Tag: 1995

Katy writes: Hi, Class of ’95. Thanks for writing (including first timers!) with news exciting, ordinary, and sad. Reminder that May 22–25 is our 30th Reunion! Registration should now be open—join us if you can!

First, the very sad news of the death of a classmate, Michelle (Willis) Gosselin. Born in Vermont, after Wesleyan Michelle earned a master’s in IT from Drexel and spent her career living and working in New Hampshire. She was very active in her town of Weare, helping with PTA events, dance programs, and sports activities. She loved to read, take walks, spend time with her family, and especially to be at the ocean. She is survived by her husband, Kevin, their two children, Kaitlyn and Ben, her parents, Fred and Betsy Willis, her brother, Matthew, and extended family. Some of our Wes classmates attended the funeral in December, and Michelle will be greatly missed by all who knew her.       

Channing Kelly writes: “I remain in Albuquerque, New Mexico, running my boutique real estate firm and raising my almost-teenage twin boys as a ‘single mother by choice.’ Occasionally I see fellow New Mexicans Sarita Nair and Esme Finlay ’96, and also have seen Greg Kunkel and his wife, Jill ’98, David Goodman and his wife, Tanya, Margaret Drew, Erica Walters ’94, Jessica Peterson, and Sarah Tarrant Madden ’96. Wesleyan connections are a big part of my life, and I received significant financial aid, so this year I’m issuing a challenge to support the current generation. I’ve pledged to match $1,000 gifts from any classmate who has never donated at that level (up to a maximum of 15). Please join me in giving back this year and reach out to me at channing@idakelly.com. See you in May!”

Max Brummel writes: “My wife and I have been living the good life in Minnesota for the past 18 years and have kept very busy raising our son and daughter. This past summer, my son played in the world’s largest youth soccer tournament in Gothenburg, and we enjoyed a few weeks in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.”

Jack Walsh writes: “Thirty years in a blink of an eye. For the past 20, I’ve been practicing law in Dallas, Texas, raising three kids with my wife, Kathleen. My oldest daughter, Ali, just graduated from college, while my middle kid is looking to attend college in Germany. My youngest son, Brady, aims to attend high school at Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island. Hope he gets in because it will mean more time returning to my home state. Still miss the four seasons of New England and Boston sports radio.”

Seth Kaufman writes: “Last year marked my 25th as a lawyer for the federal government in D.C. and fifth with our dog, Canelo. This year Roberta and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary. I had great times with some of my favorite Wesleyan people in 2024: Michael “Mo” Ouyang ’96 and his wife, Zoe, and Ethan de Seife. Both times my 16-year-old daughter and I went to Mets home games [and] Eric Lane met us. Recently, my daughter and I took a tour of Wesleyan on a perfect October morning. Looking forward to seeing people at the reunion!”

Jen Levine-Fried writes: “My boring update is that I am nearing three years with the International Institute of New England as its controller and have really enjoyed my time here. We work with refugees and immigrants, resettling them across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. My exciting update is that my son, Jonah, was accepted to Wes and will be enrolling in the Class of ’29! He had an overnight visit with Laurel Williams Wise’s son, Will, as his host, and that really sealed the deal for him. I’m looking forward to experiencing Wesleyan in this entirely new role!”

Masha Raskolnikov writes: “Last fall I returned to Wes as an external examiner for the College of Letters Junior Comps. The new COL library houses our bound senior theses, which is a little terrifying, but no professors from when we were undergrads remain. In other news, my twins are 12 and becoming scary tweens, and I continue to teach as an associate professor in the English department at Cornell University.”

Brandon Patton writes: “Kick-starting a board game about mushrooms called Caps & Stems this spring! After years as a musician, I pivoted to tabletop games. Would love to connect with any Wes alums in the Seattle area (where I moved in 2020). I’ve reconnected with Michael Roufa ’96 and Eric Fox ’98. Let me know if you can think of anyone. I’ve stayed in touch with Emily Halderman and Michael Ouyang ’96 and recently saw Morgan Fahey.”

Lara Tupper writes: “Thrilled to report that my speculative/literary novel, At the Center, in which paper shortages make books taboo, will be published by Regal House Publishing in the spring of 2027.”

See you at the reunion in May!

Hello fellow ’95ers!

Bo Bell writing this time with class notes ahead of REUNION 2025! I’m excited to see many of you next May, as are some of our other classmates, as you’ll see here in their notes! Personally, I’m still in the idyllic town of Cold Spring in the Hudson Valley of New York, working for a digital product shop called StudioLabs and raising a teen and a tween, hiking the mountains, playing lots of soccer, and drumming for several local acts. Now, on to the notes!

Andrew Dickson is still living in and loving Portland, Oregon: hosting storytelling shows for The Moth, auctioneering events for nonprofits, rolling out a new performance art piece—AC Dickson: Life Coach—and recently published a book of stories. He’s happily married with a 16-year-old and soon-to-be 14-year-old and recently hung out with fellow Portlander, Ryan Myers—they’ll both be making the trip east for reunion!

Ed Lee wrote, “I’m ecstatic to write that I got married to an amazing woman, Nina Moe, on August 3 in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The small ceremony was beautifully officiated by Jenny Gotwals. I was also thrilled that Ethan de Seife, David Goodman, and Bill Wolkoff made the trek from California to celebrate.” They live in Arlington, Massachusetts, where Ed is in his eighth year of “professoring” at Emerson College.

Sarah Kirkland Snider is a freelance composer and co-artistic director of Brooklyn-based New Amsterdam Records, living in Princeton, New Jersey, with her husband and two kids, Jasper (15) and Dyo (13). Sarah is currently writing an opera on 12th-century theologian/composer, Hildegard von Bingen, as well as orchestral, chamber, and choral music. 

I heard from old friend “Meanne” Jeanne Bonner, who writes: “I am happy to say I am planning to attend the reunion and also happy to say I’ve been reminiscing a lot about our times on Foss Hill because I am teaching a GLSP course on memoir this fall. If you haven’t been back to campus, I can tell you it looks amazing! I will publish my first full-length translation next year with Paul Dry Books (Paul Dry, the publisher, has a daughter who attended Wesleyan)—it’s called This Darkness Will Never End, and it’s a short story collection by a Holocaust survivor who settled in Italy after World War II. Finally, I’m eager for my 12-year-old son, Leo, to experience the Wesleyan campus when it’s full of ‘my’ Wesleyan people.”

David Biello is living in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, with two teen kids. “Beatrice is 17 and thinks Wesleyan’s brutalist performing arts buildings are scary, while Desmond is 15 and couldn’t care less about college, yet. I work at TED Talks, leading the charge for TED Countdown (their only issue-specific event series and talks), which is focused on climate change and aims to amplify solutions, accelerate progress, and maybe give us a little inspiring hope amidst the doom and gloom. We had an amazing summit in Detroit in 2023 and next year, just after reunion, we’ll be holding our next one in Nairobi.”

Curtis Nelson writes: “I’m looking forward to the reunion and I hope to be able to attend. I recently visited Connecticut in May as my oldest daughter, Carter, graduated from Trinity College. My wife, Krystal, and I had a great time visiting family and friends and celebrated with a trip down to the Brushmill, which was just as nice as I remember it from my days at Wesleyan. I hope to be back on the East Coast a couple of times this year as my youngest daughter, Nicole, is playing hockey for RIT and will be graduating in the spring. Attached is a picture of Krystal, myself, Carter, and Nicole at the waterfall outside the Brushmill for graduation dinner.”

Finally, Eric Meyerson recently started a new job running marketing for a computer vision company called Mashgin. He reports: “During my unemployment period, I got to see Wes people all over, including Morgan Fahey and Mo Ouyang ’96 in LA, and Mark Ladov ’94 in NYC. My daughter just started school at Smith College, and she is loving it. And my old Foss 7 homie, Eitan Mendelowitz, lives just a few minutes from campus—it was a delight to grab dinner with him there. I’m really looking forward to our 30th Reunion. I’m not usually THAT GUY but I already booked a hotel. Hope to see y’all there!”

Please write to your class secretaries.

Katy writes: Glad to close out 2023 with updates from our fellow classmates. We all have things going on in our lives and communities—big and small. This issue features some great snapshots of everyday life, including from some first-time contributors.

Carolyn Renzin writes, “Nothing much has changed in YEARS. . . . I’ve lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, for 13 years, with my husband of 21 years, Lee, and our two kids—one a college freshman, the other a high school junior. Maggie McLean Suniewick ’97 and Josh Suniewick ’97 also live in Hastings-on-Hudson . . . we were all friends from the pool/swim team/water polo/lifeguarding days and now our kids hang out! I love watching the next generation from town head off to college—many to Wes. [A] college visit this fall to Wes for my daughter had me texting old friends: Rachel Hitch, Jieho Lee, and Susannah Kerest, as thousands of memories flooded in. And work (I’m lawyering at online betting company, FanDuel) and life continue apace with gratitude as we—the sandwich generation—parent our kids and care for our aging parents.”

Marc Schleifer writes, “Update on my end is that after nearly 20 years in D.C. (how that happen?), have relocated to New York after my wife took a job here. We still have our place in D.C. and my work is still there, so I haven’t entirely cut the cord. But it’s wonderful to finally be in the Big Apple, only took 28 years after graduating from Wes!”

Brandon Patton moved to Seattle in 2020 and connected with former Wesleyan Spirit Michael Roufa ’96 after the pandemic ended, getting roped into performing in an Earth, Wind & Fire–themed performance of the story of Esther for Purim at a local synagogue in 2023. The rabbi wore platform heels and Bootsy Collins sunglasses.

Jason Segal writes, “All well here in Manhattan. Approaching our 15th anniversary of our climate-focused merchant bank, Javelin Capital—welcome all Wes grads who are fighting the good fight against climate change and undergrads interested to work in the space to reach out. Children Julia (10) and Ari (8) are doing great and all enjoying life in the city.”

Rick Meyerson writes, “I’m still living in San Francisco with my wife, two teens in our public schools, and a weird dog, [and] working in climate tech. My older kid is a senior in high school, and we had the honor of touring Wesleyan in October. It’s amazing how beautifully both the campus and Middletown have evolved. I visited Klekolo World Coffee and I donated a 30-year-old business card, advertising a logo contest, from when they first opened. My daughter loved the campus tour, especially the WestCo kids who launched into a wild improvised breakup scene from their balcony when they saw our tour walking by. Why did they need to cancel legacy admissions this year of all years? (Kidding. Kind of.)”

Lara Tupper is one of 11 authors included in a charity anthology, Maine Character Energy (Rogue Owl Press). The book features stories and poems that celebrate Maine’s small towns, rugged wilderness, rocky coasts, and the everyday characters that make the state special. All proceeds from the sales of the book will support Everytown for Gun Safety, in honor of the victims, survivors, and families affected by the Lewiston-Auburn massacre that took place in October 2023.

Finally, a couple of alumni encounters of my own. Recently I was glad to run into Jessica (Gerald) Young at our town’s high school orchestra concert (where her son, Joey, was playing violin in a group along with my eldest). And last month I had the fortune to see alumni, staff, President Roth, and others at Boston’s Celebration of Something Big. The event was a fun chance to see acquaintances old and new, and I enjoyed saying hi to Brendan Coughlin. The evening culminated at the Wes alum–owned Cantab Lounge, with a performance—featuring President Roth on the keyboards—of a spirited rendition of the Beatles’ “Money (That’s What I Want),” encouraging our support of Wes.

Take care everyone, and best wishes to you and your loved ones for 2024.

Please write to your class secretaries.

Please write to your class secretaries.

Katy writes for this issue: Hope your 2023 is going well thus far. We have a full range of news—sad losses, pictures of everyday life, and encounters with many other alumni. This round features many first-time contributors—we’re so excited to hear from you and it’s never too late to get in touch!

First some very sad news of the death last year of one of our classmates, Alyson Tischler. Longtime friend and roommate Alice Moore writes: “My college roommate of four years, Alyson Tischler, passed away in April of 2021. You can read a lot about and by her online. But you can’t hear her, that awesome laugh, all in as she told the student hairdresser to just shave my head already, as we manipulated her little wooden man in our room in the Bayit, as we danced—at Wesleyan, in Germany, in Paris, in Poland. Alyson took me to my first Broadway show and we cried together in front of the mound of spectacles at Auschwitz. When I visit Wes, I can still see and hear us, careening down the hill on Church Street, pointing bananas at each other and screaming ‘It’s been so long!’—an inside joke that will never be funny to anyone else, shaped by a shared college experience.” You can read Alyson’s obituary at: https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/20717196/Alyson-Tischler.

Andrew Hindman writes: “I was selected to be on a team of 25 riders (out of 500 applicants!) who will be riding the Tour De France 2023 (one week ahead of the professional cyclists). Literally we are riding the whole course of TDF 2023 (starting in Bilbao, Spain, and ending in Paris). 2,200 MILES. The purpose is to raise >$1.5M for leukemia/cancer research and patient care.  More can be found out on www.TheTour21.co.uk—it’s a great charity organization where all funds go directly to patient care and research to cure leukemia/cancer.  I am riding in memory of not one but two family members (mother and brother) who died of cancer in 2022.” Let’s all wish Andrew a meaningful experience and keep him in our thoughts June 23–July 16, 2023!

Andrew Dickson writes: “Still holding it down in Portland, Oregon. Working as a copywriter by day for companies like Apple, Adidas, and Absci. Performing, auctioneering ,and hosting storytelling shows for The Moth by night. Hanging with my teen, tween, and wife Susan, who is a craft book author, by evening. We often see Ryan (Myers) Tinsel and family, and I keep in close touch with Bill Tsitsos who is teaching sociology at Towson University. Shouts-out to Wells Tower ’96, Vanessa Grigoriadis, and Henry Myers for looking me up when they’ve been in town over the years.”

Alison North writes: “I live in Seattle where my fabulous grown kids, their partners, and their kiddos bring me freaking daily joy!!  I work a lot because, well, the city I love is expensive. I’m a nurse midwife primarily providing abortions, transgender care, and, well, anything that others feel judgmental about. I dance a lot to keep my sanity.” Cheers to Alison!

Suzanne Snider writes: “Hello from the Hudson Valley. I have been living and working in both Hudson and New York City for the last decade plus, more fully upstate since 2019 with my nine-year-old daughter. I continue my work as an oral historian and writer, moving into my 11th year of directing Oral History Summer School (which now runs yearlong) to train documentarians/folks of all stripes in principles of ethical documentation, collecting trauma-centered narratives and recording stories to radicalize the dominant record. I also teach at the New School and currently engage with Bard’s Center for Curatorial Studies as visiting faculty. I have the pleasure of collaborating, this year, with Wes alum and podcast wizard/executive producer Mia Lobel ‘97 on a project for Johns Hopkins University and Pushkin Industries, centered on the subject of bioethics. I newly discovered that I love to play tennis with Wes alum Ed Morris ’94 who relocated to Hudson with his partner Susannah Sayler ’93; they run, together, an amazing organization called Toolshed out of Hudson, New York. Adrienne Truscott ’94 claims she will join us on the tennis court when she finds her racket. In the meantime, Adrienne continues to create incredible performances and also to manage Bard’s Center for Human Rights and the Arts. Last summer, I visited Elsie Kagan’s (’99) amazing art residency, Interlude, upstate and was happy to learn that Elsie and her partner are also Wes alums. Holler if you’d like to connect with more Wes friends in the Hudson Valley!” Great to hear about all of the Wes activity in this great region (but being from the Hudson Valley myself, I should declare a bias . . . ).

Ben Lee writes: “I live in Cheviot Hills (Los Angeles) with my wife and our three sons. After graduating Wes, I worked in the music industry before heading to law school and then worked as a lawyer for a few years before pursuing a career in residential real estate. I’ve been with Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills for many years now, focusing on Los Angeles’ westside. When I’m not buying and selling houses, I spend as much time surfing as I can, even got the opportunity to surf in Indonesia for a few weeks, which was a dream come true. I try to stay connected to my Wesleyan roots—in fact we host an annual reception for Los Angeles families with high schoolers applying to Wes. We look forward to hosting this party every year—the best part is meeting so many people interested in attending our fabulous school!”

Eric Meyerson writes, “It’s been an exciting year getting back to post-pandemic life and travel. I just marked 20 years in San Francisco and 22 in the Bay Area. Back when we were in school, I never figured myself to become a Californian, but here I am raising a family in this amazing region. My daughter is a junior in one of the Bay Area’s largest public high schools, and she’s now looking at colleges. (I know one school in central Connecticut that might actually be a pretty good fit for her interests.) We took a quick family trip to D.C. this past summer, where we had a big night out in Capitol Hill with Seth Kaufman and Bill Goldberg ’94. Bill also had a big birthday in Vegas back in February with a lot of ’94 Cardinals, and included a super-cool Red Rocks hike in a snowfall. I recently took another hike through the Oakland Hills with old buddy Ben Foss, who, like me, has spent the last few years in the climate tech industry. I’m always excited to hear from more Wes alumni in the Bay Area.”

In early 2022, after 20-plus years of being an editor at Ugly Duckling Press, Matvei Yankelevich left the Brooklyn nonprofit publisher, which grew out of his Wesleyan-era zine The Ugly Duckling. He is now editor-in-chief of World Poetry Books, a nonprofit press that publishes a diverse range of poetry from around the globe for English-language readers and brings attention to literary translators. It’s based in New York City and affiliated with the UConn’s Humanities Institute and Translation Program. After a yearlong grant for translation and research from the National Endowment of Humanities, Matvei is back to teaching literary translation for the writing MFA at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Meanwhile, his most recent chapbook of poems—Dead Winter (Fonograf Editions, 2022)—has been reviewed in Tablet, Zyzzyva, and other journals, and his translations of Osip Mandelstam have appeared in the New Yorker, Harpers, and elsewhere. In May, he visited his cousin Katya Semyonova ’98 and her two boys in D.C.”

As for my own alumni encounters, in early December I saw Stacy (Theberge) Taylor in Portland, Maine. I was there with my eldest, who has a passion for animation; as you’ll recall, Stacy and her husband run an animation firm (Little Zoo Studio), and graciously talked to us about the field. So lucky to have such an engaging alumni network!

Keep sending us your news and updates—we love to hear from you!

Hello fellow ’95ers! Lots going on this time—let’s jump into it.

My co-secretary, Katy McNeill, writes: “I’m excited to share that after three years of studying part time, I have completed an MBA from the University of Warwick Business School. A broad-based degree for leading organizations, I also focused on organizational behavior. Next, I’m thrilled to have a new position in which to apply it—directing an initiative at a scholarly society. I just started as program director of DataWorks! at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). This new initiative will foster data sharing and reuse in the biosciences, which can both advance knowledge and foster open and reproducible research. Anyone working in this field—I’d be keen to connect!”

Patrick Hutter-Bluml writes: “I moved back from being a chef and househusband to freelance 3D artist, but I also started advanced studies in 3D modeling and animation for film. So, yeah, I’m basically a student again and loving every bit of it. During the pandemic I assisted in a project organized by an American university, for which my team did a particle simulation used for predictability of aerosol dispersion.”

During the pandemic, Roxane Williams returned to graduate school for a second advanced degree and made the shift from working in tech and volunteering as a crisis counselor to becoming a full-time mental health clinician, hoping to reach and help folks before they get to a crisis point. She largely works in trauma treatment with individuals and couples for whom PTSD is a factor, and also specializes in work with LGBTQI+ folks, especially with members of the trans community, as certain archaic laws require therapeutic support for those opting for surgical transition. Roxane appreciates the wonderful gift of finding her “calling,” albeit later in life, and is grateful to know what it is to be in love with her work! She also acts as a mental-health first responder at Burning Man and has built large-scale art off and on for a decade or so. Roxane lives in the Bay Area with a menagerie of pets and two grown/launched kids who humble and amaze her with both their worldliness and their loveliness, as both are pursuing their higher education and their careers with a bent toward public service.

My man in Oakland, Matt Duffy, sent in some news: “I am reporting that I continue to work as a superintendent of schools here in the Bay. I recently had an awesome reunion lunch with fellow ’95 alums Sherwin Yoder and Brooke (Leinwand) Jackson and Randy Jackson after many years apart! I also still stay connected with Malcolm Edwards! Best regards to my fellow Wes alums.”

In June 2022, Sabrina Prince was finally able to celebrate her COVID elopement with husband Nenad Apostoloski with family and friends, including Jacqueline Moon in beautiful Chantilly, France.

Looks like it was a blast!

Beth Shilepsky Price writes from Charleston, South Carolina: “Still slogging along as a family medicine doctor. Trying hard to unwind outside of work with my husband, three kids (David 18, Madeline 15, and Lily 13), three dogs, and two horses. David and I competed in an 18-mile NATRC competitive trail ride this spring on our horses and had a blast. We had a super visit with Kristin Dunn ’96 and her 9-year-old daughter Vanessa while they were in town recently. She is still living in Long Beach, California, and doing amazing work (https://www.kdbooks.com/). I think I was the last Wes alum to see Hamilton—it came to town in July and far exceeded my expectations!! Amazing!! As of last night, we also have seven more furry (temporary) additions to the family—our golden retriever gave birth. Hope everyone is doing well!”

Shayne Spaulding is living in the seaside town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, with husband Josh Shepherd and two boys, Wiley and Kieran (ages 14 and 11), and dog Hershey. Shayne is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a D.C.–based social-policy research organization, and had the joy of getting together recently with Gabriella Klein, Jennifer Quest-Stern ’94, Kevin Fairley ’94, and Liz Stites in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and swimming in the beautiful waves of Barney’s Joy Beach. “Enjoying being 50 and treating each day lived as a gift.” Sounds right to me, Shayne!

Susannah (Hearn) Kerest reports: Enjoying year 12 living near Lake Champlain with Vermont’s lovely mountains not too far away. I’m taking a break from the nonprofit fundraising world after over two decades, and recently joined a communications and public relations firm called Junapr. Career transition is an unexpected, but welcome brain challenge. Loved being back on campus as both of our kids have toured [Wes] in the last couple of years. Launching kids is not for the faint of heart. While we’ve stayed close to home during these COVID-y times, so appreciate the occasional touch points with classmates Carolyn (Barth) Renzin, Brendan Coughlin, Elizabeth (Meltzer) Bloom, and Constantine Davides as well as rowing pals Meredith Weaver ’96, Enas (Estafan) Hanna ’94, and Wendi Schenkler-Samway ’94. If anyone is visiting the Burlington area, reach out!

Gina Schimpff is super excited to have son Tyler Schimpff begin his Wes experience in Clark this fall, and even more excited that Laurel Williams Wise has her son Will also starting at Wes and they will be hallmates! And continuing the family traditions, Nora Cabrera writes that she and husband George Cabrera ’89 have just taken their son Antonio up to Wes—he will also be class of 2026.

From Greg Rolland: “Living a good life here in western Massachusetts. I’m 10 years in managing finances at Deerfield Academy and my wife survived being head nurse at the Academy through the pandemic (hats off and thank you to med folks!). Our three daughters now have one year together in high school, and the eldest included our alma maters (Bryn Mawr and Wes) in her cut of prospective colleges. These days I’m regularly grateful for the lens of my Wes history education— and I’m very glad to have shared time through the pandemic with alums Peter Follet, Stephanie Flaherty, Justin Stern, James Becker ’97, and Santiago Vazquez ’93.”

Parker Dockray is still living in Oakland, California, and working in reproductive health, rights, and justice; her organization All-Options is funding abortion care, providing diapers, helping people navigate this new mess of abortion laws, and fighting for the compassionate and just world we all deserve. She’s grateful to all the Wes friends who have shown up in so many ways and says look me up if you come through town!

Finally, yours truly is still living in the Hudson Valley and working for StudioLabs, a great digital product shop. Here’s a pic from a trip Lucky (14), Sybil (9), and I took to the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Las Vegas with family back in June.

I turned 50 in September and got to celebrate with friends including Leila Goldmark and Mike Kleinsteuber . . . and, as one of the first from our class to make the semicentenary transition, I can assure you that it’s not too bad.