Winter 2015 MINNESOTA Magazine

MADE POSSIBLE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | WINTER 2015

• PLUS •

WINTER READING page 40

— Carolyn, liver transplant recipient. Read Carolyn’s story at umnhealth.org/Carolyn

READING A “BIG GIRL” BOOK. AN ORDINARY MOMENT MADE POSSIBLE BY AN EXTRAORDINARY MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH.

At University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, we create breakthrough solutions for a whole host of health conditions, like birth defects, leukemia, or liver disease. So you can take comfort in knowing that our pediatric specialists have a growing body of breakthroughs to help get kids healthy again.

To make a clinic appointment, call 844-273-8383, or visit umnhealth.org.

University of Minnesota Health represents a collaboration between University of Minnesota Physicians and University of Minnesota Medical Center.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Volume 114 • Number 2 / Winter 2015

Nick Beste and Ellie of ManCave Meats, page 20

4 Editor’s Note 6 Letters 8 About Campus

John Berryman reconsidered, honoring a great Gopher swimmer, and core value

Cover Story 8 From Imagination to Marketplace

How the University of Minnesota helps turn bright ideas into successful businesses.

BY SUZY FRISCH

15 Gopher Entrepreneurs

Stories of risk takers, problem solvers, big thinkers, team builders, moneymakers, and go-getters

BY BURL GILYARD, ELIZABETH MILLARD, MELEAH MAYNARD, CHUCK BENDA, DAN HEILMAN, AND CYNTHIA SCOTT

34 More Than Welcome

Katrice Albert (above left) leads the University of Minnesota’s diversity initiative. Her approach: welcome everyone with open arms.

38 Gopher Sports

Coach Marlene Stollings’s plan to bring the show back to the Barn

40 Winter Reading

Alumni authors serve up a warm feast for the cold months ahead.

21 The Myth of the Hero Entrepreneur

Society worships the idea of the lone visionary.

Trouble is, they don’t exist.

BY MELEAH MAYNARD

26 A Mighty Change Brewing

A farm that grows cold-hardy hops is doing for craft beer what cold-hardy grapes did for northern wine. Plus, alumniowned and operated breweries.

BY ADAM OVERLAND

46 Gopher Connections

Make the most of your member benefits.

48 Campus Seen

Our photo finish

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PHOTOS: Mark Luinenburg, Patrick O’Leary

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Jim du Bois, ’87 Chair-elect Alison Page, ’96 Vice Chair Dan McDonald, ’82, ’85 Secretary/Treasurer Sandra Ulsaker Weise, ’81 Past Chair Susan Adams Loyd, ’81 President and CEO Lisa Lewis

Judy Beniak, ’82, ’10 Wendy Williams Blackshaw, ’82 Natasha Freimark, ’95 Gayle Hallin, ’70, ’77 Randy Handel Linda Hofflander, ’83 Douglas Huebsch, ’85 Janice Linster, ’83 Laura Moret, ’76, ’81 Alex Oftelie, ’03, ’06 Amy Phenix, ’08 Roshini Rajkumar, ’97 Clinton Schaff, ’00 Kathy Schmidlkofer, ’97 Alfonso Sintjago, ’14, ’15 Joelle Stangler, ’16 Dave Walstad, ’88, ’91 Jean Wyman UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA GOVERNANCE President

Eric Kaler, ’82 Board of Regents

Richard Beeson, ’76, chair Dean Johnson, vice chair Clyde Allen Laura Brod, ’93 Linda Cohen, ’85, ’86 Tom Devine ’79 John Frobenius, ’69 Peggy Lucas, ’64, ’76 David McMillan, ’83, ’87 Abdul Omari, ’08, ’10 Patricia Simmons Contact the Alumni Association

To join or renew, change your address, or obtain benefit information, go to www.MinnesotaAlumni.org or contact us at McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040; 800-UM-ALUMS (862-5867), 612-624-2323; or umalumni@umn.edu The University of Minnesota Alumni Association is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employ­ment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, handicap, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

2 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

T H E R E’S N O N EI GH BO R LI K E A M I N N ES OTAN From small gestures like clearing snow from a neighbor ’s sidewalk to a rich tradition of civic e n ga ge m e n t a n d c h a rita ble givin g , Min n e s ota n s s h o w a re m a r k a ble ge n e ro sit y of s pirit.

Minnesota Community Foundation helps people across the state turn that generosity into real impact. We help make the best neighbors in the world even better by providing the tools and counsel to make the most of their charitable giving.

Visit mncommunityfoundation.org to learn how to establish a fund today.

An affiliate of Minnesota Philanthropy Partners

Editor’s Note

MINNESOTA PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SINCE 1901

I

t is with deep gratitude and sorrow that we note the passing of Shelly Fling, who was editor of Minnesota from 1998 until November 2013, when she took medical leave. Gratitude for all she gave us. Sorrow because she is gone. Shelly died of breast cancer on September 21. She was 49.

It would be a disservice to Shelly to write anything about her that carries so much as a whiff of puffery. She would hate it—in fact, she would demand a rewrite. Shelly was widely admired for her top-notch editorial skills throughout the Twin Cities community, but there was nothing self-important about her.

I had the privilege of working as Shelly’s managing editor for eight years at Minnesota. I started learning from her at the get-go, in my job interview, when she talked about her philosophy that the magazine must be attuned to what is urgent. She loved working at the University because what happens here is of consequence. As readers of her Editor’s Note column know, she was a graceful, thoughtful writer who got to the heart of the matter. She was an exacting editor with an uncompromising regard for the written word. And though she never tolerated mediocrity, she had infinite patience for working with writers who did their best but fell short—she was masterful at coaxing clearer thinking and better writing from novice and professional alike.

Shelly expected a lot from her writers, but she expected even more from herself and worked hard—incredibly hard.

She also laughed hard. Shelly had a wicked sense of humor, was frequently irreverent, and could spot absurdity in a flash. Her humor, combined with her generous heart and commonsense intellect, made her a rare friend, editor, and colleague. The various treatment regimens she endured after her diagnosis in early 2010 were not kind to her, but she continued to work until she simply couldn’t. The reason was simple: She loved Shelly Fling and her husband, Mark Luinenburg, in June her job. Getting paid to be an editor is not what 2013. Mark is a contributing made Shelly an editor. Storytelling was in her photographer to Minnesota. bones. She reveled in telling, reading, writing, and editing stories—not just any story, but stories that mattered. Finding them was her particular genius—she would take the easy, obvious angle and turn it upside down and inside out until the nugget of what made it important was in hand.

In her last column[Winter 2014], Shelly reflected on her tenure. Though officially going on medical leave, she knew she would not be returning. She recalled some of the stories in Minnesota that had stayed with her over the years: the alumnus whose criminal life as a youth led to prison but who found his redemption through education and went on to earn a law degree; alumni and faculty who had been prisoners during the Holocaust or Bataan Death March; those who faced physical or mental illness, racism or anti-Semitism who, she wrote, “shook off their chains because they weren’t finished yet.”

Shelly isn’t finished yet, either. She poured her heart and soul into Minnesota, and her legacy is embedded in its marrow. She was a treasure, and we are all richer because of her. n

Cynthia Scott (M.A. ’89) is the editor of Minnesota.

She can be reached at scott325@umn.edu.

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President and CEO

Lisa Lewis Vice President of Communications

Daniel Gore Editor

Cynthia Scott Copy Editor

Susan Maas Contributing Editor

Meleah Maynard Contributing Writers

Chuck Benda, Jennifer Benson, Suzy Frisch, Burl Gilyard, Dan Heilman, Shannon Juen, Elizabeth Millard, Laura Silver, Andy Steiner Art Director

Kristi Anderson, Two Spruce Design Media Partners

Access Minnesota and Gopher Sports Update Advertising Rates and Information

Ketti Histon 612-280-5144, histon@msn.com Minnesota (ISSN 0164-9450) is published four times a year (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer) by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association for its members.

Copyright ©2014 by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association McNamara Alumni Center 200 Oak Street SE, Suite 200 Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040 612-624-2323, 800-UM-ALUMS (862-5867) fax 612-626-8167 www.MinnesotaAlumni.org To update your address, call 612-624-2323 or e-mail alumnimembership@umn.edu Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, Minnesota, and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to: McNamara Alumni Center 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200 Minneapolis, MN 55455-2040

2300 Brown Avenue Waseca, Minnesota 56093

MARCIA ROEPKE

We are richer because of her

2014 // 15

NORTHROP SEASON Dance Theatre of Harlem Tue, Feb 17 The Nile Project Tue, Feb 24 CCN de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne /

Compagnie Käfig Tue, Mar 10 Martha Graham Dance Company Fri, Apr 10 & Sat, Apr 11 Eifman Ballet Tue, Apr 28 & Wed, Apr 29

U of M Alumni receive $4 off all Northrop Dance Season performances.

Northrop is always buzzing with both free and ticketed events. We invite you to explore this University of Minnesota East Bank gem!

Visit our website for a full list of events.

Dance Theatre of Harlem in Far But Close.

Photo © Rachel Neville.

Letters U n i v e r s i t y of M i n n e sota a l U M n i a s so c i at ion

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MADE POSSIBLE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | FALL 2014

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My aunt Ruth How and her husband-tobe, Sam Campbell, graduated eight years after them in 1924. Then my turn in 1942 and 30 days later I ended up in the U.S. Navy. My brother Addison earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in the ’50s.

After the war I got my master’s degree in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from the U of M East. But you know what? I never got a Harvard T-shirt. My one from the U of M is a much more comfortable fit.

Dawes Potter (B.A. ’42) Briarcliff Manor, New York

PAGE 34

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ALSO:

Greek Revival Generations of Alumni In the MOOC

ALL IN THE FAMILY

I’ve always been proud of my family’s University of Minnesota roots. I graduated from the University, as did my husband and two daughters. I worked for University of Minnesota Extension for over 38 years and continue to do contract work and volunteer as a master gardener. The family stories [Fall 2014] inspired me to total up all University family connections.

My older sister graduated in 1966, the first of our extended family to do so. My youngest daughter’s husband is also a graduate.

My husband has two brothers, three sisters, and one sister-in-law who also graduated from the U. That’s a lot of University connections!

Colleen Hondl Gengler (B.S. ’73) Iona, Minnesota

Thanks for your great Fall issue. I particularly enjoyed Generations of Alumni.

But I can’t resist one-upping that whole crowd of youngsters. One hundred years ago this fall my father, Merle Potter, and my mother, Lucy How, were entering their junior year at the University of Minnesota. Pop was in the first class to graduate from the U’s new School of Journalism. Mom majored in sociology.

GREEK HISTORY LESSON

I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. The article Greek Revival [Fall 2014] states that the historically African American Greek organizations have only been active at the University in the last 30 years.

According to the Mu Rho Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s website: “Alpha Kappa Alpha’s presence in the Twin Cites began with that of the Eta Chapter. During the spring of 1921, a small group of young women at the University of Minnesota dreamed of having a sorority. Thus, Eta chapter was charted on December 12, 1922 at University of Minnesota-St. Paul. Throughout the years, the ladies remained diligent and loyal to the goals of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

During the 1960s, calls for equality and change over swept the United States and membership in Eta dwindled. Unfortunately, Eta Chapter was dissolved August 1964 due to the insufficient number of members within the chapter. Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland, had the honor of introducing Eta on its campus on January 11, 1969 and Eta Chapter has been active in the North Atlantic Region since re-emerging there. Alpha Kappa Alpha returned to the Twin Cities on March 25, 1979. The Mu Rho chapter

Submit a letter at www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/opinion or write a Letter to the Editor, Minnesota Magazine, McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and may be edited for style, length, and clarity. The number of letters published on one subject may be limited. Priority will be given to timely letters that directly relate to the content of the magazine. Publication of letters from one letter-writer will be limited in frequency.

6 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

was charted on this marvelous day by 24 dazzling ladies.”

This is a wonderful issue of the magazine. Congratulations.

Josephine Reed-Taylor (M.A. ’74, Ed.D. ’98) Atlanta, Georgia

MORE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Several letters accept that climate change is happening, but not that humans are responsible [Fall 2014].

Physics make it absolutely certain that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere warms our climate. And it is absolutely certain that human activities are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. What is not certain is how much warming will happen. There are many, many effects to take into account. But the basic physics is not so complicated: Earth must radiate back into space the amount of energy it receives from the sun. If it radiates more, Earth will cool, and vice versa.

Carbon dioxide reduces the amount of energy the earth radiates and so the earth must warm to radiate more.

The United Nations and World Bank estimate world consumption of oil, coal, natural gas, and wood at 1.89 tonnes of carbon per person, or 13.2 billion tonnes for a population of 7 billion. [A metric tonne is equivalent to 1.10 U.S. ton.] Each tonne adds about 3.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, or 40 billion tonnes per year.

The annual increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere as measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii amounts to about 19 billion tonnes.

Though humans add about 40 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere each year by burning carbon, the measured increase in parts per million is only about 19 billion tonnes per year. This makes it certain that human activities are responsible for the increase of carbon.

But what happens to the rest? We think it is dissolved in the oceans. Eventually the oceans will reach their limit and the climate will warm faster. Meanwhile, the carbon makes the oceans more acid, and it seems that this will affect shellfish,

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preventing the chemical reaction they use to make their shells. A lot of humans depend on them for food. This may be more important than warming.

Paul J. Kellogg Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Minnesota

Some letters display a sad misunderstanding of science that is widespread in our country [Summer 2014]. More than any other distressing social mistrust—racial bigotry, political hatred, economic selfishness—the ignorance about and mistrust of science weakens our democracy and promotes the spread of an oppressive national ennui.

At its core, the scientific method demands that data gathered by observation be studied by experimentation, results being verified by repetition and variation. Data gathered from multiple laboratories are facts true to the methods used; hypothetical explanations for these data require serious consideration and invite discussions from any and all with keen knowledge on the subject. Eventually, a compelling mass of data gives rise to the most probable explanation of the phenomenon, a theory.

A theory is hardly the gossamer fantasy, scorned by those who express opinions stemming from political, personal, or economic bias, though such views have their place. They suggest that scientists must do more than the solitary heavy lifting they already perform. They must also educate the public, with clarity and passion, to accept and understand the knowledge that the scientific method provides for the benefit of all.

Robert M. Twedt (B.S. ’45) Frankfort, Kentucky

Pint-Sized Peacekeeper, Future Lawyer, [your name here]

Scholar

She’s eager to be a force for good in her community.

By including a gift to the University of Minnesota in your estate plan, you can help her follow the path of justice from the classroom to the courtroom.

When you practice generosity today, you give her the chance to practice law tomorrow. To learn

CORRECTIONS

The article Greek Revival [Fall 2014] references Delta Sigma Beta as Danita Brown Young’s sorority affiliation. Dr. Young is affiliated with Delta Sigma Theta. The editors regret the error.

more, call U of M Foundation Planned Giving at 612-624-3333 or email plgiving@umn.edu.

Kimara Glaser Gustafson was incorrectly identified as Kimara Mooty in the Fall issue. The editors regret the error.

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About Campus

John Berryman in 1957

Staying Power

8 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

The University of Minnesota retained first-year students on the Twin Cities campus at a record rate of 92.6 percent in 2013-14, up 2.2 percent from the previous year. And for the first time, the first-year retention rate for students of color was slightly

He was born John Allyn Smith, Jr., but the world knew him as John Berryman—and he came into his own as one of the great poets of the 20th century while teaching at the University of Minnesota. It was at the U, where he taught from 1955 until his death in 1972, where he penned 77 Dream Songs, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

In observance of Berryman’s 100th birthday on October 25, the University of Minnesota hosted a three-day conference in celebration of his life and work.

About 200 people attended, including local and national poets, former students, Berryman scholars, and family members, including his wife, Kate Donahue, his children, and a grandchild.

Berryman’s father committed suicide when the poet was 10, an event that haunted him throughout his life.

He struggled with alcoholism and depression, eventually taking his own life by jumping off the Washington Avenue Bridge. Scholars have primarily interpreted Berryman’s work as an attempt to come to terms with his demons.

But conference organizer Peter Campion, associate professor of English, language and literature, says the conference marked a crucial turning point in understanding the full range of the poet’s work. “In the past, critics have focused on “confessional” or salacious aspects of his work—more on the life than the work. I think we were able to explore how Berryman’s roots and branches extend far beyond that,’” he says. “We were able to explore what a fascinating political poet he is, what deep connections he has to past literature, and new literature, too. Most important, I think we were able to combine scholarly pursuit and down-to-earth appreciation—this is a fusion that Berryman himself achieved, after all.”

Richard Kelly (M.L.S. ’68), a former archivist for the U’s Berryman collection and former student of the poet’s, told the Minnesota Daily that what he most remembers is Berryman’s enthusiasm for teaching and writing. “I think his suicide is one of the least important things about him,” he said.

—Cynthia Scott

higher than the average, at 92.63 percent, up almost 3 percent from the previous year.

President Eric Kaler (Ph.D. ’82) attributed the increases to special courses and other programming to enhance students’ first-year experience; students living on

campus and participating in living and learning communities; strong advising to keep students on track to timely graduation; and initiatives such as the U Promise Scholarship and Presidents Emerging Scholars.

BERRYM AN AND FREEM AN: U NIV ERSITY ARCH IV ES • JANSS EN: HAI NGO

John Berryman Reconsidered

So You Think You Know Einstein Michel Janssen is passionate about helping the layperson understand how science works. A professor in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota, Janssen studies how scientists come up with their theories.

“For those who just want to learn more about science, studying its history and philosophy, and understanding some of the big contributions, makes science much more accessible and interesting,” he says.

Recently, Janssen gave a talk on Einstein to a crowd of about 85 at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Uptown Minneapolis as part of Café Scientifique, a series of conversations on science and culture sponsored by the Bell Museum of Natural History.

In a talk titled Einstein: The Old Sage Versus Young Turk, he explained that there was a big difference between Einstein’s methodology in his youth

compared to his older years. “When he was older, Einstein emphasized the mathematical elegance of his work, but when he was young, he focused on empirical data and tried to figure out which theory would give the best explanation of those data,” he explains.

Why did he change? Most scholars believe Einstein changed because he was almost beaten to the punch on his theory of general relativity by mathematician David Hilbert in 1915. But at Café Scientifique, and in The Cambridge Companion to Einstein, which Janssen coedited, he argues that there may have been another factor. Einstein wrote on several occasions that he used physics as his means to escape from the difficulties of life. “Building mathematical castles in the sky is a better way of doing that than pondering experimental data,” Janssen says. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, he says, that Einstein’s

Michel Janssen

approach to physics changed right after World War I, when he was going through a messy divorce and reluctantly entered into a second marriage to a cousin.

—Meleah Maynard

Jean Freeman, center, at the 2004 Big Ten championships

Swimming Great to be Honored The University of Minnesota Aquatic Center will bear the name of the late Jean Freeman (B.S. ’74), who swam for the Gophers as a student athlete from 1968 to 1972 and was the women’s head swimming and diving coach from 1973 until she retired in 2004. She coached two NCAA champions and 175 All-American athletes and was Big Ten Coach of the Year four times. Freeman died in 2010. The naming ceremony for the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center will be on December 6.

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W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 9

About Campus Core Value Its name doesn’t have much a-peel, but its prospects are juicy. The MN55—a temporary moniker—is the University of Minnesota Apple Breeding Program’s latest offering to crop up in the state’s orchards.

MN55 is a cross between the Honeycrisp, developed at the U, and the MonArk, bred in Arkansas. The Honeycrisp is known for its incomparable crunch and tang, while the MonArk’s signature is its early ripening date. MN55 combines the desirable qualities of each, resulting in a crunchy, tangy apple that will be ripe and ready to eat in late August, the early part of apple season.

It’s expected to hit the consumer market—under a new name—in 2018.

Regent Dies

David Larson (B.A. ’66), retired Cargill executive and University of Minnesota Regent, died on October 25 after a brief illness. He had served as a Regent since 2005. “Dave was a passionate advocate for students, a strong proponent of efforts to increase employee engagement, and a committed leader for the University. We will dearly miss him,” said Board of Regents Chair Richard Beeson (B.A. ’76). A public memorial service was held November 1 in the DQ Club Room at TCF Bank Stadium.

Juvenile sex trafficking in Minneapolis is an industry with distinct organizational structures, business models, and recruitment tactics, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by the University of Minnesota Urban Research and OutreachEngagement Center (UROC) and Othayonih Research. The Minneapolis Women’s Foundation funded the study.

Among the findings: Victims range in age from 9 to 17 and are predominantly people of color who are often exploited by traffickers from within their own communities; pimps and traffickers are between ages 17 and 55; and buyers, who come from all communities in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, are 23 to 55 years old. Pregnant teens and young mothers are favorite targets, since children can be used as leverage.

UROC’s work on the project is part of its initiative to address sex trading, trafficking, and prostitution through research. Othayonih and UROC released the report in September.

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The most popular policies put in place to reduce problems associated with excessive drinking are not effective—and the most effective policies aren’t adopted because they’re not popular. That’s the conclusion of research conducted jointly by the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and Boston University.

The study is the first to document what researchers have long suspected: policymakers are likely to adopt measures such as targeting impaired driving and underage drinking, even though they have consistently proven to be ineffectual, whereas they rarely enact effective policies such as alcohol taxes, price restrictions, curbing days and hours of sale, and restricting density of alcohol outlets in a given geographic area.

The study was published in the September 23 issue of Addiction.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a potential risk factor for problem eating in women, according to a study from the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

Assistant professor and lead author Susan Mason found that women who reported a history of severe PTSD symptoms were more than twice as likely as those without symptoms to meet the criteria for food addiction on the Yale Food Addiction Scale, which assesses perceived dependence on food in much the same way other instruments screen for alcohol or drug dependency.

Mason’s research was published in the September 17 issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

APPLE: AMANDA S NYDER/M INN ESOTA DAILY • DRIN KING: ISTOCK

DI S C OV E R I E S

U Sues Wireless Giants

Historic Commitment

The University of Minnesota filed complaints in U.S. District Court on November 5 against Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, asserting infringement of several University patents.

The complaints allege that the companies are illegally using technology developed by Georgios Giannakis that improves the speed and reliability of 4G LTE service. Giannakis is director of the University’s Digital Technology Center and a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

The University seeks a fair royalty from the companies for their unlicensed use of the technology.

“Every day our faculty is developing life-changing inventions and cures for the common good; that is what a great research university does,” says University President Eric Kaler (Ph.D. ’82). “We must vigorously protect our faculty, those discoveries, and the overall interests of our University.”

Land O’Lakes, Inc., a Minnesota-based agricultural cooperative, and Land O’Lakes Foundation pledged $25 million to University of Minnesota academics and Gopher Athletics, one of the largest single corporate commitments in the U’s history.

The commitment will fund the new center for excellence in the Athletics Village, part of the new Gopher Athletics facilities plan. The center, for which Land O’Lakes will receive naming rights, will house academic, nutritional, and leadership development programs for all University students and is scheduled to open in 2016.

Other areas receiving support are student internships; faculty research; the Carlson School of Management; the Colleges of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and Science and Engineering; and University-wide Welcome Week activities.

If I had any talent God could give me, I would be a great diva.”

Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg during a conversation on campus with University of Minnesota Law School Professor Robert Stein (B.S. ’60, J.D. ’61) on September 16

Support students now and your gift will go further, faster.

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You can see students benefiting shortly after you make a gift. After four years, your new endowment fund takes over. Even better, it continues to help students far into the future.

This opportunity ends December 31.

Learn more at giving.umn.edu

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W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 1 1

Allison Hubel and Kai Kroll

IMAGINATION

From

to

marketplace How the U helps foodies, techies, and imagineers of all sorts turn bright ideas into successful businesses

•

SH ER STONEMAN

by suzy Frisch

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OPPORTUNITY KNOCKED for A.J. Schwidder (M.B.A. ’11) even before he completed his M.B.A. at the University of Minnesota. When the civil engineer returned to graduate school to learn the business of engineering, he encountered a promising opportunity, decided to pursue it, and launched a company based on University technology that today is thriving.

As an intern with the University’s Office for Technology Commercialization (OTC), which helps faculty bring their discoveries to the marketplace, Schwidder came across a business plan for an invention that was right up his alley: a baffle developed by civil engineering faculty John Gulliver (M.S.C.E. ’77, Ph.D. ’80) and Omid Mohseni (M.S. ’95, Ph.D. ’99) that keeps sediment from clogging waterways. Schwidder interviewed for, and was hired as, CEO of the fledgling company, called Upstream Technologies, in 2010.

His charge: to get it up and running, including forming a corporation, securing investors, negotiating a licensing agreement with the University, determining how to effectively install the baffle in new and existing manholes, and further develop the product for the market. Oh, and then Schwidder had to finish business school, which he did in 2011.

Being at the U gave Schwidder unique advantages as he powered up Upstream Technologies, which is based in New Brighton, Minnesota. The OTC and its start-up–focused Venture Center introduced him to board members and investors while helping him develop a sales organization. “It’s always scary to start a new business,” says Schwidder. “There’s nothing that can really mitigate that, but it was definitely easier having the support I got from the University.”

Today, Upstream Technologies has customers in 22 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada and is doubling sales every year. It employs two people, and Schwidder is hiring two more.

The University provides rich support to entrepreneurs, both to innovators from within its walls and business enthusiasts statewide. Its two main outlets are OTC and the Minnesota Cup,

W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 1 3

U. The new companies also attracted $109.5 million in investment capital. “We’ve continued to raise the bar each year for the last five years,” says Porter.

Kai Kroll (B.E.E. ’92, M.S.E.E. ’99) spun out Minneapolis-based Meso-Flow from the University this spring. It is both a product of the OTC and the Minnesota Cup, which named Meso-Flow the 2013 Life Science and Health IT runner-up. A 20-year medical

MOIRA LENNOX

a competition for new ventures. Both have played major roles in helping take research from the laboratory and classroom to the world while simultaneously securing revenue for the University, boosting the Minnesota economy, and creating jobs.

In fiscal year 2014, the University helped start 15 companies, up from 14 the previous year. As the University incubates a company, the OTC and its Venture Center line up a management

team, license the U’s technology to the new company, and help its leaders obtain capital. Deploying this commercialization system led to a marked improvement from the early 2000s, when the U would spin out about two companies a year.

What changed? Everything. “There really wasn’t a process before,” says Justin Porter (B.S.B. ’05, M.B.A. ’11), senior associate in the Venture Center. “Though the University had spun out companies here and there, they hadn’t spun out many, and the ones they spun out had a pretty short life.” With the formation of the Venture Center in 2006, the U enlisted the right business people and the investment community.

Jay Schrankler (B.E.E. ’80) led the transformation, joining the U in 2006 after nearly 30 years at Honeywell. His business sensibility helped refocus staff expertise away from research and toward industry. That meant breaking the OTC into five groups: agriculture and horticulture, engineering and physical sciences, life sciences, software and information technology, and new ventures. The office added strategy and marketing specialists for each area, experts in finance and contracts, and a business advisory group whose members offer guidance on the incubating companies.

The University has enjoyed a steady increase in start-ups since then, totaling 73, including five companies in the first three months of fiscal year 2015. In 2013, it earned $39.5 million in royalties paid by companies that licensed technology developed at the 1 4 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

“It’s always scary to start a new business. . . . It was definitely easier having the support I got from the University.”

—A.J. Schwidder

device entrepreneur, Kroll joined forces with Allison Hubel, a professor of mechanical engineering, who developed a more effective way to clean thawed blood and stem cells for use in people.

First, Hubel fine-tuned her medical device—a simple, disposable channel that uses microfluidics to clean cryopreserved blood faster, more cheaply, and better. CEO Kroll was keen to help Hubel commercialize Meso-Flow because it’s a promising device with a short route through FDA regulations to sales.

Kroll, who is now seeking investors, says the University has helped him launch Meso-Flow in many ways. “It’s been very, very positive—the people involved with the licensing process, the ongoing relationships, the networking,” says Kroll, who is eager to apply for funding through the OTC’s new Discovery Capital Investment Program, which provides up to $350,000 in equity financing to start-ups.

Meso-Flow got another boost from the Minnesota Cup. The competition motivated Kroll to quickly complete the company’s business plan and presentation. “It forced us to focus on the things that matter and develop material that would have been delayed otherwise,” he adds. “That was a real value.”

Watch interviews with John Stavig, director of the Gary C. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School, and Jay Shrankler, executive director of the Office for Technology Commercialization at accessminnesotaonline.com.

MARK LUINENBURG

Independence Minded With a doctorate in linguistics, Muhammad Abdurrahman (M.A. ’07, Ph.D. ’14) might seem like an unlikely leader for a technology company.

But after his father suffered a stroke and lost full function of one arm, Abdurrahman wrestled with finding a technology that could help him do things around the house by himself. His search led him to design the Reemo wristband, a wearable device that enables users to control some everyday household appliances and gadgets using simple hand gestures. Abdurrahman’s startup tech company, Playtabase, is developing it.

“It’s a system of wireless sensors, and it’s very simple and very straightforward,” he says, noting that Reemo has no buttons and requires no voice commands because it relies on small sensors that communicate with the household items.

Aspects of the Reemo platform are still in development, but the wristband will also be capable of monitoring seniors and providing data that may help them remain independent longer. For example, loved ones can be notified about open doors, appliances left on too long, falls, or the level of movement in the person’s home. “I didn’t just want my dad to have control over his home,” Abdurrahman explains. “I wanted to know how he’s doing.”

Though Playtabase has yet to start selling the Reemo wristband, it has received attention from Wired, CNNMoney and Forbes magazine. The company is also one of 10 businesses selected to be part of the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, a program focused

on home automation technologies that provides mentoring, technical guidance, and connections to other startups.

Now that Playtabase is moving closer to launch, Abdurrahman will be handing the job of CEO over to cofounder Alexander Baker (B.S.B. ’13) so he can take on the role of promoting the company and the technology.

Ryan Manteufel (B.S.B. ’14), the other cofounder, will continue as CFO while Ahmed Daoud (B.E.E., B.C.E. ’11) will remain

the company’s chief technical officer. Playtabase employs 17 people, most of whom are U alumni, says Abdurrahman. He, Baker, Manteufel, and Daoud all met at the University.

Abdurrahman’s goal is to begin selling Reemo in spring 2015. “This is not tech for tech’s sake,” he says. “I wanted to make the world a more accessible place.”

—Burl Gilyard (B.A. ’92)

The Minnesota

2005*

John Berger (B.M.E. ’84, M.B.A. ’93)

Arc Switch, Inc. 2006*

Troy Achterkirch (B.M.E. ’94) VAST Enterprises Ryan Broshar (B.S.B. ’06) U-Guide 2008*

Britt Norton (B.C.E. ’82) CoreSpine Technologies 2009

Nick Beste (B.S.B. ‘10) Man Cave Division: Student Steve VanTassel (B.A. ’84) Packet Power Division: Energy/Clean Tech/ Water 2010

Matthew Sanford (B.A. ’88) Mind Body Solutions Division: Social Entrepreneur 2011

Adisack Nhouyvanisvong (M.B.A. ’10)

Naiku Division: High Tech 2012

Julie Gilbert Newrai (B.S.B. ’93, M.B.A. ’99)

PreciouStatus Division: High Tech and Minnesota Cup Grand Prize Reed Robinson (B.S.B. ’06) Heroic Division: High Tech 2013

Steve Anderson (B.S. ’85, M.S. ’91) Preceptis Medical Division: Life Science and Health IT and Minnesota Cup Grand Prize Matt Hardy (M.Ed. ’05) Kidblog Division: General 2014

Deepinder Singh (M.P.H. ’14) 75F Division: Energy/Clean Tech/ Water and Minnesota Cup Grand Prize * Prior to 2009 the Minnesota Cup competition had no divisions. Divisions are given for 2009 and beyond.

1 6 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

’95) are lifelong entrepreneurs who have lived the peaks and valleys—and the grueling hours— of starting, growing, and selling companies.

Having succeeded numerous times, they wanted to help other Minnesota entrepreneurs.

Faced with noncompete agreements after selling their digital marketing company, the duo decided to make the most of their time. They capitalized on their experience, network, and ties to the University of Minnesota to launch the Minnesota Cup, a statewide competition for new ventures. In addition to the U, they lined up the state of Minnesota and Wells Fargo Bank as their partners. The competition, now 10 years old, has become deeply embedded in the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, with 85 percent of Minnesota counties having participants. In addition, 118 finalists have raised more than $160 million in funding during the past decade.

“The Minnesota Cup is really the premier resource for anyone who is looking to start a business in Minnesota because we provide them with multiple tools and resources to take them from a starting point to potential execution,” says Melissa Kjolsing, director of the Minnesota Cup. The University and the Carlson School’s Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, where Kjolsing works, play an integral role in the competition by encouraging faculty, students, and alumni from all disciplines to enter their research or ideas. The Holmes center connects every semifinalist with a mentor, many of them alumni, who provide in-depth industry and business advice to participants. The state’s business community hosts free seminars for participants on topics like raising capital and legal concerns. In addition, tested entrepreneurs and business leaders serve as judges who provide informed feedback on competitors’ business plans. And then there’s the publicity and prize money: $300,000 split among the Minnesota Cup grand prize winner, seven division winners, and the runners-up.

“The Minnesota Cup provides a platform of exposure that entrepreneurs would not have gotten had they not gone through the competition,” says Kjolsing. “That exposure results in potentially more capital for the company, more customers, contacts, and people who want to see them succeed.” —S.F.

BRYAN KOOP

Alumni Winners

Elise Hernandez (B.A. ’91) graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in individualized study focused on business, psychology, and Spanish. So naturally she started a technology company. “It sounds like a funny combination, but basically I just studied what I was passionate about,” she says. “Not surprisingly, though, all of those came in handy when I became an entrepreneur.”

Hernandez started Ideal System Solutions, Inc., (ISS) in 1997, a company that customizes technology infrastructure for businesses. Initially based in Hernandez’s home, ISS now has 35 employees and offices in five locations nationwide.

Hernandez says her liberal arts background has benefitted her as an entrepreneur. For example, psychology has helped her to understand personality types within her company and Spanish fluency is vital for expanding into new geographical areas. But she also feels that her education didn’t end with the degree ceremonies. “There’s so much to know when you’re growing a business, from legal issues and operational changes to technology topics like mobility, cloud computing, and IT outsourcing,” she says. “We’re excited to keep expanding our knowledge, and in turn, broaden the services we offer.”

Scott Litman (B.A. ’91) and Dan Mallin (M.B.A.

M ARK LUINENBURG

Cup

Ideally Suited

Hernandez had to overcome obstacles in order to obtain a degree. She grew up with three siblings in a low-income, single-parent home where there was no money for college tuition. But she combined her love of innovation with her desire for education by working for a technology marketing company while attending the University. The job gave her exposure to sales, marketing, and management—three key areas that would help in starting her own business later.

Founding a woman-owned company in a heavily male-dominated field was challenging, Hernandez says, but she believes the skills it takes to succeed in technology transcend gender. “You have to be open to learning every day, and to reaching out to knowledgeable people,” she says. “You have to know how to surround yourself with a really strong, smart team.”

Most of all, she adds, technologyminded business owners have to be willing to keep moving forward every single day. She points out that even elementary school children operate smartphones and our culture is likely to become even more technology saturated in the years ahead. “There’s no such thing as being stagnant in this business,” she says. “But that’s my personality, to embrace constant change and movement, and to always be learning something new. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

—Elizabeth Millard

Dog’s Best Friend John Sturgess (M.B.A. ’08) talks with passionate fervor about his pet project. He dropped out of the corporate world, where he spent more than two decades in what he calls the “human hotel business,” to chase the tail of a dream and open ADOGO Pet Hotel: a suite new concept catering to four-legged guests. “You feel like you’re walking into a boutique hotel,” he says of ADOGO, which offers day care, boarding, grooming and training for dogs.

“We’re not a kennel. We’re a pet hotel.”

Sturgess seems to be barking up the right tree. After opening his first location in Minnetonka in 2011 and a second spot in Maple Grove in 2014, he is now close to opening a third Twin Cities outlet while also eyeing Chicago and Dallas. Currently, the company has 45 employees and is fetching solid profits. And he w w w. M i n n e s o t a A l u m n i .o r g

expects to do slightly more than $2 million in revenue for 2014.

Sturgess estimates that 80 percent of his customers are women. “The husband might come pick up the dog,” he says.

“But what I learned in the hotel business is when it comes to pets, and it comes to kids, and it comes to leisure travel, females make most of those decisions.”

He says that the key to drawing repeat business is paying attention to service and small details. Typically, his staff recognizes and calls dogs by name when they arrive at ADOGO, which impresses pet owners. “The people that work at ADOGO, they love dogs,” he says. “We really try hard to know the two-legged customer, but they absolutely know every four-legged customer.”

—B. G. W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 1 7

Braced for Success

30 Watt, a business dedicated to “dimly bright creations,” celebrates the lighthearted, sometimes absurd, side of life with a range of unique products. The company’s guiding light is Ryan Dolan (B.A. ’00, M.B.A. ’09).

Given her earliest experiences in a dentist’s chair, it’s a bit surprising that Jennifer Eisenhuth (D.D.S. ’94, M.S. ’96) chose a career in dentistry.

“When I was a child, all of my dental experiences were awful,” Eisenhuth says. But then came the need for

Knock on Wood

BRYA N NEWFI EL D

Looking for a rickshaw?

CEO Ben VandenWymelenberg (B.S. ’12) is in good company: All 17 employees of Woodchuck, the company he founded, are University of Minnesota alumni or current students. Based in Minneapolis, Woodchuck designs and manufactures beautiful wooden accessories for tablets, phones, laptops, headphones, journals, and more. It has what VandenWymelenberg calls a “radically simple mission:” Bring nature back to people, jobs back to America, and quality products back to consumers. Pictured are Ross Gebauer (B.A. ’13), Benjamin VandenWymelenberg, Colin Strasburg , and John Guenveur (B.S.B. ’10). woodchuckusa.com

in Eagan, Minnesota. An open, colorful, and well-lighted waiting area offers a coffee bar and smoothie machine and enough games, magazines, and books to occupy a scout troop. Twice a year, she hosts customer appreciation events for patients and their families; this year it was Dr. Jennifer’s Carnival, complete with games,

food, and door prizes. Minnesota Business named Eisenhuth’s practice one of its 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2014.

One key to Eisenhuth’s success: Everyone in her practice loves what they do. “We really do have the best job in the world. Every day we get to make people smile,” she says.

—Chuck Benda

CANARY GRE Y PHOTOGRAPHY

the ins and outs of starting a new business both from experience and by joining national study clubs focused on the business side of orthodontics.

Now a seasoned practitioner, Eisenhuth’s entrepreneurial spirit continues to guide her business.

She and her full-time staff of 12 operate a thriving practice

Pinot Shoppio

JAYME HALBRITTE R

braces and an orthodontist who brought a smile to her face— literally and figuratively—and she began to dream of doing the same for others.

Eisenhuth considers herself an entrepreneur who just happens to be an orthodontist. She opened her first practice in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, in 1996, learning

What could be better than a boutique with a Friday afternoon happy hour? An alumni-owned boutique with a Friday afternoon happy hour. Thao Nguyen (B.S. ’05) is the founder of and chief creative mind at Parc Boutique, which sells unique, affordable clothing and other items and showcases local talent. Nguyen opened in Minneapolis 2008 and recently expanded with a second store in Edina. The happy hour, called Sip & Shop, is only at the Minneapolis location.

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Nick Beste (B.S.B. ’10) has a knack for creating opportunity. In high school, he didn’t just mow lawns to earn a little extra cash. He started his first business by contacting a local bank and striking a deal to mow the lawns of all of its foreclosure properties. More businesses followed, each successful and thoroughly strategized, including buying the rights to sell a hot sauce made in his hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota, in neighboring states. So no one was more surprised than Beste when his sixth and latest venture, Man Cave Craft Meats, was the result of a happy accident.

Based in Golden Valley, Minnesota, Man Cave Craft Meats began in 2009 as the first home party company for men. Rather than selling typical female home party fare of cosmetics and lingerie, Man Cave organized“MEATings,” with grilling tools and home bar accessories for sale. Beste, who is 27, came up with the idea with his business partner, Kevin Carlow (B.S.B. ’07). It was the third business the duo had conceived of since meeting in the Entrepreneurship in Action class at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. They were onto something, but the real opportunity didn’t become clear until the night of the first home party.

“We thought it would be a good idea to offer free meat, so we just bought some at the grocery store and cooked it during the party,” he recalls. As it turned out, people weren’t very interested in what was for sale. They wanted to know where they could buy the meat. “Everybody kept asking us where the meat came from because they thought it was so good, and we were like, ‘Um, at the grocery store?’ That’s when we realized that meat was what people really wanted to buy, so we went from there and we’ve come a long way.”

Beste, the sole owner of the business after he and Carlow opted to divide up their co-owned ventures when seeking investors for Man Cave, says first-year revenue was $100,000. Today, he says, Man Cave brings in far more than that in one month.

Last year Man Cave discontinued home parties in order to focus on retail sales.

Grocery store accounts have already grown from 22 to 250. Beste is now focused on building an iconic brand. “We’d like to be a household name, at least in the region, so if there’s a party people will say, ‘Oh, you have Man Cave Meat. Great!’”

—Meleah Maynard

MARK LUINENBURG

One Meating After Another

W

Like Van De Ven, Carlson School associate profesalter Isaacson’s biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs is titled simply Steve Jobs. Aside sor Dan Forbes teaches students that entrepreneurs are from the fact that it is biography, there are some good not special kinds of people. Rather, he believes, entrereasons for that. First, Steve Jobs and the Countless Oth- preneurial behavior largely flows from certain kinds of ers Who Helped the Inventive Genius Revolutionize the knowledge and skill, much of which can be learned, and Tech Industry doesn’t have much of a ring to it. But more some of which can be taught.

“I side with the interpretation that entrepreneurial to the point, society worships heroes—especially those perceived to be lone visionaries who, against all odds, behavior is largely learnable,” Forbes says. In the last 20 work impossible hours to bring to fruition something we years or so, he says, researchers who study entrepreneurship have changed their just can’t imagine living focus from who entrewithout. Like Steve Jobs.

The Myth of the preneurs are to what they Trouble is, those do. In Forbes’s classes, heroes we love don’t students learn skills like ex i s t .“ If yo u re a l l y problem solving and how look at the process by to think in a futuristic, which entrepreneurempathetic way. “People ship unfolds, in every are what markets are built case, it’s always a collecof, so before we think tive achievement,” says Entrepreneur about products, we have Andrew Van de Ven, a to think about, ‘Who are professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. the people and what are their needs?’” he says.

Forbes and Van de Ven assert that genetics plays a “What the research shows is that successful entrepreneurship involves many heroes, all working together, role in successful entrepreneurship, too. “We know that running as a pack, if you will, and it’s folklore to think genes affect people’s behavior in complex ways,” Forbes says. “But there is almost never one gene that says if you of there being one key hero.”

Debunking the myth that entrepreneurs are people have this, you will engage in this behavior, and that’s who are somehow uniquely skilled and talented, Van all the more true for entrepreneurship because it is a de Ven says it is usually the “idea person” behind a function of so many factors coming together over time.”

By way of example, Forbes points to Ralph Lauren’s product or company who gets cast in the role of hero.

But in fact, putting ideas into action is really the entre- daughter, Dylan, who owns a successful chain of candy stores. How did this happen? “Genes may be involved, preneurial challenge.

“We’re trying to teach students that anybody can be or maybe she acquired knowledge and skills over time an entrepreneur if you find your passion and have the by listening to her dad talk over family dinners,” he says. initiative to develop it,” he says. “We need ideas, but “Or maybe she was able to tap into her dad’s connections find me the people who can implement and coordinate to get started.” Wealth doesn’t hurt, either.

And then there is magic, mystery, and genius. “Some something, the people who are getting Cs, and they are the ones who become entrepreneurs.” One of the biggest people just have that individual creative element that reasons is that they understand the importance of a good others don’t,” Forbes says. “It’s kind of like cooking. I team. “What really makes a good entrepreneur is the can teach someone how to slice onions and sauté things, ability to span boundaries between customers, technol- but when they go into the kitchen, they have to be able to ogy, and finance, so you have to get out there and match come up with something that they imagined.”

—M. M. yourself with others who have complementary skills.”

HERO

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W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 2 1

Seeding is Believing When horticulture major Emily Scifers (B.S. ’06) began attending the University of Minnesota, she imagined a career designing long stretches of beautiful ornamental plants. Then she started talking grocery options with her roommates and everything changed. “Having these conversations was a revelation. I started going to conferences about food issues, and I felt like an explorer in a new land.�

Scifers, pictured with her boyfriend, Ross Peterson, scrapped her plans to work with ornamental plants. Instead, she designed an individualized study program that would prepare her to start

That Worked Out Well

The cover story of the MayJune, 1996, issue of Minnesota featured Tracy Singleton (B.A. ’94) and U student Susan Muskat, who were in the early stages of transforming a venerable old south Minneapolis neighborhood dairy called the Birchwood into a café. Today, the Birchwood Café is a popular destination and recently completed a major expansion.

A Fresh Whey of Life

people bought memberships and 40 more are on the waiting list. The couple is planning to expand membership for 2015. Their farmers’ market booth is also popular.

But running Laughing Stalk isn’t a bucolic dreamscape: Rain this past year was ferocious enough to cause crop loss, and Scifers and Peterson have part-time jobs to supplement farm income. Also, they’re living in her mother’s house while they look for a farm to buy. “So, I’m 35 and I’m living in my mom’s basement,” she says. “But that’s all part of the farming adventure sometimes. Personally, I can’t imagine doing anything else at this point. I feel lucky to do what I love every day.”

—E.M.

LAU RA SIMON

her own community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm. With CSAs, customers buy directly from the farmer by purchasing a membership, which pays for a full season’s worth of vegetables and provides farms with cash flow to cover preseason expenses, such as seeds and supplies.

In 2010, Scifers and Peterson took the leap into starting a CSA farm of their own on her parents’ land near Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They dubbed it Laughing Stalk Farm. “People think we’re crazy because it’s so hilly here and, unlike the Twin Cities, we’re the only CSA farm in the county,” she says. “We’re lone soldiers down here in the sustainable agriculture fight.”

Business is gradually growing. This season, 32

Alise Sjostrom (B.S. ’09) knew at age 16 that she wanted to be a cheesemaker. Her business, Redhead Creamery in Brooten, Minnesota, officially makes her one. She and her husband, Lucas (B.S. ’09), milk 180 cows on their farm and gravity-flow the milk directly to their cheese plant as the cows are being milked. The result, they say, is “ridiculously good cheese curds.” Their BandageWrapped Aged Farmhouse Cheddar, first made at the University of Minnesota’s pilot plant, will be ready for order during the holidays. And yes, Alise has red hair.

W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 2 3

J O HN DO MA N/ PI O NEER PR ESS

Naturally Expansive

Wholly Chow!

You wouldn’t think a former pastry chef would found a company devoted to the creation of foods devoid of grain and sugar, but that’s what Krista Steinbach (B.S.B. ’07), left, did when she cofounded WholeMe. Steinbach and culinary collaborator Mary Kosir say the only preservative they use is the refrigerator.

Twin Cities restaurateur Kim Bartmann (B.A. ‘87) is known for her commitment to quality food offered up in unique neighborhood settings. This past summer Bartmann added two more venues to her growing empire, bringing the total to eight.

Tiny Diner, which seats 56, doubles as a permaculture demonstration site where visitors can learn how to grow food using earth-friendly practices. The Third Bird, her first downtown location, features animal-themed murals on the walls and farm-fresh foods with a contemporary twist.

Bartmann’s foray into the restaurant business began in 1991 with Café Wyrd (now Barbette) in Uptown Minneapolis. “I turned an old comic book store into a coffee shop and I’d make soup on an electric hotplate while talking to my friends at the bar.

I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was able to expand in less than a year,” she says.

Twenty-three years later, her other restaurants include Bryant Lake Bowl, Bread and Pickle, Pat’s Tap, Red Stag, and Gigi’s.

Gopher

ANGELS

2 4 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

MARK LUINENBURG

locavore empire

Entrepreneurs often show an almost evangelical zeal when they talk about a new business idea. Jeff Ochs (B.A. ’04, M.P.P., M.B.A. ’14), a former associate of the University of Minnesota’s Venture Center, has that zeal to spare.

Ochs, 32, is the first executive director of Gopher Angels, a two-year-old investor network. He will manage the portfolio of the group, which recruits wealthy individuals to invest in Minnesota-based startups.

Local entrepreneurs David and Sara Russick, who founded the waste removal company

When they opened Tangletown Gardens in an old Pure Oil station in south Minneapolis in 2002, Dean Engelmann (B.S. ’93, B.S. ’97), left, and Scott Endres (B.S. ’94), right, knew they would eventually expand their business. They bought some land in Plato, Minnesota, for their warehouse and production facilities, where they grow most of the plants they sell in addition to producing vegetables, beef, pork, poultry, and eggs.

It wasn’t long before their garden design and landscaping services took off. A few years later, the duo opened Wise Acre Eatery one block south of Tangletown Gardens. Most everything on the menu is made from scratch and homegrown on their farm. They also sell shares of the garden’s bounty to members of Tangletown’s community supported agriculture project.

—M.M.

Bagster and then sold it to Waste Management, launched Gopher Angels because they wanted to help promising new companies get off the ground.

“Entrepreneurship is my job and my passion, but it’s also my hobby,” says Ochs, who lives in St. Paul. When he’s not spending time with his wife, teacher Tian Wang, and their daughter Nora, his mind is on his work. “For a true entrepreneur, the work is the thing that gets you up in the morning.”

Ochs started at Gopher Angels as he was simultaneously finishing an M.B.A. and

master’s degree in public policy at the U and winding down his tenure as executive director of the nonprofit Breakthrough Twin Cities, which he founded under the name Breakthrough St. Paul. And working with a cocreator, he recently released Snake Oil, a party game that has since been licensed to a leading game publisher. All the while he continues to nurture his custom storybook company, Customs Made.

Gopher Angels’ 60 members each contribute an annual fee of $1,250 (the group’s sole source of revenue), and attend regular

w w w. M i n n e s o t a A l u m n i .o r g

pitch meetings where hopeful entrepreneurs present their business ideas. What makes Gopher Angels different from other investment groups is that members can choose whether to invest in particular companies rather than pool their funds. “It’s a nice way to maintain a level of individual decision-making while still being able to leverage the investment strength of everyone in the group,” Ochs explains. As of the end of September, the group had invested $4.5 million into 15 companies. One of its biggest investments came earlier this year

when it sunk $1.2 million into local medtech start-up Preceptis Medical.

Ochs works with the Russicks and a steady stream of interns from the Carlson School’s M.B.A. program to bring in more great business ideas, which in turn bring in more investors. “With a group like this, you have a network’s worth of connections that draws deals in,” Ochs says. “As the reputation of Gopher Angels grows, we’ll have more members, and more companies looking for funding will want to talk with us.”

—Dan Heilman

W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA 2 5

Just do it” and other wisdom Lee Jones (B.S. ’79), is a veteran entrepreneur

with 30 years in the medical technology industry. Her latest venture is Rebiotix, a company developing a microbial therapeutic agent to treat gastrointestinal disease. Jones was one of five panelists at the September 10 kickoff of the U’s Entrepreneur/Start-Up Alumni Network (see page 30).

What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs?

Just get started. The motion of just trying something has a lot of power behind it. Often I hear “Oh, I had that idea years ago” but the person never did anything about it. If you don’t try, you’ll never see your vision implemented.

What mistake taught you something valuable?

Underestimating how much money an enterprise will take over time. Look closely at your financial plan and to the best of your ability, project out what you’ll need down the road.

Most businesses develop in stages. If you do not have enough money planned, you could run out of money before you hit the next value creation milestone. If that happens, you could have the best idea in the world, but you will not be successful.

Developing and using a network is critically important. It is virtually impossible for any one person to have all the skills and knowledge necessary to do everything required for a successful business. One can get a lot of information for not a lot of money by asking questions of people in your network who have the experience you might be looking for.

One good way to develop a business network is to participate in the Minnesota Cup. The prize money is incidental to all the experts one can meet by going through the process. The University also offers expert help through a number of the schools. I have hired groups of students through the Carlson School Venture Enterprise to conduct specific business projects. The Venture Enterprise students are very talented—in fact they run circles around me. I have worked with the Office for Technology Commercialization to tap into academic experts. One can find almost anything one needs at the University if one just starts looking.

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MARK LUINEN BU RG

Talk about the importance of networking.

hirty miles north of Minneapolis on an early September day, more than 70 volunteers have gathered on a small farm near Ham Lake. No corn, wheat, or soy is grown here.

Instead, vines—technically, bines—reach 20 feet in the air.

Farmers Eric Sannerud (B.S. ’13), left, Ben Boo (B.S. ’14), right, and Brian Krohn, a Ph.D. candidate in natural resource science and management at the University of Minnesota, are growing a crop not seen in Minnesota or much else of the Midwest

A Mighty Change Brewing

A farm that grows cold-hardy hops is doing for the state’s craft beer industry what cold-hardy grapes did for northern winemaking.

since the late 1800s: hops. The novelty of a hops-picking party— and the promise of beer—has made for a pretty good turnout at the farm, Mighty Axe Hops Hub. Hops are what makes beer smell like beer. They look like little green pinecones, but with a light, papery texture. Pull one down off a bine, have a sniff, and an unmistakable scent hits you. As University of Minnesota hops researcher Charlie Rohwer (Ph.D. ’08) says, “Without hops, beer would taste kind of like a not-fruity wine

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cooler. It balances the sweet flavor of the malt and adds another layer of complexity and aroma to the beer.”

Rohwer began studying how hops grow in Minnesota in 2010.

Four years later he’s finding which among dozens of varieties grow well here and which methods work best for farmers. He even plans to breed a new variety just for Minnesota. Meanwhile, growers are going full steam ahead, with more than 50 small farms intended or under way across the state within just the past two

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Alumni Hop to It

Alumni owned or operated craft breweries in the Twin Cities

Bad Weather Brewing Co. Tap room in St. Paul Zac Carpenter (B.A. ‘05) Employees: 2

Badger Hill Brewing Co. Shakopee Brent Krekelberg (M.B.A. ‘10) Broc Krekelberg (M.B.A. ’09) Michael Koppelman (B.S. ‘08) Employees: 4

Indeed Brewing Co. Minneapolis Rachel Anderson (B.S. ‘03) Nathan Berndt (B.S. ‘03 Tom Whisenand (B.A. ‘06) Employees: 35

Insight Brewing Minneapolis Brian Berge (M.B.A. ‘07) Employees: 12

Bauhaus Brew Labs Minneapolis Mike Schwandt (B.A. ‘05)

LTD Brewing Hopkins Jeremy Hale (B.S. ’11) Blake Verdon (B.S.B. ’07) Employees: 9

years, according to the newly formed Minnesota Hop Growers Association.

Credit the booming microbrewery industry for fomenting a rising demand for hops. Today, there are more craft breweries in the United States than at any other time since the 1870s, and sales of craft beers continue to rise, according to the U.S. Brewers Association (USBA). Minnesota is 21st in the nation in breweries per capita, up about five notches in the past few years. Statewide there are more than 52 craft breweries, making the state 10th nationwide in volume of craft beer produced. According to the 2012 USBA economic impact report, that translates into a $750 million boost to the economy.

All that brewing takes millions of dollars worth of hops— almost all of which are currently imported from Oregon, Idaho, and Washington. “A lot of craft brewers are interested in hops that are grown locally—and in Minnesota, you can’t buy locally grown hops,” says Rohwer.

Sannerud and the Mighty Axe volunteer crew are harvesting the farm’s first crop of just a quarter acre, which is already spoken for. Next year Mighty Axe will grow a full acre—and it’s already spoken for. Sannerud expects the farm to be financially sustainable at just four acres, a point he hopes to reach within two years, and plans eventually to expand to eight acres.

“We continue to collect letters of intent from brewers who want local hops,” says Sannerud. “We have commitments for more than 1,000 percent of what we will produce—ever. The market is much bigger than all the farms Minnesota has right now.”

Sannerud founded Mighty Axe in 2013. He met friend and Mighty Axe partners Boo and Krohn through the Acara Institute, an entrepreneurship program for students sponsored by the U’s

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Boom Island Brewing Co. Minneapolis Quixia Welch (M.A. ‘01) Employees: 4

Lucid Brewing Minnetonka Jon Messier (M.S. ‘06) Employees: 17

Excelsior Brewing Co. Excelsior Jon Lewin (M.B.A. ‘10) Employees: 35

Tin Whiskers Brewing Co. St. Paul Jeff Moriarty (B.C.E. ‘06, M.S.E.E. ‘08)

George Kellerman (B.E.E. ‘07) Jake Johnson (B.E.E. ‘07) Employees: 10

Fulton Beer Minneapolis Ryan Petz (M.B.A. ‘10) Employees: 35

Urban Growler Brewing Co. St. Paul Deb Loch (M.S. ‘91) Employees: 21

Institute on the Environment. Through Acara, student teams develop proposals for addressing societal and environmental issues. The proposals can be submitted to the Acara Challenge, where winners receive $1,000 startup money and are nominated for up to $5,000 in additional venture funding. Mighty Axe Hops Hub won both and put the money to use buying poles, twine, wire, starter plants, and irrigation systems needed to make a hops farm a reality. “It’s one of the coolest things that the University does, as far as supporting entrepreneurship in this state,” says Sannerud.

In addition to growing hops, Sannerud aspires to have Mighty Axe Hops Hub help establish some standards for the industry— hence the “hubs” part. Right now, he says, it’s a free-for-all. “We love and believe in this industry and we want it to grow, but we also aren’t unrealistic about where it’s at—it’s really small. It’s really unorganized. Quality is all over the place, and there are zero standards. But it’s an immature industry—this is how they all start,” he says.

The vision for the Hub is that it will offer processing, packaging, and marketing to farms across the state and make Minnesota Mighty Axe Hops a brand. “Our goal is to cultivate a brand around this product, so when you go to drink at a taproom, our name is there: ‘Made with Mighty Axe.’” Thirty years ago there wasn’t much of a wine industry in Minnesota. But in the 1980s the U began researching grapes that could tolerate Minnesota winters. Today, cold-hardy wine grapes developed by the University of Minnesota and private breeders contribute about $60 million annually to the state’s economy. Will the same be true of cold-hardy hops in another 30 years? There’s plenty of reason to expect a mighty change.

—Adam Overland

stem cells hold the promise of treatments and cures for more than

of seniors die with Alzheimer’s or another dementia

%

70 M AJOR DISE A SE S

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FROM ONE HISTORIC BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT, WE’RE DISCOVERING WAYS TO MAKE MANY DISEASES HISTORY.

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deaths in the United States is a result of heart disease

They say there’s no such thing as a cure-all. We say we have a real chance at finding one. Dating back to the world’s first successful bone

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BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTS

have been performed at the U of M since 1968

marrow transplant in 1968, the University of Minnesota continues to be a leader in stem cell research and regenerative medicine—a field of innovative therapies that enable the body to heal itself. Now with new discoveries, we’re working on cures for everything from diabetes to dementia. It’s one more way the future is being Made in Minnesota.

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That’s the Spirits!

B ENJAMIN CARTER GRIMES/CITY PAGES

The Norseman microdistillery in Minneapolis is the brainchild of architecture alumnus Scott Ervin (B.S. ’04). The operation uses primarily locally sourced materials to produce small batch rye whiskey, premium vodka, strawberry rhubarb gin, organic vapor infused gin, and organic barrel-aged bourbon.

You can sign up for a couple hours of bottling, which Ervin says is “fun, cathartic, hands-on work that is strangely addicting.”

Work Your Alumni Networks ENTREPRENEURS & STARTUPS

Whether you’re a seasoned or aspiring entrepreneur, the new University of Minnesota Entrepreneur/Start-Up Alumni Network can be a valuable tool for finding expertise and support. The network is a joint project of the Alumni Association and the Carlson School of Management.

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EMERGING PROFESSIONALS

Alumni who have been out of school 10 years or fewer are invited to join the Emerging Professionals Network. It’s for alumni in all fields and professions who are exploring career options or establishing a professional path.

The network meets in fun, casual settings. The most recent gathering was on November 18 at Bauhaus Brew Labs in Northeast Minneapolis.

The Emerging Professionals Network is a collaboration between the Alumni Association and collegiate societies at the U. If you graduated in 2004 or later, watch your inbox for Build your an invitation to the next gathering, or visit the events network at calendar at www.MinnesotaAlumni.org. z.umn.edu/orl

Did we miss you? Tell us about your

entrepreneurial enterprise at MinnesotaAlumni.org/entre

by 2030,

ON E BIL LION

extra tons of grain will be needed to feed a growing population

842 M IL LION

people are currently undernourished worldwide

FROM A SINGLE ANCIENT GRAIN, WE’RE HARVESTING NEW WAYS

20%

of human calories come from wheat

TO FEED THE WORLD.

of the world’s hungry live in developing countries

of drought and disease. Today, the University of Minnesota is collecting the last remaining samples of those ancient grains to help feed the world. By analyzing their genetic traits, we’re breeding stronger, more productive wheat. Ultimately, we’re growing hope of having a safe, sustainable food supply for the world’s growing population. It’s one more way the future is being Made in Minnesota.

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The Alumni Association welcomes these new life members Frederic F. Ahlgren Mosaid A. Al-Sadhan Barbara C. Anderson Mark B. Anderson Richard J. Anderson Van O. Anderson Jan L. Baldwin Richard L. Baldwin Stacey R. Barta Anne M. Bartel Robert A. Bell Carol A. Benson Earl C. Benson Jerome W. Benson Frederick G. Bergsrud Tamorra Berkich Linley C. Bizik Ellen A. Boschwitz Christina P. Brennan Shelley A. Breyen Beverly E. Brucciani Michael A. Brucciani John R. Bruellman Lisa M. Brusen Holly Callen Karl L. Cambronne Judy M. Cannon Joseph J. Cardenas Bradley D. Carlson Donna E. Carlson Darlene J. Carroll Eugene R. Chelberg James A. Christy Jane-Lan C. Chuang-Stein Sheila M. Clough Stacy A. Coffin Rosann W. Collins David J. Dawson Megan M. Dawson Joan B. De Carvalho Gregg A. Deluga Anthony C. Dierich Mary T. Dierich

David E. Dovenberg Caroline C. Dunn Jeff H. Eckland Richard J. Evans Mark A. Ferraro Ann L. Findlay Laureen T. Fischer David F. Fisher Donald A. Fisher Regina M. Forti Jay O. Franz Marilyn Franz Clayton A. Fresk Kara L. Fresk James E. Garrison Donna R. Gehlhaart Patricia J. Ginther Barbara L. Golden Victoria E. Gundelach Francis J. Haddy Theresa B. Haddy Larry H. Hageman Tricia Hamak-Sundeen Brian M. Hanson Gordon J. Harvieux Lauren Haverly Roger F. Heegaard Patricia C. Herrmann Clark G. Hilden Daniel W. Hiller Robert C. Hodson James R. Hoffner Karen R. Hoffner Evelyn R. Howard David A. Jackson Louise M. Jacobs Janice L. Johnson Wendell A. Johnson Marilyn D. Jones Barbara B. Kalina Gloria Kauls Ivars Kauls Marilyn H. Kay Gregory B. Kjellberg Dennis R. Klute Charles G. Knutson James W. Kochevar Laura K. Kochevar Debra Kozak Paul D. Kozak Brandon T. Kuschel Victor R. Kvikstad Miles R. Lahr

LIFE SPOTLIGHT

Judith Gold Stitzel (Ph.D. ’68) A confession: I did not become a life member until this year, but I never stopped being proud of the University of Minnesota since graduation in 1968. I am a professor emerita of English and women’s studies and the founding director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at West Virginia University, where I taught beginning in 1965, when I moved to Morgantown with my husband, Robert (Ph.D. ’64). I retired in 1998. While my time at Minnesota preceded its world renowned achievements in feminist studies, I think the self-confidence I developed and the support I felt as a mother and scholar in classes like that of [U of M professor of 18th century literature] Samuel Holt Monk helped prepare me for the challenging days ahead. After retiring I “went back to school” for my M.F.A. in creative writing at Vermont College and have enjoyed the privilege of time to write nonfiction, of which Field Notes from Grief: The First Year, is the work of which I’m most proud. It is based on journals I kept during the year after my husband died in 2007.

Suzanne E. Lahr William L. Larson David C. Lindenberg Mary E. Lindgren Joanie L. Lofgren Jennifer Long Kathryn J. Loseth Orcena E. Lyle David E. Maschwitz

Call for Nominations for Alumni Association Board The University of Minnesota Alumni Association is seeking outstanding candidates for service on the board of directors. The term of service is July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2018. For information please visit www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/board.

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Linda A. Maschwitz Donald S. McClure Sylvia A. McCollor Barbara P. McCool David L. Meissner Gordon W. Meyer Linda A. Meyer Ruth K. Meyer Mancel T. Mitchell Laura M. Moret Craig W. Morse Richard D. Nadeau Brian T. Naughton Richard G. Newell Diane J. Norland Mary K. Olson Mohammed I. Omer Jan M. Ormasa

Christopher J. Ovrebo John J. Plunkett Kathleen A. Pomerleau Richard T. Pomerleau Susan L. Potratz David Y. Hong Pui Therese T. Pui Eric S. Rangen David G. Reamer Marc Richards Jane E. Richardson Vincent A. Roczniak Thomas H. Roth Julie W. Rowles Matthew L. Rowles Debra K. Ruen Robert A. Ruffner Tara L. Ruffner Paul C. Schreckenberger M. Lyn Schroeder Paul H. Schroeder James L. Schweigert Jennifer A. Schweigert Neina L. Selchow Matthew J. Sheehan Tricia L. Sheehan Mia K. Signorino Gretchen E. Sjoholm Jack F. Sjoholm Karen M. Solheim Laura D. Sorg Richard Space Kevin Stanek Isaiah P. Steinke R. R. S. Stewart Martin J. Stillman Judith G. Stitzel Jim L. Story Joanne B. Story David L. Stougaard Kristi L. Streitmatter Amy R. Susman-Stillman Julie A. Tapper Louis Terracio Eugene L. Thoma Nancy Rusenko Tich Stephen James Tich Bruce D. Tyynela Stanley C. Von Drashek Charles L. Watt Laurel S. Watt Willard W. Wevley Richard R. Weyrick Edward P. Wicker Larry L. Wilkens Susan D. Witt Dorothy M. Witter Leah I. Wittkop Barbara J. Olson Wolf Keith E. Wolf Bingwen Yan Shih-Ju Yu David B. Zappetillo

BRIAN PERSINGER

Gophers Department Forever

%

25

of people live in conditions that harm their health, safety, prosperity and opportunities

Net Zero Homes will help the U.S. reach its goal of

REDUCING GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS 17% by 2020

WITH A NEW DESIGN FOR LOW-INCOME HOMES WE’RE PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY AND AFFORDABILITY UNDER ONE ROOF

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Minnesota homes lack adequate insulation

Housing is costly. Tens of thousands of energy-inefficient homes strain family pocketbooks and take a toll on the environment. So we set out

2 BIL LION people throughout the world live in slum housing

to architect a new reality. Working with low-income neighborhoods and Habitat for Humanity, the University of Minnesota is designing affordable homes that produce as much energy as they use—drastically reducing utility bills, harmful greenhouse gases and the hurdles to home ownership. It’s one more way the future is being Made in Minnesota.

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Katrice Albert leads the U’s diversity initiative. Her down-to-earth approach is to welcome everyone with open arms.

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More Than

Welcome atrice Albert is a self-described Type A personality, a high-flying achiever, and a master maker of lists. So, before accepting the job as vice president of equity and diversity at the University of Minnesota, Albert—then vice provost for equity, diversity, and community outreach at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge—began compiling what turned out to be an epic pro-and-con list.

One of the first pros was that Minnesota had offered a dream job. The most obvious con was the weather— though maybe not for obvious reasons. “The weather in Minnesota doesn’t allow you to drive very fast,” Albert laughs. “In Baton Rouge, I was busy, and I drove everywhere fast. It got to the point where officers from the sheriff’s department would just turn on their lights when they saw me coming because they knew I was probably running late and trying to get to a community meeting.” The lifelong Louisianan smiles at the memory, and then her tone shifts. It wasn’t actually the dry roads and fast driving that Albert worried about missing. “It was that small-town feel where people welcome and protect you,” she admits. This new job was bigger than her last, in a cold, unknown place. Was she ready for the challenge?

Clearly, Albert was more than ready. She’d spent 12 successful years at LSU: among other achievements, the initiatives she led resulted in the highest Latino and African American enrollment in school history and she spearheaded the development of new, free-standing, brick-and-mortar centers—the African AmeriBY ANDY STEINER can Cultural Center and the Women’s Center.

PHOTO BY CHRIS COOPER She also pushed for domestic partner benefits for faculty and staff. Albert has a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Auburn University, and served as an adjunct faculty member at LSU’s College of Human Sciences and Education. She also founded Third Eye Consulting Group, a diversity management consulting firm.

“When I talked to my mentors about this job,” Albert recalls, “I’d say, ‘This is an opportunity of a lifetime, but I don’t want to leave home and I don’t want to leave LSU and what I’ve built here.’ My mentors helped me to see that Minnesotans bring their very best selves to everything. Before any federal judge said, ‘You need to diversify or else,’ Minnesota decided it was the right thing to do and went ahead and did it. To be at a university with a long history of commitment to diversity was very appealing.”

One indicator of the U’s commitment to diversity became clear when Albert took a closer look at the budget and organizational chart. “There are a lot of resources committed to equity and diversity

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here,” Albert says. “I actually had sticker shock, because diversity outfits across the country are severely understaffed and woefully underfunded.” The University of Minnesota, Albert discovered during the interview process, has 125 people on the Twin Cities campus alone supporting diversity efforts. “This was a pleasant shock,” she says.

Revelations like this eventually tipped the scale in favor of the pros. While Albert knew she’d miss her home state, she also knew that something bigger awaited her in Minnesota. “Once I decided to come to Minnesota,” Albert says, “I was all in.”

It turns out that Albert hasn’t actually had to slow her pace since moving to Minnesota, not even during winter. Since she arrived in June 2013, she’s been zipping along at breakneck speed.

Each morning, from the moment she arrives at her Morrill Hall

fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; enhance campus climate and build partnerships within the U and in the community; create relationships with diverse alumni; and help close the achievement gap in K-12. In a state with a population that is increasingly diverse—for example, the nonwhite or Latino population is expected to grow to 25 percent by 2035—the University needs to keep pace to remain relevant.

Josie Johnson, former University of Minnesota associate vice president for academic affairs, agrees. Now 84, Johnson was the first African American appointed to the Board of Regents, in 1971, and she played a key role in the development of the position that eventually morphed into Albert’s job. The U’s annual Josie Robinson Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award is presented in her honor. She believes that as the state’s population shifts, the role has taken on even greater importance.

“Minnesota has become quite a melting pot of diversity,” Johnson says. “In order for the University to remain relevant and successful and useful, in order for us to provide the best education for our citizens, we need to be an institution that listens, that discusses, that respects all points of view. And we need to create an environment in which those points of view can be put to —KATRICE ALBERT constructive use. ” Albert is the only African American senior leader at Minnesota. And, in her early 40s, she’s one of the younger women leaders at the U. These elements, Johnson believes, combined with Albert’s impressive resume, make her the perfect person for the job.

“Katrice brings creative, young ideas and knowledgeable, professional ways,” Johnson says. “She brings a freshness to an institution that I believe is really eager to honor diversity. I think President Kaler truly wants this to be a diverse, successful institution going into the future. Katrice is the person who can do that.”

Albert’s vision of the University of tomorrow expands beyond campus to the rest of the state. The University of the future retains its position as one of the top public research universities in the nation while attracting and admitting a student body that better represents Minnesota’s increasingly diverse population.

“I see so much promise here,” Albert says. “And I see a commitment among so many people to doing what it takes to carry this University into the future.”

Well aware of the state’s yawning academic achievement gap between white children and children of color, Albert has been meeting with the superintendents of the Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools, Bernadeia Johnson (Ed.D. ’12) and Valeria Silva, hoping to develop ways to help children of color—particularly African American males—be better prepared for acceptance at the state’s land-grant university. Albert hopes to see the number of students of color in first-year classes rise; according to the University’s Office of Institutional Research, African Americans, for

“I see so much promise here.

And I see a commitment among so many people to doing what it takes to carry this University into the future.”

office, Albert bustles from one meeting to another, walking at a brisk pace back and forth across the Minneapolis campus, meeting, greeting, listening, and leading—all in the interest of making sure the University is a place where people of all races, genders, religions, abilities, and sexual orientations can thrive.

It’s not just bustle and glad-handing. Albert is intent on interacting with students. She recently attended the annual welcome luncheon for graduate students of color, an opportunity for a diverse group of scholars to connect with one another. Albert made her way through the buffet, making small talk with students. Finding an empty seat at a table occupied by female grad students, she asked, “What’s the best part of being a community of scholars?” and “How are you getting along with your research?”

On the way out, she stopped to introduce herself to a potential graduate student, a young woman who moved to the state with her husband. “I’m going to help you get here,” Albert assured her.

“We want you at Minnesota.”

Albert’s role is so key that the position stayed vacant for two years while University President Eric Kaler (Ph.D. ’82) searched for the right person to take it on—someone who would be able to take an institution already committed to diversity to the next level. Kaler considers diversity a cornerstone of his vision for the University.

Excellence, he believes, requires it. Albert has five key goals that encompass race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and other underrepresented identities: increase diversity in the student body and faculty, including women in underrepresented

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instance, made up just 3.9 percent of the 2013 freshman class on the Twin Cities campus.

But it’s a long process, like planting acorns and waiting for oaks to grow. That’s why Albert views relationships, such as those with Johnson and Silva, critical to helping the University better reflect the Minnesota of the future. “When we improve the performance of children of color in K-12, all ships rise,” Albert says.

Captaining a rising ship can make a person feel queasy, but Albert, who is open, warm, and engaging, with a bright smile and a ready laugh, seems to have found her sea legs in her adopted state. She and her longtime partner, Brandon Jones, have settled comfortably into a home in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood. “Brandon and I both like this neighborhood because it reminds us of home. We get to see the Mississippi River every day and the French Victorian architecture is just like home. It’s the capital city like Baton Rouge, and we’re Catholic and attending the Cathedral is awesome,” Albert says. They have even found a Twin Cities restaurant that cooks authentic Louisiana-style food.

Since coming to Minnesota, Albert has been working hard to strike a balance between work and personal life, something this hard-driven achiever has always found challenging. Early on, with the stress of the job threatening to wear her down, she budgeted a self-improvement section into her work plan. She has donned a Fitbit, taken up Bikram Yoga, and even competed in her first 5K. If she wants to help lead the University into the future, Albert figures she needs to keep an even keel.

“I used to be a much more emotional person,” she says. “That’s part of what drove me to a career in social justice. But I’ve realized that you can’t just emote if you really want to make a difference. You have to contain your emotions so people can hear you when you say, ‘We’re not where we need to be and this is the path we need to take to get us there.’

It’s a big-picture job. There aren’t that many day-to-day wins. But the struggle is a part of the joy because I know that things are going to change. This University is preparing to head into the future.” n Andy Steiner is a writer and editor living in St. Paul

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Now Showing:

Three Timelines of University History Enjoy three different looks at the University of Minnesota’s achievements throughout its 163-year history in one rewarding visit. The Heritage Gallery in the McNamara Alumni Center presents three separate historical timelines; each based on one of the three founding principles of the University….Education, Research and Service. Each timeline is distinctive and packed with information, photographs, graphics and historical objects to reward the casual visitor or the in-depth reviewer. Make plans to visit the Heritage Gallery…then stay for lunch at D’Amico & Sons!

The Heritage Gallery is open most Mondays thru Saturdays.

Please call ahead at 612-624-9831 for daily viewing hours.

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Gopher Sports

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To hear the complete interview with Marlene Stollings, go to www.GopherSportsUpdate.com.

The Gophers open the Big Ten season at home against Nebraska on December 29.

he women’s basketball Gophers have a new head coach for the first time in 12 years. Marlene Stollings, who succeeded Pam Borton last April, earned a reputation for turning programs around in her previous stints at Winthrop and Virginia Commonwealth Universities. Matt Nelson (B.A. ’09) of Gopher Sports Update, Minnesota’s multimedia partner, recently interviewed Stollings. Here is an excerpt.

What is your plan for the Gophers?

We don’t have a three– to five–year plan, we have an immediate plan. We’re pretty 3 8 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

aggressive in our approach. One of the fundamentals that’s big for me is individual player development. We devote 30 minutes of practice time to player development as deep into the season as January and February; I take that much pride in what we’re doing with that part of practice.

This conference is an absolute beast with the addition of Maryland, a Final Four team, and Rutgers, which won the WNIT. It’s very important that we’re one of the most well-conditioned teams in the Big Ten so we can beat people in the last four minutes of the game. We want

MATTH EW HINTZ

Bringing the Show Back to the Barn

to be up and down the floor quickly, but it is an organized system—we have certain looks coming down out of the break, we do some pro stuff in transition, things that will be hard to guard and scout against.

We have enough pieces of the puzzle to put that in place right away this year.

Two of the puzzle pieces in place are senior guard Rachel Banham, a consensus first team All–Big Ten and All-American honorable mention guard last year, and sophomore Big Ten Freshman of the Year Amanda Zahui B. Who else?

Shae Kelley, a fifth-year transfer [from Old Dominion, who is pursuing a master’s degree in youth development leadership at the U]. Shae adds a dimension to the system that we didn’t previously have in her athleticism, ability to score, and being able to play the three or the four position for us.

Then you look at Carlie Wagner, the standout freshman. I can’t wait to play her in a game. She can put the ball in the basket at a very high level.

The biggest thing with any of the newcomers, with the exception of Shae being a fifth-year transfer, is the adjustment to college life and the physicality and overall strength and conditioning required at this level. That just takes time. How quickly they’ll have success in their first year depends on how they’re able to adapt and adjust.

What do you have to do to get people back in the Barn and get that place rocking again?

I love it that fans in Minnesota love women’s basketball so much. When you look back at those years when Lindsay Whalen (B.S. ’06) and Janel McCarville were here, people came to the games because they got to watch the show. And it was a show because of how they played and because they were winning. We hope to bring the show back in town. We want to put a team on the floor that’s exciting to watch. n w w w. M i n n e s o t a A l u m n i .o r g

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Off the Shelf

FICTION

A Second Helping of Murder and Recipes: A Hot Dish Heaven Mystery Paperback

By Jeanne Cooney (B.A.S. ’83, M.P.A. ’04) North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2014 In this sequel to Cooney’s popular Hot Dish Heaven, reporter Emerald Malloy is back in Minnesota’s Red River Valley to gather more recipes for an encore feature on rural cooking for the Minneapolis newspaper. Margie Johnson, the owner of local café Hot Dish Heaven, surprises her with several exotic offerings, including sauerkraut hot dish. (Man cannot live on tuna noodle hot dish alone, don’t cha know.) But when someone close to Margie is arrested for the murder of a farmhand, Emerald and friends investigate their way through a blizzard, a fish fry, and other obstacles to discover the real killer. The book includes recipes like chicken dumpling hot dish, orange Jell-O salad, and rhubarb meringue pie.

The Sea of Time

By P. C. Hodgell (M.A. ’76, Ph.D. ’87) Baen Books, 2014

Alumni authors serve up a warm feast for the cold months ahead

By Laura Silver To find more books by alumni authors, go to www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/bookmarks.

Alumni authors are invited to list their works there.

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Leaving Ashwood

By Cynthia Kraack (M.A. ’88) North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2014 The final book in Kraack’s dystopian Ashwood trilogy, Leaving Ashwood explores a

MOIRA LEN NOX

Winter Reading

This is Hodgell’s fourth novel in the Chronicles of Kencyrath series, which follows the adventures of Jame, a high-born outcast who now finds herself a second-year cadet in the large and mighty army of the Southern Host of the Kencyrath. Jame is drawn to the various goings on in turbulent, mysterious Kothifir, ruled by an obscenely obese god-king and peopled with the members of its colorful, dueling guilds. But Kothifir’s gods have lost their power and its proud towers are falling.

What curse out of the past has struck it?

Jame must search the past to try to stop the destruction—without undoing time itself.

world ruled by mega-multinational corporations. Kraack’s thoroughly Midwestern protagonist, Anne Hartford, has built a significant agribusiness out of the ruins of an early 21st century global depression.

But this bleak new world places tight constraints on its citizens. Can one resilient businesswoman battle mind-controlling research, invasive technology, and a government that makes Big Brother look like Mister Rogers?

Lake of Tears: A Claire Watkins Mystery

By Mary Logue (B.A. ’75) Tyrus Books, 2014 Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins has had an uneventful summer in Fort St. Antoine, Wisconsin, and is about to send her daughter Meg off to college. When Claire walks down to Lake Pepin to watch the Burning Boat—a large replica of a Norwegian longboat burned at the autumnal equinox—she has no idea that the bones of a young woman will be found in the ashes the next day. And not just any woman, but the former girlfriend of Claire’s new deputy, a vet just returned from Afghanistan who is dating Meg. Desperate to identify the murderer, Claire must first understand what happened in the mountains of Afghanistan that left one man wounded, one man killed, and one man disturbed.

NONFICTION

By the Waters of Minnetonka

By Eric Dregni (M.A. ’03, M.F.A. ’07) University of Minnesota Press, 2014 Lake Minnetonka is known for its natural beauty and the prominent, wealthy visitors it has attracted to its shores. But Dregni uncovers surprising facts about the lake and those who have lived there, from the original Dakota inhabitants to presentday McMansion dwellers. He relates, and sometimes pokes fun at, the shameful, glamorous, and outrageous moments that

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have defined the lake, for example, how slaves were brought to Wayzata illegally during the ginseng craze of the 1860s to harvest the plant’s roots. This and other anecdotes shed light on elements of the lake’s history that have been forgotten or glossed over.

Experienced, passionate and filled with Gopher pride!

The Unsubstantial Air: American Flyers in the First World War

By Samuel Hynes (B.A. ’47) Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014 Samuel Hynes, a Marine pilot in World War II who became an accomplished literary scholar and professor emeritus at Princeton (and a consultant on Ken Burns’s TV miniseries The War), mined the letters and diaries of young American men who went to Europe to fly in the First World War. The words of these young men, who came from the flying clubs of the Ivy Leagues and the grass airfields of the American West, give The Unsubstantial Air a gripping, you-are-there quality.

Hynes captures the confusion and uncertainty of America’s nascent flight program and the chaotic adrenaline rush of combat in the air.

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery Sam Kean (B.A. ’02) Little, Brown and Company, 2014 Kean’s strange-but-true stories of neurological curiosities—phantom limbs, Siamese twin brains, viruses that eat patients’ memories, blind people who see through their tongues—reveal the secret inner workings of the brain. With his witty prose and knack for explaining, Kean weaves these narratives together to create a story of discovery that reaches back to the 1500s and the high-profile jousting accident that inspired this book’s title.

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Off the Shelf Department

The Keillor Reader

By Garrison Keillor (B.A. ’66) Viking Adult, 2014 This single volume brings together the full range of Keillor’s work: monologues from A Prairie Home Companion, stories from the New Yorker and The Atlantic, excerpts from novels, and newspaper columns. The Keillor Reader also presents pieces never before published, including the essays “Cheerfulness” and “What We Have Learned So Far.”

A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna

By Amitava Kumar (Ph.D. ’93) Duke University Press, 2014 Patna is the capital of India’s poorest province and Kumar’s hometown. Part memoir, part travelogue, this vivid little book explores the truths and myths, past and present of a challenging, enduring city.

The rats are everywhere in Patna; they burrow under railroad tracks, nibble the toes of nurses at the hospital, and steal his mother’s dentures. Yet Kumar also sees them as “warm, humble, highly sociable, clever, fiercely diligent,” and comes to admire the rat catchers of the lowly Musahar caste. He sums up the poignant, complicated guilt of the ex-pat when he writes that the rat, “unlike me, hasn’t fled Patna and has found it possible to live and thrive there. . . . Who is the rat now?”

Stolen from the Garden: The Kidnapping of Virginia Piper

By William Swanson (B.A. ’68) Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014 In July 1972, two masked men waving guns abducted 49-year-old Virginia Piper from the garden of her lakeside home in Orono, Minnesota. After her husband, a prominent investment banker, paid a $1 million ransom, an anonymous caller directed the FBI to a thickly wooded section of a northern Minnesota state park. There, they found Ginny Piper chained to a tree, filthy and exhausted, but physically unharmed.

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Drawing on closely held government documents and exclusive interviews with family members, investigators, suspects, lawyers, and others intimately connected to the case, Swanson provides the first comprehensive account of the sensational Piper kidnapping and makes a case for the most plausible explanation for what really happened.

The Devil’s Snake Curve: A Fan’s Notes from Left Field

By Joshua Ostergaard (M.F.A. ’11) Coffee House Press, 2014 Ostergaard uses baseball as a vehicle to consider both his love for and disillusionment with America. Equal parts baseball trivia, memoir, and personal essay, The Devil’s Snake Curve includes musings on the invention of the hot dog, The Old Man and the Sea, and the history of facial hair in the major leagues.

The juxtaposition of the familiar and the obscure animates this highly subjective, left-of-center baseball history.

Fractured Land: The Price of Inheriting Oil

By Lisa Peters (B.A. ’74) Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014 What does an environmentalist do when she realizes she will inherit mineral rights and royalties on fracked oil wells in North Dakota? Catapulted into a world of complicated legal jargon, spectacular feats of engineering, and rich history, Peters travels to the oil patch and sees both the wealth and the challenges brought by the boom. After she interviews workers, farmers, geologists, lawyers, those who welcome and those who reject the development, she sees shades of gray in what had previously seemed black and white.

The St. Paul Saints: Baseball in the Capital City

By Stew Thornley (B.S.B. ’81) with a foreword by Bill Murray Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015

To be released in conjunction with the opening of the Saints’ new Lowertown ballpark in April 2015, The St. Paul Saints: Baseball in the Capital City highlights the long and rich legacy of the team, from Pig’s Eye to a pig on the field. Sports historian Thornley is an official scorer and online game caster for the Minnesota Twins and author of more than 40 books for adults and young readers.

Chi-mewinzha: Ojibwe Stories from Leech Lake

By Dorothy Dora Whipple, edited by Wendy Makoons Geniusz (Ph.D. ’06) and Brendan Fairbanks (M.A. ’05, Ph.D. ’09) University of Minnesota Press, 2015 In her 95 years, Ojibwe elder Dorothy Dora Whipple has seen a lot of history.

The events of Whipple’s life, presented in Ojibwe and English, range from tales of growing up among the Anishinaabeg of the Leech Lake Reservation in the 1920s and ’30s to an account of watching an American Indian Movement protest in Minneapolis during the 1970s. In between, we encounter modern dilemmas like trying to find a place to make a tobacco offering in an airport and traditional stories of the gigantic beings who were seen in the water, chi-mewinzha.

Whipple’s recollections offer sometimes amusing, sometimes poignant insight into Native American daily life.

The Three-Minute Outdoorsman: Wild Science from Magnetic Deer to Mumbling Carp

By Robert M. Zink (B.S. ’77) University of Minnesota Press, 2014 Zink, an ornithologist at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum, humorously distills the latest news from the world of science into short nuggets for the layperson. In these brief, engaging essays readers discover, for instance, how deer use the earth’s magnetic field for orientation; a long-gone tradition of hunting loons in North Carolina; how porcupine quills are advancing new ideas

Experience learninglife about delivering inoculations; and why deer antlers can model bone regeneration for amputees. A self-deprecating, genial writer, Zink bridges the gulf between the outdoorsman’s experience of nature and the findings of science, but keeps the awe, wonder, and mystery intact.

New Tales of the Twin Cities: The History, Law, and Culture of Minnesota

By Chang Wang (J.D. ’06) Thomson Reuters, 2014 Wang arrived in Minnesota from his native China in 2003 to attend law school at the University of Minnesota. The recipient of a China 100 Distinguished Chinese Alumni Award, he has written the first Chinese language book about Minnesota. Intended to give Chinese residents, students, and visitors a comprehensive overview and in-depth analysis of Minnesota’s history, law, and culture, New Tales of the Twin Cities is a collection of essays Wang wrote for Minnesota Times, a Chinese language newspaper. The preface, foreword, acknowledgement, table of contents, and appendix are bilingual, but the core text is Chinese.

Even longtime Minnesotans will benefit from reading Wang’s engaging observations. For example, in the preface Wang divulges his top 10 Minnesota pleasures, a list of charming and simple activities easily taken for granted: browsing used bookstores, walking around the Cities’ lakes, listening to Minnesota Public Radio, and enjoying a weekend Minnesota Orchestra concert, among others.

Short courses, Immersions, and Seminars Select winter offerings include:

• Sláinte! A Condensed History of Ireland Through Traditional Food, Music, and Song • A Conversation with George Latimer: A Life in Politics • Archaeology in Minnesota • Pablo Picasso: His Life and Art

• Shining Armor: Stories of the Middle Ages • Religion and Modern American Politics • The Brain: Understanding Injury and Trauma • Familiar Faces: Photographing Family and Friends

cce.umn.edu/learninglife 612-624-4000

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CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT

Hungry Coyote

By Cheryl Blackford (M.S. ’96) Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015 From desperate winter hunts to opportunistic picnic foraging, Coyote makes his deliberate way through the seasons in his urban habitat and his adventures come to life in this lavishly illustrated tale.

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Off the Shelf Eagle Peak Elizabeth Fontaine (B.A. ’96) Prizm Books, 2014 Eagle Peak, Minnesota, population 596, couldn’t be more different than Sean’s native Minneapolis. When Sean has to move there, he enters a world of pep rallies, pickup trucks, and country pop. His inclination toward heavy eyeliner, black attire, and his surly attitude make him an easy target of suspicion and prejudice.

But small-town Minnesota also offers surprises: Sean becomes the love interest of three classmates, including a closeted gay boy; he discovers and chants with a Buddhist family; and he gets in the middle of an abusive father and his son, the town jock. Sean’s old and new lives collide, leaving him confused about what he thought he knew, the world he left behind, and himself.

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Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date

By Katie Heaney (M.A. ’12) Grand Central Publishing, 2014 “I’ve been single for my entire life. Not one boyfriend. Not one short-term dating situation. Not one person with whom I regularly hung out and kissed on the face.” So begins Heaney’s memoir. Readers will meet Katie’s loyal group of girlfriends and we get to know Katie herself—a smart, modern heroine relaying truths about everything from the subtleties of a Facebook message exchange to the fact that “Everybody who works in a coffee shop is at least a little bit hot.”

Funny and poignant, Heaney’s memoir starts out as a search for love but ends up as a tribute to sisterhood.

The Memory Key

By Liana Liu (M.F.A. ’11) HarperTeen, 2015 Lora Mint’s mother has been dead for five years. She struggles to remember every detail about her, most importantly, the events of the night she sped off in her car, never to return. But in a futuristic world ravaged by a viral form of Alzheimer’s, that isn’t easy. Lora’s memory key, a standard-issue chip embedded in her brain that preserves memories, aids her.

Then a minor accident damages it and her memories go haywire. Suddenly Lora remembers a moment from the night of her mother’s disappearance that indicates her death was no accident. Can she trust these memories? Or is her ability to remember every painful part of her past driving her slowly mad—burying the truth forever?

How I Discovered Poetry

What’s Behind the Mighty Fitz?

By Marilyn Nelson (Ph.D. ’79) Dial, 2014

By Joanne Reisberg (B.A. ’55) North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2014

Nelson tells of her development as an artist and young woman through 50 eyeopening poems. They paint an intimate portrait of her growing self-awareness and artistic inspiration, along with a larger view of the world around her: racial tensions, the Cold War, and the first stirrings of the feminist movement. The daughter of a schoolteacher and one of the first African American Air Force officers, Nelson spent much of her youth living on different military bases and began writing poetry in elementary school. Her humiliation by a teacher who makes her read aloud a racist poem is recounted in the stunning title poem. How I Discovered Poetry is a powerful memoir and a triumphant homage to the power of words and stories.

When Lucas Sanchez fails to catch a Frisbee and it crashes into the oil painting of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the freighter that sank in 1975 in Lake Superior, he is stunned to see part of a green eye staring back—there’s a painting behind the painting! He wonders, what’s behind the Mighty Fitz? Lucas and his fifth-grade friends dive into the mystery in Reisberg’s action-adventure novel.

Keystones of the Stone Arch Bridge

By Carolyn Ruff (B.S. ’68, M.A. ’76) Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014

really want is for their family to be whole again. To earn money to bring his momma and sisters from Sweden to America, the determined Fritz sets out to master a new skill, working as the youngest stonemason on the crew building the Stone Arch Bridge across the Mississippi River.

On his path, Fritz unlocks secrets of his new homeland, from details of the river’s geology to the dangers of flour milling. He befriends Margaret, a Métis girl whose family has called the region home for generations, and meets notable early settler Emily Goodridge Grey.

Applying his developing stonecutting skills, he records these many lessons in the keystones of the bridge. n

Ten-year-old Fritz and his poppa have made a life in the Bohemian Flats along the river in Minneapolis in 1883, but what they

Access Minnesota … Issues that Matter to You. On the radio, television and online — Access Minnesota draws upon the expertise of the U of M faculty for deeper insight into today’s pivotal issues.

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• Save on Gopher gear at the University Bookstores.

• Access thousands of publications on select U Libraries’ online databases.

• Boost your career with a professional development workshop.

• And much more. Explore all your member perks at www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/benefits.

SAY “I DO” ON CAMPUS

THE GRINCH DELIGHTS

The holidays are never brighter, bigger, or badder than when the Grinch is in town. Come boo the most loathed Christmas villain and cheer for a beloved holiday tradition with Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas at Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) through January 4.

Alumni Association members save 10 percent off single tickets to CTC’s regular 2014-15 season. Learn more at www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/CTC.

ALUMNI WEBINAR SERIES

Tap into the popular new free Alumni Webinar Series, which features fresh thinking and expert insight on topics ranging from searching for a job to planning a vacation.

More than 450 alumni joined the inaugural conversation on October 30. Join in live or listen as your schedule allows from the archive on the Alumni Association website. www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/AlumniWebinarSeries 4 6 W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 M I N N E S O TA

Panoramic views of downtown Minneapolis, the Mississippi River, and Northrop Mall make the Campus Club on fourth floor of Coffman Memorial Union the perfect venue for weddings and other special events. The club provides catering and incorporates locally sourced, organic, and artisan ingredients into creative dishes.

Reservations are limited to club members. Alumni Association members who live in the Twin Cities metro area can join the Campus Club for $260 per year, a $40 annual savings over regular membership. Details on this offer and a special rate for alumni living outside the metro area can be found at www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/campusclub.

RENOWNED HARLEM DANCERS TO PERFORM

Northrop presents Dance Theatre of Harlem Tuesday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. America’s first black classical ballet company will perform an eclectic program of ballet in sync with the 21st Century. Northrop is always buzzing with both free and ticketed events, as well as Surdyk’s delicious café. Visit northrop.umn.edu for a full listing of events.

All University of Minnesota alumni receive a $4 discount on up to two tickets for Northrop Dance season performances. Learn more at www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/northrop.

GRINCH: DAN NORMAN • WEDDING: LAUREN BAKER PHOTOGRAPHY • FAMI LY PHOTOS: J O HN G R EG O R • DA NCE: MATTHEW MUR PHY

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP

BUILD A PHOTO ALBUM

Learn the nuances of capturing the true spirit of your subjects. Photographer John Gregor will lead the course Familiar Faces: Photographing Family and Friends as a part of the College of Continuing Education’s Learning Life programming March 7 and 14 from noon to 5 p.m. in the Continuing Education and Conference Center at 1890 Buford Avenue in St. Paul. The course will cover how to select the best background, put your subject at ease, edit your images, and the seemingly simple, but confounding use of the on-camera flash.

Alumni Association members receive a 10 percent discount on all LearningLife offerings. For more information, visit www.MinnesotaAlumni.org/cce.

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Campus Seen

The sculpture “Spannugsfeld”—a German term that means “tension field”—outside of the physics and nanotechnology building. Created

by German-born physicist-turnedartist Julian Voss-Andreae, each of the 10-foot-high kneeling figures weighs about 3,000 pounds and is installed on an 11,000-pound granite plinth. Made of 150 thin polished steel slices connected by pins, the statues appear solid when viewed from the side but nearly disappear when viewed head on.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHER STONEMAN

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† You will qualify for $100 bonus cash rewards if you use your new credit card account to make any combination of Purchase transactions totaling at least $500 (exclusive of any credits, returns and adjustments) that post to your account within 90 days of the account open date. Limit one (1) bonus cash rewards offer per new account. This one-time promotion is limited to new customers opening an account in response to this offer. Other advertised promotional bonus cash rewards offers can vary from this promotion and may not be substituted. Allow 8-12 weeks from qualifying for the bonus cash rewards to post to your rewards balance. The value of this reward may constitute taxable income to you. You may be issued an Internal Revenue Service Form 1099 (or other appropriate form) that reflects the value of such reward. Please consult your tax advisor, as neither we nor our affiliates, provide tax advice.

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