Expression Spring 2005

ExpressionT H E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F E M E R S O N C O L L E G ES P R I N G 2 0 0 5

The life of a turn-of-the-century student comes

alive through the letters

she leaves behind

Helping young people is more

than a career for some alumni

Look Who’s BloggingAre ‘blogs’

the new wave of journalism

or just a blip on the

Internet radar?

Sincerely Yours

Good Deed Do-ers

“Are we unhealthily, trulymadlydeeply

obsessed with Rosie O’Donnell’s blog? Yes,

we are, and we’re unashamed. How can

there be shame in loving the poetic stylings

of someone who can turn a mundane

sneaker-shopping trip to the Sport

Chalet in the Beverly Connection, Mall

of the Dead-Eyed Damned... into a

story of loss, redemption, and generosity?”

from defamer.com

by Mark Lisanti, MFA ’99

Los Angeles’ irreverent gossip blog

“These last few days have been explosive,

quite literally. It started about 4 days

ago and it hasn’t let up since. They say there

were around 14 car bombs in Baghdad

alone a couple of days ago, although

we only heard 6 from our area. Cars are

making me very nervous lately. All cars look

suspicious: small ones and large ones.

Old cars and new cars. Cars with drivers

and cars parked in front of restaurants

and shops. They all have a sinister look to

them these days.”

from the Baghdad Burning blog

2 Expression Winter 2005 3 Expression Spring 2005

ExpressionT H E M A G A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F E M E R S O N C O L L E G ES P R I N G 2 0 0 5

Memory Lane

Campus Digest

Good Deed Do-ers

Sincerely Yours

Look Who’s Blogging

Notable Expressions

Alumni Digest

Class Notes

Student groups through the ages

A new arts and residential complex will be built, a chair in screenwriting is funded, and more

Helping young people is more than a career for some alumni

The life of a turn-of-the-century student comes alive through the letters she leaves behind

Are ‘blogs’ the new wave of journalism or just a blip on the Internet radar?

Emersonians make waves in fields from literature to film to music

Photos from alumni events around the nation

Read the news about yourclassmates

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Expression

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Executive Editor David Rosen

Editor Rhea Becker

Writer Christopher Hennessy

Editorial Assistant Catherine Sheffield

Expression is published threetimes a year (fall, winter and spring) for alumni and friends of Emerson College by the Office of Public Affairs (David Rosen, associate Vice President) in conjunction with the Department of Institutional Advancement and the Office of Alumni Relations (Barbara Rutberg ’68, director).

Office Of Public Affairs [email protected](617) 824-8540fax (617) 824-8916

Office Of Alumni [email protected](800) 255-4259(617) 824-8535fax (617) 824-7807

Copyright © 2005Emerson College120 Boylston St.Boston, Massachusetts 02116-4624

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Photos by Frank Monkiewicz

T h e 2 4 t h A n n u a l E V V Y A w a r d s

Emerson College’s student-

produced version of the Emmy

Awards took place at the

Cutler Majestic Theatre in May.

This year’s ceremonies,

encompassing nearly 50 awards

distributed over the course of two

full-length shows, was the

biggest competition in the program’s

history. The EVVYS is the nation’s

largest student-run televised

production, say organizers.

Photos by Frank Monkiewicz

2 Expression Spring 2005 3 Expression Spring 2005

Memory Lane In This Issue Campus Digest

Don’t know what all the buzz over blogs is about? Or perhaps you are one of the 10 million (that’s right, 10 million) who has your very own blog. This issue’s cover story will answer many of your questions about blogs and blogging. Short for ‘web log,’ a blog is a frequently updated personal website – from a teen’s diary to a journalist’s opinion forum. Recently, serious bloggers have stolen the spotlight as they’ve taken the traditional media to task. Who will win? See what our faculty and alumni have to say.

Ah, to be young again. Well, in one of our feature stories we hear from several alumni whose lives bring them in contact with young people from all over the country. These alumni make a difference in young people’s lives by working in the nonprofit sector, and the stories they share just might have you con-sidering a career change.

Letter writing may be an artform lost to history, but you’ll be delighted by the missives an Emer-sonian left behind – from a century ago. Excerpts from these letters, which make up our second feature, capture an Emerson life long gone but intimately captured forever.

Don’t forget to read up on your classmates in the Class Notes sec-tion, which is growing all the time.

— Rhea Becker, editor

The College is develop-ing a three-building complex on Lower Washington Street, about three blocks from the center of campus. Known as the Paramount Center, the 145,000-square-foot complex will include a substantially renovated Paramount The-atre, a residence hall for 250 students, and a large perfor-mance development center that will contain multiple rehearsal and practice rooms and faculty offices. The $70 million project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2008.

The focal point of the complex will be the distinc-tive Art Deco marquee of the landmark Paramount, which was built as a movie house in 1932. The exterior of the building was restored several years ago, but the interior is in disrepair. The interior of the building will be reha-bilitated and divided into a 450- to 500-seat theater and a 125-seat black box experi-mental theater. The theaters will host productions by

Emerson students as well as local arts organizations, which will be offered an op-portunity to purchase “time shares” in the Paramount.

The project was an-nounced at a press confer-ence in April. Participants included Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Emerson President Jacqueline Lieber-gott and Emerson Trustee Chair Ted Cutler ’51.

“We have invested so much time and energy into revitalizing this area and re-storing our historic theaters. Today we see our longstand-ing vision becoming a reality,” Menino said. “We applaud Emerson’s confi-dence in our downtown.” Li-ebergott said, “The complex will meet the performance development needs of the College for the foreseeable future and move us closer

College to build major new arts and residential complex

These days Emersonians have a cornucopia of student groups to join when they come to campus. Here’s a look at a few of the groups that served students over the decades but are no longer in existence.

GeographyIn 1931, The Southern Club held

its first meeting of the year at the Colo-nial Tea Room. Their activities included conversation over tea, inviting speakers to campus, and presenting a book to the Emerson library. The group then decided to invite five girls from the far west to join the club. Soon after, the Southern Club transformed into a club whose purpose was to bring students from Southern and Western states into

“a closer bond of friendship, that they may help one another in the problems of their new environment.”

Not to be outdone, students from the North – Canada, to be exact

– formed the Canadian Club. In 1932 it had seven members. Ontario, New

Brunswick and Nova Scotia were all represented one year.

And then there were those New Englanders who lived off-campus. The Commuters Club, created in 1931, was formed “to promote friendship and goodwill among commuters.” Their plans for the year included sleigh par-ties, tobogganing parties, skating, a theater party and a formal dance.

The MenIn the 1920s they were called

“The Men’s Club” but they later took the name “The Groundlings,” after Shakespeare’s declaration that “the groundlings for the most part are capable of nothing more than dumb shows or noise.” The group presented radio plays, including Ibsen’s The Wild Duck.

The WomenIn the 1950s, Emerson had a

cheerleading squad for its basketball team. With a big collegiate “E” on their white sweaters and wearing pleated skirts just above the knee`````, their picture was labeled “pertness and pep” in the 1958 yearbook.

Joining up: Student groups over the decades

Expression welcomes short letters to the editor on topics covered in the magazine. The editor will select a representative sample of letters to publish and reserves the right to edit copy for style and length. Send letters to: Editor, Expression, Office of Public Affairs, Emerson College, 120 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116-4624; [email protected].

to our goal of being a truly residential campus here in the Theatre District.” She added, “At the same time, it will provide a much needed

Emerson has received a $2 million gift from anony-mous donors to endow a chair in screenwriting. The chair, which will be housed in the Visual and Media Arts Department of the College’s School of the Arts, is the second endowed professor-ship to be established at the College in as many years.

“The creation of this chair will further enhance our already strong film

Screenwriting chair funded

new venue for the Boston arts community as well as our own students. This is an exciting venture that will cre-ate a unique living, learning and performing venue.”

and writing programs by enabling us to recruit a na-tionally recognized screen-writer of critical acclaim to join our faculty,” Emerson College President Jacqueline Liebergott said.

Grafton Nunes, dean of the School of the Arts, said he will discuss the new chair with his arts faculty and chairs, seeking their advice on how best to identify suit-able candidates. Nunes said the screenwriter selected to fill the position will “func-

tion as a change-agent, in-spiring his/her students with a combination of accom-plishment and craft in the writing of original screen-plays. Students will learn the importance of plot structure, character construction, writ-ing on deadline, re-writing, sometimes in collaboration with the director, sometimes not, and the changes in a screenplay required by cast changes.”

An architect’s rendering of the Paramount Center


The awarding of some 1,100 academic degrees and talks by a leading media entrepreneur and an award-winning journalist highlighted Commencement 2005.

Undergraduate degrees were conferred on Monday, May 16, at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. The Commencement speaker was Robert F.X. Sillerman, the founder of SFX Broadcasting and SFX Entertainment. Sillerman

recently formed a third company (CKX) that has acquired the British-based company that created the American Idol television series and an 85 percent interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc.

Sillerman received an honorary degree along with two Emerson alumni, actor-comedian Denis Leary ’79 and civic and business leader Peter Meade ’70.

Commencement 2005 included talks by media, business luminaries

Faculty member Hankin is remembered by colleagues, students

Peter Meade ’70Jean Picker Firstenberg

Two longtime popular faculty members – with nearly 100 years of service to the College between them – will be retiring this year, leaving legacies of outstanding teaching and thousands of students

with fond memories.Harry Morgan,

professor of performing arts, has taught at the College for 45 years, and John Coffee, associate professor, has taught history for 40 years.

Harry Morgan is an Emerson graduate himself, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1959 in theater arts and his master’s degree in theater arts: design and technical production. He began to teach at Emerson full time in 1960.

Morgan became a technical-theater wizard who has taught a wide array of courses over his long career, including introduction to stage design, lighting design, stage management, puppetry, theater arts, graphic design, scene design, and even physics for the theater. He published a book in 1979 called Perspective Drawing for the Theater.

Morgan took a five-year hiatus from teaching to hold a variety of administrative

Morgan and Coffee retirefrom faculty

Robert F.X. Sillerman

Hundreds of students, colleagues and College ad-ministrators commemorated the life of the late Alan Lee Hankin at a “joyous remem-brance” of the popular Emer-son faculty member, held at the Cutler Majestic Theatre on March 22.

Hankin, director of the science program at Emerson, died unexpectedly March 1 after shoveling snow at his Dartmouth, Mass., home. He was 56 years old.

Hankin was a familiar figure around campus, strid-ing briskly in his trademark shorts, even on the coldest winter days. He was known for his boundless energy and had received two awards for outstanding teaching.

At the time of Hankin’s death, Emerson President Jacqueline Liebergott said, “He was beloved by his stu-

Denis Leary ’79 Evan Thomas

Graduate degrees were conferred in a separate ceremony at the Wang Center. The speaker was Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek. Thomas received an honorary degree along with Jean Picker Firstenberg, director and CEO of the American Film Institute.

Receptions for graduates, family members and friends were held on Boston Common following each of the Commencement exercises.

dents and respected by his colleagues on the faculty and within the administration. His passing is an enormous loss for all of us personally, as well as professionally.”

A science fund in memory of Alan Lee Hankin has been established at Emerson College. Dona-tions can be sent (earmarked for the Science Fund) to Emerson College, Office of Institutional Advancement, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116-4624.

posts at the College in the late 1980s and early ’90s, which included the period when Emerson considered a move to Lawrence, Mass. Among other posts, Morgan was vice president for campus development.

Morgan’s plans for retirement include reading and travel with his wife, Barbara ’61.

John Coffee retires at age 76. If not for a nagging back, he says, “I would teach until I was 90.”

Beginning his teaching career at Emerson part time in 1966, Coffee has taught history to thousands of students over his 40 years at the school.

Coffee is the author of the only history of Emerson College, A Century of Eloquence: The History of

Emerson College, 1880-1980. Commissioned by the administration upon the College’s 100th anniversary, Coffee agreed to the project on one condition: he insisted on a historically honest history, not a simple celebration.

Coffee is known for his courses in Western Civilization, The Bible and the U.S. Constitution.

In retirement, Coffee will continue to indulge his passion for transportation tokens. He has authored the definitive reference book in the field, The Atwood-Coffee Catalog of United States and Canadian Transportation Tokens, and plans to update the book. He will also continue to serve as editor of The Fare Box, a newsletter for transportation token collectors, which he began editing at the age of 19.

John Coffee displays two books he wrote.

Harry Morgan at a retirement gathering, where Performing Arts Chair Maureen Shea presents him with a gift.

Assistant Professor Alan Hankin


Helping young people

is more than a career for some alumni

There are few greater callings

than a life spent helping

youth. Several Emerson

alumni – from various locales

and working in very different

ways – share stories of how

they came to dedicate their

lives to young people, why

serving the next generation is

so imperative, and how

their Emerson education has

aided them.

by Christopher Hennessy The alumni include the

president of a one-of-a-kind

foundation that helps students

afford college and learn about

life, an executive director

who leads a statewide teen

support coalition, a program

manager for a national youth

training academy, and a media

educator who helps high

schoolers voice their concerns,

tell their own stories, and

learn about media literacy.

Good Deed Do-ers


Making college possible

Cindy Michelson plans to be around for a long time, but she’s already decided that her estate will fund a scholarship at Emerson. The decision was an easy one. “I understand from the work I do, how important it is to help young, bright students get an education,” she explains.

Michelson ’78 is president of the Southern Scholarship Founda-tion, a nonprofi t organization that helps young people attend college by providing them with rent-free “scholar-ship houses,” where the students live together in homes adjacent to their college campus. These houses instill a sense of community and responsibility among the students who live there, she says. “Most of these students would not be able to complete a college education without this scholarship,” explains Mi-chelson, a former fundraiser at Florida State University. “These students are in college because they truly want to be in college.”

The Foundation has funded housing for 440 students across fi ve different campuses in Florida. It owns and operates 27 houses. “There’s noth-ing else like this program in the whole country,” Michelson says.

Michelson’s roles are many. She is chief fundraiser, but she also travels widely to meet with Foundation alumni, potential donors, and service clubs like Rotary and Kiwanis, who often help recruit prospective applicants.

The Foundation is about much more than a housing scholarship, Mi-chelson emphasizes. “What this does is

so much more than save money,” she says. Living with upwards of 20 other students and being in charge of their surroundings gives the students valu-able life skills, she explains. They learn how to function as a household, how to act responsibly and with profession-alism, and they have to learn how to interact with people who are different. She has seen the results: “Each house acts like a family.”

She says, “I’ve grown a tremen-dous amount, watching them, listening to them, interacting with them.” It’s been especially gratifying, she said, to see them become successful adults.

At a recent Foundation event, the students hosted dinners in their homes for donors, board members and others new to the Foundation. The board members were impressed, she reports. They were excited “to just talk about the experiences the students had, to interact with them, have dinner and hear from the kids themselves how much this changes their life.” One student told a board member that even if he had the opportunity to live in a residence hall or private apartment, he’d stay put. “And the alums don’t talk about saving money; they talk about what they learned about life,” Michel-son adds.

Michelson is thankful her Em-erson experience prepared her for the work she now does. She cites former Emerson professors Fran LaShoto and John Coffee as memorable mentors. From LaShoto she learned about public speaking – “to be able to motivate and provide information in a way that is not boring.” Coffee’s class on the U.S. Con-stitution taught her how to look at both sides, how to analyze information. And Michelson’s says that even her minor in stage lighting taught her teamwork.

Saving troubled teens

It can be a thin line between a troubled teen who has made a bad choice and someone whose bad decision turns into a ruined life. And Tym Rourke ’94 knows teens need support making life choices. He has spent his life making sure young people fi nd healthy, safe paths.

For more than seven years, Rourke served as director of youth prevention programs at Teen Institute New Hampshire. Based in Concord, the nonprofi t organization focused on helping communities “to better play a role in raising healthy, drug-free youth,” he says. Recently, Rourke moved on to another teen support organization, working as executive director of The Makin’ It Happen Coalition. The Coali-tion, based in Manchester, is one of the oldest community drug and alcohol prevention coalitions in New Hamp-shire, Rourke says.

Seeing the teens make progress is part of what inspires Rourke, and he knows fi rsthand the impact a program can have – he participated in the Teen Institute’s programs as a youngster.

Some of the young people he meets make lasting impressions. While he was program manager at the Institute, Rourke recalls, he met one troubled young girl during an Institute summer program for high schoolers. The girl spent the week in tears, and Rourke discovered she had a parent with a severe substance abuse problem.

“She was struggling with a lot of guilt and shame that she was unable to stop the parent’s use and was terrifi ed that her [younger] brother was going to use,” he says. That week was the fi rst time she was told, “It’s not your fault. You

should take care of yourself because you’re a good person,” Rourke explains. He proudly reports that the young woman, who now speaks to groups about her experience as a child in an addictive home, graduated from college this year.

The Coalition works with groups like the YMCA, YWCA, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Salvation Army, the city of Manchester’s offi ce of youth ser-vices, New Hampshire public schools, and parent, volunteer, and faith-based groups, among others. Their goal is to make sure there are prevention and education services for the state’s youth.

“We’re making sure service providers are communicating with each other,” Rourke adds.

Rourke has his work cut out for him. New Hampshire offers “very little to no adolescent treatment” for drug abuse. “We estimate there are between 6,000 and 10,000 young people in New Hampshire who have an alcohol or drug problem that would require treat-ment.” The one residential program in the state can serve only 12 residents.

One of the issues the Coalition wants to tackle is underage drinking and drinking prevention, especially the notorious underage drinking parties that happen when parents are not around. Rourke’s group, working with law enforcement, is spearheading the creation of a tip-line. “A teacher, a par-ent or a concerned youth could call and there would be some kind of proactive visit made [to the house], so that the parents would be informed that there was going to be a party that weekend,” he explains.

While a passion for service has long been a part of Rourke’s life, he fondly recalls Emerson faculty member Richard Toma who taught him how to use what he learned “to impact people, to make change in communities and individuals’ lives.” A lesson that Rourke took to heart.

Transforming student lives

Michelle Quinn-Davidson ’94 goes to Washington, D.C., each May to witness something remarkable. As programs manager for YouthBuild USA’s Acad-emy for Transformation, she attends a weeklong conference at which hun-dreds of youth from around the country come together to address their national representatives about the importance of funding for youth programs. For Quinn-Davidson, the event is inspira-tional.

YouthBuild USA supports more than 200 youth development organi-zations across the country and works with a wide array of professionals in the youth development practitioner fi eld. In her position at its Academy for Transformation, Quinn-Davidson handles marketing and organizing duties for their training events, among other responsibilities.

The organization’s training and workshop events are for everyone from educators to YMCA directors to those who work at foundations that support youth work. YouthBuild focuses on young people from ages 16-24.

At the D.C. conference, young people, many of whom had never be-fore left home, converge for one week of skill-building and workshops. “It all culminates in a fi nal day event called Capitol Hill Day when the students get to talk to legislative representa-tives about why it’s important to have these programs,” says Quinn-Davidson. For her, it’s the highlight of the week.

“They speak in their own words about how [the youth program they partici-pate in] has changed their life,” she says. She has seen many tell of drop-ping out of high school or being caught up in the wrong kinds of crowds and

Cindy Michelson ’78, president of the Southern Scholarship Foundation in Florida, congratulates Ryan Frack on winning the “Outstanding New Resident” award.

Tym Rourke ’94 is executive director of The Makin’ It Happen Coalition in New Hampshire.


looking ahead to bleak futures. Then they describe the training they received from a youth program and how it has helped. As the students prepare and then deliver their stories at the Capitol, Quinn-Davidson says, they go through a unique “transformation process,” something she feels lucky to witness.

“It’s also really interesting to see those representatives pay attention to these young people.”

As part of her job, Quinn-David-son helps the young people prepare their remarks. She says she uses what she learned at Emerson to help the youngsters learn public speaking skills.

“I can teach a young person how to give a speech in a few minutes. I can show them the elements of outlining public speaking, teach them the polish the legislators will expect.”

In working with those who serve youth, Quinn-Davidson often travels to training conferences across the country and even internationally. Recently, she returned from a conference in Los Angeles, where more than 200 youth workers from across the country came together. She left energized by “seeing [the workers] learn more, gain more knowledge, and get re-inspired to go back to working with the young people in their programs.”

Quinn-Davidson feels she understands the youth she’s working to help. She grew up in a low-income community in Brockton, Mass., and went to school at a large, urban high school. “You can really get lost in the shuffle,” she says, “but I was lucky that I had good support from my parents.” Now she hopes to give young people the same chance.

A ‘media guidance counselor’

Adam Schatten ’96 considers himself something akin to a “media guidance counselor.” Schatten helps educate students about media technology and media literacy in Boston-area public schools as the media lab coordinator and educator with HOME, Inc., a non-profit organization that offers programs that involve media training and support to schools.

As a media guidance coun-selor, Schatten says he is able to help students express themselves through media. “The best part is when the tech-nology becomes the provocateur, allow-ing the students to be more expressive and more aware of who they are.” As the students experiment with film, for example, he guides them “through the process and through learning about themselves.”

Schatten also serves as a docu-mentarian for HOME, Inc., capturing on video the progress students make. Among other duties, he works at one school twice a week, runs an after-school media lab for video projects, and helps teachers add to their curricula the creation of video public service an-nouncements (PSAs).

Working with both students and teachers on media technology is an-other important part of his job. “I train both teachers and students on how to use video production as a means [to convey] a message.”

As a way to engage students’ interests, Schatten uses music, too. He asked students to compare and contrast two popular rappers, for example, 50 Cent and Tupac Shakur. The students discovered that Shakur offered “a more profound song which might speak about social ills as opposed to [50 Cent’s] selling you on the fantasy of being a ‘gangsta’.”

His expertise on media literacy “comes right out of my experience with film criticism and theory,” which he studied at Emerson, Schatten says.

Schatten approaches his job by taking on “various stages of under-standing media.” Some of the lessons he leads involve analyzing advertising, understanding audience, working on interviewing skills, and actually doing a storyboard for a classroom PSA.

The problems urban students face make Schatten’s job challeng-ing. Recently, at one of the schools he serves, a student was caught bringing a weapon to school and a teacher helped avert a crisis. The incident was covered by local news media, so Schatten taped the segment and brought it in for his students to analyze. “They were very disappointed by how [the media] covered their school,” he explains. The students argued that the news story could have focused on the teacher who saved the day, but the media chose a more negative slant about the teen who brought the gun. The exercise brought home the idea of taking a critical look at media, Schatten believes.

When it came time for students to choose topics for their PSAs, many chose violence. “It was a very common problem that they see around them, and they wanted to address it.” Other topics included substance abuse, “dis-respecting” and bullying, and how to resolve a conflict started by rumors.

Schatten says working on the projects is a powerful learning experi-ence for him. “Revealing [the students’] voices in a media-influenced society gives me a greater purpose and satisfac-tion far beyond the production of the resulting film.” E

Those who believe the world is full of bad news should flip through the pages of The Volunteerist, a new magazine co-founded and edited by Emerson alumnus Jack Burlingame, MFA ’99. The Boston-based magazine not only features stories of good works, it “brings together the business community, the nonprofit sector and individual volunteers to enable them to achieve their goals more easily,” explains Burlingame.

Each issue of The Volunteerist is devoted to a topic of particular interest to the nonprofit community. In the most recent issue the magazine addressed challenges public schools are facing and solutions that are being provided. It also featured a “personality profile” on local Boston news anchor Liz Walker (WBZ Channel 4), an advocate

for education. The previous issue contained a guest column from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and a profile on former Red Sox player Lou Merloni.

The magazine also publishes listings of volunteer opportunities and events (e.g., charity golf tournaments, auctions and walks).

And Burlingame certainly knows the world the magazine focuses on; he has developed meaningful ties to the nonprofit sector. He is a founding board member of Men With Heart, a nonprofit group that participates in walks to raise funds for and awareness of breast cancer. (His wife, stepsister and stepmother are all breast cancer survivors.) Burlingame also worked previously as the founder and executive director of a nonprofit serving people with disabilities.

Good Works Alum’s publication showcases the art of volunteering

For the magazine’s 2004 inaugural issue, Burlingame wrote about how science companies are developing a new culture of corporate giving, and he came across several inspiring stories. He easily rattles off good deeds done by different companies and organizations. “There’s a biotech company [Biogen, based in Cambridge, Mass.] that has created a fully equipped scientific lab solely for the use of high school students. And they staff it with their own employees who volunteer their time.” The lab cost $200,000 to build.

He also recounts learning about the largest medicine donation program in world history, an effort led by Merck Pharmaceuticals to help cure river blindness in Africa. “It’s astounding. They’ve given out millions and millions of doses of this hugely expensive drug for free, and almost eradicated this incredibly debilitating disease,” he reports, all done

“relatively ‘under the radar’.” (River blindness has struck

18 million people and 120 million are at risk.)

What excites Burlingame is a trend in corporate giving that he has witnessed. “A lot of companies now make corporate citizenship one of their primary objectives,” he explains. “And they’re really putting money, people and hours into it.” He adds,

“Their enthusiasm is just boundless.”

Burlingame compares the nonprofit community to an “underground society. You read about the Enrons and the WorldComs in the newspaper, but you never read about the companies that are doing amazing things in the community.” He hopes The Volunteerist will change that. “One thing we’re trying to show is that maybe good news does sell newspapers.”

–C.H.

James Burlingame, MFA ’99, publishes a magazine that celebrates charitable giving.


I must tell I must tell you about my you about my

roommates. I roommates. I had expected had expected

one, but I have one, but I have three. But three. But

if there were if there were any more girls any more girls

so altogether so altogether delightful, I’d delightful, I’d have a dozen if have a dozen if

you about my you about my Hip! Hip! Hip! Hip! For Emerson! For Emerson! Am having Am having the time of my the time of my young life. young life. Feel as though Feel as though I’d been here I’d been here I’d been here I’d been here forever…. I forever…. I forever…. I forever…. I adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.

The l i f e of a turn-of-the-century student c o m e s a l i v e through the letters she leaves behind

When Mary Isabel Ellis, a member of the Emerson Class of 1909, died in 1975, she left behind a cache of letters she’d written during her college days to her beau, Austin Basten, who was attending school in New Jersey.

Ellis graduated from high school in Kingston, N.Y., in 1905, taught briefl y at a one-room schoolhouse, and then enrolled at Emerson College. Her letters offer a rare window on daily life at turn-of-the-centuryEmerson, where Ellis majored in English and dramat-ics and earned her room and board by making beds and cleaning a sorority house.

By the way, Mary and Austin married in 1912 and had three children. The two knew each other for more than 70 years.

Shortly after she arrived for her freshman year, Mary sat down to write her fi rst letter:

Hip! Hip! For Emerson! Am having the time of my young life. Feel as though I’d been here forever…. I adore it.

We reached Boston at fi ve p.m. Went right to the college, then to the dormitory. There are three of them in all. Ours is the very swellest. Truly for I have been through them all. A private house….a dream of a parlor. There are to be only twelve girls in this dormitory. Most of them have arrived. Two from Denver, one from Georgia, one from Utah and I don’t know where the others hail from. They are all dears. My roommate is the most talented girl I have ever met. She does everything under

the sun – writes books, poems, paints pictures…and is a dandy student. She is going to give me lessons in French and Latin. We are in love with each other already and I feel as though I’d always known her. She is the Utah girl. She is working her way [through school] too. My roommate is to work with me. We make beds, answer the doorbell, wait on tables, wipe dishes, dust and so on.

We are allowed to go out or have company here three nights a week. Lights out at ten. It’s going to be great when we get really settled. I can just feel the culture of Boston oozing out of me. I can even say ‘half’ and Harvard’ in true New England style.

Tonight we dined at The To-uraine, a hotel as swell in Boston as the Waldorf is in New York. I can see such a different life opening up before me already.

13 Expression Spring 200512 Expression Spring 2005

SORORITY SISTERS.Mary Isabel Ellis is fourth from right in this photograph taken around 1906.

forever…. I forever…. I forever…. I forever…. I forever…. I forever…. I adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it.adore it. adore it.adore it.forever…. I forever…. I adore it.adore it.


Later in the term, on stationery embossed “Emerson College of Oratory,” Mary writes:Our first assembly was held this morn-ing….The girls, hundreds, it seems, met in Chickering Hall, and such a greeting time ensued. But I was not forgotten – everyone is lovely to the freshmen. Never have I met such charming [girls]. There is an air about them that is indefinable. I am praying that I shall acquire the ease, the charm of manner which they possess.

At the assembly, the dean and members of the faculty and others ad-dressed the students: The preceptress, Mrs. Emerson, a dear white-haired motherly sort of woman, gave such a dear talk. Oh, I can’t tell you how delightful it all was. Lessons begin tomorrow. I can’t wait.

[My roommates and I have a] room that is the largest and one of the nicest in the way of furniture in the house. Last night we invited all the girls of the house up and had a ‘spread.’ The girls here are too congenial. We repre-sented all states and conditions.

We don’t begin our work nor dining in the house until tomorrow morning. Now we take our meals at a place where loads of students do also. Conservatory of Music girls and heaps of others.

The city is great. All the sidewalks are of red brick. It’s awfully strange. On Sunday afternoon my roommate and I took a car for Cambridge and rambled all over the campus of Harvard. It’s the most delightful place. Well, I just won’t try to describe it. I am in love with it. Coming back just as we were crossing the Charles River, the sun was setting,

and boy, it seemed to call forth all my ideals, all the good that is in me and make me long to be more. That is what everything impresses you with here – the sense of your own limitations and a longing for the highest in everything.

Just a half-hour to waitbefore dinner and nothing to do, so may I have a little chat with you? I’m getting very bad indeed. I don’t seem to care a bit how much or often I write. I just feel impelled to tell someone all about the place.

Oh it’s just great here. I love it so. Tonight just at sunset I was in Betty’s room reading Macbeth with her.

The teachers are so splendid. We have four classes in the A.M. until twelve thirty. At one fifteen we come back and stay until two. Our teacher in just an introductory talk this morning told us these four things applied to our lives would help us greatly:

First: Believe in a power greater than yourself.

Second: Believe in your own pos-sibilities.

Third: Have will power.Fourth: Work like a fiend.Then one teacher is a stage critic.

He treats us all as though we were candidates for the stage – criticizes our walk, our dress, how we do our hair and tells us how to walk, to sit down. You needn’t expect to know me when I come home.

The sun just gilded over the great dome of the Christian Science Temple, just around the corner from us. It’s one of the most beautiful in the world….Two of the girls are down serving din-ner and we two are up in our room waiting for them to finish. We have our dinner at seven. One of the charming things about Boston is the chimes. They ring every half-hour.

14 Expression Spring 2005

I have had rather goodrecitations in some of my classes and that puffs you all up to get any sort of praise at Emerson, for they are so very critical.

Tuesday evening I went outto a suburb to read. I was scared to death. In the first place I had to go way down to South Station, which is much bigger than Grand Central, and then take the train out of town. It was the first time I’ve ever really gone out alone like that and so I was quite fussed….Well, I found the church without dif-ficulty and found it was a church fair and supper. I was all the ‘show’ except music.

Yesterday I was elected the college news editor for next year’s magazine. We Deltas have more of-fices in college than any other sorority. Received a paper from Hudson today with the account of the entertainment I read at last week. It said: ‘Miss Ellis made a decided hit. The audience being charmed with her manner which was entirely free from ostentation. She was encored on each appearance.’ I’m glad they liked me.

Just before spring term is to begin, Mary writes:It’s a gray day here, one of these sort of days that remind you of the paint-ings of Whistler with their smoke and grayness. Three of [us] started out for a walk about ten thirty this morning. We went out to the Harvard bridge and halfway across it. The Charles River can not be compared to our Hudson, but it is interesting nevertheless. From the bridge one may see plainly Bunker Hill Monument, the dome of the capital and the steeples of ten of Boston’s famous churches.

Tonight some of us are going to hear a sensational lecture-sermon on ‘Is the End of the World Near at Hand?’ Yesterday afternoon the Southwick Literary Society held its fourth read-ing of the year. Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities dramatized…was read by Miss T[?], one of the most popular teachers at Emerson. Fellow, it was great. You never could dream of the art expressed in every gesture, of every line of her body, and her voice….It is the kind of work that someday I hope – it’s only a hope – to do myself. The audience just went wild.

Someday I am going to read some entire play, dazzle everyone with my personality and be great – and will you come to hear me, fellow? Sounds nice, but work, fiendish work, for years must go before such a triumph.

Students are allowed to spend three evenings a week, externe or intern, with friends.

Gentleman calling upon students will be received in the parlors on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 7 P.M. until 10 P.M.

Report must be made to the chaperone before going out in the evening as to destination and the hour of return. Under no circumstance will a student be allowed externe privilege after 11:30 P.M. without special permission of the chaperone.

Lights are turned out at 10:30 P.M.

Rules and Regulations for Women circa 1900

From a letter posted Jan. 26, 1908: I’m very much alone tonight, dear. Most of the girls are out and the rest have callers. I’ve been reading some po-ems in my Longfellow and then some stories in The Ladies Home Journal, and lastly your letters. This morning began the first of ten lectures at Tremont Temple by Professor G[?]. You have heard me speak of him so often. He said that work and love were the two greatest forces in the universe. Neither was of account without the other.

From a letter posted in Mary’s senior year: Last night we had our Delta Delta Phi banquet at the [English] Tea Room. I think these farewell dinners are about the saddest things – for when you look around the table and think that it’s the last time you may ever all be together again, and when you are a senior and it’s all over with, it’s not easy to keep the tears back. We surely had a great time. E


Look

Who

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Blog

ging

A blog by any other nameIn the Pew Foundation’s “State of the News Media 2005” report, a blog is defi ned as “citizen-based, personal-journal postings.” A blog can be a teenager’s web diary, an online report on Hollywood gossip, or a stay-at-home mom or dad’s thoughts about parent-ing posted on the Web. Some celebri-ties, like Rosie O’Donnell, are even keeping blogs. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson recently used a blog to chronicle the progress of his upcoming remake of King Kong.

But a growing number of blogs have more serious goals in mind, blogs where “citizen journalists” take on the political and social issues of the day and offer passionate opinion pieces, news reports and compilations of news stories and links.

The most prominent bloggers reach tens of thousands of readers per day, according to the Pew Project. Top-rated blogs, known in the blogosphere as “alpha bloggers,” include the left-leaning Daily Kos and the more con-servative Instapundit, one of the fi rst widely read political blogs; the sassy Washington, D.C., insider Wonkette.com; the staunchly right-wing alpha blog Powerline; and Rawstory, which was singled out by Newsweek for inves-tigating “alleged malfeasance” by the GOP. (Emersonian Hannah Selinger ’05 is a columnist for Rawstory.)

The list of politicians who have blogs includes Democratic National Committee Chair and former presiden-tial candidate Howard Dean, Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and

Oakland, Calif., Mayor Jerry Brown. It is no surprise that some in

the mainstream media (known as the “MSM” to bloggers) declared that 2004 was “the year of the blog,” and seven infl uential bloggers were named to the “Media 100” by Media Magazine this year. Time magazine noted that in 2004, “blogs unexpectedly vaulted into the pantheon of major media.”

Recently the mainstream media has begun to fi nd ways to use the blog in its coverage. Major news sites like MSNBC.com are posting bloggers’ fi rst-hand accounts of everything from Pope John Paul II’s funeral to the 8.7 earth-quake that hit Sumatra in March. CNN even covered the latest blogosphere chatter on its “Inside the Blogs” seg-ment on Inside Politics. Blogging’s ef-fects on journalism are being discussed by panels at the National Press Club, Harvard University and the Brookings Institution.

Politics and the blogIt was bloggers who posted reports that, some say, led to Dan Rather’s retire-ment.

It was bloggers who, after noting the softball questions lobbed by White House Press Corp member Jeff Gan-non, discovered that Gannon was an alias for James Guckert, that he was a former male ‘escort,’ and that the Talon News Service he worked for was part of GOPUSA, a right-wing group.

And when CNN executive Eason Jordan made a controversial comment

– an off-the-record remark that journal-ists killed by coalition forces may have

Are ‘blogs’

the new wave

of journalism

or just

a blip on

the Internet

radar?

been targeted rather than mistakenly killed – at the World Economic Forum in January, it was bloggers’ attacks that led to his resignation. When he re-signed, Jordan offered an apology and claimed his comment’s intention was not meant to indict the military.

Ironically, bloggers have come under fi re, being criticized as being bi-ased, lacking objectivity, and pursuing political agendas – the same sins the bloggers claim the mainstream media perpetrates. But bloggers point out that many of the most prominent bloggers don’t hide their political leanings, so readers know where they stand. A new survey by Harris Interactive reported that 44 percent of U.S. adults who use the Internet have visited a political blog.

In essence, some experts say, blogs are offering an unregulated me-dium for reporting that is not only bi-ased but outright politically motivated. Emerson Associate Professor of Jour-nalism Jerry Lanson has seen enough in the blogosphere that he is troubled by the possibility that journalistic-style blogs are being used “as a propaganda tool and a wedge.” In last year’s hotly contested South Dakota Senate race, Republican John Thune defeated top Senate Democrat Tom Daschle – with perhaps a little help from the blogs. The people behind the two most popu-lar news and analysis blogs in South Dakota, it was revealed, were paid advisers to Thune’s campaign. Jeffrey Seglin, associate professor of writing and publishing, says this “crosses the

By Christopher Hennessy

They’re doing it in cafés. They’re doing it at

home, at work and on college campuses.

Some do it with laptops and some with cell phones.

One recently did it in the White

House. Some even brag that they do it naked.

“They” are bloggers and, by some accounts,

these “citizen online journalists” are posturing

for a media takeover.

The blog (which stands for ‘web log’) is

suddenly everywhere. Blog readership jumped

58 percent between February 2004 and November

2004, with an estimated 32 million U.S.

citizens saying they read blogs, according to the

Pew Internet & American Life Project.

But just what is a blog and what the heck

is the ‘blogosphere’? More importantly, what’s in

store for the future of journalism now that

bloggers are breaking major news stories and

uncovering scandals like “Rather-gate,”

the CBS 60 Minutes brouhaha over Dan Rather’s

investigation into President Bush’s National

Guard service. (Three blogs – PowerLineblog.com,

LittleGreenFootballs.com and freerepublic.com

– were among the fi rst to cry foul.)

Emerson faculty and alumni who read, write and

study blogs offer some answers.

“Condoleezza Rice told Vladimir Putin he

has too much ‘personal power’ today.

But maybe she just meant his cologne is too powerful.

(And by cologne, of course, we mean vodka.)”

wonkette.com, an irreverent gossip blog

from Washington, D.C.


Celebrity gossip blogs are the hot new place for enquiring minds to fi nd all the latest dish.

One of the highest-profi le celebrity and gossip blogs on the Internet is The Defamer, which went online just over a year ago and is written by Emerson alum Mark Lisanti, MFA ’99.

“L.A. is the world’s cultural capital – Defamer is the gossip rag it deserves,” is the site’s motto.

For much of the fi rst year, Lisanti kept his identity enticingly anonymous, prompting wild speculation in Hollywood as to his name.

Lisanti was unmasked in Esquire’s “best and brightest” issue, where they wrote: “In a mere six months, the cynical, hysterically funny Web log Defamer, a sharply observed repository of Hollywood news coupled with insider accounts from abused assistants, has become the voice of the entertainment industry’s underclass.”

The Defamer (defamer.com) has been cited in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other major media.

One of the Defamer’s mainstream media competitors for gossip is the popular E! Entertainment Channel and website, where Emerson alumna Lara Morgenson, MFA ’98, writes her own celebrity online weekly column called “Party Girl,” which chronicles the latest hot Hollywood bashes. She previously did “red carpet reporting” for E! Online and for their popular gossip reporter Ted Casablanca.

Hilton’s misadventures in the VIP rooms of clubs or what’s going on at Miramax.”

Morgenson believes the “voice” behind The Defamer’s writing is part of the reason readers log on. “He has a funny take” on the scene, she says. “You have to take a different approach from everyone else, and you have to have a strong personality” to succeed as a blogger, she adds.

Lisanti does all the writing and editing and secures material for his short items from a large network of

Mark Lisanti, MFA ’99,

authors Los Angeles’ red-hot Defamer blog

sources, some of whom are anonymous, he says. His sources include writers, agents, agents’ assistants, producers’ assistants, development executives

– “almost every job there is, really.” While many reports come from assistants and

“the frustrated people at their desks,” Lisanti does get information from “people you suspect are a little higher up on the food chain.”

Lisanti starts his workday by crawling out of bed at 7:30 a.m. and walking straight to

the computer. “There’s got to be [fresh content posted on the site] to beat people to their desks,” he explains. And for the rest of his day?

“I’m basically chained to my computer. If I’m not in the act of writing, I’m reading or on Instant Messenger,” where he receives messages throughout the day.

line.” He compares the situation to a travel journalist who covers an exotic locale but does not disclose that his stay was paid for by the local hotel or tour-ism board. “It’s not likely I’m going to have the same [travel] experience that this guy had,” Seglin points out.

Do you still doubt blogs are politi-cal players? Consider these examples: blogger Joshua Micah Marshall’s talkingpointsmemo.com covered Trent Lott’s racist comments in 2002 that led to Lott being dumped as Senate majority leader. The Swiftboat Veterans who attacked presidential nominee John Kerry had their message ad-vanced by blogs like instapundit.com. One blogger, Russ Kick, used his site (thememoryhole.org) to post pictures of military coffi ns from the Middle East, photos he obtained using the Freedom of Information Act. The following day media around the globe were using the images.

The Dan Rather, Jeff Gannon and Eason Jordan stories signal to some a worrisome trend in how bloggers

conduct their reporting. Mark Leccese, veteran political journalist and Emer-son writer-in-residence in the Depart-ment of Journalism, calls the bloggers’ attacks “hit and run journalism.”

“They never have to face the people they accuse,” he explains. Reporters who daily cover the same people, issues or districts – known as beat report-ers – have to face the people they write about the next day, he says. The relative safety of writing in cyberspace and the fact that they are not accountable to an editor of a media organization means they do not have to follow the rules reporters follow, say traditional journalists.

Bloggers, for example, will quote a source even if they are ‘off the record,’ something traditional journalists will not do. Recently, Eason Jordan’s com-ments at the World Economic Forum were supposed to have been consid-ered “off the record.” The bloggers who reported the comments, however, made no such distinction.

Calling the Eason Jordan incident “fairly troubling,” Lanson believes that bloggers “took control of [the situation]

and forced his resignation.” But he adds, “I thought he was too quick to re-sign, because it’s not clear that what he said was wrong.” Leccese worries that some bloggers are not out to determine the truth, “but to further a political viewpoint, to help their friends and destroy their enemies.” He adds, “This has been going on in American politics since there was an America. Blogs are a new tool [for this].”

While Seglin and others applaud the bloggers’ ability to check the media, what does this mean for journalists and news reporting. Seglin points out that the 60 Minutes debacle “took the focus off the real issue, which was ‘Did the President serve his National Guard time?’ We still don’t know the answer to that.” As for the Jeff Gannon issue, Seglin argues the media and bloggers alike “lost sight of the real issue, which is the manipulation of the press.”

The Rather-gate incident can be instructive to journalists, Seglin believes. “It should have rekindled a fi re in journalists…because people

are going to hold them accountable.” Janet Kolodzy, an Emerson assistant professor of journalism and a former CNN producer, was shocked the forged memo wasn’t caught earlier and suggests this indicts the journal-ists not on grounds of bias but on competence. “I do credit bloggers with examining and questioning the validity of the reporting,” she says.

“But, you want to know something? [Checking the memo’s authenticity], that’s an editor’s job. All the [blog-gers] did was ask the questions that somebody else should have asked before that story made air.”

Bloggers or journalists?Much of the buzz and chatter over blogs centers on what role they should play in the media. Some feel a major movement is brewing. Leccese sees blogging this way: “For good or ill, blogging is the fi rst complete grassroots journalism [movement] on the Net.”

Blogger Jeffrey Jamison ’93, a second-year law student at Harvard

Instant Gossip: Just Add Web

Morgenson admits she herself is a fan of The Defamer.

“Everybody in town reads The Defamer,” she says.

The Defamer is updated multiple times daily with items that cover the gamut of the entertainment industry, from reports on fi lm studio layoffs to reviews of the eats at a Hollywood premiere party. Lisanti hopes that his readers enjoy his style of writing and irreverent take on Tinseltown.

“I’d like to think that people read it because of my writing as much as they do for the breaking news about Paris

Lisanti took a break from the Los Angeles scene to attend and cover the celebrity-studded Sundance Film Festival this year. “I was blogging the whole time – in real time,” he says. Lisanti attended a movie screening and blogged from inside the theater through his Treo [a


“I’ve had the fi sh burrito before which is pretty good, but do yourself

a favor and learn from my mistakes. Don’t get the fi sh tacos. Yes,

they’re colorful, but that’s only good for the pictures, not your mouth.”

Burritoblog.com, a blog solely written by “burrito analysts”

“These last few days have been explosive – quite literally. It started

about 4 days ago and it hasn’t let up since. They say there were around

14 car bombs in Baghdad alone a couple of days ago – although we

only heard 6 from our area. Cars are making me very nervous lately.

All cars look suspicious- small ones and large ones. Old cars and

new cars. Cars with drivers and cars parked in front of restaurants and

shops. They all have a sinister look to them these days.”

Baghdad Burning

Mark Lisanti, MFA ’99, is The Defamer.

Lisa Morgenson, MFA ’98, writes for the E! Channel website.


University, writes a blog for the pro-gressive American Constitution Society.

“In a lot of ways, some of these blog-gers are turning into your investigative journalists,” he says. He argues this role is especially important in a society in which “the mass media is controlled by major corporate conglomerates.”

Jamison and others credit the bloggers for probing the facts behind Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes piece. Some right-wing bloggers have even pub-licly taken credit for Rather’s recent departure from the CBS Nightly News anchor position, claiming that their discovery that the memo Rather used in his probe of Bush’s guard service was forged prompted Rather’s ouster.

Lanson, who himself is a novice blogger, says some bloggers see them-selves “as the second coming of com-munity journalism, or civic journalism, or interactive news – the enfranchise-ment of the masses, the opportunity of the public to talk back.” These bloggers argue that they provide a crucial check on the media, ensuring fair and ac-

curate reporting via the power of their instantaneous online updates.

Bloggers and journalists around the country took a keen interest when Apple recently sued three bloggers for revealing company trade secrets, pro-vided by a source the bloggers wouldn’t reveal. The case, some thought, might serve as a precedent in the argument over whether bloggers can claim journalists’ state and federal “reporter’s privilege,” through what are known as ‘shield laws’. The case created a lot of media buzz, said Emerson adjunct professor of media law Laurie Ruskin, because it was quite possibly the fi rst time a court considered this charged issue.

The judge, however, declined to rule on the question. Ruskin explains,

“The judge wanted to know the public interest, the newsworthiness of pub-lishing Apple’s trade secrets.” Even a traditional media reporter cannot get away with criminally revealing trade secrets, says Ruskin. “Trying to re-characterize trade secrets as news is not going to help…the bloggers out there

who want to be considered legitimate journalists,” she explains.

Eventually, Ruskin believes, the question will be addressed by a court case – and could cause problems for journalists. “I’d be worried, because this term blogger is so indefi nable and what they do takes in so much that any kind of blanket defi nition that would make them journalists would only erode the integrity of reporter’s privilege.”

The future of the blogTo be clear, blogging is taking off, with more bloggers writing every day. Blog-gers are even fi nding new ways to go online – with ‘moblogs’ (mobile blogs), blogging via a cellular phone; podcast-ing, posting blogs as audio fi les; and, yes, even blogging naked.

Emerson experts agree, however, there can be no consensus this early in the blog “citizen journalists” move-ment. Will they continue to haunt the mainstream media? Be assimilated by it? Or disappear altogether? “The truth is that nobody knows what the fi nal

cellular smartphone with Internet capability]. Later he took pictures of the action on the street and uploaded them as soon as he could fi nd an Internet connection, and he blogged in the evening before going out to parties. “It never stopped. It was exhausting.”

Recent coverage Lisanti is particularly proud of includes the layoffs inside Miramax.

“I had a lot of information from people inside Miramax [during] its layoffs last year. I broke a lot of that news as it was happening,” he says. He

explains that he would get messages from people who had just been laid off, and he’d post a report on his site 15 minutes later. “That’s one of the great things that blogs allow you to have, that speed

– it’s update, update, update. You get to cover the evolution of something like that in real-time.”

The speed and frequency of updates have made the blog a formidable competitor in the fi ght for the attention of gossip lovers. Explains Lisanti,

“[Updates] keep people checking back. Soon as I know something, you know it.”

He believes the mainstream media has had to adapt to the near-constant pace of the

“Internet news cycle.”

In fact E! online, where Morgenson reports on celebrity parties, has announced that Ted Casablanca’s “The Awful Truth” gossip column will be posted daily, instead of weekly. This is “defi nitely to keep up with the [bloggers],” Morgenson believes. “I think people are used to being able to log in every day and read something new.” She sees

the “immediacy” of the blogs’ updates as a huge part of their appeal.

One of The Defamer’s most popular items actually plays off Casablanca’s infamous

“blind vice” items, short blurbs that reveal a juicy secret about a Hollywood star or major player – but without revealing any names. For his Ted Casablanca “Blind Item Guessing Game,” Lisanti solicits email guesses (he gets hundreds, he says) from his readers as to the identity of Casablanca’s subject. He then counts up the guesses to see who is most suspected and


impact will be, but they’re not going to be as bad or as pervasive as everyone is expecting them to be,” says Kolodzy. Lec-cese agrees, urging calm instead of hype.

“Right now the bloggers feel like they’re the vanguard of journalism,” he says.

“Let’s wait a couple years and we’ll see.” The Federal Elections Committee

in March announced that they were going “to crack down on bloggers who blogged about politics and the cam-paigns who then also linked to the cam-paign websites,” reports Jamison. The case was dropped after public outcry, but Jamison thinks changes are inevitable. He hopes any restrictions that are put in place will not be excessive and “choke off the free fl ow of information.”

“Blogs have infi ltrated this ‘exclusive society’ of journalism,” says Kolodzy, laughing off the idea that the media is ‘exclusive’ and that bloggers are a real threat to traditional journalism. “I welcome breaking down the barriers between ‘us’, the journalist, and the

‘them’, everybody else. I think that actu-ally makes better journalism.” E

posts the results along with brief notes from the readers’ emails. “People love that!” he says. “There was almost a riot one week,” when technical problems prevented the game from happening.

Certainly a blogger must stand out in a crowd, and Lisanti’s specialties include his odd “slice of Hollywood life” reports, like a review of the catered “theme meals” Fox offers at its café when launching a new show. “It’s something you can’t really

read about anywhere else. That’s one of my own bizarre fascinations,” he says.

The Defamer is also intrigued by “the world of agents and publicists,” so Lisanti will post what he calls “decoding publicist-speak” on the site.

“[The publicists’ and agents’] arsenal is the well articulated half-truth or the outright lie,” he quips.

“In gossip, you never know who to believe,” says Morgenson. “Everything seems to be so fl uid, it changes day to day, depending on who’s

managing the spin control.” Which is why, perhaps, she fi nds a blogger’s success may also be tied to a fearlessness

– “not being afraid to say exactly what you’re thinking.” She points out that bloggers enjoy a luxury that news outlets like E! do not: “They’re not governed by the lawyers and publicists that you have to answer to. When you’re blogging, you can bypass all of that.” For her as a reader, this means getting “a more honest view” but it can also mean a blogger may not be as “accurate” as a traditional gossip columnist.

As for the future of the gossip blog, she thinks that sites like the Defamer will fi nd stability – “as long as they’re providing something fresh” and not “spewing outdated information.”

The Defamer doesn’t seem to be in danger of that as long as the emails and instant messages keep rolling in.

“[My sources] are the lifeblood of the site,” says Lisanti. “And that communal aspect of it is one of the things that’s most fun for me.”

“Imagine planting a crop and knowing it will be 40 years before

you can harvest its bounty. You’d have to put it in the ground

while attending preschool in order to see a return during your most

productive years.”

fermentations.typepad.com/my_weblog, the daily wine blog

“The idea of a site that deals in blogger gossip and celebrity bloggers

calls to mind an interesting question. At what point does a

blogger give up the expectation of privacy and become a public fi gure?

Provided it’s not a parody, Blogebrity, or its corresponding blog,

may answer that question.”

Clicked, via MSNBC.com



Emerson Career Connection forges links

Boston

Emerson students and alumni gathered in Dorchester, Mass., in March to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit group that builds affordable housing for low-income families. Volunteers worked at the Habitat Boston warehouse and at the construction site.

The Emerson experience, for many alumni, includes the strong connections one makes with others in a chosen field. If someone along the way provided you with information that was invaluable, would you like to “pay it forward” and help others?

If so, consider signing up to be a resource with the Emerson Career Connection. More than 200 Emerson alumni have already volunteered to be available

for students (and other alumni) for informational phone calls and meetings. The service helps provide information on new fields, and raises the level of professional knowledge of students and alumni alike.

“Emerson students always want to know what it’s like in the ‘real world’, and speaking with alumni who work in their fields brings that reality to them,” said Peter Loge ’87, senior vice president of M+R Strategic Services and president of the Emerson College Alumni Board.

“Our goal is to connect current students and alumni with the realities of the working world, and our best resource is our alumni with experience in those fields. Signing up for the Emerson Career Connection is a small investment that can make a tremendous difference to other members of the Emerson community who are looking to find their way in the communications and arts fields. We’re hoping to

increase our participation rate of alumni mentors to over 500 by the end of 2005.”

Alumni can sign up for the Emerson Career Connection and find out about other resources available to alumni through Career Services by visiting http://www.emerson.edu/career_services/alumni/ or by contacting [email protected]; (617) 824-8586.

– Office of Career Services

Young alumni from the Greater Boston area (above) met in January with the newest Alumni Relations staff members, Amber Haskins ’04 and Mary Ann Cicala

’99, for a GOLD (Graduates Of the Last Decade) event. Members of GOLD gathered at Boston Billiards for a chance to eat, socialize, win raffle prizes and see who turned out to be a pool shark. Alumni ranging from the Class of 1995 to 2004 were represented. For information on future GOLD events, please contact Amber Haskins at [email protected] or at (617) 824-8274.

MUSICLily Holbrook ’99 is cel-ebrating the release of her album Everything Was Beau-tiful and Nothing Hurt from Virgin Record’s Back Porch label. The Philadelphia Daily News gives the album a favor-able review and describes her sound as “genteelly tortured” and compares her to popular musicians Tori Amos and Jewel. Holbrook started out by playing her music in the streets and subways of Boston. She then snagged gigs in local clubs. Singer Mary Lou Lord has called Holbrook “Boston’s best kept secret.”

TELEVISIONPatrick Quinn ’95 has been a cameraman for all eight seasons of HBO’s Sopranos. Quinn has also worked on the films A Beautiful Mind, 28 Days, Flawless, Analyze This and 8MM and has worked with stars Russell Crowe, Sandra Bullock, Robert DeNiro and Drew Barrymore.

Jeanne Tinker ’90 will join Debbie Reynolds in the 2005-06 new national tour of the original Nunsense musical comedy. Tinker, a former Carol Burnett Award Win-ner while at Emerson, will play Sister Mary Amnesia to Reynold’s Mother Superior. Tinker previously starred in Funny Girl at the Willows Theatre in San Francisco.

LITERATUREJames Charlesworth, MFA ’03, has won the Martin Dibner Memorial Fellowship in fiction. The Dibner fellow-ship, awarded by the Maine Community Foundation, will provide financial support while Charlesworth, who resides in Waterville, Maine, completes his first novel, The Study of Hidden Animals. A committee of three novelists

– Elaine Ford, Ben Marcus and Roxana Robinson – selected this year’s winners.

Marta Marcela Ponsowy, MFA ’99, has received two prizes for the Spanish translations of her book, Enemies Outside. The prizes were awarded by

Notable Expressions

Stacy McKee, MFA ’99, is on the writing staff of the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. She is also writing the “Nurse’s Blog” (web log) for the show’s website. The show boasted this season’s second-ranked drama pre-miere among young viewers, and it is this season’s only midseason launch to finish in the top 10 during its debut week.

THEATERLeonard Foglia ’76 directed James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams in a production of On Golden Pond at the Cort Theater in New York City. On Golden Pond is Ernest Thompson’s play about a New England professor and his wife’s last summer at their lakeside cottage.The play was nominated for a 2005 Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Play.”

A scene from the film Pretty Persuasion, executive-produced byEric Kopeloff ’93

the National Endowment for the Arts in Argentina and the Secretaria de Cultura de la Nacion. She lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

FILMAt Sundance this year, Eric Kopeloff ’93 had a film in the running. Kopeloff executive-produced the feature film Pretty Persuasion.

“Consummately crafted, with great performances by Ron Livingston, James Woods, and Jane Krakowski, Pretty Persuasion is filmmaking that transcends genre and makes us laugh and think and perhaps even revel in the pleasures and puzzles of growing up in this wondrous world of media-defined reality,” said festival director Geoffrey Gilmore. Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions have purchased the film. Kopeloff has previously produced Monster’s Ball and Godsend, among others.

A new CD by Lily Holbrook ’99

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San Francisco

Trustee Judy Huret and her husband, Bob, hosted 50 alumni and parents of current students in their home in San Francisco in March. Behind them are Emerson Vice President for Academic Affairs Linda Moore and Dean of the School of the Arts Grafton Nunes. The evening included a screening of three of the films shown the previous evening at Emerson College’s 5th Annual Festival of Film and Video in Los Angeles.

Southern Florida

In April the Bimini Boatyard in Fort Lauderdale served as the site of an informal alumni meeting for sharing ideas about new activities, projects and events for the Southern Florida Alumni chapter. From left are Debra Douden Lentz ’69, Dorina Ferretti

’79, Lynn Weber ’68, Glenda Wish Mirmelli ’68, Barbara Rutberg ’68 (director of Alumni Relations); and Jane Guterman ’73 (president, Southern Florida Alumni chapter).

Justin Altshuler, trustee of Emerson College, hosted an evening in his Tampa, Fla., home for area alumni, the Emerson women’s softball team and their coaches in March. The team was in the Ft. Meyers area for a weeklong game schedule.

Florida

Washington, D.C.

More than 45 D.C.-area alumni had brunch at Café Bistro and attended the premiere of Emerson College Associate Professor Scott Wheeler’s Democracy, performed by the Washington National Opera in January. Several Emerson administrators were also on hand.

New York

More than 80 undergraduate and graduate students traveled to New York City to 15 different professional site visits in April. The closing reception of the New York Connection included alumni, students and faculty who heard Tory Johnson ’92 (center) deliver a motivational presentation on networking, professional etiquette and responsibilty.

Associate Professor Scott Wheeler was commissioned by the Washington National Opera to compose the music for Democracy. Here, he presents Grafton Nunes, dean of the School of the Arts, the first page of his score, which he signed and framed to give to President Liebergott to thank the Emerson community for its support.

Los Angeles

Outside Los Angeles’ Kodak Theater, where the Academy Awards ceremonies were held in February, several Emersonians gathered to report on the event: (from left) Journalism Department technology manager Jon Satriale ’94; journalism student Alicia Eakin ’05; journalism student Blake Nebel ’07; Brian Goldstein ’05, camera operator; and technician Doug Carney ’04.


Los Angeles Festival of Film and Video

The College’s fifth annual Festival of Film and Video was held at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles in March. A standing-room-only audience of more than 250 alumni, parents and friends attended the screening and reception. The festival was hosted by Randy Barbato ’82, of World of Wonder Productions. The young filmmakers are: front: David Lebensfeld ’04, Landon Zakheim ’05, Ballard Boyd ’04, Rob Wilson ’04, Rob Todd (Emerson faculty); back: Adam Lewin ’05; Grafton Nunes (dean of the School of the Arts); Carol Fahey ’05; Jim Lane (executive director of Emerson’s Los Angeles Center); Eric Gosselin ’05; Deborah Correa ’05; Nisha Murickan ’04; and Randy Barbato ’82 (host of the film festival).

Festival host Randy Barbato ’82 introduced the films with poignant words of advice for the student filmmakers.

Nisha Murickan ’04, with Grafton Nunes, dean of the School of the Arts, won this year’s Marcia Robbins-Wilf Film Production Award. The award includes a $5,000 prize given to a female student for outstanding film or video work.

This year’s accepted students reception was held on the set of America’s Funniest Home Videos before the film festival. Vin DiBona ’66 (center), alumnus and creator of America’s Funniest Home Videos, hosted the event.

1950Bill Hackett is living in Santa Barbara, Calif. He would enjoy hearing from former class-mates and other Emersonians when they are in the area. He’s at [email protected].

1951Joseph Ross was honored in the Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers this year. This is the second time in the last 12 years that Joseph has received this honor.

1953Fred MacIntyre Dixon and Diane Purdy Theriault ’55 reunited after Fred’s perfor-mance in the Boston premiere of 36 Views at the Huntington Theatre.

1955After 32 years of love and com-mitment to each other, Edna M. Ward and Ann M. Briley were united in marriage on Sept. 18, 2004, at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Mass.

1957Ed Blotner will soon begin his 37th year at the Voice of America as the regional desk writer, copy editor and as-signments editor, and for the past 15 years, editor and radio program monitor as well as chief of clearances. He and his wife, Diana, have five children and 11 grandchildren.

1958Another production of June August’s Coming To Life will be presented in Southern California. Dorothy (Geotis) MacLean ’59 will again star in the play. Last year Joan Ostroff ’50 directed a reading of Coming to Life in New York. June and her husband, Dr. Jay Zorn, have just completed the manuscript for their textbook, Listening to Music (Prentice Hall).

1959Dorothy (Geotis) MacLean guest-starred on NYPD Blue in January. Her professional name is Dorothy Constantine.

Elizabeth Kidney Sanner ’59, MA ’60, announces her engagement to David James Craig of Manchester, N.H. A wedding is planned for Aug. 6, 2005. Liz is semi-retired from teaching. Liz’s Kappa sister, Mary Jo Czarick Stonie

’60, MA ’72, will be her ma-tron of honor.

1960Mary Jo Stonie ’60, MA ’72, was invited to join “A Flight of Friendship: A Tsunami Recovery Mission Trip to Southeast Asia” representing the New England area. She is a travel consultant for Lotus Travel and an executive board member of the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

1961Janice Poritzky reports that her daughter, Betsy Maselek, and her son, David, started an Internet company called Grandma’s Chicken Soup. The company will be featured on Roker on the Road on the Food Network in the fall.

1962Hal Platzkere co-produced a CD by his daughter and wife, who have a mother/daughter cabaret act. The CD United features 14 pop music Broad-way show tunes.

1963Nate Custer retired from WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va., in March, after 39 years. His as-signments included 23 years of covering legislative ses-sions of the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond.

Ed Darna is director of the Clowns-a-Poppin’ skit unit and plays Paintdrops the Clown. He recalls playing a clown with Emerson Chil-dren’s Theatre in the spring of 1956. He taught technical theater for 34 years and has celebrated his 37th wedding anniversary.

1965Fred Nadelman lives in Savan-nah, Ga., where he works as a home health social worker. His wife, Legare, works for the state in Child Protective Services. Fred continues to do 18th-century historic re-enact-ments at authentically cos-tumed “living history” events. He is also active in liberal Democratic politics.

Riki Ritter ’69 (right) is a middle-school teacher at Cary Academy in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. She says she recently met Elizabeth and Richard Feindel, the children of Emersonian Richard Feindel ’69. When Riki ran into Richard she says they dredged up every old Emerson memory they could think of. Riki would love to hear from other alums at [email protected].

Class Notes


1966Carl Buck ’66, MS ’69, wrote The Financial Aid Answer Book in 2002. More than 700,000 copies have been distributed across the country.

Justice of the Peace Jeffrey Starr Mararian is honored to be named the official greeter at the Blackstone Tap, a new hotspot in Worcester, Mass., owned by his son, Jefferson.

1968Stephen King mentioned Dal-las Mayr’s nom de plume, Jack Ketchum, in a column in the November 2004 issue of En-tertainment Weekly. Dallas also did a walk-on as a bartender in the first film made from one of his books, The Lost. His novel Offspring will have its first hardcover publication next year from Overlook Con-nection Press.

1969Bruce Dean was recently elected chairman of the Board of Regents of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the world’s largest provider of anti-fraud training and education. Bruce is still chief of the Suffolk County Special Prosecutions Unit.

1970 Bart Lee Fischbach has released a new CD with his group, The Black Velvet Band, an Irish musical ensemble. Bart’s musical career spans 28 years on the Boston Irish circuit. When not performing, Bart is education director of the M.I.T. Museum in Cam-bridge, Mass.

Andrea Liftman is involved in integrating students on the autism spectrum into her Swampscott, Mass., classroom. She is also working with a stu-dent with a cochlear implant. She writes: “Emerson has pre-pared me for these educational opportunities.”

Susan White Beauchene and husband Ken ’69 are living in Santa Monica, where Susy has been raising kids and selling real estate and Ken has been working as a boom man in films and TV, including Oprah’s TV movie Their Eyes Were Watching God. They are in touch with Doug Arbetman

’69, Fritzi Locke ’70, Jacquelyn Martin ’70, Robert Schelham-mer ’70, Judy Vile ’70, Linda De Angelis ’69, CeCi Hart Jones ’70 and Marilyn Reich

’70. They love to hear from old friends and would love to see more class notes from the years 1966 to 1970.

1972Rhoni Epstein is planning to expand Sagewater Spa in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. Her spa, which opened about three years ago, has appeared on the cover of Travel & Leisure maga-zine, in the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times. Sage-water will also be part of the forthcoming Dwell magazine coffeetable book Spa.

1973Barney Bishop III became the president of Associated Indus-tries of Florida, a lobbying and political advocacy association. Barney remains chairman of the board and is president of The Windsor Group, a strategic public affairs firm that he founded 12 years ago in Tal-lahassee.

Richard Henry Blair ’72 has been managing the career of musician Tasche for about a year now. Tasche and Richard were profiled on Paul Jones’ BBC Radio 2 Christmas show. A debut album is forthcoming.

(From left) Brendan Keefe, Emmy nominee and WCBS-TV correspondent who was embedded with the 854th Engineer Battalion, poses with cameraman, Emmy award recipient and fellow media embed Greg Sutfin at the New York Chapter’s award ceremony. Sgt. Major Chet Marcus

’77, civilian media relations officer for the 77th Regional Readiness Command at Fort Totten, Queens, N.Y., joins them. The sergeant major is also a member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Chapter.

1974Tracy (Gochberg) Wilkes founded and is executive director of DREAMS of Wilm-ington in Wilmington, N.C., which helps economically disadvantaged youth to grow through artistic development. Tracy and her husband, Paul Wilkes, a journalist, have two sons in college, Noah and Daniel.

1975Abby Altshuler was a kinder-garten teacher in Telluride, Colo., for nearly 20 years, when she decided it was time to leave the classroom and start the career she had always wanted. She is pursuing artwork full-time, painting and refinishing furniture, and painting murals for residenc-es and for a local restaurant, Sofia’s.

1977John Hanc has had his fifth book published, The FORCE Program: The Proven Way to Fight Cancer Through Physical Activity and Health (Ballan-

1983Lawrence Dutra is president of Vinesse, a wine marketing company based in Westlake Village, Calif. Vinesse has pur-chased Royal Oaks Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley. He says that in buying the winery his company intends to “create a destination winery driven by direct-to-customer sales.”

1984Joan Nightingale lives in Falmouth on Cape Cod with her two sons and works as a personal trainer for ‘chal-lenged individuals.’ It is a very rewarding experience, she reports. She is writing a children’s book and is design-ing a women’s clothing line. She would love to hear from friends and fellow Zeta Phi Eta brothers and sisters.

1985Sarah Grealy Barasch and her husband, Bob, became the proud parents of Luke Patrick in March 2004. Sarah returned to her job as vice

tine). John co-authored the book with FORCE program founder Jeff Berman and on-cologist Fran Mason, M.D.

1978Steve Farrell appeared in a Harlingen (Texas) Performing Arts Theatre production of Damn Yankees.

1979Denise Peck has been named editor-in-chief of a new maga-zine, Step by Step Wire Jewelry. She was also named projects editor for all the jewelry titles published by Primedia. Denise earned her bench jeweler’s certificate in 2000. She and her husband, Paul Chase ’83, moved to Philadel-phia in 2004.

1980Julia (Flamm) Donahue has portrayed Abigail Adams on Boston’s Freedom Trail for the past eight years. In addition, she has launched her own company, Historigal Inc. (Pa-triots in Petticoats), and has performed throughout New

England. Gov. Mitt Romney presented a proclamation honoring Julia as the “Official Abigail Adams of the Com-monwealth.”

1981Composer Barry Drogin had his second 90-minute radio interview on Kalvos & Damian’s New Music Bazaar, this time as his pseudonym, Baruch Skeer. Selections from eight pieces were broadcast, two performed live in the studio. Both shows are perma-nently archived and stream-able on the Internet.

1982Jon Vesey was named to the board of governors of BDA/PROMAX, a nonprofit trade association dedicated to ad-vancing the role and effective-ness of promotion, marketing and broadcast design profes-sionals in electronic media.

Karen (Carbone) Stockbridge Dow ’79 received first prize in the category of Serious Column Writing (for North Shore Sunday) from the New England Press Association. She beat The Boston Phoenix, a longtime winner in this category.

1926 ZerNona Stewart Black of San Antonio, Texas1930 Jeannette (Roussel) Lamoureux of Marlborough, Mass.1930 Laura A. Sturtevant of Auburn, Maine1934 Nellie S. Cohen of Boston, Mass.1935 Daniel Rudsten of Lynn, Mass.1935 Florence Chernis Harmon of Newton, Mass.1936 Mary T. Higgins of Providence, R.I.1937 Elizabeth Barbara Hall Clark of Milford, Conn.1941 Richard Burr Bronson Sr. of Bangor, Maine1943 Muriel Joan O’Leary of Potomac, Md.1945 Eugene Sousa of Lowell, Mass.1945 Elizabeth Curran Work of Battle Creek, Mich.1950 Ruth Suriner Socol of Newark, Del.1950 Lucy Cadou Kettlewell of Camden, Maine1951 Henry B. Watson Jr. of Canaan, N.H.1951 Kendrick E. Chase of Waterville, Maine1964 James W. Daniels III of Newton, Mass.1966 Susan Rosenberg of Coconut Creek, Fla.1968 William J. Robinson III of Hilton Head, S.C.1972 David W. Sanders of Middletown, Conn.1973 Idris Al Sabry of Los Angeles, Calif.1970 Toni (Lewis) Siskin of Plantation, Fla.1980 Ellen E. Moraskie of Miami, Fla.1991 Jennifer Garman-Goodfellow of Watertown, Mass.1992 Gregory Stoltmann of Wellesley, Mass.1997 Matthew John Latini of Boston, Mass.1998 Kathleen J. Nelson of Washington, D.C.1999 Diane Applegate of Melrose, Mass.2002 Christopher John Burrage of Somerville, Mass.

In Memoriam


president of research for Oxy-gen Media four months later. Luke’s godmother is Emerso-nian Alicia Erlinger.

Matt Kirkwood is nominated for an L.A. Weekly theater award for best comedy direc-tion for The White House Mur-der Case. He is artistic director for Theatre Neo in L.A.

David Mazzaferro played Milo in Sleuth at the Greenwoods Theatre in Connecticut. He works regularly in the Law and Order and Third Watch series.

Barry Scott’s Boston-area radio programs, The Saturday Night Party and The Lost 45s, were recently rated number one among adults listening to Oldies 103.3.

1986Kara Marziali is in Cranston, R.I., after spending many years living and working in Boston. She was human

resources coordinator at She-pley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, a 225-person architec-tural firm.

1987Thomas Stewart writes, “After studying in Emerson’s Castle Well, I caught the travel bug.” He found himself working in a retail buying career that allowed him to explore more than 30 countries. He is now living in Santa Monica, Calif., where he works for Teleflora, managing its overseas pur-chasing department.

1988Sheryl (Dyer) Bourke is pleased to announce the finalization of her divorce. She says she is officially Sheryl L. Dyer again and would love to hear from other alums at [email protected]. She is living in South Portland, Maine, with her 4-year-old son, Niall, and 10-year-old dog Roisin.

Julie Fairweather and her husband just opened a new bar called The Greatest Bar, in Boston.

Lisa James has spent the last 17 years working at leading advertising agencies, includ-ing Leo Burnett and BBDO. She is currently director of broadcast business affairs at Wieden + Kennedy. In 2004 she launched her own Internet business focusing on high-end beauty brands.

1989Russ Gannon is assistant store manager for Barnes & Noble at the Prudential Center in Boston. He is also a part-time deejay at WXRV (92.5, “The River”).

Jeanine Kabrich received her master’s degree in mass com-munication/critical studies from California State Univer-sity, Northridge, in December 2003. She works in product development and marketing for GoTV in Sherman Oaks.

Everice ‘Monique’ Lindesay married Douglas Gibbs in De-cember 2004 on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Guests includ-ed her brother and grooms-man, Mark Lindesay ’95, and bridesmaids Mary Custard, director of multicultural af-fairs (’87-’90) and Lisa Lisa of Cult Jam fame. Monique continues to choreograph and currently sings backup for Michael Bolton.

Scott Von Doviak penned Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema (McFarland & Co.), which chronicles the his-tory of hixploitation cinema. It’s the first-ever look at the popularity of these films dur-ing their heyday in the 1970s.

1990Charlene (Coraccio) DeCesare and her husband, Robert, are pleased to announce the birth of Steven Anthony, born Jan. 31, 2005. For the past eight years Charlene has been work-ing at Gartner Inc., a lead-ing information technology research and consulting firm, where she is director of sales for major accounts.

Ellen Davis, MFA ’90, is currently a writing precep-tor at the Boston University College of Communication. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, California Quarterly and many other publications. Her manuscript, Club Blue, was a finalist for the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. She has also been a regular contributor to the Harvard Review since 1990.

Sara (DeCesare) Robinson and her husband, Brendan, welcomed their second baby, Claire Noelle, in May 2004. She joins big sister, Abigail Rose, age 2. Sara would love to hear from former class-mates and Kappa sisters at [email protected].

Josh Judge is a full-time meteorologist at WMUR-TV (Channel 9) in Manchester, N.H. Prior to going full time at WMUR, Josh did on-air, freelance weathercasting at WHDH in Boston and WGME in Portland, Maine.

Sherri Raftery received her master’s of education in arts and learning from Endicott College. She and daughter Sa-brina are members of the The-atre Co. of Saugus, Mass. She gives a shout-out to her class-

Diane Bellavance ’80 is teaching Cyberlaw, Policy & Society as well as Information Technology for the PC at Lasell College in Newton, Mass.

J. Fox Parkinson’s Foundation and the Christopher Reeve Pa-ralysis Foundation. Christine is married to literary agent Jeff Aghassi. They reside in Los Angeles.

Kerri Savage lives in New York City with her husband, Eddie, and two children, Liam, 2, and Charlotte, 11 months. They would love to hear from old friends from Emerson. Kerri can be reached at [email protected].

1993Bill Burr has come a long way since doing standup at Nick’s Comedy Stop back in 1992. He is currently a cast member on Chappelle’s Show on Comedy Central and just made his first standup appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He has taped an HBO Special and has a show in development with the Fox Network. Bill would like to give a shoutout to all of Emerson’s future comics who are creating a stir in Boston right now.

will note the irony that she married someone whose life is devoted to math!) They have a 2-year-old, Daniel. Amy has worked mostly in public relations and currently is a partner at Topaz Partners in Malden, Mass. Friends and classmates may write to [email protected]

Diane Liguori married John Poglajen on May 15, 2004, in Southlake, Texas. Diane works for RR Donnelley Printing as a senior account manager.

1992Christine (Gustin) Aghassi, a vice president with Winner & Mandabach Campaigns in Santa Monica, Calif., was part of the campaign manage-ment team for the passage of Proposition 71: The California Stem Cell Research Initia-tive. The campaign’s success was due in large part to the support of patient advocacy groups, including the Michael

mates in the L.A. Program of spring 1990. She can be reached at [email protected].

Cindy Rambaldo is living in Scituate, Mass., with daughter Madeleine, 8, son Tommy, 3, and husband Michael Doody. Cindy owns Ocean Song Well-ness Center in Cohasset. She specializes in sports massage and craniosacral therapy. She is studying to be a yoga teacher. She can be reached at [email protected].

Joel Schwartzberg is editorial director for Audible.com, “the world’s top destination for downloading spoken-word content for personal audio devices.” Joel, his wife Amy, and their children Evan, 5, and twins Mylie and Josie, 2, live in Maplewood, N.J. A major New York production com-pany recently optioned his screenplay, Keep it Real.

Chuck Simmons and his wife, Noreen, have another addi-tion to the family, Nathaniel Franklin Simmons, born Sept. 5, 2004. Chuck continues to work at ESPN International, where Fuera de Juego, the program he produces, recently won Sports Program of the Year at the INTE Awards for Spanish television excellence.

1991Christopher Bigelow is co-author of Mormonism for Dum-mies, a new title in the Wiley series of Dummies books.

Stephen Burns Power, MFA ’91, has published Spirit War-riors, a book about American

Sikhs. It has received an Editor’s Choice award from its publisher and “good com-ments” from the business and academic community.

Janice F. Carlson recently presented a paper on “Creative Writing Pedagogy: Teaching Writing in the Community” at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association confer-ence in New Mexico.

Cindy (Cohen) Abreu is no longer director of sales for Clear Channel Commu-nication. She now owns a franchise called Jumpbunch and teaches sports and fitness classes to children in Houston-area preschools and daycare centers. Cindy has been mar-ried for eight years to a “great guy,” Chris Abreu, and they have two beautiful children

– Rachel, 6, and Sara, 2.

Tom Eslick, MFA ’91, has writ-ten his fourth book, Mountain Peril (Viking Books), which is part of the White Mountain Series he has been writing. His books attempt to capture the beauty and danger of one of the country’s most beautiful and dangerous destinations, he writes.

Allison Green, MFA ’91, is the author of Half-Moon Scar (St. Martin’s, 2000) and the recently completed Tear Gas, a novel set during the WTO protests. She has been teach-ing writing for more than 10 years. Her current project is a science fiction novel for young adults.

Amy (Ecker) Krigman, living in Chelmsford, Mass., mar-ried Slava, a Russian-born mathematician, four years ago. (Friends who know Amy

Janet Scardino ’81 is executive vice president and global head of marketing for Reuters’ media business. Prior to joining Reuters, Janet was senior vice president in international marketing for AOL. She has also worked for Walt Disney Co. and MTV Networks.


For five years, Abby Ellin, MFA ’93, has written the Preludes column about young people and money in the Sunday Money & Business section of The New York Times. Her work has been published in numerous publications, in-cluding Time, The Utne Reader, Spy, Salon, Self, Cosmopolitan, and Marie Claire among oth-ers. Her first book, Teen Age Waistland, will be published in June.

Jonathan Labovich was promoted to producer in remote production at ESPN. Previously he worked as replay producer on Sunday Night Football. He won an Emmy in 2004 for Best Live Sports Series and will be producing Women’s Final Four and Col-lege World Series this spring and summer.

1994Vern Anastasio, MA ’94, left the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a chief of staff to run in the Demo-cratic Party primary for the

Angela Lepito ’94 and Paul Hungerford ’93 tied the knot in October 2004 in Ventura, Calif. Alexis Smith Burris was matron of honor, and Kristen Tanzer Teixeira and Molly Beck Ferguson were women of honor. Many Emersonians were in attendance, including Tanzer Teixeira, Chris Del Con-te, Burris, Hungerford, James Ferguson, Beck Ferguson and Mike Watchtel.

Rebecca (Switzer) Marani was promoted to vice president of Client Services at BigBad Inc., one of the Northeast’s larg-est privately held interactive agencies. Rebecca is a certified project management profes-sional and has been with the company since 2000.

Myra Jo Martino placed in the top 10 of this year’s American Zoetrope’s Screenplay Compe-tition. She was also a finalist in the CBS Writers Mentoring Program. Her first screenplay was optioned by a Disney pro-ducer. She recently celebrated 10 years in L.A. and hopes one day to actually like it there. She says ‘hi’ to all the ’94s on the East Side.

Caitlin McCarthy, MFA ’94, has written an adapted screen-play called Vera, a historical drama about a non-Jewish teen who defies statistics and lasts three years as a Czech Resistance fighter, survives Auschwitz as a political pris-oner and escapes the Nazis during a death march. Czech actress Lucie Vondrackova is attached to star in the film.

Chuck McKenney and his wife, Michele, announce the birth of their son, Nathan, in October 2004. Chuck has been working as a TV news producer at WBZ-TV in Bos-ton since 1998.

Carla Rudy puppeteered on the film Team America: World Police. She performs the pup-pet character “Jean” on The Holly and Wood Show on AMC.

1995By day Sue Brody works as director of student services at the Boston Architectural Center. In her free time, she has been affiliated with ImprovBoston since 1999 and has been a member of numer-ous other improv troupes. She

Philadelphia City Council. Al-though he lost, he is currently working as a legal assistant for the city’s Redevelopment Authority and will be graduat-ing from law school in May.

Al Edmond left a six-year job at United Cerebral Palsy of Rhode Island to work at the Attleboro Center, a temporary residential and therapeutic group home for adolescents with various issues. He is also attending graduate school at Bridgewater State College. Al can be reached at [email protected].

Lizzy Flanagan has sold her 1,000th jewelry design through her line, Pieces of a Girl. Lizzy launched her custom-crafted jewelry business in 2002.

Mary Healey-Conlon, MA ’94, wrote, directed and produced the critically acclaimed Holy Water-Gate: Abuse Cover-Up in the Catholic Church, which won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for Investigative Jour-nalism. She is also a lecturer at University of Rhode Island.

Michael Keamy ’83 appeared in a one-man show, Body Works, at Theater Machine in Boston.

has written a short play and performed in “Whining for Godot” and other works in the SLAM! Boston short play festivals.

Siobhan (Donovan) Haughey’s second child, Patrick John, was born Sept. 3, 2005. Patrick’s big sister is Mairead, 2. Siobhan is still managing sales and customer relations at State Street. She would love to hear from classmates at [email protected].

Kristin Lofblad, MFA ’95, recently returned to Harvard Graduate School of Education (she earned her Ed.M. there in ’97) to help execute a strategy to leverage HGSE technol-ogy in teaching and research (e-learning). Since graduation Kelly Morris has worked as an Avid editor in Portland, Ore. Last year she went around the world with

Joel Votolato recently joined the law firm of Breggia Bowen & Grande in Providence, R.I. He and wife Jill (Hollman) are celebrating their 8th wedding anniversary this August. They also welcomed their third child in July 2004. Alpha Pi Theta brothers can write to [email protected].

1997Ted Campbell, first assistant director, and producer Anne Clements ’98 have begun principle photography on the independent feature Quinceanera. The film will be shot in and around Los Angeles.

Eli Hardy ’97 and Kathryn (Hanlon) Hardy ’00 recently welcomed their first child, Tea Hardy. She was born Jan. 8, 2005. Eli says the family is doing great.

Semester at Sea and is now co-producing and editing a docu-mentary on the voyage. She is also working for Oregon Public Broadcasting and con-tinues to research her “dream” documentary series about music and how it affects our minds, bodies and souls. She sends her love to old friends, Sigma sisters and Theta broth-ers and can be reached at [email protected].

1996Kristi Dadekian (Taylor) and husband Andy ’96 welcomed their daughter, Sonya Lynne, on Nov. 12, 2004. They say that they are enjoying their new roles as parents. Andy is a sound editor in Beverly Hills and Kristi is a stay-at-home mom.

Amber Dermont, MA ’96, is pursuing a doctorate in Eng-lish and creative writing at the University of Houston. She

received her M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1998. She has received five Pushcart Prize nominations and one work received a special men-tion in the 2004 Pushcart Anthology. She will spend the 2004-2005 academic year as Faculty Fiction Writer in Resi-dence at Rice University.

Alicia DiOrio Hanson, MA ’96, has written a book (actu-ally her master’s project) entitled One Life’s Dream, which was published by Publish America and released in February.

Heather Griffin married Pierre Dolciney Jr. last September in Chappaqua, N.Y. Alumni in attendance included Jessica Cerretani, Melisa Verrecchia and Matt Martin. Heather and Pierre are social workers. They re-side in White Plains. Heather says old friends can write to [email protected].

Communication sciences and disorders alumni from the Class of ’93 (from left) Andrea (Mooney) Braccio, Kathy Scaler Scott, Kathleen Browning and Karen Levy gathered at Kathy’s home in New Jersey to celebrate Kathy receiving her board recognition in fluency disorders. Kathy currently works for a private practice in New Jersey, Kathleen and Karen for schools in Massachusetts, and Andrea with a variety of clients in Pennsylvania.

Cathy Picard ’90 has earned her doctoral degree from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Ore. She is setting up a family practice in Nashua, N.H.

Kevin Mercuri ’91, MA ’93, orchestrated a VIP event at the Friars Club of New York and hosted Larry Holmes, former heavyweight boxing champ, as the guest of honor. After a stint of living in Washington, D.C., Kevin moved to New York and heads up a PR team for 5W Public Relations.


Suzanne Kiss married Ed Vick of Providence, R.I., in June 2002. After years of work-ing for various corporations, Suzanne left to pursue music and teach voice at an indepen-dent music school in West Haven, Conn. She performs regularly in two separate acoustic projects.

Melanie (LeBlanc) Terburg recently became an adjunct professor at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova University. She received her master’s degree in public administration from Villanova in 2002 and works at the university as assistant director for external relations.

Chael Needle, MFA ’97, has been working for the past four years as managing edi-tor of A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine, a national nonprofit HIV/AIDS publication. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at SUNY/Albany and lives in Astoria, N.Y.

1998Gabrielle Byrd Williams is di-rector of publications at Pacific University in Oregon. She lives with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, Matigan, in Lake Oswego. She also serves as secretary of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center.

Michaela Cavallaro, MA ’98, editor of Mainebiz, has received the U.S. Small Busi-ness Administration’s highest award, the National Small Business Journalist of the Year for 2005.

A video by Kheven Lee La-Grone, The Magic of the Ship, was included in the Black International Cinema Festival 2005 in Berlin.

1999Lily Holbrook had her major label debut in March, when her CD Everything was Beauti-ful and Nothing Hurt was released by Virgin Records.

Stacy McKee, MFA ’99, is working on the writing staff of the medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, on ABC. Stacy encourages current students or alumni interested in screen- and TV writing to get in touch at [email protected].

Sarah Simons earned her master’s degree in speech-language pathology in 2003 at the University of Redlands and decided to make Redlands her new home after meet-ing “a wonderful man,” Andy Ommen. Andy and Sarah are engaged and plan to marry on Sept. 22, 2005, in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Dana Van Nest, MFA ’99, works in marketing for The Collins Group, a fundraising consulting firm. Prior to that she freelanced for Amazon.com. In 2002 she sold her movie script Turn Right by the Yellow Dog to the Danish Film Institute. The film premiered at the Copenhagen Film Festival in 2003. A second script has been optioned by Sage Productions, a Boston company. Dana lives in Seattle with her son, Finnian.

2000Heather MacFarlane ran in the Walt Disney World Mara-thon as part of the Arthritis Foundation’s Joints in Motion Training Team. Heather’s goal was to raise $3,000 in honor of her friend Lisa Maisels, an adult with arthritis who recently died, and for Rachael Morton, a 9-year-old diag-nosed with mixed connective tissue disease, a rare form of juvenile arthritis.

Eric Shapiro has published a new novel, an apocalyptic tale called It’s Only Temporary, which is about a road trip through Armageddon.

Greg Waxberg is continuing his freelance writing. He pub-lished an essay about James Levine, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on FanFaire.com and has written program notes for or-chestras and opera companies in Mississippi, Atlanta and San Francisco.

Alison Herson ’97 had a small speaking part in the Oscar-winning movie Sideways. She plays “Foxen Wine Pourer” and her scene takes place in the first 30 minutes of the film, so “don’t blink,” she says. She works as sales and marketing director for American Flatbread in California.

Joya Dee Reusch ’97 married Josh Weinroth on an avocado farm in Camarillo, Calif., on Oct. 16, 2004. Many Emersonians attended the rain-drenched affair (the wedding ended a nearly six-month drought!).

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ementary education at Lesley University and is engaged to Joey Resendes from Medford.

Francis Cruz, MFA ’02, taught freshman writing at Emerson for a year. Francis is an ordained Catholic priest and he officiates masses at St. Joseph’s Parish in Boston.

Ari Haas is enrolled in the Peter Stark Producing Pro-gram at the cinema school at the University of Southern California. He will finish the program in May 2006.

2003Brendan Carrick, MA ’03, moved back to his hometown of Chicago and is working as a manuscript editor for The Astrophysical Journal at the University of Chicago Press.

Jim Gash appeared last winter in an off-Broadway show called Mud.

2001Karishma Chatterjee is at Ohio State University pursu-ing a doctorate in communica-tion and hopes to graduate in the fall of 2006.

Kathy LaRoque is the new director of multimedia studies at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Mass. Students in the program learn technical skills needed to create websites, work in video production, audio production, digital photography or com-puter graphics and animation.

Alexis Rizzuto, MFA ’01, mar-ried Alex Herbstritt and lives in Cambridge, Mass. She works as assistant editor of Da Capo Press and teaches creative nonfiction at Grub Street Writers. She is in touch with Emerson alums Andrea DuPree, Michael Henry, Jen-

nifer Vacchiano and Vic Vogler, who all live in Denver, Colo.

Josh Zagoren wrote a play that was performed by the Corn Theater in Chicago. He also joined the conservatory company of “Second City.”

Lara Zieses, MFA ’01, sold her young adult novel, Bring-ing Up the Bones, (Delacorte Press/Random House 2002) two days after she graduated from Emerson. Her fourth book with Delacorte, The Dream Life of Stella Madison, is under contract and will be out in spring 2007.

2002Lisa Bairos is working as a third-grade teacher for the Waltham (Mass.) Public Schools. She recently earned her master’s degree in el-

Sara Murphy ’99 is manager of marketing and special events at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Mass. “Knights, Romans, Vikings and the occasional Joan of Arc are all standard fare at the museum’s events,” she says. She’d love to hear from other alums at: [email protected].

David Simmer ’98 and Emily Messinger ’99 plan to marry this spring in Malibu, Calif. David has been producing films since graduation and owns the legendary Beverly Hills restaurant, La Dolce Vita. Emily currently works for the city of Santa Monica and continues to work on her own entertainment projects.

Jennifer Katz is an assistant account executive at Weinberg Harris & Associates, a Balti-more-based marketing and public relations agency.

Sandra Luzzi Sneesby, MA ’03, has been working as a steering committee member for the Boston Avid Users Group. Sandra also designed the website for the group and is one of its webmasters.

2004Brittany Bang landed her dream job: working for the Boston Red Sox. Brittany works in the fan services department and says her com-munications degree from Em-erson is put to good use every day. “Thank you, Emerson!”

Joshua Flaccavento has moved to Pennsylvania, where he is an AmeriCorps volunteer. He is also working on a novella, How I Became the Dictator of Italy.


Because at the end of the day, it’s teaching that matters the most

performing arts, and we’re still a relatively small and intimate institution where students and teachers get to know each other,” she says. “Facilities are certainly important, but at the end of the day it’s teaching that matters the most at Emerson.”

To recognize and promote excellence in the classroom, Miller established the Helaine and Stanley Miller Award for Outstanding Teaching. It is presented annually to a full-time faculty member who demonstrates “remarkable dedication and creativity while encouraging their students to master their discipline(s) of study.”

“The candidates are chosen with signifi cant input from students and department chairs,” Miller says. “I’ve been delighted with the process and with the results, and I am pleased to be able to support Emerson in this way.”

Why Emerson College?

As a student, active alumna, former trustee and donor, Helaine Miller ’55 has seen a lot of changes at Emerson since she graduated.

“The growth in academic quality, facilities and reputation, especially in the past decade, has been phenomenal,” says the Newton, Mass., resident and former vice president for development at Beth Israel Hospital. “I’ve never been prouder of Emerson College than I am today.”

Miller says facilities like the newly restored Cutler Majestic Theatre and external programs at Castle Well in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles provide “incredible opportunities for students that we could not even imagine when I went to school here.”

Despite the changes, however, Miller believes the essence of the college remains the same. “We’re still a college of communication and

For more information about the Annual

Fund and gift opportunities, please contact

Martha Cassidy Krohn, Annual Fund

Director, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA

02116-4624 or Martha_Cassidy@emerson.

edu. To learn more, visit www.emerson.

edu/alumni/ and click on “Giving.”

Helaine Miller ’55

Jordan Ross spent last sum-mer working on a guide to Emerson for prospective students. Published by Col-lege Prowler Inc., the guide includes information about Emerson academics, student life and local atmosphere.

in the 2004 short fi ction contest sponsored by Moment magazine and the Karma Foundation.

Mark Snyder is employed as offi ce manager at the Boston Alliance of LGBT youth. The

Alliance has been providing social support for queer youth in the Boston area for 25 years. He writes: “Thank you, Emer-son College!”

Nina R. Schneider, MFA ’04, teaches a variety of writing courses at Rhode Island Col-lege in Providence and Lasell College in Newton, Mass. One of her short stories, “The Accomplice,” was a fi nalist

Nichole (Cherill) Hynes ’00 and Matt Hynes ’02 were married Oct. 9, 2004, in Somerset, N.J. Many Emerson alumni were in attendance. Nichole is a television segment producer and Matt works for Warner Bros. Home Video. They currently make their home in Burbank, Calif.

Where Are YouAnd What are You Doing

Please use the form below to submit news that you would like to share with your fellow Emersonians. Or, if you prefer, e-mail your news to [email protected]; 1-800-255-4259; fax: 1-617-824-7807. New job? Recently engaged or married? New baby? Moving? Recently ran into an old classmate? Received an award? Let us know. Visit www.emerson.edu/alumni to submit Class Notes, stay connected to other alums and more.

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Your News

Mail to: Class Notes, Emerson College, Offi ce of Alumni Relations, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116-4624

Emerson College120 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts02116-4624

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Audience AnticipationMembers of the audience at the 2005 EVVY Awards, held at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, wait to hear the announcement of the next student prize winner. (For more photos, see the front inside cover of this issue.)

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Documents

Expression Spring 2005