MAGAZINE SPRING 2016 VOLUME 34
Rising
SEAS Adapting to our new reality
CATCH, STUDY AND RELEASE MAST@FIU high school students launch nets into the water at Biscayne Bay Campus with the goal of gathering fish for data collection. The monthly experiential-learning activity is part of a long-term monitoring project of local marine ecosystems and species developed by science teacher Bridgette Gunn ’12 with support from staff in FIU’s School of Environment, Arts and Society. Photo by Tim Long
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11 16 23 26 34
THE DOCTOR SISTERS
Three siblings make FIU their choice for medical training.
ON THE COVER SEEKING SOLUTIONS TO RISING SEAS
FIU contributes to research around a growing environmental concern. Photo illustration by Doug Garland ’10
STUDYING THE BRAIN
FIU researchers tackle an array of promising neuroscience projects.
MAKING SENSE OF MEDICAL DATA
A master’s program teaches students how to interpret big data.
ARCTIC JOURNEY
An FIU professor leads the U.S. contingent of an international research expedition.
SOWING DIGNITY, HOPE IN HAITI
An alumna establishes a fair-trade business in post-earthquake Haiti.
SPRING 2016
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SEE THE 2016 TORCH AWARD RECIPIENTS in a glamorous group photo that includes Darlene M. BoytellPerez ’89, MSN ’96, our Alumna of the Year.
READ THE STORY OF JOLINA AUGUST, an earthquake survivor who partnered with an enterprising FIU alumna to create a Haiti-based company.
Into the Arctic Immerse yourself in an FIUled research expedition with our special graphics-rich website: arctic.fiu.edu
MetroU Learn about an urban consortium that harnesses the collective power of FIU, USF and UCF for the benefit of students.
Peer mentoring at its best Find out how learning assistants help fellow students make the grade.
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Hear what VP for University Engagement Saif Ishoof has planned for FIU and the community. Watch Professor Todd Crowl’s TEDxFIU talk on sea level rise, delivered live this past November. Listen to the sounds of yesteryear with clips of rare Latin American recordings. Meet students learning about infrastructure and social resilience in the face of sea level rise.
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FROM THE EDITOR “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman
FIU MAGAZINE Editorial Advisory Board
FIU President
JoAnn Adkins Director of Communications The College of Arts, Sciences & Education
FIU Board of Trustees
Mark B. Rosenberg
Heather Bermudez ’06, MS ’12 Marketing Manager South Beach Wine & Food Festival Lori-Ann Cox Director of Alumni Advocacy University Advancement Paul Dodson Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
These words have been scrawled on a Post-it note taped to the side of my computer monitor for years. I’m embarrassed to say I had no idea who Thurman was; I knew only that his words resonated deeply with me from the first moment I read them. They still do. I was inspired to learn more about Thurman when I thought about the common thread running throughout the stories of this issue. Sea-level rise. Arctic exploration. Brain research. Siblings studying medicine. Mining big data. Creating business opportunities for
Amy Ellis Communications Manager Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs
Sandra B. Gonzalez-Levy
Lazaro Gonzalez Marketing and Branding Strategist Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management
Vice President
Senior Vice President
Susan Jay Executive Director of Development The College of Engineering & Computing
women in Haiti. Disparate subjects to be sure, but all of these stories have something in common: men and women who are following their hearts. Dare I say it? People who have
Larry Lunsford Vice President for Student Affairs
come alive. And their utter dedication to their life’s passions makes this world a better
Maureen Pelham Director of Clinical Trials Division of Research
That’s when I decided I needed to learn more about Howard Thurman. It turns out that this spring (April 10, to be exact) marked the 35th anniversary of Thurman’s death. A native Floridian, Thurman was an influential African-American author, theologian, educator and civil rights mentor who was born in 1899. He was friends with the father of Martin Luther King Jr. and counseled the civil rights giant as he was shaping
FIU MAGAZINE Division of External Relations
Stephen Fain Professor Emeritus College of Education
Nicole Kaufman Exec Director of Development Foundation Relations University Advancement
place – and leaves me in awe.
Claudia Puig (Chair) Justo L. Pozo (Vice Chair) Cesar L. Alvarez Jose J. Armas Jorge L. Arrizurieta Leonard Boord Alexis Calatayud Gerald C. Grant Jr. ’78, MBA ’89 Michael G. Joseph Natasha Lowell Albert Maury ’96, ’02 Marc D. Sarnoff Kathleen L. Wilson
Duane Wiles Executive Director Alumni Association Mark Williams School of Public Health and Social Work
Terry Witherell Karen Cochrane Editor
Alexandra Pecharich Managing Editor
Aileen Solá-Trautmann Art Director
Doug Garland ’10
Senior Multimedia Producer
Barbarita Ramos Graphic Designer
Writers
JoAnn C. Adkins Eric Barton Karen-Janine Cohen ’14 Joel Delgado ’12 Clara-Meretan Kiah ’15 Robyn Nissim Gisela Valencia ’15
Photographers Ben Guzman Tim Long Brian Sassman Bill Schmoker
his philosophy of nonviolence. In 1953, Thurman became the dean of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, the first black dean at a mostly white American university. He died in 1981. I think that if Thurman were alive today he would approve of the work being done by the Panthers profiled in these pages. And I know that this is just a small sampling of the meaningful work being carried out every day by the students, faculty, staff and alumni of this great institution. Are you doing what makes you come alive? If not, what are you waiting for?
Always Blue and Gold,
Karen Cochrane
Copyright 2016, Florida International University. FIU Magazine is published by the Florida International University Division of External Relations and distributed free of charge to alumni, faculty and friends of the university. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. To reach us, call 305-348-7235. Alumni Office: Write to Office of Alumni Relations at MMC MARC 510, Miami, FL 33199, or call 305-348-3334 or toll-free at 800-FIU-ALUM. Visit FIUalumni.com. Change of Address: Please send updated address information to FIU Office of Alumni Relations, MARC 510, Miami, FL 33199 or by email to alumni@FIU.edu. Letters to the Editor: FIU Magazine welcomes letters to the editor regarding magazine content. Send your letters via email to alumni@FIU.edu; by fax to 305-348-3247 or mail to FIU Magazine, Division of External Relations, MMC PC 515, Miami, FL 33199. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. All letters should include the writer’s full name and daytime phone number. Alumni, please include your degree and year of graduation. 15456_04/16 FIU Magazine is printed on 30 percent PCW recycled paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council
SPRING 2016
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ON THE PROWL
Treasure: Musical recordings of a bygone era A whopping 15,000 vinyl records belong to FIU Libraries as part of the renowned DiazSample audio from the collection at Ayala Cuban and Latin magazine.fiu.edu American Popular Music Collection, a one-of-a-kind compendium of rare recordings. Now, to preserve a portion of those for posterity, the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation has awarded FIU a grant to digitize the works on 500 albums. The project will make available on the internet the best examples of popular music from various countries during the years 1900 to 1929. Among the highlighted musical styles: danzón, bolero, tango, rumba, foxtrot and guaracha. Librarian Veronica Gonzalez, who specializes in working with the collection, says that digitizing will make the music accessible to those who wish to study, for example, song lyrics as a primary source of information. “They can do research through the music, and not just research about music,” she explains. “Research about history, about social issues of the time, politics. Many disciplines can be researched through the recordings.”
FIU joins the highest rank of research institutions FIU has moved into the top category of research universities in the United States as announced by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In its new edition of classifications, the foundation placed FIU among the institutions engaged in “Highest Research Activity.” Only two percent of universities have attained the status. The achievement recognizes FIU’s growth in key areas, among them an increase in the enrollment of students in research-based Ph.D. programs, an increase in dollars spent to conduct research and an increase in the number of faculty who hold research grants from foundations, agencies and other sources outside of the university. “We have created an environment where top researchers want to come to FIU to work with each other,” Provost and Executive Vice President Kenneth G. Furton said. “This dynamic results in greater research productivity and recruitment of students at all levels, and also creates a significant economic impact in our community.”
FIU a stage for Shakespeare exhibition FIU’s Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum was the only site in Florida to host a nearly 400-year-old first edition of William Shakespeare’s collected works. As part of the Folger Library’s national traveling exhibition First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, one of the rare volumes was on display in 2016 in just one location per state, as well as in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. FIU had successfully vied for the honor with other Florida institutions. In addition to providing guided tours of the exhibit to more than 2,000 schoolchildren, the university created a dynamic, month-long schedule of arts and academic programming that included performances and film screenings, public lectures, a scholarly conference, a family day and even a virtual reality experience that simulated a walk through the streets of Shakespeare’s 4 | SPRING 2016
London circa 1598.
5
Questions
for the vice president By Alexandra Pecharich Photo by Doug Garland ’10
See the full interview at magazine.fiu.edu
V
ice President for University Engagement Saif Ishoof works to build public and private partnerships that capitalize upon FIU’s capacity to address pressing local and statewide challenges. The former director of City Year Miami, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reversing high school dropout rates among low-income youth, Ishoof arrived at FIU in the summer of 2015 and serves as a fellow of the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and the Honors College.
1.
2.
Why FIU and why this job? I grew up in this community and have seen the evolution of South Florida over the last 40 years. A lot of that change involves South Florida as a gateway to the Americas, a beacon that has welcomed so many from around the world as well as around the country. I am excited about being at FIU, which I think is a symbol for the ongoing evolution of Miami. What does Engagement with a capital “E” mean for FIU and for South Florida? We want to connect our students, our faculty and our alumni with opportunities and challenges in the world around us. We want to be able to use our scholarship, our research and our resources to really dig into that. Examples include the work that we’re doing through our partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and our work in leading and driving the largest life sciences collaborative in South Florida.
3.
What other areas do you plan to tackle? Just recently, we held our first Startup Weekend at FIU. We had 200+ innovators on campus for 52 hours, working at building their dreams, their entrepreneurial visions. We’re excited about our role in supporting research and economic development within the broader innovation ecosystem here in South Florida.
4.
You have a passion for mentoring. What is your approach? There’s nothing that gets me more excited than being able to be a resource to a young person who’s trying to figure out what’s next in their journey. I think a great mentor is somebody who helps you ask the important questions, holds you accountable, shines a light for you as well as opens doors.
5.
What excites you about young people poised to take charge of the world? The millennial generation, ages 18-35, is defined by an unparalleled ethos of service, and they are actively changing our world. And our freshmen, who are part of the post-millenial generation, have one value that I think is paramount above all others: empathy. They embrace diversity in its fullest sense, and they have the curiosity and creativity that will allow them to dig into really complex problems. The work of these generations will be indicative of the next 50 years of our university, as well as of our community and our world. As I like to tell everybody, the F, the I, the U stand for “the Future Is Us.” SPRING 2016
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ON THE PROWL SGA president advocates for FIU EXPANSION with online petition Alexis Calatayud, Student Government Association president for the Modesto A. Maidique Campus, has created a Change.org petition asking Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez and commission members to support the expansion of MMC to adjacent county lands. Calatayud, a senior political science major in the Green School of International and Public Affairs, says she wants students to understand the importance of the expansion for them, future students and the South Florida community. In an open letter, Calatayud stressed that additional acreage would allow the university to serve an ever-greater number of local students by providing additional educational facilities to meet their needs. “We have 55,000 students and 200,000 alumni. These are our community’s leaders, engineers, doctors and entrepreneurs. FIU educates our community’s top teachers, employs thousands and
A living lab FIU has joined forces with Deering Estate
is helping to transform Miami into a cultural hub. FIU’s success is our community’s success. FIU’s expansion would mean more and better jobs and educational opportunities.” To read the full letter and to sign the petition, go to expand.fiu.edu.
to create new research and education opportunities. The 444-acre preserve along the edge of Biscayne Bay offers access to diverse marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats and archaeological sites as well as geologic records and cultural collections. FIU will help
College of Nursing & Health Sciences spearheads school clinic for low-income families FIU’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences took the lead in a collaborative effort to open a health clinic at a high school in inner-city Miami. Working with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a youth social services organization and a
identify opportunities for field research
local community health center, the college secured a $1.45 million grant to operate the facility
and experiential learning for K-12 and
after school and on Saturdays.
university students. Initiatives will focus on
FIU provides the team of certified nurse practitioners that offers preventive care, vaccines,
conservation biology, restoration ecology,
flu shots and health screenings at Miami Northwestern High School to children and families,
coastal wetland ecology, geology, science
including those associated with nearby primary schools as well as other residents of the local
education and sociocultural studies.
community. Also available at the site are physical, occupational and speech therapies.
PATRICIA & PHILLIP FROST ART MUSEUM COLLABORATES WITH LOCAL SCHOOLCHILDREN Inspired by an exhibit at the Frost Art Museum, students at Sweetwater Elementary School created a mosaic tile mural. In efforts to enhance the limited time children spend engaged in making art, the museum offered encouragement and funds to help youngsters complete the work, which is now on permanent display at the school.
6 | SPRING 2016
ON THE PROWL
SWIMMING AND DIVING TEAM MAKES A SPLASH The FIU Swimming and Diving team claimed its second-straight conference crown this spring. The Panthers scored the second-most points in Conference USA Championship history and garnered 28 medals at the annual tournament, including 15 gold. The team also set seven school records. Head coach Randy Horner and diving coach Rio Ramirez both earned coach of the year recognitions. Sophomore Naomi Ruele, who won seven gold medals at the championship, took
FIU cited as a force for global good
home “swimmer of the meet” honors,
FIU has been recognized as a leader in fostering opportunities to help students impact the world. The university was chosen this year to join the prestigious Ashoka U Changemaker Campus consortium, a group of 35 colleges and universities around the world that have embedded social innovation as a core value and share a vision of higher education as the next driver of social change. As part of the rigorous selection process, Ashoka U looked at FIU’s award-winning Global Learning for Global Citizenship curriculum and the university’s commitment to uniting students, faculty, alumni and the community to address complex 21st century problems such as sea level rise. “Our interdisciplinary global learning courses engage every one of our students in collaborative efforts to understand and address complex problems facing people and the planet,” said Stephanie Doscher, associate director of Global Learning, and a leader of FIU’s Changemaker Campus initiative. “Global learning positions our students to effect positive change in South Florida and beyond.” Students are encouraged to bring their global learning to bear through internships and alternative service breaks and by building support for developing their own socially focused business ventures. “Being a changemaker is that call to action to make a difference in the community,” said Alexis Calatayud, president of the MMC Student Government Association. “We can’t have silos of innovation. Every student needs to be involved in innovation and entrepreneurship.”
#1
and sophomore Rebecca Quesnel earned “diver of the meet” honors.
Kyna Pereira, Skye Carey, Becky Wilde and Jessica Piper (left to right) celebrate after winning the 2016 Conference USA title.
For eight years in a row, FIU has earned distinction as the most energy-efficient institution within the Florida State University System. Through energy conservation measures and efficiency upgrades, FIU uses less energy per square foot of campus than any other public university in the state. SPRING 2016
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Family Medicine Three dynamic siblings attend the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine By Clara-Meretan Kiah ’15 | Photos by Doug Garland ’10 The three sisters who each chose FIU’s
Fertility Center in Boynton Beach, Fla.,
Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
where she was inspired by a hallway lined
(HWCOM) for their medical degrees have
with hundreds of patients’ photos with their
always been close, with just a little bit of what
new babies.
their father calls “healthy sibling rivalry.” So it comes as little surprise that Monica,
“He was a big role model,” said Valerie. “The way that he interacts with his patients,
Jeanette and Valerie Polcz followed one
and us being able to see that, was really
another around the state of Florida for
special, because he just has this great way
their higher education, first regrouping as
of being professional but personal at the
undergrads at the University of Florida and
same time.”
then all landing spots in FIU’s medical school. “We’re not snowflakes,” joked eldest sister
“Growing up, I always thought my dad was one of the smartest people, and so I’m sure at some point I associated that with medicine.”
Jeanette, who’s in her final semester at FIU. “We’re not original.” But for the HWCOM, which celebrates the tenth anniversary of its founding this
—Monica Polcz on her father, reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Tibor Polcz
year, educating three sisters consecutively is original, indeed. In fact, the Polcz sisters are the only siblings to date to attend the college.
When the girls were children, their
Monica, 26, was the first to come to FIU,
mother Irma Muller also worked in the
graduating with her medical degree in 2015.
practice as an office manager. So the girls
Her experience convinced Jeanette, 27, and
often spent their days off and weekends
Valerie, 24, to follow.
at the office, and as they grew older, they
But it was their father, reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Tibor Polcz, who first sparked the ladies’ passion for medicine.
spent time in their father’s lab learning the science of reproductive endocrinology. “Growing up, I always thought my dad was
The sisters grew up immersed in the medical
one of the smartest people,” said Monica,
field, watching him help families overcome
“and so I’m sure at some point I associated
fertility issues.
that with medicine.”
“I always thought after seeing me working hard and long hours for so many years, they would follow any one of their other interests,
Their father has been impressed by the quality of his daughters’ training at FIU. “The girls have had an overwhelmingly
thinking the grass is greener somewhere
positive experience. The education is
else,” their father said, adding that the girls
high level, no doubt,” he said. “It is not
had always shown an interest in science and
surprising that in a relatively short period of
math, “but I was wrong.”
time, the school proved itself to be a world-
Some of Valerie’s first memories are of
class center.”
“Bring Your Child to Work Day” at Polcz Continues 8 | SPRING 2016
Valerie, Monica and Jeanette Polcz (from left to right) all followed in their physician father’s footsteps. SPRING 2016
| 9
Continued
Preparing for a life of service
Celebrating ten years of excellence Since HWCOM’s inception, the college has grown in both size and Watch FIU Match Day 2016 at magazine.fiu.edu
reputation. While its inaugural class
Monica graduated from FIU’s medical
Jeanette found her focus in the military.
graduated just 33 students in 2013,
school in 2015. Since starting her surgical
Before entering medical school, she commissioned
this past fall it welcomed to campus its
residency at Vanderbilt University Medical
for the Army through the F. Edward Hébert Armed
largest: 123 students.
Center, she has found her happy place in the
Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program,
operating room.
earning status as a second lieutenant.
Along the way, the college has achieved important milestones,
“There, time has a tendency to stand still and
She completed the Army Medical Department’s
including the receipt of full
nothing else matters,” she said. “I find myself in
Basic Officer Leadership Course in San Antonio
accreditation by the Liaison Committee
a state of awe and complete focus, where the
the summer after her first year in medical school.
on Medical Education in 2013 and
only thing on my mind is the patient lying on the
The program introduced her to surgery through
ranking among the top 10 medical
table. That feeling is addicting, and ultimately why
externships and trained her to take on the role
schools in the country for Hispanic
surgery chose me.”
of active duty captain upon graduation from FIU in May of 2016. That’s when she will head off to
students by HispanicBusiness.com
Adding to Monica’s “addiction” to surgery is
in 2014. Last year, the college made
a deep, personal investment in her patients that
her top choice for surgery residency, Walter Reed
news by establishing a physician
doesn’t end when she leaves the hospital.
National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
assistant master’s program to meet growing demand. The college curriculum promotes cultural sensitivity and emphasizes real-world experience by embedding students directly in the community
“I bring that home with me,” she said. “When
“I really can’t think of a better way to give back
things don’t go well, I lose sleep over it and have
than by military service,” she said. “It’s nice that
been known to sit in bed stalking their vitals and
I’ll be able to combine my passion for surgery
test results on the remote EMR.”
with that.”
Valerie is only in her second semester at
through focused outreach programs
the college and asserts the most important thing
that target the needy.
she has learned so far is the value of collaborating
“We truly have a social mission,” said Dr. John Rock, founding dean and senior vice president for Health Affairs,
with others. “It’s the only way you’re really going to succeed in medical school,” she said. The constantly evolving nature of medicine makes
“and that is in the process of educating
it difficult for their father to predict his daughters’
men and women, we improve the quality
futures in the field, but he believes firmly they will
of life in the communities we serve.”
transcend any obstacle life throws their way.
And the results of such training have
“Changes present new challenges, but without
been promising: FIU students perform
them there is no progress,” he said. “I am confident
above the national average on state
that the girls won’t just quickly adapt, they will be in
licensure exams.
the forefront.” n
10 | SPRING 2016
A Legacy Not Yet Written FIU researchers believe sea level rise is a problem that can be solved By Eric Barton and JoAnn Adkins
Tiffany Troxler takes a right turn from Miami Beach’s Purdy Avenue onto 20th Street and spots her destination, a perfect example of the consequences of sea level rise. “Right there,” she says. “Do you see the two steps leading into the Publix? It Learn more about sea level rise with our digital extras. Listen to Todd Crowl’s TEDxFIU talk. go.fiu/tedxfiu.com Watch documentaries produced by FIU journalism professors and students. eyesontherise.org (under stories) Find the elevation of your South Florida home with an FIU-created website. eyesontherise.org/app Hear from students conducting research as part of a course on infrastructure and social resilience. magazine.fiu.edu
used to be seven steps.” It’s hard to fathom it, looking at the stairway, just a couple long, black-and-gray tile steps leading up to the entrance of the supermarket. But the city of Miami Beach has built up the road so high to prevent flooding that the staircase had to be shortened by five steps. Troxler points out other buildings that now sit several feet below the new street level; stairways now lead down to their entrances, patios and front walkways. New drains to funnel away water sit near doorways. Then Troxler points to an industrial-looking, squat structure smack in the middle of the road, bannisters directing traffic around it. “And that is a pump station. It will be one of 60 pumps all around the beach,” she says. During high tides and heavy rains, when many Miami Beach neighborhoods used to end up swamped, the new pumps should keep the streets dry by pumping out 14,000 gallons of water a minute. This novel approach to keeping the ocean from swamping neighborhoods is exactly the kind of thing Troxler is working on in the new FIU Sea Level Solutions Center. The goal of the center, above all else, will be collaborations and tangible solutions to combat the effects of global climate change. “If you think about it, we put ourselves in this mess,” said Troxler, an aquatic ecologist in the College of Arts, Sciences & Education and director of the center. “If we put ourselves in this, we can come up with a way to get ourselves out of it.” Continues
SPRING 2016
| 11
“There will be a lot more water-based transportation than we have today. There may be fewer streets, there may be fewer cars, there may be more public transit.” —Marilys Nepomechie, professor, School of Architecture, to WLRN Public Radio in Miami, on ways that South Florida might cope with rising sea levels
‘Unlike anything the world has faced before’ Across the university, researchers are
Center, the scientific work in the Sea Level Solutions Center, as well as a variety of other research groups. The collaborations are
seeking answers and developing strategies to
about more than the science, though there is
ensure South Florida not only perseveres but
plenty of that to go around. Researchers are
also serves as an international model for how
expected to share what they know with local
to adapt in this changing landscape. Their
officials, develop research programs that
work reaches far beyond the shoreline. For
respond to community needs and engage
South Florida, trouble also lurks within. The
people of all ages to be part of the solution to
porous limestone beneath our feet makes it
the world’s environmental challenges.
easy for salt water from the ocean and bay
As a child growing up in Ohio, Crowl had
Tiffany Troxler leads students in her class on infrastructure and social resilience.
to intrude into the aquifer that supplies much
a front-row seat to a major environmental
of the region’s drinking water. FIU ecologist
disaster. After being subjected to decades of
Continued
Todd Crowl knows this intrusion is creating a
industrial pollution, the Cuyahoga River caught
hidden peril.
on fire. That single event, which sparked a
It’s a far more optimistic message than the one coming from some scientists, who have
“The greater South Florida ecosystem is
nationwide environmental movement, set
predicted South Florida will become unlivable
predicated on the balance of fresh water
Crowl on a path of environmental preservation.
in a century or less. Consider the 2013 article
and salt water. When that ecosystem hits its
Over the years, he came to realize that the
in Rolling Stone that imagined a future where
tipping point and an imbalance occurs, that is
scientific reasons for why the fire started were
a hurricane has left Miami under water,
when this whole thing collapses,” he warns.
very easy to understand. But how people
nothing more than an adventure vacation for
Crowl arrived at FIU in 2014 to unify and
could let the pollution get so bad in the first
expand research initiatives focused on two
place was harder to comprehend. Water
highly threatened resources — water and
samples and data sets could not provide an
the environment. His efforts have been
answer. It is why, among a variety of scientific
formalized under the newly created Institute
degrees adorning his resume, Crowl also
we can now and also figure out what we need
of Water and Environment, which includes
possesses a degree in philosophy. He knows
to do in the future,” she said.
the Southeast Environmental Research
real solutions to complex problems require
scuba divers. Troxler sees a far better future where FIU can help to prevent that dystopian vision. “We’re trying to creatively plan to do what
12 | SPRING 2016
“We cannot save Miami. That does not mean that nobody will live here in 100 years, but it can’t be like this. Miami must only adapt.” —Jeff Onsted, associate professor, Department of Earth and Environment, to The Atlantic on South Florida’s need to build on higher ground
values and reason to be combined with
is happening today and what is likely to
support of adaptation efforts. And for the first
science and ingenuity. That is why you will
happen to their neighborhoods in the future.
time, FIU is offering an interdisciplinary class
find artists, sociologists, writers, biologists,
FIU architects and engineers are designing
dedicated to long-term infrastructure and
ecologists, architects, engineers and others
new innovations that could change how
social resilience within specific communities.
working side-by-side on the issue of sea level
we construct homes, office buildings and
During the spring semester, students have
rise at FIU. It is a framework Crowl helped to
infrastructure. Agroecologists are exploring
dedicated their coursework to studying
develop.
food supply impacts. Experts in business,
historic Virginia Key Beach.
The circumstances of sea level rise are
law and tourism are engaged. Scientists
The Sea Level Solutions Center is not
unlike anything the world has faced before.
are developing effective water management
an advocate for combating the effects
There is no isolated disaster. It is a slow,
strategies and storm-surge models. After all,
of sea level rise – that argument is over,
seemingly unstoppable force. Both natural
natural disasters will continue to be part of
according to Troxler. Instead it will be a hub
and built environments are at risk. Small island
the equation.
for information.
nations and major metropolitan cities are in the path. Globally, we are in this together.
Tackling this together For FIU, that means every college and
Bringing it all together, the Sea Level
“If you think about the problem of sea
Solutions Center has quickly become the
level rise as an individual, it’s overwhelming,”
main communications vehicle for all sea
Troxler said. “Then you think about the
level-related research at FIU. Researchers
problem as a collaboration with people from
within the center are collaborating with local
multiple disciplines, and you can solve it.” n
school has been activated on the issue.
governments, businesses and community
Researchers from nearly every discipline
leaders to accelerate adaptation planning.
are contributing to the body of knowledge,
Faculty members are helping to advance the
examining causes, effects, predicted
Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact
outcomes, best-case scenarios, worst-
— a formal agreement among Palm Beach,
case scenarios and everything in-between.
Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties
Students are being deployed during high
to work together to fight climate change.
tides to collect data. Teams of journalists
FIU and the City of Miami Beach have also
are working to develop communication
developed a partnership that provides
tools that help residents understand what
internship opportunities for students in
Todd Crowl
Continues
SPRING 2016
| 13
South Florida’s Climate Change Solutions By Eric Barton There’s no doubt among scientists that the climate is changing and the seas are rising,
water would drown aquifers that supply South
have the data they need to make an accurate
Florida with drinking water.
prediction on just how much the seas will rise.
Luckily, we already know how to fix this,
“That gives us 30 years to come up with
and so the work being done at FIU these
says René M. Price, chairperson of FIU’s
some possible solutions,” Price said. “And
days has moved from proof of the problem to
Department of Earth & Environment in the
that’s what we’re working on now.”
solutions. In South Florida, that means fixing
College of Arts, Sciences & Education.
three major environmental issues associated
The answer is comprehensive Everglades
with rising seas.
restoration that begins with returning to the
Protecting Wetlands So They Can Protect Us
natural freshwater flow. That means breaking
If you’ve ever been up close to a mangrove
down levees and dams and buying up farms
swamp, you’ve seen the tentacle-looking
located in former wetlands. “If we work to
roots the plants send into the soil. They create
South Florida, fresh water flowed naturally
protect the Everglades, it works to help
a tangle in and out of the sand, and it works
from the north end of the peninsula, making
protect our future,” Price said.
like a screen on a bathtub drain — letting
Fighting the seas with fresh water Back before the massive development of
water flow out but keeping soil in place.
“Weather patterns around the world are changing with increasing unreliability...We face the financial risks associated with the continued interruption of our businesses and the associated loss to the local economy as employment becomes uncertain, local and state tax revenues decrease and the impacts of the resulting loss of local GDP are felt by the community.” —Nancy Scanlon, associate professor, Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, to Hotel Business Review on challenges facing the travel and tourism industry due to climate change
And that’s why swamps can provide such protection, says Evelyn Gaiser, an aquatic ecologist and executive director of FIU’s School of Environment, Arts & Society. When a storm hits Florida, the mangroves and grasses and other plants not only keep soil from eroding but they also slow down storm waters that could threaten coastal communities.
its way through swamps and estuaries and all
These are plans that began in the late 1990s
Unfortunately, the salt water now
the way out to Florida Bay. Water that flowed
and are backed by local and federal regulators.
threatening the Everglades is killing these
down the peninsula kept seawater from
But Price said the trick these days has been
mangroves and grasses. If that continues,
entering the Everglades, creating a natural
convincing those in power in Tallahassee to
soil could erode at a far faster rate. If the
estuary of fresh and brackish water.
continue with the plans, including expensive
wetlands erode entirely, and we end up with
buyouts of sugarcane fields.
a bay in the center of the state, a hurricane
Dams and levees built in the last century
Among the work Price has done at FIU
could cause an unfathomable disaster: a
trapped before heading south, destined to
was producing a paper that predicted when
storm surge that could inundate western
be used as drinking water, to feed farms
scientists would know precisely how high
communities in South Florida and eastern
or flushed through canals into the ocean.
the seas would rise due to climate change.
development in Southwest Florida.
Now, salt water has begun to invade. If it
Currently, computer models are predicting a
“Luckily we have a good solution to this,
continues, the seawater could split Florida
wide range of futures, from the seas rising a
and that’s restoring the freshwater flow to the
into two peninsulas, with a bay in the center,
few inches in the next century to several feet,
Everglades,” Gaiser said.
swamping the Everglades. Aside from the
which makes planning difficult. By 2025 or
devastating loss of a natural resource, salt
2030, Price determined, computer models will
changed that. These days, water gets
14 | SPRING 2016
FIU scientists have taken the lead on championing for the restoration efforts using
studies and papers that show the positive effects of the work done so far. They’ve also
can say, if we do this we will fix it,” he said. The main problem with creating a fix is that
spoken to regulatory groups and before
we still don’t know how high the seas will rise.
hearings to show how continued efforts will
With a few inches, there are costly changes
protect South Florida’s future.
we can make to stave off big problems; with
Among the restoration efforts conceived
a few feet, it’s likely nothing can be done
with help from FIU scientists is a series of
to prevent South Florida from becoming a
water retention areas in the Everglades. They
wetland, Mostafavi said.
will not only provide drinking water but will
With a few inches of sea level rise, seawater
Student’s sea level rise research leads to Miami Beach engineering job Carlos Tamayo ’10 sat in on discussions
help divert the flow of water naturally, south
will threaten to seep into underground aquifers
between FIU and the City of Miami Beach
toward Florida Bay.
that provide our drinking water. One remedy:
regarding ways to mitigate the effects of
add a desalinization process to our water
climate change — and soon found a job. A
treatment plants. It’s a pricey solution and one
doctoral student under the direction of Civil
that has to be completed before the seas ruin
and Environmental Engineering Professor
the freshwater supplies. Those underground
Hector Fuentes, he had the opportunity to
aquifers can also be protected by injecting
present his own research to the group, which
“We need these big, expansive wetlands, and we need a lot more acreage than we currently have,” Gaiser said. “What we currently have does not equal the kind of protection we will need in the future.”
fresh water into them, filling them so that
Keeping the Floods at Bay To understand South Florida’s potential flooding problems, it’s best to imagine it as a sponge, floating just above the surface of a dish of water. For now, we’re just above the water line, and when a big storm hits, the water can safely seep through our porous soil. But when the seas rise, things get tricky.
seawater has nowhere to go, Mostafavi said. If the seas rise more than that, it’ll require a more complicated fix that could involve barriers to divert ground water, replacing locks along canals, and building pump stations throughout South Florida to replace the current system that works on gravity. It’s
Unlike other more rocky coastal areas like
an exorbitantly costly solution that might not
New Orleans, it’s not as simple as building
even keep the seawater back, so it’s one that
levees and holding back the water, explains
likely won’t begin until we know for sure how
Ali Mostafavi, assistant professor at FIU’s
high the seas will rise, Mostafavi said.
focuses on barrier systems that may be able to protect coastal areas. His knowledge landed him an internship and, in short order, a full-time position as a civil engineer. “The opportunity to work in Miami Beach, because of what they are doing with sea level rise, was huge,’’ said Tamayo, who holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from FIU. City engineer Bruce Mowry said Tamayo was the city’s top choice. “Carlos is an outstanding young engineer,’’
OHL School of Construction in the College of
The key is that FIU’s researchers are
Engineering & Computing. If climate change
concentrating on what can be done now.
model to be used for planning for the future
puts South Florida below sea level, the water
“Panicking over the worst-case scenario or
is a critical activity to meet the challenges of
will come up through our sandy soil.
being laid back about the best case is the
climate change and sea level rise.”
There are solutions that FIU scientists
worst thing that can happen,” Mostafavi
are researching, Mostafavi said, but it’s not
said. “We have to concentrate on what
simple. “There is no one solution where you
can be done.” n
Mowry said. “His work on developing a
Tamayo is happy that his research may have real-world implications. “My research is around the assessment of engineering solutions for sea level rise.
“I don’t understand how overnight, through magic, these politicians became climatologists, geologists and geographers and they negate the knowledge which has been produced by the best scientists around the world.” —Henry Briceño, researcher in FIU’s Southeast Environmental Research Center, to NBC News on those who dispute climate change
My benchmark is Miami Beach, but there are potential applications worldwide,” he explained. “From a technical aspect, compared to other coastal cities, Miami Beach has done so much more. The issue is so severe but in terms of adaptation strategies and execution of projects, we are leading the way.’’ SPRING 2016
| 15
THE
16 | SPRING 2016
BRAIN FIU takes an interdisciplinary approach to neuroscience research By Robyn Nissim | Photo by Doug Garland ’10 he brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It makes up 2 percent of a body’s mass yet uses
T
20 percent of its blood and oxygen supplies. It controls the way we think. It controls our movements. It
dictates the way we make decisions. And it determines how we recall memories. It is powerful yet fragile. FIU scientists from across the disciplines — medicine, engineering, arts and sciences — have dedicated their careers to studying mental processes in the healthy and the diseased human brain. They study brain activity, including language, cognition, emotion, action, sensory perception and mental health, while working to develop new technologies in cognitive neuroimaging. Understanding how the pathways within the brain work to enable the functionality of its connections— electrical, anatomical and physiological — has long eluded us, in part because they could not be easily seen or observed. Until now. “There’s been an incredible explosion in scientific data that allows us to understand the brain better as genetics, research, physics, imaging and cognitive research have all collided to present an unprecedented opportunity of multimodality and multidisciplinary research,” says Sergio Gonzalez-Arias, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Neuroscience at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. “Our ability to deliver a multidisciplinary environment for research and integrative research allows us to participate in much more relevant research and shortened path to clinical trials and then to treatment.” Collaboration is making possible advances unheard of just a few years ago. “We at FIU have an incredible group of well-respected and renowned neuroscience researchers coming together, and this provides endless opportunities in today’s research world,” Gonzalez-Arias says. And, he adds, FIU’s location in culturally diverse South Florida further enhances its capacity to contribute to the field. “There are very few regions that have the ability to study one or more different demographics from so many different aspects — cultural, social determinants and early interventions.” FIU’s strength in neuroscience has not happened by chance. “Our university leadership has put us in an enviable position with our strategic hires and our community partnerships. The first half of the 21st century will result in so much more knowledge about the brain than was discovered in the last half of the 20th century.” Continues SPRING 2016
| 17
Continued
The addicted brain Assistant professor of psychology Matthew Sutherland’s work focuses on the impact of drug abuse on the human brain, specifically nicotine and marijuana. With funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Sutherland uses multiple neuroimaging tools to look at the function, structure and chemical composition of the “addicted brain.” Functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography helps him identify “brain signatures,” or unique patterns of brain activity. An understanding of such signatures could one day help researchers create personalized therapies for mental health conditions. “When thinking about treatment decisions, it becomes important to understand the brain processes involved in order to provide precise targets for interventions, to identify the best intervention for a specific person and to determine if an intervention is working rather than just relying on a trial-and-error approach,” Sutherland says. “A cardiologist can put someone on a treadmill and make treatment decisions based on the results of that cardiac stress test. Currently, we don’t have any similar brain-based signatures for addiction or other mental health conditions to inform treatment,” he explains. “And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t work towards that ultimate goal.” Sutherland is part of a research team working on the multi-year national landmark study on substance use and adolescent brain development. The project will follow 10,000 children through adolescence, considered the developmental stage of highest risk for substance use and other mental health disorders. The goal is to inform prevention and treatment research priorities, public health strategies and policy decisions.
18 | SPRING 2016
Consequences of toxic poisoning During 30 years at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and five as chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Tomás R. Guilarte studied the effects of chronic, early-life exposure to lead on brain function and behavior. Today, the new dean of the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work continues his work on the subject with more than $7.5 million in active grant funding around his specializations in neurotoxicology, neuroimaging and environmentally induced neurological diseases. He uses behavioral, cellular and molecular approaches to reveal the effects of heavy metal exposure on the developing brain, focusing specifically on the molecular mechanisms by which lead poisoning impairs cognitive function. Childhood lead intoxication currently presents a significant public health problem, not only in the United States—where the Centers for Disease Control estimate more than four million U.S. households could be affected—but around the world. The recent stories of lead-tainted water in Flint, Mich., make clear that dangers persist even after decades of concerted efforts in this country to remove sources of the toxin, among them lead-based paints and leaded gasoline. “Lead is still found in homes and other buildings around us, affecting the people who are exposed, especially children,” Guilarte said. “Lead exposure still needs to be addressed because it can affect children throughout their lives, with consequences for them, their families, our schools and our communities.” And while it’s understood that childhood lead exposure results in cognitive function deficits, much less is known about the neurological and mental health consequences. Guilarte’s most recent studies indicate it could result in everything from lower IQ scores to schizophrenia in adolescence and adulthood.
Continues SPRING 2016
| 19
Continued
A snapshot of cognitive learning When Angela Laird, director of the Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging Center, arrived at FIU, she was presented with something she had not seen in more than a decade: introductory physics students that she was expected to teach. Most recently engaged in intensive biomedical research, she decided to find a way to both teach and undertake a study on the young people in her classes at the same time. “I solved problems with them and I worked with them all semester long and I watched their brains do this magnificent thing where they would struggle and struggle and struggle and get mad at me and then all of a sudden the light bulb would come on and they would get it and they were overjoyed,” Laird says. “And I said, ‘This is fascinating from a brain perspective.’” A cognitive neuroscientist with a physics background, Laird began imaging students’ brains before and after they took the course to see how undergraduate STEM majors develop critical thinking skills. She had students complete a computer-based multiple-choice task while she and her team studied what the brain was doing. “When they first start this course,” Laird explained, “these students activate the fronto-parietal network to solve a problem. After the course, they still require the fronto-parietal network.” So while it appeared that nothing had changed, the researchers found something interesting upon looking more closely: One area in the back center of the brain was more active in the post-class students. Oddly, that region, known as the default node network, is commonly associated with non-goal behavior and a resting state. That prompted a hypothesis: Could this region also be activated when the brain is integrating a lot of information and putting together everything that has been learned within a specific context? The study results will assist not only those who teach budding scientists and engineers, it may also help clinicians identify the sources of disruption in functional brain networks that lead to conditions like depression, schizophrenia and autism.
Understanding language acquisition Children develop language first by learning the speech sounds of their native tongue. In a surprisingly short time they begin to understand speech, and a short time later they produce words and combine them to form sentences. All of this takes place in the context of other kinds of communicative information, which forms the foundation for developing speech, language and literacy. Although we know a lot about the trajectory of this development, we know a lot less about how the young brain acquires these uniquely human abilities, and how these abilities are impaired in the brain in disordered populations. Anthony Dick, an assistant professor of psychology and director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, conducts leading research to answer these questions. His work focuses on the fiber pathways that support speech, language and literacy and how these are affected by various developmental disorders, such as ADHD, or nutritional deficits such as iron deficiency. “Medical science desperately needs new models and theories of how the brain functions to support higher-level cognition. With the advent of new methodologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging, we can now explore how the brain functions in living people,” he says. Dick’s research uses these approaches to see how the living brain accomplishes a variety of tasks, with a focus on language and literacy. And in the case of the developing brain, he emphasizes the importance of early intervention in treating a variety of disorders such as pathology, ADHD and autism. “The availability of novel neuroimaging techniques gives researchers unprecedented opportunities to design focused interventions to take advantage of that early window of intervention.” 20 | SPRING 2016
High-tech tools for the neurologist Malek Adjouadi, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of FIU’s Center for Advanced Technology and Education, and his team have created a number of tools to help physicians pinpoint damaged areas in the brain and optimize surgical outcomes. To better understand and treat epilepsy, the researchers designed computer software that analyzes the data from electroencephalograms, or EEGs, which take electrical readings from several places along the skull. Much like a seismograph measures earthquake waves, the EEG detects the subtle “spike waves” in the brain that could guide the process for locating source of seizures, information that can be used for surgical planning or for MRI-guided therapeutic interventions. The software can both calculate from where the seizures are originating, based on the readings from several electrodes, and accurately trigger the MRI at the opportune time. “When the detected spike happens, we trigger the MRI to take a picture of the brain in 3-D,” Adjouadi says. “So now we have two modalities telling us exactly the same location that is causing the seizure, and doctors are reassured that the action they will take in surgery is the correct one,” he says. The same protocol holds promise for some patients presenting with depression. Other collaborations in which Adjouadi is involved include examining ways to potentially stop or slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease in its earliest manifestation through interventions using a transcranial magnetic stimulator. Acquired with the support of the National Science Foundation, the equipment, located in Adjouadi’s campus lab, is the first in the state and performs brain stimulation as a curative intervention for patients with various neurological disorders.
Nanotechnology advances One of medicine’s most frustrating mysteries is why an ailing brain will rebuff the treatments meant to help it. The blood-brain barrier will allow some particles to pass through, but “The brain balks at attempts to deliver specific drugs,” says Sakhrat Khizroev, a physicist and electrical engineer who has dual appointments in the College of Engineering & Computing and the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. “It is absolutely incredible how the brain seems to understand and to quickly develop multidrug resistance.” So in 2011, Khizroev helped create a new, non-invasive technology that uses magneto-electric nanoparticles, or MENs, that are able to march through the blood-brain membrane to direct therapies to specific targets. MENs also enable unprecedented imaging of neural activity in the brain in real time. The brain, notes Khizroev, is essentially a wireless network with 80 billion neurons. “We can go deep inside to pick up those wireless signals.” In a study that was named one of the 2015 “Top Science Stories of the Year,” Khizroev’s team did just that. They used MENs to wirelessly stimulate selective regions in the brains of mice. The nanoparticles were used to “read” electric fields at a sub-neuronal level, explains Khizroev, who adds that the breakthrough “paves a way to reverse-engineer the brain.” It also has the potential to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. In addition to collaborating with colleagues in the medical school such as Dr. Carolyn Runowicz and fellow engineers, Khizroev is working closely with Dr. Andrew Schally, the Nobel Prize-winning director of The Endocrine, Polypeptide and Cancer Institute in Miami, to deliver cancer-fighting peptides to currently incurable gliobastoma tumors in the brain, a pinpoint treatment that minimizes collateral damage to healthy cells.
Continues SPRING 2016
| 21
Continued
FIU faculty are collaborating across the disciplines on projects related to neuroscience and, specifically, the brain. In addition to those featured on the previous pages, the following hold great promise, and most have attracted funding from national science foundations and public agencies. Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development A 14-member team of researchers from the
Childhood mental health FIU’s Center for Children and Families, under
help identify areas within a patient’s brain from which epileptic seizures originate. Researchers
College of Arts, Sciences & Education, the
the direction of William E. Pelham Jr., brings
in Riera’s Neuronal Mass Dynamic laboratory
Center for Children and Families and Robert
together a multidisciplinary team of researchers
are collaborating with those at Yale School
Stempel College of Public Health and Social
and service providers to improve the lives of
of Medicine on preclinical animal models. A
Work, represents the FIU site of the landmark
children struggling with mental health disorders.
biomedical engineer, Riera has had recent work
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development
These include targeted programs for youngsters
featured in a special Institute of Electrical and
study. The project brings together scientists
presenting with, among others, attention-deficit
Electronics Engineers’ publication that focused
and clinicians from across the country to
hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder
on the Brain Research through Advancing
enroll 10,000 healthy children and follow them
and anxiety disorders. The center is impacting
Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative
from age 9-10 into early adulthood to better
the field through its leading research studies,
launched by the White House in 2013.
understand biological and environmental
and filling a void in the treatment of children
contributors to mental health as well as to physical health and academic success. The FIU team is lead by Raul Gonzalez of the Department of Psychology. Brain Tumors Wei-Chiang Lin of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has worked with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to test a device he developed to help surgeons remove pediatric brain tumors. His team created a smart tool that distinguishes between abnormal and normal brain tissue in real time. During surgery, physicians will rely on the innovation to measure specific biomarkers and then generate a color-coded visual that makes clear the often-fuzzy boundary between cancer and healthy cells. Understanding
and adolescents by training other researchers, clinicians and mental health professionals in their
Deputy director of FIU’s Integrated
proven interventions. (Additional information for
Biostatistics & Data Management Center,
parents is available at ccf.fiu.edu.)
Boubakari Ibrahimou has won an initial grant in advance of the center’s participation in
Childhood social learning Although the development of infant social
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital research project on biomarker screening for traumatic brain
behavior has been well described, little is
injury. Ibrahimou’s work will contribute to an
known about the mechanisms of learning and
assessment tool for characterizing the nature
memory that underlie the emergence of social
and extent of such injury using advanced
behaviors. Psychology assistant professor
imaging techniques. Findings will then be
Bethany Sutherland is running an experiment
evaluated to see if they correlate with specific
that examines the effects of social cues on
neuropsychological outcomes.
both learning acquisition and memory retention in very young infants and the associated underlying neurobiology associated with these processes.
NeuroAIDS and drug abuse Madhavan Nair, director of the Institute of Neuro-Immune Pharmacology in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, currently
precisely how much matter to remove is especially important when dealing with young
Traumatic brain injury
Brain imaging for epilepsy surgery
concentrates his research on neuroAIDS, which
Jorge Riera is working to improve surgical
refers to any neurologic condition occurring
viable brain tissue
outcomes in epileptic populations through his
as a result of HIV infection. His recent work
can have lifelong consequences and for
relationship with radiologists, neurologists and
examines the effect of alcohol, morphine,
whom follow-up radiation or chemotherapy
neurosurgeons at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
cocaine and methamphetamine on the brains
to stem regrowth from residual tumor cells is
in Miami and the University of Miami Hospital.
of HIV-infected drug abusers and investigates
not recommended.
He focuses on integrating two neuroimaging
an approach to controlling the disease through
modalities—electroencephalogram and
pharmacological therapy that targets specific
functional magnetic resonance imaging—to
regions of the brain using nanotechnology. n
patients, for whom any unnecessary loss of
22 | SPRING 2016
BIG OPPORTUNITIES By Karen-Janine Cohen ’14 | Photos by Doug Garland ’10
Graduates of a College of Business master’s program are helping employers identify patterns in medical data to improve patient outcomes
E
ven before finishing FIU’s graduate program in Health Informatics and Management Systems, alumna Christina Cascante was hired by Mount Sinai Medical Center as a systems analyst, working on testing
and other technical issues of the hospital’s electronic medical record system. The job offer came just as federal mandates were ramping up to have doctors’ notes and other health care information digitized. Cascante graduated in spring 2015 and said that what she learned during the 14-month College of Business program gave her a 360-degree understanding of how IT, health care, business and big data are coming together in a field growing by leaps and bounds. “I didn’t realize how complex and vast it is, and how relevant right now,” said the 26-year-old, who came to the program with a bachelor’s in psychology as well as experience as a systems administrator for a private medical practice. “The program really opened up my eyes to this whole health care IT industry.” Continues
SPRING 2016
| 23
Monica Tremblay turns out graduates ready to analyze and interpret large volumes of medical data for organizations looking, for example, to better allocate resources or institute operational changes.
Continued
A growing demand Employers know they are going to need more professionals like Cascante. Monica Chiarini Tremblay, chair of FIU’s Department of Information Systems and
In the last several years, Tremblay has
Tremblay explained. A good example is
refined the program so graduates can provide
electronic health record programs used in
meaningful approaches to businesses and
doctors’ offices. The way that many have
researchers overloaded with data.
been designed — which often has doctors’
“We looked at our areas of strength.
heads buried in a computer screen — do not
Business Analytics, knows it as well. She
We are a department of information
take into account the traditional face-to-face
is constantly retooling the program, which
systems. Additionally, most of us
interaction between physician and patient.
launched in 2012, to meet evolving industry
[professors] do research on health care,”
needs. Along with Gloria Deckard, the
Tremblay said. “Information systems are
doctors are looking at screens now rather
program’s newly appointed faculty director,
about the intersection of people, process
than making eye contact. Some doctors have
and a group of national and international
and technology.”
even hired scribes to take electronic notes so they can focus on the person in front of them.
experts, Tremblay has reshaped the program so businesses that are gathering and parsing medical data — think hospitals, clinics,
Both doctors and patients complain that
A leader in the field FIU was the first university in South Florida
Key for students as well, Tremblay said, is learning how to ensure that doctors and
doctors’ offices, and public health and
to offer a health care informatics program,
office workers are on board with a new way
research institutions — can find experts to
and the only one to house it within a business
of gathering or managing information, while
deal with the onslaught of information.
school with a focus on process, change
also validating their concerns. Learning to
management and analytics.
manage change is a core learning objective
With almost every bit of data now digitized, from patient age and profession to diagnosis
One program goal is teaching students how
and DNA profile, the challenge is not only in
to find the right approach to fit each business.
sifting through the information but figuring
The first step is understanding thoroughly how
out how to tease meaningful patterns from
the business currently functions.
the mass of data — and even understand what questions should be asked. 24 | SPRING 2016
“If you automate something inefficient, you are just doing inefficient stuff faster,”
of the program. “You have to do training and roll out a system that is not painful.”
Going beyond the pie Data analysis is the third focus. “We need to understand what aggregate data looks
and acts like,” Tremblay said. Students are
treatment on a large number of patients, or
taught how to visually conceive data. It’s
whether prevention programs are correlating
far beyond plotting on a graph. Data now is
with better health outcomes.
presented in ways that use color, shape and
At Baptist, one goal was to automate
other elements that can quickly and intuitively
the Meaningful Use reports of 78 physician
reveal patterns that lead to insightful use.
practices that are part of Baptist Health
Termed visualization tools, they are to
Medical Group. “We had a spreadsheet
traditional pie charts and graphs what the
that was updated manually. It took hours to
computer is to the typewriter. Software
update and the manual process left the data
programs such as Tableau allow users to
vulnerable to human error,” D’Empaire said.
combine, rearrange, update and query data
Cascante, she explained, swiftly moved all
while adding information in real time. It’s a
the information — from doctors’ X-ray orders
specialty of Tremblay’s and is emphasized in
to prescription information to patient visits
the health informatics program.
— into Tableau and automated the entire
If it all sounds rather complex, that is
process. “She was able to provide amazing
because it is. The program is geared toward
output,” D’Empaire said. Administrators
nurse managers, hospital mangers, case
were then able to get a handle on whether
managers, public health professionals and
objectives were being met and where
others whose work is increasingly at the
improvement was needed.
nexus of patient care, IT and big data. Understanding this kind of knowledge is part of what makes FIU’s grads sought after.
Turning out top professionals Cascante said learning how to understand
Alicia D’Empaire, assistant vice president of
such information was a key part of her
Business Intelligence and Decision Support
FIU experience.
for Baptist Health South Florida, successfully
“In a couple of classes, we were given
wooed Cascante away from Mount Sinai
projects to use with this tool [Tableau]. It’s so
Medical Center.
empowering to have data at your fingertips
“I was looking for someone with a clinical
— which on its own is pretty unusable — but
IT background, and someone who has a
by plugging into Tableau you find all sorts of
lot of experience working in health care
patterns and variations that could potentially
business, and understands the operational
influence some big decisions,” she said.
process of the industries,” D’Empaire said. One must look to the Affordable Care Act to understand why this is important. As part of health care reform, a program
“It’s so empowering to have data at your fingertips — which on its own is pretty unusable — but by plugging into Tableau you find all sorts of patterns and variations that could potentially influence some big decisions.” —Christina Cascante ’13 MS ’15
A developer colleague of Cascante’s also used this visualization tool to help Baptist’s emergency departments better understand
of year — basic information one may look for in this data.” Since hiring Cascante, D’Empaire also
work flow: how many patients came in at
brought on another graduate from FIU’s
known as Meaningful Use incentivizes
what times, what days and with what chief
program and could eventually look for more.
hospitals and physicians to implement and
complaints. Administrators could mine the
use electronic health records technology in
data for information on the busiest and
she is without having enrolled in the health
a manner that improves patient outcomes,
slowest days, illness spikes and staffing
informatics program.
and meets other health care goals.
levels. Colors of red and green were used to
The technology that allows, for example, both the internist and dermatologist to
describe the department’s dynamics. “The colors would change depending on
Cascante said that she would not be where
“I couldn’t be happier,” she said, noting that it was at an FIU event that brought industry representatives to campus where her
access the records of Mr. Jones or Mrs.
the amount of patients coming in the door,”
professional path took off. “It was my very
Garcia can also be used to collect and mine
Cascante explained. “The gradient will
first step in the career world, and it would not
reams of data, such as the results of a certain
change [to reflect] patients, month, the time
have been possible without FIU.” n SPRING 2016
| 25
journey to the top of the
world
FIU researcher leads a team of U.S. scientists on an international mission to map the geochemistry of the Arctic Ocean By Joel Delgado ’12 | Photos by Tim Long and Bill Schmoker
26 | SPRING 2016
FIU Magazine asked Douglas Wartzok, an internationally respected scholar in the area of marine mammals and marine policy, to write this foreword. Wartzok served as FIU provost from 2010-2014.
The Arctic is warming approximately twice as fast as the lower latitudes, leading to reduced ice cover and — more significantly — greatly reduced total ice mass as the remaining ice becomes thinner. Although we build the science of Arctic climate on the synoptic data, it comes home to me more strongly through personal observation. I have studied Arctic marine mammals, primarily walrus and ringed seals, since the 1970s. In the 1980s and ’90s, I was engaged in multi-year projects to understand the sensory components ringed seals use to navigate under the ice from one breathing hole to another. During the time we conducted these experiments, the thickness of the ice decreased by almost half, from just under two meters thick to just over one meter thick. Because of the Arctic’s dominant role in Northern Hemisphere weather and because of its rapid change, it is essential we better understand the myriad physical and ecological processes operating in this critical realm. Fortunately, FIU has several faculty who are conducting essential research in the Arctic. •
David Kadko is leading a multinational, multidisciplinary effort (story begins on next page) to map the geochemistry of the Arctic Ocean and learn the distribution of nutrients and pollutants that underlie the Arctic ecosystem.
•
Steve Oberbauer is conducting research on Arctic land. Since 1994 he has been participating in the International Tundra Experiment looking at how Arctic plants have been responding to climate change and how those responses affect ecosystem carbon balance, which in turn relates to how strong the positive Arctic warming feedback loops are and how Arctic ecosystem changes will accelerate.
•
Kevin Boswell looks at the interface between land and sea through his research on the role of lagoons and other near-shore habitat critical for fisheries productivity and vulnerable to climate change.
The United States is currently leading the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum comprised of eight countries that addresses issues pertaining to the Arctic. We are assuming this leadership at a time when climate change is presenting challenges and opportunities. The United States will continue to look to research coming from FIU and other universities to address the climate, cultural, ecosystem, health, legal and natural resource challenges and opportunities. Fortunately, our faculty remain committed to responding to these national priorities.
— Douglas Wartzok Continues SPRING 2016
| 27
Continued
u.s.
Coast Guard Captain Jason Hamilton stood on the bridge
of the Healy in the early morning hours of Sept. 5, 2015. After 27 days in the western Arctic Ocean, he was ready to make a major announcement. “Ahoy, shipmates,” he began, his voice traveling through the ship’s intercom system. “At 0747, Coast Guard cutter Healy reached the North Pole. We became the first unaccompanied U.S. surface vessel to do so. Thank you for your initiative and cooperation, which led to this historic event. Have a good morning.” It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for the 140 scientists, technicians and Coast Guard personnel aboard the icebreaker, like-minded adventurers who had signed on to participate in one of the most extensive research expeditions in the history of Arctic Ocean research. There would be time to celebrate and reflect on this historic accomplishment, but it
Captain Jason Hamilton assumed command of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in June 2015. The ship is the United States’ newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker.
would have to come later. There was still too much work to be done.
and the North Pole was one of 66 sampling
of sampling for trace elements and their
stations on the Healy’s itinerary.
isotopes. These include micronutrients
David Kadko, a professor and associate
Making it to the North Pole was just one stop on the expedition’s 64-day, 5,000-mile journey. Hailing from Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Florida and parts in between, these scientists were part of a larger, multimillion-
essential for life such as iron, zinc and
director of the Applied Research Center
cobalt, as well as contaminants like arsenic
at FIU, was the chief scientist and lead
and copper, which may have a negative
principal investigator of the U.S. team. In
impact on the Arctic’s ecosystem if present
this role he led 51 scientists, students and
in large quantities.
technicians who conducted experiments
The three icebreakers taking part in
and collected samples from the ocean,
GEOTRACES each covered a different
atmosphere, ice, snow and sediments.
portion of the Arctic to provide as complete
“The Arctic is a very forbidding, harsh
a picture as possible of the area’s
dollar Arctic GEOTRACES initiative — a
environment. It’s been very difficult to go
geochemistry. Along the way, however, there
collaborative, international effort between the
there, to get data and understand how
were a number of designated “crossover
United States, Germany and Canada that,
it works,” Kadko said before the team
stations,” sites that two ships agreed to visit.
operating from three different icebreakers
departed. “We’re hoping that we will be able
Analyses of samples collected from these
during the summer and fall of 2015,
to unlock some of its secrets so that we can
sites would be compared among the
collected thousands of samples to survey
understand the trajectory of Arctic change
teams to assess the accuracy of one
water chemistry in the Arctic. Together,
and how the Arctic will change in the
another’s measurements.
their goal is to map the geochemistry of
coming decades.”
the Arctic Ocean and provide the most comprehensive understanding ever of the Arctic’s chemical composition.
at the pole Soon after the Healy’s arrival at the
The North Pole was one of the crossover stations. Two days after their historic arrival — and on their final day at the North Pole — the
The American team was surveying the
pole, the scientists and crew disembarked,
U.S. crew woke to a pleasant surprise
geochemistry of the western Arctic Ocean,
stepping onto the ice to begin two full days
about a half-mile in the distance. It was
28 | SPRING 2016
mission objectives The Arctic GEOTRACES program has three main objectives. 1. Establish a baseline of the geochemistry of the Arctic Ocean. “In 20 years, the geochemistry of the Arctic will be different,” Kadko says. “There will be less ice, and there will probably be more economic development in the region so we want to know how much of an impact those changes have on the Arctic’s geochemistry.” 2. Analyze and interpret the samples collected, gaining an understanding of the current biogeochemical distributions, or “fingerprints,” of the Arctic Ocean, resulting in an understanding of its chemical nature. “The distribution of chemicals in the Arctic are there because of processes that put them there,” Kadko says. “By interpreting these ‘fingerprints,’ we get to know more about how the Arctic operates today.” 3. Predict the trajectory of changes to the Arctic’s geochemistry. It is one of the largest undertakings in the history of Arctic research and one that will take the combined efforts of multiple countries working collaboratively to succeed. “It’s very exciting and gratifying that three separate nations can come together and cooperate for this project,” Kadko says. “In the end, there will be a huge archive of data that scientists will use for decades to come.”
An overhead view of a CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) rosette used to collect water samples
Continues SPRING 2016
| 29
Continued
the Polarstern and aboard it their German
the world contributing to the massive, long-
counterparts. The German GEOTRACES
term effort to better understand all of the
this was a very important area for us to be
team had begun its cruise in Denmark
world’s oceans.”
involved in,” he says.
years in the making
meetings around the world, bringing together
earlier that summer, crossing the Barents Sea above Scandinavia to get to the Arctic Ocean while the Healy and its U.S. team
GEOTRACES was founded in 2006 as
made its way to the Arctic after departing
an international program dedicated to the
from Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
study of the marine biogeochemical cycles
“That was serendipity,” Kadko says, “and a pleasant surprise.” The Healy’s officers and chief scientist
of trace elements and their isotopes. Its mission is to identify processes that control
“The scientific community realized that
The GEOTRACES program held several renowned scientists to assist in planning the expeditions. In 2012, it was announced that Kadko would lead the U.S. Arctic GEOTRACES initiative. Funding came from several programs
the distributions of key trace elements and
in the NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences
decided the team could afford to spend
isotopes in the ocean and to measure their
and Division of Polar Programs, with
several hours at the pole, giving members of
changes over time.
most of the research awards being jointly
both ships a chance to visit. Such moments,
In 2009, Kadko attended a GEOTRACES
funded by the Chemical Oceanography
expedition members say, are part of the
conference in Germany focused on
and Arctic Natural Sciences programs.
broader goal of GEOTRACES.
Arctic research. As he spoke to scientists
The U.S. Arctic GEOTRACES expedition
from around the world, he couldn’t shake
consists of 39 separate grant awards to
a great time comparing notes, showing
the notion that U.S. scientists were
different institutions, including FIU, for their
each other around and building international
not doing enough to contribute to the
individual projects. In total, the NSF invested
collegiality,” U.S. GEOTRACES team
Arctic conversation.
approximately $20 million into the projects
“I think everyone on both sides had
member and middle school teacher Bill
Kadko approached the National Science
and the expedition itself.
Schmoker wrote in his blog of
Foundation (NSF) soon after about
the expedition.
organizing a workshop to gauge interest in
works is a fundamental human endeavor,”
expanding America’s involvement in Arctic
says Henrietta Edmonds, director of the NSF’s
GEOTRACES, with scientists and
research. The workshop quickly sold out;
Arctic Natural Sciences Program. “Hopefully,
organizations from many countries around
Kadko had his answer.
with this expedition and the findings
“This is one of the hallmarks of
30 | SPRING 2016
“Trying to better understand how the world
THE ROUTE TO THE ARCTIC
“Trying to better understand how the world works is a fundamental human endeavor.” — Henrietta Edmonds
NORTH POLE
037 030
85
˚N
042
025
80
˚N
047 020 75
˚N
052 015
70
˚N
010
057
007
062 0
00
0
00
0
˚N
0
Barrow 0
65
0
006
ALASKA
0
˚N
0
RUSSIA
60
0 0
0
0
0
005 004
0
0
0
0
0 0
0
0
0 0
3
0
0
0
00
0
0
55
0
0
0
0
00
0
0
0
0
00
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0 0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
00 0
0
00
0
0
0
0
0
0 0
50
0 0
0
0
0
0
˚N
0
15
0˚
E
0
0
0
0
15
0 0 0
˚N
0 00
0
5˚
00
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
E 0
16
0
0˚E 165
˚E
DUTCH HARBOR
˚W
145
0
170
˚W
˚E
150
175˚E
155˚W 180˚
175˚W
170˚W
165˚W
160˚W
Continues
SPRING 2016
| 31
Continued
moving parts,” Kadko says. “Then the curtain opens and the miracle happens and everything works. From the chaos, we put it all together.” It helps to remain flexible. After satellite imagery showed more ice than anticipated along their initial course of 150 line of longitude, which runs along the coast of Alaska near Anchorage all the way up to the North Pole, Kadko and the Healy’s Hamilton decided to make an alteration. The ship would instead go up the 175 line of longitude, which runs farther west, to get to the pole. “The number one rule of icebreaking is if you can avoid ice, you avoid it,” Hamilton says before the ship’s departure. “There will be times on this expedition where we will need to make hard calls. Dr. Kadko, as a professional who has been doing these kinds of expeditions for over 30 years, will make recommendations to me FIU Professor David Kadko stands next to equipment used to obtain water samples for trace element and nutrient testing.
and the two of us will make a decision on what needs to be done. “Mother Nature can be very unkind when
that come from it, we will have a better
bay, you see salmon in the creek, and there
you’re up in the Arctic,” he adds. “When
understanding of how the Arctic works and
are as many bald eagles as you might see
we talk about this being a historic mission,
its role in global chemical cycling and the
pigeons in Miami.”
there’s a reason this hasn’t been done before.
changing climate system.”
final preparations In early August, Kadko set off for Unalaska,
For most of the summer, rain had been
It’s hard.”
a regular part of the forecast. But during the week Kadko and the rest of the U.S. GEOSCIENCES team flew into town, the
life at sea After departing from Dutch Harbor,
Alaska, where he and his team made final
weather cleared up. With temperatures
the scientists and crew wasted little time
preparations for the journey ahead.
ranging from the 40s to the low 60s, the
collecting samples for the dozens of projects
weather was ideal to finalize preparations for
being carried out during the expedition.
The lush mountains of this coastal city provide a spectacular backdrop to Dutch Harbor, one of Alaska’s major fishing ports
the voyage. In June, Kadko and several members
Kadko collected samples throughout the trip for one of those projects, which
and the Healy’s point of departure and
of the team had gone to the Healy — then
involved using beryllium-7 to trace the input
return. (Dutch Harbor is the main delivery
stationed in Seattle — to load much of
of aerosol-derived chemicals to the surface
port for the crabbing fleet featured in the
the equipment and begin setting up the
of the Arctic Ocean. With a half-life of
Discovery Channel’s popular reality television
labs aboard the icebreaker. But now in
approximately 53 days — meaning half of the
show, Deadliest Catch.)
Dutch Harbor, with less than a week before
beryllium-7 atoms in any sample will decay
departure, there was still plenty to be done.
every 53 days — beryllium-7 serves as an
Islands approximately 800 miles southwest
Labs to finish assembling, equipment to
ideal surface water tracer.
of Anchorage, the port is an ideal launching
be tested, clean rooms to be set up, and
“Using beryllium-7, we’ll be able to learn
point for the expedition, providing a clear
personal items to be loaded for the long
how different types of elements are distributed
path to the Arctic Ocean via the Bering Sea.
journey ahead.
between the ice, melt ponds and the water
Located in the heart of the Aleutian
“It’s ruggedly beautiful,” Kadko says. “There are humpback whales still around the 32 | SPRING 2016
“It’s like a Broadway show. There are
column and then how they are distributed
costumes and designers and all of these
over the course of a season,” Kadko says.
“I want everyone to step back, take a breath and realize what a ‘wow’ moment this is. I’m telling them to forever remember what we’ve been entitled to be a part of.” — David Kadko
When he wasn’t overseeing a sampling
all very focused on the measurements we’re
teams, will establish the baseline levels of
station on the ice, much of Kadko’s time was
making and the papers that we have to write
trace elements, isotopes and contaminants
devoted to catching up on data analysis and
and all the details that we have to assess,
found in the Arctic today. Future data will be
data entry. He and several other scientists
but I want everyone to step back, take a
compared to these baseline numbers.
also taught an oceanography course
breath and realize what a ‘wow’ moment
that approximately 20 Coast Guard crew
this is. This has never been done before.
members completed for credit.
world at a frightening pace, including the
Probably never will be done again. I’m telling
Arctic. A number of countries, including
The Healy featured a room dubbed the “Science Lounge,” which contained long conference tables and lounge chairs where team members could work on their laptops. Recreation and relaxation had their
them to forever remember what we’ve been entitled to be a part of.”
just getting started The team collected thousands of individual
proper place aboard as well. Two rooms
samples and terabytes of data across 66
were filled with exercise equipment, and
science stations, returning to Dutch Harbor
one evening in late September, members of
Oct. 11, 2015.
the Coast Guard crew and expedition team participated in a talent show. “There isn’t a ‘typical day.’ What I tried
With the scientists back in their home
Climate change continues to impact the
the United States, are developing plans to expand shipping, oil drilling, fishing and other forms of industrial development in the Arctic region. The data and analyses produced from the Arctic GEOTRACES initiative is expected to be a critical resource for scientists and policymakers in the years ahead as they
labs, Kadko and his colleagues will pore over
make hard decisions that will impact the
data from these samples as well as those yet
region for decades to come.
to convey…is to try and enjoy it,” says
to be collected over the next several months
Kadko, who had either met in person or
and years.
communicated with all of the team members
Their data, combined with the findings
by the time of the Healy’s departure. “We’re
of the German and Canadian GEOTRACES
“This initiative represented the oceanographic community at its best,” Kadko says. “Now a lot of the work is just getting started.” ■ SPRING 2016
| 33
By Alexandra Pecharich | Photos by Doug Garland ’10
34 | SPRING 2016
Meet a Haitian co-owner of the growing sandal company at magazine.fiu.edu
he journey to changing the world began with handing out water bottles to earthquake survivors in Haiti. That’s when, in January 2010, American volunteer Julie Colombino initially heard an unexpected refrain, mostly from local women: “Need a job.” On a month-long unpaid leave from work at the time, Colombino saw firsthand the devastation that would claim, by some estimates, as many as 300,000 lives. “There was destruction and death everywhere,” she says. “It was chaos.” And through it all, those three words— “Need a job”—repeatedly penetrated the fetid air and lingered for Colombino. “They were just ringing in my ears.” She wrote them in her journal even as she wondered what would happen in Haiti when relief workers receded from the streets and clinics in the coming weeks and months. What difference, what change would they— would she—have effected?
Deeply spiritual, Colombino lay awake at night contemplating the realities of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, in hopes that God would give her some direction. Little could she have known that her soul-searching represented the start of something big, something that before long would garner attention from the United Nations, a super model and an internationally renowned entrepreneur.
A dancer full of grace
Colombino graduated from FIU in 2003 with a degree in dance. (She also holds a master’s in nonprofit management from UCF.) Her fondest memories of her undergraduate years revolve around teaching dance to incarcerated women as part of a program one of her professors, Leslie Neal, had founded at a Miami-Dade correctional facility. “The program was revolutionary,” she says of the positive impact it had on the prisoners,
Above, Haitian artisans take a break from making sandals in the workshop of Deux Mains, a fair-trade enterprise started by FIU alumna Julie Colombino. Photo by Brian Sassmann.
who visibly softened as they embraced movement. “And it changed my life forever,” she continues. “Through that program, I got to say, ‘No matter why I was born and what gifts I was given, I can help somebody else.’” And so after a year of working in prison— during which time she also held two other jobs to make ends meet—Colombino set out to offer a similar program of creative therapy to rape victims in South Africa. “They didn’t trust me at first, and nobody liked me,” she says of those she wanted to help. “I was this foreign woman that came in, and there was a disconnect. Most of them did speak English, but they wouldn’t speak English to volunteers because they were just used to people coming in and out.” With time, however, Colombino did get through to the women, and they began to talk with her freely, an evolution that the director of the home where Colombino taught found remarkable. “That was the first time since she’d been there, and she’d been there Continues SPRING 2016
| 35
Continued
10 years, that she saw people connect,” Colombino says. “And it wasn’t easy.”
and sources 100 percent of its materials locally—encouraged him to contract for the production of brightly colored sandals for his “Love Haiti” line.
A leap of faith
Back home in Orlando after her stint in Haiti, Colombino could not get the people of the ravaged country out of her mind. Their spirit of hope had moved her, and she continued to think long and hard about how to answer their collective plea for work. “In Africa, I saw men making sandals out of tires in the streets,” she recalled. “In Haiti, I saw the tires being burned, and I saw people without shoes and people asking for jobs.” With an idea emerging, she made a dramatic decision: She would quit her job at the local office of United Way, sell her house and move to Haiti. So with $7,000 to her name, Colombino headed back to the tumult. Eight months after the earthquake, she and four Haitian women sat on the ground beneath a tarp, took razor blades to tires and began fashioning primitive flip flops. “In the beginning, we never thought it was a business, really,” explains Colombino, who paid the women a wage. “We thought, ‘We’ll make shoes and we’ll give them to these guys out here,’” she says of the barefooted locals who trampled on rebar and other detritus during the ongoing cleanup. The recipients greatly appreciated the crude yet durable slip-ons. And then, relief workers and missionaries wanted to buy them. “People who were just trying to help, they didn’t really care what they looked like,” Colombino says of those who offered cash for the goods. “And we were like, ‘Holy cow. We can sell these.’”
A shift to “beautiful”
Before long, the Clinton Foundation, which had an ongoing presence in Haiti, heard about the workshop and sent over someone to investigate. The representative—a stern French woman, Colombino recalls—made clear in no uncertain terms that she found the footwear both uncomfortable and unattractive. “I’m not going to lie,” Colombino says, “I did cry.” But then she went down to the port and convinced a cobbler to teach her and the others to make better shoes. It was the first step in a critical shift in thinking— “People want to buy beautiful stuff”—that 36 | SPRING 2016
Step by step, changing the world
Julie Colombino
would lead to continuous improvement of the workshop’s products. “They’ve gone through 75 revisions in the last six years,” Colombino says, “from being this very basic, heavy, ugly sandal to”—and then the kicker—“a design by Kenneth Cole. Our sandals are sitting in SoHo in New York City.”
Against the odds
That leap from rough handcraft to fashion statement sums up a story of tenacity, hard work and abiding faith, often under the harshest circumstances. “It hasn’t been an easy journey, but we persevered,” Colombino says as she recounts the professional and personal challenges she has faced in Haiti. “We’ve had a horrible fire. We’ve had theft. We’ve had a flood where we lost all our leather. I’ve had malaria and dengue fever and worms. To be honest, I wanted to quit several times.” But the positives outweighed the negatives. From the very start, individuals and organizations threw their support to the growing team of Haitian craftspeople. Early on, two Nike employees agreed to Skype from headquarters in Portland, Oregon, to explain how to build arch supports. The fashion model Heide Lindgren, in town temporarily with a relief team, stopped to visit the ever-expanding workshop—today a compound of four adjoining shipping containers, complete with an on-site boutique that attracts tourists—and eventually returned to Haiti to design a shoe that, unexpectedly, jumpstarted U.S. sales. Fashion mogul Kenneth Cole himself came down for a tour and to “grill” the staff about its practices. What Cole learned—that the workshop pays wages three times the Haitian average
For Colombino, success is measured not only in the number of shoes sold—3,000 pairs in 2015—and the ability of workers to purchase their own homes and provide for their families, but in the staying power of what she has helped create. “We watched thousands of charities come and go through Haiti,” says Colombino, who last year moved back to the states to concentrate full-time on marketing and global sales to keep the enterprise sustainable. “But our business is still there.” Another meaningful barometer: In 2015 the United Nations made its second grant to Colombino’s nonprofit organization, Rebuild Globally, this time providing $46,000 to outfit a mobile workshop—a shipping container on wheels—that will soon provide paid employment for 34 refugee women living in a displacement camp on the HaitiDominican border. Currently employing 22 Haitian workers, Colombino prides herself on having spun off the original workshop into a tax-paying business, Deux Mains, “two hands” in French, that she co-owns with three of the original employees. Ultimately, she says, she looks forward to divesting herself of the company and leaving it all to the workers even as she hopes to use the nonprofit as a vehicle to create new opportunities elsewhere in the world. A champion of social entrepreneurship, which uses business techniques to find solutions to societal problems, Colombino remains convinced that investing in people through fair employment practices has the greatest potential to transform lives. “We don’t want our Haitian kids to see a foreign person handing something to them,” she says. “We want them to experience their parent or their relative buying them something and caring for them because that’s how you end generational poverty.” And while she lauds the intentions of groups that collect and ship sundries to Haiti in efforts to help, “There’s a better way to do it,” she says, “that’s more sustainable and empowers and brings dignity.” n
Panther Alumni Week grows in size, impact By Clara-Meretan Kiah ’15 When does Miami’s classic 3:05 cafecito break become an opportunity for students to network with an accomplished public relations specialist? During FIU’s annual Panther Alumni Week (PAW), a highlight of which was a coffee break where students gained valuable insight from advertising and marketing expert Lily Saviñon ’10. Since 2013, hundreds of alumni have returned to FIU to participate in Panther Alumni Week, an opportunity for students to meet and learn from successful graduates. “When a student can sit in their classroom and hear directly from a successful alumnus, there is something very special that happens,” said Duane Wiles, associate vice president for Alumni Relations & Annual Giving and executive director of the Alumni Association. “FIU students are in a position to connect with leaders in their industry and hear from important Panthers in our community. In some cases, these connections can even lead to internships and job opportunities for our students.”
In the three years since its inception, PAW has grown from a handful of events and panels to more than 50 events, spanning every college and school in the university and this year reaching 4,000+ students. More than 370 alumni came back to their alma mater to speak to students this year. “PAW exists to enhance the respect, trust and impact of FIU locally, nationally and globally,” said Maria Tomaino, associate director for Alumni Career Development, about the Alumni Association’s motivation to expand the event. “We needed to create opportunities for alumni to get involved. Beyond the classroom, what else can alumni do to impact Dwayne Bryant ’93 served as keynote speaker. students?” Sebastian Cofino, a junior majoring in This year featured a number of first-time information technology who attended several networking events, including the association’s events, said learning from successful alumni in “Dining with 12 Panthers” career development many different fields has been invaluable. series; a practice interview program and “I think this is excellent, because students resumé festival at the Biscayne Bay Campus; sometimes take one bad grade for granted and a virtual meet up for connecting with Panthers say, ‘Oh I’m going to give up.’ But [the alumni] around the country; a reception for alumni who inspire, and they help to motivate different work for FIU and more. majors.” n
Travel in the company of Panthers By Gisela Valencia ’15 What could be better than traveling across the world to gorgeous locations at discounted group rates? Traveling with an amazing group of fellow Panthers. The Panthers Getaway Program offers the ultimate travel experience: convenient, stress-free packages, life-long learning opportunities and a vibrant community of travel buddies. Bill Draughon heads the Panther Getaway program and says it also plays a crucial role in helping current students. The travel companies with which FIU works make contributions to the FIU First Generation Scholarship Fund, which is matched by the state. “So when alumni book our tours, they are assisting students in obtaining a college degree,” Draughon says. “We think this is a win-win scenario.” Tina Vidal ’02 MIB ’04 visited Turkey, Greece, Malta and Italy while on the Mediterranean Cruise in July 2015. “It was great to travel with people from my alma mater and get to know other people that
graduated from the university,” said the Honors College graduate. During their Provence Immersion trip in France, David Kittridge MBA ’79 and Joan Kittridge ’78 attended lectures, tours and day trips as well as French conversation classes, something that Kittridge continued once she returned home to Orlando. The couple also went on a Best of Tuscany tour, where they got a taste of the movies. Actor Dustin Hoffman was working in Montepulciano while they visited, and “the whole village was sitting on the Piazza watching the filming,” Joan Kittridge recalls. Added David Kittridge, “We had some really tremendous experiences.” The Kittridges don’t often have a chance to visit campus and so appreciated learning about FIU activities through the alumni, faculty and staff who participate on trips. Vidal agreed that catching up with FIU in that way makes the trips very special. “The more we do that surrounds FIU, the more we, as alums, are connected to the university.” n
Division of External Relations Modesto A. Maidique Campus, MARC 510 Miami, FL 33199-0001 Change Service Requested
Digging in: In 1975, President Charles Perry, center, was joined by Howard Cordell, left, FIU’s first library director, and Donald McDowell, a university vice president, for groundbreaking of the Athenaeum, today known as the Green Library at MMC. The Greek word references the goddess of wisdom and the arts, a name befitting the fifth structure completed on campus. Today the library at MMC has a counterpart in the Hubert Library at BBC. Together the two welcomed nearly 1.4 million visits by students, faculty, staff and community members during the 2014-15 school year in addition to serving an even broader audience with its online resources. Photo courtesy of FIU Special Collections & University Archives
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