Class Notes

We are nearing (or at) 50 years old, and there are lots of changes in our lives. For me, a new career path means I spend weekends in Maine with my family and weeknights in Boston with my 80-year-old mother. I now do corporate relations in the College of Engineering at Northeastern University, and in the evening I work on a doctoral degree in organizational leadership. The goal is to complete my degree in 2016, the same year my twins get their high-school degree.

Here are similar stories from classmates:
Sarah Bosch Holbrooke: “After living in NYC since graduation, I moved with my family to Telluride in August. My husband, David, runs Mountainfilm.org, and we thought it would be nice for our three kids (Bebe, 18, Kitty, 13, and Wiley, 11) to experience four seasons of outdoor fun. I’m continuing to work in television production, freelancing for the Katie Couric daytime talk show. I think the biggest changes are that I’m making dinner rather than reservations, bears run outside our back door, and it’s mid-October and we’ve already had several serious snow storms. It’s all good, but a real adjustment from Brooklyn.”

Charlie Berthoud: “After 10 years near Pittsburgh, we moved to Madison, Wis. and love it here. I am serving as the pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church—a wonderful progressive congregation. My wife is looking for lawyer-related work after 12 years at home with our two boys. Emma Caspar ’85 is here too, and we enjoyed catching up at Nepalese restaurant. Life is good.”

Julia Lee Barclay-Morton: “I fell in love and got married at 50 for starters(!) to my beloved Canadian, John Barclay-Morton. I have found true love and am astonished by the grace of this. Having never experienced it, I didn’t know what I was missing until I found it. I was recently hired to edit a book by the widow of a well-known theater theorist (Stefan Brecht) of his writing on a favorite director/writer (Richard Foreman). This happened in part because of Wesleyan connections and work begun at Wes as a student. I also teach writing at Fordham, which is something new that I have discovered I love. Just two years ago, I moved back to NYC from the UK (where I had lived for eight years), with a PhD in hand (received at 46), a marriage ended, a theatre company disbanded, my father having died and finding out that my last name was a fiction because of WWII (and in the process discovering a new family). There were other losses as well, including a miscarriage, infertility, my stepfather’s death, friends dying, my cat of 20 years dying—in other words life in and around 50. Throughout all of this, I maintained my sobriety and celebrated 26 years clean and sober last year—a reminder throughout all of the good, the bad, and the ugly, that I am lucky to be alive. I feel truly blessed now, renewed after a time of grieving, and now able to participate once again fully in the world.”

Ellen Santistevan: “Going into the field of bodywork has been an absolutely amazing and life-changing journey. Everything about my life is healthier: most especially self awareness and relationships. It has been a true gift. Coincident (or nearly so) with opening myself up in this way has been a flowering of my artwork. Never before have I been so able and so needing to devote myself to writing and painting. There is a feedback loop between the creative personal work (internal) and the bodywork career (external), each of which enhances the other. I don’t suppose that I could have come to this point in my life without all the other experiences I have gone through. Just as I was unable to do a handstand as a child, and now am unbelievably surprised to be able to do so, even as I am approaching 50—age does have its perks.”

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: “In a nutshell, as a socio-preneur I am working to change the way that parents live with and manage children with chronic illness and special needs. Two years ago I launched ImpactADHD, a global resource for parents that is the first of a network of coaching/training resource sites and programs. With an emphasis on the importance of the role of the parent, we will expand the wellness model to teach parents to teach their children to live with and thrive with disease, rather than be defined and exclusively limited by it. We are setting up strong systems to meet the needs of families, introducing a new way to manage old problems. Research is proving that parent training improves efficacy of other treatment methodologies, and health care is moving in the direction of a wellness approach to medical care. These factors combined make the ‘coach-approach’ to parenting an ideal solution for families.”

Ethan Knowlden: “This summer, I had a job change: Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Complete Genomics, Inc., in Mountain View, Calif. We have about 200 employees, and my department is two. We have a very cool technology that allows us to provide the most accurate whole human genome sequencing available today. In March we were acquired by BGI, the world’s largest sequencing company, headquartered in Shenzhen. Complete’s mission is to improve human health by providing genomic information to understand, prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and conditions. That is something I’m excited to be part of.”

A P.S. from Eric: Many thanks to you for your generosity: 243 classmates made a contribution to Wesleyan last year. As I am turning 50 this year, I am giving contributions of $50 (or multiples of 50) to a bunch of organizations. Some gifts, such as the one to Wes, are in memory of friends who have died and never made it to 50. If you are looking for a reason to give to Wes, check out thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu.

Eric Howard
EricInMaine@gmail.com

Muzzy Rosenblatt may even be more ubiquitous in NYC than he was at Wesleyan. In the span of a couple of weeks this past fall, I ran into him at a fundraising breakfast for our favorite US Senator (Michael Bennet), I saw him moderate a fascinating panel of some of Wesleyan’s most illustrious New York public policy minds (John Rhea, Shola Olatoye ’96, Sharon Greenberger ’88, John Alschuler ’70) at a “Future of the City” discussion regarding the challenges our new mayor will face, and then I opened up my New Yorker magazine on Nov. 11 to find a letter Muzzy wrote on the work he’s done with the BRC! And he did it all wearing his big red cardinal costume!

In addition to Muzzy, I was lucky enough to lay eyes on a number of classmates recently. I saw Rob Campbell give an amazing performance at Playwrights Horizons last November. I ran into Michael Pruzan at a book party for his sister-in-law Tracey Winn Pruzan ’85, and I got to have a long overdue lunch with my old roomie Lisa Abroms Herz. I also saw Molly Renfroe and her husband, Dan Katz ’85, at a party this fall.

Mark Pinto wrote in: “Little change here. Still living in Tacoma, Wash., with my partner, Jeff Williams, and working as a residential real estate broker. Just got back from a great trip to Barcelona. Looking forward to seeing classmates Jennifer Bush and Grier Mendel in Seattle in a few weeks.”

Imagine my delight to receive this e-mail from Joss Whedon: “For reasons too complex even for me to understand, I have not been killed. I have however had my consciousness transferred into the body of a very old (and rather bald) man, and I’m planning a strongly worded letter on the subject. I am splitting my time between LA (which is a desert) and England (which is like Eden except you can eat an apple and nobody gets huffy about it), where I’m working on a startlingly original idea I call a ‘superhero franchise.’ My progeny, in fifth and third grades respectively, are thoughtful, funny, and considerate, so I am demanding a paternity test. In my spare time I enjoy not having any spare time. I keep in touch with almost no one from our days of salad except Thomas Plotkin ’86, whom I seldom actually see but who lives forever in my heart and should really get a place of his own.”

Also in West Coast news, Richter Hartig was promoted by Starz to senior vice president for original programming production finance.

Joshua Bellin writes “The big news in my life is that my debut novel, a young adult science fiction novel titled Survival Colony Nine, has been accepted for publication (it’s due out next year).”

Stephen Porter reports that he is “happily living the midwestern whitebread life in St. Paul, Minn. I work as a research scientist at the local VA hospital studying antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Melissa and I have now been married for 21 years. Our son, Daniel ’16, is a sophomore at Wes. This was entirely his idea. He is living in WesCo, is in CSS, and claims to be working really hard. Wesleyan has truly proven to be a great fit for him. There is nothing like watching your child thrive at your alma mater to prove what a great school Wesleyan truly is!”

“Thanks to the support of many Wes alums and other good people,” writes Tim Sheridan, “we hit our Kickstarter goal in July. The book, Thunder & Lightning: a Story for a Stormy Night, is now available at thunderlightning.bigcartel.com.

Leslie Cannold wrote, “I do have news! My third book, The Book of Rachael, which went into a second printing here in Australia is being published in the US this December! It will be the feature title for my publisher, and continue to be prominent in their advertising through January as it is seen as a great holiday gift for anyone (Christian, Jew, Atheist, Feminist, etc.) who likes a ripping historical yarn with great sex. You can find out more about the book here: cannold.com/articles/article/the-book-of-rachael.”

Nancy Dobrow Bean “lives in the Pioneer Valley, Western Mass., with my husband, Mike, and our three daughters, Grace (9), Julia (15) and Maddi (18). Maddi just started her freshman year at Emory in Atlanta this September. Big change in the household! The girls are all singing and dancing, playing soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, skiing, hiking… we don’t sit around much! Mike sells organic coffee and our house generally smells like roasted coffee and wine. We are surrounded by farms, the Mt. Tom and Skinner Mountain Range, Mt. Holyoke Mountains, and the Connecticut River. We are also adjacent to our rivals at Amherst College! My event marketing and production company, Wise Up Events, is based in Boston. We just wrapped up production for the Taste of WGBH Food & Wine Festival in September, and the James Beard Foundation Taste America Tour in October. Now we gear up for full pre-production for the Nantucket Wine Festival. I am co-owner and director of the NWF. It takes about 11 months to produce, includes 50 different events over five days, and takes place every May. This May will be our 18th annual festival. I stay in touch regularly with my BFF Sibyll Carnochan Catalan, and would love to connect with other Wes alums! Best to reach me at: nancy@wiseupevents.com or cell: 617/755-5523.”

Joe Crivelli wrote in to tell me he regularly posts information on WesConnect, but that it feels like his own personal blog since he can never find other classmates posting. Feel free to join Joe and post your news on WesConnect, too—maybe it will catch on.

Have a happy and healthy 2014!

Amanda Jacobs Wolf
wolfabj@gmail.com

Peter writes for this issue.

Kelli Craig-Henderson reports: “I am just packing up for a move to Japan to head the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Tokyo Office. I’d enjoy hearing from any classmates who happen to be in my new neighborhood.”

After some 25 years of working for print newspapers, Jenifer McKim is moving into the exciting new nonprofit world of investigative journalism. “I left the Boston Globe, where I’ve worked for the last five years, and joined the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, a small newsroom based out of Boston University and WGBH radio/TV. I’m writing, editing, teaching, and helping build this new initiative, which can be found at www.necir.org.”

Bobbito Garcia advises: “On the career side, the doc I co-directed Doin’ It in the Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC, which peaked at #2 on iTunes Top Sports Movies and #4 on their Top Docs list. Broadcast premiere on PBS will be in early 2014. Also, the 10th anniversary edition of my book Where’d You Get Those? New York City’s Sneaker Culture: 1960–1987 (Testify Publishing) hits shops December 2nd.”

Hannah Doress shares that “I’m glad to be working on meaningful projects—I spearheaded a collaborative bilingual organizing project on Sea Level Rise called Shore Up Marin which received funding from San Francisco Foundation. I will produce my fourth Earth Day Marin Festival and Day of Action on April 6th. I recently co-launched Gluten Free Traditions, an affordable online cookbook series authored by my wife, Emily Bender. I had a major Wesleyan flashback when I visited Poland with my mother, who was speaking at the U Lodz Gender Studies Conference. It was just like Wes but international! My 10-year-old son, Abraham, is learning holistic horsemanship from Alane Freund ’87. We see Ilana Trumbull-Stearns ’90 for acupuncture. We had a recent mini-reunion with Ilana, Sara Elsa-Beech (now an architect), Jen Balfour ’90 (practicing acupuncture), and Stephanie Haffner ’91 (a public interest lawyer). Last Wes reunion before that was in SF with Ilana, Stephanie, Amy Randall ’89, Judith Sansone ’89, Seth Cousins ’91, and Jason Dewees. I saw Michael Frank ’86 at a fundraiser with his cute husband—Michael is city manager of Novato. We love visitors so let us know if you’ll be in the area.”

Chris Pearson is living out in Santa Cruz, Calif. “Susan and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary. We have 16- and 11-year-old daughters, and are starting to look at colleges for the oldest. I’m still working at West Marine, where I’m the marketing director for the B2B division.”

Mark Niles left his position at the Seattle University School of Law, returning to Washington, D.C., in order to work at American University. He is “looking forward to seeing many of my Wes alumni friends in the D.C. area, including Dana Martin ’86 and David Hill ’86 among others. Recently went on a college trip with my 17-year-old daughter that included Wesleyan. She really liked it, but her mom went to Williams, so we will see…”

Daniel Rosenberg advises, “It’s been a busy year. We spent the summer in Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and are now on sabbatical at the Stanford Humanities Center, which is terrific.”

PETER v.s. BOND and Hillary Ross
007@pvsb.org; hrossdance@yahoo.com

Thank you SO much for your service David Milch! Welcome to our new guy, Jonathan Fried. Yay!

Sooooo many updates, we speed-wrote… .

Stephanie Dolgoff, now “happily divorced,” is hanging with her twin tween gals—while her Formerly Hot book has been optioned by Lions Gate!

Joel Jacobs is studying barefoot massage and has begun acting lately even though he’s still got his day-job practicing environmental law in the California Attorney General’s Office.

Rabbi Jennifer Feldmen-—Kehillah Synagogue of Chapel Hill, NC.—proudly shepherds a congregation that includes quite a few Wes alums. She’s even officiating a Wes wedding in Latin America!

Vermont-based soul and blues singer/guitarist Dave Keller is celebrating the release of his new CD, Soul Changes—recorded with Al Green’s original backing unit, The Hi Rhythm Section!

We heard from Jaewoo Choo, who lives in South Korea working as a professor of Chinese foreign policy at KyungHee University. Jaewoo is married to James Rhee’s cousin. He and his spouse have a 14-year-old son.

In Jericho, N.Y., Jeffrey Naness is a partner practicing labor and employment law for management at Naness, Chaiet & Naness.

This past November Dr. William “Rob” Spencer won his second term as a Suffolk County (N.Y.)legislator.

Robin Allen McGrew is living in Athens, Greece, with husband Wes, their 15-year-old son, Nicholas, and daughter Susanna.

Dr. Jim Vincent has been running his own real estate appraisal firm for 15 years. Meanwhile, he still keeps up with theater.

Ellen M. Richard Tan has caved to our peer pressuring (Yay us!) and given us the good news that she is “happily gay-married (to quote Colbert) to Dorothy Tan, with one marvelous girl pitbull dog, Sophie.”

Phineas Baxandall is living in Cambridge, Mass., along with kids 14 and 12 with his partner, Sarah. He left academia about a decade ago and still does a fair amount of research as part of advocacy to close corporate tax loopholes.

Paul M. Gallo and his wife, Katie, just welcomed their second daughter, Kelsey Jordan Gallo, this past November 4th.

Kevin Heffernan just moved from Northampton back to Boston, Mass., where he is a housing lawyer for the State. He has two boys ages 2 and 5.

Jeff Brez has moved to the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where he works with the creative community (TV, film, etc.) and NGOs to promote UN priority issues and foster social change. He is married to Adriano Monti.

Holly Adams is dusting off her passport because—guess what!—she and her husband are officially empty nesters, y’all.

Marit Larson and Adam Sobel are still in New York with their two boys Eli (15) and Sam (12). Adam is a professor of atmospheric sciences at Columbia; Marit is Director of Wetlands for the NYC Parks Department.

Anjulika Chawla has been living in Rhode Island since September 2011 and writes: “Met my guy here, and 11 years and four kids later we have gotten engaged on April 1st of 2013. It may take us another decade to actually get married, but you are all welcome to come when it does happen!”

Jonathan’s updates here:

Kim Slote lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with her two children. Victoria Shestack Aronoff started nursing school, after a decade of grant writing. She lives in Maplewood, N.J., with her two children. Mark Seasholes has been in Hong Kong for the past five years, with his wife and daughter. They are in Austin, Texas, for the year. He saw Michael Mahon around Halloween for some barbecue, live music, and a UT football game. Bob Sutherland owns and manages several Sutherland Lumber stores. He lives in Niwot, Colo., with his wife and two daughters. Edward V. Colbert III is a partner with Looney & Grossman in Boston. He has a wife, two children, and at least five pets. He coaches hockey, and plays in a league with John Brais ’86 and Ted Galo ’85. Robin Smith is now vice president and general counsel for the Americas/Pacific Region of the US subsidiary of LEGO Systems, Inc. She reports that Dar Williams’s performance at Homecoming was “fabulous.” Evan Heimlich taught a World Religions course at Norco College in Southern California. Katey Miller Goldberg and Steve Goldberg celebrate 27 years since dating as sophomores! They live in Greenwich, Conn., with their three children. Steve is a senior portfolio manager at Citadel Asset Management and Katey works part-time in commercial real estate. David Levine visited Ricky Kotler in Baltimore, where Rick is a doctor in the managed care division of the Baltimore VA hospital. He lives in Columbia, Md., with his wife and three kids. David, an investment banker for middle-market companies, lives in Chappaqua, N.Y., with his wife and two kids. After many years teaching art history at Swarthmore, Janine Mileaf is the director of The Arts Club of Chicago. Matthew Coan lives in Mill Valley, Calif., with his wife and three kids. He co-founded Presidio Benefits Company in San Francisco. He was at Wesleyan’s first Little Three football championship in 43 years with Norm Beaulieu, Jim Lukowski, Mike Charlton, Adam Rohdie, Andy Lacey, Jim Regan, and Greg White ’87.

Since last reunion, Abby Smuckler Lotwin has married, had twins, left her long career in educational publishing, and moved to the ’burbs. She recently got together with Ladeene Freimuth, Colleen McKiernan, and Rachel Wulf Silver. Andrew Manning is a research geologist in Denver, Colo., is married, and has two daughters. He was inspired to see Wesleyan Earth and Environmental Science grads and faculty at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. John DiPaolo is a deputy assistant secretary for policy in the US Department of Education. He and his wife have one daughter. Janine Mortimer is in the Dominican Republic, enjoying the sunshine as the marketing manager for Occidental Resorts in the Caribbean.

See you at our 25^th (gulp) Year Reunion!

Jonathan Fried and Michele Barnwell
jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com
fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Hi all. Here’s what we have:

Carolyn Vellengo Berman writes that she has been thinking about Wesleyan quite a bit since she and her husband Greg Berman ’89, along with Sarah McNaughton Williams ’88, hosted a fundraiser for the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education last spring. “It was fun to catch up with Wesleyan friends and make some new ones as well. I also had an opportunity to review Wesleyan Professor Andrew Curran’s marvelous new book, The Anatomy of Blackness, for H-France this year. Highly recommended.”

Josh Leichter is doing “excellent, with lots going on.” He is engaged to be married to “the unparalleled Dr. Kyra Bobinet. My daughter’s a freshman at college. Not Wes, but a school that I am in love with, College of Wooster in Ohio. My son is a junior in high school and more focused than he’s ever been about anything on getting his driver’s license (those in Boston area, beware).” Josh is about to switch jobs and in two years will be moving to SF Bay Area, where his fiancée lives.

Alison Bowers writes in after attending the beautiful Bar Mitzvah of David Gottlieb, son of Bethel Gorin Gottlieb and the late Brian Gottlieb ’88 and grandson of Robert Gorin ’57. Also at the event were Laurie Malkin, Kerry Kourepenos, Seth Bergstein ’88, and Alex Mochary Bergstein ’88.

Also writing from the Northeast is Ben Robertson, an actor and writer in Keene, N.H. Ben helped start the Monadnock International Film Festival and is on the board getting ready for the second annual festival in April. He “would love to get film submissions from Wes alums as well as see friends from Wes next year at the fest.” You can see more about MONIff at moniff.org.

Next door in western Vermont, Ernie Luikart ’91 and Wendy Herrick ’90 are still living happily with their two daughters, Molly (8) and Emma (11). Ernie is working both as a full-time RN and also teaching a class, Natural Disasters, at Green Mountain College. Wendy continues to counsel students and teach classes on psychology and other subjects at Long Trail School in Dorset, Vt. Ernie has made a nearly full recovery after falling out of a tree (“testing it to see if it was safe for the daughters to climb—it wasn’t”) and fracturing the lateral processes of three lumbar vertebrae and cracking a rib or two. “I am not quite as good as new, but I wasn’t before the fall either.”

Bruce Hooke moved to Plainfield, Mass., and bought a home next door to a retreat center called Earthdance, a center for improvisational dance, theater, and movement. His life is “now closely interwoven with the community at Earthdance.”

Ed Ungvarsky writes from his family’s new house in Washington, D.C., where “they expect to stay until the golden years.” The special needs-focused public charter school that his wife, Olivia Smith ’91, founded and directs has expanded to a second campus and is frequently cited as a model school. Their daughters happily play soccer and listen to Taylor Swift.

Congratulations to Gerald Richards, CEO of 826 National (826national.org), a nonprofit network of creative writing and after-school tutoring centers located in eight cities. He was in D.C. at the Library of Congress to receive the inaugural American Prize for Literacy, which was given to 826 National for their work over the past decade. “There are 826 centers in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Detroit/Ann Arbor, and San Francisco. It was a great honor for our organization and cool to be in the Library of Congress. If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity, walk into an 826 center in your city or take your kids by to visit one of our storefronts.”

Finally, it has been brought to my attention that congratulations are also due to Michael Thomas, a veteran of Kosovo and Afghanistan, who has become a hero to local veterans in Connecticut. Michael has taken over a Subway franchise location and used it to set up a veterans program. He employs several veterans, some with disabilities, and teaches them (along with his employees who are not veterans) a broad range of skills necessary for today’s job market. His vision includes using the location as a space where veterans can network, obtain career advice, and meet with VA or New Haven Vet Center staff. In addition to awards and certificates he received during his military years, Michael has recently been given a few more honors for his latest work. First, the Connecticut Small Business Administration awarded him the 2013 Veteran Owned Small Business Award. Second, he was inducted into the Connecticut Veteran Hall of Fame. Fewer than 100 people have been inducted to the Hall, which is for veterans who have contributed significantly to their communities after the conclusion of their military service.

That’s all for now. Please keep your updates coming.

Vanessa Montag Brosgol
vebrosgol@optonline.net

We’ll start off Notes with not one, but two reports from campus:

Tibby Erda Mahler went to Homecoming 2013 and watched Wesleyan beat Williams and win the Little Three outright. A former student of hers plays on the team and Tibby’s son is a quarterback, so she has a whole new appreciation for football. “Campus looked awesome. We ventured down to the ‘new’ fieldhouse and watched volleyball, as my 12-year-old is a player and wanted to see a college game. Felt great to be back on campus. Hard to believe either of my kids could be there in five or six years. I’d be honored, as would my husband and my dad.”

Meanwhile, our very own Trustee, Dan Prieto, has been up to campus twice for board meetings. He’s been impressed by campus and the students. Dan serves on the University Relations Committee, focused on improving career resources for students and improving connectivity between students and alumni in their fields of interest. Dan asks, “If any folks from our class are willing to engage students to get them interested in particular career fields, let me know. We’re starting career-centered Facebook groups to bring alumni and students together. First one out of the gate is WesCareers Finance.”

Moving into the world of art and entertainment, Evie Manieri reports that the mass market paperback of her debut novel, Blood’s Pride, comes out from Tor Books in late January 2014.

Suki Stetson Hawley has been making films with her husband, Michael Galinsky, and partner David Beilinson, for 15 years under the company name Rumur. Together, they’ve made five documentary features and lots of shorts. Three recent efforts include: Battle for Brooklyn, shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2012. It’s the story of reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for a basketball arena and the densest real estate development in U.S. history. Along the way, he falls in love, gets married and starts a family while living in a vacated building in the heart of Brooklyn. Who Took Johnny premiers at Slamdance in January 2014, and examines the infamous case of Johnny Gosch, the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. Finally, they are launching a kickstarter campaign for Story of Pain, delving into the state of mind-body medicine in our culture and healthcare system.

Eva Pendleton has a new position as Manager of Integrative Health at NYU Clinical Cancer Center, responsible for developing and overseeing programs to help support patients during and after their cancer journey, including massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga and meditation.

Alisa Rosen is celebrating the first birthday of her daughter, Sophie Anna, in February.

Deborah Sue Mayer is concluding a nine-month deployment as a commander in the U.S. Navy assigned as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for Joint Task Force Guantanamo. By the time of publication, she will be back to her job as the director of investigations for the Committee on Ethics, U.S. House of Representatives, and her new house in Alexandria, Va.

Lindsey Cowell Parsons is now the program coordinator at the Center for Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University. Speaking of New Zealand, Kristin Elisabeth Sandvik Lush announces an open invitation to couch surf in Aotearoa.

Finally, a bit of news about me: After years in policy and politics, I needed a change. I took some time off and worked on a long-standing project, trying to figure out where in “Russia” my family originated. It became an obsessive, fascinating project ranging across multiple countries in Eastern Europe. Friends asked me to help them, then friends started paying me to help them, and easterneuropeanmutt.com was born. Never in a million years would I have predicted I would become a genealogist! I absolutely love learning the history of family migration, and finding the little stories that make each experience unique.

All the best to everyone—don’t forget to write!

Renée K. Carl
rcarl@wesleyan.edu

Greetings and salutations from Washington, D.C. It’s a beautiful late fall day here with white stuff on the ground, and cancellations and closings on the radio. Michele and I are focused on Nutcracker shows for Julia and piano recitals for Peter, as we pack for a trip to see family and go skiing.

Jeremy Hornik adopted a baby boy at birth, Adler Bishop Quirke Hornik, in September. Jeremy continues to live in Chicago, where he is designing slot machines and running Donna’s Good Things charity honoring the memory of his daughter, Donna, with the goal “to find hope, give back, get inspired. We want a movement, not a charity!”

Maurice Harris, member of the faculty of the Judaic Studies Department at the University of Oregon, recently celebrated the release of his second book, Leviticus: You Have No Idea (Cascade Books). His first book, Moses: A Stranger Among Us, came out in 2012. Maurice and his wife, Melissa Crabbe, are raising two adoptive children, Clarice and Hunter Harris, in Eugene, Ore., where they get to hang out with Randall Phelps, who lived with Maurice in The Bayit: Randy has put away his rubber chicken antics for a career in developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Oregon Health and Science University.

James Wilton lives in the Charlotte, N.C., area where he is in his seventh year as executive director of RCS Corporation. RCS is celebrating its 20th anniversary and is expanding into new business lines around oil/gas, solar and other energy verticals. Give James a ring to connect if you are in the energy business or want to know what it is like to be the father of a teenage boy.

Lastly, I heard from Oliver Ryan, well known bachelor/magazine reader/plant care-giver and therapist, on his way to Louisville, Ky., where he was planning to meet with Juliet Cooper Gray and her husband, Mathias. Oliver and Mathias are working together to launch Count It, a new kind of workplace wellness app. Jonathan Bush is on the board of Count It, as is Larry Sosnow, Meg Sosnow’s father. Back at home in NYC, Oliver shares a desk with Dave Kane, who himself is up to his neck in a cool startup, Village Power, founded by Ty Jagerson. If all goes well, this update will be spotted by one of the members of the Wes Mafia who are running the venture capital scene in New York these days!

ADAM BERINSKY and PAUL COVIELLO
berinsky@mit.edu
coviellop01@alum.darden.edu

Hi, everyone! We have some exciting updates—weddings, babies, mini-Wes reunions, marathons, and new businesses. If you haven’t sent an update in years, please send us an e-mail. It’s always fun hearing from a fellow Cardinal. And now, without further ado, here is the news from our neck of the woods.

Joshua Buswell has been living in France since 1995. Now a husband and father, he is hoping to soon become a French national. Joshua is a certified and experienced guide for visitors in Paris and throughout France.

Therése Heliczer Casper writes, “I’m getting ready to go on an exciting trip to South Africa with my family. We have the opportunity thanks to my husband, Corey Casper ’92, who is traveling there for a medical conference. We will be spending Thanksgiving on safari (instead of with Andy Thompson ’92, Jill Fuss ’94, and Matthew Glozter ’92, which has been our family tradition). While we will miss our Wes buds, it will be quite a different experience from eating turkey.”

Jon Chesto sent an update: “This fall, a troika of distance runners from the Class of ’93 made strong showings at various East Coast marathons. Matt Schneider returned to the marathon after a decade away and recovering from knee surgery to quell the doubters by running 3:50 at the Mohawk-Hudson Marathon in Albany, N.Y. He was joined by Anne Noel Occhialino ’94 and her husband, Jon Gannon, who were running together to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. Arthur Magni qualified for the 2014 Boston Marathon with his second fastest marathon time, missing his personal best of 3:02 by two minutes at the Abebe Bikila Day International Peace Marathon in Washington. And Jon Chesto ran the Cape Cod Marathon in scenic Falmouth, Mass. His time of 2:41 was good enough to place third overall.”

Jessica Slade D’Arcy and Paul D’Arcy are still stirring up trouble in Austin, Texas. They have three kids in elementary school, including Maya (11), who at 5’7” is believed to be the tallest elementary school student in Texas by numerous experts. When not measuring their children, Paul runs marketing for job search engine indeed.com, and Jessica works closely with charter schools in her role leading a foundation. They were excited to be visited by Carl Byers and Suzi Byers ’94 on their recent swing through Austin.

Kim Frederick e-mails: “On May 23, 2013, my husband, Vincent Webb and I welcomed Theodore Ellis Frederick Webb (5 lb., 6.5 oz.) into our family. Big sister Zora (5) and big brother Isaac (2.5) were thrilled.

Kate Lewis Kenedi is a volcanologist living in Auckland, New Zealand, with husband Chris Kenedi and son Peter. “I am a researcher, currently studying volcanoes in Saudi Arabia, where I have been several times for collaborative work with a university there. The volcanic field near the city of Madinah is potentially active, so we are doing a volcanic hazard analysis to help figure out how much of a threat it is. My son and I do karate together, and I also am an ocean swimmer with a local group. I am working up to the swim from Auckland to the volcano in the harbour—4.5 kilometers! Chris is a neuropsychiatrist and internist at Auckland City Hospital, where he does clinical work and also research.

Ghassan Medawar got married last year, and is living in Dubai. He writes, “I have an advisory business working in partnership with businesses operating in the Middle East or seeking to enter the Middle East markets: fullcircleinvest.com . I’d love to hear from Wes alums in the Middle East.”

Tim Olevsky spent Veterans’ Day weekend in Montgomery, Ala., at the marriage of John Pollock ’94 and Katie Rose. Also in attendance were Rob Mangels ’92, Jennie Van Cleef ’92, Leah Bartell ’95, and numerous other Wes alums. Tim is enjoying life as a band teacher, and the chorus that he sings with will be touring with the Boston Pops during the holiday season.

Casey O’Neill and his wife, Michele, are busy filming season two of their acclaimed childrens’ webtv series Kidsploration (Kidsploration.org) and are excited their 6-year-old son, AJ, has been able to contribute his talents to webisodes!

Karen Powell just opened Triple Divide Spirits, a distillery and tasting room in Helena, Mont. “We’re currently producing vodka, and will be rolling out other products next year. We welcome any Wes alums to stop by when they are visiting! See photos at tripledividespirits.com.”

Maura Solomon married Greg Woosley on Sept. 1, 2013, in Arlington, Va. Her sister, Erin Solomon Gaffen ’97, was the matron of honor, and Lynne O’Connell Murphy was among the bridesmaids. Lots of Class of ’93 alums celebrated the event, including Jen Roff, Julie Han, Joe McLaughlin, Lori Vaughan, Jessica Aronoff, Adam Wolfe, Andy McGrath, and Brad Schiff. Maura is a managing director in the federal government affairs office of Citi in Washington, D.C.

Antonia Townsend writes: “I moved to San Francisco a couple of years ago. I see David Derryck and Erica Terry Derryck ’95, as well as Chris Mulhauser ’92 quite a bit. I’ve recently launched my own business, Enclosed (TheEnclosed.com), a luxury knicker-of-the-month club. I also caught up with Georgia Winston and a few other Wes folks at Lucius Outlaw’s wedding earlier in the year.”

Suzanna Henshon and Sarah Estow
suzAnnahenshon@yahoo.com
sarah_estow@hotmail.com

Danielle Pelletier Fiery: “I am still teaching math at my old high school, Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, N.H. I finally started a master’s program, at Plymouth State University, in neurodevelopmental teaching. I love it! I was back in Middletown several times last summer, taking a GLSP class in adolescent psychology. It didn’t take many trips for me to realize that it’s just too far away (three hours each trip) to take more graduate classes there.”

John Pollock writes, “I got married to Katie Rose in November in Alabama, where I’ve lived for the past seven years. I’m now the coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, which I do through my staff attorney position at the Public Justice Center. In 1991, a group of Wesleyan students with a love of baseball gathered in a Lo-Rise unit to create the Jim Vatcher Fantasy Baseball Memorial League. In 2013, we had our 23rd fantasy baseball draft (23. Just let that sink in), and amazingly, we’re still going with a lot of the original or near-original members: Rob Harper-Mangels ’92, Rich Dansky ’92, Steve Karon ’92, Aaron Siskind ’93, and Chris Joyal ’95. My former Wesleyan roommate, Elizabeth Ehrlich, continues to crank out amazing recipes on her blog, feedemright.tumblr.com.”

Larry Sidney: “This past summer I moved out to Lake Tahoe to work with the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition. We are working on bringing a future Winter Olympic Games to the region. I also just started an executive MBA program at UC, Berkeley.”

Tania Lisa Llambelis has been on sabbatical from her full-time teaching job with Oakland Unified School District in California. While she has been away from the classroom, Ms. Llambelis has traveled solo to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Tania writes, “Patty Pion spent spring break with me in Rio de Janeiro; together we explored beaches, museums, and restaurants!”

Aram Sinnreich’s book, The Piracy Crusade: How the Music Industry’s War on Sharing Destroys Markets and Erodes Civil Liberties, was just released.

Jesse Hendrich writes, “I have left Bellevue inpatient psych and expanded my psychotherapy practice, which is growing steadily and feels great. As for Wes relations, I see Mark Ladov and Nicole Davis, since they both live in my neighborhood and our kids play together.”

Jeffrey Kwan: “I’m living in the S.F. Bay Area, in the town of Atherton, and working as a gastroenterologist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. My three boys (ages 7, 4, and 1) keep me and my wife super busy and active.”

Maggie Nelson just finished a year as the Moseley Fellow in Creative Writing at Pomona. She also received a 2013 Innovative Literature Award from Creative Capital for her book in progress; her most recent book, The Art of Cruelty, went into paperback in 2012 and was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. She lives in LA, where she has taught writing, art, literature, and theory at CalArts since 2005.

Sigrid Schmalzer writes, “Ferdinand’s baby brother, Winston Anarres Close, was born safely at home on May 28, 2013. The first and last parts of his name come from his dad, Winston William Close, and Anarres honors the anarchist-utopian society in Ursula Le Guin’s novel, The Dispossessed.”

Max Belkin shares this update: “I continue to practice psychotherapy in Manhattan and teach graduate courses at NYU. I recently completed psychoanalytic training at the William Alanson White Institute. Please check out my recent post for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Action/Psychology Today: tinyurl.com/a2okq8y.”

Dan Brown writes, “My second book, Designing Together, was published in June 2013. The book expands on a game I created to help designers practice dealing with conflict. My Web design company is in its seventh year, and serves clients such as Marriott International, Yahoo!, and Cisco, among others. I’ve been lunching occasionally with David Belman ’90, who also owns a design firm in the D.C. area. Sarah and I have two kids: Harry, 8, and Everett, 2.”

Karen Gaffney writes, “I am an associate professor of English at Raritan Valley Community College in central New Jersey, where I currently serve as chair of the English Department. I teach composition, race and pop culture, and gender studies. Wesleyan sparked my interest in social justice, and I’ve been continuing that work ever since, both at the college and in the community. I’m also writing a book about how the stereotypes of ‘rednecks,’ ‘Asian overachievers,’ and ‘illegals’ serve the status quo by dividing and conquering us. I’m looking forward to next year’s Reunion!”

Aaron Passell: “My wife and I now have two boys, 8-1/2, and 8 months. We’ve been living in Philadelphia for the last few years and have been visited here by Seth Levin, Jesse Hendrich, and Scott Rosenberg. I’m teaching sociology at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. (and yes the geography is complicated). The chance to teach at a small, liberal arts college brings home exactly how much I got out of my time at Wes.”

David Drogin is an associate professor and chairperson of the History of Art Department at the State University of New York, F.I.T. He recently contributed a chapter, “The Bentivoglio: Art, Patronage, and Emulation in Fifteenth-Century Bologna” to the volume Bologna: Cultural Crossroads from the Medieval to the Baroque. His continuing work in Italian Renaissance art includes the forthcoming publications: Dialogue of the Doges: Monumental Ducal Tombs in Renaissance Venice, and The Mirror’s Illicit Secret.

Tracy Ferguson Pepperman: “Mike and I just welcomed our fourth boy, Gavin, who joins brothers Michael, Zachary, and Luke. The house is now full, fun, and chaotic! I’m still toiling away as a federal attorney, currently tasked with trying to save the U.S. Postal Service. I have bumped into Wes alumna and former U.S. Attorney’s Office colleague June Jeffries ’75, live around the corner from William ’91 and Katherine Wingfield Barry ’91, had play dates with Alison Bidwell Pearce, and spend a lot of time hanging out with my favorite Wes roommate, Wendy Weber, who is a doctor at the National Institutes of Health. Can’t wait for Reunion!”

Please mark your calendar for our Reunion and Commencement Weekend: May 22–25, 2014.

Jiyoung Lim Gilbreth and Ilana Wind Newell
94notes@gmail.com

Joanna Greenwald is managing partner at Greenwald Law Offices in New York: “We are a general practice with a family law center building only dedicated to divorce and family law needs. It is the only one in New York. Also we can be seen at greenwaldlaw.com, where criminal, personal injury, commercial, and litigation are handled, covering all boroughs of New York and the Hudson Valley.”

Beth Shilepsky Price states: “Things are still going great for us outside of Charleston, S.C. I am a family medicine doctor in a rural area and our kids are now 9, 7, and 4. I recently spoke to Drea Beale, who is keeping busy with her husband and two young daughters in California. She is still teaching and recently ran a marathon. Kristin Dunn ’96 is also in California, living the dream with her husband and young daughter. She continues to do amazing work bookbinding (thank you for the recent book I bought from you!). On a trip to Boston this summer I had the chance to catch up with Camille Mendoza, who is living with her significant other, Paul, in Medford and still loving her job at the Museum of Fine Arts as a graphic designer.”

From the journal of Spencer Douglas: “I thought I’d reach out and let you know that I’ve been in L.A. for about five years now and was just promoted in June to manager, integrated marketing, at Warner Bros., working on feature film marketing. I get to work with filmmakers on all of our tentpole titles and with all different divisions of the company (DC, Home Video, Consumer Products, Videogames, Promotions, Online, etc.), helping them with their various programs. It’s interesting, to say the least!”

Adam French states: “The big news over here is a second kiddo—Ty Carl French. Born on October 16th. The fun continues.

From Douglas Sabo: “I had a nice Wesleyan showing at my recent wedding to Christopher Nichols (Stanford) in Calistoga, Calif. My wedding party included David Smith ’92 and Josh Gilbert, who of course was joined by his wife, Carey Bartell. Also great to have Marcus Chung ’98 there as well. Meanwhile, Chris, Chloe (our 2-year-old) and I can’t wait to share more news in the near future. I’ve recently become vice president and head of global corporate philanthropy and responsibility at Visa Inc.”

Ethan de Seife here: “My wife, Laura, and I, after five years in Brooklyn, quit our jobs and headed north. We now live in Burlington, Vt., where it’s beautiful, quiet, and pleasant. We are contemplating buying little booties for our dog, Dutch, so he can romp in the snow without fweezing his widdle doggie feets. Laura is a speech-language pathologist at a local nursing home, and I’m now an arts writer for Seven Days, Burlington’s ‘alternative weekly’ newspaper.”

Jason Segal and Laura Boucai-Segal welcomed their first baby, Julia Daphne Segal, on Nov. 6^, (7 lbs., 4 oz.). “She has a fondness for crying, guzzling milk and occasionally sleeping, and has already indicated her strong interest to be part of the Wesleyan class of ’34.”

Leigh Copperman Burchell reported a very busy 2013. She loves her job as VP of policy and government affairs for a large health information technology company, and she and her husband, Chris Burchell ’96, moved twice within Raleigh, N.C., to find just the right house in a great neighborhood close to downtown. They are raising their three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and on top of all that, Leigh went through a breast cancer battle this year (that, thankfully, ended with an excellent prognosis) and is now in the rear-view mirror. She wanted to remind everyone to be diligent about preventive care, though—we’re not getting any younger, and it can happen to us!

Some news from DC: Marc Schleifer calls 2013 “an eventful year.” He says, “I got the official, six-years-of-clean-scans, all-clear, we’ll finally say the word ‘remission’ stamp of approval from my doctor early in the year. Then in April, my wife Amber and I wed in Brooklyn (there were some Wes folks in attendance). Then in September we were finally able to start living in the same city, bidding goodbye to our previous NYC-DC weekend commuting life, when she moved from the New York Federal Reserve to a position with the Fed Board of Governors down here. My own career took a fortunate turn, as I became regional director for Eurasia and South Asia at the Center for International Private Enterprise, an economic and political development nonprofit. Meanwhile my wonderful son turned 8 in November, and now my 10-year grad school reunion is looming in April 2014 (with our Wes 20-year not too far in the future)!”

Kimberly Sicard got married in Las Vegas on Oct. 13, 2013: “My fellow ’95ers Joanna Unze Braden and Alexis Williams Coatney attended the wedding.”

Lara Tupper writes: “I’m enjoying my new adventures in freelance land (writing, singing and teaching) and about to begin a post-graduate semester in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. (Time to take my next book to task.) I was pleased to reunite with Chelsea Farley and Laura Pinsof and families in Hudson, N.Y., for late summer ice cream and talk.”

Rob Armstrong gives “The Big News from the Armstrong family”—they are moving to London in 2014, where Rob will be running the Financial Times’ “Lex” column. “We will be living in Balham, south of the river,” he says, adding, “Would love to see any Wes types who are passing through.”

DWAYNE BUSBY
dwaynedbusby@yahoo.com