ALUMNI CLASS NOTES in the fall of 2017. More about their work can be found at www.thedorrstreetstudio. com. This year Jessica started her own company called “The Drew Box.” The company’s main offering is the Drew Box, a sturdy container with moisturizing oils, supplement pills, a sleep mask, lip balm, lotions, candles, and instructions for simple yoga stretches. For more information or to order a DrewBox, go to www.thedrewbox.com.
MICHAEL BOHL ’00
RISHI SEHGAL ’98
Rishi and his wife Brittany are the proud parents of Ziem Om Sehgal, born on November 19th.
RON BIRNBAUM ’89
Ron ran for the California 5th Assembly district in Los Angeles. A life-long Democrat and community activist, Ron is also a physician who has worked with the underserved in Los Angeles County, and a former Medical officer in the United States Navy. He was running on a platform of progressive policies that put human needs first.
OLLA
DANIELLE
GOODWIN-AVERY
’98
Danielle and Jetahn Avery, and big brother and future MVCDS alumnus, Jameson Avery ’32, welcomed Carrington Avery on July 17th .
“We came up short on election night – but we ran a campaign that I and everyone else can be proud of. We took ZERO corporate dollars to fund our campaign. We fought to pass single payer (healthcare) in California – something we desperately need. We ran a campaign that was honest, ethical, knowledgeable, and genuine. And in that respect, I couldn’t be prouder of our accomplishments,” Ron said. ANITA TAMIRISA ’98
Anita’s son Lukas Kiran Talanda was born November 15th. Anita and her husband, Ondrej, are enjoying watching Lukas relishing his rice cereal, rolling over, and doing baby push-ups.
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Michael is a PGY-5 Neurosurgery Resident and was featured in a Barrow Neurological Institute article in The Barrow Newsroom. Early on in his residency, Michael had ideas for new medical devices but found that the process for developing them was difficult to navigate. That’s when he began to envision a formal program that would serve as a pipeline where ideas could be vetted and, if feasible, developed quickly. “When you cut down that development time, that tends to be when things are the most exciting and when the best ideas come out,” he said. “It’s difficult to continue to innovate the same solution when it takes years to make it through each step of the process. You forget and move onto other things.” In addition to his professional career, there is good personal news for Michael. He and his wife Jessica welcomed Olivia Ryan Bohl to their family on July 17th.
BRENNAN KASPERZAK ’00 IMANI ROACH ’00
Imani recently joined the online arts publication Artblog as managing editor. Artblog’s mission is to promote equity and inclusion in Philadelphia arts. Before Artblog, Imani was both a contributor and a senior editor at Guernica magazine. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2012, Roach has devoted herself to the local arts community as an art history lecturer at the University of the Arts, as an active member of the Vox Populi Gallery and Collective, and as a practicing artist and musician.
Brennan is a master glass artist, living in Seattle, WA. His latest creations combine two of his passions: mountains and glass. Inspired by mountains, he creates quilt patterns and geometric designs in snowboards using cut sheet glass. In removing the functionality of the snowboard by creating it in glass, Brennan allows the snowboards to become his canvas. He says that light plays a significant role in glass, as in snowboarding: shine a light from behind and you may notice a change in your view of the snowboards. His web site is brennankasperzak.com.