Tag: 1992

Hello fellow ’92ers!

Normally I am simply the conduit of information but this time, I have a bunch of news of my own to kick us off. In August, Princeton University Press published my new book, Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It. I’ve been working on this project since the early months of the first Obama administration so I’m thrilled (and relieved!) to finally see it off in the world. Also in August, I dropped my son Ben off at the University of Virginia where he is starting his first year. Just before I did, I had dinner with Matt Schortmann and Soo Lim whose daughter, Liv, is about to start her last year at UVA. It was great to see them and my fellow Itza Pizza alums Sarah Guernsey and Adam Blumer ’91, who all live in the Boston area.

I’ve got a lot of company in taking the college step, judging from my Facebook feed. Christina Scully Manning dropped her son off at Pomona College, Samantha Ball Karmel dropped her son off at Cornell, and my first-year roommate James Wilton dropped off his youngest daughter, Lola, at NC State. Lola joins her older sister Carley who is a junior education major. She just missed overlapping with her older brother Jack, who graduated from NC State this year and accepted a leadership development position in Orlando, Florida, with Colony Hardware. Now an empty nester, James remains in Waxhaw, North Carolina, and earlier this year added the title of branch manager to his duties as national account manager for Genesis10 in Charlotte, North Carolina. And he was named head coach for the Weddington (North Carolina) Middle School sixth grade football team for this coming season.

Also on the college front, Chris Chesak’s older daughter is off to Ohio State. Chris continues to live in Cincinnati and is a freelance writer and executive director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He was also just elected president-elect of the Society of American Travel Writers.

We also have a few classmates who are sending their kids to Wesleyan, 35(!) years after we started. Laura Hill’s daughter, Allegra, is joining the class of 2027, as is Byron King’s daughter, Merriwether. Bryon also reports that he recently attended the wedding of Julien Farland. In attendance from were Saad Khan ’93 and Anand Kini.

Cati Coe and her spouse moved from Philadelphia to Ottawa, Ontario, last year to take a position at Carleton University as a Canada research chair in migration and care.

Ken Lefkowitz is keeping busy co-developing an 80MW wind farm near the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria. Jennifer Blaine is still based out of Philadelphia and launched a new solo multi-character work, Mannequin, in May 2023. She also continues to work as a comedian and produced a new show in September in FringeArts, a festival based out of Philadelphia.

Kevin Prufer is still teaching in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston and has two books coming out soon. The Fears, a poetry collection, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2023, followed by Sleepaway: A Novel, from Acre Books in 2024.  Another recent author is Susannah Fox whose book, Rebel Health: A Field Guide to the Patient-Led Revolution in Medical Care is coming out this fall with MIT Press.

Jill Slater lives in Manhattan with her husband and nine-year-old daughter and leads Resiliency for the New York City Housing Authority.

And finally, Abby (Smith) Saguy will be spending the 2023–24 academic year in NYC as a Russell Sage Foundation fellow, living with her husband, Dotan. They are hoping for visits from their daughter, Claire, who will be in her senior year at UCLA, where she is majoring in labor studies and minoring in Spanish and food studies, as well as their son, Jonah, who will be in his second year at UC Riverside, where he is majoring in computer science with business application. And tying into Abby’s news is my last piece of news: I’ll be joining Abby at Russell Sage in February 2024 for five months, marking my return to Manhattan after over 30 years away. I’ll be excited to see my old friends, so give me a ring if you are in NYC!

That’s all for now. Please send me your news and notes for the next issue!

Please write to your class secretary.

Hi all: So great to see so many of you at Reunion this last May! Hope to catch up with more of you soon. In the meantime, here’s the news.

Susannah Fox and Eric Halperin report that they dropped their child Rain off at Butterfield this fall as a frosh at Wesleyan. Also joining the ranks of Wesleyan parents is Karen Earl whose daughter started at Wes this year. Karen is an endocrinologist in San Francisco. Her oldest will graduate from the University of Chicago next June and she also has a  middle schooler.

Brennen Keefe was sad to miss our 30th Reunion but was able to meet up with his old teammate Jonathan Soros this summer when Jonathan was in Chicago, managing operations of his Athletes Unlimited softball league.

Chris Chesak made the trip back to Wes for Homecoming where the Cardinals secured another Little Three Championship by beating Williams. Chris reports that it was great to reconnect with old teammates (Jason DeGeorge ’94 and Mike Flynn ’93), classmates (Karen Cacace), and meet others who had played football at Wes before (and after) him.

In other sports news, Tony Brita reports that the 1991 men’s soccer team was inducted into the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame at the “swanky and opulent” Courtyard Marriott in Cromwell, Connecticut, on Saturday, October 1. The class of ’92 was represented by Tony as well as Odi Kuiper and Pete Doolittle. Another teammate, Vizir Ajro ’93 was also in attendance.

Ruthbea Yesner continues her job leading a team of researchers and advisors around implementing meaningful tech innovations in the public sector, with her specialization being urban areas. Most recently she spoke on a panel at the World Smart Cities Expo in Barcelona and collaborated with the World Economic Forum on a paper on developing public/private partnerships in smart cities. She reports that family life is good, too, with one stepdaughter in nursing at UMass, and three more teens in the process of finishing high school. Ruthbea managed to see a whole mess of ’92ers this fall. She met up with Karen Cacace and her husband Mike Flynn ’93 to see her whole extended family for a high school football game. She also had a great time over cocktails with Jonathan Soros in NYC, where she learned about how he is working to change the entire women’s sports industry; bumped into Katherine Petrecca at the airport as she headed to a conference for women leaders in the sports industry; and recently kept Dave Kane company while he drove to his newish home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, after relocating from NYC.

Brian Cheek has started a new career as a golf professional. He was in Hilton Head, Bandon Dunes, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last year but just moved to the Atlanta area to be the player development professional at Planterra Club.

Amy Larson is still living in Portland, Oregon, practicing law with a medium-size firm, and doing her best to keep up with her dynamic eight-year-old and three-year-old sons. She’d love to reconnect long-lost Wes classmates including Foss 7 dorm mates so reach out to her!

Also out west in Ty Jagerson, who joined GM last year to run the V2X team, which is the part of GM’s EV group building out new businesses around smart charging and VGI.

Maria Truglio is at Penn State, where she is a professor of Italian and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her son Thomas graduated from Drexel Medical School in the midst of the pandemic and is now a second-year resident in medicine at Dartmouth. Her son Anthony has been teaching with the linguistics program at Penn State. And Maria and her partner Greg Fox got married in July 2021 up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Several of Maria’s Wesleyan pals were able to join to make the day extra special!

Chris Arndt is still living in Telluride, Colorado. His sons Alden (13) and Graham (11) seem to enjoy school, and love playing lacrosse and basketball, and skiing. Chris continues to work to accelerate clean-energy politics and policy. His wife Patty is also well and has just started an as-of-yet unnamed interior design firm. Chris also continues to write and record music, inspired by his experience recording Baggage Claim songs from his college years as the Lost Bags album—check it out under the under Doc Project.

Grant Brenner remains in the East Village in New York City. On the professional front, the company he co-founded, Neighborhood Psychiatry and Wellness, merged with another group and Grant is now chief medical officer of The Collective—Integrated Behavioral Health. Also in New York, Kevin Day continues to live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is telecommuting to his new job as VP of Portfolio Management at Conifer Realty, an affordable housing developer based in Rochester New York.

Chadwick Canedy welcomed a new baby girl on November 10th, Arden Haneul Canedy. She is currently doted over by brothers Easton (five) and Declan (seven).

Jeff Kipnis has released his third Lightning Squirrel novel and ninth overall publication this past July, titled the Legend of Lightning Squirrel and is book 1 of The Bolt Saga. Jeff also reports the sad news that his wife Nancy passed away on August 7, after a 20-month battle with cancer. She leaves behind their son Jack, who is 22 and is studying meteorology and psychology at Rutgers University, and their daughter Jenna, who is 19 and is studying health and exercise science at Middlesex College.

That’s all for now. Please send me your news—I would especially love to hear from you if it’s been a while since you last checked in. Your classmates want to know what you are up to!

Greetings and salutations from just outside D.C.

I’ll start this edition down in North Carolina with an update from James Wilton, national account manager and managing director for Genesis10. The former WESU DJ and campus heartthrob is a volunteer coach for football and wrestling. He sends word that his eldest son Jack is a senior at North Carolina State studying business; older daughter Carley is also at North Carolina State working toward a degree in elementary education; and his younger daughter Lola is a senior in high school. Wife Tracy is in her fifth year as a teaching assistant for exceptional preschool students.

On the other side of the world, Kristin Elisabeth Sandvik Lush sends word from New Zealand where she is working as an academic editor and “soaking in the homeyness of home and enduring the teenageyness of my kids as we travel around, have little adventures, and spend time with extended family and friends.” Kristen returned to the U.S. this fall for a balloon festival in New Mexico and visits to National Parks and the upper Northwest.”

It was fun to see the class of ’92 well represented at this year’s Emmy Awards. Francesca Harewood, senior vice president, Business Affairs at NBCUniversal, posted great pictures of her with Mike White who won multiple Emmy Awards for writing and directing The White Lotus. Meredith Tucker also won this year for her role in casting The White Lotus. Besides winning for being an excellent cook on short notice according to Oliver Ryan, Meredith now owns four Emmys and Mike has three. Not too shabby class of ’92!

Of course, an even better place to see the class of ’92 was at the 30th Reunion in May. It was wonderful to be back on campus and spend time with classmates. There were plenty of drinks, stories, songs, dancing, and lots of joy catching up with friends and remembering how special our time at Wesleyan was. The other fun thing about writing notes after reunion is I get to say, “it was great to see” and I’ll lead off by saying it was great to see Soo Lim on campus. Soo, visiting career services advisor at Boston College Law School and Matt Schortmann, vice president, and head of Institutional Product & Strategy at Columbia Threadneedle Asset Management, recently celebrated their 26th anniversary. With their two daughters—Liv a sophomore at UVA and Sophia a senior at Northeastern—in college, the empty nesters have recently discovered a love for TV tray tables, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy as they plan their next adventures.

It was also great to see Oliver Ryan. Oliver continues to live a highly suspect entrepreneurial life as founder and CEO of Count.It, a tech start-up that powers wellness challenges for groups, mostly companies. Oliver sends updates on a number of classmates. “I had a great time catching up with everyone at the reunion, and road-tripping back to NYC with Sam Robinson, whose daughter Bella just started at Vassar. In the summertime, I share an old barn on Long Island with various Wes friends, including Meredith Tucker, Kris Rucker, and Lewis Canfield ’90. Kris is a partner at a chic creative agency in New York, runs the National Air Guitar Championships, and is launching a new tech business in his spare time. When not tending his garden in Williamsburg, Lewis has thrown himself into renovating a magical warehouse in Vermont. Over July 4th, Brian Wolff came for a visit with wife Francesca and kids Ellington and Rosie. That weekend we also had a surprise visit from Jacky Jennings, husband Doug Bothner ’91, and friends. We all sang the Wesleyan fight song. Ok, no, we didn’t, but only because Mark Mullen ’89 wasn’t there. Lewis and I are also in a band with Ben Rader called The Classic, which is anything but. Ben is the one who made the important point that you don’t need to be good (or young) to be in a band. Speaking of musicians, I saw Chris Arndt over the summer at the annual kids versus parents capture the flag game. Let it be known that the parents won. Again. Probably for the last time.”

And it was great to see Ruthbea Yesner, vice president, Government Insights, Education and Smart Cities at IDC. She sent in an update that she “loves her job, which has grown in scope from urban technology and smart cities, to police and justice, transportation, and water and sustainability. I work with tech vendors and state and local governments to adopt new technologies to make the world more livable.” I had a great time at the reunion and just felt transported back in time. I had the pleasure of driving down with Katherine Petrecca, who now runs the women’s division at New Balance, and I drove Matt Young and Adam Berinsky back to Boston. Last thought—there were too many people to name at the reunion that were an absolute joy to talk with. But shout-out to all of them! I’m lucky to have been able to spend formative years with such an amazing bunch.”

And it was great to see Neal Klinman back on campus for the first time in 20 years. “I’ve been wanting to reach out since attending our 30th Reunion this spring. I really enjoyed what was my first return to Wesleyan and Middletown since our 10th Reunion. I enjoyed a hot solo afternoon exploring by bicycle, and I took many photos of favorite places such as the Butterfield courtyard that I crisscrossed for three years and multiple summers, the boathouse and riverfront, downtown, the amazing arts center complex with its active gallery, printshop, and architecture studio, the cemetery where I built character running hills with the crew team, the ‘presence of the absence’ of MoCon, etc.” Neal has been teaching at the same public school in Cambridge where he has taught since 1999. He and his wife Debb live on the shore of the beautiful Chandler Pond with their three crazy but talented teens, two dogs, a secondhand canoe, and a garage full of bikes.

And it was great to see my old hallmate Sam Longley. Foss 7 was well represented this year. He writes, “Hi, fellow 1992ers! It was great to emerge from my ‘COVID shell’ to see so many folks during our reunion. I have been working as a technical sales engineer at Neo4j, which is the first company to bring a graph database to the commercial market (does anyone remember graph theory from math class?). My son Winston is a tween sixth-grader, and enjoys the cross-country team, all things Star Wars, and playing online games with his friends. My daughter Charlotte has hit the 10th grade with a running start, and has found, in volleyball, a rewarding activity and group of friends. She got to experience a night in the Clark dorm during the reunion and enjoyed that experience. My wonderful wife, Grace, has been doing double duty—taking care of the whole lot of us as well as working at our nearby school system.”

And finally, it was great to see my fellow class officer Teresa Ho, managing director at JP Morgan Asset Management. She adds that Karen Earle’s daughter is now a first-year at Wesleyan. Karen is an endocrinologist at Sutter Health. Really there were a lot more people I can say it was great to see—Jane Thompson, Jake Wizner, Adam Berinsky, and Rob Rich among many others but I have to stop somewhere.

Speaking of stopping. This year marks my 30th year of writing the class notes. To borrow a phrase from Bilbo Baggins, 30 years is far too short a time to write about such excellent friends and classmates as you, but it’s time for me to announce this is the end of my stint as class secretary. It was a ton of fun to plan all the senior-year social events with Bill Siegel, Teresa Ho, and Shalei Simms Pilgrim, and I have loved keeping up to date with everyone through the notes, but I am passing the baton. You are now in the good hands of Adam Berinsky who now has logged at least 20 as co-secretary and perhaps you. More to follow on how we backfill as Adam is looking for someone to share the duty.

All the best,

Paul

Dear Classmates:

Happy spring! I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our 30th(!) Reunion later this year. But for now, here’s the news from the class of 1992.

Andrew Draper is working at an education-tech start-up from his apartment in Brooklyn, where he lives with his 16-year-old son. Leaving Brooklyn, Jonathan Liebson has jumped the East River again and returned to Manhattan. For the 20th anniversary of 9/11, he published a photographic memoir of that day with The American Scholar online.

Over the summer, I made a quick escape to the Pacific Northwest, where I got to see my senior-year roommate Simon Fulford, who is working at Parrott Creek Child & Family Services. They are launching a major capital campaign this year to increase their residential and community-based treatment programs. In addition, Simon will have a chapter titled, “Listen and Let Me Heal My Pain: Justice for America’s Children” published in the UK-based Monument Fellowship book series this spring. All the while he continues to look over his three boys (now 10, 14, and 19).

Anne Paris is also in Portland, Oregon, with her partner Ben Root, and her son lives with them half time. Anne is mostly working as a freelance writer and analyst, doing work for tech firms and education nonprofits. “During COVID I bought a camping trailer, and so I’m looking forward to doing some ‘work-from-camper’ road trips after my son goes to college in the fall of 2023. I try to squeeze in some time for poetry, painting, and traveling, and I’m looking forward to leading a writing and art residency in eastern Oregon in the spring.”

Sarah Guernsey is still teaching 6th grade math and is excited to be in-person after being virtual for most of last year. She and Adam Blumer ’91 are empty nesters, having sent both of their boys to college. Sarah just finished working as part of the transition team for the new mayor of Framingham; she was one of the co-chairs of the education subcommittee. After that she has been keeping active by serving on the executive board and the bargaining team for the teachers’ association.

Welcome first-time notes contributor Melissa Doty who lives in West Virginia and sums up the past 30 years as follows: “Current husband, Steve, and I share five adult kids who have pretty much flown the nest. Over the years I’ve been a mom, a business manager, and a nonprofit director, but in 2016, I started painting and now that’s what I do! (Come say hello over on IG@melissadoty.art.)”

Linda Perlstein lives in Seattle where she just started a new job at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with their Global Communications team to supervise writing projects, particularly those in the voice of the foundation and its leaders.

Joy Lewis writes that her son graduated Sidwell Friends School, Washington, DC, this past June and is now a freshman at Wes (class ’25).

Maurice Harris currently lives just outside of Philly and is working for the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. His third book was published in 2019, and it’s called The Forgotten Sage: Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah and the Birth of Judaism as We Know It, from Cascade Books.

Chris Arndt is going on his seventh year in Telluride since moving out of NYC in 2015. His sons Alden (12) and Graham (10) ski downhill, cross-country, play lacrosse, and enjoy the outdoors. He continues to work on environmental issues some but spent a lot more time in the past few years getting back into playing bass and music, especially last year. He recently recorded an album in Nashville.  The album, Lost Bags, is a mix of new and old original songs, many of which date back to his Baggage Claim days at Wes. Check out more here:  https://mailchi.mp/7a6bfc1da80e/introducing-the-doc-project.

Jay Hardwig writes from Asheville, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife of 25 years, Nita Smith. They work as teachers for students with blindness and low vision. Jay recently published a middle-grade novel, Just Maria.  Just Maria is the story of Maria Romero, a blind sixth grader who is trying her hardest to be normal—learn more and order your copy at jayhardwig.com.

Lori Coyne started a new role with her firm in May 2021 as a senior environmental sustainability consultant in Environmental Resource Management’s (ERM’S) Sustainability, Strategy, and Disclosure service area. Lori is also an empty nester as her daughter went off to UVM (which she chose over Wesleyan!).

That’s all the news for now. Please send Paul and me your updates. And hope to see you at Wes in May!

Greetings and salutations from Washington, D.C.

It was great to check in with my old housemate Ralph Martin from Berlin. He is busy with his German wife, three German-American kids, and a German screenwriting gig writing shows created in Germany aimed at an international audience including Hackerville, which he created and is now on HBOMax. HBO is also the place to catch White Lotus, a six-episode soap-satire, written and directed by Mike White, that the New York Times recently called, “a captivating, sharp, and soulful series.” Meredith Tucker is the casting director for the series. So even more reason to watch.

Jonathan Soros just completed a trip across the country. On a bike. He and three teammates from Athletes Unlimited competed in Race Across America (RAAM), logging 3,000 miles from Oceanside, California, to Annapolis, Maryland, in about 6.5 days. The trip included a crazy day of 115-degree temperatures (described as “sitting in a sauna then blow-drying your face with a hair dryer”) in Arizona before climbing into the mountains of Colorado, crossing the flats of the Midwest then racing through the mountains of West Virginia. It was super exciting to see him and his team arrive at 3:00 a.m. in Annapolis. I’m also looking forward to Jonathan’s upcoming visit to the Maryland/Washington, D.C. area to launch Athletes Unlimited Women’s Pro Lacrosse league this weekend. Quite a summer, Jono.

During the pandemic, Jody Sperling continued creating dances with her company, Time Lapse Dance, shifting focus from the stage to producing street festivals, virtual programs, and dance films. Her work has continued to engage with climate and environmental issues—her short film Single Use, a response to plastic pollution, was recently screened in person at The Harlem International Film Festival. Jody lives with her partner and almost-10-year-old daughter in New York City.

Jody’s work is featured in E. Shura Pollatsek’s new, beautifully illustrated book, Costume in Motion: A Guide to Collaboration for Costume Design and Choreography (Routledge, 2021), with photos by Mitch Wilson. The book continues the studies on collaboration in costume design begun in her first book, Unbuttoned—The Art and Artists of Theatrical Costume Design. The book also includes an interview with Robin Shane ’94, assistant professor of Dance Iddrisu Saaka, about West African dance and about her work in sustainable costume design.

Kevin Prufer’s newest book, The Art of Fiction: Poems, has just been released by Four Way Books in New York City.

Joy Rhoden, senior vice president of the American Hospital Association, and her bichon frisé are about to be empty nesters. Her son Nolan (’25) is starting at Wes this fall. He was one of three recipients of the 2021 Hamilton Prize award for creativity and plans to major in neuroscience and Chinese, and minor in studio art, at Wes.

Danae Oratowski is enrolled in a program to become a nurse practitioner. She is currently working as a nurse at NYU Hospital in the acute GI surgery unit and looking forward to seeing everyone next May.

Speaking of our 30th Reunion, be on the lookout for events in your area. Chris Arndt and Oliver Ryan are leading the way with a special mini-reunion, concert and fundraiser planned for January in NYC to kickoff Reunion season. Details are still in the works—Bowery Ballroom, Joe’s Pub, Irving Plaza, and Madison Square Garden are all being discussed—but what we know is it will be a great party for Wes alums and feature the music stylings of Chris, his bass guitar, and his new band of Nashville-based musicians performing their upcoming album Lost Bags, a tribute, in part, to Baggage Claim and those days at Wes.

Looking forward to seeing you in New York City this January and at Wes next May!