Amherst at 200: Release Schedule
Prologue Episode: Presidential Podcast
Released: November 12
Amherst College President Biddy Martin convenes with two of her predecessors, Tony Marx and Tom Gerety, for a discussion moderated by Cullen Murphy ’74. The three presidents compare notes on the meaning and value of a liberal arts education, the surprises they found at Amherst, the challenges of their leadership roles and their advice to their successor for guiding the College into the future.
Episode 01: Anthony Abraham Jack ’07
RELEASED: NOVEMBER 12
Sociologist Anthony Abraham “Tony” Jack ’07 is the author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students. In this episode, he describes his own experience as a first-generation, low-income student at Amherst—and how he made it all the way to the front page of The New York Times and on to a Ph.D. and professorship at Harvard.
Episode 02: Freddie Bryant ’87
RELEASEd: NOVEMBER 17
Jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader and professor Freddie Bryant ’87 takes us back to his childhood among artists and musicians in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Then he reflects on how his Amherst experience shaped his understanding of racial identity as well as his musical career. This episode features music performed by Bryant and his parents, Beatrice Rippy and Carroll Hollister, class of 1922.
Episode 03: Kathy Chia ’88
RELEASed: November 19
Math, fine arts, physics, drama, philosophy, travel, guidance from faculty: Kathy Chia ’88—co-principal of Desai Chia Architecture and a former Amherst trustee—outlines how every element of her liberal arts education has helped to shape her thinking as an architect.
Episode 04: Becky Rwakabukoza ’14
RELEASed: December 1
Becky Rwakabukoza ’14 grew up in Mubende, Uganda, the youngest in a family of 10 children and the highest-ranking student in her district. In this episode, she describes her journey to and through Amherst as a Koenig Scholar and what she has learned about feminist advocacy in a Ugandan context.
Episode 05: Pat Fitzgerald ’82
RELEASEd: December 3
As a federal prosecutor, Pat Fitzgerald ’82 has worked on multiple high-profile legal cases, including those related to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa. Here, the former Amherst trustee looks back on the most indelible moments of his career and on the many lessons he learned when arrived at the College from a Catholic high school in Manhattan.
Episode 06: Christine Croasdaile ’17
RELEASEd: DECEMBER 8
Now a J.D./M.B.A. candidate at Howard University, Christine Ayanna Croasdaile ’17 looks back to her many activities at Amherst: majoring in Black studies and Spanish, engaging with Black and Caribbean student organizations, and taking on a key role in the activist movement known as Amherst Uprising. Croasdaile also looks ahead, sharing her hopes for the College’s future.
Episode 07: Chris Lehane ’90
RELEASEd: DECEMBER 10
Chris Lehane ’90 is currently a global policy and communications executive at Airbnb and previously served as special assistant counsel in the Clinton White House. As a college student, he got the chance to have pizza with another future U.S. president. Lehane shares this story and other memories and insights from his days as a political activist and athlete at Amherst.
Episode 08: William Pritchard ’53
RELEASEd: DECEMBER 15
While still an undergraduate, William H. Pritchard ’53 “decided that there was nothing in the world that I would rather do than come back and teach at Amherst”—and that’s exactly what he did. Pritchard, now the Henry Clay Folger Professor of English, Emeritus, looks back on more than 70 years of learning, teaching and institutional change.
Photo copyright John Goodman, 2014
Episode 09: Dr. Meron Hirpa ’11
RELEASEd: DECEMBER 17
Dr. Meron Hirpa ’11 is a physician focused on public health and health equity in Cincinnati and Ethiopia. She recalls bidding an emotional farewell to her family and enrolling at Amherst as a first-generation college student, in pursuit of her longtime dream of becoming a doctor. Find out how the telementoring and QuestBridge programs, as well as faculty, staff and alumni, helped her blaze her path.
Episode 10: Kirk Johnson ’82
RELEASEd: DECEMBER 22
Kirk Johnson ’82 is the Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He digs deep into his passion for paleontology and geology, as well as his memories of Amherst. And he takes a panoramic view of the future of the College and the planet.
Episode 11: Rosanne Haggerty ’82
Release Date: April 27
President Biddy Martin speaks with Rosanne Haggerty ’82, former Amherst trustee and current president and CEO of Community Solutions, about how the organization strives toward a lasting end to homelessness in communities nationwide. Both Haggerty herself and Community Solutions have won MacArthur Foundation awards for their work.
Episode 12: Federico and Alejandro Sucre
RELEASE DATE: April 29
Federico and Alejandro Sucre are twin brothers who grew up in Caracas, Venezuela; attended high school in New Mexico and Wales, respectively; and then both enrolled in Amherst’s class of 2013. They converse with President Biddy Martin about their academic and career paths, the sense of community they found on the men’s soccer team and more.
Episode 13: Rebecca Segal ’18
RELEASE DATE: May 4
Rebecca Segal ’18 was a transfer student, a neuroscience major and Amherst’s first U.S. Army ROTC member in 24 years. Now she’s a field artillery officer and a first lieutenant. In this interview with President Biddy Martin, she describes all of these experiences, plus the three lasting lessons she learned in her college courses.
Episode 14: Bill Ford ’83
RELEASE DATE: May 6
Former Amherst trustee Bill Ford ’83 is CEO of General Atlantic, a private equity firm that is based in New York but active around the globe in the technology, financial services, health care, consumer and life sciences sectors. He talks with President Biddy Martin about business, philanthropy and the relevance of a liberal arts education to a rapidly changing world.
