Class Notes | 2000s

Hi, Class of 2009! Below are a couple of updates from your classmates:

Adam and Lisa Kirk had a baby girl, Lara James, on May 15.

Caitlyn McCann Wong and Eugene Wong are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Kaia Adele Wong. She was born on June 1 and was happily welcomed at home by her labradoodle brother, Hudson. All are doing well and looking forward to moving back to Boston later this summer.

Kwabea Osae-Kwapong married Jim O’Brien on June 30 in New Jersey.

Alejandro Alvarado proposed to his beautiful girlfriend of three years, Lindsey Harder (and she said YES!). Wedding planning is underway; festivities will take place in summer or fall 2018.

Gedney Barclay is teaching in the humanities and media studies department at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn after getting her master’s from MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology program. She is a fellow at Skidmore College’s Storyteller’s Institute, working on a documentary film and performance project with Asa Horvitz ’10.

Last August, Anthony Marsella was hired for a full-time football position at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island as a defensive backs coach, special teams coordinator, and recruiting coordinator. He will hold the same position going into the 2017 season.

Lastly, Paul Edwards will be receiving his PhD in American and New England studies from Boston University at the end of the summer and will start his position as lecturer of history and literature at Harvard University.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Thanks for sending in notes!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Matthew Linder got married to the lovely and brilliant Amy Foote, and his group, Mobius Trio, is still touring the world playing “weird guitar music.” They will be touring Brazil in June.

Grace Overbeke is in graduate school, pursuing her doctorate at Northwestern University’s interdisciplinary PhD in theatre and drama, where she is writing about Jewish female stand-up comedians. She and her fiancé share a fish named Lucius, who is still alive.

Ruby Corbyn-Ross writes, “Most of my focus this spring has been on my band, Blato Zlato, a six-piece Balkan band with Annalisa Kelly. We released our first album in January and went up to New York to do a CD release tour and play at the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival. We won a grant to produce a music video for one of the songs from the album, which will be released in mid-May (“Miatalo Lenche Iabalka”), got asked to reinterpret a song off the Voyager Golden Record for an upcoming documentary which we’ll be filming in mid-June, opened for and collaborated on a show featuring Nels Cline of Wilco, and we’re putting together another awesome big show for the fall. I’m also singing in a 10-piece Balkan women’s vocal ensemble, Trendafilka, singing and playing guitar with my country-folk duo, Crossing Canal, and teaching reading remediation full-time at the International School of Louisiana. This summer my husband and I are going to India for two weeks and I’m hoping to meet up with some Wes friends there!”

Lyz Nardo’s company, Tipsy Scoop, continues to grow rapidly. She writes, “We opened our first ice cream ‘barlour’  (ice cream parlour meets bar) on May 7 and serve 15 flavors of boozy ice cream and sorbet to patrons from near and far! As COO, I have been busy trying to balance catering, events, wholesale orders, nationwide shipping, and the new retail location. While I am exhausted, I am truly happy and feel so lucky to work with my fantastic team! As if the store was not reason enough to celebrate, I got engaged last month to my Israeli fiancé. Lastly, I am thrilled to announce Tipsy Scoop’s first franchise will be in Israel and run by] my future brother and sister-in-law. Yay!”

Liat Olenick is resisting with Indivisible Nation BK. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Janie Stolar’s rash is clearing up. Marianna Foos writes, “The stars aligned and I found myself adopting a hypo-allergenic rescue cat named Herbie. She is perfect.”

Finally, Behdad Bozorgnia is one of the chief residents at the University of Pennsylvania department of psychiatry and thought it would be interesting for the Wesleyan community to know that three out of the four chief residents are Wesleyan graduates, including Eric Rosoff ’04 and Ashley Un ’09.

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, classmates. Megan here. As I write this, many of us are fresh off a weekend of Foss Hill picnicking and tent party dancing. Over 200 of us attended the 10th Reunion weekend at Wesleyan, but if you weren’t able to catch up with classmates in person, read on for some updates!

Johanna Goetzel was sad to miss Reunion, but delighted that Wes friends from 2005-2008 could join her and James Rising for their wedding on May 28 in Cape Cod. In January, they will be moving from Brooklyn to London, where Johanna will continue to work as the head of member engagement for The Climate Group and James will begin a role at LSE. Visitors welcome!

Nasim Khoshkhou sends word that she and her husband, Howard, moved to Bedford, N.Y., with their new baby boy, CJ, and two dogs.

Using our Wesleyan education as a strong foundation, many of our classmates have been busy completing graduate degrees. Veronica Slaght writes, “I graduated with my doctorate of psychology from Widener University in May and will be starting as a postdoctoral fellow at George Washington University’s Professional Psychology Program this summer. I’ll be seeing patients and helping to train psychology students in their community mental health clinic. Excited to connect with Wesleyan people in D.C.!”

Portia Hemphill says, “It’s been a busy few years! After obtaining my joint PhD in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan in 2015, I began work as a presidential management fellow in the federal government where I helped bring to scale two interagency President Obama initiatives (Promise Zones and My Brother’s Keeper) and served as the federal ambassador to Gary, Ind., in an effort to increase jobs for youth in the area. I also bought a cute fixer upper in Southeast D.C. that is a job all in itself, but where I now proudly call home. Hopefully we can have a Wes fest at my house in 2018!”

The Class of 2007 has also been making career headlines! Gavin Alexander lives in Brookline, Mass., and works as an associate in Ropes & Gray LLP’s Hedge Funds group. He serves as the co-chair of the board of directors of the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association, and was named one of the “Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40” by the National LGBT Bar Association. Before starting at his firm, Gavin served as a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph D. Gants, chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Gabrielle Fondiller says, “The organization I co-founded, Hatua, is now 10 years old. Last year we graduated our first class of 14 students from university. One hundred percent of these young people are now working, earning three times Kenya’s average income.”

And Sarah Elmaleh writes, “I moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 2015 for videogame voiceover and have been happily working on a range of indie and AAA games, as well as some commercials and TV. Recent roles include voices in Final Fantasy XV and the female Viking Raider player character in For Honor. I’ve also judged the Audio category for the Independent Games Festival, and co-hosted and co-produced the IndieCade awards.” Sarah adds, “I was thrilled to find out about the new Computational Media: Videogame Design and Development course at Wesleyan. If there are other Wes alumni with a foothold in games who want to help me grow and expand the games presence at Wes, please do not hesitate to be in touch!”

As always, please keep sending your updates, career news, and life events to us.

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

Hannah Gay is living in (and loving) Denver. She launched a new website (hannahgay.com) that helps small nonprofit businesses, social enterprises, and ethical brands expand their outreach. She also credits Pia Silva’s book, Badass Your Brand for helping her with her business. Indeed, any entrepreneurs should pick up this book, which is available on Amazon. Pia has contributed to Forbes, been featured in Complex magazine, and has spoken at several entrepreneurial organizations including The Chamber of Commerce, Squarespace, and We Work.

Congratulations to Matthew Mulqueen, who has been named a shareholder in the Memphis, Tenn., office of the law firm Baker Donelson. Matt maintains an active pro bono practice and has handled many immigration matters, including representing refugee children seeking protected status and permanent residence through the Special Immigrant Juvenile process. In 2016, he received a pro bono award from Baker Donelson for his service.

Joseph McElligott is a director of business development at Guggenheim Investment Advisors, LLC. He has been elected the vice chair of the Wesleyan University Alumni Association and Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize Committee.

Erin Glaser and her family moved to the Philadelphia area and are enjoying their new city! She is working with Adaptive Sports USA to start a sitting volleyball program and is working at Drexel University as an adjunct faculty member in the sports leadership program. She also works with Strive, which focuses on reaching children and youth from underserved communities via interactive leadership programs.

Jesse Young left the Paris Agreement climate team at the State Department. He lives and works in D.C. for Climate Nexus, a New York-based nonprofit that works to highlight the impacts of climate change and clean energy solutions in the U.S.

Dana Wollman is living in Brooklyn and is the executive producer of Engadget. Engadget covers a wide range of tech-related news from tech and video game reviews to entertainment to broader topics related to advanced technology.

Katey Rich has left Brooklyn for the warmer pastures of Durham, N.C. She still works as the deputy editor of VanityFair.com and is delighted to live within walking distance of Aaron Reuben ’07 and Jessalee Landfried ’07.

Arielle Edelman McHenry and her husband have also decided to leave Brooklyn to set down roots in Minneapolis. Congratulations on the newest addition to their family, Mia, who was born in February. Arielle works as a community specialist at the Minnesota Department of Health.

Julie Mathis Monts is living with her husband, Sean Monts, in Tacoma, Wash. She is a director of medical advising for Kaplan Test Prep, where she oversees the advising component of the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) in Kaplan centers nationwide. Their first child is expected this September.

At the time of writing Nina Eichacker and Johann Patlak are expecting their second child in July. Nina is an assistant professor in the economics department at the University of Rhode Island. Johann is an attending critical care anesthesiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Mike Dacey started his new job as an assistant professor of philosophy at Bates College in Maine. Congratulations on the new position as well as completing his PhD in philosophy-neuroscience-psychology at Washington University.

Alix Sleight finished her PhD at the University of Southern California, where she studied the health behaviors and quality of life of low-income breast cancer survivors. She and her husband welcomed their daughter, Vera, who joins her big brother Blake. Alix plans to complete her master’s degree in public health and then move to D.C. to work at the National Cancer Institute as a cancer prevention fellow.

Emily Dreyfuss is a part of the 2017 class of fellows at Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Building upon her work as a writer at WIRED, Emily is studying how the Internet and social media changes the way history is written.

David Bartlett Bates finished his fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and plans to move to Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. with his wife, Larissa, and children Pilar and Sebastian. Post-fellowship, David will work as an assistant professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he will do research and practice clinical radiology.

Congratulations to Jennifer Low and her husband, Sean Williams, whose baby girl, Evelyn Jane, arrived last October. Jennifer is the owner of Frosted Fox Cake Shop. If you need a wedding or celebration cake made right, give her a shout!

After a half-decade in the Holy Land, Niv Elis has moved back to D.C., reuniting with his senior housemates Jess Firshein and Nancy Wassner. He is a staff writer at The Hill reporting on budget and appropriations.

Richard Wenk and Ying Xiong ’04 welcomed their second son, Henry Wenk, on January 30. His big bro, Alexander, has been helping by putting on his own shoes (if someone tells him which one is right and which is left).

Fabrice Coles is living in Silver Spring, Md., with his wife and three sons. He works in Congress as the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. He encourages other Wes alumni working in politics, civil rights, business, and media to reach out in case they would like to work together.

Clara Moskowitz and Sarah Woodbury had a baby. Their daughter, Esther Jane, was born in January and they are over the moon. They live in NYC, where Sarah teaches eighth grade humanities at a public school in Manhattan and Clara is an astronomy and physics editor at Scientific American.

Justin Rogers moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, with his family, 12 years after an Earth and Environmental Sciences-inspired study abroad term.

Ian Smith is moving to Chicago and starting a new job as a partner at Hillcrest Holdings, a private family investment company. If anyone knows any companies for sale, let him know.

Sara Levin just got a new job as an assistant conservator in the Objects Conservation department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art starting in July.

Lastly, Kate Mitchell of Durham, N.C., was awarded the James Madison Fellowship by the James Madison Memorial Foundation of Alexandria, Va. These fellowships support college graduates who aspire to become teachers of American history, American government, and social studies at the secondary school level. The fellowship will fund up to $24,000 of Kate’s study towards a master’s degree. Congrats!

Marcella Winearls | marcellawinearls@gmail.com

Meeghan writes for this issue. Thank you to my classmates for taking a moment to share their lives (and allowing me some room for editorial commentary per usual, mostly in the form of happy exclamations). In these strange times of escalating extreme nationalism, racism, sexism, terrorism, elitism, climate change denier-ism, and all the other negative “isms” out there, I asked to hear about good people doing good stuff, and they have delivered. So check out ’04’s positive impact in their families, communities, and world.

Saori Imaizumi has made D.C. her home for the past seven years, while spending significant time on the road traveling to countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tajikistan and Sri Lanka. The main purpose of her travels? To improve quality of education and access to it, increase youth employment, and create an innovation ecosystem. Through her work at the World Bank, she leverages technological and innovative solutions to address these very challenges. Saori is working on the African regional partnership platform called PASET, to enhance applied science, engineering, and technology capacity at the institutional level across Africa. She is happy to hear about any collaboration opportunities for this initiative if anyone is interested!

Eliza Simon is living in D.C., and she and husband Micah welcomed two adorable and energetic little boys, Caleb and Nate, into their family in 2013 and 2016. When she isn’t busy with her family, she is getting it done as an attorney at the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, working on housing discrimination. She feels lucky to still have so many great people from Wesleyan in her life! And we feel lucky to have you, Eliza, and are proud of the important work you’re doing. I am probably embarrassing you, frosh roomie, but it’s true!

Elaina Dellacava completed her psychiatry residency at Montefiore Medical Center as the chief resident, and is starting a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at New York Presbyterian. She lives in Manhattan with her husband. She has free advice for those coping with the stress of 2017: Do as the doctor does, and get yourself a large dose of family time and improv comedy.

Abraham Lateiner and his partner, Erika, just hit a major milestone: 10 years of marriage! They’ve made their home in Cambridge, Mass., with daughters Estella (7) and Lulu (3). They frequently hang out with Bess Thaler and Sam Fentress, Ben Abrams ’03, and occasionally Tom Peteet. Abe is still mourning the mass departure of other classmates like Ben Morse and Ethan Butler, but is delighted to still be in the same state as Ariel Pliskin. Abe left his 10-year teaching career to do something different: community organizing work to co-create spaces for healing/transformation for people who benefit materially from systems of injustice. This work affirms for him that freedom is possible. The current occupant of the White House is, to him, a sign that the hegemony of rich white men is starting to crumble, and he sees himself as part of a hospice effort for this process.

Carl Cervone graduated from Columbia Business School and co-founded Enveritas, a platform that allows coffee companies to validate the sustainability of their purchasing with complete transparency. Carl lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their 2-year-old son, Lucas.

Bernadette Doykos just wrapped up her PhD in community psychology at Vanderbilt, and is very much loving post-dissertation life in Portland, Maine. She spent quality time with Meriel Darzen and Erin Malone ’03, and got to snuggle the next generation of Wesleyan lacrosse fans (their adorable kids, Nico and Josie). She’s looking forward to a Wesleyan reunion at Rich Renzi’s wedding this summer!

Brian and Jessie Adams live in Nashville with their two little boys, Caldwell (4) and Harding (15 months), keeping them quite busy. They’ve had a lot of fun cheering on the Nashville Predators and Wes Lax teams during their respective playoff runs over the spring (sidenote from my editor/husband, Daniel Creeden: the Predators would have clinched it had it not been for Pekka Rinne. No comment on Wes Lax, but I’m trying to teach him the fight song…). Brian and Jessie are also quite busy in their professional lives. Brian is an investment manager, and Jessie is the director of service learning at an independent girls’ school. Congrats to Jessie for being awarded the Jones Prize in Philanthropy for people under 40 working in the philanthropic space! They love hearing from classmates who are coming through Nashville. They recently had a visit from the new Dr. Bernadette Doykos, and look forward to summer beach trips with Brad Wasik and family.

Congratulations are in order for Alden Ferro and his partner, Richard Luedeman. They got engaged in February when Richard surprised him at dinner and popped the question! They’ve set the date, September 15, 2018, in New Haven. Jess Richman and Marc Berger welcomed their son, Sidney Joseph, in December. The whole family is doing great in Seattle and is excited for a summer of swimming, dog walking, and plenty of porch sitting.

Jenina Nuñez | jenina.nunez@outlook.com

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

Jill Benson Gustafson graduated with her master’s degree in nursing and is a certified nurse midwife. She also has a 2-year-old son and lives with her husband, Brett, in Asheville, N.C.

On February 22, Jesse P. Karlsberg and his wife, Lauren Bock, welcomed their first child, Lucey Rose Karlsberg, into the world. The family is living in Atlanta, where Jesse accepted a full-time position back in September as senior digital scholarship strategist at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. Jesse edits Sounding Spirit, a series of digital critical editions of vernacular sacred American music published by the University of North Carolina Press, and is managing editor of Atlanta Studies, a digital journal on the Atlanta metropolitan region.

Joanne Alcantara is the executive director for API Chaya, a nonprofit organization working to end violence. They provide direct services to Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and human trafficking survivors from all communities.

Leanne Crowley is living in Los Angeles with her husband, Josh, and 2-¹/₂ -year-old daughter, Finley. She is a post-production supervisor, most recently on The History of Comedy, a documentary series for CNN, airing this summer.

Rachel Wallis has spent the last two years organizing Gone But Not Forgotten, a community memorial quilt for individuals killed by the Chicago Police. Three panels of the quilt are on exhibit this summer at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in conjunction with the exhibition, State of Incarceration.

After teaching last year in the Yale Music Department as a lecturer in ethnomusicology, John A. Graham is back in Tbilisi with his wife and two kids, working on turning his dissertation on Georgian traditional polyphony into a book. He is running a niche cultural tours business called johngrahamtours.com and welcomes all Wes alumni to come explore the Caucasus region!

After over four years as an assistant clerk magistrate, Samantha Gillombardo Larson is an attorney at a law firm that specializes in elder care and financial planning for people with special needs. Her husband, Brian, is a Doctor of Physical Therapy student at Massachusetts General Hospital, and her son, Myles, starts kindergarten in the fall. Her daughter, Ruby, age 2-¹/₂, is crushed that she can’t ride the school bus, too. In January, Sam and Emily Teitsworth traveled to Barbados, and their families will reunite in Aspen, Colo., for Emily’s sister’s wedding in September.

Jesse Soursourian is in production for a documentary about a team of women in Nagorno-Karabakh who work to clear the country of land mines left over from their war of independence.

Julia Marcus moved to the Boston area to be closer to her husband Benny’s family. She’s doing infectious disease research as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, navigating the wonderful chaos of a new baby (Lucy) and a toddler (Asa), and reconnecting with freshman-year roommate Cara Herbitter.

Caroline Knox shared that 8 Warren ladies are expanding their brood. Sarah Snyder welcomed Hannah Autumn Snyder in 2016 and Jensen Knox Lindow arrived in 2017.

Matt Kushner and Lauren Kushner (Brown ’04) are expecting their second child, a girl, in October. Their first, Marian, is almost 2 and is keeping them very busy. Matt is coming up on three years working at Method Studios in Chelsea as a VFX technical director, and Lauren is working as a 3D generalist at AMNH.

Rachel (Morris) Bruce and her husband, Sam, welcomed their daughter, Leah Sivan Bruce to the world on March 6.

Emily Teitsworth has been living in the Bay Area on and off since 2004, working to advance girls’ rights globally. She is the executive director of GirlVentures, and invites Wes alumni to drop by the Women’s Building in San Francisco to connect.

Amy Tannenbaum | atannenbaum@wesleyan.edu

Happy summer, Class of 2002. Our fantastic 15th Reunion came and went. Overall, it was an incredible weekend. I want to give a special shoutout to my co-organizers on the planning committee who did an excellent job in recruiting our classmates to attend, especially co-chairs Suzanne Appel and Jamie Novogrod.

Suzanne relocated to New York City and is the managing director at the Vineyard Theater, an off-Broadway theater company dedicated to producing bold new plays and musicals. Jamie left his job at NBC News in NYC to relocate to Los Angeles where he is now the West Coast bureau chief for Vice News.

And thank you to the other organizers—Britton Boyd, who is the FBI supervisory special agent in charge over-the-counter terrorism programs in El Paso, Texas, and Kerry Holahan, who is the managing director of The Bridge Ensemble, a professional 16-voice chamber choir that explores the connection between pre-17th, late 20th, and 21st, century choral repertoire, and Heather Alderfer Abbott, who is the associate registrar at Yale Law School. Kerry also won an award for her service to Wesleyan at our class dinner!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend of walking around campus, hanging out on Foss Hill, and attending various events and seminars (extra points for Alex Horwitz’s screening and Q&A for Hamilton’s America and Jamie Novogrod’s panel about fake and real news). I was very impressed by the next generation of Wesleyan students who offered astute observations about the college and the world outside of Wesleyan. It was great to see and meet illustrious alumni across all industries speak at seminars, receive awards, and interact with their classmates in inspiring ways.

The Foss Hill dance party was a lot of fun, as was our wonderful class dinner with retiring Professor John Finn in attendance (though our drinks reception could have used some more alumni in attendance). Some interesting observations only at Wesleyan: finding a pop-up tattoo studio operating out of a creative work space in Hewitt, a freshman making Turkish coffee for her friends out of the somewhat brand new kitchen in Butterfield C, the fact that Mocon was erased from Wesleyan history without any physical evidence for where it used to be, a fleeting appearance by the Douglas Cannon for the first time that I’ve ever been on campus.

We had a great class dinner, where we invited Professor Finn to attend. I had the opportunity to visit the new R.J. Julia Bookstore, Wesleyan’s new campus bookstore located in the heart of Middletown. While I will always miss Atticus and the black bean soup, the new bookstore is incredible and I think it will be a great bridge between the campus and the city, hopefully fostering new and positive interactions between the residents and the students. And in walking the downtown area, I was pleasantly impressed by the amount of new restaurants, boba shops, and stores (extra points to see our mainstays First and Last Tavern, Thai Gardens, and Tuscany Grill still thriving). And of course, a visit to Wesleyan isn’t complete without breakfast at O’Rourkes, which is still very tasty after all these years.

I also want to thank everyone who did attend from our class. While I am sure I am forgetting a ton of names, I wanted to give a shoutout to everyone:John Milioti, Amanda Gordon, Conor Flynn, Jamie Zibulsky, Scott Perceval, Rich Boatti, Heather Perceval, Dina Levi, Steve Scribner, Mia Unger, Nitika Nadgar, Nilaya Sabnis, Carlos Rojas, Dawn Papacena, Graham Rockwell, Dion Mueller, Heather Hominoff Woodley, RaShawn Woodley, Angie Schiavoni, Amanda Hansen, Evan Newell, Shawn Lemerise, Kevin MacDermott, Michelle Rabinowitz Carney, Jessica Weinstein, Amy Shapiro, Noah Levine, Noah Rauch, Allison Kennedy, Tarsah Dale, Hagar Berlin, Sara Lesin, Nicole Daley, Anne Thompson, Ghasi Phillips-Bell, Nina Laing, Anthony Rosario, Tadashi Dozono, and Alex Horwitz. Let us know if we skipped your name and we’ll get it up ASAP—and send some news!

Everyone seems to be doing great and I appreciate everyone attending—now onto our 20th Reunion!

Justin Lacob | justinlacob@gmail.com

I (Mara) agree with you. It’s maybe a little weird that I’ve held on to this role for so many years. Aside from the sheer and obvious glamour that comes along with being class secretary—and now co-class secretary, thanks to Aryn—why am I still around? In complete truth, when I hear back from folks I get a little electrical charge of inspiration and motivation. This round was no exception. Thanks. And without further delay…

Since 2014, Sujata Sidhu has been the lead legal counsel for We Are Seneca Lake, defending over 650 charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing related to peaceful nonviolent protests to stop a gas storage project in the Finger Lakes. After years of fighting, the legal team has succeeded in getting most of the charges dropped or acquitted at trial. More importantly for We Are Seneca Lake, the gas company just announced that it was discontinuing its plans to expand its propane storage, which was the primary issue necessitating the civil disobedience campaign. Good timing, as Sujata and her husband, Carl, just had a second baby a few months ago. When she goes back to work, Sujata will be teaching a civil disobedience clinic at Cornell Law School and continuing to practice small-town law.

Last year, Elaine Ho opened an educational childcare center, Kiddie Academy of Cambridge, in Cambridge, Mass.: “Any alumni getting advanced degrees at Harvard and MIT—come to drop off your kids at my daycare! There is something new every day as an entrepreneur. It is quite different from my previous 15 years working as an actuary and I love every minute of it!”

Nora Friedman writes, “Teaching Suzuki violin in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and out of my private studio. It’s a fact that Wesleyan offspring make the best violinists. Openings for ages 3.5 to 7. Anyone interested can get in touch at joyful-violin.com.”

Louisa Michaels works on robots in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her son, Leon, is redheaded, happy, and 7. I can personally vouch for her claim about robots, and also for how awesome her kid is.

Alexis Brooks and husband Brendan Fitzpatrick announce the birth of their son, Callan Brooks Fitzpatrick, on May 12. They live in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of D.C., a short walking distance from Alexis’s work at the U.S. Treasury Department. Jenny Selgrath Rauf was able to celebrate the upcoming birth of baby Callan at Alexis’s baby shower in Chicago last March.

Eric Schultheis writes, “I completed my urban studies doctorate from MIT. I’m moving with my partner to Montpelier, Vt., to join the Healthcare Consumer Advocate Project of Vermont Legal Aid as a staff attorney. I would love to connect with WesTech alumni in the area. My email is eric.schultheis@gmail.com.”

“Still working in Houston for BHPBilliton as an exploration geologist,” Adam Goss writes. “Promoted to principal geologist in January, working on deep-water projects in the eastern Caribbean, namely offshore Trinidad and Tobago. Just came back from an awesome field trip in Central Tobago that totally rocked. My wife, Janice, and two kids, Joaquin (5) and Amelia (3), are enjoying the heat and humidity this summer that Houston is known for.”

Michael Polson was awarded a PhD from CUNY Graduate Center in anthropology for his dissertation on the marijuana economy in Northern California. He finished out his first job at American University, and he is departing for UC, Berkeley with his boyfriend, to commence a two-year writing fellowship. In response to my request for excellent nonprofit nominations, Michael plugged a friend’s nonprofit. “My friend, Alisha Berry, runs Camp Sojourner, which takes girls from Philadelphia who have little chance to leave the city, to the outdoors every summer and provides year-round social justice-based leadership development for those girls in their communities. Alisha is a tireless advocate for the 100-plus girls, mostly low-income girls of color, and puts a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into making it run. Their website is girlsleadershipcamp.org;  people can make donations online if they’re inspired.”

Flo Anito wrote a song called “In Your Hands” for a Bolivian-based NGO that her husband and his brother co-founded. The Fuller Center for Housing Bolivia seeks to eradicate poverty housing in the country by building homes for families in need. “They are always looking for volunteers to come down and help build homes in Bolivia,” Flo writes, “and it’s a beautiful country that I think a lot of Wesleyan students and alumni would enjoy visiting” (fullercenterbolivia.org).

Kannan Vasudevan performed at L.A. Opera from June 15-18, in a new opera called Thumbprint. Kannen writes: “It is a fusion of operatic and South Asian musical styles and tells the true story of Mukthar Mai, who has become a pioneering figure for women’s rights. I’ve been involved with the opera for a few years now, including its premiere in NYC in 2014.”

Aryn will be covering the next round, so please send updates her way.

Mara Voukydis | maravee@gmail.com

Aryn Sperando | arynsperandio@yahoo.com

Tony Ducret received his MFA from the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC in May. He screened SPARKS, a short film that he produced and directed for USC, the night before graduation. Tony will remain in Los Angeles as he pursues opportunities in the television writing and independent feature producing spaces.

A.J. (DeAses) Hernandez Anderson and her husband, Mauricio (Swarthmore ‘00), welcomed their second child, Ronin Quetzal, on February 9, in Miami, Fla. Ronin’s big sister, Sienna Metztli, is almost 4. A.J. is back to practicing civil and banking litigation at Lapin & Leichtling, LLP.

Andrea McKnight sent the following update: “I am still on Cape Cod with my son. I am proud to announce my selection to the 2017 Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Star list! This is my fifth consecutive year. It is such an honor! I am still coaching lacrosse, which gets me out of the office for some fun in the spring. Maura Trail-O’Brien, Stacia Poulos Rozanitis, and I went to Florida a few months ago to celebrate Adrienne Smith Chang’s birthday. It was so much fun. I see Julie Hook Bunnell and Jeanne Gabbay a few times a year. I had lunch last weekend with Emma DeSimone ’01!”

Luke Davenport writes, “I am still analyzing data for public schools in the Bronx and Harlem with my business, District Public. I have also gotten involved in grassroots political organizing through a new group called Empire State Progressives. If you live in New York and are looking to get involved, give me a shout!”

Lauryn Siegel continues to not be married or have any children and is extremely grateful for this. She’s been bicoastal between NYC and LA, where she makes commercials/content with her consultancy, Team Collective, and multimedia art with herself.

Dylan Reilly writes, “For the past year, I have been working for Oscilloscape, a startup in the Hartford, Conn., area. We create technologies for listening to sound (like music) using neural networks. After having just completed a grant from the U.S. Air Force, we are gearing up to release our first product based on the tech: Synchrony. It’s an LED controller that can react to music like a human. As the CTO, I’m responsible for all the software and hardware engineering. If you want to check it out, go to synchronyleds.com. Before that, I had a fun run working as an engineering team lead for the game developer, Venan Entertainment—right down the street from Wesleyan. Unfortunately, Venan fell victim to the fickle nature of the freemium gaming industry and had to close its doors just about a year ago, but you can still find our games in the app store.”

Avery Esdaile | wesleyan2000@gmail.com