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Anita (Curtis) Glesta, ’79 is currently working on the completion of the 7 acre landscape commission for the Federal Census Bureau Building in Washington, DC . Glesta won the commission for the building, which is a Skidmore, Owens, and Merrill designed building. She’s also worked on the two part Gernika project, which was installed in two venues in New York City last spring. Her work has been featured on industry websites of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Whitebox New York and New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), as well as, such publications as Sculpture Magazine and BOMB Magazine.
Aaron Levinson, ’85 became A&R director for the Philadelphia based recording company, Range Records, whose mission is to promote music with a Philadelphia connection as our primary goal though not exclusively. The company’s first album, Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson, was released in March.
Kari Wolf, ’85 writes, “I am a graduate of the Seminar College which means I'm from way back before Lang was Lang and the entire student body was about 78 (ah, nirvana!).” She now has a Masters Degree in Social Work from New York University and currently works in the Psychiatric Emergency Room at Bellevue Hospital. She’s interested in learning more about “Langies and Seminar College folk”.
Natalia de Cuba, '86 is the happy mother of Leandro Xavier, born June 16, 2007. She is teaching intensive ESL fulltime at Nassau Community College on Long Island and freelancing articles on food, wine and travel (mostly). Recent publications that featured her articles include ISLANDS, Caribbean Travel & Life, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Food & Wine, Le Connoisseur and the Relais & Chateaux, Hilton and Marriott magazines. She is on the
board of a community-supported agriculture farm. She still communicates with fellow alumni Lynda Schorr, Sharon Lane and Debra Mostow and is interested in reconnecting with other alumni.
Francis Kwok, ’89 is currently the director of Human Resources for Reproductive Medicine Associate of New York. She is also trained for the New Jersey Marathon, which happened on May 4.
John Magisano, ’89 serves as a consultant to nonprofit organizations in New York City and New York State as senior associate for Client Services and Training for Nonprofit Connection, a nonprofit capacity-building consulting firm. In this position, he assists community-based organizations with strategic planning, fundraising and program planning and design and evaluation services. He also provides trainings and workshops on topics such as program design, staff supervision, and program evaluation and case management. He has provided training and consultation to HIV/AIDS, community-development, health services, faith-based and arts organizations throughout the city and state.
Magisano is also an ordained minister in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a Protestant denomination with a primary ministry to the esbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender communities, and has served various churches in the tri-state area since the mid -90's. He received a Masters of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary in 2000. Currently, he is pastoral counselor to the Chelsea Community Church, which recently hosted the children's choir of the Chelsea-Elliot I Have A Dream Program, led by another Lang Alum, Elizabeth Cooke.
Robert W. Frommer, ’89 earned a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1994 and has clerked for the Honorable Arlene R. Lindsay. He is currently an associate at Borchert, Genovesi, LaSpina & Landicino, P.C. in Whitestone, NY. He has co-authored many law briefs over the years.
Julia Rodriguez, ’89 was promoted to Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire in 2006. She was also awarded the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. Next year she will be the resident director of the UNH-study-in-Italy program.
Borzou Daragahi, ‘91, is Beirut bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, covering Iran and the Arab world. Previously he served as bureau chief in Baghdad where he led the team that won a 2006 Overseas Press Club award and was recognized as a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting. Before joining the Times in 2005, he covered war, politics, culture and commerce in the Middle East for various print and broadcast outlets. He was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting for his coverage of Iraq.
Samantha (Shanosky) Peale, '91, lives in Los Angeles. Her novel, The American Painter Emma Dial, is due from publishing company, Norton, in spring 2009.
Youme Landowne, ’92 has been painting murals and researching international children's stories of social justice since graduation. She is currently teaching The Lang Mural Project at the New School. Her first picture book, Selavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope, continues to bring new opportunities for sharing. Expecting in the Fall is her second book, Pitch Black, a graphic collaboration with Anthony Horton, who has lived in the New York Subway tunnels since 1886 when he was a teenager. For more information, visit http://youme.landowne.org.
Ean Murphy, '93 moved to Montreal, Quebec last summer with her husband, Joe Renz, in part to open the Canadian chapter of Impact style personal safety - Prepare Canada. She continues to commute to New York City each month to maintain her bookkeeping business, Moxie Bookkeeping.
Jill Wechsler, LMSW, ‘93 is a forensic social worker in the Adolescent Intervention and Diversion Unit at the Legal Aid Society in the South Bronx, where she works with 14-17 year old criminal defendants who have been charged with serious felonies in Bronx Supreme Court. In addition, she was recently selected to be a primary presenter at the 25th Annual Conference of the National Organization of Forensic Social Workers in May 2008. Wechsler earned her Master of Social Work degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and her cats.
T.Tara Turk, ’96 maintains her blog, www.bgirlstance.com and recently had a reading of her latest play "Hesperides Emcees" in the Hip Hop Theater Festival. She has a short story in X-24: Classified, an international anthology of short story writers. Another one of her stories was featured in Midwestern Review of Black Women Writers. She is currently working on her second novel about the Brooklyn poetry scene of the 90s. Turk lives between New York and Los Angeles.
Chauncey Zalkin, ’96 is a freelance writer and cultural researcher currently based in Paris. She founded the Webby nominated Girlonthestreet.com and went on to become a senior brand strategist and resident trends expert at creative shops before moving to Paris to write and report on happenings from the Milan furniture fair to the Bread + Butter European streetwear spectacle and beyond. Girl on the Street is her ongoing experiment dedicated to the spirit of creative young women around the world who continue to inspire her. Her blog address is www.wordpress.girlonthestreet.com. More about her can be found at www.girlonthestreet.com.
Retu Singla, ’97 received a Juris Doctor degree from UCLA in 2001. She is a union side labor attorney for the Transport Workers Union Local 100 under the leadership of Roger Toussaint. She is married and has one child. Her husband is currently a PhD candidate at Milano, The New School for Management and Urban Policy. She lives in Brooklyn and is a councilwoman on the District 13 community education council, the school board.
Charlotte Smith, ’97 is communications director for Showroom Via Malaura, which displays myriad of international brands by innovative designers. Smith works with young designers and helps them develop their brand. “Our showroom is always open to young talent on the edge,” writes Smith. Showroom Via Malaura is located in Paris, France, where Smith now lives.
Jill Du Boff, ’98 is designing sound for theatre, with many successful Broadway, off-Broadway and Regional shows. She was recently awarded the Ruth Morley Design Award, an annual award given to one woman a year for pioneering work in theatre. This is the first time the award has been given to a sound designer. In the near future, Du Boff will open a show at MTC called "From Up Here". She also has a few shows running off-Broadway at the moment.
Jessica Aufiery, ’99 currently lives in Paris with her husband and two daughters. Her new story, 'One Has To Ask', will appear in vol. 2.1. of Prick of the Spindle at www.prickofthespindle.com.
Susanna Ferrara, ’99 wrote two essays that are included in the recently released book, Voices Rising: Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project (University of New OrleansPress, 2008). The book is comprises of thirty-one narrative essays based on interviews with local New Orleanians about their experiences leading up to, during, and following the storm.
Dennis Cabrera, ’00 is a teacher at Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok, Thailand, where he teaches a class on global issues and has been active in community service projects in Thailand. In the past two years, he’s volunteered his time to teach English to inmates at a detention center outside Bangkok, organized and delivered aid to an orphanage along the Thai-Burmese border. He’s also joined with his students in a global campaign to raise awareness of, and speak out against, extreme poverty. Their story is featured on the Stand Against Poverty website at www.standagainstpoverty.org/en/node/14206. Cabrera plans to return to the U.S. in the fall to attend Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Andrew Repasky McElhinney, ’00 is busy with final post production on his fourth feature film as a producer-director entitled, Animal Husbandry. Slated to hit the festival circuit this Fall, McElhinney's latest is a modern dress, word-for-word site specific performance of a play from the 1930s with the subtext reexamined to explore issue of race, gender and sexual identity in contemporary America. Apart from his career as a professional film director, McElhinney is also perusing a master’s degree in Media and Communication at The European Graduate School, Switzerland. An avid essayist, McElhinney recently contributed the monograph, A World Destroyed By Gold -- Shared Allegories of Capital in Wagner’s Ring and Ulmer’s Isle of Forgotten Sins to Scarecrow Press' anthology of essays on the work of Edgar G. Ulmer. And, as he has since before his fondly remembered days at Lang in the late 90s, McElhinney still programs repertory cinema with The Chestnut Hill Film Group and since 2004 has hosted Andrew's Video Vault at the University of Pennsylvania's Rotunda. For more updates on McElhinney's work, visit www.ARMcinema25.com.
Sean Flannagan, '01 is the associate director of Web Services at New York's 92nd Street Y. He blogs about art and cultural trends on the web at Deeplinking.net and was recently featured in a piece on book-centered social networks on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, which can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88514715.
Travis Jeppesen, ’01 has a book of essays, Disorientations: Writings on Art from Central Europe and Beyond, that will be published by Social Disease in June. Previous publications include two novels, Wolf at the Door (Twisted Spoon Press, 2007) and Victims (Akashic Books, 2003). Victims was selected by Dennis Cooper to debut his "Little House on the Bowery" Series Akashic Books. He also published a volume of poetry, Poems I Wrote While Watching TV (Blatt Books, 2006). He currently lives in Germany, where he’s “alive and well”!
Mariel Concepcion, ’02 is associate editor at Billboard.com, where she writes and edits stories on Hip Hop and R&B. In addition, she has written a few cover stories and other features for Billboard Magazine.Prior to Billboard, Concepcion was the online editor for Vibe Magazine, where she started out as an intern after graduating from Lang.
Melissa Gertz, ’02 earned her Jurist Doctorate from Rutgers-Newark School of Law with a concentration in civil rights. She currently works in Trenton, NJ, at the Community Health Law Project, representing disabled, indigent people in a variety of civil matters.
Helen Linda, '02 graduated from the UIUC Graduate School of Library and
Information Science with an MSLIS in Information Organization and Knowledge
Representation in Spring 2007. Linda has worked in libraries since 1998, including the Fogelman Library at The New School in 2001 & 2002 as a Technical Services Assistant
via the work-study program, where her love of library work began. “I guess the world can thank Lang and Tom Terefenko, my supervisor while at Fogelman, for foisting another Cataloger on the world!” Linda began her professional career in the library field in October of 2007 at Goddard College's Eliot D. Pratt Library as their Library Systems & Technical Services Coordinator. A library activist, Linda lives in Central Vermont with her partner, and is co-chair of the Vermont Library Association's Advocacy Committee. She will discuss distance education opportunities at the VLA Annual Conference this year.
Mona Weiner, ’03 graduated in May from Bank Street College with a dual MSEd in Early Childhood Special and General Education. She is a head teacher at the Downtown Little School, a private progressive preschool in lower Manhattan. Mona is involved with the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, where she acts as a programming consultant for children with special needs. She lives in the East Village.
Karen Bray, ’05 moved to Cambridge, MA last fall to attend Harvard Divinity School. Previously, she worked as a union organizer in New York for two years. She hopes to receive a master’s degree in Divinity in 2010, and is looking forward to being ordained as a Unitarian Universalist Minister.
Geoffrey Golia, ’05 is currently working as a Research Specialist and Editor at Leadership Directories, Inc., a company that provides high-quality contact information and networking solutions in print and online formats. As one of the leaders of its content development team, Golia receives requests that vary from obtaining all the email addresses for everyone at a certain company or firm, to finding educational records for individuals we list, to researching career and affiliation information for who's who in the leadership of the United States and abroad. “It's a little bit like the yellow pages meets All the Presidents Men, he writes about his job. He lives in Stamford, Connecticut and maintains his blog: http://geoffreymgolia.blogpost.com
Christine Lynch, ’05 continued her studies after Lang at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is currently working as a holistic health counselor for her own private practice in New York City. As an HHC, she empowers, teaches and inspires people to live healthier lives. She leads workshops and cooking classes and writes articles on various health topics. She is also the in-house nutritional guru for her charitable marathon/triathlon team, Race with Purpose. Her website is www.liveandeatbetter.com and her articles and podcasts can be found on www.racewithpurpose.org.
Colleen McCormack-Maitland, ‘05 is a first year law student at New York University School of Law. She will graduate in 2010.
Justin Stanley, ’05 works for the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey as an information and resource specialist. Previously he was a resource specialist for the Family Support Center of NJ. He is considering a return to the city, to attend Hunter College to pursue a Masters degree in Anthropology, and would love to hear from other alumni from '05 living and working in the New York City or New Jersey. He can be reached at jstanley82@gmail.com.
Eleanor Whitney, '05 is currently the academic programs coordinator at the Brooklyn Museum. In addition to planning and coordinating the Museum's lectures and panel discussions, she teaches university students in the Museum's galleries. She recently spoke at the New York City Grassroots Media Conference about strategies for teaching visual and media literacy. She continues to keep a personal blog at http://killerfemme.blogspot.com and is co-editor of riffrag.org, an online feminist art journal.
Rachel Denny, ’06 was promoted to manager of alumni relations at The New School. She joined the Office of Alumni Relations in the summer of 2006 as an associate.
Allen Riley, ’06 co-founded a video production team in Providence, RI called EMSIAC, which completed their first feature-length work, "The Grateful Undead" in November 2007. Since then, They’ve taken that and other films on a national tour of basements and art spaces, most recently at Monkeytown in Brooklyn. In addition to working with EMSIAC, Riley also works at a bookstore.
Matthew Sorensen,'06 will soon receive an M.A. in Critical Studies in Film and Television from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He plans to pursue a career in documentary film. Sorenson would love to hear from fellow alumni who are interest in networking around documentary production.
Lauren Gabriela Mendez, '07 is currently working for an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) downtown as a child care counselor, advising parents on how to balance their work and family lives, and connecting them to child care providers. She continues to help orphans in Sri Lanka and enjoys volunteering with Orphans International and helping plan fund raisers. She plans to begin NYC Teaching Fellows in June, where she will be teaching special education in the Fall while earning her MA in education. Please visit www.oiww.org for information about Orphans International and how to sponsor a child in need.
Richard Vecchio '86, after six years working as a correspondent for The Associated Press, is now an independent journalist based in Lima, Peru, and is also working with his wife, Siduith, in their business, Fertur Peru Travel. They have three fabulous kids, Alico, 6, Harry, 4, and Carol Elena, 2.
Major Susan Romano '91 and Captain Daniel McSweeney '94 discovered one another in the chaos of war. | Read more.
Francis Kwok '89 was appointed director of human resources for RMA of NY in March 2007.
David Duchin '90 was appointed general manager of People Show, one of the longest running experimental theatre companies in Europe, on the eve of their 40th anniversary national tour of England. David has also co-founded Brother Tongue, a theatre company dedicated to producing new
translations of European plays. Brother Tongue is among three finalists on the short list of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Awards for their new production, About Tommy, by Thor Bjorn Krebs (DK). Winners will be announced in December 2007. David is married to Marcella Puppini of The
Puppini Sisters band, and lives in London.
Martin Hyatt '96 was recently awarded the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction at The Publishing Triangle Awards for his first novel, A Scarecrow's Bible. The novel was also named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association and is a finalist for the Violet Quill Award. It was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award. The book was Hyatt's thesis when he was a student in the MFA in Creative Writing program at The New School for General Studies. Martin was also selected as one of the "novelists of tomorrow" in a New York Magazine contest, "Literary Idol." Part of Martin's new novel, Grit, My Love, was featured.
Chris Rotter ’96 and long-time partner Sara Simmons ’99 continue to pursue their interests in history and art through their home-based business, Leddy & Slack. They manufacture traditional-style tin soldiers for museum gift shops and collectors. Their daughter Hadley was born in 2000 and is a budding environmentalist and animal rights activist.
Veronica Reilly '98 relocated to Berkeley after getting an MA in English Education from Columbia Teachers College. She now works as a 7th and 8th grade English teacher at a private school in San Francisco. She also continues to travel extensively, having spent time in China, Mongolia, and Ecuador this past summer.
Ryan Germick '03 designed the icon for Google's Street View, then starred in the demo video, which was recently one of the top five videos viewed on YouTube.
Carrie Plant '05 is associate administrator and lead teacher at the Jewish Education Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
Julia Rodriguez '89 was recently promoted to associate professor of History and Women's Studies with tenure at the University of New Hampshire. She also published a book, Civilizing Argentina: Science, Medicine, and the Modern State (UNC Press), in 2006.
David Duchin '90 recently finished "The Estate" at Soho Theatre in London. Due to popular demand, the show will be extended for an additional four weeks in September and there are negotiations for a tour as well. David is currently production manager on "The Persian Revolution" at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Iranian Constitution.
Martin Hyatt '96 is the founding director of a writing center at a small college in downtown Brooklyn. His first novel, A Scarecrow's Bible, was published in May 2006 by Suspect Thoughts Press. Martin's website is www.martinhyatt.net.
Leah Lakshmi (Albrecht) Piepzna-Samarasinha '97 is a writer, spoken word artist and youth arts educator currently based in Toronto. Her first book of poetry, Consensual Genocide (TSAR) came out this April. She tours frequently, teaches writing to queer and trans youth at the award-winning Pink Ink program, is one of the co-founders of Toronto's Asian Arts Freedom School, runs the Browngirlworld queer of color spoken word series and has current work anthologized in We Don't Need Another Wave, BitchFest, Homelands: Women's Journies Across Race, Place, and Time, and at riffrag.org. Her website is www.brownstargirl.com. She loves Canada's free health care and arts funding, but is probably coming back to the U.S. to get her MFA next year.
Abigail Denson '99 is the author and illustrator of Tough Love: High School Confidential, a romantic comic book about a budding relationship between two gay teens. The comic, recently published in book form by Manic D Press, was original serialized in the San Francisco gay youth magazine, XY. It has received acclaim for its social honesty and potential use as a tool to ease the coming out process for gay teens and their families. For more information, visit www.abbycomix.com.
Elizabeth Nielson '03 is the individual volunteer coordinator at Habitat for Humanity in Santiago, Chile. She also does freelance work and volunteers as a translator for other NGOs. Previously she lived in Brazil for over a year. Elizabeth has completed a certificate in English-Portuguese Translation from the University of Toronto and is currently working on one for Spanish-English.
Marcus Kryshka '96 writes "I've been a carpenter for the last three years, sharing jobsites with a multitude of other liberal arts alumni. I split my spare time between hanging out with my three year old daughter and plotting the overthrow of capitalism. If there are any Lang alums in the Bay Area, I'd love to meet them."
Chauncey Zalkin '96 is creative/senior brand strategist at Margeotes Fertitta Powell in New York City. Previously she worked in the same capacity at the Crispin Porter + Bogusky agency in Miami. In 2000 Chauncey started girlonthestreet.com, a trend and culture website dedicated to chronicling influencing "girls on the street." In 2002 the website was named one of three "Best Fashion Websites" by Teen People and in 2003 Chauncey was quoted for her "marketing and trend" expertise in Cosmopolitan and New York's Newsday and featured in the New York Post and Elle Brazil.
Katrina (O'Gilvie) Andrews '98 has been married to Russell Andrews, an actor, for almost 10 years. They have a daughter, Anya (age 6) and a son, Kai (age 2) and live in Encino, California. Katrina has written several screenplays and a television pilot, and has just completed her first book and begun working on a children's book series. She is also a writer for NBC's "The More You Know" public service announcement campaign. Soon after graduation, Katrina moved to Los Angeles where she began working for Imagine Entertainment. A year later she moved to the television show, "Sports Night," where she worked for Aaron Sorkin. She then took a year off to have her first child and travel with her husband as he toured an August Wilson play and spent a year in New York while her husband performed in the Off Broadway play, "Jitney."
Claire Stoner '98 has relocated to New Haven, Connecticut from Pittsburgh and is working as the communications director for the Waterbury office of Communities United to Strengthen America.
Jennifer Bautz '05 is in her second year as a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.
Kenneth Resnik '87 has been a criminal defense lawyer in Boston for the past seven years. He and his wife have a "boisterous" four year old son, and are expecting a daughter very soon.
Carolyn Kaiser '92 married Paul Going in 1996 and they are now the parents of three daughters-10, 5, and 8 months old. She now lives in New Jersey after many years in New York City and would love to catch up with her Lang classmates!
Maria Bova '02 is one of four winners of the YES Network's "Ultimate Road Trip." The weekly reality show on YES follows Maria and three other die-hard New York Yankees fans as they travel to all of the team's 162 regular season games.
Nicole Moore '03 is currently working as an actress and professional boxer in Los Angeles, California.
Natalia de Cuba Romero '86 is a high school teacher in the South Huntington Union Free School District on Long Island, where she is in her second year of teaching English as a Second Language. She is also a freelance writer for articles on food, wine, and travel. Her articles have appeared in publications such as Food & Wine, Islands, and Caribbean Travel & Life.
Kent "Kip" Curtis '88 was recently hired as assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. In addition to courses in environmental history, nature writing, and environmental justice, he will be designing courses that explore the intersection of poverty and environmental neglect in the city. He received his doctoral degree in Environmental History in May 2001 and has worked as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, the University of Massachusetts, and Emerson College.
Lindsay Lavelle '03 is currently teaching Special Education in the Bronx.
Skye Steele '03 recently recorded violin and rabeca (Northeast Brazilian fiddle) tracks for Cyro Baptista's upcoming "Beat the Donkey" CD. He has also recently appeared with vocalist Tessa Souter, and he continues to perform regularly with alumnus Scott Kettner's Nation Beat and Harel Schachal's Anistar, among others. Skye has also begun leading his own quintet and is looking forward to recording this fall. Keep an eye on www.skyesteele.com for details.
David Duchin '90 is a freelance theatre production manager with a show going on tour in April-a Nigerian version of Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard" called "The Estate." For more information see www.tiatafahodzi.com. David would like to reconnect with his former classmates and has given the Office of Alumni Relations permission to give his contact information out to those who are interested in contacting him.
Joyce Ann Odom '92 owns and operates The Hidden Host, an events planning business in Singapore. She recently married Barry Graham Washington in a beachfront ceremony in Bali, Indonesia.
Claire Stoner '98 is a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh working toward an MA in professional writing.
Megan Fenselau '02 is pursuing a combined master's degree in History and Museum Studies at Tufts University.
Erica Taguiam '05 is working in sales and research at DeMatteo Monness, a boutique brokerage.
Bonny Leigh Wilson '05 is an interior designer at NBBJ, an architectural firm in New York.
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