Alumni Gazette

Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) is making plans to be part of the first US crew in history to journey to space in American-made, commercial spacecraft.

The spacecraft capsules, Boeing’s “Starliner” and SpaceX’s “Crew Dragon,” are scheduled to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, beginning in 2019. Cassada and the rest of the crew will be the first astronauts to launch from American soil since 2011, when NASA announced the end of its own space shuttle program.

Cassada, who has been training as an astronaut since 2013, would be the third Rochester alumnus to go to space, joining Jim Pawelczyk ’82 and Ed Gibson ’59 (who set a record in 1974 for his time on Skylab).

ANDREA KALYN ’02E (PHD)

New England Conservatory: Meet the New President

The oldest independent school of music in the United States has a new president. In January, Andrea Kalyn ’02E (PhD) becomes the president of the New England Conservatory, the internationally recognized Boston institution that was founded in 1867.

Most recently the dean of the Conservatory at Oberlin College, Kalyn will become the 17th president of the New England Conservatory.

A pianist, Kalyn is a scholar of American music of the 20th century. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Western Ontario.

JOSH SHAPIRO ’95

Pennsylvania Investigation: ‘Abuse Scarred Every Diocese’

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro ’95 has become one of the nation’s most prominent public officials investigating claims of child sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. In August, Shapiro’s office released the results of a two-year grand jury investigation that alleged more than 300 priests in the state’s dioceses had abused more than 1,000 children over decades.

Considered one of the most comprehensive investigations of such claims, the 884-page report also alleged that senior church officials often covered up the abuse. The grand jury recommended changing the state’s criminal and civil statutes of limitations on sexual abuse to allow those who were abused as children to reopen their cases.