GS Class of 1987

Amy Lowrie Taivalkoski writes: “A spontaneous mini-reunion of the freshman of Everett Hall in West Quad class of ’81 took place in January. Living in Boise now, I don’t get to the East Coast often so while I was visiting Jacki Cullen Howitt in Manhattan, we decided to see if others would like to spend a casual afternoon together. Happily we got a great turnout that included Leo Alventosa, Tom Apple, Peter Dain, Marlene DeMaio, Lisa DeRensis, Nigel Foster, Sue Howitt ’80, Toshio Nakamura ’83 ScM, ’87 PhD, Chris Pappo, Grant Price ’82 MD and Frances Wu. Joining on Zoom for a bit were Jeff Alperin and Beth Burlingame. It was wonderful to see the old gang again and reconnect, catch up, and reminisce about our younger days. Yes, we all look the same.”

Matthew Kapstein ’87 PhD is now professor emeritus at theÉcole Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France. He is also an associate of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he taught as a visiting professor until 2022. In 2018, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent book, Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (Cornell University Press, 2024), has been awarded this year’s Toshihide Numata Book Award by the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at UC Berkeley. 

Tricia Rose ’87 AM, ’93 PhD published Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—and How We Break Free on March 5 with Basic Books. In the book she presents a bracing and powerful breakdown of why and how racism works today is most usefully discerned: as a system.

Elizabeth Robinson ’87 AM writes: “In the past five years I have been the recipient of a Pushcart Prize in Poetry and Editors’ Choice Prizes from New Letters and Scoundrel Time. My new books of poetry are Excursive (Roof Books, 2023) and Thirst & Surfeit (Threadsuns Press, 2023).”

Washington Magazine released its list of Tech Titans 2022, the 225 most important and innovative leaders in Washington’s digital economy. Among the honorees were: David Cicilline ’83, chair of the antitrust subcommittee, U.S. House of Representatives; Catherine Marsh ’82, ’87 PhD, director, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity; Tobin Moore ’04, cofounder and CEO, Optoro; Stefanie Tompkins ’93 ScM, ’97 PhD director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and Adam Vitarello ’05, cofounder and president, Optoro.

In 1958, Dr. Lois Hodgins Monteiro ’70 PhD married George Monteiro ’54, ’64 PhD, and he later became a faculty member in the English department. After Lois received her PhD she was a faculty member in bio-med until she retired. “Apart from Martha Sharp Joukowsky ’58 PhD and Artemis Joukowsky ’55, I think that we might be the only other couple with ’58 affiliations who made their lifelong professional lives at Brown, quite an accomplishment. Please let me know if you know otherwise. Furthermore, son Stephen ’90 and daughter Kate Monteiro ’87 AM graduated from Brown.”

Washington Magazine released its list of Tech Titans 2022, the 225 most important and innovative leaders in Washington’s digital economy. Among the honorees were: David Cicilline ’83, chair of the antitrust subcommittee, U.S. House of Representatives; Catherine Marsh ’82, ’87 PhD, director, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity; Tobin Moore ’04, cofounder and CEO, Optoro; Stefanie Tompkins ’93 ScM, ’97 PhD director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and Adam Vitarello ’05, cofounder and president, Optoro.

Bob Valentini ’87 ScM, ’93 MD, ’93 PhD (see Pamela Wiseman ’83).

Pamela Wiseman writes: “I connected with Mary Griffin Perna and Chris Perna, Bobby Chang ’88 MD, Karen Sadler, and Eliane Videira, and I obtained a recipe from Bob Valentini ’87 ScM, ’93 MD, ’93 PhD. I moved to Dallas in 2017 for an executive position leading supply chain transformation of a top-ten health system. I would be happy to assist my alumni friends in their pursuit of supply chain excellence. Timing is everything!”

Constantine M. Megaridis ’86 ScM, ’87 PhD was appointed University Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has been since 1990. He is also director of the Micro/Nanoscale Fluid Transport Laboratory.

Lise Weil ’79 AM, ’87 PhD published In Search of Pure Lust: A Memoir with She Writes Press. Lise was founding editor of the feminist review Trivia: A Journal of Ideas, and in In Search of Pure Lust she documents her immersion in the heady experiment of lesbian-feminism of the ’70s and ’80s, a time when women were reinventing everything from the ground up, beginning with themselves. A dive into Zen practice begins to turn things around, but her struggle to reconcile hot-headed lesbian desire with spacious Zen mind will persist for a good long while. Scenes from Brown include a conversation about Baudrillard and astrology in the Ratty and a dissertation defense that turns uncomfortably personal. More information can be found at https://shewritespress.com/product/search-pure-lust/.