Tag: 1997

Hope 2019 has been good to you and your loved ones . . . we appreciate the updates! The class of ’97 has at least two books coming out, so be on the lookout for them.

Lauren Porosoff and her co-author husband have a new book coming out in August called Two-for-One Teaching: Connecting Instruction to Student Values. Their book is an approach to instructional design to incorporate social-emotional learning into every stage of an academic unit. Looking forward to reading it. Congratulations, Lauren!

Larisa Ortiz has been on a speaking tour promoting her book Ecology of Place. She shared the stage with Colorado governor, and now presidential candidate, John Hickenlooper ’74! They chatted backstage about their Wes connection, which is always fun. Larisa always tries to connect with Dara Katz in D.C. and really enjoys keeping up with everyone’s lives on Facebook. “Keep the good news flowing everyone! In this day and age, we all need it.” Larisa lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, with her 9-year-old son, Xavier. After 11 years as a small business owner, she just sold her consulting practice to a D.C. firm called Streetsense and will now co-lead their Research and Analytics Studio, as well as their New York office. Great news, Larisa!

Wendy Paget Henderson is the child welfare director for the State of Wisconsin. She lives in Madison with her husband and spunky daughter and spends all her free time outside and traveling. Keep up the good work—wow!

Aileen Nagle McDonough is busy running her company, 3am Writers, in Rhode Island, and often travels to NYC for business if any Wes friends would like to connect. She was excited to watch Wesleyan win the DIII national lacrosse championship at Gillette Stadium and visited Wes campus to take her son, Shane, to a lacrosse prospect day. (Now, if that doesn’t make us feel old!)We all got super teary-eyed at the idea of taking our kids to see Wesleyan as an amazing prospective college. Keep the updates coming! We love to hear from you.

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Greetings, Class of 1997! Monica White wrote that in November, she was “delighted to host Matvei Yankelevich ’95 in Nottingham, U.K., where he gave several well-received talks at the University of Nottingham and a local independent bookshop about translation, small press publishing, and his own poetry.

She reconnected with former German House housemate, Nathan Eddy ’98, in London for dinner with his lovely family followed by a Wes-hosted reception with Professor William Pinch. She is looking forward to a year-long sabbatical starting to work on her next book. Monica is a lecturer in Slavonic studies at the University of Nottingham, where she focuses her research on medieval Russian and Byzantine history.

Josh and Maggie Suniewick are settling into life in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., after moving from Philadelphia two years ago. Josh shared that at our 20-year Reunion, he reconnected with fellow classmates and bandmates from The Solids (founded in 1996 at Wesleyan), Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. They decided to get the band back together, along with Pat Butler ’98. “If you are into hooky, melody-laced rock sprinkled with How I Met Your Mother references (courtesy of Carter and Craig) you can find out about upcoming shows in the NYC area at our website, thesolids.com. Remember, you are never too old to rock and roll . . . just remember to bend at the knees.”

Ben Helphand said he was honored to be part of the Next City Vanguard, Class of 2018, which is “a gathering of the top young urban innovators working to make change in cities.” As executive director of NeighborSpace, Chicago’s land trust for community gardens, Ben has helped create a network of community-managed nature play areas across Chicago. Instead of the traditional slides and swings, he writes that they borrow elements from the natural world—boulders and hollow logs—to allow children to work with loose parts and create their own worlds.

Go, Wes ’97!

Please e-mail us your updates and thoughts, books, movies, and TV recommendations. Sasha recently read and absolutely loved Katya Apekina’s The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, told from multiple narrators in one strange, artistic, amazing, and terrifying family, as they move between New York and New Orleans. Absolute page-turner, well told. What’s on your nightstand? (Or phone reader app?)

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Thanks for your updates, Class of 1997!

60 Minutes producer Alexandra Poolos has been nominated for an Emmy for her most recent story, a profile of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Alexandra, we’re so proud of you!

It was great to hear from Monica Santana Rosen, who wrote in to share, “It’s hard to believe, but my husband and I celebrated 21 years since the day we first met, which was just after Wesleyan graduation. We have three kids, two boys and a girl, ages 14, 10, and 6. I’m running my own consulting firm and just about to celebrate two years in business.”

Min and Alejandro Santandrea launched a new shoe brand, SantM, and had the launch party during New York Fashion Week in the former studio/home of Jean-Michele Basquiat that was owned by Andy Warhol. “We had a great Wes turn out. Thy Pham flew in from Seattle to help us. Shelby Stokes, Soraya Kernizan, Susan Lee, Susan Ha, and Josh White ’84 were there. Rebecca, the daughter of Professor Emeritus John Paoletti, represented the Paolettis. Also, received a great support from Christian Housh and his wife, Tassia Thomas, Tyler Moriguchi ’95, Michele Lau, Lauren Wolfe, Charlson Choi, and Maggie Suniewick.” Check them out at santm.co (we totally did!) And, because it’s such a small world . . . turns out Min’s kids and Sasha’s kids go to the same elementary school in NYC. And we are having coffee as soon as she’s back from Italy (ah, the shoes!).

We have exciting news from Matt Mulvey and his wife, Katie Sacksteder. They welcomed another boy, Finn Mulvey, into the world in June 2017. Katie and Matt sold their company, BeneVir Biopharm, Inc., to Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson) in July of this year, which made headlines in the hot field of cancer immunotherapy. They will remain at the helm of the company for the foreseeable future and are excited about all of the resources available at Janssen to accelerate the development of their innovative cancer treatments. But, they are most happy about being able to spend more time with their kids now that they don’t have to raise capital anymore. Congratulations, Matt and Katie! And good luck with your work discovering new therapies to fight cancer—how amazing!

Your class co-secretaries have an update. We got to spend the day together in July in NYC. Sasha and her son (age 7) and Jess and her two youngest sons (ages 9 and 6) went to lunch at Russ & Daughters at the Jewish Museum and then to the American Museum of Natural History. We lucked out on the unusually cool weather that came right after a quick summer storm. Roaming around the city together felt magical. And we cannot wait till the next Wes Reunion with all of you (mere seconds away, in 2022)! Until then, send us your photos and updates.

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Hi, Class of 1997! We hope you had a lovely summer. Cyrus Bryden writes: “I have been living in Charlotte, N.C., for about 13 years and my partner, Pina, and I have three children (ages 12, 11, and 8). I am employed by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and regulate predominantly in the financial services and energy industries. I am an active coaching volunteer for my children’s sports teams (lacrosse, soccer, and baseball). This summer, I hope to reconnect again with David Katz and his beautiful family in Destin Beach, Fla.”

Brent and Alison Keimowitz Spodek are in the Hudson Valley, where Alison is an associate professor of chemistry at Vassar College and Brent is the rabbi at Beacon Hebrew Alliance. His synagogue held a benefit concert with Dar Williams ’89. Photos are online at facebook.com/beaconhebrewalliance. This summer Brent and Alison spent time with Ilana Sumka in Belgium, where she lives with her family.

Josh Suniewick writes: “Maggie and I hosted a Wesleyan reunion party at our home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Memorial Day weekend. We had so much fun at our 20th last spring that it seems to be the only way to spend Memorial Day weekend. The best part was not only being surrounded by so many Wes friends, but seeing the next generation of 23 possible Wesleyan students having such a blast together.” Go to magazine.wesleyan.edu to view a group photo that includes Maggie (McLean) Suniewick, Josh Suniewick, Amani Willett, Maya Kremen, Joanna Starrels, Niko Higgins, Yaron Ben-Zvi, Tony Schloss, Alex Grashow, Carter Bays, Emma (Ditrinco) Sollars, Emma Cooper-Serber, Katharine Bailey, Kimberly King, and Mike Lenore. Other WesSpouses in attendance were Alejandro Luciano ’96, Juno Shaye ’98, and Ben Selkow ’96.

In other news, beginning July 1, we have four new AAEC officers leading the Alumni Association Executive Committee, including Kimberly King, vice chair.

That’s all for now! Take care and feel free to send us your updates and photos, which can be posted to the class notes website.

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Class of 1997, we hope your new year has been a good one so far! Winter requires extra coffee and really should have extra weekends.

Let’s start off with some lovely news from Susanne Blossom: “Sergio Barahona and I are happy to report the birth of our son, John Rodrigo Barahona Blossom, in November. I have been a public defender in Los Angeles for many years and though I love it, I am loving maternity leave even more.” Congratulations, Susanne!

Michelle Conceison wrote to share some fantastic news: “My management company, Market Monkeys, is growing and things are going well in Nashville! Our client Rose Cousins’ album ‘Natural Conclusion’ is nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical category.” Great news, great album!

We’re so happy for Leah Brown Johnson! She wrote: “I am growing as a successful entrepreneur. I run Be Equipped LLC, a training, coaching, and development company. I help new and emerging entrepreneurs and business leaders turn their visions into proven results (beequippedllc.com). I’m preparing to celebrate 20 years of service through my nonprofit, AFCOM Inc. We have been consistently serving at-risk youth who struggle with poverty and homelessness (afcominc.org). I’m loving life, family and business!” Amazing, Leah! We are proud of you.

Big update from Alix Olson: “Happy 2018, everybody! My partner, Jaime, and I just added a second kid to our gang. Her brother is 4. I am also about to begin as professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Oxford College of Emory University, so we’re off to Atlanta. I’d love to meet up with folks in the area!” Wes folks in Atlanta, please email her at alixolson@yahoo.com.

That’s all for now. We love getting your updates, so send them anytime!

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Hi, Class of 1997. Thanks for writing in to share the lovely ways you are making the world a better place through your talents, your work and your love for your families and communities.

Huge congratulations to Joshua Dubler, assistant professor of religion at the University of Rochester, who is one of 33 national recipients of a 2016 Carnegie Award for his work studying prison abolition. More details here.

Alek Friedman Lev writes, “Desperately jealous of the amazing work that my WOW-buddy Mia Lobel has done producing the fantastic Revisionist History podcast with Malcolm Gladwell, I am hosting and producing Talking Buster Keaton, a podcast about the life and work of the great filmmaker. We talk to Leonard Matlin, Teller (of Penn & Teller fame) and our very own Jeanine Basinger. Go to talkingbusterkeaton.com.”

Congratulations to Trevor Griffey and Allison Perlman on their summer wedding in Seattle. They had a huge Wesleyan Greenhouse 1993-94 posse at the wedding. Courtney Cavellier, Jennifer Kelly-Dewitt and Mike Shen, Kevin Strait, Maria Magana, Ama Greenrose, Sabelo Narasimhan, Caleb Tucker-Raymond, and Caroline Cummins. Plus, Brodie Welch ’98, Lauren Berliner ’98, Monique Daviau (Smith ‘98, attended Wesleyan for a year), Sarah Wilkes ’00, Chris Wade ’00, Katrin Wilde ’92, and Abby Bass ’98 were in attendance.

Andrew Frishman and Leigh Needleman ’96 continue to love living just outside Central Square in Cambridge, Mass. Their two kids attend a Spanish/English bilingual immersion school, together with other Wes kiddos, including Laura Warren ’98’s. Andrew is the co-executive director of Big Picture Learning (bigpicture.org). They are doing amazing work to improve the education system in many places across the U.S. and internationally. Leigh started a new position last year as a liaison between architects and scientists assisting with the coordination of the design and construction of a very large new Harvard School for Engineering and Applied Sciences building just across the Charles River in Allston, Boston. And in their spare free time, they hang out with Jesse ’06 and Annie Leavitt ’06, and Christian Housh, and a number of other Wes folks.

Monica White is in England, teaching medieval Russian studies at the University of Nottingham. She recently visited Kazan and Vladimir with some of her students (Monica, please send us pictures —sounds amazing). In August, she was “delighted to get a visit” from Professor Emeritus Duffy White ’62 and his wife Izzy, who came to the University of Nottingham campus for lunch. “We enjoyed catching up about travels to Russia, our students, and research.”

Kevin O’Leary cannot believe it’s been 20 years since we’ve graduated. Neither can we, Kevin, neither can we. He’s living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with husband Brian Esser and their sons Keith, 6, and Jason, 3. Kevin is a book collaborator/guide on numerous projects, including Gabrielle Union’s We’re Going to Need More Wine and Bob Roth’s Transcendental Meditation, Strength in Stillness. Kevin’s husband is a family law attorney and advocate for same-sex families, and “he is the bee’s knees.”

We look forward to hearing from you via e-mail. Your class co-secretaries,

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

While Mocon may be gone, the connections among our class are more solid than ever. There was so much love at the 20-year Reunion! After the 20th Reunion Reception, we marveled that no one was seen checking their phones during the evening because we were so intensely focused on being present with each other. Or maybe we didn’t miss our phones because Wesleyan was ALWAYS a cell phone-free zone in the ’90s. Either way, it was a thrill to reconnect with dear friends and to find “new” friends in our class who we hadn’t gotten to meet prior to graduation.

We really appreciate the Reunion Committee’s hard work. And congratulations to Kimberly King, the recipient of the Wesleyan University Service Award!

Attending some of the WESeminars made us realize what a powerful influence Wesleyan has had on us, enabling us to deepen our intellectual engagement with the world during the past two decades. We were blown away by the insight, talent, and raw honesty of our visionary classmates who shared their perspectives on their work at “The Future of Digital Media” WESesminar: Craig Thomas, Sean Brecker, Carter Bays, Santi “Santigold” White, and Maggie (McLean) Suniewick. Also, congratulations to Santi White on her Distinguished Alumni award from Wesleyan!

Some highlights from the weekend included seeing Christine Landry, her wife Megan Reed, and their two children and seeing how much Matt and Amy (Goorin) Fogelman’s two daughters have grown since the last Reunion. We went all fangirl on Mia Lobel, producer of the Revisionist History podcast, and we ran home and watched the 60 Minutes piece on the rise of women’s soccer in Iran, produced by Alexandra Poolos. Jess was delighted to see her frosh year roommate, Erica (Kaiser) Schuyler, when she and her two sons stopped by the Foss Hill festivities on Saturday afternoon. We enjoyed catching up with Lauren Porosoff, Julie (Philips) Wolf, Matt Mulvey, Leelach (Rothschild) de Koven, and Seth Spector at the class dinner on Saturday night.

We wished that we had had more time to spend with everyone who came to Reunion, including…Anita (Mitra) Crabtree, Alexander Grashow, Malayna Bernstein, Abe Velez, Vicki Kuskowski, Genevieve (Kramer) Maciel, Alison (Keimowitz) Spodek, Brent Spodek, Cria Ortiz, Marisa Uchin, Dara Katz, David Goldsmith, Erin Solomon Gaffen, Linda (Chun) Meehan, Raphael Crawford, Amani Willett, Charlotte Scott, Alison Brody, Kim Diaz, Sarah Benatar, Anna Lefer Kuhn, Meg Mullen, Robin (McLellan) Woodworth, Caitlin Meredith, Laura Roberts, Laura Woodrow, Benny Vasquez, Dara Greenwood, Michael Lenore, Tom Griggs, Erin Solomon Gaffen, Austin Applegate, Niko Higgins, James Seo, Ama (Goldsmith) Greenrose Manasse, Yaron Ben-Zvi, Tony Schloss, Brendan Bolton-Klinger, Molly Steele, Sarah Nowygrod Weihmiller, Diego Gutierrez, Jill Abraham, John Walcott, Mark Karvosky, Megan Thaler, Michael Sternhell, Rachel Meeropol, Samantha Abeysekera, Alissa Bell, Cana (McCoy) Williams, Kari Colen, Jessica D’Amore, Stephen McNulty, Michelle Driscoll, Jack Eighmy, Laura (Feldt) Roberts, Steve Guidi, Jade Hoye, Ann Marie (Preissler) Everdell, Kenneth Andersen, Bettina Berg, Mayo Escobar, Josh Arthurs, Ben Harbert, Emma (Ditrinco) Sollars, Amy Trask, Susan Alkasab, Lauren (Tehan) DiLoreto, Woodwyn Koons, Carin (Ivker) Armstrong, Maya Kremen, Alexis Levenson, Joanna Starrels, Nicole (Rodriguez) Leach, Chris Gaither, Heather Burke, Susanne Sreedhar, Rachel Ruane, Sacha (Shapiro) Emerson, Rebecca (Fried) Weisberg, Oliver Henzler, Alan Rozen, Kerry Halpern, Josh Rosenblatt, Jon Gelb, Flo Turkenkopf, Coop King, Jed Byrom, Josh Borenstein, Laura (Flynn) Edmonds, Kayce Davis,  Daniel Hughes, Ria (Mirabal) Higgs, Ryan Cunningham, Ram Subramanian, Matthew Carey, Joy (Langford) Connolly, Nicole (Smith) Padgett, Aileen (Nagle) McDonough, Rachel Rodriguez, Michelle Cho, Michael Vilas, Michael Mittelman, Fawn Phelps, Gaby Alter, Matthew Rattigan, Barbara Grieninger, Kerry (Biancamano) Coppola, Marina Tal, Geoffrey Hand, and Sam Layborne.

We found out from Josh Suniewick that their family is making a move: “Maggie was made president of digital enterprises at NBC/Universal last fall and has been commuting from Philly to NYC daily.  We are both looking forward to having a better life balance and more family time with our three boys. Also we’re excited to reconnect with other Wes alumni in the New York metro area!”

Though he couldn’t make it to Reunion, Abdul L. Rasheed reached out to let us know that he has been commissioned to dance and produce in the U.S., Europe, South America, and Latin America. Abdul is a proud alumnus, singing the praises of his dancer and rehearsal assistant Nik Owens ’12 and dancer Nick Daley ’17.

Lauren Porosoff and her husband Jonathan Weinstein have a book coming out in August called EMPOWER Your Students: Tools to Inspire a Meaningful School Experience. “The book is about helping students notice how their assignments and interactions can be contexts for values-consistent behavior, and to choose those values-consistent behaviors even when it’s hard.”

Andy Hiller wrote, “For the past three years, I have been living in Brooklyn with my husband and 2-and-a-half-year-old son, Dante. We love it here, but do wish we had more green space. A highlight twice a year is when Clara Petit and Wally Einenkel come to town and we get to spend some quality time together. We don’t get to see each other often, but the bond is as strong as ever.”

Derek DiMatteo wrote to us from Indiana University at Bloomington, where he is working on his dissertation on protest literature and higher education. He won the Winchester Fellowship Award from the Wesleyan English Department this year.

Monica Santana Rosen wrote: “I am married and settled in Chicago with my architect husband. I have three children: Antonio (13), Marlo (9), and Ana (we call her Annie B) who is 5. I launched my own consulting firm last fall, Alma Advisory Group. We provide human capital consulting to school systems across the country. I’ve been spending time consulting in Hawaii, Memphis, and Tampa among others. We have a team of nine and I’m loving life as a start-up CEO, helping states, districts, and CMOs find, grow, and inspire excellent principals and teachers, who in turn make great things possible for their students.”

Elizabeth Schneider has an award-winning wine podcast called Wine for Normal People, for people who want to learn about wine in a down-to-earth way, without the snob factor.

Nadia Gardner received her master’s in environmental science and management from University of California – Santa Barbara in 2006. She has worked for Columbia Land Trust as conservation manager for 10 years.  She lives with her partner, Michael Manzulli and 18-month-old son, Matteo Gardner Manzulli, in the forest within a block from the beach on Oregon’s north coast, where they hike and surf.

Breton Leone-Quick was sad to miss Reunion, and wrote to us from Boston, where he’s been with the Mintz Levin law firm for 15 years. Breton lives in Lexington, Mass., with his wife, Katie, and two children, Thomas (8) and Violet (6).

You can check out some photos from Reunion at http://www.wesleyan.edu/rc2017/ and on the Wesleyan University – Class of 1997 Facebook page. Why not start planning to come back for our 25th reunion in 2022? We’ll be there, O’Rourke’s menus in hand!

In the meantime, please continue sending us your updates about work, home, family, travel, books, films, podcasts, and adventures big and small.

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

Happy spring, everyone! We’re looking forward to seeing you in Middletown at Reunion, May 25-28. We’re already planning to be in line at O’Rourke’s early on Saturday morning.

Kenneth Andersen writes in: “I’m going on 15 years in Mexico City, which is hard to believe as I write this. My wife and I have two beautiful children that keep us busy, ages 5 and 3. I started an organizational development consulting and executive training business a few years ago, Conversari Communication, following my passion in building bridges between Mexico and the global marketplace. It’s starting to thrive, and despite what election results would have you believe, we expect good things to happen in Mexico in the coming years. If you’re passing through town, I’d love to hear from you!”

Cary Kleinman and his family are living in Cheviot Hills, Calif., “around the block from Ben Lee ’95.” Cary and his wife have two children, Ethan, 2, and Sloane, 4 months. He works as a managing director at Oaktree Capital Management.

Hope to see you in May!

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

It’s hard to believe that almost 20 years have passed since that rainy day in May of 1997 when we bid our farewells and moved on and out to the wide, wacky, post-Wes world. And it’s not too early to start making plans to join us for Reunion & Commencement Weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, May 25 to 28. We’d love to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who shared their latest news or just e-mailed to say hi.

Michelle Conceison writes in from Nashville where she’s moved her music marketing and management company, Market Monkeys. They manage Canadian songwriter Rose Cousins and pop/folk duo Fortunate Ones. Michelle is the president of the board of directors of Folk Alliance International and teaches at Northeastern. “I am part of a dream team launching a new online arts administration graduate program. This fall I will be teaching Strategic Planning in Arts & Cultural Organizations.” She’d love to connect with any Wes alums in the area.

Melissa Feldberg Whipps writes to us from Syracuse, where she is the director of foundation relations at Syracuse University. “We have been enjoying a beautiful Central New York summer and I am pursuing my master’s in public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse.” She’s also a mom to two daughters, Evelyn (5) and Amelia (7). Her husband, Chris, is an associate professor of biology at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse.

Sasha Harris-Cronin is living in San Francisco with her partner, Nathan Taylor, and their 4-year-old, Shannon Harris-Taylor. Sasha has spent the last 14 years making interactive museum exhibits and leading edge installations for museums and corporations around the country. She just finished one of her favorite projects to date, which allowed her to work with the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind. As she explains, “Together, we created a tactile control interface that allows folks with any range of sight to control audio and video equipment in complex conference rooms.” Sasha also teaches interaction design in the MFA program at California College of the Arts.

Matt Mulvey and his wife, Katie Sacksteder, became parents to Liam James Mulvey. Matt and Katie are also leading their immuno-oncology company, BeneVir Biopharm, Inc., into the first-in-human testing of their lead cancer killing virus T-Stealth.

Aileen Nagle McDonough runs a communications business in the Providence area, 3am Writers. This year, she spoke at WordCamp RI, a WordPress conference for developers, designers, and business owners all over New England. She also stopped by Wesleyan, when she was in Middletown to trace her ancestry in the Connecticut-based Schaghticoke Native American tribe. She and her husband, Kirk, traveled to Toronto for the final tour of the Tragically Hip.

From LA, Madeleine Perez writes, “After many years as a journalist at ABC News in New York, I switched careers and coasts and became a real estate agent. I’ve been in LA now for more than four years with my husband and almost 5-year-old son. If any Wesleyan people are looking for some real estate help in SoCal they can reach me at madeleine@kw.com.”

As for your class secretaries, we are happy to report that we got to hang out in NYC when Jess came to visit from Phoenix. Also, Jess is thrilled to have a book recommendation to share: “I read The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and couldn’t put it down!” Sasha is obsessed with the Moth podcast, which consists of “people telling short true stories—Some are dark, some are funny, many are both.”

We can’t wait to see all of you in May! We wish you a peaceful start to 2017 and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com

After four amazing years, Kimberly King has so kindly agreed to pass the torch on to us, Jessica (Jess) Shea Lehmann and Alexandra (Sasha) Lewis-Reisen. Thank you, Kimberly, for all your hard work and great news! We are super excited to carry on the project of assembling the Class Notes—it’s always been our favorite part of the magazine.

We were also thinking that these notes can be both updates and a conversation, so please send us recommendations for books, podcasts, shows, or movies. And feel free to send your thoughts/good wishes to the class.

Jess lives in Phoenix, Ariz., with her husband and three sons (ages 10, 6, and 4). “I teach nutrition at Arizona State University. I serve as the faculty advisor for the Slow Food club. Last fall, I got to see Hamilton, which was sublime. If you’re interested in sustainable agriculture and/or if you’re into food, I recommend Dan Barber’s book The Third Plate. I’m always behind on Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, and Girls, but those are some of my top faves.”

Sasha is living in NYC, working at a nonprofit, New York Legal Assistance Group. “Last year, Ez Cukor ’05 and I helped to set up a WEServe volunteer event in NYC, helping low-income transgender New Yorkers to legally change their names to names they prefer or reflect their gender identity. Let me know if you’d be interested in joining us next time. In the meantime, I am trying to learn how to not bring work home (ha!). Last good book I read: Alice Munro’s Dear Life stories collection. Guilty TV pleasure (can’t believe I’m admitting to the first one in print): Grey’s Anatomy and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.”

We were thrilled to hear from several of our classmates in the spring…

Brent Spodek is the rabbi of Beacon Hebrew Alliance, a creative and rapidly growing Jewish community in the Hudson Valley, N.Y. Alison Keimowitz Spodek is the Rockefeller Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Vassar, where she focuses on toxins in the environment. They have two children, Noa (8) and Abe (5). They can be reached at brent.spodek@gmail.com and alison.spodek@gmail.com

Rob MacDonald recently published a poetry collection, Resuscitation Party (available from Racing Form Press). He’s still living in Jamaica Plain, Mass., and still balancing teaching and writing.

Andrew Frishman wrote to let us know that “Leigh Needleman ’96 and I have been hanging out with Laura Warren ’98, as we’re now practically neighbors—we live just a few blocks from each other near Central Square in CambridgePort in Cambridge, Mass. It doesn’t feel like 20 years ago that I was the Head Resident (HR) in Butterfield A, and Laura was one of the Resident Advisers (RAs)… suddenly it is our children who are in kindergarten together! (and our younger children, each aged 3, are taking Spanish classes together two afternoons a week to prepare for the bilingual immersion school that they’ll attend in a couple of years. Leigh and I also had the incomparable privilege of attending the inimitable Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02’s Hamilton in NYC (Hurrah! and Go, Wes!—We felt some serious Wesleyan pride!!!) Just so happened to be the night that the company did a tribute to Prince—touching in so many ways.”

Larisa Ortiz published a book, Improving Tenant Mix: A Guide for Commercial District Practitioners, and was appointed by NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio to the NYC City Planning Commission. “It’s quite an honor and learning experience! On a personal note, my son, Xavier, is 6 and gets better at solving his Rubik’s Cube every day! Makes his mama proud!”

Malayna Bernstein and Josh Arthurs spent 2015–16 in Italy, where Josh was a Rome Prize fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Their boys, Eli (11) and Carlo (7), spent the year playing soccer and learning Italian. Malayna and Josh continue to teach at West Virginia University. Malayna writes, “If Wes friends are ever in Morgantown, drop us a line!” They can be reached at malaynabernstein@gmail.com and jwarthurs@gmail.com

Bryan Sheckman teaches social studies at Lowell (Mass.) High School and was named a 2016 James Madison Fellow.

Cheryl Goldman Governale writes, “After nearly two years in California, we’ve just moved back to London (my third time!), where the kids are enjoying their new schools. I’m still blogging but looking to set up a photography business soon.”

Mei Woo Chin wrote to us on her way back to Dublin, Ireland, where she has been living for the past five years. She had just finished three months in San Francisco visiting family. Mei writes about food, including for Saveur and Lucky Peach. “Last year in Dublin, my partner Tommy Bergin and I founded Skillet, which paired at-risk youth with members of the Dublin restaurant industry, and trained them in the basics of food prep and service.” Mei keeps in touch with us, Sarah Kollman, and Morgan Fahey ’95, and she adds that “the last Wes person I saw was Michael (Mo) Ouyang ’96, who swung by Dublin for a couple of days. Mo is living in Shanghai, married to the contemporary art curator Zoe Zhang Bing. Mo is the creative director for EndemolShine China (he and Morgan Fahey just worked on a version of Superhuman together, an award-winning megahit show in China), owner of two alarmingly cute dogs, and still playing music.”

We really love hearing from you, so please get in touch! You can e-mail your updates, musings, and recommendations to us at our addresses below. Until next time!

Jessica Shea Lehmann | jessica.lehmann@gmail.com

Sasha Lewis Reisen | alewisreisen@gmail.com