The publication covered the appointment of Kate Webber ’11 to be the first curator at the Frances Perkins Center, the official philanthropic partner of the Frances Perkins National Monument located in Newcastle, Maine.
Mainebiz writes, “Kate Webber brings 15 years of experience working with cultural organizations across Maine.” As the curator, Webber will lead the center’s education and interpretation team that hopes to expand and modernize educational programming around Francis Perkins, who served as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 (the first woman in a U.S. Cabinet) and was instrumental in the creation of Social Security and other vital programs for American workers. The center is open seasonally to visitors until Oct. 11.
In May Penguin Random House published The Things We Never Say, the 11th novel by Elizabeth Strout ’77, to widespread acclaim. In a review for The New York Times, headlined “Elizabeth Strout’s Latest Feels Like a Fresh Start” author Maggie Shipstead praises Strout’s “assured” storytelling style and the way that “scenes and tangents and remembered incidents gradually coalesce into collective meaning like found objects being woven into a bird’s nest.” Shipstead concludes the novel, which departs from Strout’s typical Maine settings to a seaside town in Massachusetts, is worth a second look: “The Things We Never Say rewards rereading, as the whole story is present, though disguised, from the beginning. Curious details and offbeat observations in the early chapters are pieces of a puzzle, their significance clear only after viewing the whole.”
Reviewing for The Guardian, Claire Adam writes, “Let’s hope that this fine author continues steadily along her path, delivering unto her loyal readers story upon story, gift upon gift.” Other coverage for The Things We Never Say appeared in The Atlantic and The Los Angeles Times.
The Contending, a digital magazine, covered the recent appointment of Carolyn Ryan ’86 to the board of The Peabody Awards, which “annually honors storytelling that reflects the social issues and emerging voices of the day.” The Peabody Awards board relies on the strength of the board, said Jeffrey Jones, the executive director of the awards program, in order to evolve with “the changing landscape that is television, podcasts, radio and interactive content.”
The announcement describes Ryan, managing editor at The New York Times, as a masthead leader “deeply involved in managing the newsroom staff, handling everything from recruiting journalists to shaping lines of coverage. Ryan came to the Times in 2007 to serve as New York political editor and helped lead the paper to a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the downfall of Governor Eliot Spitzer.”
Ryan Smith ’23 ran his first marathon on May 24, not only winning and breaking the record for the Vermont City Marathon, but qualifying for the Olympic trails. Smith was featured in the The Boston Globe in a story that highlighted his surprise victory. “[Qualifying] was something I was going to spend 10 years trying to do,” he told the paper. “Now I have to raise the bar and think of new ways to challenge myself.” Smith completed the marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 52 seconds. The qualifying time for Olympic trials is 2:16.
In an interview on NBC5 immediately after crossing the finish line, Smith credits “community” and continuing to run with his college friends after graduation. “It keeps it fun,” he told NBC5. Originally from Connecticut, Smith ran at Bates and was captain of the cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track teams.
The Boston Globe interviewed Renee Blacken ’05 about her achievement in rowing 3,200 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua, a journey that took her 65 days. She told the paper it was “the longest, wildest, most remote thing I’ve done.”
Blacken was rowing as a part of the Atlantic Dash, an annual event where rowers cross the Atlantic unsupported. She became the fourth American woman in history to make such a crossing, event organizer Billy Taylor told the newspaper.
Blacken undertook the row to raise money for her organization Outdoor Adventuring for Good, a nonprofit that funds trauma recovery services in Northern New Hampshire through feats of sport. Blacken told the Globe, “Having lived through some traumatic life experiences myself … programs really helped me regain agency on my own healing journey.”
“There was a lot of time to think … which is why I went out there,” she said. “I didn’t really see another person face to face after I left until I reached Antigua.”
Blacken was on the women’s rowing team at Bates.
Hannah Kothari ’26, founder of Chicks on Cliffs, was interviewed by WMUR Channel 9 in a live segment broadcast in March for Women’s History Month. The segment aired across New Hampshire and is available on Kothari’s LinkedIn and Instagram. She discussed the organization’s goals to help women build skills and gain confidence in the outdoors. Kothari told host Alanna Flood that her organization began after she posted about her own experience hiking and skiing. Kothari heard from women on TikTok expressing their concerns about safety in the outdoors, along with interest in joining in the adventures with other women.
As a response to those interested in connecting, Kothari created an Instagram account — @chicksoncliffs — in November. Kothari told Flood that in its first few months, the organization hosted over 50 events in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and New York — including backcountry skiing, hiking, and snowshoeing. This month, Chicks on Cliffs is hosting its first overnight trips.
“We want to make sure that people feel welcome in the outdoors,” Kothari told WMUR.We want to make sure that they feel that they have the tools to safely, comfortably, confidently explore everything beautiful that nature has to offer.” Kothari won Bates’ Bobcat Ventures competition this year with a grant of $12,000 to support Chicks on Cliffs.
The death of Kim Gamel ’90, correspondent in Europe and the Middle East, was reported by her colleagues at Associated Press, and the wire service’s coverage was picked up in outlets nationally.
A native of Idaho, Gamel majored in Russian at Bates and wrote for The Bates Student. She went on to earn a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
For the Associated Press, she reported on the Middle East during the height of the Iraq war and the Arab Spring. The AP’s article noted Gamel’s storytelling around Shams Karim, a young Iraqi girl who was blinded and disfigured by a 2006 bomb that also killed her mother. Gamel’s reporting on Karim gained international attention and fundraising that helped Karim receive treatment, according to Robert H. Reid, the AP’s former Middle East regional editor, who also worked with Gamel later at Stars and Stripes. “Whatever good things happen to Shams in the future are due to Kim Gamel and her big heart,” Reid told the AP. Gamel, who had lymphoma, was 57.
June 25, 2026
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