Tag: 1989

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

Damn. When Michele shakes the tree, she shakes it hard. We even got a few first timers, so we’ll lead with those.

Amy Berk has reinvested in her home in San Francisco, where her two kids attend Creative Arts Charter School. She is starting a new venture to help recenter and reset creativity: reapprojects.com. She sometimes sees Michelle Matz and recently reconnected with David Auerbach.

In Portland, Ore., Michael Aiello is finishing a visiting artist show at the Blackfish Gallery. He presented six pieces from work sponsored by a grant from his Regional Arts & Culture Council called “Our Fates Are Connected.” Michael is now creatively transitioning back to songwriting. In June, he will be in Northern New Mexico, humbly listening for the words that are hidden in the tunes, and is grateful to his daughter and love for the opportunity….

Dina Goldman has been a production designer for film and television (primarily) in NYC for almost 20 years. Her current project is an independent feature based on the life of J.D. Salinger, turning the city streets back to the way they looked in the ’40s and ’50s. When not working, she’s enjoying life with her husband and 9-year-old son in the West Village.

Allison Downer is now the associate executive director of the Department of Psychiatry at Rikers Island, where she provides psychiatric services for the country’s first specialized jail for 18–21 year olds. She was encouraged to reach out because of all the “cool people” who are sharing their good deeds.

Hope Ring is still a family doctor, still happily married, with daughters now 11 and 17, who are far more passionate about social justice than Hope was at their age. With the prodding of Jeanne Kramer-Smythe ’90, Hope is now an associative member of SFWA, writing under Hope Erica Schultz.

Congratulations to James Eli Shiffer who just had his first book, The King of Skid Row, published by The University of Minnesota Press. He completed this account of the seamy history of his adopted hometown of Minneapolis while keeping his day job as an editor and columnist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He is a co-historian with his wife, Kirsten Delegard ’90, the creator of the Historyapolis community history project. Last year, he joined Paul Rooney, David Williams, and many other Argus alumni advocating for free speech at Wesleyan and against efforts to defund the Argus.

After 10 years at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Phineas Baxandall moved on to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a think-tank that focuses on helping people with low and moderate incomes. Phineas will be working with campaigns to pass a ballot initiative that would raise taxes on incomes over a million dollars to fund education and transportation. He recently visited Cuba with his long-time partner, Sarah Hill, and his children. Son, Julian (16), just started an ultimate frisbee team at his high school in Cambridge, Mass. In January, several Wesleyan alumni attended a memorial service for Phineas’s mother, including Stephanie Dolgoff, Elizabeth Schmidt, Robert Featherstone, John Stamm, and Eric Lotke ’87.

The paperback edition of Alex Chee’s new novel, The Queen of the Night (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is coming out this January, along with a new edition of his first novel Edinburgh. He also will have an essay in this fall’s Best American Essays 2016, and has two upcoming visiting writer gigs: at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the fall, and then at the University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA in the spring. He recently saw Janine Mileaf, who runs the Chicago Arts Club.

In April, Adam Rohdie, Andrew Lacey and Mike Charlton, and their spouses all attended JazzFest in NOLA. While the music and food were outstanding, part of Saturday’s show was rained out. Somehow they persevered, finding their way to the French Quarter and enjoying themselves despite the weather.

John Hlinko is living in Washington, D.C., doing his best to save America from Trump (and itself) by running Left Action, a two-million-strong national progressive activist community. His wife, Leigh Stringer, is about to release her second book, The Healthy Workplace, which he will shamelessly plug on Facebook, via e-mail, and in Wesleyan class notes. John is about to move to a house that was built in the 1850s as a church, which might be the first time he’s been in one in decades.

Laura Safran Shepard and her husband, Drew Shepard, are on the move after relocating back to Connecticut from Thailand in 2014. Colgate-Palmolive has tapped Drew to manage Western Europe, starting next month, and they will be moving to Paris. Despite not knowing a single word of French, they are very excited. They will miss their daughter who is headed off to college, but they know she’ll be super happy at school.

If anyone has plans to visit Toronto, they should look up Marisa Cohen, who is tagging along as her 13-year-old daughter, Molly, plays Alice in the Canadian premiere of Matilda the Musical. You can most likely find Marisa in a coffee shop trying to keep up her freelance magazine/web writing career while sampling Canadian delicacies like Labatt’s, Smarties, and ketchup crisps. Her husband, Jeremy, and daughter, Bellam, are staying in New York, but will make lots of border crossings to visit. Depending on how the election goes, they may just stay up north. (Kidding—sort of.)

After 18 years as an academic librarian at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Michigan, Susan Turkel is going freelance! She’s researching, editing, and doing a little Web design for faculty and others. Check her out at susanturkel.com. When not working, she’s usually found at a contra dance.

Finally, congratulations to Ed Thorndike, whose restaurant, WesWings, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a big party at Beckham Hall with about 400 guests, including the senior class.

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

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Class of 1989 Scholarship

Joanna Korpanty ’18, Bristol, Conn.

Kristen Montas Graves writes: “It was a sad occasion that brought a number of us together for a mini Wes reunion the first weekend in December. For those of you who may not have heard, beloved Professor Jerry G. Watts passed away Nov. 16th. Jerry only taught at Wes for a few years of his career, yet for those of us who knew him, he was a major part of our Wesleyan experience, and his influence shaped the trajectories of many of our own careers today. Al Young ’88 assisted Jerry’s wife, Traci West, in organizing the event, which took place at The New York Society for Ethical Culture. He, along with his wife, Carla O’Connor ’88, my husband Fred Montas ’88, Amy Randall, and Eric Greene ’90 all gave moving tributes, highlighting his intellectual acuity and the genuinely caring manner he had with all whom he met. Many Wes folk were in the house including Hellura Lyle, Allison Downer, Melinda Weekes, Schuyler Allen ’90, Jessica Roseman ’90, Julie Doar-Sinkfield ’90, Eve Goldberg ’90, Yanique LeCadre ’88, Ian Friday ’87, and Dianne Stewart ’85. Our hearts were heavy, but we felt the light of his presence as we shared laughs and hugs remembering a truly great man.” Kristen also saw Mary Kate O’Toole Mellow over the holidays.

Laura Hamilton Hardin lives near Houston, with her second husband, Dan Hardin, and two children from her first marriage. On 25 acres, they have 10 dogs, 10 horses, about 20 chickens, two potbelly pigs and two cats. Daughter Samantha (18) is studying animal science at Texas A&M and is planning to pursue a veterinary degree, and son Michael (16) is starting on the Magnolia High School JV football team. Laura provides expert testimony on damages issues for large international arbitrations. She recently resumed horseback riding to relieve the stress of her demanding career.

Amy E. Randall teaches history and women’s and gender studies at Santa Clara University in California. Her latest publication, Genocide and Gender in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Survey (Bloomsbury) is a collection of genocide studies that examines gendered discourses, practices, and experiences of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the 20th century. Amy and Mathew Reed ’91 have two children, Zaria (7) and Zeiler (12). They inspired Amy to perform last year in the parent/staff/faculty cast of Annie at her daughter’s school.

Alexander Chee’s new novel, The Queen of the Night (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), was released Feb. 2, 2016. His first novel, Edinburgh, is being reissued and has been optioned by the composer Stefan Weisman and the librettist David Coates, who intend to adapt it into an opera. Alex lives in NYC with his partner, Dustin Schell, where they are adapting The Scarlet Professor (Barry Werth’s biography of Newton Arvin)into a feature film. This fall he will be a visiting writer at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Andrea Morse is married to her reading and budget-travel partner, best friend and love of her life, Bill Kehr. They live in the Chicago area, where she has her own clinical psychology practice. She recently gave birth to their son, Zander Asher, and has two wonderful step-kids: one in college, the other heading to medical school. In her teensy spare time she performs with a professional Hawaiian/Polynesian dance company.

Liz Marx left being a casting director several years ago to become a college counselor. While she hasn’t yet had one of her kids attend Wesleyan, she remains optimistic!

Rabbi Jen Feldman recently celebrated 13 rich and rewarding years serving Kehillah Synagogue in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Jeffrey Naness is practicing law on Long Island, representing businesses in employment and labor matters. He is married, with two sons, Jonathan and Michael, and plays keyboards in a charity rock band (Equity) and a Latin jazz quartet (Gazpacho Bop).

Eric Simon published the second edition of his college biology textbook Biology: The Core. Eric’s books have been translated into seven languages and are used in more than 40 countries. He still lives in rural New Hampshire with his wife, two boys (12 and 14), 20 or so chickens, three Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and a leopard gecko.

Karen McVey Fussell remains happily married with two children (9 and 12). She lives on 45 acres near Bangor, in a 100-plus-year-old farmhouse, which they recently renovated. She has been finance director for a neighboring city for the past 15 years, a job she loves and that allows her to work on many diverse issues, including recycling and the development of a next generation waste-to-energy facility.

Dave Keller is living in Montpelier, Vt., raising two daughters, and being a musician. He’s excited about a new album of original soul/blues songs that should be released in September. His last CD was a “breakup album”, so he’s thinking of this one as his “over-the-hump album.”

Jeff Brez and his husband, Adriano, are daddy and papa to twin boys, born November 2014. They also recently gave away their already-adult daughter at an unforgettable wedding in SoCal. Jeff is with the UN Department of Public Information in New York, where he partners with both NGOs and the creative community to raise awareness about UN issues around the world.

After more than 20 years, Jane Randel left the fashion industry and started a social impact consulting firm, Karp Randel LLC. She also cofounded NOMORE.org, and is one of four advisers to the NFL on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault education. She has done similar work for NASCAR.

Stephanie Dolgoff writes: “All hail, Susan Paley, who orchestrated getting 10 of us to Sonoma from as far as NYC (Natalie Dorset, Betsey Schmidt, and I) and West Virginia (that would be the serene and brilliant Lesley Savin). Much and varied wine was consumed and sorely felt (at least by me) for some time after. The Micheles (Chase and Barnwell) were as lovely as when they were roommates on Foss 6, and Caron Selati looked like she must have carried her two now-teenage babies in her handbag, in such great shape was she. Jennifer Levine, fresh off numerous professional triumphs, and I bunked together, and Laura Flaxman and I got to spend some time discussing how nice it is to have finally embraced our relatively benign vices.” Stephanie also saw Lynne Lazarus and Andrew Shear at their home in Oakland, Calif.

Melissa Herman is going through the college process with her son, which brings back her own memories and nightmares of that experience. She is looking forward to another sabbatical in Berlin where her son can check out the—free!—German universities. There, she will also work on a research project on German and American understandings of race.

Indy Neidell is still in Sweden, where he is producing a channel called The Great War, which follows WWI exactly 100 years later in real time, week by week, using original footage from the British Pathé film archives.

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

Michele Barnwell | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Newsmaker: Melinda Weekes-Laidlow ’89

Melinda Weekes-Laidlow ’89, president of Weekes In Advance Enterprises, is the first social entrepreneur in residence at Echoing Green, with a focus on racial equity. Echoing Green is a global nonprofit organization that provides fellowships, seed-stage funding, and strategic support to social entrepreneurs around the world. In an interview with Echoing Green president Cheryl Dorsey, Weekes-Laidlow called the post, “a wonderful way to leverage my nearly 25 years of experience as a social change agent, attorney, nonprofit manager, systems thinker, professional facilitator, capacity builder, and leadership coach.” Dorsey noted that she looked forward to Weekes-Laidlow offering the foundation “the opportunity to expand and deepen our community through the capacities you bring to the Social Entrepreneur in Residence role.” Weekes-Laidlow is a member of the advisory Board of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Wesleyan. This fall she served as a panelist for Wesleyan’s Social Impact Summit, organized by Wesleyan’s Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, and Office of Alumni & Parent Relations. A member of the ordained clergy, Weekes-Laidlow serves on the ministerial staff of the Greater Allen Cathedral of New York. A College of Social Studies major at Wesleyan University, she earned her doctorate in divinity at Harvard University and her juris doctorate from New York University School of Law.

Jonathan writes: I returned from visiting my daughter, who is a frosh living in Clark Hall, to a burst of e-mail updates from our classmates. Thanks for reaching out, everyone; let’s get to it!

Seth Kaplan let us know that he has a new gig after 16 years as an environmental advocate at the Conservation Law Foundation. He’s done interesting stuff around transportation and urban development, focusing on clean energy and climate change. He also served as vice president for climate advocacy. He is now with a wind energy company, EDP Renewables, where he manages the government affairs for the Eastern Region of the U.S. EDPR is developing in Maine the largest wind farm in the Northeast, which requires frequent trips to Connecticut, where the power will be sold. This project brings him back to designing the lighting for Dar Williams’s senior project and her questions about the origin of electricity at Wesleyan. Seth’s eldest is now in her first year at Barnard College, and his other two kids are in ninth and fifth grades in the Brookline, Mass., public schools.

Melissa Herman begins by noting that merely typing “1989” makes her feel very old. (We all feel your pain, Melissa!) But even with her (self-described) “creaky body,” Melissa has been doing some small triathlons and running races, a family activity with her kids and husband. She’s looking forward to racing in Germany when she goes on sabbatical in Berlin next academic year to teach at Humboldt or FU, depending on the outcome of her Fulbright application. Her three kids will attend German schools, as they did last time they went—further improving their language skills with another dose of immersion. Her oldest is a high school senior applying to universities here and in Germany. Anyone who will be in Berlin in the 2016–17 academic year should give her shout and she will be happy to show you the sights.

Ed Thorndike is still at Wesleyan and getting ready to celebrate WesWings’ 25th anniversary. There will be a series of events leading up to a big party next spring. Sounds delicious, Ed!

John Hlinko is living in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Leigh, an author and architect, and daughters Kate and Ali (not named after the TV show). He is the leader of Left Action, a progressive grassroots activist organization, and he occasionally appears as a pundit on TV news programs, to yell and be yelled at. He recently enjoyed a long weekend in Vegas with Adam Long and Sandeep Wadhwa, where he miraculously didn’t lose money. John often spends his time shamelessly hawking his book, Share, Retweet, Repeat, including in these very class notes.

Jane O’Brien reports that she’s a failed writer—but a successful mother! (At least you have your priorities straight!)

Joel Jacobs is now the parent of a college student: older daughter, Aviva, is a freshman at Pitzer. He’s happy that she’s happy. Joel is still practicing environmental law, doing bodywork with his feet, and acting in community theater. Younger daughter, Talia, is a high school sophomore, and active on the debate team, which he’s been helping to coach, providing a great chance for them to spend time together.

David Levine writes: “On July 25th, 18 members from the class of ’89 and their families gathered together in Roxbury, Conn. Family members included other Wes alumns Todd Snyder ’84 and Gabrielle Mason ’87. Hosted by Stu Berman, Neil Blicher,Alan Cohen, Ricky Kotler, and David Levine. People traveled from Boston, D.C., and San Francisco to be there. We had beautiful weather for a fun-filled day of reconnecting that included swimming, ’80s music, plenty of food, and maybe a little alcohol as well. Notable changes since college included more girth and less hair. Great to see everyone after all this time.” (See the photo and caption in the online notes at classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/class-of-1989)

Sherry Lehr Föhr writes: “I’m still living in Germany, where I run the writing center for the University of Heidelberg. My older daughter just completed her Abitur this past summer and even though she is still living at home for her gap year, I find that having only one kid in school really changes daily life. My younger daughter is in ninth grade and applying to spend next year as an exchange student in the U.S. She’s never lived there, so it is like going to a foreign country to her, but not to me, which is a bit strange. Plus I met my husband when I was an exchange student on Wes’s program in Heidelberg, and look where I ended up… In any event, I am sure my husband and I will find lots of fun things to do when the nest is finally empty, even if it will be just temporary.”

Mark Mullen writes, “My big news is that for the first time in a long time I live in the U.S. In San Francisco. So there’s that.”

Eric Schreiber has moved back to his Mountain View condo in the SF Bay Area after having lived overseas for the last nine years. He is teaching English literature at Pinewood School in Los Altos Hills and is “amused by all the Google Bikes and Teslas I see zipping around this area.”

Another published author in our class, Algernon Austin, has a new book out: America Is Not Post-Racial: Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Racism and the 44th President. This title analyzes the 25 million Obama haters in America and concludes with a discussion about how to address the “future of hate” in our country.

Melinda Weekes-Laidlow is excited to be the first social entrepreneur in residence with Echoing Green. She will be focusing on racial equity.

From Camarillo, Calif., Paul Gallo reports he is still coaching baseball at Harvard-Westlake and all is well on the family front, with wife Katie and daughters Madison (4) and Kelsey (2).

Indy Neidell gave us a lovely and thorough update: “Funnily enough, I’ve become a YouTube star the past year. I write and host a channel called ’The Great War’ that follows World War I, week by week, exactly 100 years later in real time, using original film footage from the British Pathé archives. The idea being to construct the ultimate documentary of the war, and also, since it’s YouTube, the first massive interactive documentary of its kind.” Indy already has had 150,000 subscribers and about eight million views. Check it out: youtube.com/user/TheGreatWar. He’s also doing commercial voiceovers and performing with six live bands, but is looking forward to a well-deserved rest in Rio de Janeiro.

Kelem Butts is still suffering through Dallas summers, but is really enjoying working for the AT&T Foundation. He gets to give money away to nonprofits focused on helping kids get through high school ready for college and career. He’s thrilled to finally have a cool “Wesleyan” job after all these years.

Lara Fortune Balter and Steve Balter ’90 just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and are surprised to find themselves this old. They enjoy visiting their eldest daughter (who graduated from Bates in 2014) in Colorado, where she lives and works, and their son, who plays golf at Wake Forest as a junior. They also still have two girls at home: a senior and a freshman in high school. Lara regrets that they are rarely together as a family anymore, but very much looks forward to those times. Husband Steve still works with Chris Galizio ’90, a union that she is not surprised has lasted 25 years. She concludes: “Life is good, all the ups and downs you’d expect, but the years have treated us well.” Amen to that, Lara. Amen.

We really did get a great number of updates this go ’round and we loved every minute of it!!! Thanks so much. See you all again soon… in your inboxes…when we’re clamoring for more news. Be well!

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

MICHELE BARNWELL | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com

Jonathan writes: Hey, all. Things seem to have been a little quiet for ‘89ers these past few months. Michele and I can’t believe that’s true, so please take a few minutes to drop one of us a line for the next issue. Please. Thanks, peeps!

Susan Turkel leads us off with her reflections on last year’s Reunion: “So much fun to see people and dance under the big tent!” She’s been working as a social sciences librarian for the last 17-plus years—14 years at Bryn Mawr College, and then three-plus years at the University of Michigan. Last summer she returned to the East Coast to be closer to family and help out her aging parents. She left Ann Arbor (although continuing to work remotely on a part-time basis) and now lives with her partner, Mark, in the Philly suburbs, where she’s taking art and writing classes, doing lots of contra dancing, spending time with friends and family, getting ready to start some volunteer pursuits, planning her parents’ 50th anniversary party, and thinking about what she’d like to do with the next chapter of her life.

Stephanie Dolgoff reports that she is “half dead and bald from the stress of a renovation, but with two tween girls, one bathroom wasn’t cutting it. Grateful to have such good friends and healthy kids. Love to all.”

Dan White is hard at work on his second nonfiction book, Under The Stars, which is going to be published by Henry Holt and Co. in the summer of 2016. It’s an embodied history of American camping, which means everything from survivalist camping (camping without any gear—or clothes—in mountain lion territory in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 24 frightening hours), to exploring the Everglades and “glamping” on an ersatz safari in Wine Country. Several of Dan’s Wesleyan friends, including James Shiffer, Sara Oh Neville and Bill Sherman ’90, have been giving encouragement, stories, and help along the way.
From Joel Jacobs, we learn that he has been continuing his “recent pursuit of acting, and has now been in four plays, most recently as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.” He’s also been coaching his younger daughter’s high school debate team. His older daughter, Aviva, will start at Pitzer College in the fall.

Mark Mullen’s big news is that he moved from Tbilisi to San Francisco.

Kate True digs out from the Boston winter to say she and her three daughters (Ona, Flora and Tess) made it to the promised land of spring. Ona ’19 will be a first-year student at Wesleyan in the fall! Kate recently completed a creative entrepreneur fellowship through the arts and business council and Discover Roxbury, and is busy with her art, portrait painting, and independent curating, as well as teaching part time at the Sudbury Valley School. Visitors are always welcome at her old Victorian home in Roxbury, which she is continually upgrading.

Finally, Betsey Schmidt and her husband hosted a lovely alumni event in March to honor Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78 at their new(ish) apartment in Brooklyn.

Let’s discuss how apples (and more) don’t fall very far from trees… As we huddle up to eyeball what’s going on with our classmate, Michael Goldman and his son, 10-year-old Max, and Mike’s 17-year-old nephew, Sam: Max is excelling at playing drums and Sam is competing in the NY State Wrestling Championship Finals. So Sam is clearly super-sporty but don’t let that fool you. Sam was also accepted at Harvard and missed a perfect SAT score by 60 points. Those are the Goldman ‘apples’. Meanwhile, Michael…As founding partner of NCredible Entertainment and Nick Cannon’s manager, he has been busy, y’all. In the last two months alone, they’ve shot 36 episodes of television for multiple networks; have now got 14 episodes of already greenlit material going into production and other amazing treats to come. All good stuff and here’s more talk of more ‘apples’ falling and whatnot:

Jonathan Fried’s daughter got accepted to Wesleyan—making him officially ’89 and P’19. We’re also hearing there are more ’89er’s offspring heading into the class of 2019. With all that ’89 energy, we’re thinking that class is already looking pretty promising!

Jennifer Levine represented the screenwriters for the movie Birdman, and was last seen celebrating the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

We heard from Jeffrey Bowne, who says that last year he left The Hartford Insurance Company (and the Hartford area) to move to northeast Pennsylvania and open up a Sky Zone indoor trampoline park. In his own words: “I bought a franchise with my brother-in-law and we opened in Sept. of 2014. It has been a lot of fun switching gears from corporate life to owning and running a 20,000 sq. foot trampoline park. We’ve met a lot of interesting people and have been fortunate to have more than 50,000 jumpers come through since we opened. I extend an open invite if anyone is passing thru Scranton on I-81.” Jump on it, people!

Eric Simon published his first solo-author college textbook, Biology: The Core. About a third of U.S. college students who take a general ed introductory biology course do so using one of Eric’s textbooks. Also, Eric was thrilled to have been invited last summer to speak as part of Wesleyan’s Summer Science Seminar series.

Amy Berk writes: “I am sorry to have missed Reunion last year but I was happy and energized to hear the reports of my classmates. I remain in the Bay Area and have been busy with my two sons (Benjamin, 10, and Jude, 6) and my wonderful husband Andy Cox (not a Wes alum but he loves going to all Wesevents such as the upcoming one with President Michael Roth ’78).” Amy has been teaching a variety of courses at the San Francisco Art Institute and also at the University of California, Berkeley, extension in the post-baccalaureate program visual arts program. Last summer, she had great family fun with some ’89rs around the country. She’s “already looking forward to the 30th Reunion—I can spin it as a college tour for my eldest!”

Doug Abel continues to work as a film editor here and there, but most of his time and effort is going to help abused and neglected farm animals with the organization he cofounded, Woodstock Farm Sanctuary. The rescue/educational facility is moving in spring 2015 to a new, 150-acre site about 90 minutes from NYC, and will now host summer camps and larger vegan-related events. He was tickled to see that Wes was picked “Most Vegan-Friendly College” in 2012. More info on his doings at WoodstockSanctuary.org.

We also heard from Denise Hill Day y’all. Yay! She and her daughter have moved to Houston. She writes: “All is good, settling in and getting to know this new….foreign land.”

Great stuff going on. ’Til next time…

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

MICHELE BARNWELL | fishtank_michele@yahoo.com