I hope that all my fellow Wesleyaners and ’07ers are staying safe and healthy during this trying time. That said, we have a few updates from our class:
Doug Rubenstein is living in New Jersey with his wife and 5-year-old son, and he is expecting a daughter in August! He is working as a recruiter at PayPal and working nights with the NBA in the Replay Center. He also co-founded a business in April called CHIP Professionals, which is a service matching people with financial professionals of color. Finally, he is also a panelist on The Grapevine on YouTube (175k subscribers). He also tries to sleep sometimes, but that comes far and few between.
Karen Oelschlaeger has accepted a position as the dedicated prosecutor for the Windsor County Unit for Special Investigations in Vermont. She has worked in the Windsor County State’s Attorney’s Office since 2016, and this role is a great opportunity to put her Master of Social Work (MSW) to use while collaborating with a multi-disciplinary team to investigate and hold people accountable for crimes against children, sexual assault, and other serious crimes such as human trafficking.
After three great years getting to know the Wesleyan Club in London, Johanna Goetzel is returning stateside in January 2021 with a baby in tow! She looks forward to getting to know the Philly-area alums and other new parents.
Tess Amodeo-Vickery is living in Rome, Italy, and had the strange experience of living the COVID-19 crisis two weeks ahead of her friends back in the U.S. She’s putting her classical civilization major to good work, runningthe boutique travel company Clam Tours (clamtours.com), which offers private, educational tours of Rome, Naples, and Florence for curious travelers looking to go off the beaten path and experience Italy like a true local (Tess leads many of these tours herself, along with her Italian husband, Giovanni). She is working on a new album of original music, which is slotted for release in 2021.
Brian Dilks-Brotman finally saw Hamilton! It toured in Philly, and he caught it there back in September. That was, of course, before the pandemic. He and his wife, Jacqueline, are hanging in there, working from home, and going on the occasional walk. He still works as a staff representative for Communications Workers of America, Local 1036, where they represent about 7,000 employees of the state of New Jersey.
Abby Huber is happily working as a freelance translator (German-English, Spanish-English) based out of Providence, R.I., specializing in public health and environment.
Hello, Class of 2006! At the time of this writing, I know we’re all going through various stressors considering the current climate, so I hope these notes will be a good palate cleanser.
Since so many of us are stuck indoors, you should consider picking up some books written by our fellow classmates. Sam Han is the author of (Inter)Facing Death: Life in Global Uncertainty, a work that analyzes the nexus of death and digital culture in the contemporary moment in the context of recent developments in social, cultural, and political theory. The book analyzes diverse phenomena, including the mourning of celebrity deaths and online suicide pacts. Sam currently works as a senior lecturer at the School of the Social Sciences/Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia in Perth.
For another interesting read, seek out The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities by Tara Fickle. This work discusses how gaming and game theory has played a role in our understanding of racial identity and marginalization. Tara is an assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon and an affiliated faculty in ethnic studies, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and the New Media and Culture Certificate program.
In January 2020, Jesse Young completed his master’s degree in international policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. He works on climate change advocacy at the international nonprofit Oxfam America.
Daniel Dykes is very grateful for family as he quarantines with his parents and his sister’s family in Connecticut. He is working remotely as an investment funds associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Manhattan office.
Jenevive Nykolak joined the faculty of California State University, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor of modern and contemporary art history this past fall. After a brief stint in San Francisco, she is very happy to be in LA!
Kristy Elliott graduated grad school from Sacred Heart University. She earned her master of education and certification simultaneously and now teaches computer science and technology.
In the fall, Mel McCrea will start work on her master’s degree in counseling psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is open to housing leads, odd jobs, and dating setups (women, nonbinary, and genderqueer) in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Alex Pfeiffer Reynolds successfully manages to stay connected with her classmates. She’s had happy hour Zoom calls with Adam Maxwell in Steamboat Springs, Colo.; Anthony Gray in Minneapolis, Minn.; Mike Walsh in Palm Springs; Morgan Blum in Boston; Matt Smith ’06, MALS ’11 and Reid Jewett Smith in Vermont; and Jordan Funt in Florida. These happy hours have helped them share many laughs and memories.
Alex Altman is celebrating the launch of her private therapy practice, Alex Altman Therapy LLC, in Bethesda, Maryland. Congratulations to Alex as she also celebrates her recent engagement to her fiancé, Nicholas Sherman.
Rachel Berger is living in Brooklyn with her husband, Ari Jankelowitz, and two children, Colin and Sadie. In October 2019, she became the director of nutrition at the NYC Department for the Aging.
Congratulations to Eleanor Rodriguez (formerly Eleanor Conger-Milnes), who had her son, Cosme Jeremias Rodriguez, on April 12. She and her husband, Jesus Rodriguez, are delighted with Cosme, who weighed an impressive 10 pounds, three ounces. She is eternally grateful to Emily Mulqueen, who has been an amazing support into motherhood.
Sophie Karp and Evan Katin-Borland, along with 3-year-old Lucy, welcomed Clara May Borland in January. Despite the current lockdown in Brooklyn, they are grateful to have their health and each other.
Emily Frost and Nick Bullard welcomed Phoebe Frost Bullard into the world in June 2019—perfect timing to join Wesleyan class of 2041 alongside Neva Peck, daughter of Shaine Truscott and Stacy Peck. Shaine currently works for the health care workers union SEIU in Seattle. Emily, Nick, Phoebe, and Phoebe’s older brother Henry (4 years old) moved to Concord, Mass. over the winter. Emily works as a producer for the podcast company Wondery. Nick continues to do strategy work for Deloitte.
Alexandra Loh is happy to have it all! In 2019, she and her husband welcomed baby Evelyn into the world. And in 2020, they purchased a beautiful house that they’ve made into a happy home.
I hope you are all staying safe and sane in these times!
Ben Shestakofsky and Isheh Beck welcomed baby Milo into their family in January. They will be moving to Philadelphia this summer. Ben teaches sociology at Penn, and Isheh will be opening a private practice in clinical psychology.
Cathy Pyenson and Jonathan McKinney ’04 gave birth to Hudson Avery McKinney in April! He has been sporting his Wesleyan onesie thanks to Molly Greenberg, and his first (distanced) visitors included Molly and Ellie Terry.
A week after local shelter-in-place orders went into effect, Alexander Rich became a partner at Carter Momsen PC, a five-attorney law firm located in Mendocino County, Calif. His practice focuses on estate planning and administration, as well as general civil litigation. Alexander has also been mentoring two boys in a program for students who will be the first in their families to go to college. After five years in the program, his boys are now on the verge of graduating from high school, though given the current state of the world, it is hard to say what their experience will be like this fall.
In May, Nathan Victoria became the inaugural executive director and CEO for the Society for Personality Assessment, a nonprofit focused on advancing the theory, research, and applied practice of personality assessment. Many thanks to his Wes colleagues Alexis May, and Amy ’07 and Kevin Egolf for their insight into making this leap outside of higher ed and student affairs!
Maggie and Eli Brown ’04 had their third baby, a boy, in June. They have a 6-year-old son, Sebastian, and a 3-year-old daughter, Simone, already. They live in Nyack, N.Y. Eli is an ER doctor in the local hospital, Nyack Montefiore. Maggie is an assistant principal at a K-2 elementary school in a nearby district. They send their love to all.
Katie Walsh is living and working in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where she is a film critic for the Tribune News Service and LA Times. She contributes to Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, as well as other publications, and can be heard on KCRW’s Press Play, and on the Maximum Fun podcast, Switchblade Sisters. She also teaches a class, Practices of Writing About Film, at Chapman University in Orange County.
During the hand sanitizer shortage in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, Sivan Cotel ’05, MA ’06 coordinated a coalition of three distilleries, a kombucha company, and the University of Vermont Health Network (of which he is a board trustee) to produce thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer. Working with Vermont Governor Phil Scott’s office, the Health Network was able to distribute sanitizer to hospitals and first responders all around Vermont, New Hampshire, and Northern New York.
Todd and Adam Stone are excited to share that their web series Going Both Ways has received laurels from five different festivals and competitions! They are very proud of them and could not have created Going Both Ways without the support of their network (GoingBothWaysShow.com).
I have to share the sad news that one of our classmates, Andrew Stuerzel, passed away suddenly in April. Andrew worked at Wesleyan for 10 years in various positions in admission, the advancement office, and University Relations. It’s always heartbreaking to hear of a classmate who passed away too soon. Give your loved ones an extra hug today and let us support one another in whatever ways we can.
Hi, everyone—We hope this round of class notes finds you safe and healthy during this challenging time. That said, we are happy to hear that ’04 continues to have positive updates to share. Some highlights include:
Ashley Elia Weller is living in Columbus, Ohio, and works part-time as a per diem veterinarian for the past year-and-a-half and loving it. She writes, “Since the pandemic hit, I have become a full-time stay-at-home mom to our 4-year-old and almost 2-year-old as a result of our daycare closing. Quarantine with two young kids has been nothing short of busy! We feel very fortunate to be home and safe and healthy. We are sending love and healthy wishes to all our Wes friends and family all over the country.”
Jessie Silbert tells us that two years ago she moved from New York where she was working as a fashion designer since graduation to Portland, Ore. “I will be receiving my master’s degree in sports product design from the University of Oregon this June (on Zoom)!”
Meanwhile, Michael Aylward tells his: “I’ve been living in San Francisco for almost seven years now, though it’s gone by fast. Working on partnerships at an internet security company (Cloudflare) in an exciting period of growth, and with a lovely culture. And working on climate and energy politics in my own time (as I used to do full-time). Looking forward to being able to see friends and Wes folks when we can all get together again.”
Also sharing some exciting news, Jenna Flateman Posner: “My family and I are still in the Philadelphia area. We just celebrated, on Zoom, the first birthday of our third son Ezra.” The celebration of Ezra is a special one, as Jenna and her wife, Saburah Flateman Posner, call him their “rainbow baby.” He joins his twin brothers, Judah and Levi. Saburah tells us: “Another thing that’s super special about Ezra’s birth is that I carried the twins (genetically mine), but Ezra, on the other hand, came from Jenna’s egg and I had the privilege of carrying him, as well!” Kudos to the happy, growing family!
On the work front, Jenna also tells us: “I’ve just passed the year mark as VP of digital for Snipes (snipesusa.com), a global streetwear company based in Europe expanding quickly to the U.S. While I’m managing a digital practice through this interesting retail climate, I’m also managing a construction crew through a house build. It’s been a rough process, but at least we’re staying busy, safe, and relatively sane through this pandemic. I hope all are well.”
Amy Meyerson was promoted to associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Writing Program. Her new novel, The Imperfects, was published on May 5 by HarperCollins/Park Row Books. She also welcomed her first son in October.
We also heard that Colin Bumby is joining Kramer Levin’s Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity practices as a partner in New York. He’s joining from McGuireWoods LLP, where he was a partner.
We’ve also learned that Florida business law firm, Berger Singerman, is pleased to announce that Andrew Zelman, partner and member of the firm’s Dispute Resolution Team, has been recognized as a 2019 South Florida Business Journal 40 Under 40 award honoree. He was presented with the award at a luncheon last August at Jungle Island in Miami.
That’s about it for this round. Wishing you all the best during this time.
Jacob A. Bennett recently earned his PhD in higher education leadership and policy studies from the University of New Hampshire. The next steps are unclear given the uncertainty at most colleges and universities these days, but Jacob and his wife, Charlotte, are happily awaiting the arrival of their third daughter due to join big sisters Eloise (4) and Ruby (2) in September.
George Obulutsa is still going strong in Nairobi, Kenya, where he is working as a journalist for Thomson Reuters News.
Larisa Buck is a hospitalist in San Antonio at UT Health. Her husband, Shannon, is a dermatologist and Mohs surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. Last fall, Larisa finally took Shannon to see Wesleyan, which was fun to see after all these years and was a little different than his alma mater—the United States Air Force Academy! The best part of the trip was catching up with great friends and fellow Wesleyan alumni Christopher and Austin Walsh, Rob Mitchell ’06, and Katy and Robbie Botta ’05.
Christopher Walsh and Austin Horne Walsh welcomed a baby girl, Cora Belle Walsh, on May Day! Cora was born on her late grandfather’s birthday, bringing lots of happiness to everyone amidst the pandemic.
Bayard Templeton is finishing his 17th year of teaching, having spent the last 13 years teaching middle school history and health and wellness, as well as coaching at Germantown Academy in the Philadelphia suburbs. He has served as the head advisor for three different classes as they cycle through the middle school. He was featured as part of the cover story in the spring 2020 issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine about utilizing young adult versions of history texts in middle school classrooms.
John Graham and family are weathering pandemic times in Tbilisi, Georgia. The cultural-tourism sector has collapsed in the short term, so John is focused on promoting unique private tour opportunities in the Caucasus and Ethiopia regions beginning in 2021. Meanwhile, he spends more time with two growing kids and with his academic publishing projects.
Ryan Garbalosa was elected as the chief of medicine for Tuomey Hospital in Sumter, S.C.He was also named the Best Cardiologist in Sumter County for 2020 in the annual Best of Sumter awards hosted by the Sumter Item, recognizing professionals in the area. He continues to serve as the medical director of the cardiac rehabilitation and echocardiography departments at McLeod Clarendon Hospital.
Hey, everybody! I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe during these challenging times. If there’s a silver lining to the pandemic, it’s that we’re able to share more time with our loved ones and spend more time introspectively looking within. Our collective resolute spirit is inspiring to see.
I recently came across an article that my old hallmate Larrison Campbell wrote in Vanity Fair, where she talks about breaking out her mother’s old Junior League cookbooks during quarantine, discovering a time capsule to the past and a guidepost for the pandemic. And I recently caught up with Jenny He, pre-pandemic, as we attended the Frieze Art Fair in Los Angeles together. This year Jenny moved to Los Angeles and took a position as the exhibitions curator at the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures after being the touring filmmaker and artist for Tim Burton’s international exhibitions for the past 10 years.
Congratulations are in store for a few of our classmates. Rachael Slivka gave birth to her first child on Sept. 14, 2019; she and her husband, Joel Schectman, named their son Ori. They live in Washington, D.C., where Rachael works as an emergency physician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. And Blake Walsh married Shannon McCabe on Sept. 1, 2019, in Buffalo, N.Y. Joining them for a raucous weekend celebration were Kevin MacDermott, Shawn Lemerise and his wife, Reka Salgunan ’01, Taylor Green and Rachel Peters, John Geehreng and Jen Guarnieri, Adam Cayton-Holland, John Lawler, Padraig Hughes ’03, and Chuck Ptak MALS ’05.
Jocelyn Greene has been creating content around theater games and social-emotional learning for parents and schools through Child’s Play in Action. Jocelyn lives in Brooklyn with her actor husband, Glenn Fleshler, and their 8-year-old son.
Alex Horwitz is tucked in the woods of Upstate New York, where he’s building a big stick house with his two boys. A few months ago, just before lockdown set in, Alex directed a Bon Jovi music video at Abbey Road Studios, featuring no-longer-Prince Harry. It was supposed to be step one of a larger documentary project with the band, but the pandemic put that on the back burner for now. Until then, his family is just hunkered down, staying safe, and getting ready for whatever is next.
And for others, it was time to move on from their jobs:
After a brief—but fun—stint working at an Amazon warehouse, Ryan Akers-Engstrand is a homemaker in David, Calif., with his wife, who is two years away from completing a neurology residency, and their two boys, one of whom is completing his kindergarten residency in June, and the other who is turning 4 in September. Ryan got the chance to have a virtual reunion in April with all of his senior year housemates—Nate Andrade, Chris Lynch, and Pete Rosenblatt. Ryan said, “It was sweet.”
Eric Donelan left the U.S. Department of State and moved to Seoul, Korea, in January with his family. Eric is currently the director of physical security for Coupang, the largest e-commerce company in Korea. They are settling well and “wish the whole Wesleyan community, students and alumni, good health during these trying times.”
I haven’t posted a note about myself in a while—I left the Viacom corporate world working for Paramount Network at the beginning of 2019 and joined forces with former Ryot Film co-founder Bryn Mooser to build XTR, a new documentary studio in LA. In our first year, we produced and co-financed over 20 documentary features, including four films in competition at Sundance 2020 (one of which—Blood Nose, Empty Pockets—was also produced by another Wesleyan alumni producer, Michael Gottwald ’06, one film at SXSW and two films at Tribeca (both festivals were sadly sidelined due to the pandemic). Our SXSW film—You Cannot Kill David Arquette—was picked up by Neon and will be released on VOD (and hopefully theatrically as well, depending upon COVID) in August. We are also about to announce a major sports doc with a huge Michael Jordan-level athlete. In addition, we’re working on several documentary series and podcasts. It’s been really fun building a new business and hopefully, a new brand within the nonfiction space.
Hello 2001, in the midst of weird and crazy times, class notes must go on.
Woody Fu dropped a quick line to tell us he is in the movie Lucky Grandma. Check out this comedy when you can!
It was so nice to hear from Jennifer Selgrath, who is living in San Francisco and working as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station. Jenny looks at historical changes in the biodiversity of Monterey Bay and spends a lot of time in that area, too. On the Wesleyan front, she got to catch up with Alexis Brooks when she was visiting from Washington, D.C. She ran into Megan Richards and Celeste Fowles Nguyen at the Wesleyan Hamilton event in San Francisco. On the life adventure front, Jenny has been studying dancehall and traveled to Jamaica for New Year’s to dance with a bunch of artists there, which she admits was pretty rad. Ahh, travel, remember that?
Stay well, everyone, and stay connected no matter what.
Not surprisingly, the theme of these notes is “quarantine”, starting with NYC. Liz Garcia writes from self-isolating in Brooklyn, “where it’s deserted enough that you can hear the birds for once, but of course it’s not altogether relaxing. Our neighborhood gets out our tension every night at 7 p.m. by cheering wildly and banging on drums and lots for all the brave folks who keep the city running.” Liz is homeschooling two elementary school-aged sons and continuing to work from home as a screenwriter. “I feel incredibly lucky to be healthy and employed given the immense suffering of so many. I send love and strength and, dare I say hope, to all my beloved Wes folk.” Marianna Ellenberg has been working as photography teacher this year at Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx, alongside writing a new play, to be produced in 2021.
Gloria Weber Plaks (aka Glo) writes from NYC, while her sister-in-law is telling her to “get the heck out of here.” She’s happily married to an awesome man, Eric Plaks, for almost 14 years. Glo has been a high school math teacher on-and-off since graduating from Wesleyan in 1999 and currently a special education math teacher at Vanguard High School for the last four years. “I am surrounded by a team of super dedicated, caring colleagues and just funny, hard-working students. I finally feel like I have found a place where I can stay for a while. Remote learning means that some of my days end with me falling asleep with my phone in my hand after texting with my student until 11:30 p.m. Remote learning and teaching, while helping my 12-year-old son, 8-year-old daughter, and 14-year-old nephew with their remote learning, while taking care of a 9-month-old, can be a bit of a hot mess. Yes, I have a 9-month-old. But one thing that I learned through all of this is that I really like my family!”
Moving to NorCal quarantine: Danielle Lazier and family are sheltering in place in Noe Valley, San Francisco. “The twins are almost 4 years old. Real estate sales are different but folks still need to move. I’m figuring out how to help my clients as safely and successfully as possible.” After 15 years building and leading community development finance for Charles Schwab, Sahra Halpern left in March to join Capital Impact Partners as senior director of strategic lending initiatives. Capital Impact Partners is a mission-driven lender that operates with the belief that equity, inclusiveness, and cooperation are keys to building communities of opportunity. “We deliver capital to address systemic poverty, create equity, build healthy communities, and promote inclusive growth. I’m beyond thrilled to be here!” On the home front, Sahra and Dan Engler are celebrating 10 years of parenthood (to Hanna, 10, and Adam, 8), 10 years of living in Oakland, Calif., and the milestone of having spent half of their lives together.
Katie Mayland Redwine lives in Northern California with her husband and two sons, ages 9 and 11. She works as a licensed clinical psychologist conducting psychological assessment and specializing in autism spectrum disorder. “I spend as much time as humanly possible taking my family on adventures (when I’m not quarantined) including to Australia, Italy, Mexico, and various U.S. states. Also to my favorite exotic locations, the gym and the supermarket, haha!”
There’s a chance Katie could have seen Leevert Holmes, who reported receiving our email request for notes submissions while standing in line at the grocery store. “Ahhhhh!!!! You didn’t ever think you’d be reaching out during a pandemic?” Leevert and his wife relocated to the South Bay of Northern California, where he taught math to middle schoolers in Palo Alto and his wife was a principal of an elementary school in San Jose. Next year, they plan to relocate even closer to family in the East Bay (Oakland) and work towards closing the achievement gap in San Francisco or Oakland. “I’m enrolled in Mills College to gain certification in math. In my free time, I moonlight as my alias, DJ Elbow Greasy and starting to craft my memoir as a schoolteacher.”
After 14 years at a large law firm, Allegra Jones has moved in-house as senior counsel at Pacific Maritime Association in San Francisco. “PMA is a trade association that negotiates maritime labor agreements with the union of 25,000 longshore workers on the West Coast. Staying in touch with our friends from Wesleyan is definitely keeping me going during this time of quarantine!” Nicholas Kyte is getting back to trail running when not working and homeschooling his two sons, Noah (9) and Benji (7). “Hit me up if you want to run with me in Martinez, Calif.”
Mike Hakim and family are holding up in LA: “Keeping the dream alive. I’m on my fourth kid Alaster Harrisson Louis Hakim who is turning 1 in June and celebrating life in the new normal. There are plenty of blessings through all the challenges life brings…I miss people and hope for only good vibes In the coming years! Please reach out to me just to say hi and what you’re working on in LA. If you need a new office or place to live or know someone please email: mike@mikehakim.com.”
Kabir Sen is in his 20th year teaching music at Shady Hill School in Cambridge and playing and recording music regularly. His most recent album The Good Life (If You Only Knew), a mix of hip hop and soul, is available on Spotify. Kabir’s wife, Rebecca, is still the head of her science department at Newton Country Day School, and their three kids (Eva, 10, Julia, 8, and Ethan, 5) are mostly doing well. “We are trying to balance our work and all the distance learning for our kids and it has been good to all be together despite these dire circumstances. My band Krush Faktory has been playing weekly and monthly residencies in the Boston area and I am really missing playing live music right now! From home I have been working on a new website for my music career (kabirsen.com) and have been putting on Zoom plays with my students of my original musical, True Courage—A Whaling Adventure. Sending much love to the ’99 crew!”
Leila Buck is working from home in Brooklyn with husband Adam Abel ’98, grateful to be able to teach and work remotely. Since all theatrical productions are postponed until next year, Leila and her creative team are transferring their theatrical game show about immigration, citizenship and what it means to be(come) American, online for a virtual election tour this fall. If you’re interested in voting on who will be the next U.S. citizen, check out AmericanDreamsPlay.com.
“And most importantly, if you’re able to support our neighborhood hospital, one of the most under-funded COVID centers in NYC, please visit their GoFundMe.”
As for your class secretaries, we’re both bunkered down on the East Coast. Kevin continues to lead the growth of Quartet Health, a health tech company helping people get access to the mental health care they need, as COO. The pandemic is only increasing the need for access to high quality mental health care resources, and increasing the prevalence of mental health conditions. It’s really inspiring work. Darryl was recently interviewed for the Admission Leadership Podcast (aka The ALP), “a series of one-on-one conversations with people who have been climbing the leadership mountain in the world of college admissions.” As Darryl said to Kevin in an email, “if there were a silver lining from the pandemic, it is the need to stay even more connected now than ever before.” We hope you all feel a bit more connected to one another through these Notes, and hope you are inspired to reach out to a classmate to say hello!
Dorothy Warner is supporting her 9-year-old son with his schoolwork and seeing clients through telehealth from home. She’s also volunteering with the Emotional PPE Project, offering pro bono therapy for frontline health care workers. They adopted a black lab puppy named Zelda, and are launching their sailboat soon for some physically-distanced adventures.
Makaela Steinberg Kingsley ’98, MALS ’05 is director of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Wesleyan. She says that moving her classes and programs online practically overnight was a welcome professional challenge, although she misses the energy of campus life terribly. Her husband, Matt Kingsley ’98, MALS ’04, is the associate head coach of Men’s Basketball at Yale. His team had just won its fourth Ivy League title in six years when the pandemic hit, canceling March Madness and bringing the entire sports world to a grinding halt.
If you saw Lynn Chen at our 20th Reunion, she was getting ready to direct her first feature film, I Will Make You Mine. She’s proud to share that it’s now done, an official SXSW selection, and available to watch on DVD/cable and video-on-demand streaming. The movie was edited by her husband, Abe Forman-Greenwald, and features a cameo by John Newman. We heard they’ve been getting incredible reviews so far (with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes). She mentioned Wesleyan in a recent interview on Cinema Femme, too!
In August 2019, Annika Sweetland delivered a healthy baby boy and is actively involved in efforts to address the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil, Southern Africa, and the U.S. She is an assistant professor of psychiatry and public health at Columbia University.
It is mid-May as Sasha and I are compiling these updates and it’s been two months since she and I each have been staying at home, working from home, supervising homeschooling for our kids, quarantine-baking, having Zoom cocktail hours, and holding our hands to our mouth when we read the news, hoping for the best for everyone.
First and foremost, we hope that you and your families are safe and healthy. For those of you touched by COVID-19, please know that we are all thinking of you. We’d also like to thank all ’97ers on the front lines: health care workers, first responders, nonprofit organizers, government personnel, friends, parents, teachers. We really are in this together (even if remotely).
Min and Alejandro Santandrea wrote that “My Italian factory is finally open but is only making PPE and not shoes. My company, SantM, is taking this opportunity to work with Nemours Children’s Hospital to donate masks to the hospital. If you want to contribute to this cause, email me at min@santm.co.” Thank you for everything you and SantM are doing, Min! And back in February, they went on a ski vacation with Christian Housh and fam. “We saw Brandon Cook in Brooklyn, video-chatted with Lauren Wolfe and Peter Olson, and had Zoom cocktail hour with Tabitha Williams, Shelby Stokes, Michele Lau, and Neal Jacunski. We’ve been working with Wesleyan’s Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship led by Makaela Kingsley ’98.”
Min ’97 Zooming with Tabitha Williams ’97, Shelby Stokes ’97, Michele Lau ’97, and Neal Jacunski ’97Alejandro ’97 on a ski vacation with Christian Housh ’97 and fam
David Vine wrote to us: “Since the onset of the pandemic, I’ve been inspired by working with Wes Classics Professor Eirene Visvardi, Alix Olson, and other Wes alums as part of a group of 60-plus people from 20-plus countries that drafted a COVID-19 Global Solidarity Manifesto. Little more than a week after a soft launch, more than 2,000 people from around the world have signed the Manifesto. In keeping with a certain Wes spirit, the Manifesto declares, ‘The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the urgency of changing global structures of inequity and violence. We, people around the world, will seize this historical moment.’ We invite you to add your name to this effort (covidglobalsolidarity.org) “to offer a vision of the world we are building, the world we are demanding, the world we will achieve.” Also “inspired by my time at Wes,” David has a new book coming out in October that tells the story of the United States’ long relationship with war. The book, The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State (University of California Press), explains a major reason the U.S. government was so poorly prepared for the pandemic. We look forward to reading your book!
Alix Olson wrote in “I am living in Atlanta, Ga., where I just finished my second year at Emory University (Oxford campus) teaching WGSS. I was thrilled to rediscover my pal Sara Pullen and we (and our kids) are now attached at the hip.” Emory is very lucky to have you!
Let’s congratulate Francisco Tezen! He was named the president and chief executive officer of A Better Chance, a national college prep and leadership development organization. Read the article for more details. We’re proud of you, Francisco!
We were thrilled to hear from Lauren Wolfe, who was recently hired as an editor at the New York Times. “I’ve never written in before, but Wesleyan people are still very much a part of my global family. I’ve spent the last six years of my career as a journalist covering (mainly for The Guardian) the gang-rape of 50 little girls (aged 18 months to 11-years-old) in a small village in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Alongside NGO and doctor colleagues from DRC, the U.S., and The Hague, we managed to get the perpetrator (and a member of the Parliament) and members of his militia arrested and sentenced to life in prison—and no girls have been raped since. My drive to work internationally and within difficult, broken state systems was born at Wes, and through years of getting to know the amazing people who also went to school there.” Lauren, we thank you for the work you have done and the lives you have preserved through your journalism.
Peter Wei is in his first year into his full/early retirement, adjusting and living in a small coastal community in North County San Diego while spending his days working out, tending his garden and becoming the perfect domestic “goddess”—a role predestined by Mei Chin more than two decades ago while at Wesleyan. We couldn’t be happier for you, Peter!
Speaking of Mei Chin, she reached out to share some delightful news: “Greetings from Dublin, where the weather isn’t sunny, but the prime minister is gay and half-Indian, the government is recently pro-choice, and health care is free. (If you can get a flight, you can have our sofa.) I got married in February, which meant we got the chance to see many friends and family before lockdown. We were going to continue celebrating next month in Connecticut with Wes pals including Sasha Lewis-Reisen, Peter Wei, Sacha Shapiro Emerson, Michael Ouyang, and Morgan Fahey, but that’s been put on hold. Everything is good here; I am cooking and walking, and every day, I say hello to the absurdly tacky Oscar Wilde statue (he has a pink cravat and shiny shoes!) in Merrion Square. Most recently, I’ve been writing a column for Food & Wine Ireland called Dublin Global Beats; recording a podcast called Spice Bags (three expat women take on the Irish food scene), and starting a magazine, Ampersand: Eating at the Cultural Crossroads. I am sure that there are other Wes people in Ireland, but I don’t think we’ve crossed paths. If you want to reach out, email me jiemeimei@aol.com.” Yay Mei-Mei, all this, yay!
Corita Stull says hello “from quarantine, where I am trying to force my four sons to do their schoolwork and also teach for my own job. At least the oldest is graduating, so I can stop telling him to do his work, right? After 20 years of teaching middle and high school, I went back to grad school to become a special education teacher, and also became certified as a teacher of students with visual impairments.” Cori is working at the Maryland School for the Blind, and writes that it’s her dream job. “Believe it or not, my studies in the Wesleyan film program, which helped me to understand how the brain creates meaning, were a pretty awesome preparation for this job.” We are all so proud of you, Cori! And so impressed by you and your boys through this transition.
Derek DiMatteo accepted a job offer at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., in the Department of English as an assistant teaching professor. “I’m very excited about it! So now I’m in the process of selling my house in Bloomington, Ind., and trying to move to Erie, all while wrapping up the most bizarre semester of teaching half on campus and half online.” Good luck, Derek! We hope you have a smooth transition and your first semester starts off well.
Lauren Porosoff, author of Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core, created a card deck called “Values and Questions” with her husband, Jonathan Weinstein. The cards invite students into conversations about the values they want to bring to their learning, work, and relationships, within and beyond school. Lauren wrote, “I can’t imagine what a different experience Wes would have been if we’d had to learn remotely. It makes me appreciate this community and the work Wes faculty is doing to support their students and one another. If there’s anything we, as alumni, can do to help, I hope we’ll be informed.” Agreed, Lauren!
Matthew Way reached out to us: “I last wrote to you regarding my first feature, The Genital Warriors, which has been available on iTunes, Amazon, or Google in 100-plus countries and 20 languages since December 2015 (for example the Village Voice and New York Times reported). After traveling with the movie and landing back in Berlin, I’ve written my second feature, The Pillow Snake, which features a rap and hip hop soundtrack, including a song I wrote especially for the movie: “Don’t Touch the 3rd Rail.” Though this song was meant to be rapped by the movie’s lead, I instead used it to give birth to my new alter ego, Yóbaby. Quite to our surprise, the music video has accrued almost half a million views until now. So yo, check it.“ Will do, Matthew!
Alek Lev submitted his film to festivals like The Cannes Film Festival, optimistically assuming that one day, soon, the amazing and (sometimes soul-crushing) and again amazing process of getting independent films to see the light of day will commence once again. Alek is also the vice president of the International Buster Keaton Society (a nonprofit, 501c3, all-volunteer organization), busterkeaton.org. “If you are looking for a film (or two, or 29) to watch with the entire family during these trying times, I highly recommend the work of the Great Stone Face.” He’s coordinating the 26th Annual Buster Keaton Convention, which—for the first time —will be held entirely online. “I can also report that Noah Garrison, Craig Thomas, Woodwyn Koons, Kassie Bracken, and John Newman are all doing well during these trying times. And a special mention of Joel Viertel who produced and edited The Banker, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, and Nia Long. Run, don’t walk, to your couch to check it out.” We second, third, THOUSAND the recommendation to see The Banker, out on Apple+.
Send your updates anytime…we enjoy hearing from you. We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy. Take care.
