GS Class of 1986

Bryan R. Monte ’86 AM announces the publication of his poetry book, On the Level: Poems on Living with Multiple Sclerosis by Circling Rivers. He writes: “This book depicts many aspects of my more than 40-year struggle with MS: from first signs and misdiagnoses, to tests, scans, medicines, clinic visits, and hospitalizations, and finally to increasing disability. On the Level has been praised by T.S. Eliot Prize Winner Philip Gross for its candor and humor.” Bryan is a poet, anthropologist,

Ian M. Taplin ’86 PhD published The Napa Valley Wine Industry with Cambridge Scholars Press. He is professor of sociology, management, and global studies at Wake Forest University, N.C. He continues his research on the wine industries in Napa, North Carolina, and, Bordeaux, and on the emerging English wine industry where sparkling wines continue to win international awards. He has been visiting professor at Kedge Business School, Bordeaux, where he taught in the wine and spirits MBA program. Contact him at taplin@wfu.edu.

Carolyn Whitney-Brown ’86 AM, ’91 PhD, published her fourth book, coauthored with the late Henri Nouwen, Flying, Falling, Catching: An Unlikely Story of Finding Freedom (HarperOne, 2022). The book tells the story of Nouwen’s friendship with the Flying Rodleighs trapeze troupe and why his last manuscript was left unfinished at his death in 1996. Links to reviews, interviews, and events can be seen at writersunion.ca/member/carolyn-whitney-brown.

Suzanne Keen ’86 AM, formerly vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty at Hamilton College, became the 10th president of Scripps College in Claremont, Calif.

Suzanne Keen ’86 AM (see ’84).

Suzanne Keen ’86 AM, dean of faculty and professor of literature and creative writing at Hamilton College (N.Y.), has been named the 10th president of Scripps College, the women’s college of the Claremont Colleges.

Ian Taplin ’86 PhD, professor of sociology, management, and international studies at Wake Forest University, published The Napa Valley Wine Industry: The Organization of Excellence (Cambridge Scholars Press). This follows an earlier book published in 2020 entitled The Evolution of Luxury (Taylor Francis Press). 

Eswar Prasad ’86 AM writes: “I had a new book out in late September: The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Harvard University Press, September 2021). It covers cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin!) and central bank digital currencies (what a digital dollar might mean for our economy and society) and discusses how new technologies might help democratize finance but also has a lot of risks. The book’s website is futureofmoneybook.com. As you will see, the book has already received a smattering of pre-release media attention.”

Ann Marie Jodoin ’86 AM and Michael Hill Wright ’88 MD met, dated, and fell in love while at Brown. Graduation took them to different geographical locations and careers. Thirty-two years later, the two have reunited. They write that “they are now sharing life’s adventures together and enjoying every minute. Thank you Brown from both of us.”

Michael Hill Wright ’88 MD (see Ann Marie Jodoin ’86 AM)

Ann Marie Jodoin ’86 AM, and Michael Hill Wright ’88 MD, met, dated, and fell in love while at Brown. Career paths took them to different parts of the country. Fast forward 35 years later, they have reconnected and are happily sharing life’s adventures together. They write: “Brown connections are forever. Thank you Brown.”

Ian Malcolm Taplin ’86 PhD published The Evolution of Luxury with Routledge and is currently writing a book on Napa Valley wines to be published in 2021. He continues to be a professor at Wake Forest University and can be reached at taplin@wfu.edu.

At press time, these alums were appointed or awaiting appointment to the Biden administration: Jennifer Daskal ’94, deputy general counsel (cyber & technology), Department of Homeland Security; Elisabeth Donahue ’86, chief of staff, Council of Economic Advisers;  Marc Etkind ’87, associate administrator for communications, NASA; Ruby Goldberg ’17, special assistant, Office of Land and Emergency Management,  Environmental Protection Agency; Suzanne Goldberg ’85, deputy assistant secretary for strategic operation, U.S. Dept. of Education ; Roberta Jacobson ’82, coordinator, U.S. Southern Border, National Security Council; Jennifer Klein ’87, cochair, White House Gender Policy Council; Daniel Kohl ’87, director of government relations, AmeriCorps; Letise Houser LaFeir ’00, senior advisor, NOAA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce ; Emma Leheny ’92, principal deputy general council, U.S. Dept. of Education; Suzan Davidson LeVine ’93, interim political head, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Dept. of Labor; Sean Manning ’18, press assistant, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Commerce ; Ben Miller ’07, senior advisor to the chief of staff, U.S. Dept. of Education; Melanie Nakagawa ’02, senior director, climate and energy, National Security Council; Victoria Nuland ’83, undersecretary of state for political affairs, State Dept.; Daniel Parnes ’10, special assistant to the ASD for energy environment & installations, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Tanya Sehgal ’06, special advisor and senior counsel,  U.S. Dept. of Personnel Management; Stefanie Tompkins ’93 ScM, ’97 PhD, director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Christina Tsafoulias ’04, supervisory congressional liaison specialist, Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs, USAID; Janet Yellen ’67, Secretary of the Treasury; Todd Zabatkin ’10 MPP,  deputy director for research (White House Communications Dept.) ; and Maria Zuber ’83 ScM, ’86 PhD, cochair, President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Joseph Coughlin ’86 AM, founder and director of MIT’s AgeLab and author of The Longevity Economy: Inside the World’s Fastest Growing, Most Misunderstood Market, will partner with CI Financial Corp. on how better to serve retired and aging clients whose investment needs and expectations are changing. He was named one of ten innovators for the 2019 Icons and Innovators list by InvestmentNews.

Anna Bobiak Nagurney ’80 ScM, ’83 PhD continues as the John F. Smith Memorial Professor of Operations Management in the Department of Operations and Information Management at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. This past January she was a keynote speaker at the science festival, Congreso Futuro, in Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile. Also on the program was the Nobel Laureate Brown Professor Michael Kosterlitz. During Anna’s final year in the applied mathematics PhD program, she had an office cubicle in a room in Barus and Holley directly across from the office of Professor Kosterlitz, who had just joined the Brown physics department. In May, Anna became a Fellow of the Network Science Society. In late June and early July, she participated in three weeks of European conferences. At the 30th European Conference on Operational Research in Dublin she presented a tutorial, “Game Theory and Variational Inequalities: From Transportation and Supply Chains to Financial Networks and the Internet,” and spoke on the “Women in Operational Research” and the “Making an Impact” panels. The following week, in Kalamata, Greece, she co-organized the fourth Dynamics of Disasters Conference. Finally, she traveled to Metz, France, where at the 6th World Congress on Global Optimization, she was awarded the Constantin Caratheodory Prize in Global Optimization and delivered the prize lecture, “Tariffs and Quotas in Global Trade: What Networks, Game Theory, and Variational Inequalities Reveal.” She is the first female to receive this prize. The trip ended with two days of vacation in Paris for her and Lad ’74 ScM, ’86 PhD.

Constantine M. Megaridis ’86 ScM, ’87 PhD was appointed University Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has been since 1990. He is also director of the Micro/Nanoscale Fluid Transport Laboratory.