expression fall 2010

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Radio Rocked by ChangeWill we recognize the medium in a few years?

Introducing... The Class of 2014 A short story by an award-winning writer The wizard of Waverly Place

Photo by Tony Rinaldo

ExpressionT H E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F E M E R S O N C O L L E G EFA L L 2 0 1 0

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The College names the president-elect

Meet three cool members of theClass of 2014

A short story by Laura van den Berg, MFA ’08

Radio is a field in flux; see what alumni pros say about the challenges

Todd Greenwald ’91 created the hit kids show Wizards of Waverly Place Alumni happenings from all over the country

Read the news about your classmates

Campus Digest

Introducing... The Class of 2014

Goodbye My Loveds

Don’t Touch That Dial

The King of Tweens

Alumni Digest

Class Notes

In This Issue

We’d like you to meet the Class of 2014. Smart, accomplished, talented. From among the class of 800-plus we chose three students to introduce you to. And it wasn’t easy to select just three!

If you have children in your life, then you are likely to be familiar with the work of Todd J. Greenwald ’91, creator and producer of the Disney Channel hit The Wizards of Waverly Place. He has a knack for creating engaging children’s fare, for he was also a producer of the mega-popular Hannah Montana. We profile Todd in this issue.

Radio today is a moving target. Audience has been pulled from the medium by the use of personal music players, and big conglomerates have bought up and automated stations. Radio must adapt to survive in the new, do-it-yourself era. In our cover story, we talk to alumni who work in radio to find out how they think the chips will fall.

Alumna Laura van den Berg, MFA ’08, wrote a collection of short stories that was short-listed for the 2010 Frank O’Connor award, one of the world’s most prestigious literary prizes. We are happy to present one of her short stories.

And don’t forget to read the news about your classmates in our Alumni Digest and Class Notes sections. Enjoy!

Rhea Becker, editor

Expression

Executive Editor Andrew Tiedemann

Editor Rhea Becker

Design Director Charles Dunham

Copy EditorNancy Howell

Production CoordinatorLiliana Ballesteros

Editorial Assistant Allison Teixeira

Expression is published threetimes a year for alumni and friends of Emerson College by the Office of Communications and Marketing (Andrew Tiedemann,vice president) in conjunction withthe Office of Institutional Advancement (Robert Ashton,vice president) and the Office of Alumni Relations (Barbara Rutberg ’68, associatevice president; director).

Office of Communications and [email protected]: 617-824-8916

Office of Alumni [email protected]: 617-824-7807

Copyright © 2010Emerson College120 Boylston StreetBoston, MA 02116-4624www.emerson.edu

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2 Expression Fall 2010

Lee Pelton, president of Willamette University and a former dean at Colgate University and Dartmouth College, has been named the 12th president of Emerson College. He will assume office July 1, 2011.

Pelton will succeed Jacqueline W. Liebergott, who established Emerson’s

Lee Pelton named 12th president of Emerson College

new campus on Boston Common and thereby revitalized the city’s historic Theatre District. Liebergott became president in 1993 and announced her intention to step down last December.

Pelton’s appointment was announced September 8 by Peter Meade, chair of the Emerson Board of Trustees, who described Pelton as “a dynamic leader with an impressive record of accomplishment in higher education, a steadfast commitment to academic excellence and diversity, and what those who know him well describe as a calm but confident demeanor and a passion for stewardship.”

“We conducted an extensive, nationwide search that identified a number of excellent candidates,” Meade said. “After that comprehensive review,

Lee emerged as the clear choice. He has the vision and experience needed to build on the extraordinary progress Emerson has made under President Liebergott and will take the College to new levels of achievement.”

Pelton is a magna cum laude graduate of Wichita State University and holds a PhD in English from Harvard University, where he taught and served as senior tutor at Winthrop House. He has written extensively on higher education and is a highly sought-after speaker on education, diversity, and the liberal arts.

“I am looking forward to returning to a city I have always loved, to begin what I hope will be a long and productive association with another distinctive, cutting-edge and mission-driven college, one whose contributions to communication and to the arts I greatly admire, and whose values are happily aligned with my own.”

As president of Willamette for 12 years, Pelton is credited with increasing the University’s academic profile and national reputation and attracting outstanding faculty and students from across the country and the world. His accomplishments include:

• Expanding the College of Liberal Arts faculty by 25 percent to improve the student-faculty ratio, foster high-impact pedagogy, and support and expand faculty research and scholarship opportunities;

• Planning and funding of Ford Hall, Willamette’s new energy-efficient LEED Gold-standard, 42,000-square-foot digital arts academic building;

• Dedication of the College of Law’s newly constructed Carnegie Building;

• Planning and funding a comprehensive renovation of the Theatre Building;

• Successfully completing the University’s $125 million capital campaign (raised $131 million); and

• Increasing the number of undergraduate applications from 1,800 to more than 8,000 per year.

“President Pelton has provided vision, inspiration, and leadership to create a more vibrant intellectual community,” said Steven E. Wynne, chair of the Willamette University Board of Trustees. “It is difficult to imagine Willamette without his leadership.”

Pelton will be Emerson’s first African American president. Liebergott is Emerson’s first female president.

Campus Digest

Top: Lee Pelton will become president of the College on July 1, 2011.

Above: Lee Pelton, President Jacqueline Liebergott, and Trustees Chair Peter Meade


Journalism Department Chair Ted Gup has written A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness–and a Trove of Letters–Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression, a book about an intriguing secret his grandfather kept. Shortly before Christmas 1933 in Depression–era Canton, Ohio, a small newspaper ad offered $10, no strings attached, to 75 families in distress. Interested readers were asked to submit letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. The author’s grandfather, Sam Stone, was inspired to place this ad and assist his fellow Cantonians as they prepared for a trying winter. Moved by the tales, Gup sets out to unveil the lives behind them. A former staff writer for The Washington Post and Time magazine, Gup is an award-winning journalist and a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Journalism chair Gup publishes book on Great Depression

Renowned filmmaker Jonathan Wacks became chair of the Department of Visual and Media Arts (VMA) in July. Wacks has extensive teaching and administrative experience at the college level; numerous film and television credits as a director, producer, and screenwriter; and has helped shape the independent film industry in Los Angeles.

Wacks has served as a college lecturer and professor, with positions at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the College of Santa Fe, where

Filmmaker Wacks appointed chair of VMA; Semel screenwriting chair named

he was chair of the Moving Image Arts Department. Most recently, he was head of the Film Department at the Vancouver Film School.

As a director, his credits include Fox’s 21 Jump Street, starring Johnny Depp; ABC dramas Sirens and Going to Extremes; Orion Pictures’ Mystery Date, starring Ethan Hawke; Ed and His Dead Mother, starring Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty; and the anti-apartheid documentary Crossroads/South Africa, for which he won a student Academy Award. As a producer, he is best known for the cult hit Repo Man.

Wacks holds a BA from Essex University and an MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television and is a member of the Directors Guild of America.

In related news, Academy Award–nominated screenwriter Jay Cocks, whose work includes Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, The Age of Innocence, Gangs

Emerson community mourns Joan Cutler

Joan Cutler, 80, a philanthropist who supported Emerson College as well as many other institutions, died September 5 of a heart attack at her family’s home in Falmouth. She was the wife of Emerson Trustee Emeritus Ted Cutler ’51. Emerson’s Cutler Majestic Theatre is named in honor of a gift the couple made to the College.

In a message sent to the Emerson community, President Jacqueline Liebergott wrote, in part:

“Joan was a woman of boundless energy, generosity and goodwill toward all, and we will miss her deeply.”

More than 40 years ago, Cutler began encouraging people to make charitable contributions after one of her young sons was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. That prompted her to become involved with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s New England chapter.

In addition to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, a partial list of the organizations that benefited from Cutler family money and leadership includes the Boston Ballet, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Silent Spring Institute, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

of New York, and Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, has been named Emerson’s Jane and Terry Semel Chair in Screenwriting for the Fall 2010 semester.

Jay CocksJonathan Wacks


Meet three mem

bers

of the new

crop of

Emerson students

Talent and creativity are the hallmarks of every Emerson class, and the members of the incoming Class of 2014 are no exception. Made up of 815 new students, this year’s class has accomplished a great deal even before setting foot on the Campus on the Common.

Class members hail from 43 states and territories and 26 countries on four continents. Students of color comprise nearly one quarter of the Class (23.6 percent). Overall, the freshmen combine impressive academic records with a variety of fascinating and ambitious co-curricular activities and special achievements. The Class includes, for instance, a researcher for the National Geographic Channel, a sousaphone player who performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a voiceover artist for SpongeBob SquarePants, a visual effects technician for The Proposal, and an actor in Hasbro toy commercials.

Here, Expression spotlights just three members of the Class of 2014 who have already made waves in their chosen fields.

By Carrie Fuller

Photos by Matthew Hashiguchi

Introducing… TheClassof

A Fully Baked Blog Elissa Bernstein publishes an award-winning blog about cakes, pastries, and other delicacies

Bernstein’s blog is not just about peach crumbles and Upside Down Cake. It tells the story of her life as a 17-year-old (now 18) who loves baking, writing, and photography, too. “I’m surprised anyone’s interested in what an 18-year-old has to say,” Bernstein laughs. It turns out thousands of people are interested in what she has to say. 17andbaking.com has been featured in The Seattle Times, on Channel 5 (KING) in Seattle, and in 2010 it won a prestigious Weblog Award for Best Teen Blog.

“The blog is really a story,” Bernstein says. “It’s like an interactive cookbook with an actual personality and voice. I think people find it interesting to know the story behind the recipe.”

Bernstein says going off to college is part of the story. “I think people want to hear about what happens once I get to Emerson. I think I’m going to have a lot of writing material in Boston.”


Photo by Elissa Bernstein

Elissa Bernstein spent three weeks this summer baking one year’s worth of baked goods—40 items in all. Why the baking madness? Because Bernstein writes a popular baking blog (100,000 hits per month) and she needed to com-plete two semesters’ worth of sifting and mixing before flying to Boston for school.

“I would just put on an audio book—preferably Harry Potter or NPR’s This American Life—and bake every day,” says Bernstein, who comes from Bellevue, Washington. “It was actually really relaxing. I love to bake.”

Her blog, 17andbaking.com, features inviting stories and gorgeous color photos of her finished baked products. Although the writing could be relocated easily to Boston, the baking and photography proved to be a problem. Bernstein learned last summer that the residence hall she was assigned to did not have a student kitchen. She would have to walk down the street to another hall to do her baking.

“It would be a lot of work to carry all my ingredients back and forth between the dorms,” Bernstein realized. “I bake something new every 10 days, so it would be a real hassle.”

So she prudently decided to do all of her baking in advance. She rolled up her sleeves, picked up her rolling pin, and got down to baking.

Regardless of the pre-baked, pre-photographed items, the Print and Multimedia Journalism major says the blog will still be time-consuming. It takes more than two hours to write a post, she says, but it’s worth it. “I want to be a writer, and this is a good excuse to keep writing. Someone who wants to be a writer needs to be writing every day.”

Band on the RiseMusic marketing is a passion for Rebecca Nesi

Soon, Honor Society was playing important venues such as the Knitting Factory in New York City and Mainstage in New Jersey.

“The fans made the difference,” says Nesi. “Once the band’s fan base had grown, the Jonas Brothers took notice.”

The Jonas Brothers signed Honor Society to their own record label, Jonas Records (in conjunction with Hollywood Records), in July 2009. By September 15, Honor Society released its first album, Fashionably Late, which debuted at #18 on the Billboard 200.

Nesi says she always knew Honor Society would make it big. “I knew in Olive’s—even with their terrible sound system—that the band had the passion and the drive to become huge.”

The members of Honor Society have since moved to Los Angeles, but Nesi is still involved with the band, helping to run the online fan club and community message board.

Thanks, in part, to Nesi’s efforts, Honor Society has expanded their street teams to 45 states. In January 2010, the band opened six shows on Timbaland’s Shock Value II Tour. It has also performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and was featured on MTV’s 10 On Top (a countdown of the Top 10 most texted and talked about celebrities) at #6.


On a Tuesday night in 2007 at a tiny bar called Olive’s in Nyack, New York, Rebecca Nesi went to see a little-known band called Honor Society. Nesi’s friend, Kat Gilbride, encouraged her to attend the show, telling her she would love their music. She did.

At 22, Gilbride had already made a name for herself as leader of the marketing street team for the mega-popular Jonas Brothers and was looking to put a street team together for Honor Society. Nesi jumped at the opportunity. “It started via word-of-mouth,” she says, “just telling friends on Facebook about Honor Society. We started local and people spread the word.”

Nesi, who will study Marketing Communication, and Gilbride attended nearly all of the band’s shows, handing out fliers, selling merchandise, and signing up people for the fan club.

Going for the Gold Filmmaker Marcus Jones sweeps the competition


When Marcus Jones was a high school junior, he submitted a film he made to the NAACP Long Island ACT-SO competition. His work, School Life Identity, won the bronze award. The next year, he sent in another film, Merc Max, which took the top prize: the gold.

“I was a little surprised,” Jones says. “To get gold you need a score of 95 or higher out of 100 points. To get bronze you need 85 to 89, and I was very happy to get that high on my first try. I know I could have made the movie better, but I was glad with the results. Each time I make a film I think I get a little bit better at it.”

The Afro-Academic, Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), sponsored by the NAACP, is a yearlong competition and achievement program designed to recruit, stimulate, and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African American high school students.

After winning the top prize, the NAACP invited Jones to attend the National ACT-SO competition in Kansas City, which he says was the highlight of his summer. “I met a lot of great people. I learned a lot from them and I saw so many other films and filmmakers that I can draw inspiration from.”

School Life Identity follows a high school kid who is tired of bullies picking on weaker kids and decides to do something about it. But during his quest to find the lead bully, “he starts to become what he hates most,” Jones says.

Merc Max, a mystery about a high school boy who does mercenary work around his school, follows Max as he investigates the case of a missing student. “We learn more about Max and why he does mercenary work, too,” Jones explains.

Jones started making films in middle school. “I love to work on films,” he says. “I think it’s really cool to see it all come together.”

Jones says he hopes to be able to direct, produce, edit, and act in films while at Emerson. “I love every part of filmmaking,” he says. E


“But I see emergencies all the time.” He cradled the flashlight protectively, as though it were a pet rabbit. “So doesn’t it make more sense to keep it with me?”

His hazel eyes widened and his mouth tightened. He was starting to get anxious, which meant this was not the time to force adult logic. “Okay, Denver. That’s a good point.”

He aimed the light into the hole; the beam was swallowed by shadows.

“There’s no bottom,” he said without looking up.

“Of course there’s a bottom,” I replied. “We just can’t see it.”

“It’s weird to have a hole without a bottom,” he continued, ignoring me as he always did when I contradicted his imaginings. “Maybe it’s some kind of tunnel.”

A terrible image came into my mind: Denver slipping underneath the street and getting stuck in some dark, underground compartment of the city. I examined the diameter and, to my relief, decided it wasn’t large enough for him to squeeze through.

“That’s just a crack,” I told him. “It happens.”

“No, Shelby. It’s a hole.” And to prove it, he reached inside, his arm disappearing to the elbow.

“Okay,” I said, hoping he would stop before a rat found the soft tips of his fingers. “You’re right. It’s a hole.”

He pulled out his arm and rocked back on his heels, satisfied.

It looked like a patch of asphalt just melted away, a miniature sinkhole precariously close to the rear of a brown Honda. I kneeled on the concrete and peered into the opening. I saw a narrow stream of darkness, as though I was gazing through a telescope trained on a black and starless sky.

Denver produced a large flashlight from underneath his cape. He pressed a button and for a moment his face was washed in an eerie whiteness.

“You shouldn’t be playing with that,” I said. “It’s for emergencies.”

“What kind of emergencies?”“I don’t know,” I told him.

“Snowstorms, blackouts. That sort of thing.”

Ashortstory,setinBoston, pennedbytheaward-winningLauravandenBerg,MFA’08

My brother entered my room at dawn. He wanted to show me the hole outside our building. I got out of bed and he drug me through the blue-black light of our basement apartment. He was twelve, although most people thought he was younger. I didn’t tell him I was already awake, lying on my back and gazing at the ceiling, trying hard to return to sleep until my alarm sounded, trying hard to be normal.

The streets were quiet, the slender trees dusted in a papery fog. It was warm and humid, the beginning of summer. Denver crouched behind a car. He was wearing swimming trunks and a Superman cape. “Look at that.” He pointed to a dark circle on the asphalt. It was the size of a dinner plate, the borders uneven and jagged. “I found it when I was patrolling.”

The patrolling started shortly after the school year ended. Denver walked the sidewalks in the early hours to make sure there was no spilled garbage and all the cars were where they should be, no loose pets or broken windows.

While earning her master of fine arts degree at Emerson, Laura van den Berg continued to hone her fiction writing skills as editor-in-chief of the Emerson-based literary/arts journal Redivider and as a staffer at the College’s award-winning literary journal Ploughshares.

Her work has paid off. Van den Berg won the Dzanc Prize, which resulted in the publication of her first collection of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (2009), which was short-listed for the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. The

roster of writers who have previously won the prestigious prize include Jhumpa Lahiri, Miranda July, and Haruki Murakami.

Van den Berg is the recipient of scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee writers’ conferences, the 2009 Julia Peterkin Award, the 2009–2010 Emerging Writer Lectureship at Gettysburg College, and the 2010–2011 Tickner Fellowship at the Gilman School. She has taught writing at Emerson College and Gettysburg College. Her fiction has appeared in One Story, Boston Review, Epoch, American Short Fiction, StoryQuarterly, Conjunctions, Best American Nonrequired Reading

2008, Best New American Voices 2010, and The Pushcart Prize XXIV: Best of the Small Presses, among other publications.

Her short story collection was a Holiday Pick for the Barnes & Noble

“Discover Great New Writers” Program and was also long-listed for The Story Prize. She lives in Baltimore, where she is at work on new stories and a novel.

The story that follows, “Goodbye My Loveds,” was originally published in American Short Fiction.


“Come on.” I felt the heat of the sun, which had risen above the rows of brick buildings. “Let’s go inside. I have to go to work.” Soon the neighbors would be out and I didn’t want them to see Denver like this, dressed in swimming trunks and a cape, shining his flashlight into a hole. They already thought we were a strange pair, brother and sister living alone together. We’d been on our own for just over a year.

I told my brother it was time to put on some regular clothes.

“I’d rather not,” he said. “Please, Denver.” I yawned again

and rubbed my forehead. “I’m tired.” He hesitated for a moment, then

clicked off the light and followed me to the apartment. He thanked me for looking at the hole and apologized for waking me so early. I told him it was okay, I was glad to see it. We closed the door just before a car passed on the street.

Our parents were killed in the Amazon. Their guide, Lugo, sent me a letter after the bodies were brought back to the States. It was tradition, he told me, to

tell the oldest child the story of their parents’ death. In the opening paragraph, he’d mentioned spending time in Cape Town and learning to speak and write in English. He described the libraries he frequented while abroad and getting hooked on English novelists and, after returning to South America, squeezing copies of Jude the Obscure and The French Lieutenant’s Woman into the backpack he carried on expeditions. He lived in a floating house along the banks of the Amazon River. I could tell from the tone of the letter that he was fond of my parents.

My parents were scientific explorers. They specialized in terrestrial primates and had discovered several new species: a long-tailed monkey in East Africa, a macaque in India, a highland mangabey in Tanzania. Their expeditions were featured in National Geographic and Time magazine. They co-authored six books and delivered lectures at Ivy League universities. My brother and I spent most of our childhoods in boarding schools—his in New Hampshire, mine in western

Massachusetts—but sometimes the spring and winter breaks coincided with lecture circuits and they’d take us along. I remembered sitting in the front row of auditoriums, Denver’s legs barely long enough to reach the floor, and hearing the thunderous applause when they appeared on stage. After they died, my mother’s sister came into their house, a pale blue Victorian in Lowell, and threw away all the articles and photographs. This is what got them killed, she shouted when I objected, waving a picture of my mother standing with a crocodile at the Great Barrier Reef. Aunt Lucille had been angry because she thought she was going to have to take Denver. The day he heard about our parents, he defaced a statue of the school’s founder with black spray paint, and Aunt Lucille received a call from the headmaster, who suggested boarding school wasn’t the best place for him right now. I was three semesters away from finishing an art history degree at a college in the Berkshires, but insisted my brother live with me. I left school and took Denver to Boston, where jobs were easy to find and nothing was familiar.

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kind of snakebite. They were both dead within an hour. In my mother’s last minutes, she shouted a man’s name over and over. Calvin, Lugo said. She kept screaming for Calvin. And it was the most tortured sound he’d ever heard.

I’d looked up from the letter then. I had no idea who Calvin was. In fact, I was positive I had never heard her utter the name before. Perhaps it was a blessing your father died first, Lugo wrote next. And then he signed his name. He listed an address where I

Lucille, the salary was enough. The owner had said other employees developed mold allergies and subsequently quit, but I was determined to stick it out and never left home without a bottle of Afrin tucked inside my purse. The bookstore reminded me of my first year in boarding school, the year I ate my lunch in the library while reading The Count of Monte Cristo or Wuthering Heights, the year books taught me to not be lonely.

Work became harder once it was summer and Denver was out of school. He was attending a day camp at the Cambridge YMCA, where he played tennis and swam, but after finding the hole, he had refused to leave the apartment. They wouldn’t have made me go to camp, he’d said. They wouldn’t have liked me hanging around with philistines when I could be exploring instead. He was referring to our parents—he had stopped calling them Mom and Dad when we moved to the city—and I was pretty sure “philistine” was a word he’d picked up from our mother (she often used it in reference to Aunt Lucille) and that he didn’t even know what it meant, but I was too tired to request a definition. We finally agreed on some guidelines—no going outside the neighborhood, no games involving superglue or fire, no bothering the people next door—but I felt uneasy leaving him alone. He was only twelve and I never knew when he would invent an urgent reason to break one or all of my rules. Still, coming in to work had its perks. The Public Garden was across the street and some afternoons I saw squirrels chasing each other up sycamores, picnickers spreading their blankets across the grass. And this guy dropped by every Wednesday, looking for a first edition of Moby Dick.

Jordan was older than me by five years. He always wore jeans, a black tee-shirt, and brown leather sandals. He was clean-shaven and smelled faintly of citrus. We talked whenever he

My parents had gone to the Amazon in search of the mapinguary, a giant primate that was nicknamed the sasquatch of Brazil. In his letter, Lugo talked about floating away from the jungle city of Iquitos, the muddy water, tarantulas, bats, and tree frogs. The shade of the massive canopy leaves. The isula ants—so toxic, a single bite could cause hallucinations—that coated the low-hanging vines. The heads of alligators that, from a distance,

could reach him if I wanted to know more. I wrote back right away, filling page after page with questions. I needed to gather the details, to be able to picture the entire story, but Lugo never replied. I’d always intended to let my brother read Lugo’s letter—after we moved, after he was settled at his new school, after he stopped waking me in the middle of the night to listen to the noises in the wall. But none of that passed, and I knew he might never hear the whole story. I didn’t think it was right, but it was how it had to be.

I worked at a bookstore downtown, a thirty-minute ride on the T from our apartment on the outskirts of Cambridge. The shop specialized in antique books and we averaged about five customers a week, but combined with my parents’ estate, doled out in small monthly payments by Aunt

resembled floating wood. My mother was skilled at imitating animal calls, particularly birds and monkeys. She had a special empathy for the howler monkeys, he wrote. He said the dangers were too numerous to list and my parents had fallen prey to the greatest: beauty. The Amazonian coral snake was one of the most stunning in the world, black as coal and vividly banded with red and yellow. My parents and Lugo were on land, following a set of unusual tracks, when the coral snake slunk into their path. My mother leaned down to take a picture and the snake leapt forward and bit her wrist. As my father rushed to her side, the snake lunged at his ankle. There was nothing to be done. Not even the river people had developed a remedy for this


Ileanedbackinthechairandlookedthroughthedoorway.Theairwaswarmandthickwithdust.

visited and I liked to think that was why he kept coming back, seeing as we’d never had a first edition of Moby Dick and had no hope of acquiring one anytime soon. Jordan knew my parents were gone and that I was looking after my brother. I had told him it was a car crash—my standard line because it didn’t lead to more questions.

I hadn’t spent much time with anyone but Denver since we came to the city. My last encounter was right after the funeral, with an ex-boyfriend from high school. It happened in the attic of my parents’ house, while the wake was bustling downstairs. When it was over, I cried for hours and after trying to console me for a while, he put on his clothes and left. Sex and dating just weren’t practical now, with my job and Denver and the violent sadness I was trying to keep from breaking through. And yet today passed slowly because tomorrow was Wednesday and that meant I would see Jordan.

I spent most of the afternoon in the back of the store, the office door cracked so I could hear the bells that jingled whenever someone entered. A Gorky print hung on the wall behind the desk; it was a painting of the artist and his mother, billowy figures done in whites and tans with a single jolt of maroon, the faces round and smudged. I liked to pretend they watched over me while I worked at the computer, which I’d been using to research all the universities where my mother ever lectured or taught, looking for someone named Calvin. During the spring, I exhausted all the places she and my father visited after they became successful, plus Syracuse and Brown, where she’d been an adjunct professor before she married. But this morning on the T, I remembered one place I hadn’t checked: a university in Michigan that gave my mother a fellowship after she finished her graduate work. She had talked a lot about winter in Michigan, the pointed

icicles that hung from tree branches and the blue gloss of frozen lakes. She had an office on the top floor of a stone building, where she researched her first important papers. It was during that winter in Michigan when she realized she didn’t want to be a laboratory scientist, but an explorer, a time before she met my father, a time when she was still discovering who she wanted to be—or had decided to become someone else. I was hopeful as I scanned the roster of current and former faculty, but didn’t find what I was looking for. I went through the entire list a second time to be certain. No Calvins.

I leaned back in the chair and looked through the doorway. The air was warm and thick with dust. There was an air conditioner, but it rattled and sputtered, so I kept it off. One section of the store consisted entirely of antique maps. I liked to find maps of the places my parents had been and study the geography, imagining them crossing the blue lines of the Kalambo River in Tanzania or climbing the brown peaks of Mount Abu in India. The phone rang. I ignored it at first, then realized it might be my brother and answered. It was Denver, calling to tell me the hole in the street was actually a tunnel that led to the other side of the world.

Denver greeted me on the sidewalk outside our building. He was dressed normally—corduroy pants and a striped polo shirt—and holding a bright blue yo-yo. A pair of swimming goggles hung from his neck. He told me about the tests he had performed, how he lowered the yo-yo all the way into the hole and still didn’t find the bottom, how he put on his goggles and stuck his head underneath the street and saw an endless channel of black.

“That’s when I realized it was a tunnel,” he said.

He had that steely look, standing with his legs parted, squeezing the yo-yo so hard his knuckles whitened—

I put on the goggles and kneeled on the sidewalk, trying not to care who might be watching. When I ducked underneath the street, the darkness was cool against my lips and forehead. I caught the faint odor of gasoline, saw a quick movement. Just a shadow, perhaps. Or a rat.

“What do you think?” “It could be a tunnel.” I stood and

removed the goggles. “But I doubt it goes to the other side of the world.”

He pulled the goggles from my hand and looped them around his neck. “Where do you think it goes then?”

the same expression he had when the school counselor asked me to pick him up one afternoon in April and on the way home, Denver explained that, while watching a war movie in history class, he had become so convinced the soldiers were going to march through the screen and overtake the school, he ran into the hall and hid in the girls’ bathroom so he’d have a chance to escape. When I went to see the guidance counselor the next day, a tall man with a gray beard and pointed ears, he talked about generalized anxiety and object-related fixations and I imagined paintings from the abstract art class I took in my freshman year, the swirls of color that spiraled together and apart.

I leaned over the hole. “Can I see?” He handed me his goggles. “Go

ahead.”


WhenIsteppedintotheoffice,heatmovedacrossmycheeksanddownmyneck.

saved for a larger apartment. He had lined the shelves of our bookcase with toy dinosaurs and science books, taped a pink and yellow map of South America to the wall. The last book he read was about scientists digging to the center of the earth to study the rocks and molten core, but it seemed he’d settled for reaching the other side of the world.

Denver told me that he was going to the community pool to swim laps, which I knew was a lie. I didn’t know where he really planned to go, only that he wanted to be away from me. When the front door closed, something deep in my body ached.

After my brother had been gone for a while, I found a message from a neighbor on the answering machine, complaining that Denver had spent the day running up and down the sidewalk in his Superman cape, shouting about emergencies. I worried someone might call Children’s Services and that Denver would have to go live with Aunt Lucille. I called the neighbor back and told her I had talked things over with Denver and he had promised to not be such a nuisance.

“And the costumes,” she pressed. I’d seen this woman around, in her running pants and sweatshirts and pink hair rollers. She smoked skinny cigarettes and owned a black Pomeranian. “What are you doing about the costumes?”

“You mean the Superman cape?”“It’s not normal for a boy his age.” “Listen.” I leaned against the

kitchen counter, the speckled Formica edge digging into the small of my back.

“We’ve had a hard year, Denver and me.” “You’re not the first person life has

been unkind to.” I wanted to tell her that she was

right in saying we weren’t the first to suffer, but sometimes it felt like we were the only people out there with losses so raw and gaping, and that we could both use a little understanding. I didn’t say any of this. I thanked her for her time and offered another apology.

She reminded me the recycling was supposed to go out on Wednesday, not Tuesday, and hung up the phone.

My parents weren’t getting along the year they died. I was away at college, studying to become an art historian, and never knew all the details. But I could tell when I came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and spring break that things were not as they always had been. From eavesdropping on late-night arguments, I was able to determine my mother had gotten the credit for discovering the highland mangabey in Tanzania and had been approached by several prominent scientists planning an expedition to Indonesia. My father had not been invited.

It was his idea to go to the Amazon to look for the mapinguary. My mother had argued it wasn’t the best use of their time and research grants, that the creature probably didn’t even exist. But in the end, my father convinced her. I could imagine his thoughts as he retreated to his study at the end of their spats and slammed the door: returning from the Amazon victorious, giving interviews to top magazines and talking about how my mother hadn’t even believed in the mapinguary and without his intuition and savvy, they never would have located this remarkable specimen.

I took out Lugo’s letter and sat on the edge of my bed. I re-read the part about the snake and my mother crying out for Calvin. Sometimes I wondered if he wasn’t just trying to ease our grief by giving us an interesting story, a history to carry. Surely my mother, with all her knowledge and experience, would have known better than to get so close to a deadly snake, and I recalled reading that poisonous snakes only struck once before retreating. But perhaps they had gotten too casual and confident after so many years of successful travel. Perhaps this coral snake, for the first and last time in its life, possessed the energy to bite twice.

waiting outside my parents’ house when the taxi dropped me off, Aunt Lucille standing on the edge of the driveway, her posture rigid and square, Denver sitting on the front lawn, pulling up fistfuls of grass, the gray house looming behind him. Since then, he’d come to believe in magic, in making the unknowable knowable. I viewed him with equal doses of fear and admiration.

Inside I found him sulking on the pullout sofa in the living room, his makeshift sleeping quarters while we

I tilted my head to the side, pretending to consider his question.

“New Jersey. I bet it goes to New Jersey. Maybe even Rhode Island.”

“Don’t tell me that,” he said. “Don’t talk to me like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

When I suggested he spend more time with neighborhood kids and take a break from the hole, he stormed into the apartment. He should be thinking about girls and sneaking his first beer, but that’s not my brother—or at least not the boy that emerged from Aunt Lucille’s phone call to the boarding school and the two-coffin funeral. She was the one who drove up to New Hampshire and collected him, while I took the train into Lowell. They were


It was a place where people lived in floating houses, amongst giant spiders and toxic dart frogs and carnivorous plants. A land of treachery and mystery. I would never know if Lugo’s story was what actually happened. If my parents died from the coral snake or yellow fever or something else. If my mother called for Calvin. If my father went first. If they reached for each other at the end. How long it took them to die.

At dusk, Denver came home with two skinned knees, though he wouldn’t say how he earned them. He refused my offers to make macaroni and cheese or read aloud from science books, and fell asleep much earlier than usual in the living room. I sat on my bed, holding Lugo’s letter, until the apartment was dark except for the orange glow of my desk lamp. Denver’s body was so quiet that I checked the rhythm of his breath as I slipped outside, where I stood on the sidewalk and stared at the hole. The streetlights gave the perimeter a pale gleam and in the darkness, it seemed deeper, more magnetic. I kneeled and rested my hands over the hole, and felt the heat rise from it like breath. I called into it, softly, and there were no echoes.

The next day, Jordan appeared in the bookstore at his usual time, just after twelve. I was finishing lunch: a cheese sandwich and a can of iced tea. When I heard the bells, I brushed the Wonderbread crumbs from my shirt and dabbed the sides of my mouth with my thumb, then walked out of the office. I had dressed up a little, a white blouse and a loose black skirt, silver bracelets on my wrists.

He was standing at one of the bookcases, examining the spines. The same floppy dark hair and easy posture, a hand in the back pocket of his jeans. He faced me and smiled broadly, his teeth straight and white.

“Any luck?”“Nope,” I replied. “Still haven’t

been able to get a copy.”

“That’s too bad,” he said. “I had a good feeling about this week.”

“You must be an optimist.” He shrugged. “I guess so.”I told him I had some business

cards in the office, stores in New York that specialize in rare books and might have what he needs. “I’m guessing you’d be willing to travel for it.”

“Sure,” he said, still smiling. “Maybe I could even get you to come with me.”

“What happened to it?”He took a pack of Camels out of

his pocket. “Mind if I smoke?” I shook my head. He lit a cigarette,

took a drag, then exhaled through his nose. “After she served me with divorce papers, I took the book to a pawn shop and told the man across the counter to sell it for whatever he could get. Or give it away. I really didn’t care. I just never wanted to see it again.”

I accidentally squeezed a card for a bookstore in Chicago, the sharp corner pricking my skin. “She must have been upset.”

“Devastated. Totally broken up.” He stared at the end of his cigarette for a moment. “Got an ashtray?”

I took the empty ice tea can out of the trash and placed it on the desk.

Jordan ashed into the small opening. “So a few months after we split, she’s driving with her new boyfriend. They were going to the airport and had to pass through this long tunnel. You know which one I mean?”

“I think so.” “He was speeding. I imagine they

might have been arguing. Of course, no one knows exactly how it happened. Just that they crashed in the tunnel and the man died on the spot and my wife a week later, in a hospital. And ever since, I haven’t been able to think of anything but that first edition of Moby Dick.” He dropped the cigarette into the can and it made a hissing noise. “Your parents died in a car accident too, right?”continued on page 20

“Maybe.” When I stepped into the office, heat moved across my cheeks and down my neck. This was the first time we’d ever left the open area of the store. I sat in the chair and rifled through the desk drawer, pushing past paperclips and pencils to look for the business cards. Jordan leaned against the desk and crossed his arms.

“So what’s with Moby Dick?” I peered into the back of the drawer.

“Some kind of phallic obsession?” When he didn’t answer, I looked

up from the mess of cards and papers. His lips were bent into a frown.

“Joking,” I said. “I know.” His expression softened.

“It’s just that the book belonged to my wife.”

“Wife?”“Well, she’s not my wife anymore,”

he said. “But she had the copy of Moby Dick. A first American edition with green linen binding. It belonged to her grandmother and her mother. She kept it in the drawer of her bedside table, where some people might keep a Bible. One of her favorite things.”

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It’s no secret that radio’s future is being rocked by people’s growing MP3 dependence; conglomerates that “automate” radio stations with pre-recorded voices and music; and a new generation that does not habitually listen to radio. The result: shuttered stations and lost jobs.

“The radio landscape has changed tremendously,” said Constance Lloyd ’79, general manager of CBS Radio News since 2000. Blake Hayes ’07, a weekend deejay at 95.5 WPLJ in New York City, added, “Radio is just not used in the same way it was used 20 years ago. People would turn to radio if they wanted to listen to music in the car or at home. It was the primary source. But now it’s one of many options.” Deejay Matt (“The Cat”) Baldassarri ’98 agrees: “The model we were taught at Emerson has been blown apart over the last 20 years.”

Retired radio producer Andrew Guthrie ’59, whose career included positions with Voice of America and NBC News, studied at Emerson during the medium’s heyday: “In the 1950s, radio was still the preeminent source of breaking news and news in depth. Charles Dudley was the head of the Emerson broadcasting department when I was in school. He would be sad today to see the level to which radio has descended.” As a boy growing up in Connecticut, Guthrie recalls listening to WTIC (1080)’s “terrific reports from all over the place out in the field. Today, radio newscasts are often very short, and you have a sense that the people who deliver the news don’t have a background in what they’re talking about. They’re reading wire copy.”

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If you’re a regular National Public Radio listener,

you’ve probably experienced your share of “driveway moments”—waiting in your car for an absorbing radio story to wrap up so you can turn off the engine and go about your business.

And there’s a very good chance that Art Silverman ’71, a senior producer for NPR’s All Things Considered for more than 30 years, was responsible for a good number of those driveway moments.

Many-layered, painstakingly produced stories are not

only NPR’s hallmark, but they may also hold the key to

the network’s survival in today’s fast-changing world of

radio. “NPR is unique and that’s why I’m still here,”

said Silverman. “There is no fear of automation.”


Music is most endangeredOf the three main radio-programming areas—mu-sic, talk, and news—music has spent the longest time in the cross-hairs. About 10 years ago, Napster, which made music file sharing easy for the masses, dealt the first significant blow. Napster users began to turn down the radio and turn up the ease and control of creating one’s own musical entertainment. Later, the introduction of portable music players such as the iPod pulled even more audience from radio, and made it easy for users not only to assemble their favorite songs but to take them everywhere.

Even with so many options for listening to music, however, radio professionals say there is still a large audience for music on radio. “Listeners are still choosing a station where you can’t take away the commercials or control which song is next, and the quality is not the same as an iPod,” said Hayes. “It has something to do with the personality or the feeling you get when you turn on that radio station.” Hayes’s WPLJ also benefits from his station’s demographics: “We are a heritage radio station. Our audience is not the type that goes to music blogs to read about the newest artist. If you live in the New York area and you grew up here, you know PLJ because it’s a huge part of the market. People are familiar with that feeling. It’s comfort.”

The radio world fends off at least one big scare every few years, said Chris Eagan ’02, program director at adult contemporary station Star 99.9 (Cox Media) in Bridgeport, Connecticut: “Satellite, Internet in the car.” But radio survives. Eagan points out that about 94 percent of Americans listen to radio every week. “They keep coming back to live, local. My station is live all day. And we have the people in the building.” And radio provides a unique experience: “You can download every single John Mayer song for your iPod, but your iPod can’t tell you when he’s coming to town, it can’t break in to tell you a tornado is coming, it can’t give you traffic, news, and personalities, the funny morning show, or the afternoon guy you like.”

Adapting to a sea changeAlthough radio news and talk radio are not quite as vulnerable as music, the rough economy has taken its toll, forcing the industry overall to “run radio lean and mean,” streamlining operations, said Jack Casey ’69, general manager of Emer-son’s WERS-FM (88.9).

Star 99.9’s Eagan has seen plenty of industry downsizing. “The time of radio stations having a big staff where everyone does just one job are over—unless you are in one of the top 10 markets. The midday person is also the promotions director, etc. I’ve never known it any differently.”

The challenge for radio, say many professionals in the field, is to remain relevant and up-to-date with consumers’ demands.

Lloyd of CBS Radio News said her company is adapting to the desire many consumers express for “everything on demand. The people who work in radio need to adapt to how the consumer is getting information. Unless they do, [radio] is going to shrivel up and die.”

Although NPR falls mostly into the talk and news categories, that doesn’t mean the network is sitting still. NPR has adapted by creating a dynamic web presence, producing blogs, providing news feeds, podcasts, audio clips, photos, mobile applications, and more. NPR producer Silverman likes to quote a radio consultant who described the field of radio today: “‘NPR is the last remaining good store in a deserted shopping mall.’ Between iPods and getting your music elsewhere, people are not even using the radio dial.”

CBS Radio News is a behemoth among radio news operations. Although consolidation has slimmed even CBS Radio News’s ranks, general manager Lloyd maintains a vibrant operation, with hundreds of reporters and other contributors around the world. “Local news is still something that most people want to hear. People still want to know traffic, weather, and news—and the place you can get it is through radio. iPhones have lots of radio apps. What has gone down is home listening to radio. But we are seeing a huge surge in radio listening on the Internet.”

Being local and up-to-the-minute comes naturally to New York’s 1010 WINS, one of the nation’s oldest all-news radio stations, broadcasting in that format since 1965. Sonia Rincon ’01, a reporter and anchor on the station, believes WINS has been able to withstand the changes in the radio industry because “it fits in with the 24-hour demand for breaking news. Everyone wants to know what’s going on right now and 1010 WINS—and similar commercial all-news radio stations in other big cities—provides that, on a local level, which satellite radio and the iPod cannot replace.”


A man who’s an idea machineHow does he do it? How does Art Silverman ’71, a senior producer for National Public Radio’s popular All Things Considered, keep coming up with those great ideas? “The best way is hearing something from a friend, or just absorbing what’s going on out there. I go online, I read the paper, I read everything from Dave Barry’s blog to the usual suspects: Huffington Post, the New York Times, regional newspapers. On Facebook, I look to see what my friends are posting.” And, occasionally, “I will walk down the street and have an inspiration.”

Where urban music thrives When Elroy “R.C.” Smith ’81 was named Star Programmer of the Year, Starpoynt magazine declared: “Chicago may be the third largest radio market, but WGCI-FM (107.5) is undoubtedly the No. 1 urban station in the country, period,” and the credit goes to Smith. Starting out at WGCI in 1992 Smith transformed the station into a ratings leader. Smith has received numerous awards and accolades over the years, but he will tell you that one of his proudest moments was at the 2005 Grammys, when superstar singer Alicia Keys thanked him from the podium for making sure her music got air time.

Fashioning a new kind of radio careerDeejay Matt Baldassarri is a case study of how a radio deejay can adapt to the new rules of radio. Baldassarri enjoyed seven years as an on-air personality and music director at XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C., producing his specialty: a 1950s music program. “So much effort was put into production. I wasn’t just playing ’50s music, I was re-creating an era. We threw in clips of I Love Lucy and old Ajax and Brylcreem commercials.” When XM merged with Sirius a few years ago, Baldassarri was laid off. “What ended up happening was a complete takeover. They started cutting staff.”

Baldassarri offers his view of the approaches two major media conglomerates took to radio programming: “The difference between them is that Sirius was ‘Let’s take top-40 radio, cut the commercials out, and spread it across the country.’ XM’s philosophy was ‘Let’s create what made radio great—deep playlists, great personalities.’” When the companies merged, Baldassarri said, “all the live voices were taken out. Voices are on the air but they are pre-recorded.” Star 99.9’s Eagan agrees: “The same radio formats were aired in Phoenix as in Chicago as in Springfield, Massachusetts.”

Baldassarri and Eagan hope the pendulum will swing back: “With hard economic times, some of the [conglomerates] and others are selling off some of their stations. My hope is if independent people buy them and need programming, it will spawn creativity again.”

Baldassarri launched a new radio career for himself by creating and hosting a classic R&B show and distributing it to NPR, Pacifica, and commercial radio stations. “I produce my weekly show on my computer in my home and then distribute it to terrestrial radio and Internet radio via the Internet,” he said.

WERS general manager Casey predicts a future where “we will have a brand that exists online—WERS—that includes a radio station.” Even so, Eagan assures young people entering the field today that “if you’re looking for a radio job, they are out there. The jobs exist.” But these days, “you just have to be willing to wear more hats.” And ride the waves of change. E


From top: Sonia Rincon ’01, 1010 WINS Radio; Andrew Guthrie ’59, formerly of Voice of America; Constance Lloyd ’79, CBS Radio News; Matt Baldassarri ’98, R&B deejay, formerly of XM Radio; Blake Hayes ’07, WPLJ; and Art Silverman ’71, National Public Radio.

Recalling early mornings at WERS RadioMatt (“The Cat”) Baldassarri ’98, a deejay who is an expert on R&B from the 1950s, was an on-air host and, eventually, station manager during his college days at WERS-FM. “I had to wait for a public safety officer to open up the building so I could get to the radio station in the mornings. I never took a vacation so I could stay on the air.”

From the glitterati to Watergate Over his long radio career, Craig Lundquist

’71 worked at a number of top stations. Early on (1979) he originated the popular

“on-location” interview program Talk of the Town for San Francisco’s KMPX. The program was known for attracting big celebrities and was broadcast from the famous Mark Hopkins Hotel “atop Nob Hill.” Later, while working for CBS Radio News, Lundquist broke one of the major “sidebar” stories during the Watergate incident.

How to measure radio listenership 2.0Everyone’s talking about the Portable People Meter (PPM) developed by Arbitron, the media and marketing research firm. Up until now, radio ratings were determined using a pencil-and-paper survey that queried listeners about the programs they recently tuned in to. This process left a lot of room for error. The PPM automates the process. It’s a portable, cell-phone-sized device that electronically tracks exposure to radio, broadcast television, and cable media as consumers wear it throughout the day.

18 Expression Spring 2007

Todd J. Greenwald ’91 has a magic touch conjuring hit shows for kids

KingThe

of tweens

By Rhea Becker



of tweens

Although he may never have imagined himself a hero to tweens—kids between the ages of 10 and 12—Todd J. Greenwald ’91 most certainly is. As creator and executive producer of the Disney Channel’s runaway hit Wizards of Waverly Place, Greenwald helms one of the most-watched children’s programs on television.

Set in New York City’s bustling Greenwich Village, the show follows the lives of three wizard siblings with magical abilities (played by Selena Gomez, David Henrie, and Jake T. Austin) and their parents (David DeLuise and Maria Canals Barrera).

Wizards premiered in 2007 and quickly won the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program. The show as well as a Wizards movie were each nominated for an Emmy in 2010. A second film is in the works.

“My EVVY Award sits right next to the Emmy Award,” says Greenwald, who, as an Emerson undergraduate, won an EVVY for Best Edited PSA, a 30-second spot encouraging young people to vote. “You have to remember where it all came from,” he says.

An Emerson internship with the Garry Shandling Show (Showtime) helped set the course for Greenwald’s career. “I discovered that I wanted to be a writer. It was a really great experience and it helped me focus what I wanted to do. The whole thing about Emerson

and the internship is about connections. One of the first major connections I made there I am still working with 20 years later.” Greenwald went on to work on a variety of TV series, including the hugely popular tween hit Hannah Montana, where he was a writer and consulting producer.

A hit takes shapeWhen Wizards was launched, Greenwald remembers observing audiences during live tapings and, by the fifth or sixth episode, he knew he had a hit show on his hands. “They were genuinely laughing,” he recalls.

The setting for the series was inspired by Greenwald’s own childhood. “Growing up in New York, you walk out and you’re slammed into the culture. There are so many types of people and different things to experi-ence. It’s a unique place to live. I put the show in an arena where people would think it was kinda cool to grow up.”

As executive producer, Greenwald is involved in every aspect of the production: “I’m in the writing room for every episode. Casting decisions, wardrobe decisions, set decisions, where-we’re-going-to-lunch decisions. It’s very hands-on.” He recognizes he has a “great” job but also admits it’s stressful: “Work is work. Every time I’m writing a script, I feel like I’m writing a term paper. I believe in a quote I once heard: ‘I hate writing, but I love having written.’”

Wizards is peppered with 1980s references because Greenwald wants kids as well as their parents to appreciate the humor. “I wanted to have a show where the parents want to sit

down with the kids and watch it and laugh as well. Most of the spells are song lyrics from ’80s bands, and we do references to movies like Back to the Future and The Breakfast Club.”

Future tween fareAs Wizards wraps up its run (“All the kid actors want to move on; it’s been four years”) and its final episode is scheduled to air in fall 2011, Greenwald already has multiple tween projects in development. “To duplicate the success of Wizards is really difficult. I want to do a show that makes me laugh and hopefully makes everyone else laugh. That’s really the goal for whatever project I’m working on.”

Has Greenwald ever tired of writing and producing for the tween demographic? “We’re at the top of our game. This is what I’m doing and as long as I enjoy it – which I do – it’s something I see myself continuing to pursue.”

Besides his success in television there’s one more thing for which Greenwald credits Emerson. As a freshman, he arrived at the campus with his father and headed straight for Orientation Week activities at the Charlesgate residence hall. “Little did I know that five minutes later I would meet my wife [Rachel Epstein ’90]. She was an Orientation leader. Emerson not only gave me a career, it gave me a family.” E

Emerson People


Far left: Todd J. Greenwald ’91 displays his Emmy Award for Wizards of Waverly Place and his EVVY Award, won as an undergraduate at Emerson. Left: Scenes from Wizards.


his black hair. I leaned in close and asked him to shut the door, my lips grazing his cheekbone. He closed the door, then resumed kneeling in front of me. His hands began at my ankles and glided up my calves and thighs, coming to rest on my hips. My body turned feverish. I had not felt this kind of exhilaration in so long, the subtle thrill of being overtaken coupled with a complete possession of self, when the giving in was both deliberate and desired. I wanted to tell him the truth about my life, but he gently squeezed the sides of my waist, as though he was sculpting my body, and I stayed quiet. I was reaching for the collar of his shirt when I heard the phone. Five rings passed before I answered.

I touched Jordan’s chest, then brought the phone to my ear. The voice was unfamiliar and I had trouble making sense of the words. The police. Calling to tell me they had Denver at the station. I told them I would be right there and dropped the phone.

“Let it go, whatever it is.” Jordan’s hands were still up my skirt. “Stay a little longer.”

“I have to leave.” When he didn’t move, I nudged his leg with the toe of my shoe. “Now. I have to go now.”

“Someone in trouble?”“My brother.” I gathered my purse

and the keys to the store. I bumped against a stack of magazines and they flew off the desk. I left them scattered across the carpet.

When we stepped outside, I smoothed my hair and straightened my blouse. The sidewalk was crowded, the street clogged with cars. It was hotter than it had been in the morning and my thighs were sticking together. He stood with me while I locked the door, shadowed by the purple awning. I told myself to keep moving, to stop thinking about how I wanted Jordan to continue, about how a part of me wished I could leave Denver in that police station until he snapped out of it and started acting like a normal kid. I was about to walk away when I turned and told Jordan

continued from page 13I resumed looking for the

business cards. “Sort of.” “Let me guess. The crash came

first and then they were in some kind of vegetative state for a while, right? In a coma, like my wife was?” He whistled.

“That must have been tough on you and your brother.”

“Yeah,” I told him. “It was pretty awful.”

I found three cards for New York stores and handed them to Jordan. They had strange and elegant names, like Gotham and Hagstrom. He thanked me and slipped them into his cigarette pack. I tipped back in my chair and stretched, raising one arm over my head.

“Whose work is that?” He pointed at the wall behind me.

“Gorky.” I’d asked my boss about the print once and he said it had come with the shop.

He walked over to the picture. “He had a funny first name.” He touched the edge of the frame. “Archie, was it?”

“Arshile.” I watched him from behind. I did not go to him. “He killed himself, you know. A hanging. His wife left him, his studio burned down, and then he was in an accident that paralyzed his painting arm.”

“I remember hearing that story. He left some kind of weird suicide note.”

“He wrote it in chalk, on the crate he used to reach the rope.” In college, the art students loved to talk about famous artist suicide stories. Malaval’s gun and Rothko’s knife and Gorky’s rope. “‘Goodbye my Loveds.’ That’s what he said.”

Jordan came over to the chair. He kneeled at my feet and rested his chin on my leg. My fingers disappeared into

there was something he should know. “My parents didn’t die in a car

accident like your wife.” I dropped the store keys into my purse and zipped the bag. “They died in a jungle. I’m sorry for the lie. I won’t ever know what really happened to them, so we still have that in common.”

He didn’t reply right away. He slipped his hands into his pockets and looked at something in the background. His eyes narrowed; his mouth and jawline hardened. “The first time I saw you, I thought you looked like a mess,” he finally said.

A group of students brushed past us, carrying backpacks and bottled sodas. I stepped out of their way, trying to decide if this was the moment to say everything or to just let it go. I thought of Lugo’s letter arriving from South America, the green stamp in the right corner of the envelope, the musky scent of the paper. I wondered what would have happened if I’d shown Jordan the letter, if he would’ve believed the story. After a few seconds, I wished him luck with Moby Dick because if I said anything about myself, about Denver or Lugo or my parents, I felt like I would start talking and wouldn’t be able to stop. Jordan sighed and walked away. I watched until he disappeared into the swarm of bodies. I knew he wouldn’t be back next week. For an instant, I forgot all about Denver. When I remembered, I began to run.

The last time I saw my parents was over a year ago, during my spring vacation. They had rented a little house in Wellfleet, a white one-story with navy blue shutters. The interior smelled of seawater and on windy nights a humming sound rose from the tiny holes in the wood planks. On Saturdays we had lobster and corn on the cob, and some evenings my father played Moonlight Sonata on the piano while the rest of us sat on the sofa and listened. When I wanted to remember my father as being graceful and kind, I imagined his hands moving over the


HestoodwithmewhileIlockedthedoor,shadowedbythepurpleawning.

villages on the surrounding hills and the rises looked perfectly smooth and dark. She entered My Son and walked down a long tunnel until the path stopped and she saw, through the shadows, an enormous stone face with round eyes and fangs that resembled spears. Sort of like a gargoyle, she said. But different. More frightening. She reached out and touched the mouth. Green moss had grown between the teeth. The stone was cold and rough. She smelled the earth in a way she never had before.

When she came outside the sun was rising between two hills. She saw a figure walking towards her. The silhouette was dark and wavy, the face obscured. For a moment, she believed it was a stranger coming to tell her something, to show her a secret part of the land. But as the person drew closer, she knew from the height and shape of the head that it was her husband. And that was when she felt it: the flutter in her chest and the voice inside her, unmistakable as the whiteness of the morning sky, telling her to run.

“I almost did,” she said. “I almost turned and ran down the hill, through the valley and into the jungle. I can’t say what stopped me. Common sense, I suppose, although I’ve come to believe that’s an overrated quality.” She bent over and reached into the water. When she stood, a red starfish with two missing tentacles was cupped in her palm. “It’s dead. See how the color has lightened?” She pointed to a spot that had faded to pink, then tossed the starfish back into the sea and continued with her story.

“The rest of the trip passed without incident. We went to the tropical forest and studied the Crested Argus. We went home and wrote our papers. And a few weeks later, I found out I was

piano keys like pale stones skipping across a lake. Everyone loved the house except Denver, who had always been frightened of the sea. But even he was content to sit in the dry sand and arrange silver-grey oyster shells in large and intricate patterns, as though he was signaling a rescue plane.

This wasn’t long after the expedition in Tanzania and my mother had recently published several articles in major academic journals. My father spent most of the daylight hours locked in the spare bedroom, working feverishly on a paper of his own. He would emerge from his office around five o’clock, eyes bloodshot from staring at the computer screen, his skin sallow and droopy. You should get more sun, my mother would say, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder. He would shrug away her touch and ask Denver if he wanted to play Frisbee on the beach.

One evening, while my father was grilling sausages and Denver was working on his shell patterns and I was setting the table, my mother came into the kitchen and asked me to walk with her on the beach. She was wearing denim shorts and a sleeveless blouse, her hair pulled into a loose ponytail, her feet bare. I nodded and stepped

outside, leaving a heap of silverware and paper napkins on the red tablecloth. We chatted for a while about my courses in Renaissance architecture and Middle Eastern woodcarvings and my roommate, who was majoring in discrete mathematics and always leaving formula-covered sticky notes on the bathroom mirror. The house was a white speck in the distance when my mother stopped and said she wanted to tell me a story.

She and my father had traveled with a small group of scientists in central Vietnam, through the province of Quang Nam. They trekked across valleys and green hills, toward the tropical forests, where they studied the endangered Crested Argus. It kind of looks like a peacock, she told me, only lower to the ground, with violet feathers that grow so long they leave drag marks in the soil.

“But the story isn’t about the bird,” she said, pushing her toes into the wet sand. “The story I want to tell happened before we even got to the forest, when we camped at the bottom of a hill, near a temple called My Son.”

My Son, an L-shaped structure with towers and tunnels, was built in the twelfth century, during the reign of the Champas. She had read a little about the Champas and knew some of the temple’s history. The fire that damaged a wall during the sixteenth century and the bombs that toppled one side during the Vietnam War and the symbolism of the towers. They all had three levels: the lowest represented the human world, the middle was for spirits, the top for all things close to humans and spirits.

She hiked up the hill early one morning to see the temple. It was not yet dawn. The rest of the party was still asleep in the tents. There were no


“No.”Irubbedthebackofmyneck.Iwassotiredofpeoplegettingthestorywrong.

“That’snotitatall.”

them will have to see a doctor. And when the police arrived, your brother was very upset about losing his tunnel. Does this make any sense to you?”

“Kind of.” “He was wearing a red cape and

swimming goggles when he came into the station. Does he always roam the neighborhood in costume?” She pushed the dark tip of the pen against the paper.

“Not always.” I was trying to be as truthful as I could without making the situation worse. “But sometimes.”

“We can discuss the incident later,” she said. “First I need to get a family history.” She looked up at me. One of her blue-gray eyes was cloudy. “The only relative you’re in touch with is an Aunt Lucille?”

“That’s right.” “What happened to your parents?” “It’s a little complicated,” I said. “Car crash? Sudden illness?” “You wouldn’t believe me if I told

you.” “Oh.” She lowered her voice. “Was

it a murder-suicide? A double suicide?” She reached across the bench and patted my hand. “It’s okay, dear. We see that kind of thing all the time.”

“No.” I rubbed the back of my

neck. I was so tired of people getting the story wrong. “That’s not it at all.”

“What then?”“You really want to hear the whole

thing?”“I have to.” She tapped her pen

against the legal pad. “For your brother’s file.”

I started from the beginning. I told her about our parents’ expeditions and the packed lecture halls and the glossy photographs in National Geographic. About the floating villages and the howler monkeys and the snake coiled in the grass. Lugo’s letter and how I was thinking of writing him again to say please answer me or don’t tell me anymore or give me the truth this time. And Calvin. I told her about Calvin and how I had been looking for him, peering into the eyes of strange men, imagining a part of my mother living inside them. I told her about the bookstore and Jordan and his dead wife’s first edition of Moby Dick and what it was like to feel his hands on my legs. I told her how I even messed that up, how my life messed it up, how it seemed like there was no room for anything except staying above the tide. I went on about everything that made sense and everything that didn’t. When I finished, I felt like I had been talking for hours.

“That’s quite a story,” she said, her fingers loosely holding the pen.

“Yes,” I told her. “Yes, it is.” “Would you like to see your brother

now?” She stood and tucked the legal pad underneath her arm.

I couldn’t tell if she was being kind or if she thought I was out of my mind. I pressed my fingertips against my eyelids. It was becoming clear that

pregnant with you.” She rested a hand on her stomach. “But I never forgot that moment by the temple and the voice inside me. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.” She touched my chin with the tip of her finger. “You’re getting older, Shelby. And one day, you’re going to have such a moment.”

The sky was colorless, our dusk-washed conversation turning more surreal by the minute. My mother had never talked like this before. I had always known her as a pragmatist.

“How do you know?” I asked. “You will. It’s a fact of life. Just

believe me. And when you do, I want you to run. Even if you’re in a forest or in the middle of the ocean. Even if you don’t know where you’ll spend your next night.” She squeezed my elbow.

“Do you understand, Shelby?”“Yes,” I said, even though I did not.

The beach was dark by the time we turned from the water and linked arms and walked back to the house with blue shutters and gaps in the wall, invisible to the unassisted eye.

A woman from Children’s Services met me at the police station. She was dressed in a navy pantsuit that had the sheen of polyester, her gray hair twisted into a bun. When I asked how she got involved, she said a neighbor had called the police and they had called Children’s Services. Your brother is a case now, she told me. She said we had to find a place to talk and led me to a bench in a hallway. After we sat down, she took a legal pad and a pen out of her briefcase. I was still thinking about Jordan, the closing of my own little rabbit hole, when the caseworker asked if I understood what would happen next.

“Not really.”“I ask questions and you answer

them.” “What exactly did my brother do?”“He assaulted two city workers

repairing a hole in the street. Hit them in the legs with a flashlight. One of


none of this was going to be taken care of easily—more than an apologetic call to a neighbor or chat with the school guidance counselor. I followed her down a long hallway. The clicking of her shoes reminded me of crickets in July.

Denver was sitting in a dark and windowless room, resting his arms and head against the table. His cape and goggles were missing. The largeness of the space made him look small and pale. As I stood by the closed door and felt the weight of his stare, I remembered the instant in which I realized my brother was going to live with me. That I was going to leave school, my thick art history texts and numerically gifted roommate, and might not ever return to any of it. That I understood everything my mother had said on the beach. That I was having my moment.

Aunt Lucille was driving us back to the house after the funeral, my brother and me in the backseat. He kept tugging at the tight knot of his black tie, and my mind emptied as I gazed into his eyes, finding nothing but sadness and wants. The voice came as we passed a park, empty save for a gray pack of pigeons, but instead of leaving, I tracked down an old boyfriend and pulled him into the attic and then wept for days. My brother would hug my knees and tell me not to cry and I would feel ashamed for even thinking of leaving him. It still came on every now and then, when I watched Denver toss in his sleep or stare too long at his map of South America—nothing more than a shudder of strange, liquid energy, but sometimes I had to stand outside the apartment until it passed, the air sweeping into me like some kind of cleansing light, pushing out thoughts about voices and solitude and the possibility of living a different kind of life.

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

“Hours,” he said. “They gave me a Coke a little while ago.”

I sat across from him. “Is what they’re telling me true?”

“What are they telling you?”“That you hit two city workers in

the legs with a flashlight.”“And I pushed one of them into

the wet concrete they were using to seal the tunnel. I wonder if he got stuck there.” He sighed and I smelled the sweetness of soda on his breath. “Then the police brought me here and said they had to call my parents or guardian and I told them I only had you.”

“What did I say about using that flashlight, Denver?”

“It was an emergency,” he protested. “They were filling up my tunnel. I spent all morning drawing a map of the other side of the world. I was going to find important things there.” He rubbed his elbow and sniffed. “I heard this grinding noise and I went outside and these guys were making my tunnel disappear.”

“F*ck, Denver.” I cradled my forehead in my palm. At the funeral, the family members had taken turns sprinkling dirt onto the coffins. When it was my brother’s turn, he whipped a rubber dagger out of his suit jacket. He raised the slate-colored blade towards the clouds, then dropped it into my father’s grave. They’ll need it, he said before skulking over to an oak tree on the edge of the cemetery, where he remained for the rest of the service.

“Am I going to jail?” “No.” From the shrillness of his

voice, I could tell he was about to cry. “Or at least I don’t think so. We’ll probably be fined or something. We can ask Aunt Lucille for extra money.”

He nodded. We were quiet for a while. He kept wiping his nose on the underside of his wrist. I was waiting for someone to walk into the room and tell us what we needed to do in order to leave, but no one came. I wanted to see the sky again, the tree branches and the

leaves that were beginning to curl from the heat. I wanted to lead us away from here.

“Question.” I pressed my hands against the table. “Do you know anyone named Calvin?”

“A kid in my second grade class went by Calvin.” His face tensed with concentration. “Is that who you mean?”

“It would be someone older, someone Mom and Dad knew.” His posture stiffened when I mentioned our parents, but I kept going. “Do you know who I’m talking about?”

“No,” he said. “I don’t.” I stood and paced in slow circles.

“I might have to find a new job.” “Why?”“It’s too hard to explain.” “You always say that.” The high

pitch returned to his voice. “You never want to explain anything to me.”

“I know,” I told him. “I’m sorry.” He covered his face with his pale

forearm. I continued walking in circles. The floor was gray and sticky. When the door opened, I stopped and looked at Denver. He was still shielding his eyes, oblivious to our new company, the social worker I had spoken with earlier and a police officer. The social worker glanced at my brother and told me to sit down. I stayed on my feet. She started talking about paperwork and evaluations and probation and I struggled to grab her words. They bounced around the room like echoes in a canyon. Or the lightning bugs Denver and I used to chase in the backyard, our parents’ silhouettes filling the tall windows of the house, our fingers reaching for the glow that came and went. E


A letter from the president of the Alumni Association

The Alumni Association Executive Committee and Committee Chairs came together this past July for their annual planning retreat to define an agenda for the coming year. Our intent was to embrace a few initiatives that can make a powerful impact on our alumni community while supporting the mission of the College.

support our young alumni and their career objectives.

Participation in the Alumni Giving Program Continue the Alumni Board’s giving at 100% and significantly increase the number of alumni contributing to the College. The College is measured nationally by the percentage of alumni who support the Emerson Fund, no matter the gift amount. Therefore, it is a priority of the Alumni Board to promote participation and, with your help, significantly increase Emerson’s national standing in alumni giving.

ArtsEmerson Emerson College has launched one of the most far-reaching initiatives in the College’s history with ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage, which brings world-class theater and live performance to the College and the broader community, while providing unprecedented artist-in-residency programs for Emerson students and faculty. This program, along with our magnificently restored Paramount Center and our historic Cutler Majestic Theatre, places Emerson College and Boston on the international map as some of the most influential players in promoting and presenting theater of the highest caliber in some of the finest facilities in the world. The Alumni Board wants to bring back as many of our more than 9,000

New England alumni as possible to participate in the ArtsEmerson experience, and to have all alumni celebrate their Emerson pride as our campus pays homage to the great artists of the world stage.

Alumni Association Scholarship AuctionFor the past five years, the Alumni Association scholarship auction held during Alumni Weekend has generated upwards of $50,000 per year, building our scholarship endowment to well over $230,000, which funds two scholarships each year for students in financial need. The Alumni Board is committed to expanding this project by asking all alumni to donate or bid on/purchase auction items so that we can continue aiding students who are experiencing financial challenges during these tough economic times.

These are formidable goals that speak directly to the Alumni Board’s vision, while embracing the College’s mission. If every alumnus joins us and plays even a small part in this effort, then together we will make an enormous impact on the College.

Thank you, in advance, for your support of these priorities. I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming Emerson alumni event.

With warm regards,Robert Friend ’79

[email protected]

Reach Out, Connect, and Get Personal The Alumni Board is launching a grassroots campaign to meet alumni throughout the country and personally promote alumni programs and services. Our goal is to develop a viral social networking effort to promote awareness of the Emerson community, create networking opportunities, and engage alumni with activities on campus. We will promote these opportunities in chapters and affinity groups throughout the world. Our goal is to build alumni relationships and to connect all alumni to the College in whatever way is important to them.

Young Alumni We know that reconnecting alumni to Emerson within the first 10 years after graduation builds lifelong engagement with the College. The Alumni Board intends to create personal and memorable connections for all young alumni beginning with their freshman year on campus and running through their 10-year anniversary. We will work directly with the Parents Leadership Council and the Board of Overseers to expand these efforts throughout the Emerson community. Ultimately, we will create an enhanced network of information, relationships, and communication that will provide an opportunity for alumni to connect with each other with a clear mission to

Alumni Digest

The current Alumni Board strategic plan provides us with an overarching framework through which we embrace myriad goals and objectives that support alumni growth and engagement. The priorities from the summer planning retreat provide a clear vision and focus for the year ahead:


Four elected to Alumni Association board

The Emerson College Alumni Association represents more than 33,000 alumni. Four new board members were recently elected and were introduced during the annual meeting at Alumni Weekend 2010.

The Alumni Association Board of Directors is the governing body that manages the affairs of the Association. The board consists of members of the executive board, board directors, and all regional chapter presidents. The president of the Alumni Association, Robert Friend ’79, serves as chair of the board. Board members are selected through a nomination and election process. Nominations are vetted through the board leadership committee. Each member serves a three-year term. Each year the Alumni Board works in cooperation with the Office of Alumni Relations to set an agenda and develop programs, events, and initiatives. The board works to further

Gibney Murphy Ries ’86 Of Fairfax Station, Virginia. Gibby is vice president of marketing at the Center for Systems Management, where she is responsible for planning, developing, and directing marketing strategies designed to support business development and brand development across the United States and Europe. Her background is diverse and includes experience in financial services, information technology, professional-services marketing, and event management. Gibby was marketing director at Grant Thornton, marketing manager at KPMG, and director of business development operations at Agency.com.

Camilla Ross ’89 Of Colchester, Connecticut. Camilla manages ETC, southeastern Connecticut’s newest theater company. She is also the theatrical advisor and acting coach for the SPAG Players at Three

Rivers Community College in Norwich, Connecticut. When not occupied with theater projects, she teaches accounting and finance courses at a local college. For fun, she continues to act. Tobie Stein ’79 Of Belle Harbor, New York. Tobie is director of the MFA program in Performing Arts Management at Brooklyn College. She is co-author of Performing Arts Management: A Profile of Professional Practices (Allworth Press). She is also the author of Workforce Transitions from the Profit to the Nonprofit Sector (Kluwer Academic Press) and Boston’s Colonial Theatre: Celebrating a Century of Theatrical Vision (Colonial Theatre). Her articles on workforce development and diversity have been published in The Wall Street Journal and The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society. Tobie received her MFA from Brooklyn College and her PhD from City University of New York Graduate Center.

the mission of Emerson College by fostering alumni involvement within the life of the College.

The new board members are as follows: Danielle Reddy ’00 Of Cambridge, Mass.Danielle is assistant director of principal and major gifts at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, she served as the director of class giving at MIT. Previously, she worked as director of Alumnae Relations and the Annual Fund at Ursuline Academy and served as a development manager at the National Down Syndrome Society. Danielle earned her JD from Suffolk University in 2004. Recently, Danielle chaired her 10th reunion gift effort for Emerson, served on the 10th reunion planning committee, and worked with the Development Committee of the Board.

The College looks at President Jacqueline Liebergott’s legacy

In a Future Edition of Expression magazine

Transforming a campus and constructing entirely new buildingsfor teaching, learning, and living are just a few of the major changesthat have occurred at Emerson during President Liebergott’s term.


More than 600 Emersonians and their guests were treated to a sunshine-filled Alumni Weekend that included President Jacqueline Lieber-gott’s welcome reception in the Paramount Center, karaoke madness until 1:00 am in the Paramount’s new Black Box Theatre, a lively boat cruise around Boston Harbor, Saturday soccer with retiring coach and faculty member Pete Chvany, and many other activities.

The weekend—held June 4–6—was “wildly successful,” said Director of Alumni Relations Barbara

Rutberg. “Alumni from the Class of 2010 to as far back as the Class of 1940 all celebrated together,” she said. “I think everyone was impressed with what they saw and heard about Emerson.”

The Emerson commu-nity of alumni, faculty, students, and friends hon-ored four distinguished graduates during the weekend. The Distinguished Alumni Award recipients were actress Judyann Johnson Elder ’67, Hewlett Packard CMO and Senior Vice President Michael Mendenhall ’84, and Granite

Alumni Weekend drew hundreds back to campus

State Independent Living CEO Clyde Terry ’74. Re-ceiving the Young Alumni Achievement Award was New Orleans-based journal-ist Brendan McCarthy ’04.

More than $50,000 was raised at the annual scholarship auction, whose proceeds will go to the Alumni Association scholar-ship fund, which will sup-port two scholarships this year—one for an undergrad-uate and one for a graduate student.

Also during the weekend’s events, Howard Liberman ’68, Elroy Smith ’81, and, posthumously,

Evelyn Shatkin Bergman ’40 celebrates her 70th Reunion.

Janet Ekvall Colson ’60, Phil Amato ’60, and Mary Jo Czarick Stonie ’60

Marjorie Ellenberg Altschuler ’55, Helaine Aronson Miller ’55, and Diane Purdy-Theriault ’55

The 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients flanking President Liebergott are (from left): Michael Mendenhall ’84, Liebergott, Judyann Johnson Elder ’67, Clyde Terry ’74, with Robert Friend, ’79, chair, Alumni Association Board of Directors.

President Liebergott and David Breen ’78 (right), vice chair of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, present Brendan McCarthy ’04 with the 2010 Young Alumni Achievement Award.

Professor Ted Phillips were inducted into the WERS 88.9 FM Hall of Fame.

At the 75th anniversary celebration of the Depart-ment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, retired faculty members Anthony Bashir, David Luterman, and David Maxwell were recognized for their contributions.

The weekend ended with a screening of Visual and Media Arts Associate Professor Lauren Shaw’s film A Drop in the Bucket.

Next year, Alumni Weekend will take place June 3–5, 2011.

President Jacqueline Liebergott joins this year’s WERS Hall of Fame recipients: Ted Phillips (accepting posthumously for his father, Professor Ted Phillips), Howard Liberman ’68, and Elroy R.C. Smith ’81.

Seated are Walter Stelkovis ’49, Mary Ann Courtney Gasser ’50, and Dick Woodies ’50; standing: Nan Andre Clark ’50, Elvira Castano Palmerio ’50, Mary Geddes Avery ’50, Perry Massey ’50, and Mona Lyght Massey ’50

Class of 1995 reunion attendees with a plaque, donated by their Class, commemorating College founder Charles Wesley Emerson. Class President Paul Morra (right) and Iwasaki Library Executive Director Robert Fleming (left)

Julie Mermelstein ’85, Alan Padula ’85, and Maria D’Arcangelo-Lapides ’85 show off their yearbook photos.

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department are Department Chair Daniel Kempler (right), along with retired faculty (from left) David Maxwell, David Luterman, and Anthony Bashir.

collaborated on the project. First row: Jennie Pyles, Heather MacAyeal, Renee Macisco; second row: Lesley Robbins, Rachel Greenberg, Heather Scott; third row: Fleming, Demetri Pappas, Amanda Dugan, Scott MacPhetres, and Morra.

Nancy Sugarman Shafran ’70, Myra Greenberg Gutin ’70, Gary Grossman ’70, and Gale Ann Wolman Merle ’70

Steve Scott ’05, Sara Brookshire ’05, Nikki Rothenberg ’05, Jeanne Leitenberg ’05, Gregory Jacobs-Roseman ’05, and Liz Edwards ’05

Alumni played a soccer match with Pete Chvany (center, kneeling), who coached soccer and advised the EVVYs, among other responsibilities,

during his long career at Emerson. He retired at the end of the 2009–10 academic year.

At the Paramount Theatre are (front row): Bethel Nathan ’00, Bill Neidlinger

’00, Tiffany Amoakohene ’00, Jessica Chance ’00, and Erin Lillis ’00; back row: Denise Townsend ’00, Wil Monestime ‘00, Tori Weston

’98, and Mike Atlan ’00.



Emerson Freeway/Emerson Expressway

The Los Angeles and New York City alumni chapters hosted welcome events for new graduates and transplants. The programs featured panel discussions with career advice specific to each locale and a chance to network with key players in the local alumni communities. The Emerson Expressway was hosted by Dave Gwizdowski ’80 at the Associated Press in New York City in June and the Emerson Freeway was hosted by Paul Morra ’95 at Swift River Productions in Los Angeles in July.

The Emerson Freeway 101: Your Road to Success in LA event was hosted by Paul Morra ’95 of Swift River Productions. The panel (from

Stephanie Ellis ’07 first welcomed Bill Daras ’10 to the Emerson community when she worked in the Emerson College Office of Undergraduate Admission. Four years later, she welcomed Bill to the Emerson community in New York City as the moderator for the Emerson (New York) Expressway panel in June.

left) are: Jennifer O’Connell ’94 (moderator), Coli Sylla ’07, Jacob Rosenberg ’98, Daphne Valerius, MA ’06, Harris Wittels

’06, and Brian Weidling ’96.

The Parents Leadership Council and the Alumni Association collaborated to welcome members of the Class of 2014 at 13 events around the country. Special thanks to host families Allen, Berkovich, Colletti-Baker, D’Anna, Gaba, Lee, Lester, Liberman, Lieber, Rivkin-Davison, Tamburo, Wong, and Walsh.

Above, Cindy Lieber ’87 (third from left), president of the Southern Florida Alumni Chapter, welcomes students at a reception in her Miami Beach home this past summer.

Send-off Parties

Howard Liberman ’68, president of the Washington, D.C., alumni chapter, hosted freshmen and their parents for a summer send-off gathering at his law office.


Meet Sue (Salter) Roderick ’68, the newly named Chicago chapter president. She relocated to the Chicago area from Greater Boston three years ago to be near her family. Sue is a licensed speech therapist who has experience working in both the public and private sectors. After serving as a school administrator,

Chicago

Sue Ellen Perkins ’90, who studied television broadcasting at Emerson, died June 21 at home. Raised in Bangor, Maine, she attended Emerson College to study television broadcasting. After graduation, she worked in the TV industry for a short time before returning to Bangor. She used the communication skills she learned in Boston in

Sue Ellen Perkins, of the Class of ’90, dies

all her endeavors. While in Maine, her employers included Webber Energy Fuels, American Red Cross, and most recently Brewer Federal Credit Union. In addition to her parents, William G. and Judith Smith Perkins, she is survived by her brother, Scott Perkins, and his wife, Danielle, and their sons, William and Daniel. She will be remembered for her quick wit and gentle spirit, and

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she transitioned into the nonprofit field and now works with people with disabilities at Clearbrook, an organization devoted to enhancing the lives of children and adults with developmental disabilities. She looks forward to getting to know Emersonians in the Chicago area.

will be dearly missed by her Emerson friends, including her buddies from 100 Beacon and especially “The Maude Squad.”

A seat in the Bright Family Screening Room in the Paramount Center and a one-time educational award in her name have been established by her Emerson friends.

Each semester, discounted courses will be posted on the alumni website: emerson.edu/alumni/benefits-resources. Whether you are working toward a certificate or advancing your knowledge in the areas of screenwriting, business communication, or graphic novels, there is something for you.

Please visit the website for the full list of available courses. Don’t miss out on this special benefit.

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emerson.edu/alumni/benefits-resources


Class Notes1949Lou Carter Keay is busy shooting commercials in Hollywood and appeared in a documentary alongside former child star Jane Withers that was screened at Sundance.

1950Pam and Perry Massey, who met and were engaged at Emerson, will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on November 18, 2010.

David Wiley died this past summer at age 82. He taught theater and speech at Longwood College, Indiana University, University of Hawaii (Hilo), and University of Tennessee (Chattanooga).

60th Reunion 1951

1955Ken Crannell’s textbook, Voice and Articulation, celebrates its fifth edition, available in January of 2011, published by Cengage/Wadsworth Publishers. Ken says his book has gone through an extensive revision.

55th Reunion 1956

1957Patricia Roberts Crannell had her painting, “Golden Mums” published on the inside

cover of the National Sumi-e Quarterly. One of her sumi-e paintings has been selected for the 47th Annual Juried Exhibition in Virginia this fall. Five of her paintings will be shown at the Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital this fall.

1958Nelson Hershman celebrated a milestone birthday–80–on Aug. 29. “Still feel like 30, playing competitive tennis three times a week and working out with teeny boppers in my local gym three times a week. Sunday is reserved for rest and recuperation. Celebrating 20 years of retirement and enjoying every minute of it.”

50th Reunion 1961Roberta (Binder) Aungst serves on several committees of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, including chairing the Special Interest Group 8–Public Health Issues in Hearing and Balance.

Brenda Scheinman Winston and Jane Saunders Wilson spent a lovely time last summer at Jane’s home in York Beach, Maine. “We are looking forward to our 50th reunion next spring and send warm regards to: Judy Espanola, Bobbie Morgan, Gwen Schlief, and Susan Nam. Hopefully we will have many classmates attend the reunion.”

Philip A. Weiner will be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He is the former owner of WUPE and WUHN in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, former chair of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, and former president of the International Broadcasters Idea Bank.

1964Donna Langburd is enjoying her new career as a Professional Grandma. “I love being a hands-on grandma to my seven babies. All my skills from Emerson apply! We live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, all winter and I have the good health to enjoy it.”

1965Don Ilko has retired from teaching at DePaul University (Chicago) and is living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Bob Lopez-Cepero retired from NBC-TV (Philadelphia) in 2003. In 2004–09 he returned to NBC to write, produce, and direct special programs for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is now pursuing a career as a commercial actor and print model. “Hope all my classmates are well. Love to you all.”

Dan Paulnock ’65, MA ’70, and Carol Paulnock ’68 produced and directed Our Town last spring at Saint Paul (Minn.) College. It was the first student theatrical production in 30 years.

45th Reunion 1966Jane Bedrick is a backer for the Broadway musical American Idiot at the St. James Theatre and is also an actress/member of SAG, AEA, and AFTRA.

Carl Buck ’66, MS ’69, will present a national Scholarship Quest webinar this fall for J.P. Morgan Chase. Buck is in his fourth year with Chase

Mel Simons ’61 has written his fifth book, Old-Time Television Memories (Bear Manor Media) with a forward by Bill Dana ’50. Simons has interviewed many of the great TV stars of the past, including Milton Berle, Perry Como, and Steve Allen.


as their VP for High School Initiatives. He is the author of The Student Aid Answer Book.

Steve Rosenberg is enjoying grandchildren Gabriela and Roman. After a career in TV and radio news and agency PR, largely in Metro Philadelphia (he’s an avid Phillies fan), Steve is a collector and dealer, operating Off-The-Wall Antiques and Collectibles in Havertown.

1967Alex Hricisko is semi-retired and living in Waterbury, Connecticut, working part-time at WATR 1320 AM and producing the midday talk show, which is also heard on watr.com. “Looking forward to the 2012 reunion!”

1968Margie Cohn Browner and Steve Marks were married August 5 in Vail, Colorado. They still reside in Boca Raton, Florida.

Ralph Maffongelli writes: “After 28 years I retired last November as director at Sheboygan (WI) Theatre Company. In addition to Life Membership, I was honored with my photo mounted in the theater lobby.”

Stephen Snow will be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the National Association for Drama Therapy in Chicago, November 5–7.

1969Glenn Alterman was awarded the first Julio T. Nunez Artists Grant Award. His play The Pain in the Poetry was chosen for inclusion in The Best 10-Minute Plays for 2 or More Actors (Smith and Kraus). His play Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda was selected to be in the upcoming edition of the popular Prentice Hall college textbook Three Genres, The Writing of Poetry, Fiction and Drama, as the “model of the short play.” His 18th book, An Actor’s Guide: Making It in New York (2nd edition), will be out in 2011.

Elayne Kessler is a retired teacher of the deaf but still a singer with the children’s group Junior Jam (music for ages 2–8). Elayne also has an adult cabaret act that she brings to private parties, assisted living facilities, etc. She’s gotten rave reviews for the past four years.

Daniel Wachs writes: “Although I was a speech (broadcasting) major and followed that up with a 32-year career in radio, I have at last become both an actor and a voiceover artist. For the past year, I have acted in a number of independent films shot in and around Orlando, Florida. I also was featured on A&E’s The Glades as well as Discovery Health Channel’s Dr. G.: Medical Examiner.”

1970John Leisher is a part-time news anchor at WCBS NewsRadio 80 in New York City. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for his anchoring of the station’s coverage of the August 2009 collision of a single-engine plane and a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River. John also does fill-in news writing for Ann Curry on The Today Show.

40th Reunion 1971Veronica Colley Cunningham writes: “After a career as a preservation librarian, I now work as a personal caregiver to supplement Social Security. In my spare time, I’ve become a bit of a local storyteller. It’s a lot of fun. Working to keep a local village library open, in which we were successful, I decided to run for a seat on the Board of Library Trustees and am now an active Trustee.”

Hal Kneller has been promoted to manage sales for Europe and Southern Africa for Nautel’s line of products. Nautel is a radio transmitter manufacturer. He also continues his ownership of two radio stations in Florida.

Jamie Robin says that after working as a continuity director at two radio stations in Massachusetts and New York, she relocated to California and earned a master’s degree in counseling and guidance and became a Certified Professional

of Disability Management. Jamie assists employers and employees with ADA accommodation matters. Jamie has been married for 27 years to Lee Charter and has a daughter.

1972Len Kornblau is Harper Visiting Professor of Advertising and Marketing at Rider University in New Jersey.

Eric Miller, under his longtime stage name Eric Booth, taught for 12 years at Juilliard and the Kennedy Center. Eric is now consulting with 6 of the nation’s 10 largest orchestras, 5 national service organizations, and gives keynote speeches about the arts around the world.

Mark Sackler has created and is president and general manager of Woodbridge Scientific, a distributor and manufacturer’s representative of pharmaceutical and biotech laboratory instruments and supplies.

Edward Schreiber is executive director of the not-for-profit Zerka T. Moreno Foundation for Training, Research and Education.

Paul Watson is happy to announce the birth of Campbell, his first grandchild, in June 2010.


1974Jeremy Alliger, who founded and directed Boston’s Dance Umbrella for 20 years, is on the move internationally with his new production company, Alliger Arts. His latest dance production just returned from Dublin, and is headed to Liverpool this fall. Entitled Gimp, the production incorporates dancers with absent limbs and other disabilities.

Jan R. Fogel works as a nanny and has taught in a Montessori classroom for three years, at a synagogue-run pre-school for four years, and one year in the public schools. Bill Miller has been named director of marketing and communications for the Miami City Ballet in Florida. Bill came to MCB after a 30-plus-year career in New York as a publicist for Broadway and national touring productions.

John Simon wrote and published Temple of the Jaguar. He is working on the sequel.

“I am a proud father of a loving son.”

35th Reunion 1976Barry Mehrman and wife Ann are living in Tokyo. Barry is on a two-year global assignment as vice president of human resources for McDonald’s Japan.

Rick Taplin is approaching the end of his presidential year of the New England Library Association. He and his wife celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary and live in Framingham, Massachusetts.

1978Sid Levin writes: “Our 7-year-old daughter appeared in four musicals this summer, so her career is on a fast track. Mine, however, has gone to the dogs (and cats) as I begin my third season shooting segments for Animal Planet’s hit series Dogs 101 and Cats 101.”

Cindy Michelson is development coordinator and membership director for WFSU Television and Radio in Tallahassee.

Edwin N. Rowley, MA ’78, was elected president of the Faculty Senate at Texas A&M University. In 2008 he was ordained a deacon in the Roman Catholic diocese of Corpus Christi.

1980Julia (Flamm) Donahue was honored for her Living History Program by both the Massachusetts Senate and the House of Representatives. In 2003, Julia was awarded the distinction of being named

“Official Abigail Adams of the Commonwealth” by then-Governor Mitt Romney.

David Gwizdowski has been named AP’s vice president for broadcast, Americas, with expanded direction of broadcast product strategy and development for the U.S., Latin American, and Canadian markets, as well as sales and business development.

30th Reunion 1981David Frisch of Toronto was married in August to Kim Narraway. Co-best man was Marc Allan ’80 of Indianapolis, accompanied by his wife, Martha ’81. Invited but unable to attend was their classmate Priscilla (Sims) Malboeuf of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Eva Lee Ngai is a writer/editor at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Holly Sutton-Darr has been invited to participate in this fall’s Shippan Designer Show House in Stamford, Connecticut.

1982Eric Hummel and Christa Webber ’83 celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They have two children, Kayla and Kyle Emerson. “Thanks to the guys at Theta house for the 25-cent beer nights. Without you, this never would have happened.”

Sheryl Kaller was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director and Best Play for Next Fall, on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater. Joanne Leitner completed certified training at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Gemany, this year as a “Spielleiterin für Szenische Interpretation von Musiktheater” and directed the German premiere of the Broadway musical Little Women with high school students in Kleinmachnow, Germany.

Lauren McFeaters serves as a pastor at the Nassau Presbyterian Church (New Jersey). “There’s nothing like an Emerson education in oral interpretation by professors Crannell, LaShoto, and Mitchell to prepare you for the pulpit. My church is located on the Princeton University campus. Drop by any time.”

1983Laurie Stone is happily toiling away in the Corporate Underwriting Department of Public Broadcasting Atlanta.

In Memoriam

1929 Thelma T. Wynn1948 G. Virginia (Dempsey) Stahley1950 Robert Brooks1950 David W. Wiley1959 Peter D. Schachte1970 James M. McNiff1971 Gerald P. Barowsky1986 Arlyne Luloff, MSSp1989 Paul J. Felopulos 1990 Sue Ellen Perkins1991 Sara Turner


1984David Kimelman is the A camera/Steadicam operator on Burn Notice. The show is in its 4th season shooting in Miami. David has been working in the film industry since graduating from Emerson, most often as director of photography and/or Steadicam operator.

1985Warren M. Bobrow is editor of food, wine, and culture for Wild River Review/Wild Table in Princeton, New Jersey. He has been published in Saveur, Edible Jersey, NJ Monthly, Chutzpah Magazine, NJ Daily Record Newspaper, Served Raw, and many others.

Sean Burns (David Sean Burns) lives in the Denver, Colorado, area and is a professor at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, teaching 3D and traditional animation techniques, film production, and business ethics and copyright for animation.

Robert Miot and wife Malissa had a baby girl, Grace, in January 2010. They live in Newton, Massachusetts, with son Owen, age 2, along with an overgrown cat named Lowell.

Julie (Ray) Poulin is vice president of institutional advancement at Jobs for Maine Graduates, which works with more than 4,000 Maine students to ensure they stay in school and have a plan for post-secondary education.

Camilla Ross continues her lead role in Chestina Vanessa Poulson by Melanie Greenhouse. Her company, Emerson Theater Collaborative, continues to make great strides.

25th Reunion 1986Michelle (Orlandi) Becker is producer/writer of the nationally touring production, Back Home Again–A Tribute to John Denver, starring her husband, Tom Becker. Michelle also plays keyboard and sings backup vocals in the production. Michelle and Tom are owners of Entertainment Alternatives and make their home in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

Tara L. Masih, MA ’86, has published her first full-length story collection Where the Dog Star Never Glows (Press 53). Many of the stories have won awards or received nominations for prizes like the Pushcart. Publishers Weekly describes the collection as

“striking and resonant.” Masih is also editor of The Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction.

Todd Merrill and Lauren Ulanoff Merrill ’87, who met at Emerson and married in 1993, have launched Undeletable Productions to focus on the production of documentary series and reality programming. Joining them is Pete McPartland Jr. ’03 as their director of development and co-executive producer. Lauren has been a producer of reality programming for more than 20 years. Todd spent 15 years as a marketing executive for companies, including Christie’s and Viacom.

William Klayer ’77 is grateful for all the opportunities he was given in the years he worked on Law & Order. “At the end I had shot 90 episodes and directed two. It was a great run.”

Laurie Raimer Booyse says after living in New York City for eight years she needed a change and moved to Alaska, where she lived for nine years. She worked for marine tour operator Allen Marine Tours. In 2005 she married Byron Booyse, a South African now living in the U.S., who is a nurse. She now works at the Kenai Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Those freshman acting classes still come in handy when people ask questions like ‘Do you take American money?’ and ‘How old do elk have to be before they become moose?’”

Beth Tracy changed careers after working 20 years in the entertainment industry. She has earned a master’s degree in religion at Claremont Graduate University and will head to St. Andrews University in Scotland for a three-year PhD program in the Hebrew Bible with focus on the Pentateuch.

1987Rachel Dahill-Fuchel is helping to open the Global Learning Collaborative, a small public high school in New York City. She is the

academic dean. Rachel lives in Manhattan with her husband, Kevin, and kids Jake and Georgia.

Michael Hauser executive-produced a makeover series on style called Tacky House with Thom Filicia and is currently in pre-production for season three of HGTV’s The Outdoor Room. He’s on Facebook and wants to connect with classmates.

Lewis Howe and Kat Powers ’92 welcomed their third son, Daunte Moss Howe, on February 16, 2010. He joins Dominick, 7, and Deion, 6. They live in Natick, Massachusetts.

Ken Rogers and Gina Yarbrough ’88 are enjoying life in Arlington, Massachusetts, renovating their home (an 1842 Gothic cottage) and raising two sons, ages 12 and 18.

Thomas Stewart has joined Spilo World Wide in Los Angeles as the new merchandise manager and is responsible for Spilo’s open-line distribution marketing efforts.

global issues and give voice to those whose stories must be told. Theatre for Humans is partnering with the United Nations on an Off-Broadway project slated for 2012.

Tori Hollingworth Aiello ’90, MFA ’92, has joined the Speech Improvement Company in Brookline, Massachusetts, as a senior coach. She joins seven other Emersonians who are part of a unique team serving the speech communication needs of clients worldwide for 46 years.

Karin Hoving was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for editing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (the second year in a row).

Joel Schwartzberg has moved with his wife to Falls Church, Virginia, and is senior editor for a new PBS news-based website. His book, The 40-Year-Old Version, won two publishing awards in 2010. He also writes a kids & media blog for iVillage.com.

20th Reunion 1991Diane (DeMatteo) Brown sells advertising for Events magazines in Connecticut.

She lives in Lyme with husband Dave and their three children. She is also a care coordinator for Cultural Care Au Pair.

Jennifer (nee Hecht) Gary married Joseph Darocki in April 2010. She has one son, Caulden, 10, from her previous marriage. Fred Kluth is an interactive production manager for Funny Garbage. He lives in Jersey City with wife Dhyana and daughter Vivian.

Jan (Murphy) Mason was married to Daniel Mason at Jacob’s Pillow in 2001. She earned her MFA in directing theater in 2005 from the

1988Paula Prifti Weafer is the Parent Giving Officer at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Rob Roberge has a new book of stories, Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life (Red Hen Press). This is his third book.

1989Robert B. Dimmick, MA

’89, has been elected president of the Interlochen Center for the Arts Alumni Organization.

Liz O’Donnell is founder of Hello Ladies, a website for smart, busy women. Forbes.com named the site one of the top 100 websites for women.

Bobbi Spater Lipschutz and husband Jay have launched Pristine Audio Company (in Nashville), a division of Schmoozer Entertainment.

1990Susan Blyth with co-producer Terry Merkle have formed Theatre for Humans, whose mission is to highlight current

University of Virginia and has been directing, teaching, and having babies ever since.

Edwin Strout portrayed EKO in the Minneapolis production of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz. He also produced and starred in the U.S. premiere of Sarah Phelps’s Amaretti Angels at the 2010 Minnesota Fringe Festival.

1992Christine (Wilcox) Buyce is a career services specialist with ITT Technical Institute in Albany, New York.

Jason Gold was assigned to cover the 2010 NBA Finals as entertainment correspondent and photographer for the Boston Globe (and New York Times family of publications), covering all Los Angeles-based games and practices.

1993Virginia Crawford has a book of poetry, Touch, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.

Caitlin McCarthy, MFA ’94, won the “Most Likely to Be Produced” award at the 2010 Action on Film International Film Festival for her script Wonder Drug.

Kara Marziali ’90 has been inducted into the Bay View Performing Arts Hall of Fame. Kara (right) is joined by Dayna (Marziali) Mendolia and Ralph J. Marziali. Kara’s sister and father (pictured) were also inducted for their achievements and significant contributions to the school. Before attending Emerson, Kara attended St. Mary Academy-Bay View, a college-prep K–12 institution in Riverside, Rhode Island, known for its performing arts program. After graduation she returned to the school as an alumna to perform and mentor students.



Jennifer Leclerc works as a marketing and communications consultant to arts and cultural organizations in the Boston area. She is interim president of the board for the Cambridge Art Association and a member of Boston Women Communicators.

Namrata A. Patel is a strategy shaman for HotSpring Inc. in New York City.

1994Al Emond creates CD and poster artwork for up-and-coming and established bands.

Angela Lepito produced DreamWorks Animation’s first personal artwork book, Moonshine, along with a team of DreamWorks artists. Visit their blog: moonshinedreamworks.com.

Sandra Rizkallah is co-founder and executive director of the Plugged In Teen Band Program in Needham, Massachusetts, a nonprofit group that teaches young musicians how to be in a rock band and about the importance of using music to better the world.

Greg Weiss and wife Beth are expecting a baby in November. Greg is vice president of talent and literary at Vanguard Management Company.

1995Tobias Baharian is expecting the birth of his second daughter with wife Jennifer. Tobias is developing his own media company in the New York City/

Connecticut area working on projects for corporate clients, commercials, and music acts.

Chris Hager is a regional investment consultant with Fidelity Investments and has three daughters.

Robert Mathers is vice president, Digital Operations, at Citadel Broadcasting in New York. He was on the first digital team at WZLX in Boston and then spent eight years working digital for Clear Channel in New York City. In 2006, he worked for ABC Radio Networks and then its successor Citadel Broadcasting. “I’d especially like to mention my very first mentor, Fran Berger, whose guidance and support for a kid from Jersey cannot even be measured.”

Milo Lanoue and Katie McLaughlin ’01 have a son, Bennett Joseph, born in July. Milo is also associate director of Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University.

Miha Megusar got married to Eva Furlan in May 2010.

Steve Scott marked the five-year anniversary of the Retirement Solution Group, LLC. He is managing partner.

Kristin (Lofblad) Sullivan, MFA ’95, lives in Cambridge with husband Jim and son Matthew. She works at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she leads a team of instructional designers and developers to help faculty use technology in their teaching. She is glad to be in touch with many Emerson pals through Facebook.

Becky Wilson had her first child, Oliver Rock Hamilton, on June 13, 2010.

15th Reunion 1996Mike Hanley and wife Emily were married in 2005 and in 2007 bought their first house in the suburb of Santa Clarita, near Los Angeles. Mike is senior editor at 7ate9 Entertainment and works on promos and interstitials for Disney Channel and other networks.

Steven Evanne Heinstein is a musician and songwriter living in Los Angeles. His songs have been recorded by multiple artists and have appeared on hit television shows and feature films. He also scores video games and art installations.

Rachel Latta and Dana Giuliana celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. They have three boys. Rachel is a staff psychologist and acting manager of the Women Veterans Program at the

Bedford VA Medical Center and Dana is the director of user experience at Boston.com.

1997David Lagana is producing the live-action series Ring of Honor for Mark Cuban’s HDNet. David spent the previous six years as a head writer for Smackdown and ECW for Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment.

1998Suane Loomis worked as an editor and professor after leaving Emerson. She is married and has three children, ages 4, 6, and 10. Suane is a birth doula and an intuitive energy healer. She is earning her master’s degree.

Brad Altfest was promoted last spring to director of technology for Plum Television, a national lifestyle network catering to the luxury high-end market.

Melissa Hurley Sullivan ’96 met President Obama at the White House when she visited on behalf of the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition. Melissa represents the group, which consists of 22 Boston-area police associations.


Christine Stewart-Fitzgerald, MA ’98, and husband Chris Fitzgerald welcomed twin girls Alexandra and Julia into the world in 2009, just three weeks after moving into their new home in Carlsbad, California. Chris and Christine can’t believe that they’ve almost made it through the first year.

1999Christopher Dowd, MFA ’99, has published his first book, The Construction of Irish Identity in American Literature (Routledge). He is assistant professor of English at Missouri Southern State University.

Kimberly Davis has won the 2009–10 James Wright Poetry Award sponsored by Mid-American Review. Kim’s poem “Alchemy” was selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Dennis.

Jason Knight, a lawyer admitted in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, has opened his own law practice in Providence concentrating in criminal defense, immigration-related issues, and general litigation.

Thomas Krajewski was honored with a 2010 EMMY nomination in the category

of Outstanding Writing in Animation for his work on the hit Nickelodeon series The Fairly OddParents.

Erica Schredni married Chris Shafer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in August. She works for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and would love to get in touch with Emerson classmates or alumni in her area.

Bo Stevenson reports: “Ford gave me the new Fiesta and I play an assistant/driver/apprentice to Tom Hanks while he directs and stars in the film Larry Crowne. The project is a first of its kind–a brand-integrated behind-the-scenes web show. Aside from my on-camera work on this project, I did a lot of the shooting and all of the editing myself.”

2000Christie Leigh Bellany is director of marketing and sales with Big Night Entertainment Group in Boston. She also continues to operate CNC Music Productions, a company she started in 2003, which provides musical talent for corporate events and music venues.

Matthew Aaron Goodman, MFA ’00, published his first novel, Hold Love Strong (Simon & Schuster), to much acclaim last year. It was selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Book, among other accolades. For 2010, the book was selected by the College of Holy Cross as the book the entire freshman class would read.

Dina (Sebock) Hillier and husband Tim Hillier had their first child, Raya, in 2009. “I am VP of Comedy Development at Sony Pictures Television in Los Angeles.”

Liz Baker McClain spent the last three years running the Friends of the UUA, a national fundraising arm of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. She has been asked to take over the Legacy Giving Program at the UUA.

Sara (Morling) O’Connor is senior editorial manager at Hodder Children’s Books and is happy to receive submissions of young and middle grade fiction, ages 5 to 12, from Emersonians.

Emre Ozpirincci won an award at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival Screenplay Competition for his script How to Write a Romantic Comedy.

10th Reunion 2001Diana Krupadziorow co-founded Tight Bod with a Pod, an online destination site and daily newsletter for busy, modern moms who are looking to stay fit, hip with the family, and instill healthy living. On the business side, the site is growing fast. Launched in April, it has more than 75,000 subscribers.

Iris Davison ’98 andRick Davison’s daughter Madelyn sports an Emerson bib.

Emre Sahin’s (’99) debut feature film, 40, is an official selection of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. Shot on location in Istanbul, the film’s crew consisted of Emerson alumni, including producer Sarah Wetherbee ‘99, 2nd unit director Christian Ortega ‘03, and gaffer Mark Lafleur ‘03. Pictured are (standing) Emre with one of the leads, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.


Allyson Mahoney and her husband welcomed their first child, Jackson, in March. Allyson continues to work in Connecticut at the private speech pathology practice Bram Speech and Language Consultants.

Michael Cyril Creighton was nominated for a 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role for his performance in MilkMilkLemonade, and his online sitcom Jack in a Box is an Official Selection of the 2010 New York Television Festival.

Cary Krowne is a story editor for the second season of VH1’s Basketball Wives.

Shannon (Leahy) Rolston and husband Ron welcomed their second child, Ronan Patrick, in May. He was welcomed home by big sister Maeve, 2 years old.

Jennie Smith-Peers is executive director for Elders Share the Arts in New York City. She is also finishing a master’s degree in drama therapy from NYU.

2002Melissa Gaudette received her master’s degree in journalism and is an adjunct professor at Newbury College.

Elizabeth Hadzima married Ellen Perkins on July 2, 2010, in New Hampshire. Liz and Ellen met at Emerson their freshman year in the elevator of 100 Beacon Street.

Steven Withrow, MA ’99, is the producer of Library of the Early Mind, a feature-length documentary film exploring children’s literature. The film will premiere at

Harvard University in October 2010 and will screen around the world in 2011. Steven’s sixth book, Illustrating Children’s Picture Books, has been published.

Charisma Ridgley graduated from Lesley University with a master’s degree in expressive therapies. She is working toward her registered art therapist and licensed mental health counselor licenses.

2003Dennis Alves is engaged to get married in 2011 to fiancé Jessica Brand, whom he knew in high school. Dennis lives in Boston and works for Welsh Consulting.

Steve Basilone and Annie Mebane write for the new ABC comedy Happy Endings, which premieres this year.

Liryc (Lunn) Donald had a baby boy, Gunnar James Donald, on August 8, 2010 with husband Richard Donald.

Rockiss and Jeanine Estrada are expecting their second son in January.

Jason Fell was promoted to group news editor at Red 7 Media. He manages news and multimedia content online for FOLIO, Audience Development, and EXPO magazines.

Joseph Finley will be sponsored by FedEx Corp. as he completes his MBA at the University of Memphis while participating in a rotating internship program in various marketing departments at FedEx.

Dan Levy married Rachel Specter in July at Walnut Grove at the Tierra Rejada Ranch in Moorpark, California. Dan is a stand-up comedian and tours the country with the CollegeHumor Live tour. In 2009, he had a half-hour special on Comedy Central.

Colin Riley is married to Holly Nagel. “We live in Manhattan, where I just joined the team over at Simon & Schuster in the children’s marketing department, spanning all imprints. It truly is the happiest time in my life.”

Ashley (Deacon) Valles and husband Fernando welcomed their son, Jonmarco Luis, in 2009.

2004Serena Ahne is the founder of Fred K’s Cancer Fundraising and is co-author of Traveling Baseball Babes (travelingbaseballbabes.blogspot.com).

Meet Genesis Liliana Gutierrez, daughter of Daniel Gutierrez ’00 and Veronica Gutierrez.


Melanie Braunstein is manager of licensing and franchise management at ABC Entertainment Group.

Katie Fennelly was nominated for her first Emmy Award in the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program category for her role as producer on FOX’s American Idol.

Christopher Larkin works at Wikipedia in Tampa, Florida, as assistant/publicist to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.

“After working six years in Los Angeles, I switched career paths to enable me to be more productive on a global scale and found myself working with Wikipedia, helping to promote the idea of exchanging the sum of free knowledge across all countries.”

Christian O’Neill, MA ’04, and Leah Labrecque ’05, who wed in 2004, welcomed their first child, Asher Nicholas O’Neill, in 2009. The family lives in Watertown, Massachusetts, while Leah attends Simmons College

as a graduate student and Christian runs a videography and web design business called life/stories, inc.

Peyton Pugmire, MA ’04, is the producing artistic director of the Watertown Children’s Theatre and founder of Divine Stage Works in Jamaica Plain.

Abby Stonewall Kapp, MA ’04, started her own baby planning business, Little Miracles Baby Planning.

Wendy Suares is the morning anchor for KARK 4 News in Little Rock, Arkansas.

2005Tatiana Chapira lives in San Francisco, where she works as a senior developer at the e-learning company Allen Interactions, helping husband Daniel with his software startup Aprix Solutions, and playing with her 2-year-old son, Lucas. Kimberly Leann Fowler is senior product marketing manager for books at John Wiley & Sons Inc. She is a recipient of the Dean’s Merit Scholarship at the Simmons School of Management at Simmons College (MBA candidate).

Jon Hoffman has a freelance new-media design business, zrayweb.com, with a focus on working with local artists and businesses in the Boston area. Jon just returned from San Francisco with his band Vanzetti. Vanzetti will be playing shows around Boston and New York and will soon release their next CD.

Rachael Brown is an associate editor at The Atlantic. She and Bryan Hayes were married last year.

Deborah Correa just premiered her short Little Black Dress at the LA Shorts Fest. She directed the film as part of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.

5th Reunion 2006Galen D’Attilio is a financial analyst for MTV Networks.

Phoebe Gelfand, of San Francisco, works with We Players, a site-specific, interactive theater company that stages performance events that “transform public spaces into realms of participatory theater.” This October, WE is presenting Hamlet on Alcatraz through invitation of the National Park Service.

Kaili McDonnough Scott, MA ’06, is editor of KUYA magazine, a real estate and high-end villa rental magazine in her home country of Jamaica, where she lives with husband Nicholas.

2007Lauren M. Brock is creative director of LA Vintage, an online vintage company based in Los Angeles, and soon to be opening a brick-and-mortar location in Hollywood.

Valerie Conyngham launched Vianne Chocolat this past spring.

Stephanie Ellis is senior account executive at PR firm Ruder Finn.

Jim Fitzgerald will be married to Jennifer Wilson on September 24, 2010.

Katryn Geane is marketing and communication coordinator for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts.

Kristin Hayes is moving to California to earn her MFA in theater design at UC/San Diego.

Stacy Hunsberger and Bill Couch are engaged. Stacy, an advanced development manager, and Bill, a project manager, are planning a 2011 wedding in Pennsylvania.

Jaweed Kaleem won a scholarship from the Religion Newswriters Association for his work as the religion reporter at the Miami Herald. Jaweed has worked at the paper since 2007.

Ashley Phillips is building manager of Langdon Woods (LEED Gold) at Plymouth State University.

Katy Whittingham, MFA ’02, has a new poetry chapbook, By A Different Ocean, published by Plan B Press, Virginia.


Kevin McKeon is executive assistant to Drew Barrymore and her producing partner and manager, Chris Miller, at Flower Films. Kathryn Reiter is attending Brooklyn Law School this fall with an aim to work in the public sector.

2008Sammie Baime is the audience development/box office manager for the Magic Theatre Company (where Sam Shepard started!) in San Francisco.

Andrea Drygas is managing editor of Emerson’s Ploughshares literary journal. She began as interim managing editor in October 2009 and was hired full time in April 2010.

Julian Higgins received her MFA in directing from the American Film Institute.

Serra Izmiroglu is working at Karma Films as an assistant producer in Istanbul, Turkey.

Matthew Porter writes, “After a year as a web producer for PalmBeachPost.com, I became a staff writer for The Palm Beach Post. In addition to my sports writing duties, I shoot and edit video and host a weekly high school football show.”

Gizem Salcigil and Nathan White met at Emerson in the GMCA program and were married July 2010.

Thomas Shull co-authored a chapter, “Fundamental Principles of Cued Speech and Cued Language,” in the

book Cued Speech and Cued Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children (Plural Publishing, 2010).

Courtney Walden is special projects coordinator for Jeopardy! at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

2009Tiffany Allen lives in Taipei, Taiwan, and works as an ESL kindergarten teacher.

Faye Brennan is assistant editor at BettyConfidential.com, one of the fastest growing websites for women. Her first feature in a national women’s print magazine will be published in Marie Claire later this year.

Evan Crean writes: “Before the premiere of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, I had the special opportunity to interview the director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, and Anna Kendrick for the entertainment website that I write for, Starpulse.com.” Evan Kaufman is an actor at Boston’s Improv Asylum, where he performs improv comedy five times a week. He also teaches improv and produces video content there.

Spencer Kardos, MA ’09, and Kavi Williams, BFA ’09, are engaged. The wedding will take place in summer 2011.

Rachel Moses is a social media marketing and recruitment specialist at RCM Technologies in New York City.

Scott Morley ’97 and Britni Orcutt were married on April 7, 2010. The couple met while performing in a wizard-themed illusion show. They have formed Wonderfun Productions, which provides entertainment for private parties and corporate events.

Allison M. Dolan Wilson ’99 married Jeff Wilson in June. Emersonians attending the wedding included (from left): Danielle Dagilis ‘98, Jaime DeJong ‘97, Erica Collins

‘98, Allison M. Dolan Wilson ‘99, Kate Hanavan ‘98, Lee Parent Maynard ‘99, and Joya Weinroth ‘98.

Kate (Wheeler) Haranis ’06 married George Haranis on May 30, with Jacqui Emerson

’06 and Caroline Romano ’06 as bridesmaids.

WeddingsEmerson

Shelley Kapitulik ’02 and Michael Drazin ’04 were married June 4 in St. Croix. Emersonians in attendance included (from left) Marc Drazin, MSSp ’74, Jason DeNagy ’02, Mike Torello ’01, Ira Goldstone ’71, Patricia Berg Drazin ’75, Meghann Burns ’03, and Dave Vottero ’03.



Erica Templeman is client services associate at New Marketing Labs.

Sarah Joy Thompson moved to Raleigh, works at Trader Joe’s, and teaches at Sylvan Learning Center.

2010Alison McGonagle is engaged to longtime boyfriend John P.

“Jack” O’Connell. Jillian Rankins, MA ’10, is an oncology medical writer at Custom Learning Designs in Belmont, Massachusetts. Katie Leonard is account coordinator at DentaQuest in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Staci DaSilva is moving to Sioux City, Iowa, to be the morning/midday news producer at KCAU-TV.

Will Wemer is senior associate, Development and Strategic Planning, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Division of Development and The Jimmy Fund.

Jacob Barela is a community health agent Peace Corps volunteer. He will be serving in Niger for two years.

Kristen van Ginhoven will be adjunct faculty at Emerson College in Fall 2010, teaching in the Performing Arts Department. She is also artistic director of WAM Theatre, which produces theatrical events that benefit women and girls worldwide.

Elizabeth Haley got a job offer on graduation day for a full-time audiology assistant position at Tufts Medical Center. She has been working there in the pediatric audiology department assisting with behavioral testing and newborn hearing screenings and “absolutely loves it.”

Laura Kraybill moved to Hesston, Kansas, to take on the role of chair of the Theatre Department at Hesston College, a two-year liberal arts college.

Torrie Rasmussen is enrolled at the University of South Dakota’s graduate biology program (PhD).

Christina Cacciotti moved back to Santa Monica and works for the talent agency WME2 in Beverly Hills.

Brent Baughman works at NPR in Washington, D.C., where he is a producer for All Things Considered and Morning Edition. “I’m heartsick for Boston and the Emerson bubble, but am finally doing the thing I spent four years working toward.”

Expression magazine at Emerson College welcomes news of alumni—promotions, career changes, volunteer work, marriages, births, and other news. Class Notes are printed on a space-available basis. For publication purposes, photos must be high-resolution (300 dpi is ideal). In general, a larger file is better than a smaller file.

How to submit Class Notes and photosVia email: [email protected]: emerson.edu/alumni/community (click on Class Notes) U.S. Mail: Class Notes, Emerson College, Office of Alumni Relations, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116-4624

Class Notes Policy


Seounmi Han Youn

Gifts that MatterHow did you become interested in researching teens and online privacy?I had the opportunity to observe my son’s Internet use. It’s hard to supervise it due to the interactive nature of the Internet. I wanted to know how I could help him protect himself from online marketers.

How did you use the grant money to study this question?I took the school survey approach. I got approval from the superintendent and principals, and provided parental consent forms and questionnaires for the students. The schools received funds for research participation. Sample questions included: “How concerned are you about the ways that companies collect and use personal information about you on the Internet?”

What were your findings?Parental mediation is important in promoting child safety on the Internet. There is a lot of literature about how parents mediate children’s television use, so I applied that to Internet use. I thought that instead of using technical software like filters, active family discussion about websites and online activities might be the way to increase teens’ privacy concerns and their privacy protective behaviors. It doesn’t work to make restrictive rules like “Don’t go to that website” for teens because they circumvent such parental rules.

The Mann Stearns Distinguished Faculty Award provides a cash grant annually to a full-time faculty member to support a scholarly or creative endeavor in which travel is encouraged.

Seounmi Han Youn, winner of a Norman and Irma Mann Stearns Distinguished Faculty Award, spends her time exploring how young consumers interact with online marketers’ information-collection and use practices. Youn is concerned about privacy loss among young consumers and is working on transforming vulnerable consumers into resilient consumers.

Photo by David Leifer

Associate Professor of Marketing Communication

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An esteemed gatheringAlumni assemble beneath the Paramount Center’s marquee during Alumni Weekend 2010.

expression fall 2010

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