Mike SembosHankus Netsky, who received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan in 2004, has been chosen by the editorial staff of The Forward — a well-respected weekly newspaper covering the Jewish world — as one of the 50 American Jews who have had the greatest impact on the world in 2013, alongside the likes of Harvey Fierstein, Mandy Patinkin and Janet Yellen. Netsky is the chair of the contemporary improvisation department at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has mentored countless young Jewish musicians, many of whom attended NEC primarily to study with him, and has guided jazz and classical…
Cynthia RockwellJoseph Fins ’82, MD, MACP, The E. William Davis, Jr. M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College, was elected an Academico de Honor of the Real Academia National de Medicina de España or the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain. This is a significant honor, as the general membership appoints an Academico de Honor (honored or distinguished member) only when death vacates the one of fewer than 20 positions. Fins, the sole Academico de Honor elected in 2013, will be formally inducted in 2014, when he will give…
David LowCharles Newell ’81 was recently awarded the prestigious Zelda Fichandler Award, which recognizes an outstanding director who is transforming the regional arts landscape through singular creativity and artistry in theater. He received the prize, an unrestricted grant of $5,000, from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF). Over the years, Newell has become one of the nation’s foremost theater directors. He is currently in his 19th year as artistic director of the Court Theatre, the renowned professional theater in residence at University of Chicago, where he had directed more than 40 productions. Newell comments: “To receive The Zelda Fichandler Award…
Maggie McLean Suniewick ’97, who served as vice president of programming for Comcast Cable, has been named senior vice president of Strategic Integration, linking NBCUniversal and Comcast. It is now her task to find creative, technological and strategic opportunities between Comcast, the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider, and NBCUniversal’s portfolio, which includes broadcast networks (17 cable networks and more than 50 digital properties), a motion picture company, television production operations, a television stations group and theme parks. Suniewick — an economics major at Wesleyan who went on to obtain an MBA from Columbia — will lead the charge on NBCUniversal’s…
Mike Cardozo ’08 has produced a new CD titled Something Better, performed by the band Show of Cards (showofcards.com), of which he is a member. The band was originally formed as a trio of Cardozo siblings: singer-songwriter Karen (of Chattering Magpies), bassist Joe (of Cold Duck Complex) and lead guitarist Mike. With drummer Makaya McCraven and engineer Justin Pizzoferrato, they released their debut Leap Year in 2009. With Something Better, Mike puts on his production hat to showcase his sister Karen's thoughtful songwriting in the textures, rhythms, and arrangements of musical languages from jazz to West African to classical. Karen and Mike are…
Taft Armandroff ’82 has been appointed as director of the University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas. He’ll be moving to the Lone Star State in June 2014 to claim his new position. Armandroff’s specialties include dwarf spheroidal galaxies, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and globular clusters. He will soon be leaving his current position as director of the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Prior to Keck, he worked for 19 years at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Ariz., having earned his BA in astronomy with honors…
Spelman College President Beverly Daniel Tatum ’75 was presented with a national academic leadership award from the Carnegie Corp. of New York in December 2013. She was the first recipient from a historically black college and the first ever in the state of Georgia. Tatum was selected because of her work supporting female students pursuing science, technology, engineering and math at the university. More African-American women earned doctorates at Spelman in those fields between 1997 and 2006 than at Georgia Tech, Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill combined. Tatum was a psychology major at Wesleyan who went…
Since September 2013, Paul Chill ’78 has been presiding as the associate dean for clinical and experimental education at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He first joined the UConn faculty in 1988 and is known for his advocacy on behalf of parents and families. Chill teaches legal ethics, legal interviewing, counseling and negotiation, torts and criminal law and has supervised clinical programs relating to child protection, civil rights, disability, mental health law and mediation. Between his time as a government major at Wesleyan and the present, he has worked with dangerous juvenile offenders, graduated from UConn Law (in…
Laurenellen McCann ’09 is the executive producer of the hour-long, weekly podcast/radio show The Good Fight with Ben Wikler, a program that covers grassroots activism and politics with a humorous edge. Its listener base includes fans of NPR and The Colbert Report. She was formerly the national policy manager at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that calls for heavier government accountability. Time magazine editors and a panel of millennials recognized Larenellen’s achievements by including her on their list of “30 People Under 30 Changing the World.” Follow Larenellen on Twitter @elle_mccann to keep up with her daily activities.
Bill FisherOn Oct. 22, 2013, in a historic San Francisco industrial space that once housed the printing plant of William Randolph Hearst, nearly 100 Wesleyan alumni and friends enjoyed an intimate and thought-provoking conversation with two of the nation's foremost voices on food and the food industry: Michael Pollan P'15 and Jonathan Bloom '99. The occasion was "Table Talk," an event underwritten by generous Wesleyan donors to help support financial aid; the place was The Box San Francisco, in the South of Market district. President Michael Roth welcomed guests to the event and introduced Pollan and Bloom. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adX_2JUPqzM[/youtube] Watch this video…
Kate CarlisleOne of Wesleyan's most distinguished alumni, Trustee Emeritus John Baird ’38 P’69’78, died on Dec. 27 in Glenview, Ill., after a brief illness. “His life of service to Wesleyan, his community, and his country serves as a standard for us all,” said President Michael Roth. After graduating from Wesleyan in 1938 and receiving his MBA from Harvard in 1940, he served with distinction as a captain in the U.S. Army during WWII. After the war, he joined his family's prominent Chicago real estate firm, Baird & Warner, where he worked for the remainder of his life. At Baird & Warner,…
Brooks Kraft '87 has been named 2013 International Photographer of the Year, the top honor given by the International Photography Awards (IPA) in its annual competition. The award was announced at New York's Carnegie Hall during the 11th annual Lucie Awards ceremony recognizing the accomplishments of photographers working in editorial, advertising, journalism, fine art, fashion and beyond. The IPA's competition is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive in the photography world today; this year's field included more than 10,000 entries from 103 countries. Kraft received the top honor for his portfolio "The Last Days of Barack Obama’s Campaign," which…