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Last semester, I took part in a celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and the leaders, past and present, who made that milestone possible.

Amy Huang ’99 clearly remembers her experience in the Wellesley in Washington (WIW) internship program the summer after her junior year. A Chinese studies major, she interned with Leslie Griffin ’89, who at the time worked in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Asia department.

Anger. Love. Shame. Desire. Betrayal. These are just a few of the emotions that burn within the women in Their Divine Fires , the debut novel by Wendy Chen ’14. Spanning four generations in one Chinese family, the story begins in 1917.

Reports from Around campus

Courtney Coile has worn many hats since arriving at Wellesley. She came to the College as an assistant professor of economics in 2000 and rose to the rank of full professor in 2014. As of July 1, Coile can add provost and Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College to her résumé of Wellesley responsibilities.

For 50 years, researchers at what is now the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) have conducted groundbreaking interdisciplinary studies on social issues such as the effects of placing children in child care, gender equity in education, and the role of social media in adolescents’ lives. From the beginning, its mission has been to deploy rigorous academic research to address real-world problems.

For almost a decade, Sara Simon ’13 built a career as a data journalist, with positions at the New York Times , Vermont Public Radio, and Spotlight PA, an investigate newsroom covering Pennsylvania. But this fall, she began a Ph.D. in history at Northwestern University.

Charlotte Ashamu ’01 began her career working in global economic development before moving into the cultural heritage realm. She is now the director of international programs at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University. Her big push in this new role has been to launch the Yale Directors Forum, a global fellowship that provides training for leaders at African cultural heritage institutions.

A distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Deborah Chung ’74 developed a building product called “smart concrete.”