Tag: 2009

Hi, fellow 2009ers! Here are some updates on your classmates.

Allison Heaney Lamson is living in Philadelphia with one husband, two cats, and two daughters. She is working for Temple Law School in their global legal studies department.

Jodie Rubenstein and her husband Alex (and their dog Barnum) moved back to Alexandria, Va., after a two-year stint in Denver.

Matt Connolly completed his first year as an assistant professor of film studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He earned his PhD in film studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison last May. He’s thrilled to see old friends at this year’s 10-year Reunion, especially Sara Beth Hoffman and Laurenellen McCann.

Sophie Reagan writes “I’m in D.C. doing federal consulting at Deloitte but currently living that maternity-leave life. Our daughter Lily was born in April. It’s pretty amazing and totally nuts, and I am beyond grateful to my crew of Wes moms including cousins Rosa Cohen-Cruz ’07 and Stephanie Pfeiffer ’08, and dear friends Emily Dine, Sophia Dumaine, and Ally Lamson.”

Seth Halpern’s tech company Ori.ai is being acquired and integrated into a newly formed venture to build a network of modern and thoughtful therapy practices across the country.

Lastly, Joe Newman writes: “As of January I’ve started at the law firm Fenwick & West, working on privacy issues and focusing on supporting the video game industry. Also, my wife, Allie, and I are expecting a baby girl this August—super excited!”

Thanks for submitting notes!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi, Class of 2009! Notes from your classmates are as follows: Last May, Matt Connolly received his PhD in film studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is now an assistant professor of film studies in the department of English at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Joe Newman left Ubisoft to start as a technology transactions associate at Fenwick & West, staying in San Francisco, focusing on privacy matters, especially as they affect the video game industry.

Kennedy Odede ’12 and Jessica Posner welcomed baby Oscar Garvey Odede in August! Jessica is the CEO of international nonprofit, Girl Effect.

After working at Sotheby’s auction house for more than five years, Michelle Brown has joined Pentagram, a leading graphic design firm based in NYC, where she works as a project manager specializing in print publications, exhibition design, and environmental graphics.

Graham Immerman’s company, MachineMetrics, a startup leading the effort to bring AI and analytics to manufacturing, has raised $11.3 million in Series A financing. Graham is head of marketing and one of six on the executive team. Learn more at machinemetrics.org.

Dominic Ireland Halliday writes, “Wesleyan wound up turning me into a permanent resident of Connecticut. My wife and I bought a house in Norwalk, allowing us to participate fully in the hallowed state pastimes of grumbling about traffic and taxes. If this kind of thing keeps up, I’m likely to be in the nutmeg import/export business by the 20-year Reunion. Can’t believe that the 10-year is right around the corner—I’m looking forward to attending and hope to see many old classmates on Foss Hill. Going to throw some MGMT bootlegs into the mix as I work in the backyard today. Not much chance of hitting up Mamoun’s food truck after, unfortunately.”

After eight years of working at Lyon-Martin Health Services as trans health manager, J.M. Jaffe created Trans Health Consulting, LLC, a consulting agency.

Thom Sisson and Nina Gonzalez created Mobile Suit Breakdown, a weekly podcast about Japanese sci-fi mega-franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam. Each episode they watch, analyze, and review the iconic anime in the order it was made—researching its influences, examining its themes, and discussing how each piece of the Gundam canon fits within the changing context in Japan and the world, from 1979 to today. Find it at gundampodcast.com.

Jena Gordon and Pearce Talbot were married on Oct. 6 in a beautiful ceremony in Boston. They danced the night away with Andrea Giuliano, Michela Stager Black, Andrew Black, Caitlyn McCann Wong, Eugene Wong, Chris Mixon, Steve Rebh, Rachel Lurie Melikan, Heather Flemming, Kim Lam ’08, Mike Lubrano, Anthony Marsella, Vinny Colangelo, Allan Collins ’08, and Malcolm Hill ’08.

Shane Heckstall writes, “Sup? I started my own business and I’m getting married. Peace.”

Finally, Evan Coleman got married in July 2017 to his longtime girlfriend and got a new job as attorney advisor for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in Worcester.

Thanks for all your contributions. Get excited for our Reunion in May!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi, fellow 2009s. Here are a couple of updates on our classmates. Ray Ward and Lucas Hoeffel both launched new media ventures, Opalite Media and Lucas Hoeffel Photography, each focused on digital media production. They’ve kickstarted several photography/film collaborations while Ray lives in Boston and Lucas in NYC.

Mike Repplier writes, “I tell the stories of people in extraordinary circumstances as a producer for the primetime newsmagazine 20/20 on ABC News. As a booking producer, I manage the people whose stories we tell and am often the first line of reporting. I won my first Emmy Award for my work on a town hall special with President Obama on race and law enforcement. Most recently I helped produce an exclusive interview with Tammie Jo Shults, the hero Southwest pilot who landed her plane after an engine explosion and saved 148 people on board.”

Thanks for your submissions and please keep them coming!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi, fellow ’09ers. Hope everyone is well in the new year. We’ve gathered some notes from your classmates below:

Jess Eliot Myhre celebrated the first birthday of her baby, Monk Eliot Ousley, on Jan. 22. He’s fat, happy, and a genius.

Sophie Reagan lives in D.C. with her husband and dog. She works at Deloitte “trying to help the government one well-aligned PowerPoint deck at a time. We capped off a great summer of Wes weddings, celebrating Sophia Dumaine, Jodie Rubenstein, and Stephanie Pfeiffer ’08.”

Avital Fischer is a resident in pediatrics at Duke in Durham, N.C.

Joe Newman is now senior legal counsel at Ubisoft. He writes, “Anyone looking for a video game contact in the Bay Area can drop me a line!”

Brittany Delany writes, “Cheers to 2018! Resolutions: Build dance pieces. Connect with creatives through my work at La Quinta Arts Foundation and California Desert Arts Council. Sarah Ashkin ’11 and I performed a new duet for The New Feminist Gaze, an art show co-curated by Simeon Den Gallery and Wyld Womx.

Finally, former football teammates Spencer Platt and Peter Overman both welcomed baby boys in December, Nolan Platt and Ollie Overman. “Hopefully someday they will lift together.”

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi, 2009’ers! Below are some updates on our class:

Oriana Korol is attending graduate school at Portland State University’s social work program after two years working as a wilderness therapy field guide in the desert east of Bend, Ore. She attended Maggie Starr’s beautiful wedding in Hood River and ran into Noa Wotton ’10 at tracker school in Portland.

Reps for Dara Jaffe and Carl Maloni confirm that the two have decided to consciously un-roommate after four years and two apartments together in Los Angeles. The split was amicable and the pair will remain friends, as well as committed parents to their shared art collection and refrigerator. They ask for their privacy to be respected at this sad time.

Claire Kaplan is finishing her MPA degree with an internship at Public Citizen in D.C.

After graduating with an MBA from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley in May, Claire Levy moved to San Francisco, where she works in product marketing at Adobe.

Chloe Wardropper completed her PhD in environmental studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University, and started as an assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Society at the University of Idaho. She also got married!

Brittany Delany writes, “Expanding my connections in the Coachella Valley and Southern California desert region, life is weaving well. I co-developed a monthly movement peer practice with Sue Roginski ’87 and served as founding member of feminist creative women’s collective Wyld Womxn. Work at La Quinta Arts Foundation and California Desert Arts Council keeps me on my toes for growing opportunities to help make a meaningful impact in supporting the cultural landscape. Extending a true welcome to any Wes alums looking for a special desert retreat to make, build, share, and create.”

Bryan Wieland married Nicole Petitti on September 3 in Cape Cod at Wychmere Beach Club. He had many fellow Cardinals in attendance. And Russell Follansbee married Emma Nitzberg ’12 on September 3.

Thanks for sharing notes and please keep them coming!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi, Class of 2009! Below are a couple of updates from your classmates:

Adam and Lisa Kirk had a baby girl, Lara James, on May 15.

Caitlyn McCann Wong and Eugene Wong are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Kaia Adele Wong. She was born on June 1 and was happily welcomed at home by her labradoodle brother, Hudson. All are doing well and looking forward to moving back to Boston later this summer.

Kwabea Osae-Kwapong married Jim O’Brien on June 30 in New Jersey.

Alejandro Alvarado proposed to his beautiful girlfriend of three years, Lindsey Harder (and she said YES!). Wedding planning is underway; festivities will take place in summer or fall 2018.

Gedney Barclay is teaching in the humanities and media studies department at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn after getting her master’s from MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology program. She is a fellow at Skidmore College’s Storyteller’s Institute, working on a documentary film and performance project with Asa Horvitz ’10.

Last August, Anthony Marsella was hired for a full-time football position at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island as a defensive backs coach, special teams coordinator, and recruiting coordinator. He will hold the same position going into the 2017 season.

Lastly, Paul Edwards will be receiving his PhD in American and New England studies from Boston University at the end of the summer and will start his position as lecturer of history and literature at Harvard University.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Thanks for sending in notes!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi ’09er’s! Below are a few updated on your classmates.

Chris Mixon was married in Dallas, Texas, in October and had Steve Rebh, Pearce Talbot, Alex Segal, and Carl Maloni keeping him in check.

Max Krafft married his long-time partner, Thomas Zemp (Brown University ’05), in October. Their wedding was officiated by their good friend, Bess Thaler ’04, and several other Wesleyan friends joined in their summer camp-themed ceremony, including Sam Fentress ’04, Dan Stillman ’04, Christopher McDonald ’06, Allison Hughes ’06, Tristan Chirico ’06, Jeffrey Rovinelli ’10, Ben Morse ’04, Ben Abrams ’03, Abraham Lateiner ’04, and Ethan Butler ’04. They currently live in Guadalajara, Mexico, where Max is on a diplomatic assignment with the Foreign Service. His next assignment—to the U.S. Embassy in Oslo—begins this fall.

Emily Reisner is the new program director for school-based programs at Aspiranet, a nonprofit providing family and child services in the Bay Area. She oversees Mouse California, a Web-based technology platform that encourages students from underserved areas to access technology careers, and Experience Corps Bay Area, a literacy program in partnership with AARP, that recruits retired adults to volunteer as reading tutors.

Andrew Dermont married Elizabeth Wolff ’06 on Sept. 10. Many Wesleyan alumni were in attendance, including Rachel Seebacher ’06, Liberty Thomas McAteer ’06, Alexis Krisel ’10, Mufaro Dube ’08, Saul Carlin ’09, Emily Frost ’06, Nick Bullard ’06, Derek Silverman ’09, Catherine Kast ’09, Reid Jewett ’11, Merrill Frew ’07, Gianna Sobol ’06, and Shaine Truscott ’06. For a picture of the festivities, visit classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu.

Jodie Rubenstein reports that she got engaged this past year and will be getting married in September. She and her fiancé, Alex Whitaker, are moving to Denver, Colo., in May, where Jodie will continue her job as regional director at J Street.

Finally, Ally (Heaney) Lamson had a baby, Harriet, on July 3, and is working as a divorce attorney in New Jersey. Ally is going to be the maid of honor in Jodie Rubenstein’s wedding!

Thanks for the updates and please keep them coming!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Hi, Class of 2009! So much news to report this time around. Below are some of the latest and greatest updates from your fellow classmates.

Wesleyan tennis superstars Matthew O’Connell (aka OC, aka Cash Money, aka Oye Tiooo) and Ania Preneta were married in Newport, R.I., on July 9. Many members of the Wesleyan community were in attendance including Casey Simchik ’10, Anika Fischer ’10, Alex Sirois, Matt Schaff ’11, Michael Frank ’08, Jaafar Rizvi, Graham Immerman, Alejandro Alvarado, Vincent Colangelo, Aaron Truchil, Lauren Cruz, Micki Stager Black, and Kwabea Osae-Kwapong.

Eugene “Geno” Wong and Caitlyn McCann were joined by many Wesleyan alumni as they got married at Memorial Chapel on Aug. 20. Applause is in order for their epic wedding hashtag #McCantgoWong.

Andrew Dermont married Elizabeth Wolff ’06 on Sept.10.

Daphne Schmon writes, “I moved to London and am directing a narrative short called All of Me. Through my company, Seek Films, I have also been filming promotional content in the Greek Islands. I am heading back to Mykonos in late October to film for a boutique hotel.”

Shane Heckstall reports, “My book titled Did You Create a Monster? is available on Amazon. This book focuses on the black-white achievement gap in higher education. This issue is unique for minorities going off to college. Even minorities who went through college can benefit from the scholarship of the book. I’m fortunate enough that my book is going to be used in a college class for teacher education. Also, I wrote an epic children’s book that doubles as a coloring book called The Romance of Lala, also available on Amazon. And lastly, I wrote a screenplay. If you are in a position to review my screenplay please reach out to me at seheckstall@wesleyan.edu. We all know by now that Wesleyan is deep into Hollywood, so don’t be shy.”

Jodie Rubenstein is engaged and will be getting married next September. Jodie and her fiancé, Alex, live in Logan Circle in D.C., and Jodie is beginning her second year as regional director at J Street, and her fourth year with the organization.

Asia Neupane writes, “Kevin ’08 and I are delighted to announce the birth of our son, Kieran Emerson Kromash. Born June 9—making him the Class of 2038 for when he continues the tradition of attending Wesleyan! He is an absolute joy and we look forward to introducing him to ,many of you soon enough!”

Sophie Reagan writes, “I’m living in D.C. My husband and I adopted a dog, which is not, as I’d previously assumed, just like having a large cat/house plant. Willie had a pretty rough puppy-hood, but I think he’s loving life with us in Georgetown. I’m working at Deloitte as a senior consultant in the federal human capital practice, primarily in the national security sector. Not at all what I saw for myself back in 2009 as an English major at Wes, but it’s been really great. I also had the pleasure of traveling to Greece with Jodie Rubenstein and Sophia Dumaine for the incredibly beautiful wedding of our dear friend, Emily Dine. The wedding was divine, and so was the feta.”

Annie Paladino and Eric LaMotte were married on June 11 in Washington’s Olympic National Park, a couple of months after celebrating 13 years together. Their ceremony was officiated by Gedney Barclay, with a reading by Miriam Krent, a reception emceed by Adam Black, hair/makeup/flowers/staging by Second Stage alumni, and many other classmates making the trek out to beautiful Washington State.

Rachel Berkowitz writes, “I’m living in Boston, where I completed my residency in ocular disease at the Boston VA. I am now an optometrist at the Lynn Community Health Center and a clinical assistant professor at the New England College of Optometry.”

Arthur Nazarian graduated with his MBA from Cornell and moved from the East Coast to Seattle with his girlfriend, Catherine Walsh, to work as a strategy consultant at Grant Thornton. He has enjoyed recent encounters with Wesleyan friends, including Silver Kim, Dustin Brockner, Wesleyan still-newlyweds Eric Weiskott and Sofia Warner, Paawan Punjabi, and Jermaine Lewis, who all helped him settle into his new home. While continuing to wait for his West Elm furniture delivery and to hit the jackpot, he is devising plans to move to the south of France to live on a diet of wine and homemade sourdough bread. It is unclear which event will happen first.

Nina Gonzalez-Sisson started a business, Dyer & Sparks, creating hand-painted textiles, clothing, and accessories. Find her online at dyerandsparks.com and facebook.com/dyerandsparks.

And last, but not least, Brittany Delany reports: “I am enjoying life and creative work in the Coachella Valley and desert region. It’s been fun to link up with Wesleyan alumna dancer and choreographer, Sue Roginski ’87, and participate in her programming.”

Thanks for all of your notes!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Greetings class of 2009! We have some exciting updates from our classmates!

Brian Studwell graduated with a master of human-computer interaction and design from the University of Washington and jumped down the coast to work at Ravel Law, a Bay Area startup building tools for legal research. Having spent several years in the Pacific Northwest and originally hailing from New York, he has yet to come to grips with Californians’ general cheerfulness.

Aviva Tevah just graduated with an MPA from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, and is working for the City of Philadelphia, coordinating the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition, which brings stakeholders together to share information and resources and develop city-wide systems solutions to reduce recidivism. Aviva is hoping to see a lot more of Elana Baurer now that she is done with school!

Katie Shelly and Jean Willoughby ’08 write in with exciting news of their forthcoming book from Chronicle Books, due out in bookstores later this year (but is already available for pre-order online). Titled Nature’s Remedies: An Illustrated Guide to Healing Herbs, the book was written by Jean, who has studied and grown medicinal plants for several years, and illustrated by Katie, whose previous book, Picture Cook, is an eclectic cookbook whose recipes are explained with pictures instead of words.

In the meantime, Katie will complete her MA in experience design at Hyper Island in the UK this summer. She’s planning her next career adventure in design thinking and innovation consulting. Jean has worked for the past four years at the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) as a project director and was recently promoted to communications manager. She looks forward to finishing up an advanced herbal medicine program at the Herbal Academy of New England, premiering a new documentary film that she is co-producing called Under Contract, and growing lots of medicinal and culinary herbs in her garden this year.

Seth Halpern recently founded 1healthy.world, an angel-backed HealthTech venture developing mHealth solutions like chatbots for medicine.

Brittany Delany is enjoying desert life in Greater Palm Springs, and working in the arts and culture sector: “Excited to be continuing dance collaborations this summer and fall with Sarah Ashkin ’11, Samantha Sherman, Aaron Freedman ’10, Khalia Frazier ’07, Chelsea Smith ’07, and Allison Hurd ’11.”

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com

Having finished her four-year teaching-writing MFA stint in Iowa City, Sara Deniz Akant is now bouncing around Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Her first full-length book of poems, Babette, was selected by Maggie Nelson ’94 and published this past November by Rescue Press. She is also the author of Parades (Omnidawn, 2014), and Latronic Strag (Persistent Editions, 2015). Sara recently returned from a residency at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, and continues to pursue a PhD in English at the CUNY Graduate Center. After teaching poetry and writing at the University of Iowa and Baruch College, she’s looking forward to teaching at Medgar Evers next fall.

Mike Repplier is an editorial producer at ABC’s 20/20, where he develops stories of national and cultural importance into hour-long shows. One of his key responsibilities is to secure highly competitive exclusive interviews for the network. Right now, Mike is preparing to embed in upstate New York for a murder trial and is stocking up on hand warmers, as the daytime temperature there often averages below minus-15°F.

Finally, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen Reagan is living in D.C. with her husband and she’s about to finish her MBA at Georgetown. This fall she’ll start as a senior consultant with Deloitte’s federal practice.

Thanks to those who sent in notes; let’s keep them coming!

Alejandro Alvarado | ale.alvarado12@gmail.com