Author: Randi Alexandra Plake

Micaela Kaye was chosen by the Knowles Teacher Initiative as a member of its 2018 Cohort of Teaching Fellows. The Knowles Teaching Fellowship is an intensive and cohesive five-year program that supports early-career, high school mathematics and science teachers in their efforts to develop teaching expertise and lead from the classroom.

Ellen Paik left her job in investment banking and joined New Story, a San Francisco nonprofit that aims to pioneer solutions to address global homelessness. New Story helped develop a 3D printer that can print homes in less than 24 hours and will hopefully be putting this technology to use soon!

Tim Israel lives in Portland, Ore., and started exploring a newfound passion for karaoke. Reach out to Tim with any great go-to karaoke songs.

Chris “Gla” Glabicky is alive and well. Gla is working with Pierre Plantevin, Dara Mysliwiec, Theodore Eugene Sullivan, G. Foley, and Nicole Roman-Johnston on another full-length album. Stay in touch through pdgworld.net.

Abby Gruppuso is opening a liquor distillery in Patchogue, N.Y., The Better Man Distilling Co., with Peter Cornillie ’15. Doors open this summer!

Mike Greenwald is starting another year at the Westminster School in Simsbury, Conn., teaching math (calculus and algebra) and coaching lacrosse and basketball, and is planning to attend a graduate program at the Bread Loaf School of English up at Middlebury this summer. Mike is still running marathons and did a trail running vacation to New Zealand. Mike’s next big race will be the Burlington Vermont City Marathon in May, and the weekend after that he will be running the Covered Bridges Half Marathon with Liz Weinstein, Jordan Sapnar, and Greg Goldstone.

Tabitha Gillombardo is in Cleveland and totally stoked about the Browns. She is the John Lewis Fellow and paralegal at The Chandra Law Firm—a civil rights and constitutional rights law firm. She is learning every day from the firm’s high-stakes litigators, who—with co-counsel—secured the largest settlement in Cleveland history on behalf of Tamir Rice’s family.

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

Peter George has been living in Sydney, Australia, for the past two years and can confirm people do not ride kangaroos to work.

Jimmy Nguyen and Marianna Ilagan moved back to San Francisco last August. They are happy to have finally escaped the snow. Marianna regularly grabs lunch with Marie Valdez and coffee with Erik Islo.

Last summer, Scarlett Perry made a career switch and attended Flatiron School’s software engineering immersive program. She will be starting her first role as a software engineer at an NYC AdTech company in January. She looks forward to connecting with other Wes grads in the field!

Sarah Gerton’s second young adult novel under the pen name Sara Holland, Evermore (the sequel to last year’s Everless), was released on Dec. 31 and appeared at number eight on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Andrew Hove has been in Los Angeles working in music as an artist manager and with a music/tech company. On his down time, he’s either seeing local music or helping Brett Keating get a date with Demi Lovato.

Eva Frieden is enjoying life in San Francisco where she works at Airbnb and trains for triathlons in her spare time; outside of that she keeps busy either getting together with local Wes alumni or convincing far away Wes friends to come visit!

Jon Coombs and Dana Louie live together in Boston. They plan to move across the Charles River to Cambridge when Dana starts at Harvard Business School later this year.

John Pacheco and Tawni Stoop will be getting married this May! She’s on her second year of a clinical psychology PhD program at Penn State University in State College, Pa., and he’s in his first year of medical school at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pa. They’re working hard, living apart when they have to, and still missing their classmates and fun times at Wes every day.

Rebecca Wyzan lives in Brooklyn. She works in talent management at Untitled Entertainment, which represents actors, writers, musicians, artists, and directors. She also produces film and VR projects on the side.

Ming Zhu has been working at San Mateo, Calif.-based Crop One Holdings, Inc.—one of the world’s largest vertical farming companies in the world—and will be moving to Dubai. He’ll be there representing his U.S. parent company as their regional development manager, working with Emirates Airlines with whom they are building the world’s largest vertical farm. Ming would love to connect with any alumni there. If anyone knows any interesting endeavors (both companies and investors) in areas such as sustainability, indoor farming, vertical farming, digital agriculture, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data and sensor application in food/ag, please let him know and he’d love to learn more about them and explore together.

Scattered all over the world since graduation, the 146 Cross Street crew, Adin Vaewsorn, Dylan Awalt-Conley, Matt Burgunder, Dat Tien Vu, Erin Chase, Pierre Gerard ’16, and Michael Leung managed to navigate through time zone differences and reunited over video during Christmas.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Randy Linder writes: “After getting YTT [200-hour yoga teacher training certification] certified in Rishikesh, India, I traveled for eight months all around India and Southeast Asia. I returned to Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth at the UCSC site to teach my favorite course, Paradoxes and Infinites. After that, I joined Facebook as a data scientist. I can’t wait to see all of you this summer at Reunion.”

Amy Lindland reports: “I’ll hit my five-year anniversary with Indeed.com in June and am a director of sales on our national franchise accounts team. I am also getting married in September. So much to look forward to this year!”

Leah Khambata graduated from Cornell University with an MBA in May and is now in the post-production phase of her short film, (t)here, which she wrote, produced, and acted in while in NYC. She is in LA now working at

ShortsTV while also acting, with hopes to eventually have her own production company that bridges the gap between Hollywood and Bollywood.

Leslie Lai is finishing up her PhD. in psychology at Brown University this spring. Meanwhile, she and her husband are expecting their first child!

Remi Ojurongbe is graduating from Harvard Law School in May and Alexander Mehner is graduating from American Law School in May, too. They are getting married (to each other) in November. Mazel tov!

Andrew Cohen launched a small animation company, Confidential Cartoons, in Los Angeles, alongside his work as a publicist for composers, cinematographers, and production designers in TV and film.

Russell Madison has been applying his analytical skills as a data scientist for Foundation Medicine in Cambridge but will be moving to San Diego this summer to pursue his lifelong dream of having unfettered access to fish tacos and learning to surf. He eagerly anticipates telling people in his new home that if the weather isn’t nice, they just need to wait five minutes.

Alex Nunez has been working for EA Games in NYC, maximizing brand value by slinging partnership deals and playing FIFA at his desk.

After stints in banking in Cleveland and Denver, Troy Sampson migrated west to Los Angeles, where he’s been running the West Coast operations of a customs broker and supply chain shop. He “singlehandedly keeps Bottega Louie in business.”

Dylan Keegan will graduate in May from Vanderbilt with a JD and master’s in finance. He will join the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as an associate after graduation, where the demands of being a corporate lawyer will be challenged by his commitment as the commissioner of one of the “most active fantasy football leagues in North America.”

Patrick Newman is working at Mosaic Media Group in Los Angeles, representing and managing talent.

After working at IBM Watson alongside faithful henchman and close friend, Blair Corbin ’15, Chase Hochman left for greener pastures at Hoboken-based AI startup Innoplexus. When he’s not slinging SaaS or playing squash with Alex Nunez, he “spends his days debating which CAVA server gives the most generous portion sizes with roommate Jackson Ulrich.”

As for me, I am in my second year of law school at Fordham University School of Law (still reppin’ the red and black everywhere I go). I am hoping to become a litigator in the area of white collar/securities.

See you all in May. Let’s make our five-year a good one!

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

Happy 2019 to the Class of 2012! Last year was an exciting one for many of our Hilltop friends.

Lizzie Simon is in her second year of study toward becoming a family nurse practitioner. She can usually be found playing Ultimate or doing acroyoga, thanks to Wesleyan. She is grateful to be enjoying Seattle with Jennelle Taylor ’15 and Bryce Fintel ’16.

Alyssa Lanz, in LA, a television literary agent at United Talent Agency where she has been since graduation, was featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30.

Andrew Dominguez has been shuttling between LA and his hometown in the Philippines for the better part of two years. In LA, he is involved with the local alumni community and helps them support Wesleyan and NESCAC events in the city. In Manila, he organized a gathering for alumni of small liberal arts colleges; there were 20 attendees, half of whom hailed from Wesleyan, with a trio from Williams, and individuals from other peer schools. There is enthusiasm for similar events in the future. Andrew is aiming to build a network of support in LA for Raghu Appasani’s MINDS Foundation. Andrew is active in the alumni filmmaking community in LA, too.

Tess Minter graduated with her MBA from the University of San Francisco in May and started a job with Gartner as a management consultant in state and local government with a focus on homelessness response departments. Tess and her partner bought a condo in Oakland and are expecting to get engaged in the next few months.

Along to more wedding bell news: Hillary Biggs and Grant Covington were married in September, and their wedding had lots from the Wes crowd!

As for me, I am still at Bridgewater Associates and am planning my own wedding for May. Wishing the entire Class of 2012 continued success.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

Hi, Class of 2011. Always great to hear everyone’s updates!

Nick Luby, who double majored in music and philosophy, writes, “Over the last two years I founded and now codirect The Concert Truck, a mobile concert hall that delivers performances of classical music to diverse and unexpected locations. My partner and I have brought music to schools, parking lots, street corners, city squares, restaurants and bars, parks, zoos, homeless shelters, children’s homes, farmers markets, and scenic landscapes.

• Voice of America / NewsGram video 1
• Voice of America story and video 2

From Cheryl Tan, “Not broke, still in Singapore! Learning more about money, starting to work with an Australian agent, shortlisted for the Women of the Future Award (SEA). Won Best Libretto at a short musical festival in KL. The story was about sperms! Have visa in SG (whew). Web series, Derek, is out on Toggle.sg this Valentine’s Day and currently rehearsing a new play about humanitarian workers. It’s intense and really good. Also have regular singing students now and doing grant writing work. Thinking about getting more acting training, maybe in Europe.”

Bulaong Ramiz is a director of the multicultural resource center at Amherst College. She had her first baby this past August, Kimaya, who has already spent some time visiting mama’s alma mater.

Brendan “Shem” Sheehan was in Chicago for the annual Russian baths meetup where he tubbed, sauna’d, and kvassed it up with Charlie Lang, Matt Katz, and Justin Spring ’10.

Kim Prosise is living in Cambridge, Mass., near Davis Square. In 2018 she founded an entertainment company that provides circus and specialty performance art (@goldarrowllc), explored Costa Rica, Nebraska, and Bermuda, and made frequent trips to NYC to visit Gabriel Urbina ’13, Zach Valenti ’12, Ariella Axelbank ’14, and friends.

Timur Khanachet is a fellow at the American Film Institute and will be graduating in 2020.

Mat Larkin writes, “I majored in studio art, and I own a highest-end metal shop in Providence, R.I., called Nine and Two Thirds, specializing in fine art fabrication, architectural metalwork for homes, restaurants, and offices, and custom furniture. We were awarded the DESIGNXRI Design Catalyst Grant to purchase a large CNC milling machine, which is very exciting. We typically work with architects, interior designers, and our own design and engineering acumen to engineer and fabricate custom, large-scale pieces. We have two ongoing public art projects that will be seen on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway this May, as well as myriad residential and commercial projects.”

McKinley Tennant is living in Bali and working and teaching yoga at a women’s retreat called Goddess Retreats in Semiyak. She is very happy to call this place home. She writes, “My partner opened up a matcha cafe and we have a Bali dog, Maya, who is the sweetest.”

Thanks to all those who contributed! Look forward to hearing continued contributions from our class in the next cycle.

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, Class of 2010! Just a few updates this time around from our friends worldwide.

Rachel Shopper is now pursuing a master’s in clinical mental health counseling at Western Carolina University.

David Baranger completed a PhD in neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis, and is a postdoctoral scholar working in psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is engaged to Tayler Sheahan and will be married in March in Chicagoland. Miles Krieger is a groomsman.

Jessie Schiewe “gave birth to a website in September . . . called OK Whatever (okwhatever.org), it’s an online publication dedicated to weird news and strange stories. Journalism shouldn’t be boring. Read weirder.”

Peter Hull is engaged to Alexandre Staples, and the couple has plans to marry next year! This summer they moved from Boston to Chicago, where Peter is an assistant professor in the University of Chicago’s economics department.

Elizabeth Plantan has had an eventful year: “My husband and I welcomed our first child—a daughter—in June and I finished my PhD in government at Cornell University in August. I am now a postdoctoral fellow at the Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School from 2018-2020.” Elizabeth looks forward to our upcoming 10-year Reunion in 2020 (gasp!).

That’s all for this issue! Here’s hoping everyone is well and as always, feel free to pass along your life updates anytime. Thank you to everyone for contributing!

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Hi, Class of 2009! Notes from your classmates are as follows: Last May, Matt Connolly received his PhD in film studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is now an assistant professor of film studies in the department of English at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Joe Newman left Ubisoft to start as a technology transactions associate at Fenwick & West, staying in San Francisco, focusing on privacy matters, especially as they affect the video game industry.

Kennedy Odede ’12 and Jessica Posner welcomed baby Oscar Garvey Odede in August! Jessica is the CEO of international nonprofit, Girl Effect.

After working at Sotheby’s auction house for more than five years, Michelle Brown has joined Pentagram, a leading graphic design firm based in NYC, where she works as a project manager specializing in print publications, exhibition design, and environmental graphics.

Graham Immerman’s company, MachineMetrics, a startup leading the effort to bring AI and analytics to manufacturing, has raised $11.3 million in Series A financing. Graham is head of marketing and one of six on the executive team. Learn more at machinemetrics.org.

Dominic Ireland Halliday writes, “Wesleyan wound up turning me into a permanent resident of Connecticut. My wife and I bought a house in Norwalk, allowing us to participate fully in the hallowed state pastimes of grumbling about traffic and taxes. If this kind of thing keeps up, I’m likely to be in the nutmeg import/export business by the 20-year Reunion. Can’t believe that the 10-year is right around the corner—I’m looking forward to attending and hope to see many old classmates on Foss Hill. Going to throw some MGMT bootlegs into the mix as I work in the backyard today. Not much chance of hitting up Mamoun’s food truck after, unfortunately.”

After eight years of working at Lyon-Martin Health Services as trans health manager, J.M. Jaffe created Trans Health Consulting, LLC, a consulting agency.

Thom Sisson and Nina Gonzalez created Mobile Suit Breakdown, a weekly podcast about Japanese sci-fi mega-franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam. Each episode they watch, analyze, and review the iconic anime in the order it was made—researching its influences, examining its themes, and discussing how each piece of the Gundam canon fits within the changing context in Japan and the world, from 1979 to today. Find it at gundampodcast.com.

Jena Gordon and Pearce Talbot were married on Oct. 6 in a beautiful ceremony in Boston. They danced the night away with Andrea Giuliano, Michela Stager Black, Andrew Black, Caitlyn McCann Wong, Eugene Wong, Chris Mixon, Steve Rebh, Rachel Lurie Melikan, Heather Flemming, Kim Lam ’08, Mike Lubrano, Anthony Marsella, Vinny Colangelo, Allan Collins ’08, and Malcolm Hill ’08.

Shane Heckstall writes, “Sup? I started my own business and I’m getting married. Peace.”

Finally, Evan Coleman got married in July 2017 to his longtime girlfriend and got a new job as attorney advisor for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in Worcester.

Thanks for all your contributions. Get excited for our Reunion in May!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Class of 2008 Scholarship
Celia Hurvitt ’22, Blue Hill, ME

The Class of 2008 has been taking the world by storm a mere 10 years after graduation! Jeffrey Stein is working as a public defender in D.C. While at Wes, he swam and, until this year, held two school records in the 200- and 400-freestyle relays. He has since replaced swimming with distance running. In November, he won the Marine Corps Marathon and was featured in NBC News and the Washington Post!

Kat Cho is publishing her first young adult novel, Wicked Fox, this year with Penguin Random House. It is based on her Korean heritage and draws from the myth of the gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who can become a woman to lure in men and eat their livers in order to live forever.

Bex Allen writes, “After 10 years in sweet home Chicago, I picked up and moved to Seattle, where I now work in corporate and foundation relations for UW Medicine.”

Lauren Goldman spent New Year’s Day in London with Caroline Janin and her dog, Josephine.

Jinny Jang married her partner, Scot Knickerbocker, in a small Washington, D.C., courthouse ceremony in October. Kate Letourneau and Andy Lubershane ’06 welcomed daughter Eve Shayna Letourneau in December. Eve has fat cheeks and a good attitude.

Sam and Sage Ruth decided to throw away their carefree DINK [double income, no kids] life, and welcomed their son Maxwell “Max” Alexander in November. Learning the fight song is next on his list of major developmental milestones.

Elissa Kozlov writes, “I accepted a faculty position at Rutgers University (jointly appointed to the School of Public Health and the Institute for Health, Health Policy and Aging Research). My family and I are planning to move to northern New Jersey in May. Any Wesleyan folk living in the Jersey ’burbs?”

Lyz Nardo Levy’s daughter, Mila, arrived on Dec. 5, weighing in at a whopping eight pounds, 12 ounces! Lyz and her husband, Dor, are very tired, but over the moon! Lyz writes, “She really is a laid-back baby. Tipsy Scoop continues to grow and we plan to open our second liquor-infused ice cream ‘barlour’ in Brooklyn this spring!”

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

With 2019 already upon us, we have a few updates from our fellow classmates. A number of ’07ers are continuing their career journeys in exciting new ways. Himanshu “Heems” Suri is taking a break from making rap music and settling in to a new role as Spotify’s senior editor of Indian culture. He lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, where he eats all of the food.

Chris Krovatin had a crazy October. He published his third YA novel, Frequency; became U.S. editorial manager for the new Brooklyn office of Kerrang! Magazine; and married Azara Golston ’09. Chris and Azara live in Washington Heights in NYC. Ian MacLeod works as a restoration ecologist regulating the mining industry at the California Department of Conservation. He bought his first house and lives in Sacramento with his wife, dog, and cat. In his free time, he tries to ski, surf, climb, and raft all over California.

Virginia Hermann is living just a stone’s throw from NYC in Spring Valley, N.Y. After completing her eurythmy training back in 2011, she joined the Eurythmy Spring Valley Ensemble, mostly dedicating herself to artistic development and performing. In 2017 she completed an MA in performance eurythmy through a satellite program of Alanus University (Bonn, Germany), and joined the faculty of the Eurythmy Spring Valley professional eurythmy training. Some exciting projects included a Mozart string quartet performance with A Far Cry in the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, a large-scale tour for Waldorf schools in Taiwan and China, and dramatic collaborations with actors, both as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and as Lucifer in Rudolf Steiner’s Four Mystery Dramas.

We also have some updates on the future Wesleyan generation. Kara Schnoes and Jeremy Brown ’08 were surprised and delighted by their newly adopted kiddo, Asher, who arrived on Thanksgiving Day. They are enjoying life in Eugene, Ore. Sarah Sluis welcomed a son, Arthur Howard Gross, last February. His first year has gone by faster than the freshman year of Wes. The Sluis family moved from Prospect Heights to Park Slope, where Sarah occasionally runs into other Wesleyan grads, including her tennis partner, Rashida Richardson ’08. Sarah works as a journalist, writing about digital media and ad tech for AdExchanger.

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

Jennifer Low is celebrating a well-earned victory after being declared the winner on an episode of Netflix’s cake decorating show, Sugar Rush. Jennifer is the owner and lead pastry chef of The Frosted Fox Cake Shop. Based in Philadelphia, this delightful store is best known for creating wedding and specialty cakes. Definitely check out Frosted Fox Cake Shop for your confectionary needs.

Kristy Elliott is going back to work now that her four children are old enough to be in school. She teaches third grade in Connecticut and is enrolled in the MAT program at Sacred Heart University, where she is working towards her teacher certification.

Rebecca Morse graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2016. She spent a year clerking in Houston, during which she visited Amelia Long in Austin, before moving to Los Angeles, where she lives with her partner, Tim, and works for the city attorney’s office.

Anna Moench enrolled at the University of California San Diego, where she completed her MFA in playwriting. She got married, had a baby, and she resides in Los Angeles, where she is adapting a novel to the screen for Universal and Michael DeLuca Productions. Her new play, Man of God, had its world premiere at East West Players on Jan. 31.

Joseph McElligott supported alumni development for the Trinity Pawling School in 2018 by endowing the Joseph B. McElligott IV Scholarship. The scholarship’s sole purpose is to provide financial aid for students attending the school. Kate Angell was awarded tenure and an associate professorship at Long Island University Brooklyn. Devin Ludwig completed an intensive course in web development. He is seeking full-time programming work. Get in touch with Devin for your programming needs!

Jenny Weinar got married in December. In attendance were Alex Altman, Adam Rizzo, and Jane Morley ’05. Congrats and best wishes!

Congratulations to Luke and Jessica Basta, who welcomed their third child into their family. Baby Heidi joins her siblings, Jonah and Theo. Another round of congrats are in order for Hayley Stokar and her husband, Alexander, who welcomed their first child, Clarissa, in May.

Noah and Elizabeth Isaacs ’05 welcomed their second child, Jonah Hudson Isaacs, into the world on Nov. 20. Jonah is studying ceiling fans in Brooklyn while his 3-year-old sister, Vivienne Langston Isaacs, tries to affectionately eat his toes. Noah works as a director of behavioral health at NYC Health and Hospitals, helping the public hospital system combat the opioid epidemic. Elizabeth works as a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau.

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com