Brandeis Magazine

Civil rights lawyer Peter Basso is the new chief of the Affirmative Civil Rights and Labor Enforcement section in New Jersey’s Office of the Attorney General. Aliya Caler runs Birthing Adventures Midwifery, a home-birth practice in San Francisco. Aliya, who received a master’s in public health from Columbia University, is a California-certified nurse-midwife, a certified women’s-health nurse practitioner and a registered public-health nurse. Especially during the pandemic, she is relishing being able to provide women nurturing care within the safety of their home. Brandi Lee Lough Dennell writes, “In 2018, I accepted a research associate role at the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, Scotland. In April 2019, my wife, Julie, and I welcomed home our now 4-year-old son. We were thrilled when our adoption order was granted in February 2020 and he officially became a Lough Dennell, which we celebrated according to his wishes: cake, pizza and a bowling party with family. After a COVID-related delay, we finally received the long-awaited adoption paperwork in October.” The U.S. Mint has selected the portrait design created by Elana Hagler for the George H.W. Bush Presidential $1 Coin. Hagler recently completed her first year as one of 27 artists from around the nation designing coins and medals as part of the U.S. Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program. She is an assistant professor of art at Alabama State University. In September, David Koslovsky merged his oral surgery practice with a colleague’s practice, expanding the office of New York Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. Sarah Bracha A. Pluscarr has launched a private legal practice inspired by her more than 15 years of spiritual study and practice. She aims to bring ancient principles on conflict resolution to her clients’ legal matters and disputes, a value she says she first learned about at Brandeis. Suzy Stone has joined Arizona State University as the campus’s new rabbi. Previously, she did community organizing, largely around the issue of economic justice. Some of that work was for the Religious Action Center, the political and legislative outreach arm of Reform Judaism.