Brandeis Magazine

Marla and Andrew Berman practice law in Miami. Both sons, Corey and Taylor, are also lawyers in Miami. Daughter Morgan, who lives in New York, recently gave birth to Marla and Andrew’s first grandchild, Toby Raz. The baby’s father, Eddie Silvera ’08, is a Brandeis alum. Corey’s wife has another grandchild on the way. Lewis Brooks and Denise Silber Brooks ’84, P’16 — along with their son, Eddie; daughter, Hannah ’16; and Wendy Colman Levin ’81 and family — spent an unforgettable, life-changing week welcoming the New Year on the continent of Antarctica. Felice Prifer Cotignola is a senior partner in Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, a litigation firm in New York City. She has been with the firm for 30 years and is a member of its executive committee. Felice is also on the board of directors of ALFA International, a network of U.S. and international law firms. She has been married to her husband, Michael, for 29 years. In July, their daughter, Melissa, married David Sykes in Boston. Naomi Friedman joined the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration in February to coordinate disaster-recovery and resilience activities. Reid Leonard is chief operating officer and head of corporate development at Potenza Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company developing novel immunotherapies for cancer. Before joining Potenza in 2014, Reid retired from a 25-year career at Merck & Co. Reid and his wife, Debbie, have two sons: Ryan, a clarinetist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Mat, an actor in New York. In his spare time, Reid is a private pilot and volunteers with the Civil Air Patrol for search and rescue and disaster-response missions. Rich Rosen and Cheryl Erlich Rosen ’81, P’10, celebrated daughter Ilana’s marriage to David Josset in October and eagerly await the birth of their first grandchild in August. They also celebrated Rich’s mom’s 90th birthday in Delray Beach, Florida. Rich, who works at Columbia Threadneedle, earned a Lipper Fund Award for managing the best large-cap value mutual fund in the U.S. over the past 10 years. This was Rich’s eighth such award. Patricia Spence is director of the Urban Farming Institute of Boston (UFI), working with urban farmers in the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, Massachusetts. This summer, UFI moves into its new headquarters in Mattapan. Patty has two wonderful boys in their 20s. Elaine Matlow Tal-El lives in Jerusalem with her filmmaker husband, Eli. Elaine co-founded and directs AVIsrael, an NGO dedicated to helping children with deafness, learn spoken language through listening and auditory-verbal strategies. The youngest of Elaine’s four daughters are twins born profoundly deaf.