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.”
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.
Dr. Michael R. Rosen ’60, the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Professor of Pharmacology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Center for Molecular Therapeutics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York, has been elected professor honoris causa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the leading scientific body of the country. Founded in 1724, it is one of the oldest such organizations in the world and awards its degrees to only the most eminent foreign scientists. He has focused his research interests on the prevention and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. In the 1970s, the National Institutes of Health and the Soviet Ministry of Health started joint research in sudden cardiac death, and by the late 1980s he was spending a significant portion of his time working with Russian scientists in Moscow and New York. His work is credited with increasing our understanding of how best to provide therapy for hearts that have developed arrhythmias.
Gregg Ribatt ’90 was named president and CEO of The Stride Rite Corporation, and will direct the growth of Stride Rite’s brands, which include Stride Rite, Keds, Sperry Top-Sider, and Saucony. He will be responsible for managing all operational aspects for Stride Rite’s business, including approximately 300 Stride Rite stores. Previously, Ribatt was hired as president and chief operating officer of Stuart Weitzman Holdings, LLC, in 2006 and promoted to chief executive officer in 2007. Prior to this, Ribatt worked for Bennett Footwear Group. A government major at Wesleyan, he holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.
