Beyond Vassar
Courtesy of the subject
Playwright juliany taveras ’16 saw several exciting projects come to fruition in 2023. The second season of the Amazon Original series With Love, on which taveras served as a writer, began streaming in June. And when VQ caught up with the former media studies major in the fall, they were eagerly anticipating the opening of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, an adaptation of the children’s book by the same name, at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. The play will eventually travel to the Chicago Children’s Theatre and Rose Theater in Omaha. In fact, taveras has become something of a go-to talent for bringing children’s literature to the stage and screen and is currently adapting the book Julián Is a Mermaid for an animated feature. “It’s just something I’m really drawn to because, as an artist, I’m in conversation with my younger self and thinking about what that child needed, and thinking about what I want to offer back to the world,” they explained. While taveras said they didn’t consciously fit themself into this niche, they remember taking a course on adaptation with their creative writing adviser at Vassar, Adjunct Associate Professor Emerita of English M Mark. “We would look at different work that had been adapted and at this larger idea of how we’re constantly adapting and building off of each other’s work as artists,” they recalled. “I think it’s funny that I’m here doing that in a very direct way!”
Laura Kinter ’13, Executive Director of Awakenings Art, a community studio that provides survivors of sexual violence with trauma-informed, inclusive art-making experiences that encourage healing, was named an Obama Foundation Scholar for 2023–24. The highly competitive program supports rising leaders from around the world in an innovative one-year academic experience. According to the foundation’s site, Kinter “plans to leverage the Scholars program curriculum to work at a systems change level to address the prevalence of sexual assault and aims to foster collective impact by bringing together rape-crisis centers, law firms, therapists, shelters, prevention organizations, and policy advocates to improve the pathway to healing for survivors.” Kinter is considered a rising star in Chicago, IL, NGO leadership. Since she started at Awakenings Art in 2018, she has transitioned the organization from an exhibition space to a restorative center for survivor services offering free art workshops, a cohort program, and more. She is an MBA candidate at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where she was named a Neubauer Civic Scholar. The scholarship program, which aims to create better business leaders in the social sector, provided a “full ride” for Kinter.
Ryan Bakerink
Writer MB Caschetta ’88 won a 2023 Memoir Book Prize from Memoir Magazine for A Cheerleader’s Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, a collection of essays she’s written since the 1990s. The book was also the subject of a story in the Advocate, which called it an “enlightening, witty read” and noted that while the topics Caschetta covers can be heavy—her battle with long COVID, her disinheritance by her father, losing friends to AIDS—she often finds moments of humor. “I feel like humor saves me,” she told the magazine.
Deborah Steinberg ’14, Senior Health Policy Attorney at the Legal Action Center, was a finalist for the Excellence in Advocacy Awards presented by Women in Government Relations to honor “everyday advocates who dedicate themselves to representing their issue, cause, or organization in the public policy arena.” Steinberg’s advocacy focus is expanding access to comprehensive and equitable care for substance-use disorder and eliminating discriminatory barriers to treatment.
Indiana University School of Public Health
David B. Allison ’85, Dean, Distinguished Professor, and Provost Professor at Indiana University–Bloomington School of Public Health was named a 2023 Sigma Xi Fellow. Founded at Cornell University in 1866, Sigma Xi promotes “excellence in scientific investigation and encourages a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering” and counts more than 200 winners of the Nobel Prize among its membership. Allison is a staunch advocate for rigor in research methods and the uncompromisingly truthful communication of research findings. He has continually been a principal investigator in NIH-funded grants for more than 25 years and has authored more than 600 scientific publications. His many honors include the National Science Foundation Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (2006). In 2022, he was named a Distinguished Lecturer by Sigma Xi, and received the Hoebel Prize for Creativity (Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior). He received the 2023 Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award, bestowed by the American Physiological Society. Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2012, he also serves as Co-Chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust.
Fiona Shen-Bayh ’11, Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, received the 2023 American Political Science Association’s Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award for Undue Process: Persecution and Punishment in Autocratic Courts. The association noted, “This important work on autocratic courts in sub-Saharan Africa during the post-independence era looks at how and why autocrats choose to punish opponents through the judicial process, and the circumstances under which they resort to extrajudicial means.”
Jasmine Brown ’10, a Senior Producer of ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir, and her team won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Live News Program at the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmys. The awards were presented on September 27 at the Palladium Times Square in New York City. Brown, who previously served as a producer on ABC’s Nightline, is the recipient of numerous other honors including three Edward R. Murrow Awards and a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University.
Nieman Foundation
Hispanic Image magazine
Finance professional Darys Estrella ’92 was featured on the August 2023 cover of Hispanic Image magazine in a story about realizing the American Dream. In a LinkedIn post, Estrella thanked the magazine for the honor and said, “My goal is to inspire other women to pursue their dreams, to dare to go for more despite fear, to learn to set limits, to invest in themselves and to understand that they are the masters of their own destiny.”
Hallie Ayres ’18, a New York–based researcher and art historian, was chosen as a co-curator of the Shanghai Biennale, which runs through March 31, 2024, at the city’s Power Station of Art Museum. The biennale is one of the most high-profile contemporary art events in Shanghai and the oldest, most established art biennale in China. Ayres serves as Associate Director at e-flux, a web platform that fosters critical discourse in art, architecture, film, and theory, and connects many of the most significant art institutions with audiences around the world through art projects, symposia, and exhibitions. Her writing has been featured in e-flux Criticism and e-flux Journal. She has lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, and is a research fellow at the Institute of the Cosmos, where she edited Cosmic Bulletin 2021. Ayers has produced a number of experimental films in the U.S. and Turkey.