Class Notes

Daniel Dykes married the wonderful Xiao Lin in Brooklyn, Connecticut, in June, with Wesleyan professor Duffy White in attendance! He is enjoying getting back into theater and is currently playing Emperor Joseph in a production of Amadeus in Madison, Connecticut, after starring in Uncle Vanya and directing his sister Emily’s play At the Still Point.

On June 18, 2025, Jesse Young and his wife, Michele Viterise, welcomed Dylan August Young into the world—their first child (a boy). A rotating cast of family members helped the new parents and baby get through the first few weeks, all of which helped function as an excellent distraction from the state of the country (and world) in mid-2025!

Saad Handoo writes, “Hi! I live with my family of four near North Druid Hills in Atlanta. I work in sales strategy for Delta Airlines and recently ran into Ayando Kono while on a business trip to Tokyo—such a fun and unexpected reunion! We’re always looking for fun things to do around the city and love connecting with other local families.”

Leah Stern and Teague Hopkins were thrilled to welcome baby Ori in summer 2024, joining Asa, who is now four. Asa’s most recent bedtime story is how Teague and Leah met, “so we’re starting the indoctrination early. We’re grateful that our Wes and Alpha Delt friends are still a huge part of our community and our kids’ lives, both virtually and IRL.”

A crew of 20-plus classmates in NYC came together for a happy hour in April, organized by Jess Smith and Fazal Yameen. “Some old friends, some new. All sparked by a convo with Jess while I was searching for a new tech leadership role. If you’re in NYC and want to join the next one, please reach out to Jess or myself.” Fazal can be reached at myameen@wesleyan.edu.

Mel McCrea is living in her hometown of Oakland, California. She practices as a psychotherapist at Blue Oak Therapy Center, with a focus on supporting queer and trans thriving and multicultural relationships. She welcomes client inquiries, as well as being set up for dates with cute, liberation-oriented people in the East Bay. 

After celebrating the first birthday of her second child, Russell Louis Gomes Galdston in May, July saw Maya Gomes become a tenured professor of earth and planetary science at Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, Jesse Galdston, and her other son August Eugene Gomes Galdston.

“Laura Rindlaub can’t remember the last time she contributed to the class notes and therefore has no idea where she left off! “My husband, two daughters (Kate, eight, and Mari, six), and I have lived in Montclair, New Jersey, since 2021, and frequently run into Adam Stone ’05 at the town pool in the summer. Our lives have assumed that sweet suburban, early ’40s cadence of work, kid activities, gardening, and now renovating our 100-year-old house. We love it all. A fellow psychologist friend and I started a private CBT practice in Summit, New Jersey, in 2020, which we are in the process of expanding. I’m so lucky to report that my work is interesting, challenging, and delightful every single day.”

Kate Longley-Wood’s job at The Nature Conservancy is taking her around the world, including to Belize and to the Seychelles to help support these countries in their marine spatial planning processes. Despite her love for the ocean, she is still too afraid to go SCUBA diving.

Paul McElfresh was appointed middle school director of The Berkeley Carroll School. Here is a link to the announcement: new school director. 

Sarah Myksin and Brian Heiss welcomed their son Alexander (Class of 2046?!) in May 2024. They share, “The last year has been a joy and we’re hopeful we can introduce him to Wesleyan at our 20th Reunion next year. Brian and I have been in D.C. for the last four years after time in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. After completing his fellowship in oncology and clinical pharmacology, Brian joined the FDA as a medical officer in 2021; I made the move from fundraising to edtech at the same time.”

Celia Reddick, her husband, Alain Uwumugambi, and their two daughters (ages six and one) live in Tallahassee, Florida, where Celia is an assistant professor of education and international development at Florida State University. She writes, “If you find yourself stumbling through the Florida Panhandle, please give a shout! We’d love to see you.”

Molly Dengler is planning a move within the next year from her hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, back to the Dominican Republic with her partner and son, who was born there 10 years ago. She is dreaming of their future house serving as a retreat center for international leaders in education to share ideas as she coaches school and district leaders to center global competence in her current role at World Savvy. 

As one of the founders of Child Care for Connecticut, Izzi (Autumn) Greenberg shared the exciting news that her organization was able to pass transformative, first-in-the-nation, childcare legislation in the Connecticut legislature in its 2025 session.

Ethan Leinwand is working as a blues pianist, performer, and advocate in St. Louis, where he serves on the board of directors for the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation.

Ben Shestakofsky and family have moved from Philadelphia to Ithaca, New York. Ben is now an assistant professor of information science at Cornell. 

Luke Snelling married Kathryn McKinley in Sonoma, California, surrounded by Wesleyan folks, including best man Philip Cortes ’06 and Casey Wilson ’06, who gave a blessing at the wedding. Ben Flynn ’03 and William Shaw were also in attendance. Luke writes, “I also brought Kathryn to Wesleyan for Reunion, where it was fun to row with some members of the crew and celebrate the life of David Wyant by dedicating a shell in his honor. It was also fun to visit WESU and reminisce with Eli Schned about our time on air.”

Lodro Rinzler continues to write books about and teach meditation from his very old home in upstate New York, where he lives with his wife and toddler. The three of them recently met up with David Delcourt for a lovely romp while spending a month in Scotland.

Katie Walsh had a ball with the Class of 2005, dancing the night away in Club Hewitt at our 20-year reunion (still got it!). She is still in Los Angeles, working as film critic for the Tribune News Service, and is the vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. 

David Rood-Ojalvo married Alice Buttrick on June 28, 2025, in Mahopac, New York. Rachel Pecker officiated. Vivian Rood-Ojalvo, one, attended, as well as 22 graduates of Wesleyan.

Liz (Beedy) Wendorf has three kids and lives in Massachusetts, teaching high school math and running her hemp farm and CBD business, Windy Village Wellness, alongside her husband, Matt. Dancing until the wee hours with her fellow ’05ers at Reunion was a highlight of the year so far.

Marcus Bach-Armas also writes that most special moment of the last few years was probably having fun at Reunion with his fellow ’05ers.

Andrés Méndez-Peñate is enjoying life teaching Spanish in the Boston area and hanging with his eight-year-old, Diego.

Doro Globus is the publisher at David Zwirner Books, the publishing arm of one of the world’s leading commercial art galleries. She also writes children’s books celebrating creative careers. Her upcoming series, It Takes a Team, will launch in 2026 with We Made a Song and We Made a Movie, published by Bloomsbury. Doro lives in London with her husband and their two children, Tristan (10) and Thea (six).

Emily Pfeiffer-Russell lives in Bakersfield, California, with her spouse, Ed, who is an agricultural scientist in the citrus industry, and their two sons, Henry (nine-and-a-half) and George (six-and-a-half). Emily helps junior high students in the resource specialist program with their academics. The ’05 Reunion was a definite highlight of the year, including the sad, but beautiful tree dedication memorial service held for Jesse Brenner, aka “The Bizzle.”

Ben Popper recently attended our 20th Reunion and danced his face off. Since then, he started a new role as director of content marketing at Writer and is eager to connect with anyone interested in AI agents.

Jenny Mariaschin-Rudin and Rachel (Morris) Bruce ’03 ran into each other at their synagogue B’nai Jeshurun, on the Upper West Side and realized they were not only Wes alumni, but also were in the Mazeltones together! They have happily reconnected, and their children make mayhem and music together on Shabbat. Jenny has a private psychotherapy and neurodiversity consulting practice, and Rachel is an ER attending. 

David Delcourt writes, “I’m stillrunning my hot sauce company, Seed Ranch Flavor Co. (and sister brand GrownAs Foods), out in Boulder, Colorado. We have a delicious sauce featured on this season of Hot Ones. . . . So far, Owen Wilson, Dakota Johnson, Aaron Paul, and Adam Levine have loved it! The aches and pains of 20 years out of college haven’t kept me from keeping in touch with Ben Brown, Will Conkling, Teek Thaker, Tom Facelle, Rodney Solomon, and Lodro Paul Rinzler.”

Jeremy Paul is now working at Oberlin College—the Wesleyan of the Great Lakes—as their dance production coordinator.

Amy Crawford recently joined the team at global music and sound company MassiveMusic and is still based in NYC with kids (ages three and five) who are loving every minute.

Adam Smiley Poswolsky loved 20th Reunion so much he decided to volunteer to be our class secretary! Reunion highlights were MGMT karaoke in WestCo, dancing in Club Hewitt, and celebrating the life of his best friend Jesse Brenner. Email your class notes to aposwolsky@gmail.com.

Hi ’04! Hoping this edition of Class Notes finds you well. I’m back with a new round with some fun updates:

Mark Schindler continues to run his consulting firm, OtterBear, helping companies navigate digital transformations and build stronger leadership and operations teams via coaching and advising. This fall, he launched the Second Circle Institute (2CI), a leadership accelerator program and peer-driven community designed to help midlevel leaders grow into strategic, confident executives.

William Gilmore told us back in July that he, Michael Lang, David Whiting, Scott Zimmer, Jon Youngner, and their families gathered in Boston for a long-awaited meetup, reconnecting and reminiscing about the good times they shared at Wes. Mosah Goodman had booked tickets to join but a last-minute business meeting foiled that plan. He and Blake Williams were able to join via video call to share some laughs.

Stephanie Mandell writes in to tell us that last fall she and her husband competed in the World Ultimate (Frisbee) Championships in their age division, and their team won third place! “I hope to have more experiences like that before we all get too old.”

Dorian-Jamal Cool tells us: “I hope you’re doing well. Here are some updates. My fiancée and I married on May 1 of this year. We went to the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and made wildflower crowns for each other and jumped the broom (which my aunt made). The other big news is we spent a month in Mother Africa traveling solo in Namibia. We almost died in the desert, we ate the best sushi I’ve ever had, we swam with wild dolphins in a shipyard, and saw a lion pretend he could challenge a rhino—the rhino called his bluff and drank the water. Oh, and we weren’t killed by an angry elephant who just wanted us to get out of his place. He was quite cross.” He also added: “We were those cheesy dorks who, when driving through the desert, played “Africa” by Toto. It was nerdy, but I won’t say it wasn’t totally cool.”

Bernadette Doykos also writes in to share: “I am living in Salt Lake City but working for Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s media company, Boardroom, which is based in NYC. It’s been a big year of getting acclimated to a new home and pining for New England. The good news is that ski trips bring folks through town a fair amount, so I was able to hit some intermediate blues with Brent Taylor ’07 and Jenn Brown this winter!” Bernadette also said that she “had a sweet lil WesLax reunion” with Meriel Darzen and Sonya Behnke Page ’03 at the wedding of Erin Malone ’03, “though we missed Martina McPherson more than words can say.”

She also follows up to shout-outs to Adam Hodge for his selection to the Board of Trustees. “Proud of that guy!” [Insert writer’s note here, I have to echo that!]

We also heard from Adam himself who has been keeping busy too! “This summer, I completed my first half ironman and lived to talk about it. I’m excited to represent the Class of 2004 on the Wesleyan board as an elected trustee. Don’t hesitate to reach out!”

Brian McKenna is living the dream in NYC with his beautiful wife and two daughters. He continues his dedication to the professional passions he discovered at Wes, fusing music/audio with visual storytelling as the founder of BtOVEN MUSIC (www.btovenmusic.com), established in 2009 after launching his career writing jingles.

            “Recent work includes: experiential animation for Disney with partner studio Cartuna, under Clio consideration; a growing Telly count, including the most recent 2025 award for work supporting Ukraine on Raw Travel, TV’s #1 rated travel show; cause-driven work with organizations like The Ghetto Film School and NYC–based PSA powerhouse F.Y. Eye, e.g., Rising Tide Effect | Water Wise; and purposeful podcast productions across corporate and entertainment sectors, e.g., Symptomatic with iHeart and Novartis.” 

            Outside of his work in studio and on location, Brian focuses his time on family, friends, fitness, fun, and foodie culture—in perpetual pursuit of perfecting his lasagna.” =)

As for me, I continue to live in and love Chicago, when I’m not traveling across continents for work. I’m hoping to get back to the East Coast in the late fall to visit the family and some of my favorite neighborhoods!

As always, if you’ve got class notes, please share them at wes04classnotes@gmail.com.

Alison Criscitiello co-led an international deep-ice coring project on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian high Arctic this past spring. After two months, Alison and team reached bedrock at 613 meters, making this ice core the deepest in Canadian history (and in all of the Americas)! The ice core contains 10,000 to 20,000 years of climate history. Here is a link to an article about it: deepest ice core.

On June 21, Erin Malone married her partner of 16 years, Brian Guy, in Lincoln, Vermont. They had many alums join them “in celebrating our midlife love including: my freshman year roommates, Julia (Bruckner) Newman and Rachel Schiff; my WesLax teammates, Sonya Behnke, Meriel Darzen ’04, and Bernadette Doykos ’04; Clark Hall buddies, Sarah Erlinder, Allison Lorentzen, Erica Sattin, Alison Plenge, Maggie McConnell, Cara Romanik, Colin Aitken, Noah Newman; and a few dear friends I’ve connected with since graduating, Eve Hadley, Bethany Caruso, Adam Lachman, Cecelia Bathory ’02, Tamara Reimer ’02, and Jodi Reiter ’01. Obviously, the Wesleyan crew brought the energy and enthusiasm.

Meredith Barrett and Aaron Stoertz took a seven-month sabbatical with their two daughters to travel the world, visiting Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Tanzania, Switzerland, and Italy. Along the way, they enjoyed Negronis on the shores of Lake Como with Noah Newman and Julia (Bruckner) Newman, who were traveling Europe with their two daughters, National Lampoon style. 

Tejas Desai’s new book, Bad Americans: Part 1, was published in September. Tejas said, “This is an ambitious pandemic novel filled with six long stories that portray different aspects of the American experience during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic—basically Boccaccio meets The Bachelor.” A review by Publishers Weekly described it as a “powerful rending of the human experience uniting a divided America.” In addition, it has been described as “a genre-defying tour de force” and a “vital mirror to America’s soul.”

Thanks to everyone who wrote in! Always great to hear from you, but especially these days where reminders of your integrity, creativity, and kindness are most welcome.

Joanna Weaver reports that she was lucky to be visited by her three 19 Fountain housemates one right after another this summer. Lisa Kagan, Ali Stumacher, and Jess Firestone all made the trip to Boston to see Joanna, her husband, their two sons, dog Sparkle, and the beautiful city they’ve called home for the past three years. Joanna was recently promoted to associate teaching professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where she often wonders whether blue books will make a comeback. Her most recent adventure was cycling the Camino de Santiago on the Portugal to Spain route. She hopes to see everyone at the 25th Class Reunion in May.

Congratulations to Maria McKee, who received a SPUR Good Government Award this year for her work at the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department. “I am truly humbled and honored, especially when good governance and justice system reform is under attack.”

From Chris Saenger: “After an amazing 16 years in the USAID Foreign Service, I’m ‘DOGEd’ out of a job as of September 2. Not sure what’s next, but I’m hoping to stay in the world of service-minded international affairs. In much happier news, it was a blast to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Nietzsch Factor men’s ultimate with ’01ers Justin Brant, Steve Munno, and Oliver Platts-Mills (among many, many others) on campus in May. I also caught up with classmates Avi Stopper and Ben Kramer at Avi’s son’s Bar Mitzvah in Denver in June. And our 80 Home alumni group chat is full of smiling kiddos and not-a-day-older-than-we-used-to-be parents. I’m grateful for the many enduring Wesleyan connections in my life.”

From Andrea Donnelly: “The past few years have been a whirlwind. I moved to Philadelphia in 2022 and find myself particularly fond of the rivers and trees. When I’m not taking long walks around the city or serenading my 13-year-old cats, I continue building the shamanic healing practice I launched in 2020, which has expanded in some very cool ways. My work has been featured in places like Bustle and Homes & Gardens, and I’ve shared my story and vision on podcasts like Third Eye Awakening, High Vibin’ It, and In My Non-Expert Opinion.

“I’m in my second year of teaching other people my modality, which is an absolute dream come true. I can’t wait to see how things continue to blossom on that front. I’m always looking to collaborate and help people cultivate their spiritual intelligence. If any of that sparks an interest, you can find me at wearehere2remember.com and on YouTube @birdtvdotcom.”

After nine years of teaching and chairing the performing arts department at Vermont State University Johnson, my beloved Wes housemate Isaac Eddy and his family (Lucia, three kids, 19 sheep, and lots of other animals) moved to Granby, Massachusetts. Isaac is the artistic director of a new theater in Springfield called the Hope Center for the Arts, which is focused on free arts education for youth in the area. “We have also begun processing the wool from our Shetland sheep, so if you are interested in a blanket or yarn hit me up!”

Best,

Mara

Ciao, classmates!

We’d like to give a round of applause to We’d like to give a round of applause to our Reunion Ambassadors: Denise S. Breland, Avery W. Esdaile, Hirut Johnson, Kristen A. Lindgren, Scott A. Mayerowitz, Sarah Schur-McCarty, Bakley Smith, and Ku Yoo!

Claudia Cruz has been busy as usual. Before arriving at Reunion this past May and learning to juggle for the first time, she graciously accepted the award for being the best administrative faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she runs the internship program and teaches a bilingual journalism course at the Reynolds School of Journalism. In July, as part of her academic research, she presented a documentary and panel discussion on race-based hair discrimination in television newsrooms at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Claudia shared how reenergizing it was to see ol’ WesHeads back in Middletown and wishes to connect with more alumni out West.

Liz Darlington wrote in that she “had a fantastic time seeing old friends at Reunion, and she and Leah Grabelsky successfully introduced Leah’s adorable one-year-old to campus. 🙂  Leah did a great job getting the baby to sleep in a dorm room! Liz learned many lessons about Reunion for next time: Try to get over to the class lounge, which she didn’t really know was a thing and she therefore didn’t get any class merch! Try to go to a lecture and not miss every single one somehow. Try to save energy for the last night so she won’t need to go to bed by 9 p.m. Try to walk around campus more because there isn’t enough time. Try not to go on a very long walking excursion to Eli Canon’s (just kidding that was a highlight!), but don’t forget how far the walk is. And don’t miss the crazy dance party in WestCo cafe with a band that she still forgets the name of but is well-known and they are from Wesleyan. Everyone should go next time!” [Liz, it was one-half of MGMT.]

We were happy to hear from Ray Sanchez who shares, “I started as general counsel in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Contract Services back in December. I’d love to connect to other Wesleyan alumni in NYC government; I know there is a good number of us.” Ray, we missed you at Reunion!

Dr. Eden-Reneé Hayes gave a TEDx talk exploring how the wisdom of Jedi Master Yoda can help reframe diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a path to deeper connection and organizational success. Google “Yoda DEI” to watch!

Matt Rahaim is enjoying the late sunsets in Minneapolis and is deep in rehearsals for a new suite of pieces he composed for musical instruments, made from decommissioned police rifles, which will be featured this fall at the Modulus Festival in Vancouver.

Leora Wien came home from Reunion with a friendly “great-to-see-you” type of text with a photo of Nick Suplina in the center, surrounded by herself and four other classmates. So, she texted him:

Leora to Nick Suplina: “Nick Suplina! It’s Leora as co-class secretary and . . . you guessed it. I’m following up regarding that time you left my LinkedIn message about sending me a class note unanswered. With your permission, I would like to interview you via text. 1) Nick, what is this center for gun control program at Wes? I hadn’t heard of it. 2) How did it get started? Did you reach out to a certain professor? 3) Anything else you’d like to share? How was Reunion?

Nick Suplina to Leora: “Hey Leora, this is Hannah Breul.”

Leora to Nick Suplina  Hannah: [ha ha tapback] “Omg. Well, Hannah. While I have you . . . could I ask you some questions for Class Notes? We might call it ‘Class Texts’?”

Hannah: “Ha, sure!”

Leora: “Excellent! Hannah Breul, thank you for joining this edition of Class Texts. I’m sorry I thought you were Nick Suplina. Hannah, how about three questions in this order: 1) Profession-related 2) Philosophical 3) This-or-that?”

Hannah: [thumb tapback]

Hannah: [some discussion about there being a better topic]

Hannah: “Instead, let me tell you about my fun summer travels. I spent two weeks in Italy and am now with family in Grand Cayman for a week. In Italy, I was with a group of 20 people (most of whom I had not met) at a beautiful villa in Tuscany. . . . It was a really fun mix of wonderful people. We spent many lovely hours drinking in the pool and making up synchronized dancing routines.”

Leora: “Maybe our this-or-that should be gelato or tiramisu?”

Hannah: “Ooooh. I think I’d go tiramisu. I’m not much of a sweets person but I did get a gelato one in Rome (spent five nights there solo after the villa adventure to be a tourist).”

Leora: “And which flavor?”

Hannah: “Salted caramel was my pick. It was so damn hot I barely wanted to eat in Rome, but I knew my dad would be bummed if I didn’t try it once.”

Leora: “You did it for Dad!”

Hannah: [heart tapback]

Leora: “Thank you, Hannah! I’m going to write up a draft of our convo for your OK before including it in the notes.”

Hannah: “Sorry about the phone number confusion. Hilarious that you thought you were getting Nick and ended up with me. Not the prestige interview you wanted! . . . I think there was a whole thing about tapping our phones to share contact info that people did over the Reunion weekend. With varying levels of success.”

Leora:“It’s all newfangled phone wizardry to me.”

Eve Fox ran into fellow classmate Claire Tranchese in July at the 50th reunion of The Abode of The Message, a Sufi community where Claire grew up and that Eve’s husband’s parents helped to start back in the late 1970s.  In other news, Eve and Megan Wolff contributed several chapters to a book that will be published in December by The New Press called The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late (https://thenewpress.org/books/the-problem-with-plastic/).

The lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center where Jeffrey Blumenthal works is wrapping up a three-year project that has been investigating ways the Port of San Francisco can adapt its planned seawall upgrade to enhance biodiversity by incorporating rocky shoreline habitat features in the design. The seawall rebuild will address sea level rise and generally aging infrastructure. He was interviewed in a local public radio story about the project, which you can listen to or read here: https://www.kqed.org/science/1997729/oysters-snails-and-a-wall-that-protects-against-climate-change-one-tile-at-a-time.

Celina Su is thrilled to announce a new book out this September: Budget Justice: on Building Grassroots Politics and Solidarities, on the everyday democratic work that we can all do to resist political repression and address the affordability crisis, between protests and between elections. Due to the pandemic and parenthood, it’s her first new work in a long time. She wrote it for a general audience and hopes that it serves as a useful entry point into conversations on building new forms of solidarity. She is also focusing on activist work with local people’s budget coalitions around the United States, so that we build power together rather than fighting for crumbs of the pie. She would be eager to connect with folks doing related work!

Chaela Volpe recently published Brain-Fueled Workplace: Harnessing Neuroscience for Performance, Innovation, Transformation, and Growth, addressing urgent, interconnected challenges undermining today’s workforce—especially burnout, which affects 76% of employees from the C-suite to the front lines. Her book (available on Amazon) introduces a proprietary planning model to streamline daily operations and optimize individual, team, and business performance. Learn more at www.thepopmodel.com.

After two decades of wanting to be a father, Ari Gerzon is cherishing each moment with his almost 3-year-old daughter, Selah Dove. Living next door to her grandparents on a lake in Colorado offers tremendous support as Ari navigates the joys and challenges of single parenting. He launched a new business, Same Team Consulting, and is finding great joy coaching and leading trainings at schools around the country on how to deepen family engagement. The heart of his work is centered around teams that bring immigrant families and educators together, and these spaces have never felt more important than they do now in the current climate. (Learn more at The Families and Educators Together Project website.) Also, Ari finally had the “boys” trip with William Messer that they had discussed for years. They met up in the Midwest in early June and explored Minnesota and Wisconsin. He can’t believe they’ve been friends for nearly 30 years now! 

Kabir Sen enjoyed a family trip to Portugal and Scotland over the summer with his wife, Rebecca, and their three kids—Ev, Julia, and Ethan. Kabir just completed his 26th year teaching music at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, and he continues to release new original music regularly under his full name (www.kabirsen.com / @kabirmakesmusic / linktr.ee/kabirsen). Kabir has two music residencies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Lizard Lounge and the Plough and  Stars, and he encourages Wes classmates in the area to be in touch!

Christopher Varmus earned his second master’s degree, in fine arts (visual), from Clark, where his thesis exhibition was hosted by the Worcester Center for Crafts. He will be exhibiting at MassMOCA with the next cohort graduating in January 2026. Check out his work on Instagram: @christophervarmusart. He is available for commissions, exhibition opportunities, teaching/motivational speaking engagements, and whatever else is out there. He is also planning to offer individual and group art therapy sessions both in person and via Zoom.

Greg Brodsky recently got divorced and moved with his two boys to Brookline, Massachusetts. He misses his cat from his prior home but is considering getting a turtle. 

Allegra A. Jones is delighted to share the news of her marriage to Ince Montenegro in an intimate ceremony on the mayor’s balcony of San Francisco City Hall. The happy couple traveled to the Philippines for tropical island hopping on their honeymoon in April and have lots of recommendations if anyone plans to travel there. Allegra stays in touch with friends visiting the Bay Area like Marnie (Randall) Craycroft and Matthew Goldstein. A long-weekend getaway in Arizona also brought together Nina Kontos, Eve Andrias, Caitlin Lang, Alexandra Rose, Hannah Blitzer, and Allegra for catching up and dancing to old-school hip-hop like old times at Wes. 

Considering Wesleyan Magazine will only be printed twice a year now, there will be fewer opportunities to provide updates. So, reach out to Kevin or me with any news that you’d like us to share in the next class notes.

Patricia (Selcke) Grad wrote in as she was headed to Efrosini “Cindy” Camatsos’s wedding in Greece! Congrats, Efrosini!! 

Emily Sharrock is celebrating one year as an independent strategy consultant and philanthropy advisor, focusing on education and early childhood policy. After 10 years working in NYC government at the Department of Education and another eight years at Bank Street College building out its public impact work, she says it felt like the right moment to take the leap. She’s been feeling especially motivated to help activate more philanthropy to support children and families in this moment when the needs are so urgent. She’s married to Leo Kim ’97, and they have two kids who are now 12 and 15—hard to believe. They recently spent a lovely day with Minona Heaviland ’99 and their families (they make a point to see each other every year), and she keeps in close touch with Talia Greene. They also just had a mini-Wes reunion at Leo’s 50th birthday celebration, with Joanna Starrels ’97, Alejandro Luciano ’96, Carolyn Cryer ’01, and Joel Levin ’96, all there to mark the occasion.

Neil Seth says he, his wife, Sylvie, twin 10-year-old boys (Asher and Sebastian), and their Bernese mountain dog (Junie), currently live in Bedford, New York. Their boys are going into fifth grade next year. They like running track, jujitsu, playing golf and tennis.

Inspired by love for this amazing earth and the peoples in it, Mark Steele ’91 and Lodi Siefer can be found engaged working for climate justice at the Climate Justice Hive. There are so many different groups and organizations working toward similar ends, but they are siloed from each other and often pitted against one another in competition for funding and resources. The Climate Justice Hive is finding out who is doing what and where around climate justice, first in Boulder County, and now in Maine, helping groups better coordinate and collaborate with one another. They also offer fiscal hosting to aligned projects that want to focus on their work rather than the bureaucracy of becoming a nonprofit! They ask you to check out their work and consider supporting their efforts through sending leads, encouragement, and good wishes!

Sara Brenneis is still a Spanish professor at Amherst College and just published two books in Spain. After a year living in Madrid with her husband and two kids, they came back to the U.S. and got a postelection dog. Recent Wes sightings include Carter Bays ’97, Craig Thomas ’97, Rebecca Alson-Milkman, and Pat Butler at the Solids show in NYC; Nick Coleman back in Madison, Wisconsin; and Margaret Solle Salazar at our Low Rise A4 reunion last summer.  She encourages everyone to reach out if you’re coming through Northampton, Massachusetts, on your kid’s college tour!

Here in Alaska, by the time you are reading this, we’ll be fully in the dark days, but hopefully with snow on the ground to help spread what light there is. It was great hearing from so many of you. Please stay in touch! 

We hope that you have been making time for your loved ones in 2025! In June, we met up with Sarah Kollman Regnier in Chicago for a delightful long weekend. We enjoyed our afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago and seeing a show at Second City, but we spent most of our time eating and talking. We were especially blown away by Kasama (the first Filipino restaurant in the world with a Michelin star!) and The Girl and The Goat.

Please enjoy these updates from our classmates… and we hope that there are meaningful Wes reunions happening for you too!

Kevin Carr O’Leary wrote, “I am still happy and thankfully healthy with my family in Brooklyn. My husband and I just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary by having dinner with our kids, who are 14 and 11. They head to middle school and high school this year (!). As a book collaborator, I just had a release with Tina Knowles, The New York Times #1 best seller Matriarch. I also helped Stephen Curry write his upcoming book Shot Ready, and the way he talked about his positive college experience at Davidson reminded me of Wes. While in the Bay working on that, I visited with Wendy Wu for a WestCo and Home Avenue mini-reunion.” We’re looking forward to reading your most recent work, Kevin! Congratulations and happy anniversary!

Producing artistic director Abdul Latif Rasheed was recently awarded theRockefeller Foundation’s Culpepper Arts & Culture Grant for his project Off the Wall at the Arthur Aviles Typical Theater (BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance). Here is a clip from a projection during Art Basel in Miami: https://youtu.be/8lDEwlhIOLA

Congratulations on receiving this grant award for the second time, Abdul!

Josh Suniewick wrote, “Thrilled to share that Maggie’s and my eldest son Sam Suniewick will be starting his first year at Wes in the fall, playing both football and baseball! During our time at Wes, Maggie and I didn’t attend a single football or baseball game, but we can’t wait to catch them all over the next four years! The fact that Sam gets to have a completely different (and hopefully equally awesome) Wesleyan experience is a testament to how the school provides such a wide range of opportunities for everyone to be active in the community!” What great news—we cannot wait to see the whole fam at Wes events!

Malayna Bernstein shared, “Josh Arthurs and I are both doing well, after a few difficult years. After coming through breast cancer in 2021, I was diagnosed with therapy-related leukemia in 2023, for which I received a stem cell transplant from my brother. We’re a year-and-a-half post-transplant, and while there are occasional hiccups, my health is good. Many Wes friends have been supportive during my illness, especially the two Amys—Gong and Fogelman. Needless to say, Josh took caregiving to new heights. I’ve never felt luckier to have him by my side. In happier news, our older son, Eli ’27, has been living his best life at Wesleyan. He and two friends founded the Wesleyan Institute for Policy and have gone on to do some amazing projects with River Valley Transport and the City of Middletown. He’s heading to South Africa for a semester abroad. Our younger son, Carlo, begins his senior year of high school in September —we are beyond curious to see where life takes him next. Josh and I will begin our fifth year at the University of Toronto this fall. I still sometimes pinch myself that I get to run a teaching and learning center—a dream that started when I first met Anne Greene, who died in May. Life does come full circle sometimes.” Malayna, we are so glad to hear about your recovery and send nothing but the absolute best to your whole family (and, of course, to all our classmates). We were very sad to hear about Anne Greene’s passing.

Susanne Blossom wrote, “I recently wrapped up 20 years as a proud Los Angeles County Public Defender to join the LA County Chief Executive Office and work on improving conditions for the mentally ill in LA County Jail and move the county closer to the permanent shuttering of the Men’s Central Jail facility. I’m in regular, happy contact with Vashti Van Wyke, Aspen (Sarah) Gordon ’98, and Abdul Rasheed, all of whom I have visited on the East Coast in the last couple of years. Mostly I enjoy free time with my husband and son here in Santa Monica, where I occasionally bump into Noah Garrison at a little league game.” Thank you for the work that you do, Susanne! Glad to hear what’s been going on.

Craig Thomas reached out to let us know that his debut novel That’s Not How It Happened is now available for pre-order: From the Emmy-nominated co-creator and executive producer of How I Met Your Mother, this smart, funny, bighearted novel follows a family turned upside down after Hollywood decides to make a movie version of their lives. As fellow Wes alumnus Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 writes, “I love Craig Thomas’ writing. It’s always funny, real and moving all at once, whether that’s for the screen or this wonderful, heartfelt debut novel.” What great news, Craig! Who doesn’t love a real AND funny book?

Wishing everyone a peaceful fall 2025 and looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

Take care,

Jess and Sasha