Editorial Staff(By K Alshanetsky '17) Elizabeth “Beezer” Clarkson ’94, managing director for Sapphire Ventures, was recently profiled in Forbes magazine. A 2014 "Forty Over 40 Women to Watch" honoree and one of 2016's "Top 30 Women Rising Stars in Institutional Investing," Clarkson is highly regarded in the tech and venture communities. The Forbes article, Want To Be Appreciated, Give Someone A Shot by Whitney Johnson, details both Clarkson's background and her commitment "to magnify opportunities for other women,"—or "give them a shot," in the vernacular of the Broadway hit, Hamilton. Clarkson found her first post-college position—a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley—through what is now Wesleyan's Gordon…
(By K Alshanetsky '17) Jess Eliot Myhre '05 is a professional touring musician with the band Bumper Jacksons. Their newest album, "I've Never Met a Stranger," will be broadcast nationally on NPR's Mountain Stage on May 5. The live performance will air on more than 200 NPR stations around the country, and the band will perform five original songs from the record. The group originally began as a duo—Jess Myhre (clarinet, vocals, washboard) and Chris Ousley (acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, banjo)—crafting a sound inspired by the jazz clubs of New Orleans and southern Appalachian folk music festivals. (more…)
(By K Alshanetsky '17) Film and TV producer Sydney Lowe ’13 is the founder of Art Girl Army (AGA), an organization that generates networking opportunities and fosters community among young women with creative careers. The collective originally started in Lowe's small New York City apartment as a space for her and her friends to collaborate, provide support to one another and share their experiences as women working in creative fields, which largely lack gender, sexual and racial diversity. Since 2014 it has developed into an online global community of nearly 3,500 artists, including illustrators, comedians, dancers and more. Lowe enjoyed ample opportunities to connect and collaborate with her…
(By K Alshanetsky '17) Brooklyn-based director Jess Chayes ’07 has recently won the Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), which annually recognizes an aspiring woman in theatre who shows creative promise in the field. As a founding co-artistic director of The Assembly, a collective of multi-disciplinary performance artists, Chayes has co-created and directed eight original productions. These include I Will Look Forward To This Later and HOME/SICK, which is a NY Times Critics’ Pick. Chayes founded The Assembly Theater Project with three other Wesleyan alumni: Stephen Aubrey ’06, Edward Bauer ’08, and Nick Benacerraf ’08. Together they created a collaborative and…