Alumni in the News: October 10, 2022

The French short film Anges, written and directed by Jasmine Bissete ’19, produced by Joshua Chun ’21 and Maya Hartleben BC’19 and edited by Shawn Anand ’21, will premiere at the New York Shorts International Film Festival on October 22. Anges, which follows the journey of elementary school girls in Iran, was created during the pandemic. Bissete, Chun and Hartleben recently formed an independent film company, Kinglet Films.

The second season of Ghosts returned to CBS on September 29; Asher Grodman ’10 co-stars on the sitcom as Trevor, the ghost of a hard-partying Wall Street tycoon.

On September 27 it was announced that Joel Meyers ’21 will join the cast of Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the starring role of Albus Potter. Meyers begins performances at the Lyric Theatre on November 15.

Robert Siegel ’68 and Mark Rudd ’69 were included in the September 21 NPR feature “The times, they are not a-changin’.” NPR asked activists and witnesses of the 1960s anti-war movement and civil rights struggle to reflect on 2020s America.

Philadelphia’s Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announced its 2022 grant and fellowship awardees on September 19; filmmaker Sabaah Folayan ’13 received a $75,000 award. “I make work in which viewers occupying different social positions can eavesdrop on one another’s subjectivity and notice where their own viewpoint is located relative to others,” Folayan says.

Will Welch ’03 was the subject of the September 17 New York Times article “Will Welch Leads GQ to ‘the New Masculinity.’” Welch has been GQ’s editor-in-chief since 2018.

CNN announced on September 15 that Poppy Harlow ’05 will co-anchor the network’s new morning show, alongside Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins; the program will launch later this year. Harlow has been at CNN since 2008; she is currently the anchor of CNN Newsroom and host of the podcast Boss Files.

New York Mets announcer and analyst Gary Cohen ’81 was recently celebrated in voice and form. On September 14, the MTA announced that Cohen (along with his colleagues Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling) recorded a fun audio announcement that would play on the 7 line trains through October 5. And Cohen’s likeness was made into a bobblehead that was given away at the September 17 Mets game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, which provides service and support to LGBTQ+ professionals in corporate governance, was launched on September 12; Gerry Rodriguez ’09 and Imara Jones ’94 were named to the advisory board.

On August 11, Michael Gerrard ’72, the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School and director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, was named a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Law Journal. Gerrard is senior counsel at the law firm Arnold & Porter.

The White House named Demetre Daskalakis ’95 the deputy coordinator of the White House National Monkeypox Response team on August 2. Alongside coordinator Robert Fenton, Daskalakis will lead the administration’s strategy and operations to combat monkeypox, including equitably increasing the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments.