Class Notes | 1980s

Hillary writes for this issue: Evan Yassky connected with Chris Hall over the summer at his home in Maine where he and his wife have been teachers and part-time goat farmers for years. Since spring 2017, Evan has been living in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he is university architect at UNC. He is proud to say that his son graduated from Wes in 2018.

Mark Miller is about to open his second location for Hex & Company; the new spot is a total rebuild of an old Greek diner. He and Beth Kaufman ’86 moved to Sugar Hill in Harlem, where they will launch a four-room Airbnb and start hosting house concerts.

Peter V.S. Bond has displaced his Chi Psi brother Timothy McCallum as the ’88er with the youngest immediate offspring. In February, Peter and his wife celebrated the birth of their daughter.

A major exhibition that Mia Fineman organized is opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Mia is a curator in the department of photographs. The exhibition’s title is Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography, but it will no longer be on view by the time you are reading these notes.

Jennifer Fink recently published Bhopal Dance, which won the Doctorow Prize in Innovative Fiction and is now a finalist for a Lambda literary award. Jennifer is a professor of English at Georgetown.

Vivian Johnson has a new addition this year. She and her daughter are hosting an exchange student from South Korea; they report this has been a great experience so far.

Stephen Morison Jr. has moved to Sofia, Bulgaria (the hidden treasure of Europe), where he is dean of students for The American School of Sofia. He and his wife live in a fab apartment in a Communist-era building and are enjoying getting to know their new colleagues.

Rob Wrubel ’88, MA’89 just got back from taking his oldest son to Kenya and Tanzania—an incredible trip that he highly recommends. If any Wes folks are around Arusha, Tanzania, please reach out, as his son could use some more contacts.

And finally, I had the great pleasure of dining with Rob Daniels, Laura Sherman, and Renee White in Boston in late August.

Thanks for keeping us updated!

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

Hello, class of ’87! I’m writing this in the early days of September, when many of us are dropping kids off at school. Lots of news this time about our kids and transitions in our own careers.

Nancy Rapoport reflected on how much her mind returned to her own college application process and experience while she was watching her first kid go through it. Her daughter, Orlee, is in her first year at Harvard. Her twins, Esme and Tess, are sophomores in high school, active in cross country, lacrosse, field hockey, and ultimate Frisbee. Aside from running her own editing business, Nancy spends a lot of time playing taxi and cheering for sports whose rules she admits she doesn’t fully understand.

Pauline Frommer hosted a summer rooftop party for lots of Wesleyan folks in New York. It was great to see so many we hadn’t seen since Foss Hill.

Ian Rosen ’88 writes from London where he lives with his wife, Sagra, and works in sustainable investments and renewable energy. Their youngest daughter, Olivia, attends the American School and their eldest daughter, Isabel ’23, started Wesleyan in the fall. He said, “Scary thought that she will be class of 2023, so follows me by 36 years. Yet visiting campus, it is still so familiar.”

Lynda Ryden is a peace teacher in a Washington, D.C., public elementary school. She has written a curriculum that integrates mindfulness, social emotional learning, conflict resolution, and neuroscience. Lynda runs a nonprofit called Peace of Mind dedicated to promoting social emotional learning in schools nationwide. Lynda’s daughter, Rosie, is at Bryn Mawr and her son, Henry, is at Dickinson. Lynda’s sister, Tricia Ryden ’88, works as a public librarian in a rural community where libraries serve many crucial community functions.

Hope Salzer is pleased to have successfully transitioned back into active participation in the economy after 14 years of active work at home. While raising her husband, Larry (Yale ’88), and her two children, Henry and Clio, Hope was volunteering on behalf of public education and civic engagement. Hope now works with Catalogit, a collections management app used by museums, private collectors, professional conservators, and organizations to keep track of their collections. Technology is pushing a disruptive change in this field, and Hope is enjoying her role in the transition. Hope recently enjoyed time with Lisanne Misrok ’88 and Lisa Hone. She reports that she and her family recently used the health care system like never before—broken arm, emergency appendectomy, ankle sprains. They are all looking forward to a healthy 2020!

Sanford Livingston is still in Oakland, Calif. He is the CEO of NorCal FDC, a nonprofit that helps small businesses in California find capital for growth. He is lucky to work with Lydia Esdaile ’85, who is the director of marketing and communications, and he says the Wes energy is amazing!

Amy Baltzell spent 20 years as a professor of sports psychology and made a change toward a more eclectic approach to her career. She is now a Reiki Master Teacher, sport psychologist, and performance psychology consultant to businesses. She helps others awake and thrive. Amy is recently and peacefully single with a house bursting with teenagers. She is co-authoring a new book with a shaman healer and she is feeling grateful.

In 2007, Erika Cosby was invited by Lyle Ashton Harris ’88 to teach art at NYU and she is still there, going strong. As an artist, she has been using the name Erika Ranee since receiving her MFA in painting from UC Berkeley in 1993. Her next solo exhibition was scheduled to open in NYC in November. Erika enjoyed reconnecting with Lisa Heilbrunn Rattray and Amanda Jacobs Wolf at two recent art openings.

If you were at Wesleyan’s Shasha seminar, Understanding Russia, you heard David Abramson’s presentation on the Russia-China partnership. Most speakers are alumni who work on Russia issues in government, NGOs, industry, and academia. David was looking forward to seeing Anthony Richter ’84, Ilya Vinkovetsky ’88, Andy Meier ’85, and Kate Hardin ’90. David’s daughter, Hazel, started her first year at Mt. Holyoke. And, surprisingly, his genealogy research revealed a third cousin named June Price ’83, whom he has yet to meet.

How many people can say they knew a presidential candidate when they were undergraduates? Michael Bennet is running, and Muzzy Rosenblatt writes that a whole bunch of ’87s are working hard on his behalf, including Amanda Jacobs Wolf, Evan Glassman, Bradley Lubin, Sibyll Carnochan Catalan, Jeremy Mindich ’87, MALS’89, and more!

Late breaking news: Congratulations to Christopher Roellke, who was recently appointed the next president of Stetson University. Chris will leave his post at Vassar to start this position this summer.

What’s happening with you? Check in with us soon!

Rebecca Zimbler Graziano | rebecca.graziano@hotmail.com

I am sorry to not have an update this month.  Wesleyan converted their mail system and I did not get the notification that it was time to collect news. It’s too late to catch up this time around, but by the time you read this I will be sending out the next call for notes. (After all, we just had a slew of new for the Reunion, so a month off to center ourselves will do us all good.)

Hope all is well, and talk to you next time.

Michael Steven Schultz | mschultz84@wesleyan.edu

Hello, everyone. Another season has come and gone. Wow, it sure goes fast these days. I hope your summers were filled with family, friends, health, and fun. Wishing you a happy fall.

Judy Korin produced the Netflix original documentary The Great Hack, which premiered worldwide on July 24. The film explores personal data and its exploitation and impact on democracy through the journeys of several characters surrounding the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. It’s being hailed by critics and audiences alike as eye-opening and terrifying. She writes, “The film will make you think twice about every interaction you have with technology. And, I’m happy to report that one of our lead editors, Carlos Rojas ’02, is a Wesleyan alumnus (although a LOT younger than me)!”

After 22 years as legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Michael Steinberg joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School full-time in the fall, where he will teach civil rights litigation and start a clinic called the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative. Michael was also invited to tell a story about one of his cases at a Moth Mainstage event.

Ellen Zucker is a partner at Burns & Levinson and was named 2019 Women Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal for her impressive career success and sterling reputations. She works in the firm’s Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group and is a powerhouse trial lawyer who has litigated or resolved a wide range of employment matters, including landmark discrimination and retaliation cases resulting in significant verdicts or settlements. Ellen also represents corporate and individual clients in business litigation, counseling and negotiations, as well as governmental investigations and criminal proceedings.

Tim Brockett ’83, MALS’87 was given a certificate of recognition by President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence for assistance with the Trump/Pence campaign. He also did a volunteer stint as an investigative journalist/commentator for the online Glastonbury Community Forum, where he helped to uncover violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The case has yet to go to court but a violations letter has been sent. He writes, “Life is good in Montana and just gets better with every passing year.”

Philip Roth just finished a two-year master’s of public health at Columbia University. He enjoyed the rare opportunity to view medicine from 20,000 feet after being in the trenches as a surgeon for 25 years. And, the new perspective has catalyzed a career change—details to follow as it becomes clearer.

Alice Jankell is facing impending Empty-Nest Syndrome (daughter Parker is at Oberlin and son Julian is off to drama school) by continuing to write and direct. She helms the new musical, An Enchanted April, off-Broadway this fall.

David Steinhardt made his professional legitimate stage acting debut in the West Coast’s first production of The Antipodes by Annie Baker, in August in Seattle. New to town, he has relied greatly on Steven Sterne’s advice, kindness, and assistance. David’s editorial brand, Massive Publishing Enterprise (fb.me/editorMPE), is credited in Dartmouth professor P.K. Crossley’s new Eurasian history, Hammer & Anvil (Rowman & Littlefield).

Jan Elliott has been busy teaching, coaching, and performing with various music and dance groups on Cape Cod; one of the newest groups is Courante, a professional-level baroque music quartet that performed at this year’s Boston Early Music Festival.

Tim Backer finished a third string quartet last month, titled “Fourfold Folium,” a collection of electric guitar extempore compositions, titled “The Musing Genie (Purgatorio),” and is finishing recording an audiobook of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. All he says is “a blending of Blakeanism, Chinese philosophy, and Harold Bloom’s theory of influence.”

Lynn Ogden had the joy of attending her daughter’s Wesleyan graduation in a special ceremony for the women’s lacrosse team a few days before Sunday Commencement so that the team could play at the NCAA lacrosse finals in Virginia that weekend. They placed within the top four schools in Division III and broke records all season. She writes, “It has been an honor to see Wesleyan through my daughter’s eyes and the sports program. Only wish they’d ask for less out-of-pocket financial support from parents for a school of our league and caliber. So, to my classmates—support Wesleyan!”

Until the next time,

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Yikes! It seems like I was just writing about how surreal it was to hit 50, now 60 . . . Elizabeth Feigelson is one who is doing it with grace: “I just turned 60 and am finding a convergence of gratitude for so much, including the great luck and privilege of my years at Wesleyan. At the core are all the amazing people, friends, and teachers. I revisited our history of protesting for Divestment in South Africa as well as drafting the first template for a women’s studies program with Heather Baker-Sullivan, Beth Ross ’83, Laurie Trupin, Mary Freeman, Alice Aplen, Kay MacCabe ’83, Marion Wilson ’83, Andrea Smith ’83, and George Snee ’80 at the inspiring wedding of Denise Joseph. Then celebrated with Heather and Pearl Raz ’81, my first housemates and still soul sisters. Also in regular contact with Mary Purpura ’84 (check out her All Her Flavors blog at strugglinggoddess.com). I’ve also reconnected with one of my former guitar teachers, Tom Ross ’67, PhD’85 (then a Wes grad student) who is still one of the most inspiring I’ve encountered. And still working as a child and adult psychiatrist, promoting mental health in schools and being a mom. Looking forward to less work and more play. Forever grateful for David McAllester, who helped me stay in school by introducing me to his Navajo family. Savoring it all.”

It seems like this is a time of reinvention for many of us. Rachael Adler married Danny Newbrun, a man she dated 25 years ago; he’s a Kaiser doc who has inspired her daughter to aim at med school when she heads to college this year. Rachael’s acting students’ classes are so successful she’s been batting away job offers from the top theatre companies in the Bay Area.

Michele Dow writes, “I used to be Joseph Dow, so that’s probably news.” She earned her PhD from Lesley University in Cambridge in May and her book on transgender educators is coming out from Rowman & Littlefield next summer.

Kathryn Moody Benjamin downsized after 27 years in one house. “It took two years of mental preparation and one year of active decluttering (thanks to Marie Kondo).” Both her daughters relocated, and in the midst of major change, she started a new job at Simmons University in Boston.

Mary Downs lives in Washington, D.C., and works in funding and policy for preservation of global cultural heritage. She gets up to NYC regularly for music and theater and had coffee with Gail Marowitz ’81 on the eve of her Grammy appearance last January. She’s caught up with Traies Roe and Amy Anson in D.C., Kate Cooper in London, and Deirdre Finney Boylan in Maine. Another reunion was had by the authors and followers of Kaylie Jones Books at East City Bookshop on Capitol Hill: Patti Smith, Kaylie Jones ’81, Kathy Prager Conrad ’81, Joanne Godin Audretsch ’81, and Jeff Tsu.

Stephen Daniel writes—for the first time!—that all is well in Chatham, on Cape Cod, where his family moved full-time: “The 40th annual gathering (seriously) of the Stupid Dogs (Jack Taylor, John Mooney, Peter Frisch, Kevin Foley, Dan Hillman, Bruce Crain) will take place here at the end of the month. One of the SDs observed a few years ago that we’ve been getting together for so long we’ve replaced acid with Advil.” He says his daughter, India ’22, just moved into Eclectic and has a higher GPA in her first year than he achieved in four. India’s twin, Harding, is at Kenyon. Stephen is working informally as a private investor/public servant, serving on a range of scientific and educational boards, including those of Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which he chairs. He also chairs the Chatham Finance Committee which, effectively, represents the legislative branch of municipal government in Massachusetts—Town Meeting (a direct gift of the Pilgrims).

Laura Fraser | laura@laurafraser.com

Michael Ostacher | mostacher@gmail.com

Greetings from Brooklyn! As I write this, summer is fading to fall, kids are back to school. My youngest just turned 15. I haven’t had a 15-year-old in 15 years! That makes my middle one 30. They both came to our 25th and were featured in a bunch of pictures back then, when they were 2 and 17, because they were so gosh-darn cute. Still are, albeit differently. Where does time go? I remember my psych stats professor—I don’t remember his name, but I remember him—saying back then: “Every year, the freshmen get younger and younger.” At this point in my life, I can definitely relate.

Debbie Mueller acknowledges that it’s been quite some time since she’s checked in and that she enjoys hearing what’s up with all of you. “I’ve been living in Durham, N.H., for about 14 years, and am still practicing OB/GYN full-time. My passion these days is for oil painting. Having lived my entire life believing I had no artistic ability, three years ago, an accidental experience with painting turned my world upside down. Since then, I have immersed myself in the world of painting, and am now an award-winning artist, creating graphic and bold landscape paintings inspired by the New Hampshire and Maine coast. I’m hoping to leave the world of medicine as soon as I can swing it to be a full-time artist.”

David P. Miller is “doing a rotation at NSF as a program officer for robotics in the robust intelligence group and managing the National Robotics Initiative. Except for the weather, Alexandria, Va., bears little resemblance to Norman, Okla. Cathryne and will probably be here until August 2021. “

David adds that his son, Jacob Milstein ’09, “is doing music, improv, and Segway tours in Nashville. His album, As Free as Wanting Anything, is musically accessible to me, and probably you (not just his parents, to whom everything he does is outstanding). jacobmilstein.bandcamp.com.”

David Smith reports that he “recently moved to a new position with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Region as assistant water director. Working in EPA these days is ‘interesting,’ and we are doing everything we can to stay true to our mission to protect human health and the environment. I am doing a great deal of work on U.S.-Mexico border water issues so I’m seeing a lot more of the border, with and without fences, than I ever expected. In my spare time I’m making progress with my wife, Stacey, in our quest to visit all of the national parks (about two-thirds of the way there), experience as many weird land art installations as we can, and catch as much live music as the wallet allows.”

Delcy Fox loved getting together again with InTown 21 housemate Dr. Jim Sullivan ’82!

Alyson Myers is researching ocean-based climate solutions with funding by DOE ARPA-E. Her team uses macroalgae (sargassum) for CO2 removal and repurposing.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey flooded 18 inches of water in Peter Gryska’s house. “After 22 months of temporary living with my wife, two dogs, and all remaining belongings in 1,000 square feet, I have moved into newly constructed home, 42 inches off the ground.”

John Hester is retired and enjoys his time traveling. He resides in Goose Creek, S.C.

After serving 26 years as a psychologist in the federal prison system, Kate “Kathy” Freiman-Fox retired three years ago “to a big career change when I created my own matchmaking and date-coaching company, Authentic Connections. I’m loving my second career as well as my husband, son, and dog. Still doing alumni interviews for Wesleyan here in North Carolina and (at the time of this writing) missing the New England summers.” She adds, “Best wishes to the Class of 1981!”

That’s all for now, fellow and approaching sexagenarians. When you receive this, it will be a bit more than a year before our 40th Reunion. Yikes!

David I. Block | david.I.block@gmail.com

Joanne Godin Audretsch | Berlinjo@aol.com

I have to say that we have the BEST class! I put out a call for notes a couple days before the due date, having let the request from Wesleyan fall through the cracks, and my fellow alumni rallied. Maybe the last minute thing is the best for us overly involved high achievers. In any event, it was wonderful hearing from a lot of new folks and reconnecting with new and already connected classmates. This is the best “job.” No big themes this issue — I threw the net wide and got back a wonderful variety of responses. And thank you all who wrote to me noting their appreciation for my class secretary efforts. It really is fun!

Paul Oxholm wrote in for the first time, noting he has never embraced social media so is not in the habit of posting . . . anything! Thank goodness he made an exception: Paul said he is celebrating:

• 28 years of marriage to Karen Stevenson, whom he met in banking and who now is a very accomplished Pilates instructor
• 25-year-old daughter, Sarah, who graduated from Lehigh, a senior associate with KPMG in Manhattan and making the most of her career and many great friendships
• 22-year-old daughter, Catherine, who just graduated from Denison and has accepted a great teaching position with the Windward School, also in Manhattan
• a successful exit for investors, equity holders, and employees after 15 years turning around a highly leveraged medical device manufacturing and distribution company in Pennsylvania
• the many long-term relationships that have blessed his life and are helping him to identify his next career!

In short, he said life has been very kind to him. His family had the pleasure of visiting Middletown and their nephew, Cole Stevenson ’21, in February for the CSA National Squash Championships. Paul said Wes looked great and hopes to make our 40th Reunion.

Frank White commented that he never knows what to write but he said the breadth of my suggestions gave him the impetus to send in the following submission: “These days, folks like us of a certain age tend to bifurcate our time between living directly and vicariously. Thus, I find myself alternating between appreciating the milestones of my children and my own life, more or less equally. My humble highlights are, therefore, as follows: daughter a junior at McGill majoring in philosophy (I said nothing), one son a star of his high school soccer team (center back, what’s up with that?) and the other a budding middle school intellectual/athlete as well; for my part, I’m leading a team of software developers for Cision.com and writing two books on the side, a memoir and a historical thriller about Afghanistan. All the best to the class of ’80/’81!”

Steve Kaufman reported that after almost 10 years in D.C., he is now back in Denver. Steve retired from the private practice of law and is now working for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser as the deputy attorney general for consumer protection. Steve says it is great to be back in Colorado working with a talented group of people and having a great time.

Walter Calhoun (Chi Psi) sent in such uplifting news on Sept. 8. He started with: “Good Sunday morning. I am overwhelmed with joy this morning. I have two children: Sammy, 34, and Daniel, 32. On Oct. 16, 2018 Sammy was married in a wonderful wedding celebration at the Bronx Zoo in NYC. Both Sammy and her husband work for CDW out of their Bridgeport, Conn. offices. Last week, they bought a bigger house for themselves near the shore in Bridgeport. I can’t wait to visit them as I still live in the Chicago suburbs. Meanwhile, Daniel was previously accepted at the University of Michigan Law School, which I graduated from after Wesleyan in June 1983. Daniel began his orientation week in Ann Arbor, Mich., last week. I could not be more overjoyed with the development and place of both of my children and the choices they are making for themselves and society. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share.”

Walter and I corresponded a bit back and forth which brought out more news I hadn’t heard before. In May 2002, Walter was hit by a car, was in coma for a month and hospitalized for another six. He has executive function limitations and has been on disability since. That said, he noted that people have generally been pleasantly surprised, as he is, about both the nature and extent of not only his original injury but also subsequent recovery. Walter has been on the board of Family Focus Evanston for the past 35 years and is a three-time past-president. Family Focus Evanston is a social services organization specializing in helping broken, primarily black, families where 95% of the people served live under the poverty line.

Walter is planning on attending our 40th Reunion!

Rachel Conescu Barany says she is doing really well! She’s going into her sixth year teaching at Friends Seminary, just east of Union Square in Manhattan. She taught for seven years right after graduating Wes before taking a 27-year hiatus. In that interim, she worked continuously, though part-time, in museum education, foundation consulting, and nonprofit development; married and raised two wonderful daughters; and realized that her calling was to be back in the classroom. She is now teaching ancient and medieval History (with an emphasis on non-western cultures) to middle school students, and loves her work. Rachel has very fond memories of her education classes at Wes. Rachel has two daughters, ages 25 and 23, with bright futures ahead of them (even though neither was interested in even applying to Wesleyan!). Isabelle is in her third and final year of an MFA program in creative writing at the University of New Orleans. And her younger daughter, Lilly, just started NYU law school. Rachel is divorced, now for three years, but has an amicable relationship with her former husband Francis, a molecular biologist at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Karen Murgolo announced a change in her career. Karen, who was most recently VP, editorial director of Grand Central Life & Style, left the corporate publishing side to work at Aevitas Creative Management as a literary agent. She represents authors who are authorities in their fields, have original voices, and/or are adding to the cultural conversation in an original way. In the past, Karen has worked with authors from Gwyneth Paltrow and Misty Copeland to Nobel Prize winner, Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, and Harvard endocrinologist, David Ludwig, M.D. She had also edited the Sprinkles Baking Book by Candace Nelson ’95. Now, in addition to the journalists, scientists, doctors, and chefs, Karen has signed up thus far, she is working with recently retired Wesleyan professor, Gary Yohe, who shared in the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”

Julie Burstein says “Giving a TED talk a few years ago opened up a new and rewarding focus for my work — coaching authors, scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs as they raise their voices in public — while I continue to work with cultural organizations to create radio shows, podcasts, and live events. Taking time for a daily tea meditation has grounded me through the past few eventful years, and I am spending more time in the pottery studio. Several of my tea bowls have been accepted into national shows.” Julie is tickled that the pottery bug has just bitten Nancy Rosenberg, and in early September they spent a marvelous afternoon together at the Brooklyn Pottery Invitational, and then visited The Old Stone House, which is the vibrant heart of that part of Brooklyn, and where Nancy has been board chair for several years. Julie is looking forward to seeing fellow alumni in the spring at our 40th!

Gary Gilyard has some fun news: “My wife and I celebrated our 35th Anniversary in Paris. Our middle daughter will be having our second grandchild, a girl in October! I’m planning to come to our 40th this spring. Nancy, Ray, Ron, Dale, Donna, Lisa, Teri, Moon, and anyone else I forgot, come!”

Vic Tredwell is our “Steady Eddie.” He writes “Nothing new with me. I remain the skipper and primary voice of my community radio station, WBFY in Belfast, Maine.”

Mike Zackin and his wife, Mary (Nastuk), became proud grandparents of William Francis Roose in May. Mike noted that hopefully their grandson would continue the Wesleyan legacy as both his parents (Katie Zackin ’09, and Robert Roose ’04) are proud Wes grads. They reside in Portland, Ore. The retirement bug has not bitten Mary and Mike just yet. Mike just passed 25 years as a pediatrician in Weston, Mass., and Mary celebrated 10 years as editor of Journal Watch Woman’s Health at Mass Medical Society. They still enjoy the suburban life in Sudbury Mass but spend a lot of time at their cabin in the woods in the heart of the Berkshires.

Dan Connors just celebrated his eighth anniversary as a CPA, and is currently working in an accounting firm and for a local symphony orchestra. Now that his youngest is graduating college next year, his big bucket list goal this year is to get his book published, and he has finally set up a website, blog and video site to say what needs to be said. (Authordanconnors.com) Dan is looking forward to the big 40 next year.

Will Rowe, for the last four years, has visited Wesleyan during the months of September or October to interview students for summer internships or full-time positions at Booz Allen Hamilton. He has been with Booz Allen for the last 23 years and is amazed at the level of talent of the Wesleyan students he meets with on each visit. They now have an active group of Wesleyan graduates working in government consulting, mostly in the Washington, D.C., area. They also had several students join their Summer Internship program this past June. Working with the career center is a great way for Will to stay connected to Wesleyan. He is thinking his next visit after this fall will be for our 40th Reunion. He hopes Dan Connors, Ken Freeman, and John Nimer will come too, his Williams Street roommates!

Leslie Landau really put a smile on my face when she wrote, “OK, so this is my first time writing class notes. But after nearly 40 years, maybe it’s time.” I LOVE it! Leslie has been with Jim Shankland ’78 since they hooked up in the back room of 72 Home Avenue in the summer of 1979. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they settled in 1984 after getting graduate degrees at Cornell (J.D. for Leslie and M.Eng in computer science for Jim). Leslie was a Big Law partner, and then was appointed to the Superior Court in 2003. She has done stints in criminal, family, and now sits in a juvenile law assignment.

Leslie says “It is hard, sometimes gut-wrenching work, but it also is immensely satisfying—a place where a judge can make a huge difference in the lives of kids and families.” Leslie and Jim have two sons: Sam (27) is a professional chess player, a Grandmaster who was a 2018 U.S. Champion, plays on the US Olympiad team, and is currently in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, getting ready to play the World Cup. Alex (24) is a software engineer by day and Renaissance man by night; he served for several years as a Wikipedia administrative editor focusing on politics articles, and is revising the novel he wrote for his senior thesis at Tufts. Jim has been in tech for almost 40 years, in various companies, including most recently the Internet Archive and Google. He is taking a break from software to figure out what is next. Leslie is in touch with some folks from Wesleyan, including Debbie Ehrenthal, Jane Cooper, Susan Freinkel, Eric Arnesen, Julie Light ’81, and Laura Schulkind ’81.

Aleta E. Staton has survived her first New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas as she finally gave in (after 20 years) and decided to work in New Haven full-time, managing the Department of Community Engagement. Aleta says she loves New Haven, and loves living in New Haven, with its rampant culture of academia and arts and greenspaces and disparate neighborhoods and flaws and possibilities.

With her daughter living her best life as an artist and stylist in Times Square, Aleta is an empty nester, but there is plenty to busy herself with in the Cultural Capital of Connecticut. Right now, at the Festival, in addition to being in the planning phase for international works, they are devising two performances—one that is music centered, and one that is movement centered—both featuring residents of their community. Look for the resulting performances presented in June 2020 at www.artidea.org.

Aleta is also directing a full-length production at Quinnipiac University this fall. Baltimore, by prolific award-winning playwright Kirsten Greenidge ’96, is an examination of racism on a fictional college campus. Curtain went up on Nov. 7. Aleta is in her seventh year at Quinnipiac University as an adjunct in the department of theatre, working with a dynamic staff and student body.

Aleta says she is loving the Facebook updates from classmates Gary Gilyard, Synaia McQuillan, Ron Riddick, Ray and Cheryl Riddick, Lisa Nelson-Robinson, Allison Brown, Gloria Penny Mullings, and Michelle Mullings!

Keith Sklar‘s Mass MoCA show opened to the public on April 13 and will be on view through February 2020. As always, Keith said he is grateful for the extraordinary insight and support of Professor Emeritus John Paoletti and the rest of his teachers and peers at Wes. He added, “It’s always a pleasure reading about the paths people have taken since our Wesleyan experience so many years ago. I wish you all the best.”

Rick Smith said he hasn’t written in about 20 years but my appeal moved him to jot down a few thoughts. “Introspection after beating cancer in 2012 led me to make some changes. Replacing my job with solo consulting gave me the opportunity to devote more to family, friends, and an array of interests while continuing satisfying work in health policy. Three years ago, my wife and I moved from the Baltimore suburbs to Takoma Park, Md., which borders D.C. We’re enjoying the urban setting. We travel often to see our three sons, who for the moment are split among Northern and Southern California and New York.

Over this past summer, Andrew McKenna participated as a member of the National Geographic Dr. Robert Ballard Expedition to Nikumaroro Island in the Phoenix group, Kiribati, searching for further evidence that Amelia Earhart’s last flight ended up there, and she was marooned as a castaway. The expedition was chronicled in the Nat Geo TV special Expedition Amelia that aired in October.

Andrew worked with the archaeological team seeking to find artifacts at the site where a castaway’s partial skeleton was discovered in 1940. Andrew was quoted in one of the Nat Geo articles which you can read here.

Jacquie Shanberge McKenna | jmckenna@indra.com

With our Reunion weekend (now months) behind us, we get it. Fair enough. Y’all are drained of sharing. We’re now in the oversharing phase of our relationship (haha!) and we all just want to roll over and snooze. We totally get it.

We’ll just take this space to say thank you, ’89ers. You show up in different ways for your Wes family—even if only in the yummy internal memories that you marinate on and share with your own community wherever you are in the world. We appreciate you.

So, squeeze yourselves and please plan to make it to our 35th (early plug). Pro-tip: Staying in the dorms felt a little like going camping replete with your friends in their jammies shuffling to the loo in the morning after the bugle screamed through the air. The accommodations paired well with the where-is-my-bed-please-people, post-karaoke sheen we were sporting in the wee hours (or just me?).

Lastly, a thought . . . When did our class notes become solely about our achievements? We should continue to share victories. Yes, let’s! What if we also add something a bit of a Q&A to that?

Let’s try this. For our next round of notes—which we’ll be seeking your updates sooner rather than later—let’s all answer: Describe where you would go and what you would do if someone wiped out all of your debt, put $25k in your savings account, gave you three first-class airline tickets, and another $25k in spending money. Yet, you cannot save any of the spending money. It must be spent on travel, food, lodging, and fun only. Where would you go and what would you do when you got there?

Check out our next notes to find out how your classmates answered this.

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

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Greetings, everyone. Looks like you all must be busy this time of year with graduations and summer fun. I didn’t hear from many people, so if you have not reached out lately, please send your updates when you read this one. Also, if you have any ideas on how to spruce up our notes, please shoot me an e-mail. Enjoy your summer.

Alice Jankell and her husband, Jess Shatkin, are facing impending empty nest syndrome, (daughter Parker is at Oberlin and son Julian is off to drama school). But happily, Alice remains busy writing and directing. She helms the new musical An Enchanted April off-Broadway this fall. Alice, I loved the movie and read the book. I even visited Castle Brown in Portofino last summer where the movie was filmed. I can’t wait to see your show when it opens. Congrats! Maybe you can do a Wesleyan night?

Sheila Spencer is adjusting to her new status as “open nest” since her daughter started Sarah Lawrence College and her son is at Reed College. She writes, “Dropping them off at college brought back many memories of the excitement that I felt as a freshman at Wesleyan. Enjoyed catching up with Janice Okoomianand Kenneth Schneyer at SLC drop-off.”

Keeping with the empty nest theme, two-thirds of my trio have returned home for their final year of graduate school. I’m thrilled to have them back and super excited for our last hurrah together before they fly solo. My third decided to stay in San Francisco after graduation and I miss her terribly, though I do enjoy visiting her throughout the year.

Lisa Hamilton has about a year until she joins us empty-nesters and “assuming no returns of any of the four!” She enjoys working at Butler University, celebrating one of her kid’s wedding, and seeing her young adults find their paths. She hopes to make it back to campus for our 40th.

Eileen Kelly-Aguirre’s latest news is she and her partner (now living in Connecticut) run a “Brownhouse studio through Airbnb in New Preston, Conn., should any Wesfolk be looking for an affordable, cozy, cool place to stay in this beautiful corner of the planet.”

Deirdre Black and husband are in Accra, Ghana, where she has been advising organizations in a diversity of sectors from higher education to cocoa entrepreneurship—all with a goal of capacity building. She has enjoyed explorations of Ghana and adventures in Nigeria, Senegal, and other parts of West Africa.

David Steinhardt moved to Seattle. A book he edited for several years is now out: Hammer and Anvil by Dartmouth professor P.K. Crossley, published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Kirsten Wasson works as a college counselor and internship coordinator at a private school in Calabasas, Calif. She is a storyteller (adult-style) in dozens of venues around L.A. and is finishing a memoir about changing her life at 51 from academic to paddle-boarding free agent. She has published poetry, photographs, and nonfiction in literary journals.

Lynn Ogden is excited to attend daughter Emilie Ogden-Fung’s [’19] graduation from Wesleyan and looks forward to seeing classmates from ’84 and ’83.

Until next time, namaste.

Laurie Hills | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Rebecca here. Back again, and thankful to hear from so many of you. In the wind up for these notes, Elizabeth Kromelow and I had a compelling back and forth about this column. We decided that many of you might run a dialogue internally to vet your own experiences, asking the questions, Is this news? Does it sound good? Is it inspiring? Elizabeth argues that you should feel comfortable expressing what’s actually going on in your life and not just the Sunday’s best, social media version.

In that spirit, Elizabeth reports that she has been struggling through the American medical system as she recovers from a brain tumor. She writes, “It’s incredible to learn that doctors don’t realize they’re part of an orchestra, and that a conductor is essential. I’ve had to fight for all kinds of things to which I’m entitled and put things in context for the doctors that they should be able to do themselves. The irony is that doctors tell me to avoid stress and relax. A Wesleyan education is definitely required to get through this!” Elizabeth hopes to be back at the hockey rink in a couple of weeks. We’re pulling for you, Elizabeth!

Karen Humphries Sallick reports that after 23 years, she still enjoys work in her customer experience consulting company. In April, she soft-launched an app called Contacts 411, a contact updating tool based on the idea that people should have access to the same data companies do for their marketing without sacrificing the privacy of their contact list. Eileen Deignan provided awesome early feedback that Karen incorporated before the launch.

Andrew Hall regularly plays gigs in the NYC area with the instrumental rock trio, Big Lazy, and the Western swing band, Brain Cloud. He’s been learning the sousaphone, inspired by a twin love of New Orleans brass bands and old time jazz. He says it is fun, ridiculous, physically invigorating, and vastly different from his experience with the acoustic bass. Big Lazy toured the southeast this spring. Andrew was looking forward to seeing Annabel Conrad ’88 when the band hits Memphis. Check out both groups online—they’re great!

Nicholas Birns is teaching in China this summer and he and his wife Isabella are vacationing in California later in the year.

Ben Waxman probably speaks for many of us when he reports that when he and his wife Nicole McLaughlin became empty nesters last August, it was “totally devastating.” But don’t worry, by May, Ben was presenting on digital marketing micro-conversions at the NAFSA conference for international educators in D.C.

Hemanshu “Hemu” Nigam launched the Center for Online Justice to help victims of cyberstalking, online harassment, and other attacks to bring to justice those who use anonymity to engage in bad conduct. Hemu hopes to bring his work into a university setting as a clinic to help those who can’t afford services like these.

Lots of news from James Flynn, who became managing partner at Epstein Becker Green in January. James says he keeps in touch with Professor John Finn, “forcing him to endure” his eclectic articles about intellectual property. James and his wife Monica have three children, Justyna (bachelor’s and master’s from Loyola University), Michael (Boston College grad), and Anthony (Villanova University ’23).

Carla Yanni won the Rutgers University Scholar-Teacher Award, a university-wide prize for her work as a social historian of architecture. Carla was cited for her ability to inspire students to think about the ways people live with the built environment. Josh Bellin teaches writing and literature at La Roche University in Pittsburgh. He just published a novel titled House of Earth, House of Stone, the final book in a fantasy trilogy.

Joan Morgan published her second book, She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to great reviews. Joan took a national book tour with events at the Brooklyn Museum and The Kennedy Center. Her first book, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down, was optioned for screen rights by Academy-Award-nominated producer Mimi Valdés. Still, it was back to work this summer as Joan prepared to defend her American studies doctoral dissertation at NYU.

Rafael Semansky began his own business Nantasket Road Consulting, providing health analytics, writing, and grantwriting. Prior to this, Rafael was a scientific review officer for NIH, organizing expert review groups in health IT and nursing science.

After 50 years of East Coast living, Brooks Kraft and his wife Christine have moved  to California, where he now works at Apple. Their son Daniel ’23 will be attending Wesleyan!

For the record, Michael Bennet announced his run for the presidency. Lots of classmates are rallying around him, and as I finalize this column, he is preparing to do a CNN town hall. To me, we are all still 22, which makes the stories of our lives even more amazing. Keep us posted.

Rebecca Zimbler Graziano | rebecca.graziano@hotmail.com