GS Class of 2013

Chronicle Books published The New Brownies Book: A Love Letter to Black Families by Karida L. Brown ’13 AM, ’16 PhD and her artist husband, Charly Palmer, in October. 

Brianna Craft ’13 AM is a researcher and author of the climate change memoir, Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir.

Hannah Varner and Max Monn ’12, ’13 ScM, ’18 PhD, were married in October by Joshua Ruder ’16. More than three dozen Brown alumni were there to celebrate and recount stories about the couple. Hannah and Max met at the spring Student Activities Fair in 2011 thanks to Rachel Kaplan. They are so grateful to have such a close community from their time at Brown whose members helped create a spectacular weekend.

In April 2022, Baobab Press released Souvenirs, a collaborative work of short fiction and prose poems by Andrew Colarusso ’13 MFA and Karen An-hwei Lee ’95 ’97 MFA. A collection of visions shared across cyberspace, Souvenirs celebrates fragments from the literary afterlife. In this collection of miniature fictions and contemporary fables, objects take on shapes of their own designs, creating a composite map to a world populated with little transparent souls and ghost ships in lost bottles; a menagerie of curios; photophores of bioluminescence humming in the depths; light begetting light, deep calling to deep. Colarusso and Lee seem to write from a single mind as they strike a balance between humor and philosophy; the acute and the everlasting. The ideas they discuss—religion, faith, universality, continuance—are large, but their prose is accessible, and at times outright hilarious.

Martín Guzmán, Minister of Economy for Argentina, has been chosen by Pope Francis to join the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. His appointment is for 10 years. The academy is dedicated to “promoting the study and progress of social, economic, political, and legal sciences in the light of the social doctrine of the Church.” In addition to serving as Minister, Guzmán is a research assistant at Columbia University, where he directs the debt restructuring program and is a member of the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s Taskforce on Macroeconomic Efficiency and Stability. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Buenos Aires and at the National University of La Plata, both in Argentina, and directs the Journal of Globalization and Development.

Samantha Jackson ’13 AM, a U.S. diplomat, coauthored an article published in the Foreign Service Journal, a foreign affairs journal from the perspective of American Foreign Service personnel. The article is a reflection on race and service from six Black women working at the State Department.

Cindy Andrews Elder ’13 MPA (see Barbara Kirk Hail ’52).

Class president Barbara Kirk Hail reports: “I have been in touch with several classmates to ask how they are faring during their coronavirus pandemic isolation. The virus has created a new reality for all of us. For our age group particularly, perhaps it is not all bad. It gives us time to think over, appreciate, and put in order, the experiences of our long lives. May we all come together in 2022 at Brown reunion and share our collective wisdom. All my hopes for good health for all of our classmates, and for the world.

As for myself, I am self-isolating in my condo in Warren, Rhode Island, but the adjacent bike path allows a physical and emotional release with walks along the river and opportunities to observe ospreys perched on their nests before darting down to scoop up fish to feed their young. My daughter, Cindy Andrews Elder ’13 MPA, fills my grocery list weekly and disinfects all boxes, cans, fresh vegetables, and fruit before delivering it to my refrigerator. My son, Clinton Andrews ’78, a professor at Rutgers, had to master the new art of teaching a seminar in urban planning by Zoom. My daughter, Elizabeth Andrews Byers ’79, is working from home in Elkins, West Virginia, through webinars and Zoom with her fellows at the State DEM. Elizabeth’s husband, Alton, is home writing proposals for their next trip to Nepal, where they study glacial melting. Their son, Daniel Byers ’08, is studying filmmaking at Columbia University and finished his academic year on Zoom while living with his parents. For the first two weeks after arriving home, his parents sealed off a section of the house for him and served him his dinner on a stump outside his door. It is a quiet household, all three of them in their separate corners, online, working hard. At 5 p.m. they break and go for a long walk six feet apart with masks on. The new reality.”

Olga Rocha and Peter Vail were married on Aug. 3 at Grace Episcopal Church in downtown Providence. Molly Lao officiated the nuptials with Stephen Albright, Brittany Fidalgo, Anthony Rivera ’14 and Zach Sosa serving in the bridal party. Fellow Brunonians Mahalia Clark ’15; Mariah Lohse ’14; Annam Nguyen ’12,’13 ScM; Grace Palmer; Brian Sokolow; and David Storch were also in attendance.
 

Ashley Bowen’13 AM, ’17 PhD curated three exhibitions for the Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine in 2019. In June 2019, Rashes to Research: Scientists and Parents Confront the 1964 Rubella Epidemic opened to the public. This exhibition highlights the work of researchers and parents to limit the impact of rubella in the years before an effective vaccine nearly eliminated the disease from the United States. The banner exhibition and special display will be available through September 25, 2019 in the History of Medicine Division Reading Room, first floor of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Building 38 on the Bethesda,  Maryland, campus of the National Institutes of Health.

Ashley E. Bowen ’13 AM, ’17 PhD, curated Rise, Serve, Lead! America’s Women Physicians, a banner exhibition with the U.S. National Library of Medicine that went up at the Bethesda campus of the National Institutes of Health in March. The exhibition, in commemoration of Women’s History Month, highlighted the lives and achievements of more than 300 women physicians who have made a difference through their medical practice and research, work as activists, service as administrators, and mentorship to the next generation of physicians. The companion online adaptation includes an educational component and a digital gallery of books and journal articles authored by some of the doctors profiled in the exhibition that give a view into both their scientific research and experiences in a male-dominated field.