Tag: 1993

Hi, everyone! The notes are pretty sparse this time around, so if you’ve got something (anything!) for next time, please send it along to either Sue or me.

Jennifer Work Blattner writes, “I had a great time visiting Wes twice last fall to drop off my child, Suz, who is class of 2027! So much fun to visit the old haunts and realize Olin still smells the same! Also enjoyed seeing all the new things and hearing about Wes from Suz’s perspective. Brings back so many good memories.”

Diego von Vacano recently received a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., to finish his book on the geopolitics and ethics of lithium in Latin America for Oxford University Press, for 2024–25. He is a professor of political science at Texas A&M University.

Hi everyone! We have some exciting updates: a mini-Wesleyan reunion, a film, a political campaign, and a book. In the final notes, two friends and classmates (Karen and Jessica) write updates about each other. 

Julie Francis writes, “I was shocked to find other Wesleyan peeps hanging out in Santa Cruz, California, thanks to an alumni event at Stanford earlier this year. It has been a total joy to get to know my new Wes buds: David Lakein ’92, Julie Charles ’91 (aka Julie Arlinghaus), and Dan Partland ’92. We’ve eaten some great food together (Julie can cook!), drank some great wine, shared some great conversations about controversial topics, commiserated about online dating (THREE of us are single!), laughed, and thoroughly enjoyed the presence of other slightly wacky kindred spirits. Anybody else hiding out here in Santa Cruz? If so, reach out! David and I are considering putting together some sort of West Coast get-together for early 2024. julie@juliefrancis.com.”

Hadley Gustafson and Dan Kapelovitz, who were college sweethearts at Wesleyan more than 30 years ago, are back together! They recently went to New York, where Dan showed one of his films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. There they met up with various Wesleyan alums, including David Buchbinder ’90, John Wyeth ’92, Deirdre Simon ’90, Kendra Hurley, and Matt Spain ’95. Hadley and Dan currently live in Los Angeles, where Hadley works as a visual digital creator and Dan is running for district attorney. Hadley and Dan greatly enjoyed seeing Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson ’03 for their September Hollywood the Oral History book talk at UCLA. Many Wes alums from many generations were there as well.

Karen Powell writes, “Dr. Jessica Holden Sherwood, author of the book Wealth, Whiteness, and the Matrix of Privilege: The View from the Country Club, has been steadfastly challenging our notions of gender, race, and socioeconomic status since our time at Wesleyan. She’s no less making social change than I am, influencing both her professional community and her students. She has steadfastly challenged the social norms in a way that is authentic and powerful. Shout-out to her husband, Jesse Sherwood ’95, for 30-plus years of partnership. Wes alumni rock!”

Jessica Holden Sherwood writes, “When I arrived at Wes in 1989, the club water polo players announced they’d like to evolve from coed to a men’s team and a women’s team. With that, Karen Powell and I became co-captains of the new women’s team. Through the years, Karen’s athletic career has continued from Ironman competitions through Roller Derby and ice hockey, which she learned at Wes. Now working as a law professor in Melbourne, Australia, Karen played on Australia’s first LGBT+ ice hockey club. Her 20-year-old kid, Grace, is a professional athlete who is nonbinary. Grace and Karen have pressed for progress, respectively, in adding pronouns to IFSC athlete profiles and in adding a nonbinary competition category at their local and state levels. As for me? I’ve had small victories protesting when my kids’ elementary school had a ‘father-daughter dance’ and when their upper school softball field was no match for the state-of-the-art baseball field. Mostly I teach sociology, including a gender course this semester. I was proud to share the news from Grace and Karen with my students.”  

Wes friends, we have some exciting updates in this set of class notes.  Coming off our 30th Reunion, several classmates will return to campus this fall to drop off their children, who will be members of the Class of 2027. This has been an exciting reunion year, thanks to the fantastic reunion committee and amazing Wesleyan staff.

Jacob Bricca emails, “I’m writing with the happy news that the feature documentary Missing in Brooks County, which I produced and edited, was recently awarded a George Foster Peabody Award. My wife, Lisa Molomot, who produced and co-directed the film, shared in the honors. I’ve also recently released a new book, How Documentaries Work, published by Oxford University Press.”

Camille McGadney and Andrew McGadney’s ’92 daughter, Naomi, will begin classes at Wesleyan this fall as a member of the Class of 2027.

Laura Ross writes, “As of July 1, I’ve been named head of school at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. I’ve been there for the last six years, most recently serving as associate head, and am very excited to take on this new challenge. Perhaps even more importantly, my husband Gregg ’90 and I are thrilled to report that our daughter, Casey, is a member of the Wesleyan Class of 2027 and can’t wait to arrive on campus for the first time in August. It was wonderful to see so many friends at our reunion in May.”

Julie Hanauer writes, “I’m still working as a full-time psychology professor at a community college, but also started ‘adjuncting’ classes at Stony Brook University. It’s been a nice transition and provides me with a great balance of students to keep me on my toes! I’m also getting married in June to an amazing man who keeps me constantly laughing and has become a wonderful soon-to-be stepfather to my two kids who are 12 and 15. I consider myself to be an extremely lucky person in a multitude of ways.”

Jacob Bricca’s second book was published in January by Oxford University Press. Titled How Documentaries Work, it is a behind-the-scenes, under-the-hood view into how meaning is created in nonfiction films and television shows. He also recently made a trip to Washington, D.C., with his wife and collaborator Lisa Molomot, to meet with congressional staffers about their film, Missing in Brooks County, which chronicles the migrant death crisis in south Texas. They brought two subjects from the film on the trip and lobbied for increased resources for identification and recovery efforts, and for a demilitarized approach to border security.

Bill Capuzzi writes, “Had a chance to hang out with the one, the only, Sean Cronin in November. We met in Delaware to see his daughter play in a hockey tournament. So great to hang for a night with Sean. Not surprising, we closed down the bar! Love him!”

Leigh (Gutsch) Lehman moved from San Francisco to Bend, Oregon, a couple years ago with her husband and two teens and is loving the slower pace and plentiful outdoor air. Please look her up if you ever pass through central Oregon!

Abigail Lorber Clarkson writes, “When I graduated from Wes, I took one month off and then started my master’s in education program. Two career changes later I am now happily working in a public library and recently earned my master’s of library and information science degree. For anyone contemplating a career change in middle age, I’m here to tell you, you can do it!”

Diego von Vacano has been advising Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales, head of the MAS Socialist Party, and his team in terms of lithium policy and anticorruption.

Tim Olevsky writes, “I was excited to get a chance to sing at Carnegie Hall back in October (not as a soloist, just as a chorister, but it was still pretty exciting!).”

Michelle Gagnon writes, “My first adult novel in over a decade is coming out on May 16. Killing Me is a humorous, feminist, neo-noir thriller about a former con artist who escapes one serial killer, only to end up in the crosshairs of another. And coincidentally, my editor at Putnam is fellow Wes alum Danielle (Springer) Dieterich ’13! I’m also finishing up a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Antioch University, while doing my therapy hours at the LA LGBT Center, working primarily with homeless teens and young adults. I’ve got one kid headed off to Princeton in the fall as a soccer recruit, and another entering senior year, so empty nesting is on the horizon. Hoping I can combine my book tour with a stop by Reunion in May, but that time of year will be unusually hectic with graduations.”

Cain Dimon writes, “All is well here in North Carolina. Trying to make it to the class reunion. After introducing my son to Wes this past summer during college tours, he has decided to attend Wes next year and is now in the class of 2027! Crazy to think about but looking forward to being back at Wes more often.”

Andy Nordvall’s older daughter, Athena Ngov-Nordvall, will graduate from high school this May. She’s a West Coast girl, though, so he couldn’t nudge her to Wesleyan despite her fervent interest in acting and costume design.

Dan Crane writes, “This June I’ll be at the Tribeca Film Fest with a documentary I wrote about legendary newsman Dan Rather, directed by Frank Marshall—if you’re at the festival, let me know! More docs are in the works.”

Thanks, as always, to everyone who wrote in with their news. Please keep it coming and we hope you had a great time at Reunion!

Hi, Wes friends. We have exciting news—overseas trips, career updates, and a wedding held at the Boston Public Library. We hope 2023 brings you holiday cheer and the chance to attend your 30th Reunion on campus during the weekend of May 25–28, 2023.

Anne Beaven writes, “I just got back from a business trip to Italy. It was my first time there, so I took some days to go to Florence, eat gelato, eat pizza, eat pasta, see the David statue, and learn I am scared of heights when I climbed the dome of the Duomo.”

Noel Lawrence emails, “I moved overseas to Portugal where I am currently writing a U.S. remake of Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Star Maker (Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film). If any alumni are traveling through Porto, look me up and let’s enjoy a glass of Port. In case you didn’t know already, ‘Port’ is named after Porto. The outdoor cafes on my street have a lovely view of the Douro River as well.”

Andy Nordvall lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids. He teaches, writes children’s books and spends entirely too much time on the internet.

Karen Powell writes, “I recently became an Australian citizen, and will be between Melbourne, Australia, and Helena, Montana, for the foreseeable future. I’ve been appointed to the International Federation of Sport Climbing Governance Commission, so if anyone is interested in connecting about sport, sport law, governance, Olympics, or climbing, I’d love to hear from people. With that project I get to do a bit of traveling (Singapore and Switzerland in 2023), so also happy to connect with other global Wes alum. I’m still teaching law in Melbourne if there are other academics out there too. Cheers from Down Under.”

Jodi Samuels emails, “In September, I was promoted to senior director, Strategic Support for Colleges and Scholars, at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, where I’ll be marking my three-year anniversary on November 12th. Evan and I recently had to bid farewell to our beloved fur baby girl feline, Calypso, who graced us with nearly 15 years of wonderful companionship. We’ve now welcomed a new kitty from the local shelter to our household, a three-month-old orange tabby boy whom we named Louis XIV. (Say the Roman numeral in French, like the original Sun King, and it sort of sounds like “cat”orze 🙂.) We’re planning some international travel for January and have continued our frequent domestic travel to see family and friends and college football in Austin, Denver, Chicago, and Madison, and also a couple of trips to Hawai’i for vacation. I had two in-person work conferences this fall for the first time in nearly three years (!), including co-presenting a session at the Strengthening Student Success Conference in Orange County in early October.”

Antonia Townsend writes, “I’m living in dark but delightful London with my son and husband. We were recently thrilled to have Chris Mulhauser ’92 and his wife stay with us, and even had a too-brief visit from Erica Terry Derryck ’95. Please, let me know if you are in town, as I’m always up for tea and crumpets with a Wes friend.”

Diego von Vacano emails, “I am back in Texas as a professor of political science at Texas A&M University after some time in Europe. I have been advising the Bolivian government on its lithium resource for climate change policies in the last three years. I am working on a book about this experience for Oxford University Press to come out next year. I am also doing semiprofessional soccer photography, something I started at Wes in 1990, as I covered the EURO 2020 Final, the Finalissima in London, and the most recent Champions League Final in Paris for Bolivian outlets. Looking forward to the Qatar World Cup and also attracting more foreign investment to Bolivia’s lithium sector to work with the Movement Towards Socialism ruling party to help Bolivia develop, using all my CSS skills!”

Sadie Van Buren (maiden name Johnson while at Wes) married Michael Gilronan at the Boston Public Library on September 26, 2022. She will be Sadie Gilronan going forward.

Aaron Siskind writes, “Hello from the Maryland suburbs of the D.C. area from me, my wife Sindi, and our teenager Mel; I’ve been working as an economist for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (which you might know from The Smartest Guys in the Room—not referring to our agency, natch) since 2004. While we’ve generally been isolated just like everyone else during COVID, I have managed to have several mini-Wesleyan reunions over the last few months. In April, I was able to get together in Durham, North Carolina, with Richard Dansky ’92, Steve Karon ’92, and Chris Joyal ’95. We’re all in a fantasy baseball league that we started while at Wesleyan and have kept going all these years. While we were down there, we went to a Durham Bulls game where I was able to also meet up with Deborah Lowenthal Sorin ’94; she lives in the Durham area with her husband Dan and their two kids. In June, Kerry Brenner ’94 and I were able to spend some time with Rachel Deyette Werkema ’94, who was passing through the area with her husband Joel and their twin daughters (rising high school seniors) on a fairly epic college tour/road trip (visit to Wesleyan planned for late August). Kerry, who also lives in the D.C. suburbs with her husband Morrie Dworkin and their two kids, graciously hosted all of us so we could have some time to see each other and catch up. Kerry works on science education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Rachel is a lecturer in the economics department at Wellesley College. Finally, in early July John Pollock ’94 was in the area to speak at a conference on his specialty—the right to counsel for low-income people in civil cases—and we were able to meet him and his son Merritt at the newly renovated Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and had a wonderful day with the two of them.”

Dan Crane now makes documentaries. His directorial premiere, Let Me Be Me, about an autistic boy who grows up to be a fashion designer premiered last year at DOCNYC and is available on most VOD platforms. A documentary he wrote about professional lacrosse called Fate of a Sport premiered at TriBeCa this summer, and The End of the World — a film he produced with Matt Tyrnauer ’91 about Bennington College premieres at Telluride in September.

Bill Wiggins writes, “After 25 years working in financial regulation in Washington, D.C., (much of it with Jake Lesser ’91) and surviving the prior administration and COVID by writing a wildlife/history novel, I was recently named CFO of the National Endowment for the Arts. If you’re in D.C. or coming through, let me know.”

Jason Levy is living on Long Island with his wife Neda and two sons (ages 7 and 9). He’s serving as deputy CIO for Educational Technology Strategy for the NYC Department of Education.

Chris Osmond writes, “I was so proud to watch our eldest son Sammy Osmond ’22 graduate last month! I’d talk about what he’s doing next, but I suppose he’s got his own alumni update to do now. Go Wes!”

Anne Beaven writes, “Very excited to be traveling again after a long COVID hiatus. Margaret, Eli, and I went to Barcelona in March and right now we are in Australia seeing Margaret’s family for the first time in three years.”

Eve Abrams created and was the lead producer of the podcast, Hot Farm, from the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Alison MacAdam ’99 was Eve’s editor!  Hot Farm tells the stories of the people who grow our food—people whose stories offer solutions for how we can keep eating in the age of climate change. It’s the perfect mix of science, policy, and personal narrative, and miraculously, an upbeat series about, arguably, our biggest problem.

Abigail Lorber Clarkson writes, “I have made a career change to public librarianship and am finishing up a master’s of Library and Information Science degree. I also in recent years began studying piano again after carting my piano around North Carolina and Texas but not playing it for over 20 years. I currently live with my family and pets just outside Asheville, North Carolina.”

Hi Wes friends!  I am writing these notes from Naples, Florida. Things are great in the Sunshine State, but I still remember wandering across the Wesleyan campus on a beautiful snowy day, or borrowing a tray from the dining hall to slide down Foss Hill (in lieu of a sled).  As the years pass, I’m even able to look back at some of those all-nighters and brutally difficult exams with rose-colored glasses. Okay, that’s probably more than enough nostalgia; I’m happy to share some news including travel overseas, a new film, and some amazing career updates.

Jamie Bachrach writes, “Tim and I are still running a wine logistics and distribution company based in Litchfield County, Connecticut.  Our younger daughter Esmee is a sophomore day student at the Taft School and plays soccer/ski races/rows crew, depending on the season.  She’s hoping to get her braces off before masks are no longer required at school; at this rate, she’s probably in luck. . . .   Our older daughter Logan is halfway through a three-year undergraduate degree in politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University and loves living (and traveling) abroad. She’s also managed to play soccer/ski race/row crew while in college.  With Tim’s sister’s family, the four of us had an amazing trip to South Africa in August 2021 to celebrate the life of Tim’s mom, who passed away a year ago—and to reunite with Tim’s extended family in Cape Town.  Next up for March 2022 (fingers crossed) is travel to Iceland to see the northern lights and to celebrate Tim’s 50th birthday.”

Jacob Bricca is celebrating the broadcast premiere of the documentary Missing in Brooks County, which he produced and edited–it aired on Independent Lens on over 450 PBS stations across the country on January 31, and streamed for free for the month of February. The film, which had a five-city in-person theatrical run and garnered over 20 awards at film festivals worldwide, tells the story of the migrant death crisis in south Texas through the eyes of two families who are looking for their missing loved ones, and was co-directed by his wife, Lisa Molomot.

Jodi Samuels writes: “I’m still enjoying my work as director of strategic support for colleges and scholars at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. My portfolio focuses on partnering with the community colleges to provide scholarship and emergency aid to students along with grants to the colleges themselves for certain types of educational programs. Over the past year, we’ve seen four people transition out of our team but have also welcomed five new team members, so the ‘great resignation’ has definitely had an impact, but we’ve also seen lots of new talent come into our organization. My spouse, Evan, and I managed to take a wonderful trip to northern Italy in early October for a small group tour that focused on the wine, food, and history of the region. This year, we’re hoping for travel to Hawai’i and Iceland in addition to our usual family destinations of Denver, Austin, and Chicago.”

Tristan Taormino just finished her first year of an MPH graduate program at George Washington University. Her new book, a memoir, will be published by Duke University Press in 2023. Tristan was recently named a Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionary by the University of Minnesota Medical School Program in Sexuality for her two decades of work in sex education.

Hi Wes friends. Thank you so much for writing in, and sharing your news. In the space below, you will find updates about careers, cross-country moves, a new college president, and the launching of a political campaign. Please continue to share your news with us!

     Micah Cormier emails, “I can report I’ve moved with my family to a quintessential New England town on the Connecticut shoreline, about 30 minutes from Wesleyan. My wife Melissa and I work at Yale, where I make short films to promote research and scholarship at the university (drawing on my past experience working on documentaries for television). I spend the rest of my time trying to be a good dad to my daughter Sadie (12) and son Lucas (8), developing my own documentary projects, and taking beginner piano lessons.”

     Anna Balivet Jordan writes, “I am in the Seattle area working as a celebrant specializing in celebration of life and memorial services. I write and officiate ceremonies across the life cycle including weddings. My website can be found at ritualarrangements.com. I’m also working toward a funeral director’s license and hope to use my directorship to advocate for family directed funerals, and green burial practices.”

     Dan Kapelovitz was a candidate for governor of California in the 2021 recall election.

     Camille McGadney writes, “We are moving to Galesburg, Illinois, where Andy ’92 is the new president of Knox College.”

     Jodi Samuels writes, “Last October, I moved into a new position as director of strategic support for colleges and scholars at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. The position was created to launch the new Finish Line Scholars Program, which provides scholarships to economically disadvantaged students who are at least halfway through their educational program and emergency aid to students facing unexpected financial hardships. The program was created thanks to a pledge of $100 million over 20 years from the Jay Pritzker Foundation, representing the largest gift ever to community colleges! I’m also overseeing two grant programs that support projects for nursing education and real estate education and will be gradually taking over responsibility for the Osher Scholars Program, which provides scholarship support for all 115 California community colleges. Given the current conversations happening nationally and at the federal level about community colleges, it’s an exciting time to be working in this field!”