Name: Donell Cohen City and Volunteer Position: Los Angeles, Alumni Association Committee Member How long have you been volunteering for GW? What made you want to volunteer? Since some time in 2001, I think. Someone contacted me from Alumni Office. They were stopping in Los Angeles among other cities trying to get some local participation […]
Category: Top Alumni News
For the Love of Nana
Throughout her life, Merry Adler, GSEHD BA ’82, MA ’83, has looked to her late grandmother Rose Friedenberg as her guiding star. While “Nana” passed away in 1976, she remains vibrant in Adler’s memory. With the desire to share the story of her beloved Nana alongside the memories of other people’s grandmothers, Adler wrote and […]
Joe Altenau Sets the Stage at New Jersey’s Prudential Center
As a theatre major, Joe Altenau, CCAS BA ’08, worked behind the scenes on productions that thousands of people attended every year. Today, his behind-the-scenes role at New Jersey’s Prudential Center reaches millions. Prudential Center hosts about 175 events a year — including New Jersey Devils hockey games, Seton Hall Pirates basketball games, concerts with […]
GW Alumna Eugenia Finizio Cassidy Changing How We Get Our News at theSkimm
Eugenia Finizio Cassidy, SMPA BA ‘13, grew up knowing that she wanted to be a journalist. Little did she know that one day she would work for a start-up company that would change how we get our news. Growing up, Cassidy read the school morning announcements and interned for a local TV station. “I was […]
Alumna Cleans Up with Sponge Company
After soaring to success on Madison Avenue, Linda Sawyer, GWSB BBA ’83, made the jump to entrepreneurship and co-founded Skura Style in partnership with her childhood best friend. Sawyer, CEO of the venture, describes it as “a lifestyle brand that wants to enhance the experience around the kitchen sink.” The company launched in 2017 with a […]
Alumnus Reinvents Restaurant Business Model to Support Front Line Workers and Employees
When Dan Simons was forced to change his business model less than two months ago, it wasn’t in the plans. For the last 12 years, Simons, GWSB BBA ’92, and his partners have been building and expanding their restaurant company. What started as a single Founding Farmers restaurant in D.C. on Pennsylvania Ave in 2008 […]
Coping with Grief Amidst COVID-19
By day, Brooke James, CCAS BA ‘11, is an independent advisor and writer based in New York City. But in her free time, James helps equip people with the skills to talk about grief, loss, and death through her podcast The Grief Coach. What led you to start thinking about how our society talks about […]
Trip to Africa Inspires Alumna to Help Build an Orphanage
Dana Pugh-Clerkin, CCAS BA ‘78, grew up knowing she would one day travel to Africa. “I would watch this show called Wild Kingdom that played on Saturday afternoons. Something stuck with me. I knew I would get there.” Years later, after graduating from GW, raising two children, and working in the fundraising field, she finally […]
Alumni Valentines 2020
Could Cupid be hiding in Foggy Bottom? From Thurston Hall romances to classmates turned couples, alumni share how GW played a part in their love stories. Lucia Orejarena, ESIA BA ’14 & Yaacov (Coby) Wittman, CCAS BS ’14 “We met in Thurston Hall in 2010 and became close friends before starting to date a year […]
In Her Own Skin: Alumna Dermatologist Shares The Truth About Skincare
When you think of a nighttime skincare routine, face wash, moisturizer and even a serum may come to mind. For board-certified dermatologist Shereene Idriss, CCAS BA ’05, SMHS MD ’09, her evening ritual includes all of that plus a weekly live skincare Q&A session from the comfort of her own bed for her 150,000+ Instagram […]