Class Correspondent

Larissa Ruiz Baia is vice president of student services and enrollment management at Lakes Region Community College, in Laconia, New Hampshire. Her husband, Carlos Baia, is deputy city manager in Concord, where they live with their children, Tatiana and Jonas. Jocelyn Brandeis is sad to report the passing of her father, Lee Brandeis, P’94, on Jan. 19, 2015, and her maternal grandmother, Claire Siegel, G’94, on Jan. 8, 2012. Claire was an active member of the Brandeis National Committee in the 1960s (before Jocelyn’s parents met) and the 1970s, serving as president for four years. In addition, Jocelyn’s father and grandmother shared the same birthday, Feb. 5. It truly seems as if her parents’ meeting was kismet, Jocelyn says. After five years of living in the heart of Silicon Valley, Barbara Tarter Hirsch, her husband and their three kids moved from Palo Alto, California, to Wellesley, Massachusetts. She is excited to be back in the Boston area. Barbara works as director of strategy at the Suburban Jungle Realty Group, a free service that helps buyers determine the best suburb for their family by focusing on understanding the actual town rather than just the real estate. Mark Lehman is a principal at Rosewalk Properties, which invests in and manages small and midsize multifamily and mixed-use buildings and commercial real estate. He and his wife of 12 years, Jane, have two children: Jonah (7) and Frankie (5). Chris Spencer, the fencing coach at Haverford College, returned to Brandeis in March 2016 to help run the NCAA Division I Fencing Championships with his former coach, Brandeis’ Bill Shipman; two fellow alumni, athletic director Lynne Dempsey ’93, Heller MM’04, and sports information director Adam Levin; and many others. Chris writes, “Lynne and Adam did an amazing job of organizing a very complicated event, which (for fencing) drew a huge turnout and was lauded by both coaches and athletes as one of the best-run tournaments in the history of the sport.” Douglas Stark, the author of “The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball’s Greatest Jewish Team,” celebrated the release of his latest book, “Wartime Basketball,” chronicling the story of basketball’s survival and development during World War II, and the effect those years had on the game’s growth after the war.

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