CLASS OF 1973 Mary Gilliland ’73, MAT ’80 Mary Gilliland’s newest poetry collection, The Devil’s Fools, won the Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Award and was released on November 1, 2022. Infused with eco-logic, informed by feminism, and taking cues from Eve, Cain, Proserpine, Ulysses, Parsifal, and selves present and past, the 50 poems of The Devil’s Fools question and illustrate myths of nature and the nature of inherited myth. Gilliland’s other recent book, The Ruined Walled Castle Garden, won the Bright Hill Press Poetry Prize and was published in 2020. Her poems are widely published in print and online literary journals and most recently anthologized in Rumors, Secrets & Lies: Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion, and Choice; Wild Gods: The Ecstatic in Contemporary Poetry and Prose; and Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms In Our Hands. The poet is a past recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and a Council for the Arts Faculty Grant from Cornell University.
Lisa Goldson Armstrong, MBA ’09 Lisa Goldson Armstrong, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Global Marketing, Resideo Technologies, was named to the Twin Cities Business magazine’s 2022 Notable Leaders in Marketing list. “These individuals have proven themselves, and the brands they represent, worthy of recognition.”
Nyaneba Nkrumah, PhD ’01 I am excited to let you know that I am about to publish an adult fiction novel. Wade in the Water is to be published by Amistad, HarperCollins in January ’23 (available for pre-order), and is a gripping coming-of-age story about the increasingly complex relationship between a mistreated Black girl growing up in 1980s rural Mississippi and a mysterious white researcher from Princeton who appears in her racially divided town. The novel exposes the consequences of secrets left untold and the power of the past to dictate the future. Do visit my website to read more details. In other news, I continue to work (20+) years for the World Bank in Washington, DC, where I continue to meet, not surprisingly, several amazing fellow Cornellians.
CLASS OF 1954 Douglas McIlroy ’54 Ken Knowlton ’52, BEP ’53, MS ’55, died recently. His role as a pioneer of computer-generated movies is well told in a New York Times obituary. Though Knowlton was a year ahead of me in EP, I did not meet him until we were grad students at MIT. We would later enjoy facing offices at Bell Labs. Ken was endlessly creative. Besides his pioneering computer graphics, I particularly remember the eerie feeling of typing at a special keyboard he made, on which you could read the keytops right through your fingers—good for instantly switching among alphabets. The trick was to project symbols onto the keytops through a half-silvered mirror above the keyboard that reflected the symbols to your eyes so you’d see them and your fingers simultaneously. douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu
CLASS OF 2008 Johnamarie Macias ’08 Working as a student library assistant at the Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance and spending long (yet productive) hours at Olin and Uris inspired me to pursue a Master of Library Science and a Certificate in Archives and Preservation of Cultural Materials. After working different library roles for the past decade, I’m happy to share I’m back in the archival field as the new Archives Assistant at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. In other news, I also picked up a new hobby over the past year: collecting vintage postcards. Part of my growing collection includes Cornell University postcards. I chose Cornell as my main focus because I love and miss my alma mater! jm436@cornell.edu
CLASS OF 1964 Barbara Rainard ’64 As a child I visited the Egyptian exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum and was entranced, especially with the tiny figurines of people going about daily tasks. I became fascinated with archeology. Finally I decided I wanted to actually see Egypt’s ancient sites and my husband and I went on a Cornell alumni trip to Egypt in 2019. We started in Cairo, touring the ancient ruins, the museum, the lovely Coptic churches, a mosque, and a synagogue, as well as a visit to the souk. Then it was off to Luxor to more ancient sites, including the Valley of the Kings. Next were 4 days of sailing down the Nile in a dahabiya with stops in villages, temples, tombs, and quarries. We ended in Aswan with another temple, the dam, and an interesting Nubian museum. Our accommodations were luxurious, the food was great, and we got to see some of daily Egyptian life as well as the expected pyramids, etc. Our guides were highly informative and great company. And then came COVID! Our timing was just right. bjchemist@comcast.net
CLASS OF 1993 Jeffrey Woodring ’93 I hung up the trading jacket 8/25/2020, retiring to spend more time with family. My wife, Nicole, started a new career: got her PT degree and is working as a therapist. Marra soph at Penn State, Parker starting at Cornell Fall 2023! (yes, he will play football) and Todd soph in high school. Though I have also been getting back to my college interests: VP of Sigma Nu alumni board, secretary of Friends of Cornell Football (the new booster club), and president of the high school football booster. I guess I haven’t grown up yet!? I spend a bunch of time with fish: boating / fishing on the Long Island Sound, stocking trout with the Burlington Fish Hatchery, doing fish surveys, and volunteering with Trout Unlimited. I also joined a men’s hockey team…a new appreciation for the Lynah skaters. I regularly see Greg Dinkin ’93, Marc Bruno ’93, and Tim Barry ’93, and plan to bond with many more for Reunion. teamwoodring@gmail.com
CLASS OF 1991 Kimberley Best Robidoux ’91 Recently joined WR Immigration as Partner to open and lead the San Diego office! Looking forward to this new Chapter, at an incredible law firm and to working with an amazing team on employment-based immigration matters, including guiding employers with I-9 Employment Verification training, advice and audit defense. Excited to have been named Super Lawyers – Immigration – in San Diego for another year. Hard to believe we have been in San Diego for 18 years! kimbest@me.com
CLASS OF 1993 Melissa Carver Sottile ’93 I came back to Cornell for Homecoming with my husband, Greg, & our two sons, Ethan (17) and Jack (15). We had a fantastic time, a great football game, meeting students & alumni, and touring the campus old & new. Brunch at the Statler brought an added surprise—a large display of photos over the years. It was a touching reminder of my late parents’ wedding reception there during the Thanksgiving blizzard of Nov. ’58! We continue to enjoy living in (& perpetually renovating) our antique home in this tiny rural town in CT’s northern hills. After 11 years teaching at UConn, I started a new chapter as a writer, researcher, & consultant in personal finance & fiscal policy. I love working from our back porch, a lazy Lab at my feet, watching a crocus or two peek through stubborn bits of snow amidst the songs of returning birds. It makes me miss sunny spring days on the Arts Quad with friends (and errant frisbees) and outdoor happy hour at Collegetown Bagels. Cheers! mtc2@cornell.edu
Mathieu Laberge, MBA ’16 Matt Laberge is proud to announce he recently joined KPMG’s partnership. As a Partner and Regional Leader in KPMG’s Economics & Policy practice, Matt will continue to serve his private, not-for-profit, and government clients in resolving some of their most prominent challenges related to the economy, their market, and their policy environment! ml2382@cornell.edu