Winter 2020 Kentucky Alumni Magazine by UK Alumni Association

Un iversit y of Kent uck y A lu m n i Associat ion

Alumni

Answering the Call

Winter 2020

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Because We Care

UK Moves Forward with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts

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11/9/20 11:42 AM

Pete Comparoni, UK Photo

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ANSWERING THE CALL — BECAUSE WE CARE UK began the fall semester announcing a comprehensive plan that includes a 21-member leadership team to guide efforts around a greater sense of diversity, equity and inclusion on campus.

2 UK COLLEGE OF EDUCATION GRADS IMPACT LARGE-SCALE CHANGE

2019-2020 UK ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT

DID YOU KNOW? Have some fun and see how many of these random UK facts are new to you!

THE EARLY INFLUENTIAL WOMEN OF UK By Linda Perry Women have helped to shape UK from around 1880 when they were admitted to Normal School to become teachers, then continued to make innovative contributions to education, the community and culture.

RISING LEADERS: HOW UK IS EMPOWERING A NEW GENERATION OF DIVERSE LEADERS By Ann Blackford The Management Leadership for Tomorrow Career Prep program transforms the lives of high-achieving, underrepresented students by bridging the collegeto-career transition gap.

ON THE COVER Design by UK Marketing and Brand Strategy

NOT SO SUBTLE REMINDER Photo: Mark Cornelison The UK Turf Team painted the area on the lawn near the W. T. Young library to re-enforce optimum student compliance with UK’s approach for a safe campus.

By Amanda Nelson Their chance meeting through the National Education Association made a difference in the lives of Cameo Kendrick and Rachel Immerman and has touched students and aspiring educators nationwide.

The 2019-2020 year presented its fair share of challenges and ended much differently than anyone could have predicted. Nonetheless, “Wildcat stars did shine.”

TOM BONDURANT ’91 AS, ’94 LAW: UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD THROUGH COMICS By Hal Morris Tom Bondurant is an attorney focusing on discovery and e-discovery, but his passion is comic books, which he reviews in his spare time.

Plus... 5 6 8 11 32 36

Foreword Pride in Blue News Research Sports Alumni News

37 42 52 55 56

College View Class Notes In Memoriam Creative Juices Quick Take

www. u kal u mni. net

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS KENTUCKY ALUMNI MAGAZINE Vol. 91 No. 4 Winter 2020 Kentucky Alumni (ISSN 732-6297) is published quarterly by the University of Kentucky Alumni Association, Lexington, Kentucky, for its members. © 2020 University of Kentucky Alumni Association, except where noted. Views and opinions expressed in Kentucky Alumni do not necessarily represent the opinions of its editors, the UK Alumni Association nor the University of Kentucky.

HOW TO REACH US Kentucky Alumni UK Alumni Association King Alumni House Lexington, KY 40506-0119 Telephone: 859-257-8905 800-269-ALUM Fax: 859-323-1063 Email: ukalumni@uky.edu

UPDATE YOUR RECORD UK Alumni Association King Alumni House Lexington, KY 40506-0119 Telephone: 859-257-8800 Fax: 859-323-1063 Email: ukalumni@uky.edu Web: www.ukalumni.net For duplicate mailings, please send both mailing labels to the address above. Member: Council for Advancement and Support of Education

ASSOCIATION STAFF Executive Director: Jill Holloway Smith ’05 ’11 Editor/Sr. Associate Director: Meredith Weber Managing Editor: Linda Perry ’84 Marketing/Promotion Specialist: Hal Morris Graphic Designer: Whitney Stamper Brenda Bain ’15: Records Data Entry Nancy Culp: Administrative Services Assistant Caroline Francis ’88 ’93 ’02: Director, Alumni Career Services Jack Gallt ’84: Sr. Associate Director Leslie Hayes: Membership and Marketing Specialist Kathrine Hein ‘19: Programs Assistant Kelly Hinkel ’11 ’18: Marketing & Communications Coordinator Marci Hicks ’87: Director of Philanthropy Albert Kalim ’03 ’16 ‘20: Webmaster Jesse McInturf ’10: Principal Accountant Mark Pearson: Computer Support Specialist II William Raney ’14: House Support Barbara Royalty-Tatum: Administrative Services Assistant Kathryn Schaffer ’12: Alumni Engagement Coordinator Amanda Schagane ’09 ’10: Associate Director Samantha Seitz: Program Coordinator Hannah Simms ’14 ’17: Alumni Engagement Coordinator Pam Webb: Administrative Services Assistant

Officers Hannah Miner Myers ’93 ED: President Mary L. Shelman ’81 EN: President-elect Antoine Huffman ’05 CI: Treasurer Jill Holloway Smith ’05 BE, ’11 AFE: Secretary In-State Representatives Michelle Bishop Allen ’06 ’10 BE Michael W. Anderson ’92 BE Jeffrey L. Ashley ’89 CI Heath F. Bowling ’96 BE Jacob V. Broderick ’05 BE Andrew M. Cecil ’99 AS Kevin L. Collins ’84 EN William “Bill” M. Corum ’64 BE D. Michael Coyle ’62 BE, ’65 LAW Robert “Rob” L. Crady III ’94 BE Bruce E. Danhauer ’77 AFE Abra Akers Endsley ’98, ’01 CI James F. Gilles ’10 AFE Austin H. Hays ’03 BE Emily C. Henderson ’01 PHA Vicki S. Hiestand ’93 BE Dr. H. Fred Howard ’79 AS, ’82 DE Dr. Michael H. Huang ’89 AS, ’93 MED Tanya Bauer Jones ’81 BE Shelia M. Key ’91 PHA Janie McKenzie-Wells ’83 AS, ’86 LAW Herbert A. Miller Jr. ’72 AS, ’76 LAW Grant T. Mills ’09 AS Sherry R. Moak ’81 BE Dr. W. Mark Myers ’87 DE Jennifer A. Parks ’77 AS Tonya B. Parsons ’91 AS Peggy Barton Queen ’86 BE John D. Ryan ’92 ’95 BE R. Michael Stacy ’95 BE Jonell Tobin ’68 ’95 BE Kendra Lorene Wadsworth ’06 ED Lori E. Wells ’96 BE Amelia Brown Wilson ’03 ’06 AFE, ’11 ED Out-of-State Representatives Brooke C. Asbell ’86 BE Nicole Ramsey Blackwelder ’87 ’87 PHA Shiela D. Corley ’94 AS, ’95 AFE Erin Endersby ’01 EN Dr. Michael L. Hawks ’80 AS, ’85 DE Vincent M. Holloway ’84 EN John T. “Jay” Hornback ’04 EN Dr. Frank Kendrick ’90 ’92 DE Susan L. Liszeski ’84 AFE Abigail O. Payne ’05 CI Ronald “Ronnie” M. Perchik ’82 BE R. Brian Perkins ’97 EN Charles “Chad” D. Polk ’94 DES Robert J. Riddle ’11 AFE Lynn Spadaccini ’80 AFE Mary “Kekee” Szorcsik ’72 BE Scott Wittich ’75 BE Alumni Trustees Dr. Michael A. Christian ’76 AS, ’80 DE Paula L. Pope ’73 ’75 ED Rachel Watts Webb ’05 CI

William G. Francis ’68 AS, ’73 LAW W. P. Friedrich ’71 EN Dan Gipson ’69 EN Brenda B. Gosney ’70 HS, ’75 ED Cammie DeShields Grant ’77 LCC, ’79 ED John R. Guthrie ’63 CI Ann B. Haney ’71 AS Diane M. Massie ’79 CI Robert E. Miller Susan V. Mustian ’84 BE John C. Nichols II ’53 BE Dr. George A. Ochs IV ’74 DE Sandra Bugie Patterson ’68 AS Taunya Phillips ’87 EN, ’04 BE Robert F. Pickard ’57 ’61 EN Paula L. Pope ’73 ’75 ED David B. Ratterman ’68 EN G. David Ravencraft ’59 BE William Schuetze ’72 LAW David L. Shelton ’66 BE J. Fritz Skeen ’72 ’73 BE J. Tim Skinner ’80 DES James W. Stuckert ’60 EN, ’61 BE Hank B. Thompson Jr. ’71 CI Myra L. Tobin ’62 AFE J. Thomas Tucker ’56 BE Henry R. Wilhoit Jr. ’60 LAW Elaine A. Wilson ’68 SW Richard M. Womack ’53 AFE Leadership Advisory Council College Reps Michelle McDonald ’84 AFE, ’92 ED: Agriculture, Food and Environment Winn F. Williams ’71 AS: Arts & Sciences Michael R. Buchanan ’69 ’71 BE: Business & Economics Jeremy L. Jarvi ’02 CI: Communication & Information Dr. J. Clifford Lowdenback ’99 AS, ’03 DE: Dentistry Vacant: Design Cathy Crum Bell ’76 ED: Education Dominique Renee Wright ’08 EN: Engineering Joel W. Lovan ’77 FA: Fine Arts Vacant: Health Sciences Janis E. Clark ’78 GS, ’85 LAW: Law Dr. Debra J. Sowell ’82 MED: Medicine Laura B. Hieronymus ’81 ‘15 NUR, ’83 ED: Nursing Lynn Harrelson ’73 PHA: Pharmacy Keith R. Knapp ’78 AS, ’05 PH: Public Health Vacant: Social Work Appointed Jo Hern Curris ’63 AS, ’75 LAW: Honorary Katie Eiserman ’01 ED: Athletics Thomas W. Harris ’85 AS: University Relations Kelly Sullivan Holland ’93 AS ’98 ED: Honorary Stan R. Key ’72 ED: Honorary Marian Moore Sims ’72 ’76 ED: Honorary Bobby C. Whitaker ’58 CI: Honorary Bilal Shaikh: Student Government Association

Living Past Presidents George L. Atkins Jr. ’63 BE Richard A. Bean ’69 BE Michael A. Burleson ’74 PHA Bruce K. Davis ’71 LAW Scott E. Davis ’71 LAW Marianne Smith Edge ’77 AFE Franklin H. Farris Jr. ’72 BE Dr. Paul E. Fenwick ’52 AFE www. u kal u mni. net

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Foreword I

a brighter future. Together, with a sense of moral clarity and intellectual focus rooted in mutual respect and understanding, we can meet this moment. This is our chance. Together, we can do more, be more, for this community.

We must — together — ask ourselves what we want our legacy to be. George Wright, Ph.D. Senior Adviser to UK President and Interim Vice President for Institutional Diversity

Mark Cornelison, UK Photo

f I have learned anything from my time at this special place, it is that the time is always right to ask questions, seek truth and commit to healing. This is necessary, not only to honor our past, but to understand it in a way that allows us to come closer as a community, restoring peace for our friends and neighbors in this moment and for future generations. We must — together — reflect on how our past brought us to where we are right now. We must — together — ask ourselves what we want our legacy to be. The University of Kentucky is at a critical point in its history. The world has never seen such simultaneous turmoil; a global pandemic parts us physically, and systemic racism — the sour fruit of seeds that have been planted for centuries — divides us systemically. Instilling hope in our community has never been more important. I am proud of this institution for taking necessary steps to address injustices to which we’ve borne witness, whether close to home or far from the comforts of our campus. We are sharing the very real pain that many of our own neighbors, colleagues, friends and loved ones continue to experience every day. And, we are working thoughtfully but swiftly to pair our empathy with action. In the pages that follow, our community can read about our comprehensive plan to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive campus that better represents our values and mission as Kentucky’s university. The plan is not perfect, and we will continue to carry our history with us as both a burden and reminder of our past. But our commitment to anti-racism is our chance to imagine

www. ukalumni. net

Pride in Blue 2

Hannah Miner Myers

020 has been a time of monumental change, around the country and, especially, at the University of Ken-

tucky. This year, UK has asked the question, “Did we care about each other?” To help answer that question, the University of Kentucky has announced a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Implementation Plan that includes a 21-member leadership team — with student, faculty and staff representatives of more than 10 colleges and several units — to help guide efforts around a greater sense of diversity, equity and inclusion on the campus. We are proud that UK alumnus George Wright, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UK, is helping lead the way. Wright, a noted African-American scholar, is interim vice president for institutional diversity and senior adviser to the president. It is an important conversation to have, and a complex issue UK is not afraid to tackle. As President Eli Capilouto always says, this is the University for Kentucky. Of course, we are still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, thanks to the great planning of UK officials, fans have been able to watch the Wildcats play football in person at Kroger Field. I was fortunate to attend the Homecoming win over Mississippi State. It showed me how UK is successfully modifying life on campus to provide students and alumni with a college experience. The administration is truly making the best effort in these strange times. But we must remember to stay safe and follow guidelines so we can continue to enjoy these experiences. The UK Alumni Association has also altered how we interact with our alumni and students. Each fall, we honor our scholarship recipients at an awards dinner. While we were unable to celebrate in person, we still wanted to recognize the students for their

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

hard work and thank our UK Alumni Clubs for supporting student scholarships. Students recorded themselves thanking donors and sharing how much these scholarships help defray their costs to attend UK. Members of our board of directors also recorded themselves congratulating our scholarship recipients. These videos were shared with each group, and we continue to celebrate these students and donors in all they do. Our scholarship fundraising by clubs is still going strong (See our dollar amounts on Page 39.), and it is one of the best ways our alumni can help students today. Hopefully, next year we can get back to celebrating our deserving students in person. Our alumni and friends continue to show their generosity by giving to UK. The second “One Day for UK,” a 24-hour online fundraising event, received 3,539 gifts for a total of $2,644,378, more than doubling the first year’s total. Worth mentioning is that $24,100 was raised during “One Day for UK” for the Lyman T. Johnson Scholarship and $7,180 was contributed to UK Alumni Association funds for a total of $31,280 given from 131 donors. We are so thankful to our donors for supporting our students. Because of you, they are able to succeed. Please, stay safe and have a wonderful holiday season. Go Cats!

Hannah Miner Myers ’94 ED UK Alumni Association President

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News Pete Comparoni, UK Photo

HISTORIC ENROLLMENT, RETENTION RATES FOR UK

UK reached a historic level for enrollment and retention rates — an indication of the institution’s growing academic reputation and as a place where students succeed at high levels, according to preliminary figures. This fall, UK had more than 31,000 students enrolled for the first time ever at 31,108, a nearly 2 percent increase over last year. Also, preliminary retention figures — the percentage of students who return for their second year — is at 85.9 percent, nearly 1 percentage point higher than last academic year and about 4 percentage points higher than in fall 2016.

“The numbers are an important indication of where we are as a first-choice academic institution,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “Students and families — even in a time of so much anxiety and uncertainty — are choosing the University of Kentucky because we place students and their success at the center of everything that we do. A college education will be even more important in the future, as our economy changes, requiring more skills and more nimbleness. That’s what an education at UK provides — the critical thinking capacity and toolkit of skills needed to succeed in a world where change is the only real constant.” Additional highlights of the enrollment figures: • UK is more diverse than at any time in its more than 155-year history. About 2,100 (nearly 7 percent) of students are Black, up more than 5.8% percent from last year. Hispanic or Latino students now comprise about 5 percent of the student body with about 1,600 students, up more than 9.7 percent over last year. • The first-year class for fall 2020 was right at 4,890 students, nearly 400 more than what UK was projecting this summer as it prepared for potential economic shocks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • The percentage of Black and Hispanic or Latino students in the first-year class increased slightly — 7.1 percent among Blacks for this year compared to 7.0 percent last year; 6.7 percent for Hispanic and Latino students compared to 6.5 percent last year. ■

The newly developed UK Health Corps support team committed to serving the campus community as students returned for the fall semester. The team is made up of 16 new dedicated staff members ranging from communicators to outreach coordinators, case managers and tracers, as well as wellness connectors and an academic coordinator. As the semester began, they were receiving and relaying student testing results. For students who test positive for COVID-19, UK Health Corps team members coordinate closely with state and local health officials to ensure students have the information they need to stay safe and compliant. Health Corps also answers questions from faculty and staff about their health needs. Lance Poston, executive director for Inclusive Health and Campus Partnerships in the Office for Institutional Diversity, is the project manager for UK Health Corps. “It’s going to take all of us to do this successfully, and that means following all those CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) advice points that we’re reiterating — wash your hands often, wear your mask, stay six feet apart and 8

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

Pete Comparoni, UK Photo

UK HEALTH CORPS HELPS CAMPUS

check in with your symptoms on a daily basis. And, I think, that sort of vigilance from all of our campus community members is what will really make us successful this fall,” said Poston. The UK Health Corps team was originally based out of the Hilary J. Boone Center, where they have repurposed the space into a hub for outreach and support for a healthy campus restart. ■

The Martin School of Public Policy and Administration welcomed its first group of students to its new undergraduate program this fall. Previously, the Martin School had offered post-graduate master’s, certificate and Ph.D. programs in public policy and administration. Now, the school is offering its first two undergraduate courses in public policy — enrolling over 70 students. These courses offer evidence-based perspectives and analytical tools for a greater understanding of public policies. “The introduction of our new undergraduate program could not be more timely,” said Ron Zimmer, director of the Martin School. “Public policy issues today — and the resulting actions and decisions — influence every aspect of our lives. Our goal is to help prepare students to better understand the many facets of these complex issues and hopefully inspire them to pursue careers in public service.” Zimmer said the program curriculum will focus on understanding how public leadership is exercised, how public policy decisions are made and how public policies affect society. In addition, he said the program fills a need that had forced Kentucky students interested in public policy studies to enroll in out-ofstate schools that offered undergraduate majors. To service the new undergraduate program, the Martin School has 11 full-time faculty with a range of expertise in public policy, budgeting, education, tax policy, social policies, housing, nonprofit and public management, and the role the media and social media play in developing policy agendas. ■

LEWIS HONORS COLLEGE DEAN BECOMES INTERIM DEAN OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Provost David W. Blackwell named Christian Brady as interim dean of the UK College of Arts and Sciences. Brady is the inaugural dean of the UK Lewis Honors College. “It’s an honor to serve with scholars and teachers across the broadest array of disciplines on our campus, particularly at such a critical juncture in the life of our university,” Brady said. “Higher education — and the disciplines in Arts and Sciences — have never been more important. Now, more than ever, our society needs students with the critical-thinking skills and searching minds that a broad education produces. I look forward to helping the faculty, staff and students of the College of Arts and Sciences continue their vital work and prepare the college for the next dean.” Brady came to UK in 2017 after 10 years as dean of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. Previously, he directed the honors program at Tulane University where he also was an associate professor of classical studies and Jewish studies. With 5,800 students, 440 faculty members, 19 departments, seven interdisciplinary programs, 29 majors and 37 minors, the College of Arts and Sciences is UK’s largest college and touches almost every UK student by providing foundations for advanced study in every field. ■

Mark Cornelison, UK Photo

MARTIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION WELCOMES HISTORIC FIRST UNDERGRADUATE CLASS

UK HEALTHCARE EARNS NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR PROMOTING ORGAN, EYE AND TISSUE DONATION UK HealthCare has earned national recognition for its efforts to increase organ, eye and tissue donor registrations across the state through the Workplace Partnership for Life (WPFL) Hospital Organ Donation Campaign. The WPFL is a national initiative that unites the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the organ donation community with workplaces across the nation in spreading the word about the importance of donation. The WPFL Hospital Organ Donation Campaign challenges hospitals and health care organizations to “let life bloom”

by educating their staff, patients, visitors and communities about the critical need for organ, eye and tissue donation, including offering opportunities to register as organ donors. UK HealthCare earned points for conducting awareness and registry activities between October 2019 and April 2020. UK HealthCare was one of 1,700 organizations to participate in the 2020 campaign and worked with Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates to leverage its outreach efforts. ■

www. ukalumni. net

‘EASTERN KENTUCKY: BY THE NUMBERS’ PUBLIC DATA SETS AVAILABLE The UK Appalachian Center has a new resource available for students, faculty and community members seeking information on populations in Eastern Kentucky’s 54 counties. “Eastern Kentucky: By the Numbers” offers a specialized set of county profiles from UK Cooperative Extension’s “Kentucky: By the Numbers” program. Compiled from 18 different sources, data for more than 60 variables are organized across 10 thematic areas, including: demographics, youth, income/earnings, education, agriculture, employment, coal employment, health, substance use disorder and poverty/insecurity. The project is a collaboration between the Appalachian Center and the “Kentucky: By The Numbers” Cooperative Extension program led by Julie N. Zimmerman in the Department of Community and Leadership Development in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Data were compiled by Zimmerman and Cameron McAlister, a doctoral student in the UK Department of Sociology, in partnership with the Appalachian Center. Visit appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/eastern-kentucky-numbers for more information. ■

SPRING 2021 ACADEMIC CALENDAR APPROVED WITHOUT SPRING BREAK

Mark Cornelison, UK Photo

UK EARNS ‘GREAT COLLEGES TO WORK FOR’ DESIGNATION

UK is a great college to work for, according to a new survey conducted by Modern Think. For the third consecutive year, the university is being recognized by the research and consulting leader in workplace issues. The results, published in a special insert of The Chronicle of Higher Education, are based on a survey of 221 colleges and universities. While UK has ranked in previous years on the list, this year marks the first time it has achieved Honor Roll status, recognized in eight total categories. The Honor Roll comprises institutions that received distinction ratings, 70 percent positive ratings or higher, in all 15 categories measured. UK employees reported high satisfaction in Collaborative Governance; Compensation & Benefits; Confidence in Senior Leadership; Facilities, Workspace & Security; Respect & Appreciation; Teaching Environment (Faculty Only); Tenure Clarity & Process (Faculty Only); and Work/Life Balance. ■ 10

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

As part of its commitment to ensure the health and safety of the UK community during COVID-19, the university has revised the academic calendar for the spring 2021 semester. Some important updates to the calendar include: • Monday, Jan. 25: First day of classes • Friday, Jan. 29: Last day to add a class for the 2021 spring semester • Friday, Jan. 29: Last day to officially withdraw from the university or reduce course load and receive an 80% refund • Friday, Feb. 12: Last day to drop a course without it appearing on the student’s transcript • Friday, March 26: Academic holiday • Wednesday, May 5: Last day of classes • Thursday-Friday, May 6-7: Reading Days — classes do NOT meet • Friday, May 7: Last day for candidates for May 2021 degree to submit thesis/dissertation for formal review to The Graduate School • Monday-Thursday, May 10-13: Final examinations This revised calendar does not include Spring Break. The idea is to compress the academic calendar and to encourage students to stay on campus as much as possible once they arrive at UK for the spring semester. The revised calendar creates a condensed semester in which students remain engaged in coursework on campus, rather than potentially traveling to other regions and returning to Lexington, which would increase the risk of spreading COVID-19. ■

Research A new UK College of Medicine study may provide answers for why so many COVID-19 patients experience thrombosis or the formation of blood clots that obstruct blood flow through the circulatory system. The research led by Jeremy UK researcher Jeremy Wood Wood, Zach Porterfield and is co-leading research that Jamie Sturgill in the Departmay provide answers about ment of Internal Medicine; Beth COVID-19. Garvy in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics; and Wally Whiteheart in Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry suggests that localized inflammation in the lungs caused by COVID-19 may be responsible for the increased presence of blood clots in patients. The study also provides evidence suggesting the risk of thrombosis could persist after the infection clears. The study examined the blood of 30 COVID-19 patients including 15 who were inpatients in the intensive care unit, and 15 who received care as outpatients at UK’s Infectious Diseases Clinic, along with eight disease-free volunteers who acted as a control group. Compared to baseline, the COVID-19 patients had elevated levels of tissue factor, a protein found in blood that initiates the clotting process. Patients also had reduced levels of protein S, an anticoagulant that helps prevent blood clotting. The researchers concluded that lung inflammation caused by COVID-19 is what leads to a decrease in protein S. This inflammation also causes immune and possible endothelial cell activation, which leads to increased tissue factor protein. The study additionally showed that protein S levels remained low in some patients even after they tested negative for COVID-19, which suggests that blood clotting issues may persist after infection and long-term monitoring of thrombotic risk may be necessary. Wood says this preliminary data could be a cause for concern. Certain viruses like HIV are linked to a long-term deficiency in protein S, which causes an ongoing risk of thrombosis in patients. It is not yet known if COVID-19 could cause a similar persisting protein S deficiency. The research team recently received a grant from the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science to begin a longitudinal study to look at these levels in patients over the next year. This will help answer the question: will this risk remain like it is in the HIV patients or will it go away?” ■

NIH AWARDS $11.2M FOR PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTER Pete Comparoni, UK Photo

UK RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY COVID-19 BLOOD CLOTTING CAUSE

UK has been awarded a prestigious Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant to study translational chemical biology from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. The $11.2 million grant will fund the UK Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation (CPRI). Jon Thorson, a professor in the College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the principal investigator on this grant, serves as CPRI director. Thorson said the COBRE theme in translational chemical biology is “the nexus of chemical biology (the application of chemical biology principles to develop validated models to advance our understanding of biology) and pharmaceutical science (the application of pharmaceutical principles to advance materials and devices that address unmet clinical needs).” This new COBRE funding leverages an impactful College of Pharmacy center launched as CPRI in 2012, in partnership with the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Markey Cancer Center and the Office of the Vice President for Research. This COBRE Phase 1 funding will provide new campus-wide junior faculty research and career development support, core infrastructure and pilot grants in the translational chemical biology research space. Critical infrastructure, in the form of cores, will support advanced research across UK campus: Chang-Guo Zhan directs the computational core; Mark Leggas directs the translational core; Linda Dwoskin directs the pilot program; David Watt directs the synthesis core (first developed under a previous COBRE grant for the Center for Molecular Medicine); and Tonya Vance coordinates the administrative core. “This COBRE is an incredible incubator for scientific cross-cultivation and disruptive innovation — an outstanding set of fearless junior PIs with scientific training in diverse disciplines unified by their shared interests in the development, application and potential translation of novel molecular probes and tools,” said Thorson. ■ W W W.RESEARCH.UK Y.EDU www. ukalumni. net

ANSWERING THE CALL – BECAUSE WE CARE It’s the question University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto asks of himself – and the campus – each day:

Did we care?

ost often, it’s a question asked and discussed in the context of UK’s response to the coronavirus, a global pandemic impacting millions and disrupting daily life for virtually everyone. But it’s also a question UK President Eli Capilouto asks in the context of what he calls the other pandemic confronting the country — the sting and stain of racism that has infected so much of life in America, too.

In answering that question, the university began the semester announcing a comprehensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Implementation Plan that includes a 21-member leadership team — with student, faculty and staﬀ representatives of more than 10 colleges and several units — to help guide eﬀorts around a greater sense of diversity, equity and inclusion on the campus.

“What happens in places that seem remote and physically removed are tragically real and relevant for so many of our colleagues and community members,” Capilouto says. “Now, we face twin pandemics in our country — one that impacts bodies, another hearts and minds. As Kentucky’s ﬂagship and land-grant university, we must commit to doing what we can, with all we have, to changing our culture and ensuring our community is a place of belonging and acceptance for everyone, regardless of who they are, what they believe, what they look like or how they identify.”

The idea was to model the implementation plan after the university’s Playbook for Reinvented Operations for the fall semester in response to the coronavirus. That eﬀort, which is ongoing, included the work of more than 500 individuals across the enterprise and included more than 6,000 pieces of feedback from the university community.

And that commitment is summed up in that simple, but so often challenging question.

“We knew we must give voice to our pain. It was time to act, and we know that our work is more fruitful when we collectively commit to anti-racism — together,” Capilouto said.

“Did we care about each other?” Capilouto asked. “Did we care about the Commonwealth whose name we bear and which we were created to serve? Did we care enough to make a diﬀerence for today’s students — and for generations who will never know our names or the obstacles we faced?”

Heading the DEI leadership team is George Wright, interim vice president for institutional diversity and senior adviser to the president. A noted African -American scholar and Lexington native, Wright received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UK in history before receiving his doctorate from Duke

With this framework for planning and execution in mind, UK asked the community to submit nominations to take part in its eﬀorts to change its campus culture.

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“Did we care enough to make a difference for today’s students— and for generations who will never know our names or the obstacles we faced?” President Eli Capilouto

UK Marketing and Brand Strategy. Several photos were taken prior to the pandemic.

University. He previously served as president of Prairie View A&M University and was a visiting professor at UK for the 2019-2020 academic year. “Dr. Wright has touched the lives of so many and has had a tremendous impact in the lives of his students during his time in higher education,” Capilouto said. “Through his important scholarly work and charitable contributions to the community, we have a better understanding of slavery and the impacts of the institution as a whole in the United States and around the world. I am confident that, under his leadership, our plan to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive campus will be productive and sustainable.” Stemming from the leadership team is a workgroup made up of seven people who help facilitate the collective work of this cultural shift. Already, the workgroup has assigned executive sponsors to six major workstreams that revolve around areas such as faculty, staff and student talent; culture, policies and programming; facilities and finances; research; and community outreach. Each workstream oversees the work of project teams that are now digging deeper into specific topics such as training and ensuring a more diverse pipeline for faculty, staff and students.

“I believe issues of race, issues of diversity and issues of inclusion should be talked about when there is no crisis.” — George Wright, interim vice president for institutional diversity and senior adviser to President Capilouto

UK student Lydia Mawi, an International Center Ambassador and International Leadership Student Team member, participates in a “get to know you event” at a picnic hosted by UK’s International Center.

Throughout the process, UK is examining how it can live up to the essence of what a higher education institution is —a collection of people and ideas, neve r in complete agreement with one another, but working toward common goals: education and learning; deeper understanding and meaning; solutions and healing; a recognition that a university is always more when it works together than when it splits apart. “I believe issues of race, issues of diversity and issues of inclusion should be talked about when there is no crisis. We must find a way to talk about them and set ground rules and provide an environment for students, faculty and staff where you are allowed to speak without being condemned,” Wright said. One example of how to create that kind of environment was the recent training approximately 50 senior administrators received as part of creating a foundation of knowledge, awareness, education and training to position the university for long-term success. The training program was led by Candice Hargons, a professor in the UK College of Education and a counseling psychologist with a national reputation in facilitating trainings and workshops in anti-racist work. She has led sessions with TimeWarner, Penguin/Random House and other universities including the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee. “The core is to move away from discussing racism as if it is a philosophical debate or a compliance exercise and move into practical, critical, anti-racist action,” Hargons said. “We want to provide senior leaders in the university with the selfawareness and skills to lead by example when it comes to anti-racism, so that when we ask the rest of the staff, faculty and students to shift the culture of the university, they know it is supporting the vision the people with the most systemic power have adopted.” Also fundamental to UK’s mission as Kentucky’s university is research. Along with teaching, service and care, it is how the university harnesses the energies, intellect and talent of faculty, staff and students toward helping and healing communities across Kentucky.

www.ukalumni. net

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Systemic racism over generations, according to volumes of research, has impacted health and life expectancies of people of color as well as economic and financial standing and educational attainment. Now, as the world faces a global pandemic, as well as a deep racial reckoning, it is critical for UK’s word-class research institution to find answers to the most intractable problems that disproportionately impact people of color. In early August, the university announced a five-year, $10 million commitment to sponsor UK research focused on racial disparities and inequity across broad areas, ranging from health to the historical foundations of systemic racism. The UNITed in racial Equity (UNITE) Research Initiative has been designated one of seven of UK’s Research Priority Areas so that these issues have the most important consideration — now and into the future. The university also recently announced the establishment of the proposed Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies, a multidisciplinary program that will highlight UK’s growing research around race and racism. Specifically, the interdisciplinary institute will establish research clusters across the campus and promote UK’s growing research and scholarship on topics of importance in African history and African-American history, such as slavery and the quest for freedom, racial discrimination and violence, and the long struggle for civil rights. “The new Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies at the University of Kentucky is an epicenter for cutting-edge research on people of African descent worldwide,” said Anastasia Curwood, a history professor and director of the African American and Africana Studies program. Additionally, with the same commitment underscoring the importance of this work, the UK College of Education and the NAACP, the nation’s largest and most preeminent civil rights organization, recently launched a groundbreaking collaboration. This is the first time in the NAACP’s history that it has locked arms with university-based scholars in the education field to help address racial inequities. “This initiative will support the NAACP’s continued advancement toward ensuring all disadvantaged students and students of color have access to excellent teaching, equitable resources and a challenging curriculum,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. Even as the comprehensive effort around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion points to a tremendous amount of work ahead, UK has for years been making steady, and in many ways remarkable, progress in being a more inclusive and accepting community. For the fourth consecutive year, INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity publication and website in higher education today, has recognized the University of Kentucky as a 2020 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award recipient and a 2020 Diversity Champion. The HEED Award is national honor that recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion throughout their campus. Diversity Champions, including institutions ranked in the top tier of HEED Award recipients, exemplify an unyielding commitment to diversity

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and inclusion throughout their campus communities, across academic programs and at the highest administrative levels. Jason Brooks, UK executive director for institutional engagement and co-facilitator for the DEI workgroup, said this is only one example of how the university has continued to strengthen its support toward equity and inclusion throughout the years. “Though we have been recognized as a Champion for Diversity, we will continue to cultivate a culture of caring while nurturing a sense of belonging for our faculty, staff and students. We are truly heading in the right direction — moving toward a more equitable and inclusive experience for all within our campus community,” he said. Further, Campus Pride Index, the premier LGBTQ national benchmarking tool for colleges and universities to create safer, more inclusive campus communities, has named UK one of 2020’s “Best of the Best” LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. These efforts, according to Capilouto, must start at the top with him and his leadership team. “The minds and voices of UK’s leadership team must better represent our strategic imperatives. They also must better reflect our increasingly diverse world — not as symbols of our intent, but as partners who drive our progress.” Capilouto recently announced a reorganization of the senior administrative structure to create a more diverse and inclusive senior management team, as well as one focused more squarely on UK’s most important priorities of student success, engagement and service, and more accountability and transparency. Within the reorganization, the Office of Institutional Diversity’s budget of $3.1 million increased to $19.3 million with some programs being relocated and others starting anew. These include initiatives such as the Parker Scholarship Program— which many students of color and first-generation students apply for and receive—the Faculty Diversity Fund and the Office of Community Engagement. Capilouto created four new positions: vice president for student success, filled by Kirsten Turner, formerly associate provost for academic and student affairs; vice president for land-grant engagement, filled by Nancy Cox, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; chief accountability officer and audit executive, filled by Joe Reed, formerly the

university’s chief auditor; and senior adviser to the president, filled by George Wright, in addition to his role as interim vice president for institutional diversity. Importantly, Wright’s role will be permanent, so that he can continue to provide Capilouto guidance and expertise as a distinguished leader in UK’s efforts to make campus a truly equitable place to learn, grow and heal. UK also announced this fall that it is more diverse than at any time in its more than 155-year history, with 7 percent more Black students enrolled than last year, according to preliminary figures. UK, in fact, is responsible for all of the total statewide growth in bachelor’s degrees awarded over the past five years for Black or African-American students when compared to the other Kentucky schools combined. “The numbers show our promise and potential for service,” Capilouto said. “But we are not satisfied. We must continue to grow and position UK to thrive as we emerge from this crisis — stronger, more diverse and accepting and poised to provide the education our Commonwealth needs from us as the University of, for and with Kentucky.” As UK continues to face some of its most challenging circumstances ever, the community can find hope, not only in the way faculty, staff and students have come together to support one another, but more tangibly in words etched into the entrance of the Bill Gatton Student Center, in UK Professor Frank X Walker’s “Seedtime in the Commonwealth,” a poem crafted for the university’s 150th anniversary. “There is no vaccination against ignorance, but there is us. There is this university. And we still have heavy doors to open, unmet obligations to the land and its people. There are still leadership opportunities to advance the Commonwealth, this nation, and our world towards fulfilling its potential, towards meeting its lofty promises.” Then, and now, Capilouto believes, the poem reminds everyone at the university about both its promise and potential, but also UK’s responsibility to change lives and transform communities. In other words, Walker says, it is a call — in all things and in all ways — to show that we cared.

“We must continue to grow and position UK to thrive as we emerge from this crisis — stronger, more diverse and accepting and poised to provide the education our Commonwealth needs from us as the University of, for and with Kentucky.” President Eli Capilouto

www.ukalumni. net

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Did You Know

Maybe you’re a know-it-all or just have a natural ability to retain facts. See how many of these are new to you!

The Rose Garden at The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky is home to an extensive collection of more than

1,200 different

rose cultivars. The Arboretum is a 100-acre greenspace located on the UK campus.

In fiscal year 2020, grant and contract awards to UK totaled

$429.2 million, an increase of $12.1 million from 2019.

UK has

the only

American Library Association accredited program in Kentucky. It’s located in the UK College of Communication and Information School of Information Science. Approximately

The UK Board of Trustees approved the conferral of

5,177 degrees for May 2020 — including 3,700 undergraduate, 1,002 graduate and 475 professional degree candidates. This includes graduates from 48 U.S. states and 56 countries.

KE N TUCKY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

2,000 babies

are born at UK HealthCare each year. Kentucky Children’s Hospital at UK has Eastern and Central Kentucky’s only Level I pediatric trauma center, Level IV newborn (neonatal) intensive care unit and pediatric intensive care unit.

The wood in the Bill Gatton Student Center

social staircase

is sourced from Central Kentucky horse farms. The steps are made from reclaimed oak from horse paddock fencing.

UK HealthCare has more than

1,500 physicians,

fellows and medical residents working every day in its hospitals, clinics and laboratories providing care for Kentuckians.

UK offers an undergraduate certificate out of the

Distillation, Wine and Brewing Studies

The College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America has named

23 UK swimmers and divers to the 2020 CSCAA All-America team.

program in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

The Gillis Building, named in 1978 for

Ezra Gillis

(UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first registrar from 1910-1937), was completed in 1891 and is the second oldest building on the UK campus.

www. ukalumni. net

UK distributed

4,979 iPads

to freshmen by the end of September.

The UK College of Social Work is home to the

Self-Care Lab,

The UK College of Education has an 18-credit-hours

minor in coaching

the first known lab dedicated specifically to researching selfcare among social workers, educators, nurses, law enforcement and teachers.

that teaches students different coaching philosophies, psychological and sociological aspects of coaching, and strategies for team development.

UK Housing opened fall 2020 with

6,896 beds

UK is

of 8 universities in the country with the full complement of liberal arts, engineering, agricultural and medical colleges on one contiguous campus.

available for undergraduate students (down from 7,452 beds due to COVID physical distancing protocols) and

515 apartments for single graduate students and students with families.

Statistics provided by UK Public Relations & Strategic Communications

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A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR EVERY WILDCAT Even in uncertain times, there is us – the University of Kentucky. As the Commonwealth’s flagship, land-grant institution, we’re doing everything we can to ensure access to higher education is simpler for future students. We want as many students as possible to apply to attend UK and to be considered for scholarships – even if they are unable to take the ACT or SAT.

An Equal Opportunity University

TEST Optional.indd 2

For the 2021-22 academic year, UK is test-optional for admission. This means that an ACT or SAT score is not required for a student seeking admission to UK. In addition to not requiring standardized test scores for admission to the university, academic and competitive scholarships are also available to students whether they apply with or without test scores.

Students will be considered based on a holistic review – taking into consideration the rigor of high school coursework, activities and engagement outside the classroom as well as a written essay. Learn more about UK’s test-optional policy at go.uky.edu/testoptional. 859-257-2000 admission@uky.edu applyuk.com

#BBNBound | #UK2025

10/30/20 10:34 AM

Traveling Wildcats 2021 Tours* January · Antarctica Discovery

March · Japan in Bloom April · Italy & the Adriatic · Panama to Palms May · European Coastal Civilizations · Italy’s Lake District · Gems of the Danube · Africa’s Wildlife: On Safari · Graduation Trip: Classic Europe · Yosemite, Death Valley & the Great Parks of California June · Scottish Isles and Norwegian Fjords · Alaska Glaciers & Blooms · Great Journey Through Europe July · Galapagos Islands – Northern Itinerary · Rhine Highlights · Viking Legends · Circumnavigation of Iceland August · Nordic Magnificence · Majestic Great Lakes · Imperial Splendors of Russia · Northern Gateways September · Cape Cod & the Islands · Flavors of Chianti · Coastal Life – Adriatic and Aegean Odyssey · Enchanting Ireland October · Byzantine Sojourn · Classical Cities of Spain November · Antiquities of the Red Sea and Aegean Sea · Iberian Immersion · Egypt & the Eternal Nile · Holiday Markets Cruise ~ The Festive Rhine River · San Antonio Holiday

*All trips and dates are subject to change.

2021 Travel Magazine Ad-v2 Updated.indd 1

Traveling, exploring and adventuring will soon return and the Traveling Wildcats are here for you! For more information and to view details on all trips visit www.ukalumni.net/travel or contact the UK Alumni Association at 859-257-7174.

10/5/2020 1:54:11 PM

John Calipari Radio Show Monday Nights from 6-7 p.m. on the UK Sports Network. Tune in all season long to the UK Sports Network for official coverage of Kentucky Wildcats Basketball. Visit UKathletics.com/ UKSportsNetwork for radio and TV affiliates in your area.

UKATHLETICS.COM

UK SPORTS NETWORK KENTUCKY BASKETBALL

@UKSportsNetwork @KentuckyMBB

uk_sportsnetwork kentuckymbb

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for complete UK Sports Network coverage of the Cats.

THE EARLY INFLUENTIAL

WOMEN OF UK Some female students participated in an art class in 1922.

Belle Clement Gunn of Lexington was the ﬁrst woman to graduate from UK, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1888. Gunn grew up on a farm near Shelbyville and later moved with her family to Lexington. She attended public schools and Sayre Institute prior to UK. It was said of her by classmates that she was “well above average in scholarship, but not so brilliant as to inspire envy and jealously.” (But Leonora Hoeing, also of Lexington, received a Normal School certiﬁcate in 1884.)

*Mary E. Sweeny, born in Lexington, was the ﬁrst dean of the College of Home Economics in 1916, having earned a master’s degree from UK in 1906. She was said to believe that a graduate from the new home economics college would equally “rank with the man who takes his degree in law or medicine.” She held other positions after leaving UK, eventually becoming the head of the home economics section of the U.S. Food Administration during World War I. She was also president of the American Home Economics Association and worked in China as a consultant on child welfare for United Services to China.

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Women have helped to shape the University of Kentucky from around 1880. The university was founded in 1865 but women were not admitted to the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College and its Normal School to become teachers until 1880. From that date, women contributed their knowledge and skills to make innovative contributions to the university and its community and culture. From education to research, administration to sports, we salute some of the women among the many who inspired others on our campus and beyond during those early years.

Florence Offutt Stout, originally from Jefferson County, Kentucky, was the physical director of women, a professor of physical education (Her duties began in 1902 in the then-new gymnasium now known as Barker Hall.) and the first dean of women (a position she held from 1908 to 1910). Upon her resignation as dean, she said, “Believing as I do that the position of dean of women somewhat impairs the distinctive quality of my specialty, demonstrated by the fact that I am now introduced ... as dean of women, rather than as physical director of women, I hereby tender my resignation.” She was particularly interested in medical gymnastics and the relation of posture and mental health to physical well-being. She was the first Kentuckian to become a member of the National Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation and later served as director of medical gymnastics for posture defects for the Appalachian School of Nursing.

*Margaret I. King, born in Lexington, was an 1898 UK graduate and salutatorian of her class. She became secretary for UK President James Patterson and acted as registrar for several years. She is most remembered for being the ﬁrst UK librarian, having started in 1912 at an annual salary of $870 with an annual book budget of $2,000 in the recently completed Carnegie Library building. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Founders Day Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Librarianship in 1957. The Margaret I. King Library has displayed her name in her honor since 1948.

Frances Jewell McVey, born in Harrison County, Kentucky, was an English instructor from (1917 - 1923) and dean of women (1921 – 1923). She had a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and a master’s degree from Columbia University. In 1923, she changed her role on campus when she married UK President Frank LeRond McVey and became the “ﬁrst lady” of Maxwell Place. No longer dean, she devoted her time to causes, such as women’s rights, was involved with many local community groups and was a member of the Lexington Board of Education. She also published two books, “The Literature of Shakerism” and “Uncle Will of Wildwood” (co-authored with her brother, Robert). Jewell Hall is named for her.

*Sarah Gibson Blanding, born in Fayette County, Kentucky, began her career at UK as an instructor of physical education, the dean of women (1924 to 1941), and later assistant professor of political science. She went on to become dean of the New York State College of Home Economics, Cornell University, (1942 – 1946), then became president of Vassar College (1946 -1964). President Roosevelt appointed her to the Committee on Welfare and Recreation, during World War II, and she was decorated by the U.S. War Department for exceptional civilian service. The former Blanding Tower and its aﬃliated low-lying buildings of the Kirwan-Blanding Complex was named in her honor.

Helen Galvin King ’25 CI, born in Lexington, began her career at UK as assistant director of public relations (1929 – 1946) and then became the ﬁrst permanent director (1946 – 1969) of the UK Alumni Association. She tirelessly pursued whatever she thought was best for the university and its alumni. She built the organization, not just in membership numbers, but in securing locations for alumni to gather, including the fund drive for what would later be named, to her surprise, the Helen G. King Alumni House on campus. She was one of several individuals who were instrumental in getting the UK Athletics Association incorporated and building McLean Stadium. For all of this, she was known to thousands of alumni as “Miss University of Kentucky.” One alumnus said, “She was the grandest lady I ever knew.”

*Chloe Giﬀord, born in Robertson County, Kentucky, was the ﬁrst woman graduate of the UK College of Law and passed the state bar examination at the age of 21. She had been dean of women at Sayre School before coming to UK in 1940 as director of community services. She implemented a new concept at UK, planning, developing and implementing programs for various organizations throughout the Commonwealth. This gained her international acclaim, and she traveled extensively in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Far East at the invitation of governments eager to introduce her concept of self-help. She was acquainted with Prime Minister Nehru of India and President Charles de Gaulle of France. She said that getting to know Eleanor Roosevelt was “my pride and joy.”

Sarah Bennett Holmes ’29 ’42 ED, was a dean of women (1942 – 1957) at UK who pursued the rights of women throughout her career. In honor of her service, she was named state mother of Kentucky and received the Sullivan Medallion. She raised four children as a widow and managed to complete her own education, becoming an example of perseverance through hardships. She developed work programs for women during the Great Depression and the original Holmes Hall was named in her honor in 1958. The current Holmes Hall, opened in 2016, houses the Creative Arts Residential College Living Learning Program.

*Doris Wilkinson ’58 SW, born in Lexington, was the first African-American woman appointed to a full-time position at UK in 1967. Two years later she was recognized by the Associated Women Students as an outstanding faculty member. In 1972, she was appointed to the Department of the Interior task force on the national parks system. She was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in 1978, and from 1980-1984, she served on the board of scientific counselors of the National Cancer Institute. In 1988 she received the American Sociological Association’s national DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award for her exemplary contributions to minority research and the field of race relations, and she was a visiting Ford Foundation Fellow at Harvard University in 1989-1990.

*Denotes a member of the UK Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni www. ukalumni. net

By Ann Blackford

HOW UK IS EMPOWERING A NEW GENERATION OF DIVERSE LEADERS

n fall 2017, six juniors from the University of Kentucky were selected for the first time to participate in the Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) Career Prep program headquartered in Washington. A nonprofit organization transforming the lives of high-achieving, underrepresented students across the nation, MLT helps bridge the vital collegeto-career transition gap. Upon learning about MLT, UK alumnus Mike Malone, a 1976 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, immediately saw how the program could benefit students at his alma mater, and he made the partnership between UK and MLT happen. Here’s how the story unfolds. Launched in 2002, MLT was founded by current director and CEO John Rice. His thesis as a Harvard MBA student

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

envisioned a nonproﬁt organization that would provide training, coaching and networking opportunities that have traditionally been unavailable to underrepresented students. After a successful career at Disney and the National Basketball Association, Rice’s vision became a reality, and MLT now has a community of more than 8,000 alumni nationwide, known as Rising Leaders. The mission of MLT is to empower a new generation of diverse leaders into the workforce and equip talented African American, Latinx and Native American students with the knowledge and tools to thrive in their careers. The program oﬀers a life-changing, 18-month experience for students beginning in their junior year of college and provides a professional playbook and career-long leadership network.

In addition, the MLT Career Prep program provides summer internship and full-time job opportunities within its network of over 100 leading corporate partners, including Fortune 500 companies. The University of Kentucky is in its fourth year partnering with MLT and is proud to have two alumni groups of MLT Rising Leaders: the inaugural 2017 cohort of six who graduated in 2019, followed by the eight 2020 graduates. Currently the university has five juniors and five seniors participating in the program. UK’s partnership with MLT and the transformative experiences for these UK students would not be possible without the generous support of Mike Malone. It is through his vision and unwavering commitment to students that UK’s MLT Fellows are flourishing. “Now more than ever, I am convinced that putting our young people on the path to economic mobility is one of the most direct steps we can take to meaningfully move the needle on solving the structural socioeconomic inequalities that are underlying today’s problems,” Malone says. A native of Paris, Kentucky, Malone built a successful career in investment banking and private equity for nearly 30 years and currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. Education has always been important to him, and he is the son of firstgeneration college graduates. “I feel very fortunate to have gone to UK,” Malone says. “It gave me the experiences, skills, and confidence to go on to a successful and rewarding career.

Malone became friends with MLT founder John Rice while they both served on a corporate board of directors. Malone was impressed with Rice and the tremendous good the program was doing for underserved people. The two shared common interests including a love of basketball. Knowing Rice was a three-year starter on Yale’s basketball team and was previously an executive with the NBA, Malone invited Rice to UK’s campus the weekend of a Kentucky – Kansas game to meet with UK President Eli Capilouto and students to discuss the possibilities of MLT at UK. “When I ﬁrst learned of Management Leadership for Tomorrow, I was ﬁlled with hope for the future, especially for our historically underrepresented students,” Capilouto says. “The work of MLT is critically important in ensuring that our workforce is representative of the communities we serve. I remain inspired by its leaders as they work to build a more diverse, equitable workforce for generations to come.” Rice says that Capilouto sees the need to augment students’ curriculum so that they are building on a roadmap from an academic and a leadership standpoint. “This is important for every student. This is not a minority thing. He sees the value of what we bring to the table, and he sees the importance of maximizing not just the student experience while at UK, but also the long-term relationships and trying to maximize that,” Rice says. Capilouto’s support and Malone’s enthusiasm greatly inspired Rice’s desire to bring MLT to Kentucky.

RYAN PAGE

Executive Team Lead Intern at Target, Summer 2020 Internship Senior, College of Communication and Information Major: Business and Organizational Communication

“I saw the program as an opportunity to grow and develop for my future career in the business world. The program has gone above and beyond my expectations in doing so. Thank you for making my dreams come true. Thank you for allowing myself and my fellow peers at UK to have the immersive, valuable experience. This experience is one of the best I’ve had.” www. ukalumni. net

KHALIL APPLETON '19

Business Technology Analyst at Deloitte Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Minor in Mathematics

“The experience helped me to understand and really see for myself that the knowledge that we learn during college is extremely important, but that work ethic and knowing how to learn quickly and eﬀectively are far more valuable skills to have." "My favorite part of the program was making connections with other high-achieving minority students from across the country. This experience was great in that seeing and interacting with other highpotential minorities painted a truly hopeful picture of the future for me.”

story, I realize the program has not only changed their lives but their “Mike saw his own journey in the stories of our students and that families, too,” Malone says. “Hearing how grateful their parents made him that much more passionate about bringing MLT to the are and how they never dreamed of something so transformational university,” Rice says. “Mike was the catalyst for MLT at UK and really sticks with me. was responsible for enabling students to participate and beneﬁt “The example these kids set and the things they can do back in from the program. We’ve started a model at UK that had not been their communities for their families is incredible. If you go back done on a university campus before this time.” to any of these companies from when I was in school, they didn’t The MLT program consists of a combination of on-campus even know where UK was on a map. Now, they’re hiring these kids. mentoring and oﬀ-campus seminars and conferences at various Nothing would make me prouder than to see one of our students places throughout the country. Students do an internship with as CEO of one of these partner companies, and I think that is a true partner companies like Google, Adobe, Goldman Sachs, and JP possibility.” Morgan Chase after Students apply for the their junior year. All MLT Career Prep program the students from UK during their sophomore were subsequently The work of MLT is critically important in ensuring year. In addition to a hired by these top that our workforce is representative of the program application that tier companies after communities we serve. I remain inspired by its captures their career and graduation and are still leaders as they work to build a more diverse, industry interests, students being tracked today for equitable workforce for generations to come. are required to submit continued support. letters of recommendation, “When I listen to an academic transcript and these kids tell their − UK President Eli Capilouto

KYMBERLEY JOHNSON '20

Ad Specialist at Google Bachelor of Science in Merchandising, Apparel and Textiles

“Not only did the program encourage me to genuinely reach for the stars, but it gave me resources to do so. Everyone was always sharing information and coaching one another, and that was not something that I had experienced before.”

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NAJIKA (HALSEMA) YOO '19

Frontend Web Developer at Adobe Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Minor in Mathematics

“Because of MLT, I am able to live in an area of the country I want to. I got my dream job right out of school working with some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. They value my opinions and work and treat me with the respect I deserve." “I am still heavily involved with MLT, mentoring current Fellows and meeting with potential investors. I owe all my success to this program. I went from a self-doubting, confused student to an employee who has full conﬁdence in her abilities and is proud of how far she has come.”

a resume/CV. A select number of applicants are invited to record a video response and advance to the second stage of the application process. Students accepted to the MLT Career Prep program are required to submit a non-refundable program fee, which is covered by gifts made by Malone and others. George Wright, senior advisor to UK president and interim vice president for institutional diversity, says UK has developed a close partnership with MLT since joining UK’s curriculum in 2017. “More than two dozen UK students have participated in MLT. Recent UK graduate Kymberley Johnson benefited from participation in MLT’s Career Prep program and was successful at securing a summer internship with Google after her junior year. She subsequently was offered a full-time position with the company as an advertising specialist,” Wright says. Johnson says that the MLT program has greatly impacted her life in a positive way. “I can confidently say that if it were not for MLT I would not be in the place I am today,” Johnson says. “The coaches and my fellow CP Class of 2020 participants were able to breathe new energy and outlooks that changed how I went about the rest of my college career. No other organization I was in at UK was able to help me

develop at such a vast and rapid rate. It made me realize what my purpose was in my community and learn how to use my strengths, knowledge and experience to the absolute fullest. I was able to work harder on various projects for my classes because I saw strong examples of what excellence was, and that is how I wanted to be regarded.” After seeing the difference MLT has made in the lives of these UK students since 2017, Rice and Malone want to make that happen for even more students. “What we accomplished over the past three years is just the beginning, and we view this as a multi-year pilot,” Rice says. “The next step would be that MLT would partner with UK on a much broader scale. We hope to develop the model for universities around the country with respect to how we augment our career services with specific interventions to intervene on behalf of low- and moderateincome students. “Getting into college is critical, but there is a lot more work to do for students. We think it’s important, especially for philanthropists, to understand the importance of this program. Seeing the outcomes of MLT students, it’s clear there is a difference in outcomes, and that should be reinforced.” ■

IMMANUAL ALEMAN '20

FRRA Corporate Control Analyst at JP Morgan Chase & Co. Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance

“The program encourages Fellows to be diligent and to push strong for what we want to pursue. This meant practicing for interviews during the seminars, networking with partner ﬁrms and other Fellows, and receiving feedback from our coaches. By having greater exposure to a very valuable network, I felt very encouraged to push harder in my academic studies when classes became more diﬃcult. Overall, MLT had a very huge positive impact on me.”

www. ukalumni. net

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

There’s no excuse not to know that masks can save lives. The UK Turf Team painted the area on the lawn near the W. T. Young Library to reflect and re-enforce optimum student compliance with UK’s approach to keeping everyone on campus — students, faculty, staff and visitors — safe and free from the coronavirus.

www. ukalumni. net

Mark Cornelison, UK Photo

NOT SO SUBTLE REMINDER

Yes! It’s legit!

Alumni

Directory Project Receiving emails and postcards asking you to verify your alumni data? The University of Kentucky Alumni Association has launched a UK Alumni Directory project in partnership with Publishing Concepts Inc.

Your participation is vital and appreciated!

Learn more at: www.ukalumni.net/alumnidirectoryproject

Want to see your name on these pages? Submit your Class Note today!

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Alum

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Alum

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Un iversit y of Kent uck y A lu m n i Associat ion

Alumni

Fall 2020

₅₀ Years Apart

1970, 2020 have similar outcomes for different reasons

ukalumni@uky.edu or www.ukalumni.net/class

Please help us by following the instructions on the email or postcard you receive to verify or update your official UK alumni record and keep your UK connection!

Amanda Nelson

2 UK COLLEGE OF EDUCATION GRADS IMPACT

LARGE-SCALE CHANGE By Amanda Nelson

Rachel Immerman, former head of the National Education Association Aspiring Educators program, is shown taking part in a field experience at Garden Springs Elementary.

ameo Kendrick and Rachel Immerman, recent graduates of the University of Kentucky, crossed paths during their time as students in the UK College of Education. Both were passionate about education, with their sights set on leading classrooms, while also impacting large-scale change. Their chance meeting through the National Education Association made a difference in their own lives and has touched students and aspiring educators across the nation. Immerman, a 2018 elementary education graduate, put her teaching career on hold to spend two years working full time with the National Education Association, in both Washington and across the nation, as the Aspiring Educators chairwoman. “During my term, we prioritized our work on dismantling white supremacy culture and uplifting a culture of distributive leadership, through virtual organizing, recruitment and retention and community building. What’s most exciting and heartwarming to me is that we did not start, nor did we end, this work in these two years,” she said. When Immerman’s term ended in July, Kendrick, a 2020 graduate of UK’s middle level education program, took the reins. She is starting her term now, representing 40,000 aspiring educators among the National Education Association’s 3 million members. “Cameo has a genuine enthusiasm, unwavering commitment, and passionate energy,” Immerman said. “As I’ve worked with her over the past five years, I have only grown fonder of her, her work, and her vision. She is exactly who we need to be a guiding light for aspiring educators over the next two years and to help lead the transformation of the future of public education for generations of students to come.” It was during Kendrick’s first education class that she met Immerman, who was there as a guest speaker. The students had been reading books about inequality and standardized testing. They were engaging in class discussions about how testing had created systematic oppression of minority students, fueling Kendrick’s desire to influence the education system and create change. But, a few years older than her classmates and raising two children, she was feeling disconnected from the college experience. “I didn’t feel like I had found my place,” Kendrick said.

Cameo Kendrick recently took over the reins of representing 40,000 Aspiring Educators among the National Education Association’s 3 million members.

Her sense of purpose became clear when Immerman introduced her to the student chapter of the Kentucky Education Association. Although Kendrick said it was outside her comfort zone, she joined Immerman and hundreds of aspiring educators across the state for the association’s fall conference. Soon, she was an involved member, first elected ethnic minority representative. The following year, she became president-elect, then finished her final year of college as president — just as Immerman had. “I finally felt connected to other students, people who would understand what I’m doing in school. It was nice because that connection would span further than my time in college. These aspiring educators were people I could stay connected with, as teachers and influencers in Kentucky and on a national scale,” Kendrick said. As Kentucky’s ethnic minority representative, Kendrick worked with equity offices and helped plan minority leadership conferences. She enjoyed speaking to diverse groups of students in high school who were considering careers in education and pairing them with college students for mentorship. “I quickly knew this was what I was supposed to be spending my energy doing,” she said. “I am passionate about making public education better.” As she wrapped up her two years as chair this summer, Immerman began applying for jobs as an elementary teacher in Cincinnati. Kendrick feels, when her time comes to teach, she will land exactly where she is supposed to be and will be aided by her experience as a UK student and national leader. “We have a notable education program here at UK. It’s notable not just in Kentucky, but nationwide,” she said. Her own educational experiences, and those of her two young daughters, help to motivate her work. “Majoring in education as a woman of color and raising two beautiful daughters on my own, my eyes have been opened to the bigger picture and have shown me my other life’s calling. I want to be an advocate for others and for public education. These two callings are intrinsically linked, and I look at public education as a keystone institution in the fight for a more equitable society,” Kendrick said. ■

www. ukalumni. net

Sports John Schlarman, a UK alumnus and assistant coach for the UK football team and an All-Southeastern Conference offensive lineman during his playing days at UK, died Nov. 12, after a diagnosis of cancer two years ago. He was 45. “I’m heartbroken to learn about the passing of my friend, John Schlarman,” said UK Head Coach Mark Stoops. “My prayers go out to LeeAnne and the kids, Joseph, Benjamin, Matthew and Evelyn, through this very difficult time. “John was everything we all strive to be — honest, tough, fair, respected. Kentucky football won’t be the same without him, but his legacy will never fade. He was a fighter, and we will strive every day to honor his warrior spirit.” Schlarman was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma in 2018. The determination he displayed as a Kentucky football player was reflected in his fight against the disease. He continued to coach through countless treatments — his tenacity an inspiration to UK players and everyone else around him — and did not miss a game until UK’s two most recent contests. His final appearance on the sidelines was Oct. 17 at Tennessee, when Stoops awarded Schlarman the game ball following the Wildcats’ win. Schlarman was an original member of Stoops’ staff in 2013, working tirelessly to help rebuild a football program that he loved dearly. Schlarman’s offensive line played a key role in the process that culminated with four consecutive bowl appearances from 2016-19. In 2018, UK went 10-3, the school’s first 10-win season in 41 years, topped by a win over Penn State in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. UK followed with a win over Virginia Tech in the 2019 Belk Bowl. During the last four seasons, Kentucky broke numerous school records, including single-season records for most rushing yards, most rushing touchdowns and most rushing yards per attempt. In 2016 and 2019, Schlarman’s Cats were semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award given to the nation’s top offensive line. Schlarman originally came to UK from Highlands High School in Ft. Thomas, where he was an all-state offensive lineman. He also starred in track and field and is a member of the Highlands Athletics Hall of Fame. Schlarman enrolled at UK in 1993 and was a four-year starter from 1994-1997, earning first-team All-SEC honors as a senior. He also was a member of the SEC All-Freshman Team in 1994 and was chosen the team’s most outstanding offensive lineman in 1995 and 1996. Following his junior season, he was chosen for the “Unsung Hero All-America Team” by the College Football Chronicle. 32

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

UK Athletics

IN LOVING MEMORY: JOHN SCHLARMAN, UK FOOTBALL

John Schlarman

Also an outstanding student, Schlarman was a three-year member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and a finalist for Academic All-America in 1997. Mirroring his precise approach on the field, he graduated with a degree in mathematics. Schlarman entered coaching at Bourbon County High School, coaching the defensive line in 1998 and 1999, helping guide the team to the state playoffs both seasons. He returned to UK as a graduate assistant from 2000-2002, helping with the offensive line all three seasons while earning his master’s degree. He also had the sole responsibility of the tight ends in the 2002 campaign when the Wildcats compiled a 7-5 record. Schlarman re-entered the high school ranks in 2003 as head coach at Campbell County for two seasons. He moved to Newport High School in 2005-2006 and had a two-year record of 19-6, including two state playoff appearances and a district title. He was named District Coach of the Year in 2005. Before returning to UK, Schlarman coached the offensive line at Troy University from 2007-2012, helping Troy win or share four Sun Belt Conference championships and advance to three bowl games. Troy had one of the nation’s most productive offenses in the nation during his term there. He coached eight first-team All-Sun Belt selections. ■

Keion Brooks Jr.

All-American, the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council AAA Player of the Year and was selected for the Jordan Brand Classic and Allen

MATTHEW MITCHELL RETIRES AS COACH OF UK WOMEN’S BASKETBALL The Kentucky women’s basketball team started the season with a shock, as Head Coach Matthew Mitchell abruptly retired on Nov. 12, citing lingering health issues after suffering an offseason fall which forced him to have brain surgery. Associate Head Coach Kyra Elzy was named interim head coach. Mitchell, the winningest coach in program history, retires with a career record of 333-162, including a 303-133 mark at Kentucky. This is the first head coaching position for Elzy, who has served as a NCAA assistant coach since 2002, including associate head coach titles at Kentucky and Tennessee. Elzy takes over an experienced team, led by junior All-American Rhyne Howard. UK women’s basketball returns a slew of talent off a team that advanced to the SEC Tournament semifinals last season. Howard, the 2020 SEC Player of the Year and first team Associated Press All-American, was second in the country in scoring at 23.4 points per game and hit a school-record 84 3-pointers. She led UK in rebounding (6.5) and steals (62), was second on the team in blocks (29) and had 68 assists. Kentucky finished 22-8, 10-6 in the SEC and advanced to the SEC semifinals before seeing its season ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Iverson Roundball Classic. Both were five-star prospects. Also picking up five-star ratings by at least one of the three major services were guard Devin Askew, who earned the elite status from ESPN, and forward Isaiah Jackson, who earned the distinction from 247Sports. Wing Cam’Ron Fletcher and forward Lance Ware were consensus four-star prospects. Kentucky will also lean on two transfers and one graduate transfer. Center Olivier Sarr (Wake Forest) and Jacob Toppin (Rhode Island) joined the program along with Creighton graduate transfer Davion Mintz. Sarr, a 7-0 senior center, averaged 13.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game for the Demon Deacons. Toppin, a 6-9 sophomore forward, averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while Mintz, a 6-3 guard, redshirted last season after battling ankle injuries, but averaged 9.7 points, 3.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game in 2018-2019. ■

The Wildcats return their top two and five of their top seven scorers from last season while also bringing back its top two rebounders. Senior point guard Chasity Patterson averaged 11.5 points per game after becoming eligible in the second half of the season. Senior forward Keke McKinney averaged 6.5 points and 4.5 rebounds and led UK with 42 blocks. Junior guard Blair Green averaged 5.8 points and 2.2 boards per game and senior forward Tatyana Wyatt averaged 5.5 points and 3.7 rebounds a game. Redshirt junior Kameron Roach missed last season with an injury and transfers Dre’una Edwards (Utah) and Olivia Owens (Maryland) are expected to contribute. Sophomore Emma King returns, and UK welcomes talented freshmen Treasure Hunt, Erin Toller and Matthew Mitchell Nyah Leveretter. ■ www. ukalumni. net

UK Athletics

New faces are nothing new to the Kentucky basketball program. This year is not the exception as the Wildcats welcome six freshmen and nine newcomers overall for Head Coach John Calipari. Keion Brooks Jr., who averaged 4.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 31 games last season, is the only returner who saw playing time last year for a team that went 25-6 overall and won the SEC at 15-3 before the COVID-19 pandemic brought an abrupt end to the season. The Wildcats have another heralded class of freshmen that will try and get UK to its first Final Four since 2015. Brandon Boston Jr., a 6-7 guard, was a McDonald’s All-American, a Naismith All-American, California’s Mr. Basketball and was selected for Jordan Brand Classic. Terrence Clarke, a 6-7 guard, was a McDonald’s

UK Athletics

NEWCOMERS TO LEAD UK MEN’S BASKETBALL

2019-2020

UK ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT The 2019-2020 academic year presented its fair share of challenges and ended much differently than anyone could have predicted. Nonetheless, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wildcat stars did shine,â&#x20AC;? as our fight song so boldly and accurately proclaims. UK Alumni Association staff members and volunteers found new ways to engage alumni and friends despite the circumstances during the first half of 2020. In the fall of 2019, much of the traditional programming was able to continue and thousands of alumni and friends were engaged through a variety of outreach. The new membership model was fully implemented on July 1, 2019, which enabled the association to bring more alumni and friends into the fold. The organization also continued the pursuit of creating a new governance model to be implemented in the 2020-2021 academic year and much appreciation is given to the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors for the hard work put forth to develop this new model. These pages provide a brief snapshot of our financials that provide insight to your alumni organization. Last year gave the association an opportunity to engage alumni in both traditional and new ways. We honored our scholarship winners at a dinner in the fall, welcomed back the Class of 1969 for its Golden Wildcat Reunion, celebrated the Belk Bowl trip with fellow Wildcats and engaged alumni and friends through multiple club activities, reunions, campus events and constituent groups. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the association to pivot quickly and look for new ways to engage alumni. Thousands of alumni were engaged through Alumni Career Services due to virtual offerings and relevant, timely programming. We also hosted a virtual 5K that engaged over 1,000 participants and raised over $17,000 for the Basic Needs & Persistence Fund, launched the Great Teachers on Great Challenges online series, and put together a unique letter and video project from the Class of 1970 to the Class of 2020, two classes that missed their scheduled Commencement 50 years apart. Communications tools proved to be valuable amid our virtual world and the association engaged Wildcats from all around the world through emails, newsletters, social media tools and the UK Alumni Association app. Our journey with you continues as we strive to provide services and benefits to more than 300,000 alumni worldwide. We look forward to another exciting year and hope that you will be able to participate in programming regardless of where you live. For the latest information on activities and ways to get involved, visit our website at www.ukalumni.net.

KE NTUCKY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

2019-2020

UK Alumni Association STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION June 30, 2020 and 2019

w w w.u k alu mn i.n e t

Alumni News

UK Alumni Band Virtual 5K UK Alumni Band members got into the spirit of Early Week, a week (Aug. 9-15 ) that the UK students in the Wildcat Marching Band dedicate to practicing before the start of classes. Money was raised for the operational needs of the UK Alumni Band and the Wildcat Marching Band by participating in a Virtual 5K. Over 300 UK Alumni Band members and friends from all over the country were able to raise $15,320! They also held a friendly competition among one another by competing to raise the most money and have the most participants from their band section. The baritone section raised the most money and the percussion section had the most participants. 1. Greg Jacobs (left), Joe Vidal and Brent Hobbs: Atlanta, Georgia 2. Debbe Sharpe Dedman: Louisville, Kentucky 3. Stephen and Kim Keys: Leitchfield, Kentucky

4. Kay Kinney: Doylestown, Pennsylvania 5. Will Adams: Scottsdale, Arizona

5 36

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

Greater Louisville Wildcat Kickoff Luncheon COVID-19 circumstances have curtailed most club events. But the Greater Louisville UK Alumni Club managed to host its annual Wildcat Kickoff Football Luncheon as a virtual event. The event featured interviews with Coach Stoops, Landon Young and Josh Paschal. Lucky you! Viewers can watch the recorded event by visiting www.ukalumni.net/footballkickoff2020

College View The UK College of Nursing hosted a first-of-its-kind virtual event to honor its outstanding alumni. The 2020 Celebration of Alumni Stars, held in September via Zoom and the UK CON YouTube Channel, recognized three distinguished groups of alumni: the college’s fourth Hall of Fame Class, recipients of the inaugural Dean’s Puma Award for Alumni Excellence, and the ‘Fabulous Five.’ The Hall of Fame recognizes and honors graduates with extraordinary national and/or international contributions to advance the nursing profession through education, practice, service, and/or research. This year’s honorees are Susan M. Adams ’07; Patricia B. Howard ’80 ’92; Patricia K. Howard ’83 ’90 ’04; Karen L. Johnson ’99; and Karen R. Robinson ’77. The Dean’s Puma Award for Alumni Excellence is awarded annually to faculty and staff who “shepherd the flock” and make outstanding contributions to the College of Nursing. To coincide with 2020 being declared the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife,” this year the Dean’s Puma Award was for the first time also awarded to outstanding alumni. The honorees are Lora H. Beebe ’89 ’00; Linda B. Gorton ’71; Marsha L. Hughes-Rease ’72; Delanor A. Manson ’78; and Marjorie S. Wiggins ’11.

The UK J. David Rosenberg College of Law held a virtual 5K, Race Judicata, to raise money for the Law Student Emergency Fund, which provides financial resources for current students experiencing unexpected hardship because of an emergency or crisis. The event raised more than $3,000 for the fund and more than 50 people participated, including faculty, staff, alumni and friends. In addition to donating, participants were asked to complete a 5K on their own and share photos on social media using the hashtag #RaceJudicataUKY. Funds are distributed as grants that do not need to be repaid. Students must apply for the grant, which is available to law students in good academic standing who are enrolled full-time at the Rosenberg College of Law or as dual-degree students. The award is limited to no more than $1,000. Carol Skricki, above, circulation technician within the law college, is an example of the many friends of the college who participated in the Race Judicata to help UK students.

The college also recognized the first African-American graduates in each of its nursing degree programs. These “Fabulous Five” graduates are trailblazers at the College of Nursing and the college is recognizing their legacy by installing a permanent, commemorative art display in the nursing building this fall. The honorees are Marsha Hughes-Rease ’72 (BSN); Katherine S. Detherage ’74 (MSN) and Alalia J. Mack ’74 (MSN); Vicki Hines-Martin ’94 (Ph.D.); and Tukea L. Talbert ’05 (DNP). To learn more about the honorees, visit www.uky.edu/nursing.

The UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment got creative in celebrating its 46th annual Roundup. The CAFE Alumni Association sent out over 500 party packs to alumni, donors and friends of the college. The packs included pompoms, balloons and a confetti launcher to cheer on the Wildcats during their season opener against the Auburn Tigers. Typically, over a three-day period, Roundup would draw in well over 2,000 alumni, donors, prospective students and friends to the E.S. Good Barn for food, fun and fellowship. ww w.u k alu mn i.n e t

A Big Blue Thanks

to all of our new Life Members*!

Life Members are among our most loyal alumni and friends. We salute your commitment to strengthening UK’s alumni community and honor your dedication to the university’s past and future. Colleen Craig Adkins Nathan A. Adkins Mary E. Akers Mahfuza B. Ali Mohammad Zaki Ali Alison L. Bailey David A. Baker Karen Baxter Kevin M. Behr Nicole A. Behr Luke Richard Beisner Barbara J. Bennett Gary P. Bertram Bonnie H. Bishop James T. Brannon Melanie S. Bratcher John M. Brown Julie Brown Patrick T. Brown Amber Carroll Shawn Carroll Debra D. Comer Kevin D. Connor Karen Cornett Andrew S. Curnutte Megan E. Curnutte Cathryne E. Czarnecki Kara B. Dassel Mark W. Dassel Shannon M. Davis Brian Demps Katherine Demps Michael T. Doane Sr. Jimmy T. Downey Meredith R. Downey Kimberly A. Dunn Brett Eades Faye Michelle Eades David R. Ecton Charles J. Fackler Cynthia L. Fauth John F. Flynn Stan L. Gish

Anthony G. Givens Pamela Givens Patricia L. Goulding Jeffrey Greenup Teresa Greenup Paul E. Harper Rebecca C. Heimbuch Scott Hickman Jaime S. Holmes Sarah A. Hulette Sidney H. Hulette Penny A. Jacobs J. W. Johnson II Larry Johnson Shawn Justice Aroon Lawanprasert Herbert Lemaster Kim B. Lemaster Carole Ann Luckett David E. Luckett Pat Mattingly Steven G. Mazza Michael McCoskey Christopher Alan McKinney Cindy J. Miller Joseph R. Miller II Lisa G. Miller Sabrina Ann Miracle Barbara B. Morgan Charles L. Morgan Robin Morgan Bruce Neely Sudhir Nelvagal Avounkone Niravong Roshan Palli Melanie G. Paulsen Blake A. Perkins Susan D. Phillips Jerry Purvis Mary Elizabeth Purvis Michelle Ramsey Kyle W. Reynolds Tracie Roy-Emerson

Matthew G. Schneider Chrystal D Schoeder Scott Schoeder Jason Ryan Scolf Jessica Scolf David Shaw Susan Shaw Steven L. Simmerman Toby L. Simmerman Charles L. Simms Jr. Rebecca O. Simms Virginia A. Sims Benjamin T. Smith Megan Haupert Snellen Keith A. Sorrels Robert F. Stephens III Brandon Stockton Joseph W. Stone Klein S. Stubbs Brandon Michael Sutton Brian Thompson Monica M. Thompson Fred A. Tobergte Brenna F. Walsh Michael A. Walsh Kevin W. Weaver Kristi L. Weaver Lynda W. Weeks Jeffrey M. Whitson Tammy W. Wilson Marcie L. Wood Erin B. Woodall Rebecca L. Wydman Van S. Wylie Leslie W. Young Christina Yue Ciprian Zisu *New paid-in-full Life Members July 1 – Sept. 30, 2020

You can help make Big Blue Nation stronger than ever! Become a Life Member today! www.ukalumni.net/membership or call 800-269-ALUM (2586) 38

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

UK ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

and

CLUB SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS

T ALUMNI ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIP

“

It’s uplifting to know there are so many alumni who love and support their university and want to encourage the next generation of students to do their best and to succeed.

“

Grace McDonald Somerset, Kentucky

Clubs that donated $3,000 or more to

SAN DIEGO UK ALUMNI CLUB SCHOLARSHIP

“

their scholarship fund in 2019-2020

I want to give a huge thank you for being offered this scholarship. I am blessed to be a recipient of this award, to have the opportunity of education and to represent my city.

Clark County UK Alumni Club

$7,000.00

Chicagoland UK Alumni Club

$3,594.00

Fayette County UK Alumni Club

$14,160.00

Fulton County UK Alumni Club

$16,292.52

“

Greater Jacksonville UK Alumni Club

Carissa Clay San Diego, California

Greater Louisville UK Alumni Club

I am very grateful for your support of my academic career, especially during these tough times. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for this scholarship.

Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati UK Alumni Club

$72,670.00

$25,877.74

Sarasota/Suncoast UK Alumni Club

$3,262.50

Tampa Bay UK Alumni Club

$3,355.00

Additional scholarship contributions

“

Richard Bean Endowment Joshua Myers Lexington, Kentucky

$3,000.00

Mercer County UK Alumni Club (Aggie Sale) $5,000.00

FAYETTE COUNTY UK ALUMNI CLUB SCHOLARSHIP

“

he UK Alumni Association and its nationwide alumni clubs presented the university with a check for the total amount of scholarship contributions made during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. This includes $180,336.87 from alumni clubs, $55,672.20 from the UK Alumni Association and $17,706.49 from individuals, for a grand total of $253,715.56! Although we were not able to host our annual Scholarship Celebration this year in person, many scholarship recipients were still able to send in videos to help thank our donors and show their appreciation to be a scholarship recipient at UK. Several of those recipients are pictured here on this page. The UK Alumni Association wants to thank representatives from those clubs that made contributions to either their endowment or spending accounts in the last fiscal year, allowing deserving UK students to ease the challenges of achieving their education. For more information about UK Alumni Association scholarships, visit www.ukalumni.net/scholarships.

Lyman T. Johnson Endowment Wykstra Alumni Endowment

$8,003.30 $31,736.54 $4,967.69 www. ukalumni. net

ANT R U D N TOM BO

4 LAW:

‛9 ‛91 AS,

G N I D N A T S R E D N U D L R O W THE S C I M O C THROUGH BY HAL

MORRI

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

or most people, psychology, the law and comic books may not have a lot in common. For Tom Bondurant, they all go hand in hand. Bondurant pays the bills as an attorney employed by Legility (formerly Counsel On Call). On most days, this finds him working from his Germantown, Tennessee, home office examining computer files from client corporations to see what information can and can’t be released to opposing parties. But his passion is comic books. The self-described “all-purpose” nerd has been an avid reader and collector of comic books since he was in second grade in Lexington. His interest persisted through high school, then into his college life at UK and continues to this day. He has been reviewing and writing comic book criticism for close to two decades. Bondurant earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the UK College of Arts and Sciences in 1991 and his law degree from the J. David Rosenberg College of Law in 1994. He says the law and comics can intersect and counts on his UK education to help with both. “In thinking about that, it had more in common with law school than my undergrad (major). But when I was a freshman, I had a class where we studied Greco-Roman literature. That was right when DC was relaunching Wonder Woman with Greek mythology as her background. I did my senior thesis with Dr. Pem Kremer of the Honors Program on the work of author Joseph Campbell and his possible influence on ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Twin Peaks.’ Dr. Kremer had been my professor for that freshman-year Greco-Roman literature class. “In law school, I had a class on criminal procedure where we learned about Miranda rights and how that works if someone is not an agent of the government but is acting on behalf of the police,” he says. “That is Batman and Robin. Commissioner Gordon has the Bat-Signal sitting on the roof of police headquarters. They are agents of the government, but they are private citizens. “And learning how to argue really helps, especially on the internet. You still want to make everything airtight, so I really do approach this kind of writing — how I would write an appellate brief. Would it hold up in court and online?” Bondurant obviously takes the law, and his comic writing, seriously. In fact, his comics passion far outdates his love of the law. When he was in high school in 1984, he discovered the old Comic Connection on Limestone. That remained his main store for acquiring new material for a decade while he worked his way through high school and UK as an undergraduate and later a law school student. Now Bondurant tries to scope out a local shop wherever he goes. “If I am going to be there even for a couple of days, I try to find the local NPR station and comics shop,” he says. He began reviewing comics in 2004 when he started the blog Comics Ate My Brain. That got him noticed and a year later when he was in the process of moving to Virginia, Bondurant was recruited to write for a blog called The Great Curve (named after a Talking Heads song).

That blog eventually turned into another blog that was an arm of the website Newsarama, which publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry. Bondurant wrote for that site until he began writing for Comic Book Resources (CBR) in 2008. “I’ve done some clickbait-type stuff like Top 10 Batman girlfriends, which is actually kind of fun, but I mostly do Easter Egg roundups of big superhero event comics,” he says. “I’m an all-purpose nerd. I was the right age for ‘Star Wars,’ and I was already aware of ‘Star Trek.’ And I played Dungeons & Dragons and watched the ‘X-Files’ and ‘James Bond.’ I also picked up on the more recent version of ‘Dr. Who,’ which started again in 2005. I’ve built models and have toys, that kind of thing.” “And I’m married to a very understanding woman,” he quipped, noting he has a comic book collection of more than 18,000 books and all of his collectibles. DC Comics are in his wheelhouse, and he has been doing work on some of its bigger recent projects. “I’ve gotten a reputation as a DC nerd. DC, in particular, does a lot of rebooting its universe, something Marvel doesn’t have. And DC in the last three years has done three big universe-shattering miniseries,” he says. “That is why CBR called me and said they wanted me to do a deep dive of each miniseries as they come out and tell people what they missed by not reading the other DC Comics in the past 40 years.” Bondurant has covered two miniseries so far and is working on the third. The quarantine has given him plenty of time to write. And think. His Wednesday morning routine consists of hitting the comic book shop, but he went six weeks without visiting a store during the COVD-19 lockdown. Bondurant spent part of the lockdown reconnecting with old friends from The Great Curve blog where they get together and discuss what they are reading and looking forward to new releases. “It keeps my mind fresh — on what I think about, what just came out and what my friends think about. And there is also a lot in comics that has helped change my world view and made me realize the deeper stories of the people who made the comics and what they had to go through to produce these things,” he says. “Like the ways in which female editors at DC didn’t get the credit they deserved, ways in which characters were mistreated or underrepresented, and professionals in the field who were harassed, and companies covered it up. There was a subset of the Me Too movement that’s just comics. Discussing it is necessary, but not exactly comforting in light of everything else. “One of the Justice League arcs deals with a global pandemic. That came out in 2015. Even in the ’40s, the Superman radio show did an anti-Klan story, how Superman fights racism — vigilante racism. I started blogging 16 years ago and as we get into the mid-2000s, there is a deeper awareness and more of that kind of awareness. More people on the net were free to say that things happening in comics — this is not OK. And once they say they were wrong or I was wrong, they talk about what they are going to do about it. “It’s been an education for me and a very positive one.” ■

www. ukalumni. net

Class Notes Bissell Roberts ’67 AS is an attorney in Louisville specializing in land use law, zoning, eminent domain and mediation. He was appointed to a four-year term on the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Roberts earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. Jack Steele ’68 AS is professor emeritus of chemistry at Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. He was recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements and leadership in academia. Prior to his retirement, Steele was chairman and coordinator of chemistry and physics. William H. Turner ’68 AS lives in Spring, Texas, and received an honorary degree from UNC Ashville. During his career, Turner has served as interim president of Kentucky State University and has held faculty and/or administrative positions at UK, Prairie View A&M University, Berea College, Duke University and Winston-Salem State University.

1970s D. Neil Ashworth ’70 BE retired as a professor of management and became professor of management emeritus in the University 42

of Richmond E. C. Robins School of Business in Richmond, Virginia, after 39 years as a faculty member. Stephen M. Ruschell ’71 BE, ’74 LAW is a member at Stites & Harbison PLLC in the firm’s Real Estate Service Group in Lexington. He was named a 2021 Best Lawyers in America Land Use and Zoning Lawyer of the Year. Larry Vaught ’74 BE lives in Danville and joined the Edge Media Group statewide radio network and writes for www.yoursportsedge.com. Vaught is the retired sports editor of the Advocate-Messenger newspaper in Danville. He is a seven-time Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year and a member of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, Danville Schools Hall of Fame, Danville Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame and the 12th Region Boys and Girls Basketball Hall of Fame. Paul F. Threadgill ’75 ’79 AS retired as a professor of biology and was elected professor emeritus of biology at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, after a 32-year career at the school. He earned his doctorate in plant population ecology from the University of Western Ontario. Gregg Zoroya ’75 CI is an editorial writer and a member of the editorial board

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

for USA Today newspaper in McLean, Virginia, writing about the environment, military and foreign policy, and world affairs. Marianne Shroer ’76 SW lives in Franklin, Tennessee, and is president of the Tennessee Court Appointed Special Advocates state board of directors. She was named to the Transportation Management Association Group Board of Directors. She is the retired executive director of the Williamson County Court Appointed Special Advocates.

Alexander P. Herrington ’78 LAW is a member at Stites & Harbison PLLC in the firm’s Louisville office. He was named a 2021 Best Lawyers in American Public Finance Law Lawyer of the Year. Cynda Hylton Rushton ’78 NUR is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics and Professor of Nursing and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics and Schools of Nursing and Medicine in Baltimore. She is also co-chairwoman of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Ethics Committee and Consultation Service.

ExploreUK

1960s

In August 1949, UK students did their best to look studious in the Margaret I. King Library and kept their eyes on the pages of their books in the Thruston Ballard Morton browsing room. This space now has wall dividers and is used as staff offices, but the Frank W. Long mural from 1936 still exists.

Paul L. Whalen ’78 AS lives in Fort Thomas and was appointed as an administrative law judge in the Kentucky Department of Workers’ Claims by Gov. Andy Beshear. He previously served as a part-time hearing officer for the Kentucky Department of Education for 16 years, adjudicating due process requests. Whalen also served as a hearing officer for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice.

1980s Ashley W. Ward ’81 AS, ’84 LAW is a partner at Stites & Harbison PLLC in the firm’s Lexington office and is co-leader of the Torts and Insurance Service Group. He was named a 2021 Best Lawyers in America Appellate Practice Lawyer of the Year. William G. Geisen ’82 LAW is a partner at Stites & Harbison PLLC in the firm’s Covington office. He is also former chairman of the firm’s Construction Service Group. Geisen was named a 2021 Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year. Lois Renfro-Marcus ’82 LAW lives in Barbourville and was appointed to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Community Advisory Committee by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. She retired as a litigation attorney and deputy director of the Appalachian

of Optima Health Plan and executive vice president of Sentara Healthcare. He was previously president of Anthem Inc.’s Central Region and Exchanges.

These exuberant UK fans run off with part of a goal post after the UK versus Tennessee game and the Battle for the Barrel on Nov. 22, 1958, at Shields-Watkins Field in Knoxville. UK won 6-2.

Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky Inc. where she focused on disability and consumer law.

previously the chief technologist of tribology and advanced materials at the Timken Co.

Michael L. Cobb ’83 ’84 BE is president and CEO of Owen Electric Cooperative in Owenton. The cooperative provides electric utility service to more than 64,000 homes and businesses in parts of nine northern Kentucky counties.

Jennifer Larson Garrett ’84 ’86 AFE lives in Dowling, Michigan, and is the founder of JG Consulting Services LLC, a strategic management consulting firm dedicated to sustainable food and agricultural systems.

Matt D. Doctrow ’83 ’85 AS is senior vice president of analytics for SentryHealth in Louisville, responsible for artificial intelligence and machine learning for the company’s health and wellness solutions.

Mary L. Harville ’84 AS, ’88 LAW lives in Louisville and was appointed president and CEO of Kentucky Lottery Corp. by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. She had been the company’s senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary and was previously with the firm Reed Weitkamp Schell and Vice.

Gary L. Doll ’83 ’86 AS lives in North Canton, Ohio, and is a surface engineer and professor and director of the Timken Engineering Surface Laboratory at the University of Akron. He was

Dennis A. Matheis ’85 BE lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is president

Edward D. Bashaw ’86 PHA is senior science advisor to the Director-Office of Clinical Pharmacology for the Food and Drug Administration, overseeing dermal absorption related polices including sunscreens and nanotechnology. He retired as pharmacokineticist for the U.S. Public Health Service before going to the FDA. Mary A. Ramsey ’86 EN is executive director of the International Society of Automation in Triangle Research Park, North Carolina. She was previously the interim executive director, and she served as senior vice president of process automation, Americas region, for Schneider Electric. Andrew B. Wyatt ’86 CI is vice president and general manager for NexStar Broadcasting Inc. for the company’s Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton, Pennsylvania, operations. He was previously vice president and general manager of WDVM-TV and LocalDVM.com in Hagerstown, Maryland, and WDCW-TV and DCW50.com in Washington. Brenda Wheeler Williams ’88 AFE lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a principal at Quinn Evans Archiwww. ukalumni. net

Class Notes tects Inc. She was selected as one of the American Society of Landscape Architects 2020 Class of Fellows. She was nominated by the Wisconsin Chapter of ASLA and one of 19 professionals nationwide selected for the honor, which recognizes exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large. Jeffrey L. Ashley ’89 CI lives in Louisville and is founder and president of Ashley|Rountree and Associates, which provides consulting services to the nonprofit sector. He was selected for induction into the Trinity High School Hall of Fame Class of 2020. Jack A. Miniard ’89 BE is CEO of Clover Ford Clinic, a primary care practice with locations in Harlan and Evarts. He was appointed to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Community Advisory Committee by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Miniard is also a board member and treasurer of the Kentucky Primary Care Association and chairman of its Finance Committee.

1990s Vishwesh Bhatt ’90 AS is executive chef at Snackbar in Oxford, Mississippi. He earned his culinary degree from the Johnson & Wales University College of Culinary Arts. Bhatt won the 44

2019 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef in the South after five previous nominations. Michael R. Maharrey ’90 BE lives in Yulee, Florida, and is national communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center and managing editor of the SchiffGold website. He hosts the podcasts “Thoughts from Maharrey Head” and the “Friday Gold Wrap.” Maharrey has also written four books and several e-books on the U.S. Constitution and nullification. Louis G. Roe ’90 HS, ’92 GS lives in Hurricane, West Virginia, and is vice president of operations for West Virginia University Medicine hospitals at Summersville and Gassaway. He is also owner and operator of John B Doyle & Associates LLC, a business support service focusing on after-hours answering and virtual receptionist services for small and large businesses doing business as Funeral Connections Answering Service and Cornerstone Answering Service. Nancy Stanley Clark ’91 MED is a vascular and endovascular surgeon at Pikeville Medical Center specializing in limb salvage, wound care, aortic disease, carotid artery disease, dialysis access and varicose veins. She also earned her law degree from the University of Maryland School of

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

Law in Baltimore. Tom Halbleib ’91 LAW is a member at Stites & Harbison PLLC in the Business and Finance Service Group in the firm’s Louisville office. He was appointed to the Kentucky Local Government Public-Private Partnership Board by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Halbleib also serves as the mayor of the city of Glenview. Randy Hays ’91 ED retired as vice president and dean of student life at Centre College in Danville after 27 years at the college. He had been Centre’s associate dean of student life. Robin Rains-Prichard ’91 PHA is special assistant to the president for public health at Transylvania University in Lexington, coordinating prehealth preparation programs and serving as the lead for the university’s COVID-19 pandemic response. Rains-Prichard also serves as the university’s liaison with all levels of government, with other institutions of higher education and with other community agencies and organizations. Janet Shakey Carpenter ’92 ’96 NUR is the Audrey S. Geisel Endowed Chair in Innovation, associate dean for research and a distinguished professor in the Indiana University School of Nursing in Bloomington. She was named a USA

Today Indiana Woman of the Century. Lisa R. Higgins-Hord ’92 ’98 AFE is assistant vice president for community engagement in the UK Office of Community Engagement in Lexington. She was appointed as the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council interim member representing the 6th District by Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton. Amy Mercer ’93 AS, ’96 CI is a senior lecturer and technical services/serial librarian at the Lee University William G. Squires Library in Cleveland, Tennessee. Matthew C. Minner ’93 AS is an attorney and managing partner at Hare Wynn Newell & Newton LLP in the firm’s Lexington office. He was named to the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for personal injury litigation-plaintiffs. Minner earned his law degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. Christopher S. Perry ’93 EN lives in Louisville and is president and CEO of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and United Utility Supply Cooperative. He was previously manager of engineering services for Sumter Electric Cooperative Inc. James A. Royse ’93 BE lives in Lexington, and State Auditor Mike Harmon appointed him executive

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Class Notes director for the Office of Local Government Audits, which conducts audits of fiscal courts, county sheriffs and county clerks. He was previously deputy executive director for the Office of Financial Audits. Edward D. Sparks ’93 EN lives in Saint Johns, Florida, and is the assistant chief engineer of structures at CSX Corp. He was president of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association, an organization for railway engineering personnel that offers educational opportunities and produces and publishes the recommended practices for railway engineering infrastructure including track, structures, and communications and signals. Matthew A. Bragga ’94 CI is the head baseball coach at Rice University in Hous-

ton. He previously spent 15 years as head baseball coach at Tennessee Tech University, winning six Ohio Valley Conference championships in his last 9 years. Robert L. Canida ’94 CI is vice president for inclusive excellence at the University of Lynchburg in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was previously director for diversity and inclusion and a tenured library faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Monica Meister Roebker ’94 CI is senior guidance counselor for St. Henry District High School in Erlanger. She was previously a counselor and college and career advisor at Archbishop Moeller High School and a college advisor at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati.

In the early 1960s, Dr. Charles Snow, center, professor of anthropology and anatomy, is performing a demonstration with a student for the taping of his televised anthropology course. The debut of educational television in the Bluegrass and for the University of Kentucky began at WLEX-TV on February 12, 1960.

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Chrisandrea L. Turner ’94 AS, ’98 LAW is a partner and bankruptcy and creditors’ rights litigator at Stites & Harbison PLLC in the firm’s Lexington office. She was named to the inaugural 2020 Lawdragon 500 Leading U.S. Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers. Jason E. Glass ’95 ’07 AS, ’96 ED is commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education in Frankfort. He had been superintendent and chief learner of Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado. Glass received his doctorate in education leadership from Seton Hall University and a certificate in advanced education leadership from Harvard University. Samuel M. Poloyac ’95 ’99 PHA is dean of the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. He had been a professor of pharmaceutical sciences and the associate dean for graduate and postdoctoral programs at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, as well as the director of the university’s Center for Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Small Molecule Biomarker Core Laboratory. Christopher L. Slaughter ’95 LAW lives in Culloden, West Virginia, and is CEO of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. He had been a labor and employment attorney in the firm’s Huntington, West Virginia, office.

Amtibah Chandra ’96 AS, ’99 ’00 BE lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, and is the John H. Makin Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He also serves as the Henry and Allison McCance Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Ethel Zimmerman Wiener Professor of Public Policy and director of health policy research at the Harvard Kennedy School. Chandra is a member of the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Health Advisers and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. William R. DeFoor ’96 MED is associate professor of surgery, director of clinical research and associate director of urology in the Department of Surgery in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He is also co-director of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Pediatric Stone Center. Laura D’Angelo Holoubek ’96 LAW is a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in the firm’s Lexington office. She was named a founding fellow of the American College of LLC and Partnership Attorneys. Holoubek is also an adjunct professor of equine law at the UK J. David Rosenberg College of Law. Catherine A. Iannello ’96 GS is a professor of human services at Jamestown

Community College Department of Social Services & Business in Jamestown, New York. She is also a delegate to the Faculty Council on Community Colleges. Iannello was previously an adjunct instructor at the UK College of Social Work, assistant executive director of the Center for Women, Children, and Families and a legislative analyst of social welfare policy for the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kevin L. Jones ’96 ED is an assistant professor of education and dean of the Cedarville University School of Education in Cedarville, Ohio. He was previously the chairman of the Kentucky State University School of Education and Human Development. Joshua M. Konowe ’96 AS is vice president, digital innovation practice for 10Pearls, an end-to-end digital technology services company headquartered in Washington. He was previously on the alumni board and an organizing board member for MindShare Inc., as well as a volunteer student mentor at UK. Charles W. Lickfold ’96 EN lives in Cary, North Carolina, and is senior vice president, chief information officer for Catalent Inc., a provider of delivery technologies, development, drug manufacturing, biologics, gene therapies and consumer health

products headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. He was previously executive vice president and chief information officer for Alcami Corp. and Avara Pharmaceutical Services. Tiffany Reynolds Welch ’96 BE lives in Frankfort and was appointed executive director for the Office of Special Examinations by State Auditor Mike Harmon. She was previously deputy executive director of the Office of Technology and Special Audits. Paul J. DeLaLuz ’97 AS is chairman of the Lee University Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Cleveland, Tennessee. He was promoted to distinguished professor of chemistry by the Lee University Board of Directors, one of only 10 professors in the university’s history to be awarded the title of distin-

guished professor. DeLaLuz is also a faculty advisor for the Omega Alpha Phi service club.

commander at the 100th Air Refueling, Royal Air Force Mildenhall, United Kingdom.

Dan W. Hollis ’97 CI is a professor of broadcast journalism in the Marshall University W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications in Huntington, West Virginia. He was selected this year for the school’s Hall of Fame. Hollis graduated from the University of Southern Indiana and has a master’s degree from UK. He has received numerous awards and honors during his two decades at Marshall, including the Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award.

Amy Balentine ’99 ’03 AS is a psychologist and owner of the Memphis Center for Mindful Living LLC in Memphis, Tennessee. She also works part time in a primary care setting at Christ Community Health Services.

Cassius T. Bentley ’98 EN is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and commands the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. He previously served as the vice wing

Blakely C. Hayden ’99 CI is the owner of the Blake Hayden Group real estate agency in Owensboro. He was previously an agent with ReMax Professional Realty Group.

2000s Diane M. Settles ’00 AS, ’04 MED is a gastroenterologist at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland. She was previously with Our Lady of Bellefonte Physician Services. James R. Daughters ’02 ’09 ’17 FA is associate director of bands and coordinator of music education at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He is a quarterfinalist for the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum 2021 Music Educator Award.

By 1989, it was not unusual for students to use computers in a UK room, like this one. Technology has continued to change, and the portable laptops, tablets and phones that UK students throw into their backpacks today are certainly more convenient for those pursing an education on the run.

Clyde W. Pickett ’02 AFE is vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He had been chief diversity officer for the Minnesota State Colleges www. u kalumni. net

Career Corner

Class Notes

ancis

by Caroline Fr

CAREER RESILIENCE: A VITAL SKILL FOR CAREER SUCCESS During the last 20 years there have been two major disruptions in the economy that have significantly impacted the workplace. First, there was the great recession of 2007 to 2009 and now COVID-19. Throughout one’s career there will certainly be ups and downs. The ability to maneuver adverse or stressful situations will become more critical than ever to successful career management and company survival. Career resilience describes one’s ability to adapt to change, think outside of the box or quickly pivot. Other characteristics of career-resilient workers include lifelong learners, as well as those who are emotionally intelligent, optimistic and forward thinkers. A few strategies for building career resilience and getting through stressful times include utilizing top signature CliftonStrengths, staying positive and focused on long-term goals, reframing situations, recalling times when you successfully handled a challenge, focusing on what you can control, being proactive, having a daily to-do list and consciously looking for the silver linings. Brad Patrick ’86 BE, executive in residence and lecturer at the UK Gatton College of Business and Economics, has spent his career in a variety of human resource leadership roles with companies such as Delta Air Lines, Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble, Valvoline and Tempur Sealy helping them survive challenging markets and crisis situations. “When I have worked with businesses faced with a crisis or some major disruption, I help leaders step back and reframe their work and what their business is doing. It is important to have adaptability and resiliency to effectively move forward,” he says. “Resiliency begins with recognizing the conditions you have been operating with are now likely changed. Many of the decisions and priorities you established were under different conditions. “The role of great managers and leaders is to prioritize work for the conditions that exist. Recognize the core mission of the organization and find ways to focus on just that. I call it returning to ‘mission-critical.’ Once a person does this, they need to connect with people around them and invest in discussions to realign around common priorities. This is a great opportunity for team managers to act as facilitators in doing this. The idea is to get everyone back to a common focus.” Major disruptions, like the pandemic, are a great opportunity for organizations to reinvent themselves and adapt to the new conditions. This can be done when people are solidly aligned around a common focus — the mission-critical work. Once there, individuals and teams can change what they are doing or add new activities by way of working from a common place. This is the adaptability characteristic great organizations can leverage. Ideally, both resilient people and companies will rise to the occasion and recognize challenging times as opportunities for growth and development. UK Alumni Association Active and Life Members are eligible for two complimentary appointments per year with a certified career counselor. Call 859-257-8905 or 800-269 ALUM (2586) to schedule an appointment. Visit www.ukalumni.net/career to learn more about resume critiques, networking events, Central Kentucky Job Club and other Alumni Career Services. To post a job opening, employers may visit www.ukalumni.net/employers and email job leads to ukalumnicareer@uky.edu.

KE NTUC KY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

and Universities System and chief diversity officer for the Community College of Allegheny County. Sara Higdon Thurmond ’03 ED is principal at Bethlehem High School in Bardstown. She was previously the athletics director at Thomas Nelson High School, taught math and was an assistant girl’s basketball coach at Nelson County High School. She also was the community health educator for the Nelson County Health Department. Jason K. Ward ’03 ’04 EN is an assistant professor in the North Carolina State Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in Raleigh. He received a PrecisionAg Alliance Award of Excellence in the Educator/Researcher Award category. John F. Sexton ’04 AFE is an associate-landscape architecture at Lose Design, a design firm offering landscape architecture, architecture, civil engineering and planning services in the firm’s Nashville, Tennessee, office. Michael C. Friesen ’05 BE lives in Lexington and is vice president and commercial loan officer at Traditional Bank in Lexington. He was elected chairman of the Lexington-Fayette County Board of Health. Friesen was previously the board’s vice chairman and has served as chairman of

the Finance Committee the last three years. Gabriel K. Prewitt ’05 BE lives in Lexington and is director of racing for Caesar’s Entertainment-Racing, managing post times, gambling menus and social media at Caesar’s Entertainment’s harness tracks. He is also the track announcer at Pompano Park and the Red Mile and owns and breeds Standardbred racehorses. David T. McFaddin ’06 NE is president of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. He had been interim president at EKU and served as senior vice president of operations and strategic initiatives, executive director of government relations, and was a parttime faculty member in the Department of Communication and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Todd G. Allen ’07 BE, ’10 LAW is general counsel for the Kentucky Department of Education in Frankfort. He had been serving as interim general counsel and was previously assistant general counsel and deputy general counsel for the Office of Legal Services. Jessica R. Kreitzer ’07 ED is the principal at Howell Elementary School in Elsmere. She was previously assistant principal at Roll Hill Elementary in Cincinnati and taught at William Howard Taft Elementary.

Santosh K. Pitla ’07 ’09 ’12 EN is associate professor in advanced machinery systems at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture 2020 John Deere Award, which recognizes one faculty member each year for his or her work in preparing students for the workforce. Sean E. Cartell ’08 CI is associate media relations director at the University of Texas at Austin. He had been assistant director for the Southeastern Conference and assistant director, communications for the University of Florida Athletics Association. Elizabeth Petrun Sayers ’08 ’10 ’13 CI is a social scientist for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products, Office of Health Communication and Education. She was named to the Delta Zeta 35 Under 35 for UK’s Alpha Theta chapter. Craig J. Beavers ’09 PHA is director of cardiovascular services at Baptist Health Paducah. He had been cardiovascular clinical pharmacy coordinator at UK HealthCare and UK Gill Heart Institute, director of cardiovascular services for the Hospital Corporation of America and a cardiovascular clinical pharmacy specialist with TriStar Centennial Medical Center.

Kathlyn Walsh Burkhardt ’09 ED lives in Cold Spring and retired as superintendent of the Erlanger-Elsmere School District after 16 years in that role. She received the Northern Kentucky Education Council and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Education Lifetime Achievement Award. Burkhardt is senior director of NaviGo College and Career Prep, a division of Learning Grove.

phase of Kenect Nashville and Kenect Phoenix.

David V. Burnett ’09 BE, ’15 NUR lives in Warren, Michigan, and is a critical care registered nurse for American Mobile Healthcare. He was previously a critical care registered nurse for UK HealthCare. Burnett earned his law degree from the University of Akron School of Law.

Morgan Stratton Basham ’10 ED is a third grade teacher at R. E. Stevenson Elementary School in Russellville. She was selected by the Kentucky Center for Mathematics as a Kentucky Math Teacher Leader.

Megan Kleinline George ’09 AS, ’13 LAW is an attorney with Stites & Harbison PLLC in the Construction Service Group in the firm’s Lexington office. She was selected as a member of the 2020-2021 Leadership Lexington, a leadership development program sponsored by Commerce Lexington intended for individuals who demonstrate leadership qualities. Carroll H. VanHook ’09 AFE is director of leasing and marketing for Akara Partners in Chicago. She had been an executive director at the company, managing the prelease

Christopher Vaught-Hall ’09 AFE is senior human resource business partner for Kao Corp., a division of Kao USA Inc., focusing on consumer products for general consumers in cosmetics; skin care and hair care; human health care; and fabric and home care.

2010s

Yuri P. Boyechko ’10 AS, ’14 MED lives in Versailles and is a cardiologist at Bluegrass Cardiology Consultants, part of the Frankfort Regional Health network. He was previously chief fellow of cardiovascular disease at the University of Tennessee – Erlanger Heart and Lung Institute in Chattanooga. Alexandra Luke Castle ’10 EN is master distiller and senior vice president at Old Dominick Distillery in Memphis, Tennessee. She was elected president of the Tennessee Distillers Guild. Jennifer L. Grzech ’11 AS is director and member of the responsible investing team for Nuveen, the

investment management arm of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America in Chicago. She had been assistant vice president, investor relations, public security group for Brookfield Asset Management. Ashlee Iuliano Mattingly ’11 PHA is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. She was elected as an American Pharmacists Association – Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management Special Interest Group officer. Lindsey Smith Aguilar ’12 ED is an eighth grade and algebra mathematics teacher at Northern Middle School in Somerset. She was selected by the Kentucky Center for Mathematics as a Kentucky Math Teacher Leader. She was previously a teacher at Wayne County Schools, where she received the Teacher of the Year Award. Deborah Taylor Givens ’12 CI retired as the chairwoman of the Eastern Kentucky University Department of Communication in Richmond. She was previously an adjunct professor in the Western Kentucky University School of Journalism and was in the newspaper business for more than 20 years.

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Class Notes Cody M. Thomas ’12 BE lives in Owensboro and is director of events for the Owensboro Convention Center. He was previously the center’s senior event manager. Joshua A. Moore ’13 CI lives in Lexington and is a sports reporter and UK football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper. Mohammad Razaee ’13 ’15 EN is assistant professor of mining engineering and holds the Thomas V. and Jean C. Falkie Mining Engineering Faculty Fellowship in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering in the Penn State University College of Earth and Mineral Sciences in State College, Pennsylvania. He received the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Mineral and Metallurgical Processing Division Outstanding Young Engineer Award. Ana M. Weiss ’13 DES is a carpenter for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada in New York. She was previously an assistant carpenter for the American Ballet Theater. Kevin L. Yates ’13 BE lives in Rockfield and is a business coach for the South Central Kentucky 50

Regional Consortium in partnership with the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce. He is working through the Kentucky Small Business Development Center, a statewide organization designed to support Kentucky’s small businesses and entrepreneurs. James C. Hawkins ’14 AS is a microgrid program deployment manager at Schneider Electric in the company’s Nashville, Tennessee, office. Hayley R. Minogue ’14 CI is a reporter and weekend anchor at WHAS-TV in Louisville. She was previously a reporter for WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama. Lauren M. O’Conner ’14 BE lives in Taylor Mill and is a project manager for Advanced Technology Group. She was inducted into the Northern Kentucky High School Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame after earning all-state volleyball honors at Covington Scott High School. O’Conner earned All-SEC honors at UK as a four-year starter. Ja’Mahl R. McDaniel ’15 AFE lives in Lexington and is director of the UK Martin Luther King Center. He had been interim director and associate director of the center and was program coordinator for the Intercultural Center at Wake Forest University.

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Christian A. McGuire ’15 AS is director of education and governmental affairs for Fayette Alliance in Lexington. She had been director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Florida and upstate New York. Corbin E. Blumberg ’17 AFE is a racing manager for Starlight Racing in Lexington. He was previously in the Godolphin Flying Start program, a two-year full-time management and leadership training program, which includes living, studying and gaining hands-on experience in Ireland, the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Dubai. Rachel E. Minogue ’17 CI is a senior account executive for Monarch & Co. in Englewood, Colorado. She was named a PPB Magazine Rising Star.

Eric S. Pollitt ’17 GS is town manager in Tappahannock, Virginia. He was previously town manager in Glasgow, Virginia. Ashley E. Freeman ’19 HS is a physician assistant for Huntington Internal Medicine Group and HIMG NowCare in Huntington, West Virginia.

2020s Katharine R. Elder ’20 AFE is an agriculture teacher at Fairmont High School in Fairmont, Minnesota. Myles D. Moody ’20 AS is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences.

Information in Class Notes is compiled from previously published items in newspapers and other media outlets, as well as items submitted by individual alumni. Send us your class note by emailing ukalumni@uky.edu or submitting your information in the online community at www.ukalumni.net/class. COLLEGE INDEX Agriculture, Food Fine Arts — FA & Environment — AFE The Graduate School — GS Arts & Sciences — AS Health Sciences — HS Business & Economics — BE Law — LAW Communication & Medicine — MED Information — CI Nursing — NUR Dentistry — DE Pharmacy — PHA Design — DES Public Health — PH Education — ED Social Work — SW Engineering — EN

Innovating Across the Globe: A Partnership in Japan by Jacob Lewis

trailblazer is an innovator in their field, someone undeterred by obstacles in their path, dedicated to their craft, becoming an unstoppable force. No one fits that description better than Takako Komiyama. Komiyama graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy (UKCOP) in 1987 and revolutionized pharmacy education in Japan. This feat did not come easy; Komiyama’s enthusiasm, tenacity, and perseverance were integral to her success.

helped the pediatric medical team translate and relay valuable health information for a family who recently arrived from Japan and whose child was critically ill at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. The bond formed during those days is still alive today, as that child is now a vibrant adult,” said Kuhn. Komiyama’s time at UKCOP equipped her with the skills and knowledge to practice regardless of where she traveled. The curriculum, concepts, and practice present at UKCOP were

practice. So far, Komiyama’s program has sent over 200 students from Kitasato University to visit UKCOP. More recently, UKCOP has sent faculty-led groups of students to Kitasato to learn about healthcare and pharmacy practice in Japan. This mutually beneficial exchange program continues to increase cultural competency and awareness of all participants. Students learn to incorporate new ideas into their practices to serve diverse populations better and advocate for improved healthcare systems.

While Komiyama is an alum of the University of Kentucky, her pharKomiyama’s work has broken down macy journey began six thousand barriers and has contributed to the miles away at Kitasato University global impact of UK’s College of in Tokyo, Japan. There, Komiyama Pharmacy. It is for these reasons she studied pharmacy and completed is a highly decorated member of her Bachelor of Science in Pharmathe profession. Now retired, Komicy and Master of Science in clinical yama holds the titles of being a UK pharmacy degrees. However, it was College of Pharmacy Distinguished the patient-centered care mindset Alumni and “Kentucky Colonel,” in the U.S. that piqued her interest the highest honor awarded by the in traveling abroad. She visited Kentucky Commonwealth. Kitasasome of the top pharmacy schools to University School of Pharmacy in the U.S., trying to find the one has also been awarded a significant that would best equip her with the achievement award from the skills necessary to spark meaningful Japanese Ministry of Education. Dr. Kuhn with Takako in 2017 at the Hall of Distinguished Alumni change in Japan. The combination Komiyama and the administrators award ceremony of UKCOP’s progressive pharmacy at Kitasato University (KU) have practices and famous Kentucky credited the UK-KU partnership inspiring, and her experience was so impactful hospitality led Komiyama to realize UKCOP as playing an important part in receiving this that she made it her goal to implement similar was no longer merely a prospect, but instead accolade. Despite all of her honors, it is the methods at Kitasato University. her new home. interpersonal impact Komiyama makes that Komiyama was given two and a half years to complete her PharmD before she had to return to Japan and resume teaching at Kitasato. This accelerated timeline served as motivation to make the absolute most out of her time in Kentucky. She formed strong bonds with her professors and fellow students, which only deepened her love for the profession and UK. Komiyama spent her first six months strengthening her English skills before matriculating into the college.

Komiyama was the first professor with a PharmD degree in a Japanese school of pharmacy. Establishing the importance of patient-centered care was a hard sell for Japan’s product-centered pharmacy education. But Komiyama’s determination to make a change kept her going. In 1989, she worked with the college to establish an international exchange program between the University of Kentucky and Kitasato University, which continues today.

A specialist in pediatric pharmacy and UKCOP faculty member, Robert Kuhn, remembers Komiyama fondly, noting her commitment to patient-centered care. “During her years at UK, while on clinical rotation, she

This experience allows UKCOP faculty to give lectures at Kitasato and exchange new ideas with educators in Japan. The partnership also allows Japanese students to come to visit Kentucky to learn about pharmacy

matters most.

Komiyama successfully implemented many of the concepts she learned while at Kentucky, a testament to her dedication to translating new ideas into practice to support better patient care. Inspired by Komiyama’s experience, seven students from Kitasato University have followed in her footsteps and received their PharmD degrees from UKCOP. These seven students and the hundreds of others Komiyama has instructed throughout the years have spread the values she has instilled in them throughout Japan. Although no longer practicing pharmacy, Komiyama’s impact will continue to have ripple effects worldwide for generations to come.

In Memoriam Mary Land Brooks ’37 Cincinnati, Ohio

Roberta Nye Farmer ’50 Sallisaw, Okla.

William C. Laverty ’54 Mason, Texas

Elmo C. Matthews ’57 Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

William S. Duty Jr. ’40 Fort Myers, Fla. Life Member

Gaile Grogan Humston ’50 Lawrenceburg, Ky. Life Member

Richard L. Ross ’54 Fisherville, Ky.

David L. Roach ’57 Lexington, Ky.

Mary Powers Preston ’42 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

William H. Littral ’50 Nicholasville, Ky. Life Member

Vernon N. Martin ’55 Bowling Green, Ky.

Willard E. Rubarts ’57 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

Emily Jones Thompson ’46 Paris, Ky.

Paul G. Sears ’50 Lexington, Ky. Life Member, Fellow

Sue Allen Shugars ’55 Lexington, Ky.

Eugene R. Weakley ’50 Frankfort, Ky.

Richard L. Troutman ’55 Bowling Green, Ky.

Carlyle Michelson ’51 Knoxville, Tenn.

James E. Clark ’56 Huntsville, Ala.

William M. Samuels Jr. ’51 Boca Raton, Fla. Life Member

Irene M. George ’56 Louisville, Ky.

Annie Garrigan Nagel ’47 Gainesville, Ga. Edward W. Allin Jr. ’48 Lexington, Ky. Margaret Yager Clark ’48 Scottsdale, Ariz. Theodore J. Eversole ’48 Bowling Green, Ky. Calvin G. Grayson ’49 Lexington, Ky. James Pryor Hancock ’49 Louisville, Ky. Fellow Thomas A. Prather ’49 Tupelo, Miss. Life Member Charles F. Rosenberg ’49 Louisville, Ky. Anthony V. Dallas ’50 Portland, Tenn. William K. English ’50 Sahuarita, Ariz. John C. Everett III ’50 Miramar Beach, Fla. Life Member, Fellow

Henry S. Spalding ’51 Bardstown, Ky. Mazel H. Stumbo ’51 Bowling Green, Ky. Ann Ogden Tompkins ’51 Bonita Springs, Fla. Paul R. Smith ’52 Ashland, Ky. Life Member, Fellow Evelyn Hess Stiltner ’52 Richmond, Ky. Ronald G. White ’53 Lexington, Ky. Life Member Paul H. Brown ’54 Sugar Land, Texas Kay King Evans ’54 Saint Matthews, Ky. Life Member, Fellow

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David A. Nakdimen ’55 Louisville, Ky.

Mary Garnett Kranz ’56 Hopkinsville, Ky. Eugene W. Scroggin ’56 Fort Thomas, Ky. Life Member, Fellow Nancy Lickert Sherfey ’56 Lake Lure, N.C. Life Member, Fellow Allen D. Waters ’56 Lebanon, Ky. Life Member John E. Ballard ’57 Winchester, Ky. Kenneth E. Glass ’57 Maggie Valley, N.C. Life Member Luther P. House Jr. ’57 Brookhaven, Ga. Charles H. King Jr. ’57 Clearwater, Fla.

William F. Soards 57 Greenfield, Ohio Mikell A. Burchett ’58 Virginia Beach, Va. David L. Hacker ’58 Burlington, N.C. Life Member James T. McKee ’58 Ashland, Ky. Life Member Julian H. Mitchell ’58 Danville, Ky. Life Member Donalene Sapp Poduska ’58 Cleveland Heights, Ohio Life Member Charles L. Willis ’58 Vero Beach, Fla. Life Member, Fellow John A. Henry ’59 South Abington Township, Pa. Blanche Hutchinson Horseman ’59 Chicago, Ill. Joan Shear Johnson ’59 Campbellsville, Ky. Life Member Mallie M. Lobb ’59 Lake Forest, Calif. Life Member

Dale K. Osborne ’59 Dallas, Texas

David L. Newcom ’62 Mesa, Ariz.

Lanza “L.L.” Schwall ’59 New Orleans, La. Life Member, Fellow

Tilford R. “Ted” Richardson ’62 Covington, Ky. Life Member

William C. Bibb ’60 Macon, Ga.

James Robert Beckett Jr. ’63 San Francisco, Calif.

Robert S. Frields ’66 Henderson, Ky. Life Member

Connie Huff Neeley ’69 Somerset, Ky. Life Member

Ronald L. Schmidt ’66 Lexington, Ky.

Carolyn Nelke Phillips ’69 ’72 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

Robert E. Welch ’66 Monroe, Ohio

Vernon N. Frederick ’60 Mansfield, Texas Life Member

Laurence A. Danzer ’63 Albany, Ga.

William R. Neikirk ’60 Arlington, Va.

Bonnie Dorton Greeson ’63 Lexington, Ky.

Albert E. Graf ’67 Englewood, Colo. Life Member

Erwin Jones ’70 Lexington, Ky.

David Z. Piper ’60 Palo Alto, Calif.

Wayland D. Rogers ’63 Chicago, Ill.

Tebbs S. Moore ’67 Cincinnati, Ohio

Jerry K. Richardson ’70 Lynch, Ky.

Charles R. Whitnell ’60 Mayfield, Ky. Life Member

Betty Adkins Taylor ’63 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

Donald R. Stewart ’67 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

Thomas E. Turner ’70 Madisonville, Ky.

Ann Writt Anderson ’61 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

Robert L. Estes ’64 Louisville, Ky. Life Member

Floyd Van Cook ’68 Danville, Ky. Life Member

Glenn B. Collins ’61 Harrodsburg, Ky. Life Member, Fellow

Wayne F. Ewbank ’64 Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Johnny G. Fraley ’68 Morehead, Ky.

Frank L. Marsili ’64 Tell City, Ind.

James P. Melillo ’68 Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Billy L. Jett ’61 Lexington, Ky.

Momman L. McCay ’64 Louisville, Ky. Life Member

Richard F. Park ’68 Corbin, Ky. Life Member, Fellow

William A. Mischel ’61 The Villages, Fla.

Laythe E. Sykes ’64 Elkhorn City, Ky.

James A. Ryan ’68 Cincinnati, Ohio

Jennye S. Smock ’61 Murray, Ky. Life Member, Fellow

Michael J. Gardone Jr. ’65 Louisville, Ky.

Joe K. Chumbler ’69 Grand Rivers, Ky.

Judith Wiseman Stone ’65 Winchester, Ky.

Victor Fox ’69 Frankfort, Ky. Fellow

Michael L. Barr ’74 Chillicothe, Ohio

Lawrence A. Hamilton ’69 Bardstown, Ky.

Ignacio Beltran ’74 Indianapolis, Ind.

Katherine Murray Hite ’61 Louisville, Ky.

Jane Brown Sweatt ’61 Russellville, Ky. Barbara Sullivan Beals ’62 Townville, S.C.

Jerry W. Carlton ’66 Lawrenceburg, Ky.

Leo T. Burka ’67 Durham, N.C.

Deanna B. Durbin ’70 Orlando, Fla. Lou W. Egger ’70 Johnson City, Tenn.

John R. Allen ’72 Lexington, Ky. Life Member, Fellow Huey L. Cornelius ’72 Lexington, Ky. Richard L. Gentry ’72 Lexington, Ky. Susan Simms Mackin ’72 Louisville, Ky. Samuel E. Isaacs II ’73 Lexington, Ky. Billy J. Jackson ’73 Lawrenceburg Ky. Mari Kiebler LeGrand ’73 Lexington, Ky.

www. ukalumni. net

In Memoriam Gregory V. Hazelett ’74 Pikeville, Ky.

Charles W. Conn ’77 Steubenville, Ohio

Rhodom E. Crabtree ’84 Knoxville, Tenn.

Lisa Kelly Jones ’98 Springfield, Ky.

Ralph R. Huffsey ’74 Louisville, Ky.

Donna Booth Farmer ’77 Midway, Ky.

Sally Binning Fouts ’85 Winchester, Ky.

Scott R. Breunig ’00 Pass Christian, Miss.

Charles E. Pritchett ’74 Fishers, Ind. Fellow

Thomas E. Lett III ’77 Lexington, Ky. Life Member

Steven D. Combs ’86 Pikeville, Ky. Life Member, Fellow

Shannon Hart DeRossett ’00 Lexington, Ky.

Dennis S. Turner ’74 Louisville, Ky.

Mary Vann Rackley ’77 Winston Salem, N.C.

Tom M. Hughes ’88 Frankfort, Ky.

John E. Bickel Jr. ’75 Owensboro, Ky.

Eugene Rosa ’77 Everett, Mass.

Lance Livesay ’88 Louisville, Ky.

Rose Mountjoy Campbell ’75 Liberty, Ind.

Charles S. Vose ’77 Lexington, Ky.

Kay Kettler Switzer ’89 Lexington, Ky.

Billy H. Chandler ’75 Philpot, Ky.

George R. Cambron ’78 Lexington, Ky.

Norma F. Czernicki ’90 Many Farms, Ariz.

Lawrence D. Patterson ’75 Easton, Md.

William O. Witt ’78 Lexington, Ky. Fellow

Carol Lynn VenDerHeyden ’90 Lexington, Ky.

Martha Ambrose Berginski ’79 Lexington, Ky.

Brian M. Reber ’91 San Francisco, Calif.

Mary Quesenberry Ross ’75 Lexington, Ky. Colette Miller Stevenson ’75 Sarasota, Fla. Philip W. Arth ’76 Lafayette, Ind. Robert L. Stuart ’76 Bedford, Texas Stephen T. Vessels ’76 Louisville, Ky. Michael S. Welch ’76 Maggie Valley, N.C. Ernest T. Wightman Jr. ’76 Arlington, Texas Daniel E. Willett ’76 Orlando, Fla. Earl F. Camic ’77 Harrodsburg, Ky.

David L. Curtis ’79 Woodstock, Ga. Alan F. Hamilton ’80 Frankfort, Ky. John S. Kelley Jr. ’81 Bardstown, Ky. Chol Pak ’82 Radcliff, Ky. Nancy S. Fassas ’83 Lexington, Ky.

Anne Stiene-Martin ’91 Nicholasville, Ky. Brian K. Arnold ’92 Owensboro, Ky. John J. Greely IV ’92 Midway, Ky. Lee H. Stewart ’92 Vestavia, Ala. John M. Bauer ’95 Windsor, Wis.

Sharon H. Miller ’83 Hixson, Tenn.

Shannon Bridgmon Rinaldo ’97 Lubbock, Texas

Stephen W. Cessna ’84 London, Ky.

Cynthia L. Johnson ’98 Bowling Green, Ky.

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Jason T. Yates ’00 Atlanta, Ga. Lynne Pierce Dean ’01 Perryville, Ky. Robert Bruce Shields ’03 Johnson City, Tenn. Phillip J. Stith ’04 Lexington, Ky. Ruby Young Gisler ’09 Nicholasville, Ky. Aaron Ernst ’10 Hebron, Ky. William Daniel Canter ’11 Nicholasville, Ky. Tefani N. Noe ’15 Lawrenceburg, Ky. Robert Armand Perez Jr. ’15 Lexington, Ky. Logan Daniel Yopp ’15 Midland, Mich. Stuart Pendleton Cooksey ’16 Nicholasville, Ky. Tyler Charles Gerth ’16 Louisville, Ky. Samuel Garcia Jr. ’19 Versailles, Ky.

Creative Juices Terry L. Birdwhistell ’74 AS, ’78 CI, ’94 ED (former dean of UK Libraries) and Deirdre A. Scaggs (associate dean of UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center) have written “Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880 – 1945.” In 1880, 43 women walked into the president’s office at UK and signed the student register, becoming the first female students at a public college in the Commonwealth. For the next 65 years — encompassing two world wars, an economic depression and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment — generations of women at UK claimed and reclaimed their right to an equitable university experience. Their work remains unfinished. Drawing on yearbooks, photographs and other private collections, this book examines the struggle for gender equity in higher education through the lens of one major institution. In the face of shifting resistance, pioneering women constructed opportunities for themselves. Three women are highlighted — Sarah Blanding, Frances Jewell McVey, and Sarah Bennett Holmes — who fought for access to basic facilities that were denied to UK women for decades, including housing and study spaces. By examining the trials and triumphs of UK’s first female undergraduates, faculty and administrators, this book uncovers the lasting impact women had on higher learning in the early days of coeducation.

Everyday conflict is a simple reality of life, almost as inevitable as death and taxes, even though most of us try to avoid it like the plague. No matter where you fall on the conflict barometer—whether you’re someone who avoids it, or one who is always looking for a fight, or somewhere in between—Jeanine Hull wants to change the way you think about and respond to conflict. As Dr. James Gilligan, a leading authority on the causes of violence, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Law at New York University, and author of Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic and Preventing Violence, notes: “In this truly remarkable book Jeanine Hull summarizes and synthesizes an enormous amount of the most important and upto-date research, from the latest findings in neuroscience to new developments in the understanding and treatment of trauma to effective methods of conflict resolution. She shows how inseparable the body is from the mind, and how valuable that knowledge can be in helping us as individuals and as a society to deal more constructively with all forms of psychological distress and dysfunction. An impressive and valuable achievement!”

$18.95

Making Peace with Conflict Using Neuroscience to Ease Difficult Relationships

JEANINE HULL, Esq FOREWORD BY WILLIAM B. MARKS, PhD

Jeanine Hull

Recently retired as a prominent energy attorney, Jeanine Hull is a certified Conflict Transformation mediator, conflict engagement coach, and public speaker.

Making Peace with Conflict: Using Neuroscience to Ease Difficult Relationships

Jeanine Hull ’74 AS is the author of “Making Peace with Conflict: Using Neuroscience to Ease Navigating the labyrinth Difficult Relationships.” Based on sixof conflict years of into a more centered life tensive research, the book walks readers, in easily understood prose, through the evolution of the human threat response and educates about how fear, anger and trauma contribute to the regular appearance of conflict in our lives. A scientifically comprehensive and informative guide, this book explicitly ties recent revolutionary trauma research to the way people deal with conflict and tells how few people realize how engaging with it can deepen trust and strengthen relationships.

Like navigating a labyrinth, the process of harnessing the connective power of conflict lies in trusting the process, putting one foot in front of the other and maintaining progress toward the center — a place of integration, peace and ease. The book helps readers understand how their bodies respond to their perception of conflict, including responses commonly known as “flight or fight” and freeze or faint; learn ways to calm those responses in ourselves and others; identify the role trauma plays in conflict and our lives; understand how and why to endure the temporary discomfort of conflict for long-term benefits; and recognize that we are all doing our best to survive. jeanine@MPWC.com www.MakingPeaceWithConflict.com

Bruce K. Berger ’99 CI has written “Fragments: The Long Coming Home from Vietnam,” a cathartic collection of 34 poems about the time he spent in the long, unpopular war in 1970. He wrote hundreds of sympathy letters for grieving families back home and helped gather fallen brothers on battlefields for the Casualty Branch of the 101st Airborne Division. Eric Coleman ’92 EN is the author of “Not by Accident: The Blessed Journey of Eric Coleman,” which is the story of how his reliance on faith, family, discipline and determination helped guide his path from a small western Kentucky town to a successful career as an engineer. David V. King ’93 AS has written “Six Days in August: The Story of Stockholm Syndrome,” about the bank robbery and six-day hostage crisis that mesmerize the world in 1973. John Koelsch ’73 AS has written “Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are,” a book that examines the problems of the United States and how to achieve systemic change and pursue the founding fathers’ ideas of what our country should be. The book presents a case on how to accomplish this change effectively and peacefully. Kathy Sheppard-Jones ’95 ’02 ’03 ED is the author of “You Can Do So Many Things!” This is a book for young children that highlights diversity and inclusion in the horse industry in Lexington by following along with the main character, Flynn, who has a mobility impairment. This book encourages young readers with disabilities to think broadly about possible work in the horse industry in over a dozen different career paths. UK and the UK Alumni Association do not necessarily endorse books or other original material mentioned in Creative Juices. The University of Kentucky and the UK Alumni Association are not responsible for the content, views and opinions expressed on websites mentioned in Creative Juices or found via links off of those websites.

www. ukalumni. net

Quick Take THE OPEN SPACE CONCEPT

Mark Cornelison, UK Photo

These UK students gaining in-person instruction started their first day on campus in August in a typical “large-scale” classroom setup — but this year attendance looks decidedly different. Students are spread out at safe distances to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, not only among themselves but for the protection of the professor, too.

56 KE N TUCKY A LU MN I MAG A ZIN E Winter 2020

for showing the world whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s possible in one day.

Our world has changed in ways most would have never imagined as the coronavirus continues to challenge and disrupt our way of life. But it has not changed our mission. At the University of Kentucky, we are dedicated to empowering all Wildcats with the heart to step up and the will to press on, so that together, we can be a powerhouse for change.

WWW.KENTUCKYCAN.UKY.EDU

On Sept. 16, 2020, the University of Kentucky embarked on its second university-wide giving day, One Day for UK, and called on Big Blue Nation to step up. You rose to the occasion and joined together to raise $2,644,378 from 3,539 gifts. It was an exciting moment and we are still in awe of your generosity, gumption and perseverance during uncertain times.

You have played an integral part in the pursuit of the vision cast by Kentucky Can: The Campaign for the 21st Century. Thanks to your support, we will continue our efforts to extend our mission and make a difference â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on campus, across the Commonwealth and around the world. Thank you for showing the world what Kentucky can do.

400 Rose Street King Alumni House Lexington, KY 40506

“I WANT TO BE AT THE STADIUM AND LOOK BACK.” For 27 days, ECMO was the only thing keeping Jimmy Rhoades alive. After undergoing surgery in Owensboro to repair his heart and lungs, Jimmy couldn’t be weaned off bypass. He was transported to Lexington by the ECMO team at UK HealthCare’s Gill Heart & Vascular Institute. When he finally regained consciousness, he had to learn how to walk again—and he kept his sights on Kroger Field, visible from the eighth floor of Chandler Hospital. Someday, he said, he would stand in the stadium and look back at the hospital. He was right.

The Power of Advanced Medicine