A Passion for Science - Columbia College - Columbia University

Columbia CollEgE Today CLASS NOTES
Florida law firm of Broad and Cassel,
where he specializes in complex
litigation and white collar criminal
defense. “I have become a happily
transplanted Floridian, although I
will always miss New York,” Jonathan
writes. Does that mean he still
pulls for his beloved Mets, Giants
and Knicks? “Absolutely!”
Please keep your updates coming!
Feel free to send me an e-mail
or friend me on Facebook.
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Emily Miles terry
45 Clarence St.
Brookline, MA 02446
eterry32@comcast.net
I heard from Jill pollack lewis,
who traveled throughout the tail
end of 2010 and the beginning of
this year to Canada to shoot a pilot
for an HGTV talk show that she
will host. Traveling back and forth
between her new home in Connecticut
and Canada for the show
has been grueling, but Jill’s husband,
Jeff, is holding down the fort
with their young son, Sam, while
Jill shoots the show. Since the show
will air in Canada, I’m hoping to see
Jill strut her stuff via the Internet.
I caught up with John Macphee
and donna Macphee in Park City,
Utah, in January while in town for
the Sundance Festival and the super
party Columbia throws for students
and alumni. John recently retired
from his position as president of
Strativa Pharmaceuticals and is
working on a master’s at the Mailman
School of Public Health. He
also has become involved in the
New York chapter of Bottom Line,
a nonprofit that my husband, Dave
Terry ’90, chairs in Boston. Bottom
Line helps first-generation youths
get in to and graduate from college.
John now is Bottom Line’s chairman
in New York.
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival
screened 24 films that collectively
featured contributions from 38
alumni, students and faculty who
represent Columbia and School of
the Arts. Carol Becker, dean, School
of the Arts, and Donna, v.p., alumni
relations, and president, Columbia
Alumni Association, hosted the
sixth annual CAA at Sundance
complimentary reception in Park
City. Dave and I attended the party
that honors the work of Columbians
featured at the festival. There, in
addition to the many filmmakers,
we visited with ann-Marie wright
and her husband, Fred Lampropoulos,
who, with their children, reside
in Salt Lake City.
I also heard from Dan Loflin,
whom we just missed connecting
with in Utah, but who has been
spending a fair amount of time
there pursuing his new passion,
fly fishing, when he isn’t working
hard in San Francisco.
Since I last caught up with tom
leder, he and his wife, Mary Ellen,
and daughter Julia (2) have wel-
comed another little one, Meg (1).
The Leders live in northern West-
chester. Tom writes, “I work for
MassMutual, out of its White Plains
office, and with work and fatherhood,
I have never been busier ...
or happier.”
Just as I was about to submit this
post, I literally ran into Eli neusner
outside our local bagel shop.
It was one of those days when I
hoped to not see anyone I knew,
for my 4-year-old had insisted on
wearing pajama bottoms (dinosaur
pajama bottoms!) to school, and
it was a typical Monday for us,
meaning we were looking a bit
tousled. Eli didn’t seem to notice
— his kids and wife, Poly, are well.
It’s always great to see someone
from the good ol’ Columbia days!
90
rachel cowan Jacobs
313 Lexington Dr.
Silver Spring, MD 20901
cowan@jhu.edu
Yes, Facebook, Jeff sepulveda
tracked me down. He teaches
American history, à la James Shenton
’49, ’54 GSAS (if you weren’t
a history major, you might not get
the reference), at the American
School of Tampico, Mexico. I hope
the rest of you are doing well and
might find 30 seconds in your
lives to send me an update. (Fiftynine
words. So sad!)
REUNION JUNE 2–JUNE 5
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALuMNI AFFAIRS Taruna Sadhoo
tds2110@columbia.edu
212­851­7849
dEVELOPMENT Eleanor L. Coufos ’03
elc19@columbia.edu
212­851­7483
Margie Kim
91
c/o CCT
Columbia Alumni Center
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530
New York, NY 10025
margiekimkim@
hotmail.com
Our 20th reunion is around the
corner! Please make plans to join
the festivities from Thursday, June
2–Sunday, June 5. There will be a
great mix of cultural happenings
throughout New York City and
class-specific events where we
will have a chance to renew old
friendships. Thursday night, there
will be a chance to take in a show
in Manhattan. Friday offers mini-
Core courses and campus tours,
plus a class reception. Saturday is
Dean’s Day, with great lectures,
including a talk by Dean Michele
MAY/JUNE 2011
69
Moody-Adams, followed in the
evening by the all-Class Wine
Tasting, a formal class dinner and
then sweets, champagne, music
and dancing on Low Plaza at the
Starlight Reception. Don’t miss it!
It’s not too late to register. Go
to reunion.college.columbia.edu,
or, new this year, register on your
smartphone. The Alumni Office has
launched the free Alumni Reunion
Weekend app, which features a full
and detailed listing of events, an upto-date
list of registered classmates,
answers to reunion FAQs and
several ways to stay connected to
Columbia: Twitter (twitter.com/Co-
lumbia_CCAA) and the app’s news
module, which includes CCT (college.columbia.edu/cct)
and Columbia
news (news.columbia.edu).
IPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
users can search Apple’s App Store
for “Columbia Reunion” to find our
class app. BlackBerry, Droid and
other smartphone users can access
the app from mobile browsers by
visiting http://reunion.college.
columbia.edu/1991mobile.
There also is a “Columbia College
Class of 1991” Facebook group
if you want to reconnect and get
more information.
Football fever swept through
Dallas in January as Super Bowl
XLV came to town. My husband
and I attended our first Super Bowl
with annie giarratano and her
husband, Chris Della Pietra ’89,
who have been to a number of Super
Bowls. It was great to catch up
with the Della Pietras and spend
the weekend with them!
stephen Jansen is part of our
Reunion Committee, doing what
he can from across the ocean. It
will be a year of change for him,
as his wife, Jennifer Bender, gave
birth to their first child, Sabrina Gabriella
Bender-Jansen, in December.
Stephen made me laugh when
he wrote, “First-time parenthood
on the north side of 40 will be an
adjustment, to put it mildly.”
brent bessire sent in this update:
“sara (schachter) and I live
in Sonoma County with our boys
(6, 4 and 2) and two dogs, three
cats, three goats, two llamas, 10
chickens, one horse and one rabbit!
We recently launched our wine
label, Fogline Vineyards, which is
producing about 300 cases a year
of Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. Our
vineyard is located at about 850
feet above sea level on the ridge
of Sonoma Mountain. We have
been fortunate as a result to have
reconnected with some local CU
grads, including britta gooding,
Dan Loflin ’89, Jeremy Hough ’93
and David Schach ’99E. Find us on
Facebook at Fogline Vineyards or
at foglinevineyards.com.
“Sara is practicing veterinary
medicine as a boarded small animal
internal medicine specialist at
a practice in Rohnert Park. During
the brief breaks in her schedule,
she squeezes in a ride on her horse,
focusing on dressage. Her horse
was the runner-up champion two
of the last three years in his class
for the state of California.”
Elisabeth porter won’t be joining
Married couple brent bessire ’91 and sara schachter
’91 live in sonoma county and recently launched
the wine label fogline Vineyards.
us at reunion, but she did send this:
“I am a senior program attorney
for the Guardian ad Litem Program
in Broward County, Fla. The program
helps abused and neglected
children by advocating in their best
interest. It is hard seeing what these
children go through every day, but
it is great to know that there are so
many dedicated people trying to
help them. I can only do my best
and hope that is good enough.”
Melanie Jacobs and her husband,
Shane Broyles, welcomed a
son, Jacob Evan Broyles. Melanie
and Shane are delighted and exhausted
first-time parents!
wayne Jebian is an associate
professor of English at Lincoln
College of New England. He lives
in Connecticut with his wife and
two children. Wayne’s most recent
work is a contribution to the collection
Looking for Lost: Critical Essays
on the Enigmatic Series.
And, in the “not the regular
9-to-5 job” category, sam helfrich
sent in this update: “In 2000, I received
my M.F.A. in theater from
the School of the Arts. Since then,
I’ve been directing theater and
opera (mostly opera) around the
country. Highlights include my
production of Philip Glass’ Orphée
at Glimmerglass Opera, which
continues to be produced at opera
companies around the country. I
also directed Amistad for Spoleto
Festival in Charleston, S.C., and
Aida at Opera Omaha as its 50th
anniversary production. I have had
longstanding associations with
Opera Boston, Boston Baroque,
Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto and
Pittsburgh Opera, among others. In
2006, my production of Handel’s
Agrippina with Boston Baroque
was named ‘best production of the
year’ in The Boston Globe. Upcoming
projects include a fully staged
production of Handel’s Messiah