Nothing much surprises Chris Crutcher, author of numerous young adult novels, including Ironman, Whale Talk, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, and Stotan!. Having worked extensively as a therapist for those experiencing child abuse and neglect, Crutcher has seen the dark underbelly of life.

The day I meet her, Ollie Watts Davis MMUS ‘82 FAA, AMUSD’88 FAA, wears an ivory pants suit, rings on four of her fingers, piles of bracelets on each wrist, red nail polish and matching lipstick. There is just no other way to say this: she is gorgeous. She exudes a stunning positive energy as well, accompanied with a smile so bright that, as Frank Sinatra crooned, “she walks by and dims the sunlight’s gleam.”

For more than half a century, Nobel Prize-winner and concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel (pronounced EH-lee vee-ZEL), has used his voice and his influence to make sure the world never forgets the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II.

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest,” he said in his 1986 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Martha Gillette’s grin can easily light up a room, but behind that thousand-watt grin is a determination that could stop a freight train.

Although Gillette knew from a young age that she would be a scientist, she faced more than her share of obstacles in the course of her career.