 |
 Mariel
Finucane ’05 is one of two graduate students nationally to be named
winners of the Cox
Scholarship, an award sponsored by the American Statistical Association’s
Committee on Women in Statistics since 1989 to encourage more women to enter statistically
oriented professions. Finucane, who received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics,
joins Sharon M. Lutz, a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, as a Cox
Scholar. Both women will enter Harvard University this fall.
Stephanie J. Jones ’82 began
her term this summer as Executive
Director of the National Urban League’s Policy Institute, an organization
located in Washington, D.C., that provides research, policy analysis and advocacy
to enable African Americans to achieve self-reliance, parity and power, and civil
rights. From 2002 until this summer, Jones served as chief counsel to Sen. John Edwards,
a candidate for president and vice president in 2004. Jones has also served as an
associate professor of law at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase
College of Law, and served on the faculty of Northwestern University School of Law.
Jones received her bachelor’s degree at Smith in English literature and Afro-American
studies, and her Juris Doctorate from the university of Cincinnati College of Law.
As executive director, Jones is expected to lead the Policy Institute as a more active
participant in forging public policy issues related to the National Urban League’s
agenda.
Claudia A. McMurray
’80 is six months into her first term as Assistant Secretary for Oceans,
Environment and Science with the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental
and Scientific Affairs, an office within the U.S. Department of State. From 2003
until this year, McMurray served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment,
and before that as Associate Deputy Administrator and Chief of Staff to the Deputy
Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As Assistant Secretary
for Oceans, McMurray will help oversee issues related to environmental protection
and climate change, conservation of resources, health issues, and cooperation with
other nations. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in government from Smith,
McMurray earned her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University.
Lopez-Reiss |
Rios |
Smith public
safety officers Irma Lopez-Reiss and Harold Rios graduated
last month from the Massachusetts State Police Academy’s Campus Police Officers
training, a rigorous 16-week course. In the process, Lopez-Reiss achieved distinction
by breaking a long-standing record for the 1.5-mile run as part of the course, and
took an award for the highest level of physical fitness at the academy, which is
located in New Braintree, Mass. “I am very proud of both their accomplishments
by graduating from this course,” said Paul Ominsky, director of public safety. “Irma’s
awards really highlight the wonderful staff that work in the Department of Public
Safety.” Rios and Lopez-Reiss are the newest officers on the public safety
staff, joining 10 other officers, as well as Scott Graham, deputy chief, and Ominsky.
All public safety officers are required to complete the police academy training.
Yanique Matthews ’05 is one of
77 recent college graduates to receive a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship, which
pays for graduate school expenses such as tuition, room, board, fees and books --
up to $50,000 a year -- for up to six years. Matthews has enrolled in a graduate
program at the University of South Florida. Scholarship recipients were selected
from among more than 1,100 applicants from 33 states and nine foreign countries.
Scholarship awards are based on academic achievement, financial need, demonstrated
leadership and community involvement. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation was established
in 2000 to help people of exceptional promise reach their potential through education.
The foundation’s graduate scholarship, now in its fifth year, is among the
most generous academic awards in the country.
Michelle Fournier ’92 was recently
accepted to the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program, which provides funding for teachers
and administrators in the United States to teach abroad for one year while a counterpart
from a foreign country teaches in the U.S. Fournier, a teacher of French studies
at Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine, will teach English in Bayeux, France,
while her exchange counterpart will take over her courses in Westbrook. The Fulbright
Teacher Exchange Program is intended to promote mutual understanding between people
in the United States and other countries. As a Fulbright participant, Fournier joins 17
Fulbright Fellows recently graduated from Smith, as well as five French Government
Teaching Assistant Fellows.
Sonya Naar ’91, a partner
in the Chicago law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP, was recently named Young
Lawyer of the Year for 2006 by the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). The award
is given annually to attorneys for all-around excellence in private practice, contributions
to the bar and pro bono work. Naar is extensively involved in pro bono work, focusing
primarily on children and education in the Chicago area. Among her many volunteer
activities, she serves on the directors boards for the Starlight Starbright Children’s
Foundation, and represents children through the Juvenile Justice Project. Naar last
year won the Abraham Marovitz Making-a-Difference Award. She concentrates her practice
in commerical litigation. Naar will receive the award in June during the ISBA annual
conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Caroline Kuan ’99, who made news
last year when she was hired as the first female (assistant) conductor for the North
Carolina Symphony in Raleigh, has again made history, this time as the first woman
to be appointed assistant conductor for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Kuan, who
attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music after graduating from Smith, studied conducting
with Kurt Masur, Martin Alsop and Leonard Slatkin. She will leave her post in North
Carolina for the two-year appointment with the Seattle Symphony, an orchestra regarded
among some of the best in the country. Kuan, a native of Taiwan, has served as guest
conductor for numerous ensembles. She made her debut with the Seattle Symphony as
guest conductor one year ago.
Emily Jacobs
’04 is the recent recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF)
Graduate Research Fellowship, an annual award that promotes science and engineering
by supporting outstanding students pursuing graduate degrees in those and related
disciplines. The award stipend is $27,500 for 12-month tenure plus an additional
$10,500 allowance per tenure year. Jacobs is studying psychology and cognitive neuroscience
at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley.
Jane Yolen ’60, a beloved fantasy
and young adult author and a resident of Hatfield, Mass., recently received the 2006
Roots in Writing Award from Science Fiction and Fantasy Female Writers (SF-FFW) association.
The award honors women of great accomplishment in the literature of science fiction
and fantasy. In winning the award, Yolen joins previous winners such as Madeleine
L’Engle ’41, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey and Andre Norton.
Yolen, who has written more than 275 children’s books and science fiction and
fantasy novels, served as an editor for Knopf Publishing, and published several renowned
authors under her own young adult fantasy and science fiction imprint for Harcourt
Brace publishing company. Yolen, who completed graduate studies at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, taught a course at Smith for several years on fantasy
and the literature of childhood. She also served on the editorial board of the Smith
Alumnae Quarterly. The SF-FFW is a worldwide association of professional women writers.
Catherine Christian
’01 was named a winner of the Peach Award, a prestigious honor given
annually to a graduate student at the University of Virginia who demonstrates enthusiasm
for research and collaboration in science and medicine. The award was named after
the late Michael J. Peach, a professor of pharmacology and the associate dean for
research at the University of West Virginia Medical School. Christian, who is enrolled
in the University of Virginia’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, was presented
with the award -- a stipend, certificate and engraved goblet -- during a ceremony
in April.
Maureen Rutecki
’84 earned her Accredited Senior Appraiser designation from the American
Society of Appraisers. Rutecki is a senior valuation analyst with EFP Group, a CPA
and business consulting firm in Rochester, N.Y. Rutecki, a resident of Pittsford,
N.Y., is vice president of the Western New York Chapter of the American Society of
Appraisers and a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts,
as well as other accounting organizations. After graduating from Smith, Rutecki earned
an MBA from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the
University of Rochester. She joined EFP Group in 1998.
Eric Reeves, professor of
English language and literature, will receive an honorary degree from Mount Holyoke
College during its 169th commencement exercises on Sunday, May 28. Reeves, who has
become an internationally prominent expert on the genocidal atrocities perpetrated
by the government of Sudan in the country’s Darfur region, has published numerous
editorial essays on the subject in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and
other newspapers, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on human rights. Reeves,
who joined the Smith faculty in 1979 after attending Williams College and the University
of Pennsylvania, will also receive the Bicentennial Medal from Williams at the college’s
convocation in the fall, in recognition of his Sudan research and advocacy. The medal
is the college’s highest alumnae award.
Six Smith sophomores were recently named Mellon Mays
Undergraduate Fellows. They are Amanda M. Boone, Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe,
Lizmarie Lopez, Elan C. McCollum, Ebonie Chene Tillman, and Jocelyn
J. Thomas. The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program, which is funded
by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, is designed to increase the number of under-represented
minorities entering doctoral programs, in order to ultimately broaden the pool of
faculty members at the nation’s educational institutions. Each fellow works
with a faculty mentor on a research project of her design. The newest Smith Mellon
Mays Undergraduate Fellows join four juniors who received the fellowship last year: Astride
Charles, Candace Gibson, Teresa Gonzales and Maria Lazaro.
Susan Vincent AC’00, who teaches
science at the Young Women’s Leadership School in the Harlem section of New
York City, was awarded a 2006 Toyota TAPESTRY Grant to fund her project titled “Is
it Possible for a Biological Healthy Estuarine System to be Sustained on Long Time
Scales in the Midst of a High Populated Industrial Area?” which will investigate
a system for understanding how New York’s Hudson River estuary responds to
natural events and human impacts. TAPESTRY Grants, which are sponsored by Toyota
Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., are administered by the National Science Teachers Association
(NSTA). Vincent, who won in the category of Environmental Science Education, is among
50 recipients who have received between $2,500 and $10,000. Vincent was honored last
month by the NSTA at its annual conference in Anaheim, California.
Carolyn Kinder Carr ’61, deputy
directory and chief curator at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.,
has spent the past few years coordinating traveling exhibitions for the gallery,
helping circulate and display its collection as its permanent space in the Patent
Office Building undergoes extensive renovations. Carr, who has written numerous books
on art and portraiture, including Alice Neel’s Women and Americans,
most recently curated “Retratos: 200 Years of Latin American Portraiture,”
an overview of more than 100 portraits from more than 15 countries, from the Pre-Columbian
through the modern eras. After showings in New York, California, Florida, and at
the Smithsonian Institution,
“Retratos” recently completed its run at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
Shanna Burke ’05J was inducted last month into the Phi Alpha
Honor Society at Springfield College School of Social Work. Phi Alpha is a national
honor society for social work students with grade point averages of at least 3.9
and a credit load of at least 16.
Evelyn Bailey
’93 was recently honored by the Vermont General Assembly as the first
executive director of the board for the state’s enhanced 911 system, an expanded
emergency response network now accessible to all citizens in the state. Bailey also
served as executive board secretary and president-treasurer of the National Association
of State 911 Administrators and chaired the U.S. Department of Transportation’s
Steering Council for Wireless Enhanced 911. “Evelyn Bailey has been a leader
among enhanced 911 officials,” cites an assembly commendation of Bailey. “The
Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional E911 Caucus, other governmental
entities, and the media have all consulted Evelyn Bailey for her expertise and experience
in developing and operating a modern E911 system. The General Assembly congratulates
Evelyn Bailey on her outstanding accomplishments as executive director of the enhanced
911 board.”
Rosetta Cohen, professor of education
and child study, teamed with Kelly Swindlehurst ’07 to compile
research for an exhibition, “The Round Hill School: 1823-1834—Education
Reform in Early America,” on display at the Historic Northampton museum through
January 1, 2007. The exhibit outlines the history of the brief experimentation in
education at Northampton's Round Hill School, the first truly progressive high school
in the nation and the first to reject curricula of traditional Latin Grammar schools.
Intended to educate boys from elite families for intellectual leadership, the school’s
innovations have endured far beyond its short-lived existence. Historic Northampton
is located at 46 Bridge Street.
Diane E. Kaneb
’60, who lives in Weston, Mass., was recently elected chair of the
Foundation and the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
(MEEI), an international center for treatment and research and a teaching hospital
of Harvard Medical School. Kaneb, among numerous volunteer activities, has served
as an MEEI trustee since 1986 and was elected to the board in 1989. After earning
a degree in economics from Smith, Kaneb graduated from Babson College’s Management
for Women Program.
Karl P. Donfried, the Elizabeth A.
Woodson 1922 Professor Emeritus of Religion, is currently in Rome serving on the
faculty of the Pontifical Biblical Institute as the 2006 Joseph Gregory McCarthy
Professor. Earlier this month, Donfried spoke at the institute on “Rethinking
Paul: On the Way Toward a Revised Paradigm,” in which he suggested that an
analysis of the Apostle Paul, in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, will enable a more
comprehensive understanding of Pauline theology. Donfried, the first American Lutheran
pastor to hold the McCarthy Chair, is one of the world’s preeminent authorities
on the New Testament letters of the Apostle Paul, with particular interest in how
the Dead Sea Scrolls illuminate Paul’s writings. He retired from Smith last
June.
Ariel Gonzalez-Cohen, MFA
student in dance, has been nominated for the Dance Magazine Outstanding
Choreographer Award. Last fall at Smith, Gonzalez-Cohen auditioned a solo piece,
titled “Waiting to Get In,” and was chosen by college faculty members
to perform the piece at the 2006 New England Regional Dance Conference of the American
College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA), held at Boston University. The conference
was attended by hundreds of dance students and faculty from colleges throughout the
Northeast. From among the 45 dance works judged at the conference, Cohen’s
solo was selected for a repeat performance in the closing Gala Concert. She was also
chosen to go on to the ACDFA Twelfth National College Dance Festival at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C., where her choreography will be reviewed again for national
recognition. Gonzalez-Cohen will perform “Waiting to Get In” at this
year’s Spring Dance Concert, held April 6 through 8.
Elizabeth E. Carr, Catholic chaplain
to the college and lecturer in religion and biblical literature, was recently elected
vice president for 2006-07 of the National Association of College and University
Chaplains (NACUC) upon returning from the group’s annual meeting last month.
The NACUC is a multifaith professional community, founded in 1948, concerned with
religious life in the nation’s college and university communities. Following
NACUC tradition, Carr will automatically rise to association president in 2007-08.
Doreen Woo Ho
’68, president of Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Group, was recently
named to the National Board of Directors for the Asian and Pacific Islander American
Scholarship Fund (APIASF). Wells Fargo donated $100,000 to APIASF, which will go
to college-bound students from underrepresented APIA communities interested in pursuing
careers in banking and financial services. The donation represents the largest contribution
received from a financial services institution. “Our support for APIASF, both
financially and through our corporate involvement, addresses a critical need in the
lives of these young Americans by giving them access to higher education,” said
Ho. Wells Fargo corporate leaders will also work with APIASF to create internship
and mentorship opportunities for APIASF scholars. “When students are mentored
they have an opportunity to explore their skills, ask questions and add to their
knowledge base,” said Ho. Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified financial
services company with $420 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments,
mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers internationally.
Justina Roberts
’06, who during her Junior Year Abroad in Geneva worked as a research
assistant for the Global Competitiveness Programme at the World Economic Forum, was
invited last month to work with the Global Agenda team at the organization's 2006
Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting, which has taken place in Davos
each January since 1971, when it was called the Davos Symposium, focused on finding
solutions to global challenges. More than 2,000 people take part each year in an
intensive five-day program of workshops and interview-style panel discussions that
focus on crucial global, regional and industry issues. The keynote speaker was Angela
Merkel, Germany's Federal Chancellor, who focused on the need for a creative approach
to global challenges.
Erika Laquer, Dean of the Ada Comstock
Scholars Class, traveled to the Dominican Republic for a week in early January to
volunteer on the labor and delivery floor of the San Vincente de Paul Hospital in
San Francisco de Macoris. Laquer, who teaches a first-year seminar, Of Women Delivered:
Midwifery in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective, worked alongside the unit’s
director and a nurse midwife, supervising four University of Massachusetts students. “I
sat with many women during their labors,”
she reports. “I even accompanied a 14-year-old throughout her Caesarean section.
It was a very important experience for me and for the students who participated.” Laquer
worked at the hospital through an Amherst organization, Proyecto
Adames, which aims to decrease infant mortality in vulnerable populations.
 Suzanne
King Nusbaum ’69, a retired Massachusetts Industrial Accident Reviewing
Board judge, has been invited this month to preside at the Chinese National Rounds
of the 2006 Jessup Competition, an international law student moot court, to be
held at Remnin University in Beijing. She recently received a master of laws degree
(LL. M.) in intellectual property law from Santa Clara University School of Law,
Santa Clara, Calif. She is currently a principal in IMPARTIA, a Silicon Valley
alternative dispute resolution firm, resolving intellectual property, medical and
financial disputes. She is an arbitrator and mediator for the World Property Organization
(WIPO), the National Arbitration Forum, the National Association of Securities
Dealers (NASD), Kaiser Permanente and the Santa Clara County California Superior
Court.
The Irish Cultural Center at Elms College in Chicopee,
Mass., will present an exhibition this month of landscape paintings by Olwen
O’Herlihy Dowling ’95 at its Borgia Gallery in the Mary Dooley
Campus Center. The paintings in the exhibition are depictions of landscapes in Ireland’s
counties Kerry and Connemara, which Dowling produced as an artist-in-residence at
The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in County Monaghan, Ireland.
“The Connemara/Kerry landscape has always been a beautiful memory for me,” says
Dowling, who was born and lived in Dublin until age 9, and off and on since. “I
first visited these parts of Ireland in the early 1980s. I found the isolation and
the wild countryside strangely familiar though I had never seen anything before quite
like the ever-changing light and clouds. For me, the west of Ireland is the most
beautiful place in the world and more dramatic, alluring, and lonely than I ever
imagined.” Her works will be on display from Monday, February 6, through Sunday,
February 19.
Michaela LeBlanc ’07 has
registered a campaign committee with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political
Finance, an indication that she will run for office in the State Senate representing
Franklin and Hampshire counties. LeBlanc, who serves as president of the junior class
at Smith, will run as a Republican candidate attempting to unseat the popular Democrat
incumbent from the region, Stanley C. Rosenberg.
A recent book, National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of
the World Plays Soccer, by Andrew Zimbalist, the Robert A.
Woods Professor of Economics, has been chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title for
2005 by Choice magazine, the review journal of the American Library Association. Choice selects
a small number of books each year for the distinction “for their excellence
in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field,
and their value as important—often the first—treatment of their subject.” Zimbalist
is the author of several books on the business of sports, including May the Best
Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy. He co-authored National
Pastime with Stefan Szymanski, professor of economics at the Tanaka Business
School, Imperial College, London. A list of the winning titles was announced in the January
2006 issue of Choice.
Sheila M. Petigny
’91 recently became the director of the Youth Leaders in Action program,
which offers after-school guidance and activities at the Gandara Center in Springfield’s
Lower Liberty Heights neighborhood. The center is a multicultural, nonprofit organization
that serves the behavioral health needs of children and adults in the area. Petigny,
who majored in theater at Smith, will run the program for 15 children between ages
11 and 16. “My plan for the youth is to use performance pieces to empower them
to use their voice and speak out,”
she said in a January 4 Daily Hampshire Gazette article. “Youth programming
is vital because kids in tough neighborhoods, every day, see that dealing drugs is
a choice, and they see the paths that are harmful. When they see ways to go that
are positive, that makes a big difference.”
Sidnie Davis ’08 will
travel to Israel in January with a fellowship recently awarded to her by the Current
and Future Leaders Study Mission of the Anti-Defamation League. She will travel through
the country for one week with 11 other student fellows, as well as two U.S. Congressmen,
to meet with Israeli politicians and Palestinian officials, and visit landmarks and
religious sites. Davis, a government major with a focus on international relations,
is excited about her upcoming trip. “It’s been my dream to go to Israel
since I was about 15,” she says, “but I didn’t ever think I’d
be able to go on an all-expense paid trip, or that I’d be leaving so soon.
The chance to go on a trip to the Middle East with a political focus is a dream come
true. It’s just another amazing opportunity that Smith has given me.” Davis
will leave for Israel on January 3.
Catherine Hunt
’77, leader of technology partnerships at Rohm and Hass, an electronic
materials manufacturing company with a research facility in Spring House, Pennsylvania,
was recently elected President-Elect for 2006 of the American Chemical Society (ACS),
a nationwide organization founded in 1876, consisting of 158,000 members at all levels
and fields of chemistry. She will assume the society’s presidency in 2007 and
serve as a member of the board of directors from 2006 to 2008. In her candidate’s
statement, Hunt said
“it’s time for America to reignite its commitment to science and technology
-- and ACS can lead the way.”
Hunt received 72 percent of the vote in winning the election this year.
Eileen Harrington
’96 recently returned to Boston, her hometown, after serving two years
in Namibia as a volunteer AIDS coordinator and educator with the Peace Corps. Harrington
trained primary and secondary school teachers about the effects of the fatal disease,
which has infected a large part of the population in Namibia and its neighboring
countries along Africa’s southwestern coast, Angola and Botswana. Her training
focused on methods of prevention and how to best convey the important information
to students. After graduating from Smith, Harrington earned her master’s of
public administration degree from Suffolk University. She now plans to pursue a job
in international development for a U.S.-based non-governmental organization.
Jessica Bossé
’07, who is studying at Smith this year through a Killam Fellowship
Award, will return to Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, next year to complete
her studies in biology. The prestigious Killam Fellowship, administered through the
Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States, is given
to exceptional students from both countries to attend an institution in the other
partner country for one semester or an academic year with the goal of increasing
understanding between the neighboring countries. Bossé has also won the Millennium
Excellence Award, one of Canada’s top honors.
Laura Katz, associate professor
of biological sciences, is part of a newly formed task force of scientists and educators
looking into the growing concern that a major loss of a significant fraction of the
Earth's biodiversity may occur in the near future. Assembled by the Smithsonian Institution,
the Biodiversity
Science and Education Initiative (BSEI) aims to identify critical knowledge gaps
and conceptual approaches that must be addressed for a better scientific understanding
of biodiversity. The Biodiversity Science and Education Initiative met for the first
time last month. Throughout the next several years, it aims to prioritize a science
agenda to fill the gaps in the knowledge about biodiversity and make a stronger,
more conceptually driven case for increased funding for biodiversity science. The
work of the BSEI task force is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation.
Judy Strong, head coach of Smith's
field hockey team for 19 years, has been selected to the NCAA Division I 25th Anniversary
Field Hockey Team. In 1980-81, the National Collegiate Athletic Association began
its first tournament competition in field hockey for its Divisions I and III (Smith
competes in Division III). Strong was a member of the top-ranked University of Massachusetts
(Division I) field hockey team that competed against eventual champion the University
of Connecticut in the inaugural championship tournament. “It was a great feeling
to be playing for that championship,” said Strong in a recent article announcing
the anniversary team in NCAA News Online. “As you look back, you can
say you felt like a pioneer and breaking through, but I don’t remember feeling
that way then.” The athletic conference will celebrate its quarter-century
anniversary throughout the 2005-06 season, beginning with the 2005 championship tournament
this month.
Catherine MacKinnon
’69, a renowned lawyer, teacher, writer and activist, was recently
named one of 196 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
a society of 4,000 professionals who have demonstrated leadership and exceptional
achievement in science, scholarship, business, public affairs and the arts. MacKinnon,
the author of several groundbreaking articles and books on sexual harassment and
women’s rights, joins journalist Tom Brokaw, playwright Tony Kushner, cartoonist
Art Spiegelman, actor Sidney Poitier, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page,
and the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in this year’s class
of academy inductees. The new fellows, who were elected by current academy members,
were inducted in October during an annual ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
T. Christine Stevens ’70, professor
of math and computer science at Saint Louis University, was recently named a Fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s
largest society of science professionals. Stevens was selected for her contributions
to the development of mathematics professors. She joins 376 members of the society
in receiving the honor this year. Stevens is the director of New Experiences in Teaching
(NExT), a project she created to assist the development of new or recent doctoral
professionals in mathematics. In 2004, Stevens received the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr.
Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics, the most prestigious
award given by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
Kenneth Hellman, professor
emeritus of chemistry, died on Sunday, October 23, while in Portland, Oregon, visiting
his son. A memorial service has not yet been scheduled.
 Gloria
Steinem ’56 is one of 75 Jewish women featured in an informative,
well-organized online exhibition titled
“Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution.” The exhibition, produced
by the Jewish Women’s Archive in Boston, documents
the “Second Wave” of feminism from the 1960s through the end of the 20th
century, with a multi-layered compendium of publications, photographs, comments and
events in which Jewish women were instrumental, such as the launch of Ms. Magazine,
which Steinem co-founded with Letty Cottin Pogrebin in 1972, as well as the formation
of the Women’s Action Alliance and the National Women’s Political Caucus,
in which Steinem also played vital roles. “As activists, professionals, artists,
and intellectuals, Jewish feminists have shaped every aspect of American life,” says
the exhibition introduction.
“Drawing on the insights of feminism, they have also transformed the Jewish
community.”
Steinem, one of the most visible and prominent feminists
of the Second Wave, was the founding president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and
created the foundation’s Take Our Daughters to Work Day. She’s the author
of several books, including Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem and Outrageous
Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Steinem served as a Smith College Trustee from
1997 to 2002. Her papers are part of the Sophia Smith Collection.
Others featured in “Jewish Women and the Feminist
Revolution” include Susan Brownmiller, author of the groundbreaking book Against
Our Will (1975); artist Judy Chicago, creator of the Birth Project series, and
Smith’s 2000 Commencement speaker; playwright Eve Ensler, award-winning author
of The Vagina Monologues; and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman
to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
Rita Wilkins, former director of Service
Organizations of Smith (S.O.S.), died on August 28 at the age of 89, in her home
in Florence, Mass. Since her retirement from Smith in 1981, Wilkins remained heavily
involved in the college and S.O.S., working with hundreds of students throughout
the next two decades and coordinating fundraising initiatives. Wilkins' family has
requested that memorial gifts be made to Smith (for the benefit of S.O.S.), the Cooley
Dickinson VNA/Hospice, or the American Red Cross in support of hurricane victims
in the Gulf Coast. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 15, at 1
p.m. in the Helen Hills Hills Chapel.
Helen Russell, dean of students emerita
and professor emerita of physical education, died on Wednesday, October 5. The College
Hall flag will be lowered to half staff on Friday, October 7, in remembrance of Russell.
A memorial service will be held Tuesday, October 11, at 2 p.m. at First Churches,
129 Main St. (corner of Center Street), Northampton.
Emmy Award-winning actress Elaine Bromka ’72 (MAT’73)
is starring locally this week in a one-woman show, Tea for Three: Lady Bird,
Pat & Betty, a play by Eric H. Weinberger about three First Ladies, the
wives of U.S. presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The play,
which consists of three separate monologues respectively portraying the First Ladies,
depicts critical points in each of their lives. Tea for Three, a production
of the Miniature Theatre of Chester directed by Byam Stevens, will open at Springfield’s
CityStage in downtown Springfield on Thursday, September 22, and run through Sunday,
September 25. Bromka has appeared in numerous films, and television, Broadway and
off-Broadway productions in her 30-year career. After portraying eight First Ladies
in a PBS production opposite impersonator Rich Little, she collaborated with Weinberger
on the script of Tea for Three. For more information, consult www.citystage.symphonyhall.com.
Artist Jane E. Goldman
’73 will open a new art showcase, MindSpring Gallery, in Brattleboro,
Vermont, with a grand gala on Friday, October 7. Goldman, a painter and printmaker,
owns the gallery in partnership with studio artist Catherine Kernan, a visiting professor
at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Goldman and Kernan, who have
collaborated for 25 years, also co-own and operate Mixit Print Studio in Somerville,
Massachusetts. Goldman has designed three installations for the Massachusetts Port
Authority at Boston’s Logan International Airport, which together occupy more
than 70,000 square feet. She is currently creating a ceramic tile mosaic floor for
the Community Open Air Contemporary Art Museum in Islita, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
MindSpring Gallery will open at 10 Canal Street.
As part of Hartford Stage’s “Brand:NEW” play-reading
festival, Patricia Wettig MFA’01 presented her new work My
Andy on Saturday, September 17, on the company’s MainStage in downtown
Hartford. My Andy, directed by Leigh Silverman, is an imaginary telling
of Andy Warhol’s life with his mother, Julia Warhola, an immigrant from Poland
with whom he lived for much of his adult life. Wettig is best know for her role as
Nancy Weston on television’s thirtysomething (1987-91) and Dr. Judy
Barnett in Alias. After her television success, she completed her master's
degree in playwriting in Smith's theatre department. The “Brand:NEW” festival
is a high-profile series featuring readings by today’s cutting-edge playwrights
on icons of history. The series continues through September 25. For more information,
consult www.hartfordstage.org.
Shirley Braha
’04 is making noise on New York City’s cable access channel
25 with her weekly show “New York Noise.” The show, which Braha started
in 2002 as a Smith sophomore, invites some of the city’s hottest rock bands
to talk intimately about their music, sometimes resulting in emotional or quirky
moments (Tommy Ramone talking about The Ramones over tea?) that you would never find
on network television. Braha, a native of Brooklyn, was involved with Smith’s
radio station WOZQ while in college. As a teenager, she began her own record lable,
Little Shirley Beans. According to an article about Braha in the August 16 edition
of New York’s Daily News, people in the city are beginning to take
notice of her work and tuning into her show, which airs every Tuesday at 10 p.m.,
with encore showings on Fridays at 9 p.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m., NYC TV 25.
Alisha Ellis MSW’06, a second-year
student in the School for Social Work, recently received the Verne LaMarr Lyons Memorial
MSW Scholarship from the National Association of Social Workers Foundation (NASWF),
which is awarded to MSW candidates who plan to work with the African-American community
through health practice. Ellis, who grew up in Harlem, has been an advocate for underserved
African-American populations stricken with Alzheimer’s disease, mental illness
and HIV/AIDS. She has worked as a court-appointed special advocate for children who
have been removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect, and as a sexual
assault violence intervention advocate. Following completion of her MSW, Ellis plans
to start a community-based nonprofit organization that will help provide families
with health care.
Roberta Desnomie ’06J spent her
summer working with the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. as a winner of
the Morris K. Udall Foundation award last spring. The award is given annually to
Native American students to support congressional internships. Desnomie was one of
12 students-from eight tribes and 10 universities-to win in 2005. Desnomie and the
other Udall interns completed a 10-week program working in congressional offices
or federal agencies in Washington. Since the Udall award was established in 1996,
114 Native American/Alaska Native students from 78 tribes have participated. Desnomie
is a member of the Peepeekisis Cree Nation of Canada. At Smith, she studies sociology,
anthropology and international relations.
Six Smith students traveled to Belize in July
to teach coral reef ecology to children in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, as part of
Coral Reef Ed-Ventures, an annual summer program sponsored by Smith and the Hol Chan
Marine Reserve in Belize. Katie Marlowe MA’05, Elizabeth Thomas ’05,
Nora Beem ’05, Emily Tyner
’06, Ashley Barton ’07 and Maria Lazaro ’07 represent
the sixth Smith team to participate in the program, which offers free classes to
local children, featuring a variety of games, stories, arts and crafts projects,
field trips and scientific experiments.
Artist Nava Grunfeld, who received
a master’s in art education from Smith in 1981, is featured in the August issue
of The Artist’s Magazine. Grunfeld’s painting, “Black
Bowl,”
a colorful depiction of pears in a bowl on a table, adorns the magazine cover. Also,
Grunfeld’s article, “C is for Commitment,” about changing work
habits to increase productivity, appears in the August issue.
A sign of the times: Carroll Rodrigo-Kelley ’07 recently
made news in the Stafford County Sun (Virginia) for her unusual resistance
to procure a credit card. As the majority of her student contemporaries at Smith
and other schools sign up for hundreds of dollars worth of up-front money to be paid
back later with interest, Rodrigo refuses to use one. “I’ve learned that
credit cards can get you into a big mess, so I avoid them,”
she comments in a July
18 article.
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