MASON SPIRIT
S P R I N G 2019
A M AG A Z I N E F O R T H E G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y CO M M U N I T Y
WE THRIVE THANKS TO
YOU
W IT H A LIT T LE H E LP FR O M O U R FR I E N DS
â–
G U I D I N G PR I N C I PAL S
Thank you Thank you Thank you
T H A N K S T O YO U , W E ’ R E M O V I N G FA S T E R , G O I N G FA R T H E R , A N D D O I N G M O R E .
Above Nearly 700 George Mason University donors, alumni, faculty, and staff gathered on December 8, 2018, to celebrate the success of the university’s Faster Farther campaign. See story on page 16. Photo above by Risdon Photography Cover photo by Evan Cantwell
D E PA R T M E N T S
The leadership team that sparked the Faster Farther campaign, including (L to R) Board of Visitors Rector Tom Davis, Campaign Chair Jimmy Hazel, JD ’84, Vice President of Advancement and Alumni Relations Janet Bingham, and President Ángel Cabrera. Hazel, a former Alumnus of the Year, and his wife, Sally, established the Hazel Scholars Endowment Fund in 2011 with a gift of $2 million. Photo by Risdon Photography
2 FIRST WORDS 3 FROM OUR RE ADERS 4 A D VA N C I N G M A S O N 6 @MASON 13 M E E T T H E M A S O N N AT I O N 36 I N Q U I R I N G M I N D S 4 0 S H E L F L I F E 42 A LU M N I I N P R I N T 43 PAT R I O T P R O F I L E
45 C L A S S N O T E S 46 From the Alumni Association President
ALUMNI
PROFILES
44 John Niehoff, BS Accounting ’84 47 Sima Assefi, BA Biology ‘89 49 Brian Kearney, BA Integrated Studies ’02
G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y: A G R E AT U N I V E R S I T Y O F A N E W A N D N E C E S S A R Y K I N D
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Follow us on Twitter @MasonSpirit for alumni news, events, and more. ecome a fan of the Mason Spirit on B Facebook for links to photos, videos, and stories at www.facebook.com/ MasonSpirit. Check our website for a behind-thescenes look at the Spirit, more alumni profiles, and breaking news at spirit.gmu.edu.
Moving Mason Forward Thanks to the generosity of the entire Mason Nation, we’ve achieved the biggest fundraising goal in our history. Over the decade-long span of the Faster Farther campaign, George Mason raised a total of more than $690 million to support students, faculty, research, and campus facilities. Here are some of the highlights.
With a Little Help from Our Friends The generosity of donors doesn’t just impact Mason—it changes lives. In this feature, we take a look at current Mason students and recent alumni who have benefited from scholarship gifts.
Guiding Principals Mason alumni are making an impact in school systems all over Northern Virginia and are being recognized for their achievements. These educational leaders are helping shape the future of Virginia in ways that are vital to the state’s economic health and the young people they are preparing for the workforce and the world.
MASON SPIRIT
F E AT U R E S
THEY COME IN PEACE— WITH COFFEE Beginning the first week of spring classes, 25 Starship Technologies robots “invaded” the Fairfax Campus and began delivering coffee, pizza, and other necessities, causing a major media splash.
MORE ON THE WEB When you see this graphic, follow it to the magazine’s website for more: spirit.gmu.edu.
Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 1
FIRST WORDS
MASON SPIRIT A MAGAZINE FOR THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY
THANKS TO YOU
spirit.gmu.edu
M
ason supporters exemplify the power of philanthropy. Your generosity during the Faster Farther campaign, unparalleled in the university’s history, will fund scholarships and programs, endow chairs, and boost research in new world-class facilities. With the support of 73,000 donors, we soared past our $500 mil lion goal to close the campaign in December at $690 million, tripling our endowment in 10 years. On behalf of our students, faculty, and staff—thank you!
There has never been a better time to be a part of Mason. As a Tier 1 research university that champions access, and as the largest, fastest-growing, and most diverse public university in Virginia, Mason is truly one of the most remarkable stories in American higher education. Thanks to you, we’re serving more students. We attracted our strongest freshman class. We’re finding new pathways to a degree through online education and our ADVANCE partnership with Northern Virginia Community College. We’re conducting more externally sponsored research. We’re living out the university’s ideals of providing access to excellence. Perhaps the greatest endorse ment of our mission is that Mason faculty and staff contributed $12 million during the campaign. At how many places does the workforce donate money to the employer? We also owe tremendous gratitude to Northern Virginia business leaders who recognize now, just as they have throughout the decades, that investing in an innovative public research university is an investment in the economic vitality and livability of our region and state. That investment continues to pay off. Amazon could have chosen anywhere in the country to build its second headquarters. It chose Northern Virginia, in part because of Mason’s career-ready graduates and groundbreaking researchers. The university’s need for resources to support our great work persists. We will invest $250 million over the next five years to grow our Arlington Campus by launching a School of Computing and the Institute for Digital InnovAtion. We’re building a state-of-the-art academic building that will transform the heart of the Fairfax Campus. And we’re expanding Bull Run Hall on the Science and Technology Campus to meet lab space demands and open new research avenues. The state will play a pivotal role in those projects, as will other partners, but the continued generosity of alumni and other supporters is the lifeblood of opportunity at our major public universities. I’m proud that the Mason family shares in our achievements and aspirations. I hope you’re proud, too. When you think about it, the span of the 10-year campaign represents more than one-fifth of the time Mason has been an independent university.
MANAG ING EDITOR Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95 A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R S Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10 Rob Riordan C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R Sarah Metcalf Seeberg A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R Melanie Balog E D I T O R I A L A S S I S TA N T Saige MacLeod CO NTR IBUTO R S Jennifer Braun Anzaldi Lindsay Bernhards, BA ’18 Christopher Bobo Damian Cristodero Katherine Johnson Dias Nanci Hellmich Whitney Hopler Emily Robinson Preston Williams P H O T O G R A P H Y A N D M U LT I M E D I A Evan Cantwell, MA ’10, Senior University Photographer Ron Aira, University Photographer Bethany Camp, Student Photographer Melissa Cannarozzi, Image Collections Manager PRODUC TION MANAG ER Brian Edlinski EDITORIAL BOARD Janet E. Bingham Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations Frank Neville Vice President for Communications and Marketing Christine Clark-Talley Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations
Let’s savor what we’ve accomplished together—even if we’re just getting started. Ángel Cabrera President
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Mason Spirit is published three times a year by the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations and the Office of Communications and Marketing. Please log in at alumni.gmu.edu to update your records or email spirit@gmu.edu. For the latest news about George Mason University, check out www.gmu.edu. George Mason University is an equal opportunity employer that encourages diversity.
FROM OUR READERS
Mark your calendar!
MASON
GIVING
DAY 04/04/19
LIFELONG LEARNING
MILITARY FRIENDLY ➤Reading ➤ the article “25 Ways Mason is Military Friendly” prompted me to share my experience during my MPA days. With no military service background, I was blessed with the opportunity to have a number of active military students as part of my cohort. They brought with them a diverse set of real-life experiences that enriched my learning and understanding of the practicalities of public administration. So, know that in being military friendly, Mason is not only helping veterans, but helping all of the university community. Craig Williams, MPA ’01
➤Let ➤ me start off by saying how much I enjoy reading Spirit magazine. Each issue has a nice mix of articles. I would like to suggest a topic for a future article: senior citizens taking classes at Mason. … Virginia has a program (written in state law) that enables residents who are age 65 and over to take classes at any state college tuition free. Naturally, paperwork is required, but it’s well worth it. I am just completing my third semester, and each course I have taken has been most interesting. I have also seen and talked with other seniors on campus, some of whom are Mason alumni. Since there are so many people who are unaware of the program, I thought it might make for an interesting article. Mark Monson, BS Biology ’74
SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA
➤Your ➤ section in Mason Spirit concerning how Mason connects to veterans was a great piece. In 1997, I retired from the U.S. Marine Corps and entered Mason’s College of Education and Human Development, earning a master’s in counseling and development. I was employed immediately after graduation. The Department of Veterans Affairs Chapter 31 program made it possible for me to attend Mason without incurring any of my own costs. Concurrently, my spouse, also a retired Marine Corps officer, attended [Mason’s Law School] (now Antonin Scalia Law School) from 1997 to 2000 on the GI Bill. We will always be grateful for our Mason degrees.
We want to hear from you. Letters to the editor are welcomed. Send correspondence to Colleen Kearney Rich, Managing Editor, Mason Spirit, 4400 University Drive, MS 2F7, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. Or send an email to spirit@gmu.edu.
Patricia Greis Summers, MEd ’99
New on spirit.gmu.edu •M ason alumni Kelly McNamara Corley, JD ’89, and M. Brian Blake, PhD Information Technology ’00, addressed graduates at the Winter Graduation ceremony in December and talked with a reporter about their Mason experiences. Read the Q&As online. • It’s time for this year’s Celebration of Distinction, recognizing alumni, the Faculty Member of the Year, and Senior of the Year. Visit Spirit online for profiles and photos of the April event. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 3
A DVA N C I N G MA S O N
Together, We Will Thank you. Because of the generosity of the entire Mason Nation, our university has accomplished some thing amazing. Thanks to you, we’ve achieved the biggest fund raising goal in Mason’s history. And we didn’t just meet our $500 million goal for the Faster Farther campaign (which officially ended on December 31). We knocked it out of the park, raising more than $690 million in the last decade. Fundraising has increased from about $30 million annually 10 years ago to $72 million this past year, and generous gifts tripled the university’s permanent endowment to $142 million. We did it together. It’s taken the combined efforts of thousands of donors, alumni, faculty and staff, and community leaders—all committed to helping students and to making our region a better place to live and work. In all, 73,000 donors contributed to the campaign! Our collective impact has been remarkable. In just a few short decades, we’ve built one of the great institutions of higher learning, making Mason a place for achievement, innovation, and opportunity. (See the story of the campaign’s impact on pages 16-23). Our commitment to uniting access with excellence is demonstrated by this year’s incoming freshman class, the largest, strongest, and most diverse in school history. Those students join a university that keeps hitting new heights—attaining top-tier research status, opening new buildings, establishing scholarships, and adding outstanding faculty. As you see, your giving matters. While there is much to celebrate, we have no inten tion of slowing down. After all, there’s still so much to be done: Together, we will fund scholarships, giving more young people a chance to succeed. We will support athletics, cheering on student-athletes and celebrating their victories. We will invest in research and teaching, making discoveries that make a difference. We will champion the arts, dazzling new eyes and inspiring new hearts. And we will build great facilities, benefiting both community and students as enrollment soars. The completion of the Faster Farther campaign also represents a moment of transi tion for me personally, as I am retiring from the university and from the George Mason University Foundation. It has been an honor to serve Mason in this capacity, and to over see the campaign. I would like to express my appreciation to the many, many supporters and alumni who have welcomed me over the past five years. To each and every member of the Mason Nation, thank you for helping to take Mason faster and farther. Now, together—forward. Janet E. Bingham, PhD Vice President, Advancement and Alumni Relations President, George Mason University Foundation
Dedication of Engineering Lab Honors the Late John Toups
G
eorge Mason University is honoring the legacy of the late John Toups, a noted volunteer leader who inspired and influenced others in his roles as a civil engineer, businessman, and philanthropist. The naming of the John Toups Instructional Laboratory for Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering honors a lifetime of service and recognizes a $1.5 million gift made by Toups, who passed away in 2018, and his wife, Nina. “My father was very passionate about building com munities and about enabling future generations to get a top-notch college education,” says Charles Toups, John’s son, a senior executive in engineering with Boeing.
A World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient, John Toups began his own engineering career in California. After moving to Northern Virginia, he became chairman and CEO of Planning Research Corporation (PRC), one of the region’s leading government contractors. An early advocate for establishing an engineering school at Mason, Toups received the George Mason Medal for outstand ing service, the university’s highest honor, in 2006. “The impact that John’s gift is having on our program is profound,” says Volgenau School of Engineering dean Ken Ball. “Not just supporting the labs, but supporting our faculty and our graduate students. This gift will allow us to do wonderful things here at the Volgenau School and throughout Mason.” —Rob Riordan
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PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER BOBO
A DVA N C I N G MA S O N
I
Practicing the fine art of
giving
t takes only a brief tour of their art-filled home in Alexandria, Virginia, to appreciate how art shapes the lives of George Mason supporters Gardner and Stevie Gillespie. For the past decade, the couple has been deeply involved with Mason’s School of Art, where Gardner chairs the advisory council. Now the Gillespies have combined their passion with purpose by establishing a permanent scholarship fund for School of Art students in an amount of up to $1 million. The inaugural recipients will be chosen in fall 2019. “A hallmark of Mason is that many students are first-generation or immigrants,” says Gardner Gillespie. “Many of them are so gifted and ambitious to make a mark. It’s one of the reasons we are happy to make a substantial contribution here.” Most scholarships at Mason are relatively small, only a few thousand dollars per year. The Gillespies feel
that more assistance is greatly needed to attract top students and help them graduate without assuming excessive debt. Graphic design student Lauren Lapid exemplifies the type of Mason artist who could benefit from added support. A Californian, Lapid receives aid to defray the high cost of out-of-state tuition. Even so, she is concerned about the student debt she will accrue to finish her degree. “Being an out-of-state student is expensive, it’s an investment, and it’s a hustle,” says Lapid. “Without scholarships, I don’t think that I could afford to be here, especially with the student loans that I’m already taking out.” “Mason is younger than many other schools, and it has had a lot of catching up to do.” says Gillespie. “But the way I look at it is, we should not be chasing the top art schools. Our goal should be to get to where they are going, before they do.”
GARDNER AND STEVIE GILLESPIE: Changing lives by giving to Mason Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 5
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MORE THAN
30
YEARS OF GREATNESS
This is the 30-year anniversary of the 1988-89 men’s basketball team and a season of excitement and firsts for Patriot fans. The Patriots, led by three-time All-CAA First Team selection Kenny Sanders, will be remembered as the first Mason team to win a Colonial Athletic Association Championship and earn an NCAA Tournament appearance. The highlight of the campaign came in the CAA Championship against UNC-Wilmington, when the Patriots won a 78-72 overtime thriller. Sanders culminated his outstanding career at Mason with a 19-point, 19-rebound effort and MVP selection. The Patriots travelled to Tucson, Arizona, for the NCAA Tournament and fell to Big Ten Champion and No. 2 seed Indiana, 99-85, in a nationally televised game.
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD, AMAZON
POINT OF PRIDE
R1
George Mason
University has once again been recognized as one of the nation’s top research univer sities by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
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hen Amazon announced it was placing its newest headquarters in Northern Virginia, Mason was ready with an announcement of its own: A large-scale expansion of its Arlington Campus that will grow its computing programs, advance research in high-tech fields, and rapidly increase the number of highly skilled graduates ready for careers at Amazon and other regional employers. Mason’s Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA), a think tank and incubator to serve the digital economy, will be housed in a new 400,000-square-foot facility where more than 1,200 entrepreneurs, researchers, technologists, and business leaders will meet to exchange ideas. In conjunction with that expansion, Mason will estab lish the School of Computing, the first of its kind in
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Virginia. The new school will collaborate across the university to advance the application of computing tech nology and data sciences to fields including government, business, education, and health care. The university has pledged to invest more than $250 million over the next five years to grow programs, create IDIA and the School of Computing, and hire new faculty. The Commonwealth of Virginia has pledged $125 million over the next 20 years to help Mason advance these programs. “Our goal is to not only produce high-quality graduates who can take on big roles at existing companies like Amazon, but to also have graduates who can start the Amazons of the future,” Mason President Ángel Cabrera says. “These initiatives will ensure that happens.”
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LEARN AND BE CURIOUS PHOTO BY DENNIS KAN
I
n October, more than 400 girls and young women, ages 8 to 24, participated in the inaugural Girls’ Tech Day at Mason’s Hylton Performing Arts Center at the Science and Technology Campus. Run by a crew of nearly 100 vol unteers and staff from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mason, and community groups, the event featured activities and instruction from several Mason programs, including Computer Game Design and Film and Video Studies—both from the College of Visual and Performing Arts—the Virginia Serious Game Institute, Robotics—from the Volgenau School of Engineering— and the Mason Game and Technology Academy. With the chance to get hands-on experience in everything from game design to robotics, the participants embraced the spirit of one of Amazon’s leadership principles: “Learn and Be Curious.” The free community event was offered as part of the partnership between AWS and the Hylton Performing Arts Center. AWS is the lead sponsor of the Hylton’s Veterans and the Arts Initiative. “AWS has worked throughout all of our global communities to inspire future builders—and events like this not only help us inspire the next generation of builders and innovators, but spark their interest in a potential career path,” says Cornelia Robinson, senior manager of global community engagement at AWS. “We hope that events like Girls’ Tech Day will help ensure a well-trained and diverse workforce in technology.”
—Emily Robinson
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Mason, NOVA Welcome Inaugural ADVANCE Students
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his past fall, George Mason Uni versity and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) wel comed the first group of ADVANCE students. A total of 129 students, enrolled across 21 majors, were the first participants in the partnership. The goals of ADVANCE are twofold: Create a more seamless and affordable path to a college degree for students, and focus on disciplines that are in demand for area employers. “We’re developing what could become a national model for supporting trans fer students,” says Michelle Marks, vice president for academic innova tion and new ventures.
Nationally, 80 percent of commu nity college students say they intend to complete a four-year degree. Within seven years, however, only 15 percent achieve that goal, in part because of barriers they encounter. ADVANCE aligns Mason and NOVA curricula, advising, financial aid, and other student services to remove obstacles and decrease the time and cost for NOVA transfers to graduate from Mason. According to a Virginia Community College System study, Virginia com munity college transfer students typically pay for almost a semester’s worth of excess credits by the time they graduate from a four-year col lege. The 60 credit hours ADVANCE students earn at NOVA, however, align with Mason degree requirements—
resulting in no wasted credits and a potential savings of thousands of dollars. For the initial offering of ADVANCE programs, organizers chose several majors related to the high-demand health and technology industries. Regional employers, enthusiastic about ADVANCE as a pipeline that can help them fill critical job open ings, have contributed to scholar ship and programming funds. “They realize the value of the region’s two largest educational institutions coming together and working even more closely to pro duce the next generation of talent,” Marks says. “They’re very interested in supporting a diverse workforce.” —Preston Williams
Growing Up Mason
I
t appears that Mason’s green and gold runs in the family. This year, the Child Development Center is celebrating 27 years in the Mason community and, in this case, almost 20 years with the same family. Mason English major Meghan Levinson “graduated” from preschool at Mason when she was five. She is now part of Mason’s Honors College and fondly remembers her days at the center. “I really loved all of the friends I had at the center, as well as the amazing teachers. My favorite memories include birthday parties, dance classes, and our graduation.” Her mother, Patrice Levinson, MSN ’97, a nurse practitioner at Student Health Services, worked at Mason while Meghan attended the center. “It was reassuring to know that if she needed me, I was nearby.” She says she has wonderful memories of the center, including Halloween when the children visited SUB I, Robinson Hall, and Buchanan Hall in their costumes. For both mother and daughter, one of their best memories was the graduation ceremony. “They marched across a stage in the Johnson Center Bistro in paper graduation caps and were given paper diplomas,” Patrice Levinson says. “The teacher gave a speech about why each individual student was a special person, and then we all ate graduation cake.” Both also agree that Mason is their “hometown school”—especially for Meghan Levinson, who says the Child Development Center made Mason feel like home. “It feels like I’ve come full circle and wound up exactly where I was supposed to be.” —Lindsay Bernhards, BA ’18 8 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y
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From left, Mary Monsen, Paul Krappweis, Tim Krappweis, and Thomas Krappweis Sr.
1,080 Credits, 360 Classes, 8 Degrees, 1 Family—Mason Is Clearly a Family Tradition Mary Monsen, née Krappweis, BS Manage ment ’11, says she decided to attend Mason because it was a great school close to home. “I thought Mason offered a very good value proposition: A great education for a reason able price near a booming job market.” She wasn’t the only one to feel that way. Her five brothers also gradua ted from Mason: Tom Krappweis Jr., BS Electrical Engineering ’04, Mike Krappweis, BS Information Systems and Operations Management ’13, Tim Krappweis, BS Information Technology ’12, Paul Krappweis,
POINT OF PRIDE
BS Information Technology ’12, and Andrew Krappweis, BA Economics and BS Adminis tration of Justice ’09. Andrew is now working on his online MBA at the School of Business. Sadie Krappweis, Andrew’s wife, gradu ated in 2008 with a communication degree. Mary also met her husband at Mason: Niles Monsen, BS Finance ’08. Mary’s father, Thomas Krappweis Sr., is also heavily involved at Mason. Krappweis Sr. works for Lockheed Martin as an engineering project manager, principal. In 1997, his manager
asked if he would be interested in mentoring students and advising faculty on industry needs. He has been on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Advisory Board for the Volgenau School of Engineering since 1999. He was also president of the former Century Club from 2003 to 2004. “Mason is one of the main pillars of my family’s success,” says Krappweis Sr. “I can’t even begin to express the incredibly positive impact the university has had on my family.” —Katherine Johnson Dias
$5.8M
Last fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education recognized Mason as the eighth highest recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the past decade, receiving funding for 42 projects
amounting in a total of $5,801,343. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 9
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Not Your Average Art Project PHOTOS BY BETHANY CAMP
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W
hen government and international politics major Finn Fisk walked around Mason’s Fairfax Campus as a freshman, she felt that something was missing. Having come to Mason all the way from Richmond, Virginia, she was used to seeing murals all over her hometown. So, she decided to bring a little bit of Richmond to Mason. Fisk contacted Mason’s School Art and was directed to uni versity curator Don Russell (pictured above with Fisk). From that meeting came Mason’s Contemporary Mural Art Festival, aimed at fostering art appreciation and accessibility on Mason’s campuses. Held in conjunction with the School of Art’s Provisions Research Center for Art and Social Change and Fisk’s team in the Mural Brigade club, the festival displayed several different multi media murals that encompassed a chosen theme. The populist art form attracts students of all different majors and backgrounds—and for the same reasons. “Historically, murals have played a unique role in creative placemaking and amplifying disenfranchised voices,” says Russell. Fisk, who wants to be a social entrepreneur and improve the community through the government or nonprofit sector, says the festival has also helped her develop a strong skill set for her career aspirations. “The skills I’m learning in the process of carrying out the festival—leadership, fundraising, and marketing, to name but a few—are invaluable skills that I can carry forward after I grad uate,” Fisk says. In the long run, Russell hopes that the festival helps students understand the dynamic impact that artists have on our culture. “Artists have the potential to play crucial roles in place-making, community development, science, technology, health care— and just about any career,” he says. —Lindsay Bernhards, BA ’18
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ON THE TOP OF THE WORLD PHOTOS COURTESY OF PATRICK MCKNIGHT
M
ason psychology professor Patrick McKnight loves a chal lenge. In May 2018 he successfully summited Mount Everest in his third visit to the mountain. His first two trips were cut short, first by the 2014 avalanche that killed 18 Sherpa and then by the 2015 earthquake. We recently talked to McKnight about his summit, his training, and his other adventures.
were stressful, but most of the time on these expeditions we spend resting and recovering. Regarding scary times, I cannot recall many. People often ask me if I am afraid of heights and I say no… not during a climb. It is a rare instance that your feet are not firmly placed upon the earth while climbing.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PREPARATIONS FOR EVEREST?
TELL US ABOUT THE SUMMIT ITSELF.
The training consisted of hiking, cycling, running, lifting, swimming, and other activities to keep me strong and healthy. I also slept in a hypoxic tent at night to acclimatize to the “thin” air. The training was not uniformly spread throughout the week. Often, I would train for 9 to 12 hours on Saturday or Sunday to mimic the summit push days. All told, I believe I actively trained for about 900 hours over the course of those three years.
We expected a calm day, but the winds never subsided, and our time on the summit was less pleasant than I desired. Brendan and I had scripted a rather tight plan to video each other, take some pictures, and enjoy a few minutes basking in the morning sunlight upon the summit. Instead, we reached the top in a howling wind and cold tempera tures (probably below –40 degrees Fahrenheit with the windchill). Our cell phones froze, and we had access to only one camera (Brendan’s new 4K video camera that remarkably stayed unfrozen). We were equipped with just enough oxygen to get up and down without incident. Further more, we had just enough water to make the round trip but not much else. I can recall many things, but not much makes sense. Due to my oxygen mask failing me, I was a bit light-headed but strong enough to descend. The summit was memorable for me, and the images I witnessed at the top are permanently etched into my memory.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE PROBLEMS YOU ENCOUNTERED, BOTH FUNNY AND SCARY? Every expedition involves hiccups or unexpected turns— those are what make the adventure! I encountered few problems other than health concerns—something always relevant when we climb. There were a few instances when my asthma acted up, but I was able to treat myself without resorting to extreme measures. Funny times? Too many to recall. My climbing buddy, Brendan Madden, and I laughed more than we breathed. There were some times that 12 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y
WHY I GIVE
I believe in what is possible at Mason and what is still yet to come. Our access mission is at the forefront of all that we do. I believe that we are greater when we lift others up. By donating to student scholarships, you may literally be changing the course of someone’s future by investing in their education.
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—Amy Takayama-Perez, Dean of Admissions, Mason Athletics Fund, Dance Fund, EIP Fund, General Student Scholarships Fund
PHOTO BY RON AIRA
M E E T T H E M A S O N N AT I O N
Amy Takayama-Perez Job: Dean of Admissions
A KIND OF HOMECOMING: Amy Takayama-Perez, BA Soci ology ’96, MEd Counseling and Development ’02, always knew that she would work with students—but she didn’t know she’d end up as dean of admissions at her alma mater. In her work with students interested in and applying to Mason, TakayamaPerez offers a different insight from others. “I have been an outof-state student, and then also a transfer student, during my time at Mason. I feel that adds a little bit of credibility [to my advice] because I can give some real tangible examples.” BORN LEADER: Takayama-Perez has been taking on leader ship roles since she arrived on campus. During her student days, she served on her sorority’s executive board. After graduating, she moved on to leadership roles at Mason that included serv ing on Mason’s Alumni Association Board of Directors and its Alumni Scholarship Committee, as well as serving as faculty advisor of Alpha Phi, her sorority. Along with being the dean of admissions since December 2012, Takayama-Perez has served as the executive director of the Washington Scholars Program for the past six years. Her leadership skills also extend to her work, as she started off her career in the Office of Admissions as the director of undergraduate recruitment and from there progressed to her current position.
STUDENTS ARE NO. 1: “I always wanted to be in a role with which I could serve others,” says Takayama-Perez, and as dean she has the perfect opportunity to interact with and make that personal connection with prospective students. One of Takayama-Perez’s goals when coming into the position was to increase the transparency of the application process to decrease student stress. Her goals have played out well: Mason’s fall 2018 freshman class was the largest and most diverse one yet. STUCK ON THE OTHER SIDE: Now that her daughter has gone through the college application process, Takayama-Perez has seen the admissions process from the parent side. “To be on the other side was really helpful; it gave me a really great apprecia tion. I joke with my staff—they really put up with me all year long because I would come in and say, ‘Hey, have we thought about doing it this way?’” With this firsthand experience, Takayama-Perez realized that “if [my daughter] had difficulty filling out an application or a question about something, I can only imagine what somebody who maybe is a non-native speaker, or is the first in their family [to go to college], goes through.” —Saige MacLeod
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WHY I GIVE
I give back because I am fortunate to have had a wonderful career of more than 30 years at Mason and still enjoy (almost) every day as an engineering professor and academic leader. I feel blessed. —Ariela Sofer, Associate Dean for Administration and Faculty Affairs, Volgenau School, SEOR Carl Harris Scholarship Fund, Hillel Fund
700 Mason donors, alumni, faculty,
Nearly
and staff gathered on December 8 to celebrate the success of the Faster Farther campaign.
PHOTOS BY RISDON PHOTOGRAPHY
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WHY I GIVE
We have adopted Northern Virginia as our home. We raised our two sons here, and our four grandsons have grown up in this area. It makes sense to us to support Mason since it is the premier university in Northern Virginia. We believe in paying back and helping those less fortunate than we are. —Long Nguyen, Volgenau School of Engineering Fund, Entrepreneur Program Fund
WHY I GIVE
I give to Mason because I believe in ROI. Mason invested in me, and my giving is a return on that investment. —David C. Atkins, BS ’90, Director of Licensing, Marketing, and Administration, Auxiliary Enterprises, Black Scholars Endowed Scholarship Fund, Black Alumni Chapter School of Business Dean’s Fund, School of Business Alumni Chapter, Patriot Club Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 15
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
Moving MASON Forward
Move FAST. Go FAR .
N
T H AT ’ S A LW AY S B E E N T H E M A S O N S P I R I T.
Faculty and Staff $11.5M (1.7%)
ow, thanks to the generosity of the entire Mason Nation, we’ve achieved the biggest fundraising goal in our history. Over the decade-long course of the Faster Farther campaign, which officially ended December 31, George Mason raised a total of more than $690 million to support students, faculty, research, and campus facilities.
Parents
$18.4M (2.7%)
Alumni and Students
$29.5M (4.3%)
Friends
$93M (13.5%)
GIVING BY CONSTITUENCY
(in millions)
Organizations
$538.1M (77.9%)
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During that time, George Mason emerged as one of the nation’s top public universities and Virginia’s largest. Mason is an economic engine for Northern Virginia, a focus for community life, and a place where lives are changed every day. Announced publicly in September 2015, the campaign kicked off with a $500 million goal—a goal that was not just met, but greatly exceeded. In 2016, Mason recorded the best fundraising year in its history—$98.3 million—and that momentum has continued. While the largest gifts grab the headlines, our success is due to the combined efforts of 73,000 generous donors who made gifts of every size, each supporting the cause or program they care about most. Teaming up with alumni, faculty, staff, and community
The staff of the Presidents Park Greenhouse produce approxi mately 2,000 pounds of fresh produce annually, which raises $20,000 each year that is used to pay for supplies, staff, and utilities.
leaders, Mason supporters are committed to helping students and to making our region a better place to live and work. In the pages that follow, we highlight some of the many ways that philanthropy helps Mason reach its most important goals: Becoming a tier-one research university. Opening important facilities. Establishing hundreds of new scholarships. Uniting access with excellence. As Mason continues to grow, there’s always more to be done. But as we conclude the university’s largest campaign ever, it’s worth pausing to celebrate what’s already been accomplished. So, thank you. And now, together—forward.
$690,578,677 72,929 137% total dollars raised
campaign donors
increase in yearly giving from 2008 to 2018
($30.5M in 2008 to $72.3M in 2018) Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 17
World-class IDEAS are created in world-class SPACES
A NEW HOME FOR HEALTH Peterson Family Health Sciences Hall, the newest and largest building on the Fairfax Campus, opened in January 2018, bolstered by a land mark $8 million gift from the Peterson family, along with 17 other named gifts honored in the build ing’s classrooms, instructional facilities, study areas, and community spaces.
BUILDING NEW FACILITIES
AND RENOVATING EXISTING ONES
BOLSTERING ACADEMICS,
ATHLETICS, AND THE ARTS SUPPORTING STUDENT-ATHLETES Basketball is not just part of Mason’s history—it’s part of our university’s DNA. A $1 million renovation in 2017 created a dedicated basketball practice facility for the men’s and women’s teams, thanks to gifts from Kathy McKay and family. Now, on to the tournament!
“In the basketball-driven Atlantic 10 Conference, it is imperative that our teams have a dedicated space to develop and compete. Thanks to the McKay family and other proud Patriots, that’s become a reality.” —Brad Edwards, director of Mason Athletics
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$32.5m designated to facilities
TRAINING FUTURE CONSERVATION LEADERS The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), located in Front Royal, Virginia, is a world-class partner ship between Mason and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. A $5 million gift from the late Gerald “Jerry” T. Halpin for academic, residential, and dining facilities allows the next generation of conservation leaders to spend a semester in residence studying conservation, biodiversity, and society.
HISTORIC GIFT ADVANCING POLICY AND PUBLIC SERVICE Honoring a $10 million gift from businessman and philanthropist Dwight Schar, Mason’s policy school was officially named the Schar School of Policy and Govern ment in May 2016. Educating some 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year, the school is a national thought leader and home to public officials such as former CIA director General Michael Hayden and former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe.
A DESTINATION FOR THE REGION’S INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL LIFE “A CIVILIAN CAMP DAVID” FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION OPENS Point of View, the conference and retreat center for the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, officially opened in April 2016. Dedicated to the study and practice of conflict resolution, it is “a civilian Camp David,” says the school’s dean, Kevin Avruch. Located on 120 wooded acres on Belmont Bay in Fairfax County, Virginia, Point of View is the gift of the late Edwin and Helen Lynch, among the most thoughtful and generous benefactors of the school.
HONORING THE GIANTS OF ENGINEERING The naming of the John Toups Instructional Laboratory for Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering at the Long and Kimmy Nguyen Engineering Building honors a lifetime of service and recognizes a $1.5 million gift made in 2018 by Toups and his wife, Nina. Toups, a legend in civil engineering, passed away last June.
“My dad loved hands-on learning. He would love to see everything you’re doing in there, and more importantly, how it’s going to prepare future generations and create the opportunity for them to make a great impact on the world.” —Charles Toups, son of John Toups and a senior executive in engineering with Boeing
ENRICHING THE REGION’S QUALITY OF LIFE Serving as the creative commons of our vibrant region, the Hylton Performing Arts Center opened in 2010 thanks to an early lead gift from the Cecil and Irene Hylton Foundation. Currently, with support from hundreds of friends of the arts, construction is under way on a new Education and Rehearsal Wing here at Northern Virginia’s premier venue for the performing arts. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 19
There are no limits to what Mason STUDENTS can do
“The real reward for our ongoing interest in Mason Dance has been, and will continue to be, the program itself. It’s been immensely gratifying to see the continued progress of this special program and its growing and welldeserved national recognition.” —Donna Kidd, MPA ’94
DANCE LIKE EVERYBODY’S WATCHING Former university provost Peter Stearns and his wife, retired senior administrator Donna Kidd, MPA ’94, have together endowed several student scholarships and become two of Mason’s leading philanthropists. Their support for the arts, and specifically for Mason’s dance program, was honored in 2018 with the dedication of the Donna L. Kidd and Peter N. Stearns Dance Studio at the de Laski Performing Arts Building.
PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION
MUSIC TO STUDENTS’ EARS
2,215
Mason legend Sid Dewberry began taking piano lessons from School of Music director Linda Monson in 2002, when he was 75 years old. In 2017 he made a $1 million commit ment to fund scholarships that will help dozens of talented music students over the next five years. The scholarship recipients will be known as Linda Apple Monson Scholars, in her honor.
students receiving donor-funded scholarships in 2018
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EXPANDING STUDENT HORIZONS, HERE AND ABROAD A great college experience goes beyond what’s taught in the classroom. Thanks to annual scholarship support from John and Tracie Jacquemin, each year up to 20 Mason undergrads with financial need receive funding to study abroad. The Jacquemin Family Founda tion also sponsors a full-stipend fellow ship for a doctoral student studying conservation science through the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conser vation. The first recipient, PhD candidate Camille Goblet, is researching the genetics of the endangered black rhino.
IMPROVING ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION SHAPING YOUNG LIVES, GIFT BY GIFT Serving 600 youth in 2018 alone, the Early Identification Program (EIP) helps first-generation middle school and high school students prepare to attend college. Since 1987, more than 1,800 students from across Northern Virginia have completed EIP, going on to college at Mason or elsewhere, and exemplifying Mason’s and the program’s commitment to access for all. Hundreds of individual donors and corporate sponsors have collectively con tributed $4.3 million to support EIP students during that span.
$83.8m 281
raised for scholarships
new donor-created scholarships
“My interest was in helping underprovided kids—kids who would be the first in their family to attend college, because I was the first in my family to go.… [EIP] shows how, with just a little bit of support from the community, students who probably would not have achieved college degrees, all suddenly can do that.” —Jim Green, co-organizer of the annual Diversity Scholarship Golf Classic
FUNDING STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS RAISING THE BAR FOR GIVING The 2016 naming of the Antonin Scalia Law School, in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice, was made possible by two of the largest gifts in the university’s history: one from the Charles Koch Foundation, and one from an anonymous donor. These gifts fund scholarships for hundreds of law students over five years. Six current U.S. Supreme Court justices attended the dedication, along with Justice Scalia’s family. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 21
We create real-world KNOWLEDGE
ALUMNI GIFT BOOSTS GRADUATE SCIENCE RESEARCH Research and teaching in the sciences are benefiting from a gift from Catherine Becker, MS Environmental Science and Policy ’96, and her husband, Richard. The couple’s commitment supports two graduate research assistant positions in the College of Science for 10 years. The Becker Research Assistant ship is the largest alumni contribution to science at Mason.
“Your gifts literally come alive as students, alumni, and community members here and abroad transform donations into meaningful impact. As donors ourselves, we join you on this journey, marked by a strong sense of purpose and steadfast dedication to action of consequence.” —Lisa Gring-Pemble and Germán Perilla, MAIS ’11, professors and co-founders of the Honey Bee Initiative
RECRUITING AND RETAINING STELLAR FACULTY HONORING FACULTY EXCELLENCE AND THE MASON SPIRIT In 2017, Mason honored its most outstanding faculty members for the first time with a medal and a cash honorarium to support the recipient’s teaching and research. Each award is named for the generous benefactor who endowed it. They are the John Toups Medal for Excellence in Teaching, the United Bank Medal for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion, the Earle C. Williams Medal for Excellence in Social Impact, and the Beck Family Medal for Excellence in Research and Scholarship. Presented each May at Commence ment, these medals showcase the Mason spirit at its best. 22 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y
CONNECTING AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Intellectual property is the lifeblood of a modern, innovation-driven economy. Scholars at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) are shaping the debate with their data-driven research and timely analysis about the essential role that IP plays in promoting invention and creativity. Philanthropic support from an array of individuals, law firms, corpo rations, and organizations makes possible CPIP’s research, conferences, and fellowships.
Mason president Ángel Cabrera, Nobel Prize-winning economist and emeritus faculty member Vernon Smith, and Economics Department chair Dan Houser.
FOR MASONOMICS, MARKET KEEPS RISING
“What I most value about Masonomics is its tolerance and respect for alternative views, as well as a willingness to thoughtfully and sincerely engage people who might hold perspectives that differ from our own. We are interested in creating and discussing ideas. That forms the foundation for all that we do.”
Mason’s world-class Economics Department produces economists and scholars who influence public policy and society through the power of their ideas. Thanks to the generosity of the Charles Koch Foundation, which in 2018 made a $5 million gift, the department is adding three tenure-track faculty members, including a senior scholar, bolstering teaching and research.
Other $17.8M (2.6%)
—Dan Houser, Economics Department chair and professor
LEADING GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH INITIATIVES
Unrestricted $21.4M (3.1%) Community $26.2M (3.8%) GIVING BY PURPOSE
Facilities $32.5M (4.7%) Students $93.1M (13.5%)
(in millions)
Research
$362.8M (52.5%)
Faculty/Academic Support
$136.9M (19.8%)
BEE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD The health of bees is critical for human well-being. With bees dying at unprecedented rates, Mason’s Honey Bee Initiative galvanizes communities through sustainable beekeeping. That advances important goals such as food security, economic empowerment, and gender equity. Last year, gifts enabled students to see firsthand how partnerships in Colombia improve the lives of indigenous women and children. This trip, in turn, inspired a Colombian bank to donate additional funds and generated media coverage in dozens of outlets there and in the United States. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 23
PHOTO BY RON AIRA
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With a Little Help from Our Friends The generosity of donors doesn’t just impact Mason— it changes lives. B Y CO L L E E N K E A R N E Y R I C H , M FA ’ 95
E
ducation can transform lives. For nearly 196,000 graduates, George Mason University has helped open the door to opportunities that only an academic degree can offer. One of the goals of the Faster Farther campaign was to increase financial support for students, and we’ve done that. Thanks to the generosity of so many, nearly 300 new endowed scholarships have been added to the resources available to students.
The need for this support is real. A large part of Mason’s mission has been to provide educational opportunities for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. During the 2017-18 academic year, more than half of all Mason students—60 percent—received some form of financial aid, totaling $301.5 million. This aid comes in a variety of forms, from Pell grants and federal work-study funds to student loans and scholarships. Some of this support is based on need; some is based on academic achievement. Among the undergraduates graduating in May 2018, more than one-quarter had qualified for Pell grants, the federal financial aid program supporting low-income students. “Scholarship funding is crucial to the success of our students,” says Amy Takayama-Perez, BA Sociology ’96, MEd Counseling and Development ’02, and Mason’s dean of admissions. “These dollars make it possible to enroll some of the most talented and diverse students from our region and around the country. We are so proud to have enrolled the largest freshman class in university history this past fall, and our scholarship dollars helped make that happen.” In this feature, we take a look at Mason students past and present who have benefited from donors’ generosity. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 25
PHOTO BY RON AIRA
Cordelia Cranshaw recently added the title of Miss District of Columbia USA to her list of accomplishments.
CORDELIA CRANSHAW When Cordelia Cranshaw, BSW ’14, graduated nonprofit, Acts of Random Kindness (ARK), is At ARK, Cranshaw has been running a program from Mason, she garnered media attention, includ growing and recently secured its first grant. called “iCAN” in Washington, D.C.’s Wards 7 ing a story in USA Today. The reason: She beat the and 8 for young males with behavioral challenges “I like to say that ARK was the bridge in my life in odds. Only 3 percent of young people in foster care living in single parent households. ARK volun terms of taking my personal knowledge of being go on to graduate college. teers come to schools twice a week to teach life in foster care and the professional knowledge I skills and expose the students to possible career Cranshaw’s path hasn’t been easy. When she was received from Mason,” she says. “That lived exper paths and educational opportunities. She is start 12, her mother went to prison, and Cranshaw and ience helps me in terms of working with these ing two new programs, including coparenting her siblings went to live with relatives. She even children and families. It also helps me be the face classes. tually entered the foster care system at age 14. But of my organization because they can see firsthand she realized education was her path to success that just because you come from trauma or have Cranshaw admits she didn’t know what she was and making her dreams a reality. Her life goal has an incarcerated parent or [have] been homeless getting herself into when starting a nonprofit. “I been to help other young people see that same doesn’t mean that you cannot be successful. Our had to get a board together, do the IRS documen opportunity. motto is ‘you’re one resource away from reaching tation to actually become a 501(c)(3),” she says. your dreams.’” “It’s really about building relationships and sus After graduation, Cranshaw made plans to be taining funders who will support your mission come a social worker and start a nonprofit to help For Cranshaw, those resources included a John J. and your vision. And that’s not easy. I want to at-risk youth. Done and done. Cranshaw completed Hughes Social Work Scholarship from Mason, expand it. I really want it to be nationwide.” a master of social work degree at the University which helped her pay for her undergraduate edu —Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95 of Maryland and now works for Washington, cation. D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency. Her 26 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y
IAN LISMAN Ian Lisman, MPP ’15, had a clear personal mission when he enrolled at Mason in 2013: Help his fellow veterans. A U.S. Army combat veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm, Lisman had spent the previous decade working to address challenges facing veterans, including homelessness, poverty, and successfully reintegrating into civilian society. “For me, it’s just a sense of a duty to my fellow veterans,” he says. “When I returned from Desert Storm, I had some difficulties adjusting and trying to find what I wanted to do. I had some people who helped me get on track, so I want to pay that forward.” Beginning in 2003, Lisman worked on veterans programs for the Denver Department of Human Services while earning his undergraduate degree. In 2011 he moved to Washington, D.C., where he gave congressional briefings and lobbied Congress for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. With that background, Lisman knew a master’s degree would be a great next step. Affording that next step would be difficult, though. Lisman had been covered under the old GI Bill, but he was no longer eligible for educational benefits. A scholarship opportunity at Mason, the ERPi Service-Disabled Veterans Scholarship, provided just the help that Lisman needed. The scholarship—which is awarded by ERPi, a consulting firm led by president and CEO Chris Jones, MPP ’99—enabled him to complete his graduate program at the Schar School of Policy and Government in three years, while continuing to work full time. It also helped him travel back to Colorado to spend time with family. “I had some student debt already, so the idea of stacking on more to get my master’s was definitely concerning to me,” he says. “I was determined to pay out of pocket as much as I could. I was living in D.C. at the time, so in addition to helping me avoid a financial burden, [the scholarship] allowed me to spend some quality time with my aging parents and other family over the holidays.” Following graduation, Lisman returned to Colorado for a position with Advocates for Human Potential, where he has been providing technical assistance and training to providers of homeless veterans reintegration programs. “Chris Jones and the whole team at ERPi have become a kind of a second family for me. Now that I’m back in Colorado, it’s not as easy to get [to D.C.], but it’s been awesome to watch them grow as a company. They’ve continued to expand the scholarship program to help more veterans. I can’t say enough good things about them.” —Rob Riordan PHOTO BY ASHLEY OHARA ANDERSON
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PHOTO BY RON AIRA
Mihaela Suciu plans to attend medical school and become a neuro-oncologist.
MIHAELA SUCIU Mihaela Suciu’s childhood and adolescent years present a sobering timeline. Born and raised in Romania, the Mason junior experienced an abusive and alcoholic father, her parents’ subsequent divorce, and several moves— all by the age of 11. But the most devastating blow came when Suciu was only 13 and her mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The disease quickly spread to her brain, and within two years her mother passed away. But for this neuroscience major, those challenges were no match for her determination to persevere and not be defined by what came before. “I want people to remember my family not because their life had a sad ending, but because their impact on my life has had lasting and positive effects,” she says.
After her mother’s passing, Suciu moved to the Romania, a country where health care options United States and finished high school, but she are extremely limited. was unsure about how she would be able to afford “I am striving to become a doctor and create non her dreams of a higher education. Several Mason profit facilities, which will help countries such as scholarships, including the May La Due Bishop Romania,” she says. “Throughout my life and Book Fund and the Wise Investors Endowed Schol career, I want to inspire other people to ally with arship, helped make it happen. Suciu says that me and fight for better health care and hospital “receiving these funds not only helped me attend a conditions not only in Eastern Europe, but all wonderful institution but also fed my motivation to over the world.” learn and challenge myself to grow. With each new scholarship I received, a new seed of success and a For now, Suciu has found her place at Mason, as new set of goals was planted in my mind.” well as something more. “Entering college lack ing a ‘traditional’ family, I was able to create a new For Suciu—who says she wants to attend medical family at Mason,” she says. “[They’ve] been my school and specialize in neuro-oncology—learning support system and helped motivate me to make how to battle the disease that killed her mother my dreams come true.” is one of the primary drivers for her interest in —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10 the field. But her plans don’t just end there. She is determined to take what she learns back to
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EVAN DRAIM Evan Draim spent his first two years out of Princeton University being a voice for people who are still learning to advocate for themselves. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, Draim returned to Northern Virginia—where he was born and raised—to work at ServiceSource, a nonprofit that provides resources, including job placement and career planning services, to individuals with disabilities. Draim worked directly with employers, often stepping in to explain the Americans with Disabilities Act and other regulations and laws. What he didn’t realize was that the work he was doing made him the perfect candidate to receive the A. Linwood Holton Jr. Leadership Scholarship from Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School. The scholarship is given to an incoming student who meets specific criteria, including having a proven history of helping others overcome discrimination. “I knew that Mason was very generous with scholarships, but it was still a surprise to me,” Draim, now a first-year law school student, says. “Coming from the nonprofit sector, before law school, I didn’t have a huge amount saved up…so the scholarship means I didn’t have to take out expensive loans or have to worry about my financial future.” While Draim continues to consult part time for ServiceSource, the scholarship has allowed him to focus on his studies and explore all the areas he’s interested in—and there are many. The diversity in the available legal clinics offered by the Scalia Law School is one reason Draim was excited about coming to Mason. He cites free speech, mental illness, and military and veterans causes as areas he wants to explore as he advances in his studies. “Mason’s focus on actually getting their students out into the field, practicing in these clinics, doing externships…you really feel like you’re getting a great knowledge about what it means to practice law than just kind of sitting in a classroom and hearing about it from a professor.” But while Draim is looking to dip his toes into many different legal areas, he remains dedicated to the same passions that he started his professional career off with. “I want to use my legal education to serve others and kind of serve a cause greater than myself.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10 PHOTO BY RON AIRA
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guiding
Principals What makes the public schools
in Northern Virginia some of the best in the country? The reasons are many, but leadership might be the most significant—and Mason alumni are making an impact in school systems all
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
over the region.
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B Y CO L L E E N K E A R N E Y R I C H , M FA ’ 95
A principal’s day starts before the students arrive and ends long after the students leave the building. On this particular morning at Drew Model School in Arlington, Virginia, the students are dressed in their very best outfits for picture day, and Principal Kimberley Graves, MEd Education Leadership ’04, walks the halls of the school. She checks in with students, talks to teachers, and crouches down for a private chat with a boy waiting in the main office— all before she even attends her first meeting of the day. “Sleep is for wimps,” jokes Graves, who was the 2018 Arlington Public Schools Principal of the Year and a finalist for the Washington Post Prin cipal of the Year award. “I’m driven by a desire to make a difference. I’ve always tended to work in Title I schools because I feel that the need is so much greater. When you are working with students to ensure that they have everything they need to be successful, you’re countering some of the things that are associated with living in poverty or coming from dis advantaged families.”
GOOD SCHOOLS AS A MAGNET “Everyone wants the very best education for their child,” says Mark Ginsberg, dean of George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development. “As the dean of a college that prepares roughly a third of the teachers in Northern Virginia, I know that the quality of our region’s public schools makes a difference.” Ginsberg says good schools are critical to the economic health of the region, and the fact that Northern Virginia’s public school systems are among the best in the United States is a selling point for employers looking to attract and retain potential hires.
KIMBERLEY GRAVES was the 2018 Principal of the Year for Arlington Public Schools.
“[The schools] attract the talent required for economic development and success,” he says. “They are the pull that keeps highly skilled workers and organizational leaders as residents of their community.” And that pull helps bring companies like Amazon to the region. Mason’s PhD in education is one of the university’s most popular doc toral programs, producing 48 graduates in May 2018. At the same Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 31
Commencement ceremony, three of the top five master’s degree programs were in education fields: education leader ship, curriculum and instruction, and special education.
13 in
teachers in Northern Virginia’s public schools are Mason alumni
When Provencio took the job at Minnieville, the elementary school was one of 485 schools across the state required to implement an improvement plan because it did not reach educational benchmarks. Now, it is one of the best per forming schools in Prince William County.
Many of these graduates stay close after they leave Mason. Most are already working in local school systems when they start graduate studies. Fairfax County Public Schools “As the leader of this building, I set the tone,” says Provencio. is the second largest employer of Mason alumni, who are “At the end of the day, our job is to create an environment making an impact in their schools and being recognized where we are going to immerse children with a quality edu for their achievements. cation the first time. We are not going to wait for our child ren to fail before they receive the support they deserve.” In 2017, Nathaniel Provencio, MEd Education Leader ship ’07 and principal at Minnieville Elementary School in In fact, there is a saying that if the principal sneezes, the Woodbridge, Virginia, was named Washington Post Princi whole school catches a cold, according to Andy Jacks, MEd pal of the Year. Education Leadership ’05, principal of Ashland Elemen tary in Prince William County. In 2018, several alumni—including Graves—were finalists for that same award and were named Principal of the Year Jacks’s school was ranked 420th among elementary schools in their respective school systems: Merrell Dade, MA in Virginia when he took the job nine years ago. Recently it New Professional Studies ’98, MEd Education Leadership was ranked as high as 49th. For his efforts, Jacks was recog ’02, of Forestdale Elementary School in Fairfax County; nized in 2018 as a Virginia Principal of the Year by the Vir Amanda Wilder, MEd Special Education ’00, PhD Edu ginia Association of Elementary School Principals and cation ’12, of Richard C. Haydon Elementary School in received a National Distinguished Principal Award from Manassas City; and Robert Eichorn, MEd Special Edu the National Association of Elementary School Principals. cation ’95, of New Directions Alternative Education Center “It’s really this idea that if I am negative, the school tends to in Prince William County. be negative,” says Jacks. And Jacks is anything but negative. The Washington Post’s 2018 Teacher of the Year was Mason “I literally have a green light in my office. I took out the red alumnus Dan Reichard, MEd Education Leadership ’17, and yellow bulbs. It’s on all day long as a reminder to me. I of Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School in Stafford have to be ready to roll.” County. Jacks takes his leadership role seriously and considers it These educational leaders are helping shape the future of more than a full-time job. “Leaders lead all the time, not Virginia. Their success in preparing young people for the just some of the time. You can’t take days off if you want to workforce and the world is directly linked to the future be a leader. You have to always be ready to go, and that continued success of the commonwealth. doesn’t mean you’re perfect and you don’t make mistakes, but you have to be ready to listen to people, to figure things SETTING THE TONE out and resolve issues, and to help move things forward.” When looking at all the talented administrators who have MAKING AN IMPACT emerged from Mason, some commonalities emerge, such When Graves first moved to Northern Virginia, she was a as the desire to make an impact on children’s lives and, in history teacher in an alternative program at T.C. Williams some cases, be willing to take on the challenge of turning High School in Alexandria. The program was designed for a school around, specifically underserved Title I schools students with challenges, including teens who had been where a majority of the students come from low-income suspended numerous times and were at risk for not com families. pleting high school.
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PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
Check out one of Principal ANDY JACKS’s book talks at bit.ly/Jacksbookchat.
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NATHANIEL PROVENCIO was named the Washington Post Principal of the Year in 2017.
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PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
“Failure was not an option for these students,” says Graves. “We were able to hold them accountable but still create environments for them to be successful.” One of her students got in trouble with the law, which was devastating for Graves and her colleagues. Graves went to her principal’s office and asked how something like that could happen and what she needed to do to make sure it never happened again. “Her response was, you need to be in a position so that you make decisions so that those types of things don’t happen. You have to become a principal,” Graves says. “So that was the catalyst that pushed me to pursue it.” And she hasn’t looked back. Graves has worked at all three levels at this point in her career: elementary, middle, and high school. She was appointed principal of Arlington’s Drew Model School in July 2018. The job is her third time serving as a school principal. “I think teachers have the most important job in the world,” says Graves. “I’m almost jealous of them sometimes because they get to be with kids all day long and be a part of shaping the world that they’re going to come into. My role as a principal is to get everything out of the way so that all teachers need to do is teach their kids.”
RITUALS MATTER There are always emails to check and paperwork to complete, but Jacks emphasizes that a good principal needs to be present and visible around the school. “Sometimes my biggest challenge as a principal is getting out of the office,” says Jacks. “If you’re away from the kids, you’re away from the action, and you’re away from the people who need you.” He recommends creating routines, which he likes to call rituals. “Create a ritual,” he says, “something you can’t live without, and make it part of your everyday, every-week experience.” Jacks has several of these rituals. For example, he reads regularly to every class in the school. Each month Jacks does a book-talk video promoting the book that is broadcast to the school. Videos are a big part of life at Ashland Elementary, and Jacks and the school have several YouTube channels. There is even a TV studio where students create their own programs. “The principal’s job is amazing,” says Jacks. “It’s the best job you’ll ever have. It’s also the most challenging job you’ll ever have. That’s part of the fun.” Damian Cristodero contributed to this story.
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INQUIRING MINDS
Creating a Buzz at Home and Abroad
M
ost bees tend to stay close to home, traveling only a few miles away from their hives to forage for food. Mason’s Honey Bee Initiative, however, has gone a bit further afield. Now comprising nearly 75 hives in Northern Virginia, the Honey Bee Initiative began in 2012, spearheaded by founders Germán Perilla, MAIS ’12, and Lisa Gring-Pemble, with just four hives on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The program’s initial objective, according to Gring-Pemble, was to stay local and educate the Mason community on the benefits of sustainable hive management in an urban setting. The initiative, a partnership between Mason’s College of Science and School of Business, has since grown to encompass much more. Capitalizing on Perilla’s Colombian heritage and extensive international work, the Honey Bee Initiative went global in 2014, with partnerships in Colombia and Perú. In 2018, thanks to the financial support of the Women in Business Initiative, the School of Business, and a Mason Global Discovery Grant, Perilla and Gring-Pemble travelled to Colombia
with 15 Mason students representing various disciplines, including visual and performing arts, community and global health, management, mar keting, and conflict analysis and resolution. “The students were extraordinary and actively participated in presen tations and interviews, cultural exchanges, and meetings with business leaders,” says Gring-Pemble, an associate professor in the School of Business. Gring-Pemble adds that the initiative serves as an exemplar of trisector partnership efforts on behalf of sustainable business. “In Colombia we partner with mayors from three jurisdictions, a bank (BBVA), an insti tute of higher education (Industrial University of Santander), community members, beekeepers, and coffee growers to achieve social, environ mental, and business impacts.” It’s an initiative that benefits everyone: Mason students, partners both at home and abroad, and—of course—the bees. —Jennifer Braun Anzaldi
Popular Culture and Post-Postracial America
A
fter the 2016 presidential election, Alison Landsberg, a professor in Mason’s Depart ment of History and Art History, decided that she could no longer ignore what was hap pening around her. As a result, she launched her project Post-Postracial America. The project, as Landsberg describes, explores the contemporary resurgence of a discourse on race, which had become evident on both the political left and right. She looked to discussions about race in popular culture, including in films like Get Out, Black Panther, and BlacKkKlansman, and in television shows like Insecure, Dear White People, and Blackish. But Landsberg knew that she also needed to experi ence firsthand the newly opened museums that addressed African American culture and history. Over the summer, with the help of the Marion Deshmukh Faculty and Student Support Scholarship, Landsberg traveled to Montgomery,
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Alabama, to visit both the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. “I tend to really pay a lot of attention to the way films and museums address viewers and spectators,” says Landsberg, “[including] how we’re positioned by the space, by the design strategy in a museum, to take on the historical narratives with which we are confronted.” As a result of her research, Landsberg has already published two articles in the journal Cultural Politics— “Horror Vérité: Politics and History in Jordan Peele’s Get Out” and “Post-Postracial America: On Westworld and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture”—but she thinks that this project will ultimately turn into a book. “My work as a scholar has been marked always by the desire to take mass culture seriously and to understand that some of the most important debates about pressing issues take place in this arena.”
—Saige MacLeod
RESEARCH Looking at Effects of the Travel Ban
How Are You Curious?
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e know that being curious strengthens well-being. But how do people cate gorize their own curiosity? A team of Mason researchers, led by the Center for Advancement of Well-Being’s senior scientist Todd Kashdan, decided to find out, and their research revealed several valuable insights. Many tend to think of curiosity in a quantitative way—you’re either a curious person, or you’re not, with varying degrees shading a gray area in between. Kashdan’s team instead asked the question, “How are you curious?” in an effort to measure curiosity in a qualitative way. What they found prompted them to identify five distinct factors that distinguish how different people are curious. The factors—joyous exploration, deprivation sensitivity, stress tolerance, social curiosity, and thrill seeking—form the team’s FiveDimensional Curiosity Scale (5DC). The factors are further defined in their study, “The Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale: Capturing the Bandwidth of Curiosity and Identifying Four Unique Subgroups of Curious People,” which was recently published in the Journal of Research in Personality and was also featured in a Harvard Business Review article. According to the study, the 5DC is important because it “offers new opportunities for research on origins, consequences, life outcomes, and intervention strategies to enhance curiosity.” But the scale does more than that. The team also writes that within the five factors, they found that “particular dimensions of curiosity are especially linked to well-being and healthy outcomes, whereas other dimensions are unrelated or negatively related to healthy outcomes.” For example, the team found that the ability to tolerate stress—which can help with maintaining healthy outcomes—is itself a trait that falls into the realm of curiosity. Besides Kashdan, the Mason team members included doctoral research fellow Melissa Sticksma, psychology doctoral student David Disabato, and psychology professor Patrick McKnight. Dedicated to helping individuals and organizations thrive in a world of complexity and uncertainty, the center was made possible by a generous donation from the deLaski Family Foundation in 2009. —Whitney Hopler
F
or Mason sociology PhD student Ismail Nooraddini, there is no question about the value that immigrants from the travel-banned countries contribute to their new home in the United States. Nooraddini, a graduate research assistant at Mason’s Institute for Immigration Research (IIR), conducted research with the help of the institute’s project coordi nator, Michele Waslin, that compares native-born U.S. citizens to individuals from the travel-ban countries who previously came to the United States. Data came from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample, which includes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey—though there was no data on North Korea. Additional data came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigra tion Statistics. The research showed that • the 799,300 foreign-born individuals from travel-ban countries represent just .25 percent of the U.S. popu lation of 325.7 million; • approximately 61 percent of those immigrants are naturalized citizens; and • nearly half of foreign-born individuals age 25 and older from travel-ban countries have higher educa tion degrees, compared to 30 percent of native-born U.S. citizens. You can read the entire study at bit.ly/gmuimmigration. “We just wanted to show that by banning this group of immigrants, if they are anything like their countrymates who are already here, we [the United States] are losing out as a country,” Waslin says. Nooraddini, who says he came to Mason because of its immigrant research and diversity, hopes his findings help frame the immigration debate. “There is empirical evidence that counters the argu ments of this current administration,” he says. “We have the evidence, and we need to get it out there.” The IIR is a joint venture between Mason and the Im migrant Learning Center Inc. (ILC) of Massachusetts. The IIR was founded in 2012 through the generous donation of Diane Portnoy, an educator and philanthropist from Malden, Massachusetts. —Damian Cristodero
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INQUIRING MINDS
‘Digital Twin’ Helps Engineers Track Structural Integrity
Researcher David Lattanzi works with a doctoral student who is using Oculus hardware.
W
hen David Lattanzi worked as a structural inspector, he saw that the way that civil engi neers monitored, inspected, and maintained buildings, tunnels, and other structures could be smarter and more efficient. “There weren’t any quantitative techniques we could use. Everything was very subjective,” says Lattanzi, the John Toups Faculty Fellow in civil engineering and an
D I D YO U K N O W…
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assistant professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering. “Whether it’s a ship, a bridge, or a building, we collect all kinds of data over its life cycle,” he says, “but we don’t do a good job of tracking that data over time to find long-term trends.” Lattanzi figured there had to be a better way, so he and a team of five Mason students are developing new methods to categorize and leverage data to assess struc tures’ condition and possibilities for future use. He has applied this method to many types of infra structure for years and is now exploring new data-driven approaches to the lifecycle monitoring and assessment of U.S Navy ships. One approach is the creation of a “digital twin” of a ship, a complex virtual model that evolves with the physical ship, which will provide a platform for visualiza tion and assessment. “The digital twin will be filled with the information we collect about the ship over time,” Lattanzi says. In theory, this data would improve decision making. For instance, if the Navy wants to deploy a 15-year-old vessel, they can look to the digital twin for clues on what situations the ship can withstand, including whether it can go into rougher water, he says. Lattanzi, who has received more than $400,000 in funding from the Office of Naval Research, is working with Navy researchers to assess the strength and capa city of ships through advanced sensing methods. Plus, he provides training and guidance to naval researchers and staff on advanced sensing and reconnaissance techniques. His research is also supported by a faculty fellowship through a gift from the late John Toups, an entrepreneur, civil engineer, and Northern Virginia businessman. “The fellowship is helping me explore the digital twin idea and share my findings with the professional and academic community,” Lattanzi says. “John Toups was an impressive community and professional leader, and it’s a tremendous honor to hold a fellowship in his name. I’m glad I had the opportunity to meet him.” —Nanci Hellmich
RESEARCH
Looking for a Tree, She Uncovered a Forest
Y
evette Richards Jordan, an associate professor in Mason’s Department of History and Art History, was only looking to map her family’s tree when she began to hear stories that branched into something else entirely. Through conversations with her family, she discovered the Taylor sisters—ages 23 and 13—who were lynched on Christmas Day in 1928 in a dispute over a dog. The men who killed them came from families that had been neighbors of the Taylors for generations. “[The Taylors] were tenants on the Wingate farm, and the landlord of the farm told them to get his good hunting dog from the Sanderson family,” Richards Jordan says. The Sandersons, who were white, felt disrespected by the request. “They came by for retaliation, and because they couldn’t find the [Taylor] men there, they decided to shoot the women.” But that wasn’t the end of the story, as Richards Jordan was able to find out this past summer. With the help of the Marion Deshmukh Faculty and Student Support Scholarship, Richards Jordan traveled to Lincoln Parish Courthouse in Louisiana and searched through court documents. She found a web of threads reaching across two Louisiana parishes and connecting generations of family members. “There are a lot of secrets that I’m uncovering that make the stories of the lynch ings much more mysterious—and very different from what the newspapers presented,” Richards Jordan says. She plans to write a book about the lynchings of both the Taylor sisters and W. C. Williams, another lynching victim connected to her family. Of research she was able to undertake because of support from the Deshmukh Scholarship, Richards Jordan says, “It’s been indispensable in helping me understand the breadth of the family entanglements that are involved in these two lynching cases.” “I’m in a unique position to tell the stories. The people who were affected by this are my relatives.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10
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SHELF LIFE
Recently published works by Mason faculty
Studies, and Earl Smith In Policing Black Bodies (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, December 2017), Hattery and Smith make a compelling case that the policing of black bodies goes far beyond
Journeys to Profes sional Excellence: Stories of Courage, Innovation, and RiskTaking in the Lives of Noted Psychologists and Counselors Frederic P. Bemak, pro fessor, Graduate School of Education, and Robert K. Conyne This book (SAGE Publica tions, September 2017) highlights the professional journeys of notable psychol ogists, counselors, and academics and describes the lessons we might learn from their stories. With guidance from the editors, this book presents the developmental experience of successful faculty and practitioners to help stu dents articulate and define relationships between their personal and profes sional identities.
Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change Angie J. Hattery, professor, Women and Gender
these individual stories of brutality. They connect the regulation of African American people in many settings into a powerful narrative about the myriad ways black bodies are policed.
Crossroads: Compara tive Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change Justin Gest, assistant professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, and Anna K. Boucher
In this study (Cambridge University Press, May 2018), Gest and Boucher present a unique analysis of immi gration governance across 30 countries. Relying on a database of immigration demographics, they pre sent a novel taxonomy and an analysis of what drives different approaches to immigration policy over space and time.
Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism Timothy Denevi, professor, English Hunter S. Thompson is often misremembered as a wise-cracking, drug-addled cartoon character. This book (Hachette, October 2018) reclaims him for what he truly was: a fear less opponent of corrup tion and fascism, one who sacrificed his future wellbeing to fight against both those things, rewriting the rules of journalism and political satire in the process.
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Understanding Cultural Policy Carole Rosenstein, associate professor, Arts Management In this book (Routledge, March 2018), Rosenstein examines the field of cultural policy through comparative, historical, and administrative lenses, while engaging directly with the issues and ten sions that plague policy makers across the world, such as censorship, cultureled development, cultural measurement, and globa lization.
Letters from the Boys: Wisconsin World War I Soldiers Write Home Carrie A. Meyer, associate professor, Economics This book (Wisconsin Historical Society Press,
March 2018) explores the stories of World War I soldiers from Green County, Wisconsin, through the letters they sent back home from the battlefield. Meyer removes the veil of obscurity and anonymity hanging over these soldiers who participated in a war fought so long ago, reminding us that armies are made of indi viduals who strove to do their part and then return to their families.
Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan Benjamin Gatling, assistant professor, English This ethnography (Univer sity of Wisconsin Press, August 2018) reveals the daily lives and religious practice of ordinary Muslim men in Tajikistan as they aspire to become Sufi mystics. Gatling describes in vivid detail the range of expressive forms— memories, stories, poetry, artifacts, rituals, and other embodied practices— employed as these men
Creative Differences try to construct a Sufi life in 21st-century Central Asia.
Looming Vulnerability: Theory, Research and Practice in Anxiety Christianity and Sociological Theory: Reclaiming the Promise Joseph A. Scimecca, pro fessor, Sociology and Anthropology This book (Routledge, August 2018) offers a his tory of sociological theory from a Christian perspec tive, tracing the origins of sociology from the begin nings of Western science. With chapters focusing on the Scholastics, the Enlightenment, and the legacy of Positivism, this volume reveals the poten tial that exists for sociology, in an era of postmodern thought, to reclaim its promise through a rein troduction of Christianity.
John H. Riskind, professor, Psychology, and Neil A. Rector This book (Springer, November 2018) presents the Looming Vulnerability Model, a nuanced take on the cognitive-behavioral conceptualization of anxiety, worry, and other responses to real or ima gined threats. The core feature of the model— the perception of a grow ing, rapidly approaching threat—is traced to humans’ evolutionary past, and this dysfunctional perception is described as it affects cognitive process ing, executive functioning, emotions, physiology, and behavior.
W
hen most people think of how the great ideas of our time came about, they envision a single ‘eureka!’ moment when the idea arrives, fully formed, to only a special few. Mason management professor Matthew Cronin’s new book The Craft of Creativity (Stanford Business Books, 2018) argues otherwise. Along with co-writer Jeffrey Loewenstein, Cronin shares research, inter views, and examples to show that creativity isn’t a gift reserved for singular geniuses, but a skill that everyone can cultivate.
What inspired you to write this book? We (Jeff and I) felt like the research on creativity was stuck in a rut, and so we wanted to change people’s perspective on creativity itself. We also felt like there was a lot of bad advice out there in the popular press and that we needed to provide better alternatives. The book features some great stories that illustrate how creativity is most often the product of long hours and lots of hard work. Do you have a favorite? I interviewed three people who developed The Nameless Mod—a new video game made from an existing game called Deus Ex. These three people, who had no formal training of any sort, and two of whom were 14 years old when they started, managed hundreds of coders, voice actors, and [others] across the globe. The game was free [and] won all kinds of awards. Considering that a typical [high budget] game takes three years to make and costs millions of dollars even when well-known studios make it, what the Nameless Mod team did was remarkable. Was there anything in your research that surprised you? Yes—how surprisingly common the creative process was across types of people. Artists were indistinguishable from accountants, and both were identical to lawyers, songwriters, and everyone else we talked to. It almost got laughably predictable when someone would say, “This is going to sound really weird but…” and then they would say exactly what we heard 50 times already. What are you working on now? I have a blog on Psychology Today (also called The Craft of Creativity). For teachers, I want to figure out how to make our ideas into lessons. Outside of creativity I am working on a project to explore how to manage psychological pain in organizations. I don’t think typical wellness programs provide strong enough medicine. I think we need to make counseling skills a management competence. —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10
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ALUMNI IN PRINT
Recently published works by Mason alumni
In the Shadow of Light Tracy Scott Causley, BA Art History and Anthropology ’02 The Amethyst Press, February 2018 When a pestilence ravages Tuscany, the city of Florence, Italy, is crippled. A wool merchant’s daughter is forced to seek safety in the countryside. What she discovers instead is a world teeming with danger and witches intent on casting the city into darkness forever. Causley was raised in a military family and her foreign travel adventures inspire her writing. She is a full-time writer and lives in Chantilly, Virginia.
The Vain Conversation Anthony Grooms, MFA Creative Writing ’84 University of South Carolina Press, March 2018 Inspired by true events, Grooms’s novel reflects on the 1946 lynching of two African American couples in Georgia and explores what it means to redeem, as well as to be redeemed, on the issues of America’s race violence. Grooms has taught writ ing and American literature at universities in Ghana and Sweden, and—since 1994—at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Dodging and Burning: A Mystery
Transcendental Concord
John Copenhaver, MFA Creative Writing ’95 Pegasus Books, March 2018 In a small Virginia town, a 12-year-old tomboy attempts to piece together her missing-in-action brother’s life through his favorite detective story with the help of his best friend. Copenhaver is chair of the 7-12 English depart ment at Flint Hill School and lives near Washington, D.C., with his partner, Jeff, and two photogenic dogs.
Lisa McCarty, BA ’09, with Rebecca Norris Webb and Kirsten Rian Radius Books, June 2018 Through this project, which involves equal parts photography, walking, and reading, McCarty pays homage to the mid-19th century Transcendental movement and its ideals. McCarty is a photo grapher, filmmaker, curator, and educator based in Durham North Carolina. She is currently curator of the Archive of Documen tary Arts at Duke Univer sity’s Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Someone’s Utopia Joe Hall, MFA Creative Writing ’08 Black Ocean, April 2018 Drawing from a wide range of sources—including interviews with contempo rary workers and journals from members of a utopian 19th-century community— Hall yokes the generational labor of hands and collec tive dreams to words. Hall lives in Buffalo, New York. He has performed in 41 cities, 25 states, Washing ton, D.C., and Canada, and is a founding member of Hostile Books, a small press committed to radical materiality.
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Call Me When You Want to Talk About the Tombstones Cynthia Hoffman, MFA Creative Writing ’03 Persea, July 2018 In this book-length poetry sequence, a mother inherits a leather box that was her grandmother’s. Together, she and her daughter traipse through graveyards and sift through endless photos and clippings, piecing together what used to be in order to understand who they are. Hoffman is the author of the full-length poetry collections Paper Doll Fetus and Sightseer, as well as the chapbook Her Human Costume.
The Fortress Madeleine Romeyer Dherbey, CERG Severe Disabilities ’09 Freedom Forge Press, June 2018 This novel examines World War II in France through the perspective of common people, whose characters and emotions create the sense of time and space that bring history to life. Dherbey is a full-time teacher for Loudoun County Public Schools. Her book is inspired by her own family history.
Things You Won’t Tell Your Therapist: Stories Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA Creative Writing ’95 Finishing Line Press, January 2019 In this collection of flash fiction, Rich digs deep and explores the inner lives of people. Rich was one of the founding editors of the literary magazine So To Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language and Art and is currently a fiction editor for Literary Mama.
PHOTO BY EVAN CANTWELL
PAT R I O T P R O F I L E
SWITCHING GEARS: With a little push from herself, and before getting in too deep, Kauri George decided to shift away from her studies in journalism and instead follow her dreams of film and video. She wanted to have a hand in every aspect of film, from scriptwriting, filming, and editing, to social media and marketing, all in pursuit of becoming what people in the film world call “an all-aspects filmmaker.” PITCH PERFECTED: Among her long list of achievements while at Mason, George, who graduated in December, was the recipient of a Film Advisory Board Pitch Prize for a pitch she made for her senior thesis film on mental illness. The pitch prize provides funds to assist students in making their films. George completed her film Close Call, which covered suicide among African American women, during the fall 2018 semester. When it debuted, George’s film won Best of the Fest and an audience award. DRONING ON: In 2015, George and her partner opened AVSPEX LLC, an aerial photography and film company. With her partner as the pilot, responsible for flying the drone camera, and George as the creative director, editing the photos and videos, the two found a perfect outlet that combines both their passions. Although the company is separate from her schooling, George says the two “jobs” seem to complement each other. “I use what I’ve learned in all my classes to do this and fuel my passion.” FINDING COMMUNITY: While George chose Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts because of its up-and-coming reputation, she soon realized that the college offers much more than just a traditional college would. “The whole [Film and Video Studies Program] is like a community that helps each other.” According to George, the college’s size allows for more genuine heart and talent to come through.
Kauri George YEAR: Senior
IT’S A SECRET: One of the biggest things that happened to George while at Mason is something she can’t tell you about because of a nondisclosure agreement she signed. But she’s okay with that, because it was the internship of a lifetime with a major film production. —Saige MacLeod
MAJOR: Film and Video Studies HOMETOWN: Centreville, Virginia
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CLASS NOTES
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hen John Niehoff, BS Accounting ’84, was finishing up high school in Springfield, Virginia, he knew he wanted to play NCAA Division 1 basket ball, but he didn’t have any offers or a lot of money.
It just so happened that nearby George Mason University was starting its first year in Division 1, and it was within driving distance of Niehoff’s Springfield home.
“It was a hard first semester,” he says. “I was trying out for the basketball team, and I was literally a Washington Post paper boy delivering papers every morning.” But the struggles didn’t last long. Niehoff made the team, playing for Mason from 1981 to 1984, and received a scholarship after his first semester. “If I hadn’t gotten the scholarship, [my college experience] would’ve been a lot harder,” says the former point guard, who is now a partner at the accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly. “And I probably couldn’t have played basketball.” That would have been a shame because Niehoff ended up distinguishing himself as a Patriot and was honored in 2008 as a Colonial Athletic Association Basketball Legend. He is grateful for the education he received at Mason, both in the classroom and on the court. “The lessons I learned at Mason and in high school on the basketball court are as important to my success as the academic side was,” he says. In fact, Niehoff has been very vocal about these lessons learned—among them, learning to compete, learning from your mistakes, and learning to take constructive criticism. He even shared these values on campus as a part of the School of Business’ Brown and Brown Distinguished Speakers Series. He joined Athletic Director Brad Edwards, Mason women’s basketball coach Nyla Milleson, and other alumni athletes in discussion in the program, titled “From the Basketball Court to the Boardroom.” Niehoff’s ties to the university remain strong. In 2011, he was recognized by Mason’s Alumni Association with an Alumni Service Award. Currently on the George Mason University Foundation’s Board of Trustees, he also sits on the School of Business’ Dean’s Advisory Board.
Life’s Lessons On and Off the Court L E G E N DA R Y PAT R I O T PAY S I T F O R WA R D
He is frequently on campus helping students connect with his employer, Baker Tilly, through internships and externships. “Accounting is very competitive,” he says. “We are always looking for the best, well-rounded students. Mason is one of about eight core schools we recruit from. Mason students are often a little bit different and have a little more work experience.” And Niehoff’s enthusiasm for Mason basketball continues. A member of the Patriot Club and Green Coat Society, Niehoff and his family attend many of the men’s basketball games. They even followed the team to Indianapolis, attending every game of Mason’s historic Final Four run in 2006. Some of his best memories of his time playing for Mason include games against the University of Maryland, Duke, and the University of Virginia during the Ralph Sampson days. “That was a lot of fun for someone who grew up watching the ACC,” he says.
This article originally appeared in Alliance magazine in a slightly different form.
44 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y
PHOTO BY RON AIRA
—Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95
class notes 1970s
Gregory Zirzow, BS Biol ogy ’70, applied for Navy Air Pilot school after graduation and entered the Naval Reserves in May 1970, learning to fly in Pensacola, Florida. After being honorably dis charged, he went to work at the National Institutes of Health, NINDS Medical Neurology Branch, and retired as a staff scientist after 35 years. While work ing on developing animal models for studies into the human condition, he attended Virginia Tech and earned a DVM in 1978. Zirzow was married in 1986 and had three girls, all of whom graduated from Mason with honors between 2009 and 2012. He has been blessed with good health and six (soon to be seven) grandchildren.
1980s
David Reedy, PhD, BM ’83, was recently presented with the Lifetime Achieve ment Award by the National College Learning Center Association. Reedy is the longest serving officer of the association, with more than 13 years of service. Valerie Sheppard, BA Speech Communication ’84, is the author and publisher of the awardwinning international bestseller Living Happy to Be ME!: Dancing Your Soul Lightstyle, released in 2016. The book is the center piece of a much-loved life skills curriculum for under graduate and graduate students at the University of California, Irvine, called “Living 101: Being Happy and Whole.” Lisa Mayne, JD ’85, began her term as chief judge of Fairfax County General District Court on July 1,
2018. Mayne has been a Fairfax County General District Court judge since 2006. The court currently has 10 judges, each elected by the General Assembly for six-year terms. Meryl McBride, BS Marketing ’86, has been an entrepreneur for more than 30 years. Her original career path led her to working in insurance and eventually opening her own business, MRM Associ ates Inc. She is co-owner of Sweet Signatures, a familyowned and -operated chocolate store based in Sterling, Virginia. Robert Wiley, BS Business Administration ’87, recently started Rocking W Services, a small business providing federal government con tracting support. The primary target market is professional services sup port. Based in Iowa, with a national reach, Rocking W Services is built on the
foundation of Wiley’s busi ness education at Mason, his career experience with the U.S. Army, and experi ence from the transporta tion and financial service sectors. Learn more at www.rockingwservices.com. Ed Fortunato, BS Market ing ’88, was named vice president of government relations at Raytheon. He joined Raytheon from Orbital ATK, where he was senior vice president of government relations. His previous assignments include leading Washing ton operations for Honey well International Inc. and managing legislative affairs in the Office of the Secre tary of the U.S. Army. Fortunato earned his MBA from the George Washing ton University. Kelly McNamara Corley, JD ’89, addressed the newest group of Mason graduates at the Winter Graduation ceremonies at
EagleBank Arena on December 20, 2018. Corley is executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Discover Financial Services. She was the Mason Law School’s Alumnus of the Year in 2011, has created scholarships in nursing and law, and served on the Mason Board of Visitors from 2013 to 2017.
1990s
Steve Monfort, PhD Environmental BiologyPublic Policy ’93, was named the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Monfort had served as acting direc tor of the National Zoo since November 2017. Since 2006, Monfort has also served as director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front (continued next page)
What’s New with You? We are interested in what you’ve been doing since you graduated. Moved? Gotten married? Had a baby? Landed a new job? Received an award? Submit your class notes to alumni.gmu.edu/whatsnew. In your note, be sure to include your graduation year and degree. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 45
WHY I GIVE
I believe in Mason and higher education; as a first-generation college graduate it gives me great pride to be able to support my alma mater. —Jen Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94, Alumni Association President, Patriot Club, Green Machine Ensembles, EIP/STEP, Parents Fund, Mason Libraries, Alumni-funded Scholarships
D E A R FE L LO W
Patriots W
ith Mason Giving Day approaching (April 4, 2019), this is a good time to tell you why I give to our alma mater. I love Mason! Mason has a wonderful community of professors, staff, alumni, and people who live in the DMV area. As part of Mason Nation, I am yesterday, today, and forever a Patriot. We all know that affording college is not easy. As a first-generation student, I had difficulty paying for tuition, but through a piecemeal series of parttime jobs, Pell Grants, student loans, and credit cards, I was able to complete my degree. That’s why, today, I am happy to support others who are struggling to pursue their education.
Universities are often measured by the percentage of alumni who give back to their alma mater, which shows alumni satisfaction and support for the school’s administration. That’s one reason Giving Day is so important. Remember, what matters is not so much the amount that you give, but that each person gives at all. Last year 6,300 alumni made a gift, which is only about 3.5 percent of our total graduates. We can do better! During the Faster Farther campaign, the Alumni Association led a fund drive for endowed student scholarships and created a new scholarship celebrating our 50th anniversary. From 2016 through 2018, 833 donors contributed $158,000 to those scholarships. Thank you to all who contributed to our success. This year, the Alumni Association is highlighting the unpaid internship scholarship fund. Experiential learning is an increasingly important factor for recent graduates to land a job, and it is key that our future Mason alumni participate in internships, even when they are unpaid. The potential cost of an unpaid internship can be $5,500 per student for 12 weeks, a sum that includes tuition, transportation, housing, and food expenses. Please consider giving to this worthwhile cause, or whichever program you care most about, at givingday.gmu.edu. There are also other ways to support your alma mater. You can volunteer your time to mentor a student, speak to a class, or get your workplace to recruit our fine students. Finally, I hope you will always wear your Mason gear with pride and spread the word about Mason! Together We Thrive, Jen Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94 President, George Mason University Alumni Association 46 | FA S T E R FA R T H E R : T H E C A M PA I G N F O R G E O R G E M A S O N U N I V E R S I T Y
Royal, Virginia, located with the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation. Mary (Gair) Reiley, MS Biology ’93, has been elected vice president of the World Council of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Michelle Katz, BS Public Administration ’94, was named chief health infor mation officer and senior vice president of communi cations of F1 Technical Solutions. Leslie Stockton, BA English ’95, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’01, has been elected to a second term as vice president of the Arlington Education Asso ciation. She was recently appointed by the Virginia Education Association to serve on the Fitz Turner Commission for Human Relations and Civil Rights. She also serves as the 2018–19 chair of the Nor thern Virginia UniServ Council. Stockton has been an educator with Arlington Public Schools for 21 years and is recognized for her exemplary work with stu dents, parents, and staff. Elizabeth “Libby” (Williams) Larsen, MA Sociology ’96, was pro moted to the rank of pro fessor at California Univer sity of Pennsylvania, where she serves as director of sociology.
Shirley Nuhn, MA English ’96, CERG Teaching English as a Second Language ’96, was designated a fellow in the International League of Conservation Writers. Since 1996, she has taught ESL and English at Northern Virginia Community Col lege and continues her work as a freelance writer and editor. Susan C. Barfield, PhD Education ’97, professor emeritus at Montana State University, continues her work with international minorities to support tol erance of and respect for other cultures. She is cur rently working on a National Geographic Society Explorer Grant with three Mapuche elders and educators in rural Patagonia, Chile, to create a trilingual (English, Span ish, Mapundungun) book based on a Mapuche folk tale and illustrated by Mapuche students. Her three previous books dealt with educational integra tion of Roma culture, which she will expand in fall 2018 as a Fulbright specialist at Vilnius Kolegija–University of Applied Sciences in Lithuania. Barfield is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Project International Pride. Elizabeth Pegram, MEd Education Leadership ’97, retired in 2016 from Fairfax County Public Schools
CLASS NOTES
after a 30-year career as a secondary school educator. Her article about her experiences working with ESOL students in the classroom was published in the August 2018 edition of English Leadership Quar terly. On October 5, 2018, Pegram was one of several presenters featured in the National Education Asso ciation symposium on
Keeping the Promise of Public Education. Her pre sentation was titled “A Promise Kept: Developing 21st-Century Thinkers and Learners through Culturally Responsive Teaching.” Brian Shelton, MA Music ’98, was appointed chair of the music department at Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi. He has ser
ved as director of bands at the university since 2013. Antonio Jose Maradiaga, BA English ’98, MA Psychology ’00, celebrated the one-year anniversary (on August 11, 2018) of his family-owned nanobrewery, Twinpanzee Brewing Company, located in Loudoun County, Virginia.
2000s
M. Brian Blake, PhD Information Technology ’00, addressed the newest group of Mason graduates at the Winter Graduation ceremonies at EagleBank Arena on Dec. 20, 2018. Blake is provost and execu tive vice president for academic affairs at Drexel
FOR THIS TR AVELING PHYSICIAN, MASON SHOWED HER HOW TO ‘WALK THE WALK’ to doctors or medical facilities. She sees an average of 45 patients each day and works 14-hour days, treating everything from lacerations to detecting early to late stages of cancer. Assefi has strict standards for her own performance: “I evaluate myself on my patient’s smile. If I see one that smiles when she leaves the exam room, then I’m like, ‘Yeah. I made a difference.’” Born and raised in Iran, Assefi left when she was 14 to attend boarding school in England. A few years later, she arrived at Mason as a freshman, but war erupted in Iran during her first year, and she was left without funds. The future looked uncertain, but Assefi says that a few key Mason professors and advisors helped show her a pathway to continue her education.
W
hen you think of a traveling doctor making house calls, you might picture someone holding a stethoscope to a patient’s chest while sitting bedside in the patient’s own home. But for Sima Assefi, BA Biology ‘89, the image is far from her daily routine.
(continued page) As a traveling physician for MedExpress, Assefi next works at urgent care centers around Pennsylvania, mostly in rural areas where the population has little to no access
“Every professor that I had made a difference in making me walk the walk,” Assefi says. One professor advised her to become a waitress to pay her bills, and another personally prepared her class schedule to ensure Assefi had time for both school and work. “They were the ones who believed in me, and they were the ones who kept telling me: ‘Follow your dream—don’t let it die.’” In 2018, Assefi was named a Mason Exemplar, one of 50 alumni honored during the Alumni Association’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. For Assefi, the honor was entirely hers. “Everything I learned was at George Mason. I was exposed to the world of believing in my abilities at George Mason.” —Priyanka Champaneri, BA ’05, MFA ’10
University. He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for Mason’s Volgenau School of Engineering. Robert Sandoval, MA History ’01, was recently appointed IRB adminis trator for Eastern Virginia Medical School. Michael Knowles, MBA ’03, was named corporate senior vice president and the new president of Cubic Global Defense (CGD) business division. Previously, Knowles served as the vice president and general manager of CGD’s Air Ranges business unit. He has also held executive and management roles with Rockwell Collins and Lockheed Martin. Knowles holds an MS in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, a BS in aerospace engineer ing from the U.S. Naval Academy, and is a grad uate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Kevin Okyere, BS Account ing ’05, is an entrepreneur and the founder of Spring field Group, an energy com pany in Ghana with $1 bil lion in annual revenues. Springfield Group is invol ved in trading and trans porting hydrocarbons, terminaling and storage, gas stations, and oil explor ation. The company em ploys hundreds of people in Ghana and Nigeria. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 47
CLASS NOTES
Okyere and his company were profiled in Forbes Magazine in August 2018. Carla Vergot, MEd Special Education ’05, recently completed Lily Barlow, The Mystery of Jane Dough, the first book in a planned series. The book was pub lished by Lifestyle Entrepre neurs Press in December 2018. Visit CarlaVergot.com for a sneak peek. Donna Davis (Villarreal), BA English ’06, was inducted into the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Hall of Fame in July 2018. The former chief of logistics research and development at DLA,
Davis is one of only 111 people in the DLA Hall of Fame. Now retired, she volunteers her time men toring elementary school children in reading and caring for her grandchild. Andrew Yarrow, PhD His tory ’06, is the author of Man Out: Men on the Side lines of American Life. Pub lished by the Brookings Institution Press in Septem ber 2018, the book exam ines the many often-ignored struggles of tens of mil lions of American men— addressing work, family, health and mental health, fatherhood, mass incar
ceration, the internet, and civic participation. Scott Wagner, BA Inte grative Studies ’07, JD ’10, has become a partner at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP, in the employment and employee benefits and tax practices areas. Wagner focuses on coun seling clients on matters relating to defined benefit and defined contribution tax-qualified and nonquali fied retirement plans. Claire (Forman) Olson, BA Global Affairs ’09, MPA ’14, and husband Tyler Olson, BS Accounting ’13, wel comed baby boy Ashton
Linné Olson, Class of 2040, on July 23, 2018.
2010s
Veronica Vivas, BS Biology ’11, was promoted to chief people officer for Nest DC and Roost DC. As a women-owned small business in the city that provides property manage ment and condo manage ment, Nest and Roost have been named Best Places to Work by Washingtonian for their array of amazing staff benefits and work perks. David Berry, BA Sociology
’12, has joined the Roanoke office of Gentry Locke as an associate attorney. Berry will practice on the com mercial litigation team, helping clients resolve complex business disputes. Before joining Gentry Locke, Berry served for two years as a law clerk to the Honorable Donald W. Lemons, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. He has also held roles in the United States Attorney’s Office and Office of the Attorney General of Virginia. Berry earned his JD summa cum laude from the University of Richmond School of Law.
2018 -19 G E O R G E M A SO N U N I V E R S IT Y A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Jennifer Shelton, BS Public Administration ’94
Molly Grimsley, BA Art (Studio) ’81 Harry Hink, BS Physical Education ’85 Gleason Rowe, BA Global Affairs ’11
LAMBDA Aléjandro Asin, BA Sociology ’11 John Haumann, BA Geography ’09
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Brian Jones, MA International Commerce and Policy ’06
ALUMNI CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVES
ANTONIN SCALIA LAW SCHOOL Jesse Binnall, BA Communication ’01, JD ’09
PRESIDENT-ELECT Sumeet Shrivastava, MBA ’94 VICE PRESIDENT Tyree Carlson, BS Social Work ’96 TREASURER Jeff Fissel, BS Information Technology ’06 HISTORIAN Mariana Cruz, BS Civil and Infrastructure Engineering ’11 AT-LARGE DIRECTORS Kevin Christopher, MBA ’96 Patrick Rooney, BA Communication ’12 Phil Abbruscato, BA Government and International Politics ’15
BLACK ALUMNI Chantée Christian, BA Communication ’05 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Anthony DeGregorio, BS Physical Education ’84, MS Physical Education ’89 COLLEGE OF VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Shannon Baccaglini, MM ’06, MA Arts Management ’09 COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Betty Ann Duffy, MSN Nursing Administration ’08 VOLGENAU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Rob Walters, BS Computer Science ’88
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SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Becky Anderson, BS Accounting ’10 SCHAR SCHOOL OF POLICY AND GOVERNMENT Colin Hart, MA International Transactions ’93 LATINO Adriana Bonilla, BA Government and Politics ’11 COLLEGE OF SCIENCE Taylor Sargent, BS Physics ’14 COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Ashley Phayme, BA Communication ’08
CLASS NOTES
Alexa Severo, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’13, was recognized by the Loudoun Business Journal/ Loudoun Times Mirror as one of their 40 Under 40. Severo was noted for her work as a second-grade teacher at Sugarland Ele mentary within Loudoun County Public Schools, and for being the business owner and principal plan ner of Alexa, Plan My Wed ding. She also is involved with two local nonprofits— Loudoun Youth and the Loudoun Education Association—and coaches marching band at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia. Shaun Peiffer, MBA ’14, accepted a position with Bigelow Space Operations (BSO) in Las Vegas. BSO is the sales, space operations, and customer service company for commercial space stations in low-Earth orbit and beyond. His responsibilities involve market and data analysis, business intelligence and strategy, and business development. He credits the invaluable real-world education he received from the Mason School of Business. Brock Walker, MBA ’14, and Carlene Meaney were married in Leesburg, Virginia, in April 2018. (continued next page)
FAMILY COMES FIRST FOR COO
G
rowing up in Alexandria, Virginia, Brian Kearney, BA Integrated Studies ’02, started with his family’s business, Kearney & Company, in the third grade, making copies of tax returns. When it came time to choose a college, he was so involved in the firm that he went looking for a school nearby. “One of the biggest reasons that I went to Mason was so I could work [at the firm] while I went to school. Mason provided me a unique opportunity of balancing school and career-related goals,” Kearney says.
Since graduating from Mason, Kearney has become chief operating officer at the Alexandria-based certified public accounting firm, which exclusively serves the federal government. As an executive seeking opportunities to enrich the community, he found his Mason experience to be an inspira tion. Kearney knew the challenges and sacrifices that come with working and attending college—he had been there. It was this awareness that influenced Kearney & Company’s strategic gift to Mason and the School of Business, which supports student scholarships and the school’s Center for Government Contracting. Founded in the 1980s, Kearney & Company has experienced impressive growth and now has more than 800 employees. In addition to supporting an undergraduate student scholarship, the firm regularly recruits at Mason, hiring about 10 graduates in the past year. Kearney also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the School of Business. Working together as a family presents its own benefits and challenges, Kearney admits, but is certainly rewarding. “My dad is boss, mentor, and friend. It is great to work for him…. When I was starting out he always told me: ‘As long as you work harder than anyone else, you’ll be just fine.’” The business seems to be in good hands, consider ing that one of Kearney’s two daughters, 13-year-old Emily, likes to say that she plans to run the firm one day. “We feel that when you are put in a position to help someone, you should,” says Kearney. “Through this partnership with Mason, we will be helping the next generation of business students to succeed.” —Rob Riordan and Whitney Hanlin contributed to this article. Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 49
CLASS NOTES
G I V I N G D AY 2 0 1 8 R E S U LT S
Oumama Kabli, BA Global Affairs ’17, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Pro gram award to Morocco from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholar ship Board. Kabli will sup port the teaching of English at Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in Tetouan. While in Morocco, Kabli’s goal for community engagement involves forging the first international partnership between Moroccan and American high school students through InvestinYOUth, a mentor ship program first pio neered at Mason.
2,101 $431,980 total donors
total dollars raised
123.7% from 2017
top DONORS
Class Notes are submitted by alumni and are not verified by the editors. While we welcome alumni news, Mason Spirit is not responsible for information contained in Class Notes.
5
class year’s giving by
2012 2013 2015 2016 2014
Jason DeLorenzo, MA Economics ’17, and his wife, Jill, opened Ad Deum Funds in early 2018. Ad Deum Funds is a small business specializing in stock options. The firm has earned its status as a regis tered investment advisor in Virginia as of October 19, 2018. The business offers individual asset manage ment services, investment planning services, and two newsletters published monthly under the Wizard of Ops brand name.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
ALUMNI → 1,007 FACULTY/STAFF → 327 PARENTS → 153 STUDENTS → 63 FRIENDS → 359 OTHER → 192
➡
Mark Elliot Bergman, DA Education (Community College) ’15, and current director of strings and orchestral studies at Sheri dan College, has received a Performing Arts Fellow ship in Music from the Wyoming Arts Council. Bergman’s winning origi nal compositions include “Ondine,” “The Temple,” and “Shenandoah Suite,” a string trio commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Shenandoah National Park. In addition to teaching music at Sheridan College, Bergman directs the Sheridan Col lege Symphony Orchestra, Sheridan College Viol Con sort, and Wyoming Baroque. Bergman is the former principal double bassist of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra (Brazil), and the New Haven Sym phony Orchestra. His first book, In the Groove: Form and Function in Popular Music, was published in 2012 by Cognella Academic Press. His second book, Get Up, Stand Up! Higher Order Thinking in Popular Music Studies, was published by Scholars Press in 2016.
1994 1986 1973 1993 1981
TOTAL DOLLARS
VIRGINIA → 1,575 MARYLAND → 82 WASHINGTON, D.C. → 49 FLORIDA → 41 PENNSYLVANIA → 36
top
5
projects by DONORS
$52,320 → Basketball Facility Renovation Fund
Pep Band, the Green Machine → 210
$30,331 → College of Humanities and Social Sciences Scholarship Fund
General Scholarship Fund → 159
$27,600 → Government Contracting Initiative
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Scholarship Fund → 137
$25,000 → Sowell and Dillard Scholarship Endowment $22,398 → Alumni Association 50th Anniversary Scholarship Endowment
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Mason Excellence Fund → 140
Alumni Association 50th Anniversary Scholarship Endowment → 129
CLASS NOTES
Obituaries
James A. Woggon, BA History ’73, d. July 31, 2018 Robert C. Bausch, BA English ’74, MA English ’75, MFA Creative Writing ’02, d. October 9, 2018 Carole G. Freeman, MEd Elementary Education ’75, d. July 27, 2018 Jorge A. Thevenet, BS Business Administration ’75, d. October 16, 2018 Lillian M. Maxwell, BA Government and Politics ’77, d. October 18, 2018 Myron J. Teluk, JD ’77, d. August 9, 2018 June L. Edmunds, MEd
Elementary Education ’78, d. September 16, 2018 Michael W. Mills, BS Law Enforcement ’78, d. August 6, 2018 Barbara Baird, BSN ’79, d. August 7, 2007 Patricia Campbell, BS Business Administration ’79, d. September 30, 2018 Karen A. White, BSEd Elementary Education ’79, d. August 16, 2018 Lawrence B. Sauers, JD ’80, d. September 22, 2018 Mary Lynn Boland, BA Speech Communication ’84, d. September 12, 2018
Gary J. Grosicki, MS Thomas C. Farina, BS Operations Research ’89, Business Administration MEd Education Leadership ’84, d. September 12, 2018 ’16, d. August 5, 2018 Allen A. Bassett, BS Accounting ’85, d. Septem Allen J. Montecino Jr., MA History ’90, d. Septem ber 10, 2018 ber 16, 2018 Theodora D. Ziu, BA Christian P. Maimone, JD English ’85, d. August 25, ’91, d. October 21, 2018 2018 Helen T. Wells, MA Music Marcia M. Abbo, MS Conflict Management and ’91, d. July 20, 2018 Resolution ’86, d. August 1, Linda L. Weintz, BSW ’92, d. June 6, 2018 2018 Lois J. Burke, BSN ’96, Sarah W. Wall, MA English d. October 8, 2018 ’87, d. August 21, 2018 Robin Clarke, BA Psychol Jeffrey J. Wolfe, MS ogy ’96, d. June 11, 2018 Information Systems ’88, Kimberly A. Areglado, d. October 20, 2018
BA Speech Communica tion ’98, d. October 4, 2018 George H. Perino, PhD Public Policy ’00, d. August 29, 2018 Teresa L. Mills, BSN ’02, d. August 3, 2018 Sara L. Fassett, MA New Professional Studies ’04, d. July 29, 2018 Peter J. Boyle, MPP ’14, d. August 15, 2018 Daniel R. Durham, CERG Chief Learning Officer ’16, d. August 28, 2018 Christen J. Booher, BS Economics (former student), d. October 12, 2018
F A C U LT Y, S TA F F, A N D F R I E N D S Carl Henry Ernst, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science and Policy, died on November 3, 2018. He was 80. Ernst received a BS from Millersville University and an MEd from West Chester University before receiving his PhD in vertebrae zoology from the University of Kentucky. Ernst’s teaching career at Mason spanned more than three decades and included serving as the chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy. Much respected in his field for his research on snakes and turtles, Ernst published more than 200 papers and wrote 11 books. In 1972 he became a research associate with the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Department of Zoology, a title he held until his death. He retired in 2004. Ernst is survived by his wife, his two daughters and sons-in-law, and his numerous grandchildren. William Thomas (Tom) Kiley, Associate Professor Emeritus of Mathe matical Sciences, died on November 12, 2018, at the age of 80. Born in San Francisco, Kiley received his PhD in mathematics from Brown University in 1969 and that same year was hired to teach in the Depart ment of Mathematical Sciences at Mason. Kiley was a founder of Mason’s Faculty Senate. He served as a member and leader there for many years, and he served on the Athletic Council in the mid-1980s and was a strong advocate for academic integrity as Mason’s individual and team sports offerings expanded. He retired from Mason in 2012 after 43 years of service. After his retirement, Kiley and his wife, Evelyn, continued to be great supporters of Mason, including of Mason basket ball and the Center for the Arts, and they created an endowed scholar ship in their names. Kiley is survived by his wife.
Fred Schack, professor of kinesiology and physical education with the College of Education and Human Development, died on September 9, 2018 after a brief illness. He was 76. The longtime member of Mason’s faculty only recently retired in June 2018 after 43 years with the university. Schack was born in southern California and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State Northridge while enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve. During his enlistment he completed a combat tour in Vietnam, taught at the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School, and worked toward his PhD in adapted physical education from the Ohio State Uni versity, which he earned in 1975. He began his teaching career at Mason shortly thereafter. Known as a committed faculty member and supportive colleague, he raised two children with his wife of 29 years. Schack is also survived by his sister, stepson, brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephews. Former Volgenau School of Engineering professor David Schum passed away in late September 2018. Schum received his PhD from the Ohio State University. He was previously on the faculty of Rice University and taught at Baylor College of Medicine. At Mason, Schum taught in the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research and in the Antonin Scalia Law School. He was a chief scientist with the Learning Agents Center at Mason and an honorary professor of evidence science at University College London. A prolific writer and scholar, Schum was author or co-author of eight books and published more than 100 papers during his lifetime.
Spring 2019 M A S O N S P I R I T | 51
Mason is a most outstanding university. My wife and I are impressed by the quality of your student population, the world-class orchestras, theater performances, and soloists that perform at your campus.
I want to be a part of helping and encouraging Mason to continue to focus on delivering a quality education and a quality athletic program. — Gary Dittmer, BS Business Administration ’72, MS ’96, School of Business Fund, Mason Athletics Fund
I was awarded the EagleBank Scholarship back in the fall of 2016. It meant the world to me, as this was the first scholarship that I was ever awarded. Mason did so much for me and I want to give the students now and in the future the opportunities that I was given. — Brian Leon, BS Management ’17, General Scholarships Fund
— Kenneth Schoonover, Arts Fund
If you don’t support organizations in your own community, who do you support? This is an organization that we belong to; we attend their events and have a vested interest in them. It only makes sense to support them. — Daniel Tucciarone and Thomas Sabal, Hylton Performing Arts Center
The arts have transformational power not only for individuals, but society as a whole. Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Mason Community Arts Academy are beacons for the arts in our region by not only providing excellent arts education to university students, but the community at large. Through engaging course work on campus and performances at the Center for the Arts and the Hylton Performing Arts Center, the arts at Mason enrich our community. — Scott and Anna Nurmi, Mason Community Arts Academy Fund, College of Visual and Performing Arts Fund
Why I Give
Education should be available to everyone. Mason provides an excellent education and can be affordable for many less advantaged students. —Jim Beers, General Scholarships Fund
I was able to receive my education because of scholarships and grants. My parents were immigrants, and I am a first-generation American. I feel strongly that education is a key to helping others, and making the journey better for those who follow. — Mary Ann Friesen, PhD Nursing ’08, School of Nursing Fund
Our donors run the gamut from recent graduates to longtime alumni, members of the Mason community, or just our neighbors across the street. They all have one thing in common: They wanted to show their support for Mason. We asked some of them why they give to Mason. Here are their answers.
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4400 University Drive, MS 3B3 Fairfax, VA 22030
THE MONTH OF MASON—University Provost and Executive Vice President S. David Wu, Director of Athletics Brad Edwards, more than 50 Mason student-athletes and Spirit Squad members, and the Patriot joined City of Fairfax mayor David Meyer at a city ceremony in which February was declared George Mason University Month. PHOTOS BY EVAN CANTWELL