Tag: 2013

Categories Class Notes, Class Notes | 2010sPosted on

CLASS OF 2013 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE

The Class of 2013 is getting ready for our 10-year reunion later this spring! Thanks to my classmates who sent updates in and best wishes to all.

Anna Swartz writes “Happy 10 year! Hard to believe it has already been a decade since we graduated, and yet also somehow hard to believe how just how much has happened in the world since we left Wesleyan. I’m still in Boston, looking forward to the warm spring weather— although, somewhat alarmingly, we’ve barely gotten snow this winter.”

After graduating from dermatology residency, Taryn Murray moved to Houston, Texas, for a prestigious cosmetic dermatology and laser surgery fellowship. Upon completion of the program, she will be joining the Dermatology Department at the Cleveland Clinic. Vivianne and Benjamin Swerdlow (né Abravanel) moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, as of July 2022 so Benjamin could join the Lake Forest College faculty as an assistant professor of psychology. Vivianne is completing her master’s of social work at Simmons University in May and accepted a postgraduate role as a clinician for the Chicago DBT Institute. They live with their three-year- old Husky rescue, Sonic, and their eight-year-old chinchilla rescue, Cashew. Vivianne and Benjamin will be celebrating 10 years of marriage in June!

Ross Gormley is finishing up his first year at Boston College’s School of Social Work, focusing on clinical work. He is sad to report that he missed his annual ski trip in Utah with Henry Robertson this year. But the two of them adopted an old Goldendoodle together this winter and split custody over Zoom. Ross is grateful, as well, for the $30 Chipotle birthday e-gift card from Frank Fineis this year. He looks forward to splitting burrito bowls come fall once Jacob Eichengreen moves to Boston. But hold the hot sauce.

After receiving an MBA from Yale School of Management, Evan Okun now works as an impact investor at the Working Capital Fund—a venture capital firm improving conditions for vulnerable workers across global supply chains. The firm invests in early-stage technology start-ups. Outside of work, he’s gotten quite good at volleyball/pickleball and continues to freestyle rap and write spoken word. Katie Schad recently celebrated her bachelorette party in Tulum with Faye Phillips, Laura Volgenau, Jeanne McPhee, Ashley Palmieri, Michelle Kravets ’14, Claire Larson ’15, Brenna Tharnstrom ’16, plus the spouses of Max Rosenman and Jeff Tanenbaum ’12. A real Wesleyan affair!

After several years overseas in China and the UK pursuing career and educational opportunities, Jocelyn Spencer is now back in New York working in regulatory compliance and training for her third marathon. Matt Motta started a new job as an assistant professor of health law, policy, and management at the Boston University School of Public Health. If you’re living in the Boston area, he’d love to meet up for coffee or drinks!

Categories Class Notes, Class Notes | 2010sPosted on

CLASS OF 2013 | 2022 | SPRING ISSUE

Exciting updates below from the Class of 2013. Thanks to all of you who contributed!

Vivianne and Benjamin Swerdlow (né Abravanel) moved from the San Francisco Bay area to Lebanon, New Hampshire, in the summer of 2021, where Benjamin is completing his clinical psychology internship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Vivianne began her master of social work through Simmons University. They will be moving to Chicago in July so Benjamin can begin his new faculty position at Lake Forest College.

Sarah Chrystler and her husband Noah welcomed their daughter, Penelope Elizabeth, this past August. They are so excited to have a future Cardinal!

Ilana Bondell and Adam Hirschberg got married this past October in Brooklyn, New York, after many COVID delays. It was the 11-year anniversary of when they first started to date, which all began with a night out at Eclectic. You never know where you’ll meet your future husband at Wesleyan!

Sam Walker and his wife Jesse Greenblatt ’12 welcomed their first baby boy on January 6th in their hometown of Washington, DC. They decided to name him Wesley as a homage to the birthplace of their relationship at Wesleyan. Wesley can’t wait to be part of the future graduating Class of 2044.

Ross Gormley is still in Boston, still teaching English, but will attend either a MSW or LMHC program in the fall. He’s in a band with Justin Pottle and Maxwell Bevilacqua and their working band name is Wait for me Henry Robertson. Frank Fineis, Jacob Eichengreen, Nate Jacobs, Maxwell Bevilacqua, and Ross were planning a trip together to North Carolina in March.

Categories Class Notes, Class Notes | 2010sPosted on

CLASS OF 2013 | 2021–2022 | WINTER ISSUE

We were all heavily impacted by the pandemic, and James Gardner managed to experience it working as the after-hours administrator in the emergency room of his Veterans Administration hospital. The federal government’s response was swift for a heavily bureaucratic agency, but he saw firsthand the toll on patients, their families, and staff alike—the uncertainty, deaths, resistance, PPE shortages, rapid change to policies, etc.—and decided to move away from frontline work. In October, James transitioned into a national VA career program for health care data analysis and informatics, where he—among funding, diversity, equity and inclusion, program analysis and other data projects for the leadership of his facility—oversaw the staff and veteran vaccination data for his facility. He’s happy to better the lives of veterans who trust him with their care in this new capacity.

Anna Swartz and her wife Netta are still camping out in the Boston area where they’ve been since the start of the pandemic. She continues to work remotely as a managing editor for the content section of Policygenius, an insurtech company. She did manage a trip back to Brooklyn in June to catch up with friends in person, including Lila Murphy and Jason Katzenstein. She hopes everyone is adjusting as well as possible to our new reality, and that any breakthrough infections are mild.

Mary Vallo and Bohao Zhou ’14 got married in July 2021 after first meeting at a performance in Crowell Concert Hall eight years ago. They were happy and grateful to celebrate with friends.

Sandy Durosier moved to Mesa, Arizona, to begin her medical education at A.T. Still University–School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona. She is very excited to explore the desert and learn medicine. If you’re in the area, feel free to reach out!

Evan Okun recently finished his first year at Yale School of Management. This summer he’s working at Kapor Capital, an Oakland-based venture capital firm investing in racial and economic justice in the United States. Outside sourcing and diligencing early-stage companies, he is responsible for building the firm’s investment approach to the justice sector.

Margot Sidman and Matthew Lichtash are getting married this fall! After going on their first date to Fiore II on Main Street (shoutout to Jonathan Lis for the recommendation and Christian Lalonde for letting Matt borrow his pickup truck) and months of serenading Margot with Taylor Swift piano covers, it was inevitable that this day would come.

Best wishes to my classmates, hope everyone is staying safe and sane.

Categories Class Notes | 2010sPosted on

CLASS OF 2013 | 2020 | ISSUE 3

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Holyoke College, Stephanie Huezo joins the Department of History as an assistant professor at Fordham University. She is happy to be teaching Latin American and Latinx history in NYC where she grew up. 

Evan Carmi is now a puppy papa, spending his days reparenting himself via his Brittany, named Pluto. Cute puppy photos can be found on Instagram @plutzthepup.

 Krysten Thomas was elected to be a 2020 Democratic National Convention Delegate in D.C. She is excited about the upcoming general election.

Michael Steves and Lucas San Juan have been making commercials and documentaries through their production company, Rule of 3. Their work, for clients including Amazon, Ring, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Bloomberg, and others, has been featured in CNN Business, The New York Times, and at Michael Moore’s film festival. They are also in production on their first documentary feature film, following a community of Rohingya refugees living in Chicago. They’ve loved working with fellow Wes alums on their productions, so reach out if you want to collaborate!

Vivianne Swerdlow has been working for over a year as a mental health coach at Joyable (acquired by AbleTo, Inc.) where she supports people in completing and getting the most out of eight-week digital cognitive behavioral therapy programs to reduce depression, generalized anxiety, or social anxiety. She recently started her own coaching practice, specializing in behavioral coaching, life coaching, and career coaching. As someone with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, she often works with chronic pain clients in particular to develop more fulfilling lives.

Benjamin Swerdlow (nee Abravanel) is in his last year of a clinical psychology PhD at UC Berkeley, where he has been studying interpersonal emotion regulation and emotion-related impulsivity. 

Zach Schonfeld recently survived a near-death encounter with an exploding can of shaving cream. His first book, chronicling the strange story of the widely sampled funk band 24-Carat Black, was published on November 12. It’s called Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth and it’s part of the 33 1/3 series of books about individual albums. 

Thank you to my classmates who contributed to this column! Hope everyone continues to stay safe during this time.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Categories Class Notes | 2010sPosted on

CLASS OF 2013 | 2020 | ISSUE 2

Anna Swartz and her wife, Netta, are quarantined with Anna’s parents in Massachusetts. They’re lucky enough to still have their jobs and be able to do them remotely. She hopes all her fellow Wes alumni, as well as faculty and campus staff, are similarly safe and well and able to stay home. She reminds everyone to tip their delivery people!

James “Jim” Curley and Maryalice Gill were married in Boston on Aug. 17, 2019. Many of his Wesleyan teammates and classmates were in attendance: Andrew McKeon, John Guay, Carmen Boscia, Matt Hadge, Derek Lukin, Nick Ferris, and Glenn Stowell. He said it was great to see everyone. Jim and Maryalice honeymooned in Italy, Croatia, and Greece. Being Game of Thrones superfans, they were able to visit the filming locations while in Croatia. Jim also completed his MBA at Boston University in May.

James Gardner made the transition from German corporate to the U.S. public sector in 2018, where he works for the Department of Veteran Affairs. His role is to oversee the VA hospital—the inpatient wards, emergency room, outpatient care, patient administration, and emergency management—outside of business hours. He finds himself surrounded by health care civilian and veteran employees who really care so much about the veterans coming through their doors. Especially with regard to the current pandemic, this dedication is terribly necessary.

Max Ward recently moved from Chicago back to his hometown of Portsmouth, N.H., where he’s now doing promotional videos for Gutermann, Inc.—a company specializing in selling leak detection equipment to water utilities. In his free time, he’s posting art on Instagram and helping write and illustrate a comic book that’s funded through Patreon. In his other free time, Max enjoys playing with his parents’ dog, Nash. He is a good boy!

Ben Smith is a video editor at Evidence Video, which produces documentaries to help attorneys build damages for clients whose lives have been catastrophically changed. Good stuff. He also continues to write, produce, and direct sketch comedy and short films. His film, Bump in the Night, will be hitting festivals around the country this fall.

Elisa Waugh has had a whirlwind year! A long cross-country drive with her boyfriend and dog rooted them back in her home state. They then decided to plan and throw a tiny wedding in a beautiful inn. Now there is a baby on the way and a house in the works! As the school year finishes, Elisa is looking forward to enjoying the bounty of Colorado and redirecting the energy usually used for her lively middle school students to a ferociously large garden.

In the fall, Evan Okun will attend the Yale School of Management in pursuit of his MBA. He hopes to expand his capacity to help nonprofits and social enterprises do courageous work. Evan also hosts weekly Zoom calls for anyone wanting to freestyle rap. Reach out!

As for me, I’m still in the Bay Area, working remotely for Apple. During shelter in place, I’ve picked up puzzling and also enjoy playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons with Sam Jacobson. I hope that all my classmates, their loved ones, and other readers stay safe and sane during this time.

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu