CLASS OF 1997 | 2025 | FALL ISSUE

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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

JESSICA SHEA LEHMANN | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

ALEXANDRA (SASHA) LEWIS-REISEN | alewisreisen@gmail.com