Emerson College Alumni Magazine Summer 2026
Emersonians
Everywhere
This Issue
Departments
- Master Classes
- Faculty News and Views
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In January, the College literally put our mark on our Emerson Los Angeles building
- Andrew Siañez-De La O ’17
- Courtney Overton, MA ’13
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Our alumni authors announce their latest publications
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Alumni share their latest job updates, achievements, and life experiences
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20 short, pithy answers from Mark Brodie, MA ’00, executive-in-residence in the Department of Communication Studies
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Food writer and cookbook author Colu Henry ’99 shares a favorite recipe
Features
Coast to coast and around the world, Emerson alumni are shaping our culture and our society—and we’re telling their stories in a new ongoing project on campus.
Emerson is committed to global leadership in communication and the arts—as seen in new leadership on the Board of Trustees and at Emerson Los Angeles, and in our new School of Film, Television, and Media Arts.
With 1.5 million social media followers, Nicolas Heller ’11 shares a unique POV of his hometown.
Colu Henry ’99 tells flavorful stories through the recipes in her cookbooks and her food writing.
Internet personality and creator Arasha ’21 writes about how Emerson shaped her.
Featured are Holly Bario ’89, Sonia Rincón ’01, Glenn Jones ’99, Taylor Jenkins Reid ’05, and Gray Malin ’08.
The World Needs Emerson
this fully reimagined issue of Expression celebrates the spirit and impact of our extraordinary Emerson community. Across these pages, you will meet alumni whose lives and work reflect one of the College’s founding beliefs: that creative expression is a vital force, one that helps shape a more humane and hopeful world.
The Emersonians featured here have carried what they learned at Emerson into the world in powerful and inspiring ways. They are leaders in the arts, media, communication, business, education, advocacy, and many other fields. Some are just finding their footing; others have reached the top of their professions. What they share is a common drive to move people, challenge assumptions, and make a genuine difference.
Their curiosity and creativity inspire us as Emerson moves boldly toward our 150th year. This has been a year of real progress for the College and for our strategic plan, Extraordinary Emerson 2030. Together, we have advanced work in academic innovation, career readiness, alumni engagement, operations and finance, and the student experience across all of our campuses.
That work matters now more than ever, at a moment when higher education is being tested in ways few of us have seen before.
None of that progress would be possible without our talented faculty and dedicated staff. So many alumni still speak with gratitude about the Emerson professors, mentors, and staff, not to mention fellow alumni, who helped launch their careers and changed the trajectory of their lives. This year, we honored faculty and staff milestones and celebrated colleagues whose service to Emerson spans decades, including some who have given more than 50 years to the College.
The energy and creative possibility I see on our campuses every day come to life in these pages and in every Emersonian story. They were beautifully reflected, too, in the words of our alum Henry Winkler ’67, LHD ’78, who challenged our graduates in his 2026 Commencement address as they joined our global alumni community:
The world needs Emerson. It needs places where imagination is celebrated and collaboration is valued, where students learn to reach one another through ideas, language, performance, media, and story. What sets Emerson apart has never been more relevant than it is today.
With your support and engagement, Emerson will keep preparing the next generation of storytellers, artists, communicators, and leaders and sending them out to share their gifts with a world that is waiting for them.
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Creative Direction/Design
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Photography
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Contributing Writers
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Senior Copy Editor
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Emerson College - Expression is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications for alumni and friends of Emerson College. We welcome your feedback at magazine@emerson.edu.
From the Editor
But we’re back. And we’re (literally) bigger and (we hope) better than ever.
We temporarily paused the magazine over the last year to strategically assess how to make Expression the best alumni magazine it could be. The result is a magazine—in print and online—fully dedicated to shining a light on Emerson alumni from across industries.
The look and feel of Expression has also changed a bit. With this issue of the magazine, we are leaning into the College’s bold new visual identity, which you’ll see more of on campus, on our website, and in other materials beginning this fall.
It’s an honor and a privilege to share stories of alumni—the artists, communicators, storytellers, and leaders who exemplify what it means to be an Emersonian.
It’s good to be back.
As always, thanks for reading.
WRITE TO US!
Emerson Buzz
In January, a new hub for community and connection opened in the Little Building. Griff’s Game Room offers students a wide variety of games to play—everything from classic board games and Nintendo Switch to foosball and air hockey. This new “third space” is a tangible example of the College’s commitment to building a vibrant and inclusive campus experience by creating new spaces for the community to come together.
Henry Winkler ’67, LHD ’78, tells graduates to find their gift and give it to the world
“You are powerful, and in you is a great gift. And your job is to figure out what your gift is, because this world needs every single one of you,” he said. “Your job is to find that gift and give it to the world. It doesn’t matter what it is. We need it!”
The actor, producer, director, and author returned to his alma mater to address the graduating Class of 2026 at the College’s 146th Commencement at the Wang Theatre. Saturday evening’s Commencement was the culmination of a weekend of celebrations for the graduating Class of 2026. During the day on Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, approximately 500 graduate students and 1,000 undergraduate students received their degrees at individual undergraduate and graduate school diploma ceremonies, all held at the Wang Theatre.
“There is something especially meaningful about celebrating your graduation here, because this theater reflects something essential about Emerson itself: Our enduring belief that creative expression is not a luxury or a frill, but a powerful force that helps shape a more vibrant, humane, and hopeful world,” said President Jay Bernhardt.
Additionally, as part of the Commencement ceremony, outgoing Board of Trustees Chair Eric Alexander ’78 and Helen Dreher Credle, associate director for community engagement in Emerson’s Elma Lewis Center, received honorary degrees.
The Best of Emerson
45 Years of the EVVYs
As the nation’s largest entirely student-run live multi-cam production, the machine never fully winds down. There are two ceremonies to be produced by nearly 250 students, and 40 presenters giving awards to winners in 68 categories. Those winners are selected by more than 90 judges wading through 1,400 submissions. That’s not to mention the live performances, video packages, fundraising, marketing campaigns, and myriad other moving pieces.
Now in its 45th year, the EVVYs is not just a colossal undertaking, it’s also one of the longest-running traditions at Emerson. And that tradition has enabled thousands of students over the years to glean professional-level experience working on a live awards show—experience that directly translates to real jobs in the industry.
“If anyone has what it takes to produce the EVVYs at Emerson, they have what it takes to be a successful television producer professionally,” said Jared Wyso ’11, producer on The Voice, and a former EVVYs executive producer.
GIVE BACK TO EMERSON
When you give back, you aren’t just making a donation—you’re passing the torch to the next generation of visionary leaders and storytellers. Your support keeps the Emerson legacy bold, vibrant, and completely unstoppable.
Emerson Ranks Well in Variety, Hollywood Reporter
- Named by Variety in its 2026 Top Film Schools list
- Named as the 5th Best Film School in the U.S. by The Hollywood Reporter
125 Years of the Southwick Recital
In 1900, Henry Lawrence Southwick, then-dean of Emerson College, launched an oratory recital series that became a popular tradition on campus. While the recitals stopped after 2015, they were reborn in 2020 under the guidance of Communication Studies Senior Executive-in-Residence Kenneth Grout.
Now held twice a year, this new era of the Southwick Recitals has heralded many changes to the program’s presentation and content while still honoring its fundamental focus on oral literary presentation.
The fall recital, Southwick 125!…Legacy, featured eight pieces by Emersonians focused on the concept of legacy, including performances by Grout and Professor Emeritus John Anderson, himself an integral part of the Southwick Recital’s legacy, as well as alumni Heidi Rose ’89 and Suzie Sims-Fletcher, MA ’94 (in bottom photo).
Emerson’s BFA Showcases: An Entry into Broadway
This year, Nathan Gehan ’99, CEO and founder of ShowTown Theatricals, partnered with Emerson to help coordinate the showcases in New York, held in November and May, and bring additional industry reach to the table.
New Clinic Gives CSD Students Experience, Helps Community
Through the Robbins Speech, Language, and Hearing Center, the free aural rehabilitation clinic is providing graduate students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) an opportunity to work with faculty or staff as a client, counseling them on hearing devices and assistive listening technologies, community and online resources, and communication strategies.
“We start with getting them to think about their environment—what they need, what their partners need, or when they are with different people. It’s learning how to optimize their hearing strategies,” said Senior Scholar-in-Residence Maryam Salehomoum, the supervising clinician for the clinic.
The clinic is specifically for people with adult-onset hearing loss, which is due to aging and is permanent. Clients work with graduate students to learn communication strategies as they discuss their day-to-day life and routines.
Master Classes Program Brings Industry Experts to Emerson
Emerson College Master Classes support a goal outlined in the College’s strategic plan, Extraordinary Emerson 2030, to cultivate strong relationships between Emerson and industry, and build a vibrant campus experience for the community.
2025–2026 MASTER CLASS EXPERTS
Luyster Awarded NSF Grant
The total award is $540,448, with Emerson receiving $240,801 for the project. Rhiannon Luyster, a professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department and director of the Lab for Infant + Toddler Language at Emerson (LI+TLE Lab), is the principal researcher responsible for Emerson’s contribution to the project.
Through this research, Luyster will continue to explore the long-term impacts of neurodivergent parents’ linguistic habits in early childhood language development in autistic children.
Alumni, Faculty Get Nods from Boston Theater Critics
Mwosa Wins Brother Thomas Fellowship
The unrestricted fellowship provides $15,000 to $20,000 to artists. Mwosa plans to use the funds to complete a short film she’s currently working on—about a trans African woman in Boston who is denied asylum—that she hopes to develop into a feature film.
Denizet-Lewis Publishes Fourth Book
Denizet-Lewis, a Writing, Literature and Publishing Associate Professor and contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of four books.
Amy Cook Named New SOA Dean
A proven leader and an accomplished scholar, Cook joins Emerson from Stony Brook University, where she served as vice provost of academic affairs, associate dean of research and innovation, chair of the Department of Art, and professor of English. In these roles, she found creative solutions to complex challenges, built programs to improve access and inclusion, and advocated for the arts and intellectual curiosity across the institution.
Among her many accomplishments, at Stony Brook she created and directed the Curriculum Innovation Accelerator to incentivize strategic course and faculty development, led the academic affairs response to GenAI, and helped reimagine the promotion and tenure process.
Additionally, Cook is the founder and executive director of the Teagle-funded Academy of Civic Life, a free pre-college summer program for low-income high school students on Long Island; the Board president of Myrifield Institute for Cognition and the Arts; and the co-editor of Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama’s Performance and Science series.
Prior to returning to academia to pursue a PhD, Dr. Cook was a theatre director in Los Angeles and New York City, and worked at Random House, setting up its original website and online sales program. She received a PhD from the University of California, San Diego, and a BA from the University of Michigan.
Faculty Awarded Travel Grants to Support Research
Communication Sciences and Disorders Assistant Professor Kimberly Dahl (top left) will use the fellowship to spend two weeks in Minnesota for an immersive observational study to support her project, “Enhancing clinical expertise through immersive observation at Mayo Clinic Rochester.”
Adam Franklin-Lyons (bottom left), associate professor of History in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts, will use the fellowship to support his project, “Using Mapping and Photography to Understand the History of Surveillance and Piracy in the Balearic Islands.” Franklin-Lyons also was awarded a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society to support his project, “Surveillance and Communication in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon,” specifically covering primary source collection at the Girona city archive, and new location photography across Catalonia and Northern Spain.
And Jon Papernick (top right), assistant professor of Creative Writing in Writing, Literature and Publishing, will use the fellowship to support “Rabbinic and Jewish Storytelling Traditions in the Baltic States: Memory, Story, and Literary Practice.”
Snapshot
Sign of the Times
Extraordinary
Emersonians
Everywhere
General Manager
The industries they work in are diverse and varied, but they share one important attribute: they are Emersonians.
To be Emersonian is to be bold and take creative risks. To be Emersonian is to create change.
To be Emersonian is to be a leader.
This spring, Emerson began an initiative to identify alumni who exemplify what it means to be Emersonian. The result is a curated collection of portraits that are displayed on the Boston campus in the Little, Tufte, and Walker Buildings.
The pages that follow highlight just a sampling of the alumni who are included in this ongoing project.
Iliza Shlesinger ’05
Comedian and Actress
Steven Rowley ’94
Author
Holly Bario ’89
President of Production for Amblin Entertainment
Miguel Cervantes ’99
Actor
Alyse Nelson ’97
President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership
Gray Malin ’08
Photographer / Author
Sonia Rincón ’01
Reporter for WABC-TV
Glenn Jones ’99
Reporter / Anchor at nbc10 Boston and necn
Dawn Steinberg ’83
Talent and Casting Executive
Taylor Jenkins Reid ’05
Author
Trevor Gooby ’98
Executive Vice President and COO of the Seattle Mariners
Will Dawkins ’08
Washington Wizards
General Manager
Eric Cornell ’05
Producer and Creative Strategist
Have an idea for an exceptional alum who should be considered for the campus collection? Let us know!
By Kara Baskin
Now, anyone with a TikTok account can become a creator overnight. Social media doubles as entertainment. Influencers are celebrities. Streaming services have supplanted movie theaters. Artificial intelligence looms.
“The entire ecosystem is upside down,” said Herzog, a longtime member of Emerson’s Board of Trustees and new Chair. “You can make something and have it on YouTube by tomorrow.”
That shakeup energizes and challenges the Emerson Board, who has welcomed 13 new Trustees over the last two years.
“The landscape is literally giving way under our feet and being rebuilt as we’re on it,” said Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim ’96, LHD ’22, who joined the Emerson Board of Trustees last year. “The traditional studio structure has come apart, and we have yet to see how that’s going to come together. The industry is reshaping itself.”
To address these challenges and boldly lead Emerson into its 150th year, Emerson President Jay Bernhardt, supported by Emerson Trustees, launched Extraordinary Emerson 2030, the College’s strategic plan, in March 2025, following a yearlong community-wide effort. Doubling down on the institution’s founding commitment to communication and the arts, the strategic plan lays out four priorities: Academic Innovation, Collaborative Connections, Community Engagement, and Operational Excellence.
Today, Trustees see their directive as twofold: preserving Emerson’s mission as the premier hands-on training ground for artists, communicators, and creators while offering close mentorship, access, and connections for this new world.
“There will always be a demand for content. With all these different platforms, the question for the industry is how to monetize it,” Lim said. “Where Emerson excels, and I’m very invested in this as a creative, is about fostering that energy and output.”
Innovating in the face of challenge is an Emerson hallmark and the College’s Trustees are up to the challenge.
“The new set of Trustees bring with them excitement, enthusiasm, and a swagger about Emerson,” said outgoing Board Chair Eric Alexander ’78, LHD ’26, referencing relative newcomers, such as Lim; screenwriter, producer, and New York Times bestselling author Seth Grahame-Smith ’98; and Sam Presti ’00, president of the NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Seth, Adele, and Sam are typical of the new cohort of Trustees who are at the top of their games, yet current enough to genuinely understand the interests and needs of our students and faculty. I am confident,” Alexander continued, “that this new board, under Doug’s leadership, will continue to personify the mission of Emerson College and provide the vision for a successful future.”
Combined with the knowledge and experience of long-serving Trustees, this is a new opportunity to reinforce what the College does best: train students to make things and take creative risks.
“We continue to attract leading faculty whose work is shaping the world, and if we continue to [matriculate] students who have an impact, we’ll be able to deliver on our mission,” Alexander said.
Trustees said that Emerson has always attracted a particular kind of student—focused, creative, daring. Most arrive with a sense of direction and the drive to test it quickly. This is a differentiator in a crowded media landscape, Herzog said.
“Emerson is the place you go to if you know who you are. Students come to Emerson to find their own way and be their authentic selves. That’s going to be even more important going forward: Authenticity is something that I think young people are starting to value again, as the world rolls up into giant, consolidated conglomerates everywhere,” he said. “Independent thought and independent creativity are going to be at a premium, and that’s what we do.”
“Emerson really is for the outliers,” Lim said. “You have this sandbox with other like-minded creatives and the tools at your disposal immediately from day one.”
Attracting and showcasing top talent requires strategic leadership—fundraising, financial planning, oversight—but Trustees said that a key part of the job, now more than ever, is ensuring that student talent is closely nurtured by alumni.
“It’s about guidance and perspective,” Lim said. “The jobs, internships, entry-level positions that used to exist 5 or 10 years ago aren’t there now. It’s critical for any young person jumping into our industry to have access to alumni as mentors and access to our networks.”
In practice, that can mean visiting classrooms, hosting networking events, or simply offering a candid view of how their industries are evolving in an email. It can also mean making introductions, connecting students to opportunities that are harder than ever to access through formal channels alone. Trustee Peter Loge ’87, director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs in Washington, DC, said he’ll always answer the phone for an Emerson student, citing what he calls the “Emerson mafia”: alumni who stretch all over the world.
“If a student has a great idea and feels discouraged, it’s saying, ‘You know what? Let’s see if we can make it happen,’” said Loge, who joined the Board this past year.
Emerson’s alumni network is one of its most consistent strengths, representing media, entertainment, politics, and beyond, he said. It’s incumbent upon Trustees to nurture that talent pipeline.
“My priority as a board member is making sure that Emerson provides the best, most accessible education possible for students who are interested in shaping and telling the stories that matter,” he said.
And, particularly in a world where creative expression is under threat and the media is often mistrusted, he added, the stakes are high.
“Emerson College’s value proposition is that it teaches people how to think critically and communicate clearly,” Loge said.
At the same time, Trustees are contemplating how Emerson can evolve to meet a new moment. For Lim, that includes expanding the range of stories that graduates share with the world.
“I would hope that my impact as a Trustee is that I made Emerson a more inclusive place for cross-cultural, global storytelling,” Lim said. “That looks like not just having a student body who comes from all over the world, but being able to answer the needs of a changing world and telling stories that resonate globally.”
Kevin McKeon ’07, a director at Netflix who oversees live-action family/all-audience original feature films, is at the forefront of this changing Hollywood. As a new Trustee, he hopes to ensure that Emerson prepares the next generation of creative talent by keeping the school closely connected to the pulse of the industry.
“As a board member, I think it’s so important that we remind Emerson where the industry is going. It’s important to shape the curriculum and co-curricular activities to make sure they reflect the real world,” McKeon said. “And I think it’s really important that we mentor students as much as possible, giving students access not just to faculty who are brilliant in their fields, but also people who are practicing applying what they’ve learned at Emerson out in the real world.”
For all the change in platforms and distribution, though, Trustees return to a steady point: communication matters, now more than ever.
“What is not going to change is the importance of having a creative point of view: a message, a story, a vibe that you want to transmit to the world,” Lim said.
And that storyline won’t change.
“My career was built on making bets on talented people. I think Emerson is full of talented people ready to make their mark, and I think there’s going to be plenty of room for them to do that going forward,” Herzog said.
Trustees who have joined the Board since 2024
Co-Founder, World of Wonder Productions, WOW Presents Plus, Los Angeles, CA
Managing Partner, Gersh Agency, Los Angeles, CA
Senior Manager, Ad-Supported Programming, Crunchyroll, Los Angeles, CA
Co-Founder, Katzsmith Productions, Los Angeles, CA
Boca Raton, FL
Managing Director and Head of Liabilities, Lafayette Square Holding Company, LLC, New York, NY
Screenwriter/Director, President, 100 Tigers Productions, Los Angeles, CA
SMPA Director, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs, Director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Director, Original Film, Netflix, Los Angeles, CA
Partner, Executive Producer, and Director, Swift River Productions, Los Angeles, CA
Television Writer, Producer, and Showrunner, Fox Television Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Executive Vice President and General Manager, Oklahoma City Thunder, Oklahoma City, OK
Partner/Executive Producer, Pie Town Productions, North Hollywood, CA
Eric Alexander ’78, LHD ’26, Reflects on Board Tenure
For Alexander, the work was personal. A first-generation American, and the first in his family to graduate from college, he arrived at Emerson with a spotty academic record, and unsure of his path forward.
“I came to Emerson to figure out who I could be, and Emerson gave me that chance,” he said. Mentorship from the late Professor Emeritus Walt Littlefield, a founder of the Political Communication program, inspired him.
“Walt took me under his wing and taught me the power of speech, advocacy, and argumentation,” Alexander recalled. “He gave me the confidence I needed at just the right time.”
At Emerson, Alexander studied speech, taught debate at Norfolk State Prison, and interned for the Boston Celtics. After graduation, he worked at leading advertising and PR agencies and managed a NYSE-member brokerage firm. Now, he’s an elected member of the Dutchess County Legislature in upstate New York.
“I believe Walt would be proud of what I have accomplished in terms of service, and that’s very gratifying for me,” he said.
That underdog story shaped his priorities as a longtime Trustee, including the creation of the Alexander Diversity Scholarship in 2008, rooted in a belief that Emerson’s mission to better society through arts and communication “requires all voices, all faces,” he said.
When Alexander became Board Chair in 2021, during a time of political change and pandemic upheaval, he set a clear agenda: Hire a new president, reorganize the Board to reflect younger leadership, introduce term limits, and develop a new strategic plan. All four are now in place.
The changes come as Emerson’s mission is more vital than ever, when creative expression is challenged and the very nature of truth is questioned, he said.
“We worked through a very difficult time together and we’ve come out of it stronger with a clear vision for the future of our college,” Alexander said. “We’ve reaffirmed our commitment to our mission and to being the leading school of arts and communication.”
Staying Ahead of the Industry
Emerson Los Angeles is one of the great success stories in the history of media education. Emerson pioneered the idea that students could spend a semester immersed in the entertainment industry while continuing their academic studies.
As an Emerson alum myself, it’s especially meaningful to help shape the next chapter of a program that has had such a profound impact on generations of students. ELA sits at the intersection of academic inquiry, creative practice, and professional development. Students don’t simply learn about the entertainment industry—they experience it firsthand through internships, mentorship, and direct engagement with the creative community that surrounds us.
The opportunity ahead is equally exciting. The entertainment industry is undergoing one of the most significant periods of transformation in its history. New technologies, new platforms, new forms of storytelling, and new pathways into creative careers are reshaping the landscape. ELA is uniquely positioned to build on its historic strengths while helping students understand, navigate, and ultimately lead that transformation.
Q: Where are the opportunities for growth?
My aspiration is for ELA to become the premier industry-integrated learning environment in higher education—a place where academic innovation, professional development, and industry engagement are fully integrated. I look forward to working closely with President Jay Bernhardt and Provost Alexandra Socarides on this goal.
Internships will always remain central to our mission, but today’s students need a broader ecosystem of opportunities: access to industry partnerships, experiential learning, mentorship, entrepreneurial thinking, and emerging areas of media innovation. They need opportunities to understand not only how entertainment has traditionally worked, but how it is evolving.
Los Angeles sits at the center of many of those changes. We are witnessing the rise of the creator economy, new forms of audience-driven media, advances in artificial intelligence, and entirely new models for developing and distributing content. ELA is uniquely positioned to help students understand those shifts and prepare them to lead within them.
I also see ELA becoming an even stronger hub, bringing together students, alumni, faculty, and industry partners to create lifelong connections and new opportunities for collaboration. My goal is to build on Emerson’s remarkable legacy while ensuring that ELA remains at the forefront of preparing students for the future of the creative economy.
Q: Can you talk more about that broader ecosystem of opportunities?
Internships remain one of the most valuable components of the Emerson experience, but they are no longer the only way students can gain meaningful industry experience.
One way we can do that is by creating experiences that connect students directly with industry partners. Students would not simply be studying the industry—they would be contributing to it.
ELA can also expand co-curricular experiences and can continue supporting recent graduates as they build networks, access mentorship, and establish themselves.
Q: Tell me a bit more about the relationship between Emerson Los Angeles and the academic program on the Boston campus.
One of the most exciting opportunities is strengthening the connection between the remarkable creative work happening in Boston and the extraordinary resources available in Los Angeles.
I’d like to see more opportunities for students to leverage ELA while developing major creative projects. Los Angeles offers access to production infrastructure, professional expertise, industry networks, and creative communities that can help elevate student work.
The entertainment industry increasingly rewards professionals who understand both the creative and business dimensions of media. ELA can help students better understand that broader ecosystem while creating opportunities to showcase their work to professional audiences.
Q: There’s a new Career Readiness Initiative at Emerson, as part of our strategic plan. Tell me how you see Emerson Los Angeles working with this new initiative?
I think career readiness should be viewed as a continuum rather than a destination.
ELA occupies a unique place in that journey because it sits where education and industry intersect. We help students translate what they have learned in the classroom into professional experience, industry relationships, and practical skills.
I am particularly excited about extending that support beyond graduation through mentorship, professional development, alumni engagement, and industry partnerships.
Q: How do you respond to prospective students or families who might be worried about the future of the film industry?
I think it’s important to be honest that we are living through a period of extraordinary change. The entertainment industry is being reshaped by technological innovation, changing audience behaviors, new business models, and emerging forms of storytelling.
What gives me confidence is not simply that change creates opportunity. It is that Emerson has spent generations preparing students to think critically, communicate effectively, collaborate creatively, and adapt to new circumstances. Those qualities become even more valuable during periods of rapid change.
Our responsibility is not simply to prepare students for the industry as it exists today. It is to prepare them for the industry that will exist five, ten, and twenty years from now.
Q: I know you’re closely following industry trends. What is ELA’s place in this new landscape?
I want ELA to be one of the places where the future of entertainment is actively discussed, tested, and built.
We are witnessing the emergence of new creative pathways that look very different from the traditional model of film school, festival, agency, and studio. Today, creators can build audiences directly through digital platforms and transform those audiences into intellectual property, businesses, and partnerships.
I believe ELA can become a bridge between the traditional entertainment industry and the emerging creator economy. We can help students understand both worlds and give them the tools to move confidently between them.
Ultimately, I want ELA to be a place where students don’t simply prepare for the future of media—they help shape it.
A New Take
It represented a bold statement about the future growth and excellence in one of Emerson’s most successful academic programs that has long shaped global storytelling.
“The creation of the new school reaffirms Emerson’s commitment to global leadership in communication and the arts,” President Jay Bernhardt said, noting Emerson’s decades-long track record in preparing students for success in film, television, and media arts and launching the careers of hundreds of award-winning creators and industry legends.
Today, SOF is delivering on its promise to invest not just in the future of arts education, but in the creative health of the entertainment industry.
“We recognize the need for an ever-evolving curriculum and student experience to match the fast-paced changes in the film, television, and media arts industry of the future,” said SOF Interim Dean Shaun Clarke, MFA ’12.
To that end, Clarke is working closely with Ken Rogers ’91, the inaugural dean of the Emerson Los Angeles (ELA) campus, to bolster opportunities and connections for students both in Boston and Los Angeles.
At the new SOF, students benefit from access to cutting-edge equipment, virtual production studios, ARRI certification, courses grounded in emerging technologies, and a leading faculty of creators and experts. Production facilities for XR (extended reality), VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and game design, all grounded in storytelling, equip students to thrive in an evolving media landscape.
Students choose from new and revised courses, and earlier this year, Emerson announced that beginning in Fall 2026, it will offer an updated BFA in Film, Television, and Media Arts. Additionally, in Fall 2027, the College is launching a new MFA in Media Industries degree.
Keepin’ it Real With New York Nico
photography by tom kates
Known as New York Nico, Heller captures them in their quirky, quotidian glory for 1.5 million social media followers. His knack for crystallizing modern urban life has garnered book and film deals, plus personal satisfaction for a kid who grew up near Manhattan’s Union Square and considers everyday people the best inspiration of all.
Heller graduated from Emerson in 2011 with a film production degree. The child of artists, he started taking film classes as an adolescent. He later longed for a fresh setting and relished Boston as a backdrop.
“Junior year, I got my hands on a Canon 70, the first DSLR [digital single-lens reflex] camera that shot video. I started shooting videos with friends who weren’t even studying film, using them as my talent and my crew,” he recalls.
The clips radiated amateurish immediacy, he says, which he used to his advantage, posting weekly on Vimeo (then the industry’s hottest platform) and drawing a campus following.
“They were these weird, bugged-out short films,” he says, laughing.
While sitting in Union Square Park, contemplating his next move, someone caught his eye.
“I noticed a quintessential New York character I’d seen throughout high school: a six-foot-seven white dude with dreadlocks who carried a 10-pound sign that said: ‘The six-foot-seven Jew will freestyle rap for you and heal you, too.’ Up until that point, I was too shy to strike up a conversation,” Heller recalls.
No longer an awkward teenager, Heller approached him and captured him on film. He began creating similar slice-of-life clips about other New York personalities, shooting on his phone and posting in real time. The gritty, neo-Warholian style earned him commercial directing opportunities, with clients such as the New York Knicks and Instagram.
“The majority of my [clients] hire me because they want that New York Nico vibe,” he says.
Heller does the legwork himself—running into folks in his Brooklyn neighborhood, prowling social media for interesting profiles, or meeting characters through friends.
“It’s all from my POV, so it’s very raw,” Heller says.
And while New York City is home to eight million people, Heller considers it a small town, inspired by a childhood adoration for The Simpsons.
“I loved how they turned this fictitious town of Springfield into a real place where there’s a character for everything you can imagine: the guy who runs the pizzeria, the guy who runs the deli, the police chief, the superintendent of the school, and they’re all one-of-a-kind characters,” he says.
“I love Henry from the Army-Navy bag store. Getting words of wisdom from him is great. I’ve been having problems with my knees, so I went in and was talking to Henry about it, and he was giving me exercises,” he says. “And I love Astor Place, the hairstylists. It’s a breeding ground for interesting people.”
In 2024, HarperCollins released New York Nico’s Guide to NYC, spotlighting Heller’s favorite 100 New York institutions. (Picture an edgy version of Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town.) Next up: a documentary about amateur marathon runners, due for an October release. Someday, Heller hopes to make a feature film.
But regardless of the medium, he wants to keep it real.
“I love finding interesting talent that has yet to be discovered, whether that’s because they don’t know themselves that they’re talented or because other people have never been exposed to them. I’ll work with actors, too—but I love working with real people,” he says.
Food for Thought
connects people and stories.
one recipe at a time.
hat she loves most about her career as a cookbook author and frequent contributor to The New York Times and Food & Wine are the stories behind those beans and scallops: who she developed the recipe for—or with. Who brought what over to the house, and what was the occasion. How long she’s known these friends, what food memories they conjure, and how grateful she is to be able to share a meal with them.
Every post on Henry’s Substack, Colu Cooks (coluhenry.substack.com), and each recipe in her cookbooks—Back Pocket Pasta (2017), Easy Fancy Food (2022), and Better at Home (March 2026)—invites readers to pour themselves a glass of pinot noir and join her in the kitchen as she introduces them to her friends and family; her dog, Sugo; and anyone else who drops by. Crucially for Henry, the conversation goes both ways.
“[When] you’re making my recipes at home, what are the stories you’re telling when you’re making that food? Or are you using a different ingredient and then that changes the story?” she said.
Cooking wasn’t always Henry’s storytelling vehicle of choice. The Musical Theatre major grew up in a “food-crazy” family, and during her time at Emerson, she worked in local bars and restaurants, including Sonsie, the see-and-be-seen epicenter of 1990s Boston. But her intention was to graduate, move to New York City, and try to make it on the stage.
She accomplished the first two goals, but after doing some cabaret shows, she realized she needed health insurance and a steady income. She got a job with a fashion PR agency, which eventually began taking on food clients. Her boss sent her to a food writing class, and she ended up doing public relations for restaurants and chefs.
“On the job, I was not only learning about food, but I was learning how to write recipes and produce photo shoots, and do all these things that are actually needed to write a cookbook, or write recipes in general,” Henry said. “Then this eagerness to learn more and more about food just wouldn’t leave me. I was like, OK, this is my path.”
a really good bottle of wine…doesn’t need to be expensive, just delicious.”
Her path also led her to Washington state, where she represented actor Kyle MacLachlan’s wine label, and Oregon, to work for the Oregon Wine Board, then back to New York for roles in editorial and marketing with Bon Appétit. She returned to New York right as the fledgling Instagram was taking off and started her own hashtag, #BackPocketPasta, featuring simple, elegant dishes you can make on the fly.
“I was making all these recipes, and I had all these tools that I had learned over the years, and I was like, ‘Why am I doing this for everybody else when I want to just kind of do it for myself?’” she said.
Henry’s recipes originate in a number of different ways. Oftentimes, she comes up with something based on the ingredients she has on hand. Occasionally, she’ll have a dish at a restaurant or on her travels and will try to replicate a flavor in a new way. And sometimes, they manifest from one of the stories of connection that Henry treasures.
For example, a local friend of hers with a garden invited Henry to stop by to get some lettuce and tarragon. As she was handing it over, the friend mentioned that she loves to put tarragon on Caesar salad.
“I was like, oh, that’s interesting! So I wrote [myself] a note: ‘Val, Caesar salad, tarragon.’ At some point, I’m going to go back and try that. Maybe it becomes a recipe, maybe it’s a story about up the road,” she said.
While Henry tells stories from the kitchen rather than the stage, she said she’s used many of the tools she learned as a BFA student at Emerson in her chosen career. Particularly in interview situations, she said, her ability to memorize points, think on her feet, and anticipate what’s coming have served her well.
And she still feels connected to her classmates and to the creative energy she felt from 69 Brimmer Street, the heart of the Musical Theatre program until the early 2000s, and from Emerson in general.
“It was just a very intimate and very special place to spread your wings as a young person,” she said.
Today, Henry’s food philosophy, generally speaking, is the more “off-the-cuff” the recipe—and the less one overthinks it—the more delicious the result. And while her second cookbook is a compendium of “easy fancy food,” her definition of “fancy” has nothing to do with complicated cooking techniques; pricey, hard-to-find ingredients; or intimidating tasting menus.
“I prefer not to go to a 10-course dinner. I prefer to have a beautiful plate of anchovies, some really good butter, some amazing bread, a really good bottle of wine…doesn’t need to be expensive, just delicious,” she said. “And that, to me, is the height of luxury.”
More Food for Thought
Lien Ta ’03, Co-Founder of Regarding Her, a nonprofit focused on supporting women entrepreneurs and leaders in the food and beverage industry, Los Angeles, CA
Tejal Rao ’04, Chief Restaurant Critic, The New York Times, based in Los Angeles, CA
Sam Fore ’05, Sri Lankan American chef based in Lexington, KY
Kayleigh Boyle ’08, Owner and Farmer, Breadseed Farm, Craftsbury, VT
James DiSabatino ’09, Owner, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and Roxy’s Arcade, Boston, MA
Jess Lander ’10, Wine Reporter at San Francisco Chronicle, based in Napa Valley and Sonoma County, who wrote The Essential Napa Valley Cookbook in 2024
Marissa Giambelluca ’11, Editorial Director at Page Street Publishing (Salem, MA), where she recently acquired and edited the cookbook Of Course It’s Good! by Jessica Secrest, which made #3 on The New York Times Best Seller list
Danielle Ayer ’12, General Manager and Owner of Talulla Restaurant and Fallow Kin Restaurant, Cambridge, MA
Ariel Knoebel ’12, Marketing Director of Secret Supper, Portland, ME, who also helps with her partner’s farm-to-table focused concept, Husky Boi, producing seasonal pop-ups and farm dinners in Maine
Layla Palmer ’25
the well-rounded storyteller
She recently spoke to Expression about Emerson, storytelling, and more.
A: I work at the Operational Services Division at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and I produce podcasts that tell the story of all the behind-the-scenes work that public purchasing and procurement contributes to in the Commonwealth.
A: Well, it’s definitely a passion of mine. One of the things that I let carry through my experience at Emerson was really…telling the stories of others. And so at this job at the Commonwealth, it’s really telling the story about public service. And, as a young person, as Gen Z, I think it’s extremely valuable to be so ingrained and have so much knowledge about the great work of state government. I learn something new every day, about the behind-the-scenes work that goes on in public service. And I just feel extremely lucky to be able to have insight into that, but to also share that in a more palatable way for the general public.
A: I really chose Emerson because of the Business of Creative Enterprises program. When I was a senior in high school, I knew I wanted to do something related to the arts, but I also wanted some business knowledge to back it up.
A: When I was a junior at Emerson, I took an Introduction to Podcasting class with [Communication Studies Executive-in-Residence] Mark Brodie, MA ’00. And to this day, he still is very much a mentor to me. Taking that class with him…really boosted my confidence in not only my skill level, but the possibilities of what I could achieve. It was definitely a turning point in my Emerson career and my professional career.
A: When I started at Emerson, I thought I knew what my voice was as a podcaster, what my point of view was as a storyteller. And what I quickly learned…is that [I didn’t]. At 18 years old, I didn’t actually know what I wanted to say. And the thing that Emerson really taught me is: figure out what you want to say. And that [was made possible] through all of the liberal arts courses that I took…to really become a more well-rounded person, which made me a more well-rounded storyteller.
Andrew Siañez-de la O ’17
Taking Game Characters to the Next Level
They had no way of knowing it then, but the Theatre and Performance major turned playwright would eventually become a writer/content designer for The Elder Scrolls, where they work to imbue the characters with a rich cultural identity and the storylines with a “lived-in” feel.
“I felt like it was really important that we needed to go beyond just, ‘Well, [these characters] have pyramids just like Aztecs, and isn’t that neat?’ and [create] opportunities…[for] players who might be really invested in these cultures, who can dig a little deeper, dig into the lore,” Siañez-De La O said.
How do you use sci-fi and fantasy as a lens that meets audiences where they’re at?…I think that’s just a great way to approach any genre.”
With the game’s last release cycle, Siañez-De La O has done just that. They were able to lead the development of two new Argonian cultures: For the coastal “Tide-Born,” they drew upon the traditions of Puerto Rico, and they gave the “Stone-Nest” a system of recording history based on quipus, the knotted strings used for record-keeping by the Incas.
“That let me really design Argonians that [were built] on these cultural touchstones, and not just [used] as an aesthetic,” they said.
At Emerson, Siañez-De La O did a lot of carpentry work on set designs for theater productions, something they said gave them a deep appreciation for all the different ways stories can be told on stage and what theater means to different people. That broad perspective has informed their writing ever since.
Siañez-De La O said in both their game writing and playwriting, they use fantasy and science fiction to explore identity and culture in a way that doesn’t feel expected.
“Taking that approach with all my writing has really just helped deepen things,” they said. “How do you use sci-fi and fantasy as a lens that meets audiences where they’re at?… I think that’s just a great way to approach any genre.”
Courtney Overton, MA ’13
Recipe for Literacy success
Based in Maryland, Overton, MA ’13, the mother of two young children, is a speech-language pathologist and literacy specialist, and founder and CEO of Speech of Cake. She launched the pediatric practice after noticing a gap in services while working in schools: students with mild to moderate needs often lacked support during the summer. In 2017, she and a colleague created a summer program blending literacy and speech instruction with hands-on activities like cooking and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) projects, helping students build skills in an engaging, collaborative environment.
Emerson really made me who I am professionally.”
Overton also serves as director of a preschool clinic at the University of Maryland, where she teaches graduate students and mentors future clinicians.
She credits Emerson with preparing her for both roles. Clinical training at Emerson’s preschool clinic at the Robbins Center gave her early confidence in working with young children—experience she now draws on daily. Just as important, she says, were the relationships with faculty, to whom she still turns for guidance.
“Emerson really made me who I am professionally.”
Arasha ’21
making my own way
While at Emerson, I found out that I could get an interdisciplinary degree, a self-designed major that would allow me to take classes in multiple departments. The liberal arts had always called me; I just didn’t know which direction it was coming from. And I didn’t fully figure that out until the end of my college career when I was taking predominantly acting classes. I was able to study the liberal arts at a wider range than most, and, as a result, I am shaped by the four years I spent in Boston. While in school, I called my major “Television Personality and Performance,” but these days, I call it “my made-up major.” But if it wasn’t for this made-up major, I wouldn’t be the person and professional I am today.
I want to express my appreciation for my alma mater and the community within it for following through on the promise that we all hear at Emerson. I have connected with so many people in the industry who also were an RA in P-Row or also studied abroad at the castle or also did whatever 5,000 co-curriculars we all throw ourselves into when we’re at Emerson. It’s an instant connection, and people in this town know that they can trust an Emersonian.
I strongly believe that it’s important to do the many things that excite you to eventually discover what you want.”
I strongly believe that it’s important to do the many things that excite you to eventually discover what you want. That you need to
do whatever it takes to find out exactly who you are, so that you can do everything in service of expressing exactly that to the world. The closer you are to understanding what makes you special, the sooner you’ll find the answer of where you’re meant to be.
Arasha ’21 is a South Asian performer who has garnered a significant fan base in the digital and social media space, establishing her identity as an internet personality and flagship creator on YouTube’s Smosh. She made her network debut on season five of Apple TV’s For All Mankind. You can also watch her on online platforms like Dropout TV, on stage in her comedy special How I Met Your Masi, or on demand in her hit new podcast, Fesspool, a show where viewers call in to confess their dirty secrets.
NEWS FROM THE
ALUMNI OFFICE
Georgette Pierre, MA ’09, gives remarks at the Extraordinary Together: Alumni Awards Celebration in October. She was one of six alumni honored during Alumni Weekend.
Emerson Is Everywhere
To meet you where you are, we are leaning into a regional strategy that engages our network of Emersonians. Our “Emerson in” event series brings the spirit of Boylston Street to your backyard through social gatherings in hubs like LA, New York, Miami, and Washington, DC, and now to international centers such as London and Mexico City. Simultaneously, our “Emerson@” series ensures that when the industry gathers—be it at Sundance, ASHA, AWP, or SXSW—Emerson is there as a leader and a connector.
I invite you to join Emerge, if you aren’t already a member—our vibrant, Emerson-only online community for networking.”
Speaking of Los Angeles, save the date for Evening on Sunset on September 10, 2026, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Emerson Los Angeles Program. And be sure to register and join us for Alumni Weekend in Boston, October 23–25 (see pp. 42–43).
Finally, with this relaunched issue of Expression, our Class Notes section in print features a curated selection of submissions. However, we want to ensure every update is celebrated—you can read all Class Notes online.
Thank you for proving every day that Emerson truly is everywhere.
Warmly,
Emersonians Connect
Network with the best in the business, check out the latest on campus, and celebrate fellow alumni at the Extraordinary Together: Alumni Awards Celebration on Saturday.
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1 Ed Symkus ’72 has published Russ Meyer: Interviews, the newest volume in University Press of Mississippi’s Conversations with Filmmakers series. Using interviews from the late ’60s through the mid ’90s, it chronicles the controversial maverick director’s life and career in his own words. -
2 Bruce Starin ’73 is proud to announce the publication of his fifth book, Show Biz Tripping…A Raucous, Wild, Memoir of Life on the Road Producing WHEEL OF FORTUNE LIVE! The North American Tour, Live! On Stage! A Memoir & Exposé. -
3 Anthony Domenick ’79 published his memoir, Partnered in the Darkness of Cancer. This memoir offers a gripping and heartfelt account of the author’s experience caring for his partner, Jim, as he battled Merkel cell carcinoma. The book is available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, YouTube, and audiobook. -
4 Lynn Liberato ’83 shares that her first book, MICHIGAN’S CON-CON 11: Women and State Constitution-Making in 1961, was published on November 1, 2025. -
5 With retired FBI agent Rich Teahan, Bob Ward ’83 co-wrote Face to Face with Whitey Bulger about the high-stakes capture of the fugitive Boston mob boss. Ward is an award-winning investigative television journalist based in Boston. Over the last 40 years, he has covered some of New England’s biggest cases and has appeared on many national TV programs and podcasts. -
6 Kim Roberts ’84 has co-written Q&A for the End of the World, a new series of poems about science fiction movies from the 1950s and 1960s, including such classics as Godzilla and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Written alternately by the co-authors, the book’s twenty poems act as a call-and-response for each movie. The poems address facets of film technique, pop culture, race, gender—as well as fears of nuclear war, dehumanization, and the “other”—with curiosity, skepticism, and affection. The book is available on Amazon. -
7 Rob O’Keefe ’85 writes: “My latest book, 19 Doors, a collection of short stories and flash fiction, was named a 2025 Book of the Year finalist by the Independent Author Network. It was also nominated twice for the LibraryReads List.” -
8 Lucy Wightman ’85 writes: “As featured in The Boston Globe and on WGBH with Jim and Margery, Hamilcar Publications has published Princess Cheyenne: My Life as Boston’s Most Famous Stripper. From an engagement to Cat Stevens, relationship with Andy Kaufman, radio show on WBCN, and all the antics in between, the book is one wild ride!” -
9 Ann Richards-Farnsworth ’86 has published her first book. This historical fiction is based on events in the fall of 1937 during which an elixir made with diethylene glycol killed over a hundred people. The story follows the intense efforts to get the product off the market. Richards-Farnsworth has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years and heard about Elixir Sulfanilamide as part of understanding the history of FDA regulation. It always fascinated her. -
10 George Falkowski ’87 writes that his second book, Ballpark Therapy: Why We Go, Why It Matters, was published in July 2025 by The Paper House. “It’s about all the reasons many of us seek out the ballpark as a respite from everyday life and features personal stories from five former big leaguers including Hall of Famer Wade Boggs. It also includes some colorful characters from around baseball and a few personal stories from my time working at NESN.” The book is available on Amazon. -
11 Jon Fishman ’89 released his debut young adult novel, Ask Me How Do I Feel. The story follows a group of high school students navigating friendship, family, identity, and the spaces between who we are and who we hope to become. With authenticity, humor, and emotional depth, Fishman creates a world that resonates with readers of all ages. Though written for teens, the novel has also struck a chord with adults, who find themselves reflecting on and relating to their own teenage experiences. -
12 Michael Nercessian ’90 recently released his third book, The Gift, a literary/contemporary novel about the rise and fall of a gifted artist. -
13 Christopher Bigelow ’91 is the author of Mormonism for Dummies, 2nd Edition, released in March 2025. -
14 Gina Preziosa ’91 published her debut book, My Parents Died and It Sucks, with Austin Macauley Publishers and it is now available worldwide where books are sold. She writes that “the book is a call to anyone who has experienced parental loss or who became an orphan before the age of 18. This book is from the heart of an orphan, exploring grief and how to cope with its pervasive intrusion into daily life.” -
15 The 31st novel from Eric Beetner ’92, The Last Few Miles of Road, was nominated for an International Thriller Writers (ITW) Award for best series novel. It is the first in a trilogy of crime thrillers. -
16 Stephanie Booth ’94 shares that her debut novel, Libby Lost and Found (Sourcebooks Landmark, October 2024), was selected for the American Booksellers Association’s Summer Reading Group Indie Next List. Libby Lost and Found was also listed by Newsweek and Book Riot as one of the best books of 2024. -
17 Chris Eboch, MA ’95, writes: “My new mystery series launched with A Stone Cold Murder, with two more books under contract with Tule Publishing. In the Reluctant Psychic Mystery series, a quirky loner who can read the history of any object with her touch gets drawn into mysteries at the museum of oddities where she works.” -
18 Jeanine Boulay ’98 is excited to introduce her debut novel, What Keeps Us. She writes that for over a century, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn has kept vigil over New York City, remembering what the city wants to forget. What Keeps Us is a collection of linked stories spanning the 19th century to today that follows 10 New York City women as they navigate impossible choices, their lives connected by the cemetery that holds their histories. -
19 In her new book, Big Man (Chestnut Review Chapbooks, 2025), Katie Kemple ’00 pays tribute to the memory of her father’s life through intimate portraits of him as a veteran, teacher, widower, and joyful “eater of fried chicken, ice cream, and pizza.” -
20 Nadia Solomon ’00 writes that her picture book biography, A Voice of Hope, about civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams won two book awards: the 2025 BCALA, SLJ Children & Youth Literary Award for nonfiction, and a 2025 Notable Social Studies Trade Book Award. Her third picture book, A Rakhi for Rakesh, was released in July 2025. -
21 Stephanie Burns ’03, MFA ’10, published her debut novel, Far from the A-List, with Mira/HarperCollins in December 2025. She credits her time at Emerson and mentorship from faculty as instrumental in the book’s development. -
22 Eve Bernfeld, MA ’04, MFA ’21, published her debut poetry chapbook, tkhines (Bottlecap Press). Drawing on the tradition of Yiddish “women’s” prayers, these poems thread through fairy tales, parenting, and the natural world. -
23 The latest novel by Auston Habershaw, MFA ’05, released in June 2025 from Tachyon Publications. If Wishes Were Retail is a comic fantasy about a genie opening up a shop selling wishes in a failing suburban mall. You can follow Habershaw’s writing at aahabershaw.com and find the book anywhere books are sold. -
24 The first book from Stacey Lindsay ’05, BEING 40: The Decade of Letting Go—and Embracing Who We Are, was released in May 2026 by Viking Penguin/The Open Field. Lindsay notes that “this book offers an expansive, unapologetic look at being a modern woman in her forties today.” -
25 Hannah Selinger, MFA ’05, shares that her debut book, Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly (Little, Brown), was published in March 2025. “In this vulnerable memoir, I pull back the curtain on the restaurant world,” Selinger writes. “The New York Times has called this book a ‘mix of Joris-Karl Huysmans, M.F.K. Fisher, and Regina George…a howling account…a fundamentally kind and generous book.’” -
26 The fifth book from TJ Alexander, MA ’07, A Lady for All Seasons, was published in March 2026 by Vintage Books. This is a sequel to the USA Today–bestselling novel A Gentleman’s Gentleman, and follows a Regency-era woman looking for a fake marriage and instead falling for a genderfluid poetess. Alexander’s agent is a fellow Emersonian, Larissa Melo Pienkowski, MA ’19. -
27 Michael S. Claire ’09 writes: “My book, We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball, following the amateur Czech Republic national team’s remarkable run in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, is out. The team [played] in this spring’s World Baseball Classic where I will be covering them in Tokyo once again for MLB.com.” -
28 Janessa Carder, MA ’11, published a book and self-narrated audiobook titled The Curious Nail Who Stuck Out: A multi-dimensional exploration of inclusivity told through personal stories of living in Japan. Carder simultaneously launched a podcast titled The Curious Nail, sharing stories of inclusivity from others. Learn more at thecuriousnail.com. -
29 Tabitha Dulla ’11 published her first book for children, 96 Facts About Wicked, with Penguin Random House in November 2025. -
30 RJ Taylor, MFA ’11, published a novelette in the Hugo-nominated Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine in October 2025. “The Third Movement of Time” appeared in the 17th-year anniversary issue #442. -
31 Dr. Valerie Rubinsky, MA ’14, and former faculty Dr. Angela Cooke-Jackson published a book with Toplight Books (McFarland Publishing) titled Memorable Messages: The Communications that Stick with Us Over Time. Rubinsky and Cooke-Jackson began their work with “memorable messages” at Emerson College. The book is written for a non-academic audience, aiming to make communication theory and research accessible and engaging. -
32 Under the Honey Locusts, the debut poetry collection from Kakie Pate, MFA ’21, has received the Linda Nemec Foster First Book Award in Poetry and is available from Cornerstone Press, UWSP. -
33 The Race for Daphne is a debut full-length poetry collection by Sarah C. Beckmann, MFA ’23, which was published in May 2026 by Finishing Line Press. The work explores themes related to the sport of rowing, Greek mythology, genealogy, and women’s rights. Assistant Professor Christine Casson wrote an endorsement blurb for the book, and Professor Daniel Tobin was heavily involved in the manuscript production. -
34 Banana Pancakes, the second chapbook of poetry by Annalisa Hansford ’25, was released in February 2026 by Rockwood Press.
Class Notes
A pair of students circa 1986 takes a break from their exploration of the idyllic environs of Emerson’s Kasteel Well, a restored 14th- century medieval castle that is home to the College’s premier Education Abroad program in Well, The Netherlands. This year marks the 40th anniversary of this iconic and much-beloved program.
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1960s
Daniel Mann ’60 wrote to tell us that he is retired and living in California.
- John Bertsch ’63, MSSp ’67, and Beverly (Chalfin) Bertsch ’64 celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in August 2025. John writes: “And to think [we] first met when Bev walked into the dining room at 150 Beacon where [I] was serving. Courtship continued on the ‘Wall’ in front of 130 Beacon.”
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1 Stephen Snow ’68 recently performed his one-man show, Healing the Poisoned Tree Inside of Me, in Montreal as part of a double bill, alongside a work by Samuel Ray Gates, an actor and professor of theatre from the University of North Carolina. Both theatre pieces were catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd, and Snow’s performance was especially inspired by a letter from former Emerson president Dr. M. Lee Pelton to the Emerson community in June 2020.
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1970s
In November 2024, Eric Booth ’72 was awarded his second honorary doctorate for leading the field of teaching artistry. His first was from the New England Conservatory in 2012. His second was from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland—the first ever awarded to an artist-educator.
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2 Clare De Lune, a hand-formed porcelain sculpture by Anna (Lepore) Kasabian ’72, won first prize in The Copley Society of Art’s member exhibit Vernal Light. Submissions were juried by the Copley Society of Art Committee and guest juror Ali Ringenburg, founder of the Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston, who also presented the awards. The Copley Society of Art is the oldest nonprofit arts association in the U.S.
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1980s
Jerry Martin, MA ’81, reports that his “Saluting New Readers” program videos are now available on YouTube. This innovative program was created to support young readers and is an example of a very low budget use of video that has benefitted about 5,000 elementary school students over 22 years. “It’s not a profession, just a valuable contribution,” that Martin hopes can be replicated in the future. Learn more at youtube.com/@salutingnewreaders/playlists.
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3 Marilyn Schairer ’81 was awarded a 2025 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for her reporting at GBH News on the “Norfolk Migrant Shelter Opens” in the Breaking News Coverage category. GBH is part of the Large Market Radio Station, Region 10.
- Stephen Gilman ’82 shares that “Even though broadcasting didn’t work out for me, [my career] was very interesting. Accounting ended up as my field. Among my jobs was a seven-and-a-half-year run at the TD Garden as an accounting coordinator. I also worked four-and-a-half years as an accountant at Astound, formerly RCN. I retired and moved up to New Hampshire last year and I’m loving every minute of it.”
- Donna Ebbs ’85 has retired from the entertainment biz and relocated to the Berkshires. In 2026, she will be launching the nonprofit, grassroots awareness campaign Project #288 with the goal of promoting direct citizen-to-responder contact with the New England EMT/firefighter community, which is facing an ongoing suicide epidemic.
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4 Paul LaVoie ’85 writes that his book to an original musical using the music of the synth-pop band Erasure is in development with Tanninger Entertainment (Queen of Versailles, The Outsiders) producing in association with Sony Music Publishing. Tony-winning producer Nick Demos (Memphis, Best Musical) is the creative consultant. A development workshop was held in December 2025 in partnership with the University of Oklahoma’s Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre.
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5 Leslie (Kaplan) Potashner ’86 received a Doctor of Letters from Drew University in May 2025 in dual concentrations of historical studies & fine arts and media studies. Her dissertation, titled “The Refugee in American Newspapers,” analyzed the portrayal of refugees from 1690 to 2025.
- Mal Stanton McCunney ’88 oversees marketing and event planning for School on Wheels Massachusetts, driving brand awareness, donor engagement, and fundraising success to bring educational programs and opportunity to students impacted by homelessness and poverty.
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6 Karen Scalia ’89 writes that her company, Salem Food Tours, produced a very special event celebrating the 400th anniversary of Salem, MA, in June 2026. With both free family-friendly events as well as paid and ticketed events, Food at 400+ celebrated the city’s history through the lens of food, fishing, farming, trade, etc., as well as its modern food scene. It also shared the larger story of the city’s founder Roger Conant, a peacemaker and community builder. Award-winning Chef Scott Conant was in attendance at the event.
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1990s
“Na,” the new short play by Zareh Artinian ’91, was performed during the International Human Rights Art Festival in New York City on December 8, 2025. This was the second year in a row that one of Artinian’s pieces appeared in the festival. His full two-act musical, Shattered! An American Fairy Tale (with Kelvyn Koning, composer and lyricist), came in first place in the 33rd Annual Jackie White Memorial Playwriting Contest last year.
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7 Mark Zawacki ’91, executive director of the Heritage Christian Services Foundation and senior vice president of advancement, was named the 2025 Robert A. Clinger Outstanding Fundraising Professional. This award, given by the Genesee Valley Chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals, honors an exemplary seasoned professional who has demonstrated outstanding fundraising success in their career.
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8 Wendy Fuller ’92 animated on Guillermo del Toro’s Academy Award–winning film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and the Emmy Award–winning TV show The Tiny Chef.
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9 Marj Kleinman ’92, founder of Stoop Stories, was featured on NY1 as “New Yorker of the Week” for bringing neighbors together through stoop culture and storytelling. Stoop Stories connects New York City neighbors across generations and differences to reduce loneliness and increase compassion and joy. Through documentary stories and community events, Stoop Stories celebrates stoop culture and highlights underrepresented communities.
- Steve Denby, MA ’93, writes: “After seeing Dr. Crannell teach Advanced Professional Communication, it became a dream of mine to teach communication as he did, and he made that dream come true. From 2003 to 2005, with his help, I was able to do just that at Western New England University. We worked on voice and the nonverbal of ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee.’ This past summer I visited where Sam McGee’s travels passed through, Skagway, Alaska.”
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10 Victoria Forester ’93 studied with Jack Gantos and other notable professors at Emerson for an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing. Today, she is a Pushcart Prize–nominated writer who publishes under the pen name Victoria Heartwood (victoriaheartwood.com). In August 2025, she attended Bread Loaf, the oldest and most prestigious writers’ conference in the U.S., which brings together talented writers from around the country to develop their craft.
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11 Following a 16-year career in media and tech (the direct result of his time spent at Emerson LA), including a decade with Yahoo, and 14 years in education leadership, John Khouri, MA ’94, recently returned to the East Coast to accept the position of head of school at Lexington Christian Academy (LCA). LCA is an 80-year-old, grades 6–12 private school in Lexington, MA, which began as Christian High School, next to Symphony Hall on Huntington Avenue in Boston, in 1946.
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12 Sonja (Mortensen) Morrell ’94, and MaryCatherine (Neal) Price ’22, are both part of the 2025 “Best of the Best” class through the Virginia Association of Broadcasters. This program develops leadership skills and gives them the opportunity to meet legislators and advocate for issues facing the broadcast industry. Morrell was part of last year’s program and was selected to return as a mentor for the Class of 2026. She works for WAFX/WNOR radio Norfolk. Price works for WRIC-TV Richmond.
- Caitlin McCarthy, MFA ’95, was selected as a 2025 Writing Fellow for the inaugural Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency on Sundance Collab, from a pool of over 1,400 applicants. Created in honor of social justice advocate Michael Latt, this six-month program supports early-career underrepresented storytellers in crafting narratives that drive social and cultural change. McCarthy, of documented Métis descent, will develop her crime thriller A Native Land as part of the program.
- Getting Huge by John Young, MFA ’95, was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Chanticleer International Book Awards in the Humor category. This prestigious award celebrates outstanding works in various genres, and as a finalist in the Humor and Satire division, the book was showcased at the Chanticleer Authors Conference in April 2025. Getting Huge is Young’s third book, following his novel When the Coin Is in the Air and the short story collection Fire in the Field & Other Stories.
- James Moore, MA ’96, was promoted to permanent police captain of the Methuen, MA, Police on July 7, 2025.
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13 Trinette Faint ’97 has published two novels (Collette’s Caleb and MidCoast Star), is a screenwriter, and recently launched her own marketing communications agency, Faint Services Group. She is adapting Collette’s Caleb into a series and the pilot placed as a semifinalist in the ScreenCraft 2025 TV Pilot contest, along with her other TV pilot, Peri Does Europe.
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14 Christopher Fernandez ’98 was a featured editor for two network production teams that were honored with 2024–2025 Sports Emmys. He was the lead turnaround venue editor for swimming at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for NBC/Peacock, which was awarded “Outstanding Live Special–Championship Event,” and he edited a series of college football teases for “SEC on ABC” coverage on ABC/ESPN, which was recognized as the “Outstanding Live Series.” Fernandez is a freelance editor who lives in Orlando, FL.
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15 Chrystee Pharris ’98 (Scrubs, Passions, Craig Ross Jr.’s Monogamy, Goliath) is starring Off-Broadway in Lady Patriot, directed by her longtime mentor Ted Lange (The Love Boat). The play tells the powerful true story of Mary Bowser, a free woman who gave up her freedom to serve as a spy during the Civil War. Pharris is honored to bring this history to life on stage while continuing her career of blending artistry with meaningful storytelling.
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16 Lauren Elise (Rizy) Daniels, MFA ’99, was nominated for a 2024 Shirley Jackson Award and an Australasian Shadows Award with Christa Carmen for Monsters in the Mills (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) in the category of Edited Anthology. She also was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for her climate/science fiction/horror story, “Stomata,” published by The Godmother of Horror Press in the anthology Darkness Most Fowl.
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17 Mary Stanford ’99 was awarded an American Songbook Association Pomranz Performance Grant. The grant recognizes singers who are dedicated to preserving the history of the American songbook and the craft of cabaret performance. Stanford also co-wrote the short film The Final Course, which was screened at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con film festival.
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2000s
Poet and author Katie Kemple ’00 won a scholarship from La Romita School of Art to study poetry and learn from award-winning poets and teachers Kim Addonizio and Tracey Knapp in Umbria, Italy. La Romita School of Art has housed artists for 50 years on the grounds of its “Convento delle Arti” (convent of the arts). It offers workshops for visual artists.
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18 David Rapaport ’00 and Ron Glines ’00 celebrated 25 years together in June. They met at Emerson. Rapaport is a casting director known for hit shows like Gossip Girl, Riverdale, and YOU. In 2025, he premiered Ransom Canyon on Netflix; Brilliant Minds on NBC; Countdown on Amazon; and the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, which debuted in July on Amazon. Glines is an eight-time Daytime Emmy–winning senior producer for Entertainment Tonight (CBS).
- In February 2026, Janaka Stucky ’00 was awarded a $5,000 2026 Grant for Creative Individuals from the Mass Cultural Council.
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19 New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella promoted Mike Garrity ’02 to director of communications and external affairs at the New Hampshire Department of Justice. Garrity previously served as director of communications and legislative affairs. He is a former network television news producer; local news anchor and reporter; and a strategic communications veteran, with experience in media relations and civic affairs work at the University of Houston and for BP following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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20 John Warren ’02 writes that his 16mm experimental film, Future Tense, was featured in the Frist Art Museum’s exhibition Avenues to a Great City in Nashville, TN. The film was shot over several years as he documented the city’s changing landscape. Warren described the film in an interview: “When you expose the same strip of film multiple times, you’re making a kind of archaeological record where each frame holds multiple moments. I found myself thinking about palimpsests—those ancient manuscripts where earlier texts show through despite being overwritten. That’s what Nashville feels like now—yesterday bleeding through today’s surface—and what I wanted the film to embody, both formally and conceptually.”
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21 Katie Kelly ’03 created Bring Your Own Beer, a funny, story-driven podcast about joy, disaster, hope, humiliation, and pop culture rants. Stories come from her current life as a single mom of two autistic children, as well as her checkered past of bad decisions and great memories. She writes: “Come hang out. Let’s lean into our problems, then laugh at them. Also, bring your own beer.”
- Tova Dann ’04, executive producer at Caviar LA, spoke with Little Black Book about her unconventional pathway into the industry, a relentless pursuit of good work, and the piece of advice that has stayed with her—and kept her on her feet—throughout her career. Fellow Emersonian Michael Sagol ’96 is EP/managing director at Caviar LA.
- Melissa Monti ’04, MA ’22, completed a Master of Science in education at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2025. She is now in the dissertation stage of a Doctor of Education at UPenn, set to complete in 2026.
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22 Lisa A. Parlagreco ’05 was honored with a 2025 Leader in the Law Award in connection with her representation of a Massachusetts man who was wrongly convicted of murder. Following a four-week trial, the jury found that she proved her client was innocent of all charges, and her client was awarded $13 million against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for his 26 years of unjust imprisonment.
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23 Yvette Fang ’06 shares that she recently founded Intrafy LLC, a multilingual marketing and PR firm helping businesses and organizations expand into new markets and connect authentically across cultures. “Our work spans market entry strategy, public relations, creative localization, and professional interpreting, covering more than 100 languages, including American Sign Language,” Fang writes. “I’d love to connect with fellow Emersonians and explore ways we can collaborate. Learn more at TheIntrafy.com.”
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24 Andre Joseph ’06 has released his latest feature-length crime thriller, The Last Vendetta, by Buffalo 8 Distribution. It’s available to order on Fandango at Home; transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) release on Fandango at Home, Amazon, and Verizon Fios/Vubiquity, and advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) on Tubi and Plex.
- Emerson alumni turned out at the 5th annual Ambies, also known as the Oscars of Podcasting. Blake Pfeil ’06 won for Best DIY Podcast, abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, and Amory Sivertson ’11 won for Best True Crime Podcast, Beyond All Repair. Jamie Loftus ’14 was nominated for Best Society and Culture Podcast for Sixteenth Minute of Fame.
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25 Nathan Hurst ’07 writes: “A fun moment of Election Night 2025 collaboration between Emerson alumni! I was producing C-SPAN’s Election Night 2025 live programming from our headquarters in Washington, DC, and Spectrum News NY1 political reporter Courtney Gross ’06 joined us before polls closed in New York City to preview the mayoral race.”
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26 Lauren MacLeod ’07 brought together podcaster Taran Armstrong ’14 and Sourcebooks to publish Behind the Mirror: Inside the World of Big Brother in November 2025.
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27 Nidhi Mathson, MA ’07, is excited to share that she’s made a major career change as a licensed financial advisor with Equitable Advisors. After working in the tech industry for more than 15 years, Mathson was laid off. The first thing she did was panic about her financial situation, but speaking with a financial advisor helped her make sense of the world again. Her career move started with the need to educate herself on financial wellness and blossomed into a desire to share it with those who might benefit.
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28 Matthew Hearon-Smith ’07 is a New York–based film/TV music supervisor, and his 2024 project Anora won five Oscars, including Best Picture, at the 2025 Academy Awards. He has been the head of Sean Baker’s music department for several films, including Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. Other recent notable credits include Mike Judge’s Beavis + Butt-Head, Nickelodeon’s Big Nate, and the Lionsgate Sydney Sweeney film Americana.
- Mark Vashro ’08 announced the release of his post-apocalyptic sci-fi podcast, BlueLife, which was an Austin Film Festival script semifinalist. Jim Cummings ’09 performed in the story, as well as Jonathan Lowe ’91. Go to bluelifeworld.com for details. Follow on TikTok @bluelife.world and on Instagram @bluelife_world and check out Episode One on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
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29 Matthew Bogart ’09 writes that he is producing the new national public radio show This Old House Radio Hour. Learn more at apple.co/tohrh.
- Denise Coen, MFA ’09, recently acquired the position of full-time English faculty at Northwest Indian College (Bellingham, WA). In this role, she is responsible for creating a new English curriculum for the school and teaching the inaugural cohort of students in the program.
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30 Catie Hogan ’09 wrote a musical comedy called Vape! The Grease Parody, which opened off-Broadway in November 2025 at Theater 555 in New York City.
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2010s
31 Kerry Gleeson ’10 writes: “This past spring [2025], my family of four visited my dear friend and fellow alum, Tessa Gerlach (née Wienker)’s family of four in Berlin, Germany. It was our first time reconnecting since before COVID, when we were both first time parents of 1-year-olds! I brought custom-made Emerson Lions jerseys for the four kids to wear in order of projected university class year on the back. The trip was incredible, and we’ve finally kicked off friendship among the next generation.”
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32 Seth Applebaum ’11 graduated with a major in cinematography, and while film has been a big part of his career, he’s also experiencing success in the music world. Since 2016, he has led a cinematic soul band called Ghost Funk Orchestra, and its most recent album was named #17 of the 50 best albums of 2024 by The Boston Globe. Find out more at ghostfunkorchestra.com.
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33 Marcus Brown ’11 won his second Emmy for working on Jeopardy and welcomed twins, Audra and Miles.
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34 Dana (Vincent) Kaplan ’11 and Steven Kaplan ’11 celebrated their 2023 marriage with friends and family in Denver, CO, in September 2024.
- Markus Garcia ’12 and his wife, Lisa, welcomed a son, Oliver, on July 20, 2025. Garcia is a social media specialist for Houston METRO in Houston, TX.
- Joe Petrowski ’12 celebrated his four-year anniversary as the director of ticketing and customer relations at Park Avenue Armory in New York City.
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35 Ruby Honerkamp ’13 is the CEO and co-founder of Talkhouse Encore, a line of spirits-based canned seltzers inspired by her family’s iconic Hamptons venue, Stephen Talkhouse. With a background in marketing and brand building, Honerkamp launched the brand during the pandemic to extend the venue’s legacy. Talkhouse Encore has seen strong growth, recently launching a tequila pineapple flavor and expanding into new markets across the Northeast. Learn more at talkencore.com.
- Nathaniel Lezra ’13 writes that his powerful immigration documentary, Roads of Fire, fresh off major festival wins and a sold-out New York run, headed to Los Angeles for a special VIP event screening at the Laemmle Glendale, followed by a weeklong engagement at the Laemmle Monica Film Center. Fellow alum Daniel Orentlicher ’15 was the colorist on the documentary.
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36 Zach Connolly ’14 and Mike Millette ’14 won an Emmy for their short documentary, Hope Blooms in Bushwick, a story of a tiny housing project in Brooklyn that has stood the test of time. Connolly was the director and producer, and Millette was the director of cinematography and editor.
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37 Dilan Qadir, MFA ’14, was one of five Canadians named as Writers’ Trust Rising Stars for 2025.
- Salvatore Schiavone ’14 shares that several Emerson alumni are involved with an upcoming film, Play House. Schiavone, the film’s casting director, is joined by Aidan Leary ’22, 1st assistant director; Maya Raman ’23, script supervisor; C.R. Thompson ’22, puppeteer; Robin Lee ’25, production assistant; Ben Lampert ’25, production assistant; Win Van Blarcom ’25, production assistant; Brendan Donnelly ’26, production assistant; and Aadi Sinha ’26, production assistant.
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38 Erin Arata ’15 married Seth Finkelstein on May 9, 2025. Their wedding party included Laura Brincat ’15, Chris Gillespie ’15, Alex Kowal ’15, and Sarah Diamond ’14. Also in attendance were Michelle Kwong ’15, EJ Jarvie ’15, David Morrison ’15, Kurtis Theorin ’15, and Carrie Cabral ’15.
- Jeff Millman ’17 started medical school this past summer, saying: “It’s an unusual path for an Emerson graduate, but I hope to bring all my communications skills to my new field!”
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39 Sienna Goode ’18 received the Digital Audience Choice Award at the 2025 Boston Festival of Indie Games (BFIG) for her work on Nocternum. Held in December at the Cyclorama in Boston, the event showcased numerous digital and tabletop games and drew over a thousand attendees. Nocternum is being developed by Normal Horse Games, a new indie studio co-founded by Goode. You can learn more at nocternum.com.
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40 Thomas Robotham, MFA ’18, shares news about Trudeep Bass cabinets, the advanced bass guitar speaker cabinets that he designed and hand-built with patent-pending technology. Trudeep Bass cabs were reviewed on newyorkbassworks.com. You can also see the handcrafted cabinets at trudeepbass.com or @trudeepbass on Instagram.
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41 Dan Frank, MFA ’19, is executive producer of Divia, a Ukrainian documentary, which premiered at the Karlovy International Film Festival in July 2025. The film screened at the COP30 2025 UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and was nominated for an IDA (International Documentary Association) Award. Frank is also producer of Cow Sense, a documentary short, directed by fellow Emerson alum Keely Kernan, MFA ’19. It will be distributed to Rocky Mountain Public TV and the PBS App.
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42 The first feature Shari Gaynes ’19 production-designed, Plantman & Blondie: A Dress Up Gang Film, premiered at the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival in the narrative feature competition.
- Anushree Nande, MA ’19, writes that her fantasy story “Heartland” was published in Between Worlds: The IF Anthology of New Indian SFF, Vol. 1, edited by Gautam Bhatia and published by Westland Books in August 2025.
- Scarlett Shiloh ’19 shares that her zine, How to Get a Colonoscopy—Advice for the Neurodivergent and Everyone Else!, is out now, published by Microcosm. Shiloh is a hereditary cancer patient living with a genetic disorder called Lynch syndrome, which puts them at high risk for colon cancer. This is a very important topic to them, and to the public health sphere, and they’re excited and hopeful that it reaches those who need it.
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43 At the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia in November 2025, filmmaker and producer Matt Szymanowski, MFA ’19, discussed how AI is reshaping film workflows, drawing on the films Captive Mind and A Human Future. Informed by research and conversations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and California, he framed AI as a shift comparable to sound or CGI, enabling faster iteration and new creative scale while keeping the craft human, and emphasized the need for hands-on practice.
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2020s
Gina York ’20 is a co-producer on The History of Sound, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025.
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44 Created by showrunner and producer Melody Herr, MFA ’22, The Farm is a nine-episode fiction podcast two years in the making. The series premiered on September 1, 2025, with new episodes dropping every Monday. Produced by Little Fish Entertainment & Hunnydew Studios, The Farm blends psychological suspense, family secrets, and the eerie quiet of small-town life. It stars Ellysa Rose (Dear White People, Based on a True Story) and features immersive sound design and a haunting original score. Learn more at listentothefarm.com.
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45 Leleka, a feature film directed by Harald Hutter, produced by Harald Hutter and Jiali Ding ’23, with Xun Zhuo ’19 as co-executive producer, was selected for its world premiere in the Rebel with a Cause Competition at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on November 16, 2025. The festival is one of Northern Europe’s largest and an A-list event recognized by FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) since 2014.
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46 Lauren Dodds ’23 made her New York City playwright debut with her short play, “The Unknown,” at The New York Theater Festival in June 2025. In addition to writing the play, Dodds also starred in and produced it, raising roughly $1,700. The play follows a pair of friends, Michael and Lucy, starting as young children and ending in their early adulthood. Michael tries to help Lucy overcome her desire to always “play it safe” in life.
- Natalie Rosselli ’23 has been promoted to associate agent at the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. Rosselli is currently most interested in and actively seeking out fiction, specifically in the following genres: romance, romantasy, and women’s fiction. Reach out to her at nrosselli@aaronpriest.com.
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47 Yannis Ning ’24 recently founded Dreamborne Theater, a multilingual arts nonprofit based in New York City. Ning is currently pursuing an MA at New York University and developing a new ensemble production, Nine Shadows in Bloom, which premiered in New York City in December 2025. The work blends movement, bilingual storytelling, and memory-based performance to explore identity and the Asian diasporic experience.
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48 At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Rebecca Ocampo, MFA ’24, presented BeLieving in the Mountains, a film project examining the intersection of climate change, depopulation, and heritage within the Dolomite municipality of Cibiana di Cadore, Italy. The project was developed as an interdisciplinary research collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Università Iuav di Venezia; Comune di Cibiana di Cadore; and Studio RO, Ocampo’s production company based in Boston.
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1950
Marian Goodman of New York, NY, died on January 22, 2026, at the age of 97. Goodman graduated with a BA.
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1951
David Georgia of Las Vegas, NV, died on February 9, 2026, at the age of 97.
- Arthur Mark of Warwick, RI, died on July 7, 2025, at the age of 95.
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1952
Pat Earle of Hickory, NC, died on October 7, 2025, at the age of 94. Earle graduated with a BA.
- Rosalind Feingold of Munster, IN, died on February 3, 2026, at the age of 95. Feingold graduated with a BS.
- Dorothy Lappin of Fort Lauderdale, FL, died on July 4, 2025, at the age of 94. Lappin graduated with a BA.
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1953
Anne Goetze of Milton, MA, died on October 16, 2025, at the age of 94. Goetze graduated with a BA in Communication Disorders as well as an MSSp in 1977.
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1954
Robert MacEwen of Westford, MA, died on September 23, 2025, at the age of 99. MacEwen graduated with a BA in Communication Disorders.
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1955
Dorothy Cooke of Bar Harbor, ME, died on March 16, 2025, at the age of 92. Cooke graduated with a BA.
- Barbara Rich of Groton, MA, died on December 16, 2025, at the age of 91. Rich graduated with a BA.
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1956
Barbara Hood of Hingham, MA, died on November 9, 2025, at the age of 90.
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1957
Chuck Albert of Toronto, Canada, and Boca Raton, FL, died on September 23, 2025, at the age of 92.
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1959
Elizabeth Craig of Rockledge, FL, died on December 23, 2025, at the age of 88. Craig graduated with a BA as well as an MA in 1969.
- Daniel Frank of Brookline, MA, died on January 5, 2026, at the age of 89. Frank graduated with a BA.
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1961
Diane Ballard of Plano, TX, died on April 4, 2025, at the age of 84. Ballard graduated with a BA.
- Frank Claytor died on November 1, 2025, at the age of 88.
- Gerald Grassman of Mechanicsburg, PA, died on October 25, 2025, at the age of 88. Grassman graduated with a BSSp in Broadcast Journalism.
- Paula Stern of Natick, MA, died on July 8, 2025, at the age of 84. Stern graduated with a BA.
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1962
Donald Hill of Methuen, MA, died on May 21, 2025, at the age of 85.
- Janice Marcus of Concord, MA, died on February 22, 2026, at the age of 86. Marcus graduated with a BSSp.
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1963
Edward Chapman of Fitchburg, WI, died on November 2, 2025, at the age of 81.
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1965
Dennis Brienzo of Lakeville, MA, died on October 3, 2025, at the age of 82.
- Michelle Rosenfeld of Englewood, NJ, died on May 11, 2025, at the age of 81. Rosenfeld graduated with a BSSp as well as an MA in 1966.
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1966
David Czarick of Hampton, NH, died on October 28, 2025, at the age of 81. Czarick graduated with a BA.
- Eve Dove Gagnon of Sorrento, Canada, died on September 10, 2025, at the age of 81.
- Joan Smola of Hadley, MA, died on November 5, 2025, at the age of 81. Smola graduated with a BA.
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1967
Gary Matta of East Bridgewater, MA, died on October 28, 2025, at the age of 78.
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1968
Eugene Carver of Winthrop, MA, died on April 12, 2025, at the age of 78.
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1969
Mary Bernstein-Hunter of Stamford, CT, died on August 5, 2025, at the age of 78. Bernstein-Hunter graduated with a BSSp.
- Clint Brown of Sulphur, LA, died in September 2025, at the age of 83. Brown graduated with a BSSp as well as an MA in 1981.
- Richard Portner of Lyman, NH, died on October 26, 2025, at the age of 84. Portner graduated with an MA.
- Arthur Serino of Newton Centre, MA, died on November 16, 2025, at the age of 83. Serino graduated with a BA.
- Francis Soares of South China, ME, died on June 3, 2025, at the age of 78.
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1970
Arthur Levine died on October 24, 2025, at the age of 77.
- Michael Messinger of North Bethesda, MD, died on May 14, 2025, at the age of 77. Messinger graduated with a BSSp.
- Jill Ross of South Bend, IN, died on March 18, 2025, at the age of 78. Ross graduated with an MS.
- John Smith of Voorheesville, NY, died on March 7, 2026, at the age of 77. Smith graduated with a BSSp.
- Alan Wagg of Provincetown, MA, died on June 8, 2025, at the age of 80. Wagg graduated with a BS.
- Mark Ziemienczyk of Granby, CT, died on June 23, 2025, at the age of 76.
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1971
Linda Blocker of Stoughton, MA, died on March 3, 2026, at the age of 78. Blocker graduated with an MA in Theatre Education: Acting.
- Mary Langhorn of Jamaica Plain, MA, died on November 9, 2025, at the age of 86. Langhorn graduated with an MSSp in Communication Disorders.
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1972
Rhonda Hunter of Encinitas, CA, died on March 9, 2026, at the age of 75. Hunter graduated with a BSSp in Theatre Education: Acting.
- Robert Parlante of Jupiter, FL, died on March 1, 2026, at the age of 75. Parlante graduated with a BA.
- Phyllis Saffer of Worcester, MA, died on May 9, 2025, at the age of 102. Saffer graduated with a BSSp in Communication Disorders.
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1973
Dennis Quinn of Corpus Christi, TX, died on January 15, 2026, at the age of 75. Quinn graduated with a BSSp.
Adams, who taught in the Performing Arts Department from 1969 to 2015, passed away peacefully on February 17, 2026, at age 81, with family by her side.
At the time of her retirement in 2015, she was among the longest-serving faculty members in the College’s history—a distinction she carried with pride.
Early in her career, Adams ran the costume shop at Emerson’s Beacon and Brimmer Street location and led costume production for major shows including: Fiddler on the Roof; Guys and Dolls; No, No, Nanette; and George M!—the opening production of the refurbished Cutler Majestic Theatre. In later years, she shifted her focus more fully to teaching makeup studios, puppetry courses, and introductory theatre classes, passing on both technical mastery and creative confidence.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Norman G. Adams; her sons, Norman H. Adams (Elena) and Daniel Adams (Marie); five grandchildren; and many other beloved family members.
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1974
Patricia Council of Portland, ME, died on December 24, 2025, at the age of 78. Council graduated with a BSSp.
- Joseph Kelley of Chatham NJ, died on August 17, 2025, at the age of 73. Kelley graduated with a BSSp.
- Carol Krim of Watertown, MA, died on May 11, 2025, at the age of 74. Krim graduated with a BA in Theatre Education.
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1976
Robert Edney of White Plains, NY, died on January 28, 2026, at the age of 75. Edney graduated with a BS in Mass Communication: Television.
- Jan Geller of Belfast, ME, died on March 17, 2025, at the age of 70. Geller graduated with a BS.
- Jeffrey Gorman of Lynn, MA, died on September 16, 2025, at the age of 71.
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1977
Michael Johnson of Dorchester, MA, died on December 4, 2025, at the age of 69. Johnson graduated with a BS in Mass Communication: Television.
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1978
Helena Ashby of McLean, VA, died on March 21, 2025, at the age of 71. Ashby graduated with a BS.
- Dorothy McMorrow of Plymouth, MA, died on July 14, 2025, at the age of 84.
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1979
Leo Marks of Toms River, NJ, died on October 22, 2025, at the age of 69. Marks graduated with a BS in Mass Communication: Television.
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1980
Lorraine DeMan of Rutherford, NJ, died on August 30, 2025, at the age of 67. DeMan graduated with a BS.
- Ellen Luning of Cape Coral, FL, died on August 6, 2025, at the age of 70. Luning graduated with a BFA.
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1981
Todd Skillin of Portland, ME, died on November 15, 2025, at the age of 67. Skillin graduated with a BS in Mass Communication: Radio.
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1982
Jacqueline Cutty of Ocala, FL, died on August 31, 2025, at the age of 65. Cutty graduated with a BS in Mass Communication: Television.
- Bruce Fowler of Plymouth, ME, died on February 19, 2026, at the age of 66. Fowler graduated with a BFA in Performing Arts: Design/Technical Theatre.
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1984
Mary Pelkey of Glendale, RI, died on July 11, 2025, at the age of 85. Pelkey graduated with an MA in Communication Studies.
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1987
Cisco Henson of Pasadena, CA, died on December 8, 2025, at the age of 61. Henson graduated with a BS in Mass Communication: Television.
- Michele Rogers-Goss of Laconia, NH, died on November 14, 2025, at the age of 64. Rogers-Goss graduated with a BSSp in Communication, Politics, and Law.
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1988
Deborah Brownlie of Beverly, MA, died on October 1, 2025, at the age of 70. Brownlie graduated with an MA in Communication Studies: Advertising and PR.
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1989
David Flebotte of Beverly Hills, CA, died on July 8, 2025, at the age of 65. Flebotte graduated with a BFA in Writing and Publishing.
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1990
Judith James of Danvers, MA, died on July 7, 2025, at the age of 75. James graduated with an MA.
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1991
Kari Griffin of Milford, MA, died on August 7, 2025, at the age of 56. Griffin graduated with a BS in Communication Disorders.
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1992
Janice Carlson of Charlestown, RI, died on September 29, 2025, at the age of 84. Carlson graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing.
- Ramona Kirschenman of Sunderland, MA, died on July 13, 2025, at the age of 54.
- Michelle Lyseth of Upton, MA, died on February 20, 2026, at the age of 55.
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1993
Stephen Chvany of Billerica, MA, died on August 10, 2025, at the age of 54. Chvany graduated with a BA in Acting.
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1994
Michael Pellegrini of Westwood, MA, died on April 4, 2026, at the age of 53. Pellegrini graduated with a BS in Television/Video.
- Danica Sheridan of Montrose, CA, died on November 13, 2025, at the age of 55. Sheridan graduated with a BS in Acting.
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1996
Shawn Budd of South Yarmouth, MA, died on November 20, 2025, at the age of 56. Budd graduated with a BS in Television/Video.
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1998
Joshua Buckley of Marlborough, MA, died on November 23, 2025, at the age of 52. Buckley graduated with a BS in Film.
- Heather Rocha of Salem, NH, died on April 8, 2025, at the age of 48. Rocha graduated with a BSSp in Management Communication and Public Relations.
- David Smith of Somerville, MA, died on November 10, 2025, at the age of 50. Smith graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing.
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2000
JoAnn Healy of Little Silver, NJ, died on October 14, 2025, at the age of 54. Healy graduated with an MA in Integrated Marketing Communication.
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2002
James Cassidy of Randolph, MA, died on November 18, 2025, at the age of 79. Cassidy graduated with a BA in Television/Video.
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2006
Clara Chu of Stoneham, MA, died on January 12, 2026, at the age of 45. Chu graduated with an MSSp in Communication Disorders.
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2011
Kabir Moss of Montclair, NJ, died on July 9, 2025, at the age of 37. Moss graduated with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing.
- Alex Spanko of White Plains, NY, died on March 29, 2025, at the age of 35. Spanko graduated with a BS in Print and Multimedia Journalism.
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2013
Joseph Thomas of Richmond, VA, died on December 26, 2025, at the age of 37. Thomas graduated with an MA in Theatre Education.
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2023
Sam Hain of Winthrop, MA, died on September 30, 2025, at the age of 24.
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FACULTY, STAFF, AND FRIENDS
Madelyn Kelly of Swampscott, MA (former faculty), died on March 5, 2026, at the age of 65.
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MARLBORO COLLEGE
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1959
Bruce Cole of Wilmington, VT, died on December 24, 2025, at the age of 92.
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1965
Lee Pierson of Pottersville, NJ, died on September 14, 2025, at the age of 87.
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1966
John Acken of West Linn, OR, died on April 10, 2025, at the age of 83.
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1977
Ann Rafferty of Los Alamos, NM, died on March 16, 2025, at the age of 69. Rafferty graduated with a BA in English Literature and Piano Performance.
- Pete Stewart of Ridgefield, CT, died on February 7, 2026, at the age of 70.
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1985
Jimmy Gordon of Bellows Falls, VT, died on August 1, 2025, at the age of 65.
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FACULTY, STAFF, AND FRIENDS
Bob Holden of Shaker Heights, OH (former staff), died on April 24, 2025, at the age of 69. Holden also received an undergraduate degree from Marlboro.
- Robert Skeele of Anacortes, WA (former staff), died on October 23, 2025, at the age of 98.
It all depends on the type of island. But if we’re talking deserted tropical island, then:
A drone to get epic aerial establishing shots—during golden hour, of course.
My trusty old Sony A7 III, so that this ordeal looks more cinematic than Cast Away and becomes an award-winning documentary.
A solar-powered projector to host the island’s first film festival for the crabs and seagulls.
Curtain Call
Peas, Shoots, and Leaves with Buttermilk and Feta Dressing
(Abrams, 2026) by Colu Henry ’99
Time: 15 minutes
The truth is, I developed this recipe because I always wanted to call something by this name. She’s witty, eh? But this salad is also a bit of a showstopper. The tangy buttermilk and feta dressing is best tumbled with peak spring produce, and the snap peas offer a lovely counterbalance to its creaminess with their crunch. Serve it with whatever else you’re making for dinner and New Potatoes and Mint with Too Much Butter (page 235) alongside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, feta, and 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice and season well with salt and a good few churns of black pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt as needed. Set aside.
In another bowl, gently toss together the snap peas, scallions, and pea shoots with the remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice and the olive oil. Season with salt.
To serve, transfer the dressing to a medium plate or platter, preferably with sides, and mound the snap pea mixture on top in the middle. Drizzle with some more olive oil and scatter with the chive blossoms and mint. Finish with a few pinches of flaky salt.
Ingredients
Alumni Weekend
October 23–25, 2026