Cynthia RockwellOn May 5, the Daniel Family Common was the site for the 2016 induction into the Baseball Wall of Fame. Seven alumni, ranging in class years from 1959 to 2000 were there with family and friends to reminisce about their outstanding Wesleyan baseball careers, as well as celebrate the program for what it is accomplishing currently. Both Ken Janik ’85, who played baseball for Wesleyan, and Wesleyan Baseball Coach Mark Woodworth ’94 offered introductory remarks. Athletic Director Michael Whalen ’83 noted the significance of these awards. “The Wesleyan baseball program has a tradition of excellence dating back to the 1950's. The…
On April 29, Sasha Chanoff ’94, founder and executive director of RefugePoint, joined other experts in refugee affairs, and leaders from the private sector in a symposium by the UN Foundation. Chanoff participated in two panel discussions led by Raj Kumar, the founding president and editor-in-chief of Devex, the media platform for the global development community. In “Changing the Paradigm: New Solutions for The Global Refugee Crisis,” Chanoff's discussion with Ruma Bose, who leads Tent.org, he shared his excitement for "venture philanthropy"—a private-sector role in funding pilot projects—thus stimulating the growth of start-up organizations and alternative solutions. "Venture Philanthropy...can be a key…
Olivia DrakePulitzer Prize winner Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, Hon. '15, creator of Broadway's Hamilton, was recently named one of TIME's "100 Most Influential People in the World" for 2016 in the Pioneers category. In TIME, writer, producer and director J.J. Abrams writes, "So much has been said about Hamilton, I assume you know this already: the musical’s embracing of history and rhythm, race and rhyme, melody and passion is an actual stunning event. Tickets are impossible to get for good reason: even in this age of ubiquitous hyperbole, it can safely be said that Hamilton is one of the best things—not just theatrical events—you’ll ever see." "Knowing the man,…
Bill HolderAetna has tapped two Wesleyan alumni for recent high-level hires. Thomas Sabatino Jr. ’80 is joining the insurance giant as executive vice president and general counsel. Sabatino worked most recently at Hertz Global Holdings as its chief lawyer, and previously in pharmaceuticals and medical products. He joins Gary Loveman ’82, who in September became Aetna’s corporate executive vice president and president of Healthagen, the company’s consumer business. Loveman, a former management professor at Harvard Business School, had been chairman and CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corp. Dan Haar ’81, business editor of the Hartford Courant, wrote that both Hertz and Caesar’s…
(By Margaret Curtis '16) Philadelphia-based Caitlin Quigley ’08 was selected as a winner of the Knight Cities Challenge for her project “20 Book Clubs, 20 Cooperative Businesses.” The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded 37 winners out of a pool of more than 4,500 applicants with a share of $5 million to support one of the 26 communities in which the foundation invests. Quigley and her organization, the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), were awarded $146,000 to implement her project, which will support neighborhood businesses. Quigley's project will form 20 community-based book clubs of six to 12…
Bozoma “Boz” Saint John ’99, head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music and iTunes, wowed attendees at WesFest—admitted students and their parents— as keynote speaker. The eldest daughter of Wesleyan ethnomusicology graduate Dr. Appianda Arthur PhD ’77, Saint John spoke on Wesleyan's powerful influence on her life today. Her father, recalling his formative years at Wesleyan and the lively intellectual community, had encouraged her to attend Wesleyan. Although her desire to rebel figured in early in the decision process, she ultimately chose Wesleyan. “My father was so excited when I decided Wesleyan was the school for me, but he…
Andrew Logan ’18An article in the journal Sapiens highlights the current work of anthropologist Ruth Behar in "Lifting the Emotional Embargo With Cuba." Working with poet Richard Blanco, the two are "cultivating reunion and reconciliation among people and cultures that have been estranged for decades," said author Barry Yeoman. Cuba is part of both the poet's and the anthropologist's identities. While Blanco grew up hearing about Cuba from his ex-pat community in Miami, Behar was born in Havana, Cuba. Her parents were of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish descent who moved the family to New York City after the Cuban revolution. As a child in…
Lauren Rubenstein(By Mike O'Brien, Director of Athletic Communication) On April 18, Chicago Cubs Executive Vice President and General Manager Jed Hoyer ’96 spoke to the news site MLB Trade Rumors about his career and his time at Wesleyan. When asked what led him to choose Wesleyan, Hoyer responded: “The over-arching goal of my college search was to combine three factors – great academics, the ability to continue playing baseball, and a campus environment that would broaden my limited horizons. I looked at a lot of different schools and the best combination of those factors was Wesleyan. In hindsight, I was less…
Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his hit musical, Hamilton, directed by Thomas Kail '99. According to Playbill, Hamilton "joins an exclusive club of just eight other musicals that have won the prestigious award since it was founded nearly a century ago." The awards were announced April 18
The Pulitzer is awarded to "a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life." It includes a $10,000 cash prize.
On April 7, more than 600 Wesleyan alumni from the classes of 2006-2015 attended a GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) party to spend time with friends and raise funds for Wesleyan. Parties were held in Beijing, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Denver, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New Haven, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, and Washington D.C. This year’s GOLD Challenge response exceeded last year’s, with more than 500 young alumni making a gift to Wesleyan! View GOLD party images below and online in this Wesleyan Flickr album or on this Facebook gallery. (more…)
The Portland Business Journal named Kaiser Permanente President Andy McCulloch ’76 one of the top 10 executives of 2016. This award honors area executives whose business strategies have successfully expanded their companies over the last year. During the past year with Kaiser Permanente, McCulloch boosted membership by 3 percent while maintaining a member retention rate of 97 percent. In just their two hospitals, Kaiser Permanente physicians logged 3 million doctor visits and 420,000 dental appointments while earning $3.4 billion in yearly revenue. McCulloch began his presidency in 2006 and directs Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and Washington State. During this time, the…
Award-winning science fiction writer Jack McDevitt MALS ’71 received an out-of-this-world honor: Lowell Observatory astronomer named an asteroid for him. In an e-mail, astronomer Lawrence Wasserman, explained, “I discovered the books of Jack McDevitt early in 2015 and spent most of the year plowing through every novel he has written. I was especially taken by his naming the first Mars spaceship for Percival Lowell, our founder. And, as a person who spent their teens in the ’60s reading Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, I was very pleased to find someone who writes science fiction that doesn't have any elves, dwarfs,…