Class Notes | 1990s

Marnie Craycroft shares that her boys are now 15, 14, and 10—”how time flies!” The big news is her family’s move to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, over the summer. Marnie says they’re loving the mountain life and all it has to offer.

Julenne Mounts reflects on the events of the past year, sharing her gratitude for President Roth’s poignant letter to the Wesleyan community. His statement, “We must reject the cultivated ignorance that fans the flames of hatred,” has inspired her family’s new mission statement—and bumper sticker! Julenne is rediscovering her dream of creating immersive outdoor education programs as a way to counterbalance the growing dependency on technology.  

Julenne also shares exciting news about her daughter, who, inspired by President Roth’s words, recently submitted her application to Wesleyan. “Fingers crossed for a future Wes alum!” Though the timing of reunions and homecomings is tricky with her kids still in school in Hawaii, Julenne hopes to visit campus more often if her daughter ends up on the East Coast.

This fall, Julenne enjoyed reconnecting with Alissa Farber and Arthur Baraf during a beautiful day in Boston. She sends a warm invitation to any ’99ers visiting Maui to stop by. Though the island is still recovering from the wildfires, Julenne assures us there’s no shortage of natural beauty and powerful landscapes to explore. “A hui hou!”

Kevin (writing this time) wishes he had more content to share in these notes . . . hope you all will take a moment to send in updates for the next set of notes, so we all have more to read next time around!

Hello fellow classmates,

Alan Schlechter wrote in to say that he and Tim Whyte went on a tour of Wesleyan this summer with Tim’s older daughter, Selma. The tour guide was an amazing example of what Wes can produce and very inspiring! Go Wes! 

Abe Forman-Greenwald’s feature documentary, Brother Orange, was acquired by Gravitas Ventures and is available for streaming. It’s a buddy comedy about an unlikely cross-cultural friendship that all began back in the halcyon days of 2015 with the mystery of a stolen iPhone. Congrats, Abe!

Peter Isbister continues to live in Decatur, Georgia, with his wife, Robyn Painter, and his three kids, Mira, Ezra and Eliot. Peter is currently the interim managing attorney for the Detained Team at the Atlanta office of Kids In Need of Defense, an immigration nonprofit representing unaccompanied minors. He took this position after the Southern Poverty Law Center, his prior employer, surprisingly eliminated their entire immigration division. Peter’s daughter and Dave Lubell’s daughter are both student teachers at the same Hebrew school, so Peter and Dave and their families see each other all the time. Peter is also still in touch with Amanda Jackson Miller ’98, his high school buddy. Amanda and her family continue to live in Santa Cruz, California. 

Finally, Kate (Dunton) Middleton’s father, John, wrote to thank everyone for so much support after losing her far too soon. He said that the wake was over four hours of a continuous line of people that went around the building, and I know there were many of our class at her memorial service mourning this loss. John said that the entire family is stunned not only by her death but by the way she affected so many people in so many different ways. She is deeply missed, and our thoughts are with Pat and the rest of her family.

Wishing all of you the best,

Abby

Great to hear from our classmates near and far! Let’s start with our faraway friends…

Saskia Herz Mower is working at a Girls’ Day School Trust school in London, as head of philanthropy and alumnae engagement. In this role she reconnected with fellow Wesleyan program in Paris alum, Mark Davis ’96, who isthe senior philanthropic officer and director of gift planning at Wesleyan. “En route to a conference I ran into fellow–UK resident, Monica White, associate professor of Russian and Slavonic studies at Nottingham University. Over the summer my daughter and I enjoyed reuniting in London with Jessica (Shea) Lehmann and her delightful family.”

Becky (Seamans) Egea also wrote from London: “Our children wear their school uniform every day, which certainly makes choosing their outfit easy! Our eldest and youngest (both boys) are each at different all-boys schools in central London. Meanwhile, our daughter is at an all-girls school in the countryside. Our children have all gotten used to walking on the left-hand side of the road as well as taking the Tube (subway) to school.”

From Laura Roberts in Red Hook (Hudson Valley, not Brooklyn): “I continue to work with students one-on-one, drive my 15-year-old around to soccer stuff, and travel when I can—but sometimes only as far as Connecticut. In fact, last night I stayed with Robin McClellan Woodworth in Connecticut. We went to see Taylor Tomlinson perform in Hartford. It was, as always, a treat to connect with my former ice hockey co-captain! I hosted Thanksgiving in Red Hook. I had the pleasure of having not one, but two Wes alums at my table: William Abbott ’99 and his husband, David Paige, and their two children; and Bo Bell ’95 and his two children. I cooked the turkey, my very first(!), according to a recipe sent from Kiersten Miller ’95, who is still in Rome. And, of course, I have the daily delight of having Mia Lobel right next door for walks and more. I am so grateful that Wesleyan is still a huge part of my life!”

Tony Schloss is in NYC. He wrote, “Juno Shaye ’98 and I live and work with three children and together are launching a fairly innovative family comedy act.”

Andrew Frishman wrote: “My wife/partner, Leigh Needleman ’96, and I are still loving living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where our kids are in sixth and ninth grade; it was lovely to run into Christian Housh and his wife/partner, Tassia, at back-to-school night at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, where all of our kids are thriving. Our family gets together regularly with Laura Warren ’98 and her husband/partner, Alan, and their kids who live just a few blocks from us—our kids are similar ages and love hanging out and they’ve started playing squash together!

“Leigh, now in her fourth year as executive director of the Rowland Institute, recently coordinated the move of the Rowland Institute to the main Harvard Campus. I was out in the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall and got to have a delightful lunch and ‘walk ’n’ talk’ with Alex Jermyn; his architecture firm, Alexander Jermyn Architecture, is doing great (https://www.aj-a.co/). I was at a conference in Baltimore in the fall and serendipitously ran into Jenny Schmidt ’98. We wound up on the same flight to Denver—sounds like she and her family are doing great in Boulder! And she’s doing powerful work as a co-founder of Ravenyard Group (https://ravenyard.com/). The conference that Jenny and I [re]connected at was The Well, put on by New Profit. One of the senior leaders (managing partner) there is Shawn Dove ’84, whom I got to catch up with briefly. Another recent professional connection: I met Cat Lum ’12 last year through a youth-driven social capital community of practice that we’re a part of. She’s doing very cool work as senior director of partnerships and strategy at NxU  (https://www.nxueducation.org/). My most frequent Wesleyan social media connection is probably Rob Mathews ’96, who I ‘see’ running with admirable frequency and distance on Strava. Jamie Pagliaro ’98 is doing very cool work as executive vice president and chief learning officer at RethinkFirst (https://www.rethinkfirst.com/team-experts/jamie-pagliaro/), and also making beautiful music with The BARD Band, which recently released an album https://www.thebardband.com/about.”

Dr. Leah Ayanna (Brown) Johnson is still living in the New York/New Jersey area. She wrote, “I completed my PhD in organizational leadership in 2023. I work as a leader in the higher education sector. I am finally releasing my fourth book that deals with faith and intersectionality this spring.” Her new book is called Faith and Transformation Friday: A Faith Workbook.

Jess had the pleasure of reconnecting with her former ice hockey teammate, Kira (Markiewicz) Fabrizio, her husband, Dan Fabrizio ’96, and their two children in September at Middlebury College Family Weekend in Middlebury, Vermont. Kira and Jess were delighted to catch up after not having seen each other since 1997—now their sons are living in the same freshman dorm!

Thanks for your updates, everyone!

Sasha and Jess

1996er fam: I hope this finds you all well in the New Year—so many cool goals for the year.  Until then, must get through these winter temps in the DMV. Light at the end of the tunnel, as I have much anticipated trip to Portugal (Lisbon and Cascais) and Spain (Merida, Sevilla, Grenada, Cordoba, Madrid, and Barcelona) this March.

Lots of good news comes in from our classmates from both near and far!

Danny Atwood had a great season this year as Santa Claus, working about 30 gigs—from home visits to the San Diego Pride Parade in July, to a bunch of marketing videos for the Tipsy Elves.

Rallie Snowden (formerly Rallie Nepveux) writes in that she and Anne Brockelman are planning to meet up in D.C. with their families in tow. She hopes Amber Gay will join them.

Shereem Herndon-Brown has a new book coming out this summer. After the success of The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation About Education, Parenting and Race, he is excited to announce Power College Admission Essays: A Guide to Telling Your Story. It’s a perfect book for many of us who have teenagers who are thinking about Wesleyan and other not-so-awesome colleges!

Alissa Pines Deitz gives the update “still living in Austin, Texas, with my husband and two teenage boys.” She mentions she actually got a snow day down there! She is a dyslexia interventionist in the Austin public schools and absolutely loves teaching kids to read. “Isn’t it fun to be 50? Many of us celebrated our 50th birthdays this past year. Two observations I have about being 50: I need my readers all the time, and raising teenagers sucks! Outside of that 50 is pretty rad. We went to Colorado this winter for some skiing and met up with Steve Pockross ’94 and Sean O’Connor. Was great to catch up with them and meet their lovely families.”

Mike Stabile was recently in Washington, D.C., as part of coalition taking Texas attorney general Ken Paxton to court; Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 15. He notes he has been doing free speech and sex work advocacy for the past decade or so and has connected with a number of alums in the space, including Tristan Taormino ’93 and Ella Dawson ’14. “With the fight getting tougher, am looking to connect with more alums and allies.”

Stacey Samuel sends in news that while she “continues to produce podcasts, docuseries for TV, she’s added teaching at Georgetown University’s journalism school to her to-do list.” She feels it’s her way of giving back to the next generation of journalists.

Vivek Asija reaches out from Pleasanton, California, where he moved to after 15 years in San Francisco and seven years in Oakland. He says, “It’s a bucolic suburb and I swore I would never end up in such a place, but truth be told, I love it.  It’s great for families and my two little girls (seven) and (10). I have worked in B2B software product marketing in Silicon Valley for the last couple of decades. I am now running my own marketing services and podcast production company (www.productmarketingpartners.com), and I host an Indian cooking show as a passion project (https://open.substack.com/pub/easyindianfood).” Vivek creates custom videos of Indian dishes and has dedicated them to his friends, including Kyle Maple. You can read more about Vivek at www.vivekasija.com.

Katy writes: Hi, Class of ’95. Thanks for writing (including first timers!) with news exciting, ordinary, and sad. Reminder that May 22–25 is our 30th Reunion! Registration should now be open—join us if you can!

First, the very sad news of the death of a classmate, Michelle (Willis) Gosselin. Born in Vermont, after Wesleyan Michelle earned a master’s in IT from Drexel and spent her career living and working in New Hampshire. She was very active in her town of Weare, helping with PTA events, dance programs, and sports activities. She loved to read, take walks, spend time with her family, and especially to be at the ocean. She is survived by her husband, Kevin, their two children, Kaitlyn and Ben, her parents, Fred and Betsy Willis, her brother, Matthew, and extended family. Some of our Wes classmates attended the funeral in December, and Michelle will be greatly missed by all who knew her.       

Channing Kelly writes: “I remain in Albuquerque, New Mexico, running my boutique real estate firm and raising my almost-teenage twin boys as a ‘single mother by choice.’ Occasionally I see fellow New Mexicans Sarita Nair and Esme Finlay ’96, and also have seen Greg Kunkel and his wife, Jill ’98, David Goodman and his wife, Tanya, Margaret Drew, Erica Walters ’94, Jessica Peterson, and Sarah Tarrant Madden ’96. Wesleyan connections are a big part of my life, and I received significant financial aid, so this year I’m issuing a challenge to support the current generation. I’ve pledged to match $1,000 gifts from any classmate who has never donated at that level (up to a maximum of 15). Please join me in giving back this year and reach out to me at channing@idakelly.com. See you in May!”

Max Brummel writes: “My wife and I have been living the good life in Minnesota for the past 18 years and have kept very busy raising our son and daughter. This past summer, my son played in the world’s largest youth soccer tournament in Gothenburg, and we enjoyed a few weeks in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.”

Jack Walsh writes: “Thirty years in a blink of an eye. For the past 20, I’ve been practicing law in Dallas, Texas, raising three kids with my wife, Kathleen. My oldest daughter, Ali, just graduated from college, while my middle kid is looking to attend college in Germany. My youngest son, Brady, aims to attend high school at Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island. Hope he gets in because it will mean more time returning to my home state. Still miss the four seasons of New England and Boston sports radio.”

Seth Kaufman writes: “Last year marked my 25th as a lawyer for the federal government in D.C. and fifth with our dog, Canelo. This year Roberta and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary. I had great times with some of my favorite Wesleyan people in 2024: Michael “Mo” Ouyang ’96 and his wife, Zoe, and Ethan de Seife. Both times my 16-year-old daughter and I went to Mets home games [and] Eric Lane met us. Recently, my daughter and I took a tour of Wesleyan on a perfect October morning. Looking forward to seeing people at the reunion!”

Jen Levine-Fried writes: “My boring update is that I am nearing three years with the International Institute of New England as its controller and have really enjoyed my time here. We work with refugees and immigrants, resettling them across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. My exciting update is that my son, Jonah, was accepted to Wes and will be enrolling in the Class of ’29! He had an overnight visit with Laurel Williams Wise’s son, Will, as his host, and that really sealed the deal for him. I’m looking forward to experiencing Wesleyan in this entirely new role!”

Masha Raskolnikov writes: “Last fall I returned to Wes as an external examiner for the College of Letters Junior Comps. The new COL library houses our bound senior theses, which is a little terrifying, but no professors from when we were undergrads remain. In other news, my twins are 12 and becoming scary tweens, and I continue to teach as an associate professor in the English department at Cornell University.”

Brandon Patton writes: “Kick-starting a board game about mushrooms called Caps & Stems this spring! After years as a musician, I pivoted to tabletop games. Would love to connect with any Wes alums in the Seattle area (where I moved in 2020). I’ve reconnected with Michael Roufa ’96 and Eric Fox ’98. Let me know if you can think of anyone. I’ve stayed in touch with Emily Halderman and Michael Ouyang ’96 and recently saw Morgan Fahey.”

Lara Tupper writes: “Thrilled to report that my speculative/literary novel, At the Center, in which paper shortages make books taboo, will be published by Regal House Publishing in the spring of 2027.”

See you at the reunion in May!

Hello, all! I hope that this message finds you well. I pray that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the New Year.

Sasha Chanoff writes, “RefugePoint is a dream come true—it’s the organization I founded 20 years ago to find life-changing solutions for refugees around the world. I loved seeing many of you at our 30th Reunion. Dan Lennon and I drove there together and sang Spirits songs on the car ride. My wife, Marni Chanoff—a psychiatrist providing ketamine-assisted therapy—and I live in Somerville, Massachusetts, where our two kids are in high school.”

Matthew Fraser shared, “I continue to write with the Salem House Press and have two books with social security themes. The first, Ideas for America: Let the Sun In,has a chapter about securing and maximizing social security; and the second, Critical Infrastructure for Children: The Astonishing Potential of New England Schools, has a few points on the education side of maximizing the program.” Matthew is diligently working to get this information out and hopes to have his books available in public libraries to allow greater access. He writes, “This is the best way I could think of to contribute and honor our class. I hope to hear from classmates soon.”

A member of Wesleyan Athletics shared, “During Homecoming last November, more than three dozen of John Griffin’s family, friends, and former teammates gathered to dedicate a tree in his name by Jackson Field. John was a member of the men’s lacrosse and football teams, as well as a DKE brother. He passed away in March 2020 and is remembered as being very kind and gentle despite his large size and physical way of competing. John would always say, ‘It’s a great day to be a Cardinal.’”

Jonathan Kirsch writes that he “directs the University of Minnesota’s Mobile Health program, bringing care to underserved communities. You can watch the recently made documentary, We Are Here: Lowering Barriers with Mobile Health, on the school’s website https://z.umn.edu/weareheredoc.”

James Longley shared, “In 2024 I finished filming a documentary feature in Afghanistan, working with Academy Award–winner Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. I lived and worked in Afghanistan under Taliban rule for two years to complete production, giving me a deep view into the social and political dynamics at play in Afghanistan following the departure of NATO forces.” 

David Niles writes, “After a great 30th Reunion, a few ’94ers carried the momentum to Homecoming where Steve Frail reprised his role as ‘Class Dad,’ providing sweet and savory pastries.” Well, that is all for now.  Keep sharing your news and memories!!

Thanks to everyone who wrote in this time around. It was great to hear some new voices, so I’d encourage anyone who has even a shred of news to share to send it in the future!

Abigail Lorber writes, “I am the grants manager with Dogwood Health Trust, a major funder for western North Carolina. I am grateful that my work has allowed me to help with the response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. It was a bit surreal to take a trip to Europe five days after the storm, but I especially enjoyed having a mini-Wes reunion with Andrea Spertus Lemon in Utrecht, in the Netherlands.”

Diego von Vacano is in Washington, D.C., this year, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, finishing a book on lithium and critical minerals in Latin America for Oxford University Press.

Sylvia Rowe writes, “After 17 years of working in global health for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, I left the nonprofit world. I have returned to my roots in corporate law and taken on a role as a mentor to young lawyers at Davis Polk. I’m happy to no longer be traveling on long international trips and to being more present, for the last two years, with our daughter before she goes to college. If you work near Grand Central in NYC give me a shout!”

Lisa Rothman has turned her passion project into her full-time focus. She founded StopFamilyConflict.com where she helps parents who’ve tried a million things but can’t stop the same fights from happening. They’re sick of being pushovers or police officers (sometimes both on the same day). Her approach turns each fight into a chance for deeper connection and a more trusting relationship, without compromising on anything that’s important to them or their kids.

Hadley Gustafson writes, “I earned a scholarship to study in-person in January with luminary Sam Abell through the Los Angeles Center for Photography (LACP.) The three-day workshop [was] called Sharpening Your Photographic Vision. You can read more about it here. 

I am also continuing to work as a photographer documenting LA cinema events.”

Darcie Luce wrote in with news that Jessica Kirshner was recently promoted to vice president of oncology research at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in Tarrytown, New York, where she has worked for over 16 years. She recently represented Regeneron at the Global Alliance for Women’s Health workshop, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Elisa Freeling lives in London, where she earned a postgraduate certificate in education at St. Mary’s University and trained as a religious studies teacher several years ago. She is now head of divinity at the West London Free School, in Hammersmith, and teaches religion, philosophy, and ethics.

Tuula Fai writes, “I can share that I’ve moved to Sedona, Arizona, and am loving it! I left high-tech after 30 years and founded my own real estate investment firm and am loving that too! I’m still distance swimming (laps), which I’ve been doing since they opened the Freeman Athletic Center in ’91.”

Greg Pasternack is leading a team of 30 folks from universities, local governments, and nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area on a project to help unsheltered people living along streams cope with climate vulnerability [due] to extreme wind-rain events and flash floods, while also seeking to restore ecological functionality to encampment sites. If any Wes folks in the area work on these issues, he’d love to hear from you. He met Wes alum Minona Heaviland ’99 and toured one of the Sonoma County regional parks she helps manage, so now they are developing proposals to solve problems with gullies. Greg reports, “She’s fantastic at her job, so it’s great to learn about other Wes alum in the Bay Area working on environmental solutions.”

Mike Kammen writes, “My life is very good. I went into my family business back in 1993 and pretty much have not looked back. The one constant is change—that is for sure! I’m still married to my awesome wife, Amy (23 years married). My son, Jackson, is a sophomore at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, [and] he is a catcher on the baseball team. My daughter, Dylann, is a senior at Immaculate Heart Academy and waiting to hear back from colleges for next year.”

Karina Eileraas Karakus recently published a book with her daughter, Annelise, called Chasing Spirits. The book explores issues of suicide, teen mental health and social media use after the tragic loss of her teenager during the pandemic. 

Thanks, everyone, and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025!

Greetings all. Hope that 2025 has gotten off to a good start for you all. Lots of news to report, so here I go . . .

First up is my frosh year roommate, James Wilton, who is still living in North Carolina and continues to manage operations in the Southeast for Genesis10. His son, Jack, is now in Fort Myers, Florida, working for Colony Hardware as an operations supervisor (graduated from NC State in 2023). Both of his daughters, Carley and Lola, are enjoying their college years at NC State University (one a senior, elementary education; the other a sophomore, sports marketing), and James and his wife were able to attend a bunch of NC State games this year.

Speaking of undergraduate days, in November I went down to Wes with my daughter, Lila, to attend the Admission 101 program. While there, I caught up with Linda Perlstein, who came from Seattle with her son, Milo. Linda recently left the Gates Foundation and is now supporting Melinda French Gates at her company, Pivotal Ventures.

On the other end of the college process, Karen Cacace is looking forward to returning to Wesleyan in May with her husband, Mike Flynn ’93, to watch their daughter, Sophia, graduate.

Todd Graham and Julie Schwarzwald ’88 met up this winter in Minneapolis–St. Paul and combined their efforts to organize a large and successful Wes alumni happy hour. Todd leads socioeconomic and land development forecasting at a metro planning agency.

Beth Shakman Hurd is a religious studies and politics professor at Northwestern. She has a new book coming out in the spring, Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States, published with the University of Chicago Press.

Also in the writing business, Jen Crittenden reports that she just wrote the book to an original “raucous musical comedy about friendship, rebellion, and autonomy”—Regency Girls. Set in 1810 England, it tells the story of Elinor Benton, who finds herself unmarried and pregnant. Facing certain ruin, she gathers up her three best friends and sets off on a life-changing road trip to find Madame Restell, renowned for helping women with “female troubles.” Regency Girls will be premiering at The Old Globe theater in San Diego this spring.

Also out West, Ben Parrillo is taking a hiatus from entertainment (with his wife, Sepi, and their 7-year-old daughter, Leon Soleil), building houses in Joshua Tree, California, through his company Bunkrhome.

Jody Sperling and her dance company, Time Lapse Dance, are featured in the documentary Obsessed with Light, which was released in theaters in December. This winter, Jody and dancers are heading on a three-city tour of Egypt—they’ll be performing at Alexandria’s Bibliotheca, among other venues. When not traveling, Jody lives with her daughter, now in eighth grade, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  

In some very sad news, Carlos Perez reports that his family lost everything in the fires that recently swept through California. Steve Scholand offered Carlos his family home in Connecticut to have time to heal and recover.

And to close things out, we have a first-time notes contributor in Dale Griffith (Go Dale! I love hearing from new folks!). She has a lot of news to catch us up on. After Wesleyan, she taught for 10 years at York Correctional Institution for Women in Niantic, Connecticut. While at York, she worked with author Wally Lamb to publish a collection of the York women’s stories, published by HarperCollins in 2001. After some time in North Carolina, she returned to Connecticut, started teaching English at Middlesex Community College in Middletown, then became full-time faculty. After retiring there in 2016, she came full circle, working with the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education by teaching a course on public speaking at York Correctional.

That’s all for now. I love to hear from everyone, so please keep your news coming!

After giving up his career as a Latin language and literature professor for the greater calling of caregiving, Dr. Anthony (AJ) Adams is now writing a novel about American consciousness and a nonfiction book about the arts/science divide. AJ can be found at Substack at https://apageantofwolves.substack.com.

In Portland, Maine, Maria Snyder writes that in 2024, she became a Department of Justice accredited representative at Catholic Charities Maine Immigration Legal Services. In the role, Maria assists people with certain immigration-related legal issues and helps low-income folks with immigration applications that offer pathways toward stability and family reunification. “In this very changeable political climate, with so much bad information being spread about immigrants, it’s even more important that we all get the facts on immigration right.”

Jeff Levine has been appointed an associate professor of the practice at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. “I started at MIT just before COVID hit and that was a long year of teaching and advising remotely. It’s good to be teaching in a program that has a lot of the same values as Wesleyan. In fact, I’ve worked with several Wes alums who have come through our master’s program in the past few years.”

Mark Steele enjoys the new freedoms of “empty-nesterhood,” focusing on music and art, and splitting time between Boulder, Colorado, and MidCoast Maine. Thanks to a chance encounter in Waterville, Maine, Mark learned from Sarah Sutter about a program perfect for his daughter, Emily, who is now enjoying her second year at Tufts. Furthering Wes connections in non-Wes places, Emily co-creates art with Quinn, son of Scott Kessel ’88. Mark also teamed up with Lodi Siefer ’98 to form the Climate Justice Hive, a nonprofit focused on coordinating community in the face of climate chaos. Mark makes the pilgrimage back to Telluride to work at the film festival, often seeing fellow bassist Chris Arndt ’92 and Sarah Holbrooke ’86. Mark and family love travel adventures with Daren Girard ’92 and his family. Watch for Mark’s bass and vocals solo album in spring 2025, under the stage name Conrad Steele.

In 2024, Ed Gerwig and his wife, Robin Hutson, living near Boston, made their side hustle a full-time job for their travel advisory company luxerecess.com. You can stream some new music of Ed’s now side hustle under The Deerfields.

After 20 years in Atlanta, Pierrette Maillet moved with partner, Danny Karg, to the upper valley of Vermont. She’s in higher education, fundraising and alumni engagement, at Vermont Law and Graduate School and trying to find pickleball opportunities wherever she can. “Glad I took full advantage of those Wes quarter credits in racquet sports all those years ago—they’re paying off!”

Kristin Sandvik Lush taught ESOL in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Aotearoa (New Zealand)—(the bilingual nation!) to students from all over the world for over 17 years, but thanks to COVID, made a transition into something completely different: self-employed academic editing (kristinlush.nz). Kristin is making an effort to expand beyond universities and academia and into a wider variety of written work in 2025.

Kristin was sorry to miss Jeremy Sacks and his wife, Dana, on their meticulously planned bucket- list odyssey in Aotearoa, and she encourages folks to add her current abode in Kerikeri to their list of destinations to check out—including the upside-down house restoration that she, her husband, and son (18) are up to their elbows in (while her urbane daughter, 20, holds down the fort in Auckland)!

Joshua Samuels was promoted to division chief of pediatric nephrology and hypertension at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston. He also serves as vice chair of faculty affairs for the Department of Pediatrics.

Laura Schiavo reports a 2024 Christmas miracle that gathered together 75 percent of her 1990–1991 Fountain Street housemates at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Heidi (Moore) Tucker was in D.C. visiting her daughter, and Tracey Osborne was in New York visiting family, making them both close enough to visit. They dearly missed Rachel Rosenberg Michaelson’s attendance.

Hi all. Here’s what we have:

Carol Lynne Booth writes with the exciting news that “son, Joshua Booth, got married on August 1 to his longtime boyfriend, Camden Brito. (Josh’s dad is David Booth ’91). They live happily in Seattle with their two cats. David and I are planning a six-week sabbatical in the spring, traveling mostly in Africa and the Middle East. We can’t wait!”

Ruben “Bengy” Ballesteros continues to be a staff attorney with Maryland Legal Aid in Towson, concentrating in representing youth in foster care and public benefits disputes.

Bill Shander shares exciting news: his first book, Stakeholder Whispering: Uncover What People Need Before Doing What They Ask, will be released at the end of April. In the book’s description, it says “author Bill Shander demonstrates how to get from your stakeholders’ ‘order’―what they’re asking for―to what they really need.” Look here for a preview: https://bhv.io/stakeholder-whispering

Al Viegas writes that “this is the year of graduations.” In December 2024, Al’s younger daughter, Ariana, graduated from Colorado College. Then in May 2025, “we have bi-coastal graduations on the same weekend with my oldest daughter, Alessandra ’20, graduating from USC with a MFA in dramatic writing on a Friday, and then two days later, my son will be graduating from Boston University. Meanwhile, my wife, Dora, and I continue to live in NYC, although we moved to the Upper East Side three years ago after living down in Battery Park/Tribeca since I came to NYC in the early 1990s! It’s a different vibe up here. I am reminded of when we first had kids, and it was like a major “aha moment” that you suddenly started to pay attention to other parents with strollers. . .  likewise, now it seems we are starting to notice the old people. . . .”

Speaking of graduations and aging, I hope everyone has our upcoming 35th(!) Reunion on the calendar. Looking forward to a wonderful weekend May 22–25! In the meantime, wishing all of you a happy and healthy 2025!