Link is published in the fall and spring each year by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University for alumni and friends of the college. COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES ADMINISTRATION Dean Michael Whiteford Associate Dean Dawn Bratsch-Prince Associate Dean Arne Hallam Associate Dean David Oliver Associate Dean Zora Zimmerman LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES DEVELOPMENT TEAM Senior Director of Development Michael Gens
Welcome to Link, the LAS magazine Members of the Liberal Arts and Sciences family will notice a new title for the college alumni publication beginning with this edition. Link represents the connection between the college and its alumni and friends – vital partnerships in building and sustaining a strong College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Link will be published twice a year, in fall and spring. We hope you enjoy it and, as always, we encourage your comments. Steve Jones, editor Phone: 515-294-0461 / Email: jones@iastate.edu
CONTENTS Major League jobs…and NFL, NBA, too These LAS grads work hard and long, but love being in pro sports.
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Directors of Development Stephanie Greiner Lisa Fry Progam Assistant Erin Steinkamp LINK STAFF Director of College Relations Mark Imerman
Not your ordinary 9-to-5 A quintet of alumni used their LAS educations for adventurous careers.
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Editor Steve Jones Writers Laura Engelson Steve Jones David Gieseke
Returning the favor in Haiti Student Silentor Esthil-Henderson wants to give back to his native country.
Graphic Designer Sheena Lara Photographers David Gieseke Steve Jones Ann Hawkins
Link College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 223 Catt Hall Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 515-294-0461 las@iastate.edu Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries can be directed to the Director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, 3680 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612.
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Artifacts of long-ago loss Japanese American WW II internment art leads to anthropologist’s book.
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Geological difference maker Smiths’ gift helping put Geology Department on solid ground.
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Letter from the Dean Friends of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, As I write this column, the new academic year has just started. After a summer of relative tranquility, the campus is packed. The university’s enrollment is at a record high and, as there is every fall, one feels a palpable level of excitement when strolling across the campus. This is really an invigorating place to be. Over the course of the past few weeks, I have met with new students and faculty to welcome them to an institution I hope will be their home for years to come. While we’d like to see our students graduate in a timely fashion, I hope the faculty and staff who are joining us will see this as a place to put down their roots and establish their careers. Iowa State University and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has not been immune to the economic situation that has impacted this country for the past year. Like most of the rest of the nation, we struggled through parts of last year and we see some challenges ahead. This past year Iowa State University was forced to cut close to $40 million from the budget it receives from the state and the LAS College gave up almost $7 million in permanent monies when the new fiscal year began on July 1. Increasingly we will depend on tuition dollars, monies from research, and income coming from our dedicated fund raisers in order to carry out business.
Although we are extremely mindful of the challenges that await us, we will move determinedly forward, convinced that we can do this successfully because of the multiple
Dean Michael Whiteford
strengths that we offer the State of Iowa, the
issue of underrepresentation. We brought some men on board in areas usually highly populated by women. Over nation and our global contingents. and over again I was told that the candidate pools were very, very strong. Last January we recommended promotion of almost Although we are extremely mindful of the challenges that three dozen faculty – most to the rank of Associate Professor await us, we will move determinedly forward, convinced with tenure. When we finished the process, we felt this that we can do this successfully because of the multiple was among the strongest cohort we had seen in years. The strengths that we offer the State of Iowa, the nation and our central administration agreed with us. As it should be, the global contingents. standard for excellence continues on an upward trajectory Last year was an incredibly good one for the College. and we feel confident and comfortable that the College and At a time when many other universities were suspending the University will be well served for years to come. faculty searches, LAS made close to 40 new hires. We hired I could go on and on about the accomplishments of faculty in all of the major disciplinary areas. For example, we our students, our staff and our faculty, but I have run out hired an econometrician, a creative writer, an environmental of the space allotted to me for my greeting. The rest of this historian, a high-energy physicist, a specialist in the African publication will highlight the excellence of your College of Diaspora, a sample survey statistician, an applied linguist, Liberal Arts & Sciences. and a philosopher of technology. We hired women in science and technology areas, thus helping to address an important
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News
History graduate at top National Archives post Pictured (from left) Ken Koehler, chair of statistics; Dean Isaacson, professor and former head of statistics; H.A. David, professor emeritus and former head of statistics; and ISU President Gregory Geoffroy.
Snedecor Hall rededication
The Statistics Department is enjoying an up-to-date Snedecor Hall. Statistics personnel moved out of the building in December 2007 while a complete remodeling took place. Staff returned in May 2009 and celebrated with a rededication ceremony June 3 as part of the department’s 75th anniversary celebration.
Adrienne C. Thomas is the Acting Archivist of the United States at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Thomas received her master’s degree in American History from Iowa State in 1970. A 38-year employee of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Thomas now is the chief official overseeing the operation of NARA. As the nation’s “record keeper,” NARA houses such important documents as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
LAS graduate programs rank among nation’s best
U.S. News & World Report in 2009 ranked three College of Liberal Arts and Sciences academic areas among the top 25 of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” Statistics: fifth overall and third among public universities Analytical Chemistry: 12th overall and 12th among public universities Inorganic Chemistry: 18th overall and 10th among public universities
On a high note twice
The Iowa State Singers, the university’s most select choral ensemble, had two prestigious performances in the 2008-09 academic year. The Singers performed at the national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the National Collegiate Choral Organization. The group was one of only 20 choirs selected to perform at ACDA, of which only four were college/ university mixed choirs.
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Chemistry alum is Distinguished Marvin Caruthers, a 1962 Iowa State chemistry graduate, was a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award presented at VEISHEA 2009 by the Iowa State Alumni Association. The award is the university’s highest alumni honor. The native Iowan has a long list of awards, honors and patents, the result of a career of achievements that helped reshape biotechnology, basic biological research and pharmacology. He is a Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado.
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Writing requires solitude
A 76-acre plot of land donated to the English Department’s MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment serves as a place of solitude for students, alumni and visitors to write. Everett Casey of Detroit, Mich., a 1946 engineering graduate, donated the property near Boone and credits an Iowa State writing class as being fundamental to his work as a Detroit-area attorney and owner of a manufacturing company. The plot is populated by ducks, beavers, wild turkey and deer, and the English Department plans to preserve its wild character.
Pathological players
An Iowa State psychologist found that nearly one in 10 youth gamers are addicted to video games. “This is the first study to tell us the national prevalence of pathological play among youth gamers,” said Douglas Gentile, assistant professor of psychology. Gentile said pathological use of video games is damaging to a person’s functioning. Pathological gamers in his study were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms, reported having more trouble paying attention in school, received poorer grades in school, had more health problems, were more likely to feel “addicted,” and even stole to support their habit.
The LAS Green Team is fostering a green environment in the college. Dean Michael Whiteford established the sustainability committee, which is working to reduce energy usage, develop curricula on sustainability, encourage student-driven green initiatives and create sustainability awareness.
Ambassador-at-Large Student gets a ‘Gold’
Goran Micevic, a biochemistry student who plans to become a biomedical researcher, was named a Goldwater Scholar for 2009-10. The scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. Micevic is among 278 college students nationwide selected on the basis of academic merit for the competitive award.
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President Obama this year named a 1990 Iowa State political science alumnus to a key State Department post. Luis CdeBaca is the Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. He had been counsel to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, on detail from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the White House, CdeBaca has been instrumental in developing the nation’s victim-centered approach to combating modern slavery.
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Battle of the brains
Three computer science students battled for the “world’s smartest trophy.” Michael Seibert, Pavel Kazatsker and Yuly Suvorov, pictured from left in front, traveled to Sweden in April 2009 to compete in the 33rd annual Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest World Finals. The Iowa State team, one of just 21 from the United States to qualify, finished sixth among American universities and tied for 49th overall in the world. Coach Simanta Mitra (back) noted the team’s success was “no small feat” since more than 7,000 teams from across the world took part in regional qualifying competitions.
Trashy bunch
The Skunk River Navy had another successful season in 2008. The “Navy,” which is the service learning component of the BEST (Biology Education Success Teams) learning community, cleans out trash up and down the Skunk River in the Ames area every fall. Jim Colbert, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, reported that the group had its largest ever number of volunteers last fall, totaling 225 “volunteer days” on the river. They submitted three sets of biological data and an equal number of sets of bacteria data to the IOWATER database. The group also removed 5.7 tons (11,400 lbs) of trash from the river, much of which was recycled. Over the past 11 years, the Skunk River Navy has removed 51.7 tons (103,400 lbs) of trash from local streams.
A step closer
An ISU research team led by Gaya Amarasinghe, assistant professor in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, is a step closer to finding a way to counter the Ebola virus after recently solving the structure from a key part of the Ebola protein known as VP35. The VP35 protein interferes with the natural resistance of host cells against viral infections. The VP35 information can be used as a template for anti-viral drug discovery, according to findings published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Mathematics in the O.R.
Mathematics is playing a role in efforts by plastic surgeons to ensure success of live tissue transfers from one part of a person’s body to another. In the first published quantitative model of tissue transfer, physicians and mathematicians have teamed to ensure tissue segments chosen for transfer will receive enough blood and oxygen to survive. Anastasios Matzavinos, assistant professor of mathematics at Iowa State, said research, which uses differential equations, has shown math can take the guesswork out of such transfers. Matzavinos and mathematicians and plastic surgeons from Ohio State University have developed mathematical models of the blood supply and oxygen in tissue segments. The modeling could reduce failures in reconstructive surgery.
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50 years of cheers for Liberal Arts and Sciences Calendar year 2009 has been golden for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which has been celebrating its 50th anniversary. Mindful of the university’s current budget challenges, organizers have been staging several low-key and prudent events to celebrate the college’s storied past. LAS was established as the College of Sciences and Humanities in 1959 after Iowa State became a university. In 1990, the college took on its current name to more accurately describe its many academic programs. While the college is officially only 50 years old, Iowa State has offered the sciences, liberal arts and humanities since it first opened its doors to students in 1869. The celebration ends Feb. 2, 2010, when ISU sociology graduate and Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier comes to campus to give a keynote address.
Kicking off with Carrie Chapman Catt Liberal Arts and Sciences went back many years to kick off its 50th anniversary celebration. Jane Cox, ISU professor of theatre, portrayed Carrie Chapman Catt Jan. 27 in scenes from her onewoman show, “The Yellow Rose of Suffrage.” More than a decade ago, Cox (left) wrote the play about the life of Catt, one of Iowa State’s most distinguished alumni and a leader of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. The event coincided with the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics’ 150th birthday celebration of Catt.
Concert on the Green… becomes Concert on a Stage The band was ready, the Campanile looked great but the rain came. Concert on the Green, a Liberal Arts and Sciences 50th anniversary outdoor performance by ISU’s Wind Ensemble, was moved from Central Campus indoors to Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall Aug. 27 because of wet grounds. Despite the move, conductor Michael Golemo (left) and guest conductor Michael Whiteford, LAS dean, led the student band in a variety of musical favorites including several 1959 hits.
Night at the Movies - LAS Style Liberal Arts and Sciences showed the 2008 documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” at the LAS Movie Night Sept. 23. Doug Gentile, assistant professor of psychology and expert in the effects of video games on youth, followed the film with commentary and discussion.
The question, “Where will you be 50 years from today?”, was posed to incoming freshmen at Destination Iowa State, Aug. 22. Answers ranged from “living the life” to “I will be a Professor of Celtic Studies living in the British Isles.”
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Students might win something! ISU students are entering the Liberal Arts and Sciences’ 50th anniversary contest. Since all ISU students take LAS courses, the college is asking them to tell how their LAS education is impacting them now and also in the future. Entries can be submitted in video, writing or mixed-media. Several prizes will be awarded, and the winners will be honored Nov. 30.
Check out the Liberal Arts & Sciences 50th anniversary website: www.las.iastate.edu/50th
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Good sports, these pro workers They don’t hit homers, swish three-pointers or run for TDs. They don’t coach. Yet for this group of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni, working for a professional sports team is a high-five. By Steve Jones and David Gieseke
for WBBM radio (the Bears’ flagship station) stays busy seven days a week during the season. In addition to calling the game, Joniak hosts Coach Lovie Smith’s Monday radio show, plans and does stories for radio and TV pre-game shows, anchors the WBBM afternoon sports shift, writes a newspaper column, watches a bunch of game tape for insight into the next contest, and is part of radio and TV Bears post-game productions.
He recalled reading intramural sports scores on the low-powered station, being “as serious as if I were reading a Cubs-Cardinals score.” He did his first play-by-play on the ISU station, and worked with Cyclone coaches Johnny Orr, Donnie Duncan and Jim Criner. He fondly remembers calling basketball games featuring stars Jeff Grayer, the late Barry Stevens and Jeff Hornacek. “I used to love to go on that radio station,” he recalled.
I literally had not done play-by-play since Iowa State. Sunday game days in Chicago mean leaving home at 7:30 a.m. and not ISU intramurals to NFL returning until after the live 10:30 p.m. It’s difficult for Jeff Joniak to go Bears wrap-up TV show. unnoticed in Chicago. “It’s a lot of work, but I love it,” The radio play-by-play voice of the Joniak said. “I am so lucky to do what Chicago Bears of the National Football I do.” League is easily recognized and often Joniak came to ISU to study approached. It comes with the territory. meteorology. He had been fascinated Joniak brings energy and passion with weather since the second grade to Bears broadcasts in a city passionate when a 1969 tornado hit near his about its team. To many he personifies hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He the storied Bears whose outcome on admits math and physics got the best of Sunday can determine the city’s mood him, and turned to journalism midway on Monday. through his sophomore year. Two “Everywhere I go, people come weeks after switching majors, Joniak up and say they listen to me on the was previewing Super Bowl XVI and radio or see me on TV,” said Joniak, a announcing sports on campus radio 1984 Iowa State broadcast journalism station KPGY. alumnus. “It’s flattering, but it blows “I loved sports,” he said while my mind.” sitting down in Halas Hall at the Bears’ The personable Joniak is a Bears Lake Forest, Ill., practice facility. “I fixture on the radio throughout the realized I could do this for a living and upper Midwest and on Chicagoland tried to get as much experience as I TV. The Director of Sports Operations could.”
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After graduation he landed a broadcasting job in Chicago and worked his way up until becoming sports director of the former WMAQAM. From 1991-96 he co-hosted the Chicago Bulls pre- and post-game radio shows. The Bulls, starring Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, were winning NBA titles and held mega-celebrity status. Fans were everywhere. Traveling with that team, Joniak said, “was basically like traveling with the Beatles.” In 1997 he began a four-year stint hosting the Bears’ game-day radio broadcasts while Wayne Larrivee and later Gary Bender handled play-by-play. During that time he substituted once as the Northern Illinois University football play-by-play voice. The game was marked by big plays, showcasing Joniak’s excitement and talent as a broadcaster. When the Bears’ job opened in 2001, Joniak applied using
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the Northern Illinois tape. He had to – he had nothing else. “I literally had not done play-byplay since Iowa State,” Joniak noted. He said the Bears took a chance on him, and he’s worked hard ever since holding up his end of the bargain. He calls it his dream job. “I want to bring the passion of Bears football to the fans, and you can’t fake passion,” said Joniak. “I get an adrenaline rush whenever I walk into an NFL stadium. “I’ve been very lucky. I want to do play-by-play for the next 30 years.” sj
Fie can attest, however, that the large number of women involved in professional sports wasn’t always the case. “When I first started out in the business, there was only one other woman working in public relations in the league,” Fie said. “Now there are significant females on every staff. “The climate definitely has changed.” Even though she was a trailblazer, Fie didn’t think much about her situation when she joined the Kansas City Kings as the assistant public relations director in 1981. She said her upbringing around sports helped prepare her for life in a male-dominated business. “I was headstrong and didn’t let obstacles stand in my way. ,” she said. “I had a lot of pride in what I was doing, and it didn’t dawn on me that I wouldn’t succeed.” Fie’s roles have changed with time. From her early days as a communications staffer, she has progressed to her current position. She moved with the Kings to Sacramento in 1985, and remained there until joining the Suns in 1992. More than her job title has changed during that time, however. “In Kansas City we would drive all over town and drop (news) releases off at the newspapers and television and radio stations,” she said. “The amount of media is so vast now. Today you send out a release and it’s everywhere in a minute.” With the Suns, Fie is the liaison Sunny outlook for Fie between the players and the media. She A recent report showed more women work in the National Basketball travels with the team and is responsible for media interviews and requests Association (NBA) than any other major professional sports league in the locally, nationally and internationally. She and her staff are also responsible United States. for game-night press accommodations, The study, issued by Central news conferences, and production of Florida’s Institute for Diversity and news releases and media guides, notes Ethics in Sport, showed that women and statistics. held 43 percent of the professional “There are many more media outlets positions in NBA offices. to filter through with the traditional Julie Fie, a 1981 communications graduate of Iowa State University, is one media having Internet sites and blogs,” Fie explained. “There are also the nonof those women. A 28-year veteran of traditional media outlets, and social the NBA’s public relations community, networking adds another dimension. Fie is the vice president of basketball “You used to be sensitive to communications for the Phoenix Suns.
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deadlines. Now virtually everything is immediate. The dynamics of what is news can change in a minute.” Such was the case in February 2009 when Fie was interviewed for this article. She was coming off an intense week of activity that included the Suns hosting the NBA All-Star Game. Then, in rapid succession over the next couple of days, Fie dealt with the firing of the team’s head coach, seasonending surgery for star player Amar’e Stoudemire and trade rumors involving the team’s most recognizable player, Shaquille O’Neal (who has since been traded to Cleveland). “That’s this business. It has its ups and downs and the ebb and flow of the season is ever changing,” Fie said. “That’s what I love about my job. “In sports there are many expectations, but it’s a lot more fun if you don’t get caught up in them. How else would a gal raised in Iowa wind up working with the likes of Charles Barkley, Steve Nash and Shaquille O’Neal?” dg
Vikings’ PR year-round job When Bob Hagan travels for work, a handful of his college friends usually meet up with him. “I don’t go on my friends’ business
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trips,” Hagan noted. Of course, his friends’ business travel doesn’t include National Football League games. Hagan is the director of public relations for the Minnesota Vikings. The 1990 Iowa State journalism graduate loves his job as the chief media relations official for the Vikes. “It’s a great place to work, a great environment,” said Hagan from Winter Park, the Vikings’ office and practice complex in the Twin Cities suburb Eden Prairie. “It makes it easy to come to work everyday.” Hagan cites all the “great relationships” he’s made over the years with players, coaches, front office officials, the news media, league staff and folks from other NFL teams. “That’s one of the more special things about being in this job,” he noted. His work involves running news conferences, producing publications, releasing team information, providing media credentials and trying to arrange a slew of interview requests for players, coaches and front-office personnel. “Our job is to put a personality on the players and coaches and let the public know what they’re like, inside and outside of football.” The son of two Iowans who met at Iowa State, Hagan followed the Cyclones in junior high and high school while growing up near Minneapolis. “I always really liked the campus and cheered for them in sports,” he said. He also liked the journalism program enough to enroll at ISU. He became active in a fraternity, interned at the WOI-TV sports department and wondered what type of journalism or public relations career awaited. Working with a sports team was appealing, so after graduation he applied and was hired as an unpaid Vikings public relations intern. A year later, in 1992, he was a full-time staffer and became the director in 1998. His work is seven days a week during the season, but he quickly became accustomed to the frenetic schedule. “Once training camp starts, there’s no looking back,” he said. “It goes fast – you’re in week three and the
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next thing you know it’s week 11.” Hagan also is a member of the Super Bowl public relations staff, and he’s worked some Pro Bowls in Hawaii. The offseason is slower, but the popularity of the NFL means there’s work to be done during the collegiate draft, owners’ meetings, mini-camps and the free-agency period. The league has become a year-round business, Hagan remarked. However, Hagan says he’s still as excited today as he was in his first year on the job. Working for your favorite football team will do that. “There’s a huge buildup to each game, and I still enjoy that. I still enjoy the press conferences. I find it a rewarding job.” His friends are happy, too, because NFL games are good reasons for his Iowa State buddies to get together. “It’s been a great way to stay in touch with them,” Hagan said. sj
and it’s the opening day 2008 in the team’s brand new Nationals Park. By all accounts, everything went well, which was good news to 2005 Iowa State journalism graduate Tom Davis. He’s coordinator of entertainment for the Nationals and the person responsible for “pretty much anything that happens on the field other than the game,” he said. Standing near the President as he’s waiting to take the field (all the while being seen around the nation on ESPN) is not the norm for the Epworth, Iowa, native. Davis oversees pre-game festivities, contests, betweeninning entertainment, special guest recognitions and other activities requiring enough details to give anyone sleepless nights. Timing and perfection are required. “I’m responsible for the opening pitch, the national anthem, flyovers, military color guards, post-game concerts, you name it,” said Davis, who had a public relations emphasis at ISU. He listens to all the audition recordings by hopeful singers wanting to perform the national anthem. “We’ll also have celebrities sing. They’re easy. Obviously, I don’t need a demo tape of opera star Placido Domingo.” He works with, among others, the scoreboard producer, team mascot Screech and the Racing Presidents – people in cartoonish costumes of the four men on Mount Rushmore who race each other around the diamond. “If one of the presidents takes a nosedive, I have to make sure he’s okay,” Davis laughed. Theme days, such as Negro League Tribute Day, are always busy, and giveaway games (when fans receive a gift upon entering the stadium) present some challenges. Still, Davis enjoys the variety and challenges inherent in his position, calling it his “dream job.” “Road trips are great,” said Davis, Nationals a hit for Davis The Washington Nationals’ honored who remains in the team’s D.C. office guest was about to make the ceremonial while the Nats travel. “I can begin first pitch prior to the National League working on future projects.” In 2004, when the Montreal Expos baseball game against Atlanta. were getting ready to move their Ceremonial first pitches are team to Washington and become the common in the majors, except when the hurler is President George W. Bush Nationals, Davis knew the organization
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would need workers. He sent resumes for internships and was hired – for a low $50 a game in 2005 doing in-game promotions. “I soon realized I was the only person crazy enough to go across the country to make only $50 a game,” said Davis, who grew up a Chicago Cubs fan. The position, however, also satisfied his internship requirement for graduation. At the same time, Davis volunteered in the team’s media relations department, allowing him to demonstrate his work ethic and zeal for promoting the team. In 2006 his in-game duties remained the same (with a slight raise), although he became more involved as a volunteer on the entertainment and marketing side for the team. He continued to work hard, and when a full-time job opened in January 2007, he was hired. Davis, who said he uses skills he learned at Iowa State everyday in his job, has met several dignitaries and celebrities, not to mention pro baseball players. His relationship with the players is solely on a professional level. That’s okay, however. He’s working with a professional ball team. sj
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Legal X’s and O’s There were days when David Donovan’s children weren’t all that interested in what their dad did for a living. Days, heck it was years. But when Donovan (a 1978 Iowa State political science graduate) left his job with one of Washington, D.C.’s top law firms to take a different position elsewhere in the city, their tone changed. “My kids couldn’t care less about my old job,” said Donovan. “But when I became the general counsel of the Washington Redskins (professional football team), now they’re talking about it to all their friends.” Donovan’s kids weren’t the only ones paying a little more attention to his new career. “Friends are always coming up to me asking ‘how did you get this job?’ And I have to admit it is pretty cool,”
“I got to know Dan and in the summer of ’05 he came to me and asked if I wanted to be the general counsel of the Redskins. “It was 20 years to the day that I had joined my firm, and I wanted to do something different. Plus there are a lot more fringe benefits to this position.” Donovan’s new position is quite a bit different than his previous one. The Redskins general counsel tackles numerous areas of law including a variety of legal issues stemming from the seven sports radio stations that Snyder owns. He also deals with contracts with stadium suite holders and coaches’ contracts. But he passes on players’ contracts. Those complicated legal documents are left to Redskins’ personnel who are experts on the NFL’s salary cap ramifications. And the perks of the job? Well they’re numerous according to
You definitely don’t get bored in this job. You just stay too busy. Donovan says with a big grin. Donovan’s journey to the business side of professional football began at his old D.C. law firm. He says it was just happenstance that his docket wasn’t all that filled when a lead attorney was needed to represent the estate of Jack Kent Cooke, the former Redskins owner, in an ownership issue. For the high-profile case, Donovan had to take depositions of National Football League owners and league officials. The case also attracted highprofile D.C. attorneys. In the end, Donovan won the case. “This case just fell into my lap and then to ‘beat’ these high-profile lawyers was a heady experience,” he said. One other benefit was that during the case Donovan became acquainted with Dan Snyder. Snyder eventually became the owner of the Redskins and one day out of the blue called Donovan with a job offer.
Donovan. He attends NFL league meetings and sits with Snyder in his suite at the Redskins’ home games. He also travels with the team to all the away games. Saturday nights before games, Donovan joins Snyder, fellow Iowa State alumnus Vinnie Cerrato, who is the Redskins’ vice president of football operations, and Redskins’ legends Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff for dinner. “It’s a kick,” Donovan says. “Sonny and Sam have a zillion stories. We sit and talk for hours.” It’s just one of the reasons why Donovan says he doesn’t regret making the move to the Redskins. “You definitely don’t get bored in this job,” he says. “You just stay too busy.” But at least his kids know what he does for a living now. dg
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From the deep sea to the deepest snows. From spying on the enemy to cheating death in the air. And the woman who will never let your vacations become boring. These College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduates are indeed adventurous. By David Gieseke and Steve Jones
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for when shot down.” In his book, Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos, Marrett chronicles life of a “Sandy” rescue pilot. The planes safeguarded downed Air Force and Navy pilots while rescue helicopters plucked the flyers out of the Southeast Asia jungles. “When a pilot was shot down in North Vietnam, we needed to do ‘a stagecoach robbery,’” Marrett said. “We would overwhelm that area with cover fire and get our guy out. It was pretty hazardous duty. “The odds were good that I would get shot down. But I couldn’t worry about that. I couldn’t think about yesterday or tomorrow. I just had to get through today and put 365 of those together.” In his yearlong tour he was one of the few pilots not to be shot down. Upon returning from the war, Marrett joined Hughes Aircraft Company as an experimental test pilot. For 20 years he flew test programs that helped develop attack radar and missiles in F-14, F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighters and an early version of the B-2 stealth bomber. Test pilot, Vietnam rescue flyer and Again Marrett flirted with higher, faster and riskier. He author George Marrett ‘accepted even applied to be an astronaut and says he was disappointed missions no one else wanted.’ when he wasn’t selected. “I certainly loved aviation,” he said. “The accomplishments of flying faster, higher and further. But in the test pilot world, if you don’t step out of the plane, you eorge Marrett was and will always be a pilot. And not don’t have a lot to talk about.” just any pilot. As Tom Wolfe would say, he has “the right Marrett did have close calls. In his only crash landing, he stuff.” brought his plane in on its nose and had to blow his canopy “I was addicted to aviation,” said Marrett, a 1957 to escape flames in the cockpit. chemistry graduate of Iowa State. “The higher, the faster, Maybe because of these experiences Marrett just grew the riskier – it made no difference to me.” tired of going faster and higher with all that risk. When he Even when he was studying chemistry at Iowa State, retired from Hughes, he shifted gears. Marrett knew he wanted to be a pilot. But not just any pilot. He started collecting food and handing it out to needy He joined the campus ROTC unit and after graduating individuals. He became a long distance runner, qualifying entered the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant. for the Boston Marathon. For years he had no involvement He completed advanced whatsoever in aviation. flight training and was a But aviation had a way member of the 84th Fighter of getting back into Marrett’s We flew low and slow, at treetop level, Interceptor Squadron. After life. He served as the chief USAF test pilot school, he pilot for DP Industries flying at night, in monsoons, and in pointtransferred to the fighter test their private jet, and he branch at Edwards Air Force owns two World War II-era blank range of enemy guns and missiles. Base, Calif. planes he frequently takes Then came a yearlong above the California coast. rotation as a combat pilot “Once I started flying in Vietnam, flying 188 combat missions and logging more again it was like a needle going into my arm,” he said. than 600 combat hours. These days, however, his real passion is writing about These weren’t your run-of-the-mill combat missions. aviation. He has published books on Howard Hughes Marrett served as a “Sandy” rescue pilot and flew a Douglas (Howard Hughes: Aviator) and life as an Edwards Air Force A-1 Skyraider, a World War II-vintage, single-engine, Base test pilot (Testing Death) in addition to Cheating Death. propeller-driven craft. “I had 32 test pilot friends that were killed in aviation “We flew low and slow, at treetop level, at night, in accidents. Many more of my friends didn’t make it back from monsoons, and in point-blank range of enemy guns and Vietnam,” he said. “I thought something should be written missiles,” Marrett later wrote. “We accepted missions no about them.” one else wanted and we were the heroes other pilots prayed dg
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Years ago Tom Twetten’s title was ‘case officer,’ but most would call him a spy.
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The U.S. supported the Afghans fighting the Russians, and they eventually swept the mighty Red Army from their country. Phillip Seymour Hoffman actually played a composite of Twetten and others in the CIA in the 2007 movie “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which depicted that conflict. In 1982 Twetten was named chief of operations for technical services, a branch of the CIA that makes technical equipment used by the intelligence agency. A decade later he began an innovative program that became the Predator, the unmanned aerial drone that has been so helpful in damaging al-Qaeda terrorists. Twetten was even involved with Iran Contra, the Reagan Administration scandal that sold arms for hostage swaps. Oliver North ran a business out of the White House selling guns to rebels in Nicaragua in contravention to the wishes of Congress. Records show Twetten’s name is prominent throughout the scandal; however, you won’t find an indictment of him. He was involved only in the presidential approved (and legal) Iran portion of the operation and was unaware of North’s schemes. “Although approved by President Reagan, intelligence professionals had resisted the Iran arms deal, believing the Iranians involved to be con artists. It was ultimately a silly effort foisted on the CIA by the White House,” Twetten said. “In the year I worked with Ollie North, there was no mention of a connection between the Iran program and what North was doing with the Contras.” Twetten testified 30 times before Congress, grand juries, federal prosecutions and the Tower Commission. “I never did anything shady or illegal and didn’t do anything unless it was signed off by the President,” he said.
om Twetten doesn’t stand out in a crowd. The son of a Spencer, Iowa, furniture store owner has described himself as extremely “low key,” which isn’t the typical description of someone in Twetten’s line of work. At least not how popular culture has defined his career. Twetten was a spy. He retired as the deputy director for operations with the Central Intelligence Agency. This was after several years as a case officer (what we know as a spy) in far-flung locales in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. “I had a low-key style that allowed people to decide they could trust me,” One of Twetten’s assignments was the oversight of Twetten said. “It was a persona that let the other fellow talk. I tried to see what the United States’ covert operations in Afghanistan made him tick and what was beyond what he was saying.” during the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion. So instead of driving cars at high speed or delivering martial arts kicks, Twetten let the other person do the work. “I was given a clean bill of health.” “Listening was an important job quality in my A year later Twetten was promoted to be deputy, and profession,” he said. “You say only enough to draw the other later, chief of the nation’s clandestine service where he person out and you speak only to that which will help to remained until his retirement in 1995. He is twice the find out additional information.” recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the For most of his first 20 years with the Agency, Twetten Agency’s highest award. worked his way through posts at embassies throughout “I think I was a better case officer than an administrator,” Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He and his family spent he says. “Every CIA officer would rather be overseas than in several years abroad before being posted stateside for a the bureaucracy of Washington. couple of years at CIA headquarters. “But in that stretch of 11 years (at CIA headquarters) I One of Twetten’s assignments was the oversight of the did my best work. The higher I went in management, the United States’ covert operations in Afghanistan during the more I contributed to the future of the nation’s intelligence Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion. Twetten oversaw “the most collection capabilities.” successful and biggest Agency covert operations ever.” dg
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her fourth-floor lab with a partial view of the spectacular Chicago skyline. Alvin, a titanium, battery-powered three-person submarine, was built in 1964 to withstand deep-sea pressure. The 23-foot-long Alvin is renown, having made 4,526 dives through mid-summer 2009, according to its operator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, located on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod. As do all science divers, before her first Alvin dive in 1997, she joined the pilot and another scientist inside the more than cozy craft for orientation. It was tight. Yet Voight recalled, as she learned to operate the camera and lights, “This isn’t so bad. I can deal with it. “All the time you’re in there,” she continued, “the pilot is essentially watching you and the other person for signs of claustrophobia while he’s giving instructions. Some people start to get a little bit nervous even with the hatch open.” Voight, who had participated in earlier remote-operated vehicle dives, aced orientation and looked forward to her first dive. “Then they closed the hatch, and there’s something different when the hatch is closed.” But the feeling lasts only until you’re in the water and on the way to see things no one Marine biologist Janet Voight has has seen before.” unlocked secrets of the ocean’s floor. Voight is known for her ecological research at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, seafloor geysers that spew hot, mineralrich water that sustain nearby animals and microbes. Voight became the first “octopus expert” to see vent octopuses alive on the seafloor, one of the most difficult locales on the planet anet Voight understands job pressure – some 6,000 to visit. pounds per square inch. As a biology major at Iowa State, Voight studied small That’s the environment in which the marine biologist mammal communities in southeast Iowa areas affected from Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History does field by strip mining. She later went to graduate school at the research, about 1.5 miles below the ocean’s surface. University of Arizona to study birds and small mammals, but Voight is an associate curator in the Zoology Department could not commit to the research. She considered a career at the renowned museum. The Davenport, Iowa, native and as a lab assistant before taking a marine field research class. 1977 Iowa State University biology graduate studies deep-sea In the Pacific, she found plentiful octopuses and began cephalopods – squids, octopuses and other mollusks in the studying the creatures. Something clicked. dark ocean depths. Octopuses garner much of her research “I applied the same principles I learned at Iowa State for time. my small mammals project to octopuses,” she said. “And all of sudden things started to fall into place and everything I touched went right. At a depth of 2,500 meters, the pressure is “So I owe Iowa State for that training that made my career possible.” astronomical because you’re under that much water. With a Ph.D., she joined the Field Museum curatorial staff in 1990. “I was told, ‘You’re expected to do field work, anywhere in the world you want Voight has made more than 20 dives to depths where to go.’ So I decided that’s the way to go and that’s what I the weight of the over-lying ocean would crush a regular wanted to do.” submarine like a bulldozer would a soda can. Her efforts have paid off, adding greatly to our “At a depth of 2,500 meters, the pressure is astronomical knowledge of deep-sea life, as the five species named for her because you’re under that much water,” said Voight from to date testify. sj
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Ken Rancourt has withstood incredible winds and deep snows to work in the ‘world’s worst weather.’
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lose your eyes and imagine the worst weather you can think of. Maybe it’s hurricane-force winds. Or two feet of snow. Whatever you can dream up, it is no match for the weather Ken Rancourt has experienced over the past 30 years. Rancourt (a 1978 Iowa State meteorology alumnus) works for the Mount Washington Observatory, perched atop the 6,288-foot mountain in New Hampshire. Home of “the world’s worst weather,” the summer boasts the world record for fastest ground wind speed, recorded at an incredible 231 mph on April 12, 1934. While Rancourt wasn’t present for that phenomenon, he was there on Dec. 4, 1980, when wind speeds reached 182 mph. “The winds were so strong that it took three people to open the door – one to turn the door knob and the other two to push on the door,” Rancourt remembers. “The pressure created by the wind was so significant that day that the fire alarms were triggered. It was at that point that we decided it wasn’t a good idea to go outside.” For 21 hours that December day, the wind blew over 100 mph. The highest average wind speed for an hour was achieved at 135 mph. It was quite an experience for the newly hired Rancourt. “I had only been there for three months and wondered what I had gotten myself into,” he said. “It was truly an
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experience I’ll never forget. Another observer and I were outside ‘enjoying’ the wind when we went quickly from being excited to fearing for our safety. “It was like listening to a freight train.” For 15 years Rancourt worked eight-day shifts as an observing meteorologist on Mt. Washington. And although the observatory is isolated at times in the winter, he has never tired of the experience. “I would compare it to being a fireman or working on a submarine,” he said. “One thing’s for sure; it was never boring.” During the late spring, summer and early fall months, vehicular traffic takes individuals to the summit. A one-way trip takes about 20-25 minutes. That changes in the winter as heavy snow (the record is 500 inches, with a yearly average of 250 inches) makes the road impassible and a Snow-Cat oversnow vehicle is required. Temperatures fall outside to as low as 47 degrees below zero and it is not uncommon for the wind chill to dip to 100 degrees below zero. “The combination of wind, fog, blowing snow and ice all contribute to making this the world’s worst weather,” Rancourt says. In the winter, the brutal conditions and reduced visibility can extend the 25-minute commute to up to six hours. It is a dangerous commute that Rancourt has made over 2,000 times. “There was one time when the wind picked up so much we couldn’t travel,” he recalled. “We had to sit stationary for two to three hours. The winds shook the vehicle so much that we’d think we were moving, but were not.” Rancourt has also been on his share of rescue missions on the mountain, but these days he leaves most of these duties to others. As the director of summit operations at
The winds were so strong that it took three people to open the door – one to turn the door knob and the other two to push on the door. the Mount Washington Observatory, Rancourt stays mainly at the observatory’s base camp. There he is in charge of staffing, transportation, facilities, maintenance, instructional technology and overseeing the observatory’s nine Mesonet sites. He also oversees research at the observatory, which is frequently utilized by industry professionals and universities to test the effects of wind and ice on various products. “Is my job exhilarating? Yes,” Rancourt says. “I have gotten to be in weather that is not experienced by many people. “It’s a meteorologist’s dream.” dg
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Jane Reifert leads people to incredible adventures–and partakes in some herself.
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o just how does a communication studies major get placed under surveillance by the FBI and mistaken at another time for a Russian prostitute? If you’re Jane Reifert, it’s the result of an incredible journey. As CEO of Incredible Adventures, Reifert matches adventuresome souls with some of the most fantastic experiences you can imagine. Think taking the controls of an airborne Russian MiG fighter or diving the depths of the ocean to come up close and personal with sharks. Or even skydive in front of the world’s most famous peak, Mt. Everest. And to think that Reifert thought after graduating from Iowa State in 1993 she would spend the next several years booking bands. “I wanted to be a promoter,” says the Sarasota, Fla., resident. “I interned at the M-Shop (at Iowa State) and booked bands for the MDA Dance Marathon on campus.” But sometimes our plans don’t go exactly as planned. Reifert met some professional baseball players and thought
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working for a pro baseball team sounded fun. She sent a resume to the Iowa Cubs and “surprise, surprise, I got the job,” she says. She later moved to Florida and worked for minor league teams in the White Sox, Cardinals and Mets organizations. It wasn’t what she expected. So when her then-employer was leaving town, Reifert decided to stay in the Sarasota area and started to send out resumes. One went to a new firm called MIGS etc. (The company’s name became Incredible Adventures three years later.) “I’ve been here almost from day one,” says Reifert, who worked her way up from communications director to CEO. “In the beginning I would send out brochures and answer the phone. Now I’m president of the company.” Ironically Reifert isn’t all that keen to join her clients on many of the firm’s adventures. She has flown a jet fighter across the Russian skies, raced a truck, jumped out of an airplane, been a Covert Ops hostage, gone eye-to-eye with great white sharks, and ballooned over the Sahara. But she would prefer to stay in her simple Sarasota office decorated with souvenirs of those experiences. “I’m not an adventurer,” she says. “I’m more of an adventure wimp. They let me fly the plane for a few minutes and that was more than enough. “But if you run a company like Incredible Adventures you have to go and experience the adventure yourself. Most of the time, however, I’m there to help our customers have the best experience possible.” That’s because the customers are paying anywhere from just under $1,000 to dive with sharks to $20,000-plus to fly a MiG. Soon the company will offer a chance to sky dive over Mt. Everest for a cool $36,500. “We’re adding new and exciting adventures all the time because we’re continually looking for ways to make our adventures better,” Reifert said. “I like to think that every
I’m not an adventurer, I’m more of an adventure wimp. adventure we have is life changing.” Reifert is the author of Executive Adventures, a guide for “excitement-deprived individuals” and offers advice to prestigious aerospace companies about space tourism. Her company has also been featured in virtually every major media outlet. And she can’t imagine doing anything else. “After selling adventures it would be hard to find another job to top this one,” she says. dg
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All Iowa
Iowa’s Poet Laureate Mary Swander is working to promote interest in the literary arts.
Mary Swander loves Iowa. The fourth-generation
Iowan has written poems and non-fiction books about Iowa’s culture, landscape and natural history, co-authored the musical “Dear Iowa,” and guided her students in the development of a play about Iowa’s rural, agricultural issues. Her knowledge of the state, and experiences writing about Iowa, led Gov. Chet Culver to appoint her as Poet Laureate for Iowa in February 2009. Swander, distinguished professor of English at Iowa State University, has lived in eastern, western and central Iowa, but has also been away from the state enough to miss the people and the land. “I like the culture of the ordinary citizen and the rural angle to writing,” she said. “I’m really interested in the natural history of Iowa.” Her two-year appointment as Poet Laureate allows her to travel throughout Iowa for readings and appearances as the state’s symbolic leader of poetry. Swander delivers poems at official Iowa public events at the invitation of the Governor. She expects that this will involve a couple State of Iowa events per year. Other Iowans, however, have recognized her status as Poet Laureate. “I receive about three requests a day for appearances,” she said following her appointment. “My days are packed, but it’s fun to meet people, and to encourage them to read and write poetry.” Swander has launched two initiatives. A new website, www.iowalit.com, allows writers to post poems and receive feedback. The other, Patient Voices Project, was a free, online creative writing course for disabled persons. Her own interest in literature began as a child when her mother, an elementary school teacher, read to her and her siblings. “She went beyond children’s books,” Swander said. “I listened to her read Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and Lewis Carroll. I loved the words, and what was happening on the pages was fantastic.” This early appreciation for words continued as Swander attended Georgetown University and received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Iowa. She also graduated from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop M.F.A. Program at Iowa. She began her tenure at Iowa State in 1986. Her latest book, The Girls on the Roof, is set along the Mississippi River during the floods of 1993. Part of Swander’s childhood was spent in Davenport, and she recalls canoeing downtown Davenport and sandbagging
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Mary Swander is promoting literature
during routine flooding in the area. She was also in Iowa during the floods of 1993 and 2008. “I had a lot of debris in my head from the floods,” she said. “I’ve put it all in The Girls on the Roof.” In addition to speaking events, Swander is also touring Iowa with the reader’s theatre production of “Farmscape,” the nonfiction play written by some of her students. Townspeople perform the docudrama, which involves the changing farmscapes of Iowa in the eyes of varying reallife Iowans. Large processors, small farmers, winery owners, and the older generation of farmers are represented. Swander said the grassroots play has been performed across Iowa in bed and breakfasts, libraries, and even a beauty parlor. Swander’s recognition as Poet Laureate follows in a distinguished line of awards. She has received a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, two Ingram Merrill Awards and the Carl Sandberg Literary Award. She also founded a national movement called Agarts to explore the intersection of arts and agriculture. le
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Young Man on a Mission
History student is ready to keep up his end of the Golden Rule.
Living in poverty in LaCroix, Haiti,
Silentor Esthil-Henderson was given six months to live when he was only seven years old. With no resources to help her ill son, Esthil-Henderson’s mother dropped him off at a Haitian mission and hid behind a tree with the hopes that an American would save him. Now the twenty-something is thriving on the Iowa State University campus and is ready to give back. Life as Esthil-Henderson knew it changed completely for the best when Tommy Henderson, a missionary from Iowa, saw the boy apparently abandoned at that Haiti mission. Henderson provided Esthil-Henderson with the best hospitalization possible in Haiti, and nearly two years later brought him to Iowa as his adopted son. Esthil-Henderson was nine years old, only 36 pounds, and started American school in the fourth grade. Now he is a history major with a minor in political science at Iowa State and plans to graduate in May 2010. His unique story is not only a good anecdote for the parents and students he meets as a Cyclone Aide, but is also the reason Esthil-Henderson started the Iowa State–Haiti Collaboration. The student group’s purpose is to work to eliminate poverty in third-world countries, with a focus on LaCroix, Haiti. Esthil-Henderson founded the group after a recent return visit to his home country. “I forgot what my people are going through,” he said. “I decided to utilize the student body at Iowa State, put our minds together and put into practice what we’re learning in the classroom.” Some of the group members will travel to Haiti with Esthil-Henderson in December 2009, where they hope to build playground equipment, paint school buildings, dig a well, and teach English to Haitian women and children. He said the service trip will focus on women and children. Currently his
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Silentor Esthil-Henderson will return to Haiti in December
sisters, nieces and nephews have no male support and cannot afford to attend school in Haiti. “I have a passion to return to Haiti and provide for the family and village that raised me,” he said. Esthil-Henderson plans to return to Haiti again after graduation and work alongside Pastor Pierre, a missionary in LaCroix who has been working in Haiti since Esthil-Henderson was rescued there. He hopes to work there through Hope on the Horizon, a nonprofit organization he and his father are starting, which aims to build teamwork and cooperation among the people of Haiti. Esthil-Henderson said he will utilize his history major and political science minor within his role in Hope on the Horizon to improve the conditions in Haiti and the Haitian government. From his history studies at Iowa
State, Esthil-Henderson said he has learned how to enhance the future. “I see how successfully America has progressed, when at one time we weren’t the most powerful nation, but we were able to fight for what we wanted and work together.” Esthil-Henderson wants to use his degree to help Haiti establish a more democratic society. He knows it won’t be easy. “I don’t care if I only make $200 a year to live there,” he said. “Someone heard my cry in Haiti, out of almost three thousand children. I came a long way and I’m not going to hold anything back.” For more information about Hope on the Horizon, visit Esthil-Henderson’s blog at http://hothhaiti.blogspot.com/ le
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Internment art
Japanese American concentration camp artifacts are the focus of anthropologist’s book.
A three-week high school history
trip to Arkansas concentration camps sparked an interest in Jane Dusselier that continues today. Since then, the assistant professor of anthropology and Asian American Studies has visited all of the nation’s World War II-era concentration camps (also referred to as internment camps). Artifacts of Loss, her newly released book from Rutger’s University Press, explores concentration camp folk art. Executive Order 9066 forced the confinement of Japanese Americans during the Second World War, resulting in the building of 10 concentration camps in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Much has been written about the concentration camps, many of which are no longer standing, but Dusselier’s book focuses on the internees’ artwork. Artifacts of Loss showcases the Japanese Americans’ interior and exterior artwork, which Dusselier said were creations made with “anything that was at-hand because they didn’t have much.” The book’s 51 images include artwork such as lapel pins, wood-carvings, drawings, bracelets, ikebana (flower arranging), toys, gardens and walkways, along with other art. “My biggest concern, as well as the concern of my research committee, was that I would not find enough art to write this book,” Dusselier said. “As it turns out, I was overwhelmed with artifacts.” Dusselier said the internees and descendants of internees she met were very open to her research. While visiting the concentration camps, some locals would learn about her book, arrive at her hotel room and show her their personal internment artifacts. “It’s incredible how much they did with how little they had,” Dusselier said. “Eventually, they were feeding themselves; they grew their own food
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Jane Dusselier hoped to find enough art
and would send the art forms to friends on the outside to thank them for sending food.” The artwork was also an outlet for the internees, Dusselier said. “Free time was dangerous because it allowed them to think about their situation.” Oral histories from Dusselier’s research note that the artwork was a way to curb emotional breakdowns. Along with the concentration camp visits at all 10 National Historical sites, Dusselier conducted research at university libraries, county historical societies and the National Archives. Her research began in 2000 and was the focus of her dissertation. Dusselier said she hopes the book offers a visual discourse for how to handle current, similar situations such as displaced people from Iraq, the
Congo and Burma among others. Her next book will involve Karen, Burma refugees in St. Paul, Minn., the largest group of Karen immigrants outside of Asia. Dusselier teaches Globalization and the Human Condition and Asian American Cultural History. Students in the latter class read Artifacts of Loss as one of their assignments. The book is dedicated in part to Dusselier’s high school history teacher, who first introduced her to the Japanese American concentration camps. le
C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A RT S & SCIENCES
Material maker
Physicist Paul Canfield honored with Robert Allen Wright Endowed Professorship
Paul Canfield said it simply: “I make
materials.” The Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of physics has spent a career in condensed matter physics, earning an international reputation for developing new metals or improving existing ones. For Canfield’s accomplishments in the lab and the classroom, he has been honored with the Robert Allen Wright Endowed Professorship at Iowa State. The five-year professorship will provide him with supplemental annual funds for his teaching and research efforts. Endowed professorship funds often are used to support graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, purchase additional equipment and supplies, and provide travel to professional meetings or for professional development. Robert Allen Wright was a member of the Iowa State Class of 1913. He and his wife, Estyl, established the Robert Allen Wright Endowment for Excellence through a $1 million bequest in 1985. A prominent cattle farmer and businessman, Wright served on the boards of Living History Farms, the Iowa Taxpayers Association and the Hoover Library in West Branch. A longtime supporter of Iowa State, Wright was an ISU Foundation Governor and was a member of ISU’s Order of the Knoll. Breakthroughs in condensed matter physics, says Canfield, have changed the way we live. “There are improvements in endless technologies all coming from condensed matter physics,” he said. “It’s an incredibly rich and complex science.” He said the discovery some 25 years ago of superconductors made possible the miniaturization we have today. “Without that, you wouldn’t have your little earbuds or the ability to miniaturize things because the magnets did not have enough power density. Your laptop, your iPod…that’s condensed matter physics.
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Paul Canfield likes to think, make, measure, think
“You don’t have electrical engineering, computer science or even civil engineering without condensed matter physics. All of that depends on hybrid, new or improved materials from condensed matter physics.” A native of Virginia, Canfield double-majored in physics and chemistry at the University of Virginia before concentrating in physics. He earned his Ph.D. at UCLA, and ever since graduate school, he says he has “staggered back to the no man’s land between physics, chemistry and metallurgy.” Canfield, who started ISU’s condensed matter physics research group in 1992, is specifically interested in the phase transitions of properties – the changes in the state of matter. “Superconductivity [the ability of electrical current to flow through materials without resistance] is an obvious example, but other properties have potential applications. We examine them because they allow us to ask precise, basic questions, and they may lead to the better design of useful
materials in the future.” Once a material has been designed or discovered, his experimental group measures its ability to carry electricity or be magnetized under different temperature extremes. “With the data we try to understand what nature has told us,” he added. That leads to the next question, and the next modification of materials or properties. On the most basic level, Canfield said, “We think, make, measure and think. It can all be in a day, or over a decade. We’re an experimental group, so we do measurements on materials. We try to discover or design materials that will bring questions or answers into particularly sharp focus.” Canfield is also an accomplished teacher, having won several classroom awards. He’s known for using demonstrations to keep the students’ attention in large lecture halls. “I like to make things go bang,” he said with a smile. “It gets the attention of the guy sleeping in the back row.” sj
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Liberal Arts and Sciences Development Team, from left, Michael Gens, Erin Steinkamp, Stephanie Greiner, Lisa Fry
Your commitments and pledges to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and our 22 academic departments, one
Making a Difference
Remembering Rob Stupka is helping other students succeed
Even back in the third grade, Rob Stupka knew he wanted to be a scientist. That dream continued through high school where he excelled in the subject and then onto Iowa State University. But it wasn’t until he took his first biochemistry class that he found his true passion. “He found his niche at that point,” said Bob Stupka, Rob’s father. “He was always a science guy – going way back. He was a really smart kid who loved science. “He thought he was going to develop a cure for cancer or some other disease when he was a little kid and, at 21, he was still going to do that.” Rob, from St. Paul, Minn., was well on his way of achieving great things. He worked as an undergraduate research assistant for three years. But there was more to Rob than just a lab rat. He organized breakfasts where students and faculty met. He also resurrected the biochemistry club and coordinated club talks and demonstrations in elementary schools. In addition, he was in the midst of coordinating a major biochemistry symposium on campus. That work came to an abrupt end Nov. 29, 2005, as he was walking to the Molecular Biology Building and was struck by a bus while crossing Pammel Drive. Rob died a day later. But his dreams live on to this day in the lives of his family and the friends he touched. The biochemistry seminar he was organizing at the time of his death is now named in his honor. This past spring, the annual symposium included a special presentation honoring
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professional school, and numerous other programs and units have surpassed $57 million towards our goal of $65 million during our historic fundraising endeavor – Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose. Your support has helped create additional and muchneeded scholarships for our students. Scholarships are becoming more necessary in these uncertain economic times as Iowa’s students struggle to make ends meet. You have helped fund new buildings, such as the Department of Chemistry’s Hach Hall and renovated others such as Snedecor Hall, home for the Department of Statistics. These facilities are important not only for these nationally ranked academic units, but assist students across campus in a variety of degrees. You have assisted in the creation of new endowed faculty chairs, professorships and fellowships in a number of departments including computer science, mathematics,
Rob’s life and work. “This was a very special day for those who knew Rob,” said Desiree Gunning, academic advisor in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology. “But something else extraordinary happened that day too. The seminar speakers and attendees heard about an amazing young man.” “Afterwards kids came up to us and told us they were sorry they didn’t have the chance to meet Rob,” said Diane Stupka, Rob’s mother. “Hearing that and seeing what individuals have done having known Rob, we know he has made a real difference.” The Stupkas are making sure Rob and his life aren’t forgotten. In addition to the annual symposium, a plaque honoring Rob is located in the Molecular Biology Building lobby. A scholarship fundraiser in Rob’s honor was held at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The family also provided support for science laboratories at Rob’s old elementary school and high school. Iowa State has also been the beneficiary of Rob’s memory. The Rob Stupka Memorial Scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic achievement and quality research participation. One scholarship is awarded per year although the family hopes to attract additional funding and create multiple awardees. “The scholarship recipients have all been such great kids,” Bob Stupka said. “I look at them and see what a difference Rob has made in people’s lives. Rob may have died but his energy and passion for his research lives on.” dg
C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A RT S & SCIENCES
chemistry, and geological and atmospheric sciences. It is essential that the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has more of these types of faculty positions to not only recruit outstanding new faculty to campus, but also to help retain many of the new generation of academic stars that are already at Iowa State. And your assistance to our academic programs has assisted students who wish to study internationally, brought countless speakers to campus and has provided the latest technology in our classrooms and laboratories. But there is much yet to accomplish before Campaign Iowa State concludes in December 2010. Whether it is additional scholarship support or the continued effort to attract and retain the very best teachers and researchers to our campus, we need your help. Your contributions to the area of your choice within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are not used to
Rock-hard gift
Smiths’ donation establishes Geology departmental chair
A gift from Tom and Evonne Smith has the opportunity to transform the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences in Iowa State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Houston couple has established the Smith Family Foundation Departmental Chair in Geology to further enhance the mission of the department through a $2 million endowment. “This gift will provide us with unprecedented opportunities to advance the teaching and research missions of the department,” said Carl Jacobson, professor and chair of the department. Jacobson will serve as the Smith Family Foundation Departmental Chair in Geology. The endowed department chair will provide annual earnings that will be used by the chair to support activities within the department. The Smith Family Foundation Departmental Chair in Geology is just the second such endowed position at Iowa State. The funds will be used for such items as supporting cutting-edge research, recruiting world-renowned faculty and attracting top students. Evonne and Tom Smith “During my years at Iowa State I formed life-long friendships and to be in close proximity to outstanding faculty members was a wonderful, unique opportunity,” said Tom Smith. “Evonne and I hope that this gift will help establish the department as a world-class center of learning in the geological sciences.” “We’re extremely grateful for Tom and Evonne’s commitment to create this first endowed department chair
WWW.LAS.IASTAT E . E D U
offset the recent budget reductions that Iowa State has experienced in the past year. Rather, your outright gift, multiyear commitment or deferred gift provides the “extras,” the margin of excellence that marks the difference between a great university and college and an extraordinary one such as Iowa State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. As I and my colleagues travel around the country, we are grateful for the opportunity to visit with you. If you are interested to learn more about what you can accomplish in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and your academic unit through your philanthropy, please contact me or anyone from our outstanding team of fundraising professionals at mgens@iastate.edu or at 1-866-419-6768. Once again, thank you for your continuing interest and support of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and its programs. - Michael Gens, Senior Director of Development
position in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” said LAS Dean Michael Whiteford. “Their appreciation for the education Tom received as a student at Iowa State speaks highly of the quality instruction offered then and today.” Tom Smith holds both bachelor’s (1968) and master’s (1971) degrees in geology from Iowa State. The Smiths were the founders and former owners of Seismic MicroTechnology in Houston. The couple has previously provided $370,000 for improvements at the Carl F. Vondra Geology Field Camp near Shell, Wyo. Tom Smith is also a member of the LAS Dean’s Advisory Council. The Smith gift will generate additional funding for items the department was unable to obtain. “One of the great benefits of the new gift from the Smiths is that the distributions can be used broadly for faculty and student support,” Jacobson said. “We should be able to bring in distinguished scientists as part of our seminar series and expose them to our outstanding department.” Jacobson has worked with the department’s faculty members to outline additional opportunities including lab equipment, graduate student scholarships and matching funds for national research grants. The gift creating the Smith Family Foundation Departmental Chair in Geology is part of Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose, the university’s $800 million fundraising effort. dg
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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 223 Carrie Chapman Catt Hall Ames, Iowa 50011