Class Notes

Hello, Class of 1995! Bo writing for this issue and I’ll start with my own updates. I’m still living in New York’s idyllic Hudson Highlands, working on digital products, raising two really fun little humans, and playing soccer as often as my knees will allow. I get face time with Mike Kleinsteuber, Kiersten Miller, and Laura Roberts ’97 occasionally.

Jennifer “Parker” Dockray is still living in Oakland CA, co-parenting a delightful 13-year-old, and working for reproductive justice. She is the executive director of All-Options, a national organization supporting people in all their experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption.

Brett Jones, international woman of mystery, writes: “I’ve been living in Suva, Fiji, for the last two years, where I work as a foreign service officer for USAID, and my husband for the State Department. Next month, classmate Nicole Robinson ’96 is coming to Fiji for a visit. Our next assignment is Canberra, Australia, starting this March.”

Jacob Waples and Sandy Miller have been living in Golden, Colo., for 20 years (!), aside from a two-year stint in Santiago, Chile. Jacob works at a small consulting company in Golden as an environmental geochemist to support mine permitting and closure. Sandy is a baroque cellist, teaching and performing in Denver. They see a group of Colorado Wes alumni regularly for skiing, geology discussions over beers, and to hang out with each other’s’ kids, including Tom Rutkowski ’96, Hillary Hamann ’94, Josh Pollock ’96, and Adam Hobson ’97.

My WesCo Up-4 hallmate, Cheryl Mejia, is always good with the updates, so of course she sent one for our Reunion issue! “Going into smaller private practice from large interventional pain group. Loving what I do. It’s a thank’ful’ job (as opposed to thankless job). Wife and I are doing great. Living in western Maryland. Enjoying boutique fitness like heart rate training programs, barre, and snowshoeing. I miss Son Tran ’95 because he moved to Canada with his ortho surgeon spouse.”

Speaking of Up-4, Adam Hirsch is living in Madison, Wisc., with his wife and two kids, not far from Matt Edes-Pierotti. Adam’s working remotely as a software developer for Axios and doing occasional hobby forays into fiction writing and podcast production. Nicholas Moran, who along with spouse Adair and dog Tala are currently traveling the country performing in Jurassic World Live Tour, got to visit with Adam when he brought his daughters to see the show in Milwaukee this past November. Nicholas will be touring North America for at least another year but encourages everyone to look him up if the show passes through your area.

Sabrina Prince sends some long-distance love: “I moved last year from New York to Germany for life and love. I am still working on health care advertising and have relocated to our European offices. I still speak regularly with best friend Jacqueline Moon and received an adorable Christmas card from Frank Truslow of his lovely wife and adorable two sons!”

Rob Armstrong and his wife Wylie are back from London and buying a house in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, with their 10-year-old twins. Rob still writes for the Financial Times. He says: “Amazingly, we are as dull as this makes us sound, but people should come visit us anyway. I see Russell Agle and Scott Laton ’94 all the time, and they are just like they were 25 years ago, only more so.”

Stacy Taylor writes: “I’m still living outside of Portland, Maine, helping my husband Jason run our animation shop, Little Zoo Studio. Our son Niko is turning 5. (Last Reunion he was only a few weeks old, so I missed it.) Niko is really into dinosaurs and Legos and making me pick up things in his wake.”

David Biello is still in New York, now as the science curator for TED Talks and working on a next book, among other side hustles. Still hanging out with Marcus Green, Shobana Shankar, and others. He’s father to two wonderful kids, Beatrice (12) and Desmond (10), and is always looking for pro-tips for the tween/teen years!

Greg Rolland writes: “I am in my eighth year working at Deerfield Academy—a western Massachusetts boarding school—in financial administration and, with my wife as the nurse director and my eldest daughter now a ninth-grade day student there too, it’s a convenient family set-up. I see nearby Peter Follet and Stephanie Flaherty regularly, and Peter and I hiked some of the upper-Hudson river valley with classmates Justin Stern and James Becker ’97 this past fall. Made proud of Wes recently (again) after reading its Common Reading selection for all incoming students: Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum co-authored by two inspiring alumni. Also just finished a memoir of Jimmy Carter from about 25 years ago, and it’s amazing to consider how much peace-making he did even just in the years we attended Wesleyan. A true embodiment of compassionate faith in action. Time to move forward. Go Wes!”

After two “rollercoaster” years as CFO at the National Network of Abortion Funds, Jen Levine-Fried took a bit of a swerve and moved into a finance position at Suffolk University in downtown Boston a year ago. She’s still staying connected to abortion rights, serving as the treasurer on the Board of Medical Students for Choice, and is also on the finance committee of her synagogue, which is currently composed 100% of Wes alumni.

Finally, news from Jessica Peterson: “My family and I moved back to the Denver area in 2015 (after almost 15 years on the ruggedly beautiful western slope of Colorado). In 2017, I started working at Front Range Community College (which is the largest community college in the state, serving approximately 28,000 students annually). I have wholeheartedly consumed the proverbial Kool-Aid and am happy to play a small part in helping so many students improve their circumstances. (I have to sheepishly admit that I was not fully aware of all the ways in which community colleges provide educational and career opportunities to traditionally underserved populations.)”

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Greetings from frigid Chicago! It was wonderful to hear from many of our classmates—some who had not provided updates for quite some time!

Deborah Lowenthal Sorin, for example, said she had not written since the birth of her daughter—now 10! Her husband Dan,(a professor at Duke) and she have lived in Durham, N.C., for 17-plus years, excluding two sabbaticals, one to Portland, Ore., in 2010, and one in 2017-2018 to Edinburgh, Scotland. Her family has enjoyed living abroad and going to school. She writes, “During term breaks, we traveled all over Europe. Seeing Carnival in Malta was the coolest thing ever.” While in Edinburgh, Deborah took a job at international development consultancy, Challenges Group, and has been working remotely for them since they returned to the U.S. Deborah also serves on the Board of Directors of FosterClub, the national nonprofit for youth in foster care.

From others on the East Coast:

Matthew Solomon lives in Washington, D.C., with his family, where he practices securities law. Matt attended the 25th year Reunion and enjoyed catching up with Emily Henn and Sid Espinoza, among others. His 12-year-old daughter, Callie, already has her sights set on Wes, and Matt needs to break the news to her that she likely won’t be recruited as a ‘rock climber’.”

Marc Waxman writes that he moved his family to Wrentham, Mass., about three years ago to settle on a small “farm” (they have a couple horses and a bunch of chickens, dogs, and cats). He writes, “My two teenage sons keep me busy—very much enjoy watching them in organized athletics, and not so much enjoy working through the various injuries that are part of the process.” Marc also became executive director of Mindfulness Director Initiative which he co-founded about a year ago where the mission is to work toward every school community having a full-time mindfulness director. Marc would love to hear from anyone who are interested in being a mindfulness director or would love to see one at their local school. Email him at mwaxman@mindfulnessdirector.org.

Joseph Stein recently started new job at Natixis Advisors in Boston as director of quantitative research. He also joined the board of a nonprofit called Speak for the Trees, which works to increase tree canopy in Boston, particularly in lower income communities. He has two kids (7 and 9) who are doing great and enjoying school.

Aaron Passell is enjoying his work as associate director of urban studies at Barnard College and is soon to get his second book out. He also would love to hear from other Wes urbanists. Working in New York allows him to see Jesse Hendrich and Seth Lewis Levin, and sometimes even Scott Rosenberg, visiting from California. He also often crosses paths with Amy Fiske ’95 in Philadelphia.

From the West Coast:

Kate Gordon is going into her second year as Governor Gavin Newsom’s Senior Advisor on Climate Policy, as well as the director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. She writes, “I can honestly say the job is never boring and is often incredibly exciting—though daunting, especially as we grapple with utility bankruptcies, fires, and just the sheer size of managing the world’s fifth largest economy. So far, the commute from Berkeley to Sacramento hasn’t killed me, mostly thanks to Amtrak and its cafe car. My husband Gino Segre is helping to run a life sciences business incubator program called QB3, which includes working to turn UC Berkeley’s former art museum into an incubator space. Kids are now nearly 13 and 8 and doing great.”

Tanya Bowers is working on the Diversity and Inclusion/Equal Employment Opportunity Panel for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and chairing the planning commission for the City of Pasco. She invites us to look her up if you find yourselves in Eastern Washington.

Olivia Morgan writes that, “together with California First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, I just launched a nonprofit called the California Partners Project to focus on closing gender gaps in California. We will also be advocating on behalf of children’s well-being and mental health, especially as it relates to the effects of media and technology, industries which lead our economy and shape the world.” You can read about her recent project that received some publicity in Politico.

Olivia also updated us that Sid Espinoza moved to San Francisco and she re-connected with Erica Walters who also is raising teen boys at the same high school as Olivia’s teen boys! Olivia saw Leyda Carvajal in Portland, Ore., last spring, where she is raising two boys and works as an anesthesiologist.

Stephanie Anagnoson is the director of water and natural resources for Madera County, in California’s Central Valley. She works with residents and farmers to achieve groundwater sustainability.

From the international front:

Eric Byler writes that he moved his wife and kids (4 and 2) to Australia a year ago planning to return to the filmmaking (narrative) after more than a decade in documentary film and journalism. He writes, “The recent fires, and our narrow escape, led to this piece for The Intercept, and this video. It looks like I’ll be writing more about the climate crisis and its devastating impacts in Australia. I try to get out of journalism, and events pull me back in. But in the year I’ve been in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), I’ve written the screenplay for a film that follows a Chinese-Australian woman to her family’s ancient compound in China, which is, of course, haunted.”

David Campbell is halfway through his second assignment with Dell Technologies, currently serving as their CFO in Japan. He is “having a blast with my wife Brenna (25 years this April . . . yes, we got married less than a year after graduation) and our two youngest girls who are studying at the International School of the Sacred Heart here in Tokyo. We already have one college graduate and two others studying back in Texas while we are on assignment. Had a great chance to catch up with my homestay family from my junior year abroad in Kyoto. Would love to catch up with anyone else in the area, especially as the Olympics approach! You can reach me at dcampbell72@gmail.com or LinkedIn.”

Suzie Purcell Byers and husband Carl Bradford Byers ’93 are moving to Spain this summer so Suzie can begin serving as head of school at Madrid Montessori. Suzie said, “Carl will continue his venture capital work at F-Prime and his teaching of finance at Harvard, which means that he’ll be traveling back and forth across the pond a lot. Our son, Jake ’21, will be in his senior year as a film and English double-major at Wesleyan, so he’ll visit us during vacations until his graduation. We’re holding out hope that he’ll find a job in Europe, but it’s more likely that he’ll find himself back in Hollywood where he has been reading scripts during breaks. Our daughter, Emily, probably will choose to do a gap year in between graduating from Concord Academy and starting college (not sure where as of now). Our youngest, Katie, will be attending The American School of Madrid for high school. If you happen to be in the Iberian Peninsula, please email us at byersfamily@icloud.com so we can reconnect!”

And, finally, from the Midwest:

I (Samera) am enjoying practicing law at my new firm, L&G Law Group in Chicago and serving on the Board of Directors at the Chicago High School For the Arts. My twin daughters, Sarah and Norah—almost 11—are doing well. We survived our first ever trip to Disney back in November with my sister, Humera Syeda ’90 and her kids. My other sister, Sohera Syeda ’96, could not make it so we plan on visiting her and her kids in Boston in the Spring.

It is wonderful to keep up with all of you here as well as many of you on Facebook. If your travels bring you to Chicago, please look me up!

Samera Syeda Ludwig | samera.ludwig@gmail.com

Caissa Powell | cdp2000@hotmail.com 

Hi, classmates! This month we have some exciting updates about travel, careers, and a new film premiere. Please send us an update in the future about your post-Wes life.

Anne Beaven writes, “I just got back from a week in Panama with my wife, 10-year-old son, and mom. It was a fantastic trip. Happy 2020 to all.”

Jorge Campos writes: “2019 gave me another wonderful opportunity to travel to far off places with many fun memories created. The new year began with my return from Mexico via Toronto on my NAFTA trip. My first destination, Zürich, proved a perfect way to indulge in hot chocolate while looking out on those majestic, snow-capped Alps in mid-January. Then off to Africa. Johannesburg energy was upended by amazing Cape Town. Italia called but my next trip wasn’t one I wanted to take. My bright-eyed grandfather (Papagrande) passed away.

“March rolled around and I marched on. This time to New Zealand and a marathon from south to north. April brought me to Singapore, my personal delight. My stay in Tokyo provided another spring surprise with the city blooming all over. After a rare, relaxing period in NYC, it was back on a flight to Hong Kong. My next stop—South Korea—was perfectly timed to enjoy delicious food with kimchi. My return to New York via Frankfurt gave me an opportunity to spend time with my friends in that city. The following month, July, meant my pilgrimage to Mexico to visit family. Shortly thereafter, Japan with a marathon zigzag. Then, Berlin in August followed, which enchanted me. Passing up business trips caught up to me when it became necessary to head south, this time to Brazil. A routine trip put my world upside down. It wasn’t the trips that mattered as much as the people along the way.”

Jaclyn Friedman emails: “My fourth book Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World has been published by Seal Press. It’s an anthology that I co-edited with my Yes Means Yes collaborator, Jessica Valenti, and features brilliant essays from the likes of Tatiana Maslany, Dahlia Lithwick, Representative Ayanna Pressley, and lots more. About to head out on book tour, where I’ll see Wes pals Janice Jones, Shana Boniface, Elizabeth Toohey ’94, and Tristan Taormino.”

Therese Casper is finishing up her documentary film, The Invisible Father, tracing her father’s underground life, and considering both the promise and pitfalls of authentic creativity. You can learn more at pieroheliczer.com.

Noel Lawrence writes: “I am premiering my feature Sammy-Gate at International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film is a dark, political satire about how Sammy Davis, Jr. caused Watergate. Here’s more info: iffr.com/en/2020/films/sammy-gate.”

Jason Rekate is moving back to New York after 14 years overseas in five different cities to be the head of Citi’s Global Corporate Bank in September.

Bronwen Williams Sainsbury writes in, “I completed my MBA at Seattle University and I’m president of a home decor company, Stack Resources.”

Jodi Samuels writes: “I had a job transition in early November and I’m now the new senior grants specialist at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, which is just two blocks from our home in downtown Sacramento. My focus is on strategically building up the government grants portfolio to help reach the foundation’s goal of doubling our impact by 2028 and to support the chancellor’s innovative ‘Vision for Success’ for the entire California community college system. I co-presented a session on mentoring at the national Grant Professionals Association (GPA) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., and served on a panel for another session related to mentoring. My spouse, Evan Smestad, and I spent New Year’s Eve 2020 in Vancouver, B.C., and have plans to celebrate in Iceland next year.”

Emmanuelle Chammah-Slossberg writes, “After growing up and staying in NYC, Matt and I finally decided to take Eva (11) and Mae (7) to get the ‘open-air’ experience and moved to Westport, Conn. I am now a principal at CetraRuddy Architecture, where I have been for the last 11 years. I joined the Board of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU.global). We will be honoring Alexandria Villanseñor, a 14-year-old climate activist and founder of Earth Uprising. Other than thinking about how we can change the world in that way, one piece at a time, we are plenty busy adjusting to our new schools, neighbors and making new friends. So happy to be able to have big dinners and walk to the beach!”

Kim Smith, who resides in Montpelier, Vt., was promoted to the position of program manager at Everybody Wins! Vermont, a reading mentor program that serves over 600 elementary schoolchildren every year.

Diego von Vacano was named full professor of political science at Texas A&M University.

Ari Abel writes, “I am a facial plastic surgeon in Wilmington, Del., and have two daughters—wonderful young women who are 11 and 12. I followed up my brief wrestling career at Wesleyan by serving as the ring physician at several Ultimate Fighting Championships.”

Suzanna Henshon | suzannahenshon@yahoo.com 

Sarah Estow | sarah_estow@hotmail.com

Paul writes for this issue. Greetings and salutations from Washington, D.C., and happy 50th birthday to many of you who have recently celebrated, or are looking forward to a fun party, and/or fear that big number looming around the corner. I did it last year and survived. It was great to hear from so many people including some first-timers. So, without further ado . . .

Richard Dietrich co-edited In Pursuit of History: A Lifetime Collecting Colonial American Art and Artifacts. This book showcases highlights from the Dietrich American Foundation and tells the story of the collector and the foundation. The foundation was established in 1963 by H. Richard Dietrich Jr. with a focus on 18th-century American fine and decorative arts. The book was published in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Abby Saguy published her third book Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are. Through scores of interviews with LGBTQ+ people, undocumented immigrant youth, fat-acceptance activists, Mormon fundamentalist polygamists, and sexual harassment lawyers, the book shows how coming out has moved beyond gay and lesbian rights groups and how different groups wrestle with the politics of coming out in their efforts to resist stigma and enact social change.

Noele Nelson enjoys living in Atlanta with her spouse and working at the CDC. She’s now a branch chief in the Division of Viral Hepatitis, overseeing all of the prevention activities, including vaccine research and policy. Noele had a great time visiting Martin Reames ’94 and his family in Guadalajara, Mexico, where they were living for a year.

Jonathan Liebson enjoys seeing Benno Schmidt ’93 in Brooklyn Heights, along with his adorable son, Charlie. Jonathan’s most recent writing can be found online at The Atlantic and Tablet.

Natacha Vacroux and her philosophy professor husband, Chris Meyers, quit their jobs in Washington, D.C., last year to move to Hawaii. Natacha loves being the FEMA lead co-located in state’s emergency management agency during the day, and editing Chris’s third book, The Straight Dope on Drugs: A Philosophical Examination of Drugs and Drug Policy, at night. They have a killer Mai Tai recipe and look forward to hosting old college friends.

Mary Newton Lima is living in Cape Cod and commuting daily to Cambridge, Mass., where she works as the research program coordinator of the MIT Sea Grant Program, which is part of the National Sea Grant program, the research arm of NOAA. Her role is a jack-of-all-trades, primarily focusing on coordinating proposals, fellowships, and staff scientists. Her husband works with the Ocean Twilight Zone project at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Their eldest daughter, Julia, is a freshman at Union College, and their youngest, Cecilia, is a sophomore in high school.

Speaking of new jobs, Chris Chesak started a new job as executive director of the 92-year-old Outdoor Writers Association of America.

After 16 years as a communication and video production professor at Franklin Pierce University, Heather Weibel Tullio decided to go back to high school. She is loving her new job as a college counselor at St. Bernard’s High School in Fitchburg, Mass., where she graduated from. Her son Oliver just applied to colleges so she, along with husband Tom Tullio ’90, is planning a trip to visit Carleton College in early February. They are looking forward to staying with Martin Reames ’94 and his family.

Darcy Dennett is working on a new, original Netflix series called Well that premieres in the spring. She writes, “I hope those who are inspired check it out. It’s been quite a journey.”

Amy Smith parted ways with Headlong, the nonprofit she co-founded with Andrew Simonet and David Brick ’91, and is doing freelance work as a dance and theater artist, educator, and co-facilitator of anti-racism and anti-oppression trainings. She’s also teaching financial well-being to artists and giving financial management advice to organizations and individuals. Visit amyelainesmith.com if you want to be in touch.

Johanna Stoberock’s novel, Pigs, was published in October. She has been traveling a lot to promote the book where she reports seeing Wesleyan friends at readings around the country. Johanna was selected as the 2019 Artist Trust/Gar LaSalle Storyteller award recipient, which recognizes “an outstanding literary artist working in fiction.”

Michelle Specht, a surgeon at MGH practicing breast surgical oncology, reports that her daughter, Emma ’23, is now at Wesleyan and is loving it! She is happy to report sightings of Susan Stevens and Denise Casper ’90 at Soul Cycle at 5:30 a.m.

Kenko Sone, who was a Japanese government foreign service trainee at Wesleyan, is now a senior official and ambassador in charge of economic diplomacy in the Economic Affairs Bureau at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Finally, Amy Andrews Alznauer hits the book trifecta in 2020. Candlewick Press will be publishing The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity, a picture book biography of the Indian mathematician Ramanujanm and Flying Paintings: The Zhou Brothers, A Story of Revolution and Art, a collaboration with the world-renowned artists about their early years. Also, Enchanted Lion Books is publishing The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Conner.

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

To start this column, I have the terrible responsibility to inform those who have not heard that Scott Timberg died by suicide on Dec. 10, 2019. The obituary from the Los Angeles Times only begins to tell of the loss of his wit, intellect, and passion for arts and culture. Michael Lill responded to my invitation to add memories and comments about Scott for the column:

“Scott was one of the first friends I met at college. He was brilliant, witty, and an engaging conversationalist. He had a remarkable depth of knowledge of all the liberal arts—especially music and culture—that rubbed off on all who knew him. It was Scott who first introduced me to jazz and other music. I remember hours spent hanging out listening to Scott expound the virtues of Sam Cooke, Chet Baker, and John Coltrane. Scott and I shared our first college road trip together, the first of many. We lived together for two years, first in Butterfield, later in High Rise. We studied abroad in the same semester and visited each other in our respective destinations. My wife and I celebrated with Scott and his wife, Sara, at their wedding. And I visited with Scott and Sara in April 2019 for a 50th birthday getaway to L.A. Scott will be missed by all who knew him, and my heart goes out to his family for this tragic loss.”

In these times, and always, it is important to remember that people care for you. You are not alone. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is available 24 hours every day, at 1-800-273-8255.

There is no easy transition from this to other class news, but I do have a few additional items to share.

Cheryl Gansecki hit two bucket-list items in 2019. She was interviewed on NOVA for the episode Kīlauea: Hawai’i on Fire, fulfilling a “nerdy childhood dream,” as well as a first-author paper in Science, “The Tangled Tale of Kīlauea’s 2018 Eruption as Told by Geochemical Monitoring.”

After seven years as the planning and urban development director for the City of Portland, Maine, Jeff Levine started a new position in August as a faculty member in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. “I’m excited to be teaching and mentoring the next generation of planners, as well as consulting with cities, towns, and developers in New England on best practices in urban planning.”

Joshua Samuels works as a professor of pediatrics at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston, specializing in high blood pressure in kids, both clinically and in research. The work takes him around the country and world to present talks, a bonus for Joshua.

Dana and Jeremy Stacks and Nicki and Jim Miller are working on their expert badge for the National Park Service, traveling to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in 2019. They confirm that the trees are so incredibly large there is no way to prepare for it, and that the night sky is refreshingly dark. Jeremy also checked off Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota (twice!) on the frolic-and-detour theory of work travel.

Julia Fischer and husband Vincent Collazo celebrated the birth of Cassidy Inanna Fischer on Sept. 10, 2019. Julia writes, “Like any couple, we are amazed and in wonder at the fact of the tiny human who has moved in with us, but the most remarkable thing in our case is our collective age. Some jaws dropped when presented with our news, but our focus is on hopefully passing on a bit of the wisdom we may have collected in our combined 112 years of life experience. I’m finding motherhood to be a real joy, and back to working full-time (from home in Brooklyn) while Vincent is able to be a stay-at-home dad. We are very happy!”

Renée K. Carl | rcarl@wesleyan.edu

Hi, all! Happy New Year! We start with Al Viegas, whose eldest daughter, Alessandra ’20, will be graduating this May with a double major in American studies and English. Alessandra is an aspiring playwright. Al’s youngest applied to Wes and a few other NESCACs and “we will know her outcome by April, and of course I am hoping she can continue the legacy as a member of the Class of ’24 . . . crossing our fingers.”

Lawrence Jackson launched the Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts at Johns Hopkins, where he is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and History. The BHPLA is conceived to share the resources of the university with Baltimore’s neighborhoods, steward African American archives, and to open up authentic pathways of mutual creativity that help to alleviate the historic socio-economic inequity of the city. Lawrence would love to have Wes classmates from around the region participate; they can also tag donations for BHPLA to JHU, where Elena Weathers ’91 is an officer. On Sept. 12, “we will have our second annual free concert in homage to Billie Holiday in Lafayette Square in Sandtown (always the first Saturday after Labor Day). I won a Guggenheim award in 2019 and am working this year on a book about returning to Baltimore, where I live with my oldest son Nathaniel who is now 15. I am also writing and making digital map presentations about Holiday, Frederick Douglass, and race and American western films.”

Edward Ungvarsky’s wife Olivia Smith ’92 founded Bridges PCS, a public charter school in Washington, D.C., whose mission is inclusive education for children with and without special needs. Bridges is a go-to elementary school for parents whose children have high-level special needs and for parents whose children speak English as a second language. Bridges’ charter was just renewed for another 15 years. “I shared a meal with fellow RA and now frequent marathoner Mark Hsieh when he was in town from Taiwan, our first time together in too many years. Our daughters, Nola and Lena, are teenagers, with the triumphs and trials of teenagers. We were all campaigning for friend Michael Bennet ’87, Hon.’12 in New Hampshire in February.”

Becky Lloyd DesRoches ’90, MA’90, lives in Lexington, Mass., with her husband and two boys, though her eldest is a freshman studying music technology at Carnegie Melon University. Becky loves her job as an assistant professor of psychology at Regis College and works with Heidi Webster. Becky sings in a number of groups. She’s a frequent soloist with the Lexington Pops choir and will tour NYC this spring with the Regis glee club. As at Wes, Becky fills her days with academics, sports, and music. Becky is hoping to release a CD of original music this spring.

After many years of practicing technology law and consulting at big firms, Adam Cohen has launched his own firm, Digital Discipline LLC, providing integrated legal and technical services in cybersecurity, data privacy, information governance, and electronic discovery. He “hopes it will be successful enough to pay tuition for his two kids currently at expensive private universities (not Wesleyan).”

Sarah Townsend, psychotherapist, teacher, and author of Setting the Wire: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis, was recently featured in an interview with NPR. Sarah shares her visceral experience of psychosis after the birth of a child. Listen to it at kpfa.org.

Jessica Mann Gutteridge has been appointed artistic managing director of the Chutzpah! Festival and the Norman Rothstein Theatre, which are operated by the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Jessica is looking forward to bringing exciting performing arts programming to the festival and hopefully seeing old friends as she travels on her search. She is serving on the board of the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, “which is as glittery and fun as it sounds. Last year I participated in the Cultural Leadership Program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, working with arts leaders from across North America, in what I like to think of as Hogwarts for artists.” Jessica would love for Wes folk passing through Vancouver to say hi.

Finally, congratulations to Nora Wade (now Wade-Schultz) who wrote in with news that she got married on Aug. 22!

Vanessa Montag Brosgol | vanessa.brosgol@yahoo.com

Kevin Heffernan lives in Boston, where he practices landlord/tenant and family law as a solo practitioner. He is looking forward to judging a high school moot court competition, which is probably as close to wearing the black robes as he expects to get. His two wonderful boys (8 and 11) make him laugh almost every day. He hopes to get back into geezer jock baseball after a five-year layoff due to coaching and old age.

In August 2018, Mark Mullen welcomed into the world his son, Archie, who has just started walking and talking, in addition to his normal hobbies of shaking lamps and putting shoes on his forearms and waving them around. Mark and his wife, Julie, are in San Francisco, where she is doing an MBA at Hult. He is also working hard on a national voter turnout effort. In addition, Luka Mullen ’23 is at Wesleyan and loving it.

Pam Greenspon is a general pediatrician in Las Vegas, where she has lived for nearly 16 years, growing to love the beauty in the desert, particularly the amazing winters. She married Jeff Ng, a family doctor, and has a son at the University of Arizona and a daughter who will graduate from high school this spring. In her free time, she is active in the Nevada chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, where she is the president and involved with advocacy, education, and community events for children and pediatricians. She also finds time for an improvisation ensemble called Judg(e)ment City. She hasn’t been back for Reunion in some time, but if anyone is visiting Las Vegas, she would be happy to provide insider tips.

Marc Brotman and Sabrina Zook are married with two sons. Their younger son Alex ’23 just finished his first semester at Wesleyan. He is living in the same dorm as Sabrina did freshman year and is happy there. Their family just came back from the Galapagos and highly recommends it for anyone looking to see unique wildlife.

Holly Adams does arts-in-ed projects, narrating audiobooks, and performing circus/stage combat. Also, spending time with her wonderful family.

After being a “seriously amateur” photographer for 40 years, Dave Eichler finally gave in to the encouragement of everyone in his life and took the plunge in 2019 to share his work with the world. He culled through 160,000 images in his database, built an e-commerce site (eichlerphotos.com), and has been invited to exhibit by galleries in nine states. He’s also been accepted as an artist-in-residence at the Burren College of Art in Ireland later this year. This doesn’t replace his work running his PR agency, Decibel Blue, that turns 15 years old this year, but it sure is a fulfilling activity.

Seth Kaplan has shifted from doing policy work for a renewable energy company to working on the development of one big offshore wind farm off Massachusetts. He and his (“law professor and smarter than me”) wife Liz and have achieved one particular type of parenting success, as their eldest Juliana graduated from college (Barnard at Columbia) and is now employed as an associate editor (taking freelance pitches) at Business Insider and living in NYC. Their middle child, Daniella, is enjoying Dean College in Franklin, Mass., and the youngest (Ben) is attending and complaining about Brookline High School. During the rare moments when he is not working or with the family, he can usually be found walking the dog or listening to the Promised Podcast featuring his sister, Allison ’86, or biking to and from work.

Peter Badalament is doing swell, as he is now living in Portland, Maine, and serving as the proud principal of Falmouth High School. He sees some ol’ Wes friends on occasion, but since he’d need permission to mention them here, and that’s a hassle, they will go nameless . . .

Phineas Baxandall’s daughter is starting University of Vermont next year and his son is at UC Berkeley, where he especially enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee. Phineas is playing in an over-40 league that he once would have snickered at. He still works at a think tank on Massachusetts policies to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income people, spending a lot of time geeking out on transportation and tax policy. He and his partner spent a lot of time in Cape Cod over the summer and recently put a kiln in their basement for ceramics.

Nancy Curran moved out to Portland, Ore., after vet school and lives there with her wife. She feels somewhat bi-coastal because she returns to Long Island frequently to visit friends and family and to manage her mom’s care. She’s also close to finishing a master’s in mental health counseling, which she undertook to be a resource to helping professionals and caregivers struggling with grief, compassion fatigue, and burnout. She’s still a practicing veterinarian so it’s been a busy time, but she is loving Portlandia with its amazing restaurants and the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest.

Stephanie Dolgoff is planning to spend her next 52 years unlearning everything she thought she knew in her last 52. Turns out she was wrong about some stuff. In all seriousness, she is enjoying the hell out of her kids (who are starting the college application craziness themselves), also good books, and people who get it. Fortunately, she has many, many who do.

Melissa Herman and her family are going to spend a sabbatical year in Berlin, Germany, for the 2020-2021 school year. Anyone passing through should give her a ring and she will show you around Berlin, which is full of great cultural and historical sites, plus fun restaurants and bars.

Co-class secretary Michele Barnwell gave a TEDx talk on “Scripting Your Own Reality”—that shares the crazy outrageous personal story of exactly HOW she ended up at Wesleyan as our classmate. It’s a troubling story that she revealed the secrets of on the TEDxUStreetWomen stage. Search for it on YouTube!

Lastly, shout out to our Dallas, Texas, based classmate, Kelem Butts, who answered our crazy question about how you all might splurge with $25K that you could only spend on travel! He says he’d snag two business class airline tickets and: “Lori and I would go to Buenos Aires in July.” He notes that “it has everything that we love about travel; great walkability, fantastic shopping for both of us, excellent food, good friends to visit, and probably the best wine you’ll find in the world.” He’s thinking six or seven days and might even sneak over to Montevideo, Uruguay; since it’s just a short ferry ride away!

Hoping this is a year full of a lot of goodness for each of you. Write soon

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Peter writes for this issue. My wife, Zahra, our 11-month-old daughter, Nadia, and I spent the month of December with our family in Connecticut. Just before Christmas, Stu Ellman dropped by on his way through from Rhode Island with his son, Ben, who had just finished his semester.

Steve Morrison advises: “I’m in Sofia, Bulgaria, serving as the dean of students at The American School of Sofia. I was in Paris for the holidays and met up with Paul Gosselin ’88 at Shakespeare & Co. Paul’s a senior director at Infovista, an IT and telecom software firm.”

Tim McCallum writes in from Hawaii: “I’m still living on Maui and amicably co-parenting my 3-year-old son, Logan. I took up outrigger canoe paddling; hike, swim, surf, and snorkel quite avidly; and just joined the board of directors of the noncommercial community radio station (KMNO, 91.7 FM) on which I have a Friday show (5-8 p.m. Maui time—stream at manaoradio.com). I won’t be able to retire until I’m 80 (when Logan graduates from high school, I’ll be 70. I can’t wait for the first PTA meeting: “Oh, it’s so sweet his grandpa came!”), but I’m focusing on making 80 the new 50.”

Christie Trott lets us know: “Since graduation, I’ve moved back to Northern California, changed careers (lawyer to teacher), married, and had two daughters. I teach middle school humanities at a K-8 school for gifted children. Academics follow the Expeditionary Learning model, based on the educational ideas of German educator Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound. Life is crazy busy, but good. It was great to connect with some old friends at the Reunion (and to make some new ones) and I look forward to heading back for another Reunion in the near future. Happy 2020!”

Dan Albert shares: “I’m pleased to announce that W.W. Norton published my book, Are We There Yet?: The American Automobile, Past, Present and Driverless. It all began with my Wesleyan senior essay, The Crisis of the American Automobile, a Cultural History. Check out my monthly column at Kelley Blue Book’s RIDE.tech and my articles on cars and culture at n +1.”

Tom Kealy lets us know: “I am still working at Colby-Sawyer College (20 years!), where I am a professor of literature. This year I transitioned into administration as the dean of the School of Business and Social Sciences.”

Finally, Laura Wiessen was “a first-time candidate for local political office in 2019 and on Nov. 5 I was elected to be a member of the Gloucester School Committee. So, as of Jan 1, 2020, I am now one of a seven-member board determining policy and budget for the Gloucester Public Schools. This is an underfunded school system, facing a rash of challenges. I’d love to hear from any Wes folks who have worked on education and can lead me to some innovative solutions!”

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

Hi, Class of ’87. Rebecca here with news from you!

John Snyder is living in Amherst, Mass., with his 12-year-old daughter. He’s a partner at Amherst Pediatrics and excited to be teaching Science vs. Pseudoscience, a new undergrad course in the School of Public Health at UMass.

Debbie Hamilton moved from Colorado to Santa Barbara, Calif., more than two years ago. She became an empty nester, decided she was tired of the cold, and was burnt out from her integrative medical practice, so she took the initiative to pursue a major midlife change. Debbie is now the medical director for a nutritional supplement company, enjoying a more normal job with benefits and travel. She does some clinical consulting and spends some time in Colorado with her college-age kids. She’d love to connect with Southern California Wesleyan alumni.

James Flynn was named national managing director of a 14-office law firm and had an exciting first year, including an alliance with Deloitte Legal that an industry publication listed as part of the five biggest things to rock the legal world this year. James hopes 2019 wasn’t just beginner’s luck! James is the proud father of Justyna, a school psychologist; Michael, at Morgan Stanley; and Anthony, a freshman at Villanova who manages the men’s basketball team. His wife, Monica, is an educational administrator and curriculum director.

James celebrates career successes of Wesleyan basketball teammates: Chris Roellke, starting as president of Stetson University in July; and Mike Arcieri ’86, working as director of basketball strategy for the Knicks. Finally, James says it’s been too long since he’s seen Matt Glaser and Brock Ganeles ’88.

Eileen Deignan’s son, Evan Hsu, will join Wesleyan’s Class of 2024. She thanks her own alumni network—Trish Lindemann and Ira Skolnik—Wesleyan parents with children who reached out to Evan. Eileen attended a mini-reunion at the New York home of Sumana Rangashar where she saw Lucille Renwick, Michell Ahern, Suzy Walrath Mehrotra, and Ruth Bodian ’88. She saw Holly Campbell Ambler and Doug Koplow at a reception for President Michael Roth ’78 last fall. Closer to home, she sees Doug Neuman and catches up with Simon Heart and Johanna Van Hise Heart when they come through New England.

Tim Sullivan ’87, MALS ’98 and Mike Cooper attended a Wesleyan football game with a smoker full of ribs. He caught up with Wayne Stearns, Andy Campbell ’88, Pete Crivelli ’86, Ken Johnson ’86, Anthony Rella ’86, Charlie Galland ’86, Jim McGonagle ’84, and Joel Armijo ’84!

Nicholas Birns released a book called The Hyperlocal in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Literary Space.

Holly Campbell Ambler and her husband are adjusting to an empty nest, with two daughters now away from home. Her 19-year old is in her first year at Vassar and her 23-year-old is a dancer living in Providence. Holly works in Boston as a school-based social worker. Holly sees Wes friends frequently, including Trish and John Dorsey, Doug Koplow, and Dennis Mahoney.

Mark Pinto and his partner Jeff live in Tacoma, Wash., where they work in residential real estate. They’ve been together for 15 years. Mark serves as board president for Tacoma’s performing arts center, Tacoma Arts Live. He doesn’t see his old Wes friends as often as he’d like, but he saw Lael Loewenstein in LA recently, which was great.

Naomi Mezey had research leave in 2019 in Barcelona, studying the Catalan independence movement. She was a visiting professor at the Universitat de Pompeu Fabra but also watched the trial against the former Catalan politicians who led the 2017 independence referendum. Google “It’s not just Catalan separatists” to see her Washington Post op-ed piece.

Naomi was lucky to spend time exploring Catalonia with her then-13-year-old daughter, Lucy, who went to school, made friends, learned some Spanish and Catalan. They had a visit from the rest of the family, Matt Paul and son, Jake, a Yale junior. Jeremy Mindich ’87, MALS ’89 took Naomi to the Barcelona Open. She loved the research and the opportunity to exit her normal life for a few months.

Our classmate, Andy Grimaldi was diagnosed with ALS in 2017. Mike Pruzan, Dave Glatz, John Fitzpatrick, Chris Olinger, Jeff McCarthy, and Matt Nestor are fundraising to help Andy’s family with expenses. Please visit gofundme.com/f/andrew-grimaldi to learn more.

Michael Bennet suspended his presidential campaign after the New Hampshire primary. Several 87 classmates had been active in his campaign.

After 26 years in immigration law in Texas, Paul Zoltan won a lifetime achievement award from the Immigration Law Section of the Dallas Bar Association. His 2-year-old daughter, Natalia, will attend her parents’ wedding in May 2020.

Paul and I were among the last four to receive diplomas at commencement. Only those whose names start with Z understand the magic of the loud cheer when we started to cross the stage.

Keep those emails coming!

Rebecca Zimbler Graziano | rebecca.graziano@hotmail.com

Mike Sealander wrote me, saying, “Recently, I have decided to make another go at learning Japanese. I studied at Wesleyan, went to Japan, made progress, and then left it alone. I’m intent on getting my groove back. If there are fellow alumni who would like to chat in Japanese, I’m game.”

Ben Schneider says, “I’m in my sixth year of training LGBTQ activists across North America for The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. May go to France in June for the SPI World Conclave. Still spending time with Melinda Newman, Cobina Gillitt ’87, Lisa Rosenblatt ’85, Julia Barclay-Morton, Dan Kolbert ’85, and others. Was thrilled to dine with Brad O’Neill in the fall. Miss Conor McTeague powerfully. Still occasionally guest lecturing at universities on gender activism and performance.” You can find Ben’s video storytelling on YouTube under Sister Unity.

Ellen Santistevan has joined the hybrid vehicle-owner’s club. “I feel somewhat pretentious, but I do hope that collective individual action will do a little bit to help things along. I don’t know for sure that it will, though, without reining in the big polluters. I also worry terribly about the poisonous battery materials and the fact that it feels like the entire vehicle is made of plastic. I hope it’s recycled plastic, at least! What’s making me happy these days are still being outdoors, being with my family, and playing with my pets. Sometimes I feel tired of work and taking care of people, but having worked for myself for so many years, I doubt whether I could fit into the 9-5 anymore. My two sons also have a really hard time fitting into that rut, and I kind of worry about their futures. My daughters seem to have found their ways to get through the world, at least. I feel like I have no real advice that I can give anymore, as the economy is so different now than it was for us. School is not the guarantee of a living wage. Life seems to hinge on luck and heritage more than anything else.”

Speaking of jobs, Cathy Cotins has changed jobs: “After more than a decade helping lead executive education and enterprise learning at Harvard Business School, I left last spring to join the executive team of a boutique leadership development firm. I love the work we do to transform organizations by helping their top leaders engage in deep personal transformation bringing empathy, compassion, and vulnerability forward and integrating head and heart intelligence. I’m grateful and so happy I found a community of teachers, leaders, and an expanding number of top global companies who value this work. I haven’t been this happy at work for a very long time. Our CEO and founder is a Wes graduate (’85), which was a fun topic of discussion the first time we met before either of us was considering I might join to help lead their growth. Go, Wes!”

And Rick Koffman is partner at Cohen Milstein in DC and co-chair of their antitrust practice group, where he litigates antitrust cases on behalf of the victims of corporations engaged in price-fixing, market monopolization, and other unlawful conduct. (According to the firm’s website, he was co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the largest price-fixing verdict in U.S. history and the largest jury verdict of 2013.) He says, “More interestingly, my son Dustin, who is 21, just published his first book of poetry, Eating Broccoli on the Moon (available at unrestrictedinterest.com).

Andy Layden celebrated 21 years of teaching astronomy at Bowling Green State University (in Ohio, near Toledo) by becoming chair of his Physics & Astronomy Department. In 10 years, he hopes to be retired, living in Puerto Rico (winter) and Canada (summer) and sharing his love of the night sky with anyone who will listen.

Dana Walcott and Stephen Porter ’87 are organizing a fundraiser to digitize audio cassettes of Wesleyan student music so people can listen to it online. The audio tapes are in a special collections at the Olin Library right now. If you’re interested in learning more or donating to the cause, go to facebook.com/groups/wesleyanclassof86.

Lastly, George Justice has started a higher education consulting firm with Carolyn Dever of Dartmouth College. Dever Justice, LLC leads workshops for faculty development focused on faculty leadership in research, teaching, and service. George and Carolyn write a monthly column for Inside Higher Ed and are working on a book together, Beyond the Dark Side.

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu