Class of 2009

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…

On Feb. 27, the Gordon Career Center hosted a Google Career Virtual Panel featuring Wesleyan alumni who offered insight on their roles in sales, business, product management, marketing, legal issues, and other roles at Google. The panel was assembled by Sherry Liang ’20, who completed a WEShadow at Google last winter, and Peer Career Advisor Esmye Lytle ’21. Speakers included: Aaron Stoertz '03: Stoertz graduated with a BA in English. Since then he worked in conservation biology, public health, and international health policy at the World Health Organization before landing in tech, where he's worked his way into a position…

Although dam removal is an increasingly common stream restoration tool, it may also represent a major disturbance to rivers that can have varied impacts on environmental conditions and aquatic biota. In a paper titled "Dam Removal Effects on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Dynamics: A New England Stream Case Study, five researchers from Wesleyan examined the effects of dam removal on the structure, function, and composition of benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) communities in a temperate New England stream. The benthic—or "bottom-dwelling”—macroinvertebrates are small aquatic animals that are commonly used to study biological conditions of water bodies. The paper is published in the May 21…

Sarah Ashkin ’11, Brittany Delany ’09, and Sue Roginski ’87 premiered an evening-length dance work, task, on Aug. 17–18, as part of the summer season at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, Calif., under the umbrella of GROUND SERIES dance collective. Ashkin and Delany, codirectors of GROUND SERIES since 2012, choreographed and performed the piece, with Roginski providing dramaturgical direction. As codirectors, Ashkin and Delany describe their work as "collaborating in using dance performance as a tool of embodied intervention and research." "With our shared background in critical thinking, cultural studies, and artistic risk-taking fostered by the Wesleyan Dance Department, we wanted…

In March, during Wesleyan's spring break, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Michael McAlear took a trip to visit and catch up with three alumni whom he’d known when they were undergraduates, just beginning the nonprofits for which they are now known. McAlear doesn’t see them often: they live and work in Africa. All three had received Wesleyan's Christopher Brodigan Award in their senior year, for research or work in Africa. McAlear’s first stop was in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya, and home of SHOFCO, Shining Hope for Community, the nonprofit begun by Jessica ’09 and Kennedy ’12 Odede. Linking…

Former Wesleyan volleyball standout Lisa Drennan '09 was recently inducted into the Connecticut Women's Volleyball Hall of Fame for her decorated collegiate career. The dinner ceremony took place Nov. 24 at the Aqua Turf in Southington, Conn. Drennan was a four-year member of the Cardinals from 2005-to-2008, and helped guide Wesleyan to a 73-36 (.670) overall record and 24-16 (.600) NESCAC mark during that period, which included four straight conference tournament appearances. Former Wesleyan head coach Gale Lackey said, "When your best player is also the hardest worker on the team, the team is lifted and good things happen. That…

Noah Hutton ’09 has directed and scored a new documentary, More to Live For, which was shown recently at the Dallas International Film Festival. According to Glenn Hunter in the Dallas-based D Magazine, the film focuses on “three cancer victims searching for the bone-marrow transplants that could save their lives. The three are Dallas entertainment-insurance executive James Chippendale; Nigerian athlete Seun Adebiyi; and multiple-Grammy-Award-winning saxophone player Michael Brecker, who eventually died. Brecker’s widow, Susan Brecker, and Chippendale co-produced the film, which is intended to raise awareness about the importance of bone-marrow donation.” Hutton is currently a creative director at Couple…

Tim Devane ’09 was recently interviewed by the tech blog We Are NY Tech.Devane describes himself as a “British-born NYC-living entrepreneur, wanderer, environmental advocate, hustler, business developer, and most importantly writer.” In the interview, Devane discusses why he came to New York City: “New York is where things happen. I was drawn in by the electricity, the excitement, and have been overwhelmed by the shear capacity to create and accomplish that people here exhibit. That goes for tech and for many other areas. It’s like everyone has their noses to the grindstone but they’re looking up winking at you, because…

Most people don’t become CFO of a national organization just one year out of Wesleyan—as a first job, no less—but Seth Halpern '09 did just that. A government major, he moved to Washington D.C. after graduation to look for employment, but the job market was difficult and a month later he was still unemployed. One morning at a local cafe he got to chatting with someone who said he worked at a software start-up, NationalField. Halpern admits that he’s always been “tech savvy” and the two hit it off. From there, he was introduced to the NationalField founders and he…

On Nov. 1, Jessica Posner ’09 met with Wesleyan President Michael Roth and Rob Rosenthal, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, and the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, to share her “Do Something Award.” On July 19, Posner was declared the top world-changer among all Americans under 25 by VH1. She received a trophy and a $100,000 award for Shining Hope for Communities, an organization she co-founded in August 2009 with Kennedy Odede ’12. Shining Hope created the first free school for girls in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum. The award ceremony is featured online here.

Posner’s award will support Shining Hope for Communities’ Kibera School for Girls and Health Clinic

Russell Perkins '09, COL, has been awarded a 2010 Rhodes Scholarship.

Wesleyan Welcomes 3 New Alumni-Elected Trustees

Students Engage with Google Employees through Career Virtual Panel

Researchers Explore the Effects of Dam Removal on Bottom-Dwelling Aquatic Animals

Ashkin ’11, Delany ’09, Roginski ’87 Confront White Supremacy through Dance

McAlear Visits Former Students Odede ’09, ’12, and Perel-Slater ’11 at Non-Profits in Africa

Drennan ’09 Inducted into Connecticut Volleyball Hall of Fame

Hutton ’09 Directs Documentary about Search for Bone-marrow Donation

Devane ’09 Find NYC Ideal for the Life of an Entrepreneur

Halpern ’09 CFO for Technology Venture

Posner ’09 Brings “Do Something Award” to Wesleyan

Posner ’09 Wins $100,000 Do Something Award

Perkins ’09 Awarded 2010 Rhodes Scholarship