Class Notes

Greetings from your new Class of 2012 secretary, Amanda Schwartz. A proud Angeleno as always, I’m currently getting my MBA at the USC Marshall School of Business, working at construction software company, Bluebeam, and continually perfecting my In-N-Out order.

Please enjoy the following updates from your classmates:

This year Miriam Berger, a reporter with The Washington Post, got the most adorable terrier, Charlene. She was also part of the team of female journalists at The Post awarded The International Women’s Media Foundation 2023 Courage in Journalism Award for coverage of the Ukraine war.

Noa Borkan and her wife, Danya, have recently expanded their family! They got three  new houseplants, another cat, and their daughter, Aviva, was born on April Fools’ Day! She recently got her first cold from her second day at day care.

After five years of living and working in the DMV area, Ashley Garrett moved home to Boston. Additionally, Ashley was selected by Boston’s mayor Michelle Wu to sit on the SPARK council to help boost civic engagement in the city of Boston among millennials and Gen Z. The SPARK Boston Council advises the mayor on city policies and programs affecting 20- to 35-year-olds. Leadership staff from the mayor’s team come to monthly meetings. The council has increased voting registration in the city and representation of Bostonians in city government. It also has served as a pathway into careers with the City of Boston. Ashley is looking forward to increasing the outreach and community building even more this year.

Tasmiha Khan writes, “I want to share that Rajeeta Iyer and I had a blast at Niagara Falls recently. I’m also working on some criminal justice projects.”

Chelsea Reutcke writes, “I have just begun a postdoctoral fellowship in British Studies at the University of Utah, where I will be teaching on early modern Britain and serving as the assistant editor for the Journal of British Studies. I completed my PhD at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) in late 2020, focusing on Catholic print networks in late 17th-century England and will shortly be publishing my third academic article.”

Trevor Rhodes writes: “A couple of updates on my end: despite all odds, someone has agreed to marry me. The wedding will be in late August and we’ll for sure be celebrating in person with fellow [Cardinals], Dave Brunelli, Ana Alvarado, and J. R. Mannetta ’13. Also in August, I finished a master’s in global business administration from the Fletcher School at Tufts. I may be part Jumbo now but ya boi will fly as a Cardinal for life. I also visited Cameron Davila in February where I got to meet his new daughter, Lucy, and catch up with him over beers while lounging on the beach. Some things never change!”

Lizzie Simon is sad about her break ups and happy about her friends’ babies. She is entering year 12 in Seattle, year 16 of playing ultimate (thanks Throw Culture!), and year three as a nurse practitioner in community health, and plans on sticking with all three. Several of her best friends are still from Wes.

Thanks to those who contributed and feel free to pass along notes at any time.

Laura Heath-Stout writes, “Allegra ’12 and I and our toddler, River, are moving to California! I’ll be starting a postdoc at the Archaeology Center at Stanford, and Allegra will continue working remotely for JOIN for Justice, an organization that trains Jewish people in community organizing. We’re excited to spend more time with our Wesleyan friends in the Bay Area!”

Siena Kramer is working as a nurse educator in the Neurocritical Care Unit at Tufts Medical Center and got married to Charles Tandler on June 23, 2023! They will be moving back to Palo Alto, California, in June 2024.

Emily Pontecorvo contributes, “Earlier this year I joined Heatmap News as one of the founding staff writers. Heatmap is a subscription-based online magazine doing original reporting and analysis of the most pressing stories of climate change and the transition to clean energy for a broad audience. Check us out at Heatmap.news!

Kara Perez lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her partner, after a decade in Austin, Texas. She owns Bravely Go, a financial media company, and has discovered a deep passion for explaining what an index fund is.

Susie Howe writes, “2023 was a year of changes for me! I got married on July 1 to Sam O’Connor-Divelbiss in Wayne, Illinois. We both got new jobs on Chicago’s North Shore– Sam will be teaching math in Wilmette and I will be teaching Latin at Lake Forest High School after seven years at Elgin Academy. Those who knew me from the Wes equestrian team will be happy to learn that I bought my first horse in 2021. My time at Wesleyan developed my love of horses and Latin and both have become major parts of my life.”

A. J. Chan and his wife, Hilary Burke Chan ’10, welcomed their second child, Oliver Tobias Chan, in November 2022. Ollie and his older sister Rosie were able to visit Wesleyan this summer and sit on Foss Hill!

Tim Morley and I welcomed our first child, Joseph “Joey” Arthur Morley on June 8 in Hartford, Connecticut. Joey and his friend Ollie got to sport matching Wes onesies when they met each other this summer!

Thanks for the contributions this cycle!

Please write to your class secretary.

Ally writes for this issue.

Mr. Jermaine Lewis says he is “in eastern Pennsylvania. Just graduated with [a] master’s in management. Do recommend Harvard Extension. Working in fintech/blockchain. Mr. Baby [had] his first birthday [at] the end of August. Pro and conning on-campus housing for the 15-year reunion.” Your class secretary (Ally) responds, “Wherever you decide to stay, Jermaine, I can’t wait to see you there because I am beyond excited. If you receive an email or text from me, it is because I’ve committed to get as many of our classmates as I can to celebrate how old we are under the tent!!”

Big news for Erik Underwood and Derek Silverman. They started, Basis Climate. It is focused on expanding liquidity in clean energy projects by helping corporations invest in these projects while also reducing their tax liability. Check them out at buildwithbasis.com.

Emily Reisner writes, “I’m a birth doula serving families in Connecticut and I’m also a director at MeshEd, an education start-up, founded by a Wesleyan grad, which engages Wesleyan juniors and seniors as teachers in local middle schools and high school programs, such as coding, podcasting, screenwriting, sustainable fashion, and more.”

Fifteen years after graduation, Shivani Kumar lives in Los Feliz with her partner and two pups. She drives a Honda Accord, uses an electric toothbrush twice a day, has a gynecologist, and pays someone to do her taxes. She changes her air filters once a quarter. She has labeled boxes of “winter clothes” and “spare cosmetics” and her vegetables and fruits are stored separately. Her prescriptions are on autorefill, and all her socks are in pairs. And somehow, with zero intention, she has found herself working in commercial real estate (and even more surprisingly, she is loving it). Basically, Shivani is crushing adulthood. She’s even made a friend or two. If you’re in the LA area, she would love to see you, her fellow Wes alumni, and catch up. You can call or text: 914.649.6575, but please tell her your full name as she almost certainly will not remember you. There’s a 97% chance that you are lost in a blur of college memories that have been twisted and diluted by the Wesleyan lore in HIMYM. Please don’t be offended. But definitely include your full name.

Ben Crane writes, “This year I had two books published: a queer heist thriller, A Man of Lies, and an all-ages graphic novel adventure, Cosmic Cadets: Contact!, which I created with my partner, Mimi Alves (they/them).” 

Kate Krems started as an assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in July. She’s enjoying working to promote economic competition in her new role and being out of the billable-hour grind is a plus, too!

Hello, Class of 2007!

Lydia Bell is now set up as a psychotherapist! She is working in a group practice in Manhattan called Intuitive Healing. She specializes in relational trauma, early parenthood, and work with creative people.

Scout James has been invited to join the Groundlings Sunday Company in Los Angeles.

Mariel Piña and her wife, Eva, welcomed future Wesleyan graduate (without any legacy privileges, of course), baby Rafael into their family. Mariel works as the deputy commissioner for her county’s department of mental health in New York, working to ensure equal and appropriate access to all. Mariel and her family have spent a lot of time with Wes grads recently, including at the wedding of Molly Gaebe and Leila Bozorg ’04. Ali Green was also there to help celebrate along with many others! In a recent trip to Philly, Mariel, Erich Klothen ’08, and Kim Davies caught up, and they always have time for a trip to New Hampshire to see Jon King!  Hew X forever!

Nyasha Foy shares, “I recently celebrated one year at Sotheby’s, as vice president and assistant general counsel, supporting NFTs/digital art and luxury. Outside of work, I have been re-engaging with my passion for art and music, both by joining the Save the Music Foundation Board, while also pursuing creative projects like writing a children’s book and TV shows. Professionally, I am in my second year as board member for the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA), while participating in speaking panels across London, NYC, and Rome. As I start my final year as an alumni-elected trustee, I am enthusiastic about continuing to serve our alma mater.”

Erin Reding Glaser enjoyed getting together with Kate McCrery and Jane Maxson Hendrickson in February for a very fun girls’ weekend. Jane and Erin brought along their daughters, Grace and Ivy, which made for an even more memorable experience. Lots of fun was had by all and they are also looking forward to attending Homecoming Weekend at Wesleyan this year and hope to see other alumni there too! Finally, if anyone lives in the Philadelphia area and is interested in learning more about wheelchair basketball, please contact Erin Reding Glaser. Her daughter plays on a team and they are always looking for more players. It is very fun and inclusive. They even have program chairs that people can borrow if needed.

Dana Wollman writes, “I am living in my hometown of Brooklyn, where my partner and I welcomed our first child, a daughter, earlier this year. I’ve been working at the tech news site Engadget since 2011, where I’ve been editor in chief since 2018.”

Steven Wengrovitz, along with his husband, Dan Freeman, welcomed their second baby girl this August. They’re all enjoying life in Beacon, New York.

Zach Strassburger received the Champions of Diversity Award from the City of Philadelphia Law Department for their work, including creating an inclusive language guide to make legal writing more inclusive and approachable for diverse populations. It can be found at https://www.phila.gov/media/20230530134433/Inclusive-Language-FINAL.pdf. Zach is a deputy city solicitor in the Appellate Litigation unit for the City of Philadelphia Law Department, doing election law, First Amendment law, and more.

Mark Liew is living in China with his wife and three young children, ages eight, six, and four.

Juan Sebastian Moreno completed his third year as a virtual English language educator with English Language Programs, an education exchange program of the U.S. Department of State. The project, sponsored by EducationUSA Panama, helped students in Panama prepare for exams required by universities in the USA. Juan has also accepted the role of ESL/Bilingual Department coordinator at Torrington High School in Connecticut, where he is a teacher of ESL and bilingual STEM. This summer he went with his family and five-year-old son, Hai-Nam, to the three-day 160th Gettysburg Battle Reenactment in which his father participated as Union infantry.

Vivian Lew Hsiung lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two boys. When she’s not working on her counseling practice, she’s outdoors fighting to save her vegetables from slugs.

Arielle Edelman McHenry writes, “I continue to live in Minneapolis with my husband, one-and-a-half-year-old, and six-year-old. I love my work in public health, drug policy, and harm reduction—and talking with Wesleyan students who are interested in the same. Meeting up with Steve Rubenstein and his family for pizza picnics at the lake is a new favorite summertime tradition.”

Nate Baumgart and his wife took a year to travel around the world and blog about it, and now own a food tour company in Denver called Delicious Denver. They had a daughter during COVID who is almost four and he runs the Alumni Association here for Colorado. Any Wes graduates headed out West are welcome to contact him for recommendations about food and dining in Colorado!

Keitaro Nakamoto works as an acute care surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. He sees Serkan Parlak and his family regularly and hopes to get an opportunity to catch up with everyone IRL sometime soon!

Jane Maxson Hendrickson abandoned any hopes of studying medicine immediately after college in pursuit of a career in the nonprofit sector, which recently resulted in being promoted to her first executive director job. She has three kids and chickens, lives in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut, and is happy to serve as the class secretary so that she can keep in touch with all of you! Please send in notes to keep everyone updated!

It has been an eventful couple of years for Liz Andrews. She moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 2021 to become the director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. This fall, two exhibitions that she co-curated are on national tours: Black American Portraits, at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection, beginning at the Vassar College Loeb Art Center. She also edited and wrote for Black American Portraits: https://delmonicobooks.com/book/black-american-portraits/.  In the fall of 2022, she eloped with her honey, Brian J. Brown, and they welcomed baby Polaris in March 2023.

Katie Walsh lives in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where she works as a film critic for the Tribune News Service and LA Times, hosts a podcast about Miami Vice, and moderates Q&As around town.

Wesleyan lacrosse repressed in the 35-plus division at the Lake Placid Summit Classic with Matt Wheeler, Chris Mele ’04, Brian Adams ’04, Glenn Adams ’06, Dan Ackil ’04, Connor Wilson ’04, Gabe Kelly ’11, Chris Jasinski ’08, Trevor Adams ’09, Jeff McLaren ’06, Zach Stanton ’98, and Mike Vitulano ’06 in attendance.

Jake Orlowitz is living happily in the Santa Cruz Mountains with his 13-year-old, unschooled botanist-daughter and 3-year-old maniac toddler. He runs WikiBlueprint, a Wikipedia open knowledge consulting company working with nonprofits, publishers, and museums on public education and outreach strategy. He Kickstarted his mental health book, Welcome to the Circle, and is slowly working on a sequel.

Lodro Rinzler and his wife, Adreanna, welcomed baby Ruby Alex Rinzler on June 8 of this year. The middle name is in memory of our classmate and beloved friend Alex Okrent who passed in 2012.

This year Delilah Lora became the head of Upper School at The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York City. Additionally, she and her partner, Luis, got engaged this summer in Curaçao on her 40th birthday.

Natalia Ortiz accepted a new position at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development in the Teaching and Learning Department as a clinical assistant professor and the director of the Office of School and Community Partnership. She will be working side by side with Heather Homonoff Woodley ’02.

Heather Olins is starting her seventh year as faculty in the Biology Department at Boston College. She dedicates much of her energy to finding ways to teach about climate change that are empowering and hopeful for her students. She also co-leads her seven-year-old’s Girl Scout troop, and has been doing a lot of art when not teaching or parenting.

Miriam Gottfried and her husband, Trevor Williams, welcomed their first child, a daughter, on July 22. They named the baby Emily after Miriam’s mom who died 10 years ago. Miriam, Trevor, and Emily live in South Slope, Brooklyn, around the corner from fellow 2005er Blake Maybeck, who they often run into on the street.

This year, in recognition of Tony Alleyne’s work with his college-access nonprofit, Delaware College Scholars, he was selected as a 2023 Doritos/PepsiCo Foundation Black Changemaker. The program officially expanded to Charlotte, North Carolina, as well, and now has served over 500 scholars. His family is also growing and they will be welcoming their fifth child in September. Also he had a great time reunited with Fabrice Coles and Quincy Francis ’06 in D.C. this past spring.

Hey Class of 2004:

I continue to appreciate all the great updates you’re sharing! That said, see what your classmates are up to:

At a recent meetup in New York City, Nick Malinowski was finally able to extract a Netflix password from David Fine, who had brushed off previous entreaties with his typical affability. Both received a terse email from Gabe Spitzer ’05 who had noticed the exchange on the back end.

Abraham Lateiner is living in the Boston area where he’s been since graduation. His kids, Estella and Lulu, are 13 and 9, respectively, and he is learning the beauty and challenges of parenting a teenager!

During his 20s and early 30s, he taught middle school, got married, and had kids. He tells us: “Then I left teaching and began to learn about community organizing through Resource Generation, which works with young progressive people with wealth toward redistribution of land, wealth, and power. That led me to racial justice work with white people, and then anti-patriarchy work with men, and today, I primarily work with wealthy white men toward personal transformation in service of collective liberation. Lately, after going through a (mostly amicable) divorce, I’ve been rediscovering who I am. I’ve been hard at work promoting a book by my colleague, Garrett Neiman, entitled Rich White Men: What It Takes to Uproot the Old Boys’ Club and Transform America. But I’m most excited about developing a noncoercive debate space for men, called The Arena. When not doing that kind of work, I’m learning how to baton twirl and love taking myself out to the movies. I’m looking forward to seeing folks at reunion next year!”

Christopher Kaminstein tells us: “Living in New Orleans (I’ve been here since 2008) with my wife, Laura Stein ’03, and our three-year-old daughter, Lia. I run a theater company called Goat in the Road Productions that makes original plays and offers educational programming in schools.”

After six years at Fountain, Mark Schindler left the company in June and is starting his own venture. Mark is working with venture capital–backed start-ups in a fractional capacity to advance their organizational development and internal operations. The new business keeps him on the road to NYC and Chicago, and he enjoys playing the Leo McGarry-like role for founders and leaders of companies that are looking to grow or improve their internal organization. Mark recently reconnected with classmate Chris Mele and fellow lacrosse teammate Pete Salisbury ’03 about his new venture, and he and his daughter spent an afternoon in Middletown in August. (Her first college visit!) It was great being back, seeing the old and new buildings, and running into Coach Raba as well.

Kieran Meadows tells us: “Happy to announce that an independent feature documentary I helped produce (and do some music supervision for), Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall, was an official selection of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. At its world premiere in June, our executive producer, Shaggy, gave an exhilarating performance afterward, alongside dancehall star Ding Dong and dancehall legends Screechy Dan and Red Fox. The doc was also the recipient of the 2023 Better Angels Lavine Fellowship (a component of The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film) and was the winner of the 2022 Gotham Documentary Award from Decentralized Pictures Foundation. As of this writing, we’re looking to get the film on a streaming platform so a wider audience can enjoy it. Fingers crossed that will happen soon.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe I’ve been working at Forbes for over a decade now. You can listen to me host the Forbes Daily Briefing seven days a week, which highlights some of the best reporting and stories from Forbes. Go subscribe to it on any podcast platform feed where it’s available. And as always, I continue to plot out the next steps on my ever-evolving journey that is my music/DJ/sound providing career. (Speaking of which, I’m happy to have connected with a whole next generation of Wes alums in Brooklyn via fellow DJ Everton Laidley ’14.)”

I’d like to close this round of notes with a brief recognition of unexpected loss of a fellow Wes ’04 grad, Amy Posocco. She died on a lake in New Hampshire in July. Meeghan Ward shares some words below about her best friend:

“We very sadly and unexpectedly loss a fellow Wes ‘04 grad, Amy Posocco, last weekend. She died in an accident on a lake in New Hampshire, Friday, [July 7, 2023].

Amy was my best friend at Wesleyan—we captained the basketball team together, were roommates three years, and stayed lifelong friends when we lived in Boston, and as both of us moved abroad over the years. I’m heartbroken, as is the vibrant and diverse community of friends and family she built over the years. She was a proud Wes graduate, and her learning there helped her begin a very impactful career in education, setting up programs in the U.S. and abroad in Abu Dhabi.”

Here’s to keeping Amy in mind.

Thank you for all your updates. Please send any upcoming updates to wes04classnotes@gmail.com.

All best,

Jenina

After 20-plus years in educational theater, Andrea (Wilson) McCoy recently joined the mass exodus of public school teachers to take on a new position as head of children’s services for a town library. Although it’s an adjustment not having summers off, she’s enjoying a better work-life balance with her spouse, two kids, and two dogs.

Leslie Spencer, née Burns, and her family of four—Izaac, Reid (11), and Cole (8)—had an amazing July in Costa Rica! They met every monkey and swam in every waterfall.

Matt Kushner just marked his two-year anniversary at Illuminarium Experiences, where he was recently promoted to director of software. In addition to Atlanta and Las Vegas venues, a new Illuminarium opened in Toronto at the end of the summer, a joint venture with Secret Location. More venues are on the horizon, both nationally and internationally, at the end of 2023 and into 2024. Meanwhile, Lauren Kushner (Brown ’04) continues to enhance the American Museum of Natural History’s museum experience with her animations, most recently in the brand-new Gilder Center where the insect interactives she collaborated on are featured. Kids, Mimi and Tessa, are thriving, enjoying summer camp, and ready to enter third and first grade respectively in the fall.

Ryan Garbalosa was recently honored with the Hilton P. Terrell Teacher of the Year Award by the McLeod Residency Program for his dedication to medical education. In May he teamed up with Greg Ferrucci and Carmen Carrillo to make the trek back to Wes for the 20th Reunion, making sure to visit their old rooms at La Casa and reminisce on the hill with fellow ’03ers. Along for the ride was wife, Lucy Garbalosa, and soon-to-be-born Rafael R. Garbalosa, making his first of many trips to Wesleyan!

George Obulutsa is still going strong as a journalist at Reuters News based in Nairobi.