Spring 2022

One night in 2019, packing up to move out of Sage Hall before its demolition, John Cameron, now professor emeritus of biological sciences, found a box labeled as containing film, But it held something unique. And historic—15 cyanotype prints from some of the first X-ray experiments done in the U.S.

As the College celebrates the opening of its new Science Complex, Wellesley magazine asked 15 alums in STEM fields about the pressing questions they hope to answer.

In January, Wellesley welcomed students, faculty, and staff into the transformed Science Complex, which encompasses more than 275,000 square feet of sustainably designed space and combines renovations to the College’s historic structures with new spaces for research, collaboration, and teaching. The students quickly made the space their own.

With the help of generous alumnae, the Wellesley Students’ Aid Society (WSAS) was able to provide over $30,000 in warm clothing grants this year to take the chill out of winter for students.

Recent publications by Wellesley authors

The People’s Painter , a picture book for young readers by Cynthia Yenkin Levinson ’67, tells the story of artist Ben Shahn and how he grew into his purpose of depicting injustice and activism.

The Plum Trees by Victoria Shorr ’71, a beautiful and painful novel, is a tribute to those who survived and those who died in the death camps of the Holocaust. It is nothing like current events, yet it feels particular powerful at this moment in history.

Tributes to Wellesley alumnae by family and friends

Rodney J. Morrison, emeritus professor of economics at Wellesley College, passed away on Dec. 16, 2021, in Chicago at the age of 87. Throughout his career, Rod was a productive and internationally recognized scholar. He was a NATO Fellow in economics and published many articles in respected journals and several influential books, including Portugal: Revolutionary Change in an Open Economy (1981), a work that synthesized economics, international relations, and history.

Barbara Peterson Ruhlman ’54 passed away on Jan. 2. Her visionary gift to Wellesley, the Barbara Ruhlman Fund for Interdisciplinary Studies, acknowledged and supported the increasing interest of students and faculty in collaborating across disciplines. Since 1997, the fund has sponsored the Ruhlman Conference, an annual spring event that celebrates student scholarly and creative achievement.

The entire Wellesley community lost a great friend on Dec. 6, 2021, when Trustee Emeritus Sid Knafel died. Many of us had the privilege and pleasure of a personal friendship with Sid, and we all benefit from Sid’s vision and generosity. The fullness of his life is directly reflected in the diversity and creativity of his philanthropy.

With sadness, the Art Department announces the deaths of our beloved colleagues Lilian Armstrong ’58, Mildred Lane Kemper Professor of Art emerita, and Peter J. Fergusson, Theodora L. and Stanley H. Feldberg Professor of Art emeritus. For more than 40 years, their gift for making others feel welcome made them the collegial center of the Art Department. But for generations of Wellesley students, they will be especially remembered as dedicated and inspiring teachers.

“Everything I am now is due to Wellesley.” So said Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59, who died of cancer on March 23 at the age of 84. She is remembered for her career as a diplomat and her service as the U.S. ambassador to the UN and as the country’s first female secretary of state. She will also be remembered for her role as an educator and a fierce advocate for women.

Like many people, Alice Sun ’15 got on TikTok as a pandemic thing. After moving back into her parents’ home in March 2020, she found herself making meals for her family. “I’m cooking so much—I might as well share it,” Alice recalls thinking.

As a professor in the philosophy of education, Sheron Fraser-Burgess ’87 has spent the past 17 years as a “teacher of teachers,” training teachers, administrators, and doctoral candidates about the philosophical foundations of education.

Susan Reno Myers ’74 brings unique energy to everything she does, whether it’s international finance, high school football coaching, or saving endangered giraffes.

When I arrived at Wellesley in 1995, I was pre-med, which my friends find hard to believe now. My interest had more to do with my enthusiasm for the early years of the NBC drama E.R. —which I watched with many other Freemanites in our head of house’s apartment every Thursday—than with any aptitude for medicine.

“The one thing I hear most from students is this idea that you can learn about Africa for the sake of learning about Africa, and not because it’s tangential to something else,” says Chipo Dendere, assistant professor of Africana studies.

Stacie Goddard, the Mildred Lane Kemper Professor of Political Science and the faculty director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs, studies great power politics and international security, including why and how states engage in war.

A great blue heron named George, Picturing Pompeii at the Davis, and the class of ’21 outcomes

Alexa Gross ’22 has moved between two worlds at Wellesley. In one, she’s majoring in neuroscience, focusing on mental health and emotions. In the other, she’s majoring in studio art, producing prints and photographs. But what seems at first like a double life is actually something more connected.

In January, President Johnson hosted a virtual roundtable attended by leaders in higher education, business, and government to generate ideas for supporting Afghan women’s education and empowerment, in collaboration with the Asian University for Women.

Ann Zhao ’24 is cognitive and linguistic sciences major, DJs a WZLY show, writes for the Wellesley News— and just sold her first novel, Dear Wendy, to the Feiwel & Friends imprint of Macmillan.

Before last summer, human rights activist Pashtana Durrani lived in Kandahar, working as executive director of LEARN Afghanistan, a nonprofit she founded in 2018 to expand educational opportunities in the country. All that changed when the Taliban regained power in August.

Swimmer Jessica Wegner ’22 came back to Wellesley in the fall of 2021, almost a full year and a half since she was last on campus. But the pause in her swim team career doesn’t seem to have held her back.

One of the great lessons I took from my career in academic medicine and public health is that when you are trying to solve large problems, it really matters who is around the table. If...

To be elected at the 142nd annual meeting of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, which will convene at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 4, in Diana Chapman Walsh ’66 Alumnae Hall. Director, 2022–24 Briana Marisa...

Dolores Arredondo ’95 has been nominated to serve a six-year term as alumnae trustee, from 2022 to 2028, succeeding Alvia Wardlaw ’69.

As we chart our way into “the new normal,” I think a lot about the challenge to balance what we hold dear about our alma mater with a living, breathing institution that continues to evolve and thrive in a rapidly changing world.

A Connection to Wellesley’s Landscape I just wanted to say that I read “ A Sense of Plac e” (fall 2021) by Catherine O’Neill Grace in my home in Baghdad, thousands of miles away from...

In a New York City neighborhood, Chinese, Greek, Korean, and Salvadoran families grow plants to get a little closer to the flavors of home. Even when surrounded by asphalt, concrete, and steel, the families continue to garden; they nurture local soil, and they build local culture—as does writer Esther Kim ’12, dreaming of Taiwan.