Stay Connected to Smith
The Office of Alumnae Relations and Development welcomes you to “Stay Connected to Smith,” where you can explore the vibrant tapestry of Smith’s academic, cultural, and social initiatives. Here, you’ll find a wealth of engaging content, from thought-provoking lectures to insightful articles and impactful student projects, all to keep you connected, informed, and inspired.
More Ways to Stay Connected
Get Updates
Learn Something New
- Professor Emeritus James Sacré was recently announced as the 2025 winner of the prestigious Goncourt Prize for Poetry in recognition of his entire body of work. His book Des Objets Nous Accompagnent (2025) was translated by Professor Emeritus David Ball.
- Published by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, “Weighing Risks: How Families of Disabled Children Made School Choices During the Pandemic” includes research from Professor Rachel Fish, Alexandra Freidus (University of Connecticut), and Erica Turner (University of Wisconsin–Madison) on ableism, special education structures, and more.
- Kate Soper, Iva Dee Hiatt Professor of Music, debuted her opera “Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus” with the New York Philharmonic in May. Soper was a soloist for the performance of the piece, which reviewers described as “a love letter to the Philharmonic.” The New York Times also cited Soper’s opera as among the “Best Classical Music of 2025, So Far.”
- Cheng Xu, assistant professor of government, is the author of “Manila’s hidden hand in Bangsamoro politics,” published in East Asia Forum Quarterly.
- Jina Kim, assistant professor of English language and literature and the study of women and gender, is the author of Care at the End of the World: Dreaming of Infrastructure in Crip-of-Color Writing (Duke University Press).
- Erica Banks, assistant professor of sociology, has been selected as a participant in the University of Maryland’s 2025 Racial Democracy Crime Justice Network Summer Research Institute to work on her project, “Reverberations of Incarceration: The Carceral State and Black Womanhood.”
- Check out Smith Executive Education to enroll in women’s leadership programs.
Offerings for Alums
Feel Good
- Read a selection of little love stories to Smith, to celebrate the college’s 150th anniversary. You can submit your own story through our website.
- In honor of the college’s sesquicentennial, the Smith College Archives has compiled a series of photos capturing Smithies both in the classroom and at play. The photos span the 1880s through 2018, and they capture moments such as campus protests, astronomy classes, and one of the world’s first women’s basketball games.
- Sip, sip, hooray! First introduced during the inauguration of President Sarah Willie-LeBreton, Smith’s two custom tea blends are available for sale.
- Check out the winners of the Global Encounters Photo Contest.
- Download a beautiful Smith photo for your Zoom background.
- Miss campus? Enjoy different views of Paradise Pond through our campus webcams.
Smithies Create
- April Simpson ’06 has been chosen as 2025 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. In 2024, Simpson collaborated with fellow journalists Alexia Campbell, Nadia Hamdan, Roy Hurst, and Pratheek Rebala on “40 Acres and a Lie,” a series about how land titles granted to formerly enslaved Americans were unjustly revoked, according to a statement.
- Madelyn Sher, M.F.A. ’24 is the recipient of The Emory Arts Fellowship in Dance from Emory University. Arts fellows spend one semester teaching an undergraduate class in their field and a second semester partnering with a faculty member from anywhere in the university to co-teach a course and create a capstone project.
- In January, stand-up comedian Mina Hartong ’91 taped her solo show “Miss Personality” in Palm Springs, California. Ahead of the special’s streaming release, Hartong will perform “Miss Personality” at the Egremont Barn in the Berkshires this summer.
- Darcy Parker Bruce, M.F.A. ’16, is one of 18 theater artists selected for the 2025 MacDowell Fellowship. Founded in the early 1900s, the MacDowell program annually brings artists to its Peterborough, New Hampshire, campus for an “inspiring residential environment … to produce enduring works,” according to a statement. Bruce will spend their residency working on a new play.
- Food writer and editor Helen Rosner ’04 is the recipient of a 2025 James Beard Media Award for her profile story, “Padma Lakshmi Walks into a Bar,” published in The New Yorker magazine where she is a staff member. Rosner, who earned her Smith degree in philosophy, was formerly an editor at Eater magazine.
- Author Amy Bloom, M.S.W. ’78 has published I'll Be Right Here, a multigenerational historical novel focused on Algerian siblings in Paris during World War II. Bloom’s book was recently profiled in the New York Times.
Smithies have made their mark in literature. If you would like to have your work appear on our list of Smithie authors, please fill out this form.
Connect with Campus
Smithies in the Community
- Danielle Brian ’85 appears on a list of the 500 Most Influential People of 2025, published in a special issue of the Washingtonian. Brian, president and executive director of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), is recognized as one of the many experts and advocates influencing policy debates.
- Zoya Azhar ’20 was selected to participate in HumanitiesDC’s 14-week community journalism program where she produced an investigative report about organizing by renters in the Adams Morgan neighborhood published in Washington City Paper. Azhar earned her Smith degree in English language and literature.
- Jennifer C. Jones, M.S.W. ’00 received the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award for her commitment to the “unity of the global poor and dispossessed organizing across color lines to fight for everyone’s economic human rights.” Jones co-founded Rising Caps Collective in 2021, which supports expansive healing to address the traumatic legacies of colonization, slavery, and capitalism.
- Camille Bacon ’21, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Jupiter magazine, is one of four new trustee appointees at the Poetry Foundation. “With the addition of Camille Bacon, four poets will be serving on the board, helping to steer the foundation’s mission to amplify poetry and celebrate poets,” board chair Gwendolyn Perry Davis said in a statement. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/1683975/the-poetry-foundation…
- Founded in 2021 by Nicole Kenney ’06 in 2021, Hey Auntie! is an online community where Black women share insights about navigating various life challenges. Kenney says her real-life community of “aunties” inspired the platform, and that the goal of Hey Auntie! is empowering women.
- Olaolu Aganga ’03, Mercer U.S. CIO, joins CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” to talk about her investing playbook in a volatile trading environment.
- Hampshire College has appointed Jennifer Chrisler ’92 as its interim president. Chrisler, currently serving as Hampshire’s vice president for institutional support, joined the College in 2019 as chief advancement officer.
- Kim Noltemy ’90, CEO of the LA Philharmonic, was recently named to the LA Business Journal's LA500 2025 in its "Arts & Philanthropy" category.
- Laura Tyson ’69 is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate. Her most recent article, with John Zysman, is “The Trump Global Fallout.” Tyson is a former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Board of Advisers at Angeleno Group.
