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.
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.
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.”
Samuel H. Selesnick ’81, MD, F.A.C.S, has been elected president of the American Neurotology Society, the largest specialty organization of neurotologists-skull base surgeons in the United States. He is professor and vice chairman of the department of otolaryngology and professor of otolaryngology in neurological surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College, as well as a member of the department of neurological surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. A recipient of the Certificate of Honor from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, he has lectured nationally and internationally on neurotologic and ear-related topics. Named one of the best doctors in his field by New York Magazine, he also sits on the editorial board of the journal Otology and Neurotology.
Amy W. Schulman ’82 was named senior vice president and general counsel of Pfizer Inc., effective June 23. She joined Pfizer from the global law firm DLA Piper, where she served on the Global Board and U.S. Executive and Policy committees. She also spearheaded a number of the firm’s strategic initiatives, most notably in the areas of diversity and inclusiveness. She was co-leader of the firm’s mass tort/class action practice, handling some of the most complicated legal, scientific and regulatory issues facing the world’s most respected companies, including Pfizer, General Electric, and the Altria Group. In a Wall Street Journal article last May, Pfizer’s CEO Jeffrey Kindler said, “Her knowledge of the legal, business and regulatory challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry and her experience tackling large, complex cases make her uniquely qualified to lead Pfizer’s legal team.” She earned her J.D. from Yale University Law School in 1989. AMY W. SCHULMAN ’82 was selected from among 600 candidates as one of The American Lawyer magazine’s “45 Under 45.” A partner with Piper Rudnick’s New York office, Schulman, who received her law degree from Yale University, is the only woman on her firm’s nine-person Executive Committee. She is also the mother of three children (and has had children, now 13, 9 and 3, at every stage of her career– “in law school, as an associate and, finally, as a partner”). She specializes in large-scale corporate litigation, working with a team she has built of “extraordinary lawyers.” She adds: “I own my clients’ problems and when people ask me how (as they invariably do) I juggle all the competing demands, I always return to the fact that I love what I’m doing. Nothing is more exciting to me than helping clients craft solutions. I get to spring into action when a client comes in and says, ‘I have a really big, messy problem.'” Her clients include Altria Group Inc., General Electric Company, Wyeth, Johnson & Johnson, and Cisco Systems, Inc.
Former Wesleyan hockey teammates Will Hobert ’85 and John Gannon ’86 were executive producers of In the Crease, a documentary film that is the first to take an inside look at the world of youth sports and their impact on kids and families. The film chronicles an underdog California hockey team’s pursuit of a national championship and also co-stars 15 of the National Hockey League’s biggest names, who share their own early playing experiences. In the Crease has topped Amazon’s bestseller lists in both the US and Canada as the #1 sports DVD. It was directed/produced by Matt Gannon ’91, and co-produced by Sarah Killough-Dhar ’88 and Stephen Gannon ’88. The film was screened at the Boston Film Festival in September. Check out the trailer at www.InTheCreaseMovie.com.
Melissa Stern ’80 had a collection of her drawings featured at Wesleyan’s Zilkha Gallery this fall, in a show, Loose Lips, which opened Sept. 8, 2006. Her recent sculpture installation “Birdland” was exhibited at the David Lusk Gallery in Memphis, Tenn., where the art critic for the Memphis Commercial Appeal described her work as “clever, engaging, impressive, and intriguing.” After majoring in anthropology and art at Wesleyan, Stern earned her master’s in fine arts at SUNY, New Paltz. She currently works from her loft in New York City, which she shares with husband Jim Friedlich ’79.
