Class of 2015

Javier Sandoval’s first poetry book, Blue Moon Looming, was published by CutBank. It was reviewed by National Book Award nominee José Olivarez as ‘poetry for the unruly, and yes, the brilliant among us.’ Poems from the book have appeared in top literary journals. Contact Javier at javi.a.sand@gmail.com.

Max Ladow was selected for the prestigious Science & Technology Policy Fellowship in Sacramento by the California Council on Science and Technology. He is placed in the California State Senate working on the Housing Committee. In a blog post for CCST, he describes the surprising connections between their neuroscience research and the complicated world of housing policy. Contact Max at Max_Ladow@alumni.brown.edu.

Owen Greenwald’s sci-fi novel Weapons of the Mind was published by Will Dreamly Arts on July 2. Written with his longtime friend Paul Kivelson, Weapons of the Mind is the pulse-pounding story of one woman’s quest to clear her name and take vengeance on the one who framed her: a galaxy-spanning journey of moral dilemmas, political machinations, and planet-shattering secrets. Weapons of the Mind is the first in a planned trilogy and draws on many of the lessons Owen learned in his creative writing classes at Brown. Contact Owen
at owen_greenwald@alumni.brown.edu.

Walker D. Mills coedited On Contested Shores Volume 2: The Evolving Role of Amphibious Operations in the History of Warfare with Timothy Heck and B.A. Friedman. This collection is a volume of essays on amphibious warfare, available at no cost from the Marine Corps University Press website. Contact Walker at walker_mills@alumni.brown.edu.

The not-for-profit Unjournal, which funds public, journal-independent evaluation of hosted papers and dynamically presented projects by social scientists whose work has the potential to substantially impact global priorities, has awarded Philip Trammell ’15 an inaugural Impactful Research Award. 

Matthew Lorito ’15 joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as a professional scout. He will focus on professional teams in the United States midwest region. He joins the Penguins after spending nine years as a professional hockey player in both North America and Europe, most recently for the German professional hockey team Grizzlys Wolfsburg. 

Sarah Grace and Jared Schober were married on August 13, 2022 in Boston. Quite a few Brown alumni were in attendance, including Samuel Brebner, Ross Dispenza, Loren Dowd, Norman Grace ’58, Robert Grace ’84, Stephanie Grace ’87, Corey Holman, James Janison, Natasha Nelson, Perry Rosenberg, Barbara Anderson Rotger ’86, Jose Rotger ’86, Miriam Grace Silverman ’66, Celina Stewart, Alice Sun, Amy Sung ’14, Caleb Tower ’85, Edith “Dede” Tower ’85, and Klara Zimmerman ’15. Jared and Sarah met on the first day of college at Brown—they were neighbors in Perkins Hall. They currently reside in Berkeley, Calif. 

Julia Stoller and Caleb Weinreb met freshman year in their Perkins freshman dorm and dated ever since. They got married this past summer. Julia writes: “We figured the alumni association might be interested in our story, as it affirms the mythology around Perkins couples. We met during the orientation games run by our RAs at Perkins and had our first conversation when Caleb sat down next to me while I was doing my art homework in the Perkins basement lounge. We had our first kiss on Halloween of freshman year behind Perkins." Julia is now a math instructional coach in the Cambridge Public Schools and Caleb is a neuroscience postdoc at Harvard.

A new novel by Dana Schwartz, Anatomy: A Love Story, was published on Jan. 18 (Wednesday Books). The gothic tale full of mystery and romance is set against the backdrop of 1830s Edinburgh. Dana is the author of three other books: the memoir Choose Your Own Disaster, the humor tome The White Man’s Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon, and the YA novel And We’re Off. She recently wrote her first comic book for Marvel, Deadpool Annual #1, and currently serves as a staff writer on the Disney+ original series She-Hulk. She is also the creator and host of the history podcast, “Noble Blood.” As a journalist, she has written for notable publications such as the New Yorker, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Glamour, and GQ. Dana currently lives in Los Angeles with her cat Beetlejuice and often entertains her fans through her tweets, which often go viral.

Janet Leung ’16 earned a Bronze medal in women’s softball with Team Canada in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Other Brown Bears competing included Hanna Barakat ’21 of Team Palestine in track and field; Jagger Stephens ’20 represented Guam in swimming; and Cicely Madden ’18, Alex Miklasevich ’19, and Anders Weiss ’15 competed for Team USA in rowing events.

Graciela Kincaid and Jeremy Jacob married on Oct. 20. They met on their first day at Brown while moving into the Wayland dorm. Their backyard ceremony was officiated by Andrew Nizamian and included two Brown grads in the groom’s family, Thomas Jacob ’73 and Timothy Jacob ’15. They hope to celebrate with many more Brown grads in the near future.

Eleanor Walsh and Blake Wilcox ’16 were married on June 13 at Eleanor’s parents’ house in her hometown of Lancaster, Pa. The ceremony was very small, with fellow Brunonians Spencer Caplan ’15, Jenna Frerichs ’16, and Willa Tracy ’18, ’19 AM, included in the wedding party. A larger first anniversary celebration is planned for June 2022.

Jessica Sachs (see Brad Sachs ’78).

Izzy Rattner writes: “In his very first legal case after passing the bar and becoming a licensed attorney, Steven Chizen ’14 represented me in a personal injury settlement. We can’t share the details but are thrilled that Steven is undefeated in his law career!”

Abby Colella married Dan Davidson ’11 and the following people were in attendance: father of the bride, Jay Colella ’79; man of honor, James Anglin Flynn ’11; aunt of the bride, Kim Colella DeMagistris ’81; Matthew Aks ’11; Michael Bleicher ’11; Skylar Fox ’15; Jenny Gorelick ’14; Natan Last ’12; Kelly Mallahan ’11; Jessie Medofer ’13; Kate Monks ’13; Meredith Mosbacher ’11; Luke Rohde ’11; Sam Schmerler ’11; Christiana Stephenson ’11; Adam Wyron ’13; and Leandro Zaneti ’12.

Bill Armitage ’74 ScM and Dave Baldauf completed a coast-to-coast drive in Dave’s Tesla. Dave dropped Bill in San Francisco to visit with his daughter Amelia ’15, and completed the return trip solo. Their trip was somewhat of a reprise of their dash from the Ratty to the Kennedy Space Center (accompanied by classmate Bill Davies ’77 ScM) to watch the night launch of Apollo 17.

Nate Wardwell married Jared Misner in November. Adam Katz officiated, while Joshua Linden and Timothy Parsons ’15 ScM were groomsmen. Also in attendance were Brook Achterhof ’15; Duane Barksdale ’17 Jeffrey Baum ’15; Natalie Diacovo; Drew Hansen ’15; Margaret Hanson; Dara Illowsky; Ryan Joudeh ’16, ’17 AM; Raghava Kamalesh; Russyan Mabeza ’15; Noah Prestwich; Derek Shay ’16; and Ben Simon ’11,’12 ScM.

Almaz Dessie ’11 MD married Michael Moffat on Oct. 7 at the Belle Isle Boat House in Detroit, Mich. Their friend Kira Neel ’05,’19 MD officiated the ceremony. Almaz is an assistant professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and practices as a pediatric emergency doctor at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Michael is also a physician, practicing as a pediatric hospitalist at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn. The couple met in 2012 during their pediatrics residency at the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland. They have a mutual love of music, global health, and travel. The wedding was a four-day celebration of love, community, and blessings. They honored their Ethiopian and Jewish traditions and surprised their guests with a reunion performance by their band from their residency days in California (Almaz sings lead and Mike plays guitar). Members of Almaz’s former dance company at Brown, New Works/World Traditions, also surprised them with a West African dance performance at the reception. In attendance were Senior Lecturer in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Michelle Bach-Coulibaly; Elizabeth Anto ’06, ’11 MD; Tarik Asmerom ’05; Praveen Basaviah ’05; Nora Blackall ’08; Alykhan Boolani ’06; Mark Brown II ’09; Jalle Dafa; Vanessa Danziger ’11; Sheila Desai ’05; Sybil Dessie ’04, ’08 MD; Chris Erway ’06 AM, ’11 PhD; Sushil Jacob ’05; Jazzmen Johnson’15 AM; Jori Ketten ’02; Kira Neel ’05, ’19 MD; Meghan O’Brien ’06; Ethan Philbrick ’08; Micah Salkind ’06, ’10 AM,’16 PhD; Sophie Shackleton ’09; Daniel Sobol ’09; Matthew Soursourian ’08; Ida Specker ’09; Alexx Temeña ’16; Nicole Thompson ’08;  Monica Tilly ’11 MD; Jessica Vosburgh; Chantel Whittle ’12; Kenya Wright ’15; Ali John Zarrabi ’06, ’12 MD; and Leonora Zoninsein ’08.

Lauren Waterbury and Landon Turley ’12 were married on Apr. 28.

Sophia Schein Renda (see Ernie Renda ’79).

Claire Kim ’16 MAT and Bianca Camacho ’16 are getting married. Claire writes: “Shout out to BUDS and the Blue Room, where we met and worked together.”

Kelly Buckley (see Reid Norris Buckley ’84).

Reid Norris Buckley invites any classmates who want a break by the water to be in touch. She is happy her daughter Kelly Buckley ’15 is back on the East Coast. She loves connecting with the D.C. classmates periodically, especially Patricia Langan.

Ernie Renda and Louisa Schein live in Somerset, N.J. Louise began her 25th year as a professor at Rutgers Univ., with joint appointments in Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies, after receiving her doctorate from UC Berkeley. Ernie, a graduate of Georgetown Law, has a solo law practice in Bridgewater, N.J. Their daughter, Sophia Schein Renda ’15, completed her master’s in education at the Univ. of Pennsylvania and teaches in the Philadelphia public schools. Their son, Ernesto Renda, Brown-RISD ’18, completed the joint program and is a past student head of the Brown Arts Initiative.

Andrea S. Wister married long-time partner Frode Kagge on July 8, in Oslo, Norway. Many people crossed the Atlantic to attend, including Patrick Cox, Steven McGarty, Nicole Peterson, Tiffany Tassin ’15 ScM, Sabrina Yu ’15, and Kyle Zurcher.

Jane de Winter announces the Aug. 7 wedding of her daughter, Marguerite McCray Joutz ’15, to Manas Gautam ’12 in New York City. She writes: “They are living in the city, where Manas is an investor at Morgan Stanley, and Marguerite began working as the confidential assistant to the New York Times editorial board editor. They are very happy, and Marguerite’s three brothers are pleased to welcome a fourth brother.”