ALUMNI
in Action
Diana Meringolo (biology) is pursuing her longtime interest in the field of physical fitness and is now a certified personal trainer, after spending many years as a project manager in the information technology field. She has opened her own company, Fitness for Health and Longevity, LLC, and specializes in working with people 40 and over. She currently resides in Hopatcong, NJ, with her husband, Arthur Mario. James Palka, AIA (visual arts), is a senior project manager in the design and construction department at the University of Pennsylvania. A licensed architect since 1990, he is currently managing the construction of the $68M Neural and Behavioral Sciences Building on the University of Pennsylvania campus.
1982
Mary Ellen Bartley (visual arts) is now represented by the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. The gallery, which specializes in contemporary photography, featured Bartley’s work at Paris Photo 2013 and will exhibit her photographs at the AIPAD Photography Show in New York this spring. Bartley lives with her family in Wainscott, NY, and is working on a solo show scheduled for October 2014 at the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton.
Stephanie Klapper (drama studies) is owner of Stephanie Klapper Casting; she is an awardwinning New York–based casting director for theatre, film, television, and the Web. Her work can currently be seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. Klapper also teaches audition and performance workshops in NYC and at colleges and universities nationwide. She and her husband reside in the NYC area with their two children. She writes that it was a joy and honor to be part of Kay Capo’s recent retirement celebration; Klapper appreciated the chance to reconnect with faculty and friends and see her mentors, Philippa Wehle and Jay Novick.
1983
Peter Jacobs (visual arts) and Elizabeth Smith (visual arts) celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary Peter Jacobs & this year. Jacobs Elizabeth Smith is a working artist (peterjacobsfinearts.com) and has owned Fine Arts Imaging (fineartsimaging.com) for 29 years. Smith also is an artist (elizabethjacobs.com), and owns the Clay Studio in Montclair, NJ.
Nora Raleigh (literature) is publishing her 11th young-adult novel, Subway Love, with Candlewick Press this May. Two other novels— the first (still untitled) about a girl whose mother is incarcerated in the Bedford Women’s Correctional Facility, and the second, Nine/Ten, exploring the 24 hours prior to 9/11 from the point of view of four different characters—are both due out in Nora Raleigh 2015 from Simon & Schuster. PUR C H A SE | 2 8
David Rosenfeld (design/tech) is entering his 28th year at Hudson Scenic Studio as an electrical foreman. At Hudson he has participated in the system design, construction, automation, and electrification of hundreds of Broadway, cruise ship, and touring productions. From the radiocontrolled boat for The Phantom of the Opera, now in its 26th year, to the current productions of Matilda and Aladdin, Rosenfeld’s work spans years of technological advances in the theatrical and lighting industries.
Albert C. Petite Jr. (liberal arts) is in his third year of teaching in Beijing, now at the Affiliated High School of Peking University. He also provides college counseling for overseas-bound students, which he describes as “awakening imaginations and herding cats”; he adds, “Purchase is getting on radar screens!” Petite continues to work with the Chunmiao–Little Flower medical orphanage (www. chunmiaolittleflower.org/), a local project that continues to develop a global reach. His email is apetite@aya.yale.edu.
Irene Jonas Sweet (social science/visual arts) and David Sweet (liberal studies) met at Purchase and earned Irene and David Sweet master’s degrees at Fordham. She teaches adult education; he has worked for Westchester County for 25 years as a social worker, presently in the home healthcare field. They were married in 1991 and moved to Carmel, NY, in 1993. They have three sons: Jacob (17), a clarinetist: Matthew (15), a snowboarder and golfer; and Troy (10), who enjoys sports and music.
1985
1984
Barbara Drake (literature) has been living in Lima, Peru, since 2007. For the past five years, Barbara has taught English in the translation program of the Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas, where she was Barbara Drake honored as the 2011 Teacher of the Year. She has also worked as a field producer for NBC News, focusing on climate change and the Joran van der Sloot murder case. Drake is returning with her family in May to live in Gainesville, FL. Karen Pease Marino (visual arts) went on a twoweek journey to Uganda last May with Bead for Life, a group that creates sustainable opportunities for women to lift their families out of extreme poverty. Marino and her fellow volunteers visited women and girls in the slums and orphanages in Kampala, as well as in the Karen Marino villages in Northern Uganda where Joseph Kony’s guerilla forces had devastated whole communities. John Moyik (design/tech) is a founding partner of Design Contact and has a long history of scenic design and design management. A few years ago he led the creation of DC-Connect, which develops and programs (i)cell technology systems and accompanying (i) connect display products. These electrostatic-based interfaces and Moyik’s interactive display units have, he reports, struck gold in California. The company has completed more than 10 projects in California, with John Moyik more to come in 2014.
Jim Benz (visual arts) has been appointed head of the Peninsula School in Menlo Park, CA. Peninsula is an independent, progressive school that focuses on maintaining a balance of play and meaningful academics, creativity, and cooperation. He is one of the few school leaders with experience in the arts. Benz taught art at Greens Farms Academy, then became head of the middle school at Seattle Academy, and then the director of the upper schools at Far Brook School in New Jersey. Jessica Shatan Heslin (visual arts) and her husband are thrilled to report that they adopted Sean Levi Heslin at birth on May 6, 2013; it took nine years, but Heslin is now a new mom at 50. As Sean’s first birthday approaches, Heslin is beginning to work part-time from home, doing freelance interior book design. After the adoption, Heslin resigned from her position as the Sean Heslin leader of interior design at Oxford University Press. Joe Mannetti (formerly Louie Paul Devendittis, drama studies) obtained his master’s degree in counseling from CSU Northbridge before moving back to Connecticut. He received the Dorothy Award from the New Haven Pride Center, as well as an award from the Pride NY organization for his work with the LGBTQ community. Mannetti currently works as a mental-health counselor at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, CT, and returned to Purchase for the HIV Equal event in March. Michael A. Rinella (political science) is a senior editor at SUNY Press. Rinella has signed a contract with the University Press of Kansas to publish an edited and annotated version of the memoir of Dallas resident George de Mohrenschildt, Lee Harvey Oswald as I Knew Him. Last fall, Rinella’s home business, Take Aim Designs, published its first board game, Operation Doug Shannon Battleaxe: Wavell vs. Rommel, 1941. Doug Shannon (design/tech) was the gaffer for the film Little Boy, scheduled to open in June 2014. A family drama set during World War II, Little Boy stars Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Michael Rapaport, and Kevin James. It was filmed at Baja Studios in Mexico.