This edition of recent Bates alumni mentions in the news media includes an essay on hiking from an Outing Club alumnus, a graduation speech by a previous senior Commencement speaker, and several alumni professional promotions and awards, along with a visit with English royalty.
Elizabeth Strout ’77
Queen Camilla praises literary prize for championing women authors for 30th anniversary — Mirror
Queen Camilla made a surprise appearance at the Women’s Prize for fiction 30th anniversary celebration, The Mirror reported, where she met with authors shortlisted for this year’s prize, including Elizabeth Strout ’77 (click through to see an image of Strout standing right next to Queen Camilla).
According to Hello! Magazine’s coverage, Camilla turned to Strout and said, “I have read your books, they are lovely.”
Camilla, herself an avid reader, praised the Women’s Prize and noted its substantial role in highlighting literary work by women.
The prize founders “believed that women’s stories should be truly heard, understood and honoured; and that it was time to disprove Virginia Woolf’s famous statement that ‘Anon…was often a woman,'” Camilla said.
Strout earned her place on the shortlist, alongside authors like Miranda July and Sanam Mahloudji, for her most recent novel Tell Me Everything. Her eighth novel, Tell Me Everything revisits many of the characters she’s created in her fictional Maine towns of Crosby and Shirley Falls, including Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess and none other than Olive Kitteridge herself, the star of her 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning book of that title. Strout has previously been longlisted four times and shortlisted twice for the Women’s Prize, considered one of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prizes.
The Independent also covered the “surprise event” and referenced Camilla “chatting” with the shortlisted authors.
Susan Dumais ’75 and Val Smith ’75
APS Elects New Members for 2025 — American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society recently elected Susan Dumais ’75 and Val Smith ’75 as new Members in 2025, the society’s news website reported. Founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, the APS is the United States’ oldest learned society (a volunteer membership society that devotes its time to an academic discipline). It honors and engages scholars across a variety of fields and supports research through grants, fellowships, and other award opportunities.
“It is a pleasure to announce a distinguished new class of members elected to the American Philosophical Society by its Members,” said Roger S. Bagnall, president of the APS. “Their work represents the highest levels of accomplishment in their respective fields and we look forward to welcoming them to the life and work of the Society.”
The Bates alumni were part of a group of 38 new Members to join the APS this year. Dumais is a technical fellow and the managing director at Microsoft Research New England. She has worked at Microsoft since 1997, and her research interests include human-computer interaction, user modeling and personalization, and search evaluation.
Val Smith is the president of Swarthmore College, a position she has held since 2015. Prior to her time at Swarthmore, Smith was a professor of African American literature and culture at Princeton University, where she also served as the dean of the undergraduate college, and at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Alexandria Onuoha ’20
‘The act of creating joy is your power’ — Suffolk University
In her Commencement speech at Suffolk University, Alexandria Onuoha ’20 spoke about finding joy, even in difficult sociopolitical climates, and the lessons she learned from her immigrant parents, reported Suffolk University News.
“Joy isn’t something that happens when things are easy. We create it. We identify it,” said Onuoha. “Let your joy remind you, that you can rise, you can endure, and, most importantly, you can thrive.”
Onuoha was graduating with a PhD in applied developmental psychology, making her the first Black woman to graduate from the university with that degree; she earned a master of science in applied developmental psychology from Suffolk in 2022.
While at Suffolk, Onuoha conducted research in the Youth Equity and Sexuality Lab, studying how far-right ideologies and online hate impact Black women college students’ mental health and belonging, and worked as an adjunct lecturer in Emmanuel College’s Psychology and Neuroscience Department.
In 2020, Onuoha offered the Senior Address at Bates’ virtual Commencement ceremony.
Jeremy Sclar ’88
150 Most Influential Bostonians 2025 — Boston Magazine
Boston Magazine included Jeremy Sclar ’88 on this year’s list of the 150 Most Influential Bostonians. The magazine recognized Sclar for his achievement as the chair and CEO of WS Development, one of the largest retail-led, mixed-use developers in the country, responsible for 7.6 million feet of property developed in Boston’s Seaport District.
“Sclar’s investments and philanthropy, meanwhile, have earned him a powerful network around the city, but it’s his life’s work making Boston buildings come alive that most people see and appreciate,” wrote Boston Magazine.
Sclar’s notable development projects include 400 Summer Street, a 630,000-square-foot, 16-story laboratory building housing Foundation Medicine, which Mayor Michelle Wu called a “transformational project,” and One Boston Wharf Road, a 707,000-square-foot, 17-story mixed-use building.
Sclar is also a trustee emeriti at Bates.
Ken Kolb ’98
Trump ratchets up steel tariffs to 50% — NBC News
In May, Ken Kolb ’98, a professor of sociology at Furman University, shared his expertise with NBC News in an article examining President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported steel.
Prior to the article’s publication, Trump raised the tariffs from 25 percent to 50 percent in the name of increasing domestic steel production and creating new jobs in the industry. However, because steel production in the U.S. has become largely automated, even reducing foreign-made steel imports likely won’t lead to significant hiring in the industry, Kolb said.
Similarly, in an op-ed published in The Post and Courier, Kolb argued that “when it comes to trade and tax policy, we should rely on evidence, not nostalgia” for the bygone, post-World War II era in which the steel industry employed 650,000 Americans.
“Theoretically you’re going to be able to hire some people, but in reality, the tariffs just raise the average price of steel,” Kolb told NBC News. “And when the price of a commodity like that goes up, businesses just buy less and sideline investment.”
To meet a goal of creating more jobs, Kolb wrote, the administration should instead focus on tax credits that incentivize domestic manufacturing in the clean energy sector, including clean steel production, solar panels, and lithium batteries.
Matthew Thaler ’02
Bates College grad promoted to general counsel at Worcester Polytechnic Institute — Mainebiz
Matthew Thaler ’02 has been named vice president and general counsel of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., after serving in the interim role for eight months, Mainebiz reported. Thaler joined WPI in 2018 and previously served as associate general counsel and deputy general counsel for the school.
“Matt’s deep understanding of higher education law, his principled leadership, and his unwavering commitment to WPI’s mission have made him an invaluable asset to our community,” Grace Wang, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said in a press release.
Before joining WPI, Thaler was general counsel and corporate secretary for Ribbon Communications, a company providing communications software, IP, and optical networking solutions. He also worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Proctor LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP. Thaler earned his law degree from Syracuse University College of Law in 2005.
Peter Moore ’78
My Dad Made Me a Hiker—and His Generation Changed Hiking Forever — Backpack
A childhood spent scrambling up the White Mountains with his dad — through poor weather, in good spirits and bad — shaped Peter Moore’s lifelong passion for the outdoors, he wrote in a Father’s Day essay for Backpack.
Moore ’78 wrote that he chose Bates because of its proximity to Pinkham Notch, a popular hiking and skiing area in the White Mountains.
“I double-majored in English and Outing Club, and I still can’t tell you which was more useful,” Moore wrote.
But, as a child, Moore didn’t always find his father’s idea of outdoor adventure fun. His dad would round up his four sons before the sun rose to drive from their home in Connecticut to the mountains, for a day of often-grueling hiking. These days, Moore writes, were fueled by a zeal characteristic of the Greatest Generation: Post-World War II Americans, many veterans, who worked hard, had babies, and, in the case of Moore’s dad, emphasized “embracing the suck.”
“The notion that it’s not a real adventure unless you suffer influenced my dad and infected me,” Moore wrote. “I make hard choices in the wilderness, and they often involve bulling ahead in the face of bad weather or challenging routes. It’s not just me. Such modern avatars of thru-hiking as Cheryl Strayed have raised misery to a purification ritual.”
Ilyas Gajarski ’24
We need to make space for complexity in Asian identities — University World News
In an opinion piece in University World News, Ilyas Gajarski ’24 — who went by Nick Gajarski at Bates — discusses the complexity of Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in Western media and its shortcomings. At Bates, Gajarski wrote their senior thesis about how Asian students made sense of their identities during the #StopAsianHate movement.
While the movement brought attention to racism against AAPI, Gajarski wrote, their thesis findings also demonstrated that #SAH did reinforce a monolithic idea of what it means to be Asian. Going forward, combating racism against AAPI “must include dismantling the very idea that ‘Asian’ is a one-size-fits-all identity.”
“To reach intercommunity solidarity, we have to make space for complexity, and for all voices that are still fighting to be heard,” Gajarski wrote.
In June, Gajarski published a version of their senior thesis, “Asian American college students’ reflections on the #StopAsianHate Movement,” authored in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Psychology Yun Garrison, in the journal Race Ethnicity and Education.
Laura Poppick ’10
Oxygen May Have Caused a Mass Extinction. Then It Led to Human Life — Rolling Stone
In an excerpt from her forthcoming debut book published in Rolling Stone, Laura Poppick ’10 explains how oxygen as we know it came to be.
For nearly half of the earth’s existence, oxygen did not exist as a gas, Poppick wrote. When it eventually emerged in a gaseous form, the element wreaked havoc on the planet by fundamentally changing materials and may have caused one of the worst mass extinctions in history.
“The fashionably late arrival of oxygen may sound like a planetary sigh of relief,” Poppick wrote. “Finally, the possibility for life larger than one cell, with lungs and lips and all the rest of it. But scientists familiar with oxygen’s highly reactive habits suggest its arrival was more like a nightmare.”
Eventually, the Earth recovered from this disruption, settling into a new normal with oxygen becoming vital to life on the blue planet.
“I was tickled that they wanted a nerdy excerpt about the rise of oxygen,” Poppick said of the Rolling Stone excerpt.
In her forthcoming book Strata: Stories from Deep Time, Poppick, a science and environmental journalist, tells the story of the Earth’s 4.54-billion-year history as it is written in strata, the remnants of ancient seafloors, desert dunes, and riverbeds around the world. The Los Angeles Times recently mentioned the book in its list of 10 books to read in July.
Ben Anderson ’99
Trinity College Announces New Vice President for Advancement — Trinity College News
Ben Anderson ’99 will serve as Trinity College’s next vice president for advancement, effective Sept. 2, the college’s news website announced in July.
“A liberal arts education provides a foundation for so many opportunities and directions, something I have been grateful for in my own life,” Anderson told Trinity. “Ensuring access to education for students and securing support for transformational growth of organizations has been a driving motivation throughout my career.”
Anderson has worked in advancement and development since 2006, first as a leadership gift office at Skidmore College and most recently as the associate vice president of principal giving and campaign director at Boston College, where he worked for 15 years in a variety of advancement roles.
“In addition to his impressive professional background, Ben’s strategic, personable, and compelling approach to institutional leadership and his love for liberal arts education were equally noteworthy to the search committee,” said Trinity President Dan Lugo, who joined Trinity on July 1, 2025..
Anderson graduated from Bates with a degree in economics and later earned a master’s degree in higher education administration from Boston College.
Marshall Hatch, Jr. ’10
Hatch appears on in-person addition of “Into America” podcast — SALA Series
Marshall Hatch Jr. recently made an appearance on a special in-person addition of the “Into America” podcast, SALA Series, the leadership development community that hosted the event, shared on their LinkedIn page. The podcast, hosted by Emmy award winner Trymaine Lee, shares stories about being Black in the United States.
“We’re privileged to learn from these remarkable, purpose-driven, and thoughtful leaders and look forward to exploring other ways to leverage the SALA platform and do more impact-driven work together,” the SALA Series wrote.
Hatch Jr. is the executive director of the MAAFA Redemption Project, a faith-based residential institute focused on improving quality of life for at-risk young men of color. He founded the project alongside his father, Marshall Hatch Sr., as a ministry of the New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, where both Hatch men are pastors.
After Bates, Hatch Jr. earned master of divinity and master of social work degrees at the University of Chicago and now works as a lecturer at the school. He is currently completing a doctor of philosophy degree at the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Joining Lee and Hatch Jr. for the live edition of “Into America” were Dalen Cuff, a college basketball analyst with ESPN, and Bettina Love, the William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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