Class of 2016

Josh Ruder writes: “I exhibited my sculpture this fall at two independent schools: a solo show at Deerfield Academy in Western Massachusetts and a sculpture and stone bench at the Pingree School north of Boston. Several Brown alums, including my mom, Debra Bradley Ruder ’80, attended the shows. I work mainly in carved marble and welded steel but love to experiment with other materials too. Please check out my website at joshuaruder.com or contact me at joshua.ruder@gmail.com.”

Cofounder of BestFit Asha Owens ’16 is one of the recipients of this year’s Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. She was one of 50 selected for the program, which is focused on high potential startups from Black entrepreneurs based in the U.S. BestFit is an early-stage startup addressing basic-needs insecurity among college students.

Maxine Joselow ’16 will anchor the Washington Post’s forthcoming daily newsletter, The Climate 202, covering the politics and policy of climate change, with a particular focus on what Washington decision-makers need to know. She joins the Washington Post from E&E News and has extensive experience covering the intersection of climate change, transportation policy, and environmental law. She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Press Club.

Natasha Rao was selected as a 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow by the Poetry Foundation as part of its annual Pegasus Awards.

Janet Leung ’16 earned a Bronze medal in women’s softball with Team Canada in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Other Brown Bears competing included Hanna Barakat ’21 of Team Palestine in track and field; Jagger Stephens ’20 represented Guam in swimming; and Cicely Madden ’18, Alex Miklasevich ’19, and Anders Weiss ’15 competed for Team USA in rowing events.

Bee Vang published an op-ed on NBC News THINK about the recent spike in anti-Asian hate attacks and his experience as a child playing the lead role in Gran Torino, a film directed by Clint Eastwood that featured copious anti-Asian slurs. He has since been interviewed by Ana Cabrera on CNN Newsroom and given an interview on CBC and the University of Michigan. He also spoke at Harvard University and at the Commonwealth Club in California in which he was joined by CNN journalist Soledad O’Brien, physicist Michio Kaku, and former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner. 

Eleanor Walsh and Blake Wilcox ’16 were married on June 13 at Eleanor’s parents’ house in her hometown of Lancaster, Pa. The ceremony was very small, with fellow Brunonians Spencer Caplan ’15, Jenna Frerichs ’16, and Willa Tracy ’18, ’19 AM, included in the wedding party. A larger first anniversary celebration is planned for June 2022.

Evan McManamy helps run a donation-based grocery delivery nonprofit in Providence. Contact Evan at cartwheelRI.org.

Patrick Cox married his Perkins sweetheart, Nicole Peterson, on Aug. 2, in Brooklyn, N.Y. They were delighted to have several classmates attend, including his brother, Alex Cox ’08, and Jimmy “Sprinkles” Besancon ’15 ScM, Brian Drake, Richard Mosesso, Mariana Munera ’16, Jane Park ’15, Lena Parker-Duncan, Elizabeth Ruben ’16 MD, Sylvia Tomayko-Peters, Andrea Wister, and Sabrina Yu ’15.

Nancy Holt writes: “At Brown I studied and received a bachelor of arts in biology. After Brown, I joined the Peace Corps and served for two years as an education volunteer in Nampula, Mozambique. I taught eighth and ninth grade chemistry. Since finishing my service last November, I have returned home to Woodstock, Maryland. I have been doing data entry work for a small minority owned business, while applying to graduate school. I am happy to say that I was accepted into the Masters of Education Program at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Additionally, I received a Robert Noyce Teachers Scholarship through the National Science Foundation. This fall, I will be teaching eighth grade science at an elementary/middle school in Phoenix, Arizona. I’ll be part of a ten-student cohort, and we will teach at our schools during the day and take classes in the evenings. Our program will be completed in August 2020 and we will receive our master’s degrees along with Arizona state certification. After completing the program, Noyce Scholars are required to teach at a Title I school for two years.” Contact Nancy at (410) 979-3169; holt.nancye@gmail.com.

Elina Pliakos writes: “I started medical school in Chicago. Since my sophomore year of college I had been working with Dr. Mylonakis, who is the chief of infectious disease at Rhode Island Hospital. I have co-authored several papers with him. Last year we published three cost-effectiveness studies on which I am first author. The last one got approved by the journal Chest; it discusses how using corticosteroids in addition to antibiotics for the treatment of pneumonia can result in significant savings for U.S. hospitals. The other two cover rapid diagnostics for sepsis and antimicrobial locks for infection prevention and were published in 2017 in Clinical Microbiology Reviews and Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Nate Wardwell married Jared Misner in November. Adam Katz officiated, while Joshua Linden and Timothy Parsons ’15 ScM were groomsmen. Also in attendance were Brook Achterhof ’15; Duane Barksdale ’17 Jeffrey Baum ’15; Natalie Diacovo; Drew Hansen ’15; Margaret Hanson; Dara Illowsky; Ryan Joudeh ’16, ’17 AM; Raghava Kamalesh; Russyan Mabeza ’15; Noah Prestwich; Derek Shay ’16; and Ben Simon ’11,’12 ScM.

Francesca Whitehead ’16 and Alex Wiener ’16 were part of a team that won second place at the 2018 Goldman Sachs Gives Analyst Impact Fund Competition, in which teams of analysts pitch nonprofits that they believe will use a Goldman Sachs grant most effectively. They secured a $75,000 grant for New Story, a Silicon Valley-based charity that combats homelessness with innovative building techniques like 3D-printed homes.

Joy Chua-Schwartz ’10 writes: “My husband, Corey Schwartz ’11, and I got married in Big Sur, California, in June, with a spectacular showing of Brown alums. Our wedding was officiated by Graham Rogers ’11, and among the wedding party were Cristina Botero ’10, Anne Francois-Poncet ’10, Jordana Fribourg ’10, and Thea Jacinto Ugarte (RISD ’10). Alumni in attendance included Alexis Anselin ’10, Sam Arnow ’13, Lena Gaviria ’12, George George ’10, Frannie Hannan ’10, Isabelle Lubin ’16, Max Lubin ’12, Melanie Masarin ’12, Cyrus Mojdehi ’13, Isabella Morton ’10, Isabel Lopez Polanco ’10, Marie Poyet ’10, Jillian Ressler ’10, Mohammad Saigol ’11, Danielle Sheridan ’10, Adriana Urruela ’10, and Sibel Yalman ’10. It was a spectacular day and we couldn’t be more grateful to Brown for being the place where we met.”

Claire Kim ’16 MAT and Bianca Camacho ’16 are getting married. Claire writes: “Shout out to BUDS and the Blue Room, where we met and worked together.”

Richard Bower writes: “My granddaughter Emily Maenner ’16 makes the fourth generation of Brown alums in the family. My brother Jim Bower ’60 still lives adjacent to the campus. My daughter Sally Maenner ’84 is an active interviewer for Brown in the Minneapolis area. Ever true.”

Emily Maenner (see Richard Bower ’56).

Mary Raho Julian writes: “The Brown Bear was well represented at the wedding of our daughter, Sarah J. Julian ’12, to Keith Duffy ’12. Not only were there many of their classmates at the event, but the classes of 2016 and 2020 also had representation with our sons, Peter Julian ’16 and Chris Julian ’20, and our good friend Heather Cady ’86. The bear showed up on Sarah and Keith’s cake topper, their monogram, their signature drink (el Osso), and in some of their floral décor. It was great seeing so many fellow Brunonians in celebration. Ever True!”