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Connecticut College Magazine Vol. 28 No. 3 ✦ Summer 2020 cover-final.indd 2cover-final.indd 2 CC TOC.indd 1 5/6/20 3:03 PM Departments Features
4 Conn’s campus response to COVID-19 THE FOUR ELEMENTS 8 Disease Control Stephanie Hackett ’09 is Water Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient an epidemiologist at the CDC 20 Emily Hazelwood ’11 talks to fellow ocean explorer Fabien Cousteau about 9 The Spanish Flu What have we learned the state of our oceans about pandemics, asks Professor Marc Zimmer Fire Tropical forest ecologist Varun 28 Swamy ’01 conducts ecological 10 Coping with a Pandemic Assistant research in the Amazon using drones Professor Nakia Hamlett on our “harbingers and social media of hope” Air Renewable energy drives 12 Art in Lockdown Professor Timothy 34 economic prosperity and reduces our McDowell on how we see art through the environmental footprint, says Goldman lens of a pandemic Sachs’ Michael Conti ’06
14 Flatten the Curve Inside the hospital with Earth Ethan Brown ’94 disrupts the Conn’s medical professionals 42 food industry selling plant-based alternatives that taste—and look— 18 Hope Susan Guillet ’94 oversees clinical like meat trials of remdesivir, a potential therapeutic for COVID-19
48 Class Notes
64 Full Stop Pandemic from a NYC window. Illustration by Miles Ladin ’90
On the cover: An outdoor I.C.U. hospital located in Central Park. Photo by Misha Friedman (See also pg. 14)
This page: Through the trees. Photo by Miles Ladin ’90
TOC.indd 2 5/12/20 2:08 PM CONNECTICUT COLLEGE Magazine From the Volume 28 / Number 3 President VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS: CCPamela Dumas Serfes EDITOR: Edward Weinman ART DIRECTOR: Benjamin Parent SENIOR WRITERS: Amy Martin, Doug Daniels CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER: Miles Ladin ’90 Harold Shapiro Harold CLASS NOTES COMPILED BY: Alumni Relations
CC Magazine is published by the Office of Communications. We are committed to covering a diverse group of stories in order to profile the human condition as seen through—and sometimes written by—our alumni, faculty, students and staff; we strive to publish features and photography that illuminate the College’s story.
CC Magazine (ISSN 1060-5134) (USPS 129-140) is published in winter, summer and fall, and is mailed free of charge to Connecticut College alumni, parents and friends of the College. Standard rate nonprofit postage paid at New London, CT, and at additional offices.
Contributions: CC Magazine will consider, but is not responsible for, unsolicited manuscripts, proposals and photographs. Address e are living through an extraordinary moment in history. The correspondence to: Editor, CC Magazine, Becker House, Wsenseless killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans at 270 Mohegan Avenue, New London, CT 06320-4196 Phone: 860-439-2500 the hands of white police and vigilantes have compelled people in every Fax: 860-439-5405 Email: [email protected] corner of the United States and around the world to take a stand against racism, and to demand the same of all our institutions. We have been Alumni: Send address changes to: Alumni Office deeply moved in the past week by the eloquent words of so many leaders, Connecticut College including our own students, faculty, staff, alumnae and alumni, calling on 270 Mohegan Ave. New London, CT 06320-4196 us to support black lives on campus, in our community, and in the world. or email to [email protected] This historic moment will not reward bystanders. It calls for action. Postmaster: Send address changes to: CC Magazine, 270 Mohegan Action is at the heart of our mission at Connecticut College: to educate Ave., New London, CT 06320-4196
students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens of a global society. CONNECTICUT COLLEGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES DeFred G. Folts III ’82, Chair, Debo P. Adegbile ’91, Vice Chair, Therefore, based on the broad goals of our Equity and Inclusion Action Jonathan H. Cohen ’87, Vice Chair, Nicole A. Abraham ’19, Young Alumni Trustee, Seth W. Alvord ’93, Katherine Bergeron, President, Plan, found on our website, the College is making a commitment to Betty Brown Bibbins ’73, Bradford T. Brown P’12 ’15 ’20, Lynn Cooley ’76, Loulie Sutro Crawford ’89, T. Wilson Eglin ’86, Sarah H. advance anti-racist education through ten actions in three areas: campus Fenton ’63, Carlos A. Garcia ’88, Rob Hale ’88 P’20, Mark M. Iger ’75, Eric J. Kaplan ’85, Martha Joynt Kumar ’63, John D. Linehan safety and law enforcement; teaching and learning; and climate. For more P’18 ’23 ’24, Laurie Norton Moffatt ’78, Evan Piekara ’07, Sharis A. Pozen ’86 P’19, Karen Quint ’87, Paolo A. Sanchez ’18, Young Alumni information on our commitment, I invite you to read my June 8 letter to Trustee, Annie M. Scott ’84, Peter D. Skaperdas P’17, Dwayne C. Stallings ’99, Maurice Tiner ’17, Young Alumni Trustee, Rajneesh Vig the community, published on my president’s page on the College site. ’93, Eric J. Waldman P’20, Cynthia Kossmann Wilkinson ’84 P’19, I want you to know that we have prioritized equity and inclusion in Leslie E. Wong, Timothy E. Yarboro ’75 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS the College’s comprehensive fundraising campaign with a goal to raise at Peter Bakkala ’87 P’15, Isaac “Chip” Clothier ’79 P’10, Secretary, Saveena Dhall ’94, Jermaine Doris ’19, Gregory Fleischmann ’90, least $5 million to support capital projects and programming. And we have Erik Gammell ’00, Judith Epstein Grollman ’58, Ianthe Hensman Hershberger ’06, Jonathan Kateman ’90 P’21, Mario Laurenzi ’90, made progress. In 2018, a gift from a generous alumnus provided the seed Deborah Nichols Losse ’66, Marta Martinez Fernandez ’18, Lois Mendez Catlin ’80, Vice President, Heather Morrison ’69 P’95, F. funding for us to begin executing our plans. Last year, another alumnus Wisner Murray ’79 P’11, Derrick Newton ’17, Evan Piekara ’07, President, Carolyn Boyan Raymond ’63, Travis Reid ’03, Calli donated $500,000 to help us bring a second cohort of Posse scholars from Reynolds ’17, Harris Rosenheim ’09, David Schonberger ’77, Edward “Ted” Svehlik ’97, Ivan Tatis ’10, An-Ming Truxes ’71, Daniel New York City to join our scholars from Chicago. And yet another gift Wernick ’12, Denise Wheeless ’80, Stephen Wilkins ’84 of $1 million from Agnes Gund ’60 allowed us to endow The Dialogue CC Magazine Copyright 2020 by Connecticut College, all rights Project, a comprehensive social justice education program that is already reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Views expressed herein are those of the authors and do making an impact. not necessarily reflect official policy of the College.
We know the road to justice and equity is long, but we hope that, with For Class Notes submissions: [email protected] these concrete actions, our community will move a bit closer to realizing LETTERS TO THE EDITOR the values we profess. We welcome your letters. The magazine publishes only letters that comment on the most recent issue’s editorial content. Letters As always, we thank you for your support and look forward to the may be edited. Please include your return address, an email address (if you have one) and a daytime telephone number for results of our collective commitment. verification purposes.
CC Magazine is printed on Rolland Katherine Bergeron Enviro 100, a 100% PCW recycled paper. Printed by Lane Press, a FSC/SFI certified printer in Burlington, Vermont.
2 SUMMER 2020 | From the President
Notebook.indd 2 6/11/20 11:28 AM From the Editor
Stay Safe
nd then the world’s citizens went inside. we will continue telling stories about how our community is A The virologists, epidemiologists, emergency room coping with the pandemic. doctors and nurses implored us to: “Flatten the curve.” Some readers might ask why the entire magazine doesn’t By the end of March, around 2.6 billion people—one-third cover news about the pandemic. When we went remote, the of the human population—were obeying some form of stay-at- magazine team was puzzling together a themed issue about the home order, according to Agence France-Presse. That’s more environmental challenges facing our global society, and how human beings than were alive to witness World War II. our alumni are deconstructing the commonly held belief that The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the trajectory of our reducing our environmental footprint to slow the warming of the lives. The novel coronavirus, said to have originated in Wuhan, planet is mutually exclusive from economic prosperity. In the China, has spared no community, including Conn’s. midst of this pandemic, it’s important to stress that our changing On March 11, President Katherine Bergeron announced that environment is connected to the spread of disease. Connecticut College would operate on a mostly remote basis “As pathogens are exposed to gradually warmer temperatures in order to flat en the contagion curve. In her announcement, in the natural world, they become better equipped to survive the Bergeron wrote that the College is “a community of character high temperature inside the human body,” wrote Justin Worland, and a community of care. When faced with extraordinary a journalist for TIME who covers energy and the environment. circumstances we think about each other, coming together to “And, with that, one of our body’s primary defense work out solutions that are in the best interests of our students, mechanisms diminishes in effec iveness.” faculty and staff. So we stuck with our original conceit. We organized One of Conn’s core messages is that our community puts the feature well around the pre-Socratic philosopher the world together in new ways. CC Magazine reflects what’s Empedocles’ theory of the four elements: water, fi e, air and taking place in the world around us, so it was inconceivable earth. The writing and images serve to inform and transport our that we could publish a magazine that did not cover the ways readers to the deep and total blueness of our world’s oceans, to in which our alumni, faculty, students, parents and staff re high above the Peruvian Amazon, to wind turbines reaching reconstructing our communities in new ways to fight this for the sky, and even to the chemistry labs creating meatless pandemic and save lives—from remote teaching and distance hamburgers. learning, to engagement in New London and around the globe, During this stage of the pandemic, when we stay at home to to the doctors, nurses and first esponders treating the sick, to the flat en that stubborn curve, I wanted to provide the opportunity medical researches searching for therapeutics to halt the virus. for our readers to travel. Therefore, the front of this issue of the magazine covers Conn’s Stay safe. And healthy. pandemic response. Undoubtedly, we have left out numerous stories, since all of Edward Weinman us, just by staying at home, are saving lives. In subsequent issues, Editor, CC Magazine
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 3
Notebook.indd 3 5/12/20 3:42 PM Remote Control The College moves to online teaching and learning
hen Assistant Professor of the other parts of the course,” Reder sion groups that took into account their WGovernment Mara Suttmann-Lea told The Chronicle of Higher Education. various time zones. tweeted a picture of podcast equipment Lexi Pope ’21 said her professors Zimmer scrapped plans to teach set up in her cozy home-office spac have done a great job staying connected “Good Science, Bad Science, New she captioned the picture, “Coming soon and acknowledging students’ unique Science, Old Science.” Instead, he from my cabin in the woods, a ‘Podcast circumstances. taught “COVID-19: Diseases Without About American Politics.’” “They made it clear that they were Borders.” It covered the impact of She added the trending pandemic available to support and help us,” she globalization, high-density housing and hashtag: #SocialDistancing. said. food supplies, as well as the diffe ences A er Connecticut College went A psychology major and scholar in in the international responses to remote on March 11, Conn’s faculty the Bodies/Embodiment Pathway, Pope diffe ent epidemics. found innovative ways to adapt their in- created a study space in her home in “I reminded students of all the person courses for remote instruction. Massachusetts. chemistry that we learned in class that “It’s important to make learning as “It speaks highly of Conn that I still the coronavirus test uses,” he said. “It equitable as possible. Some students may felt a sense of community even when was a great opportunity to show them not have consistent access to the internet, we were so far apart,” she said. “We chemistry is not all theoretical; it has or a computer with a microphone or a used social media and technology to important practical uses.’” video camera. I think being open and our advantage. The Conn community Some faculty in fields that ely heavily fl xible is really key, both for students remained very active, and things like on in-person experiences, including the and myself,” Suttmann-Lea said. workout classes, motivation and advice arts, had to get extra creative. Michael Reder, director of the were floa ing around. Students were “I am so amazed at all of my College’s Joy Shechtman Manko reaching out and coming up with new colleagues at the College,” said Professor Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), ways to stay connected.” of Dance David Dorfman. “Where along with his colleagues in the CTL Because Conn is a global community, there’s a will, there’s a way. Many and in Conn’s Information Technology Marc Zimmer, the Jean C. Tempel ’65 faculty and worldwide dance artists are group, created a tip sheet, “11 Teaching- Professor of Chemistry, quickly realized still making dances, podcasts and master Focused Things to Consider when he’d have to adopt diffe ent approaches classes available online. There’s a lot we Moving Your Course Online.” It has for his diffe ent classes. could work from.” been shared hundreds of times and “My ‘Introduction to Chemistry’ class For courses, including “Dancers Act, prompted inquiries from faculty as far had students in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Actors Dance,” Dorfman worked with away as Germany. Africa, Hawaii—all over the world,” Zim- students to identify spaces in their homes “Our students are going to learn mer said. “It would have been impossible where they could dance. better, and our faculty are going to to teach all of them at the same time.” “Sometimes it was a hallway, or teach better, when they feel connected For that class, Zimmer recorded a rec room, or part of a living room. and emotionally safe. It’s important to lectures, provided materials to download Sometimes it was outside,” Dorfman establish that online before you even start and broke the class into smaller discus- said. “We made it happen.”
4 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 4 5/6/20 2:36 PM On the Front Lines of History Conn students work as EMTs, fi efighters during COVID-19 pandemic
ector Salazar ’20 didn’t head home “It got more stressful as [the number “It’s wildly diffe ent work,” said H to Chicago when Connecticut of COVID-19 cases] increased,” she Bryan, a dance major, biology minor and College went to remote modes of said. “It’s a diffe ent environment; the scholar in the Creativity Pathway. instruction because of the COVID-19 whole way we now approach patients “Here, since it’s much more urban, we pandemic. A volunteer fi efigh er and an at an emergency scene has changed.” do a mix of emergency calls and hospital EMT with a local fi e department and While Chafey admitted that it can be transports. We see more major medical ambulance service, he had important scary to think about contracting the virus problems, and not as much trauma.” work to do. herself, she said she takes all necessary While Bryan says she misses her “I signed up to serve the community precautions. family in Wyoming, she’s glad to help and I have a responsibility to do so; “When it comes down to it, I’d the community. In her free time, she’s we can’t just stop coming into work rather have myself out there—someone also hand-making masks to help with until this is over. People depend on us,” who is young and able—than someone the shortage of personal protective said Salazar, who is one of at least fi e who is older and immunocompromised,” equipment (PPE). Connecticut College students working she said. Victoria Duszak ’21 says keeping as EMTs on the front lines of the Chafey said she would like to go up with the near-daily changes to PPE pandemic. to graduate school, and is considering protocol can be a challenge. An environmental studies and a career as a physician assistant. “It’s stressful overall, but it’s the same anthropology double major and Posse Working as an EMT during a for everyone working in health care right Scholar, Salazar arranged to stay on pandemic, she’s gaining hands-on now,” she said. campus. He had to balance his distance experience. A behavioral neuroscience and Slavic learning coursework while working up “I may never see something like this studies double major, physics minor to 32 hours a week on the ambulance, again in my lifetime,” she said. “And and scholar in the Holleran Center for and responding to fi e calls as they that’s quite fine with me. But if I do, I’ll Community Action, Duszak is working came in. be a little more prepared for it.” as an EMT in Wolcott, Connecticut, “I was promoted in January to 2nd Sydney Bryan ’21 usually spends near her hometown of Southington. Lieutenant, and I’m very proud to her summers at home in Wyoming, “Now, if we get a call, it’s almost serve and learn in the capacity of a fi e working for the emergency medical always going to be a COVID patient. company officer,” he said. uch like department at Grand Teton National Every time the radio goes off,” she said the student-athletes, I think of myself as Park, where the bulk of her work The experience has solidified Duszak’ a student-fi efigh er.” includes search-and-rescue calls from interest in becoming a doctor, and she’s Taylor Chafey ’20, a biology major the backcountry. But since the park was currently applying to medical schools. and government minor, also worked and closed to limit the spread of COVID-19, “It’s defini ely interesting living volunteered as an EMT in Waterford, she stayed in New London County through something that we are going to Connecticut. She said the last few to continue working for American talk about and look back on, but I guess months have been unlike anything she’s Ambulance Service in Norwich, that’s the job. You take whatever comes ever seen. Connecticut. at you in medicine,” she said.
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 5
Notebook.indd 5 5/6/20 2:36 PM Call to Action Alumni answer the calls for help
y the time Connecticut College others continue in the fight o defeat the Griffiths is esident of Vigilant, a Bwent to remote modes of learning, coronavirus. Dover, New Hampshire-based fin some Conn students were stuck on As a volunteer in the emergency cabinetry, furnishings and mill-working campus, while others who traveled for department at Los Angeles County + company that specializes in custom wine Spring Break couldn’t return to pick up USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, storage and cigar humidor cabinets. their belongings. California, Dylan Pinckert ’18 says it is Deemed an essential business, the In stepped alumni like Patricia part of his job to make sure doctors and company is still operating, but has also Swonger ’81 who contributed to the nurses have the PPE and tools they need devoted staff and esources to produce College’s Student Emergency Fund. to treat COVID-19 patients. Pinckert, face shields with a design approved by “I was a financial aid student a who plans to become a physician the National Institutes of Health. Conn when I was there,” Swonger assistant and is in the process of getting “Our goal is 10,000 face shields said. “Had it not been for the support I his EMT license recertified, take for first esponders and front-line received from the Connecticut College seriously the mission of the hospital to healthcare workers in central New community, I doubt I would have been provide all patients with top-quality care England,” said Griffith able to graduate. The College was there regardless of their insurance status or To make the shields, Vigilant’s for me, and it’s my job to be there for ability to pay. engineers remodeled a crowd-sourced it now.” “Since the pandemic, the number of prototype of a face-shield crown for the The Student Emergency Fund volunteers is a quarter of what it was. company’s CNC machinery, which offe ed immediate support to help The department relies on us for help,” operates similarly to a 3D printer, students with travel, housing, lost he said. processing a piece of material based on wages from campus jobs, shipping, In addition to working directly with computer-programmed instructions. moving expenses, and other unexpected patients, Conn alumni are addressing the Griffiths has bee working nearly hardships that arose from the pandemic. pandemic in other ways. around the clock to procure the rest “When I attended Conn, my family Anita Nadelson ’88 owns Three of the supplies, including buckles, lived overseas in Nepal,” said Rachel by Three Seattle, a boutique design elastic bands and plastic sheets, while Peniston ’11, who supported the fund. firm, and ne er thought she’d work the company’s staff members work to “Had something like this occurred with a business contact in China to assemble the shields. In early April, during my four years, I would not have track down swabs, which she and the company shipped the first 1,00 known where I could go. Thank you other Seattle business leaders donated masks to New Hampshire’s Staffo d for setting up this fund to help students to the University of Washington County to be used in nursing homes. with limited options at a critical Department of Laboratory Medicine The second batch went to two local moment like this.” for COVID-19 testing. fi e departments. The Emergency Fund effo t raised “We work with 25 factories in China. “We are doing this to help the nearly $70,000. I know how to get anything made,” people who are risking their lives every While hundreds of Conn alumni Nadelson told The Seattle Times. day,” Griffiths said. “It’s just the rig helped students return home, many Charles Griffiths ’84 is al a maker. thing to do.”
6 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 6 5/6/20 2:36 PM Celebration of Seniors An alternative way to honor Class of 2020
mma Benington ’20 was supposed Conn apparel, smiling, waving, When the class does convene next Eto join her classmates on Tempel skipping rocks and dancing. One year, Viridiana Villalva Salas ’20 will Green on May 17 to celebrate the most student, Benington said, tossed a realize her lifelong dream of giving a momentous day in a college student’s graduation cap into the air with one speech at her own graduation. academic career: Commencement. hand, then caught a piece of rolled up Villalva Salas is a Posse Scholar She’ll have to wait another year. paper—a “diploma”—in the other. from Chicago, Illinois, an English In mid-April, President Katherine “This video provided a way to major, a scholar in both the Holleran Bergeron and Benington, the Class ‘see’ each other in an intimate and Center for Community Action and of 2020 president, broadcast a video meaningful way, and hopefully, gave us the Mellon Mays Undergraduate message to the graduating class a sense of closure before we reunite at Fellowship Program, and is pursuing announcing that Conn’s 102nd next year’s ceremony,” said Benington, her teaching certifica e in secondary Commencement would be held May 30, a dance and behavioral neuroscience education. She was selected to address 2021, during Memorial Day weekend. double major from Portland, Maine. her classmates by members of the A special remote event, featuring “It felt like the perfect way to bring a Commencement Student Speaker video clips submitted by the students glimmer of joy to this day.” Selection Committee. In keeping with themselves, recognized the graduates on The remote celebration also the tradition of informing student their originally scheduled date. included a video message from keynote speakers of their selection from the top Benington, who leads the student speaker Patrick Awuah, founding of Tempel Green, Dean of Students subcommittee of the Commencement president of Ashesi University College, Victor Arcelus took a laptop to the Task Force, said she felt that it was Connecticut College’s partner college green to give Villalva Salas the news important to recognize May 17 as a day in Berekuso, Ghana. Awuah, a 2015 over a video call. of celebration for the class but also to MacArthur “genius grant” winner, is “It felt so unreal,” Villalva Salas make sure it didn’t replace the in-person a visionary leader who created Ashesi said. “It’s not o en that people with my Commencement. University College in 2002 with the background are given the opportunity “On top of the many events that our mission of educating a new generation to go to a college as prestigious as Conn, class has lost, our celebrations together of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders much less speak at Commencement.” are among the most missed,” she said, in Africa. Villalva Salas said COVID-19 is adding that the in-person ceremony Awuah will address the graduates just the latest of several obstacles that next year gives members of the class at the 2021 ceremony and receive the resilient Class of 2020 has had to something to look forward to. a doctor of humane letters honoris overcome, and that she looks forward to A er the announcement was made, causa, an honorary degree that reflect a well-deserved celebration next year. Benington emailed the entire class, his revolutionary achievements in “We will all be coming back together asking for short video clips of seniors higher education in Ghana, as well a er a full year of graduate school, jobs in order to compile the clips into as his commitment to the values that and fellowships. It won’t be like any a single celebratory video. Those animate our mission of the liberal arts other Commencement that has been submissions included students donning in action. seen on our campus.”
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 7
Notebook.indd 7 5/12/20 2:07 PM Disease Control Stephanie Hackett ’09 shapes public health decisions
sually, Stephanie Hackett ’09 difficulty maintaining social distanci years as a pediatric infectious disease Uspends at least a quarter of her time at health care facilities, or potential physician assistant for the Atlanta, traveling around the world. medication shortages if global supplies Georgia-based Grady Health System, An epidemiologist at the Centers for are affec ed,” Hackett says. providing comprehensive HIV/AIDS Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Launched by U.S. President George and pediatric primary care to HIV- based in Atlanta, Georgia, she specializes W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR is a U.S. infected children and young people from in pediatric and adolescent HIV care governmental initiative that addresses birth to age 25, before joining the CDC and treatment. She visits some of the 50 the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and in 2017. countries that receive support from the works to save the lives of those sufferin She still works one day a week treating President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS from the disease. Since its inception, HIV-positive children and teens at Grady Relief (PEPFAR), helping local country it has provided more than $80 billion Hospital’s Ponce De Leon Center. offices and ministrie of health scale up in funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, “These visits have also largely shi ed pediatric and adolescent HIV testing and prevention and research, making it the to telemedicine to limit our patients’ po- treatment. largest-ever effo t by any one nation to tential exposure to COVID-19,” she says. Now, like so many of us, Hackett is address a single disease. Like so many working parents, working mostly from home. Now, PEPFAR is addressing one Hackett is also homeschooling her two “With the current travel restrictions, disease while dealing with another. young children. It’s a lot for anyone to I can no longer work in person with “I now serve as the pediatric and handle, but Hackett says her work is my colleagues around the world,” she adolescent COVID-19 point-of-contact exciting and rewarding. says. “The CDC has moved meetings within my CDC division to help ensure “I love using my clinical skills as and communication largely to virtual HIV-positive pediatric and adolescent a physician assistant as well as my platforms to still provide effec ive and populations are being considered background in global public health on personal public health expertise.” and planned for in the PEPFAR a daily basis and in a variety of ways That may be more important than COVID-19 preparation and response throughout the agency to do my part in ever for the vulnerable populations effo ts,” Hackett says. “This means responding to this pandemic,” she says. Hackett serves. Over the last few weeks, daily communication within and across As the pandemic evolves, so might her work has shi ed significantly a agencies to discuss and distribute the Hackett’s role. The CDC’s 24/7 she tries to mitigate the impact of the latest information and recommendations emergency operations center, which COVID-19 pandemic on HIV-infected related to COVID-19.” has been coordinating the COVID-19 children and their families. At Conn, Hackett majored in biology, response, is largely staffed y CDC “Not only do people who are HIV- minored in Latin American studies and employees who have volunteered for the positive deal with the risk of getting was a scholar in the Holleran Center for mission. Hackett has volunteered, and is COVID-19, they also deal with the Community Action. She then went on ready to serve when necessary. effects that C VID-19 can have on their to earn a Master of Public Health and a “I am prepared to deploy fulltime to ability to access HIV care, such as lack Master of Medical Science from Emory support the COVID-19 response for as of public transportation to clinic visits, University. She served for nearly fi e long as may be needed,” she says.
8 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 8 5/6/20 2:37 PM The Spanish Flu What can the 1918 Flu epidemic teach us about COVID-19, asks Professor Marc Zimmer
Magazine: The Spanish Flu hadn’t yet developed drugs or vaccines for to war bonds. This provided the newly CC didn’t start in Spain. Why did the flu. This is als true for COVID-19. In arrived virus a feast of victims, resulting in the Iberian country get stuck with the name? addition, the 1918 flu virus was a spillover a tenfold higher death rate due to the fl virus. Like COVID-19, it came from than was observed in the more careful St. Marc Zimmer: It’s commonly believed nonhuman hosts and no one had immunity Louis over the same period. that the 1918 pandemic started in Camp to this new virus. Funston, Kansas. The camp hospital CC: Does the Spanish Flu inform us about received its first influenz victim on CC: What lessons do we still need to how the COVID-19 pandemic ends? March 4. By April, 30 of the 50 largest learn from the 1918 flu pandemic cities in the United States, most in close MZ: In 1918, the U.S. Army requested proximity to military bases, reported MZ: COVID-19 originated in China. Its George Soper—who discovered Mary increased deaths. It spread to England, heavy-handed quarantines may have saved Mallon, or Typhoid Mary, an asymptom- France, Germany and Spain. Spain was thousands of U.S. lives. Although we may atic carrier of typhoid—to investigate the the only country hit by the virus that was have wasted the advantages given to us by flu pandemic. He found that the comple e not involved in World War I; therefore it the Chinese, we need to pay it forward to isolation of flu pa ients was the only way to was the only country to report the true our neighbors in the southern hemisphere control the outbreak and that “the disease extent of the pandemic. This resulted and slow the spread in the U.S. To miti- is carried from place to place by persons, in the mistaken belief that the 1918 fl gate resurgences of the virus and to prevent not things or by the general atmosphere, as originated in Spain. future pandemics, global cooperation is was once supposed. Its rapidity of spread required. Withdrawing from the World is due to its great infectivity, short period CC: The Spanish Flu was the last Health Organization and blaming China of incubation, missed cases and absence pandemic. How does it compare to the won’t help. It will antagonize our allies, of timely precautionary measures. The COVID-19 outbreak? which may further weaken our medical epidemics stop themselves ... either by the supply chains and endanger our epidemio- exhaustion of the susceptible material, by a MZ: The 1918 flu pandemic haunt logical early-warning systems. reduction in the virulence of the causative all epidemiologists. It’s estimated that agent, or both.” Despite this knowledge, between 50 million and 100 million people CC: We’ve been told to practice social and although public health officials d- died. The world is more prepared now distancing. Where did that come from? vocated keeping a distance, not everyone and science has dramatically advanced. adhered to the advice—with deadly con- However, the U.S. response to COVID-19 MZ: The first cases of 1918 flu amon sequences. Sound familiar? shows there are some important lessons civilians in Philadelphia were reported on we haven’t learned. COVID-19 isn’t like Sept. 17, 1918. Authorities downplayed Marc Zimmer is the Jean C. Tempel ’65 Pro- the flu. It’s its own beast. It’s caused by a their significance and on the 28th the city fessor of Chemistry. He teaches a new course, coronavirus, not an influenza virus, and held the largest parade in its history: the “COVID-19: Diseases Without Borders.” He there are many diffe ences to the 1918 flu “Liberty Loan Drive,” a massive gath- is the author of the soon to be released The But there are also similarities. In 1918, we ering designed to get people to subscribe State of Science (Prometheus Press, 2020).
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 9
Notebook.indd 9 5/6/20 2:37 PM Coping with a Pandemic
Magazine: Aside from teach- dures you should have in place for man- CC: What behaviors should people CC ing, you are a psychologist who aging risk once somebody returns to the look for, both in themselves and specializes in child, adolescent and young house. Naturally, this planning can create among friends, family and coworkers, adult mental health. How have you been some anxiety, but establishing routines that could be a signal that mental making it through this difficult ime? will ultimately lead to stronger feelings health treatment should be sought? of control and security. Finally, we all Nakia Hamlett: It’s challenging. It’s need to remember that this situation will NH: Depression is a complex and interesting. It’s anxiety-provoking. I try improve. It’s a matter of diligently and insidious disease that can wax and to limit my intake of news, because I got patiently waiting this out as best we can. wane over the course of somebody’s to a place where it didn’t seem helpful to life. Some people suffe from constant watch all the time. CC: No person is an island. How can low-grade depression or experience we reduce the sense of isolation and an acute episode of depression that CC: What are some coping mechanisms loneliness now that we can’t gather with comes on suddenly. students, faculty and staff should conside those outside our household? Symptoms to look out for are if struggling during the pandemic? feeling tired or listless, no longer NH: I’m a strong believer in practicing enjoying activities that you previously NH: Self-care is critically important. mindfulness in combination with other enjoyed, increased isolation from other Broadly speaking, self-care is anything tools that can help combat thoughts that people, and even talking more about that promotes your sense of having some make people feel bad. Focusing attention feelings of helplessness or suicidal control and feeling good. Getting plenty on joyful activities and memories, and thoughts. Many of those thoughts and of rest, eating well and getting exercise spending time on passion projects that feelings can easily go unnoticed by are all important, as well as my personal you suddenly have more time to complete others if they’re not verbalized. favorites, meditation and mindfulness. are great ways to get out of your mind In acute cases, when somebody Self-care also means connecting with and stay busy with life. Also, watching stops engaging in basic life activities, significant others, online if you can’t be TV shows that are more lighthearted, expresses suicidal thoughts or suggests with them in person (while keeping six funny or interesting is another way to they might have a specific plan fo feet apart). distract from the constant dialogue in harming themselves, they may need your mind. Given that we’re all living to seek emergency resources. But for CC: What about for those who are living through a real-life trauma, avoiding dark friends, family and other supportive with others and have less control over the shows that focus on disturbing or stressful people in the life of anybody who is mitigation of risk factors? topics is probably a good idea. In general, suffering f om depression, it’s important anxiety and depression thrive when we to continue being supportive, empathetic NH: It can be good to agree on household give our attention to fearful or depressing and available, but also realize that those rules: communicate about who will be thoughts. So the more we learn to focus effo ts won’t magically change how leaving the house and how o en during our attention and distract ourselves, the somebody in a dark emotional space the pandemic, and what sorts of proce- less intense these symptoms can be. thinks or feels overnight.
10 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 10 5/6/20 2:37 PM Visiting Professor of Psychology Nakia Hamlett discusses mental health in the time of quarantine.
Still, if you know somebody sufferin family and friends in more meaningful CC: How do young people process from severe depression, don’t ever give ways than we have in years. We’re trauma, anxiety and stress diffe ently up on getting them the help and support also harnessing the promise of new than older people? they need, even if they threaten to end technology and finding inn vative ways your relationship. They’ll thank you later. to do our work. This is also causing NH: Young adults are developmentally parents to develop a greater appreciation diffe ent. We know the frontal lobe is CC: Past national or global tragedies for teachers and will lead to more not fully developed until around the and challenges like the Great Depression collaboration between parents and their age of 25, so young adults are likely have defined the philosophies and menta childrens’ teachers in the future. processing these events diffe ently. health of entire generations. What can we So, despite the fact that this is a My experience so far with my students do now to proactively combat the long- traumatic event that will have lasting is that they’re less vocal about their term consequences of the trauma we’re memories, like generations before us who anxiety, even if they are perhaps experiencing during this outbreak? have lived through catastrophic times, nervous about the virus. And it’s this will build a legacy of resilience, important to remember that the age NH: Illness and death caused by the humility and renewed confidence an group that has seen the largest increase virus, as well as the economic fallout, are optimism. in mental health services in recent years going to produce traumatic a ershocks has been the 18-to-25-year-old group. that persist for months or even years to CC: You’ve researched mental health Students are struggling with depression, come. Most important, we should be disparities and challenges unique to anxiety, sexual assault issues, domestic thinking of ways we can help within minority and underserved populations. violence and other potentially traumatic our local communities or on a national How are those communities fairing events. We all need to understand that level. Families will need support, workers during this crisis? for young adults already contending will need jobs, communities will need with such difficu ies, the pandemic may resources, and engaging in those types of NH: I hope this time causes us to be creating even greater difficu ies for positive effo ts to rebuild and help others rethink what and who we value with them right now. is a potent way to build agency and feel the assumption that everybody deserves empowered. We’re already seeing stories health and life’s basics. COVID-19 CC: What role will young adults play of people all around us sharing resources doesn’t discriminate, but unfortunately a er this pandemic passes? and helping each other. I expect that will our systems and communities do. Our continue for months and will play a key systems are fundamentally fl wed, and NH: Our students and young adults role in helping us heal both individually a crisis like this highlights those fl ws, everywhere will be essential to rebuilding and as a country. such as when poorer communities that our communities and recovering from this I also believe that it’s helpful to think are disproportionately black and LatinX crisis. They’re the harbingers of hope in about some of the positive developments don’t have access to the resources they our culture, as they’re activists, scholars, that can still come out of this crisis. For need to combat the virus and its physical computer scientists and techies who one thing, many of us will reconnect with and mental health impacts. know how to build communities.
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 11
Notebook.indd 11 5/6/20 2:37 PM Art in Lockdown
Professor of Art Timothy McDowell and his students find ays to create while studying remotely.
here’s a popular myth that TM: This is essential to the well- TM: For one thing, the pandemic has Tthe French philosopher and rounded approach of the liberal arts. We obliterated the gallery world. At the mathematician René Descartes would need to keep feeding both sides of the moment, it’s not possible to attend climb into an old oven to escape brain and keep the creative and inventive openings and exchange ideas with the distractions of daily life, only to connections between the brain and the people while looking at work firsthand. emerge with creative new takes on the hand and the mind strong. I was just You can view art online, but it isn’t the human condition and groundbreaking telling my class that this situation has same. There’s no tactile reference. geometric theories. Today, Art required reinvention, and reinvention is I had a solo exhibition planned for the Professor Timothy McDowell, in his one of the most creative and important beginning of June that’s now on hold, 40th year at Conn, and his students things a person can do. We need to look and I don’t know when it will occur. are mining inspiration from pandemic- at our situation and find ne ways of I was working toward that exhibition induced isolation. achieving our goals. concerned about issues like economic inequality, greed, and political and CC Magazine: How has this unprec- CC: Have the stay-at-home require- financial pol rization. The work was edented time of working remotely ments impacted you and your inspired in part by another time in changed the way you approach your job? art personally? history when a pandemic took hold, during World War I, and those events Timothy McDowell: This current TM: For a lot of studio artists, since we influenced rt. I hope that when this situation has obviously required spend so much time alone anyway, the exhibition is finally seen, I’ e created some adjustment, because in a solitude might not feel so foreign and a body of work that causes viewers to studio environment, normally we’d difficult. Th e’s really no way to be in stop and engage each piece as a part of be walking around and offerin a studio and concentrate and be creative a larger puzzle. But I’m exploring new constructive feedback on each other’s if there’s a crowd there, so personally places as an artist that I’ve never been. work and offering dvice on process the isolation hasn’t been so bad. I’m What better time to reinvent yourself or nudging each other to improve a very lucky to have my studio attached to than at a time when the whole world is project. At the moment we’re viewing my house. I’ve felt fortunate to be able having to reconstruct how it functions? work on screens where the work isn’t to find mo e moments here and there quite as clear or well defined. Bu where I can duck into my studio and do CC: Since you’ve had a show despite that challenge, we’ve continued some work or truly concentrate on what postponed indefini ely, you can to keep the dialogue going and the my students are doing. Finding those identify with students who won’t have minds working to create things. spontaneous moments can be difficul their final xhibitionsor attend the when I’m at work surrounded by people. many end-of-year ceremonies that CC: Why is it so important to do seniors, in particular, look forward whatever is necessary so that students CC: How has the pandemic changed to. What advice have you given can still access art and have the your process or affec ed your job as your students about coping with this opportunities to create it? an artist? disappointment?
12 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 12 5/6/20 2:38 PM Timothy McDowell, Blind Love, 2020, Oil on Panel, 48” x 48”
TM: I think it’s important to remind CC: Are you considering other ways for TM: I’ve been impressed with how them—and I know they understand your students to share their work with well students have adjusted and this—that they’re making art for the Conn community? adapted. I think part of this is thanks to themselves and feeding their own need a generational exposure to technology. to create art. The exhibition at the end TM: We’re thinking about putting to- They’ve grown up used to creating and should be seen as the icing on the cake gether a catalogue of their work that can interacting with screens, and so I think of that creative process. It isn’t the be printed and shared, and we’ll probably that has helped. I also think they’ve exhibition that makes the artist—it’s the create a website with all the projects. We had greater access to me or have taken artwork that makes the artist. I know would also defini ely still like to have an advantage of video conferencing to that the activity of being in the studio opening once we’re back on campus, and discuss their work and have learned or at home and making something those students who have recently grad- to plan and manage their time in new and imagining an exhibition can be uated who are able to come back would ways. I’m having more brief video chats motivational sometimes, because there’s certainly be invited to participate. with students where we just check in, an impetus to participate and display and which I really like. It’s much better share your work. But you’re making art CC: Have there been any pleasant and more personal than just reading an because you have a need to do it. It makes surprises or positive aspects of remote email, so I hope that new piece of our you feel whole. It allows you to have a teaching that you didn’t expect to daily communication remains a er we dialogue about the events in your life. encounter? return to normal.
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 13
Notebook.indd 13 5/6/20 2:38 PM Misha Friedman
14 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 14 5/6/20 2:38 PM Flatten the Curve
BY AMY MARTIN
Days in the lives of three doctors treating COVID-19 patients.
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 15
Notebook.indd 15 5/12/20 2:06 PM n early March, Andrew Duarte ’13, severest symptoms were older individuals and an isolated zone for people with Ia third-year rehabilitation medicine and those with comorbidities. That led COVID-19 symptoms. resident physician, was working to some younger people to resist early social “As this has progressed, the isolated side improve the quality of life for patients who distancing measures. of the emergency department is getting had suffe ed injuries or impairments at an “We’ve seen young people and old bigger and bigger,” Pasquarello said. NYU Langone Health clinic for veterans. people. We’ve seen old people you’d But Pasquarello also noticed that the Then the first cases of COVID-19 expect to have a bad outcome recover, hospital’s regular volume of patients has were identified in ew York City. Within and then some 20-to-30-year-old patients dropped off significantly. He attrib es the weeks, the city became the epicenter of a who are ventilated. We have to figu e out decline in part to the stay-at-home orders, global pandemic. why that is,” Duarte said. which are leading to fewer traumatic Almost overnight, life changed for “It’s not just your 84-year-old injuries, like broken bones and motor Duarte. grandmother or your 64-year-old uncle vehicle accidents. The veteran’s clinic temporarily closed. who is a smoker. It could be your friends,” Still, that doesn’t explain the drop in car- Duarte and his colleagues, who never Duarte added. diac patients or those suffering f om abdom- expected to practice internal medicine As the global death toll mounts, inal pain and appendicitis, for example. again, were asked to volunteer to care for doctors and scientists around the world “I think more and more people are afraid COVID patients. Duarte went to work are racing to understand more about to come to the hospital, afraid they might be at Bellevue Hospital, one of the largest COVID-19. Dr. Donald Pasquarello ’86 exposed and contract the virus,” he said. hospitals in the country. says he has never seen anything like it in That’s a concern for doctors, too. “It’s been six days a week, 12 to 14 his 23 years in emergency medicine. Duarte says that although his hospital has hours a day,” Duarte said. “The hospital is “I was in training when HIV surfaced, been able to maintain sufficient l els of totally flooded with COVID patients.” and it was scary because we didn’t know personal protective equipment (PPE), he On a normal day in the hospital, Duarte much about the virus, we just knew purchased his own P100 respirator, which says he’d hear one or two overhead pages people were dying,” said Pasquarello, fil ers out at least 99.97% of airborne for patients who were crashing and in an emergency medicine physician at particles, on eBay. need of emergency intervention. Now, it’s Beverly Hospital, about 20 miles north Pasquarello said it’s been an hourly. of Boston. adjustment to wear PPE at all times, and “You hear the page and you realize it’s “When Ebola surfaced in the U.S., I that the hospital has implemented other your patient and you are sprinting up the think that was a wake-up call for people, policies and procedures in an effo t to stairs,” he said. “We go in [to treat them] but an epidemic never materialized. keep staff healt y and prevent the spread only if absolutely necessary. We are told COVID-19 is diffe ent, because it’s so of the virus. there is no such thing as an emergency in a contagious and can be spread by people “Everybody who is working on the pandemic.” with minimal to no symptoms,” he said. front lines is concerned about contracting When the first informa ion about To prepare for an influx of COVID-19 this virus and bringing it home to our COVID-19 began fil ering out of China, patients, Beverly Hospital split its families. We see the worst of it, because where the virus is said to have originated, emergency department into zones—one most people who are coming to the it was reported that those suffering th for patients without respiratory symptoms hospital are very sick. You think about it,
16 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 16 5/6/20 2:38 PM “Right now, we don’t have enough tests to test everybody. We are just burning through PPE because everyone has to be treated as presumed positive.”
but at the end of the day, you go to work for children who have been here a long of conversations going forward about the and you do your job,” he said. time,” Spence said. “We have 8-to-10- need for post-COVID societal changes.” Dr. Kimberly Spence ’94 says doctors month-old children with chronic health Imagining a post-COVID world, and nurses are scrambling to keep up with issues who really depend on socialization.” with still so many unknowns, is difficul the near-daily policy changes, which Spence says the policies could be Vaccines may not be ready for the general impact nearly every aspect of their work. amended with greater testing capacity. public for more than a year, antibody Spence is both an associate professor Ideally, everyone coming into the hospital tests aren’t yet fully reliable or readily of pediatrics at Saint Louis University would be tested on arrival. available, and experts still don’t know School of Medicine and a neonatologist “Right now, we don’t have enough for sure if those who have recovered at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital tests to test everybody. We are just burning from COVID-19 will have prolonged in St. Louis. She says changes in visitor through PPE because everyone has to be immunity. policies—designed to protect both treated as presumed positive,” she said. But there is some good news. patients and hospital faculty and staff “This has unmasked a weakness within “Staying at home and social distancing has been particularly hard for labor and our medical care system.” really is helping—it is working to flat en delivery and neonatal intensive care Spence says more transparency is need- the curve,” said Pasquarello. “I like to (NICU) patients. ed in the medical supply chain throughout look at the positives. We know about 80% “Laboring mothers are limited to one the U.S. so states can collaborate and share of people have mild to moderate symp- support person, and if they are COVID- resources instead of being forced to com- toms. People who have recovered or who positive, it’s no support person. Your sup- pete against each other. have been asymptomatic will develop port person might be on an iPad,” she said. “That’s how we can get through some protective immunity. Recommendations for how to manage this. It comes in waves. When it hits in “I think we’ll get through this.” the care of newborns born to COVID- New York, we should be shipping our In New York, Duarte is scheduled positive mothers are continuously ventilators to them. And then when we to continue working with COVID-19 evolving, but in some cases, Spence says, need them, they ship them back to us. patients through at least the end of June. mothers are being instructed to stay at “But the federal government needs to But he is beginning to think there is a least six feet away from their newborns, or be able to take the lead on this. You can’t chance he could return to rehabilitation the babies are being cared for in a diffe ent just sit it out.” medicine before then. room entirely. Duarte agrees that the pandemic “We are defini ely seeing a downward “It’s completely the antithesis of what quickly exposed the cracks in the coun- trend. We are seeing fewer new diagno- you want new moms and babies to be try’s social systems. ses, and we are collapsing some of the doing,” she said. “It reinforces the fact that the health repurposed units,” he said. The policy changes have also been care system overall is grossly inadequate,” “I volunteered not only to help devastating for babies in the NICU, he said. COVID patients but to help out my particularly older babies who thrive on “But it’s not just that. We saw how resident colleagues. There has been great social interaction. many people lost their jobs so quickly, for camaraderie, and it has been an honor to “They are allowed only one person to example. It’s impacting life in so many work with them. I’ll be there as long as come and visit, and that’s a real problem diffe ent ways. I think there will be lots they need me.”
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 17
Notebook.indd 17 5/6/20 2:39 PM Hope
BY EDWARD WEINMAN
hortly a er returning from Wuhan, at Gilead Sciences, the biopharmaceuti- During the Ebola outbreak, SChina, a man fell ill with a persistent cal company that produces the antiviral, remdesivir showed efficacy in bl king fever and cough, symptoms consistent said Susan Guillet ’94, director of clinical the Ebola virus in rhesus monkeys. with COVID-19, the disease caused operations oncology at Gilead. Under “compassionate use” protocols, a by the novel coronavirus. On Jan. 20, “We are pulling in all hands on deck small number of Ebola patients received 2020, the man checked into Providence because we want to process as many the drug. While the drug proved less Regional Medical Center in Everett, requests for the drug as possible,” said effec ive than others against Ebola, the Washington. Guillet, whose team has been engaged in research established its safety profile. He was, at the time, thought to be the fight against C VID-19. Subsequent trials showed antiviral Patient Zero for COVID-19 in the U.S. Production of remdesivir has kicked activity against MERS and SARS, both Stable when admitted to the hospital, into high gear. As of now, Gilead has coronaviruses said to be structurally the patient’s health quickly went 1.5 million doses, enough for 140,000 similar to COVID-19. sideways. He required oxygen. Chest patients. The company is working with Showing promise and obtaining x-rays revealed pneumonia. Doctors partners around the world to boost its regulatory approval are two diffe ent administered intravenously an antiviral manufacturing. Its goal is to produce matters. However, as death totals rapidly drug that had shown efficacy in anima more than 500,000 treatment courses rise, hospitals overfl w with critically trials for the treatment of Ebola, the virus by October and more than 1 million ill patients, and supplies of personal that ravaged the West African nations of treatment courses by the end of this year. protective equipment and ventilators Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from It’s clear today, however, that more dwindle, doctors are desperate to find 2013 to 2016, killing more than 11,000. treatment courses of the drug will anything to treat this virus. A er Patient Desperate times called for desperate be needed. Zero recovered, scientists set up trials measures. At the end of April, Dr. Anthony across the world: in Wuhan and here With the investigational drug Fauci, director of the National Institute in the U.S., both at Gilead and run by remdesivir fl wing through his blood, of Allergy and Infectious Diseases the NIAID. Some of these trials were Patient Zero showed improvement (NIAID), told reporters that “remdesivir nonrandomized, while others were overnight. He eventually recovered, and has a clear-cut, significant, posi ive effect randomized, meaning that some patients doctors sent him home. in diminishing the time to recovery” received remdesivir and others received One patient’s positive response from COVID-19. a placebo. doesn’t prove the drug treats a disease, The research that led to remdesivir “Data from controlled clinical because there are numerous factors— began as early as 2009, through trials trials are required to prove both safety including the important question of underway at the time to fight hepa itis and efficacy,” uillet said, adding whether the patient’s response to the C and respiratory syncytial virus. Gilead that proper dosing also needs to be drug was coincidental. produces many drugs, including Harvoni worked out. “We are conducting A er Patient Zero’s story circulated and Epclusa, which have essentially cured randomized trials in patients across through the U.S. medical community, hepatitis C, as well as PrEP™, which diffe ent demographics and varying though, requests for remdesivir poured in. reduces the risk of sexually acquired HIV- symptoms: those in critical condition (on It was suddenly “all hands on deck” 1 infection in adults and adolescents. ventilators); patients in severe condition,
18 SUMMER 2020 | Notebook
Notebook.indd 18 5/6/20 2:39 PM Susan Guillet ’94 is director of clinical operations oncology at Gilead Sciences, Inc., the biotech that developed remdesivir, the fi st drug to show a “clear-cut effect” in treating COVID-19.
who need oxygen support; and patients designed to interfere with an enzyme “You hear a lot of negative stuff who are in moderate condition.” the virus uses to copy its RNA genome, about pharmaceutical companies, but I Guillet’s team works in six-hour rendering the coronavirus unable to take it with a grain of salt. The primary shifts p ocessing individual requests for infect other cells. reason people work at Gilead is to help compassionate use of remdesivir, then The global pandemic blew Guillet patients. To see that a drug is benefi ing return to their routine responsibilities into the eye of the hurricane. She patients makes you want to go to work of managing oncology trials, which majored in government and never every day.” still need to proceed within specifie dreamed she’d end up in the field of Gilead CEO O’Day has pledged to timelines. science, describing herself as a “typical donate 1.5 million vials of remdesivir— It’s a pandemic. People at Gilead liberal arts student.” But project- “the entirety of our supply through the are working on weekends, seven days a managing oncology trials prepared her early summer”—for use in clinical trials, week. “Our chairman and CEO [Daniel to handle the pressure of the pandemic, compassionate use cases and beyond. O’Day] has been on the phone rou- because patients typically only enroll Meanwhile, clinical trials for tinely with the White House and with in clinical trials when very ill and remdesivir continue. Gilead is the FDA and other regulatory agencies established treatment protocols have investigating ways to make the drug around the world,” Guillet said. failed them. more convenient for patients, including That work has paid off. “I’ve run many clinical trials that forms that are injectable under the In a randomized controlled trial over- don’t work. Sometimes my team gets skin or inhaled. This development is seen by NIAID, patients on remdesivir down if a trial doesn’t hit the primary in its infancy. More trials are needed had a 31 percent faster time to recovery end point. They take it personally, like to test patients with less severe cases than those on a placebo. The NIAID they let down the patients. But positive of COVID-19. And remdesivir is study was composed of 1,063 patients or negative, you are still finding out also being tested in conjunction with who were hospitalized with advanced answers to important scientific ques ions. other drug combinations, such as anti COVID-19 and lung involvement. “Is a drug safe or not? Does it work?” inflamma ories. “Specifically, the median ime to Guillet said. While the drug did decrease, as recovery was 11 days for patients treated The urgency of this moment is Dr. Fauci noted, recovery time by 31 with remdesivir compared with 15 days diffe ent, as the global death rate from percent, the drug did not significantly for those who received placebo,” the COVID-19 continues to rise. reduce fatality rates. study showed. Guillet has read some of the It’s no silver bullet. Dr. Fauci told reporters, “Although “heartbreaking” correspondence her However, the Food and Drug a 31 percent improvement doesn’t seem company has received, pleading for Administration, under its emergency like a knockout 100 percent, it is a very remdesivir. She has, like all of us, seen use provision, recently authorized the important proof of concept, because the brutal images of field hospitals and use of remdesivir to treat seriously what it has proven is that a drug can refrigeration trucks parked outside ill COVID-19 patients. The F.D.A. block this virus.” hospitals to store the overfl w of the approval is only temporary. Remdesivir works by blocking the dead. She’s proud that her company is in The medical community, though, virus’s ability to replicate. The drug is the thick of the fight o defeat this virus. is cautiously optimistic.
SUMMER 2020 | Notebook 19
Notebook.indd 19 5/6/20 2:39 PM WATER
20 FALL 2018 | The State of Health Care
Water Final.indd 20 5/6/20 2:47 PM
FALL 2019 | Not Just For Kids 21
Water Final.indd 21 5/6/20 2:47 PM Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient Emily Hazelwood ’11 talks to fellow ocean explorer Fabien Cousteau—the eldest grandson of Jacques Cousteau—about collaborating with those who seek to preserve the world for the sustenance it brings to humankind, and those who draw from it the resources we inevitably demand.
come from a family of scuba divers who from a young age and ecological implications of repurposing offsho e oil and gas supported my passion and curiosity for the sea, encouraging platforms into artificial eefs. There are thousands of offsho e me to get scuba certified y the age of 12. As I grew older, platforms found in almost every ocean around the world, and it Ithat passion evolved into academic curiosity, through my is estimated that many will be decommissioned, or completely studies at Connecticut College, and eventually led to my first removed, in the next 10 years. Completely removing an job, working as an environmental field echnician in the Gulf offsho e oil and gas platform is both costly and environmentally of Mexico following the events of the 2010 British Petroleum taxing, especially when you consider the marine ecosystems oil spill. The spill covered over 1,300 miles of the Gulf Coast colonizing these structures, some of which, such as those found in oil and threatened not only the physical, economic and in California, are noted to be among the most productive food security of the Gulf’s communities, but also resources for marine habitats on the planet. This experience opened my eyes businesses worldwide. Never had I so acutely bore witness to to the global potential for this concept and helped me realize the devastating impacts of humankind on our oceans, and this that while not every offsho e platform is a good candidate experience would go on to shape my career path. for a reef, many are, and there is a need for alternative However, my time spent in the Gulf of Mexico also decommissioning options in the offsho e oil and gas industry. enlightened me to humankind’s capacity for creativity and To address this need, in 2015 I co-founded Blue Latitudes hope. It’s where I first le rned about the Rigs to Reefs (RtR) LLC, a certified women-owned marine environmental program, where retired oil platforms are repurposed and given consulting firm. new life as artificial eefs, and where I began to think diffe ently Our vision at Blue Latitudes is to unite science, policy, about ocean conservation. The RtR concept fascinated me; and communications to develop sustainable, creative and how could a structure capable of such intense environmental cost-effec ive solutions to manage the environmental issues degradation also be capable of supporting marine life in a that surround the offsho e energy industry. Today, we work positive way? with government and industry around the world to develop To dive into this question, both literally and figu atively, RtR strategies and, using remotely operated vehicles, we dive I completed a master’s degree at Scripps Institution of into the deepest depths of the ocean to evaluate the marine Oceanography in California, investigating the social, economic, ecosystems found on deep offsho e energy structures.
22 SUMMER 2020 | Water much, much closer than we realize.
VIRTUAL REALITY, or “VR” as it’s commonly known, is one of several emerging technologies that could figu atively and literally disrupt the world as we know Water Final.indd 22 5/6/20 2:47 PM Over the last century, cumulative anthropogenic action has ocean conservation practices to find ways to use our oceans triggered a cascade of environmental problems, threatening the without using them up. In broadening that dialogue, I’ve been ability of our natural systems, and particularly our oceans, to affo ded the opportunity to meet other ocean scientists and flourish. During this ime, our oceans have served as a crucial enthusiasts who have left me feeling truly inspi ed—one such buffe against global warming, soaking up about one-quarter individual is Fabien Cousteau. of the carbon dioxide emitted from our factories, power plants, and cars, and absorbing more than 90% of the excess heat PERSPECTIVES FROM A COUSTEAU trapped on Earth by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse Fabien knows a thing or two about the current state of our gases. However, the ocean’s ability to absorb is also its greatest oceans. He’s an aquanaut, third-generation ocean explorer, downfall, causing changes in water temperature, which leads to filmmake and ocean conservationist, and once spent 31 days changes in oceanic circulation and chemistry, rising sea levels, living underwater at the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory during increased storm intensity, as well as changes in the diversity Mission 31, in 2014. He also happens to be the eldest grandson and abundance of marine species. of Jacques Cousteau, famed ocean explorer and co-inventor of Our oceans are in danger. Climate change weakens the the Aqua-Lung (the predecessor to modern scuba equipment) ability of the ocean to provide critical ecosystem services such and the first unde water camera housing. as food, carbon storage, oxygen generation, as well as to support Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Fabien and nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation. The discuss some of the greatest challenges facing our oceans today. sustainable management, conservation and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems will be critical to ensure the continued Emily Hazelwood: One of your greatest accomplishments provision of the ecosystem services on which we depend. was the work you did in the Florida Keys at the Aquarius Solving the environmental problems associated with climate Undersea Laboratory during Mission 31, spending 31 days change, I believe, will be one of society’s greatest challenges. living underwater. This mission followed in the footsteps of Recognizing the human demand for ocean resources, your grandfather who, 50 years earlier, spent 30 days living at in 2018 we launched the Blue Latitudes Foundation, a the bottom of the Red Sea. What did you find o be of greatest 501(c)(3) nonprofit, o broaden the dialogue on traditional value from this experience, both personally and for the world?
SUMMER 2020 | Water 23
Water Final.indd 23 5/6/20 2:48 PM Water Final.indd 24 5/6/20 2:48 PM OVER THE LAST CENTURY, CUMULATIVE ANTHROPOGENIC ACTION HAS TRIGGERED A CASCADE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THREATENING THE ABILITY OF OUR NATURAL SYSTEMS, AND PARTICULARLY OUR OCEANS, TO FLOURISH.
Water Final.indd 25 5/6/20 2:48 PM Fabien Cousteau: The objective of Mission 31 was to bring careers, but nothing satisfied me, m de me sleep better at night attention to underwater research stations, akin to the International and wake up ready to do it all over again, like ocean exploration Space Station and Mars colonization. We have one of the most and filmmaking. I am fo ever grateful to my family for opening amazing alien worlds right here at our feet and yet we have barely my eyes to this amazing, alien world. scratched the surface of its exploration. During Mission 31, we highlighted the fact that we were able to do over three years’ Emily: If your grandfather were alive today, what would he think worth of scientific esearch in 31 days. about the state of our oceans? But what I thought was really exciting was that for the first time in my career I was able to have Wi-Fi underwater 24/7, Fabien: He wouldn’t be surprised. In addition to spawning the enabling my team and me to connect with over a hundred public’s awareness of what lay beneath the ocean’s blue veneer, thousand students in classrooms from all seven continents, my grandfather was also talking about climate change, pollution including Antarctica. and the overconsumption of natural resources as early as the 1950s and ’60s. I think that he would be sad and depressed, but Emily: Was your career in the ocean sciences inspired by your he also believed deeply in the human spirit. He would say, “If we grandfather Jacques Cousteau? were only logical creatures, the future would look bleak and deep, but we are more than logical; we have feeling; we have hope.” Fabien: As the eldest grandchild I had the chance to spend several decades going on expeditions with my grandfather, Emily: What do you believe is the greatest threat facing our grandmother and the team of Calypso [a British minesweeper oceans today? that was converted into an oceanographic research ship by Jacques Cousteau and his team]. We were able to travel to parts Fabien: The single biggest threat facing our oceans is human of the world that, back then, very few people had ever been to. beings. But at the same time, some of those human beings are It was a huge blessing and has served as the foundation for the rolling up their sleeves and finding inn vative ways to address person I am today. Like most kids growing up, I looked at other some of the problems they are faced with, whether that be plastic
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Water Final.indd 26 5/6/20 2:48 PM THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS WILL BE CRITICAL TO ENSURE THE CONTINUED PROVISION OF THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ON WHICH WE DEPEND.
pollution, climate change, or the depletion of natural resources, to share my experiences with people who are inquisitive and such as fisheries. Th y’re finding ways to counterbalance their curious and have that drive to learn more and want to be a part impact and not only make a living but have a more harmonious of the solution. relationship with the life-support system that our planet provides. My nonprofit, the Ocean Learning Center, is an excellent engagement platform and educational tool for this type of Emily: If people could do just one thing to help secure the future experiential learning. We have programs such as women of our oceans, what would it be? empowerment through sea turtle restoration in Nicaragua, beach cleanups throughout the United States, eelgrass and mangrove Fabien: Look back to make decisions forward. As soon as plantings, and coral restoration using 3D printing. By giving local we started saying, “You can throw that away,” that was our communities opportunities to be actionable and involved, all of a downfall. There is no such thing as “away;” this is a closed- sudden you have advocates, you have people thinking about the loop system, and there is no such thing as waste in nature. natural world and people understanding the connection between We must look at what we do in our daily lives and curtail that human beings and something as alien as a coral reef. consumption rate, even if it’s just as simple as adopting the four R’s: refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle. Emily: Is there hope for the future of our oceans?
Emily: You have had a career in the marine sciences for decades; Fabien: One of our greatest assets and motivators is hope; if you what continues to drive you? lose hope you lose everything. When people are pressed to a task and they are motivated to do something, they can create miracles Fabien: It’s very easy to lose hope, given the changing oceans in a short amount of time, and that is the sense of hope that I and the changing environment. It’s very easy to get depressed, think we all need to have. You are a veteran yourself, and I thank to get overwhelmed, and want to throw up your arms and quit. you for all that you are doing, because you are a changemaker It’s difficult because muc of our species is still so disconnected and you’re motivating people to look up to you and hopefully from nature. But what drives me is very simple, it’s being able find inn vative solutions within their own circles.
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Water Final.indd 27 5/6/20 2:49 PM FIRE
28 FALL 2018 | The State of Health Care
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FALL 2019 | Not Just For Kids 29
Fire Final.indd 29 5/6/20 2:52 PM The fi es raging through the Amazon rainforest in 2019 were visible from satellites traveling through outer space. The slashing and burning of the planet’s largest terrestrial carbon sink clears land for growing soy, grazing livestock, logging and mining. Varun Swamy ’01 writes that the Brazil nut tree offers an economic alternative to the devastation caused by deforestation.
ven in a forest full of behemoths, the Brazil nut tree Bertholettia seeds were sown and their seedlings tended to by (Bertholletia excelsa) stands out. A statuesque beauty with native Amazonians from centuries past, which would make an almost perfectly cylindrical trunk that can exceed it humankind’s most gigantic crop plant. Therein lies my E10 feet in girth, its massive crown towers over the Amazon fascination with this extraordinary tree, as well as my effo ts rainforest canopy, rising 200 feet above the forest floor. over the past few years to better understand its reproductive Within that crown, which can surpass 80 feet in breadth, the ecology. It is a compelling notion that one of the keys to the Brazil nut tree patiently nurtures a truly exceptional fruit—a survival and perpetuation of the Amazon rainforest beyond the wooden cannonball that weighs up to fi e pounds and takes 21st century is rooted in the effo ts invested by preindustrial more than a calendar year to mature. native humans fi e centuries ago. In a good year, the largest nut trees can produce over a thousand cannonballs, or “cocos,” as they are referred to locally. PREHISTORIC GARDEN When they are ripe, their sheer weight brings them crashing to The concept of the Amazon rainforest as a “prehistoric the forest floor. Only two species of extant animals can break garden,” whose flo al composition and diversity has been open the nearly half-inch-thick woody armor to access the extensively influenced y pre-Hispanic humans, remains nutritious treasures inside. One is the agouti, a tailless native highly controversial. However, this much is indisputable: Amazonian rodent with a penchant for gnawing through the In the present day, a 300,000-square-kilometer area (close hardest of nutshells to make its living. The other is a bipedal to twice the size of New England) of the Amazon basin is mammal who has played a major role in shaping the abundance densely populated with Brazil nut trees, forming the backbone and distribution of the Brazil nut tree across a vast lowland of a sustainable, extraction-based economy that supports the Amazon rainforest landscape, stretching from southeastern Peru livelihood of more than 250,000 inhabitants of the region. across a wide swatch of the Bolivian lowlands, all the way to the Regardless of the “naturalness” of their present-day density, the eastern frontiers of the Amazon basin in the Brazilian state of Brazil nut tree (“castaña” in Spanish), has supported a regional Pará. Those bipedal mammals: Human beings. economy spanning across three countries for over a century. An increasing volume of evidence from ecological and In Peru’s Madre de Dios region alone, which generates about anthropological research over the past decade suggests that 10 percent of the overall Brazil nut harvest (Brazil contributes
30 SUMMER 2020 | Fire much, much closer than we realize.
VIRTUAL REALITY, or “VR” as it’s commonly known, is one of several emerging technologies that could figu atively and literally disrupt the world as we know Fire Final.indd 30 5/6/20 2:04 PM 20 percent and Bolivia about 70 percent), the total annual Cattle ranching is even worse, converting a highly efficien value of the resulting economic activity is estimated at $8 carbon sink into a landscape littered with hoofed, methane- million; more than 30,000 people are involved in the collection, belching machines. But the starkest contrast, and by far the transport and shelling of the nut, which comprises more than most destructive alternate land use in the region, is gold mining. two-thirds of their annual income. Over the past 30 years, the Madre de Dios region has lost Year a er year, decade a er decade, thousands of centuries- more than a quarter of a million acres (a third of Rhode Island) old trees across a vast landscape form the cornerstone of a to mostly illegal, unmonitored and unregulated gold-mining genuinely sustainable economy. The castaña harvest creates operations. as close to zero ecological impact as it can get—trees within The word “lost” takes on a profound connotation here. an extractive reserve are accessed by narrow foot trails, cocos When viewed from high-resolution overflight or satellite are split open on site with a skillfully wielded machete, and the images (or from an airplane window on a commercial flight), shell-on nuts (seeds, to be botanically precise) are stuffed in o vast swaths of recently mined rainforest look like they have large sacks, or “barricas,” weighing up to 150 pounds. These been subjected to an intense cluster-bombing campaign. It is sacks are manually hauled to the nearest riverbank, where they a hellish, apocalyptic landscape—Sahara-esque sand dunes are loaded into boats that transport them to processing plants pockmarked with pits of green-tinged stagnant water, the result in the region’s urban hub. At these plants, an army of castaña of razing the rainforest and literally washing the underlying “peladores,” or nut peelers (mostly women), skillfully crack soil to extract fle ks of gold dust. From a macro perspective, open nut a er nut all day long using a simple mechanical press. it is a lucrative activity, with hundreds of millions of dollars’ When viewed against the alternative land uses in the worth of Peruvian alluvial gold produced annually. However, Peruvian Amazon, the contrast is stark. The entire castaña the ecological and socioeconomic costs are steep; mercury harvest does not require a single tree to be cut down, and it poisoning, violent crime, extortion, prostitution and human keeps intact the forest ecosystem’s intricate ecological functions tra king are byproducts of this flag ant ecological genocide, and incredibly high biodiversity. Conventional agriculture, on or ecocide. the other hand, destroys all of that, replacing thousands of tree I believe that a regional economy centered on the harvest of species with a single crop plant that rapidly depletes the soil. castaña trees is an integral element of a long-term sustainable
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Fire Final.indd 31 5/6/20 2:04 PM future of the corner of the Amazon rainforest where I have required to impede a plague of agricultural pests that thrive in worked and lived over the past 15 years. The challenges are a monoculture. formidable, but the potential is enormous. Castaña nuts, on the other hand, require just solar energy. At present, almost 100 percent of castañas depart the Castaña trees “create” rain by returning groundwater “back” to Madre de Dios region of Peru as shelled nuts, without any the atmosphere (a process known as evapotranspiration), while further value addition. By the time they arrive at a shelf in a capturing large volumes of carbon dioxide and sequestering Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s store, they have passed through it in their living biomass. And they do all of this surrounded multiple intermediaries and have been marked up to as much by a dazzling diversity of tree species that together harbor an as 10 times their wholesale price in Madre de Dios. Instituting even more staggering variety of life-forms: mammals, reptiles, a fair-trade type of certifica ion similar to successful ongoing amphibians, birds, arthropods, fungi and epiphytic plants. schemes for coffee and cac o would ensure that Amazon-based Castaña nuts are loaded with health benefits, containing an castaña collectors and processors receive a much larger portion optimal combination of healthful fats, protein and fiber. Th y of the overall profits. The e is also great potential for derived are also an excellent source of selenium, whose antioxidant products such as castaña oil, butter and milk, which could be properties have been linked with thyroid health, lowering blood directly positioned against similar products from another nut, sugar and LDL cholesterol, and improving cognitive function. the almond. The contrast between the sustainability of the castaña THE FUTURE—IN A NUTSHELL and the almond could not be greater: Almond trees grow Over the past fi e years, I have been part of a collaborative in a vast monoculture that requires shockingly large inputs effo t that combines the innovative use of minidrones and of scarce irrigation water in California’s parched Central online citizen science to remotely monitor and collect data that Valley. It works out to as much as nine gallons of water per will improve our understanding of the biological rhythms and almond. Furthermore, almond trees require a veritable army life cycles of Amazon rainforest trees, and will help manage of migratory beekeepers tending to billions of bees to pollinate and protect these invaluable rainforest ecosystems in the long their fl wers each year. Millions of the same bees are killed term. We called this effo t Community Aerobotany, which each year by the widespread spraying of toxic pesticides is supported by a visionary Peruvian ecotourism company,
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Fire Final.indd 32 5/6/20 2:04 PM WE MUST USE THE PERENNIAL GIFTS OF THE RAINFOREST TO ENSURE THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS CONTINUE TO REAP THE BENEFITS OF THIS MAGNIFICENT ECOSYSTEM.
Rainforest Expeditions, and the pioneering online citizen- and economics of the harvest. We are also interested in exploring science platform Zooniverse. the potential impacts of global warming and climate change on The concept is simple: A minidrone is sent out on the health and reproductive ecology of these trees in the near programmed flight paths over the rainforest canopy, stopping and longer-term future. None of this was even conceivable 10 over focal castaña trees to capture high-resolution images of years ago, and here we are now, conducting ecological research their crowns. These images are uploaded to the project’s site on in collaboration with thousands of citizens across the world, Zooniverse, where a simple interface allows citizen scientists using a device that costs less than a laptop computer and can be from anywhere in the world equipped with a smartphone, tablet purchased at your neighborhood Best Buy. or computer and an internet connection to view and interact The future of the Amazon, I believe, is literally in a with these images. Following simple instructions, they explore nutshell—part of it, at least. The sustainable extraction of the images and register data that tells us how and what each focal castaña nuts is a textbook example of one of the basic tenets of tree is doing—does it look healthy, has it suffe ed damage, is it financial asset managemen : Keep the principal intact, and live shedding old leaves, growing new leaves, fl wering, fruiting, etc. off the in erest. We must use the perennial gifts of the rainforest, The images are of such high resolution that users can even and learn from the labor of Amazonian natives past, to ensure count the number of cocos visible on tree crowns and record that future generations continue to reap the benefits of this them with mouse clicks (or finge stabs on a touch screen). magnificent ecosys em. On the back end of these effo ts, we receive rows of data that summarize the observations of each citizen-scientist volunteer, Varun Swamy ’01 has spent the past 17 years conducting and which are aggregated into a rapidly growing database. Over a collaborating on research that examines the ecology of Amazon sufficient period without actually setting foot in the forest, we rainforests, the role of plant-animal interactions in maintaining will develop a much better understanding of the life cycles and biodiversity, and the cascading impacts of human disturbances on ecological rhythms of castaña trees. the present and future of these ecosystems. He holds a research fellow We will use this data to predict the production of castaña position at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research trees across a region a few months ahead of the annual harvest, and resides in the urban Amazonian jungle of Puerto Maldonado, which will greatly benefit castañeros” in planning the logistics Peru, with his wife and dog. [email protected]
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Fire Final.indd 33 5/6/20 2:05 PM Kevin Pogue Kevin
34 FALL 2018 | The State of Health Care
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Air.indd 35 5/6/20 2:59 PM Renewable energy drives economic prosperity and reduces our environmental footprint, says Michael Conti ’06, vice president of Goldman Sachs’ Renewable Power Group.
BY DOUG DANIELS
s the altimeter approaches 13,500 feet, the skydivers are projects in developing countries like Zambia, where residents deep in concentration. are provided with efficient, vironmentally friendly cookstoves. Then it’s time. The group jumps, hurtling back to Programs like this produce a positive ripple effect with a social A Earth, fortified y a unique blend of skill, experience, science impact that extends beyond eco-responsibility in ways that and some level of faith as they grab hold and ride gravity’s seem unrelated. For example, these stoves dramatically reduce unforgiving wave until, with a perfectly timed tug of the rip the time people need to spend gathering wood for cooking fuel, cord, their parachutes open wide. which leads to more time for kids to go to school. Michael Conti ’06 has jumped out of more than 1,200 planes over the past decade. The clear blue skies are his favorite CONTI FIRST LEARNED about carbon offset ini iatives playground. while he was at Conn. The College was an early adopter of such As an equally passionate environmentalist and leader in the policies at a time when most institutions weren’t even really clean energy industry, Conti has applied his vast knowledge aware of them. of renewable power to not only pursue a career path aimed at A few short years ago, the notion that a prominent financial disrupting the energy space, but to also help make skydiving as services organization would demonstrate such an aggressive green as possible. commitment to renewable energy development might have In 2018 Conti was hired as a vice president in Goldman struck some people unfamiliar with the favorable economics of Sachs’ Renewable Power Group, an independent entity within the sector as surprising, but Goldman actually began exploring the firm that i vests primarily in distributed generation solar sustainable finance elatively early. And in recent years, the power projects—a piece of Goldman’s ambitious $750 billion financial viability of solar, in particular, has continued to commitment to sustainable finance and echnologies that demonstrate an undeniable momentum. don’t produce the carbon emissions and pollution directly “There have certainly been some major advancements over tied to warming temperatures and extreme weather events. the past 10 to 15 years in terms of renewable energy technology Prior to joining Goldman, Conti created an offset p ogram for and public policy,” Conti says. “What’s important to recognize Transformation Carbon to help the skydiving community offset is that the unsubsidized economics of both solar and wind power its carbon footprint while also assisting underserved populations generation have been gradually, but predictably improving to around the world. the point where they have either achieved or are very quickly The initiative gives skydivers the opportunity to approaching grid parity in major power markets all over the simultaneously make their activities carbon neutral and support globe, meaning that the technology and the business around it
36 SUMMER 2020 | Air much, much closer than we realize.
VIRTUAL REALITY, or “VR” as it’s commonly known, is one of several emerging technologies that could figu atively and literally disrupt the world as we know Air.indd 36 5/6/20 2:59 PM stands on its own two feet without government subsidies, which for profit and economic g owth—characteristics that can is impressive, considering every other energy sector in the U.S. sometimes seem mutually exclusive in some industries. receives various forms of permanent subsidization.” “I was attracted to the prospect of making a good living That transformation accelerated dramatically over the past while also doing good for the world,” Conti says. “While I decade, and the data explains why smart investors are banking was at Conn it became apparent to me that these technologies on the future of clean energy with confidence. and the industry that would form around them would be one In the past 10 years, three major sources of alternative energy of the larger drivers of job growth, one of the larger drivers of have become far more affo dable as a result of technological investment and infrastructure development for the foreseeable advances, improved manufacturing and installation efficiencies future, and I wanted to be a part of that. I even spent my final public policies that incentivize development, and greater access to two years at the College writing a thesis about the clean energy new renewable resource environments like offsho e wind farms. market that I saw developing.” Since 2010, the costs of solar power and large batteries have A er graduation, Conti pursued jobs in the renewables dropped by 85%, while wind power has become 50% cheaper. field, despi e the industry being still in its formative stages, Conti says he believes the trend will only continue. and landed a position as a researcher in New York with New “Once you see the data, it becomes pretty obvious why Energy Finance (NEF), which offers news, m rket forecasts large institutional and infrastructure investors, as well as and investment analysis involving green energy. Conti and his entrenched oil companies and other industries and organizations, colleagues grew the tiny operation into the premier source for would want to invest in this space, and why so many major industry information, and NEF was purchased by Bloomberg in corporations and universities are buying clean power,” Conti 2010. It is now referred to as BNEF. says, pointing out that nearly 20 GW of clean energy contracts “What was unusual about that job, and why I feel so lucky, were negotiated last year by more than 100 corporations in 23 is that it was a company that gave young, motivated people an countries across the globe. incredible platform to become experts on emerging technologies, investment trends and policy, which has served me well,” he says. AT CONN, Conti majored in economics and minored in A er four years with New Energy Finance, Conti began to government, but his specific c reer ambitions in clean energy feel a growing sense that he wanted to be on the business side of were born out of an environmental science course he took the industry, right in the middle of the dealmaking, not simply his second year that sparked a new passion for an industry he writing and talking about it. But, recognizing that he needed believed would affect positive change and showed clear potential to expand his skill set and experience before embarking on
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Air.indd 37 5/6/20 3:00 PM Air.indd 38 5/6/20 3:00 PM Air.indd 39 5/6/20 3:00 PM that new path, he decided to attend the International Energy To generate roo op solar customer leads for regional solar Financing Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of installers, Conti and his partner developed proprietary mobile International and Public Affairs o prepare him for the project soft are that high school and college students could use on their development and investment side of the renewables landscape. cell phones to locate and educate prospective solar customers “I needed to become more well-rounded as an energy all over the country in their individual communities. The model professional by expanding my personal knowledge base beyond was the type of approach more typically found in political renewable energy to include everything about energy markets, campaigns and grassroots advocacy groups, but unusual, if not including oil and gas markets, electricity, and transportation,” says unheard of in the business world at the time. Conti. “I knew that if I was ever going to be successful in helping “The idea behind it was that any student who wanted to advance the commercialization of clean energy technology, I to affect local change y educating homeowners about the first needed o be an expert on much more than just the segment of economic benefits of going solar could do so with the aid of our the industry that I cared about the most,” he adds. app, which was essentially a scaled-down financial model that Reluctant to pause the professional momentum he’d built produced educational material for the homeowner in an easy, up over the previous four years while he returned to school, opt-in way to contact a local solar installer through our vetted he was able to venture into the policy realm, co-authoring network across the country,” Conti explains. Congressional testimonies on domestic energy policy, and In 2014, SolarList was named Best Clean Web App at he regularly dra ed industry white papers and created the NYC Big Apps competition, which included a $20,000 presentations with the American Council on Renewable Energy prize, presented to them by none other than former New and the Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance. York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ultimately, Conti says that And while this experience exposed Conti to a wide variety of despite some recognition as an innovative concept, SolarList sectors within the clean energy business, from solar, wind and was a bit ahead of its time, predating the community solar batteries to more niche areas like waste energy and bioenergy, by programs that are now one of the primary drivers of solar 2013, he was increasingly focused on solar. development across the country. This would have propelled the business to success. ATTRACTED ONCE AGAIN to the lure of a startup, Aside from having a talent for finance, eme ging energy Conti, along with a friend and former co-worker, co-founded technologies and environmental policy, Conti’s ability to SolarList, which aimed to address one of the biggest challenges build relationships within the industry has been critical at in the residential solar market: reaching new potential customers. every stage of his career, as he’s relied on a network of former
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Air.indd 40 5/6/20 3:00 PM INDUSTRY LEADERS BELIEVE SEVERAL U.S. STATES COULD BE POWERED BY 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY BY 2040 OR 2050, AND MANY STATES HAVE ALREADY SET 100% TARGETS.
co-workers, bosses and friends who have proven to be valuable data and science firms like Goldman re using to guide their collaborators time and again. investments can trigger heated partisan debate. While Conti is incredibly optimistic about the future of “I believe it’s unfortunate for several reasons that the federal solar and other renewables, he believes that the structure of government hasn’t been as supportive of renewable energy government policy at the federal level and other factors can hold during the past few years,” Conti laments. “Because when you the potential to create some instability in the market. One aspect look at where a lot of the renewable energy potential is across of the industry he identified as cri ical is for energy storage the country, there are a tremendous number of existing well- technology to advance as renewable power growth continues, paying jobs, as well as new jobs, that can be created in both red particularly with solar and wind, which generate power and blue states, and the political polarization is just making the intermittently. United States a less competitive player in the global market.” “You are starting to see in certain markets that the inter- The consensus among the experts is that Conti is right about mittency, and the non-dispatch-ability of wind and solar are that potential. Industry leaders believe several U.S. states could causing some interesting challenges for grid operators, and be powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2040 or 2050, it’s causing some power markets to act in an interesting way,” and many states have already set 100 percent targets. Conti says. “In California, for example, a tremendous amount Environmentalists and climate change activists believe we are of solar energy comes online fairly predictably and then goes rapidly approaching a critical point of no return that will require away. But it’s not necessarily timed with consumption, which drastic policies if we hope to reduce carbon emissions and begin can result in some funky pricing signals.” reversing the warming of the planet. Conti believes that the continued investment and deployment THE POLITICAL vicissitudes of a nation that swings of clean energy is inevitable because of simple market forces that from one end of the ideological pendulum to the other every will flip the script and make ene gy sources such as coal obsolete few years can make it tricky and frustrating for companies and no longer cost-effec ive. that are either investing in or developing projects like “The technology is here to stay, and the demand is there, so solar farms. while the policy landscape may be rocky for renewable energy Unlike many other industrialized countries, some of which at the moment, there's still a tremendous amount of momentum serve as our economic competitors, the United States doesn’t behind the industry, and large swaths of capital will continue to have a centralized energy policy. And in an increasingly move into these assets,” Conti predicts, adding, “We at Goldman polarized political climate, the very discussion of the types of are an unmistakable example of that.”
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Air.indd 41 5/6/20 3:01 PM 42 FALL 2018 | The State of Health Care
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FALL 2019 | Not Just For Kids 43
Earth2.indd 43 5/6/20 2:02 PM Ethan Brown ’94 disrupts the agricultural and food industry selling plant-based alternatives that taste—and look—like meat.
BY DOUG DANIELS
hen the hamburger was invented by the owners of Humans and their more primitive ancestors have been eating a tiny lunch wagon in New Haven, Connecticut, in animal protein for a couple of million years, and it has played 1900, it’s fair to assume that spectrometers and elec- a huge role not just in our evolutionary biology and brain Wtron microscopes weren’t part of the culinary creative process. development, but also in cultural and social constructs. From But if you visit the southern California research facility a marketing perspective, challenging such a deeply ingrained of Beyond Meat, the plant-based meat company founded in history required much more of consumers than asking them 2009 by Ethan Brown ’94, you’ll find those modern scien ific to switch to a new brand of coffee or adopt a new form of instruments being employed in an attempt to perfect the taste technology. The only way to get meat eaters to give vegan meat and texture of a hamburger made from pea and other plant a try, Brown believes, is to replicate meat on a molecular level, protein that is indistinguishable from a regular beef patty. not to offe a vegetarian substitute like a tofu burger. Beyond Meat’s products, particularly its signature Beyond “We’re hardwired to enjoy meat,” Brown explained to The Burger, are sweeping the alternative-meat market and helping Los Angeles Times in January. “So creating a veggie hot dog to disrupt a traditional, animal-based meat industry worth that nobody likes doesn’t do any good if they won’t eat it. We $1.4 trillion globally. have to create actual meat from plants so there’s no sacrifice and Last year, Beyond Meat became the toast of Wall Street no tradeoff fo people who love meat.” when it blasted onto the scene with the best first-d y initial Brown himself wasn’t always a vegan. He grew up loving public offering a majo American company had seen in nearly meat and fast-food burger chains. But he also had a deep love 20 years. The stock started trading at $46 a share on the Nasdaq for animals, bolstered by the dairy farm his father maintained and soared 163% by the end of the day to $65.75 a share, as a hobby when Brown was a kid. By the time Brown was jumping another 4% a er hours. This blockbuster opening in his late 20s and working in the hydrogen fuel cell industry turned Brown, Beyond Meat’s founder and CEO, into an to help address climate change, he was no longer eating overnight business celebrity and arguably one of his generation’s animals, and he had a seed of an idea that would lead to most iconic environmental and animal rights advocates. Beyond Meat years later: he wanted to create a plant-based But founding the company, which enjoys the backing of McDonald’s. prominent investors that range from Bill Gates to Leonardo Brown continued to successfully climb the corporate ladder DiCaprio, involved a grueling path of risk, doubt, trials and within the green power sector for another seven or eight years, tribulations. starting a small side business that involved importing textured
44 SUMMER 2020 | Earth much, much closer than we realize.
VIRTUAL REALITY, or “VR” as it’s commonly known, is one of several emerging technologies that could figu atively and literally disrupt the world as we know Earth2.indd 44 5/6/20 2:02 PM soybeans from Taiwan and partnering with Whole Foods to This method isn’t new, but the researchers believed if offe a very early-phase, meat-alternative product. they changed up some of the variables, like tinkering with Despite having no background in science or any food temperature and pressure, adjusting moisture levels, and training—he was a history and government double major introducing diffe ent ingredients, they could achieve a texture at Conn, and went on to receive an MBA from Columbia and consistency that mimicked chicken meat. A er a lot of University—Brown was convinced that the fundamental trial and error, they had gotten pretty close, and they wrote elements of animal muscle could be built from plant matter by about it for the scientific community. extracting and combining amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, Brown fle to Missouri, sampled the wares, and although he trace minerals and water, all of which are found in plants. As felt the synthesized meat wasn’t ready for market, he saw tremen- Brown saw it, even though this would be done in a lab, it was a dous potential. He obtained the licensing for the technology in perfectly natural process. 2010 and then collaborated with the University of Maryland to “I figu ed, animals take plant matter, run it through their do further grant-funded research to improve the product. system and produce muscle,” Brown said, explaining his Initially, he funded the company’s research with his thinking in a 2017 NPR interview. “So why can’t we take own money, some grants, and some help from family and plant matter and run it through a system in a lab to produce friends, but it wasn’t enough, and soon he was out of cash. muscle? I wanted to know who in the scientific community Determined to keep the momentum going, he sold his house, was taking protein from plants and reorganizing it into the burned through his 401K and even depleted the savings structure of muscle.” accounts he and his wife had established for his young kids. One night, a er his two young kids had gone to bed, Brown Then his fortunes took a welcomed turn. Bill Gates, among stumbled upon an academic paper on the internet written others, decided to invest in Beyond Meat, and in 2011, the by two scientists at the University of Missouri who were prominent venture capital firm Kleine Perkins, which had experimenting with textured soybeans to create chicken-like backed companies such as Google, Amazon and Uber in their meat by running it through a machine called an extruder, formative stages, invested $2 million in initial funding. By essentially a large, hybrid piece of equipment that functions as 2012, Beyond Meat was selling its first p oduct, plant-based part food processor and part pressure cooker. The machine is chicken strips, in grocery stores. also effec ive in restructuring the molecules in soybeans in a It was a remarkable turnaround for a startup that had nearly way that changes their texture. ruined Brown’s finances
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Earth2.indd 45 5/6/20 2:02 PM Earth2.indd 46 5/6/20 2:02 PM WE’RE HARDWIRED TO ENJOY MEAT. SO CREATING A VEGGIE HOT DOG THAT NOBODY LIKES DOESN’T DO ANY GOOD IF THEY WON’T EAT IT.
“This was an example of not knowing what you’re truly challenged by the influen ial meat lobby, which is pressing for capable of until your back is up against the wall, so you have to strict regulations prohibiting plant-based products from being get rid of the safety net and put yourself in that position and then labeled as meat. you’ll figu e a way out,” Brown said, adding, “I believe passion In response to the meat lobby’s derisive characterization of takes you a long way. I just wanted this more than anybody his products as “fake meat” and ultraprocessed abominations else.” concocted by mad scientists in a lab, Brown argues that Beyond Today, Beyond Meat is achieving the accessible, mainstream Meat’s detractors are simply resisting progress and will be proven market availability Brown dreamed about in his 20s. The wrong once they’re viewed through the crisp lens of history. company’s products are sold in supermarkets everywhere “The automobile is not a fake horse-drawn carriage,” and are proving extremely popular at major fast-food chains, analogized Brown. including Carl’s Jr., Dunkin’ and even McDonald’s itself. And while Brown has a grand vision for the future and wants At the same time that the company is seeing explosive to change the way the world eats, he also hasn’t lost sight of growth, the positive impact it’s having on climate change and the local communities and people who are struggling right now animal welfare is also very real. because of COVID-19. In 2018, the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable In April, Beyond Meat announced it would donate more than Systems released an assessment of Beyond’s burger patty, and a million Beyond Burgers to health care workers and others on concluded it generates 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions the front lines battling the virus, also turning restaurants in New than a comparable beef product, requires 46 percent less energy, York and Los Angeles into food distribution centers that can and achieves more than 99 percent lower impact on water use employ restaurant workers who are out of work because of the and 93 percent less impact on land use. quarantine. And as the market share of plant-based meats continues to Brown’s admittedly ambitious goal is to grow his company, grow, it will cut down on the number of animals slaughtered which made nearly $300 million in 2019, into a protein for meat (about 66 billion per year globally), animals that also behemoth that sees revenues similar to the $45 billion dollars a contribute to severe carbon emission imbalance simply through year generated by the world’s largest meat company, JBS. their exhalation of carbon dioxide. There is skepticism on Wall Street that Beyond can ever In one of the surest indications that Beyond Meat represents get that big. But for the past decade, Brown has proven his far more than a dietary trend, the company is being aggressively skeptics wrong.
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Earth2.indd 47 5/6/20 2:02 PM try to give you information. Florence Murphy rado. Not such great news: There was consid- Gorman writes that she has been “doing nothing erable damage to Ronnie’s Bermuda home from CC Magazine welcomes your noteworthy.” She still gets around with a cane, the hurricanes in September and October. Mona Class Notes and submissions. Class though with some pain in her hip. She sends best Gustafson Affin o is happy with her decision Notes for the spring issue are due wishes to all. Shirley Armstrong Meneice spends to move to a senior-living complex in Excelsior, Aug. 1, 2020. Please contact your the cold winter months at home reading, and she Minn. She has continued editing her biography class correspondent, email notes to recommends The Smart Words and Wicked Wit of of her father’s life; with the help of granddaugh- [email protected] or Winston Churchill, by Max Morris, which “pres- ter K.J. she reduced it from 700 pages to 496 and submit Class Notes online at: ents a sparkling collection of Churchill’s most en- hopes to hire an agent/publisher soon. Travel, of conncoll.edu/news/cc-magazine tertaining, incisive and verbally dexterous state- course, continues: Last August found Mona with ments.” She also enjoyed Superlative: The Biology son Doug and daughter Lisa at the John C. Camp- of Extremes, by Matthew LaPlante, “which takes bell Folk School, in Brasstown, N.C. Mona and the reader on a fascinating exploration of earth’s Doug took “Writing for the Silver Screen,” while We are sad to report the death of living outliers. The section on ‘Why Dolphins Lisa took “Hat Making.” I am sad to report that Mary-Jean Moran Johnson Hart. Don’t Kill Us (When Clearly They Should)’ was Constance (Connie) Kelley Mellen passed away She was born May 30, 1922, and died 44 particularly remarkable.” Lois (Toni) Fenton in November. A er graduation, she earned a mas- Dec. 1, 2019. She graduated from Friends Select Tuttle phoned me from her rehab facility to report ter’s degree from Trinity College and became a School, Philadelphia, Pa., and was an English ma- that she had fallen and broken her hip, had sur- teacher of classics until retiring in 1989. Connie jor at CC. Mary-Jean was married July 8, 1944, to gery, and was facing several weeks of rehab before was predeceased by her husband, Oliver, and she Lt. Wilfred U. Johnson, USCGA ’44 (accelerated returning home. She didn’t say what happened, is survived by two daughters and their husbands, war-time graduation ’43); he died July 9, 1946. but let’s send best wishes to her that she heals and three grandchildren, and one great-grandson. We Mary-Jean was then married June 19, 1948, to returns to normal soon! It is my hope that those extend sincere condolences to her family. Alfred John Hart (Gettysburg College ’43), who of you who have not responded are just too in- died June 20, 2007. Mary-Jean is survived by her volved to find time to respond; perhaps you are Correspondent: Joanne Williams Hart- three children: Timothy F. Johnson, Robert S. busy playing bridge and other games, taking exer- ley, 69 Chesterton Road, Wellesley MA Hart and E. Kevin Hart. She is also survived by cise classes, using your pools, reading good books, 02481, (781) 235-4038, cell: (617) 620- seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. 54 handcra ing, volunteering, dining and partying 9385, [email protected] Irene Ball Bar- She lived variously in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and with family and friends, and feeling very involved rack lost her son, Bill Barrack ’81 P’18, to cancer Ohio. Mary-Jean enjoyed singing with her church trying to understand the politics of our present era. at Christmas. Bill lived in Wellesley, and our fam- choirs in New Jersey and Ohio, and she was an ac- If some of you do get to Reunion, please send me a ilies are friends. Bill had a very successful career tive golfer and tennis player. She volunteered with full report, so I can include it in the next column. in commercial real estate. Small world: The bro- numerous organizations, including Head Start, the Happy news from CC: Our scholarship student, ker who sold him and Kate their Wellesley home education department of the Cleveland Orchestra, Mathieu Vigneault ’20, graduates this year. We all many years ago was Betty Smiley, Jane Smiley the Health Museum of Cleveland, the Women’s wish him continued success in the years to come! Adams’s mother! Bill was a member of CC’s Council for Hiram College, the Women’s Auxil- Board of Trustees and was very supportive of the iary of the Cincinnati Opera’s Summer Festival, Rev. Jean M. Blanning, a former school. He inherited Irene’s very lively spirit, and the Taft Museum of Art (Cincinnati) and Akron associate pastor of parish life at First Irene tells of hosting a large party, “Bill’s Bash,” Children’s Hospital. At Connecticut College she Church of Christ, U.C.C., Simsbury, at her home a er school let out each of his four was class agent, a tour guide, 1944 yearbook pho- 50 died on November 22 at her home at The McAu- years. I’ve o en enjoyed catching up with Irene in tography editor and president of the choir during ley retirement village in West Hartford, Conn. Wellesley when she came to town. The class sends her senior year. The class offers condolences to She was 91. Rev. Blanning was a 1950 graduate of condolences to Irene and her family. Last June Mary-Jean’s family. Connecticut College, a graduate of State Univer- Dick and I attended a very lovely 65th wedding sity of New York-Albany with a master’s degree anniversary party in Virginia Beach given by their Correspondent: Ann LeLievre Her- in history, and a 1954 graduate of Yale Divinity children for Kathryn Hull Easton and Peter. I’m mann, (239) 410-0668, annlher- School. She was pre-deceased by her husband, sure several classmates were married that summer [email protected] Greetings class- 45 Rev. James R. Blanning, and her daughter, Wen- of ’54, a er graduation just 65 short years ago. In mates and friends! By the time you read this, dy. She is survived by her son, William, of Corona Naples, Fla., we regularly see Kathy and Peter, we will have enjoyed our 75th reunion. What del Mar, Calif., daughter-in-law Kathleen, and along with Janice Smith Post. Jan and husband an interesting world we live in, and so much has grandchildren, Alex and his wife, Nita, of Wash- John took their two children to Basin Harbor Re- changed since our college days! Here I am in sun- ington, D.C., and Allison, of Kent, Conn. sort in N.Y. the same week every summer, and she ny Florida, while others of you are doing wintry still hosts her family there. She is delighted that things or sticking close to your home and hearth. Correspondent: Mary Beck Barrett, 23 two of her grandchildren have chosen this spe- Valentine’s Day has passed and Mardi Gras is Gables Dr., Yarmouth, ME 044096, cial site for their weddings. Nancy Blau Lasser approaching while I sit here compiling a column (207) 846-9142, [email protected] and husband John are doing well. They lived for that will be read next summer, following Reunion 51 Carol Wedum Conklin reports that she enjoys some time in South Orange, N.J., and then moved and preceding the summer political conventions receiving the CC magazine with news of our further west for several years. They now live in and Olympics XXXII. Mary Watkins Wolpert classmates. She lives in an assisted-living home in a lovely high-rise condominium in Maplewood, wrote that her news “is not the best, since Henry Edgewater, N.J. Carol’s husband, Foster, passed N.J., an hour outside NYC and with a view of the passed away in June. Lots of good years togeth- away in December 2018. Nancy Bohman Rance NYC skyline. They love their current lifestyle, er though.” Her first great-grandchild has been attended a CC luncheon at the Norton Museum conveniently living “between” their two daugh- born, “so life goes on.” Mary still enjoys the cold of Art, in West Palm Beach, Fla., which featured ters, and are enjoying four grandchildren and four weather in Colorado Springs. Patricia Feldman President Bergeron sharing her vision for the col- great-grandchildren. They used to frequently Whitestone sent a brief message with “nothing lege. An art lecture followed, along with a tour weekend in the city but now are busy and happy new to report” but an interesting request: “Could of the museum. “It was a most charming day.” where they are at this point in their lives. I talked you include a list of surviving classmates and their Ronica (Ronnie) Williams Watlington phoned to Leila Anderson Freund, who still lives in her emails?” Pat, we can’t include such a list here, but from Bermuda with exciting news of the arrival of big home in Cincinnati. A er college she went I do have a list of our 49 living classmates. If you twin great-grandsons, Adam and Wesley, born to to NYC and worked for Doubleday Publishing. write and ask me about specific classmates, I will her granddaughter, Cristiana, who lives in Colo- She met and married John and a er a few moves
48 SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 48 5/7/20 2:07 PM finally settled in Cincinnati. She lost John a few born near Loch Ness and welcomed wherever she versation to immigrants, volunteering with two years ago but fills her house during holidays and visited with Margery. Are there other ’56ers who diffe ent organizations in NYC: New York Cares, sees her four children, their spouses and her eight have service dogs? Please let me hear from you. at the 67th Street Public Library, and English in grandchildren o en, although they do not live Dogs have surged so in national importance and, Action, at Temple Emanu-El. Both groups have close by. She worked for a few years and is now in particular, dogs that serve. Please send news clients from all over the world. Gail Rubinstein active in several charities, including a CC group about you, your families, volunteering, trips, Wahl was married while a student at CC, and with which she was very involved for some time. groups, service—whatever—that you can share she completed her undergraduate degree at Finch She says that the winter of 2020 has been very with the class! College in NYC. She passed away in February. cold in the Midwest, though with little snow, and Gail and husband Milton, a physician, raised she is looking forward to a trip to Naples, Fla., for Correspondent: Elaine Diamond Ber- three children in Wilmington, Del. They owned some warm sunshine. I had a wonderful phone man, 100 Riverside Blvd., Apt. 20C, many standardbred racehorses and spent a lot of visit with Evelyn Connolly Meyers, my fresh- 57New York, NY, 10069, elainedberman@ time at Brandywine Raceway. She and Milton man roommate. She sounds energetic and hap- comcaast.net Judy Allen Summersby writes, were married for 63 years, until he passed away in py. A er college she moved to NYC, where she “Yes, I still do politics, national and local, and it 2018.We offe our deepest condolences to Gail’s worked at Bloomingdales for fi e years. She met has its great rewards … a never-ending activity. I family. Class President Jo Saidla Morse has sold and married Gil, who had two children, and then also decided to spend more time reading and writ- her Water Valley, N.H., home a er 21 years of proceeded to have seven more to happily fill her ing poetry, which is also very rewarding.” Three ownership. She plans to live in her Squam Lake life! They eventually moved to Ponte Vedra, Fla., years ago, Judy stopped tutoring second-graders home, which she and her late husband built 50 where she still lives; her three boys live in Florida and began organizing class study groups on Na- years ago. Jo recently visited a friend from first as well. She and Gil also built a home in the High- tive America. She was not surprised that 7-year- grade who now lives in Charleston, S.C. Do lands region of N.C. to get out of the heat, and she old boys would enjoy weaving. Judy and Ed have you have any ideas about programs or events for still goes there in the summer months; three of her three grandchildren: Emily, 24; Jack, 19; and our 65th reunion, which is just two years away? daughters are closer to her there. Ev had to give Murray, 4—“all very inspired and beautiful hu- Please contact Jo at [email protected]. up driving last year, and the kids promptly gave man beings.” Judy and Ed enjoy seeing son Da- her a golf cart, which she takes to a nearby strip vid and his wife, Sue, who live near their home Correspondent: Judy Ankarstran Car- mall for shopping and restaurants. You keep it up, in Cambridge, Mass., and spend time in Min- son, PO Box 5028, Edwards, CO 81632, girl! Ann Heagney Weimer called from Cape nesota visiting son Andrew. “Yes, it is true what [email protected] Thanks to Cod. She had received a lovely letter from Brooke they say of ‘Minnesota nice.’” Jeri Fluegelman Phyllis Malone we have some news! Now domi- Larsen, the daughter of Mary Lee Matheson Josephson and Buddy moved from Florida to ciled in Groton, Conn., Phyllis is taking full ad- Shanahan. Brooke wrote that Mary Lee passed Charlotte, N.C., a few years back to be near son vantage of her proximity to campus by auditing away in April 2019 in Pinehurst, N.C., a er a long Steven and his family. Jeri and Buddy’s daugh- classes, including one on Bob Dylan and another illness, and she thanked Mary Lee’s friends who ter has lived in London for many years. Their on postcolonial literature today—love the range had stayed in touch over the years. She said that London granddaughter, Kate Sullivan, gradu- of learning! She traveled to California (during Mary Lee always loved sending Christmas cards; ated from Northwestern and currently works in spring break, of course) and onward to Seattle the opportunity to connect with her friends was a Washington. Grandson Jack, also from London, is and to Victoria, B.C., by ferry. Phyllis is busy at great blessing to her, especially in later years. The a graduate of the U. of Edinburgh. Nancy Keith home with gardening, music and, with Yale Edu- class sends deepest condolences to Mary Lee’s LeFevre lives at the Country House in Wilming- cational Travel, NYC theater. She and Jean Cat- family. We also send sympathy to the family of ton, Del. Her father died there when he was 100, tanach Sziklas hope to have lunch soon, having Cynthia Fenning Rehm, who died in November having practiced law in Wilmington well into his been bad-weathered out in December. Enclosed in Worcester, Mass. 90s. Nancy Pollak Beres teaches English con- in Phyllis’s note was the New London obituary
Correspondent: Janet Ahlborn Roberts, P.O. Box 221, East Orleans, MA 02643, (508) 255-6281, [email protected] 56 • Members represent 80% of Conn’s Janet Frost Bank says that all’s well with life annual fund dollars, demonstrating their on Martha’s Vineyard, just as it is here on Cape Cod. But for those of us who are coastal, weather ongoing commitment to academic awareness prevails—the storms, the well-being of excellence and to making a difference in the sea creatures. Suzie Gerber O shared news the lives of our students of the passing of her “next-door roommate” and lifelong friend, Alison Friend Gansler, who was • 1911 Society dollars support internships, married in her junior year. Determined to gradu- financial aid, study abroad experience ate, she did so—with the class of ’57. Building a and faculty/student research family and traveling with her husband’s job even- tually led to a life near Washington, DC, where • Become a member at $2500 or more she worked as tour guide at the Kennedy Center, (tiered giving is offered to recent as a travel agent and as a teacher substitute. Ali- graduates and students) son became involved in politics when and wher- Thank you to all current ever possible: poll volunteer, membership in a 1911 Society members! local women’s Democratic club and as a longtime member of the Washington Ethical Society, sing- ing in its chorus for years. “The unexpected and For more information or to become part of the Society, please contact unpredicted are what stimulates me,” she wrote in Brittany Richard at [email protected] or visit giving.conncoll.edu the Golden Koiné. That tells it all. I tried to con- to make your leadership gift today! tact Margery Blech Passett, but learned from her daughter that Margery died in early Febru- ary. I had hoped to learn more about her visits to a nursing home with her wonderful Westie, Nessie,
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ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 49 5/7/20 1:03 PM of Elizabeth Bove, who died in December. daughter Jocie aspires to join sister Evelyn The class extends sympathy to Liz’s extend- on the championship soccer team at Venice ed family. Notably, Liz worked for Electric High. The McCreerys are pleased to have Boat for 58 years, becoming the first woman Meg and Rob closer, in Greenwich (post Ja- to pass the company’s 50-year mark. Since pan assignment). One son is setting up a mu- I’ve had occasion to write this short (ahem) sic program at a Harlem charter school, while column, I’ll note that I keep in touch with his younger brother is interested in composing roomies Kathy Gregory Hearn, in Cincin- musical theater. Gail Glidden Goodell saw nati, and Jane Maurey Sargent, in Maine, Ginger Reed Levick in California. While at both carrying on well. David and I continue her daughter’s house in Texas, Gail and her enjoying life at altitude in Colorado, near our grandson visited a ghost town and a facility two children and families. We skied several for training companion dogs. Then there was lovely days last winter and had a sybaritic a Rio Grande trip, time in Maine and New small-ship cruise in Italy in spring of 2019. Hampshire, and a river cruise through Ger- A second trip to England in the fall was many. At home, Gail does water aerobics, less successful: David in NHS hospital with book group and church activities. Your corre- pneumonia. When will we learn our limits? spondents would be thrilled if you’d surprise us with an email, letter or phone call to tell us Correspondents: Carolyn Keefe what you are up to! Oakes, 3333 Warrensville Center 59Road, Apt. 412, Shaker Heights, Correspondent: Millie Price OH 44122, (216) 752-5384, carolynoakes07@ Nygren, 1048 Bedford St., Fre- gmail.com, and Marcia Fortin Sherman, 602 60mont CA, 94539, (408) 464-2907, SUPPORT CONNECTICUT Red Maple Way, Clemson, SC 29631, (864) [email protected] Kathy Young Ellis trans- 654-1957, [email protected] ferred to George Washington U. a er her COLLEGE AND RECEIVE Ronnie Illiaschenko Antoniadis caught us sophomore year. Her husband is retired from up on her life: She followed her daughter’s the Air Force, and they live in Dayton, Ohio. INCOME BACK family to Springfield, Ohio, where she was She asks, “Does anyone know where Mag- the “oldest playmate” of granddaughters Is- gie Hammalian is now?” Renee Cappellini abelle and Sofia. The not-surprising result Slater has become a climate activist. “I’ve was their success both academically and in started a climate emergency group in my sports. Isabelle studies economics and art at local community and been on various local Union College; Sofia is in the college applica- and national actions. Watching the fi es in devoted alumna who cherishes tion process. Ronnie taught French literature California and Australia this winter has been for 10 years at Miami U. (Ohio); then was in heartbreaking. I know my own home will be the close relationships she made NYC, involved in the world of art; and finall at risk of flooding as sea levels rise. There is while a student, Marcia Matthews ’67 moved to Niantic again to be with family who a lot of denial about climate change in the decided to make a gift to Connecticut had moved there. That made it easy for her U.S., but I’m encouraged by the realism of College through a charitable gift annuity. to attend our class dinner at Reunion. Your local state and city governments in taking ac- correspondents apologize for not including tion to lower carbon emissions. The Class of “My husband and I have always been in her as an attendee in our Reunion report for ’60 lived in what now seems a golden age. I education, and feel strongly about giving the last column. Mims Matthews Munro is feel I owe so much to those coming a er and back to our schools and colleges. I like the busy in her new surroundings with lectures, that grief for what is being lost is not enough. idea that I can give this gift and still get outings, and classes. She still plays golf and We all have a part to play in mitigating the is trying pickleball. Joy Johnson Nevin and effects of climate change, facing reality and some money back during our lifetimes. her husband are at a retirement center outside not losing hope.” Carolyn McGonigle Hol- The College is also remembered in our will.” Richmond, Va. One granddaughter is a balle- leran, Judy Van Law Blakey and Missy rina with the Washington Ballet. Joy has writ- Missimer McQuiston, along with Jerry Contact Laura ten 36 articles for “Women Around Town” Holleran and Bob McQuiston, had lunch to- Immediate CGA Rates: Becker, Director of and plans to compile them into a book. Judy gether in Reading, Pa., in January. “We had Petrequin Rice lives near her daughter and a wonderful time catching up, comparing kid Gift Planning, for Age Rate family in Arizona, where she enjoys the warm and grandkid stories, sharing aching-bone your own personalized outdoors. Jean Alexander Gilcrest attended stories, and best of all, reminiscing about our 70 5.1% illustration and learn her granddaughter’s high school graduation days at Conn and what it is like today. Caro- 75 5.8% how a charitable gift in Vegas. The new U. of Nevada freshman lyn’s the most up-to-date about the status of annuity can provide dorm was unavailable, so she lives at Circus the college. She thinks the new curriculum, 80 6.9% Circus Hotel, with her own bath and maid which emphasizes job-preparedness along 85 8.0% income to you now, service! (Our freshman living arrangements with liberal arts, is outstanding. She is also a while supporting the were obviously lacking.) Jean also traveled big fan of President Katherine Bergeron. We College that you love. to Chicago and Kentucky. Anne Earnshaw decided we should get together more o en Roche and John have lived in the same house and solve all the problems of the world.” Rosemary (860) 439-2416 in Australia for 57 years and love it. Connie giftplanning@ Snelling McCreery’s family went to daugh- Correspondent: Bonnie Campbell Park ter Gigi’s Venice Beach home, newly reno- Billings-Wauters, P.O. Box 58, Society conncoll.edu vated from a cottage to a multistory house by 63Stowe VT 05672; winter address: conncoll.giftplans.org her husband. Gigi continues writing, having 1315 Winding Oaks Circle, East Unit #903, earned Emmys for her work with her writing Vero Beach, FL 32963, (802) 734-1876, partner on Wizards of Waverly Place. Grand- [email protected] Three of our classmates were
50 SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 50 5/7/20 1:03 PM and two grandchildren. In December, Diana and lives and working less.” Sally Ryan Black and Richard attended Art Basel in Miami, where their her screenwriter husband continue to live in Los daughter Claudia’s gallery, Altman Siegel, was a Angeles, “trying to make a couple of our projects participant. Cynthianna Hahn continues to be a into movies. Harder and harder but keeps us from snowbird. “I spend the warmer months in Chica- being completely retired. I’m busy with grand- go, where I have a condo with a lovely view of children and work weekly to feed the homeless Lake Michigan. In the cooler months, I live in [with] the Hollywood Food Coalition.” Lois a continuing-care community in Dallas, which I Larkey reports that she was a bar (not bat) mitz- chose because my sister and her family live near- vah with 16 other women and attended a reunion by. In March, two friends and I went to Catalonia, of Camp Navarac, where she was in a bunk years Spain, and in September, two friends and I went ago with Dana Hartman Freyer. Lois is proud to to England, Scotland and Wales. I tutored a child announce that her memoir, Looking Back, Moving
Class of ’63 at the Baker Museum event in Naples, Fla. (left to through Reading Partners in Dallas, and I am in- Forward: The View from Beyond Seventy, is now right): Joan Snyder Abelson, Eleni Tsandoulas Gillis, Jane Engel volved with the League of Women Voters in both available on Amazon and includes favorite Conn Francoeur and Nancy Schoepfer Sanders cities.” As I, Bonnie Campbell Billings, noted professors. Marge Tupling Knyper wrote in De- previously, we have also become “snowbirds,” cember from London, where she was getting a recently at CC for coincident board meetings. having moved to Vero Beach, Fla., in 2019. We new view on retirement for her and husband Len; Sally Hamilton Fenton and Martha Joynt Ku- spend summers back in Stowe, Vt. We love being they’re considering spending more time there. mar are on the Board of Trustees; Carolyn Boy- outdoors, enjoying the warmth and playing golf Elaine DeSantis Benvenuto reports that her an Raymond is on the Alumni Association Board and tennis year-round. It’s amazing how many granddaughters recently moved from Boulder, of Directors. Carolyn especially enjoyed catching people we’ve met with “small world” connections where they spent much time with Elaine, to Hol- up with and sharing memories with Sally. Bar- to the rest of our life. I have already found and land. She looks forward to her second trip to visit; bara Drexler Lockhart spent a few days with gotten together with, four of our own classmates she remains active in a book club, weight train- George and Helen Frisk Buzyna in Alpharetta, here—Aggie Cochran Underwood, Marcia ing, biking and playing mah-jongg. Joan Leb- Ga., following a week in Montgomery, Selma and Mueller Foresman, Nancy Feuerstein Mil- ow Wheeler writes that a er 42 years in Great Birmingham with a project called Compassionate sten and Sue Kellogg Grigg—and suspect that Neck, N.Y., she and her husband are packing up Listening. “I’m in Easthampton, Mass., living there are more here and nearby. I’d love to hear “too many possessions” and relocating to Chevy in an intergenerational community called Tree- from alums from our class and others, in hopes of Chase, Md. They look forward to enjoying activ- house. I have my own cottage. There are about 48 starting a CC Club in the “Treasure Coast” area. ities in DC, including kayaking on the Potomac, seniors and about 12 or so families with children Lonnie Jones Schorer notes: “We must have and living closer to their son and his family. Jen- who live in this community. The children are all missed the memo about moving south! Last year ny Bartlett Fricks and Carole McNamara Mal- ages, and most of them are either foster children Dave and I tore down our 1940’s cabin on Lake colmson went to Mexico last August and visited or have been adopted. I keep very busy playing Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and have just ancient sites from Oaxaca to Mexico City, most- the flu e in several bands and also singing with the moved north from Virginia into our new house on ly by bus. Carole discovered the ruins of Monte Young@Heart Chorus. I try to visit Connie Cross the same property. We are now New Hampshire Albán. Jenny discovered mole. They attended a every year in Maine and keep in touch with Wally residents!” Lonnie mentioned being aboard The concert in Mexico City, in which Carole’s daugh- Coates Paprocki, Susan Young and Chantal Le Nautilus in the Pacific last summer on the Samo- ter, Hazy, played the bassoon, and Jenny revisit- Houerou, who I visited last year in Paris. I missed an Clipper expedition team (you can read more ed the stunning archaeological museum that she the last reunion as I was with Young@Heart do- in the Fall 2019 issue). We are saddened to report and her husband visited on their honeymoon in ing a two-week tour of the Netherlands. Not the passing of Lee Chapman Biederman of Wash- 1972. In December Sue Harris Gri and her letting any grass grow under my feet!” Connie ington, D.C., in November 2019. son stopped by St. Simons Island for dinner with Cross writes that she is “back to being a teacher Jenny: “Great fun with good friends.” Jenny con- … well, co-teacher, of a group of newly arrived Correspondents: Susan Peck Hinkel, tinues, “The bad news is that I have lung cancer. African women who want to learn English. They 1064 N. Main St., Danby, VT 05739, I’ve just had the third of seven chemo infusions. are all French-speaking and my French is rusty [email protected]; Pat Antell Andrews, Remission is expected. I’m bald and happy to at best, so it’s fortunate that the other teacher is 65 937 Henry Clay Ave., New Orleans, LA 70118, consider wigs on loan. I’ll see you, fully coiffed, at fluent. I love these women! They are so warm, [email protected] Karen Metzger Ganz our 60th.” Marion Nierintz has been busy sell- affec ionate and eager to learn. And also incred- and Joe Morein were married at the Harvard ing her condo in downtown Boston and moving ibly grateful to be in Portland (Maine). We don’t Club on Oct. 22, 2016. Included in the guest list into an apartment nearby. She is delighted with know what horrors they witnessed or endured were Karen’s original bridesmaids from 50 years her new digs and looks forward to returning to her in their home countries. I’m looking forward to ago, with a special shout-out to her CC room- volunteer work when the dust settles. Whitney our next full class reunion in 2023!” Connie also mates, Dana Hartman Freyer and Marge Raisler Andrews Gettinger lives in Manhattan, where continues to pursue her passion for photography, Fisher. She and Joe live in Irvington, N.Y., spend she has been selling real estate since 1996. Her taking remarkable photos of nature and the world summers in Vermont, and enjoy travel and skiing husband of 38 years, Peter, passed away a few around her. Diana Altman is proud to have “an in the West. They have children in many states years ago. They had two sons. Whitney enjoys award-winning novel.” Her 2019 novel We Never to visit! Monica Blum still directs the Lincoln traveling to France and Italy to visit friends. She Told won first prize in the category of Women’s Square Business Improvement District, which, also sees Susan Thomases in New York. Your Fiction in the 2020 Feathered Quill annual con- among other activities, organizes New York’s junior correspondent, Pat (Patty) Antell An- test. We Never Told also made NBC News’ list of largest holiday festival each December. In ad- drews, and husband Will are selling their home “20 best end-of-summer beach reads for 2019.” dition, she swims every morning; recently wel- of 45 years and moving to Denver, near two of This is Diana’s third book. Her short stories and comed a new granddaughter, who lives near Pam their children and the mountains they love. Patty articles have appeared in numerous publications Gwynn Herrup; and keeps up with her 99-year- is also trying to revise the descriptions of almost over the years. Her short story “Unwanted Ba- old mother in New York. She visits or corresponds 145 churches where she helped lead stained-glass bies” appears in the Q1 2020 issue of the Cumber- occasionally with Barbara Barker Papernik, tours over the past 30 years. land River Review. Diana and husband, Richard Sally Higgins Pim (in Wales), Janni Sutherland Siegel, still love living in Manhattan, though they Guldbeck and Ann Brauer Gigounas. Monica’s Correspondents: Carol Chaykin & Pat make frequent forays out of town to visit their husband also still works, but “we are both think- Dale; [email protected] Patricia two daughters, who both live in San Francisco, ing about transitioning into the next phase of our 66Dale (professionally known as Patt SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes 51
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 51 5/7/20 1:03 PM Pam Mendelsohn ’66 with Nancy Pelosi at Catholic Charities Marian Silber, Susan Kirshnit Woodall and Ruth Zaleske Leibert Pat McClure ’67 and Marcia Hunter Matthews ’67 celebrating of the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Respite Center in (all Class of ’66) celebrating Susan’s 75th birthday in Naples, Fla. Marcia’s birthday McAllen, Tex. Dale) learned that her name was included in a DC to join them. Teaching aerobic dancing week- pleased to report that stepbrother Jay and his wife, tribute to honor the late Broadway director Har- ly has kept Mary fit enough to downhill ski. One Meg Gemson Ashman ’72, once again stopped to old Prince at the New York Public Library for the of the highlights of Pam Mendelsohn’s year was see her on their way to Key West. Lynn Hand Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Patt’s name volunteering for a week at the Humanitarian Re- and a high school friend spent time in Florida this was included in the “honor roll” because she was spite Center in McAllen, Tex. Pam was there just winter, enjoying the warmth of Key West. Wen- a press agent on the original Broadway produc- before the law changed, barring everyone from dy Willson Allen reacted with surprise to your tions of Sweeney Todd and Evita, both Best Musi- coming across the border. She felt useful prepar- correspondents’ snowbird status, not knowing cal Tony Award winners directed by Mr. Prince. ing and serving meals, handing out desperately that Conn produced such creatures. She is chair Betsey Staples Harding reports that she and needed supplies, and directing people to the ap- of the German department and professor emerita Sam have moved to a senior complex in Cumber- propriate buses that took them to their new lives. in French at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn, land, Maine, close to the terrific city of Portland, While Pam was there, Nancy Pelosi arrived with but is tentatively planning on retiring in June. a small, friendly, restaurant-rich town in southern a contingent that had visited Honduras, El Salva- Marcia Hunter Matthews and husband Bill had Maine. While they still love to ski and snowshoe, dor and Guatemala. The Times-Standard (Eureka, their annual Florida dinner with Judy Macur- they are glad to now be living in a place where Calif.) published a two-part article by Pam in Sep- da Oates and her husband, Jimmy. Marcia said they won’t need their snow shovels! Ann Lang- tember. Read Pam’s descriptions of her experienc- it was wonderful to catch up with them because don and spouse Drew Days are coping with his es: “The refugees are disheveled, exhausted, hun- she doesn’t see Judy as much as she would wish, declining health. A er visiting various facilities gry and demoralized” (bit.ly/pams-article-part1) but Ginny Turner Friberg ’62 and Marcia are in throughout the country, Drew is now settled in and “What you can do to help the border crisis” touch daily. She is a beloved friend from boarding Connecticut, in the memory wing of a Benchmark (bit.ly/pams-article-part2). Pam hopes to revisit school and Conn. Pat McClure joined Marcia’s facility overlooking Long Island Sound. Ann visits the border in Brownsville, Tex., in June. Please 75th birthday dinner celebration. Joan Lacou- Drew almost daily; friends, neighbors and fami- continue sending your news and photos. We love ture Brink was very excited to read that Marion ly also visit regularly. Ann and Drew were both hearing from you! Coates has been working on a novel about Agnes able to enjoy attending Angela Davis’ presenta- Pelton. When a Pelton show came to Santa Fe, tion at Yale for this year’s MLK Jr. celebration. Class Correspondents: Deborah Green- Joan was stunned by the work and went several Mary MacFarlane Slidell is enjoying retirement stein, [email protected]; Marcia times to see it as well as attended the two lectures a er 33 years in the retail business. For the past 67 Hunter Matthews, marciamatthews3@ given in conjunction with the exhibit. In the past two years, Mary has been enrolled in American gmail.com Ethel Bottcher Cullinan said we could couple of years Joan has been inspired by two rel- University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute tell you anything we please about her, so we can atively unknown women artists, Agnes Pelton and (OLLI) in Washington, D.C., where she has loved let you know that she, husband Neil, daughter Hilma af Klint. She would love to know how Mari taking courses in the arts. Last summer, she and Megan, son-in-law Mitch and grandson Patrick came across the story of Pelton’s life, so Mari, if John traveled to Slovenia, Croatia and Venice. For were in DC for Thanksgiving, visiting son Michael you are reading this and haven’t heard from Joan, Thanksgiving, oldest son Mark Slidell ’94 and his and daughter-in-law Isabelle. They did lots of let your class correspondents know and we will wife and four sons, from Chicago, were with them. sightseeing and made time for brunch with Deb- put you in touch. Anne (Sandy) Clement Hadd- At Christmas, she and John were in Aspen with by Greenstein. A lifetime ago, Ethel and Debby ad and husband Charles have just emptied their daughter Tara, her husband and their 10-month- shared an apartment on Capitol Hill, and talking big old colonial in Old Saybrook and downsized old baby girl. Son Duncan and family fle in from about it still brings on bursts of laughter. Debby is into a studio apartment in Durham, Conn. They have also purchased a property with daughter Jenny Mosher and her family that has a big old farmhouse for the Moshers and an in-law apart- ment for them. Sandy is very excited about the move and invites you to visit. Jacqueline King Donnelly recently wrote a memoir of her year as an exchange teacher in France, the ups and downs of working in a French middle school: Anywhere but Bordeaux! Susan Endel Kerner and husband Paul Smirnoff (married May 2019!) love living on Riverside Drive with a beautiful view of the Hudson River. Paul works midtown as a TV news executive. “I’m in my 21st year as a professor at Montclair State U. in the Department of Theatre Denver’s College for a Day, Jan. 13, 2020 (left to right): Kay Landen ’66, Susan Hazlehurst Milbrath ’76, Rona Shor ’66, Elizabeth Buell and Dance. Guest-directing The Wolves at the U. Labrot ’55, Helen Jinks Richards ’64 and Donna Altieri ’66
52 SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 52 5/7/20 1:04 PM of Kansas was a great adventure in Fall 2019. I met her new grandson, Thomas Reis, born on Jan. 5. Vitality Society, an online community of peers, a wonderful KU dramaturge who will adapt my His mom and dad (Roberta’s son Wesley, and his offering the opportunity to connect with each 1967–’68 letters home from India into a work for wife, Debora) are house-sharing with them, so other with support of coaches. As a certified Brain the stage! I’m enjoying developing NYC-centered they get the joy of seeing him grow. A er tax sea- Health Trainer, Joan designed the four modules projects as I contemplate an end to the commute son Roberta and her husband of 50 years will plan of her Vitality Society course around the latest across the George Washington Bridge in 2022. some travels to Montana to see their other grand- longevity research examining the transformative Paul and I look forward to more travel together children, ages 16 and 19, and their son Tobias and effect of physical activity on the brain. Exercise and visits with our fi e children and six grandchil- his wife, Leigh. They enjoy country-and-western doesn’t only make you healthier, it also makes dren in Boston, Denver, Ann Arbor and Prince- dancing and attend shows at venues around Sono- you smarter! Andrea Hintlian Mendell and her ton. I so appreciate my ongoing connections with ma County. Terry is an artist and is planning a husband finally fulfilled a longtime dream of vis- wonderful CC ’67 friends!” The class sends its show of his large works depicting musicians and iting the Taj Mahal, in India. I wanted to share condolences to the family of Nancy Eliason Dra- dancers. They were fortunate not to be directly the news of the passing of Dorcas Hardy in No- zga. Nancy died on Dec. 29 and is survived by affec ed by the recent fi es. It is taking a long time, vember in Virginia. Also, Wendy Spear Mayrose her husband, Bill Drazga, and her daughter and but things are coming back and they hope anyone died in December in South Carolina. The class son-in-law, Faith and Isaac Acker. A full obituary coming to California will visit their beautiful wine sends deepest condolences to their families. Please appeared in the Kent County (Md.) News on Jan. country. Sue Sharkey Hoffma writes that 2019 keep your news coming; we all love to know what 2. The class also sends its condolences to Betsy was a busy year for them. They spent 10 days in is happening in the lives of our friends from CC. Wilson Zanna on the loss of her husband, Mark March visiting their son and his family, who were Zanna. In addition to Betsy, Mark is survived by there for the year. They loved Singapore and Correspondent: Judi Bamberg Mariggiò, sons Adam and Jamie and their families. On a took a side trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, to see 1070 Sugar Sands Blvd. #384, Riviera personal note, your correspondent Debby Green- Angkor Wat and other ruins. In May 2019 their 69Beach, FL 33404 jgmariggio@bellsouth. stein met Betsy on the first day of college in the youngest grandchild arrived! Beau Daniel Wise is net In October, John and Linda Abel Fosseen living room of Plant House, and we remain friends a happy, giggly baby. Sue and Tom are healthy attended a friend’s daughter’s wedding in to this day. Betsy met Mark soon a er, and he be- and enjoying their lives and time with fami- Australia. “A wonderful trip but we traveled in the came her good friend as well. Mark was a social ly. Nancy Finn Kukura and Phil have been fo- area hit hard by the fi es, and it is heart-wrenching psychologist with a distinguished career, teaching cused on travel, cruising last summer from Rotter- to see what has happened to the animals. In first at Princeton and later at the U. of Waterloo, dam to Boston via the Shetland Islands, Iceland, January, fulfilling my decades-long wish, we took in Canada. Greenland and Canadian maritimes; a land tour a 22-day trip by ship to Tierra del Fuego, the to China and Tibet in September; and a cruise to Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Correspondent: Mary Clarkeson Phil- South America and Antarctica in January. Ann Antarctic Peninsula. As a zoology major at Conn, lips, 36 The Crossway, Delmar, NY Engstrom Reydel and Midge Auwerter Shep- it truly was a dream of 50 years come true. The 68 12054 [email protected] Joan ard wrote that some of our classmates gathered highlight was our four-day visit to the biologically Ames writes that her husband of 50 years, Asa in Naples at Midge’s condo in January. Present almost-pristine South Georgia, with hundreds of Jonathan Berkowitz, died suddenly on July 30, were Ann Engstrom Reydel, Judith Jones Mc- thousands of penguins on many beaches, plus the 2019. Many of our classmates knew him well from Gregor, Betty Sidor Hanley, Heather Marcy Southern ocean teeming with wildlife. We had a our time at CC. Brooke Johnson Suiter writes Cooper, Midge Auwerter Shepard, Ann Wer- firsthand view of earth ecology we had just been of the joy of her new knee, a er a full-knee re- ner Johnson, Deb Benjamin ’67, Shelley Smith starting to learn about in the ’60s and now are in placement and quick rehab. She volunteers at a ’69 and Mary Whitney Hoch ’69. Terry Reimers a battle to save.” With childcare limited and a big shelter for homeless women, reads voraciously, Byrnes and Jim enjoy full-time residency in Vero expense in Vermont, Darryl Ferguson Bloom is and travels to see her three kids and four grand- Beach, Fla. They have been there now a full year happily busy being “Grandmother Nannie.” She kids. She looks forward to working for progressive and a half, having sold their home in Ithaca, N.Y. is also devoted to climate action and immigration political candidates at all levels in this election With great Florida weather, they can bike, walk, action. “Writing letters is one way to participate year. Ally Cook Gall and Marty continue to love golf, etc. all year. They have two granddaughters when time is limited. It is pretty energizing their condo overlooking a river and marsh with a who live in Victoria, B.C., so they travel west as being active and sometimes on the front lines of view of the ocean. She takes the train into Boston much as possible. They enjoyed a Conn College demonstrations again.” If you worry about the o en for ballet, the Museum of Science, etc. Win- reception at the Norton Museum of Art in West effects of climate change and enjoy podcasts, ter projects include piano, learning how to edit Palm Beach with Katherine Bergeron, her sta Darryl recommends Outrage and Optimism, her videos, lots of volunteer work and caring for and other alums. The tour and presentation of which has good doses of both. The highlight of grandkids. In February, they left for Australia for their Asian art collection reminded Terry fondly Evelyn Marienberg and Sunny (Rita) Miller’s a month. Roberta Ward Holleman is still work- of her years at Conn under the tutelage of Charles September cruise from Fiji to Tonga, Cook ing in her small home-based accounting business, Chu. President Bergeron provided news of new Islands, Bora Bora and Tahiti was swimming with Symba Services. QuickBooks Online keeps her campus initiatives and the progress there. Sounds the humpback whales. Evy followed that up with a very busy, and she doesn’t foresee retiring com- great! Joan Pekoc Pagano’s live course, “Stay trip to Vietnam in February. “I have been working pletely anytime soon. She does have time to enjoy Strong, Stretched and Stable,” debuted on the per diem since my retirement in July 2018,
Andrea Hintlian Mendel ’68 with her husband, Tom, fulfilling Left to right: Heather Marcy Cooper ’68, Mary Whitney Hoch ’69, Betty Sidor Hanley ’68, Shelley Smith ’69, Midge Auwerter Shep- lifelong dream to visit the Taj Mahal ard ’68, Ann Werner Johnson ’68, Ann Engstrom Reydel ’68, Debbie Benjamin ’67 and Judy Jones McGregor ’68
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ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 53 5/7/20 1:04 PM Ann Tousley Anderson ’69 and Nancy Payne Alexander ’69 Kris Stahlschmidt Lambert ’69 and Beth Brereton Smith ’69 Semiretired radiation oncologist Evelyn Marienberg ’69 has a visited the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens during continued Reunion conversations over lunch months later at new venture, a mobile fitness t aining franchise. Nancy’s visit with family in South Florida. Beth’s house in Newtonville, Mass.
covering for vacationing radiation oncologists, Correspondent: Myrna Chandler Gold- been a great resource for her and has enjoyed but I just bought a franchise business. I am the stein, [email protected] As you getting to know this determined young woman. very first franchisee of On The Marc Training, a 70know, our Class Notes are written My story: My first job was as an assistant to the mobile gym offering ‘fitness made convenient.’ several months before they actually appear in writers of The Dick Cavett Show, then I worked Am I brilliant or crazy to be buying this business, the magazine. So, as I write these, months before on Senator Muskie’s 1972 presidential campaign, or maybe both?” Heather Morrison was elected our 50th class reunion, I am still trying to come became a producer at WCVB-TV in Boston and to a second term on the CC alumni board. “The to terms with the fact that almost 50 years have WNET in New York, received my Ed.M. degree board is composed of a diverse group of grads passed since our graduation. Over the many years from Harvard Graduate School of Education in ranging from the Class of ’58 to the Class of that I have served as class correspondent, I have ’76, produced one of RCA’s first video discs with ’19. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to shared updates on scores of classmates. Now I Dr. Benjamin Spock, took a break to raise two work with such a dynamic group. If anyone in am reaching out to the many who have rarely or children, returned to the workforce to implement our class has ideas on how we can better engage never sent an update and asking you to take the an arts education grant for the City of Glendale, Conn alums, please let me know.” Jack and Sally time to share your story with us. We all love to worked in communications at two independent Rowe Heckscher celebrated their 50th wedding learn more about the varied paths we have tak- schools and for the L.A. County Arts Commis- anniversary last June, and Jack had his right hip en. Elaine Frey Hester and husband John moved sion, and finally discovered what I was meant replaced in August a er their annual trip to Rhode from Glen Ellyn, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, to to be—a college counselor for first-gene ation, Island. “We all survived!” Jack and Sally had Greenville, S.C., in 2008. “We are enjoying living low-income girls! I received my college coun- plans to visit friends in Florida a er the American in this part of the country, close to the mountains seling certifica e from UC San Diego and start- Daffodil Society convention in Dallas in March. and not far from the ocean. Greenville is a vibrant ed working with another college access program A er a relaxing weekend in Portsmouth, N.H., small city.” Since John retired at the end of 2017, called RowLA in 2012 and joined MOSTe in Brian and Kris Stahlschmidt Lambert caught up they have traveled to New Zealand, Australia, 2014.” Finally, our (the Goldsteins) book, Dietary with Bob and Beth Brereton Smith over lunch China, Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam Supplements: Fact versus Fiction, is now available. at Beth’s home in Newtonville, Mass. “It was and Greece, including Rhodes and Crete. Future It provides research on the pros and cons of scores reunion time all over again, with the conversation destinations include Amsterdam, Brussels and of supplements. Check it out on Amazon. ranging from family to travel and even politics!” South Africa. “We’re trying to fulfill our ‘bucket In January, Harvey and Ellen Steinberg Karch list’ while we are still in good health!” Mary Keil Class Correspondents: Lisa McDonnell, had “a wonderful travel adventure, a cruise and her husband of 11 years lived in Arcata, Ca- 134 W Maple Street, Granville, OH from San Diego through the Panama Canal lif., which is in the far northern part of the state. 7143023, [email protected] and all the way back to Fort Lauderdale—truly They both work on a serious video-development Lois Olcott Price, 933A Alto Street, Santa Fe, NM fascinating. Back home in Rockville, Md., we team designing a simulation game dealing with 87501, [email protected] Class President An- enjoy various volunteer activities. We each the economy. When they are not working, they ming Sze Truxes reports that Class Gift Officer came to our marriage 13 years ago with our own hike in the Redwoods, walk the coastal areas, Ronna Reynolds and Anne Maxwell Living- synagogues and remain involved, volunteering and explore Humboldt County. Mary has a son, ston have begun cultivating participation in our with both. Between us we have fi e children daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter 50th Reunion and Class Gift. This winter, they and 10 grandchildren, who bring us busy times in the Bay Area, “whom she doesn’t get to see visited with classmates Fran Howland Gam- and much joy. Best wishes to all my classmates; enough.” Joyce Smith is the college counselor mell-Roach, Judy Heldman Oxman, Weezie I recently bought a new Connecticut College for MOSTe (Motivating Our Students Through Hammond Garrison and Jane Difl y. More sweatshirt, which I wear with great pride.” Ann Experience), a mentoring and college access pro- trips have been scheduled for the spring. Susan Barber Smith and Alice Wellington caught up gram for first-gene ation, low-income girls in Los Bear is in her last semester as a professor of bi- over lunch in late February. “We enjoy our new Angeles and Pasadena. “Currently, we have a ology at Pine Manor College in Boston. She also roles as class president and vice president; it’s one MOSTe scholar at Conn, Michelle Chavez ’22. works part-time in a plant/flo al store, which she more aspect of our friendship that began over 50 Last spring, I offe ed MOSTe as a Los Angeles will continue a er retiring from teaching and re- years ago. With Ann and husband Bill now in site for Camels Care: A Global Day of Service, search. Susan plans to travel, visit with friends, do Exeter, N.H., and Rob and me in Concord, Mass. on March 23. We sent L.A. alums invitations to more exercise and yoga, and catch up on all those (since the late ’80s), we’re about a 75-minute an information reception about our mentoring novels! Susie Pool Moses spent last summer on drive apart. A er lunch at a restaurant in Concord program. Shelley Smith ’69 was one attendee. her boat traveling Puget Sound and north to the Center, where Rob and I go with our musical I had not seen Shelley since our undergraduate Canadian Gulf Islands. She’s now settled down friends to enjoy rock/roots/blues music, Ann and days and was thrilled by her interest in becoming with lots of knitting and quilting projects. She is I toured local historic sites, including Louisa May a MOSTe mentor. Shelley was matched with a still president of her condo association and very Alcott’s Orchard House, Walden Pond and scenic wonderful MOSTe high school senior, who has involved with AAUW (American Association conservation land, and made plans for more next applied to CC for Fall 2020. They have gone to of University Women). Son Evan and wife Tara time!” concerts, plays, lunches and more. Shelley has moved to San Antonio, Tex., for Tara’s new job,
54 SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 54 5/7/20 1:04 PM and her 15-month-old grandson, Wilder. While is an architect and painter. Beth and her husband she misses her last job as the national organization were so happy to have Linda Johnson Wessling director for People’s Action and VP of strategic and her fabulous husband, J.D., join them at the partnerships for NextGen America, she is thrilled wedding of Beth’s daughter, Mandana. Beth says to be able to go to the gym or on walks with their that it’s pretty special to have your best friend puppy, Lily, rather than running to the next plane. from Day One in college (diffe ent floors in Free- “We are working to achieve health, housing, and man) still be your best friend! Margo Reynolds racial, gender and economic justice for all!” Steiner continues to teach a memoir class to se- niors at Marblehead’s Council on Aging. She says Correspondent: Dr. Peggy Muschell Jack- that the class has one ‘rooster’ in the group, a re- son, (415) 609-5341, peg@pegjackson. tired fisherman who writes about the sea. Since 72com Mary Ingoldsby recently had a September Margo has been on the faculty at En- reunion with Helen Crispe Hesselgrave and dicott College, where she works as a profession- Jane Difl y ’71 and Anne Maxwell Livingston ’71 in Warner, N.H., Barbara Ainslie Settembrini at Mary’s home in al writing tutor. This fall, she will be teaching a in February 2020 West Hartford, Conn. Barbara Ainslie Settem- freshman critical writing course there and an art and daughter Lauren is now in charge of one of brini has lived in Sicily since graduation from history course on early Egyptian art and archeol- the medical clinics at Marine Corps Base Quan- Conn. She has worked as an English tutor and ogy at another area college. Margo continues to tico, Va. Lauren and her family, including sons has two grown children. Helen Crispe Hessel- be busy as a freelance book editor and saw three Bear and Wolf (ages 2 and 4), joined Susie and her grave is retired from her work as an instructor at novels through to publication this year. Retire- husband for Christmas in Port Townsend, Wash. the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, then as Director of ment is anything but boring! Glenn Morazzini Deborah Johnson and husband Russell Harris Education and Historic Sites at the Morris Coun- continues to work as a psychotherapist in Fal- continue to publish a weekly newspaper in the ty (N.J.) Park System; she lives in New Jersey. mouth, Maine. He recently enjoyed a visit from town where they have lived since 1978. Work- Mary Ingoldsby is a retired school social worker. his daughter, Tara Morazzini Talvacchia ’09, ing on the Groton Herald, now in its 41st year, She has four children, is very active in her church and grandson Giovanni, 2. Ruth Ritter Ladd’s is making their adjustment to retirement much teaching and being a Eucharistic minister, and most-recent Guiding Eyes puppy, Layla, is now a easier. Daughter Midori married Kyle MacLean loves gardening, especially growing dahlias. They guide and just moved to Honolulu with her han- on Oct. 20, 2018, and daughter Allegra received are hoping for another reunion soon! Carol Blake dler, Sajja, a wonderful young woman who is get- an MBA from George Washington U. last May Boyd retired on April 1 from the Naples Trust ting her doctorate at the U. of Hawaii. (The local and is now working as a consultant for Deloitte in Company a er seven years of being a president Honolulu TV news aired a story about Sajja and the DC area. Oldest daughter Rachel is an archi- and regional corporate director and is now on Layla.) Layla was Ruth’s 14th Guiding Eyes pup- tect with an ever-growing business specializing in the board of directors. Her husband, Peter, a pa- py. Now she is training Nutmeg—the antithesis house design and additions. She is the mother of thologist, still works part-time. They have a new of Layla, who was very calm and laid back. Ruth Sonja and Tabitha, who live near Deborah and granddaughter, Brielle, born in December, join- loves retirement, which is full of puppy raising, Russell and are a joy to them. Lucy VanVoor- ing brother Luke, 2. Peter and Carol look forward babysitting grandkids as needed, ringing bells in hees still works four days a week as a cardiolo- to more travel in the future. They spent February her church’s bell choir and serving as a commis- gist and loves it. She spends off- ime on the farm 2019 in Australia and New Zealand. Carol also sioner on her town’s conservation commission. training ponies for sale as show ponies. She reads, looks forward to our 50th reunion in 2022. Beth Linda Lee Howe teaches fi e senior classes in bakes and works in her garden. She spent a week Alpert Nakhai has lived in Tucson since 1982, Union County College’s Continuing Education in Oakland, Calif., visiting her best friends from where she moved to pursue her Ph.D. in biblical program, in Cranford, N.J. Her theme this year medical school. Linda Herskowitz Kriger was and Near Eastern archaeology. She excavated in is drawing horses. She continues to write poetry a piano performance major at Conn and is taking Israel for many years and has been teaching at the and short stories and hopes to publish again this piano lessons again, with the goal to replicate her U. of Arizona since 1994. Her husband, Farzad, year. During her work as a medical artist, Deb- senior recital 50 years later, relearning the pieces she learned with Zosia Jacynowicz so many years ago. Linda’s interested in seeing how the years and life experiences affect the way she interprets Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel and Bartok. Thank You Linda’s also teaching Mussar, an ages-old curric- ulum of character development that their organi- to our generous donors who zation, the Center for Contemporary Mussar, has supported the Student Emergency Fund modernized. Linda and husband Jake, a psycho- therapist, have recently downsized and are in the woods a half-mile from their previous home, in a much smaller space that feels just right because “Conn is very near and dear to my heart, and I it’s vertically spacious. Son Ezra, 26, in graduate school for fic ion writing, has been nominated for want to pay it forward. The College was there for a Pushcart Prize for a poem he wrote about his me, and it's my job to be there for it now.” 10th birthday party. (See his work on EzraSol- way.com.) Son Daniel, 28, lives in Brooklyn and —Patricia Swonger ’81 is learning about wines, which he plans to make a career. In the meantime, he works in restaurants and a wine shop. Linda and Jake enjoy their large extended family and feel lucky to be active and healthy at their age. Josie Mooney is back work- ing for Service Employees International Union MEETING THE MOST IMMEDIATE NEEDS OF OUR full-time and having a great time. It allows her to STUDENTS DURING THIS CHALLENGING TIME giving.conncoll.edu be at home more and spend time with her kids
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ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 55 5/7/20 1:04 PM orah Hansen Hollenberg met and eventually soon. The next deadline for class notes is August company for many years prior to graduate school. married the Director of Research in Radiology, 1. I will send emails and connect on Facebook Emily still puts in hours at Hayward and Laney Dr. Norman Hollenberg. Deborah did artwork Connecticut College Class of 1973 as reminders. College—“life is expensive in California. No for all of the physicians in Radiology and learned Please send your news and pictures (trips, chil- coasting here and retirement is still years away.” techniques from the head of medical art at Uni- dren, grandchildren, retirement, etc.) to me any But she loves the beautiful surroundings and versity Hospital. Her husband was an editor of the time, and I will save them for the next edition. weather and has developed wonderful friendships New England Journal of Medicine, was a professor in the Bay Area, as well as “strong ties with neigh- of medicine at Harvard Medical School and was Class Notes Correspondent: Barbara bors in this eclectic, funky area of the Oakland Director of Research in Radiology at Brigham and Herbst Tatum, barbara.tatum52@gmail. foothills. Retired fi efigh er (30 years in OFD) is Women’s Hospital. Following a long decline in 74com John Tarbox recently completed a my main squeeze and lives around the corner.” health, he passed away in January. Subsequent- year of service with AmeriCorps as a digital liter- She enjoys the thriving international restaurant ly, Deborah’s twin brother died from the effects acy instructor, teaching computer courses to the scene and subscribes to several theaters in Oak- of glioblastoma that he had been figh ing since public in rural Maine. He has also been working land, Berkeley and San Francisco. “I am im- August. The class sends deepest condolences to on a master’s degree at Boston U., earning his MS pressed by the changes in Conn College and wish Deborah for her losses. in computer information systems with a concen- I was attending there now! I will be buying fic ion tration in security. John lives in Phillips, Maine, for my small branch, which is right up my alley (a Correspondent: Hester Kinnicutt Jacobs, and would love to connect with other CC alums in literature major at Conn, but actually not a genre PO Box 277, Melstone, MT 59054, (406) the state. Ellen Feldman Thorp is doing well and fic ion reader). Any recommendations?” 73358-2279, [email protected] Nina looking forward to her 30th wedding anniversary Davit and husband Greg moved to Wilmington, in October. Thankfully her vision issues were re- Class Notes Correspondents: Susan N.C., last May. “We are busy with our 1948 house solved, and she is enthusiastically getting ready for Greenberg Gold, [email protected] and garden. I’ve joined a theater group, Mouths of pickleball tournament season. She will compete in 78and Laurie Heiss, laurieheiss@gmail. Babes, and am looking forward to some innovative her St. George community, then proceed to the com Laura Brown Narvaiz is enjoying retirement projects.” Brian Robie is retired from the CDC, U.S. Open in Naples, Fla. On behalf of the Class from a long career, mostly as VP of communica- and he and his wife are enjoying their children and of ’74, I wish her every success! I would like to tions at the National Association of Manufactur- grandchildren. “I also have a contract to help hep- thank classmates who submitted notes directly to ers. She plays a lot of tennis, nurtures her friend- atitis laboratory managers in Uzbekistan improve CC for publication, and I look forward to hearing ships and argues politics with Fox viewers. Son their work processes. And I’m working on a nov- from many of you for the fall issue of CC. John is a happy sophomore at Elon U. in North el.” Last year when I (Hester) asked you for in- Correspondent: Stuart Sadick, stuart. Carolina, and daughter Maribel is a freshman at put for this column, I was in New Zealand. I have [email protected] Emily Odza is Lynn U. in Boca Raton, Fla.—a fun place to vis- signed up again for this duty, and I tried desper- 77starting a new role as permanent li- it! Their dog, Maggie (a “black Lab mix” who ately to get some notes in with very short notice. brarian in her hometown of Oakland, Calif., where turned out to be an adorable coonhound), enjoys We had a wonderful three months with our son’s she’s lived since 1984 and owned her home since daily playtime in the dog park. Laura and husband family living in Dunedin. On the way home, we 2000. Although part-time, “it’s the holy grail of Rick look forward to cheering on the World Series stopped in Half Moon Bay, Calif., to see Valerie library jobs (benefits!), which is notoriously dif- champs at spring training in West Palm Beach, Kinnicutt Powell ’70 and my other siblings. We ficult to nail down in this field.” She previously Fla., and she adds, “Come visit us if you’re in were greeted with winter when we got home to had a permanent half-time job in Hayward, where the Washington, D.C., area!” (Ed. note: Congrats Montana at the end of February. This winter has they built “a spectacular new town library.” Em- to the Nats!) Caroline Boyce lives in Havertown, been mild, and I am looking forward to gardening ily worked for a managed behavioral health care Pa. (just outside Philadelphia), with her partner, Gunther Carrle. Five years ago, she started her own firm, Inter-Mission, LLC, to provide change management services to nonprofit organizations: The Connecticut College Alumni Association Board of Directors “I am loving it!” Caroline continues to serve on the board of advisors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and just completed serving as board chair of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania. She is traveling a lot and perfecting her cooking OUR MISSION : “To promote lifelong relationships among current and skills. “Life is good!” Karen Haas shares that her exhibition “Ansel Adams in Our Time,” which future alumni and lead the Alumni Association as it fosters an active, showed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, last engaged and enduring community of Connecticut College graduates.” winter, is now going to travel to three addition- al venues this spring, fall, and winter—Crystal Bridges (Bentonville, Ark.), Portland Art Museum (Oregon) and the Milwaukee Museum of Art. She hopes some of her CC classmates will be able to see the exhibition in one of those cities. Karen has been a photography curator at the MFA for more than 20 years and still loves organizing shows. The year 2020 marks the centennial of women’s suf- frage, and as part of the celebration at MFA, she is working on two exhibitions: contemporary wom- en and photo collage and “Personal and Political: Women Photographers, 1965–1985.” Karen’s husband, chief photographer at the MFA, is about Our 28 member Board, spanning the Classes of 1958-2019, will be providing CC Magazine content featuring to retire. Karen adds, “I’m really happy for him, Alumni Recognition, Camel Events, Engagement Opportunities, and more! Look for us in future editions! but I’m certain it will feel strange because we’ve worked together at so many museums over all these years!” Vee-Vee Angle Scott and husband
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ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 56 5/7/20 1:05 PM Two Camels facilitating at a Planned Parenthood meeting: Sarah Warner ’89 and daughter Avery visited Debbie Marconi Former roommates Geoff Sch efer ’90 and Bruce Maclaren ’90 Emma Gilmore Kieran ’00 and Elizabeth Schroeder ’88 ’89 at her home during her summer visit to the East Coast. got together.
Jon moved to Virginia Beach in 2018. Their mar- Scott Williamson, Peter Gregory, and Victoria dona has been living in Chester, Vt., with her life ried children visit and vacation with them. Their McKittrick Oliva and her husband, Mark Oliva partner, Leanne Garofolo, and their cat, Mickey, greatest joy is being grandparents, and Vee-Vee ’82. Rest in peace, dear Bilbo. Reunions will nev- since early 2018. She was promoted to shift lead- continues her volunteer passions of tutoring and er be the same. Chip Maguire writes that he was er, advocating full-time for youth at a shelter for supporting the food bank. A er one knee and one able to visit Peter “Spice” Simpson last March at-risk girls at Windsor County Youth Services hip replacement, dance has been replaced by Pi- in New Hope, Pa., for Peter’s 60th birthday. He (and also subbing in at the boys house as needed). lates. Marian Ahearn ’76 and Lynn (Gigi) Good- is currently living vicariously through his son She also works part-time as a regional coordinator, man Rouse-Zoll ’66 are dear cousins by marriage Benjamin, who, a er touring Southeast Asia for making matches between youth and adult volun- who visit and live in Virginia Beach, respectively. six months, has taken off to Nepal to eventually teers for Windsor County Mentors. Happily, she Vee-Vee added, with certain pride, that daughter climb up to Everest’s base camp. Chip is trying to recovered quickly from a broken wrist sustained in Lily Scott is beginning her dissertation at Temple connect Benjamin with Gerry Gaffn y ’83, who’s a mildly competitive game of pickleball, and she U., having passed her qualifying exams. Lily was in Dubai, and Vanessa Stock Bristow, in Zim- is playing open mics and shows again. Recording an undergrad at Brynn Mawr, majoring in Amer- babwe, as Benjamin continues to travel the globe. more original music is a goal, but you can find her ican art (late-19th- and early-20th-century art), Chip still corresponds with Jack Finneran’s son, album Love Is Hard streaming on Spotify, Ama- and is now working at Barnes and looking for a Michael, who’s his chess coach. Chip says his zon or CDBaby. Gayle Brady Finkelstein has fellowship. Steve Certilman is happy to share that game is nothing compared to Michael’s but that been working for the Northern New England Poi- an exhibition titled “Archives of Consciousness: Michael helps him destroy opponents at his level. son Center for the past 14 years as a public health Six Cuban Artists,” featuring selected works of Chip also feels there is an irreparable tear in the nurse in poison prevention. She lives and works Cuban contemporary art from his and wife Terri’s fabric of the Class of ’81 with the loss of Bill Bar- in Vermont and enjoys sailing, hiking, biking and collection, was on view at Fairfield University Art rack, and said, “Here’s a toast to you, roommate. skiing. Both her sons have graduated from their Museum. Classmates may recall from this column Safe travels!” universities and are enjoying life. Gayle travels as that Steve has been collecting Cuban art for de- much as possible in her free time. She is also in- cades. Correspondent: Claudia Gould Tielking, volved with the Vermont Climate and Health Alli- 6533 Mulroy Street, McLean VA 22101, ance, working with other health care professionals Correspondent: Brooke Perry Pardue, [email protected] Alan Co- on climate change and increasing awareness of [email protected] Reprint with cor- hen took the TedX Harrisburg stage with his talk, its impact with human and animal health. Judith 81rection: Beth Radcli e and her wife, “The Magical Power of Shared Purpose.” He con- Krigman is a lab manager at Ohio State U. She Terry Greene, celebrated their 40th anniversa- tinues to tour the country promoting his book, The works with a mitochondrial group and still does a ry this year in the company of many friends, in- Connection Challenge: How Executives Create Pow- lot of mouse work and echocardiograms on mice. cluding Carol Marton ’82. Brooke Perry Pardue er and Possibility in the Age of Distraction. He and She can’t believe she has been in Ohio for seven made her first trip to Los Angeles to visit her son, his spouse, Barry, split their time between New years! Marita Kennedy Wein was named CEO of who is now living and working there. She con- York and Miami, where they recently purchased Alternative Investment Group in July 2019. She nected with Paul Escoll, and they met up with a second home. Barb Lasley Reid and husband was able to spend time with freshman roommate Rick Gersten’s son, Nate, who is now managing Skip have both retired (he from 30 years as pres- Jeanine Dadourian Hovsepian in January. Three the Prospect, an amazing new boutique hotel in ident of Reid’s Yacht Service and Barb from 34 grown children led to the sale of the family home West Hollywood. She was very disappointed years teaching special education in Boston), and with a move to an empty-nest house at the beach. that schedules didn’t allow for a visit with Dana a er doing necessary improvements on their home Friedman Kiesel while there, but hopes to be in Massachusetts, sold it and have become full- Correspondent: Jenifer Kahn Bakka- back soon. Talie Ward Harris’s grandson, Wal- time residents of North Port, Fla. “We love it so la, 51 Wesson Terrrace, Northborough, ter Ward Harris, turned 2 in February. His aunt, much! We’re about halfway between the Fort My- 87MA 01532, [email protected] Con- Madeline Ward Harris ’16, was there to witness ers and Sarasota airports, out in the country (ac- gratulations to Michael Schadick, who recently her nephew’s slam dunks into the three-foot-high tually the jungle) with some acreage, away from received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree basketball hoop and trike races around the Cho- the traffi and snowbirds. Our neighbors are deer, from his graduate school alma mater, the Hebrew ate School gym with other “fac brats.” Duncan owls, turtles, herons, hawks and the occasional Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, for 25 Dayton celebrated son Nelson’s first birthday this gator.” Barb has taken up horseback riding again, years of service as a rabbi. David “Woody” Wit- spring. Several classmates mourned the passing and they also cruise around on their Harleys and tenberg is entering his 26th year as an attorney in of our much-beloved friend and former housefel- their tandem bike. “Life is good with no alarm the Atlanta area. He is a sole practitioner, concen- low, Bill Barrack, who died on Christmas Eve. clocks and no snow!” Barb has also been blessed trating in consumer bankruptcy. His children are His service, in Wellesley, Mass., was attended by with a beautiful grandson (son Jerry and family now 26 and 21 and starting to find their own ways more than 400, including Talie Ward Harris, Ja- are in Dallas); son Brian is still in Massachusetts in life. David remarried three years ago, and he mie Kageleiry Stringfellow, Linda Wiatrowski working for Comcast. Karen Barsa moved to and his wife (an Emory U. professor) enjoy travel- Gregory, Christy Beckwith Bensley, Harry Portland, Ore., from Park City, Utah, and would ing as much as work will allow. They made it to Is- Moore, Bryan MacDonald, Andy Storero, enjoy seeing any classmates in the area. Pat Dad- rael, Slovenia, Colorado and Colombia in 2019. In
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Weddings
Johanna Gregory ’10 married Murat Civan on Sept. 29, 2019, in Denmark.
Jessica Grossi Grace ’07, Sarah Trapido ’08, Lauren Trapido ’05, Nick DiMatteo ’07, Matt Kaplan (new husband; not an alum), Pam Ziering ’05 and Kimberly Carron Hayes ’03
Joan Edwards ’87 offic ted at the wedding of the daughter of George Newman ’85 and Lynn Heiman Bride Leigh Ahrensdorf Fitzgerald ’08 and groom Paul Fitzgerald at their Newman ’87. Pictured from left to right are the fl wer girls, bride Claire Conroy, groom Christopher Naples, Fla., wedding, with Beverly Alfano Ahrensdorf ’72, Lee Ahrensdorf Conroy, Joan, and George and Lynn. Joan and Lynn were freshman roommates in Knowlton, and and Drew Ahrensdorf, on Nov. 9, 2019 George lived right across the hall!
Anna Kaiper ’06 married Ian Kaiper-Marquez in September 2019 in Susan Endel Kerner ’67 and Paul Smirnoff ere married in May 2019. A wedding family photo Santa Fe, N.M. includes her oldest son, Andrew Kerner ’02, and daughter-in-law Alison Roth-Kerner ’01.
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Births
Mickey Lenzi ’10 and Julia Harnett Lenzi ’10 welcomed son Oliver William on Nov. 20, 2019. Dan and Sarah Ellison O’Shea ’08 welcomed son Ian James into the world on Feb. 2, 2020.
Laura Frawley ’10 and Brian Knowles and son Will were Avi Ben-Zvi ’10 and Ruthie Thier Ben-Zvi ’12 welcomed Paige Landry ’10 and Randy Lovelace ’11 welcomed thrilled to welcome the newest member of their family, daughter Ida on Nov. 26, 2019. daughter Landry Lynn Lovelace on Feb. 12, 2020. Riley Kimberly Knowles, on Jan. 30, 2020.
On Feb. 9, Julian turned 1. Dad David DiGiammarino ’06, mom Kelly and sister Eleanor (3) had a blast at his birthday party. Julian was unsure of the whole thing but certainly enjoys Annie Gemmer Bowe ’10 with family being able to pull-to-stand, babbling and waving bye to people.
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ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 59 5/7/20 1:05 PM Class of 1991 alums Nancy Mather Twyman, Karen Robert Shea ’91, Eva Cahalan Shea ’91, Jen Schumacher Harper Class of 1991 alums Kristen Nani Dohoney, Erin McLaughlin Christophano DiGravio, Amy Lebowitz Rosman and Stephanie ’91 and Linda Smith Munyan ’91 in Chatham, MA Chase, Mark Waldeck, Paul Simpson, Andrew McCuskey, and Kim celebrated their 50th birthdays together. Beth Munger Leavitt reunited for a pub crawl. Candle Maker Mysteries, Murder Makes Scents, 2020, they are planning an Alaska cruise and a came out Feb. 25. And the third, 15 Minutes of ing to build these new acts (each has had multiple week of hiking in Glacier National Park. “Life is Flame, will come out Aug. 25. “My favorite early gigs so far). I saw Cait Goodwin in her home good. No complaints.” Virginia Vancil has been reader review, so far? The book is ‘a good rea- state of Oregon last year and keep in close touch teaching social studies in Shelton, Conn., for son not to do the dinner dishes!’” While she was with Annik Hirshen ’92, since we both dwelled 20 years and loves it! Gini lives in Madison and writing the book at a café in Nantucket, Christin on the top floo of Larrabee (wasn’t it called the recently joined the board of directors for Raise bumped into Frank Suher and Hillary Schacher Nunnery?). I’ve been married since 2003 to a fel- the Roof, the Shoreline chapter of Habitat for Suher. “A er their help with some brainstorm- low Connecticut native I met here in DC, and we Humanity of Greater New Haven. Linda Chris- ing, I named the book’s spy Agent Hill!” Chris- have a 12-year-old-son and a 2-year-old pit bull tensen Wright and husband Bill are still in West tin attended the NYC holiday party and had “a mix. One thing I’ve learned since leaving CC is it Hartford, Conn., and Linda’s catering business fun time seeing classmates.” Jen Harvey Olivetti is never too late to try to be what you might have keeps her hopping. Two of their three children and Jerry Olivetti ’89 still live in Wellesley, Mass. been.” Brian Field was the recent recipient of a are “launched,” so she has more time for playing “It was really nice to see so many alumni at the McKnight Foundation Award through the Min- tennis, walking her dogs and traveling—including Boston event this past December! My daughter, nesota Sinfonia, which performed his “Lullaby” a yoga retreat in Costa Rica planned in 2020. Posy, will graduate from the College of Charles- for chamber orchestra in three diffe ent venues ton in May, and my son, Miles, will graduate from around Minneapolis this past February. Kirsten Correspondent: Tamsen Bales Sharpless, WHS in June. He will start at Ithaca College this Ward wrote, “I finally made the big move to the [email protected] Please con- fall.” Amy Rogers Nazarov is living on Capitol West Coast! It was a whirlwind January: Job offe 89tinue to share mini-reunions, life events Hill in DC and runs her own company doing so- accepted Jan. 2, on a plane Jan. 14 and started a or anything else to strengthen our connection to cial media for small businesses. She is also a per- new position on Jan. 27. My little Yorkshire ter- each other and the College. If you are interested forming singer-songwriter. “I was too chicken to rier (Tenzing) moved to Orange County, Calif., in connecting on Facebook, please send me a note try out for the a cappella groups at CC but have with me, and we are loving the weather. My new at the address above or request via Facebook to made up for that since! I was in an award-winning position is with Tandem Diabetes Care teaching join the private group Connecticut College Class bluegrass band called Dead Men’s Hollow for 14 patients and health care providers how to man- of 1989. In other Camel news: Singer-songwriter years, and now I am launching two new bands: age blood glucose levels with an insulin pump and Andrew McKnight just wrapped up a seven-year ARDMORE, a Celtic-fl vored Americana thing, continuous glucose monitor.” Despite the long odyssey of amazing experiences and connections and Tiber Creek, a duo which does original songs trip across the country, Kirsten plans to attend exploring his family’s history in a new album and and the odd Richard Thompson cover. Perform- Reunion and looks forward to reconnecting with book, Treasures in My Chest. Full of helpful tips ing is literally my dream come true, and it is thrill- everyone! for those curious about their own family legacy, the project is also loaded with “can’t make this Correspondent: Nora Mirick Guerrera, up” stories, including a family fortune lost on the [email protected] Follow- Titanic, a doomed Civil War ancestor, and a gi ing her time at Conn, Sarah Jacobs guitar brought home from cousins in Northern 04 Forbes completed grad school in anthropology in Ireland. Andrew’s 2020 tour will cover most of NYC, spent 12 years as the curator of the Mu- the country, including Connecticut. Details can seum of Sex and wrote her first book, Sex in the be found on Andrew’s website, http://andrew- Museum: My Unlikely Career at New York’s Most mcknight.net. Provocative Museum. She moved to London three years ago with her Irish husband, their two chil- Correspondent: Toria Brett, Class Correspondent, 30 Washington Ave., 90Northampton, MA 01060, victori- [email protected] Kahla Thompson Nelson will miss Reunion but said she enjoyed a visit from Susie Lee to her home in Chonburi, Thailand, in November. Kahla is teaching at an international school while her husband commutes back and forth to China. Two of their four kids also attend this school, and the other two are in university. Kahla is looking forward to spending time with Leslie Pelton and family this summer and hope- fully Marina McClelland-Neal, too. Congrats to Christin Shanahan Brecher, who has two books Charles Stackhouse ’94 with children Gavin and Charlie, and out this year. Her second book in the Nantucket Chris McDaniel ’94 and Knute Gregg ’94 in the background, at Gloria Coats Handyside ’04 with her husband Mark and their Reunion 2019 daughters
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ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 60 5/7/20 1:06 PM Class of 1991 alums Sarah Casey Forbes, Eva Cahalan Shea, Class of 1991 alums Winnie Loeffler erner, Alexandra Ladd, Class of 1991 alums Kirsten Cather, Mary O’Dea Newton, Deb Jen Kimiatek Hunniwell, Marty Davis and Lynn Elliot celebrated Katie Drucker, Laura Williams Freed, Lorraine White, Lenora Garret Lawlor, Carolyn Tan Deane and Kristen Martin May got birthdays together. Gim, Alice Coleman and Kristen O’Sullivan celebrated their 50th together in San Francisco. birthdays in California. dren and their aging Shiba Inu. She’s currently at Montville High School. Chris Percy is finis - Kaiper-Marquez in Santa Fe, N.M., and several writing her next book, Mama Sex, and working ing up a master’s degree in clinical mental health Camels (Randy Jones, Sharlene Jeanty ’04, Jen as a “curator/sexual culturalist/personal ethnog- counseling, which should be complete in May. Reilly, Julia Ochiogrosso, Caroline Damon, rapher” and traveling throughout Europe. To her Following his degree, he looks forward to mov- Stephanie Platt, and Felipe Estrela ’07 and Julia CISLA family: “You would be proud!” She con- ing back to Maine with his yellow Lab pup, Red- Wisbach Estrela) were in attendance. Meg Gib- tinues to be so thankful for all of the sisters she wood, to begin working in the mental health field. son Wheeler is running for state senate in Mas- gained through her time at CC. A er 14 years His focus is working with adolescents and general sachusetts. She is excited to be on the ballot in living abroad, Gloria Coats Handyside, hus- trauma victims/survivors through equine-facili- November! You can find more information about band Mark and their daughters have relocated to tated psychotherapy. her campaign at www.megwheeler.com. Felicia Boulder, Colo., from the United Kingdom. Ted Brown married Matthew Reed in New Bedford, Ketterer recently moved to Bogotá, Colombia, Class Correspondents: Stephanie Sav- Mass., on Sept. 21, 2019. Camels in attendance to take on an exciting role heading up marketing age Flynn, 21 Whiting Rd., Wellesley, included Carly Allard ’09, Erin Gordon, Ju- for the Coca-Cola Company. He was joined by 05MA 02481, stephaniesavageflynn@ lie Kozaczka, Kate Zullo, Jacqui Crowley ’07, his wife, Inajá, and two dogs, one of which is an gmail.com, and Cecily Mandl Macy, 8114 Flour- Meredith Miller Thompson and Sarah King. Instagram celebrity: @reubenthebatdog. Kelly town Ave., Glenside, PA 09038, cecily.mandl@ In the summer of 2018, Kelley Mooney, as part Hart was promoted in the Foreign Service and is gmail.com Sara Kelly combined her love of table- of an investment group, invested in an old mining currently serving as a political offic at the U.S. ware with her professional experience in product ghost town that was for sale in California, with embassy in Ankara, Turkey. Enjoying a healthy development and marketing to launch her new the aim of turning it into “an exclusive experi- NESCAC rivalry with Middlebury alumni at the company, Rigby. Rigby offers unique pieces of ence”—keeping its infrastructure and building embassy, she and her colleagues work to advance dishware, glassware and flat are with visible on it. “It got picked up in a ton of publications, U.S. diplomatic effo ts with NATO ally Turkey. craftsmanship and subtle imperfections produced and it was an exciting change of pace for me.” Kelly enjoys mentoring Conn students interested in Europe. Check out her line at www.rigby- (Search for Cerro Gordo to read an article in the in the State Department and continues to serve home.com. Los Angeles Times.) That excitement sparked a in the Reserves as a Lieutenant Commander in realization that it was time for a change, so last the Navy JAG Corps. Meredith Marcus was Class Correspondent: Julia Jacobson, ju- April Kelley left her job at Hulu and decided to involved in the case of Biestek v. Berryhill be- [email protected] Anna Kaiper leave L.A. altogether, selling off most of her pos- fore the United States Supreme Court. While 06finished her Ph.D. at U. of Minneso- sessions and setting off to travel the world. Since the Supreme Court affirme the decision, it pro- ta in 2018 in comparative and international de- last June she’s driven across the U.S., and she was vided excellent language for countless claimants velopment education and started a faculty job in writing from her 10th country. “It’s been most- applying for social security. Hollyann Moriarty the College of Education at Penn State the same ly solo, some volunteering, some courses and is now chair of the science and math department year. She was married in September 2019 to Ian lots of incredible experiences. It’s honestly been life-changing.” She appreciates friends (especial- ly from Conn) reaching out with encouragement. “Lots to be said about the lessons, reflec ions, per- sonal growth, gratitude, etc. … I’m living out my Conn majors (sociology and gender and women’s studies).” Check out Kelley’s adventures on her blog at cluelessandabroad.com and on Instagram @cluelessandabroad. “It’s been a wild ride so far.
Kelly Hart ’04 and her partner, Calen, exploring Cappadocia, Turkey 2006 classmates Greg Kubie, Sarah Ceglarski and Charlie Widdoes reunited for brunch in Los Angeles recently.
SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes 61
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 61 5/7/20 1:06 PM in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 9. Fellow Camels Amy Gordie Hall, Nick XueFeng Peng, Jackie Crespi, Diana Coyne DiFiore and Arielle Cur- Hutchins, Jesse Deutsch, David Arroyo, Jack tis were bridesmaids. Peter Yannielli and Col- Lichten and Gili Ben-Yosef ’09. Laura Frawley leen Cowperthwait were also in attendance. and Brian Knowles, along with son Will, were Leigh and Paul currently live in Boston. Marissa thrilled to welcome the newest member of their Lombari is working on her master of education family, Riley Kimberly Knowles, on Jan. 30. Ve- degree in school counseling through the U. of ronica Botsford moved from San Diego to Se- Southern California’s Rossier School and ex- attle last July. For the past six years she has been pects to graduate in May 2021. a licensed massage therapist and is now halfway through the couples and family therapy graduate Correspondent: Grace Astrove, program at Seattle U. A er realizing her passion [email protected] Johanna Gregory for helping people feel better physically, Veron- 10married Murat Civan on Sept. 29 in ica decided to expand her scope to help people Denmark. The couple lives in Berlin, Germany, with their mental and emotional health as well. and Johanna works at the American Chamber of Matthew Addison has been acting profession- Commerce in Germany. Annie Gemmer Bowe ally since graduating, in both NYC and Los An- and husband Josh Bowe, of Sebago, Maine, wel- geles. He was recently featured on The Last O.G.
Camels from 1973, 2006, and 2007 came out to support comed their second child, Elizabeth Bradbury on TBS and Blue Bloods on CBS; both episodes Elaine Weisman’s ’07 husband Bobby Harris as he ran the NYC Bowe, on Oct. 30. Son Sawyer, 3, loves being a will premiere this fall. Before that he had gigs on Marathon. Pictured back row, L-R: Adam Robbins ’07, Jennie big brother to Lizzie. Avi Ben-Zvi and Ruthie NBC and HBO. Matthew is proud to represent Bargman ’06, Julia Jacobson ’06, Ned Weisman ’73. Front row L-R: Eric DeBear ’07, Megan McCarthy ’07, Katey Nelson ’06, Thier Ben-Zvi ’12 welcomed daughter Ida on Conn College on the screen. Courtney Smith Elaine Weisman ’07, Anne Harding Weisman ’73 Nov. 26. Paige Landry and Randy Lovelace ’11 moved back to the Boston area and is currently welcomed daughter Landry Lynn Lovelace on working as an emergency department physician And the ghost town is still in development, most Feb. 12. Mom and baby are healthy, and they assistant at Carney Hospital in Dorchester and recently voted Ghost Adventures’ best episode of are all happily settling into a routine as a family at Quincy Medical Center’s satellite emergency the season!” (Look for it on YouTube.) During of three. Mickey Lenzi and Julia Harnett Lenzi department. She continues to play ice hockey her travels Kelley has connected with Camels welcomed son Oliver William on Nov. 20. They in the South Shore hockey league and this past Ashley Kennerson ’15 in London and Spain have moved to Norwood, Mass., and Mickey be- winter went to Eagle River, Wisc., to play in the and Andrew Musoke ’04 in Nairobi, and Molly gan a new career as an attorney at WilmerHale largest U.S. pond hockey tournament with Cam- Kawachi ’06 helped her with a contact for volun- LLP a er graduating from American U. Wash- el teammate Emily Mason Schoessow ’09. teering in Kenya. ington College of Law in May 2019. They were looking forward to introducing Oliver to their Sybil Bullock spoke at the Let’s Do Class Correspondent: Areti Sakellaris, fellow classmates at their 10th reunion this sum- It World Conference 2020 in Tallinn, [email protected] Dan and Sar- mer. Emmet Markin married Sarah Klass last Estonia, in January. You can view her ah Ellison O’Shea welcomed their 14 08 summer in New Jersey. In attendance was Oscar talk on Facebook Live by searching “Let’s Do son, Ian James, into the world on Feb. 2. The par- Guerra ’11, Kasey Lum Condra ’11, Stephanie It World Conference 2020.” It’s under Videos, ents are totally smitten with him and very excited Banim, Christina Moreno Madrigal, Susana and Sybil’s presentation starts at about 00:57. to introduce him to fellow Camels! Dan, Sarah, Salazar, Justin O’Shea, Jennifer Tejada-Tatis, She was a Greenpeace campus rep while at and Ian live in Salem, Mass., with their dog, Ivan Tatis, Johanna Gregory, Susannah Mat- Conn College. Dougal. Leigh Ahrensdorf, daughter of Beverly thews, Mike Gardner, Kat Arnao, Skye Ross, Alfano Ahrensdorf ’72, married Paul Fitzgerald Correspondent: Victoria Slater, victo- [email protected] Several mem- 19bers of the Class of 2019 attended Conn’s Holiday Party at the University Club in December. Former first year roommates Victo- ONE CAMEL. ONE COMMUNITY. ria Slater and Erin Fagan, both in NYC now, met up for dinner in February. Mary Kate Fox STRONGER TOGETHER. and Michael Lynch moved to Seoul, South Ko- rea, in January to teach English at an elemen- Now more than tary school for the year. Brie Duseau moved to Brisbane, Australia, where she works at a ever, your support of boarding school as a dorm parent and a senior Connecticut College’s soccer coach. Jenny Kellog met up with Dayna McCue ’20 for a ski weekend in February. Ash- areas of greatest need ley Myers published her first novella, Seasons of will make a difference Rose, a collection of short stories she has written over the years.You can find it on Amazon. Alex for our students, faculty Medzorian has been sharing his fitness routine and the entire campus over social media while getting a master of sci- community. ence degree in management studies at Boston U. Jackie Cooney is similarly pursuing a mas- ter of management degree at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the U. of Michigan. Fellow CC women’s lacrosse teammates Holly Bertschmann, Erin Martin and Jamie Navoni PLEASE MAKE YOUR GIFT BY JUNE 30, 2020 giving.conncoll.edu visited Jackie in Ann Arbor for game day in the fall.
62 SUMMER 2020 | Class Notes
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 62 5/7/20 1:06 PM In Memoriam
1940s Margery Blech Passett ’56, died February 2020 Edna Fuchs Allen ’42, died November 12, 2019 Gail Rubenstein Wahl ’57, died February 1, 2020 Margaret Carpenter Evans ’44, died December 12, 2019 Elizabeth Bove ’58, died December 13, 2019 Margaret Hamilton Hamachek ’44, died November 15, 2019 Marie Liggera Schacher ’58, died December 13, 2019 Mary-Jean Moran Johnson Hart ’44, died December 1, 2019 Edwina Czajkowski ’59, died January 4, 2020 Virginia Bowman Corkran ’45, died January 31, 2020 Faye Cauley Gage ’59, died December 27, 2019 Marcia Faust McNees ’45, died December 16, 2019 Susan Calhoun Heminway ’59, died February 6, 2020 Louisa Angus Grosjean ’46, died February 5, 2020 Laurel Seikel McDermott ’59, died February 2, 2020 Ann Shields Koepfli ’4 , died November 11, 2019 Barbara Marshall McCleary ’47, died December 30, 2019 1960s Patricia Robinson ’47, died January 1, 2020 Lee Chapman Biederman ’63, died November 11, 2019 Jacquelyn Greenblatt Tchorni ’47, died March 1, 2020 Rita Peer ’66, died July 26, 2019 Helen Crumrine Ferguson ’48, died March 13, 2019 Anita Shapiro Wilson ’66, died November 28, 2019 Jane Klauminzer Molen ’48, died February 1, 2020 Nancy Eliason Drazga ’67, died December 29, 2019 Joan Armstrong ’49, died December 1, 2019 Dorcas Hardy ’68, died November 28, 2019 Julienne Shinn McNeer ’49, died February 9, 2019 Wendy Spear Mayrose ’68, died December 22, 2019 Barbara Miller Smachetti ’49, died December 28, 2019 Joan Underwood Walls ’49, died February 2, 2020 1970s Adele Phillips ’71, died January 30, 2020 1950s Susan Lawrence Monack ’72, died January 25, 2020 Jean McClure Blanning ’50, died on November 22, 2019 Patricia Parsons Christy ’75, died January 17, 2020 Allis Ferguson Edelman ’50, died December 19, 2019 Beverly Hindinger Krizanovic ’75, died July 23, 2018 Barbara Biddle Gallagher ’50, died February 3, 2020 Christopher Schell ’76, died December 20, 2019 Nancy Carter McKay ’51, died January 31, 2020 Michael Adamowicz ’79, died November 18, 2019 Constance Kelley Mellen ’51, died November 2019 Louise Hallock Anderson ’53, died December 8, 2019 1980s Joan Benson Williams ’53, died October 19, 2019 William Barrack ’81, died December 24, 2019 Katharine Smith Flower ’54, died October 31, 2018 James Santaniello ’83, died January 15, 2020 Cynthia Fenning Rehm ’54, died December 12, 2019 Martha Flickinger Schroeder ’54, died February 12, 2020 1990s Mary Lee Matheson Shanahan ’54, died April 2019 Sheri Nechamkin Kimmel ’94, died October 12, 2019 Sylvia Lewis Golderberg ’55, died February 20, 2020 Nancy Fargo ’95, died December 19, 2019 Joan Robertson Jones ’55, died March 3, 2018 Peter Ryan ’95, died December 1, 2019 Amelia Noyes Baugham ’56, died January 19, 2020 Karlene Lapointe Clark ’56, died January 2, 2020 2000s Ann Lewis Cooper ’56, died January 22, 2020 Jessica DeSanta ’04, died December 6, 2019 Alison Friend Gansler ’56, died January 26, 2020 Christiana Donnel ’07, died November 15, 2019
SUMMER 2020 | Obituaries 63
ClassNotesSummer2020.indd 63 5/7/20 1:06 PM Save the Date!
From Conn’s Archives: the other pandemic Illustration by Miles Ladin ’90
On July 8, 1919, the Connecticut College News published In addition to reminiscing about classes, professors and a page-one story about Conn’s first Commencement. various dances, there are recollections of “throat swabs,” how Tucked away on page 4 of Conn’s weekly newspaper was a “the telephones were gargled every time they were used” and piece written by Juline Warner ’19 titled, “History of the descriptions of quarantines in Winthrop for diphtheria and Class 1919.” influenza. In her story, Warner, who went to Conn during the Spanish Warner wrote the word quarantine 11 times in her story, Flu pandemic, pulls a model submarine out of a bureau, the including this piece of dialogue between her and the imaginary Class of 1919 mascot, she calls it. While contemplating the Navy officer. year just passed, she hears a voice and, in a display of magic “Yes, and you squeezed in the Sykes Fund dance, too... realism, climbs through the hatch of the tiny sub, and proceeds a er it had been twice postponed for quarantine.” to have a conversation with an imaginary navy officer History repeats.
64 SUMMER 2020 | Full Stop
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ALL-CAMPUS PICNIC FACULTY ACTIVITIES HARVESTFEST SPORTING EVENTS & MUCH MORE!
www.conncoll.edu/fall-weekend
Due to the uncertainty caused by the current global health crisis, dates and events for Fall Weekend 2020 are subject to change.
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CC
Connecticut College Magazine Connecticut College Offic of Communications 270 Mohegan Avenue New London, CT 06320-4196
ccmagazine.conncoll.edu Graham Koval ’18 Koval Graham While Conn went remote, spring bloomed on campus. Vol. 28 No. 3 ✦ Summer 2020
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