Alfred S. Joseph III ’65 was appointed by the governor of Kentucky to serve on the state’s Oral History Commission, a nationally recognized program to record and preserve the diverse stories that are part of Kentucky’s history. Additionally, he received the 2008 Commercial REACH Award from the Greater Kentucky Chapter of the March of Dimes for his contributions to commercial real estate and to the community. Joseph, counsel with Stites & Harbison in Louisville, Ky., joined the firm in 1983 and focuses on complex development projects, affordable housing, commercial financing transactions, general real estate law, zoning, and insurance. He is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. A government major at Wesleyan, he earned his JD from the University of Michigan.
Benjamin Fontes ’86, the biosafety officer at Yale University, is president-elect of the American Biological Safety Association. Fontes, who manages operational safety in all three spheres of biohazards—those from biological, chemical, and radiation sources—credits much of his expertise and interest in the field to Gladys Caspar P’85, who, as his mentor when he began his career at Harvard—affiliated labs and hospitals in Boston, encouraged critical thinking. “In biosafety, there’s very little black-and-white,” he says. “In addition to frequent updates in the pathogens studied, there’s always a new piece of equipment that arrives in a lab—and you have to understand not only how it works when it”s used properly, but also what could go wrong.” As president-elect, Fontes looks forward to increasing opportunities to develop collegial relationships internationally. He was a biology major at Wesleyan and earned his MPH from the University of Michigan.
Andrew W. Seibert ’86 was named to the newly created position of president at SmartMoney, a joint venture between Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Co. Previously vice president and publisher of SmartMoney’s Custom Solutions, the custom publishing arm, he will continue this effort, while adding responsibility for the circulation, advertising, and marketing operations of SmartMoney magazine, as well as for SmartMoney.com. He joined SmartMoney in 1999 as creator and head of the Custom Solutions division. At Wesleyan, he majored in the College of Social Studies and then earned an MBA at Columbia.
Maria E. Rodriguez ’81 has been elected to the board of trustees of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. A partner at the Baltimore office of the law firm Venable, LLP, she focuses on business and commercial litigation. Additionally, she was named editor–in–chief of Litigation magazine. “Maria’s background and passion for the arts will make her a valuable addition to the board of the Contemporary,” said Board President Pamela Berman. An American studies major at Wesleyan, she earned a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Oregon, and received a law degree from Stanford University.
The Hispanic Business Magazine included Marlon Quintanilla Paz, MALS ’96, in their listing of the nation’s 100 Most Influential Hispanics. Paz, who is senior counsel to the director of trading and markets at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, played a central role in developing the SEC’s positions on many important regulatory and enforcement matters, including initiatives to address the current financial stress in the markets. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. President of the Hispanic Bar Association of DC, he also served for two terms as national vice–president for the Hispanic National Bar Association. He earned a JD from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a master of laws, with distinction, from Georgetown University.
Anjali Waikar ’99 joined the Boston–based law firm of Krokidas & Bluestein LLP as an associate in the firm’s litigation group. Previously, she was a legal fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, where she worked on issues relating to post–9/11 racial, religious, and ethnic profiling of immigrant communities and pre–adjudication detention of youth in the Massachusetts judicial justice system. She majored in anthropology at Wesleyan and then earned a juris doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the South Asian Bar Association, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Carolyn Sharp ’85, associate professor of Hebrew scriptures at Yale Divinity School, is the first woman ever to be tenured in that field at the school. At Wesleyan, she chose the religious studies major after taking Stephen Crites’s Christian Thought from Paul to Luther, and Jeremy Zwelling’s introductory class on the Hebrew Bible. She also has vivid memories of the dynamic pedagogy of Ron Cameron, and considers formative his insistence that students grapple with feminist analysis of the Bible. “It’s been an ongoing passion of mine to understand how relationality (Buber) and fierce critique (Mary Daly) can be in dialogue,” she says. “I am grateful to Ron for teaching me how to frame that question.” She earned her doctorate from Yale and last year was named Fortress Press Teacher of the Year.
David Sommerstein ’93, a reporter with North Country Public Radio, received the 2008 National Edward R. Murrow Award for journalism excellence from the Radio–Television News Directors Association for Farm to Farm, Family to Family. This three–part series explored the migration of Mexican and Central American farm workers in and out of rural communities of New York and was judged Best News Series by a small–market station. Additionally, the series won Best News Series and Best Enterprise Reporting from the Associated Press in June. At Wesleyan, Sommerstein was a Spanish major.
John Rhea ’87, the managing director of the investment banking division for Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers), was elected board co–chair of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Rhea, who has been on the board for eight years and has served as treasurer, is also a spokesperson for the Museum, conducting interviews for print and TV news media stories. A College of Social Studies major at Wesleyan, he earned his master’s degree from Harvard University School of Business. Andrew Ackerman, the museum’s executive director, praises Rhea’s leadership and “incredible vision for what CMOM is and what we can become.”
Charles Work ’62, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Chicago-based McDermott, Will & Emery, was named by Legal Times magazine as one of their “90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years” in a cover story by that title. Cited as one of the 30 “visionaries” in the field, he was one of the earliest leaders of a firm to grow his office through lateral hiring. In his 14 years as managing partner, Work increased the office from 12 lawyers to 117, most of whom were partners or associates previously affiliated with other local firms or government agencies. The office now has 250 lawyers and, in terms of revenue, ranks number eight locally. His so-called “No jerks” rule was also touted as one of the first, explained in his own words as: “Life is too short not to go to work with friends.”
