Class Notes | 1990s

Congratulations to Ross Stafford who was inducted into Wesleyan football’s  1990s All-Decade Team. Ross lives in northern New Jersey, has two daughters (ages four and seven), and works as a PMP-certified project manager. He is also a business owner and launched a digital marketing agency last spring.  

Eve Fox is the digital director at Beyond Plastics, where she works with Megan Wolff trying to halt the petrochemical industry’s build-out in the U.S. and reduce the negative environmental, health, climate, and environmental justice impacts of plastic pollution. Eve is also coming up on her sixth year serving on the board of the Woodstock Day School, where she is currently the president, and trying to roll with the punches of parenting both a teenager and a tween.

Michael Hakim lives in Los Angeles and has been working with his former quarterback, Scott Hevesy ’97, on some media opportunities. Michael launched a real estate property technology company by converting an office building into a mix-use residential hotel with a rooftop lounge. He is exploring opening an art gallery in some vacant available space, and he also opened a modern synagogue for young Jewish professionals in Los Angeles. Michael also collaborated with an art director to design the largest mural in Beverly Hills on South Beverly Drive in honor of his grandmother who passed away in 2022.

Chris Varmus married Mara Jebsen, a poet and professor, in 2021, under the crabapple tree in his backyard in Brooklyn. He is getting a second master’s degree (first one was in social work) in fine arts, specializing in large-scale ink and mixed media collage works. Check out his work on Instagram @christophervarmusart (available for sales and commissions) or visit his studio in Brooklyn.

Adam Birnbaum and his wife, Alem, live in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Adam works as a commercial litigator in a Wall Street area firm. Alem is pregnant with their third child.

Robert Carrillo was the brainchild and an executive producer for the documentary Lucha: A Wrestling Tale, which had its world premiere at America’s largest documentary film festival, DOC NYC, on November 11, 2023. It won the festival’s coveted Metropolis Grand Jury Prize and was a runner-up for the Audience Award. Robert was also one of the wrestling coaches in the film.

Ari Gerzon-Kessler lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Sashi. They were thrilled to welcome their first baby, Selah Dove Gerzon-Rose, who turned one in October. Ari is in his seventh year leading the Family Partnerships Department for the Boulder Valley School District. A lover of books since his first job at age 11 in a bookstore, he is overjoyed to share the news of the publication of his book, On the Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families Together (Solution Tree, December 2023). Ari coaches the leaders of these families and educators together teams at 23 schools—a new model for school-family collaboration that is changing teachers and school leaders’ practices for partnering with diverse families and transforming the experiences of underrepresented families in our schools. 

Chris Hanssmann lives in the Bay Area, currently teaching at UC Davis. He published his first book, Care without Pathology, with University of Minnesota Press. In addition, he has been working as a member of Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. Chris signed the alumni petition demanding Wesleyan’s divestment from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and hopes other alums do the same!

Leila Buck and Adam Abel ’98 continue to ride the waves of exhaustion and joy as they learn how to parent their two-year-old daughter. They’ve been devastated by the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and the ongoing atrocities of the Israeli army and settlers since then. They are doing their best to support loved ones in Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel from their time living and working in all three places, and they are calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire and continuing to work for a just peace in our time. Leila is teaching, writing, and occasionally performing while caring for their daughter and supporting her mom in the wake of her dad’s death last year. She knows many of us can relate to the sandwiching of child and eldercare, and to the navigation of personal and collective grief in these times. Sending wishes for comfort, healing energy, and support to all. 

Kevin and I hope that the year ahead is full of promise and possibilities. We look forward to connecting with many of you at our 25th Reunion in May!

Hi fellow classmates,

Benjamin Rubloff wrote in to report he has been living in Berlin since 2004, working as an artist and art teacher. He received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for painting, which has him on sabbatical from teaching, and he has a book forthcoming. He describes his art as: “Making  paintings of tiny fragments of graffiti. I photograph the places where the graffiti was found and am writing about time, memory, and history in relationship to place.” He says that living overseas, he has lost track of the Wes community and it would be a lot of fun to reconnect!

No other updates to report this time, so I’ll just say how thankful I am for my time at Wes with you all. Please send in your updates and sightings any time!

Hi Everyone,

We have very sad news to share. Madeleine Perez wrote, “Our classmate Greg Pedersen passed away suddenly in July. He lived in Sonoma, California, and left behind his wife Rachel Kowal Pedersen ’98 and their two kids. This site has more info: https://www.gregpedersen.com/.” We send our deepest condolences to Greg’s family and friends.

Sara Kate Gillingham wrote, “I send love and peace to all from Brooklyn, where I just ran the NYC marathon for the second time. Both times I ran in support of the American Liver Foundation; in 2017 I gave half my liver to Dave Kane ’92—now that’s a story! After 20 years in food writing, I decided to make a huge career change; I’m about halfway through a master’s degree program to become a psychotherapist—here’s to graduating at 50!—and recently completed training to work in psychedelic assisted therapy. I have a 17-year-old daughter named Ursula, and we live with our black lab, Connie, in a brownstone in Bed-Stuy with a big disco ball over the door.” Congratulations Sara—just wow! And extra congratulations on your James Beard writing award! You join at least one other ’97er (Mei Chin) in that stellar category! Go ’97!

Lauren Porosoff wrote: “I wrote a new book called Teach for Authentic Engagement, about how teachers can design instruction so students connect with the content, their work, and each other. I think it’s the best book I’ve written and I’d love to hear what my Wes classmates in the education field think of it. When I’m not writing or giving workshops, I’m fielding phone calls from my kids’ schools, pretending to know how to grow vegetables, and watching every sci-fi/fantasy show I can find on the 84 streaming services we still subscribe to even though the pandemic is over.” Good luck, Lauren, with the book! We are sure it will be helpful to many educators and their students.

Tony Schloss wrote: “Our family punk rock band once again played a set to kick off the after party of the Barnacle Parade, a community event celebrating the community resilience that emerged after Hurricane Sandy in Red Hook, Brooklyn. AYUB will be releasing a two-song EP this spring, entitled Two Many Songs, featuring original compositions ‘Too Many Jerkos’ and ‘Too Many Tabs,’ the latter a treatise on web browsing and hallucinogenic drugs. The band features my sons, 14 and 11 years old, on bass and drums. Their six-year-old sister is currently in training to take over guitar duties. Michael Lenore ’97.5 was in attendance.” How amazing is that!

We send you all our best wishes and we look forward to hearing from you, so please reach out anytime with updates.

Sasha and Jess 

Hi friends! Just a quick update this time around.

Rallie Snowden shares that she is still living in Shenandoah Valley with her just-turned 13-year-old and her 5-year-old. She keeps in touch with Anne Brockelman in Boston.

Sally Lee (NYC) and Kate Baker (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) have been advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza, and recently signed the alumni petition demanding that Wesleyan divest from Israeli interests.

Nina Erlich-Williams writes: “I visited Hilary Hoeber and her sweet family in Davis, California, for a sunny weekend in September. We had a very active weekend that included celebrating Mexican Independence Day at a hops farm, strolling through charming downtown Davis, and lunch with Hilary’s parents (including fellow Wesleyan grad Tom Hoeber ’63). It was a great visit and a wonderful chance to celebrate more than three decades of friendship.”

And the next generation of Wesleyan students continues! Deborah Mahoney tells us that she and her husband Joseph Mahoney ’94 “had a fabulous time dropping our frosh son, Noah, off at Wesleyan this August for pre-season cross country with his new college team! He is living in Foss—which looks exactly the same as it did in 1994—and wishes the Usdan dining hall were a little closer. We lamented the closure of MoCon, but then were surprised at how fabulous the new dining options and meal plan are for the kids these days. We got to observe the first cross-country practice (running a time trial on a track) and then we went home to Minnesota. Later, we were surprised that we got to watch Noah at cross-country nationals while we were out East visiting my mom in Philadelphia! He got pretty sick the day before the race, ended up running anyways, but felt terrible. It was fun for him to be invited, however. Joe and I also met up with Sara Berenbom (now Friedman) whose son, Zach, was running there too—for Tufts!  It was such a blast. Joe and I are still working as physicians in Minnesota. We have a high school sophomore daughter, Isabel, at home. She’s aiming to run Division 1 at some school that is NOT where her brother attends. We’ll see!”

Hope everyone is doing well!  Keep sending us your news!

Katy writes: Glad to close out 2023 with updates from our fellow classmates. We all have things going on in our lives and communities—big and small. This issue features some great snapshots of everyday life, including from some first-time contributors.

Carolyn Renzin writes, “Nothing much has changed in YEARS. . . . I’ve lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, for 13 years, with my husband of 21 years, Lee, and our two kids—one a college freshman, the other a high school junior. Maggie McLean Suniewick ’97 and Josh Suniewick ’97 also live in Hastings-on-Hudson . . . we were all friends from the pool/swim team/water polo/lifeguarding days and now our kids hang out! I love watching the next generation from town head off to college—many to Wes. [A] college visit this fall to Wes for my daughter had me texting old friends: Rachel Hitch, Jieho Lee, and Susannah Kerest, as thousands of memories flooded in. And work (I’m lawyering at online betting company, FanDuel) and life continue apace with gratitude as we—the sandwich generation—parent our kids and care for our aging parents.”

Marc Schleifer writes, “Update on my end is that after nearly 20 years in D.C. (how that happen?), have relocated to New York after my wife took a job here. We still have our place in D.C. and my work is still there, so I haven’t entirely cut the cord. But it’s wonderful to finally be in the Big Apple, only took 28 years after graduating from Wes!”

Brandon Patton moved to Seattle in 2020 and connected with former Wesleyan Spirit Michael Roufa ’96 after the pandemic ended, getting roped into performing in an Earth, Wind & Fire–themed performance of the story of Esther for Purim at a local synagogue in 2023. The rabbi wore platform heels and Bootsy Collins sunglasses.

Jason Segal writes, “All well here in Manhattan. Approaching our 15th anniversary of our climate-focused merchant bank, Javelin Capital—welcome all Wes grads who are fighting the good fight against climate change and undergrads interested to work in the space to reach out. Children Julia (10) and Ari (8) are doing great and all enjoying life in the city.”

Rick Meyerson writes, “I’m still living in San Francisco with my wife, two teens in our public schools, and a weird dog, [and] working in climate tech. My older kid is a senior in high school, and we had the honor of touring Wesleyan in October. It’s amazing how beautifully both the campus and Middletown have evolved. I visited Klekolo World Coffee and I donated a 30-year-old business card, advertising a logo contest, from when they first opened. My daughter loved the campus tour, especially the WestCo kids who launched into a wild improvised breakup scene from their balcony when they saw our tour walking by. Why did they need to cancel legacy admissions this year of all years? (Kidding. Kind of.)”

Lara Tupper is one of 11 authors included in a charity anthology, Maine Character Energy (Rogue Owl Press). The book features stories and poems that celebrate Maine’s small towns, rugged wilderness, rocky coasts, and the everyday characters that make the state special. All proceeds from the sales of the book will support Everytown for Gun Safety, in honor of the victims, survivors, and families affected by the Lewiston-Auburn massacre that took place in October 2023.

Finally, a couple of alumni encounters of my own. Recently I was glad to run into Jessica (Gerald) Young at our town’s high school orchestra concert (where her son, Joey, was playing violin in a group along with my eldest). And last month I had the fortune to see alumni, staff, President Roth, and others at Boston’s Celebration of Something Big. The event was a fun chance to see acquaintances old and new, and I enjoyed saying hi to Brendan Coughlin. The evening culminated at the Wes alum–owned Cantab Lounge, with a performance—featuring President Roth on the keyboards—of a spirited rendition of the Beatles’ “Money (That’s What I Want),” encouraging our support of Wes.

Take care everyone, and best wishes to you and your loved ones for 2024.

Greetings from Chicago! I cannot believe another year is coming to a close. I continue to practice law at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. I was honored to receive the 2023 Vanguard Award from the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago for “making the law and legal profession more accessible to and reflective of the community at large.” My daughters, Sarah and Norah, started high school this fall.  I hope to see many of you at our 30th Reunion!

In other reports received from our classmates:

Raya Salter writes that she has been very busy raising awareness of the fact that the chair of Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees, John B. Frank ’78, is a director of the Chevron company. She has been active with alumni and students to raise attention and wrote an editorial for the Argus, gave a lecture on campus in October, and took part in a rally.

Karen Gaffney writes that she lives in Somerville, New Jersey, and is an English professor at Raritan Valley Community College. Karen also is serving as a reunion ambassador for the Class of 1994 and is looking forward to our 30th Reunion.

Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert have coauthored a new nonfiction book entitled The Secret Life of Data. The book will be published by MIT Press in April 2024, and distributed by Penguin Random House. More information about the book is available here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739508.

Happy holidays to all of you, and hope to see you at the Reunion! 

Hi everyone! We have some exciting updates: a mini-Wesleyan reunion, a film, a political campaign, and a book. In the final notes, two friends and classmates (Karen and Jessica) write updates about each other. 

Julie Francis writes, “I was shocked to find other Wesleyan peeps hanging out in Santa Cruz, California, thanks to an alumni event at Stanford earlier this year. It has been a total joy to get to know my new Wes buds: David Lakein ’92, Julie Charles ’91 (aka Julie Arlinghaus), and Dan Partland ’92. We’ve eaten some great food together (Julie can cook!), drank some great wine, shared some great conversations about controversial topics, commiserated about online dating (THREE of us are single!), laughed, and thoroughly enjoyed the presence of other slightly wacky kindred spirits. Anybody else hiding out here in Santa Cruz? If so, reach out! David and I are considering putting together some sort of West Coast get-together for early 2024. julie@juliefrancis.com.”

Hadley Gustafson and Dan Kapelovitz, who were college sweethearts at Wesleyan more than 30 years ago, are back together! They recently went to New York, where Dan showed one of his films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. There they met up with various Wesleyan alums, including David Buchbinder ’90, John Wyeth ’92, Deirdre Simon ’90, Kendra Hurley, and Matt Spain ’95. Hadley and Dan currently live in Los Angeles, where Hadley works as a visual digital creator and Dan is running for district attorney. Hadley and Dan greatly enjoyed seeing Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson ’03 for their September Hollywood the Oral History book talk at UCLA. Many Wes alums from many generations were there as well.

Karen Powell writes, “Dr. Jessica Holden Sherwood, author of the book Wealth, Whiteness, and the Matrix of Privilege: The View from the Country Club, has been steadfastly challenging our notions of gender, race, and socioeconomic status since our time at Wesleyan. She’s no less making social change than I am, influencing both her professional community and her students. She has steadfastly challenged the social norms in a way that is authentic and powerful. Shout-out to her husband, Jesse Sherwood ’95, for 30-plus years of partnership. Wes alumni rock!”

Jessica Holden Sherwood writes, “When I arrived at Wes in 1989, the club water polo players announced they’d like to evolve from coed to a men’s team and a women’s team. With that, Karen Powell and I became co-captains of the new women’s team. Through the years, Karen’s athletic career has continued from Ironman competitions through Roller Derby and ice hockey, which she learned at Wes. Now working as a law professor in Melbourne, Australia, Karen played on Australia’s first LGBT+ ice hockey club. Her 20-year-old kid, Grace, is a professional athlete who is nonbinary. Grace and Karen have pressed for progress, respectively, in adding pronouns to IFSC athlete profiles and in adding a nonbinary competition category at their local and state levels. As for me? I’ve had small victories protesting when my kids’ elementary school had a ‘father-daughter dance’ and when their upper school softball field was no match for the state-of-the-art baseball field. Mostly I teach sociology, including a gender course this semester. I was proud to share the news from Grace and Karen with my students.”  

Dear fellow ’92ers,

I bring you news from our class!

Deb Lack reports that her younger daughter, Lane Daniels, will be attending Wesleyan in the fall, as part of the Class of ’28, intending to study political science, history, and theater. Currently at Wesleyan is Byron King’s daughter, Meriwether ’27, who has settled in and is making great friends, which Byron saw with his own eyes at Homecoming and Family Weekend this fall. Also there was Chris Chesak, who was voted onto the 1990s All-Decade Football Team and who got to catch up with his old teammates.

Edoardo Ballerini was back on campus last semester, teaching a guest course on narration and the spoken word in the Shapiro Center for Writing. In December he did a live reading for students from his Audible Original, The Angel of Rome, cocreated with best-selling author Jess Walter, a fictionalized version of his summer in Italy after graduation.

Another visitor to New England was Nancy McLoughlin, who was grateful that she was able to race in the Head of the Charles last fall among beautiful foliage—it brought back so many wonderful memories of rowing for Wesleyan.

Lisa Liang took a break from novel writing to produce a short film with her sister, which is currently making the rounds at festivals. On the personal front, her youngest heads off to college this year.

Jeffrey Kipnis reports that he and Jennie Van Cleef spent an amazing nine days together marauding across southern New Mexico and southwest Texas. 

Moving abroad, Dan Fortmann was recruited by Lufthansa at Munich Airport in June and is now a “passenger service professional debutante” in the aviation industry at Germany’s number two airport. 

Jill Slater started a new position as leader of the (Climate) Resiliency Team at the New York City Housing Authority. Jill continues to live in Manhattan’s financial district with her husband and their 10-year-old daughter. Fellow New Yorker Eric Leach-Rodriguez lives with his husband of 11 years and, on behalf of a childhood friend, became a living kidney donor last year. And on the Upper West Side is Darcy Dennett. She is working on a short film on the 100th Anniversary of the People’s Forest in Connecticut over the course of this year. In her free time, she is renovating a very old house, about one hour northeast of Wesleyan, getting back to running while still swimming laps, and did her first super minitriathlon this past summer.

Jody Sperling also lives in NYC, where her daughter is in seventh grade. She still dances, choreographs, and directs her company, Time Lapse Dance. Since the pandemic, she’s been an eco-artist-in-residence at the New Society for Ethical Culture. Jody and the company were featured in the documentary Obsessed with Light, which had its world premiere at the 2023 Rome Film Fest.

Another tristate resident is Kate Edwards, who lives in Pennington, New Jersey, and continues to work at Datacolor, which makes instruments that measure color. Her kids are getting ready to fly the nest—Iris is a high school senior and Nick is a sophomore.

Ty Jagerson continues to live in the Bay Area, now working at General Motors running their V2X program, building the business around using plugged-in EVs to power homes, businesses, and the grid.

Also on the West Coast is Ola Green, who relocated to Los Angeles and has been working in documentaries as an executive for Netflix since 2019. He is proud to have worked on award-winning films with Beyoncé (Homecoming), the Obamas (American Factory), and Questlove (Descendant).

Rounding up the news is an update from Maria Rosa Truglio, who works at Penn State as professor of Italian and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and is working on Italian children’s literature. She got married in 2021 up in New Hampshire to Greg Fox. Her son, Thomas, is finishing up his residency in medicine at Dartmouth, and her other son, Anthony, has been teaching in the linguistics program at Penn State.

That’s all the news for now. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Michael Chaskes and Sarah (Lewis) Chaskes continue to enjoy a more or less empty-nest life in Los Angeles. Michael edits unscripted TV shows, including the Netflix hit Hack My Home, and volunteers on behalf of Democratic candidates and causes. He and film/theatergoing buddy, Paige Harding ’90 enjoyed seeing Professor Jeanine Basinger at an Los Angeles event, along with other alums like Halle Stanford and Jon Hoeber ’93. Sarah is in her 30th year of teaching sixth-grade English and social studies, her 12th at Pilgrim School, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in education with a focus on social justice.

Mark Kiefer’s short film, Or, The Whale, won the Best Comedy award at the Lake Placid Film Festival in October.

Did you catch the Nietzsch Factor story in the Summer 2023 edition of the Wesleyan Magazine? Thinking, “I want more history of ultimate?” Look up Adam Zagoria’s Ultimate: The First Four Decades. Adam is a professional sportswriter and coauthor of the book. 

After almost 20 years in Rockland, Jeff Post moved to northern Westchester, New York, and while voting in November, ran into Johannah Dunham Townsend, who was serving as an election volunteer in their tiny district in Somers, New York. Jeff’s son, Bradley, graduated from the University of Central Florida and works in Orlando. Another son, Andrew, is a graduate of the University of Alabama and as of this writing, awaits law school admissions notifications. 

Cheryl Gansecki teaches geology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and field courses for the Black Hills Field Station. In 2023 she celebrated publication of her book, Roadside Geology of Hawaiʻi. Husband, Ken Hon, is scientist-in-charge of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, where they have dealt with six eruptions in two years, making for a lot of sleepless nights. Daughter, Mara, is a junior at Columbia, and elder child Orion is in a PhD program in planetary science at University of Arizona. Cheryl would love to see Wesleyan friends that come to the Big Island!

Writing in from Portland, Maine, Jeff Levine continues work on state-level zoning reform initiatives designed to increase housing production. “In 2021 I served on the Maine legislature’s Commission to Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions. The Commission’s work resulted in LD2003, which reformed Maine’s state zoning laws by allowing more multifamily housing and providing incentives for affordable housing in downtowns. Maine is one of a small but growing set of states that are asking communities to plan for more housing, in light of a national shortage.” Jeff also works with a couple of communities in Massachusetts as they plan for the MBTA Communities Act, the Bay State’s version of state-level housing and zoning reform. “It’s an important planning effort, but it can sometimes be challenging to convince local leaders that planning for more housing allows you to choose your future far better than fighting new housing.”

In December, Spencer Boyer completed nearly three years of service in the Biden administration as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Spencer noted, “I learned more than I could have imagined during this historic time for transatlantic relations, European security, and NATO” and “it’s been an honor to serve with such extraordinary colleagues and to be a part of Secretary Austin’s team.” His next chapter will include a mix of private sector, think tank, and academic work, including a term this winter as the Magro Family Distinguished Fellow in International Affairs at the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. 

Tasos Theodorou provides us with a really important PSA: “chest pains and shortness of breath is not just your kids driving you crazy, but is in fact a heart attack, so get to the ER pronto!” Fortunately, he adds that his quadruple bypass heart surgery in November was a success, and he is healing well.

With that important information, I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2024!  

Sharene Azimi has been “enjoying working at the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) as communications director since 2020. The job puts me in a movement of people working to provide credible news and information to every community—something we believe is important for, you know, the future of American democracy. In between work and raising my two boys as a divorced mom in the New Jersey exurbs, I’ve gone back to the things I love, like tango dancing, choir singing, and travel. I get together regularly with Miriam Temin, and I was delighted that Stephanie Donohue Pilla and Brian Gottesman came to the backyard dance party I threw for my second 50th birthday this summer.”

This spring, Victor Khodadad will be singing the role of Emperor Altoum with St. Petersburg Opera in Florida. He also continues his work with New Camerata Opera, a small, professional opera company based in New York City. Please learn more by visiting www.newcamerataopera.org. 

Andy Russell has been advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza and recently signed the alumni petition demanding that Wesleyan divest from companies profiting off Israeli occupation.