Class of 2021

Jeffrey M. Bloom writes: “Hats off to Newell Maynard Stultz, professor emeritus of political science at Brown, who continues to demonstrate insight into the machinations of divided societies and who, in early February of 2022, explained to me how since 2015 it’s been clear that NATO’s expansion meant that Vladimir Putin would one day exact brutal revenge. One reunion weekend years ago, Newell generously shared insights with my sons, David Bloom ’21 (applied mathematics, economics, & political science) and Aaron Bloom (environmental management at Cornell ’23), and I’m sorry that he’s not yet met my daughters (Julia, Biology, Cal Poly ’24 and Ciera, almost 7th grade). It was wonderful to see many of you at our 35th reunion and I hope to see even more of you at our 40th (i.e., less than two years from now). Hats off as well to our classmate Rhonda Gans, who kindly called me to see whether I was okay after one of our California earthquakes. Thanks, Rhonda.”

Sally Frank writes: “I’m happy to report that my daughter, Zöe Mermelstein ’21, is working as a protection counselor at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington, D.C. My husband, Steven Mermelstein, and I were thrilled with Zoë’s experience at Brown, particularly the support she received from professors. We have two other kids in college: Remy is in his fifth year studying architecture at Cornell AAP and Julien is a junior studying political science, econ, and public health at Duke. Our youngest, Leo, is a senior in high school looking into contemporary music/liberal arts programs for college. We moved to the Bay Area just over a year ago and I started a new role heading up philanthropic programs at Agilent. I’m looking for partnership opportunities to promote STEM education in underrepresented groups and mentoring opportunities for our global workforce in STEM and other areas. If you have ideas, please contact me at sally.frank@agilent.com.”

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.

Robert Pfeffer writes: “I am still living in New York City while practicing medicine at NYU and on the faculty at the NYU School of Medicine. With the deepest pride imaginable, I want to congratulate my son Matthew Pfeffer ’21 on his graduation from Brown this spring. Way to go Matt! Both of us are ever true.”

Seth Jackson writes: “My daughter, Mariel Jackson ’21, is the general manager of the Brown Daily Herald. My son, Derek, is at the Columbia University School of Engineering in New York.

Class secretary David Nichols reports the Class of 1952 Endowment Scholarship fund was presented to Reed Jaworski ’20, with a concentration is math, physics, and philosophy, for the fiscal year 2017-2018 and to Natalie Montufar ’21, with a goal to attend medical school and become a neurosurgeon to help people with Alzheimer’s disease, for the fiscal year 2018-2019.