International Alums in the News
- MH Global Alum Alliance
- Mar 1, 2017
- 7 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
A collection of news stories about Mount Holyoke alums leading and engaging with the world
Mount Holyoke College alums get around and get things done! Discover what uncommon things alums are doing and saying, all across the globe. This list is not comprehensive and always growing, please help us add to this collection by sending your suggestions to MHGlobalAA@gmail.com!
Director Chloe Zhao '05 was interviewed by the LA Times, following the launch of her latest film, Hamnet at Telluride:
All my films start with characters who’ve lost what defined them: dreams, home, purpose, faith. They grieve who they thought they were in order to become who they truly are. That’s grief on an individual and collective level. I wasn’t raised to understand grief. So I made films to give characters catharsis and through that, myself.
The Oscar chatter has already started. You’ve obviously been through this before. How do you tune that out and just focus on what’s in front of you?
The same way that me, Paul and Jessie were doing on set. We made the film by being present. It’s difficult, so I’m trying to take that practice daily — just saying, “OK, today is all we have.” It’s flattering and nice but after what I’ve experienced in my career, you cannot possibly predict how things are going to go. I never expected “Nomadland” to go on that journey. So I surrender to the river.
Kate McElwee '07, executive director of Women’s Ordination Conference, working for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church has been in the news multiple times:
Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference, the body behind the strike plan, said the Vatican’s decision sparked a widespread belief among Catholic women that action is required. “We were founded in 1975, and at that time there was a sense, on the back of the Second Vatican Council, that change would soon happen,” she said.
“Over the decades since, there have been many setbacks – but then the synod came along, and we felt inspired, excited and hopeful. Women’s ministry was clearly high on the agenda. For the first time in its history, the Women’s Ordination Conference was mentioned by name on the Vatican website.
McElwee said: “That seemed to signal change, and that there was room for more.” But over time, hopes of reform have been dashed by a pope and cardinals who turned out to be unwilling to make it central, she said. “It’s felt like a betrayal … it has been heartbreaking. The final document [of the Synod] was disappointing and insufficient and deeply theological, which may not resonate with people in the parishes. It felt hollow. It has all been extremely frustrating … we want to make visible the huge contribution women make to the church,” she said.
“If enough women join us, this will make an enormous difference – and we’re working with many organisations across the world.””
France 24, 7 May 2025
Cardinal electors are yet to cast their first ballots in the papal conclave – and yet they've already been beaten to the smoke race.
Just hours before the "princes" of the Catholic Church gathered in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope, members of the Women's Ordination Conference lit pink smoke flares on a nearby hill in protest at rampant gender inequality in the Church.
"While the world may be waiting for white or black smoke, our pink smoke is a signal that women should be included in every aspect of the life of the Church," said Kate McElwee, executive cirector of Women’s Ordination Conference. "A woman’s place is in the conclave," she added.
Read the full article here
Alison Birch '87 serving as an “International Advisor of Fukuoka Prefecture Government” in Japan:
Fukuoka Prefecture has appointed Alison Birch, COO of State Street Trust & Banking, as an International Financial Advisor to support efforts in attracting global financial institutions and promoting local startups.
Birch, who also leads the bank’s Fukuoka branch, brings over 30 years of experience from JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup. At the appointment ceremony, she highlighted Fukuoka’s talent pool and low natural disaster risk as advantages for international financial hubs.
Barbara Schmidt '69 on the 50th anniversary of the Phoenix Cricket Club, where she was a member of the inaugural Phoenix women’s side and also the first female president, in Dublin, Ireland:
Irish Times 28 June 2025
“There were no women’s toilets here then,” she [Barbara Schmidt '69] said. “It was a men’s club from 1830, with no women at all, so we had to use the gents’ and stand guard.
“There was a social scene, and some of the guys were married to some of the women. We were expected to make teas and that. Jenny Halliday, in particular, got fed up doing teas and said ‘Here, we want to play’. She arranged a friendly match between Phoenix and Trinity.”
That game took place in 1974 or 1975 – Halliday has the clipping of an Irish Times article documenting its occurrence, but the date is missing. An official Phoenix women’s team was later established and Schmidt was called up to the roster. She ended up on the executive committee with a lot of “elderly, serious gents”, and struck a deal that the women would make teas for the men if they agreed to coach and umpire for them in return.
Read the full article here
Ayesha Harruna Attah '06 from Ghana on publishing her latest novel, a romantic comedy set in New York (learn more about her books here in our Alum Library):
‘Write What You’ve Always Wanted to Write’
The Republic 22 November 2024
Ghanaian writer and author of The Hundred Wells of Salaga, Ayesha Harruna Attah, says she was inspired to write her latest novel during the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘The inspiration for Zainab Takes New York came from being stuck indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the uncertainty of those first months of the pandemic, I thought to myself: write what you’ve always wanted to write—and that turned out to be a romantic comedy.’
Read the full article here
Ambassador Natalie Sabanadze '97, Senior Research Fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House and the previous head of the Georgian mission to the EU and Ambassador of Georgia to the Kingdom of Belgium and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, on the political perils facing Georgia:
Georgia is not and has never been a fully consolidated institutional democracy. The separation of powers remains blurry, the system of checks and balances malfunctions, and the changes of power through the ballot box are the exception rather than the norm.
Consequently, the independent Georgian state has not served its people. Instead, it has been co-opted by a small circle of ruling elites who treat state institutions as instruments of their power. While the elites have changed over time —fortunately—the underlying pattern has persisted.
Despite all this, Georgia is a free country. It is a revolutionary democracy where popular resistance serves as the ultimate check on power. While ruling elites may succeed in capturing the state, they consistently fail to subjugate its citizens.
Read the full article here
Christine Brown '91 from the Philippines and the Netherlands has a managerial position at ASML, one of the top suppliers in the world for semiconductors. As a role model, she was recently one of the speakers at a conference on female ‘tech heroes’ on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven:
As a woman in technology, you can sometimes make a difference just by being there, she says. She works at the Veldhoven chip machine maker in an environment with mainly men. "I have never actually been so aware of that, because it was always the case in the sector where I studied and worked. Only in recent years have I become more aware of the importance of female role models.
"I often wonder what impact my position has had, as most of the teams I worked with have always been quite diverse. I think that's because the people, often men, who hired staff for my teams may have unconsciously started looking at women differently. This is because they already saw me in a leadership position. So just by being there, you might already be taking away unconscious biases.
"I now try to visit female colleagues much more often in my work and do things together. It's sometimes nice to be able to talk to each other outside of work about things we all experience, because as women we are all in the same boat.”
In Memoriam: Chef Margarita Forés '80 from the Philippines passed away in February 2025, leaving behind an incredible culinary legacy. A truly Uncommon alum.
Forés was born in 1959 into the prominent Araneta family, which has its roots in Guipúzcoa in the Basque region of northern Spain. The clan established the Araneta Group of companies that deal in property, food, leisure and hospitality.
Colloquially known as the “daughter of Cubao” – the district of Quezon City that was her home base – Forés was loved by her countrymen and recognised wherever she went.
It is said that her passion for Italian cuisine was sparked during a trip there in 1987, and she quickly immersed herself in it, learning as much as she could from “three Italian signoras”, as she put it.
“I came back home and spent nearly a decade sharing my new-found passion, cooking in people’s homes, slowly learning the ropes of a career in the food industry,” she said.
Named Asia’s best female chef in 2016, Forés was best known for leading the charge for Italian cuisine in the Philippines. Cibo, specialising in fresh Italian panini and pizza, was founded in 1997 and quickly grew into one of the most prominent Italian chains in the country.
Vijaya Pastala '89, Mumbai, part of the GAA's team and founder of The Mango Tree, a social enterprise helping smallholder farmers increase incomes through beekeeping, on her experience as a trailblazing woman in India:
Facing fear begins with one courageous act. Vijaya shares a moment that transformed women beekeepers' relationship with fear. Her story proves that fear loses its power when one is ready to face it.
This list is not comprehensive and always growing, please help us add to this collection by sending your suggestions to MHGlobalAA@gmail.com.
