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February 4, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editor's note: For photos of the
honorees, call (413) 585-2190 or e-mail mhobbes@smith.edu.
FIVE ACCOMPLISHED SMITH
ALUMNAE TO BE
RECOGNIZED AT RALLY DAY
NORTHAMPTON, Mass.-For their extraordinary
professional achievements and outstanding service to their communities,
five Smith College alumnae will receive the Smith College Medal,
an award presented each February on Rally Day.
The event, which honors distinguished alumnae, will take place
at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, in John M. Greene Hall. It
is free and open to the public.
The Smith College Medal was established in 1962 to recognize
and honor alumnae "who, in the judgment of the trustees,
exemplify in their lives and work the true purpose of a liberal
arts education." This year, an exemplary group of accomplished
professionals and public servants has been selected to receive
the award. They are Lucile Reid, Class of 1972; Sandy Skoglund,
Class of 1968; Marilyn Ray Smith, Class of 1965; Susan Moldow,
Class of 1967; and Constance Laurence Brinckerhoff, Class of
1963.
Reid, a bank executive and entrepreneur, will deliver the Rally
Day address.
M. Lucile Reid has developed an impressive record
of offering financial support to small businesses, particularly
those owned by minorities and women. She has been president of
BigStep.com, an award-winning company that has provided marketing
solutions to small businesses. Before joining BigStep.com, she
served as executive vice president of the Consumer Banking Group
at Wells Fargo Bank, where she spearheaded the Women's Loan Program,
the Latino Loan Program and the African-American Loan Program
for small business owners. Prior to her banking career, Reid
founded a small private school for disabled children and has
served as the chairperson and on the board of directors of Enable,
Inc., a program in Canton, Mass., that assists handicapped children
and their families.
Artist Sandy Skoglund
has been called "reality's rebel"-and with good
reason. As a photographer and sculptor, Skoglund has become famous
for creating unique room-sized installations that twist and turn
seemingly innocuous scenes from everyday life (a restaurant dining
room, a child's bedroom, a walk in the park) until they resemble
something out of the "Twilight Zone." Life Magazine
named her one of the world's top 100 photographers, and her images
have become part of popular culture. She has exhibited her work
in every major museum and private collection in the country.
In 1998, the Smith Museum of Art hosted a provocative retrospective
of her work titled "Reality Under Siege," which broke
attendance records at the museum.
Marilyn Ray Smith has dedicated most of her professional
life to ensuring the financial well-being of children in single-parent
families. As deputy commissioner and chief legal counsel of the
Child Support Enforcement Division of the Massachusetts Department
of Revenue, Smith has been passionately committed to ensuring
that children have the financial support of their parents, including
guaranteeing that children born to unwed parents have the same
rights as children born to married parents. In the 1980s as a
member of the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Child Support,
Smith helped draft and implement the Massachusetts Child Support
Guidelines as well as other comprehensive child support reform
legislation in the Commonwealth. These reforms went on to serve
as a model for other states as well as for Congress in 1996,
when it enacted child support provisions that were part of federal
welfare reform.
As senior vice president
of Scribner publishing house, Susan Moldow has published
some of the world's greatest and most important literary works,
including the National Book Award-winning "The Noonday Demon"
by Andrew Solomon and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angela's
Ashes" by Frank McCourt. In addition, she has been active
on the Freedom to Publish Committee of PEN, an association of
prominent literary writers and editors, and she was a significant
force behind the success of the effort by Goddard Riverside Community
Center in New York City to promote reading and libraries with
a book sale that raised more than $350,000 in one year.
Medical researcher Constance
Laurence Brinckerhoff is the Nathan Smith Professor of Medicine
and Biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School. She is also associate
dean for science education at the medical school and has served
as acting provost of Dartmouth College. Her research on collagenase
has contributed significantly to the understanding of joint destruction
in arthritis and the invasiveness of cancer. She has been honored
by the Arthritis Foundation of America and her research has earned
her a prestigious MERIT award from the National Institutes of
Health. After losing her sister to cancer in 1996 as well as
being a cancer survivor herself, Brinckerhoff has been a crusader
for further research and treatment of the disease as well as
serving as a role model for women suffering from breast cancer.
Rally Day began in 1876 as a celebration
of George Washington's birthday. Since then, it has evolved from
a social occasion into a day-long celebration, at which seniors
are permitted to wear their caps and gowns for the first time.
The Smith College Medal-which was designed by art professor Elliot
Offner and depicts the Grécourt Gates and the Smith College
motto, "To Virtue, Knowledge"-has been awarded at Rally
Day since 1973.
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