After a national search, Joshua Borenstein ’97 was appointed managing director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, confirmed by unanimous vote at a special session of the Board of Trustees. “Josh was simply the best candidate,” said Charles Kingsley, board chair, in a press release. “He’s been serving as the interim managing director for the past six months and he’s done a wonderful job.” Gordon Edelstein, artistic director, praised Borenstein for his combination of “wisdom, strength, practical theatrical knowhow with strategic savvy.” Prior to his tenure at Long Wharf Theatre, Borenstein was involved in the “New Generations: Mentoring the Leaders of Tomorrow” program at the Huntington Theatre Company He has served in various roles at Yale Repertory Theatre and at Trinity Repertory Company. At Wesleyan, Borenstein majored in classical civilization, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his degree with honors. He earned a master of fine arts in theatre management from the Yale School of Drama; he has been a guest lecturer at Yale University and at Boston University.
In late December, Denise Jefferson Casper ’90 was confirmed to a United States District Court Judgeship in Massachusetts. She had been nominated last April by President Obama, and an American Bar Association panel had rated her as “unanimously well qualified’’ for this lifetime appointment. Casper was previously the Deputy District Attorney for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office in Cambridge, Mass., overseeing the daily operations of one of the largest district attorney’s offices in New England. Prior to that position, Casper taught legal writing at Boston University School of Law. She had served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston from 1999 to 2005; she was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in 2004. Casper also practiced as a civil litigator in the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen LLP (formerly Bingham, Dana & Gould) from 1995 to 1998. After law school, Casper clerked for the Honorable Edith W. Fine and the Honorable J. Harold Flannery of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. At Wesleyan she majored in African-American studies. She received her J.D. in 1994 from Harvard Law School.
Stephen K. Friedman ’91 has been promoted to president of MTV. Since the fall of 2008, he has been general manager, and he will now oversee MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV.com, MTV Hits and MTV Jams. During Friedman’s tenure, MTV has had five consecutive quarters of growth, and launched such successful shows as Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, Life as Liz, and the upcoming Teen Wolf. He joined MTV in 1998 and started MTV’s strategic partnerships and public affairs department. As general manager, he launched mtvU, the channel dedicated to college students, in 2004, and helped shape the channel’s Emmy Award-winning Sudan campaign to protest genocide in Darfur. In announcing his promotion, The Los Angeles Times writes: “Over the years, [Friedman] has been instrumental in many of MTV’s social and political causes. … He was deeply involved in MTV’s award-winning ‘Fight for Your Rights’ campaign and its ‘Choose or Lose’ political drive.” Before joining MTV, Friedman was director for the PEN American Center, an international writers’ human rights organization. At Wesleyan, he majored in the College of Letters.
Thomas Cowhey ’94 was appointed vice president of Aetna Investor Relations, responsible for maintaining the company’s relationship with the investor and analyst communities. Cowhey, who joined Aetna in 2007, has most recently served the company as managing director of new business development. Prior to his affiliation with Aetna, he was a principal with Legacy Partners Group, an independent investment banking firm, and also had been a vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston. At Wesleyan, he majored in economics. He holds an MBA, with a concentration in health sector management, from Duke.
Marysol Castro ’96 was recently hired as the weather anchor for CBS’ The Early Show. Castro had most recently served as the weather anchor and feature correspondent for the ABC News weekend edition of Good Morning America (2004–2010). In conjunction with studio coverage of the national weather outlook, Castro also reported weather-related stories from the field, including several from New Orleans and Florida, focused around the recent hurricanes. A government major at Wesleyan, she earned her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Jonathan Dube ’94 joined AOL as senior vice president and general manager of AOL news and information. Previously, he was vice president of ABCNews.com. Dube has twice served as president of the Online News Association and is now on the board of directors for the association. He was a history major at Wesleyan and has a master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. An award-winner for his work in new media, Dube has also published in a number of print venues, including The New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review. Jonathan Dube ’94 was appointed vice president in charge of ABCNews.com, responsible for the strategic planning, business strategy, editorial content, and production of the network’s 24–hour online news service. Dube, a pioneer in the online news industry, was also reelected to a second year as president of the International Online News Association. In the past three years, as director of digital media for CBC News, he has led the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to multiple awards. He is also an award–winning print and online reporter. A history major at Wesleyan, he earned his master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Sarah Wildman ’96 won the $10,000 Peter R. Weitz Prize from the German Marshall Fund for excellence and originality in reporting on Europe and the transatlantic relationship. Her five-part series, “Paper Love: Inside the Holocaust Archives,” was published in Slate in January 2009. Entwining personal family history with the larger struggle to categorize, analyze, and understand Nazi records and survivor accounts, Wildman examined the International Tracing System (ITS), the world’s largest Holocaust archive, located in Bad Arolsen, Germany. “The story of Bad Arolsen has been told, but not like this…with such detail, dogged pursuit, passion, and deeply felt, first-person storytelling,” said one judge. While her search was ultimately inconclusive, the series illustrated the difficulties facing the field and the shadow the Holocaust continues to cast over Europe. Wildman writes about foreign policy and culture wars for Politics Daily, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Guardian.
Omar Rahim ’96 has been chosen to participate in the Asia Society’s fifth annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit. He is among more than 200 emerging leaders—all under the age of 40—from some 30 countries and economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Rahim is an actor, dancer, choreographer, and social entrepreneur who lives and works in New York. He will appear in a feature film titled Meherjaan, which was shot in Bangladesh in 2009/2010 and is due for regional release in January 2011. In his entrepreneurial work, Rahim has established Soof Designs, an award-winning home textile brand that showcases Pakistan’s extraordinary textile heritage and promotes Pakistani craft and design to international buyers and designers worldwide.
Jed Koslow ’99 (above left next to brother Rory ’04) along with Aaron Yowell ’99 and Alex Nemeth ’99, as well as two additional friends, raised more than $34,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, through sponsorships and pledges for their commitment to run in the Wildflower Triathlon, held in Los Angeles last spring. Their team, the Brooklyn Landsharks, trained with Team In Training, a fundraising chapter of the Society. The Landsharks earned a place in a recent book on philanthropy for their success in garnering financial support. “We were assertive and creative,” Koslow explains, with teammates selling and auctioning goods (t-shirts with an original design) and services (a gourmet dinner party, prepared and served by the Landsharks). Koslow, who had never participated in a triathlon before, cites his younger brother, Rory ’04, a two-time triathlete who raised more than $30,000 for the society, as his inspiration. The Koslow brothers look forward to completing future triathlon together.
Catherine Rob Rogers ’91, a Laramie County, Wyo., Circuit Court Magistrate and a private practice attorney, was appointed to the First Judicial District Court by Gov. Dave Freudenthal last September. In a Wyoming Tribune Eagle article, Freudenthal praised her, saying, “Her reputation for honesty and ethics is of the highest order. What makes her uniquely qualified is that the Circuit Court is really the people’s court, and she has a great people sense about her.” A sociology major as an undergraduate, she earned a JD from the University of Wyoming College of Law and was admitted to the Wyoming State Bar in 1998. “I am humbled by the Governor’s confidence in me, and I will do my best to serve the judiciary and the people of Laramie County with fairness, courtesy and a commitment to equal justice,” Rogers said. She is married to Kevin Ohlson ’90.
![Stephen K. Friedman ’91 has been promoted to president of MTV. Since the fall of 2008, he has been general manager, and he will now oversee MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV.com, MTV Hits and MTV Jams. During Friedman’s tenure, MTV has had five consecutive quarters of growth, and launched such successful shows as Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, Life as Liz, and the upcoming Teen Wolf. He joined MTV in 1998 and started MTV’s strategic partnerships and public affairs department. As general manager, he launched mtvU, the channel dedicated to college students, in 2004, and helped shape the channel’s Emmy Award-winning Sudan campaign to protest genocide in Darfur. In announcing his promotion, The Los Angeles Times writes: “Over the years, [Friedman] has been instrumental in many of MTV’s social and political causes. ... He was deeply involved in MTV’s award-winning ‘Fight for Your Rights’ campaign and its ‘Choose or Lose’ political drive.” Before joining MTV, Friedman was director for the PEN American Center, an international writers’ human rights organization. At Wesleyan, he majored in the College of Letters.](https://classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/11/friedman.jpg)
