The Classes

Michael Littman ’96 PhD (see Brian Christian ’06).

Constance Moore ’92 AM illustrated the children’s book Brown: The Many Shades of Love. Written by Nancy Johnson James, the narrative around skin tone and celebration of self takes on a sweet and simple guise in this story.

Susan Signe Morrison ’88 AM, ’91 PhD, edited a collection of her mother’s poetry in her new chapbook Another Troy, published by Finishing Line Press. Her mother, Joan Wehlen Morrison, wrote her verse from 1938-44, when she was 17 to 21 years old, and it was discovered only upon her death. 

Marca Doeff ’83 PhD, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was part of the team behind the invention of a new solid lithium battery that eliminates the safety issue of flammability and has vastly greater capacity than graphite lithium batteries. The invention was honored with an R&D 100 Award by R&D World magazine. The lithium battery market is expected to grow from more than $37 billion in 2019 to more than $94 billion by 2025.

Stephen J. Tillman ’70 PhD published his second novel Leopard’s Revenge, a fantasy spy novel. It is available at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.

Arvin Singh ’19 EMHL, vice president, University of Maryland Health System, became a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a leading professional society for healthcare leaders. Singh is privileged to bear the FACHE® credential, which signifies board certification in healthcare management as an ACHE Fellow. To obtain fellow status, candidates must meet academic and experiential criteria, earn continuing education hours, demonstrate professional/community involvement, and pass a comprehensive examination.

Christine Baumgarthuber ’09 AM, ’12 PhD wrote Fermented Foods: The History and Science of a Microbiological Wonder, which will be coming out March 15, 2021, from Reaktion Books.

Nicole Martinez writes: “Dead-Enders is a new comedy web series about the zombie apocalypse cocreated by me and Anna Stacy ’17. When COVID-19 hit New York and forced the city into quarantine, Stacy and I saw an opportunity to reflect the global circumstances through a new art form. Filmed entirely over Zoom, season one of Dead-Enders consists of six 30-minute-long episodes, with the pilot episode “Online” which premiered May 22 on Dead-Ender’s official YouTube channel. The show’s season one finale aired on June 26, and a second season is currently in the works.”

See story:  “Zoom as an Art Form”

Gulmira Propper published the first Uyghur cookbook written in English, Silk Road Recipes: Parida’s Uyghur Cookbook. She writes: “I was Brown’s first Uyghur undergraduate student. This book is my loving tribute to my mother and her masterful Uyghur recipes—a colorful collection of quintessential Uyghur dishes, including hand-pulled noodles, lamb, pilaf, and more. Today, with the gross human rights violations of the Uyghur people, the preservation of the Uyghur culture is more important than ever. These recipes can hopefully help the world get to know the Uyghurs and the flavors of their cooking, and above all, keep the culture alive.”

See story: “Celebrating Uyghur Culture”

Michael Petro writes that he professed his first vows as a Jesuit in August, blessed by Sonia Geba, David Elitzer, and Rhea Stark ’18, who all streamed along. His studies continue in Chicago.

Bridie Gahan ’17 (see Brian O’Neill ’84).

Harry Aspinwall writes: “Hello! I’m a costar in Netflix’s The Sleepover opposite Malin Akerman, Ken Marino, and Joe Manganiello, and I shot a full feature film, Banishment, under COVID-safe conditions with Daniel Byers ’08—as far as we know, one of the first features to be fully produced since the beginning of the pandemic.”

Paris Waterman Dupree and Vernon Dupree announce the Feb. 22 birth of their son, Cairo Lee Dupree. Paris writes: “He was born in Philadelphia and is already an avid Brown Bears fan.” 

Brian Christian published The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values. In addition to being rooted in Christian’s computer science and philosophy backgrounds from Brown, the book also features the research of Brown computer science Professor Michael Littman ’96 PhD.

Brian C. Muraresku published The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, which follows his 12-year global investigation into the archaic roots of religious experience (see story, page 41). 

Courtney Maum writes that her short story, This Is Not Your Fault, “has debuted as an Audible Original with an ensemble cast. Alternating between a divorcing husband and wife’s legal paperwork and coparenting forms and braided with desperate missives from overeager lawyers, the short story is a portrait of a strained marriage in an unprecedented time that explores the ways in which materialism can lead us far astray. You can listen via Audible.”

B.J. Perlmutt writes that his Netflix documentary ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Historical Documentary category. The documentary is part of a larger series created by Jeff Zimbalist ’00. Sam Cullman ’99 also directed a film in the series, ReMastered: The Lion’s Share, which was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary category. 

Ricardo Wilson published The Nigrescent Beyond: Mexico, the United States, and the Psychic Vanishing of Blackness with Northwestern University Press. In the book, he explores the psychic vanishing of Blackness within the collective imagination of the Mexican nation and thinks through how this work might nurture related discourses within the field of a United States facing Black studies.

Mark de Silva published his essay collection called Points of Attack. In it, he examines issues in America such as technological evolution, terrorism, the individual’s place in a globalized society, and more.

UConn Professor of Political Science Jane Anna Gordon published Statelessness and Contemporary Enslavement. The book argues that statelessness and enslavement are not aberrations or radical exceptions but have been and are endemic to Euromodern state systems.

Ayanna MacCalla Howard explores how the tech world’s racial and sexual biases are infecting the next generation of artificial intelligence in her audiobook Sex, Race, and Robots. Narrated by Hollywood actress Amandla Stenberg, the audiobook is available on audible.com. 

Jon Birger’s book Make Your Move: The New Science of Dating and Why Women Are in Charge is a radically different kind of dating book
due out in February 2021. In his book he meshes the real-life success stories of badass daters with the latest research on love and romance—all of which show that the old ways are out, in favor of bold, new strategies for finding “the one.” Addresses everything from online dating to workplace romance to COVID-era courtship to the challenges of dating in the post-#MeToo era.

Nina Katchadourian ’89 created an art installation, titled “Monument to the Unelected,” which consists of signs bearing the names of losing candidates of every U.S. presidential election from John Adams to Hillary Clinton. Nina was commissioned by the Scottsdale Museum of Art to create a new work around the time of the 2008 presidential election. She became interested in the plastic election signs sprouting up on front lawns. She states, “The signs struck her as an American tradition of sorts and with an aesthetic all their own.” The installation has been exhibited every presidential election cycle since 2008 and during this past election was on display in four locations across the country: Orange, Calif., Scottsdale, Ariz., New York City, and San Francisco.

Daniel Azcona self-published his first book Aventuras Cotidianas, a collection of ten short stories in which the characters navigate their everyday lives oblivious to how the author’s indiscriminate use of fiction will transform their mundane activities into urban adventures. It is written in Spanish and is available on Amazon.com.

Jonathan Franklin writes: “Escaping COVID on the remote coast of Chile with my wife, Toty, and my seven daughters, writing books about extreme survival. I am also branching into the realm of how-to books on child raising. My next book 7 Daughters Later, A Guide to Raising Healthy Mammals is set for publication in 2022. Anyone coming to Chile, look me up.”

Joseph P. McConnell, currently at top Boston employment law firm Morgan, Brown & Joy, was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America 2021 for his expertise in management of employment law.

Tina Patterson writes: “In August, Women Impacting Public Policy chose to feature me and my company, Jade Solutions, LLC, as the member of the month. Many thanks to classmate Valerie Kennedy for encouraging me to share this good news.”

Brian O’Neill writes: “I have been living in Telluride, Colorado, for 30 years and coaching my sons’ lacrosse teams. This past summer, due to the pandemic, we have had the pleasure of Brown lacrosse players mentoring our kids. What struck me as notable was how caring and selfless these men were in reaching out to the local community to offer their services. Phil Pierce ’14 was living here for the summer with his girlfriend Bridie Gahan ’17 while telecommuting. Phil was captain of Brown lacrosse and you could see why he was voted captain in the way he intently worked with kids ranging in ages from 8 to 18. Seven class of ’23 lacrosse players (Trevor Glavin, Matthew Gunty, Oscar Hertz, Griffin King, Devon McLane, Logan Paff, and Ben Palin) were here for a few weeks and regularly trained and mentored these same kids with an infectious energy that truly inspired our kids. It is amazing to have them in our little town climbing 14,000-foot peaks, rock climbing on via ferratas, mountain biking, hiking, and fly fishing—in some cases, with our local lacrosse players. As a member of the ’83 Brown football team that played Penn State and ran into Happy Valley in a raging blizzard with 84,000 people screaming ‘We Are...Penn State,’ I never thought the ‘Brown State’ spirit brought back to campus by our illustrious band and fans would last this long. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see and hear these lacrosse players talk about the pride in the culture of Brown State. It is so much more than sports. It is about rolling up your sleeves and making a difference. My 11 (’31?) and 13 (’30?) year old sons will tell you these days were the highlights of a very adventurous summer in the Rockies! Their cousins, Suzie O’Neill ’22 and Tommy Maloney ’23, have told them all about Brown and their passion for the school, but what struck me was the consistency of kindness, giving, and positivity in each Brown person. In a very short time, friendships were made and young boys were inspired to give back. Kudos to admissions, faculty, administration and all who make Brown what it is! Truly a national treasure!”

Barbara Heller, a set decorator for film and television and the writer and director of award-winning short films, designed the new deluxe edition of Pride and Prejudice. The edition contains replicas of all 19 significant letters in the story, recreated with gorgeous calligraphy and painstaking attention to historical detail. Each replica letter is appropriate to the character who writes it and the moment in the story: from the handwriting, stationery, and folding style to the wax seal and the postmaster’s stamps it would have acquired along its way.

Nathaniel Goodman premiered his film Small Town Wisconsin, which he shot and coproduced, at the 36th Boston Film Festival Sept. 24-27. The festival was mostly virtual, but the film was selected as one of three films that had a socially distanced in-person screening on Sept. 25. The film had its international premier at Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in August.

Sheryl Renee Dobson was honored that two of her mixed media collages were selected from a national search to appear in the National Art League’s 90th Annual Juried Open Exhibition. The two pieces chosen are called “Shield of Faith” and “One Song.” The exhibition ran through the month of October. 

Judith D. Schwartz published The Reindeer Chronicles: And Other Inspiring Stories of Working with Nature to Heal the Earth with Chelsea Green Publishing in August. The book is a global tour of earth repair, with stops in China, the Middle East, Spain, Hawaii, Norway, New Mexico, and the grasslands of Eastern Washington. Judy lives in southern Vermont with husband Tony Eprile ’79 AM. For more, see https://judithdschwartz.com/.

Eric Jay Dolin published A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s  Hurricanes. The book is a finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, which awards $50,000 to the winner.

Barkley Stuart ’81, executive vice president and board member of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, is the recipient of the 2020 Icon Award from the Women’s Leadership Council of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America. The Icon Award recognizes Barkley for his advocacy work to advance women and champion diversity within the wholesale wine and spirit field.

Rob Feinstein announces his new book Launched: Start Your Career Right After College, Even During a Pandemic, which he says “will be of great interest to all Brown students and new grads. My book is a practical, step-by-step guide to setting a career foundation while still in college or with a new degree. It’s full of insights, advice and new techniques found nowhere else. It’s available on Amazon.com.”

Barry Jacobs writes: “My third book, AARP Love and Meaning After 50: The 10 Challenges to Great Relationships and How to Overcome Them, was published by Hachette Books. It was literally a labor of love; I cowrote it with my wife, Julia Mayer. After many years as a clinical psychologist and family medicine educator, I’m now two years into my encore career as a healthcare consultant for Health Management Associates, a national healthcare consulting firm. I still live in leafy Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, around the corner from Swarthmore College. I would love to hear from old friends at barryjjacobs@gmail.com.”

David Shields’s documentary film Lynch: A History streamed in the fall on the Sundance Channel/AMC; the film was also available on a variety of other platforms, such as Amazon Prime, iTunes/AppleTV, GooglePlay, and Kanopy. His book Reality Hunger was named one of the 100 most important books of the last decade by LitHub.

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.

Howard Frumkin released his book, Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves, with coeditor Samuel Myers. The book is an accessible introduction to the emerging field of planetary health, which aims to understand how global environmental disruptions threaten human health and to develop solutions that allow people and natural systems to thrive. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Planetary Health addresses health impacts resulting from human-driven environmental change before exploring the diverse terrain of solutions.

J. Patrick Truhn married Michael Andreas Peters on Oct. 7, 2019, at the historic Villa Kogge in the Standesamt of Berlin-Charlottenburg. Classmate Barbara Dooley was in attendance. The couple resides in Berlin.

Jeremy Butler retired from the University of Alabama last summer, after teaching TV and film courses for 40 years. “So much of my identity is wrapped up in teaching that I couldn’t quit cold turkey. Last February I agreed to teach a fall 2020 seminar in a special UA program that promotes the liberal arts. Stupid me! I did not anticipate the seemingly unending global pandemic. Teaching via Zoom is awkward and weird, but I’m still enjoying it. Retirement plans? Survive the seemingly unending global pandemic.”

Andrew Kaunitz, a professor and associate chairman in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, received the 2020 Leon Speroff Outstanding Educator Award from the North American Menopause Society, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the health and quality of life of all women during midlife and beyond. Dr. Kaunitz sees patients at UF Southside Women’s Health at Emerson, where he also serves as medical director.

Ken Field published his recording, IRIDESCENCE, which resulted from a spontaneous improvisational performance in Berkeley, Calif., collaborating with keyboardist Eric Glick Rieman and percussionist Karen Stackpole. The recording is available through Ravello Records.

Jim Gronefeld writes: “After retiring from banking, my wife, Kathy, wrote and published a children’s book, Samson the Shelter Dog and His Enormous Wish. It’s available on Amazon. She now plans a series of Samson books. Me, I golf poorly once a week.”

John R. Stahl writes: “I have been publishing my own books of esoteric philosophy and metaphysics under the name The Evanescent Press since 1971 in Montreal, letterpress printed on my own handmade paper from handset type and handbound. I have reprinted most of my writings in commercial editions.” Stahl’s books The Laughter of God and More Laughter are available on Amazon.com. In addition, two collections of his writings, Selected Articles: Metaphysics and Theology and One Planet Makeover, can be downloaded for free on his website tree.org.

Bruce Paul Richards writes: “I was wearing an Aloha shirt because it was Friday. I’ve done so every Friday since spending a year in Hawaii after graduation. Having flunked my draft physical (for sleepwalking, of all things), I had gone to Waikiki to celebrate not getting shot in Vietnam, and had gotten shot. But that’s another story. This is about an Aloha Friday two years ago on the eve of Campus Dance. I was in front of my old fraternity house, DTD, drinking a beer, musing about all the wild good times I’d had there, feeling rather ‘studly’ as Johnny-D used to say, in my favorite shirt, when my phone rang. It was my pregnant daughter, Aly Richards ’08, on her way back to campus for her 10th reunion. She and her brother Ryan ’06 had attended a much better place than the bro-fest of my day, but that didn’t taint my rosy visions from 49 years earlier. Aly said not to worry, running late, at the doctor’s and, by the way, your first grandchild and your second will be arriving the same day. Twins! I started to cry. Not just wet-eyed sniffles. Loud and uncontrollably, spilling my beer down the front of my shirt. Passersby looked at me with expressions of pity and alarm. Not that studly, after all. Campus Dance was the same as always. Old timers and young. Same band, or so it seemed. Dancing and drinking (I smuggled in my martinis; told them it was medicine). Even a fistfight. Yup, just the same...Though the old timers of my day dated back to the Great War, some even to the 19th Century. Now they were me. Aly’s friends were nice enough to let me hang out with them instead of the less lively tables of folks more my age. I was a little depressed by the aging of the class of ’68 and disappointed with the dearth of Aloha shirts, but those sorrows proved as transient as...well, you know. Our group celebrated Aly’s great news at the best Aloha Friday Campus Dance ever.”

Terence A. Harkin announces that his debut novel, The Big Buddha Bicycle Race, was named a finalist for the Military Writers Society of America’s 2020 prize in Literary Fiction. His second novel, Year of the Rabbit, is due for release by Silkworm Books in Spring 2021.

Marilynne Summers Robinson published her book Jack, the fourth installment of her acclaimed Gilead series. Jack tells the story of a star-crossed interracial romance in a small Iowa town. The New Yorker profiled Robinson in its Oct. 5 issue.

Tom McMullen writes: “Debby and I have eight grandkids and when each reaches age 13 we take them on a trip of their choice. When Ryan, now a college senior, was 13, he chose a safari in Tanzania. Debby and I thought a ‘trip’ was something like Disney World. However, the three of us went and had the best time ever. Obviously, Ryan set the bar very high for those to come. Next was Olivia and she chose London to see musical theater. Then came Lexi and Ella and their choices were Austria and Switzerland. Mattix and Mallory followed and the four of us traveled to the Galapagos. That’s six down with two to go. Jack’s now 12 and Sydney is 7 and when she’s 13, Debby and I will be 87. She’ll probably be pushing us in wheelchairs while we’re drooling.”

It is with great regret that copresidents Jim Moody and Sandy McFarland Taylor have concluded that the plans for a fifth mini-reunion, which was to be held in Boston in the spring of 2021 (BAM Classes, June-August 2020), will have to be postponed for the time being due to ongoing concerns related to the pandemic and the health of their classmates.

Peter Corning writes: “It came as a jolt to see that our 65th anniversary is coming up! It’s long past time for me to do an update. After teaching in the Human Biology Program at Stanford for many years and then heading up the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, my wife and I ‘retired’ to develop an experimental (biointensive) market farm on San Juan Island, Washington. We did that for a decade. Now we are truly retired (without scare quotes) in a Seattle retirement community, close to all three of our children and grandchildren. We feel very lucky. We both remain active and I’m still writing, including a trade book in 2018 (pictured in the June-August 2020 Fact, Fiction & Verse), a forthcoming new book—a cri de coeur called Superorganism: A Radical Proposal for a World at the Breakpoint—along with various professional journal articles and a weekly blog. My website is https://complexsystems.org/. I also keep in touch (virtually) with a few old Brown friends. Here’s hoping we can be on campus for our upcoming reunion.” Contact Peter at pacorning@complexsystems.org.

Mordecai K. Rosenfeld writes: “I have published my sixth book of personal essays, My Ivy Library (this one is self-published). These 18 pieces will, I hope, make you think and laugh. Writing about an earlier collection, novelist Dee Brown wrote: ‘Clarity, humor, and grace distinguish the essays of Mordecai Rosenfeld… No matter the mood in which it may be written, any Rosenfeld essay can be a tonic to restore the spirits,” and essayist Louis Auchincloss, who wrote the foreword to my first two collections, wrote that I have ‘a sharp eye and a biting wit.’ I suggest that this book merits the same good vibes. The principal essay in this collection is about my own library of some 2,500 books on a wide range of subjects, including many from the John Carter Brown Library. I still have the Brown University General Catalog 1947-48 sent to all incoming freshmen and the Bulletin of General Information for Applications for Admission (with a cover picture of William Rogers, Brown’s first student, who entered in 1765 and graduated in 1769). My wife Paula and I still live in Greenwich Village. I’ve graduated from a cane to a walker, but these days the pandemic keeps me mostly at home.”

Jihoon Yoon ’13 MD (see Lorenna Ellis ’09). 

Katharina Galor ’96 PhD and former Brown faculty member Sa’ed Atshan published The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians in June with Duke University Press. They drew on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews to explore the asymmetric relationships between Germans and Israeli and Palestinian immigrants in the context of official German policies, public discourse, and the impact of coming to terms with the past. 

Toby Ward ’69 MAT retired 21 years ago as a physics professor at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Ill. In retirement, he enjoys golf, fishing, wood-splitting, and traveling with his wife. For the past 40 years, he has created stained glass houses, panels, and holiday items, which have been displayed at his local library, the CLC Gallery, and in the Dunn Museum. He lives with his wife in Lake Villa, Ill. His daughter, Dana, and three grandchildren live in Woodside, Calif., and his son, Ryan, and three grandchildren live in Antioch, Ill.

David Orsini ’66 AM, ’75 PhD, published Vanishing by Degrees and The Weaver of Plots. Vanishing by Degrees is scheduled to be introduced into the language arts curriculum in Cranston High School West, R.I.

Holleigh Bergstrom Oliveira ’16 MAT (see Lorenna Ellis ’09). 

Holleigh Bergstrom Oliveira ’16 MAT (see Lorenna Ellis ’09).

Emily J. H. Contois ’15 AM, ’19 PhD, published Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture with UNC Press in November.

Marquita Ellis ’14 ScM (see Lorenna Ellis ’09).

Krutika Parasar Raulkar published COVID-19: Inside the Global Epicenter: Personal Accounts from NYC Frontline Healthcare Providers. It shares the experiences of Krutika and colleagues in combating COVID-19 in heavily impacted New York City and is available on Amazon. 

Emilie Lygren has coauthored How to Teach Nature Journaling: Curiosity, Wonder, Attention. This is a teacher-friendly book that combines curriculum plans and practical advice so that educators can bring journaling to their students.

Kristin Richardson Jordan wrote this summer: “I am running for New York City Council in District 9, which is Central Harlem. I’m running a grassroots campaign for the primary against an incumbent who’s been in New York politics for more than 30 years. My platform is composed of six focus areas which can be simplified into the acronym HARLEM:

H: Holding police accountable and police abolition

A: Actually affordable housing

R: Redistribution of wealth

L: Living longer with more resources for our seniors, as well as gun control

E: Education for all and environmental justice

M: Meaningful change

If elected, I will be the second woman, the youngest ever, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent District 9 on the Council. I would also be the first Black lesbian to serve on the City Council. More information about my platform can be found at www.kristinforharlem.com.”

Lorenna Ellis and Cameron Lee married in a two-part wedding over Zoom on July 4, with the first half in the Boise area and the second half in Orange County, Calif. In attendance/members of the wedding party were David Atkinson ’08; Alberto Castellón; Kara Kamikawa DeBaun; Marquita Ellis ’12, ’14 ScM; Julia Kim Ho ’12; Janice Kim; Holleigh Bergstrom Oliveira ’14, ’16 MAT; Christina Tang; and Jihoon Yoon ’13 MD. Cameron and Lorenna met through the Brown student group College Hill for Christ, dated briefly, and were next door neighbors in Young Orchard their senior year. They stayed in touch over the years and finally dated again following their eight-year class reunion. At their 10-year class reunion they got engaged at Prospect Park. Cameron is working at a family medicine clinic and Lorenna continues directing business systems for a Christian nonprofit. She will serve on the Alumni Board this year to help the class of ’09 build connections that support Brown and each other during these challenging times. They will be living in Los Angeles and look forward to a lifetime of growing and serving others together. 

Peter Wenstrup is a candidate for the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana. For more than a decade he has been teaching high school math, coaching basketball, and tutoring students in Louisiana schools.

Eddie Ahn was appointed in June to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the government agency that plans and finances transit throughout the nine-county Bay Area region and its 101 cities. He also works as the executive director of environmental justice nonprofit Brightline Defense and serves on two commissions that address urban sustainability and rising sea level in the Bay Area; the SF Commission on the Environment and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

Dan McElligott and Olma Fuentes (Williams College ’03) announce the April 19 birth of their daughter, Paloma Saoirse McElligott. She was born in Livingston, N.J. Paloma and her older sister, Denise, are doing well and enjoying time at home with their mom and dad.

Irving Fain ’02 is cofounder and CEO of Bowery Farming, a “vertical farm” operating in a New Jersey warehouse. The farm grows vegetables from seeds in a controlled, lab-like environment year-round, with less water and no pesticides. The company says it can be 100 times more productive than a traditional farm on the same footprint of land.

Dr. Peter Lee ’94, ’05 MD, ’15 PhD, the new cardiothoracic surgeon at Southcoast Health and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown, is the recipient of the Grand-Cross of the Royal Equestrian and Military Order of Saint Michael of the Wing—the highest award bestowed by the Portuguese Roman Catholic dynastic order. He is also a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force and cofounder and chief medical officer for the innovative medical device company STARK Industries, LLC. He conducted three experiments that were sent to the International Space Station as reported in the Herald News.

Lisa Levenstein published They Didn’t See Us Coming: The Hidden History of Feminism in the Nineties in July with Basic Books. 

Rachel Moore was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in May. Founded in 1780, the Academy is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States.

Dr. Cheryl Anderson ’92, an epidemiologist known for her insights on how diet and nutrition factor into the development of heart and kidney disease and cancer, has been named founding dean of UC San Diego’s Wertheim School of Public Health. She becomes the first Black female dean in the nearly 60-year history of the campus. Already among UCSD’s top scientists, in 2016, Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the honorary society whose members include Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Jennifer Fries is a candidate for state representative, 24th Middlesex district in Massachusetts. She writes: “Running during a pandemic is difficult, yet good governance is more important than ever.” Fellow alums Reed Cochran ’90, Sarah Francis Holmes and her boyfriend David Kluft ’90, and Briel Schwartz Schmitz have been instrumental to the campaign, and many other classmates have been supporters. Learn more at www.jenniferfries.com.

Lucretia Kargère-Basco (see Michele D. Wilson Marincola ’81).

Michele D. Wilson Marincola and Lucretia Kargère-Basco ’90 published their book, The Conservation of Medieval Polychrome Wood Sculpture: History, Theory, Practice with the Getty Conservation Institute in August. Michele is a professor of conservation at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and Lucretia is a senior conservator at the Met Cloisters. Their book is the first in English to comprehensively discuss the history and methodology of conserving medieval polychrome wood sculpture. 

Judy Schaechter, chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has been named a 2020-2021 health policy fellow by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Academy of Medicine. This fellowship, in Washington, D.C., will expand her involvement in health policy and child policy at the local and state levels to the federal level and empower her to bring those strategies back to the University of Miami to enhance its educational and community outreach work. She has been on the faculty of the Miller School of Medicine since 1997. She also holds an MBA in health sector management and policy from UM. Contact Judy at 1601 NW, 12th Ave., Miami 33136; (305) 243-3993. 

Micah Solomon published Ignore Your Customers (and They’ll Go Away): The Simple Playbook for Delivering the Ultimate Customer Service Experience with HarperCollins Leadership. Micah is a customer experience consultant and speaker and a senior contributor at Forbes. He is enjoying life on Bainbridge Island, Wash., with his wife, two kids, four dogs, cat, and outdoor goldfish. Contact him at micah@micahsolomon.com; (434) 343-5881.

Sarah Brown was awarded a nine-month Fulbright Scholarship to Romania, where she will teach solo performance and mask performance at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania. She will also direct acting students in a series of performances for 400 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officers and their families from 29 countries who will be establishing a three-star command post in Sibiu. The project will help draw this new international population closer to the city of Sibiu and to the University.

Frederick Thurber and his wife Amy (RISD ’88) have teamed up with Madeleine Barker ’21 MFA, an actress in the Brown/Trinity program, to work on an audio version of his book, In the Wake of the Willows.

Mark Malamud writes that his latest book, The Timeless Machine, “transforms H.G. Wells’s original Victorian novella into an exploration of the limitations and contradictions of living with grief. Mixing together time travel, meta-fiction, and my own special kind of neurosis, it’s funny, clever, and heartbreaking.”

The New York Times reported that Maureen Raymo ’82 has been appointed the interim director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, becoming the first woman scientist and the first climate scientist to head Lamont. In 2014, she was the first woman to receive the Wollaston Medal, the Geological Society of London’s highest accolade. Her scientific work has established her as one of the most influential earth scientists of her generation.

A. Benjamin Goldgar writes: “In October 2019, I was appointed chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. I’ve been a judge on the court since 2003.”

David Hahn writes: “As I write we are all enduring the mass grief and restrictions due to the pandemic, as well as the public anger from the long-term systemic racism that continues to plague our society. The economic shock of these issues, highly exacerbated by a mentally ill president (at least Nero played the violin!), affects everyone. For me, outlining my recent work helps to maintain some semblance of things continuing to go on, even if not quite in the same way. Some of my new compositions are ‘Women of the Aeneid,’ ‘Kaj Ja Znam,’ ‘Amanda,’ ‘Virus Cosmos,’ and ‘Fantasia.’ Before the pandemic, I had a full schedule of performances, music therapy sessions with memory care patients, teaching lessons, and volunteering at a hospital. I expect things to pick up again when things open up a bit more. Feel free to send a line to say hello! I always enjoy hearing from Brown friends.”

Rick Carell writes: “Time to end the 1977 class news blackout. Brown lacrosse coach Cliff Stevenson was inducted into the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Hall of Fame last December in Baltimore.
Cliff’s doctor would not allow him to fly so he provided a video, in which he reminisced about team history, opined about NCAA rule changes, and generally out-hustled the other inductees. More than 60 of Cliff’s players attended, including class of ’77 star athletes George Caraberis, John Grill, Bill Isaacs, and my roommate, Dan Scofield. We shared many stories about Cliff and Brown, and all were thankful cell phone cameras did not exist during our playing days. With the COVID lockdowns, George assumed a leadership role to boost everyone’s spirits, hosting biweekly Zoom cocktail hours. We extended participation to other Brown sports teams and had guest appearances from John Gaddis, John Klupka, Gerry Muzzillo, Steve Narr ’78, and Pat Shattenkirk. Unfortunately, there are published concerns about Zoom’s encryption strength and now foreign governments may have derogatory information about who gave Cliff the pot brownies and several other troublesome incidents in the West Quad freshman year.” 

Andy Gralla writes: “Half a century after his father was admitted, Brown admitted my son as a junior! The Gralla family is very, very proud. It’s fun to share this news with the class. I hope this finds everyone well. Bye for now.” Contact Andy at andy@gralla.us. 

Richard Bush writes: “I have retired as a supervisory administrative law judge with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Irvine, California, and also as a commander in the Navy Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps. As a member of U.S. Masters Swimming, I competed in many meets in southern California. My wife and I now live in a small town in the northernmost part of Cajun Country in central Louisiana. In retirement, I enjoy reading, lap swimming at the YWCA, playing tennis, traveling (my wife and I planned a trip to France in October), and visiting my three children and four grandchildren in Mississippi, Canada, and Georgia. I am looking forward to visiting my classmates at our 50th reunion and will enjoy hearing from any of them.” Contact Richard at RichardSBush08310812@gmail.com; (949) 798-9584.

For demonstrating how a nonprofit can develop drugs as well as Big Pharma can, Mel Spigelman ’70, CEO of TB Alliance, is one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business for 2020.” TB Alliance’s pretomanid became one of three new anti-tuberculosis drugs approved by the FDA and the first developed and registered by a nonprofit. TB Alliance is partnering with major generic-drug makers to get pretomanid to market.

Thomas Lindsey writes: “I am now licensed as a property and casualty insurance agent in Texas and scheduled to take the life insurance exam.”

Peter Kaufman writes: “Having a ball in Bethel, Vermont, just two towns away from one of my art professors, Ed Koren. We are doctoring up a Ralph Lauren style 1830s brick Cape on two dramatic acres on Route 12. I work part-time as the sexton for St. James Episcopal Church in Woodstock.” 

Gerald David Miller writes: “I constantly find the news of the classes jumping from ’61 to ’63. Hey, what’s new ’62? Okay, I figure I will fill that sandwich. Soon after graduation, I married my childhood sweetheart, Susan Gilson, started using my middle name (David), earned a couple of graduate degrees, and moved to Israel for several years. In 1970, Susan and I, with our two little kids, went to Morocco for a month for a research project. We found classmate Richard Holbrooke in Rabat serving as a Peace Corps director. As a result, we stayed on as Peace Corps volunteers for the next three years. From there, I became director of Peace Corps training in Afghanistan and then acting director for Peace Corps Tunisia. I was recruited into the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. Once again, Holbrooke and I would cross paths at State. We often went to lunch together when we were both in town and not flying off somewhere. I left State to become deputy vice president for programs at Save the Children before becoming founding director of the International Community Economic Development master’s degree program at Southern New Hampshire University. Susan did her PhD research and taught Middle Eastern history at Harvard much of that time. For two of those years, I was also a research fellow at Brown’s Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. I spent the time at the ‘Rock’ catching up on all the things I missed as an undergraduate. In 2009, Susan and I joined the faculty of UC Davis. I founded the Global Fellowship for Agricultural Development program that takes research to action by connecting faculty and graduate fellows to organizations in developing communities all over the world. Susan and I have two prize-winning kids (RISD and Brown grads), each of whom have prize-winning children. Retirement is not among my plans.”

R. Brayton Bowen, ’65 AM, continues to consult in the area of human resources and is certified by the Society for Human Resource Management as a senior certified professional. He speaks on business related topics and teaches at the undergraduate level for Northwood University. He has published Recognizing and Rewarding Employees and Engaging the Heart for People, Performance, and Profit: Seven Competencies of Compassion@Work. He has produced the documentary series Anger in the Workplace, which aired on public radio stations nationally. He has written for the American Management Assoc., HR Magazine, and various other publications. Presently, he is leading the Howland Group, a strategy consulting and change management firm. He writes: “Believe it or not, I still am able to sing (thanks to my training with the Brown Glee Club and Professor David Laurent) and currently perform at two churches in Louisville. I have served on several boards, including the board of directors for the Louisville Committee on Foreign Relations. In 2012, I received the James E. Flynn Peace Award for community service and social justice. My connections with Brown are primarily through the Brown Club of Kentucky, where I serve as vice president for marketing. And I should add, after three tries, I finally got it right; I am happily married to Vaughn Bowen, who is a nurse practitioner and a wonderful partner. I enjoy living in Louisville, but I miss Rhode Island and sailing in Newport waters. If anyone cares to connect, contact me at brayton@howlandgroup.com; (502) 558-2154.” 

Dick Nurse announces that the film Quakers: The Quiet Revolutionaries will be broadcast on public television stations across the United States. He worked as a senior producer for the film at the Gardner Documentary Group.

Barbara Comroe Trevaskis and her husband moved from New Jersey to the Jacksonville, Florida, area to a continuing care retirement community several years ago. Like Judith Perlin, they are enjoying safe, socially distanced happy hours, as well as remote exercise classes. Thanks to the magic of Zoom, we were able to see a painting she had done. She has also been learning to do tole painting, which according to Wikipedia is “the folk art of decorative painting on tin and wooden utensils, objects, and furniture.

Judith Ann Perlin moved to a senior independent living community within the last year. She has been participating in safe, socially distanced, but still happy-to-be-there happy hours and finds this is an easy way to get to know her neighbors. She enjoys shopping at her local farmers’ market, which luckily is within walking distance.

Not to be outdone, Tom Moses has been playing tennis in Sarasota, Florida, while the temperature has been in the low nineties.

Jane Bertram Miluski, a watercolor artist, has not been able to paint of late due to the heat... alas, no air conditioning in her studio. Like many others, she has had to cancel various workshops she was scheduled to give due to the coronavirus. Once we can go about safely, she hopes to resume both her painting and her teaching. In the meantime, she’s been watching Turner Classic Movies (thank you, Ted!) and reading Sinclair Lewis.

This past July, Gil Lugossy was to have received an award for service to the public and the community from the Polish Arts Club of Trenton, New Jersey. Now, he is scheduled to receive it in 2021. By background, Gil is Hungarian American, and his late wife, Lee, was Polish American; they were longtime members and supporters of the organization.

Connie Black Engle’s son, Douglas, normally a resident of Brazil, has been sheltering in place with his parents. One of the tasks he took on was bringing all of Connie’s children’s books upstairs so that she could peruse them and decide what their destination ought to be. She has sent a bundle off to Bank Street College of Education in New York City and to the Providence Athenaeum.

Kathie Schutt Chadwick has been watching the news assiduously and reading a lot of Louise Penny, a Canadian author who is very popular with the “Angells” group. Kathie is quite musical and served as a choir director for many years. For our Zoom meeting she donned a T-shirt that had a musical staff with the following notations for meter: 6/4, 9/8, 11/16. Underneath was this brief sentence: “These are difficult times.”

Adrienne Arabian Baksa, who lives in Costa Rica, has been a lifelong (and very adept) piano player, but she is now in the process of divesting herself of a lifetime’s worth of music (books and sheet music). A formidable task. She is also passing on the work she and her husband, Richard, have done with incarcerated people. This is another formidable task.

Betty Wolin Baer has spent the last several months dealing with the after effects of a flood in her Connecticut condo. Lots of insurance, lots of logistics, and lots of dealing with contractors.

Dorothy Crews Herzberg self-published her fifth book, Through the Writer’s Eye. The book compiles stories and poems from 17 of her writing group’s participants. Every Monday morning, the writing group reads a poem, writes spontaneously, and shares. Dorothy will also be included in Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Edition. 

Joanna Slesinger Caproni writes: “Like everyone else, I am living in the COVID-19 era and what seemed like a decent sized one-bedroom apartment when we worked all day now feels like a small box when one spends the entire day in it. I continue to shop at the nearby supermarket observing all restrictions. People mostly wear masks, but not all. My neighborhood is less affected by the many protests, but several local stores are boarded up to prevent looting. Zoom has provided an opportunity for us to contact doctors, family, and friends. Overall, it has been and is scary! I tried to end on a comedic note, but I fear the disease has sapped my humor.”

Dolores Pastore DiPrete writes: “The social distance mandate has allowed me time to open my Pembroke ’49 file on my computer, where there were so many pictures that brought a smile to my face. In the photo below, left to right, we have Marjorie Logan Hiles, Lois Jagolinzer Fain, Glenna Robinson Mazel and myself enjoying dinner at an off-year reunion. I urge all classmates to update current addresses with the Alumni Office since so many of us are making changes. Let’s continue our friendship via the BAM!”

Navin Singh ’93 MD (see Khalil Sivjee ’90). 

Denice Spero ’88 PhD, president and chief business officer of ProThera Biologics, announced the company had entered into a licensing agreement with Takeda Pharmaceuticals to develop plasma-derived therapies for the treatment of acute inflammatory conditions. ProThera was co-founded by Yow-Pin Lim and Douglas Hixson, faculty members at Brown's Warren Alpert Medical School.

Laura Hendrickson ’88 AM, ’08 PhD (see Patricia MacBride Hendrickson ’52).

Kathleen M. Doyle ’85 MAT published her second children’s book, Blue’s River, a historical and environmental history of any town that settled near a river. This particular story happens to focus on Dover, Delaware. For centuries, Blue’s River has taken care of people and other living beings. Now the river cannot give anymore. Can a 10-year-old girl and a 400-year-old Great Blue Heron save Blue’s River? 

Jeff Wallach’s ’84 AM debut novel, Mr. Wizard, was published in April with Open Books. The story follows two brothers who learn via DNA testing that their supposed father is not who they thought.

Bernard Mendillo ’73 AM (see ’70).

Charlie Shumway ’66 AM (see Bob Sanchez ’58).

Jim Moody ’65 ScM (see Bob Sanchez ’58).

Susan Adler Kaplan ’65 MAT (see Bob Sanchez ’58).

Barbara Olins Alpert ’56 AM (see ’52).

Alexander Kithes ’16 ScM was elected to the Woonsocket City Council (R.I.) in a particularly contentious special election. The election was reported on by the Boston Globe as an indicator of political trends throughout Rhode Island going into 2020. Alex writes: “I’m the most progressive person elected to the Woonsocket City Council in recent history.”

Cindy Andrews Elder ’13 MPA (see Barbara Kirk Hail ’52).

Michael Furman ’05 AM joined Rhode Island Medical Imaging as a radiologist after having completed his residencies at the Alpert Medical School in internal medicine and diagnostic radiology. He did his undergraduate studies at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and graduate studies at Brown. Dr. Furman earned a post-baccalaureate pre-medical certificate from Bryn Mawr College and his MD from the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Widely published with extensive teaching experience, he is a member of the American Roentgen Ray Society, American College of Radiology, and the Radiological Society of North America.

Ramadan Hussein ’04 AM, ’09 PhD, now at the University of TÜbingen in Germany, stars in the National Geographic four-part series Kingdom of the Mummies. Contact Ramadan at Ramadan.hussein@uni-tuebingen.de.

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

Emily Kassie was nominated for a Peabody Award for her documentary Detained. The film is an immersive documentary which explores the rise and expansion of America’s immigration detention system.

Seamus Kirst’s first children’s book, Papa, Daddy, and Riley, was published on May 5 by Magination Press.

Brian Chin writes: “This year would have been my 10-year reunion. My college ’90s cover band, Firetruck, would have been performing for our class, but instead we are postponed. In the meantime, we are trying to sort out how we might do something virtually.”

Will Shapiro has been focused on building technology to understand the spread of COVID-19. In particular, Topos, the company he founded, has put out a COVID-19 Compiler, which allows users to look at COVID-19 data in relation to other relevant geospatial variables. This work was profiled by The Cooper Union and has been featured on news outlets such as the Rachel Maddow Show.

Veronica Carbaja is running in the November 2020 race for mayor of El Paso, Texas.  If she wins, she will be the first Chicana/Latina and second woman to hold that position in the city’s history. She writes: “I am running as a fronteriza (borderland woman), lawyer, and environmentalist. I have been an attorney at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc., since 2004 and my practice areas have included environmental justice, community development, housing (real estate, rentals, discrimination), and natural disasters, including the mass shooting of August 3, 2019, among others. I am currently helping our advocates navigate COVID-19 issues impacting our client communities. I also self-published a bilingual children’s book last year.” 

BBC Studios named Rebecca Glashow ’97 president of BBC Studios-Americas. She will lead the region’s strategy to develop the company’s diversified distribution business activities in the U.S., Canada, and Latin American. She previously worked at Viacom-owned YouTube brand Awesomeness, where she was responsible for overseeing distribution deals for Awesomeness digital content, AwesomenessTV series, and Awesomeness Films on all platforms worldwide.

David Shrier ’95 is the program director of Oxford Cyber Futures online program at University of Oxford’s Said Business School. The 6-week program, in collaboration with MasterCard, is targeted towards senior executives. The program covers such topics as cyber security, threat analytics, data privacy, and digital ethics.

Tania Teschke is selling handcrafted soaps and creams made from natural and organic ingredients and in support of regenerative agricultural farmers who are creating carbon-sequestrating soil with their humanely cared for, grass-fed herbivores. Tania writes: “I began to learn about organic and sustainable eating at Brown and I am continuing to learn today. Visit my site at www.etsy.com/shop/BordeauxKitchen.”

Ariel Sabar’s nonfiction book VERITAS: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife was published by Doubleday in August. Ariel writes: “The book grew out of a long investigative story I wrote for The Atlantic magazine about a Harvard historian who was tricked by a con artist into publishing a sensational papyrus forgery that would have rewritten the history of Christianity.”

Justin Massey (see Jennifer Morgan Massey ’56).

David Thorp writes: “No marathons, no books, and no PhD to report. I did, however, retire after 21 years of faithful service in federal law enforcement. My last assignment may have been the most fun. I now have to get serious as my boys are getting expensive what with college tuition, Philmont treks, and living in southern California. Karin, my wife of 23 years, is officially tired of being the only adult in the house. For friends with whom I’ve lost touch, please reach out to me at dgrahamthorp@gmail.com.”  

Andrew T. Chan is part of a group working out of Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard School of Public Health who have developed a COVID Symptom Study app to collect risk factor information and reports of symptoms. Their work was featured in the New York Times on April 1.

Daniel G. Newman wrote his first graphic novel, Unrig: How to Fix Our Broken Democracy (worldcitizencomics.com), about money in politics, voting rights, and stories of inspiring citizens who are making democracy work better. He is the president of MapLight, a nonprofit fighting online political deception. Contact Daniel at dnewman@maplight.org

Richard D’Abreu Jr., who is a saxophonist, pianist, and songwriter specializing in gospel jazz, has, since COVID-19, done a biweekly one-hour solo performance called “Friday Night Inspiration” live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube from 7:30 to 8:30 pm EST. His debut CD, Jazz in the Spirit, will be available in physical form (cdbaby.com and other stores) and digital stores everywhere. Visit www.jazzinthespirit.com for more information.

Khalil Sivjee writes: “It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since attending the wedding of Navin Singh ’93 MD in beautiful Positano, Italy. It was great to have the trio of Navin, Ken Younge, and myself back together again. Ken wore a pink turban in a tribute to when we dressed up as the Pink Ladies and attend-ed a showing of Grease at Sayles Hall during Frosh week.”

Kaui Chun DeMarzo writes: “I am close friends with a bunch of guys from ’88. This past autumn (Nov ’19), I was invited to the guys night out in Oakland. It was a fantastic time catching up with these fantastic men—James Brooks ’88, Clayton Earle ’88, Sean Hood ’88, and Jameison Martin ’88.”

Alex Weiner’s daughter, Livia Joan Weiner, has been accepted to Brown as a member of the Class of 2024. She is a member of the graduating class of 2020 from Croton-Harmon High School in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

Lisa Sosa Solomon writes: “I’m a hospice social worker living in Staten Island.  I work, make dinner, and take walks. It’s a lovely simple life.”

Gary Schwartz writes: “Many of us are home all day trying to stay on top of what is going on with the COVID-19 pandemic. The main person that CBS goes to for economic and financial perspective is Jill Schlesinger. She’s been in this role with CBS for a while now but is getting a lot more airtime because of what is going on. She gives a really nice perspective on the economics behind it all.”

Susan Berfield published her first book, The Hour of Fate, on May 5. Susan is an award-winning feature writer and investigative reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News.

Hilary Massey Billings (see Jennifer Morgan Massey ’56). 

Jill M. Baren has been named provost and vice president of academic affairs at University of the Sciences. Dr. Baren is a national leader in academic medicine, healthcare, and higher education and comes to USciences from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was professor of emergency medicine, pediatrics, and medical ethics at the Perelman School of Medicine. She has served in the provost’s office as the Faculty Leadership Development Fellow. She is currently serving a term as president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine, whose mission is to ensure the highest standards in the specialty. Contact Jill at jbaren@comcast.net.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has appointed members to several sector advisory councils charged with providing guidance to shape New York City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and help restart the city’s economy and life. Among the appointed were Ken Giddon ’81, proprietor of Rothman’s Men’s Clothing, to the Small Business Sector Advisory Council and Joshua Silverman ’91, CEO of  Etsy, to the Large Business Sector Advisory Council.

Glenn Kessler’s book Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: the President’s Falsehoods, Misleading Claims, and Flat-Out Lies was published on June 2 with Simon & Schuster.

Johanna Bergmans Musselman writes: “My husband and I live in downtown Boston, near Beacon Hill. It is strangely quiet here but we are doing fine with many adjustments to our routines. I am so happy that my class was able to have an incredible 40th reunion celebration last May in Providence. I feel sad for the Class of ’80 and all other 2020 reunion classes, along with the Class of 2020, that their experience this year will be very different from ours.”

The Mount Sinai Health System announced the creation of a new Institute for Health Equity Research (IHER) to understand the effects of health issues, including COVID-19, affecting at-risk communities. The disproportionate impact in underserved populations has highlighted the importance of rigorously studying disparities and translating discoveries into sustainable, scalable initiatives and policies that benefit communities in New York and the nation. Richard A. Friedman ’79 will chair the IHER Task Force that will guide, publicize and inform on the research underway. Other Task Force members include Brian A. Benjamin ’98, Senator for the 30th District of the New York Senate and Senior Assistant Majority Leader of the Senate.

Barbara Smith (see Ellen Arnold Lloyd ’52).

Dorothy P. Holinger’s book The Anatomy of Grief was published on Sept. 1 with Yale University Press. The book is for everyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one, those who have been unable to mourn in traditional ways, those who must prepare for loss, and anyone who wants to understand and help someone who is grieving.

Julia Burbank Chin reports on how she is faring in the days of the coronavirus. “The uncertainty of the whole thing is so challenging. I feel as if I am in eternal limbo. I spend my time caring for my mother, tending my garden and chickens, and enjoying the beautiful outdoors in Maine.”

Elizabeth Andrews Byers (see Barbara Kirk Hail ’52).

Since 2018, Fred Baumgarten has been living in western Massachusetts and running the grants office at Mount Holyoke College. Recently, he produced the book The Western Minstrel: Voyages through the Life of Anthony Philip Heinrich (published by the Dvorak Society), based on his research into the life of the man called the “Beethoven of America” and into Heinrich’s relationship to John and Lucy Audubon. Contact Fred at fredbee.eater@gmail.com.