Brandeis Magazine

Since Jaime Amaya-Farfan retired from Brazil’s University of Campinas four years ago, he has conducted research into nutrient and bioactive substances and their interactions with the human body. He writes, “Working with food engineers and technologists has made the objective of opening these professionals’ eyes to the future of health-promoting foods a worthwhile yet challenging endeavor.” Sara Anne (Filler) Fox, a veteran feature-film development executive, works with private clients as a creative midwife and advocate for their material. Saran (her nickname) also teaches story writing and screenwriting in the Los Angeles community-college system. Her son Nicholas is the assistant conductor, chorus master and director of the Young Artists Program at the Portland (Oregon) Opera, and son Daniel is a Los Angeles-based writer. Saran’s husband, Theodore, a screenwriter, died in 1997. Peter Gidal’s “Flare Out: Aesthetics, 1966-2016,” a collection of previously published essays, was republished in March. Author, critic and teacher Margo Jefferson received the 2016 Alumni Award from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Margo was for years a theater and book critic at Newsweek and The New York Times. She is the author of the highly acclaimed books “Negroland: A Memoir” and “On Michael Jackson.” Margo earned a degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1971. Jay Kaufman, MA’73, recently won election to a 12th term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He chairs the committee on revenue and is working on a major tax-reform initiative. He is launching a new nonprofit to provide leadership training for those in or aspiring to public service. Jay still lives in Lexington, albeit now with an empty nest and his first grandson close by. Natasha Lisman joined JAMS, the largest private provider of mediation and arbitration services worldwide. Based in the JAMS Boston Resolution Center, she serves as arbitrator, mediator and special master in a variety of disputes. Natasha had been a partner in the Boston law firm Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen. Charles and Myra Novogrodsky recently welcomed their fifth grandchild. They remain active in Amistad Canada and are contributing to two groups helping Syrian refugees move to Canada. They spend two months each winter in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Both Charles and Myra are thrilled that fellow Canadian Mark Surchin ’78 is serving as president of the Brandeis Alumni Association. Howard Posner has retired from his dual careers as California State Assembly transportation-policy consultant and elected board member for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. He volunteers for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Alzheimer’s Association, Breathe California and a local 5K race organizing committee, and also serves on the Sacramento City Compensation Commission and the California Transportation Financing Authority. He enjoys visiting his daughter and three grandchildren in Modesto, and get-togethers with Brandeisians from the Classes of ’68 and ’69 who came of age a half century ago in Shapiro A and B, and East. Lawrence Sank wrote “Zen on the Run: Mindfulness in a New York Minute” and “Happily Ever After: The Engaged Couples’ Guide to Getting Marriage Right.” Triss Finkelman Stein’s novel “Brooklyn Secrets” was published recently. It is the third installment in a mystery series about Brooklyn neighborhoods and history. In other news, her daughter Miriam was married in a romantic ceremony held on a beach. Judy Blumberg Weintraub, who has two grandchildren, is retired and living in Louisville, Kentucky. Bruce Zetter has joined the scientific and clinical advisory board at MetaStat, a molecular diagnostic company focused on developing and commercializing tissue-based diagnostic tests for the prediction of cancer metastasis. Bruce is the Charles Nowiszewski Professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Surgery at Harvard Medical School.