Also in this Issue
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The Alumnae Association’s annual Sed Ministrare Volunteer Awards recognize dedicated service to Wellesley. This year’s awards went to Connie Rhind Robey ’81, Rachel Lefkowitz ’86, and Rachel Gould ’01.
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As a Wellesley student, I knew two things about Katharine Lee Bates 1880: 1. She wrote “America the Beautiful.” 2. A dorm was named after her. In the firmament of Wellesley luminaries, Bates was often outshone by the Albrights and Ephrons. We sang about crowning thy good at convocation and commencement, but otherwise, I didn’t think much about Bates.
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When Lila McGill Fox ’85 learned that her husband had been unfaithful, she went to a clinic for testing for sexually transmitted infections (STI). Relieved when screens for syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV came back negative, she thought she could move on. But a routine Pap smear a year later revealed she had human papillomavirus (HPV), a common STI. Two months later, she was diagnosed with vulvar cancer. A cervical cancer diagnosis followed, and in 2023 she was diagnosed with anal cancer. Lila is still undergoing treatment. Now she is a crusader for vaccination.
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Lauren Gedney ’21 landed their first job on Capitol Hill the fall after graduation. They found their place amid the 10,000 or more congressional staffers within the LGBT Congressional Staff Association. In February, they were elected to a one-year term as its president. “The CSA was one of the first places where I was able to make deep friendships in the workplace,” they say. As president, they hope to continue that legacy of inclusion and belonging
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As Callie Kim ’18 moves among Fortune 500 boardrooms, diplomatic offices, and family offices, she’s often the youngest person in rooms where high-stakes decisions get made. The founder and CEO of consulting firm Waban Impact steps in as a part-time chief of staff for executives and senior leaders, managing the behind-the-scenes work that keeps big initiatives moving. She does it with a clear purpose: helping businesses treat environmental sustainability as a foundation, not as an afterthought.
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Mónica Ballesteros Arias ’11, who hails from Mexico City, was tapped as one of the institute’s first student-scholars in 2010. serves as deputy chief of staff for David Kershenobich, Mexico’s secretary of health. Before taking the position, Mónica had focused her career on the study of economic inequality; she worked at both Mexico’s Ministry of Finance and the Economist Group in the U.S. A job offer arrived in 2024 from the Ministry of Health at a time when she felt U.S. political winds shifting. “I was living in DC and saw myself more as an immigrant—even as someone who is privileged, I felt that ‘otherness.’”
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After 18 busy, muddy, noisy months of construction, Clapp Library reopened its doors in time for the first day of classes in September 2025. It was an exciting time for staff, who had been displaced to temporary offices and came back to new and improved spaces. It was perhaps even more exciting for students, who had been without the library for three semesters.
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Ruth J. Simmons was enjoying her time as a sophomore at Dillard University, in New Orleans, in 1965 when she got an unsettling message.
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Tributes to members of the Wellesley community
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Books and media by the Wellesley community
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"Unchartered: How One Public High School Transformed First-Generation College Success" by Erika M. Kitzmiller ’00 is the culmination of an ambitious research-to-practice partnership that aimed to increase college persistence for students at an urban public high school, most of them first-generation students from low-income families.
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As we concluded our sesquicentennial with a joyous reunion in May, I found myself reflecting on a year of celebrations with alumnae, students, faculty, and staff. Our 150th year did more than honor the past; it gave us a reason to come together—across generations and geographies—to remember what Wellesley means to each of us.
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The Alumnae Association presents the Syrena Stackpole Award annually at reunion in recognition of a lifetime of dedicated service and exceptional commitment to Wellesley College. In 2026, it went to two legendary members of the class of 1966: President Emerita Diana Chapman Walsh and Trustee Emerita Lulu Chow Wang.
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It’s hard to believe that our collective celebration of Wellesley’s 150th has come to an end. The year was full of wonderful opportunities to reconnect with each other and the College, to trumpet the power of our alma mater and its alumnae, and to remind ourselves of our remarkable classmates and all the generations before us who made our own time at Wellesley possible.
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My class of 2006 graduated ambitious as all hell, ready to break glass ceilings and find happiness, purpose, and a paycheck. Immediately. But in the 20 years since, we’ve experienced life’s bruises—losses, layoffs, breakups, fertility struggles, and mental health challenges. Some of us are more tired than we were at Wellesley, some have careers that bring us more joy and fulfillment than we could have imagined, and others are struggling with one of the toughest job markets in decades. Many of us are rethinking what matters most to us. Rather than a traditional midlife crisis, some refer to it as a “midlife chrysalis.”
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In fall 2024, two Wellesley students encountered a 17th-century Hebrew dictionary in ARTH 299: The History of the Book from Manuscript to Print. One student was learning Arabic and the other knew Hebrew. Studying the book together, they excitedly noted similar roots in Hebrew and Arabic words.
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Lulu Chow Wang ’66 vividly remembers sitting in the Jewett Arts Center auditorium, watching Professor of Art John McAndrew cut a grapefruit in half to illustrate how the dome of the Hagia Sophia could support the weight of that enormous Byzantine structure.
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When Afiya Mbilishaka went on a tour of Wellesley with her niece, she thought, “I want to go to college here, too!” A year later, the perfect opportunity arose to return to campus. Last fall, Mbilishaka became the College’s first faculty member focusing on Black psychology, jointly appointed as an assistant professor in the Africana studies and psychology departments.
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Reports from Around Campus
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It felt “surreal,” Riley McNair ’26 told the Wellesley News after capturing the College’s annual Hooprolling race title on April 25, winning in under a minute. A varsity soccer goalkeeper and art history major, McNair credited a strategy of “beating the herd” for the win. The victory earned the senior a chilly dunk in Lake Waban and a place in one of Wellesley’s most beloved traditions, dating back to 1895.
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Letters to the Editor, summer 2026
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This year’s alumnae parade was among the rainiest and coldest—52 degrees at start time—of the 19 parades I’ve participated in as an Alumnae Association staff member.