Happy spring? I wonder as I compile the notes. I do hope it’s here to stay once this column hits your mailbox. There are far more interesting things to read than the weather, so here we go:

Carol Sherwin writes, “I just finished a two-year stint in the retail sector; working in a department store environment has been the toughest career to date, and for anyone keeping score I now count at least five, including: “mad scientist” at Consumer Reports Magazine, clinical professor at NYU, business strategy consultant and HR director. Not sure of my next step, I headed back to where it all started and attended Connect@Wes, a two-day seminar. I hadn’t been back to campus in more than 10 years, and it is as beautiful as ever. I ran into Cecilia Pohorille McCall, who is doing very interesting work that draws on her legal training.

“While on campus, I participated in the “speed interviewing program organized by the Career Center and got to check in with our class’ dean, Meg Zocco, who now works in University Relations. So many surprises on campus: a moment of silence for Mocon; a moment of amazement at the coffee bar/sandwich shop in the Science Center lobby. And everyone has a laptop….”

Carol adds that she still lives in Westchester, N.Y., with her husband of 17 years and while she figures out her next career step, she’ll continue her volunteer work for Wesleyan, conducting alumni interviews for prospective students, “I joined WAAV six months after we graduated and have never failed to learn something from interviewing a student!”

Kristin Sandvik Lush was in Tokyo in autumn 2013, and when she posted on Facebook “I’m in Tokyo,” Sarah Sutter responded “OK! Where can we meet up?” Kristin and Sarah connected in person over the course of the time Kristin was in Japan. The impromptu visit concluded with a gathering at an izakaya in Kanda later in the week. “It was great to see her—it had been 20+ years!”

Kristin adds, “Upon my arrival, my former student asked, “What do you want to do in Tokyo?” I hadn’t done any pre-tour homework, until I met up with Sarah, and she wrote out a Cool-Things-to-See-and-Do list, with a key train stations map on the back! Who needs Lonely Planet when you’ve got a frosh year WestColleague with local knowledge?! I’m looking forward to her spending a holiday with us in New Zealand!”

Sarah continues to teach at the American School in Japan. Some of her photos were published in The Sky Unchanged, a collection of photographs, interviews and tanka poems from survivors of the 3/11 triple disasters. The poems are printed in Japanese and English, but the interviews are only in Japanese. You can view Sarah’s photos in the book here: bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/books/topics/kawaranaisora/.

Michelle Lockhart has been busy in Texas launching Charlotte Max Designs, named for her grandmother. Michelle took her love of 1950s vintage Lucite handbags and accessories and updated them with bright colors and contemporary lines. Look for them in museum stores and at charlottemax.com. “We are proud that all of our products are handmade in the US and cruelty-free.”

Alexander Levi a hybrid 1990–91 grad, shares “recent highlights of a very Wesleyan-rooted adventure in creative, innovative, professional success: after practicing 10 years in Spain and five years in NYC, my studio, SLO Architecture, is winning awards: Harvest Dome 2.0 won the 2013 Dwell Vision Award and the 2014 AIANY Design Award; Bronx River Right-of-Way won an unprecedented second Blinder Award from the James Marston Fitch Foundation; and SLO is almost done with the construction of an integrated art installation for an elevated NYC Subway stop in the Bronx, the Cross-Bronx Waterway.”

More awards for classmates: Andrew Junke won this year’s Marvin B. Sussman Best Dissertation Award from Yale University’s sociology department. He will give a lecture at Yale in conjunction with the award. Brian Howell has been promoted to full professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Dan Prieto, Jerome Copulsky and Jeff Hayes spent a “what happens in…” style weekend in New Orleans in March. Not long after that, Jerome and Dan hosted Jeremy Sacks in DC, when he was in town from Portland, Oregon. Of note, they were sitting across the bar from Sting, who was in town for a concert.

Stuart Rockoff is now executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. He and wife Susan live in Jackson with their two daughters. A few hours away, Laurie Woods lives in Oxford, Miss., with her Mississippi-native husband. She teaches a very small class (three boys) of elementary students at a Montessori school and will soon begin a master of education in literacy with the goal of becoming a literacy specialist.

Jennifer Fletcher completed a Master of Teaching degree at the University of Sydney in 2013 and teaches high school English. She recently took her family to their first baseball game in Australia! Jennifer excitedly reports, “We (Team Australia–notice my shifted allegiance) thrashed the Diamondbacks.”

After 10 years raising children, Debby Popkin is practicing midwifery again and finally fulfilling her dream of attending home births, along with Lillian Siegel, ’08, CNM. You can find them in the Southington, Conn. area.

I close this issue with sad news. Brain Lenhard died suddenly on March 13, 2014. Brian lived in Wilmington, Del., and his loss is mourned by his wife, Melissa Dodds Lenhard, and children Nicholas and Caroline. If you’d like to share a story about Brian, I would be happy to publish it in the next issue of class notes.

Renée K. Carl | rcarl@wesleyan.edu

We start with an update and some interesting coincidences from David Bucci, who is living in Norwich, Vt., with his three children (ages 9, 7, and 4), one wife, and zero dogs. David is a professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department at Dartmouth College and loves to hike and ski with his family. David has heard from Laura Desimone lately. She has a 6-year-old daughter and is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. David writes, “Karl Furstenburg, who was formerly the Dean of Admission at Wes (and who accepted the class of 1990 at Wesleyan!) was the Dean of Admissions here at Dartmouth until he retired a few years ago. Similarly, our current Director of Safety and Security here at Dartmouth is none other than Harry Kinne, who held the same position when we were at Wes. Interestingly, we had some serious unrest on campus last year, resulting in a Day of Unity just like we had at Wesleyan in 1990 and Harry and I were chatting about the similar tumult at Wes back in 1990. He also claims to know the exact location of the Douglas Cannon at all times.”

Jennifer Miller Lee writes from Indianapolis where she is a medieval art history professor, with a 4-year-old son. Jennifer has met a few Wes alumni in the city, but would love to find more.

Todd Thorner is living in his home state in Oakland, Calif. He celebrated his seventh marriage anniversary to Leyla Khosrovani. “Being half Swedish and being married to a Persian, they have three ‘Swersian’ kids, Jahangeer, 6, Teymour, 4, and Noor, 2.” Todd recently founded his third renewable energy company after the sale of the previous two. The first was a wind power company, the second a solar PV company, and the third is a small hydropower company.

Nick Hardigg writes that “we welcomed our second child, Eleanor, into the world last June.” He is happily settled down in Portland, Ore., where he runs a nonprofit that supports city parks.

Victor Khodadad just sang in Bum Phillips: All-American Opera in its world premiere in New York City at La Mama Experimental Theatre. The production was very well received and recorded by NFL Films. Victor will be singing Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Hill House Opera Company in New Haven, Conn., in June 2014 and Mr. Ford in Salieri’s opera Falstaff in New York City in August. He would love to hear from old friends and can be contacted through his website victorkhodadad.com.

After 3.5 years at PayPal, Peter Karpas “recently left to become the CEO of North America for Xero (a $4B valuation public company that provides ‘beautiful accounting’ online to small businesses in over 150 countries). On the personal front, in April my wife, Beth ’92, and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We still live in Silicon Valley and are somewhat guiltily enjoying all the amazing weather.”

Finally, Jacqui Gabay lives in New Jersey with her husband, Julian, and three children, Alex, 11, and 7-year-old twins, Nicole and Matthew. She often sees Gina Leclerc who lives in Philadelphia. Gina just celebrated her one-year adoption of two beautiful little girls (sisters) from Haiti.

That’s all for now. Thank you to all those who wrote. Please keep your updates coming.

Vanessa montag brosgol
vebrosgol@optonline.net

By the time we’re reading this, our 25th Reunion party weekend is over. The highlights (lowlights?) from our great gathering (the ones you volunteer to share 🙂 with us will be included in our next column! Til then, we’ve got exciting news!

Our classmate Jodi Wenger recently moved from Vermont to Newton, Mass., with husband Stuart and three boys—12, 8 and 6. After 12 years at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center as a pediatric hospitalist and spina bifida doc she took a job with the Comprehensive Care Program at Boston Medical Center—a place that offers a primary care medical home for children with complex medical issues. “Stuart and I continue to support our amion.com, a website to post physician call schedules created using our software.”

Jessica Glass completed a documentary, The Fuentidueña Apse: A Journey from Castile to New York for The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 28 mins; 2013. It can be seen at: metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/med/fuentiduena-apse.

She was invited to screen it in Spain at the XIIIth International Archaeological Film Festival of the Bidasoa last November, where she honeymooned with her husband of three years, Dave Raymond ’87, also the audio engineer for the film. They are back in the States, splitting their time between NYC and their sheep farm in South Windsor, Conn. Yes, I said SHEEP FARM y’all. Love our Wes peeps. Go, Jessica and husband!

For our classmate Tullan Spitz news of Nelson Mandela’s death brought back memories of the late 1980s on campus. Among those memories, she cites the popularity of West African dance and drumming courses, the student protests geared toward forcing the administration to divest from South Africa (which it ultimately did)….and more! She writes: “In the spirit of respect for a place that expanded my cultural horizons and helped shape my values and ideals, here are my notes…” Tullan has interacted with many of our classmates/friends recently. Here’s what they’ve ALL been up to, Tullan’s own words:

“I have been on the West Coast since 1991, first in San Francisco and currently in Portland, Ore. I am married to Andrew Robin and have a stepson, Nick (23) and a daughter, Astrid (7). I work at Oregon Public Broadcasting in the National and Educational Media department. Coincidentally, I report to VP Dave Davis ’70.

Despite residing in a hinterland, I have some long-time friends nearby. Suk Kim is VP and General Counsel at a technology company in Portland and is married to Amit Singh. Their two daughters (Téa, 11 and Juni, 7) are good friends with my daughter. I can also report that Julie Eigler ’89 is alive and well and working as a trauma nurse at Oregon Health Sciences University and for a hospice service. In summer 2012 Julie married John Goff here in Portland, an occasion that lured Julie Cluett ’90 and Kate True from the East Coast. It was great to see them both. After many years living abroad, Julie Cluett is back in the States, somewhere in Massachusetts. Kate has visited Portland often, and for the wedding brought her three daughters (Ona, 16, Flora, 14, and Tess, 9). Kate has a flourishing portrait business in Boston and this work and her other fine art has appeared in many shows in the region.

“I have been in touch on and off with my frosh and senior year roommate, Lynn Slobodien, who is a teacher in Minneapolis and has a son, Cecil, who turns 8 this month. I recently had occasion to reconnect with David Gimbel through my work on an archaeology project. He is married, living in New York, and has a new baby, Inés.

“My sister, Leslie Spitz-Edson ’86, her husband Mike Edson ’87 and their kids Guthrie (16) and Sigrid (almost 13) visited the great Northwest this fall and we took them up to Timberline Lodge at 6,000 feet on one of our local volcanoes, Mt. Hood. Leslie is working on a novel and Mike is a Web and new media strategist at the Smithsonian Institution.” Tullan would love to hear from folks!

Lara Balter lives in Wellesley, Mass., with her husband Steve ’90. They have four children, two in college. Their oldest daughter is a senior at Bates majoring in geology; their son is in his freshman year at Wake Forest. Lara says her son has “no major yet, but he’s on their golf team and enjoying that,” and life is “a bit calmer with two out the house.” Their 15-year-old daughter is a sophomore and their 12-year-old daughter is enjoying 7th grade. Husband Steve co-manages some funds at Fidelity with Chris Galizio ’90.

After a stint back working 80 hours a week Lara is now “enjoying driving in endless circles with her girls to and from school and visiting the two who have left the nest.” Way to go Lara!

Vermont-based soul and blues singer/guitarist Dave Keller is celebrating the release of his new CD, Soul Changes. Keller recorded the CD in Memphis and Brooklyn, with some of the finest soul musicians alive: Al Green’s original backing unit, The Hi Rhythm Section. Renowned guitarist Ronnie Earl has called Dave’s newest work: “One of the best records I’ve ever heard.” Umm, that’s pretty cool!!! If you all are looking for more information on Dave and his music visit his website davekeller.com.

Til next time, y’all!

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

MICHELE BARNWELL | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Hillary writes for this issue: Not many responses to my call for class notes, so I imagine you are all very busy enjoying spring.

Donna Propp writes: “Last summer I received an Earthwatch educator grant to travel to Easter Island to study its history and ecology and to assist with a local reforestation program. I spent most of my time hiking and gardening, two activities I love but rarely get to do, and used what I learned to develop lessons on environmental sustainability for math, history, and science classes.”

Michael Doran reports: “This summer, I return to the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law, where I will teach tax, property, legal theory, and Native American law. I seem to average about two Wesleyan graduates each year, and it’s always fun to have them in class. I will continue to live in Bethesda, Md., where my wife is a program director at the National Institutes of Health. Our three children are growing up fast—too fast.”

As for me, it feels like ages ago at this point, but I had the pleasure of reconnecting with Bronwyn Poole and Julie Lenner in Chicago when I was there for a meeting in November. Hope you are all well and happy!

PETER v.s. BOND | 007@pvsb.org

Hillary Ross | hrossdance@yahoo.com

Hi! So much news, so little space. So here goes. Please see online notes for many more details—I had to edit mercilessly.

Bill Shapiro wrote: “As many of you know, Chris Molnar died—tragically and unexpectedly—in January of 2013. It was an extremely difficult year. Chris and I were no longer married but lived a couple of blocks apart and had been raising our two kids together. I’m happy to report that the kids, despite missing their mom tremendously, are doing really well. Couldn’t have done it without my girlfriend, Naomi, and support from Chris’ Wes friends. Workwise, I’m now leading strategic ventures and partnerships at Fast Company magazine. And then there’s this: I helped Keith Richards write a children’s book called Gus & Me, which is out in September.”

After 20 years in education and five years as a life coach, Lisa Pavlovsky is now manager of scholarship programs for the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.

Claudia Center writes, “In March, I will leave my longtime (19 years!) position as a disability rights attorney at the Legal Aid Society—Employment Law Center. In April, I will join the ACLU Foundation’s Equality Center as a disability rights attorney. I will be working out of the ACLU’s San Francisco office.

Beth Mix is working for the Manchester Youth Service Bureau coordinating positive youth development programs and advocating to keep kids out of the juvenile justice system. She is married and is raising two young sons.

Amy Baltzell is working on a new book entitled, The Cambridge Companion to Mindfulness and Performance. “I have 23 authors from around the world contributing chapters…We are learning that when we help performers accept unwanted thoughts and feelings—instead of trying to change them—that this helps tremendously with high-pressure performance and learning new skills. Other than that, our 8-year-old girl, Zoey, is playing boys’ lacrosse and is an avid Irish step dancer; our 10-year-old boy, Luke, is unicycle–crazed, and Shayna, our 5’7″ 12-year-old, is a ballet dancer.”

Elizabeth Kromelow Dietz got her coach’s level- one certification with USA Hockey last fall and instructed group and private skating lessons at Lasker Rink in Central Park this season. Krom’s younger son, James Dietz ’18, will attend Wes, joining his brother, Max Dietz ’16. Fun!

Last July, John Snyder left his position as director of the teaching clinic at Baystate Children’s Hospital and joined Amherst Pediatrics, a small private practice in Amherst, “I also remain actively involved in promoting science-based medicine, including writing for sciencebasedmedicine.org.

Andrew Hall has been playing jazz bass with a few different groups here in the New York City area. “When I’m not working, I’m either cooking, fooling about with our pair of Bengals, getting dirty in the garden, playing tennis, or just lolling around our lovely Jersey City townhouse with my wife, Lauren. Anyone heard from Andy Liss ’88?”

Sue Roginski has really planted seeds and rooted herself in Riverside, Calif. She is committed to making the city a “hub” for dance. She’s hopeful a few new events will encourage dancers to stay: Trolley Dances Riverside and dance­STORM. Check out info on placeperformance.org and visit Sue if you are in L.A….please?

Eileen Deignan has “had a good year for catching up with Wesleyan friends while in Colorado. Johanna Van Hise Heart and Simon Heart are in Boulder with their three beautiful children. Eric Peterson is back in Denver after a few decades away in Zaire and Arizona. He and his wife, Anne, also have three beautiful children. Eric is a family medicine physician. Eric and I had a great time looking through pictures and recalling adventures in his orange VW bug. I live in Newton, Mass., with my husband Victor and two sons.”

Simon Connor is married to Melissa Hadfield and lives in Seattle. He works as a psychotherapist in private practice, and plays in a rock band.

From Andrew Gaines: “I expect others of you have, or are about to have, the similar experience of crossing the big 50. I think it’s a moment for which one can make any meaning, complete any yearning, or simply allow to pass with a wee bit of recognition. That said, I recognize that as I near this supposed threshold life is fuller, busier and more engaged than ever. And my work as executive director of Ashby Village (ashbyvillage.org) continues to deepen and grow.”

Linda Malias Passaro headed back to Wesleyan for the career weekend in February. “Reconnected with old classmates and helped students on interviewing skills and developing ‘personal brands.’ Working now on getting summer interns and some graduates into permanent job placements. Amazing how the campus has grown but the spirit of the school remains so consistent after all these years! The visit was good for my soul.”

From Tim Sheridan: “After 10 years with Razorfish, I’m now digital creative director at Burrell Communications in Chicago and I’ve also been teaching at the Chicago Portfolio School.”

AJ Salerno “got a visit from Ted Galo ’85 and new girlfriend this weekend—dinner and laughs. Ted is JV hockey coach at Hingham High School. Ran into Tony Antonellis ’86 and his wife at the Wellfleet Oyster Festival in October. He gave me a hard time for wearing an Amherst football hat that my cousin gave me! From the looks of things, you can actually wear a Wesleyan football hat with pride for the first time in a while.”

Hope Salzer became president of her local League of Women Voters. “Even more exciting, I was voted to the board of a California-wide, grassroots, public education advocacy organization. The organization, Educate Our State, educateourstate.org, has taken the courageous step of filing a public ballot initiative in California that would prevent the state from siphoning off 25 percent of the local property taxes that are allocated to K through 14 education (schools and community colleges) and using it for other things.”

Lastly, I (Amanda) just want to report that Rob Campbell became a father this past February (a baby boy), and had a Broadway show open a month later. He was amazing in the play about LBJ and is overjoyed albeit exhausted. Such good news. Another highlight of the season was seeing Matt Paul and Naomi Mezey—love them always.

Until next time,

Amanda Jacobs Wolf | wolfabj@gmail.com

1988

For this issue of the class report, we begin with Lydia Crawford, who wrote: “I have not found the proverbial work-life balance—when my son was 10 and I was encouraging him to spend less time in front of the computer screen, he correctly noted that I spent my whole day in front of the computer! I then explained to him that I was paid to do work in front of the computer, to which he replied that I could certainly pay him to be at the computer….”

Some of the other news: Sam Atkinson has kept in touch with his three frosh roomies from Clark 312. He sees Tony Antonellis around Boston for lunch and Wes events. He recently spoke to Kevin Freund, who is in Ohio, has the 50th birthday year itch, and is planning the next chapter of his career. Sam also spends time with Peter Hammond every fall, when Peter visits for a reunion weekend in N.H., along with Mark Woodbury ’87.

Michael Tomasson and his wife, Kathy Weilbaecher (Harvard ’87), celebrated their 22nd anniversary. They are both physician researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, and their three kids are in 6th, 9th, and 12th grades. Michael is a physician on the leukemia and stem cell transplantation service and is scientific director of the multiple myeloma program. Generous with his time department: He does experimental science outreach as co-founder of PubStyleScience.com, which uses a combination of Google Hangouts and Twitter to host (very) informal dialogues about issues in biomedical science.

Lisa Clough and John (now Johan) Booth met up again this year at the South Pole. Lisa is a program manager at the National Science Foundation, and spends about a month a year in Antarctica. Johan was spending his 10th winter in Antarctica, where he works for NOAA on many things including keeping track of the size of the ozone hole.

Lydia Crawford also wrote, “I have been living in Saint Paul for the past 23 years and endured all 23 winters—not bad for a girl who grew up in Saudi Arabia! I moved here after law school at the University of Virginia, was in private practice for a while, clerked for a federal district court judge for a while, and have been with Wells Fargo for the past 13 years. I am a consumer credit attorney, working with all the so-called “alphabet regulations—A through Z—and since the advent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I have been quite busy.…[With husband and kids,] we keep busy skiing, hiking, camping, biking, taking in the excellent regional theater in the Twin Cities, and savoring any sunny day above freezing!”

Dan Kolbert has been in Portland, Maine, since 1988: “50 had me freaked out for at least a year but so far hasn’t been so bad (or my dread successfully prepared me). I’m a building contractor and active in the regional community of ‘green’ builders and designers. I host a monthly Building Science Discussion Group as well, which has been both fun and a great way to share best practices. My spousal equivalent and I have two kids, the younger of whom is completely sick of my inability to watch a movie or TV show without telling her who I went to college with. ‘How come you’re not rich?’ she asks.”

Jody Lewen has been in the Bay Area since 1994, currently the executive director of the Prison University Project, which runs an associate’s degree program inside San Quentin State Prison for over 300 people. “I often think about how much my experiences at Wesleyan have informed my work—I seem to be driven to create a little Wesleyan inside San Quentin. I love my colleagues and the students at SQ, but there’s also a great deal of extreme heartbreak in working inside the California prison system. Work is very much the center of my life, so it’s a good thing the Bay Area is as beautiful as it is. Most regularly in touch with Judith Hill-Weld and Katherine Forrest, with occasional signs of life from Tyche Hendricks and Lizzie Carty ’87.”

John McIntyre was on a medical mission to rural Haiti in April; one goal is integrating remote interpretation of medical images from Haiti into the neuroradiology program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he works. “Great to have so much local cross-country skiing right out my door. Great fall and saw many Wes folks at the Head of the Charles when I rowed in a senior masters eight with Alex Thomson ’82 and Kevin Foley ’82. Seeing a lot of John Gemery ’85, Michael Zegans ’85, and Jinny Kim Hartman ’86, all DH doctors. Following in Jon Chatinover ’83’s footsteps in Martha’s Vineyard, I have gotten involved in coaching the Hanover High School swim team and enjoy the rapid improvement of the student swimmers over a relatively short season.”

Eileen Mohan Flaherty has found her second career as a high school English teacher in Hartford to be far more gratifying than the practice of law. She and her husband, Patrick, are savoring their time with daughter, Cat, before she heads off as a freshman to Sarah Lawrence College in the fall.

Bennett Schneider: “I celebrated my 50th on April 5 in New York, eating Chinese food with Julia Barclay, Shawn Cuddy, James Hallett, Cobina Gillitt ’87, and Nathan Gebert ’85. Melinda Newman and I explore restaurants around L.A. regularly and are as close as ever. I’m going on six years of performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (as an actor in their education series) and 10 years as creative director and director of operations with Doozycards.com, making short animations. The work I’ve done the longest has been as vice-president of the charitable group, The Los Angeles Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for five years now and as a gay Hindu drag nun for 18 years.”

Eric Howard | EricInMaine@gmail.com

Timothy Jacobs has been an anthropology and sociology professor at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, Conn. He belongs to more than 30 hereditary societies and is the genealogist and/or registrar for several of them. A professional genealogist, Tim also paints and makes stringed musical instruments. He is putting together several CDs of his music (some with Victoria Grace Landgraf ’88).

Marc Stein writes: “After sixteen years of living and teaching in Toronto, I’ll be moving to the Bay Area this summer to begin my new position as the Pasker Chair in U.S. history at San Francisco State University. I’m looking forward to my new adventure (and will continue to spend time in Maine, where my partner teaches).”

Michael Banbury, chief of cardiac surgery and chair of cardiovascular surgery for Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del., just finished a “Master of Health Care Delivery Science” at Dartmouth: “The idea is to prepare people in the health care sector to think carefully about the challenges we face in this sector and to develop innovative solutions to the many problems at hand.”

Tim Clark visited Wesleyan with his son, Philip, for Alumni Sons and Daughters weekend. Larry Attia was also in attendance with his daughter. “… the campus looks great, particularly Clark Hall which was decidedly (but lovably) dumpy back in the day. After only a few minutes, my Wesleyan compass kicked in, allowing me to navigate parts of the campus indoors on what turned out to be a very cold day.  Had I only kept a copy of my old head resident master keys, I could have done the entire tour underground.” Tim, Larry, and Steve Pace ’84 will continue their now 30-year tradition of watching the Mets play on the road. This year they are bound for Denver. (Tim notes: “John Brown, if you are reading this, please join us in Section 101 — there is a ticket in your name at the will call window.”) Tim also caught up with Celia Vimont whose son is also applying to college.

Shelley Starkvolunteers for Dr. Donald Berwick who is running for governor of Massachusetts. “I interned for Don during one of my summers home from Wesleyan. I spend time with Rosilyn Ford and David Shopper ’81. Ros is a nurse practitioner in Belmont, and David continues to build his photography business on the North Shore.” Living in Attleboro with her husband, Louis Jackson, and their two children, Holland, 12, and Spenser, 11, Shelley works as a health policy consultant in Rhode Island.

John Brown and his wife moved to Jupiter, Fla., when he took a new job with INTECH.  They have adjusted very well to life without seasons and “live in shorts and flipflops.” Their new business venture is a wine bar: “We have access to some of the best wines in the world and would love to share them with Wes friends.”

Rich Adams started a new job, “working as a PA on the Ear, Nose and Throat service in Rhode Island, excited to be back in an academic environment and learning a ton. Being the least knowledgeable (and usually oldest) guy in the room, seems to be a trend for me….”

Bekkie Wright finished her 50 States marathon quest! Bekkie was in the Raleigh/Durham area in early February with her father, Jim Wright ’55, for his 80th birthday. “I still have a little speed left at the short distances because I scored as 3rd Female Master (40+) in the Run for the Roses 5K.”

Michael Solomon has a new job at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) as the senior regional director for the north east region, where he will oversee FINRA’s NYC, Long Island, Philadelphia, NJ, and Boston district offices. His oldest daughter, Emma,is going to Wes in the fall.

K.T. Whaley bought her mother’s company, the Center for Montessori Education. “We train people to be Montessori teachers. All my work at Wes in problem solving [and] identification, connecting themes, thinking creatively, and honing communication skills, were great training for this position.” K.T.’s eldest daughter, Sarah, is looking at colleges, and Emma is getting ready for her Bat Mitzvah next year.

Jessica Bernstein, a freelance writer and copy editor, lives in San Antonio with her husband, Jonathan Bernstein, a columnist covering U.S. politics for Bloomberg View. They have two daughters, ages 20 and 15, one a sophomore at Mount Holyoke and one a ninth grader.

Chris and Nancy Sinacola are pleased to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Jane Woolf Burress, born in early December to their daughter Alena Burress and her husband, Toby. Alena, a “campus baby” from 1983 to 1985, attended a few Classics Department classes and events. Chris is editorial page editor at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette; Nancy is tutoring Latin. Their son, Jonas, spent five years in the Marine Corps and now lives in Virginia. Their other daughters are finishing college: Mary is a senior at the Art Institute of Boston, and Lucy a junior at Northeastern.

Evan Nelson lives in Virginia and works as a forensic clinical psychologist. His practice has included high profile cases such as Lorena Bobbitt, the DC snipers, the Somalia pirates (of “Captain Philips” fame), and the Atkins case, which led to the U.S. Supreme Court to declare it illegal to execute intellectually disabled defendants. He and his wife (also a forensic clinical psychologist) have been in practice together for almost 20 years.  “The older of my two children is a senior in high school, so we visited Wesleyan as part of his college quest (but he has decided to go to William & Mary). I was impressed by the growth of the campus, but I mourned the loss of MoCon and my fond memories of socializing there.”

Amy Nash continues to love living in Minneapolis: “I have been with the same architecture firm (MSR) as a marketing specialist for almost 17 years now. I also nurture my passion for writing poetry and keep my poetry blog (arambler.com) alive. My poem, “Souvenir, Erosion,” will be published in an anthology about Martha’s Vineyard’s Gay Head Lighthouse. I will be attending a poetry workshop at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown this summer.”

CAROLINE WILKINS | mbkeds@yahoo.com

MARY BETH KILKELLY | cwilkins85@yahoo.com

Roger Pincus is your host this issue. Thanks to everyone who’s submitted news to us—here it is:

Michael Misi Polgar is an associate professor of sociology at Penn State University in Hazelton, Pa. His work includes sociological research on gendered variations in service learning. He and his wife, Michele, are happily busy with three daughters, but he finds time to volunteer in his community as a soccer coach.

Andy Peretz has avoided the winter blues as he practices commercial litigation and entertainment law in South Florida, where he represents entertainment companies producing music festivals and cruises. He also plays drums in area bands. The music-loving gene has been transmitted to both Andy’s teenage son and daughter, who enjoy attending rock shows with their dad.

Laura Simon remains in Connecticut working as the wildlife ecologist for the Humane Society of the United States. She proudly reports that her 10-year-old son, Jack, participated in a successful lobbying effort that culminated in a new state law giving students a choice to opt out of dissection.

Paul Gross has spent the last five years applying everything he learned in business to medical research by becoming board chair and the most active volunteer for the Hydrocephalus Association, the largest patient advocacy organization, for his son’s common but poorly treated brain condition. Paul had founded a clinical research network in neurosurgery a few years earlier and merged the two organizations so they wouldn’t be competing with one another for funding. He serves on the advisory council for one of the National Institutes of Health and travels often between Seattle and D.C. In his free time, Paul races mountain bikes in his home state of Washington.

Speaking of biking, Aaron Gershenberg has done several fundraising rides per year since graduation; last year, his team (Silicon Valley Bank) raised almost $1 million for Best Buddies, an organization that benefits the intellectually and developmentally challenged. Aaron also has joined the board of First Move, an organization that promotes the inclusion of chess in the second and third grade classroom. He works closely with Magnus Carlsen, current world chess champion.

Steven Herzog has been living in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his girlfriend/partner, Carrie Jabinsky, for about five years; they have a 3-year-old daughter, Sasha. Steven’s two older daughters are both doing well—Rachel is a junior majoring in classics at Barnard and Charlotte is a freshman at Kenyon planning to double major in theater and math. Steven continues working as a litigation counsel for Paul Weiss in New York, handling commercial cases and pro bono work on death penalty cases. He invites any classmate in or visiting New York to look him up.

Jeff Mehlman reports that he and wife Lynne Bono Mehlman are still in North Andover, Mass., where they have lived for more than 25 years. Jeff continues to work as a management and information technology consultant in the capital markets and Lynne is an accomplished painter in the classical tradition: lynnebmehlman.com. Their son, Jake, and daughter, Julia, are sophomores at the University of Denver and Bowdoin College respectively. Jake took a year off between high school and college, during which he walked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. He now enjoys his access to the Rockies and competing in rugby. Julia is thriving academically and as president of her social house. She also has had success competing as a sprinter.

Mark Randles continues to be a ball of fire when it comes to socializing with other Wesleyan alums. In March he attended a birthday party for Melany Kahn ’86 in New Hampshire. He reports that Michael Bailit and Jim Glickman were among those present. Days earlier, Mark spent time with David Booker, Mike Murphy, and Shakir Farsakh. David is a lawyer with Credit Agricole, Mike is with Morgan Stanley, and Shakir is with the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration. By the time you are reading this, Shakir may be reporting to Stefan Selig, whom the President has nominated as Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade.

Chuck Schneider is enjoying touring in support of his novel, A Portrait in Time, which was released in print in January 2014. And Michael Lewyn’s book, A Libertarian Smart Growth Agenda: How to Limit Sprawl Without Curbing Property Rights, was published by Lambert Academic Publishing. Mike continues to teach at Touro Law School and blog on urban affairs.

Finally, class co-secretary Michael Steven Schultz is happy to announce that his son Quinlan will be a freshman at Hampshire College this fall. In addition, Michael Steven was delighted to catch Beth Kaufman ’86 and Mark Miller ’88 with their band, Spuyten Duyvil, at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, Pa. Beth is a powerhouse singer and anyone in New England or the NY/NJ/PA area should keep an eye out for their tour dates at sputyenduyvilmusic.com.

Michael Steven Schultz
mschultz84@wesleyan.edu

Roger PincuS | rpincus84@wesleyan.edu

Greetings, everyone. Sipping coffee at my kitchen table, looking outside at the daffodils and forsythia beginning to open, birds are singing in the background, and there is a pair of cardinals darting about the woods. Gonna spend the day in NYC with an old friend and kids are all doing well freshman year. Life is pretty good. Well, almost, —one gray cloud hovering, divorce. But, I recently got Reiki certified and am focusing on the positive energy. To that end, it is heartwarming as classmates continue to share their stories and thank me for compiling these notes. The truth is, I have to thank you…it’s wonderfully fun reading all the interesting paths everyone is on and catching up with former friends and acquaintances. Besides, it is easy…I just cut and paste (how did we ever survive with typewriters back in the ’80s?), and interweave a few connecting sentences to make it flow. Here now the news, which the editors have shortened to fit our allotted space. Please see the full notes at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/:

Children are a common theme. Marc Mowrey writes, “My son, Tennessee, graduates this spring and wife Susie and I will be in Middletown to see his senior thesis recital and again in May for graduation!” Mitch Plave shares, “My son, Aaron Plave ’15, is studying abroad this semester in Budapest at the Aquincum Institute of Technology (AIT), which is a computer sciences program for very serious students and professors. Aaron is a computer science major at Wes.” Mitch looks forward to visiting Aaron in Budapest and adds daughter Leah is a freshman at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and a thriving cellist. She received high honors on her recent boards, which confirms for her unbiased dad that she is extraordinary. Mitch’s legal practice as a banking regulatory attorney D.C. continues to interest and challenge him. Mitch is in touch with Liam Newberg, who does analytics for Anheuser-Busch in California and Beth Tractenberg, who focuses on complex estate planning matters as a partner in NYC at Katten Muchin, Rosenman.” Small world…because, I (Laurie) work with Beth’s dad, Paul Tractenberg ’60 at Rutgers and he is a Wes alumnus, too, and apparently a very good cyclist.

Keeping with the law theme: Todd Maybrown does trial work (mostly criminal defense) and teaches at the University of Washington Law School. His daughter is a first-year at Oberlin and a musician. Todd sees David Kauff who lives just down the block. Miriam Hiser celebrates 15 years of practice with her own law firm in San Francisco and spends her off time swimming in the San Francisco Bay. She did a relay English Channel Swim in 2011 and would enjoy hearing from other Wesleyan classmates. Karen Liepman joined the Office of Counsel at Arizona State University after 26 years in private practice of law. In her role, she assists ASU with intellectual property protection and complex transactions.

Back to kids: Ken Fuchs reports, “I am now closer to Wes than ever, as my son, Ike Fuchs ’17, is finishing up his freshman year. I returned to campus a few times during fall to watch him play for our amazing NESCAC and Little 3 Champion football team.” Ken is proud of Ike and our classmate Mike Whalen’s team! Ken attended Homecoming and got re-acquainted with many old friends, including Alan Dorsey, Glenn Duhl and Mark Armstrong, and hung with his siblings and cousin, Fred Fuchs ’77, Paula Fuchs ’78, Ike Fuchs ’17, Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer ’74 and Marni Pedorella ’90. I (Laurie, again) was fortunate to see Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, who happens to be my former babysitter, and her beautiful daughter when I last visited Wes, a few years back.

Ken Fuchs adds, “I’ve been working in production since graduation and I love my job as a television director. I am fortunate to work on three hit shows: The Bachelor/Bachelorette (29 seasons), Family Feud (13 seasons) and Shark Tank (6 seasons). It’s hard to believe I get to do something I love so much for a living and never had to grow up and get a real job.” Ken credits Wesleyan with helping him see the endless possibilities available in life. He has lived in Los Angeles since graduation and sees and works with Matt Ember, Laurie Sklarin Ember ’84, Murray Oden, and childhood friend Richard Saperstein.

Sharon and Michael Steinberg relate, “Our three daughters are now young adults: Hannah Steinberg ’16 attends Wes and her twin sister, Kayla, is a student at Macalester College in St. Paul. Our eldest, Davia, will attend the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit next fall. We are excited to have another psychologist in the family and to enjoy her company close to home.” Additionally, Sharon writes she has a thriving psychotherapy practice in Ann Arbor and after leaving the University of Michigan, she co-founded Partners in Healing in 2011, which offers training and consultation for therapists who are interested in enhancing their emotional resonance with clients and in integrating psychodynamic and mind-body approaches in the treatment of trauma. Michael Steinberg shares, “In addition to my duties as legal director of the ACLU of Michigan, I am a visiting professor this semester at Wayne State University Law School, where I teach a civil rights clinic.” He also teaches public interest litigation at the University of Michigan Law School.

Michael Sommer and Taya Glotzer write: “Our son Adam, 22, is graduating from Duke in May with a double major in computer science and public policy, and will settle in DC working as a software engineer at a company called Appian. Our daughter, Carolyn, 20, is a junior at the University of Michigan and in Rome for a semester.” Taya practices electrophysiology in northern New Jersey and New York, and conducts research and writes for the Heart Rhythm Society, a national organization for the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders. Michael practices law at Wilson, Sonsini in NYC.

Holly Gruskay is raising two busy teenagers on her own in Westchester…and this school year her company partnered with a major Wall Street firm to start a FIRST Robotics team at the local high school. Both her kids are getting turned on to engineering, as are the other 20 in the club. In April the team competes at the Javits Center in NYC where Holly is one of the program emcees.

In addition to raising families, classmates have pursued a host of fascinating career paths and are award winners in diverse “spaces”: Ken Schneyer is nominated for the Nebula Award for his short story “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer.” The story originally appeared in the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 4, and has since been translated into Chinese and read aloud on a podcast. Ken is also chair of a university speaker series that lets him chat with fascinating people. His wife, Janice Okoomian, teaches gender and women’s studies at Rhode Island College; daughter Phoebe Schneyer Okoomian is choosing among several colleges for the fall; son Arek Okoomian Schneyer is acting, writing, and taking a deep breath before the start of 9th grade.

Nancy Rommelmann writes that her e-book, “Going to Gacy: A cross-country journey to shake the devil’s hand”, about a trip she took to interview the serial killer John Wayne Gacy before his execution, will be released in May 2014. She is working on her next book, “To the Bridge” about a filicide in Portland, Ore., and she writes book reviews for the Wall Street Journal. Keeping with the author theme, Pat Roth’s recently published book, The End of Back Pain, came out in April 2014.

Alice Jankell is the creative director of FAB (For, About and By) Women, a theater company under the Off-Broadway umbrella of The Barrow Group in NYC. The company is 100 women strong, all professional actors, directors and writers, ranging in age from the 20s to 70s. Janet Lambert Preston entered the workforce again and teaches at Unity College in Maine. She and husband David Preston ’81 are celebrating their 28th anniversary and have two children, Elizabeth, 22, and Richard, 17. The Preston family enjoys life on China Lake—especially in the summer! Karen Adair Miller, resides in Lake Placid, N.Y., home to a number of Sochi medalists and enjoyed the town’s giant parade honoring all the winter bobsled, luge, skeleton, alpine/nordic skiing, biathlon, and snowboarding athletes.

Carl Sundberg works in Fukushima, Japan, on a cloud-computing start-up, “Smart Technology Partners,” that predates the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters by several months. His idea had been to de-centralize Japan’s computing infrastructure from its over-concentration in the Tokyo earthquake/volcano risk area. Little did he think he was walking into a more immediate and global disaster! Carl writes working with the refugees and helping them to find new careers has been rewarding even if the business plan execution has had its set-backs. Carl is recycling abandoned elementary schools that were closed due to rural aging and de-population trends and refurbishes them cheaply to use renewable energy and air cooling to reduce the overall cost of the computing infrastructure as well as to create local, sustainable jobs. He adds, “The liberal side of a Wesleyan education obviously weathered a long career in banking as a CIO and is emerging intact if slightly aged!” Go, Carl!

Helen J.C. Uddoh Matausch is president and chief operations officer for Infinilytics— an analytics company based in Silicon Valley, Fremont, and Canada. She and her husband reside in Sonoma County, an hour outside of San Francisco. Hey, Helen, we were roommates sophomore year, so when I visit my daughter at Berkeley next year, may I take a side trip?) According to Bob Gordon, other West Coasters, “Bruce Glassman and Tracy Hughes are now empty-nesters. Son Nate studies film at NYU, and daughter Emma studies communications in the honors program at Emerson in Boston. Bruce publishes books in the food industry (chef bios, cookbooks, and the like), and is something of a local celebrity in San Diego’s craft beer industry (having written the leading guide). Tracy is a successful clinical psychologist.” Bob Gordon’s other news: Brad Galer is married to Lele Herron Galer for 25 years. They live in Pennsylvania and own an award-winning winery: Galer Estates. Chuck Schneider ’84, a highly regarded oncologist in Pennsylvania, writes fiction (check out A Portrait in Time—it’s terrific) and travels the world with soon-to-be wife, Dessi.

Notably, many of our classmates have pursued careers in education, including yours truly. I continue to conduct research at Rutgers on education reform. My latest endeavor is to map education (PreK-12 and post-secondary) and work force attachment which requires lots of state and federal agencies to cooperate and share data, which is easier said than done. Mark Kushner and wife Dr. Mimi Winsberg reside in San Francisco and have two wonderful kids (Kyra, 11, and Tor, 8)! He teaches at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education, and is opening cutting-edge high tech “blended” preK-12th grade charter schools in a number of states and D.C. Marc is always looking for Wesleyan educator talent (e-mail him with résumés at mkushner@k12.com) and he recently saw fellow Wesleyaners in D.C., including Ben Binswanger, Billy Weinreb, Lisa Goodman, Akiva Goldsman, Ted Kennedy, and Scott Pearson ’84.

Susanna Sharpe is the communications coordinator at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and Benson Latin American Collection (aka LLILAS Benson) at the University of Texas at Austin. The Benson houses the largest collection of books, publications, and archives from Latin America outside of the Library of Congress and the institute offers interdisciplinary degrees in Latin American studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as scholarly exchanges. Susanna continues to perform Brazilian music in Austin. Eileen Kelly-Aguirre works at The Gunnery, a coeducational college preparatory boarding and day school for students in grades 9–12/PG. Eileen heads up the strategic partnerships and global/summer program development. She had a great time at last year’s Reunion with Eclectic residents (absolutely delightful reunion buds), as well as with dear friends Cindy Robinson, Rick Velleu, Alice Jankell and Bennett Heart. Diagnosed with colon cancer last June, Eileen was declared disease free a few weeks ago. She would love to reconnect with more classmates via Facebook. On behalf of the class, I wish you continued health and strength, Eileen.

I have so gone over my space allotment. Forgive me if I did not include your information; I’ll add it to the next issue. Until then, Namaste.

LAURIE COHEN | lauriec@rci.rutgers.edu

Always fascinating to see what my periodic call for updates from the Class of ’82 will yield. Some dispatches are strictly personal, others all-business—all always welcome, of course. And even the most cut-and-dried correspondents can sometimes be coaxed to give up a personal detail or two.

Beck Lee, for example, wrote to plug the work of Jim Brenner ’79, who is building “a sustainable community housing development in war-debilitated Liberia”—a project he’s helping promote.

“I’ve loved providing a small measure of marketing help for this worthy project, but boy, is the work blazing new trails out there unforgiving,” Beck writes. “Reach out to him whenever you can. And, go ahead and buy a home out there. It’s certainly a good value!”

Prodded for at least a modicum of news about himself, he added rather reluctantly (oh, okay twist my arm!) that he is “enjoying fatherhood for the first time.” (We journalists sometimes call that “burying the lead.” Congratulations, Beck!) “I’m starting this at a very late age, so I hope anything I say doesn’t sound like old news to our much more parentally established classmates,” he wrote. “My son is very cute, by the way.”

Bob Russo writes that he has not been up to anything “juicy” of late, although he, too, is reveling in the pleasures of fatherhood. “I have not just published a novel, I have not won any awards, I am not planning any expeditions and I have not started a new company/nonprofit/website,” he said. “The current excitement in my life is: my son Peter is teaching me how to make a traditional archery bow using hand tools and a hickory stave.”

He adds: “I am now chair of my town’s park and rec commission, and we have a new dog—a chocolate lab named Shelby who will retrieve a ball all day long. Oh, and I am taking up beekeeping.”

Emilie Becker—we knew her at Wes as Bunny Attwell—has been named acting medical director of Texas Medicaid and CHIP. “Our son started college and our daughter is faring well at a boarding school in Connecticut where she is on the equestrian team,” she writes.

Bill Stephan lives in Buffalo, and is in his 19th year in practice as a family doctor “with a special interest in complementary medicine,” he wrote, adding that he “recently passed board exam for holistic medicine certification.” Bill has four kids: Alexandria, 23, a graduate of St. Bonaventure, who is pursuing a possible opportunity to skate in a Disney on Ice show; Kathryn, 21, who is graduating this year from Fredonia; Billy IV, a sophomore at WVU; and Juliette, 18, a high school senior.

Congrats are in order for Laura Fraser, who writes that she has launched Shebooks, a new e-book publishing platform for women, founded with two other veteran publishing professionals. So far, they’ve published over 40 short memoirs, stories, and long-form journalism pieces by top-shelf women authors, including Wesleyan writers. The works can be downloaded individually, or via subscription at shebooks.net.

“I can’t believe that after 30 years of being a freelance writer, I’m a start-up entrepreneur,” Laura writes. “My big hope is that we’ll be successful enough that I can go back to being a freelance writer—with someplace to publish.”

Lavinia Muncy Ross is “presently living the very full life of a farmer, musician and blogger.” She shares that she is living with her husband, Rick Ross, on a small farm in the Cascade foothills of western Oregon, and blogs about her farming and music at salmonbrookfarms.wordpress.com.

The Association of Reform Zionists of America honored our own Peri Smilow at a New York City gala in April, “for involvement in more than 30 years of Jewish communal life and education, and for helping secure the future of Reform Judaism’s support for Israel.” ARZA hailed Peri as a musician and educator blessed with a “special gift” of sharing spirituality and inspiring social action through her music.

Julie Faude writes: “I continue to work as a clinical developmental psychologist, both in private practice and at an independent school focusing on pre-K through 2nd grade,” adding that she and her husband are also avid travelers. “I am writing this from PHL airport en route to the Dominican. Jeff and I love to travel and live for Airbnb. We are outside of Philly and we are always open to visitors!” Julie adds that one of her daughters is a freshman at the University of Southern California and that her older daughter is poised to graduate soon from Cornell. “Margot will be moving to Boston to work for the TJX companies,” she writes. “Anyone in Beantown with a great apartment for rent, let me know!”

Bill Jeffway writes that he has joined the Bioethics Research Institute at The Hastings Center in Garrison, N.Y., as director of marketing and communications, after a 30-year career at global advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather where he worked in their New York, London, Singapore, and Los Angeles offices. Bill was married last year to his longtime partner, Christopher Fook Hong Lee, in Milan, N.Y. Congrats!

Joshua Ehrlich has just published his first book, Divorce and Loss: Helping Adults and Children Mourn When a Marriage Comes Apart. “It is being published by Rowman and Littlefield,” he said. “It is designed for therapists who work with children, adolescents and/or adults dealing with divorce.”

Stephen Daniel, Alex Thomson, Kevin Foley, Jack Taylor, and Peter Frisch write in a jointly-penned missive that they continued their 20-year tradition of a family ski trip during Presidents’ Day weekend, although this year without the usual participation of John Mooney, Dan Hillman, and Bruce Crain.

Harold Bordwin, writes that he and Julie Broude Bordwin sold their house last summer after 25 years in Westchester County and have moved to New York City. They are the proud owners of a co-op in a 1910 building in Morningside Heights. “Our son, Jesse ’10, is in his third year of a five year PhD English program at UVA,” Harold writes. “Our son, Simon (Bowdoin ’13), lives with us in NYC and is working at a start-up, online art gallery, Uprise Art.”

Thanks for the dispatches, one and all!

Stephanie Griffith | stephaniedgriffith@gmail.com