Author: Randi Alexandra Plake

Welcome to the latest edition of class notes. We are always happy to hear from you!

First, big news about lots of life changes for my old housemate Simon Fulford. Simon is living in Portland, Ore., with his wife Clare and two of his three sons, Max, 10, and Alec, 6. His eldest son, Kieran, 15, is in the U.K. In September Simon joined the Oregon Youth Authority, the state’s juvenile justice agency, in a program and policy adviser role that covers organizational and leadership development along with the thorny issues of equity and employee engagement. Simon was appointed to the Restorative Justice Coalition of Oregon’s Coordinating Committee.

Another former housemate of mine, Darcy Dennett, was in the Sahara where she was filming a piece on meteorite hunters for National Geographic Explorer. She is next moving to a segment on the Future of Farming in the Netherlands.

In November, my family visited Ann Arbor and stayed with Alison Miller and her husband, Scott Roberts (my wife and I met through them in grad school over 20 years ago). They are both professors at our alma mater, the University of Michigan, and it was great to catch up with them and daughter Ella (just started high school) and son Wes (now in fourth grade and a basketball fanatic like his father).

Chadwick Canedy and his wife, Bona, welcomed their second son, Easton Haechan Canedy, on May 4, 2017. He was born in D.C., much to the enjoyment of his very jealous 2-year-old brother, Declan.

Andrew Draper remains in Prospect Heights and is working in Midtown East. In 2017, his son started middle school in Vermont and his daughter started high school near Albany, so between keeping up with them and with his parents on Cape Cod, he expects to be up and down the whole Northeast throughout 2018 and is on the lookout for Wesleyan meetups.

After 19 years in London, Claire (Weldin) McConnell moved back home to Seattle in August with her husband, Craig. She was sad to leave the job she loved at Arup but is working at McMillen Jacobs Associates doing almost exactly the same thing: managing the design for train stations. She finds Seattle’s light rail “dainty and petite” in comparison with London’s Crossrail, but is happy to be back stateside.

Also in Seattle, Liz Broussard is working at Pacific Medical Center in gastroenterology and specializes in fecal microbiota transplants (transferring poop from healthy donors into diseased colons of sick people) for clostridium difficile infection, and train fellows and medical residents from the University of Washington. Her husband, Kevin Hakimi, is a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at the Seattle VA and they have twin daughters, Vivian and Chloe. They are 11, just got their junior black belts and are loving fifth grade. She sees Corey Casper for breakfast regularly and saw Scott Shapiro at a performance of Here Lies Love.

Johanna Stoberock lives in Walla Walla, writing and teaching at Whitman College. Her novel, Pigs, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in 2019. Chris Chesak has a new job as managing director of Tracks & Trails, a tour operator offering self-drive RV tours in western national parks.

Kate Edwards is in the R&D department at Datacolor, where she makes instruments to measure the colors of paints and textiles. While she says it’s been fun learning about color science, she now takes longer to pick paint colors for her house in Pennington, N.J., where she lives with her husband, Nathan, and kids, Iris and Nicholas.

That’s all for now. Paul and I would to hear from you so please send your news!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Mark Steele has lived in Boulder, Colo., for more than 10 years, but spends summers in Telluride, where he originally moved after graduation. His freelance art direction, design, and Web business allows him freedom, and the real estate success of his number one client—his wife—allows him to dedicate weekly pro-bono time to local nonprofits fighting for climate and social justice. Last year he had lunch with resilient Shizuko Aizeki, and he crashed the getaway weekend of Tibby Erda, Alys Campaigne, Sara Newmann, and Aislinn McGuire, spending a day showing them quintessential Boulder: bagging Mount Sanitas, wandering Pearl Street Mall, and drinking local brews at the bar in the bicycle shop.

“Colorado is perfect for cross-country convergence,” and Mark is game for more guiding and is currently scheming an epic adventure with Jan Hasselman, Adam Rosen, and Daren Girard ’92 to celebrate being a half century young.

Marcela Von Vacano fights on at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco, serving as a water law attorney. Her husband, James Shafer, is a partner in a small law firm. Their children Nina (10) and Max (7) are thriving, though learning about politics at an early age. “I just saw Heidi Jones, Erin Branagan, and Robin Ekiss. They are beautiful and super fun, as always.”

Deborah Sue Mayer serves as chief counsel and staff director for the Select Committee on Ethics in the U.S. Senate. She was promoted to captain in the U.S. Navy in July, and her reserve assignment is to serve as a military judge.

Curry Rose Mills Hoskey and Robin Crestwell Harris ’90 have sons who play basketball together in College Park. Curry reports, “Robin is the coach of the boys’ ’little league’ basketball team, a fact that gives me great pride. After all, how many teams can say that they are coached by a bona fide college basketball star?”

Scott Timberg is co-writing a book with guitarist and singer-songwriter Richard Thompson, to be titled Beeswing: Folk Rock, Britain, and the End of the ’60s. Faber and Faber will publish it in the UK and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill will handle it in the U.S. Look for it in 2019.

Dorian Hart published the second book in his Heroes of Spira epic fantasy series, titled The Crosser’s Maze. When he’s not writing, Dorian is the stay-at-home dad for daughters Elanor (13) and Kira (10).

Caroline Mosher Gadaleta is a managing director with Jones Lang LaSalle, a global corporate real estate services company. She leads a team of 43 professionals in managing the real estate and facilities portfolio for the number-one premium spirits company in the world. Caroline mentors women in the organization and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Council. She and her husband, Frank, have two teenage daughters, Shelby and Jessie.

Sarah Sutter hosted Zanne ’94 and Ian Gerrard in Tokyo in February and offers anyone passing through to connect with her. She enjoys receiving inquiries through the Wes Career center about living in Tokyo or teaching abroad.

Kristin Aldred Cheek and Brian Cheek ’92 moved back to New Hampshire, about an hour outside of Boston. Kristen is finishing a PhD from Cornell in human behavior and design (environmental psychology). Brian manages the Manchester Monarchs, an ECHL team, and their children are in high school.

Dana Schultz works for RAND in Pittsburgh, focusing on child and family well-being research and evaluation. She and husband Steve Jackman ’89 are preparing for the next chapter as both of their girls are leaving home. “Our younger daughter, Piper, went to boarding school this year for ninth grade and our older daughter, Reilly, is headed to college in the fall. Reilly found an incredible fit in a small liberal arts school which, alas, is not in Connecticut, but is just the right place for her.”

In September, Jeff Post took his two boys, Andrew and Bradley, up to Wesleyan to take the campus tour. “Yes, we’re starting to look at colleges! That night, we watched the football team play under the lights. It was a fantastic game, as Wes pulled off a comeback win in overtime.”

It is with profound sadness that share the news of the death of April Cotte, who died on Jan. 25. April majored in Latin American studies and sociology at Wesleyan, and devoted her life to striving for environmental and social justice. April is survived by her partner, Brian Young, their 7-year-old son, Barry, her mother Kathi, her siblings Peter and Pam. Appreciation to Gayatri Gopinath and Erin Kelly for informing me of this loss. Your remembrances of April are welcome for inclusion in a future edition of notes.

Renée K. Carl | rcarl@wesleyan.edu

Class of 1990 Scholarship

Bryden Tierney Auer ’21, Lake Oswego, OR

Happy New Year! Here’s what we have for 2018, when many of us will be turning 50(!):

Laurie Baum is the middle school director of a progressive school in Brooklyn called Greene Hill School. Laurie was hired to plan and launch the middle school division “and it has been exciting to be part of a new and growing school. We graduated our first class of 8th graders in June. Greene Hill is committed to social justice and is unusual for independent schools in NYC because it has a sliding-scale tuition.”

Jennifer Teitelbaum Palmer is president of the Maryland Psychiatric Society, her local branch of the American Psychiatric Association. In that role, she is asked to write regular columns for their publications.“I just submitted an essay contemplating whether Alexander Hamilton suffered from type two bipolar disorder, in the context of my frank obsession with fellow Cardinal Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02’s musical and the biography upon which it was based. Wesleyan just keeps giving!”

Other big news: two more members of our class are becoming Wes parents. Dan Jewelewicz writes from Delray Beach, Fla., where he has been for 18 years (“has it really been that long?”). Dan is busy with his ophthalmology practice and has four children: identical twin girls, 13; a son, 16; and daughter, 18. “Although we don’t live on a farm, it feels that way: we have two dogs, two cats, two rabbits, two horses, one parrot, and a pot-bellied pig named JellyBean. Our big news is that eldest daughter, Natalya, got accepted early to Wes. She is super-excited; I’m really proud of her. I’m looking forward to being back on campus a lot in the next few years.”

Our second Wes-parent-to-be is Gabriella Nawi who writes that “my son was accepted to Wesleyan, class of 2022, so that is exciting.” Gabi will be starting a new role at Travelers in 2018, as head of financial planning for personal insurance.

Finally, after seven years as CEO of 826 National, Gerald Richards “decided to move on and see what the next adventure in life would be. After a sabbatical of six months, with travel to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, France, and Scotland, I decided to accept the role of CEO for a new nonprofit called The Superpower Agency in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Superpower Agency is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the writing skills of students in Edinburgh through fun and creative writing workshops and programs. I am excited to be living overseas for the first time and working on my Scottish brogue. Before I left, I had the opportunity to have drinks and dinner with David Patterson, Carolyn Clark, Nina Grekin, Linda Turnbull, Claude Szyfer and his wife Elana, Laurie Malkin, and Iriss Shimony. It was a lovely sendoff. If people are ever out this way, come visit!”

Thanks to those of you who wrote. That’s all for now.

Vanessa Montag Brosgol | vanessa.brosgol@yahoo.com

Class of 1989 Scholarship

Joanna Korpanty ’21, Chemistry

Newlywed Anjulika Chawla writes that after 15 years and four kids together (ages 6, 10, 12, and 17), she and her now-husband Ron decided to “take the plunge and get married”—which they did on Sept. 2 at the Rhythm and Roots Festival. “The ceremony was 20 minutes, and the party about 11 hours.” Anjulika is a pediatric hematologist oncologist at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and an associate professor at Brown University. She stepped down as the interim chair of the division after four years, and has cut her time to about 10 percent. She is joining a biotech firm in Cambridge to work on a project using gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease.

In Boston, Abby Smuckler ran into Russ Cobe at Shabbat services at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial! Quite a feat considering there were about 5,000 people in the convention hall, and they hadn’t seen each other since graduation. Russ lives near Charlotte, N.C., and Abby is outside Boston in Needham.

Marisa Cohen spent 13 months on the road with her daughter, Molly—who was in the national tour of Matilda the Musical. They returned to New York last summer and got right back into the swing of things. Now Marisa is freelancing at Real Simple. In November she had “an amazing visit to Wes” for Alumni Sons & Daughters Weekend with her older daughter, Bellamy—who got to sit in on a class with Marisa’s old music professor, Neely Bruce, and is excited to apply for the class of 2023. (Sidebar: 2023? I give up. We’re speaking in Blade Runner-esque graduation class years at this point. Can we pace ourselves please?! Geez!) Marisa says she genuinely “loved catching up with so many classmates who are also going through the nerve-racking college admissions game with their kids while I was there.” Solidarity, sis!

Robin Alexander has been living with her husband in Brooklyn for the past 10 years after having lived in Jerusalem for five. She works as a therapist and clinical social worker, and, most recently, as a mental health consultant for child protective services and the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.

Peter Knight has assumed volunteer leadership in his appointment to the board of directors for Connecticut Legal Services. The agency is dedicated to helping low-income families and individuals meet their basic needs and be assured equal access to opportunities and justice. This new role is in addition to Peter’s role as the chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the law firm Robinson+Cole—where he’s a member of their Environmental, Energy and Telecommunications Group.

Jim Levine marked his 50th birthday by moving to Alaska. You guys, ALASKA…from Middletown, Conn., where he had been living. I love everyone’s updates. And this one too…so much! In his own words: “After 15 years back in Connecticut, working around the corner from WesU, the younger of my two kids graduated from high school and flew the coop. So…I sold my empty nest and moved solo to a rural area in southcentral Alaska, three hours from Anchorage, where I’m working in the emergency department of a small hospital, in a town called Soldotna. It’s beautiful here, and life is definitely slower and quieter. I’ve been here almost a year now.”

Susan Turkel is working part-time as a social sciences librarian at Villanova University. “It’s a very different environment from Bryn Mawr College and the University of Michigan, my beloved previous institutions, but I like it! My other major preoccupations are square, English, and contra dancing, and weekly visits with my parents (they’re 87 and almost 83, still living independently despite health challenges). Is anyone else going through the elderly parent struggle? It goes from frustrating to rewarding and then back again…but I’m grateful that they’re still around, that we’re close, and that I can be helpful to them.”

Topiary Landberg is in her fifth year of a PhD at UC, Santa Cruz in Film & Digital Media, working on her dissertation about urban landscape documentary and a media project about San Francisco. She is “loving being at Santa Cruz, teaching, researching and somehow becoming a full-fledged academic. Next stop: job market.

Next year is our 30th Reunion, y’all. Why don’t we round up our fellow ’89 Wes friends and head to campus next year? We’ve got a year-ish from now to plan our long-weekend escape and Wes campus takeover. I think we should take over the dorms. Seriously. Pajama-jammy-jam anyone?! We can fire up some ’80s tunes (“It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock anyone?) and dance it out together!

We do really enjoy hearing from each of you and appreciate you sharing your news with all of us! Cheers, classmates! Until then, so happy to hear from you. Keep the updates coming!

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

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Bruno Oliver has been living in LA for two decades now: “Certainly not the place I anticipated ending up back in ’88! Working as an actor on TV, voice over, and some film. I’m the current board president of The Sacred Fools Theater Company and have been kept very busy shepherding the company’s transition from our old single theater space to a new, multi-venue home in Hollywood. The company has been my passion for many years. If you live in LA or are just visiting, hit me up and I’ll give you a tour…and we can have a drink in our (just about to open) theater bar.”

Stephen Morison shares: “My family and I have returned to the U.S. after 10 years overseas in order to be within driving distance of our daughter (where she is on the same dorm as Steve Pryor’s daughter—it has been great to catch up with Steve and his lovely wife, Leslie). We are enjoying our experiences working at Cape Cod Academy in Osterville, and we are getting used to driving American roads again. I’m still writing for Poets & Writers Magazine. We occasionally catch dinner with Kim Carr Hare and Jon Hare ’87 who live in Falmouth, and of course, we look forward to seeing Paul Gosselin, Steve Kullback ’89, Wendy Blum ’87, Nancy Nachbar ’89, Drew Davis, and other Wes folk at Paul’s annual summer Cape gatherings.”

Dave Grotell writes: “I have taken a position as professor of videography at  the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I never thought I would say this, but I’ve moved to the Deep South! It’s quite interesting. I got a chance to canvas for U.S. Senator Doug Jones and enjoy the victory party on home turf. And I am working to create a program in film and video where none had existed. If you’re in Alabama, say hello!”

John Stein chimes in from Burkina Faso in western Africa. “We are in Ouagadougou. Loving it. The littles are playing in local soccer clubs and/or learning to drum.” John’s Chi Psi brother Tim McCallum updates that he is “happily running my Pilates studio and trying to keep up with my 15-month-old son. Two full time jobs, plus Tai Ji school, and the avocation of life on Maui. It’s a beautiful blur.” In his first unforced class notes submission since graduation, Stuart Ellman claims he “is looking forward to hanging out with Peter Bond at the 30th Reunion.”

Greg Wolfe reports: “I started working with a new client last year, The Forward, a Jewish news magazine and website, and it turns out their editor-in-chief, Jane Eisner ’77, also taught at Wesleyan. It was great meeting her and talking about Wesleyan.”

Hannah Doress updates us: “It has been an exciting year serving on the Steering Committee of the Resilient Communities Initiative—where I was able to bring lessons learned through Shore Up Marin (the equitable climate—especially coastal flooding & sea level rise—adaptation organization I co-founded in 2013) to San Francisco Bay Area efforts. I would love to connect with others in the Wes community who are working on climate, social equity, and voting rights issues. Emily and I celebrated two decades together not long ago and our son, a gifted mechanic and musician, is now in eighth grade. I made a whirlwind trip to New York and managed to sneak in a visit with David Milch ’89 while there.”

Kara Stern advises: “I am freshly relocated to Tel Aviv and would love to connect with anyone who might also be here! sternkara@gmail.com.” Joanna Martin shares: “I have spent the past 30 years in Berlin, Germany, and enjoy watching world history unfold from this vantage point.”

Bobbito Garcia is cohosting What’s Good With Stretch and Bobbito, a new National Public Radio podcast. Garcia is working again with his collaborator from the ’90s, DJ Stretch Armstrong. Garcia was on campus this fall to speak in the Sociology of Music in Social Movements class, taught by John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Rob Rosenthal. Garcia spoke on the role of the music industry in presenting artists whose work has an underlying political theme.

Robert Wrubel’s Financial Freedom for Special Needs Families has been named a finalist in the 30th annual Independent Book Publisher’s Association Benjamin Franklin Award program.

Finally, Jenifer McKim lets us know she co-taught a class a writing class at Wes this spring which was “pretty fun.”

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

Kelly Washburn is “living in New York, working in fundraising in a private school. This summer I spent three weeks volunteering at Ritsona refugee camp in Greece with Echo100Plus. I’d be happy to share more about my experience with anyone who might be considering doing something similar: washburn.kelly@gmail.com.”

On Nov. 6, Paul Zoltan’s daughter, Natalia Charlotte Zoltan, was born. “With her birth through surrogacy, I’ve embarked on the adventure of single parenthood here in Dallas.”

Johanna Maaghul has “three kids in college now, two at Berkeley and one in Santa Barbara. I am continuing to enjoy my work as a literary agent with Waterside Productions and am excited to see more and more of my projects coming out in the world. I have also been doing some technical advising in the cryptocurrency and Blockchain space with a group of advisors in Germany called sicos.io, as well as helping to launch my husband, Rich’s company, odem.io in Switzerland, a beautiful country indeed. I will be spending a good part of the year there and would love to hear from any classmates also living there.”

Lisa Pavlovsky is “life-coaching and president of the board of my synagogue which is a full-time job, as is parenting two teen boys. Menopause and adolescence is not the best combo! Had a wonderful visit with Vivian Trakinski when she was in San Francisco for business lately. Feeling very much of the sandwich generation taking care of children and aging parents (my dad passed away a year ago), but feeling fortunate I live close to them.”

Mark Ungar published a book, The 21^stCentury Fight for the Amazon(Palgrave Macmillan), based on his work for the United Nations to develop environmental enforcement agencies in the nine countries of the Amazon Basin.

Holly Campbell Ambler and her husband live in Cambridge, Mass. One daughter lives at home and is in the midst of the crazy college search process. Their eldest daughter is an aspiring ballet dancer who is training with a company in New Jersey. Holly works as a clinical social worker with a focus on children and families, “a career I came to in mid-life which I am enjoying,” she writes. “I frequently see Trish and John Dorsey, Karen and Dennis Mahoney, and Michele Houdek and Doug Koplow, and enjoyed catching up with others at our Reunion last spring.

Claudia Center is still at the ACLU doing disability rights. “Our damages trial in the Kenton County, Kentucky child-handcuffing case starts this March. I also collaborate with MIUSA—in the past year I’ve traveled to Guatemala, Pakistan, and Mexico working on disability rights trainings partnering with local organizations. I’ve spent time IRL with Jennifer Bush, Jack Levinson, and Becca Gallagher, connected via FB to many more.

Hemanshu Nigam launched the Center for Online Justice (centerforonlinejustice.com) to help people who are being attacked, harassed, stalked, or victimized online. They help identify and bring justice in an area where anonymity and misconduct can rule.

Debby Hamilton moved from Colorado to Santa Barbara, CA a year ago to join a supplement company called Researched Nutritionals to help with product development, research and physician education. “I do that three weeks a month and then see patients in my integrative practice in Colorado one week a month. I am in Colorado long enough to bother my kids in college and make them spend time with me! Love missing winter and being able to go to the beach year-round after being land locked in Colorado for 18 years. Wendy Blum‘s mom is nearby so had a great visit with her family last summer. I welcome any visitors or alumni who are in the area to contact me.”

Ian Friday, associate director of The Colored Girls Museum, said the museum was created in September 2015 alongside Vashti Dubois ’83, executive director, and Michael Clemmons, curator. This memoir house museum is located in historic Germantown, Philadelphia, and celebrates the ordinary/extraordinary colored girl. This museum has been granted a 20k sponsorship by the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, which is led by Shawn Dove ’84, and reopens for weekly Sunday tours during Women’s History Month. The exhibition is Urgent Care, A Social Care Experience Part 2.

Sheila Rhatigan Arcelona writes, “Not much new, still busy and happy, living and working in the rapidly changing city of San Francisco. I still love my job as an administrator in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, which is always challenging and always interesting. Very proud of my old boss, Senator Kamala Harris, who was the district attorney who hired me 12 years ago. Which seems like last week—I can’t believe how time has flown by. My little daughter Angel is now 17 and all about finding the right college. I expect an East Coast college tour is on our horizon. Finally, just want to give a shout out to the Wesleyanmagazine for the excellent articles and especially the book reviews. I love reading about what our alumni are writing and I especially can’t wait to read Carolyn Tesh O’Doherty‘s upcoming book Rewind.”

Becca Wharton is “happy to report that my stepdaughter, Julia Jurist, was accepted early decision to Wesleyan and will begin in the fall as a freshman.”

Eileen Deignan writes, “It had been way too long since I had caught up with Elizabeth Saveri and Renee Fogleberg. I saw them in Pasadena and San Francisco respectively last summer. Johanna Van Hise and Simon Heartmake it to the East Coast most summers and we had a great mini-reunion with Suzy Walrath and her family in July. Sumana (Chandrasekhar) Rangashar checks in whenever she is in Massachusetts and we meet up in the Berkshires. Ira Skolnik keeps me up the date on Wesleyan as he has a son who is a freshman there now. We serve together on the state dermatology board. Ira is doing Wes proud as the current president.”

Alisa Kwitney has a young adult novel, Cadaver & Queen, coming out from HarlequinTeen at the end of February, and a prestige format comic book miniseries, Mystik U, coming out from DC Comics. is teaching graphic novel writing in the fall for Manhattanville College’s MFA program.

Ian Rosen has “joined forces with Arnab Bhattasali ’03, Souleymane Ba ’03, and Sisi Miteva ’15 as regional representatives for the Wes London/UK community. This is part of a push by Wesleyan to relaunch the international regional community groups. We’re planning some events and hope to entice the London, and broader UK, and maybe even European, Wes communities to attend.”

David Josephs has relocated to London.

Kevin Pratt writes that “it was a good year! Highlights included a family trip to Guatemala to visit an orphanage we’ve supported over the years. The trip included one-on-one Spanish lessons (yes—even for our 3-year-old). The kids also spent six weeks in Brazil with my wife, while I built out my music studio at home. I now have a great space to play, write, and compose. I’m in frequent contact with Roger Russell ’85, Vashti Dubois ’93, Ian Friday and had a lovely visit with Bennett Schneider ’86 in LA this past October. I’m already looking forward to the next Reunion.”

David Abramso nwrites, “I’m in my 17th year living in Washington, D.C., and working at the state department as a senior analyst on Russian foreign relations (no requests for written comment on life in the U.S. government please!). My family and I will be visiting Wesleyan on a college tour in New England during spring break in March for my elder daughter, Hazel, a high school junior. More than 30 years after graduating from the Russian department, it’s touching to know that four out of five of the same faculty members are still there. Between campuses, I plan to spend time in the Boston area with Becky Riccio, Skip Lockhart, and Jessica Miller, and hopefully will see Janet Ginzberg in Philadelphia on the way home.

Karen Sallick writes, “As of the new year I have switched from working mostly in my marketing consulting company of 20 years to working on my newly launched app. The change of focus is invigorating. I also realized that as I sent my kids back to college, I have likely spent the last big chunk of time with everyone home together. Over the past few years I have become more and more involved in donating my time to my local NPR station (WSHU) as I feel more strongly now than ever that more balanced and comprehensive news coverage is critical.”

Melissa Marks writes, “My exhibition Volitia Returnsat Planthouse Gallery in New York continues through the spring. In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery will present Double Self Split, a film about my 2016 installation and exhibition inside the Castle of Vélez Blanco, Andalucia, Spain.While the installation in New York City draws energy from the dissonant confluence of bricks, fences, walls, and looping wires in a make-shift canyon on the back-side of a Tin Pan Alley row house in New York City, Double Self Split draws itself through a different set of material parameters, found conditions and cultural histories in the open courtyard of a Renaissance castle in Spain!

“I still live in Chelsea with my husband, Vicente Caride ’85 and our 16-year-old son Archie.”

John Fitzpatrick writes, “Last November, Chris Olinger organized a get-together on the Oregon Coast. Attendees in addition to Chris and I, were Andrew Grimaldi, Dave Cole, Jeff McCarthy ’89, and Michael Pruzan. Football on the beach, hiking, kayaking, eating, drinking, and reminiscing with the backdrop of the Pacific and sunshine made for a great long weekend.”

And finally, Amy Baltzell, has anew book coming out, The Power of Mindfulness: Mindful Meditation Training for Sport. “I also am now the president of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology. I have been spending some time with Susan Anthony, now an artist living on Cape Cod. Her work is beautiful.”

Take care!

Amanda Jacobs Wolf | wolfabj@gmail.com

Many thanks to the classmates who respond to my requests for updates for inclusion in the magazine (and online). Last year, 81 classmates were mentioned in our column, and this issue includes six reports from classmates who didn’t write last year. If you haven’t seen recent news from your friends, please ask them to submit something for the next issue or to post it on our Facebook group.

Marsha Cohen recently celebrated her 20th year in her dream job as executive director of The Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) in Philadelphia. HAP is a legal services agency annually assisting over 3,000 homeless individuals and families, youth aging out of foster care, and homeless veterans with their civil legal needs. On the personal front, she’s celebrating 21 years with husband Peter; and raising two boys, Max (17) and Will (15). “I continue to enjoy regular visits with my dearest friends from Wesleyan: Vicki Strauss Kennedy ’87, Margaret Hagar, and Rebecca McLeod-Barnett.”

For Mike Sealander, his work life has been the same for the last 17 years. “My wife Robyn and I have a small architecture firm in Ellsworth, Maine. Our work is largely in the education sector for area colleges and public schools. We do a fair share of science-related work, including a marine research and flowing seawater facility in Beals that is now under construction.”

Hunter Silides has moved toGreensboro, N.C., where she has been called to be chaplain for the Canterbury School. Canterbury is an Episcopal PreK-8 school on 37 wooded acres. “It’s my dream job. I took a risk this year and switched coasts to return to my first love, being an Episcopal school chaplain (I should say my first love as a priest!). Moving cross country with a husband and four kids is *hard* but worth it. Our daughters, Gracie and Hope, are both freshmen at historic Grimsley High School. Our eldest son, Stephen, is a freshman in the Flagship Chinese Program at San Francisco State and heads off to Taiwan in a few months. Our second son, David, will graduate from Claremont High in Claremont, Calif., in June and plans to go home to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks next fall. My husband of 20 years, George, can finally move here to Greensboro! Thanks be to God! This long-distance thing is not for me. I’m so grateful to be doing work I love, and to be supported by my wonderful family after all those years on the mommy track! I’ve enjoyed seeing Arthur Haubenstock ’84 and Judith Hill-Weld. I will miss visiting Bennett Schneider in LA. My kids absolutely adore him and I haven’t found anyone quite as colorful here in the ‘shallow south.’ Y’all come visit us, now!”

Alex de Gramont: “As an international arbitration lawyer, I travel constantly. In every region of the world I visit, even the most conservative people I meet are stunned by what is happening in the United States. I don’t know which is more difficult: trying to explain it while abroad, or having to face it when I return. The best (and only) escape, I suppose, is family. Our 17-year-old, Nicolas, is going to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., to study marine biology. Our 10-year old, Gabriel, is in fourth grade and wants to be an ‘animal scientist.’”

Margret Hagar:“I love my job as general counsel for Nobel Learning Communities, not least because I never know which challenge each day will bring. Erik and I are now empty nesters which is partly liberating but mostly strange. (We have two daughters; younger is a frosh now. Could not persuade either of them to apply to Wes, sadly.) Also experiencing déja vubecause our 21-year-old daughter is now spending junior year spring semester in Paris as I did. Revives vivid memories not just of the amazing time I spent there but the bonds formed in the Wes Paris program with two of the dearest friends anyone could ever have.”

Ethan Knowlden had the opportunity in July of last year to take his wife to see Wesleyan for the first time. “As we stood at the top of Foss Hill she commented on how small Wes looked. Of course, she’s a University of California, Davis grad where there are 35,000 students! I had a change of jobs in 2017, twice in fact. I started and ended the year at Medicines360, a San Francisco-based nonprofit pharmaceutical company whose mission is to expand access to medicines for women regardless of their socioeconomic status, insurance coverage, or geographic location. I head the legal and compliance functions there. But for five months I served as general counsel for Accela, Inc., a cloud-based software solutions provider, leading them through their acquisition by a private equity fund. I have to admit I prefer working for a mission-driven organization! Finally, we had the pleasure of having Kevin Freund visit us here California. And we enjoyed seeing Kevin’s parents while vacationing in Scottsdale, Az.”

Sam Connor: “During a spate of creative activity in the fall I finally launched some personal music projects that I have been writing and recording with friends and professional musicians over the years. Albums:Togo Songbook, Made in Burma, and several singles are finally up and available for free on Spotify and elsewhere. I credit Wes with promoting enduring creativity and meeting superb musicians who crushed it in the studio: Banning Eyre ’79, Ralph Gasparello ’84, Eric Rosenthal ’87, Simon Connor ’87, Dirck Westervelt ’82, and master drummer Kwaku Obeng Akoi ’14, and others all represented on the Togos Songbook, as well as singles “Allez Au Marche” and “Lost Man.“

Emily Cowan reports on her singing: “I’ve been enjoying writing songs for friends. Highlights: my sister’s wedding toast (did you know that the Yiddish word nachissrhymes with office?) followed by fifth and 10th anniversary songs to the tune of “Hello Muddah Hello Faddah,” a Haman song for a Billy Joel Purim spiel (“Only the Jews Get Hung”), a Bernie Sanders song to “Charlie Darwin” by The Low Anthem, and, while not a song, “Hillary R. Clinton Will You Please Win Now,” inspired by Dr. Seuss’s book “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now.” So nice to have a place to brag about my oeuvre!”

Best wishes for the summer,

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu

Michael Steven reporting this month. Jonathan Sadowsky, the Catele Professor of Medical History at Case Western Reserve, received a contract from Polity Books for his new book Depression: A History.

Michael “Misi” Polgar writes from a snowy valley in northeastern Pennslyvania, where he teaches sociology at Penn State while helping to raise three daughters. He writes about topics related to the Holocaust and human rights education.

Susie Kang Sharpe is enjoying life as a physician-artist in southwest Missouri. While practicing internal medicine she managed to be in 24 exhibits last year. Learn more at susiesharpe.net. She is grateful that both medicine and art continue to be fulfilling careers. She has become quite a world traveler and an avid tennis player.

Gail Farris has reached a milestone—her daughter, Kim’ 14, married her high school sweetheart in June. No grandchildren in the works yet! Kim is teaching biology at a local high school. Her other daughter, Jen ’16, works in Atlanta, but is hoping to change jobs to one that aligns more with her interest in urban planning and public health. Anyone have ideas? Her son, Dean, strayed from his Wesleyan lineage and is a sophomore at Harvard, where he is making a splash on the swim team. She loves keeping up with the pulse of Wesleyan by hosting the Wesleyan Spirits (men’s a cappella group) each spring as they make their way south for spring break.

Kari (Friedman) Collier has started writing and giving sermons at her place of worship, an Episcopalian church in the diocese of Ohio. She says that once the juices get flowing (writing juices, that is), it has been fairly easy, and very rewarding. Kari says “hello” to everyone who lived in Foss 4 with her, freshman year.

Our near-classmate Steve Bacher ’83 is running for Congress in the 8th District of Pennsylvania, in the Democratic Primary in May. Learn more about his campaign at stevebacher.com. He is being assisted by Mary Melchior ’83.

Anthony Mohl, who is running a permaculture adventure in the middle of the jungle on an island in Thailand, writes: “Soooo tired of the same positive only news…I’ve gone from investment banker and director of portfolio management at a Wall Street firm at 32, divorced with two kids at 35. At 36 was running the bank in Europe for six years. Never believed in marriage again and was in a relationship with a marathon runner and triathlete for nine years in Paris. For three years ran the bank and studied psychology with my girlfriend at René Descartes, Paris 5 (previously known as La Sorbonne). Gave up banking and graduated with high honors as a state group psychologist before being trained as a psychoanalyst for families and couples. This did not prevent my girlfriend and me from breaking up.”

That’s pretty much all the news.

Roger Pincus | rpincus84@wesleyan.edu

Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu

Hi, everyone. I hope these notes find you well. Our 35th Reunion is almost here! I hope you plan on coming back to Middletown May 25 to 27. Cori Adler, Carlton Barnswell, Ben Binswanger, Jeffrey Burack, Michelle Deatrick, Richard Eaddy, Yates Exley, Peter Gilhuly, Eve Hall, Paul Halliday, Darrick Harris, Lewis Ingall, Ruth Jaffe, Lisa Mould Kennedy, Tom McKibbin-Vaughan, Megan Norris, Orin Snyder, Kim Beede Soule, Paul Spivey, Adam Usdan, Mike Whalen, Michael White and Ellen Zucker have all been working hard to plan a wonderful weekend of activities. Get more information and register at wesleyan.edu/rc2018.

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre left her position at The Gunnery after almost two decades to take a job as executive director of School Year Abroad (SYA), with schools in France, Spain, Italy, and China. She has been running SYA’s school in Zaragoza, Spain, as interim resident director, and will return to the U.S. in the summer to a new position, her home, and her partner, Jack, in Washington, Conn. She is almost five years out from a colon cancer diagnosis, surgery, and chemo, and is feeling great. She urges all her Wesleyan friends to stay on top of those preventative screenings!

Andrea Smith is busy tending farm animals (goats, chickens, mini horses) plus dogs and cat with son Nathaniel and husband Patrick in New Jersey, while heading the department of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., where she has worked since 1999. She is deep into settler colonial studies, and busily working on a book about the commemoration locally of the Revolutionary War.

David Steinhardt has edited the bestseller The Elegant and his fully credited name and editorial brand, Massive Publishing Enterprise, are now in two new books, Deviant Desires: A Tour of the Erotic Edge, and a history of Eurasia from Rowman & Littlefield by Dartmouth professor P. K. Crossley.

Karen Adair’s baby just turned 21 and is a junior at St. Lawrence University. Another offspring just turned 25 and the other three are slogging through their daily routines in the work world. Karen and husband and enjoyed the month of August in their place in Lake Placid and weirdly didn’t feel guilty with down time!

Heather Rae is pursuing a new career in genetic nutrition and wellness coaching. She launched The Wellness Spot in Maine in April and is very excited about the venture. She writes, “I finally found my calling in life. It certainly took a while!”

Nancy Rommelmann’s newest book is To the Bridge, a seven-year investigation into why a mother would drop her two young children from a Portland, Oregon, bridge. As the promo copy goes, “The case was closed, but for journalist Nancy Rommelmann, the mystery remained: What made a mother want to murder her own children?” It’s up for pre-sale now on Amazon.

Charlie Brenner writes from Iowa City that his metabolism research has taken off. He spent time with George Russell in New York last summer and will be in Hong Kong for a product launch. See aboutnr.com and truniagen.com for more information on Charlie’s work.

Ruth Jaffe is sending her youngest child off to college this year and is happy to be retiring from logistics management. Her middle son is a senior at Wesleyan.

Michelle Regalado Deatrick writes: “Daughter Elizabeth Deatrick ’14, after completing a master’s in science writing at Boston U, is a science writer/editor for the National Institutes of Health. Son Alexander is in his second year at Amherst. My husband, Steven Przybylski and I live near Ann Arbor, Mich., on an 80-acre farm. He’s a technical consultant. I write poetry, farm, and continue environmental and small farm rights activism. In a major life shift, I’ve become involved in party and electoral politics over the last three years as Michigan special projects director for the Bernie 2016 campaign, an elected DNC member, and vice chair of the County Board of Commissioners. I’m now running for State Senate.” Go Michelle!

Timothy Brockett writes, “The town I live in, Emigrant, Mont., is undergoing a gold rush. Places where I once panned for ’color’ are now taken over by commercial operators. So, I have traveled to the southern Rockies in search of better pickings. Last year, I found several promising silver and gold deposits in Nevada and Arizona. This spring I will explore those deposits further on my way to Mexico to study the lava fields in the Sonora desert that borders Arizona.”

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Reunion in May. Thanks to the committee for all their hard work. I started to read the Great Books series that Mortimer Adler created in the 1950s. They are a chronicle of Western civilization and absolutely fascinating. They remind me of my humanities and English studies at Wesleyan. A full set of 60 books costs less than a one-semester course back in the 1980s at Wesleyan so they are quite a bargain, too.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Class of 1982 Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship

Matthew Aidan Frishkoff ’21, Philadelphia, PA

Greetings, classmates! I sent out my plea for notes right after the Women’s March and it was cool to hear that so many of you participated. Taking things a step further is Diane Kolyer, a founding director of NY4US, fundraising for progressive candidates running for state legislatures in battleground states …if you’d like to pitch in, visit ny4us.org.

Beck Lee is having a resurgent playwriting career; his Subprime will premiere at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis in May. Like his son, the play was born in Minneapolis and co-created with his ex-wife Andrea Iten Lee. Another classmate in theatre is Steve Budd, whose award-winning solo show, What They Said About Love, played at The Marsh in Berkeley last February and will be part of the Ottawa Fringe Festival in June. To put this in perspective, Steve turned down a role in a play at Wes at Theatre ’92 —Private Wars—because he was too nervous to perform. And, Sabina Brukner is the literary manager at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene.

Naomi Fuchs is CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health in Sonoma County, serving low-income people with primary care, mental health, and dental services. Last October, when fire storms devastated the city, her organization lost its largest health center, which meant 24,000 people lost their medical home and 180 lost their place of work. “It has been a challenging time, to say the least,” she says. But they’ve made tremendous progress since rebuilding.

After spending his career working in refugee camps for the U.N., Steven Ablondi is now busy transforming Zamani, a town in post-apartheid South Africa. Memel.Global is helping neighbors build comfortable housing for the elders, and offering everyone access to organic, locally-grown foods, among other projects. Both Susan Sutherland and Michael Toohey ’81 will be visiting the project this year.

Karen Wise retired after 25 years from her position as vice president, education and exhibits, at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and now enjoys being a consultant. She went with Elizabeth Sands Petty to the new Museum of African American Culture and History in D.C., and caught up with Sheila Gaffney in NYC. She volunteers at Santa Monica High School and spends time supporting the congressional Climate Solutions Caucus, universal health insurance, and civil rights. “Relief comes from reading,” she says, “especially works by our classmates Suzy Berne, Peter Blauner, and now Patty Smith!”

Speaking of books, I sold my company, Shebooks, to SheWrites Press (no relation), which will keep the 75 e-books we published in print, including those by Ginny Pye, Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80, Bonnie Friedman ’79, and moi.

Jim Friedlander and wife Liz are busy with her U.N. work advocating for women’s rights and teaching yoga when she is not serving as general counsel for their firm, Arrangements Abroad. They travel extensively, frequently to Cuba for the Havana Heritage Foundation, trying to preserve the architecture of the city. Their oldest son is in his last year of med school.

Lavinia Ross is living and working on a small farm in western Oregon with her husband, Rick Ross, and nine cats. She’s still playing music, performing at the Spokane Fall Folk Festival in November. Those of you who are not allergic to cats can visit their farm at salmonbrookfarms.wordpress.com.

Michele Navazio is playing music, along with his wife, Rachel Ulanet, a Broadway diva he met when they were both in Les Miserables. Miki is a lawyer (running the buy-side derivatives practice for Sidley’s investment funds group), but most important, he says, they’re raising their daughters, Chiara and Alessia (12 and 9, respectively) to be “awesome, powerful (and kind and generous and brilliant) women.”

Also raising that kind of girl (he sent pix from the march) is Michael Ostacher, who had dinner in the Village with wife Laurie Ketter Ostacher, and Ellen Friedman Bender and Sam Bender, Michael Lucey and husband Gerry Gomez, “Everyone is older and nicer, which is lovely, don’t you think?”

Susan Peabody’s book Madeleine’s Children: Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France’s Indian Ocean Colonies has won the Society for French Historical Studies’ David Pinkney Prize for the best book on French history by a U.S. or Canadian author published in 2017.

More from the rest of you who wrote (thank you!) next time.

Finally, I’m so sad to report that our classmate, journalist Lisa Chedekel, passed away Jan. 12. The Hartford Courant, where she worked for several years, quoted colleague John Ferraro saying, “She searched for truth wherever it led. She was an advocate for the powerless and a thorn in the side of the powerful.” Lisa was a member of the team of Courant reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news covering a deadly shooting rampage. Several classmates attended her funeral. Among them, Catharine Arnold said, “She was an incredibly talented writer who wrote powerful articles that precipitated meaningful changes.” Mary Beth Bruno, who spend her first years out of college with Lisa at the New Haven Advocate, said, “She took to reporting like a reincarnated Nellie Bly. Fearless…”

I hope we can all strive to be fearless, in our own ways, in her honor.

Cheers,

Laura Fraser | laura@laurafraser.com