Brandeis Magazine

“The Shrinking Bowl,” a novel by Gheysika Agambila about a Ghanaian girl and the village life that shapes her, was published in May 2021. Deborah L. Cohen and husband Ben Sussman live in a townhouse in Maryland. Deborah has run the Boston Marathon twice, the first time at age 60 and the second at 65. Son Jonathan, who graduated from New York University in 2020, lives in New York City and works at a tech company. Marilyn Heine, clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Drexel University College of Medicine, in October served as a faculty member at ACEP21, the national conference for the American College of Emergency Physicians. Her session was titled “How to Discharge VTE Patients Safely.” Jonathan Hirst, P’18, P’18, passed the New York Bar Exam in July 2021 on his first attempt. Mark Lippolt is the treasurer on the board of directors of Women’s Lunch Place, a Boston-based nonprofit that provides healthy meals, essentials, advocacy and one-on-one assistance to women in need. Jeff Polekoff writes, “On July 10, 2016, I was the physician on Delta Air Lines Flight 1817, en route from Atlanta to Denver, who cared for ill passengers and discerned there was a pathogen causing the problem, which motivated the captain to make an emergency landing in Tulsa. The pathogen was carbon monoxide.” Kimerly Rorschach is president of the American Federation of Arts’ board of trustees. She also serves on the Rose Art Museum’s advisory board. Elisa Schindler Frankel is president of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires, serving on its allocation, development, investment, nominating and personnel committees. Husband Larry Frankel is president of the couple’s synagogue, Hevreh of Southern Berkshire. Diane Cohen Schneider writes, “After 31 years of living, working and launching three kids in Stamford, Connecticut, my husband, Rich, and I have moved to sunny, vibrant Santa Fe, New Mexico.” Diane’s debut novel, “Andrea Hoffman Goes All In,” will be published by She Writes Press in August. Judi Shostack, a lawyer in Toronto, reports she is loving her new role as bubbe to Milo Jack, born on Nov. 18. Valerie Sonnenthal writes about her friend Arnie Reisman ’64, who passed away unexpectedly in October: “Those of us who knew him consider ourselves lucky. I’ve never known anyone who made me laugh the way Arnie did.” Valerie spoke at Arnie’s installation as poet laureate of Martha’s Vineyard in 2014 and worked with him on the third anthology of poetry by the Cleaveland House Poets, which was published last year and to which they both contributed poems.