Class Notes

TED NELSON
BrightView Commons,
57 Grandeville Crt., apt. 307, Wakefield, RI 02879

It is hard to believe that we are now considered alumni and are not collectively witnessing the beauty of fall in Connecticut. I know there is a lot of Wes-talgia in the air, but do not fear, for I come with updates from your peers.

Tom Brewer is quite busy living in Tulsa, with Michael “Piddy” Piderit ’12. Tom writes: “We make and sell artisan pickled goods. There is unfortunately not much of a market for the wares of amateur picklers in Tulsa, but we are making do—selling whatever we can on Craigslist and eBay when things get desperate (not what you are thinking, ha-ha). It is, if not the most thrilling life, a comfortable one; we’ve eliminated The Man from the picture almost completely—no more worrying about income taxes or angry bosses.”

Emily Weitzman is almost done with the first three months of her Thomas J. Watson Fellowship exploring spoken word and poetry communities around the world. She has spent the beginning of her journey attending poetry events, performing, writing, interviewing, and meeting some amazing people in New Zealand and Australia. In a week, she is off to Nepal, where she will be collaborating with the Word Warriors poetry group and will be an artist-in-residence at Nepal Children’s Art Museum.

Representing red and black, Sydney Lewis is the new assistant dean of admission at Wesleyan, covering Georgia (her home state), Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and parts of Connecticut.

Izzy Rode is working hard as special assistant to the president and CEO in communications and policy at Martha’s Table, an antipoverty nonprofit in D.C.

Henry Cheung writes to us from the boogie down, where he is a Teach For America Corps member, teaching math in the Bronx at Fordham HS for the Arts. “The students are great and the learning curve is becoming less and less steep!”

Luke Harrison writes: “Luke Harrison is unemployed, but he’s doing great emotionally, so no one worry about him!”

Hannah Knudsen spent the summer teaching herself how to cook from a farm-to-table style cookbook. She also built an herb and vegetable garden which was very exciting and rewarding (and also encouraged her cooking!). She was planning a  move to Telluride at the end of October to start a new journey. She’ll be working for the mountain and living in the heart of town. In her free time, she plans on expanding work on her photo thesis, which was a project on the world of horseracing. She is interested in transitioning her project into cowboy culture and the “true west.”

Leah Khambata writes in from the Big Apple: “I moved to Manhattan on June 1st, a week after graduation, and was fortunate enough to land my first post-grad job the very next week, working on the set of the independent feature film, Outliving Emily, which starred actors, Kal Penn and Alexis Bledel. I got to assistant edit and work with the digital imaging technician on a daily basis, which was a thoroughly rewarding and exciting experience.

“In August, I then worked in the art department of the feature film, Meadowland. I was primarily based in the office where I got to do creative tasks like drawing caricatures for classroom sets (heads up—if you see a caricature of Shakespeare or Mark Twain in a classroom scene, you’ll know who drew them!) and also got to do more of the financial accounting side to filmmaking—managing crew members’ petty cash accounts and so on.

“Immediately after that ended in mid-September, I started working at Laura Rosenthal Casting & Process Media, which I am enjoying immensely! I love reading scripts in pre-production, learning about the advertising world and commercial projects, and interacting with all the different people who come in here to audition!

“In the midst of all this film work, I’ve been hanging out with a lot of Weskids and my high school friends who are all here in New York. It’s a weird feeling to hang out in groups where my Wes friends and Bombay ones come together because it’s like two such different worlds colliding, but it’s the good kind of weird, the surreal one, the ‘omg I’m so happy to be in a city where I have these great people around me’ one. So even though post-grad life is still a pretty confusing time all-in-all I’m very grateful for the wonderful experiences I’ve had so far and hope to be able to explore more aspects of the entertainment industry moving forward!”

Sarah Burkett moved to Houston in late June. She is still acting and teaching yoga, in addition to being an independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay.

Alex Pack is in Hong Kong teaching English to college freshmen. He is catching up on all the things he missed out on by not studying abroad—like eating strange street food, flying around Asia on hyper-budget airlines, and remembering what “not being busy” feels like—before he returns state-side in a year-and-a-half to work in consulting in San Francisco.

Danny Blinderman hunted for jobs all summer and finally got one at the end of August. He is now working at the American Jewish Committee in Boston, and moved to Allston three weeks ago.

Leah Khambata writes in from the big apple: “I moved to Manhattan on June 1st, a week after graduation, and was fortunate enough to land my first post-grad job the very next week, working on the set of the independent feature film, “Outliving Emily,” which starred actors, Kal Penn and Alexis Bledel. I got to assistant edit and work with the digital imaging technician on a daily basis, which was a thoroughly rewarding and exciting experience, and enabled me to truly see all the different departments that work together to make a film (as compared to a much smaller scale student thesis film I had made at Wesleyan. Seriously, so different!)

In August, I then worked in the Art department of the feature film, “Meadowland,” directed by Reed Morano, and starring Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson. I was primarily based in the office where I got to do creative tasks like drawing caricatures for classroom sets (heads up – if you see a caricature of Shakespeare or Mark Twain in a classroom scene, you’ll know who drew them!) and also got to do more of the financial accounting side to filmmaking – managing crew members’ petty cash accounts and so on. (Math was actually my favourite subject in High School so I weirdly enjoyed this a lot haha)

Immediately after that ended in mid-September, I started working at “Laura Rosenthal Casting & Process Media” where I currently am at now, and am enjoying immensely! I love reading scripts in pre-production, learning about the advertising world and commercial projects, and interacting with all the different people who come in here to audition! And of course the people here in the office are super nice and friendly, which makes for a great environment!

In the midst of all this film work, I’ve been hanging out with a lot of Weskids and my high school friends who are all here in New York. It’s a weird feeling to hang out in groups where my Wes friends and Bombay ones come together because it’s like two such different worlds colliding, but it’s the good kind of weird, the surreal one, the omg I’m so happy to be in a city where I have these great people around me one. So even though post-grad life is still a pretty confusing time for me, all-in-all I’m very grateful for the wonderful experiences I’ve been able to have so far and hope to be able to explore more aspects of the entertainment industry moving forward!”

Thanks for writing in everyone, keep the notes coming, and let me know if you’re ever in the area!

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu

It’s been a year since the Class of 2013 bid Wesleyan adieu. A year full of spontaneous adventures, not-so-spontaneous work/school schedules, old and new friends, and the promise of constant transition.

Kristen Raddatz moved to Chicago last September for an assistant position in the publicity department at the University of Chicago Press, and was promoted in August. Now a promotions manager at UCP, she handles their Asian studies, anthropology, cartography, and literary criticism titles, as well as publicity for their clients, Unicorn Press and Zed Books. Ally Bernstein and Audrey Kiely also write in from Chicago, where they are questioning their life decisions. They’re finding solace in comedic television programs and bubble tea, but unfortunately the restaurant forgot to add the bubbles. Way to go, Chicago.

Andrew Perlmutter is a management and technology consultant for McGladrey. He has been traveling around the country, helping businesses select software and refine processes to support their cloud computing strategies. He lives in Sherborn, Mass., where he walks his neighbors’ dogs and also works in his garden with his parents. He is training his dog to compete in the 2015 National Dog Show. Andrew Lieberman has been coaching football at Rutgers University as a player development/offensive assistant since January. Julia Bond lives in Boston with Jessica Jordan and Matt Adelman, and works in academic journals publishing at John Wiley & Sons. Julian Applebaum is a software engineer on Squarespace’s e-commerce team. He plays bass in Sirs&Madams, and stays actively involved with WesHack. William T. Davis has successfully started his own gardening business based out of his Brooklyn apartment. Peter Horton and Croy Salinas have officially signed a domestic partnership agreement, which Mark Popinchalk was extremely proud and happy to serve as the primary witness. Ethan Grund left Wesleyan without a specific career path in mind, but has finally decided to follow up his general academic accomplishments by applying for an equally broad second degree as a MD/PHD in neuroscience. All five of them are based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

On the West Coast, Claire Dougherty is living life big out in Californ-i-a! When she isn’t working as a professional off-leash dog walker and trainer in the beautiful Oakland hills, she dedicates herself to producing content for the East Bay Car Project, a digital homage to rectangles and rims. Claire moved in with her best friend, John Schmidt, and enjoys spending her time watching MTV and searching for NY pizza in all the wrong places. Find her on LinkedIn!

Max Ward just finished up a one-year masters program in TV, radio, and film at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, N.Y. He has since moved to Los Angeles and started an unpaid internship at a production company called Pantheon Entertainment. His goal is to become a screenwriter; he has a feature written and submitted to several film festivals. Lindsay Kosasa writes in from the Aloha state, where she is currently a TFA corps member teaching special education, world history, and creative dance at Waipahu High School in Oahu. She established the dance program at Waipahu, turning the dance club into a for-credit class. Lindsay plans on teaching past her two-year TFA commitment.

Jess Seward is in her second year as a college counselor in China. She spent three months in Southeast Asia this spring and is planning to return next spring to SE Asia for six to nine months to volunteer/work following China. Peter Myers has spent much of the past year in Valparaíso, Chile, as an English teacher. Highlights include: having lots of barbecues, navigating the labyrinthine, slang-filled universe of Chilean Spanish, feeling several 6.0+ earthquakes, and being bitten by a stray dog.He also had some poetry published in the Berkeley Poetry Review. James Gardner has been meeting up with many Wes travelers in the Berlin region since his last post. He is in the process of assuming the chief operations officer (COO) position at his company, and plans to put his career aside in a year or so to study for his master’s in Berlin. After spending a year teaching high-school English in the Austrian Alps, Adam Rashkoff has returned to Austria for a second and final year in the same fellowship program. He will be working at a school in the capital city of Vienna and also studying towards an MA in comparative literature at the University of Vienna. Any Wes classmates who find themselves in the area are more than welcome to give him a shout if they are looking for a place to crash or simply for suggestions of which cafés and bars to hit!

Prince Emenalo writes in about starting a graduate program at Georgia State University. He is pursuing a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in management and policy. Amanda Morrow just started physical therapy school in Denver at Regis University. After spending a year working at the Pancreas Center at Columbia University Medical Center in NYC, Taryn Murray has moved back to Ohio to attend medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University. Matt Motta is beginning his second year of PhD work at the University of Minnesota, studying American politics and political psychology. This past spring, Matt won a three-year graduate research fellowship (GRFP) from the National Science Foundation. While on fellowship, he will conduct research focused on better understanding how Americans’ implicit racial attitudes shape public opinion, and work on developing empirical tests designed to improve the quality of data collected from online survey research.

Vivianne and Benjamin (Abravanel) Swerdlow graduated. “Married. Moved. Worked. Quit. Got degus: Fred V and George V. Watched Buffy. Spent time with family. Worked. Quit. Spent time with family. Repeat last three as necessary for the next 40 years, then expect a reevaluation.”

As for me, I’ve finished up my first year at Apple as an engineering program manager. I spend my free time perusing farmers markets, eating my way through the Bay Area, and traveling whenever possible. Thanks to my classmates for all the contributions, and best wishes to everyone!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu

Moon Herrick just finished her work with the Harlem Children’s Zone in June and is now working in New York City for the Allied Services Center. Her responsibilities include connecting HIV-positive people to medical insurance and care. She has also gotten involved in the WAPPS LinkedIn group and was meeting regularly with alums to plan the October 9th event!

Elizabeth Hunter Gauvey-Kern just released an E.P. You can find it on iTunes, Amazon or Spotify. Search Elizabeth Hunter.

Devon Hopkins reports “I’m excited to be joining NGP VAN as the new director of inbound marketing. NGP VAN powers the digital campaign tools for every Democratic committee and most Senate, House, and down ballot races.” Devon is still living in DC and loving it. He recently enjoyed a trip to Chicago to visit Christian Hoyos ’11 and Lauren Goldstein ’11.

Margot Boyer-Dry has been in Brooklyn for the last year-and-a-half and has recently started as head of marketing at Poncho, a betaworks company. She reports, “Every day is a blast.”

Jourdan Hussein, Rudisang Motshubi, and Sandy Yudhistira ’12 just had a mini-reunion in one of the biggest malls in Southeast Asia, Grand Indonesia, in Jakarta. Rudi, who originally hails from Botswana, sailed all the way from Thailand to come down south. They had a fun catch-up and delicious Indonesian meals.

Jen Liebschutz states, “After three years of working for nonprofits in Cambodia, I am excited to live in Cambridge and start my master’s in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. I’d love to connect with other Wes alumni in the Boston area!”

Jamie Thabault is heading to nursing school at the University of New England in Portland, Maine. She also plans to run the Philadelphia marathon with Corinne Duffy and Amanda Baker!

Joe Giaimo took a new job at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., as the executive director of the Maroon Club for Athletic Development. He includes, “Wesleyan was very good to me as an undergrad and employee. I was able to finish my master’s, be a part of a NESCAC/Little 3 Championship football team, and am looking forward to this next challenge. I’ll miss Middletown!”

Thanks for the updates!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Newsmaker: Chia Wei (Wade) Hsu ’10

Chia Wei (Wade) Hsu ’10, a doctoral student working with MIT Professor of Physics Marin Soljacic, has found a new way to confine light. “Typically, in free space, light will go everywhere,” he explained in an article for AZoNano.com. “If you want to confine light, you usually need some special mechanism.” Last summer he demonstrated the confinement of light on the surface of a photonic crystal: held at a certain angle, the crystal would keep light bound to the surface and oscillating continually. At Wesleyan, Hsu was a Freeman Scholar and winner of the Bertman Prize. A math and physics major, he was also the first Wesleyan winner of the American Physical Society’s LeRoy Apker Award. He is using his current research to explore potential applications in crystal lasers. His doctoral thesis will be split between research on nano­particle displays and his work on the confinement of light.

“Ben Seretan has just released a new album. It’s self-titled, self-released, and is the most thrilling and wonderful music you’ll hear all year.” Find his music at benseretan.bandcamp.com.

Dylan Marron writes: “The web series I was in, Whatever this is., was hosted on panel at the Paley Center for Media last year and just a few weeks ago my work on the show was highlighted in a Boston Globe feature on Web series that deserve to win Emmys. Kinda nuts! Also I was cast as a major role on the popular podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, a cult-hit fictional sci-fi podcast that I’ve been touring around with since January.

“What’s kind of singular about these projects is that they are very much indie creations that have made it in the mainstream. I’ve been lucky to find a place for myself in this movement of de-commercializing art and finding new ways to sustain it. Feel very proud of this work.

“Not to pile it all on at once but I’m also in the current TD Bank ad campaign and a play I performed in and helped develop back in the spring was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Production. Forgive the long list I’m just excited to share it with my alma mater where I got to hone these skills! And it’s all part of the same theme; independent art and entertainment can be accessed more readily because of the amazing platforms we have at our disposal. I only got the opportunity to film that TD bank campaign—the literal definition of commercial and corporate entertainment —because I was scouted out from my work with the New York Neo Futurists, a downtown theater company.

“And finally, I’m writing a full-length play for my theater company, the New York Neo Futurists. It’s called The Human Symphony and it’s entirely performed by randomly selected audience members. The quick and dirty tagline is ‘stories of strangers meeting each other online, performed by strangers meeting each other in a theater.’ It’s currently in development and will open on Jan. 22, 2015, in New York.”

Elizabeth Larner writes: “I am in my second year at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Va. In addition to taking classes, I’m serving as a Writing Fellow for the 1L class, as a member of the William & Mary Law Review, as secretary of the Children’s Advocacy Law Society, and as a general board member for the Public Service Fund. Needless to say, I’m super busy, but I’m really enjoying myself. Following graduation in less than two short years, I will be making the move to Charlotte, N.C., to start my career.

Kristen May: “I am currently living in Denver and just started a master’s program at the University of Colorado, Denver. I am working towards a master’s in public administration with a focus on education and nonprofit management. I spent the summer working for Big City Mountaineers leading backcountry trips with urban high school girls in Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains.”

Adrienne Russman: “I’m still a policy adviser in Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s ’74 office, and am also serving as the policy and research director on his reelection campaign through November.”

Matthew Lamothe, production executive at Jeff Rice Films (Academy Award-Winning Lone Survivor, 2 Guns), based in Beverly Hills, Calif., is executive producing the thriller Shut In with Steven Schneider, the creator of the Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchise. Hollywood Reporter article link: hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/beth-riesgraf-starring-indie-horror-729021.

Sandie Weisberger: “I just graduated from Boston College Law School in May and started a job at the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office in September as an assistant district attorney in the Framingham District Court.”

Hallie Coffin-Gould: “I’m living in Boston and working at a private wealth management firm. I just adopted a dog, Paxton (see photo on the web class notes classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu) and am excited for Reunion this spring!”

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Let’s welcome the fall/winter season with some new updates from your fellow classmates!

George Bennum is living in Cambridge, Mass. He works for Bjönd, a healthcare start-up co-founded by Dave Blauer ’84 and Ben Flynn ’03. Their first application, called BjöndHealth, invents and automates hyper-personalized workflows that clinicians, social workers, and family members execute collaboratively to intervene with patient’s suffering complex diseases and conditions. George mentions seeing Conor Veeneman and Adam Nikolich around town a lot.

Seth Halpern has been promoted to strategic consultant at The Advisory Board Company in Washington, D.C. In his new role, Seth will deliver actionable insights and advise a large cohort of several hundred of Advisory’s member health systems across the United States. Seth is in his third and final year at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business (evening program) and will earn his MBA in May.

Anthony Marsella is in his sixth year coaching college football. He coached at Wes in the 2009 season, then worked at Mount Ida College for a year. He is now in his fourth year at Middlebury College coaching running backs, tight ends, and coordinating the special teams.

Sophie Regan (formerly Sophie Pollitt-Cohen) is living in Washington, D.C., and pursuing her MBA at Georgetown University. Sophie got married this summer with some help from two wonderful Wesleyan bridesmaids—Emily Dine and Jodie Rubenstein.

Tess Smagorinsky and Tim Horgan-Kobelski got hitched outside of Boulder, Colo., amongst mountains and margaritas in late June. Among the wedding party (moral support, y’all!) were Barry Finder, Robbie Rindlaub, Liz Demakos, and Liana Hernandez, with many other Wes alumni on the attendee list. Tess and Tim continue to live in Oakland, Calif., where Tim is attending law school at UC, Berkeley, Tess works in HR for Zenefits, and their dog, Huck, spends his days pondering existential questions and eating things from under the couch.

Heather Sheriff just started her graduate studies at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, to become a certified nurse midwife/women’s health nurse practitioner.

On Aug. 3, 2014, Samantha Hurley Doucet and Hannah Barber Doucet were married in a ceremony at Dream Away Lodge in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Attendees included Lesley Chapman, Lily Bushman-Copp ’10, Adrienne Russman ’10, E. Evnen ’10, Katherine Nilson ’11, Mattie Liskow ’11, and Nina Terebessy ’11. Upon returning from their honeymoon in Belize, Hannah began her third year of medical school at SUNY Downstate and Samantha took on a new position with St. Nicks Alliance, a community nonprofit, where she will put to use her graduate degrees in education and social work. The two reside in Brooklyn, with their dog, Olive, and two cats.

Sara Deniz Akant received an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in May 2012. She won a chapbook contest for her manuscript Parades, which will be out from Omnidawn Publishing on October 7th. Her first full-length book manuscript was selected for Rescue Press’s Black Box Poetry contest, and will be published in fall 2015. She also has a chapbook coming out titled Latronic Strag (Persistent Editions). She just moved back to New York and teaches composition/writing at CUNY Baruch.

Shane E. Heckstall writes, “Whats up? I’m doing well. Please buy a copy of my book titled The Romance of LaLa available on Amazon. Stay tuned for my next book scheduled for a 2014 December release titled Did You Create a Monster?, which looks at African-American identity in higher education… much more dense, intriguing, research-based, and contemplative. Find me on LinkedIn.”

Thom Sisson and Nina Gonzalez were married on Sept. 15th in Brooklyn, where they live. Thom is also a graduate of NYU Law and has been working as an attorney since 2012. Nina is an MIM graduate of Instituto de Empresa in Madrid and works in nonprofit management.

For the New Orleans’ Art Biennial Prospect 3, Wesleyan grads and artists Silvie Deutsch and Kira Akerman ’10 have collaborated to create Intimate Immensity, an immersive, site-specific art installation. Using a cloud tank (a hands-on SFX technique) and the centuries-old process of paper marbling, stop-motion animations are projected onto a ceiling: the small-scale process becomes gigantic. An organic interaction between pure water and spray paint reveals a push-and-pull relationship—two substances making room for each other on a finite surface. The piece opened Oct. 25th.

Arthur Nazarian has started his first year of his two-year MBA program at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management alongside Arran Bardige ’10, who joins him in the same class, and Alison Kung, who is a second-year in the program. He is enjoying the unusually pleasant warm weather this autumn as he studies accounting, marketing, and economics—all very exciting fields of study that are unfortunately lacking that intellectual Wesleyan flair.

Jon Short spent three years as a special education teacher, earning a master’s in education, and is now in his third year as an instructional coach, working to bring under-performing K-8 Phoenix, Ariz., schools into high-achieving status. He dedicates most of his free time to working as the vice-chair for the Board of Grand Canyon Performing Arts, Arizona’s oldest and largest LGBTQ arts organization.

Paul Boulat and Michelle Brown are roommates once again, now living in Astoria. Paul is continuing his work with Vermont-based luxury textile company ANICHINI and recently started an MBA at NYU’s Langone program. Michelle completed her master’s degree in art history from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts in 2012 and currently works in the editorial department at Sotheby’s.

Alicia Garrison writes: “I have been working on mosaic murals in Philadelphia. The first mosaic is for Maplewood Mall, a small area in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia that is undergoing a long-term beautification and revitalization program. It is a 5 x 6-foot mural, due to be installed this fall. I worked with wonderful students at Germantown Friends School and the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in creating this image. The mural with the two children reading and sitting back to back in the sunset is the first mural I had the pleasure of designing and creating all myself. It was for Belmont Charter School, an elementary/middle school in West Philadelphia. I was given two words for the theme: ‘Youth Empowerment.’ My goal was to create an image that represented a safe haven for youth, education, growth, and knowledge. The design was loosely based on a piece of work I actually made when I was in middle school.” See the photos of Alicia’s work on our Class Notes website.

Thanks to everyone who sent in notes. Please keep them coming!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

The class of ’08 had a busy year so far! Emily Hauck writes from Paris: “I was lucky to get a Thanksgiving visit from Mark Purser and his girlfriend, Jignasha. I skipped work to spend a day with them exploring Paris and we even managed to whip up a pretty decent Thanksgiving dinner. Otherwise [my boyfriend] Julien and I are looking forward to our annual East Coast extravaganza, which almost always includes a ‘welcome back to America’ meal in a greasy NYC diner with Izaak Orlansky, DC happy hours with Emily Malkin and Maura Scully, Martha’s Vineyard relaxing with Rebecca Feiden and luckily for us this year we’ll even get to see Stephanie Schwartz, who will be back from Burundi just in time for us to have one day together in New York.”

Sage Trombulak and Sam Ruth got married in June, with bridesmaids Katie Poor, Alicia Collen-Zeidan, and Zoe Holder, and groomsmen Mark Kelley and Raffi Stern at their sides. Annalee Pratt, JZ Golden ’09, and “a few other Wes-kids who didn’t get us permission to print their names in Class Notes in time were also there to join us with a spirited dance to Kids while our bemused family and non-Wes friends looked on. We’re also trying to rush through as many other life events as possible, including both finishing our master’s degrees in May, closing on a house in August, and Sage starting a new job. Why we decided to throw a second Tough Mudder into the mix as well is anyone’s guess.”

Leslie Prado is into her second year of a joint master of public health (epidemiology) and physician assistant at George Washington University. She loves what she is learning and is enjoying the DC life. This semester she learned how to do a full physical exam on a patient!

Jessica Sullivan and Adam Tinkle moved from their longtime homestead outside San Diego, having more or less completed graduate school. Now, both are teaching at Skidmore College and are living in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. They’re looking forward to re-connecting with the many friends they missed throughout their West Coast sojourn, and are very happy to the offer their guest room to any upstate vacationers or Adirondack ramblers they may have lost touch with.

Kate Letourneau writes: “My husband, Andy Lubershane ’06, and I are moving to the Portland, Maine, area, where I just got a job as a primary care nurse practitioner. In June we went to the Minnesota wedding of Charlotte Riggs to Mike Wells, and had a great time with Henny Admoni, Meera Dave, Woody Leslie, Izaak Orlansky, Emily Palmer, Liz Wyner, and Lauren Nichols ’07.

Having worked for Ben Silverman at Electus as a manager of development, Amanda Krentzman is now starting a new job as director of development for Gail Berman at her new company The Jackal Group.

Stephanie Pfeiffer moved to Cambridge, England, for her job with the U.S. Defense Department. She is loving her Aga oven and encourages visitors come see her in the Old World.

Mark Leonida writes in from his holiday in Malaysia visiting fellow ’08 grad Cristabel Tan. “We just spent the past two days climbing Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Malaysia at 13,435 feet. It was our first and probably last time ever doing something like this, as right now we feel more like Wesleyan class of 1908. (Not to be ageist, but, yeah, neither of us can walk like we used to.)”

Andrés Orejuela is back in New York City, where he lives, works, and studies for a PhD in comparative literature with André Aciman (Visiting Distinguished Writer ’09) at CUNY’s Graduate Center, after a summer teaching at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He worked there with, among other Wessies, LaShawn Springer and Geoffrey Tanner ’04 MALS ’06. Russell House remains, to him, the center of the most beautiful campus in all of New England.

Alicia collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Iris Jacob is living in Washington, D.C., with her partner Mike Bolds ’08 (an English and history teacher, as well as the coach of a high school spoken word team), their incredible 2-year-old daughter Ifetayo and their soon to be born baby girl (congratulations!). Iris is an adjunct faculty member in the Women’s Studies Department at Trinity Washington University where she teaches classes on Black feminism and women’s leadership. Iris also works as an organizer and trainer with Teaching for Change, a local organization that works to combat gentrification, school closures and the charter school take over. After graduating last year with an MFA in poetry and literary translation from Queens College, Zakia Henderson-Brown has been working joyously at the nonprofit publisher The New Press, where she serves as the outreach coordinator for The New Jim Crow as well as an associate editor. Zakia spends her “free” time working with the group No Disrespect, which works to prevent gendered and sexualized street harassment. She occasionally visits Iris and Mike in Washington, D.C., and sorely misses Tia Clinton, who is living the dream in Ann Arbor pursuing a doctorate. Otherwise, she gets into regular shenanigans with stalwart Harlem-dweller Nyasha Foy, who works as the counsel of business and legal affairs for Above Average Productions. Teddy O’Connor resides in Los Angeles and he has learned that L.A. boasts an abundance of the following: hot yoga classes, kale, power crystals, gay men who are obsessed with Disneyland, and scarves. Teddy worked on animation for Jeff and Some Aliens which is part of Comedy Central’s series Triptank. Teddy also worked with Victor Vazquez and Jordan Fish on an animated music video for Victor’s album Word. Alex Weber registered his first business here in Beijing, Goldenspan Business Consulting, and is very proud of his little limited liability baby. Please visit goldenspan.com for more information. Christina Marenson has moved to London, where she is working at work at an international communications firm. She lives with Rebecca Appel, who works at The New York Times and moved to London after many years in The Paris Bureau. Jenevive Nykolak has advanced to PhD candidacy in visual cultural studies at the University of Rochester in May 2014, and will be spending the 2014-2015 academic year doing dissertation research in Paris as the proud recipient of a Chateaubriand Fellowship. Nina Eichacker defended her dissertation and completed her PhD in economics after seven years of hard work. She and Johann Patlak are living in Jamaica Plain, Mass., and would love to run into more Wes alums! After earning her PhD in English from UCLA, Tara Fickle moved from Los Angeles back to Oregon, where she works as an assistant professor of English. Her specialties are Asian American literature and digital humanities, although she is also affiliated with ethnic studies and she teaches in the English department’s new comics and cartoon studies minor (I guess our late night Justice League Unlimited viewings paid off!). Congratulations to Zach Shemtob, who is the editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Review as of January 2014. He is located in Washington, D.C., and enjoying it. Speaking of law school, Rebecca Lipman is in her third year at Harvard Law School. Daniel Dykes graduated from Harvard Law School in May and spent the summer taking the New York bar exam, giving tours of the Harvard campus, and hiking out west in several national parks—a trip that included a close encounter with a mother grizzly and two cubs! Daniel moved in the fall of 2014 to Queens and works at the international law firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. Celia Reddick has spent the last few years working with INGO Partners In Health in Rwanda and Boston, and is now pursuing a master’s degree in the International Education Policy program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She’s also planning her wedding for the summer of 2015. Ali Osborn works at Bowne Printers, the custom printing office of South Street Seaport Museum’s historic letterpress shop in New York City. She works with fellow alum Gideon Finck ‘11. Bowne Printers teaches workshops, creates merchandise, and prints custom work such as wedding invitations for Jess Smith and Willy Friedman. Adam Rose lives in San Francisco and is engaged to a cappuccino-sipping Seattleite, although he maintains loyalty to the Philadelphia Eagles. He works as an innovation consultant and is considering launching an Eagles-themed bar in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. Congratulations to Thapana Pipe Chairoj whose family gained a new addition by the name of Prynn Chairoj. Prynn was born March 2014 and Pipe and his wife couldn’t be happier! Additional congrats to Kristy Elliot, who will celebrate the birth of her fourth child in January 2015. She and her husband live in Bridgeport, Conn., and Kristy will be completing graduate school soon. And an additional congratulations to Hanako Moondance and Alex Salazar, who had a beautiful baby boy Thelonious Guandique-Moondance in October 2013. Hanako is enrolled in in a master’s program for library and information science through the University of North Texas online program in Los Angeles Christie Roberts is engaged to Brendan Lovelette (her high school beau). They plan to marry in Middleburg, Va., in March 2015. Christie works at The Hill School (also in Middleburg), where she teaches Latin and works as an administrator. Congratulations to Brian Heiss and Sarah Myksin who wed in an outdoor ceremony at the Star Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore, Md., in May 2014. Wesleyan alum in attendance include James Charney, Francisco Carreno, Alec Zebrowski (who gave a wonderful best man toast), and myself. Congratulations toKate Longley who married in the summer of 2014 to Steve Wood (who is not a Wesleyan alum but is an all-around wonderful guy). They wed in Provinceton, Mass. Congrats to Steven Wengrovitz who married Dan Freeman in October 2014 in upstate New York. They live in the Bay Area of California, where Steven works as a researcher at Facebook and Dan is a lawyer at a firm nearby in Palo Alto. Ten years after their first official meeting in front of WesWings, Caitlin Petre and Ari Brand got married in September 2014 at a summer camp on Shelter Island. Ari proposed last year by taking Caitlin on a surprise trip back to Wesleyan, where they revisited the landmarks of their early courtship: from the Butterfield C lounge to the lawns between Fountain and Pine. Wesleyan was well represented at the wedding; alums in attendance include Tal Beery, Daniel Rubin, Annie Mathews, Kate Fletcher, Shayla Silver-Balbus, Missy Ablin, Aisha Twells, Cassandre Pallas and David Stein, Kevin Sattin ’05, David Rood-Ojalvo ’05, Andrew Vernon-Jones ’05, Naomi Ekperigin ’05, Matt Kertman ’05, Lauren Stossel ’07, and Hallie Cooper-Novack ’07, as well as Ari’s brother and sister-in-law, Jesse Brand ’02 and Anna Johnson ’02. Jesse and Anna’s daughter Willa was the flower girl.

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com

Stephen Becker finished a year at IBM Research in New York and moved to Boulder, Colo., to start a job as assistant professor in applied math at CU. His wife, Kimberly, is still teaching high school physics, and his daughter Sophie just turned two and enjoyed herself dancing at the wedding of Tushar Kansal and Tanya Sehgal in Washington, D.C. Other class members at the wedding were John Logan Durland, Theodore Booth Haley, Max Greene, Henry and Sam White, Amar Shibli and Meng Li, Julia Simpson ’06, and Lena ’04 and Matthew Roe.

Niv Elis has been living the good life in Tel Aviv, where aside from occasional rocket-dodging, he has been focusing on reporting on business and economics for the Jerusalem Post. He has also launched an original podcast with the JPost, the first ever for an Israeli paper, and is hosting a weekly show called The Cost of Doing Business on the TLV1 radio station.

Julia Silbergeld is getting her MBA at UC Berkeley, along with Will Leuchter-Mindel ’07, Lexi Sturdy ’10, and Grace Lesser ’08. Julia is focusing on social entrepreneurship and sustainable food and working at startup Farmigo.

On June 25th Nicole Peterson Pritchard and her husband Stephen Pritchard welcomed their second daughter, Risa Déise, who joins her now 4-year-old sister, Ivy Syona. Risa’s first friend was baby Sebastian, son of Maggie White and Eli Brown ’04. Among her first visitors in the hospital were her Wesleyan Aunties Michelle Grier, Katherine Ambia, Justine Almada, and Rashida Abuwala. She has been a beautiful and cheerful new addition to the family!

Jason Carey ’99 and Beverly Baker Carey welcomed a son, Allister James, on Aug. 19, 2014. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.

Kevin Egolf is working on starting the Local Farms Fund, a socially responsible venture providing land access to early stage farmers in the New York foodshed.

In October, Shannon McIntyre Hooper and her husband relocated to Nashville. Shannon has taken a role as senior vice president with ReviveHealth, a leading healthcare strategic communications firm, where she’ll be overseeing all health IT accounts.

In May 2014, Dennis Chan started his new job at District Management Council, a consulting and software solutions firm that works with public school districts to improve operational efficiency and raise students’ performance. In his spare time, Dennis picked up board game design, and his first game BioQuest was showcased in Boston Festival of Indie Games.

Colin Casey graduated from Fordham Law School in May, was married to Jonathan Vaughn in August and began working at a large international law firm in New York in October.

Williamsport, Pa., saw a mini ’05 reunion to celebrate the union of Rob Judson and Andrea Torres. Among the illustrious guests on Rob’s farm were, Sarah Connell, Matthew Cron, Jemma Braun, and Anay Shah. Shout outs also to Roslyn Ross ’04,Mike Campbell ’06, Sippy Siperstein ’06, Matthew Donne ’07, and Sam Coe ’06. It was a spectacular event full of Wesleyan love, laughter, and camaraderie. Congrats Sir Robert!

Jayson Whitehorn is continuing to make healthcare better by assisting clinicians in their ability to treat their patients by developing medical software for Mount Sinai hospital. He spends his free time playing in Union Square with various Wesleyan alumni of class years spanning the past two decades (primarily other members of Alpha Delta Phi).

Karen Courtheoux: “Dearest classmates: I know it’s hard to believe, but we are mere months away from our 10th Reunion! Save the date: May 21–24, 2015. Can’t wait to see you there! If you’re interested in having input into our Reunion events, please e-mail ktedford@wesleyan.edu. Many thanks to those already participating. The more the merrier! We’ll be in touch with all of you soon via postcard.”

MARCELLA MARTINEZ | momartinez@wesleyan.edu