People News, January 2025

President Sarah Willie-LeBreton is the featured speaker for Syracuse University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Jan. 26. Willie-LeBreton’s father, the late Charles Willie, was the university’s first Black full professor, department chair, and vice president. The theme of this year’s event is “Living History.”

Photos by Smith College Photographer Jessica Scranton were published in a November People magazine article, “Daughter Born Dependent on Opioids Entered Foster Care While Mom Got Help. How They Reconnected Years Later.”

Audrey Banie ’27 won the Best Pitch prize in the 2024 Elevator Pitch Contest sponsored by Smith’s Conway Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center for her enterprise, “Grow.” Other contest winners were: Mary Clare Michael ’26 in the Out of the Box category for “The Policy Playhouse”; Olohi John ’27 and Mia Tran ’27 in the Conquering Injustice category for “Kuali Juvenile Education Foundation” and “Resilient Vietnam”; Ally Tutay ’25 and Faithrose Daniel ’27 in the Educational Dividends category for “Seedmatch” and “Mama Market”; and Diane Okong’o ’26 in the Finance Free category for “Thrive Together.” The Judges’ Choice prize went to Gabrielle Bennett ’27 for “Really Cool Rocket Boots.”

Lily Braun-Arnold ’26 has published her debut novel, The Last Bookstore on Earth (Delacorte Press), a young adult romance about two young women “struggling to survive a climate apocalypse while protecting the ruins of a beloved community bookstore.” Arnold is majoring in English language and literature. Her book has earned a prestigious Kirkus Star.

Smith basketball player Hannah Martin ’27 was named NEWMAC Offensive Athlete of the Week after leading the Pioneers to a non-conference win in December over Trinity College. Martin was also named to the NEWBA Weekly Honor Roll First Team.

Carrie Baker, Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Chair of American Studies and Professor of the Study of Women and Gender, is the author of Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics published by Amherst College Press. The book offers a comprehensive history of abortion pills in the U.S., including how activists waged a decade-long campaign to create and expand access to abortion medication.

Erin Cohn, director of the Wurtele Center for Leadership, has published research with Smith STRIDE Scholars Marta Almazovaite ’24 and Sirohi Kumar ’26 in Frontiers in Education. Their article, Group projects as spaces for leadership development in the liberal arts classroom, was developed over the past three years as part of the students’ work with the Wurtele Center.

Jonathan Hirsh, senior lecturer in music and director of orchestral and choral activities, conducted “Nina Rota Rediscovered,” a North American premiere of Requiem Mass by the Oscar-winning composer of The Godfather on Jan. 18 at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City.

Susan B. Levin, Roe/Straut Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, has published new research critiquing the zeal of some philosophers and tech billionaires for engineering agelessness. “The irrationality of human confidence that an ageless existence would be better,” published in Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, and Levin’s response to comments about the article from advocates of agelessness explore why the quest for agelessness, driven by confidence that an ageless existence would be superior to our own, is irrational and detrimental to human flourishing.

Julia Batson ’23 has joined the Boston College rowing program as an assistant coach after serving as a coach with the Saratoga Rowing Association/ARION program in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Batson, who majored in religion at Smith, was a two-time All-American honoree and a NEWMAC First Team all-conference selection in 2022 and 2023. She was the 2022 Pioneer Powerhouse Athlete of the Year and earned dean’s list honors in each of her four years at Smith.

Jazlin Ladriere ’23 is the author of A Little Boy Who Likes Flowers Too, a children’s book that celebrates the joy of discovering gender self-expression. Ladriere earned her Smith degree in Latin American studies.

Julia Antinozzi ’18 has been named one of Dance magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2025. Antinozzi, who earned her Smith degree in dance, has been choreographing for her own dancers since 2022. She is a participant this winter in Live Artery at New York Live Arts as well as in the New York Choreographic Institute this spring.

Maine House Representative Lydia Crafts ’05 has been appointed to the board of directors of MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital. Crafts, who majored in anthropology at Smith and earned an M.S.W. from the University of Maine, was selected for her “dedication to the issues that are essential to the delivery of quality healthcare in a rural setting like ours,” according to an announcement from the nominating committee.

Susan Yom ’95 is the new superintendent of schools for the Elmsford School District in New York. Yom, who majored in history at Smith and earned master’s degrees in education at Harvard and Columbia, brings 29 years of teaching and administrative experience to her new role. She most recently served as superintendent for the Nyack, N.Y., school district.

Smith Medalist and Trustee Deborah Archer ’93, who is president of the American Civil Liberties Union, is the keynote speaker for Rochester Institute of Technology’s 43rd annual ”Expressions of King’s Legacy” event on Jan. 29. Archer—who majored in government at Smith and earned a law degree from Yale—is the first person of color to lead the ACLU. She is a professor of clinical law at the New York University School of Law and faculty director of the school’s Community Equity Initiative.

Nilanjana (Buju) Dasgupta ’92, who is a provost professor and the founding director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the author of Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities (Yale University Press). The book points to research-backed strategies that produce positive change, helping readers recognize how individuals acting together in groups is essential to dismantling the status quo. Dasgupta earned her Smith degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Yale. She will have a conversation about her new book with Smith Professor Carrie Baker on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 6:30 p.m. at Forbes Library in Northampton.

Stephanie J. Jones ’82 was the keynote speaker at Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati for the church’s Jan. 12 Interfaith Vesper, “Sharing Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream of One Nation.” Jones, an attorney and activist, is president of the Nathaniel R. Jones Foundation, an organization she co-founded with her father to advance the cause of equal justice. Jones majored in Afro-American studies and English language and literature at Smith, and earned a law degree at the University of Cincinnati.