Brandeis Magazine

Sam Ackerman married Dana Adler in a small backyard ceremony in Matta, Israel, in September. In attendance was Ma’ayan Friedman-Hai. Other Brandeisians attended remotely via streaming video. Sam, Dana and cat Ellie live in Jerusalem, where Dana works as a pediatric nurse at Alyn Hospital. In August, Mary Ballegeer, Heller MBA’16, joined the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center as an assistant director. Sarah Brin has moved to London to be closer to friends and accept the role of senior external producer at Media Molecule, a video-game studio in the PlayStation family. Cindy Kaplan directed and produced two short documentaries for NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change about the organization’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also writes food-allergy advocacy articles for the nonprofit Food Equality Initiative and her own blog. In January, she celebrated the five-year anniversary of the launch of her career services company, Hollywood Resumes. Daniel Katzman has been elected president of the St. Clair County (Illinois) Bar Association for 2020-21. He is a partner at law firm Katzman & Sugden. Samantha Lakin and Benjamin Sacks ’10 welcomed Miriam Devorah Sacks into the world on Nov. 20. They report the new baby proved to be a quick study in eating and is minoring in parental sleep deprivation. Samantha is completing her PhD at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Laura Wolf has started her own law practice, Spark Justice Law, which represents individuals whose civil rights have been violated. She looks forward to representing those in her community who confront systemic abuses of power.