2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
WESEMINAR Of Ospreys and Sea Grass Beds: Adaptation in the time of Human-Altered Landscapes
Humans have altered the planet since the origin of humans. As a society we must focus on how we adapt to continued alteration and protect critical parts of the natural world for both human and environmental health. In this WESeminar we will present two studies that demonstrate how we can protect the critical linkages between humans and ecosystems with positive outcomes.
Presenters: Barry Chernoff, Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, is Director of the College of the Environment and Professor in the departments of Biology, and Earth and Environmental Studies. Dr. Chernoff researches aquatic ecosystem ecology and conservation genetics of fishes. He teaches courses in science and environmental issues. Helen Poulos is an adjunct associate professor of environmental studies at Wesleyan. She is a plant ecologist who examines the effects adaptive management on forest, grassland, and wetland health. Dr. Paul Spitzer ’68 is a lifelong professional ecologist, with special interest in Ospreys (50 years) and nonbreeding Common Loons (30 years). He and Christine have lived by the Choptank River, MD eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, for 30 years.
Allbritton 311

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
WESEMINAR This Place Matters: Student Research on Middletown’s African American History commemorates 50 Years of AFAM at Wesleyan
In the 1820s, as northern slavery ended and the political battle over southern slavery intensified, free African Americans formed a remarkable property-owning community on what is now the western edge of Wesleyan’s campus. These men and women transformed Middletown, a slave trading river port during the 18th century, into a center of the antislavery movement. Here they sheltered those escaping on the Underground Railroad, hosted renowned abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, and owned homes that demonstrated free African Americans’ independence and fitness for freedom in a slave society skeptical of both. Join Professor Jesse Nasta and the students in his African American Studies/service learning course as they share their research on Middletown’s nationally-significant African American history. Through the efforts of the Vanguard Class fifty years ago in establishing the Center for African American Studies, the relationship of this community to Wesleyan can be told.
Presenter: Dr. Jesse Nasta '07 is a Visiting Assistant Professor of African American Studies. His Black Middletown Lives service learning course draws upon his 2007 Wesleyan honors thesis, “‘Their Own Guardians and Protectors’: African American Community in Middletown, Connecticut, 1822-1860.”
Student presenters: Samantha Aibinder '18; Tatiana Ettensberger '18; Tedra James '18; Rose Johnson-Brown '18; Henry Prine '18; Jess Wachtler '18; Catherine Wulff '18 
Room 116, Judd Hall

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
WESEMINAR Five Years Out
Alumni from the class of 2013 will come together to talk about their career paths, the struggles they've faced and the successes they've achieved, and share their perspectives on navigating today’s workforce as a young professional. Sharon Belden Castonguay, Director of Wesleyan’s Gordon Career Center, will offer opening remarks and facilitate the discussion. Bring your own stories and add your voice to the conversation; interactive audience participation is encouraged.
Presenters: Kevin Curtin ’13 is a Private Banker with J.P. Morgan Chase’s Private Bank in Boston. He began his career in J.P. Morgan’s TMT Investment Banking practice in New York, and before rejoining the firm spent two years in private equity at Summit Partners and as a Special Projects Manager to the CEO at Jobcase. Leah Koenig '13 is trying to make a career out of talking about sex, currently as research faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her research looks at the intersection of social factors and reproductive health, and has recently involved studies of condom use among sex workers and of the influence of gender norms on sexual health.Jessica Sherry ’13 is a PhD candidate at The University of California, San Francisco. She studies the interactions between various bacterial pathogens and their human hosts. Kyle Somersall ’13 is an entrepreneur, meditation teacher, and the founder of Innerglow. He's interested in building community around mindfulness and meaningful connection.
Room 112, Boger Hall

3:30 PM to 4:30 PM
WESEMINAR Expanding Access with the Center for Prison Education
Since 2009, the Center for Prison Education has brought the transformative power of a Wesleyan Education behind prison bars. Please join us for a panel discussion of why college-in-prison is important for reversing the trends of mass incarceration and fostering healthier communities and universities.
Moderator: Noah A. Barth, Center for Prison Education Program Manager
Presenters: Xavier Cornejo ’18, Center for Prison Education Undergraduate Volunteer; Anthony Ryan Hatch, Associate Professor of Science in Society; Associate Professor, African American Studies; and Associate Professor, Sociology at Wesleyan University; Nate Martinez, Center for Prison Education alum; Margot Weiss, Associate Professor of American Studies; Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology; and Associate Professor, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University.
Room 208, Fisk Hall

3:30 PM to 4:30 PM
WESEMINAR The Circle of Life and the Lost Rites
In our drive to live in a highly technical but basically desacralized cosmos, we modern humans have lost those Rites of Passage that guided our forebears through life’s great transitions – adolescence, midlife, and the elder passage. This seminar will re-introduce those Lost Rites, using ancient wisdom to inform and give shape to contemporary rituals to fill the vacuum. Although we will discuss all three Rites, our focus will be on the Rite for the Elder Passage.
Presenter: Bill Roberts ’63, P’96, lived in Africa when he was a student at Wesleyan. There he met a traditional shaman, a ju ju man, and heard about the rituals that initiate adolescents into adulthood. When he returned for his senior year, he wrote an honor’s thesis on African Religious Thought and began a life-long quest to rediscover the power of classic Rites of Passage. Bill was an Assistant Dean of Admissions in the dynamic but turbulent late 1960s, then the minister of the First Church in Middletown for nearly 20 years, where in 1974 he created an Initiation Rite. He has published two books: INITIATION TO ADULTHOOD: AN ANCIENT RITE OF PASSAGE IN CONTEMPORARY FORM and CROSSING THE SOUL’S RIVER: A RITE OF PASSAGE FOR MEN (AT MIDLIFE). He has offered courses in the Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning, including most recently a course on Psyche and Science.
Putnam Classroom (114), Boger Hall

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
WESEMINAR The Workplace for Wesleyan Women Today
Wesleyan women have been making their mark on the world for over forty years. In light of #MeToo, Time’s Up and other women’s movements, what does the workplace look like for Wes Women today? Alumnae from across the decades come together to share their experiences. Interactive audience participation is encouraged.
Sponsored by the Wesleyan Women’s Network and the Wesleyan Lawyers Association
Presenters: Lynn Chen ’98 is an actor, food host/blogger, and an Ambassador for The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). She is directing her first feature film later this year. More info at lynnchen.com. Jessica Golden Cortes ’98 is a partner in the Labor & Employment group of Davis & Gilbert LLP in New York. She regularly counsels and actively litigates on behalf of her clients in all aspects of employment law, and frequently conducts employment trainings across the country, educating her clients in subjects such as respect in the workplace (including how to navigate claims in the #metoo movement), internal investigations, unconscious bias and manager best practices. Lisa Renery Handalian ’88 is a User Experience Researcher at UBER. She spends her days interviewing Drivers and telling their stories back to the Design and Product teams to improve the Driver experience. Lisa learned at UBER during the 2017 upheaval that exposed gender inequities found in many Silicon Valley corporations. Libeth Morales ’08 is a public relations professional with over ten years of experience in entertainment publicity, cause marketing, and social justice movement communications. She is a proud LA native and an avid Dodgers fan; and Melody Oliphant '13 is a fundraiser with the Stacey Abrams for Governor campaign, working to elect the nation's first Black woman governor in her home state of Georgia. She began her post-Wesleyan career as a research associate in genetics at Icahn School of Medicine and Yale School of Medicine. In 2017, she left scientific research to work in service to Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, and Mark Herring, who were elected to statewide office in Virginia last November.
Moderator: Megan Norris ’83, P’17 is the chair of the Managing Partners and leader of the Employment and Labor Group for Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone in Detroit. Elected by her national peers to both the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers, she has expertise litigating all matters of employment law. At Wesleyan, she is an Emerita Trustee and longtime volunteer, having served as chair of the Alumni Association and co-chair of the Wesleyan Annual Fund, to highlight just two of her many volunteer roles.
Hansel Lecture Hall (001), Public Affairs Center (PAC)

7:30 PM to 8:30 PM
WESEMINAR The Leavers: A Novel
The Wesleyan R.J. Julia bookstore welcomes Lisa Ko ’98, author of The Leavers, a novel which was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.
One morning, Deming Guo’s mother Polly goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. Left with no one to care for him, eleven-year-old Deming is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.” But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.
A vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging, The Leavers is the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away—and how one woman learns to live with the mistakes of her past.
Presenter: Lisa Ko’s ’98 writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, The New York Times, BuzzFeed, O. Magazine, and elsewhere. She has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the MacDowell Colony, among others. Born in Queens and raised in Jersey, she lives in Brooklyn.
Moderator: Sean McCann, Professor of English and Director of Academic Writing at Wesleyan, studies late-nineteenth and twentieth century American literature and its relation to contemporaneous political development. He is the author of A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism (Duke University Press, 2000), which received honorable mention for the America Studies Association's John Hope Franklin Prize for the best book in American Studies. His essays have appeared in American Quarterly, The Common Review, ELH, Radical History Review, Twentieth-Century Literature, Studies in American Fiction, the Yale Journal of Criticism, and several edited volumes.
Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore, 413 Main Street

9:30 AM to 10:30 AM
WESEMINAR The Transgender Body and Undoing the Male Gaze
This Capstone project presents the work of master photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Ruth Bernhard and how their work inspires and informs the portrait photography of the author. The project also includes the book Transfiguration: How Bright Is the Light, a collection of 45 photographs of the author's wife, Brianna Johnston, a trans woman. The paper and the photographs delve into the challenges of being transgender in society, how the gaze -- male and female -- influences photographs of women, and the radiant beauty of a woman simply being her true self. *Please note: nude photographs are included in this presentation.
Presenter: Sharron Emmons holds an MBA and MS in Industrial Relations from the University of New Haven and will receive a MALS degree this weekend from Wesleyan University. She is a retired energy industry professional who actively participated in the Marriage Equality movement and continues to work on other social justice efforts.
Room 208, Fisk Hall

9:30 AM to 10:30 AM
WESEMINAR Lessons from Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, the guiding force of Hamilton, studied at Wesleyan University and for a time with Karl Scheibe, Professor of Psychology Emeritus. Hamilton is a convincing example of the value of melding the perspective of theater with the concepts of psychology. The play is not only a lesson in history—celebrating the genius of an 18th Century figure. It is also an exhibition of what might be achieved by adroit leadership of a talented group of people—where the ensemble performance is more than the sum of its parts. This is a musical for the ages—producing an experience for its audiences that has multi-dimensional depth—of character as well as of history. It is a work suffused with emotion and productive of joy.
Presenter: Karl E. Scheibe is Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Wesleyan University, where he taught from 1963-2005. From 2004-2017 he was Director or Director Emeritus of the Wasch Center for Retired Faculty at Wesleyan. He received his undergraduate degree at Trinity College and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California. He was twice a Fulbright Professor at the Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is a social psychologist and licensed clinician, author or editor of eight books and scores of journal articles. He is the former Director of the Saybrook Counseling Center. His recent books include Self-Studies, The Drama of Everyday Life, Deep Drama: Explorations in psychology and theater, and The Storied Nature of Human Life: The Life and Work of Theodore R. Sarbin.
Hansel Lecture Hall (001), Public Affairs Center (PAC)

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
WESEMINAR Celebration of Wesleyan Writing: Practicing Journalism in the Time of Fake News
Join us and talk with this panel of distinguished alumni about the challenges journalists face today.
Hannah Dreier ’08 is currently a reporter at ProPublica covering immigration. Previously she was Venezuela correspondent for Associated Press, where she received awards from The Society of Professional Journalists and Overseas Press Club, and the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism. Emily Greenhouse ’08 has worked at The New York Review of Books and Granta magazine, and she was a reporter on gender and politics at Bloomberg News. She is now the managing editor of The New Yorker magazine. Steven Greenhouse ’73, P’08 was a reporter for the New York Times for 31 years, retiring from the Times in late 2014 after spending his last 19 years there as the NYT's labor and workplace reporter. He is the author of The Big Squeeze, Tough Times for the American Worker (2008 Alfred A. Knopf). He has taught at Wesleyan as a
Koeppel Journalism Fellow, and he is now working on a new book. Maria Santana-Guadalupe ’98 is New York anchor and correspondent for CNN En Español, and she also worked as a reporter for Mega TV, a network in the Spanish Broadcasting System. She is a two-time News and Documentary Emmy nominee.
Moderator: Prof. Anne Greene, University Professor of English; Coordinator of the Writing Certificate and the Kim-Frank Visiting Writers program
Ring Family Performing Arts Hall

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
WESEMINAR Genetics in Medicine: How technology is improving our ability to screen, diagnose, and treat
How does modern medicine use genetics? Join ’03 leaders in the field for a discussion about recent technological breakthroughs, and how these advances influence diagnosis and treatment today.
Presenters: Matthew Fox ’03 is the Chief Executive Officer for Pairnomix, a genetic research company focused on rare neurological disease. Prior to joining Pairnomix, Matthew led corporate strategy on the executive team at Upsher-Smith Laboratories, a branded and generic pharmaceutical company. Before joining Upsher-Smith, Matthew spent a decade as a professional healthcare investor, last working as a Portfolio Manager at Bank am Bellevue in Zurich, Switzerland. Additionally, Matthew is a Board Member for Proximagen, a clinical stage biotech company, and Treasurer of the Edina School Board in his home town in Minnesota. He holds a B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Wesleyan University. Mark Umbarger ’03 is the Head of Technology – Reproductive Health at Invitae. Mark has over 14 years of experience developing enabling genomic technologies, including the polony sequencing system, one of the first next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) systems, which he worked on while in lab of George Church at Harvard Medical School. More recently, Mark was responsible for the development of Good Start Genetics’ (now Invitae) genetic testing portfolio which included carrier and preimplantation genetic screening offerings, tests that made routine genetic testing both more accurate and affordable. Mark holds a PhD in Genetics from Harvard University and a BA in Chemistry and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Wesleyan University.
Moderator: Ishita Mukerji is Fisk Professor of Natural Science and in the Molecular Biophysics Program at Wesleyan University. She investigates protein-DNA interactions using a variety of spectroscopic approaches. She has been honored with the National Science Foundation Career Development Award (CAREER, 1995) and received the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation Investigator Award (2001). Her research has also been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. She was recently elected to be a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and named a Woman of Innovation by the Connecticut Technology Council. She is also actively involved in promoting diversity in science at all levels and currently directs the Wesleyan Math and Science Scholars program, which supports students from underrepresented groups pursue a degree in STEM fields.
Room 116, Judd Hall

10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
WESEMINAR College of the Environment
Regardless of one's opinions about issues such as climate change or carbon taxes, it is clear that environmental issues will dominate national and international politics and news over the next century. To fully prepare students to participate effectively in these important discussions, Wesleyan has taken a major step to support environmental research, communication, teaching, and policy development, with its Environmental Studies Program and the College of the Environment (COE). Come listen to the exciting details of the Environmental Studies Program and the College of the Environment by Professor Barry Chernoff, Chair of the Environmental Studies Program. Then join us while the Class of 2018 presents their senior capstone projects during our poster session.
Woodhead Lounge, Exley Science Center

10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
WESEMINAR Wesleyan and The Great War
In 1914, The Great War—known later as World War I—broke out in Europe. Wesleyan became a war campus in the years that followed. After the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany in 1917, college life at Wesleyan “took on a belligerent aspect,” as Carl F. Price, Class of 1902, observed later. “Minor sports, dramatics, dances, were dropped. The students were in army uniform, rose early in the morning to drill, were allowed no cuts from classes. A trench seamed part of the back of campus, and armed guards challenged all comers.” By the time the Armistice was signed in 1918—100 years ago this year—some 1,200 Wesleyan faculty, staff, students, and alumni provided military or civilian service, including twenty-six students and alumni who died. Attend this illustrated presentation to learn how the “War to End All Wars” impacted Wesleyan.
Presenter: Leith Johnson, University Archivist
Room 112, Boger Hall

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
WESEMINAR Epilepsy Research & Advocacy at Wesleyan and Beyond
One in 26 Americans will develop epilepsy in their lifetime and 65 million people around the world need a cure. Randy ’83 and Lisa Siegel are parents of a daughter with severe epilepsy and a healthy adult son. They are strong advocates for families and parents of children with epilepsy and help to spread the word about epilepsy and the search for new cures. They are regular visitors in neuroscience classes at Wesleyan, and have inspired many undergraduates when talking about their advocacy work. Randy and Lisa have generously supported five research internships for Wesleyan undergraduate students working on novel therapies for epilepsy in the Naegele Lab. In this panel, three former Siegel summer research fellows will join Randy, Lisa and Jan to talk about the impact that this fellowship has had on their careers and the importance of translational research on epilepsy. 
Presenters: Janice R. Naegele P'16 is the Alan M Dachs Professor of Science, Professor of Biology, and member of the Program in Neuroscience and Behavior. Research in the Naegele Lab focuses on gene and neural stem-cell based therapies for epilepsy. Professor Naegele is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Since joining the faculty in 1991, she has served as Chair of the Department of Biology, Director of the Center for Faculty Career Development and is currently Chair of the Wesleyan faculty. Daniel B. Lawrence '15, MA '16 BA and MA in Neuroscience and Behavior from Wesleyan University. After his graduate training, he worked as a research associate in the Naegele lab for an additional two years investigating a novel gene therapy for epilepsy and small-molecule inhibitor for treating temporal lobe epilepsy. This fall, Daniel will be joining the University of Connecticut School of Medicine as a member of the class of 2022. Sylwia Lipior ’18 is a senior Neuroscience and Behavior major at Wesleyan. As a member of the Naegele lab, she is looking at how overexpression of Neuroligin 2 in the hippocampus enhances inhibitory circuitry and alters behavioral outcomes in mice. Janice R. Naegele is the Alan M Dachs Professor of Science, Professor of Biology, and member of the Program in Neuroscience and Behavior. Research in the Naegele Lab focuses on gene and neural stem-cell based therapies for epilepsy. Professor Naegele is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Since joining the faculty in 1991, she has served as Chair of the Department of Biology, Director of the Center for Faculty Career Development and is currently Chair of the Wesleyan faculty. Elizabeth Paquette '16 is a former Siegel summer research fellow. Randy Siegel ’83 is CEO of Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the United States, which operates the leading news and information companies in more than 25 cities. Since joining Advance Publications in 2001, Randy has served as President of Local Digital Strategy as well as President of Parade Publications when it was part of Advance Publications. He was also an executive at The Washington Post Company. Randy has published three children’s books with Neal Porter Books and has written for several publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Advertising Age. He has served on the boards of Share our Strength, Research America, An Open Book Foundation, Cure Epilepsy and the Epilepsy Foundation.
Room 116, Judd Hall

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
WESEMINAR Reclaiming the Gaze: African American Prints and Photographs, 1930 to Now
Reclaiming the Gaze presents a dynamic survey of African American prints and photographs from the 1930s to the present. These striking works range from the expressionist style of Hale Woodruff to the photographs of the Civil Rights movement by Ernest C. Withers, and from feminist interventions by Betye Saar and Faith Ringgold to postmodern commentaries on identity by Glenn Ligon ’82 and Robert Pruitt. The exhibition highlights forty-two prints and photographs from the Davison Art Center collection, representing a wide range of styles and subject matter, and created across nine decades. Each artist claimed his or her vision as an African American, intervening in the artistic conventions that assumed a white male gaze. Reception to follow.
Presenters: Peter A. Mark, Professor of African and African-American Art at Wesleyan University and Rielly Wieners ’18, student curator of this exhibit.
Gallery, Davison Art Center

1:15 PM to 2:15 PM
WESEMINAR Shifting Conversations: Communities of Color in Today’s Political and Social Climate
Alumni of color will discuss how discourse across multiple sectors is shifting in response to the current political and social climate, the impact on communities of color, and the extent to which people of color are participating in the discourse.
Presenters: Joyce Y. Hall ’78 is the Director of Practicum and Career Development and Adjunct Assistant Professor for the Master of Public Health Program at Long Island University Brooklyn. Ms. Hall has extensive experience in primary health care services, public and community health, adolescent health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS services, coalition building, and research through governmental and non-governmental agencies. She earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry and a Certificate from the Institute for Not-For-Profit Management, Columbia University Business School. Daniel Martinez HoSang ’93 is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race & Migration at Yale University. His teaching and scholarship examine the contradictory labor of race within U.S. political culture across a wide range of sites. Before graduate school, he worked as a labor and community organizer in California for a decade around racial justice issues. He earned a Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California. Alford A. Young, Jr. ’88 is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Sociology, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. His central research focus has been on how low-income African American men construct understandings of various aspects of social reality. He has also researched the experiences of African American scholars. His books include The Minds of Marginalized Black Men: Making Sense of Mobility, Opportunity, and Future Life Chances (Princeton University Press) and Are Black Men Doomed? (Polity Press). He earned an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Moderator: Saeyun D. Lee ’93 is an education policy consultant who is contributing to the development and implementation of education policies and initiatives to increase students’ access to transformative learning opportunities from birth through postsecondary education; close persistent attainment and achievement gaps; increase college and career readiness; and enhance policy alignment, collaboration, and organizational coherence across the early education, K-12, and higher education sectors. She earned an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Ph.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Room 112, Boger Hall

1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
WESEMINAR The Annual Ring Family Wesleyan University Israeli Film Festival presents The Wedding Doll
This WESeminar will consist of the screening of the Israeli movie Wedding Doll, followed by a Q/A session with its director, Nitzan Gilady, Center for Jewish Studies Distinguished Scholar in Residence. Wedding Doll inaugurated the 10th Annual Ring Family Wesleyan University Israeli Film Festival in 2017 and is the first feature film which he directed, wrote and produced. It won 3 International awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival 2015 (including Best Debut Film), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, received 9 Israeli academy award nominations and received 2 awards: Best Actress and Best Costumes as well as 7 additional international awards.
Presenters: Nitzan Gilady is a director, producer and scriptwriter of the documentary films “Jerusalem Is Proud To Present,” “Family Time,” “In Satmar Custody” and “The Last Enemy”. His films have received 13 international awards, participated in hundreds of international film festivals and been broadcast by prestigious TV channels all over the world (among them: Sundance channel and ZDF-ARTE). Dalit Katz, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, will introduce the director and moderate the discussion.
Ring Family Performing Arts Hall

2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
WESEMINAR What if the community was your classroom? What we have learned from 20 years of Service Learning at Wesleyan
Service Learning integrates experiences outside the classroom with an academic curriculum taught within the classroom. How did it begin at Wesleyan and what has happened since? Faculty and alumni instrumental in shaping this experiential learning program share stories from its twenty year history.
Speakers: Peggy Carey Best is Director for Service Learning. Rob Rosenthal was a founding director of the Service-Learning Center and the Center for Community Partnerships. He retired as John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology on January 1, 2018. Tim Whyte '98 is Secretary General at ActionAid Denmark, a global justice organization. He helped start the Service Learning program while at Wesleyan and has since worked in the field of global development, human rights and social activism. Alan Schlechter ’98, MD is a clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Medical Center and the director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Services at Bellevue Hospital Center. Alan teaches “The Science of Happiness” to almost 1,000 NYU students each year, in which he shares the mental health education that he believes all people should receive early in life. Alan is interested in using the best science that we have to foster behaviors and thoughts that might help prevent mental illness and grow well-being. Kevin Wilhelm is the President and CEO for Middlesex United Way which is creating measurable, lasting change in Education, Income, Health and Housing. He is currently the President for the Middletown Rotary Club, Chair for the Middlesex Community College Regional Advisory Council, a founder of the Coalition for Housing and Homelessness and a board director for the Middlesex Coalition for Children.
Hansel Lecture Hall (001), Public Affairs Center (PAC)

2:30 PM to 3:30 PM
WESEMINAR U.S. Healthcare: Achievements, Problems, and a Glimpse of the Possible Future
How will the next generation physicians and consumers thrive in the era of artificial intelligence, healthcare mergers and mobile biometrics technology? Join members of the class of ’73 for an engaging conversation about the future of healthcare.
Presenters: Wayne Barber ’73, P'01 MD, FACS, is the co-founder of Hearing.Games. He graduated from Yale Medical School, and completed his residency at Harvard Otolaryngology - Mass Eye & Ear/Mass General Hospital. Wayne is a former member of Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees. Tom Kelly ’73 has held a series of executive positions in health care financing and delivery. Most recently (2014 – 2016), he served as CEO of HealthSmart, the largest independent (non-carrier) administrator of health benefits. Prior to his work at HealthSmart, Tom served (2006 – 2013) as Head of Medicaid for Aetna, and as President then CEO of Schaller Anderson, its predecessor. During his professional career, Tom has also served in a wide variety of community leadership positions. He is a current board member at Fidelis Care New York (the single largest Medicaid plan in the country), among others, and also serves on advisory boards of four development stage companies. Jim Powers ’73, MD is Professor of Medicine, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt where he runs the Geriatric Fellowship. He is also the Associate Clinical Director of the Tennessee Valley GRECC. Dr. Powers received his MD with Distinction in Research from the University of Rochester (NY) in 1977 and served in the USPHS National Health Service Corps from 1980-83. He was then recruited to Vanderbilt to develop a Geriatric Medicine Teaching Program, which has grown into a Geriatric Division, with over twenty sites of care and numerous Geriatric curricula throughout the medical center. Also an accomplished author, Dr. Powers has devoted his academic career to Geriatric Nutrition, Education, and Healthcare Quality and Safety.
Room 116, Judd Hall

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
WESeminar: Meditation with Dina Kaplan '93, Founder of The Path
Dina will guide us in a half-hour meditation, followed by Q&A, covering three different techniques of meditation: mindfulness, mantra and loving-kindness. Beginning and advanced meditators are welcome to this relaxed gathering for anyone interested in mind training.
Putnam Classroom (114), Boger Hall

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
WESEMINAR Wesleyan and the Hollywood Connection
Distinguished alumnus Paul Weitz ’88, Writers Guild of America award-winning television writer Evan Katz ’83, and Academy award winner Akiva Goldsman ’83 talk about their work in movies and television and answer questions about the Wesleyan connection to the business of moving images.
Moderator: Jeanine Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, with an introduction by Scott Higgins, chair of Film Studies.
Goldsmith Family Cinema, College of Film and the Moving Image

3:30 PM to 4:30 PM
WESEMINAR Curatorial Walkthrough: Thesis Art Exhibition
Join Sara Kim '19 and Rachel Rosin '19, student curators of the Thesis Art Exhibition, for a guided curatorial walkthrough led by Tula Telfair P'13, Professor of Art. Curators will share personal highlights of the exhibition and the exhibition-making experience. Reception to follow this session. Co-sponsored by the Center for the Arts and University Relations.
Note: The Gallery is open from 12 noon- 5 p.m.
Main Gallery, Ezra & Cecile Zilkha Gallery

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
WESEMINAR Resilience and Recovery: Responding to Environmental Disasters
How do we as a nation respond to environmental disruptions and disasters? In recent memory there have been many large-scale events that have challenged how we respond as communities and as a nation – BP Oil spill, hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Sandy. In this WESeminar we examine the response to environmental disasters with an exploration of the Vietnamese refugee community in New Orleans and an examination of the oil and gas industry.
Presenters: Barry Chernoff, Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, is Director of the College of the Environment and Professor in the departments of Biology, and Earth and Environmental Studies. Dr. Chernoff researches aquatic ecosystem ecology and conservation genetics of fishes. He teaches courses in science and environmental issues. Marguerite Nguyen is an Assistant Professor of English. She is author of America's Vietnam: The Longue Durée of U.S. Literature and Empire (2018) and co-editor of Refugee Cultures: Forty Years after the Vietnam War (2016). Her next project examines cultures related to displacement and disaster in New Orleans to understand broader issues concerning refugee populations.
David F. Work ’68, P’93 is a former member of Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees and retired from BP Amoco Corporation in 2000 where he was Regional President. In this position, he was the senior BP Amoco representative in the Gulf Coast, Southwest and Rocky Mountain states. Among other senior positions in Exploration and Production and Shared Services, he also previously served as Amoco’s Group Vice President of worldwide exploration and was responsible for the company’s oil and gas exploration activities in some 30 countries. Work received his BA in Geology from Wesleyan and joined Amoco as a geologist in Denver in 1970, where he spent his early career leading exploration in the Western U.S. and Alaska. He is currently a board member of Hat Creek Energy and WPXEnergy, and is a member of the Land Trust Alliance’s Advisory Council, the board of The Teton Regional Land Trust and the Wyoming chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He also is involved in several professional organizations, including the American Geologic Institute and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Work and his wife, Susie, have a daughter (’93) and two sons and eight grandchildren, and live in Victor, Idaho and Hawley, Pennsylvania.
Kerr Lecture Hall (Shanklin 107)