February 2007 - Austin College

Alumna Named Hepburn FellowKaren Stephenson.’74 was one of three women named HoughtonHepburn Fellows at Bryn Mawr College for 2006-2007. The fellowswere announced in September 2006 at the launch of the college’sKatharine Houghton Hepburn Center, named for screen legendKatharine Hepburn, a 1928 alumna of Bryn Mawr, and her activistmother, also Katharine Houghton Hepburn, Class of 1899. TheCenter’s mission is to challenge women to lead publicly engagedlives and to take on important and timely issues affecting women.The Hepburn Fellows will be regular visitors to Bryn Mawr, doingtheir own work and engaging the college community.Stephenson is president of NetForm, Inc., recognized as one ofthe top 100 leading innovation companies by CIO in 2001. She isinternationally recognized for pioneering work in detecting,diagnosing, and designing human networks to solve a variety ofcomplex problems: (1) engineering tipping points in closed culturesand open markets, (2) remediating acquired organizationaldeficiencies within large-scale public and private organizations and,(3) developing novel techniques for building sustainablecollaboration in public-private partnerships within governments andregional economies.She has been featured in the media and press, most notably, TheFinancial Times, The Economist, World Business, Business 2.0, The WallStreet Journal, Forbes, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Strategy+Business,CIO, Fast Company, and Wired.Stephenson has been on the faculty at several universitiesincluding the UCLA School of Management, MIT’s SloanManagement, Imperial College, Harvard’s Graduate School of Design,and Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University.COURTESY PHOTOKaren StephensonAfter earning a bachelor’s degree at Austin College with majors inart and chemistry, Stephenson earned a master’s degree inanthropology at the University of Utah, and received her doctorate inanthropology at Harvard University. She may be reached atkaren.stephenson@netform.com. Read about her work and hercompany at www.netform.com and www.drkaren.usCOURTESY PHOTOJacob Kobos and Ellie WillmanKangaroo AlumniMeet ThroughChildren’s FriendshipJacob and Ellie, first grade classmates pictured with Santa in2006, became friends in their kindergarten class in San Antonio,Texas. The parents of the young friends soon introducedthemselves to one another — and were quite surprised todiscover all were Austin College graduates. The parents of Ellieare Ted and Jayne (Patterson) Willman, both 1991 graduates.Jacob’s parents are Phil and Marcie (Fisher) Kobos, both 1990graduates. The parents report that Ellie and Jacob already havemade plans to marry — after they graduate from Austin College,of course!AUSTIN COLLEGE MAGAZINE 39