Brandeis Magazine

45th Reunion
June 9-11, 2017

Ken Browne is developing a documentary film titled “Why Doctors Write: Finding Humanity in Medicine,” which explores the growing practice of using writing, the humanities and reflective reading as resources for doctors, medical students and other health-care workers. Denise Dabney, Heller MMHS’81, Heller PhD’00, is looking to interview African-American alumnae who attended Girls’ Latin School in Boston during 1948-74. She’s writing a book on the resilience of African-American women who attended Boston’s premier all-girls exam school. She can be reached at ddabney@verizon.net. After a career as a network and local television, cable and radio executive, Mark Effron has moved into academia. He has joined Montclair State University, in New Jersey, where he teaches advanced television production and will help coordinate a new multi-platform newsroom set to debut in 2017. Previously, he spent a year teaching journalism, media law, and the press and the presidency at William Paterson University. Mark’s wife, Anne ’73, is a clinical social worker in private practice. Son Micah is a consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund, and daughter Leah is returning to school to become a nurse practitioner. David Ennis and Kathleen Macridis, both P’10, who have been married for 40 years, sold their house in Newton, Massachusetts, and moved to an apartment in Boston. David works at Affirmative Investments, a finance firm that focuses on economic development and housing in low-income neighborhoods. Kathy works at the Boston Green Academy, a Horace Mann in-district charter school in Brighton, where she oversees development and does college guidance work. They have three children: Daniel, a chef; Alexi, who trades high-end bourbon; and Laura, a teacher. David and Kathy write, “We are waiting impatiently for grandchildren.” Margaret Fried is retiring from her solo law practice in Pittsburgh, where she did plaintiff-side employment law, which she describes as an interesting and challenging area. She previously worked for Pittsburgh’s low-income legal-services corporation. Margaret is looking forward to spending more time with her four children and nine grandchildren around the country, playing old-time fiddle music, and gardening. Rosalie Gerut composed the score for the musical “Songs of Paradise,” which is playing in Israel. For more about her work, visit rosaliegerut.com. David Gotthelf reports he has “retired” several times over the past four years. He worked for more than 30 years as a school psychologist, clinical psychologist, and head of student services and special education in two different Boston-area school districts. He managed psychological and social-work services for the Newton Public Schools and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Aspire program and, most recently, did clinical and consultation work in private practice. His two adult daughters are doing well. “My wife, Linda, and I are trying to figure out how much to keep working versus sitting back and enjoying a more relaxing life,” he writes. Mark Hamburgh ’72, P’04, P’07, and his wife, Rita, P’04, P’07, participated in a Holocaust study mission conducted by the College of Saint Elizabeth in New Jersey. The tour took them to sites in Berlin and Poland, including Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. Elliot Maggin received the Bill Finger Award from Comic-Con International for excellence in comic-book writing. “Superman: Miracle Monday,” his 1981 novel, is being republished. He’s co-authoring a book about nutrition with his daughter, Sarah. Son Jeremy completed a Harvard fellowship in disaster medicine through Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and is working as an emergency-room attending physician and a Harvard Medical School faculty member. Dale Pollock, P’06, associate professor of cinema studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the school’s board of governors. Jeffrey Summit published a new book, “Singing God’s Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism,” which is the first study of the meaning and experience of chanting Torah among American Jews across denominations. Jeff is rabbi and executive director at Tufts Hillel, and a research professor teaching ethnomusicology in the Tufts music department. President Barack Obama appointed Jordan Tannenbaum, chief development officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2004, to the U.S. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Before joining the museum, he was vice president of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Attorney Barbara Freedman Wand, a partner at Day Pitney, received the 2016 Boston Estate-Planning Council Excellence Award, the highest honor the organization bestows upon a member of the estate-planning community. Barbara advises clients on sophisticated estate planning, and the development and implementation of philanthropic goals.