Tag: 2008

Matthew Linder got married to the lovely and brilliant Amy Foote, and his group, Mobius Trio, is still touring the world playing “weird guitar music.” They will be touring Brazil in June.

Grace Overbeke is in graduate school, pursuing her doctorate at Northwestern University’s interdisciplinary PhD in theatre and drama, where she is writing about Jewish female stand-up comedians. She and her fiancé share a fish named Lucius, who is still alive.

Ruby Corbyn-Ross writes, “Most of my focus this spring has been on my band, Blato Zlato, a six-piece Balkan band with Annalisa Kelly. We released our first album in January and went up to New York to do a CD release tour and play at the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival. We won a grant to produce a music video for one of the songs from the album, which will be released in mid-May (“Miatalo Lenche Iabalka”), got asked to reinterpret a song off the Voyager Golden Record for an upcoming documentary which we’ll be filming in mid-June, opened for and collaborated on a show featuring Nels Cline of Wilco, and we’re putting together another awesome big show for the fall. I’m also singing in a 10-piece Balkan women’s vocal ensemble, Trendafilka, singing and playing guitar with my country-folk duo, Crossing Canal, and teaching reading remediation full-time at the International School of Louisiana. This summer my husband and I are going to India for two weeks and I’m hoping to meet up with some Wes friends there!”

Lyz Nardo’s company, Tipsy Scoop, continues to grow rapidly. She writes, “We opened our first ice cream ‘barlour’  (ice cream parlour meets bar) on May 7 and serve 15 flavors of boozy ice cream and sorbet to patrons from near and far! As COO, I have been busy trying to balance catering, events, wholesale orders, nationwide shipping, and the new retail location. While I am exhausted, I am truly happy and feel so lucky to work with my fantastic team! As if the store was not reason enough to celebrate, I got engaged last month to my Israeli fiancé. Lastly, I am thrilled to announce Tipsy Scoop’s first franchise will be in Israel and run by] my future brother and sister-in-law. Yay!”

Liat Olenick is resisting with Indivisible Nation BK. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Janie Stolar’s rash is clearing up. Marianna Foos writes, “The stars aligned and I found myself adopting a hypo-allergenic rescue cat named Herbie. She is perfect.”

Finally, Behdad Bozorgnia is one of the chief residents at the University of Pennsylvania department of psychiatry and thought it would be interesting for the Wesleyan community to know that three out of the four chief residents are Wesleyan graduates, including Eric Rosoff ’04 and Ashley Un ’09.

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Many nuptials to report this issue! Graham Douds is still living and breathing in San Francisco. He is in his third year working as an attorney at a small litigation firm in the Bay Area. He recently married a wonderful woman over Labor Day weekend. At the ceremony and reception, they were surrounded by friends and family, including some Wes grads.

Katie Fabac writes, “A big year for me! I settled down with a sweet man and two dogs in Lawrence, Kan. We bought a three-bedroom house and got engaged. I work for the CMHC, and next year, am thinking about taking out a 403(b).”

In August, Sage Norman married Reinhardt Schuhmann ’06 in Reinhardt’s hometown of Brookhaven, N.Y. The couple met five ago on the Wesleyan campus at the class of 2006’s 5th Reunion. (Special shout-out to Sara Green who was with Sage in the Fountain Ave. backyard the moment the two met.) The wedding was brilliantly officiated by Jordyn Lexton and was attended by a quality crew of Wesleyan friends, with Rosina Belcourt, Stephanie Roer, and Matt Mulqueen ’06 included in the wedding party. Kinky Spigot & the Welders (band includes Yoni Rabino ’07, Marlon Bishop ’07, Jon Hutchinson ’07, and Lillian Ruiz) played the reception and kept everyone on the dance floor. Sage, Reinhardt, and their dog, Franklin, live in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

Twelve years and two months after meeting as frosh at the Eclectic Sex Party, Adam Tinkle and Jess Sullivan finally got around to tying the knot, at Old Sturbridge Village on Nov. 26, with their daughter Alice, as flower person, and son Milo as ring bearer. They were surrounded by Wesleyan friends, who made toasts and music that were central to the ecstatic celebration. When not planning weddings (i.e., from now on), they both teach at Skidmore College, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a school which they are slowly trying to make more like Wes.

Lynn Favin is on her first national theater tour, playing Ophelia in Hamlet for the last four months all over America. She also has a recurring role on Baz Luhrmann’s,The Get Down, as a back-up singer (you can see her perform in the final number of episode one and the introductory credits of episode six). For reviews and other projects, visit www.lynnfavin.com.

Grace Kessler Overbeke is working on her dissertation at Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary PhD., in theater and drama. Phil Zegelbone got his M.D., and is now a resident at Johns Hopkins. Elissa Kozlov writes, “I made my triumphant return to NYC in August after six long years away spent getting a PhD. in clinical psychology. I am now working at Weill Cornell Medical College in the division of geriatrics and palliative care. I moved to Brooklyn with my husband and my dog, and we were graciously welcomed by a warm community of Wes alumni who made me feel like I never left. I am so grateful for my Wesleyan family in NYC.”

Marianna Foos founded the Boston chapter of R-Ladies in September, part of a world-wide organization to promote gender diversity in the R, statistical programming language, community. She is also almost done training to become an instructor for Data Carpentry, a non-profit that teaches computer skills to researchers.

Lyz Nardo notes, “Greetings from Harlem! As chief operating officer at Tipsy Scoop, an ice cream company, I have been keeping myself busy creating seasonal, liquor-infused flavors (like Frose All Day made with grapefruit, rose wine and elderflower liqueur) and improving operations for our growing business. We proudly ship hundreds of orders nationwide each week and, due to growing demand, hope to open a storefront in NYC soon! “

Finally, Amanda Krentzman started working at Netflix as a creative TV executive in international originals. She and her team are making shows all around the world in other countries and in other languages that live on Netflix in 190 countries at once. They find and get to help create TV series about people and their stories from all over the world.

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Anthony Albrecht writes, “I am happy to report that I have earned a second degree from Wesleyan—my MALS, with a concentration in humanities, this past May. I am still living in Middletown (this time in my own home with Kelly, my wife of almost six years!), and am going into my fourth year as a seventh grade language arts teacher at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, with the upcoming school year being my first as a team leader. It has been great being back on campus the past couple of years and I look forward to upcoming events that will bring me five minutes down the road to my alma mater!”

Lauren Goldman is living in Brooklyn, and working as the national coordinator for an anti-Trump campaign with Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice. Before starting this campaign, she did a one-month hike in Uttarakhand in the Himalayas, and visited Delhi, Agra, and Ladakh. Janie Stolar is thrilled to announce that her Facebook posts are doing well. Bex Allen was promoted to associate director of grants and strategic partnerships at the YMCA of Metro Chicago, where she manages corporate and private foundation grant funding.

Leah Weinberg writes, “This spring, following a lovely trip to New York, during which my husband, Scott Horowitz ’07, and I caught up with JJ DelSerra and Julia Cheng, I graduated from the University of Michigan with a PhD in musicology. Over the summer, we also got to spend a long weekend in Minneapolis visiting more Wes friends, including Kat Aymeloglu ’07, John McNeil, Emily Marshall, and Will Matthews. Tasty food was consumed, artsy miniature golf was played, one uptight Minnesotan was annoyed by our cheerful revelry, and a good time was generally had by all.”

Jeffrey Stein published an op-ed in August in The Washington Post, confronting the widespread problem of law enforcement offices refusing to disclose officer misconduct information to the public. The op-ed is entitled, “What about police misconduct in your city? That’s confidential.”

Lyuba Azbel is doing her PhD at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her research is in Kyrgyzstan on drugs, prisons, and HIV. She’s been living in Berlin for three years and writes, “[I] am in it for the long run so if any Wes folks are in town, give me a shout! I will soon have several couches to offer.” Sandra Manzanares moved to Brooklyn to start her grad school journey, creating her own master’s in the art and science of storytelling at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, while still playing a senior marketing manager by day. Downtime is usually spent hanging out with the usual lovely Wes heads.

Sally Rosen has worked at CBS News for many years, where she started as a page and worked up to the role of producer. She covered the recovery from the financial crisis, the Boston Marathon Bombings, the San Bernardino terrorist attacks, Election Night specials, and many less memorable moments in recent U.S. history that often caused her to cancel plans with little notice. In June, Sally took a job at WME | IMG, where she works as a senior coordinating producer in IMG’s Original Content group. She’s still committed to telling great stories through television, in both broadcast and digital platforms. She lives in Manhattan and sees her Wesleyan friends all the time.

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Lots to report for the international Class of ’08. Chenelle Tanglao writes, “After spending the last eight years in New York after graduation, I just moved to the other side of the world to Sydney, Australia! I’m all set up in Bondi Beach—really can’t complain, the relentless sunshine and Pacific Ocean views are a huge change from New York winters! If anyone is ever in the Southern Hemisphere, give me a holler—need more Wes folks around here!”

Karla Hargrave worked as a trekking guide in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile for six months, collecting research material for her next theatrical creation: a world traveling multimedia experience about climate change, the things that we don’t want to change, and how to push for the solutions that we need. She is seeking a team of artists, scientists, lawyers, engineers, administrators and, of course, funders: karla.hargrave@gmail.com. Home base: Oakland, Calif.

Amanda Krentzman, meanwhile, is now working at Netflix in TV development on the International Originals team. She is working on making TV programs in countries all around the world, in the native language of that country, with storytellers from there, and then releasing worldwide on Netflix. Her first show was Club De Cuervos (A Mexican Original) and her second one was Marseille (French Original). A lot more shows to come soon!

Meanwhile, stateside, Lynn Favin booked her first national theater tour and will be performing the role of Ophelia in Hamlet all over the country. She also recently voice-acted in multiple episodes of Robot Chicken (created by Matt Senreich ‘96) and had the honor of working directly with Baz Luhrmann as a back-up singer for his upcoming Netflix series The Get Down.

Jeremy Brown and Kara Schnoes ’07 are moving to Eugene, Ore., this summer, where Jeremy will begin practicing emergency medicine after completing his residency. They are expecting their first child in August and have purchased land with long-term plans for goats, chickens, farming, and building a home. He writes, “Come visit if you are driving through the area on I-5!”

Annalisa Kelly and Hunter King were hallmates freshman year in Clark. On April 16th they got married in Hunter’s hometown of New Orleans.

Maggie Mitchell Siddiqi is graduating in May from Hartford Seminary with a master of arts in Islam and Christian-Muslim relations and a graduate certificate in Islamic chaplaincy.

Betty Kolod finished medical school at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn and is starting a residency at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, studying primary care and social internal medicine.

Janie Stolar is thrilled to announce that her Facebook posts finally seem to be receiving the number of likes they deserve.

Finally, in inspiring fashion, Jonno Boyer-Dry writes, “Three weeks after I got engaged to Allison Towle (Tufts ’08—keepin’ it all in the NESCAC) in September 2014 I was diagnosed with stage 2B or 4A Hodgkin’s lymphoma. My treatment involved six months of AVBD outpatient chemo, starting in September 2014, that killed most but not all of the disease, followed by four months of IGEV in-patient salvage chemo (April–July 2015), leading up to an autologous stem cell transplant (three-week hospitalization with very powerful chemo for six days in a row) in August and now I’m halfway through 16 cycles of “just in case” antibody therapy that I receive via infusion every three weeks, called brentuximab vendotin. But now my scans are clean, which is a miracle! I’m now feeling great and life is largely back to normal. Most important, our wedding is finally happening at the end of May in Park City, Utah! It’s been a long, grueling ride but it was worth every bit of pain. Life is such a gift. Hope you’re all well and happy!”!

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

As usual, the Class of ’08 is doing impressive work! Paul Johnson writes: “I finally wrapped up a PhD in bioengineering last year, then started a job at Apple. I can’t really say much about what I’m working on, except that I sit at a computer a lot of the time, use a mouse, type on a keyboard, that sort of thing (I’ve said too much).”

Meanwhile, Lauren Goldman moved back to New York in June and is working at a solar energy company. She was happy to ring in the New Year in Brooklyn with Rashida Richardson, Annie Shepard ’09, and Molly Birnbaum ’09.

Karla Hargrave is working as a trekking guide in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile for six months, collecting research material for her next theatrical creation: a world traveling multimedia experience about climate change, the things we don’t want to change, and how to push for the solutions that we need. She is seeking a team of artists, scientists, lawyers, engineers, administrators, and of course, funders. Home base: Oakland, Calif.

Lucy Bickerton writes: “I was married this summer in Mexico to Cedric Vara, an ’06 Vassar alum. We met working on a film production, although I have since made a career change, and was just accepted to medical school! In the meantime, I am teaching chemistry at Hunter College and trying to make the most of my precious free time before classes start in August. I have had a blast reliving my college roommate days this month, with Stephanie Calvert staying in my guest room in Park Slope after she had an apartment fire.” Before the fire, Stephanie started working on a new art project, Shame to Pride, in the summer of 2014. This past November (2015) the work culminated with two solo shows, one in Dumbo (Brooklyn), one in the Lower East Side. The New York Times also wrote about her work on opening day of the Dumbo show: takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/a-mothers-hoarding-a-daughters-art/?_r=1

Daniel Collins and his wife just had a baby on Sept 25. Marianna Foos got her MS in bioinformatics in August. She jokes, “I think the peak number of Wes alums at the Boston Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Meetup was five, which is pretty solid for a field you’ve never heard of.” D. Ross Pemmerl writes: “I was selected as one of American Cancer Society’s two sponsored runners for the 2016 Boston Marathon. Interestingly enough, the other representative selected was Caroline Mead ’15. Both Caroline and I will be running to raise money for the American Cancer Society with all donations going to fund cancer research, maintain ACS care facilities, and support their outreach programs. If anyone is interested in learning more and/or donating to the cause, please e-mail me at rosspemmerl@gmail.com or look me up on FB (Ross Pemmerl). I’m running to honor my father who passed away from cancer my junior year at Wes, and I am excited to tackle the 26.2 in his memory!”

Jacob Mirsky says, “I moved to Boston (well, Brookline) with Gavriel Elkind ’09 to start my residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital on my path to becoming a primary care doctor. The stars aligned over Christmas, when I worked with my freshman (one-bedroom) roommate, Zack Frosch, on the cardiology service. I then had the pleasure of spending a weekend in Portland, Maine, at the winter chalet of Oren Gersten and Olivia Dooley ’09, which included cross-country skiing out their front door with their impressively well-behaved dog, Toby (Wes class TBD).”

Oren Gersten adds, “In November, my dog had a bowel obstruction caused by a corn cob. Luckily Ezra Steinberg ’01, VMD, was working that night and performed an emergency ex-lap and fixed him right up. Thanks, Dr. Steinberg!”

Alicia Collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

As usual, ’08 has a lot of good news!

Alpay Koralturk writes: “I had a wedding in Istanbul this August. My Wesleyan friends Norman Azoulay, Tom Volgenau, Nelson Azoulay ’09, Miller Nuttle ’09, Christian Freire ’09, and Ryan Brill ’10 all attended the wedding and it was a blast!”

In early October Ben Nissim married Karen (née Levinstim). They’re living and working in and around West Hartford, Conn.,and enjoying spending lots of time with other Wes grads in the area.

Caroline Janin has been living in Lima, Peru, working for an investment fund since she graduated in May 2014 from Columbia Business School, which she happily attended with fellow ’08er Nyambura Gichohi. Caroline was married in Paris in June and celebrated with Tara Moore, Armando Palha, Asli Sonceley, Nyambura Gichohi, Lauren Goldman, Maddie Rottman, Katie Kalafus ’09 and Sonia Livdahl. Most important, she recently got a soft, chubby, French bulldog named Joséphine, who is working on her social media presence with Instagram account josephinebulldog.

Justin Douglas writes: “Jennifer Madowitz Douglas and I married this past May in New York City. After the wedding, we road-tripped from San Diego, Calif., to West Hartford, Conn., where we now live. Along the way, we stayed with friends and family, including Brooke Richart.“

Amidst all of the wedding bells, AJ Taucher and his wife, Jackie, are celebrating the birth of their son, Griffin, who made his appearance on Sept. 30, 2015. AJ is still living and working in Long Beach, Calif., and has enjoyed running into several alums when in the LA area.

Emily Einhorn and Jeff Wong are happy to be back in the Northeast again! After three years in Florida, they are back in the land of Wesleyan, living for the first time in New York City. Both are working at independent schools in the city and love being able to walk to work.

Leslie Prado is living in D.C. and is almost half way through the clinical year of the GWU physician assistant program. She is in her surgery rotation and is starting the PICU in November.

Lyz Nardo recently became brand manager for Tipsy Scoop ice cream. They churn small batch, liquor-infused ice cream made from locally sourced ingredients in New York. All flavors are five percent ABV. Flavors range from maple bacon bourbon to Mexican “hot” chocolate to grapefruit Paloma sorbet. This is an incredibly fun and unique opportunity! They are growing quickly, which keeps her very busy year-round!

Sophia Kim shared, “I graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing this past July, passed my boards, and then went on a six-week trip to Wyoming to see old friends and go climbing as much as possible. It was great, and now I’m back in Baltimore, working at the Johns Hopkins Hospital neuroscience critical care unit as an RN.”

After spending four years as the assistant tennis coach at Brandeis, Pauri Pandian was awarded 2015 ITA Northeast Men’s and Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year, 2015 ITA National Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year, and just began as the head coach at Wheaton College, in Norton, Mass., this fall.

Finally, Ruby Ross writes: “I just started a new job as a teaching assistant for a French-immersion second grade class at The International School of Louisiana and continue to gig around town solo and with my duo Crossing Canal. My Balkan band, Blato Zlato (with Annie Kelly among others), is on hiatus until December when all members get back to town, but we’re hoping to play Golden Fest in New York again this coming year. And the biggest news: I’m getting married in November!”

Alicia collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

Our class has been busy, including myself. My husband, Paul, and I had a baby girl, Eliza, in May and couldn’t be happier! But we’re not the only ones who were visited by the stork… Johanna Richlin writes: “News from Baltimore: my husband, Gabe Paquette ’99, and I welcomed with great joy our baby daughter, Antonia Bard Paquette, into the world on June 5. We’re over the moon, as are her long line of Wesleyan alum relatives: grandparents Pamela Bard Richlin ’75 and Dean Richlin ’74, great uncle Gar Richlin ’67, and aunt Sara Richlin ’04!”

Ben Smyser will soon join the proud parents as well. He writes: “This is my first class note, so I have a lot to tell! I got married to a beautiful woman named Elanor Schoomer in the summer of 2012, and she and I are having a baby, due in September! I’ve been admitted to the bars of New York and New Jersey and am working as a corporate associate at a large law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP. After living in Atlanta during law school, Elanor and I now are back in Brooklyn, still hanging out with many of my (now our) Wes friends.”

In somewhat related news (the opposite side of delivery), Lillian Siegel recently moved to Boston and started work as a nurse-midwife with Harvard Vanguard, delivering babies at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. She looks forward to reconnecting with other Wes folks in the area. Drop her a line!

Meanwhile, Leslie Prado is in her last year of PA/MPH. Her first clinical rotation is OB/GYN, where she is seeing the birth of many babies. She was able to scrub in for a few C-sections, and is excited to get the rest of her clinical rotations done and figure out where she would like to practice.

Joe Stankus, along with Destin Douglas ’09, spent the last year producing a movie called Jackrabbit, which premiered at the 2105 TriBeCa Film Festival. The movie was made possible with the help of several other Wesleyan alums, specifically gaffer Sam Jones ’10, key grip Tim Curtin ’07, co-editor Talia Barrett, and composer Will Berman ’04.

Aaron Tabak writes: “After six years in NYC, I’ve moved to Portland, Ore., and am now working for SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), a statewide literacy nonprofit based here.”

Nick Benacerraf started working as a full-time theater professor last fall at Kean University in New Jersey. He still lives in New York, where he co-runs a Wes-based company, The Assembly, which is currently in residence at the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village and has a new show coming up July 15–18, called I Will Look Forward to This Later. Check out assemblytheater.org for details. Recent beloved work includes a show called Up and Away, which is an immersive experience for autistic children at Lincoln Center. It previewed last spring and will premiere this fall.

Emily Rosen-King shares: “I’m getting married on June 27th to Jared Chester (whom I actually met through a Wesleyan friend at a birthday party more than five years ago!)”

Other ’08ers taking vows include Micki Baron, who married Jamie Hiteshew in September 2014 in San Francisco, where they have lived since graduating from Wes. The ceremony was officiated by Kai Johnson. Micki graduated from UCSF Medical School this summer and is now an OB/GYN resident at UCSF. Jamie is a project manager at BRIDGE Housing Corporation, where he develops low-income housing in the Bay Area

Shivani Kumar is graduating from MIT Sloan this spring in the Class of 2015 with an MBA. Afterwards, she will be joining McKinsey & Company. Rebecca Gitlin graduated this year, too, with her Ph.D. in clinical psychology; starting in September, she’ll be doing a Women’s Behavioral Health postdoctoral fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Emily Gallivan has spent the last year adventuring. Last summer she drove to LA to take a course at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and ate more tacos than she ever had in her whole life prior. Emily then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway through California to wonderful Seattle, followed by Yellowstone, Minneapolis, Madison, and Chicago, seeing Wesleyan alums all over. Upon her return to the D.C. area, Emily worked for a digital library nonprofit, finally learning a bit of what Jacqueline Chapman has been talking about all these years. Fall saw a trip to the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival outside Birmingham, Ala., and in spring one to Ireland. Come August, she will head to California to start graduate school at UC, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, pursuing a master of architecture.

Becca Broches is on to a new adventure, as well. She writes: “After spending three years in D.C., and one in Boston, I am very excited to be moving back to NYC in September where I will spend the next two years working as an Equal Justice Works fellow in the Bronx, providing legal services to food entrepreneurs who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer.”

Caroline Raclin, meanwhile, is now the health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Jordan. She oversees four primary health clinics and a small army of community health volunteers that serve Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians along the Syrian border. She adds, “If any Wes alums are ever in Amman, look me up!”
Finally, Ruby Ross writes in: “It’s been a busy year! I did a house concert tour in Boston in January and one in California in March. I’m currently doing a house concert tour on the East Coast, which includes fellow Wes alums among the hosts, so I’m looking forward to some Wes reunions! Later this summer I’ll be moving into a new house and going to Costa Rica, and then in the fall I’m getting married!”

The Class of ’08 is making moves!

Amanda Krentzman writes: “I changed jobs and I am now a director of development for Gail Berman’s new studio The Jackal Group. I focus on scripted television development along with unscripted TV development and feature development as well. The Jackal Group is an independent studio that is co-owned by Fox. Gail is known for her work on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Malcolm in the Middle. Additionally Gail was also the president of Fox and the president of Paramount Movie Studios along with the founder of Berman Braun.”

Bex Allen made a career move in joining the YMCA of Metro Chicago as a development associate. Ian Renner went back to business school, and ​is enjoying hanging out there with Emily Malkin. ​Caroline White began an MBA program as well—she is at Simmons School of Management in Boston. She started in 2014.

Ruby Ross writes: “Goodness! It looks like a lot has happened since the last time I wrote into class notes, but so much so that I can’t really recap. So I’ll keep it to this: 2014 brought me lots of travel (to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, a giant cross-country road trip from NOLA to the West Coast and back, and to Iceland to catch the Northern Lights), some time learning from Wes alum and singer-songwriter extraordinaire Dar Williams ’89, as well as many other musical advancements (quit my day job!), and, best of all, a boyfriend-turned-fiancé!”

Brandon Smith sends in his update: “While living in LA for business school, I managed to spend time with a few Wesleyan alums. I have since moved to Berlin on behalf of a venture I created at USC. It’s been a pretty cool experience, albeit there’s a tremendous language barrier. Here is a link to the Marshall Admissions website: marshall.usc.edu/mba/profiles. I was fortunate enough to be included within the MBA profiles (I just wish I didn’t look so sweaty).

Caroline Raclin has an enviable path as well: “I’ve gone further down the humanitarian/disaster relief rabbit hole and am living in the Philippines, running an NGO program that aims to help nearly 50,000 people rebuild their lives after Typhoon Haiyan hit in Dec. 2013. I’ve learned more about proper roof construction and eating of fertilized duck eggs (balut) than I ever wanted to know. Hope all is well with you and the rest of our Wes fam!”

Alicia collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

The class of ’08 had a busy year so far! Emily Hauck writes from Paris: “I was lucky to get a Thanksgiving visit from Mark Purser and his girlfriend, Jignasha. I skipped work to spend a day with them exploring Paris and we even managed to whip up a pretty decent Thanksgiving dinner. Otherwise [my boyfriend] Julien and I are looking forward to our annual East Coast extravaganza, which almost always includes a ‘welcome back to America’ meal in a greasy NYC diner with Izaak Orlansky, DC happy hours with Emily Malkin and Maura Scully, Martha’s Vineyard relaxing with Rebecca Feiden and luckily for us this year we’ll even get to see Stephanie Schwartz, who will be back from Burundi just in time for us to have one day together in New York.”

Sage Trombulak and Sam Ruth got married in June, with bridesmaids Katie Poor, Alicia Collen-Zeidan, and Zoe Holder, and groomsmen Mark Kelley and Raffi Stern at their sides. Annalee Pratt, JZ Golden ’09, and “a few other Wes-kids who didn’t get us permission to print their names in Class Notes in time were also there to join us with a spirited dance to Kids while our bemused family and non-Wes friends looked on. We’re also trying to rush through as many other life events as possible, including both finishing our master’s degrees in May, closing on a house in August, and Sage starting a new job. Why we decided to throw a second Tough Mudder into the mix as well is anyone’s guess.”

Leslie Prado is into her second year of a joint master of public health (epidemiology) and physician assistant at George Washington University. She loves what she is learning and is enjoying the DC life. This semester she learned how to do a full physical exam on a patient!

Jessica Sullivan and Adam Tinkle moved from their longtime homestead outside San Diego, having more or less completed graduate school. Now, both are teaching at Skidmore College and are living in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. They’re looking forward to re-connecting with the many friends they missed throughout their West Coast sojourn, and are very happy to the offer their guest room to any upstate vacationers or Adirondack ramblers they may have lost touch with.

Kate Letourneau writes: “My husband, Andy Lubershane ’06, and I are moving to the Portland, Maine, area, where I just got a job as a primary care nurse practitioner. In June we went to the Minnesota wedding of Charlotte Riggs to Mike Wells, and had a great time with Henny Admoni, Meera Dave, Woody Leslie, Izaak Orlansky, Emily Palmer, Liz Wyner, and Lauren Nichols ’07.

Having worked for Ben Silverman at Electus as a manager of development, Amanda Krentzman is now starting a new job as director of development for Gail Berman at her new company The Jackal Group.

Stephanie Pfeiffer moved to Cambridge, England, for her job with the U.S. Defense Department. She is loving her Aga oven and encourages visitors come see her in the Old World.

Mark Leonida writes in from his holiday in Malaysia visiting fellow ’08 grad Cristabel Tan. “We just spent the past two days climbing Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Malaysia at 13,435 feet. It was our first and probably last time ever doing something like this, as right now we feel more like Wesleyan class of 1908. (Not to be ageist, but, yeah, neither of us can walk like we used to.)”

Andrés Orejuela is back in New York City, where he lives, works, and studies for a PhD in comparative literature with André Aciman (Visiting Distinguished Writer ’09) at CUNY’s Graduate Center, after a summer teaching at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He worked there with, among other Wessies, LaShawn Springer and Geoffrey Tanner ’04 MALS ’06. Russell House remains, to him, the center of the most beautiful campus in all of New England.

Alicia collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu

You may have noticed that after more than five years of service, Caitlin O’Shaughnessy has retired from her position as Class Notes Secretary. I’m happy to be taking over for her. I recently relocated from NYC to Connecticut, buying a house with my husband, finishing grad school, and finally settling into my dream job as a nurse practitioner at a community health center. The health center caters to those who would not otherwise have access to primary care, and I have the privilege of treating newborns to seniors and everyone in between. Stop on by if you need affordable care!

Karla Hargrave received her MFA from San Francisco State University in theatre design in 2013 and works full time at the Brava Theater Center in SF. She has been in the Bay Area for five years now and spends her free time seeing as much of the bay on her bike as possible, occasionally going on adventures with Fiona Lundy.

Since graduation, Stephanie Fungsang has been living in Brooklyn, working as a dance artist and yoga instructor. She is now navigating a transition in career and life, including a move to Cambridge, Mass., in spring 2014 with Jeremy Finch ’09. She is thankful for all the experiences and people in NY, including roommates past and present: Lucy Bickerton and Stephanie Calvert in their first NYC home, a treehouse loft; Sarah Meier-Zimbler and Rosina Belcourt; Jess Jones, Shamiso Mtangi, Stephanie Roer, Mimi Bai ’09, and Briana Deutsch ’09, who helped create their beautiful home of the past four years in Ditmas Park. She has much gratitude and excitement for what may come ahead!

Sophia Kim is going back to school for nursing. She’s decided to go to Johns Hopkin’s accelerated BSN program that starts in May and will be moving to Baltimore soon.

Chayanee Ubol Chinthrajah writes: “2014 has been an exciting year so far… coming up on my two year-marriage anniversary, graduating with my Master’s in HR and starting a new job! Celebrated these milestones with a ring from my favorite Wes grad, Andrea Lipsky Karasz’s new jewelry line, Tilda Biehn. Check out her amazing line!!”

Max Schenkein is having a blast living in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, with his roommate Alex Trepp, eagerly awaiting the arrival of Josh Atwood, who is staying the weekend to celebrate Alex’s birthday, along with Natasha Nussberg.

Lauren Goldman moved from New York to the Bay Area in January to work with Organizing for Action. Since being on this coast, she’s seen Tara Moore, Amanda Gordon ’07, and Penelope Essoyan ’07. She was glad to miss the frigid NYC winter.

Joanna Kenty writes: “As of May, it’s Dr. Joanna Kenty! I’m receiving my doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in Classics, after writing my dissertation on Cicero and Roman political rhetoric. Next year I’ll be back in New England, teaching at the University of New Hampshire.”

Marie Brophy spent the winter visiting family in Colorado, Boston, DC, and St. Louis, and ice climbing all around Colorado. She’s a rock climbing guide in Moab, Utah and had a Wes alum as a client last fall. When she’s not working, she can be found stuck to the side of a rock somewhere, putting her E&ES degree to good use, in a way!

Graham Douds passed the Calif. State Bar Exam. He is living and working as an attorney in San Francisco among friends and family.

Sandra Manzanares writes: “After spending the last year and a half dabbling editorially in different industries (from a flash sale site to a sneaker museum start-up), I recently started as marketing manager at Boston-based start-up, Placester, Inc., where I’m diving into the growing content marketing industry. I’m still volunteering, bringing tutoring and workshops to urban youth whenever possible at 826 Boston. Lashawn Springer, Melanie Nelson ’09, Caroline White, and Corrina Wainwright ’11 keep me company in Boston with our wonderful nights out (or in) that involve lots of laughter and wine! When not in Boston, I’m being housed in Rashida Richardson’s beautiful Brooklyn pad, eating ramen, and running into a million Wes people wherever I go.”

Brieze Keeley graduates from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai this May, after which she will begin her residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in June. She’d love to connect with any Wes friends in Boston when she arrives!

Aaron Larner writes: “Last year I started working on a project to help healthcare organizations do a better job of communicating within their organization. With the new healthcare reform there are strong incentives for hospitals and ambulatory clinics to start using electronic medical records (which is awesome!), but most organizations are still figuring out how this change is going to help them. In the short term it’s a lot of work to get all of their physicians, nurses and IT staff up to speed with completely new technology, especially when they are used to scribbling everything down on paper. Having worked for a large electronic medical record software company I knew firsthand the frustrations that new users of electronic medical records were feeling. Along with two other friends in the healthcare IT industry, I put together BreadcrumbsQA, a platform for healthcare professionals to ask and answer questions about the best ways to use their electronic medical record software. Our vision is to help speed up adoption of electronic medical records so that the ecosystem can realize all of the benefits that this change will bring. It’s kind of like Quora but specifically aimed at healthcare professionals. In January we (finally) signed on our first customer, a healthcare IT consulting firm, and are now working to launch another pilot at large healthcare organization.”

Alicia collen Zeidan | acollen@wesleyan.edu