Tag: 1995

Katy writes for this issue: As I write, I’m looking forward to our virtual 25th Reunion event in May. Of course, we all look forward to getting together face-to-face when we can. For now, we’ll enjoy the connections we can get! Here’s to the Class of ’95, and glad to share these updates on our classmates.

Nathalie Perez-Cino writes: “For 14 years I had the privilege of staying at home and raising the kids. I have now rejoined the workforce at Clark University in the education department as teacher diversity and special programs coordinator. I work to attract and support candidates of color into our Master of Arts in Teaching program. Our program prepares teachers to be successful in an urban school environment. If you know of any aspiring teachers, please send them my way!”

Matvei Yankelevich writes: “I’ve recently published a series of essays on small press history and its politics at the Poetry Foundation Harriet blog. Also, I received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to work on an annotated translation of Osip Mandelstam late poems (written in exile in a small southern Soviet city in the 1930s). Otherwise, working on keeping the small nonprofit poetry and arts press I co-founded (Ugly Duckling Presse) afloat through the pandemic, and just finished teaching a half-online semester on artists’ books and bookmaking for writers for Columbia’s MFA in creative writing.”

Cheryl Mejia writes: “New job, helping those even more rural. It’s been interesting being a multiple-minoritied physician working in rural West Virginia, western Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania. Hopefully, it helps to bring evidence-based science and mindset, as well as compassion and diversity to rural people (voters) who are helping to shape our present and future. Normally I work as an interventional pain management doc, but since America is not performing injections/procedures that aren’t life-saving, that is on the back burner. Been revisiting a lot of primary-care based health care lately.”

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

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Hello, Class of 1995! Bo writing for this issue and I’ll start with my own updates. I’m still living in New York’s idyllic Hudson Highlands, working on digital products, raising two really fun little humans, and playing soccer as often as my knees will allow. I get face time with Mike Kleinsteuber, Kiersten Miller, and Laura Roberts ’97 occasionally.

Jennifer “Parker” Dockray is still living in Oakland CA, co-parenting a delightful 13-year-old, and working for reproductive justice. She is the executive director of All-Options, a national organization supporting people in all their experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption.

Brett Jones, international woman of mystery, writes: “I’ve been living in Suva, Fiji, for the last two years, where I work as a foreign service officer for USAID, and my husband for the State Department. Next month, classmate Nicole Robinson ’96 is coming to Fiji for a visit. Our next assignment is Canberra, Australia, starting this March.”

Jacob Waples and Sandy Miller have been living in Golden, Colo., for 20 years (!), aside from a two-year stint in Santiago, Chile. Jacob works at a small consulting company in Golden as an environmental geochemist to support mine permitting and closure. Sandy is a baroque cellist, teaching and performing in Denver. They see a group of Colorado Wes alumni regularly for skiing, geology discussions over beers, and to hang out with each other’s’ kids, including Tom Rutkowski ’96, Hillary Hamann ’94, Josh Pollock ’96, and Adam Hobson ’97.

My WesCo Up-4 hallmate, Cheryl Mejia, is always good with the updates, so of course she sent one for our Reunion issue! “Going into smaller private practice from large interventional pain group. Loving what I do. It’s a thank’ful’ job (as opposed to thankless job). Wife and I are doing great. Living in western Maryland. Enjoying boutique fitness like heart rate training programs, barre, and snowshoeing. I miss Son Tran ’95 because he moved to Canada with his ortho surgeon spouse.”

Speaking of Up-4, Adam Hirsch is living in Madison, Wisc., with his wife and two kids, not far from Matt Edes-Pierotti. Adam’s working remotely as a software developer for Axios and doing occasional hobby forays into fiction writing and podcast production. Nicholas Moran, who along with spouse Adair and dog Tala are currently traveling the country performing in Jurassic World Live Tour, got to visit with Adam when he brought his daughters to see the show in Milwaukee this past November. Nicholas will be touring North America for at least another year but encourages everyone to look him up if the show passes through your area.

Sabrina Prince sends some long-distance love: “I moved last year from New York to Germany for life and love. I am still working on health care advertising and have relocated to our European offices. I still speak regularly with best friend Jacqueline Moon and received an adorable Christmas card from Frank Truslow of his lovely wife and adorable two sons!”

Rob Armstrong and his wife Wylie are back from London and buying a house in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, with their 10-year-old twins. Rob still writes for the Financial Times. He says: “Amazingly, we are as dull as this makes us sound, but people should come visit us anyway. I see Russell Agle and Scott Laton ’94 all the time, and they are just like they were 25 years ago, only more so.”

Stacy Taylor writes: “I’m still living outside of Portland, Maine, helping my husband Jason run our animation shop, Little Zoo Studio. Our son Niko is turning 5. (Last Reunion he was only a few weeks old, so I missed it.) Niko is really into dinosaurs and Legos and making me pick up things in his wake.”

David Biello is still in New York, now as the science curator for TED Talks and working on a next book, among other side hustles. Still hanging out with Marcus Green, Shobana Shankar, and others. He’s father to two wonderful kids, Beatrice (12) and Desmond (10), and is always looking for pro-tips for the tween/teen years!

Greg Rolland writes: “I am in my eighth year working at Deerfield Academy—a western Massachusetts boarding school—in financial administration and, with my wife as the nurse director and my eldest daughter now a ninth-grade day student there too, it’s a convenient family set-up. I see nearby Peter Follet and Stephanie Flaherty regularly, and Peter and I hiked some of the upper-Hudson river valley with classmates Justin Stern and James Becker ’97 this past fall. Made proud of Wes recently (again) after reading its Common Reading selection for all incoming students: Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum co-authored by two inspiring alumni. Also just finished a memoir of Jimmy Carter from about 25 years ago, and it’s amazing to consider how much peace-making he did even just in the years we attended Wesleyan. A true embodiment of compassionate faith in action. Time to move forward. Go Wes!”

After two “rollercoaster” years as CFO at the National Network of Abortion Funds, Jen Levine-Fried took a bit of a swerve and moved into a finance position at Suffolk University in downtown Boston a year ago. She’s still staying connected to abortion rights, serving as the treasurer on the Board of Medical Students for Choice, and is also on the finance committee of her synagogue, which is currently composed 100% of Wes alumni.

Finally, news from Jessica Peterson: “My family and I moved back to the Denver area in 2015 (after almost 15 years on the ruggedly beautiful western slope of Colorado). In 2017, I started working at Front Range Community College (which is the largest community college in the state, serving approximately 28,000 students annually). I have wholeheartedly consumed the proverbial Kool-Aid and am happy to play a small part in helping so many students improve their circumstances. (I have to sheepishly admit that I was not fully aware of all the ways in which community colleges provide educational and career opportunities to traditionally underserved populations.)”

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Katy writes for this issue: As the end of 2019 grows near, we can anticipate the coming of 2020 and our 25th Reunion! As we look forward to getting together face-to-face, I am glad to share news from our classmates to catch us all up.

Wes couples Thy Pham ’97 and Tyler Moriguchi and Min Lee ’97 and Alejandro Santandrea ’97 loaded up their kids into an RV for an eight-day trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Evenings were spent reminiscing about classes, dorms, MoCon, and the student art gallery. Plans are already in the works for an Alaskan adventure. (BTW, Tyler contributed to class notes for the first time—heartily welcomed!)

Julie Zaidler ’95, MA’96 shares: “After completing my Wesleyan education and subsequently receiving an MBA from NYU, I landed in pharmaceutical industry doing market research in immuno-oncology. I lived in NYC for 10 years, and four years ago made a move to the Philadelphia area with my husband and two boys. Still adjusting to suburban life (and travel soccer schedules) but enjoying a somewhat slower pace. I am actually on my way back from vacation in North Carolina as we speak, and we stopped in Virginia to visit Miriam Liss. So good to see good old friends, have the kids meet each other for the first time and reminisce!”

And, speaking of whom, Miriam Liss also wrote: “I am married to Julian Kilmartin ’94. We live in Fredericksburg, Va., with our two kids Daniel (13) and Emily (11). I am a professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington, a public liberal arts college in Fredericksburg. Julian is a school counselor at our local high school. My most recent news is that I published a textbook (with two co-authors) called Psychology of Women and Gender.”

Ken Kwiatkowski now has three boys, Roman, Adam, and Sebastian, and is enjoying life in Jersey City with his lovely wife, Anna.

Eric Meyerson writes “I’m still living in San Francisco with my family, with both of my kids enjoying the chaotic public school system here. Hard to believe I’ve been here 19 years. What happened? I’ve had some wonderful personal Wesleyan reunions this year, including a night out in D.C. with Jason Walta, Seth Kaufman, and Julie Knauer, pho and coffee with Ned Lazarus in Virginia, margaritas with Bill Goldberg ’94 in Maryland, a recent dinner here in San F with Ben Foss, and a night out with Mark Ladov ’94 and his kids in Brooklyn. Career-wise, I made a deliberate move to cleantech this year, given the dire state of the environment and need for rapid modernization. I’m now VP of marketing for Software Motor Company, which makes ultra-efficient electric motors that slash energy demands from heating and ventilating buildings and farms. I’ve been traveling to Wisconsin a lot to support a strategic partner that makes ventilation systems for agriculture. Ask me anything about cows. Moo.”

Lara Tupper shares, “I spent a beautiful summer afternoon in the Berkshires with Mireille Abelin ’96, Chelsea Farley, and families. I’m thrilled to say that I have two books coming out in 2020: Off Island, a novel based on the life of Paul Gauguin, and Amphibians, a linked short story collection. Hope to see all of Clark 4 at the Reunion in May!”

Beth Price writes “I had a great visit with Dawn Peters Weinstein and Dave Weinstein ’94 and their two kids on their way to vacation in Edisto, S.C. They’re living in Cambridge, Mass., where Dawn is a pediatrician and Dave works for Brandeis University.”

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Hello again, fellow ’95ers! Bo writing this time. Next year is our 25th Reunion, so we’ll expect a lot more notes in the run-up to that milestone! Brief set this issue, so let’s get to it.

My old music-mate Giles Miller writes, “I don’t think I have ever submitted, but I always enjoy reading class notes. Here goes: Living in Los Angeles with my partner and two kids, ages 4 and 8, running a private investigations firm called Lynx Insights that I sort of inherited from Ed Morris ’94, working as a founding member of the nonprofit arts space Human Resources Los Angeles, and still playing the saxophone with friends around town.”

Amy Hundley and her partner, Kristabelle, adopted a baby! His name is Royal Harrison Keo Munson, born July 5, 2018. So far he enjoys apple sauce, attempting to stand, and the music of the Pet Shop Boys and Henry Mancini, especially “Baby Elephant Walk.”

Some news from Joshua Emmott: “I am in my 15th year as a history teacher and house head of a boys’ dormitory at Milton Academy just south of Boston. I have been incorporating travel to Jordan as part of my Middle East history courses, which has been a lot of fun. My two daughters are finishing sixth and second grade, and my wife travels a lot to Africa for public health work. About six years ago we finished restoring a small cottage on an island in Narragansett Bay, R.I., and now spend the summers gardening and fishing. My newest completed project was to restore an MGB, which I now aimlessly drive around on sunny days.”

Anne Bellows Lee is in Santa Monica with two daughters (6 and 8) and one husband and some cats, working at UCLA. She says she’s hoping to come to the next Reunion. Make it happen, Anne!

From Randy Lesnak: “I’ve been living in Mexico City for 10 years now, and yet my Spanish language skills remain shockingly low because I’ve been teaching English to businesspeople for almost eight years. But good news! My daughter Annika will be starting first grade, so there’s a good chance I’ll be learning something from her homework. My wife is an editor with Bloomberg here. In fact, will try to pepper the president with questions when he visits. We did enjoy time with Elena Pavloff ’96 last year during her visit, a culinary tour. She ate better than I do here!”

Andrew Hindman has worked in biopharma since graduating, and has accepted the position as CFO at Theravance Biopharma in San Francisco. This marks an exciting new chapter in his 20-plus year career in making medicines that make a difference! Personally, he’s been happily married (and legally married!) since 8/8/08 to Damien Wood, who runs their hospitality venture, Blue Door Group, in Mendocino, Calif. Together, they are raising an 11-year-old Yorkie Oscar who is the center of their family universe!

Finally, I heard from my long-lost pal, Masha Raskolnikov: “I am kept busy these days by my two 7-year-old daughters, who are absolutely the most fun I’ve ever had. I’m raising them with my ex, and while I wish I didn’t have to be a cliched divorcée, having them all to myself a lot of the time is really fun. I’m still teaching English literature and gender and theory and stuff at Cornell, and making a life in Ithaca, N.Y., with occasional visits to NYC.”

Thanks, y’all! Hope to see you all next May.

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Katy writes for this issue: As I compose this at the beginning of January, I am wanting to wish you all a Happy New Year; yet by the time you get this newsletter, we can all be saying happy spring (except for any of you in the southern hemisphere). We hope that 2019 has started well for all of you. I’m happy to share the news from your classmates; including, for the first-time—yay!—Josh Stevens; we are especially glad to hear from those of you who haven’t been in touch for a while.

Rob Armstrong writes: “Wylie and I and our 9-year-old twins moved back from London to New York. Now living in Greenwood, Brooklyn. I am still scribbling away for the Financial Times. Keen to hear from all ’95 and ’94 types who come through the city.” Welcome back to the States, Rob!

Chelsea Farley writes: “I live in the Hudson Valley of New York with my family (daughter Noah, partner Isaac, and our Alaskan Malamute, Lulu). I am the communications director at NYU Steinhardt’s Research Alliance for NYC Schools, where we are working to produce evidence that contributes to better, more equitable public schools in NYC and around the country.”

Ken Kwiatkowski writes: “I would like to announce the birth of our third son, Sebastian, on Dec. 23, with wife Anna.” Many congratulations, Ken! We hope your whole family is in good health and enjoying such a special time.

Michelle Limaj writes: “My son, Axel, and I visited Jeanne Bonner and Michael Cocca in their new home in Connecticut this fall and got to meet their gorgeous little boy. So proud of Jeanne, her beautiful family, and her award-winning work translating literature by visionary Italian authors. I’d heard her reporting on NPR and CNN, but creative writing and literature are where she clearly lives. So grateful for this lifelong friendship.”

Beth Price writes: “Greetings from Charleston, S.C.! I’m still working as a family medicine doctor at the joint Navy/Air Force base outside of Charleston. Kevin and my kids (David, 14, Madeline, 12, and Lily, 9) are growing up so fast . . . hard to believe that in a couple of years, we’ll be making the college tour rounds! This fall I completed my second competitive trail ride with my quarter horse, Chilli. We rode 35 miles over two days, and were judged on his fitness, our ability to maneuver trail obstacles, and my horsemanship skills. Exhausting, but great fun! Can’t wait to see everyone at Reunion next year!” We are all impressed, Beth!

Michele Gershberg, U.S. health editor at Reuters, wrote a touching and personal special report about her son Natan’s diagnosis with a slow-growing brain tumour. Read it here: https://reut.rs/2UkHAeO.

Josh Stevens writes: “Enjoying life in the Bay Area, going on 15 years in 2019 . . . working in health care tech and happy to connect and network any Wes alumni who come to Silicon Valley.”

Lastly, I, your humble secretary, can share news of my own next adventure—I have just begun an MBA program—part-time, largely distance education—based at the University of Warwick.

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

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Hi, Wes fam! Many new and long-lost names highlight this season’s edition of ’95 Notes. I personally have seen a number of you recently—highlighted by a June cookout at the Croton-on-Hudson home of Leila Goldmark. We were blessed by the presence of M.C. Campbell, who recently moved to Reston, Va., where she is neighbors with Bill Burton ’74. Also got a note from old friend Julia Lazarus; she and her husband, Steve, were delighted to share the birth of their daughter, Eleanor Lazarus Aurora Parman, in September.

Fall brings the paperback edition of Vanessa Grigoriadis’s nonfiction book, Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus, which describes what she learned talking to students, administrators, and profs at Wesleyan (among other schools) about sexual assault and its aftermath. Vanessa answers many of the questions of sexual consent in national debate, and grapples with the future of the #MeToo movement.

Matt Duffy sends a quick update: “I am just starting my third year as superintendent of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, an urban school district of 30,000 students in the Bay Area. It’s been crazy but really good. We also welcomed a new baby, Luna, into the family last year, which has been an amazing experience for our whole family. I am still in touch with a number of Wes folks, including Malcolm Edwards, Randy and Brooke Jackson, and others. Shout out to the Wes family.”

Rachel Posner and Jody Kuh met up as new members of the Kings County (aka Brooklyn) Democratic Committee, as part of a campaign called #RepYourBlock launched by the New Kings Democrats to transform the Democratic Party from the grassroots up. They’ll be representing their neighbors in shaping the party, ensuring it is increasingly inclusive, transparent, and democratic.

Rafhia Foster writes from her hometown of Philadelphia: “I’m working at Girard College as the director of cultural competencies and admissions. I get to have a mini-reunion and see lots of Wes folks at the NAIS People of Color Conference each year. DJ VanVader ’96 was the DJ for the conference party last year. I felt like I was back at a ’90s-era Wes party. I have two sweet and energetic boys, 9 and 2, who keep me very, very busy. And the biggest update is that I reconnected with a lost love this spring and eloped in August. Lots of good changes! I would love to connect with anyone stopping through Philly!”

Daniel Greene curated a new exhibition, Americans and the Holocaust, which opened in April at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. to mark its 25th anniversary. He’s also teaching history at Northwestern University and living in Evanston.

Rob Armstrong writes: “My wife, Wylie, and I moved back to Brooklyn this September after five years in London. Still writing about money for the Financial Times. Our twins are 9 and going to Brooklyn New School, which is some kind of hippie commune and a big change from British state schools, uniforms, and so on. Still hang out with Russell Agle all the time. Keen to hear from any other ’95ers in the big city.”

Up in Boston, Jason Wiser made comics for the Boston Globe and Franciscan Children’s Hospital and School to help four kids in longterm care envision themselves as superheroes. The comics and stories about these extraordinary kids can be found at bostonglobe.com.

This year, Jason celebrated the bat and bar mitzvahs of Rebecca Fried Weisberg’s [’97] daughter and Nicole Goldstein’s [’96] son.

Boston was also the site of a recent retirement party for Wes Dean of Admissions, Barbara-Jan Wilson, who specifically remarked upon the class of ’95 (her first class admitted at Wes). Katy McNeill, Jen Levine-Fried, Brendan Coughlin, Karsten Cash, and Amy Casher were some of the ’95ers at the event. Amy writes: “We represented our class and reminisced about our singing group connections (in Onomatopoeia and Ebony Singers) and work memories (Brendan and I were both hired by a small consulting start-up called Mainspring, after finishing our MBAs at Yale one year apart, and were acquired into IBM as part of their Strategy & Change group way back in 2001). What a treat to have the opportunity to catch up after all these years.”

Personally, Amy has been designing and making jewelry out of her studio in the SoWa Art + Design District for the past 10 years, living in Concord with her husband and two kids (ages 6 and 4), and recently traveled to San Francisco to link up with Foss 9 hallmates Davina Baum and Alissa Van Nort.

Thanks all of you for writing—keep on keepin’ us up to date!

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

Katy writes for this issue: I’m very glad to share news from a nice bunch of our classmates. David Aaron writes: “I graduated in May from the Brown University Executive Master in Cybersecurity program. They gave me a nice award too, the Brown Master’s Award for Professional Excellence.”

Jeanne Bonner writes: “I’m the winner of the 2018 PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature for an Italian novel I’ve begun translating (and hope to publish)—a dream I’ve had since majoring in Italian at Wesleyan! It was an incredible thrill to win the award from such a prestigious organization, which, in addition to supporting the written word, safeguards free speech all over the world. An excerpt of my translation is available at pen.org/from-a-walk-in-the-shadows. I’m teaching Italian at UConn part-time, working as an editor part-time at CNN (where I worked in Atlanta as a contractor before moving—back!—to Connecticut last year), and raising my little boy, Leo, whose curiosity and passion for learning could position him well for the Wes Class of 2034.”

Cheryl Mejia’s ups at the moment are her family life and her job, while the downs are catching up on retirement savings and not bicycling lately. She speaks regularly with Amy Hundley, Lisa McQueen, and Son Tran, the latter who is purported to be moving to Canada in the upcoming year.

Nathalie Pérez-Cino writes: “Even though we’ve lived in Worcester, Mass., for 17 years this is the first time my family vacationed in the Berkshires. Must be the New Yorker in me! Now that our youngest has joined her siblings at Worcester Academy, we are finally on the same school schedule again. Giovanni is 15, Isabella is 13, and Christiana is 11. I still can’t believe we now have two kids in high school! It’s been a great year full of new beginnings and emerging talents for our kids. And, not to be outdone by them, I am learning to play the guitar. Three of us ran our first 5K in May and I am proud to say the youngest, Christiana, bested her parents!”

Carrie Fischer Turner, in NYC, writes: “I’m really psyched to announce that Nite Haus’s second album, Saturation, is being released on June 1! We plan on playing a few shows in the city over the summer, and I am just really proud that I have kept my drive to make music intact as I head into my dotage. I’m still in regular contact with one of my best friends from Wesleyan, Brett Aristegui. He lives outside Pittsburgh with his wife and two daughters.”

Matvei Yankelevich writes: “I’m a founding member of the collectively-run, nonprofit Ugly Duckling Presse (UDP). We’re celebrating 25 years since UDP’s inception as a zine (The Ugly Duckling) at the Russian House at Wesleyan. We publish poetry, translation, essays, performance texts, and books by artists. I teach translation at Columbia University’s MFA and I’m on the writing faculty at the MFA at Bard College. My most recent book of poems, Some Worlds for Dr. Vogt, was published by Black Square Editions. My novella-in-fragments, Boris by the Sea, was republished in a new edition by Octopus Books. I had dinner with Simone White ’93. She’s been the program director for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church for a while. She’ll be teaching at the University of Pennsylvania next year. We just published her new book of poems and a long essay—Dear Angel of Death—at UDP.”

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

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com

NEWSMAKERS | 1990s NEWSMAKER JIEHO LEE ’95 Jieho Lee ’95 is one of 22 business leaders under the age of 45 selected as a 2018 Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute. Established in 1997, the fellowship offers outstanding entrepreneurs an opportunity to harness their individual skills and creativity in developing solutions for some of society’s most vexing problems. “I am honored to be included in this driven and diverse group of innovators, and together with all the Crown Fellows, I look forward to finding new ways to effect profound, positive and enduring change,” said Lee, who co-founded Knighted Ventures in 2012. Lee, a film studies major at Wesleyan, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dear, ’95ers. Thank you all for your submissions, and I’m excited to announce that we have two first-time entrants to class notes! First up is Soraya Selene Burtnett, who moved to Spokane, Wash., to teach as a professor in film studies at Eastern Washington University. She has 3-year old twins and works as a director and cinematographer. A feature documentary she shot called Half the Picture premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She had a visit from Stacey Samuel ’96 and would love to connect with other Wes folk in the PNW!

Becky Nulty, who admits that she’s “been a lurker of the notes for years (decades!),” is also finally joining the fray! She writes, “2018 will be a big year for me: I’ve just started a new position as associate dean of teaching, learning, and assessment at Shoreline Community College, just north of Seattle. The new job should ensure that I finish my doctorate, which focuses on faculty development in higher ed. Also, I’m a recently-licensed foster parent, and my pup and I are hoping to welcome a kiddo into our home in the coming months.” Great news Becky! Thanks for sharing—your notes are welcome here anytime.

Spencer Douglas is a director of integrated marketing for Warner Bros Pictures and the board chair and liaison to the LGBTQ group at WB, where he was able to bring in Jennifer Finney Boylan ’80 to help educate the WB community about issues surrounding transgender representation in media. Over the holidays, Spencer had a great time catching up with Tracy Ferguson ’94, Anne Swan ’96, and Kim Sicard, and regularly keeps up with Megan Caper and Flo Stueck ’96. Spencer says, “I’m thrilled to learn that Eclectic members will be able to move back into the Haus next year!”

Naomi Greyser is continuing to work at University of Iowa, where she recently earned tenure and is executive director of POROI, Iowa’s Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry. She’s excited to be joining faculty in the departments of American studies and gender, women’s and sexuality studies this coming fall. Naomi writes, “Iowa City is a bit off the map of where I imagined ending up when I was in college—yet my husband and I are loving raising our 10-year-old daughter amidst the prairies. Wesleyan helped me think in incredibly intentional ways about political impact and the kind of projects I want to take on—and I feel frequently grateful for my time there!” Naomi has also recently published a book, On Sympathetic Grounds: Race, Gender and Affective Geographies in Nineteenth-Century North America. Anyone interested in social justice issues in relation to the arts and humanities—check it out!

My old WestCo mate Lara Tupper writes: “I released my first full-length CD, This Dance, a tribute to my favorite jazz and pop tunes, on CD Baby and iTunes. I got married in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Torrential rain and a fabulous day. My talented husband, Bobby Sweet, is featured on the album.” Congratz on both accounts, Lara!

David Perry is now a columnist for the west coast magazine Pacific Standard, covering history, politics, culture, and disability rights.

Danielle Langston, another WestCo alum, writes, “After three years living in Brisbane, Australia, working in architecture in the areas of education and aged care, I have relocated to Melbourne with my husband Carl and children, Otto and Sylvie. Carl has taken a position leading the new urban planning department at Monash University, and I am looking for a new architecture firm where I can torture my co-workers with bad jokes and kitten videos. I will miss my time playing in the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, but I am excited to explore the opportunities for music-making here in Melbourne. Get in touch if any of you are ever in this southern neck of the woods.”

Patrick Hutter-Bluml has done a full career flip and started as chef de cuisinefor the owner of one of the largest ecological, organic farms, and online shops in Germany.

Son Tranis in D.C., working as a senior project manager at Forum One, a digital agency, along with two other Wes alumni, Leah Stern ’06 and Shawn Bracket ’97. They recently won a Webby award for their work on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture website! Son also has been kicking around with Cheryl Mejia, who is currently an interventional pain management doc in Western Maryland, and who recently married her partner Clare Madrigal (LGBT nurse navigator for Johns Hopkins) at the pride parade in D.C.; attendees included Son, Joah Iannotta, and probably some other WesFolk inadvertently attending.

Jason Wiser, “I’m living in Somerville, Mass., with my wife and daughter (8), with whom I made a cooperative card game for kids last year called Monsters in the Elevator. Just finished a job as department chair of animation at a private arts college, now teaching classes at Tufts and Harvard in game design and animation at night and working as a mobile game animator by day. Also working with the Boston Globeto make comics to help kids in a rehab hospital imagine themselves as superheroes yayaplay.com.”

Ken Kwiatkowski is living in Jersey City and just celebrated the first birthday of his second son.

Greg Rolland writes, “This past stretch had Wes folks molding my kids right underneath my nose. On my family’s swing through Boston recently, accomplished violinist and music teacher Leah Bartell stuck a viola in the hands of my eldest daughter Sally and convinced her she had natural viola form. The brainwashing took: now she’s determined and excited to start viola. Also, rang in the new year with Peter Follet and Stephanie Flaherty in Easthampton, Mass., who preside over the local basketball league in which my three kids play. So, my girls are hooked on that. All this after they starred in a minor film produced by their cousin Becca Engle ’18 not long ago. Go Wes!”

Finally, big shout to my co-secretary, Katy McNeill, who writes that after spending the past couple of years living in the U.K., she and her family have moved back to the States. They’re back in the Boston area (Arlington) and Katy has started a job at the Harvard Business School library. Living abroad was a really rewarding experience; now they’re settling in back here, reconnecting, managing reverse culture shock, and finding ways to stay connected to British culture (for Katy it’s continuing to listen to a high volume of BBC radio).

Bo Bell | bobell.forreal@gmail.com 

Katy McNeill | mcneill40@gmail.com