CLASS OF 1980 | 2026 | FALL ISSUE
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Demie Stathoplos lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her husband, Dan Stoll, and their 26-year-old son, Alex. They arrived in Newton in 2011, after six years in the Berkshires and many years in the Washington, DC/Silver Spring, Maryland area. Demie completed her MS in management at MIT in 1983, and after six years at MCI Telecommunications, left the corporate world for nonprofit work, first as executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Washington, DC. Demie pursued her MSW in clinical social work at the University of Maryland, finishing in1994. She went on to work in school settings in Maryland, with poor and immigrant families, before becoming interested in integrative medicine after a health crisis required nutritional and acupuncture treatment to resolve. A passing remark from a colleague led to her interviewing at and being hired as the health and healing director at Canyon Ranch in Lenox in 2004. Her family’s time in the Berkshires was idyllic, but the recession of 2008–2010 led to financial challenges for the whole community and resulted in Demie and her family moving to the Boston area, where she was executive director of a nonprofit acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinic. In 2013, Demie left paid work to home school her son, who was having mental health issues and to become a caregiver for her aging parents who lived in Connecticut. Her parents died in 2017 and 2020, both being able to live their last days in their home. During that time, Demie became more active as a climate activist, which is now one of her primary interests, in addition to chairing her UU Church’s Social Justice Committee and being a beginning artist and gardener. She and her family enjoy nature, boogie boarding, and time in Wells, Maine, with extended family.
Rachel Conescu Barany spent a wonderful two weeks in 2026 in northern Spain (along the Camino de Santiago) and Portugal and concluded her trip by meeting her daughter, Lilly (also on vacation in Europe), for 48 hours in Paris. Day 1 included visits to her old haunts in the city, as she has been blessed with four extended stays in Paris since the 1960s. Lilly humored her request to knock on the door of 4 rue de Chevreuse, home to the Wesleyan Program in Paris, which Rachel attended during her sophomore spring. Rachel noted that the place is stunning—and nothing like she remembered it in 1978! It is beautifully manicured and vibrant. She said she didn’t even remember the courtyard! Columbia University, which runs Reid Hall, also published a lovely monograph, Beyond the Blue Door, about the history of the building, and a sweet administrative assistant insisted that Rachel take a copy home. Rachel would love to hear from anyone who attended the Wesleyan Program in Paris (through the COL or otherwise), as memories of her classes there are sparse. Rachel remembers a philosophy professor’s stentorian pronunciation of the philosopher Hegel (accent strongly on the first syllable), but not much else. She’s asked if anyone can spark her recall? In the meantime, she’s provided two photos: one of the Reid Hall courtyard (with Lilly in the distance) and the other of Lilly and Rachel at Notre Dame, noting the restoration of Notre Dame is spectacular. In other news, Rachel is a retired history teacher from Friends Seminary in lower Manhattan, though she still provides part-time support there for kids working on their writing. Her daughter, Lilly, is a corporate lawyer living in Manhattan. Her daughter, Isabelle, is a fiction writer (and grants administrator) who lives in Frederick, Maryland, and will be married in June 2027. Rachel looks forward to hearing from her classmates!
John Singer: The bill John testified about before the Maryland legislature, the So EveryBODY Can Move Act, passed and was signed into law in May 2026, making Maryland the sixth state to require insurers to pay to replace ankle-toot orthotics (AFOs) and other orthotics annually rather than only once every five years as mandated by Medicare and the other 44 states. (A copy of the bill signing photo is provided below.) He has raised a bit over 80% of his $250,000 goal for the AFOs for All Fund that John and his wife, Karen, created at the Johns Hopkins Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department to provide financial assistance for patients who cannot afford to pay for AFOs. Hopkins created an Ankle-Foot Orthotics Library where patients can try out different types of AFOs before being prescribed one (sort of like test-driving a car) that Karen and John also underwrote. John said he was humbled and honored to be the keynote speaker at the American Orthotics and Prosthetics Association’s (AOPA) Policy Meeting in Washington, DC, in April to share his story before two days of lobbying on the Hill; there were over 150 orthotics and prosthetics professionals (a photo from the AOPA meeting is also attached). If people want to learn more about ankle-toot orthotics and ways to make them more accessible, they can reach John at regnisj@gmail.com.
Frank White shared that he published a memoir in January 2026, Defiance of Gravity: Adventures of a Baby Boomer; the summary plot by Amazon is as follows: “Branded an ‘Ivy League 1976’ destiny as a defenseless toddler, this coming-of-age memoir charts a life defined by the irreconcilable tension in the narrator’s psyche in contrast to his well-meaning parents. From enduring a severe case of dyslexia, a 40-foot plummet from a treehouse, and other unusual tribulations during childhood, to embarking on an adventurous overland journey from England to India as a college student, the author sought authentic experience and his idea of fun throughout. As a postgrad in New York City, he rejected the corporate path after an existential sojourn as a savings bank manager, finding pure liberation as a Checker Cab driver, legal proofreader, and an aspiring graduate student. Guided by his mother’s ‘wallflower rule’ and reading of the Stoics, this long road of physical and philosophical trials gradually reveals that life is part of a continuum, leading to wisdom and enlightenment considered more valuable than wealth and success. The tone of these various short stories is consistently honest, irreverent, and self-deprecating, while being culturally agnostic, wry, and humorous.” In July 2026, his memoir received a favorable review in the Midwest Book Review: “Exceptionally candid, impressively well written, organized and presented, Defiance of Gravity: Adventures of a Baby Boomer is an emotionally engaging, intellectually fascinating, humor laced, and authentically interesting coming of age and beyond life story.”
Mark Zitter: The biggest news for Mark and his wife, Jessica, is that they’re going bicoastal. They have rented an Upper West Side apartment for the year and will split their time between NYC and the Bay Area. Mark said this is all the kids’ fault: Tessa Zitter ’21 just finished three award-winning years as a podcast producer and is heading to Columbia University for a master’s in narrative medicine. Sasha Zitter is at medical school in New York, while their (recently engaged!) son, Sol Zitter, remains in Silicon Valley. Hence the split life.
This spring Mark accompanied Jessica on the national theatrical tour of her latest film, The Chaplain and the Doctor, which screened more than 30 times across the US. He said he felt like a roadie, only older. Classmates Kim Selby and Irene Chu attended the Boston show. In other Wes news, Scott Hecker and Mark visited Paul Singarella in Florida, where they met Paul’s fiancée, Judy, and waded through the Everglades. Meanwhile, Mark has started a nonprofit, Springboard AI, aimed at accelerating AI adoption in the social sector. If you work for or support a nonprofit looking to enter the AI age, check out his website (https://www.springboardai.org).
Mary Pitoniak was at Wesleyan from 1976 to 1978, after which she took two years off. At that point the Class of ’80 had already graduated, so for that and other reasons, Mary transferred to Smith, from which she graduated in 1982. Mary said she recalls her time at Wesleyan fondly though and does think of herself as an alum. One of her favorite classmates was Andy Parkinson, whose wit and compassion she recalls well. In any case, the accomplishment Mary was hoping to get included in the class notes is that she co-edited the fifth edition of Educational Measurement, the “bible” of the field of psychometrics and educational testing, which was published in 2025. Mary and her co-editor Linda Cook were the first women editors of the series, which began in 1951. They won the 2026 Annual Award for Exceptional Achievement in Educational Measurement from the National Council on Measurement in Education in recognition of their innovative and groundbreaking work editing the book. Mary majored in sociology/psychology at Wesleyan, helping start her on her career path.
Melissa Stern wrote that 2026 has been a very busy year for her and her family. In March, Melissa had a solo show at A Hug From The Art World in NYC. In October, she’ll open a solo show at 68 Prince Street Gallery in Kingston, New York, called Some Assembly Required. It ran from October 10 to November 8. In August, Melissa was up in the Catskill Mountains, working on a deadline to finish work for that show. Melissa’s son, Max Wolf Friedlich ’17, wrote a new play, The Hole, which opened September 22 off Broadway in NYC as part of the Wild Project. The play is set in a decaying bar in a rapidly gentrifying city upstate, where a padlocked back room offers pleasure, relief, and perhaps something far more dangerous. A chilling dark comedy about the great wars shaping our future, The Hole sets shame against desire, tradition against progress, and community against individualism. The art director has hired Melissa to work on the advertising campaign for the play. She is super busy, but no complaints, all exciting things. Melissa and her husband Jim Friedlich ’79 are planning a trip to Sicily in November. Any and all recommendations are welcome for that!
Julie Berstein was thrilled to spend seven seasons on Mount Olympus (metaphorically, of course) with the divine actors (including Broadway deity André De Shields), directors (including Tony Award–winners Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston) and producers of the Brooklyn-based theater collective, The TEAM, as they told stories of the Greek gods in their joyful, dramatic, award-winning podcast Live from Mount Olympus (LFMO). Julie’s team included the amazing cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein ’13, who created all of their illustrations; Tessa Zitter ’21, who worked on early seasons; and Dr. Kate Birney, Wes professor of classical studies, who contributed delightful “mythlets” to help their young listeners learn more about the ancient world. A meaningful capstone to Julie’s career creating radio programs and podcasts for NPR, WNYC, PRX, and WHYY among others.
Julie noted about the audio, there’s a wonderful term of art called the cross-fade, when a sound that’s been established begins to fade out and another, new sound emerges and takes over. Through the last year, as she led the LFMO team to produce their first-ever musical, she’d been working on a cross-fade of her own, building a ceramics studio in her backyard, where she can dive into her next phase as potter and teacher, while continuing to coach a diverse array of speaking clients. Julie’s passion for radio and pottery was nurtured at Wesleyan, in WESU’s cramped Clark basement studio where she DJ’d overnights, and in Mary Risley’s ceramics studio in the Center for the Arts, where she often singed off her bangs pulling pots from the raku kiln. Julie said that she is so grateful to have been at Wesleyan when it was possible to play in so many different realms, and excited to see where this cross-fade takes her. “If you’re in northern New Jersey and would like to play with clay, reach out!”
Keith Sklar says, “Hello, Class of ’80!” After his Wes graduation, Keith moved to California and stayed for the next 25 years. First in Oakland till ’92, then LA till ’05, followed by Brooklyn, and then, since 2012, he lives and works as an artist/educator in Chicago. Early in his career, Keith created a series of monumental public murals in Oakland and San Francisco. Keith is proud to share that Grand Performance, a 3,200-square-foot mural that he co-created with muralist Daniel Galvez in 1984, is set to be restored! After 42 years!!! Declared an “Oakland City Landmark” in ’84, the work has been embraced across generations and decades by the Bay Area community. Never tagged, but sun, heat, rain, climate change, quakes, pigeons, and the lifespan of 1980s-era, oil-based enamel paints have taken their toll. However, thanks to fundraising, The Grand Performance Restoration Project is planned to start in the fall and take about one month to complete. As for Keith, he’s contributing support and fundraising and will be going out to Oakland during the restoration as often as he can.
In Chicago, 1,700 miles and decades away from Oakland and the creation of Grand Performance, Keith is the fortunate father of an awesome 11-year-old. When Keith moved away from Oakland/San Francisco and a public art-centered practice in the early ’90s, it was to focus on uneasy, personal works: studio/gallery-based paintings in oil and giclée prints and drawing, along with a range of large-scale paintings, site-specific wall works, multidisciplinary installations, and miniatures (https://www.keithsklar.com). An educator as well as an artist, he has taught art and arts integration to people across learning styles, identities, cultural backgrounds and age; from grades 6 to12 through undergrad and graduate school levels, in public and independent schools, museums and community-based settings, including: Otis College of Art and Design (LA), LA County High School for the Arts, Wesleyan University (Connecticut), MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, North Shore Country Day (Illinois) and Opportunities for All, Chicago. Currently he is a teaching artist with After School Matters, Chicago. Looking forward and back, Keith said he’s making the art he must. And yet he added, there’s the emotional pull—of significant memory, partnership, and pride; of personal and shared growth, achievement, and community connection and support. Needing, wanting, to move forward in his work, he has built in recency bias. The restoration effort has demanded a fuller accounting and reflection on his artist practice and his lived experience. For this, and so much else, Keith said he is grateful and sends best to all.
Steve Mooney is publishing later this fall, a book of personal essays with the encouragement of Jenny Boylan and Page Hill Starzinger. Steve noted thanks to these writers for their unyielding support as he has taken on this project. The book is titled Unstuck and covers his unconventional journey to become a writer at 60. You can follow his Substack, also titled Unstuck, (@unstuck4ever) to follow Steve’s journey to launch. Yay! (https://substack.com/@unstuck4ever)
Andrew McKenna and his wife, Jacquie Shanberge McKenna,took a trip of a lifetime to Alaska in August 2026. So many amazing experiences, many related to glaciers but tied for top standing was both seeing the brown bears at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park during the peak of the annual salmon run and flying around Denali and landing on a glacier (especially for pilot Andrew)—both breathtaking!
After a two-day turnaround, Jacquie met their younger daughter, Juliana McKenna, who had just graduated with honors from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, to participate in a whale shark tagging expedition with a Mexican research organization, Choojajauil. Whale sharks are such gentle marine giants, but little is known about where they breed, where they give birth, and raise their young. After tagging a large female, now named Teresa, on this expedition, we’ll be able to follow her path for the next couple of years to better understand where whale sharks breed, birth, and raise their young. Their older daughter, Xan McKenna, Williams ’24, continues working at High Mountain Institute (HMI) after dealing firsthand with the negative effects of climate change: being evacuated for three weeks from HMI as the Willow Fire spread. She’s been able to return, but at this writing, the fire that continues to burn near Leadville, Colorado and HMI.
Let’s keep living our best lives ever, learning and contributing to this incredible world in which we live, and we’ll have a lot to share at our 50th Reunion in just four years!
JACQUIE SHANEBERGE MCKENNA | jmckenna@indra.com