Norman Rozeff (CAS’55) of Harlingen, Tex., received the annual William Card, Jr. Library Service Award in November 2015, in recognition of his outstanding support of the Harlingen Public Library. For more than 13 years, Norman has volunteered his time to maintain the library’s archive room. A tangential result of this work has been his production of more than 300 published articles about the city’s history and The Chronological History of Harlingen.
Karen Lakin (CAS’62) of Jerusalem, Israel, writes that her husband, Richard Lakin (CAS’62), a retired elementary school principal originally from Newton, Mass., was murdered in a terror attack on a bus in Jerusalem on October 13, 2015. Richard passed away on October 27 at Hadassah Medical Center. “He fought for human rights, coexistence, and fairness throughout his life,” Karen says. “In his book Teaching as an Act of Love: Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher, Principal and Kid (iUniverse, 2007), Richard describes himself as ‘a recipient of endless joy from my children and grandkids, and from the smiles, laughter, and sense of wonder of the hundreds of elementary school children I had the good fortune to work with as a teacher and principal during the past 40 years.’”
Paul M. Wright (CAS’63), Alison Barnet (CAS’67), and Russell P. Lopez (SPH’03) of Boston, Mass., served on the committee that organized the first South End Authors’ Book Festival, which took place at the United South End Settlements on November 16, 2015. Paul, Alison, and Russell have each written books on Boston’s South End. Hope J. Shannon (CAS’08), who also wrote a book on the South End, participated in the festival as well.
Lavinia Kumar (CAS’64, GRS’66) of Plainsboro, N.J., published a new book of poetry, Let There be Color (The Lives You Touch Publications, 2016), based mostly on the hospitalization of her husband. Lavinia writes, “It wasn’t until retirement that I could learn about poetry, could go to workshops and classes. I still go to a wonderful seminar given by [the poet] Christopher Bursk at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania, and workshop in a couple of groups.”
David Matteson (STH’68, GRS’68) of Crete, Ill., published the memoir I Took Both Roads: My Journey as a Bisexual Husband (The New Atlantian Library, 2015). “Chapters six, seven, and eight will be of special interest to BU alumni,” David writes.
Claire Soja (CAS’68) of Littleton, Mass., has joined the Boston investment firm Winslow, Evans & Crocker, Inc., as senior vice president and portfolio manager, having previously spent nine years as managing director/portfolio manager at Detwiler Fenton & Co., also in Boston. She also was a member of the Detwiler Fenton investment management board of directors. Email Claire at csoja@e-winslow.com.
Susan (Strauss) Schneider (CAS’69) of New York, N.Y., published the novel Fire in My Ears (CreateSpace, 2013), which is out in an audiobook recorded by her daughter-in-law, Rachel F. Hirsch.
Wendy Brandmark (DGE’68, CAS’70) of London, England, is a fiction writer, reviewer, and lecturer. For many years, she taught creative writing at Birkbeck College, part of the University of London. She supervises students in Oxford University’s creative writing master’s program. Wendy published The Stray American (Holland Park Press, 2014). The book was longlisted for the prestigious 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. She also published a collection of short stories, He Runs the Moon, Tales from the Cities (Holland Park Press, 2016), in April.
Duane Miller (STH’61, GRS’70) of Rochester, N.Y., published The Memes of My Life: How Integral Thought Illuminated Personal Experiences (iUniverse, 2015).
Arnold Baskies (CAS’71, MED’75) of Cherry Hill, N.J., joined the scientific advisory board of Anixa Diagnostics, a company developing a platform for early detection of tumor-based cancers. Arnold is vice chairman of the board of directors of the American Cancer Society (ACS) and previously served as the chief science officer of the ACS board of directors and as president of the ACS of New York and New Jersey.
Adele Boskey (GRS’71) of Caldwell, N.J., a senior scientist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, received the Lawrence G. Raisz Award from the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research. The award recognizes an individual for outstanding achievements in preclinical translational research in the bone and mineral field.
Ruth Lepson (GRS’72) of Cambridge, Mass., is the poet-in-residence at the New England Conservatory of Music. She recently published a new collection of poetry, ask anyone (Pressed Wafer, 2016), which has a special musical accompaniment she created with the band Box Lunch. Ruth read and performed on all 14 compositions written and recorded for this project.
Ellee Koss (CAS’73, GRS’77) of San Francisco, Calif., and Arati Mithal Nagaraj (SED’95) are leading the “Demolish the Box” team competing in the XQ SuperSchool Challenge to Reinvent High School and advanced to the semifinals. Their team is eligible to become one of at least five new high schools across the country to receive $10 million in funding.
Jane Schukoske (CAS’73) of Gurgaon, India, is featured in the book Together We Empower: Rekindling Hope in Rural India (Sehgal Foundation, 2015), by Marly Cornell. The book recounts the 15-year history of the SM Sehgal Foundation, a public charitable trust in the rural development sector in India. Jane has been the CEO of the foundation since 2011. Connect with Jane at jschukoske@gmail.com.
Abbe Rolnick (CAS’74) of Sedro Woolley, Wash., published Cocoon of Cancer: An Invitation to Love Deeply (Sedro Publishing, 2016), a memoir written with her husband, Jim Wiggins, about his experiences with cancer. The book is a collection of essays, poems, and caregivers’ tips, and is intended to offer a guide for those navigating any serious illness.
Jonathan Connor (GRS’75) of Temecula, Calif., married Melinda Marsden Smith in September 2014. Contact Jonathan at jcsuperstarusa@netscape.net.
Robert Cox (CGS’74, CAS’76) of New Haven, Conn., was selected for inclusion in the 2015 Super Lawyers list. Robert is the chair of the law firm Halloran & Sage’s business and commercial law practicing areas.
Melody McCloud (CAS’77, MED’81) of Roswell, Ga., initiated and cofunded an exhibit at BU’s School of Medicine that honors Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black female physician in the US. Crumpler graduated from MED (then the New England Female Medical College) in 1864. The permanent exhibit was unveiled on February 19, 2016. Melody is the founder and medical director of Atlanta Women’s Healthcare Specialists and is affiliated with Emory University Hospital Midtown.
Phil Burke (CAS’78) of Rochester, N.Y., was named a member of the inaugural US Leadership Committee of Meritas, Inc., a global alliance of independent law firms. He is also a member of the US tax practice steering committee for Meritas. Get in touch with Phil at pburke@woodsoviatt.com.
Jim Melville (CAS’79) of Tallinn, Estonia, is the US ambassador to Estonia. A career foreign service officer, Jim presented his credentials to Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the president of the Republic of Estonia, on December 8, 2015.
Claudia Kousoulas (CAS’80) of Washington, D.C., recently completed a series of online lectures on writing, editing, and document production for Planetizen, a public-interest information exchange for the urban planning, design, and development community. The lectures are designed to help students and professionals hone their skills in developing and presenting urban planning and design concepts.
Tony Torain (GRS’80) of Owings Mills, Md., was appointed executive director of the Maryland Board of Dental Examiners.
Daniel Clifford (CAS’81) of San Diego, Calif., is a senior staff surgeon at Naval Medical Center San Diego and has written a chapter on preprosthetic surgery in the 2015 Atlas of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He and Monique Vargas welcomed their first child, August William Clifford-Vargas, on September 9, 2014. Contact Daniel at uchinamuku@yahoo.com.
Christopher DeFazio (CAS’82, MED’86) of Needham Heights, Mass., writes, “I’ve been a career ER doctor for nearly 30 years. In the last five, I have, along with working at Melrose-Wakefield ER, finally found the time to do something I’ve always wanted to do—write. I’ve had a series of three paranormal suspense novels published in the last few years and have just completed a crime novel. Writing and ER work seem to be a good balance for me.” Email Christopher at cdefaziomd@hotmail.com.
David Bookbinder (GRS’84) of Danvers, Mass., published 52 Flower Mandalas: An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief (Diversion Books, 2015). David writes that the book is based on his digital photograph “flower mandala images, transformed by artist Emily Sper into a family of illustrations that invite colorists to create their own works of art, experimenting with form, pattern, shading, and layering in a deeply personal way.” Visit www.davidbookbinder.com, or contact him at david@davidbookbinder.com.
Gayle Bieler (CAS’85, GRS’86) of Raleigh, N.C., has been a statistician at RTI International, a leading research institute, for 27 years. She is director of RTI’s new Center for Data Science, which she has been building and leading since May 2014. She also had the honor of employing her first BU summer intern in 2015. Contact Gayle at gbmac@rti.org.
Kenneth Ludden (CAS’85) of Falls Church, Va., writes, “Since graduating, I have created the Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet, published nearly three dozen books, and have done many things in the arts around the world.”
Ben Golant (CGS’86, CAS’88, COM’88) of Washington, D.C., is chief counsel for intellectual property policy at the Entertainment Software Association, representing the video game industry in Washington, D.C. Ben started there in September 2015 after a long career in the federal government, at the Federal Communications Commission, United States Copyright Office, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, where he worked on communications, technology, and content policy matters. Contact Ben at bgolant@theesa.com.
Elizabeth Blandon (CAS’90, COM’90) of Weston, Fla., graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has had her own practice, Blandon Law, since 2002. A Florida immigration expert, she writes, “I was chosen to represent national Venezuelan hero Marco Coello with his asylum case. Coello was tortured by law enforcement for helping Leopoldo López, Latin America’s most famous political prisoner.” Email Elizabeth at ERBlandon@blandon-law.com.
Joanne Golden (CAS’90, Questrom’97) of Quincy, Mass., worked in financial services for 15 years before graduating from Suffolk University Law School in 2009. She is an attorney for the Social Security Administration Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Boston. “Since May 2013, I have been part of a working group within the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts who have researched and drafted legislation to ban female genital mutilation and cutting in the state,” she writes. “We had our hearing before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary on December 1, 2015, and we have the support of 34 medical, legal, women’s health, domestic violence, and community-based nonprofit groups, as well as two Boston city councilors and Attorneys General Maura Healey and Martha Coakley (LAW’79). We are focused on having the bill voted favorably out of committee and brought to a vote on the legislative floor.”
Paul Cummings (CAS’92) of Arlington, Va., is a senior fellow at ICF International, a management consulting services company in Fairfax, Va. At ICF International, he works to “build games and simulations to teach topics as diverse as high school chemistry for the NIH and negotiation skills for the Army.” The company is also working on other projects, including using virtual reality to treat PTSD and building rail yards for large rail companies.
Marni Walter (GRS’98,’09) of Westmoreland, N.H., had a recent article, “An Unlikely Atomic Landscape: Forest Hills and the Westinghouse Atom Smasher,” featured as the cover story in the fall 2015 edition of Western Pennsylvania History (the magazine of the Senator John Heinz History Center). Marni writes that “as the Westinghouse Electric Company’s earliest venture into nuclear physics, the atom smasher is an important landmark in industrial history. The article is not only about its technological significance, but also its context of early 20th-century innovation, the dawn of the atomic era, and its relationship with the local community.”
Ben Hires (CAS’00, STH’03, MET’08) of Brighton, Mass., the director of programs at the Boston Children’s Chorus, connected with fellow Terriers Daniel Hagerty (COM’94) and Emily Foster Day (MET’05) on January 29, 2016, at a workshop on the essentials of fundraising for arts organizations held at the State Room in Boston.
Robert Simon (CAS’00, GRS’00) of Acworth, Ga., published his second full-length book of poetry, Poems of a Turning Professor: A Collection in Two Epochs and Five Parts (Cyberwit, 2015). He was recently promoted to professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Kennesaw State University. At 39, he is the youngest faculty member to achieve this rank in his department’s history. Robert invites his classmates to “let me know how you are doing, and how you like the book.” Email him at rsimon5@kennesaw.edu.
Enrico Villamaino (CAS’00) of Springfield, Mass., recently completed his term of service with AmeriCorps. He worked with the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans, La., leading groups of young volunteers in rebuilding homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Isaac. Enrico was awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award, and was recognized for his work with young people with commendations from the governors of Alabama, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Angela Gomes (CAS’01, LAW’05) of West Roxbury, Mass., was honored by the Boston Bar Association for her work toward a more diverse and inclusive legal profession. Angela is the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association.
Edouard Fontenot (GRS’02) of Jamaica Plain, Mass., was elected chair of the board of governors of the Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute at Boston University. The Danielsen Institute is a multidisciplinary nonprofit institution that provides clinical mental health services and clinical training, and supports research and training with an emphasis on depth psychotherapy and religious, spiritual, and existential issues. Edouard is the managing director for clinical services and operations for Commonwealth Psychology Associates in Boston and Newton. He lives with his spouse, Christopher Bellonci (CAS’84), in Boston and Truro, Mass., and in New Orleans, La. Email Edouard at fontenot@post.harvard.edu.
Ann Keniston (GRS’02) of Reno, Nev., published Ghostly Figures: Memory and Belatedness in Postwar American Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 2015).
Madelyn Rosenberg (GRS’02) of Arlington, Va., published her new children’s book, How to Behave at a Dog Show (HarperCollins, 2015), illustrated by Heather Ross.
Susan Climan (CAS’03) of Plantation, Fla., writes, “My husband, Brett, and I welcomed our first child on September 8, 2015. His name is Ethan Gray Climan and he weighed 5 pounds, 1 ounce.” Email Susan at sleveene@hotmail.com.
Jonathan Mirin (GRS’03) of Shelburne Falls, Mass., founded the Piti Theatre Company, based in Shelburne Falls and Les Ponts-de-Martel, Switzerland, in 2004 with his wife, Godliève Richard. Jonathan is a playwright, an actor, and a director, and his wife is a dancer, a choreographer, a director, and a designer. On March 20, 2016, the Piti Theatre Company hosted its seventh annual SYRUP: One Sweet Performing Arts Festival at Memorial Hall in Shelburne Falls. At the festival, the theater company performed the original play Old Coleraine: A Musical Hilltown History, which depicts the hill towns of western Massachusetts from 1869 to 1898.
David Montgomery (GRS’03,’07) of Washington, D.C., coauthored Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World (University of California Press, 2016) with Adam Seligman, a CAS professor of religion, and Adam’s wife, Rahel Wasserfall. The book explores the challenges of accommodating difference in everyday life.
Jason Moore (CAS’03) of Johnson City, N.Y., writes, “My amazing wife, Kim, and I welcomed our third child, Julia Mae, on May 29, 2015. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and 19 inches long. She joins her older brothers, Liam and Benjamin, who are two of her favorite people.”
Melissa Pimentel (CAS’03) of Brooklyn, N.Y., published Love by the Book (Penguin Random House, 2015).
Laura Kathleen “Kate” Hackett (CAS’06) of Monrovia, Calif., is the creator and star of the successful independent web series Classic Alice. The series “lives beyond the traditional confines of video,” she writes; its characters use Twitter, Tumblr, SoundCloud, and other social media platforms through which viewers can follow along. Recently, Kate launched an iOS app for the series. “Telling a story via many platforms means that the narrative is spread out all over the web,” she writes. “The app pulls the story into one place and lets you experience it with one tap on a screen. Our users can simply scroll through the timeline of the show and pick up wherever they want.” Learn more at www.classic-alice.com.
Bruce Kaplan (GRS’06) of Somerville, Mass., is the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s central transportation planning staff manager. One of his responsibilities is to help manage an expansion feasibility study of South Station. Bruce was recently named one of two 2016 Jennings Randolph International Fellows by the American Public Works Association. As a fellow, Bruce will conduct a topical public works study tour of waterfront redevelopment and intermodal terminal rehabilitation in Auckland, New Zealand.
Jennifer Uhrhane (GRS’06) of Boston, Mass., is an art collections/curatorial consultant and fine art photographer. She recently played a key role in the acquisition of the Lucien Aigner photography archive by the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale’s Beinecke Library, and the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. Jennifer writes that the acquisition was a two-year process. In 2011, she curated an exhibition of the Hungarian-born photographer’s vintage photographs at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass.
Jim Peerless (CAS’10, GRS’10) of Boston, Mass., married Courtney Wagner Peerless (SAR’09) in August 2015, in a beachside ceremony in North Carolina. Kristin Wagner (SHA’12) was the maid of honor and Mike Peerless (Questrom’11) was one of the best men. The bridal party also included Katey Mayer (CAS’09, SED’13), Shannon Disla (CAS’08), Josh Enzer (CAS’09, Questrom’09), Mario Mitrano (CAS’09), and Barry Lai (ENG’09). Justin Dashner (CAS’09), Jess Dashner (CAS’08), Mike Clark (CAS’09), and Kelly Dahler (SAR’09) were also in attendance. Courtney is an emergency medicine physician assistant and Jim is a software engineer/entrepreneur who recently founded a company with Josh Enzer.
Alexandra Knowles (CAS’13) of Boston, Mass., married Kyle Kahveci, who also studied at BU, on January 16, 2016, in Cambridge, Mass. The wedding party included Danielle Miller (CAS’14), Eduardo de la Garza Sanchez (CAS’14, Questrom’14), and Eugene Mundowa (CGS’12, Questrom’14). Alexandra writes policy for the Boston City Council and Kyle is CEO of a health care technology start-up. The couple purchased a home in Jamaica Plain. Get in touch with Alexandra at alexandra.kahveci@gmail.com.
Gu Wang (Questrom’10, GRS’13) of Worcester, Mass., is an assistant professor of mathematical sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Previously, he was a postdoctoral assistant professor at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor.
Chelsea Quezergue (CAS’14) of Chinandega, Nicaragua, recently completed a six-month Spanish interpretation and translation internship program with the New York City district attorney’s office. She is a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, where she is a teacher trainer for teaching English as a foreign language at La Universidad Cristiana Autonoma de Nicaragua en Chinandega. She writes, “I had an awesome Thanksgiving Day luncheon with the US ambassador to Nicaragua.”
Jacob Turnbull (CAS’14, GRS’14) of Raleigh, N.C., married his longtime girlfriend, Alexandra Wilkins, on August 21, 2015, in their hometown of Portland, Maine. The groomsmen included Dan Toth (ENG’13) and Samir Khoso (CAS’13). Also in attendance were Evan Caughey (COM’13), Tara Bylsma (CAS’12, SPH’14), Stephanie Kukolich (CAS’14), and Jessica Boven (CAS’13). Jacob and Alexandra live in the famous Research Triangle Park. Jacob is a scientific researcher at a biopharmaceutical company and Alexandra is a music therapist at a hospital.