Tag: 1995

Calling all ’95ers, calling all ’95ers! ’tis the year of our 20th, yes 20th Reunion. Save the dates of May 21–24, 2015. It is sure to be a fantastic weekend but only if you come. Join and/or check out our Facebook page, groups/30073947769/. We also need your time and, of course, your treasure/s. There are many ways to volunteer and give back; go to wesconnect.wesleyan.edu. Many thanks to those who have already done so. I can’t wait to see you all!—DDB, your dedicated class secretary.

Jacqui P. Rubin and Matthew Healey welcomed a daughter, Isobel Sadie Healey, on May 21. She joins older brother Nathaniel Charles Healey, born on Nov. 22, 2012.

Tamekca Faria married Troy Frisby in September 2014.

Stacy Theberge (now Taylor) traveled around the world for six months, then married her love and partner-in-crime, Jason Taylor, at her parents’ house in Maine. This fall, they bought an old farmhouse near Portland, Maine, and run their animation company, Little Zoo Studio, from it.

Cheryl Mejia says, “I am in my final year of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) residency! I will therefore finally be back in the job market after eight years of training. We physiatrists are good at non-surgical orthopedics, including injections, manual medicine, and rehabilitation of stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and cardiopulmonary diseases. A spine and sports (interventional pain management) fellowship wouldn’t be bad either! My gal, Clare, and I are still loving Miami. Drop a line if you are in town! Oh, and my e-mail signature also says that I am VP of Women in Medicine. If you are an LBT physician, you should check us out! Super fun as well as educational. WomenInMedicine.org.”

Amy Casher states, “My husband, daughter, and I are so happy to welcome our newest family addition, Lucas Casher Seibel, born August 25. We recently moved to Concord, Mass., from downtown Boston, and are enjoying life on the Sudbury River.”

Jason Wiser (married name of Jason Wiener) is launching his iPad kids game “DinoTrucks”—about digging up and building dinosaur skeletons—on Oct. 15, 2014, just in time for National Fossil Day! Press release, screenshots, and ridiculously cute trailer video narrated by his daughter available here: YayaPlay.com/DinoTrucks.

Jen Levine-Fried completed her master’s of science in accounting in December 2013, and got her CPA just last week. She is an accountant for a nonprofit in Boston, where she has been living since 2001. Jen is bringing the whole family to Middletown in May for our 20th (husband Matt and kids, who will be 6 and 8). She is looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Jeanne Bonner shares: “Happy to contribute to the class news. I’ve just started a master of fine arts in creative writing program at Bennington College. I continue to work as an NPR station reporter and am the proud mamma of my 2-year-old son, Leo, who can now triumphantly say, “I got ya!” and “I found it!” I am really enjoying immersing myself in reading and writing again, and am re-reading some texts I haven’t read in quite a few years! Hope everyone is doing well.”

Alexis Greeves is living in Minneapolis these days and has a private practice in which she does play therapy with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. David, her husband, and Alexis have two daughters (Ruby, 5, and Eliza, 2). Alexis left the East Coast (she was in D.C. for 12 years) kicking and screaming but is really loving life in the Midwest! Here’s her website: hopeandhealingmn.com.

Ryan Knox spent the summer teaching legal philosophy to pre-frosh at Brown University. He rather liked that Brown waitlisted him and now he was lecturing there! He is spending the fall writing poetry at Westlake, in Hangzhou, China, before returning to Hong Kong and New Haven where he splits his time and his life to achieve balance.

Jessica Peterson lives in Grand Junction, Colo., with her husband, Dave, and their daughters Elena (11) and Claire (6). She is the editor of The Maverick—the magazine for Colorado Mesa University. She also teaches in the mass communication program at CMU. (This is a recent development, after years of working as a reporter, and then as the communications/PR director for Mesa County, Colo.) When not chasing the kids on skis and mountain bikes, Jessica satisfies her inner drama geek by performing in community theater and dance productions, and also does some professional voice-over work. She serves on the board of directors at the Museum of Western Colorado.

(Jennifer) Parker Dockray is celebrating her first year as the executive director of Backline, a national nonprofit promoting support for experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption. Their campaign to open the country’s first All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center was just profiled in Cosmopolitan.com and is slated to open in Indiana next spring. Parker is loving life in Oakland with her second grader, and although she’s grateful to Facebook for keeping her connected to so many Wes classmates, she looks forward to seeing folks in person at our 20th Reunion.

Ana Maria Kleymeyer’s biggest news is that she co-produced a documentary called La Ruta de las Almas (The Road of the Souls) this year. It’s in its final stage of production. Other than that, Ana started her own consulting business—a small project she calls Instruments for Change. She consults on international environmental law as well as art projects with social and environmental impact. And she has moved back to the USA after five years in Europe.

DWAYNE BUSBY | dwaynedbusby@yahoo.com 

Wendy Gale is working in literacy and Bible translation with Wycliffe Bible translators in Yaoundé, Cameroon. She sends greetings to her classmates.

Lara Tupper is working on a new book and continues to croon jazz standards in intimate venues in the Berkshires. She is looking forward to putting out a live CD soon.

Ryan Knox is finishing up his third year teaching American literature at an international school in Hong Kong. He will return to Yale University in New Haven on June 1, 2014.

Suzanne Snider and her partner, Robin, welcomed a baby girl, Claude Poppy, last September. Currently, Suzanne is teaching oral history at Columbia University and directs a program called Oral History Summer School in Hudson, N.Y. She is in touch with many Wes friends and looks forward to hearing her Wes housemate, Lily Mazzarella, read at the Poetry Project on April 21.

Josh Gilbert shares great news that Carey Bartell was recently promoted to vice president of litigation at Hospira, Inc.

Wesleyan has meant a lot to us all. So take some time, reminiscence, and go to thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu to tell us your “This Is Why” story. Or just go there to read other Wesleyanites’ “This Is Why” stories. I appreciate all your notes and updates; they mean the world to me and you are part of my “This Is Why” story. In advance, I thank all of you ’95ers for taking the time to tell your stories and for supporting our Wesleyan.

Best wishes from Houston, Texas.

DWAYNE BUSBY | dwaynedbusby@yahoo.com

Joanna Greenwald is managing partner at Greenwald Law Offices in New York: “We are a general practice with a family law center building only dedicated to divorce and family law needs. It is the only one in New York. Also we can be seen at greenwaldlaw.com, where criminal, personal injury, commercial, and litigation are handled, covering all boroughs of New York and the Hudson Valley.”

Beth Shilepsky Price states: “Things are still going great for us outside of Charleston, S.C. I am a family medicine doctor in a rural area and our kids are now 9, 7, and 4. I recently spoke to Drea Beale, who is keeping busy with her husband and two young daughters in California. She is still teaching and recently ran a marathon. Kristin Dunn ’96 is also in California, living the dream with her husband and young daughter. She continues to do amazing work bookbinding (thank you for the recent book I bought from you!). On a trip to Boston this summer I had the chance to catch up with Camille Mendoza, who is living with her significant other, Paul, in Medford and still loving her job at the Museum of Fine Arts as a graphic designer.”

From the journal of Spencer Douglas: “I thought I’d reach out and let you know that I’ve been in L.A. for about five years now and was just promoted in June to manager, integrated marketing, at Warner Bros., working on feature film marketing. I get to work with filmmakers on all of our tentpole titles and with all different divisions of the company (DC, Home Video, Consumer Products, Videogames, Promotions, Online, etc.), helping them with their various programs. It’s interesting, to say the least!”

Adam French states: “The big news over here is a second kiddo—Ty Carl French. Born on October 16th. The fun continues.

From Douglas Sabo: “I had a nice Wesleyan showing at my recent wedding to Christopher Nichols (Stanford) in Calistoga, Calif. My wedding party included David Smith ’92 and Josh Gilbert, who of course was joined by his wife, Carey Bartell. Also great to have Marcus Chung ’98 there as well. Meanwhile, Chris, Chloe (our 2-year-old) and I can’t wait to share more news in the near future. I’ve recently become vice president and head of global corporate philanthropy and responsibility at Visa Inc.”

Ethan de Seife here: “My wife, Laura, and I, after five years in Brooklyn, quit our jobs and headed north. We now live in Burlington, Vt., where it’s beautiful, quiet, and pleasant. We are contemplating buying little booties for our dog, Dutch, so he can romp in the snow without fweezing his widdle doggie feets. Laura is a speech-language pathologist at a local nursing home, and I’m now an arts writer for Seven Days, Burlington’s ‘alternative weekly’ newspaper.”

Jason Segal and Laura Boucai-Segal welcomed their first baby, Julia Daphne Segal, on Nov. 6^, (7 lbs., 4 oz.). “She has a fondness for crying, guzzling milk and occasionally sleeping, and has already indicated her strong interest to be part of the Wesleyan class of ’34.”

Leigh Copperman Burchell reported a very busy 2013. She loves her job as VP of policy and government affairs for a large health information technology company, and she and her husband, Chris Burchell ’96, moved twice within Raleigh, N.C., to find just the right house in a great neighborhood close to downtown. They are raising their three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and on top of all that, Leigh went through a breast cancer battle this year (that, thankfully, ended with an excellent prognosis) and is now in the rear-view mirror. She wanted to remind everyone to be diligent about preventive care, though—we’re not getting any younger, and it can happen to us!

Some news from DC: Marc Schleifer calls 2013 “an eventful year.” He says, “I got the official, six-years-of-clean-scans, all-clear, we’ll finally say the word ‘remission’ stamp of approval from my doctor early in the year. Then in April, my wife Amber and I wed in Brooklyn (there were some Wes folks in attendance). Then in September we were finally able to start living in the same city, bidding goodbye to our previous NYC-DC weekend commuting life, when she moved from the New York Federal Reserve to a position with the Fed Board of Governors down here. My own career took a fortunate turn, as I became regional director for Eurasia and South Asia at the Center for International Private Enterprise, an economic and political development nonprofit. Meanwhile my wonderful son turned 8 in November, and now my 10-year grad school reunion is looming in April 2014 (with our Wes 20-year not too far in the future)!”

Kimberly Sicard got married in Las Vegas on Oct. 13, 2013: “My fellow ’95ers Joanna Unze Braden and Alexis Williams Coatney attended the wedding.”

Lara Tupper writes: “I’m enjoying my new adventures in freelance land (writing, singing and teaching) and about to begin a post-graduate semester in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. (Time to take my next book to task.) I was pleased to reunite with Chelsea Farley and Laura Pinsof and families in Hudson, N.Y., for late summer ice cream and talk.”

Rob Armstrong gives “The Big News from the Armstrong family”—they are moving to London in 2014, where Rob will be running the Financial Times’ “Lex” column. “We will be living in Balham, south of the river,” he says, adding, “Would love to see any Wes types who are passing through.”

DWAYNE BUSBY
dwaynedbusby@yahoo.com