Class of 1975
Class Correspondent
- Sydne Jennifer Newberry
- 1975notes@alumni.brandeis.edu
I want to thank all of you who have provided updates. It’s been nice to reconnect with folks in our class, not to mention taking a break from a seemingly never-ending series of research proposals. I look forward to hearing from more of you in the coming months.
Ginny Faulstich Shiller, P’04, has resided for more than 30 years in New Haven, Conn., where she lives with her husband, Robert, P’04. Her older son, Ben ’04, is a first-year assistant professor in economics at Brandeis. Her younger son is completing a doctorate in philosophy. Ginny continues to work in private practice as a clinical psychologist and as clinical instructor at the Yale Child Study Center. During the past year, she also participated in the development and teaching of a new post-graduate educational curriculum in infant mental health, a joint cross-Atlantic effort of Yale, the Anna Freud Centre and the Tavistock Institute. Sheila Trugman has started a new concierge medical practice, Tree of Life Healthcare, in Worcester, Mass., for people 50 years and older. She writes, “I’ve been practicing family medicine for 30 years with an interest in geriatrics and palliative care/hospice for the past 14 years. I am very excited to be pursuing this new venture and to be able to provide people with the time, guidance and advocacy so needed.” Michael Steven Greene has relocated his business law firm, M.S. Greene & Associates, from downtown Miami to the industrial warehouse office park he owns on the northern frontier of Miami-Dade County. He is a member of the board of directors for Pacific Coal Resources and is active in the guidance of development in Seaside, Fla., which may be in the “Redneck Riviera” but is often considered a model of new urbanism in modern city land planning. Michael also writes novels, stories and songs while occasionally playing in a rock-and-roll blues band. Amneris (Millie) Mendizabal has retired and lives on a beautiful 21-acre farm at the base of the foothills of the El Yunque protected rainforest reserve in Puerto Rico. Her farm grows exotic varieties of flowers, orchids and trees. She writes, “I also do freelance translation work to keep myself busy, and to keep my brain neurons churning and language skills in Spanish and English sharp. I am married to a farmer and landscape artist, Freddie Morales.” Donna Krupkin Whitney retired from her neurology practice in 1998 and now coordinates the math and science curriculum at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, a four-year art college in Nashville, Tenn. She also serves as director of the college’s quality enhancement plan. She visited South Africa and Mozambique in 2012 and is looking forward to a return visit in 2015. Michael Baumrin, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, moderated a panel discussion at the Municipal Finance Conference, which brought together more than 250 academics and practitioners to discuss issues in municipal markets. The event was co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute of Global Finance at Brandeis International Business School and The Bond Buyer, a trade publication. David Lampl, a partner with Leech Tishman in Pittsburgh, was named a 2013 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Magazine. He is part of the firm’s bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice group and has served as lead counsel on behalf of banks, creditors’ committees and debtor companies in a wide variety of complex bankruptcy and creditors’ rights matters. Jon Davis, the CEO and founder of the Davis Cos., was profiled in the “Outside the Box” feature in the Boston Business Journal. Jon, who has nearly 40 years of real estate management and development experience, has gained a reputation in recent years for buying undervalued properties at auctions and turning them into profitable assets. Any Brandeisian trying to crack a recent Jerusalem Post crossword puzzle should have solved at least one clue. The Post’s crossword editor, David Benkof, asked puzzlers to complete the name of “‘American Judaism’ author Jonathan.” The clue, of course, refers to Jonathan Sarna, MA’75, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis, and his 2004 award-winning book. Says Jonathan, “It is extremely flattering to know that Israelis are familiar enough with my work to recognize me as the author of ‘American Judaism.’ Of course, having a five-letter last name probably adds to my popularity in crossword-puzzle circles. So I won’t let this go to my head.” Laurie Rich was named program manager for the Women’s Enterprise Development Center, Mid-Hudson Valley satellite. She was formerly director of Spectrum Services Foundation, a nonprofit organization raising money for children with autism spectrum disorders. Richard Sherwin is the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Law and Literature at the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas at McGill University in Montreal. His most recent book, “Law, Culture and Visual Studies,” co-edited with Anne Wagner, was published in 2013. In 2011, he published “Visualizing Law in the Age of the Digital Baroque: Arabesques and Entanglements.” He is a professor of law at New York Law School.