Jessica Sanders was interviewed by Girl Talk HQ to discuss her 2010 documentary, March of the Living, which tells the tale of the last generation of Holocaust survivors who traveled to Poland to retrace the death march from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

Chad Bartell lives in Madison, Wis., working as an in-house counsel with Springs Window Fashions, LLC, a national manufacturer and seller of window covering products. He and his wife, Julie, have two boys: Nolan (8) and Sawyer (7). He finds time to make music, playing drums, and steelpan in several projects. Chad visited Paul Stewart in Portland, Ore., and talked wistfully of their old Wes band, Uncle Trouble, and about possibly reuniting for our 20th Reunion!

Ursula Ogno Sfraga lives in Fairfield, Conn., with her two sons and works in New York City as a senior account director for a digital marketing agency. She attended the Wesleyan Writers Conference this summer on a scholarship for a nonfiction manuscript she submitted. In April 2015, she was a doula to Meredith Tobias Powers ’00, and her husband, John Powers, for the birth of their daughter, Clementine Catherine.

Julenne Farrar Mounts lives in Maui with her husband, Dwight, and two kids, Zoë (9) and Luke (6). They see Stefan Schaefer ’94 and family often as their daughters are in the same class at Haleakala Waldorf School. Julenne’s family spent the summer outrigger paddling, playing with their new puppy, Comet, camping, and building a school store named The Pepper Tree on the Waldorf campus. They will return to the East Coast for the winter holidays and spend time with Julenne’s housemates from 27 Brainerd: Rachel Ostrow, Hannah Gladstein, and Alissa Farber.

Michael Hakim and his wife, Aram, have two daughters, Skyler and Lexington. He is a real estate investor and travel documentarian.

Lindsay Grajewski Beros lives in Rochester, Mich., with her husband and three kids. In addition to her obstetrician-gynecologist practice, Lindsay began studying photography after the birth of her second child. In July, her portfolio was accepted to Click Pro, a network of professional photographers and independent artists. She is now a frequent contributor to the photography blog, Click Pro Daily Project.

Sean Huse and his wife, Ali, have three boys (ages 7, 5, and 2). Sean is in his 18th year at Public Consulting Group in Boston. They see their Wes friends in and around Boston: Geoff Dailey, Tim Higgins, Madhu Kannapiran, Avery Esdaile ’00, Sean O’Brien ’00, Matt Hochstein ’00, Josh Meyer ’00, Joe Griffin ’00, Josh Janelli ’01, Bryan McBeth ’02, and Brandon McBeth ’02. Sean ran into Pete Czerepak in August and they made plans for a beer with Geoff Dailey and Tim Syrett. They all work on the same street within 100 yards of each other.

Divya Kumar and Dan Koulomzin live in Jamaica Plain with their two kids (Anand, 9, and Josie, 7). Divya provides perinatal support at Southern JP Health Center as part of a state-funded postpartum depression pilot program she helped create. She continues to help improve perinatal mental healthcare as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Commission on Postpartum Depression. Last summer, she presented at the Minority Mental Health Summit in Birmingham and had an article on racism and microaggressions in new moms’ groups published on The Huffington Post.

After 11 years as a case manager for kids with developmental disabilities, Jen Massie went back to school to get her second master’s (first was social work) in behavioral health. She spent a year studying perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and how to integrate treatment in a culturally sensitive fashion into a primary healthcare setting. Jen is expecting her first baby this fall.

And more new additions: Danielle Lazier gave birth to twins, Ari and Phoenix, on Aug. 12. She lives in San Francisco selling residential real estate as a broker-owner with Keller Williams San Francisco. Diana Glanternik and her husband, Jonah Cohen, welcomed their first daughter, Ila Lucia Cohen, on Sept. 2. Farrah Darbouze, her wife, Jessica Heard, and their dog, Idgy, welcomed their son, Jordan Thomas Heard, in March. On July 1, Valerie Leon gave birth to her first child, William Mateo Cuadrado, Jr. She works for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

On Aug. 21, Mia Lipman married Chris Irwin in Seattle, where she’s been living since 2011. It was a perfect day with family and friends, including Kate Holbein Rademacher, Josh Dubansky ’01, and Shanna Handel.

Erik Rueter is director of marketing and communications for Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. Erik enjoys working at W&J because it evokes many memories of Wesleyan.

Arthur Baraf lives in Pawtucket, R.I., with his wife and two daughters. This is his 11th year as a principal at the Met High School. He was named a Students at the Center Distinguished Fellow.

Shoshanna Cole lives in Ithaca, N.Y. She completed her PhD in planetary geology at Cornell last year and now teaches physics, astronomy, planetary science, and sustainable energy at Ithaca College. She’s involved in the Ithaca College Contingent Faculty Union and volunteers as a master gardener with the Cornell Cooperative Extension. This summer she organized a gathering of Ithaca-area alumni, ranging from the 1970s through the 2010s! They had an indoor picnic and then watched a local production of In the Heights.

Kenny Rios completed his master’s in human resource management with a concentration in organization development. He works as a senior technical recruiter for the Pentagon.

Jason Wong and Pao-Lin Tien moved to the D.C. area this summer. Jason works for a biotech firm and Pao-Lin works for the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Their two girls (Zoe, 6, and Emma, 1) are happy to have daddy home all the time now.

Alex Rose and her husband, Dan, live in Boulder, Colo., where Alex works as a bird biologist and education and outreach specialist at the University of Colorado. They have a 2-year-old son and another on the way. They annually trek to the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska for fun and research. In Boulder, Alex is neighbors and friends with Sarah Elmendorf and her family, and had a fun visit with her freshman year roommate, Eve Andrias.

Laura Zaks spent Labor Day visiting Louisville, Ky., to celebrate the 40th birthday of her freshman roommate Virginia Gray. They celebrated with Rachel Ostrow, Jesse Ashlock, Jason Daniel Schwartz ’00, Wiley Bowen ’00, Harrison Owen ’98, and Juliet Gray ’92.

Ed. note: Our apologies to Russell Isaacson. We spelled his last name incorrectly in the previous issue and regret our error.

C. Darryl Uy | darryl.uy@gmail.com

Kevin Kumler | kevinkumler@gmail.com

Zachary Hurwitz writes, “My wife of five years and I welcomed our first son, Ilan Mateo, in January 2016. We both found new jobs in the D.C. area, where we’ve been living since 2015, after two moves from Oakland, Calif., and Austin, Texas. We’re grateful to have reconnected with Eric Hoover and family, and Chris Saenger ’01 and family, and hope to do so again soon.“

Molly Bruce Barton writes, “In 2014, I taught a course at Wesleyan, the senior seminar in the Writing Certificate program. I left my role as global digital director at Penguin Random House to found Serial Box (serialbox.com), the HBO of reading. Last year, I married television and film producer, Jack Turner, at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Staten Island, N.Y. And this year we had our first child, Clyde Lucien Turner. He was born on March 30, weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces, measuring 22.5 inches. Tall boy.”

Keefe Murren writes, “This year I started as managing director of FilmAid International. I’m really interested in getting the Wesleyan community involved with our work. E-mail me at keefemurren@gmail.com.”

Avery Esdaile | wesleyan2000@gmail.com

Greetings Class of ’07! Can you believe it? Our 10th Reunion is just months away. Hope to see you all on campus next May! In addition to Wesleyan alumni, many classmates have added a new title to their résumé: parent. Megan Harrington writes, “My husband, Brian (Princeton ’07), and I welcomed our first child, Teddy Paul Harrington, in June. We’re looking forward to showing him around campus ASAP!”

Fellow ’07-ers have followed suit:

Katie Koerten says, “I’m living in western Massachusetts with my husband, Matt Valliere (Hampshire ’07). Since graduation I’ve been sharing my curiosity and wonder for nature with children and families as an environmental educator in Amherst. Matt and I welcomed a baby daughter to our family in March. We love living close to Grace Nowakoski, and her husband, Jeff!”

David Scardella and Jaime Wendel welcomed a son, Andrew Reed Scardella, on May 31. David, Jaime, Andrew, and their dog, Penny Lane, reside in Duxbury, Mass.

Kara Schnoes and Jeremy Brown ’08 made the trek west from New York this summer, settling in Eugene, Ore. Jeremy is an emergency physician for Sacred Heart Medical Center and Kara continues her consulting role remotely for Rosetta out of NYC. They happily welcomed their first child and daughter, Edia Rae, on Sept. 2 and are grateful that mom and baby are healthy. Abby Austin and Julia Mergendoller joined in the fun with a due date visit and celebration.

Julie Edelman writes, “My husband, Oliver Broad, and I just welcomed baby #2 on Sept. 4: Lael Eve. Lael joins big sister Maayan Rose, who just turned 2. I’ve been living in Berlin, Germany for seven years this October! Would be thrilled to see any Wesfolks who pass through these parts!”

Wes grads have also been busy researching, studying, and making career moves. William Santiago moved from Florida to attend medical school at the University of Connecticut. He married Vladrose Santiago ’05 in 2008 and they have two girls: Lisette (5) and Natalia (18 months). William is proud that Lisette started kindergarten this fall and that Natalia has started speaking. He continues to enjoy poetry, dancing, basketball, and science.

Jon Pierowicz writes, “After graduating from the UCLA School of Law in 2015 and a brief stint in NYC, I returned to my hometown of Buffalo, where I work as an associate at Phillips Lytle LLP. I specialize in real estate development and environmental law.”

Matt Franco says, “I (finally) defended my PhD in the history of science at Johns Hopkins back in April. I am in the midst of settling my publishing contract with a university press, so maybe the book will be out by our 15th Reunion—ha! I had a bunch of interviews for professorships this year, but no offer, so I am still teaching as an adjunct professor at a small liberal arts school in Maryland. Hope to see you all at the 10th Reunion.”

Jessica Mack is headed back to Mexico City to do research for her dissertation on the history of UNAM, Mexico’s largest public university.

Rosa Cohen-Cruz married Elric Kline on June 18. The wedding was officiated by Jacqueline Rubinstein and was attended by several ’07 Wes alumni. Rosa left her job as staff attorney at Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, and is now an immigration attorney at the Bronx Defenders.

Grace Nowakoski reports, “I’m loving my new work as a birth doula. It’s such an honor to help families on the journey of welcoming a little one. It’s great living in the Pioneer Valley near dear Wesleyan friend Katie Koerten and spending time with her beautiful baby daughter as often as possible.”

Our class is also making waves in the art world. Scout James is entering his third year in the Juilliard drama conservatory. And Leon Hilton writes, “I received my PhD in performance studies from New York University in May and have been teaching at Occidental College in LA. This year I am a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Humanities Forum.”

Jennifer Celestin received her MFA in fiction this year from Queens College of the City University of New York. Additionally, a microfiction piece that she began in Writers’ Bloc was published as a part of Akashic Books’ noir online series. She has been invited back to the Queens Library to facilitate a creative writing workshop for adults. She spent Labor Day weekend at a Wes ’07 wedding and in Vermont with Kaitlyn O’Donnell’s new bundle of joy. She’s settling into her new position in Harlem at SUNY/CUNY. She feels like Claudine, with the grace through adversity that only Diahann Carrol can bring. Every morning, she dances down 125th street like Mary Tyler Moore.

Maude Bass-Krueger received her PhD in decorative arts, design history, and material culture from the Bard Graduate Center in New York this past May. She’s completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of history at the University of Tel Aviv and moving back to Paris as a research fellow at the Modern History Laboratory of the CNRS (IHTP/CNRS). In Paris, Maude will direct a monthly seminar on dress history and prepare the opening of an exhibit she is curating, Mode et Femmes, 1914 to 1918, opening at the Museum of the Bibliothèque Forney in February. If you’re in Paris, drop her a line to grab a drink and get a tour of the show!

Finally, our class agents, Eric Altneu, Estrella Lopez, and Liam McAlpine would like to remind everyone to mark your calendars for May 25 to 28, and stay tuned for Reunion updates. Eric adds that he’s back in Ohio and looking for Midwest friends!

As we gear up for the big 1-0, keep the updates and good news coming! Send submissions to wesleyan007@gmail.com, victoriapinsky@gmail.com, or megan.kretz@gmail.com.

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

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

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

Happy fall, Class of 2010! Please enjoy the following updates in the lives of our classmates:

Holing Yip has been working for the past four years in an advocacy group in Hong Kong on education policies for ethnic minority students, and just moved to Cambridge, Mass., to start his master’s in education policy. “I would love to connect with Wes friends in the field and in the area!”

Sarice Greenstein is delighted to report that she graduated with a master’s in public health from Columbia University, alongside Jessica Steinke. The two both received certificates in sexuality, sexual, and reproductive health. Sarice is working for Culture of Respect, a project committed to ending sexual violence on campus. She works remotely from various Brooklyn coffee shops. Sarice has enjoyed a season of celebrations as well, proposing to her boyfriend with some extravagant gifts: an “I said yes” t-shirt and matching pair of socks. They plan to get married next summer.

Jenny Ajl and Ruthie Lazenby are co-habitating and celebrating their 10-year “friendiversary” in New Haven, where they are at Yale, studying to be a family nurse practitioner and lawyer, respectively.

Sam Friedman reports that he got married to Rebecca Cimino ’11, and “we had a few Wes people there to help us celebrate: Nadeem Modan, Eugenie Carabatsos, Nick Miller ’09, Dana Shukovsky ’11, Nic Wilder ’11, and Marlene Sim ’11.”

Niki Holtzman-Hayes is happy to say, “I am (finally) in medical school at Northwestern University in Chicago!”

Seth Rosen reports: “After moving back to domestic soil (San Francisco, specifically) a year ago, I’m finally emerging from crunch mode at work. The past year I’ve been working on Mafia 3, making the ambient life in our version of New Orleans in 1968, and the game will be out in October.”

Ben Seretan writes, “I continue to play music, and performed a concert at the National Gallery of Albania in Tirana.”

Michael DeFranco and Jason Krigsfeld continue to build Lua Technologies, the startup they founded while at Wesleyan. Lua provides a secure messaging solution to the healthcare industry. They are now serving hospital systems, clinics and laboratory environments, encrypting communication wherever patient information is being digitally shared.

Michael added that he enjoyed playing a part in the greeting of the Polynesian Voyaging Canoe from Hawaii, The Hokule’a, as it sailed into NYC in June. The Hokule’a has been on a worldwide voyage, spreading a message of malama honua, to care for the earth. Over 2,000 attendees congregated in North Cove Marina, a few blocks from the Freedom Tower, to receive and honor the canoe. Michael was responsible for the coordination of all the indigenous communities present that day. Since then, he has been playing a larger role with the United Nation’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and has been helping shed light on some of the issues Hawaii is facing. He has also been working with the indigenous tribes of New York to support the Lakota in their efforts to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Danielle Mor is finishing a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. “My work has focused on the mechanisms of neuron death in Parkinson’s disease. I am starting my postdoctoral research at Princeton University to study the genetics of aging.”

Wesleyan alumni of all ages have been collaborating in the Berkshires, Alice Maggio reports. As executive director of BerkShares, Inc., she works with potter Dan Bellow ’87, who serves on the board of directors of BerkShares, Inc. She and Emily Watts ’03 joined forces to bring BerkShares, a local currency, to northern Berkshire County. All three of them hope to work with Adam Hinds ’98 when he gets elected to the Massachusetts state senate in November.

Brendan McEntee has some great news: “I, and projects I oversee at my work, have been honored with major recognitions. I received recognition as the top ’Forty Under 40’ in the association community, and a project I oversee was recognized with top honors for having the power to profoundly impact society. The project is implementing clinical decision software that assesses individuals with addiction to determine what treatment is appropriate. It has been an exciting five years working at the American Society of Addiction Medicine. I will be sharing this experience with Wes students in October as part of a career center event.

“In my personal life I took up the hobby of rock climbing and have been enjoying pushing myself indoors and out on mountains. I’ve been living in D.C. and I spend my free time cooking, seeing friends, and volunteering for mentoring programs and on my condo board. I look forward to catching up with everyone next time we are all back on campus. I am impressed every time I catch up or see what my colleagues are doing. I cannot wait to see the further impact as we keep on advancing. Go Wes!”

Angus McCullough updates us that he is managing a newsletter, At the Present Moment. Angus’ newsletter invites folks to art exhibitions and events around the country. Angus explains: “Art requires being in the room with something to feel and understand it. Over the past few years, I’ve been sending out invitations to exhibitions and events that are, for many city people, hard to get to. So I’m very happy to send invitations to events in three major cities and in Vermont, all happening this fall.” Angus also adds that he has been playing improvisational music. “One notable jam was a live score for Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams at the 2016 Cooperstown Biennale. Another was when we played in a field under the full moon and let the horses decide when the session was over. This fall, there will be a show, potentially in Saratoga Springs and in NYC.”

Jonna Humphries has an update: “For the past year, I have been with Sofar Sounds leading growth in D.C. Sofar Sounds is a global music series that hosts secret concerts in over 271 cities around the world. In D.C. we’ve featured artists like Broods, Vanessa Carlton, BUIKA, Fruit Bats, and more. I am excited to announce that I’ve accepted a position at Moog Music and MoogFest to help lead their branding team.”

As always, if anyone has notes to add anytime feel free to send me an e-mail.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Class of 2011, I hope you all are well. Lots of exciting news from our classmates including weddings, graduations, and graduate school!

Both Leah Coe and Rebecca Friendly got married! Leah writes, “I got married on Aug. 20 to Tom St. Marie in Milwaukee, Wis. Rhee Soo Lee (she officiated the wedding), Jill Reynolds ’12, and Jaime Bonner ’12 were there to celebrate with us.”

Rebecca Friendly graduated from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business with a master’s in social entrepreneurship. She then joined Age of Learning as the communications and public affairs specialist, and is focused on driving the social impact aspect of their mission to help children build a strong foundation for academic success. In July, she married her longtime boyfriend of 10 years.

Joella Jones reports, “I started a new job in May as the communications and Web manager at the Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University.”

Congratulations to Marshall Johnson who defended his PhD in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin in July. “My research focuses on planets around stars more massive than our own sun. I have now moved to Columbus, Ohio, where I am a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University.”

Jamie Thabault graduated from the University of New England in Portland, Maine, with a bachelor’s in nursing this spring. She is now working on a cardiac progressive care unit at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington and enjoying the beginning of an exciting and challenging new career!

Alicia González-Gross is excited to have begun her MSW studies at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Alicia hopes to work as a bilingual social worker for Chicago Public Schools upon completing her degree.

Corrina Wainwright writes, “I moved to Boston to start at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Health Policy and Management program.”

From Reunion Chair Joe Giaimo, “On behalf of the Reunion Committee, thank you to everyone who donated to our class gift in 2015-2016 and to everyone who made the trip back to Middletown for Reunion and made it a huge success. It was great to reconnect, be on campus, and see some familiar faces. We successfully raised $7,163 from 208 donors (30.45 percent of our class), which was 41 donors and $1,500 more than 2014-2015. We hope we can keep up this trend into next year! Lastly, a big thank you to all of our volunteers who help with getting classmates to contribute to the class gift every year, help with career mentorship of undergrads and young alumni, who interview prospective students, and who are involved in many different ways across campus!”

Thanks for the updates!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

As many of you know, or perhaps some of you are in denial (like myself), 2017 marks our five-year Reunion. That’s right, it has been five years since that beautiful spring day on Foss Hill when we threw our caps in the air. Similar to time, the class of 2012 has not slowed down.

Alex Ketchum is finishing up her PhD in the department of history at McGill University, focusing on feminist restaurants and cafés in the United States and Canada. She coaches lacrosse and teaches in Montréal where she lives with her husky/lab mix, Bubbles. Laura Bliss is a staff writer for CityLab, the Atlantic’s urban affairs vertical, also based in Montréal.

In New Jersey, David Amrhein has been working at TAG Optics, a recently acquired startup spun out of research at Princeton University, making ultra-fast focusing liquid lenses for microscopes and laser systems. Also on the East Coast, Kenny Feder is in Baltimore doing his PhD in public health at Johns Hopkins. Kenny studies how parents’ mental health and substance use challenges can spill over and affect the well-being of children.

Down in Texas, Katie Silver is a support manager at Atlassian, a software company. She is getting married in this spring, and Benny Kaufman is officiating!

Jed Rendlemen is an independent naming consultant. While he works out of his hometown of Portland, Ore,. he partners with businesses around the world to help them create strategic, memorable brands.

Julia Mulhern just finished her PhD in geology at the University of Utah and is moving to New Orleans to work for Shell this fall.

Out on the West Coast, Henrik Cotran is a sector lead at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), based in San Francisco. SASB is chaired by Michael Bloomberg, former New York mayor, and is developing sustainability accounting standards. Outside of work, Henrik can be found mountain biking, backpacking, skiing, or volunteering at a youth reading program in Oakland.

After working for a year in Denmark and nearly three in D.C., Adam Fishman is now enrolled in a master of environmental management degree program at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Kwasi Ansu ’09 and Nate Kaufman ’08 are in the same program.

After co-founding an independent record label in NYC called Par-ka Records, Charlie Hanna is now working at Paradigm Talent Agency to rebuild the brand partnerships department. You can check out his work in the IBM commercial featuring Stephen King. Charlie is not slowing down anytime soon. He is applying to MBA programs to continue building the knowledge and skills necessary to fulfill his aspirations of one day creating a business at the intersection of media and technology.

After beginning their romance in the basement of Psi U, Anna Brugioni and David Sedgwick finally got engaged. They’re also both at Stern Business School.

Kurt Lyn successfully graduated from Columbia Law and is gainfully employed as a lawyer. Erin Kelly received her MPH from Columbia and is working for the NYC government to improve health.

As for me, I am trapezing between NYC and Connecticut as I have started a new role with Bridgewater Associates in Connecticut. As always, wishing the best to the entire class of 2012!

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

With the arrival of fall comes the realization that it’s already been three years since the Class of 2013 graduated from Wesleyan. During this time, we’ve traveled the world, earned an additional degree (or two), and settled into an exciting new chapter of our lives. Keep reading for a snippet of our adventures!

Jim Curley is the director of state relations at Boston University. He is also working towards an MBA at BU. He sees his fellow classmates Derek Lukin and Carmen Boscia in Boston. Amanda Simmons relocated to Philadelphia from NYC to study at Penn Law. She is joined by her partner, Adam Jaskol, who works as a management consultant and engages in casual sax(ophone). Amanda and Adam are hoping to reconnect with Wes friends, so reach out if you’re in Philly. Sarah Cassel finished her master’s in criminology at the University of Cambridge this summer. She wrote her dissertation on higher education in prison, and is working at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Anna Swartz is still living in Brooklyn and is a staff writer at Mic, where a few coworkers are also Wes grads. From her office in One World Trade she can almost see all the way to Connecticut! Happy to say that she still sees Wesleyan friends at least once a week, if not more.

Kristen Salustro missed LA by a couple of thousand miles and wound up in Chicago, which is just fine by her. She is a writer for bswift, an Aetna company, and is working on her third novel. Her first two books, published under the name K.N. Salustro, were nominated for the Chanticleer Book Reviews Cygnus Awards for science fiction and speculative fiction. Sydney Lowe is also living in LA. After working as an associate producer at HBO in New York for three years, she joins the staff of HBO’s upcoming fall comedy, Insecure, as producer’s assistant to show creator, Issa Rae. Sydney continues to work as a photographer and creative producer on several video projects, documentaries, and branded content campaigns.

Despite tenacious efforts to avoid gainful employment in 2016, Evan Carmi ended up with a new job, joining Airbnb’s Portland engineering team. After failing to muster the courage to take Drawing 1 at Wes, he signed up for a local drawing class this fall. Zach Schonfeld delivered a Drunk Ted Talk on the subject of Nicolas Cage appreciation. He still works for Newsweek, and he hasn’t gotten stuck in an elevator since 2014. Julian Azaret moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he’s run into a few Wes alumni. He has been racing bikes, climbing mountains, and consulting in the SaaS industry all over Asia-Pacific. Things haven’t changed much in the last three years. Anyone passing through that part of the world should give him a holler!

After finishing her master’s in sustainable engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, Alissa Santucci has been working at Xerox Corporation in the environmental, health, safety, and sustainability department. Alissa was promoted to environmental technology program manager and is excited for all of her new responsibilities which can help shape the environmental sustainability future of the company. Katie Havlovic writes in from D.C., where she transitioned from working for Congressman Beto O’Rourke to the Opportunity Finance Network, where she advocates for the interests of community development financial institutions throughout the United States. While she continues to explore the D.C. food truck scene, nothing can beat the falafel and grilled cheese trucks back at Wes.

Brooklyn is full of entrepreneurs! Noah Masur ’15 has started a humane pesticide business (very popular in Williamsburg), and William T. Davis has taken his experience in the coffee industry and now runs an online exotic coffee bean store on the deep net. Sora Akiyoshi ’14 and Chloe Rinehart ’14 began a volunteer outreach program that offers ultimate Frisbee classes for those in senior housing, and Peter Horton and Croy Salinas are still making sweet music together as they enjoy the start of their fourth year of happily living together. Mark Popinchalk enjoys keeping tabs on his friends, both in Brooklyn and afar, including Ethan Grund, who is starting his second year working on his comprehensive lake survey of Minnesota.

Matt Lichtash, much like Andrew Perlmutter is wont to do, is also working away, doing all things BKE. Aside from pursuing all forms of football except for the actual thing (fantasy, flag), Matt has also embarked on a new creative venture: a website dedicated to presenting information about climate change in concise posts containing three bullet points or fewer. The site, thecarboncapital.org, is easily digestible, shareable, and nonpartisan, and posts info to motivate anyone to take climate action.

Evan Okun (aka E. Oks) performed a solo show at the NYC’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe alongside Sam Friedman and other members of his Chicago collective. The show celebrated the release of his new single (soundcloud.com/eoks). The next morning, he flew back to Chicago to continue his work with Circles & Ciphers, a hip-hop infused restorative justice organization led by young people who are court-, gang-, and DCFS- involved.

As for myself, I wrapped up three years at Apple and transitioned to Fitbit to work in advanced product development. When I’m not searching for the latest and greatest technologies to apply to future Fitbit products, you’ll find me traveling, watercolor painting, and (still) eating my way through the wonderful city of San Francisco. Would love to reconnect with any Wes alums living in or traveling through this area!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu 

Greetings and happy fall, class of 2014! Here is what some of your classmates are up to:

Jessica Titlebaum is back in Michigan for her second year of veterinary school at Michigan State University. She is hoping to focus on small animal medicine upon graduation, and toys with the idea of specializing in neurology.

Lucy Finn moved back to San Francisco and is a business consultant for Kaiser Permanente. She is missing New York, but it’s been fun being back in the Bay.

Jennelle Herrick reports: “After working as a paralegal in trust and estates and at real estate law firms, I have taken a break from the legal setting and joined the private real estate developer, Discovery Land Company, on one of their newest projects on Maui, Hawaii, located at the Makena Golf and Beach Club. Although it was hard to say goodbye to Connecticut—the state in which I was born, raised, educated, and started my career—it’s safe to say I have fallen head over heels for paradise. I am in the final stages of completing my Hawaii real estate license and I am looking forward to witnessing our project grow from the beginning stages.”

Rachel Fox has been quite busy. She completed a master’s in narrative medicine at Columbia University in August 2015, spent the 2015-2016 academic year as an adjunct professor at Rutgers and Sarah Lawrence, and is now getting her PhD in communication and science studies at UC, San Diego. Rachel is living in La Jolla.

In other news: “Nick Petrillo, Keegan Dufty, Sky McGilligan, Ben Kafoglis, Remy Lieberman, and Casey Lasda all live in NYC where they are working on a scene-for-scene, shot-for-shot remake of Dirty Dancing. Most of them are single.”

After graduation, Simon Riker worked mainly as a freelance musician, most notably as associate music director for Summer Theatre of New Canaan, and as music director and marketing associate at PGT, a nonprofit children’s theater in White Plains, N.Y. He is an assistant choirmaster at Christ’s Church (Rye, N.Y.) and associate product manager at Axial, a fintech startup in Manhattan. Simon is stoked to share that his Wesleyan senior thesis, Me Prometheus: Caveman Love Story, had a second student production at William & Mary, and will be having its New York premiere as part of the New York Theater Festival in next summer.

Julian Theseira completed a master’s in international history at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Since he left Wesleyan, he has presented his research at the inaugural global history student conference at the Freie Universitäet Berlin, the inaugural world history student conference at King’s College London, the inaugural Yenching Global Symposium at Peking University, Beijing, China, and the British Postgraduate Chinese Studies network annual conference also at King’s College London. Outside of academia, Julian has interned with the Permanent Mission of the Sovereign Order of Malta to the United Nations in Geneva, during which time he managed external communications and reported on sessions of the UN Human Rights Council, UNHCR Standing Committee, the UN ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment, and other international meetings. He is interning with the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva, where he manages external communications on social media.

Keep the notes coming and enjoy your PSL’s. Much love,

Mary Diaz | mcdiaz@wesleyan.edu 

Andrew Yin is a first year at Cornell Medical School in NYC. He has been trying to stay afloat amidst the loads of work and uses every chance he gets to explore the city or catch a baseball game.

Katherine Gibbel started her MFA in poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop this fall. Mackenzie McPike is now an analyst at Jane Street Capital in NYC. Alicia Gansley joined an e-commerce startup called Zola in Manhattan where she is a software engineer.

After working in litigation for almost a year in Boston, Ming Zhu is now going to a master’s program in entrepreneurship at Babson College’s business school to pursue his passion in the agri-business/food-tech business. Also, if any alumni or current students are interested in the food business, especially plant-based beverages, they should reach out to him!

Mateusz Burgunder is working at Accenture in Switzerland, where he is focused on big data and business intelligence.

Five years after meeting on the first floor of 200 Church, their freshman dorm, Marianna Ilagan and Jimmy Nguyen got married in Professor Alice Hadler’s backyard in New Haven, Conn. They are moving to Ann Arbor, where Jimmy is starting his master’s in biostatistics at the University of Michigan.

Michael You Rong Leung has been enjoying summer in Chicago since passing level one of the CFA program. He has been taking sailing classes and traveling around the country. He managed to meet up with Leslie Lai ’14, David Mai, and Jenna Starr in his most recent trip to Wesleyan!

Ibironke Otusile has left NYC Health and Hospitals on Rikers Island, a jail complex in Queens, where she worked in the medical records department, serving the underprivileged jail population. She is an MS candidate in biomedical sciences at Barry University, in Hollywood, Fla. In her free time, she creates videos for her new YouTube channel, Ibironke Otusile.

Jenna Starr | jstarr@wesleyan.edu

Jackie Freed moved back to LA and got her real estate license a month after graduation. She joined the family business, BKF Properties, and is looking forward to helping fellow Cardinals find a place to land out in Cali!

Trisha Arora just moved to Boston where she is working for Epsilon as a business systems analyst. She also just adopted a kitten named Legolas.

Rachael Metz is moving to Santiago, Chile, with her twin brother (Jordin, Tufts ’16), from September to May to immerse herself in the Spanish language and Chilean culture. Her goal is to be fluent (or close to it) by the time she returns home. They will both get their international certifications to teach English, then will look for jobs in teaching and tutoring English. If any Wes alumni are in Chile, please reach out!

Miranda Haymon has jumped right into rehearsals as the directing fellow at Arena Stage in D.C. If anyone is in D.C. and wants to see a show, let her know!

In August, Abby Gruppuso moved to Taiwan to teach English through the Fulbright program. She is living in Taichung, the third largest city on the island, and is teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Abby recounts, “Taiwan is beautiful, the food is amazing, my students are unbelievably cute, and my coworkers have been super welcoming.” She is excited for the year ahead.

Instead of spending all of August au pairing in Istanbul as planned, Melissa Leung took up a new German friend’s offer to accompany her to her home in Germany. This spot served as Melissa’s home base for the days she didn’t spend touring Europe. Melissa met up with Wy Ming Lin in Cologne, too! Now Melissa is in East Asia traveling with her two sisters (one a Wes ’10), stopping in Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. She just signed her lease with Sarah Mi.

 Samantha Hellberg has been working as the program coordinator for the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She has been really enjoying her first few months, even though she started just off the heels of graduation (within less than a week!). She’ll be working there for approximately two years, as she develops her research and clinical skill sets further, and applies to clinical psychology PhD programs.

Caroline Shadle moved to Manhattan to start a new position at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea. She is living in an apartment with two Wes alumni, as well as across the street from two other Wes alumni—reminiscent of Home Avenue.

Nina Channing is pursuing her MFA-2 in interior design at the New York School of Interior Design after spending a fulfilling summer helping with Dylan Fernandes’ successful primary campaign for the state representative seat in Falmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.

Former housemates Alessandra Cervera and Liyan Yao are having post-grad separation anxiety, and miss each other dearly. Sandi is doing cognitive development research at Yale, and Liyan has been accepted to med school, deferring to January. In the meantime, Liyan plans on taking some time off to spend with friends and family.

Emma Buford moved back to NYC to pursue the arts. She loves being in her hometown and continues to spend time with family and fellow Wes alumni. She will be in a production at the Joyce Theater this October, thanks to a connection made by Caroline Shadle, and will also be singing at a fundraiser in November.

Hannah Sokoloff-Rubin has picked up her stuff and moved across the country to Portland, Ore., to see what the whole “West Coast” thing is all about. She’s working for Planned Parenthood as the community education and outreach coordinator in Washington County and hopes to spend as much time in the outdoors as possible.

Jack Reuter just got a job working at a golf course as “the person who drives around in that little cart picking up balls from the driving range.” Jack reports, “That’s about it. Living at home, job hunting. Life is good.”

Ellen Paik | epaik@wesleyan.edu

Sara and Justin Schmidt have moved from NYC to Seattle. They welcomed their second son, Simon, last March and big brother, Jonah, is happy to have a new addition. Sara is a clinical psychologist at the University of Washington, where she works on research in dialectical behavior therapy and post-traumatic stress disorder. Justin is working as a music publicist.

Adam Bernier married Virginia Aloi-Deheza in Buenos Aires on Dec. 21. Their immediate families, including Sarah Bernier ’08, were in attendance. The couple hopes to celebrate with their friends and extended family this summer. They live in Somers, N.Y., where Adam works as a producer, audio engineer, and sound designer for musicians, theaters, and events in NYC and Westchester County. He was also featured on the back cover of Wesleyan in the middle of tackling the cardinal mascot at a recent Reunion!

Daniel Dykes is a third-year associate at the New York office of international law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. He does cross-border work involving Latin American clients, which is a welcome opportunity to use his Spanish.

Kate Longley-Wood is an ocean mapping coordinator for The Nature Conservancy’s Global Oceans Team. As a huge fan of the ocean and the unexplored depths, I say congratulations to you, Kate!

Joseph McElligott is the director of business development for Guggenheim Investment Advisors, LLC. He was elected to be the vice-chair of the Wesleyan University Alumni Association and is a part of the Binswanger Prize Committee.

Teddy O’Connor spent 2016 in Portland, Ore., where he worked on the first season of Comedy Central’s Jeff and Some Aliens. In need of a break, Teddy booked passage on a small boat to sail around the world and find himself on the sea.

Shaine Truscott celebrated a new marriage, and a decade of living in Seattle, and working as a professional rabble-rouser for the long-term care workers’ union of Washington and Montana (SEIU775). She works alongside political genius Adam Glickman ’94. They are working to defend the Affordable Care Act and protect federal funding for Medicaid.

Tal Beery is busy in NYC and completing his M.F.A. He is part of Occupy Museums, an artist collective that holds open assemblies on the steps of museums and works to reclaim public spaces to display meaningful culture created by and for the 99 percent. Tal and Occupy Museums will be exhibiting a work called Debtfair at the Whitney Biennial in March.

Ali Osborn is completing her final semester at Rutgers University, where she will receive an MFA degree. Her thesis exhibit went up in January at the Mason Gross Galleries in New Brunswick, N.J.

Zach Strassburger is now the law clerk for the Honorable Carmine Sturino in Houston County, Minn. Zach is the sole clerk in a rural one-judge county. You can read Zach’s law journal article, “Medical Decision Making for Youth in the Foster Care System” in the John Marshall Law Review.

Technologies of Religion: Spheres of the Sacred in a Post-Secular Modernity, by Sam Han ’06, is out now from Routledge Press.

Congratulations to Liz Khoo and her husband, who welcomed their son into the world last September. His name is Hubble Zhiwen Green, named after the astronomer and telescope! They moved to San Francisco where Liz works as a digital product designer and her husband is a stay-at-home-father/woodworker.

In October, Stephen and Jemma Braun Siperstein ’05 welcomed their first child, Nathaniel Elliot, who has brought much light and laughter to their lives. Stephen received his PhD. from the University of Oregon and is teaching English and environmental humanities at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn. They’re excited to be close enough to Middletown to enjoy the occasional breakfast at O’Rourke’s.

Congrats to Hanako Moondance and her husband, Alex Salazar, who welcomed their son, Atlas Alexander Kai Guandique-Moondance, on Oct. 2. He is a healthy and happy chunk of cuteness!

Daniel Sweren-Becker ’06 creates a vision of a not-so-distant future world in which a random group of babies is chosen each year to be the smartest, best looking, most athletic members of society in his literary debut, The Ones (imprint/Macmillan Children’s Publishing).

And last, but certainly not least, congratulations to Sophie Karp and Evan Katin-Borland who welcomed their daughter, Lucy, on Aug. 7. They are tired and happy, but only five percent tired and 105 percent happy.

As for me, Calvin Cato (I never get to put my own name in bold), I’m currently contributing video game reviews to Tom’s Guide. If you want to know about hot virtual reality games, check out the articles. I am also hosting and producing a stand-up comedy showcase on Monday nights at Freddy’s Bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For every person who attends, we donate $1 to organizations that help underrepresented communities and causes. Past charities include the Native American Rights Fund, Planned Parenthood, The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. If you know of any charities or causes I should donate to, please feel free to e-mail me.

Calvin Cato | catocals@gmail.com

I am very excited to catch up on all the exciting news of my fellow ’07ers this May at our 10th Reunion! In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of the happenings of our class.

After traveling the last two years throughout Latin America, Laura Catana has spent the last year in Cuba, working with the island’s first independent music label, Guampara Music, alongside the talented musician DJ Jigüe. Based out of Havana, she has been involved in a variety of music events and productions, including music festivals, performances, and documentaries. Laura is not the only musician in the ’07 clan; Himanshu Suri is still a rapper. This year he’ll be performing at the Kaufman Music Center with pianist Vijay Iyer, and at Coachella with his new project, Swet Shop Boys. Rapping is pretty fun.

Meanwhile, Dante Furioso wrapped up three years at the Yale School of Architecture with an M. Arch I degree in May. He works for Selldorf Architects in New York. Scout James (née Michael) is in his third year of actor training at Juilliard’s drama division and has founded the only student-run newspaper there.

Amy Rosen is a recovering attorney who is writing corporate governance articles for CQ Roll Call, a D.C.-based company run by The Economist Group. Her stories are posted on Westlaw’s “Practitioner Insights” section. As she contemplates a move to the West Coast, she is running, lifting, and cooking, all while not trying not to forget the Chinese she learned from 2005 through 2007. She (sadly) just recently figured out Twitter and seeks interesting bird friends @amyleerosen.

Shawn Thomas Diefenbach recently relocated from Los Angeles to Brooklyn. He and his new pup, Champ, are living the dream.

And of course, we haven’t forgotten to ensure that there are students for future Wesleyan classes. Nasim Khoshkhou had a baby boy named Cameron (“CJ”) in October with husband Howard. They live in Bedford, N.Y., and would love to catch up with any Wes folks in the nearby area. Mary Campion Wolf and Patrick Wolf welcomed Eamon Peter Wolf (‘38?) to this bonkers world on Sept. 15. He is a great guy. The Wolf den is in Millburn, N.J. Mary is a pediatric hospitalist at Morristown Medical Center and Pat plucks strings in various locations with his band Goodnight, Texas. Nishita Roy-Pope (“Nya”) is loving life in Rhode Island. She and her husband, David, can’t believe six months have passed since the birth of their first child, Zamir! She is a consultant marketing manager at Dell and is infusing the Wes community service spirit into her work, including the establishment of a corporate high school internship program to promote STEM careers for girls.

Megan Harrington | wesleyan007@gmail.com

Victoria Belyavsky Pinsky | victoriapinsky@gmail.com

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

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.

The wedding of Andrew Dermont ’09 and Elizabeth Wolff ’06

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

Greetings, Class of 2010. Just a few updates to report in this first column of 2017:

Henry Kaplan reports that he is based in LA and is working as a music video/short film/commercial director. He adds: “A short film, We Together, I directed was accepted to Slamdance Film Festival and will be playing in Park City, Utah, in late January! Slamdance is a renowned festival that runs alongside Sundance every year in Park City. The film tells the story of a zombie who comes to remember the person who he used to be before he was a zombie. The film premiered online this fall and garnered a lot of buzz from the online film community. After getting into Slamdance, we’ve taken the film offline and it will have a ‘re-premiere’ at the festival. Find out more  at wetogetherfilm.com.”

Additionally, several Los Angeles-based Wesleyan alumni were involved in the film, including Ben Kuller ’11, producer; Elizabeth Litvitskiy ’15, co-producer; Caillin Puente ’15, first assistant director; Matthew Wauhkonen ’08, digital VFX artist; Peter Cramer ’14, grip; and Jeffrey Kasanoff ’15 and Dan Fuchs ’15 as production assistants.

Sherry Sybertz writes, “I am living in Monterey, Calif., and graduated with an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. I am working with Dole Fresh Vegetables focusing on transportation logistics, while enjoying all that Monterey has to offer like the aquarium, beautiful hiking, and great weather!”

Dave Brustein writes, “After graduating, my mind was set on becoming an alternative television producer. After working on my latest show, American Ninja Warrior, I harked back to my athletic experience in high school and at Wesleyan. I reached out to my high school, Milken Community High School, a Jewish high school, to become the defensive coordinator of the football team. I want to show that no matter what religion, ethnicity, and nationality you might be, anybody with the right football mindset has the potential to play in the NCAA. My goal is to develop well rounded student-athletes who can use football as a platform for opportunities in college and life.”

Luke Pang oversees international restaurant expansions of Les Amis Group and he’ll be happy to host anyone passing through Singapore. Please contact him at lukepkf@gmail.com.

Hannah Masius reports that she “is living in the Bay Area, [expletive] the patriarchy.”

Michael DeFranco and Jason Krigsfeld have continued to build Lua, a secure messaging platform. They focus on the healthcare market and have launched a patient-facing messaging side of their system to increase doctor-to-patient communication before and after visits. Michael spent time at the Standing Rock camp in North Dakota to support the Sioux’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. He is a member of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, was listed as a featured leader for the Global Peace Foundation, and is serving as United Nations delegate at the UN’s 55th Session of the Commission for Social Development.

Finally, it is with profound sadness that I must report the loss of a dear friend and classmate, Matthew Lamothe. Matt passed tragically on Jan. 16 in NYC, where he was pursuing a successful and burgeoning career as a film producer. Anyone who had the privilege of knowing him at Wesleyan, or elsewhere, would no doubt agree that he was a man with a distinctive enthusiasm for life, and an unflinching loyalty to his friends. I had the pleasure of sharing Hewitt 10 with Matty sophomore year. In particular, I recall how much Matt loved hockey, and he was perhaps the biggest fan of the Cardinal Men’s Hockey team that year. I remember coming home from road trips, exhausted and usually discouraged, to find Matt waiting for the boys to come home to discuss the weekend’s games. It wouldn’t take long for Matt to turn our weekend frustrations into smiles and laughter.

After Wesleyan, Matt stood out as a person who refused to fall out of touch with friends. I looked forward to hearing his news from LA, where he quickly put his talents to use in the film industry. Most recently, he worked for Tommy V Productions, but was perhaps proudest of his work on I’ll See You in My Dreams, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and Intruders, which played at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. As busy as he became with his career, he was always good for a round with the boys when we found ourselves together. Matt lived every day to its fullest, and left his friends with more good memories than we could count. While Matt leaves us far too soon, he leaves us smiling as we reflect on his life, and I’m sure he’d have it no other way. He is survived by his parents, Laura and Dr. Henri Lamothe ’80, and siblings, Barrie, Brooke, Luke, Noah, and Austin.

As always if anyone has notes to add—anytime—feel free to send me an e-mail.

David Layne | dlayne@wesleyan.edu

Exciting updates from the Class of 2011!

Tim Dodds reports, “It’s been a crazy and fun year of notables in D.C. After finishing my master’s in June from UPenn, I rewarded myself with a heli-ski trip to New Zealand, only to come back broke, but with a rescue puppy. I’m looking forward to repping the Wes jugg squad as the head lacrosse coach at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School in Virginia, and building on their #10 national finish from last year.”

Jared Gimbel is in Brooklyn, developing his first video game, Kaverini: Nuuk Adventures, as a co-production with Appetizer Mobile. The game, set in contemporary Greenland, is scheduled for release in 2017 or 2018.

Jon Sheehan, along with other Wes alumni (Sean Corlett ’07, Kim Wittmer ’01, Jacalyn Lee ’79, Molly Steinfeld ’15, and Noel De La Rosa ’01), participated in College Awareness Day at the NYC Department of Education in January.

Steve Hauser and fellow football teammate Nick Seara both married their longtime girlfriends last year with several Wes alumni attending these special events. Congrats!

Jennifer Cheng writes, “I’m still in Salt Lake City, working on my PhD. in neuroscience at the University of Utah. Every now and then I have time for less important things, like climbing and sleeping.”

And, last but not least! Devon Hopkins is moving to Brooklyn after living in D.C. since graduation. He is the new director of content marketing for CARTO, a software platform for creating data-driven maps.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2017!

Allie Southam | asoutham@wesleyan.edu

Nathaniel Draper writes in, “The Syros International Film Festival will be held on July 14-19 in Greece. Now going into its fifth edition, the film festival was started by Cassandra Celestin ’13 during her senior year at Wesleyan, along with Jacob Moe (Pomona ’13). It was a self-funded endeavor the first year, and was subsequently joined by Aaron Khandros ’13 and myself, with the four of us making up the core organizational team.

“The festival has since grown to one of the most important art and film events in the region, and has earned recognition in the film world throughout Europe and further abroad. The festival is held every summer on the island of Syros, the capital of the Cycladic islands located just south of Athens, and embeds a rigorous curation of new and old films into many reconstituted spaces on the island, in open-air cinemas purpose-built for the experience. All of which is quite special, since the quality of the programming and the unique experience and community tend to turn guests into devotees who come back again and again.” You can learn more about the festival at syrosfilmfestival.org.

Daisey Perez | deperez@wesleyan.edu

This year has been unfortunately uneventful for Bennett Kirschner. Some avoidable health complications have sidetracked his 10-year plan. Regrettably, he accepted a friend’s challenge to see who could eat more bottles of Flintstones Gummy Vites. While he won the challenge, his body was profoundly disoriented by this mineral glut. It has been eight months and he is still functioning at only 80 percent of his former capacity. Let this be a lesson to us all: be careful with vitamins.

James Gardner writes in from Germany, where one of his stepsons just had a baby, so he is now technically a grandfather (believe it or not!). He writes that there is a Facebook group for Wes alumni living in Germany or any German-speaking countries: facebook.com/groups/wesgermany. Everyone living in or frequently traveling to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland should feel free to join.

Benjamin and Vivianne Swerdlow recently bought a home in Richmond, Calif., with their black golden, Shadow, and their degu, Henry. Benjamin is in his second year of a PhD. program in clinical psychology at UC, Berkeley. Vivianne runs a free salesforce administrator training program for job seekers who have been out of work for six months or more, helping mid-level professionals with technology backgrounds gain new skills and find sustainable employment.

Chelsea Goldsmith is still living in Baltimore, still working in non-profit, and still really enjoying both of those things! Highlights of 2016 include learning to use the overcasting foot on her sewing machine, winning gold at Pirate Olympics, and getting engaged.

Marjorie Dodson is going on her fourth year in Beijing. She noshed on spicy rabbit heads with Dan Nass. If anyone is ever in China, give her a shout!

Kevin Curtin shipped up to Boston from NYC. After spending the last year doing private equity, he jumped ship to Jobcase, a startup based in-town. The company is a social media site for empowering America’s workforce.

Evan Okun coordinates nationwide tours for Circles & Ciphers, a Chicago-based restorative justice organization led by young people who are court-, gang-, prison-, and DCFS- involved. Circles & Ciphers opens each event with a spoken word performance, then hosts participants in a restorative justice peace circle to discuss police, and prison abolition. In 2016, they hosted events at Yale University, Hunter College, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, and a myriad of other cities across the country. It’s time to dismantle the prison industrial complex, so please contact him directly at: Circles.Ciphers@gmail.com 

The end of 2016 saw Nicole Bonneau graduate from Palmer College of Chiropractic’s Florida Campus as a doctor of chiropractic. She is very excited to be back in her home state of Vermont to practice, as well as to be closer to friends, family, and her fiancé.

In October, Kristen Raddatz became the executive editor for the Chicago Review of Books. Feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in reviewing books, interviewing authors, or writing a lit-related piece for the CHIRB. She’s also still working her real (paying) job as a publicist at the University of Chicago Press, and she’d love to connect with any Wes alumni living in or traveling through the city!

After two years as the deputy media editor at Huffington Post, Catherine Taibi left to join Bloomberg as social media editor, overseeing social strategy on various platforms across Bloomberg.com’s many verticals, including markets, politics, technology, and luxury. Catherine had the privilege of traveling to all three presidential debates and covering each event live, interviewing top political/media figures and celebrities. Post-election, she will continue to cover politics both nationally and internationally.

Ian Waldron writes that Rory O’Neill returned to the United States after three years wandering in Brazil, and was duly roasted by his friends for three hours upon returning. He is acclimating well to American culture and norms.

As for myself, I spent the holidays down under and ushered in 2017 in Melbourne. Tried to smuggle a baby wallaby back to San Francisco, but sadly I couldn’t pull it off. Thanks to all my classmates for writing in and best wishes to everyone in 2017!

Laura Yim | Lyim@wesleyan.edu