A podcast of their own

Majel Connery, AM’04, PhD’13, coproduced and hosted a new interview podcast called A Music of Their Own. In the NPR Network podcast, Connery—a vocalist, composer, and former musicologist—explores the resolve required for women to succeed in the male-dominated music industry. Through stories and discussions with female-identifying composers, artists, and creators, the series highlights the need for gender parity in music. Connery, who makes “electro-art-dream-pop with repressed Classical influences,” recently finished a 42-city tour as the singer in art-rock band Sky Creature. All six episodes of the first season, which focuses on classical music, were released in December.

AMA goes maroon

In June anesthesiologist and Navy combat veteran Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD’04, was voted president-elect of the American Medical Association. Ehrenfeld is a practicing anesthesiologist, senior associate dean, and tenured professor of anesthesiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he leads the largest statewide health philanthropy, the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment. Ehrenfeld has coauthored 18 textbooks and is the editor in chief of the Journal of Medical Systems. Elected to the AMA Board of Trustees in 2014, Ehrenfeld served as chair from 2019 to 2020; he will become AMA president in June 2023—the first openly gay person to hold the office.

Global growth

Krishnamurthy Subramanian, MBA’05, PhD’05, was appointed by the government of India as the executive director for India on the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—a United Nations agency with 190 member countries that promotes international financial stability and monetary cooperation. A professor of finance at the Indian School of Business, Subramanian previously served as the chief economic adviser to the government of India from 2018 to 2021. Before earning his PhD, which focused on financial economics, Subramanian worked as a consultant with JPMorgan Chase in Chicago. His three-year term at IMF began in November.

Eight under 40

UChicago and Laboratory Schools alumni make up a fifth of the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 Class of 2022, honored for being “wildly accomplished and poised to do even bigger things.” This year’s cohort includes: Drew Louis Beres, MPP’07; Pranav Gokhale, SM’19, PhD’20; Daniel K. Hertz, MPP’15; Michael N. LaVitola, MBA’14; John Oxtoby, LAB’03; Cristina Rohr, MBA’13; Chad N. Strader, MBA’15; and Sameer S. Vohra, AM’15.

Making a (printer’s) mark

In September publishing veteran Gretchen Young, AB’84, AM’84, launched a stand-alone imprint of Post Hill Press called Regalo Press. The imprint, distributed by Simon and Schuster, will feature a range of genres, including memoir, pop culture, sports, social justice, humor, female empowerment, and fiction. What the titles have in common: each will directly benefit a charity or cause important to the author. (Regalo means “gift” in Spanish and Italian, explains Young, who holds degrees in Romance languages and literatures.) Young spent the past 10 years as vice president and executive editor at Grand Central Publishing; before that, she launched the ESPN imprint at Hyperion Books.

Hail! To the Ono valiant

Santa Ono, AB’84, a biomedical researcher and former president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia, became the 15th president of the University of Michigan in October. Ono, whose research focuses on the immune system and eye disease, is the first Asian American to lead the University of Michigan. He has held higher education leadership positions in the United States and Canada, where he prioritized sustainability; accessibility and affordability; strong advocacy for mental health; and an open communication style.