Class Notes

Our class has been busy, including myself. My husband, Paul, and I had a baby girl, Eliza, in May and couldn’t be happier! But we’re not the only ones who were visited by the stork… Johanna Richlin writes: “News from Baltimore: my husband, Gabe Paquette ’99, and I welcomed with great joy our baby daughter, Antonia Bard Paquette, into the world on June 5. We’re over the moon, as are her long line of Wesleyan alum relatives: grandparents Pamela Bard Richlin ’75 and Dean Richlin ’74, great uncle Gar Richlin ’67, and aunt Sara Richlin ’04!”

Ben Smyser will soon join the proud parents as well. He writes: “This is my first class note, so I have a lot to tell! I got married to a beautiful woman named Elanor Schoomer in the summer of 2012, and she and I are having a baby, due in September! I’ve been admitted to the bars of New York and New Jersey and am working as a corporate associate at a large law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP. After living in Atlanta during law school, Elanor and I now are back in Brooklyn, still hanging out with many of my (now our) Wes friends.”

In somewhat related news (the opposite side of delivery), Lillian Siegel recently moved to Boston and started work as a nurse-midwife with Harvard Vanguard, delivering babies at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She looks forward to reconnecting with other Wes folks in the area. Drop her a line!

Meanwhile, Leslie Prado is in her last year of PA/MPH. Her first clinical rotation is OB/GYN, where she is seeing the birth of many babies. She was able to scrub in for a few C-sections, and is excited to get the rest of her clinical rotations done and figure out where she would like to practice.

Joe Stankus, along with Destin Douglas ’09, spent the last year producing a movie called Jackrabbit, which premiered at the 2105 TriBeCa Film Festival. The movie was made possible with the help of several other Wesleyan alums, specifically gaffer Sam Jones ’10, key grip Tim Curtin ’07, co-editor Talia Barrett, and composer Will Berman ’04.

Aaron Tabak writes: “After six years in NYC, I’ve moved to Portland, Ore., and am now working for SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), a statewide literacy nonprofit based here.”

Nick Benacerraf started working as a full-time theater professor last fall at Kean University in New Jersey. He still lives in New York, where he co-runs a Wes-based company, The Assembly, which is currently in residence at the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village and has a new show coming up July 15–18, called I Will Look Forward to This Later. Check out assemblytheater.org for details. Recent beloved work includes a show called Up and Away, which is an immersive experience for autistic children at Lincoln Center. It previewed last spring and will premiere this fall.

Emily Rosen-King shares: “I’m getting married on June 27th to Jared Chester (whom I actually met through a Wesleyan friend at a birthday party more than five years ago!)”

Other ’08ers taking vows include Micki Baron, who married Jamie Hiteshew in September 2014 in San Francisco, where they have lived since graduating from Wes. The ceremony was officiated by Kai Johnson. Micki graduated from UCSF Medical School this summer and is now an OB/GYN resident at UCSF. Jamie is a project manager at BRIDGE Housing Corporation, where he develops low-income housing in the Bay Area

Shivani Kumar is graduating from MIT Sloan this spring in the Class of 2015 with an MBA. Afterwards, she will be joining McKinsey & Company. Rebecca Gitlin graduated this year, too, with her Ph.D. in clinical psychology; starting in September, she’ll be doing a Women’s Behavioral Health postdoctoral fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Emily Gallivan has spent the last year adventuring. Last summer she drove to LA to take a course at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and ate more tacos than she ever had in her whole life prior. Emily then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway through California to wonderful Seattle, followed by Yellowstone, Minneapolis, Madison, and Chicago, seeing Wesleyan alums all over. Upon her return to the D.C. area, Emily worked for a digital library nonprofit, finally learning a bit of what Jacqueline Chapman has been talking about all these years. Fall saw a trip to the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival outside Birmingham, Ala., and in spring one to Ireland. Come August, she will head to California to start graduate school at UC, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, pursuing a master of architecture.

Becca Broches is on to a new adventure, as well. She writes: “After spending three years in D.C., and one in Boston, I am very excited to be moving back to NYC in September where I will spend the next two years working as an Equal Justice Works fellow in the Bronx, providing legal services to food entrepreneurs who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer.”

Caroline Raclin, meanwhile, is now the health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Jordan. She oversees four primary health clinics and a small army of community health volunteers that serve Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians along the Syrian border. She adds, “If any Wes alums are ever in Amman, look me up!”
Finally, Ruby Ross writes in: “It’s been a busy year! I did a house concert tour in Boston in January and one in California in March. I’m currently doing a house concert tour on the East Coast, which includes fellow Wes alums among the hosts, so I’m looking forward to some Wes reunions! Later this summer I’ll be moving into a new house and going to Costa Rica, and then in the fall I’m getting married!”

The Class of 2007 has been busy making moves—both literally and figuratively. After many years in New York City, I recently traded in a city of 8 million for a small town of 1,900. I’m now living in Cambridge, N.Y. (a stone’s throw from the Vermont border), and welcome any and all visitors!

After two years in Montreal, Kathleen Day and her husband, Karl Otto, are back in Chicago, Kathleen’s home town. The couple has been living in and fixing up the house where Kathleen grew up, while she works as a development associate at an affordable housing development organization. Kathleen says, “Coming back to Chicago was not an easy decision (Québec has such a fantastic quality of life), but I wanted to go back to my roots and make an impact where I know it’s needed. In my professional life I work on the revitalization of neighborhoods through the development of quality affordable housing, and in my community I work with my neighbors on anti-violence and youth development actions.” Kathleen added that she had the pleasure of catching up with Liam McAlpine, Ben Sax, Janine Criscuolo, Mira Wijayanti, Brittany Speisman Kugler, and Alicia Dodds at Liam’s wedding to Sam Gulino in Beacon, N.Y., last fall.

In early June, Nicholaus Norvell rode his bike 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles over the course of seven days. The ride’s purpose was to raise money for HIV/AIDS services as part of AIDS/Lifecycle. Nicholaus says, “I would love other ’07ers to join me in future years!”

Ian MacLeod recently spent some time with Alex Early and her husband, Alexis. The old friends had a great night out on the town in the Mission District of San Francisco. When he isn’t checking out San Francisco’s hot spots, Ian can be found working as a restoration ecologist for the California Department of Conservation, Office of Mine Reclamation.
This comes as no surprise, but the class of 2007 is one smart bunch. We have multiple graduations to celebrate, as well as a national TV appearance! Jessica Mack just finished an MA in history at Princeton and will be starting dissertation research for her PhD this summer in Mexico City.

Lauren Smith graduated from Berkeley Law and completed a fellowship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in the Office of the U.S. Chief Technology Officer.

Michael James (d.b.a. Scout James) is entering his second year in Juilliard’s drama division as an MFA candidate.

If you noticed a familiar face on the television this past winter, you weren’t imagining it. As of January 2015, Will Anderson became a repeat Jeopardy! champion. When he’s not searching for the Daily Double, Anderson serves as a senior policy adviser in Washington, D.C., for a House member from Georgia.

And last but certainly not least, Marlon Bishop won a Peabody Award for his 2014 investigation into gang violence and child migration in Honduras for the NPR program Latino USA. The episode was titled “Gangs, Murder, and Migration in Honduras.”

After nine straight years in New York City, Kevin Lohela and his wife moved to Providence, R.I., to open a school. He is the founding principal of Achievement First Iluminar Mayoral Academy, a public charter school. He’s quite happy to live closer to Isaac Hunnewell and Pat Garrity in Boston. Congratulations to Pat, who received his master’s degree in public policy this past spring from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Jesse Young just started working at the special envoy for climate change at the State Department in D.C., which is the office charged with trying to assemble a global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions at a U.N. summit this December in Paris.
Gianna Sobol is a television writer; she has contributed to A&E’s The Returned and CBS’s Extant. She currently writes for a new Starz series called Counterpart. Definitely check it out!

Emily Frost and Nicholas Gerry-Bullard are loving life on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. Nick was promoted to manager in Deloitte’s strategy consulting division. Emily is in her third year as a reporter for the online news site DNAinfo, where she helped to launch a monthly newspaper and a new podcast you all should listen to.

Eric Sullivan is still living in New York City and is an associate editor at GQ Magazine. In Feb. 2015, he and Jeff Sharlet won a National Magazine Award for Reporting for a story called “Inside the Iron Closet” about the crackdown on gay culture in Russia.

Tal Beery recently worked as an associate producer on the film The Yes Men Are Revolting. The movie is about The Yes Men, a group that uses satirical performance art to make political statements. The movie played at the IFC Center in New York City in June and July of 2015.

Jose Marantes is living in Orlando, Fla., and works as the membership development director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. He is a proud father of two toddlers, Sebastian and Dalia. In his free time, he is working on a social enterprise that brings English and Spanish learners into a dynamic community of practice called Fluente! It’s like Zumba, but for language learners.

Fazal Yameen was living in Ireland in early 2015 and working on CabEasy (a taxi-sharing app for college students) with Jon McKinney ’04. They were selected as one of 10 companies to be part of an accelerator run by SOSVentures and Carma Carpooling that focuses on transportation-related initiatives.

Rebecca Lipman graduated from Harvard Law School in May of 2015. She is clerking for a N.J. federal judge. Daniel Dykes also graduated from Harvard Law School in 2014; he works at the law office of Curtis Mallet-Prevost. He’s also still studying languages, now learning Italian.

Julia Kleinman is in Los Angeles, working at Walt Disney in the consumer products department. She recently finished her master’s degree in business administration at the Columbia Business School.

In Aug. 2015, Mike Dacey completed a PhD in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis in the summer of this year. He is now teaching philosophy at Washington University, so feel free to say hi to him and debate Kant.
Karolina Ogrodnik is in her second year as an intern in pediatrics at Baystate Medical Center, part of Tufts University School of Medicine. She is thinking of specializing in pediatric endocrinology.

Sophie Karp and Evan Katin-Borland are still living in Brooklyn and couldn’t be more delighted. In May 2015, Sophie completed her PhD in counseling psychology from Fordham University.

Congratulations to Nate Baumgart who wed Jessica Maclean in July 2015! Wes alum in attendance include Kevin Budner, Rob Weinstock, and Shannon Flaherty. Nate and Jessica are taking a trip around the world starting in December and then moving out of Chicago.

Celia Reddick completed her master’s in international education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the spring of this year, and will be continuing in the doctoral program. She recently married Alain Uwumugambi, whom she met while working with Partners In Health in Rwanda. Alain is doing his medical residency at Boston Medical Center. Congrats!

Congratulations to Bettina Schlegel, who married Phil Amidon ’05 in Oct. 2014, and are coming up on their one-year anniversary! Many Wes alum were in attendance, too many to list, but all of them important.

Saad Handoo had the pleasure of getting married to his dream lady, Mariam Qureshi, in Washington D.C., in Aug. 2014. He works in the revenue management group at United Airlines. On your next trip in Chicago, go visit him in the Willis Tower or find him aimlessly wandering the streets of Wicker Park.

Joel M. Bhuiyan married Susie Cheung in Nov. of 2014 and they just had their reception in June of 2015. He is working as the community engagement coordinator at NYC Smoke-Free at Public Health Solutions.

In July 2015, Anna Pinkert married Stef Fisher in Cambridge, Mass. Michelle Atwood ’05 was the maid of honor and Rachel Schreiber ’05 was a bridesmaid. The couple live in Jamaica Plain, Mass., with their cat Tenzing.

On June 27, John Wesley married Liza Cantor in Fayetteville, N.Y. They were elated to celebrate their union the day after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic marriage equality decision and incorporated the victory into their ceremony. John is a legal aid lawyer in Syracuse and Liza is a fourth-year medical student and aspiring pediatrician. Wes alums in attendance include Willie Gould, Paul Max McElfresh, Craig Thomas, Lydia Blanchard, Dana Taussig and Chloe Safier, Will Leuchter-Mindel ’07, Ben Levinger ’07 and of course John’s father Jack Wesley ’70. John hopes to revive his band “The Band Cover band Band” (which features Willie, Ari Brand, Chris Carmody, Greg Donahue ’07, Jake Lewis ’07, and Jesse Galdston) at the 10th Reunion!

Emily Dreyfuss is expecting her first child with husband Seth Shipman ’05. Baby Dreyfuss Shipman will be born in Oct. 2015, and the family plans to dress him entirely in hand-me-downs from the ’80s, so if you see a tiny breakdancer crawling around campus next Reunion, say hey. Emily is the news and opinion editor at WIRED Magazine, and she has been trying to resist the urge to publish only op-eds about family-leave rights.

On May 17, Ilana Davis Sharpe and her husband Dan Sharpe welcomed a baby boy named Gabriel. Gabriel joins big sister Lorelei and the family couldn’t be happier.

Nina Eichacker and Johann Patlak are planning to stay in the Boston area for at least two more years while Johann finishes his residency at Beth Israel and starts a fellowship in ICU care. They are also celebrating the birth of a baby girl! Her name is Josephine Patlak Eichacker, and she has been making the social rounds, having met Emily Levy, Adina Bricklin, and Emily Jacobs-Palmer already.

Erin Glaser and her husband recently celebrated the first birthday of their daughter Ivy Marian Glaser, who was born July 12, 2014. Erin still coaches volleyball at Hamilton and this past season her team made it to NESCAC playoffs for the first time in program history. Congratulations!

Last April, Nezia Azmi relocated to Honolulu where she now lives with her husband and recently began working as international and special programs coordinator in the Dean’s Office for the College of Education at the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa. Nezia and Paul enjoy days at the beach as well as ridiculously perfect mangoes and papayas on a regular basis.

Retse Johnson-Daniel is living in Atlanta with her husband, Alfred, and 4-year-old daughter, Ania Mari. She works as a special education and science teacher at Dutchtown High School, where she also co-sponsors Sisters of Virtue and coaches the swim team. Retse was awarded Teacher of the Year for the 2014–2015 school year and recently gave birth to her second daughter, Amya Irie, on Feb. 3.

Arcelie Reyes has begun working as a birth and postpartum doula in NYC. Having already helped a lot of parents and their breastfeeding babies as a La Leche League leader, Arcelie is excited to delve deeper into birth work. She and Evan Newell ’02 are looking forward to September, when their daughter, Phoenix, will join her big brother, Kingston, at school.

Rachel Morris was married to Samuel Bruce on May 17th. Many Wesleyan alumni spanning more than a decade of class years were in attendance. The couple continues to reside in New York City.

Geoffrey Hill completed his fellowship in interventional radiology at Thomas Jefferson University in June of 2014. He, his wife and two children moved to Saratoga Springs, where he is working for Adirondack Radiology and developing a new interventional oncology program at Glens Falls Hospital.

Emily Chenette welcomed a baby son, Avelino Hudson, on Aug. 14, 2014. She is still living in the Hartford area and is a social worker.

Jessie Rubin is living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, working at Yahoo on its event marketing team, and was planning to marry her fiancé, Darius Van Arman, in Brooklyn come August, with many Wesleyan friends in attendance.

Alison Criscitiello successfully completed Borderski (an all-women’s winter ski traverse of the Pamirs in Tajikistan)! She headed to the Canadian high Arctic for May to drill ice cores as part of a new project she is the principal investigator on.

Andrew and Betsy Fippinger welcomed their second child, Henry David Fippinger (Wesleyan class of 2037), into the world on June 3, 2015.

John A. Graham accepted a one year position as a post-doctoral associate at the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music. He would love to reconnect with alums in the area!

Dana Goldman lives in her hometown, Atlanta, with her husband and daughter. She started her own psychotherapy private practice this past year, Stone Cottage Counseling, treating kids, teens, and adults.

Rikkia Hunter Ben Yehudah is living in New Haven, Conn. She works at a large nonprofit organization as a clinical director. She is an expressive arts therapist and will receive her license to practice counseling this year. She is married and has three children. She also works with youth and the arts and hopes to develop an organization with her colleagues.

Meghan Kelly (now Kelly-Stallings) works as a policy analyst for the Seattle Public Library. She and her husband, Danny, welcomed their new addition, Amos, on Feb. 22. One of Amos’s favorite baby-sitters is Kristin Kyrka ’04.

Jill Benson lives in Asheville, N.C., and is pursuing a master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at East Carolina University. She and her husband, Brett, just welcomed a new addition to their family, a bouncing baby boy named Miles Rafael.

Ariana Mufson Dazet graduated from Simmons College with her MSW, specializing in perinatal social work, and will be starting off her new career at McLean Psychiatric Hospital. Her son, Desmond, is almost a year old.

This fall, Aaron Paige will begin his second year as a visiting assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Denver.

After 11 years of teaching middle school humanities and developing curriculum, Liz Simmons is a doctoral candidate at Penn in the teaching, learning, and teacher education division.

In early June, 15 ladies gathered in Waterbury Vt., to celebrate Sonya Behnke. Participants included Erin Malone, Melissa Courtemanche, Julie Perlin, Catherine (Rodin) Faulk, Laura Pfeiffenberger, Dr. Sarabeth Broder-Fingert, Emily Berman, Martina McPherson ’04, Bernadette Doykos ’04, Meriel Darzen ’04, Jenna Flateman Posner ’04, Leila Bozorg ’04, and Lynn Leber ’06. They’re all excited to gather again on the Maine Coast in early August for the nuptials.

Matt Kushner and Lauren Edgar Kushner welcomed their first child, Marian Lois Kushner, on June 10th at 2:09 in the afternoon, weighing 7 lbs. and measuring 20 inches. Mom and baby are fine and all are home getting used to the beginnings of family life.

Kate Reder married Nadeem Sheikh on May 9, 2015. Ari Wolfe and Juliet Werner were in Kate’s bridal party. Ari and Peter Wilson-Tobin sang during the ceremony. Other Wesleyan friends were in attendance: Cara Zwerling-Moeller, Rigel Massaro, Joanna Shalleck-Klein ’04, Dan Moger, Jenny Gassman-Pines, Claire Kessler-Bradner, and Alex Krassner ’02. Kate and Nadeem live in London and invite alums passing through to reach out.

Michael Homolka writes, “I am living in New York City and have recently switched careers from book production at Simon & Schuster to the New York City Teaching Fellows program. I have also had a collection of poetry, titled Antiquity, accepted and it is forthcoming in 2016 from Sarabande Books.”

Elizabeth Savage and her husband of nearly five years, Michael Schopf, are expecting their second child in October. They live in Portland, Ore. Elizabeth is an attorney whose practice focuses on civil litigation.

Ben Spatz’s book, What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research, was published by Routledge in March. The acknowledgments mention Pedro Alejandro, Cheryl Cutler, and Hope Weissman. He and his partner, Michelle Goldsmith, also welcomed their first child that month as well.

Speaking of babies, in addition to her continued success as a NYC wedding photographer, Sarah Tew is building a body of personal work on home birth, so if any of you pregnant New Yorkers out there are interested in participating, check out her website and get in touch.

Again, re: babies: had an awesome stay with a pregnant Mary Robertson in Brooklyn. She and her husband, Josh, were expecting a baby boy in July.

On a still related note, Don Kim and his wife are expecting their first child in December.
Lauren Royce lives in NYC with her husband and two daughters, who are 5 and 7, and continues to love her career as a child and adolescent psychiatrist in private practice.

Being a list person, I appreciated the following dispatch from Raymong Kuo:
“1. My wife and I welcomed our daughter, Layla, our first child.
“2. We moved into our new home in Brooklyn.
“3. I received my Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University.
“4. I started as an assistant professor of political science at the University at Albany, SUNY, but moved earlier this year to Fordham University in the same capacity.
“5. I regularly see Alexandre Su, who also lives in Brooklyn.”

It was great to hear from Josh Kagan. He recently became the director of business development and sales for Clean Fund, a specialty finance company that provides commercial building owners with capital to do energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. “No kids (yet) though have been married for four years almost to the day.”

I also heard from the wonderful Amos Hausman-Rogers, who writes, “I have been traveling and raising money for charity by donating and seeing if people want to match my donation for home-lessness. I raised a fair bit, and think I’m taking the summer off.”

I still remember seeing Sarah Kozinn perform at Wes and being struck by her talent, so I was especially glad to get her news. “My husband and I moved to Los Angeles in 2013 after almost 12 years in NYC,” she writes. “I am a theater professor at Occidental College and just published my first book, Justice Performed: Courtroom TV Shows and the Theaters of Popular Law (Bloomsbury). Last September we multiplied and had a baby! He’s an adorable goofball. Other than that I’m still acting and writing and hanging with Wes folks out here.”

From Sonya Abrams: “I hightailed it to San Francisco immediately upon graduation and haven’t looked back, and I now have three kids under four years old (Most recent addition, Keira, born in February), so my professional pursuits have been temporarily buried under a pile of sippy cups and Pampers, though I still find time to do some freelance event photography for a public affairs forum.”

Rachel Stevens, in western Mass., had an even more memorable blizzard experience than the rest of us sorry New Englanders. “During the January 27 blizzard—luckily only six inches here, my brother in Worcester got 33—we welcomed Lillian Winslow Stevens! She is spoiling us rotten, and loves visitors.”

My dear buddy Ben Stanko has a message, too. “I’ve moved from South Philly to the Mount Airy neighborhood in Philadelphia. My wife, Kim Massare, and our two-and-a-half year-old-son, Theo, are having lots of fun exploring the woods around the Wissahickon Creek. I’ve also recently been promoted to district arborist in the urban forestry division of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation.”

We have a winner for this round’s nonprofit spotlight, wherein I donate to one awesome organization that you nominate. The spotlight goes to Women’s Prison Association, thanks to Samantha Yard. In the fall, Samantha begins a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in PTSD at the Seattle VA. Her husband, Antoine McNamara, continues his work as a patent litigator, and their daughter, Sophie, is about to start preschool.

Samantha, who conducted her dissertation research with women in jail and prison, added that the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) provides services across various stages of involvement with the criminal justice system, and “they have actual outcome data (a rarity) showing that their programs reduce recidivism, which is why they get my vote.” Join me in donating to the WPA this month at wpaonline.org!

Meanwhile, here in Boston, my boyfriend, Nick, and I eloped and bought a house in the city with a little yard, enabling my intense gardening addiction. We adopted two former street cats that are unbearably cute and ridiculous. I’m still working with incarcerated teens, managing a program that gives them access to lawyers. I’m also on the board of Phinney’s Friends, an all-volunteer nonprofit that helps disabled, low-income people in the Boston area keep their beloved pets by providing assistance with their care: phinneysfriends.org. We’re always looking for volunteers, and many tasks can be done remotely!

Thanks, all. I can hardly believe I’m writing this, but I would love to catch up at our upcoming 15th Reunion. Also, starting with the next issue, Aryn Sperandio will join me in writing the notes. So you’ll be hearing from her, too.

Class of 2000, great to see many of you at the 15th Reunion in May, and we have officially began the journey towards our 20th Reunion! Now on to the news, notes and updates…

Scott Mayerowitz and his wife, Sheri, are excited to announce the arrival of their daughter Leah Paige Mayerowitz. That’s why the family wasn’t able to attend our 15th Reunion but they look forward to seeing everybody for our 20th.

Jason Robinson and his fiancée, Cassandra Flemming, are proud to present Bryce Robinson, born June 7, 2014. Mom and Dad have known each other for 20 years and are happy and blessed to be a family.

Luke Davenport writes “I recently left my job at IBM to start an education consultancy called District Public that helps New York City school leaders use their data more effectively. It’s an exciting change and very rewarding so far.”

Andrea McKnight says “I continue to practice law in southeastern Massachusetts. I’m pleased to announce that for the third consecutive year I was recognized with the Massachusetts Super Lawyer Rising Star award. My practice consists of domestic relations matters and civil litigation—pretty much anything that keeps me in a courtroom!”

Rachel Quinn lives with her partner, Eesha Pandit, in Houston. Earlier this year, they joined 10 of Rachel’s 12 siblings and hundreds of family members in laying her father Dr. Bernard Kwesi Glover to rest in his home village of Akutukope in the Volta Region of Ghana. This fall Rachel will start a tenure-track position in women’s, gender and sexuality studies and comparative cultural studies at the University of Houston. She is working on several articles as well as her first book manuscript, which focus on Dominican women’s lives in Santo Domingo, mixed race identities, and gender and sexuality in contemporary transnational Caribbean culture.

Aaron Shield accepted a tenure-track job as assistant professor of speech pathology and audiology at Miami University of Ohio, where he continues his research on autism and deafness, and teaches undergraduate and graduate students about language development and language disorders. He and his husband, Reginald Harris, moved to Cincinnati this summer.

Gabe Paquette is a professor of history at Johns Hopkins, where he directs the university’s Latin American studies program. Gabe and wife Johanna Bard Richlin ’08 welcomed their baby daughter, Antonia Bard Paquette, into the world on June 5.

Dani Snyder-Young earned tenure at Illinois Wesleyan University last year. Her daughter, Parker, was born in March.

Elsie Kagan and Carl Robichaud welcomed a daughter, Willa Tilden, into their family on May 27. Her brothers, Jasper and Alexan, are delighted by the addition. Elsie continues to teach and make art in Brooklyn, where she started a parent artist network, and this year received a grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Carl continues his job at Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he makes grants to organizations working to reduce nuclear risks. Elsie and Carl recently visited the Bay Area to spend some time with Dan Engler and Sahra Halpern.

Liz Shulman and her husband, Andrew, welcomed a baby boy—Isaac Emmett Mastronarde—on Oct. 7, 2014. He has blazing red hair and dual Canadian-American citizenship.

Sarah Maine lives in New York, working as director of product development for California-based company Independent Means, and doing creative projects in her spare time. On Aug. 1, she married Scott Sherratt, with Jenessa Joffe ’00, Anders Peterson, Rob Finn ’98, Karen Correa, Allison Radecki ’98, and Neal Wilkinson ’98 in attendance. A wonderful time was had by all!

After 11 years of schooling, Jennifer Karlin graduated from the University of Chicago with an MD in June. During her time at UChicago, she also earned a PhD in the conceptual and historical studies of science, an MA in anthropology, and a fellowship in clinical medical ethics from the MacLean Center. Since so many people were coming into town for the MD hooding and graduation, Jen and Andrew Mullen decided three weeks before the celebration to include a marriage ceremony in the weekend festivities. The ceremony was officiated by Amelia Borofsky at the Ivy Room in Chicago on May 30, 2015. In attendance were the following revelers: professor of psychology and the science in society program Jill Morawski and her family, Jessie Torrisi ’98 (sang and played guitar), Abigail Levine (choreographed a solo dance which turned into a choreographed flash mob!), Laura Zaks (spoke in ceremony and her boys, Luka and Tiago, were flower boys), Diana Glanternik (sang “Moon River” and spoke in ceremony), Shira Gans ’01 (spoke in ceremony), Laura Plageman (spoke in ceremony), Margo Simon (whose husband, Josh Millis, sketched the ceremony in real time) and Martin Lijtmaer (played guitar at the ceremony and reception). See online version for full list of Wes alums in attendance. After returning from a week-long honeymoon in Fiji, Jen left Chicago and moved to San Francisco for her residency in family medicine at UCSF.

When Amelia Borofsky is not officiating weddings, she is a character and researcher in Gemma Cubero del Barrio’s Homecoming, a documentary on climate change and two women who return to Pukapuka, the remote coral atoll in the Cook Islands where they grew up.

Dukagjin Blakaj joined the faculty at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

Ryan Boutin never expected to be back in Middletown, but he is a physician (hospitalist) at Middlesex Hospital, where he occasionally treats Wes students.

Lauren Tobias lives in D.C., where her son just finished kindergarten. She left the Institute of Medicine two years ago to start her own consulting shop. This spring, she caught up with Jill Clark and Monisha Nariani, and saw Lina Kee and Ookie Ma ’98 when they were stateside this summer to have a second kid. Lauren sees Alison MacAdam occasionally, now that she is back in D.C. after a year in Boston. After 11 years, Alison left All Things Considered, but not NPR. She is now an editorial coach and trainer working to create more opportunities for public radio producers, editors, and reporters to talk about and improve their craft. She shares storytelling techniques from the best NPR content at nprstorytelling.tumblr.com.

After living in New York for almost 16 years, Jayanthi Raja Segaran and her husband, Tirtha Das PhD ’01, moved to the suburbs of Westchester, with two little boys in tow (Rohin, 7 and Eishaan, 3). She has a shorter commute to her job at PepsiCo in White Plains, and a garden to call her own.

Michelle Kawka runs her own portrait and corporate photography and video business in New York City, specializing in character driven portraiture. While her studio is located in Chelsea, she recently moved uptown to Washington Heights. Check out her work at www.michellekawka.com.

Sung An and Suryo Soekarno met up for lunch in Jakarta in May to talk about old times and old friends. Both work in Southeast Asia after stints in the U.S. and elsewhere in Asia earlier in their careers. Sung is a managing director with Falcon Partners, a private equity firm. Suryo is an account director with Millward Brown, a market research and consulting firm.

Thanks for sharing! Keep ’em coming! Hope you all had a relaxing summer!

Jason writes: Greetings from Charlottesville, Va. My husband and I finally made the jump and left the NYC area. We’ve been in Virginia for a year now and opened a restaurant called MarieBette Café & Bakery, named after our two daughters, Marian & Betty. It has been an incredible experience for us and, thankfully, we’ve thus far been successful. One of the best things about the restaurant is that we have been visited by many Wes alums.

Our friends Emily Lieberman and Jules Cohen came in with their three wonderful daughters while on their way to visit Jules’ parents in the D.C. area. Jules and Emily are living in Seattle where Jules works for Microsoft. Emily left life as a lawyer to be a full-time mom and, as you might expect, is truly one of the most fun moms I’ve ever met.

Dena Rosenberg also visited us at the restaurant with her daughter, Odessa, while visiting her in-laws. I hadn’t seen her in more than 10 years and it was nice to catch up. Dena writes: “Heather Marciniec, Maria Stasavage and I went to see Catie Lazarus’s ’99 amazing Employee of the Month show at Joe’s Pub! Maya Seiden and her husband brought their two sons (prospective classes of ’32 and ’34, respectively) to Wes for the first time last weekend! Jehan Manekshaw visited the States this spring and had a mini reunion with Claire Hruby, Polly Fiveash, Aongus Burke and Anand Nayak ’96. Jehan also met up with Nitin Kochhar and Omar Rahim ’96 in NYC, and caught up with Sean Dague in Poughkeepsie! Jehan married Shaizia Jifri and they have a lovely baby boy, Aden. Jehan runs two theatre organisations in Mumbai: The Young People’s Theatre Programme and The Drama School, Mumbai.”

Anthony Veneziale writes: “I started a new company called Speechless and we are taking Silicon Valley by storm, helping people to make presentations that matter, one improvised PowerPoint at a time! It’s www.speechlesslive.com. I am still performing with Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 (now Dr. Miranda thanks to Wesleyan) and Bill Sherman ’02 in Freestyle Love Supreme. I basically still get to make up stuff as an improviser for a living.”
Stevie Caldwell bought a condo last year with her wife, Jill Clark ’99, in Somerville, Mass. They have a 4-year-old daughter and Jill is still working for the Family Planning program under the Department of Public Health in Massachusetts. Stevie works in the tech sector and is also pursuing music with her band, Six Times Seven, and a side project called “And Then There Was One.”

Nicole Macotsis Hefny is working hard to finish her MA in cultural sustainability from Goucher College, while teaching dance, doing cultural programming, and raising her son between Brooklyn and Egypt, as her husband has joined the Egyptian National Boxing Team after a several year hiatus.

That’s it for now. Please be sure to send any updates to Marcus and me.

Greetings, fellow ’96ers! Can you believe our 20th Reunion is coming up in May? Hope to see many of you there!

Let’s start with the Olatoye-Stroziers. Shola writes: “Matthew, big brothers Alexander and Rowan, and I were pleased to welcome Isabel to our family in May. We are managing the fun and chaos while I run the NYC housing authority and Matthew is the editor of a new Dow Jones site called Mansion Global. We see Tracey Gardner, Randy Slaughter, and their beautiful daughter. I was so excited to celebrate the success of Sarah Wildman’s new book, Paper Love, during her many NYC book tour events this year. At my 40th birthday party, Aisha Cook, Donna Temple ’95, Joy Connolly ’97, Ian Halpern, Saeyun Lee ’93, and others were in the house. Thrilled to get to talk to Tanya Schneider Robinson ’94 and her husband, Earl Robinson ’94, who are in New Orleans. Love that you can still run into people on the street and not just on Facebook. Loved seeing Jason Rosado on lower Broadway.”

When Laura Dine Million wrote in, she also mentioned Sarah Wildman’s book: “I’m still in Los Angeles with my husband, Mike, and two kids, Chloe (7) and Nathan (3.5). I am the producer of the NPR political discussion show Left, Right & Center. I loved seeing Sarah Wildman out here this spring for her book tour!”

Speaking of books, Mary Pagones has published her second one. It’s a novel titled Fortune’s Fool, and you can find it on Amazon.

Benjamin Meyer’s first feature film, Fools, had its world premiere at Dances With Films, in Los Angeles, where it won the Audience Award for Best Competition Feature. He wrote and directed the film and put the final touches on it at Bill Macomber’s Fancy Post.

Aruna Chandran and husband, Kelly Miller, welcomed twins, Lucas Nihal and Nicole Anjali, in May of 2014. Syryna, the family cat, is still waiting for the new “house guests” to leave!

Leigh Needleman and Andrew Frishman ‘97 moved within Cambridge, Mass., to the Central Square area. Leigh works in a neuroscience laboratory at Harvard University. Andrew is co-directing Big Picture Learning. They have two kids (2.5 and 5.5 years old) and try to spend most weekends at Lake Wequaquet on the Cape.

Barrett Feldman relocated to NYC four years ago. After practicing architecture for 13 years, she recently founded an architecture firm—PSF PROJECTS—with two other partners, based in Brooklyn. She writes, “I would happily welcome the chance to work with anyone from the Wesleyan community, as it is a place I continue to hold close to my heart!”

Pascal Pinck also sent an update: “I joined a Seattle-based software company called Socrata, focused on helping government organizations make public data accessible to citizens, researchers, and app developers. If there are any civic hackers or open data nerds out there in Wes-land, I’d love to get in touch!”

Mark Davis continues to work at Wesleyan as the director of planned giving. His daughter, Minerva (or Minnie, 5), is starting kindergarten, and son, Ollie (3), is starting preschool. He hopes that both his children are able to meet other ’96 kids at our 20th Reunion in May.

Thanks to everyone who sent in updates! Please continue to send in news.