Big Man on the Big Island
Like Barack Obama, Billy Kenoi ’93 (political science) is a native Hawaiian who ran against an older, more experienced candidate for office. And, like Obama, Kenoi triumphed. “Seeing the newspaper with the headlines ‘Obama Wins; Kenoi Wins’,” he says, “gave me goose bumps.” Kenoi, elected at 39, is the youngest-ever mayor of the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii, a county with 150,000 inhabitants spread over 4,000 square miles. Read more...

Accidental Author, Serves Army and Air Force, Offers Advice
From October ’07 to June ’08, Capt. David Falvey ’04 (political science) of Billerica, MA, served a tour of duty in Iraq. During that period, he received a package of letters and drawings from a 4th-grade class in Long Island to which he responded. Later, with the encouragement of a family friend, he turned the letters into a children’s book, Letters to a Soldier, which is getting some great reviews. Read more..

Alum's Music Industry Documentary Released
Independent documentary filmmaker and music fanatic Kembrew McLeod '00 PhD (communication) has long been fascinated by the intersection of art and commerce. His latest film, Copyright Criminals: an Exploration of the Creative and Legal Ramifications of Music Sampling in Hip-Hop, focuses on artistic expression, hip-hop's history of reusing sounds, the uneasy relationship between sampling and copyright law, and how the explosion of technology and home production has further muddied the waters for musicians, producers and artists across the spectrum. Read an interview with McLeod. Copyright Criminals will be screened on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Media Education Foundation, 60 Masonic St., Northampton. The event is free and open to the public.

President of Farmhouse Foods Leads Company to New Heights
Since 2006 when Lisa Noble '76 (political science) purchased Farmhouse Foods Company from the J.M. Smucker Company, she has engineered its growth threefold to the number two share of prepared rice and pasta side dish brand in the West. Noble came into the company with her eyes wide open. From 1990 to 1999 she had been vice president of marketing, guiding Farmhouse Foods' growth to a $42 million West Coast brand of all natural prepared side dishes. Read more...

Alum Funds Lecture Series to Showcase Excellence and Engagement
Last year Margaret and Robert C. Cole, Jr. ’59 (psychology), retired president and CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of Delaware, made a wonderful commitment to UMass Amherst and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences by establishing the Cole Lecture in Contemporary Issues. Aiming to engage alumni with faculty whose current research has a direct impact on world issues, this year’s lecture on October 28 at the UMass Club in Boston features Robert Pollin, professor of economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute on campus. He will present “Building the Green New Deal” about developing a clean energy economy in the U.S. and his unique work in modeling the green recovery program for the Obama administration. Read more...