Alice Baldwin was the subject of a spring tribute in The Chronicle, the student-run newspaper at Duke Univ., where she was the first female full faculty member and helped launch the Woman’s College at Duke predecessor Trinity College. An effective advocate for equal opportunities for women in academe, she ensured that her students had access to Trinity programming, established a Woman’s College phys ed department, and pressed for the hiring of female faculty, among other achievements. Alice won first prize for scholarship in her first-year class at Bates before transferring to Cornell Univ.

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

Prompted by letters to the editor accusing the Portland Press Herald of bias against conservative letter writers, Silver Moore-Leamon expressed her interest in hearing a diversity of views in person. “Not to try to convert, but to have a civil conversation and learn things,” she wrote. “I’m over 90, I live in Auburn, and my health is a bit uncertain. If any of these people can get to the Auburn Public Library, perhaps we could meet after lunch there someday…to see if this might be helpful.”

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

Hugh Sadlier published a book last April that shares experiences from his 34 years as a board-certified hypnotherapist. Emphasizing case studies from his practice, The Healing Power of Hypnosis explores hypnotherapy from diverse angles — from historical to cutting edge, simple to complex, and gentle to powerful. “Hypnosis allows us to access a treasure trove of information that can help heal our lives,” says Hugh, whose practice, Hypno-Health, is based in Cumberland, Maine. The Healing Power of Hypnosis is available on Amazon.

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Martin Sauer was one of 11 former coaches and athletes from Brookfield (Conn.) High School inducted into the first-ever Brookfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame, in October. The most accomplished track and field and cross-country coach in Brookfield High history, he earned a total of 319 wins in both sports, including five Berkshire League Track Championships in a row (1973–1977) and Class M cross-country championships in 1986 and 1987. 

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

Dick Brogadir retired from dentistry last fall after 52 years in the field. “I loved my profession, my patients, and my staff,” he writes. “It is said that a person knows when it is time to retire. That was not the reason in my case. I still have my skills, my health, and love for my profession. Unfortunately, employers generalize about a person’s ability to do a job based on age.” He adds, “I have many interests and retirement will give me more flexibility to pursue them, as well as more time to spend with family (seven grandkids) and to travel.”

“We had our annual Bates lunch today,” Bruce Stangle writes of a tradition that dates back decades. This group, bound initially by football, stayed connected after Bates, meeting up at weddings and then gathering at restaurants around Boston for dinner and drinks. Those gatherings evolved into lunches, and in recent years the group has met at the Belmont Country Club. “These friendships extend back to the early-mid 1960s,” Stangle writes. “To a person, everyone thanks Bates for being the place that got them started on forming lifelong relationships that are one of the most important things in their lives.” For Stangle, it’s a joy to see his granddaughter Kaitlyn O’Shaughnessy ’26 enjoying similar close relationships with her friends at Bates. “She is having the same experiences that I had. And they will be her friends forever.”

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Mike Attinson writes: “A very difficult two years in Israel, as you can imagine. But I’m continuing to volunteer as an EMT for the national ambulance service, and am active with an Israeli NGO that has changed its major focus from international disaster relief to our own issues in Israel regarding resilience in times of significant national stress and trauma. But most important: My daughter is here with her three boys, and my son is in London working in a hospital. Bates certainly seems light-years from the Israeli experience over my last 50 years, and certainly over the last two, but will always be an important and significant part of my identity.”

Susan Bates Ahnrud and Michael ’74 welcomed their fourth grandchild in March 2025, Sue reports. “Soccer continues to keep me busy. I participated in the Grannies International Football Tournament in South Africa in April — our team won it all! Unfortunately we were dethroned from our national championship in July, taking second in the over-70 division. Quilt-making keeps me out of the bars at night.”

During spring 2025, Pam McCormack Green and Bill took a Danube River cruise that departed from Budapest and ended in Regensburg, Germany. “Lots of wonderful old abbeys, cathedrals, palaces — and history. Vienna was a city I’d wanted to visit for a long time, and it did not disappoint!”

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Joe Burke kicked off his 75th year with a 45-day safari that he and Rowena began in India. There they visited the Kaziranga, Ranthambore, and Gir national parks, the city of Ahmedabad, and a handful of cities in Rajasthan, followed by a few leisurely days in Singapore. “Next up was 10 days in Borneo after which we flew to Doha, Qatar, to meet our older daughter, Simone,” Joe reports. “Then it was on to Tanzania ending with a chimp trek on Rubondo Island in Lake Victoria.” Total distance: 31,000 miles by air and 2,000 bumpy miles by land. “The party never ends.”

Mel Donalson, an academic, filmmaker, and writer, published an autobiography last spring. Dream Warrior: Passages of a Creative-Scholar (Sunbury Press) reveals a Black man’s artistic and educational journey during decades of American change. Sustained by the bonds of family as he grew up in the segregated South, Mel led a rich inner life nourished by reading, music, and movies. A history major at Bates (where he also taught English for a year in the mid-1970s), Mel earned a PhD in American studies at Brown, lived in New England and the Midwest, and ultimately settled in California. Dream Warrior is his fourth book.

Ric Franks was among inductees into the Brewer (Maine) High School Athletic Hall of Fame in September. An “exceptional two-way football player who excelled on both offense and defense,” as he was described in a WEZQ-FM news story in June, Ric was “a powerhouse defensive end and linebacker who also played center on the 1968 State Championship team.” Named to the Maine Class A All-State football team, Ric went on to play football as a Bobcat.

Even a few years after his retirement as estate historian at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, John “Jeff” Groff still offers presentations on historic homes and residential development in the mid-Atlantic region. For more than 45 years, he has studied and lectured on American country houses and gardens, particularly those of Philadelphia’s Main Line and surroundings. He also served as director of public programs and director of interpretation at Winterthur, and co-curated Winterthur’s successful exhibitions on the costumes of Downton Abbey and The Crown. Jeff formerly held executive roles at historical organizations in Philadelphia and on Cape Cod.

A lecturer in city planning and urban affairs at Boston Univ., James O’Connell had a new book published in June. Boston and the Making of a Global City (Univ. of Massachusetts Press) is the product of a course he teaches at BU. His other books include The Hub’s Metropolis: Greater Boston’s Development from Railroad Suburbs to Smart Growth (MIT Press), Dining Out in Boston: A Culinary History (Univ. Press of New England), Becoming Cape Cod: Creating a Seaside Resort (Univ. Press of New England), and Shaping an Urban Image: Downtown Planning in Springfield, Massachusetts (Connecticut Valley Historical Museum).

Larry Wood is in his 14th year as throws coach with the Oakland Univ. track and field program. He has coached four East Regional qualifiers and seven Horizon League Champions with 14 Horizon League titles. Larry previously coached at Berkley (Mich.) High School, earning a state championship in men’s discus. As a Bobcat, he threw shot, discus, hammer, and weight throw. Outside athletics, Larry has been the pastor at Emmanuel Bethel Church in Royal Oak since 1988 and is an adjunct faculty member at DeVos Graduate School of Management, Northwood Univ. He and Susan Rollins Wood have three children and four grandchildren. 

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

Bill Cuthbertson talked to The Boston Globe about his stellar career coaching baseball and basketball, alongside teaching English, at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School in Massachusetts. Asked how kids have changed, he replied: “In a lot of ways they haven’t changed that much. They want to be good. They want to compete. They want to win. They want to have fun. They play because they love it, and that’s really special. Now, the world around them has changed dramatically with technology and social media….I can’t imagine (having tried) to navigate the world they live in when I was a teenager.”

Fifty years after their Bates graduation, two members of the Class also became classmates in quite a different context in 2025: Susan Dumais and Valerie Smith were elected members of the American Philosophical Society. Valerie, of course, is president of Swarthmore College. (The Swarthmore campus newspaper published an in-depth Q&A with her in November. — Editor)  Until her retirement in September, Susan was a technical fellow at Microsoft whose research spanned artificial intelligence, information retrieval, and human-centered design, and she also served as managing director of the computing giant’s three research labs on the East Coast. Valerie and Susan are among 38 outstanding achievers in science, the humanities, social sciences, and technology elected to the APS in 2025. The APS noted in its announcement that only 5,854 members have been elected since 1743.

Dr. Chuck Radis, author of a 2023 biography of John Jenkins ’74, has released a new book. The Mystery in the Room: A Rheumatologist’s Journey Treating Patients with Rare Diseases “focuses on the journey and frustrations, quiet victories, and evolution of the physician-patient bond in diagnosing and managing autoimmune disorders,” Chuck says. “It was written to appeal not only to the medical community but to a general audience with an interest in medical mysteries.” Last June, he adds, “It was a joy reconnecting with classmates at our 50th Reunion and raising money for the John Jenkins Scholarship Fund,” using the Jenkins biography as an incentive for gifts to the scholarship.

Takako Yamaguchi is one of those “overnight sensations” belatedly recognized after decades of achievement, now that the fine-arts press has finally cottoned onto the excellence of her art. Her seascapes in the 2024 Whitney Biennial “touched a nerve with their surreal synthesis of abstraction, pattern, and décor from East and West,” as Artnet noted, although that publication was also stirred by the spectacular performance of her work at auction. W Magazine used the occasion of Takako’s first institutional solo show, at MOCA in Los Angeles last year, to profile the artist. “Her monkish dedication might suggest that the painter always felt a strong creative calling; however, Yamaguchi’s moniker for herself is the ‘accidental artist,’” W reported. Coming from Japan to attend Bates, Takako “was able to channel her perfectionist energy in early studio classes….Her MFA brought (her) to the West Coast for good in ’78, but her brief time in Maine explains how the artist moves through the world: by doubling down on her instincts.”

Reunion 2026, June 11–14

Charles Turner was honored in October with the Oakland (Calif.) Private Industry Council’s Justice & Opportunity Legacy Award, recognizing his leadership in, and dedication to, creating pathways of opportunity for formerly incarcerated people. Charles is coordinator of re-entry services for the Alameda County Workforce Development Board, which coordinates services to meet both the training and employment needs of job seekers and the recruitment and business-training needs of local businesses. “Your legacy is one of compassion, innovation, and justice — breaking barriers, restoring dignity, and opening doors for countless lives,” the award states.

Reunion 2027, June 10–13

Charlie Zelle retired in September as chair of the regional policy-making body, planning agency, and provider of essential services for Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro area. He had chaired the Metropolitan Council for five years. “Chair Zelle’s years of public service have made a lasting impact on not only the Met Council but public transportation and infrastructure across Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Walz said in announcing the retirement. Charlie was instrumental in such accomplishments as expanding Green Line light rail service, securing funding for park investments, and securing major investment in transit infrastructure through legislative action. He previously served as commissioner of the state Department of Transportation.

Reunion 2028, June 8–11

Kevin Cox is busy with three grandkids, as well as “coaching soccer, baseball, and robots.” (Viewers of The Wall may recall that two of Kevin’s children, Kevin Cox ’07 and Katelyn, were winners on that game show in 2017. His younger daughter is Kelly Cox ’11. — Editor.)

Jane Goodman came to Maine for a “lovely visit with Jeanne Cleary ’77 on Peaks Island, off Portland, over the July 4 weekend. A highlight was being invited for fresh lobster by Chuck ’75 and Sandi Korpela Radis ’77. Much Bates reminiscing took place!”

Mary Henderson Pressman had a great time reconnecting with classmates during 2025. “I regularly see Mel Parsons Paras, Jacki Alpert, and Deni Auclair, and had a great visit with Susan Hannan and Becki Hilfrank Ramsey (the Southern gals!) during the summer. I went up to Bates for the 50th Anniversary Puddle Jump, featuring Chris Callahan, Scott Copeland, and Lars Llorente, who revisited the frozen Puddle 50 years after their first adventure. They opened the jumping this year! I was joined by Ann Clark Tucker, Dana Forman, and Martha McGann Leonard and Tom, who very ably photographed the whole event. Another great gathering was a lunch with classmates in Boston organized by Chuck James and by Ann. Great turnout! I hope we can have more meetups like this as we head toward our 50th Reunion. Planning is well underway and a number of us have had regular Zoom meetings to keep it moving. I hope many more will join us as we plan this milestone weekend!”

Writing from Maryland, Tina Kabb Diaduk and Bill “are thoroughly enjoying our retirement! We traveled to Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and enjoyed every trip! I teach line dancing at the local senior community center once a week, but we dance three times a week and have met many wonderful people and made many awesome friends. Our son and daughter-in-law live 20 minutes from us so we are blessed to have them close, but they both work for the government so we are not privy to what they actually do. Hope all classmates are enjoying retirement as much as we are! Looking forward to our 50th Reunion!”

Empty nesters no longer, Joe Lastowski and Ann welcomed their daughter, Sydney, son-in-law, granddaughter, and granddog. “They were sick of Boston big-city life, have moved back to Holyoke, Mass., and are saving to buy a house,” writes Joe. “Amidst the bedlam and chaos it is a blessing every day to see the smiling face of our sweet Ruby, who was born in January.”

When her husband, Tom Carroll, passed away in 2024, Linda “Y” Mansfield Carroll decided to end her career in education, having spent 25 years in schools in Marblehead, Mass. “I have enjoyed working as an engagement assistant at an assisted living facility for the past two years,” she reported in July. “Now both my children in Virginia are having their first babies and I’m moving near them in September. Very excited to be a nana in this next chapter of my life!”

This from Peter Moore: “As careers wind down and families grow up, I find a host of Bates friends re-entering my life. Last week my wife, Claire McCrea (she went to the Univ. of Vermont — sigh), and I were in NYC to visit our older son (he went to New York Univ. — sigh), and I reached out to Lisa Stifler O’Hanlon ’80 about a get-together. It led to an uproarious luncheon at the Boathouse in Central Park. In July, Gail Cushman Rose ’80 and Larry stopped by our home in Fort Collins, Colo., en route back to Utah. Time is circular, just like Bates connections.” Peter had a byline in the August/September issue of AARP the Magazine, as he offered guidance on writing a so-called legacy letter for one’s children and other younger loved ones — a legacy letter being an “emotional last will and testament that answers some of the most important questions about your life.”

Ann Scarlott Chapman’s letter in the May 26 New Yorker recounted her surprise at discovering herself in an April issue of the magazine. In Nick Paumgarten’s account of a visit to the legendary tavern McSorley’s by singer Peter Wolf, “I was the woman nearby who asked him why everyone wanted to take his picture. When he told me he was Henry Winkler, I realized he was joshing, but I didn’t want to bother him further. I figured out who he was a few minutes later, after I heard someone call him Peter. Had I been bolder, I would have told him that I saw him play a gig (with the J. Geils Band) at Bates College when I was a freshman there, in 1975, and that all my guy friends had been roadies for him that night. What a treat it was to see him again, and to know he shares the love of McSorley’s that my husband, Jonathan, and I have had for decades.”

Reunion 2029, June 7–10

“After walking part of the Camino de Santiago with my family” in 2018, in her first venture into adventure hiking, Marcia Call “set a goal of doing a big walk of at least 50 miles every five years.” In 2023, Marcia and a friend started planning a trek that took place this year: England’s Wainwright Coast to Coast walk, a demanding hike of more than 190 miles that, she explains, only about 6,000 people attempt each year. Starting in late May, her group of women, all over 60 and “nicknamed the Sisterhood of the Cold and Damp Trekking Pants,” covered the distance in 19 days, including two at rest. “The highlight was forging a friendship with Alby Williams, a 70-something Brit from Middlesbrough who has since completed his 50th crossing. He joined our merry band for sections of the walk and I will treasure those memories for the rest of my life.” Watch for Marcia’s account of the adventure early in 2026 — all proceeds will go to a rescue organization that tried to save a trekker (not part of Marcia’s group) who died on the trail. She adds, “Our sisterhood is looking forward to walking the Cotswold Way in September 2026.” (Thanks to Rob Cramer for his excellent note alerting us to Marcia’s great achievement. — Editor) 

Following through on plans formulated during the 2024 Reunion, Patrick “Murph” Murphy headed east from Portland, Ore., in July to join Rich Stanley and Phil Gould on a weeklong canoeing and camping trip in northern New Hampshire and western Maine. Small sections of the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail were successfully navigated, including portions of the Androscoggin River and Umbagog, Cupsuptic, Rangeley, and Flagstaff lakes. “If it had been 40 years ago,” Phil says, “completing the entire NFCT might have been a feasible dream!”

Reunion 2030, June 6–9

Mike Bonney L.H.D. ’22 was appointed chairman of the board at Santa Ana Bio, Inc., an immunology company developing targeted therapies for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, in November. The firm is based in California. Mike has over 30 years’ leadership experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He served as chief executive officer and director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals 2003–2014, ultimately resulting in the company’s $9.5 billion acquisition by Merck. Prior to Cubist, Mike was vice president of sales and marketing at Biogen. He is also the chair of the Dunad Therapeutics and Autolus Therapeutics boards. A member of Bates’ own board of directors for 17 years, including nine as chair, Mike is well-known among the Bates community for both his family’s long history with the college and the generosity he and Alison Grott Bonney have shown Bates — achievements recognized concretely in the college’s Bonney Science Center, opened in 2021.  

Marty Palange was one of 10 Derby (Conn.) High School athletes inducted into the Derby Athletic Hall of Fame in October. He was recognized for his contributions to Derby High football and track and field. After graduating from DHS, Marty competed in football and in track and field at Bates, making a javelin throw at the Maine Invitational in Brunswick in his first year that won a state championship in 1977. Marty, who went on to graduate from the Univ. of Bridgeport, is married to Karen Florczak Palange ’79. Their daughter, Kyra Palange-Thomas, profiled her dad for a local newspaper on the occasion of the hall of fame induction. 

Kim Wettlaufer was mentioned in a Sun Journal article about members of the Lewiston High football team who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Former director of the Trinity Jubilee Center, Kim has long helped immigrant families settle into the Lewiston school system. “Wettlaufer, a former Lewiston Daily Sun sportswriter who coached track and cross country at Lewiston High from 1981 to 1993, and then again from 2013–17, focused on helping new Mainers get into athletics,” the newspaper noted. “He cited doctor physicals and onboarding paperwork as challenges for new Mainers, so he leaned on aid from translators. That’s still something he’s involved in today.”

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Minoo Malek Saghri reports that she and three other international students who first met at Bates in 1979 gathered in Copenhagen in 2025. Minoo now lives in Connecticut, Karen Knudsen Nielsen near Copenhagen, and Gulnar Bandukwalla Pruisken ’80 and Beatrijs Stikkers-Muller in the Netherlands. “We’ve seen each other over the years since graduation, but usually two at a time. This was the first time since graduation that the four of us got together.” In Copenhagen they went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the famous Tivoli Gardens, and also spent time at Karen’s home. “We talked about our lives — three of us are grandmothers now — and shared experiences, good and bad. We went for walks and some lovely meals. We shared rooms like the old days. It was magical to meet after 40 years to reminisce about Bates and those momentous years.” 

Rick Sullivan, president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, retires at the end of 2025, capping a career that included work as a lawyer, as the mayor of Westfield, Mass., and in various leadership roles in state government (including chief of staff to the governor). In his 11 years at the economic development council, his focus on expanding the organization’s size and reach drove growth in both programming and membership. He “led the EDC in publishing a white paper early in 2024, outlining where to make multi-million-dollar investments in the region, which led to a recent $70 million award through the state’s Economic Development Bond Bill,” Business West.com reported. “The region is now investing in food science, quantum computing, and clean tech. The award was the largest in the region’s history.”

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Joyce White Vance released her first book in October. USA Today described Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy as “equal parts civics class, history lesson, and call to save the Republic.” Proceeding from her influential Substack, Civil Discourse, which has scrutinized the right-wing assault on American democracy, Joyce’s book is described by publisher Dutton as “a clarion call to action, putting our current crisis in historical context and sketching out a vision for where we go next.” Joyce is “the constitutional law professor you never knew you needed, explaining the legal context and the political history — and why the rule of the law still matters. At the same time, she empowers the reader to do something, both as individuals and collectively.”

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

Andrew Morehouse joined the Greenfield (Mass.) Community College Board of Trustees last spring. Executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts since 2005, he serves on several other nonprofit boards including the Kestrel Land Trust, Way Finders, and the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. “GCC empowers individuals through quality academic programs and plays a pivotal role in fostering a strong, skilled workforce that is vital for our region’s prosperity,” Andrew said in an announcement of the appointment.

Colleen Quint figured prominently in a June Maine Sunday Telegram article about the psychological benefits of stacking firewood. As the newspaper reported, the practice provides “a seasonal ritual, a source of pride, and a meditative craft.” Colleen, who lives in Minot, has curated a playlist by country singer Charley Crockett to infuse energy and dynamics into her stacking. “When I get into a nice rhythm with it — and the music totally helps with that — I’m in a really good mindset and groove about everything,” she explained.  

William Scott, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, passed away in October. His friend Thomas Germano ’84 shared some thoughts about Bill. “As two avid bicyclists, we enjoyed many mornings before class circumnavigating Lake Auburn. After Bates, we got together several times to bike-tour together, and we covered most of the Pacific Coast from Washington state to Southern California. Bill was one of the most decent and intelligent persons I have ever known. My fondest memories of Bates were of us racing against darkness and the evening chill to get back to campus and make Commons after riding way too far. He spent much of his time in Dana Chemistry and Carnegie Science. He was a very gifted student and a great traveling companion.”

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Jamie Merisotis, CEO of the Lumina Foundation, was quoted in an April New Yorker article exploring how higher education has responded to federal defunding of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. “Race is, in many ways, a superseding factor” in student success, Jamie told the magazine. “To walk away from the construct of race or ethnicity means our collective talent as a nation will suffer.” Lumina is prominent in its efforts to expand the proportion of Americans benefiting from education and training after high school. 

Ashley Parker Snider was one of four local residents elected to the board of directors for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara (Calif.). Ashley has worked in sales and marketing at Fess Parker Winery in Los Olivos since 1989. She serves on the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation Board and is a past board president of both the Santa Barbara County Alzheimer’s Association and Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation. The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara is the nation’s largest community-based provider of college scholarships, having cumulatively awarded more than $167 million to some 64,000 county students since its founding, in 1962.

Bill Walsh presented a career-achievement award to sportscaster Bob Carpenter prior to a Washington Nationals baseball game in September. Bill is a senior vice president for AARP, which became the Nationals’ sponsor in 2025. He presented a mock AARP the Magazine cover featuring a photo of Carpenter in the play-by-play booth and his signature home-run call, “See. You. Later!” For more than 40 years, as Bill told Carpenter during the event, “you have shared with us your keen insight, entertained us with wonderful storytelling, and conveyed your infectious love for sports. It’s been a gift.”

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Writing in May, Margaret Brosnahan said that in recent years she has “had the good fortune to integrate my liberal arts background with my work as a veterinarian in ways that have been profoundly rewarding.” An associate professor of equine medicine at the Midwestern Univ. College of Veterinary Medicine in Glendale, Ariz., she finished a term as president of the American Veterinary Medical History Society and completed a master’s in medical humanities at Creighton Univ. during 2025. “I am working to bring the social-justice-oriented principles and practices of medical humanities and narrative medicine to veterinary medicine. To this end, I have signed a contract to write the first-ever introductory textbook of veterinary humanities.” She adds, “I was a history major at Bates, and this has brought things full circle.” She is also a faculty advisor to VetCORE, a student-run organization that provides veterinary care to the pets of people experiencing homelessness in Phoenix.

Mark Hatch, a national higher education leader with nearly four decades’ experience, joined Bates in an interim role as executive enrollment manager in July. He served previously as vice president for enrollment at Colorado College. “In his 23 years at Colorado College, Mark led a tripling of the applicant pool while significantly increasing student talent and diversity,” Bates President Garry Jenkins noted in announcing the appointment. “He also oversaw student success and retention initiatives in collaboration with campus partners. Upon his retirement, the National Association for College Admission Counseling honored Mark with the Gayle C. Wilson Outstanding Service to the Profession Award.” A psychology major who earned All-America honors in cross country at Bates, Mark began his career as an assistant dean of admission here. He earned a Master’s in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Susan Knecht published her debut novel in October. The Art Collector’s Wife (Sea Crow Press) is the story of a teenager, Isabel, who finds in 1962 that her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, has stashed away a collection of Renaissance art — a discovery that sends Isabel across Europe as she tries to learn how her parents perished during World War II. The book won first-place honors for historical fiction and for Holocaust writing from the 2025 Firebird Book Awards. Formerly a practicing psychotherapist in California, Susan — herself a second-generation Holocaust survivor — has a private therapy practice in the Netherlands. 

Jeff Price becomes chief executive officer of the Heisman Trophy Trust in January 2026. Described by the trust as a “seasoned sports industry leader with more than 35 years of experience,” Jeff is responsible for preserving and building upon the trust’s 90-plus years of expanding opportunities for underserved youth through sports and education. The trust appointed him to the newly created position to elevate its philanthropic impact by driving revenue growth in the rapidly changing college-sports landscape. Jeff went to the trust from the PGA of America, where he’d served as chief commercial and philanthropy officer. He was a quarterback and receiver as a Bobcat.

Catherine Schmitz Bise wrote about a group of Bates friends who visited Kenya during the fall. She and Staci Warden, Jen Harris ’88, Lisa Peace Tito, and Lisa Petrini ’86 were there for 12 days. Stops included three nights in Nairobi, where they visited the Sheldrick Baby Elephant Orphanage and a giraffe sanctuary, “enjoyed several impressive restaurants, and saw what is considered the largest slum in the world and learned what some individuals and organizations are doing to improve conditions.” At the 63,000-acre Lewa Wilderness, they enjoyed daily safaris guided by Maasai drivers. “Some of us took horseback safaris and some did extensive hikes accompanied by guides with guns, just in case they surprised a lion.” Catherine lives in Bethesda, Md., and works at the National Center for Children and Families.

Bette Smith becomes director of Ball State Univ.’s Center for Innovation and Collaboration in January. The CIC, scheduled to open next autumn, will bring together students, faculty, community organizations, and business partners to develop ideas, create prototypes, and support regional workforce and innovation needs. Bette will oversee the center’s strategic direction, operations, and emerging programs, and expand partnerships that connect Ball State’s expertise with community and industry priorities. She went to Ball State from Destra Consulting Group, and previously was the founding director of the J. P. Morgan Center for Commodities at the Univ. of Colorado Denver Business School. 

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Writing in April for mediate.com, which provides online services for mediation professionals and programs, Lisa Romeo advocated for mediation as a means of resolving conflicts centered around artificial intelligence. For various reasons — e.g., the highly technical nature of AI, the paucity of precedents and established case law, and the evolutionary speed of the field — mediation, in many cases, “will be the preferred first option for its expertise, flexibility, and efficiency advantages when navigating the uncharted legal terrain around artificial intelligence,” she wrote. Lisa is vice president at the American Arbitration Association’s Boston Regional Office responsible for business development, education, and arbitrator recruitment for commercial disputes in New England, and she’s also national co-lead for the technology sector.

Jeremy Sclar was among the 150 Most Influential Bostonians designated by Boston Magazine, which recognized his achievements as the chair and CEO of WS Development, one of the largest retail-led, mixed-use developers in the country. Jeremy’s investments and philanthropy “have earned him a powerful network around the city, but it’s his life’s work making Boston buildings come alive that most people see and appreciate,” the magazine noted. His notable projects include 400 Summer Street, a 16-story lab building housing Foundation Medicine, and One Boston Wharf Road, a 17-story mixed-use building. Jeremy is a Bates trustee emeritus.

Seth Weber was appointed to the role of senior analyst for U.S. business and industrial services at BNP Paribas, a leading European bank, in August. Seth, who will work in NYC, has more than 25 years of sell-side equity research experience, most recently as a managing director at RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities, where he covered a wide range of industrial and business-information service companies. Starting his career at Merrill Lynch, Seth went on to positions at UBS and Bank of America Securities.

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Jon Custis finished a tour as a human resources officer at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India, in the spring. Next stop: the consulate general in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for an assignment as a general services officer. “I support other diplomats across a wide range of management portfolios, like living accommodations, contracting, and logistics,” he writes. “My first two assignments were as a vice consul, handling consular affairs issues in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Nassau, the Bahamas.”

Scott Higgins has been the NYC-based executive vice president for commercial insurance at Burns & Wilcox since July. The nationwide corporation introduced Scott, who has made a career in insurance, with a topic-&-response bio on its website. His advice to a newcomer? “It’s an industry full of very talented people so it’s important to socialize your influence by engaging and learning from as many people as you can. All the great leaders I have seen over the years have always taken advantage of learning from others. Additionally, it’s also a very competitive industry, so we should all have a great degree of humility for our competitors as you can learn a lot from what others are doing.”

A victory in Alumni Gym two days before Thanksgiving gave the Daulerio family another reason for gratitude as Elsa Daulerio ’26 scored her 1,000th career point for Bates women’s basketball. It was both a milestone for Elsa and an echo for her mother, Adrienne Shibles, who passed the same mark in 1991. “I’m so happy for her,” Adrienne told the Portland Press Herald. Now associate director of athletics at Bates and an assistant coach with the men’s basketball team (not to mention a 2022 inductee of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame), Adrienne parlayed her successes as a student into a successful coaching career at Swarthmore, Bowdoin, and Dartmouth. As for Elsa, teammates gathered around after the Nov. 25 win against the Univ. of Southern Maine and brought out signs celebrating her 1,000th point. 

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Bill Guidera is the deputy assistant secretary for services at the International Trade Administration, where he and his team drive policy conditions to promote innovation at U.S. digital, financial, supply chain, and other service industries at home and globally. Bill previously led government and public affairs programs at such companies as PrizePicks, Netflix, 21st Century Fox, and Microsoft. His experience includes specializations in law, public policy, communications, entertainment, and internet law.

Richard Sautter, who teaches theater at Gettysburg College, sent news from his campus: Ann Harward P ’92, the late wife of former Bates President Donald Harward LHD ’03, was a native of Gettysburg town. In 2023, President Harward initiated the Ann McIlhenny Harward Interdisciplinary Fund for Culture and Music at the college. “It brings musicians here to lead workshops, engage with children at local schools, and perform public concerts,” Richard explains. “President Harward (it still feels weird to call him ‘Don’!) came here to inaugurate it, at which time the first artist to participate was Corey Harris ’91. As a Bates grad from the ’90s, I’m delighted to see Mrs. Harward honored in such a way. As a Gettysburg faculty member, I have been inspired to see the effects this program is having on the college and the community at large.”

Jesseca Timmons, an award-winning humor writer, has been a columnist for the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript since 2022, and joined the news staff the following year. She previously wrote academic case studies with faculty at Babson College and has also freelanced for schools, small businesses, and nonprofits. Jesseca grew up in Harvard, Mass., and has a master’s from Lesley Univ. She has lived in Greenfield, N.H., since 2011.

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Bill Swaney took office as the U.S. consul general to the Dominican Republic in August. A career diplomat with more than 20 years of Foreign Service experience, Bill served in the Dominican Republic in 1997 and again in 2018. His background includes assignments in Mexico, France, Afghanistan, Cameroon, the Netherlands, and Washington, D.C.

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

U.S. Congressman Ben Cline, who represents Virginia’s 6th District, was selected by The Presidential Prayer Team, a nonpartisan, nonprofit online ministry, as the Featured Leader for Prayer in April. Previously a state legislator and chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Robert Goodlatte ’74, Ben is in his fourth term in Congress.

Michael Graham, director of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine, told the Portland Press Herald how the community is responding to devastating cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration — notably the loss of grants promised for rebuilding the community’s historic herb house. The community’s robust corps of volunteer workers is making “all the difference in the world right now,” Michael said in May. “It’s wonderful when we begin to look around and see friendly faces and people who, like us, are determined that this place continues. It’s really the antidote for the sting of the pain that we feel.” 

Tracy O’Mara Peacock and Brad Peacock ’92 launched a monthly Bates happy-hour series last September with a get-together at Rising Tide Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine. “Our vision was to create a regular informal gathering for local Bobcats,” Tracy says — “a time when you know you can connect with the Bates community, see old friends, or make new ones. You might be one of two people attending or 30, but you can count on a Batesie gathering to share in the fun vibes of Portland. We have had an incredible response, gathering 25–30 alums each time representing classes from 1964 on up. We have engaged a total of 64 unique alumni since we started, with several attending all three events.” The series has also spawned a Portland networking group and a new LinkedIn group for Maine-based alums. “Good stuff is already happening: an exchange of Hearts of Pine soccer tickets, sharing of volunteer opportunities, roommate recommendations, and a few pickup squash games have resulted from our happy hours so far!” 

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

A lifelong skier who raced for the Bobcats while earning a BA in English, Krista Crabtree is a former Ski Magazine editor who is now a freelance writer. Her clients include Ski, Outside, NSAA Journal, and 32 Degrees. She’s the author of two children’s books, Being Stellar and Greening Up. Along with testing skis and writing reviews, Krista currently runs the women’s program at Eldora Mountain Resort, coaches for Vail’s Her Turn clinics, organizes other women’s ski clinics, and coaches the Eldora Mountain and the Nederland High School ski teams. She lives in Nederland, Colo., with her husband, Ed, and their daughter, Trinity.

Gene McCabe, head men’s lacrosse coach at Washington and Lee Univ., was voted 2025’s Old Dominion Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Gene led the Generals to a 17-4 overall record and a 10-0 mark in conference play to seize the ODAC regular-season title. W&L went on to win the ODAC Tournament, posting a 13-12 overtime win over the Univ. of Lynchburg to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. Across his 19 seasons as head coach, Gene has led W&L to five ODAC Tournament Championships and nine trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament. He’s been named the ODAC Coach of the Year four times.

Sandy Somers was sorry that he missed Reunion. But he had a good reason: “I through-hiked the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, finishing on Sept. 25, 2025.” He adds, “My son Nathaniel is a second-year graduate student at MIT studying chemistry, and my son Andrew just finished up an internship at Amazon in Seattle and is in his senior year at Rutgers studying computer science.” Sandy and Elizabeth Polizzi Somers live in Millstone Township, N.J.

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Max Clauson contributed to Expert Opinion, a commentary series published by The Fast Mode. In June, he covered AI’s potential as a tool for cybercriminals, focusing on vulnerabilities in education, healthcare, and manufacturing. Telecom providers are a key to defending against the bad guys, he noted. “These shifts demand a new approach: building proactive, AI–enhanced defense layers directly into core network services. Traffic pattern analysis, threat intelligence integration, and automated mitigation strategies must become foundational. Real-time insights from the network edge can deliver early warnings, reducing response time and minimizing the impact of increasingly intelligent attacks.” Max is senior vice president of network connectivity at Zayo Group, an international provider of network services. The Fast Mode supplies news, analysis, and insights to the global IT/telecommunications sector.

Jason Hall, CEO of The Columbus (Ohio) Partnership, was the subject of last August’s “Whole Health Matters,” a monthly Columbus Business Journal column exploring how local business leaders maintain wellness. While work-related stress figures frequently in the series, it’s less of an issue for Jason, a self-described extrovert fueled by the relationships inherent in his work. “I feel like I’ve been the luckiest kid in the world. I love what I do. I get to work in the community and that stuff fills my bucket. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to leave anything behind, right? I just want to make the most of every day. I’m conscious that I will not sit in this seat forever.”

Matt Tavares has not only added a new title to his New York Times best-selling Dasher series of children’s books about one of Santa’s reindeer, he’s moved Dasher into a whole new realm: movies. Variety wrote in July of a new “standout” in Disney Branded Television content, a CG-animated holiday special based on Tavares’ bestselling picture book, Dasher: How a Brave Little Doe Changed Christmas Forever. Simply titled Dasher, the special is slated to debut in the 2026 holiday season. “The Dasher movie is very exciting,” Tavares writes. “I have been involved with the whole process, which has been such a blast. From helping to build the story, pitching it to networks, giving feedback on script drafts, character designs, casting, etc., it’s been a pretty amazing experience.” Meanwhile, the latest in the book series, Dasher and the Polar Bear was published by Candlewick in September to strong reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal (the “artwork is simply amazing.”) An award-winning author-illustrator, Matt launched his career with Zachary’s Ball and has since published more than 20 books. (Matt was the subject of a Bates Magazine cover story four years ago. — Editor)

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Ken Kolb, a professor of sociology at Furman Univ., shared his expertise with NBC News and a newspaper in South Carolina following President Donald Trump’s summer tariff hike on imported steel. Trump, seeking to boost the domestic steel industry, had previously raised the tariffs from 25 to 50 percent. “Theoretically you’re going to be able to hire some people, but in reality, the tariffs just raise the average price of steel,” Ken told NBC in June. “And when the price of a commodity like that goes up, businesses just buy less and sideline investment.” Similarly, in Charleston’s Post and Courier in May, he argued that “when it comes to trade and tax policy, we should rely on evidence,” not nostalgia for the glory days of Big Steel.

James Williams, assistant chief of operations for Virginia’s Loudoun County Combined Fire-Rescue System, was promoted to system chief in April. James, who started his firefighting career with eight years as a volunteer in Maryland, rose up through the Loudoun County ranks as captain, battalion chief, deputy chief, and assistant chief. “It’s such an honor and a privilege to assume this position and to be entrusted, to be appointed, to this position, and I don’t take that lightly at all,” James told a Loudoun Now reporter.

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

Ben Anderson became vice president for advancement at Trinity College in September. He joined Trinity after 13 years in advancement at Boston College, the last three as associate vice president for principal giving and director of the “Soaring Higher” fundraising campaign. With goals of raising $3 billion and 60 percent BC alumni participation, the campaign reached $1.8 billion from 82,000-plus alumni by midsummer. Ben was a leadership giving officer at Habitat for Humanity International 2010–2012, and before that worked at Skidmore College. “In addition to his impressive professional background, Ben’s strategic, personable, and compelling approach to institutional leadership and his love for liberal arts education were equally noteworthy to the search committee,” Trinity President Dan Lugo said in announcing the appointment.

Kari Jorgensen Diener became CEO of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, in Verona, Va., in August. Previously executive director of the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, an international network of 400-plus organizations, Kari brought more than 25 years of leadership in humanitarian aid, food security, and community resilience to the food bank. She had held leadership positions with Mercy Corps in Jordan, advocacy work in Washington, D.C., and community service in the Shenandoah Valley, where she lives. Fluent in Arabic, Kari is an affiliated scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration and holds a certificate in refugee and humanitarian emergencies from Georgetown Univ.

Shirl Penney’s journey from a hardscrabble start in Down East Maine, to Bates, to his current success as an innovative wealth-management entrepreneur in Florida was recounted in April by a Tampa business-news outlet. Shirl and his wife, Mary Ann, “have made philanthropy a key part of their commitment to the community,” Tampa Bay Business & Wealth reported. As Shirl himself told a reporter, “I’ve been on the other side — I know what it’s like to struggle. That’s why giving back isn’t just something we do; it’s who we are. If we can help someone get an education, put food on the table, or create an opportunity, then we’re doing something that truly matters.”

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Laura Goulart Campbell became executive director of the Quahog Bay Conservancy in October. Located in Harpswell, Maine, the QBC works to revitalize the bay’s ecosystem so it remains healthy and resilient. Bringing more than two decades of global experience in strategic planning, organizational growth, and community engagement to the QBC, Laura served previously as a U.S. Foreign Service officer managing development programs that bridged science-informed policy with on-the-ground impacts in Bolivia, Africa, and Washington, D.C.  Earlier in her career she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua.   

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Bridget Huber is a writer and radio producer who reports on the environment, science, global health, and food systems. The Lancet, Mother Jones, The Associated Press, NPR, The Nation, and The Washington Post are among news outlets that have carried her work. She also writes for The Maine Monitor, the nonpartisan, independent publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. In September, the Monitor ran her story about efforts to save salt marshes through the judicious application of dredged materials. Bridget and her family returned to Maine from the Bay Area in 2021.

Matt Thaler was named vice president and general counsel of Worcester Polytechnic Inst. in June. Matt joined WPI as deputy counsel in 2018 and had served as interim VP since October 2024, according to a WPI press release. “Matt’s deep understanding of higher education law, his principled leadership, and his unwavering commitment to WPI’s mission have made him an invaluable asset to our community,” WPI President Grace Wang said. “I am confident he will continue to serve WPI well as our vice president and general counsel at a time when the legal and regulatory challenges facing universities are increasingly complex.”

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Brent McCoy’s first solo exhibition as a painter, The Tricks of Light, remains on view through Jan. 11 at the Gallery at Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, Vt. The exhibition comprises street- and landscapes, distinctive kitchen still lifes, and a “painting of an exuberant group of women heading for a swim,” noted a reviewer for the Barre Montpelier Times Argus. Perhaps better-known to the Bates community for his juggling and other styles of physical comedy — which he still brings to stages internationally — Brent notes that his interest in making art began with a study-abroad semester in Italy.

Nicole Ouellette joined Alcoa Corp.’s operation in Massena, N.Y., as a communications specialist last February. Her prior communications experience includes 17 years with a marketing company she founded, Breaking Even Communications, serving small businesses in and beyond Maine. She also founded two coworking spaces, Anchorspace Bar Harbor in Maine and Anchorspace Potsdam in New York state. (Alcoa’s plant in Massena is home to the world’s oldest continuously operating aluminum smelter, opened in 1902. — Editor)

Dominick Pangallo was elected to his first full four-year term as mayor of Salem, Mass., in November as he ran unopposed in the municipal election. He had become mayor in 2023 in a special election to finish the term of Kim Driscoll after she was elected as the commonwealth’s lieutenant governor. “I’m honored and humbled to have Salem’s vote to continue serving as mayor for this amazing city,” Dom noted on social media. “There’s so much still to do to keep our community vibrant and successful, and I’m ready to get to work making it a reality.”

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

Regina “Ginger” Readling rejoined the global law firm Sullivan & Cromwell during the summer as a partner in its NYC office and Executive Compensation Group. Her practice includes mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, IPOs, and other strategic transactions, as well as advising public and private companies, governing boards, compensation committees, and executives. Her clients have included The Home Depot, The Kroger Company, Amazon.com, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway, Enbridge, and Sotheby’s. “S&C advises clients on the most complex and high-profile deals of the day,” Ginger said in an announcement. “I’m excited to rejoin the firm where I started as a lawyer and look forward to continuing to work alongside an incredibly talented group of colleagues on market-leading transactions.” She worked at S&C 2013–2022. 

John T. Saunders was promoted to senior vice president, chief financial officer, of ETHZilla Corp. in November. John, who previously served as vice president, finance, now oversees financial strategy, reporting and analysis, internal controls, information technology, and operations. Prior to joining ETHZilla in August, he was senior vice president of finance, capital markets at Bridger Aerospace, and earlier served as CFO of Ascent Vision Technologies. Based in Florida, ETHZilla is a leading technology company connecting traditional finance with decentralized finance.

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

Ariel Burch Novak has worked for more than a decade at the international PR agency PAN, which focuses on clients in business-to-business technology and healthcare. Ariel has worked with B2B tech brands including Booz Allen Hamilton, HPE, Citrix, Thales, and Vercara. During her earlier career as a journalist, she received an award from the New England Press Association. She lives in Maine and has two children.

Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a professor of immigration law at Boston University, was among Massachusetts legal experts concerned about an ICE memo declaring millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings, The Boston Globe reported on July 18. “If people can’t get out of detention on bond, it means people are looking at weeks, maybe months, maybe years where their human rights are being violated on a regular basis to stay in this country,” Sarah said. While immigrants who have not committed a crime are typically released on bond as their cases proceed through immigration court, the ICE memo directs officers to detain people who entered the country without permission for the duration of their deportation proceedings. In basing the policy on a 1996 law that subjected people convicted of certain crimes to mandatory detention, “ICE is acting like that applies to anyone who is undocumented, and that just flies in the face of precedent decisions over the last 30 years,” she told the newspaper.

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Matt Moretti represented Bangs Island Mussels, which he co-owns, during the May 31 Walk the Working Waterfront event in Maine’s largest city. Bangs Island, which grows mussels, kelp, and oysters, was one of more than two dozen stops that welcomed the public. As Matt told a reporter covering the event for the Portland Press Herald, the event gave his company the opportunity not only to showcase what it does, but also to educate people on the importance of the working waterfront. “It’s nice to get people in here to let them see what we do and everything that goes into a sustainable aquaculture company,” he said. “I think for most people, what we do is a foreign concept. It’s hard to understand unless you actually see it.” 

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Aina Begim and Andre Straaboe welcomed a new family member, Isabel Claire, last May. “Our older girls, Emma and Beatrice, are doting sisters,” Aina writes. The family now lives in Washington, D.C., where Aina is spending the 2025–2026 academic year at Georgetown Univ., on leave from a faculty job at the Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology. “We’ve been enjoying Washington and spending time with a close Bates friend, Betsy Hamm, and her family.”

Ben Chin was hired in November as campaign manager for U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. Ben stayed in Lewiston after Bates, twice ran for mayor, and had worked for the Maine People’s Alliance since 2005. In announcing Chin’s hiring, Maine Public described the Maine People’s Alliance as “a progressive advocacy group with deep roots in Maine politics” and noted that Chin “joins a campaign that has generated significant interest nationally and in Maine as Platner continues to draw big crowds to his series of town hall events in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.”

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Eleanor Yee became head of the Montessori school operated by St. Christopher’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Key Biscayne, Fla., in September. A Miami Shores resident, Eleanor previously taught and created Montessori programs in New York and Washington, as well as China, where she was academic director of the Montessori Academy of Shanghai and preschool team leader at the American International School in Guangzhou. At the St. Christopher’s installation ceremony, the Islander News reported, she described the appointment as a calling to “celebrate our students’ gifts” and “guide them toward lives filled with curiosity, purpose, and a deep sense of faith and wonder.”

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

Sulo Dissanayake spoke to an Australian magazine for a piece about tensions between cultural value and commercial potential. The founder of Power of Play, a puppetry company that works to heal war-torn Sri Lankan communities, Sulo now lives in Adelaide and holds a day job in addition to running Power of Play remotely. In Sri Lanka, she told CityMag, she was able to command fair rates for her work after 14 years spent building her company. Negotiating freelance rates in Adelaide, though, she found them capped at levels she hadn’t charged since she was starting out. “What I’ve found the most striking in moving from Sri Lanka to Adelaide is that artists’ work doesn’t have as much value,” she said. “I can’t be a full-time artist in Adelaide because no one can.”

Helen Paillé and Kyle Enman welcomed their second son, Mads Dirigo, last May. Mads, here’s a look at what may lie ahead for you: A few months after he was born, Helen reports, she and Kyle took their older son, Anders, for his first Commons breakfast. As she was growing up in Auburn, “my dad, Ken Paille ’78, used to bring me to Saturday breakfasts in Commons, and it was fun to introduce the next generation. Anders’ favorites were, of course, the cereal bar and ice cream machine — where we took his picture for his class doll’s travel journal.”

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

B. J. Dunne became the David H. Koch ’62 Head Coach of Men’s Basketball and a physical education and wellness instructor at MIT during the summer. B. J. went to MIT after seven successful years at Gettysburg College, whence he departed with an 89-68 overall record and led his teams to four straight Centennial Conference semifinals. “Gettysburg did nothing but improve under Dunne’s guidance,” hoopdirt.com reported in August. “The program had just 16 total wins across the two years prior to Dunne’s tenure and had endured five losing seasons in the previous seven years. Under his leadership, the Bullets experienced a dramatic turnaround, winning 71 games from 2021–2025 — the most in any four-year stretch in program history.”

Marshall Hatch appeared on Time Magazine’s TIME 100 Next list for 2025, designated by the news magazine as one of “The World’s Most Influential Rising Stars” for 2025. The Chicago native, community advocate, and co-founder and leader of the MAAFA Redemption Project was featured in the category of Advocate. Profiled in these pages in a 2021 cover story, Marshall co-founded the MAAFA Redemption Project with his father, Marshall Hatch Sr., a pastor at New Mount Missionary Pilgrim Baptist Church. The younger Hatch is the executive director of the faith-based residential program, which brings together young men of color, some with criminal records, all of them at risk, who need connection, job training, and community. Marshall is on the Time list along with the likes of novelist Ocean Vuong, pop star Gracie Abrams, and actor Damson Idris. He was nominated by none other than civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

Laura Poppick published Strata: Stories from Deep Time in July. The book explores Earth’s 4.54-billion-year history through the stories told by geological strata — remnants of ancient seafloors, desert dunes, and riverbeds. “In this brilliantly original debut work,” notes publisher W. W. Norton, Laura “decodes strata to lead us on a journey through four global transformations that made our lives on Earth possible: the first accumulations of oxygen in the atmosphere; the deep freezes of ‘Snowball Earth’; the rise of mud on land and accompanying proliferation of plants; and the dinosaurs’ reign on a hothouse planet.” A writer on science and the environment, Laura lives in Portland, Maine. 

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Joevrose Bourdeau Small became director of economic development for the city of Cleveland last summer. She previously served as assistant director of economic development. Joevrose “has played a pivotal role in shaping the city’s business retention, expansion, and attraction strategy, while also building strong partnerships with workforce development agencies and minority-owned business accelerators,” the mayor’s office stated in announcing the promotion. Her achievements include improving the city’s business attraction processes and expanding access to capital for local businesses by aligning city initiatives with federal and philanthropic funding. 

Jared Golden, who has represented Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House since he was elected in 2018, announced in November that he would not seek re-election in 2026. Writing in the Bangor Daily News, Jared stated that he had “grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness” in the civic sphere, noting that “recent incidents of political violence have made me reassess the frequent threats against me and my family.” (He and Isobel Moiles Golden have two daughters.) Jared wrote that political considerations were not driving his decision: “I don’t fear losing. Regardless of what angry partisan commentators may say, I retain the trust of the coalition of Democrats, independents, and Republicans that has repeatedly defied the trends of political polarization by electing me.”

Tim Ohashi is the head video analyst for the Kraken, the hockey team in Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Nicole Hahn ’10. Tim’s career began in 2014 with the coaching staff of the Washington Capitals, where he served as an intern and then accepted a full-time video analyst position for the 2015–2016 season. Tim joined the Kraken upon its founding and has become a valuable resource for game preparation and in-game reviews. A Washington, D.C. native, Tim played club hockey at Bates.

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Darren Cromwell is a managing director and the Marsh and Mercer US and Canada Industry Practice Leader at Marsh and McLennan Cos., the global leader in risk, strategy, and people services. He previously led MMC’s Growth Opportunity Program, and served as Marsh’s sales and industry operations leader. Darren is on the board of the National African American Insurance Association New England chapters, and he mentors at Year-Up, promoting equitable access to opportunities. He is also a fundraiser for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. At Bates, Darren co-founded the e-commerce startup Numberspay, featured in CNN Money as one of the “6 Hot Dorm Room Startups.”

James Dowling-Healey interviewed physician, Navy SEAL, and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim in March, prior to Kim’s first trip to space. James, who teaches science at the Univ. of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Conn., and Western New England Univ. in Springfield, Mass., asked Kim about his upcoming mission, NASA programs that benefit life on Earth, physical fitness, and study tips for students. Material from the interview appears on YouTube’s West Hartford Community Interactive channel.

Colin Etnire is head of sustainability for the global investment-management firm BC Partners. Based in NYC, he joined BC Partners in 2020. Previously, he was an ESG analyst at The Carlyle Group, where he worked for the firm’s first chief sustainability officer, and before that he worked for the New Hampshire Democratic Party and interned at the White House.

David Pierce was promoted to the position of director of engineering at Innovations in Optics Inc. Previously principal optical systems engineer at the firm, David joined Innovations in Optics in 2013. A gifted engineer, he has played a key role in the electro-optical development of many of IOI’s industry-leading products. Founded in 1993 and based in Woburn, Mass., IOI develops innovative ultra-high brightness LED products designed to direct and maximize output uniformity and efficiency.

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Nick Friedman became assistant coach of men’s basketball at Wake Forest Univ. during the spring. He came “highly recommended by numerous NBA coaches, players, front office personnel, agents, and his college coaches,” head coach Steve Forbes said in announcing the appointment. Nick has worked with the Charlotte Hornets, Capital City Go-Go, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Northern Arizona Suns, Maine Celtics, and the Univ. of Miami during his coaching career. “This program has built a special foundation and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of its bright future,” Nick said. 

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

The Hollywood Reporter placed Max Goldfarb on Next Gen 2025, its list of up-and-coming Hollywood executives under age 35. Max is co-founder and manager of Redefine Entertainment, which manages a roster of scriptwriters whose projects include a Hot Wheels movie for noted producer J. J. Abrams. Among other tidbits, Max told the Reporter that a fictional character with whom he identifies is therapist Dr. Paul Rhoades, played by Harrison Ford on television’s Shrinking, “because I aspire to be an old, wise, grumpy grandpa who’s always right about everything.”

Tyler McKenzie is one of 12 athletes named to the 2025–2026 Stifel U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team roster across all classifications and disciplines, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced in October. Tyler was a downhill skier for three of his four years at Bates.

Anne Rockwell joined the Univ. of Maine at Farmington as director of snowsports and head alpine coach in October. A lifelong skier and four-year member of the Bates alpine ski team, she went to UMF from Carrabassett Valley Academy, where she had been an assistant alpine coach since 2022 (and which she also attended). Anne previously coached at Gould Academy and served as outdoor program director at the Saddleback Mountain resort. (Coincidentally, Karen Finocchio ’92 served as interim head alpine coach at UMF during the previous season. — Editor)

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Sunny Hong married Todd Smith in Albuquerque, N.M., last May. They’d met more than eight years previously, she writes. 

Emmet Shipway, a pro Ultimate Frisbee player with the Seattle Cascades, made a connection with two of the sport’s founders during a September game on Martha’s Vineyard. Charlie Shipway, Emmet’s half-brother, runs a weekly pickup game on the island, and had the opportunity to invite Ultimate co-creators Jonny Hines and Joel Silver to a match. (Hines, Silver, and a third friend developed the sport in the late 1960s.) Though Emmet wasn’t present for the game, Charlie wore his half-brother’s Cascades jersey during the event. The Martha’s Vineyard Times quoted Emmet’s response to Charlie’s playing with the sport’s founders: “It’s so cool.” 

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

McKayla Girardin, a resident of NYC who works as a writer and content strategist at GoodParty.org, wrote in The Fulcrum in September about the big city’s experiences to date with so-called participatory budgeting. That process invites ordinary citizens to directly decide how parts of the public budget should be spent. “By combining participatory budgeting with civic assemblies and allowing participation from residents as young as 11 years old, regardless of their immigration status, NYC is reshaping the definition of democracy for everyday citizens,” she wrote. “That is the ultimate goal of civic experiment programs: to expand and refine the definition of democracy.” 

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Lucas Gillespie joined the private investment firm Watermill Group, of Boston, as senior associate last summer. He is responsible for evaluating opportunities, executing transactions, and supporting management teams on strategic and operational initiatives. Lucas previously held roles as an MBA associate at Tuckerman Capital, and started his career in investment banking at Dowling Hales. He received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

“Let’s reject the politics of fear and embrace the politics of solidarity. The fight for a better Maine is the fight for a better world,” Kiernan Majerus-Collins wrote in the Portland Press Herald in a September op-ed. Describing the right-wing playbook of manufacturing “a culture war to distract from the class war that the wealthy are winning every single day,” he called, instead, for choosing: “to build a society where every person has a right to a safe home”; “to embrace newcomers and those who are different from us”; and “to tax the rich, empower workers, and invest in a shared future of prosperity for all.”

Writing in August for City Journal, a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a free-market think tank, Burke Smith explained that while the Trump administration’s goal of lowering pharmaceutical costs for Americans is well-founded, its proposed mechanism for doing so is not. He noted that “imposing price controls, even temporarily, sets a bad precedent. Rather than adopt the failed policies that have limited access to critical cures abroad” — i.e., price controls — “the United States should export the market-based principles that drive pharmaceutical innovation.”

Noah Stebbins was promoted to partner at the Boulos Co., a commercial real estate firm with more than 45 employees in Portland, Maine, and in Portsmouth and Manchester, N.H. A Biddeford native now living in Portland, Noah excelled academically at Bates while playing football all four years and, as the publication Mainebiz noted in announcing the appointment, co-founding the Bates Real Estate Club. Noah worked previously at HubSpot and at Boston Urban Partners, and joined Boulos in September 2019. Mainebiz noted that Noah is “known by some as ‘the Machine’ due to his drive to get deals done.”

Reunion 2029, June 8–10

Andrew Mikula, a senior housing fellow at the Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank in Massachusetts, commented to The Boston Globe for a July article about the slowdown of new-housing construction in Boston. Reporters Andrew Brinker and Catherine Carlock noted that city policies — notably Boston’s 17 percent affordable-housing requirement for new construction — were not entirely to blame for the slowdown, but Andrew pointed out that numerous studies have linked higher affordable housing requirements with reduced housing production. “Policy makers in Boston and elsewhere shouldn’t use those macroeconomic concerns as excuses not to address our housing challenges,’’ he said. 

Jason Ross, a doctoral candidate at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf in Germany, Dresden, Germany, was recently selected as a 2026 Roy G. Post Foundation Scholar, the foremost international award for graduate researchers in nuclear-waste remediation and nuclear materials management. “It is the top student distinction associated with the Waste Management Symposia — the largest and most influential global conference in this field — and only a very small number of students worldwide are chosen each year,” he writes. Jason was selected by a committee that includes senior scientists, federal program leaders, and national-laboratory directors. “My current doctoral research at HZDR in Germany contains work that sits at the intersection of fundamental inorganic chemistry and real-world nuclear-waste challenges. An area where a current professor, Geneva Laurita, has inspired me from the very beginning.” Ross has also engineered a current patent-pending cooling system designed to improve thermal management of spent nuclear fuel, which invention recently won first place in Germany’s Innovation for Nuclear competition. Ross writes: “The combination of this award, the patent, and the international visibility of the research is something my Bates education played a foundational role in — particularly the mentorship, training, and research environment in the chemistry department that sparked my path toward inorganic science.”

Reunion 2030, June 7–9

Forrest Hamilton joined Spinnaker Trust as an investment analyst in September. Prior to joining the bank, he served as a senior associate at RBC Capital Markets. He began his career at Independent Stock Plan Advisors before moving to F. L. Putnam Investment Management Company. He lives in Portland, Maine, where he enjoys the outdoors in his free time. Spinnaker Trust is a Maine bank chartered as a non-depository trust company that manages wealth for a global clientele.

Ryan Lizanecz has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Municipal Law for 2026. An attorney at Jensen Baird, in Portland, Maine, he specializes in the intersections of land use, zoning, and local government. Collaborating with municipal governments and private clients alike, Ryan provides guidance on issues spanning zoning and land use regulations, real estate, permitting, ordinance language, administrative appeals, charter amendments, elections, and environmental concerns. Ryan earned his JD with a certificate in environmental and oceans law at the Univ. of Maine School of Law. He was a member of Portland’s Charter Commission 2021–2022 and serves on the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

In a Commencement speech at Suffolk Univ. in May 2024, Alexandria Onuoha spoke about finding joy, even in difficult sociopolitical climates, and the lessons she learned from her immigrant parents. “Joy isn’t something that happens when things are easy. We create it. We identify it,” she said. “Let your joy remind you, that you can rise, you can endure, and, most importantly, you can thrive.” She graduated in May 2025 with a PhD in applied developmental psychology, making her the first Black woman to graduate from Suffolk with that degree; she earned a Master of Science in the same discipline from the university in 2022. 

Reunion 2026, June 12–14

Perla Figuereo, a model living in Los Angeles, won $4.56 million in prize money as the victor of season two of The Squid Game: The Challenge. Based on a fictional TV series, the reality show pitted 456 contestants — also including Perla’s brother, Jeffrey — against each other in challenges based on children’s games. As the Sun Journal noted, reality-show success often depends on “social skills, building alliances with other players, and developing a winning strategy,” and Perla’s Bates experience — which included robust involvement in extracurriculars and the local community, alongside studying for a double major — “may have prepared her for those elements in some ways.” She told the newspaper, “Genuinely one of my passions in life is people, so my strategy was just to get to know people like I do in my everyday life.” 

Abigail Kany has been working in Juneau, Alaska, as a youth educational programmer with the Sealaska Heritage Institute since September, with support from a nine-month fellowship from the Alaska Fellows Program. The Sealaska Heritage Institute works to advance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska, and to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events.

Elias Mihan received a Master of Public Health degree at Vanderbilt Univ. His thesis analyzed traumatic brain injuries’ effects on post-hospitalization opioid use in current opioid users.

Ramon Ruiz joined the Baltimore Ravens hired as a player personnel assistant in June. He went to Charm City from Rutgers, where he had risen to the position of football director of recruiting over the course of three years. A gridiron standout at Bates, Ramon played a key role in Rutgers’ turnaround under Greg Schiano. According to Essentially Sports, he helped “the Scarlet Knights reach back-to-back bowl games for the first time in over a decade, going 7-6 in both 2023 and 2024. His background also includes a 2024 Nunn-Wooten Scouting Fellowship with the Buffalo Bills.”

Reunion 2027, June 11–13

Thomas Hiscock, a music major at Bates, is the music writer for UpPortland, a free news and culture publication covering the downtown core of Maine’s largest city. In addition to penning that publication’s “Sidenotes,” he plays bass in the Latin/Metal-fusion band Manuel, in the hardcore outfit Griefmonger, the folk trio Curls, and the emo band Anatomy of a Thief. And that’s not all: He co-writes a music blog, is a free-lance writer and journalist, and works as a meditation facilitator around Greater Portland. 

Reunion 2028, June 9–11

Mohamed Diawara was named the inaugural Howard Vandersea Fellow in Athletics Administration at Bowdoin College in July. At Bates, Mohamed majored in psychology with concentrations in law and society, racisms, and religious studies. A member of the football team, he was deeply involved in campus life, holding leadership roles with the Bates Athletes of Color Coalition and serving as a peer mentor for the Bobcat First Generation Student Program. After Bates, he earned a master’s in public administration with a concentration in ethical leadership at Marist Univ., while playing on the Marist football team, serving as a team captain, and working as a business operations assistant in the athletics department. The fellowship honors Bowdoin’s former Head Football Coach Howard Vandersea, Bates Class of ’63. The position provides hands-on experience across various areas of collegiate athletics administration. While serving on the department’s leadership team, the fellow also pursues an online master’s in sports management.

Katia Ryan received the 2025 Grand Scholarship, an award that supports women in the Jackson Hole, Wyo., area who want to climb the iconic Grand Teton while building new skills and becoming part of the climbing community. Katia, who made the climb last summer, has lived in Jackson since 2023 and, as a community health outreach worker with the Teton County Health Department, has been involved in programs like the Latina Empowerment Circle. The Grand Scholarship is an initiative of The Teton Climbers Coalition. “I need everyone I went to college with to know I did this,” Katia jokes.

Ilyas Gajarski discussed the complexity — and shortcomings — of Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in Western media in a University World News commentary last June. While the #StopAsianHate movement brought attention to racism against AAPI, Ilyas’ thesis findings at Bates also demonstrated that #SAH did reinforce a monolithic idea of what it means to be Asian. Going forward, combating racism against AAPI “must include dismantling the very idea that ‘Asian’ is a one-size-fits-all identity,” wrote Ilyas (who went by Nick Gajarski at Bates). They published a version of their senior thesis, “Asian American college students’ reflections on the #StopAsianHate Movement,” authored in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Psychology Yun Garrison, in the journal Race Ethnicity and Education.

Olivia Seline told The Boston Globe in March that she was dedicating her run in the 2025 Boston Marathon — her first race — to the Lingzi Foundation, which honors the memory of Lu Lingzi, a graduate student at Boston Univ. who died in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Olivia was a Bates senior at the time of the October 2023 Lewiston shootings. “Bates showed me drive, acceptance, and the power of a good meal around the table with your community,” she told a reporter. “No matter where someone comes from or how well you know them, you always look out for one another.” (Olivia finished the marathon in 4:06:17, net time. — Editor)

Gianluca Yornet de Rosas spoke to The Maine Monitor for an article exploring legislative interest in improving public transportation in the state. Gianluca, who lives in the town of Norway and works at the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy, doesn’t own a car — a challenging situation anywhere in Maine. He’d be more interested in staying in the state long-term if improvements to public transit were forthcoming. “The loneliness aspect that transportation deserts create is what keeps me from (saying), for sure, I want to be here,” he told the Monitor.

Ilyas Bashir, a boxer who has competed at the national level, spoke to the Portland Press Herald about Skip Neales, a trainer at the Portland (Maine) Boxing Club. Neales, a lifelong boxing enthusiast, helped establish the club in 1992 and mentored many athletes there. “Every day, we’d talk and he’d help me out,” Ilyas told the newspaper. “Every weekend, Saturday and Sunday morning, always here. Always working out. He’s what elevated me to be a serious competitor.”

Just weeks after graduation, physics and math major Colton Bosselait accepted the position of head football coach at Oakmont (Mass.) Regional High, where he had been a star starting quarterback. He went from Oakmont to become Bates’ all-time leader in touchdowns in a season, passing yards in a season and game, touchdown passes in a season, and total completions in a game. As if that weren’t enough, in autumn 2024 he set Bates’ record for the longest pass in school history, an 86-yard TD strike that led the Bobcats to victory at Wesleyan. Colton will also teach math at Oakmont.

Julia P. Neumann was one of 16 to receive a 2025 Field School Scholarship from the Archaeological Institute of America. Julia’s Jane C. Waldbaum Archaeological Field School Scholarship supported her participation in the Pompeii Funerary Project, in Italy. Site of a large Roman cemetery exposed during development of a since-abandoned railway expansion, the Porta Sarno Necropolis archaeological project finished its seventh season. Julia, now in a graduate certificate program at Columbia Univ., spent July and part of August excavating there. “It was an incredible experience, not just because Pompeii is such an archaeologically rich place, but I learned so much in the program and discovered a love for archaeology that I’ll continue to build upon as I pursue a doctorate in ancient history,” she says. 

Katie Watt co-owns the Concord (N.H.) Bee Company with her father, Jim Watt, who is also a schoolteacher and the first person in New Hampshire to earn a master’s in beekeeping. In June, the Concord Monitor profiled the pair’s robust and growing business, which is based in part on trading the bees’ valuable pollination services to other farmers for the honey crop and the use of land to keep their hives. Katie, a lab technician in Boston, at one point took a summer research job examining differences between commercial and small-scale apiaries, like the one she now owns with her dad. “When you have thousands of beehives, it’s hard to give all of those bees the same treatment and maintain the hives as much as they need,” she learned. “I found that the temperament of the bees is a lot better on a smaller scale.”

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