The Flame Magazine - Spring 2018

Beyond the Rainbow Megan Geckler ’01 commemorates a community with a colorful creation

THE MAGAZINE OF CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY SPRING 2018

Holographic Design: Drucker Day’s very special guest appearance

Leading the Law: Executive Training for Today’s Police

Kristoffer Wikstrom: Easing the Burden of Constructing New Energy Projects

Spring 2018

The Magazine of Claremont Graduate University cgu.edu

Claremont Graduate University INTERIM PRESIDENT

Jacob Adams EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PROVOST

Patricia Easton VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION / TREASURER

Leslie Negritto INTERIM VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT

Kristen Andersen-Daley ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Max Benavidez DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT

Planned Giving

Rachel Jimenez | alumni@cgu.edu

Magazine EDITOR

Nick Owchar MANAGING EDITOR

You’re a Part of Our Family, Make Us a Part of Yours Charity begins at home, the saying goes, and Claremont Graduate University embraces a “Family First” philosophy in planned giving.

Roberto C. Hernandez ART DIRECTOR / DESIGNER

Gina Pirtle PHOTOGRAPHERS

Stan Lim John Valenzuela

William Vasta Tom Zasadzinski

ADVERTISING

Deborah Atwater | deborah.atwater@cgu.edu

Through our program, choose a method of giving that first protects your family’s needs, but also offers greater tax savings and helps CGU. Here are a few ways:

The Flame is published by Claremont Graduate University’s Office of Marketing & Communications. flame@cgu.edu

A gift in your will. Naming Claremont Graduate University in your will or living trust can be appealing because you may change your mind at any time. By leaving a percentage to CGU, gifts to your loved ones remain proportional no matter how your estate fluctuates over time.

Send address changes to: Office of Alumni Engagement Claremont Graduate University 150 E. 10th Street Claremont, CA 91711 alumni@cgu.edu

Retirement plan assets. Find out about the unique tax savings you get by donating part or all of your required minimum distribution for the year to CGU. Charitable gift annuity. This form of legacy giving allows you to shape the future of CGU while you receive fixed, dependable payments for life.

For more information call or email us at 909-607-9225 or give@cgu.edu.

myplannedgift.cgu.edu

Claremont Graduate University, founded in 1925, focuses exclusively on graduate-level study. It is a member of The Claremont Colleges. © 2018 Claremont Graduate University

FPO

Contents Departments 2 From the Editors 3 Heard 4 News 32 Faculty & Staff

Achievements, bookshelf, and more.

36 Culture & Commentary

Ezra Pound assumed a cheeky attitude to skirt copyright law; Professors Graham Bird and Thomas Willett explain why the European Union is finding out that breaking up is hard to do.

42 Class Notes

Alumni achievements, updates, and more.

48 End Paper

Get fired up over the hidden dragons of Harper Hall.

Features

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22 Cover Story

MFA alumna Megan Geckler created a colorful beacon of hope and strength.

12 Backing the Badge

Peter Drucker’s business principles are now benefitting police executives and the communities they serve.

14 Deep Dive

For alumni who never had a chance to meet Peter Drucker, Drucker Day offered a unique—and holographic—opportunity.

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16 Eye of the Beholder

Drucker School Adjunct Professor Karen McManus demystifies the art of art appraisal.

18 Power to the People

Kristoffer Wikstrom’s research looks at easing the burden of constructing new energy projects.

20 Heart of My Career

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Plenty of perfect publications to plan your reading list.

Alumna Yvonne Berumen speaks on how higher education has the power to change lives and family trajectories.

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First Word From the Editors

Intellectual Property

If you’ve ever driven through Westwood, you know that UCLA dominates the landscape. The campus covers a sprawling 419 acres and is hard (if not impossible) to miss.

By comparison, Claremont Graduate University occupies just 19 modest acres running north and south along College Avenue. But as this new issue of The Flame attests, what matters most are the intellectual spaces, not the physical ones.

Though small in size, our university remains large in impact.

This issue’s cover story celebrates the achievements of MFA alumna Megan Geckler, who was commissioned to create an installation for the Washington DC-based Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. In addition to Geckler, this issue also celebrates the phenomenal success of our recent Drucker Day (one of the best-attended in its history), the nuanced approach to art appraisal of our Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Los Angeles program, and much more.

From the arts to business to the sciences, and everything in between, this issue explores the vast intellectual territory that CGU occupies in the world.

We hope you enjoy it.

Roberto C. Hernandez Managing Editor Nick Owchar Executive Editor

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Heard

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Faculty in the Media

“ The ‘why’ part is actually really important….

That gets young people thinking about the long term, and we often only focus on the short term.”

Division of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences Associate Professor Kendall Cotton Bronk shared research with KTLA Morning News about helping teens discover their purpose in life by asking them good questions.

Stay Connected cgu.edu/facebook

cgu.edu/twitter

cgu.edu/instagram

“ None of us, and it’s a large group behind this effort, realized just how necessary this kind of background and training would be….”

cgu.edu/linkedin

cgu.edu/youtube

School of Educational Studies Professor Will Pérez talked to the Southern California News Group about Allies of Dreamers, a CGU program to train educators of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and other undocumented students.

“ Today’s liberal arts graduates need options, especially if they’re not interested in building a startup or committing to a long graduate program.… It’s up to higher education institutions, post-undergraduate, to get them ‘job ready’….”

Jenny Darroch, the Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Drucker School of Management, wrote on the need for college grads to have “job ready” skills in the Huffington Post.

“ The neuroscience shows that recognition has the largest effect on trust when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers, and when it’s tangible, unexpected, personal, and public.”

Neuroeconomics Professor Paul Zak explained the importance of appreciation and recognition in the workplace in Forbes.

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News

Photo courtesy of Amazon

THE NEW METRIC

Drucker Institute teams with WSJ for the Management Top 250 THE DRUCKER INSTITUTE AT CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY HAS partnered with the Wall Street Journal to produce an unprecedented new measure of corporate effectiveness, “The Management Top 250.” The inaugural list was published in early December in a Wall Street Journal special section.

Developed by the institute, the Management Top 250 ranks Fortune 500, S&P 500, and other large-cap companies based on their alignment with 15 core management principles advanced by the late Peter Drucker, who taught management at CGU for more than 30 years.

“Most metrics assess a single aspect of how a company is doing, with relatively little regard to how different dimensions of performance fit together,” said Rick Wartzman and Lawrence Crosby, the director of and chief data scientist at the institute’s KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society, respectively, in an introduction accompanying the list. “In a world of specialists, our aim is to offer the insights of the general practitioner by seeing the whole corporate anatomy.”

The Management Top 250 is based on Peter Drucker’s belief in the necessity of using

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a holistic approach to create a more complete, longer-term view of company performance.

To produce its rankings, the institute has built a statistical model that uses 37 firmlevel indicators to assess five dimensions of corporate performance using a list of nearly 700 companies: n Customer satisfaction n Employee engagement and development n Innovation n Social responsibility n Financial performance The 2017 ranking highlights include Amazon in the No. 1 spot (due to its strengths in innovation) followed by Apple (No. 2), Alphabet (No. 3), Johnson & Johnson (No. 4), and International Business Machines (No. 5) to round out the top five. (Microsoft, in case you’re wondering, ranked at No. 6).

While the Journal highlights the Top 250, the institute’s entire list is much larger.

Visit the institute site at drucker.institute to view all 693 companies on the 2017 list. l

WHO WILL BE CGU’S NEXT PRESIDENT? A SEARCH IS CURRENTLY BEING CONDUCTED TO identify candidates for the presidency of Claremont Graduate University. The university’s Board of Trustees has hired the Southern California-based executive search firm Storbeck, Pimentel & Associates. Last fall, Alberto Pimentel and members of the university Search Committee met with and listened to feedback from students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Nominations are invited. A website, cgu.edu/presidentialsearch, has been posted with information about the position and a timeline for the application process. l

Mormonism Worldwide

Elder Patrick Kearon

The university has launched a campaign to establish a Center for Global Mormon Studies that will serve as the first academic center of its kind dedicated entirely to promoting scholarly research and public understanding about Mormonism outside the United States, where the majority of the

members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) reside. The center will fill a major vacuum in sponsoring original research, collecting oral histories, training local historians, and encouraging international scholars to pursue in-depth studies of this global religious phenomenon. With that in mind, the first Global Mormon Studies Conference will be held on campus March 9 – 10, 2018, with Elder Patrick Kearon from the Presidency of the Seventy of the LDS Church as keynote speaker. To learn more, visit mormonstudies. cgu.edu to view a video featuring nationally renowned scholars (LDS and non-LDS) on the need for such a center.

New Dean Michelle Bligh, who has served as interim dean of the School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation since July, has been appointed permanent dean, Executive Vice President and Provost Patricia Easton announced last fall.

“Her leadership and commitment come at an important moment of transformation for the school and the university,” Easton said. Bligh is a professor of organizational behavior in the Division of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences.

Her research focus has been organizational culture and the role of leaders in influencing and changing corporate cultures. She received her BA in anthropology from Pomona College before receiving her MS and PhD in management and organizational behavior from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Michelle Bligh

Flowing Into A New Role Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the founder of CGU’s positive psychology program who introduced the concept of a highly focused state of consciousness called “flow,” will move from his role as Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management into an emeritus position in order to spend more time on the projects and relationships so meaningful to him here at CGU, announced School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation Dean Michelle Bligh. The change will take place in July.

Csikszentmihalyi is actively involved in the search process for his successor, Bligh said, and will “be visible on campus as he continues his involvement with colleagues, students, and the Quality of Life Research Center, which he founded and now co-directs with Professor Jeanne Nakamura.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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News

Photo by Alberto Fernandez Fernandez

American Original

Alejandra Gaytan

New Human Resources Director

DENZEY LEWIS’S research has followed Gnosticism from the second to the fourth century, and women in the Roman Empire.

Listen Hard, Observe, And Learn

Nicola Denzey Lewis

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2018 Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards CGU announced Patricia Smith’s Incendiary Art as the recipient of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and its accompanying $100,000 prize.

Donika Kelly’s Bestiary was selected for the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, which recognizes a poet of promise with a $10,000 prize. A special ceremony is scheduled for April 19 at the Huntington Library. l

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra premiered PETER BOYER’S In the Cause of the Free as part of the project American Originals, Vol. 2.

Photo courtesy of Samuel Strater/Cincinatti Pops Orchestra

Nicola Denzey Lewis joined the Religion Department last fall as the Margo L. Goldsmith Chair in Women’s Studies in Religion.

Her research has followed two separate but, at times, interrelated tracks: the study of Gnosticism from the second to the fourth century—a key period of Christianization—and the social history of ordinary citizens, particularly women,

in the Roman Empire from the High Empire to Late Antiquity periods.

Before coming to CGU, Denzey Lewis was a faculty member at Skidmore and Bowdoin colleges, and then a visiting faculty member at Harvard and Brown universities. She has received major research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Denzey Lewis said she sees her role as a professor as “essentially a service occupation in its teaching and advising aspects.”

“Yes, it’s absolutely important to do my own scholarship and research,” she said. “But I’m here to make sure that CGU’s programs are robust and students are supported academically.”

Alejandra Gaytan, a former human resources manager at Johnson & Johnson, has assumed the role of CGU’s director of human resources.

Gaytan worked in human resources at the consumergoods giant since 2010, with responsibilities including employee relations, training, compensation, and recruiting.

Gaytan received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Universidad del Valle de México and a human resources management certificate from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and conductor John Morris Russell premiered Peter Boyer’s In the Cause of the Free at the Music Hall on November 10, 11, and 12, as part of the project American Originals, Vol. 2.

Boyer holds the Music Department’s Helen M. Smith Chair in Music and is a Grammy-nominated orchestral composer. The subject of Boyer’s new work, commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for the Cincinnati Pops, is Veterans Day and the centennial of the 1919 Armistice.

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New Leadership

Lifelong Dream

With Stewart Donaldson taking a new role as executive director of the Claremont Evaluation Center, the deanship of the School of Community & Global Health (SCGH) has moved from Donaldson to Kim Reynolds, a distinguished researcher in the field of health promotion and disease prevention and a member of the SCGH faculty since 2008. Reynolds is serving as interim dean during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Reynolds has conducted studies—funded by the National Institutes of Health and by major national foundations—to develop and test programs for obesity prevention and the prevention of skin cancer, and to examine the determinants of health behavior.

Mofoluwake Adeniyi, a physician from Nigeria and doctoral student in the School of Community & Global Health (SCGH), is the recipient of at least five honors so far. She was awarded an ASIST Scholarship from the Executive Women International Pomona Valley Chapter at the 3rd Annual 2017 Women’s Leadership Conference. She was also a recipient of the 2017 Sophie Greenstadt Scholarship for Mid-Life Women, an award given by the National Council of Jewish Women/Los Angeles-Community Mental Health and Supportive Services Scholarship Committee.

Adeniyi was also awarded a Randall Lewis Health Policy Fellowship, and a scholarship from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation and the Association for Environmental and Health Sciences Foundation’s Dr. Charlena Seymour Scholarship.

Adeniyi, who left her homeland with her two children, credited SCGH Associate Professor Paula Palmer and Department of Politics & Government Professor and Chair Heather Campbell for support.

“I am so grateful to everyone,” she said. “Their support will help me to achieve my lifelong dream of being a leader who will bring change to my home country of Nigeria.”

“ Public health training is on the rise, and our school is growing. Our faculty and students are engaged in research that is truly cutting-edge and that truly changes lives. This is an exciting time for SCGH.”

2017 Health Policy Research Scholar

Minority Health Research Award

Hawaii is regarded as paradise, but for public health doctoral student Jake Sumibcay, even paradise has some drawbacks.

“For immigrant families like mine, the reality is that we still struggle to make a living,” said Sumibcay, the son of Filipino immigrants who settled in Honolulu before he was born.

“It’s especially difficult because of the high cost of living there.”

That struggle, as well as the spirit of family and community that he experienced as a child, have instilled Sumibcay with a passion to serve people—a passion that has resulted in his selection as a 2017 Health Policy Research Scholar from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The highly competitive award will provide Sumibcay with $120,000 in support for four years, along with networking opportunities beyond CGU. Sumibcay, who is already the recipient of a master’s degree in Public Health from CGU, said that one of his current areas of research focuses on the effectiveness of health education materials on tobacco, cancer, healthy eating, and active living that target Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander youngadult populations.

School of Community & Global Health alumna Melanie Sabado (PhD, Community & Global Health, ’15) was named a recipient of the William G. Coleman Jr., PhD, Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Innovation Award through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award is named in honor of former National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Scientific Director William G. Coleman Jr., the first permanent African American scientific director in the history of the NIH’s Intramural Research Program. Coleman was known as a proponent of mentorship, and dedicated much of his time to training future scientists, particularly around disparities research.

The competitive award and its $15,000 prize will allow Sabado to explore youngadult Pacific Islander needs, attitudes, and beliefs regarding mental health and factors that encourage or hinder their participation in health care services, access, and utilization.

Sabado is a postdoctoral fellow at the NIMHD in the Division of Intramural Research. l

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News

Advancement

NEW FELLOWSHIPS BOOST STUDENT EXPERIENCE DANIEL PICK (MS, Mathematics, ’95) was so inspired by the example of fellow Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMS) alumnus Jack Cuzick ’74, who has taken his math training into the world of cancer prevention, that he (Pick) provided IMS with a $10,000 gift this year to support a doctoral math student who is conducting research in the field of molecular biology.

The recipient of the Pick gift is Christina Duron, who is working on statistical models to understand a form of pediatric brain cancer that affects the optic nerve in order to find ways to target that disease’s mechanisms.

Pick was on hand for the September 27 presentation of the award to Duron—one of

several new gifts last fall specifically focused on supporting and enhancing the student experience.

“Classroom study alone isn’t enough,” said former Vice President for Advancement Ernie Iseminger. “Research and field work are critically important for our students, too. Our Advancement team is working with some outstanding individuals who understand that and want to support the student experience at CGU.” According to the Office of Advancement, other new gifts in support of the student experience include: School of Educational Studies (SES): A gift of $100,000 has been made by Marilyn Gaddis (MA, Education, ’56) to establish the Marilyn Tyler

Shannon and Peter Loughrey

Gaddis Travel Fellowship, which will enable more SES students to attend conferences, present papers, and support their research.

Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Los Angeles: Shannon and Peter Loughrey have established the Los Angeles Modern Auction (LAMA) Fellowship for Field Study to annually support a selected SIA – LA student in Arts Management or Art

Business in their travels as part of their degree program. Peter Loughrey is an alumnus of Sotheby’s Institute-London. He and his wife are the owners of LAMA. Drucker School of Management: Ben Hunsaker (MBA, ’06) has established a gift spanning four years for a fellowship to attract the best and the brightest to enroll in the Drucker School. l

$1 MILLION FELLOWSHIP FOR NATIVE AMERICAN TEACHERS THE CLAREMONT NATIVE AMERICAN FELLOWSHIP (CNAF), a $1 million award made possible through a partnership between CGU and the US Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education, will support 100 percent of the tuition expenses (along with a living stipend) for eligible Native American students to complete their teacher training at the university.

Candidates are now being sought for this program. The first cohort of Claremont Native American Fellows will begin May 1, 2018.

Candidates must complete the application process by March 1. To learn more, contact DeLacy Ganley at delacy.ganley@cgu.edu. l

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“ We know our public-school systems have historically not served all populations equally well; inequities exist. This fellowship allows us to prepare Native American teachers who have the skills needed to promote educational excellence in their communities—and make sure that these new teachers are not saddled with debt along the way.”

DeLacy Ganley, Interim Dean, Educational Studies

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In Memoriam

ARTHUR JANOV PhD, Psychology, ’60 The New York Times, Washington Post, and other media outlets reported the death last fall of Arthur Janov, a psychotherapist who created the primal therapy method, which introduced the concept of the “primal scream.” Janov, who lived in Malibu and maintained the Janov Primal Center in Santa Monica, was 93.

“Primal therapy became a touchstone of ’70s culture,” noted the New York Times, “especially after it drew a stream of luminary devotees to Dr. Janov’s Los Angeles treatment center,” including John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and James Earl Jones.

“I never would have considered university without the Navy sending me,” Janov wrote in an autobiographical blog post last year. “They even chose the University for me: Oregon State, and then I chose UCLA, USC, and then Claremont Graduate School.”

Higher education seemed out of the question for Janov, he wrote, because of his father, who was “obsessed with making me dumb. … That is why I never considered university. My grades were terrible. I felt it was way above me.”

Janov was in his mid-30s in 1960, the year he received a doctorate in psychology from CGU, then known as Claremont Graduate School. By the time he decided to study at the university, Janov was already providing conventional psychotherapy as a member of the psychiatric staff of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

MEREDITH B. MITCHELL PhD, Psychology, ’67 Meredith B. Mitchell, who taught in UCLA’s Clinical School and Extension Division as well as in the UCLA physiological psychology laboratory, died last fall. He was 89.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Mitchell was raised in Los Angeles and received a BA (1948) and MA (1953) in psychology from UCLA, a BS (1960) in electrical engineering from Caltech, a PhD (1967) in psychology from Claremont Graduate University, and a certification (1974) as a Jungian analyst.

After his graduation from Caltech, he worked in human factors engineering for Collins Radio Company, at Lockheed, and at firms offering engineering psychological consultations.

After receiving his doctorate, Mitchell worked in a clinic and

two hospitals while developing a private practice that he maintained from 1968 to 2004. After retiring as a clinical psychologist, he moved to Sun City and spent time sculpting.

Shortly before his death, Mitchell wrote, “After spending most of my life in self-analysis, I finally came to a place of inner peace and tranquility where I live in harmony with the soul as much as is humanly possible.” The Mitchell family requests that donations in his memory be made to the Georgetown Symphony Orchestra, KMFA, and Ku’ikahi Mediation Center.

SEYMOUR “SY” SCHEINBERG MA, Asian Studies, ’60; PhD, Asian Studies, ’65 Last fall California State University, Fullerton, reported the passing of Seymour “Sy” Scheinberg, a historian and member of the founding faculty of that university’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Scheinberg was 85.

He joined the university in 1969 and remained there until his designation as emeritus faculty in 1999. Among his specialties were the history, culture, and art of India; the history of Bhutan, the

Himalayas and Nepal; and Jewish history, including the Holocaust. Scheinberg was honored for his “distinguished contributions to Holocaust Education” in 2004.

STEADMAN UPHAM CGU President, 1998-2004 Steadman Upham, whose tenure as president of Claremont Graduate University was marked by a doubling of the endowment and the completion of a successful fundraising campaign, died in July from complications following surgery. Upham was 68.

Upham received a PhD in anthropology from Arizona State University, and worked at the University of Oregon from 1990 to 1998 as vice provost for research, dean of the university’s graduate school, and a professor of anthropology.

After leaving CGU, Upham served as president of the University of Tulsa until 2012.

He returned after a year, at the request of that university’s board of trustees, to resume his role and later retired in 2016 with plans to return as an anthropology faculty member.

In 2015, TulsaPeople magazine named him “Tulsan of the Year” and he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. l

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The Big Picture New York Times bestselling author Gretchen Rubin celebrated her newest release, The Four Tendencies, with a book tour that brought her to the CGU campus for the university’s 2017-2018 Distinguished Speaker Series. One of the most thought-provoking writers on habits and happiness, Rubin, a Yale Law School grad who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, explored four personality types (Questioner, Upholder, Obliger, and Rebel) and human behavior during her September 19 talk. “Many people like to refer to themselves as ‘students of human nature,’ but Gretchen Rubin truly is one,” School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation Dean Michelle Bligh said in her introductory remarks. “She is the real deal.”

You can watch Rubin’s talk at cgu.edu/youtube.

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They protect. They serve. And—with insight from the most enduring modern management theorists—they lead.

BACKING THE BADGE NEW PROGRAM TRAINS THE NEXT GENERATION OF POLICE LEADERS WITH PETER DRUCKER PRINCIPLES

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eter Drucker’s thinking on leadership has influenced a generation of business executives and CEOs. But the principles developed by the father of modern management also benefit police executives and the communities they serve.

Last summer saw the launch of the inaugural California Police Chiefs Executive Leadership Institute (CPCELI) at Drucker. This new partnership between the Drucker School of Management and the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) provides participants a unique career-development opportunity in which the management visionary’s concepts are imbued with a law enforcement perspective.

The program is already netting impressive results with the recent news of two graduates’ promotions to the rank of police chief.

“One of the goals was to build a rigorous experience that provides a unique environment rich with subject matter and academic expertise, foundational Drucker concepts, and networking opportunities,” said Jenny Darroch, the Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Drucker School and Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Marketing. “We’ve succeeded with a one-of-a-kind program that is designed to enhance skills for new police chiefs and aspiring leaders preparing for executive leadership.”

Darroch collaborated with a team of CPCA members led by Robert Handy, the director-at-large of CPCA’s executive committee and Huntington Beach’s police chief, to create CPCELI. Participating Drucker faculty include: Katharina Pick, who has conducted research in organizational behavior and theory; Jean Lipman-Blumen, who has experience teaching crisis management and leadership; Jay

Prag, who teaches corporate finance, investments, and economics of strategy; and Vijay Sathe, an expert on entrepreneurship and the revitalization of self.

Topics covered include risk management, evidence-based decisions, citizen engagement and the public trust, mindfulness, and exemplary policing.

Several Drucker principles run throughout the program: n A belief in the importance of a functioning society. n A focus on people-centered management. n A focus on performance. n A focus on self-management. n A practice-based, transdisciplinary, and lifelong approach to learning.

“The program aims to equip current and future executives with the broad vision and practical management skills needed to lead agencies to success, internally and externally,” said Jackie Gomez-Whiteley, CPCELI’s program director and a former law enforcement officer who previously served as police chief for the Cypress Police Department and interim police chief for the Alhambra Police Department.

CPCELI’s summer cohort included law enforcement leaders from nearly 30 communities across California, Washington, and Arizona, including police departments from Newport Beach, Bakersfield, Fontana, and Ventura, and public agencies in Tempe and the Gila River Indian Community.

At least two graduates from the summer cohort have been promoted since completing the program. Monrovia Police Department Captain Alan Sanvictores was sworn in as police chief of that agency on November 7.

The Sebastopol Police Department also recently promoted Captain James Conner, another CPCELI graduate, to serve as chief of that agency.

Another CPCELI cohort is planned for summer 2018. l

“ We’ve succeeded with a one-of-a-kind program that is designed to enhance skills for new police chiefs and aspiring leaders preparing for executive leadership.”

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Drucker Day showcased Blue Ocean Shift author and a special appearance by Peter Drucker

Deep Dive

hat is the key to company growth and success? For management expert and author Renée Mauborgne, who delivered the keynote address as part of Drucker Day 2017, “The Drucker Path: Past, Present, and Future,” company performance in today’s shifting financial landscape requires a willingness to redefine limits and shift from competing with rivals (in a red ocean full of predators) to finding new markets (in a blue ocean without rivals).

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“ ...You have to acknowledge people’s fears and build their confidence to take that journey.” Renée Mauborgne

A highlight of Drucker Day was a holographic effect that showcased foundational management theorist Peter Drucker discussing how he developed ideas that continue to help many companies do business today.

Drucker Day guests received a signed copy of Renée Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Shift at the start of a busy day of programming that included faculty and guest presentations.

“How can an ordinary organization with ordinary people shift?” she asked an audience of several hundred attendees gathered in Garrison Theater.

“To do that, you have to acknowledge people’s fears and build their confidence to take that journey.”

Drucker Day guests received a signed copy of Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Shift at the start of a busy day of programming that included faculty and guest presentations as well as honoring Professor Emeritus Joseph Maciariello with the Peter Drucker Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Joe did it all so brilliantly,” said Professor Jean Lipman-Blumen, who, along with Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Drucker School Jenny Darroch, saluted Maciariello for his stewardship of the Drucker legacy and his expansion of it with his own scholarship and critical revisions of such classic Drucker texts as Management and Management Cases.

And there was a hologram, too.

For many alumni who never had a chance to meet Peter Drucker, the curtain raised on a special holographic effect of Drucker that was based on one of his later interviews.

“How did my interest in management begin? By accident. I fell into it,” Drucker told the audience as he described his search for a new understanding of management.

The afternoon segment of the program closed with remarks by afternoon keynoter Deborah Clark, senior vice president of Marketplace, one of the most successful suites of weekly radio broadcasts in the country. l

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Sotheby’s Institute of Art – LA appraisal course trains students in the subtle art of assessing value

The Eye of the Beholder

By Kerri Dean ow much is that piece of art worth?

Whether you want to know in Antiques Roadshow-esque fashion or for legal reasons, receiving an approximate valuation for one’s property can be exciting—sometimes nerve-wracking, too.

For the past several years, Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Los Angeles at CGU has offered a course on contemporary art appraisal as part of its master’s program in Art Business. Taught by Karen McManus, president of Jacqueline Silverman & Associates, a boutique Los Angeles appraisal firm, and an adjunct professor, the course helps demystify the process and explains the importance of proper appraisal. It is intended to prepare students to understand the duties of an appraiser, recognize types of value, and determine appropriate marketplaces.

The question of valuation comes up quite often in business schools, yet few schools offer courses in appraisal. The course is unique to CGU and cannot be found in other Southern California programs.

There are some basic ways to assess that work of art that you found in your grandmother’s attic (see sidebar next page), but a serious appraisal of art, as with other types of property, requires professional experience for various reasons, McManus explained.

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For one thing, art owners require “accurate, current evaluations” for adequate insurance coverage. And for those thinking of donating some of their favorite pieces of art, they need to know a few appraisal tips before making that tax write-off. McManus emphasized that the IRS has specific requirements for donations, including using only qualified appraisers.

So how does an appraisal start? It depends, McManus said. “Appraisal is very case-by-case.”

Students in her course are introduced to some of the top indicators of value, which include the identity of the artist, the date of execution, and the artwork’s style.

McManus looks to see if the style is a typical example of an artist’s work to determine its value. In addition to size and signatures, she also suggests looking, if it is a painting, at the back of the artwork for telltale signs of its value.

“If it has, say, 10 exhibit labels, it adds value,” McManus said. “That shows the piece was in a lot of exhibits and seen as valuable since curators and museum

“ Appraising is more than a science, it’s an art, too.”

Karen McManus

professionals kept displaying the piece as important.”

The same methods that McManus teaches her students were demonstrated recently by an Antiques Roadshow appraiser when a visitor asked for an assessment of a Rembrandt etching printed from a copper plate by the artist himself.

The appraiser looked at the piece’s front and back for a variety of things— including paper quality and how the ink sits on the paper—and determined that the piece, bought for a flea-market price, would probably fetch $4,000 to $6,000 at auction.

Physical examination of the work of art, McManus said, is an exciting part of the discovery process. Aside from this, appraisers must also consider market activity.

Weighing market data is often an appraiser’s hardest job. Appraisers look at market activity for current trends, evaluate different media at different levels, and determine what is the common marketplace for each piece. An appraiser looks at data on where the activity is—galleries, studios,

auctions—and who the artist is and the type of media used.

“Is it worth it to me?” is the question buyers need to ask themselves, McManus explained. Art consumers set the market prices that appraisers use for comparative market values.

Another factor in appraisal prices is the fact that the art market shifts with other economic markets. Most recently, the 2008-2009 economic crash drastically depressed the art market.

McManus said that the crash continues to affect some artists, and that the contemporary market is not necessarily as booming as it may seem.

As market trends shift, and the art world evolves, the need for knowledgeable appraisers remains strong.

For McManus, appraising takes more than just a skillful eye. Like the subject under appraisal, “appraising is more than a science, it’s an art, too.” l

Kerri Dean is a doctoral student in the History Department who is studying modern American history and museum studies.

HOW TO APPRAISE A PAINTING: SOME TIPS TO CONSIDER Before you go to a professional appraiser, you might consider a quick preliminary examination of that old painting your grandmother left you in her will:

1 2 3

Ask yourself first: Is it an original or a copy? Use a magnifying glass.

Don’t remove it from its frame.

You might damage it.

Try to identify the artist. Is there a signature or initials anywhere on the piece? If it’s a painting, look on the back or on the frame for clues.

4

If you’re able to identify the artist, conduct an online search to learn more about the work of art in question, especially if it’s a copy.

5

If you’ve decided to pursue future research, consult a professional appraiser for help.

Source: HobbyLark.com “How Much Is My Old Painting Worth? Research, Appraise, and Sell”

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Power to the People KristoΩer Wikstrom’s research looks at easing the burden of constructing new energy projects

T

hey may carry “green” energy, but the process by which the locations for natural gas pipelines, wind farms, and high-voltage power lines are determined and developed isn’t always pretty.

Local residents oppose such projects, complaining they pose a potential threat to the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Policymakers and energy officials find their efforts to meet sustainable-energy needs snarled in gridlock and costly delays.

Kristoffer Wikstrom might have a way out of this mess.

The doctoral candidate in the School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation’s Division of Politics & Economics (DPE) has conducted research that could improve outcomes and engage citizens in helping to decide where and how such projects are built, a process called infrastructure siting. His scholarship was recognized for excellence recently both by CGU and Los Angeles’ leading supporter of social science research.

With the multitude of sustainable-energy projects proposed across the globe, Wikstrom’s work is topical.

“It is estimated that trillions of dollars will be spent on renewable energy, transmission, and distribution infrastructure just to meet the Paris Accord agreements,” Wikstrom said.

“It is therefore important to minimize

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Does the distance that citizens live away from proposed energy projects have an impact on their actions? n How do their attitudes and behaviors change over time? n Can researchers predict the specific moment in time—the “tipping point”— when enough citizens organize to successfully thwart a project?

The $20,000 fellowship from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation will support Wikstrom’s continuing research. The organization is the oldest private foundation in Los Angeles, and it spends up to $3 million annually for grants and scholarships to public and private institutions, funding hundreds of important urban studies in education, transportation, local government, elections, public safety, and natural resources.

“Energy infrastructure is all around us, and crucial to society,” Wikstrom said. “At the same time, the infrastructure can be harmful to the environment and communities.”

Wikstrom was also the recipient of a Transdisciplinary Dissertation Award totaling $10,000. This award recognizes students who have embraced a transdisciplinary research approach and developed compelling and feasible projects.

“The simulation of infrastructure siting is, at its core, a transdisciplinary task that demands theories and tools n

Kristoffer Wikstrom

“ Energy infrastructure is all around us, and crucial to society.” any potential conflicts that can lead to delays and increased costs for tax- and rate-payers. Even more important, it is crucial to make sure that poor communities are not the ones who disproportionately suffer the burdens of these new energy infrastructure projects.”

Wikstrom was recently named the recipient of a Haynes-Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for his dissertation proposal entitled “Agents of Opposition? Simulating Community Conflict Over New Energy Facilities.”

Wikstrom’s research combines geographic information systems (GIS), agent-based modeling—a method of studying complex systems composed of independently acting individuals— and simulations to explore questions such as:

“ ...It is crucial to make sure that poor communities are not the ones who disproportionately suffer the burdens of these new energy infrastructure projects.”

from several different fields of study, such as politics, social psychology, economics, and engineering, just to name a few,” he said.

Wikstrom worked as a research assistant for a Haynes Foundation grant on power struggles, which led to the creation of energymaps.org, a website where communities can get information about upcoming local infrastructure projects.

Since 2016, he has served as the project manager for a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant on sustainable energy solutions. The grant, from the NSF’s Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation, was recently transferred to Portland State University, where Wikstrom and environmental energy expert and former CGU Professor Hal Nelson expect to complete the project by early 2019.

Wikstrom credited his dissertation committee, which was chaired by Nelson, and include DPE Professors Heather Campbell, an expert in public policy, and Melissa Rogers, a specialist in local-level governmental conflicts.

“The combination of support and encouragement I’ve had throughout my years at CGU, has truly been the reason that I’ve been able to get to this point,” he said. l

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‘ Heart of My Career’ Pitzer College’s top admissions executive Yvonne Berumen champions access and equity in higher education

ust over a year ago, School of Educational Studies alumna Yvonne Berumen (MA, Education, ’05) was named Pitzer College’s new vice president for admission and financial aid. A Pitzer alumna who has worked in college admissions for 17 years at Occidental College, Pitzer College, and Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles, Berumen is an advocate for first-generation and underrepresented students, working with parents, educators, and other community-based officials to promote higher education and facilitate access across the Los Angeles region. We spoke with Berumen—a first-generation student herself—about her educational and professional experiences.

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“ I strongly believe higher education has the power to change lives and family trajectories.”

Q

How does promoting college attainment among urban and underserved populations propel your work? ccess and equity have always been at the heart of my career. I strongly believe higher education has the power to change lives and family trajectories. One family member’s success can inspire and propel others to do the same, and more. It’s paramount that as educational leaders who understand the challenges of urban, rural, and underserved populations, we continue to promote college attainment and career success to advance our country.

A

Q A

How does being a first-generation college student inform your work?

My background as a first-generation college student fuels my passion for access and provides me with a valuable perspective to share. I can personally relate to many of the challenges this population faces—economic, social, and cultural. For example, the application process can feel overwhelming and intimidating to a first-generation college student. As education professionals, we should strive to demystify the college and financial [aid] process.

The language we use to promote higher education should be mindful of all of our constituents.

Q A

What motivated you to pursue an undergraduate degree?

I was blessed to have supportive parents that may not have understood how to help me with the college process, but always encouraged me to do my best. Further, I went to a high school with amazing teachers and counselors that both nurtured and challenged us. My undergraduate and graduate experiences were similar. I had mentors that pushed me to expect more of myself. Still, I could never have dreamt or imagined that I would be vice president of admission and financial aid

for my alma mater. I was the student that was intimidated to apply to college! At the time, I didn’t know anyone who held a bachelor’s degree, except my teachers. It’s difficult to identify a possible calling when your understanding of careers is limited. Through it all, it was my faculty and mentors in the profession that convinced me that I could succeed in this role. And, if I had questions, they could help me.

As I look back at my career, I realize that it was necessary for me to succeed.

Like my mentors, I want to continue to challenge others to see beyond their own expectations. Our backgrounds shouldn’t dictate our future; instead, it should fuel us to do more for ourselves and our communities.

Q A

What prompted you to pursue a master’s degree at CGU? I applied to CGU after my first professional promotion. At the time, I was still considering a variety of different professions. To be honest, I chose to pursue graduate school in the hopes of gaining more insight regarding my career path. CGU was close and had a flexible program for working adults that complemented my interests. The faculty were knowledgeable and experienced in all facets. The students also came from varied positions and organizations that made for enriching discussions. This was especially important for me given I was only five years out of college and had limited professional experience.

[Professor of Education] David Drew, however, was the greatest surprise in my education at CGU. He stretched me professionally by sparking a love for quantitative measures and data analytics. I would never have considered myself a mathematically inclined person, but developing this new skillset gave me greater breadth because data and numbers transcend industries.

Since graduating from CGU, I have worked in the nonprofit sector, and secondary and higher education. And I

had the pleasure of developing logic-based applications, student information systems, and algorithms, and built predictive models to inform enrollment strategies. My goal is to eventually develop a retention model that’ll promote success and alert college officials when interventions are necessary.

Q A

What has your newest role at Pitzer taught you so far?

Beyond the day-to-day activities, I have realized that my role is more than just a vice president for admission and financial aid, but more importantly as a community member and leader at Pitzer.

The [November 2016] elections and initiatives truly tested the community and imbued it with a level of uncertainty and fear. Given these external challenges, it was imperative that we, as a leadership team, support our community by reaffirming Pitzer’s mission of social responsibility and intercultural understanding. And as community members, we acknowledge the personal sentiments that were permeating the campus climate.

If asked “What was my biggest surprise coming into this role?” I would have to say that it is the current political climate and decisions made at the federal level. For example, access to financial aid is being threatened and affecting not just Pitzer students, but college students throughout the country. Executive decisions made at the federal level are endangering the safety and experience of immigrant and international students on college campuses. Whether they affected campus climate or operational structures, these polarizing decisions forced us reflect and take action.

Regardless of the challenges, I know this is where I was meant to be. Pitzer College was integral in my development as a socially responsible citizen of the world and I hope to continue that legacy by recruiting and enrolling future generations of Pitzer students. l

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BEYOND THE RAINBOW Artist Megan Geckler commemorates a community with a colorful creation

By Roberto C. Hernandez Photos by Larry French/Associated Press

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I

nstallation artist Megan Geckler’s large-scale, site-specific projects have tended to lean toward the playful and psychedelic. But a recent commission for a national civil rights organization posed an interesting challenge: How to capture the joyous spirit of Capital Pride, one of the largest LGBTQ pride events in the country, while commemorating the victims of the deadliest incidence of violence against gay people in US history—the June 12, 2016, shooting at Florida’s Pulse nightclub.

“Conceptually, attempting to somehow balance the mass killing that happened at Pulse with Pride seemed impossible,” Geckler said.

But after the CGU alumna (MFA, ’01) had a vision of a “pyramid of strength,” she knew what she wanted to create.

Tape Player

Photo by Jeffrey Fountain

MEGAN GECKLER ’01 MFA, Sculpture

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The Los Angeles-based artist has spent the last 17 years creating massive, mind-bending installations within architectural spaces. She mostly employs unconventional materials such as rope, ribbon-like streams of fabric, and—a signature feature—colorful strips of non-adhesive flagging tape that is normally used by surveyors and at construction sites.

She’s used as much as nine miles of tape in a single project.

Geckler wants viewers to experience an immediate and immersive change in their environment.

“In the particular moment when someone encounters one of my largescale installations, they very often fall silent,” she said. “[They] usually stop dead in their tracks, and respond after a few seconds with something along the lines of ‘Whoa,’ ‘Wow,’ or ‘WTF.’ ” Utilizing computer-aided design software, an array of mathematical and geometric calculations, and help from volunteers or staff, Geckler

has created stunning artworks in a variety of venues: museums, galleries, institutions, and public spaces.

“While the challenges of each of these types of spaces vary greatly, I enjoy being challenged,” she said.

“And I have broadened my skillset and approach with each and every project.”

Addictive Art

For the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Geckler arranged 21,000 feet of custom-dyed cotton rope in a dizzying display to create We’ve got to cross this great big world somehow. The installation—on view through June 2018—takes the form of a diptych of twin alcoves on either side of pedestrian walkways to form three X shapes to reference the idea that X marks the spot, or the arrival and departure points of travelers.

In Sydney, Australia, she created A million things that make your head spin, a six-story-high kaleidoscopic construction within the atrium of the Customs House, a historic government building that currently serves as a cultural center.

Her installations’ manipulations of space and perspective encourage viewers to enter and observe her art from within.

“The viewer has experienced an immediate and immersive change in their environment,” she explained.

“They have become a participant, allowing the artwork to completely transport them into a new environment and state of mind.”

“This is a very powerful thing to be able to accomplish with a piece of art.

Frankly, it’s addictive.”

Geckler’s installations have garnered wide attention from domestic and international media outlets and publications including Fabrik, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, LA Weekly, and the Daily Telegraph. She

was featured in the August 2017 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine for its “Women Who Make Beautiful Things” section, which showcased A million things that make your head spin and her 2006 Fill it up and pour it down the inside at the Torrance Art Museum.

A Celebration and a Memorial

When the Washington DC-based Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, contacted Geckler last year for a special commission, she was “honored and very moved.” The nonprofit works to improve the lives of LGBTQ people by advocating for equal rights around the world.

Geckler’s commission was timed with last June’s 42nd annual Capital Pride festival. But the concept also called for memorializing the victims of one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern United States history.

On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded after New York-born Omar Mateen opened fire at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It is considered both a hate crime—the worst attack against LGBTQ individuals in American history—and a terrorist act due to the gunman’s proclaimed allegiance to ISIS. Referencing the number of victims, the installation was named 49.

“I find it reprehensible that LGBTQ people still do not have the same rights and comforts living their lives both in America and globally,” Geckler said.

“I believe that we must come together to defeat the hate and bigotry that motivated the attack in Orlando, and others like it.”

Because of the commission’s celebratory and sobering themes, she considered it a unique challenge. But once Geckler saw the Human Rights Campaign building, she knew what she wanted to create.

“The building was perfect for the ‘pyramid of strength’,” she said. “The challenge was how to represent the 49 lives that were lost.”

Stand Together

Geckler used custom-printed flag material to create the installation’s two parts; the multicolored, pyramidal exterior and an interior element with a circular base. The pyramidal element “symbolized the strength of the LGBTQ community,” Geckler said.

The interior comprised 49 six-inchwide strips—representing the victims of the Pulse shooting—that come together in the circular base, representing unity.

“I wanted to stay true to the pride flag, a symbol of strength and celebration for the LGBTQ community,” she said.

In addition, a special LED light show was added—that included 49 seconds of white light—to add layers of meaning.

“I wanted 49 to function as a place for people to process what happened at Pulse and heal, as well as provide a beacon of hope and strength for the community,” Geckler said.

She also created two smaller installations for the Human Rights Campaign: United we stand and Music makes motion, moves like a maze.

49 is Geckler’s first installation centered around LGBTQ rights.

“It is also a call for us all to stand together against hate and violence, create safe spaces within our communities, and find ways to make a difference by honoring the victims with action,” she said. l

TRUE COLORS

Megan Geckler has worked on several more recent site-specific projects since completing 49.

Her Believe in things you say (see above) installation was on view through last December at Sturt Haaga Gallery at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, California. Made with 180 strands of flagging tape in seven different colors, the installation created two intersecting surfaces that crisscrossed one another to create four distinct planes when it was viewed from the interior of the gallery.

Believe in things you say was part of the group exhibition Marking Time, curated by John David O’Brien.

Geckler also traveled to Tennessee as part of an artist-in-residency program at Austin Peay State University, where she will continue to remotely work with students over the spring semester to create a site-specific installation on the ceiling of that campus’s new Art+Design Building.

As in prior works, Geckler will employ flagging tape.

Another flagging-tape installation, Lay it down and start up, is currently on view in the ground-floor lobby—suspended from skylight beams—of the Creative Arts Agency in Century City, California.

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The Big Picture To celebrate the artists touched by a fellowship established by the late Karl Benjamin, a School of Arts & Humanities alumnus (MA, Art, ’60) and faculty member at CGU and Pomona College, and his wife, Beverly, the university held a two-week exhibition and October 24 reception. Karl and Beverly Benjamin are shown inside Karl’s home studio in this 2006 photo.

The exhibition featured works by alumni who have won the fellowship over its 21-year history: Sally Bruno ’14 Robert Caban ’01 Kris Chatterson ’04 Bradley Eberhard ’07 Alvin Pagdanganan Gregorio ’00 Steven Hampton ’06 Courtney Hayes-Sturgeon ’97 Dion Johnson ’00 Michael Kindred Knight ’10 Tony Larson ’17 Robert Mellor ’02 Nikko Mueller ’03 Iain Muirhead ’16 Lek Namnath ’08 Kirk Pedersen ’98 Constance Pohlman ’96 Kerry Rodgers ’11 Eric Schott ’12 Leslie Love Stone ’13 Chelsea Hertford Taylor ’09 Devon Tsuno ’05 Stacy Wendt ’15

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Alumni Bookshelf

A Fisherman’s Story: The Colonel Butch Cassidy Memoirs, Volume II. Gary N. Cassidy’s A Fisherman’s Story is the middle installment in a trilogy that he calls a “mythomemoir,” a word that Cassidy (MFA, ’84) coined to describe his fictionalized approach to telling the story of his 30-plus years as a member of the US Army.

The book includes his experiences in the Vietnam War, as well as other military experiences, stories of fishing, hallucinations, and fantasies—all of it blended together in a highly vivid, poetic style. At times, his wartime experiences evoke the work of other Vietnam novels, such as Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke and Karl Marlantes’ Matterhorn. A retired Army colonel, Cassidy writes with sharp clarity as he describes the harrowing, defining moments of his early life. “It is amazing,” he writes in the introduction (the trilogy’s third volume will be published later this year), “what a little responsibility and a few lifethreatening situations will do for a young man on his road to maturity.”

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Jumping the Abyss: Marriner S. Eccles and the New Deal, 1933–1940 (University of Utah Press).

A Republican at the heart of FDR’s administration? In Jumping the Abyss, Mark Wayne Nelson (PhD, History, ’12) offers the first comprehensive portrait of Marriner Eccles, a Mormon businessman from Utah involved in some of the key financial hallmarks of the New Deal. With an immensely successful track record already behind him—participating in the creation of the Emergency Banking Act and FDIC, serving a stint in the Treasury—Eccles was amply prepared to become head of the Federal Reserve. Nelson’s book “is an extremely important addition to our understanding of the New Deal era,” writes acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley. “The amount of cutting-edge research Nelson undertook is deeply impressive.” This book not only demonstrates Eccles’s financial brilliance—which includes his revolutionizing of the private home market and restructuring the Fed—it also highlights Roosevelt’s willingness, especially in times of immense national crisis, to reach across the aisle to find the best people for his team.

Muslim Democracy: Politics, Religion and Society in Indonesia, Turkey and the Islamic World (Routledge). Does the pairing of “Muslim” with “democracy” seem unexpected to you? If it does, then you should consider this new book

by Edward Schneier (PhD, Government, ’64), which focuses on the political realities of governing in 47 Muslim-majority countries. In the process, he challenges assumptions commonly made, especially in the West, about that world’s relationship to the democratic ideal. “This is a ground-breaking comparative study of the Muslim world’s struggle for democracy that transcends the simple clichés and polemics of an oft-asserted ‘incompatibility’ between the two,” writes Islam scholar Arolda Elbasani in an advance review. A professor emeritus of political science at the City College of the City University of New York, Schneier challenges “a substantial body of literature [which] asserted that the values of Islam were utterly incompatible with those of Western democracy.” Instead, Schneier gives readers a commanding perspective that finds more areas of commonality than the general public—and mainstream media—would have us believe.

»

The Book of Esther and the Typology of Female Transfiguration in American Literature (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield). Ariel Clark Silver (PhD, American Literature, ’11) looks beyond the influence of the Virgin Mary on 19th-century American writers noted

by Sewanee professor and critic John Gatta to argue for a much older influence instead—that “of a more ancient and oriental woman, living in the midst of a culture set against her…”

In the footsteps of fellow CGU alumnus Sacvan Bercovitch and his Puritan Origins of the American Self, Silver traces the evolution of female typology and salvation in the writings of Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Adams and others according to the Old Testament’s Esther, who is at the center of a powerful biblical story of Hebrew salvation. A member of the faculty of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Institute of Religion, Silver takes iconic American authors we thought we already knew and casts them in fresh unexpected light— something possible only for someone with a deep command of the primary texts, which Silver demonstrates in her thoughtful, intriguing new book.

The Synthetic Proposition: Conceptualism and the Political Referent in Contemporary Art (Manchester University Press). How did artists respond to the socio-political impact wrought by the Civil Rights, Black Power, feminist, and other movements of the 1960s and beyond? In The Synthetic Proposition, Nizan Shaked (PhD, Cultural Studies, ’08) looks at the way that identity politics and conceptualism, considered mutually exclusive, found a synthesis in the works of artists including Adrian Piper, David Hammons, Renée Green, Mary Kelly, Martha Rosler, Silvia Kolbowski, and Daniel Joseph Martinez, among many others. By turning to social issues, artists analyzed the conventions of language, photography, moving images, installation, and display, according to the publisher. “These artists did not assume the existence of any inherent or essential identity, they instead established identity politics as a mode through which to consolidate political and aesthetic agency,” Shaked writes in the introduction to this magisterial study.

Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal (University of North Carolina Press).

What does religious freedom really mean in America? Tisa Wenger (MA, Women’s Studies in Religion, ’97) doesn’t approach the subject from the more predictable, conventional angle of religious freedom as a timeless, unchanged ideal at the heart of America’s origins. Instead, she examines its evolving nature and how religious freedom often has been used as a tool of American imperial expansion. “The principle of religious freedom—often coded as white and Protestant and set against the supposed bondage of the pagan and the Catholic—served as an imperial mechanism of classification and control,” writes Wenger, an associate professor of American religious history at Yale University. In an advance review, acclaimed author and scholar Tracy Fessenden calls the book “ambitious and impressive,” and writes that Wenger “makes the compelling argument that American religious freedom is inseparable from the logics of race and empire.” l

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Faculty & Staff Bookshelf

Christianity and the Secular Border Patrol: The Loss of Judeo-Christian Knowledge (Peter Lang). Is the liberal arts tradition of secular universities the right place for Christian academics? It should be, but as CGU Professor of Education Mary Poplin and her co-editor illustrate in Christianity and the Secular Border Patrol, many challenges exist to this seemingly simple idea. Secular universities are intended as places for the free exchange of ideas, and yet the contributors to this collection of essays—including the editors themselves—address the ways in which self-professed Christian scholars find their approaches to knowledge undermined. “The culture war of faith versus secular logic,” writes Poplin’s co-editor Barry Kanopol, “is very much alive and influential in the preparation of students from all walks of life.” For most Americans, acclaimed critic Stanley Fish writes about this book, “secularism is the air we breathe: it is invisible and sustaining and terribly limiting, all at the same time. This most powerful of modern ideologies derives its power from the claim to be above or below or to the side of ideology. That claim does not survive a reading of the essays in this book.”

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Macroeconomic Essentials: Understanding Economics in the News (MIT Press). Anyone who has ever sat in a class taught by Drucker School Clinical Professor Jay Prag should be able to identify his voice in Macroeconomic Essentials, coauthored with Peter E. Kennedy. That same slightly irreverent style that he brings to classroom discussions of contemporary economic issues is here in abundance. When asking a question about supply-sider Arthur Laffer and his famous Laffer Curve, Prag writes—it has to be him, right?—“others held that the Kleenex, cocktail napkin, or toilet paper on which, according to varying legend, the curve was first drawn could better have been put to its usual use.” With this book Prag and his coauthor’s aim is to more closely connect macroeconomic study with real-world scenarios to make it more accessible for students. In the book’s easy tone and rigorous treatment of a host of issues— from measuring GDP and inflation to monetary policy and international economics—the authors unquestionably have achieved that goal.

Engine of Impact: Essentials of Strategic Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector (Stanford Business). “The first step to improving the way you are making ‘the ask’ is to conquer your fears,” former Vice President for Advancement Ernie Iseminger tells William F. Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker in Engine of Impact, a powerful new guide to social sector leadership.

Inspired by father of modern management Peter Drucker, the authors talk with today’s experts in the field about a range of issues—including board governance and how to maintain high performance—to distill principles vital for effective nonprofit organizational success. “While we are no Peter Drucker, we aspire to have our thinking contain at least some of the durability and impact that his thinking has had,” the authors write in the book’s opening.

For Iseminger, making “the ask” is the hardest part, even for the boldest fundraisers. Change your mind-set, he says, “think of it this way: You are doing potential donors a favor by inviting them to support your work.”

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Back in Circulation

Open Book Program

BUS DRIVER, MACHINIST, CLERK— before she finished her political science doctorate, CGU Professor Jean Schroedel had worked a myriad of demanding jobs and published an acclaimed book on the challenges facing women in blue-collar trades, Alone in a Crowd: Women in the Trades Tell Their Stories.

Schroedel’s book will find new generations of readers after being chosen for the Open Book Program, an initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to reissue significant out-of-print books in a free, online format. Schroedel's book, which was published more than 30 years ago, was selected by a board of scholars at Temple University Press and will include a new foreword penned by a labor-study specialist.

The aim of the NEH grant is to return to circulation a selection of books deemed influential and essential in the field of labor studies. When the new edition is digitized and fully available, new readers will have a chance to appreciate what the New York Times wrote about Schroedel’s book when it first appeared: “Rich and earthy interviews juxtapose issues of independence and self-esteem against attempts to maintain family life.” l

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Faculty & StaΩ

Javier Rodríguez Studies Political Ramifications on Health Outcomes THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, POLICY & EVALUATION’S DIVISION OF POLITICS & ECONOMICS recently welcomed new faculty member Javier Rodríguez. The scholar’s research studies the political causes and consequences of socioeconomic and racial disparities in health. Rodríguez holds the post of Mary Toepelt Nicolai and George S. Blair Assistant Professor at CGU.

Q

What prompted you to specialize in the direction of politics as it’s related to health policy and health issues? Did you feel it was an area badly in need of researchers and scholars?

The interdisciplinary alliance between political science and public health in my research originated because of three observations: 1. Policy-makers, the media, advocates, and academic researchers openly accept the notion that health policies and programs have a powerful effect on population health.

2. Policy- and decision-making processes that allocate major public goods and services and health-promoting resources happen in government.

3. There is a surprisingly enormous scarcity of debate and research linking critical health outcomes to political variables.

A

Q A

Most people probably haven’t asked that question. Why aren’t these issues being discussed?

Think about it: The government of the United States is the most powerful institution that has ever existed; the annual budget for our major health care programs alone is well over a trillion dollars (the biggest—by far—among all other categories); and there are 2.7 million annual deaths in the United States of which the great majority are related to health. Not to war, not to crime, not to accidents—health.

What else could be more important than the relationship between politics

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and health? Why is it that we are not debating and doing research on how the United States government is administering and deciding on critical issues of life and death? These two questions, based on the observations outlined above, led me to the research that I do.

Q

Heather Campbell, the chair and a professor in the Department of Politics & Government, said that your arrival addresses a much-needed area of public policy. For the lay public, what aspect of public policy do you plan to engage at CGU? In the midst of the 19th century, [physician and public health pioneer] Rudolf Virchow said, “Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale.”

What Virchow was implying with this assertion is the fact that politics is itself a powerful social determinant of health.

Time passed for science to determine that societal inequalities are exquisitely translated into health inequalities; that societal factors—well above and beyond genetic ones—determine the health of populations.

To put these terms into perspective, consider this: In the United States, the difference in life expectancy between men at the top and bottom of the income distribution is about 15 years.

As [University of Illinois public health Professor] S. Jay Olshansky and his colleagues put it, in terms of health inequalities, there is more than one America. Further, socioeconomic gaps

A

are widening over time. So, if a year of human life is the most valuable unit-asset of our species, then the inequalities that block the opportunities to live a longer and enjoyable life constitute the most critical of all inequalities. If “politics is medicine on a large scale,” to address the politics-specific problems and solutions that illuminate our understanding of health inequalities is a decisive aspect of our present and future as a society—and as a democracy.

And that is what I hope to help address at CGU.

Q

What do you see as the advantages of being a CGU professor? Is it the opportunity to work more closely with students, research opportunities connected with the entire consortium, or some combination of these things?

“Professor” is a paradoxical space—located between the search for knowledge and the transmission of it, where teaching is a learning experience as well. By this I mean that teaching and learning are not separate events; they are intimately co-founded.

After all, that’s what education is about: learning self-teaching skills. This puts professors in an interesting situation, one in which they become students of their students. So, for the professor, everything is about the students! To work closely with students represents the means through which professors have a chance to rediscover and replenish themselves. l

A

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Achievements

Keeping the Beat INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES Director and Professor Marina Chugunova is collaborating on an important project that could solve a major issue involving a life-saving form of pediatric surgery. More than 40 years ago, the Fontan procedure was first described by a French doctor as a surgical intervention to help infants who, due to a birth defect, are born with only a single functional ventricle of the heart.

The procedure compensates for the lack of a second ventricle chamber by diverting venous blood right to the pulmonary arteries, and that helps the patient to recover and develop normally. But a serious problem eventually develops as a result of the procedure.

The sole functioning ventricle must do twice the expected work, which results in these patients later experiencing heart failure in the third decade of their lives and requiring heart transplantation if the problem is detected in time. Too often, though, that detection happens too late.

In collaboration with Toronto General Hospital, Chugunova and her colleagues at the University of Toronto and the Ukraine Academy of Science are modeling blood pressure distribution after the surgical procedure. Their efforts will provide doctors with data on blood pressure that will help them detect the onset of heart failure in time for life-saving intervention. “We are giving doctors important information, and we are giving these patients something even more important: hope,” Chugunova said. l

Grand Design CENTER FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY (CISAT) Professor Samir Chatterjee has been the recipient of several recent honors. He is CISAT’s Fletcher Jones Chair of Technology Design & Management and an internationally recognized scholar in the science of design who founded CGU’s IDEA (Innovation Design Empowerment Applications) Laboratory.

Chatterjee was awarded a prestigious Schöller Senior Fellowship by the Dr. Theo and Friedl Schöller Research Center for Business and Society at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. Chatterjee’s project, titled “Towards a Healthier Living Using Remote Monitoring with Advanced Sensors and Internet-of-Things for Elderly Patients,” seeks to provide improved, smart, and connected health care monitoring and early detection of disease onset for elderly patients via sensors, wearable devices, and internet-connected technology.

Chatterjee was also awarded a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to the field of design science and research at the 10th annual Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology conference in Dublin, Ireland, on May 21.

“I am truly honored and humbled to receive this award,” Chatterjee said. “I must thank the numerous colleagues at various institutions that have helped shape my thinking. I must also thank many of my doctoral students at Claremont Graduate University and IDEA Lab who took my seminar where much of the current thinking on design research originated.”

He was also chosen as a recipient of the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman, an award given by the Indian government in recognition of the accomplishments of Indians living outside of India. l

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION CGU’S DANFORTH PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, Ingolf Dalferth, was awarded one of Leipzig University’s highest honors: the Leibniz Professorship for the 2017-2018 winter term. This professorship is awarded biannually to renowned international scholars, mainly from abroad, who provide interdisciplinary instruction for graduates and students as well as conduct research. The goal is to stimulate cooperation, to create the foundation for scientific innovations, and to advance the training of junior scientists. l

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Culture & Commentary

B

Ezra Pound’s ‘Cheeky’ Solution How the Little Review maneuvered around copyright laws

By Eric Bulson

36 | Claremont Graduate University

EFORE SIGNING ON AS THE transatlantic liaison for the Little Review (in 1917) and The Dial (in 1919), Ezra Pound had dreams of editing his own little magazine.

Funded, in part, by John Quinn, the Transatlantic Vortex Monthly, as he planned to call it, was going to reconnect Paris, London, and New York at the war’s end. Indeed, Pound’s plans were ambitious from the start, motivated by the desire to create the conditions for a transatlantic conversation that would change the course of modern literature. It was a vortex he wanted above all, a swirling maelstrom of creative and critical energies that would eventually get American and British literature up to speed with the modern advances taking place on the Continent. As part of his protracted pitch to Quinn, which lasted between 1915 and 1917, he worked through all of the production details, including everything from format and size (octavo) to word count (three hundred words per page) and type (pica). The Transatlantic Vortex Monthly, which was modeled very closely after the Mercure de France, would be 112 pages (forty of them reserved for chroniques detailing current literary and cultural events), be printed on thick paper without advertisements, and sell for twenty-five cents a copy, with twenty-two hundred subscribers paying three dollars a year. By this time, Pound already had experience working in an editorial capacity with American and British magazines (Poetry, New Age), but it’s clear from his correspondence with Quinn that he still didn’t understand exactly how transatlantic communication would work, focusing his attention more on what the Transatlantic Vortex would look like and where it would be printed (London or New York) and less on questions of circulation, how it would actually move between these three cities.

In 1917, and quite out of the blue, Pound finally got his chance to try it all out after getting hired on as the “foreign correspondent” for Margaret Anderson’s the Little Review. “Two years of the L.R.,” he told Quinn, “will be enough to show what a small magazine ought to be.” And, as it turned out, he was right. In less than two

» The solution to Pound’s editorial challenges was simple: entrelarder.

years, not only did Pound manage to corral writers now regarded as modernist heroes, but, and more to the point, he learned how to make the “small magazine” function transatlantically. As the foreign correspondent, he mediated between the editors back in New York City and the writers and readers based in England and across Europe, collecting subscriptions, channeling the money through a bank account in Pennsylvania, and vetting/editing the British and European contributions, which he sent back to Margaret Anderson.

One of Pound’s earliest and most significant contributions as foreign editor was “A Study of French Modern Poets” (February 1918), a special issue devoted entirely to Jules Laforgue, Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, Remy de Gourmont, Charles Vildrac, Jules Romains, and others. For this particular issue, transatlantic communication was the primary goal, and Pound was determined that his readers would not miss the point. Throughout these pages, he assumes the role of the cheeky editor, commentator, and critic, but as he explains in the preface, this was not something he planned on doing. Instead, he had imagined publishing this issue without any commentary so that readers coming across these texts in the original French would be forced to make their way without any critical guidance (many of them, it is safe to say, with a dictionary in hand). But there was an interesting legal hitch that Pound hadn’t anticipated when he first began putting everything together. Upon asking Alfred Vallette for permission, via the critic Henry Davray (in charge of the “Lettres Anglaises” section for the Mercure), to reprint poems that had originally appeared in the Mercure, he was informed that French copyright law wasn’t so clear on the subject. Vallette explained that if the Little Review was

publishing a study of a literary movement, it had the right to cite the poets from that movement. The law, however, wasn’t explicit about the length of these citations, and further, if Pound wanted to publish them without commentary, then he would have to contact the authors themselves for permission, which would prove lengthy and complicated since they were scattered across Europe. Davray, who was fully in support of Pound’s project, recommended another solution: entrelarder (intersperse) the full poems with lines of explication. In doing so, Pound would be able to avoid the problem of overquoting, and at the same time, he could present these texts as a unified study of a literary movement, which, in effect, would secure him the right to reprint these poems in the first place.

Seen this way, the structure of Pound’s “Study,” with its mixture of commentary and lengthy quotation, was determined, at first, by the pressures of French copyright law. And throughout the entire issue, the necessity to comment on these poems very often ends up exaggerating the presence of an American mediator anticipating the negative reactions of his audience. Laforgue’s “Locutions des pierrots,” for instance, receives the following gloss: “I am well aware that this sort of thing will drive most of our bullmoose readers to the perilous borders of apoplexy.” Corbière inspires the recollection of an American acquaintance in Paris, who complained that “all French poetry smelt of talcum powder.” And a single poem by Stuart Merrill occasions a gentle note of caution: “There is no need to take this sort of tongue-twisting too seriously, though it undoubtedly was so taken in Paris during the late eighties and early nineties.”

There are many other places where the criticism is more serious, but the overall tone is still bound up with the personality of an editor/commentator leading his band of curiosity seekers through the landscape of modern French poetry after Baudelaire. ... [T]he larger point I want to make involves the way that the little magazine was getting adapted to avoid tariffs and copyright snafus. In 1917, then, this domestically printed American little magazine, with its second-class domestic mailing privileges, was able to do what no other anthology form abroad could. And for twenty-five cents a copy, readers, it turned out, were getting quite a deal. l Excerpted from Little Magazine, World Form (Columbia University Press), 2017. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Eric Bulson is a professor of English at Claremont Graduate University with expertise in modernism, critical theory, media studies, and world literature.

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Culture & Commentary

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Insights into the euro crisis and financial contagion

Recent work by Division of Politics & Economics Professors Graham Bird and Thomas Willett on the crisis’s causes—as well as the flawed efforts to resolve this continuing problem—is receiving prominent attention in several leading journals focused on international policy, including World Economics and The World Economy, as well as The Encyclopedia of Financial Globalization.

T

HE EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS THAT STARTED IN 2009 HAS HAD devastating effects and has strained relations throughout the European Union.

These effects have had global ramifications.

And it isn’t over.

“The causes of the recent plague of currency and financial crises have strong roots in international finance and domestic and international political economy. They also exhibit behavioral biases,” explained Willett. “These dimensions of the crisis play to the strengths of our division.”

Bird and Willett trace the causes of the euro crisis back to the euro’s creation, which they argue was politically motivated and ignored the warnings of mainstream economic theory.

This, they claim, made an eventual crisis highly probable. It was a crisis waiting to happen.

The severity of the crisis was increased, they suggest, by faulty institutional designs and by the creation of perverse incentives facing the public sector (think Greece’s fiscal crisis) and the private sector (think housing bubbles, over-borrowing, and excessive bank lending).

Once the crisis erupted, it proved extremely difficult to resolve.

“While there has been a great deal of research undertaken on monetary integration, there has been relatively little done on monetary disintegration,” Bird said.

“Experience in the Eurozone has certainly shown that ‘breaking up is hard to do.’ ” In their most recent work, Bird and Willett, along with doctoral student Wenti Du and visiting scholar Eric Pentecost, have been investigating the behavior of financial markets during the crisis, particularly the phenomenon of “contagion.“ Their innovative research has led to a suite of papers in Open Economies Review, Applied Economics, and The World Economy.

This research has examined the extent to which “contagion” from one country to another was based on irrational market forces or reflected sensible responses to economic and political weaknesses that were revealed as the crisis progressed. They find that both explanations have a contribution to make.

38 | Claremont Graduate University

“ To explain what’s going on, it’s necessary to combine economic and political analysis with the kinds of decision-making biases you find in behavioral and neuroeconomics.”

»

GRAHAM BIRD Clinical professor of economic sciences at Claremont Graduate University

THOMAS WILLETT Horton Professor of Economics in the Department of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University

“To explain what’s going on,” Willett said, “it’s necessary to combine economic and political analysis with the kinds of decision-making biases you find in behavioral and neuroeconomics.”

The research also challenges conventional wisdom that this contagion became less pronounced as the crisis evolved.

An additional phase of their research has explored the effects of the crisis on European countries outside the euro area and discovered that the financial centers of the UK and Switzerland experienced a significant “safe haven” effect as opposed to contagion.

For Bird, their research “has clear implications for policy-makers as they attempt to reduce the vulnerability of the euro area to

future crises. A better understanding of contagion helps to formulate policies that can mitigate the forces that can severely destabilize domestic and international financial markets.”

Bird and Willett, along with their collaborators, are continuing research on this concept of contagion and the channels through which it occurs.

“Our research forms an important part of the vibrant research agenda of the university’s Claremont Institute for Economic Policy Studies,” said Willett, director of the institute. l Thomas Willett is the Horton Professor of Economics in the Department of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University and the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance at Claremont McKenna College. He is also director of the Claremont Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

Graham Bird is a clinical professor of economic sciences at Claremont Graduate University.

He is also emeritus professor in the School of Economics at the University of Surrey in the UK, where he was head of department for 12 years, and founder and director of the Surrey Centre for International Economic Studies.

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Culture & Commentary

If You Build Good Systems, the Answers Will Come … Right?

Why the ‘Field of Dreams’ approach to data doesn’t work

by Brad C. Phillips and Jordan E. Horowitz

How can educational institutions use data to help students? The answer involves more than just buying the right software package, explain alumni Brad Phillips (PhD, Psychology, ’96) and Jordan Horowitz (MA, Psychology, ’87). In the following excerpt from their new book Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges, the authors explain that supporting student success requires more than just generating good data.

40 | Claremont Graduate University

M

ARSHA CHAPMAN DIRECTS the institutional research office at her college, which has about fifteen-thousand students, is located in a suburban setting, and is considered a “good” community college. Marsha has one research analyst and one part-time administrative aide on her staff. She and her analyst spend much of their time extracting data from the student information system, writing research reports, developing survey items, responding to queries from both internal and outside resources, attending meetings, and updating the research database every semester.

To gather their information, they use the latest tools that enable them to extract data in a more efficient fashion, build tables and charts, and add color and emphasis where they think necessary. They post much of this information on both their internal and external websites in an effort to inform the college faculty and staff, as well as the

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wider community, about the college’s performance. They are tasked with far more than they can possibly accomplish, and at times the work is simply overwhelming.

But although she and her staff circulate so much information so widely, Marsha has no idea how it is used by the college community or viewed by the community at large. She has some sense that the data must be used because college administrators, faculty, and staff frequently request research on a particular interest they have.

Unfortunately, Marsha does not have the time to fill these numerous requests. She also does not have the time to write long reports about the research she conducts.

Most of her “output” is in the form of tables and charts. In the end, Marsha has no idea if her work is having an effect on improving student outcomes.

The good news is that this college is interested in data use; the bad news is that there are many missed opportunities by using what we call the “study everything” approach. As noted by Tris Lumley, great organizations “are built around great data.

This data [allows] them to understand the needs they address, what activities are likely to best address these needs, what actually happens as a result of these activities, and how to allocate resources and tweak what they do for even greater impact.”

There are those who believe that if we just had the right indicator and the right data, educators would be motivated to make the changes in policy and practice that will address their challenges and lead to improved student success. The problem

“ Numbers, tables, and charts in and of themselves are not enough to inform and influence.

Rather, it is the story behind the numbers that has the ability to impact educators.”

with this paradigm is the belief that data, in and of itself, is enough to change behavior. This thinking does not take into account human nature. According to Heath and Heath, statistics alone are not good enough. Numbers, tables, and charts in and of themselves are not enough to inform and influence. Rather, it is the story behind the numbers that has the ability to impact educators.

Relying on data alone to impact community colleges is the Field of Dreams approach—faith that if you have enough of the right data, problems will solve themselves—but many colleges are signing on. The number of companies touting their latest data visualization software and analytics tools has expanded considerably.

However, just because a new software can do something doesn’t mean that it is the right something, and colleges are learning this hard lesson. We often hear from colleagues whose colleges have purchased these packages, admonitions to be cautious and make sure to keep your receipts in case your college needs to return the purchase.

Let us be clear—we are not saying these tools are bad. What we are saying is that these tools are not the panacea for effective data use. That’s because these tools ignore the fact that human beings need to interface with information; just increasing access to information or being able to slice and dice and order data in a variety of ways only gets you part of the way there. l Excerpted from Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges: A New Model for Educators (Harvard Education Press), 2017. Reprinted with permission of the authors and publisher.

Brad C. Phillips is president/CEO at the Institute for Evidence-Based Change, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping education stakeholders use data to make informed decisions, collaborate, and act to increase success for all students.

Jordan E. Horowitz is vice president at the Institute for Evidence-Based Change.

BRAD C. PHILLIPS

JORDAN E. HOROWITZ

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Class Notes Alumni Achievements

’56

Marilyn Gaddis (MA, Education) established a travel fellowship fund that will enable School of Educational Studies students to attend conferences, present papers, and support their research.

’63

Suzanne Muchnic (MFA) delivered a lecture last fall at Scripps College about the late sculptor Aldo Casanova, who taught at Scripps for 33 years.

’67

William Leavitt (MFA) was the subject of an exhibit last fall at Honor Fraser Gallery titled William Leavitt: Cycladic Figures.

’70

Ed Sotello (MFA), known for watercolors that range in subject from florals to Redlands scenes, was part of an exhibit last fall at Redlands First United Methodist Church.

’74

Jack Cuzick (PhD, Mathematics) is the recipient of the Cancer Research UK Lifetime Achievement Award 2017 for his work on cancer prevention and detection.

’77

Former US Rep. David Dreier, (MA, Government) spoke to the Los Angeles NBC4 affiliate about immigration and about his latest honor, the Aztec Eagle, which is the highest honor the Mexican government can bestow on a foreign national.

’78

Samuel Smithyman (PhD, Psychology), a clinical psychologist in South Carolina, was featured in a New York Times article about the characteristics of men who commit sexual assault. The article describes Smithyman’s research which resulted in his dissertation, “The Undetected Rapist.”

’84

Yousef Al-Ebraheem (PhD, Economics) was nominated to serve as chairman of the board of directors of Investcorp, a global provider and manager of alternative investment products.

42 | Claremont Graduate University

’85

’96

’85

’96

’86

’96

’91

Phillip Eugene Jones (PhD, Education), who led the Physician Assistant Studies Program at UT Southwestern School of Health Professions for 24 years, has been named as a professor emeritus of the program.

’96

’91

Richard Van Kirk Jr. (MBA), CEO of Pro-Dex, celebrated his company’s naming as a “Top Workplace” by the Orange Country Register.

’97

Dovey Dee (MFA) is one of four artists who was featured in a group show exhibited in late summer at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona.

Felton Williams (PhD, Education), who serves on the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education, received last fall the national Urban Educator Award, which goes to a superintendent and board member chosen from 69 of the nation’s largest urban public-school systems.

Tomas J. Philipson (MA, Mathematics) was chosen by the Trump administration to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers, which was established some 70 years ago to provide the US president with key advice on economic policy.

’93

Larry Taylor (PhD, Executive Management), a CGU trustee, has been appointed president of the Southern California Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Eckert ’93|’97 Eryn Shugart (MA,

Psychology; PhD, Psychology) has been named the new development director for the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit that has donated more than $1.7 million to families.

’95|’00

David P. Nalbone (MA, Social Psychology; PhD, Psychology) has been promoted to professor of psychology at Purdue University Northwest, in Hammond, Indiana.

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (MA, International Political Economy) is running for Congress against a Republican incumbent in a key Florida district.

Brad Phillips (PhD, Psychology) and Jordan E. Horowitz (MA, Psychology, ’87) delivered a lecture on their approach to effective data use as part of the Claremont Evaluation Center Speaker Series.

Jason Bryce Rush (MA, Politics) serves as legislative director for Santa Ana-based Ware Disposal, which is one of seven firms in partnership with the city of Los Angeles to extend recycling opportunities to businesses, institutions, and large multifamily buildings by providing them bins to divert waste from landfills.

Jane Park Wells (MFA) participated in a joint exhibit (that also featured the works of the late Albert Contreras) in CGU’s East and Peggy Phelps Galleries. Wells’ show was entitled Hope, A Thousand Origami Cranes.

Tony Page (MBA) and Daniel Vesely (MBA), who serve as the CEO and COO of Voxx Analytics, respectively, are celebrating the third consecutive year in which their company has been named a “Top Workplace” by the Orange County Register. Also serving the company as chief analytics officer is Mariam Eghbal-Ahmadi (MBA, ’04).

’97|’01

JeΩrey Anderson (MA, Politics; PhD, Politics & Policy) has been chosen by the Trump administration as director of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

’99

Tyrha M. Lindsey-Warren (MBA) has been appointed clinical assistant professor of marketing at Baylor University. She will teach classes on advertising and digital marketing as well as serve as an advisor to Baylor’s business school’s Center for Sports, Sponsorships, and Sales.

» Photo courtesy of Eugene Mills

Ask an Alum | 1952

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN EUGENE MILLS PhD, Psychology, ’52. Last year marks the 65th anniversary of Eugene Mills’ completion of his psychology doctorate at CGU (then known as the Claremont Graduate School). When he and his wife, Dotty, arrived here in the late 1940s from Indiana, they were relieved to put the cold Midwestern winters behind them.

What Claremont also gave them—besides sunshine and warm weather—was an experience in higher education that inspired him in his roles as president of several institutions (including Whittier College, Earlham College, and the University of New Hampshire). What also made his experience possible was Dotty, who worked at CGU and supported him throughout his entire doctoral career.

Why did you decide to come to Claremont?

We’d heard about CGS in Indiana, and it was recommended to us as a wonderful school. We headed west in an old car pulling a trailer, and when we arrived in Claremont, the whole place—the school, the town—was just remarkable. It wasn’t like anything else we’d ever seen. Dotty and I had a wonderful time there, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

What was special about the atmosphere?

The sense of relationships between the students and faculty.

Everyone knew everyone. That was very special to us, and very different from what you find at other, larger schools. In Claremont, the relationships just seemed stronger.

Eugene and Dotty Mills in 1952, on Eugene’s graduation day

Why do you think relationships are stronger here?

Close relationships don’t exist the same way at larger institutions. Sometimes they barely exist at all. When you’re in graduate school, it really matters to have good personal relationships with your classmates and your mentors. It can make all the difference. I suspect that is still true of CGU today. l

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Class Notes Ask an Alum | 2017

FIGURING THINGS OUT When AMANDA ROCHA (MS, Mathematics, ’17) graduated last May at age 20, she became CGU’s youngest alumna. Currently a mathematics teacher in Los Angeles, she shared her motivation behind her precocious academic achievements.

Tell us about your education before CGU. I attended Sacred Heart High School (SHHS), an all-girl Catholic high school in East Los Angeles. In addition to the classes I was taking at SHHS, I was able to take college courses online and at a nearby community college, which allowed me to graduate high school in three years and accumulate college credit. I graduated from Sacred Heart at the age of 15, and then attended Mount Saint Mary’s University (MSMU) as a mathematics major. With the help of my advisor and professors, I accomplished the goal of receiving my degree within three years.

After receiving my degree, I wanted to challenge myself further, and so applied to CGU. Has mathematics always interested you?

I have always had a passion for mathematics. My interest was sparked in elementary school, where, as an eighth grader, I would help my teacher tutor lower grades after school. I really loved being in the role of the educator, so I continued to tutor throughout high school and college.

Mathematics interests me because I love the entire problem-solving process.

Why CGU? I decided to attend CGU because I liked the school’s atmosphere. Both SHHS and MSMU were schools with small class sizes, allowing me to get to know my professors. I saw that CGU offered the same things in addition to many opportunities for students.

Have you always been a high achiever?

I have, actually. From an early age my parents stressed how important my education was to my future. Because they did not get a chance to attend college, they wanted to make sure that my sisters and I did. I have loved learning since an early age and have always put a lot of effort in my schoolwork. l

44 | Claremont Graduate University

» Alumni Achievements

’01

Paula Chamberlain (MA, Teacher Education) has been named principal of Don Benito Fundamental School in the Pasadena Unified School District.

’01

Sishir Reddy (MS, Information Science) was honored as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2017 at the Goldman Sachs Builders + Innovators Summit. Reddy serves as co-CEO of Episource, a leading provider of services and software for healthcare payer and provider organizations.

’01

Jeffrey Sherman (MS, Financial Engineering) was spotlighted by Bloomberg News for his work at the firm DoubleLine Capital, including managing a portfolio that has outperformed the Standard & Poor 500 since late 2013.

’02

Assembly member Cristina Garcia (MA, Teacher Education) and others were honored as “Legislating Latinas” for their leadership and experience in helping to govern the Golden State. Garcia is a Democrat representing Bell Gardens.

’02

Jeanne Holm (MS, Management Information Systems), who is the senior technology advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, has created Los Angeles’ Data Science Federation, an initiative that pairs universities with city departments in using predictive models and analysis to address problems in the nation’s second most-populous city.

’03

Erika Cooper (MA, Teacher Education) has been named principal of Hamilton Elementary School in the Pasadena Unified School District.

’03

Denise Sandoval (PhD, Cultural Studies) and Joseph Harper (MA, Cultural Studies, ’13) played significant roles in curating The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazón e Inspiración, a Petersen Automotive Museum tribute to lowrider culture and how it has inspired Chicano art.

’04

Loretta P. Adrian (PhD, Education/Higher Education Administration), who is the president of Coastline Community College, was recently profiled by the Orange County Register as an inspiring immigrant role model and “late bloomer” to academia.

She has been leading the community college since 2010.

’06

David Salazar (EMBA), who was CGU’s director of facilities management and associate vice president of physical planning and facilities management at California State University, Long Beach, has been named the chief facilities executive for the Los Angeles Community College District.

’07

Desirée A. CrèvecoeurMacPhail (PhD, Social Psychology) is the co-editor of a recent book, The Psychology of Hate Crimes as Domestic Terrorism. She is the project director for the Los Angeles County Evaluation Program at UCLA. She has been studying hate crimes for nearly a decade.

’08

Ryan Williams (MA, Politics and Policy) has been chosen to serve as the president of the Claremont Institute.

’09

Jay Merryweather (MFA) was featured last fall in the exhibit Made in Redlands at the San Bernardino County Museum.

’09

Raquel Viramontes (MA, Teacher Education) from Baldwin Park High School has been named one of 16 Los Angeles County “Teachers of the Year.”

’10|’13

Puspa D. Amri (MA, Economics; PhD, Economics) has been hired as an assistant professor of economics at Sonoma State University.

’10

Michael Haight (MFA) was featured last fall as part of the Bernardo Hale Gallery’s Artist & Residence show.

’10

Michael Knight (MFA) recently held a solo exhibit of his works, Deep End, at the Luis De Jesus Los Angeles art gallery.

’11

John Erickson (MA, Applied Women’s Studies; MA, Women’s Studies in Religion) has been appointed

by California Gov. Jerry Brown to serve as a member of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, a nonpartisan state agency that aims to promote equality and justice in key areas affecting women and girls.

’08|’11

Soomi Lee (MA, Economics; PhD, Economics) was granted tenure and promotion at the University of La Verne, where she is an assistant professor in public administration.

’09

’11

’09

’11

Ricky Otohata’s (EMBA) company Matsumotokiyoshi has won the Japanese Plantinum Pentaward for its design thinking project, which created an innovative toilet paper packaging design.

Cate Roman (MFA), a professor of graphic design at Woodbury University, was recently named a Graphic Design USA magazine “Educator to Watch” for being “a creative powerhouse and a marvelous teacher.”

Elizabeth Savage (EMBA), who started working for the city of West Hollywood as an administration assistant and rose through the ranks to become the city’s director of Human Services and Rent Stabilization, retired last fall.

Ariel Clark Silver (PhD, American Literature) was selected this summer as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for a summer institute on “Transcendentalism and Reform in the Age of Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller,” and spent two weeks with a group of scholars, engaged in seminars, archival research, and other work.

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Class Notes Alumni Achievements

’12

Frances Gipson (PhD, Education/Urban Leadership), who serves as chief academic officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, has been named as a national leader by the Center for Digital Education for her success in leveraging classroom technology to engage students and spur their academic success.

’13

Amos Nadler (PhD, Economics) and other neuroeconomists, including his mentor CGU Professor Paul Zak, are receiving wide media attention for examining the behavior of stock traders and how testosterone levels affect their financial decisions.

’13

Dan Taulapapa McMullin (MFA) participated in a performative conversation about the gendered histories of cultural objects from Polynesia at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of its MetFridays: Beyond Boundaries programming.

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Jillian Strobel (MBA) was named as a marketing coordinator at the Seattle headquarters for landscape architecture firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.

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Victoria Gerard (MA, Arts Management) was recently featured in an Orange County Register article about her work at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana on an exhibit of the belongings of 19th-century Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi.

Dumas Alexander Harshaw Jr. (PhD, Religion) recently served as guest preacher at Trinity Baptist Church of Los Angeles as part of its 100th anniversary celebration. Harshaw previously served as Trinity’s pastor from 1985 to 1993.

Iliana Pérez (MA, Economics) was featured in La Opinión for her involvement in launching a new website to give immigrants living in the United States a comprehensive overview of the entrepreneurship landscape.

Erika Hirugami (MA, Art Business) organized “Latinas in LA’s Creative Industries,” a panel of CGU MFA alumnae (Mayra Villegas ’16, Alana Medina ’16, Natalie Marrero ’16, Darlene Stephanie Zavala ’16) held this fall to discuss their intersectionality and the arts in the city.

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Sarah Barnard (MFA) was selected by the American Society of Interior Designers as part of its “Ones to Watch,” a program that recognizes American designers across four categories: design excellence, education leadership, volunteer leadership, and manufacturing leadership.

Daniel Campbell (MA, Politics & Policy), a copywriter for Spotzer Media Group, visited his high school, Chelan High School in Washington state to speak to students about the unique challenges they face in high school and college, including anxiety and social media, loneliness, and academic and financial pressures.

46 | Claremont Graduate University

Liesl Nydegger (PhD, Community & Global Health) received the 2017 American Public Health Association (APHA) Women's Caucus Award for her abstract “Structural factors, syndemics, and sexual health among high-risk Black women in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.”

Maritza Koeppen (PhD, Education) has been named superintendent/principal of the Vallecitos School District in San Diego County.

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Michael Jordan VanHartingsveldt (MA, Art Business) is a lecturer for the “Deities in Japanese Art" lecture series presented by the Japan Foundation in Los Angeles.

Michael Davidson (PhD, Politics & Policy) reported that he has signed a contract with the World Bank to improve agricultural irrigation efficiency for the purpose of improving livelihoods and reducing impacts and causes of climate change in South Asia and West Africa.

Manny Diaz (PhD, Education) has been named the interim director of the Queer Resource Center at The Claremont Colleges.

Jessica Perez (PhD, Education) has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of La Verne.

Andrew Thomson (PhD, Psychology) has been hired to serve as Middlebury College’s assistant men’s tennis coach.

Louise Yoho (PhD, Education) has accepted a tenure-track, assistant professorship at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota. She is currently a transition specialist working with students, ages 18 to 21, with disabilities. l

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Future Alumni

Manish Ranjan Shrivastav, a public policy analysis master’s student, has been selected for a second United Nations (UN) internship, this time at the UN headquarters in New York, where he is working in the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States. He was previously awarded an internship at the UN Development Program in India. l

Derrick McLean, a PhD student in psychology who had been training for the 2018 Olympics, recently told the Seattle Times that curling sparked his chief academic interest. “The whole reason I went into psychology is because of curling,” he said. “All of it is coming down to a mental edge or some sort of competitive edge.”

McLean’s dissertation is about excellence and finding a single definition for that word. He says it’s “the process of overcoming the highest achievable standard.”

“Those are his two big interests—methodological ones and ones that all have to do with what we are passionate about,” said CGU Associate Professor Jeanne Nakamura, who is one of McLean’s research advisers and his academic adviser. “How do we engage it fully? How do we become as good at it as we can? Those are all pretty closely connected to his identity as a curler.” l

THE FLAME Spring 2018

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End Paper Here There Be Dragons Long before Game of Thrones made them popular, dragons lived in Harper Hall. And they still do.

Carved from beige marble, they form the legs of three benches in a courtyard named in memory of the first recipient of a master’s degree in education, H. Jerry Voorhis (MA, ’28), who became the headmaster of the Voorhis School for Boys in San Dimas.

The courtyard and benches (as well as a named fellowship) are lasting tributes to a man whom his students considered an inspiring influence.

Ben O’Brien, one student, played a key role in establishing this tribute to his former teacher.

Next time you visit campus, stop by the courtyard and say hello to the dragons. Their presence at CGU makes perfect sense. Our university’s symbol is the flame, and who understands fire better than a dragon? l

48 | Claremont Graduate University

Support Their Journey MEGHAN ELLIOT came to Claremont Graduate University two years ago to study to become an English professor. Her degree is nearly complete thanks to guidance from faculty, encouragement from peers and mentors ... and a CGU fellowship.

CGU fellowships—supported by your generous gifts—play a crucial role in helping students such as Meghan reach their goals and continue their educational journey.

Make a gift to the CGU Annual Fund today by calling or emailing us at 909-621-8027 or give@cgu.edu.

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