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Stephanie Keep AC’02, who is
currently a master’s degree candidate in the School for Social Work, was cited
in GPS Examples Across the Curriculum, a recent article published by GIS
at NITLE, a geographic systems initiative. The article lists examples of GIS software
use in liberal arts studies. “Smith College psychology student Stephanie Keep ’02
used GIS technology to document patterns of campus use by students,” the article
says, “as well as investigate their perceived notions of the campus environment.” Keep
is conducting a follow-up study examining the effect of the Campus Center on social
patterns at the college. H. Robert Burger, Achilles Professor of
Geology, is also mentioned in the article for his use of GIS in teaching students
who to create hazard maps in his course Natural Disasters: Confronting and Coping.
 Anne
O. Freed, a 1941 graduate of the School for Social Work and a former member
of the school’s faculty, has teamed with her husband, Roy, in writing a book, Fulbrighters
in Retirement: Networking with Bulgarians Keeps Us Engaged. The book documents
the Freeds’ experience as Fulbright Teaching Scholars at Sofia University
in Bulgaria in 1989, and their collaboration on building an Internet network in
Bulgaria. Also, Anne Freed helped establish a university level school of clinical
social work at the New Bulgarian University modeled after Smith’s School
for Social Work. She has since facilitated an informal affiliation between Smith
and the Bulgarian school. The Freeds’ book is available for purchase through
online book retailers.
Jon Caris, GIS specialist in the Environmental
Science and Policy Program, was recently named a Technology Fellow with the NITLE
GIS Fellows program. NITLE is a nonprofit program that promotes liberal education.
The Technology Fellows program, now in its second year, provides opportunities for
IT personnel at American educational institutions to expand expertise in specific
technologies of interest to liberal arts curricula. This year’s fellows will
focus on Web-mapping and introductory mapping/GIS workshops, and ways to introduce
GIS technology into college curricula.
 Adele
Pike ’77 was recently selected as a Practice Change Fellow with
the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston and Affiliates (VNAB). The fellowship
program seeks to build leadership capacity among nurses, physicians and social
workers who have operational responsibility for geriatric care. As a fellow, Pike
will receive $90,000 over two years to participate in a project to implement a
new geriatric service line or aging program. Pike, who has a joint appointment
as the Director of Education for the VNAB and as assistant clinical professor in
Community Health Nursing at Boston College, will focus on identifying and developing
new trends and better practices in geriatric home care. Pike was one of ten health
professionals chosen for the prestigious fellowship. Following her graduation from
Smith, Pike received a master of science degree in nursing from Yale University
School of Nursing in 1984, and a doctor of education degree from Boston University
School of Education in 2001.
The American Philosophical Society, the nation’s
oldest learned society, has named Mary Patterson McPherson ’57,
chair of the Smith College Board of Trustees, as its new Executive Officer, effective
July 1, 2007. McPherson succeeds former Smith College President Mary Maples Dunn
and Richard S. Dunn, who had served in that role for five years. The society was
established in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful
knowledge.” McPherson was Vice President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
and its Program Officer for the Liberal Arts Colleges from 1997 through March of
this year. “Her philosophy, her experience, and her dedication will certainly
continue the Society’s tradition and strengthen its mission,” said Baruch
S. Blumberg, ASP president, in making the announcement.
 Five
College, Inc. recently announced the appointment of Kevin Kennedy as
its new Director of Communications and Publications. Kennedy will succeed Carol Angus,
who will retire at the end of June after 23 years in the position. Kennedy, who has
served on the staff of Marlboro College in Vermont for 14 years, most recently as
Communications Director. Kennedy, a 1984 graduate of Holy Cross College, will assume
responsibility for all Five Colleges, Inc. publications and its Web site, and will
meet with several standing committees from the consortium members, including the
Museums10 group, admission officers, and student affairs. Read the Five Colleges,
Inc. press release.
Shirley Rich Krohn ’46 was recently
awarded the Hancher Finkbine Alumni Medallion by the University of Iowa, one of the
institution’s most prestigious awards. Krohn, who received her bachelor’s
degree from the University of Iowa, completed her master of fine arts degree in theatre
arts at Smith. She then built a successful career as a casting agent at a time when
women were largely excluded from the entertainment industry. She casted more than
six major Broadway productions and several high-profile films and television productions.
She became a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and
served for many years on the Tony Nominating Committee. She has also been awarded
the Hoyt Bowers Award for outstanding contributions to the casting profession.
Chris Shelton, professor of exercise
and sport studies, will represent Smith College at a Keck Leadership Institute conference, “Leadership
Across the Liberal Arts Curriculum,” on June 14 and 15 in Claremont, Calif.
The conference invites some of the nation’s leading scholars of leadership
studies from more than 50 liberal arts institutions. The gathering is the culmination
of a three-year project funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation, one of the nation’s
largest philanthropic organizations. The project’s aim has been to integrate
topics of responsible leadership across liberal arts disciplines.
 Floyd
Cheung (pictured, with his students), associate professor of English language
and literature, traveled with nine students in late April to attend the 38th annual
pilgrimage to the Manzanar Internment camp site located near Independence, Calif.
The camp, a national historic site, is the most well-preserved of the ten Japanese
American internment camps established during World War II. More than 500 people
attended the pilgrimage. Cheung accompanied his students as part of his Narratives
of Internment course. “It’s eerie,” he told the publication Rafu
Shimpo Online, a Japanese periodical in Los Angeles. “It’s really
something to see a location which I’ve studied so much and read so much about.
It all comes together in a new way.”
Fadzai Chinyengetere ’07 recently
won the Anna J. Harrison Award at the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Connecticut
Valley Section Undergraduate Research Symposium for her talk “Thermodynamic
Studies of Spiroiminodihydantoin and 8-Oxodeoxyguanosine DNA Lesions.” The
prize, named after the first female president of the ACS (and an emerita member of
the Mt. Holyoke College chemistry department faculty), is given annually for the
best talk given by a woman student.
 Award-winning
environmental journalist Simran Sethi ’92 is the new host
of The Sundance Channel’s The
Green, a weekly show dedicated to the environment. Presented by
Robert Redford, The Green airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Sethi shares hosting with
Majora Carter, a community advocate and MacArthur Fellow. “The Green reflects
the current tipping point in public awareness about ecological issues and the trend
towards environmentally sustainable approaches to modern living,” according
to the Sundance Channel Web site. Sethi, who also anchors news for TreeHugger.com,
began her career at MTV News. She was recently featured in Vanity Fair and Domino magazine.
A film, Tango Passion, in which Nancy
Vining Van Ness ’67 plays the female lead, will be screened at the
Boston International Film Festival on June 8. Van Ness, who is the founder and
director of American Creative Dance in Brooklyn, N.Y., plays Claudia, who has a
late middle-aged love affair with Philip. The romantic comedy is set in a tango
salon. Van Ness, who also performs with her dance company, was a member of the
Barbara Mettler (Smith College ’28) Dance Company. She is currently writing
a book about being a modern dancer who has taken up tango.
Andrea
Leers and Jane Weinzapfel, owners of Leers Weinzapfel
Associates, the Boston architectural firm that designed Smith’s Olin Fitness
Center, recently became the first woman-owned firm ever to win the American Institute
of Architects Firm Award. The institute’s highest honor, the award annually
recognizes practices that have consistently produced distinguished architecture
for at least 10 years. The award was recently announced in Architectural Record with
photos of the team’s projects, including the Olin Center.
Barbara Calvert, Siobhan O'Riordan and Byron
Zamboanga (l to r) studying their subject firsthand |
Barbara Calvert ’07 won
first place in the Student Poster Competition (Division 50 of the study of addictions)
at a recent American Psychological Association conference in San Francisco, for her
presentation of research on binge drinking and hazardous use among women. The presentation
was co-written with Janine Olthuis ’08, Elan McCollum ’08 and Siobhan
O’Riordan ’07, all of whom work in the lab of Byron
L. Zamboanga, assistant professor of psychology, who accompanied the students
to the conference in San Francisco. Also, O’Riordan presented her research
conducted in collaboration with Zamboanga on alcohol expectances and drinking games
involvement. The students joined Zamboanga in presenting “Ping-pong, Endurance,
Card, and Other Types of Drinking Games: Are These Games of the Same Feather?” a
work co-authored by the presenters and scheduled for publication in the Journal of
Alcohol and Drug Education this summer. For her first-place prize, Calvert received
a $100 prize and a one-year free student association membership.
Samantha Lewis ’08 was recently
elected secretary for the Massachusetts
Alliance of College Republicans (MACR), a coalition of clubs from 47 colleges,
accepting the baton from fellow Smith College Republican Natalie Vernon ’08,
who serves as current MACR secretary. Elizabeth Morgan ’09,
president of Smith College Republicans, serves as the MACR executive board co-president
this year. Due in part to its active presence among state college Republican chapters,
the Smith College Republican Club last year was named Outstanding Chapter of the
Year by the MACR.
 Devin
Alexander ’93 is the host of a new cooking show, “Healthy
Decadence with Devin Alexander” to be shown on the Discovery Health Channel
every Thursday at 10:30 p.m. EST. On the show, Alexander will demonstrate how to
make viewers’ favorite foods in a healthier way at home. “I prefer
spending 20 minutes in the kitchen over three hours in the gym any day,” says
Alexander in a promotional ad for the show. She plans to reinvent favorites like
chicken parmesan, hoisin-glazed pork tenderloin and double chocolate brownies in
a way that reduces fat and calories without sacrificing flavor. Alexander, who
has fought her own battles against excessive weight, has written numerous articles
on healthy eating and is the author of two cookbooks, Fast Food Fix and The
Biggest Loser Cookbook, a New York Times bestseller. She is the owner
and executive chef of Café Reneucutee Catering in Los Angeles. After completing
a bachelor’s degree in theater at Smith, Alexander earned a Professional
Chef Certification from the Westlake Culinary Institute.
 Eric
Reeves, professor of English language and literature, and a tireless and
prominent advocate for the victims caught in a cycle of violence in the Darfur
region of Sudan, was the guest of honor on Sunday, April 22, at a fundraising event
in Cambridge, Mass., to support the work by CARE and Doctors Without Borders in
Darfur, co-chaired by U.S. senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, and Massachusetts
Governor Deval Patrick. CARE is a leading humanitarian organization that fights
poverty around the globe. Doctors Without Borders, an organization that Reeves
has supported for many years, is an independent international medical humanitarian
agency that delivers emergency aid to people affected by disasters, disease and
armed conflict. Also participating in the event, at the Royal Senesta Hotel Boston,
were U.S representatives Barney Frank and Mike Capuano. News personality Jane Pauley
served as Master of Ceremonies.
 Kathryn
Dick ’07 won the “Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster” award
at a recent spring meeting of the Atlantic and Southeastern Estuarine Research
Societies in Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina. Dick’s poster, titled “Short-term
Sediment Deposition on Two Fringing Salt Marshes, Beaufort, North Carolina,” resulted
from her research as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inter
in Beaufort, N.C., last summer. The internship was sponsored by Smith’s Environmental
Science and Policty Program and funded by the Agnes Shedd Andreae ’32 Research
Fund. Dick is pursuing a major in geology and a minor in marine science.
She will present her award-winning poster again at this year’s “Celebrating
Collaborations” event on Saturday, April 21.
Elenore Liana Snow, a School for Social
Work master’s degree candidate, was recently named a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar
to study human rights in Africa at Makerere University, Uganda, during the 2007-08
academic year. The scholarship includes a $26,000 stipend. While in Uganda, Snow
also plans to volunteer with a Non-Governmental Organization working with child soldiers
from the country’s ongoing military conflicts.
Sarah Thomas ’70, university
librarian at Cornell University Library, last month was named the winner of the 2007
Melvil Dewey Medal from the American Library Association, an annual award that recognizes
distinguished service to the profession of librarianship. In announcing the award,
Winston Tabb of Johns Hopkins University, the award jury chair, recognized Thomas
for her extraordinary leadership in the advancement of research libraries, and cataloging
and bibliographic standards and practices during her three-decade career. “Dr.
Thomas has demonstrated inspiring vision, relentless determination, and unfailing
optimism as an innovative leader in three great American libraries – the Library
of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, and Cornell University – and
will undoubtedly enhance this impressive record of achievement as she assumes leadership
of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.” Thomas is an active life member of the
American Library Association. After graduating from Smith, she received a master’s
degree from Simmons College and a doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins University.
She will be presented with the Melvil Dewey Award on June 26 during the annual ALA
Conference in Washington, D.C.
 On
March 6, six brave Smithies participated in the fourth annual
Elevator Pitch Contest,
coordinated by the Women and Financial Independence (WFI) program, which required
them to present their entrepreneurial ideas to an audience of classmates and judges
in 90 seconds or less. The winner: Rebecca Freeman '09, who wowed
judges with her idea that will be of great benefit to international travelers. Contestants
were evaluated on the quality of presentation and viability of their concepts. Freeman
was unanimously declared the winner. She received a gift bag from WFI, a $100 cash
prize from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, and the opportunity to represent
Smith at the foundation's regional pitch competition to be held during its annual
Entrepreneurship Banquet on Wednesday, April 25, at The Log Cabin in Holyoke, Mass.
Freeman will pitch her idea against students from other area educational institutions.
Contestants will again be judged on the caliber of their 90-second pitches and are
not allowed to use technology or props, or distribute handouts. The top prize in
the regional competition is $1,000, second is $750, and third is $500.
Two Smith College undergraduates will present research
at the 56th annual meeting of the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society
of America March 29 and 30. Anna Lavarreda ’08 and Maya
Wei-Haas ’09 will join about 750 geoscientists at the meeting in Savannah,
Georgia. Working with researchers at Mount Holyoke College, the University of South
Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History, Lavarreda investigated the idea
that small body size is a common feature among survivors of mass extinctions. Wei-Haas'
research attempted to identify a rare and mysterious fossil found in northern Tennessee.
She worked on the project with Smith geology faculty members Bosiljka Glumac and Allen
Curran.
Sara Brickman ’07 and Laurie
A. Guerrero AC were both nominated to read their work at this year’s
Five College Poetry Festival on Wednesday, March 7. The two Smith poets join eight
others from the other Five College institutions in the event’s fifth year.
The Poetry Fest, which will take place this year at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Hall
at UMass, celebrates poetry while giving recognition to student writers. Each year,
two students from each campus are chosen to read their work. The Poetry Fest is
sponsored by the Poetry Center at Smith College, the writing programs at the five
colleges, and by Five College, Inc.
Nora Hayes-Roth ’06, who is living
and working in Italy through a Fulbright Fellowship on her project “Effective
Media Strategies for Informing Italian Youth,” was recently chosen to represent
that country at the 2007 Fulbright Seminar, “An Introduction to the European
Union.” As representative, Hayes-Roth, who was chosen by the Commission for
Educational Exchange Between the United States of America, Belgium and Luxembourg,
will attend briefings in Luxembourg, at the Court of Justice, Ministry and Education,
and Court of Auditors; Brussels, at the European Commission, Council of Ministers,
European Parliament, U.S. Mission to the EU, and NATO Headquarters; and Mons, at
the Supreme Headquarters for Allied Powers of Europe. One Fulbright Fellow from each
EU country is chosen to participate in the seminar, informs Hayes-Roth. “The
seminar will expand my network and foundations in international law and diplomacy,
which may open new doors for me later in life," she says. "I am very grateful
to have received such an honor."
A short film directed by Virada Chatikul ’04 has
been chosen to be premiered at the Thai Takes Indpendent Film Festival, which takes
place in April in New York City. The film, titled Boonkhun, is a 22-minute
piece about three students of traditional Thai music and dance who reflect on changing
perceptions and identity from spending much of their years growing up at the Thai
Cultural Center at Wat Mongkol in San Francisco. Chatikul was born and raised in
San Francisco and has been the “prodigal student” at the Thai Cultural
Center since age 6. She is pursuing filmmaking to increase the visibility of the
Thai-American community. Boonkhun is her second film. It will be screened
as part of the Coming of Age: Shorts Program on Sunday, April 15, at 5 p.m. at the
Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Ave.
Evelyn Boyd Granville ’45 is
one of 17 notable women in math and the sciences documented in Sisters in Science:
Conversations with Black Women Scientists on Race, Gender, and Their Passion for
Science, a compilation of interviews and stories edited by Diann Jordan, a professor
of biology at Alabama State University. The book, which was published in 2006 by
Purdue University Press, uses its sources’ own words to describe their influences
and challenges they faced in their fields. Granville, a mathematician, who entered
Smith with help from a Phi Delta Kappa scholarship, comments in the book, “When
I was growing up, I never heard the theory that females aren’t equipped mentally
to succeed in mathematics, and my generation did not hear terms such as permanent
underclass or disadvantaged. Our parents and teachers preached over and over again
that education is the vehicle to a productive life, and through diligent study, we
could succeed at whatever we attempted to do.”
 Joanne
Corbin, associate professor in the School for Social Work, was recently
honored with the 2006 Greatest Contribution to Social Work Education Award given
by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
Corbin joined the School for Social Work faculty in 2000 after directing the Child
and Adolescent Development Unit at the Yale Child Study Center’s School Development
Program. Her current research and practice at Smith explores the systemic work
of school social workers and examines the multiple effects of children forced into
armed conflict situations in Africa. She is the chair of the research sequence
in the SSW. Corbin will receive the award at the NASW’s annual reception
on March 20 at the Marriott Newton Hotel, along with winners of other association
awards. James Drisko, professor of social work, received the same
award in 2002.
Suleiman A. Mourad, assistant professor
of religion at Smith College, recently won a fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Humanities to fund his study of a famous school of Islamic theology. Mourad
plans to study and write about the Mu‘tazila school of theology, in particular
the works of theologian al-Hakim al-Jushami, next year. He wants to determine
the level of originality on the part of Muslim scholars in shaping the Islamic tradition,
and how this led to the formation of trends and religious beliefs that reflect the
socio-economic, political and religious environment of these scholars and movements,
their particular understanding of the Islamic tradition and the way it has to be
conceptualized and transmitted. Mourad, who teaches courses on The Islamic Tradition
as well as Islamic Thought, and a colloquium titled “The Holy Land,” came
to Smith in 2005. In prior years he taught at Middlebury College, the American University
in Beirut, and the Yale Divinity School at Yale University.
A new book by Ann Zulawski, professor
of history, titled Unequal Cures: Public Health and Political Change in Bolivia,
1900–1950, is due for publication on March 2 by Duke University Press.
The book examines ways in which national debate about medicine and public health
was related to different visions of citizenship, the state and the roles of indigenous
Bolivians and women in the nation. Zulawski teaches courses on Latin America in the
colonial and national periods, Andean society, gender in Latin American history,
Cuban society and culture, the history of public health in Latin America, and U.S.
foreign policy in the region. She is also the author of They Eat from Their Labor:
Work and Social Change in Colonial Bolivia.
 Daisy
Fried, the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith, has been
named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for her book of poems My
Brother is Getting Arrested Again, published by the University of Pittsburgh
Press in 2005. Fried, author of She Didn’t Mean to Do It (2000),
was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship last year. The National Book Critics Circle,
founded in 1974, is an organization of book reviewers that presents annual awards
in fiction, general nonfiction, biography/autobiography, poetry, and criticism.
Winners of this year’s awards will be announced in March. My Brother
is Getting Arrested Again is Fried’s second published collection.
 Andrea
Hairston, professor of theatre, has been nominated to receive the 2006
Philip K. Dick Award for her science fiction novel Mindscape, published
in 2006 by Aqueduct Press. The award, which is named after the renowned science
fiction writer, is given annually for distinguished works of science fiction published
in paperback original form in the United States. Sponsored by the Philadelphia
Science Fiction Society, the award will be presented on April 6. Judges for the
2006 award include Geary Gravel, staff interpreter for the deaf
in Smith’s Office of Disability Services, and the author of 11 science fiction
and fantasy novels, who was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award for his 1984
book The Alchemists. Mindscape is Hairston’s first novel;
she is currently working on her second, Exploding in Slow Motion.
Senda Berenson, the first director
of physical education at Smith, from 1892 to 1911, will be inducted into the National
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Commack, New York, on April 29. After
becoming friends with Dr. James Naismith, who invented the game of basketball at
Springfield College, Berenson adapted his rules for a women’s game in 1892,
and directed the first women’s collegiate basketball game on March 22, 1893,
in Smith's Alumnae Gymnasium, which pitted the classes of 1895 against 1896 in close
competition. The score: 5 to 4, class of 1896. Berenson will be inducted along with
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Mark Spitz, legendary broadcaster Howard Cosell, and
eight other sports figures.
Sarah-Marie Belcastro, a visiting assistant
professor in mathematics and statistics, was featured in an article, “Mathematicians
are Knitting and Crocheting to Visualize Complex Surfaces,”
published in Science
News Online Dec. 23, for her combination of craftwork and mathematical expertise,
as realized in her knitted creations of algebraic shapes. Belcastro co-organized
an exhibition of crocheted, knitted and sewn mathematical principles for the 2005
annual Joint Mathematics Meeting, and displayed her own knitted torus (a doughnut-shaped
object that reflects mathematical networks) at an event last March. Belcastro is
co-editing a book on the topic, Making Mathematics with Needlework, in collaboration
with Carolyn Yackel, a mathematician at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
Ileana Streinu, left, assists
a student |
Ileana Streinu, professor
of computer science, was awarded the Grigore Moisil Award by the Romanian Academy
for her paper
“On the Number of Embeddings of Minimally Rigid Graphs,”
co-written by Ciprian Borcea, professor of mathematics at Rider University, and published
in Discrete and Computational Geometry (Feb. 2004). The annual Moisil Award
is the academy’s highest honor for theoretical computer science research. The
award is named after an important Romanian mathematician and has been presented each
year since 2000. The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum, founded in Romania in
1866, that advances scientific research, as well as Romanian language, literature
and history. The Moisil Award was presented on December 19, 2006, at a ceremony recognizing
the academy’s 140th anniversary.
Katherine N. Lwebuga-Mukasa ’69 was
recently appointed the new chief operating officer of the YWCA of Western New York,
located in Buffalo. YWCA of Western New York oversees several charitable agencies
in the Buffalo area and is the largest provider of childcare services in the region.
The organization is known for its programs providing transitional housing and leadership
training for women, and for promoting racial equality. Following her graduation from
Smith, Lwebuga-Mukasa earned a master’s degree in education from San Diego
State University, and a master’s in school psychology from Southern Connecticut
State University.
 Larry
Meinert, professor-in-residence of geology and an expert on the production
of wine, is the editor of a new book, Fine Wine and Terroir: The Geoscience
Perspective, a collection of articles about the production of wine and the
physical environment of terroir. Terroir is a French word that pertains to all
aspects of the wine environment, such as climate, soil, geology and culture. The
book, co-edited by R.W. Macqueen, is composed of 17 papers, six from the terroir
symposium held at the 2003 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America,
in Seattle, Washington.
Dennis Hudson, professor emeritus
of world religions and a Smith faculty member since 1970, died last weekend. A memorial
service will be held for Hudson in early 2007. During his career at Smith, Hudson had
become renowned as one of America’s foremost scholars of the religions of India.
The College Hall flag was lowered to half staff on Dec. 11 in Hudson’s memory
and a funeral service was held on Dec. 12.
 Marsha
Kline Pruett, the Maconda Brown O’Connor Chaired Professor in the
School for Social Work, has been named a winner of the 2007 Richard Manware Humanitarian
Award from the Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis (CCCC), an organization
that fights child abuse, neglect and victimization through home visits, parenting
education, counseling and advocacy.
“Dr. Kline Pruett’s groundbreaking research and clinical experience has
led to a new understanding about healthy child and family development, particularly
during difficult life transitions, and has resulted in new protocols that improve
outcomes for children,” said Cheryl Burack, executive director of CCCC. The
late Richard Manware was a member of the CCCC Board of Directors, until his death
in 1998, who was active in several charities and known as a tireless and effective
advocate for the vulnerable and disenfranchised, explained Burack. “Choosing
an award recipient each year is a way to honor his memory and send a message to the
community about the need for services that protect children and strengthen families.” Pruett
will receive the award during National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April 2007.
Catherine T. Hunt ’77, who will
assume the presidency on January 1, 2007, of the American Chemical Society, the world’s
largest scientific society, has been awarded the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) Fellowship. The fellowship is given to AAAS members by their peers.
Hunt was elected an AAAS fellow “for leadership in promoting innovation, understanding,
and appreciation of, and in furthering innovation within, the chemical enterprise
across organizational and institutional boundaries,”
according to an announcement of fellowship winners in the News & Notes section
of the Nov. 24 edition of the journal Science. Hunt, an executive with Rohm and Haas,
a specialty materials company based in Philadelphia, will join 448 other fellowship
recipients in receiving a certificate and an honorary pin on February 17, during
the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Linda Jones, the R.B. Hewlett ’40
Professor of Engineering and director of the Picker Engineering Program, was recently
named a 2006
"trendsetter" by Public Works
magazine, her name appearing on the alphabetical list near that of a former
vice president. Editors honed the list to "50 people, places and events that
shaped, shocked or otherwise rocked our world over the past year." Of
Jones, the editors wrote: "One of the nation's foremost researchers in
high-temperature materials, she became the director of Smith College's
Picker Engineering Program in July 2005. Since then, the school has
partnered with Princeton University to begin an engineering exchange program
to place men and women in different learning environments and prepare them
for teamwork in their careers. Smith College is the nation's first women's
college to have an engineering program, which graduated its first class in
2004. In 2005, the program was accredited by the Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology."
Elan McCollum
’08 and Siobhan O’Riordan ’07, lab research
assistants for Byron Zamboanga, assistant professor of psychology, won honors for
their presentations of their research projects at the New England Psychological Association
conference in Manchester, N.H., Oct. 20-21. McCollum took the Best Undergraduate
Poster Award, which included a $100 prize, and O’Riordan received an Honorable
Mention in the same category.
A production of the play Pulling Apart, by Ellen
Kaplan, professor of theater, recently won the Moss Hart Memorial Award
for Best Production, college and university division. The award was given for a
production by the Southern Connecticut State University Department of Theater during
its 2005-06 season, directed by Sheila Hickey Garvey. The Moss Hart Memorial Award
is given annually by the New England Theatre Conference to encourage artistic growth
and the highest standards of excellence in theater. The award is endowed by actress
Kitty Carlisle Hart in memory of the late Moss Hart, a celebrated playwright and
stage director. Pulling Apart is a poetic drama based on Kaplan’s
family's recent experiences emigrating to Israel.
Ellen Watson, director
of the Smith College Poetry Center, also serves as editor and poetry editor for the Massachusetts
Review, an Amherst quarterly periodical of literature, the arts, and public
affairs, which was recently selected as a Massachusetts charity for the 2006 Catalogue
for Philanthropy. The catalogue profiles 72 of the state’s outstanding
environmental, cultural and human service agencies as “examples of excellence” in
Massachusetts philanthropy. The Massachusetts Review was chosen from among
more than 250 organizations. Founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Smith,
Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges and UMass-Amherst, the Massachusetts Review is
one of the nation’s leading literary magazines.
Al-Hajja Khalilah Karim-Rushdan, chaplain
to the Muslim community, is one among some 100 leading Muslim women invited from
around the world to attend WISE: The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality
and Equity in New York City Nov. 17-19. The WISE conference is intended to empower
Muslim women to play a greater role in their societies worldwide. The event is organized
by the American Society for Muslim Advancement. Karim-Rushdan will join Muslim women
leaders such as Baroness Uddin, the first Muslim woman to enter the British House
of Lords; Nafis Sadik, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General; Massouda
Jalal, Afghani presidential candidate; and Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic
Society of North America.
Marjorie H. Everitt ’86 was recently
named vice president for development and university communications at Stevens Institute
of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., a leading technological university offering degrees
in engineering, science, computer science, management and technology management.
Everitt, who was promoted from her position of associate vice president for development
and external affairs, will focus on preparing the institute for a major endowment-building
initiative.
Joshua Miller, professor of
social work, has been recognized by the Hampshire County Chapter of the American
Red Cross for his work in response to major disastrous events in and beyond the Hampshire
County area. Miller, who has been a member of the local chapter’s disaster
mental health team since 1999, was presented with the Bonnie Snyder Disaster Services
Award on Oct. 26 during the chapter’s annual meeting and volunteer recognition
event. As one of two disaster mental health instructors for the chapter, Miller has
been “a major player in increasing our volunteers from this field to better
keep us prepared to provide for our community,” says Mary E. Snyders, director
of emergency and volunteer services.
Elliot Offner, the Andrew W. Mellon
Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, will be presented with the Trustees Award,
Forbes Library’s highest honor, on Nov. 12. Forbes Library trustees present
the award annually to members of the community who have donated their time, expertise
and creativity to the library. Offner, who retired from Smith in 2004 after 41 years
on the faculty, has supported the library for many years. He has donated four of
his sculptures to Forbes Library, and they remain on display in the arts and music
department, the main floor, and the children’s department. Offner’s artwork
composed the inaugural exhibition for the library’s recently renovated Hosmer
Art Gallery. The award presentation will take place at 2 p.m. in the library’s
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Museum.
Linda Gray ’74 padded Smith’s
number of Fulbright scholars this year with her own Teacher Exchange Fellowship from
the Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State. Gray, who teaches history
at Norwich University and Vermont College, both in Vermont, will teach at Dnipropetrovsk
National University in Ukraine from February through June 2007. Sixteen Smith students
and recent graduates won student Fulbright scholarships this year, the highest number
among the nation’s bachelor’s institutions.
Meanwhile, John Davis, Alice Pratt
Brown Professor of Art, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship as well, to teach
and conduct research on 19th-century Belgian art at L’Université
Libre de Bruxelles. He will travel to Brussels in spring 2007.
 Ann
Ostergaard ’58, of Pittsburgh, president of her Smith Alumnae Class,
has been elected to the board of directors of YMCA of the USA, the national office
for the country’s 2,617 local Ys. Ostergaard, a former chair of the YMCA
of Greater Pittsburgh, will serve a three-year term on the 25-seat board. Ostergaard,
who owned and operated a Pittsburgh-based human resources consulting firm from
1986-2004, was named Woman of the Year by the YWCA in 1985.
 It’s
been 40 years since Gail Adametz (pictured, on right), a tech services/circulation
associate in Young Science Library, and Rose Marie Glavickas, acquisitions
supervisor in Neilson Library, first came to Smith as employees. The two Smith libraries
employees were honored during an Employee Recognition Ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 3,
along with more than 100 college employees who have served for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
and 35 years, as well as winners of the Employee Excellence Awards.
Seven Smith students and two recent graduates will present
their research at the annual New England Psychological Association conference in
Manchester, N.H., Oct. 20 and 21. Jennifer Lee ’07J, Elan McCollum ’08,
Susie Paterson ’08, Siobhan O'Riordan ’07 Anne Leopold ’07, Barrett
Phillips
’08, and Talia Williams ’08 will share their
work. Their investigations cover female college students' body perception and bulimic
attitudes, perceptions of the standardized test and help-seeking attitudes, and Asian
female college students' cultural organization involvement. Also, recent graduates Olivia
Moskowitz ’06 and Sara Whiting ’06 will present
a their findings for their research “Thinking and Drinking: Alcohol Expectancies
and Valuations Among Early Adolescents.”
All of the students undertook the research as part of a psychology course taught
by Byron Zamboanga, assistant professor of psychology.
Sherry Wang
’06 will receive the Honorary Undergraduate Scholar Award for 2006-07
from the New England Psychological Association on Oct. 21. Nominated by Byron Zamboanga,
assistant professor of psychology at Smith, Wang was selected based on her achievements
in and contributions to psychology as an undergraduate. She is one of only three
students from New England colleges who will receive the award this year during the
46th annual meeting of the association. Currently, Wang is enrolled in the doctoral
program in counseling psychology at the University of Nebraska.
Dinah Proctor, a graduate student in
biological sciences, was recently named a recipient of the prestigious Science to
Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship, awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agecny.
The STAR fellowship is the only federal program designed exclusively for students
pursuing advanced degrees in environmental sciences.
Kristin Cuilwik McLane ’89 was
elected to the “Forty Under 40 class of 2006” in Cincinnati, Ohio, a
list of woman and men who have demonstrated their
ability to make a difference across the community. This is the tenth year of this
event, which recognizes outstanding young people who are the leaders and innovators
in Cincinnati. McLane was recently named president of CIMx, a high-tech software
firm in Cincinnati that serves the manufacturing needs of several Fortune 100 firms
nationwide. One of her outstanding accomplishments in the community was her leadership
in a Cincinnati Junior League project called Mindpeace. Mindpeace is a project to
develop an improved mental health system of services for all children in the Cincinnati
area, and to eliminate the stigma of mental illness.
Nadeera Dawlagala
’07 and Talya Davis-Johnson ’07 were recently
awarded the 2006 Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the American Society for
Microbiology (ASM), a worldwide organization that represents 26 disciplines of microbiological
specialization. The fellowship, which includes a $4,000 stipend plus travel expenses
to the ASM General Meeting, is intended for students planning to pursue graduate
scholarship in microbiology. Dawlagala and Davis-Johnson are both working with Christine
White-Ziegler, biological sciences, on research projects on the thermoregulation
in E. Coli.
Kanae Haneishi, a graduate student
in exercise and sport studies, accompanied Christine Shelton, professor
of exercise and sport studies, to the fourth annual World Women’s Sport Conference
in May. The conference, which was held in Kumamoto, Japan, is coordinated by the
International Working Group on Women and Sport to support policies and practices
that promote women’s participation in athletics. Haneishi was the recorder
at a workshop led by Shelton at the conference, and the two will team up for a lunch
presentation of issues discussed at the conference on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
Sally Johnson Van Wright ’89 was
recently named assistant superintendent of the new women’s regional jail, a
$26 million facility now under construction in Chicopee, Mass. The jail, which will
occupy a 20-acre plot on Center Street in Chicopee, is designed to hold 240 prisoners
from Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin counties. Johnson Van Wright, who
received a master’s degree from Springfield College, was formerly the director
of programming in the women’s unit at the Hampden County House of Correction
in Ludlow. She will serve with newly appointed superintendent Patricia A. Murphy.
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