Brandeis Magazine

Ron Bakal is married and lives in New York City, where he had a solo practice in urology for 15 years and now works at Maiden Lane Medical. Joshua Orge Culbreath and his wife, Kneale, moved to Izmir, Turkey, in August. He is an English teacher in the high school at Turkey’s oldest international school. Melissa Hafter reports that a busy summer of college visits with her son allowed her to see lots of ’Deis folks, including Rob Levy, Alex Skovronek, Marni Schultz Schwartz, Andy Schwartz, Todd Batson ’88, Martin Abeshaus ’88, Bryna Brownstein ’88, Eric Goldberg ’88, Jodi Freedman ’90, Lori Brown Hulak, Steve Simons, Tom Perlman ’86, Rob Cheifetz ’88 and Steve Goldin ’88. Melissa’s daughter started her freshman year at the University of Southern California this fall. “I will have 15 kids to tutor this year, so it will be a busy one, but my door is always open if you come to Colorado Springs,” Melissa writes. Stuart Katz and wife Marni ’90, P’22, have lived in Connecticut since 1992. Stuart practices law at Cohen and Wolf, where he chairs the firm’s litigation group and focuses his practice primarily in the area of employment law. He recently became president of the board at Camp Ramah in New England. Marni is manager of business development at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts. They have two sons, Zach ’22 and Ben. Jaclyn Kugell has been selected by her peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America 2019. The chair of Morgan, Brown & Joy’s management committee, she was recognized for her practice in the areas of “employment law — management” and “labor law — management.” She also received a Band 2 ranking for labor and employment law in the 2018 edition of the Chambers USA guide. Dana Perlman directs the Midwifery Institute at Jefferson, part of Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University, which recently launched the first doctorate in midwifery in the U.S. Rebecca Berman Phelps is a federal alternative dispute resolution attorney in Seattle, mediating cases for the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General. She and husband Matt have “three” children: Hannah (19); Jack (17); and Ziva, their Alaskan malamute (7). Rakesh Rajani has stepped down as director of democratic participation and government at the Ford Foundation. He is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank, and will soon join a startup that promotes collective action on health, education and economic empowerment in India and parts of Africa. Rakesh lives with his family in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Lori Rosenthal was named associate dean in the School of Humanities, Education, Justice and Social Sciences at Lasell College, where she is an associate professor of psychology.