Sara Donnelly ’00 was awarded the 2008 Martin Dibner Memorial Fellowship in fiction, given annually to promising Maine writers seeking to develop their writing skills. Donnelly is the managing editor at Mainebiz, and was a high honors recipient for her senior thesis: a collection of short fiction titled Grace and Other Stories. She planned to attend the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop in Portland, Oregon.
CEO Suzanne Delbanco ’89, a CSS major at Wesleyan, was featured in Modern Healthcare, the only heathcare business news weekly, on April 18, for her work as founder of Leapfrog Group Committed to improving healthcare by reducing the number of medical errors made in healthcare, the company has grown from 60 Fortune 500 members at its inception in November 2000 to more than 500 members who use their consumer influence to push for increased patient safety.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences welcomed Alan M. Dachs ’70, chair emeritus of the Wesleyan Board of Trustees, as one of its 2007 class of fellows. He joins this 227-year-old academy, whose current research is focused on science and global security, social policy, the humanities and culture, and education. Dachs is president and chief executive officer of the Fremont Group in San Francisco. He serves on the boards of directors of the Bechtel Group and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and The Conference Board. He is a member of the Corporation Visiting Committee for the Engineering Systems Division of MIT, the Advisory Board of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and chairs Wesleyan’s development committee. At the university’s Commencement in May, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
Amy Crawford ’05 competed this summer at the Shure/Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in Switzerland, placing third among vocalists under age 35 from around the world. A jazz pianist when she arrived at Wesleyan—where she majored in government—she recalls that she tried singing at the encouragement of Prof. Jay Hoggard. After graduation, she moved to New York to pursue a career in music. She is a member of the band DeLeon, with whom she has been touring, and she is also leading her own project, Amy Crawford & The Electric, which was preparing to release its first EP in December 2008. You can download a free mp3 from the new Amy Crawford & The Electric’s EP at www.wesleyan.edu/magazine. (See also amycrawfordmusic.com and Myspace.com/amycrawfordmusic for more info.)
Jim Devine ’68 received the 2004 Edward deLuca Lifetime Achievement Award for Professional Excellence from the International Economic Development Council, recognizing his “leadership, innovation, and exemplary service to the economic development profession.” Devine, the current president of the Lee’s Summit, Mo., economic development council, is the past chairman of the International Economic Development Council, as well as the longest serving, elected board member of the IEDC, beginning in 1986. He holds an M.P.A. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Administration, and earned the Certified Economic Developer designation in 1979.
David Dixon ’69 received the American Institute of Architects’ Thomas Jefferson Award for demonstrating “a lifetime of commitment and significant achievement in advancing the public sector’s mission to create more livable neighborhoods, vibrant civic spaces, and vital downtown and main streets.” A resident of Boston, Dixon has also been working extensively on urban planning for downtown New Orleans and a number of highly diverse neighborhoods closer to home. At Wesleyan, he majored in the College of Social Studies and then earned his master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
CBS4 reporter Peter D’Oench ’73 was honored by both the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County for a journalistic career that spans two decades in the South Florida market, his dedication, and “acts of social conscience and benevolence, exemplary deeds that honor the traditional sense of rebirth and brotherhood.” In fact, D’Oench’s contributions were deemed so significant that he was awarded two certificates–one from the city of Miami and another from Miami-Dade County.
Sonya Behnke ’03 recently collaborated with a classmate at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute to write an opinion piece that was published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in March 2008. An English major at Wesleyan, the piece discusses the alleged “leadership deficit” that is supposed to hit the nonprofit sector particularly hard as Baby Boomers retire.
Jerry Berka ’63, of Bay Shore, N.Y., was honored, as a man of service in his community with an administration building named in his honor. Berka, a member of the board of education for 37 years, has served as chairman of the student aid fund. He comments on his long service: When I returned home after the Navy JAG, I wanted to do something for the community. After you stay around and see a lot of good things happening, you want to keep contributing. A geology major at Wesleyan, he received his law degree from Cornell.
Alan Brewster ’64 was named deputy dean at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). Brewster joined F&ES in 2000 as associate dean for management and resources. In addition to his duties as deputy dean, Brewster leads a program to provide training on sustainable development for municipal officials in China. Since 1997, he has also served on a working group and task force of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. He holds a master in public administration degree in economics and public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
