Film Fest
Producer Gale Anne Hurd, '77, is back in summer-movie action with The Incredible Hulk, now in theaters, and the upcoming Punisher: War Zone. Her previous credits include Aliens and the Terminator films. Dana Fox, '98, wrote What Happens in Vegas, starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.
Voted onto the Island
In her daily life in Los Angeles, Kaz Brecher, '97, makes films (A Catastrophic Success) and writes (The Art of Wooing: An Email Tale of Modern Courtship). But in April, she was a tribal chief on an island in Fiji. TribeWanted, a sustainable tourism community on Vorovoro Island, elected Brecher its monthly leader and gave her a small budget for a legacy project. Brecher and island residents made child-size wooden seats, silk-screened in traditional patterns, that will be sold to benefit a local school.
Delegate Authority
“Dean Julie,” aka associate vice provost of undergraduate education and dean of freshmen Julie Lythcott-Haims, '89, is making a trip to Denver. She'll serve as one of three Obama delegates to the Democratic Convention from congressional district 14. Law student Matt Haney, campus coordinator of Stanford Students for Obama, is an alternate.
Kudos for Journos
Richard Engel has won the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for War Zone Diary, an MSNBC excerpt of the video journal he kept while reporting from Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Engel, '96, turned the camera on himself as he witnessed bombings and betrayals, carjackings and kidnappings—at one point musing that he could be recording his own obituary. He is now chief foreign correspondent for NBC.
Peter Bhatia, '75, executive editor of the Oregonian newspaper in Portland, and his boss, editor Sandy Rowe, have been named Editors of the Year by Editor & Publisher magazine. E&P cited the paper's increased Pulitzer prowess: five wins in the past nine years, including the 2007 prize for breaking news.
Six Degrees of Bill Gates
Microsoft veteran Jeffrey Raikes has been tapped to head the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on global health and development and U.S. education as the world's largest charitable organization. A 27-year veteran of Microsoft, Raikes, '80, is retiring as president of the business software division. Meanwhile, Microsoft's onetime chief lawyer, William Neukom, will assume the role of managing general partner with the San Francisco Giants. Currently president of the American Bar Association, Neukom, JD '67, replaces Peter Magowan, '64, who spent 16 years with the Giants.
Off to the Races
With a time of 42:13, Kathleen Trotter finished first among American women, and fifth among women overall, in the colorful 12-kilometer Bay to Breakers race May 18 in San Francisco. Her twin sister, Amanda, was just six seconds behind. The aptly named Trotters, both '07, competed on the track team at Stanford.
David Siegel began harness racing just five years ago and had never won a race outside of Northern California. But the man who once thought of horses as “big scary things” tore up the tracks of the World Cup of Amateur Racing, bringing home a third-place finish for the United States. Siegel, MBA '83, led until the final race, May 21 at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
Isn't It Romantic?
Jeff and Jinx Adams Morgan, '61, have it rough: they own the Sugar Mill hotel and restaurant on Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The restaurant recently was named one of the world's most romantic by Conde Nast Traveler's concierge.com. “Of course,” says Jinx Morgan, “starting with a 370-year-old stone boiling house doesn't hurt when you're going for romance.”
A Matter of State
Goli Ameri, '77, MA '79, has been sworn in as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs. President George W. Bush had previously appointed her to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and to head the U.S. delegation to the U.N. General Assembly. Previously, Ameri was founder and president of eTinium, a telecommunications consulting and marketing firm in Portland, Ore.
