After becoming an author in 2019, Kat Cho hit TheNew York Times bestsellers list this summer with her third published young adult book, Once Upon a K-Prom (Disney Books).
Lynn Favin is back in NYC after starring in an Equity show with CVRep in Palm Springs, California (January–February 2022). Her performance in Life x 3 was hailed by critics: “Lynn Favin’s ‘Sonia’ is a tigress—a no-nonsense mother, polished professional and a flirt, she is no one to mess with”; and landed her full representation with Buchwald, Eris Talent, and Entertainment Lab. She recorded her 17th character on the Emmy Award–winning animated show Robot Chicken this year and received top billing along with Seth Green and Bob Bergen in Season 11, episode 4. She looks forward to more bookings around the country and creative collaborations with fellow Wes alums. For more news, visit www.lynnfavin.com.
The Class of ’08 has been working hard . . . at work and at producing the Class of ’43!
Emily Hauck writes, “2021 was a pretty big year for me: my husband (Julien) and I bought a house in Cahors, a small town in southwest France where we’ve been living since 2016; I (finally!) passed the French civil service exam (I work as a fundraiser for the local government); and on November 28th our son George was born!”
Kate Krems gave birth to her third child, Kaya, in May, and now she is attempting to balance being a mother of three children under five with her full-time job as an attorney. After working at her previous firm for two years, she moved to Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch, a DC–based employment law firm, in November. Just to keep things interesting, she and her family will be moving to Newton, Massachusetts, in May. After the move, Kate will continue working remotely for her current firm and will appreciate being closer to her parents for help with childcare (and the beach for more cold-water surfing).
Valencia Mayu and Kona
Leslie Prado writes, “We got an Australian cattle dog and named him Kona as inspiration to qualify for the Worlds Ironman in Kona, Hawaii. And most importantly, after two miscarriages in 2020, we were blessed with a baby girl this year, and her name is Valencia Mayu. Feeling extremely grateful.”
Stephanie Fungsang and Jeremy Finch ’09 welcomed a son in early 2021. He is an adorable squawking goose.
Danielle Klimashousky married Matthew Barnish (non-Wes) in September 2021 in Cape May, New Jersey. Attendees included Julia Kessler and Becky (Ehrlich) Freiman, and they all had the best time!
Grace Overbeke is cited in All Events In for leading a discussion on “The Many ‘Mrs. Maisels’: A History of Jewish Women Comedians” on January 20. Overbeke is an assistant professor in the theater department of Columbia College with a focus on comedy writing and performance. She received her BA in theater and English from Wesleyan.
Nic Benacerraf recently stepped down from his longtime role as co-artistic director of The Assembly (founded with fellow Wes alums)—though he still serves enthusiastically on the company’s board. He founded a new group called Edge Effect, a “think-and-do-tank” that brings together scholars, scientists, activists, artists, journalists, technologists, (etc.), to dismantle the techniques of mass persuasion in our everyday lives (www.edgeeffectmedia.org/). He writes, “We are building our polydisciplinary network; reach out if interested! Work continues on the dissertation, and on live performances—including the upcoming immersive hip-hop/soul/funk concert: CANNABIS! A Viper Vaudeville.”
Marianna Foos writes, “Geoff Parsons ’88 and I were authors on a gene therapy paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in December. Geoff is an expert in many things scientific, as well as puns and gifs, and is a pleasure to work with. Clearly the fruits of a liberal arts education!”
Ulyana Sorokopoud Cubeta writes: “My spouse, Jezz Cubeta ’10, and I bought our first house. We moved our gaggle of three kids and three cats to Maryland to be closer to my job as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.”
Cecil Apostol and Jung-Hee Oh ’07 decided to end 2020 on a high note by getting married (virtually) on New Year’s Eve in their apartment in Brooklyn. The two barely knew each other at Wes and instead first bonded at a NYE party that Jung-Hee hosted at her Brooklyn apartment in 2007. Joining them on this Zoom wedding were Wes alums from each of these class years: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Promiti Islam, Sarah Fajardo ’07, Kate Reil ’07, Jessica Tsai ’07, Thomas Tachibana, and Nicole Hsiang ’05 each gave incredibly heartwarming toasts. Theodora Fan designed a beautiful three-tiered wedding cake. After the ceremony, all the Wesleyan folks split off into three different breakout rooms that were appropriately named: Tent Party, Party on Fountain, and Mabuhay Afterparty.
Marianna Foos writes in, “Whereas before the pandemic, we would exchange actual house plants and I would help identify dead birds she found at work, Xue (Sun) Davis and I have been exchanging frequent texts about which plants to buy and which live birds she is seeing at her feeders. For Christmas she got me the perfect philodendron and I got her a roasting pan so that sort of ruins the parallel. Unless she uses it for poultry, I guess.”
Janie Stolar would like to inform all eligible alumni who like cats and live in the Los Angeles area that she is somehow single. Katie Fabac reports, “I’ve been home.”
Brittany Lyth (Marshall) got married in full COVID fashion in September. She writes, “My husband, Dave Lyth, and I got married on the beach where he proposed. Our close friends were identified as close contacts so we had to adjust our plan of hosting a small 30-person wedding to just having our parents, officiant and photographer present. It was perfect and better than we expected. We are currently living in Waltham, Massachusetts with our new rescue puppy Wesley who coincidentally was born the day we got married!”
Class of ’08—write to us and let us know how you’re doing!
Lynn Favin was accepted into eight different acting MFA programs all over America and the UK (including two full scholarships and stipend offers). She is currently in England, completing her MFA in professional acting with the Bristol Old Vic in England. She has renewed her contract with William Morris Endeavor and recently played Queen Margaret in Henry VI Part II on YouTube’s Shakespeare live stream The Show Must Go Online. For more acting credits and upcoming projects, visit lynnfavin.com.
Lyz Nardo’s new baby
Lyz Nardo writes, “Greetings from Long Island City…for now! We welcomed our second daughter, Sofia, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York. After social distancing for eight weeks in New York with my husband, my mother, a 1-year-old, a newborn, a cat, and a half-dozen Alexa devices, we are starting to pack up and countdown to our move to Livingston, N.J. Sadly, I will be far less likely to run into any Wes alumni on the streets of Livingston, but look forward to visits once social distancing relaxes a bit!”
Emily Palmer started a new job as a clinical director of palliative care at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston last month and is fully deployed on COVID response. She postponed a planned summer wedding to 2021, but will still be getting legally married to her love, Daniel Schultz, in a tiny backyard wedding in July. She enjoys growing food in her community garden in Jamaica Plain and sending love and strength to the whole WesFam.
Benjamin Rowland writes, “In January I joined a startup, Hio, as head of partnerships. We provide virtual event solutions to small meetups and large conferences. Since COVID, all event organizers are transitioning to virtual, so it’s been fascinating to watch this new digital world evolve so fast.”
Brighid Gannon recently opened an online mental health service called Lavender to help increase New Yorkers’ access to psychiatric services remotely during the COVID-19 crisis. She is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and in addition to having recently launched Lavender, she owns a business providing mental health services to dozens of NY nursing homes, employing 12 other psychiatric nurse practitioners. Go to joinlavender.com for more information.
Since graduating from Wesleyan, Kyra Beckmann has been living in Los Angeles, amassing marketing expertise and enjoying the sunshine. She joined Sephora a year ago as the director of content production and is active in the evolving content landscape.
Lyz Nardo Levy writes, “We are counting down in the Levy household—we will welcome baby girl #2 in early March. My daughter Mila (13 months) will be promoted to the role of Big Sister and my husband, who always dreamed of being surrounded by women, will get his wish (just maybe not the way he intended).”
Kate Krems graduated from George Washington Law in May, gave birth to her second child, Adela, in June, and somehow managed to pass the Bar in July. She works for Zuckerman Law, a small firm specializing in employment and whistleblower law in the D.C.-metro area and takes time to practice and teach yoga when she can.
Emma Komlos-Hrobsky writes, “2019 was a year of wild and weird pleasures in writing for me. In June, with support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, I made a trip to CERN, the international particle research center outside Geneva, to research a novel. It was nothing short of life-changing to see such wonders as the Compact Muon Solenoid that detected the Higgs boson and to interview women particle physicists about their work. In September, The Colony—a performance piece about sisterhood and the eusocial behavior of army ants—premiered at UConn; it was a treat to co-write it with my friend Anna Lindemann and to imagine what an ant aria might sound like. Otherwise, I am living in New York City with my longtime boyfriend Matt and hoping for more particle physics and bugs in 2020.”
Amanda Sim is happy to announce the launch of a new design studio, Working Hard. Working Hard is a design consultancy that creates visual experiences and design solutions with a special focus on taking on projects for social good. In tandem, Working Hard has also created a line of desk organization products—the first product set just went live in January. Check it out at work-work-work.com.
Maya Bass ’08, MA’10 is a family physician and was featured in The Guardian for her work providing abortions in Oklahoma. She works full-time as family medicine faculty at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia in addition to flying back to Oklahoma part-time to provide reproductive health services.
Jeremy Brown and Kara Schnoes ’07 completed their family this past year with a second child who was adopted in Florida. They are enjoying living in Eugene, Ore., and hope the Wes community here continues to grow.
Steve Maroti writes, “I am finishing a master’s in international affairs at Columbia University, focusing on international security policy and finance, and recently got engaged. I remain eternally game to meet at Miller’s.”
Sam Barcelo graduated in May with an MBA from the Questrom School of Business.
Please keep the updates coming! Your classmates love hearing about you. E-mail me anytime.
Ruby Corbyn-Ross writes, “I’m working full-time teaching English reading remediation at a Spanish-immersion public charter school and part-time as a musician in New Orleans. Annalisa Kelly and I are making lots of Balkan music together! Our choir, Trendafilka, just released our first studio album and our band, Blato Zlato, is going on tour this summer to the West Coast and Bulgaria in advance of our sophomore album to be released in the fall. We’re working with a class of ’12 alumna to make a music video! I see a number of Wes folks regularly in NOLA and look forward to seeing more this summer at a wedding in Massachusetts.”
After a grueling year of applications, auditions, and acceptances into eight different MFA programs around the world, Lynn Favin will be attending Bristol Old Vic in England! She is one of 14 international actors selected to train at the same school as Olivia Coleman, Patrick Stewart, Daniel Day-Lewis, and more. She also starred in her second film with the AFI this year, playing Jane Everyman in the sci-fi comedy, Deuterstomes. Represented by William Morris Endeavors in the world of VO, Lynn has many cartoon characters releasing later this year and recorded a national commercial for a major laptop brand. lynnfavin.com
Marina Kastan Hays writes, “I’m moving to Denver next month for a job in the textile conservation lab at the Denver Art Museum. I don’t really know anyone there so would be glad to hear from any Wes grads in the area!”
Sam Barcelo graduated from Questrom School of Business with an MBA, concentrating in marketing, entrepreneurship, and social impact.
