Olivia DrakeIn August 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s battering storm smothered Bob Flowers’ Gulfport, Miss. home. The flooding and winds left the structure unlivable, forcing Bob and his wife to reside in a FEMA trailer for the next four years and 10 months. Desperate for some helping hands, the couple applied for relief with Mission on the Bay, a ministry of Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi. The organization provides volunteers who help families rebuild post-Katrina homes. Mike Conte, assistant director of mechanical trades, and his daughter, Megan Nicole Conte, 17, are among 1,800 volunteers from across the country and Canada who joined the…
Gary Shaw, professor of history, professor of medieval studies, was appointed Interim Dean of the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs for the 2010-2011 academic year, beginning this July. In his 20 years at Wesleyan, Shaw has served as chair of the History Department, vice-chair of the advisory committee, chair of EPC, and has been a member of FCRR and the faculty merit appeals committee. He is the associate editor of History and Theory. His numerous awards include an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, an American Philosophical Society Research Grant and Wesleyan’s Carole A.…
Bill HolderAnne Martin has been appointed Wesleyan’s Chief Investment Officer. Her appointment is the culmination of an intensive search that began in October and included many individual candidates as well as investment management firms. “We explored a variety of models for the management of Wesleyan’s portfolio before concluding that we had found the outstanding candidate in Anne Martin, of the Yale University Investments Office,” says President Michael S. Roth. “We are confident that her experience, financial acumen, and disciplined (more…)
David LowFans of Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, the creator and composer of the long-running Tony Award-winning Broadway musical In the Heights, have a chance to catch him perform again on stage. Miranda has joined the national tour of In the Heights to recreate the role of bodega owner Usnavi as the show plays a five-week run at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. from late June through July 25. The Los Angeles Times and the Ventura County Star recently caught up with Miranda. He will also be appearing with Freestyle Love Supreme, the hip-hop improv group, at the Gramercy Theater in New York…
The White House recently announced this year's 13 White House fellows, and among them is Harley Feldbaum ’97, director of the Global Health and Foreign Policy Initiative and a professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He directs all daily operations of a $1.6 million Gates Foundation grant to improve global health policymaking and train future leaders at the nexus between international relations and global health. Feldbaum also serves as an author and senior consultant to the CSIS Global Health Policy Center and is a fellow with the Truman National Security Project. He resides in…
Cynthia RockwellCandace Nelson ’96, co-founder of Sprinkles, the first cupcake-only bakery, is one of three judges - and one of two permanent judges, along with Florian Bellanger, chef and co-owner of online macaroon company MadMac - of Cupcake Wars. The show, a new baking competition on the Food Network, airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST, and features four of the country’s top cupcake bakers facing off in three elimination challenges. Leah Douglas, summer intern at Serious Eats, posts a blog on Cupcake Wars, which begins: “Have you ever looked at a small, beautiful cupcake and thought, ‘The preparation of this cupcake…
Sam Wasson ‘03 has written a new book, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman (HarperCollins), about the making of the beloved 1961 Hollywood classic directed by Blake Edwards and based on the Truman Capote novella. The book was published June 22. In a recent article about the book in New York magazine, Mary Kaye Schilling writes: “A fascination with fascination is one way of describing Wasson’s interest in a film that not only captures the sedate elegance of a New York long gone, but that continues to entrance as a love…
Many families with a child with autism or Asperger Syndrome feel that involvement in the community is not for them. In Lisa Jo Rudy’s new book, Get Out, Explore, and Have Fun!: How Families of Children With Autism or Asperger Syndrome Can Get the Most Out of Community Activities (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, May 2010), Rudy ’81 offers a rich and varied menu of suggestions for how such families can take full part in community life and support the strengths and interests of their child at the same time. Rudy explains that informal learning experiences can be the key to self-discovery,…
Carolyn Parkhurst ’92 made a huge splash on the literary scene with her first best-selling novel The Dogs of Babel. She has just published her third novel, The Nobodies Album, and it has already received several positive reviews in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly as well as on NPR. The protagonist of the novel is Octavia Frost, a famous best-selling novelist who is also known to be unpleasant. As she is about to deliver her latest manuscript to her New York publisher, she finds out her rock star son Milo has been…
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