Anna Sobel ’01 is the owner Talking Hands Theater, an educational puppetry company she began in New York City and now runs in western Massachusetts. She was recently profiled about her work by Steve Pfarrer in the Amherst Bulletin. Sobel makes her own puppets of all sizes to entertain children, but she also uses them to educate kids about such social issues as environmentalism, healthy eating, and conflict resolution. Sobel first started working with puppets after seeing a performance at Wesleyan of the Bread and Puppet Theater, which uses puppets to convey political messages. As an undergraduate she worked with…

“Executive VP of Acquisitions & Production for Sony Pictures Classics, Dylan Leiner has spent his career traveling to Cannes, Milan and other international film festivals looking for material to acquire. For roughly 15 years, he's also been a member of an informal floating soccer game,” writes Michelle Kung for the March 25, 2011, Wall Street Journal. On April 23, Leiner and a friend, Jeffrey Saunders, founder of CinemaCapital and a former professional soccer player, will bring a version of that floating game of film professionals and more to New York City. Their organization, NYFEST—New York Film and Entertainment Soccer Tournament—will…

The first comprehensive mid-career retrospective devoted to pioneering New York–based artist Glenn Ligon ’82 will be held at the Whitney Museum of American Art (45 Madison Ave. at 75th Street, 212-570-3600) in New York City from March 10 through June 5.   The exhibition, Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, features about 100 works, including paintings, prints, photography, drawings, and sculptural installations, as well as striking recent neon reliefs, one of them newly commissioned for the Whitney’s Madison Avenue windows. Over the course of his career, Ligon has created a body of work that has explored American history, literature, and society as it…

Wesleyan’s alumni participation in the Wesleyan Fund is on a record pace — 30 percent as of December 31 — thanks to a generous challenge established by Frank Sica ’73, a member of the university’s Board of Trustees. The participation rate is four points ahead of last year at this time. Wesleyan has received more than 6,800 gifts, including 890 from alumni who did not give last year. Fully 5,886 alumni met the challenge criteria of contributing $25 or more by December 31, resulting in an endowment gift of $100 each, or $588,600, from Sica. “Frank’s generosity enabled us to…

From Washington, D.C., to Palo Alto, Calif., Wesleyan alumni have assumed new responsibilities as public office holders. Two had inaugurals during January: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper ’74 and Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin ’79. Colorado Senator Michael Bennet ’87  returned to Washington for his first elected six-year term following his appointment to fill a vacancy after President Obama took office. Geographically, Wesleyan public office holders are almost as dispersed as possible within the continental United States. Sid Espinosa ’94 (more…)

Beth Rose ’84, P’14, of Sills Cummis and Gross P.C., was recognized as one of the 10 Most Admired Product Liability Attorneys by Law 360: Newswire for Business Lawyers. Rose, whose specialty is defending pharmaceutical and medical device companies facing product liability and mass tort litigation, has “earned a reputation as a quick thinker and a team player,” according to fellow litigators who nominated her for the title. A history major at Wesleyan, she received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and joined Sills Cummis immediately afterward. Her first case involved defending medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson & Company in…

In September, Dina Kaplan ’93, co-founder and COO of blip.tv, appeared on Fortune’s list of the 2010 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs. According to Fortune, the “idea was to find the most innovative, ground-breaking, game-changing female entrepreneurs in the U.S.” Kaplan recently talked to BusinessWeek about “Making More Women Entrepreneurs.” In the Q&A, she says: “There is a very strong camaraderie emerging among women in digital media. Women founders can encourage friendships and build a support network and potential business relationships to try to create a bit of an ‘old girls’ club’ for digital media.”

The Wesleyan Alumni Crew partipated in the 46th Head of the Charles Regatta, Oct. 22 in Boston, Mass. This is the second year in a row that the alumni have rowed in this event.  The race takes place on the Charles River. The Founders of Wesleyan Crew, circa Class of 1968, also rowed in the race. This was their 18th time participating in the Head of the Charles. Rowers included David Myers '82; Mike Greenstein '82; Bill Davies '79; Dave Gruppo '79; Anthony Phaigian '82; Alex Thomson '82; Paul Slye '84 and Kevin Foley '82.

Elise Bean ’78 was selected as one of this year’s most influential women lawyers in Washington, by the National Law Journal. Chosen as one of only 33—based upon reporting over the past year and nominations from the D.C. legal community— Bean is the Democratic staff director and chief counsel of the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The National Law Journal credits Bean and her fellow honorees,  which include the two Supreme Court justices, with setting the legal agenda in the nation’s capital. Bean leads a team of Capitol Hill investigators, who have explored commodities trading, money laundering, offshore tax…

Diana Farrell ’87, deputy assistant to the President on economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council, was the subject of a Fortune magazine interview. Writer Tory Newmyer was exploring the impending departure of Farrell’s boss, Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, at midterm elections. When asked what Farrell thinks Summers’ legacy will be, she told Newmyer: “I think his legacy and the President's legacy are going to be extraordinary. Consider the first 18 months of this administration, when Larry was really a key architect of a lot of the economic policy, it was an unprecedented…