Cynthia RockwellApril 13, 20112min
“Executive VP of Acquisitions & Production for Sony Pictures Classics, Dylan Leiner has spent his career traveling to Cannes, Milan and other international film festivals looking for material to acquire. For roughly 15 years, he's also been a member of an informal floating soccer game,” writes Michelle Kung for the March 25, 2011, Wall Street Journal. On April 23, Leiner and a friend, Jeffrey Saunders, founder of CinemaCapital and a former professional soccer player, will bring a version of that floating game of film professionals and more to New York City. Their organization, NYFEST—New York Film and Entertainment Soccer Tournament—will…

Cynthia RockwellApril 13, 20112min
In late December, Denise Jefferson Casper ’90 was confirmed to a United States District Court Judgeship in Massachusetts. She had been nominated last April by President Obama, and an American Bar Association panel had rated her as "unanimously well qualified'' for this lifetime appointment. Casper was previously the Deputy District Attorney for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, overseeing the daily operations of one of the largest district attorney's offices in New England.  Prior to that position, Casper taught legal writing at Boston University School of Law. She had served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston from 1999 to…

Olivia DrakeApril 13, 20112min
In March, Steven Katz ’96, M.D., chaired the inaugural New England Sarcoma Symposium, a joint effort between the Roger Williams Cancer Center in Providence, R.I., and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund. Additionally, Dr. Katz received the first Murray Brennan Research Award. He is the Director of Surgical Immunotherapy and Society of Surgical Oncology Fellowship Director at the Roger Williams Medical Center and assistant professor of surgery at Boston University. His clinical practice focuses on soft tissue sarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, melanoma, and liver mestastases. His prior and present research focus is on manipulating the immune system to treat patients with…

Cynthia RockwellApril 13, 20112min
Rosemary Ostfeld ’10, MA ’11, an E&ES and biology major, is a semi-finalist for Sierra Club’s “Best Internship on Earth.” The winner will spend the summer video-blogging on different Sierra Club outings sponsored by the club’s Inner City Outings, Building Bridges to the Outdoors, and Volunteer Vacations programs. A four-year member of Wesleyan's Outing Club and former house manager of OutHouse, Ostfeld also developed and led an outdoor program for Snow Elementary School in Middletown. She says that Suzanne O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences and director of service learning, encouraged her to apply for the internship with…

Cynthia RockwellApril 13, 20112min
Lynn Chen ’98 writes on the blog, Thick Dumpling Skin, which she co-founded with Lisa Lee: "If you read my food blog, you know that I struggled with binge eating and anorexia for many years. Although it’s no longer a real day-to-day battle for me, I remember the feelings all too well and thought I would share with you what my eating disorder looked like. "I binged probably once a week for most of my late-twenties. It started off as my “cheat day” – I was in the midst of my trying-every-diet-under-the-sun phase and I liked the idea of a…

David LowApril 13, 20112min
Toby Twining MA ’06 has released a new album of his musical compositions, Eurydice (Cantaloupe Music), which represents the next wave of Western harmony and a capella music. Eurydice began as a score for Sarah Ruhl’s play of the same name, directed by Blanka Zizka and produced for the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia in 2008. The play reinterprets the classic myth of Orpheus, telling the story from Eurydice’s point of view and including a reunion with her father in the underworld. Composing for four singers and a cello, Twining found this underworld setting to be the perfect environment—quirky, funny and…