Alumni News: 1990s
Benjamin Arbuckle '99 - I have some very fond memories of taking courses with Mary Voigt as an eager but clueless 18 year old. In particular I remember her one day in her Near Eastern Archaeology course making reference to a particularly handsome workman from her excavations at Gritille in Turkey, whom she deemed "too handsome and distracting" to work in the trench and was thus sent down to the screens at the bottom of the mound. This funny comment elicited nervous giggles from the crowd of students in Washington Hall who seemed unsure how to respond to a respected senior female professor making racy comments about a male worker. I thought it was great and it is a moment that has stuck with me now for more than a decade. Of course, I also got my introduction to Near Eastern prehistory and my first opportunity for field work in the region from Mary both of which formed the foundation for my career as an archaeologist.(4/6/2011)
Rebecca Ferrell, '96 - After teaching for two years (2006-2008) as an Assistant Professor at Howard University, Washington DC, I made a career change. I am now a Scientific Review Officer at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, where I run reviews in areas including Behavioral and Social Research, Aging Biology, Geriatrics and Gerontology, and Neuroscience. Believe it or not, I use my Anthropology and liberal arts background every day in my work! I am also able to continue some collaboration with other colleagues in Anthropology. Moving to Falls Church, VA, next month with my husband Richard, daughter Charlotte (age 4), and another daughter arriving next March.
John Finarelli, '95 - Currently postdoc-ing in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. I mostly deal with the evolution of carnivores, but I do dabble in paleoprimatology from time to time.
Ron Fuchs, '94 - I am the Curator of the Reeves Collection of Ceramics at Washington and Lee University and teach a ceramics course as well. I live in Lexington and am married to Mike Wedlock. (10/22/2010)
Ruth Mariampolski '97 - After working in marketing in Michigan, and managing a horse farm in Virginia, in 2010 I was admitted to practice law in New York State. Presently, I work for the City of New York in a tribunal that adjudicates matters of City law. (4/6/2011)
Kay McElveen Orzech, '97 - I recently received my PhD from the University of Arizona (August 2010) in biocultural anthropology, and began a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University. Because the topic of my dissertation was patterns and perceptions of adolescent sleep, I am affiliated with the sleep lab at Brown run by Dr. Mary Carskadon, a very well-known researcher in the field of adolescent sleep who is interested in what an anthropological perspective can bring to sleep studies.(10/23/2010)
