Class Notes

Please write to your class secretary or send news to classnotes@wesleyan.edu.

Happy New Year Class of 2001! We hope 2023 has kicked off to a great start.

Wei Hu writes in to tell us that after 15 years of regulatory/administrative law and administering public benefits at the NYC Department of Social Services, he founded a boutique New York cannabis law practice (www.mrtalaw.com) last year. MRTA Law counsels adult-use licensee and license applicants and assists ex-marijuana offenders to expunge prior convictions. Wei also accepted an adjunct professor position at CUNY School of Law where he will be teaching NY Cannabis Law: Social Justice and Economic Equity under the MRTA. Wei resides in Manhattan and Ulster County with his wife and two young daughters.

Doctor of Dental Surgery, Julia Jackson, has just launched her new professional bio. In it, Julia shares she was drawn to dentistry because it harmonizes the relationships between art, science, and people. Julia also lectures regularly on implant dentistry and holds several memberships in dental organizations in the Virginia area as well as nationwide. Julia even founded two study clubs: 1st Ladies of Dentistry and The Essentials lecture series. Julia loves her profession, her patients, and doing good works in the community. Check out her full bio in the electronic version of Class Notes. Also be sure to follow Julia on social @socket_grafting_girl.

Matt Auerbach was named the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles Fan of the Year, which includes a VIP trip to the Super Bowl! He’s excited, and we can understand why. The competition must have been fierce. This  article on the Eagle’s website explains the touching background story for Matt’s love for this NFL team:  https://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/matt-auerbach-eagles-fan-of-the-year-an-american-dream-come-true#disqus_thread.

Thanks for all the news and updates. We love hearing from you.

Please send news to your class secretary or to classnotes@wesleyan.edu.

After working and living in NYC for 22 years, Li Yu recently took a slight detour to work in D.C. for Senator Jon Ossoff as part of the majority (Democratic) staff for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations from July 2021 to October 2022. Commuting between D.C. and NYC was challenging, but living in Silver Spring, Maryland, gave Li the chance to catch up with Morgan Whitlatch ’99.  Li is now back in NYC and returning to work as an enforcement lawyer.

Jared Kaplan is helping people buck the trend of COVID weight gain. “I am excited to announce I opened a new, expanded 8K-square-foot fitness and wellness space, Arrive, in NYC (29th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues for locals!).  Arrive is changing the way wellness works, with designed spaces plus a business incubator platform, and we’re super excited to settle into our new home for fitness and wellness pros. We’re grateful to have survived the pandemic as a brick-and-mortar facility (thanks dance major for teaching me some grant-writing skills!), and are excited to continue our growth in ’23.  Also glad to see a handful of Wes alum come through our doors as clients/patients.  And . . .  random: ran into Lauryn Siegel ’00 at the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibit opening party at MoMa recently, cuz, go Wes!”

Moving to exercise for the brain: Billy Brown wrote a book about connecting with nature in Philadelphia called Exploring Philly Nature: A Guide for All Four Seasons. Erin Morris taught an undergraduate consumer behavior course at Fairfield University as an adjunct faculty member in the marketing department this semester.

Julenne Farrar Mounts checks in from Maui: “Feeling grateful that we’ve finally protected our 18-acre farm from the invasive axis deer population and our fruit trees are back to producing— we harvested over 100 pounds of organic figs last month and enjoyed giving them to friends and the community. My daughter, who I brought as a toddler to our 10-year reunion, will now be considering Wes in her college search next year. Time flies! Not too many Wes alums out here in the middle of the ocean, but we’ve shared the Steiner education journey of our children with the amazing filmmaker Stefan Schaefer ’94, ran into Jess Sanders on a hiking trail in August, and I recently did publicity for a community festival only to learn the chair was an alum too—Lin (Zhong) ter Horst ’94 who has the delicious Maui Fruit Jewels business. Look us up if you come visit—we still have a landline in the white pages!”

Lauren Kesner O’Brien started working at Empire Clean Cities (ECC), an environmental nonprofit in NYC and the Lower Hudson Valley, in early 2022. “What a year it’s been! While I was out of the paid workforce raising my children, I spent time lobbying for legislation that is now funding a lot of the decarbonization projects I’m working on, specifically in the transportation sector. It feels great to see that impact, and to support clean transportation infrastructure and the move away from burning fossil fuels. Finally. I’m also lucky to spend time with fabulous Wesleyan ladies in Brooklyn including Steffie Kinglake, Rachel Ostrow, Virginia Gray, Margo Simon, and Diana Glanternik.”

Also in the environmental space: Laura Zaks works with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an alliance of more than 130 organizations that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. “About a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food. Farmers and food systems workers feel the impacts of economic and environmental shifts the earliest and the hardest, but they are also the best equipped to offer tangible solutions to the issues they face. We just launched our 2023 Farm Bill Platform and are gearing up for a mass mobilization, Farmers for Climate: Rally for Resilience. If any Wes climate and food activists want to join us in D.C. in March 2023, reach out!”

Avi Spivack and Nataly Kogan ’98 became legacy parents this year, as their awesome daughter, Mia Kogan-Spivack, joined the Wesleyan class of 2026! Mia is loving her Wes time so far, living in Butterfield and taking a heavy dose of science classes while also learning Spanish.

Grace Kim, Rebecca Slotnick, Chris Brody, and Ed Hong gathered in Manhattan and Boston for the bar/bat mitzvah celebrations of Ezra, son of Richard Kruger and Janice (née Gabucan) ’98, and Allegra, daughter of Jesse Feldman and Georgia. The kids offered expert recitations of the Torah and wise reflections on living a good life. Ed adds: “The parties were a rocking good time and fortunately, for this aging body, on the earlier side!”

Your class secretaries look forward to hearing more about what you all are up to in 2023!

Hello fellow ’98ers,

I don’t know if you all are like me, but I have a feeling some burnout is going around . . . or maybe everyone is just out living life!  No updates to report this time, so let’s all send out some warm thoughts to each other and the world.

And you can email me anytime with your updates, Wes sightings, ideas for changing the world, or anything else you want to share!

Here’s our latest round of updates!

Santi White (Santigold) released her new album, Spirituals, on September 9, 2022 (which is on repeat in our stream—truly, highly recommended!). To follow this release, she launched a new line of herbal teas, aptly called Spirituals. The first collection consists of three teas: Brand New Tea, I Heart Tea, and No Stress Zone Tea, available on Santigold.com.

Santigold also started her new seasonal podcast. Noble Champions is a modern-day salon, created and hosted by her and distributed by Talkhouse. In each weekly episode, she sits down with some of today’s leading artists, authors, activists, and progressive thinkers who stand up, stick up, and speak up for important causes.

Lauren Porosoff and her spouse and co-author Jonathan have a new book, published in December 2022:  EMPOWER Moves for Social-Emotional Learning: Tools and Strategies to Evoke Student Values. “It’s an identity-affirming, process-oriented approach to social-emotional learning that (as the name implies) empowers students to bring their own values to their actions and relationships. . . . I’m really excited for this book to be out in the world.” Congratulations, Lauren and Jonathan, and thank you for your contributions to the field of education!

Jess got to hang out with Amy Goorin Fogelman and Matt Fogelman in mid-October in Boston when she and her husband Greg (Middlebury ’95.5) and two of their kids (ages 10 and 16) traveled to New England for fall break. She says, “It was so much fun to catch up with Amy and Matt over dim sum in Chinatown, and I wish we could have all spent more time together! We spent a week in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, visiting friends and family and touring colleges. Our 11th grader really liked the vibe at Wesleyan . . . we were there on a Friday and he got to go hang out on campus all afternoon with a sophomore he knew from home after the official admissions tour and info session. Our fall break trip ended with a day in Manhattan, which included a lovely lunch with Sasha and our kids in the West Village.”

We are, as always, humbled and impressed and awed and inspired by our classmates. We wish you all a wonderful New Year, full of good health, good ideas, good people, and a chance to do good when you can. And we cannot wait for spring around the corner!

Please send your updates to us!

Hello, fellow ’96ers!  Hope this issue of the magazine finds you well.

Shereem Herndon-Brown has co-authored the book The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation about Education, Parenting and Race (https://understandingthechoices.com/book/). He lives outside D.C. with his wife and children.  He wrote: “I’ve had lots of great support from ’96 Wesleyan alums (thanks, Shola Olatoye and Dacque Tirado) and can use more!”

Speaking of Shola, she is looking forward to hosting Shereem in February at her kids’ school to feature his new book. Shola and Matthew Strozier live in the East Bay with their “newly licensed 16-year-old driver, a soon to be driving 15-year-old, and a pirouette-and-gymnastics obsessed 7-year-old.” They manage to see friends Susan Yee, Jake Ward, and Diana Ip ’95 frequently. Shola made it back to NYC in September and saw her sorors Tracey Gardner and Aisha Cook. She also did a drive by Donna Temple’s ’95  place in Harlem. The biggest news is that Shola recently left the public sector and joined an affordable housing developer as their chief operating officer. Before she left the City of Oakland, she had the good sense to hire Emily Weinstein ’97 as deputy director for community development.

Chris Meredith wrote: “COVID brought a lot of changes to my world in medicine. What do people do when changes happen? Seek out new changes! I’ll be finishing up law school in May, though I’m still practicing neurosurgery in Kansas City. My boys are 8 and 10 now and loving school.”

Bill Macomber shared: “Tracie Broom and her travel companion Mariah McLaughlin came to Los Angeles and got a minireunion going on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Annie and I threw the first, flat-out rager that I can remember, since all of that paused in 2020, right as we finished a house that was designed for this kind of shenanigans. . . .  In attendance were Emma Jacobson-Sive, Liam McNiff ’97, Tony Schloss ’97 and Juno Shay ’98 and their three kids, Diego Gutierrez ’97 and Kim Diaz ’97 with their two kids, Katie Wright ’95 and Jason Agard ’94, Pam and Jason Walchli and their two teenagers, Sam Laybourne ’97, Billy Kheel and his wife Marina, Ed Lee ’95 (who just announced his engagement), Bill Wolkoff ’95, Koyalee Chanda and Neal Brandenburg, Ben Stout and his wife Masha and their two girls, Jason Blalock ’94 and his adorable daughter, Morgan Fahey ’95, Anuj Desai, and Jake Ward with his wife Julie and their kids.”

Another gathering happened in September in NYC. Sam Effron wrote: “This past summer I received a note from Barrett Feldman and Sabrina McCormick, lamenting the fact that we did not have a 25th Reunion. They came up with the great idea to host an unofficial reunion (30th anniversary of our frosh year) for anyone who was near, or could travel to, NYC, and another great idea to get me to organize it. And so . . .  I did. On September 17, Barrett, Sabrina, Elijah Hawkes ’97, Glennis Matthews, Brad Roberts, Remy Auberjonois, Dara Federman, Adam Peltzman, Elizabeth Seuling, Anne Swan, Mia Lee, Ben Meyers, Dana Holohan, Ingrid Wong, Omar Rahim, Lee Beresford, Thom Loubet, Debbie Marcus, Jeremy Owens, and I (along with some partners and children) all gathered in Central Park for a beautiful afternoon of lazing, snacking, people watching, reminiscing, catching up, and making new memories.”

A smaller gathering to report: Cora Jeyadame, Nina Erlich-Williams, Hilary Hoeber, Darrah Carr, and I (Dara) spent a weekend in October at an Airbnb. The house was in Vegas, but we did not go to any shows or even spend any time on the strip. It was the first time we had all been together since our reunion in 2016—so we spent the weekend laughing, talking, and comparing notes on how we are different and the same as we were in our senior year, when we all shared a house together.

Hope 2023 is a good year for all, filled with adventures (that you share with the Wes notes)!

Katy writes for this issue: Hope your 2023 is going well thus far. We have a full range of news—sad losses, pictures of everyday life, and encounters with many other alumni. This round features many first-time contributors—we’re so excited to hear from you and it’s never too late to get in touch!

First some very sad news of the death last year of one of our classmates, Alyson Tischler. Longtime friend and roommate Alice Moore writes: “My college roommate of four years, Alyson Tischler, passed away in April of 2021. You can read a lot about and by her online. But you can’t hear her, that awesome laugh, all in as she told the student hairdresser to just shave my head already, as we manipulated her little wooden man in our room in the Bayit, as we danced—at Wesleyan, in Germany, in Paris, in Poland. Alyson took me to my first Broadway show and we cried together in front of the mound of spectacles at Auschwitz. When I visit Wes, I can still see and hear us, careening down the hill on Church Street, pointing bananas at each other and screaming ‘It’s been so long!’—an inside joke that will never be funny to anyone else, shaped by a shared college experience.” You can read Alyson’s obituary at: https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/20717196/Alyson-Tischler.

Andrew Hindman writes: “I was selected to be on a team of 25 riders (out of 500 applicants!) who will be riding the Tour De France 2023 (one week ahead of the professional cyclists). Literally we are riding the whole course of TDF 2023 (starting in Bilbao, Spain, and ending in Paris). 2,200 MILES. The purpose is to raise >$1.5M for leukemia/cancer research and patient care.  More can be found out on www.TheTour21.co.uk—it’s a great charity organization where all funds go directly to patient care and research to cure leukemia/cancer.  I am riding in memory of not one but two family members (mother and brother) who died of cancer in 2022.” Let’s all wish Andrew a meaningful experience and keep him in our thoughts June 23–July 16, 2023!

Andrew Dickson writes: “Still holding it down in Portland, Oregon. Working as a copywriter by day for companies like Apple, Adidas, and Absci. Performing, auctioneering ,and hosting storytelling shows for The Moth by night. Hanging with my teen, tween, and wife Susan, who is a craft book author, by evening. We often see Ryan (Myers) Tinsel and family, and I keep in close touch with Bill Tsitsos who is teaching sociology at Towson University. Shouts-out to Wells Tower ’96, Vanessa Grigoriadis, and Henry Myers for looking me up when they’ve been in town over the years.”

Alison North writes: “I live in Seattle where my fabulous grown kids, their partners, and their kiddos bring me freaking daily joy!!  I work a lot because, well, the city I love is expensive. I’m a nurse midwife primarily providing abortions, transgender care, and, well, anything that others feel judgmental about. I dance a lot to keep my sanity.” Cheers to Alison!

Suzanne Snider writes: “Hello from the Hudson Valley. I have been living and working in both Hudson and New York City for the last decade plus, more fully upstate since 2019 with my nine-year-old daughter. I continue my work as an oral historian and writer, moving into my 11th year of directing Oral History Summer School (which now runs yearlong) to train documentarians/folks of all stripes in principles of ethical documentation, collecting trauma-centered narratives and recording stories to radicalize the dominant record. I also teach at the New School and currently engage with Bard’s Center for Curatorial Studies as visiting faculty. I have the pleasure of collaborating, this year, with Wes alum and podcast wizard/executive producer Mia Lobel ‘97 on a project for Johns Hopkins University and Pushkin Industries, centered on the subject of bioethics. I newly discovered that I love to play tennis with Wes alum Ed Morris ’94 who relocated to Hudson with his partner Susannah Sayler ’93; they run, together, an amazing organization called Toolshed out of Hudson, New York. Adrienne Truscott ’94 claims she will join us on the tennis court when she finds her racket. In the meantime, Adrienne continues to create incredible performances and also to manage Bard’s Center for Human Rights and the Arts. Last summer, I visited Elsie Kagan’s (’99) amazing art residency, Interlude, upstate and was happy to learn that Elsie and her partner are also Wes alums. Holler if you’d like to connect with more Wes friends in the Hudson Valley!” Great to hear about all of the Wes activity in this great region (but being from the Hudson Valley myself, I should declare a bias . . . ).

Ben Lee writes: “I live in Cheviot Hills (Los Angeles) with my wife and our three sons. After graduating Wes, I worked in the music industry before heading to law school and then worked as a lawyer for a few years before pursuing a career in residential real estate. I’ve been with Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills for many years now, focusing on Los Angeles’ westside. When I’m not buying and selling houses, I spend as much time surfing as I can, even got the opportunity to surf in Indonesia for a few weeks, which was a dream come true. I try to stay connected to my Wesleyan roots—in fact we host an annual reception for Los Angeles families with high schoolers applying to Wes. We look forward to hosting this party every year—the best part is meeting so many people interested in attending our fabulous school!”

Eric Meyerson writes, “It’s been an exciting year getting back to post-pandemic life and travel. I just marked 20 years in San Francisco and 22 in the Bay Area. Back when we were in school, I never figured myself to become a Californian, but here I am raising a family in this amazing region. My daughter is a junior in one of the Bay Area’s largest public high schools, and she’s now looking at colleges. (I know one school in central Connecticut that might actually be a pretty good fit for her interests.) We took a quick family trip to D.C. this past summer, where we had a big night out in Capitol Hill with Seth Kaufman and Bill Goldberg ’94. Bill also had a big birthday in Vegas back in February with a lot of ’94 Cardinals, and included a super-cool Red Rocks hike in a snowfall. I recently took another hike through the Oakland Hills with old buddy Ben Foss, who, like me, has spent the last few years in the climate tech industry. I’m always excited to hear from more Wes alumni in the Bay Area.”

In early 2022, after 20-plus years of being an editor at Ugly Duckling Press, Matvei Yankelevich left the Brooklyn nonprofit publisher, which grew out of his Wesleyan-era zine The Ugly Duckling. He is now editor-in-chief of World Poetry Books, a nonprofit press that publishes a diverse range of poetry from around the globe for English-language readers and brings attention to literary translators. It’s based in New York City and affiliated with the UConn’s Humanities Institute and Translation Program. After a yearlong grant for translation and research from the National Endowment of Humanities, Matvei is back to teaching literary translation for the writing MFA at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Meanwhile, his most recent chapbook of poems—Dead Winter (Fonograf Editions, 2022)—has been reviewed in Tablet, Zyzzyva, and other journals, and his translations of Osip Mandelstam have appeared in the New Yorker, Harpers, and elsewhere. In May, he visited his cousin Katya Semyonova ’98 and her two boys in D.C.”

As for my own alumni encounters, in early December I saw Stacy (Theberge) Taylor in Portland, Maine. I was there with my eldest, who has a passion for animation; as you’ll recall, Stacy and her husband run an animation firm (Little Zoo Studio), and graciously talked to us about the field. So lucky to have such an engaging alumni network!

Keep sending us your news and updates—we love to hear from you!

Hello everyone! As we draw near to closing out another year, I (Caissa) pray that everyone is doing well; that all are hopeful, encouraged, and looking for reasons to be joyful. I am happy to report that my family and I are well. As we enter the holiday season, I am trying out some new dessert recipes; carving out time to write and paint; all while I juggle my work responsibilities and the many doors that the Lord is opening to me. Having recently celebrated Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for my family and friends and the opportunity to connect, reflect, and recharge. Also, I’d like to send a shout-out the Miriam Suazo, who continues to minister through dance. Perhaps we can get her to share a video link to add to the digital edition of the Class Notes. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the entire Wesleyan community.

Ethan Hollander writes, that his 24-lecture series called Democracy and Its Alternatives was just published on Wondrium, formerly known as The Great Courses. Ethan states that the course is very timely, and addresses questions like: “Does democracy have a future? What’s causing it to falter? And is there anything we can do about it?” You can stream it at Wondrium.com; buy it at TheGreatCourses.com; or get it wherever great audiobooks are sold.

Josh Thomases writes, “I have never gotten around to sending in news, but here goes . . . .”  He writes that he and his wife have been living in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, for the last 20 years with their two sons, who are now teenagers. Josh notes that the past decade has seen a lot of change and interesting projects for him. He sat on NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s cabinet, leading the instructional work and overseeing the city’s college and career-ready agenda. Since then, he has led in higher education and the charter sector. Most recently he decided to launch his own educational consulting business: IPsquared (at the intersection of program and potential). He writes, “It’s been fantastic so far, allowing me to work closely with extraordinary leaders in schools, districts, museums, and ed-tech toward goals that will impact the lives of children. Plus, it gives me a great excuse to spend time reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, from Ben Pappas, Terry Johnson, Reed Cundiff, and Mike Goodman to Sondy Youdelman and Debbie Marcus ’96. The last few years have certainly had their ups and downs, but I find myself feeling very blessed. I have loved hanging with my family, coaching my son’s baseball teams, going hiking outside the city, and playing with our scruffy dog.”

Hi, Wes friends. We have exciting news—overseas trips, career updates, and a wedding held at the Boston Public Library. We hope 2023 brings you holiday cheer and the chance to attend your 30th Reunion on campus during the weekend of May 25–28, 2023.

Anne Beaven writes, “I just got back from a business trip to Italy. It was my first time there, so I took some days to go to Florence, eat gelato, eat pizza, eat pasta, see the David statue, and learn I am scared of heights when I climbed the dome of the Duomo.”

Noel Lawrence emails, “I moved overseas to Portugal where I am currently writing a U.S. remake of Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Star Maker (Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film). If any alumni are traveling through Porto, look me up and let’s enjoy a glass of Port. In case you didn’t know already, ‘Port’ is named after Porto. The outdoor cafes on my street have a lovely view of the Douro River as well.”

Andy Nordvall lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids. He teaches, writes children’s books and spends entirely too much time on the internet.

Karen Powell writes, “I recently became an Australian citizen, and will be between Melbourne, Australia, and Helena, Montana, for the foreseeable future. I’ve been appointed to the International Federation of Sport Climbing Governance Commission, so if anyone is interested in connecting about sport, sport law, governance, Olympics, or climbing, I’d love to hear from people. With that project I get to do a bit of traveling (Singapore and Switzerland in 2023), so also happy to connect with other global Wes alum. I’m still teaching law in Melbourne if there are other academics out there too. Cheers from Down Under.”

Jodi Samuels emails, “In September, I was promoted to senior director, Strategic Support for Colleges and Scholars, at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, where I’ll be marking my three-year anniversary on November 12th. Evan and I recently had to bid farewell to our beloved fur baby girl feline, Calypso, who graced us with nearly 15 years of wonderful companionship. We’ve now welcomed a new kitty from the local shelter to our household, a three-month-old orange tabby boy whom we named Louis XIV. (Say the Roman numeral in French, like the original Sun King, and it sort of sounds like “cat”orze 🙂.) We’re planning some international travel for January and have continued our frequent domestic travel to see family and friends and college football in Austin, Denver, Chicago, and Madison, and also a couple of trips to Hawai’i for vacation. I had two in-person work conferences this fall for the first time in nearly three years (!), including co-presenting a session at the Strengthening Student Success Conference in Orange County in early October.”

Antonia Townsend writes, “I’m living in dark but delightful London with my son and husband. We were recently thrilled to have Chris Mulhauser ’92 and his wife stay with us, and even had a too-brief visit from Erica Terry Derryck ’95. Please, let me know if you are in town, as I’m always up for tea and crumpets with a Wes friend.”

Diego von Vacano emails, “I am back in Texas as a professor of political science at Texas A&M University after some time in Europe. I have been advising the Bolivian government on its lithium resource for climate change policies in the last three years. I am working on a book about this experience for Oxford University Press to come out next year. I am also doing semiprofessional soccer photography, something I started at Wes in 1990, as I covered the EURO 2020 Final, the Finalissima in London, and the most recent Champions League Final in Paris for Bolivian outlets. Looking forward to the Qatar World Cup and also attracting more foreign investment to Bolivia’s lithium sector to work with the Movement Towards Socialism ruling party to help Bolivia develop, using all my CSS skills!”

Sadie Van Buren (maiden name Johnson while at Wes) married Michael Gilronan at the Boston Public Library on September 26, 2022. She will be Sadie Gilronan going forward.