Three alumni were named to the Forbes’ “30 under 30” list for 2019: Erica Dorfman ’11 (head of finance and operations at Tally Technologies, a software company that helps people manage credit card debt) in the finance category; Riley Jones ’17 (cofounder of BLOC, a coaching company that empowers young people of color to build fulfilling careers) in the social entrepreneurs category; and Jessica Schinazi ’11 (head of business development and branding for Amazon’s Luxury Beauty) in the retail and e-commerce category.
Hannah Assadi ’08, SOA’13, author of the novel Sonora, was one of the five honorees of The National Book Foundation’s “2018 5 Under 35” — a selection of debut fiction writers under 35 whose work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.
Alana Mayo ’06, head of production and development at Outlier Society, a production company, was profiled in the November issue of Essence in “Meet Alana Mayo, Michael B. Jordan’s Not-So-Secret Weapon”; Darryl Pinckney ’88 and Jamel Brinkley ’97, GSAS’07 were featured in The New York Times Style Magazine’s November 30 interactive feature “Black Male Writers for Our Time”; activist and long-distance runner Alison Mariella Désir ’07, GSAS’11 was featured in the October issue of Vogue in “Shop Fall Fashion Inspired by 14 Real Working Women”; and actress Amanda Peet ’94 was profiled by The New York Times on October 27 in “Amanda Peet Struggles With Her Tennis Game.”
Brandon Victor Dixon ’03 will appear in Fox’s live musical event Rent, in the role of Tom Collins. The show will air on Sunday, January 27.
Two alumni received awards from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, which celebrates the achievements of scientists, physicists and mathematicians. Adrian Krainer ’81, a professor of neuroscience at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, received the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and Daniel Harlow ’06, assistant professor of physics at MIT, received the 2019 New Horizons in Physics Prize. They were honored at a ceremony on November 4.
The 2018 Crain’s New York “Fast 50 List,” which identifies the metro area’s fastest-growing firms, included two alumni-run businesses: CEO Jeffrey Kupietzky ’93’s PowerInbox (an email monetization company) came in at number 4, and founder and CEO Robert Reffkin ’00, BUS’03’s Compass (an online real estate company), was number 8.
