People News, January 2020

Smith’s chapter of the Society of Physics Students is the recipient of a distinguished chapter award for the 2018-19 academic year. Co-presidents Cait Battle-McDonald ’20 and Michaela Guzzetti ’20, and physics professor Nalini Easwar, the chapter’s faculty liaison, wrote a story for SPS’ website about how Smith’s “Big Sib Little Sib” program helps welcome new students to the physics community. 

Seven of 11 Smith student co-authors and Katherine Kinnaird, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Statistical and Data Sciences, traveled to Delft, Netherlands, in November to present their research at the 20th annual conference of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval. Student co-authors of “Data Usage in MIR: History and Future Recommendations” are Wenqin Chen ’20, Jessica Keast ’20, Xuanqi (Christina) Lyu ’20J, Jordan Moody ’20, Sherry (Zhenyao) Cai ’19, Elizabeth Freeman ’19, Corinne Moriarty ’19, Felicia Villalobos ’19, Jessie Wang ’19, Virtue Winter ’19 and Xueqi Zhang ’19. 

Smith students and Prof. Katherine Kinnaird (far right) in Delft, Netherlands, at the conference of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval.

The Smith College Museum of Art has been awarded an $800,000 Mellon Foundation planning grant to reimagine the way museums can share their online collections with each other and the rest of the world. The Five College Consortium grant project will help identify the requirements for a collections management system that makes possible the integration of museum databases and library search systems.

A Ms. magazine article by Carrie Baker, professor of the study of women and gender, won a readers’ choice award from the magazine. “Three Billboards Outsider Her Abusers’ Workplace,” had more than 13,000 shares.

Retired Smith track and field coach Carla Coffey is the recipient of a prestigious Joseph Robichaux Award from the USATF Women’s Track and Field Committee for the impact she has had on numerous athletes over the years.

Retired Smith track and field coach Carla Coffey (center) with student athletes Amelia Stapleton '19 (left) and Sarah Stapleton '21.

Smith’s head rowing coach, Clare Doyle, has been named Joy of Sculling Collegiate Coach of the Year. Under her leadership, the Pioneers placed seventh in the 2019 Head of the Charles Regatta. The team is currently in training for this spring’s season.  

Professor Sara Newland will speak on “The 2019 Hong Kong Protest: Causes and Consequences” on Thursday, Jan. 30, for a World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts’ “Instant Issues Lunch” in Springfield. Newland is an assistant professor of government at Smith.

“Ambidextrous Part II,” an exhibition by Priya Green, visual arts digital coordinator for the Smith College Art Department, will be on view at the Bing Arts Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, from Saturday, Jan. 25, through April 25.

Grace Wacuka ’18 (formerly Brenda Njoroge) starred in the 2019 film “A New Christmas.” Wacuka, a theatre major at Smith, is now pursuing a master’s degree in acting at Columbia University.

Neda Maghbouleh ’04 is the author of “Listening in Arabic: Feminist Research with Syrian Refugee Mothers” in the Smith-based journal Meridians. Maghbouleh, who majored in sociology at Smith, is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and is working with Refugee Integration Stress and Equity, a longitudinal study of Syrian refugees.

Alice Hunt Friend ’02 was quoted in the November 30 Economist story about President Donald Trump’s relationship with the U.S. military establishment. Friend, who majored in government at Smith, is a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Kim Janey AC ’98 has been elected president of Boston’s City Council. Janey, who began serving on the council in 2018, was formerly a senior project director at Massachusetts Advocates for Children.

A TEDx talk by Shannon Rohrer-Phillips, M.S.W. ’98 “Failure and Forgiveness in the New South,” was part of the Voice + Visibility Women’s Summit Series. Rohrer-Phillips’ social work career has included jobs  at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Georgetown University Hospital.

Jessica Hardin ’95, director and co-founder of the Pasadena International Film Festival, has been named one of Pasadena Magazine’s “Influential Fifty.” Hardin, who majored in theatre at Smith, attended the National Theater Institute in Waterford, Connecticut, and the British American Drama Academy in London, England. She co-founded the Pasadena film festival in 2013.

Dr. Karen Duncan ’77 has been named chief operating officer for JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Texas. A biochemistry major at Smith, Duncan earned her medical degree at Emory University School of Medicine. She joined JPS in 2017 as executive vice president of Community Health Services.