Class Notes
You are hosting radio shows, teaching kindergarten, producing films, getting married, organizing interactive art experiences, writing books, having babies, selling tacos, writing poetry, working with veterans….See what’s happening in the lives of CGS alums, and submit your class note here.
1960s
John Stevens (’61) is president/CEO of the Stevens-Bennett Home.
Phyllis Solomon Starr (’63, Wheelock’65), a retired teacher from Framingham, Mass., writes that she and David Starr (’63, CAS’65), a retired social worker from the Framingham public schools, have been married 51 years. She has three children and six grandchildren and writes, “We live in Rockport and love being by the ocean and love retirement!”
Barry Curseaden (’65, Wheelock’67) retired after 35 years of teaching, 32 of which he spent in Westport, Conn. He lives in Surprise, Ariz., with his wife, Cheryl, during the winter and in Show Low, Ariz., during the summer. When not hosting friends, traveling, reading, fly fishing, or golfing, he works with Wounded Veterans. He is the founder and former president of the Sun City Grand Armed Forces Support Group (AFSG), which has donated more than $400,000 to national and local Veterans Support Foundations. The group also hosts annual receptions for World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans, and Rosie the Riveters, as well as monthly veterans coffee chats. He is a board member of the White Mountain Fly Fishing Club in Pinetop, Ariz., and the coordinator of the annual Wounded Veterans Fly Fishing Float Trip on the San Juan River in New Mexico. He is also on the chairing committee for a Veterans Monument Project in the Sun City Grand community. Barry writes, “It is truly an honor and a privilege to work with our veterans and thank them and their families for their service and sacrifice. Thank you, College of General Studies, a.k.a. College of Basic Studies, for your team approach to education. Your special curriculum and guidance at a very critical point in my life allowed me to begin to believe in myself. My degree from BU, master’s degree from two other great colleges, instructing stateside courses for the University of Hawaii, and teaching/administrating in one of the nation’s best school districts began at CGS and with Deans Horatio LaFauci and Brendan Gilbane. Keep up the great work and, more important, keep up the great caring for your students.”
Jim Green (’65, COM’67) of Potomac, Md., graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1970 and retired from his roles as an attorney and a member of the Senior Executive Service for the federal government in 2007. He is the general counsel of Graduate School USA, the nation’s largest training and professional development educational institution specializing in training for federal employees.
Frederic Schaefer (’65, COM’67) writes that after graduation, he was stationed in the navy in Japan, where he was a journalist for Stars and Stripes and worked for the commander of naval forces. He then moved to Denver, Colo., where he became an executive search consultant for Korn Ferry, A.T. Kearney, and part of the team that started the Stratford Capital Group, the 13th-largest retained search firm in the country. In 2008, Frederic returned to New England, where he conducts searches for nonprofits.
Elliot Small (’65, CAS’68) retired after working full time for the labor movement for almost 50 years, retiring from the staff of the Massachusetts Teachers Association in 2014. Elliot writes, “My memories of what was then called the College of Basic Studies are of a dynamic and exciting educational experience. CBS gave me a solid educational foundation for a lifetime of working for the interests of working people.”
Michael Crowley (’66, CAS’71) was recently nominated for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection, a contest open only to poet-volunteers who have donated their time to support a literary nonprofit. Michael submitted a slim volume of poems to the contest.
Steve Robinson (’66, CFA’69) was invited by Radio Romania to present the talk Broadcasting Classical Music Festivals on the Radio at the Media2020 Conference in Beijing on April 25, 2016.
Sue William Silverman (’66, COM’68) writes that her memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew (University of Nebraska Press), was a finalist for Foreword Reviews’ INDIEBFAB Book of the Year Awards.
Michael Vocino (’66, Wheelock’68), a professor at the University of Rhode Island, and his colleague Alfred Killilea published Befriending Death (iUniverse), a book of essays by people from an array of backgrounds reflecting on death and the meaning of life. Among the contributors is Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri (GRS’93, UNI’95,’97).
Wanda Adams Fischer (’68) retired as a public information officer at the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General in 2014. She has hosted the folk music program The Hudson River Sampler on the Albany, N.Y., public radio station WAMC since 1982 and writes, “The show weaves in many of the artists we all heard back in the Boston/Cambridge folk scene in the 1960s with today’s singer-songwriters who are making an impact on folk and acoustic music.”
Dick Garvey (’68, Questrom’70) of Charleston, S.C., retired after a rewarding business career, including 20 years as vice president of marketing for LEGO Toys and 10 years as owner/operator of a company that managed a 400-home resort on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He also served as group president at Reader’s Digest, and senior vice president and general manager of Fisher-Price Toys. He now divides his time between Charleston, where he has two young granddaughters, and Cape Cod, Mass., where he has six grandchildren in the Boston area. He writes, “All eight grandkids are seven years and younger!”
Maxene Meisterman Lorraway (’68, Wheelock’71) visited BU with her son, who will be attending college in 2017. She is a teacher who has accomplished “many things over the years in education and the media,” she writes, and runs a middle school learning center. Maxene has dual citizenship in Australia, where she lived and worked for many years, and thinks of Sydney as her “other home.”
1970s
John Donovan (’70, CAS’72) writes that his father, James, was played by Tom Hanks in the Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg (Hon’09) film Bridge of Spies. James Donovan was the court-appointed defense counsel to Soviet spy Rudolf Abel and negotiated the exchange of Abel with captured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers on a bridge between East and West Berlin, as dramatized in the movie. John traveled with his father to Europe for that case, and then to Cuba, where they drove across the country with Fidel Castro and came home with 35 US prisoners.
Hrach Gregorian (’70, CAS’72) is director of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at the American University School of International Service. His fieldwork recently took him to East Africa and Cyprus.
Jon B. Platt (’74), a Broadway producer, received a 2016 Tony Award for best revival of a play for Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and the Tony for best play for The Humans. He also received nominations for King Charles III (best play), Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (best musical), Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (best revival of a play), Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge (best revival of a play), and Blackbird (best revival of a play).
Steven Weisberg (’75, MET’77) of Fort Myers, Fla., founded Rarco Investment Properties in 1986 and serves on a Fort Myers zoning adjustment board. He has been married for 31 years and has two grown sons. Steven is a golfer and a board member of a golf club, and also enjoys biking, flying small planes, fishing, and traveling.
Sean Gilmore (’79) and his family relocated to Chicago, Ill., after living and working in Hong Kong for five years. Sean writes that he would “enjoy hearing from any classmates in or traveling through the Chicago area” and invites alums to email him at sogilmore@hotmail.com or sgilmore@engis.com.
1980s
Donna Stavenik Autieri (’80, MET’83,’86) is the owner of Borsella & Mastro Auto Body, Inc., a women-owned auto body shop in Westchester County, N.Y.
Norman Lewin (’80, Questrom’82) of Los Angeles, Calif., is an attorney specializing in asylum claims in the US Immigration Courts. He has served as a judge in public speaking competitions for high school students and as a mediator in landlord-tenant disputes. Norman writes, “The education I received at Boston University gave me the confidence to further my education and subsequently to run my own law practice.”
James Nederlander (’80), a Broadway producer, won the 2016 Tony Award for best play for The Humans and the Tony for best revival of a musical for The Color Purple. He also received nominations for Bright Star (best musical), School of Rock (best musical), and Fiddler on the Roof (best revival of a musical).
Mark Myette (’81, COM’83) recently published the book Wantrepreneuer: Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur? (Global Authority Agency), which became a bestseller on Amazon shortly after its release.
Elissa Altman (’83, CAS’85) writes that her memoir, TREYF: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw, will be published by New American Library, a division of Penguin, in September 2016. Her first memoir, Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking, was published by Berkley Books in hardcover (2013) and in paperback (2015).
Brian Haesche (’83) coached his town’s high school co-op (Branford-East Haven-North Branford) girls’ ice hockey team to back-to-back Southern Connecticut Conference Division II Championships in 2014 and 2015.
Mark Stevens (’84) was a yacht captain and dive master on the East Coast and in the Caribbean, and a commercial fisherman in New England and Alaska. In 1997, he transitioned to the health care field and became a resident nurse and then a family nurse practitioner. He still works in health care in Nevada and in New Mexico, where he and his wife opened the store Popcorn Maven and are building a destination riding and glamping [glamorous camping] ranch outside of Santa Fe. Mark has a vacation home in coastal North Carolina.
Vivian Geffen (’85, MET’88) earned a Master of Science at SUNY Buffalo’s International Center for Studies in Creativity and founded CreativityMuse, which offers individual coaching and group facilitation services. She also founded and leads signature workshops that employ applied creativity and applied improvisation to design experiences that foster personal and organizational transformation. She leads weekly classes in Santa Monica and is on staff at Santa Barbara City College.
James Hartnett (’86, Questrom’88) works in finance for Global Banking and Markets.
Allyn Hartstein (’87, COM’90) of New York, N.Y., performs office operations for tech companies and writes that she is “lead singer/blues goddess for an amateur/hobbyist band that gigs all over New York in my free time.” She is also “an avid theatergoer, waging a campaign to encourage tourists to go see shows that aren’t The Phantom of the Opera or Les Misérables.”
Christopher Lalor (’88, Questrom’90) has been a life insurance broker since 1992. Learn more here.
Morgan James Peters (’88, CAS’91, COM’93), also known as Mwalim, is an award-winning singer, composer, and musician who has been making an impact in the blues and Americana market as a member of The GroovaLottos, a Native American soul-funk-blues band. When he wrote, the band’s debut single, “Do You Mind…?” was #7 on the WI Blues Chart and poised to enter the Billboard charts. The band is completing an album and preparing for a tour, with Mwalim as the project producer and principal songwriter. Mwalim won the 2016 Silver Arrow Award for outstanding contributions to Native American music. He is also a playwright; in April 2016, his most recent work, Legacy, premiered in Boston as a part of the African Lodge #459 celebration of the Prince Hall Freemasons. He is a tenured professor of English and the director of black studies at UMass Dartmouth. Learn more about The GroovaLottos here.
Joe Yudin (’88, CAS’90) lives with his wife, Meirav, and three kids, Geffen, Dekkel, and Meiron, on Kibbutz Megiddo in Israel. He writes, “After a stint in the paratroopers, I became a tour guide, kibbutznik, husband, father, journalist for the Jerusalem Post, and travel professional.” He is working toward a PhD in Israel studies at the University of Haifa and has been a Condé Nast Traveler Israel travel specialist since 2011 and a Wendy Perrin trusted travel specialist since 2014. His company Touring Israel Luxury Private Tours is based in Israel.
1990s
Shana Drake Sewell (’91) is a pediatrician in central Illinois.
Anthony Reid Nicholson (’92, COM’94) is course director of entertainment media distribution in the Entertainment Business Bachelor of Science program at Full Sail University in Orlando, Fla. Previously, he worked in television and film in Los Angeles, including a role as executive producer on the film Anesthesia, distributed by IFC Films after a successful showing at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.
Ann Kircher (’94, CAS’96) serves in ministry in the Kansas City region and graduated with a doctorate in biblical studies and interdisciplinary studies in spring 2016.
Tony Lopez-Isa (’94, COM’96) is an executive producer at KRON-TV in San Francisco, Calif.
Kevin Sanderson (’94, CAS’96) lives in Sarasota, Fla., and recently earned his license to practice in the District Court for the District of Colorado. He and his wife are expecting their first child, a daughter, in August.
James Shepard (’95, CAS’96, SHA’98) and his wife, Idella, are the proud owners of the Cornwall Country Market in Cornwall Bridge, Conn. “Home of the best bacon, egg, and cheese; Reuben; and steak & cheese in the northwest corner!”
Loren Larsen (’97, CAS’99) married John McEachern (’97, CAS’99, Wheelock’05) in 2008. After practicing law in Chicago and New York City, Loren earned a Massachusetts real estate license in 2011 and is a founding partner of PLBoston, a luxury real estate team within the brokerage of Compass Massachusetts. Loren and her team sold more than $30 million in 2015 and represent buyers, sellers, and developers in Boston and Metro West. John is the director of undergraduate admissions at BU. They live in Newton with their three children and write that they would love to connect with other alums in the area. Email Loren at loren@compass.com.
Britt Hoglund (’98, CAS’00) of Irvine, Calif., is a project manager for Verizon Wireless and writes that she is “loving it.” Her sister Maeve is still living and singing in New York City, and her brother Marc got married in October 2015; Britt welcomed a new sister, Charmaigne Rosselle Hoglund, to the family. Britt is a national officer for her sorority Sigma Kappa and enjoys mentoring college leaders. She is on BU’s Orange County alumni board and writes, “Go Terriers!” Britt will be in Boston in October 2016 “if anyone wants to connect” and “would love to be in touch if you are ever in California.” Email her at bhoglund@hotmail.com.
2000s
Marshall Crane (’00, CAS’02) is general manager of the Lake Sunapee Country Club in New London, N.H., and ran the 2016 Boston Marathon to help raise money for the Greg Hill Foundation.
Kendrick Watson (’02, COM’04) of San Marino, Calif., is the academic program administrator for the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he oversees undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. His work encompasses recruitment and admissions, academic advising, student data acquisition and analysis, and alumni relations and development. Kendrick earned a master’s in educational administration at California State University, Northridge, in 2012. He lives with his wife, Kelly, and three sons, Thomas, Christopher, and Jonathan.
Robin Morehead Taylor (’03, CAS’05) is graduating from her obstetrics and gynecology residency in July 2016. She plans to join Methodist Healthcare and work as a general Ob-Gyn in the Memphis, Tenn., area, where she lives with her husband and four-year-old and nine-month-old daughters.
Puru Trivedi (’04, Questrom’06) heads the Meridian Corporate Council in Washington, D.C., dealing with corporations seeking to invest in the US Department of State–sponsored programs in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Puru writes, “CGS was a great time in my life. Really let me explore many different subjects I normally would not have considered. Thanks, CGS!”
Alejandro Garcia (’05, Questrom’07) created an event marketing company that helps attractions centers host interactive art experiences. The company has three offices on three continents.
Michelle Conti-Giambruno (’06, CAS’08), a licensed psychologist in private practice, married Michael Giambruno, of Glen Cove, N.Y., a Nassau County correctional officer, on August 21, 2015, in Woodbury, Long Island. Gianna Lyn Rey (CAS’08, COM’08) was a bridesmaid.
Matthew Trevithick (’06, CAS’08) is still based in Turkey, working at an aid auditing center he cofounded that works with the United Nations and World Food Programme, among other organizations, to better assist Syrian refugees through an improved understanding of their needs.
Franco Lozano III (’07, CAS’09) and Michael W. Reidy (’07, CAS’09) married on August 1, 2015, and own and operate Pedro’s Tacos in Boston’s Downtown Crossing.
Adanta Ahanonu (’08, Questrom’10) of Tucson, Ariz., is the associate director of outreach and recruitment at Year Up Boston. Year Up is a national nonprofit that empowers low-income young adults to go from poverty to professional careers in a single year after attending a free, intensive training program. Learn more here.
Pamela Aquino (’08, CAS’10) works at the new Google capital company Intersection, and encourages BU alums looking for engineering and tech jobs to reach out to her at Pamela.Aquino@intersection.com. Pamela is planning a 10-year CGS summer London reunion with classmates and former London roommates Marta Baranovska (’08, COM’10) and Mai Al-Moataz (’08, CAS’10, Questrom’10). Marta lives in Miami, Fla., and would love to reconnect with BU alums in the area. Email her at marta.baranovska@gmail.com. Mai is an archivist in Manama, Bahrain, and just had her first art fair, The Other Art Fair, at Victoria House in London.
John Bastani (’08, CAS’10) lives in New York City, where he is director of research for Ipsos Connect, the third-largest market research firm in the world, working with brands like Google, Autotrader, The Home Depot, Clear Channel, and Music Choice. Previously, he was a market research analyst for Autotrader.com under the Cox Automotive umbrella, where he managed quantitative and qualitative studies. John writes, “CGS was a great stepping-stone to discovering my passion for research and economics, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Justin Breton (’08, COM’10) was appointed head of marketing partnerships at Foursquare in New York City. He is responsible for defining and managing all partnership opportunities and reports directly to the chief marketing officer.
Ashley Grossman (’08, COM’10) earned a dual master’s degree in early childhood education and special education at Bank Street College of Education in New York, N.Y. She is a kindergarten teacher at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City and is pursuing another master’s degree at Bank Street in reading and literacy specialization. She lives in downtown New York City with her boyfriend of five years, Benjamin Zises (’05, SHA’08).
Ashley (McKeone) Murphy (’08, COM’10) and Michael Murphy (Questrom’10) joyfully welcomed the arrival of their daughter, Charlotte E. Murphy, on January 28, 2016.
Veronica Ocasio-Johnson (’08, Questrom’10) married Yale Johnson (’08, COM’10) in November 2015 in her hometown of San Juan, P.R. Veronica writes, “We were surrounded by family, friends, and so many fellow Terriers.” The couple has since moved to Minneapolis, Minn., and will be returning to Boston this summer to celebrate Yale’s little sister’s graduation from COM. Veronica writes, “We cannot wait to go back to campus and relive our college memories.”
Greg Whitcher (’08, CAS’10) was accepted into the University of Vermont College of Medicine class of 2019.
Nicole Asaff (’09, CAS’11) helps create Staples branded products as a product management specialist at the company’s corporate office.
Jenna Glynn (’09, COM’11) is celebrating her fifth year in New York City and has recently embarked on a new career in consumer health PR at Weber Shandwick. Her first project at Weber was to help Excedrin clients launch the Migraine Experience, the world’s first augmented reality migraine simulator. The program allows nonsufferers to experience the visual symptoms of a migraine, without the pain. To help tell the story, Jenna worked with Andy Cohen (COM’90), executive producer and award-winning host of Bravo TV.
2010s
Nick Secatore (’10, CAS’12) performs legal, compliance, and risk management work in the Boston office of the global investment firm Cambridge Associates. He is also a BU men’s hockey season ticket holder and “can’t wait for the upcoming season. Go Terriers!”
Alex Entratter (’11, Questrom’13) is a broker associate with @properties in Chicago, Ill., and writes that he inherited his passion for real estate from his family, “a long-established force” in the Chicagoland market. During college, Alex was a marketing intern for one of the top real estate firms in Chicago, which provided him with an understanding of the business and how to effectively market real estate to the right consumers. Alex graduated from BU with a degree in finance and began his career in advertising working in client services on Fortune 500 companies like McDonald’s and S. C. Johnson & Son, which gave him a strong background in client services, finance, and marketing.
Bob Schneider (’11, CAS’13) graduated from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy with a master’s in public policy in May 2016.
Brigid Sweeney (’11, COM’13) writes that she “fell in love with Boston during my time at BU and have been living in the Bean since graduation.” She works on the global marketing and new business development team at Racepoint Global, an integrated marketing communications agency in Boston. In 2016, Brigid was one of the eight individuals nominated and selected for the MITX Future Leaders Group in recognition of her leadership skills, entrepreneurial spirit, and early impact on the Massachusetts innovation ecosystem.
Steph Campanha (’12, CAS’14) is a community coordinator for a New York City council member.
Gunita Singh (’12, CAS’14) served as a clerk in the legal office of civil enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., and is entering her third year of law school at Georgetown University Law Center.
Reina Yasuoka (’12, COM’14) works in IBM’s artificial intelligence unit, Watson, helping the company’s partners develop and sell “Powered with Watson” solutions.
Ghita Benslimane (’13, COM’15) moved to New York City after graduation “on a hunch, with only one interview in sight,” she writes. “It ended up working out.” Ghita works for the Snapchat Content Team, where she helped create and now curates the Paris Local Story. “I think I got really lucky scoring a job at Snapchat right after college, and BU was a big part of that,” she writes. “I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without the knowledge and experiences I acquired on campus, whether it was taking rhetoric with Professor Rick Cole (best professor I’ve ever had, hands down), working for orientation, or pretending to be a ‘celeb’ on my WTBU radio show. On top of all of that, I live with my best friend, Wendy Ayers (’13, CAS’15), whom I met in the stairs of CGS during orientation. We both look back on CGS and BU fondly and look forward to going back to visit. Go Terriers!”
Chrissie Chinebuah (’13, CAS’15) writes, “As an international student from Ghana, I look back on my freshman year with fond memories of CGS and the intimate classes that helped me settle into college life.”
David Danesh (’13, Questrom’15) moved to San Francisco, Calif., to help scale the five-year-old technology startup Rev.com. His position encompasses prospecting leads to close customers, automating sales to increase the efficiency and impact of the sales team, and strategizing to discover new markets and customer segments. David is also collaborating with BU to enhance the BU Alumni Network in the Bay Area.
David Mayberg (’13, Questrom’15) lives in New York, where he works in venture capital for OurCrowd, an equity crowdfunding platform for early-stage startups. He writes, “I have to thank all the professors and staff at CGS for the interdisciplinary curriculum that gave me a challenging and comprehensive liberal arts foundation. Without my rhetoric courses freshman year, I would not have had the base to start to enjoy and make writing a passion and hobby over the remainder of college. The humanities and natural science curricula taught me the responsibility that individuals hold to people and the planet, something I have taken with me to the venture capital culture, where many companies that are looking to be funded have the potential to have a positive impact as well as be profitable. The social science courses in my sophomore year on Russia, China, and US foreign policy was the beginning of my profound interest in politics and world affairs and contributed immensely to my success during my time in Questrom and in my professional life after Boston University. Who would have thought that the Capstone paper my team wrote about the Syrian refugee crisis would still (unfortunately) be so relevant in 2016? However, once again, the core foundation that CGS provided me enables me to look at world events through an educated lens.”
Lucy Ye (’13, COM’15, CAS’15) lives in San Francisco, Calif., where she is an account executive working primarily with $500K–$1M businesses for the tech payments company Square Inc.