Alumni – Page 7

The kernel for “ABCD,” the first professionally produced play written by playwright, director, and dramaturg May Treuhaft-Ali ’17, started as a 10-page class assignment the spring of her senior year at Wesleyan. “ABCD,” which premiered at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, this summer, began as part of her coursework at Wesleyan with Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes (“In the Heights”) that focused on writing historical plays. The crosslisted Theater and English course “Writing History” was an intermediate-level playwriting workshop. Treuhaft-Ali examined plays that used different dramaturgical strategies to grapple with, question, and invigorate the historical record; and…

John Driscoll '62, who oversaw Wesleyan's alumni relations programs for more than three decades, died after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease on June 12. He was 82 years old. A resident of Cromwell, Conn. and a former longtime resident of Middletown, Driscoll was the older son of the late James Douglas Driscoll and Loretta (Haggerty) Driscoll. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 4, 1940, he was raised in Westchester County, though he spent many summers with his Fitzgerald cousins in Marblehead, Massachusetts. A graduate of Pleasantville High School, John earned his BA from Wesleyan as a member of…

The votes are in! Luz Burgos-López ’09, Andrew Fairbanks ’90, and Kimberly King ’97 are the newest Wesleyan alumni to be elected to the University's Board of Trustees, and they will begin their three-year-term on July 1. Burgos-López, Fairbanks, and King join 33 other trustees who are responsible for making sure the University fulfills its mission, sustains its values, and appropriately balances its obligations to current and future generations. While many schools have some Alumni-Elected Trustee representation, Wesleyan is unique in that nearly one-third of the Board is elected by the alumni body. All alumni plus members of the class of…

Although English major Angela Mae Yee '97 had wanted to be a writer and photographer since she was in Kindergarten, her entrepreneurial spirit led her towards a career in radio, juice-pressing, selling fair-trade coffee—and even hair extensions. After college, Yee immediately went to work for the Wu-Tang Clan, assisting the CEO with payroll, benefits, and meeting with record label personnel. She then spent six years at SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and eventually created her own show, The Morning After with Angela Yee. And in 2010, she became a host of New York City's Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club show, which currently…

Photos from throughout the Reunion weekend can be found here. The Wesleyan University community gathered together May 19–22 for Reunion and Commencement Weekend 2022. As is Wesleyan’s tradition, the classes ending in 2 and 7 returned to campus to celebrate their reunions with a weekend of lectures, performances, dinners, and ceremonies. With generations of Wesleyans assembled together, the weekend was a celebration of the University’s past and its future. ** Alumni started returning to campus in earnest Friday morning, gathering under a tent outside Russell House for lunch and to look for familiar faces. David Lakein ’92, Juan Luque ’92,…

For 21 years, historian Jennifer Mittelstadt '92 has immersed herself in dusty bound indexes and volumes, micro-film readers, and intransigent online databases hunting for government documents. "Such documents offer neither ease of access nor instant gratification, and few yield pleasures or eureka moments," said Mittelstadt, professor of history at Rutgers University and a scholar of the state and politics in the 20th-century United States. "I've learned that satisfaction comes only from layering them in unexpected ways and moving outside the government archive entirely, forcing the documents to speak in ways their authors did not intend, and drawing into the conversation…

The Vietnam War, the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the civil rights movement, the Student Strike of 1970 – to hear the graduates of the Classes of 1970 and 1971 talk, it was as if this all happened yesterday. Most of them can still remember their draft number. “These were combustible years of high drama in every setting,” Steve Ingraham ’70 said to a collection of his classmates at Memorial Chapel at an assembly last Friday morning. The 50th reunion took place April 28 through May 1. For alumni, it was a makeup for a…

A common observation about Wesleyan is that each student experiences a different Wes than the next. What is shared across all generations of Cardinals, however, is a sense of responsibility to make the world a better place. For Trustee Nominating Committee Chair Ellen Glazerman ’84, P’26 and David Hill ’86, Chair of the Alumni Association, voting in the election for Alumni-Elected Trustees is one of the most important—and easiest ways—to help continue to make Wesleyan a special place. Each year, Wesleyan alumni elect three of their peers to serve on the University’s Board of Trustees for a three-year term. While many schools have some Alumni-Elected Trustee representation, Wesleyan…

For the third year in a row, Wesleyan University was named a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Top Producing Institution for the 2021-2022 academic year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 2,000 grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide. In 2021-22, 28 Wesleyan students and recent alumni applied for the fellowship. Of those, Ji Yoon Park '21 and Lupita Sanchez '20,…

In this continuing series, Annie Roach ’22 and Madi Mehta ’24 review alumni books and offer a selection for those in search of knowledge, insight, and inspiration. The volumes, sent to us by alumni, are forwarded to Olin Library as donations to the University’s collection and made available to the Wesleyan community. Lawrence Jackson ’90, Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore (Graywolf Press, 2021) After accepting a teaching job at Johns Hopkins, professor of English and history Lawrence Jackson found himself doing something that many people experience in their adult life—returning home. But Jackson, who grew up in Baltimore,…

Michele Roberts '77 retired at the end of 2021 after seven and a half years as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). To honor her leadership and legacy, the NBPA Foundation has endowed a financial aid scholarship at her alma mater, Wesleyan University. Named for Roberts’ mother, the Clara Johnson Roberts Scholarship Fund is a fitting tribute to the woman who sparked her daughter’s law career by bringing her to observe trials at their local courthouse in the South Bronx. Like many of the players she worked with, Roberts came from very modest beginnings and rose to…

One of the first times Naomi Ekperigin ‘05 got laughs in public, it was during a 10-minute stand-up set at WestCo during her sophomore year at Wesleyan. “Obviously I did a lot of stuff about school. I was born and raised in New York City, the home of the Comedy Cellar, but it took me going to Middletown, Connecticut to feel confident and comfortable enough to give it a try,” she said. With a new Netflix special under her belt, appearances on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Two Dope Queens on HBO, and film roles alongside Jennifer Garner, Kevin Hart,…

“Take Big Risks:” Treuhaft-Ali ’17 on Playwriting and Her Premiere at Barrington Stage

Driscoll ’62 Remembered for His Extraordinary Service to Wesleyan

Wesleyan Welcomes 3 New Alumni-Elected Trustees

Alumni Honored for Outstanding Service, Achievement in Their Professions

Wesleyan Community Comes Together To Celebrate Reunion and Commencement 2022

Mittelstadt ’92 to Explore Historic Right-Wing Grassroots Organizations as 2022 Guggenheim Fellow

Groovy Wesleyan: Fifty Years Later

Voting For Alumni-Elected Trustees Way to Engage in Campus Life

Wesleyan Recognized as a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Students

“You Just Have to Read This…” Books by Wesleyan Authors Jackson ’90, Carter ’88

NBPA Foundation Honors Michele Roberts ’77 Retirement with Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship

Comedian Ekperigin ’05 Shines in New Netflix Comedy Special