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The Douglass Society, established in 1973, recognizes alumnae who have made major contributions in their field of expertise. Named to The Douglass Society this year and inducted during the September 24, 2008 ceremony in Voorhees Chapel are: Renee Kronberg Weisman '69, distinguished engineer; Rochelle I. Brown '93, television producer and author; and Sharon Bernstein Megdal '74, economist and Water Resources Research Center director. They join nearly 200 previously inducted alumnae whose life work embodies exceptional accomplishments and leadership.
Renee Kronberg Weisman '69
Distinguished Engineer
Advancing Women in Technology
Renee Kronberg Weisman '69 was one of the first women engineers, managers and middle managers in the Technology Division of IBM Corporation. During her career, she rose to become a Distinguished Engineer and Director of Engineering. During her 38 years of experience in industry and education, Renee specialized in semiconductor packaging technology, including electrochemistry, interconnection processes, and ceramics. She has a history of fostering women in technology and advocating for the advantages of gender difference in the workplace. She holds more than 20 U.S. patents and technical disclosures for interconnect and packaging technology and has been honored with numerous awards, including an Outstanding Innovation Award and Outstanding Technical Achievement Award at IBM.
 Renee always knew she wanted to pursue science. Her grade-school aspirations to become an astronomer changed when she acquired her first chemistry set. Renee's parents and a seventh-grade math teacher encouraged her to succeed. They shared her enthusiasm for problem solving and meeting scientific challenges. Renee came to Douglass College from Poughkeepsie High School in New York, where she was the salutatorian of her class. At Douglass College, Renee received a bachelor's degree in chemistry. She fondly remembers the late nights in the chemistry building using mechanical calculators to complete laboratory work and her six-hour final exam in organic chemistry. Summer work experiences during college included research stints at major corporations in the chemical industry, such as Texaco and Delaval, Inc., now IMO Industries Inc. Renee went on to earn a master's degree in electrochemistry at Vassar College in 1970. The next year, she began working at IBM on electroless plating deposition processes, which helped define her specialty as an electrochemist and launch a future career. She left IBM to raise two daughters while teaching part-time at a local high school, Vassar College, Marist College and Dutchess Community College. Ten years later, in 1980, Renee rejoined IBM and, over the next 27 years, built a distinguished career.
When Renee retired from IBM in 2007, she became a technical consultant for the company. She also devotes time as both coach and mentor to women's network groups in corporations. Renee is passionate about helping women in business and technologies. She provides training and teaches classes designed to advance women and help industry capitalize on gender differences in the workplace. Last year she taught at the Society of Women Engineer's conference and gave a paper at another conference for WEPAN (Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network), an educational organization for women in engineering professions.
Renee is a New York State certified teacher, a member of the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Technology International, and she helped found the Mid Hudson Valley SWE Section. She was a member of the College Industry Advisory Council at the University of Massachusetts and served as the executive partner for IBM to Vassar College. She is the author of a book, "Winning in a Man's World, Advice for Women Who Want to Succeed and the Men Who Work with Them," to be published this fall.
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Rochelle I. Brown '93
Television Producer & Author
Inspiring Young Women in Communications and Television
Rochelle I. Brown '93 quickly rose through the ranks of the television industry to become the youngest television producer at the Food Network. At the age of 25, she helped create and produce Recipe for Health, a program about health issues concerning women. In just a few short years following graduation from Douglass College, Rochelle rose from production assistant to segment producer, and then to television producer. She soon became the producer of the popular cooking show, Emeril Live!, and has helped usher the culinary world into the lives and living rooms of millions of viewers. She has played an integral role in the success of the Food Network, which went from reaching an audience of 100,000 homes when it premiered in 1993, to its present distribution of more than 78 million homes. Rochelle continues to be an accomplished television producer, as well as an author and mentor to young adults pursuing a future in television, communications or the culinary industry.
 During the last 15 years, Rochelle established herself as a charismatic and innovative leader in the culinary industry. She has worked closely with many acclaimed chefs ranging from Lidia Bastianich, Daniel Boulud, Sara Moulton, Mario Batali and the late Julia Child. In 1997, at the behest of the energetic chef Emeril Lagasse, Rochelle became the producer of Emeril Live!. The cooking show has become one of the Food Network's most highly rated programs. Rochelle is now a principal of PowerHouse Productions, a full service media company that produces lifestyle programs for several network and cable stations around the country. In 2005, she was executive producer of Living It Up With Patti LaBelle made for TV One, through PowerHouse Productions.
Rochelle is the author of her own cookbook that provides an inside look at the lives of 20 of American's best-known chefs along with a favorite recipe. Published in 2002, her book, The Chef, The Story, and The Dish: Behind the Scenes with America's Favorite Chefs, is drawn from Rochelle's first-hand experience as a producer and industry insider.
A native of Jersey City, Rochelle grew up in Irvington, where she graduated from Irvington High School. She earned a bachelor's degree at Douglass College as a double major in journalism and African Studies. College internships provided valuable television experience that helped Rochelle land a job in the television industry soon after graduation. A "trainee job" on the Fox Network's Good Day New York program helped launch her career. Rochelle soon joined the Food Network just as they were getting off the ground and as chefs were becoming celebrity figures.
Rochelle volunteers with a national outreach program as a mentor to young women and men with aspirations in communications or the television industry. Irvington High School, her alma mater, is one of many schools she visits to share her achievements and offer inspiration to young adults interested in the culinary and restaurant fields. Rochelle has received many community service awards, including from the town of East Orange, NJ, for her volunteer efforts with children's literacy programs; the Urban League of Jersey City's Women of Difference Award; and from Johnson and Wales University recognizing work with minority children and the hospitality industry. In 2003, Rochelle received The Network Journal Black Professionals and Small Business Magazine's 40-Under-Forty Achievement Award which recognizes outstanding careers, entrepreneurial leadership and community service.
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Sharon Bernstein Megdal '74
Economist & Water Resources Researcher
Advocate of Sound Water Management
As the director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona, Sharon Bernstein Megdal '74 has been a leading force in the area of water policy in Arizona. Her public policy analysis has focused on water, arguably the most important natural resource issue for much of the world. In addition to being named director of the Water Center in 2004, Sharon became director of a $3.2 million campus-wide Water Sustainability Program last year. During a 30-year career, she has contributed to better understanding of water policy and continues to be a key factor in shaping our future.
 Sharon has been a leading voice and advocate of sound water policy and management for many years in her adopted state of Arizona, where she relocated in 1979, to become a member of the economics faculty at the University of Arizona. She was appointed to the Arizona Corporation Commission in 1985 by Governor Bruce Babbitt and took a leave from the university to serve on an interim basis for the utility regulatory body. She taught at the University until 1987 and the next year served as Visiting Associate Professor at the College of Business Administration at Northern Arizona University. Sharon then established her own public policy consulting business in Tucson, MegEcon Consulting, and operated it for many years. Clients included regional telecommunications and utility companies as well as many governmental entities. Since the early 1990s, she has worked intensively in water resources policy and management, including project development and implementation. She was director of Tucson Electric Power Company from 1989 to 1991.
Sharon returned to the University of Arizona after a several-year hiatus from academia and was recruited to assist in the rebuilding of the Water Resources Research Center and to serve on the faculty of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. The Water Center focuses on resolving real-world, Arizona water resource issues through education, outreach and policy research. In 2004, she became Director of the Water Center. She also became the director of a $3.2 million university-wide Water Sustainability Program in 2007.
She has demonstrated a commitment to students through her highly integrated approach to academics, applied research and extension programs. At the University, Sharon is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. Additionally, Sharon has courtesy appointments in the Department of Geography and the School of Public Administration and Policy. In February, Sharon was named the first recipient of the C.W. and Modene Neely Endowed Professorship for Excellence in Agriculture and Life Sciences, which furthers critical research, teaching and extension in areas relating to water. Sharon teaches the highly regarded graduate course, Arizona Water Policy. This unique course attracts students from a multitude of disciplines. In her work, she employs both undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of programs.
In addition to serving on the Arizona Corporation Commission, Sharon has been involved in local, state, national and international programs. Funding sources for projects she has worked on include the United States Geological Survey, the Bureau of Reclamation, and Congress. Under her leadership, the Water Center, in collaboration with their counterparts in New Mexico and Texas, secured federal legislation to establish a U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program.
Following Douglass where Sharon was Phi Beta Kappa, she earned doctoral and master's degree in economics from Princeton University, specializing in public sector economics and econometrics. She has served on many state boards and commissions, including the Arizona Corporation Commission, State Transportation Board, and the Water Quality Appeals Board. She served as Vice Chair of the Arizona Medical Board until 2007. She currently serves on the Tucson Airport Authority.
Among many honors, Sharon was named "Woman on the Move" by the YWCA of Tucson and "person of the Year" by the Women in Transportation Seminar. In 2000, she was named one of Phoenix Valley's "Most Influential Business Leaders" for her contributions to transportation. She has been honored by a Soroptomist chapter in Tucson. Sharon served on the Arizona Board of Regents Commission on the Status of Women and was participant in the inaugural year of Leadership America, a national leadership conference for women.
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