Tag: 1999

Greetings ’99ers! We’re either so busy surviving the throes of the “sandwich” years between caring for younger children and aging parents, or everyone in our class is starting a company in stealth mode and doesn’t want to talk about it. Only a handful of submissions this time. If you enjoy reading this column, please take a few minutes to send us your update for the next column. Most of us recently turned 40 or are about to. Why not share what you’re doing for your 40th? It’s only through your submissions that we have anything to write! On to the news:

Eli Beckerman was excited to share the news that he got married this fall in the Berkshires, to the lovely Lauren Greenberg. The couple was thrilled to celebrate with Greg Brodsky, Matt Thomas, Adrienne Woike, Amy Schneider, Justin Lee, Roger Yang, and Ben Welch ’98. Eli also shared that Zi Mei, who got married last fall, “is the beaming new father of Hunter.”

Jennifer Massie finished her second master’s in August (first one was social work, second one in behavioral health). And on Oct. 6, her first child, Eli Joseph Massie-Sage, was born.

Darryl Uy and Bob are enjoying newlywed life during their first winter in Lewiston, Maine, where Darryl is the new director of admission at Bates College. I (Kevin) still enjoying the madness of balancing life in a growth company (Zocdoc, best way to find a new health care provider!) and a growth family (three kids between ages of 4 and 5).

C. Darryl Uy | darryl.uy@gmail.com

Kevin Kumler | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Jessica Sanders was interviewed by Girl Talk HQ to discuss her 2010 documentary, March of the Living, which tells the tale of the last generation of Holocaust survivors who traveled to Poland to retrace the death march from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

Chad Bartell lives in Madison, Wis., working as an in-house counsel with Springs Window Fashions, LLC, a national manufacturer and seller of window covering products. He and his wife, Julie, have two boys: Nolan (8) and Sawyer (7). He finds time to make music, playing drums, and steelpan in several projects. Chad visited Paul Stewart in Portland, Ore., and talked wistfully of their old Wes band, Uncle Trouble, and about possibly reuniting for our 20th Reunion!

Ursula Ogno Sfraga lives in Fairfield, Conn., with her two sons and works in New York City as a senior account director for a digital marketing agency. She attended the Wesleyan Writers Conference this summer on a scholarship for a nonfiction manuscript she submitted. In April 2015, she was a doula to Meredith Tobias Powers ’00, and her husband, John Powers, for the birth of their daughter, Clementine Catherine.

Julenne Farrar Mounts lives in Maui with her husband, Dwight, and two kids, Zoë (9) and Luke (6). They see Stefan Schaefer ’94 and family often as their daughters are in the same class at Haleakala Waldorf School. Julenne’s family spent the summer outrigger paddling, playing with their new puppy, Comet, camping, and building a school store named The Pepper Tree on the Waldorf campus. They will return to the East Coast for the winter holidays and spend time with Julenne’s housemates from 27 Brainerd: Rachel Ostrow, Hannah Gladstein, and Alissa Farber.

Michael Hakim and his wife, Aram, have two daughters, Skyler and Lexington. He is a real estate investor and travel documentarian.

Lindsay Grajewski Beros lives in Rochester, Mich., with her husband and three kids. In addition to her obstetrician-gynecologist practice, Lindsay began studying photography after the birth of her second child. In July, her portfolio was accepted to Click Pro, a network of professional photographers and independent artists. She is now a frequent contributor to the photography blog, Click Pro Daily Project.

Sean Huse and his wife, Ali, have three boys (ages 7, 5, and 2). Sean is in his 18th year at Public Consulting Group in Boston. They see their Wes friends in and around Boston: Geoff Dailey, Tim Higgins, Madhu Kannapiran, Avery Esdaile ’00, Sean O’Brien ’00, Matt Hochstein ’00, Josh Meyer ’00, Joe Griffin ’00, Josh Janelli ’01, Bryan McBeth ’02, and Brandon McBeth ’02. Sean ran into Pete Czerepak in August and they made plans for a beer with Geoff Dailey and Tim Syrett. They all work on the same street within 100 yards of each other.

Divya Kumar and Dan Koulomzin live in Jamaica Plain with their two kids (Anand, 9, and Josie, 7). Divya provides perinatal support at Southern JP Health Center as part of a state-funded postpartum depression pilot program she helped create. She continues to help improve perinatal mental healthcare as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Commission on Postpartum Depression. Last summer, she presented at the Minority Mental Health Summit in Birmingham and had an article on racism and microaggressions in new moms’ groups published on The Huffington Post.

After 11 years as a case manager for kids with developmental disabilities, Jen Massie went back to school to get her second master’s (first was social work) in behavioral health. She spent a year studying perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and how to integrate treatment in a culturally sensitive fashion into a primary healthcare setting. Jen is expecting her first baby this fall.

And more new additions: Danielle Lazier gave birth to twins, Ari and Phoenix, on Aug. 12. She lives in San Francisco selling residential real estate as a broker-owner with Keller Williams San Francisco. Diana Glanternik and her husband, Jonah Cohen, welcomed their first daughter, Ila Lucia Cohen, on Sept. 2. Farrah Darbouze, her wife, Jessica Heard, and their dog, Idgy, welcomed their son, Jordan Thomas Heard, in March. On July 1, Valerie Leon gave birth to her first child, William Mateo Cuadrado, Jr. She works for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

On Aug. 21, Mia Lipman married Chris Irwin in Seattle, where she’s been living since 2011. It was a perfect day with family and friends, including Kate Holbein Rademacher, Josh Dubansky ’01, and Shanna Handel.

Erik Rueter is director of marketing and communications for Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. Erik enjoys working at W&J because it evokes many memories of Wesleyan.

Arthur Baraf lives in Pawtucket, R.I., with his wife and two daughters. This is his 11th year as a principal at the Met High School. He was named a Students at the Center Distinguished Fellow.

Shoshanna Cole lives in Ithaca, N.Y. She completed her PhD in planetary geology at Cornell last year and now teaches physics, astronomy, planetary science, and sustainable energy at Ithaca College. She’s involved in the Ithaca College Contingent Faculty Union and volunteers as a master gardener with the Cornell Cooperative Extension. This summer she organized a gathering of Ithaca-area alumni, ranging from the 1970s through the 2010s! They had an indoor picnic and then watched a local production of In the Heights.

Kenny Rios completed his master’s in human resource management with a concentration in organization development. He works as a senior technical recruiter for the Pentagon.

Jason Wong and Pao-Lin Tien moved to the D.C. area this summer. Jason works for a biotech firm and Pao-Lin works for the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Their two girls (Zoe, 6, and Emma, 1) are happy to have daddy home all the time now.

Alex Rose and her husband, Dan, live in Boulder, Colo., where Alex works as a bird biologist and education and outreach specialist at the University of Colorado. They have a 2-year-old son and another on the way. They annually trek to the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska for fun and research. In Boulder, Alex is neighbors and friends with Sarah Elmendorf and her family, and had a fun visit with her freshman year roommate, Eve Andrias.

Laura Zaks spent Labor Day visiting Louisville, Ky., to celebrate the 40th birthday of her freshman roommate Virginia Gray. They celebrated with Rachel Ostrow, Jesse Ashlock, Jason Daniel Schwartz ’00, Wiley Bowen ’00, Harrison Owen ’98, and Juliet Gray ’92.

Ed. note: Our apologies to Russell Isaacson. We spelled his last name incorrectly in the previous issue and regret our error.

C. Darryl Uy | darryl.uy@gmail.com

Kevin Kumler | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Kevin writes: Was glad to see several folks send in updates, including quite a few first-timers. Amelia Borofsky kicks us off with an offer that I hope someone takes her up on: “Wes folks are always welcome to come visit me in Hawai’i or Rarotonga! Mi casa es tu casa.” Amelia lives in Hawaii and the Cook Islands doing research, writing, and education projects. She has been working on a documentary called Homecoming: A Film About Pukapuka—check it out! “Am still in touch with many Wesleyan folks whom I love dearly and don’t get to see as often as I’d like.”

Massachusetts continues to have a strong pull on our class. Abbie Goldberg lives in beautiful Western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and gaggle of animals, and is an associate professor of psychology at Clark University, where she also directs the graduate program in clinical psychology. She is the editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies, published by Sage—which contains a whopping 450 chapters on topics ranging from asexuality to Stonewall to sexual fluidity to leather culture. She is also a proud founding member of the Western Massachusetts chapter of Girls on the Run, a youth running and empowerment program, which kickstarted its first season in fall 2015. Sarah Sikowitz and her husband, Aaron, moved from Brooklyn to her hometown of Cambridge, Mass., in 2014. They’ve since grown to a family of four, welcoming Rose Elise in Feb. 2016. She joins her big brother, Emmett, who turned 3 in May. Peter Czerepak just moved to the ’burbs of Beantown (Winchester, specifically). He’s still cranking away at BCG, and is the rare consultant who does not travel much.

Russell Isaacson is living in NYC and advising brands on digital media investments for sovrn Holdings. He lives and works in SoHo.

Several first-timers shared big news: Hong Qu and his wife, Sharon, have been blessed with a baby boy, Tristan Qu, in May of 2015. They are expecting another boy in October this year. Hong is working in media and journalism as the CTO for Fusion.

Janel Davis, ordained into the ministry in Oct. 2014, now holds the office of “missionary,” and is “very excited about what lies in store for me!”

Sara Jaffe’s first novel, Dryland, was published by Tin House Books in 2015. She has been teaching creative writing at various institutions in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest—next year at the University of Oregon. Sara lives in Portland, Ore., with her partner and her 1-year-old son.

“The College of the Holy Cross recently promoted five faculty members, including Wesleyan University alumnus Joshua Congdon–Martin,” read the e-mail. Joshua is in the economics and accounting department and specializes in labor, public, and health economics, as well as applied econometrics. After Wes, he earned his MA and PhD from the University of Michigan. A recipient of the Bachelor (Ford) Summer Faculty Fellowship, his work has been featured in the Journal of Urban Economics, European Sports Management, and the Journal of Sports Economics. He has also refereed numerous articles, including “Love, Toil and Health Insurance: Why American Husbands Retire When They Do.” He has five works in progress, one of which is titled “Do Sporting Events Displace Crime? The Case of the Bulls and Chicago.” He has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2009.

Our other Class Secretary, Darryl, has been busy! In May, he reconnected with Jason Fitzgerald, who lives in Astoria, Queens, with his wife Rachel Zack and their daughter, Lily. Given his extensive light and sound design experience that started at Wes, Jason founded Kelson Productions, which provides audiovisual and production management services for live events. During Memorial Day weekend, after eight years at Kenyon College in Ohio, Darryl moved back to New England to be director of admission at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He joins Stephen Engel ’98, who is the chair of the politics department at Bates. As if moving and starting a new job weren’t enough for one summer, Darryl and his partner of 14 years, Bob Brown, finally married. The July 30th celebration was held in a 200-year-old barn at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, Ohio. Wes folks in attendance included Kevin, John Raby, Josh and Liz Scarlett ’98, and Maurice Hill ’14.

Jeffrey Blumenthal was saddened to hear about the passing of Professor Emeritus Jon Barlow. He was one of the best teachers Jeff had at Wes. This spring we also lost Prince, who penned an anthem for our class…he can rest in peace knowing that we’ll always know how to party like it’s 1999 (even if we’re no long capable of doing that).

C. DARRYL UY | darryl.uy@gmail.com

KEVIN KUMLER | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Darryl writes: After nearly 17 years living in the Bay Area, Tara Cohen—along with partner, child, dog, and two cats—packed up and laid down new roots in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Last spring, Kareem George concluded his tenure at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to pursue entrepreneurial interests. He is now engaged full time with his company, Culture Traveler (culturetraveler.com), a boutique luxury travel service focused on fully customized, expert itineraries for individuals and small groups. He lives in Franklin, Mich., and enjoys the Midwest despite the winters.

Daniel Young is a freelance radio journalist covering a variety of environmental and social justice issues. His work is broadcast on community radio stations in both the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest.

Shoshanna Handel and her husband, Jason Reisman, live in Brooklyn with their baby, Lyla, who was born in October with support from Jada Shapiro, doula extraordinaire.

Shirley Fan lives in Brooklyn, too, with her PhD-seeking husband, and just had her second son, Kai Fan Borkenhagen, on Jan. 14, 2016. They feel fortunate that he is a great sleeper!

William Abbott and hubby David Paige welcomed Orion Lee Abbott-Paige into their family on Feb. 10, 2015. He’s one great guy who is already learning how to take a selfie! They live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where William runs the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust and David works in publishing. They are finally feeling settled after moving back and forth across the country four times since Wes.

In October, David Andrews ’02 and Lena Sadowitz welcomed their fourth kid: “He joins two older brothers and a sister in their DC-area den of Legos and laundry.”

Nina Kontos’ son turned 1 in December and he’s awesome. She still works at Google and hangs out with Wes friends in NYC and San Francisco. She saw Hamilton with a Wes crew (Allegra Jones, Davis Thompson-Moss, Danny Forster, Hannah Blitzer)—it was a blast; they loved it!

Arthur Baraf lives in Providence, R.I., with his wife and two daughters. He is in his 10th year as a high school principal, currently at the world-recognized Met High School. This year, he is also teaching for the master’s in urban education program at Providence College and coaching aspiring principals through the Center for Leadership and Educational Equity.

Leander Dolphin was elected to partnership at her firm, Shipman & Goodwin LLP, in Hartford.

Aimee Dawson was awarded tenure at Université Laval, where her teaching and research focus on preventive dentistry and access to care among underserved populations.

Ellen Sluder Cohen just finished her first year as VP of marketing for Medforce, a software company providing document and process management to healthcare. Her husband is a pilot for the Conair Corporation and their daughters, Henrietta and Beatrice, are 5 and 2 respectively. 2016 is promising to be a great year of catching up with fellow Wes alums at upcoming weddings and 40th birthday celebrations (too many to name!).

In August, Jose Stevenson married Dalia Trinidad. Robert Carrillo was his best man and many of the LUL Hermanos were there, including Sergio Zenteno ’00, Tom Constabile ’96, Francisco Tezen ’97 and his wife Linda Rodriguez ’97, Jose and Andrea DeJesus ’97, Miguel Guadalupe ’98 and his wife Maria Santana-Guadalupe ’98, Melvin Acevedo, Pablo Morales ’00, Ray Sanchez ’00, Jeremy White ’98, Gabe Aviles ’00, Luis “Gabbo” Torres and his wife Allison Panzer ’00, and Julio and Mariela Rosario Pabon ’02. Wes folks took up over two tables! Miguel and Maria even drew on their Caliente Dance Troupe choreographing days and helped Jose execute a surprise flash mob for his wife!

Diana Glanternik was married to Jonah Ramu Cohen (a Brown alum who admits that he sometimes regrets not choosing Wesleyan) in September at her parents’ home in Roxbury, Conn., and the celebration was well attended by Diana’s longtime Wes friends: Steffie Kinglake, Nina Ball-Pesut, Jennifer Karlin, Lauren Borowsky, Laura Zaks, Laura Plageman, Virginia Gray, Maya Mitchell, Margo Simon, Daniel Forster, Bryon Schafer, Rachel Ostrow, Lauren Kesner O’Brien, Nina Kontos, Wiley Bowen ’00, Jordan Fletcher ’00, Molly Barton ’00, Liz Donnelly ’00, Shira Gans ’01, Benji Shemmer ’01, Darren Ross ’98, Will Miller ’98, Harrison Owen ’98, and Matt Downes ’98, who all killed it on the dance floor till the tables were cleared and the DJ had to shut the music down.

Jeffrey Blumenthal listens to a lot of excellent podcasts while commuting by bike to and from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) at San Francisco State University’s Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies. Wesleyan’s favorite Professor Atwater was mentioned for his contribution to the calorie as we know it on food labels: gastropod.com/the-end-of-the-calorie/.

Thanks for the submissions! Kevin and I look forward to hearing from you for the next issue.

C. DARRYL UY | darryl.uy@gmail.com

KEVIN KUMLER | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Rachel Quinn lives with her partner, Eesha Pandit, in Houston. Earlier this year, they joined 10 of Rachel’s 12 siblings and hundreds of family members in laying her father Dr. Bernard Kwesi Glover to rest in his home village of Akutukope in the Volta Region of Ghana. This fall Rachel will start a tenure-track position in women’s, gender and sexuality studies and comparative cultural studies at the University of Houston. She is working on several articles as well as her first book manuscript, which focus on Dominican women’s lives in Santo Domingo, mixed race identities, and gender and sexuality in contemporary transnational Caribbean culture.

Aaron Shield accepted a tenure-track job as assistant professor of speech pathology and audiology at Miami University of Ohio, where he continues his research on autism and deafness, and teaches undergraduate and graduate students about language development and language disorders. He and his husband, Reginald Harris, moved to Cincinnati this summer.

Gabe Paquette is a professor of history at Johns Hopkins, where he directs the university’s Latin American studies program. Gabe and wife Johanna Bard Richlin ’08 welcomed their baby daughter, Antonia Bard Paquette, into the world on June 5.

Dani Snyder-Young earned tenure at Illinois Wesleyan University last year. Her daughter, Parker, was born in March.

Elsie Kagan and Carl Robichaud welcomed a daughter, Willa Tilden, into their family on May 27. Her brothers, Jasper and Alexan, are delighted by the addition. Elsie continues to teach and make art in Brooklyn, where she started a parent artist network, and this year received a grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Carl continues his job at Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he makes grants to organizations working to reduce nuclear risks. Elsie and Carl recently visited the Bay Area to spend some time with Dan Engler and Sahra Halpern.

Liz Shulman and her husband, Andrew, welcomed a baby boy—Isaac Emmett Mastronarde—on Oct. 7, 2014. He has blazing red hair and dual Canadian-American citizenship.

Sarah Maine lives in New York, working as director of product development for California-based company Independent Means, and doing creative projects in her spare time. On Aug. 1, she married Scott Sherratt, with Jenessa Joffe ’00, Anders Peterson, Rob Finn ’98, Karen Correa, Allison Radecki ’98, and Neal Wilkinson ’98 in attendance. A wonderful time was had by all!

After 11 years of schooling, Jennifer Karlin graduated from the University of Chicago with an MD in June. During her time at UChicago, she also earned a PhD in the conceptual and historical studies of science, an MA in anthropology, and a fellowship in clinical medical ethics from the MacLean Center. Since so many people were coming into town for the MD hooding and graduation, Jen and Andrew Mullen decided three weeks before the celebration to include a marriage ceremony in the weekend festivities. The ceremony was officiated by Amelia Borofsky at the Ivy Room in Chicago on May 30, 2015. In attendance were the following revelers: professor of psychology and the science in society program Jill Morawski and her family, Jessie Torrisi ’98 (sang and played guitar), Abigail Levine (choreographed a solo dance which turned into a choreographed flash mob!), Laura Zaks (spoke in ceremony and her boys, Luka and Tiago, were flower boys), Diana Glanternik (sang “Moon River” and spoke in ceremony), Shira Gans ’01 (spoke in ceremony), Laura Plageman (spoke in ceremony), Margo Simon (whose husband, Josh Millis, sketched the ceremony in real time) and Martin Lijtmaer (played guitar at the ceremony and reception). See online version for full list of Wes alums in attendance. After returning from a week-long honeymoon in Fiji, Jen left Chicago and moved to San Francisco for her residency in family medicine at UCSF.

When Amelia Borofsky is not officiating weddings, she is a character and researcher in Gemma Cubero del Barrio’s Homecoming, a documentary on climate change and two women who return to Pukapuka, the remote coral atoll in the Cook Islands where they grew up.

Dukagjin Blakaj joined the faculty at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

Ryan Boutin never expected to be back in Middletown, but he is a physician (hospitalist) at Middlesex Hospital, where he occasionally treats Wes students.

Lauren Tobias lives in D.C., where her son just finished kindergarten. She left the Institute of Medicine two years ago to start her own consulting shop. This spring, she caught up with Jill Clark and Monisha Nariani, and saw Lina Kee and Ookie Ma ’98 when they were stateside this summer to have a second kid. Lauren sees Alison MacAdam occasionally, now that she is back in D.C. after a year in Boston. After 11 years, Alison left All Things Considered, but not NPR. She is now an editorial coach and trainer working to create more opportunities for public radio producers, editors, and reporters to talk about and improve their craft. She shares storytelling techniques from the best NPR content at nprstorytelling.tumblr.com.

After living in New York for almost 16 years, Jayanthi Raja Segaran and her husband, Tirtha Das PhD ’01, moved to the suburbs of Westchester, with two little boys in tow (Rohin, 7 and Eishaan, 3). She has a shorter commute to her job at PepsiCo in White Plains, and a garden to call her own.

Michelle Kawka runs her own portrait and corporate photography and video business in New York City, specializing in character driven portraiture. While her studio is located in Chelsea, she recently moved uptown to Washington Heights. Check out her work at www.michellekawka.com.

Sung An and Suryo Soekarno met up for lunch in Jakarta in May to talk about old times and old friends. Both work in Southeast Asia after stints in the U.S. and elsewhere in Asia earlier in their careers. Sung is a managing director with Falcon Partners, a private equity firm. Suryo is an account director with Millward Brown, a market research and consulting firm.

Thanks for sharing! Keep ’em coming! Hope you all had a relaxing summer!

Kevin writes: Limited submissions this time, so please take a few minutes and send in your updates for the next Wes Mag so we can hear what you’re up to! For example, I recently heard from Mark Zubko, but he quickly went to ground again after the Seahawks lost in the Super Bowl. He may have been hiding from Pete Czerepak’s celebrations of the New England victory.

From Greg Brodsky: “Scott Cavanaugh and Ashley Grant ’00 just gave birth to a bouncing baby boy in Easthampton, Mass., in December. Word on the street: baby Ezra was locally sourced, and 100% free range.” Greg is still living in Somerville, and is with a tech start-up, OrderWithMe, which helps groups of independent stores to buy together. He works out of Workbar in Cambridge, and occasionally sees Matt Goldstein there. Suzanne Bouffard also just joined.

Speaking of free range—Eve Fox has been busy writing about the hopeful world of sustainable agriculture with a focus on all the cool things happening where she lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. Eve also writes about plain old delicious food on her blog: http://www.thegardenofeating.org. She and her family also had a chance to meet up with Makaela Kingsley ’98 and Jonah Sachs ’97 at the tail end of 2014 for a reunion.

Jon Stewart made news with his Daily Show retirement this year. Our own Catie Lazarus was there to get his first reaction on her show, “Employee of the Month.” The New Yorker wrote a nice piece on her repartee with Stewart that is worth a read (and, of course, you should watch Catie’s show!).

Nina Kontos just had a son, Nicholas Kontos Busquet, born in Dec. 2014. Forever a New Yorker (and married to one), Nina still lives in the city and considers herself lucky to see lots of fabulous Wes friends here on a regular basis. She has been working at Google in communications for five years…work takes her to the Bay Area fairly often and so she gets to see Allegra Jones and Caitlin Lang. Fun fact: freshman year Maya Mitchell predicted Nina would have a career in the field of public relations/communications and she was right.

In January, Ellen Sluder started a new position: head of marketing for MedForce Technologies, a software company focused on productivity applications in health care. “It’s only been two months, but I’m really excited about the change, even if I look solely at the elimination of two hours of my previous daily commute. It’s also just been really fun as I’m digging in to rebuild the brand from the ground up and pioneer a proactive marketing program where there previously had been very little.” Ellen’s husband, Stephen, flies for the Conair Corporation (“think hair dryers, not convicts”). “We’ve got a good rhythm down with our two daughters (4 and 1), not that it makes it any easier on me mentally when he gets to leave behind this below-zero NYC weather to spend a long ‘work’ weekend in the Turks and Caicos. I hope he brings back some warmer temperatures for us!”

The Bay Area continues to be a beacon for our classmates. In Oakland, Tara Cohen and Jessica Flintoft welcomed their child, Oscar Rose Cohen-Flintoft, into the world on Dec. 20th, 2014. They could not be more in love with their sweet little one, sleepless nights and all. Danielle Lazier is living in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. “In my 13th year of selling SF real estate and blogging for SFhotlist.com. Recently connected with some old Wes friends in NYC.”

Chris Chambers completed post-production on Aram, Aram—his first feature as writer-director. Jim Gilbane contributed his talents as editor. “Pic is an indie drama set within the Armenian community of Los Angeles. Coming to a film fest near you…or, worst-case scenario, YouTube.”

Laura Zaks writes, “I just completed a two-year contract working for the Inter‑American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, based in Costa Rica, as an international specialist in food and nutritional security for Latin American and the Caribbean. Primarily, I provided technical assistance and advised on policies to increase the availability and quality of food produced through small and medium-scale agriculture in the region. My family also welcomed a baby girl, Sabine Antonia, born in Dec. 2014, who joins her two older brothers, Tiago and Luka.”

Finally, we close with some solemn news. Wesleyan recently learned of the death of our classmate, Marc James Augustine, on Oct. 26, 2014. The full obituary notice is available online.

C. DARRYL UY | darryl.uy@gmail.com

KEVIN KUMLER | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Jeff Blumenthal started graduate school at San Francisco State University for geography with a concentration in natural resources management. Dan Shotz’s wife, Emily, gave birth to twins, Zelda and Zachary, on July 10, 2014, in Los Angeles. They join 4-year-old Lily. “Everyone is doing well, except for the part of us that likes to sleep. We have been fortunate to have many Wes friends come to visit the Zs, including Ted and Nora Grip Boretti who flew from Mass. with their girls soon after the arrival. Lindsay Grajewski Beros and her husband, Alex, welcomed their third child, Olivia Jane, in July. Divya Kumar has been doing postpartum support work in the Jamaica Plain area for the past few years and currently oversees prenatal and postpartum programs at a local agency that provides a wide range of programs for children and families. She facilitates support groups for new parents and works as a postpartum doula and lactation counselor in the JP area. Additionally, she created a pilot program to prevent postpartum depression and provide postpartum support for new moms and their families. The program received a second year of funding from the state to support staff in four community health centers across Massachusetts, including Divya’s local health center, Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center (where she also serves as a staff member). The center provides comprehensive perinatal support for all patients—screening new moms for postpartum depression and other perinatal emotional complications, offering information and education, and connecting families to resources both within the health center and in the community. By offering all of this within the health center, they are changing the way they care for new moms and families by reducing barriers to services and information and increasing access to necessary support and resources. Last December, Divya wrote a piece for MotherWoman’s Huffington Post blog about the importance of support groups for new moms. Here’s a link: huffingtonpost.com/motherwoman/it-takes-a-village-to-rai_b_4393052.html. And finally, Divya and husband Dan Koulomzin celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary this past August! Their little ones are 7 and 5. In other health-related news, Ed Holzwarth founded a new company, Pattern Health Technologies, to build preventative health apps for individuals and software for healthcare professionals to better manage chronic health conditions, track important health metrics, and prevent serious health events. He continues to lead his other company, Little Green Software, which is a mobile app development firm. Aimee Dawson and husband Ewan welcomed a baby girl, Tessa Munro MacKenzie, in December. She enjoyed six camping trips around Québec this summer snuggled in the tent with her big sister, Fiona. Being north of the border, Aimee still basks in maternity leave, but will take up her dental drill again soon. Liz Shulman and her husband, Andrew Mastronarde, have also become expatriates. Liz joined the faculty of the psychology department at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. They are enjoying the Niagara region, which features friendly people, lots of wineries, and very few guns. Marianna Ellenberg will appear in the fall issue of Cahiers du Cinéma. She will be featured in the article “New York Girls” with an interview about her new film The Deflowering of Ariella Von. Liz Garcia and her husband welcomed a baby boy, August, this summer. He joins older brother Wilder. In June, Liz participated in the Shasha Seminar on the Road: Wesleyan Women in Hollywood. Not only did she get to share the panel with Jan Eliasberg ’74 and Jane Goldenring ’77, but she loved meeting recent graduates and catching up with Dan Shotz, Jim Gilbane, and Chris Chambers. Professor Jeanine Basinger put President Michael Roth ’78 on the spot and made him agree to a Wes women in directing seminar. Classic Jeanine and an all-around lovely experience. Seth Dellinger writes: “I have just become certified as a teacher of Awareness through Movement, the group learning format of the Feldenkrais Method. This method is a unique form of movement education that uses novel sequences of actions to stimulate the formation of new motor patterns in the brain, making it possible for the nervous system to reorganize itself. Because the brain controls the muscles, this work creates the possibility for students to release long-term habitual muscle contractions and discover flexibility, better posture and more lightness and ease in movement. It has been effective in improving the quality of life of patients with central nervous system disorders as well as raising the performance level of world-class athletes and musicians, and all manner of people in between these extremes. I am now teaching Awareness through Movement classes in Washington, DC. To learn more about my classes, check out my Facebook page (Seth Dellinger, Awareness through Movement) or my blog: movelikeachild.wordpress.com, or contact me directly at sethbdellinger@gmail.com. Thanks!” Kim Varner Wetzel welcomed her second child, Cecil, in April and a new job in August with a fast-growing Alaskan telecom company, GCI. Tim Higgins, a certified financial planner who lives near Boston, has written another book, Unconventional Investing, this time with co-author Michael Hajek. Kirkus Review calls it: “Wise, authoritative and carefully documented; should stimulate deep thought in those who are willing to break free of the conventional investing mode.” You can find the book and more info on Amazon as well as at unconventionalinvesting.com For Kevin, life as a family of five is not easy, by any stretch, but at least is beginning to seem normal. Despite an amazing admissions cycle with a 63 percent increase in applications, it was the summer of transitions for me. Not only did my dean announce that she will be stepping down at the end of November, but I also had to hire seven new staff members. Happily, one of my newest admissions counselors is Maurice “Mo” Hill Jr. ’14, so Wesleyan is slowly taking over the Kenyon admissions office. I will serve as the interim dean of admissions and financial aid come December while the search for a new dean is underway. Kevin and I enjoy hearing from you, so please continue to share your news with us! C. DARRYL UY | darryl.uy@gmail.com KEVIN KUMLER | kevinkumler@gmail.com

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Class Notes has entered the social media age! Several submissions for this issue were first posted on WesConnect. The new magazine site (magazine.wesleyan.edu) also has a Class Notes section where we can post overflow information and photos, so please start submitting them!

Farrah Darbouze married Jessica Heard in December. The wedding was in Bethesda, and our classmate Nichole Morris was also in attendance.

Imani “Grace” Duncan-Price dropped us a note to let us know she is now based in Kingston, Jamaica. “I was honoured to be appointed a senator for the Government of Jamaica in 2012, so a significant part of life now focuses on reviewing laws for my country. But I still have my day job as chief strategy officer for JMMB Group (regional financial services company) and of course enjoying my young family as we all grow. So link me if you come this way. One love.”

You may have seen BatKid on the news this year? One of our classmates was involved! From Allegra Jones: “I’m happy to report that San Francisco’s BatKid saved Gotham City on Nov. 15! I’ve volunteered as a member of the Young Professional Advisory Council (YPAC) of the Greater Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation for seven years, and this was by far the most exciting, inspiring, community-building event in which I have participated. Seeing the city come together to help grant 5-year-old Miles’ wish to become BatKid was a true joy. #SFBatKid”

Mark Zubko and family are now living in Brooklyn. They recently moved back to the US from London. Mark’s wife, Alexandra, recently co-founded a travel-review company (Triptease).

As for your class secretaries, Darryl is continuing to take over Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, one admissions class at a time. Kevin and his wife survived their first year with twins (Owen and Norah), with their older daughter, Claire, pitching in to help. When not chasing toddlers, Kevin is helping ZocDoc expand its business across the U.S., providing real-time access to healthcare for all!

After the last Class Notes, Kevin heard from Beth Rauen Sciaino, who lives in nearby Morris County. Beth is the associate rector at Christ Episcopal Church in Ridgewood, N.J. She and her husband have a daughter, 6, and son, 1.

We hope our class has a solid turnout for the 15-year Reunion in May…in the meantime, please send in your updates so we can share!

C. DARRYL UY | darryl.uy@gmail.com

KEVIN KUMLER | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Darryl writes: Dr. Katherine Goldberg’s Ithaca-based veterinary practice officially became Whole Animal Veterinary Geriatrics & Hospice Services, PLLC., in late August. The new name more accurately reflects the unique focus of the practice and emphasizes the specialized care that it provides. Katherine’s practice is the only one in the region, and one of very few in the world devoted exclusively to geriatric support, hospice, and palliative care for pets. Wesleyan’s Science in Society Program definitely provided an excellent foundation for development of unique perspectives on bioethics and healthcare systems in general, which contributed to Katherine’s unique career path within the veterinary profession.

Jake Fleisher lives in L.A., working as a comedy writer. His latest project is a Web-series funded by Yahoo called Tiny Commando. He co-created it and wrote all 12 episodes. This action/comedy stars Ed Helms (The Hangover, The Office), Zack Levi (Chuck), and Gillian Jacobs (Community). To watch this family friendly and safe-for-work series, go to screen.yahoo.com/tiny-commando.

Ursula Ogno Sfraga continues to manage a software development and consulting firm in Juneau, Alaska. She and her husband, Philip, adopted their 3-year-old foster son on May 3, 2013. Joshua joins older brother Aiden, age 7.

Daniel Gibson was promoted from counsel to partner at Cantor Colburn. Co-chair of the design patent practice group at Cantor Colburn, he is experienced in both domestic and foreign preparation and prosecution of patent applications in a variety of mechanical, electrical, and design fields.

Shirley Fan saw Naoko Tsunoda in NYC this fall. Naoko lives in Atlanta, Ga., and works for the tea company Teavana, developing lines of teas for the brand. As for Shirley, she moved back to NYC with her husband and son after spending five years in Chicago. She just published her first cookbook (May 2013) called The Flying Brownie (http://amzn.to/17rYhsl). It’s about putting together the perfect care package for your loved ones, and was inspired by her time at Wes!

On July 20, 2013, John Raby married Louisa Schroeder in Falmouth, Maine. Andrew Hopewell, Ben Cohen-Leadholm, Mike Stevens, and I were all groomsmen and Esther Perreault Roy ’00 was also in attendance. John is the head of the history department at Thornton Academy and was promoted to captain of the Saco Fire Department. Andrew works on the comprehensive plan for Spotsylvania County, Va., which is among the country’s fastest growing localities. His wife, Lindsey Poulin Hopewell, who is working on her doctorate from George Mason University in Public Policy, was not able to attend the wedding, since she was home taking care of their two kids, Anderson and Aibreann. Ben is a consultant for Denneen & Company and lives in Brookline, Mass., with his wife, Jamie, and two kids, Addison and Jackson. Mike continues to pursue his passion for music as the musical director for PhillyBloco, a high energy group that performs Brazilian samba, funk, and reggae. He lives in Philadelphia with wife Sara Janiki Stevens ’98 and son Oscar. Esther married her high school sweetheart, Chris Roy, and they live in Nashua, N.H., where she works as a naturopathic doctor and natural health educator. Even though John never did his Caddyshack gopher dance impression, we all had a great time at his wedding!

As for Kevin, he and his wife, Keara, are just trying to keep their eyes open! Two moves and two additional kids have kept them very busy. They are now settled in Glen Rock, N.J., and Kevin is enjoying life in the ’burbs and commuting into SoHo.

Don’t forget, 2014 marks our class Reunion of 15 years! So save the dates: May 22–25, 2014! Hope to see many of you back on campus!

C. DARRYL UY and KEVIN KUMLER
darryl.uy@gmail.com
kevinkumler@gmail.com