Author: Randi Alexandra Plake

Asher Brown created High Cuisine, a cooking competition show for Verizon/go90 where professional chefs get stoned and then compete to create amazing plant-based dishes. Season One began airing in November and runs through the end of February. Free to watch at go90.com.

In April, Erin Malone and partner Brian Guy, welcomed Josephine Marie into the world. As a new mom, Erin continues to build her business, Momo’s Market, in the Old North End neighborhood of Burlington. Visitors are always welcomed!

Anna Seastrand started as assistant professor of art history at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in the fall. She’d love to meet other Wes alumni in the area!

Kate Reder Sheikh and her husband, Nadeem, welcomed their son Dominic in October. They returned to San Francisco after living in Singapore and London.

Noah and Julia Bruckner Newman are happy to announce the arrival of their second daughter, Chloe Sofia, in December, joining big sister Hannah. Noah is still working at Pixar and Julia is an ob-gyn at Kaiser.

Michael Lewis married David Scott in Lewes, Del., on Sept. 30. Kate Nattrass, Robert Zeliger, Zoe Levy, Shana Simmons, Matt Fox, and Jilian Vallade were in attendance. Michael and David met almost 10 years ago in Miami, where both were on extended business trips, and they started dating in 2015.

Tejas Desai is preparing to release his international crime trilogy The Brotherhood Chronicle. You can visit his website tejas-desai.com for up-to-date information.

George Obulutsa is at Reuters News in Nairobi. During 2017, he managed to meet with Ben Schelling ’04 and Devyani Srinivasan ’01 during the year.

On Oct. 5, Matt Kushner and Lauren Edgar Kushner (Brown ’04) welcomed their second child, Theresa Eve. At three months, Tessa is thriving, smiling, and just starting to laugh. “Big sister Marian is as in love with her as we are.” In the working world, Matt is still at Method Studios in Chelsea, where he just finished working on the visual effects for Justin Timberlake’s newest music video, “Filthy.” Lauren is still at the American Museum of Natural History, modernizing their permanent exhibits with the use of visual effects and AR/VR technology.

Gabriela Herman’s seven-year photo project, The Kids: The Children of LGBTQ Parents in the USA, was released last fall. For the book she photographed and interviewed 100 subjects about their experiences having an LGBTQ parent.

Last summer, Matt Lerner and his wife, Chelsea Finn, welcomed their second child, Sawyer, into the world. His older brother, Everett, is 4-years-old, and loves singing “Rock-a-bye Baby” to his little brother when he cries; Sawyer seems to like this, too. Matt is an assistant professor of psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics in the clinical psychology program at Stony Brook University, where he runs an autism research program studying treatments for kids and teens with social challenges.

Arcelie Reyes and Evan Newell ’02 started 2018 with a transatlantic crossing in early January, boarding the Queen Mary 2 during the Northeast “bomb cyclone.” Arcelie is impressed at how quickly all three of their children got their sea legs.

Ted Quinn and Laurie Shaner Quinn welcomed their second child, Henry Kieran Quinn, on Dec. 25. Elsie, Henry’s 3-year-old sister, now believes that Santa Claus is capable of bringing her anything since she got the baby brother that she started asking him for it this past spring.

Sarah Erlinder still lives in Flagstaff, Ariz., where she continues to work as a public defender. Sarah and her husband, Charlie, welcomed baby Zeke to the family this fall. He and big brother Caleb, age 3, keep their parents on their toes.

On Feb. 22, Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg and his wife, Lauren, welcomed their daughter, Lucey Rose. They bought a house in Decatur and Jesse works as senior digital scholarship strategist at the Emory University Center for Digital Scholarship.

Amy Tannenbaum | atannenbaum@wesleyan.edu

NEWSMAKERS | 2000s NEWSMAKER SUNNY CHYUN ’02 Sunny Chyun ’02 is the winner of the 36th United Overseas Bank (UOB) Painting of the Year Award for her linen artwork titled. Dyspraxia. The UOB judges said, “[We] were impressed by the artwork’s details which consisted of various embroidered patterns created with a mix of threads, acrylic, oil and glow-in-the-dark paint.” She was honored at an awards ceremony in November. Chyun was a studio arts major at Wesleyan and earned an MFA from the Korean National University of Arts.

Congratulations are in order for Una LaMarche and Jeff Zorbedian. They welcomed their second son, Max, on Nov. 5, joining his 6-year-old brother Sam. Congrats also to Ben Goldstein and his wife, Cheng Li, who welcomed their second son, Noah Li Goldstein, in December. Big brother Malcolm is loving having a younger brother. Ben is an assistant professor of biostatistics at Duke University. 

Speaking of second children, I (Justin Lacob) had a second daughter with my wife, Melanie, in October. We named her Juliette Violet Lacob; she joins big sister Scarlett. We also moved to a new house in the wilds of the Hollywood Hills, where we all fall asleep listening to howling coyotes and hooting owls. 

Also want to extend congratulations to Paul Kim and his wife, Mirjam, who celebrated their two-year wedding anniversary and moved to their new home in Brooklyn Heights in November.

And, congrats to Lin-Manuel Miranda for winning his third Grammy this year for Best Song Written for Visual Media for “How Far I’ll Go” from Disney’s Moana movie. 

Britton Boyd went to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria with the FBI’s first relief team. They distributed food, water, tarps, baby food, and Britton calls this “the highlight of his career so far.” And after spending a year in Pakistan, Eric Donelan and his wife, Danielle, moved with their three children–Grant (5), Wyatt (3), and Freya (1)—to Budapest, Hungary, where he still works for the Diplomatic Security Service of the Department of State as a supervisory special agent and security attaché. 

Aaron Schwartz “is excited to see his small business, Ayurvedic Mouthwash Company, YALA, excel nationally and internationally, entering major market stores like Free People and Anthropologie.” Meanwhile, his pediatric dental practice in Atlanta continues to grow. He and his wife, Thea Delage ’04, are keeping busy with their son, Martin. Lauren Geller Rascoff lives in Denver, Colo., with her husband, Sam, and their three children–Jonah (8), Roselle (6), and Joely (2). Lauren is a urogynecologist at the University of Colorado and “loves it!” And Caitlin Hardy lives in Collingswood, N.J., with her husband, Jeff, and their daughter, Savannah. She is finishing her radiology residency at Cooper Hospital and will be staying on next year as a women’s imaging fellow. 

Ryan Akers is a brewer at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, after managing the filtration department. He also had another child, Victor, who is 1¹/₂ years old. Lexi Keeler is working at Summer Search in fund development and lives in Seattle with her wife and kids (Emmett, 6, Will, 4, and Harper, who is also 4). And Sunny Chyun was awarded the winner of the 36th United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year–Singapore in November. She would like to thank the Freeman Foundation, her studio arts advisor, Keiji Shinohara, and Wesleyan studiomate, Dave Golden. 

Keep those notes coming!

Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com

Class of 2001 Wesleyan Scholarship

Daniel Chung ’20, Bellevue, WA

Mara here! Welcome to Class Notes, fake news edition. Most of these updates are completely true, but some include falsehoods provided by your classmates. Can you find them?

Jenny Selgrath writes, “I just finished my PhD (small-scale fisheries and coral reef conservation) from The University of British Columbia, worked as a spatial analyst for Fisheries and Oceans Canada for a bit, and then moved back to San Francisco where I am just starting a post-doc at Stanford (projects on tipping points in coral reefs and on biodiversity changes in Monterey Bay). And of course, I have been catching up with the awesome folks from Wesleyan who live in the Bay Area.”

Chris and Wendy Jeffries enjoy living in Baltimore (they welcome visitors!) and were excited to welcome their second daughter, Maya, on Nov. 29. Her big sister, Elena, 3, is very excited to have a little sister to share her love of sports, music, and cooking. Wendy is keeping busy as the executive director of TasteWise Kids, a nonprofit that teaches kids through hands-on experience about where their food comes from and to make healthy choices. Chris continues to enjoy practicing law as a partner at Kramon & Graham, where he is a principal. His firm wrote in to tell us that he’s been recognized as a Rising Star by Maryland Super Lawyers 2018 for his work in civil litigation, and has been selected to appear in the directory every year since 2010.

Rachel Stevens writes, “We welcomed daughter Eliza Merrill Stevenson an Aug. 13, and she won a guaranteed place in the Wes class of ’39.”

I was so happy to connect with Makeda Dawson-Davis, who wrote: “I have been loving birth and postpartum doula work for the past three years, first with Ancient Song Doula Services and now with Healthy Start Brooklyn. I’ve just finished training with Doula Trainings International to continue my certification! I look forward to increasing my practice with private birth and postpartum clients in NYC areas for births at home, in the hospital, and at birthing centers. My personalized lactation support will also continue with another round of certified lactation counselor training. Lastly, my two sons are 9 and 6, and are enjoying elementary school where they take robotics, capoeira, karate, and graphic novel design, along with their academic subjects.”

Louis Bronk was promoted to assistant superintendent for personnel and talent development for the Meriden Public Schools in Connecticut. Meriden is the school district he attended as a student, and in 2012 he returned as an employee.

Joey Conover is now a realtor, just took her two children on a vacation to Colombia, and voted for Trump.

Katie Davis Reich writes, “My husband Jason and I welcomed our first child, Sylvia, into the world in October. We’re still living on the east side of LA, where we bought a house a few years ago like real grown-ups. I’m working at UCLA as associate director of the Center for Climate Science, where I focus on communications and outreach, and am very sorry to report that climate change is not fake news.”

Adriana Jones Laser had a son in November. The other two are doing well. “Otherwise not much news, continuing my life as a vascular surgeon and my husband’s as a radiation oncologist up here in upstate New York.”

Katie Clyde, in her fourth term in the Ohio House, is running for Secretary of State (election in November 2018) in battleground Ohio to save our democracy. She is Not accepting any further contributions to support her campaign at kathleenclyde.com/donate. “We have one Wesleyan alum on staff (Cade Leebron ’14) and are always accepting gung-ho Wes volunteers!”

My toddler still talks about our fantastic recent trip to Philly. We stayed with Ben Stanko and his family, saw The Kud (D.B.A. Jesse Kudler), and even got to witness Ali Stumacher’s son’s surprisingly poetic dance solo at his fifth birthday party. On the way there, we stayed with Mary Robertson in Brooklyn, and our toddlers became instant brothers. They’re both still muttering about a dust-up involving a child-sized armchair. We even stopped in Middletown, and went to Kid City (awesome) and Tibetan Kitchen (delicious). The trip was a little touch-and-go because the giant, shimmering, rose-gold eagle we rode kept almost ensnaring bystanders in her talons. Totally worth it, though.

Glossary of Untruths: R.C.: No guaranteed spot. J.C.: Did not vote for Trump. K.C.: Is accepting donations. M.V.: Eagle was silver.

Mara Voukydis | maravee@gmail.com

Aryn Sperando | arynsperandio@yahoo.com

Jeff Blumenthal is modeling the spatial distribution of oyster drill snails (urosalpinx cinerea) across various environmental conditions in Richardson Bay, Calif. If he does a good job, SFSU will give him a master’s degree. He rents a house in Albany, Calif., with a girlfriend, two dogs, two roommates, some bicycles, and an old car with a lot of Richardson Bay mud on it.

Last spring, Aimee Dawson was in New York for a course in narrative medicine and stayed with Bessie Wilkerson, woke up to a view of the sunrise over the water in Hastings-on-Hudson, and met her two sweet children. On the same trip, she accidentally walked by Trump Tower with Aaron Yowell, but scampered safely home across the border to Quebec where they are well.

Greg Brodsky and his wife, Heather, were married in late 2016, moved from Somerville to Jamaica Plain, Mass., and welcomed baby boy Oscar on Dec. 4.

Eli Beckerman is happy to announce the birth of his first child, Maya Beckerman-Greenberg, on Jan. 26. He’s psyched to be a new old dad.

Tara Cohen and her partner, Jess, welcomed their second child into the world, Sage Humphrey Cohen-Flintoft. Sage brings lots of joy to his parents and big brother Oscar (the dog and cats aren’t so sure.) Tara grows more and more accustomed to the four-season lifestyle of Ann Arbor, Mich., but still experiences occasional pangs of homesickness for the Bay Area. Last November marked one year at her new job managing the Community Development Block Grant Program.

Kate Holbein Rademacher lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., with her husband, David, stepson Soren, and daughter Lila. She works in international public health with a focus on increasing access to birth control in developing countries. She got a fun surprise on her 40th birthday from Elsie Kagan, who showed up at her door unannounced. In addition to visits with Elsie and Carl Robichaud, Kate enjoys hanging out with Brook Wilensky-Lanford (who also lives in Chapel Hill), Erica Carpenter Witsell ’97, who lives in Asheville, N.C., and Shanna Handel (who also has a daughter named Lyla). Kate visited Mia Lipman Irwin and her husband in Seattle. Kate had her debut memoir published, Following the Red Bird. Kate is in regular touch with Gary Comstock, retired sociology professor and chaplain at Wesleyan, and she’s grateful for his support as she was writing and publishing the book.

Celina Su’s first book of poetry, Landia, came out last spring. After focusing on poetry at Wesleyan, she spent her time since then on social science research. These poems draw upon more than a decade of fieldwork, collaborative projects, and long-term relationships with specific immigrant communities and social justice organizations in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and throughout the U.S.

Leila Buck’s American Dreams & Arabian Nights was performed Dec. 7-8 at BRIC House Artist Studio in Brooklyn. Weaving storytelling, dreams, music, and more, this playful work-in-progress invites audiences into an interactive exploration of who we let into our hearts, families, and nations—and how those choices shape who we are.

Marianna Ellenberg’s new play, Pawel & Ebola, was performed at The Kitchen in NYC in February.

After 14 years in TV news, Aaron Weiss jumped into environmental advocacy a couple of years ago. He’s at the Center for Western Priorities, defending America’s public lands and holding Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s feet to the fire. He also hosts CWP’s Go West, Young Podcast, which has been a blast. It’s been great meeting all the Wes alumni in the conservation community. He and his wife, Lauren, live in the mountains outside of Denver with two kids, two dogs, two cats, a handful of chickens, and however many elk happen to be wandering through the front yard.

Last year, Danielle Lazier moved her real estate business to Compass. She works hard and still has fun selling San Francisco real estate. Her twins, Phoenix and Ari, are nearly 2 now, and they moved into a new home in Noe Valley.

Zack Becker’s wife, Amy Martin, is running for judge in one of the criminal district courts in Harris County, Texas (facebook.com/amyforjudge).

In 2017, Dan Koulomzin and Divya Kumar celebrated turning 40 and being together for 20 years, and they had the good fortune of celebrating with many Wes alumni and a fantastic Wes band!

In February, Kevin went to the Stone & Rail, a great new restaurant that just opened in Glen Rock, N.J. He spotted one of the owners working to make sure they were off to a great start, and it was none other than classmate Dave Feit! Food was fantastic, and the crowd was a testament to great planning by Dave and team.”

Speaking of 20 years, next May will be our 20th Reunion! Email Jennifer Opalacz at jopalacz@wesleyan.edu if you’re interested in becoming a member of the planning committee. Hope to see you back on campus.

C. Darryl Uy | darryl.uy@gmail.com

Kevin Kumler | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Anthony Veneziale’s new series, Bartlett, premiered on Amazon. Bill Sherman ’02 was music supervisor and Evan Shapiro P’17 was executive producer. Anthony was in another series called The Mortified Guide where he played an adult version of Harry Potter in a gay erotica fan-fiction piece. He had a mini-reunion with Tommy Kail ’99, Sara Miller ’02, Alex Horwitz ’02, and Suzanne Appel ’02 at Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02’s birthday party in NYC.

Amanda Palmer lives in Woodstock, N.Y, but is constantly traveling the world and trying to figure out where to settle. She has a 2-year-old named Anthony.

Anne Thomas and her husband, Andy, attended the marriage of Shelby Tillett ’98 and Matteo Gallo on June 24. In attendance were Kate Berry Grant, Abe Forman-Greenwald, Christine Treveloni Reidenbach, Ryan Chamberlain ’00, Matt Feeney ’99, Jake Fay ’00, Matt Perceval ’00, and Heather Cohen Perceval ’02. She makes summer visits to Middletown to show her children Lucy (9) and Drew (7) their future alma mater. She often sees Makaela Steinberg and Matt Kingsley ’98, and their children Amelia and Eli. Anne is serving on our 20th Reunion committee and looks forward to connecting with many of you in May!

Claire Skorski Garland lives in her hometown, Golden, Colo., with her husband and two boys. She is a psychotherapist working in crisis assessment and counseling.

Laura Ayala is president of the board for Upward Scholars. The Upward Scholars mission is to empower low-income adults, mostly immigrants, by providing them financial, academic, and community support so they can continue their education, get better jobs, and serve as role models for their community.

Sara Brenneis and her husband, Eric, welcomed their second child, Malcolm, on Thanksgiving Day. Her book on Spaniards in the Mauthausen concentration camp comes out in April with The University of Toronto Press. She’s an associate professor of Spanish at Amherst College and will be in Madrid on sabbatical during the 2019-20 academic year. If any Wes alumni are living in Spain, she’d enjoy being in touch.

Amanda Green Marini lives in Oakland, Calif., with her husband, Paul, and their two kids. She teaches English and film at Berkeley with Matt Albinson ’97 and John Becker ’03. She tested for her third-degree black belt in jujitsu. She often sees Mike Della Penna and Summer Halas.

Jessica Cortes is a partner at Davis & Gilbert in NYC. She hosted a Wesleyan Lawyer’s Association networking event in March. She lives with her husband, Lee, and their children in Westfield, N.J. She was proud to co-organize the Second Annual Westfield Women’s March in January, where there were close to 2,000 attendees and speakers including public officials, candidates, members of women’s organizations, and several young children, including her two daughters. She caught up with Daisy Voorhees Bokus and Heather Cunningham Ostrowski.

This year Marianne Benet’s son, Henry, who is 8 years and was born with a rare genetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome, walked 22 consecutive steps independently for the first time! Marianne and her family didn’t know if they would ever see him walk. She and husband Ben have two other sons, Zac (10) and Billy (5). Marianne has put her career in microfinance on hold to be a full-time mom and to help Henry reach his full potential. She keeps in touch with Miki Kawashima, Jeff Matrician, Heather Marciniec, Erin (Fieler) Collins, Andrew Hall, and Isabel Vega.

Keisha Robinson is married with two boys. She acquired her master’s in chemistry from NYU Polytechnic Institute and works as a clinical quality assurance manager dealing with radiopharmaceutical oncology or cancer drug treatments for advanced accelerator applications.

Joshua Stedman’s band, Brothers of Others, released an EP in June (brothersofothers.com).

Adam Abel and his partners founded the nonprofit SkateQilya, which uses skateboarding and art to teach community building and leadership skills to girls and boys in Palestine. It was featured on NBC, CNN, and the cover of Haaretz. Viceland will be airing an episode about it.

Steve Engel was promoted to a full professor in the Bates College department of politics, which he chairs. He got to see Adrienne Lucas who came up from the University of Delaware, where she is a professor, to give a talk to the department.

Markell Parker is executive director of Summer on the Hill, a nonprofit academic enrichment program for low-income public school students in the Bronx, Harlem, and Washington Heights. Markell resides in his hometown of the Bronx where he is raising his 7-year-old son, Malcolm.

We would also like to issue a correction. The notice of the passing of our classmate Marc James Augustine was included in the notes for the class of ’99 instead of being included in our class of which he was a part. It was brought to our attention by his brother who wanted to make sure that his fellow classmates were made aware. Marc passed away suddenly on Oct. 26, 2014, at his home in Durham, N.C. Marc leaves behind his wife Cynthia (Bland) Augustine, brothers Mikael James Augustine and Gerald Darin Augustine, two aunts, and several cousins.

Marcus Chung | marcusbchung@gmail.com 

Jason Becton | jcxbecton@yahoo.com

Class of 1997, we hope your new year has been a good one so far! Winter requires extra coffee and really should have extra weekends.

Let’s start off with some lovely news from Susanne Blossom: “Sergio Barahona and I are happy to report the birth of our son, John Rodrigo Barahona Blossom, in November. I have been a public defender in Los Angeles for many years and though I love it, I am loving maternity leave even more.” Congratulations, Susanne!

Michelle Conceison wrote to share some fantastic news: “My management company, Market Monkeys, is growing and things are going well in Nashville! Our client Rose Cousins’ album ‘Natural Conclusion’ is nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical category.” Great news, great album!

We’re so happy for Leah Brown Johnson! She wrote: “I am growing as a successful entrepreneur. I run Be Equipped LLC, a training, coaching, and development company. I help new and emerging entrepreneurs and business leaders turn their visions into proven results (beequippedllc.com). I’m preparing to celebrate 20 years of service through my nonprofit, AFCOM Inc. We have been consistently serving at-risk youth who struggle with poverty and homelessness (afcominc.org). I’m loving life, family and business!” Amazing, Leah! We are proud of you.

Big update from Alix Olson: “Happy 2018, everybody! My partner, Jaime, and I just added a second kid to our gang. Her brother is 4. I am also about to begin as professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Oxford College of Emory University, so we’re off to Atlanta. I’d love to meet up with folks in the area!” Wes folks in Atlanta, please email her at alixolson@yahoo.com.

That’s all for now. We love getting your updates, so send them anytime!

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Ben Schachter writes in with exciting news that he published Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art. The artists in the book make installations, performance, conceptual art, and all sorts of other stuff. Ben presents a new way to think about their work deeply informed by Jewish tradition.

Rallie Snowden writes, “Still working at The Counseling Center at Washington and Lee University and acting as the LGBTQ coordinator for campus. My daughter is 7-years-old and I’m waiting to adopt baby number two!”

Dacque Tirado looks forward to traveling to South America this spring and summer. Any Wes alumni in Colombia or Argentina please do drop him a line. He is still teaching high school in the Bethesda area and looks forward to re-connecting with the Wesleyan, D.C. Alumni Club once the weather gets sunny!

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

NEWSMAKERS | 1990s NEWSMAKER JIEHO LEE ’95 Jieho Lee ’95 is one of 22 business leaders under the age of 45 selected as a 2018 Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute. Established in 1997, the fellowship offers outstanding entrepreneurs an opportunity to harness their individual skills and creativity in developing solutions for some of society’s most vexing problems. “I am honored to be included in this driven and diverse group of innovators, and together with all the Crown Fellows, I look forward to finding new ways to effect profound, positive and enduring change,” said Lee, who co-founded Knighted Ventures in 2012. Lee, a film studies major at Wesleyan, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dear, ’95ers. Thank you all for your submissions, and I’m excited to announce that we have two first-time entrants to class notes! First up is Soraya Selene Burtnett, who moved to Spokane, Wash., to teach as a professor in film studies at Eastern Washington University. She has 3-year old twins and works as a director and cinematographer. A feature documentary she shot called Half the Picture premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She had a visit from Stacey Samuel ’96 and would love to connect with other Wes folk in the PNW!

Becky Nulty, who admits that she’s “been a lurker of the notes for years (decades!),” is also finally joining the fray! She writes, “2018 will be a big year for me: I’ve just started a new position as associate dean of teaching, learning, and assessment at Shoreline Community College, just north of Seattle. The new job should ensure that I finish my doctorate, which focuses on faculty development in higher ed. Also, I’m a recently-licensed foster parent, and my pup and I are hoping to welcome a kiddo into our home in the coming months.” Great news Becky! Thanks for sharing—your notes are welcome here anytime.

Spencer Douglas is a director of integrated marketing for Warner Bros Pictures and the board chair and liaison to the LGBTQ group at WB, where he was able to bring in Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80 to help educate the WB community about issues surrounding transgender representation in media. Over the holidays, Spencer had a great time catching up with Tracy Ferguson ’94, Anne Swan ’96, and Kim Sicard, and regularly keeps up with Megan Caper and Flo Stueck ’96. Spencer says, “I’m thrilled to learn that Eclectic members will be able to move back into the Haus next year!”

Naomi Greyser is continuing to work at University of Iowa, where she recently earned tenure and is executive director of POROI, Iowa’s Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry. She’s excited to be joining faculty in the departments of American studies and gender, women’s and sexuality studies this coming fall. Naomi writes, “Iowa City is a bit off the map of where I imagined ending up when I was in college—yet my husband and I are loving raising our 10-year-old daughter amidst the prairies. Wesleyan helped me think in incredibly intentional ways about political impact and the kind of projects I want to take on—and I feel frequently grateful for my time there!” Naomi has also recently published a book, On Sympathetic Grounds: Race, Gender and Affective Geographies in Nineteenth-Century North America. Anyone interested in social justice issues in relation to the arts and humanities—check it out!

My old WestCo mate Lara Tupper writes: “I released my first full-length CD, This Dance, a tribute to my favorite jazz and pop tunes, on CD Baby and iTunes. I got married in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Torrential rain and a fabulous day. My talented husband, Bobby Sweet, is featured on the album.” Congratz on both accounts, Lara!

David Perry is now a columnist for the west coast magazine Pacific Standard, covering history, politics, culture, and disability rights.

Danielle Langston, another WestCo alum, writes, “After three years living in Brisbane, Australia, working in architecture in the areas of education and aged care, I have relocated to Melbourne with my husband Carl and children, Otto and Sylvie. Carl has taken a position leading the new urban planning department at Monash University, and I am looking for a new architecture firm where I can torture my co-workers with bad jokes and kitten videos. I will miss my time playing in the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, but I am excited to explore the opportunities for music-making here in Melbourne. Get in touch if any of you are ever in this southern neck of the woods.”

Patrick Hutter-Bluml has done a full career flip and started as chef de cuisinefor the owner of one of the largest ecological, organic farms, and online shops in Germany.

Son Tranis in D.C., working as a senior project manager at Forum One, a digital agency, along with two other Wes alumni, Leah Stern ’06 and Shawn Bracket ’97. They recently won a Webby award for their work on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture website! Son also has been kicking around with Cheryl Mejia, who is currently an interventional pain management doc in Western Maryland, and who recently married her partner Clare Madrigal (LGBT nurse navigator for Johns Hopkins) at the pride parade in D.C.; attendees included Son, Joah Iannotta, and probably some other WesFolk inadvertently attending.

Jason Wiser, “I’m living in Somerville, Mass., with my wife and daughter (8), with whom I made a cooperative card game for kids last year called Monsters in the Elevator. Just finished a job as department chair of animation at a private arts college, now teaching classes at Tufts and Harvard in game design and animation at night and working as a mobile game animator by day. Also working with the Boston Globeto make comics to help kids in a rehab hospital imagine themselves as superheroes yayaplay.com.”

Ken Kwiatkowski is living in Jersey City and just celebrated the first birthday of his second son.

Greg Rolland writes, “This past stretch had Wes folks molding my kids right underneath my nose. On my family’s swing through Boston recently, accomplished violinist and music teacher Leah Bartell stuck a viola in the hands of my eldest daughter Sally and convinced her she had natural viola form. The brainwashing took: now she’s determined and excited to start viola. Also, rang in the new year with Peter Follet and Stephanie Flaherty in Easthampton, Mass., who preside over the local basketball league in which my three kids play. So, my girls are hooked on that. All this after they starred in a minor film produced by their cousin Becca Engle ’18 not long ago. Go Wes!”

Finally, big shout to my co-secretary, Katy McNeill, who writes that after spending the past couple of years living in the U.K., she and her family have moved back to the States. They’re back in the Boston area (Arlington) and Katy has started a job at the Harvard Business School library. Living abroad was a really rewarding experience; now they’re settling in back here, reconnecting, managing reverse culture shock, and finding ways to stay connected to British culture (for Katy it’s continuing to listen to a high volume of BBC radio).

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Hello from frigid Chicago! Just a couple of weeks ago, I ran into Edward Siskel, City of Chicago’s corporation counsel, at a Chicago law department panel presentation. Earlier in the fall, one of my cases brought me to D.C., where I met up with my dear friend, Peter Chandler, the chief of staff to Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. It was so wonderful to see him and catch up—we picked up where we left off. Other than work, my daughters, Sarah and Norah, keep me busy. They turned 9 in March!

Chuck Berger writes that he is living in Kununurra, Western Australia, with his partner, Christy, and sons, Tom and Leo. He manages a legal services clinic covering the remote Kimberley region—an area roughly the size of Texas, with the population of Galveston. Reach out to him at: charles_d_berger@hotmail.com.

Jonathan Kirsch is spending one year in Cali, Colombia, with his family doing a sabbatical and teaching at a public medical school under a Fulbright grant. He invites us to check his blog at drkirschsabbatical.wordpress.com.

Tanya Bowers updated us by saying that she and her husband, Martin Valadez, traveled to Thailand to celebrate the nuptials of Richard Yu and Taymee Jirachotramee, with Tnyetta Holder Mitchell ’93 and Max Mitchell ’92.

Sid Espinosa writes, “Last August we had a wonderful Wesleyan reunion at the nuptials of Jeff Reilly and Chris Schmicker. The spectacular Hawaiian setting, beautiful ceremony, and fun celebrating were enjoyed by me, John Dudzinsky ’96, Josh Lockwood ’93, Sarah Morgan, and David Niles.”

Greg Schwartz is a gastroenterologist living and working at Mid-Valley Gastroenterology in beautiful Corvallis, Ore. He is married and has three children (12, 10, and 7). Greg wants “any Wes folks living in Oregon please give [him] a shout!”

Tonya Ward Singer continues to work for equity in K-12 public schools across the U.S. and Canada. Her new book EL Excellence Every Day: The Flip-to Guide for Differentiating Academic Literacy (Corwin, 2018) helps K-12 teachers be effective in linguistically diverse classrooms. Tonya is the mother of two boys, lives in Santa Rosa, Calif., and writes that “we are all very grateful our neighborhood survived the October 2017 wildfires that ravaged our region.”

Sasha Chanoff lives in Somerville Mass., with his wife, Marni, and two children, Hayden (9) and Lailah (7). He is in his 12th year of leading RefugePoint, the organization he founded to find solutions for the world’s most at-risk refugees. He co-authored a book recently, From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions. Sasha writes that “among the great joys of my life are coaching my son’s soccer team and reading to my daughter.”

Kate Foster is a Presbyterian minister, but currently serving as the executive director of a service learning program in Baltimore, Md. She is married to Andrew Foster Connors (22 years and counting!) and their daughters are 13 and 16. They have started the college search with the older daughter—and yes, Wes is on the list! Kate says that she loved it when they visited this past fall.

Becky Hunt is an ob-gyn in Portland, Maine, at Maine Medical Center. Her son is in middle school and her husband, John (Bowdoin ’94), is writing a book about the Civil War. She’s learning roller derby with Sarah Mount ’20 and trying out for the Fresh Muscle program in June.

Samera Syeda Ludwig | ssludwig@nixonpeabody.com

Caissa Powell | cdp2000@hotmail.com 

Hi, classmates! Our 25th Reunion is May 25 and 26, and Jessica Gutow Viner is chairing the Reunion Planning Committee. Her email is ddviner@yahoo.com. We’d love to hear from everyone. We have a great committee in place and are looking forward to fantastic participation! There are many great ways to get involved, and we hope to see you in Middletown in May.

Michelle Gagnon emails, “The paperback edition of my young adult novel Unearthly Things will be released on April 10. It’s a modernized, deconstructed version of Jane Eyre set in San Francisco’s high society. I relocated to Los Angeles a few years ago and have finally adjusted to the relentlessly sunny weather. My husband and I live in the Hollywood Hills with our 11- and 12-year-old kids.”

Julie Jette writes, “In President Obama’s farewell speech, he said that anybody who is disappointed in the government should pick up a clipboard and go get some signatures to get on the ballot. Living in volunteer-led towns in New England gives lots of people the opportunity to do that, so I picked up a clipboard and ran for Town Meeting in Brookline, Mass., where I live. In May and November, I vote along with another 240 residents on spending and policy for the town. The rest of the year we represent our neighborhoods on town issues. It’s far from high office, but in these grim political times I feel lucky to be able to serve my community in a small way—and to teach my boys that if you want to make change, you need to get involved, even when it’s uncomfortable. No doubt I’m still influenced by Wesleyan’s activist ethos!”

Stephanie Mohr emails, “I have written a book for a non-expert audience about genetics, biology, and biomedical research called First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery (Harvard University Press). I had the pleasure of attending the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference last summer as I finished up work on the manuscript. The visit reminded me how beautiful the campus is and how great it is that we have places like Wesleyan where arts and sciences entwine.”

Laura Ross writes, “We moved to Los Angeles this summer so I could become the head of upper school at the Harvard-Westlake School. My husband, Gregg ’90, is teaching math at Harvard-Westlake’s middle school, and our daughter, Casey, is in seventh grade there. Our son, Graham, is in fourth grade at the Laurence School. I am thrilled to be back in my home state and hope to see lots of Wes people out here.”

Maren Roush writes in, “I have been working at NSF International for the last 22 years. My current position is business unit manager of NSF’s Biosafety Cabinetry program. With biosafety and biosecurity being such important issues in this day and age, recent years have been increasingly interesting for me. In 2016, I attended the Extended Biosafety Advisory Group meeting at the World Health Organization in Geneva and did a few outreach sessions in Japan and Korea in conjunction with Thermo Fisher Scientific. In 2017, I presented at the Asia Pacific Biosafety Association conference in Ho Chi Minh City and spent a week in Bangkok at the Thai Ministry of Public Health. I have a wonderful husband and the two best sons in the universe—the oldest of whom is a junior in high school and is starting to think about college. I enjoy reading my classmates’ updates and hope all are doing well. Not too many Wes people here in the upper Midwest.”

Jodi Samuels writes from Sacramento, “I have completed volunteer training at the Sacramento SPCA and am now spending several hours each month to ’socialize’ the cats waiting for adoption. One of our own fur babies, Calypso, had some extensive dental work, and now she and Captain Jack are adjusting to a soft food diet. I take Spanish classes at a local organization, Casa de Español, and I was able to really practice what I’d learned when my spouse, Evan, and I took a trip to the Panama Canal area during the winter holidays. Other travel for work, family, friends, and vacation has included Marshfield, Mass., Austin, Denver, Chicago, Madison, Scottsdale, and Honolulu/Waikiki.”

Antonia Townsend emails, “I run Enclosed, my lingerie gift business. John Marshall and I had a baby, Jack Townsend Marshall, last May. As many of you found out decades ago, having a baby is oodles of fun.”

Andy Nordvall is having a lovely time raising two roller-derby- and violin-loving daughters in Los Angeles. He’s also working on a web comic (patreon.com/MyRoommateTheInternet) and an illustrated fantasy novella, Siren’s Song.

SuZanna Henshon | suzannahenshon@yahoo.com 

Sarah Estow | sarah_estow@hotmail.com