More news of Yale people

Appointed

Michael A. Peel was appointed in October to the new post of Vice President for Human Resources and Administration. Peel, 58, was most recently executive vice president at General Mills. At Yale, he will oversee human resources as well as some administrative and student support activities. Vice President Shauna King, whose portfolio until recently included human resources, is now Vice President of Finance.

Honored

Lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, an adjunct professor at the School of Drama, was one of 25 people nationwide given a $500,000 fellowship by the MacArthur Foundation this year. Two Yale alumni also received MacArthur Fellowships this year: Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie '08MA and Brown anthropologist Stephen Houston '87PhD.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences conferred the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal on five alumni on October 7. The recipients are Robert Axelrod '69PhD, a University of Michigan political scientist known for his work on cooperation; Stephen Emerson '80MD, '80PhD, president of Haverford College;Yoriko Kawaguchi '72MPhil, a Japanese legislator and former foreign minister; David M. Kennedy '68PhD, a Stanford professor and authority on twentieth-century American history; and Laura L. Kiessling '89PhD, a biochemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the use of synthetic molecules.

The Association of Yale Alumni has chosen five alumni to receive the 2008 Yale Medal for outstanding service to the university. The honorees are Edward A. Dennis '63, former chair of the AYA Board of Governors; Linda Koch Lorimer'77JD, vice president and secretary of the university; Roslyn Milstein Meyer '71, '77PhD, clinical psychologist and assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry; Don T. Nakanishi '71, chair of the Alumni Schools Committee of Los Angeles County; and William H. Wright II '82, former chair of the Yale Alumni Fund.

Remembered

Alison Henning died of cancer in New Haven on July 2 at the age of 80. Henning served the Saybrook College community for nearly 30 years when her husband, Basil Duke Henning '32, was master of the college. Mrs. Henning was dedicated to promoting music on campus, serving as an honorary member of both the Yale Glee Club and the Whiffenpoofs. The Hennings received the Yale Medal in 1979.