Chancellor Chopp

In June Rebecca Chopp, PhD’83, was named chancellor of the University of Denver. Chopp, who has been president of Swarthmore College since 2009, will become DU’s first female chancellor when she takes office on September 1. Recipient of an Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award in 2008, Chopp is a scholar of Christian theology, theological education, and women’s studies. She has previously served as president of Colgate University, dean of the Yale University Divinity School, and provost of Emory University.

Nonprofit prodigy

Crain’s Chicago Business has named Theodore “Ted” Gonder, AB’12, to its 2014 Twenty in Their 20s list. Gonder is CEO of Moneythink, a nonprofit he cofounded with four College classmates in 2009 that teaches financial literacy to high school students. Initially Chicago-based, Moneythink now places college-age mentors in classrooms across the country. Gonder told Crain’s that his goal is to help adolescents prepare to “navigate the critical financial decisions of early adulthood like getting a job, financing higher education, and being smart about credit.”

Dad’s doodles

Nanette Vonnegut has released a book of her famous father’s doodles. Kurt Vonnegut Drawings (Monacelli Press, 2014) features 145 selections from a collection Vonnegut, AM’71, shipped to his daughter in the 1990s. The collection of pen and marker drawings highlights Vonnegut’s visual imaginativeness.

The Oscar goes to ...

Stephen Tapert, AM’02, has cocurated Best Actresses, an exhibition at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, Italy, a film museum located inside the Mole Antonelliana tower. Running through August 31, the show focuses on the first 72 women to win the Oscar for Best Actress, featuring photographs, costumes, and formal dresses worn by the award-winners on the red carpet.

The doctor is in

In April anesthesiologist William A. McDade, PhD’88, MD’90, was elected president of the Illinois State Medical Society, making him the first African American to lead the state’s largest doctors group. An associate professor of anesthesia and critical care and deputy provost for research and minority issues at UChicago Medicine, McDade was named the Chicago Medical Society’s Physician of the Year in 2012. He is the former president of the Chicago Medical Society and the Chicago Society of Anesthesiologists.

Technical editing

In June Zack Seward, AB’06, became editor in chief of Technical.ly, a news and events network site serving Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Brooklyn. He is a former innovations reporter at NewsWorks.org and WHYY 90.9 FM in Philadelphia and at WXXI public broadcasting in Rochester, NY.

Artistic direction

Christina Yu Yu, PhD’11, has been selected to lead the USC Pacific Asia Museum. She previously served as assistant curator of Chinese art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and in positions at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern Art. Born and raised in China, Yu Yu has researched traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy and contemporary Asian art. She starts her post with USC PAM on August 1.