Names in the News: Berlin ’07 on Lunch Ladies and Admissions; Berlind ’52’s Tony Winners; More

Can a high-school lunch lady help you get into Princeton? Maybe, LEV BERLIN ’07 wrote in an essay for Time.com — or maybe not. It’s not clear whether a phone call from his lunch lady to a prominent alumnus helped his application, but in any case, Berlin advises, “Be nice to your lunch ladies, people.”

Broadway producer ROGER BERLIND ’52’s string of hits continues. Berlind co-produced two of the 2015 Tony Award winners: Best Play honoree The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Skylight, which won in the Best Revival of a Play category.

Author and professor RUTH BEHAR *83 has joined with poet and fellow Cuban-American Richard Blanco to launch a new writing project called “Bridges to/from Cuba,” which aims to give Cubans a forum for sharing their hopes for the future of U.S.-Cuba relations. Behar, who moved from Cuba to New York City at age 5, is the author of Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in Between Journeys.

The New York Times profiled FABRICE GRINDA ’96, a tech entrepreneur who has made an effort to “downsize” his lifestyle, leaving his well-appointed house and apartment behind and living out of a suitcase while he traveled the world to reconnect with family and friends.

DOUGLAS ELMENDORF ’83, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, has been named the next dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Elmendorf, a Harvard graduate alumnus, “was widely respected heading the powerful nonpolitical office that holds considerable power over spending, tax and budget proposals from the White House and Congress,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Princeton history professor ANTHONY GRAFTON was featured in a Chronicle of Higher Educationcolumn about teaching writing in academia. “I don’t separate writing from research or analysis,” he explained. “I teach it on the page, using ‘track changes’ to work my way into their prose and really push and pull.”