A selection of recent mentions of �ֲ���ý and �ֲ���ý people in the news media.

Karen Hastie Williams ’66

Karen Hastie Williams, barrier-breaking lawyer, dies at 76 — The New York Times

News outlets around the country reported on the trailblazing achievements of Black lawyer Karen Hastie Williams, who died July 7 at age 76.

In 1974, Hastie Williams became the first Black woman hired as a clerk on the Supreme Court, working for Justice Thurgood Marshall.

“She was the first woman and the first person of color to make partner at Crowell & Moring, a white-shoe law firm in Washington, D.C., and she repeated the same achievement on a series of corporate and nonprofit boards,” according to The New York Times.

She and her husband were “among the capital’s power elite, part of a generation of Black professionals who had entered the establishment in the post-civil rights era. Mrs. Williams made it a point to give back. At Crowell, on corporate boards and in a long list of nonprofit positions, she set herself up as one of the city’s leading mentors for women and people of color in legal and government circles, propelling dozens of promising young lawyers into successful careers.”

Read the stories:

• “,” The New York Times, Aug. 8, 2021
• “” The Washington Post, July 24, 2021
• “,” LDF, Aug. 11, 2021
• “,” DC Bar, July 27, 2021

Al Fereshetian and Curtis Johnson, �ֲ���ý athletics

Curtis Johnson taking baton from Al Fereshetian as �ֲ���ý men’s track and cross country coach — Lewiston Sun Journal

Speaking to Wil Kramlich of the Lewiston Sun Journal, Al Fereshetian used a track analogy to explain his decision to retire after 26 years as head coach of men’s cross country and track and field.

“You know, you want to pass that baton,” said Fereshetian, who has been .

If one of the runners in a relay race gets too tired, Fereshetian explained, “then you almost are stumbling to pass that exchange, and that doesn’t make for…a very successful relay. 

“So, I feel like I’ve been able to maintain a good pace up to this point, but I can see if I hung in there too much longer I’d probably be hitting that point where I wouldn’t be able to keep moving that baton the way I want to — and the way it needs to for the team to be successful.”

• Read the story: “,” Lewiston Sun Journal, June 26, 2021

John Baughman, politics faculty

Celebrities running for office are boosted by the political moment — Teen Vogue

Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman tells Teen Vogue writer Tyler Baum that celebrities with little political experience who run for office can take advantage of the growth of “negative partisanship.” 

That’s the tendency, explains Baughman, of many voters “not simply to support their own party…but to actually vote against the other party’s candidates.” 

When a voter is motivated to vote against one candidate, it lowers the bar for what it takes to earn the vote, says Baughman, opening the door for a celebrity or other newcomer.

• Read the story: “,” Teen Vogue, July 22, 2021

Alexandria Onuoha ’20

Protecting Black women college students from “far-right misogynoir” — Suffolk University News

In a Q&A interview with Suffolk University News, Alexandria Onuoha ’20, a doctoral student in applied developmental psychology at the university, talked about researching the impact of far-right ideologies on Black woman college students.

Using ideas developed by feminist scholar Moya Bailey, who coined the term “misogynoir” to describe the racist misogyny directed toward Black women, Onuoha is exploring what she calls “far-right misogynoir,” the “direct hate and prejudice towards Black women from far-right groups and individuals.”

In her psychology studies at �ֲ���ý, she says, “at first I didn’t see myself reflected as a Black woman.” As her coursework and skills deepened, “I learned I can study things about my community in a scientific way that can impact change.” 

That culminated in a senior thesis on “attitudes toward Black LBGTQIA+ individuals and whether religious commitment affects perceptions toward them. I became more and more interested in the Black women college experience.”

• Read the story: “,'” Suffolk University news, April 8, 2021

Andrew Kennedy, chemistry and biochemistry faculty

�ֲ���ý College professor guiding students through COVID-19 data — Lewiston Sun Journal

In a Q&A with the Lewiston Sun Journal, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Andrew Kennedy explains how two students inspired a data-visualization project to track COVID statistics among schools of the New England Small College Athletic Conference during the 2020–21 academic year.

Jillian Serrano ’21 and Wuyue Zhou ’21 were student researchers in the Kennedy lab, which focuses on epigenetics: how genes can change their function without being altered themselves.

The pair “wanted to have a sense for how outbreaks would unfold at other, similarly sized colleges that were also coming back to their campuses in-person,” Kennedy said.

The result was a dashboard updated daily with information about COVID in the NESCAC. The two students “did everything,” Kennedy says. “I would simply meet with them daily for data visualization and to discuss what the data might mean.”

The power of data became clear in late March, when �ֲ���ý saw a surge in student cases. Based on data from similar spikes and lockdowns at other NESCAC campuses during the year, “it was predictable that a lockdown [at �ֲ���ý] would be able to arrest the spread of the virus on campus without exceeding available isolation housing for infected students.”

From April 1 to 13, �ֲ���ý implemented in-room restrictions for all students, which stopped the surge.

• Read the story: “,” Lewiston Sun Journal, July 25, 2021

Amy Belding Brown ’69

An Irish immigrant saves the work of a brilliant poet in Emily’s House — Booktrib

Author Amy Belding Brown ’69 is a “master of historical fiction,” says a Booktrib review describing Brown’s new novel, Emily’s House, as “emotionally satisfying because of Brown’s exquisite writing.” 

The novel explores the relationship between poet Emily Dickinson and her confidante, Margaret Maher, the Irish maid responsible for saving Dickinson’s work from certain destruction, albeit against the poet’s expressed wishes.

• Read the story: “” Booktrib, Aug. 3, 2021

Julia Sleeper ’08 and Kimberly Sullivan ’13

Tree Street Youth celebrates 10 years of community, safety and hope — Lewiston Sun Journal

The Lewiston Sun Journal looked back at the humble beginnings of Tree Street Youth, founded as a summer activities camp in 2011 by Julia Sleeper ’08 and Kim Sullivan ’13 and now a robust nonprofit offering a range of youth-centered programs and partnerships.

“The building where Tree Street Youth started in 2011 had been a paint shop,” writes Sun Journal intern Ellie Wolfe ’23. “After that, it was a preschool. Then it was a big, empty building.” 

Sleeper, who is now Tree Street’s executive director, recalls how she and Sullivan “painted it up, designed a summer camp, and ended up running our very first summer program in 2011, with eight teenagers from the neighborhood as street leaders.”

• Read the story: “,” Lewiston Sun Journal, July 18, 2021

Jenn Lemkin Bouchard ’99

Jenn Bouchard returns to Mystic Saturday — The Westerly Sun

The Sun of Westerly, R.I., profiled Jenn Bouchard ’99, author of the novel First Course, when she returned to the area for a book signing at Banks Square Books in Mystic.

Bouchard spent part of her childhood in nearby Gales Ferry, Conn., when her father was executive officer of the USS Groton submarine in the mid-1980s. “Coming back is a bit of a homecoming for me,” Bouchard said. 

Bouchard’s novel tells the story of 24-year-old Janie Whitman, who after a series of life-altering catastrophes retreats to her family’s summer house in Maine, where she seeks solace and stability among family, friends, and food, and finds romance along the way.

As a notes, the book is “about food — and a lot more.”

The novel is set in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. that Maine has been a touchstone since her first college visit to �ֲ���ý.

“I had moved every two or three years throughout my life due to my father’s Navy career as a naval submariner, and I was so excited about the prospect of staying somewhere for four years.”

• Read the story: “,” The Westerly Sun, July 22, 2021

Nancy Hohmann ’68

Belle, the Oxford Hills therapy dog, knows when someone needs her — Advertiser Democrat

A feature story in the Advertiser Democrat of Norway, Maine, notes that “Nancy Hohmann and her therapy dog, Belle, are regulars at schools and nursing homes around the Oxford Hills of western Maine.”

Hohmann and Belle began their routine after Hohmann saw “how much pleasure a visiting therapy dog brought to her mother during her final days.” The retired public school educator “decided doing the same would be a good way to pay it forward: by providing that joy to others.” 

Hohmann, who has long experience helping people gain confidence by engaging with animals, including therapeutic horseback riding, describes Belle as “three-quarters golden retriever and one-quarter Irish setter craziness, which makes her all the more interesting,”

• Read the story: “,” Advertiser Democrat, July 28, 2021

Allen Kendunga ’18

Kickstarting Rwandan careers with entrepreneurship training — Ladderworks

In a Q&A story with Ladderworks, Allen Kendunga talks about founding Talent Match in Rwanda to help college students develop entrepreneurial skills through career development programs.  

“There is a saying that ‘to whom much is given, much is expected,’ and I believe I have been given much, so it’s high time I gave back,” Kendunga said. “I also strongly believe that the right education and platforms can transform lives. I have seen firsthand what young people can do if they are given the tools, information, and support to transform their communities.”

• Read the story: “,” Ladderworks, Aug. 8, 2021

Victoria Wyeth ’01

Victoria Wyeth: art in action — The Hunt

“Some people might resent being charged with propagating their family legacy,” writes Michael Bradley in a profile of Victoria Wyeth in The Hunt magazine. “Not Wyeth. She covets the role and enjoys the opportunity to educate people about her grandfather [Andrew Wyeth], his father — famed illustrator N.C. Wyeth—and her uncle, Jamie. 

“She introduces them to others on her terms, not as someone whose life is tied completely to some ancestral mandate. ‘When you come from a famous family, you can change who you are or be true to yourself,’ she says. ‘I choose the latter.’”

• Read the story: “,” The Hunt, Spring 2021

The downtown Lewiston neighborhood where streets have names like Oak and Maple is dubbed “the tree streets.”

Pin It on Penn

William Penn originated the street-naming practice in 1682 when he gave Philadelphia’s north-south streets names like Locust, Spruce, and Vine. Other cities soon followed Penn’s path.

Franklin Speaking

Lewiston’s street naming occurred mostly in the mid-1800s.

The Franklin Co., a holding company for the Lewiston mills that owned most of the downtown land, laid out the street plan. It’s thought that one of Franklin’s engineers, John Straw, gave tree names to the streets that run nearly east and west.

The Bad Rap

The two U.S. Census tracts overlaying the tree streets are among the poorest in Maine. The neighborhood is also young, vibrant, and diverse. A third of its citizens are nonwhite, including many families who emigrated from Somalia and other African nations.

A historic school building at the corner of Walnut and �ֲ���ý streets is now home to St. Mary’s Nutrition Center. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

In a state worried that its aging population thwarts economic development, the tree streets help make Lewiston younger (median age 39) than the rest of Maine (median age 43.5).

Taking Back the Tree Streets

Located on the corner of Birch and Howe streets, the nonprofit Tree Street Youth serves the children of downtown families. The name is an act of co-optation, says its co-founder, Julia Sleeper ’08, “a big opportunity to take back ‘tree street’ from its stereotype” — as a place to avoid — “to meaning a place where the youth are going to college, being successful, and doing great things.”

Branching Out

Bangor, Maine, also has a self-described tree-street neighborhood, as do the California cities of Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach; plus Norwood, Mass.; Princeton, N.J.; Nashua, N.H.; Yonkers, N.Y.; Elko, Nev.; Johnson City, Tenn.; Provo, Utah; Waynesboro, Va.; Bunbury, Wash.; Bluefield, W.Va.; and Casper, Wyo.

This story includes information from Frontier to Industrial City: Lewiston Town Politics 1768–1863, by Professor Emeritus of Political Science Douglas Hodgkin

Jennifer Guckel Porter ’88

Jennifer Porter ’88 of the Boda Group.

“Building candor and feedback into any [workplace] culture is challenging,” in Harvard Business Review, and it can be particularly difficult when a company’s culture is “nice, respectful, cordial, warm, relationship-focused, and calm.”

Porter, who is , a leadership and team development firm, offers seven tips for leaders who want to instill a culture that’s a bit more feedback- and candor-driven.

The goal must always be to help.

It’s important for leaders to know that giving feedback “is not about venting or getting something off our chest,” she writes.

Instead, the goal must always be to help, whether that’s helping “someone else develop and be more effective” or helping along a “conversation, decision, or group be more productive.” Honest, constructive feedback is “in service of other people…It has nothing to do with us feeling better.”

Julia Sleeper ’08

Julia Sleeper ’08 (right), co-founder and executive director of Tree Street Youth, speaks with Lewiston High student Binto Matan and Gene Geiger, whose family announced a major gift on March 16 to support Tree Street’s expansion. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Co-founded by Julia Sleeper ’08 and Kim Sullivan ’13 in 2011, the former “two-room summer youth program tucked into a building,” in the words of reporter , is close to completing a $1.3 million fundraising campaign to renovate and expand its downtown headquarters at the corner of Howe and Birch streets.

The Sun Journal covered the March 16 announcement that the nonprofit would expand its offerings and facility, which currently occupies a former daycare center and painter’s storage building.

Tree Street Youth now has 12 paid staffers and serves up to 150 children each day, kindergarten to high school, including a college-prep program that achieved a 95 percent college acceptance rate in 2015.

Will Ambrose

An international expert in gathering valuable climate information stored in ancient clam shells, Professor of Biology Will Ambrose has learned yet another secret from his clam connection.

Namely, that around the end of the last Ice Age, a 1,000-year-long methane release occurred from the Arctic Ocean floor near Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the high Arctic.

It’s the first time oceanographers have been able to measure the duration of an ancient methane release, in a story originally published by the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment, and Climate.

A curious fact about bivalves that live near deep-sea methane seeps: they’re not part of a photosynthetic food chain. Instead, they survive on bacteria that use methane to turn ocean carbon into sugars. These are present-day methane-dependent mussels. (Image courtesy of Deepwater Canyons 2013 Expedition NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS)

Analyzing shells taken from a sediment core pulled from the ocean floor allows Ambrose and fellow researchers to know “when the clams lived,” around 17,000 years ago.

Then, by looking at depth of clam shells in the core sample, they were able to conclude that “methane had to persistently leak out of its natural reservoir at this particular site for a thousand years,” Ambros said.

Ambrose serving as a National Science Foundation program director, leading the Arctic Observing Network program, through 2017.

Jess Nevins ’88

Jess Nevins ’88 is a reference librarian and faculty member at Lone Star College–Tomball. (Lone Star College photograph)

Jess Nevins ’88 is a librarian at Lone Star College–Tomball “and a man obsessed — with ,” writes Nora Olabi of the Houston Chronicle.

Nevins has spent a decade “scouring every corner of the world for popular literature in all different languages,” Olabi writes, “uncovering Egyptian and Indonesian dime novels, a Burmese equivalent to the popular British detective Sherlock Holmes, and even a Japanese King Kong.”

This spring, Nevins’ research will culminate with the publication of The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes.

Nevins is an expert in Victoriana and pulp fiction — he published the Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana in 2005 — and is well-known for his comic book annotations.

He tells the Chronicle that people think of pop culture as “the purview of Americans.” Hardly; it is “gloriously varied and complex….What we know about in America is really limited compared to what’s out there.”

Professor of Sociology Emily Kane. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Maine Campus Compact will honor two members of the �ֲ���ý College community, a member of the sociology faculty and a senior from Brunswick, for their commitment to public involvement.

A consortium of Maine schools dedicated to advancing the civic mission of higher education, MCC will present the Donald Harward Award for Faculty Service-Learning Excellence to Professor of Sociology Emily Kane of Auburn. Kane, who structures much of her coursework around community-engaged research, is one of three faculty members at Maine schools to receive this year’s award.

Kimberly Sullivan ’13. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Kimberly Sullivan, a senior psychology major who co-founded the Tree Street Youth Center, a youth outreach program in Lewiston, is among six students at Maine colleges honored with the Heart and Soul Award, recognizing exemplary civic engagement.

Kane, Sullivan and the other recipients will receive their awards in an April 30 ceremony in the Hall of Flags at the Maine State House, in Augusta.

• Read about Emily Kane’s community-engaged curriculum.
• Read about Kimberly Sullivan and Tree Street Youth Center.