Tag: 1996

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classnotes@wesleyan.edu

We start with the very sad news that Noah Clay Lemert passed away on March 27 from complications from colon cancer. Contributions in his memory can be sent to the Appalachian Mountain Club. You can read his obituary at magazine.wesleyan.edu. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.

Kelly Bird and her wife, Jane, are moving from Philadelphia to West Hartford, Conn., with their newly adopted daughter, Josephine, and Kelly’s children, Kieran (18) and Jacquo (14). Kelly is going to be the early childhood director at Renbrook School, and her wife is going to be a trauma surgeon at Hartford Hospital. Kelly is entering her last year of UPenn’s Mid-Career Doctoral Program in school leadership.

Sabrina McCormick writes from Brooklyn that she released her first scripted feature film, Sequestrada, and has also established a new company, PandemicProof Productions, to get film and media up and running in the face of COVID-19.

It’s hard to believe, but our 25th Reunion is coming up next spring! Save the date: May 21-23, 2021, for the Class of ’96 25th Reunion. If you’d like to be involved in planning the Reunion, please contact Nelson Albino MALS ’19, assistant director of annual giving, at nalbino@wesleyan.edu.

We hope this issue of class notes finds you healthy and safe. We look forward to hearing more updates soon!

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

Howdy, classmates—I hope this message finds you all well in 2020! I made sure to send out last year with a bang by experiencing an amazing trip to Albania and The Balkans (Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia)—a must see part of the globe for all of you world travelers.

I’ve also enjoyed catching up with Kristen Worrell, Kwesi Fraser, and Javaid Khan via text and email over the last few months.

Marysol Castro sends in news that she’s returned to television as the host of the 9 a.m. hour of the PIX11 Morning News. You can catch it Monday through Friday on channel 11 in New York or stream it on pix11.com. She will continue her duties as PA announcer for the New York Mets. She mentions she has no idea when she’ll sleep, but tell ’96ers to come visit her in the booth if you find yourself at CitiField!

Stacey Samuel (a fellow DMVer) is now executive producer of Al Jazeera America and we might link up soon at a local concert venue, the famed 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.

Jake Sussman and Jessica Flaxman are living outside of Cambridge, Mass., with their two daughters, Julia (17) and Lydia (11). Jake is a managing director of The Justice Collaborative, a criminal justice reform project. Check out its journalism arm, The Appeal (theappeal.org). Jessica is in her first year of a doctoral program in educational leadership at Penn and consulting with a number of schools. Their biggest family news is that Julia, a senior at Concord Academy, received word that she will be a member of Wesleyan’s class of 2024! Woohoo!

Rallie Snowden writes to say. “Happy New Year,” and to update all that she adopted a second child last year. His name is Miguel and he is joyful and heavily loved by his mama and his sister, Porter. She says that other than being a full-time mama, she’s about to reach her six-year mark of being a university counselor and the LGBTQ coordinator at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.

Lazar Treschan started a new job as vice president for policy and impact at Here to Here, a new nonprofit in the Bronx that is trying to change NYC high schools and colleges to make them more experiential and utilize more internships and other work-based learning approaches. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, who also works in the nonprofit youth field, and his two kids, Celia and Elodie.

Kelly Bird is living in Philadelphia with her wife, Jane. She’s working on her doctorate in school leadership at UPenn and coaching student-teachers from the master’s program at Penn, working in a South Philly public school. Kelly’s daughter, Oona, is headed to college in the fall, her son, Jacquo, is headed to high school, and she has a baby named Josephine that she and Jane adopted last year.

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

Hello, ’96ers! Just a few updates this time:

Jesse Wegman, his wife, and their two daughters, Sami and Natalya, live in Brooklyn, surrounded in all directions by Wesleyan alumni from all years. He is still on the New York Times editorial board, where he writes about the Supreme Court and legal issues. His first book, Let the People Pick the President, is being published in the spring. It’s an argument in favor of the national popular vote.

Sara and Colby Evans moved to Edinburgh temporarily in February with their children Quinn (11), Malcolm (10), and Ruby (8). They had a great time exploring the city and returned home to Austin, Texas, in time for the school year.

Nina Erlich-Williams writes: “In August, I brought my two kids (ages 11 and 13) to NYC for a few days to give them a taste of life in the Big City—much different from their small-town life in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. We were lucky enough to stay with Dara Federman in her lovely Park Slope apartment. One of the highlights of our visit was spending a day with Dara and her two daughters kicking around some of the sites. So fun to get the next generation together!”

Thanks for the news. Keep it coming!

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

Happy June to all the ’96ers out there. I am writing these notes from Buenos Aires, Argentina—it’s my fourth time—magical city. Salute to Jason Rosado for giving me the skinny on the city of Buenos Aires a few years ago as I traveled to Argentina for the first time. Gracias, maestro.

Tom Constabile moved to New Rochelle and is vice president of business development, North American, for DAZN, a sports streaming service. He joined the BRC Leadership council with Miguel Guadalupe ’98. He still plays hoops and his 1-year-old son Tommy Jr. just graduated from preschool. Que cute!

Stacey Samuel is NPR’s supervising editor. She was nominated to participate in the U.S. Army War College’s National Security Seminar as one of the few civilians to attend, where she met with leading foreign policy thinkers, military commanders, and former U.S. top intelligence director James R. Clapper. Stacey is a longtime member of the National Association of the Black Journalists and she is the D.C. chapter leader for the German journalist exchange, Radio in the American Sector.

Christianne Renke, after completing culinary school, is opening a restaurant in Miami where she and her husband are developing a commercial waterfront property for boat enthusiasts and foodies.

Lauren Elmore earned a doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is now the director of academic administration of the MFA theater program at Columbia University. She is resident of Inwood, a great neighborhood in Uptown Manhattan.

Angela Tucker is a filmmaker in New Orleans. Her latest short documentary, All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk, got a lot of buzz.

Kristen Greenidge is a successful playwright living in Boston and teaching at Boston University.

Freddy Rolon is a vice president and general manager of ESPN Deportes overseeing all aspects of the ESPN Deportes business.

Shereem Brown will celebrate 20 years of marriage to his wife, Keri, in December. His son attends Georgetown Prep, where Dacque Tirado is a teacher and administrator.

Javaid Khan, whom I saw in December in Nashville at the NAIS/POCC conference is leaving his alma mater—the Bank Street School—and going to Horace Mann, where he will head the middle division. He is tapping into Wes talent base for his assembly speakers—Jose DeJesus ’97, the new head of Lake Forest Academy in Chicago, Stacey Samuel at NPR, and filmmaker Ben Selkow. He saw Shola Olatoye and Donaldine Temple ’95 at Alvin Ailey in New York and saw Kali Harrison ’97 out in California.

Daniela Bell ’96, MA’98 spent the last year living in Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico. She said it was an unbelievably amazing year. Her daughter, 10, has spent the school year at a local school, so now naturally she speaks Spanish better than her mother. They will head back to St. Paul, Minn., in July and will begin the work that goes into opening her husband Eric’s new restaurant.

Alissa Deitz sends greetings from Austin. She has been there for 10 years now. Although she does not know any Wes folks there, she still stays in touch with her roommates from frosh year: Jake Ward, Koyalee Chanda, Kate Baker, and Mara Kailin. They are hoping to rendezvous at the 25th Reunion. She is a tutor for children diagnosed with dyslexia. She read Ben Foss’s [’95] book, The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan, on the subject and it was immensely helpful.

Leigh Needleman and Andrew Frishman ’97 along with their two kids met up with Daniela Bell’s family in Oaxaca for a wonderful week of exploration and discovery. Steve Uydess and Leigh got to hang out for a few stinky days running a Ragnar relay in Oregon. Steve is a secondary school teacher at Highline School in Seattle where he lives with his wife, Gaby, and three kiddos. Leigh works at Harvard as a building designer. is now the sole scientist on the design team for a new building in Harvard’s new frontier in Allston.

Sara Kirchhoff Evans and Colby Evans are living in Edinburgh with their three children. They are having a great time exploring Scotland together and will return to Austin later this year.

Rallie Snowden adopted a baby boy last summer. Miguel will turn 1 in July and he is very loved by big sister Porter.

Big ups to Pritha Mittal’s election to Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees—so our class knows we have a voice. She is so excited to hear from anyone and everyone!

Michael Brotchner, Seattle resident, was hired by YouthBuild USA as its chief strategy officer, where he will be responsible for implementing the organization’s new five-year strategic plan and overseeing the nonprofit’s fundraising efforts.

Kem Poston ’97 is celebrating a productive second year as a LA transplant. He is enjoying his work producing unscripted docuseries and documentaries.

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

Hi, fellow ’96ers! Hope everyone is well! The notes are short but sweet this round. Let’s get to them.

Billy Kheel writes, “I just installed a 17-foot window display of felt quilts at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, inspired by Parliament Funkadelic’s 1994 Wesleyan Spring Fling performance. That Spring Fling was so legendary I thought it only appropriate to immortalize it in felt in the largest record store in the world. Amoeba let me do it because I was just on Making It with Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler (which you can still check out on NBC.com).”

Rallie Snowden’s son, Miguel, was born over the summer.

Anne Genereux is living in a rural mountain town in Montana, working as a therapist, and finishing her dissertation on healthy relationship education. 

Sara and Colby Evans are moving temporarily this spring and summer to Edinburgh, Scotland, along with their three children (Quinn, 10, Malcolm, 9, and Ruby, 7). They are excited to try someplace new for a while and will be returning to Austin in August.

Thanks for the updates! Keep them coming. 

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

Dacque Tirado talks to Shereem Brown often, as they live near each other in Montgomery County in Maryland. He teaches high school in the Bethesda area and looks forward to reconnecting with the Wesleyan Washington, D.C., Alumni Club this fall.

Jullia Chowdhury Quazi has been busy helping her son acclimate to college coursework. At 9 years old, Kairan Quazi is among the youngest college students in the country. He is earning his A.A. degree in mathematics and chemistry at a college in the SF Bay Area, and has his sights set on transferring to a four-year college in a couple of years. Hello, Wesleyan?

Daniela Louisa Bell moved with her husband and 10-year-old daughter to Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico. It was time to get back to her Mexican roots and for her daughter to learn the language and explore her heritage more, meet a million tías and primos (aunts and cousins). And frankly, to eat a lot of amazing food (Oaxaca is a culinary/gastronomic superstar within Mexico . . . and therefore the world, too!). If any Wes folks find themselves contemplating coming to southern Mexico to Oaxaca—look her up! They’d love to show you around this amazing place.

Jayme L. Peta, PhD saw Dana Schneider and Elizabeth Wilson ’95 in New York. Jayme is starting a new position as the assistant director of the office of professional development at Palo Alto University. She said, “I’m so excited to be headed back into higher education.”

Flo Stueck was inducted into the 2018 Wes Athletics Hall of Fame. Flo was the most prolific scorer in Wesleyan women’s soccer history and holds almost every scoring record—most goals in a career (49), season (16), and game (4; tied with two others), and most points in a career (115) and season (37). A captain her senior season, Flo concluded her career with several accolades. She was named to the 1995 NEWISA Senior Bowl, was a Division III All-New England selection, was named the 1994 MVP of the ECAC Championships, was selected to the NEWISA All-Star Team, and earned an All-Star selection by NSCAA/Umbro. Flo was also a member of the 1994 women’s soccer team that was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. Flo co-authored a chapter called “Well-Being: Bisexuality and Mental and Physical Health” in the textbook Bisexuality: Theories, Research, and Recommendations for The Invisible Sexuality (2018, Springer Publishing Company).

Stacey Samuel lives in D.C. where she is a supervising editor at NPR, helping to run the newsroom. She remains best friends with Kristen Worrell and Christianne Rennke Phillips and speaks to both daily.

Nina Erlich-Williams got together with Cora (Stubbs-Dame) Jeyadame in April in Southern California. They spent a leisurely day that included margaritas at lunch, shoe shopping, and a visit with her wife and their adorable kiddos on the beach. In July, Dara Federman and Nina went to San Francisco to visit with Hilary Hoeber, her husband, and their adorable baby girl. Nina enjoys life in Corvallis, Ore., with her husband and two boys. They’re just wrapping up another glorious summer that involved a lot of fresh produce from the garden and canning things like salsa, jams, and pickles. She and her husband, Sev, run a small PR firm that primarily serves nonprofits. If any Wes folks are passing through Corvallis, let her know!

Jesse Wegman lives with his wife, Kyra, and their two daughters, Sami and Natalya, in Wesleyan-stone Brooklyn. In the apartment directly above them, by chance, were Amani Willett ’97 and Ali Kalis, and their sons Satchel and Kai—although they sadly moved north to Massachusetts in the summer.

Jesse is on the editorial board of the New York Times, where he’s spent the past five-plus years writing editorials about the Supreme Court and national legal affairs. He will be taking a leave after the midterms to write a book calling for the end of the electoral college and adoption of a national popular vote for president, which will be published in early 2020, just in time to make a lot of people either happy or angry.

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com

We start with some sad news today. Elizabeth Ann Bender passed away on Nov. 27, 2017. Our thoughts go out to her family and friends.

Barrett Feldman wrote in with the happy news of the birth of her son, Charles Nathaniel Halpern, born on Christmas 2017. Charlie was named after Barrett’s father.

Marysol Castro became a PA announcer for the New York Mets. She is the first female in franchise history and the second in Major League Baseball. She has also launched a new project, somosonair.com, a show that profiles Latinos in all walks of life.

Sabrina McCormick just got tenure at GW Milken Institute School of Public Health and is about to finish her first feature film, Tribe.

Roshanie Adhin moved to New Rochelle with her family at the end of last summer. She writes, “I love having a backyard, planting a garden, and this year, all three kids will be in the same school. I work at Citi—leading their digital transformation initiatives for the commercial bank. So far, so good.”

Rallie Snowden is in her fourth year of working in the counseling center at Washington and Lee University where she is also the LGBTQ coordinator for the campus. She has a 7-year-old daughter and is in the waiting stage for baby number two. Rallie caught up with Anne Brockelman in Boston.

Neil Charran writes: “I’m still working in NYC for ClearBridge Investments, celebrating 10 years. My daughter, Charlotte, will be 2 in August. You can check out my little lady on Instagram @charlottecharron. I’ve written a sci-fi novel called Gideon Star: The Shields of Gideon Prime and will self-publish it on Amazon later this summer. Philip Dinolfo ’14 is helping me with editing.”

Shereem Herndon-Brown and his family relocated to North Bethesda, Md., after living in Atlanta for 11 years. He owns an educational consulting company, Strategic Admissions Advice. He’s happy to be back east where he can connect with more Wes friends and family. In the fall, his rising ninth grade son will be attending Georgetown Prep, where Dacque Tirado teaches.

Speaking of Dacque, he recently joined Stacey Samuel for an NPR Tiny Desk concert at their offices in D.C. He has spoken to tons of Wes folks recently—Shereem Herndon-Brown, Andy McGadney ’92, Kwesi Fraser, Lucius Outlaw ’93, and Bobbito Garcia ’88. Dacque hopes to make it out to Wes alumni events soon. He congratulates the 2018 Wes lacrosse team, who beat Salisbury 8–6 to win their first ever NCAA Men’s Division III Championship.

Leigh Needleman, Andrew Frishman ’97, and their two kids (5 and 8 years old) vacationed in D.C. Leigh tells us: “We had a wonderful reunion with the families of Sasha Dennis Moreno and Bookie Neuburger ’95. Our kids all had a grand time running around with each other, which was so much fun to witness. While we were in D.C., we had the great fortune of frolicking with Melissa Feldberg Whipps ’97 and her family at a few museums. As for careers, I am the scientist on the design team for the new Harvard SEAS megabuilding in Allston. Andrew continues to push the envelope of the education world as the coleader of Big Picture Learning.”

Ann (Camp) Mason and her husband moved to Middletown, Conn., from South Florida, after a promotion. Ann is now the general manager of the New England branch of Future Metals, servicing aerospace customers from Virginia to Ontario. She has enjoyed participating in alumni events at Wes, especially the female athlete mentoring sessions. She observes that there is no organized list of former Wes women’s rugby players and asks that “anyone living in the New England area or beyond and willing to participate in these mentoring sessions should reach out to me or Karen Whalen, director of athletic fundraising: linkedin.com/in/kbwhalen. I think these young women can greatly benefit from what you ladies can share.”

Kristin Mercer wrote, “My family and I are still living in Columbus, Ohio, where my husband, Joel, and I teach at Ohio State University. Our Ohio-born daughter, Ines, 7, has grown into a real Buckeye who loves reading, running, and swimming. We took a family trip to Spain this spring and enjoyed the rich history, the beautiful natural areas, and steeping ourselves in such a different culture.”

Dara Federman | darasf@yahoo.com 

Dacque Tirado | dacquetirado@yahoo.com