East Summer 2023

Enigmatic Element

DESTRUCTIVE AND CREATIVE, FIRE IS A VITAL RESOURCE

ECU nursing graduates Emma Ward, left, and Allyson Foster embrace during commencement exercises May 5 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, where nearly 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students officially received their degrees.

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26 Tame the Flame

Whether fighting fire or nurturing its creative properties, ECU alumni are experts at working with this force of nature.

34 The Stories in Soot

Siddhartha Mitra and his students trace fire’s fingerprints through history

40

Remembering ECU Sports Icons

A look back at the legacies of ECU icons Jeff Charles and Terry Holland

46 A Flare For Excitement

Baton twirler Kasey Rogers fires up halftime crowds at Dowdy-Ficklen

East Carolina University is a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina System. It is a public doctoral/research-intensive university offering baccalaureate, master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees in the liberal arts, sciences and professional fields, including medicine. Dedicated to the achievement of excellence, responsible stewardship of the public trust and academic freedom, ECU values the contributions of a diverse community, supports shared governance and guarantees equality of opportunity. ©2023 by East Carolina University

ECU students Bansari Patel, left, and Charity Ray work at the GlasStation in Farmville. The former gas station turned glassmaking studio is where students use blazing heat to create delicate art. Read

about the GlasStation beginning on page 20.

Research is booming at ECU.

You might not know ECU is a world leader in the field of subcritical water chromatography.

Yu “Frank” Yang, a professor in our Department of Chemistry since 1987, was the first to publish research on the subject. He’s shown subcritical water, which is at a high temperature and high pressure, can be a green solvent that can replace hazardous materials in chemical separations such as extraction and chromatography in the pharmaceutical industries and others. These industries employ hundreds of ECU graduates and thousands of eastern North Carolina residents.

Professor Yang was the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Research Achievement Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity at ECU, and in April we honored him and a host of other faculty members for their research and creative achievements.

Research at ECU has grown significantly in recent years, with sponsored awards reaching a record $82 million last year. And the university is making an intentional commitment to growing its research infrastructure. Research and creative activity align with our commitment to academic excellence, community engagement and regional impact and allow the university to fulfill its role as a generator of new knowledge and a driver of economic and societal development.

The continued growth of our research and creative enterprise is vital, and we are committed to it — for our students, our faculty and our region.

Philip Rogers, Ed.D. Chancellor

ECU senior guard Danae McNeal shoots during ECU’s semifinal matchup against Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Tournament on March 8 in Fort Worth, Texas. McNeal led all scorers with 22 points as the Pirates won 69-60 and went on to defeat Houston the next day to win the Pirates’ first women’s AAC basketball championship.

Alumnus writes about Pirate football travels $3.2 million to help youth mental health care

Dental school expands care in rural eastern NC

Residents of eastern North Carolina have better access to dental care thanks to the opening of a dental clinic in Hyde County and a program to provide oral health care and dental hygiene education to schoolchildren in Jones County.

Once a month in the Hyde County town of Swan Quarter, a few rooms in the back of the post office serve as the area’s only oral health care location for miles around. It opened in April 2022, and students and faculty from the ECU School of Dental Medicine have treated patients from at least seven counties.

Hyde, Tyrrell and Camden counties — all in the east — have no practicing dentists.

Program partners include the Hyde County Health Department, Hyde County government and county commissioners, Ocracoke Health Center and Engelhard Medical Center.

In 2019, the Anonymous Trust — a philanthropic group that aims to support rural and underserved communities — gave ECU $144,000 for portable dental equipment and personnel to launch the clinic. Last

December, the Hearst Foundations — national philanthropic resources for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health and social services — approved $100,000 for the dental school to provide dental care to underserved, uninsured and low-income rural patients.

The clinic has proven a popular, off-the-beatenpath option for students. Fourth-year student Sung Baek of Indian Trail said caring for patients in Hyde County is like looking out for family.

“This means everything to me,” Baek said. “I kind of grew up in a similar situation in a rural county, and my parents were going through a lot of similar situations that I’ve seen in patients here. For me, it’s just about giving back and just imagining that’s my

The ECU School of Dental Medicine operates the Hyde County Outreach Clinic once a month in the rear of the post office building in Swan Quarter.

mom or my dad — and I would want the same thing for them, to have access to dental care.”

In Jones County, the School-Based Oral Health Prevention Program is seeing students at Trenton Elementary/Jones Senior High School as well as Maysville, Pollocksville and Comfort elementary schools. Participants receive clinical services that include radiographs, fluoride varnish, sealants, silver diamine fluoride, comprehensive and periodic exams, and teledentistry exams.

Since the program began at the end of February, 120 children have been seen.

The program is open to all Jones County children, regardless of insurance coverage, said Rachel Stewart, project manager and public health dental hygienist at the School of Dental Medicine. Children also receive yearly oral hygiene education and oral hygiene supplies, she added.

The program is jointly funded by the BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina Foundation and the Duke Endowment. It’s led by Drs. Wanda Wright, Michael Webb and Vanessa Pardi of the ECU dental faculty.

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Spaine Stephens

Since January, ECU students, faculty and staff on Main Campus have been having their food orders delivered by robots. Through a partnership of ECU Dining Services, Starship Technologies and Grubhub, 30-40 robots are out daily delivering meals from Raising Cane's, Panda Express, Steak 'n Shake and other campus dining vendors. By May, the robots had delivered 13,500 meals, with the most popular destination being Cotten Residence Hall. Service hours are Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.

ECU School of Dental Medicine hygienist Gina Hamilton uses a portable X-ray unit during patient Santana McCoy’s appointment at the school’s clinic in Hyde County.

United Health Foundation awards $3.2 million to improve youth mental health

The United Health Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of UnitedHealth Group, has announced a threeyear, $3.2 million grant partnership with ECU. The grant will expand the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program in six community-based pediatric and primary care clinics in rural and underserved parts of the state to support the mental health and well-being of young people in North Carolina.

“Just like we take care of our physical health, it’s important that we take care of our mental health as well,” Gov. Roy Cooper said during the Feb. 14 announcement at the East Carolina Heart Institute. “This partnership will help reach even more young people in our rural and historically underserved communities.”

ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers said: “The investment will increase the university’s outreach to the region and provide mental health services to underserved populations in North Carolina. ECU students across multiple disciplines will engage with this project, leading to increased learning opportunities preparing them to address the critical shortage of mental health professionals.”

The America’s Health Rankings 2022 Health of Women and Children Report revealed anxiety among children and adolescents increased 23% and depression increased 27% between 2017-2018 and 2020-2021. In North Carolina, more than 70% of children with a mental health disorder do

not receive treatment, and 92% of North Carolina counties are designated as mental health professional shortage areas.

Over three years, project leaders aim to do the following:

• Embed behavioral health providers at six communitybased pediatric care clinics and connect them — as well as the primary care providers — to a psychiatrist for case consultation and care planning via telepsychiatry.

• Develop an artificial intelligence-driven portal to enhance collaboration between health care providers and encourage family members’ engagement in their child’s mental health care.

• Educate children and families about mental health and well-being through the development of a new virtual reality video game that provides anonymous peer-to-peer support.

• Offer training opportunities for ECU psychiatry residents, child psychiatry fellows, social work students, medical students and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners at the six community clinics.

• Hold an Interdisciplinary Telehealth Summit to share lessons learned from the project.

“By working together and creating an interconnected system of clinical and social services, we can continue to produce better health outcomes for North Carolinians,” said Anita Bachmann, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina, part of UnitedHealth Group.

– Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall

From left, Dr. Sy Saeed of ECU, Anita Bachmann of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Don Davis, U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy, Gov. Roy Cooper and ECU Chancellor Philip Rogers were at ECU for the Feb. 14 announcement.

Book chronicles travels around country to watch Pirate football

Carl Davis’ seats in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium inspired the title of his first book, but it was the trips to away games that provided many of his stories.

Davis ’73 has followed football for 60 years. He published My View From 20 Rows Up: One Pirate Fan’s Story of ECU Football in December.

Davis and his wife, Martha, sat near the 50-yard line for more than 30 years as season ticket holders. Not wanting to miss a game, the Davises started traveling to away games in the mid-’90s, logging close to 200,000 miles.

“Back then, you had to get in a car and drive or fly. Those were your two choices. And I wanted to see the game,” he said. “There’s a huge, long list — hundreds of games. We made them mini-vacations.”

Davis’ first football road trip was from his hometown of Hickory to Greenville with his grandfather, a huge Lenoir-Rhyne University supporter. Clarence Stasavich coached there for 15 years before joining the Pirates in 1962.

Davis eventually became a student at ECU, where he majored in sociology and graduated in 1973. He spent his professional career in the radio and television industry, including 14 years as assistant general manager at UNC-TV. He is a member of the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Davis started writing My View from 20 Rows Up about five years ago. Chapters are organized by opponents followed by superlatives — such as “best stadium” or “best logo” — to try and answer dozens of questions he’s received, followed by a list of Pirate leaders.

“These are people you don’t think of on a regular basis who have been important to the program. These are the unsung heroes,” he said.

The foreword was written by the late Jeff Charles, longtime play-by-play announcer of the Pirates. Stephanie Dicken ’99 designed the book, which is available on Amazon or at UBE and Stadium Sports in Greenville. All proceeds go to an ECU Access Scholarship that Davis and his wife set up in October.

– Crystal Baity

Continuing to Pursue Gold

ECU has raised more than $493 million toward a $500 million goal. Your support will help to surpass that goal and ensure ECU’s place as an innovative leader in higher education. Learn more at pursuegold.ecu.edu

Carl Davis

ECU awarded top honor in internationalization

With its growing international program, ECU was one of four institutions nationwide to receive the Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The award was announced Feb. 14 and recognizes overall excellence in internationalization efforts by an institution of higher education.

According to Jon Rezek, assistant vice chancellor for global affairs, it’s like winning the national championship of internationalization. In addition to ECU, Georgia State University, Northwestern University and the University of Kentucky received the award.

“This award represents the culmination of over five years of efforts on the part of university administration, global affairs, faculty, staff and students across all of our academic units to deliberately and strategically strengthen and expand our international programs,” Rezek said. “Over the course of the past five years we have moved from a university with certain targeted strengths in the international arena to one that can truly be called a national model for comprehensive internationalization.”

Rezek said that since 2016, ECU has focused on growing campus internationalization opportunities, including the number of international students and scholars attending ECU and student engagement. Support from campus leadership and funding from donors and grant awards provided the resources needed to change campus culture and grow a comprehensive program.

The number of new international students enrolled at ECU grew by 80% last fall compared to 2017. Students representing 68 countries are enrolled at ECU. About 15 international virtual exchange courses are offered at ECU each semester across multiple departments.

“In addition to our signature Global Understanding courses, we now offer discipline-specific courses in business, health and environmental studies, and are developing another model of virtual exchange that will allow us to increase the diversity and numbers of courses that can be involved,” said Jami Leibowitz, associate director of ECU’s Office of Global Affairs, director of Global Academic Initiatives, and chair of the Global Partners in Education network.

ECU has partnerships with 51 universities in 37 countries. Last spring, in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, ECU hosted a conversation with students at a partner university in Ukraine, offering faculty, staff and students a firsthand account of the effects of the war and the Ukrainian students a chance to have their story told. Last academic year, the first since pandemic travel restrictions were lifted, more than 400 students went abroad, and faculty members led 20 programs abroad.

– Jamie Smith

Left, Jon Rezek, assistant vice chancellor for global affairs, and Linda Darty, director of the ECU Tuscany program, speak with Elio Ansaldo, longtime resident of Certaldo Alto, Italy, in 2018. Below, 40 students from ECU’s College of Health and Human Performance traveled across Europe last summer, including a stop at Heidelberg Castle in Heidelberg, Germany.

Merdi Lutete, shown here celebrating with her father, Masiala Ngoma, was among the 78 graduating medical students who learned where they will be doing their residency training at the Brody School of Medicine’s annual Match Day on March 17. She is headed to Duke University for a residency in neurology. Of the graduates, 34 matched to residencies in North Carolina, 16 of those at ECU Health Medical Center. A total of 46 graduates matched into primary care residencies: family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics and OB/GYN.

Team studying health care for Ukrainian refugees

A team of ECU College of Nursing faculty and students have joined with colleagues from Poland and Ukraine to assess the nursing guidance needed to help provide quality health care to refugees from the war in Ukraine. The study team includes principal investigator Kim Larson; Lucyna Płaszewska-Żywko at Jagiellonian University in Poland, Dr. Natalia Sira and registered nurse Anya Rozumna of Ukraine; and ECU honors students Lauren Briggs, Toby Bryson and Neha Makanangot; and doctoral student Marianne Congema.

Larson received the college’s first Fulbright Scholar award to support the research.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland while others have joined family in the U.S., and a prepared and competent nursing workforce is critical to meet the needs of these refugees. A study, “Intercultural Nursing Care for the Health and Well-being of Ukrainian Refugees,” aims to design, deliver and evaluate intercultural nursing care guidance to sustain refugee health.

The study builds on an established partnership between nursing faculty at ECU and Jagiellonian University in Poland. The goal is to improve nurses’ knowledge, skills and attitudes in caring for refugees from Ukraine through a global health international virtual exchange course, in-depth interviews with nurses and refugees in Poland, and Ukrainian consensusbuilding using the Delphi technique with an expert panel of nurses in Poland and Ukraine. The intercultural nursing care guidance will be available online to schools of nursing in countries that are caring for refugees from Ukraine.

– ECU News Services

Kim Larson, left, ECU Health registered nurse and Ukraine native Ganna Rozumna and Dr. Natalia Sira of Ukraine discuss the project.

Business grad expands online shop to brick-and-mortar store

Following success online, Greenville native Ashley Nolan ’20 has expanded her copper jewelry and crystal business to a storefront in Arlington Village in Greenville.

Shoppers can now find the whimsical, handcrafted jewelry and other treasures of Copper Ashes on display inside Hart & Home Décor at 686 Arlington Blvd. The store opened in March.

Nolan has been making jewelry since she was 10. Her current process, known as electroforming, uses electricity to grow metals onto a medium to produce dazzling compositions. She says she discovered the copper-plating process online and watched videos and studied the process until she got it just right.

She uses ethically sourced elements from nature such as butterfly wings, bones, shells and leaves to produce what she calls “wearable art.” She has also added crystals to her collection.

“It’s fun bringing something a little different to the area,” she said. Opening her storefront, she said, was “definitely one of the most terrifying decisions, but it’s also very exciting.”

Early on, Nolan sold her products on Etsy. After connecting with some digital influencers, sales grew

and she started taking custom orders. She then launched an online store outside of Etsy and soon was selling in all 50 states and several countries. But nearing graduation she was unsure if her hobby could be a career.

One day in an entrepreneurship class, she learned of an internship opportunity at ECU, RISE29, funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation. It connects local businesses with undergraduates for student-led consulting projects that help create and retain jobs in eastern North Carolina.

“As a native of the region with an entrepreneurial mind and a validated business idea, Ashley was in prime position for RISE29 leadership to take a chance on her,” said Tristyn Daughtry, RISE29 program manager. “To watch the growth of Copper Ashes from what was deemed as a hobby to growing as an e-commerce brand and now to having a storefront location, I think in hindsight we were right.”

Said Nolan: “When I showed them what I had done and my projections, they said, ‘Wow, that’s very impressive. You have something here.’ They weren’t friends and family telling me that. These were people in the business profession. They saw potential. And I thought, ‘This isn’t just a side hustle anymore.’”

Following the internship, Nolan’s sales tripled.

“It was a confidence boost, and it pushed me to do what I always wanted to do. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without that internship,” said Nolan.

– Kim Tilghman

Ashley Nolan has opened a storefront in Greenville to sell her unique jewelry and other items.

Internship with one of NASCAR’s top teams motivates engineering student

Sophomore Colin Foley from New London spent last summer and part of his winter break interning with Richard Childress Racing, one of NASCAR’s most successful racing teams.

“Every time I walked through the door, I would learn something, no matter what it was,” Foley said. “I gained so much experience so fast. By my second month working there, I felt like I had been there a year just because of how many things you’re constantly absorbing and constantly learning.”

Foley worked at the team’s shop in Welcome, near Winston-Salem. He learned of the internship through a family friend.

“I thought that it was the best opportunity in the entire world,” Foley said. “I never considered working in motorsports. It wasn’t at the top of my head. But when he told me about it, I knew I had to pursue it.”

Foley worked mainly with the racing team’s Xfinity series cars, using machinery and math to measure the chassis.

“You have to measure every single point to make sure that it meets NASCAR specifications, and if it doesn’t, you have to send it back to get it fixed,” Foley said. “It’s a whole process. NASCAR is very tight with their specifications.” How tight?

“We were working on this one car, and we were off by less than half of the thickness of your fingernail in a certain spot, but it’s got to be right,” he said.

Foley saw his work racing on the track each week. “I’d go home and watch the race on Saturday or Sunday, and I would think, ‘Oh, I touched that. I worked on that,’” he said. “That was really cool.”

Foley said he saw firsthand how what he’s learned in his engineering classes — such as communication, file management and 3D modeling — is important with RCR.

“Being able to see that, being able to see the things that you’ve learned be useful in your job, that is the best moment. It’s a good motivator,” Foley said.

“The thing I tell people is you’ve got to knock on those doors or else they’re not going to open,” he said. “But once that one door opens, it’s the key to every other door that you’ve been trying to open.”

– Ken Buday

Engineering student Colin Foley put his skills to work with famed Richard Childress Racing in 2022.

EC Scholars renaming reflects donors’ $30 million commitment

In a milestone moment for ECU, Chancellor Philip Rogers announced a combined $30 million commitment to the institution from Robert Gentry Brinkley ’78 and Amy Woods Brinkley and Lewis Patrick Lane III ’67 and Lynn Lewis Lane. The EC Scholars program will now be known as the Brinkley-Lane Scholars program to honor their investment.

“Robert and Amy Brinkley and Pat and Lynn Lane have sustained ECU with unwavering devotion. They have joined together in a commitment, which will be the cornerstone of the university’s continued success and standard of excellence,” Rogers said. “We are humbled by their dedication to ECU and overwhelmed by their generosity. It is our honor to recognize their historic support by renaming the EC Scholars program the Brinkley-Lane Scholars program.”

The families have made the largest combined commitment in the university's history. Brinkley and Lane also join a distinguished list of names renowned for the top academic scholarships in higher education around the nation.

Robert Brinkley received a bachelor’s degree from the College of Business and was a four-year letter winner on the Pirate baseball team. The Brinkleys have been avid champions of ECU, supporting the EC Scholars program, the Honors College, the Access Scholarship program and athletics.

Amy Brinkley had a three-decades-long career at Bank of America. Over the course of her career, she served as the company’s marketing executive, as president of consumer products and as the company’s chief risk officer.

Pat Lane is a College of Business accounting graduate. The Lanes have been steadfast proponents of ECU, supporting the EC Scholars program, the Honors College, the College of Education, the College of Fine Arts and Communication, the Medical & Health Sciences Foundation, the Pirate Club and the alumni association. They are in the Educators Hall of Fame.

Lynn Lane has served as chair of the ECU Foundation board of directors, is chair of the Honors College Advancement Council

and has been reappointed to the Board of Visitors. She is also a 2001 ECU Honorary Alumni Award recipient.

The Brinkley-Lane Scholars program is the hallmark of the Honors College and represents the most prestigious undergraduate award program offered at ECU. The impact of the Brinkley and Lane families’ lifetime commitment will be felt immediately in the Honors College.

“This is a significant milestone for the Scholars program, the Honors College and all of ECU,” said Todd Fraley, dean of the Honors College. “The word we have been using around the office is transformative. We want to thank the Brinkley and Lane families for their tremendous generosity and demonstrated commitment to the success of our students.”

– Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall

Robert and Amy Brinkley, left, and Lynn and Pat Lane, right, were honored by Chancellor Philip Rogers for their historic commitment to ECU.

Updated strategic plan emphasizes innovation

Future focused. Innovation driven. is ECU’s strategic plan for 2023–2028. A refresh of the university’s 2017–2022 strategic plan, it highlights the intersection of ECU’s mission, vision and values as it sets priorities for advancing the university during the next five years.

It maintains the university’s mission of Servire: To Serve, builds on the mission priorities of student success, public service and regional transformation, and adds “vision priorities” of social and economic mobility, workforce success, and rural health and well-being.

“It’s so ingrained in who we are,” Sharon Paynter, co-chair of the strategic plan refresh committee and acting chief research and engagement officer, said of the mission priorities. “While we’ve made a lot of progress, there’s still work to be done.”

The refresh committee consists of faculty, staff and students. The other co-chair, Ravi Paul of the College of Business, said the Future Focused. Innovation Driven. vision statement can be looked at as where ECU is now and where committee members see it headed.

“All organizations need to have some kind of competitive advantage to succeed. Without one,

you fail,” said Paul, associate professor and chair of management information systems. “I think it’s absolutely critical that we think innovatively about the things that we want to continue to be. How do we do that better? How do we serve our communities better?”

ECU stakeholders have had opportunities to voice their opinions and views of what ECU’s future should look like through online surveys and public forums. They built upon Chancellor Philip Rogers’ Pirate Perspectives listening sessions during his first months as university leader.

“It is empowering, but it also is what keeps a university strong when you actually do take the time to listen,” said Provost Robin Coger. “It doesn’t mean that everything and every thought can always be reflected, but it does help” when people see their views reflected in the document.

The next phase of the refresh will connect the different university units with the strategic plan to ensure the “One ECU” approach. That will happen over the summer.

More information on the refreshed strategic plan is available at strategicplan.ecu.edu.

– Rich Klindworth

ECU trustees hear an update on the strategic plan refresh at their April 28 meeting.

Discovery

Game uses tech to teach nursing, medical students

Sometimes gaming doesn’t mean playing a game. For example, serious games, said Josh Peery, a game designer and instructional technology consultant for the ECU College of Nursing, are those that don’t have entertainment as the primary goal but rather education, training or awareness.

Peery is not a game developer by training, but his graduate education in English and film gave him entree into the gaming world because he understood how to develop a story and manage complex projects.

“When this job presented itself, they needed someone who could speak to the faculty and understand research and things of that nature,” Peery said. “So that’s where my degree came into place.”

His research focuses on the gamification of nongaming spaces, such as online shopping and user experience. Serious games are best suited for the space between a person having no knowledge about a subject and being at a point of mastery of that subject.

Student needs in this stage are repetition and novelty. In the virtual clinic gaming space, a nursing or medical student can repeat a simulated office visit as many times as necessary. While there are other off-theshelf games nursing and medical schools use, in those the player has free rein to perform unnecessary medical procedures.

“You could have someone come in with a broken arm and you could give them a colonoscopy — wildly inappropriate and not even necessary — but the commercially available games would allow you to do

Latest Investigations

Game teaches patient-care skills

Brain traffic jams can signal dementia

Left, Kuan-Hung Chen, an IT consultant with the College of Nursing, works on graphic elements of a virtual reality game used to teach students. Below, Josh Peery, an instructional technology specialist with the College of Nursing, develops the Virtual Clinic serious game for nursing and other health sciences students.

that,” Peery said. “A serious game is going to limit those choices so the learning is guided rather than just throwing the kitchen sink at you.”

Pamela Reis, the department chair of nursing science and Ph.D. program director, tasked her students with developing the narrative structure for a virtual appointment with a patient. “It’s a good way for students to organize their thoughts without judgment,” she said. “The virtual clinic is a way to present students with cases that they’ll see in clinical practice in a nonthreatening environment, although it is somewhat threatening because the grade is associated with it.”

Lindsey Lang ’23 of Durham was a registered nurse before being accepted at the Brody School of Medicine. She built four cases.

“Josh took me through the gaming structure of how to input the information, build the characters and input background information,” she said. “When I was in nursing school, it was a lot of didactics. We would have some simulations, but now having more simulations is helpful. One thing COVID has taught us is doing more things virtually has been a benefit to our education.”

– Benjamin Abel

Engineering professor looks for traffic jams on the brain’s highways

The human brain is like a complex group of highways, and despite a good road map, traffic jams may develop.

Sunghan Kim, an associate professor in the ECU Department of Engineering, hopes a better method of understanding how these brain highways connect and affect one another could help diagnose cognitive brain issues.

“My research team is trying to develop a platform that can monitor subtle changes of the brain due to various cognitive deficits such as sleep deprivation, dementia, anxiety, schizophrenia, ADHD or just normal age-related cognitive deficits so that they can be used to diagnose or at least help doctors and nurses quantify the changes,” Kim said.

Using an electroencephalogram to measure electrical activity in the brain, Kim and his team of students are looking at functional connectivity — the traffic flow of those brain highways — in the entire brain, not just one part of it. Changes over time could indicate a problem or potential problem, but finding them isn’t easy.

“You have to do a lot of processing before you can quantify the changes, because these are really subtle changes,” Kim said. “Making sense out of an EEG is more or less like trying to understand when a (child) is talking to (their) mom in a huge basketball arena when everybody is cheering for his or her team.”

Once a baseline is established, the subject is retested after getting little to no sleep.

So why is this important? Kim points out changes along the brain’s highways could mean trouble — dementia, addiction, schizophrenia, ADHD, anxiety or Alzheimer’s disease.

“If anything happens different in the brain, the EEG is going to look differently,” Kim said. “As you get dementia, as you get anxious, as you get depression, the difference between meaningful stimulation versus meaningless stimulation becomes less and less and less.”

Kim hopes the use of EEG and functional connectivity analysis can lead to earlier diagnosis and better patient outcomes.

“You can do some sort of intervention. You can change your diet. You can do more exercise. You can do some sort of mental training,” he said. “There are a lot of dementia medicines that are being developed, and those aren’t for the last stage but before the onset so you can slow it, so you can delay it. So, instead of spending the last 10 years of your life in, say, an assisted-living center or senior center, you can delay it and maybe spend just six months or a year toward the end of your life.”

– Ken Buday

Below, Marwa Antar, a second-year graduate student in biomedical engineering, works with a student wearing a cap that measures electrical activity in the brain.

Focus

Eric Horsman

Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences

Associate professor and interim chair of geological sciences

On May 18, 1980, Eric Horsman was a boy living in southeastern Washington state. He recalls the day.

“One of my earliest memories was Mount St. Helens erupting in 1980,” he said recently. “I remember waking up. You could see the volcano perfectly from where we lived. It looked like snow in our front yard. I remember shoveling it with my dad.”

That may not sound so bad but in fact it was the largest volcanic event in U.S. history. Fifty-seven people died. Entire glaciers melted from the mountain, creating the largest landslide in recorded human history. The entire north face of the crater collapsed. Ash fell not just in Horsman’s yard but across 11 states.

Horsman is an associate professor of geology at East Carolina University who studies volcanoes – extinct ones. He has a bachelor’s in geology from Rice University and a master’s and doctorate in geology from the University of Wisconsin. He arrived at ECU in 2010.

At ECU, he’s received more than $440,000 in National Science Foundation and other external funding. He’s been a primary or co-investigator on more than 15 journal articles and made dozens of other publications and presentations. He supervises five graduate students, four of whom are researching topics related to volcanoes.

“Overall, the study of volcanoes is an important field in geology and earth science, as it helps us to better understand the complex processes that shape our planet,” he said. “What’s happening at the subsurface a mile or two down, that’s what’s driving the eruption at the surface.”

Horsman noted that one of the main hypotheses about where life originated is near volcanoes at the bottom of the ocean. In addition, volcanoes are sources of economic minerals. They directly or indirectly produce or host deposits of aluminum, diamonds, gold, nickel, lead, zinc and copper — vital minerals people and industries use every day.

“Even if you aren’t living next to a volcano, the systems are important,” he said.

– Doug Boyd

Mount St. Helens eruption, 1980

Megan Perry, a professor of anthropology at ECU, has been selected for the Thomas W. Rivers Distinguished Professorship for International Studies in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. Perry will hold the professorship through the 20232024 academic year and has the opportunity to be reappointed for additional terms. Perry has taught at ECU since 2003 and specializes in biological anthropology, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology and the Near East.

Dr. Jason Higginson, executive dean of the Brody School of Medicine and chief health officer for ECU Health, has taken command of the U.S. Navy Reserve’s Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command in Bethesda, Maryland. It’s a two-year assignment during which Higginson — who joined the Reserve in 2012 after 13 years of active duty — will oversee a pool of physicians, nurses and other health care professionals who are available for the Navy to deploy for worldwide contingency support.

Todd Fraley was named dean of the Honors College in April. He had served as interim dean since June 2022. Fraley joined ECU in 2004 as an assistant professor in the School of Communication. In 2014, he became director of the Brinkley-Lane Scholars program and associate dean of the Honors College in 2017. Fraley will also hold the Bill and Emily Furr Honors College Distinguished Professorship, established through a donation from the Furrs along with matching funds from the UNC System Board of Governors’ Distinguished Professorship Endowment Trust Fund.

Brandon A. Frye has joined ECU as vice chancellor for student affairs. He previously served as vice president for student affairs at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. A first-generation college student, Frye has also worked at the University of West Florida, Auburn University and the University of Georgia. Frye has a doctorate in student affairs administration from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in student development and a bachelor’s degree in history and secondary education from Appalachian State University.

Tarek Abdel-Salam, a professor of engineering and associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and Technology, has been elected as an associate fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Abdel-Salam received recognition in January from the AIAA board of trustees and membership during the 2023 AIAA SciTech Forum in National Harbor, Maryland. Associate fellows are members “who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, or who have done original work of outstanding merit, or who have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics or astronautics,” according to the organization.

IN AN OLD FARMVILLE GAS STATION, RAW MATERIALS PLUS FIRE EQUALS ART

The golden hour arrives in Farmville, where the sun slowly slips beneath acres of tobacco and cotton fields surrounding this eastern North Carolina town, revealing hues of blue, orange, yellow, pink and, of course, purple.

The drive is less than 30 minutes from East Carolina University’s campus in Greenville, and students make the trip four evenings a week, catching a glimpse of nature’s majesty on their way to class at the GlasStation.

ECU opened the studio five years ago in collaboration with the town. Each semester, undergraduate and graduate students sign up for glass blowing at ECU, the only university that offers it in the University of North Carolina System.

Student success

Charity Ray, who is majoring in art with a concentration in graphic design, needed another class to finish the art studio requirements for her major. “Out of all the classes I could’ve taken, glass blowing was something that I wanted to know more about,” she says. “I automatically assumed it was going to be hard because of how clumsy I was, but no matter how many times I messed up, I wasn’t afraid to try again.”

Glass blowing has a steep learning curve, a choreographed process of heat, movement and pressure, which becomes intuitive with practice, says Michael Tracy, teaching assistant professor in the School of Art and Design.

“Surprisingly, after being in the class for a little bit over a month, I have gotten the basics of controlling the glass and not being afraid of getting close to the heat,” says Ray of Severn, Maryland. “I did not know how every detail that goes into making a glass piece is up to the artist. In the end, if you break it, just shake it off and start again.”

On a Monday night this spring, Ray carefully and methodically moved a long-handled metal blow piece from the furnace to a work bench, where she rolled and shaped the glass before returning it to the fire. The steps were repeated over and over, turning and transforming what started as a gooey blob into a clear glass cup.

“This class is definitely more hands-on than my other classes this semester,” Ray says. “Even with my previous studio classes, only my hands were needed to make my art but, in this class, you will be needing your whole body.”

First-semester students learn heat control and ways of manipulating glass physically. They spend eight weeks making cups before graduating to vases. “The vessel forms just give a recognizable, defined end goal,” Tracy says.

ECU students Bansari Patel, left, and Charity Ray work together on Ray’s cup.

Students also complete technical projects in the “cold room,” where they learn grinding, polishing, carving and sandblasting techniques that can change the shape or texture of glass without heat. “Glass blowing is the flashy part, so that’s what everyone wants to see or hear about, but it’s actually only half the process,” Tracy says.

Nick Bisbee, a first-year graduate student in ceramics, has enjoyed creating designs for molds for his hand-blown glass. He caught the “glass bug” in his first class and now is a teaching assistant with Tracy. Bisbee hopes to eventually teach ceramics at a university.

“My favorite thing about glass is definitely the aesthetics of it, the fact that you can make something that refracts light in a way that no other material really can and the way that light can move through it in ways that it doesn’t really with other materials,” he says.

Bisbee’s other medium is clay, “which weirdly translates extremely well into glass. Instead of throwing on a wheel, you’re throwing fully sideways, and you can’t touch it with anything other than tools, even though you really want to.”

Students are shaping glass at temperatures between 1,600 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, although it’s closer to 2,100 degrees when first pulled from the furnace. The material can crack if it drops below 1,000 degrees and isn’t cooled slowly.

Building community

The GlasStation is helping fulfill a vision to use the arts to revitalize downtown Farmville. Almost a decade ago, members of the Farmville Group, a volunteer economic development association, and the Tabitha M. DeVisconti Trust, which owns the building, approached ECU about the possibility of opening a studio or art space in Farmville.

At that time, more than half the town’s storefronts were empty or abandoned. In response, ECU proposed a glass art facility that would not only serve as a classroom for students but would become a destination for anyone interested in glass blowing.

“It’s a vital place now,” says Todd Edwards, a local builder, developer and Farmville Group member involved in the effort. “Just the energy that the GlasStation brings, that big risk that ECU took, and that Michael took to come here. The attention it draws, it’s amazing when they have demonstrations. Often it’s standing room only.”

We hope that the GlasStation provides those that visit an opportunity to experience all of what art can do for us as individuals and as a community.

Linda Kean, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication

ECU student Christopher Uteck uses a grinding wheel in the cold room.

Todd Edwards is a Farmville Group member who helped bring ECU’s glass classes to town.

Below, the GlasStation’s name is a nod to the building’s former life as a Gulf service station. At right, glass is turned at temperatures between 1,600 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit in the furnace. Below right, finished glass pieces are lined up on a shelf.

ECU’s glass studio has been joined by other artists and new businesses the past few years. Catty-cornered across West Wilson Street, the North Carolina Furniture School’s Stuart Kent ’05 ’08 teaches furniture making, woodturning and woodworking classes. His friend Matt Wright ’94 visited and decided to open Lanoca Coffee Company, a small-batch, artisanal coffee roaster, on South Main Street. The arts council has rebranded and revamped programming, and two art galleries have opened.

“We have been able to leverage that with retailers coming to Farmville,” Edwards says. “Our downtown’s filled up now. Adaptive uses, people living downtown, this was the forerunner to it. This kind of led the charge.”

ECU’s presence has rejuvenated interest from residents and beyond. “Mike’s done a great job of promoting glass art,” Edwards says. “It’s really performance art meets art world because there’s a physical, tangible product in the end. To watch glass being made is absolutely fascinating.”

The GlasStation name honors the building’s former life as a gas station and its repurposed mission. Built in 1946, the building features exposed brick, large windows and industrial lighting with about 2,400 square feet of studio space.

ECU supplements academic classes with community outreach including continuing education workshops and monthly demonstrations that are open to the public. Tracy also teaches students from Pitt Community College, another town partner. “This studio was created with community outreach in mind as a secondary goal right behind the course offerings it adds in the School of Art and Design,” Tracy says.

‘Creative roots’

Glass blowing involves heating a glass tube, called a blowpipe, and manipulating it to shape the molten glass as it cools.

ECU’s glass blowing classes are capped at eight students, a purposely small group to accommodate available workspace and equipment. Over the past five years, Tracy has taught about 150 ECU students the art of glass blowing.

The medium has not changed much, Tracy says, since humans began making glassware.

“I love the fact that I feel like I have a connection with the Mediterranean and Roman glass blowers 2,000 years ago. That kind of feels a little special,” he says. “New technologies are great, but I also feel a lot of them are transient, whereas with glass blowing, the only change has been our fuel source. It probably won’t change drastically any time soon.”

The forms were all influenced by pottery and translated to glass, Tracy says. “Form follows function, so if you’re trying to make a vase, only certain shapes are going to work really well for a vase,” he says.

In 2019, ECU’s College of Fine Arts and Communication received a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to research the cultural and economic impact of the glass blowing studio in Farmville. ECU was one of 19 organizations in North Carolina to receive the competitive funding.

ECU and the college’s role in regional transformation — part of the university’s core mission — comes to life here in the form of the orange glow of hot glass on its way to becoming a piece of art.

“We know that the arts have the ability to transform us in many ways,” says Linda Kean, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. “In the case of the GlasStation, giving people the opportunity to participate in the creation of a piece of work that is uniquely their own can be powerful.

“We hope that the GlasStation provides those that visit an opportunity to experience all of what art can do for us as individuals and as a community. We continue to look to the future to find ways to collaborate with Farmville and other communities to come together to create art in its various forms.”

The GlasStation’s impact continues to unfold today. “And it just keeps going. We have lots of tenacles to what’s going on and the creative roots that this place has put into town,” Edwards says.

“The ECU connections run deep, and we’ve had a lot of ECU alumni come through here. It’s brought people to town in many, many ways,” he says. “Everyone is proud of ECU, and we’re so proud to have an ECU satellite to the campus here in town. For us, it’s a really big deal.”

Top, Michael Tracy, teaching assistant professor in the ECU School of Art and Design, has been the glass art instructor in Farmville since the facility opened. Above, graduate student Nick Bisbee fires a mold in one of the GlasStation’s furnaces.

Charles Darwin considered fire and language the two most important discoveries of humankind. Of those,fire has been a symbol of destruction and creation. We admire its beauty, fear its destructiveness and harness its power. East interviewed two groups of people whose careers revolve around fire: firefighters and artists. They describe how they found their calling to work with and around fire and the passions that drive them to continue their work.

STORY BY DOUG BOYD AND PATRICIA EARNHARDT TYNDALL

Fire illuminates Ben Owen III’s face as he adds wood to the kiln. Firings take multiple days. A kiln firing is a collaborative effort in patience.

The front lines of firefighting

When the alarm rings, they spring into action. With sirens blaring and lights flashing, they rush toward danger while others flee from it. They face smoke, flames and the unknown with courage and selflessness. They are firefighters, the people who put their lives on the line to protect our communities.

Beyond the iconic image of firefighters battling infernos, there is a story of sacrifice, camaraderie and resilience. Kevin Fontana ’94 ’03, Lauren Griffin ’13 ’14 and Derrick Ingram ’00 have more than 60 years of firefighting experience among them.

You might recognize Ingram’s name. He’s in the ECU Athletics Hall of Fame for his track accomplishments in the 1990s. “I was looking for a career job in the Greenville area that would help me provide for my family,” he says. “I met a former Greenville Fire/Rescue employee who told all the great things GFR had to offer. I applied the next day.”

Now a captain with the department, Ingram says the rewards come from knowing he’s “helping people in their time of need. I enjoy helping and providing education to the citizens of this city.”

Griffin started firefighting when she was in high school in northern Virginia. Her curriculum required volunteer hours, so she became a junior firefighter.

“I was an overachiever, so I got like 10,000 hours,” she says. Even though music was her focus as a youth, she eventually received degrees in education and counseling at ECU. She taught with Pitt County Schools for seven years as an English teacher and counselor, but she missed firefighting.

During a vacation to Belize, a nearby restaurant caught fire. Griffin got in the bucket brigade ferrying water from the ocean to douse the flames. Inside her head, a voice kept talking. After returning home, she saw an ad for a career fair at GFR.

“That little voice says you need to do fire and rescue,” she says. “I haven’t looked back. I just had a calling. Every year I was without fire and rescue in my life, there was something missing.” She’s also a paramedic.

For Fontana, it was seeing volunteer firefighters work to save a neighbor’s burning house — community members who had also helped his family during difficult times. He was 20 at the time and talked with one of the firefighters afterward.

Clockwise from left, Capt. Derrick Ingram and his son, Jordan, of Greenville Fire/ Rescue; Kevin Fontana, a College of Business faculty member and Winterville volunteer firefighter; and Lauren Griffin of Greenville Fire/Rescue.

Derrick Ingram ’00

“I thought volunteering would be a way to repay the community for supporting my family,” says Fontana, who’s an instructor in the College of Business.

Keeping your cool when things get hot

In 2022, GFR responded to 74 building fires and 55 cooking fires confined to a container, according to Jessica Blackwell ’17, public information officer and fire educator. For all types of fires, from vegetation to vehicles, firefighters responded to 148 fires in 2022 and 174 in 2021. According to the National Fire Protection Association, every 23 seconds, a fire department in the United States responds to a fire somewhere in the nation.

For firefighters, staying calm at a fire scene is a matter of training and experience. Griffin says yoga also helps. “Some people get really excited, overenergized, but I find a calming in putting on my gear, breathing,” she says. “I’ll constantly monitor my breathing, bring my heart rate down, conserve my air. But it’s also an adrenaline rush. Within five to 10 minutes, the main job is done, but it’s so physically strenuous.”

How strenuous? She says not as much as moving into Legacy Hall as an 18-year-old. “Walking up all the stairs — I still remember the day my parents helped me move into that dorm. Lugging all that equipment is nothing compared to moving into my dorm,” she says with a laugh.

“I try to lean back on my fire training to manage my emotions at incident scenes,” Ingram says. “I don’t think I have ever been scared due to training.”

Looking ahead

Firefighting jobs are expected to grow at about a 4% rate through 2031, most with local departments, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means about 28,000 openings each year to replace workers who retire, move to other jobs or leave the workforce.

Helping keep the ranks up at GFR is a second-generation Ingram.

“It was an honor to have my son Jordan follow my career path and become a firefighter,” Derrick Ingram says. “It was challenging at first because I wanted him to do so well, and as a parent you want to do it for them. Jordan has developed into a good employee and is making a name for himself. He has embraced the job and is taking classes for career development.”

Griffin’s 7-year-old son, Asher, wants to follow in his mom’s footsteps. “He wants to be a firefighter,” she says.

Fontana is coming out of a recent volunteer hiatus due to family illness and preparing for his daughter’s wedding. He plans to pick up his volunteer work this summer. Why? He goes back to that day 30 years ago when he saw local men and women risk their lives.

“It’s all about public service and the importance of volunteering to help your community,” he says. “Volunteer firefighter numbers are down across the state. If I can help sound the alarm — pardon the pun — I will do so when possible.”

Install and regularly test smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Talk with all family members about a fire escape plan and practice the plan twice a year.

If a fire occurs, get out, stay out and call for help. Don’t go back inside.

Have a fire extinguisher and learn how to use it.

Sources: American Red Cross, FireRescue1

To protect yourself from fire, follow these steps:

FOR MORE INFO Learn how to put out a kitchen fire at bit.ly/400Pfzy.

Jessica Blackwell ’17

Pottery tells Owen’s multigenerational story

Committing pottery to the fire is one chapter in a unique story of each piece. Flame, heat and time change the clay and glaze, creating vessels with color, character and texture. It’s a story Ben Owen III’s family has told for generations in Seagrove.

Owen ’93 says his work is at the mercy of the fire when placed in a wood-fired kiln, where flame surrounds the vessels. Smoke and ash can also affect the glazes and can change the state of the materials in the glaze. Owen finds the interaction and the outcome exciting. He’s spent years studying to enrich his craft.

“I learned my craft the traditional way, passed down from my family and other potters in the area, not relying on modern technology,” Owen says. “I wanted to understand why all these things worked the way they did and how our family manipulated these materials, transforming a lump of clay into a vessel of purpose.”

Owen brought his family knowledge to ECU to study under professors and artists, including Art Haney and Chuck Chamberlain. As a student, he was indulged with access to labs, freedom to do research and the opportunity to learn how different materials work. Owen focused on ceramics but took on a wellrounded curriculum that allowed him to look at what he did with clay in interaction with other elements, such as woodworking, painting and blacksmithing. For Owen, it added depth to his knowledge of pottery.

“ECU had such a great foundation of materials and equipment to use, plus we had the opportunity to build a wood kiln while learning the fundamentals of how to control the fire successfully,” Owen says.

ECU’s influence on Owen’s craft also happened beyond the classroom. Chamberlain took Owen to visit and learn from local potters, including Irene Glover. She was creating ash glazes from trees cut and burned on her farm. She gave Owen the choice of an ash from her collection. He selected a hickory wood ash. Owen described the gift as a golden bar of chocolate. It was special and rare, and it created a celadon glaze unlike anything he had seen. He used the ash sparingly for as long as he could to benefit from the unique color.

The visit allowed him to grow as a potter and learn about the intricacies of the materials. He paid those experiences forward, bringing students from ECU to Seagrove to participate in a kiln firing. He serves as the artist-in-residence at High Point University and involves students in learning opportunities at his studio.

Every firing is different, and each piece has a unique mark from the firing.

Ben Owen III

Ben Owen emerges with a vase from a wood kiln firing at Ben Owen Pottery in Seagrove.

Owen describes a wood kiln firing as a performance. Each performance inspires Owen’s journey of creating pieces that will be in the next story. A couple of months of work go into wood firing. He typically prepares four or five wood firings a year — dictated by what he makes and commission work as needed. Each firing can include 300-400 pieces. A larger kiln has the capacity for up to 1,500 pieces.

There are two wood-fired kilns at Ben Owen Pottery. One is a single-chamber kiln that has the shape of a candle flame where vessels are stacked in front of the fire box. In this kiln, Owen produces work with more ash effects for all the pieces. A multichambered kiln allows for a variety of interactions among clay, glaze, flame, ash and heat — based on each pot’s placement in the kiln.

Kiln firings take multiple days. A firing is a collaborative effort in patience. The performance may include fellow potters and a few tried-and-true helpers who support loading, firing and around-the-clock monitoring. As compared to a painter, the outcome isn’t known until days later when they unload the kiln.

“You set out a goal and a road map for what you want for the pieces and how you think it will turn out. Just when you are sure how the results may be, the firing, materials, weather or plan provides the unexpected,” Owen says. “Every firing is different, and each piece has a unique mark from the firing. I still get nervous but excited every time we reveal the results from the process.”

Ben Owen retrieves vessels from the kiln, where his work is at the mercy of the fire. Every firing is different, and each piece has a unique mark from the firing.

Forging art with fire and steel

The flames, heat and artistry of an iron pour sparked the imaginations of Aaron Earley ’10, James Dudley ’11 and Ella Snow ’17 and eventually fused them together as partners and staff at Cricket Forge in Durham.

The attraction to sculpture and fire began for them as students at ECU’s School of Art and Design. Iron pours are a team effort, “a sort of dance to create art,” Dudley says. Iron is melted to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, collected and poured into wood and sand molds for iron casting. The wood burns, and sand and wood fuse with the cooling iron, creating the cast sculpture.

“It was a thing we practiced at ECU and hardly anywhere else at the time,” Earley says.

“It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen,” Dudley says. “All I knew was I needed to do this. Whatever this is, this is my future.”

At Cricket Forge, the trio and their co-workers are still drawn to the flames and heat. They specialize in metal art furnishings, steel indoor and outdoor furniture, garden benches, custom metal work and sculpture. Earley and Dudley became owners of the business with partner Jonathan Paschall. Snow joined in 2021.

Each day is a mixture of small-business management, maintenance, marketing, customer service, fabrication and creation. In the creation of their production and custom work, fire is the creator, manipulator and finisher of their art. They work with plasma energy, heat treatments and traditional blacksmith forging in the facility.

“Almost every product sees the touch of fire, either as cut steel, a forged element, heat treatment, a finishing method,” Earley says. “Where many materials are consumed or ruined by fire, the only way steel can take on a new form is with fire.”

Whether it’s a sheet of steel being cut by a 30,000-degree Fahrenheit plasma arc or a length of square bar heated to 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit in a gas forge, fire is the starting point, Earley says.

At Cricket Forge, Snow has found a job that aligns with her creative goals and allows her space and opportunity to continue practicing as an artist.

“It just feels right that I am here,” she says. “I’ve learned a wide range of skills and maintenance. Also, the people I work with are lovely, so that’s always a benefit.”

Snow works with a zinc flame sprayer in her responsibilities of sandblasting, zinc coating and then painting the products at Cricket Forge. The unique steps she works on add longevity to the steel structures they create.

Cricket Forge staff partnered with Don Drumm Studios on the fabrication and assembly of Drumm’s sculpture Sun Tracker, top right. The piece stands at over 18 feet tall, is built from 5/8-inch stainless steel sheet and is on display in Akron, Ohio.

Bottom right, Aaron Earley and James Dudley forge steel for a custom-made table in their Durham-based Cricket Forge facility.

“It’s essentially a handheld flame thrower with a metal wire thrown in,” Snow says. Propane and oxygen feed into the sprayer to create the fire. Zinc wire meets the flame, melts and sprays onto the metal work. “It looks like it should be a prop in a space movie with constant flame coming out of the front as you coat the surface of the product.”

The previous Cricket Forge owners allowed employees to use the facility to make art, and that tradition continues with the current employees. All three have projects they are working on in the facility. Cricket Forge allows them to be an incubator for learning new skills, and they find themselves inspired and influenced by the work happening on the floor.

“We’re wearing multiple hats; it’s a big team effort,” Earley says. “We hire cool people, a few of whom are ECU alums.”

As a co-owner and fabricator, Dudley is working with metal as he always knew he was meant to. His work often includes creating tools used at Cricket Forge. He also works with clients to design custom work and maintains the shop equipment and infrastructure.

“You can’t help but be inspired by what you see in the shop,” Dudley says. “We create a lot of scrap metal whose shapes have influenced countless artists outside of Cricket Forge in creating their own art.”

One of those artists is Jonathan Bowling ’99, whose well-known horse and animal sculptures dot the Greenville landscape. Dudley, who worked for Bowling after ECU, and Earley say that at least for a time every sculpture created by Bowling had a piece of metal from Cricket Forge. For Earley, there’s a good balance of stress and pleasure in running Cricket Forge. He has the opportunity to teach, collaborate and focus on creative problem-solving. He is proud of the legacy of their products and enjoys the inspiration of the new creations that happen in the shop.

“The diverse knowledge of sculpture materials and methods I developed at ECU is something I use every day,” Earley says. “The wide variety of projects we were assigned often serves as a citation or reference when I encounter new tasks, or a client. Sometimes I even use them as a point of reference for teaching or training an employee.”

Over 24 years, the butterflies and creations of Cricket Forge have found homes across the country, including the entirety of the Duke University campus. Earley also has seen one of their sculptures installed at an overlook on the side of a mountain.

Their favorite locations of their artwork include Dollywood and a sculpture at Lebron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio.

One of the things we’ve carried with us from ECU is that sense of community and how to work as a team.

Aaron Earley, co-owner of Cricket Forge

ECU LAB TRACES FIRE’S FINGERPRINTS THROUGH HISTORY

History — human history, the history of Earth, even the history of the universe — is made up of stories.

In East Carolina University’s Department of Geological Sciences, Siddhartha Mitra and his students are using black carbon — the soot, char and other chemical residues left behind by fire — to investigate and tell those stories. From meteorite impacts thousands of years ago to modern oil spills and other pollution, they use organic molecules to piece together and understand the events and processes that have shaped the world in which we live.

“Fires leave a very distinctive fingerprint of their presence in the form of organic molecules,” Mitra says.

In Siddhartha Mitra’s lab, soot and other byproducts of combustion have their own stories to tell.

In the lab are a variety of reference materials, created from known ingredients in laboratorycontrolled combustion processes, such as charcoal created from burning grass, char from burning a specific type of wood or soot from automobile exhaust. For these reference materials there are extensive databases of information about their chemical composition, what they look like under a microscope, the conditions when they were created and more.

“Then we go out and get a sample,” Mitra says. By studying the sample under a microscope or using extraction processes to isolate certain components, the researchers can compare the sample to known reference materials and begin to fill in pieces of the puzzle. A puzzle piece might be something such as the presence of levoglucosan, a chemical formed from the burning of wood, which survives only up to 475 degrees Celsius.

“So if I find that molecule in my sample of fire residue, I suspect that the fire was less than 475 degrees,” Mitra says.

The presence of other molecules can show what kind of material was burned — grasses versus

Comparing samples to known reference materials can reveal details such as how hot a fire burned and what materials it consumed.

hardwood trees, for example. “We put all these little pieces together of these different organic molecules, and eventually we may start seeing a shape, possibly a reconstruction of whatever caused that fire,” he says.

The Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula is widely believed to be the impact site of an asteroid that caused the extinction of non-bird dinosaurs along with many other species. Sid Mitra and other researchers are investigating how and why the impact and associated burning affected the planet.

Ancient explosions, and a local creek burns

“We have a study funded by the National Science Foundation right now where we’re looking at the Chicxulub site … where a giant meteor hit the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago. That event is thought to have wiped out 75% of the species of organisms on earth,” Mitra says (see more at adobe. ly/40ecpTt). He and other researchers are working to narrow down the type of burning that occurred afterward and how far it spread using samples from around the world.

FIRES LEAVE A VERY DISTINCTIVE FINGERPRINT OF THEIR PRESENCE IN THE FORM OF ORGANIC MOLECULES.”

Siddhartha Mitra

Sid Mitra’s analysis of soot samples from Tall el-Hammam supports the research team’s hypothesis that the city was destroyed by a high-temperature fire the civilization at the time could not generate. Above, a rendering shows what the site and the blast would have looked like. At right, this map illustrates the reach of a blast similar to the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, overlaid on the Jordan site. Bottom right, master’s candidate Daniel Reed looks at burned oak through a microscope. Reed is investigating the pollution of Town Creek near downtown Greenville.

In another project, Mitra joined an interdisciplinary team of researchers who presented multiple lines of evidence that the Middle Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam was destroyed by a cosmic airburst — a meteorite impact or the explosion of a meteor in the atmosphere. Mitra’s analysis of soot from the site showed the city burned at a temperature higher than any technology humans possessed at the time, indicating a huge external source of energy such as an airburst.

“One of the nice things about what I do is I usually collaborate with lots of people — anthropologists, biologists, chemists, modelers — because you really need a big team to tease out something that happened 50 million years ago, or even 100,000 years ago,” Mitra says.

Mitra’s lab also provides opportunities for student research. Doctoral student Rachel Wheatley is working on the Chicxulub project, while master’s candidate Daniel Reed is investigating a more contemporary question — that of pollution in Town Creek near downtown Greenville.

“Town Creek had all this hydrocarbon seeping into it from all the fuel tanks throughout Greenville, and it eventually caught fire,” Mitra says.

A great deal of work has gone into cleaning up the creek, and Reed is working to determine whether and how much of that oil seepage is still present and potentially flowing into the Tar River. Oil is simply an uncombusted fuel source, Mitra points out, so many of the same techniques are used to analyze what it is and where it came from.

Studying sediment in Africa

For master’s student Michael Zigah, working in Mitra’s lab was a matter of fate once he heard about a project analyzing sediment samples from Lake Bosumtwi in northern Africa.

“I grew up in Ghana, right near there,” Zigah says. “And the lake was just a huge feature there, like people take their kids on vacation and school trips.”

Mitra says he was blown away to find a student familiar with a particular lake 5,000 miles from Greenville. “I said, ‘Well, this project is obviously meant for you to work on.’”

Zigah is using the samples to trace the history of fires in northern Africa, tying them to cycles of climate and vegetation in the region, which hasn’t always been desert. Understanding the changes in the region over thousands of years could be useful in understanding and predicting the climate changes taking place today, he says.

Mitra says he loves seeing the progress his students make in the lab and the classroom.

“When they start off, sometimes you can see they’re struggling,” he says. “But then by the end of the process as they’re defending their thesis, it’s just like a transition has happened — they’ve become this incredible scientist. And I love to see that.”

Mitra, who serves as director of the integrated coastal sciences doctoral program, also encourages his students to publish their work and present at conferences.

“A data set inside of the lab isn’t doing anyone any good,” he says. “So go out and give a seminar. Publish these results in a scientific paper. … Some of our students have been in the press for their research, and the more they get that exposure, the more training they get as a science communicator. That’s a really critical part of science that I think is often overlooked.”

As an organic geochemist, Mitra says his lab involves more chemistry than most geology labs, so it can be a steep learning curve for his students, but the exposure has been beneficial for many.

“They have told some really great stories,” he says. “And that’s part of the joy of being a professor in academia — to be able to tell these stories with students and other scientists.”

At top, Sid Mitra talks about diesel soot with master’s student Michael Zigah. Zigah is studying burn from Lake Bosumtwi, a crater impact lake and the only natural lake in Ghana.

Brian Bailey remembers the first time he heard of Jeff Charles.

It was 1988. Bailey, sports director at WNCT Channel 9, had interviewed for the play-by-play announcer job at East Carolina University.

“A friend of mine in the athletic department said, ‘You did great, but you’re not going to get the job because this guy Jeff Charles is really good,’” Bailey said with a laugh.

Charles, known as “the Voice of the Pirates,” died suddenly Feb. 10 while in New Orleans to broadcast the ECU-Tulane basketball game. He was 70.

A Piqua, Ohio, native, Charles, whose full name was Jeff Charles Purtee, was a graduate of the Career Academy of Broadcasting School of Columbus, Ohio. He also received a degree in speech communications from Goshen (Indiana) College in 1975.

Before coming to ECU, he worked in the same capacity at Virginia Tech, Illinois and Furman. Charles earned North Carolina Sportscaster-of-the-Year honors from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 2000 and 2014. ECU recognized him as an honorary alumnus in 2015.

Charles also worked as sports director at WSB in Atlanta where he was the nighttime host of a sports talk show heard throughout 38 states and Canada on the 50,000-watt clear channel station.

“He was like a machine that he knew stats and knew players,” said Bailey. “He was everything I would want to be as an announcer.”

For many years, Charles hosted the “Ride With the Voice” motorcycle fundraiser to benefit the Heather A. Purtee Nursing Scholarship in memory of his daughter, who died in a car crash in 1992. She was a nursing student at the time. He also hosted a weekly radio show, Bike Talk, on WGHB 1250-AM for several years.

In late 2012, he underwent surgery for colon cancer. He returned to the sidelines Feb. 13, 2013, to broadcast a 74-61 Pirate basketball victory over the University of AlabamaBirmingham.

About a month before he died, Charles talked with WNCT about having called 1,000 games at ECU. “The relationships are really the neat part,” he said. “That’s what I’ll remember more than the wins and the losses. It’s the relationships you build with people.”

A couple of weeks after Charles died, on Feb. 26, former athletic director Terry Holland died after a yearslong battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 80.

A native of Clinton, Holland played basketball at Davidson College. He served as the head men’s basketball coach there from 1969 to 1974 and at the University of Virginia from 1974 to 1990,

compiling a career record of 418-216. At age 48, he retired from coaching and moved into athletic administration, first at Davidson from 1990 to 1994, then at Virginia from 1994 to 2001. In 2004, ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard asked him to lead the athletics department at ECU, which he did until retiring in 2013.

Bailey grew up in eastern Virginia and said he used to imagine he was playing for Holland as he did layups before his youth basketball games. “Having him around was really a neat deal,” Bailey said, “just to work with him and pick his brain. It was really cool to have a Hall of Famer like that as a friend.”

Holland advocated for the university’s Olympic sports, and in 2014, ECU dedicated the Terry Holland Olympic Sports Complex. It’s home to the 1,000-seat Max R. Joyner Family Stadium (softball), the 1,000-seat Johnson Stadium (soccer), the eight-lane Bate Foundation Track & Field Facility and the 20,000-square-foot Williams-Harvey Team Sports Building.

During Holland’s administration, East Carolina earned regular season and tournament championships or qualified for NCAA postseason appearances in football, baseball, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, softball, women’s swimming, and men’s and women’s track.

In the classroom, 973 Pirate student-athletes were selected to the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and 213 received the league’s top academic medal between 2008 and

2014. During the 2009-2010 year, nine ECU sports netted a perfect Academic Progress Rate score of 1,000.

Holland led efforts that resulted in a 7,000-seat expansion of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, completed in 2010. Pirate Club membership soared past 17,000, and fundraising scholarship coffers climbed above $6.4 million for the first time. Plans for the $17 million Smith-Williams Center, a basketball practice facility, began under Holland’s guidance.

In 2012, Holland steered the Pirates into a football-only membership invitation to the Big East Conference. Four months later, ECU accepted an all-sports offer in the league, which was renamed the American Athletic Conference.

Women’s sports at ECU achieved “fully funded” status during Holland’s leadership, meaning the 10 women’s teams were able to offer the maximum number of scholarships allowed by the NCAA.

Before Holland left coaching, his Cavalier teams won the ACC Tournament in 1976 and the NIT in 1980 and reached two Final Fours.

“He wasn’t impressed with himself at all,” former Virginia women’s basketball coach Debbie Ryan told NPR after his death. She described him as a Southern gentleman who was focused on his players. “He was just there to make sure these boys became men, and they became good men.”

STORY BY DOUG BOYD

Sports studies students volunteer at Super Bowl

ECU junior Mackenzie Hudson knows what she wants to do once she graduates after being part of a group of 10 College of Health and Human Performance students who volunteered at the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, as part of a sports studies class.

“I think this solidified, for all of us, that we do want to work in sports,” Hudson said a few days later in the kinesiology department’s Super Bowl LVII event management class, supported by funding from the Office of Research, Economic Development and Engagement.

Professor Stacy Warner, teaching instructor Andrea Buenano and Mack Craven, HHP’s director of outreach, accompanied the students to Arizona. At the game, they

worked with fans in the upper concourse: pointing them to their seats, helping at escalators, locating bathrooms and concessions, monitoring traffic and congestion areas, and being available for questions.

Students bonded during the long hours. “I hadn’t had an experience where in such a short amount of time I got that close to this many people, which includes the professionals at ECU,” said Molly King, a senior. “I only knew one person who was going to be in the class, but I don’t think there was any way for us to get as close as we did other than having those long days together.”

“We were just volunteers and we weren’t trained for weeks or months on how to do these jobs, but we knew what we were doing,” said Markayla McInnis, a senior. “That was very cool, and we were able to get molded into that in just a short amount of time. It made the whole event management process that we are learning about seem feasible.”

– Ronnie Woodward

ECU students, top row, from left, Nick Trevino, Tyler Burnham, Amber Lucido, Sam Cooper and Martin Hood; bottom row, from left, Kendall McDade, Markayla McInnis, Quinn Willard, Molly King and Mackenzie Hudson volunteered at Super Bowl LVII in February.

ECU student Cadence Kistler performs the flambé step to making bananas foster, a classic French dessert. Butter, sugar and bananas are cooked, then alcohol is added and ignited. She’s cooking in the Golden Corral Culinary Center in the Rivers Building, where hospitality management students learn aspects of the hospitality industry, such as the basics of cooking. After introductory classes, students complete an advanced foods lab in which they plan and execute a luncheon for 30 or more people in ECU’s Darden Dining Room.

PIRATE NATION

TASTE FOR SUCCESS

When Ryan Mitchell ’01 came to ECU, he thought he had seen the last of the family barbecue restaurant in Wilson where he had been working since age 13.

“I was just a country kid at heart growing up, a country kid with big city dreams,” said Mitchell, son of renowned North Carolina pitmaster Ed Mitchell.

Those dreams involved playing college football for the Pirates, earning an economics degree and working in the banking industry.

Soon, he realized supporting his father’s growing business with his financial knowledge was the place for him, and he left the corporate world — sort of. Now, Ryan Mitchell is the CEO of Pitmaster Enterprises and co-founder of True Made Foods.

“I was able to combine my passion for helping people, cooking and hospitality with my business degree,” he said.

True Made Foods produces a line of Ed Mitchell’s barbecue sauces and condiments that are a healthier alternative to traditional sauces that are high in sugar. The national brand can be found in major grocers such as Walmart and Harris Teeter.

“My dad was diagnosed with diabetes in 2017, and so we decided to take our legacy and his business and create products and barbecue sauces that are made from all-natural recipes with no added sugar,” Mitchell said. “That has been really a game-changer as far as impacting the community and getting our name and our brand out to the world.”

As plans come together for a Raleigh restaurant, the Mitchells were approached about sharing their recipes and journey, one that started with a 35-pound pig cooked in the

BOOK SIGNINGS

• Saturday, July 8, ticketed pig-picking on the Downtown Greenway in Greensboro, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

• Thursday, July 20, 6:45 p.m., Smithsonian Associates (virtual event)

• Sunday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m., Lenoir Book Club, Buxton Books, Charleston, S.C.

parking lot of the family’s small grocery store in Wilson. Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, released in June, is no ordinary cookbook.

“(It’s) a life story narrative based around my dad and my family and all it took to be a relevant pitmaster coming from eastern North Carolina and all the things we had to go through to get our business noticed and to compete and rise through the ranks with being a pitmaster and all of the things that come along with being a minority business,” Ryan Mitchell said.

He has fond memories of his time with teammates and coaches on and off the football field at ECU, and he credits professors for taking an interest in and helping guide him toward his goals. He said ECU’s family atmosphere can’t be beat.

“It was an amazing, amazing part of my life,” he said. “Between classes and playing sports and the people who I had a chance to meet, it was definitely one of the propellers to get me to this stage in my career.”

Plus, as he points out, ECU and barbecue just naturally go together.

“East Carolina and eastern North Carolina vinegar-based barbecue sauce, that’s a marriage that’s taken over the world. It’s where it’s at,” he said.

Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, written by Ed and Ryan Mitchell with Zella Palmer, is available through HarperCollins Publishers at major and independent retail and online bookstores for $35.

– Ken Buday

Ryan Mitchell ’01, CEO of Pitmaster Enterprises and co-founder of True Made Foods, has collaborated with his father, renowned North Carolina pit master Ed Mitchell, on a new book.

For Maj. Daniel Self ’20, completing an online master’s degree in security studies at East Carolina University helped him to bridge the gulf between his experiences as a fires officer — Army speak for artillery — and the American public that is a main reason for his service in uniform.

The Virginia native moved just west of Moore County after high school and was commissioned in the Army after graduating from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. A year of 120-degree days in Afghanistan and another six months in the Middle East fighting ISIS showed Self how America fights its battles. The rigor of academic debate and civilian viewpoints from his ECU experience, however, changed the way he viewed his role as a military leader.

“It wasn’t anything like what I expected. I could engage in debate with the instructors,” Self said. One of those mentors, Armin Krishnan, is an expert in the ways modern

warfare is morphing: intelligence, surveillance and the ethics of war. Krishnan remembers Self as a strong student.

Self remembered the discussion and debates about the ethics of use of drones as challenging and intellectually liberating.

“(Krishnan) didn’t have a military background, but when I was a young lieutenant, walking patrols in southern Afghanistan, unmanned aerial vehicles were like my lifeblood,” Self said. “I would always go back and forth with him. He had his opinions, and I had mine. Looking back at my education at ECU and those instructors, I wish I could go back and talk to them again about what’s going on in Ukraine.”

Self follows the progress of the war in Ukraine closely. He is the executive officer, second-in-command, of a high mobility artillery rocket system battalion at Fort Liberty in Fayetteville. HIMARS systems have played a pivotal role in supporting Ukraine’s defense of its homeland, an accountability that resonates with Self.

“The Army is a microcosm of the United States. We come from all over the place — Northeast, Southwest, the country, the city — walks of life. But at the end of the day, we’re accountable to the people,” Self said.

One way he tries to stay accountable is by mentoring cadets he met through ECU’s Corps of Cadets. They ask him questions and for career advice, which he relishes as a responsibility that comes from being a leader.

Self is now a proud Pirate, but on the road to graduation as an online student he endured the taunts of his purple-and-gold Pirate nurse wife.

“She has a leg up on me. She picks on me all the time with, ‘What’s your favorite experience about being around ECU?’” Self joked.

He values the bonds that he has with other ECU grads in the Army and works to grow the Pirate brand. A young soldier in his unit wants to be a nurse and participate in ROTC. There are a select few schools in North Carolina that offer both, and Self told her ECU was the right choice.

“If you want to do ROTC and get your Bachelor of Science in nursing,” he said, “there’s only one school on that list.”

– Benjamin Abel

Maj. Daniel Self ’20 has fought in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

ARTILLERY OFFICER, PROUD PIRATE

PIRATE SPIRIT

A flare for excitement

Kasey Rogers

Year: Junior

Major: Public health, minor in nutrition

Hometown: Sykesville, Maryland

If you’ve watched halftime shows at Pirate football games, you’ve probably seen Kasey Rogers. She’s the one twirling fire.

“The fire element is crazy,” said the junior public health major who hopes to become a physician assistant working in orthopedics. “I used to make sure my hair was completely pulled back, and I was wearing tight clothing just in case. Now I go out in front of thousands with my hair drenched in hair spray, and everyone loves it.”

Rogers started twirling batons when she was 4 years old. “My mom signed me up, and I just never stopped,” she said. She did teams, then individual events and added flames in high school.

Being the featured twirler at ECU isn’t easy. Rogers had to audition.

“Usually, one of the highest levels you can reach in baton twirling is the collegiate level,” she said. “Collegiate baton twirling is what a lot of girls spend their whole careers working for, so getting the email that I was becoming the featured twirler for ECU was a moment I will never forget.”

Rogers has always loved parades, and performing in the ECU Homecoming parade each year has been no exception. “When you go to a school you become a part of that community, and with that comes a sense of pride in representing that community,” she said. “Meeting the alumni was an amazing experience for me because we all share the same love for ECU.”

Band director Joe Busuito described Rogers as “a 10/10ths person.”

“Kasey brings a fire, passion and energy to the field that the whole band feeds off,” he said.

That dedication was clear last year when she won the title of 2022 Miss Majorette of North Carolina. In the NBTA Nationals last July, she placed eighth in the Miss Majorette of America contest and qualified for the International Baton Twirling Federation Nations Cup being held in Liverpool, England, Aug. 4-9 as part of the NBTA-USA Nations Cup Team. She has a GoFundMe site to help cover the costs of attending.

– Hannah Eccleston

WHEN YOU GO TO A SCHOOL YOU BECOME A PART OF THAT COMMUNITY, AND WITH THAT COMES A SENSE OF PRIDE IN REPRESENTING THAT COMMUNITY.

5 minutes with SEAN

REYNOLDS ’08

By Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall

Position: Chief of facility management, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods National Monument, Fort Point National Historic Site

Degree: Bachelor’s in construction management

Hometown: Corte Madera, California

What led to your career with the National Park Service?

I didn’t expect to work in the public sector. Through a National Park Service career program, I was hired as a facility operations specialist. My background in construction fit well with overseeing maintenance, repair and rehabilitation of facilities.

What do you do as a chief of facility management?

I oversee the facilities program at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This is one of the largest urban parks in the world. Managing facilities includes preserving and protecting assets, including more than 400 historic and nonhistoric buildings and structures.

What’s one of your latest projects?

Recently, I worked on the design and installation of a new fire suppression system for an historic Army barracks building that is

being converted into a dormitory for seasonal park employees. Such a project means finding creative solutions for balancing preservation and safety. The stakes are higher for historic facilities because, in a sense, they are priceless.

Was there an experience or class at ECU that helped lead to your success?

Construction management provided me a solid foundation of technical skills I use on a regular basis. The skills I learned at ECU I have found to be most useful are writing and leadership. As a manager, effective communication and leadership are critical to success.

Anything else to add?

As a public servant and steward of public lands, it is rewarding to know that the work I do serves the American people and will continue to do so for future generations. I am grateful that I can work in these beautiful places.

We want to hear stories from alumni about how their experiences at ECU shaped them today and how they pass those lessons to others. Send us an email at easteditor@ecu.edu

PURPLE PASSION

GOLD STANDARD

Toby Bryson

Hometown: Greenville, North Carolina

Major: Nursing

Career goal: Critical care flight nurse

Scholarship: Robert G. and Amy K. Brinkley Scholar

What do you like most about your major?

What I like most about my major is the ability I have to help others as a career. Without the fire service and Eastern Pines Fire-Rescue, I never would have found my love for helping others. Nursing allows me to help others in a different way than pre-hospital. In a hospital setting, I can provide care from start to finish and see full circle how my care and the actions of the care team work to improve outcomes for my patients, whereas in fire/EMS, most of my patient interaction ends upon arrival at the emergency department. The best part about this major is the excitement I get knowing that I will be able to dedicate my life to doing what I love. Nursing doesn’t feel like work.

What does receiving a scholarship mean to you?

It means so much more than financial support. It means I have a group of people or organizations supporting me to succeed beyond my greatest aspirations. This scholarship

has provided opportunities that, on my own, I would not have ever been able to find. Because of generous donations, I am now on a fast track to personal and professional success that otherwise might not have been possible.

Why should alumni support scholarships?

Because it propels students to be able to achieve so much more than they ever would without financial and emotional support. My scholarship has changed my life. I have been able to partake in research, study abroad internationally and create connections professionally. Most importantly, through BrinkleyLane Scholars, I’ve met lifelong friends, who are among my strongest supporters through nursing school and the waves of life.

Donor spotlight: Robert and Amy Brinkley

Robert ’78 and his wife, Amy, are generous supporters of ECU’s academic and athletic priorities. Robert previously served on the ECU Board of Trustees (two years as chair), ECU Foundation Board of Directors, Board of Visitors and Real Estate Foundation.

pursuegold.ecu.edu

PIRATE NATION GIVES SURPASSES EXPECTATIONS

More than 2,300 Pirates answered the call to support ECU during Pirate Nation Gives. The seventh annual day of giving on March 22 surpassed expectations, raising nearly $12 million in support of university priorities.

It was the final Pirate Nation Gives held during the Pursue Gold campaign and continued the steady course of the university’s ambitious effort to raise $500 million.

Notable gifts included:

• A leadership gift from Pat ’67 and Lynn Lane, supporting the Brinkley-Lane Scholars program and the Honors College

• Keith Beatty ’73, who has endowed access and athletics scholarships with a gift of more than $980,000

• ECU trustee Cassie Burt and husband Travis, who have committed to a professorship

• Todd Ervin ’94, who gave $25,000 toward the Todd & Elizabeth Ervin College of Business ROTC Scholarship Endowment

• Cheryl and John Oliver, who provided a Pirate Nation Gives challenge gift of $25,000 in addition to a bequest and planned gift in support of the Coastal Studies Institute

• Darrell Roberts, a technology systems student, who has donated $5,000 to start a scholarship in the Bachelor of Science in industrial technology program

• Nicholas Steward ’07 ’11, who established a scholarship endowment in the College of Nursing in memory of his wife, Christina Hill Steward ’07.

– Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall

“They need the financial support at all levels to continue the robust programs they have and seize the opportunity provided by the local maritime heritage niche,” Cheryl Oliver added. “Eventually on-site housing will make it all much easier.”

As staff with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland, they had professional connections to the coast. The CSI mission and goals were a natural fit for their endowment.

Cheryl and John Oliver have long been captivated by North Carolina’s Outer Banks. They vacationed there, were married in Manteo and have been connected to the coast for many years.

Through a bequest and IRA beneficiary designations, the Olivers are investing in the coast’s future by supporting the Coastal Studies Institute. Their $2.5 million planned gift will provide housing for students studying at the Wanchese campus and resources for other needs that may arise at CSI. The Olivers additionally championed CSI during Pirate Nation Gives.

“We hope it will encourage others to do something similar and provide support to CSI,” John Oliver said. “You don’t have to be an ECU alum to support CSI.”

“Cheryl and John have been a part of CSI from the very beginning and are demonstrating their confidence through this investment in the significance of the interdisciplinary coastal science being conducted by the faculty and staff at CSI. We are grateful for this transformative gift and humbled by their generosity,” said Reide Corbett, executive director of the institute and dean of integrated coastal programs. “The Coastal Studies Institute has a reach beyond just Pirate Nation. This generous gift demonstrates that directly.”

Corbett described the Olivers’ gift as a gamechanger as the relatively young organization continues to grow academic programs at the coast. Through their investment, CSI will expand opportunities for students to participate in programs embedded in a coastal community.

– Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall

OLIVERS ALIGN SUPPORT WITH COASTAL STUDIES INSTITUTE MISSION

Cheryl and John Oliver

In Memoriam

ALUMNI

1940s

Dr. Clifton Crandell ’49 of Chapel Hill, N.C., on Dec. 30, 2022.

Mary L. Lamm ’48 of Lumberton, N.C., on Feb. 11, 2023.

Audrey Page ’47 of Mount Holly, N.C., on Jan. 12, 2023.

1950s

June Carr ’52 of Wilson, N.C., on Nov. 5, 2022.

George B. Causby ’55 ’59 of Raleigh, N.C., on Oct. 1, 2022.

Mary Ely ’57 of Castle Hayne, N.C., on Feb. 3, 2023.

Tennielean Fletcher ’57 of Greensboro, N.C., on Jan. 24, 2023.

Ann R. Gunn ’53 of Bavon, Va., on Nov. 16, 2022.

Ann W. Harrison ’54 ’61 of Greenville, N.C., on Oct. 3, 2022.

Mary Howard ’54 of Bath, N.C., on Nov. 12, 2022.

Carole Hennessee ’59 of Clover, S.C., on Jan. 19, 2023.

Becky Hughes ’51 of Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 28, 2022.

John A. Jones ’59 ’65 of Monroe, N.C., on Oct. 18, 2022.

Hazel F. Lamm ’57 ’64 of Durham, N.C., on Dec. 25, 2022.

Paul R. Lindsey ‘58 of Powhatan, Va., on May 8, 2022.

Charles W. McNeill ’58 of Sanford, N.C., on Sept. 28, 2022.

Walter R. Parker Jr. of Rocky Mount, N.C., on Feb. 8, 2023.

Bertha W. Poulson ’56 of Richmond, Va., on Oct. 8, 2022.

Dallas “Bucky” Reep ’58 of Nebo, N.C., on Oct. 8, 2022.

W. Howard Rooks ’55 of Sarasota, Fla., on Oct. 6, 2022.

George Sauls ’53 of Greenville, N.C., on Dec. 15, 2022.

Margaret Slate ’51 of Swansboro, N.C., on Feb. 20, 2023.

H.L. Sorrell Jr. ’59 of Coats, N.C., on Dec. 27, 2022.

James Speight ’59 ’62 of Boerne, Texas, on Sept. 25, 2022.

Hilton Styron ’50 of Helotes, Texas, on Feb. 8, 2023.

Joann S. Thompson ’53 of Goldsboro, N.C., on Jan. 11, 2023.

Derl Walker ’58 of Mount Olive, N.C., on Nov. 16, 2022.

John E. Warren ’54 of Rocky Mount, N.C., on Jan. 18, 2023.

Alice Willingham ’54 of Roanoke, Va., on Oct. 27, 2022.

1960s

Montrose Arlauskas ’63 of Gloucester, Va., on Nov. 20, 2022.

June Arnold ’61 of Chocowinity, N.C., on Nov. 16, 2022.

James A. Asby ’67 of Cary, N.C., on Oct. 15, 2022.

George R. Baines ’60 of Richmond, Va., on Jan. 20, 2023.

Donald E. Batts ’64 of Raleigh, N.C., on Oct. 10, 2022.

James Buckner ’69 ’71 of Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Oct. 1, 2022.

Henry Bunch ’68 of Eden, N.C., on Nov. 19, 2022.

Murdock Butler Jr. ’63 ’69 of Greenville, N.C., on Feb. 19, 2023.

Harriet Byrd ’68 of Hampstead, N.C., on Feb. 25, 2023.

Elbert Chapman Jr. ’69 of Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 29, 2022.

Helen Cleveland ’68 ’71 ’73 of Tarboro, N.C., on Jan. 10, 2023.

Delano “Cobby” Deans ’65 of Ayden, N.C., on Nov. 29, 2022.

Carlton Edmondson ’61 of Turner, Maine, on Feb. 22, 2023.

Hilda C. Evans ’65 of Pamplico, S.C., on Jan. 23, 2023.

Louis P. Forrest ’69 of Washington, N.C., on Oct. 14, 2022.

William Francis Jr. ’68 of Washington, N.C., on May 20, 2018.

Paul Goodwin ’62 of Cincinnati, Ohio, on Oct. 27, 2022.

James Malcolm Hall Jr. ’61 of Wallace, N.C., on Sept. 5, 2022.

Peggy Hollingsworth ’67 of Morehead City, N.C., on Oct. 13, 2022.

Carlyle P. Humphrey ’62 of Wilmington, N.C., on Nov. 20, 2022.

William Jackson ’67 of Ayden, N.C., on Dec. 3, 2022.

Mary Gail Johnson ’64 of Greensboro, N.C., on Oct. 24, 2022.

Bette McCotter Koon ’62 of Grifton, N.C., on Feb. 9, 2023.

James Leftwich Jr. ’65 of Midlothian, Va., on Sept. 26, 2022.

Myra “Jean” Lunsford ’67 of Hickory, N.C., on Dec. 12, 2022.

Raymond Mancini ’66 of New Castle, Del., on Dec. 16, 2022.

Judy Mattsson ’69 ’93 of Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 8, 2023.

Jerry Medford ’66 of Kernersville, N.C., on Jan. 19, 2023.

Joy Moser ’68 ’69 of Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 25, 2022.

Thomas L. O’Neal ‘69 of Manteo, N.C., on Dec. 22, 2022.

Karen Nelson ’69 of Albuquerque, N.M., on Dec. 6, 2022.

Hal W. Pierce ’68 of Winterville, N.C., on Feb. 20, 2023.

Timothy Prichard ’69 of Kingwood, Texas, on Feb. 9, 2023.

Lynn F. Rowell ’68 of Greenville, S.C., on Dec. 18, 2022.

Anne V. Seymour ’62 ’63 of Bel Air, Md., on Dec. 24, 2022.

Velsa Spencer ’67 of Faison, N.C., on Jan. 21, 2023.

H. Lamar Strother ’64 of Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 7, 2022.

Faye Sullivan ’65 of Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Sept. 19, 2022.

William “Randy” Sutton ’69 of Burlington, N.C., on Oct. 29, 2022.

Myrtle Talton ’65 ’85 of Raleigh, N.C., on Feb. 12, 2023.

Kenneth Tarleton ’64 of Greenville, N.C., on Jan. 20, 2023.

Frank Tobin ’69 of Bushnell, Fla., on Dec. 13, 2022.

Fred West ’65 of Greenville, N.C., on Oct. 14, 2022.

Robert Whitfield ’69 of Asheboro, N.C., on Oct. 24, 2022.

C.M. Williams Jr. of Falmouth, Va., on Oct. 28, 2022.

Linda D. Workman ’64 of Lansing, N.C., on Oct. 9, 2022.

Rosemary Worthington ’67 of Greensboro, N.C., on Dec. 13, 2022.

1970s

Benny David Allen ’76 of Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 25, 2023.

Stephen Allen ’78 of Greenville, N.C., on Dec. 24, 2022.

Patricia Barber ’73 of Durham, N.C., on Jan. 18, 2023.

Robin Berzak ’75 of Winter Park, Fla., on Jan. 4, 2023.

William H. Boone ’72 of Fort Mill, S.C., on Jan. 10, 2023.

Connie S. Boyd ’70 of Cary, N.C., on Oct. 10, 2022.

Lou Branch ’77 ’84 of Chocowinity, N.C., on Feb. 2, 2023.

Reba Brown ’72 of Beaufort, N.C., on Feb. 24, 2023.

Benjamin R. Burton ’79 of Asheboro, N.C., on Aug. 8, 2022.

John Calhoun ’77 of Greenville, N.C., on Feb. 14, 2023.

Susan Collins Mizelle ’71 of Ayden, N.C., on Feb. 4, 2023.

Susan Creech ’71 ’74 ’78 of Southern Pines, N.C., on Nov. 2, 2022.

Robert Evans ’71 of Greenville, N.C., on Feb. 20, 2023.

Evelyn Deane ’70 of Stanardsville, Va., on Dec. 20, 2022.

John Gregory of Scotland Neck, N.C., on Nov. 25, 2022.

Samuel Guy Jr. of Fayetteville, N.C., on Dec. 1, 2022.

Walter House ’73 of Beaufort, N.C., on Jan. 21, 2023.

Craig Johnson ’79 of Rocky Mount, N.C., on Jan. 4, 2023.

Sharon G. Jolly ’71 of Arlington, Va., on Jan. 29, 2023.

John W. Lowe Jr. ’70 of Grimesland, N.C., on Jan. 30, 2023.

Catherine Arthur-MacDonald ’73 of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on Oct. 30, 2022.

Joey McGroarty ’72 of North Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Oct. 7, 2022.

Bobby McMillan ’77 of Kinston, N.C., on Feb. 9, 2023.

Patricia L. Nichols ’79 of Cedar Point, N.C., on Nov. 28, 2022.

William M. Orr III ’72 ’79 of Baltimore, Md., on Nov. 1, 2022.

Martha Overton ’73 of Morehead City, N.C., on Nov. 8, 2022.

Michael Peters ’72 of Greenville, N.C., on Dec. 14, 2022.

Terry Rivers ’76 of Huntersville, N.C., on Jan. 22, 2023.

Benjamin E. Spell ’77 of Cullowhee, N.C., on Dec. 7, 2022.

Winston Spurgeon ’70 of Sarasota, Fla., on Oct. 18, 2022.

Jane W. Spruill ’76 of Raleigh, N.C., on Nov. 8, 2022.

Nancy Steffa ’73 of Asheville, N.C., on Nov. 7, 2022.

Anna Stewart ’71 of Morehead City, N.C., on Feb. 21, 2023.

Constance Swartzwelder ’79 of Wilson, N.C., on Oct. 27, 2022.

Walter R. Taylor ’74 of Belhaven, N.C., on Jan. 10, 2023. David Temple ’74 of North Wilkesboro, N.C., on Dec. 20, 2022.

Bobbye T. Trimble ’77 of Yorktown, Va., on Jan. 7, 2023.

Iola Walton ’77 of Carthage, N.C., on Feb. 27, 2023.

Phillip Watts ’73 ’74 of Marquette, Mich., on Dec. 29, 2022.

1980s

Kemp Bradshaw ’80 of Greenville, N.C., on Oct. 6, 2022.

Barbara Bremer ’83 of Greenville, N.C., on Feb. 25, 2023.

Brian M. Cofer ’87 of Kernersville, N.C., on Dec. 31, 2022.

Rose Cunningham ’81 of Pensacola, Fla., on Jan. 12, 2023.

Andy Dellinger ’82 of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., on Dec. 20, 2022.

Grady Dickerson II ’80 ’81 of Sugar Grove, N.C., on Dec. 10, 2022.

Mary-Frances Fisher ’82 of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., on Oct. 8, 2022.

Greg Foster ’80 of Goldsboro, N.C., on Jan. 14, 2023.

Christine Gantt ’83 of Charlotte, N.C., on Feb. 8, 2023.

Terry J. Gatlin ’81 ’05 of Merritt, N.C., on Dec. 31, 2022.

Marcia Goodman ’88 of Elizabeth City, N.C., on Nov. 29, 2022.

Marilyn Hinson ’89 of Kill Devil Hills, N.C., on Jan. 15, 2023.

Stuart Jernigan ’84 of Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 14, 2022.

Patrick McHugh ’85 of Troy, Mich., on Nov. 30, 2022.

Tammy C. Pentony ’85 of Buies Creek, N.C., on Nov. 3, 2022.

Lori Thigpen ’84 of Snow Hill, N.C., on Dec. 21, 2022.

Anne Wilgus ’80 of North Chesterfield, Va., on April 30, 2022.

Jon “Bart” Williams ’86 of Wilmington, N.C., on Jan. 22, 2023.

1990s

Leslie Cannon ’93 of Greenville, N.C., on Dec. 22, 2022.

Edna “Penny” Faulkner ’94 of Morehead City, N.C., on Nov. 30, 2022.

Koren Harrison ’94 of Raleigh, N.C., on Oct. 12, 2022.

Sommer H. Helm ’93 of Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 30, 2022.

John D. Milliken ’90 of Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 23, 2023.

Robert O’Neil ’95 of Baton Rouge, La., on Sept. 15, 2022.

Mary Tyer ’92 ’95 of Washington, N.C., on Feb. 1, 2023.

Laura W. Walker ’99 of Hudson, N.C., on Jan. 12, 2023.

2000s

Amanda D. Alligood ’03 of Washington, N.C., on Jan. 22, 2023.

Kevin Boyle ’05 of Middletown, Md., on Nov. 12, 2022.

Samuel Brooks ’00 of Chocowinity, N.C., on Feb. 23, 2023.

Brenda Chastain ’09 of Sunset Beach, N.C., on Oct. 13, 2022.

Christopher Durkin ’06 of Evansville, Ind., on Nov. 20, 2022.

Keith Esarey ’04 of Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 18, 2022.

Anthony Nobles ’00 of Randleman, N.C., on Jan. 13, 2023.

Christina Steward ’07 of Greenville, N.C., on Jan. 14, 2007.

Dee Emory Tripp ’05 ’08 of Winterville, N.C., on Nov. 17, 2022.

FACULTY/STAFF

Charles Boklage (medicine) of Washington, N.C., on Oct. 27, 2022.

Larry Coyer (athletics) of Coralville, Iowa, on Feb. 10, 2023.

Dr. Sue Ehrlich (medicine) of Port Townsend, Wash., on Nov. 13, 2022.

Dr. Eric Fearrington (medicine) of Pine Knoll Shores, N.C., on Feb. 23, 2023.

Frédéric Fladenmuller (foreign languages) of Winterville, N.C., on May 25, 2022.

Dixie Friend (nursing) of Washington, N.C., on Oct. 25, 2022.

Patricia Higson (library science) of Greenville, N.C., on Feb. 28, 2023.

Dr. John Leonard III (medicine) of Greenville, N.C., on Sept. 28, 2022.

Jun Qing Lu (physics) of Greenville, N.C., on Oct. 27, 2022.

Kathryn Moore (cafeteria) of Washington, N.C., on Dec. 20, 2022.

Minnie Ridenour (registrar) of Greenville, N.C., on Oct. 31, 2022.

Joy Roberts (philosophy) of Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Dec. 17, 2022.

Ronald Rouse (medicine) of Kinston, N.C., on Oct. 2, 2022.

Ralph Scott (library services) of Greenville, N.C., on Nov. 12, 2022.

Nancy Spalding (political science) of Greenville, N.C., on Sept. 21, 2022.

Bill Still (history) of Greenville, N.C., on Jan. 8, 2023.

Ning Zhou (CSDI) of Greenville, N.C., on Dec. 26, 2022.

SUMMER 2023 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 2

East is produced by East Carolina University

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Doug Boyd ’99

Art Director

Mike Litwin ’01

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Sarah Jones

Photographers

Rhett Butler, Cliff Hollis

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Benjamin Abel, Crystal Baity, Ken Buday ’89, Hannah Eccleston, Rich Klindworth ’19, Jules Norwood, Jamie Smith, Spaine Stephens, Kim Tilghman, Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall, Ronnie Woodward ’08

Contributing Photographers

Robert Mullen

Copy Editor

Jimmy Rostar ’94

Chief Communications Officer

Jeannine Manning Hutson

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Due East

03.01.23

Derrick Moore, district ranger with the N.C. Forest Service, works on a prescribed burn at ECU’s West Research Campus on March 1. According to ECU biologists, prescribed burns help maintain an open savanna-like habitat and support a diverse plant community, including several carnivorous and rare fire-dependent plant species.