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INHONOR OF Professor of Geosciences Todd Rayne’s impending retirement in June, here’s a post featured recently on the College’s Facebook page.

THE TRUSTEES

David M. Solomon ’84, P’16, Chair

Robert V. Delaney ’79, Vice Chair

Linda E. Johnson ’80, Vice Chair

CHARTER TRUSTEES

Aron J. Ain ’79, P’09,’11

Mason P. Ashe ’85

Manal Ataya ’01

Richard Bernstein ’80

Peter B. Coffin ’81, P’14

Julia K. Cowles ’84

Daniel C. Fielding ’07

Carol T. Friscia K’77

Amy Owens Goodfriend ’82

Philip L. Hawkins ’78

David P. Hess ’77

Gregory T. Hoogkamp ’82, P’25

Lea Haber Kuck ’87, P’24

Sharon D. Madison ’84

Christopher P. Marshall ’90

Robert S. Morris ’76, P’16,’17

Daniel T.H. Nye ’88, P’24

Montgomery G. Pooley ’84, P’16,’19

Ronald R. Pressman ’80

Imad I. Qasim ’79

R. Christopher Regan ’77, P’08

Nancy Roob ’87

Alexander C. Sacerdote ’94

Jack R. Selby ’96

David Wippman

ALUMNI TRUSTEES

Betsy G. Bacot ’84

Aditya Bhasin ’94

Phyllis A. Breland ’80

Kathleen Corsi ’82, P’23

Mark T. Fedorcik ’95

Eric F. Grossman ’88

John Hadity ’83

Monique L. Holloway ’87, P’14,’18

Marc B. Randolph ’81

Daniel I. Rifkin ’88, P’23

Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo ’97

Sharon S. Walker ’90

LIFE TRUSTEES

Henry W. Bedford II ’76

David W. Blood ’81

Harold W. Bogle ’75, P’14

Brian T. Bristol P’11

Christina E. Carroll P’90

Send your letters, story ideas, and feedback to editor@hamilton.edu or Hamilton magazine, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, NY 13323. We welcome comments on topics discussed in the magazine or on any subject of possible interest to the College community. Please include your name and class year, and whether you intend for your letter to be published. We reserve the right to judge whether a letter is appropriate for publication and to edit for accuracy and length.

Gerald V. Dirvin ’59, P’84, GP’17

Sean K. Fitzpatrick ’63, P’87

Lee C. Garcia ’67

Eugenie A. Havemeyer GP’00

Joel W. Johnson ’65, P’93

Kevin W. Kennedy ’70 †

A.G. Lafley ’69 †

George F. Little II ’71, P’04

Arthur J. Massolo ’64, P’93

Donald R. Osborn P’86, GP’16

Mary Burke Partridge P’94

John G. Rice ’78

Stephen I. Sadove ’73, P’07,’10,’13 †

Howard J. Schneider ’60, P’85,’87,’89, GP’21

Thomas J. Schwarz ’66, P’01

A. Barrett Seaman ’67

Nancy Ferguson Seeley GP’17

Chester A. Siuda ’70, P’06, GP’25

Susan E. Skerritt K’77, P’11

Charles O. Svenson ’61, P’00

Thomas J. Tull ’92, P’13

Susan Valentine K’73

Jack Withiam, Jr. ’71, P’16,’20

Jaime E. Yordán ’71

Srilata Zaheer

† Chairmen Emeriti

PRESIDENT OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

John J. Christopher ’83, P’14

FIGHT HIV Sherene Brown Cora ’97

PUBLIC HEALTH WORK has taken

Sherene Brown Cora ’97 across the globe to Africa. In August she moved from a job in Rwanda with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the HIV field to pursue a similar post in Lesotho.

“I entered Hamilton intending to major in science to attend medical school,” Cora says. “After taking a philosophy course, I fell in love and ended up a philosophy major with a minor in Africana studies.”

As a grad student pursuing a master’s in public health at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Cora found her niche in the HIV field. “I conducted in-depth interviews with drug-using and nondrug-using women to explore multigenerational drug use and HIV risk perception, and was a program assistant for a CDC-funded STD outreach project for adolescents,” she says.

Cora’s first job after Rollins was with the CDC as a contractor in the Division of HIV and AIDS Prevention where she developed comprehensive prevention programs for HIV-positive individuals. In 2012, she relocated to Africa and began providing technical leadership on HIV program implementation to various ministries in Botswana. She later served as deputy country director for CDC Rwanda overseeing the office’s administrative and financial operations.

Now in Lesotho, Cora is providing operational oversight for a team of 11 public health professionals. “I see myself continuing to work in management and operations in another country,” she says. “I love what I do and love working overseas in Africa.” n

AIM FOR THE MOON Kevin

Conole

’04

THE SKY CERTAINLY ISN’T THE LIMIT for Kevin Conole ’04 when it comes to promoting NASA’s global outreach. As a senior program specialist at the space agency’s Office of International and Interagency Relations in Washington, D.C., he manages relationships with civilian partners and leads the agency’s United Nations-related activities.

“NASA has accomplished so much in the last year,” he says, noting the recent launch of Artemis I, the uncrewed test mission that will enable the U.S. to land the first woman and a person of color on the Moon. “Soon we will have humans living and conducting critical research on the lunar surface. It’s also rewarding to work with our Applied Sciences Program, using data from satellites to help deliver solutions to international development challenges in global health, such as climate change and food security.”

A government and philosophy major, Conole credits Hamilton with honing critical thinking and writing skills and his four years playing football with learning the value of teamwork. After Hamilton, he worked for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., before taking a job with the space agency.

Along the way he earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College and a graduate certificate in legislative studies from Georgetown University. For now, the Syracuse, N.Y., native says he remains focused on expanding his portfolio at NASA and possibly returning to the private sector in the future. n

Increase Access

Judi Alperin King ’83

STUDIES SHOW THAT college-aged students without a family support system or personal safety net are among the least likely to earn a four-year degree. Judi Alperin King ’83 is committed to changing that.

Following a 32-year career with Wediko Children Services, King connected her passion for working with youth navigating complex family situations with her love of vibrant college campuses by launching the Wily Network in 2015. A first-of-its-kind nonprofit, the Wily Network ensures students “have the tools and networks necessary to thrive in four-year residential colleges and transition successfully into post-college life.”

Similar programs exist on individual college campuses, but King saw a opportunity to launch a community-based access program spanning Boston, which has nearly three dozen colleges, almost 100 within a 50-mile radius. Wily has supported more than 100 talented students — Wily Scholars — mostly through partnerships with area colleges and universities.

The network provides Scholars with a clinically trained coach who meets with them weekly on the Scholar’s campus, financial support, and community-building events with nearby Scholars. Wily is there for its Scholars 24/7 to assist with managing obstacles and to cheer as they celebrate achievements.

“We’re talking about a group of students who haven’t had agency in their lives. They’ve stood very still in a tornado of chaos,” King says. “No one told them at 4 years old that college would be their ticket out, and no one told them that they’d do everything in their power to get them through college. They did this all on their own. They are trailblazers.”

A cohort of Hamiltonians, including alumni, staff, and faculty, have been involved with Wily, including current employees Mike Holliday ’17 (major gifts manager) and Nathalia Mahabir ’17 (clinical scholar coach). King describes the organization and those involved with it as “present and future focused,” all working toward the goal of making college more equitable and accessible.

“The students we work with add so much value to every college campus,” King says. “This is who colleges want on their campuses, so let’s find ways to take care of them.” n

Feel For Eels

John Greenlee ’00

Medievalist And Cartographic

historian John Greenlee ’00 was working on a project involving 17th-century London when he noticed something odd. On several maps, there were two ships anchored in the Thames. These ships had been marked as civic landmarks and labeled “Eel Ships.” Interest piqued, he began researching the history behind these vessels and the history of eels in England in general.

Little did Greenlee know that this chance observation would evolve into the dissertation topic for his Ph.D. in medieval studies at Cornell University and an ongoing fascination with the slippery, snake-like fish.

“I kept finding myself surprised by the roles that [eels] play in premodern English history,” said Greenlee, who is now a lecturer in medieval studies at Cornell. “Once you start looking for eels in English history, they’re basically everywhere.”

It’s true. Eels were no ordinary fish in historical England. They were a common form of currency in 1200 CE and remained an important aspect of English diet and identity in the 17th century. Finding increasing fascination with the history of eels in England, Greenlee began to share these facts with the world. He started with sporadic Tweets, under the name Surprised Eel Historian, mostly for his own amusement. Now, he Tweets each weekday, usually with a meme and a joke or pun, for his 21,400+ followers. His work was featured in a 2020 Time article.

As a medieval historian, Greenlee hopes his Tweets will encourage people to learn more about the period. But during his time as a history major at Hamilton, he also learned about the importance of interdisciplinarity. He weaves this into his Tweets in the hopes that people will recognize eels, a critically endangered species, as one that is worth saving.

“Eels have long been an extremely important part of freshwater riparian habitats, but they’re neither majestic nor cuddly, and they are not a fish that most people have personal experience with,” Greenlee says. “To get people on board with saving them, I try to make eels interesting by telling engaging stories. Twitter is a great medium for helping people appreciate the humor, and history, of eels.” n

INSPIRE CREATIVITY Susie Szeto Price ’92

SUSIE SZETO PRICE ’92 can trace her foray into photography and the arts to a cinema class she took with Professor Scott MacDonald at Hamilton.

“Reading films critically really spoke to me. I wanted to be involved in film, or media studies, as a career because of it,” she says.

After graduation, Price earned her master’s degree at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts before becoming an assistant for Richard Greenberg and Bruce Schluter, two prominent creative directors who designed titles and marketing graphics for movie trailers. As a production and visual effects coordinator, she honed her skills in storytelling, dynamic shot compositions, and CGI effects.

“Interestingly, what I learned on the job was compatible with the theoretical film concepts I first learned from Scott,” she says. In fact, she found that even her family snapshots reflected those same professional and academic standards.

Eventually Price took a hiatus from fulltime office work to raise her family. Her husband, a photographer and CG animation artist, suggested that she submit her photos to Getty Images, where she still works as a freelance photographer creating stock imagery “telling everyday stories of family, children, and multiracial diversity in America.”

Price had found the perfect balance of spending time with her children, dabbling in real estate, and pursuing creative interests until 2015, when her husband died of multiple myeloma at age 47.

“It was one of the most devastating moments of my life. It was also the ultimate wake-up call to confront what I wanted my life to be about,” she says. “Unsurprisingly, my art and creativity went through the roof. I took chances. This creative energy was a way for me to communicate my love for my late husband.”

Price also uses that creative energy to inspire others through her work on the Hamilton Career Network’s Arts & Entertainment Committee. “I love sharing the possibilities of working in visual effects, animation, and other artistic fields through a liberal arts education. I’m a living example, and I have no regrets.” n

Implement Change

Michael Nelson ’16

SOCIAL IMPACT IS THE LIFE WORK for Michael Nelson ’16, who is fresh from a summer working in the Biden-Harris Administration to implement the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“It’s unfair how accurately your childhood ZIP code predicts your future education, income, and health, and how factors like race and gender further separate opportunity,” Nelson says. “I was glad to support the White House to develop guidance that expands equitable access to funding for marginalized communities, as well as to increase transparency and efficiency for the thousands of BIL projects.”

Day-to-day, this meant collaborating with the U.S. Chief Financial Officers Council and other government leaders to resolve challenges they faced in implementing the BIL.

Nelson’s social consciousness stems from his education at Hamilton, where the economics major explored a variety of innovation and experiential learning opportunities. “Outside of class, you could either find me in the Levitt Center studying or the Glen House planning Adirondack trips. The Levitt Center’s programs on entrepreneurship and policy helped me realize I could merge my interest in economics with social impact projects,” he says.

After Hamilton, Nelson moved to Washington, D.C., where he spent four years as a government innovation consultant at Deloitte. “My team helped agencies adopt cutting-edge technologies like AI, blockchain, and robotics to better serve the country,” he says. “We covered a variety of issues from preventing financial fraud to battling the opioid epidemic and COVID-19.”

Nelson is currently wrapping up graduate school, pursuing a dual MBA/MPA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Harvard University with a focus on economic mobility and youth empowerment. He continues to support equity and opportunity projects on the side by partnering with changemakers to improve their programming and expand their organizations.

Balancing graduate school and professional projects has meant bouncing between Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and DC — a fun adventure for the Centennial, Colo., native.

“I plan to continue working with government agencies and nonprofits. I look forward to using the skills and insights I acquired in school to better support communities in need,” he says. n

BUILD COMMUNITY Tommy Thompson ’73

TOMMY THOMPSON ’73’s Facebook page states that he’s “A guy who lives in eternal terror of becoming bored and has too many hobbies as a result.” One of those too many hobbies is building, well, buildings.

“My father worked in construction as a high schooler,” Thompson says. “He was an enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer, and his skills rubbed off on my brother [Rick ’83] and me.” Those skills came in handy in 2020 during the pandemic.

KUPR-LP is a low-power (100-watt) FM, nonprofit radio station broadcasting and streaming (at kupr.org) a variety of music and cultural programming to three towns and two Indian pueblos around Placitas, N.M., near Thompson’s home. It had operated from a 12-by-12-foot room since its founding in 2015.

Labor For Equity

Natasha

Jenkins ’07

NATASHA JENKINS ’07 has shown her commitment to promoting principles of equity in the legal field throughout her career. Formerly an advocate for worker’s rights as general counsel of Teamsters Local 700, she now leads a chapter of the oldest association of African American lawyers and judges in the country.

Jenkins is the president of Illinois’ Cook County Bar Association (CCBA). “I sit as the youngest Black woman

In late 2019, a local family donated a retired Los Alamos National Laboratories test site office trailer to the station. It sagged at both ends, with dry-rotted plywood siding outside and tired, 1970s wood paneling inside. The 12-by-56-foot structure offered a solid roof and four times as much space as the station’s prior home, but little else. A hired contractor installed a new subfloor and reframed the interior for two broadcast studios, an office space, and a bathroom. In March 2020, station volunteers took over to finish the job.

“I was already a volunteer announcer on the station, building on my four years of WHCL-FM experience at Hamilton,” Thompson says. “It turned out I was one of just a couple station volunteers who had the skills and free time to work on it.”

Thompson and a rotating cast of volunteers replaced rotten substructure, installed new windows, insulation, and drywall, and known to hold the position in the organization’s 108-year history,” she says. laid new flooring throughout. New steel siding panels covered the dry-rotted plywood. Slowly, the crew transformed the worn, vintage trailer into a comfortable, modern space. KUPR-LP began broadcasting and streaming its signal from its new home in September 2020.

In that capacity her goal is enhancing CCBA’s strategic programs, educational initiatives, and community outreach to prepare attorneys to not only excel as practitioners in their fields, but also to combat racism, advocate for justice, and promote equity in the legal field and in the judiciary. Her dual career roles also include working as an associate at Littler Mendelson P.C. in Chicago, where she practices labor and employment law.

Jenkins majored in history at Hamilton. Her thesis centered on housing discrimination in the United States and its relationship to the development of the Chicago Housing Authority in her hometown. After graduation from the University of Illinois School of Law, she was hired as an assistant attorney general at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, practicing civil litigation and criminal law.

“The project accomplished two things,” Thompson says. “First, it kept me sane during the lockdown stage of the pandemic. Second, it provided a spacious home for KUPR to improve its service to the local community.” n

She later pivoted to labor and employment law with a focus on the transportation field after stints with the Chicago Transit Authority, Teamsters Local 700, and United Airlines.

“I served as lead labor counsel for United in grievance proceedings, mediations, and arbitrations to ensure collective bargaining and disciplinary procedures were consistently enforced,” Jenkins says.

In the next few years, she hopes to strengthen her practice as an expert in labor and employment and to continue to advance the agenda of the CCBA.

“For the first time in U.S. history, there is a Black woman serving as vice president of the United States and a Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, but there is more work that needs to be done to eradicate injustice and increase diversity, inclusion, and equity in the legal profession and in the world,” Jenkins says. n

Lead Diplomacy

Michael Murphy ’87

AS THE CURRENT U.S. AMBASSADOR to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Michael Murphy ’87 reflects on his second tour there, his 31 years in foreign service, and how Hamilton prepared him.

What do you do on a daily basis?

I live and work in Sarajevo. My day typically starts with a press briefing followed by a meeting with senior staff. Both can drive the embassy’s work, but our work is always tied to the United States’ strategic foreign policy objective here: support for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and multiethnic character, as well as its integration into the European Union and NATO. In addition to managing approximately 600 employees, I meet with political, business, and civil society members to advocate on behalf of the United States and American businesses. I engage in public diplomacy activities from press statements and interviews to policy speeches. I also travel throughout the country. You cannot be an effective ambassador if you spend all your time in the capital.

What’s different now from your previous work in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

I served in Sarajevo from 2006 to 2009 as the embassy’s political counselor. In some ways the country has changed a lot and in others less than I would have hoped. Sarajevo is more prosperous, and the country’s tourist infrastructure is much improved. In 2006, you could still see a lot of damage from the 199295 war, and there is much less now. On the other hand, the problems of nationalism and corruption are worse than they were in 2006. That is disappointing to me personally, but it also poses a challenge to U.S. foreign policy.

How did Hamilton prepare you for your career?

I made the decision to major in international affairs after taking a course with Professor Deborah Gerner. She was an electric lecturer and inspired me to pursue a junior year abroad at the London School of Economics. After that, I was hooked on the idea of combining my interests in current affairs, history, and travel in a career with the Department of State. Hamilton provided me with exactly what it promised: a classical liberal arts education that left me with a lifelong desire to learn. Both have served me well in a profession that requires you to learn new politics, histories, cultures, and societies every few years. I also cannot stress enough Hamilton’s emphasis on writing.

What did you do after graduation?

I had planned to attend Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, but the Department of State offered me a job. I worked on Capitol Hill for three years before joining the Foreign Service, serving as a foreign affairs and defense legislative assistant for Tennessee Congresswoman Marilyn Lloyd.

What positions did you hold leading up to your postings in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

I spent 18 years serving at embassies in Nigeria, Cameroon, the United Kingdom, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Botswana. My tour lengths varied from two to four years. Every foreign service officer has a designated specialty, and I am a political officer. Most of my work overseas involved contact work, diplomatic and public advocacy of U.S. policy, reporting, and analysis. I spent 13 years in Washington in different assignments, most recently as a deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. These duties encompassed managing European and Arctic security policy, including relations with NATO, as well as managing bilateral relations with 10 northern European and Baltic countries.

What is next for you professionally?

I have not given a lot of thought to what I might do after my time as ambassador concludes. I am in the fortunate position where I can continue working with the Department of State or retire if I decide it is time to move on to the next phase of my life. n

The Big Picture

Summer Work in Burke

THE FIRST FLOOR of the Daniel Burke Library will soon undergo a major renovation to include a new classroom, areas that highlight the College’s physical collections, shared service points for assistance, virtual reality spaces, soundproof rooms for podcast production, and more, different types of study spaces for individual and group work.