Class Notes | 2000s

I hope you all had a wonderful 2018. As we ring out the year and look ahead to the next one, I wanted to bring you the latest updates from all our classmates.

More baby congratulations: Jamie Novogrod and his wife, Sarah Rienhoff, had twins (a boy and a girl) in September. Fife and Grace are happy and healthy and are best friends. They live with their dog, Ernie, in LA. James is the L.A. bureau chief for Vice News Tonight on HBO.

Kerry Wallach and Jess Firshein ’05 welcomed their second child, Rafael Jonathan Wallach, in late September. Zev (almost 3) is very excited to be a big brother. Kerry and Jess are based in Rockville, Md., and are enjoying consecutive parental leaves from their jobs at Gettysburg College (where Kerry is now tenured and chair of German studies) and Accenture (where Jess is a senior manager).

And Rachel Kriger is still babymaking. Her third child, Evan Ziv Kriger-Corso, was born Aug. 28 outside under the light of the moon in her backyard in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Suzy Gerstein and husband David welcomed their second child (but first daughter), Judith Rose Engelhardt on May 21. Judy joins her big brother, Harvey, who turns 6 in December. Suzy works as a makeup artist in NYC. She was fortunate enough to reconnect with Nicole Cohen, who works with Medela, and who generously helped Suzy with feeding options for her return into the workforce. Suzy says, “it doesn’t solve the work-life juggling act but sure makes it easier knowing fellow mamas have got your back.”

And Joel Nichols and his boyfriend, Ray Murphy, adopted again last year and are please to introduce their adorable, now 1-year-old, Jody. Their older kid just started kindergarten and is in the same class as Mary Peacock and Phil Gentry’s kid, too!

On the entertainment industry front: Michael Zimbalist has directed three feature documentaries released in 2018: Nossa Chape, about the rebuilding of the Chapecoense soccer club after a tragic airplane crash killed most of the team, which was released through Fox Sports; Momentum Generation, a Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner about the world’s most legendary surf crew, executive produced by Robert Redford; and Give Us This Day, following three police officers and three residents in East St. Louis, the city with the highest homicide rate in the country, executive produced by Vince Vaughn. They are also releasing their Fox series, Phenoms, about young footballers in the lead up to the 2018 World Cup, and a Netflix original documentary series they created.

Kevin Cornish was nominated for an Emmy for directing an interactive piece for 13 Reasons Why at Netflix.

From Kevin: “I didn’t win, but still seems like it’s worth mentioning.” Kevin is a prolific VR director and producer, working with brands and clients like Netflix, IBM, Google, Oculus, MTV, Discovery, and AT&T, and is the founder of Moth + Flame, a full service virtual reality agency.

Before her transition from nonprofit leader with The Future Project to filmmaker with The Gates Preserve, Sallomé Hralima delivered a talk at TEDxWesleyanU titled “Workplaces Suffocate Human Potential” four weeks after delivering her second child. She is married with two children living in Brooklyn and working on a documentary film about hip-hop journalists, called Shaping the Culture and set for release next fall.

Out here in California: Ryan Akers moved to Davis, Calif., with his wife, Betty, and two boys, ages 2 and 4. After seven years of filtering and brewing beer, he is now a stay-at-home-dad, while Betty is completing her residency in neurology. He is looking forward to his 15th annual ski trip with Dan Winokur and Paul Kim early next year.

Nicole Krauch Stone lives in the Bay Area with her 8-year-old son, Noah, and her husband, Philip, who is a computer software engineer which is “why she can afford to stay in the Bay Area!” Nicole teaches preschool three times a week and twice a week she teaches Qigong classes to adults. In her spare time, Nicole dances, romps in the wilderness, swims in bodies of water, and transcribes talks on meditation and spirituality.

And lastly: Edna Togba was promoted to chief development officer at Chicago Sinfonietta. She has been with the organization for three years.

Lauren Gottlieb Lockshin is living in NYC with her husband and two daughters and completing her PhD at Yale University in Jewish History. She is expecting a third daughter in late November/early December.

Sarah-Jane Ripa has fulfilled her lifelong dream of being able to both speak German all the time and live in Massachusetts by working for the Goethe-Institut Boston.

Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com

Hi, 2001. Thank you for showering us with your good news and updates this season. As usual, it’s great to hear from everyone, and your notes never disappoint.

Lauren McCarthy’s baby girl, Eleanor (Nora), just turned a year old in August. Lauren also writes she forgot to mention in past notes that she married Dan Kost several years ago. Oops. Lauren teaches political science and legal studies at UMass Amherst and received tenure last year. Congrats on one of the biggest years so far!

Alex Gordon and his wife celebrated the arrival of their second daughter, Elsa Victoria, in April. They’re pretty fired up about it.

Kramon & Graham law firm named trial lawyer Chris Jeffries a 2017–2018 MVP of the Maryland Defense Counsel for his work as MDC Deposition Bootcamp Steering Committee Co-Chair. The MVP award is presented to attorneys who have gone above and beyond in making MDC a success, and this year’s sold-out event speaks volumes of Chris’ efforts.

Michael Homolka and wife Tamara were married in April 2017. They live on the Upper West Side of NYC, and Michael is a high school English instructor for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity. Michael is always on the lookout for anyone interested in part-time math and English instructor positions. Also, his first collection of poems, Antiquity, was published by Sarabande Books a little over two years ago and “exists now in a warm and wonderful vacuum of silence.” Michael invites anyone who is interested in talking about or exchanging poetry to contact him. Other than this highly undramatic spritz of information (Michael’s words, not ours), life is good.

Jeff Lane and his wife, Emily Henretta, welcomed a baby boy, Vincent James Lane, on Sept. 16. They are all doing well in their house in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. Jeff published The Digital Street, a nonfiction book based on his many years of fieldwork with Harlem teenagers and studying their online life in the neighborhood. Order your copy on Amazon.

To cap things off with a shameless plug, I (Aryn Kalson-Sperandio) recently launched my new company, True Story Consulting (truestoryconsulting.com). We provide writing and communications support to busy executives and entrepreneurs. If you or your client needs help with ongoing content demands, get in touch!

Finally, I’ll end by sharing that my husband and I braved our first family road trip this summer. Three kids, two parents, three states (Montana, Wyoming, Montana), two weeks. Zero murders. Perfection.

Many, many thanks to everyone who wrote in. We always enjoy hearing from our lot of overachieving (we say that with affection) Wes classmates, so keep in touch!

Mara Voukydis | maravee@gmail.com

Aryn Sperando | arynsperandio@yahoo.com

Scott Mayerowitz is the deputy global business editor for the Associated Press. He’s also hosting AP’s weekly travel podcast, Get Outta Here!

Shawn Paunchai-Green and wife Chaba welcome their first child to the world, Isana Sylvie, born on July 8.

Adam Zeller writes, “After 18 years in New York, my husband and I have moved to LA. I’ve taken a new role as SVP of global digital marketing at 20th Century Fox and we’re living in West Hollywood. I see Emily Bronkesh-Buchbinder and Melanie Lewis often. Wesleyan is everywhere here, and I’ve connected with Matthew Greenfield ’90 and John Penney ’87 here at Fox. Any Angelinos who want to say hi, e-mail me at adamzeller@gmail.com!”

Alua Arthur joyfully turned 40 this year! As most of us also turned 40, she would like wish us all a very happy 40th trip around the sun!

Mandy Snyder writes “I am living in Norwich, Vt. Inspired by my dance background and years of mindfulness practice, I developed an embodied healing process to help people feel more at home in their bodies and to heal from trauma. You can read more about it at mandysnyder.com. I am also enjoying the Contact Improv community in Montpelier and loving spending time in woods around my home.”

Anne Obelnicki writes, “On Sept. 18, my husband, Chris, and I welcomed our daughter Rosalia Margaret Obelnicki Weiler to the world. Big brother, Alden, is especially proud!”

Te-Ling Nai and Tak Wai Chung had another baby girl, Chun Yan, in last April. All three kids are doing well in Singapore.

Diana Ify Chuke-Nwobi is now in the fourth year of her wellness startup, Miracle in the Green. She says, “We provide our customers with clean and natural alternatives for baby, kids, and adults, with skin care products using the seed oil of the miracle plant named Moringa. Also, Oringaa is our 100 percent moringa powder which can be used in smoothies, juices, soups, salads, tea or in just plain water. Find us on miracleinthegreen.com.”

Avery Esdaile | wesleyan2000@gmail.com

Leah Grabelsky is an assistant principal at a NYC public high school and recruiting math, science, and visual/digital art teachers for 2018-2019. E-mail LGrabelsky@hsartstech.org to set up a visit.

Lily Oglesby completed her MFA in choreography from Wilson College in May (and on her graduation day got a job offer to teach at Dickinson College). The San Francisco native relocated to Pennsylvania five years ago for her husband’s tenure-track position in philosophy (though they still spend several weeks each year back in SF Bay). She has enjoyed her time back on the East Coast, choreographing, teaching, performing, seeing old Wes buddies, and raising her 5-year-old son, Benjamin, who starts kindergarten this fall. She adds, “I am writing this from Smith College, where I am at a conference, serendipitously, with recently retired Wes professor of dance, Susan Lourie.”

Suhi Koizumi was honored by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association as one of 17 recipients for the prestigious Best Lawyers Under 40 Award (BU40 Award). The BU40 Award recognizes talented individuals in the Asian Pacific American legal community who are under the age of 40 and have achieved prominence and distinction in their respective fields—be it the practice of law, academia, business, civic and charitable affairs, the judiciary, or politics—and who have demonstrated a strong commitment to Asian Pacific American civic or community affairs. Suhi practices immigration law at Minami Tamaki LLP in San Francisco.

Melanie Grubman purchased 93 acres of land with friends in the beautiful Mad River Valley of Vermont. Located on trails, rivers, and connected to the local school, Living Tree Alliance is a multigenerational, ecologically-oriented initiative, dedicated to redefining community, regenerating land, and revitalizing culture. She writes, “We are building a residential community, a regenerative working lands cooperative, and offering place-based transformative, education programs that nourish the mind, body, and spirit of all participants. We have four more plots available for people to build their homes on our pedestrian village and share in our dream of creating a vibrant space for collaborative land-based businesses, community, and festival life. Check it out at livingtreealliance.com or come camp on the land during one of our regional family festivals.”

Tim Howard writes, “My wife and I are moving to Berlin in May. I will continue to edit the podcast Reply All (replyall.limo), and will be reporting stories from Europe for the show. I’m very excited to meet journalists from anywhere in Europe, and also to get a drink with anyone in Berlin. Please contact me on Twitter: @newtimhoward. Also, I just released my eighth Soltero album, Western Medicine Blues.”

Jordyn Bonds says, “I’m coming up on my 15th year living in Boston, which is just crazy to think about. The big news for me right now is that I started my own company to finally focus full-time on my side project. It’s a data diary app called TallyLab and everyone is welcome to try it out: tallylab.com. Boston-area alumni who I get to see with some regularity (though never often enough!) are Rhiannon Luyster and Lenore Tsikitas Maniaci.”

Dana Hale writes, “I am the sales director for Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Mass. We are an oyster farm who sells our own farm-raised products like wild razor clams, mussels, and a handful of other shellfish grown locally in Cape Cod. We have five sister restaurants and have just purchased a large property that will house our farm, hatchery, events, and some alfresco oceanside dining. My partner, Rafael, is attending MGH, studying to become a physician assistant, and my son, Santiago, works on climbing upstairs when I’m not looking and eating cheese. I’m still in touch with so many Wesleyan classmates. I am most closely located to Chloe Garcia-Roberts and Mara Voukydis ’01. I see them and their lovely families as much as I can. Other dear friends are more far flung, when they read this they’ll know who they are and how much I miss them.”

Ify Chuke-Nwobi writes, “I am the founder of a leading moringa brand, Miracle in the Green. We also have a line of all-natural baby skincare, Mummy’s Miracle. Running this baby and enjoying life with my husband and four kids in sunny Orlando, Fla. Will love to meet up with any Wes alumni in central Florida.”

Avery Esdaile | wesleyan2000@gmail.com

As per usual, our 2001 crew is as overachieving as ever. We enjoyed hearing from all the fearless entrepreneurs among us. Let’s get right to it.

Thank you to Michael Shelley who wrote in about his wild adventures in Austin, Texas. Since 2010, Michael has been the owner-operator of a wildlife removal service that uses safe and humane methods to remove uninvited guests from homes and return them to their natural habitats. When he isn’t rescuing raccoons, snakes, and bats, oh my, Michael stays busy chasing after his two young daughters, Sadie and Mabel.

Comedian-actor Woody Fu’s one-man show was presented at the Magnet Theater in New York and featured in the New York Times. Asian Gracefully takes on topics like immigrant hoarders, Chinglish, what video game characters think about, and how the straight Asian male is the most marginalized group on Pornhub. We’ll take your word for it, Mr. Fu.

Juliana Ansari serves on the board of the Entrepreneurship Foundation in Connecticut, an organization that provides resources and education for entrepreneurs in the area. She works for the women’s health startup, DotLab, developing the first non-invasive test for endometriosis. Based on microRNA technology from Yale research, Juliana helps facilitate the transition of this new test from lab to clinic through her scientific writing and grant development.

Gwendolyn Guarino is a massage therapist with a sweet office in Troy, N.Y. Gwendolyn would be thrilled to see any local or visiting Wesleyan grads for a session (she also teaches a popular couples massage workshop), so get in touch at massageatlux.com. Gwendolyn has a 1-year-old son, Evander Gray Hurd, with her significant other, Jay Hurd.

Paul DePalo is running for Massachusetts Governor’s Council in District 7 (covering 65 municipalities across central Massachusetts). He will be facing Tea Party incumbent, Jen Caissie, in the November elections. Governor’s Council approves or rejects the Governor’s judicial nominations, and Paul’s platform centers on criminal justice reform and ending the school-to-prison pipeline. Find out more at pauldepalo.com. Good luck, Paul!

November 2017’s issue of Washington Lawyer featured the work of Open City Advocates, the juvenile law organization cofounded by Whitney Trevelyan Louchheim. Open City Advocates works with law students to fill a critical gap in youth legal representation in D.C.’s juvenile justice system. Mara Voukydis pipes in to say that she and Whitney have happily crossed paths in their work and were delighted to realize the Wes connection. Mara can attest firsthand to the incredible and inspiring work that Whitney does. Learn more at opencityadvocates.org.

Finally, in the 11th hour, Ben Hurwitz wrote in to share that he, Maneesh Sharma, Josh Cook, and Dave Bihldorff left their daily lives and families to reunite at Joshua Tree in honor of their 20th friendaversary. While not entrepreneurial in the traditional sense, we do admire their commitment to prioritizing what’s important and working hard to get what they want. (There it is. We knew we’d find the entrepreneurial connection if we tried).

Entrepreneurship is not easy, and we are so impressed with our classmates’ willingness to take risks in order to be able to do what they love.

Mara Voukydis | maravee@gmail.com

Aryn Sperando | arynsperandio@yahoo.com

Lauren Kirchner and Evan Simko-Bednarski ’07 welcomed a son, Emmett Beatty Kirchner-Bednarski, in January. Lauren and Evan are both reporters in New York.

Jesse Soursourian is in post-production for a film about women in Nagorno Karabakh who clear land mines. He is codirecting the short film which will go out to festivals next year.

Tim Harrington is a corporate counsel at Google and begins the Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride in August. His wife, Jessica, has a new position at Gigamon. They have two children, Lius, 6, and Josie, 4.

Kate Reder Sheikh and her husband, Nadeem, welcomed baby Dominic on Oct. 18, 2017. He has already enjoyed hanging out with Ari Wolfe and hopes to meet more of his mom’s Wesleyan friends soon.

2018 marks nine years since Dan Jones left the East Coast for sunny Colorado. He wishes he could’ve made it to the Reunion but feels fortunate that he got to hang out and catch up with Ranae Desouza when she was in Denver last year.

Ryan Garbalosa is settling into his cardiology practice in South Carolina and has served as the president of the county medical society for 2018. He was elected as the chair of the Young Physicians Section of the South Carolina Medical Association. A special trip back to Wes was made with Greg Ferrucci for Reunion and some time was made for a nostalgic drink at Eli Cannon’s downtown with Arnab Bhattasali, Glen Lindeke, and Ayalur Krishnan PhD’05.

After teaching in the music department at Yale for one year, John Graham is back living in Tbilisi, Georgia, and running an academic-cultural travel company that was recently written up in the New York Times travel section. He says, “Please come visit Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey with johngrahamtours.com!”

In personal news, I married David Gottlieb on Dec. 16 at one of our favorite Manhattan restaurants, Lafayette. The Class of ’03 was well-represented by: Margaret Haglund, Leslie Burns, Annie Shaw, and Pauline Wyrembak.

Amy Tannenbaum Gottlieb | atannenbaum@wesleyan.edu

Hi, Class of ’04! As usual, you’re making big moves and celebrating amazing things!

We have two classmates releasing books soon. First, we hear from Joe Fischel that his next book will be coming out this December, titled Screw Consent: A Better Politics of Sexual Justice.

Amy Meyerson is an assistant professor in the writing program and the director of the Undergraduate Writers Conference at the University of Southern California. Her debut novel, The Bookshop of Yesterdays, was published on June 12 by Park Row Books, an imprint at HarperCollins.

Overseas, C.S. Hsia tells that after a year toiling in the commodities trading sector, he’s decided to give entrepreneurship one more go by joining Alchemist Brewing in Taiwan, growing ingredients locally for beer and other delicious beverages.

We hear that Noah Nattell started new jobs in the past year. He tells us: “I’m the medical director for Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley, which provides reproductive and sexual healthcare for 22 communities in Los Angeles county. I serve as the director of women’s health for the LA County Correctional Health Services, overseeing and providing prenatal and gynecological care in the largest women’s jail in the U.S.”

Bernadette Doykos is “living in Portland, Maine, and working and teaching a bit at the University of Southern Maine. Martina McPherson and I started working with Sonya Behnke Page ’03 and her nonprofit consulting group, Page Consulting, LLC. Let us know if you need any help with grant writing, evaluation, or any other nonprofit needs. I’m also looking forward to Chris Mele’s wedding in July!”

We also learned that Michelle Paul and Dael Norwood are moving to Delaware. After successfully radicalizing their neighbors in upstate New York, they’re on their way to the very carefully pronounced Newark (say “New Ark”), where Dael is taking a position as a historian of capitalism at the University of Delaware. Michelle will continue in her new-ish role as managing director of PatronManager, the technology company she’s been helping to grow since 2005. They look forward to adding to their supply of fun facts about the First State, because so far that’s literally all they know. Give a shout if you’re in the neighborhood doing some tax-free shopping!

Meanwhile, Mark Schindler is the head of BI and analytics for a San Francisco-based startup called Fountain. He says it’s really interesting and detailed work, and his only wish is that he had known at Wes how much he would enjoy engineering/code work. He says he still wouldn’t have given up majoring in psych, but definitely would have pursued computer science as well.

Abraham Lateiner says: “I am feeling firmly rooted here in the greater Boston area. My wife, Erika, and I are watching our two girls grow up (Estella is 8, Lulu is 4) and enjoying a sense of settling down. Meanwhile, my professional life is where things feel wild . . . I’m focusing on creating ‘containers’ for people in a position of privilege and domination to learn the art of powerful surrender of their dominating power in solidarity with movements led by marginalized people. In particular, I’m working to support white men and rich people to commit to a lifelong process of learning to be ‘fully human,’ which to me means living in deep and joyful interdependence with the rest of the world. It is deeply challenging and rewarding work.”

Jennifer Brown writes: “After over a decade living and working in China and Southeast Asia, I finally moved back to the U.S. and finished up an executive MBA program through UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler business school. I decided to make the Bay Area my new home, where I’ve been thrilled to regularly catch up with Becca Gelenberg, Liza Harrison Ashbrook, and Leah Pransky (shoutout to Leah for housing me when I first arrived!). I’ve been doing some small consulting projects in global nonprofit and social impact work and encourage any Wes classmates working in that space to reach out!”

Carl Cervone writes, “I’m just over a year into my startup, Enveritas, where I’m COO. We verify sustainability levels in coffee supply chains, combining machine learning with on-the-ground data collection and using the insights to help coffee companies improve their buying practices. We just got accepted into the startup accelerator Y Combinator. I split my summer between Silicon Valley and New York.”

Jenina Nuñez | jenina.nunez@outlook.com

Meeghan Whooley Ward | meeghan.w.ward@gmail.com

Misa Dayson received her doctorate last year in anthropology from UCLA after submitting her dissertation. A chapter from her work was edited into an essay and published in The Black Diaspora and Germany: Deutschland und die Schwarze Diaspora. She is working for screenwriter Michael Arndt. She got married to Jules Hollander in Troyes, France, with Wes friends Ada Pinkston; Andrea Cortes-Juarbe; Xiomara Lorenzo and her wife, Cara Herbitter ’03; Julie Ren; and Tacuma Bradley ’04, his wife Leah Cohen, and their son, Kai, and Tavi Fields ’02 and Lisa Hoff.

Ada Pinkston received a $30,000 grant from Light City Baltimore to create a light-based public art work. Ada was also awarded $10,000 from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Rubys Artist Project Grant in support of her performative intervention and arts installation, LandMarked. This fall, supported by a fellowship, Ada will temporarily move to D.C. to create the second iteration of LandMarked.

Andrea Cortes-Juarbe is completing training in body work and healing at the movement-based creative art therapy program, Tamalpa Institute. This summer she will be in Big Sur at Esalen Institute assisting at the Tamalpa Institute Expressive Body, Life/Art workshop.

Xiomara Lorenzo is the associate vice-president and director of Society of Grownups, a digital financial wellness initiative developed by MassMutual. She leads the organization in its efforts to position financial wellness as a way to empower clients as they articulate and take action towards their personal and professional goals.

Julie Ren received her doctorate in geography in 2015 from Humboldt University Berlin, graduating summa cum laude. She received two post-doctoral fellowships (City University of Hong Kong and the London School of Economics). Julie published her co-edited anthology, Art and the City: Worlding the Discussion through a Critical Artscape (Routledge). Julie is now research faculty in urban studies at the Humboldt University Berlin.

Niv Elis is covering Congress as a reporter for The Hill in D.C.

Tony Alleyne was honored with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Recent Alumni of Merit Award.

Becky Goldstein Albertalli writes young adult books, one of which was adapted into the film, Love, Simon (Katie Walsh actually wrote one of her all-time favorite Love, Simon reviews). Her next book, What If It’s Us, includes a scene that takes place at Wesleyan. She lives in Atlanta with her husband Brian and their two young sons.

Capt. Jesse Sommer has been selected to serve in the U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) as the 3d Battalion Judge Advocate. He returned from a 10-month deployment to Iraq as part of the mission to defeat ISIS. He received the Bronze Star for his service. He donates twice per year to the WESU-FM semi-annual pledge drive.

Doro Globus is managing director of David Zwirner Books, working with artists such as William Eggleston, Yayoi Kusama, Kerry James-Marshall, and the estates of artists such as Anni Albers, Donald Judd, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Still based in London, her job brings her to New York three or four times a year.

Max Goldblatt, in Los Angeles, will marry Vanessa Riegel next year. He completed work on In A Relationship, starring Emma Roberts, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival—Kellen Quinn and Dan Janvey ’06 joined him at the premiere. The film was picked up for distribution, so you can catch it later this year and enjoy a delightful Goldblatt cameo to boot. Max also cut the music video for MGMT’s  Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden recent song “When You Die” (co-directed by Hallie Cooper-Novack ’07, produced and visual effects supervised by Jamie Dutcher, produced by Lucia Pier ’08). Learn more at maxgoldblatt.com.

Kate Mitchell is teaching ninth grade world history at The School for Creative Studies in Durham, N.C., and organizing with others to rebuild public schools in the South (#red4ed). Her beloved cat is 11.

David Delcourt lives in Boulder, Colo., with his wife and two boys. He started Seed Ranch Flavor Co., a natural food company focused on making sophisticated hot sauces that focus on flavor over heat. On the weekends he hits up mountain biking trails with Tom Facelle.

Leland Smith lives with his wife on a horse farm in Maryland, managing IT for international development projects. He spends weekends raising sheep and chickens, growing vegetables, and tending to endless farm work. His son, Augustus, turns 1 this summer.

David Rood-Ojalvo is director of field operations at Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens. He completed his first short film, Flight School, with the actors Ari Brand ’06, Diego Ortiz ’06, and Jon Leland. He lives in Rockaway Beach.

Kristin Juarez ’08 and Rafael Tapias, MD, moved from Atlanta to NYC. Kris is finishing her PhD, Raf is doing a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, and both are nesting with their newborn, Rafael PJ Tapias.

Sarah Weigle is living in Seattle and had two kids—Maya and Joy. She will be teaching science at Garfield High School this fall.

Marcella Winearls | marcellawinearls@gmail.com

Happy summer, Class of 2007. Here are few updates from our class: Jocelyn Bonadio-de Freitas graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a master’s degree in the arts in education. By a vote of her peers and faculty, Jocelyn won the Intellectual Contribution Award for her 2017-2018 cohort. Scout James graduated from Juilliard with an MFA in drama. While there, inspired by the Argus and Wesleying.org, he founded Juilliard’s only student newspaper.

We have a number of successful artists in our midst. Rachel Kiel lives and works in North Carolina as a songwriter and musician. Her third album, Shot from a Cannon, was released in October.

Patrick Dyer Wolf contributed vocals and guitar to Rachel’s record and flew down to join her band for the release show.

Chris Krovatin lives in Washington Heights, NYC, where he works as a writer and journalist. Last year, he published a coffee table book on the history of heavy metal music named Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem. He is planning his wedding to Azara Golston ’09 which is set to take place in October.

Brian Dilks-Brotman lives in Collingswood, N.J., with his wife and two of the jerkiest cats you could ever meet. His house is basically a jerk farm. He’s working as a staff representative and organizer for a public-sector union in New Jersey. He still hasn’t seen Hamilton yet.

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

Hello, ’08! It was so great to see so many of you at Reunion and meet some of your families. Here are some notes from those of us who couldn’t make it back and from those of us who made good on promises to submit.

Nick Benacerraf is working towards a PhD in theatre and performance at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His directorial debut, Seagullmachine, premiered at La MaMa in April and May. The show was created by The Assembly, including alumni from the Class of 2010). His set-designing practice (nickbenacerraf.com) had shows at Brooklyn Academy of Music and Lincoln Center. He was sad to miss Reunion, because “finals suck,” but sends love to friends.

Peter Hill writes, “After eight years fighting the good fight in the nonprofit sector and NYC government, I returned to grad school to get an MBA and explore ways to make cities work better using technology. I graduated from Harvard Business School the day before our 10th Reunion, and I’m moving out to Ann Arbor this summer with my husband. He’ll be teaching there, and I’ll be consulting at McKinsey in Detroit. I’m new to Michigan so would love to connect with any Wes people in the area. First, though, I’m enjoying a rare summer off to travel the country and reconnect with old friends.”

Adam Tinkle has been appointed director of the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative at Skidmore College, where he has been teaching since 2014. He writes, “One of the great joys of working here has been in working with visiting fellows for our annual Documentary Storytellers’ Institute, which I’ve helped to steer since its 2015 inception. Among these fellows are Jake Nussbaum ’10, Asa Horvitz ’10, Gedney Barclay ’09, and Sylvia Ryerson ’09. Anyone with any connection to nonfiction media and the documentary arts should look me up in Saratoga—it’s an incomparably lovely place to spend a summer.”

Last summer, after almost a decade of grad school/post-doc in Ann Arbor, Leah Weinberg and Scott Horowitz ’07, MA ’09 finally packed the cat into the car and drove west to start the next chapter in Colorado at the University of Denver. Both are loving the Front Range life, and cordially invite any Wes folks passing through Denver to drop them a line. 

Alpay Koralturk couldn’t make it to Reunion due to an urgent business trip in Turkey, but wrote, “My first company, Gram Games, just got sold to Zynga.” Grace Overbeke is pursuing a PhD in theater and drama at Northwestern University, and this July, will be marrying Mr. Matthew McMunn! Evan Barton just joined a new gym and is writing an essay about rereading the Harry Potter series.

Lyz Nardo, COO of Tipsy Scoop, celebrated the first anniversary of the Tipsy Scoop Barlour in Kips Bay. She writes, “In addition to 15 year-round flavors of boozy ice cream and sorbet, we are serving up lots of seasonal offerings including an entire summer of rosé wine-based flavors and collaborating with many restaurants like American Cut.” In May she was married outside of Florence, Italy, and is expecting her first child on Nov. 30.

Lucy Bickerton finally closed the books on the classroom portion of her medical education at SUNY Downstate and took the first step of her licensing exam two days before her baby boy, Calvin Vara, showed up one month early! Ilona Kramer, Elena Feroz, Stephanie Calvert, and Stephanie Fungsang celebrated at the baby shower just a few hours before she went into labor. She is loving motherhood and is excited to start clinical clerkships in July.

Another applicant to the class of 2040 arrived in April—George Fredric Jones Cruickshanks was born on April 4 to Francie Jones and Lauchlin Cruickshanks. Proud grandparents include Karen ’77 and Don Cruickshanks ’75.

Nick Weiss-Richmond and three collaborators, have created My Astronaut, an eight-episode mockumentary web series that answers the question of what one dim-witted boyfriend does to keep his girlfriend and his life from changing forever. Episode one was released on May 3. Season one starts with two bewildered filmmakers arriving to profile Maggie Placek, an underdog candidate for a civilian mission to Mars, but they soon find that her boyfriend, Micah Pevsner, might hold the key to a story far more compelling than a simple 30-second candidate bio. Episodes will be released on YouTube and Vimeo every Thursday, and the series has already received positive press from Staten Island Advance and The Daily Fandom.

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu