Alumni Gazette

In the News

FIRST GRAMMY: Bill Cunliffe ’81E (MM) won for Best Instrumental Arrangement. (Photo: AP Images/Mark J. Terrill)

Eastman Grads Claim Grammys

Soprano Renee Fleming ’83E (MM), tenor Anthony Dean Griffey ’01E (MM), and jazz pianist and composer and arranger Bill Cunliffe ’81E (MM) were winners at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in January. Cunliffe’s award—for Best Instrumental Arrangement for his “West Side Story Medley” on Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson (Resonance Records)—was his first. Fleming and Griffey, who both have two awards, picked up two more. Fleming won Best Classical Vocal Performance for her album of arias, Verismo (Decca), and shared Best Classical Crossover Album, for her role on Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace (Sony Classical). Griffey shared the Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance for his role on Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Adagio From Symphony No. 10 (SFS Media).

Reverend Paul McDaniel ’59 (MA) Appointed to Rights Commission

Paul McDaniel ’59 (MA), a community activist and pastor of the Second Missionary Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been appointed by the state’s governor to the board of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission. The commission is a state agency charged with investigating and eradicating discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. The board consists of 15 members, each of whom serves a six-year term.

Celena Evans ’96 is one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s ‘40 Under 40’

Celena Evans ’96 is one of the top 40 business professionals in the Atlanta area under the age of 40. That’s according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Evans, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Rochester and a graduate business degree from Emory University, leads a team at the climate-control device company Heatcraft Refrigeration. She is also the vice president of a mentoring and networking group for executive-level women alumni of Emory’s Goizueta School of Business and a board member of an organization that teaches high school and college students how to manage their finances.

Alumna Awarded Largest Individual Grant in Arizona State’s History

Kimberly Sidora Arcoleo ’06M (PhD), an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation, has been awarded a $2.5 million grant—the largest individual investigator award in Arizona State’s history—by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. Arcoleo will lead an interdisciplinary study on asthma disparities in Latino children, investigating the similarities and differences between Mexican and Puerto Rican families regarding beliefs about asthma and management strategies.

Rosalyn Engelman ’78 (MS) Wins Gold Medal at Florence Exhibition

Exhibiting alongside more than 800 artists from 78 countries at the invitation-only 2009 Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea di Firenze, New York City artist Rosalyn Engelman ’78 (MS) was awarded the Lorenzo di Medici “Il Magnifico” Gold Medal for Career Achievement in Art. Held every two years in Florence’s 16th–century fortress, Fortezza da Basso, the exhibition is judged by an international panel and sponsored by the Italian government, the United Nations, and various arts and civic organizations. Engelman displayed three paintings: Fog, Emotion, and Bal Harbour Sunset.