Blog Articles

Robert Towne ’56: Academy Award Winner (1934-2024)

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Robert Towne, poses during a 1981 Los Angeles, California, photo portrait session. Towne won the Academy Award for his “Chinatown” original screenplay.

Screenwriter Robert Towne ’56, who won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for the classic film Chinatown, died July 1, 2024. He was 89.

The 1974 movie starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway was nominated for 11 Oscars but won only one, for Towne’s script about corruption and murder set in 1930s Los Angeles amid the city’s longstanding water wars.

Towne earned three other Academy Award nominations during his career, for The Last Detail (1973), again starring Nicholson; Shampoo (1975), starring Warren Beatty; and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), though he disliked the Tarzan movie so much he asked to be listed in the credits by the name of his dog. The official listing of nominees still bears the pup’s name: P.H. Vazak.

Fifty years after it was made, Chinatown remains a standard on lists of greatest films and screenplays and often is studied in film schools. The script was influenced by black-and-white photographs meant to depict novelist Raymond Chandler’s 1930s L.A. and also by the chapter on water in Southern California Country: An Island on the Land by Carey McWilliams—coincidentally the grandfather of current Pomona College Professor of Politics Susan McWilliams Barndt.

Though Towne also went on to direct four movies, Personal Best (1982), Tequila Sunrise (1988), Without Limits (1998) and Ask the Dust (2006), he was better known in Hollywood for his work as “a script doctor,” with uncredited work on The Godfather, among many other films. Mario Puzo, who shared the Oscar for adapted screenplay for The Godfather with Francis Ford Coppola, thanked Towne in his acceptance speech for writing the garden scene between Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. Notably, Towne also is said to have received uncredited assistance on Chinatown from a Pomona College roommate, Edward M. Taylor ’56. Taylor, Pomona’s seventh Rhodes Scholar, died in 2013.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby San Pedro and the Palos Verdes area, Towne was an English major at Pomona who also studied philosophy under Professor Fred Sontag. Sontag, whom he recalled in a 2010 Pomona Commencement speech as an important mentor, accepted a late paper that allowed him to graduate on time, Towne said.

His Pomona education, Towne said in accepting an honorary doctor of letters degree, “was the best possible training I could have had for my future profession,” though there were no screenwriting classes in the 1950s at Pomona, and possibly not anywhere else. “I don’t think it occurred to anyone it was something to teach,” he said.

“Pomona never taught me the so-called nuts and bolts of my profession, of how to write a screenplay—it gave me a way to view the world so I could write a screenplay,” Towne said.

He concluded his speech with advice that still may resonate with young graduates as they begin their careers.

“Don’t let an uncertain future blind you to the importance of your past. Trust your past,” he said. “Trust your education, even if what you want to do hasn’t been taught yet, or even invented.”

Survivors include his wife Luisa, daughters Kathleen and Chiara, and brother Roger, who co-wrote the adapted screenplay for the 1984 film The Natural.

New Chair and Members Join the Board of Trustees

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

A member of the Pomona College Board of Trustees since 2013, Janet Inskeep Benton ’79 was elected the new chair of the Board. Her three-year term began July 1. Benton is the founder and president of Frog Rock Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to improve long-term outcomes for underserved children in Westchester County, New York.

“Our Board of Trustees believes in and is committed to the promise of a Pomona College education,” says Benton. “As board chair, I will engage these colleagues and bring them together to address strategic issues that come before us. I’m honored to serve in this role and look forward to a productive year ahead.”

Erika James ’91 is dean of The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and an expert on crisis leadership, management strategy and workplace diversity. She was previously dean and professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Her most recent book is The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before, co-authored with Lynn Perry Wooten. She serves on numerous boards, including Morgan Stanley, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Economic Club of New York.

“I look forward to reconnecting from the perspective of a leader in higher education,” says James. “Having spent more than 30 years in multiple universities, I have a broad understanding of higher education and am hopeful I can add value to the school that paved the way for my professional journey.”

Jason Sheasby ’97 is a law partner at Irell & Manella, where he specializes in complex litigation, intellectual property, antitrust and internal investigations.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Sheasby obtained a verdict for the city of Pomona that a Chilean mine shipped tainted fertilizer before and during World War II, which leached into the city’s water—the first successful application of California’s product liability law to an environmental tort.

“Pomona [College] altered the trajectory of my life,” says Sheasby. “Its financial generosity allowed me to attend the school and spend two terms in Cambridge, [opening] up a world I did not even know existed. I want to ensure that Pomona continues to play this role in the lives of students.”

Two trustees are transitioning to emeritus status: Allyson Aranoff Harris ’89, a trustee since 2014, and Osman Kibar ’92, a trustee since 2016.

Board Chair Provides Update on the College Endowment and Calls for Divestment

This fall, Pomona College Board Chair Janet Inskeep Benton ’79 addressed concerns to the Pomona community regarding the College’s endowment and calls for divestment. “This is a challenging time in higher education,” says Benton. “World events have rocked college campuses and exposed tensions between free expression, unimpeded access to the educational experience and protection from harassment.” While this plays out in a variety of ways at Pomona, she says, one of her goals as board chair is to address the concerns voiced in the College community about the endowment.

Benton notes that “while there is much to discuss, there are positions about which the board is unwavering. We will not target specific countries with actions such as boycotts or divestment. Pomona seeks to remain open to the entire globe, believing that wider engagement and deeper understanding is the best path forward.”

We are a community that prizes deliberative, thoughtful engagement, and we are committed to working with our partners in shared governance to establish a process for bringing community concerns regarding particular investments to the Investment Committee of the board, the incoming board chair added.

The board invited elected leaders of the College’s four constituency groups–faculty, staff, students and alumni–to share their thoughts in writing and met in person during the board’s October meeting to discuss a process that would engage perspectives of the community regarding investments and about strategies for helping stakeholders understand the endowment. That collegial conversation was a productive first step that stressed the need for open communication and transparency going forward. The Board expects to share further thoughts with the community before the end of the semester.

Jonathan Williams Named New Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Jonathan Williams

A national leader in college admissions, Jonathan B. Williams became Pomona’s next vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid effective August 1.

Williams joins Pomona from New York University, where he most recently served as associate vice president of undergraduate admissions, precollege, access and pathways.

Under his leadership since 2016, applications to NYU’s three degree-granting campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai increased by 97%. He has played a key role in attracting the most diverse and academically accomplished student body in the school’s history. In addition, Williams extended the reach of the admissions office by creating the Precollege Access and Pathways division at New York University. Through that work, upward of 5,000 students participated each year in NYU pre-college programs that foster a college-going culture in communities nationwide.

“Jonathan joins Pomona at a pivotal time for higher ed admissions and the College,” says G. Gabrielle Starr, president of Pomona College. “He will be instrumental in ensuring that access to a Pomona education regardless of family income remains a bedrock value of the College. We look forward to welcoming Jonathan to campus.”

With a track record of success in college admissions, nonprofit management and enrollment management, Williams is a leader in identifying pathways to opportunity for people seeking postsecondary education. Through his work with organizations such as Reach for College! and Heads Up of Washington, D.C., as well as college admissions offices at Oberlin College, the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College, he has helped thousands of young people and their families through their educational journeys.

Williams earned degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Maryland at College Park, and he is completing his doctorate in higher education administration at New York University. He serves on the boards of the Common App, the Enrollment Management Association and Minds Matter NYC.

“I am honored to be joining the Pomona community and to work with this incredibly talented team of professionals,” says Williams. “I am excited to build upon the legacy of diversity, inclusivity and academic excellence that are hallmarks of the College’s student body. I am thrilled to continue my work of helping students find and unlock their potential through access to higher education.”

Williams succeeds former Vice President for Strategy & Admissions and Financial Aid Seth Allen, who started at Pomona in 2011 and retired in February 2024. Since then, Ray Brown has been serving as interim vice president for admissions and financial aid for the College.

George C. Wolfe ’76 honored at Tonys with Lifetime Achievement Award

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

George C. Wolfe posing in the press room at the 77th Annual Tony Awards held at The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, NY on Sunday, June 16, 2023.

In June George C. Wolfe ’76 received the 2024 Special Tony Award for “Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre” at the 77th annual ceremony.

Wolfe has been nominated for 23 Tony Awards and won five, including Best Direction of a Play for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Best Direction of a Musical for Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. Additionally, Wolfe was the producer of The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival from 1993 to 2005, directed/adapted Spunk, and created Harlem Song for the Apollo Theatre.

Wolfe’s work outside of theatre includes directing and co-writing the HBO film co-wrote the HBO film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, as well as Lackawanna Blues, for which he earned The Directors Guild Award, a National Board of Review Award, a Christopher Award, and the Humanitas Prize. For Netflix he directed Rustin and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was nominated for five Academy Awards.

“[Wolfe’s] stellar contributions as a playwright, director, producer and artistic director, including his unforgettable direction in productions like Angels in America and Bring in ‘da Noise…, have left a lasting impression on audiences,” said Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. “Beyond his tremendous dedication to storytelling, he has shown an unwavering commitment to diversity and inclusion throughout his illustrious career that has shifted culture and elevated the theatre community.”

Wolfe is the chief creative officer of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and from 2009 to 2017 served on The President’s Committee on the Arts and The Humanities. Additional awards include the NAACP Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award, NYU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and induction in the Theatre Hall of Fame. Wolfe was named a “Library Lion” by the New York Public Library and a “Living Landmark” by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

Pomona Welcomes Eight New Faculty Members This Fall

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

The group of both tenure-track and tenured faculty includes multiple alumnae, as well as several who previously taught here as postdoctoral fellows and visiting professors.

Alejandra Castillo ’17, visiting instructor of mathematics and statistics, graduated from Pomona with a degree in mathematics before pursuing a master’s in statistics at Oregon State University. Her graduate student research explores alternatives to penalization when trying to obtain a sparse solution to a clustering problem. In Corvallis, Castillo was a graduate mentor for the Oregon 4-H Outreach Leadership Institute, which prepares high school migrant youth from farming communities for college.

Pui Tiffany Chow, assistant professor of art, earned her MFA in visual art from UC Riverside. She previously taught at Pomona as a lecturer and visiting assistant professor. Chow’s painting explores the intersection of abstraction and figuration through a pastiche of historical references ranging from the representation of the female form to various Eastern and Western cultural codes.

Andrew Law, assistant professor of philosophy, specializes in freedom and moral responsibility, in addition to metaphysics. His research encompasses free will, time and the relationship between the two. Law earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from UC Riverside and did his postdoctoral research at the Institute for Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover in Germany. Law previously lectured at Western Washington University and USC.

Amira Lundy-Harris, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies, is a scholar in trans studies, Black studies, kinship, Black feminist thought, women’s studies and LGBTQ studies. They earned a Ph.D. in women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where they were the instructor of record in a course that introduced significant strands of thought in the field of Black trans studies and covered genealogical connections to Black feminist thought and trans studies.

Pamela Prickett, associate professor of sociology, earned a Ph.D. from UCLA. She was an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam and served as a faculty member for the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research. Her research focuses on how the erosion and resilience of social ties perpetuate social inequalities. She has published two books about Los Angeles, including Believing in South Central and The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels.

Omer Shah, assistant professor of anthropology, received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia and has been teaching at Pomona as a Chau Mellon fellow since 2022. Shah was awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write two chapters of his monograph Made in Mecca: Expertise, Techno-politics, and Hospitality in the Post-Oil Holy City.

Amani Lee Starnes, assistant professor of theatre, has been a professional performer in Los Angeles and New York for nearly 20 years, appearing in such productions as Amazon’s Transparent and NBC’s Community. She earned her Ph.D. in theater and performance studies from Stanford this summer, and her expertise includes contemporary Black feminist theatrical adaptation.

Jessica Stern ’12, assistant professor of psychological science, graduated from Pomona summa cum laude with a degree in psychology and earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research examines how early childhood experiences shape brain development, empathy and mental health over the life course. Stern most recently was a National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow and Engagements teaching fellow at the University of Virginia.

Kara Godwin Joins Pomona as Inaugural Senior Global Fellow

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

Kara A. Godwin, a visionary leader and strategist, will join Pomona as the inaugural senior global fellow starting at the end of August.

Godwin brings more than 20 years of experience as an accomplished strategist and collaborative scholar focused on global engagement, with an emphasis on institutional transformation and interdisciplinarity. Most recently, she served as the director of internationalization at the American Council on Education (ACE), where she led ACE’s global strategy and flagship Internationalization Laboratory program.

“This new position is a critical step forward in advancing our Global Pomona Project as we work on realizing our vision of providing transformative global learning experiences for all Pomona students,” says Yuqing Melanie Wu, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College. “With Kara’s leadership, the College is poised to accelerate our progress toward our global engagement goals.”

New in the Catalog

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

Students in lounges and hallways of Millikan Hall.

Students majoring in any discipline now have a new option for a minor: data science. A new offering this fall at Pomona, the data science minor will help student develop skills in using and analyzing data. All data science minors will have to complete five courses, one in each of the core areas —programming, statistics, data science, ethics, and linear algebra courses—by the end of their junior year.

Among the data science minor faculty are mathematicians, economists, psychologists and biologists who will use an interdisciplinary approach to enable students to extract and communicate meaningful insights about data.

Research by Yannai Kashtan ’20 Fuels Gas Stove Debate

November 19, 2024 by Brian Whitehead Comments Off

When you talk stoves, people listen,” says the Stanford Ph.D. student

While not the most exciting topic for a Ph.D. research project, years of studying the ubiquitous household appliance as a graduate student at Stanford University revealed to Yannai Kashtan ’20 that gas stoves may be contributing to premature deaths and cases of childhood asthma.

A study co-authored with peers at Stanford and Oakland-based research institute PSE Healthy Energy was published in May, and Kashtan was featured in a subsequent Los Angeles Times story about the conclusions.

“I didn’t think the outside world would think [stoves] are that interesting,” the 25-year-old Oakland native says. “It’s not sexy. It’s not shooting rockets off into space. But [the interest] makes sense. This is something that affects one out of three people in the U.S. It makes sense people want to know about the dangers [stoves] pose.”

Kashtan inside his lab at Stanford

Over the course of their research, Kashtan and his peers at Stanford found that gas stovetops release a high level of pollutants—carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and benzene—that can inflame the lungs when inhaled.

Since at least the early 20th century, Kashtan says, the gas industry knew of the dangers of gas stove pollution, and yet over the years, stoves became the only unvented gas appliance in homes. As conscious as folks are about what is being cooked over the flame, Kashtan adds, they should be doubly conscious about the pollution from the flame itself.

The L.A. Times was the latest media outlet to feature the Pomona alumnus, whose research and comments have been published by national and international organizations such as CNN, Newsweek and The Guardian.

In a March profile in The New York Times, Kashtan advocated against fossil fuel companies funding climate research and solutions. The article called Kashtan a young climate researcher, a title he isn’t quite sure fits.

“I see myself both as an air quality scientist and a communicator,” the researcher says. “Someone who can try to bring science into policy and into, maybe, public perception as well. I like the idea of creating knowledge and putting it into action as much as possible.”

While at Pomona, Kashtan, a chemistry and physics double major, was remarkable in class and “simply outstanding in the research lab,” Janice Hudgings, Seeley W. Mudd Professor of Physics, wrote in a letter about her student.

Kashtan’s expertise in a lab comes as no surprise.

As a boy, Kashtan ran a YouTube channel under the handle “elementguy27.” From a homemade lab inside his parents’ garage, Kashtan explained dozens of elements from the periodic table—beryllium, cobalt, barium, selenium, among the 92 videos on the channel.

“As long as I can remember, I loved learning,” Kashtan says.

Beyond working at an advanced level in Hudgings’ lab at Pomona, Kashtan was “a terrific team player, always ready to jump in and help one of his peers,” Hudgings wrote.

Kashtan routinely volunteered as a teaching assistant and helped younger students with their homework “simply because it’s important to him that his peers succeed, too,” Hudgings added.

As a senior, Kashtan became the first Pomona student to be awarded the Knight-Hennessy scholarship—a full ride to Stanford to pursue the graduate program of his choosing. Knight-Hennessy scholars are thought to be “rebellious minds and independent spirits” and “future global leaders,” according to the criteria.

After being homeschooled through high school and being welcomed at Pomona, Kashtan speaks highly of the College’s faculty.

“At Pomona,” he says, “I was taught by lots of professors who were dedicated to their pedagogy, focused on teaching first, and had decades of experience, and that was a huge privilege. That focus on education and teaching, it’s not to be taken for granted.”

His Ph.D. research project complete, Kashtan plans to take a break from exploring gas stoves for the time being, though he intends to stay in a similar line of work in the future.

“I’m motivated by science itself,” he says, “but also wanting to make sure that science is then turned into action.”

Advocating for Responsible AI Adoption

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

Okolo speaking on a Brookings Institution panel with the Michelle Donelan, the U.K.’s former secretary of state for science, innovation and technology (far left). Above, Okolo’s collection of awards and plaques in her Washington, D.C., office.

Centered on a shelf in her Washington, D.C., office is the plaque Chinasa T. Okolo ’18 received nearly a decade ago from the Office of Black Student Affairs of The Claremont Colleges.

“Recognizing Genius in Our Community,” her 2015 First-Year Student Award reads.

Okolo, a former computer science major by way of Kansas City, Missouri, holds dear her time at Pomona, crediting her liberal arts education and professors for igniting in her a desire to understand human-computer interaction.

Now an expert in artificial intelligence (AI) after years of postgraduate and professional research, Okolo recently landed on Time Magazine’s list of The 100 Most Influential People in AI.

“With the education I received at Pomona,” Okolo says, “I’ve been able to leverage my skills and understanding of how technology, particularly AI, can impact and is impacting marginalized populations in the U.S. and globally. A lot of times this kind of work doesn’t get too much attention, so I’m very grateful to have been included on the list.”

As a fellow for the Brookings Institution, Okolo advocates for responsible AI adoption and governance across the Global South. At Brookings, her research includes analyzing datafication and algorithmic marginalization in Africa.

In recent months, Okolo has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and she has appeared in segments on Voice of America, the country’s largest international broadcaster.

This summer, TechCrunch published a Q&A with Okolo as part of its “Women in AI” series on “remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution.”

“This AI boom has given me an opportunity to show the necessity of AI literacy,” Okolo says. “People are very enamored with the possibilities of AI, but don’t understand implications around bias and inequality.”

In addition to appearing in print and broadcast media, Okolo has been a guest speaker this year at international conferences and workshops in Senegal, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates.

Well before she started trotting the globe, Okolo studied abroad in Hungary while at Pomona. Having never been out of the country before her semester away, Okolo says her maiden international trip “gave me the comfortability as a global citizen … and was a launching point to me visiting different countries throughout my career.”

Alexandra Papoutsaki, associate professor of computer science, met Okolo as a first-year professor in 2017 and found her inquisitive, methodical and thoughtful in how she approached researching human-computer interaction—and, particularly, the inclusivity issues certain technologies create for people of color.

Less than a decade later, Papoutsaki is astounded by—and proud of—Okolo’s rise.

“She’s been published very prolifically by some of the most competitive venues in our area,” Papoutsaki says. “She’s great at going out there and disseminating information publicly. She’s absolutely an emerging leader in tech in general, not just AI. She’s a person who’s able to build relationships with industry, NGOs and academia.”

In her first year as a Ph.D. student at Cornell, Okolo sent Papoutsaki a postcard from New York.

Papoutsaki still has it in her office.

“It’s remarkable that someone that young is able to do what she’s doing,” Papoutsaki says. “Chinasa is the absolute embodiment of how remarkable our students can be, how they can excel while at Pomona, but also take what we give them and do so much more once they graduate.”

Pomona’s 2024 Distinguished Staff Awards

November 19, 2024 by Staff Comments Off

This spring Pomona honored Building Attendant Joaquin Rios and Academic Coordinator Cynthia Madrigal with this year’s Distinguished Staff Awards.

Rios has worked in the Housekeeping Department at Pomona for 10 years, and was appreciated for his thoroughness. “He goes above and beyond to make sure everything is immaculate, organized and in order,” writes one nominator. Two people mention how Rios cares for their plants: “It took me months to realize that he’s been watering all my plants without me ever asking him.”

Beyond the work he does, many point to Rio’s kindness and friendliness. “Joaquin always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude. He greets everyone with a smile,” says one person. “My every interaction with him is positive, and I often see how he makes everyone’s days brighter,” says another.

Madrigal, meanwhile, is an 18-year employee of Pomona who manages the unique challenge of juggling the coordination of three different departments: Art History, Classics and Gender and Women’s Studies.

“She serves all three ably, covering the budgets and all the arrangements for all three departments,” says George Gorse, chair of art history. “She is a very hard worker who takes on massive amounts of responsibility with efficiency and grace.”

Another nominator concurs: “Providing support to three different programs is challenging in and of itself. Each entity has their own nuances and demands, and Cynthia provides assistance with grace, resilience and professionalism.”

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