Meredith Magazine Spring 2015

A Publication for Alumnae and Friends of Meredith College

Spring 2015, Volume 40, Number 1

M A G A Z I N E

STRONGER THAN EVER HES CELEBRATES 100 YEARS

Meredith Magazine Volume 40, Number 1 Spring 2015 Executive Editor Kristi Eaves-McLennan, ’14, MBA Managing Editors Melyssa Allen Karen T. Dunton Assistant Editor Gaye Hill Writer Meaghan Bixby Art Director Vanessa Harris Designer Lauren Sumner Alumnae Connection Editors Hilary Allen, ’01 Sarah R. Terrell, ’12 Contributing Writers Jeni Baker Suzanne Stanard Editorial Assistant Kaye Rains Photographers Charlotte Claypoole Christopher Ferrer Shannon Johnstone Gary Knight Brian Lynn Julie Mallett Lauren Sumner David Timberlake Michael Zirkle Meredith College Archives

CONTENTS FEATURES 18 STRONGER THAN EVER

Human Environmental Sciences department celebrates 100 years 26 MONEY MANAGEMENT: HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?

StrongPoints® financial literacy focus promotes knowledge and power 28 FROM MEREDITH TO MAXIMUM SECURITY

One alumna’s unlikely career as a prison reformer

NEWS 3

Meredith Reports Highest-Ever Fundraising Total

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Meredith Forever: Strategic Plan Year Two Highlights

12 Avenging Angels Achieve Championship Fall Season 16 Virus Hunter Nathan Wolfe to Present 2015 Founders’ Day Lecture

IN EVERY ISSUE 1

Meredith Campus News

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Letter from the President

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Meredith Experts in the News

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Newsmakers

13 Strong Stories Meredith Magazine exists to serve the Meredith community by providing readers with insight and information about the news, activities, events, programs, plans, and people of the College. Meredith Magazine is published three times a year by the Meredith College Department of Marketing. Questions or comments may be submitted to marketing@meredith.edu.

34 Alumnae Connection

© 2015 Meredith College. The Meredith name and word mark are registered trademarks of Meredith College and may not be used without permission. All rights reserved. 14-252

Meredith College’s Human Environmental Sciences program is marking its centennial during the 2014-15 academic year. A celebration of the program’s accomplishments, including of alumnae like those shown in this 1927 Home Economics Club photo with then-department head Ellen Brewer, will be held in April 2015.

On the Cover:

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NEWS As part of the First Year Experience program, freshmen take part in an annual service project. This year, students collected and decorated shoes to support Project Footnotes. Project Footnotes is led by Lacey Hambridge, ’16, who is shown with some of the more than 285 shoes collected at Meredith for distribution in Belize.

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Meredith College Earns More Accolades

By Melyssa Allen

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eredith College has earned more accolades during the 2014-15 academic year, including again making the top 10 on U.S. News & World Report’s list of the South’s Best Regional Colleges. Meredith has also been named a College of Distinction and to a STEM Approved Colleges list.

Meredith has consistently been ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News, whose latest rankings were released in September. The College ranked #6 in the 2015 edition.

Meredith was also named to the “Great Schools, Great Prices” list, ranked 9th among regional colleges in the South. U.S. News describes this ranking as “taking into account a school’s academic quality and the 2013-14 net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid.”

The publication’s “Great Schools, Great Prices” list considers quality as well as cost.

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The U.S. News ranking system places colleges and universities in one of four categories: national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional universities, and regional colleges.

U.S. News divides colleges and universities by the following regions: North, South, West, and Midwest. Schools are ranked using several indicators including peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources (class size, faculty/student ratio, percentage of full-time faculty), student selectivity (average SAT scores, acceptance rate), and alumni giving percentage.

College of Distinction The U.S. News top 10 is just one accolade earned by Meredith, which was also named a College of Distinction for 2014-15. Colleges are selected for the Colleges of Distinction guide based on excellence in Four Dis-

tinctions: engaged students, great teaching, vibrant campus communities, and successful outcomes.

STEM Jobs Approved College List Meredith has been designated a 2015 STEM JobsSM Approved College by Victory Media, creator of STEM Jobs magazine. The organization also provides educational and career resources for students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The 2015 STEM Jobs Approved Colleges inaugural list is the first of its kind to rate universities, colleges, community colleges, and trade schools on their responsiveness and relevance to high demand, high growth STEM occupations. Meredith College was among more than 1,600 schools participating in the STEM Jobs survey process.

Meredith Reports Highest-Ever Fundraising Totals

By Melyssa Allen

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eredith has experienced the highest fundraising total in its history, raising more than $18 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year. Meredith’s previous fundraising record for a single year was $7.2 million.

Meredith College is in the early phase of its Beyond Strong fundraising campaign, which will be its largest campaign in history. The Beyond Strong campaign is building momentum toward Meredith’s 125th anniversary in 2016.

The Campaign supports six priorities identified through the College’s strategic plan: educational excellence, optimal enrollment, enhanced financial strength, cutting edge facilities and technology, greater visibility, and enhanced quality of life.

President Jo Allen said donors have given to Meredith for many reasons.

“It is so touching to hear donors’ reasons for giving to Meredith – oftentimes to honor a mother, wife, daughter, or sister who excelled here,” said Allen. “Others give because they value Meredith’s dynamic legacy of educating students to become even stronger and because they know the power of educated women in corporations, nonprofits, communities, and families.”

The Beyond Strong campaign has been supported by the Meredith College Campaign Planning Committee, Raised $18,187,915 in Beyond led by honorary co-chairs Strong | The Campaign For Meredith Judy Woodruff, ’68, and O. – the largest fundraising year in the Temple Sloan, Jr. history of Meredith College “This is an exciting and critical time for Meredith,” said Sloan. “We are off to a great start in our campaign to take Meredith to the next level.”

Strong fundraising results are one of many successes of Meredith’s strategic plan. Meredith’s endowment has grown to more than $93 million, the highest in College history.

Meredith has also seen strong enrollment this academic year. With 471 students, the Class of 2018 is Meredith’s second-largest incoming freshman class. The Class of 2018 is the first to experience StrongPoints™, an innovative advising and personal coaching model set to be a defining element of the Meredith educational experience. Through this comprehensive initiative, students identify their strengths, and examine over the course of their four years at Meredith how those strengths can help them shape their academic options, experiential involvement outside the classroom, financial goals, and career options.

Meredith’s fundraising and enrollment successes have been supported by the 2013 launch of Meredith College | Going Strong, a new branding and advertising campaign that is part of the College’s strategic plan goal to enhance visibility.

For more on the strategic plan, see page 4.

$18M

O. Temple Sloan, Jr. and President Jo Allen

Campaign Planning Committee 2014-15 The Campaign Planning Committee has played an important role in Meredith’s fundraising success, as the College lays the groundwork for the Beyond Strong campaign.

“These wonderful volunteers are special friends who work for the benefit of the College, with no thoughts of their own time and resources being expended,” said President Jo Allen.

“We owe them our gratitude for a phenomenal year.”

Allen praised the committee members for their support of Meredith.

“The Campaign Planning Committee brings connections, insights, and a passion for Meredith that truly make a difference with Beyond Strong,” said Allen. “Serving in this capacity means making Meredith and her success a priority, and it speaks of a willingness to encourage others to invest in the College’s future.”

Honorary Co-chairs O. Temple Sloan, Jr. Judy Woodruff, ’68 Co-chairs Jo Cooper, ’67 Ann Lowery Shivar, ’74 Ex-officio Members Maureen K. O’Connor Paula Sims Committee Members Christie Barbee, ’83 Peggy Beale, ’77 Elizabeth Beam, ’72 Rogers Clark Leo Daughtry

Lawrence Davis Elizabeth Dove, ’84 Loren Edwards Andrea Fox, ’95 Leslie Hayes, ’80 Alex Holmes Ann Batson James, ’67 Phil Kirk Gene Langley Durwood Laughinghouse Billy Maddalon Kel Normann Allen Page Matthew Poslusny Silda Wall Spitzer, ’80 Fran Teter Deborah Tippett Richard Urquhart

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Meredith Forever: Strategic Plan Year Two Highlights

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• Launched campus-wide intranet, providing internal platform for community engagement • Implemented new technology to support videoconferencing and distance education • Realized 45% in cost savings from energy management initiatives

or more than a century, Meredith College has been Going Strong.

And with the support of our community and the direction provided by Meredith Forever, the College is becoming stronger every day.

What does going strong look like? Increased enrollment. Expanded academic programs. Record-breaking fundraising.

Engaged alumnae who are visibly and justly proud of their alma mater.

Below are highlights from year two of our strategic plan.

Visibility

Educational Excellence • Piloted StrongPoints®, an innovative advising and personal coaching model • Completed Classroom to Career (C2C) pathways for every major • Celebrated our successful graduates – 98.5% are employed or pursuing graduate study within nine months of graduation • Engaged MAP-Works platform to better support high-quality advising and impact student satisfaction, retention, and degree completion • Initiated a partnership with WakeMed Cary, expanding Meredith’s Dietetic Internship program

Enrollment • Surpassed enrollment goal of 430 firsttime, full-time freshmen by more than 40 students • Continued expansion of Alumnae Recruiting Meredith Students (ARMS) program • Selected first cohort for Broyhill Business Fellows program • Continued to improve retention rates, far surpassing our peers • Brought new name and emphasis to Wings – Adult Education at Meredith • Increased enrollment in the College’s pre-health post-baccalaureate certificate program

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• Established 1891 Club to increase student engagement and prepare for their role as young alumnae

Financial Strength • Raised $18,187,915 in Beyond Strong | The Campaign For Meredith – the largest fundraising year in our history • Finished the second year of the quiet phase with $31,067,826 in total Campaign giving • Raised $1,455,101 in annual giving, a 22% increase or $262,395 more than last year • Increased faculty/staff participation in annual giving to 60% – 10% over last year • Received $13,680 from the senior class of 2014, compared to $10,369 in 2013

Facilities and Technology • Built StrengthsLab in support of StrongPoints • Upgraded campus wireless network and completed recabling project for technology • Replaced windows in Jones and Wainwright for sustainability and aesthetics • Enhanced accessibility of meredith.edu through video captioning

• Completed first year of the new Meredith College | Going Strong branding campaign • Created new recruitment and fundraising marketing materials, supporting higher first-year enrollment and record fundraising • Increased traffic from unique visitors to meredith.edu by 67% in 11 months following launch • Increased social media fan base by 29% over previous academic year • Developed advertising to support renewed emphasis on adult learners

Quality of Life • Developed program in workforce flexibility • Enhanced accessibility of facilities • Out-performed peer institutions in 13 of 15 categories in “Great Colleges to Work For” survey • Launched “PEARLS,” a new student group focusing on health and wellness • Demonstrated ongoing commitment to faculty/staff wellness initiatives • Provided permanent salary increases for full-time Meredith employees • Emphasized sustainability through energy management and sustainable green and blue cleaning practices • Increased local food purchasing and reduced food waste while supporting student outreach through Campus Kitchens at Meredith College To learn more about how Meredith is Going Strong, download the full Strategic Plan Year Two Highlights at meredith.edu/ strategic-plan.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

How Planning is Making Strong Women (and Meredith!) Even Stronger

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ike many of you, I keep a “to do” list that helps me plan my days. And, yes, occasionally I cheat. I add an item or two that I can quickly accomplish just to enjoy the satisfaction of checking it off. (That helps offset the days when I don’t get to check off anything.)

The “to do” list for Meredith is our strategic plan that lays out the College’s priorities for the next several years. Titled Meredith Forever, the plan has created great energy, collaboration, and vision for Meredith College. Most of all it has brought us focus; for in the absence of a plan, it is hard to agree on what needs to be on the list, in what order, and with what anticipated results to fully achieve our goals of strengthening the College.

Now in our second year of implementing the plan, I am delighted to report that we are making significant progress on its priorities, and the results are impressive: our largest fundraising year in history (over $18 advising, combined with financial and camillion), our largest endowment in history reer planning, are helping students under(over $93 million), and our second largest stand how plans help them stay focused on class in history (471, compared to our larg- the important decisions leading to timely graduation, minimal est class of 477). And debt, and satisfying our reinvigoration “Ultimately, the plan careers and lives after of the adult educarequires that we focus on Meredith. tion program, Wings Other goals in (formerly known as what Meredith has always our plan focus on 23+ and Continuing done best: help strong, enrollment, financial Education), is already bright, engaged women gaining momentum build on their strengths to strength, facilities, and quality of life; with a $1.7 million and we are making planned gift and a become even stronger. ” steady progress on $780,000 realized gift – Jo Allen each of those goals. to jumpstart the program with scholarships and operating funds. Of course, the celebration of the success Another key area of emphasis has been ful new brand – Meredith College | Going the roll-out of StrongPoints®, Meredith’s Strong – is the icing on the cake. signature program that provides individu- Ultimately, the plan requires that we foalized coaching for each student, based on cus on what Meredith has always done best: her strengths. Academic and experiential help strong, bright, engaged women build

on their strengths to become even stronger.

That success, coupled with the solid educational, financial, and community-centered foundations of the College, are the building blocks of our strength as we head toward our 125th anniversary in 2016. We are excited that our path to the future echoes our legacy of strength, mirrors our ongoing commitment to excellence, and projects our strongest possible future.

In short, the plan is working and we are checking off our “to do’s” – all to ensure that Meredith continues Going Strong.

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Cornhuskin’ Tradition Continues to Thrive

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eredith’s annual Cornhuskin’ competition was held on November 7, 2014. Alumnae, friends, and families packed the campus to watch the classes in the parade during the afternoon and for the main event that evening. The Class of 2015 celebrated their final Cornhuskin’, while reminiscing about all the places they have been during their four years at Meredith. Cornhuskin’ has been held at Meredith since 1945.

Watch a video of Can Art 2014 on youtube.com/meredithcollege.

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By the Numbers: Undergraduate Research in 2014-15

32%

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of Meredith students participate in undergraduate research

summer research projects were supported. Eight were funded by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation and 10 were funded by the Shepard K. Halsch Academic Enrichment Fund.

students presented their research during the Taste of Research showcase

34 proposals submitted for summer research partnership grants, an increase of 55% over the previous year

79 full-time faculty members mentored 233 students in formal research or presentations

Meredith Experts in the News Meredith faculty and staff served as experts in a wide variety of news articles, including CNBC, The Chicago Tribune, NerdScholar. com, and University Business.

“[Women’s college alumnae] look out for each other and advocate for one another professionally. They know the kind of women a Meredith education develops: smart, confident, ethical leaders who work hard and know how to make things happen. Current students benefit from powerful alumnae networks because of the legacy created through mentorship and community.”

“California seems particu-

— Associate Director of Admissions Lindsey Ringenbach, in an article on NerdScholar.com about the benefits of attending a women’s college. The story was also published by HuffingtonPost.com.

larly vulnerable to arsenic contamination. It has areas of high arsenic concentration.

Groundwater in contact with rocks of high arsenic concentration will naturally leach out arsenic.”

— Professor of Biological Sciences Francie Cuffney, in a CNBC.com story about California’s drought and water conservation issues.

“Reading about these events sets up a script in their minds about what to expect, so that when we actually do these fun things each year, they are better able to understand and contextualize them.

I hope this will strengthen their memories.”

— Associate Professor of Psychology Gwynn Morris, on using a personalized picture book of holiday traditions to help create lasting holiday memories for children. The story ran in The Chicago Tribune.

“Our new [Going Strong] brand has been the basis for our fundraising campaign, the largest in our history.”

— President Jo Allen, in a University Business article about how colleges can create successful brands. Allen discussed how a brand supports college initiatives.

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PHOTO BY ILONA SZWARC

NEWS

Art Exhibition Looks at Lives of American Girls Meredith was the first college to hold an exhibition of AMERICAN GIRLS, a collection of photographs by Ilona Szwarc, an award-winning photographer with international acclaim.

The AMERICAN GIRLS exhibit consisted of a series of large scale photographic color images of girls with their American Girl dolls taken in their home environment. In the collection, Szwarc explores issues of social status, gender identification, and self-image.

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Artist Ilona Szwarc (left) discusses her work with Meredith art students.

Newsmakers Associate Professor of Art Warner Hyde spent a week at the studio of international artist Peter Callas, firing an anagama kiln. This kiln was the first of its kind built in the United States, and was used by Peter Voulkos, one of the most important ceramic artists of the 20th century. Hyde’s work from this experience was included in an invitational show, “Quiet Inspirations” in November at the North Carolina Pottery Museum in Seagrove, N.C. Assistant Professor of Political Science Whitney Ross Manzo is the coauthor of the lead article in the current issue of the Election Law Journal, the premier journal in the field. The article, “The Impact of Cox v.

Larios on State Legislative Population Deviations,” is about how the Supreme Court’s ruling in Cox v. Larios has changed how states redistrict.

“The Drawer,” a short film by Professor of Art Jane Terry, was an official selection of the international 27th Annual Dallas Video Fest, which was held in October. Terry attended the screening of her work at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas.

The Department of Marketing won two Honorable Mention awards in the Raleigh Public Relations Society’s Sir Walter Raleigh Awards competition. The team was recognized for website design and the Status of Girls in North Carolina video.

Interim Dean of the School of Business Jane Barnes and Associate Professor of Business Ying Liao presented a paper, “The Role of Knowledge Acquisition in Product Innovation Flexibility in SMEs: An Empirical Study” at the annual meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute in Tampa, Fla., on November 23.

Associate Professor of English Laura Fine presented a paper, “Make Them Know: Literary and Cultural Reconstructions in Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones” at the American Studies Association conference at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas, on November 14.

Associate Professor of Art Shannon Johnstone’s Landfill Dogs project was featured on CNN.com on November 24.

Johnstone’s work, using photography to help find permanent homes for dogs in the Wake County Animal Center, has gained national attention, including a feature on ABC’s World News Tonight.

Meredith College Featured on Jeopardy!

Meredith College was featured on Jeopardy! during the October 1, 2014, episode.

The College was part of a clue in the category “Mere Merediths.” The answer was “Meredith College is a women’s college located in this capital of The Tar Heel State.”

Other Merediths in the category were actor Burgess Meredith, journalist Meredith Viera, Meredith Willson, the composer of The Music Man, and civil rights leader James Meredith.

Professor Ellen Goode Receives ASID Carolinas Chapter Educator Award Ellen Goode, professor of human environmental sciences, is the recipient of the 2014 American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Carolinas Chapter Educator Award.

This award recognizes and honors an ASID Carolinas individual, organization, or school that has made an outstanding contribution in design education of major or longterm significance providing chapter-wide impact.

For more than 30 years Goode has served as a faculty member for Meredith’s interior design program. Courses she teaches regularly are design studios, lighting design, and history of interiors. In addition, she practices commercial interior design, including design work on Meredith’s Sansepolcro, Italy, study abroad site, and local churches, schools, hospitals, and offices. Goode is NCIDQ certified and a professional member of ASID, IIDA, and IDEC. Goode received the award during the chapter’s annual conference, held September 26-27, in Greensboro, N.C. The interior design program at Meredith is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation. Meredith is the only school in the Triangle area to hold CIDA accreditation.

Former Writer-in-Residence Inducted into N.C. Literary Hall of Fame Former Meredith College Writer-in-Residence Betty Adcock was one of four writers inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. The 2014 inductees were honored in a ceremony at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities in Southern Pines on October 12.

Largely self-educated, Adcock studied and wrote poetry through early marriage, early motherhood, and more than a decade working in the business world. After her first book was published, she held a teaching residency for a semester at Duke University. Other residencies followed, culminating in her position as Writer-in-Residence at Meredith College, where she taught until 2006 and twice held the Mary Lynch Johnson Professorship. She is the author of six poetry collections and the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the North Carolina Medal for Literature, among many other honors and awards.

The North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame celebrates and promotes the state’s rich literary heritage by commemorating its leading authors and encouraging the continued flourishing of great literature. Inductions are held every other year.

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Eboo Patel

Philip Fimmano

Elizabeth Spencer

Notables on Campus Elizabeth Spencer Acclaimed author Elizabeth Spencer held a reading at Meredith on October 15, 2014, sponsored by the Department of English.

Spencer has been an important force in Southern literature since her first novel, Fire in the Morning, was published in 1948. Since that time, she has published eight other novels, including the well-known Light in the Piazza (1960), which was adapted for film in 1962 and won six Tony Awards as a Broadway play in 2005.

Alongside her prolific writing career, Spencer spent many years teaching English and writing, finishing her teaching career as a visiting professor of creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including elec-

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tion to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Fashion Forecaster Philip Fimmano Students in Meredith’s fashion program had the opportunity to learn from world-renowned fashion forecaster Philip Fimmano on November 13. The Paris-based Fimmano is an analyst of trends for fashion, design, and lifestyle clients.

Fimmano conducted an Innovative Fashion Forecasting workshop attended by all of Meredith’s fashion students. As a contemporary design specialist, Fimmano provides concept, color, and strategy consulting ser-

vices to companies in industries as varied as fashion, textiles, interiors, architecture, food, beauty, finance, and retail.

Interfaith Leader Eboo Patel During his fall 2014 convocation at Meredith, Eboo Patel, the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), pulled stories from current headlines and religious history to demonstrate why knowledge of religious diversity is vital.

“If you are going to be a leader and an educated person in the 21st century, you need to have knowledge about religious diversity,” said Patel, who noted that the United States is the most religiously diverse nation in history.

Patel recommended that people develop

Southern Foodways Chef Panel

“The South is changing – diversifying. Food is one way to grasp that progress.”

– John T. Edge, Director of the Southern Foodways Alliance

an appreciative knowledge of other faiths.

He asked the audience to identify admirable qualities of their faith traditions that they would want others to know. He also suggested considering how they had been inspired by people of other faiths.

“What is the relationship between what [you] believe, and the people around you who believe different things?,” Patel asked. “Asking this is part of owning your own faith tradition.”

IFYC is an organization that works primarily with college campuses to build a movement of interfaith cooperation. Patel made an impact at Meredith College in advance of his September 30 visit. Students in Associate Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies Shannon Grimes’ class were inspired to form an Interfaith Council after

reading one of Patel’s books. The Interfaith Council led an effort to create an on-campus Interfaith Meditation and Prayer Room, which Patel helped to dedicate while on campus.

Chefs Discuss the Changing Culture of Southern Food Chefs from around the Triangle joined John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and a columnist for Garden & Gun, Oxford American, and Southern Living, at Meredith on November 3, for a film premiere and a panel discussion about the evolution of southern cuisine as a result of the region’s changing demographics. The event was sponsored by the Meredith Master of Science in Nutrition program.

Edge introduced Un Buen Carnicero, a short documentary that explores the ways Mexican and southern culture complement each other at Cliff’s Meat Market, a butcher shop located in Carrboro, N.C. After the screening, Edge moderated a conversation between Chef Ricky Moore of Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham; Chef Ashley Christensen of Poole’s Diner, Beasley’s Chicken + Honey, Chuck’s, Fox Liquor Bar, and Joule Coffee, all located in downtown Raleigh; Chef Andrea Reusing of Lantern Restaurant in Chapel Hill; Chef Scott Crawford of Standard Foods and Nash Tavern; and local farmers and entrepreneurs Jamie DeMent and Richard Holcomb of Coon Rock Farm and Bella Bean Organics, Heirloom Provisions, and Piedmont Restaurant.

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Avenging Angels Achieve Championship Fall Season

By Wendy Jones

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eredith’s Avenging Angels enjoyed a successful fall season with the cross country, soccer, and volleyball teams all earning new championship banners that will hang in Weatherspoon Gymnasium.

Cross country earned their second consecutive USA South Championship crown November 1. Allie Gallagher, ’16, Itzel Gonzalez, ’17, and Caitlin Dorantich, ’15, crossed the finish line in third, fourth, and fifth place to edge Meredith past the Covenant Scots by just three points in the 6000 meter race.

Head Coach Amy Olsen earned her second consecutive Coach of the Year honor this year.

Soccer recorded a conference record of 10-1-1, including nine consecutive victories, to capture a share of the 2014 USA South Women’s Soccer Regular Season Championship. Danielle Lee, ’15, ranked in the top two in the USA South all season in total assists and ranked as high as third nationally.

The Avenging Angels earned the number one seed in the league tournament and advanced to the semifinals.

Head Coach Paul Smith garnered his second Coach of the Year honors.

A young volleyball squad, graduating no seniors this year, posted 25 wins to tie the all-time winningest season on record for Meredith.

With a 16-3 conference record, the Avenging Angels earned the 2014 USA South North Division title and entered the tournament as a number-one seed.

Follow the continued success of Meredith athletics at goavengingangels.com.

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Awards Earned by Avenging Angels Players in Fall Sports Highlights of the individual awards earned by Meredith athletes during this championship fall.

Cross Country All-Conference First Team: Allie Gallagher, ’16, Itzel Gonzalez, ’17, and Caitlin Dorantich, ’15 Second Team: Mary Kate Morgan, ’18 All-Conference: Heather West, ’17, Illa Jones, ’16, and Brittaney Rice, ’15.

Conference Rookie Runner of the Year: Mary Kate Morgan, ’18 Conference All-sportsmanship: Callie Davis, ’15 Soccer Conference Rookie of the Year: Jaisa Loch, ’18, just the third goalie to earn this honor since the award’s inception in 1995 All-Conference First Team: Danielle Lee, ’15, Anna Smither, ’15, and Jaisa Loch Second Team: Meredith McCarty, ’17, and Megan Luke, ’16 Honorable Mention: Megan Amanatides, ’15, Cassie Padilla, ’18, and Jamison Kidd, ’17 All-Sportsmanship: Megan Luke NC Sports Information Association All-State First Team: Danielle Lee and Anna Smither Second Team: Meredith McCarty Volleyball American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III All-America Honorable Mention: Karlie Long, ’17, collected this accolade, one of the program’s highest honors.

Conference First Team: Karlie Long Second Team: Elizabeth Pattison, ’17 All-Sportsmanship: Jasmine Aguinaldo, ’16

STRONG STORIES

The fast track to success

By Meaghan Bixby

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fter earning her bachelor’s degree in 2004 from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Katherine Pfohl, ’13, MBA, returned to Raleigh to join Sunrock Group Holdings Corporation, the company her family has owned for 65 years. As she climbed the corporate ladder – first as corporate secretary and eventually vice president of administration – she supplemented her social sciences background with on-thejob business training.

When she decided she wanted to fully round out her skillset and knowledge base to further advance her career, she chose to enroll in the Meredith MBA’s one-year accelerated degree program.

“Meredith’s location was key in allowing me to remain involved at work on a parttime basis while I completed my degree at a quicker pace than traditional full-time programs,” she said. She was also drawn to the flexibility, quality of the faculty, and low student-to-faculty ratio of Meredith’s program.

Once enrolled, Pfohl found even more to like. Classroom discussions offered insights from diverse industries and points of view. Indepth case studies fostered an appreciation of all the moving parts that comprise a business.

She enhanced the business know-how she picked up throughout her career. “My Meredith MBA rounded out my academic and professional training and gave me added confidence in my abilities.”

Those abilities include effective communication and organization. “You only get one chance to make a first impression,” Pfohl said. “In the boardroom you need to have

KATHERINE PFOHL, ’13, MBA your facts straight, your message on point, and your command of the topic unwavering.

How you prepare those components can make all the difference.”

Pfohl also discovered a knack for time management. “Balancing my personal and professional life while going through the program forced me to be more focused and accountable for my time,” she said. It’s a mindset that has served her well. “Practicing thoughtful time management has made me more effective and efficient.”

Her increased aptitude has not gone unnoticed. In November 2013, she was promoted to executive vice president of Sunrock. In her new position, she is responsible

for the legal, compliance, human resources, and administrative functions of the organization. She’s also involved in setting the company’s strategic direction and implementing change management initiatives.

One lesson that she took away from the program is especially important to her in her new role – the significance of a strong team.

“The value of a successful team is one that builds on individual strengths for the collective good of the team,” she said. “Even though team members may have different technical competencies, work styles, and strengths, the end result is a deeper appreciation for the value of teamwork and a celebration of individual strengths.”

Meredith College is Going Strong. And the best evidence of that strength lies in the success of our community – our students, alumnae, and our faculty and staff. We’ll be sharing strong stories in each issue of Meredith Magazine. You can find more strong stories, including videos, at meredith.edu/goingstrong.

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Professor of Education to Deliver Faculty Distinguished Lecture

By Melyssa Allen

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rofessor of Education Mary Kay Delaney will present the 2015 Faculty Distinguished Lecture.

Delaney will speak on March 17, 2015, at 7 p.m. in Jones Auditorium. Her topic is “Why Fidgeting and Doodling Matter: Reflecting on Movement in Learning and Teaching.”

A member of the faculty since 2007, Delaney serves as head of Meredith’s Department of Education. She has extensive experience as an educator, including recent service as an ap-

pointed member of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Think Tank on K-3 Assessment. She holds a B.A. from George Washington University, an M.Ed. from Harvard, and a Ph.D. from UNCChapel Hill.

The Faculty Distinguished Lecture was designed to represent a significant achievement of research by a faculty member. The first lecture was presented in 1964 by Professor of English Norma Rose.

Students Support “This Day in N.C. History” Project

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o you know what happened on this date in North Carolina history? Students who took Meredith’s History 300 class in fall 2014 just might.

These public history students helped bring significant moments in the state’s history to a wide audience.

Students in Associate Professor of History Dan Fountain’s class were asked to research and write about historic occurrences for the “This Day in North Carolina History” blog, which is produced by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

The project gave students an opportunity to do the kind of work done by public historians.

“Public historians must be able to research topics and then write for a general, public audience,” Fountain said. “Our mission is to teach history in public settings so writing about historical topics for a blog sponsored by the Department of Cultural Resources allows students to demonstrate that they can produce work that is expected of professionals.”

Fountain said students were able to practice a variety of skills as part of the project.

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“Students had to conduct research into the subject matter and determine what were the most important and interesting features of the subject matter assigned,” Fountain said.

“They had to learn how to write succinctly but with substance.

They had 200 words to cover the topic entirely.

Students also learned how to conduct and receive peer review. Each entry was reviewed by a team in the class and students received the editorial suggestions from their peers and instructor.”

The primary challenge for the student historians was learning to convey facts in an interesting but concise way.

“Trying to accurately portray an event or person in 200 words is very challenging,” said Callie Davis, ’15. It was difficult to decide what to include and what not to include in the blog post. You want to make sure you

are engaging your audience and giving them the most complete story you can.”

Ashley Owens, ’17, said making history intriguing and meaningful was the most rewarding part of the project.

“We had to decide what were the most important points as well as what would be the most interesting to the public,” Owens said. “Stories of the past are important and should not be forgotten.”

The class worked with Ansley Herring Wegner, research historian for the Department of Cultural Resources, on the project.

“It was nice to see what the students came up with,” Wegner said. “Several of their entries were just excellent, and they were fun to read.”

The blog can be viewed at nchistorytoday.wordpress.com.

Meredith Report to Explore Status of Women in North Carolina Politics

By Melyssa Allen

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omen make up 54% of the electorate but only hold 22% of elected office in North Carolina.

Meredith College will put a spotlight on this issue with a special report on the Status of Women in North Carolina Politics.

“Politics has been called the last glass ceiling,” said Visiting Professor of Political Science David McLennan, who is putting together the report with the assistance of student researchers.

The report, due out this spring, will examine women as voters and elected leaders throughout the state. It will tie this information into current scholarly research on the underrepresentation of women and make recommendations for how the situation with women elected leaders can be improved.

Earlier this academic year, a campus forum for women on the November 2014 bal-

lot explored the reasons why there is a deficit of women in elected office. All women candidates who were on the ballot in Wake County were invited to the forum, which was held September 15. There were 16 participants who were running for offices including the U.S. House of Representatives, N.C. House, N.C. Senate, Wake County District Attorney, Wake County Board of Commissioners, and several judicial seats.

Each candidate shared her political background and motivations for seeking public office. Their reasons for running for political office included wanting to be part of deci-

sions, believing one voice makes a difference, and a desire to give back to their communities. Many of the candidates said they never expected to run for office but were motivated by a desire to see change in their state or community.

The event was sponsored by Meredith Votes, a campus-wide, nonpartisan voter registration, education, and turn out effort. The course is typically offered during election years. Other projects completed by students in the course included registering voters on campus and creating a voter guide that ran in The Meredith Herald.

Meredith MBA Adds Concentration in Human Resource Management

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trong, knowledgeable, and ethical human resource management professionals are always in high demand. To meet the need for skilled professionals, the Meredith MBA has a new option – a human resource management concentration designed to complement the MBA’s core curriculum.

“The Triangle is expecting a significant growth in HR manager positions in the next several years. An MBA with a concentration in HRM will give candidates

for those positions a broad knowledge of overall business strategy, thus providing them a competitive edge and helping prepare them to be leaders in the HR field,” said Jane Barnes, interim dean of Meredith’s School of Business.

To earn the concentration, students will complete the 30-credit-hour Meredith MBA – choosing two human resource management elective courses – along with two additional human resource management electives for a total of 36 credit

hours. Human resources professionals who complete the concentration will be able to earn up to 15 hours of Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) business credits for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) continuing education.

Meredith is accepting applications now for the new program. Students can begin classes in The Meredith MBA with HR Management concentration in May 2015.

Learn more at meredith.edu/mba.

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CAMPUS

NEWS

Virus Hunter Nathan Wolfe to Present 2015 Founders’ Day Lecture

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andemic Expert and “Virus Hunter” Nathan Wolfe will present Meredith College’s 2015 Founders’ Day Lecture on February 26, 2015, in Jones Auditorium. The lecture is presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Wolfe has spent his life studying deadly viruses to detect worldwide disease pandemics before they kill millions. Called the Indiana Jones of virus hunting, Wolfe travels the world to track, study, and eradicate the next pandemic before it strikes. One of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World

for 2011, he draws on his breakthrough discoveries to tell us where viruses come from, why they spread, and how to stop them.

Wolfe rethinks pandemic control for our globalized world. By concentrating on how epidemic diseases, such as HIV, SARS, and West Nile, all stem from human contact with infected animals, he is able to discover new threatening viruses where they first emerge.

His debut book, The Viral Storm, is an “en-

grossing and fast-paced chronicle of medical exploration and discovery” (Publisher’s Weekly) that takes readers from the jungles of Africa to Wolfe’s state-of-the-art labs, shedding light on the often overlooked but ultimately critical field of microbiology. It has been published in six languages and was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize.

The Founders’ Day lecture is free and open to the public.

Meredith’s Teaching Alumnae Among Top 50 Nationally

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eredith College made the “Top 50 Alma Maters of National Board Certified Teachers in 2014.” Meredith came in at 43 in the nation and is the only private institution in North Carolina to make the list.

To earn this recognition, Meredith College had 13 alumnae earn National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification in 2014.

Established in 1987, the National Board is an independent, nonprofit organization working to advance accomplished teaching for all students. National Board certification is considered the gold standard in teacher certification.

Meredith College’s education program has a unique approach to educating teachers. A Meredith student who plans to become a teacher majors in the field of her choice and, at the same time, pursues a program that leads to teaching licensure. This combination of a college major plus a teacher education program uniquely prepares Meredith graduates to meet the needs of their students.

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Annual Meredith Event Honors All Veterans

By Melyssa Allen

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eredith College held its annual While it is called Honoring Women Veterans Day commemoration, Veterans, the event recognized and celHonoring Women Veterans, on ebrated the service of all veterans. Allen November 12, 2014. The featured speaker asked any veterans and active duty military in attendance to stand for for this year’s commemorecognition. ration was Brigadier GenAs a women’s college, eral Jeff Clark, director Meredith draws special of Walter Reed National attention to women veterMilitary Medical Center. ans, who have been called President Jo Allen “invisible soldiers, because welcomed the campus their service went largely community and noted unrecognized until the that the timing of Veter1970s,” Allen said. ans Day in the Thanksgiv- Brigadier General Clark Approximately 10% of ing season is appropriate.

“Veterans Day should be commemorated the 22 million veterans in the United States in the season of gratitude and wonder,” Allen are women. Ten percent of the 800,000 said. “We are thankful for the honor veterans veterans who live in North Carolina are women. bestow on us, as worthy of their service.”

Brigadier General Clark is the first Army officer to lead Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. “We get to care for America’s heroes,” Clark said.

In his remarks, Clark drew attention to the sacrifice not only of veterans but of their families. There are 1.1 million military spouses, and 2.2 million children of military families in the U.S. “When you hear the word veteran, I ask that you also think of the veteran’s family,” Clark said.

Military service is a family commitment, Clark said.

“When we pause to honor military service, as Meredith College does each year, I propose we pause twice, once for veterans and once for their families,” Clark said.

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2012

STRONGER THAN EVER Human Environmental Sciences Department Celebrates 100 Years 18

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1975

By Suzanne Stanard

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he sun is bright and the sky a brilliant cobalt blue. Campus is quiet outside Martin Hall, as a handful of students cross the tree-lined quad plugged into ear buds or chatting with friends.

Inside the building, the halls buzz with energy.

Fashion design and merchandising students in Assistant Professor Eunyoung Yang’s lab – a bright, open space reminiscent of the “Project Runway” set – are tailoring jackets.

Across the hall in the resource room, high school interior design teacher Julie Watkins, ’07, prepares for a meeting of professional colleagues.

Around the corner, juniors in Associate Professor Jane Crowley’s interior design studio are using 3-D Revit software to design rooms, seeing their virtual spaces come to life on the screen.

At the same time, a “Foundations in Family & Consumer Sciences” lecture is taking place, and child development majors are gaining real-world experience at the Ellen Brewer Infant and Toddler Lab Home, a stone’s throw away from Martin Hall.

This is a typical Thursday morning in the Department of Human Environmental Sciences.

Many things have changed since the department first opened its doors on Sep-

tember 12, 1914. But one thing remains the same: its mission to improve the quality of people’s lives.

“Over the years, our department has grown and adapted to changing times to offer students a truly integrated experience,” said Deborah Tippett, professor and head of the Department of Human Environmental Sciences. “Throughout change, our commitment to our history and original mission remain steadfast.”

Tippett, who joined the department as an instructor and rose through the ranks to full professor, became head in 1995. She succeeded Dr. Marilyn Stuber, who had held the post for nearly 30 years. In fact, since 1922, the departS p ring 2015 | M E R E D IT H M A G A Z I N E

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Andie Stuber, ’13 Project designer, iS design, p.a.

1990

“Projects in my classes required me to think critically and explore real world solutions to design problems that are similar to what I encounter on a daily basis in my job.

My experience in the department also encouraged me to develop leadership skills that gave me confidence in my abilities as a designer.”

2012

ment has had only three heads.

This longevity trend also extends into the faculty. Today, nearly half of the department’s full-time faculty have taught at Meredith for more than 20 years.

“I think that one of the biggest strengths of our department is our faculty and their dedication to students,” Tippett said. “There is a consistent concern for meeting the needs of students, and not just their immediate needs, but also what will make them stronger, what will make them good professionals after they graduate.”

When Tippett joined the department in

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1987, there were five full-time faculty members. Today there are 11, thanks in large part to her efforts to build capacity.

“When I came on board, I remember thinking this department is so ambitious, trying to do so much with so few people,” Tippett said. “And the department continued to grow. In fact, during the spring of my first year, five distinct majors were approved. I remember thinking, ‘How are we going to do this with so few people?’”

A similar sentiment probably crossed the mind of Katherine Parker, Class of 1910, who was chosen to lead the brand-new Home

Economics Department in 1914.

The freshly minted department offered seven courses in areas such as “cooking” and “household management.” Growth was immediate, with new courses in textiles, domestic science, and domestic arts joining the catalogue by 1916.

According to an extensive history authored by Stuber, (and available on the College Archives section of the library website) a series of seven department heads served until 1922 and carried the department through the “clouds of World War I,” an influenza quarantine, the suffrage movement, and in her

2014

Melissa de Leon, ’14 Owner, designer, and publisher, “Mel in Chanel” fashion blog “Studying abroad in Paris was a dream that the department (and my awesome parents) allowed to come true. Paris heightened all of my passions, my drive, and my brain capacity. It changed my life in the best way possible and really helped me take a step forward.”

1920s

final years, the relocation of Meredith College from its original Blount Street location to its current home.

In 1922, the Trustees suggested that Dr. Ellen Brewer, a 1918 graduate, be hired despite the objections of her father, then-President Charles Brewer. She held the post until her retirement 43 years later. The Brewer years were marked by a slew of new courses and a new focus on teacher education. The Great Depression and World War II dominated her tenure in the 1930s and 1940s, during which time she led the department’s many contributions to the national response.

In a bright spot during that era, garments made and modeled by Meredith students won first place ten times in the “Annual Style Show” sponsored by State College (now NC State University). And in 1942, the fashion program was featured in a story in National Geographic.

With the end of the war came the baby boom and a decade of prosperity. As a result, the national home economics movement flourished.

“The decades of the 1950s and 1960s into the early 1970s were growth years for home economics, with enrollments burgeoning,

new buildings being erected, and increased funds going into laboratories and equipment,” Stuber wrote. At Meredith, a new home for the department, Hunter Hall, was completed in 1959, followed by the Ellen Brewer Home Management House, which was completed in 1960.

Stuber took the department’s helm in 1967, during a period of extraordinary social change and political and civil unrest at home and abroad. The home economics paradigm shifted away from training homemakers to focus instead on professional preparation for employment outside the home.

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Mary-Kathryn Pate Connor, ’04 Meredith College instructor, former career development services coordinator “Teachers play a fundamental role in preparing young people for the opportunities that lie ahead of them in the real world. As an educator, that world

“Women began to move into professional areas that had not been open to them before,” Stuber wrote. “They began to define themselves in ways other than as somebody’s wife or somebody’s mother.”

The department responded, adding new courses in child development and interior design as well as a household furnishings laboratory.

The “anti-establishment” movement fueled by events of the 1960s carried into the 1970s, causing home economics departments throughout the country to change their names to titles that didn’t include the word

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includes the preparation of individuals to become independent, to assume family roles, to contribute to the good of the community and society, to balance work and family, and to transfer personal skills to the workplace … all things I learned in the Department of Human Environmental Sciences.”

“home,” according to Stuber’s history. The decade also ushered in a movement away from a generalized field of study to specialized areas of professional education.

Meredith experienced a surge in home economics growth during the 1970s and early 1980s. Five new majors – child development, clothing and fashion merchandising, foods and nutrition, interior design, and general home economics – were approved in the department in 1988, giving students the opportunity to earn degrees in specialized areas of study.

In 1991, the Ellen Brewer Home Man-

agement House was converted to the Ellen Brewer Infant and Toddler Lab Home, a fully licensed and self-supporting learning environment for child development majors. By 1999, the department was approved to offer a licensure program in birth-through-kindergarten education.

The interior design program achieved a major milestone in 1994, becoming the first in the state to have a six-year national accreditation by the Foundation for Interior Design Education and Research (now the Council for Interior Design Accreditation). The interior design curriculum broadened its focus on

1960s

2012 residential and commercial design to include a strong emphasis on sustainability, technology, and global awareness. Meredith’s program is still the only CIDA-accredited program in the Triangle.

One of Stuber’s last acts in spring 1995 was to lead the department in a name change to Human Environmental Sciences, chosen with input from students, alumnae, and faculty. In 1995, Tippett became department head upon Stuber’s retirement, continuing the legacy of growth and innovation established by those before her.

Change was constant through the 1990s,

and in 1997 the home economics major became Family and Consumer Sciences, a strong interdisciplinary major in which students take courses in all of the department’s program areas.

“The thing that I’ve worked the hardest on is building resources, both human and financial,” Tippett said.

Tippett’s hard work continues to pay off.

Endowments for the department today exceed $2 million, and there are planned gifts that exceed $5 million. In May of 2014, 40 scholarships will be awarded, totaling $92,363. Tippett herself has a major planned

gift in the works to support student leadership opportunities.

In 2003, Tippett ushered the department through a major building renovation that transformed former second-floor chemistry labs into state-of-the-art classrooms, nearly doubling the department’s space in Martin Hall.

By 2010, the department had 14 full-time faculty, including its first male full-time professors. That same year also brought a change, when the nutrition major was reassigned to a new department because of a college-level reorganization. Nutrition joined with health and S p ring 2015 | M E R E D IT H M A G A Z I N E

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1970s

exercise science to become the Department of Nutrition, Health, and Human Performance.

However, Tippett added emphatically, nutrition alumnae are included in the department’s year-long centennial celebration, which culminates with a day-long tribute in April.

Today, the department has 22 percent of all declared majors at Meredith.

“We were the first four-year home economics program at a private college in North Carolina, and remain the only one in the Triangle,” Tippet said. “The quality and rigor of our academic program is exceptional. When

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I read course evaluations and students say the courses are too hard – that expectations are too high – I say ‘Good! That’s exactly what we want.’”

“We offer degree programs that may be tough, but in which students are going to be successful … programs that will make them strong while they’re here and strong as graduates.”

Outside the classroom, opportunities for real-world, hands-on experience abound. A large percentage of students in the department study abroad, and most all are engaged in community internships and best practices

work. In one example, child development majors must complete up to 900 hours of field work in which they observe and teach young children.

The department also is home to a nationally recognized honor society, Kappa Omicron Nu, into which the top 25 percent of students who excel in academics, leadership, and service are inducted each year. In July 2014, the department’s chapter won the Outstanding Chapter Award from the national office.

“To have a large professional degree program within the setting of a liberal arts col-

2011

lege is unique,” Tippett continued. “Our graduates are trained to be effective leaders and strong professionals, whether they choose to enter graduate school or to enter careers in their professions right away.”

There is no such thing as a typical graduate from the Human Environmental Sciences Department. These students go on to become teachers, fashion designers, buyers, store managers, product developers, early interventionists, directors of childcare centers, residential and commercial interior designers, child life specialists, and youth leaders – the possibilities are endless.

And the future is bright, Tippett said, as the department forges ahead into its next 100 years.

“I believe our department will continue to expand and change in new and exciting ways,” Tippett said. “I want to continue our growth in a way that’s thoughtful and relevant while meeting the needs of the students and the profession. We need to take an integrative approach that focuses on the big picture, and we must do it with integrity and commitment to our original mission to improve the quality of lives of families and individuals.”

You’re Invited Alumnae and friends of the Human Environmental Sciences Department are invited to a centennial celebration on April 18. Activities will include student presentations and a fashion show, speakers from the various fields of study, and a lunch to socialize with friends past and present. Stay tuned to meredith.edu/hes for more details, and join the conversation on Twitter and Instagram: #HESturns100.

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MONEY MANAGEMENT:

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW? StrongPoints® financial literacy focus promotes knowledge and power

By Jeni Baker

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oday’s women have a complicated relationship with money.

Many women earn it. Even more spend and decide (or codecide) what to do with it. In a growing number of households with married couples, women are bringing home more of it than their spouses.

The problem is, a lot of women don’t really feel like they know what they’re doing when it comes to things like managing money, investing, and saving for retirement. Research has shown that many lack confidence when it comes to making financial decisions.* To address this issue – and provide students with a multifaceted, practical education – Meredith College offers resources that educate and financially empower women of all ages, stages, and majors.

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An integrated focus on an important issue Financial literacy is one of the four components of Meredith’s comprehensive StrongPoints® program.

Interim Business School Dean Jane Barnes and Professor of Business Mary Jane Lenard are two faculty members who have been working to develop financial literacy offerings for StrongPoints, which aim to teach students about four key areas: • Creating a budget and managing money • Distinguishing between good and bad debt • Negotiating, particularly involving salary compensation • Making financial decisions that will help secure their futures, including how to best pay off college debt

Meredith is rolling out the StrongPoints’ financial literacy component in a number of ways across campus, said Barnes.

Events and offerings have included October’s Financial Literacy Week; finance-related seminars; and Business 150, a freshman introductory course open to all students.

“Students track their spending, and a business school faculty member reviews those records and discusses related topics like budgeting and credit cards,” Lenard said. “The idea is to get students thinking about how these things work, so it’s great that we had more than 80 percent freshman participation this semester.”

To meet the needs of students who don’t take the basic course, Barnes has developed a one-credit financial literacy class that will be offered in the fall 2015 semester.

*Financial Experience & Behaviors Among Women, 2014−15 Prudential Research Study

Some departments are already integrating finance-related concepts into their coursework.

“The dance studies program is getting students thinking about things like, for example, how much money they might make as dancers or dance instructors with their own studios – and whether they can live on, save, and pay off their debt with that income.”

The goal, she says, is to offer something every year so students can build on what they learn.

“We want students to think about career choices in terms of both what they want to do and how those choices will impact their finances,” Barnes said. “We want them to earn a diploma, as well as to create a long-term plan about how they can reach their life goals.”

Realism, flexibility, and patience are key.

“The point isn’t for us to say whether students should choose this or that career; it’s to teach them to find ways to meet their career goals,” Lenard said. One thing may be your passion, and another thing may be your job while you strive to turn that passion into a career.”

Why does financial literacy matter?

The short answer, Barnes said, is that you never know where life’s going to take you.

“You may start off with a great job in a booming field, you might be married, you might have certain household responsibilities,” she said.

“But because those things can change, it’s important to have an understanding of finances.”

Gender-based wage inequality is a related issue, says Associate Professor of Economics Anne York.

“Depending on how it’s measured, women earn an average of 82 cents for every dollar men earn,” York said. “Women need to be especially diligent in managing their money, finding ways to earn more money, and investing.”

While many might assume that young adults are most in need of a financial education, women at all stages of their lives can benefit from becoming more money savvy. That’s why financial-literacy activities are open to all students – from 18-year-olds to non-traditional-aged women in the Wings program.

“With regard to things like saving and investing, the same goals apply at all ages,” Barnes says. “Even if you’re 50 years old, don’t know how to balance a checkbook, and have never saved a penny, you can start – and at Meredith, we cover the gamut about all the ways to do that.”

Whether they’re paying off their own college loans, saving for their children’s education, or managing the finances of aging parents, women of all ages can only benefit from knowing more about how it all works.

“Women are raised to think that engaging with money is somehow unfeminine,” Lenard said. “This information enables us to have discussions with the people in our lives, plan, and make educated decisions to work toward our goals.”

Being money savvy is especially important for entrepreneurial-minded students, says Barnes.

“A lot of Meredith students want to start their own businesses, so it’s critical that they know how to do things like budget, effectively use credit, and balance family and work resources.”

Tips for Financial Wellness Meredith Business School faculty and alumnae share financial advice.

Establish credit – It’s particularly important for women to establish credit in their names, Professor of Business Mary Jane Lenard says. “Women sometimes think they’ll just turn all that over to their spouses.

But if something happens later on and they need to make a major purchase, they will have to have established their own credit.”

Use credit cards wisely – Frances Theodorakis, ’80, vice president at First Citizens Bank in Kinston, N.C., advises having as few (low-interest-rate) credit cards as possible, keeping a close eye on credit card debt, and paying debt off as quickly as possible. Getting a credit card from a local bank is also wise.

“Disreputable companies sometimes have interest rates as high as 30 percent, and it’s important to be able walk into an office and talk to somebody if you need help.”

Monitor your credit score – A good credit rating is critical when it comes to bor-

rowing for major purchases such as homes and cars.

“People should check their credit reports annually through organizations such as Equifax,” Theodorakis said.

“Make sure all the information is accurate, and if you find an error, work to get it corrected.”

Save for retirement – Invest in a 401K account through your employer, stressed Theodorakis.

“If your employer doesn’t have one, establish and start investing in some sort of individual retirement account (IRA) on your own,” Theodorakis said. “The number one thing is putting something away for retirement – the sooner, the better.”

Save for child care expenses – Just as we plan for college expenses once we have children, working families must start saving for childcare expenses before a child is born, says Associate Professor of Economics Anne York.

“Some women drop out of the labor market when their children are young because childcare costs are so high relative to their earnings. That time off not only reduces their pension and Social Security earnings, it makes it harder for them to get higher wages and promotions when they reenter the market – creating a cycle of continued lower pay.”

Negotiate your salary – Women are less likely to negotiate their salaries than men, Interim Dean Jane Barnes says. They’re more apt to accept the first dollar amount offered and to be afraid to come back with a higher number.

This can contribute to a gender wage gap.

“If you don’t negotiate salary when you start a job, it often compounds itself once you have the job in that you’re not asking for the bigger raises and better promotions,” she said. “This can have a huge impact on earnings over the course of a lifetime.”

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FROM MEREDITH

TO MAXIMUM

SECURITY One Alumna’s Unlikely Career as a Prison Reformer

By Meaghan Bixby

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orking in prisons wasn’t part of Camille Griffin Camp’s plan. In fact, she said she never thought of a career in corrections. But a change in professional interest and a missed deadline irrevocably changed the course of her career. As the first female warden of a men’s maximum security prison in the U.S., defying expectations has kept her going strong.

Camp earned a degree in English from Meredith in 1964 and began teaching the subject to seniors at a high school in Garner, N.C. “I enjoyed teaching the literature, the art of diagramming sentences, and especially those tricky gerunds, participles, and infinitives,” she said.

The catalyst that altered the trajectory of her career and ultimately led to her work in the prison system occurred during her fifth year of teaching. Two students in her class, both males, captured Camp’s interest. Their troubling behavior – they were distracted and disrespectful – awakened in her a passion to help correct their behavior.

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“I was determined to shape their behavior positively,” she said. “It became more important to me than teaching them English. It took much trial and error to gain their respect and attention, but I somehow found in myself the wherewithal to understand and influence both of them.”

After that year, Camp left the classroom and pursued a master’s degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina. She planned to become a school guidance counselor, a role that would allow her to focus her efforts on troubled youths while remaining in education.

During the five years she spent as a teacher, Camp married and had two children.

When she enrolled in the master’s degree program, she was required to balance a number of competing and demanding priorities – something she thought she was handling with aplomb.

“I was juggling marriage, motherhood, and academics, and I thought I wasn’t missing a beat,” she recalled. “But when I failed to sign up promptly for an assignment to a school where I would do my internship, the beat I missed would change my life forever.”

By the time she signed up for her internship, there was just one option available. “The only agency left was not my choice; it was a men’s prison,” she said. “I was assigned to conduct group therapy with 10 inmates for six months,” she said.

Despite her family’s misgivings – and some of her own – Camp began her internship at the Manning Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility in Columbia, S.C. “I showed up at the razor-wired gates with tight lips and a grapefruit in my throat, quite determined to be a successful therapist in spite of the location and clientele,” she said.

Inside the facility, Camp worked with men convicted of rape, murder, armed robbery, and other offenses. “I developed a passion to work with people who never had a chance, to help them gain insight into their behaviors and help them return to their communities as responsible men.”

Camp also got an insider’s look at the prison system and identified the need for reform. “From Manning there was no turning back,” she said. Gone was the goal of be-

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coming a school guidance counselor. In her words, she’d been bitten by the prison bug.

“I decided to change the prison world for the better,” she said.

A Quest for Decency She successfully completed her internship course and earned her master’s degree in 1972.

Then she began her first full-time job in corrections as the unit manager of a male adolescent lockup at the John G. Richards School for Boys.

“The boys were much more difficult than the men at Manning – loud, impulsive, combative, disrespectful, unruly, bitter, and not about to listen to a young woman with hair down to her knees like a hippie,” she said.

Camp surmised the poor conditions within the facility had something to do with the boys’ behavior. “They lived in cages for two occupants and had thin mattresses draped over mesh wire,” she recalled. “They relieved themselves in ‘honey pots,’ also called ‘slop jars.’ The stench was nauseating.”

Her colleagues presented another challenge. They did not share her drive for improving the facility and some actively worked against her. “The staff paid me no mind, teased me, talked unkindly to the boys about me, and subjected me to one setup after another to break my determination to reform,” she said.

Instead of giving in to the mistreatment she faced, she became even more determined. “I just made a list of things to do for the next two years and set completion dates for each project, hoping that I wouldn’t lose steam along my journey to bring decency to that unit.”

Within one year, Camp had made significant reforms. She’d fired most of the staff and brought in replacements that passed her “subjective test for caring rather than beating.”

Church groups donated funds to help make Camp’s vision a reality after they’d visited the facility at her invitation. She used their donations to paint the walls with calming colors, install real toilets, and replace those makeshift mattresses with the real thing.

“Getting mattresses for the beds was my best accomplishment, because the inmates appreciated [a level of] comfort that most of them had never experienced,” she said. “That

gratitude changed the tone of the unit.”

The atmosphere improved so much that eventually the inmates were allowed out of their cells, two at a time, to paint, clean, and even plant flowers at the entrance. Each inmate was also assigned a job to maintain the building or help with meals.

Camp established daily group therapy sessions for the inmates as well as a “token economy,” which incentivized good behavior and allowed inmates to work toward increased freedom. She and her staff met regularly to discuss any recurring problems.

“I developed a passion to work with people who never had a chance, to help them gain insight into their behaviors and help them return to their communities as responsible men.”

– Camille Griffin Camp, ’64

Her efforts paid off. “It didn’t take two years [to implement the reforms],” she said.

With the assistance of her new and carefully selected staff, she was able to effect significant change in just 15 months – well ahead of her self-imposed deadline.

The Woman for the Job Eventually, Camp was ready for her next challenge. The men’s Maximum Security Center of the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., was plagued by a number of escapes and violent incidents. The state was in search of a new warden to run the facility.

Because the two previous wardens had fallen victim to physical violence at the hands of inmates, no one in the South Carolina Department of Corrections wanted the position.

“The inmate population was made up of the most violent and escape-prone inmates in the prison system,” she said. “Every terrible day inside was chaotic and well-reported in newspapers and on TV.” “I decided I was the woman for the job,” said Camp.

She applied for the position, but was not

hired. “I wasn’t selected because I was a woman with very long hair and I had no intention of cutting it,” she said.

“Another warden was drafted to take over, but he was young and inexperienced. The stress gave him chest pains,” she said. “He was moved out after an heroic attempt to improve the unit.”

The position was available yet again, and undeterred by her predecessor’s experience, Camp reapplied.

The commissioner at the time, William D. Leeke, had concerns about Camp’s welfare if she took the job. But he also had concerns that she would sue him if she wasn’t appointed. She assured him that she would just wait for him to do the right thing. He asked her if she would cut her hair. “No sir,” she replied. “I can manage.”

Her approach worked. Leeke took her name to the Board of Trustees to approve her appointment. With their vote of approval, she made history by becoming the first female warden of a men’s maximum security prison.

She started three weeks later.

Camp wasted no time implementing reforms in the fraught environment. She again turned to the community for assistance.

Churches and colleges supported efforts to paint, renovate, and offer arts and writing programs inside the prison. She also made a change that required inmates to exercise and shower daily and take maintenance and cleaning jobs.

One of the most significant – and controversial – changes Camp made was taking away the “billy clubs” from correctional officers in an effort to control the cycle of violence.

It wasn’t a hasty decision. She planned, discussed, and wrote policies and procedures for officers to manage the inmates without clubs.

Resignations, transfers, warnings from other wardens, and gossip from the remaining officers followed the implementation of the policy.

Camp remained unfazed. “I was determined to have a force of officers who could talk with inmates, de-escalate situations, and not have to carry clubs,” she said.

“I conducted trainings on all shifts on how to implement the new way of life in the prison,” she said. “There were bumps and starts because the officers were afraid, but they obeyed. The results were phenomenal.”

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“The proof was the absence of any escapes or murder in that prison,” she said.

She also experienced another, more personal triumph. “I never cut my hair, nor was it ever grabbed by an inmate.”

The results of her work did not go unnoticed. After a year and a half as warden, she was recruited by Commissioner Leeke’s mentor, Ellis MacDougall, to implement much needed reforms in the Arizona prison system.

She accepted his offer to work in Governor Bruce Babbitt’s administration as deputy director in charge of adult corrections for the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Arizona’s system was rife with challenges.

There was no classification of inmates, which allowed for widespread corruption. MacDougall had written an evaluation of the Arizona State Prison that said it had “every correctional problem existing at all other prisons put together,” and that he’d “never seen a more difficult institution to operate.”

The corruption and chaos within Arizona’s system reached a breaking point in July 1978. Gary Tison and Randy Greenwalt – inmates serving sentences for murder – escaped from a minimum-security unit and led the notorious Tison Gang on a deadly two-week crime spree.

When Camp began working in Arizona later that year, MacDougall charged her with developing a classification system to prevent the circumstances that allowed violent offenders like Tison and Greenwalt to be placed in minimum-security facilities. She created an “objective classification instrument” and procedures for using it to make sure that no inmate had more supervision and restraint than needed – but enough to make sure the prison was secure.

In addition to devising the process for appropriately placing inmates, she was tasked with applying in Arizona’s facilities the reforms that worked so well in South Carolina.

Arizona’s officers and wardens shared the same resistance to change, but she persevered and let the results speak for themselves.

She was next tapped in 1991 by Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell to fix the city’s prison system from soup-to-nuts. “It was the filthiest place I’d ever seen,” she said of the

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new environment.

She developed a three-year plan for getting the contracts required to fix the system’s failing infrastructure. Her plan included closing the Holmesburg Prison and having a new maximum-security prison built to replace it. Philadelphia presented another system in which classification of inmates was weak and ineffective, and where there were no established policies and procedures for the prison system. Camp quickly changed that.

She left Philadelphia in 1997 to assume a less hands-on prisons consulting career. “The current administrator [in Philadelphia] tells me that my influence is still alive,” she said.

“Of course I don’t believe a word of it,” she added with a laugh.

Louis Giorla, the current commissioner, has nothing but praise for Camp. “In addition to classification, Camille contributed to the design of our flagship facility, Curran-Fromhold, which was opened in 1995, our first fully automated inmate records system, and the founding of what is now our Policy and Audit Unit,” he said. “She brought the Philadelphia Prison System into the 20th century.”

The Three Fs Camp’s consulting career allowed her to work with other state systems to improve their prison operations, programs, and services. It also gave her time to use the English skills she honed at Meredith. Among other publications, she authored Staffing Analysis for Prisons with Special Considerations for Special Populations in 2004, which is widely used by training academies across the country. She also has served as co-executive director for the Association of State Correctional Administrators for 30 years.

Throughout her career, Camp has been driven by what she called the three Fs: fair, firm, and friendly.

“I have a deep-seated compassion for people getting a second chance,” she said. “I want to be firm in spite of that and I want to be fair. I don’t want to do more for one than another and I don’t want to dole out a punishment that doesn’t fit the misbehavior. And I am friendly!”

In her days as a warden, she would dem-

onstrate her friendliness by greeting inmates over an intercom. “I’d say ‘good morning, I’m watching you!’ That sent a message that the warden wasn’t a mean, old, nasty person with six guns and a cowboy hat,” she said.

Camp’s approach to her work is strongly influenced by her personal philosophy about the purpose of corrections.

“One thing that’s important to me is to know what corrections is supposed to do,” she said. “The sentence is [the inmate’s] punishment and while they’re in corrections, you do what you can to try to improve their chances for success.”

“I have a deep-seated compassion for people getting a second chance. I want to be firm in spite of that and I want to be fair. I don’t want to do more for one than another and I don’t want to dole out a punishment that doesn’t fit the misbehavior. And I am friendly!”

– Camille Griffin Camp, ’64

She believes that, as a corrections officer, “you’re not supposed to make [the inmates’] lives miserable. You don’t try to punish them while they’re in prison unless they commit an act that’s punishable. That’s a change in paradigm that’s always worked for me.”

“As long as they’re behaving themselves and they are interested, I want to engage them in things that they can do to make their time [in prison] a time to improve, not just to deteriorate from people beating them up and being nasty to them.”

Camp admitted that sometimes her friendliness would be misplaced and that she, as a woman, faced different challenges than males in her position.

“There is something about a woman that brings out prisoners’ expectations of them,” she said. “If you’re a woman and you’re in charge, you become their mother. They feel encouraged that somebody ‘soft’ is going to

listen to them and care of them.”

“They also tend to think that they can get over on you because they perceive you as soft, so how they feel about women is a doubleedged sword,” she said.

Camp is encouraged by the continued gender diversity of corrections professionals, but thinks there is room for additional improvement.

“Male domination is alive and well, but women have made huge strides since I was in the thick of corrections,” she said. “There are women who serve as officers, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, deputy wardens, wardens – and now there are at least five directors of correctional systems in the U.S.” To meet the growing interest of women in the field, Meredith recently began offering a degree in criminology. Camp said if she could do it over again with criminology as an option, she’d still choose English. “It serves me now as I write stories of a life and career that was replete with extraordinary experiences,” she said.

One extraordinary experience Camp recalled as especially profound was having an institution named for her. In 2002, the Women’s Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., was renamed the Camille Griffin Graham* Correctional Institution. (*Her last name was Graham throughout her tenure in South Carolina.)

She was curious as to why a women’s prison would be named after her, since much of her work had been with male populations.

“They said, ‘they’re women, and you’re a woman, so we decided to name it after you because of the work you’ve done, not only in South Carolina, but also nation-wide.”

The state’s General Assembly passed a law to rename the facility that proclaimed, “Camille Griffin Graham is an esteemed professional whose contributions to modern correctional practice continue to benefit corrections professionals and those in their charge.”

That is just one recognition she’s received during her long and influential career.

“I like to think that my success has encouraged women’s interest in corrections,” she said. “If there were only one, she would make me proud. As for me, I’ve had a heck of a ride!”

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ALUMNAE

CONNECTION Class notes and news for Meredith Alumnae 1952 Jean Miller Burroughs is enjoying retirement and being involved with arts projects, traveling, and golf.

She is still living on the edge of the Wake Forest University campus. Her two grandsons have graduated.

One is a songwriter/performer in Nashville, and one is in business in Washington, D.C. Betty Jo Smith Farrington retired in 2001 from Meredith College after teaching voice there for 32 years. She designed a small retirement home for herself in High Point. She sang in the church choir for ten years and helped with Mobile Meals. She has been a Hospice volunteer on the Community Concert Board for several years. After three years of chemo and losing a lobe in her lung she has spent the last two years enjoying her family and friends and organizing her 67th high school reunion.

Sally Howard Moore and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary this past March by taking their two sons, daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren to the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Her husband is still creating sand sculptures, and had the opportunity to do a “sand desk” for the weather reporters at WRAL TV this summer.

1958 Christine Livingston Arthur’s grandson visited her on his fall break from USC where he is a freshman.

Jane Maynard Bowers’ granddaughter took part in Bike and Build, a program for college students who want to help build affordable housing. The group of students rode bicycles from South Carolina to California, stopping along the way to help build Habitat houses and raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

Louise Moore Bryan and her husband hosted the

Meredith lunch bunch in Raleigh. They were joined

by Helen Moore Casey, Betsy Greene Waters, Mae Omie Hobby Mosley, Mary Anne Jobe, Nancy Perkins Edwards, Nancy Joyner, Sheila Balfour Goodman, and Susan Moss Grigg. They enjoyed the many delicious foods and the loving company.

Fay Chandler Honeycutt has retired from her position in Fuquay Varina but continues to do dress fittings privately. Jackie Yates Hubbard visited the N.C. mountains last fall for a long weekend to enjoy the fall color. Margaret Creech Sutton continues to fight her symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and is in therapy to improve her walking. Her granddaughter, Kaylee Dyson, graduated from Meredith last year and is now working in the Meredith Office of Admissions.

She is the family’s third generation of Meredith Angels. Shirley Strother Taylor lives in Asheboro and invites classmates to visit her when they come to the N.C. Zoo. Taylor’s son lives in Ohio, and her daughter lives in Greensboro.

1963 Bryna Bozart-Barnes is now retired from chaplaincy and is a spiritual director. She founded the Charlotte Spirituality Center and enjoys being with her 10 grandchildren, children, and their families. She spends time in her home in Charlotte and her summer home on the coast. She states that she is “most grateful for her Meredith days and education that prepared her for her master’s degree.” Velma McGee Ferrell tells us that within the past few months she has been able to be present for the memorial services for two of her classmates, Barbara Blanchard Allen and Sylvia Cooper McCreary. Both of these women led extraordinary lives, contributing positively and creatively to

their communities and beyond. She is grateful for her four years at Meredith and for the relationships which have continued and grown because of their Meredith connection. She also traveled to Hawaii to see her son and his family who are residing on the big island.

1965 Martha Stone Courie is retired now and enjoying pleasures that she hasn’t had time for in her busy schedule as a pastor. She is reading, painting, enjoying bird watching on the porch with her husband of 44 years, and spoiling her two Shelties. Both of her daughters are career women living in New York City. Brenda Petty Eskridge is excited to celebrate both her 50th anniversary with her husband and her 50th reunion from Meredith. She has been running her own interior design firm for 35 years and enjoys doing this along with helping her husband in his many start-up businesses. Jane Guion Kanipe, along with her husband and son, enjoyed visiting former Meredith College President E. Bruce Heilman and three of his daughters on the University of Richmond campus. Kanipe’s husband was vice president for institutional advancement during Dr. Heilman’s Meredith presidency, and they both shared happy occasions with the Heilman family and continue their friendship. Crystal Hartness Leathers heard from both her sister-in-law and cousin about how fun their class reunions were. She is excited to attend her 50th reunion in May 2015. Jo Ann Stafford Peer and her husband are in Charlotte where she has retired from management in IBM and is now the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Mint Museum of Art, which is keeping her very busy. Her husband, who has also retired, has his own small architectural practice.

Compiled by the Office of Alumnae & Parent Relations from July-November 2014. Information may be edited for space limitations and content restrictions. Submit class notes to your class agent, online at meredith.edu/alumnae, by email at alumnae@meredith. edu, by fax (919) 760-2818, or by phone to the Office of Alumnae and Parent Relations at (919) 760-8548. Deadline for the summer 2015 issue is March 20, 2015. Submissions received after this date will appear in the fall 2015 issue.

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Their two daughters, son-in-law, and grandchildren live in New York City where their daughters work in the financial business. They love to go to Manhattan to spend time with their family and “play.” Eleanor Marks Snead worked at N.C. Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) for four years as a consultant, and officially stopped working in 2006. She still helps NCDPI occasionally and recently edited entrepreneurship textbooks for young students in Amman, Jordan. She enjoys knitting, crocheting, crossword puzzles, reading, and her two dogs. Carol Andrews Southerland was recently treated to a weekend in New York City with her daughters-in-law. They visited many museums and were even able to score some great seats to the musical Jersey Boys. Betty Jo Steele Anderson and Crystal Hartness Leathers have hosted get-togethers with their classmates. They are getting more and more excited about their 50th reunion in May 2015. Lynn Myers has been able to return to her hobby of painting since retirement from teaching and the N.C. Bankers Association. She has taken many courses over the years both online and in the classroom covering various art media. Along with her volunteer work, she stays busy in her “golden years.” Gail Williams O’Brien was certified as a volunteer with the Wake Guardian ad Litem program on October 31, 2014.

1968 Janice Scott Goodman retired from her real estate office and ran for N.C. Senate. Rebecca Jessup Cline is anticipating the birth of her first grandchild.

Jane Waller Smith ran for the N.C. Senate and won.

She began serving in Raleigh in January.

1969

Pageantry, Palaces, Paintings, and Pumpkin Pasta Alumnae Travel to Venice and Beyond September 10-21, 2015 From the famed canals of Venice to the Roman coliseum of romantic Verona to the stunning d’Este fortress in Ferrara, this custom tour will focus on the Veneto and the surrounding area, including Mantua, Padua, and Lake Garda.

Linda Barnett Hall and Sondra Neel Harrell both class of 1969 went to England, Wales, and Scotland during September 2014. It was their first trip together in 45 years and they had a great time.

The tour will also include the Palio della Balestra in Sansepolcro, in

1970

join Meredith students for a traditional dinner prepared by our palazzo’s

Dwan Thomas Moore’s daughter is getting her Ph.D. in biostatistics at the University of California at Berkeley.

marvelous chef. Through this alumnae travel program tour, you’ll be

1971 Deborah Ingram Cleaver is on the performing faculty at Lewis and Clark College and Reed College in Portland, Ore. She is also on the faculty of the Golandsky Institute summer seminar at Princeton University. For the next two years, she will be president of the Oregon Music Teachers Association/Portland District.

Tuscany, where the crossbow competition and attendant pageantry have taken place for centuries. Sansepolcro is the home of the Meredith in Italy study abroad program, and travelers will be able to

able to see Italy, on and off the beaten track, during a delightful season.

Space is limited to 25 guests. Family and friends welcomed. Reserve your space early! Contact Denise Parker at dpparker@meredith.edu or (919) 760- 8051. For a complete description of the trip and other details, visit meredith.edu/alumnae/travel.

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ALUMNAE

CONNECTION

1974 Ann Lowery Shivar is serving her second term on the Meredith Board of Trustees as chair of the Institutional Advancement Committee. Sarah Reierson Bradsher is enjoying being a grandparent to her two grandsons. She has had a home monogramming and gift business in Raleigh since 2007. She and her husband plan to retire in about three years.

1976 Jackie Owen Stallings and her daughter participated in the alumnae tour of England and Scotland.

They had a memorable experience retracing her steps from when she studied abroad 40 years ago.

Her daughter graduated from Furman University in 2011 and is now pursuing a professional science master’s in ecohydrological science at the University of Idaho. Her son graduated from Wake Forest University in 2008; he completed a master’s program in physician assistant studies and is now working as a neurosurgical P.A. in Columbia, S.C. She enjoys traveling to see them. Susan Hill Wadsworth and her husband still live in Roanoke, Va., after 34 years. Her husband is a wealth advisor with Morgan Stanley and she is chief operating officer and event planner for the Wadsworth family, and is musically involved in two hand bell choirs and children’s choir director. She became a first-time grandparent last year. Her middle daughter is employed by Virginia Military Institute in

1986

Saks Fifth Avenue in Richmond. Conswella Long Timmons is a training specialist for Pomeroy IT and is responsible for the training and education of 750 employees across the US. Her 21-year-old son is 6’7” and plays basketball for Shaw University.

Connie Morrow Todd is the director of recruitment and training at Sona MedSpa.

1993

Lexington, Va. and her son recently married and is living in Kentucky. She loves hiking, cycling, family, and her church.

1987 Lucy Henry was installed as president of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association during the 2014 World EAP conference in Orlando, Fla. She will serve from 2014 through 2016.

1990 Kim McNeill Cato was an admission nurse for Hospice of Wake County until last March, when she went back to work full time at a Duke South GI clinic. She and her husband have been married 23 years. Their daughter is a high school senior and their son is a high school freshman. Debbie Gray Parrish has moved to Raleigh and is the new career development coordinator at Broughton High School. Her children are a Broughton freshman and an East Carolina University freshman. She loves being back in Raleigh.

Cheryl Alderman Slokker serves on the board of The Visual Arts Center and is the event chair for their 2015 Collectors’ Night Art Auction. She also serves on the junior board of the Children’s Hospital Foundation and still works as the marketing director for

Looking for the perfect gift for your favorite Meredith College Alumna?

The Meredith Market offers both apparel and gifts featuring the Meredith College logo and the “Going Strong” brand. These items make great gifts for Meredith alumnae, students, and families.

Featured items include canvas tote bags, fleece vests, t-shirts, hats, men’s ties, tumblers, onesies, car magnets, picture frames, garden flags, and dog collars. New items to be offered this year are faux-leather tote bags, visors, and beach towels.

Visit the Meredith Market online at meredith.edu/alumnae.

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Kelly Phillips Erb was recently named an “Awesome Attorney” by Suburban Life Magazine. This is the third year running that she was nominated and selected. She has also been named a contributing writer to the tech column for PA Lawyer magazine.

Kelly Kiernan Jaynes lives in Apex, N.C., with her husband and children. She is very active volunteering with her children’s schools and swim team. She is also now a substitute teacher with the Wake County Public School System and recently took a position as a part-time receptionist at Salem Middle School. In her free time she likes to cook, read, and scrapbook.

Hollie Coward Muscio and her husband are working for their own event decor business, Balloonacy & Flowers By Holland. They both passed their balloon industry certification and are now certified balloon artists. Crystal Strickland Nichols is now the business office supervisor at Fayetteville Family Medical Care. Tammi Kay George is still working at SAS in research and development, managing customer experience, communication, and research projects for the chief technology officers. In fall 2014 she started teaching for the first time as an adjunct as-

sociate professor at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.

1999 Heather Harris Pasteur is now serving Grace Church in Wooster, Ohio, as the director of choral ministries.

Michelle Patterson Jones lives with her husband in Louisburg, N.C., and is a child care center director for Vance Granville Community College. She has a master’s degree in early childhood education.

2003 Hunter Eddins Gentel is an attorney with Oxner + Permar in Raleigh, N.C.

2004 Ejiro Ubiedi is a grant writer for Citrus Valley Health Foundation.

2005 Mary Richardson Bowers is working for American National Bank. Anna Nichols DeShazier was promoted to manager of the facility service team at Storr Office Environments. Lormarev Chapelle Jones graduated from Sara Lawrence College with a Master of Fine Arts. She is now a director of standardized patients at Campbell University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine. Karoline Grant Moore is a fourth grade teacher in Pender County Schools at Malpass Corner Elementary.

2006 Julia Adams was named one of North Carolina’s Most Influential Lobbyists of 2013. Meredith Frye Harris is now working at MetLife.

2007 Lori DeBlaker completed the requirements toward licensure and is now a licensed clinical social worker.

2008 Heather Elizabeth Allen has recently published her first book, Let Your Creativity Work for You: How to Turn Artwork into Opportunity.

2009 Anna Buryk was honored by the National Association of Professional Women as a 2014 Woman of the Year.

2011 Margo Alfieri was promoted from program coordinator for The Meredith Fund to parents gift officer at Meredith College. Julia Houtchings received her M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration at Georgia

[ALUMNAE GOING STRONG]

SHELLY WEGMAN, ’99 Health Advocate

By Melyssa Allen Shelly Wegman, ’99, has completed every nutrition program offered at Meredith, and now uses her know-how to help individuals and groups improve their health.

Wegman completed an undergraduate degree in nutrition in 1999, the dietetic internship in 2000, and the Master of Science in nutrition in 2009. She is a registered dietitian at Rex Wellness Centers in Raleigh and Garner, N.C. “I work with a variety of clients for food allergies, weight management, sports nutrition, diabetes/heart disease, and with bariatric clients,” Wegman explained. She also leads group sessions, presents at health fairs, and teaches a 10week healthy eating program.

Meredith’s nutrition program gave Wegman a strong knowledge base, and the skills needed to do research and continue learning on her own.

She praises the program’s individual attention, and the way the faculty encouraged her success.

“Nutrition is a science that is changing every day. Meredith’s nutrition program prepared me to be able to judge what is accurate,” Wegman said. “It gave me the science and the counseling foundation to be able to provide my clients with the knowledge they need for success.”

Good communication skills are essential in Wegman’s job, both with clients and through community outreach, including appearances in the local media. She writes a monthly nutrition column for The News & Observer, choosing topics that relate to current nutrition concerns or from the types of questions that she hears from clients. She’ll also do television interviews if there’s a story about nutrition in the news and they want to put a local spin on it.

In all her roles, Wegman’s passion for helping people become healthier by improving their nutrition comes through.

“I love working with people on the preventive measures that make them healthier, stronger, and more aware of how the food they are eating impacts their health,” Wegman’s said. “I show them that good food can still be fun, and they can eat well on a budget.”

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ALUMNAE

CONNECTION Southern University. Brittany Morgan lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., and works as an HR/payroll assistant at Eyecarecenter’s corporate office. She loves her job and her manager is a Meredith alumna as well.

Kelley Ross moved to Ireland a year ago and lives in a small village in County Cork with her boyfriend and their puppy. She is in business school and plans to launch a fashion company in 2015. Hilary Towle started her Ed.M. at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the International Education Policy program with an anticipated graduation date of May 2015. Erin White started working at Hampton Inn and Suites Raleigh/Cary in June 2014 as the sales coordinator.

MARRIAGES 1968

FOREVER

STRONG Alumnae Reunion Weekend | 2015

Save the Date: Alumnae Reunion May 15 - 17, 2015 Alumnae in classes ending in 0 or 5 will celebrate a special reunion.

All alumnae are invited.

Learn more: meredith.edu/alumnae/reunion_weekend

Janice Scott to Steven Goodman, 09/20/14.

1994

1998

2006

Susan Elizabeth Auton to Janet Lynn Bagwell, 09/17/14.

Jennifer Vaughan Stauffer, a son, John Liam, 7/29/14.

Kellie Stephenson Smith, a daughter, Kinslie Faye, 09/23/14.

1996

1999

2007

Caroline Hargett to Edward Rochelle, 10/20/12.

Corey Thompson Davis, a son, Benjamin Samuel, 05/02/14. Sara Dixon Dawalt, a son, Wesley Thomas, 09/26/14. Courtney Craver Hardman, a son, Tanner Craver, 01/13.

Rebekah Thomas Ivey, a son, Johnson David, 01/14/14. Dana Leigh Booth-Slomba, a daughter, Natalie Slomba, 11/02/13.

2000

Lauren Cheek Brewer, a son, Camden Ronald, 08/26/14. Jennifer Paul Seha, a daughter, Callie Marie, 11/05/14.

1997 Lindsey Lambert to Juan Carlos Rojas, 07/12/14.

1999 Julie Goodman to Allen Franchock, 07/06/13.

Michelle Patterson to Ted Jones, 05/28/14.

2005 Renee Zelenka and Derek Kristeller, 07/05/14.

2006 Amanda Alfredson to Matthew Harris, 03/22/14.

Meredith Frye to Paul Harris, 8/31/14.

2007 Molly Loughridge to Patrick Cahill, 07/26/14.

2008 Leigh Alford to Matthew Keith, 06/29/14. Paige Birdsall to Ryan Townsend, 09/20/14.

2009 Brittany Krohn to Wesley Anderson, 05/17/14.

2014 Ashton Blue to Dustin Langley, 08/09/14.

BIRTHS

1995 Missy White Wells, a son, William Andrew Stokes, 06/24/14.

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Shari Roberts Stilley, a daughter, Caroline Paige, 06/02/12.

2003 Hunter Eddins Gentel, a son, Robert Davis, 07/14/14. Allison Shivar Tompkins, a son, Emerson Scott, 09/02/14.

2004 Erin Miller Taylor, a son, Andrew Thomas, 09/29/14. Jacqulyn Helms Campbell, a son, Tucker Levi, 6/11/14. Johanna Lukhard Steis, a daughter, Ruby Karen, 10/02/13.

2009

DEATHS 1940 Maude Sawyer Laird, 10/17/14.

1942 Mary Lanier McKnight, 08/28/14.

1944 Elizabeth Bowden Stevenson, 10/29/14.

2005

1946

Jennifer Smith Bissette, a son, Jack C. Bissette IV, 07/17/14. Mary Richardson, a daughter, Mary Josephine, 08/29/14. Laura Pavlovich, a daughter, Gayle Howard, 07/12/14. Jessica Wilson, a daughter, Josephine Lynn, 03/26/14. Abby McAlister, a daughter, Hadley Savannah, 07/11/14. Elizabeth Wilson, a daughter, Claire Elizabeth, 10/02/14.

Melissa Pendergraft, a daughter, Natalie McMurry, 04/30/14. Anna Kustra, a son, Cole Hudson, 09/16/14. Amy Beattie, a son, Tyler Ray, 04/24/14.

Leann Ruff, a son, Colton Durham, 07/17/14.

Elizabeth Talley Appleton, 9/15/14. Alta Ruth Cooke Spain, 02/20/14.

1948 Nell Hunter Myers, 09/28/14.

1949 Nell Parker Shore, 08/17/14.

1951 Eileen Bone Valentine, 9/2/14. Janet Roberts Weir, 10/10/14.

1954 Frances Bowman Leonard, 04/15/13. Rebecca Haynes Morvil, 09/15/14.

1955 Joyce Bailey Fleming, 10/27/14.

1963 Sylvia Cooper McCreary, 08/20/14.

1965 Jean Hutcherson Ebert, 10/19/14.

1967 Beverly Bauer Rodriguez, 10/22/14.

1970 Betty Boyette Peck, 08/10/14.

1972 Ruth Edwards Nicholson, 07/16/14

1980 Jennifer Coltrain Harris, 10/12/14.

1981 Lois Pittman Smith, 10/12/14.

1983 Michelle McKay Belt, 10/20/14.

1984 Jane Underwood Deaton, 08/13/14.

1987 Barbara Gunter Hall, 08/30/14.

1996 Shannon Renee Brittain, 09/08/14.

SYMPATHY 1950 Eleanor Sugg Petteway in the death of her sister.

Helen Jane McDaniel Shouse in the death of her husband.

1951 Anne Fouche Styron in the death of her husband.

1953 Emma Jean Vann in the death of her husband.

1954 Jean Batten Cooper in the death of her husband.

1957 Julia Adcock Carr in the death of her sister.

1961 Sara Hurst Thomas in the death of her husband.

[ALUMNAE GOING STRONG]

KELLY PHILLIPS ERB, ’93 Fearless Financial Expert

By Melyssa Allen Kelly Phillips Erb, ’93, aims to be fearless, but the Philadelphia-based tax attorney says that wasn’t always the case.

“When I came to Meredith, I was easy to intimidate, scared to be wrong, and I wanted to fit in,” Erb described. “I learned early on [at Meredith] that life wasn’t about trying to fit in but about making your mark.”

Now, Erb is the managing shareholder of The Erb Law Firm and is a contributing writer for Forbes.com. She uses her strengths – including being bold – in both those roles.

“Any time things are challenging – a new judge or a daunting story – it’s tempting to shrink back and hope the answer comes to you, but it rarely does. You have to be willing to take the leap – make the phone call that nobody is making or suggest a new strategy,” said Erb. “You can be professional without being docile.”

The seasonal nature of being a tax attorney means there’s no typical day at work for Erb. She also writes every day, and works her commitments around being a mom.

“Some days are court days, some are IRS days, and some are client visits,” Erb said. “At tax time, any semblance of normalcy flies out of the window.”

Erb recommends taking advantage of opportunities, which has paid off for her. She began writing her blog, taxgirl.com, as a way of explaining tax issues to prospective clients. Her audience grew, and eventually her writing drew attention from Forbes, one of the world’s leading financial publications.

“I’ve never shied away from controversy, and in 2010, I wrote a post highly critical of what I considered to be Pennsylvania’s overly aggressive push against ‘tax scofflaws,’” Erb said. “[An editor] saw the piece and asked if I would allow Forbes to post the article because it offered a different perspective on tax delinquency.”

Erb agreed, not imagining what could come of this opportunity, which eventually grew to her current role as a contributing writer.

“I’ve been fortunate to do a number of projects as a result of my affiliation with Forbes.com, including appearing in the magazine a few times,” Erb said.

“The 2013 investment guide has my name on the front – just two lines below Warren Buffett’s. I’ve done TV and radio and had the chance to write two books with Forbes.”

S p ring 2015 | M E R E D IT H M A G A Z I N E

39

ALUMNAE

CONNECTION

[ALUMNAE GOING STRONG]

1964 Rhonda Morgan Wilkerson in the death of her father.

MARY HEMPHILL, ’05

1970

Excellent Educator

1973

By Melyssa Allen

Linda Haddock Harriett in the death of her mother.

Luanne Roebuck Brown in the death of her mother. Jane Renn Frazier in the death of her son.

1975 Marilyn Jones in the death of her uncle.

Mary Hemphill, ’05, doesn’t just set goals – she achieves them. In middle school, Hemphill decided she wanted to become a teacher before working in school administration. Now, less than 10 years after graduating from Meredith College, Hemphill has earned a doctorate and become principal at Elizabeth Duncan Koontz Elementary in Salisbury, N.C. “It was hard to leave the classroom [after five years] but I told myself I wanted to be able to do more good for more students, while also helping teachers,” Hemphill said. “I feel like I have the best of both worlds.”

Hemphill was a Teaching Fellow and served in student government, starting as freshman class president and culminating in a term as Student Government Association president. Her Meredith experience made Hemphill well-prepared for her career as an educator.

“The faculty made teacher education very real, teaching what we would experience in the schools. They put so many tools in your toolbox … so you knew how to walk up to the problem. You knew how to approach it,” Hemphill said.

Hemphill said she enjoyed the “student first” focus at Meredith, and she’s worked to replicate that at her school. As principal, she prioritizes spending time where her students are – greeting them at the beginning of the day, having lunch with them, and working with teachers to improve the classroom.

Meredith College helped her discover new parts of herself, Hemphill said. She uses her strong leadership skills to do the same for the teachers at her school and to create a positive environment for students. She is a leader who understands the people with whom she works and the attributes they have.

“It is important to understand and respect people,” Hemphill said. “I tell my teachers all the time that each one of them is great at something, and if I can hone that expertise, then we are all going to become stronger.”

Though Hemphill has achieved a lot already, she’s still committed to those goals she set in middle school – including someday becoming superintendent of schools or possibly secretary of education. Thanks to her Meredith education, she’s confident that she can achieve them.

“Meredith gives you the tools you need to become whatever it is you want to be,” Hemphill said.

40

me re d i th.e d u

1976 Janet Hollowell Phipps in the death of her husband.

1977 Suzanne Styron Edwards in the death of her father.

1978 Mary Brittingham Rollins in the death of her husband.

1980 Jean Page Kreisher in the death of her uncle.

1981 Melody Frazier Doster in the death of her brother.

Susan Jones Turner in the death of her uncle.

1983 Malene Middleton Georgeson in the death of her mother. Penny Middleton Hill in the death of her mother.

1984 Mary Tronnes Vance in the death of her mother.

1985 Shepard Kimbrell Halsch in the death of her father.

Lee Page in the death of her uncle.

1986 Connie Morrow Todd in the death of her father.

1990 Kim McNeill Cato in the death of her mother.

1995 Catherine Davis Rideout in the death of her grandmother.

1997 Leigh Roberson Phillippe in the death of her grandmother.

The Class of 1964 won Meredith Mayhem in 2014. Will your class win this year?

TOP 5 MYTHS ABOUT MEREDITH MAYHEM. MYTH 1: Meredith Mayhem is a friendly competition between classes.

Have you ever heard of Cornhuskin’? Meredith women are fierce competitors!

MYTH 2: Younger alumnae don’t have a chance.

Tell that to the Class of 2012, who won Meredith Mayhem in 2013.

MYTH 3: Only big gifts count.

Your class standing is based on participation – every gift is essential, no matter what size.

MYTH 4: I forgot about Mayhem and now it’s too late!

Meredith Mayhem 2015 kicks off on February 27 – Founders’ Day – and runs through June 30.

MYTH 5: The Odds always win (or Evens).

So far, the record is split fairly evenly. Who will take it this year? You decide.

Join the Mayhem! Your gift provides critical support to help keep Meredith College Going Strong. Give online at meredith.edu/mayhem starting February 27.

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Raleigh, NC Permit No. 369

Department of Marketing 3800 Hillsborough Street Raleigh, North Carolina 27607-5298 meredith.edu

STRONG HAS NOTHING TO DO

WITH AGE. There are many reasons that some adult women don’t have an undergraduate degree.

Some started college, but lost focus and never finished.

Others were busy caring for their families. Still others lacked the means or family support to go to college right out of high school.

We understand all of the reasons. But we don’t think they should keep any woman from earning her degree.

That’s why we developed Wings – Adult Education at Meredith.

With streamlined admissions, personal advising, and supportive faculty, Wings is designed to help smart, capable women reach their goals.

So if you know an adult woman who wants to earn her college degree, encourage her to attend an information session. (And if you’ve been thinking about pursuing a second degree, you’re also invited.)

Wings – Adult Education at Meredith. Because a strong woman can always become stronger.

meredith.edu/adulteducation