Class Notes 1998

Dear, ’98s!

Hope your 2024 end-of-year celebrations were cheerful and filled with time-honored traditions. Did anyone try something new this past season? I certainly did. I celebrated Boxing Day (December 26) for the first time. That is right—I attended the annual Boxing Day brunch hosted by Marisa Howe and her husband, Kyle Marchesseault ’99. This festive celebration was complete with Premier League football on the telly and English-inspired food on the table (sausage rolls, anyone?). Hey, Marisa, I hope I am invited back to this annual celebration since I went ahead and booked it as a recurring event in my calendar. Marisa recently returned from a trip to Miami with eight other ’98s: Amy (Feldmann) Hauser, Hae-Seon Song, Meghan Pound, Mona Gupta, Beth Haas, Kate Kenney, Meg (Blakey) Lyons, and Diana (Bullen) Presciutti. Hailing from as far away as San Francisco and London, all had fun, including trips to the beach, drag brunches, long talks and walks, and good food. These ’98s brought the heat to Miami!

Speaking of heat, Chinwe Ajene-Sagna has social media buzzing! To commemorate the 10-year memorial of her dad’s passing, Chinwe (quietly) took on an ambitious project of transforming her Dartmouth senior thesis into a new book titled Borders and the Self.

Chinwe’s book explores African transnational migration, reflecting on “the journey to define oneself, one’s identity as transnational migrants who retain ties to both home and host communities alike.” I remember how blown away I was by Chinwe’s senior thesis presentation in Dartmouth Hall. Twenty-five years later, as we sat in our favorite Indian restaurant in Harvard Square, I felt that same level of excitement as I listened to Chinwe describe her book! Proud of you, Chinwe! Your book is next on my reading list.

Have an update? Write in to share it. One love.

—Carline M. (Dorcena) Durocher, 137 Walnut St., Newton, MA 02460; cdurocher07@gmail.com

Dear ’98s!

We are just a few short weeks from sealing our end-of-year time capsules. The year 2024 has been marked by joyous celebrations, heartbreaking goodbyes, charged debates, inspiring innovations, and unexpected explosions of happiness. Who knew one could experience perhaps all the emotions on the feeling wheel within such a short period of time? As we prepare to usher in a new year, it is a great time to take a break, reflect on our perfectly imperfect lives, and catch up with our fellow ’98s. Have you watched all the class of 1998’s “The Big Idea” discussion series spearheaded by Kelly Wardwell Ryerson and our class executive committee? This celebrated series has featured classmates including, to name a few, Dr. Lea E. DeFrancisi Lis (“No Shame in Raising Kids with a Healthy Sex Positive Self-Esteem”), Dr. Belinda H.Y. Chiu (“The Power of the Mind, Purposeful Play, and Compassionate Leadership”), Dr. Nita Farahany (“The Ethical Implications of Mind Reading Technologies and Their Potential Impact on Our Freedom of Thought”), and Dr. Peter T. Lanfer (“Finding Faithfulness in All the Wrong Places: Making Sacred Sense of Drunkenness, Deceit, and Debauchery in the Hebrew Bible”). If you are interested in a historical read to deepen your understanding of current events, check out Dr. Tikia K. Hamilton’s recently published essay for the Newberry Library titled “The Great Migration in Historical Perspective.” Of course, re-reading past Class Notes (find them online at dartmouthalumnimagazine.com) is another way to catch up on what your fellow ’98s have been up to. You, dear ’98s, are an impressive and resilient bunch!

I do not know if you are like me and have a soundtrack running in your mind whenever you sit down to do some creative writing. Well, the song that comes to mind as I write this Class Notes column is Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young.” And so, I paraphrase the song by saying as we navigate this thing called life, may the universe guide us down every road we walk and may sunshine and happiness surround us wherever we go in this world. May we approach our mid-lives with dignity and make the world a better place. May our guiding lights be strong. Let us be courageous and brave together and share memories and new experiences that keep us young. Finally, a big shout-out to Kristin H. Dwyer, who welcomed Baby Brooks into the world in August, reminding us of the beauty and enchantment of new beginnings.

Happy holidays and one love.

—Carline M. (Dorcena) Durocher, 137 Walnut St., Newton, MA 02460; cdurocher07@gmail.com

Dear, ’98s! Summer is often a time when our lives slow down. It’s a time when many of us take vacations, read books and articles, and seek adventure. I can’t believe that the summer of 1994 was 30 years ago!

For many of us, this summer is special. You may be celebrating your children or even a relative’s or friend’s child who graduated from high school. I caught up with Rachel Bogardus Drew and Jon Drew recently and they shared that their oldest, Leah, is headed this fall to Mount Holyoke College, where she will study history or political science. I also heard from Shirley (Sperling) and Eric Paley, who wrote that their eldest, Zoe, is going to Colby College in Maine and plans to study molecular biology and environmental sciences with a side of music! Chris Wang shared that after he retired from a 20-year banking career, he is focused on getting his second and final kid out of the house! Chris’ son is headed to Dartmouth to join his sister (’25).

For some of us, our children are still deciding which college they want to attend or even what new adventure they want to pursue. Allison (Ahart) Geving wrote in to share that her son, Will, is in the process of deciding on a college for this fall. As a mom of a junior who will be immersed in his process this summer, I celebrate Rachel, Shirley, Chris, Allison, and other Dartmouth ’98s who have successfully launched their kids into their life adventure. I’m re-reading Belinda Chiu’s The Mindful College Applicant as a helpful guide through this process. I caught up with Chinwe Ajene-Sagna recently and she shared that after seven years in Paris and then in Lagos, Nigeria, she and her family moved to Cairo, Egypt. Chinwe’s eldest, Abi, will be a junior at Exeter in New Hampshire this fall.

I enjoy hearing about your summer adventures. Jennifer Peters McCurry wrote in to say that she is the (interfaith) coordinator of religious and spiritual life at Carnegie Mellon University and this summer she will be taking a grant-supported trip to Berlin and Prague to explore post-Holocaust narratives and cultural history. Speaking of adventure, do you remember the article “Vanderlust” in DAM? Well, Mary Stanfield Hollendoner is the author of Monkeys on the Road. What is your favorite DAM article?

Recently, Rick Ouimet was featured in a New York Times article titled “A Bronx Teacher Called. Tommy Orange Answered.” Rick said that this article may be of interest to those ’98s who learned their craft in Silsby with Professors Garrod, Lyons, Sanborn, and Jahner and in public schools scattered around the Upper Valley. Rick’s class discussed Orange’s book, There, There. Congrats, Rick! I’m snapping my fingers as I write this part of the Class Note!

Inspiration has many sources. Maurissa Horwitz is inspiring children through animation. At Dartmouth she was a film minor and today Maurissa is the lead editor in Pixar’s Inside Out in theaters on June 14.

Lastly, it is with a heavy heart that I share news about Kiesha D. Sellers’ passing. Kiesha was a psychology major at Dartmouth. She participated in an Asian studies foreign study program and the Women in Science Project. I remember Kiesha’s smile. She was an incredibly kind and positive presence on campus. After Dartmouth she pursued culinary arts and went on to serve as the executive sous chef at the White House residences. Please share your memories.

I hope you take time to relax this summer and strengthen your lifelong friendships with each other.

—Carline M. (Dorcena) Durocher, 137 Walnut St., Newton, MA 02460; cdurocher07@gmail.com

Dear ’98s! First, I’m excited to follow in Gabe Galetti’s gargantuan footsteps as I take the reins as class secretary. Thank you, Gabe, for helping to keep our classmates connected over the years!

In my inaugural Class Note, I wanted to reflect on our 25th reunion! The 25th reunion brought together classmates from all communities of the greater ’98 family. I, for one, reconnected with old friends such as Tiffany Battle, who I had not seen or spoken to since graduation. It was lovely to hear Tiffany’s laugh again and pick up right where we left off 25 years ago.

It truly felt like that fun friend’s wedding party where everyone there knew at least a couple of people while making new friends and connections throughout the entire reunion weekend. Kate Gold and the band of ’98 executive committee members and class volunteers worked hard to deliver a high-touch, warm, and engaging reunion experience! There was a little something for everyone.

Many classmates attended the class-led panel discussions organized by Belinda Chiu and Kelly Ryerson. One such thought-provoking panel discussion featured Vikram Krishnan, Liz Gerber, and Eric Paley, all visionaries who discussed disruptive innovation and the next 25 years. In addition, I had the pleasure of serving on an early-riser panel on Saturday morning with classmates Lani Sipe Curtis, Spiros Miliagros, and Kelly Ryerson. As the sun pierced the horizon, we shared our stories about our life journeys and meanderings in early morning fellowship!

For those thrill seekers among us, there was the daring climb up 86 flights of stairs to the top of Bartlett Tower! Others hiked Mount Moosilauke and canoed on the Connecticut River, while some of us enjoyed our Dirt Cowboy lattes on the lawn chairs in front of the Hanover Inn. As nature would have it, some of us even had a bit of post-traumatic stress syndrome when lightening and heavy rain led to our class tent being evacuated during one of the lunches. It was graduation monsoon all over again except this time our mighty ’98s’ laughter and pure joy filled the air of Occom Commons, drowning out the sounds of nature’s roars. Did I mention the delicious meals that we had throughout the weekend?

At reunion we gathered to remember those beautiful souls in our class who have left this earth to explore the vastness of the universe. We honored their memories through a music filled reflection led by Gabe Galetti and Julie McGuire Turchin (musical lead).It was a simple acknowledgement that every one of those beautiful souls lived and was loved by all of us.

Friends, I share these memories in hopes to reach every single member of our class with one message—keep in touch! Don’t wait until the next reunion to reconnect with your friends of Dartmouth days of old. Share your updates! Celebrate each other today. Peter Hasenkamp, Matt Senesky, John Wilde, and Jack Pien did just that. Peter wrote to say that they got together in San Francisco back in June for a mini-reunion since they were not able to attend the 25th reunion.

So let’s not let a moment go by without reaching out to a member of our Dartmouth ’98 family! Make sure the College has your updated information. Visit alumni.dartmouth.edu/directory to update your communications. Interested in connecting to the greater Dartmouth community via a group? Well, you can find a group at alumni.dartmouth.edu/connect/find-group.

Lastly, I encourage you to reach out to me often to share your musings and meanderings!

—Carline M. (Dorcena) Durocher, 137 Walnut St., Newton, Massachusetts 02460; cdurocher07@gmail.com

So did you hear that we had a reunion? As I write this, it is a little less than two months away. But this column should run slightly after the reunion, which I bet was just smashing.

Wendy Cover is looking forward to the reunion, especially the chance to see old friends and familiar faces. She is especially excited to reunite with the crew who lived at 13 School Street senior year: Raimy Kamons, Juan Carlos Serna, Melissa Woo, Kate (Mottinger) Bjordahl, and Chris Saccardi ’97. The group is piling into a couple of houses in Grantham, New Hampshire, for the weekend.

Marlene (Sheehan) Dandler looks forward to reunion too. She owns Seashore Academy, an educational kindergarten through eighth-grade custom-schooling private academy in Southern California with four campuses and a fifth (the first to be franchised) opening in September. She and her husband, Andres Dandler ’97, raise kids Paul (18), Fiona, (16), and Jasmine (13) in Newport Beach, California. The kids take advantage of the weather and sports: tennis, rowing, sailing, and rock climbing. Marlene enjoys daily runs on the beach with girlfriends and cooking family dinners. Marlene also has seen Mary (Albert) Koenen and opined that she is the best.

Rachel (Bogardus) Drew is in charge of reunion recruitment and registration, that is, getting as many classmates as possible back to campus. When not preparing for reunion, she works as the senior research director in the public policy group at Enterprise Community Partners, where she studies the policy-based challenges and solutions to increasing the supply of affordable housing nationwide. She lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts, with her husband, Jonathan Drew, and their two kids.

Lea (Defrancisci) Lis wrote a book titled No Shame: Real Talk with Your Kids About Sex, Self-Confidence, and Healthy Relationships. She wrote that the book is “amazing,” and I confirmed this on Amazon, where the book has garnered an amazing 4.9 out of 5 rating. Lea just opened a psychedelic psychotherapy clinic out on Long Island, New York, in the Hamptons called Hampton Insight. She loves that she can provide cutting-edge healthcare to patients in her community.

Finally, Rob Nutt made it to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill vs. Dartmouth men’s lacrosse game. The weather was unseasonably cold, which reminded Rob of Hanover in the springtime. As for the game, Dartmouth won many battles; they won a majority of the faceoffs; but alas, they did not win the game.

Well, that is all I got. I hope you had a fantastic reunion, and if you did not attend, there is always our 30th.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Toshiaki Komura shared two important updates. First, he and wife Kelly had a baby in January 2022. Baby Emily joined big sister Lily, age 9. Second, Toshiaki’s book Lost Loss in American Elegiac Poetry: Tracing Inaccessible Grief from Stevens to Post-9/11 won the American Literary Society of Japan’s book prize in October 2021.

Tracy Van Dorpe is still living outside of Boston, in Arlington, Massachusetts, which made it easy for her to attend two ’98 mini-reunions in October.

Chris Egan, Dune Thorne, and Jojo (Blaxall) Lognecker hosted one, where Tracy caught up with Lia Monahon, Yuri Feldman, and Matthew Blanton. Tracy and Lia shared memories of their foreign study abroad in Toulouse, France. Yuri is spending one week per month in Boston with a new job, commuting from Fairfield County, Connecticut. Matthew continues to teach at Milton Academy and shared insight into the mental health crisis facing teens, an issue Dartmouth is trying to get a handle on too.

The second reunion was hosted by Shirley (Sperling) Paley, Rachel (Bogardus) Drew, and Carline (Dorcena) Durocher out in the Boston suburbs. Here Tracy caught up with Justin Littlefield, who had just returned from a jam band concert in Seattle. Tracy also spoke to Will Scarbrough about his son’s first year at university. Tracy could not believe that a classmate’s kid is in college.

Speaking of Will, he has twin 19-year-old sons. Rhys and Neo have been figuring out college and adulting in Denmark and Connecticut. A third son, Tate, is a 15-year-old sophomore in high school in Lexington, Massachusetts. Will and wife Jodi are looking ahead to being empty-nesters in a few years and hope to travel to biking destinations around the world. Will continues to build data and analytics teams in the built environment and education industries. And with the pandemic easing up, Will and family managed to take a trip to South Africa to see family.

Finally, during the Thanksgiving holiday my family visited the Washington, D.C., area, where we saw Dave Ware, Dan Kerzner, Charles Davant, and their families. We met at Dave’s house in Alexandria, Virginia. Dave was hosting the pie breakfast, an annual pre-Thanksgiving tradition where friends bring pies and gather at Dave’s to mingle and to feast. Dave had also just been named partner at the law firm Gibson Dunn.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

I have been in touch with Amie Breeze Harper. She is writing her second book, an Afrofuturism and fantasy novel titled Seeds of Sankofa, scheduled to be published next year. Afrofuturism concerns the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. Breeze aims to inspire decolonization of the imagination during a time when many believe that the future can only be dystopian. She writes, “I have fallen in love with all my characters and their deep connections to justice…soil, seeds, water, and what it takes to birth and create for a future of sustainability and freedom.” If you would like to learn more, visit abreezeharper.com.

Lani (Sipe) Curtis updated me that she recently left her post as director of development at the Oceanside Museum of Art for an associate director position at the San Diego Museum of Art. She also hosted a group of about 20 San Diego-area alums for a private tour of the museum’s current Monet to Matisse exhibition. And at the end of July, her middle son, James, got successful shoulder surgery from Andy Pennock ’99, who lived across the hall from Lani her sophomore year. Lani also recently returned from a two-week sojourn in Europe, a trip rescheduled from 2020. After her sons played in a rugby tour through Ireland, her family bounced over to Croatia just for fun.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Incredibly we are now less than one year from our 25th reunion, June 15-18, 2023. Now is the time to block these dates and make a firm commitment to attend. And if you would like to make your mark by helping to plan this milestone, do not hesitate to contact Kate Gold (kategold98@gmail.com), who is heading things up.

Baxter Wasson emailed me four updates. First, this winter he enjoyed a ski trip in Park City, Utah, with Carter Jackson, as well as one dinner with Andrea and Adam Himoff and two dinners with Berit Campion ’96. Second, Baxter regularly speaks with Brook Detterman. Last summer they hiked up Mount Moosilauke, and Baxter visited Brook at his new home in Maine. Third, Baxter recently enjoyed a wonderful long lunch with Catherine Baumann. Fourth, Baxter is engaged with a wide range of Dartmouth lightweight rowers to revive and align the program with the priorities of the College since lightweight rowing was canceled and then reinstated. Chris Egan wrote that he lives in Boston with his wife, Alexis, and their four children: Madeline (14), Jack (12), Charlotte (10), and Christopher (9). Chris’s family spent New Year’s with Keith Zadourian, Bill Curran, and their families. Chris looks forward to the 25th reunion.

I was so pleased to read that Roger Johnson’s contributing to Class Notes one year ago yielded emails from long-lost friends and even a visit from David Walthall, traveling from Siena, Italy, to Mobile, Alabama, to see family. Roger lives in nearby Pensacola, Florida, where he owns a “hidden gem” of a wine shop. Roger is also an alumni admissions ambassador, which means he interviews applicants to Dartmouth. Through the years Roger has interviewed more than 100 students all across the country, yet only one has matriculated at Dartmouth! Lately Roger is on hiatus. Owing to the pandemic, interviews have been shunted to Zoom, and Roger prefers to live in the real world, something I wholeheartedly endorse.

Another long-time ’98 ambassador is Chris Wang, who resides in Beijing. He shared the story of his most memorable admit: the first student ever admitted to Dartmouth from a public magnet school in northeast China. The student was keenly interested in Dartmouth and had a clear goal of studying philosophy, backed up by his experiences. For example, he had increased access to Western philosophy by translating works into Chinese and publishing them on an online bookstore. Chris found the student’s love of the subject, depth of thought, and passion to be convincing and inspiring. Fast forward a few years and the student graduated from Dartmouth Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

For this column, I attempted to contact ’98s who write. In particular, I asked how Dartmouth inspired their writing.

Kristen Hinman has been a journalist for the last 20 years. She credits English professor Terry Osborne as an influence. He was “electric” in the classroom and taught so many aspiring writers how to find their own voice. Through numerous conversations in office hours and across BlitzMail, he pushed Kristen to look beyond the Dartmouth bubble. Kristen had a wonderful visit with Professor Osborne a few years before his death in 2020, when she was working on an article for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Currently Kristen lives with her husband and 4-year-old daughter in Washington, D.C. They recently moved from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to a woodsy spot along the Potomac River full of hardcore outdoor enthusiasts. Kristen has spent almost a decade overseeing all longform narrative for Washingtonian, the city magazine for the D.C. area. And oh, during these past few years there have been stories to tell! Kristen regularly sees Jessica Clark and last summer had a fun meetup when Deirdre (Driscoll) Siegert and Catherine Sterling came to town.

James Panero cited the daily journal that classics professors Edward Bradley and Roger Ulrich urged their students to keep during the foreign study program (FSP) in Italy. James credits the process of keeping the journal, not his actual writing. But his old notes have helped him in writing for The New Criterion, where he is an editor, and other venues. For example, James has been researching the Allied landing at Paestum, Italy, during World War II. Paestum was founded by the Greeks as Poseidonia, which James visited during the FSP. James may also write something about D.H. Lawrence’s essay “Etruscan Places” after studying the painted tombs of Tarquinia in Lazio, Italy. And for Spectator magazine, James recently compared New York City’s Tenth Street Baths to the baths he saw in Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman port. James follows Professor Ulrich on social media and is glad to see these trips continue and to revisit memories from nearly 30 years ago!

Mary Hollendoner finally returned from her epic voyage driving from the United States to Argentina. She, her husband, and 6-year-old daughter lived on the road for more than three years, experiencing heartwarming personal encounters, breathtaking wilderness campsites, and the occasional terrifying situation. This was the cover story from the September/October 2020 issue of this magazine. Mary recently wrote a book about it, Monkeys on the Road: One Family’s Vanlife Adventure South in Search of a Simpler Life, published in November 2021. For Mary, nothing stood out from college as inspiring her to write. Dartmouth did, however, spark a love for the outdoors, which led Mary to embark on adventure and to write a book about it.

Emily Hodgson Anderson is a professor of English at the University of Southern California. Her 2018 book, Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss, discusses how 18th-century actors and artists immortalized the plays of Shakespeare. Emily wanted to write before she came to college, and at Dartmouth her professors inspired and guided her. Emily still holds onto assignments she wrote for Monika Otter, Jim Heffernan, Alex Halasz, and Tom Luxon, professors who are now colleagues. Recently Emily has been writing more personal essays, prominently featuring her New England upbringing.

Beyond these “professional” writers, we all write and were all influenced by our time at Dartmouth. If anyone else wants to add to this dialogue, I would love to hear from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hello, ’98s. I write with a renewed affinity for you and for Dartmouth. Last month I visited the College; my first time there in nearly 10 years. It was wonderful to walk the now-sprawling campus with my wife and kids (2 and 5). I also met up with old friends Belinda Chiu and Dave Smith. Another highlight was staying at a bed and breakfast in Lyme, New Hampshire, and talking Dartmouth with proprietor Rich Yurko ’75.

Jen Tetler and wife Emily Battle ’05 now have two 2.5-year-olds. Jen and Emily were pregnant at the same time—they swapped embryos and gave birth two months apart. For Jen, raising kids is finally getting easier. This summer Jen had a breakthrough Covid infection. It was a mild case, although she lost her sense of smell for a few days. In addition Jen teaches science at an independent high school in Oakland, California.

Shannon (Jarosh) Walsh wrote en route to South Bend, Indiana, with husband Kevin Walsh to drop off their oldest child at Notre Dame University. Shannon and Kevin are just getting started, as they have five more children at home, ranging in age from 2 to 15. Shannon is an emergency medicine physician at an academic medical center in Richmond, Virginia. Covid has deeply impacted her day-to-day experience. Last August she contracted the virus. Thankfully, her symptoms were mild and her family stayed healthy. For Shannon it is difficult to see Covid case numbers trending in the wrong direction. She encourages anyone who has not to get vaccinated.

Karen Lefrak is also an emergency medicine physician. During the pandemic her emotions have run the gamut of “exhaustion, worry, gratitude, concern, pride in my team, feeling appreciated (briefly), frustration, hopefulness, compassion fatigue, feeling underappreciated, elation, irritation, positivism, resentment, gratefulness, dismay, more frustration, more exhaustion, and more hopefulness.” Karen and her medical colleagues are searching for light at the end of the tunnel. On a positive note, Karen feels fortunate that last year her daughter’s school did an excellent job providing in-person education.

Andrea (Stern) Himoff and Adam Himoff appreciate how living in Park City, Utah, has allowed them and their two girls to get outdoors during the pandemic. These times have inspired Andrea and Adam to prioritize what matters. Adam has turned most of his focus to his art, creating contemporary and pop-infused linocut, digital, and painted pieces with a humorous and provocative twist. You can check out Adam’s work on Instagram. Andrea has leaped into politics to launch the U.S. senate campaign of Becky Edwards, a former Utah legislator running against Mike Lee in 2022. Andrea and Adam have recently had fewer visitors than usual. Nonetheless, they welcomed Peter Lanfer and wife Sarah Drew, who was acting in a new TV series filming in Salt Lake City. The Himoffs also saw Kara (Josephberg) Paldino and family during their stays in Park City and Aspen, Colorado. Despite recently evacuating her house due to a wildfire threat, Andrea wrote that life is good.

And there you have it—the latest from our class. Keep the updates coming. I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Fellow ’98s, I cried in the wilderness for news from you. Here is what I found out.

Chinwe Ajene endured seven months of separation from her husband thanks to Covid-19! She and her two children (14 and 10) had been in Lagos, Nigeria, where Chinwe started her own real estate consultancy, Catalyst Realty Solutions. Chinwe’s husband was in Cairo, Egypt, with the African Export and Import Bank, commuting between Cairo and Lagos. Then Covid hit. Borders were closed, and Chinwe’s family was split in two. Finally, they were able to reunite by repatriating to Washington, D.C. Six weeks later, returning to Africa, they decided to all head to Cairo. Chinwe made it work by enrolling her kids in a terrific international school and commuting to see clients. Chinwe described her experience with Covid as “terrifying.” She gained, however, a greater appreciation for family, which supported her through her ordeal in Lagos. Another lesson learned is to make the best of the situation at hand. For example, over Easter Chinwe took a cruise up the Nile River, from Aswan to Luxor, relishing Egypt’s rich history.

Gabrielle Tito described this past year as “strange and challenging.” Her eldest daughter went away to college, and Gabrielle has treasured the extra time with her youngest daughter. Gabrielle is an artist, and the pandemic has been productive, affording her extra time in her home studio. Gabrielle’s last ’98 sighting: Mary (Albert) Koenen pre-quarantine at the Museum of Modern Art. Next spring Gabrielle’s youngest daughter will graduate high school. Then Gabrielle plans to move back to New York City. She is a New Yorker at heart and looks forward to a new chapter in the city.

Although the pandemic has limited in-person meet-ups, actual communication has increased through mediums like group texts and Zoom. For example, Tracy (Tylee) Silberfein, Katey (Ritrovato) Dadakis, Erica Brandling-Bennett, Candace (Cornell) Kristensson, Christine Alvarado, Kathleen (Eibl) Steele, and Bennett Arble ’99 have a standing weekly virtual happy hour. I heard from a few of them.

Tracy lives in Seattle with husband Adam Silberfein ’99 and their twin 8-year-old boys. The pandemic has taught Tracy to reprioritize her time: less work, more family. She loves seeing her sons more, even if they can be a handful. This past year the family has embraced outdoor activities; Tracy has even taken up skate skiing. Recently her family met up with Kathleen’s to ski in Park City, Utah. Coming up this summer, an “epic” road trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Katey is still in Southern California with husband Jason Dadakis ’99 and their two daughters. They navigated the pandemic with a last-minute RV trip around California, a couple ski vacations, weekly virtual cooking classes, and binge watching The Amazing Race. Going forward Katey is eager to get back East to see family and friends, particularly Molly (Hershey) and Kevin Arista.

Erica has relied on the support of other professional women during the pandemic. She is “super grateful” for her fellow Dartmouth moms as a source of support. Erica commented that it is working mothers who have to deal with middle-of-the-day interruptions from kids, along with micro-managing their schedules. Meanwhile, if dads are home with their children, they are granted quasi-hero status. Erica concluded that this pandemic has magnified the inequalities in parenting and pushed working mothers in impossible ways. Erica and husband Ron Gregush ’97 each work in healthcare, forcing them both to be physically present at work. Thankfully, their two children recently returned to in-person elementary school, albeit for just two hours per day.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

For my fifth note of the pandemic I asked classmates to reflect on 2020. Here in Nashville, 2020 has brought the dismal trifecta of a tornado, pandemic, and Christmas bombing. We hope for better luck in 2021!

Tim Bruckner and wife Melissa Lodoen are professors at the University of California, Irvine. At the beginning of 2020 Tim visited Mexico City with Steve Zrike and both of their oldest daughters for their annual father-daughter trip. Tim is an epidemiologist, and when the pandemic began he led a seroprevalence study in partnership with Orange County, California. The study informed public health efforts to assist Latino communities hardest hit by Covid-19. Tim and Melissa have regular distanced gatherings with Andres ’97 and Marlene (Sheehan) Dandler, who live nearby. For Tim’s birthday he shared laughs and lamentations via Zoom with Matthew Blanton, Lia Monahon, Leah (Fergenson) Allen, Erica (McAuliffe) Esrick, Kytja Weir, Barrett Shaver, and Catherine Baumann. According to Tim, all these ’98s (annoyingly) do not seem to age.

Doug Heyman reflected that 2020 helped us slow down to appreciate family, friends, and relationships. Over Zoom Doug reconnected with Tom Loughrey, Adam Weigold, Damon Ferrara, Hank Brier, James Roberts, Jason Jones, Jay Danzi, Spencer Doyle, PJ Halas, Paul DeGaetano, Joe DeCristofaro, Bill Tarr, Danny Gans, Peter Sperger, and John Coleman. Doug commented that everyone looked terrific, albeit a little grayer. Professionally Doug moved from Goldman Sachs to BlackRock to lead opportunistic investing. He loves working from home with wife Eva (Sheibar) Heyman ’96 and their three children, one of whose middle name is Hanover.

Simone Swink and her team at ABC News went home in March and have not been back. Simone’s workday is filled with Zoom calls, where she helps run Good Morning America. Simone is comforted by how technology has brought people together. In particular she has stayed connected weekly with her three senior-year roommates, Kristin (Terry) Abati, Julie (Herron) Gendler, and Karen Yen ’99. Still, Simone cannot wait for the pandemic to be over. Amy (Feldmann) Hauser works as a general pediatrician at the Santa Clara Valley (California) Medical Center. As such she is grateful that children have generally weathered Covid-19 well. Outside of work Amy spends much time with her two young daughters. They have grown to love outdoor adventures and can entertain themselves with rocks, sticks, and dirt. Post-pandemic Amy looks forward to reuniting with friends in-person instead of virtually.

Peter Lanfer’s update showcased his creativity. For example, he and wife Sarah have started recording songs and posting them to YouTube. Peter also pulled off a pandemic live-action musical version of The Greatest Showman with his and the neighborhood’s kids. Yet another musical effort is the Reindeer Tribe, which Peter described as an “ephemeral collective.” This means the group comes together for a few days each year to create an album and share in a mutual love of music. Check them out at reindeertribe.com or on Spotify. Professionally Peter continues to teach, virtually, at Occidental College. During the pandemic he speaks regularly with Alex Keally, Chad Trexler, Dan O’Neill, Blair Kenney, and Graham Gallivan. Peter feels more connected to these friends than he has felt in years. Finally, Peter recently hosted the first ’98 “Big Idea” gathering. He hopes it will be a quarterly Zoom call for classmates to share ideas growing out of the amazing things they are up to.

As class secretary I can attest to the amazing things you do. Thanks for the updates. I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Greetings, ’98s. For my third note of the pandemic, I inquired about how you were holding up. I specifically asked for your thoughts on travel. Here is what I found out.

Colleen (O’Connor) Jo wrote in late August amid a long weekend at Dartmouth with her husband and three children (13, 11, and 8)—the family’s first time visiting the College. Colleen opined that life during Covid-19 reminds her of her Dartmouth experience. Her family has slowed down to re-center their lives around values and purpose. They head to the mountains to take in simple pleasures such as hiking, biking, and boating—the same activities Colleen enjoyed as a Dartmouth student. Also relishing the mountains were Marc Lewinstein and Greg Vadasdi, who ventured to Wyoming’s Teton Range. There they completed the Cathedral Traverse, summitting three of the Teton’s highest peaks. The adventure continued in Newport, Rhode Island, where Marc and Greg finished a 50-mile sailing race. Prior to racing Marc hosted Greg, his wife, Katie (Bardzik) Vadasdi, and their two kids. Marc has stayed in Newport since mid-March and regularly surfs with Josh Gallitano.

Julie (McGuire) Turchin wrote from San Jose, California, where she was starting her third year teaching high school psychology. Julie shared numerous strategies for entertaining children at home. For example, during the summer she transformed her house into a camp featuring activities such as fencing, circus arts, cooking in the fire pit, improvisation, and swimming. This year Julie has Zoomed with Anat Levtov, Brad Evans, Belinda Chiu, David Walthall, Christine Utter, Caroline Kerner, Austyn Fudge, Emily (Mellor) Grenier, and Wendy Lee. Julie even joined with Craig Sakowitz ’93 to host a West Coast Outing Club screening of the “classic” Schlitz on Mount Washington.

Also emailing from northern California was Cindy (Yang) Weller, who lives with her husband, Todd Weller ’99, and 7-year-old son. Cindy is an anesthesiologist. With the constant threat of Covid-19, she has turned to activities such as meditation, drawing, and baking. Cindy reminisced about traveling to Hokkaido, Japan, in February and doing things now unthinkable, such as riding the subway without a mask and eating buffet breakfasts. She feels grateful that her family did not get sick. Also expressing gratitude was Sarah (Boynton) Pitts, specifically for health, jobs, shelter, and food. Sarah is an adolescent medicine specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, while husband Edward Pitts works at an architecture firm. The Pitts will soon begin another job, as their two children were poised to start virtual schooling.

Owen Russell wrote that he, wife Aubrey, and two children were weathering the pandemic the best they could. They live in Perrysburg, Ohio, and are grateful for the extra space—they previously lived in the confines of Brooklyn. Owen occasionally rides his Peloton exercise bike virtually along with Josh Freeman and Dong Shen. Owen also keeps in touch with Daniel Goren, Michael Beckerman, Michael Pryor, and Eddie Chung.

Covid-19 has kept Natalie Berger busy as dean of faculty at Souhegan High School in Amherst, New Hampshire. Since June she has focused on safely reopening the school. To Natalie the task is daunting, yet she is excited to be doing such important work. When not on the job, Natalie enjoys exploring the outdoors with husband Erik Saunders ’99 and their two children, 12 and 9. They are crossing their fingers for a full winter ski season to help them get through this challenging time.

I can second that, as I hope to take my family skiing without hiking the backcountry or leasing our own gondola. Now more than ever I appreciate these correspondences, as I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hello, ’98s. During this challenging time, I am grateful for the Dartmouth community, especially friends with whom I am staying in touch. I am also thankful for being your secretary, which allows me to engage with even more of our amazing class. I asked you how life has changed since Covid-19 struck. Here is what I found out.

Elizabeth (Sumida) Huaman has been working almost nonstop at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She also wrote about the pandemic for the online blog Praxis Center. The blog produces essays for teaching and social justice activism. In her essay Elizabeth thoughtfully addresses the contradiction of the breath of life causing coronavirus death. Elizabeth keeps in touch with Natalie Garza and Belinda Chiu. I keep in touch with Belinda as well, and I recently listened to her on Zoom lead an alumni workshop, “Resilience: Navigating Uncertainty and Stress.” The workshop left me inspired and more relaxed. Also writing in was Kathryn (Balink) Fernandez, who has been substituting in special needs classrooms in Denver public schools.

Eric Paley emailed that he and his wife, Shirley (Sperling) Paley, are grateful for their health and for more time together as a family. For work, Eric is with his venture capital fund, Founder Collective. And Shirley is the general counsel of Formlabs, a 3-D printing company currently producing materials in response to Covid-related market shortages. Eric and Shirley also help their two children, 9 and 14, with remote learning and staying connected with friends. Having a roughly similar experience is Kara (Josephberg) Paldino, who is working from her Florida home as an attorney for NBCUniversal. She too helps her two children, second- and fourth-graders, with their daily Zoom classes. And Kara has enjoyed spending more quality time as a family instead of the rush of nonstop kids’ activities. Also juggling work and virtual school for two kids is David Rosman. He is a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital; his wife is a pediatric emergency doctor. David has volunteered to staff a Covid-19 unit. While he waits to be called, he is contemplating a summer in quarantine and how to keep his kids entertained. David feels lucky to have a job and to be able to help.

Jeff Wadlow wrote that in mid-March, experiencing flu-like symptoms, he tested negative for Covid-19. Professionally, however, Jeff was at the peak of his achievement as a writer and director of feature films. He had two movies in theaters. But when the economy shut down, the movies were prematurely consigned to at-home streaming. If it means saving lives, Jeff is happy to have people stay home and watch. He reports that the Hollywood consensus is that the theater business will return, so Jeff is homebound writing new projects. During this time he managed to sell a pilot for a new TV show over Zoom. Also via Zoom, Jeff has connected more frequently with his ’98 friends.

Meanwhile Kate Gold is fighting for the continued existence of three Vermont state colleges: Northern Vermont University (NVU) Lyndon (where Kate and her husband work), NVU Johnson, and Vermont Technical College in Randolph. Kate shared that the closure of these campuses at this time would be a travesty that would impact her entire region, which she says is one of the poorest in the country. She should know more when this goes to print in about two months. Best of luck, Kate.

And I guess we will all know more. I hope that these next couple months are better than the last two. Once again, drop me a line. I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hello, ’98s! This issue I’m sharing a few professional updates from our hard-working classmates.

Marisa Howe is currently a deputy director for program development and performance quality at Kids In Need of Defense (KIND). She represents unaccompanied children in their deportation (removal) proceedings, works on issues affecting immigrant children at the southern border, and advocates for immigrant children on the policy front. Marisa informed me that Shirley (Sperling) Paley serves on KIND’s Boston advisory committee and that Laurie Carafone ’99 is senior director of legal services and Marisa’s boss. Marisa has been an immigration lawyer since graduating from law school in 2003 and has been at KIND since September 2015. She is also married to Kyle Marchesseault ’99—they have two kids, a daughter, 12, and son, 9.

Jennifer (Matthews) Stewart runs the fraud investigation department for Blue Cross of Massachusetts. She has a skilled team of attorneys, medical professionals, former law enforcement, and coders that works across the country and even internationally to track down fraud in the healthcare system. The team also partners with prosecutors and law enforcement to take on fraudulent actors attempting to take advantage of the system.

In October Jennifer met up with Ann Marie Nee in N.Y.C. to catch up and get their kids together. For the holidays, Jennifer is spending Christmas with family in Boston and then heading to Maine to ski and snowmobile. Speaking of Maine, Abby Gordon has landed in Portland, Maine, after several years of splitting time among Maine, France, and New York. She joked that the move singlehandedly lowered by 20 years the average age at Dartmouth Club of Maine luncheons. Abby is starting her eighth year as a senior director with Lateral Link, where she matches attorneys with law firms and in-house roles around the world.

Thank you for the updates. You never know what a ’98 will be doing 21 years out, and I love hearing all about it.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hello again, ’98s. For this latest Class Notes, I will once more give the floor to those of you living abroad. I checked in with Mary Hollendoner, who continues her adventure driving from California to Argentina in a camper van with her husband and daughter. They recently crossed the border into Peru, where their van broke down, keeping them in a tiny town for several weeks. Now they have moved on and are enjoying Peru’s northern ruins, remote pueblos, and gorgeous mountains of the Cordillera Blanca and the Chachapoyas regions. Read their stories at their blog, www.monkeysontheroad.com, and follow them on Instagram @yosemite2patagonia. Mary added that she would love to meet up with alumni who live in the countries she plans to visit, so please reach out to her if you are in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, or Brazil!

Alfonso Montero is also in Peru; he has been there since graduating. Recently Alfonso partnered with Guillermo Miro Quesada, joining his asset management company, Salkantay Partners. According to its website, Salkantay is an “activist investment firm that creates value for its clients by developing and nurturing innovative and sustainable companies that improve people’s lives.” Great work, guys. I asked Alfonso to reflect on his country compared to the United States. He shared that, although Peru is very conservative, he has been pleasantly surprised by the rapid advance of movements such as women’s and LGBT rights and addressing climate change. Alfonso credited technology and its empowering individuals to speak out, creating a more tolerant and inclusive society.

Kenji Hosokowa did not think he would settle down in Tokyo. But when the Internet bubble burst during his third year of law school (2000-01), the Tokyo job market stayed hot. Kenji found Tokyo to his liking, and he does not plan to move. Kenji has also been president of the Dartmouth Club of Japan for approximately the last five years. He says that the Dartmouth community in Tokyo is a great crowd. I’m sure it is! Kenji does make it back to the United States a few times a year and still misses northern New England, especially the outdoors and the beer.

Finally David Walthall wrote me from Italy with a thoughtful submission. I especially enjoyed his answer to my query about the world view from Italy. David wrote: “Certainly when one visits the country it is easy to fall in love with the history, food, art, beauty, music. Living here allows one to enjoy this year-round, and I love being a guide and showing people my favorites spots, views, restaurants, festivals, etc. But, of course, we also deal with all the normal ups and downs of daily life. So I think many people, both native Italians and expats, experience a kind of dual reality. We are surrounded by all this amazing culture and beauty and want to make the most of it, but you also necessarily must live in the real world and be aware of the issues and challenges we face, such as the debates on immigration, nationalism, and populism in Italy and all across Europe. Interestingly, in a way, this duality reminds me a bit of Hanover. It is a very idyllic place, and while we were on campus at times it was tempting to tune out the ‘real’ world and just live the beauty and opportunities of our immediate surroundings. Yet I feel we were (and still are) called to use our talents and education to better our world.”

Great stuff, ’98s. Whether near or far, I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Greetings, fellow ’98s. While most of us have just begun summer, I heard from a classmate who lives in a land of eternal summer. Ku’ulei (Reyes) Tengan wrote from Honolulu with her first update since graduating! Ku’ulei is married to Ty Tengan ’97 and had just returned from Boston. There she reconnected with Martha Zegarra and her husband by dining at swanky restaurants and attending her first game at Fenway Park, a Boston Red Sox win. Ku’ulei also met with Nidhi Desai, who matriculated as a ’98 but left after her sophomore year to pursue studies elsewhere. Nidhi was visiting from Baltimore. The two returned to Dartmouth, where they reminisced over the fireplace in Pine Restaurant at the Hanover Inn in typical 35-degree April weather. Also on the agenda, Ku’ulei visited her son, a first-year student at Amherst College. Back home Ku’ulei has a daughter who is set to graduate high school in two years.

Kevin Robbins was sorry to miss last summer’s reunion on account of multiple commitments. He and his wife live in McLean, Virginia, with two boys, ages 10 and 12. They recently closed on a farm in Virginia’s wine country, which Kevin described as an escape pod from the crazy fast pace of life in the Washington, D.C., area. The pace stems from Kevin’s work with two businesses that he cofounded in 2009: Wolf Den Associates, a consulting boutique that caters to federal contractors, and Blue Delta Capital Partners, an equity fund that invests in government services companies. In addition, Kevin was recently named to the board of directors of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. Kevin stays plugged into Dartmouth through recruiting for Wolf Den and keeping in touch with classmates. And in other Dartmouth-related news, this summer Kevin will celebrate the 80th birthday of his dad, E. Lee Robbins ’60, with a family trip to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu. Give a rouse!

I’ve been emailing with Joan Ai about her work with the DQ Institute and the World Economic Forum to bring global awareness to digital intelligence. DQ stands for digital intelligence quotient and is a set of competencies that are fundamental for readiness in an era of rapid technological progress. The DQ Institute recently announced the world’s first attempt to define a global standard for digital literacy, skills, and readiness. Joan works to help children and adults thrive in the digital world.

In other professional news, in March the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, named Benjamin Wright its artistic director. The school is a premier international center for glass art education. In the appointment announcement, Benjamin was hailed as having the marks of a visionary to produce inspiring and relevant programming that advances the glass community. For the past four years Benjamin held the position of director of education at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, New York.

Chris Ott wrote that last year he left the U.S. Department of Justice after a long stretch prosecuting white collar and cybercrimes. He is now in private practice—retained to solve problems stemming from the intersection of human fallibility with new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and ransomware. Chris appreciates the challenge of helping companies avoid problems, rather than his former prosecutorial role of evaluating damages from those problems. Chris encouraged classmates to drop him a line. He recently managed to see Dominic Lanza and Jeremy Donaldson.

I am consistently amazed by the breadth and uniqueness of my classmates’ experiences. Please continue to keep me updated—I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave, Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hello out there, fellow ’98s. I reached out to several of you to compile these latest notes and have the following news to share.

Tim Farrell migrated to the Mountain West in 2009 and presently lives in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area with his wife and two kids, ages 4 and 8. Tim works as a geriatrician at University of Utah Health, participating in patient care, research, and medical education. He also works on several projects involving medical and ethical issues that affect vulnerable older adults. Outside of this rewarding work, Tim and his family enjoy hiking and skiing.

James Panero visited Dartmouth in October with family in tow to take in the recent renovations to the Hood Museum of Art. James wrote about it for the December 2018 issue of The New Criterion, for which James serves as executive editor. The article gave him a chance to critique the Hood’s new design and to reconsider the many architectural styles that surround the Green. I enjoyed the article and revisiting campus through James’s eyes. Thanks for sharing.

Sara (Tullis) Wester wrote in that she and her husband, Forest Wester, are doing well in Miami. Sara is an oculoplastic surgeon. That means, according to Sara, treating myriad eyelid and orbital tumors, orbital diseases, eyelid malpositions, and tearing problems, as well as performing oculofacial rejuvenation. Sara has recently participated in more international speaking and work, which she enjoys. As for Forest, he is a partner at Trivest Partners, a private equity firm. Sara and Forest love living in Miami with their three young children. They have been lucky to see Dartmouth friends and have a trip planned with several ’98s early this year. Sticking with medicine, I reached out to Maya Lodish when I was notified that she was selected as the Selna L. Kaplan Distinguished Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. Maya added that her husband, Jonathan Zimmerman, is now a privacy attorney at Adobe in San Francisco. Their daughters, Isabelle and Talia, are enjoying the West Coast. Maya and Jonathan have recently gotten together with Stephanie (Adamson) King, Jo (Weingarten) Golub, and Spencer Doyle.

Kerry (Vance) Summers emailed from her home in Nuremberg, Germany. She and her husband were about to head out for a long weekend in Austria with Suzanne (Michels) Obenshain and her family. Suzanne lives in Zurich and has met Kerry at a different European Christmas markets each of the past few years. For the holidays Kerry planned to return to the States, where she would see Kate (Rice) Nilan in New London, New Hampshire. Coincidentally, both of their parents now live there, a short drive from Dartmouth. Kerry works for Reebok, where lately she has been involved in 1990s-themed marketing campaigns. Her work has made her nostalgic for Dartmouth, and she shared several reminiscences with me in a wonderful lengthy email.

Speaking of Kate (Rice) Nilan, she, too, wrote in with a newsy update. Kate lives in Natick, Massachusetts, with her husband, 3- and 5-year-old girls, and two dogs. Kate spends her time teaching an occasional horseback riding lesson, parenting, and working for her own company, Stable Secretary, barn management software that launched in 2013. She writes that she has been lucky to have seen so many of her classmates recently, including Kerry, Jennifer Moeller, Peter Yoo, Avery Rueb, Angela Scott, Susanna McFadden, Abigail Roberts, and Wendy (Simon) Habeski.

That’s all for now, but keep the updates coming. I love hearing from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hello, fellow ’98s. It is a privilege to write my initial Class Notes. A big thank-you to my predecessor, Jeff Beyer, on five years of stellar updates and for helping me transition to class secretary. For me the past few years have been full of transitions. In 2015, after living in New York and New Jersey nearly all my life, I moved from N.Y.C. to Nashville, Tennessee. Feeling somewhat disconnected in my new home, I reached out to other ’98s in the South to ask what brought them here and to find out what is going on in their lives.

Neeta (Raghavan) Vora moved from Boston in 2012 when the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill offered her a job as a maternal fetal medicine-geneticist. In this role she researches the application of new genomic technologies to diagnose pregnancies with prenatal congenital abnormalities. She also sees patients with high-risk pregnancies. Neeta, along with her husband and two sons, ages 7 and 9, lives in Chapel Hill and enjoys tennis, hiking, and going to the beach. Neeta’s family also travels frequently: In July they visited Iceland and Belgium. Laura Guogas also moved from the Boston area to work at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has now settled in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area and works at Biogen, a biotech company that focuses on treating neurological diseases. She and her husband have two kids, ages 4 and 7. Laura enjoys the outdoors, including rowing, running, and gardening. Taking advantage of outdoor activities year-round is a common refrain among ’98s in the South.

Fellow Tennessean Abigail Roberts has been in Chattanooga since 1999, working at the McCallie School, an all-boys private boarding and day school. Six years ago she transitioned from teaching to its college counseling office. Abbie has taken part in activities such as remodeling homes, getting certified as a master gardener, and playing Ultimate Frisbee. She met her husband at a Frisbee tournament and was married two years ago in her hometown of Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Abbie also attended this summer’s reunion, and was especially thrilled to see Clair Jones. Former Tennessean Jessica (Schefter) Devin wrote in to say that after nearly 20 years in Nashville, she recently relocated to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Nathan Cook moved back home to Lexington, Kentucky, in 2000 to take a job in software engineering at Lexmark, where he has been ever since. He married last year and became a step-father. Nathan writes that now, with twin middle-school daughters, he feels caught up with his classmates. Along the way he has traveled extensively. Highlights include a road trip through Mexico to Belize, traveling by road and ferry to Juneau, Alaska, mission trips to Haiti for earthquake relief, and a “soul-searching trip across the country.” Traveling has allowed Nathan to stay connected to his classmates: Two years ago he visited Erica Thrall and Allison (Ahart) Geving.

David Walthall, by contrast, has roamed far from the South. The Alabama native has spent most of his time post-Dartmouth in Italy, where the University of Siena just offered him a tenured position. There he teaches a variety of courses ranging from contemporary political rhetoric to English for the wine trade. David commented on the strong sense of place and history he has felt in Italy, the South, and New England, too. In Italy he continues to lead historical and cultural tours and would love to help Dartmouth folks coming his way.

Twenty years after graduation, I am thrilled to have a reason to reconnect with classmates. Regardless of where you are these days, I would love to hear from you.

—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s! It was wonderful seeing so many of you in Hanover for our 20-year reunion. The names of folks I had the pleasure of catching up with are too numerous to list in this column, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed seeing you all. I hope that we do a better job keeping in touch in the next 20 years than some of us did in the last 20. It has been a great pleasure serving as your class secretary for the last five years—but it’s time to make way for a new secretary and give someone else the chance to bring you all the great ’98 news! We are still working out the details, so you may get one more column from me this summer; otherwise, this will be my last column. I truly hope you all stay in touch—please reach out at the email address below any time! Until we meet again.

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s! Happy 2018! I got a recent update from Brook Detterman, who reports that he and Baxter Wasson ran the Ragged 50K last summer in New Hampshire’s Sunapee region. Brook reports that “while the 50K itself was a brutal course—with about a 6,500 vertical over 35 miles—Brian Staveley managed to complete the entire three-day course, with 15,500 feet of climbing across about 80 miles. It was quite the challenge, but enjoyable in its own way and a great chance to connect with some old friends on long training runs.” Brook also shared the great news that he and his wife are expecting their first child in early 2018 (in fact, the child may have arrived by the time you are reading this!)—so Brook has promised to take a break from racing, “at least for now.” In the last several months Brook has also caught up with Rachel (Bogardus) Drew and Jon Drew, as well as Carter Jackson, among others. According to Brook, Carter has “recently escaped N.Y.C. with his family for the greener pastures of Westchester,” which, according to Carter, is a “great change of pace.” On that note, allow me to share some words from our class president, Jo (Weingarten) Golub, about the class of 1998 20th reunion, which, incredibly, is coming up in just a few months, June 15-17 in Hanover. Jo reports that, as with the past two reunions, “we are paired with the ’97s and ’99s and are coordinating with them to put together an amazing reunion—good food, activities for every age group, opportunities to see all your favorite old haunts and discover the College’s new ones. And if you need some financial assistance so you can attend, our new Granite Coalition can help you out. Look for more information in the newsletter and in separate reunion emails and letters. If you’re not getting any of that, reach out to me so we can get you sorted out. See you in June!” Looking forward to hearing from some of you, and seeing even more of you, in June!

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s, as you are reading this, the calendar has turned to summer. It is late June 2017 and the countdown is officially on to our 20-year reunion next June. How can this possibly be? I still have vivid memories of striding across the Green in the days leading up to graduation, and the driving rain we sat through during Commencement ceremonies is still fresh in my mind. And yet, here we are less than a year away from a big reunion. If you would like to help in any way, please reach out to Kate Gold, who, when she is not helping plan the reunion, also moonlights as our ’98 newsletter editor. I am sure Kate would love to hear from you guys at kategold98@gmail.com if you have any thoughts about reunion or would like to help with any of the planning.

As for class news, I recently heard from Latia Curry, who has never before given an update to Class Notes and wanted to let her fellow ’98s know that she is “alive and well.” Latia currently resides in Los Angeles, where she is a principal at an issue advocacy communications firm called Rally, where she advises foundations, nonprofits, philanthropists and corporations on how to build movements around the issues they care about. Latia is also expecting her first child this September with her partner, Giles Harrison, and is “very much looking forward” to our 20th reunion next year!

And that is where we will need to leave things for now, as Latia is the only ’98 who has sent me any news this spring! Please shoot me a note and let me know what’s going on in your lives, personally, professionally or otherwise. I so very enjoy hearing from each and every ’98 who takes the time to reach out!

My best.

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s, happy spring! I hope that some of you got a chance to do some community service, volunteering or other type of service on the 2017 98th Day of Service earlier this month. This is a great tradition our class has undertaken over the last few years and every year it seems to get bigger and bigger. Please send me a note if you were able to participate; I’d love to know what our fellow ’98s did!

In other class news, I recently got a note regarding the release of Seth Abramson’s most recent book, Golden Age, which Seth describes as a collection of “post-postmodern experiments” on topics including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, class, mental health, social media, celebrity culture and transgressive art.”

Also in ’98 book news, Rachel Federman recently published a kit titled Writer’s Boot Camp: 30 Days to Total Writing Fitness, a series of tips based on Rachel’s “more than 15 years of writing professionally as a social justice advocate” as well as her more than 20 nonfiction books. Rachel also has an upcoming collaboration in the works with the New York Botanical Garden, called “The Mindful Gardener.” Congratulations to both Seth and Rachel on these wonderful accomplishments!

Earlier this year Matt Burke was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins, surely one of a small number of recent Dartmouth graduates to have reached the upper echelons of NFL assistant coaching positions. A Miami Herald article discussing Matt’s recent promotion also talked about his history of “adventure vacations” that Matt takes in the pro football offseason, including a safari in Botswana and a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. Matt’s promotion to defensive coordinator comes after eight years coaching linebackers for a few different NFL teams. For those of you who may have forgotten back to our days as undergraduates, Matt played safety at the College and was part of the 1996 undefeated Ivy League championship Big Green squad. Congratulations, Matt!

And finally, while it seems hard to fathom, we are now just a little more than a year away from our 20-year reunion! If you have any ideas for activities or any other aspect of the 20-year reunion or want to contribute in any way to the reunion planning, please reach out to the wonderful Kate Gold at kategold98@gmail.com to offer your ideas or your time! Kate would surely appreciate it.

That’s all for now. Please shoot me a note and let me know what’s going on in your lives, personally, professionally or otherwise. I so very enjoy hearing from each and every ’98 who takes the time to reach out!

My best.

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s. It’s hard to believe that 2016 is drawing to a close and that, as you read this, 2017 is just days away—which means that our 20-year reunion is now just about 18 months away! With that in mind, here are a few updates to end 2016.

First up, Dune Thorne and Neville McCaghren checked in from Lincoln, Massachusetts, where they live with their three kids, Anne (10), Lachlan (8) and Alida (6). Dune reports, “Life is full, but good and the kids are growing quickly.” My old pal—and freshman year hallmate from Russell Sage—Michelyne Pinard also checked in recently. Michelyne has for several years been the women’s soccer coach at Williams College, and her impressive coaching resume includes not only winning a national championship in 2015 but also holding the distinction of having the all-time most coaching wins in women’s soccer at Williams. Michelyne recently added the title of assistant athletic director to the mix, and this coming February she will be adding a third daughter to the mix as well!

Moving westward, Ryan Gilfoil reported in recently from the Bay Area. Ryan and his wife welcomed their second child, daughter Jaya, last year. A former private practice lawyer at a large law firm, Ryan recently made the jump to in-house counsel at Amazon in Silicon Valley. Ryan bumps into none other than our class president Jo (Weingarten) Golub every now and then at Berkeley’s Little Farm. In addition, Ryan was kind enough to pass along an update chock-full of classmate news: “Alex Katz and his wife welcomed their second daughter, Brooke, in early 2014. Alex also recently took a new job as VP of business development at Opes Advisors, a wealth management firm near his home in Los Altos, California. Adrian Durbin and his wife, Claudia, were surprised with twins, Phoebe and Cassandra, in February 2015, bringing their brood to three, including 5-year-old Spencer. Not long after the family moved out of San Francisco to Orinda, in the East Bay. Adrian also started a new job leading the policy communications team at Lyft just a few months ago. David Mace and his wife, Sterling, welcomed their second son, Marshall, in 2014. Dave is a managing director at GI Partners, an investment firm in San Francisco.” Thanks so much for all the news, Ryan! 

Finally, I heard from Aaron Klein, who recently joined the Brookings Institution to, as he put it, “continue my work writing, researching and speaking on finance, regulation and infrastructure. I have been in the think tank world since leaving the U.S. Treasury Department, where I served the first term of the Obama administration as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy.” Aaron continues to live in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and two daughters. During the summer Aaron and family vacationed in New Hampshire with Ryan Broderick and his family, including, of course, a stop in Hanover to visit the College.

That’s all for now. Happy New Year to all and I look forward to checking in with more of you as we turn the page to 2017! My best.

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com
 

Hi there, ’98s. Rachel Federman recently finished up her master’s in English literature at Fordham University in New York. In addition to her coursework, Rachel has been busy conducting program evaluations for nonprofits, including Jazz at Lincoln Center. And in her free time, she has been writing. For those of you who missed Test Your Dog, you’ll soon be able to check out Rachel’s Test Your Baby and Test Your Toddler.

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960, jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s, after a fairly mild winter (at least up in the Northeast) we’ve now already turned the calendar to spring 2016. It’s hard to believe that pretty soon preparations will be well underway for our 20th reunion in June 2018. Where does the time go?

Unfortunately, classmate news has been a bit slow to trickle in so far in 2016. Nevertheless, I was happy to receive a note about Seth Abramson,who has recently published a new book titled Data. For those of you who didn’t already know, Seth has written several other award-winning books in the poetry field, and when he is not publishing he is an assistant professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. Prior to embarking on his present career, Seth was a public defender in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I would certainly encourage all of you to check him out online at sethabramson.net.

Moving on from the classmate news, allow me to ask: Are there any ‘98s out there who took part in this year’s 98th Day of Service on April 9 and 10? If so, we’d like to hear from you. Please send any information about what you did and where and I’ll try to get you a mention in the next Class Notes. Or even better, send the information and any photos to Kate Gold, our awesome ’98 newsletter editor, at kategold98@gmail.com, and she’ll get you a mention in the next class newsletter.

In addition, if I haven’t mentioned this before, please check out the class of 1998 Facebook page and the class website too, at http://1998.dartmouth.org. If I may be so bold, also please accept a quick reminder to pay class dues if you haven’t done so already. This can now be done via PayPal and there is a link directly on the class website. We sincerely thank those of you who already have paid dues for the 2015-16 fiscal year, and for those who haven’t had the chance yet, I would encourage you to at least consider doing so!

Finally, and as always, please email me, especially if you haven’t done so recently. I would love to hear from you and so would your classmates! So let me know what’s going on with you—personally, professionally or otherwise. Until next time….

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey, ’98s. I can’t believe that it’s time to turn the page on 2015 and that this is the last ’98 Class Notes of the year!

Kicking things off this month, Aimie (Cryer) Black and I had a nice exchange a few weeks ago. Aimie has been living in Austin, Texas, for the last 16 years or so (minus a single year in Boston). She and her husband, Jason, have two children, Ella and Ethan, and Aimie works for Dell SecureWorks.

In “better late than never” news, Peter Lanfer passed along news about the birth of his daughter, Hannah, back in December 2014—joining big brother Micah. So this can actually serve as a little one-year birthday wish for Peter’s daughter! Peter also had opportunity to return to Hanover last year for a visiting lectureship in the religion department, which gave him the chance to have a number of mini-reunions with some friends, including Chad Trexler, Steve Vogel, Alex Keally and Nicolle (Haneman) Keally, among others.

I also got a very long note from Erica Brandling-Bennett a couple of weeks back. Erica and her husband, Ron Gregush ’97, live in Seattle with their two children, Xander (5) and Zoe (3). Erica earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a subspecialty in neuropsychology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Then, after a postdoctoral training stint in L.A., Erica got a job as a clinical neuropsychologist in a neurology department at a medical center in the suburbs of Seattle, where she has now been for more than seven years! In addition to her very busy work and family life, Erica also makes time to hang with a number of other College alums, including a yearly trip with some fellow ’98 women. Participants in this trip have included Christine Alvarado, Candace (Cornell) Kristensson and Kathleen (Eibl) Steele. As Erica put it, if nothing else, it’s a great excuse “to get away from our kids for a weekend to eat great food and drink lots of wine in California wine country.”

Well, that’s all for this edition of the Class Notes—and for 2015. Happy holidays to you all, however you celebrate, and a happy New Year as well. Here’s hoping for a great 2016. And before I go, a quick plug: Please check out the class of 1998 Facebook page, if you’re so inclined. And also, check out the class website at http://1998.dartmouth.org. Among other things, you can pay your class dues (just look for the PayPal button on the right of the page) and check out the latest class newsletter and other news too. I encourage you all to check it out!

With that, I’ll remind you that, as always, please let me know what’s happening in your lives, personally, professionally or otherwise. As we all get closer to those big milestone birthdays—not to mention our 20th reunion—I hope there’s plenty more good news to share with our fellow ’98s.

Best wishes.

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hello, ’98s.

Kicking things off this month, congratulations are definitely in order for Steve Zrike Jr., who made headlines in the Massachusetts press earlier this summer for his appointment as the receiver for the Holyoke, Massachusetts, public school system. At the time of his appointment Steve was superintendent of the Wakefield, Massachusetts, public schools. Steve has had a long career focused on school improvement in both the Boston and Chicago areas, which makes him eminently qualified for this latest challenge. Here’s wishing Steve great success in his latest endeavor!

If you all are anything like me, the summer is a great opportunity to get together with old Dartmouth friends. I was recently thrilled to spend a couple of days in Philadelphia with Ben Cooperberg and his family. Ben, his wife and four children live outside of Philadelphia, where Ben is an endocrinologist and clinical assistant professor of medicine affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System. And just as this magazine is arriving in mailboxes, my family and I are looking forward to spending Labor Day weekend down in the Maryland-D.C. area with Jeff Giuffrida and his family. And back in June I had the pleasure of seeing Noah Schneiderman, Yuri Feldman, Jay Park and Steve Oh as we got together to reminisce about our dear friend and fellow ’98 David Pichler, who passed away way too soon, at the age of 34, back in 2011. As some of you may know a scholarship fund in David’s memory was established shortly after his passing that provides a yearly award of $5,000 to a deserving graduating student from Stuyvesant High School in New York (David’s alma mater) who is attending Dartmouth. The aforementioned gentlemen and I had the pleasure of meeting the 2015 winner of the scholarship award and presenting him with the check in a brief ceremony in New York. Incidentally, if anyone is interested in making a (fully tax deductible) contribution in David’s memory to his scholarship fund, please contact me at my email address below and I can get you further information.

And while we’re on the topic, I would encourage you to take a moment from time to time to think fondly not only of David but of the other ’98s who have passed away way too soon since our time together in Hanover, including Joe Nagraj and Nicole Wiley. While I try to use this space to share happy news as much as possible, I think this is also a good forum to remember our classmates who are gone but should never be forgotten.

With that I will bid everyone adieu for a few more weeks. Looking forward to hearing from as many of you as possible between now and this fall! Please send me a note with anything going on in your lives that you’d like to share (work, personal or otherwise) and I’d be happy to share it in this space!

—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com

Hey there, ’98s!


Let’s start things off in this Class Notes with an update from Elinor Actipis, who checked in a couple of months ago from the Mission District of San Francisco with an update chock full of ’98 news. Elinor admits that her area sometimes feels like “Dartmouth West.” For starters, she regularly runs into Eric Petit and his two girls in Dolores Park. In addition Michelle Kraemer, who works at Google, recently moved to town. Christine Cuoco, who works at Twitter, hails from New York City, but regularly visits San Francisco, as does Dorothy Hui, who is the vice president of marketing of Roc Nation. As for Elinor, she is married to Andrew Bender ’96 and they are busy chasing around their toddler, Otto, who is coming up on his second birthday shortly. When Elinor is not busy with her positions in publishing and online content, she is a California state council member for the Humane Society of the United States, which she encourages any animal enthusiasts to become involved with.


Elinor was also happy to report on her annual reunion with some other ’98s, which takes place every January, including Neeta (Raghavan) Vora, Kajal Jhaveri, Morning Washburn, Rachel Federman and Veena Shankaran.


Rodrego Byerly is celebrating his 10th anniversary with Shakari Byerly ’96 this May. After spending seven years in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rodrego and Shakari moved back to Los Angeles in mid-2014 so Shakari could begin work on a Ph.D. in political science (statistics) at UCLA. A few years ago they started Evitarus, a consulting firm that delivers strategic advisory services to corporate, political and public policy decision makers.


And, last but certainly not least, a big shout out to our ’98 class president Jo (Weingarten) Golub and husband Michael, who welcomed a baby girl, Orly Bea Golub, to the family, on January 27. Orly joins big sister Laila (2) in the Golub clan, which lives in Berkeley, California. I should also add that Jo is a partner at the law firm of Keker & Van Nest LLP. Congratulations, Jo!


Well, that’s it for now. As always, please let me know what’s happening in your life or the lives of other ’98s! Please join the ’98 Facebook page, please make sure we have your current email address and, if you haven’t already, please think about paying your ’98 class dues!


Until next time.


—Jeff Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com


Hi there, ’98s!


Well, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is upon us, and personally I am hoping this one is a mild one. For those of you in the Northeast, you may remember that the winter of 2013-14 was one for the record books, and not in a good way! Here’s to hoping that the 2014-15 winter has a little bit less snow!


On to the class news. Allison (Cuff) Shimooka and her husband, Scott ’95, are currently living in the South Bay Area of California with 3-year-old daughter Tabby. The Shimooka family has been in the area for the last two years, but plans are actually in the works to move back very soon to Washington, D.C., where Allison continues to work at the Advisory Board. In fact, she just celebrated her 10-year anniversary with the company—congratulations, Allison!


Allison also was happy to report on the recent exploits of Jess Ellsworth, who along with her husband, Adam, lives in Washington, D.C., with 2-year-old daughter Libby and brand-new son Brooks. Jess continues to work at the Hogan Lovells law firm, where she has been for a number of years.


I also had an opportunity to catch up with Tara (Bennett) Bristow a few weeks ago. Tara reports that her husband, Erik, recently began a new job, so Tara is presently splitting her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works for life sciences outreach at Harvard University, and Louisville, Kentucky, where Erik works for ADP. Tara says that they are enjoying weekends traveling the South with its great music and art scene; at the same time they are co-owners of a frame shop and art gallery in Massachusetts and they are always on the lookout “for new artists to feature.” Finally, Tara was happy to mention that she had the opportunity to spend some time this past summer on Cape Cod with Katy (Bieneman) Romita.


Please do not hesitate to let me know how you guys are doing either personally or professionally!


My best, as always.


—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com


Hi, ’98s!


As we wrap up summer, just a couple of quick notes to share with you all. First, a hearty congratulations to Etoile Pinder, who was married on April 12 to James Cercone on the remote and beautiful island of Eleuthera, Bahamas—this according to her good friend Laura (Jastrem) Walther ’99, who was kind enough to write with some details. Other Dartmouth ’98 attendees included Brent Boehlert, and there were some ’99s in attendance as well. According to Laura, the wedding took place on a pink sand beach before friends and family of the bride and groom from more than 32 different countries. Sounds like it was a wonderful celebration—congratulations, Etoile!


I also recently had the chance to trade notes with Lindsay Page, who has a book being published this fall on the “summer melt”—a phenomenon where many students, particularly those from lower-income backgrounds, who graduate from high school planning to attend college never actually matriculate. Lindsay and her husband, Brad Molyneaux, recently decamped from the Boston area (after more than a decade) and now make their home in Pittsburgh. Lindsay is a faculty member at the Pitt School of Education, and Brad runs a research lab and is a neuro-critical care physician at Pitt. Brad and Lindsay have two children, Nora (6) and Caleb (2), and Lindsay told me that after arriving in Pittsburgh they were delighted to find out they had moved into a neighborhood with quite a few other Dartmouth alumni!


And that, as they say, is that! Please keep those updates coming. I am always absolutely thrilled to be able to pass along any personal or professional news that you or any of our classmates may have to share!


My best, as always.


—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com


Hi, ’98s! It’s been a busy few months and it’s been wonderful to hear from so many of our classmates about what they’ve been up to.
To start things off, my law school classmate Adam Siegel checked in from Washington, D.C., where he just recently joined the National Parks Conservation Association as associate general counsel. Adam and his wife, Rachel, also welcomed the birth of their second daughter, Evie, this past May. Speaking of new additions to families, Jamie Bedrin and her husband, Scott, welcomed their second boy, Owen, this past July.
Kara (Josephberg) Paldino was in my neck of the woods (the New York area) back in August, when she caught up with a number of fellow ’98s, including Ali (Jacoby) Abrahms, Susanna McFadden, Angela Scott and Kate Nugent. Kara also had the pleasure of catching up with Katie (Malone) Weiss and Kate (Knaus) Galston earlier this year on a work trip to Los Angeles. When not traveling, Kara lives in Miami with her husband and children Livia and Jackson and works as vice president of production legal for NBC Universal Cable Entertainment. And Kara was hardly the only ’98 getting together with classmates. Molli (Hamermesh) Hourihan recently wrote to share her wonderful experience renting a house for a few days this past summer in Naragansett, Rhode Island, with Katy (Bieneman) Romita and Jamie (Udler) Koplan along with their respective families, including six kids among them! Molli, who lives in Southport, Connecticut, was happy to report that Katy has recently moved closer to her, as Katy now resides in Westchester County, New York.
Doug Young also dropped a note to say hi from his job as director of communications and development for the Lower Merion (Pennsylvania) School District. While Doug had a pretty busy 2012—including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and accompanying some students on a trip building a school in Haiti—2013 has been relatively quieter. Doug spends a few weeks each summer in California helping to run the Kobe Bryant Basketball Academy and recently told me he has just been “enjoying life and keeping busy.” Also keeping busy has been Gabe Galletti. When I checked in with Gabe a couple of months ago he was nearing the tail end of a six-month sabbatical from his job as an attorney at Bernstein Liebhard in New York, and he and his wife (who also took a sabbatical) were traveling through and volunteering in Asia. Among the places Gabe and his wife saw were Bangladesh, Burma, Indonesia and Vietnam. Gabe said the entire experience was a “dream come true.”
Last but certainly not least, I had the great pleasure of catching up with fellow fall of 1994 Russell Sage resident Michelyne Pinard, who checked in from Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she is in her 11th season as the head coach of women’s soccer at Williams College. Micheylne and her partner, Dave Johnson, have two girls, Elle (age 2 1/2 years) and Maeve (9 months).
That’s the latest and greatest. From my family (including my two sons Charlie and Simon) to yours—a very happy holidays and a happy New Year to everyone! Here’s hoping for a great 2014 for everyone in the class of 1998. As always, please send me any news or updates; your fellow ’98s are out there doing great things—let’s get the word out!
—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; (973) 267-6914; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com



Happy New Year, ’98s! I hope that you’re weathering this winter well. You should think about heading to campus for Winter Carnival!


Back in the old year I flew up to Montreal for what must have been the best Canadian wedding ever. On October 11, 2009, our very own Alex Reitman married Mr. Jesse Brown of London. Oodles of Dartmouth folk flocked to Montreal to attend what ended up being one very international wedding, with folks from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and plenty of other places. In attendance from the Big Green were Susanna McFadden; Angela Scott; Jen Moeller and Chris Pennock ’97; Tara McDowell; Jen Jones ’97; Suzanne Michels Obenshain and her husband, Andrew ’96; Kara Josephberg Paldino and her husband, Chris; Graham Gallivan; Maya Lodish and Jay Zimmerman; John Fernquest and Vanessa Berberian Fernquest ’99; Arvidas Remeza; Claire Heleniak Jeffers ’99; Michael Golub ’03; Alan Rottenberg ’66; and proud dad Jeremy Reitman ’66. We feasted and danced and it was a fantastic mini-reunion. Congrats to Alex and Jesse!


I also heard from Anil Doshi, our fearless class president! Anil has just started the doctoral program at Harvard Business School in technology and operations management, which should be a great and fun challenge. Anil also reported that Sharat Raghavan and his wife, Karen ’99, had their second child, named Nithin, in September. Congratulations, guys!


Anil also alerted me to the goings-on of our classmate Scott Listfield, who is living in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his wife, Joanna, and is working as an artist. You can check out Scott’s paintings at www.astronautdinosaur. com. Also, Scott’s painting Waiting Dangerously in Rio is being sold as a limited edition print on 20x200.com, which is really exciting because the site has a great roster of artists on it. Scott has had a bunch of shows at galleries, including most recently at Los Angeles’ Kinsey/DesForges gallery in September 2009. He’s also been featured in Wired magazine and the Boston Globe. Congrats on the success, Scott! Everyone check out Scott’s fantastic work on his Web site!


I hope you all have a happy, exciting, success-filled 2010! I can’t wait to hear about all your big and small news, so keep writing in!


—Jo Weingarten Golub, 93 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Happy spring, ’98s, and happy spring skiing! I hope you’re all getting out and enjoying what your cities and towns have to offer you!


I recently heard from Kate Armstrong Hansen, who was writing from Chicago to let us know that she and her husband, Kent, welcomed twin daughters Lorelei and Stephanie into the world on May 28, 2009. Kate says, “They are wonderful babies and growing more active each month. I decided to leave my job at Google to be a stay-at-home mom and enjoy having this time with the girls. We also moved from Lincoln Park to the Chicago suburb of Northfield when the girls were a month old. Needless to say it has been a busy time for us, but we are loving family life.” Congratulations, Kate and Kent! We can’t wait to meet the girls at the next reunion!


Jason Docheff also checked in. Jason is working as a career, resume and school admissions consultant. You can check out his business at www.jasondocheff.com. Thanks for the update, Jason!


That’s the word in ’98 news for this update. Please write in with more news about your lives and those of the other ’98s! And have a great spring!


—Jo Weingarten Golub, 93 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Greetings, ’98s! I hope you’re all having great summers, including some fun vacations! 


In ’98 news we have more and more reports of new additions to our class family. Kara Josephberg Paldino and her husband, Chris, “received the best holiday gift” when their adorable, gorgeous and very smart daughter Livia Neve Paldino arrived on December 19, 2009. The Paldinos live in Miami Beach, Florida, where Kara is a television production attorney for Bravo. Congrats, Kara and Chris!


I also heard from Meg Blakey Lyons, who reported that she and her husband, Matt, welcomed their second child, Noah Thomas Lyons, on April 9. The Lyons family live in London, where Meg has been for the past nine years. Meg is currently on leave from her role as a training manager at a financial services software company. She reports that her “older son Blake, who is 2, is enjoying his little brother so far and has been very helpful and curious about the new arrival.” Meg wants you to get in touch if you’re in London! Congratulations, Meg! 


And, finally, I also got a report about our classmate Stephen Zrike, who has been named principal of one of Boston’s public schools, as part of the federal government’s new Race for the Top education initiative. Boston’s superintendent of schools named Stephen and other leaders as new principals for several underperforming Boston schools, in a massive effort to turn these schools around. It sounds like Stephen’s got a big job cut out for him, but congratulations, Stephen! What an honor, and how exciting! You’ll have to report in and let us know how it goes.


Have a great rest of the summer, folks! Write in with news, practice your Salty Dog for old time’s sake and I’ll check in again in the fall. 


—Jo Weingarten Golub, 93 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


The holiday season is coming up, and it seems like our class has lots to be thankful for this year! Thanks to everyone for getting in touch with news—keep it coming!


We have a few new members of our ’98 family to announce! First up, Marisa Howe and Kyle Marchesseault ’99 welcomed their second child, Tyler (9 pounds, 11 ounces), on July 7. Marisa and Kyle’s daughter Eleanor, who’s 3 1/2, is being an awesome big sister. Marisa is working as an immigration attorney in Boston, and Kyle is working for the corporate office of Staples in marketing. Their clan is living in Newton, Massachusetts, these days. Congrats, you guys! 


Dan O’Neill and his wife, Liam, also had a baby boy, on July 28. New son Carter (8 pounds, 15 ounces) joins big brother Kellen to make this a family of four. Dan is a lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in N.Y.C. and the fam just moved out to his hometown of Pelham, New York. And this is where it gets kind of awesome: He ran into fellow ’98 Danielle Guthrie Johnson at their new neighborhood block party—and she and her family live only a few houses away! Nice touch, I think. Congratulations to the O’Neills, and “hi” to the Johnsons! Next up for our growing family: Becky Rottenberg Goldman and her husband, Mattis, welcomed Judah Samuel Goldman into the world on August 11! Becky and Mattis just moved back to D.C. after a couple of years in L.A. Congrats on the new addition, Becky, and on the big move!


Finally, I also heard from Rachel Federman, who wrote in with some great news. Rachel has a new blog for you guys to check out: hers! The URL is http://lastamericanchildhood.blogspot.com. Rachel reports that the blog covers “the bizarro world of the stay-at-home-mom scene and trying to squeeze in a freelance writing career.” Rachel’s been doing program design for nonprofits, as well as writing “various little books on things like Jell-o shots and music trivia.” In fact, she reports that, “The Spanish insults book I collaborated on should be in Urban Outfitters soon—pen name Rachel Perez because editor wanted it to sound more authentic. Ha!” Rachel would love comments and thoughts from her classmates, so check out the blog and see for yourself!


—Jo Weingarten Golub, 93 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Hi, ’98s! To kick things off for 2014 Sara (Tullis) Wester checked in from Florida. Sara, her husband, Forest Wester, and their daughters Drennen and Ellie recently moved to a new house in Key Biscayne. Sara said she and Forest have greatly enjoyed spending time with Kara (Josephberg) Paldino and her husband, Chris, who themselves recently moved into a new condo on Miami Beach. Sara is an oculoplastic surgeon at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Florida and Forest is a partner at Trivest Partners.


A bit further across the girdled earth, Katie Milligan checked in from Geneva, Switzerland, where she has lived for the past eight years. Katie and her husband welcomed their third child, Gabriel, this past October 7, joining big brother George (age 5) and big sister Maya (age 3). Katie is the director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the sister organization of the World Economic Forum. If you are aware of outstanding social enterprises to nominate into the Schwab Foundation network or if you are simply passing through Geneva for personal or professional reasons, Katie invites you to shoot her a note at katherine.milligan@schwabfound.org.


I also recently had the pleasure of trading emails with Christopher Swift, who spends his days practicing international law at Foley & Lardner in Washington, D.C., and his nights teaching national security studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he is an adjunct professor. Besides the research and his law practice, Chris is also active with the Council on Foreign Relations and has appeared as a guest analyst for Al Jazeera, the BBC, NPR and other major news networks. Chris’s forthcoming book, The Fighting Vanguard: Local Insurgencies in the Global Jihad, draws upon his fieldwork in Afghanistan, Yemen and other “conflict zones” to re-examine the role of local insurgencies in al-Qaeda’s global operations.


Also hailing from the D.C. area is Kristen Hinman, who, along with her husband, Tim Embree, has lived in the nation’s capital since 2011. After two years of editing politics and policy coverage at Bloomberg Businessweek, Kristen left the magazine in November 2013 to become the features editors of the Washingtonian, a well-regarded monthly magazine where she told me she is looking forward to building on the momentum the magazine has recently garnered.


That’s all for this month. Please continue to send me any news or updates. As I have said before, our fellow ’98s are out there doing great things—let’s get the word out! 


—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; (973) 267-6914; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com


Greetings, ’98s! It was wonderful to see so many of you in Hanover the weekend of June 14-16! It is still hard to believe that that was our 15th reunion—where has the time gone? But the reunion was an absolute blast! We had 252 total adults in attendance for our class, and a whopping 134 kids as well. It was so fantastic to see everyone! And, as always, so nice to see our friends in the ’97 and ’99 classes as well. We had absolutely amazing weather (especially amazing given our track record). We had a beautiful dinner catered by the inn on Saturday night down by the river. We had breakfasts catered by Lou’s. There was a lovely memorial service for the classmates who have passed. There was a chaotic, awesome lunch in Leverone with bouncy castles for the kids. And the College put on this fantastic day and night of performances, circus and fireworks on the Green. Not to mention that our tent was obviously the place to be (and the tent with the best bar)!


Thanks to Kate Gold and Javier Garcia for spearheading the reunion effort and for making such a wonderful weekend for us all!


We had a changing of the guard at the reunion. Joan Ai finished her term as vice president, Rachel Drew finished her term as treasurer and I finished my term as secretary. Thank you to Joan and Rachel for the amazing work they did!


The class’s new vice president is Rodrego Byerly, the new treasurer is Stu Davidson and the new secretary is Jeff Beyer. So this is my final column, and from now on you’ll be hearing from Jeff and should send him all your news. And, finally, I’m staying on as president. Thanks to all the new officers. I’m looking forward to the next five years!


We are still in the process of finalizing the executive committee and other appointed posts, so please get in touch with me or with one of the other officers if you’d like to be a part of the class leadership. We would love to have you! And don’t forget to send us your reunion pictures, or post them to our Facebook page!


Finally, thanks for sending me news for the past five years. It’s been fun keeping up with everyone, and I look forward to reading much more about you in the upcoming issues of the magazine!


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


I heard from Nita Farahany, who’s an associate professor of law and philosophy at Vanderbilt Law School and a visiting professor at Stanford Law School through 2011. She says, “I love the Bay Area and have fallen in love with the gorgeous weather, amazing views and hiking around here.” In April 2010 Nita was also appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission on the Study of Bioethical Issues. Congrats, Nita! And let it be known that we Bay Area folks are going to win you away from Vanderbilt permanently!


We can also welcome four members of the class of 2032 to our family! 


David Reynolds ’96 and Lisa Core Reynolds welcomed Wyatt Cameron Reynolds a few days late, on Father’s Day, June 19. Lisa reports, “He thoughtfully delayed his arrival to allow the Boston Bruins to win the Stanley Cup without interruption (important when Mom and Dad are serious hockey fans). David and I even went to the victory parade on Saturday morning, and by Saturday evening I was in labor at our local Greek restaurant with my mother-in-law eagerly timing my contractions!” Lisa’s family lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Lisa has been working as an assistant district attorney in Essex County for the last three and a half years, currently as the firearms prosecutor. But she spent the summer enjoying her “well-timed summertime maternity leave.” Lisa and David “are enjoying adjusting to parenthood and are completely in awe of our baby boy. There’s no doubt that he’s the best thing that either of us has ever done. Wyatt is a champion eater and would give Joey Chestnut a run for his money in the milk category. I can’t bear the thought of the day, 18 years from now, that we send him off to Hanover.”


Wyatt’s future classmate Roque David Coelho is Carrie Spring and Camilo Coelho’s new son. Carrie reports that she and Camilo, who live in San Francisco, are “both teachers, so it was mighty thoughtful of our baby to get here on June 12, right after we turned in end-of-year grades, so we could maximize our summer together. We’re enjoying introducing Roque to our people and love the visits and support we’ve gotten from Barb Wentworth ’97, Tara McDowell and Graham Gallivan.” 


Future ’32 Anna Bates is Justin and Aimee Whitenack Bates’s baby girl, born April 12. Aimee writes, “It’s been quite a year! Last June we were back East to get married in my parents’ back yard (many Dartmouth friends traveled to celebrate with us) and this June we’re back so our daughter Anna can meet everyone!” Aimee and Justin both teach at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California. Aimee also reports, “Jenny Karlen Elliott and her family lived right down the hall for two years but moved back East for the 2010-11 school year.” 


Which leads me to James Elliott! His mom, Jenny, reports, “Our life is busy! A little chaotic and crazy at times, but we feel super blessed and lucky.” James was born May 17 and joined his big brothers Sam (7 1/2), Peter (5 1/2) and George (3 1/2). “We even have a male dog!” Jenny says. “This winter we got three female fish (according to me—Petco could not confirm!) to create a little more balance in our house.” Jenny is now teaching in the history department at Phillips Andover, Massachusetts, and says the family is “loving living on campus near our Boston friends and my family in the area.” As Aimee said, “we’re looking forward to a James-Anna wedding in a couple of decades.” You heard it here first! 


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


We’re having a twin boom in the ’98 class! I heard from Tracy Van Dorpe in July. She and her husband, Phil Drapeau, Tu’05, welcomed twin boys in September 2010. Tracy says, “It’s hard to believe that Henry and John are almost a year already. They both started walking (literally, toddling) in the past few weeks so we’re adjusting to their new mobility.” Tracy, Phil and the boys live in Somerville, Massachusetts. Tracy is on leave from her position as a fundraiser at Harvard, where one of her job perks is working regularly with Nancy Fopiano Conroy. Tracy also reports that her freshman-year roommate Bethany Edstrom has come to visit a few times since the twins’ birth. Bethany teaches English at a Catholic secondary school in Connecticut.


Abby Smith and Dave Hoverman welcomed identical twin boys, Roby and Eli, in May. The twins’ big sisters Sarah Jane and Anna turned 4 and 2, respectively, in August, so Abby and Dave spent several months in “four under 4 land,” as Abby called it, “which has been somewhat insane,” she says. They live in Berkeley, California, and Abby and Dave are consultants in San Francisco—Abby at Bain and Dave at Parthenon. 


And Mark and Kirby Grabowski had twin girls Julia Claire (6 pounds, 11 ounces) and Sylvie Jean (6 pounds, 1 ounce) in June. Kirby says, “Big for twins (as was I)!” The twins also have a big brother, Linus, who is 2 1/2. Mark works at Catterton Partners, a private equity firm in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Kirby is a professor of applied linguistics and a teacher of English to speakers of other languages at Teachers College, Columbia University. Kirby reports, “Like most ’98s we lead very busy lives, but we feel blessed each and every day.”


I also heard from Adam Siegel and his wife, Rachel, that they celebrated the birth of their first child, Clara Violet, on March 11. The Siegels live in Washington, D.C., where Adam practices environmental law at Hogan Lovells and Rachel works as a policy analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Welcome to the ’98 family, Clara!


And finally, this December Andy Smith and his wife, Sara ’03, will be moving to Guatemala for two years to volunteer at Hospitalito Atitlan, with their 18-month-old daughter Rosie in tow! The hospital is located in Santiago Atitlan on the banks of picturesque Lake Atitlan.


Andy writes, “As the largest Mayan community in Central America, Santiago Atitlan is a place where the indigenous Tz’utuhil language and culture still flourish despite increasing influences from the outside world. Victimized during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, the indigenous Mayan people continue to strive for basic human and economic rights. As the only hospital within two hours, Hospitalito Atitlan serves a crucial role for the health of the community. It is a locally run nongovernmental organization that depends heavily on long-term international volunteers to provide a substantial portion of the medical care. Sara and I spent a month in Atitlan in 2006, had the opportunity to work at Hospitalito Atitlan for two exciting weeks and always dreamed of returning for a long-term stint. I will be volunteering as a staff physician. Sara will be volunteering with the maternal-infant program. We hope Rosie will be making some Mayan friends and learning some Tz’utuhil. To learn more about Hospitalito Atitlan and our mission or to help support our work, visit our website, www.smithsinsantiago.com. We’d appreciate any advice on potential sources of funding available for long-term international medical and service work. Dartmouth visitors or volunteers are welcome anytime!” Thanks for giving us the scoop, Andy, and good luck with your amazing adventure!


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Mary Hollendoner reports that she and her husband, John Stanfield, had a beautiful baby girl last July named Lillian after Mary’s grandmother. Mary says, “I was lucky enough to get six months off from work to spend with her which was great, but now I am back at work (at Google). We got to take her on a few trips to Yosemite (our favorite place) as well as to Washington (where my husband is from) and Costa Rica during Christmas time. We are really enjoying our time with her and are eager for her to start running around playing with us!” Mary and John met when they were both living and working in Yosemite, California, and now they live in Mountain View, California. Congratulations, guys!


Also in the Bay Area, Carrie Langsdorf Weinstein and her husband, Drew, welcomed baby Theodore Myers Weinstein on November 7, 2011. “Seven pounds, one ounce of perfection!” Carrie, Drew, baby Teddy and big brother Charlie live in San Francisco. Congratulations, Carrie! 


Peter Lanfer and his wife, Sarah, welcomed son Micah Emmanuel Lanfer on January 18. Micah weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Pete reports that everyone’s doing great. The Lanfers live in Los Angeles. Pete will be returning to Dartmouth to teach this spring and will be doing the bicoastal commute to visit Sarah and Micah. Not only that, Pete expects his first book to be coming out with Oxford University Press in July! Busy guy! Pete, don’t forget to give us all the details when the book is published. Congrats!


Ginger Kreitler Pingree, her husband, Brennen, and big brother Bear celebrated the birth of Hawken Kreitler Pingree on February 24. Hawken was 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and 20 inches long. Congratulations to the Pingrees!


I also heard from Roger Griesmeyer, who read the last column and “was inspired to write in after a busy year.” (I love hearing that!) Roger married Lindsay McGrath on September 10, 2011, at Stratton Mountain, Vermont. Pankaj Gupta and his wife were even there when Roger popped the question! Lindsay does business development for Shearman & Sterling in New York and Roger works at the law firm he formed in Manhattan in 2008 after leaving Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. His firm, the LaSasso Griesmeyer Law Group PLLC, has grown from two lawyers to 10, and Roger says they run into Dartmouth folks all the time. “Just pitched an ’88 at his private equity fund a couple weeks ago! We offer special rates for Dartmouth alums, so all are welcome.”


Tons of Dartmouth folk attended Roger and Lindsay’s wedding, even in spite of nine babies being born to their Dartmouth friends within a couple months of the wedding! The wedding party included Pankaj Gupta, Brian Mosley, Charlie Fiordalis, and Josh Oberman ’99. Roger wrote, “Since I gave the toast at all three of the ’98 weddings, you can only imagine what the rehearsal dinner and wedding party were like. There were definitely some Dartmouth and Chi Gam traditions observed and I think we did the College proud (or, as proud as a bunch of mid-30s can do these days).” Other ’98s in attendance included “Wes Maclaggan (who recently had first child Charlotte), Spiros Maliagros (who just had his third child, son Leo), Brian Wachob (who just had his second son, Aaron), John Maldonado, Eric Walania, R. Gregory Webster, Chris Ott, Hugh Pfabe and Dave Ellingrud.” And that doesn’t even list all the folks from other classes! Thanks for all the news, Roger, and congratulations on everything!


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Greetings, ’98s! Our reunion is fast approaching and the reunion committee is spending a ton of time putting together all the activities and plans for the big weekend! We hope you’ve got June 14-16 on your calendar and are planning on being there! 


A letter went out in the late fall with lots of information for reunion. If you did not receive it, please contact me so that we can make sure the right address is on file with the class and with Dartmouth! We want all of you to have the information you need to join us on the Green!


In this month’s news I heard from Jojo Blaxall Longnecker. Jojo and her husband, Jeff, welcomed their third child, Edward John Longnecker, on October 4, 2012. Big sister Eve (4.5) and big brother George (3) are very excited! Jojo and her family have been living in Boston for the last 15 years, and she’s looking forward to seeing everyone at reunion in June!


I also heard from Shannon Laughlin-Tommaso, whogot married last year to Chris Tommaso in Chicago. Classmate (and former roommate) Elizabeth Magner joined in the festivities. And on October 30, 2012, Shannon and Chris welcomed their little girl Ella Kathleen (who shares her birthday with her dad). Shannon is currently working at Mayo Clinic, and she reports that the family is enjoying life in Minnesota!


Thanks for the news, ladies! Members of ’98, please keep sending in news, and plan on being in Hanover in June! If you have even a little time and would like to help out with the planning, please contact me and I’ll get you in touch with the right people. See you soon!


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Hey, ’98s! I hope that the winter’s been treating you well and that the approaching spring brings all kinds of good things! Speaking of which, here are a few good things I’ve heard from our classmates:


In our most recent news, Kelley Moohr Kinney and her husband, Aaron, welcomed their new baby boy, Pierce, on November 9, 2010. The Kinney family lives in San Francisco and Kelley is a brand-new partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she practices in the litigation and securities litigation departments. Congratulations on everything, Kelley! That’s a pretty great way to start 2011—as a new partner and new mom!


I also got an update from Sara Tullis Wester and Forest Wester, who report that they live in Miami and just had their second child, Ellie, in June 2010. Their oldest, Drennen, turned 2 in September. Sara is an oculoplastic surgeon at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami and Forest is a principal at Trivest Partners, a leveraged buyout firm in Miami. 


Sara and Forest often see Kara Josephberg Paldino and her husband, Chris, who live nearby. They’ve also gotten visits from Danielle Guthrie Johnson, her husband Teddy ’94, and their two boys Teddy and Charlie; and from Lisa Zeytoonjian Glenn, her husband, Rich, and their two girls Olive and Callie. 


Sara and Forest also get to see Dune Thorne and Neville McCaghren a bunch because they often visit Florida to see family. Sara reports that Dune and Neville just welcomed their third baby in June 2010, too! Congratulations, Dune and Neville! And thanks for all the news, Sara!


Have a great spring, everyone, and please write n with all your exciting news!


—Jo Weingarten Golub, 93 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Erin Wright and her husband, Eric Pilotte ’95, welcomed baby Andrew George on October 19. Andrew “is absolutely adored by his big sister Caroline (who shares a birthday with Betsy Lewis’ baby girl Paige, by the way).” Erin and her family live in Benicia, California, where Erin is a veterinarian and Eric is looking for a position as an elementary school teacher. 


C.J. Gelinas and his wife, Lauren, had their first child, Livia Ann Gelinas, on March 8. Livia was 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and 20 inches long at birth. C.J. says that Livia’s name was inspired by “the excellent classics education I received from our friends in Reed Hall!” The Gelinas family lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. C.J. is a counsel in the capital markets group at SNR Denton US LLP, and an adjunct professor at the financial services LL.M. program at New York Law School. 


Carter Jackson and his wife, Sarah Kate, welcomed baby girl Sofie Beatrice Jackson on March 15th. The Jacksons “are living out in Brooklyn, New York, and are busy with our new lives as parents of Sofie and the theater group we launched in 2011, d.i.r.t. company. After a wildly successful season of staged short-play readings at the Players Club last fall (called DIRTy SHORTs), 2012 is off-to a great start, with one of our plays from the readings making it into the finals of the 18th Annual American Globe Fifteen Minute Play Festival. (Support for our semifinal performance included fellow ’98 and N.Y.C. theater heavyweight Kyle Ancowitz).”


Tanner Morris Van Dusen and her husband, Edwin, welcomed Tate Alburn Van Dusen, who arrived a few days late on March 28. Tanner reports that Tate “weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds, 2 ounces. He has been a total joy and we are all slowly adjusting to life as a family of four. Max is thoroughly enjoying his new ‘big brother’ status and is very grateful that Tate did not arrive on his actual due date (the 26th), which happened to also be Max’s third birthday. I’m sure there will be plenty of years of joint birthday parties but at least each boy has his own day.” The family recently moved from Chicago to the suburb of Lake Forest. She says, “It’s been wonderful to have my family nearby and we are enjoying life in the burbs but certainly miss the hustle and bustle of city life (not to mention takeout).” Tanner also recently incorporated her own business, where she does freelance consulting work in market research and strategy. “It’s been a great (but busy) balance of work and mommyhood.”


Kara Josephberg Paldino and her husband, Chris, welcomed Jackson Miles Paldino to the world on March 29. Jackson was 6 pounds and 14 ounces and 19 inches long. Kara reports, “Big sister Livia is thrilled and loving him! We also just bought a new house in Miami Beach so are now officially Floridians. I am still working as a production lawyer for Bravo’s unscripted programming.”


Sara Lewandowski Proulx and her husband, Scott, welcomed Brendan Leo Proulx on April 12. Brendan—who weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces and was 21 inches long—joins big brother Ryan, who is just 18 months old, “so we have our hands full!” Sara says. The Proulx family lives in Rye, New York. And Sara reports that she’s “still working at Brown Brothers (going on 13 years now!) but enjoying a summer vacation of maternity leave.”


Congratulations, everyone! Please keep sending in news and be on the lookout for a mini-reunion near you in the summer of 2012!


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com


Happy New Year, 1998s! The year ahead is a big one for us, with our reunion coming up June 14-16 back on campus! Stay tuned for news about reunion and multiple mini-reunion events that will be happening around the country!


—Jo Golub, 851 Indian Rock Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707; jgolub@kvn.com