Tag: 1991

Please write to your class secretary.

Michael Chaskes and Sarah (Lewis) Chaskes continue to enjoy a more or less empty-nest life in Los Angeles. Michael edits unscripted TV shows, including the Netflix hit Hack My Home, and volunteers on behalf of Democratic candidates and causes. He and film/theatergoing buddy, Paige Harding ’90 enjoyed seeing Professor Jeanine Basinger at an Los Angeles event, along with other alums like Halle Stanford and Jon Hoeber ’93. Sarah is in her 30th year of teaching sixth-grade English and social studies, her 12th at Pilgrim School, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in education with a focus on social justice.

Mark Kiefer’s short film, Or, The Whale, won the Best Comedy award at the Lake Placid Film Festival in October.

Did you catch the Nietzsch Factor story in the Summer 2023 edition of the Wesleyan Magazine? Thinking, “I want more history of ultimate?” Look up Adam Zagoria’s Ultimate: The First Four Decades. Adam is a professional sportswriter and coauthor of the book. 

After almost 20 years in Rockland, Jeff Post moved to northern Westchester, New York, and while voting in November, ran into Johannah Dunham Townsend, who was serving as an election volunteer in their tiny district in Somers, New York. Jeff’s son, Bradley, graduated from the University of Central Florida and works in Orlando. Another son, Andrew, is a graduate of the University of Alabama and as of this writing, awaits law school admissions notifications. 

Cheryl Gansecki teaches geology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and field courses for the Black Hills Field Station. In 2023 she celebrated publication of her book, Roadside Geology of Hawaiʻi. Husband, Ken Hon, is scientist-in-charge of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, where they have dealt with six eruptions in two years, making for a lot of sleepless nights. Daughter, Mara, is a junior at Columbia, and elder child Orion is in a PhD program in planetary science at University of Arizona. Cheryl would love to see Wesleyan friends that come to the Big Island!

Writing in from Portland, Maine, Jeff Levine continues work on state-level zoning reform initiatives designed to increase housing production. “In 2021 I served on the Maine legislature’s Commission to Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions. The Commission’s work resulted in LD2003, which reformed Maine’s state zoning laws by allowing more multifamily housing and providing incentives for affordable housing in downtowns. Maine is one of a small but growing set of states that are asking communities to plan for more housing, in light of a national shortage.” Jeff also works with a couple of communities in Massachusetts as they plan for the MBTA Communities Act, the Bay State’s version of state-level housing and zoning reform. “It’s an important planning effort, but it can sometimes be challenging to convince local leaders that planning for more housing allows you to choose your future far better than fighting new housing.”

In December, Spencer Boyer completed nearly three years of service in the Biden administration as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Spencer noted, “I learned more than I could have imagined during this historic time for transatlantic relations, European security, and NATO” and “it’s been an honor to serve with such extraordinary colleagues and to be a part of Secretary Austin’s team.” His next chapter will include a mix of private sector, think tank, and academic work, including a term this winter as the Magro Family Distinguished Fellow in International Affairs at the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. 

Tasos Theodorou provides us with a really important PSA: “chest pains and shortness of breath is not just your kids driving you crazy, but is in fact a heart attack, so get to the ER pronto!” Fortunately, he adds that his quadruple bypass heart surgery in November was a success, and he is healing well.

With that important information, I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2024!  

Let’s catch up with Narda Jones, who serves as the Federal Communications Commission’s chief of staff, having joined the team from the White House where she was the director of legislative affairs for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. It’s a Wesleyan affair at the FCC, as the chairwoman is Jessica Rosenworcel ’93.

In 2022, Narda was recognized as a Leadership Honoree by Crittenton Services of Greater Washington. At the presentation, Narda spoke of the importance of representation, and being in the room when decisions are made.

Mark Kiefer debuted his first feature film, Pacific Coast, at the Woods Hole Film Festival in August. This “coming-of-middle age” comedy joins two brothers on a road trip from San Francisco to LA, in order to help their somewhat estranged father move into a retirement home.

Those of you who remember Mark as an economics major at Wes or knew of his long career in management consulting, will wonder how this twist in life happened. Mark says the film is “in part inspired by my own ‘journey,’ so what it’s really about is trying to find our creative voice later in life, while we still have time.”

Please forgive me if I have missed an email with your news—putting “Class Notes” in the subject line helps me stay on top of messages.

Ann Goebel-Fabbri learned that not all too-good-to-be-true invitations are spam. After daring to hit “reply,” it turned out to really be an invitation to join a team of international experts informing an Inquiry from the UK Parliament, including former prime minister Theresa May. The Inquiry sought information on treatment recommendations for eating disorders in Type 1 Diabetes, Ann’s area of expertise.

Ann and Bill Fabbri’s daughter Kate “is enjoying her first year at Oberlin along with so many Wesleyan alumni kids that we’re no longer sure if Oberlin is the Wesleyan of Ohio or if Wesleyan is the Oberlin of Connecticut.”

Three of Ann and Bill’s Intown 21 housemates have kids at Wesleyan: Debbie (Skolnik) Rosenberg’s son Evan ’26; Achilles (Kiley) Papavasiliou’s two daughters, Phoebe ’26 and Alexis ’24; and Marni (Beck) Pedorella’s son Charlie ’24. Marni’s daughter Ava attends Northeastern and Ava hangs out with Bill and Ann to help their adjustment to empty-nest life.

Carrie Mosher Gadaleta’s daughter Shelby ’24, a junior at Wesleyan, lives in Low Rise and plays for Vicious Circles. Carrie tailgated at Homecoming 2022 and reports the students are incredibly impressive and experienced “a proud moment at alma mater.” Also at the tailgate: Joe Dalton and Cecilia Pohorille McCall.

Carrie works in commercial real estate for JLL in the New York tristate and greater Philadelphia regions. Carrie is Wesleyan’s regional representative for Westchester County, New York, and plans to host a summer event for incoming frosh.

Speaking of Cecilia, as director of Alumni and Parent Engagement at Wesleyan, she provides guidance to a group of alum including Scott Moore, Lexy Funk, Kiff Gallagher, and Pradeep Khurana on a project called WeSpark!, shining light on innovation and entrepreneurship and connecting the Wesleyan community.

Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky produced and directed a docuseries for ESPN+ called Bananaland, which follows the Savannah Bananas minor league stunt baseball team on their 2022 seven-city “World Tour.” The Bananas look like a cross between regular baseball, pro wrestling, and a circus. The New York Times said, “This five-part series . . .  is a ton of fun; the show moves between tryouts and front-office goings on, and everything has a festive, behind-the-scenes-at-the-circus air.”

Look for Laura Belgray’s first book, Tough Titties, on bookshelves in mid-June. Published by Hachette, it’s a true late bloomer, coming-of-age story set in NYC, complete with social humiliations, dating disasters, and work and adulting fails. Or, as her husband calls it, “Loser Sex and the City.” She promises “there’s a little Wes in it.”

Dan Mackta has been the managing director of Qobuz, the French high-quality music service, for five years. Dan, along with Jerry Reid and Dan Krainin, celebrated at Henry Turner’s wedding in western Massachusetts in autumn 2022.

After 30 years in D.C., Jamie Treworgy returned to Maine life, moving to Harpswell in 2021. Maria Snyder got the Maine memo, too, relocating to Portland after leaving a tenured academic position in the Midwest. She works as a freelance editor and translator and is also the member of an immigration legal services team, helping refugees and new immigrants. Maria ran into her former Russian House housemate Stefanie Trice Gill ’92 at a dance party, “where else?”

James Marohn lives in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and is in his 30th year teaching elementary school kids in an after-school program in Newton. James hosts trivia events in the Boston area, and you can see him in person at the Corrib in West Roxbury. James used to see Michael “the Quizmaster” Lourie frequently, until Michael’s move to Florida. It was awesome to see Caroline Perez when she came to Boston for the Laver Cup in 2021!

Have you seen the international tour of West Side Story? Kate Huston Lambert’s son Ashton Lambert is part of the company through spring 2024, traveling throughout Europe and to several cities in Asia.

Tasos Theodorou writes from Dallas about an online reunion with the cast, crew, and musicians of Working, the musical put on by his frosh RA David Milch ’89. It was a great catch up and the first time they all got to watch the performance together!

Risa (Lasher) May celebrates 25 years of marriage to Brad and the 20th anniversary of their childcare center business in the D.C. area. As one of our dedicated class agents, Risa loves making and maintaining connections with classmates, to which I can certainly relate!

Alys Campaigne now leads climate initiatives for the Southern Environmental Law Center. The change finds her reconnecting with fellow SISP classmate Kevin Greiner. Alys finds herself on the Wesleyan campus to visit her daughter, Livesey ’24 (as well as visits to Haverford to see her son). While in Middletown she’s seen Silvia (Maleville) Molina and Tony Maxwell ’90.

To close, I’ll take this line from Alys’s message to me: “Every year that goes by reaffirms for me what we all know—Wesleyan’s best attribute is its exceptional and loyal alum.”

Please write to your class secretary.

Peter H. Kim, professor of management and organization at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, is in the final stages of copyediting his first book. How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships are Built, Broken, and Repaired, encapsulates more than 20 years of research on trust and will be published by Flatiron Books, August 2023. Peter and his wife, Beth Fortune, an interior architect, live with their chihuahua mix in Santa Monica.

            Sarah Blustain joined ProPublica in January 2021, to help lead the Local Reporting Network, which coordinates with local and regional newsrooms to create year-long investigations.

            Nikki Harmon is the program director for SIFTMedia 215 Collective, a cooperative that centers Black and Latinx women-identified media artists who work in the Philadelphia area. Nikki produced two short films this year and Tonight, We Eat Flowers, premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival in August. She is also the author of two novels centering on Black lesbian women, When I Was Your Girlfriend and Neither Here Nor There. Nikki and her partner of 21 years, Kelly, are the parents of three teenagers: Eli, Selena, and Natalie.

            Betsy Klimasmith, an English professor at UMass Boston, participated in a week-long seminar at the American Antiquarian Society called On Stage: Spectacle in the Nineteenth-Century America, led by Wendy Bellion, who is a professor of art history and associate dean of humanities at the University of Delaware College of Arts and Sciences.

Betsy writes, “Wendy put together a brilliant seminar that brought together a multi-disciplinary group of scholars to work on visual materials related to early U.S. theater and performance. What a treat it was to be a student in Wendy’s class—it brought back memories of some of our best classes at Wes.”

Speaking of Wes, Betsy’s son Isaac ’20 enjoyed his delayed commencement this June, and married his college sweetheart, Mariel Baitenmann-Middlebrook ’20 in July.

            George Irvine, married to Wendy Bellion, is also at University of Delaware, as associate vice provost for Professional and Continuing Studies and Online Initiatives, helping nontraditional students advance their education. Their son, Luke, heads to Fordham University, excited to study the liberal arts in NYC and eat awesome pizza.

            Rebeca Rumayor reports her son James is thriving at Indian Springs School in Pelham, Alabama, where as a ninth grader he takes on the added responsibility of being an RA. Rebeca is looking forward to once again volunteering at Sundance Film Festival in January 2023.

            Laura Fine lives in the Boston area and is preparing to be an empty nester. Her son Henry will begin junior year at Connecticut College and daughter Hannah is about to start her first year at Wesleyan.

            Greg Mandel is now the provost and chief academic officer at Temple University in Philadelphia, as well as the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law. He’s adjusting to life as an empty nester and contemplating that his kids are the same age (or older!) as we were at Wesleyan.

            Ann Goebel-Fabbri is officially back in the office after more than two years of conducting tele-psychology from her third-floor-attic guest room. Ann is happy to return to in person, though some patients prefer the convenience of telehealth, so she’ll be in “hybrid” practice for the foreseeable future.

Ann and Bill Fabbri are anxious and excited for their daughter Kate’s first year at Oberlin. The transition will no doubt be assisted by the many other Wes alum parents also dropping off their kids in Ohio.

More drop-offs with Wes connections: Carrie Mosher Gadaleta’s daughter Jessie and Michele (Barth) Still’s son George both start Lafayette College in Pennsylvania this autumn.

Carrie is executive managing director at JLL. She just published her first book, Feed Your Future: Morsels on Building a Meaningful Career, a compilation of her LinkedIn stories from the past four years. Her goal with the posts and the book is to inspire and grow the next generation of leaders in commercial real estate and beyond. Carrie’s older daughter Shelby is class of 2024.

Michele, when not coordinating drop-offs with childhood friend Carrie, checks in on daughter Anna in D.C. and son Henry in NYC. While still Houston-based, Michele has her eye on New England, with a recent property purchase in Vermont. We all know Texas still needs her, with her efforts on behalf of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and various political campaigns.

            Joshua Samuels is now vice chair of pediatrics at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science in Houston, the same school where his oldest daughter just started medical school.

            Beth Haney and Scott Moore celebrated the graduation of daughter Lea Moore ’22 in May. They connected with Gregg Ribbatt ’90, many members of the class of 1992, and both Chris ’89 and Johannah Townsend whose daughter Rachel ’22, graduated as well.

Beth continues her role with Avenues for Youth, a nonprofit focused on supporting young adults experiencing homelessness. Scott is focused on all things start-up. One endeavor is the Wesleyan-focused WeSpark! and includes classmates Cecilia Pohorille McCall, Kiff Gallagher, and Lexy Funk, as well as alums from other years. The goal is to help aspiring and existing entrepreneurs across the alumni base. https://www.wesleyan.edu/alumni/connect/WeSpark.html. Scott is also a partner in Colaboratory.io, a new platform to facilitate brand x brand collaborations.

Cecilia and Jonathan Moss independently stopped in the Twin Cities to visit with Scott and Beth this year, and they expect more classmates to hit them up in St Paul!

Speaking of Jon Moss, he persuaded Brian Harlin to join him in a dragon boat race event at the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club. Brian connected with rower Mark Hunter ’92, who is prospering personally and professionally in Burlington, Vermont.

Brian also reports on serendipity, as one of his closest high school friends, Mark Sullivan, married our classmate Janine Manzo Sullivan. Their kids, like Brian’s, “are successfully moving off to college and life is good.”

I was also on campus at this year’s Reunion & Commencement weekend, though for a more somber affair as the swim team memorialized Michael Mahon ’89. This bittersweet gathering brought together many friends from many class years, but it was special to see all of the class of ’91 swimmers: myself, Jennifer Zoltners Sherer, Maria Floyd Cohen, Dana Schultz, Doug Bothner, Bill Fabbri, and Ernie Luikart (who is also claimed by ’90).

Take care and stay in touch!

Please write to your class secretary.

It’s truly amazing to think that 30 years ago we had just scattered from campus, looking to find our way in the world. Technology brought us back together for our extended 30th virtual Reunion celebrations, from hangouts and discussions on Zoom to epic trivia to nostalgic frosh hall gatherings on gather.town to a full-on dance party with DJ legend Frank Tuitt. During Reunion, I took no notes of what everyone is up to, so just a few things for now—please write to me with your news!

Big props to Fro Rosqueta who customized the gather.town platform for our Reunion—it’s still there for us to use for gatherings! Check back to Reunion emails for the link, share with friends and go get brunch at MoCon.

Now, onto the news . . . Michael Nachmanoff, as of this writing, serves as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, and has been nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Tracey Osborne, the University of California presidential chair in management of complex systems, has been recognized for her pioneering work in climate change mitigation and its relation to social justice. Tracey leads the Center for Climate Justice at University of California at Merced, though the center will build collaborations across all the UC campuses.

Several of our classmates have joined the Biden-Harris Administration: Narda Jones serves as Legislative Affairs Director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Spencer Boyer serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy.

Joshua Samuels continues to practice medicine (kidney disease) and teach at the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science in Houston and received promotion to tenured professor in 2020. He’s been on faculty since 2003, and “yes, it took that long from Wes graduation to actually finish training!” Joshua’s distinctions include his annual Houstonia Top Doctors designation and the Dean’s teaching excellence award, received every year since 2015.

Dan Levine, Laura (Lu) Schiavo, and I worked with University Archivist Amanda Nelson to get a digital archive repository for the Class of 1991 initiated. Our class was 100 percent analog, and although many of us share our memories in digital format, those shares are on private company servers, have blurry privacy policies, are not accessible to everyone, and do we know what might happen if the company goes away?

Amanda created a straightforward solution for helping our class via a  form; you can reach out to Amanda directly (anelson01@wesleyan.edu) if you have a much larger collection, or a lot of textual documents or ephemera to donate. She’s also available to answer questions about copyright, privacy, and the take down policy. This project is just getting off the ground, and we’d love to know what you think!