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 Georgia
Yuan, who served as Smith College general
counsel from 2003 until this year, was recently awarded
the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association
of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). The award
recognizes individuals who have given extraordinary
service both to NACUA and to institutions of higher
learning. Yuan, who joined NACUA in 1991, served on
its Board of Directors from 1998 to 2000, and again
from 2003 to 2009, and as association president in
2006-07, the first Asian-American to hold that office.
Before coming to Smith, Yuan served as general counsel
at the University of Idaho. Yuan recently relocated
to Washington, D.C., where she joined the U.S. Department
of Education as Deputy General Counsel for Post-Secondary
Education and Regulatory Service.
  Katlyn
R. Lewicke ’11 (pictured
at left) and Helen Hua ’10 were
among the contestants in the Miss Massachusetts pageant
earlier this month, a lead-up event to the high-profile
Miss America pageant. The students qualified for the
state competition by taking regional crowns, Lewicke
for Miss Western Massachusetts 2010, Hua for Miss Southcoast
2010. Neither Lewicke nor Hua cracked the top 10 in
the state pageant, blunting their hopes for national
contention. For Lewicke, who appeared in a Fourth of
July parade, it’s only the beginning. “It
was my first year competing,” she said. “I
am in love with the system and plan to keep competing."
It was Hua's in the state pageant.
Victoria Davey ’77 was
appointed in June to the position of Chief Officer of Public
Health and Environmental Hazards, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs. Davey has served in the office since 1999, and
has been Acting Chief Officer since September 2009, and
Deputy Chief Officer since 2006. Davey is a national expert
on planning and preparedness for pandemic influenza and
other public health/biodefense-related initiatives and
has been princpal for VHA’s response to the 2009
H1N1 outbreak. The Office of Public Health and Environmental
Hazards leads public health programs for the VA.
 Among
her duties as Google’s manager of space initiatives, Tiffany
Montague ’96 oversees the possibilities
of sending robots to the moon and observing Mars. Montague,
who was featured in a by New York Times “Bits” column
writer Ashlee Vance, developed a sense for space, first
as an Air Force officer flying high-altitude reconnaissance
aircraft, then as an employee for the National Reconnaissance
Office, a government intelligence agency specializing in
spy satellites. After graduating from Smith, Montague had
her sites set on becoming a NASA astronaut, but eventually
realized the odds were slight that she would fly in space.
Perhaps her current job offers the next best thing: working
with NASA in gathering astronomical data and looking long
and closely at space.
Steven Goldstein,
Sophia Smith Professor of Government, was recently named
among the first class of research associates of the National
Asia Research Program (NARP), an initiative of the National
Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International
Center. NARP chose 39 outstanding scholars of Asia—27
research associates and 12 research fellows—for the
program, which will fund their research during a two-year
term and bring it to the attention of policymakers. The
NARP scholars were chosen from educational institutions
throughout the country based on their research into issues
of importance to U.S. interests in Asia. “Our goal
in this new program is to highlight and reward scholars
who have successfully bridged the gap between the academy
and policy,” said NARP co-director Richard Ellings. “America’s
future security, prosperity, and well-being will be deeply
linked with Asia’s future, and thus America needs
some of its best and brightest to understand our interests
in Asia.”
Craig Davis,
professor of English language and literature, has been
selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer
Scholar to participate in a seminar held in Rome, titled “The ‘Falls’ of
Rome: The Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity,” from
June 28 to July 30. Davis will contribute a project titled The
Ethnogenisis of the Goths in Rome. The National Endowment
for the Humanities is a federal agency that each summer
supports seminars and institutes so that college teachers
can work in collaboration with experts in humanities disciplines.
Virginia Woolf |
Karen Kukil,
associate curator of special collections, recently represented
Smith on a panel of librarians and biographers at the first
conference of the Biographers International Organization
[link], held at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
As a member of a panel on “Working with Primary Documents,” Kukil
presented “Objects are Documents,” a talk about
teaching with manuscripts, drawing from examples of recent
exhibitions at Smith on Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury
Group. Kukil joined Kathryn Jacob, curator of manuscripts
at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard, and biographers
Susan Quinn and Nancy Milford on the panel, which was moderated
by archivist Phyllis Steele.
Janine Olthuis ’08 was
recently awarded the Vanier Canada Graduate Fellowship,
considered the most prestigious doctoral fellowship in
Canada. Olthuis is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology
at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Vanier
Fellowship is awarded to some of the most talented doctoral
students from around the world who study at Canadian schools.
Recipients are chosen for their demonstrated leadership
skills and high academic achievement. Olthuis will receive
$50,000 annually for up to three years.
 A
work by Donald Wheelock, Irwin and Pauline
Alper Glass Professor of Music, titled Music for Seven
Players, will be performed on Saturday, June 19, at
8 p.m. as part of the 2010 Institute and Festival for Contemporary
Performance (IFCP) at Mannes Concert Hall in New York City.
Wheelock’s piece, scored for flute, clarinet, piano,
percussion, violin, viola and cello, is part of a program
with works by composers Elliott Carter and Linda Dusman.
The IFCP seeks to provide young musicians with opportunities
to become experienced and comfortable performing new works,
said Todd Tarantino, coordinator of the festival. “What
makes Wheelock’s piece so strong and useful for these
young players is how well it is written for their instruments.”
Adam Hall and Christine
White-Zeigler, both associate professors in
biological sciences, are recent recipients of $300,000
AREA (Academic Research Enhancement Award) grants from
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grants are
given in support of research projects in biomedical and
behavioral sciences that incorporate student collaboration
at undergraduate and masters degree levels. Hall’s
grant will help fund his project, “The Role of
Metallothioneins in Isoflurane-Preconditioning of Neurons
in Vitro.” White-Ziegler will use the grant for
her project “Short-term Responses to Temperature
Changes in E-coli.” Both faculty members will employ
several students, through special studies and the STRIDE
program, who fund their travel expenses to present their
research at microbiology and anesthesiology events. Also,
Hall plans to purchase new equipment—a tissue culture
incubator, anesthetic vaporizer and anesthetic exposure
chamber—for his lab. “These research experiences  give
students an opportunity to develop a project that is
their own,” said White-Zeigler, “a place
for them to make novel observations and contribute to
their field of research.”
Several recent alumnae and
one current student have received awards from the National
Science Foundation (NSF). Three alumnae received NSF graduate
fellowships for study in geosciences: Kristin Mayer ’05,
at Stanford University; Maya Li Wei-Haas ’09,
studying environmental geochemistry at The Ohio State University;
and Kelsey Winsor ’07, studying
paleoclimatology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Engineering major Katelyn Gerecht ’10 will
head to Pennsylvania State University with an NSF Fellowship
to study hydrologic sciences. Also receiving NSF awards
this year are Kristina Yoshida ’02,
who is studying environmental sciences at the University
of California, Berkeley, and Caitlin Daniel ’06,
studying sociology at Harvard University.
Lauren Ann
Metskas ’08 (M.S. ’10)
was invited to give an oral presentation last month
of the paper “Gender Dimorphism in the Exercise-Naïve
Murine Skeletal Muscle Proteme”—co-authored
by Mohini Kulp, laboratory instructor in chemistry,
and Stylianos Scordilis, professor of biological sciences—at
the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society
in Anaheim, Calif. The paper is the first documentation
that the assemblage of proteins in mouse biceps muscle
differs between males and females, according to Scordilis.
The research, conducted with the use of state-of-the-art
instrumentation in Smith’s Center for Proteomics,
is important to the understanding of gender differences
during exercise, Scordilis said. Metskas, who completed
a self-designed major in exercise science before completing
her master’s degree in biology, will enter Yale
University’s postgraduate Molecular Biophysics
and Biochemistry program in the fall.
 Ellen
Doré Watson, director of the Smith College
Poetry Center, was recently awarded a full fellowship
to the MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire), as well as a
Zoland Poetry Award full fellowship to the Vermont Studio
Center. The MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire) supports
highly talented artists by providing an inspiring environment
for them to work. The Vermont Studio Center, located
in Johnson, Vt., hosts artists’ and writers’ participation
in studio residencies. Watson’s fifth book collection
of poems is due for release this summer.
 Stuff:
Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by
Randy Frost and Gail Steketee. An analysis of compulsive
hoarding behaviors using case studies. Published
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. by
psychiatrist Peter D. Kramer. |
 Parties,
Polarization, and Democracy in the United States, by
Donald Baumer and Howard Gold, professors of government,
published in December 2009 by Paradigm Publishers. . |
 American
Art to 1900: A Documentary History, by
John Davis and Sarah Burns. Published in 1009 by
University of California Press. . |
 With
Few Reservations: Travels at Home and Abroad, by
Peter I. Rose, professor emeritus of sociology.
Forty-eight commentaries on people and places
from Cape Cod to Cape Horn. . |
 Cynthia
Wade ’89, the Academy Award-winning
filmmaker, for her film Freeheld, took an
Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking at the 2010 Sundance
Film Festival for her latest film Born Sweet,
a 28-minute documentary that tells the story of a 15-year-old
Cambodian boy dying of arsenic poisoning while dreaming
of karaoke stardom. Wade, who discovered filmmaking
as an undergraduate at Smith, first learned of arsenic-laced
well water from a National Public Radio story last
year. “I was looking to challenge myself by
directing a film outside of my comfort zone,” Wade
explains. “I had never been to Cambodia, and
never directed a film in a language that I can’t
speak. Making a film in a language and land that is
so different from my own allowed me to think in pictures,
and allowed me to push the visual style of the film.
The film is a coming-of-age story of a teenage boy
who has arsenic poisoning. His longing for love and
human connection is universal.” Wade and her
team traveled to Cambodia three times in 2009, bringing
water, cots, mosquito nets and generators over a small
wooden ferry to the tiny village of Prek Russei. about Born
Sweet.
 Thelma
Golden ’87, a prominent and
longtime force in American art, was recently appointed
by President Barack Obama to the Committee for the
Preservation of the White House. The committee, which
was created in 1964, advises the President, First Lady,
and director of the National Park Service on preserving
the museum quality of the public space of the White
House. “One of our priorities has been to open
the doors of the White House, invite more visitors
in and truly make it the
‘People’s House,’” said First Lady
Michelle Obama. “When people come here for public
tours and events, we want them to have a truly educational
and enjoyable experience. As a partner in this effort,
the Committee for the Preservation of the White House will
advise us on what modifications and acquisitions need to
be made so that the White House remains an historically
accurate, open, living museum.” Golden is Director
and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, an institution
devoted to artists of African descent.
 Danielle
Pite ’12 recently had her work
published in the journal Acta Botanica Croatica,
a publication of articles pertaining to terrestrial
and aquatic botany. Pite worked as a team during her
senior year at Boulder (Colo.) High School on the article “Historical
abundance and morphology of Didymosphenia species in
Naknek Lake, Alaska,” which was published in
the journal’s February edition. Her co-authors
are Kelly Lane, Anna Hermann, now a student at Tulane
University; Sarah Spaulding, U.S. Geological Survey;
and Bruce Finney, Idaho State University.
David Burton,
associate professor in the School for Social Work, was
awarded the Apple Award from the National Adolescent Perpetration
Network (NAPN) at the group’s 25th annual conference
in Denver, Colo., last month. The NAPN is a cooperative
of professionals working with adolescents in sexually abusive
circumstances. The award was presented by Gail Ryan, founder
of NAPN, for Burton’s efforts to educate professionals
and students in the field of juvenile sexual abuse prevention
and treatment. “Dr. Burton has been teaching professionals
and students in the field for over 20 years,” said
Ryan in presenting the award. “He is a highly valued
mentor and exceptional teacher, respected both nationwide
and internationally.”
Linda Hartke ’80 recently
began her new position as president and chief executive
officer of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
(LIRS). Based in Baltimore, the LIRS is one of the nation's
leading agencies serving refugees and immigrants. Hartke,
a Lutheran, brings extensive experience to her new role,
most recently having served as executive director of the
Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, and before that
with Church World Service, serving first as country director
in Cambodia until she assumed the role of director of programs
and operations. At Smith, Hartke studied religion and biblical
literature with a second major in government. “I
am deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead Lutheran
Immigration and Refugee Service," said Hartke. “I
look forward to working together with the LIRS board, staff,
partners and friends across the country to make the United
States a more welcoming place for immigrants and refugees.”
 Carla
Coffey, head coach of cross country and track,
has been named a 2009 inductee into the Kentucky Track
and Cross Country Coaches Association (KTCCCA) Hall of
Fame. Coffey, who has served as Smith’s coach of
cross country and track and field since 1992, coached
track at Western Kentucky University and completed her
undergraduate and master’s degrees at Murray State
University in Murray, Ky. Coffey has also held coaching
positions at The University of California, Davis, the
University of Kansas and Dartmouth College. Coffey is
the 89th inductee to the hall of fame, which was established
in 1988 to honor Kentucky natives who have had a notable
impact on running sports. Before coming to Smith, Coffey
competed in the Pan American and Olympic trials in 1972,
and coached the 1990 World Junior Championship team in
Bulgaria. While at Smith, she has coached at the World
Indoors Championships in Toronto (1993), Barcelona (1995),
Chile (2000), and Italy (2004). She is also in the Murray
State University and Western Kentucky University halls
of fame. Coffey was presented with the honor during a
banquet in Lexington, Ky., on January 9.
 Emily
Curry ’12 recently took second place in
the Under-23 women’s category of the National Cyclocross
Championships. The annual races, which took place in
December in Bend, Ore., pit competitors in races through
difficult cross-country courses on modified, high-performance
bicycles. Curry competed in the Under-23 category simultaneously
with the higher-profile Elite Women category. She placed
64th in the Elite category in a field of 105 racers.
Despite having suffered the H1N1 virus in November, missing
three weeks of school and crucial cycling training time,
Curry fought for her near-top finish. “I had a
last-row start (meaning I was 100th going into the first
turn),” she explains, “and had to pick my
way through every person to end up in my final position.”
 Christine
Davis, senior coach of tennis, was recently
named the national winner of the United States Tennis
Association (USTA)/Intercollegiate Tennis Association
(ITA) Campus Recreation Award. The award honors an ITA
coach for outstanding work in implementing recreational
tennis programs on campus in an effort to grow participation
in the sport. Davis was presented with the award in December
during the ITA Coaches Convention in Naples, Fla., along
with Kim Gidley, head women’s tennis coach at the
U.S. Air Force Academy, who received the associations’ Community
Outreach Award. Davis, who has coached tennis at Smith
for 31 years, has been cited by the USTA/ITA with several
past awards for her efforts to promote tennis in the
college and local communities. Her programs include several
clinics for children and adults in the Smith community,
such as “Twilight Tennis,” “Bootcamp
Tennis,” and “No Commitment Tennis.”
 Kate
Queeney, associate professor of chemistry, was
recently selected as a 2009 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar.
The award provides an unrestricted research grant of
$60,000 to accomplished researchers and committed educators.
The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation is a leading
nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of
the chemical sciences. Queeney is one of seven faculty
members in the chemical sciences to receive the 2009
award. Other recipients are on the faculties of California
State University–Northridge, Oberlin College, College
of the Holy Cross, University of Richmond, and Bucknell
and Trinity universities.
Daphne Lamothe,
associate professor of Afro-American studies, and Dawn
Fulton, associate professor of French studies,
were lauded by the Modern Language Association (MLA) for
their recent publications. Lamothe received an Honorable
Mention in the association’s William Sanders Scarborough
Prize for an Outstanding Scholarly Study of Black American
Literature or Culture for her book Inventing the New
Negro: Narrative, Culture, and Ethnography. Fulton
received an Honorable Mention in the Scaglione Prize for
French and Francophone Studies for her book Signs of
Dissent: Maryse Condé and Postcolonial Criticism.
The MLA, the largest and one of the oldest American learned
societies in the humanities, promotes the advancement of
literary and linguistic studies. The 30,000 members of
the association come from all 50 states and the District
of Columbia, as well as from Canada, Latin America, Europe,
Asia, and Africa.
 Twelve
Smith seniors were recently elected as members of the Zeta
of Massachusetts chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s
oldest undergraduate honors society. They are: Sarah
Bashiruddin, a neuroscience major from Westfield,
Mass.; Alexandra Breus, a geology major
from Blue Hill, Maine; Ingrid Davalos Lopez,
an anthropology major from Asuncion, Paraguay; Alyssa
Greene, a German studies major from Irvine, Calif.; Molly
Hamer, an English major from Indianapolis, Ind.; Dongyoung
Kim, a double major in the study of women and
gender and anthropology from Pusan, Republic of South Korea; Lillian
Lamboy, a government major from West Medford,
Mass.; Elyse Macksoud, a neuroscience
major from Lincoln, R.I.; Sarah Maxner,
a psychology major from Haydenville, Mass.; Kathryne
Van Tyne, a psychology major from Golden, Colo.; Jennifer
Wise, a double major in mathematics and classics
from Houston, Texas; and Christine Woodbury,
a music major from Madison, N.J.
 Larry
Meinert, professor-in-residence in geosciences,
recently scored a trifecta of achievements. Meinert was
awarded the Silver Medal from the Society of Economic
Geologists, an international organization of representatives
from industry, academia and government. He was also recognized
for his extra-academic pursuits: winemaking and running.
Meinert was awarded in October with a Best in Show medal
in the North American amateur wine competition for his
2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. He also won a double gold and
two silver medals for other Cabernets and Merlots. To
top off his accomplishments, he competed in his first
marathon on October 3, finishing in less than four hours
in the St. George, Utah, marathon.
 Author
and screenwriter Maureen Foley ’76 recently
published her novel The Book of Illumination: A Novel
from the Ghost Files, the first in a three-book series.
The novel, co-written with Mary Ann Winkowski, who is a
consultant and inspiration for the CBS series The Ghost
Whisperer, was published in October by Three Rivers
Press, a subdivision of Random House. The Book of Illumination illustrates
the story of Anza O’Malley, a single mom and freelance
bookbinder, who happens to be able to see and speak with
ghosts, and enlists the assistance of three ghosts—a
charming butler and two medieval monks—in uncovering
a trail of deceit and danger among the cobbled streets
of Boston. Foley is the writer and producer of the independent
films Home Before Dark and American Wake.
Emily Nagoski (standing,
second from left) serenades her school charges
in The King and I. |
Emily Nagoski,
director of wellness education, starred recently as Mrs.
Anna Leonowens, the school teacher, in the ’s (ACT) production of The King
and I, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based
on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret
Landon. The ACT is a nonprofit community theatre company
based in Greenfield, Mass. Performances took place at the
Shea Theater in downtown Turners Falls, Mass. Nagoski in
her character was surrounded by a cast of 50 performers,
including two dozen local children playing her students,
and actors from several nearby communities, including Jerry
Marcanio or Royalston, Mass., playing the King of Siam.
Gloria Heath ’43,
who served as a member of the Women’s Airforce Service
Pilots (WASP) during World War II, was named in July as
a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal for her service
with the pilots group. The Congressional Gold Medal is
among the highest honors bestowed by the United States
Congress to express national appreciation for distinguished
achievements and contributions. Past recipients include
George Washington, Zachary Taylor, Thomas Edison, and numerous
other notable figures in American history.
Laura Putnam ’10 was
recently named the winner of the 2009 Lisa MacFarlane Prize,
given annually by the . The prize is
awarded in honor of the best paper or project written and
developed by an undergraduate on an American studies subject.
Putnam’s paper, written under the supervision of
Daniel Horowitz, the Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of American
Studies, is titled “Kings of the Wild Frontier: Folk
Revival in 1950s American Popular Culture.” Putnam
was awarded $100.
 Louka
Katseli ’72 was recently named Minister
of Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping in Greece. Before
her appointment, Katseli served most recently as a professor
of economics at the University of Athens and as Director
of the Development Centre for the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Paris. Katseli
has published widely on development finance, international
migration, foreign investment and exchange rate policy.
In related news, Georgios Papandreou (Amherst College ’75)
has been named Prime Minister and Ministor of Foreign
Affairs in Greece.
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People News is a column for publicizing
the achievements, distinctions and notable activities of people in the
Smith community, PeopleNews welcomes your submissions. If you -- or someone
you know in the Smith community -- have recently received an award, participated
in an interesting event, or are involved in an important endeavor, please
let us know. |
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