Brandeis Magazine

Jocelyn Berger married Rabbi Stephanie Kolin ’01 on Oct. 12, 2014, in Los Angeles. Many alumni attended. Jocelyn writes, “Although Stef and I overlapped at Brandeis for a year and knew plenty of people in common, we didn’t meet until December 2010 at the Hazon Food Conference, in Northern California.” They live in Los Angeles, where Jocelyn is a program officer with American Jewish World Service and Stef is national co-director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Just Congregations. Sarah Chopnick and Adam Sofair-Fisch welcomed daughter Eleanor Sydney (Ayala Shoshana) on Oct. 24, 2014. The family resides in Brooklyn. Debbi Finkelstein teaches U.S. history and sociology at Medway (Mass.) High School. Nicole Frisch lives in Portland, Ore., with her husband, Casey Maharg, and poodle Lola. Nicole and Casey were married over the summer; Brandeis alums Gwen Mesco ’02 and Jeff Morrow ’03 joined in the celebration, where everyone danced to Journey and forgot to take a Brandeis group photo (whoops). Nicole is vice president for corporate social responsibility at Bank of America and will happily try to convince you to move to Portland any chance she gets. Bert Huang joined Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering faculty. He received his doctorate in computer science from Columbia University in 2011. Bert already has his name on six patents, ranging from machine learning for power grids, to ways to analyze spatiotemporally ambiguous events, to combinatorial optimization methods and systems. Ethan Klepetar joined Parese Sabin Smith & Gold as a senior associate attorney. He concentrates his practice on business and commercial law, commercial financing, nonprofit law, employment law and real estate. Stephanie Knepper married Craig Basman on Sept. 21, 2014, at the Pierre in New York City. Stephanie works as counsel for SKA Marin, an affordable-housing development firm based in New York. Sung-Min Lee reports he is blissfully married to Nayoung Woo. “Love abounds,” he writes. He is an attorney at Lowey Dannenberg Cohen & Hart in White Plains, N.Y., where he represents institutional investors in litigation. Dalya Levin and her husband, Henry Redel, welcomed their second child, Jacob, on June 20, 2014. He joins big brother Sam, who is 2. Beth Linas completed her doctorate in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in August. Her dissertation, “Mobile Health (mHealth) Assessment of Illicit Drug Use Among Community Dwelling Drug Users in Baltimore, Md.,” was the first dissertation at Hopkins to examine the emerging field of mobile technologies in health. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Hopkins, where she continues to pursue her interests in mHealth. Jonathan Marks has been named the head of the medical practice group at Cresa New Jersey, the local affiliate for the world’s largest company providing service to occupiers of office and industrial real estate. Janna Meyrowitz and her husband, Ethan Turner, welcomed son Harley Max to the world on May 17, 2014. Anna Natsume works as senior campaign project manager at Nordstrom headquarters in Seattle. Previously, she was a senior account executive at a New York City branding agency. “I moved from New York to Seattle in August 2014 to be closer to family and pursue new work opportunities,” she writes. “I’m excited to experience the West Coast and immerse myself in Seattle’s thriving business community. I am looking forward to connecting with other Brandeisians in the Emerald City.” Naomi Orensten accepted a position at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, in Cambridge, Mass., as manager of assessment tools. She had been working as a senior consultant at Informing Change. Ian Rifkin, MS’09, and Valerie Smedile Rifkin, MA’05, had their first child, Caleb Joseph, on March 18, 2014. Caleb is getting a head start on his Brandeis education by attending the Lemberg Children’s Center. Valerie and Ian both work and teach at Brandeis. Adam Shain, MS’04, and Michelle (Smith) Shain, MA’13, welcomed a baby girl, Abigail Clare, on Oct. 29, 2014. She joins big brother David and big sister Elizabeth. Karen Shilo has practiced yoga for nine years in New York and Boston. She helps others deepen awareness of mind and body, and acquire greater health and happiness through yoga. Massachusetts Super Lawyers recognized Callan Stein as a Rising Star in the field of civil litigation defense. Callan is an associate attorney in the litigation practice at Donoghue Barrett & Singal in Boston. His practice focuses on business litigation, health-care litigation, employment and whistleblower defense litigation, and research misconduct cases. Callan lives in Brookline with his wife, Danielle. Julie Verratti opened Denizens Brewing Company in Silver Spring, Md. It is the largest production brewery in Montgomery County.

THE PLEASURE OF THEIR COMPANY: Alumni joined in the celebration when Jocelyn Berger ’04 married Rabbi Stephanie Kolin ’01 on Oct. 12, 2014, in Los Angeles. From left: Ari Bader-Natal ’01, PhD’08; Liz (Witkow) Bader-Natal ’03; Zach Sherwin ’02; Erin Hull ’05; Naomi Orensten ’04; Stephanie; Jocelyn; Lauren Greis ’04; Tobey Ward ’04; and Linda Tobin Pepper ’63. Not pictured: David Weisz ’01, Rachel Marks ’01 and Rabbi Jocee Hudson ’01.