Class Notes | 1990s

Eve Fox ran into fellow classmate Claire Tranchese in July at the 50th reunion of The Abode of The Message, a Sufi community where Claire grew up and that Eve’s husband’s parents helped to start back in the late 1970s.  In other news, Eve and Megan Wolff contributed several chapters to a book that will be published in December by The New Press called The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late (https://thenewpress.org/books/the-problem-with-plastic/).

The lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center where Jeffrey Blumenthal works is wrapping up a three-year project that has been investigating ways the Port of San Francisco can adapt its planned seawall upgrade to enhance biodiversity by incorporating rocky shoreline habitat features in the design. The seawall rebuild will address sea level rise and generally aging infrastructure. He was interviewed in a local public radio story about the project, which you can listen to or read here: https://www.kqed.org/science/1997729/oysters-snails-and-a-wall-that-protects-against-climate-change-one-tile-at-a-time.

Celina Su is thrilled to announce a new book out this September: Budget Justice: on Building Grassroots Politics and Solidarities, on the everyday democratic work that we can all do to resist political repression and address the affordability crisis, between protests and between elections. Due to the pandemic and parenthood, it’s her first new work in a long time. She wrote it for a general audience and hopes that it serves as a useful entry point into conversations on building new forms of solidarity. She is also focusing on activist work with local people’s budget coalitions around the United States, so that we build power together rather than fighting for crumbs of the pie. She would be eager to connect with folks doing related work!

Chaela Volpe recently published Brain-Fueled Workplace: Harnessing Neuroscience for Performance, Innovation, Transformation, and Growth, addressing urgent, interconnected challenges undermining today’s workforce—especially burnout, which affects 76% of employees from the C-suite to the front lines. Her book (available on Amazon) introduces a proprietary planning model to streamline daily operations and optimize individual, team, and business performance. Learn more at www.thepopmodel.com.

After two decades of wanting to be a father, Ari Gerzon is cherishing each moment with his almost 3-year-old daughter, Selah Dove. Living next door to her grandparents on a lake in Colorado offers tremendous support as Ari navigates the joys and challenges of single parenting. He launched a new business, Same Team Consulting, and is finding great joy coaching and leading trainings at schools around the country on how to deepen family engagement. The heart of his work is centered around teams that bring immigrant families and educators together, and these spaces have never felt more important than they do now in the current climate. (Learn more at The Families and Educators Together Project website.) Also, Ari finally had the “boys” trip with William Messer that they had discussed for years. They met up in the Midwest in early June and explored Minnesota and Wisconsin. He can’t believe they’ve been friends for nearly 30 years now! 

Kabir Sen enjoyed a family trip to Portugal and Scotland over the summer with his wife, Rebecca, and their three kids—Ev, Julia, and Ethan. Kabir just completed his 26th year teaching music at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, and he continues to release new original music regularly under his full name (www.kabirsen.com / @kabirmakesmusic / linktr.ee/kabirsen). Kabir has two music residencies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Lizard Lounge and the Plough and  Stars, and he encourages Wes classmates in the area to be in touch!

Christopher Varmus earned his second master’s degree, in fine arts (visual), from Clark, where his thesis exhibition was hosted by the Worcester Center for Crafts. He will be exhibiting at MassMOCA with the next cohort graduating in January 2026. Check out his work on Instagram: @christophervarmusart. He is available for commissions, exhibition opportunities, teaching/motivational speaking engagements, and whatever else is out there. He is also planning to offer individual and group art therapy sessions both in person and via Zoom.

Greg Brodsky recently got divorced and moved with his two boys to Brookline, Massachusetts. He misses his cat from his prior home but is considering getting a turtle. 

Allegra A. Jones is delighted to share the news of her marriage to Ince Montenegro in an intimate ceremony on the mayor’s balcony of San Francisco City Hall. The happy couple traveled to the Philippines for tropical island hopping on their honeymoon in April and have lots of recommendations if anyone plans to travel there. Allegra stays in touch with friends visiting the Bay Area like Marnie (Randall) Craycroft and Matthew Goldstein. A long-weekend getaway in Arizona also brought together Nina Kontos, Eve Andrias, Caitlin Lang, Alexandra Rose, Hannah Blitzer, and Allegra for catching up and dancing to old-school hip-hop like old times at Wes. 

Considering Wesleyan Magazine will only be printed twice a year now, there will be fewer opportunities to provide updates. So, reach out to Kevin or me with any news that you’d like us to share in the next class notes.

Patricia (Selcke) Grad wrote in as she was headed to Efrosini “Cindy” Camatsos’s wedding in Greece! Congrats, Efrosini!! 

Emily Sharrock is celebrating one year as an independent strategy consultant and philanthropy advisor, focusing on education and early childhood policy. After 10 years working in NYC government at the Department of Education and another eight years at Bank Street College building out its public impact work, she says it felt like the right moment to take the leap. She’s been feeling especially motivated to help activate more philanthropy to support children and families in this moment when the needs are so urgent. She’s married to Leo Kim ’97, and they have two kids who are now 12 and 15—hard to believe. They recently spent a lovely day with Minona Heaviland ’99 and their families (they make a point to see each other every year), and she keeps in close touch with Talia Greene. They also just had a mini-Wes reunion at Leo’s 50th birthday celebration, with Joanna Starrels ’97, Alejandro Luciano ’96, Carolyn Cryer ’01, and Joel Levin ’96, all there to mark the occasion.

Neil Seth says he, his wife, Sylvie, twin 10-year-old boys (Asher and Sebastian), and their Bernese mountain dog (Junie), currently live in Bedford, New York. Their boys are going into fifth grade next year. They like running track, jujitsu, playing golf and tennis.

Inspired by love for this amazing earth and the peoples in it, Mark Steele ’91 and Lodi Siefer can be found engaged working for climate justice at the Climate Justice Hive. There are so many different groups and organizations working toward similar ends, but they are siloed from each other and often pitted against one another in competition for funding and resources. The Climate Justice Hive is finding out who is doing what and where around climate justice, first in Boulder County, and now in Maine, helping groups better coordinate and collaborate with one another. They also offer fiscal hosting to aligned projects that want to focus on their work rather than the bureaucracy of becoming a nonprofit! They ask you to check out their work and consider supporting their efforts through sending leads, encouragement, and good wishes!

Sara Brenneis is still a Spanish professor at Amherst College and just published two books in Spain. After a year living in Madrid with her husband and two kids, they came back to the U.S. and got a postelection dog. Recent Wes sightings include Carter Bays ’97, Craig Thomas ’97, Rebecca Alson-Milkman, and Pat Butler at the Solids show in NYC; Nick Coleman back in Madison, Wisconsin; and Margaret Solle Salazar at our Low Rise A4 reunion last summer.  She encourages everyone to reach out if you’re coming through Northampton, Massachusetts, on your kid’s college tour!

Here in Alaska, by the time you are reading this, we’ll be fully in the dark days, but hopefully with snow on the ground to help spread what light there is. It was great hearing from so many of you. Please stay in touch! 

We hope that you have been making time for your loved ones in 2025! In June, we met up with Sarah Kollman Regnier in Chicago for a delightful long weekend. We enjoyed our afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago and seeing a show at Second City, but we spent most of our time eating and talking. We were especially blown away by Kasama (the first Filipino restaurant in the world with a Michelin star!) and The Girl and The Goat.

Please enjoy these updates from our classmates… and we hope that there are meaningful Wes reunions happening for you too!

Kevin Carr O’Leary wrote, “I am still happy and thankfully healthy with my family in Brooklyn. My husband and I just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary by having dinner with our kids, who are 14 and 11. They head to middle school and high school this year (!). As a book collaborator, I just had a release with Tina Knowles, The New York Times #1 best seller Matriarch. I also helped Stephen Curry write his upcoming book Shot Ready, and the way he talked about his positive college experience at Davidson reminded me of Wes. While in the Bay working on that, I visited with Wendy Wu for a WestCo and Home Avenue mini-reunion.” We’re looking forward to reading your most recent work, Kevin! Congratulations and happy anniversary!

Producing artistic director Abdul Latif Rasheed was recently awarded theRockefeller Foundation’s Culpepper Arts & Culture Grant for his project Off the Wall at the Arthur Aviles Typical Theater (BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance). Here is a clip from a projection during Art Basel in Miami: https://youtu.be/8lDEwlhIOLA

Congratulations on receiving this grant award for the second time, Abdul!

Josh Suniewick wrote, “Thrilled to share that Maggie’s and my eldest son Sam Suniewick will be starting his first year at Wes in the fall, playing both football and baseball! During our time at Wes, Maggie and I didn’t attend a single football or baseball game, but we can’t wait to catch them all over the next four years! The fact that Sam gets to have a completely different (and hopefully equally awesome) Wesleyan experience is a testament to how the school provides such a wide range of opportunities for everyone to be active in the community!” What great news—we cannot wait to see the whole fam at Wes events!

Malayna Bernstein shared, “Josh Arthurs and I are both doing well, after a few difficult years. After coming through breast cancer in 2021, I was diagnosed with therapy-related leukemia in 2023, for which I received a stem cell transplant from my brother. We’re a year-and-a-half post-transplant, and while there are occasional hiccups, my health is good. Many Wes friends have been supportive during my illness, especially the two Amys—Gong and Fogelman. Needless to say, Josh took caregiving to new heights. I’ve never felt luckier to have him by my side. In happier news, our older son, Eli ’27, has been living his best life at Wesleyan. He and two friends founded the Wesleyan Institute for Policy and have gone on to do some amazing projects with River Valley Transport and the City of Middletown. He’s heading to South Africa for a semester abroad. Our younger son, Carlo, begins his senior year of high school in September —we are beyond curious to see where life takes him next. Josh and I will begin our fifth year at the University of Toronto this fall. I still sometimes pinch myself that I get to run a teaching and learning center—a dream that started when I first met Anne Greene, who died in May. Life does come full circle sometimes.” Malayna, we are so glad to hear about your recovery and send nothing but the absolute best to your whole family (and, of course, to all our classmates). We were very sad to hear about Anne Greene’s passing.

Susanne Blossom wrote, “I recently wrapped up 20 years as a proud Los Angeles County Public Defender to join the LA County Chief Executive Office and work on improving conditions for the mentally ill in LA County Jail and move the county closer to the permanent shuttering of the Men’s Central Jail facility. I’m in regular, happy contact with Vashti Van Wyke, Aspen (Sarah) Gordon ’98, and Abdul Rasheed, all of whom I have visited on the East Coast in the last couple of years. Mostly I enjoy free time with my husband and son here in Santa Monica, where I occasionally bump into Noah Garrison at a little league game.” Thank you for the work that you do, Susanne! Glad to hear what’s been going on.

Craig Thomas reached out to let us know that his debut novel That’s Not How It Happened is now available for pre-order: From the Emmy-nominated co-creator and executive producer of How I Met Your Mother, this smart, funny, bighearted novel follows a family turned upside down after Hollywood decides to make a movie version of their lives. As fellow Wes alumnus Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 writes, “I love Craig Thomas’ writing. It’s always funny, real and moving all at once, whether that’s for the screen or this wonderful, heartfelt debut novel.” What great news, Craig! Who doesn’t love a real AND funny book?

Wishing everyone a peaceful fall 2025 and looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

Take care,

Jess and Sasha

If you haven’t done the math, Topher Bellavia, Sam Effron, and Koyalee Chanda are reminding you that it’s been almost 30 years since we graduated: “Huge hello to all ’96ers from your Reunion chairs! This is your reminder to save the date for our 30th Reunion in Middletown, Connecticut, May 22–25, 2026. If you were at our 20th, you know it was a total blast because of the massive turnout we had (in fact, it was to date the biggest turnout for a 20th reunion ever—record-breaking!). We cannot state it any plainer: The more folks come, the better it will be. Talk to your friends now. Make your plans. Cannot wait to see all of you!”

Now that you’ve got that on your calendar, let’s turn to what our classmates are doing. Jesse Wegman writes: “I’m living with my wife, Kyra, and two girls in northern Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain, a COVID relocation from Brooklyn that happened before we knew it. This whole region feels like a Wesleyan settlement, which is comforting. I still write for The New York Times, editorials signed and unsigned, and am about to publish my second book, The Lost Founder,a biography of James Wilson, the most democratic, prescient, and unjustly ignored of the American founders. It is coming out in the spring to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”

Cayetana Navarro has finally concluded a 30-plus-year love affair with New York City by putting a ring on it. She moved to central Harlem in July. She’s still working for Yale School of Medicine as a program manager in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ironically, having lived in Connecticut for the past 18 years just half an hour from Wes, she hopes she’ll finally start “bumping into” some ’96ers now!  

Rallie Snowden was thrilled that she and her kids got to spend spring break exploring two D.C. museums with Anne Brockelman, her husband, and their kids. “We played soccer, ate yummy food, and caught up. It was great to be together.”

Dacque Tirado writes that he is enjoying the summer months by participating in a wonderful week of service with Habitat for Humanity on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and then taking in the summer vibes in the cutest little beach town on the Atlantic—Oak Island, North Carolina. He looks forward to seeing some Wes folk in D.C. in late August. 

As for me (Dara Federman), I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to attend Reunion this spring. My older daughter is graduating from (a different) college that same weekend. I had been looking forward to it, especially since the last in-person reunion was in 2016. Alas—can’t wait to hear all your stories about it, and I’ll see you at the 35th!

Hi ’95ers!

We had a very successful Reunion in May, and it was terrific seeing everyone. We had a bit of a hiccup with gathering notes this round, but we look forward to sharing everyone’s updates in the next issue.

Eric Meyerson sent this to us just after we gathered on campus in May:

“Reunion 2025 was amazing—seriously one of the highlights of the 2020s for me. What I love best about reunions is that I end up spending time hanging with people who I maybe didn’t hang with so much when we were in school, and yet, it always feels like being with old friends. It’s a shame we only do this once every five years. Even with weirdly cold weather, hanging on Foss Hill until the wee hours was so good for the soul. 

“Update on me: I’m going to mark 25 years in San Francisco this summer. My wife, Annette, and I decided to settle here permanently in the late 2000s, and it was an excellent decision, even when I miss my East Coast family and friends. My daughter, Ellie, is now getting a full blast of the eastern liberal arts experience at Smith College. (We’ll see if her younger brother has a similar desire.) When I’ve visited her, I’ve been able to see Eitan Mendelowitz, who’s been in Northampton for a long time. And at Reunion I found out that Greg Rolland, Peter Follet, and Stephanie Flaherty are also in the hood, so I’m excited to get back and catch up with everyone.

“I do see my Wes people here in San Francisco when I can. I grabbed lunch with Ben Foss a couple weeks ago and Roxane Williams a few days later. Both are doing great, and both sent their regrets for Reunion—you were missed! I also just went for a hike with Vivek Asija ’96.

“If anyone wants to come visit us in San Francisco, I have a little cottage out back with your name on it. If you need a break from the summer heat, it’ll probably be 62 and foggy here. Leave your swimsuit at home.”

Thanks, Eric!

Greetings from Chicago!  I hope everyone had a nice summer. My daughters and I got to catch up with Sarah Burke and her daughter who were in town for a wedding. Sarah and I lived together our senior year with Emily Rothman—Sarah saw Emily earlier in the summer.

I also hosted a summer send-off for Chicagoland area students who are starting their Wes journey! It was really great working with Wes director of engagement programs, Lucy Diaz, and senior development officer, Tim O’Brien. 

I got a few reports from our class:

Peter Chandler just completed his one-year anniversary as executive director of Internet Works, a Washington, D.C.–based trade organization of 23 “middle tech” companies working together to rightsize regulatory tech policy and preserve the Internet as a place of limitless opportunity. Peter reports that this is the happiest he’s been professionally and that building an organization from the ground up is both challenging and rewarding. Peter was also recently elected as co-chair of the National LGBTQ Task Force, which builds power, takes action, and creates change to achieve freedom, justice, and equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

Peter also hung out with Robin Shane and Lourdes Arista in D.C. over a summer weekend.

Charlotte Castillo writes that “it’s been a great summer connecting with Wes folks in NYC. Recently Charlotte co-hosted the WesLAN Summer Dance Social with Niko Ortega ’19 and Melvin Acevedo ’99. It was a blast to pick up some new salsa and bachata steps with the Wes fam.

Charlotte has also “enjoyed quality time with Patria Rodriguez ’93, Cynthia Centeno ’93, Lisette Nieves ’92, Nicole Rodriguez ’97, Marysol Castro ’96, Dolores Concepcion ’98, Kimberly Cooper King ’97, and so many others.”

Adam Glickman checked in from a trip to Sitka, Alaska, where he was dropping off his youngest child to college. Now an empty nester, Adam says he will have more time for class notes!

John Pollock is still in Montgomery, Alabama, where an eight-month job stint has become 20 years. His son, Merritt, who just turned 10, is obsessed with biochemistry, immunology, and anatomy. 

John recently connected with his former High Rise/Low Rise roomie Elizabeth Rand, who is in Connecticut and runs the Kids Kippot store on Etsy. John also keeps in touch with another roommate, Troy Montoya, who is married and living in Dallas. When John was last in D.C., he caught up with Aaron Siskind ’93 and Steve Karon ’92, with whom he was in a baseball fantasy league from 1992 to 2018!

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall!

Hi, Wes friends. We have some exciting updates this issue—new jobs, empty nests, documentary premieres, and other updates. As always, we appreciate hearing from you, so please keep sharing updates! 

Julie Anderson writes, “I am in the process of transitioning to a new job as head of school of Rectory School in Pomfret, Connecticut. Rectory is a junior boarding and day school serving students from pre-K to ninth grade. My husband and I recently purchased a home in Maine, where we look forward to spending time during vacations. My oldest child is a recent graduate of Wheaton College in Massachusetts and works for a nonprofit that supports employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. My youngest will be a junior at Hampshire College, where he is engaged in theater and gender studies.” 

Shana Ciociola Boniface emails, “I’m still in Montclair, New Jersey, a town so filled with Wes alumni that there are three of us on my block, all in vastly different graduating years, but still, what are the chances?! In other Wesleyan-related news, my older daughter will be attending Wesleyan in the fall as a recruited rower! We are so thrilled for her!” 

Jacob Bricca writes, “I’m happy to report that two documentaries that I worked on recently made their premieres. I was at the world premiere of The Chaplain and the Doctor, which I edited, at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April, and was thrilled to collaborate with Ted Reichman ’95 on the music for the film. The doc is about two extraordinary women trying to fix a broken health care system in Oakland, California. I also celebrated the release of Marriage Cops, which I co-edited, at the HotDocs International Documentary Film Festival in May. It’s a cinema verité account of a group of female police officers deputized to provide marriage counseling in northern India. Each will be released to the general public later this year.”

Dave Davis provides an update: “Greetings from sunny Manhattan Beach, California! Lynne and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We have two amazing daughters—our eldest is heading into her senior year at UC Berkeley, and our youngest will begin her college journey at Vanderbilt this fall. With both girls off to school, we’ll soon be empty nesters! On the professional side, I co-founded a start-up in 2023 called Calliope Networks. We focused on licensing audiovisual works to generative AI companies for model training. Late last year, we were acquired by a larger start-up called Protege. I now lead Protege’s content licensing division, and I’m happy to report it’s been a great ride so far.”

Jodi Samuels writes, “My spouse, Evan, and I are now splitting our time between our townhouse in Sacramento, California, and an apartment in downtown Evanston, Illinois (just a few blocks from the Northwestern campus), so that we can be closer to his family in the Chicago area. Our two kitties are gradually getting adjusted to flying back and forth with us (wish they could get their own frequent flyer accounts! ). We spent New Year’s in Vancouver, British Columbia, again this year and participated in another Polar Bear Swim in English Bay on January 1. Other international travel included a week in Singapore in March and a weeklong river cruise in Lyon, France, with some of Evan’s family. Finally, as part of my path toward transitioning to an encore career in the language professions, I’m now part of the French volunteer translator team for Kiva.org, a great microlending organization.”

Steve Wald emails, “Rachel Whitaker and I celebrated 32 years together in early June. Nineteen years in Urbana, Illinois, just down the street from the wonderful Evelyn Shapiro ’87. Rachel is the Harry E. Preble Professor of Microbiology at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; I am living a SiSP graduate’s dream as director of government relations for the College of ACES (agriculture), here in the heart of the Corn Belt. Did you know Wesleyan was home to the nation’s first agricultural experiment station in 1875? In frequent touch with classmates . . . Wes equipped us for this awesome, awful moment. Hold strong!”

Hello, Class of 1992!

Hope everyone had a great summer! Here’s the news!

First up, some fantastic literary achievements from our classmates. Amy (Andrews) Alznauer has a new book published this past March: The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape. Beth Shakman Hurd’s latest book, Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States, was published by University of Chicago Press. In May, Jonathan Liebson published Hello (and Goodbye) to All That with Post Hill Press, a memoir of a changing New York since the new millennium.

Kevin Prufer has been named the 2026 Texas poet laureate! Kevin continues as professor of English and director of the creative writing program at the University of Houston. Also in academia, Abby (Smith) Saguy received the 2025 Open Inquiry Award for Teaching from the Heterodox Academy, recognizing her work promoting viewpoint diversity in her sociology courses on sex and gender.

On the career front, Christine Bolzan has a new job as vice chancellor of experiential education for Northeastern University. She had a chance this spring to catch up with Robert and Elena (’93) Allbritton in Washington, D.C., learning about the launch of the Allbritton Journalism Institute.

Dr. John “Juan” Luque was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to spend a sabbatical in Quito, Ecuador, working on a cancer prevention project.

My old housemate, Simon Fulford, is opening a brand-new, 40-bed, youth residential treatment campus this summer in Portland. Simon notes that Oregon ranks as one of the worst states for kids to access behavioral health services, and they’re working to fill that gap. His youngest son is entering ninth grade, his middle son will be a senior, and his eldest (22) is back in the Pacific Northwest after almost three years in Argentina.

Joy Rhoden watched her son, Nolan Lewis ’25, graduate from Wesleyan this past May. Nolan double majored in neuroscience and CEAS and is now living in Brooklyn pursuing both his music career and neuroscience. Joy continues to serve as co-chair of the Wesleyan Black Alumni Council through June 2026.

Rob and Dorothea Harper-Mangels also welcomed their son, Ramey ’25, into the ranks of Wesleyan alumni this May. In June, they caught up with former housemates Maria Truglio and Rich Dansky in Stamford, Connecticut. Maria was visiting the Beinecke Rare Books Library at Yale for research (where Rob works as an associate dean).

Darcy Dennett has been working for JPMorganChase, making a few short pieces on the art installations that are part of the new headquarters in NYC.

After 30 years in the Boston area, Lori Oakes-Coyne and her husband, Greg, moved back home to central Maine and are loving the quiet. Their daughter, Kate, just graduated from University of Vermont this year with a dance/physiology double major, interested in movement therapy.

Also in New England, Joan Matelli spent her summer studying for the Massachusetts bar exam. She’s also made time for a few Red Sox games with Matthew Wein, as they try to do every summer.

Byron King continues to enjoy life in Baltimore, writing code and leading software teams. Last month, he met up with Julien Farland in D.C. where their families had a great time catching up. Byron’s daughter, Merriwether King ’27, is enjoying her summer off before starting her junior year.

Out in Colorado, Chris Arndt and his wife, Patty, are coming up on their 10th anniversary of living there. This fall both their sons, Alden (15) and Graham (14), will be attending St. Andrews boarding school in Delaware. Chris continues working on clean energy initiatives and is getting back into music recording under “The Doc Project.”

Sarah Leavitt is now director of curatorial affairs at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., working with executive director Beatrice Gurwitz ’01. Their current exhibition, LGBTJews in the Federal City, runs through January 4, 2026.

Michelle Elisburg’s daughters have graduated and moved on—Elana from college to Kansas City for work and Abby from high school to study abroad before college. As she prepares for empty nesting, Michelle became board certified in breastfeeding and lactation medicine. She is a founding participant in this new specialty, helping non-English-speaking refugee and immigrant patients.

Louie Maggiotto has launched a new career as an independent educational consultant, turning his side hustle into his main hustle after getting two kids into college. He coached 14 seniors last year and is growing a new crop this cycle. His website is OurCollegeCounselor.com.

That’s all for now! As always, I love hearing from everyone. Remember, the magazine is only published twice a year now, so if I didn’t hear from you this time, I’d love to hear from you for the next notes!

Adam

After more than 20 years of service in the federal government with the General Services Administration, Jim Ghiloni decided to take Elon Musk up on his offer to pay him in full for the rest of the calendar year to not work for the government and is now waiting his official retirement date. He is now leveraging his experience in government contracting and procurement as a consultant and generating more than enough work to keep busy. Jim reports that GSA came out of the transition less traumatically than agencies like USAID or State, but it still saw significant impacts. For the price of a cup of coffee, he will spill the tea to anyone in or visiting the D.C. area.  

Narda Jones, after a storied career that began in AmeriCorps, moved to the Senate, White House, and the FCC (where she served as chief of staff to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel ’93), has also departed federal service. After some time off, she joined the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies as a senior fellow, supporting legislative affairs and stakeholder outreach efforts to promote equity-centered technology and economic policy.

David Thomson is in his last year of his term as chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court, the second Wesleyan graduate to serve as chief justice, with the first being Richard Bosson ’66. David is thankful for the opportunity to reconnect with Butterfield alums Yuki Shimmyo Dumaresq and Galen Plona in New York, where they saw The Picture of Dorian Gray and took a visit up to campus, which they plan to reprise in 2025. While at Wesleyan, David visited Professor Alyx Mark’s classes to discuss judicial decision-making, law school, and his clerkship opportunity program.

Jen Craig Fletcher, in Sydney, along with Kristi Hanson in Melbourne, are the 1991 representatives for Australia. In July, Jen escaped the cold and wet, heading to Northampton, Massachusetts, for mini-Wes reunions, first with Joanie Menefee, Laurie Woods, and Silvia Mayo Molina; then with Joanie, Joseph Entin and Sophie Bell at their lake cottage in Chesterfield, Massachusetts.

All who gathered are all educators: Dr. Joanie Menefee is a creative writing professor at the University of Wisconsin at Stout; Dr. Joseph Entin is a professor of English and American studies at Brooklyn College; Dr. Sophie Bell is a writing professor at St. John’s College; Dr. Laurie Woods is a reading interventionist at Bridges Public Charter school in D.C. (founded by Olivia Smith ’90); Dr. Silvia Mayo Molina is a former middle school principal in Middletown; and Jen is head of English at St. Charbel’s College (high school) in Sydney.

From educators to getting educated: After 30-plus years in the Boston high-tech start-up scene, Nikolaus Bates-Haus changed careers to forest ecology. After a year of incidental coursework and two research assistant positions, he began a PhD at Boston University in September 2025.

Sarah Lewis Chaskes does both! She continues to teach sixth grade, plans to complete her master’s degree in education, with a concentration in social justice, in December 2025. Michael Chaskes edits unscripted television and was granted membership in the American Cinema Editors (ACE) honorary society. Recent credits including With Love, Meghan for Netflix and Deal or No Deal Island for NBC.  

Cameron Gearen marks 13 years of Gearen Consulting, her educational consulting firm that supports students and families through the college application process. Cameron’s main hobby is songwriting, singing, and playing guitar; and you can find her single “Arkansas” on streaming platforms.

She’s married to Eric Savlin, a graphic designer, and they live outside of Chicago. Her older daughter is in LA, and her younger daughter (Oberlin ’24) had a successful Fulbright year in Taiwan. Cameron reports on quality in-person time with Zan (Susanna) Barry, Whitney Lukens, Nicole Fluhr, Sophie Bell, Joseph Entin, Stephanie (Donohue) Pilla ’90, and Sarah Ellenzweig ’90. 

Julie Huck’s enjoyable life includes visits with her adult kiddos in San Diego and at Fordham in NYC, fundraising for Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, and spending time on or in the Minneapolis lakes. She says, “If you’re passing through for a conference or en route to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, please say hello!”

Randall Cook celebrated his daughter’s, Rose Cook ’25, graduation from Wesleyan in May, and snuck in some reunion time with Merri Rosen ’90.

Which brings notes to a close, with a reminder that it’s our reunion year in 2026.  Until then, stay in touch.

Hello all! Here’s what we have:

Al Viegas writes with the unexpected news that he will be starting in September as an astronomy professor and observatory director at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York. After 35 years in finance, Al has always wanted to teach and is really excited about becoming a part-time professor. “I am still four to five years away from retiring, so this will be mostly a night gig, but it sets me up for another decade or two after retirement working with kids and teaching science, which is great! Ironically, while I did not major in astronomy at Wesleyan, I actually chose Wesleyan because of Van Vleck Observatory! So, life has had a nice boomerang effect here and I am psyched!”

Lara Goldmark wrote in while relaxing in the South of France with her mother’s side of the family, in the same little town where she got married 27 years ago. “At the wedding, back in the day, were several folks who are all doing great—some attended the recent Wesleyan reunion this May and then went on to an off-campus swim team gathering: Maria Floyd Cohen ’91, Susie Wigdale ’89, Jil Zilligen, Courtney Fahy ’89, and Mark Mullen ’89. My co-founder and I recently stayed at Mark’s apartment in Barcelona when we went to pitch her business school buddies to invest in ZForm, our app to eliminate bureaucracy. We hire Wes grads btw. 🙂 End of this month am looking forward to seeing Drew Weissman ’88; he married one of my best friends from high school and they are also doing great.”

Victor Khodadad continues to be heavily involved with his opera company, New Camerata Opera, which is based in New York City. “The 501(c)3 nonprofit organization produced an immersive and thought-provoking production of Peter Brook’s La tragedie de Carmen at The Nagelberg Theatre in Manhattan in the fall of 2024. NCO is also committed to education in the arts and has recently presented all three of its children’s operas—Party at the Opera, Peter Rabbit, and Rumpelstiltskin—at NYC schools. Victor recently joined the board of directors and is gearing up for the next main stage production. More information is available at www.newcamerataopera.org.”

Becky Lloyd DesRoches had a great time catching up with so many classmates at our reunion and plans to make many mini-reunions between now and our 40th. Becky writes of two highlights from the year. In May Becky got promoted to associate professor of psychology at Regis College—“long time coming. The best spring highlight was playing in the South African Grannies International Football Tournament at Nkowankowa Stadium. Yes, I’m that kind of soccer mom—my kids don’t play anymore but I do.”

Tim Freundlich did the pandemic two-step and moved from San Francisco to Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 2020, with Gus (now 16), Milo (now 19, and who just finished his first year at Holy Cross), spouse, Julie Dowd, and small dog, Russell, and a bigger dog, Lexi. Tim has recently co-founded another “impact investing” endeavor, CataCap.org (and still is working at the firm he founded, ImpactAssets).

Finally, Nadine Angress writes that she had a great time attending our 35th Reunion and connecting with many people she hadn’t seen in years. Nadine also went to the Rhode Island home of Jen Zoltners Sherer ’91, “where we had a mini- reunion/memorial with swim team friends to celebrate Ernie Luikart who died in the fall of ’24. From the Class of 1990 there was Jil Zilligen, Wendy Herrick, Ed Brown, Greg Lesser, [and] Dave Griffith. [Other Wes attendees] were Renée Carl ’91,Maria Floyd Cohen ’91, Bill Fabbri ’91, Ann Goebel-Fabbri ’91, Courtney Fahy ’89,and Missy Brown ’89. It was wonderful to remember our cherished friend while also enjoying reconnecting.”

That’s all for now. Wishing everyone happiness in the upcoming holidays. I will be back in touch early next year.