People News, August 2018

Shannon Audley, assistant professor of education and child study, published an essay, “Partners as Scaffolds: Teaching in the Zone of Proximal Development,” in a recent special issue of Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education.

Emma Chubb, curator of contemporary art for the Smith College Museum of Art, has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for a curatorial research fellowship project “Light, Brick, Jute, Earth: Younès Rahmoun 1996-2021.” The project will include an exhibition, a conference and a Smith residency by the Moroccan artist on dates to be announced.

Laura Kalba, associate professor of art, has been awarded a $95,000 Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies for a research project, “Currencies: Symbolism and Signification in the Golden Age of Finance Capital.”

Mehammed Mack, associate professor of French studies, recently published Sexagon: Muslims, France and the Sexualization of National Culture (Fordham University Press).

Sara Pruss, associate professor of geosciences, has been awarded a $70,000 grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for “Testing Links Between Marine Anoxia and Mercury Environments During the Late Cambrian SPICE Event.”

Abby Bergman ’18 completed the rare Triple Crown of Open Water swimming: the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, and the 20 Bridges Swim around New York City, which she successfully swam on July 14 in seven hours and 42 minutes.

Rachel O’Connor ’18 has been awarded the American Astronomical Society’s Chambliss Student Achievement Award for a research poster on exoplanets. O’Connor, who majored in astronomy and physics at Smith, recently began a job at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo., working on NASA’s wide field infrared survey telescope.

Krithika Venkataraman ’15 has been awarded a David Rockefeller Fellowship for Graduate Studies for her research on the hormonal triggers behind female mosquito hunting and spawning. Venkataraman majored in biochemistry at Smith and earned a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University.

Writer and activist Ifetayo Harvey ’14 has been awarded a Cosmic Sister grant to support educational presentations by women experts focusing on psychedelics, entheogens and cannabis. Harvey, who majored in history at Smith, is a founder of the People of Color Psychedelic Coalition in New York City.

Hillary Hartley ’97 has been promoted to Deputy Minister of Consumer Services for Ontario, Canada. Hartley, who earned a degree in sociology from Smith, previously served as chief digital officer for Ontario.

Author and journalist Lori Tharps ’94—currently an associate professor of journalism at Temple University—has been named IES Abroad’s Alum of the Month. Tharps, who majored in education and child study at Smith and earned a master’s in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, participated in IES Abroad Salamanca in 1992-93.

Ona Karasa ’82 is the new chief operating officer of Qliance Medical Management, a Washington-state-based direct medical home provider. Karasa, who majored in biological sciences at Smith, earned a master of arts in psychology from Bastyr University.

Martha Zoubek ’66 has been named to the board of trustees of The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn. Zoubek, who majored in English language and literature at Smith, began her career as a writer and editor with McGraw-Hill and Conde Nast.