Class Acts
Alumni News and Notes
A Stand Up Guy
What happens when a BU alum switches careers, from investment banking to stand-up comedy? If you’re Modi Rosenfeld (CAS’92), you start selling out theaters and racking up social media followers. Rosenfeld, who goes by MODI professionally, was born in Israel and raised in Long Island. He identifies as a gay man and an observant Jew, and his comedy centers around Jewish themes. His videos first went viral during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when audiences tuned in to his online clips and specials from home. In spring 2024, MODI released a YouTube special, Know Your Audience, and returned to Boston to perform at the Wilbur Theatre on his “Pause for Laughter” tour. He spoke with Arts × Sciences after that show.
Learning on the Fly
Joshua Pei chose his major, computer science, for the practical reason that it offered a clear career path. He chose his minor, deaf studies, for the altruistic reason that he “wanted to understand a minority community that is very overlooked.” But he chose his campus job, production assistant for BU Productions, the University’s in-house video production team, for a more personal reason: He loves video.
“Seeing how documentary filmmaking is done, I really fell in love with the process,” says Pei (CAS’21). Less than four years later, he is traveling the globe to tell great stories.
For the Children
Rebecca Pitts (CAS’01), who majored in the history of art and architecture, published Jane Jacobs: Champion of Cities, Champion of People (Seven Stories Press, 2023), a young adult biography of the visionary activist, urbanist, and thinker who transformed the way America inhabited and developed its cities.
Sarah Prager (CAS’08), who studied Hispanic language and literatures at CAS, published A Child’s Introduction to Pride: The Inspirational History and Culture of the LGBTQIA+ Community (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2023). The American Library Association selected it for their 2024 Rainbow Book List, in the Young Readers category. A revised and expanded second edition of her award-winning Queer, There, and Everywhere: 27 People Who Changed the World (HarperCollins) was also released in 2023.
Andrea Rustad (CAS’19), an aspiring pediatric dermatologist
who majored in chemistry, published Skin-vincible: A Story of a Superstar with Ichthyosis (Mascot Books, 2023), a children’s book that raises awareness about a
group of rare skin conditions.
Laura Zimmermann (CAS’93), published Just Do This One Thing for Me (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2023), about a 17-year-old girl’s attempt to reckon with her mother’s disappearance. Zimmermann, who studied philosophy and religion, was the student speaker at BU’s 1993 Commencement.
Distinguished Alumni Awards
Arts & Sciences presented four Distinguished Alumni Awards during Alumni Weekend, on September 28, 2024.
2024 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients
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Carol Guerrero (CAS’12)Carol Guerrero is an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO). Before joining the AGO, she was a senior litigation associate in the securities group at the law firm WilmerHale, where she represented public companies and financial institutions in securities fraud cases and investigations by the SEC and FINRA. |
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Guila Clara Kessous (GRS’08)Guila Clara Kessous is a French human rights artist and academic. She was nominated UNESCO Artist for Peace for her dedication in the arts and human rights and Knight of Arts & Letters by the French Ministry of Culture for her work on the influence of French culture overseas. She received a PhD in French Language & Literature from the Department of Romance Studies, working under the mentorship of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel (Hon.’74), who served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and College of Arts & Sciences. |
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General B. Chance Saltzman (CAS’91)General Chance Saltzman is the Chief of Space Operations (CSO) for the United States Space Force. As CSO, he serves as the senior Space Force officer in the newest branch of the U.S. military and is responsible for the organization, training, and equipping of all organic and assigned U.S. space forces around the world. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CSO—along with the other service chiefs—acts as a military advisor to the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and the President of the United States. Today, as CSO, Gen Saltzman is committed to ensuring Guardians have the tools they need to serve in the world’s preeminent space force, securing our Nation’s interests in, from, and to space. Gen Saltzman majored in history and minored in philosophy at Boston University. |
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Bill Whitaker (GRS’74)Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News. He joined 60 Minutes in 2014 and the 2023-24 season is his 10th on the broadcast. Whitaker first arrived at CBS News as a reporter in 1984. Whitaker has been honored with multiple journalism awards, including two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards (2023, 2017), a Peabody Award (2018), the RTDNA’s highest honor, the Paul White Award for career achievement (2018) and numerous Emmy Awards. He earned a master’s degree in African American Studies at Boston University. |
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Bonnie Feld (CAS’73)Bonnie (Turen) Feld is the former chair of the CAS Dean’s Advisory Board. In addition to her work at BU, she is a member and former chairwoman of the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, and former board member and president of the corporation of The Holton-Arms School, an independent girls’ school in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a producer of the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical Water For Elephants and the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. As a professional photographer, she has taken boxing photos of Mohammed Ali, SuperCross motorcycle racing, Monster Jam events, Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and the unique personalities of endangered Asian elephants. Before retiring, she spent 50 years with Feld Entertainment, as well as the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation, which participated in cancer research exploring the efficacy of the P53 genes in elephants that protects the population very effectively from getting cancer and how to apply to human cancer treatments. |