Alumni News Archives: Fall 2002

Allegra Bennett (’85) has published three books under her “Renovating Woman Books” imprint and has launched her own Web site (www.renovatingwoman.com). “Renovating Woman was an epiphany born out of a necessary, though unexpected, divorce and the resulting wonderful life-changing reinvention I underwent, courtesy of a house with a thousand issues and a piggy bank a few dimes short of a dollar,” Bennett writes on her Web site. In October 2000 Renovating Woman made its debut as a book publisher with the title How to Hire a Contractor. When a Woman Takes an Ax to a Wall is her latest title.

The Library of Congress has acquired a book created by Kitty Caparella (’83), a reporter for The Philadelphia Daily News and a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, for its rare book collection. “The Message,” a book containing photocopied portraits of the hijackers and Osama Bin Laden, commemorates the victims of the September 11 attacks and was featured in the library's fall exhibition devoted to 9/11. Caparella hopes to graduate from the academy in June.

In June “The Sprawling of America,” a two-hour documentary which aired last year on PBS stations in the Midwest, won two regional Emmys (out of six nominations). Christopher Cook (’82) served as producer, director, and writer, while Donovan Reynolds (’95), director of broadcasting and station manager of Michigan Radio, was executive producer. Reynolds reports that he is working on a TV documentary on the art, music, and architecture of St. Petersburg.

Nadine Epstein (’90) is writing a book on spiritual healing around the world for Ten Speed Press. A documentary that she co-wrote, “Sastun: My Apprenticeship With a Maya Healer,” was selected by the Academy Award's Documentary Committee as an outstanding documentary of 2001. She also reports that she has founded a non-profit group called the Center for Creative Change and is a frequent essay and art contributor to the Christian Science Monitor.

Doug Johnson (’01 )is an anchor at Voice of America World Service, hosting programs, doing newscasts, and conducting interviews. “VOA Worldwide reaches an audience roughly equivalent to the BBC World Service-but good luck hearing it in the United States!” Johnson writes. “We're prohibited by law from intentional broadcast within U.S. borders, meaning that the only option is via the Internet (www.voanews.com) or shortwave radio.”

Peggy Kuhr (’82), formerly managing editor for content at the The Spokesman-Review, has been named the Knight Chair in Journalism at the William White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. The Knight chair at Kansas focuses on community journalism. As a Knight chair, Kuhr is a tenured faculty member and teaches classes, conducts research, and performs service especially as it relates to press leadership in communities.

Phillip Langdon (’80) is associate editor of New Urban News, a national newsletter on design and development of human-scale communities. New Urban News, Langdon reports, is the only newsletter covering new urbanism-“places where you can walk and where there are actually things worth walking to, attractive public spaces that encourage interaction and accessibility to transit.”

Micheline Maynard (’00) has been named a reporter in the Detroit bureau of The New York Times. She is assigned to the business desk and divides her time between the automotive beat and the airline industry.

Yumi Wilson (’01) has been named the deputy readers' representative at The San Francisco Chronicle. “That means I help the readers’ rep (often called the ombudsman) and share valid complaints about our coverage with our staff,” Wilson writes.