CLASS OF 1996 | 2025 | SPRING ISSUE

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1996er fam: I hope this finds you all well in the New Year—so many cool goals for the year.  Until then, must get through these winter temps in the DMV. Light at the end of the tunnel, as I have much anticipated trip to Portugal (Lisbon and Cascais) and Spain (Merida, Sevilla, Grenada, Cordoba, Madrid, and Barcelona) this March.

Lots of good news comes in from our classmates from both near and far!

Danny Atwood had a great season this year as Santa Claus, working about 30 gigs—from home visits to the San Diego Pride Parade in July, to a bunch of marketing videos for the Tipsy Elves.

Rallie Snowden (formerly Rallie Nepveux) writes in that she and Anne Brockelman are planning to meet up in D.C. with their families in tow. She hopes Amber Gay will join them.

Shereem Herndon-Brown has a new book coming out this summer. After the success of The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation About Education, Parenting and Race, he is excited to announce Power College Admission Essays: A Guide to Telling Your Story. It’s a perfect book for many of us who have teenagers who are thinking about Wesleyan and other not-so-awesome colleges!

Alissa Pines Deitz gives the update “still living in Austin, Texas, with my husband and two teenage boys.” She mentions she actually got a snow day down there! She is a dyslexia interventionist in the Austin public schools and absolutely loves teaching kids to read. “Isn’t it fun to be 50? Many of us celebrated our 50th birthdays this past year. Two observations I have about being 50: I need my readers all the time, and raising teenagers sucks! Outside of that 50 is pretty rad. We went to Colorado this winter for some skiing and met up with Steve Pockross ’94 and Sean O’Connor. Was great to catch up with them and meet their lovely families.”

Mike Stabile was recently in Washington, D.C., as part of coalition taking Texas attorney general Ken Paxton to court; Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 15. He notes he has been doing free speech and sex work advocacy for the past decade or so and has connected with a number of alums in the space, including Tristan Taormino ’93 and Ella Dawson ’14. “With the fight getting tougher, am looking to connect with more alums and allies.”

Stacey Samuel sends in news that while she “continues to produce podcasts, docuseries for TV, she’s added teaching at Georgetown University’s journalism school to her to-do list.” She feels it’s her way of giving back to the next generation of journalists.

Vivek Asija reaches out from Pleasanton, California, where he moved to after 15 years in San Francisco and seven years in Oakland. He says, “It’s a bucolic suburb and I swore I would never end up in such a place, but truth be told, I love it.  It’s great for families and my two little girls (seven) and (10). I have worked in B2B software product marketing in Silicon Valley for the last couple of decades. I am now running my own marketing services and podcast production company (www.productmarketingpartners.com), and I host an Indian cooking show as a passion project (https://open.substack.com/pub/easyindianfood).” Vivek creates custom videos of Indian dishes and has dedicated them to his friends, including Kyle Maple. You can read more about Vivek at www.vivekasija.com.

DARA FEDERMAN | darasf@yahoo.com

DACQUE TIRADO | dacquetirado@yahoo.com