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Ginetta Candelario ’90
Ginetta E. B. Candelario is associate professor in sociology and Latin American and
Latina/o studies. Her research interest is in Dominican identity displays and in
the history of Dominican feminist activism. She teaches in the areas of race and
ethnicity in the Americas, Latina/o communities in the United States and Latin
American and Latina feminisms. She received the 2005 Junior Faculty Excellence
in Teaching Award.
Her first book is Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial
Identity From Museums to Beauty Shops from Duke University Press (2007). She
also edited a volume on gender studies in the Dominican Republic, entitled Miradas
desencadenantes: Los estudios de género en la República Dominicana published
in 2005 by the Instituto de Tecnología in Santo Domingo. Her most recent
project is on Dominican feminist thought and activism, 1880–1960. Professor
Candelario serves on the editorial boards of Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism; Ethnic
Studies; and of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnicities.
Carol T. Christ
A distinguished scholar
of Victorian literature and a recognized leader in higher education, Carol T. Christ
is the 10th president of Smith College. She came
to Smith in 2002 following a 30-year career in teaching and administration at the
University of California-Berkeley, which culminated in her appointment as executive
vice chancellor, the university’s top administrative officer.
Born in New York City, Christ graduated with high honors from Douglass College and
went on to Yale University where she received the Ph.D. in English.
At Smith, Christ has led a comprehensive strategic planning
process to identify the distinctive intellectual traditions of the Smith curriculum
and to develop students’ essential
capacities. The Smith Design for Learning: A Plan to Reimagine a Liberal
Arts Education identifies priority areas -- among them, international studies,
environmental sustainability and community engagement -- for significant investment
in the coming decade. In 2007 Yale University Graduate School presented Christ
with its highest honor, the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, in recognition of her achievements
in scholarship, teaching, academic administration and public service.
Jill Ker Conway
Jill Ker Conway, Smith
College’s first female president, has led an extraordinary
life. The daughter of an Australian sheep farmer, Conway is widely known for her
memoirs, The Road from Coorain (1989), True North (1994) and A
Woman’s Education (2001). Conway is an historian of American social
and intellectual history interested in women’s experience. She studied history
and English at the University of Sydney, earned her doctorate at Harvard and served
as a vice president at the University of Toronto before coming to Smith in 1975. During
her presidency, the Ada Comstock Scholars program, the Smith executive education
program for women, and Smith College Project on Women and Social Change were established.
After leaving Smith, Conway joined MIT as a visiting
scholar and professor in MIT’s
Program in Science, Technology and Society, and has written extensively about memoir,
autobiography and the “voice” in writing by women.
John Connolly
John Connolly is Five
College 40th Anniversary Professor of Philosophy at Smith College and director of
the ethics program. Connolly has taught at Smith since 1973. From
1992 to 2002 he served in the college administration, including as dean of faculty,
as Smith’s first provost, and as acting president (2001-02) after Ruth Simmons’ departure.
Since leaving administration he has continued his work to improve the campus climate
for all students, e.g. by chairing the ad hoc committee that recommended revisions
to Smith’s bias complaint procedures.
Connolly is a graduate of Fordham College and Oxford University. He received
the Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1971. He specializes in ancient and
medieval conceptions of the good life, and is interested in using those conceptions
to assess modern business ethics.
Mary Maples Dunn
Mary Maples Dunn has been an educator, scholar, college administrator and leader of women’s
colleges for five decades. Before arriving at Smith in 1985, Dunn was the undergraduate dean at Bryn
Mawr College. She earned her A.B. at William and Mary College and began her scholarly career at Bryn
Mawr where she earned the Ph.D. She is an authority on William Penn, colonial American history and the
history of women in America.
She led Smith during a tumultuous era of economic strife
and technological and social change. Under Dunn’s leadership Smith instituted
a number of initiatives addressing sexuality, race, physical disabilities and civility.
After leaving Smith in 1995, Dunn became director of
the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women, interim president of Radcliffe College
and acting dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Nikky Finney
Nikky Finney was born by the sea, in the small fishing and farming community
of Conway, South Carolina. Daughter of a civil rights attorney and an elementary
school teacher, Finney has been writing for as long as she has memory. She
received a B.A. in English Literature from Talladega College. While in graduate
school, at Atlanta University, she dedicated herself to the crafting of her first
body of original work.
In 1985, Finney published her first book of poems, On Wings Made of Gauze. She
received the PEN American Open Book Award for her second volume, Rice (1999),
and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry for The World is Round (2004). She
is editor of the anthology, The Ringing Ear, Black Poets Lean South a rich
contemporary collection of 100 poetic Black voices. Finney is a founding member
of the Affrilachian Poets, a group of Appalachian writers of African descent.
Finney is professor of creative writing at the University
of Kentucky in Lexington and during 2007-09 she was the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence
at Smith College.
Evelyn Harris
Evelyn Harris has dedicated
her voice to giving depth and meaning to an extensive array of musical styles, creating
stirring interpretations of African-American traditional and contemporary material,
freedom songs from around the world, jazz, pop, rock ‘n’ roll
and blues. She is widely respected for the mastery of her craft and her mentorship
of young musical talent.
Her 18-year tenure with the internationally acclaimed
Black women’s a cappella
ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock guided her studies as an artist, performer,
arranger and composer. Her compositions include the Grammy-nominated State
of Emergency and My Lament. With Sweet Honey in the Rock,
she recorded and co-produced 10 albums on the Warner Brothers, Redwood and Flying
Fish labels.
Jonathan Hirsh
Jonathan Hirsh is senior lecturer and director of orchestral and choral activities
at Smith College. He graduated from Amherst College in 1986 and received his
master's and doctorate in conducting from the University of Michigan. He has taught
at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., Amherst College, the University
of Michigan, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Tufts University. At
Smith, he conducts the Glee Club, the Orchestra and the Chamber Singers.
Barry Moser
Barry Moser is an internationally renowned artist, illustrator and print-maker.
He earned his B.S. from the University of Chattanooga. He studied in Alabama and
Tennessee and later at the University of Massachusetts. A member of the National
Academy of Design, his work is in numerous collections, including The National Gallery
of Art, The Metropolitan Museum, and The British Museum. He taught at Rhode Island
School of Design for 10 years; was the 1995 Oates Fellow in Humanities at Princeton;
and was a distinguished scholar at the University of Louisville in 2001.
He has illustrated
more than 250 books including Moby Dick, The Divine Comedy
and the acclaimed edition of the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible -- the first full illustration
of the Old and New testaments since 1865. His edition of Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland won the 1983 National Book Award. Moser’s letterpress
broadsides are on display in the Smith College Poetry Center.
Clifton J. Noble, Jr.
Clifton J. Noble, Jr. holds degrees from Amherst College (1983) and Smith College
(1988). He is the staff accompanist in the Smith College music department. He plays
for singers and instrumentalists in lessons and recitals, and accompanies the Smith
Glee Club and Chamber Singers. Smith choral forces have presented his compositions
and arrangements throughout the United States and Europe.
His choral works have been
performed by the Mount Holyoke and Radcliffe Choral Societies, the Williams College
Chorus, the Needham Children's Chorus, the Assabet Valley Mastersingers, and by
ensembles at the Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. Many are published
by Warner Chappell Music and by Treble Clef Music.
L’Tanya Richmond
L’Tanya Richmond is Smith’s director of multicultural affairs
and a former administrator at Elon University, her alma mater. After graduating from
Elon in 1987, Richmond became an admissions counselor and placement officer there.
She subsequently served as assistant and then associate director of admissions, director
of minority affairs, and director of Elon’s Multicultural Center. During her
tenure at Elon, she was awarded the Elon Medallion, given for outstanding service
to the college.
As director of multicultural affairs at Smith, Richmond provides primary support
to undergraduate students of color. She is also the coordinator of the Bridge pre-orientation
program, which assists students in their transition to the Smith community. Additionally,
she facilitates cultural programming on campus and serves as the adviser to the nine
Unity organizations.
Dana Brown ’99
Dana Brown is a proud member of the Class of 1999, which is known affectionately as “The
Class that Ruth Built.” She earned a B.A. from Smith in education and child study, and a master’s
in secondary education from Brown University. She received her start in higher education as a resident
assistant in Park House. Additionally, at Smith she worked as an admission counselor, responsible for
minority recruitment and went on to Cornell University as an assistant director of admissions.
Brown has taught 7th and 8th grade math and science
at The Gordon School in East Providence, Rhode Island. She is an assistant director
of admissions and coordinator of multicultural recruitment at the Peddie School in
Hightstown, New Jersey. She advises the Multicultural Student Alliance and the class
of 2011. Brown was the Black Students Association chair from 1998 to 1999.
Monica De Los Santos ’95
Born and raised in East L.A. where she was a student of famed math teacher Jaime Escalante,
Monica De Los Santos was well prepared for Smith. A Unity president, Bridge leader, Lawrence House treasurer,
and an organizer in the Newman Catholic Student Association, De Los Santos developed a passion for higher
education. As an intern in the offices of admission and financial aid, she focused on issues of diversity
and recruitment of women of color. She received several awards recognizing her leadership at Smith.
The director of academic and student services for the
University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, De Los Santos
has worked in higher education for 15 years. She was recognized for excellence with
the 2008 inaugural USC advisor of the year award. Currently she is pursuing a masters
in teaching at USC and plans to open a charter school. De Los Santos was the Nosotras
co-chair in 1993.
Nygenia Jiles ’10
A native of Boston,
Nygenia Jaleeza Jiles is a government major at Smith. She
was always encouraged by her parents to strive for the best and be a role model
for her siblings. Nygenia is passionate about helping others. During high school
she held numerous internships with community organizations. She entered Smith
College determined and ready to make a difference. She has volunteered with
Habitat for Humanity, Springfield Public Schools, Mintz-Levin Law Firm and Northampton
High School. Smith has helped her grow into a mature young woman dedicated
to making change. Nygenia is the chair of the Black Students' Alliance and
is endeavoring to continue the BSA’s long tradition of campus leadership. In
the future, she plans to “be” the difference in her community and attend
law school with a focus on criminal justice.
Judy Lei ’11
Judy Lei is a second generation Chinese American with a self-designed major in Asian American
studies. She is currently the chair of the Asian Student Association and the Five College Asian Pacific
American Professor Liaison for the Five College Pan Asian Network. During high school, she worked in
Immigrant Social Services (ISS) with bilingual students at P.S.130M in New York City. This past summer
she interned at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and worked on the Health Care and
Language Assistance Program, where she visited hospitals and conducted surveys to ensure hospitals' compliance
with Language Assistance Laws. In the future, she aspires to become a poet, a novelist, a playwright,
an actress, a community organizer, a public interest lawyer, and a high school principal in New York
City.
Denisse Martinez ’10
Denisse Antonia
Martinez Peña has a double major in psychology and economics and is the co-chair
of Nosotras. After graduation, she hopes to work in a corporate
business setting. Nosotras has helped Denisse appreciate the need for diversity at
Smith and has helped change her view of the college. She wants to create awareness
and encourage Smithies to be open and learn more of every culture to foster growth
and mutual understanding. As a student leader, she has had the opportunity
to meet and mentor many Latina Smithies during their first year. She says it
has been an honor to impact student life and help women grow. She plans to
continue to help Smith become more culturally aware and welcoming of new students.
Selina Yoon ’83
Selina Yoon, a
Korean native and former competitive figure skater, began her career at Procter & Gamble
in 1985. Her career highlights include bringing back the “Choosy Mothers Choose
Jif” peanut butter campaign and creating a
new business marketing strategy for Charmin and Bounty brands. In 1994, her
unsuccessful search for products to teach her children of their heritage prompted
her to create Master Communications, Inc. with a mission of providing language and
cultural educational products.
An entrepreneur and author, she has launched several
businesses, including the award-winning Families of the World Video Series, and the
Culture for Kids catalog, which provides educational materials to schools and libraries.
She holds a B.A. in art and math from Smith and an M.B.A. from the University of
Chicago. Yoon was the Asian Student Association chair in 1982.
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