News

Colorado Yale Association New Leadership

May 2021

On May 4th, attendees to the annual CYA meeting/Redpath lecture voted on a slate of board members, which included a new president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary/communications manager. The Colorado Yale Association will have Jonathan Martin ’12 at the helm, who some alums may know as acting ASC director in 2020.While a student, Jonathan worked for the admissions office and got to travel to Colorado, which is when he fell in love with the state. His experience as a heavyweight crew team member will serve him well as leader of a strong line-up.

Heather Kingsbury Hill ’87 remains on the board and becomes the new vice-president, and past veep Bo Reynolds ’14 assumes the role of treasurer. Outgoing president Stephanie Grilli PhD ’80 stays on the board as secretary/communications manager, continuing to send emails and to populate the website. Also continuing their board service are Ben Jacobs ’17 and Anne Weil ’94. Ben has organized CYA hikes as well as the BOLD conversation series. Anne heads up the Colorado chapter of YaleWomen.

We welcome three new board members: Daphne Butler ’87 JD ’91, who has been taking steps to organize Colorado black alumni; Christina Schultz MBA ’04, who has hosted the Golden Feb Club and who has recently relocated to Grand Junction; and Jacqueline Esai, JD ’10 who has just returned  to Colorado and has also been selected by the YAA Board of Governors as an Assembly delegate-at-large.

The three members roll off the board have an impressive record of service. John Boak ’70 was CYA president for seven years and has been actively involved with the club for decades. Equally a long-time club regular, Tom Creighton ’76 MA ’83 MPhil ’84 has been our treasurer, but people may know him better as organizer of the hut trips as well as our summer hikes. Samantha (Sam) Lichtin ’16 is a vibrant presence at our events, contributing in a major way to our successes as well as teaming with fellow BOLD alums Bo and Ben to advance engagement of recent grads.

Events

Professor Joanna Radin: The History of Biomedical Futures

4 May 2021 | 6:45 pm - 8:00 pm

Meet Joanna Raines, Yale Associate Professor of History of Medicine and History, on Tuesday, May 4th. She was recently featured in a New York Times piece that featured the Yale course, “Covid-19. A History of the Present”: “The course was ‘a pilot project to demonstrate that the humanities are an essential part of what a medical education should be — not just a luxury, but foundational,’ Dr. Radin said. One student wrote her final essay on the practice of Judaism during the pandemic. Another wrote a short story about working as a contact tracer in New Haven.”

In the Zoom meeting format, Professor Radin will address these intriguing questions: How have historical ideas about the future of medicine shaped the present? What happens when imagined futures don’t arrive? What happens when they do? In addition, she will share her experiences teaching the history of science and medicine to Yale undergraduates and medical students during the time of COVID-19.

Professor Radin received her PhD in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines the social and technical conditions of possibility for the systems of biomedicine and biotechnology that we live with today. She has particular interests in global histories of biology, ecology, medicine, technology, and anthropology since 1945; history and anthropology of life and death; biomedical technology and computing; feminist, indigenous, and queer STS; and science fiction.

She is the author of Life on Ice: A History of New Uses for Cold Blood (Chicago 2017), the first history of the low-temperature biobank and co-editor, with Emma Kowal of Cyropolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting World (MIT 2017), which considers the technics and ethics of freezing across the life and environmental sciences. She is also co-editor of the Science as Culture book series for the University of Chicago Press.

This event is also the Colorado Yale Association annual meeting. Professor Radin will join us at 7:00 pm. Colorado Yalies will be admitted at 6:45 pm, so that club business can be conducted. This will be voting on the slate on board members, including president. Zoom registration will have 6:30 pm as the start time, but this is due to their time pull-down not offering quarter-hour increments.

Register HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Direct any questions to Stephanie Grilli: steph@artscribe.net

Events

Feb Club 2021 Goes Virtual

February 2021

With a party somewhere every night, Feb Club started in Yale College as a way to cope with the depths of winter in New Haven. Feb Club Emeritus is for Yalies from all schools and programs to socialize. Colorado holds the record for the most FebClub events in a month, thanks to the efforts of volunteer host throughout the state each year. Last year’s slate was among the very last in-person gatherings CYA has held.

This year, we have scheduled two virtual Zooms for 6:00 pm: Tuesday, February 9th and Saturday, February 20th. No need to get in your car and drive across town or hop on light rail to a local bar or restaurant. Come as you are in the comfort of your own home. While regional quaffs may be missing, connections with Yalies across the state are served up instead.

RSVP to Stephanie Grilli and receive a link before the hour arrives: steph@artscribe.net Even though social-distancing keeps us apart locally, let’s make Colorado still show it knows how to socialize in a big way!

Events

Colorado Black Yale Alumni Social Gathering

15 November 2020 | 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Last November, a number of black alumni had dinner with members of the YAA staff, the evening before Yale Explores. There was discussion of the Coloradans meeting again and possibly developing a chapter of the Yale Black Alumni Association. This is the 50th anniversary of the Yale Afro-American House, and it seems a fitting time to connect at a virtual social gathering. Daphne Butler ’87, JD ’91 will host a Zoom meeting on Sunday, November 15th, starting at 5:00 pm. Email her to RSVP or to express interest if you can’t attend: daphne.e.butler@gmail.com

Check out the podcast Welcome to the (AfAm) House, which “that explores stories from the past, present and future told by the Black people who know them best.”

Events

Colorado Latinx Yale Alumni Social Gathering

8 November 2020 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Quintin Gonzalez ’97 MFA, “La Llarosa (The Weeping Woman)” (2020)

Come join David Sanchez ’84 MPhil, ’84 MA, chair of the Yale Latino Alumni Network, Marco Abarca ’85, Isabel Cruz ’17, and Jovan Tafoya ’21 on Sunday, November 8th, starting a 6:00 pm for a virtual social gathering. What would have been a get-together in Marco’s home will now be a Zoom meeting for those who identify as Latino in the Colorado Yale Community, and those who are interested in the mission of YLAN are welcome too. The purpose is getting to know one another, and it will also be an exploratory gathering to see what interest there is in a Colorado chapter of YLAN. Please RSVP to Stephanie Grilli: steph@artscribe.net. If you can’t attend but are interested in YLAN, email Stephanie to let her know.

The image above is by Quintin Gonzalez, a graduate of the Yale School of Art and Fine Arts Professor at the University of Colorado whose work is included in the Abarca Family Collection. Marco Abarca ’85 is on the board of trustees of the Latino Cultural Arts Center whose core collection was created by his parents Luis and Martha. The collection is on exhibit at History Colorado through January 20, 2021, in Hecho en Colorado.

Events

Colorado Ballot Measures: Live Pro & Con Primers

4 & 11 October 2020 | 5:00 pm - 6:15 pm

This coming election, Coloradans have a daunting list of ballot initiatives about which to make informed decisions. The Colorado Yale Association is offering two informational Zoom sessions on consecutive Sundays devoted to six state ballot initiatives with notable pro and con advocates in a fast-paced format.

This project was inspired by a political “odd couple” friendship between Sue Damour and Joe Smith ’88, who began regular discussions about political issues, after several years of talking politics at CYA holiday parties. They have put together a line-up of experts whose pairings are sure to create a few sparks, and their mutual friend, recent senatorial candidate Andrew Romanoff ’89, will be the moderator.

Session #1, October 4th, 5:00-6:15 pm:  Income Tax Reduction: Chris Hansen & Jon Caldara; TABOR: Chris Hansen & Michael Fields; Gallagher Amendment: Chris Hansen & Linda Gorman

Session #2, October 11th, 5:00-6:15 pm:  Reintroduction of the gray wolf: Ted Harvey & Rick Ridder; National Popular Vote (NPV): Scott Gessler ’87 & Stu Zeiger; Paid Family/Medical Leave: Linda Gorman & Ashley Panelli

Jon Caldara is the President of the Independence Institute, Colorado’s libertarian think tank. He is well-known as the host of radio talk programs on 630 KHOW and 850 KOA as well as his current affairs television program, Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldara, on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. Caldara started his political career in 1994 when he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Regional Transportation District, later becoming Chairman of the board. As president of the Independence Institute, he has actively worked to restrain government spending and on voter registration legislation.

A community activist, Sue Damour has had a political career working for the Obama and Clinton administrations, Congressman David Skaggs and Governor Richard Lamm. She currently volunteers for State Senator Chris Hansen. Sue has also been privileged to work for the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and The Bell Policy Center. Her husband, Tim is Yale ‘64; her daughters Lisa, Yale ‘92 and Kristin ‘93 are proud graduates as well.

Michael Fields works as the Executive Director of Colorado Rising Action. Previously he served as the State Director for Americans for Prosperity – Colorado and as a policy aide at the Colorado State House and worked as a press aide for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Fields is a former middle school teacher, as well as a former Governing Board president at a charter school in Aurora. He appears as a political analyst for Fox31. Michael Fields was a 2014 Republican candidate for District 37 of the Colorado House of Representatives.

Scott Gessler ’87 is the former Secretary of State of Colorado. Gessler began his law career as a federal prosecutor for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He served as a reservist in the United States Army for sixteen years and has served overseas in locations such as Bosnia where he ran a Civil-Military Cooperation Centre. Moving to Colorado, Gessler joined Hackstaff Gessler LLC, a Denver-based private practice law firm, where he still works today. Gessler has taught election law at the University of Colorado Law School. Gessler is also a past president of CYA.

Linda Gorman is Director of the Health Care Policy Center at the Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank in Denve. With a PhD in economics, she studies and provides commentary on health care reform in Colorado and the United States. She was a member of Colorado’s Blue Ribbon Commission for Healthcare Reform and a co-author of one of the Commission’s minority reports. She was previously an economics professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Ben Shahn, “Voting Booths” (1950)

Chris Hansen is the State Senator for Colorado Senate District 31 and was formerly the Representative for House District 6. He was selected as one of fifteen leaders from across the country to join the NewDEAL (Developing Exceptional American Leaders), a selective national network of rising state and local elected officials. Hansen serves as the Co-Founder and Director of Programming at the Colorado Energy & Water Institute and as Co-Founder of the Colorado Science and Engineering Policy Fellowship. He was author of the legislation for the repeal of Gallagher.

Ted Harvey was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives representing the 43rd House District in 2001. Elected in 2006 to the Colorado Senate, he represented Senate District 30. He began his political career as a staffer in the Reagan White House. Harvey serves as Chairman of the Committee to Defend the President, a pro-Trump super PAC. He was a Colorado delegates to the 2020 Republican National Convention.

Ashley Panelli is the Paid Leave Campaign Manager with 9to5 Colorado advocating for accessible paid family and medical leave policies across the state. She began her organizing work as the chair of the Denver DSA Socialist Feminist committee and prioritizes centering women and people of color in the fight for economic justice. Prior to working at 9to5, Ashley was a Qualified Intellectual Disabilities Professional for developmentally-disabled women with psychiatric disorders.

Rick Ridder is President and Co-Founder of RBI Strategies and Research. A former presidential campaign manager and a senior consultant for six other presidential campaigns, Rick has consulted for numerous U.S. Congressional, gubernatorial, and state and local initiative campaigns and has worked in over 23 nation, including the successful campaigns of seven heads of state. For his work in electoral reform, Rick was recognized with the “Award of Achievement” from the Gleitsman Foundation at the Harvard Kennedy School for “commitment and leadership initiating social change.”

Andrew Romanoff ‘89 is an American politician, attorney and academic.  In Colorado, he worked for Congressman David Skaggs and was a senior policy advisor to Governor Roy Romer.  He was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2000-2008, serving as Speaker from 2005-2009.  Romanoff ran for Congress in 2010, 2014, and 2020.  As an academic, he has taught government at University of Colorado/Denver, Metro State and Red Rocks Community College.  From 2015 to 2019, Andrew served as President and CEO of MentalHealth Colorado.

Joe Smith ’88 was a conservative student leader at Yale in the late 1980s, chairing the largest conservative party in the Yale Political Union. At law school at the University of Chicago, he was president of nation’s largest chapter of the Federalist Society.  Smith has been on the board of the Independence Institute for the last 20 years and currently chairs the board of ACE Scholarships, which promotes school choice. He typically represents commercial plaintiffs. although in 2000, he was on the trial team representing George W. Bush against Al Gore.

Stu Zeiger and his wife Olga  moved to Denver seven years ago from Philadelphia, where they were both active in the Democratic Party. Stu Zeiger has been a Precinct Committee Person for House District 6 and serves as an Election Judge in the Signature Verification Department. He was active in the promotion of SB 19-042 to have Colorado join the National Popular Vote Agreement. Zeiger’s career was in Information Technology: first as the Director of Product Management at ADP Financial Services and then as Vice President of IT at the National Headquarters of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Each session will start at exactly 5:00 pm.. After introductions, each advocate will have 5 minutes to present their case followed by 7 minutes of questions for both presenters. Questions must be pre-submitted or submitted using the chat function during the event. Attendees will be on mute. The events are free but you must pre-register. Email Stephanie Grilli: steph@artscribe.net

You will receive the Zoom address before the date. Please read the ballot initiatives before each event. You can find them in the Bluebook you received in the mail or on Ballotpedia.