Yale Afternoons with Alison

In this episode, Alison chats with Pippa Jack, Editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine. Jack provides an overview of her priorities for the magazine and how she is thinking about stewarding the historical publication.  Jack grew up in Oxford, England, the daughter of two professors: a philosopher from New England and a neuroscientist from New Zealand. In seven years as the editor and publisher of Brown’s magazine, a 125-year-old publication with a proud tradition of editorial excellence, she increased digital engagement through an award-winning new website and e-newsletter, and grew revenue. In 2024, she led the print magazine to top honors from CASE (the Council on Advancement and Support of Education), winning the national “gold” award among alumni magazines publishing three or more issues annually. Previously, Jack was editor-in-chief of the University of Rhode Island Magazine, where she led a redesign and rebrand to help the magazine adapt to shifting technologies and reading habits. She also held senior editorial positions at Rhode Island Monthly magazine and the Block Island Times. Jack attended Oxford University, where she studied classics, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder.

In this episode, Alison chats with Gregory E. Sterling, Dean of Yale Divinity School; The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament. Sterling provides an overview of his priorities for the Divinity School, including the new Living Village's transformation of the campus.   Gregory E. Sterling has served as The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School since 2012. In October 2021, Yale President Peter Salovey announced Sterling’s appointment for a third five-year term, beginning July 1, 2022. Sterling is the former Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame, where he also served on the faculty for 23 years. During his decade-plus at YDS, Sterling has been a leading theological and moral voice for addressing inequality and injustice in society. Amid an urgent national reckoning with racism, he and the Divinity School have tripled the number of faculty from underrepresented groups and doubled the number of staff and students from diverse backgrounds. In addition, he has led efforts to put in place curricular and operational infrastructure to ensure an experience of inclusion and belonging for the entire YDS community. Sterling has worked to provide increased support for students so that graduates can pursue careers and vocations based on their calling and not financial constraints. In 2022, the School achieved its goal to cover all tuition costs, and some living expenses, for students with demonstrated need. Sterling has also led efforts to create the Living Village for student housing, a visionary project that is designed to be the education sector’s largest living-building residential complex and a model for the nation and the world. Construction is underway with a planned opening date of August 2025. The regenerative housing project follows efforts led by the Dean to upgrade the YDS Quad, and to renovate and restore the historic Common Room and Refectory in the northeast corner of the Divinity School campus.   In addition, Sterling was instrumental in creating the historic merger of Yale Divinity School and Andover Newton Theological School, which led to Andover Newton’s relocation to Yale and the continuation of its mission at YDS. In his teaching and research, Sterling focuses on Hellenistic Judaism and has published over 110 scholarly papers on, among other subjects, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and Luke–Acts. He has focused on the ways Second Temple Jews and early Christians interacted with one another and with the Greco-Roman world. Sterling is the author of Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephus, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography, Armenian Paradigms, Coptic Paradigms: A Summary of Sahidic Coptic Morphology, and Shaping the Past to Define the Present: Luke-Acts and Apologetic Historiography, and he is the editor or co-editor of five other books. Sterling is the General Editor of Philo of Alexandria Commentary series published by E. J. Brill, the Co-Editor of the Studia Philonica Annual, and on the editorial board of Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft.  Sterling received his bachelor’s degree in Christianity and History from Houston Baptist University in 1978 and completed post-baccalaureate studies in classics at Houston Baptist the following year. He received an M.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University in 1980 and an M.A. in Classics from University of California, Davis, in 1982. In 1990, he completed his doctoral studies in Biblical Studies with a specialization in the New Testament from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Sterling joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 1989 as a Visiting Assistant Professor and became a regular member of the faculty in 1990, earning promotion to Associate Professor in 1995 and to Professor of Theology in 2000. Sterling became Associate Dean of the Faculty for the College of Arts and Letters in 2001 and then Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Notre Dame in 2008 and served in that role until coming to Yale in 2012. He has held numerous leadership positions in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, and the Catholic Biblical Association. He is a minister in the Churches of Christ and serves in several leadership roles for his own denomination.

In this episode, Alison chats with Victoria “Vicky” Chun, Thomas A. Beckett Director of Athletics. Chun shares how her role at Yale has evolved and grown as she supports excellence in athletics at every level, from rec sports to varsity.  Victoria M. "Vicky" Chun, a true trailblazer in the world of collegiate athletics, was appointed as the Thomas A. Beckett Director of Athletics at Yale University by President Peter Salovey on February 1, 2018. Her official tenure with the Bulldogs began on July 1 of the same year. Chun made history as both the first woman and the first Asian American to hold this position. Since assuming her role, Chun has exhibited dynamic leadership and unwavering dedication to Yale Athletics. Her innovative approach to the challenges of NCAA Division I athletics has earned her past recognition as a "Game Changer" by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. In July 2024, Chun was appointed to serve on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and will serve through August 31, 2029. She also serves on the Visiting Committee for Student Life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  In March 2023, Chun was bestowed with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year award, lauding her as a thought leader and decision maker in the world of college athletics. It was the second time she received this honor, the first being in 2018 while serving as the Vice President and Director of Athletics at Colgate University. Chun became the first Director of Athletics to win at two different institutions within the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) since the award’s inception in 1998. Yale Athletics has reached remarkable heights since her appointment including 11 national championships, 38 Ivy League titles, 57 major individual year-end Ivy League awards, 61 team national championship/tournament appearances, 144 All-Americans, and 86 NCAA individual qualifiers. Her commitment to holistic success is evident in the recognition of over 180 Academic All-Ivy student-athletes during her tenure, and the elevation of Yale's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). During Chun’s first five years, she oversaw the complete revitalization of the athletic department’s facilities, including more than $100 million in new construction and renovation projects.

In this episode, Alison chats with Azita Emami, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean of the Yale School of Nursing. Dean Emami shares how the Nursing School is evolving, innovating, and focusing on its legacy of impactful research to improve the health of all people.  Dr. Azita Emami joined the Yale School of Nursing as Dean in 2023. She is an active researcher, an international advocate for expanding nursing’s role in primary care, and a powerful voice for global equity of healthcare access.  Dean Emami serves as a trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and on several professional boards and committees. She was a U.S. leader of the international Nursing Now initiative, a three-year global campaign (2018-2020) in collaboration with the International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization that raised the visibility, status, and education opportunities of nurses worldwide. She also led the U.S. “Year of the Nurse and the Midwife” effort (2021), part of a global U.N. initiative. Equity of opportunity in nursing education is a focal point for Dean Emami, who has been a national leader in developing efforts directed at making diversity, equity and inclusion a priority at schools of nursing. She initiated creation of the nation’s first Center for Antiracism in Nursing, and has written and spoken in numerous professional settings about the ways in which both patients and the profession benefit from understanding and addressing implicit bias and historical racism. Dr. Emami has forged strong relationships and collaborative exchanges with nursing programs in many countries, including Thailand and China. She fosters in both faculty and students a perspective that encourages global engagement and emphasizes the importance of understanding impact on health outcomes of the social determinants of health. Dr. Emami earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the renowned Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, where she grew up after emigrating from Iran. She earned a master’s degree in international health care from Karolinska and the Red Cross College of Nursing; a nursing education degree with a teaching certification, and a doctorate in medical sciences from Karolinska.  The Dean’s academic leadership experience spans two countries and 25 years, including positions as Executive Dean of the University of Washington School of Nursing, Dean of the College of Nursing at Seattle University, Head of the Division of Nursing in the Department of Neurobiology Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, and Academic Leader in the Division of Elderly Care in the Department of Nursing at the Karolinska Institutet. Dr. Emami maintains an active research schedule, with collaborations around the world. Her research reflects her interest in topics ranging from dementia care, challenges in cross-cultural care, and immigrant healthcare policy to the development of cultural competence in clinical nurses. She is internationally recognized for her innovative research on dementia, including development of an oral data collection method for a biomarker of stress. Her research has resulted in more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals nationally and internationally. 

In this episode, Alison chats with Rachel Fine, Executive Director of Yale Schwarzman Center. Rachel shares how the Schwarzman Center has become a cohesive hub for the entire Yale community.    Rachel Fine joined Yale Schwarzman Center as executive director in October 2022, following her tenure as executive director and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Fine commenced work at The Wallis in its first 18 months of operation, following a 19-year capital campaign and building project to convert the historic Beverly Hills Post Office into a vibrant cultural hub and performing arts campus for Southern California. Between 2015 and 2022, she established The Wallis as a major player and leading cultural organization in Los Angeles' burgeoning arts scene; built dynamic artistic partnerships and projects between The Wallis and Los Angeles' cultural organizations; demonstrated deep dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion and access;  launched and implemented a $55 million campaign, which more than doubled the organization's endowment and established a healthy cash reserve in the campaign's first year; and steered and managed The Wallis successfully through the pandemic. Also a concert pianist, Fine attended the Music Academy of the West and Eastman School of Music. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Irvine, and received the Distinguished Alumna Award from UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Other educational pursuits led her to Yale for graduate school, where she studied musicology, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where she was an arts management fellow. Prior to her tenure at The Wallis, Fine was executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2010-2015) and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (2007-2010). In 2009, she founded and built the Los Angeles Children's Chorus' Young Men's Ensemble, a rare chorus for boys with changing voices, and which has toured the United States, Canada, Cuba, Vatican City, and Mexico City. With the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Fine introduced and produced “Play Me, I'm Yours,” a citywide piano installation and community art project. She also conceived and produced Strad Fest, a weeklong international festival of Stradivarius violins. Additionally, Fine has held leadership positions at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and The Juilliard School, among others.

In this episode, Alison chats with Megan L. Ranney, Dean of Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) and Professor of Emergency Medicine. Dean Ranney shares how the School of Public Health is evolving and how the alumni community can get involved. Dr. Megan L. Ranney is an emergency physician, researcher, and internationally recognized leader in public health innovation. She is the inaugural Dean of the independent Yale School of Public Health, and the C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health and Professor of Emergency Medicine at Yale. Dr. Ranney earned her MD from Columbia University, MPH from Brown University, and a BA in history of science from Harvard University. She completed her emergency medicine residency and injury prevention fellowship at Brown. Dr. Ranney’s career has been shaped by her front-line experience with many of the world’s most pressing health crises, as well as her scientific and programmatic leadership in community-based responses. She is best known for her work addressing firearm injury as a public health issue. Her honors include election to the National Academy of Medicine, Fellowship in the American College of Emergency Physicians, and recognition as an Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow. Dr. Ranney is the founder of two successful non-profits and has helped shape bipartisan policy through her advisory work with the U.S. Surgeon General, the White House, and state leaders across multiple presidential administrations.

In this episode, Alison chats with Barbara Rockenbach, Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian, and learns how alumni can engage with the Yale library system. Barbara Rockenbach is the Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian at Yale University. Rockenbach has held a series of user-focused positions in the Columbia University Library, the Yale University Library, and JSTOR. The focus of her work has been on the intersection of collections, technology, and pedagogy, including advancing research and learning through visual literacy, research education, and digital humanities. She has published and presented in these areas and serves as a board member of the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, positions that amplify her commitment to public scholarship. Rockenbach holds an MS in library and information science from the University of Pittsburgh, an MA in Art History from Hunter College, and a BA in English from the University of Illinois.

In the second season, Alison chats with President McInnis and makes a special trip to her office on Prospect Street for the conversation. Maurie McInnis is the twenty-fourth president of Yale University and professor in the Department of the History of Art. A distinguished scholar, President McInnis has contributed significantly to her field as a cultural historian and is the author of five books, including award-winning titles. She has been published in peer-reviewed journals, anthologies, exhibition catalogs, and other publications. Since assuming her responsibilities at Yale on July 1, 2024, President McInnis has engaged thousands of faculty members, students, staff, and alumni in conversations around shaping Yale’s future. Over the course of these discussions, several areas of focus emerged that will help Yale chart a bold course for the years ahead: enhancing and expanding educational opportunities for students; maintaining Yale’s status as a destination university for the world’s foremost scholars and teachers; setting and meeting ever higher expectations in the pursuit of academic excellence; increasing the collaboration and impact of faculty research and scholarship; welcoming diverse viewpoints with open minds; and strengthening Yale’s partnership with its home city, New Haven. Over the past year, President McInnis has led the Yale community in advancing efforts across all these areas — from building a quantum corridor with the University of Connecticut to position the State of Connecticut as an academic and economic powerhouse for quantum technologies, to launching a fellowship for local teachers with partners in New Haven, to expanding the undergraduate student body. A champion of higher education, she is also leading efforts to examine and address the erosion of trust in the essential work that colleges and universities do across this nation. In addition to her academic and administrative roles, President McInnis has served on various boards and commissions, including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Commission on Economic and Community Engagement and the Association of American Universities. Her academic career began at Yale, where she was a graduate student. She has spent three decades in higher education, holding a range of teaching, research, and leadership positions at several preeminent universities. Most recently, President McInnis was the sixth president of Stony Brook University, an internationally recognized public research institution and a flagship university in the State of New York. Before Stony Brook, President McInnis served four years as the provost and executive vice president of University of Texas at Austin, and nearly twenty years at the University of Virginia, ultimately as the vice provost for academic affairs. 

In the fifth episode, Alison chats with Dean of Yale College, Pericles Lewis. 

In the fourth episode, Alison chats with University Chaplain, Maytal Saltiel. Maytal Saltiel is the 8th Yale University Chaplain and the first University Chaplain who is Jewish. She comes to this leadership role after serving for 10 years as an Associate Chaplain at Yale. As University Chaplain, Maytal oversees religious and spiritual life on campus. Her work has primarily focused on fostering and deepening interreligious collaboration and conversation, pastoral care in times of grief and growth, and nourishing diverse religious and spiritual traditions on campus. In addition to the Chaplain’s Office staff, Maytal works closely with all members of Yale Religious Ministries to support the Yale community. Prior to Yale she worked at Penn Hillel and Johns Hopkins Interfaith Center. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Divinity School. She was the inaugural President of the Association for Chaplaincy and Spiritual Life in Higher Education and is a lecturer at Yale Divinity School. Maytal is a fellow of Silliman College.

In the third episode, Alison chats with Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Lynn Cooley, PhD.  Lynn Cooley has served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences since 2014 and is the C.N.H. Long Professor of Genetics and Professor of Cell Biology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She also serves as Vice Provost for Postdoctoral Affairs. Cooley received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UT Austin in 1984 for dissertation research on tRNA transcription and processing conducted in the laboratory of Dieter Söll at Yale University. After postdoctoral training at the Carnegie Institution for Science, she joined the faculty of the Genetics Department at Yale School of Medicine in 1989. Cooley’s current research is focused on understanding the function of intercellular bridges that connect germline cells during their development into eggs or sperm and on the regulated production of unexpectedly long proteins in specific tissues. Cooley directed Yale’s Combined Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) from 2001–2014.

In the second episode, Alison chats with Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art, Kymberly Pinder ’95 PhD. In addition to this episode, check out the Art School’s monthly newsletter, News from New Haven.  An alumna of Yale’s History of Art program, Dr. Pinder is an internationally recognized scholar of race, representation, and public art. She is the author of “Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago” and the editor of “Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History.” Dr. Pinder is widely known for her deep commitment to education and its potential to address local and national challenges. In addition to being an eminent scholar and educator, she has extensive experience at institutions of higher education and museums. Dr. Pinder was appointed Yale’s first Black woman dean in 2021. Prior to her appointment at Yale, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President, then later Acting President of Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt).

Welcome to Yale Afternoons with Alison! In this series, Alison Cole ’99, executive director of the YAA, meets with university leaders to learn more about their priorities and how the alumni community can support them. All conversations occur at Rose Alumni House, the home of the alumni association and a hub for activity on campus. Bring your favorite beverage and enjoy the conversation.  In the first episode, Alison chats with the dean of undergraduate admissions, Jeremiah Quinlan ’03. As Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, Jeremiah is responsible for Yale’s outreach efforts to high-achieving students around the world, the College’s selection, recruitment, and financial aid processes, development of admissions and financial aid policy and practices, and the advancement of Yale’s position as a global leader in affordability and undergraduate education.  In August 2017 Jeremiah’s portfolio grew to include oversight of the new Yale Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid. In this role, he leads a team of financial aid officers who work with the nearly 3,000 Yale College students who receive need-based Yale scholarships and manages the College’s financial aid budget of approximately $210 million.   In addition to his responsibilities as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Jeremiah is a member of the senior management team of Yale College and has chaired the searches for the Dean of Student Affairs and the Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid for Yale College. Jeremiah is a fellow of Franklin College at Yale and has served as a College Advisor for first- and second-year students since 2003.   Jeremiah graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a B.A. in History. He received his M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, majoring in Marketing, Finance, and Social Enterprise.