CLASS OF 1996 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Hello fellow ’96ers. I hope all is well—it’s getting very hot here in Maryland. Should be lots of pool and beach days this summer. A few of you have written in with updates:

Sam Effron writes in about his promotion to member at the law firm of Mintz Levin in New York. He focuses his practice on venture capital, start-ups and emerging growth companies, fund formation, and crowdfunding platforms. Congrats!

Amy Costa lets us know that a few ’96ers (Flo Stueck, Kate Treveloni, Esme Finlay, and Amy) were inducted to the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame last fall as part of the 1994 women’s soccer team that won the ECAC championship. Also, she was the team physician for USA hockey’s women’s U18 world championship where they won gold in Zlin, Czech Republic, in January. She visited with Kate Treveloni in Prague while she was there.

Nick McQuaid let us know that after 11-plus years in the government, he left the White House at end of the Obama administration, and joined the law firm, Latham and Watkins. He will be focusing his practice in New York, but will continue to live in D.C. He looks forward to being in touch with Wes folks in both cities.

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1995 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Dear Class of ’95: Bo Bell here, co-secretary for our class (along with my partner-in-crime, Katy McNeil). This is my first time at the helm for these notes, and I want to set it off with a shout-out to my frosh hallmate Cheryl Mejia, who just got married! She and partner, Clare, celebrated with a reception at the Washington, D.C., Pride parade.

I’ve heard a lot from fellow WesCo alums, including Ana Maria Kleymeyer, who started working with a new group in D.C. and will be representing the Federated States of Micronesia in the global climate and ozone negotiations (even if the U.S. president refuses to be part of the solution, many U.S. citizens are still working on these problems), and Danielle Langston, who, with her family, is approaching her third anniversary of living in Brisbane, Australia! Dani is an architect, working on retirement, aged care, and education projects, and stays busy on the side playing a full concert schedule with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant concertmaster. Her husband, Carl, has an academic position at the Queensland University of Technology, and their kids, ages 9 and 13, are into their brass instruments and identifying Australian bird species.

Anne Bellows Lee writes: “I just moved to a new place in Santa Monica, Calif. Brought my two little girls, a few cats, and the husband with me. I am still working at UCLA in the Integrated Substance Abuse Programs as a project director for research studies of treatment for co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse. We are always looking for intern and volunteer research assistants—so if you, or anyone you know, wants in, let me know!”

Sabrina Prince has relocated to central Harlem in New York, still delighting her healthcare advertising clients while volunteering as a marketing consultant for small business owners in Afghanistan on behalf of Bpeace. She recently came back from Croatia and is looking forward to a summer of rating the best pizzas in New York with Jacqueline Moon.

Jason Segal, who is active in Wesleyan’s Social Entrepreneurship program, writes: “My company, Swift Current, continues to do our best to bring large-scale capital into initiatives to address climate change. Kids Julia (3), Ari (2) and family are enjoying life on the Upper West Side.”

Lauren Monchik is still in NYC with husband Paul Davidson and daughters Violet (10) and Lena (7). She’s a science educator with Growing a Wild NYC, teaching kids in New York public schools, K–12, about native plants and pollinators, as well as working on native habitat restoration. She loves getting to check out neighborhoods and schools all over Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

My Wes former soccer teammate Jeremy Lurgio says, “Life is great in Montana. I co-directed a short documentary called The Hard Way. It has been a finalist at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, Telluride Mountainfilm, the Vancouver International Film Festival and it was awarded a bronze for the People’s Choice Award at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival in England. It’s an inspiring story of an 89-year-old ultra runner who does things the hard way to maintain purpose, momentum, and vitality. This coming year I will be taking a sabbatical from my job as an associate professor at the University of Montana School of Journalism, where I co-teach a course on how to effectively report stories from Native American communities in Montana. My wife, Caroline, and our two kids, Lachlan (7) and Amelia (4), will be living in New Zealand for the year while I work on projects that explore the relationship of indigenous communities with the news media.”

Andrew Neiman is just living the dream as a St. Louis actor/bartender/adjunct professor of playwriting, screenwriting, directing, and movement. He’s received a commission to adapt Shakespeare’s Richard III into an hour-long hip-hop production for an Illinois middle school, and later this summer he’ll be co-producing and playing the title character in an immersive onsite production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Andrew says, “Cheers, y’all.”

Neil Parekh surfaces! “It’s been several years since I have been to confession/submitted an item for Class Notes. Pam Stumpo ’96 and I moved to D.C. two years ago when I got a job in communications with United Way Worldwide. Our daughter, Emily Margaret Parekh, turned 4-years-old in April. It was great to see Wesleyan’s VP for University Relations Barbara-Jan Wilson giving the Philip Brown Memorial Lecture with Director of Admission Nancy Hargrave in April. Also met Andrew Fairbanks ’90. He did my on-campus interview back in the day. Thanks, Andy.”

Randy Jackson and Brooke Leinwand Jackson are in Inwood (upper Manhattan) with children Ty and Frida (twins, 13 now and about to finish seventh grade), and haven’t moved from NYC since graduation. Brooke is now principal of the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, a public high school in Chelsea, and Randy has bounced around in the social justice organizing sector for the last two decades—working on the local, state, and national levels—and most recently has landed at ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York (www.alignny.org), where he’s the director of development and planning, fighting for progress in New York City at the intersection of a healthy environment, a fair economy, and racial equity. They they stay in touch with dear Wes friends—especially Dan Smith, Zeke Volkert ’96, and Julia Lazarus.

Shayne Spaulding checks in: “A couple years ago, I moved with my husband, Josh Shepherd, and boys Wiley (9) and Kieran (6) to Swampscott, Mass., after living in Brooklyn, N.Y., for nearly 15 years. Small town living has been an adjustment, but we are enjoying the ocean breezes, our garden and local politics. We live around the corner from Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. I work for the Urban Institute in D.C., a social policy think tank. Lots to write about these days.”

Jen Levine-Fried started a new job as the CFO of the National Network of Abortion Funds at the end of February. She writes, “It has been a steep learning curve, but so rewarding to be working for an organization that is at the forefront of reproductive, social, and racial justice during these challenging times. Last November, after a work trip to California (which started the day after the election), I was able to visit with Eric Meyerson and Jennifer Parker Dockray. I regularly see Noam Shore and Noah Rumpf, as we all belong to the same synagogue outside of Boston. And we recently moved to an ever-so-slightly larger condo in the South End, and now we have space for visitors that does not involve a couch. Please let me know if you will be in town!”

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

CLASS OF 1994 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Hello from Chicago! In May, I (Samera) met John Lewis for lunch in Boston. It was great to catch up with him after many years. John’s year is already filling up with lots of Wesleyan connections, including dinner with Aaron Yeater. John writes, “Josh Protas, Gabe Meil, and Jonathan Bender are joining me at our family shack on a lake in New Hampshire (outhouse and all). The last time we were there was after Josh’s wedding in the late 1990s. Abby was game for including a reunion with her honeymoon. My wife, Suzanne, and I have three kids, ages 13, 11, and 5, and I’m currently footloose and fancy free after 17 years working for Jonathan Bush ’03 at athenahealth. I’m taking a break, planning to re-enter the workforce in the fall!”

In March, I met Sarah Burke in San Francisco, where we had a lovely dinner with our adorable girls (my twins, Sarah and Norah, and Sarah’s Lanikai) who finally were able to meet. That same trip, I met up with Ben Fineman, whom I hadn’t seen in years, for dinner.

In other SF news, Olivia Morgan and her husband, David Plouffe, moved there recently. David is at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and she is running a gender equity initiative at Common Sense Media. She writes, “Later this month we will release a report on how gender portrayals in movies and on TV impact kids’ development, along with comprehensive guidelines on how to evaluate media for gender equity.”

From Southern California, Stephanie Anagnoson is the conservation supervisor at Castaic Lake Water Agency and “survived the drought.”

Further west, Raya Salter left her lawyer gig at Natural Resources Defense Council and moved to Hawaii a year ago with her daughter to work on climate and energy justice issues as a lawyer and consultant. She also is working on media issues.

On the East Coast, Aaron Passell has been teaching urban studies at Barnard and Columbia for three years, commuting from Philadelphia. He sees Jesse Hendrich and Seth Lewis Levin in the city for drinks or food adventures. He also runs into Amy Fiske ’95 often in Philadelphia, who runs the after-school program where his younger son spends happy afternoons.

David Drogin was promoted to professor as he continues his second term as chairperson of the History of Art Department at the State University of New York, FIT. He recently published “Art and Patronage in Bologna’s Long Quattrocento” in A Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Bologna and “Dialogue of the Doges: Monumental Ducal Tombs in Renaissance Venice,” in The Tombs of the Doges of Venice. Next March, he will present a paper on Jacopo della Quercia in a session he organized, “The Problem of Style in 15th-Century Italian Art,” at the conference of the Renaissance Society of America.

Stephen Frail wrote from Needham, Mass., where he lives with his wife of 20 years and two boys, one completing ninth grade and one completing sixth grade. After spending over 20 years in educational publishing, he joined MathWorks, the leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists.

He writes, “I’ve had the pleasure of reconnecting with several fellow alumni in recent months. Sid Espinosa was visiting Boston, and so Dan Lennon, Raman Prasad, and I met Sid for dinner to celebrate our frosh year at Foss 7.” Raman, Dan, and David Mulei have planned a road trip this fall to meet up with Aaron “Hash” Hoshide, who teaches economics at the University of Maine.

Dr. Tyrone Williams and I caught up over a Saturday brunch recently. We followed that with an evening out with Tyrone and his wife, and Jennifer Quest-Stern and Kevin Fairley, who are married to each other, have two kids of their own, and are both in the healthcare industry.

Several of us from the class of 1994 have also started a tradition of returning to Homecoming each fall. David Niles, Deirdre Kelly, Sarah Morgan, Jeff Reilly, Joe Pirret, and I all plan to attend Homecoming again this November.

Jonathan Kirsch is a Fulbright Scholar in Cali, Colombia, for a year with his wife (also a Fulbright Scholar) and three kids. He will be teaching at a medical school, his wife will study organic coffee, and his kids will attend a bilingual school.

David Campbell is vice president of integration management at Dell Technologies in Austin, Texas.

Matthew Fraser is a writer and one of two people running Salem House Press after teaching and studying languages since 1995, and working at the grammar, middle, and high school level. He writes, “My latest book, Critical Infrastructure for Children; the Astonishing Potential of New England Schools, features what I consider to be strong points of the Wesleyan Sustainability Action Plan. I also did a comparison of the Wesleyan plan with similar progressive efforts at other universities throughout New England. I enjoyed presenting my previous book, Ideas for America; Let the Sun In at Wesleyan’s Earth Month in 2015, and I am looking forward to presenting my newest book to some idealistic hearts and minds at Wes soon.”

Please continue to send in updates, and if anyone finds themselves in Chicago, please get in touch!

Samera Syeda Ludwig | ssludwig@nixonpeabody.com

Caissa Powell | cdp2000@hotmail.com 

CLASS OF 1993 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Chris Richardson has been named trauma medical director at Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.

Lisa Brown writes, “Daniel Handler ’92 and I just published our latest literary collaboration: a picture book called Goldfish Ghost. It’s about a dead goldfish. In other news, our son’s fish just died. Coincidence?”

Noah Rosen became an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Hofstra School of Medicine. He remains the program director of the neurology residency at Northwell Health, and the director of the Northwell Headache Center.

Monique Schaulis is living in San Francisco where she has a great job at Kaiser San Francisco, split between emergency and palliative medicine. She helps dying people opt out of our crazy medical system and focus on what they are hoping for at the end of life. She’s done a lot of work over the last few years with an organization called Vital Talk, which aims to deepen physician, patient relationships by teaching communication skills. Her kids are 8 and 10, and they go to Mandarin school in the city. She still works with Christine O’Brien ’95, and had dinner with Kate Blumberg ’92 and Rachel Williams ’90. She was saddened to learn of the death of Ken Hirsch ’91, a friend and doctor.

Karen Powell and family have moved to Melbourne, Australia. Karen is the director of teaching and a senior lecturer (tax) at Deakin Law School. Deakin University is a large public university with several campuses in Australia. She sold the distillery she founded, Triple Divide Spirits, which is alive and well in Helena, Mont. If any Wes grads come through Melbourne, please do get in touch: k.powell@deakin.edu.au.

Jodi Samuels lives in Sacramento, Calif., with her spouse, Evan, and two cats. She works as deputy director of development and training for the California Primary Care Association, which supports more than 1,100 community health center sites statewide, work she reports feels even more urgent as they fight to maintain the progress they’ve made in California in increasing access to healthcare for all. She volunteers with WEAVE, which provides services to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. She also volunteers for the Alliance Française de Sacramento, and joined the local League of Women Voters to increase her advocacy activities and community involvement. She and Evan have been traveling a bunch (Rome, Austin, and Honolulu) and they’re heading to Panama this winter.

Laura (Davidson) Ross and her husband, Gregg ’90, are moving to Los Angeles in June. Laura will be taking a new job as the head of the upper school campus at the Harvard-Westlake School, and Gregg will be teaching math at the middle school campus of the same school.

Abigail Lorber Clarkson writes, “For years, every time the Wesleyan magazine arrived, I got a pit in my stomach thinking about all the extraordinary alumni who would be profiled, and how humdrum my life seems in comparison. Now I’ve decided to embrace the ordinariness of my life, knowing that there must be many of us who are living quiet lives that may not make headlines, but are nevertheless remarkable in their own way. So here’s the latest from my family. This summer we moved back to Asheville, N.C., after a three-year stint in Austin, Texas, where my husband, J., was in seminary. He received his MDiv degree in May and will be ordained an Episcopal priest in August. Our daughter, Louisa, who has been known to make an appearance in an inflatable T-rex costume, will be starting high school this fall. As of this writing I am looking for a job in Asheville, hoping to continue my role as right-hand-person to top executives.”

After 10 years working at Duke, Anne Beaven is taking a new position running the lymphoma program at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill. She’s very excited about the new opportunity, not to mention the commute—a mere two miles from her house. Her son, Eli, is finishing up second grade, and her wife leaves for Australia soon for a six-month stint working with Save the Children.

Casey O’Neill, along with his co-host, Keith O’Brien, won the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s Innovator Award for their show, Casey and the Sports Doctor. The show, which is produced by The Day and is available at theday.com/sports/gameday and on Facebook at GameDay-Connecticut Sports, is a sports talk show that features segments on Connecticut sports as well as national sports. Casey and Keith also took third place in the same category for their work on GameDay, which broadcasts high school sports with ESPN quality production.

Warm regards,

SuZanna Henshon | suzannahenshon@yahoo.com 

Sarah Estow | sarah_estow@hotmail.com

CLASS OF 1992 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Greetings, all! It was so great so see so many of our class at our 25th Reunion in May. Drinks were flowing pretty freely so my recall of what everyone was up to may not quite be up to snuff, but I will do what I can. And if I didn’t get your news in this column, please write to Paul or me—especially if we haven’t heard from you for a while. It’s always great to hear from long-lost classmates!

With that in mind, I start off with Mary Newton Lima, who has written in for the first time ever (Go, Mary!). After living in Madison Wisc.; Miami, Fla. (where she got a master’s and met her husband); Boulder, Colo.; and Seattle, Wash.; Mary has been living on Cape Cod since 2003. She and her husband have two daughters. Mary works at a nonprofit organization focused on reducing the environmental impact of fishing industries.

After a long absence from the notes, Tony Brita caught me up on his life. He started a new job in March as an executive director at The NPD Group, which is a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. His eldest son, Teddy, is finishing up his first year at Regis High School in New York City.

More news from the longtime MIA! Chris Arndt and his wife, Patty Jen Arndt, have two boys, Alden (7) and Graham (6). Chris spent most of his time in New York, helping to grow an investment management firm, but left in 2010 to work on clean energy. In 2015, Chris and Patty moved to Telluride, Colo. Chris continues to work on clean energy issues, and also wrote a book, The Right’s Road to Serfdom, The Danger of Conservatism Unbound: From Hayek to Trump.

Matt Glotzer is the CFO and head of Strategy of Intertrust, a tech company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., although he lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife, son and daughter. Also in the New York area, Sasha Wilson, the co-director of the Bronx Community Charter School, lives in the Bronx with his wife and two daughters.

My Clark 3 roommate, James Wilton, is Collabera’s national account manager. He handles IT staffing and professional services placement. He has a large team across the U.S. and travels to a variety of destinations including San Fran, Dallas, NYC, and Chicago. James’s son, Jack, 16, is just about ready to drive. His middle daughter, Carley, is 13 and his youngest, Lola, is 11. In other Clark 3 news, Karen Salvini and her husband live in California and just celebrated their 18th anniversary.

Simon Fulford moved to Portland, Ore., last July with his wife, Clare, and two of his three sons. Simon is working on criminal justice reform efforts and is loving being back in the U.S. after 12 years in the U.K.

Alison Miller got tenure at The University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her daughter, Ella, just graduated from eighth grade. Her son, Wesley, finished third grade and is a massive basketball fan—taking after his dad, Scott (a fact I can attest to on both counts).

In further news on the academic promotion front, Shura Pollatsek just got promoted to full professor of costume design at WKU, and is working on a second book.

Tamara O’Neil is retiring from the military in 2017, after 20 years as a Navy JAG and excited about taking the next step in her career, which is TBD. In January, Kate Edwards started as a research scientist at Datacolor, where she makes instruments to measure the color of paints and textiles. She still lives in Pennington, N.J., with her family. Also on the East Coast, this fall Diego von Vacano ’93 will be a visiting associate professor of political science at Yale.

Wendy Moore Hershey reports a plethora of life changes. In 2016, she remarried and she joined Asset Consulting Group. She is a consultant to nonprofit foundations and endowments, but will also work with family offices and private clients.

Dan Fortmann moved to Paris last year and has been front office manager at Hapimag since January. Anyone who is planning a trip there should look him up!

In other globetrotting news, Elizabeth Liang has continued to tour her intercultural solo show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, which has been all over the U.S., Panama, Iceland, Spain, South Africa, and Singapore. It was made into a movie that will be available on DVD this summer.

I close with news of additions to the Wesleyan family. Sarah Tunik teaches high school English and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Dan Oppenheimer ’89. Their eldest son, Simon ’21, is headed to Wesleyan this fall!  Also joining the campus is David Meek’s son Daniel ’21. David’s wife is Lisa Brown ’90, so that’s two multi-generational Wesleyan couples in one class!

That’s all for now. Be sure to keep Paul and me updated with your news!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

CLASS OF 1992 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Greetings, all! It was so great so see so many of our class at our 25th Reunion in May. Drinks were flowing pretty freely so my recall of what everyone was up to may not quite be up to snuff, but I will do what I can. And if I didn’t get your news in this column, please write to Paul or me—especially if we haven’t heard from you for a while. It’s always great to hear from long-lost classmates!

With that in mind, I start off with Mary Newton Lima, who has written in for the first time ever (Go, Mary!). After living in Madison Wisc.; Miami, Fla. (where she got a master’s and met her husband); Boulder, Colo.; and Seattle, Wash.; Mary has been living on Cape Cod since 2003. She and her husband have two daughters. Mary works at a nonprofit organization focused on reducing the environmental impact of fishing industries.

After a long absence from the notes, Tony Brita caught me up on his life. He started a new job in March as an executive director at The NPD Group, which is a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. His eldest son, Teddy, is finishing up his first year at Regis High School in New York City.

More news from the longtime MIA! Chris Arndt and his wife, Patty Jen Arndt, have two boys, Alden (7) and Graham (6). Chris spent most of his time in New York, helping to grow an investment management firm, but left in 2010 to work on clean energy. In 2015, Chris and Patty moved to Telluride, Colo. Chris continues to work on clean energy issues, and also wrote a book, The Right’s Road to Serfdom, The Danger of Conservatism Unbound: From Hayek to Trump.

Matt Glotzer is the CFO and head of Strategy of Intertrust, a tech company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., although he lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife, son and daughter. Also in the New York area, Sasha Wilson, the co-director of the Bronx Community Charter School, lives in the Bronx with his wife and two daughters.

My Clark 3 roommate, James Wilton, is Collabera’s national account manager. He handles IT staffing and professional services placement. He has a large team across the U.S. and travels to a variety of destinations including San Fran, Dallas, NYC, and Chicago. James’s son, Jack, 16, is just about ready to drive. His middle daughter, Carley, is 13 and his youngest, Lola, is 11. In other Clark 3 news, Karen Salvini and her husband live in California and just celebrated their 18th anniversary.

Simon Fulford moved to Portland, Ore., last July with his wife, Clare, and two of his three sons. Simon is working on criminal justice reform efforts and is loving being back in the U.S. after 12 years in the U.K.

Alison Miller got tenure at The University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her daughter, Ella, just graduated from eighth grade. Her son, Wesley, finished third grade and is a massive basketball fan—taking after his dad, Scott (a fact I can attest to on both counts).

In further news on the academic promotion front, Shura Pollatsek just got promoted to full professor of costume design at WKU, and is working on a second book.

Tamara O’Neil is retiring from the military in 2017, after 20 years as a Navy JAG and excited about taking the next step in her career, which is TBD. In January, Kate Edwards started as a research scientist at Datacolor, where she makes instruments to measure the color of paints and textiles. She still lives in Pennington, N.J., with her family. Also on the East Coast, this fall Diego von Vacano ’93 will be a visiting associate professor of political science at Yale.

Wendy Moore Hershey reports a plethora of life changes. In 2016, she remarried and she joined Asset Consulting Group. She is a consultant to nonprofit foundations and endowments, but will also work with family offices and private clients.

Dan Fortmann moved to Paris last year and has been front office manager at Hapimag since January. Anyone who is planning a trip there should look him up!

In other globetrotting news, Elizabeth Liang has continued to tour her intercultural solo show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, which has been all over the U.S., Panama, Iceland, Spain, South Africa, and Singapore. It was made into a movie that will be available on DVD this summer.

I close with news of additions to the Wesleyan family. Sarah Tunik teaches high school English and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Dan Oppenheimer ’89. Their eldest son, Simon ’21, is headed to Wesleyan this fall!  Also joining the campus is David Meek’s son Daniel ’21. David’s wife is Lisa Brown ’90, so that’s two multi-generational Wesleyan couples in one class!

That’s all for now. Be sure to keep Paul and me updated with your news!

Adam Berinsky | berinsky@mit.edu 

Paul Coviello | coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

CLASS OF 1991 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Michael and Kiki Price Nachmanoff ’90 announce that their oldest daughter, Clara ’21, will attend Wesleyan as a member of the Class of 2021. By my count, there are now three kids of 1991 class members who will graduate at our 30th Reunion!

Michael also reports that after serving as the federal public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) from 2007 to 2015, he became a U.S. magistrate judge in the Alexandria Division of the EDVA in March of 2015.

Halle Stanford, with the Jim Henson Company, is executive producing a new series, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, for Netflix. Son Max just finished his freshman year at Skidmore College and son Theo just finished kindergarten.

After a period of wandering, which involved three moves in 18 months, Scott Timberg and his family have settled back in LA, in a house near USC with a garage big enough for his books and guitars. Scott, who is working as a freelance writer, will be speaking on his book, Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class, at a conference in Ireland. The Timberg clan saw Jim Miller during a visit to Joshua Tree.

Yvonne Brathwaite is the new director of programs for Global Kids, a nonprofit educational organization that helps young people in NYC and D.C. build knowledge and skills needed for lifelong success, and to participate effectively in the democratic process. Yvonne interacts with two Wes alumni, principals at schools with Global Kids programs: Luis Genao at Manhattan East and Dave Vazquez at the Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists.

Todd Denmark vacationed in Florida, visiting his parents, bowling in the International Gay Bowling Organization tournament in Ft. Lauderdale, and topping it off with a five-day cruise.

Brian Howell writes that Marissa Sabio ’89 is now a program director with Outreach Community Ministries, a new position within an organization she’s been with for 10 years. Their daughter, Hannah, will be a senior at Whitworth University, looking at law schools, positions in the Washington state legislature, and running for Spokane city council in 2020. Sam, 17, is planning to launch his music career, and Ben, 14, starts high school, and hopes to join the state champion bass fishing team.

George Irvine writes that Wendy Bellion was promoted to full professor and a named professorship at the University of Delaware. Their son, Luke, is a black belt in Tang Soo Do, and has vast knowledge of the history of Korean martial arts.  Their son, Griffin, is a star Little League pitcher. Meanwhile, George is halfway through his dissertation on the changing public roles of American research universities and chairs his city’s conservation advisory committee, promoting sustainable energy and land use in their corner of Delaware.

Rebeca Rumayor completed the CLEO pre-law program at NYU Law School to better prepare for law school, while her son, James, attended YMCA sleepaway camp, judo day camp, and Writopialabs Day camp.

Gregory Mandel is now dean of Temple Law School.

Will Barry is now a member at Miller & Chevalier, advising clients on issues involving white collar and securities enforcement, transactional due diligence and compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, economic sanctions, and insider trading requirements.

Lizandra Vega has joined DHR International as an associate partner in the consumer and fetail practice groups.

Dan Levine and family returned to Bethesda, Md., after a year-long assignment in Chennai, India, where Dan managed leadership development and operations for a technology office The Advisory Board Company has there. Dan has been at ABC 22 years.

Cryptic Michael Reinke writes that he is “enjoying life in the second largest city in northern New England, has seen countless concerts of obscure artists, and has biked 4.3 earth units since 2010.”

Now for the “leaving government” section: Jim Ghiloni is now director of strategy and management consulting for Wolf Den Associates in Virginia. His oldest just completed freshman year at Lafayette College, and he will be visiting Wesleyan with his youngest, “where I look forward to getting a formal campus tour, something I’ve never actually done.“

Dan Prieto is now an external senior adviser to McKinsey & Company, and serves as an advisory board member and consultant for several early stage Silicon Valley tech companies, with a focus on artificial intelligence and security. Dan is an adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Dan and his wife, Adele, had their second child, a daughter, in May.

Spencer “Kip” Boyer took a more extreme approach, and fled across the northern border with his Canadian spouse, who wanted to use this moment in history to give the family a Canadian experience. Spencer’s splitting his time between Montreal and D.C., doing transatlantic relations and security work with the Brookings Institution, Georgetown University, and consulting firms.

Bruce Peabody and Stephanie Lodish celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in August. Over the summer, they will visit Alexander Parsons, Aimee Blanchard Parsons, and their children, all future Wesleyan artists-in-residence.

Bruce, along with Jeremy Sacks, Bobbi Adams, and Jerome Copulsky attended Professor Finn’s retirement party in New York. Jeremy writes, “Finn’s comments—and the fact of the gathering itself—reminded everyone of why we went to a small, liberal arts college.” After the event, Jeremy and Jerome caught up with Sam Schneider.

Renée K. Carl | rcarl@wesleyan.edu

CLASS OF 1990 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

NEWSMAKER

NICOLE CURVIN ’90

Nicole Curvin ’90 was promoted to director of undergraduate admissions at Middlebury College in Vermont. Since 2014, she has been associate director of admissions and coordinator of multicultural recruitment. Previously, Curvin worked for many years with a variety of student populations, from high school students and adults returning to school to artists and designers at the New School (Parsons and Eugene Lang College), Marlboro College, New York University, and the University of Vermont. At Wesleyan, Curvin majored in English, and she holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

Hi, all! I hope everyone has been enjoying the summer. Here’s the latest.

Meg Steele and her husband are relocating to Bath, Maine, after a two-year cross-country trip in a restored Airstream. The trip included a stint as a national park ranger in Vermont and time volunteering at an Oregon lighthouse and tide pools. Meg still works in education and is “hoping to do some rowing up here, along with lots of sailing.”

Jim Desmond is teaching at the Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Mass. He’s been there for six years teaching arts and humanities. “My inaugural session of a ukulele elective was mad popular, and I had a blast helping kids play and write songs when not teaching The Odyssey and the end of U.S. slavery. Who knew I would love teaching teenagers so much?”

Page Fortna continues to split time between NYC, where she’s a professor of international relations in the political science department at Columbia, and Portland, Ore. She and her husband, Pete Beeman, migrate between NYC for most academic years and Portland for summers and the occasional sabbatical year. She was touched by the representation of Wesfolk, including from far afield, at her father’s memorial service this spring—Sarah Travis Buck, Carolyn Clark and Dave Patterson, Amy Robins, Jeff Lewis, Ethan Flad ’89, and June Lee ’88. And a quarter century later, Page still gets together one weekend a year with Sarah Travis Buck, Carolyn Clark, Amy Robins, and Amy Scanlan.

After living in Zurich, Switzerland, for almost two years, Stacey Rouse Kruckel will be changing countries again. Stacey has accepted an offer as the chief marketing officer at a consulting firm in London, and “will relocate to that fine city with her husband, two sons and dog. Wes folks who will be passing through London are welcome to visit us.”

Tim Corkran reports (via his father John Corkran ’58), that a team of eighth- graders from the school he heads, Capital Day (PK-8) in Frankfort, Ky., earned a $20,000 prize from Verizon for developing an app, Waste Free America. The app alerts homeless shelters and soup kitchens when restaurants within a 10-mile radius have leftover food available for pickup. The idea developed during an eighth-grade trip to Chicago, where the students were struck by the plight of the homeless. The students will work with engineers from MIT in perfecting the app and make a presentation to a national audience in Orlando, Fla., in June. Tim, who has been head at Capital Day for two years told local media, “We focus on teaching kids how to think and be independent learners…It produces things like this.”

James D. Rosenblatt says, “Hard to believe our oldest graduated college over Mother’s Day from Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. Her two younger siblings survived freshman year at Sarah Lawrence and junior year at a local high school.” The law firm that James started 12 years ago now employs eight attorneys and is a full-service business-oriented law firm in San Antonio.

Cari Medd wrote about a new documentary featuring Jill Sung and her family. “Jill was one of my roommates at Wes and I always admired her toughness and devotion to family.” The documentary, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, chronicles the five-year prosecution of the Sung family’s bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, following the 2008 financial crisis. Abacus Bank is a small community bank founded by Jill’s father over 30 years ago to serve the Asian-American community in NYC, and remains the only bank prosecuted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The family’s ordeal culminated in 2015 with a five-month jury trial where Abacus and the Sung family finally prevailed on all counts. The documentary, which was filmed during the trial, is directed by Steve James (Hoop Dreams and Life Itself), and has just been released (abacusmovie.com). Watch it Sept. 12, on PBS’s Frontline.

That’s all for now. I hope everyone enjoys the remaining days of summer. I will be back with more news at the end of the year. Please feel free to write anytime.

Vanessa Montag Brosgol | vanessa.brosgol@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1989 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Jonathan reports that it’s a little quiet on the Wesleyan front after last edition’s Women’s March outburst. Anecdotally, my Facebook has many reports of WesResistance. So maybe y’all are at the barricades this quarter. Kudos.

Stephan Kline is enthused that his older son, Noah ’21, is moving to Middletown as part of the class of 2021. Noah’s younger brother, Benjy, seems interested in joining the class of 2023.

Camille Nelson Kotton and David Pemstein have exciting news: They each trained together and ran the Boston Marathon!

Dave Eichler and his wife, Diana, celebrated their 20th anniversary last October. They split their time between Denver and Phoenix, where their 11-year-old public relations and marketing agency has offices. This summer, they are planning to acknowledge his 50th in Yellowstone by chasing bear and moose with his camera. He also saw Owen Renfroe ’90 and Louie Maggiotto ’92 on a trip to Los Angeles.

Julie Strauss and Joel Brown are marking 25 years of marriage this summer. Their oldest, Ezra, just completed his first year at the University of Michigan (a tad different than the typical Wesleyan experience). During visiting trips to Ann Arbor, Joel and Julie got to spend some fantastic time with Joel’s former Hi-Rise roommate, David Bradley, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Michigan hospital, and his family. Younger son Jonathan, a high school sophomore, has at least made polite overtures that he might consider Wesleyan an option for higher ed.

Holly Adams writes that while her life is not terribly exciting at the moment, it is happily filled with family and performance.

Jeff Brez is still living in New York City with his husband Adriano, and their twin boys who are approaching 3. Jeff continues his work with television and film, celebrity advocacy, and not-for-profit partnerships at the United Nations.

Ed Colbert was at a Manchester Monarchs hockey game, where Marc Casper ’90, Tas Pinther ’90, and Brian Cheek ’92 hosted a big Wesleyan group, including coach emeritus Duke and Diane Snyder and their family. He is sorry he missed Mullet Night earlier in the season, but those guys run a great show up there, just like the old days with the Cardinals, and he highly recommends the venue to any hockey fans.

Alex McClennen Dohan and David Dohan are adapting well to the empty nest with both kids mostly gone. In 2017, their younger child started college and their older one has finished college with plans to start law school in the fall. They are enjoying the newfound flexibility in meal planning and weekend activities.

After 20 years in London, Owen Thomas moved to Denmark to train to be an English and French teacher. He has two boys, Oscar (6) and Mason (2), both of whom Owen deems to be as roguishly handsome as their father.

Stephanie Dolgoff built a giant wall of love to celebrate her 50th year with the help of family and friends, including Judy Minor ’90, David Milch, Johanna Pfaelzer ’90, Andie Coller ’90, and yours truly.

Finally, with a light report, I’ll exercise my prerogative to kvell about Madelyn Fried ’19, who completed her sophomore year, including pledging Psi Upsilon, and is heading to Copenhagen for the fall semester. Jealous and proud papa here!

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

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1988 | 2017 | ISSUE 2

Peter writes for this issue. Matt Olton reports in: “On picture perfect Saturday, May 27, in Los Angeles, Ricky Barragan and Samantha Goodman married in front of a small group of family and close friends that included Ricky’s daughters Bianca ’21 and Lauren ’21 (incoming Wes class) and Samantha’s children, Annabelle and William. A nice Wesleyan contingent was present that included Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, Victoria Harper, Tony Rosenthal, Craig Morgan ’89, Andy Stern ’87, and Matt Olton.”

Tim McCallum “had a kid: Logan McCallum, born in October to parents with a combined age of 94. First kid for us both.”

After 23 years at Silicon Valley Bank, Jim Maynard has departed to join MResult Corp out of Mystic, Conn., cutting his commute by 80 percent—but he still makes regular trips to Boston for Red Sox games.

Steve Morison shares: “After three terrific years in Rome we are returning to Cape Cod next year, largely to stay close to our daughter.”

In 2016, Dr. Emily Bliss Gerber joined UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland as Director of Behavioral Health.

Majora Carter advises: “My husband James Chase and I celebrated our 50th birthdays and our 10th wedding anniversary at a party last winter in NYC with awesome Wes friends: Evie Lovett and her husband Jeff Shumlin ’82, Leticia Pineiro ’88, Schuyler Allen-Kalb ’90, Steven Toledo ’04, and Sohana Punithakumar ’04. They all participated in what was an epic Soul Train line! I’m super excited about the new restaurant project I am co-developing in my hometown of Hunts Point and, I am the very proud co-owner of the only locally-owned specialty coffee shop in the South Bronx, the Boogie Down Grind Café.”

Michael and Cheryl Sheffler Rubenstein write: “We celebrated our oldest daughter Lily’s Bat Mitzvah in Arnold, Md., in May. We were blessed to be joined by David Lazer, Deborah Edelman Caney, and Gordon Agress ’89.”

Paul Lewis just published the award-winning book, Manual of Section, a comprehensive analysis of the history and the role of section in architecture, already in its third printing and available in six languages. Paul was recently elevated to the level of fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), and was promoted to full professor at Princeton University, where he serves as the associate dean of the School of Architecture.

Federico Quadrani is “executive producer of The Lead with Jake Tapper on CNN, having moved to the D.C. area from New York four years ago to launch the program. My wife Elena and I live in Bethesda with our two children, Luca (15) and Chiara (10).”

Hannah Doress updates: “I recently joined the Steering Committee of Resilient Communities Initiative, a coalition of environmental justice groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, including ShoreUpMarin.org, which I co-founded. Since the election I made a resolution to be (even) more politically active (I know, shocking!). Among many other activities, I have started writing blogs on Medium and Daily Kos and was super honored when our classmate Brad Kramer picked up my piece on Trump’s gaslighting for his site LetsDoTruth.org. My Wesleyan experience was a major motivation to write about Neil Gorsuch, as was my role as VP for the Breaking News Network because of having a built-in audience. You can see my tweets/pieces there and follow local news in 400 cities at tbnn.it. We moved to Silicon Valley where my wife is a music teacher and our 13-year-old is a budding mechanic, musician, and rebel extraordinaire. We’ve been having fun Wes get-togethers in the Bay Area around author events with great turnouts for Alex Chee ‘89 and Hida Viloria 90 this year. Some of the folks that turned up included Amy Randall ’89, Jason Dewees ’91, Judith Sansone, Kate Hellenga, Tawnya Dudash ’89, and Samantha Ostergaard ’91. Amy Randall and Mat Reed ‘91 joined us for a DIY progressive seder this year as well.”

Cecelia Bolden lets us know that “In June of 2016, I was promoted to chief delivery officer for my company (sdipresence.com).  We are a systems integrator, with a staff of 150, and offices in Chicago, Charleston, and LA. In 2016, I was honored to be selected as a Woman of Excellence by the Chicago Defender because of my work in the Chicago business community, as well as my philanthropic work within the city of Chicago. Also, I will be awarded the 2017 Business Leader of Color by Chicago United (chicago-united.org), an organization that advocates to achieve parity in economic opportunity for people of color by advancing multi racial leadership in corporate governance, executive level management, and business diversity.”

Andrew Drury shares: “I still manage to survive as a jazz drummer in New York somehow. I’m busy playing and recording with lots of groups. I’m co-curating this fall’s Edgefest (a jazz festival) in Ann Arbor and will be playing there with several groups, including my quartet, Content Provider, a trio with Joe McPhee, and a project with a large ensemble of UM students in a cathedral. I run a house concert series, Soup & Sound (soupandsound.org), at my house. I did a two-week music residency in Bogotá in February—performed and gave workshops at the Universidad de los Andes and Javeriana U, played at a percussion festival run by a musician’s collective, and did a lot of collaborating with locals. I’ll be doing similar work in the Fall in Argentina. My wife, Alissa Schwartz ’91, good friend Michael Reinke ’91, and I started a nonprofit organization, Continuum Culture & Arts (continuumculture.org), that does innovative educational programs in Brooklyn public schools, facilitates international cultural exchange, puts out recordings, and helps the music community in various ways. Also I was recently awarded a fellowship from the Jubilation Foundation.”

U.J. Sofia is “starting a new job (with the longest title ever!). On July 1, 2017, I will head west to become the Weinberg Family Dean of the W. M. Keck Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges.”

Cyrillene Clark has been busy with her son’s college applications. “Through the whole college admissions whirlwind I got to reconnect with former Wesleyan dean and recently retired vice chancellor at UCLA, Janina Montero. She is still awesome.”

Finally, John “Sparky” Ferrara boasts: “My daughter Claudia ’21 has accepted her admittance to Wesleyan, joining her brother AJ ’18 next year (who will be a senior).”

Peter V.S. Bond | 007@pvsb.org 

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com