Morse Fellows
Morse College is a vibrant community. We would love to count you among us. The Fellows meet a few times per semester at the Head of College’s house, to interact with friends from all parts of the University and from the broader community. Many play the role of Advisor for a student or two. We extend invitations to student functions such as performances and college-wide social events, welcome participation at intramural sports, provide dining privileges in the college at lunch or dinner, all so you can meet with students, faculty and friends. Please join us - we welcome you!
Sara Smiley Smith
Assistant Dean of Research and Sustainability
Biography
Sara is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Research, and Sustainability at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) where she works to cultivate a community of engaged problem solvers seeking solutions to a diverse set of environmental challenges. She received her Ph.D. from YSE in 2016, and completed the joint master’s degree program between the School of Epidemiology and Public Health and YSE in 2007. During her time at Yale, she has also had the opportunity to work in the University’s Office of Sustainability. Sara holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Political Science from Middlebury College (2004). She spent her childhood on the remnants of her family’s dairy farm in the small town of Winslow, Maine.
Contact Information:
Judy Spak
Head of Academic Research and Education at Cushing/Whitney Medical Library
Biography
Judy Spak is Head of Academic Research and Education at Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. She provides in-depth reference, information, research, and consultation services for medical education professionals and trainees in the Yale health sciences community. She received her MLS from Southern Connecticut State University and a BA in the Humanities from Hofstra University. See her profile page for a detailed biography.
Interests:
Judy enjoys gardening, birdwatching, watching NY Rangers hockey and spending time with family, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Buddy.
Jessica Spector
The Academy Drinks, CEO Green Robin Farms, owner Yale College, Residential Seminar Lecturer
Biography
Jessica Spector is a cultural historian and former philosophy professor who founded the consultancy firm The Academy Drinks, and runs the experimental agroforestry farm Green Robin Farms. She is interested in the way story shapes identity, and societal taboos around alcohol, sex, and place. She holds an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago, as well as certifications and diplomas from several Scottish Whisky Academies and WSET. She is a member of the American Distilling Institute and the American Craft Spirits Association, and Director of Drink History and Culture at the Museum of Distilled Spirits. Her publications include work on philosophy, the sex industry, and cultural history. For the past several years, she has been teaching about drink culture and ethics in Yale College’s Residential Seminar program.
Offers assistance in:
Contact Information:
Kirie Stromberg
Postdoctoral Associate, ARCHAIA Program for the Study of Global Antiquity, Yale
Biography
Kirie is a humanistic archaeologist. A native of northern Illinois, she first came to Morse College as an undergraduate (class of ‘13) and finished with a double BA in English and Chinese, although she also took courses ranging from Constitutional Law to Opera History. During her undergraduate years, Kirie travelled to China frequently through the Light Fellowship. A Chinese archaeology course she took to fulfil a social science distributional requirement (and a paper she wrote on one particular bronze vessel in the Yale University Art Gallery) began a life-long fascination with East Asian material culture. After living in China for a year after graduation, she pursued a MPhil at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge. She completed her PhD at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA in 2023, entailing archaeological fieldwork focusing on excavated musical instruments in both China and Japan. She is thrilled to be back at Yale a postdoc and to be part of the Morse community once again.
Offers assistance in:
Contact Information:
Toral Surti
Assistant Professor Department of Psychiatry; Psychiatrist/Scientist
Biography
Toral Surti MC ‘98 is very glad to remain connected to Morsels. She majored in MB&B as an undergraduate and attended University of California San Francisco for medical school and a doctorate in biophysics. She returned to New Haven for residency in psychiatry and joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty in 2014.