Tag: 1989

With our Reunion weekend (now months) behind us, we get it. Fair enough. Y’all are drained of sharing. We’re now in the oversharing phase of our relationship (haha!) and we all just want to roll over and snooze. We totally get it.

We’ll just take this space to say thank you, ’89ers. You show up in different ways for your Wes family—even if only in the yummy internal memories that you marinate on and share with your own community wherever you are in the world. We appreciate you.

So, squeeze yourselves and please plan to make it to our 35th (early plug). Pro-tip: Staying in the dorms felt a little like going camping replete with your friends in their jammies shuffling to the loo in the morning after the bugle screamed through the air. The accommodations paired well with the where-is-my-bed-please-people, post-karaoke sheen we were sporting in the wee hours (or just me?).

Lastly, a thought . . . When did our class notes become solely about our achievements? We should continue to share victories. Yes, let’s! What if we also add something a bit of a Q&A to that?

Let’s try this. For our next round of notes—which we’ll be seeking your updates sooner rather than later—let’s all answer: Describe where you would go and what you would do if someone wiped out all of your debt, put $25k in your savings account, gave you three first-class airline tickets, and another $25k in spending money. Yet, you cannot save any of the spending money. It must be spent on travel, food, lodging, and fun only. Where would you go and what would you do when you got there?

Check out our next notes to find out how your classmates answered this.

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Class of 1989 Scholarship
Emily Boddewyn ’22, New York, NY

We are ALL turning 30 years-young, this year. We are. Thirty years of post-college adulting, so why don’t we meet up on campus this year for our 30th Reunion? Anyone?! Bueller?

In an effort to get us all in the mood, here are some of the suggestions from our O.G. (original gangsta) class secretary, Stephanie Dolgoff—who first penned and posted her list of Reunion rules on our 1989 class Facebook group prior to our 25th Reunion. She has now updated said-original list with some added wisdom for our 30th Reunion.

NOTE: These are only “rules” in the Wesleyan sense of a rule/non-rule/do-what-you-please-anyway idea because . . . Wesleyan. Here are Stephanie’s witty words. Enjoy!

I think we need some new, 30th Reunion (!) rules, or, since it’s Wes, “guidelines for inclusive and inoffensive communal comportment.”

1. No one is allowed to say, “Geez, can you believe how !@#$ old we are.” Suggest: “I don’t know about you, but my years of accrued wisdom have served me astonishingly well!”

2. No one should say “I’m so sorry” when you tell them you’re divorced. Rather: “I never met him/her, but I’m sure he/she was totally unworthy of your obvious wonderfulness. I hope he or she is a good co-parent.” Update: When you introduce your new partner to your old friends, the appropriate reply is, “You know you scored, right? He/she/they looks even better now that he/she/they has put on some much-needed abdominal fat and lost all that pesky excess head hair.”

3. No one is to ask any creative person if he or she is working on a second book/screenplay/multimedia installation/rock opera/[fill in the blank]. Especially not a book. The answer is yes, sort of, in my mind, or not, please shut up. Update: You are especially not allowed to ask Stephanie this.

4. The only appropriate greeting is, “I am so happy to see you. You look fantastic.” You can leave off “But I can’t remember your name.” Update: Now this last part is permissible, because really, who remembers anything anymore?

5. Everyone is to offer his or her name, even if they think the person surely must remember that time they made out after some party sometime, you think, or maybe it was her roommate. Update: Or maybe it was at the 25th Reunion.

6. No one is to be put in the position to justify his or her [update: or their] life choices, and no one should feel compelled to do so. For example, “You’re married? But weren’t you militantly polyamorous in college?” Let it be hereby stated for the record that being a stay-at-home parent officially counts as work and you don’t also have to have a blog about it to be considered worthwhile. Update: F— yeah.

7. Everyone gets to complain about how the current gym is so much better than what we had back in the day, and the student center and the housing, too. Update: And the students. The students are better now than they were then, too. Especially the children of alumni.

8. Agree to dispense with any discussions of cosmetic injectables, hair coloring, or intestinally restrictive undergarments as valid feminist choices. Update: Everyone shares his/her/their dermatologist/colorist/bra-fitter’s personal cell number. And most effective pharmaceutical antidepressant regimen and probiotic supplement. And which foods we are intolerant of. And your ideal CBD/THC ratio. Everyone shares everything, basically, because who remembers anything anymore?

Entirely new adds to the list:

9. Propose we assume we all agree about the state of the government and the state of political discourse and refrain from having any. Even if that’s not true, what the hell is the point?

10. People without children, people with grandchildren, people with children living in their basements and cooking meth . . . No judgments.

11. Everyone should ask about one another’s kid, child, offspring, or loin fruit, as opposed to son or daughter. Odds are good that at least one of everyone’s family is no longer the gender they were assigned at birth.

12. No recording the sounds any of us makes when we try to stand up from our Foss Hill blankets and posting them on social. And no competitive step taking . . . leave your FitBits at home.

Let’s keep this list growing on our Class of 1989 Facebook page; but if you’re not on Facebook, ping a classmate who is and have them add your wisdom for you.

While we might like to include the updates we merely witness from Reunion in the next issue, that’s not how this works. We are not investigative reporters and we’re not on duty the whole time either. We will ask for updates, but we won’t be aiming to surprise you by printing unapproved ones.

Bottom line: Come to campus. Party, connect, eat, have deep conversations, or keep it totally shallow. Your pick. Just show up. It’ll be a better memory with you in it. Registration and more information can be found here: wesleyan.edu/rc. We sincerely hope to see you on campus!

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Michele and I are thrilled to kick off this edition of class notes with a first-time submission from Marjorie Levine-Clark. She and Michael Levine-Clark ’92 dropped off their new frosh daughter, Isabel ’22, at Wes. They are so excited to be back at Wesleyan, living vicariously, and report that Foss 3 looks the same as it did 30 years ago and still has no air conditioning. Marjorie is a history professor and associate dean for diversity, outreach, and initiatives at the University of Colorado-Denver, and Michael is dean of libraries at the University of Denver. They’ve been out west for almost 20 years and love living in Denver. She plans to come to Reunion!

Keeping with the alumni legacy theme, Christopher Roberts writes that he is “pleased (and perhaps more than a little terrified) to report that my daughter, Beatrix ’22, is starting Wesleyan this fall. As a double-legacy (her mother is Alexis Neaman Roberts ’90), Beatrix assured us several times that she was not interested in going to Wesleyan. I guess she changed her mind . . . But now her two younger sisters are really, really sure that they don’t want to go to Wesleyan . . .” Christopher is living in Austin, Texas, where he works at The University of Texas alongside Ward Farnsworth. They had a visit from Stephanie Dolgoff a few months ago. Jeremy Dobrish ’90 and his family spent a week with them last year. He is hoping for more Wesleyan visits this year, though probably not during summer when it’s—almost literally—110 degrees in the shade.

Staying in the Lone Star State, Kelem Butts brings news from Dallas. “My girlfriend of 23 years, Lori Feathers, just pulled off a very Wes-like coup. She retired from practicing law and opened an independent bookstore here in Dallas, Interabang Books. It just earned kudos from D Magazine as the best independent book store in Dallas. I also just had lunch with Caroline Bhupathi ’20 who is working for Girls Who Code here at AT&T (side note, AT&T provides funding to this awesome organization). It’s so encouraging to talk to young Wes students who are totally awesome. Oh, and I am still doing corporate philanthropy at AT&T and I love it.”

Dave Keller just signed a record deal with Catfood Records of El Paso, Texas, and will be going into the studio at the end of June to record a batch of new original soul songs. Jim Gaines, who produced Santana’s mega-hit, “Smooth,” will be producing his record. He’s very excited! He’s living in Montpelier, Vt., and touring as much as possible, while raising two teenaged daughters.

Michelle Gonzalez added a second master’s degree in 2017, this time in clinical social work. She is working with those living with HIV/AIDS, taking care of (or trying to be cool for) her 16-year-old son and living in Providence. She published a paper about “non-offending mothers in child sexual abuse cases” and is teaching online at New England Institute of Technology on health care management and social marketing for MPH students. If you aspire to visit Providence, look her up!

Your erstwhile class secretary, David Milch, joined Baruch College as director of the master of arts in arts administration program and a distinguished lecturer. He also reports that he spent a wonderful vacation in June with Glarb (low-rise) housemate, Libby Neuman Bunn ’90. “Libby and I met up with Alex “Indy” Neidell and had an amazing time drinking and reminiscing our way across Berlin. I returned from that trip to journey to D.C. for the Pride March, where my daughter and I stayed with other Glarb housemate, John Hlinko, and dined with yet another Glarbster, Topher Sebest. Nothing like putting 10 sophomores in the smallest bedrooms ever to create life-long friendships! We are also happy to announce that Adina Hoffman’s new book, Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures, is forthcoming in February from Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series.”

S. Topiary Landberg just started a very exciting two-year Mellon Curatorial Fellowship at the Oakland Museum of California and is finishing up a PhD in film and digital media at the University of California, Santa Cruz—expecting to defend by June.

Abby Smuckler is planning to come to Reunion (yay!). We’re sure many more of you are too; and we can’t wait to see you! As we continue to gear up for our 30th Reunion (May 23-26, 2019), we are still in need of volunteers to get involved with planning. (Thanks to those of you who are already on the committee!) If you are interested, please contact: Megan Lenzzo, assistant director of annual giving at mlenzzo@wesleyan.edu. Go Wes Class of ’89!

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Laura Hamilton Hardin writes: “Lots of milestones for me! I turned 50 on December 31 and decided to get a tattoo to memorialize the occasion! I had my 10th wedding anniversary (second marriage) in April. My son just graduated from high school and will be attending University of Texas in the fall, so I am officially about to be an empty-nester. My daughter is at Texas A&M and got her Aggie ring in May. She is going to graduate next May . . . exactly 30 years after I did and working on her applications for veterinary school. Work is very busy . . . traveling heavily around the world this year . . . have already clocked 140,000 miles on United.”

David Eichler and his wife, Diane, just celebrated 25 years since they first met and will be going whale watching in the San Juan Islands with Craig Morgan, Tara Lennon ’90, and their daughters this summer.

Silvia Menendez was named associate dean for experiential learning at University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. While she’s still a lecturer, she will also be overseeing externship placements and clinical positions for students. If any Wes attorneys working for nonprofit or public service organizations are looking for externs, let her know. Husband Jeff Harman ’90 is a full professor in the department of behavioral sciences and social medicine at FSU’s College of Medicine. Their youngest daughter just graduated from high school and the oldest is going to be a senior in college.

Jeffrey Naness is doing well on Long Island, keeping in touch with some Wesleyan friends through Facebook and some in real life. (Shout out to Steve Ward!). He is practicing law, representing businesses in employment and labor relations matters. His oldest son just finished his first year at Muhlenberg College and his youngest son is going into 11th grade.

Alexander Chee is in Florence, Italy, teaching in the NYU summer creative writing program. During the rest of the year, he and his husband, Dustin Schell, divide their time between NYC and Hanover, N.H., where Alex is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. His most recent book, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, a collection of essays, came out in 2018.

Carrie Holden Emmerson and her family moved a bit farther south in Maine to the Midcoast Region (Woolwich, Maine, near Bath), and is teaching social studies at Morse High School where she tries to combat the plague of fake news on a daily basis. She lives a mile from a restaurant that sports a giant inflatable lobster on its roof (The Taste of Maine). So, if you’re driving along Route 1 and see the lobster, stop by and say hello!

Phineas Baxandall reports on the continuing tradition (from at least the ’80s) of Wesleyan’s alumni from the Nietzsch Factor ULTIMATE FRISBEE team playing the current team. In addition to Phineas, other alumni who played this year were Ben Usadi ’92, Matt Higbee ’93, Ezra (Brownstein) Shales ’91, Dan Haar ’81, and Robert Featherstone. Unfortunately, while most years the alumni prevailed, this year the youngsters were too fast, and the alumni hadn’t been playing regularly. Nevertheless, everyone had a great time, with the whole crowd of alumni and current students joining to recount their favorite Wesleyan ULTIMATE FRISBEE memories before adjourning for a BBQ in the backyard of one of the current team’s houses.

Emma Gardner is happily living in Petaluma, Calif. with her husband, Patrick McDarrah ’88, and two kids. They have a lot of different projects going on, but the main one is their rug company, emma gardner design. She is very excited to be working on a big tile and mosaic project with a company in Nicaragua and LA.

Mark Seasholes is splitting his time between Phoenix (ASU professor) and Santa Cruz (enjoying life). He would love to catch up with classmates. Visitors to either place should feel free to drop him a line.

Finally, Jonathan and Michele want to make sure everyone has the 30th Reunion in their calendar (May 23-26, 2019). The Reunion Committee is in need of volunteers to get involved with planning for Reunion. Please contact Megan Lenzzo, assistant director of annual giving at mlenzzo@wesleyan.edu if interested. Go Wes!

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Laura Hamilton Hardin writes: “Lots of milestones for me! I turned 50 on December 31 and decided to get a tattoo to memorialize the occasion! I had my 10th wedding anniversary (second marriage) in April. My son just graduated from high school and will be attending University of Texas in the fall, so I am officially about to be an empty-nester. My daughter is at Texas A&M and got her Aggie ring in May. She is going to graduate next May . . . exactly 30 years after I did and working on her applications for veterinary school. Work is very busy . . . traveling heavily around the world this year . . . have already clocked 140,000 miles on United.”

David Eichler and his wife, Diane, just celebrated 25 years since they first met and will be going whale watching in the San Juan Islands with Craig Morgan, Tara Lennon ’90, and their daughters this summer.

Silvia Menendez was named associate dean for experiential learning at University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. While she’s still a lecturer, she will also be overseeing externship placements and clinical positions for students. If any Wes attorneys working for nonprofit or public service organizations are looking for externs, let her know. Husband Jeff Harman ’90 is a full professor in the department of behavioral sciences and social medicine at FSU’s College of Medicine. Their youngest daughter just graduated from high school and the oldest is going to be a senior in college.

Jeffrey Naness is doing well on Long Island, keeping in touch with some Wesleyan friends through Facebook and some in real life. (Shout out to Steve Ward!). He is practicing law, representing businesses in employment and labor relations matters. His oldest son just finished his first year at Muhlenberg College and his youngest son is going into 11th grade.

Alexander Chee is in Florence, Italy, teaching in the NYU summer creative writing program. During the rest of the year, he and his husband, Dustin Schell, divide their time between NYC and Hanover, N.H., where Alex is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. His most recent book, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, a collection of essays, came out in 2018.

Carrie Holden Emmerson and her family moved a bit farther south in Maine to the Midcoast Region (Woolwich, Maine, near Bath), and is teaching social studies at Morse High School where she tries to combat the plague of fake news on a daily basis. She lives a mile from a restaurant that sports a giant inflatable lobster on its roof (The Taste of Maine). So, if you’re driving along Route 1 and see the lobster, stop by and say hello!

Phineas Baxandall reports on the continuing tradition (from at least the ’80s) of Wesleyan’s alumni from the Nietzsch Factor ULTIMATE FRISBEE team playing the current team. In addition to Phineas, other alumni who played this year were Ben Usadi ’92, Matt Higbee ’93, Ezra (Brownstein) Shales ’91, Dan Haar ’81, and Robert Featherstone. Unfortunately, while most years the alumni prevailed, this year the youngsters were too fast, and the alumni hadn’t been playing regularly. Nevertheless, everyone had a great time, with the whole crowd of alumni and current students joining to recount their favorite Wesleyan ULTIMATE FRISBEE memories before adjourning for a BBQ in the backyard of one of the current team’s houses.

Emma Gardner is happily living in Petaluma, Calif. with her husband, Patrick McDarrah ’88, and two kids. They have a lot of different projects going on, but the main one is their rug company, emma gardner design. She is very excited to be working on a big tile and mosaic project with a company in Nicaragua and LA.

Mark Seasholes is splitting his time between Phoenix (ASU professor) and Santa Cruz (enjoying life). He would love to catch up with classmates. Visitors to either place should feel free to drop him a line.

Finally, Jonathan and Michele want to make sure everyone has the 30th Reunion in their calendar (May 23-26, 2019). The Reunion Committee is in need of volunteers to get involved with planning for Reunion. Please contact Megan Lenzzo, assistant director of annual giving at mlenzzo@wesleyan.edu if interested. Go Wes!

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Class of 1989 Scholarship

Joanna Korpanty ’21, Chemistry

Newlywed Anjulika Chawla writes that after 15 years and four kids together (ages 6, 10, 12, and 17), she and her now-husband Ron decided to “take the plunge and get married”—which they did on Sept. 2 at the Rhythm and Roots Festival. “The ceremony was 20 minutes, and the party about 11 hours.” Anjulika is a pediatric hematologist oncologist at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and an associate professor at Brown University. She stepped down as the interim chair of the division after four years, and has cut her time to about 10 percent. She is joining a biotech firm in Cambridge to work on a project using gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease.

In Boston, Abby Smuckler ran into Russ Cobe at Shabbat services at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial! Quite a feat considering there were about 5,000 people in the convention hall, and they hadn’t seen each other since graduation. Russ lives near Charlotte, N.C., and Abby is outside Boston in Needham.

Marisa Cohen spent 13 months on the road with her daughter, Molly—who was in the national tour of Matilda the Musical. They returned to New York last summer and got right back into the swing of things. Now Marisa is freelancing at Real Simple. In November she had “an amazing visit to Wes” for Alumni Sons & Daughters Weekend with her older daughter, Bellamy—who got to sit in on a class with Marisa’s old music professor, Neely Bruce, and is excited to apply for the class of 2023. (Sidebar: 2023? I give up. We’re speaking in Blade Runner-esque graduation class years at this point. Can we pace ourselves please?! Geez!) Marisa says she genuinely “loved catching up with so many classmates who are also going through the nerve-racking college admissions game with their kids while I was there.” Solidarity, sis!

Robin Alexander has been living with her husband in Brooklyn for the past 10 years after having lived in Jerusalem for five. She works as a therapist and clinical social worker, and, most recently, as a mental health consultant for child protective services and the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.

Peter Knight has assumed volunteer leadership in his appointment to the board of directors for Connecticut Legal Services. The agency is dedicated to helping low-income families and individuals meet their basic needs and be assured equal access to opportunities and justice. This new role is in addition to Peter’s role as the chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the law firm Robinson+Cole—where he’s a member of their Environmental, Energy and Telecommunications Group.

Jim Levine marked his 50th birthday by moving to Alaska. You guys, ALASKA…from Middletown, Conn., where he had been living. I love everyone’s updates. And this one too…so much! In his own words: “After 15 years back in Connecticut, working around the corner from WesU, the younger of my two kids graduated from high school and flew the coop. So…I sold my empty nest and moved solo to a rural area in southcentral Alaska, three hours from Anchorage, where I’m working in the emergency department of a small hospital, in a town called Soldotna. It’s beautiful here, and life is definitely slower and quieter. I’ve been here almost a year now.”

Susan Turkel is working part-time as a social sciences librarian at Villanova University. “It’s a very different environment from Bryn Mawr College and the University of Michigan, my beloved previous institutions, but I like it! My other major preoccupations are square, English, and contra dancing, and weekly visits with my parents (they’re 87 and almost 83, still living independently despite health challenges). Is anyone else going through the elderly parent struggle? It goes from frustrating to rewarding and then back again…but I’m grateful that they’re still around, that we’re close, and that I can be helpful to them.”

Topiary Landberg is in her fifth year of a PhD at UC, Santa Cruz in Film & Digital Media, working on her dissertation about urban landscape documentary and a media project about San Francisco. She is “loving being at Santa Cruz, teaching, researching and somehow becoming a full-fledged academic. Next stop: job market.

Next year is our 30th Reunion, y’all. Why don’t we round up our fellow ’89 Wes friends and head to campus next year? We’ve got a year-ish from now to plan our long-weekend escape and Wes campus takeover. I think we should take over the dorms. Seriously. Pajama-jammy-jam anyone?! We can fire up some ’80s tunes (“It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock anyone?) and dance it out together!

We do really enjoy hearing from each of you and appreciate you sharing your news with all of us! Cheers, classmates! Until then, so happy to hear from you. Keep the updates coming!

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Jonathan reports that it’s a little quiet on the Wesleyan front after last edition’s Women’s March outburst. Anecdotally, my Facebook has many reports of WesResistance. So maybe y’all are at the barricades this quarter. Kudos.

Stephan Kline is enthused that his older son, Noah ’21, is moving to Middletown as part of the class of 2021. Noah’s younger brother, Benjy, seems interested in joining the class of 2023.

Camille Nelson Kotton and David Pemstein have exciting news: They each trained together and ran the Boston Marathon!

Dave Eichler and his wife, Diana, celebrated their 20th anniversary last October. They split their time between Denver and Phoenix, where their 11-year-old public relations and marketing agency has offices. This summer, they are planning to acknowledge his 50th in Yellowstone by chasing bear and moose with his camera. He also saw Owen Renfroe ’90 and Louie Maggiotto ’92 on a trip to Los Angeles.

Julie Strauss and Joel Brown are marking 25 years of marriage this summer. Their oldest, Ezra, just completed his first year at the University of Michigan (a tad different than the typical Wesleyan experience). During visiting trips to Ann Arbor, Joel and Julie got to spend some fantastic time with Joel’s former Hi-Rise roommate, David Bradley, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Michigan hospital, and his family. Younger son Jonathan, a high school sophomore, has at least made polite overtures that he might consider Wesleyan an option for higher ed.

Holly Adams writes that while her life is not terribly exciting at the moment, it is happily filled with family and performance.

Jeff Brez is still living in New York City with his husband Adriano, and their twin boys who are approaching 3. Jeff continues his work with television and film, celebrity advocacy, and not-for-profit partnerships at the United Nations.

Ed Colbert was at a Manchester Monarchs hockey game, where Marc Casper ’90, Tas Pinther ’90, and Brian Cheek ’92 hosted a big Wesleyan group, including coach emeritus Duke and Diane Snyder and their family. He is sorry he missed Mullet Night earlier in the season, but those guys run a great show up there, just like the old days with the Cardinals, and he highly recommends the venue to any hockey fans.

Alex McClennen Dohan and David Dohan are adapting well to the empty nest with both kids mostly gone. In 2017, their younger child started college and their older one has finished college with plans to start law school in the fall. They are enjoying the newfound flexibility in meal planning and weekend activities.

After 20 years in London, Owen Thomas moved to Denmark to train to be an English and French teacher. He has two boys, Oscar (6) and Mason (2), both of whom Owen deems to be as roguishly handsome as their father.

Stephanie Dolgoff built a giant wall of love to celebrate her 50th year with the help of family and friends, including Judy Minor ’90, David Milch, Johanna Pfaelzer ’90, Andie Coller ’90, and yours truly.

Finally, with a light report, I’ll exercise my prerogative to kvell about Madelyn Fried ’19, who completed her sophomore year, including pledging Psi Upsilon, and is heading to Copenhagen for the fall semester. Jealous and proud papa here!

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

NEWSMAKERS | 1980s NEWSMAKER LAURA HARDIN ’89 Laura Hardin ’89, a damages expert for international arbitrations with Alvarez & Marsal Disputes and Investigation, recently testified for the Federal Republic of Germany in the case of Vattenfall AB vs. the Federal Republic of Germany. This case is related to Germany’s decision to shut down all nuclear plants by the year 2022, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Hardin notes, “This case was very significant. It was the first time the Federal Republic of Germany has been sued by an investor under any type of investment treaty arbitration.” A Russian major at Wesleyan, she earned her MBA from George Washington University and has 20 years of experience calculating damages for international arbitrations.

Class of 1989 Scholarship 

Joanna Korpanty ’18, Chemistry

I am happy to share the names and locations of our classmates who reported on their participation in Women’s Marches on Jan. 21.  While we also received many lovely and moving observations about the day, as well as reports about family and friends who joined, we unfortunately lack the space to include it all here.

At deadline, we heard the following: Stephan Kline, Colleen McKiernan, John DiPaolo, Phineas Baxandall, Jane Randel, Robin Allen McGrew, Kelly Morgan, Rachel Harrison, John Hlinko, Laura Rosen, Stuart Ridgway, Betsey Schmidt, Oona Metz, Elysa Gordon, Saul Halfon, Jacqueline Wheeler Lee, and Karen Turk in Washington, D.C.

Tonya Gayle, Doug Abel, Nan Sinauer, Eileen Mullin, Jennifer Zaslow, Sarah Chumsky, Mike Rempel, Claire (Hoopes-Segura) Burns, Liz Melhado Ward, Caroline Gessert, David Milch, Tzvi Mackson, Stephanie Dolgoff, Natalie Dorset, Phoebe Boyer, Naomi Minkoff, and Jonathan Fried in NYC. Holly Adams in Ithaca, N.Y. Kristen Montast Graves in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Kim Bruno, Sarah Madsen Hardy, Joan Werlinsky, Stephen Buchanan, Peter Badalament, Donna Steinberg, Laura Cherry, Chris Zurn, Lee Ann (Jacob) Gun, Liz (Gisela) Blicher, Amy Wolf, and Kate True in Boston, Mass.

Liz Marx and Michele Barnwell in Los Angeles, Calif. Mark Mullen and Nancy Ross Mullen in San Diego, Calif. Andrew Shear, Lynne Lazarus, Alison Keene, Laura Flaxman (with Hazlyn Fortune ’86) in Oakland, Calif. Amy Randall in San Jose, Calif. Marisa Cohen in Santa Ana, Calif. Ellen Ross Shields in Sacramento, Calif. Amy Berk and Lara Karchmar in San Francisco, Calif. Steve Lewis in Chico, Calif. Emma Gardner in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Joel Brown, Julie Strauss, and Julia Winter in Chicago, Ill.. Kathryn Steucek and Ellen Forney in Seattle, Wash. Maida Barbour in Austin, Texas. Eric Simon in Manchester, N.H. Rachel Heckscher in Maui, Hawaii. Lila Polur Wrubel in Denver, Colo.. Tullan Spitz in Portland, Ore. Susan Turkel in Philadelphia, Pa. Brian Kassof in Fairbanks, Alaska. Dave Keller in Montpelier, Vt. Diane Purvin in Hartford, Conn. Jennifer Levine in Park City, Utah. Michelle Gonzalez in Providence, R.I. Amy Redfield in St. Louis, Mo. Ethan Vesely-Flad in Asheville, N.C.

From abroad: Josh Drew in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gretchen Long in London. Sherry Lehr Föhr in Heidelberg, Germany. Laura Safran Shepard and Andrew Shepard in Paris. Melissa Herman in Berlin.

In other news, Robin McGrew and her family moved back to D.C. after three years in Athens, Greece. She joined the architecture firm, Cunningham Quill, to work on housing projects focusing on energy efficient buildings and conserving natural resources through landscape design. Her daughter just started at Swarthmore; and her son is finishing high school and applying to college. She feels good to be back, but is already imagining a return to Greece.

Kelly Morgan is working in Boston, managing IT analysts, and raising twin 7-year-old daughters with her husband. From Oakland, Andrew Shear and Lynne Lazarus report they are doing well. He is a deputy state public defender representing death row inmates in direct appeals to California’s Supreme Court; she is a family medicine doc at Kaiser Permanente, but with a new practice in Oakland. Andrew took their son to Wes for his college tour, including a steamed cheeseburger at O’Rourke’s.

Dave Keller is raising two amazing daughters, performing with The Dave Keller Band, and teaching guitar. His sixth CD, Right Back Atcha, is available at davekeller.com.

James Eli Shiffer tells the story of the Gateway District, the oldest quarter of Minneapolis, in The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis (University of Minnesota Press).

Melissa Herman and her husband are on sabbatical with their kids in Germany. She’s researching identity and achievement among binational and bi-ethnic children, and leaving soon for a Fulbright Fellowship in Balti, Moldova.

Russ Cobe is surprised to find himself turning 50 with a stepson graduating college. He’s been in Charlotte, N.C., for 15 years, where, in addition to his day job, he is the lay leader for Temple Solel, a tiny Reform Jewish congregation. Over the past five years, he has led bar and bat mitzvahs, baby namings, and, unfortunately, one funeral. Apparently unable to escape his religion and music degrees, Russ leads bi-weekly Friday night services with song, prayer, and fellowship for his congregation.

Indy Neidell’s YouTube channel, The Great War, recently passed 500,000 subscribers. He does interviews about the war and hears from teachers who use the series in their classes. He is still doing voice overs, DJing a few times a month, touring periodically, and is launching a company making effect-pedals for guitars and other instruments.

Alex Chee’s novel, The Queen of the Night, is now in paperback. He also has an essay in the Best American Essays 2016, as well as a new 15th anniversary paperback edition of his first novel, Edinburgh. He joined the faculty of Dartmouth College as an associate professor of English. He and his partner of seven years, Dustin Schell, were married on Jan. 7 in their cabin in the Catskills. They chose to marry before Trump took office so that they could be married during the Obama Administration.

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

← 1988 | 1990 →

NEWSMAKERS | 1980s NEWSMAKER DAVID MILCH ’89 David Milch ’89 was named the program director of the Leadership in the Arts and Entertainment Industries program at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). This graduate program is a collaboration between NYIT and Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment in Manhattan. “I’m very excited to take the helm of this relatively new program with its focus on training the next generation of leaders within the arts and entertainment industries,” said Milch. “This program allows me to further my long-term work in empowering arts professionals and helping them understand their own value while providing them a greater ability to communicate that to wide ranging sectors of our society.” Previously, Milch was the associate director for student engagement at Columbia University. He was a program coordinator at Wesleyan, where he assisted in the creation of the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) and is a member of the Association of Theater in Higher Education. A theater major as an undergraduate, he earned an MFA in theater directing from UCLA.

Jonathan writes for this issue: We start with some props for our class secretaries. Your erstwhile ’89 scribe, David Milch, moved on after nine years working with Columbia University performing arts students, and started a new position at New York Institute of Technology as the director of the MA program in Leadership in the Arts and Entertainment Industries.

Meanwhile, the Bonnie to my Clyde of these class notes, Michele Barnwell, completed principal production of her documentary Party Girls: Exploring Politics in America, which follows a small group of millennial women of color (all first-time voters) who travel together around the country engaging in the political process. It’s a learning journey Michele describes as a summer-long slumber party…with a brain. Part of the doc airs online election week as a 6-part series via ITVS/PBS, and soon-ish as an indie feature doc.

Thomas Policelli’s eldest daughter, Katherine ’20, started at Wes, where she lives in what is now called “Butts C.” Tom is impressed by the amazing classes Wesleyan still offers, but also is struck by the available sushi and free-range tofu. He is rather disoriented to be the theoretically responsible adult against whom this generation is supposed to rebel, even if today’s rebellion is via app. For those of you beginning the college application process, he offers a plug (which your class secretary echoes) for Wesleyan’s annual alumni Sons and Daughters weekend in November. It’s a really good overview of the college application process with separate sessions for students and parents. Tom expects to participate again with his other children, ages 16, 14, and 10.

Marshall Brozost changed law firms, moving from Schulte Roth & Zabel to head the New York real estate practice group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Alissa Berman is living in East Greenwich, R.I., with her boys, a high school senior and an eighth grader. She and her husband are divorcing amicably after 24 years of marriage. She is a stylist for the Cabi clothing company, where she does home shows and enjoys helping women feel great about themselves.

Indy Neidell, in Sweden, writes on the success of his YouTube channel, The Great War. It is nearing 400,000 subscribers, with more than 40 million views. He hears from teachers across the world who use the show in their classes and he consulted on the computer game, Battlefield, providing all manner of descriptive text, from the Hejaz Railway, to Lawrence of Arabia, to zeppelin warfare. He is also still touring with a few different bands and doing voiceovers for games and commercials.

John DiPaolo and his wife relocated in D.C., moving to Cleveland Park, where their daughter is starting kindergarten. His bike-commute to work is now twice as long, but because he rides along Rock Creek Park and the Potomac River, the natural beauty more than compensates. John has been at the U.S. Department of Education since 2011 and is now the deputy general counsel. As a political appointee, however, he’ll likely leave in January when President Obama’s term ends.

Elaine Perlman keeps busy as the director of the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she prepares returning Peace Corps volunteers to teach in high-need public schools. This year, she painted school murals in the South Bronx and Harlem, taught middle school classes at the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, mentored a high school student through iMentor, and was an advisor for the Parents League. She attended a book presentation by Mike Rubens ’90, who just published The Bad Decisions Playlist, which was so compelling that Elaine read it in one day!

David Jonas lives happily in Westport, Conn., with his wife of 24 years. Their eldest daughter started her freshman year at NYU, and they have one more at home. Over the past year, he has been raising capital for a fund that invests in independent film productions.

Mike Olinger has been living in Brussels, Belgium, for the past two years with his wife and two teenage sons. Any classmates who make it over that way should look him up for moules frites and cold beer.

Howard Diamond is enjoying the Colorado lifestyle and serving as general counsel of Frontier Airlines. He celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary and attended his son’s college graduation and commissioning as a naval flight officer. He is also very proud of both daughters, one attending college and one in high school.

Adina Hoffman published Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City, a biolographical triptych about three architects who helped shape the city in which she’s lived for the last 25 years. She now divides her time between Jerusalem and New Haven, and she is working on a short biography of Ben Hecht.

David Williams’ oldest son, Harry, is off to Boston University, where he will be studying mechanical engineering. Although Dafna (16), Seth (13), and Eli (11) are still at home, the family dynamic is shifting. His wife, Nyna Urovitch, is back at work after 15 years, teaching middle school math in a public school. David is still a healthcare consultant, but he also spends considerable time as president of Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, where he is leading a strategic transformation of the synagogue into a multi-organizational Jewish campus.

After 21 years, Lisa Nash gave up her chiropractor’s license and is starting a new chapter of life offering multi-disciplinary trauma transformation training as a Feldenkrais teacher, and as an ordained priestess in the ancient West African religion of Ifa. She continues to expand her residential healing and teaching center in Vermont, the Rainbow Serpent Mystery School, where four full-time residents share a kitchen, a bathroom, a ceremony and classroom space, and 21 acres, including veggie and herb gardens, fruit and nut trees, and chickens! The center offers retreats, workshops, and sanctuary for individuals, couples, and families in spiritual emergence/y.

David Eichler writes, “This will come as little surprise for those who remember the old days on Foss, but my digital marketing agency just spun off a sister firm called Decibel Green, specializing in, wait for it, cannabis and sustainability. Diane and I love living in Denver and would love to hear from Wes visitors.”

Finally, Broadway in Chicago’s annual free summer concert featured a performance from Hedwig and the Angry Inch by the show’s composer and lyricist, Stephen Trask.

Jonathan Fried | jonathan.l.fried@gmail.com 

MICHELE BARNWELL | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com