Class Notes | 1990s

Dear ’99ers,

Unfortunately, we’re opening this version of the notes with some sad news: Zack Becker shared that his wife, Amy Martin, died suddenly on September 7 (obituary here and MSN article here). “We met at an ’80s party during orientation and went on to enjoy another 30 years of friendship and 21 years of marriage. She loved Wesleyan and will be sorely missed by me and her many friends.” We heard from several others in the Wes community who were touched by Amy. Our hearts go out to Zack and family.

Jennifer Karlin is an associate professor at UCSF and recently launched the Reproductive Health Hotline (ReproHH), a free, confidential, and nationwide hotline that provides evidence-based answers to questions from care providers about sexual and reproductive health. This essential service is funded by the State of California until 2029, to help improve quality of reproductive and sexual health care across the nation amidst intersecting crises that imperil our health-care system as labor and delivery units close, Medicaid cuts deepen, and abortion bans proliferate. If anyone wants to learn more about this great resource, please reach out to Jennifer at reprohealthhotline@ucsf.edu. In other news, in September, Jennifer swam over 17 hours straight from Catalina Island to the coast of California, officially becoming a channel marathon swimmer. She is looking forward to her next swimming adventure soon!

Celina Su was appointed to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s transition team to work on the city’s first-ever community organizing subcommittee. “I’ve been getting the chance to connect with folks with my new book, Budget Justice, as a conversation starter, which has been great. It has been so galvanizing—a joy, even— to engage with folks in common struggle, working together for popular power and co-governance. Always happy to be in touch with folks!”

Also in NYC: Sarah (Chutiangtong) Sietsema shared that she and Shirley Fan survived the NYC public high school admissions process together. “Our eighth graders studied for the SHSAT, and us moms traded many texts about schools and rankings. IYKYK.”

On the opposite side of the globe: Amelia Borofsky and her two kiddos are moving back to Raglan, Aotearoa (in New Zealand). It’s “a beautiful surf town. We love visitors!” Darryl and I are checking with Wesleyan to see if there’s budget for in-person, class notes interviews in 2026. Stay tuned, Amelia…

I’m (Kevin) now leading a digital health company called Levanto, which is a spin out of Baylor Scott & White Health. If you want to nerd out on health care or digital health, drop me a line. I also had the pleasure of ringing in the New Year in Nicaragua with Craig Schortzmann ’01 and his wonderful family! My wife and I also attended Wesleyan night at Anna Christie, Tommy Kail’s latest play (starring his wife, Michelle Williams). It was great to see Barbara Jan Wilson (still remembers everything about everyone . . . amazing) and hear the talkback from Tommy after the play. He’s launching Proof on Broadway this spring and the live-action version of Moana this summer!

Wishing all our classmates a bright 2026, and please send your updates in so Darryl has lots of fun news to share with you all next time!

Hi, classmates! Thanks to so many of you for writing in!

In happy news, Mariandrea Mueller has married her longtime partner, raconteur Apul Patel (UC Berkeley ’97). She has taken his last name because she likes how “Mariandrea Rae Patel” sounds. They enjoy traveling and are looking forward to a safari in Tanzania, but are making their home in Los Angeles, California. 

Emily Weissman and her husband relocated a few years ago from the Bay Area to a small town in northern California called Grass Valley. They have chickens and a dog and Emily works remotely at a community development financial institution. And they love the small community they’re in.

Adam Borden was invited to Seattle in November to speak on an Amazon panel and combined it with a personal trip to the Olympic National Forest with Adam Bakun. They saw the world’s largest Sitka spruce tree, with a 59-foot circumference, in addition to eating some great meals together. Jules Cohen and Adam also broke bread—they went to Maneki, Seattle’s oldest Japanese restaurant, where Jules filled Adam in on his work at Microsoft. Adam thinks Jules is probably our only classmate to be working for the same company since graduation! Adam took his daughter, a Middlebury art history major, to Miami and met Franklin Sirmans ’91 at his museum, the Perez Art Museum, for a brief visit. What an impressive modern collection!

Lisa Winegar says she has been lucky to be able to keep in regular touch and often see many of our fellow’98ers this year and will have the chance for more in 2026. To protect the embarrassed and guilty parties, she will keep their names private. In news that apparently surprised Lisa more than anyone, she got married and is now a stepmom. She’s even serving on her school’s board of trustees. (“You can take the girl out of Wesleyan, but not the Wesleyan out of the girl . . .”).  She also wanted to say that she had a magnificent time at our 25th Reunion. And she’s going to make it her business to try and convince all of you to come back every five years! She points out that we have already had to say goodbye to more of our classmates than many can stand, so we need to take advantage of any time we can be together at our beloved Wes. She also lives in New Hampshire now and asks anyone in the Boston metro area and New England/Northeast to please get in touch!

Jamie Pagliaro recently stepped into a new role as CEO of EarliPoint Health, a health-care technology company focused on earlier, more objective diagnosis and outcome measurement in autism. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife and their two teenage children, and plays in a local band (The BARD Band). This year also brought a great reunion with former squash teammate Andrew Frishman ’97, whom Jamie connected with at an education event in the mountains outside of Denver.

Mary Lisio reports she had a wonderful significant birthday celebration in New York that included Danielle Woodrow, Mollie Nelson Webster ’99, Sarah Margon, Mike Lenore ’97, Keri Chaimowitz Topkins ’97, and Sadia Shepard ’97. She heard from many alumni that day and is grateful for her Wesleyan friends!

Ellen Struzziero wrote in to say she is still living just a half hour from Wesleyan in Farmington, Connecticut. She has been there for 22 years now and has three beautiful daughters: Eliza and Scarlett Kamm, whose father is the late James Kamm ’92, Alpha Delt president; and her youngest, Edith Roth, who was born in 2015 to Ellen and her high school sweetheart (her second husband, but who is counting?) After working for the City of Hartford Department of Health for four years during COVID-19 and then mpox pandemics, Ellen went back to working ob-gyn (midwifery) in Hartford. Her older two have started college, one in Connecticut and the other at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, and she says it is absolutely unbelievable that she could have children as old as she was when she first set foot as a frosh at Wesleyan. On a sadder front, earlier in 2025, she lost her (second) husband, and between that unexpected tragedy and the realization that she is now old enough to have kids in college she has been thinking a lot about WesFolk that she hasn’t heard from in years. She hasn’t kept her old Wesleyan email but would love to hear from classmates—the good, the bad—any and all of it. After all, “life is all about the stories.”

Finally, Justin Ring is pleased to have sent in his first update in 27 years! [Editor’s note: “27 what now??”] After five years of teaching screenwriting at Wes, he moved back to LA and finally started his own small production company, Shindig Entertainment. He’s honored that the first film he executive produced, Where in the Hell, is the feature directorial debut of Laramie Dennis ’95. It played in festivals all over the world in Seoul, Melbourne, and Berlin, and even picked up the Best Narrative Feature award for its NYC premiere at the Queens World Film Festival, where Justin got to catch up with Jody Kuh ’95 and Bex Schwartz ’00, who were rockstars for coming out for opening night. By the time this is in print, it should be available wherever you stream films. Justin also got to see Neal Wilkinson’s amazing art installation Fight for America! in London’s West End this summer, where apparently Neal hornswoggled Justin into “karaokeing” We Are the World in front a gaggle of bemused British gamers as part of the show. Justin also sees Jaime McAdams, who is a big deal at MSG/Radio City, whenever Justin passes through NYC and learns exactly what the Yankees are doing wrong. Finally, right before the holidays, Noah Merin, Ashley Knaysi, and Anthony Veneziale let Justin crash their mini–Gag Reflex reunion for a lovely evening. Ashley has become a quite brilliant nurse practitioner and shares a shift once a week with Samantha Smith-Newman ’02, whose husband, John Newman, directed the first short that Justin produced, starring Lynn Chen, because LA is actually a small town, and Wes peeps support each other. Give a Justin shout if you come through LA, ’98ers!

And with that, I turn to 0°F temps but two feet of fresh snow and more coming down. I’m so envious of all of you running into each other and especially those of you still in New England, but snow and my increasingly feisty teenage nieces are still too hard to pass up.

Please keep in touch. It was wonderful to hear from so many of you.

Best,

Abby

Madeleine Perez wrote to share happy news: “We had the honor of having our son Dylan’s Bar Mitzvah here in LA in May 2025. But even better is that our amazing rabbi is also a Wesleyan alum—Rabbi Jon Hanish ’84. He did such a great job, and it was an honor to have that Wes connection on such a special day. If you’re in LA come say hi at Temple Kol Tikvah.” Mazel tov to your family, Madeleine! 

Ben Helphand wrote: “This summer I published Berries for Bloomingdale: The Serviceberry Cookbook, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail, which I helped to create. It’s an ode to foraging and features recipes from neighbors and a few far-flung serviceberry (aka juneberry) enthusiasts. Like the trail, it was a true community effort, celebrating the fruit of the native berry.”

We are thrilled to learn about a new kind of berry! Congratulations on the cookbook, Ben!

Sara Kate Gillingham wrote: “Wow, it was a big year. In June I turned 50 and a long relationship ended just days later; I finished grad school in August; and became an empty nester (my daughter found a great home at Oberlin!). I’m enjoying swimming through the winter in Coney Island, dancing constantly, and working as a couples and individual therapist. I have a rich and busy social life but wouldn’t mind any reconnections with Wesleyan pals. Drop me a line! skgillingham@gmail.com.”  Happy birthday, and congratulations on completing grad school and all your amazing news, Sara. 

Andrew Frishman, we always love your “Wesleyan-adjacent highlights.” Keep ’em coming!

“In November I went to a talk at Boston University by Andrew Szegedy-Maszak [now retired professor of ancient Greek history at Wesleyan]. I brought my son along, ran into a bunch of Wesleyan alumni, and it was genuinely fun to feel that Wes energy in the room.

“I recently attended a design sprint in Palo Alto, focused on imagining what high school could look like in the future, especially with AI in the mix. Totally unexpected bonus: a delightful reunion with Ussuri Yu ’99 (we lived on the same hall when I was an RA in Hewitt 10 during 1995–1996), and another Wesleyan alum was there too, Ingrid Wong ’96.

“A week later, Leigh (Needleman) ’96 and I went to a wonderful Hanukkah party hosted by Fawn Phelps and her husband, Mike Mittelman. Great to see Alisa Khan there as well, plus other Wesleyan folks in the mix.

“The following week I was in NYC and got to see fellow Wes alum Maxwell Bigman ’14, and also Ethan Gordon (a current Wesleyan student, and the child of my colleague Dr. Pamela Gordon).

“And one more happy Wes connection: Leigh and I and our kids, who are now 16 and 13, continued a tradition of sharing a just-after-Thanksgiving meal with Laura Warren ’98, her husband, Alan, and their kids, which was really delightful.”

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Sasha Lewis-Reisen and her 11th grader attended Wesleyan’s Admission 101: Know Before You Go “two-day series of workshops about the joy that is the college admissions process (not just for Wes, although how amazing would that be!). “We ran into old friends and made new ones—so many fellow alumni and Wes staff attended with their kids. It’s an amazing and thoughtful program. If you are in the Middletown area the weekend before Thanksgiving when your kid is in the 11th grade, please consider it. And the kids got to attend real classes! (Which is, surprisingly, very rarely an option on college tours, as I’m finding out.) Apparently, Wesleyan has been running this program for decades. Go Wes!” 

We wish everyone a kind and healthy spring and summer, and we are looking forward to seeing all at our May 2027 reunion! 

Jess and Sasha

Dacque writes for this issue.

1996er fam: happy and healthy to all in the new year! Lots of good news comes in from our classmates. I hope all are getting geared up for our 30th Reunion—start spreading the news!

In February, Josh Pollock became new executive director of the Boulder Climbing Community, a regional stewardship organization that maintains Colorado’s Front Range climbing spaces. Josh, who has worked for two decades building relationships between the people who use and manage these spaces, says that he is “honored to join the BCC, an organization that exemplifies community engagement to protect the places we recreate.” Open invitation to all to come visit sunny Colorado to experience world-class climbing opportunities.

Chung Ma (my personal RVA/River City consultant when traveling to that region) writes that he caught up with fellow Wes alum Bruce MacDonald ’92 in Richmond, Virginia.

Sam Effron (good to share memories of seeing P-Funk perform in 1994 at Spring Fling as we all watched on Foss Hill) sends in news that he is trying to stay informed and sane in this chaotic world. He recently “read” (listened to) The Art Thief and highly recommends it to everyone, particularly because the audiobook is read by Edoardo Ballerini ’92 and that he does a phenomenal job. Edoardo also happens to live in the same town as Sam, and they run into each other from time to time. Sam was very excited to be heading off to Mexico City with Josh and Maggie McClean Suniewick ’97 and a group of friends to celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday.

He ran into Alejandro Luciano at the airport on the way home and who had spent the same weekend with Anuj Desai and Jennifer Lau. Sam is starting to get excited and plan for our 30th Reunion in May (which he is calling our 25th Reunion Redo since stupid COVID robbed us of an in-person event, and also because calling it the 30th Reunion makes him feel ancient). He hopes to see as many ’96ers there as possible.

Hardy Griffin writes that he is doing well and that he recently won The Masters Review’s Short Story Award for “Ahmet Usta.”

Stacy Carlson says, “In 2021 my family moved from Oakland, California, to Minneapolis, which has been (surprisingly?) wonderful. Turns out I love a winter wonderland, though at the time of this writing, the intense, violent presence of ICE has prompted me take to the streets as a legal observer in below-freezing weather. In other news, I’m pleased to announce the publication of my next novel, titled The Gyre, due out in May 2026. If you like literary/historical fiction set in the wilderness, please check it out!” 

As for me, I am doing well in Maryland and am very excited to see some amazing landscapes and experience the Mighty 5 National Parks in Utah this spring.

Hi, Class of ’95. It’s good to keep connecting with our classmates, including after last year’s 30th Reunion. This round, I have a couple of focused updates—a fun theme going of our talented classmates in film!

Laramie Dennis (my wonderful first-year roommate!) writes: “I made a movie!! Where in the Hell, an art house buddy comedy about a pair of defectors from the crumbling LA film industry, marks my feature film debut as a writer/director. Justin Ring ’98 executive produced, and Sarah Hirzel consulted on title design. We played a bunch of festivals this past year, scooping up awards including Best Comedy Feature (Poppy Jasper), Best Feature Screenplay and Best Narrative Feature (Queens World), and the She’s On Fire Award (Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin). Where in the Hell will be available on Amazon and elsewhere this spring—watch for it!!”

Soraya Selene writes: “The past year has been wonderful and eventful for me, particularly as I got to reconnect with so many friends around the country. A feature documentary I directed, Who in the Hell is Regina Jones?, screened at numerous festivals, won several awards, and had its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles last June. It [had] its broadcast TV premiere in February. On the festival trail I got to connect with Angela Tucker ’96 in New Orleans (whose documentary about Barbara Jordan, The Inquisitor, you must see!), and I had the awesome experience of bumping into Damon Smith and his lovely family in Martha’s Vineyard, when my film was screening there. I also got to spend time with my bestie Stacey Samuel ’96, who recently moved back to NYC from D.C. She visited me in Los Angeles and graciously watched over my 11-year-old twins while I traveled. It takes a village! More big personal news . . .  after living in Los Angeles for 19 years, I moved to Lisbon with my children this past summer! During my trip to San Francisco for my appointment at the Portuguese consulate, I got to hang out with Diana Ip and Isabella Gralinska. So fun! If any Wes folks are in Europe and want to connect, I’d love to hear from you. It was so wonderful to reconnect with so many of you at Reunion.”

Lastly, big thanks to Bo Bell, my co-secretary for the past nine (!) years. Bo is stepping aside to focus on other things, and I will continue as your class secretary. Gratitude to Bo for his enthusiastic presence these many years!

Hello, all! I hope that this message finds you well. I pray that everyone had a wonderful New Year and that 2026 is going well.

Ken Barnett shared that he “is starring in Mister Halston—a new, one-person play about the famed fashion designer—at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor in May/June of 2026. If you happen to be in the Hamptons area, please come see us and say hello!”

Matthew J. Fraser writes, “My story is not enough working in Maine, but some, and books. Below is the final installment of the 2005–2025 series, Plain Talk: Ten Essays for Massachusetts. It came out this year and is more focused on the support of Massachusetts and New England than previous books in the series.”

Matthew shared links to his books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as this one: Critical Infrastructure for Children.

As for me, life has been pretty busy. I am still focused on finance, and I am happy to share that I joined a new firm during the last quarter of 2025. With that promotion came more responsibility, but thankfully, I have acclimated well; continue to be challenged in new ways; and work with a great team.

I’m still painting, crafting, writing (and hope to share some of the fruits of my labor soon), and spending as much time with family and friends as possible. By the time this goes to print, I will have returned from my birthday trip to Portugal.

Until next time,

Caissa

Hi, Wes friends! Thank you so much for sharing your news. We have some career updates, trips overseas, and exciting updates about children of graduates.

Jaime Bachrach emails, “It’s been 15 years since we left NYC for Litchfield County, and we continue to enjoy the natural beauty around us. Our wine company continues to grow, especially on the logistics side, and luckily the tariffs have not tanked our business! Our older daughter, Logan (22), lives and works in London when she’s not traveling the world, and our younger daughter, Esmee (19), is following in her sister’s footsteps by attending college abroad—at Trinity College in Dublin. We have visited Ireland twice since she started in September, and also enjoy skiing and other outdoor trips with friends and/or the girls. In Connecticut, we continue to see Sean and Deirdre (’94) Kelly frequently, as well as the Glastonbury trio of Jeff Kestenband, Erin Boggs, and John Langmaid ’92.”

Clay Dreslough (né Dresser) writes, “I ran into some health problems in my 30s and 40s but eventually figured out that things improved significantly on the Pacific Coast. In 2018, we moved from eastern Connecticut for the small city of Arcata on the north coast of California. We love the people and the weather. I’m hiking 15-plus miles every week in the redwoods with our 12-year-old pibble mix and continuing to play ultimate Frisbee. We still own and run Sports Mogul Inc., where I’ve expanded from computer games into board games. Dee and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this year, and our 25-year-old daughter, Ellie, is enjoying her job at Redlands University in Southern California.”

Tuula Hoiska Fai recently visited Wesleyan and was excited to see all the new buildings, including the Usdan University Center. She also visited her best friend’s—Jennifer Stark ’92— younger sister Amy to sing carols to Jen at her gravesite in Tolland, Connecticut (Jen passed away in 2023). Tuula recently left cybersecurity to pursue real estate investing full time. This career change is giving her more time to finish her healing journey memoir and to train for swimming competitions. Tuula resides in Sedona, Arizona, but spends summers in New Hampshire with her father and often goes to Florida to visit her son, Trevor, who is an engineering major at the University of Florida.

Michael Hanna PhD writes, “For the past 20 years, I have been working independently as a medical research consultant. During the COVID pandemic, I often read in the news about the epidemic of mental health problems—depression, anxiety, stress, etc. Reading that news, I became a bit rueful that I had drifted away from my original training in clinical psychology and working directly with patients. Having done all my education and training over 20 years ago in three different countries, the bureaucracy to make that return became my Herculean labors. But this past summer I got licensed as a psychologist in France (where I had done my master’s degree, 1995–1997), and recently I succeeded in becoming licensed as a psychologist in Connecticut. This spring, I will probably be moving back either to Paris, France, or to Connecticut, a state I have become fond of over the years. I’d be glad to hear from anyone reading this: mhanna@wesleyan.edu.”

Andy Nordvall writes, “I’m still teaching English as a foreign language to adults in Los Angeles. I recently completed my first Kickstarter campaign for an anthology of dystopian science fiction called Bad Future, which I contributed to, edited, and am in the process of printing. I recently moderated two panels at Los Angeles Comic Con, “Neurodivergent Creators Unite” and “What Can Dystopian SciFi Say About Our Dystopian Present?”

Scott Robbins emails, “I am still practicing law in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. I was elected as the vice president of the Missouri Bar in September. I look forward to representing almost 32,000 licensed Missouri lawyers during my three years in the officer rotation. With this election, I will become president in September of 2027.”

Laura Ross writes, “I am still living in Los Angeles as head of school of Harvard-Westlake School. My husband, Gregg Ross ’90, is a math teacher there. Casey, our daughter,
is in her junior year at Wesleyan, majoring in classics and just came back from studying abroad in Rome. Our son, Graham, just got accepted ED to Wesleyan, so next year they will be there together. We are so excited. Go Wes!

Maura Solomon Woosley is living in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. After 23 years at Citi working in the Government Affairs shop, Maura started a new job this past fall on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services as the staff director for the Financial Institutions Subcommittee. She is excited for this new chapter in her career.

Hello, Class of 1992! It’s a new year and there’s plenty of news to share.

I start with sad news. Mary Newton Lima passed away on October 5 from cancer. She is survived by her husband, Ivan, daughters, Julia and Cecilia, her parents, Jim and Ann, and brother, Steven. A celebration of life was held in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in November, attended by Samantha (Ball) Karmel, Marit Alanen, Laura Fedolphi Marshall, among other classmates. Our condolences go out to Mary’s family and friends.

Since it is admissions season when I write this, we have a lot of Wesleyan legacy kids to celebrate. The Class of 2030 will include children of ’92 alums, including two from Seattle. Linda Perlstein’s son, Milo, was admitted ED and will be studying film. Corinne Drumheller’s daughter will also be joining the incoming class. And perhaps more to come once regular decisions are announced. In any event, they will have company: Jennifer Mittelstadt’s daughter just started at Wes this fall, joining her son who is currently a junior. Jennifer and her husband, Aaron Matthews ’93, are keeping the Wesleyan tradition going.

Speaking of Seattle, Scott Shapiro has been busy. He visited campus for the Admission 101 boot camp, then stayed in Boston to visit his son, Steele, a freshman at Northeastern. From there he took the train to Providence, staying with Jonathan Bell and Sarah Zurier, where they had dinner with Joe Hoefferle and his wife, Sabrina Witherby ’93. Then it was on to New York for brunch with Greg Vinton and his wife, Sunita Subramanian. And speaking of Boston-area connections, Christine Padian Bolzan’s daughter, AnnaSophia, is also a freshman at Northeastern with Scott’s son. Christine has a new job as vice chancellor of Experiential Education at Northeastern.

At a Wesleyan event in December, I ran into Susan (Hunt) Stevens, who is doing well and is on start-up number three with Tessi, using AI to help rebuild after natural disasters. In other professional news, Beth Shakman Hurd has a new book out—Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States from the University of Chicago Press. Oliver Lu received an MA in critical psychology from Prescott College and is now the assistant squash coach at Franklin & Marshall College.

David “Shadrack” Smith has big news: his documentary, Public Access, was accepted by Sundance! The film explores New York’s first public access channels. His partner, Charlotte Mangin, started a new job as director of development at DCTV in New York. And also in the world of arts, Elizabeth “Lisa” Liang premiered her new solo show Home at the Jaxx Theatre in East Hollywood—an intensely personal piece about her relationship with Guatemala. And Darcy Dennett is finishing two years at JPMorganChase, doing videos on art installations by Maya Lin, Leo Villareal, and Gerhard Richter.

My old housemate Simon Fulford opened a new $30M residential treatment campus for Parrott Creek Child & Family Services in Portland, Oregon, providing 40 residential beds to youth. Simon recently caught up with Anne Paris at her art studio in Portland.

Chris Chesak continues as executive director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and is wrapping up his term as president of the Society of American Travel Writers. Jeremy Hornik is still designing slot machines in Chicago and now has a co-worker who was born after he started there. He and his wife, Sheila Quirke, have two children and recently hosted Jean (Gibbons) DiMaria. Karl Mergenthaler checks in from Westport, Connecticut—advisor at Morgan Stanley, married 20 years with two great daughters.

Joan Charlotte Matelli went back to Italy for the first time since the pandemic and also visited Kate Hellenga ’88 in San Francisco and met up with Matthew Wein in Berkeley. In more personal reunion news, I went to San Diego for a conference last summer and met up with Katheryn Berla, Hal Skinner, Diana (Strauss) Casey ’91, Liz Martin ’91, and Dan Grant ’91 for an Alpha Delta Phi meetup. It was great to see everyone!

Meredith Tarr writes from New Haven, where she’s worked at indie label MPress Records for over 20 years, tour managing artist Rachael Sage.

Welcome to several first-time contributors! Andrea Seebaum is living in Healdsburg, California, growing olives for olive oil. She frequently sees Emily (Johnson) Henn ’94 and Stephen Henn ’94. Ben Parrillo has taken time away from acting to build custom off-grid homes with his company Bunkrhome, currently finishing his own home in Joshua Tree with his wife, Sepi, and daughter Leon Soleil. And Marit Alanen shared that she just retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after 20 years.

That’s all for now. Please send me your news!

Adam

Reminder: Our 35th Reunion is in May. See Wesleyan.edu/rc/ for information, and please send news!

I hope 2026 has been off to a great start! Here’s what we have:

Andrew Siff,who works as a reporter in Queens, New York, writes that “in recent months, a small group of us has formed a makeshift book club!” The group includes Andy, along with Bill Sherman, an environmental lawyer in Seattle, David Weinstein, a judge in Albany, New York; Tim Hintz,a counselor (and gardener extraordinaire!) in Brookline, Massachusetts; Ed Ungvarsky, a capital defense attorney in Washington, D.C.; and Alex Navarro-McKay, a political consultant and strategist in Brooklyn. Andy writes that they all gather remotely to try their hands at reading—and discussing! “We first read Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Next up was The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. The club has provided a much-needed respite from AI and smartphones and has allowed us to read, reflect, and reconnect. Up next may be the stories of Flannery O’Connor.”

Alexander Levi writes that earlier last December, “channeling the renegade spirit of never-ending Indian Hill Cemetery workouts of the 1980s Wescrew of Scoggins & Moore, I ran my fourth urban ultra race: the Endurance Fest 50-Miler in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The event gathered 130 indomitable souls to bask in the impossible, amid a potluck of festive food and drink and a throng of cheering friends.” See a great picture of Alexander from the day of the race in the online version of these notes (classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu)!

Victor Khodadad “lives in the Bronx with his wife and two children. He continues fighting the good fight by helping to run New Camerata Opera, a 501(c) nonprofit organization that he helped found in 2016. He has been newly elected as artistic chair and will be singing the tenor role of Valcour in their upcoming 2026 production of L’amant anonyme by Joseph Bologne. He looks forward to presenting this rarely performed gem for New York audiences. Please visit www.newcamerataopera.org for more information.”

Peter Brastow writes that he and Carolyn Gencarella “and our two grown boys traveled to NYC over the holidays. We had an action-packed five days, based on 28th Street, where we stayed in a hotel with rooftop bar that had a spectacular view of the Empire State Building. We went to two shows (highly recommend Buena Vista Social Club!), a jazz club, the High Line, the World Trade Center, McSorley’s Old Ale House in the East Village, the Met, and the Park in the snow! Since the new mayor wasn’t sworn in until the New Year, we couldn’t track him down! We had yummy lunch (and a Vermut! for me) with Miriam Temin (who lives in Manhattan) at Little Spain. One day we went to the Tenement Museum and were joined there by Stephanie Donahue Pilla and her husband, who live in Harlem. After the incredible tour of the old houses where Jewish and Italian immigrants lived on Orchard Street, we were met by Andy Eig who led us to some delicious dim sum in Chinatown for Saturday brunch. Andy lives in Chelsea with his wife and grown children, with whom Carolyn and our kids and I also had dinner one night. On Monday [January 29], Carolyn [and I, plus] Andy and Stephanie, were joined at a fancy bar in NOMAD by Susan Wong (fellow Foss sixer whom I hadn’t seen since 1991!), Dave Belgrave (with whom Susan and I lived senior year at 107 Cross, and who has moved back to Brooklyn where he grew up), Iriss Shimony, and Linda Turnbull, both of whom live in Manhattan and are still rockin’ the New York financial world! It was so amazing to see old (ancient!) friends and to reconnect and feel that Wesleyan warmth after so many decades. Love you people!”

On a sad note, Nick Meyer wrote that our classmate Adam Cohen passed away after a courageous two-year battle with illness. Nick, Jon Forstadt, and Chuck Fedolfi attended Adam’s funeral. Nick shared that in addition to Wesleyan, he and Adam were Scarsdale High School classmates. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Adam’s family and friends. 

I will be back in touch shortly to collect updates for the next edition of the magazine. Of course, please feel free to write any time with news, milestones, memories, or stories you would like to share. Wishing everyone a happy spring!