Sara Beth Hoffman and Matthew Podolin live in San Francisco and welcomed their daughter, Eva, in February. Their sweet baby arrived three weeks early and likes her panda stuffed animal and lullabies.
Sadly, there are three passings to report: Chris Goy passed away on October 21, 2023; John Harding ’10, who started with our class, passed away on December 7, 2023; and Alicia Garrison passed away on February 15, 2024. Links to their obituaries can be found online in Obituaries.
John McNeil has been writing science fiction stories for the past few years—visit johnmcneil.me/writing—and is happy to share that his story, “Decision Trees,” was published in the March/April 2024 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact.
Marianna Foos writes, “Xue Sun and I did not see the Northern Shrike that was hanging around Middletown in February, but we tried really, really hard and it was really, really cold.”
And finally, I am looking to step back from the role of Class Notes secretary after nearly 15 years. I’ve loved being the first person to hear of all the exciting doings of our class and exchanging emails with old friends and acquaintances. Perhaps someone else from the Class of ’08 is willing to step in? If so, please email me!
The Class of ’07 continues our journey! Lauren Ogden had her second kiddo in the fall and took more than two months to name him (in Vermont you get six months). She’s working part time at the local critical-access hospital and long-term care facility doing infection prevention and control. She’s on the board of a local nonprofit that offers teen and young parents the resources and skills they need to raise healthy families. She goes to cheer for Wes whenever she can at Middlebury sporting events.
Himanshu “Heems” Suri is very grateful for his soccer and birding group chat with his Wesleyan family: Sara Kim, Alex Magnin,Jared DiMartini ’09, Josh Stephens, and Andre Sternberg. He released a new album, LAFANDAR, on February 16, and another album, Veena, released on May 31. This year he launched Veena (https://veena.nyc), a magazine and lifestyle brand connecting New York with New Delhi. Three times a year Veena drops new editorial and products across “Sounds, Wears, and Naturals.” Heems also started teaching about music tech and global markets at NYU.
Dawid Wiącek is finally getting around to publishing his book this summer: What My Dog Taught Me: Lessons about Careers, Networking, and Yes, Even Resumes. After a rather lonely year without a dog, he is starting to think about rescuing another pup (but, let’s be honest, the rescuing is mutual/two-way). He is blessed and grateful to visit his 36th country this year, and if the universe allows, he’ll live to 100 and will visit 100 nations. He is currently learning French, polishing his Spanish, and perfecting his Polish, and avoiding Mandarin yet again. He gave up refined sugar for Lent and it was the single best health decision he’s ever made (ask him about it). Dawid is excited for the Summer Olympics! If anyone reading this wants to meet up in person (Zoom is so last year!) in the NYC area, whether to watch the Olympics or just catch up, please hit him up.
As of May 2024, Tori Mair is starting her own law firm with her longtime law partner, Jessica Gray. The firm will be called Santoro & Gray and will be located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Scout James has joined the Groundlings Sunday Company.
Saad Handoo hit six years of residence in Atlanta with his wife, Mariam Qureshi, and two kids, Lena and Kareem. He spends most of his family time corralling kids between baseball diamonds and soccer pitches.
Maggie Starr says, “I live in Portland, Oregon, near the Columbia River with my wife and two daughters (one- and three-years-old) and our dog. I raise money for an environmental nonprofit, do some fundraising consulting on the side, and try to find as much time as possible for open-water swimming, biking, and getaways around the Northwest. Still a history nerd. Hit me up if you’re ever in the area or looking for Pacific Northwest travel tips!”
Philip Cortes says, “Out in San Francisco, where I am lucky enough to have my Wesleyan BFFLs live nearby (Casey Wilson and Lukas Snelling ’05). Doing the suburban picket-fence deal with my amazing wife, two kids, a four-year-old and a one-year-old. Working on a new company called OMNI, leveraging AI to help patients navigate their care and get better outcomes. Life is pretty good! Turning 40 in a few months. We’re getting old!”
Omair Sarwar says, “I recently decamped from NYC to Austin to launch my firm, GearBox (www.gearboxcap.com), where I spend my days investing in and supporting entrepreneurs and bootstrappers in building their businesses. As a former Wes squash guy, trying to get my head (and racquet) around the local pickleball craze. Would love to meet other Wes folks in the Austin area.”
Libertad Gills, also known as Libby, is currently living in Lugano, Switzerland, where she works as a postdoctoral researcher for the Future of Cinema & the Audiovisual Arts at the Università della Svizzera italiana, in co-partnership with Locarno Film Festival. Her films, writings on film, and video essays are available on her website (libertadgills.com) and Instagram (@libertadgills). She attended the Orphan Film Symposium in April in New York City to participate in a panel on amateur cinema in Latin America. Get in touch if you find yourself in Switzerland or Milan!
Josh Saffer says, “Jeremy Hunt, Reinhardt Schuhmann, Matt Mulqueen, and I have been living and dying by the coin since October, and recently completed year one of the Rainbow Road Record Exchange.”
Emily Frost, Nick Bullard, Gianna Sobol, and Shaine Truscott celebrated their 40th birthdays. They add, “Well, it was really Gianna’s actual birthday, but we’re all turning 40 this year, so we were all celebrating (!) with a trip to Palm Springs and a sound bath at the Integretron in March 🙂 . . . . We all live in different parts of the country (Massachusetts, Seattle, LA), three of us have kids, so it was a lot of childcare and travel/work schedules to coordinate to make it happen!”
From left to right: Gianna Sobol, Shaine Truscott, Emily Frost, and Nick Bullard at Integretron
Ronald Lim remains in Singapore where he recently curated a major retrospective exhibition for the Singapore Architecture Collection that opened in November 2023. In December 2023, he reunited with ex-housemate, Tu Chi Nguyen, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where she is now based in her work for the World Bank. Together in Abidjan, they met up for dinner with Linda Dempah ’05 whose “slow cosmetics” start-up, Adeba Nature, is gaining traction in West Africa and beyond. Earlier that year, he visited Takahiro Haneda and Erika Ikeda in Tokyo and also caught up with Wilson Co and Louis Caditz-Peck passing through Singapore. He notes that they’re all thriving and growing purposefully! Tu Chi notes that her recent move to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, included her two kids, Philip and Vivien. When Ronald Lim came to visit, he shared the Singaporean urban planning experience with fellow Ivorian architects. She is working on energy issues with the World Bank and looks forward to connecting with other Wes alums in the region.
Brianna (Zinser) Farrand is a registered dietitian overseeing the bariatric surgery programs at two Northwell Health hospitals: Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan and Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco. She lives in Connecticut with her two sons, Henry (seven-years-old) and Blake (four-years-old), and her husband, Dan. She keeps in touch with Carolyn Thai, Adina Bricklin, and Emily Privot, though not as often as she’d like!
Rachel Wertheimer says, “I’m living near my hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with my wife and five-year-old daughter. We live in a co-housing community where we share gardens, social spaces, and mutual aid collectively with our neighbors. I’m a clinical social worker and am starting my 10th year as a middle school counselor at a small independent school. I happily see nearby Wesleyan friends, Rachel Kiel ’07 (who lives down the street!), Katey Rich, and Kate Mitchell ’05 pretty regularly, and there [are] so many others I miss and wish I saw more!”
Kate Mitchell shared,“I’m now working for Arabella Advisors doing fiscal sponsorship work. Still living in Durham with my three-and-a-half-year-old, Ivy, and our mischievous cat, Rue.”
Tim Von Hollweg has been working as the director of operations of New York City’s appetizing legend Russ & Daughters alongside Emily Cintron ’04, who is the company’s director of communications. Tim also recently had a mini-Wesleyan reunion with Philip Marmon-Halm, Zach Hall, Jorge T. Torres’04, Dave Sohn’04, and Dan Timmeny’04 in New York City.
Katie Walsh lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she works as a film critic, podcast host, and moderator around town. She was recently elected vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Brielle Rey traveled to San Diego to spend a few sunny days with Sam White and Anna Talman. They next plan to get together this summer at Sam’s place in Montana with Ruth Chaffee, where their four eight-year-olds will unite to take over the world. Brielle also had a long-awaited reunion with roommate Katie Hodel in Charlotte—it has been 19 years, but Katie looked exactly the same!
Anay Shah wrote,“After spending the last decade working in financial inclusion across numerous emerging markets, I have returned to the climate crisis.” He and his co-founder have launched an early-stage venture capital fund called Stepchange, investing in entrepreneurs who aim to make a “step change” impact on the climate. Anay still lives in Los Angeles with his wife and young son.
Doro Globus has just published her second children’s book in the How Art Works series. I Am an Artist is structured around a tour of an artists’ studio complex, the book introduces readers to street artists, ceramicists, conceptual artists, textile artists, photographers, glassblowers, and more! The artists share their working spaces and their techniques while explaining why they make art. Doro’s first publication, Making a Great Exhibition, published in 2021, was acclaimed by The New York Times for “demystifying the art world and making it accessible to budding young artists.”
Nora Bowman contributed,“My husband, Paul, and I welcomed a baby boy, named James, in October 2023. He made his first trip to Wesleyan in January for the Amy Posocco ’04 memorial/tribute basketball game and brought some joy to a very bittersweet day celebrating Amy’s life with the women’s basketball community.”
Nora Bowman and baby James, October 2023
Finally, we received the news that Jesse Brenner passed away on April 24, 2024. Sivan Cotel wrote: “We sadly lost Jesse Brenner in April. Jesse had a brilliant mind and touched the lives of many. Eric Herman, Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky, Julia Lerman, Adam Tuck, Jenna St. Martin, Dave Ahl, Raquel Gutierrez, Greg Morril, Gabe Prager, Tacuma Bradley ’04, Andrew Aprile ’06, and I joined Jesse’s family to celebrate his life. A remembrance ceremony will be held during Wesleyan’s 2025 reunion.”
Portrait of Jesse Brenner from Adam Tuck’s Wesleyan Studio Art senior thesis.
Hi, ’04! Thanks for the notes! Some good updates from around the class.
Nick Blondin reports some great news: “I recently was promoted to associate professor of neurology at Yale, and I am the leader of the Neuro-Oncology Clinical Research Team. We are working hard to improve treatment options and outcomes for brain cancer patients. I also enjoyed returning to Wes for the annual water polo alumni reunion game, which was successfully held on April 27.”
Aja Gabel had her second son, Kenzo, in April, and a TV show she wrote on, called Sunny, premieres on Apple TV+ in July.
Greg Heller can’t believe it has been 20 years! He’s still living in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philly with his wife and two sons (eight and five) and working as an affordable housing consultant at Guidehouse.
Meanwhile, Jhanelle C. Allen-Morris tells us she now lives in Parkland, Florida, with her husband and three kids, practicing emergency medicine and “traveling as often as I can.”
Nora Hanagan is currently a teaching assistant professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also coordinates events for UNC’s Program for Public Discourse; in this role, she brought Michael Roth to campus, and held an event with Ted Shaw ’76. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her wife and two daughters.
Becca (Joffe) Filson, NP ’03, found herself working as a hospitalist with Jim Most ’89MD at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vermont, where they enjoy talking about Neon Deli orders and giving their Williams College colleagues a hard time.
Congratulations to Sarabeth Broder-Fingert for her recent marriage to Melissa Courtemanche ’03. Sarabeth is the vice chair for clinical research in pediatrics and the associate director for research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at the UMass Chan Medical School.
Ben Goldstein was promoted to professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke University. He also serves as the director of data science for Duke AI Health and the associate chief data scientist for the Duke University Health System. He’s enjoying his 10th year in Durham with his wife, Cheng, and sons, Malcolm (10) and Noah (6). He gets excited when he sees the stray Wesleyan bumper sticker or baseball hat!
Miles Gerson relocated to Boston with his wife, Claire, at the height of COVID in August 2020 for his new role with Takeda Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. This March he was promoted to global head and president of Takeda Ventures, managing the investment team and advising on strategic transactions.
Miles and Claire are loving Boston life, particularly because they get to spend more time with their many East Coast friends, including Wes alums Camden Fisher ’01, Jon Gates, and Kelly Knee PhD ’07, who all attended their COVID-delayed wedding celebrations in Colorado in 2022—both Camden and Jon graciously stood as groomsmen in the wedding party.
After graduating in 2002, Sallome Hralima moved to NYC for grad school and never left. She writes, “Miraculously (no really it was a lot of hard work, inheritance, and prayer), after 21 years in New York, my husband and I were able to purchase a home in Brooklyn. I had 15-plus years in youth development and social entrepreneurship before taking the leap into filmmaking. Since 2018 I have been producing events and short films with my freshman X-House roommate, Krysten Hayes. I have been working on a number of film/television projects with Umi NiiLampti ’99 and Markell Parker ’98. A documentary I co-produced, It Was All a Dream, premiered in the Tribeca Film Festival June 2024 in New York City. Here’s to career changes in your 40s!”
And Paul Smaldino wrote a book—Modeling Social Behavior: Mathematical and Agent-Based Models of Social Dynamics and Cultural Evolution—which is a comprehensive introduction to mathematical and agent-based modeling of social behavior. You can order a copy from Princeton University Press.
As for myself, I was recently an executive producer of Ninety-Five Senses, an animated short film directed by the Napoleon Dynamite duo Jared and Jerusha Hess, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short. I also produced a series with the Olympics—Playing Fields—which not only won a Webby Award but also has been nominated for a Sports Emmy. Additionally, another film I produced about the tragic death of Indy car driver Dan Wheldon and the legacy he left for his sons—The Lionheart—recently premiered on HBO. I also have two films at festivals currently: Diane Warren: Relentless,about the Oscar-nominated songwriter that premiered at SXSW, and Bad Actor, a true-con doc about a $650 million Hollywood Ponzi scheme that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. Lastly, I executive produced a true- crime series—Sasha Reid and the Midnight Order—coming to Hulu this summer, about a group of extraordinary women who use data to solve serial predation patterns amongst missing and murdered women.
We were light on notes, so please keep the updates coming!
Happy summer Class of 2001! Our classmates are keeping busy as ever.
Chris Saenger writes in to share that he is back in Washington, D.C., after spending four years in Bogota, Colombia. He will now be leading USAID’s Ukraine desk for the next couple of years. Chris’s wife, Caroline Adams Saenger, still paints beautiful, abstracted landscapes, and he adds that he smiles wistfully when he passes the exit for Middletown on his way up to visit his daughter at the University of Vermont.
Elizabeth Savage has started her own practice, Elizabeth Savage Law, located in Portland, Oregon. She focuses on appeals, civil litigation, and family law. Visit Elizabeth’s website (savage-attorney.com) to check out more about her new private practice.
We have another law career update from Wei Hu. Wei was recognized by City and State New York’s 2024 Trailblazers in Lawpublication! Wei’s practice, MRTA Law PC, was highlighted for helping to advance social justice and economic equity in New York’s adult-use industry and cannabis law. Wei is considered a leader in this category in part for prevailing in a pro bono appellate matter that changed New York State’s marijuana conviction expungement laws in 2023, as well as for having worked with Governor Hochul’s office on regulatory and enforcement matters to stem unlicensed dispensary operations throughout New York in 2024. As if Wei has not been busy enough, he, along with two co-owners, also recently opened Lenox Hill Cannabis Co., a dispensary located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Correction from last issue:Mattitiyahu Zimbler’s name was misspelled. We apologize for the error.
Whew! Thanks so much to everyone who shared their news. We love hearing from you.
Mandy Snyder wrote: “I moved to Greenfield, Massachusetts, last year to enjoy the amazing improvisational dance community here, and it has been wonderful. I am offering groups in somatic and parts work around western Massachusetts.
“I recently visited the campus after many years. My brother, Jeffrey Snyder, a professor at Carleton College, gave a talk on free speech for the annual Hugo L. Black Lecture. That was a special moment for me, and it was so great to be back. So many great memories, especially from living at Art House and all of the dance opportunities there.
“Reach out if you live nearby and enjoy walking or hiking. I would love to connect with other alums.”
From Peter Wiley: “I’m so sad to report that my wife, Hilda Ives Wiley, died on March 28, 2024, from a six-month battle with colon cancer. Hilda and I met in the first few days of our freshman year and by the end of our first semester, we were in a ‘Wes marriage’ for the rest of our four years. I am so grateful for the 27 years we shared together and for Wesleyan being the place that brought us together. Hilda’s freshman roommate, Marisa Suescun, and floor mate, Jill Berlinski,were able to visit with Hilda just a few days before she died and we did a lot of reminiscing. Like the time Jill and Marisa created a dinner party for Hilda’s 20th birthday in a Nicholson dorm room, putting a wooden board atop a bed, creating a makeshift dining room table. More information about Hilda’s journey with cancer is available on the CaringBridge website and an obituary was published in the Portland Press Herald.”
Greg Amis shared two updates: “In November of 2021, my wife, Karen Ferreira Amis, died of sarcoma. Her good friend, M. J. Lanum, and her sister, Kristen Ferreira, wrote a wonderful obituary, available at http://karenferreiraamis.name. The kids and I have grown and healed a lot in the last three years. She would be proud of us.”
And “last October I was laid off after five years at Abbott Vascular. It was a blessing in disguise as I joined Insitro, an amazing tech-bio start-up focused on AI-accelerated drug discovery.”
Greg and Peter, we are sorry for your losses and offer our heartfelt condolences to you and your loved ones.
Matthew Lenard said he “earned his PhD in education from Harvard University this spring and will join the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University this fall.”
Trace Peterson has moved back to Connecticut, where she continues to teach as a visiting assistant professor of English at UConn, Storrs. This year, so far, her article “A Pre Narrative Manifesto: kari edwards’ Trans Poetics” was published in The Weird Sister Collection, edited by Marisa Crawford (The Feminist Press), and her nonfiction essay “Between Muses” was published in Gina Barreca’s new edited collection Fast Famous Women (Woodhall Press). She also had new poems published in Interim: Poetry and Poetics and The Arts Fuse and was invited to give a talk on trans poetry at The Poetry Foundation in Chicago. Currently a member of the Wallace Stevens Poetry Committee at UConn, she was a judge for this year’s Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize.
As a spring chicken of 45, Tamar Wilner is setting out on a new career. Having wrapped up her PhD at the University of Texas, she’ll be starting this fall as an assistant professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Kansas. Tamar will be relocating to the charming and surprisingly hilly college town of Lawrence, where she looks forward to patronizing a vibrant local music scene, and possibly investing in her first e-bike.
Alua Arthur’s book, Briefly Perfectly Human, was recommended by Gayle King for Oprah’s Book Club and has been a New York Times bestseller. The book description says it is “a deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives.” Alua has also been named one of TimeMagazine’s 100 most influential people in health in 2024. @alualoveslife
