April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
will provide one-on-one nutrition
counseling to women.
Stephanie Pirishis has also
added to her brood, welcoming
second daughter Iliana Lucia
Wijpkema on Nov. 25. Last
September Stephanie launched
her own business: poladora.
com aggregates local stores for
wedding registry purposes and
currently represents a dozen
Chicago retailers. While in
NYC last fall she hung out with
Tron Wang and Ame Igharo. In
December Laura Spero dropped
by for a visit and caught
Stephanie up on her latest
Nepalese adventures.
Tron traveled to Asia for work
last spring and shared meals
with Yui Tsao and Heng Cheam
’01 in Hong Kong and Kevin
Hong ’01 in Shanghai. Thanks
to the fortuitous timing of a visit
to Stephanie in Chicago, Tron
managed to avoid “the hurricane
that never was” in NYC. He
hosted a New Year’s Eve party at
his Manhattan apartment, and
Yui stopped by to help usher in
2012.
In nearby Brooklyn live Sara
Hausner-Levine, her husband Cam
Clendaniel ’01 and their son Jack.
Jack goes to daycare with Lizzie
Jacobs’ ’01 son Henry, who is
four months older. Writes Sara:
“We like to think of Henry as
Jack’s mentor.”
Brooklyn Borough Hall was
the site of Margaret diZerega’s
marriage to Chiemi Suzuki on
Sept. 2.
Josh Burns married Brittany
Raven last August in San
Francisco. In addition to his dad
John Burns ’70, many ’02ers were
in attendance, including best
man Ben Doob and groomsman
Forrest Wittenmeier. Josh reports
with certitude that “no one held
back on the dance floor at the
reception, myself included.”
Forrest sent in news of Mike
Gross’s December birthday
celebration at Baker Beach in San
Francisco, a “huge crab feed”
attended by 25 people, including
Maggie Clark and her husband
Trevor Babb ’00, Ed Han, Alex
Morrison and Eli Groban. Seven
dogs were also in attendance,
including Mike and his wife Anna
Kneitel’s Newfoundland Lucy.
Charlie and Lida (Ungar) Doret’s
Labrador Hazey is featured in
this year’s Atlanta Dog Squad
calendar. Charlie and Lida volunteer
for the rescue organization,
which is also where they adopted
Hazey. “In less momentous
news,” writes Charlie, he and
Lida met up with Kate Alexander
98 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
and a number of other friends
at last fall’s homecoming, an
occasion that Charlie has never
missed. He was particularly
pleased to be joined by his sister
Leah Doret ’99 this time around.
Over the holidays, Lida and
Charlie drove from Atlanta up to
Massachusetts, where they met
up with Steve Biller, his wife Julie
and their young son Zack and
“talked about being postdocs
and searching for faculty positions.”
They celebrated New
Year’s on Cape Cod with about
a dozen Williams grads including
Kate, Jason Carini and Elizabeth
(Moulton) and Darik Velez ’01 and
their children Rigel and River.
Reports Charlie: “I was delighted
to learn that Elizabeth and Darik
have purchased one-way tickets
home from South Africa for this
June, which will end three years
abroad. They’re not quite sure
what their jobs will be when they
return stateside, but I think they
are looking at high school teaching
options in the Northeast.”
Jamin Morrison spent five
weeks in South Africa teaching
and treating villagers as part
of his residency. Brad Nichol
was excited to welcome him
to London during pit stops on
either end of his journey.
Dan Elsea and his partner Yung
marked their civil partnership
with “impromptu, casual proceedings”
on Oct. 15 at Hackney
Town Hall in East London. They
took some friends down to the
pub afterward to celebrate.
Terri O’Brien and Brad Howells
were married on Nov. 12 in
Berkeley, Calif. Topher Goggin
was their officiant “and did,
as expected, an amazing job,
providing a personal and humorous
touch that [they] will never
forget.” Brad Nichol flew in
from London for the occasion,
and also in attendance were
Nathan Cardoos, Dave Glick,
Brian Michener, Derek Ward,
Seth Behrends, Brennan Kelly,
Katie Sharff and her husband
Dan Clayburgh ’01, and Laura
Bothwell.
At submission time, Jessica
Ohly had just returned from a
great weekend in Vermont with
Dave, Seth, Mark Robertson,
Jamin Morrison, Michelle Ruby
and Nicole Theriault ’03. Jessica
wrote: “I continue to enjoy
teaching and am currently training
to run the Boston Marathon
for a small charity, Housing
Families.” A little farther south,
Michael Minnefor is training
to run this year’s New York
Marathon. In December he
started a job at a small law firm
in Manhattan.
Another admirable runner in
our midst is Jess Paar, who wrote
in just hours after competing in
the 2012 Ragnar Florida Keys
relay race. She and 10 friends
ran the 198.5 miles from Miami
to Key West in about 33 hours
as team “I Thought This Was A
5K.” Although no Eph friends
joined Jess’s team, “they did offer
words and texts of support along
the way.”
William Davidson was in Florida
over Christmas and the New
Year, and he met up with Billy
Marino at the Square Grouper in
Jupiter “to watch the Giants dismantle
the Cowboys and clinch
the NFC East Championship.”
Dana Nelson had a big finish of
her own last August, when she
completed her PhD program at
Penn State. She is now working
as a clinical postdoc at the
University of Delaware’s counseling
center.
First-time contributor (editor’s
note: Yay!) Maywa Montenegro
began her PhD in the environmental
science, policy and management
program at Berkeley.
She loves being in California
and is hoping to focus on food
sovereignty and sustainable
agriculture, “ideas that started to
percolate during my last six years
[as] a science journalist in NYC.”
At submission time, Maywa had
just participated in a panel at
Williams on science writing.
Laura McMillian is in the last
year of her PhD program in
organizational leadership at the
Chicago School of Professional
Psychology and continues to live
in LA. She visited with Stephanie
Pirishis during a residency trip to
Chicago in September 2010 and
passed her competency exam last
October.
Sadaf Ahmad shared a Chicagostyle
deep-dish pizza with
Stephanie and Renee Robinson
last November. Renee, who
works for Women in Film in
Toronto, was visiting graduate
schools for communications policy.
In October Sadaf joined Erika
Beltran ’01 in DC to celebrate the
birthday of Enuma Menkiti ’01.
While in DC she saw Caroline
Fan ’03 and U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan speak at
a conference on Asian-American
research. Over Halloween Sadaf
and Erika attended a Mexican
Ballet Folklorico performance in
honor of Dia de los Muertos.
Morgan Barth traveled to DC
to visit Elizabeth Hole Knake and
her daughter Charlotte and also