Upcoming Events:

RETURN to the (virtual) classroom for one-hour, bite-size versions of three Williams Winter Study Courses:

“Secrecy & Democracy” with journalist Ted Gup on Jan. 23 at 12 PM ET
“Food Justice and the Righteious Entrepreneur” with Mike Curtin ’86 on Jan. 25 at 3 PM ET
“Constructing Gender and Body in the Gym” with Holly Crane ’12 on Jan. 30 at 3 PM ET

BE A PART OF Claiming Williams on Thursday Feb 2 by tuning into these livestreamed events:

Ashray Cooper's talk "The Impact of Access, Relationship Building, and Leaving a Legacy" from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm ET
Keynote from Imani Perry author of the award-winning bestseller South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation which is this year's Williams Reads pick and the current Purple Prose Book Club selection.

CONNECT with other alumni leading DEI initiatives at a Tuesday, Jan. 24 online meetup starting at 4 PM ET.

CELEBRATE the New Year with Out and Proudly NESCAC on Jan. 25 from 6:30-8:30 PM! BiGLATA, in collaboration with NESCAC school partners, invites their LGBTQ+ alumni community to join them in NYC, Boston, DC, and San Francisco.

GATHER with the Williams Asian and Asian American Alumni Network on Feb. 2 during WAAAAN Connects, a monthly series of informal, virtual group chats to see old friends and meet new ones.

VOLUNTEER in your community and amplify your impact through the Biggest Little Community initiative which runs through Jan. 25.

Celebrate National Mentoring Month by building community with fellow alumni and students! Make meaningful connections and engage on your own terms. Learn more and register at ephlink.williams.edu.

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Alumnae: be sure to watch your inboxes this month for registration information for the Women of Williams Conference and Celebration of 50+ Years of Coeducation in Williamstown May 19-21, 2023.

And while you're waiting for that email, please share a memory of your time at Williams in our 50 Words for 50 Years section of the website. Memories and photos are welcome and very much appreciated!

Alumni in the News

Melissa Fenton ’91, executive director of the Council of Urban Professionals, rings the Nasdaq bell in celebration of her organization’s 15th year supporting diversity in the workplace by offering skill-building programs and networking opportunities to professionals in New York and L.A.
Julie Geng ’19 discusses the challenging decision of whether to remain in China in light of its zero-Covid policy in an episode of the New York Times podcast “First Person.”
In a history-making appointment, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has named Yvonne Hao ’95 as secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development. Hao “just gets stuff done,” a former colleague tells The Boston Globe in a profile.
With publication of a 10th anniversary edition of his groundbreaking book Walkable City, urban planner Jeff Speck ’85 shares what’s changed (SUVs are more dangerous) and what hasn’t (sprawl) with New York Magazine’s Curbed.
Pittsfield, Mass., Police Chief Michael Wynn ’93 is recognized in a unanimous decision by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association for his outstanding work.

Read the Latest Williams People

Catch up with fellow alumni in the January 2023 edition of Williams People, now available online.

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DFrom left: President Maud S. Mandel, Senior Project Manager Scott Henderson and Senior Development Officer David Dewey ’82 get a look at construction progress for the new Davis Center; and Assistant VP for Campus Engagement Bilal Ansari writes the names of members of the Colored Republican Club of Williamstown from the 1900s on a center beam. Photos by Nick Whitman

News from the college

On Campus

Winter Study is well underway, with students digging deep into their academic interests or pursuing a new area of study altogether. Check out some of the opportunities, including studying Bollywood, tropical marine ecosystems in Eleuthera and improvisational woodcutting. Meanwhile, the Davis Center Initiative celebrated a milestone, above, with a tour and the placing of the last beam (signed by members of the Williams community) before walls start going up. President Maud S. Mandel announced Williams’ partnership with seven colleges in the Global Student Haven Initiative, a commitment to help college-eligible students overcome obstacles presented by war, global crisis or refugee status. And the three-day I/O Festival 2023 filled the air with contemporary music from the ’62 Center to the Clark; see photos from pop-up concerts at the Williams College Museum of Art online.

Faculty and Staff Focus

In geosciences professor Mea Cook’s Oceanography course, she and her students explore sea life along the New England coast.
Amy Holzapfel, professor of theater, has been named the college’s next Gaudino Scholar starting July 1, 2023.
Students in the new course Cuba, U.S., Africa and Resistance to Black Enslavement, 1791-1991, taught by Joy James, the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities, connect histories of liberation movements against racism, enslavement and imperialism to the present day in a six-episode podcast.
Saul Kassin, professor emeritus of psychology, writes in Time why law enforcement should not be allowed to lie about evidence to suspects.
Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement Kelan O’Brien is receiving the Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga Freedom Fund Award from NAACP Berkshires.
Tara Watson, professor of economics, is taking the helm of the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families in Economic Studies. Her research on immigration continues to be quoted, this time in a Washington Post article about an estimated 3.5-million worker shortage due to lower U.S. immigration numbers in the past two years.

Student Highlight

Evan Ruschil ’23, men’s hockey goaltender, joins other Division III hockey players on Team USA in the Winter World University Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., this month, The Berkshire Eagle reports.

For more news about the Williams Community, visit Williams Today.

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