The 2023 AABC Awardees

A highlight of Reunion is the annual presentation of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College (AABC) Awards, where we recognize extraordinary honorees and have the opportunity to hear their inspiring acceptance speeches. This year’s awardees continue the tradition of spanning generations, professions, and contributions to Barnard and society as a whole.

League of Their Own, HBO’s GIRLS, Silicon Valley, Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Russian Doll, and Only Murders in the Building, for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.

Babbit began her career as Martin Scorsese’s intern on The Age of Innocence. The Itty Bitty Titty Committee, her second feature, won the Grand Jury Prize at the SXSW Film Festival, and her short film Stuck won a jury prize at Sundance. She has been profiled in The New York Times, Out magazine, Time Out, The Los Angeles Times, Filmmaker magazine, and Vanity Fair.

Barnard community for 20 years through the Wellness Spot (formerly Well-Woman) Health Promotion Program. Inspired by her time as a student peer educator (2001-2003), she joined the staff of the Wellness Spot in 2004, later becoming director of health promotion and education.

JAMIE BABBIT

’93 Woman of Achievement Award

Jamie Babbit has directed several feature films and executive-produced and directed multiple award-winning television shows. Her debut film, But I’m a Cheerleader, was listed by The Independent as one of the top 20 romantic comedies of all time. It is considered a seminal queer film and can be seen on Netflix.

Her TV directing credits include A

Babbit grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and was a Centennial Scholar at Barnard. She lives in Los Angeles with her girlfriend and two daughters. Her daughter Finley Sperling just finished her first year at Barnard.

JESSICA T. CANNON ’03

Millicent Carey McIntosh Award for Feminism

Jessica T. Cannon is a health educator and student wellness advocate who served the

In that role, she had the privilege of providing support and education to students exploring the complexities of health and wellness, both their own and that of their communities. Working with the peer educators she trained and supervised, Cannon expanded the programming and scope of the Wellness Spot, ensuring that students had a comfortable space on campus to use their voices, ask difficult questions, support one another, and, most importantly, “come as you are,” the program’s unofficial motto.

Cannon has a passion for equitable and inclusive reproductive healthcare and was integral in supporting the Primary Care Health Service’s long-acting reversible contraceptives initiative, providing contraceptive counseling to all students seeking these options and facilitating the peer educator “IUDoula” program.

After leaving Barnard in 2021, Cannon and her husband, Hal, moved to her hometown in Virginia to be close to family. She recently began a new chapter at the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia, and is eager to share the many lessons in mental and physical well-being she learned at Barnard with a new generation of students.

KATHLEEN DROHAN ’88

Distinguished Alumna Award

Kathleen Drohan is a veteran musical storyteller, equity activist, and community builder. She serves as the chief marketing and communications officer for the Cleveland Institute of Music, one of the world’s most prestigious conservatories. She was previously vice president of communications for the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, whose mission is to prepare graduates of music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles around the world. While there, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Drohan created Miami Art Strong, a collective of more than 100 South Florida arts organizations that came together to keep art and culture alive and accessible to audiences worldwide during the lockdown. She also oversaw the creation of radio programming with WGBH Boston showcasing the music of the Harlem Renaissance.

Drohan is the creator of the WQXR Instrument Drive for New York Public Radio, which collected, repaired, and redistributed musical instruments to public school and community music programs in NYC and Newark. The program collected more than 6,000 instruments, supporting music education for more than 30,000 students annually. The project garnered worldwide attention and became the most high-profile outreach effort in the history of WQXR. One donation to the program inspired the 2016 Academy Awardnominated film Joe’s Violin

She is the creator and co-founder of High 5 Tickets to the Arts, which, since 1994, has allowed access to NYC arts for hundreds of thousands of NYC students. She also conceived of and implemented the Uniquely U scholarship, which provides opportunities for NYC students to attend the Long Islandbased Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts.

Drohan has served as a consultant with the Defiant Requiem Foundation, honoring the legacy of the Jewish prisoners in Terezín; the Library of Congress concert series; and singer-songwriter James Taylor. Her writing is featured in the New York Timesbestseller Worn Stories, and she has written extensively about her solo travels through the Himalayas, Andes, Atlas Mountains, and more.

NAOMI GOLDBERG HAAS ’83 Distinguished Alumna Award

Naomi Goldberg Haas is the founding artistic director of Dances for a Variable Population (DVP), established in 2009. DVP is a multigenerational dance company and educational organization committed to promoting strong and creative movement among older adults of all abilities, enabling them to build creativity, improve their mental and physical health, strengthen social connections, and enhance their quality of life. DVP’s model of community creative aging education program, MOVEMENT SPEAKS®, annually serves over 2,500 older adults in NYC and is a model in best practices for creative aging in community-based performance and education programs for older adults.

As a choreographer, Goldberg Haas has over 35 years of experience in concert dance, theatre, opera, and film. She has collaborated with the Klezmatics, composer Michael Nyman, directors Brian Kulick and Oskar Eustis, and playwright Chuck Mee. She choreographed the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner’s It’s an Undoing World, with music by Alicia Svigals; Kushner’s A Dybbuk at the Public Theater; and plays performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Delacorte Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, and the Mark Taper Forum. Her film work includes Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame Goldberg Haas conceived Talking Dance with the Los Angeles Music Center Education and Outreach Division; this unique traveling chamber piece toured for 12 years, reaching over 750,000 students throughout Southern California. She founded the successful intergenerational and mixed-ability dance company Los Angeles Modern Dance & Ballet (1990-2004).

She trained from age 8 to 18 at the School of American Ballet, holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and has performed with Pacific Northwest Ballet. She currently teaches and trains teaching artists in her popular MOVEMENT SPEAKS® method for older adults throughout NYC. Her work with the Silesian Dance Theatre and persons with disabilities was presented at the 17th International Dance Festival and Conference in Bytom, Poland, and with seniors and professional dancers in 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. She has been a leader in the field of creative aging and has presented at numerous national conferences and has published articles advocating for the wellbeing of older adults through the power of dance.

Goldberg Haas received the Gibney ART + ACTION award (2011) and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council President’s Award for Performing Arts (2014), served on the Age Friendly Media, Arts & Culture Working Group (2015-2018), and received the Dance/USA 2019-20 Fellowship for Artists addressing social change. In February 2023, she received the New York State Dance Education Association Lifetime Impact in Dance Education award in recognition of her extraordinary lifelong imprint on dance and the dance education community.

She is currently collaborating with Mikhaela Mahony ’11 on a book, Moving Through Life: The Essential Lessons of Dance (University of Florida Press, 2024).

GABRIELLA KAREFA-JOHNSON ’13

Millicent Carey McIntosh Award for Feminism

Gabriella Karefa-Johnson is a New Yorkbased stylist and editor with a keen eye for up-and-coming designers as well as a narrative-led approach aimed at diversifying representation in fashion. Known for her looks pairing disparate colors, textures, and silhouettes, KarefaJohnson worked as associate fashion editor under fashion director Tonne Goodman at Vogue and as fashion director of Garage Magazine in 2017. In 2021, she became the first Black woman to style a cover of Vogue As global contributing fashion editor-atlarge, she has styled many Vogue covers, featuring Serena Williams, Paloma Elsesser, Kamala Harris, Amanda Gorman, and more. Karefa-Johnson is also a member of the Committee of Experts of the 2023 LVMH Prize, which rewards young fashion designers selected for their talent and outstanding creativity, supporting the emergence of a new generation of designers.

LISA NAJAVITS ’83

Distinguished Alumna Award

Lisa M. Najavits, Ph.D., is director of treatment innovations and adjunct professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School. She was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for 25 years and was a research psychologist at Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Boston, for 12 years.

Her major clinical and research interests are substance abuse, trauma, comorbidity, behavioral addictions, veterans’ mental health, community-based care, development of new psychotherapies, and outcome research. She is the author of more than 200 professional publications, as well as the books Seeking Safety, a treatment manual for trauma and addiction; Finding Your Best Self: Recovery from Addiction, Trauma, or Both; A Woman’s Addiction Workbook, and the upcoming treatment manual Creating Change

Najavits has served as president of the Society of Addiction Psychology of the American Psychological Association and has consulted widely on public health efforts in addictions and trauma, both nationally and internationally, including for the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Surgeon General, the United Nations, and the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She is on various advisory boards, and her awards include the 1997 Young Professional Award of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the 1998 Early Career Contribution Award of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, the 2004 Emerging Leadership Award of the American Psychological Association Committee on Women, and the 2009 Betty Ford Award of the Addiction Medical Education and Research Association.

Najavits received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University. She is a licensed psychologist in Massachusetts and conducts a psychotherapy practice.

ADITI SOMANI ’18

Young Alumna Award

Aditi Somani is the special assistant to the first-ever counselor for racial equity at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The counselor’s office leads efforts to advance equity in all of the Treasury’s work, including implementation of the historic Inflation Reduction Act.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Somani served in the White House, where she was appointed to President Biden’s Oval Office team on day one of the Biden-Harris administration. She started her career as a technology investment banker at J.P. Morgan and later joined the Biden for President paid media team to support the 2020 general election campaign.

Somani received her B.A. in economics cum laude at Barnard, where she completed the Athena Scholars Program and worked with several organizations dedicated to advocacy and improving economic outcomes for women and girls. Somani is a native New Yorker from Queens and a proud daughter of Indian immigrants.

LINDA SWEET ’63 Award for Service to Barnard

Linda Sweet was a founding partner and director of the museum practice at Management Consultants for the Arts, where she is now partner emerita. Sweet began her museum career as an educator at the Brooklyn Museum and was dean of the Department of Public Education at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has taught art history and museum education at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Bank Street College, and Leslie College, and in 1974 was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to study museums in Europe.

Sweet majored in art history at Barnard and received a master’s degree from New York University and a certificate from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Administration’s Institute for Notfor-Profit Management.

An active member of the American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums), Sweet was a founder of the Education Committee and its vice chairperson from 1978 to 1980. In 1976, she was elected to the Council of the Alliance and for eight years served on the Membership Committee.

Sweet has been in service to Barnard since her undergraduate days, when she was a member of the student government. As an alumna, she has served on the Barnard Board of Trustees, as AABC president, as chair of the Annual Giving Committee and member of the Leadership, Fellowship, and Nominating committees, and in various fundraising roles that saw her connecting with fellow alumnae to raise vital funds for Barnard. An incredible force of progress and innovation for the AABC, Sweet is forever a positive fulcrum for Barnard.

Sweet is a past president of ArtTable, a national membership organization of women in the visual arts, and a former member of the Collections Committee of the Grey Art Gallery of New York University. She was a trustee of Barnard College from 2015 to 2019, where she was co-chair of the Committee on Academic Affairs, served on the Governance Committee, and was a member of the Council on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity. She chaired the Annual Fund Committee and Leadership Council for the Alumnae Association of the College and was an active member of several other committees. She was a member of the board of the Greater Hudson Heritage Network and chair of its Governance Committee and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz. She sits on the Development Committee of the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center in Putnam County, New York.

Since 2015, Sweet has been a docent at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. B

Observing Indonesia

The pre-Barnard gap year taken by sociologist Rachel Rinaldo ’94 turned into a lifelong connection to the island nation

by Janet Faller Sassi

In March 2003, while working on a Fulbright-Hays research project in Indonesia, Rachel Rinaldo ’94 and her husband witnessed a million-strong march through the streets of Jakarta to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Rinaldo was sympathetic to the anti-war values of the marchers, some of whom she knew from her research project about feminism and Islam.

Looking around in the throng of demonstrators, she spotted no other foreigners. As she and her husband passed a group of men on the sideline, they saw her and shouted, “America terrorist!” It was a moment of realization for the sociologist, who wanted to participate in the lives of those she was studying. “I realized I couldn’t escape my U.S. identity no matter how critical I myself may have been of American politics,” Rinaldo wrote in a 2015 essay.

Her relationship with the largest Muslim country in the world began when she was just 17. Her parents suggested that she experience a gap year before starting at Barnard. She applied to the AFS exchange program and was assigned to a host family in East Java, Indonesia. “I knew nothing of the country,” says Rinaldo, who is now an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado.

For the next year, Rinaldo attended a school in the inland city of Malang, where all the students and teachers spoke Bahasa Indonesia, the country’s national language. She was expected to learn the language solely through immersion. Furthermore, the limited English skills of her host family made complex conversations impossible. There were only Indonesian newspapers to be found, so Rinaldo spent her evenings with an English-Indonesian dictionary deciphering the day’s articles. “It was a tough year,” she recalls. “And sometimes lonely.”

By the time Rinaldo entered Barnard College as a freshman, however, she’d been changed forever by her experience. The country — with its multiple religions and ornate cultural traditions in music, art, and dance — had left an enduring impression.

A Turn To Academia

At Barnard, Rinaldo studied political science with an emphasis on the comparative politics of developing countries. She was active in social causes on campus, notably the Earth Coalition, which she led, the Anti-War Coalition, and Students for Choice. Her senior thesis was on anti-fascist youth movements in 1980s-’90s Germany and Great Britain, and Rinaldo credits her parents and her thesis adviser, visiting instructor Sanya Popovic, with encouraging her to earn a Ph.D. She applied and was accepted to the sociology program at the University of Chicago.

After a junior year spent at the University of Edinburgh and her teenage exchange experience, Rinaldo knew that she wanted to do international research. It wasn’t clear to her exactly where, however, until the late 1990s, as she watched from afar as Indonesia became a democracy after 32 years of military dictatorship under Suharto. Seeing this transformation unfold in part through grassroots activism, she decided to return and do her dissertation on Islam and women’s activists during the democratization era.

“My interest is in how social change happens,” she says. “And I was aware that things were changing all around the world when it came to women and gender. The types of changes that American women saw in the U.S. beginning in the 1950s are now playing out all over the globe.”

Rinaldo’s first Indonesian Fulbright-Hays coincided with the “war on terror” initiated by the U.S. following 9/11. In fact, her research year was sandwiched between two major al-Qaida-linked events in Indonesia: the 2002 bombings in Bali that claimed 202 lives and a 2003 suicide bombing at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12. The U.S. Embassy urged Fulbright scholars to leave the country, but Rinaldo stayed because she felt too invested in her research.

Her year abroad resulted in her first book, Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia (Oxford, 2013), which looks at how Muslim women activists are reinterpreting the Quran to define it as a text that’s more inclusive of women and marginalized groups.

Rinaldo has just finished a second year of Fulbright research in Indonesia, examining the impact of the pandemic on women’s work and careers as well as their experiences balancing work and family in general. She and her team have interviewed 125 women — from rice farmers and teachers to housewives and lawyers — and hope to document social patterns in this rapidly developing majority-Muslim society. This cohort of women are not educated feminists; many of them are traditionally religious. Yet they are at the forefront of a cultural shift.

Rinaldo’s qualitative study, which consists of in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation, has found that many savvy Indonesian housewives entered the workforce during the pandemic through the informal economy when their husbands lost their jobs or saw their income reduced. Such online activities — for example, selling stylish hijabs or baked goods from their tablets and cellphones — enabled women to both earn money and care for their children in a culture where husbands are not expected to help with domestic work.

Just like the Indonesian feminists who are reimagining the Quran, the nation’s working women are reimagining their place in the post-pandemic economy, says Rinaldo: “They’re coming to recognize their own capabilities and expressing pride in being able to earn money.”

Homegrown Collaboration

A 2014 study by researchers at the University of Chicago placed Indonesia’s academic citations among the lowest in Southeast Asia, especially when compared with Singapore and Malaysia. To strengthen the nation’s scholarly reputation, the Indonesian government has created a new agency that requires foreign researchers to have an Indonesian counterpart and work through a domestic institution.

Rinaldo has found an invaluable collaborator in Fina Itriyati, Ph.D., a sociologist at Gadjah Mada University in the city of Yogyakarta.

As a Muslim who can speak colloquial Javanese with interviewees, Itriyati was first to notice that the housewives’ pandemic sales activities on WhatsApp or Instagram deserved a closer look. Indeed, the informal sector accounted for more than 60% of Indonesian employment during the pandemic. And within that sector, 64% of the workers are female. Itriyati notes that, in addition to picking up the economic mantle through what was an extremely strict nationwide lockdown, wives often became the family glue as well.

“I saw that men were quite emotionally fragile when they lost their jobs,” says Itriyati. “Women had to make the family emotionally stable, to take care of their kids and the husband.”

First Experience Abroad

Rinaldo says that today’s Indonesia is a different place than the Indonesia of her first Fulbright in 2003. It is a majority-Muslim country with an emerging economy and democratic government, and citizens freely hold conservative or liberal views of their religion. Only one province, Aceh, enforces Shariah, the Islamic canonical law. Rinaldo notes that many Indonesians remain critical of U.S. foreign policy, but Indonesian anger at the U.S. has greatly dissipated.

The change has meant that Rinaldo and her husband, Robert, felt comfortable enough to bring their 8-year-old son, Nathaniel, along for the full year. The boy’s first experience abroad, she says, has opened his eyes to the larger world. “We’ve spoken to our son about social justice issues and the ills of the world, but it’s one thing to know it intellectually, and it’s another thing to see it.”

Recently Rinaldo asked Nathaniel to reflect on a Sumatran jungle trip that made the whole family sick. “Nate’s reply was, ‘That was so hard, but it was worth it to see the orangutans in the wild.’”

Rinaldo’s decades of research on women in social movements have shown her that women have collective power and are catalysts of social change. There is “no ceiling” on their potential around the globe, provided societies don’t hold them back.

“There have been a lot of advances,” she says. “But there’s a lot of pushback as well. We’re seeing it in the U.S. right now. Whenever women gain more rights, it challenges the status quo.

“But if we want progress, we have to be willing to push for it.” B