I start with medical news, specifically infectious disease and specifically COVID-19. You thought you were going to escape? The good news is we have a classmate on the inside. Corey Casper, interim president and chief executive officer, Infectious Disease Research Institute, University of Washington, is principal investigator for a study of Celularity’s COVID-19 treatment using human placental hematopoietic stem cell derived cells. He was also recently named to the Scientific Advisory Board of Why We Vaccinate, Inc. to promote the use of vaccines and “dissemination of clear and factual information on the value of vaccines and immunization for our communities’ health and welfare” according to the organization’s website. He probably needs to catch up on his sleep. Just not yet.

On a perhaps related subject, Dan Partland’s documentary Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump was released August 28. It features on the record, for the record interviews with prominent doctors and mental health professionals on the psychology of the president as part of their ethical “duty to warn” the public of imminent danger.

Jonathan Soros launched Athletes Unlimited, a totally new sports league that totally reinvents how you view sports, creates balance in the force and re-invents how to build teams and how you score points—even how you pick the MVP. The summer softball season was a hit and the league is gearing up to add women’s volleyball next year. It’s a lot more fun than watching a Mets game. Or Phillies for that matter.

An excerpt of Jonathan Liebson’s essay on teaching during the pandemic ran in the fall alumni magazine. The full piece (“Teaching Moments in a Time of Diaspora”) can be found at magazine

.wesleyan.edu (in the Letters section). Jonathan currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches writing, literature, and culture at Eugene Lang College of The New School and at NYU’s School of Professional Studies. A list of other articles and recordings can be found on his website jonathanliebson.com.

It was nice to hear from Abigail Saguy who reports all is well from the left coast. She describes her recent promotion to department chair of the UCLA Sociology Department “an exciting new challenge” and sends news of a recent book release, Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are, published earlier this year. Her eldest daughter Claire is now a first-year student at UCLA, son Jonah is in eleventh grade (at least virtually), and husband Dotan has taken advantage of quarantine to create an online photography class.

Lee Schlesinger has departed from Boston after five years and returned to Chicago in June of 2019 to take a new role as vice president of portfolio management and education for Winesellers, Ltd., a national wine import company. 

Elizabeth (Lisa) Liang’s film of her one-woman show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, is being “taught” on college campuses in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It’s now streamable at gumroad.com. Lisa also leads workshops that help people to tell their own hard-to-label stories: interculturalstorytelling.com. She and her husband Dan live in Los Angeles.

Lisa Laing (who writes under the pen name Lisa McLuckie) published her third novel, Love Me Not, in May.

Grant Brenner, CEO of Neighborhood Psychiatry, is focused on the recent pivot to telemedicine and has also launched a podcast called Doorknob Comments, about living well, hosted by two psychiatrists. He is working on a fourth book, Making Your Crazy Work for You, all the while raising a family in New York’s increasingly grungy East Village . . . while occasionally sleeping. 

And last but certainly not least, my lovely and talented wife, Michele Greenstein, took a new position at the State Department as a senior advisor for peace and security. She is working on a congressionally mandated effort to establish the interagency Global Fragility strategy to stabilize conflict-affected areas and prevent violence globally. How do you like them apples?

Hope you are all safe and doing well.

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

CLASS OF 1991 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

A huge cache of notes for you to peruse, but a quick word before you do: I am compiling these in early autumn 2020, and you’re reading them in December or January 2021. It already feels like a time capsule.

The horticulture work of Todd Forrest was featured in the May 2020 New Yorker article, “The Essential Workers of the New York Botanical Garden. 

Julie (Arlinghaus) Charles is obsessively watching School of Life videos and trying to work out what that thing is that’s the opposite of pessimism. 

Adam Wilbrecht launched a startup called CONCERT with some blockchain experts. CONCERT brings digital signatures and IP protection for design and engineering professionals.

Jeremy Arnold’s latest book is The Essentials Vol. 2: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, published in Autumn 2020. It’s the second companion to Turner Classic Movie’s long-running “Essentials” series. Movie fans might also note Jeremy’s work in Blu-ray audio commentaries, most recently for Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, The Lavender Hill Mob and Day of the Outlaw.

Jeff (Harmon) Nova married Alexandra Casazza in 2012, welcomed daughter Kaya in 2013, then suffered the heartbreaking loss of Alex to cancer in 2017. He’s a single dad and CEO of Colorhythm, a retouching and software company in San Francisco, where he’s lived the past 23 years. 

Rajal Cohen and her partner adopted a nine-year-old girl from foster care. She’s been living with them since December 2019. “It’s been a wonderful experience; we received excellent trauma-informed training through our local DHW and are able to access ongoing support. I’d be happy to talk with anybody considering becoming a foster parent or adopting through the foster care system.”

Michelle Lockhart reports she is “down to one child in the Lockhart Circus Tent. Eleanor is a Junior at Hockaday and Billy just graduated from St. Mark’s and started his freshman year at Dartmouth, competing as a heavyweight rower. Bill is “on the beach” (in the middle of a long non-compete) so it’s pretty slow here. Not that I’m counting, but we are 757 days from empty-nesterhood.” 

John Roy is in his 26th year teaching at St. John’s Prep School in Danvers, Massachusetts, and his wife, Amy, is in her 24th year teaching in the Danvers Public Schools. “It is easy to agree that this is the strangest start to a school year ever.” Their son Ethan graduated Syracuse University in 2020, Trevor started his junior year at UMass Amherst, remote, and Phineas is a junior at St. John’s.  I am going to miss seeing John Kennelly* Jon Gellar* and Peter Paris ’92 at homecoming weekend.

Curry Rose (Mills) Hoskey’s full-time school librarian job got cut to half-time, so now she is a librarian for both an elementary school and a middle school.  Her school district will be completely virtual until February 2021, so for now, she is the digital resources librarian for both schools. Curry is in regular touch with Alison Gelb Andrus, who now serves on the Hastings-on-Hudson School District Board of Education.  Curry visited with Gavin Whitelaw ’93 and his family at the socially distanced Wellfleet Drive-in this past summer.

Sarah Sutter celebrates 10 years teaching at The American School in Japan in Tokyo. “One bright spot with the global pandemic has been the migration of events to virtual spaces, where I can participate at a distance even if the time difference is sometimes a challenge. Alpha Delt has hosted a few virtual events, and I’ve connected with Ian Gerrard and his wife Zanne ’94, Jeanne Kramer-Smyth ’90, and Bernadette Buck ’92, among others.”

Greg Baldwin adds P’24 to his alumni status, as son Elijah started at Wesleyan. Greg oversees remote learning for high schoolers at New Haven Academy, and hopes to open hybrid in November (health conditions permitting). 

Alys Campaigne’s daughter, Livesey, also joined the Wesleyan COVID-19 class in 2020. “So far so good. We’ve been impressed with how Wes has stepped up to the plate to manage the situation with creativity and good sense. It is fun to reconnect with classmates as alumni parents even though I am much too young for this to be possible.” Alys, in Charleston, South Carolina, works on federal and state strategy and policy with her firm, Engage Strategies, recently focused on tackling sustainable packaging, regional landscape conservation, carbon pricing, flood resilience and marine protections.

CSS folks convened a virtual event with Professors Richie Adelstein and Giulio Gallarotti, along with a whole host of folks, reports Brian Howell, who began his 20th year at Wheaton College as a professor of anthropology, while Marissa Sabio ’89 starts year 14 in social work with the Outreach Community Center. Their son started his senior year of high school in online mode, another son studies at North Park University in Chicago, and daughter Hannah works for the Democratic Caucus of the Senate in Washington State, as a communication specialist. 

Jeremy Sacks, coordinating with the ACLU of Oregon, represents a group of BLM protesters suing federal agencies and officials, including President Trump, Chad Wolf, and DHS, for unleashing federal police forces on them in a manner that violated their civil liberties and other laws.

Beth Haney began a new role leading finance and operations for a homeless shelter called “Avenues For Youth. Scott Moore’s treating his “COVID-19 Blues” with a weekly virtual workout with Bill Kumler and Joe Dalton. He took an extended, socially-distanced trip over Labor Day, including visits with Steve Grahling (NJ), Mark Wittenberg (San Diego) Bill Kumler (Ohio), and Chris Albanese ’93 (NYC). Both Haney-Moore kids were able to get back to on-campus school.

After 20 years of residence, Amit Gilboa is now a Singapore citizen. He lives in one of the ubiquitous HDB government flats, and his children attend the neighborhood school, but “with my United States upbringing, and Wesleyan education, we can’t be considered a typical Singaporean family. In any case, because dual citizenship is not allowed, I did have to renounce my US (and also Israeli) citizenship. Pandemic-wise, we’re doing ok over here. In many ways, life is getting back to normal, but with 100% public mask compliance and people registering for contact tracing every time we enter a mall or eatery. The numbers for Singapore are high, but the reality is that cases are concentrated in a single, specific sector, the migrant worker dormitories, to our absolute shame, and there is very little spread outside of that sector.” 

Michael Chaskes and Sarah (Lewis) Chaskes have both been able to keep working from their Los Angeles home through lockdown: Sarah teaching sixth grade, and Michael editing unscripted TV, including Selena + CHEF, Haute Dog, and the recent run of Supernanny. Last year, Michael was a lead editor of the Emmy-nominated A Very Brady Renovation. Both daughters attend college in Ohio and New York. They miss seeing friends, notably Ben and Liz (Beckenbach) Leavy, but are keeping up via electronic means.   

Lindsey (Cowell) Parsons hosts a popular podcast called The Perfect Stool: Understanding and Healing the Gut Microbiome.” Find it wherever you get your podcasts!

Joshua Samuels continues to practice medicine (kidney disease) and teach at the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science in Houston. He was promoted to Tenured Professor this year. 

Tina Demastrie Lippman completed a project position at the Newburgh Chandler Public Library, scanning and cataloging a collection of historical photographs for the Indiana Memory digital library. She’s also successfully entered the world of crossword puzzle creation, and her grids have been published by the Inkubator, GAMES Magazine, Universal Syndicate, and the Los Angeles Times.   

Renée K. Carl | rcarl@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 1990 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

Hello all. Not a lot of news this time around. Here’s what we have: 

Alfredo Viegas writes of a bittersweet spring where his “oldest daughter Alessandra graduated in May in Wesleyan’s online Zoom broadcast commencement. Like everyone else we could not throw her a proper party to celebrate her success which was a big disappointment. She also entered the worst job market for graduating seniors in our lifetime, but fortunately she has an internship with a Los Angeles–based film company and she will be reading scripts, which she is excited about.” 

Kate Hardin is still happily settled in Harvard Square with a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old. Kate changed jobs last October, and is now leading the Energy Research Center for Deloitte’s U.S. firm, “which has been a great experience so far.” Kate “really enjoyed the virtual sessions, and a few of us from our freshman hall managed a separate Zoom reunion also, which was long overdue. So, I’ve been using some of the no-travel time to catch up with Wes friends!”

Victor Khodadad is continuing his work with New Camerata Opera. “We are about to announce our fifth season which includes a live concert in Times Square on October 22 and our virtual gala—The Sleuth Salon—on November 12. More information is available at newcamerataopera.org.”

The future has been impossible to predict, and our planned  30th reunion in May has been postponed again. Details on a new date are forthcoming. Still, reunion planning and fundraising for our reunion gift is happening all year long with even some virtual events to be scheduled. If you want more information or want to get involved, please contact our class liaison, Amanda Broulik, at abroulik@wesleyan.edu.

That’s all for now. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2021.

Vanessa Montag Brosgol | vanessa.brosgol@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1989 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

THANK YOU for writing in, in such enormous numbers. Here’s the mildly edited LONG version of what’s happening in the class of 1989!

Having just rescued a dog named Smokey, Stephanie Dolgoff is totally smitten with him and has decided to make is official: “I’m engaged to marry my dog, and as happy as I’ve ever been.” (lol)

Colleen McKiernan is on the Board of the Waltham Fields Community Farm, a non-profit farm with a CSA and educational programs. She has been working to prevent this 400 year old farmland from being sold by the State of Massachusetts and after a two year campaign hopes to secure permanent protection through the state legislature this year.  The Farm donates 20% of its food, including to school lunch programs.  She invites any support for this organization from her classmates. 

Phil Rutovitz has been living in The Hague for the past 6 years with his wife and 3 kids.  After 23 years living in Europe, he finds it very strange to view from afar what the United States is going through now.  Although, as British citizen, he recently had to secure a resident permit to stay in the Netherlands which was surreal in its own way. After his company restructured in November, he started his own fintech consulting business.  In his copious free time, he was able to finish his first novel, a thriller called The Scarabus Deception, and is looking for an agent. 

Durba Ghosh writes from Cornell, where she has been on the faculty for 15 years.  She estimates she is one of about a zillion historians who were undergraduate majors who are now in faculty positions across the country.  Her son is a sophomore soccer player at Hamilton College and her daughter is entering her junior year in high school.  She thought the best college tour to date was at Wesleyan and the highlight seeing Brian O’Rourke behind the counter at the diner, and sitting on Foss Hill once again. 

Early on, Phineas Baxandall was feeling very grateful during quarantine because his son came back from college and senior-in-high-school daughter was home much more. They spent lots of time playing board games, watching old movies, and doing ceramics in their basement kiln. Then the kids got squirrelly as the months dragged on, until they started spending time in Cape Cod. Eventually, both kids went off to their college towns.  Now, he and his partner Sarah get to live the quiet remote-work life with lots of long runs  and swims and few people. In October, they’ll be returning to Cambridge to continue calling and writing letters to swing-state voters. 

2020 would have been a big year for Debra Steppel even without Covid-19: her firstborn graduated from high school and left for Arizona State University and she and her husband marked 22 years in the same home in Reston, VA.  It has also been 10 years since her husband Mark founded Sunrise Wealth Management, where they both work to help their clients plan their financial futures. 

John Hlinko is still living in Washington, DC, but he travels to many exotic locations, such as the living room, the kitchen, and the couch.  He did manage to get in a Vegas trip just before the plague hit with fellow 89’ers Sneep Wadhwa and Adam Long, and he looks forward to another trip with them sometime before 2030.  He is spending most of his time these days running Left Action, a progressive activist community currently focused on avoiding a fascist takeover.  But he did manage to write a second book — Pandemic Pickup Lines — a collection of groaners which no doubt offended many, but which also managed to raise $12,000 for José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, to fight pandemic-related hunger. 

In October, Amy Randall organized the Twin Pandemics Forum, an interdisciplinary 2-day event in Santa Clara responding to COVID-19 and racial injustice.  It was co-hosted by the Center for the Arts and Humanities and the Bannan Forum in the Ignatian Center.  She is also finding California to still be wonderful but stressful. For over three weeks she couldn’t be outside because the air was so toxic from the fires surrounding her home.  She has been sheltering in place for over 6 months — although things have begun to open up more recently. As a professor and historian of 20th century European history (with a focus on the Soviet Union) — and gender and genocide — she no longer thinks it is alarming to suggest that authoritarianism if not fascism is on the march in the United States. If you don’t agree with her and think she’s wrong, she hopes you are right. 

Laura Hardin still works as a testifying expert on damages issues in international arbitrations for Alvarez and Marsal out of Houston. This November she will be cross examined in a virtual hearing for the first time.  In her personal life, she is settling into being an empty-nester and focusing on being healthy.  Over the last year she lost 160 lbs and is happy to share tips on how she is literally half the woman she used to be.  She now runs 8-10 miles every other day and cross trains with a Peloton bike and weights. She has run 2 half marathons since January and feels fantastic.  She is also riding my horses again and plans to start competing again next year.  Her daughter Samantha is in her second year at Colorado State Graduate Veterinary school and doing her first two years in Fairbanks, AK.  Her son Michael is in his third year of the Electrical Engineering program at the University of Texas. 

Robin (Allen) McGrew and her family just passed the one-year mark living in the energy efficient house she designed in Washington DC. The house is designed to the Passive House standard for energy efficiency and uses roughly 80% less energy than a code-built house. Photovoltaics on the roof are modeled to make the house net zero energy on an annual basis. The house has been comfortable in every season which they have gotten to know intimately since they have been working from home for the past seven months. Should would love to hear from anyone curious about Passive House design, which is a proven way to lower the carbon impact of the construction industry and make a dent in global warming.  

Julie Strauss and Joel Brown are “remarkably still happily married, even though they work, sleep, exercise, eat and whatever else in the same damn house. All. The. Time.  Joel ostensibly continues to work as an attorney but it feels more like a grossly overpaid scheduler of Zoom sessions.  Julie’s business of running content rich lectures for senior citizens dried up although some of her business has now returned through virtual offerings.  Their son, Ezra started graduate school in Non-Profit Development work at the University of Michigan. With Ezra continuing his life in Ann Arbor, they are able to visit with the esteemed Dr. David Bradley and his lovely family, long-time residents of Ann Arbor.  David and Joel were one-time Hi-Rise roommates, and would both be living large today had they only launched their much-discussed line of “Soup and Cous”.  David will have to settle for a career of fixing children heart defects at the U of M Medical Center.  Julie and Joel’s younger son, Jonathan, is a sophomore at the University of Illinois studying drums and communications.

Chris Roberts and his oldest daughter, Beatrix ’22, drove from their home in Austin up to Middletown so she could move into Low Rise and quarantine for the start of her junior year. She’s an American Studies major and a Dance minor.  Daughter Willa is a freshman “at” McGill University in Montreal, but is actually doing her studies in a pod in New York with similarly remote students. Chris and his wife Alexis (Neaman) ’90 also have India, a high school sophomore.  Chris hasn’t been to his office since March 12 and is not expected back until January, but is still somehow busier than ever.  

Marjorie Levine-Clark reports her household of three (plus dog, Theo) has been cozily working remotely since March. Isabel (‘22) was already on spring break in Denver when Wesleyan announced campus would be closed for the rest of term. Michael (’92) and Isabel flew back to Wes to get all her stuff right on the edge of danger. Marjorie is still happily a professor of history and associate dean for diversity, outreach, and initiatives at the University of Colorado Denver; and reports more on some deeply interesting projects that she is spearheading and that her partner is working on too!

Indy Neidell reports that life in Sweden has been as weird as anywhere else this year.  He was sick with Covid-19 the entire month of May, but is doing better now and is very busy with his new Youtube series “WW2 in Real Time.”   

Jeffrey Naness continues in his work in employment and labor law for employers, as well as playing keyboards in a couple of rock bands (to the extent the Pandemic allows). His two sons are in college, Muhlenberg College (PA) and Colgate University (NY).

Alexandra Aron shares that “a few months ago, I formally incorporated a non-profit theater company, The Remote Theater Project (RTP), an initiative to bring underrepresented international artists to perform in the US.  On the Board of Directors are two ’89 alumnae: Julia Brock (formerly Julia Randall) and Wendy Trippe. RTP commissioned, developed and produced  GREY ROCK by Palestinian writer/director Amir Nizar Zuabi which premiered at La MaMa Theatre last year. We brought Palestinian actors from the West Bank and Israel to LaMaMa Theater. The production was subsequently invited to the Melbourne International Arts Festival and returned earlier to the US earlier this year for a 5-week tour including at the Kennedy Center, The Public Theatre/ Under the Radar, The Guthrie Theatre, and Kimmel Center in Phili. The tour ended (thankfully) in mid-February just before Covid hit. RTP is currently developing several more projects: a collaboration with actor-writers from Uganda and Palestine, as well as one based in East Africa and involving artists from 5 countries (Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania).  I never would have imagined forming this company two years ago.The support of Wendy and Julia has been instrumental. I am incredibly grateful to them and to the many other Wes. alums who turned out for and supported Grey Rock.” Also, Alexandra’s daughter Sofia Aslan ‘23 is in CSS at Wesleyan now and loving it.

Finally, we were so very sad to hear of the passing of our classmate Michael Mahon. Mike died suddenly, at home, on May 20th 2020. He was an English major, swimmer, marathon runner, avid outdoorsman and lover of life. An excellent storyteller, he loved to regale his friends with their adventures (and misadventures), with a twinkle in his eye and an infectious laugh. A New Jersey native, Mike lived in NYC after graduation, working at ABC News. He later moved to Boston and a career in advertising and marketing. At the time of his death, he lived in Quincy. He is survived by his husband of 10 years, Peter Damon, extended family, and many, many friends. Many of you were his friends. We send our Wes best to his family, framily, friends and fellow classmates grieving this loss. May his memory be for a blessing.

Stay safe and stay in touch, classmates. 

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | michelebarnwell01@gmail.com

CLASS OF 1988 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

Hillary writes for this issue.

Greetings Class of 1988. We hope you are holding up well during this crazy time. Pete Bond shares that in the middle of the pandemic, he and his wife decided to leave Chicago and return east to be closer to family in Connecticut as they raise their toddler. He reports that he “with a good friend, launched ‘The CPG Guys’ podcast which explores how brands and retailers engage with consumers in an omnichannel world. Our guests have included industry leaders at Instacart, Walmart, Drizly, Coca-Cola, Omnicom and many others. It is available on 15 podcast platforms.”

Rob Wrubel’s new book 30 Days to Your Special Needs Trust was released in September. He says “Writing a book was a good way to handle being home more during the first six months of the year.”

Rich Silverman is living in Pasadena near the Rose Bowl in a house his family built last year. He spends a good portion of each day volunteering for Biden-Harris. If there are any Wes alums in the Pasadena area who’d like to walk (safely) around the Rose Bowl with him, he’d welcome the company: rich@edgetalent.tv.

Erika Greene writes: “I have been living in NYC with my husband, film producer Peter Saraf ’87, for 30+ years. After several careers and two children, I decided to go back to school and recently received a master’s in social work. For the past two years I have worked at Fordham University’s Counseling and Psychological Services, and I am currently preparing for a new position at a group therapy practice in New York. 2020 has been a year like no other, and I hope everyone is navigating these times with as much physical and mental health as possible!”

Steve Morison sent a note that he’s doing well and working as the dean of students for the American College of Sofia in Sofia, Bulgaria. He had a short memoir of his meetings with Paul Bowles published by Khbar Bladna Press in Tangier in July, and continues his work as a contributing editor for Poets & Writers magazine in NYC. Steve has been seeing Paul Gosselin frequently in Sofia and Paris, and a bunch of other Wes folks on occasional Zoom reunions.

Tim McCallum reports that after almost six years on Maui, it’s clear, “I’m going to stay here forever. My pilates studio is holding its own despite the headwinds. My girlfriend and I are converting a 25-foot shuttle bus into a tiny home, including a 3.2-kilowatt solar power plant, so we can be at home wherever we park ourselves, which will usually be near the ocean since that is our happy place. We are hatching a plan to swim around the island. Happy to meet up with and show around Wes people if they should ever be in my neighborhood!”

Rob Krulak writes: “Last June I attended a memorial gathering for Mark Sarowitz ’89, who killed himself after a years-long struggle with a debilitating injury. He is survived by his brothers Tony and Sam, and leaves me with memories of good times with him at Wesleyan, his wit, sharp intelligence and outsized gift for aggravating people.”

Tracy Nathan, who is a rabbi in St. Louis, shares that she gathered with many of the members of the Wesleyan martial arts club for a Zoom reunion with Ann Mesnikoff, Alison Roth, Jon Snow, John Brinsley, Katherine Wood, Andy Stewart, Nathaniel Cutter, David Mendels, Stephen Morison, Rob Wrubel, Rebecca Bratspies ’87, Barbara Fried ’87, Nancy Heatley ’86, Michael Thomas ’90, Michael Nachmanoff ’91, Kiki Price ’91, Steve Schwartz ’89, and  Chris Webster ’89. They joined in from the coasts, the Midwest, Colorado, Montana, and Bulgaria, and Sensei Jean-Pierre Marques made an appearance as well. She reports that it was amazing to see everyone.

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1987 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

I didn’t get a lot of news this time around, but I have a great “small world” story to share.

This summer, Amy Mortimer-Lotke and Eric Mortimer-Lotke’s son, Isaac, was in a meeting focused on pandemic issues in NYC. He introduced himself on the Zoom call, and got a quick private message from another participant. “Are you  Amy and Eric’s son?” Isaac said yes, and texted his mom, “Do you know a guy named Muzzy?” Within minutes, Muzzy Rosenblatt had changed his background screen to show a picture he pulled off Facebook, featuring Amy and Muzzy eating pizza in a dorm room during sophomore year. Only during a pandemic, folks.

Johanna Van Hise Heart and Simon Heart are still enjoying life in Boulder, Colorado, and mostly surviving being parents of three teenagers. Their oldest daughter, Isabella, is a sophomore at UC Santa Cruz and their twins, Eli and Zoe, are juniors at Boulder High. Johanna is a nurse at UC Health in Boulder and Simon owns a property management business. Simon just published his first book The Right Start: Build Your Brand to Survive and Thrive in Corporate America. He says that it is a great gift for recent grads and young professionals, and he extends special thanks to Brad Karsh for providing a back cover testimonial.

Kim Sargent-Wishart completed certification as a teacher of Body-Mind Centering. BMC is an experiential approach to the study of anatomy, body systems and developmental movement. She also established the first BMC Somatic Movement Educator training program in Australia and began running courses just before the COVID-19 hold. During the pandemic, Kim has been experimenting with teaching movement and anatomy classes via Zoom from her home in a small town, which has the benefit of connecting with more people from around the world, including former classmates. She is starting work on new formats for sharing physical practices, somatic meditation, and creativity tools. Otherwise, she’s gardening, dancing in the kitchen, and hanging out with the family.

Paulina Bren has a new book launching in March 2021. The Barbizon is about New York’s famous women’s hotel and the women—including Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion—who passed through its doors from the 1920s to the 1990s. Paulina splits her time between New York and Poughkeepsie where she teaches in International Studies, Women’s Studies, and Media Studies at Vassar College. 

 Claire Conceision was interviewed as part of NPR’s September 2020 coverage of the first Chinese-language production of A Raisin in the Sun in Beijing. Claire is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an expert on contemporary Chinese theater.

Gabrielle Mason reports a personal recovery from COVID-19. She was in a social work field placement with the Alzheimer’s Association when the shutdown started, and so she did the difficult job remotely, working with caregivers on the association’s helpline facilitating support groups via telephone. She encourages people to learn more about the services the organization provides. Gabrielle completed her social work master’s in May, and got her license soon after. Her son Zach’s selection of Vassar as a freshman allowed Gabrielle to reconnect with Clark hallmates Holly Campbell Ambler, whose daughter started last year, and departing dean Chris Roellke. She scrambled to organize the unorganizable: pack light in case kids need to come home, but ensure they’re ready for self-sufficiency in case of quarantine. 

As I write this, the Wesleyan semester is underway with lots of COVID-19 restrictions. Thinking about the return to school sparks memories that scream our advancing age to me. It was not long ago that we were dancing to The Police, Thriller, and Flashdance in the Butterfield courtyard. We had to line up near Sci Li to get drop/add cards for the classes we wanted. We joined another line to secure SNET accounts, and we had to be home to use these phones. SNET always got my name wrong—one year I was Rebecca Zimblet and the next, Rebecca Bimbler. At least the phone worked. When the bill came, we marked which long-distance calls were ours. We walked down to Atticus to buy books and lugged them back to campus. Mostly, I remember the hope and anticipation of a new semester, and I wish all our students and educators embarking on the new year at Wesleyan—or anywhere else—great success. 

I’ll pick up Gabrielle’s sign off, “Until soon, I hope, wishing everyone safe and well as can be, with resilience, care, and every bit of laughter and love to be found.”

Reflection doesn’t rely on a date. Let me know what memories “back to Wes” taps in you! Don’t wait for me to ask; if you’ve got news to share, please contact me as soon as you can.

Rebecca Zimbler Graziano | rebecca.graziano@hotmail.com

CLASS OF 1986 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

Congratulations. We made it through a very complex year, and we’ve also made it through an amazing 35 years! This coming May is our 35th Class Reunion, but unfortunately, on-site events have been postponed. Information about reunion is online at wesleyan.edu; keep an eye out for an updated date. Still, planning is underway. If you want more information or want to get involved, contact the class liaison, Nelson Albino MA’19, at nalbino@wesleyan.edu.

As I write this in the fall of 2020, there is tremendous uncertainty 

for many, though happily most members of our class seem to be secure in our jobs and in our lives. Here is some news that was shared with me during the past few weeks. 

First, a big and hearty congratulations to David Hill. This past July he became co-vice chair of the Wesleyan Alumni Association, and it is expected that he will become the president next July and serve a two-year term. Several classmates have children who will be joining the Alumni Association fairly soon. For example, Cathy Cotins has a son who is a senior, “He is living on Home Avenue, two doors down from the house I lived in senior year. We’re looking forward to celebrating his graduation on Foss Hill in the spring. I hope that will be possible!” 

Peter Crabtree was hunkered down at home with his wife of 29  years, partly due to COVID-19, and partly due to the Portland air being filled with smoke from nearby fires. “Overall things are good!  I continue to enjoy my psychology practice. I do psychotherapy, supervision of other therapists, and some teaching. I’ve been golfing, fly fishing, and hiking in my free hours. Despite the recent fires and post-apocalyptic feeling, I love Oregon.” Peter has been missing old friends from Wes and hopes to get to the next reunion; he still hangs out with Tony Green, who recently became a grandfather of a beautiful boy. 

Scott Donohue reported that Keith Gaby and his wife Ingrid Embree are empty-nesters, and so moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Oakland, California. They both rise early and work remotely with East Coast offices before that became a standard practice for many. “It’s been great to have them on the Left Coast but a bit hard to share adventures at the moment.”

Ayelet Waldman, Becky Mode and others on their team were tremendously successful as writers and producers of the TV show Unbelievable. The eight episodes were released in September 2019 on Netflix, and only a month later Netflix announced that the miniseries already had been streamed by over 32 million viewers.

Elizabeth Graver, a professor of English at Boston College, wants to “brag about some of my close friends from our class, who continue to awe me.” Sandy Newbury is director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Shelter Medicine Program, an intense job that also somehow leaves her time to do circus aerial arts and white water kayaking. Patrick Symmes (who graduated in ’87 but started out with our class) continues to report on the front lines, most recently writing about the rise of authoritarianism in the United States. His newsletter has been helping many make sense of things. Ralph Savarese, a professor of English at Grinnell (and with whom she had a writers’ group in college), has published a wonderful poetry collection, Republican Fathers (Nine Mile Books) and a second collection called When This Is Over: Pandemic Poems (Ice Cube Press). Elizabeth is still writing fiction and teaching in the Boston College English Department, where there is a strong Wes presence: Tina Klein, Carlo Rotella, Suzanne Berne ’82, and Eric Weiskott ’09.

Also in academia, Kristin Bluemel is on sabbatical from (virtual) teaching at Monmouth University and working on various projects including a book proposal called An Ideal Modernity: Rural Britain, Women Artists, and the Twentieth-Century Wood Engraving Revival. “I specialize in eccentric subjects related to literature, book history, and children’s literature. My husband George Witte is still serving remotely as editor-in-chief of St. Martin’s Press. Will NYC ever recover, we wonder. In the meantime, books are one thing everyone can enjoy while social distancing so we hope people with Wesleyan educations keep reading.”

During the quarantine Bennett Schneider solo performed as Sister Unity for a marathon of 10 hours of storytelling live online to raise money for LifeGroupLA, an HIV/AIDS support charity. He watched Melinda Newman’s daughter’s Bat Mitzvah live online and participated in a Zoom play reading produced by Renee Bucciarelli. Also in the play were Shawn Cuddy, James Hallett, Deirdra Finney Boylan, Steve Stern, Michael Steven Schulz, Marybeth Kilkelly, and others. Bennett continues to expand his horizons: “While sealed up at home I learned how to make porridge, congee, gruel, and chutney from scratch. Retirement planning has crept into the vocabulary. Nathan Gebert ’85 has been sending me real estate postings for Maine. There’s talk of a group getting land and buildings together for a Wes colony in Maine, assuming we all survive.” 

See you at the reunion events.

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu