Class Notes | 2000s

Class of 2008 Scholarship
Celia Hurvitt ’22, Blue Hill, ME

The Class of 2008 has been taking the world by storm a mere 10 years after graduation! Jeffrey Stein is working as a public defender in D.C. While at Wes, he swam and, until this year, held two school records in the 200- and 400-freestyle relays. He has since replaced swimming with distance running. In November, he won the Marine Corps Marathon and was featured in NBC News and the Washington Post!

Kat Cho is publishing her first young adult novel, Wicked Fox, this year with Penguin Random House. It is based on her Korean heritage and draws from the myth of the gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who can become a woman to lure in men and eat their livers in order to live forever.

Bex Allen writes, “After 10 years in sweet home Chicago, I picked up and moved to Seattle, where I now work in corporate and foundation relations for UW Medicine.”

Lauren Goldman spent New Year’s Day in London with Caroline Janin and her dog, Josephine.

Jinny Jang married her partner, Scot Knickerbocker, in a small Washington, D.C., courthouse ceremony in October. Kate Letourneau and Andy Lubershane ’06 welcomed daughter Eve Shayna Letourneau in December. Eve has fat cheeks and a good attitude.

Sam and Sage Ruth decided to throw away their carefree DINK [double income, no kids] life, and welcomed their son Maxwell “Max” Alexander in November. Learning the fight song is next on his list of major developmental milestones.

Elissa Kozlov writes, “I accepted a faculty position at Rutgers University (jointly appointed to the School of Public Health and the Institute for Health, Health Policy and Aging Research). My family and I are planning to move to northern New Jersey in May. Any Wesleyan folk living in the Jersey ’burbs?”

Lyz Nardo Levy’s daughter, Mila, arrived on Dec. 5, weighing in at a whopping eight pounds, 12 ounces! Lyz and her husband, Dor, are very tired, but over the moon! Lyz writes, “She really is a laid-back baby. Tipsy Scoop continues to grow and we plan to open our second liquor-infused ice cream ‘barlour’ in Brooklyn this spring!”

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

With 2019 already upon us, we have a few updates from our fellow classmates. A number of ’07ers are continuing their career journeys in exciting new ways. Himanshu “Heems” Suri is taking a break from making rap music and settling in to a new role as Spotify’s senior editor of Indian culture. He lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, where he eats all of the food.

Chris Krovatin had a crazy October. He published his third YA novel, Frequency; became U.S. editorial manager for the new Brooklyn office of Kerrang! Magazine; and married Azara Golston ’09. Chris and Azara live in Washington Heights in NYC. Ian MacLeod works as a restoration ecologist regulating the mining industry at the California Department of Conservation. He bought his first house and lives in Sacramento with his wife, dog, and cat. In his free time, he tries to ski, surf, climb, and raft all over California.

Virginia Hermann is living just a stone’s throw from NYC in Spring Valley, N.Y. After completing her eurythmy training back in 2011, she joined the Eurythmy Spring Valley Ensemble, mostly dedicating herself to artistic development and performing. In 2017 she completed an MA in performance eurythmy through a satellite program of Alanus University (Bonn, Germany), and joined the faculty of the Eurythmy Spring Valley professional eurythmy training. Some exciting projects included a Mozart string quartet performance with A Far Cry in the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, a large-scale tour for Waldorf schools in Taiwan and China, and dramatic collaborations with actors, both as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and as Lucifer in Rudolf Steiner’s Four Mystery Dramas.

We also have some updates on the future Wesleyan generation. Kara Schnoes and Jeremy Brown ’08 were surprised and delighted by their newly adopted kiddo, Asher, who arrived on Thanksgiving Day. They are enjoying life in Eugene, Ore. Sarah Sluis welcomed a son, Arthur Howard Gross, last February. His first year has gone by faster than the freshman year of Wes. The Sluis family moved from Prospect Heights to Park Slope, where Sarah occasionally runs into other Wesleyan grads, including her tennis partner, Rashida Richardson ’08. Sarah works as a journalist, writing about digital media and ad tech for AdExchanger.

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

Jennifer Low is celebrating a well-earned victory after being declared the winner on an episode of Netflix’s cake decorating show, Sugar Rush. Jennifer is the owner and lead pastry chef of The Frosted Fox Cake Shop. Based in Philadelphia, this delightful store is best known for creating wedding and specialty cakes. Definitely check out Frosted Fox Cake Shop for your confectionary needs.

Kristy Elliott is going back to work now that her four children are old enough to be in school. She teaches third grade in Connecticut and is enrolled in the MAT program at Sacred Heart University, where she is working towards her teacher certification.

Rebecca Morse graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2016. She spent a year clerking in Houston, during which she visited Amelia Long in Austin, before moving to Los Angeles, where she lives with her partner, Tim, and works for the city attorney’s office.

Anna Moench enrolled at the University of California San Diego, where she completed her MFA in playwriting. She got married, had a baby, and she resides in Los Angeles, where she is adapting a novel to the screen for Universal and Michael DeLuca Productions. Her new play, Man of God, had its world premiere at East West Players on Jan. 31.

Joseph McElligott supported alumni development for the Trinity Pawling School in 2018 by endowing the Joseph B. McElligott IV Scholarship. The scholarship’s sole purpose is to provide financial aid for students attending the school. Kate Angell was awarded tenure and an associate professorship at Long Island University Brooklyn. Devin Ludwig completed an intensive course in web development. He is seeking full-time programming work. Get in touch with Devin for your programming needs!

Jenny Weinar got married in December. In attendance were Alex Altman, Adam Rizzo, and Jane Morley ’05. Congrats and best wishes!

Congratulations to Luke and Jessica Basta, who welcomed their third child into their family. Baby Heidi joins her siblings, Jonah and Theo. Another round of congrats are in order for Hayley Stokar and her husband, Alexander, who welcomed their first child, Clarissa, in May.

Noah and Elizabeth Isaacs ’05 welcomed their second child, Jonah Hudson Isaacs, into the world on Nov. 20. Jonah is studying ceiling fans in Brooklyn while his 3-year-old sister, Vivienne Langston Isaacs, tries to affectionately eat his toes. Noah works as a director of behavioral health at NYC Health and Hospitals, helping the public hospital system combat the opioid epidemic. Elizabeth works as a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau.

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com

On a recent trip to Rome, Maria Nankova met the smart and lovely current students, Anik Bernstein ’20 and Daniel Osofsky ’20. They were accompanied by Daniel’s mother, Mariam Osofsky. They participated in a walking tour in the center of the eternal city, enjoying unbelievable sunshine and blue skies for the month of January, and later ended with lunch at Piazza Navona. They discussed everything from history, film, and psychology to cultural identities and life abroad but forgot to talk about politics. Well, that was for the better! One can easily forget such an important topic for a moment under the spell of fresh Italian pasta and sun.

Maria said that it was great to hear from current Wes students that they are able to thrive, enjoy, and appreciate Wesleyan as much as she did in the early 2000s. Wesleyan seems to change but stay the same—managing to preserve its unique character while evolving.

Tom Facelle lives in Golden, Colo., with his wife, Jenn, and their two rambunctious boys, Ryan, 6, and Wesley, 2. He spends most of his time practicing urology and shredding the mountains of the front range on skis and mountain bike with David Delcourt.

Sivan Cotel presented at the SiX State Legislator Conference, demonstrating how to utilize small-business owners to advocate for progressive policy and counter the conservative voices of big businesses and chambers of commerce. He is chairman of the board of Porter Medical Center.

Jeremy May moved back to the Bay Area, settling with his wife, Anna, and two boys, Magnus, 3, and Solomon, 3 months, in Oakland, Calif. Jeremy is practicing as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in the area. He will began teaching residents part-time at Highland Hospital and performing cosmetic facial surgery and transgender facial surgery in the coming months. In his spare time, you can find him enjoying backside slappies and poorly executed flat ground skate tricks at the Rockridge BART station. He reconnected with David Wilson, Hannah Barr-DiChiara, and Chris Lake.

Eric Herman is celebrating the 15-year anniversary of Modiba Productions LLC, the music production and management company he cofounded at Wesleyan in 2004 with Jesse Brenner, Dave Ahl, and Adam Tuck. The album Deran that he produced with the guitarist Bombino has been nominated for a Grammy, the first-ever Grammy nomination for an artist from Niger.

Eliza Vitri Handayani initiated and directed a huge, collaborative art event called House of the Unsilenced. More than 20 artists, writers, and performers (including Molly Crabapple) worked with a diverse group of sexual abuse survivors to create artworks, installations, writings, performances, songs, and discussions that speak up against rape culture. Follow the art project on Instagram: @unsilenced_. Eliza was selected into the Australia Arts Council’s Arts Leaders program.

Marcella Winearls | marcellawinearls@gmail.com

Jamie Weiss-Yagoda is living with her family in Tarrytown, N.Y. Her little girls are 6 and nearly 3, and she’s working as a senior policy advisor for the International Rescue Committee.

Jason Pinter and his wife, Dana, welcomed their second daughter, Lyla Sage Pinter, on Nov. 14. Jason signed with literary agent, Amy Tannenbaum, who sold his new novel, The Broken Woman, to Thomas & Mercer/Amazon Publishing, for a January 2020 publication.

Newly minted entrepreneur Raquel Davis launched a weekly newsletter, Interstitial, which focuses on her life as a new business owner and black woman in America. The newsletter offers its readers a curated list of artists, creatives, businesses, and events from/by marginalized individuals and aims to reshape the media landscape for talent that is, at best, overlooked and at worst, completely ignored. Subscribe to the newsletter at linktr.ee/weareinterstitial and follow her on Instagram @weareinterstitial.

Heather Wieler Harrison lives in Montpelier, Vt., with her partner, Noah, and their 2-year-old son, Luca. She is a sixth-grade teacher and is on a mission to fill her classroom library with equity- and social justice-themed fiction, so please send her titles if you have suggestions.

Sophie Woolston is enjoying life in Seattle. She is busy as an infectious-disease doctor at Virginia Mason Medical Center and raising her 3-year-old twin daughters with her wife, Cait. They love living up the street from Regan Pro and family!

Morgan Stecher and Paul Feder welcomed their daughter, Corinna, in June. Corinna joins big brother Sebastian, 3.

Rikkia Hunter Ben Yehudah of New Haven, Conn., spent a lovely Thanksgiving with Dr. Sherry-Ann Brown while Sherry was taking a break from looking for new doctoring opportunities. Rikkia lives in New Haven with her three children. She’s setting up her private practice as an expressive arts therapist she will have two locations; one in New Haven and one in Waterbury. She works full-time at Turnbridge as a primary therapist for young adults in recovery from mental health and addiction disorders.

John Adler is living in Brooklyn with his wife, Katie, and they are expecting their third child in March. After 14 years in restaurants, John moved to Blue Apron, where he is the vice president of culinary.

John Behlmann still lives in NYC and will be performing on Broadway this spring in the new musical, Tootsie. He attended the wedding of Corina Tennant alongside Will Cushing, Betsy Fippinger, and Andrew Fippinger.

Tejas Desai visited Ted Quinn, Laurie Shaner, and Bayard Templeton last summer near Philadelphia and enjoyed getting to know their wonderful children, Elsie, Issie, and Henry! In September, after a successful GoFundMe campaign, he was able to release the second edition of his first novel, The Brotherhood. He is gearing up to publish The Run and Hide, the second book of The Brotherhood Chronicle Crime Trilogy, in September, and is headed to Thailand to revisit some of its settings in January.

Alexander Yellen completed a five-season run on the Syfy zombie series, Z Nation, by directing the series finale. He is working on a passion project about a dysfunctional family road-trip featuring actors with disabilities, alongside his partner, Kelli McNeil, to whom he recently became engaged.

Aaron Gilary lives in Alexandria and works for the Census Bureau, providing methodological guidance for several surveys related to education. In July, he and his wife, Jennifer Styles, and older daughter, Nora, welcomed a baby girl, Tess Elly Gilary.

Coe Will, hubby Craig, and big brother Owen welcomed Luca Sinclair Hoeksema to the family on May 10. Coe shifted to digital media consulting for Dattner Architects and various related clients in order to also manage the absurd logistics of raising kids in Brooklyn. She maintains perspective and her sense of humor by following other NYC Wes parents on Instagram.

Chris Watters and Jill Green ’02 had a baby! They welcomed little Hyla into the world last May, and now all she wants to do is walk and crawl even though she can’t do either. Jill runs the prop shop at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Chris is working in communications at Ubisoft. They are enjoying life in South Berkeley and spending time with the increasing number of Wes friends living nearby.

Amy Tannenbaum Gottlieb | atannenbaum@wesleyan.edu

Happy spring! On the baby front: Lauren Bierman and Tom Slattery welcomed their second son, Tate, on Aug. 13. Lauren is vice president for Global Strategy Group, a public affairs, communications, and research firm. She previously served as campaign manager for newly elected Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Hakeem Jeffries.

Rachel Gooze and her partner, Scott Kaplan, welcomed a baby, Felix, on Dec. 25, to join big sister Talia, 3. They are moving up north to be near family in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Another highlight of 2018, Rachel’s gathering of Wesleyan friends: May Wheelwright, Radhika Singh, Edna Togba, and Sheenru Yong.

Julia Clark-Spohn and her husband, Kevin Byrd, in Columbia, S.C., welcomed a little boy, Caleb Wren Byrd, into the world in November. Julia says, “He is an amazing little person and lights up our world.”

Alissa Kronovet welcomed a new addition to her family. She lives in Oakland, Calif., with her husband, Juan, 2-year-old Natalia, and newborn Julieta. They are all healthy, happy, and a little bit exhausted.

Eric Kushins and his wife, Doreen Lee, welcomed their second son, Reed, in August. Their older son, Ellis, is 3. They live in Atlanta. Eric is an assistant professor of management at Berry College in Rome, Ga., teaching undergraduate courses in HRM, social entrepreneurship, and family business management, and executive education courses in Lean Six Sigma.

Congrats to Radley Kanaszyc and Maia Ruiz who were married in 2018. Radley will hit his five-year anniversary this June at Guggenheim Partners.

On the job front: Alex Horwitz directed a feature documentary, Autonomy, about self-driving cars, executive produced by and featuring Malcolm Gladwell. The movie’s premiere is set for SXSW, hopefully with a sale and wide distribution to follow.

Since 2016, Ben Allen has worked as a microfinance researcher at Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, a job that has taken him to a few far-flung locations, including rural Mauritania, Uganda, and Guatemala. In October, he published a global state-of-practice study on the inclusion of the most vulnerable populations—such as those who are ultra-poor, have disabilities, or are living with or affected by HIV—in savings groups. Ben and his wife, Megan, are expecting their first child in June.

Varuna Bhattacharyya moved to King and Spalding, LLP, as counsel in the corporate, finance, and investments group, specializing in commercial real estate finance.

Carly Einstein and Andy Reger are raising two daughters in Denver (Lillian, 4, and Emerson, 3). Carly is director of alumni engagement team for the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver.

Allison Kennedy lives in her home state of New Mexico and works for Meow Wolf, where she is inspired by creatives who are building immersive art environments. She is happily engaged to a fellow landscape architect.

Stephen Scribner and his wife, Stacy, moved to Denver in October. He joined a friend—Morgan Law, husband of Kathleen Jones ’03—to help him build the architecture practice he started a few years ago. Stephen is Passive House-certified and excited to be carrying the torch in Colorado for ultra-low energy construction. He and his wife also have a 3.5-year-old. Steven said, “We’re all enjoying the sunshine and mountains. It’s been great hanging out with Kathleen again—she now has an almost 1-year-old and a 2.5-year-old, both boys.”

Stephen moved from Boston, where he enjoyed being close to Conor Gately and Tricie Gately ’04, as well as Dina Levi and her wife and two little girls, who are living the dream in Northampton. Dina is director of diversity for Amherst University and Conor is a researcher at BU and Harvard in atmospheric pollution. They also overlapped with Katherine Gajewski, her husband, and 2-year-old boy in Cambridge, while she was at Harvard’s Kennedy School; they’ve since seen her in Denver while on their long winding route to move to Chicago, where she and her family are now.

Stephen flew up to Boise, Idaho, to help Austin Zinsser install a kitchen. Austin and his wife, Lauren, are racing to finish renovating their very cute bungalow before having their first baby in February. Austin is a hard rock geologist, working for a gold mining company between backpacking, skiing, and renovating his house.

Carlos Rojas moved to Jersey City from Manhattan. Carlos said, “I’m loving my new, and much larger, living/work space.” Carlos is a documentary film editor and most recently edited the Netflix documentary, The Great Hack, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Benjamin Goldstein was promoted to associate professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke University. He enjoys living in the south with his wife, Cheng, and two sons, Malcolm, 4, and Noah, 1.

Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com

Always great to hear from you! Chris Saenger is wrapping up four years in Frankfurt and will be moving with his family to Bogotá in August. He will continue his job with USAID, designing and implementing development assistance programs. Come by for some arepas if you’re in the neighborhood!

Roger Smith is in his fifth year working in Miyagi, Japan. He’s chief editor and photographer for the prefecture’s official English website, Visit Miyagi. If you head to Japan, you should actually pay him (and Miyagi) a visit and go see the volcanic crater lake and cat island!

Abigail Kurland and her husband, Harry, welcomed their first son, Alexander Koutsolioutsos, on May 10.

Ross Evangelista writes, “Started a sidewalk conversation with a stranger, at night, on my walk back to my hotel while visiting Shanghai. All because he was wearing a Wes hoodie! Now Harry Jiang ’18 and I are WeChat friends. He (and his girlfriend who seemed familiar with such Wes encounters) are doing well in China. They were both very welcoming! Caught up with Kerry Jacobs and Nikesh Dalal at Kerry’s annual holiday shindig at her Brooklyn townhouse. Unfortunately arrived after her son’s (my new godson’s!) bedtime.” Ross was slated to be on a real estate panel in Vegas during the Luxury Portfolio summit in late February—and was confident he would stop and chat with anyone in Wes apparel there, too.

Nora Friedman writes: “Still teaching Suzuki violin in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, and now head of the violin department at the Brooklyn Conservatory. Open for business and looking to sculpt young Wes progeny brains!”

Dispatch from Karen Gross: “I marked five years as president of Karen Gross Enterprises, LLC, which is focused on communication that sings. As a communications strategist, copywriter, and speechwriter, I collaborate with some of the nation’s most influential leaders and organizations, crafting messages that resonate and get results. I perform as a cabaret singer and songwriter. I was a featured speaker at the World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters Association; my session, How to Make Your Speeches Sing, shared the parallels between speechwriting and cabaret.”

Josh Kagan writes, “The big news on our end is my wife, Zeynep, and I welcomed our first child, Sophia Rose Kagan, on Sept. 18.” Congratulations!

In addition to caring for her two children (with Jim Isler), Emily Barth Isler works as a beauty writer for publications like Allure, Popsugar, and WellRoundedNY.com, specializing in sustainable and organic beauty products and the green beauty movement. She says: “The more I learned about the endocrine disruptors and carcinogens found in so many of our personal care items, the more I wanted to shine a light on healthier alternatives . . . I learned that the majority of sustainable beauty products are made by hand or in small batches by women, family-owned companies, and/or members of populations generally underrepresented in the business of beauty. Writing about the ways that these small companies employ women, offer fair wages, provide childcare or flexibility, use eco-friendly packaging and sustainable sourcing, and participate in major philanthropic initiatives, made me see that this is an issue that goes far beyond finding a nice lipstick or moisturizer.”

Emily would love to hear from anyone working in the sustainable beauty space, as she’s always looking for new brands to feature.

Congrats to Alden Griffith, who was awarded tenure at Wellesley College and studies the demography of invasive plants with his lab group. Katie Griffith teaches plant science workshops at local schools and has jumped into politics since Trump was elected. She’s now the cochair of the Wellesley Democratic Town Committee, leads a local Indivisible group, and is an elected member of the Wellesley Natural Resources Commission. Their three kids are growing up fast—now 11, 8, and 5. Side note: Katie and I are now scheming about a Boston-area Wes meetup. Contact me if you want in!

Mara Voukydis | maravee@gmail.com

Aryn Sperando | arynsperandio@yahoo.com

Summer was full of weddings and babies for ’08!

Fourteen years after meeting as freshman at Wesleyan, Constance Smith and Alexander Rosen were married in the Anderson Valley region of Mendocino County, Calif. The ceremony was officiated by Matthew Ball. Daniel Meyer, Ilona Kramer, Eric Lach, Halley Chambers, Rachel Finkelstein, Hans Hsu, Rumman Hossain, James Rosenthal, Jake Levine, Rebecca Rabison, Stephanie O’Brien, Micki Baron, Jamie Hiteshew, Kate Zyskowski, Adam Gomolin ’06, Susannah Ragab ’06, Kyle Gardner ’06, Cara Bayles ’07, AJ Chan ’11, Hilary Burke ’10, and Constance’s sister Clare Smith ’10 were in attendance. Highlights of the evening included singing the Wesleyan fight song and dancing to Mgmt’s “Kids.”

Emily Einhorn and Jeff Wong had a baby this summer, Justin Edward Einhorn-Wong, born on June 11.

Silverio J. Vasquez and Jennifer Veloz ’10 got married this summer as well. Silverio writes, “If not for Wes, we would’ve never met!”

Rachel Bedick wasn’t able to make it to the Rreunion “because I gave birth to my son Tobias on May 6. In addition to being a mom, I started a new job as a clinical social worker embedded in a pediatrician’s office in Beverly, Mass., where I provide therapy to young people.”

Nathan Strand and his wife relocated to Colombia, where he will be working at the U.S. Agency for International Development Mission in Bogota for the next two years. They are already enjoying the great food, mild climate, warm local culture, and abundant adventures that Colombia has to offer.

Liat Olenick canvassed so hard to elect progressive candidates who are also decent human beings.

Lynn Favin has had an incredibly busy year in Los Angeles. She signed with William Morris Endeavors for voice acting and recorded another set of characters for the Emmy award-winning animated show Robot Chicken. After performing with the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles in Macbeth, she joined the Actor’s Equity Association and was invited to be the inaugural equity guest artist for LMU’s new outdoor company Shakespeare on the Bluff, starring as Desdemona in Othello and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She will be performing with them in Pericles next summer.

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Hello, classmates! Can you believe it’s been 15 years since we entered Wesleyan as freshman? Since our last class update, we’ve been busy! Megan Kretz Harrington here to share the ’07 news. I’m currently knee deep in baby days—my husband (Brian), 2-year-old son (Teddy), and I recently welcomed a baby girl to our family. Evelyn Nancy Harrington was born on Aug. 20. Several other classmates have been growing their families.

Ben Levinger and his wife, Alicia, recently bought a house in Severna Park, Md. They have two young children—Desmond and Oren.

In November 2017, all members of 88 Home reunited in Milwaukee for the marriage of Chris Keeler and Asma Kadri. This included Thomas Coen, Sally Smyth, her wife, Susannah Hook-Rodgers; Meredith Katz, her husband Dave Korkoian, Mer and Dave’s daughter, Addison; Kara Brodgesell, her husband, Noah Christman; and Daphne Clyburn and her husband Michael MacEwen. The 88 Home ties remain strong! In other news, Michael and Daphne relocated to the D.C. area in June 2017 and love it. Daphne is teaching Spanish at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (Potomac, Md.) and stepped into the role of department head. She says, “Teaching continues to be a beautiful and messy mix of joy and rigor!”

Victor Scavera married Dorothy Sliva on Mother’s Day. He adds, “Although it was not, strictly speaking, a present, we figured that it couldn’t hurt.” Newman Hoffman ’09, Daniel Glyck, Andrew Smith ’08, Ben Roberts ’09, Michael DeFranco ’10, and Professor Westmoreland attended.

Eric Altneu says, “I got married in August! My husband is Brookes Hammock.” The happy couple had plenty of alumni in attendance including: Tory Molnar Masterson, Julia Perciasepe, Ellen Werble, Andrew Bleeker, Samantha Kantor, Erich Klothen ’08, John Haley, Matt Donne, Ben Byers, Andrew Inchiosa, Josh Tanz ’06, Dan Devine ’06. Others in attendance were Eric’s mom and stepdad, Carol Murphy ’79 and Robert Murphy ’79, and family friend Seta Nazarian ’79.

As a class, we’ve also had a number of professional and personal adventures . . . Deanne Dworski-Riggs has been keeping it wild in Mongolia with Kimberly Greenberg—living in gers, riding horses on the Mongolian steppe, and climbing turtle rocks!

Cortney A. Duncan started a new job as the director of athletics at Kent School. She is also the school’s varsity field hockey and lacrosse coach.

Youkyung Lee joined Bloomberg as a government reporter covering Korea, including the unpredictable leader on the North and the U.S. foreign policy toward Korea.

She is based in Seoul, South Korea, with her two cats. You can follow her stories and behind-the-scene notes on her Twitter @YKreports. She welcomes any story suggestions or any questions you might have about Korean politics or Kim Jong Un. You are also welcome to say hello to her on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Lina Makdisi recently sat a three-month silent meditation retreat at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass.

Keep the updates coming!

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

Kwei Chang and Bensen Gillespie ’04 are working within the architecture and construction industry in NYC and are collaborating on high-end new buildings and the restoration of pre-war buildings. While starting in the same place—studio classes with their beloved professor, Martha Anez—they then went their separate ways for grad school, and it was not until years later that they reconnected in NYC and are now collaborating on big projects.

Kwei is the design director of the development company China Overseas America (cohl.com) and Benson is a partner of the façade design and consulting firm Surface Design Group (surfacedg.com).

Jane Morley celebrated seven years at Quirk Books, a book publisher in Philadelphia. She completed her first triathlon in July, racing as a member of Team Humane League, an athletic advocacy group that raises money to improve the lives of factory-farmed animals.

Lodro Rinzler co-founded MNDFL Meditation, a network of meditation studios based in NYC. Three years later MNDFL has had over 150,000 cushions booked, offers meditation in over 100 companies around the city, and has developed a nonprofit arm that brings meditation into underserved communities. He is also the author of six books, the first of which (The Buddha Walks into a Bar . . .) has now sold over 100,000 copies.

Ben Shestakofsky married Isheh Beck in Inverness, Calif., last March. Wedding attendees included Adam Freelander, Maxwell Greene, Caitlin Henningsen ’06, Stephanie Marcus, Seth Samuels ’06, Danya Sherman ’06, Jon Shestakofsky, Andrew Wachtenheim, and Kingston Wong ’06. After receiving his doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in July, Ben began a position as assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Ben and Isheh live in Newark, N.J.

Alexis May, Clara Moskowitz, and Sarah Woodbury traveled to Scotland to visit Jessica Phillippi and Gwyneth Harrison-Shermoen, who are both living in the U.K. The five of them, plus Sarah and Clara’s daughter, Esther, traveled through Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the highlands, saw bagpipers and puffins, ate plentiful shortbread, and had a ball.

Chris Gateman, and his wife, Kim, are pleased to announce the birth of their second child, James Hunter Gateman, born Aug. 29. In keeping with family tradition, James Hunter will be called by his middle name, just like his big brother, John Colton (2.5 years old).

Anna Zayaruznaya lives in New Haven with her husband, Yarrow, and daughter Aeliz. She was promoted to associate professor in the department of music at Yale. Her first book, The Monstrous New Art: Divided Forms in the Late Medieval Motet (Cambridge, 2015), was just rereleased in paperback. Her second book, Upper-Voice Structures and Compositional Process in the Ars Nova Motet, was published this summer by Routledge; see more at annaz.blog.

Sara Bremen Rabstenek is a product director at the New York Times, where she’s been working on digital story forms and tools since moving back to New York four years ago. She and her husband, Tom Rabstenek ’03, are on the Upper West Side with their two girls: Abigail, who turns 2 in December, and Dorothy, who started kindergarten this fall.

Marcella Winearls | marcellawinearls@gmail.com