on NPR, featured in Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” column, and published in journals ranging from the Paris Review to Newsweek. Still living at the confluence of poetry and poetry-in-motion, she has published five books; her latest is The Afterlives of Trees. See www.WyattTownley.com.
1978 Catherine Bobenhausen (environmental science) discovered whitewater kayaking last summer at Madawaska Kanu Centre. During calmer moments, she consults, teaches, and writes. A senior industrial hygienist/environmental health and safety consultant at NYC’s Vidaris, Inc., Bobenhausen is an adjunct faculty member in the State University of New York/Fashion Institute of Technology’s graduate program, and lectures at the City College of New York and Columbia. She’s also a “mystery woman” for the American Association of University Women/Westchester’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career day for seventh-grade girls, and the author of “Green Building: The New Transparency” in the Synergist. Tony Castrigno (acting) is the principal and founder of Design Contact and a well-known name in scenic design. He reports that business is thriving in all areas and permanent installations are a growing avenue for his work. In the last three years, Design Contact, which employs many Purchase alumni, has taken on installations for Merck Vaccines, Adobe, two CVS|Caremark facilities, McAfee, NCTA, and Prudential, using the teams’ abilities as set designers, interior designers, interactive designers, illustrators, graphic designers, and artists. Evan Fisher (film) has been in the entertainment business for more than 25 years, and has worked in sales, marketing, and management positions at Cannon Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, National Geographic, and the BBC, among others. Evan Fisher He is currently a technology and strategy consultant to BabyFirstTV, a worldwide TV channel and content publisher, where he has secured content deals with Microsoft, Google/YouTube, Samsung, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon, as well as numerous international licensing deals.
Scarsdale Fire Department, while chairing the board of fire commissioners for the Purchase Fire District. Mignone is a board member of several not-forprofit organizations locally. His next major task, he says, will be his son’s wedding this coming August. Tom Murphy (visual arts) lives in Amherst, MA, working as a pediatric occupational therapist. He founded the Bogin Playscape Project, designing indoor playgrounds for preschool children (boginplayscapeproject.com). Murphy is happily married to Nan Salky, with whom he has two almost-grown daughters. He continues to play music; see the links to his recent recordings with Sad Song Radio at http://ssradio.bandcamp.com. Michael Rabinowitz (music) has worked at GRM Document Management for 25 years, and continues to be active as an improvising bassoonist. He plays regularly with the Charles Mingus Orchestra, French horn player John Clark, and his own trio. This summer he will be performing and giving master classes at IDRS’s annual conference at NYU Steinhart. While his two daughters are in college, he and his wife have been able to travel the world. His website is www.jazzbassoonist.com.
1979 Tessa Bell (film) is currently showing her film Life Inside Out in festivals around the country. The movie is a drama about a family that struggles with its members’ opposing needs and dreams but manages to grow stronger together through music. It had simultaneous premieres at the Heartland and Hollywood Film Festivals and won the Best Premiere Award at the Heartland festival. The writers, director, and producer are all women; they financed the film through Kickstarter. See www. lifeinsideoutthemovie.com. Virginia Calabrese (visual arts) studied printmaking at Purchase with Antonio Frasconi and went on to Manhattanville for a teaching certificate in art education. In 1980, she married Richard Oppedisano, an alumnus of Iona College, and they have two sons and a daughter. Calabrese has taught art classes to all ages from prekindergarten to senior citizens in a variety of media. Bhavani Jaroff (visual arts) is the founder of iEat Green, LLC (iEatGreen.com), an organization providing healthy chef services, educational workshops, and cooking demos. She is the host of iEat Green with Bhavani, a weekly Bhavani Jaroff radio show on the Progressive Radio Network, and is a co-chair of Slow Food Huntington. Jaroff has a master’s degree in education and is a certified Waldorf teacher; she uses food as her creative outlet.
Peter Kurz (political science) is currently living in Israel and working as a freelance marketing consultant focusing on the U.S. market. He represents companies Lisan Lema (literature) experienced a rough year in 2013 with the death of her mother. This year, she in the fields of consumer says, has ushered in a whole new chapter; she has products, building products, and Peter Kurz purchased an old property along Albuquerque’s kitchen and bath products. In his spare time, he is the president of “Antique Mile” and is in the process of restoring it to operate a shop of her own. Scaling back to partthe Israel Association for Baseball—his training as time at her current retail job, she hopes to be her the catcher for the Purchase Burnouts, he says, has own boss by year’s end! come in handy! Albert Mignone (anthropology) spends a fair amount of time spoiling his grandkids. He still works full-time as a fire inspector for the Village of
Noah Lewin (film production) retired from the New York City Department of Education in December 2013.
1980
Jay Bernstein (anthropology) is a professor and librarian at Kingsborough Community College of the City College of New York in Brooklyn. His research covers knowledge organization and inquiry. In May he will present “Disciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in the Study of Knowledge” at the 13th International Conference of the International Society for Knowledge Organization in Krakow, Poland. Mitch Friedman (literature) recently celebrated his 28th year with his employer, Smiths Detection. He is proud and amazed that his education helped guide his career from a position as a manufacturing technician into technical writing, marketing, and eventually sales. Mitch Friedman He attributes his strong people and communication skills to his college experiences and education. Friedman’s two sons, David and Andrew, are now attending college. His favorite hobbies are hiking, mountain biking, and cooking—and he has enjoyed acting and directing at the Clockwork Repertory Theatre in Oakville, CT, since 1999. David Zarowin (philosophy) recently joined the Woodrow Wilson Foundation as the founding executive director of the Teaching and Learning Lab, a competency-based, blendedlearning graduate school of education for prospective STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathemathics) teachers and school leaders. The David Zarowin lab will be launched in 2016
in affiliation with a leading university and one or more school districts, and will be based in either Boston or NYC. Zarowin can be reached at zarowin@woodrow.org.
1981
Garet Livermore (culture and society) was named the executive director of the Sagamore Institute of the Adirondacks in Raquette Lake, NY. He served for 15 years as the vice president for education at the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown. In his new position, Livermore will divide his time between Raquette Lake and Cooperstown, and he invites Purchase alums to experience the real Adirondacks.
Carole Stewart McDonnell (literature) reports that her novel The Constant Tower has been nominated for the Clive Staples Award for best Christian Speculative Fiction of 2013. This work, along with her first novel, Wind Follower, and her shortstory collection Spirit Fruit, are being released in an audio format. She is currently working on her third novel, My Life as an Onion. PUR C H A SE | 2 7