2018

Post date: Jan 23, 2018 4:07:26 PM

Grant Johnson writes: “NYC Office Suites has expanded from four to six midtown locations. We are now one of the largest commercial tenants in the city.” Grant lives in Greenwich, Conn., with wife Elle and daughter Henley, whose godfather is Christian Albert ’91. He enjoys visiting Los Angeles frequently to see his twin brother, Brett Johnson.

Horace Jen writes that, after a year at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, he is now back in Washington, D.C., and regularly attends functions sponsored by the Brown Club of D.C. He and fellow ’91 classmates Henry Chu (in Taipei), Eric Banson (in Hong Kong), and Manish Jain (in India), aka the “Brown Pacific Boys” (BPBs), are planning an event to celebrate their half-century mark, and they would love to hear from fellow BPBs and other alums who will also celebrate their “big five-o.”

Jean Gorman writes, "This summer I was ordained to Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Covenant Church. As a pastor and psychologist, I serve the 150+ churches of the Pacific Southwest region as Director of Ministerial Health, helping churches and pastors be healthier. I'd love to hear from old friends and anyone considering a vocational ministry -- jchenggorman@gmail.com."

Grace Lo is thrilled to be a Class of 2021 parent. Helping her son move into Archibald reminds her of her freshman years in the same building. The dorms are nicer now, with modern kitchens and even a Ben & Jerry vending machine!

Jane Sharp writes, "One of my college regrets: I never took a dance class at Brown. I got to make up for it this spring when I competed in the Dancing with the Doctors RI fundraiser. It was incredibly fun, surprisingly difficult, and immensely humbling. We performed for over 800 people, raised $120,000 for a local charity, and all of us physicians became better teachers for being novices again."

Susan Tenner writes, "I am the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School (BUGS), an innovative, diverse middle school focused on sustainability education. We're looking for a diverse group of educators, fundraisers, and marketers for our Board and staff. Fellow Bruin alums would be ideal! Please write me to raise your hand or just say "hi." susan.tenner@BUGSbrooklyn.org"

Sue Rivera co-edited Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications, published by MIT Press in October and available at the MIT Press site and on Amazon.com.

Anne Tamar-Mattis passed the leadership torch at interACT, the intersex rights organization she founded after graduating from law school in 2006. She writes that she now lives on a mountaintop in Northern California with her large and eclectic queer family. Her next venture is as the executive director of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, working to transform the way conflicts are resolved globally through collaborative practice (sometimes referred to as collaborative divorce). She would love to hear from fellow Brunonians who are interested in collaborative practice.

The U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced that John Pijanowski has received a 2018 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to live in Kutaisi, Georgia, and conduct research at Akaki Tsereteli State Univ. You can follow his trip blog here.

According to the Washington Post blog, Lisa Gelobter ’91, a former Chief Digital Service Officer for the U.S. Department of Education and Chief Digital Officer for BET Networks, has cofounded tEQuitable, a third-party, tech-enabled ombuds platform to help companies and employees address issues of bias, discrimination, and harassment.

Karen Levy Gooen published Take Two in November, her second novel in the Mah Jongg Table Talk Tales series. The novels are a follow-up to her successful mah jongg memoir, Searching for Bubbe Fischer. She is involved in NJ 11th for Change, an organization trying to unseat the 20-year-plus congressional incumbent. Lisa Bhimani ’91 lost a close race against NJ 25’s incumbent state senator. Karen and her husband, Michael, are about to welcome a new member of the family—their first puppy.

Pete Beeman writes that he had a very Brown weekend seeing old friends Sarah Preston Schrott, Dave Schrott, Jen Gregory ’89, Gavriel Rosenfeld ’89, and Erika Banks ’89. “My wife, Page Fortna, and I live in New York City and Portland, Oregon, with our two daughters. Rosie and Linden. In Portland we see the Schrotts and the mighty David Bermudez ’89 regularly. Check out Bermi’s incredible Bend Science Station in central Oregon http://www.bendsciencestation.com/. I spend my time designing and building large-scale public art projects around the country and in Taiwan. See my work at www.petebeeman.com.”

Scott and Samantha Garbers Adams are very assured that two alums they knew at Brown are looking after Scott’s dad. His dad recently had ankle surgery performed by Dr. Daniel Quinn and his dad’s internist is classmate Dr. Doug Gronda ’92. Scott and Sam cannot thank them enough for taking such good care of Scott’s father.

David Feinstein writes: “It’s been a few years. I have three sons: Daniel Feinstein, Douglas Feinstein ’91, and Joel Feinstein. After my PhD from Stanford in 1967, I spent four years in Buffalo, then 10 years in northern Wisconsin at a small state university (River Falls). In 1980, we moved to Mobile, Alabama, to the University of South Alabama. When I turned 55 in 1997 I decided to start over and remarried a young Chinese woman. We had two children: Joseph in 1999 and the only girl, Esther, in 2002. Joseph will be a freshman at Brown this fall, joining the class of ’22. He will follow his father and his brother, Douglas. It will be good to have my family back on the Brown campus. Now we have to wait two years to find out where Esther lands. At 76 I am finally out of the creation business so there is a chance there will be no more Feinsteins for another generation going to the top of the Hill.”