Bari Weiss ’07CC, cofounder and CEO of the digital-media outlet The Free Press, was named editor in chief of CBS News. Tony Dokoupil ’06GSAS was promoted to anchor of the network’s evening-news program.
Three Columbians were finalists at the 2025 National Book Awards: Karen Russell ’06SOA in the fiction category for her novel The Antidote, Gabrielle Calvocoressi ’00SOA in poetry for The New Economy, and Kyle Lukoff ’06BC in young people’s literature for A World Worth Saving.
Alumni showrunners launched several new TV series this past fall, including Boots, a Netflix military dramedy created by Andy Parker ’11SOA; It: Welcome to Derry, an HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s novel It co-created by Jason Fuchs ’09CC; and The Sisters Grimm, an Apple TV animated fantasy series led by Amy Higgins ’06SOA.
Joshua Pennise ’24BUS was elected president of the Association of Language Companies, a trade group for organizations that provide interpretation and translation services across the United States and beyond.
At the 2025 Hedgeweek US Awards, which recognize achievements in the hedge-fund sector, Kenton Kilmer ’20GS won the “new solution product of the year” prize for his investment-management platform, Addigence.
Jordi Alonso ’23GSAS discovered a complete, previously unknown seventeenth-century Latin manuscript by Jesuit poet Ubertino Carrara in the archives of Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University. Alonso is now translating the work, titled De arte poetica, along with Carrara’s epic poem Columbus.
Made in America, a solo exhibition featuring over seventy works by industrial photographer Christopher Payne ’90CC, opened at the Cooper Hewitt museum on the Upper East Side in December. It runs until fall 2026.
Forastera, a Spanish film written and directed by Lucía Aleñar Iglesias ’21SOA and produced by Marta Cruañas Compés ’20SOA, won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. The drama, about a grieving family visiting Mallorca, is the evolution of a short film Aleñar made as a Columbia student.
Colby Xzavier King ’22CC received a 2025 David Prize, a $200,000 grant for New York City “visionaries” with solutions to social issues, for the Kiki Arts Collaborative, a mentorship and support network he is founding for young LGBTQ+ artists of color.
Aimee Ng ’12GSAS, a member of the curatorial department at the Frick Collection since 2015, was promoted to chief curator of the museum.
Poet David Lehman ’70CC, ’78GSAS received the New Criterion Poetry Prize for Ithaca, a collection of poems that will be published this winter. Lehman was the founding and longtime editor of the annual Best American Poetry anthology, a post he retired from in 2025.
