CLASS OF 2000 | 2022 | FALL ISSUE
After recently completing his degree from Fordham University Gabelli School of Business, Marvin Thomas has left admissions from his alma mater Xavier High School in NYC and is now the director of business development of the Corporate Work Study Program at Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York.
Matt Rahaim has been teaching Hindustani music, relational improvisation, and practices of listening at the University of Minnesota, most recently in the new Creative Studies Program. His new book, Ways of Voice: Vocal Striving and Moral Contestation in North India and Beyond, was published in the Music/Culture series at Wesleyan University Press in fall 2021. He and his wife Jenna are spending as much time as possible in and on lakes, frozen and liquid.
Bryan Rowe lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with his wife Asia and two sons, Jacob (7) and Oscar (4). “I would love to hear from any classmates in the area!”
Eden Robins writes, “My first novel, When Franny Stands Up (Sourcebooks Landmark), is coming out November 1st! I call it ‘my funny book about trauma,’ and my editor calls it ‘a queer Marvelous Mrs. Maisel where the jokes are magic.’”
Ali Haider says, “After working in western Massachusetts for 10 years, I have taken a position at New York Presbyterian/Cornell—Queens, where I will continue working as an interventional and structural cardiologist. My wife Uruj Kamal Haider ’09 and I have a 17- month-old baby, Parisa Haider, and a second girl coming in December. We are excited to be moving back to New York and closer to our family.”
Trace Peterson completed her job as the NEH postdoctoral fellow in poetics at Emory University this past spring, and she has moved back to Connecticut, where she currently works as a visiting assistant professor of English at the UConn Storrs campus. This year Trace’s small-press publishing company, EOAGH Books, also won the National Jewish Book Award in Poetry for The Book of Anna, a title by trans writer Joy Ladin. An interview about the prize-winning book with Trace and Joy appeared in a recent article in Forbes magazine and is probably the first time poetry has ever appeared in Forbes.
Mandy Snyder writes, “I lead groups online for self-discovery and emotional intelligence using somatic approaches at mandysnyder.com. I am relocating to western Massachusetts, near Greenfield, should anyone live nearby, let me know!”
Bakley Smith says, “Hi, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia (actually Decatur), in 2021, after more than 20 years in NYC. My wife and I had our second child last year, and things are generally going quite well. Saw Josh Ostrow while in New York recently, and stay in touch with Justin Belin, Nick Kurian, and others. Missed our 20-year Reunion but looking forward to 25 in a few more years.”
Claudia Cruz writes, “During the pandemic I was co-managing editor of a team of reporters that won a national 2021 Murrow Award for our bilingual COVID-19 coverage during 2020. Also, I will finally join the ranks of published Wesleyan authors with the forthcoming academic chapter, “Race, Colorism and Policing in Latinx Communities: Getting the Story,” for a first-of-its-kind journalism textbook about covering Latinos in the U.S. and around the world. It will be published by Routledge in late April 2022.”
Our collective thoughts and prayers are with Greg Amis. His wife, Karen Ferreira Amis, died of cancer last November. Obituary is at https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/karen-amis-obituary?pid=200709776.
