Since I began a few months ago using this column to highlight books written by classmates, I am now convinced that the ’91s are a class of quite prolific writers.
Annie Drapkin Lyerly e-mailed me with exciting news about the August publication of her first book, A Good Birth. “It draws on a study I did asking 100 mothers with very diverse birth experiences what they thought made for a ‘good birth’ now that they’d been through it. I weave their words with my own experiences as an obstetrician and a mom (of four, soon five) to offer a conception of the good birth that gets beyond the medical vs. natural divide and focuses on the things that women themselves say matter most.”
University of Vermont associate professor anthropology Luis Vivanco’s passion for bikes is the topic of his latest book, Reconsidering the Bicycle: An Anthropological Perspective on a New (Old) Thing. His book just came out this spring and in it Luis analyzes the bicycle culture in Burlington (Vermont), Amsterdam and Bogota, among other places. Luis calls Burlington home and is part of a growing movement in that city and around the world toward making bicycles a more common mode of everyday transportation. In a recent article profiling Luis in the Burlington Free Press, he talks about using a mountain bike both for transportation and recreation while at Dartmouth, as well as learning how to fix bikes and running a bike repair business while studying in Hanover.
In addition to the many published authors in our class, our classmates continue to excel on the career front. Aisha Labi wrote in to DAM to laud the achievements of her good friend Karen Leo, who was recently honored with a Peabody Award for her work as a producer at ABC. “She works closely with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America and was the lead producer on a series of programs about Robin’s recent illness that won the award.” As Good Morning America co-anchor Roberts was undergoing treatment for a rare blood disease, the ABC News coverage helped to raise awareness of the need for bone marrow donors and viewers were encouraged to sign up on a donor registry.
Finally, classmate Pete Wheelan was recently named chief executive officer at InsideTrack, a San Francisco-based company that works with colleges and universities to improve student and institutional success. Prior to joining InsideTrack, Pete served as chief operating officer and chief revenue officer at Blurb, and before that, he held the position of senior vice president of strategic marketing and business development for Lonely Planet Publications. Pete was also co-founder and CEO of AdventureSeek, an online portal for adventure travel purchased by the Unexplored Travel Network.
Congratulations to Annie, Luis, Karen and Pete on your recent achievements! Please keep those updates coming.
—Sara Burbine Potter, 108 Hillcrest Road, Fairfield, CT 06824; sara_burbine@yahoo.com
