People News, May 2025

Smith President Sarah Willie-LeBreton was a panelist for an event marking the 125^th anniversary celebration of Simmons College in March, where presidents of historic women’s colleges were invited to gather for a dialogue.

Steve Williams, Gates Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Biology, and Jay Garfield, Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic, and Buddhist Studies, were recipients of Smith’s 2025 Honored Professor awards announced at Commencement on May 18. Alice Hearst, professor of government, was also recognized as last year’s Honored Professor award recipient.

Abagail Coleman ’26 and Emilia Neyer ’26J will be interning this summer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Coleman has been a student educator for the Botanic Garden of Smith College, while Neyer has been a botanic garden curatorial work-study student and a conservation intern. Smith’s Kew summer program was established in 1994, thanks to a generous endowment established in honor of Muriel Kohn Pokross ’34. Each year, two Smith students spend 12 weeks at Kew conducting plant research with world-renowned scientists.

Alliyah Logan ’25 co-moderated an event at the United Nations, “Power4Girls: Invest in Girls, Transform the World,” in celebration of International Women’s Day in March. The event featured remarks from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Millie Bobby Brown, who emphasized the critical importance of investing in girls’ education. In January, Logan was a panelist for “Youth Values for Peace,” a European Union event in Florence, Italy.

Anna-Lee C. Thompson ’25 co-authored research with Judith Wopereis, laboratory instructor in biological sciences, and Laura Katz, Elsie Damon Simonds Professor of Biological Sciences. “Visualizing Epigenetics: A Review of Microscopy Techniques for Investigating DNA Methylation Patterns, Chromatin Structure, and Gene Expression” was published in April in Microscopy and Microanalysis.

Jeffrey Ahlman, professor of history, is the author of “W.E.B. Du Bois and the Liberian Question: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Tensions of a Black Republic” in the winter 2025 issue of the Journal of African American History.

Carrie Baker, professor of the study of women and gender, published a policy paper, “The History of Abortion Pills and How to Protect Future Access,” in April in Scholars Strategy Network.

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.”

Ben Baumer, professor of statistical and data sciences, has been selected as a 2025 fellow of the American Statistical Association. The prestigious distinction is given annually to association members for their professional contributions, leadership, and commitment to the field of statistical science.

Esther Burson, assistant professor of psychology, gave a seminar presentation recently on “Queering Critical Consciousness: Measurement and Implications of Critical Consciousness Among Sexual and Gender Minority Youth,” for the Texas Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research.

Ginetta Candelario ’90, professor of sociology and Latin American and Latino/a studies, gave a talk in March at Penn State Hazleton on “Transnational reflections on Black Behind the Ears Dominican racial transformation at home and in diaspora since 2007.”

Floyd Cheung, vice president for equity and inclusion and professor of English language and literature, gave a talk in May at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, about the anthology he co-edited, The Literature of Japanese Incarceration. The event marked Asian American Pacific Islander month at Roosevelt House.

Rosetta Marantz Cohen, Myra M. Sampson Professor Emerita of Education and Child Study, has published a new book of poetry, Five Women, about the inner lives of women from five historical eras. The book received the 2024 Willow Run Poetry Award from Hidden River Arts.

Nathan DuFord, assistant professor of government, gave a keynote speech on “A Political Theory of Trans Antagonism” in April at the Thinking Trans//Trans Thinking Conference at Lafayette College.

Jessica Gersony, assistant professor of biological sciences, gave a seminar in April, “Tangled up in blue: Understanding carbon movement in trees during water stress,” at the University of Maine in Orono. The seminar was part of Maine Impact Week, celebrating the state’s contributions to art and science.

Jennifer Guglielmo, associate professor of history, co-hosted a talk in April on the theme of Italian-American identity and whiteness at 33 Hawley’s Barn Door Gallery in Northampton.

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).

Sara Mazza, assistant professor of geosciences, is the author of “How did eastern North America form?” published in March in Knowable magazine.

Erinn McGurn, associate vice president for sustainable capital programs, was a speaker for the Construction Institute’s “Women Who Build Summit” held in April at Smith and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, professor of history, gave a lecture on “why the n-word is so hard to talk about” for Bowdoin College’s Black History Month series.

Javier Puente, associate professor of Latin American Latino/a studies, gave the keynote address, “Andean Lessons Against Authoritarianism,” in April at the Thinking Andean Studies Conference at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Loretta Ross, associate professor of the study of women and gender, is co-author of “Abortion and Reproductive Justice: An Essential Guide for Resistance” published by the University of California Press.

Traci-Ann Wint, assistant professor of Africana studies, gave a talk in April at Greenfield Community College on “Tourism and Travel in the Post-Colonial Caribbean and its Diaspora.”

Kaila Frazer ’24 is the author of “Plant size influences specific leaf area in palms: a case for diminishing returns hypothesis” published in March in the journal Oecologia.

Emily Everett ’09 has published her debut novel, All That Life Can Afford. Everett majored in English language and literature at Smith and earned a master of arts degree from Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Laura Stanton ’95 has been promoted to deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service. Stanton, who earned her Smith degree in German literature, most recently served as assistant commissioner for the Office of IT in the FAS. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.

Melanie Storey ’89 is the new president of the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators. Storey, who had been serving as director of policy implementation and oversight for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid, majored in economics at Smith and earned a master’s degree in education policy from the University of Texas Austin.

Former Smith Trustee Deborah Farrington ’72 is the recipient of a 2025 Alumni Achievement Award from the Harvard Business School. Farrington, a managing partner and cofounder of StarVest Partners LP, earned an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1976.