Tag: 1996

1996er fam—hope all is well this spring! Weather starting to get nice down here in the DMV—wishing you all happiness, health, and gratitude this season. Now on to some great updates from folks!

Jake Ward just finished five years as NBC’s technology correspondent and is now at work on a follow-up to his 2022 book, The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back. He got to join Amber Frid-Jimenez ’97 on a panel at Wes about AI, and still regularly sees Zach Lyman ’97, Koyalee Chanda and Neal Brandenburg,and Dominique Andrews on his trips to D.C., Los Angeles, and New York.

Leigh Needleman, Laura Warren ’98, and Fawn Phelps ’97 send in news of a wonderful Wesleyan meeting in Cambridge: “We caught up on all things Wesleyan, women in our respective fields, raising headstrong kids, and all other things we folks all experience together. With our classmates turning 50 this year, it has been amazing reuniting and celebrating together.” Leigh continues, “Myself, Rob Mathews, Christian Housh ’97, Tassia Thomas, and Andrew Frishman ’97 enjoyed a sushi dinner and a ridiculous night of exploration at the Rowland Institute at Harvard on the banks of the Charles. A birthday dinner with Jeremy Abramson and our respective families was a blast last month. And, in one week, my family (Andrew Frishman and kids) is traveling to St. Paul to celebrate Daniela Bell’s daughter’s quinceanera.” She sends cheers to reuniting with old friends and looking forward to great future adventures together!

With more than two decades of experience working in network newsrooms, Stacey Samuel now has a boutique production company producing conferences and summits featuring newsmakers and influencers. And still, consults and produces narrative podcasts for former news colleagues and some corporate consulting firms. Stacey also writesin that she made a lovely trip out to Los Angeles to hang with Soraya Burtnett ’95 and her kids.

Revere Greist sends us news he, along with Dan Cohen and Henry Schneider, competed in the New York City Triathlon last October. “Water quality issues” after the heavy rains and flooding resulted in a canceled swim, but they had a great time riding and running and mainly being together again. “Lazar Treschan also raced but we didn’t realize that until afterward and could only share war stories electronically.”

Tom Constabile writes that he moved up to New Rochelle in Westchester County a few years back. After running business development and distribution for the streaming sports service zone in the U.S. and Canada, he’s recently launched a consulting business focused on digital media streaming entertainment, sports, telecom, and consumer technology called UP Media, now open for business and collaborations. His wife, Elena, works in nonprofit event planning for the America India Foundation, and his son attends Webster Elementary School and plays a lot of soccer.

Tracie Broom sends news that “in February 2024, I was voted board president of a small, national association of PR agency owners, PRConsultants Group, at our annual conference in Sacramento. It seemed like a good excuse to round up some old friends to toast turning 50 out West! I traveled from Columbia, South Carolina, joined by old friends Mariah Maclachlan and Peldi Guilizzoni from Bologna, Italy, with their son; I got to catch up with Samantha Kurtzman-Counter ’95 in Healdsburg, where she’s launching an amazing artist- and farmer-in-residence program, and I got to hug Nate Prouty ’01 and Abby Hippsup in Nevada City. Meanwhile, an assortment of ’96ers got together for various 50th birthday shenanigans in Central California. Kate Baker came up from Punta de Mita, Mexico, with her daughter; Bill Macomber, his wife, Annie Weisman, and their kids came from LA; and Jason Walchli, his wife, Pamela Bock, and their kids came down from Portland, Oregon. The Wes-heavy celebrations weren’t limited to the class of 1996. Tony Schloss ’97 left the kids in Brooklyn with Juno Shaye ’98 (who was missed!); Diego Gutierrez ’97 and Kim Diaz Gutierrez ’97 came up with their kids from LA, Katie Wright ’95 and Jason Agard ’94, still wearing their newlywed glow, came up from LA, and Jason Blalock ’94 rolled down from Oakland. In general, while there are still a few elementary and middle school-aged children in the mix, many of my old friends’ kids are teenagers, some in high school and some in college, like my partner Scott’s 17-year-old kiddo (who I joyfully claim as mine too), here in South Carolina. It’s wonderful to see how my friends are navigating changes in their careers, parenthood, and leisure time as their kids are becoming young adults.” 

As for me (Dacque), I am happy to report that I spent spring break in France (Paris, Caen, and Bordeaux) for my 50th birthday. Also, I ran into Shereem Herndon-Brown in Potomac, Maryland, as we both were watching  our children play in sporting events. We caught up on all the happenings in our lives and talked about getting lots of folks back for Reunion weekend. Shereem is founder and president of Strategic Admissions Advice, LLC and speaks nationally on the college admission process. He is the co-author The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions. I will catch his next speech when he gives a talk at my son’s school.

Hi friends! Just a quick update this time around.

Rallie Snowden shares that she is still living in Shenandoah Valley with her just-turned 13-year-old and her 5-year-old. She keeps in touch with Anne Brockelman in Boston.

Sally Lee (NYC) and Kate Baker (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) have been advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza, and recently signed the alumni petition demanding that Wesleyan divest from Israeli interests.

Nina Erlich-Williams writes: “I visited Hilary Hoeber and her sweet family in Davis, California, for a sunny weekend in September. We had a very active weekend that included celebrating Mexican Independence Day at a hops farm, strolling through charming downtown Davis, and lunch with Hilary’s parents (including fellow Wesleyan grad Tom Hoeber ’63). It was a great visit and a wonderful chance to celebrate more than three decades of friendship.”

And the next generation of Wesleyan students continues! Deborah Mahoney tells us that she and her husband Joseph Mahoney ’94 “had a fabulous time dropping our frosh son, Noah, off at Wesleyan this August for pre-season cross country with his new college team! He is living in Foss—which looks exactly the same as it did in 1994—and wishes the Usdan dining hall were a little closer. We lamented the closure of MoCon, but then were surprised at how fabulous the new dining options and meal plan are for the kids these days. We got to observe the first cross-country practice (running a time trial on a track) and then we went home to Minnesota. Later, we were surprised that we got to watch Noah at cross-country nationals while we were out East visiting my mom in Philadelphia! He got pretty sick the day before the race, ended up running anyways, but felt terrible. It was fun for him to be invited, however. Joe and I also met up with Sara Berenbom (now Friedman) whose son, Zach, was running there too—for Tufts!  It was such a blast. Joe and I are still working as physicians in Minnesota. We have a high school sophomore daughter, Isabel, at home. She’s aiming to run Division 1 at some school that is NOT where her brother attends. We’ll see!”

Hope everyone is doing well!  Keep sending us your news!

1996ers family: As we leave the summer months behind, I wish all my classmates well as we look forward to all the fresh blessings of the fall season. Now on to some great updates from folks!

Emily (Merowitz) Tedeschi writes in that after working for 18 years at the largest health system in New Jersey, she joined CommonSpirit, one of the largest health systems in the country, working in their national foundation office as system director of prospect development and research. She asks any of her classmates who are fundraisers or people who work with fundraisers, “let me know; there are always jobs opening up in our 80-plus hospital foundations, mostly on the West Coast.”

Dacque Tirado had dinner and drinks with Dan Mirsky ’97 in Silver Spring, Maryland—the two caught up on all the happenings in their lives, shared pictures of their kids, and recounted great memories from their Middletown days. He also writes that he had an epic summer of international travel as he chaperoned a cultural immersion trip with his students to Buenos Aires, Argentina (magical city), in June. Then was off to Spain with other high school educators where he walked the Camino Ignaciano—selected spots along the way from Bilbao to Barcelona.

Jullia Chowdhury–Quazi and her husband are finally done with the years of tireless educational advocacy. Their son, Kairan, graduated from Santa Clara University in June, at age 14, as the youngest grad in the institution’s history, joined SpaceX in July as the youngest software engineer on the planet, has been featured in thousands of media pieces across the globe, and will soon be inducted into Guinness. Jullia took a three-year break from a career in health-care M&A and looks forward to the next chapter as the family returns to some form of normalcy.

After nearly 25 years in network news as an award-winning reporter and TV and podcast producer, Stacey Samuel has branched out and started her own firm producing podcast series for streaming services, nonprofits with a mission, and global clients.

Christianne Rennke Phillips has taken her two decades as a holistic fitness instructor and nationally titled/winner competitor and certified chef and is now working on a book combining food and culture, drawing on her Chilean heritage and family.

Danny Atwood has taken to writing short stories with his writing group (books selling on Amazon), joined the furry community and attended conventions in character, even managed to learn digital art making. But best of all is the moonlighting gig taken on as the “Real Bearded Santa,” being hired out as a Santa Claus Christmas performer to spread joy and good cheer. “What started out as a lark, buying a Santa suit from Amazon and wearing it out into my neighborhood during the pandemic to bring a little magic to neighbors who desperately needed it, has turned into something much bigger. Getting old and fat isn’t so bad after all!”

In July 2023, Tracie Broom enjoyed a vacation reunion in Italy at the MacZoni Recanati Estate with a bunch of Wes grads. Jason Walchli, his wife, Pamela Bock, and their two kids, Eli and Casey, came from Portland, Oregon. Tony Schloss ’97 and Juno Shaye ’98 came from Brooklyn with their three kiddos, Cy, Uno, and Paloma. Diego Gutierrez ’97 and Kim Diaz ’97 came from LA with their two kids, Bruno and Dahlia. (The MacZoni estate is owned by their dear friends, Mariah Maclachlan and Peldi Guilizzoni, who are known well to many Wes friends around the country.) Back home in Columbia, South Carolina, Tracie and Debi Schadel, the co-owner of her marketing and communications firm, Flock and Rally, were both honored on the Free Times’ “Power List 2023: 30 People Shaping Arts, Culture and Food in Columbia” and they have been successfully delegating most agency operations to their CEO in the last year—a real milestone for entrepreneurs! Tracie and her partner, Scott Nuelken, spent the rest of the summer getting his daughter, June, ready for freshman year at Wofford College in South Carolina. Tracie is deep into gardening and loves to see nerdy gardening posts from fellow Wes folks on social media.

Please write to your class secretaries.

Hello, fellow ’96ers!  Hope this issue of the magazine finds you well.

Shereem Herndon-Brown has co-authored the book The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation about Education, Parenting and Race (https://understandingthechoices.com/book/). He lives outside D.C. with his wife and children.  He wrote: “I’ve had lots of great support from ’96 Wesleyan alums (thanks, Shola Olatoye and Dacque Tirado) and can use more!”

Speaking of Shola, she is looking forward to hosting Shereem in February at her kids’ school to feature his new book. Shola and Matthew Strozier live in the East Bay with their “newly licensed 16-year-old driver, a soon to be driving 15-year-old, and a pirouette-and-gymnastics obsessed 7-year-old.” They manage to see friends Susan Yee, Jake Ward, and Diana Ip ’95 frequently. Shola made it back to NYC in September and saw her sorors Tracey Gardner and Aisha Cook. She also did a drive by Donna Temple’s ’95  place in Harlem. The biggest news is that Shola recently left the public sector and joined an affordable housing developer as their chief operating officer. Before she left the City of Oakland, she had the good sense to hire Emily Weinstein ’97 as deputy director for community development.

Chris Meredith wrote: “COVID brought a lot of changes to my world in medicine. What do people do when changes happen? Seek out new changes! I’ll be finishing up law school in May, though I’m still practicing neurosurgery in Kansas City. My boys are 8 and 10 now and loving school.”

Bill Macomber shared: “Tracie Broom and her travel companion Mariah McLaughlin came to Los Angeles and got a minireunion going on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Annie and I threw the first, flat-out rager that I can remember, since all of that paused in 2020, right as we finished a house that was designed for this kind of shenanigans. . . .  In attendance were Emma Jacobson-Sive, Liam McNiff ’97, Tony Schloss ’97 and Juno Shay ’98 and their three kids, Diego Gutierrez ’97 and Kim Diaz ’97 with their two kids, Katie Wright ’95 and Jason Agard ’94, Pam and Jason Walchli and their two teenagers, Sam Laybourne ’97, Billy Kheel and his wife Marina, Ed Lee ’95 (who just announced his engagement), Bill Wolkoff ’95, Koyalee Chanda and Neal Brandenburg, Ben Stout and his wife Masha and their two girls, Jason Blalock ’94 and his adorable daughter, Morgan Fahey ’95, Anuj Desai, and Jake Ward with his wife Julie and their kids.”

Another gathering happened in September in NYC. Sam Effron wrote: “This past summer I received a note from Barrett Feldman and Sabrina McCormick, lamenting the fact that we did not have a 25th Reunion. They came up with the great idea to host an unofficial reunion (30th anniversary of our frosh year) for anyone who was near, or could travel to, NYC, and another great idea to get me to organize it. And so . . .  I did. On September 17, Barrett, Sabrina, Elijah Hawkes ’97, Glennis Matthews, Brad Roberts, Remy Auberjonois, Dara Federman, Adam Peltzman, Elizabeth Seuling, Anne Swan, Mia Lee, Ben Meyers, Dana Holohan, Ingrid Wong, Omar Rahim, Lee Beresford, Thom Loubet, Debbie Marcus, Jeremy Owens, and I (along with some partners and children) all gathered in Central Park for a beautiful afternoon of lazing, snacking, people watching, reminiscing, catching up, and making new memories.”

A smaller gathering to report: Cora Jeyadame, Nina Erlich-Williams, Hilary Hoeber, Darrah Carr, and I (Dara) spent a weekend in October at an Airbnb. The house was in Vegas, but we did not go to any shows or even spend any time on the strip. It was the first time we had all been together since our reunion in 2016—so we spent the weekend laughing, talking, and comparing notes on how we are different and the same as we were in our senior year, when we all shared a house together.

Hope 2023 is a good year for all, filled with adventures (that you share with the Wes notes)!

Hey fellow ’96ers,

As summer comes to a close, I hope all had some amazing and eventful summer days.

Over the summer months I was able to connect with Debra Stutz Marmor who is enjoying her new life abroad with her family in Israel; Robert “Bobbito” Garcia ’88 who is featured in a new Showtime documentary, NYC Point Gods; and Kem Poston ’97 who is living the LA life and doing good creative work out West. So good to fellowship, connect, and build with folks.

Shereem Brown writes that he is excited about his new book, The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation about Education, Parenting and Race. Check out his link: www.understandingthechoices.com. Shereem was also just featured in Black Enterprise Magazine about the book: https://www.blackenterprise.com/tag/shereem-herndon-brown/.

Amy Pollick writes to say that a bunch of ’96ers were in attendance at Melissa McNamara’s wedding in NYC in April: Rekha Nigam, Charlene Bierl, Amber Gay, Natalie Suhl Bernardino, and of course her sister, Tracy McNamara.

Chung Ma writes that he got up to NYC in June and met with some Wes folks. Alex Fong, John Kong, and Ingrid Wong, and they were all laughing and imbibing together. He is still enjoying Richmond and welcomes any visitors with cocktails if they happen to be in the area.  He is still making sure the teachers get their retirement checks in his day job, as well as spending time with the Council on Economic Education to increase knowledge of economics and financial literacy for all students.

Peace and blessings this fall to all. Go Wes!

#Cardinal4Life

D. Tirado

Hello, fellow ’96ers! I hope this update finds you well.

We have two newly published authors in our midst! In January Jacob Ward published his first book, The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back. It combines interviews with the top minds in behavioral science and cutting-edge reporting on technology to warn readers about the danger that AI is about to do to our most important critical faculties as what Google Maps did to our ability to navigate from place to place. Jake is a technology correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC and debuted the book on the TODAY Show. He lives in Oakland and regularly sees Shola Olatoye and Matt Strozier, Susan Yee, along with Walter Einenkel ’97 and Clara Petit ’97.

Samantha Greene Woodruff published her first novel, The Lobotomist’s Wife. As the title suggests, the main character, Ruth, is the wife of a charismatic doctor who is championing a new treatment in the 1950s, the lobotomy. As the doctor begins to operate recklessly on his patients, Ruth realizes she is the only one who can save them. In addition to buying Sam’s book, you can also read this piece she wrote for Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/my-life-changed-41-after-lifetime-anxiety-1668523.

Daniel Cohen and Mara Kailin are close to 20 years in Denver. Dan’s entrepreneurial COVID baby is Two Tails Story Co. (ttstoryco.com), a start-up founded on the attachment between people and their dogs. The B2C e-commerce company will offer unique, fully personalized books and art. Thanks to the Wes grads that helped Two Tails get started! And Mara left her role in community mental health after 18 years and has been consulting and working with private behavioral health companies (and teaching, taking private clients, and more). The two of them are beginning to wonder about life after their oldest— Eli (16)—goes to college in a couple of years.

Rallie Snowden writes: “I am still living in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with my 11-year-old daughter Porter and my 3 ½-year-old son Miguel. The kids, plus being in my eighth year of working in the counseling center at Washington & Lee University, keep me pretty busy. Cheers to all my fellow Wesleyan alums!”

Finally, Ben Meyer informed us of his cross-country move: “My wife and I relocated from LA to Brooklyn this summer, for her work. My kiddo, Bash, is in fourth grade with Amelia, daughter of Elizabeth Meister ’92, whom I know from grad school in Chicago. She’s always introducing me to other Wes folk in the South Slope. We’re swarming around here! East Coasters, give me a shout.”

It’s always great to hear what folks are up to—please continue to send us your news.

Hey fellow ’96ers. Hope this message finds you all well in our 25th Wesleyan Reunion year. It warmed my heart to see so many of you at the Reunion festivities.Thanks to the Reunion committee that put together a superb program to reconnect us all.

Over the summer months I have connected with other Wes folks that crossed paths with us in 1996—Lucius Outlaw ’93 and Brande Fulgencio ’97, Andy McGadney ’92 and Robert “Bobbito” Garcia ’88.

   Stacey Samuels sends news that she joined a Midwest college tour with Kristen Worrell and her next generation college students—both her twins. Of course their first visit was to dear old Wesleyan at the start of the process.

   Tracie Broom is happy to report that the branding and marketing agency she co-founded in 2010, Flock and Rally, made it through the pandemic and recently was honored with five South Carolina Public Relations Society of America Mercury Awards of Excellence and three Palmetto Awards of Excellence from the South Carolina chapter of the International Business Communicators of America. Tracie and her business partner were just recognized by the regional alt weekly paper in its “Power List” of the top 30 people who shape Columbia, South Carolina’s culture, and the firm just landed a two-year contract to provide communications services to the National Science Foundation’s new Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA). When she’s not practicing the fine art of delegating at work, she can be found chilling in the pool with her partner Scott and his teen daughter, harvesting zinnias, okra and eggplant in her garden, and making long overdue travel plans to visit fellow Wes alums like Kate Baker in Mexico.

   Shola Olatoye and Matthew Strozier send news that they moved their brood of three (15, 13 and 6) kids to the West Coast during the pandemic from New York City. Matthew is still with The Wall Street Journal and Shola is heading up Oakland’s housing and community development department. They scored housing by renting Susan Yee and her husband’s lovely house. Their Oakland Wes “campus” saw socially distanced visits from Jake Ward and his family and Phil Cho ’95 and his wife. They have since bought their own place in this crazy Bay Area housing market (someone should really do something about that!). They have frequent Zoom cocktails with Tracey Gardner, Randy Slaughter and Aisha Cook, who all now live in Westchester County.They look forward to a fall holiday trip East where we can see all our Wes peeps in real life!

   Cathy Thomas writes that she is an assistant professor in the Department of English at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She writes, “My research and teaching covers Caribbean literature and carnival culture, Black feminist thought and play, comic books, science studies, TV/visual and media culture.”

   Danièle Côté (formerly Daniele Bucar) writes that she made the move to Maine about 15 years ago, got married, changed career to nursing, and now has two kids—an 8-year-old girl and a 6- year-old son—with her husband who is an occupational therapist. She’s worked in a number of areas of the nursing profession but is currently a circulating nurse for a local hospital’s surgical department.

She keeps in touch regularly with a few of our 1996 classmates and one of her best friends who is class of 1997, but if anyone is in the Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts area, she would love to hear updates on her fellow New Englanders!

That’s all for now and I am sticking with it—I always enjoy catching-up with all of you so feel free to always drop me a line with news to update folks with!

Yours in the MoCon bond.