Miamian Spring 2019

miami an The Magazine of Miami University

THROUGH THE LENS OF BO BRIDGES ’96

IN THIS ISSUE:

Frenetic Media Careers The Power of Bicycles Fostering Chimpanzees

Spring 2019

Painter, muralist, arts educator, and advocate, Joyce Phillips Young ’60 MEd ’63 enjoys working with warm, happy colors, lost and found edges, contrasts and similarities, and realism and abstraction, all seen here in “The Constant Gardener,” a 46"x 36" acrylic on canvas. The retired Cincinnati Public Schools teacher says, “These lines and shapes interconnect and overlap with each other to make a visual statement about the impermanent, ever-changing, layered, illusionary, and spiritual quality of our existence.”

Staff Editor Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 Miamian@MiamiOH.edu

Vol. 37, No. 3

miamian

Senior Designer Belinda Rutherford

The Magazine of Miami University

Photographers Jeff Sabo Scott Kissell

STORIES

Web Developer Nicki Russell ’17

18 Focus On Adventure

World-renowned photographer Bo Bridges ’96 embraces a passion for adventure that’s reflected in the dynamic images he goes after.

Copy Editor Lucy Baker Design Consultant Lilly Pereira www.aldeia.design University Advancement 513-529-4029 Senior Vice President for University Advancement Tom Herbert herbertw@MiamiOH.edu Alumni Relations 513-529-5957 Executive Director of the Alumni Association Kim Tavares MBA ’12 kim.tavares@MiamiOH.edu

26 Mastering the Media Whirlwind

With Americans’ insatiable appetite for stories, CNN’s Emily Kuhn ’09 and MSNBC’s Daniela Pierre-Bravo ’12 are working in the hyperkinetic world of 24-hour news.

30 Wheels in the Field Mobilizing people (see page 30)

02 F rom the Hub

Innovative Connections

03 B ack & Forth

To and From the Editor

MiamiOH.edu/alumni

ON THE COVER In the Bahamas, photographer Bo Bridges ’96 was in the water shooting blacktip reef sharks with a 15 mm figheye lens when something knocked the boat and the fisherman fell in. “Nobody was hurt in the mix,” Bridges says. See page 18.

Dave Neiswander ’92, CEO of World Bicycle Relief, knows how crucial bicycles can be in countries where walking is the primary mode of transportation.

IN EACH ISSUE

Office of Development 513-529-1230 Senior Associate Vice President for University Advancement Brad Bundy Hon ’13 brad.bundy@MiamiOH.edu

Send address changes to: Alumni Records Office Advancement Services Miami University 926 Chestnut Lane Oxford, Ohio 45056 alumnirecords@MiamiOH.edu 513-529-5127 Fax: 513-529-1466

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Campus News Highlights

Lunar landing in 3-D (see page 14)

10 Such a Life

More than Meets the Eye

12 I nquiry + Innovation Who’s Watching You?

14 M edia Matters Opus Web paper features FSC® certifications and is Lacey Act compliant; 100% of the electricity used to manufacture Opus Web is generated with Green-e® certified renewable energy.

New Works by Alumni

16 M y Story

Getting to Know Jane Goodall

34 Love & Honor “Miami Really Stepped Up”

36 Class Notes Notes, News, and Weddings

46 F arewells 48 D ays of Old

Oxford Honors its Own First Lady, Caroline Scott Harrison

Miamian is published three times a year by the University Advancement Division of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. Copyright © 2019, Miami University. All rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Miamian is produced by University Communications and Marketing, 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, 513-529-7592; Fax: 513-529-1950; Miamian@MiamiOH.edu.

from the hub

Innovative Connections

By President Greg Crawford

Renate and I joined some 100 Miami alumni in January for a preview tour of the new Holocaust & Humanity Center at the Cincinnati Museum Center. For us, it was an education in the ongoing significance of the Holocaust — and it provided a new avenue to connect with our alumni.

The center highlights not only history, but current-day efforts around the world to transcend bigotry and hate.

We saw several Miami connections, including an exhibit on our own Myaamia Center, the research arm of the Miami Tribe that promotes language restoration and cultural renewal.

Museum Center President and CEO Elizabeth Pierce ’93 welcomed us, and history professor Erik Jensen illuminated the role of remembrance in modern Germany. This Miami alumni group was among the first to enjoy the exhibits at the historic Union Terminal train station, which recently completed a $228 million renovation.

The exclusive opportunity was an inventive way to connect with Miami Our determination alums in Cincinnati and across the country. to engage you is an Offering similar intellectual and cultural experiences to more than 220,000 alumni invitation for you increases engagement and creates ambassadors for this university we all love so to engage us. much. Those events elevate understanding, expand horizons, and strengthen bonds — just as we do for our students on campus.

We hope to create more of these experiences for more of our alumni.

Last December, for example, alums in Columbus enjoyed an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of “I, Too, Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100,” a limited exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art curated by our own award-winning journalist and author Wil Haygood ’76.

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Two years ago, Wil participated in a program for alums at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati with Jeff Pegues ’92, the CBS News justice and homeland security correspondent and our May commencement speaker.

Soon after commencement, as part of our global travel program, Renate and I will join the Glee Club and alumni for a trip to Italy.

A new program that has really caught on is Grandparents College, where alums bring their grandchildren to campus for classes. Now in its second year, the July program sold out months ago.

Gatherings of Miamians are always invigorating, informative, and enjoyable.

I have talked to groups about Boldly Creative, our $50 million academic You are invited to write to excellence fund that supPresident Greg Crawford ports innovative faculty at president@MiamiOH.edu.

Follow him on Twitter proposals; and about our @PresGreg.

Presidential Fellows program, a full-ride scholarship we created this year for talented students. The impressive finalists recently visited Oxford, and we look forward to welcoming the first Fellows to campus in August.

Our determination to engage you is an invitation for you to engage us. Take an active part in your local chapter. Join Miami Alumni Connect (Connect.MiamiAlum.org) to mentor a current student or another alum in your field. Create a summer internship at your company.

Above all, return to campus and visit us. We love it when members of our Miami family come home.

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Deland’s story a worthy movie Please send a huge “thank you” to Deland McCullough ’96 and his family for sharing his amazing life story (“Runs in the Family”) in the Fall/Winter 2018 issue. I’m completely blown away! Someone please write a screenplay because this unbelievable story has “Oscar winner” all over it.

—Shannon Plummer Twilling ’98 Tucson, Ariz.

“Runs in the Family” is truly one of the most wonderful articles that I have ever read in the magazine for Miamians. It absolutely needs to be published nationally as it is an “uplifting, feel-good read” in these crazy and hysterical times in this wonderful country. Is there a movie in the works? Should be!

Lovely and compelling story on many fronts. Thanks for sharing.

—Winifred Cleavenger ’72 Dayton, Ohio As a parent of foster kids we adopted, “Runs in the Family” is a very special story. I was at Miami when Sherman [Smith ’76] was

there. I played soccer there and knew some the other athletes.

He may or may not remember it, but I was on an intramural basketball team one year, and we played against him. Other members of his team included Archie Aldrich (redshirted that year for basketball) and Mike Watson (I believe he was a defensive end). They called their team the “Average Black Team” (a word play on the popular Average White Band). They were very kind to us, but beat us by around 50 points. What a great group of guys!

I’m so glad he and Deland were able to get together after so many years.

—G. Scott Hale ’79 Hancock, Maine Bill Hanger, great gentleman I was saddened to read of the passing of Bill Hanger ’68, noted in the Fall/Winter 2018 Miamian.

In the early 1990s, I staffed the Ohio House Finance and Appropriations Committee and thereby had the privilege of getting to know Bill, who was a constant presence in Columbus as Miami’s director of institutional advancement.

Networking is a constant in the legislative arena, mostly of a purely transactional nature. But Bill had the genius of encouraging a different sort of networking, as he made sure that Miami grads in state government had social opportunities to meet and get to know one another. The friendships that resulted proved a benefit both personally and professionally.

Bill was a good friend and a great gentleman.

—Jim Cundiff ’80 Cincinnati, Ohio

Jerry Miller, prof and friend I graduated from Miami University in 1977. In the more than four decades since then, numerous issues of Miamian have found their way to my home. Over this time frame, too many beloved professors, classmates, and fraternity brothers have begun to populate the “Farewells” section. I often wished that I had taken the time to tell them how much they meant to me.

I have that opportunity now.

This essay is a tribute to my friend/professor/fraternity faculty adviser Gerald R. “Jerry” Miller.

We met in 1974 when Jerry became the adviser for Sigma Alpha Mu. At that time, he was less than 10 years older than the members of the fraternity. Over 44 years, Jerry has advised 1,200 of us in the fraternity.

He possesses a rare talent in communicating with adolescents, and the lessons learned in the fraternity or individually or in his economics classes remain relevant to this day.

Jerry and I have stayed in touch all this time, and he has become a presence in the life of my children and grandchildren, attending weddings, using Facetime to keep in touch, and with in-person visits in Oxford or Louisville.

When I come to Oxford to visit, no matter how beautiful the campus or town is, it takes me less than 15 minutes to point out to friends and family where my freshman dorm was, where the fraternity house was, and where the classrooms and Uptown bars and restaurants were. That is not enough of a reason to come to Oxford.

Can you imagine having a professor/friend still here after 40 years, who was here when you were

Send letters to: Donna Boen Miamian editor 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 Miamian@MiamiOH.edu; or fax to 513-529-1950.

Include your name, class year, home address, and phone number.

Letters are edited for space and clarity.

Opinions expressed are those of the letter writers and not Miami University or Miamian magazine.

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“ Jerry has been a constant in our lives for so many years that it is easy to forget how rare this is.”

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here; who remembers everyone you knew; who maintains the institutional memory of your time and era at Miami University?

Jerry has been a constant in our lives for so many years that it is easy to forget how rare this is. His being there makes our college days not just part of our past, but of our present as well.

There is no way to thank Jerry for all that he means to so many of us, but I am glad to have the chance to try.

—Bruce Tasch ’77, MD Louisville, Ky.

Over the years, my husband and I will casually say “love and honor” when Miami is referenced, but who could have known our kids were actually listening.

We can’t take all the credit, though. We brought our son to visit the campus last November while we were in Ohio.

Miami — and all it embodies — clearly made an impression on him — bigger than we even realized.

Love & Honor —Melissa Barrow Kirtley ’94 —Tim Kirtley ’92 Waverly, Pa.

Editor’s note: Jerry Miller, professor emeritus of economics, died Feb. 16, 2019. Bruce shared his letter with Jerry several weeks before his death.

More ‘Heartfelt Memories’ I particularly enjoyed reading Steve Gertz’s “My Story” article in the Summer 2018 Miamian, “Heartfelt Memories.” I remember the Q pool room, which debuted after I left Oxford, having stopped in to play a few games during the Alumni Weekend trip in 1977 or 1978.

As a student, I played a lot of pool and billiards in the old student center (which was new at the time).

The only other place to play was Reiff’s pool room, Uptown above a “townie” bar called Reiff’s Tavern.

Reiff’s was a stereotyped oldtime pool hall, the kind Harold Hill warned against in The Music Man, and had only three ancient pool tables. The student center, as I recall, had one billiard table, one snooker table, and six or seven pool tables, all brand-new.

My favorite memory of Reiff’s pool room was from the summer of 1954, shortly after I graduated from McGuffey High School, which was the Miami University lab school. I was chatting with Bill McCoy, the house rack man and manager, when a group of Miami

Love & Honor starts early We have two teenagers in the house, Andrew, 17, and Abby, 14.

I recently decided that a conversation specifically about “values” was in order.

I asked everyone to think about what their VALUES are ... the guiding principals which help us make good decisions and live our best lives, and that we would discuss and share after everyone had some time to think about it.

My husband and I were (pleasantly) shocked when our son shared that he had landed on “LOVE & HONOR” as his guiding principals. I pressed him on how “love and honor” would guide him with school, sports, friends, etc., and he had clear, well-thoughtthrough answers.

Then I noticed that his phone’s screen saver is an image of red brick captioned with “love and honor.” Wow!

students walked in. They were all a lot bigger than me, so I assumed they had come to town for preseason football or basketball practice.

They went to a table at the far end of the room and started to play.

I was immediately struck by the fact that one of them was so huge that he made the pool table look like a child’s toy.

I found out later that his name was Wayne Embry, who played for, and managed, the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team after graduating from Miami. I became acquainted with Wayne later when, as a Miami student, I pledged Alpha Phi Alpha.

In the 1957-1958 basketball season, I drove to Cincinnati to see the Miami-University of Cincinnati game. (As a “townie” I had access to wheels, which most students had to do without and was a definite advantage in dating.) The game was a match-up between Wayne Embry and Oscar Robertson (the “Big O” from Middletown, who inspired a sign at the Middletown city limits proclaiming it to be “The Basketball Capital of the World”). What an exciting game!

Unfortunately, we lost.

The camaraderie of those days is a memory that will always be with me. I wish it could have lasted longer.

—James Tobiason ’60 Phoenix, Ariz.

Unheralded champs I am sending this letter to get some recognition for a far too long forgotten sport, and even a longer time ago MAC Championship, which was never fully brought to the attention of the student body and surrounding media and the

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media of the hometown of each of the team participants.

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!! The team in the spotlight: Miami’s 1961 wrestling team, the first Miami wrestlers to take the MAC Championship.

The tournament was held at Ohio University in Athens. Toledo and Kent State were the favorites, and, oh, there are some stories to tell, but not in this tome.

The team, coached by Jay Fry, was tuned into Coach Fry’s philosophy of superb conditioning and being in the best physical shape and endurance possible: Outlast the opponent, and when the opponent ran out of gas and was sucking wind, you had a second tank of gas to push the opponent and get the points necessary to help the team finish on top.

I can only remember a few team members of the 1961 wrestling team: Tom Hill, David Kaiser, John Tobin, Dick Orenstein, Fred Scott, Frank Boldizar, Joe Galat (who became the Miami wrestling coach a few years later, and his teams won multiple MAC championships in the mid-1960s), Rich Fleming (who took the MAC 127 lb. title in 1960 and went on to become the wrestling coach at Baldwin Wallace in Berea, Ohio, for several years and was still coaching there in the early 2000s — a legend). There are others who I would recall if I saw them again.

Oh, of course, I know Dick Brenneman, who was the MAC champ for Miami at heavy weight from a few years before my time at Miami.

Oh, for the good ol’ daze. Ehh? —Joseph Kerner ’61 Columbus, Ohio

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

A Little Uphill Climb Do you know that every sidewalk on Miami’s Oxford campus is uphill?

No, really. I’ve now experienced this firsthand (first foot?), having walked in Miami’s Red Brick Run. Yes, I realize that the 5K’s name touts running, but I don’t.

I almost didn’t walk either. Cold feet. So to speak.

Despite 10 weeks of training every Monday evening with Team Miami, I wasn’t sure I could do it. I could trip and fall. I could go the wrong way. I could come in last place.

But my teammate, Ann, and I egged each other on. I’d sign up for the 40th year of this race if she would. After all, there are worse things in life than coming in last, such as regret that we didn’t show up at all.

Obviously, walking 3.1 miles — 3.107 to be exact — would be no challenge for Bo Bridges ’96, the subject of our cover story. He’s the world-renowned photographer who practically hurdled himself out the window of a cargo plane going 200 mph to get “the” picture of Tom Cruise for the ultimate Mission: Impossible poster.

Living on adrenaline, Bo needs a mountain to challenge him. An uphill sidewalk is plenty for me. Perhaps it’s enough that we’re both going after our goals. There must be some famous quote about not standing still. If not, there should be.

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture in Hall Auditorium in which Clint Kelly, co-host of the long-running TV show What Not to Wear, advised the predominantly college-age audience to delete “shoulda woulda coulda” from their thinking. Life’s too short to spend time fretting and regretting what you didn’t do. Plus, looking back hurts your time. (I read that when I googled 5K tips.)

Ann and I were reluctant to join the race. Now, our wheezing abated, we’re glad we took on the hills. And the wind. Did I mention that we faced 62 mph headwinds at every turn? Well, it sure seemed like it.

Neither Ann nor I won a coveted red-brick trophy, of course, despite our full-out efforts, although we each received a beautiful commemorative coin for participating. Still, no “shoulda woulda coulda” from us this time. To be honest, we’re kind of proud of ourselves. I hope I can remember that the next time I hesitate when faced with a challenge.

In the meantime, I probably need to send a written apology to the man I trailed during the second half of the course. My heavy breathing had to be annoying. On the other foot, maybe I kept him motivated to stay one step ahead. I so wanted to pass him. If I’d only had another half block. And an electric scooter.

Maybe next year.—Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96

Photographer Bo Bridges ’96 shoots and then rolls to get out of the way of superpipe rider Danny Davis.

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Invaluable Art Course During a class session at the Miami University Art Museum, students study their assigned prints with help from Bob Wicks, the museum’s director, who shows them how to note wear and tear.

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Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Salvator Mundi”

sold for $450 million in 2017. With in-demand works selling for unimaginable figures, Michael Hatch, Miami assistant professor of art history, studies why.

“How is it that we decide that one artwork is more valuable than another?” he said. “Who gets to decide, and by which mechanisms do we attach value to things?”

Wanting to provide insight into the art dealing industry, Hatch created a course for students to learn firsthand how art flows from artists to auction houses. This class also shows how the critical research skills students learn in the humanities support professional skills, he said.

The Thomas French Fine Art gallery in Akron loaned the class 30 prints. Each student created a proposal, including the best market price for the artwork. Five of those proposals were then pitched to Miami University Art Museum Director Bob Wicks and his staff.

In an unprecedented collaboration, Miami’s Center for Career Exploration & Success awarded Hatch a $3,000 grant, most of which went to purchasing the winning piece from the Akron gallery for the museum.

“We were thinking this was going to be lecture learning,” senior Bradley Warner said. “We show up and realize that we’re getting the museum a new piece of art? That’s insane.”

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Medicine’s Humane Dimensions

I’M GLAD YOU ASKED

New minor in medical humanities puts ‘care’ in health care

As the Class of 2019 prepared to graduate, we asked them:

Do you ever feel like just a number when

What will you miss most from your freshman year?

visiting the doctor’s office?

Leading physicians and institutions worldwide point to training problems, pushing for the return of humanities to medical education and practice.

Cynthia Klestinec, director of graduate studies in English and an associate professor at Miami, conducts mock interviews with pre-health students and noticed that they struggle when asked about ethical and interpersonal issues.

“It’s not that they lack empathy, it’s just that they haven’t been invited to think about those things critically, in the classroom,” she said.

After a yearlong study through Miami’s Humanities Center, faculty wanted to develop a forward-thinking humanities program. They created a new minor in medical humanities.

With courses in history and philosophy as well as anthropology and English, the interdisciplinary track focuses on changing concepts and perceptions of disease, health, medical authority, and patient experiences. Its coursework pushes students to understand the humanistic dimensions of medicine so that one day they will effectively communicate with patients beyond symptoms and a diagnosis.

The soft serve ice cream from Harris Dining Hall!

— Mackenzie Rossero, a senior from Hinckley, Ohio, majoring in journalism, creative writing, English literature Miami student Vincent Smith learns about imaging at McCullough-Hyde Hospital.

When choosing prospective students, medical schools look for people with a solid grounding in science, but also for characteristics such as compassion in patient interaction and the ability to recognize different perspectives.

Studies show patients who suffer from chronic conditions or terminal illness have better quality-of-life outcomes directly related to how practitioners interact with them.

“It’s crucial that we adopt this mindset, because saving people’s lives physically is only half of the battle,” said Ariana Mack, a public health major. “We may be saving people, but what will we be saving them for if we only address the biomedical aspects?”

No pressure of employment opportunities.

— Hannah Greulich, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, majoring in integrated social studies education

Celebrating Holi, the beginning of spring, and friendship.

“ It’s an act of revolution and rebellion to be openheartedly joyful and joyous and to try and uplift the world.”

— Rainn Wilson, who starred in the NBC series The Office and co-created SoulPancake, came to Miami as the Lecture Series speaker in March to “Chew on Life’s Big Questions”

Being near my friends in the dorm and the potential for three more years at Miami.

— Nick Hoyt, a senior from Cartersville, Ga., majoring in chemical engineering and pre-medical studies

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Morgan Burnell ’20

NOTEWORTHY

For the second time in four years, Miami’s Gamma Gamma chapter of the Pi Sigma Epsilon marketing and sales fraternity swept first place in the top three categories at the national convention: Whan Challenger/Top Leader, Top Management Team, and Top Chapter in the country.

It was the 14th time in 21 years that the chapter was named best in the U.S. DeUnna Hendrix is Miami’s new head coach of women’s basketball.

She comes from High Point University, where she was head coach for seven seasons. The Kokomo, Ind., native ranks third among Panther women’s basketball coaches with 125 wins and a 89–43 in the Big South. The 67.4 conference winning percentage is the best in High Point’s history. In 2018–2019, Hendrix led High Point to 22–9 and a 15–3 record in Big South competition, earning a WNIT invitation for the second time during her tenure.

Chris Bergeron ’93 has been named the sixth head coach in Miami hockey history. Bergeron, who played on Miami’s first conference championship team and NCAA Tournament qualifier that same year, had been the head coach at Bowling Green the past nine seasons. Under his guidance, the Falcons went 171-154-44. Prior to taking the Bowling Green job, he was an assistant coach at Miami for 10 seasons.

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RISING RANKS

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among nation’s top 50 public schools in Business First’s ranking of 505

#1

on College Magazine’s list of 10 Most Beautiful Campuses in the Midwest

Beyond The Pines Wilson Hall, formerly known as The

Pines, will come down this summer.

Erected in 1924 as part of the Oxford Retreat, which also included Fisher Hall, the building was originally used as a sanitarium for mild nervous and mental cases. In 1936, the university leased it as a dorm, eventually purchasing it.

During World War II, The Pines, located on the Oxford campus’s East Quad, was used as a barracks for the men attending the Naval Radio Training School and, for one month in 1945, as the

spring training camp for two professional baseball teams.

In June 1986, the then women’s residence hall was renamed in honor of Charles Wilson ’24, Miami’s former vice president for academic affairs and provost under Miami Presidents John Millett and Phillip Shriver.

Because of its age and small size — the hall housed 76 residents — it has been empty since 2016. Once cleared, the land, located just east of Cook Field, will become a green space.

East Quad’s Wilson Hall, known as The Pines before 1986, will be torn down this summer.

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National champions! A brilliant free skate earned Miami’s collegiate synchronized skating team its 19th national title at the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships. Tennis, volleyball, field hockey, and softball were MAC regular season champions in 2018-2019. MAC tournament champions were men’s cross country, field hockey, tennis, and men’s swimming and diving. Swimming coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron is the first female head coach in MAC history to lead a men’s team to a conference championship. She was named MAC Coach of the Year. Also named MAC Coach of the Year were KongRong Li (diving), Carolyn Condit (volleyball), Iñako Puzo (field hockey), Tom Chorny (men’s cross country), and Ricardo Rosas (tennis).

Into the Future The board of trustees has approved a five-

year budget plan that refocuses Miami’s investments to enhance the university’s academic excellence, launch innovative programs that respond to student demand, keep pace with scholarship growth, and retain and attract the best faculty and staff.

President Greg Crawford told the board at its regular meeting Feb. 22, “We will act together to sustain our historic strengths around our liberal arts foundation and teacher-scholar model, while

investing in new ways to prepare our students for the future.”

The strategic planning steering committee, formed last fall, will set a “dynamic course,” he said.

At the same trustee meeting, the board approved a new master’s degree program in data and analytics and authorized a contract to proceed with the renovation of Stanton Residence Hall.

Renovation is almost finished on MacCracken, Richard, and Porter, which will reopen at the end of summer.

MAY COMMENCEMENT Jeff Pegues ’92, three-time Emmy Award winner and CBC News correspondent, was to speak to Miami’s 2019 graduates and their families at spring commencement May 18 in Yager Stadium. Pegues has nearly three decades of reporting experience covering stories of national and international importance — most recently as the chief justice and homeland security correspondent for CBS. He was part of the CBS News team that earned the 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence.

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MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE Elementary school students discovered the wondrous intricacies of the human body when B.E.S.T. (Business, Engineering, Science, and Technology) librarians demonstrated 3-D anatomy software to them during the university’s Talawanda Science Week outreach program. The software — called the Visible Body Human Anatomy Atlas — is a new, innovative acquisition to support the growing health sciences curricula at Miami.

Photo by Miami University Libraries / Nick Kneer

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Who’s Watching You? New report details how digital advertising is being used as a political weapon

By Shavon Anderson

Your behaviors and emotions are being influenced right now, whether you realize it or not. An invisible digital infrastructure is monitoring consumer profiles, targeting audiences, and leveraging your data to mobilize political campaigns.

That infrastructure is being used as a weapon, according to Matthew Crain, assistant professor of media and culture at Miami University.

“Most people don’t understand how these things work,” he said.

Crain co-authored the report “Weaponizing the Digital Influence Machine: The Political Perils of Online Ad Tech,” describing what the authors coined the Digital Influence Machine and its ability to use targeted advertising to reach people at their most vulnerable.

The technique can be used in three distinct ways: •Mobilize supporters through identity threats.

•Divide an opponent’s coalition.

•Leverage influence techniques informed by behavioral science.

Until recently, these tactics went relatively unnoticed.

“The reason why we call this an ‘infrastructure’ or ‘machine’ is because you don’t notice it, until it breaks,” Crain said.

In September 2017, Facebook revealed that a sixfigure spending campaign and around 3,000 ads were linked to Russian groups trying to influence the U.S. election. A federal investigation identified that the Russian network Internet Research Agency spent

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millions of dollars to spread disinformation and increase tension.

“Conversations about data breaches and privacy are becoming visible because of all the focus on foreign groups,” Crain said.

If you think you aren’t affected, think again.

Us vs. Them Have you ever been online and come across an ad for something you’d just searched or a store you just visited? You’re being tracked.

“Tracking has been rationalized and sold to us as relevance,” Crain said. “Companies say, ‘We collect your data because then we can serve ads that are in your interest.’ ” In reality, a lot of that info is being used to peg your interests and hobbies, which can then be used by groups such as the Internet Research Agency to fuel

inquiry + innovation

In close elections, the report notes, even marginal advantages at the polls can be significant gains for groups leading the advertising attack.

your emotions and behaviors. Crain’s report notes that while targeted advertising rarely changes someone’s deeply held beliefs, it works to amplify their existing beliefs and increase resentment or anxiety.

Those heightened emotions stir distrust and division and can persuade political behavior.

To get an idea of how manipulative targeted advertising can be, here’s an example from the report, showing a campaign aimed at African Americans: A Facebook account initially promoted positive affirmations through posts about black art and culture but shifted to posting messages that encouraged its users not to vote in the 2016 election.

A similar campaign run by the Russian ad agency targeted Pennsylvanians who identified as conservative-leaning coal miners. It used intense rhetoric, making them feel like their livelihood, self-esteem, and contributions to America were under attack.

Read Crain’s full report at tinyurl.com/Digital-Influence-Machine.

The Fix The report concludes with suggestions for reform and regulations.

There are signs of slow progress in Washington.

According to the report, 30 U.S. senators are cosponsoring the Honest Ads Act, but partisan gridlock points to little hope of major changes in the near future. While some states, such as California, worked to pass individual regulations, Crain said the Trump administration has largely been moving in the opposite direction.

“The decisions we make now, based on the scandals, are really going to impact future campaigns.”

It’s not just federal elections that are targets. Crain emphasizes that this type of advertising spans nationally and can affect any issue or campaign, down to municipal voters and even a school board decision.

Crain’s research recognizes that major tech companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter have worked to limit political manipulation through advertising. Those efforts include attempting to verify the names of sponsors for certain types of political ads, requiring the names to appear on the ads, and creating a searchable ad archive.

Still, the report stresses that these actions won’t be enough. Recommendations include significant steps by companies to refuse to work with dark money groups that seek to advertise on various platforms.

Companies can also limit consumer manipulation by implementing and requiring explicit, non-coercive user consent for viewing specific political ads.

The report offers ethical guidelines for political advertising, which could be developed in collaboration with independent, diverse communities and stakeholders. While it details benefits, risks, and costs for companies, Crain believes corporate leaders should seriously consider taking comprehensive action in an effort to uphold safety, privacy, and transparency.

While targeted advertising rarely changes someone’s deeply held beliefs, it works to amplify their existing beliefs and increase resentment or anxiety.

Shavon Anderson is a staff writer for Miami’s university news and communications.

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media matters

Conquer the Final Frontier David Eicher ’83 offers a 3-D moon landing experience

By Kierra Sondereker ’19 “ We tell the story of the whole Space Race up to and including the Apollo landing and actually beyond: the space station, all the planetary missions that happened more recently, like Pluto. It’s really a book that talks about all those things and not just the science,” said David Eicher ’83, author of Mission Moon 3-D. Kierra Sondereker ’19 of Rootstown, Ohio, is an English literature and journalism major and film studies minor. She has been an intern for university communications and marketing since fall 2016.

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Hardly any of us will experience firsthand the other-

worldliness of outer space. Instead, we might settle for following NASA in the news or watching space-themed programs on the History Channel. But for David Eicher ’83, seeing space on TV, specifically the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, was exactly what inspired him to dedicate his life to bringing space a little closer to all of us here on Earth.

“I remember these fuzzy, black and white TV pictures of the first moonwalk after the landing,” Eicher said. “The whole world was watching this … the first human exploration of other worlds. That really emblazoned something into your mind, especially when you’re a kid.”

Growing up with a father who taught chemistry at Miami, he will tell you his love of the sciences began early. He knew he wanted to be in astronomy journalism at age 15 when he started his own astronomy publication after attending a local Oxford star party.

“I was just blown away seeing Saturn through a telescope. I’ve been interested in astronomy and space, space exploration, astrophysics, and so on ever since then,” he said.

Eicher is now editor-in-chief of Astronomy magazine, the largest magazine on the topic in circulation.

All of this led to Eicher’s newest book, Mission Moon 3-D, which he co-wrote with Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May. In this new book, published just in time for the upcoming 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Eicher and May examine and reflect on the entire history of the Space Race through a combination of text and regular and stereo images.

Designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in space, the book comes with a viewer that merges stereo images together to create a 3-D picture that will give you a sense of what the Apollo astronauts saw on that monumental day in 1969.

media matters

Survive and Thrive in Your Job Search Dale Hinshaw ’53, co-author Abbott Press Dale Hinshaw, committed to helping others find fulfilling employment, says this step-by-step guide, a culmination of his tried-and-true techniques, will put you in the best job with the best company in the shortest time.

A Lion Where There Were Lambs Bill Erxleben ’63 Forseti Books Crusading lawyer Bill Erxleben won national acclaim while risking his career and reputation in some of the most famous criminal, environmental, and consumer protection cases in the Pacific Northwest.

He includes stories of Miami in the 1960s, national intrigue, and lessons that apply today.

EZ and the Intangibles Bob Katz ’69 Regal House Publishing EZ and the Intangibles, for grades 4-7, captures the joy of sports and the resilience of a boy determined to play basketball.

EZ’s best shot is to specialize in subtle maneuvers that don’t show up in the standard stat sheet, those vaunted intangibles.

Dreams Derailed William Schwab ’69 University of Arkansas Press Focusing on the Trump administration’s decision to rescind Obama-era DACA protection, Dreams Derailed delves into the economic, political, and social factors that inform the public conversation about immigration, making a case for the benefits of inclusive policies and the protection of undocumented youths.

Play Ball: Lessons Learned on the Diamond Tim Boese ’71 BookBaby In this “nine inning” memoir, Tim Boese chronicles his experiences from Little League through Senior Softball.

At each stage, he details lessons learned that have contributed to his development as a husband, father, and friend.

I’m Here Christy Nulsen Chafe ’90 Independently published After she receives a midnight text from her dead husband, Meg is forced to face questions about love, loss, and things she holds on to in her quest to understand this funeral-night text and those that follow.

Anti-Aging Hacks Karen Asp ’91 Adams Media Leading fitness, health, and nutrition journalist Karen Asp has assembled 248 easy and actionable tips on diet, fitness, lifestyle, and beauty habits to help age-proof your body and mind.

Every Student, Every Day Kristyn Klei Borrero ’95 Solution Tree Press Every Student, Every Day shares lessons, mindsets, beliefs, strategies, and classroom expectations No-Nonsense Nurturers® high-performing teachers use to support the needs of every student they serve.

Adventures in Shondaland: Identity Politics and the Power of Representation Michaela Meyer ’99, co-author Rutgers University Press Since her breakout hit series Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes has become a powerful player in contemporary American network television. This volume serves as a means to theorize Rhimes’ contributions and influence by inspiring provocative conversations about television as a deeply politicized institution.

BOOK 4 IN STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL SERIES Miss Violet and the Great War Leanna Renee Hieber ’01 Tor Books

In this alternate history, Violet is offered powers heralded by the Muses of antiquity. To stop death itself, she will need to overcome her fears and step into the Great War.

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my story

MY STORY is a place for you to share reminiscences and observations about everyday happenings.

Submit your essay for consideration to: Donna Boen, Miamian editor, “My Story,” 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@ MiamiOH.edu. Please limit your essay to 900 words and include your name, class year, address, and phone number.

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Getting to Know Jane Goodall

By Ralph Bresler ’65

My wife, Barbara ’68, our children, and I were fortunate to work closely with Dr. Jane Goodall during our 1987-1991 tour with the American Embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After many years of groundbreaking chimpanzee research in Gombe, Tanzania, Jane decided to try to save chimps living in the wild. The largest chimpanzee population was in the DRC, but numbers were diminishing because of the bush meat trade, sales as pets, and destruction of habitat. Secretary of State James Baker offered the State Department’s resources to help Dr. Goodall, and the Kinshasa economic section took on responsibility for making arrangements for her visits.

my story

On Jane’s first trip, Chris Bane of the economic section and Barbara accompanied her and National Geographic photographer Mike Nichols on a tour of Kinshasa. Barbara mentioned that a chimp was for sale in the central market. Jane insisted on seeing this chimp. Ten adult chimps are killed in the wild protecting every infant captured, and only one out of 10 infant chimps survives the journey to market after being taken from their mothers and their habitat.

Naturally, seeing the infant chimp for sale was quite upsetting for Dr. Goodall. Ambassador Bill Harrop and others in the embassy secured the chimp’s release by working through security service contacts. He was then cared for by Graziella Cotman, a Belgian lady, who had been working with zoo chimps and had corresponded with Jane.

Jane urged the government to enact stronger legislation banning the sale of chimps and to enforce existing laws. Chris Bane and I accompanied Jane and interpreted for her in meetings with government officials, local environmentalists, reporters, and at the local zoo where chimps lived in poor conditions and exhibited many signs of stress.

Our embassy doctor, Cedric Dumont, and his wife, Ruth, took a keen interest in Jane and her work. A second chimp was rescued, and we and the Dumonts shared time each week with the care of Christophe (named for Chris Bane) in our homes. Eventually, a third chimp, Calamity Jane, joined Chris. Caring for these infants was a learning experience, but much like caring for human babies, including diapers and bottles.

Chris was lethargic and barely holding on when we brought him home. Slowly, he grew stronger as his health improved, and a mischievous streak emerged.

In the morning, he would delight in creeping under the table to bite the ankle of an unsuspecting daughter at breakfast and revel in the chase that ensued.

An unforeseen perk were the lazy Sunday afternoons on the veranda overlooking the Congo River with the Dumonts, sometimes other visitors, and the chimps. Calamity was truly chimplike, knuckling at top speed across the lawn, ditching her diaper in a bush at the first opportunity, and climbing trees so high we worried we would lose her. Chris seemed delayed in his development by comparison, playing only in the shorter shrubs and constantly seeking

out Barbara for reassurance. But the bond between the two was immediately apparent. They clutched each other with an eagerness and a desperation that reminded us they were living in an alien world.

In spite of his caution, Chris displayed some chimpness. He would greet a new doll with a submissive back of his hand, just as wild chimpanzees do.

His pant hoot conveyed the same sense of urgency, albeit for different reasons, as it would in the jungle.

And he would stomp his feet and charge our daughters, typical chimp behavior.

Jane made several visits to Kinshasa in 1990 and 1991, and we made some progress on behalf of chimpanzees. Our daughters, Jennifer and Jessica, also became activists. Jennifer started a club at the American School of Kinshasa supporting chimpanzee awareness and raised money to feed chimps at local zoos. Both helped with Chris’ care, as he often needed to be held, and he loved to play with them.

After our tour ended and we returned to Washington, Dr. Dumont took over care of Chris and Jane. In late summer 1991, the security situation became so unsafe that some staff and all dependents were evacuated to the U.S. Dumont helped organize the first pet evacuation (Operation Noah’s Ark) from any U.S. embassy by boat across the Congo River to Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.

Dogs and cats were sent by air to the U.S. Cedric got permission to send several chimpanzees, including Chris and Calamity Jane, to the Brazzaville zoo. Dr. Jane was in Brazzaville to greet them.

Fortunately, Conoco oil financed a chimp sanctuary named Tchimpounga near Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo, for the Jane Goodall Institute. One of the most important chimpanzee rescue facilities in the world, it became Chris and Calamity Jane’s home.

We stayed in touch with Jane for years after our Congo experience. She was a houseguest in Arlington and spoke at Jessica’s Yorktown High School and Jennifer’s College of William and Mary. Jennifer, a science teacher in Greenwich, Conn., started a JGI Roots and Shoots Club, a humanitarian and environmental initiative inspired by Jane, that has left a lasting impression on her students.

A foreign service career can have unexpected rewards!

Ten adult chimps are killed in the wild protecting every infant captured, and only one out of 10 infant chimps survives the journey to market.

Cal and Chris

Ralph Bresler ’65 graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1968.

He married Barbara Drake Bresler ’68 that same year, and they served in Belgium, Chad, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, and Congo over a 31-year career. Ralph’s last position before his 1999 retirement was director of the economic policy staff of the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department.

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FOCUS ON ADVENTURE 18

miamian magazine

BY D ONNA B OEN ’ 8 3 M TS C ’ 9 6 / PH OTO S BY B O B RI D G ES ’ 9 6

Action photography’s Indiana Jones, Bo Bridges ’96 knows what it takes

to get the perfect shot

“Bomb Drop” at Waimea Bay

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BO

Bridges ’96 majored in art with a focus on photography because he wanted a career that would keep him outdoors.

Outdoors? OK, that’s understandable. But out plane windows? In an Airbus that’s climbing at 200 mph? Proof positive Bo will go to great lengths — and heights — in pursuit of the perfect picture.

That’s what makes him world-renowned.

During this particular aerobatic feat, he was shooting actor Tom Cruise for the official Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation movie poster.

While the cargo plane ascended, Cruise clutched handholds in the plane’s exterior door, his body suspended precariously over the countryside north of London.

At the same time, Bo squeezed his body, down to his thighs, out one of the plane’s windows, his camera duct-taped to his hands.

While two guys grasped his calves, he twisted sideways and aimed backward at the actor.

The icy wind whipped around his head, bouncing off his camera’s eye cup.

Some 15 feet away, Cruise looked like a dark blob.

“My eyelid was flapping up and down so hard I thought it was going to rip. The next thing I know, I’m shooting in a pool of my own tears. It was kind of like I was under water and trying to shoot this blurry spot and make sure it was focused.”

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Bo knows more than a thing or two about photographing under water. Although he’s jumped out of helicopters at the top of mountains and climbed active volcanos to go after breathtaking vistas, his first love remains the ocean.

Off the shore of Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, he strapped on scuba gear and went cage diving to capture the massive power of the great white shark. In the Bahamas, he left the cage behind and simply jumped off the back of a boat with his 15 mm fisheye lens to detail the sleekness of the blacktip reef shark.

Yes, he’s an adventurer, but he’s nobody’s fool. The boat’s ladder was within easy reach.

Most would consider Bo’s work style dangerous. And he supposes it is, but he makes sure to study the location before he sets up, and he doesn’t take unnecessary risks. For the most part.

Still, there was that one time in Cordova, Alaska, where he photographed glacier

“ My eyelid was flapping up and down so hard I thought it was going to rip. The next thing I know, I’m shooting in a pool of my own tears.”

—Bo Bridges ’96 on photographing Tom Cruise for the Mission: Impossible poster

Inset: A selfie from Bo Bridges ’96 Above: During the NBA finals in 2009–2010, Bo was supposed to have an hour to photograph Kobe Bryant. He set up a dark studio for dramatic shots and another for a light, bright look. When Bryant showed up late, Bo had 11 minutes to work and managed to take 13 shots. “Everyone was getting super stressed out, and I was like, ‘Look, we are going to be fine, and we are going to work with what we got.’ ”

“tsunami” river surfing. He calls it his “craziest, coolest, stupidest” photoshoot.

Aiming at a glacier the size of Rhode Island, with black bears all around him, he “nailed” the sequence in which an ice chunk broke off from the edge of the glacier, creating a massive wave that two surfers proceeded to ride down the river.

“If the ice had gone out instead of down, everyone would have died,” he said.

He’s definitely earned his reputation of “the world’s most badass photographer.”

Even badasses have limits, though. Bo’s is the great white. He prefers to admire them from a paddleboard or a cage. He won’t swim alongside them.

Whether he’s shooting models for eight hours or clicking off 13 frames of Kobe Bryant in 11 minutes, the advertising and fine art photographer keeps it even keel.

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When he’s working, he’s in the zone, thinking about exposure, shutter and film speed, and ISO. If it’s action sports, he analyzes where the athlete is coming from, where they’re going, and where they’ll peak in the trick.

During one snowboarding assignment, he crouched down, aimed up, and took his shot, then rolled out of the path of the athlete with only seconds to spare.

“A lot of it comes down to knowing how to use your equipment, but also knowing what you want to accomplish with it,” he said.

“The more you know about a sport, a landscape, or whatever it is that you really love, it’s going to come out in your imagery and videos. You’re studying it, you’re focusing on it, so you’re learning how a body is going to move through that space, what time the sun will set, and how the clouds will come into play.”

He’s most proud of photographing pro surfer Alex Gray in action in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, for the cover of Surfer Magazine.

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1. Olympic gold medal sprinter LaShawn Merritt 2. Olympic gold medalist and professional snowboarder Jamie Anderson 3. Actor Eddie Cibrian 4. Bo had to get this photo of Tom Cruise while the director continued shooting the Mission: Impossible movie. Bo sat facing backward in a race car seat, his camera focused on Cruise, who was nearly on the car’s tail as they drove between 30 and 80 mph through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. “We had the explosion to our left, and that was on a little pulley system, and then we had the pyro guy who had to ignite the motorcycle as it went off the cliff. We had to come around that turn and have it all coincide. It took us about five takes to get it all in one shot, but everything in that image is one photo except for the guy crashing in the background. We shot that one a bit later, and he did like three flips, and we carried him out in a stretcher. He came back later, and he was OK. That was one frame, and we nailed that on the first day, so that was pretty exciting.”

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5. Sunset Sled 6. LA Kings right-winger Dustin Brown 7. Pro skateboarder and actor Tony Hawk 8.

Duck Dynasty 9. Superpipe rider Danny Davis

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“ The more you know about a sport, a landscape, or whatever it is that you really love, it’s going to come out in your imagery and videos.”

—Bo Bridges ’96

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That shoot was the “holy grail” for Bo, who’s been the primary photographer at the Summer and Winter X Games for nearly 20 years. His gallery in the heart of Manhattan Beach, Calif., displays his wide range of subjects.

Over the past two decades, his work has taken him to more than 35 countries. Pre-kids, he traveled 150 days a year. Now the father of three has “reeled that back.” He’s also curtailed base jumping, free climbing, and big

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mountain helicopter drops with their potential avalanche dangers.

Traveling is second nature to him, moving every two years while growing up and living in 26 places because of his dad’s career as an Air Force pilot. His dad and mom, an interior designer, are a Miami Merger. After he retired from the military, his dad got into international marketing, which is why Bo was in high school in Zurich, Switzerland, when it came time to consider colleges.

“ If you see the action, you’re too late on the shot.”

—Bo Bridges ’96

Above: Bo Bridges describes “Curly” as a playful Great White shark, which he photographed while standing on top of (not inside) a submerged cage. Top right: Pro surfer Ian Walsh Bottom right: Boogie boarding

Miami, with its lack of mountains and oceans, was his last pick.

He told his cousin about his reservations when he stopped to see her in Cincinnati on his way to Florida for spring break. That didn’t deter her, another Miami graduate, from driving him to Oxford for a visit.

“It was like a perfect spring day on campus with every flower blooming, and it was beautiful. I remember looking around and thinking, wow this is awesome.”

In other words, pretty as a picture.

These days, both his home and his gallery are a block from the sand. He starts early so he can jump in the water before work and swim, surf, paddleboard, or foil surf, his current addiction.

Sometimes his kids join him for a swim before school.

Then it’s off to the gallery, if he’s not headed out on assignment.

Bo describes his style as clean composition mixed with a little edge. For him, there’s always a story to be told.

Some of his photos are so unbelievable you wonder if they’re photoshopped.

They’re not. He wants to be outside in the experience, not sitting in a chair typing on a keyboard. “I want to nail that shot in-camera and do everything I can before it even hits that computer.”

He considers the Mission: Impossible assignment the pinnacle of his work and experience up to this point.

“Mission: Impossible is pretty awesome cause that’s a whole culmination of building up this background of mine and everything else, and I feel like to nail this shot with a lot of pressure and a minimal amount of time — it doesn’t happen overnight.”

His best photographic advice?

“If you see the action, you’re too late on the shot.”

Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 is editor of Miamian.

To see Bo’s online portfolio, visit bobridges.com

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Two young alums embrace their frenetic careers at CNN and MSNBC

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very minute, cable news anchors race to keep up, running on a gerbil wheel where fame and infamy are metered in nanoseconds.

Every hour, Americans tune in to see TV hosts figuratively shred their scripts and jump on the breaking story of the moment. MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow recently welcomed her viewers to the “million-mile-an-hour, on-the-blink, wildly-spinning-outof-control carousel that is the news cycle now.”

This is the hyperkinetic world of Emily Kuhn and Daniela Pierre-Bravo, two Miami graduates who are mastering the media whirlwind.

E M I LY KU H N ’ S C R UX Chilling at LaGuardia while on her way back to MU, Emily Kuhn ’09 was taking a breather from her frenetic TV job. This October weekend was going to be contemplative, giving her time to reconnect with professors and offer advice to fresh young faces. Back on the Oxford campus, the director of communications at CNN Worldwide would be honored as one of the 18 of the Last 9 — 18 alumni from the past nine years recognized as high achievers in their professions.

Kuhn’s phone splintered the moment.

Her colleagues at CNN New York were being evacuated because of a bomb on-site. She couldn’t return to her Manhattan office, so Kuhn boarded a plane to Cincinnati and tweeted corporate updates across 668 miles of air space.

P H OTO S CO U RT E SY OF E M I LY KUH N AN D DAN I E L A PI E R R E - B RAVO

“The first 24 hours of that weekend, I was a little rattled. It was full of reflection, and my brain was spinning.”

Her Miami reunion capsulizes Kuhn’s professional life: setting an agenda each morning, then spending the rest of the day responding to world events. She manages publicity for more than 40 CNN digital platforms, where news is carried on everything from cellphones and the Internet to Alexa and Siri.

After five years with Stratacomm communications, Kuhn joined CNN in 2014 as a publicist in its Washington, D.C., bureau.

The cable network was bolstering its digital presence: Kuhn took the staff from two to 60, testing such platforms as Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube. She deployed her Miami degree in strategic communication, with a minor in political science, as well as

STO RY BY B E TSA MAR SH I L LU STRAT IO N S BY ALYS E EVER S O L E CAPAC CIO ’ 1 2

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her summa cum laude master’s degree in digital and political communications from Johns Hopkins University.

“We knew 2016 was going to be a big election, but we had no idea what was coming.”

By the end of the campaign, CNN’s political news team was No. 1 in digital traffic. “Till the day I die, I know I’ll remember that.”

As most of the country can attest, things haven’t calmed down since. “They don’t teach you in college how to tweet back to the president of the United States. Now it’s part of my everyday life.

“I’m living in one of the most important times in communications and information gathering and sharing. Sometimes I feel the weight of the work and the responsibility.”

She often flashes back to the highpressure writing drills during her capstone communication classes. “Two years of boot camp instilled in me how to write fast and think critically very, very quickly.

I thank them for that.” And yes, in capstone, she set up her first Twitter account.

“Nobody knew what Twitter was.”

Fascinated by politics since her childhood in Bethesda, Md., Kuhn enjoyed studying the political scene during her Miami years, but she never felt moved to work for or become a politician. Keeping a neutral point of view, little did collegiate Emily know she was protecting professional Emily.

“I wouldn’t have gotten this job if I’d been a partisan person.”

At CNN, Kuhn and her staff battle attacks from all points of the political spectrum.

When CNN reporting is called “fake news,” they rebut in real time, often with TV or online video.

“It’s my job to protect the brand, support journalism, and stand up for our reporters and their reporting. There’s never been a more important time to trust … reputable institutions like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN. “If we make a mistake, I own it. I walk people through how it happened and why it’s not going to happen again, so the consumer will trust CNN. The non-reputable outlet never corrects its lies. Our livelihood is our reputation.”

miamian magazine

A booking producer for MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Daniela Pierre-Bravo ’12 (left) juggles up to 19 guests a day. Emily Kuhn ’09 (top right), director of communications at CNN Worldwide, and her staff battle attacks from all points of the political spectrum.

With agendas at the mercy of the news, strategic planning often falls to nights and weekends. Occasionally, even holidays are subsumed, and Kuhn leans on understanding family and friends.

“I’m blessed with an incredible network of friends who went to Miami, from California to Montana to Chicago and a few blocks away in Manhattan. They’re my rocks, and I wouldn’t stay sane without them.

She can even count on her friends to feed a college-days craving.

“When somebody goes to Ohio, they always bring back buckeyes.”

There’s little time for vacation in 24-hour news cycles. For Kuhn, the crux is that “I’ve never questioned my interest in the intersection between media and politics. I’ve always pursued it, and I’ve always loved it.”

I’m living in one of the most important times in communications and information gathering and sharing. Sometimes I feel the weight of the work and the responsibility.

EMILY KUHN ’09

DANIELA PIERRE-BRAVO’S CERTAIN NIMBLENESS The sweep hand hits 6 a.m., a news clip pops on the screen, and a huge White House graphic looms up behind Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. MSNBC’s Morning Joe roars into another day.

Off set, Daniela Pierre-Bravo ’12 keeps one eye on the monitor and one on her phone, fielding publicists’ questions and talking to guests before they go live. As one of the show’s three booking producers, Pierre-Bravo juggles 13 to 19 guests per day for the morning talk show and its 5 a.m. lead-in, Morning Joe First Look. On a good day, everything flows as planned. On a wild news day, scripts fly out the window, and she’s canceling and rebooking guests on a minute’s notice.

Pierre-Bravo strives to “curate a bipartisan conversation. It takes a certain type of nimbleness.”

Truth be told, Pierre-Bravo could print “Nimbleness” on her business card.

After only a few years in New York media, she has risen from unpaid intern to Morning Joe producer. Her unstoppable drive impressed the show’s co-host, Mika Brzezinski, who founded the Know Your Value platform to empower women. Calling Pierre-Bravo “reliable, trustworthy, quick, and scrappy,” Brzezinski invited her to be the Know Your Value millennial ambassador and co-author of her latest book, Earn It!, released in May. “I had a very specific struggle,” PierreBravo said. “I want the book to speak to marginalized women who have no mentors, who are left out of the conversation, and don’t know where to start. To say that if you dream it and believe it and work hard, you can do it.”

All her life, Pierre-Bravo has scouted the horizon for opportunity. Her family moved from Santiago, Chile, to Lima, Ohio, when she was 11. While her classmates shunned the dusty computer in the corner, she jumped on it to take self-directed reading quizzes and was soon the No. 1 accelerated reader. It was a small predictor of the whirlwind to come.

Pierre-Bravo achieved throughout high school while working as a busboy, waitress, and owner of her own Mary Kay cosmetics business. “Every single penny that I made was going to college.”

Miami invited her to campus as part of its Bridges Program for historically underrepresented populations. She earned a $2,500 scholarship. “It was my way in.”

Of course, the scholarship was short of her $20,000 annual tuition. She applied for every private scholarship going, and she and her mother worked every job they could.

“We were late [with payments], my mother was always on the phone to the bursar’s office. But the money always arrived,” as Pierre-Bravo focused on a degree in international studies.

She thrived in Miami Mock Trial and as a Scholar Leader but worried as she neared graduation a semester early. How would she find a summer internship that would propel her to a career in a media center? She answered an ad for unpaid work at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Blue Flame, a marketing unit within the entertainer’s empire.

Faced with the address line, she realized, “They’re not going to want to tell someone how to get from Ohio to New York.”

Aspirationally, she wrote the address of the Columbia dorm where she hoped to live if she got the job.

Blue Flame called for a screening interview. Since you’re local, they said, can you come in tomorrow? Anyone who knows Pierre-Bravo knows the answer.

Without government ID, she couldn’t buy a plane ticket; she caught four Greyhound buses for the 18-hour trek. Not wasting a moment, all night she studied Blue Flame and MTV, another company on her short list. After freshening up in a Port Authority bathroom, she aced the interview. That summer she worked three days a week at Blue Flame, two at MTV, and “four or five jobs as a babysitter, dog sitter, and dog walker to survive and eat.”

Midsummer that year, the miraculous happened. President Barack Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. “It

18 OF THE LAST 9 The 18 of the Last 9 Award, sponsored by the Miami University Alumni Association, annually recognizes 18 outstanding Miami alumni who have graduated within the past nine years.

Recipients have demonstrated passions in fields ranging from medicine and architecture to business innovation and ocean sustainability. Both Emily Kuhn ’09 and Daniela Pierre-Bravo ’12 are members of the 2018 class. The 2019 honorees will be announced in July.

was everything. It allowed me to have an ID and a work permit.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to get real confident. Where else can I apply?’ ” She chose the legendary NBC Page Program, and soon moved into the talent department at Saturday Night Live, escorting VIPs and transporting cast members from the after-parties. Yes, she has great stories, but we won’t hear them. She will only say, “Once I was watching Kings of Leon and Leonardo DiCaprio was to my right.”

Eager for production experience, she moved to MSNBC, soon printing Brzezinski’s scripts, bringing her wardrobe, and ordering her precise, pre-dawn coffee.

In her typical warp speed, Pierre-Bravo turned a three-month page assignment into a full-time job in less than a month and a half.

As she tells her millennial sisters in Earn It!, “When you grow up with few financial resources, little access to valuable work mentors, and no legal status, you have to make your own path. I always felt I had too much to lose if I didn’t believe I could do it.”

Even as a TV producer and author, she can still connect to 11-year-old Daniela, new to America, marveling that “everybody got an award for everything. This country is the true embodiment that if you work hard, the sky’s the limit.”

A freelance writer based in Cincinnati, Betsa Marsh last wrote about Steve Fitzhugh ’86 promoting healing between Baltimore youth and police.

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Wheels in the As CEO of World Bicycle Relief, Dave Neiswander ’92 envisions a world where distance is no longer a barrier to education, health care, and economic opportunity

e Field STORY BY DONNA BOEN ’83 MTSC ’96 PHOTOS COURTESY OF WORLD BICYCLE RELIEF

Orphaned as a young child, Tamara lives with her grandmother, aunt, uncle, and four siblings in a small mud hut in rural Zambia. The teenager loves school and dreams of becoming a teacher in the city, yet she misses a lot of classes.

Or at least she did when attending school meant trudging 2.5 miles along a rugged and rutted dirt path, and only after she finished her morning chores of cooking, cleaning, fetching water, and washing dishes.

With that kind of schedule, even when she made it to school, she never found time to study.

All that changed when Tamara and 100 other students and teachers at Kabulanga Primary School received World Bicycle Relief’s Buffalo Bicycles. As its name implies, this bike is not the lightweight, recreational type that graces U.S. streets.

For Tamara and her family, this heavy-duty, all-steel, 50-pound bicycle means independence. It’s hers exclusively during the week so she can attend school. On Saturdays, her family uses the bicycle to take their maize to the mill. On Sunday, Tamara rides it to church.

Tipping point Dave Neiswander ’92 has seen a family of six riding one Buffalo Bicycle, although, he points out, that’s not the norm. Still, considering this bike is often treated like the family SUV, there’s a reason the rear carrier can hold over 200 pounds.

Neiswander, CEO of World Bicycle Relief, has ridden his own Buffalo Bicycle out to Tamara’s home. He knows firsthand how important these bicycles are in countries where walking is the primary mode of transportation and the closest health clinic can be 10 miles away.

Providing access to health care is the reason F.K. Day founded World Bicycle Relief, aka WBR, in 2005, in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. A founder of SRAM Corp., a bicycle component manufacturer in Chicago, Day and his wife, Leah, partnered with aid organizations in Sri Lanka to distribute more than 24,000 bicycles to displaced survivors.

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As a result of that success, WBR was invited to partner with a large-scale health program in Zambia. WBR donated bicycles through U.S. government programs to 23,000 health-care workers who were traveling long distances to visit the homes of people living with HIV and AIDS and to take care of the over 1 million orphans created by the AIDS epidemic.

With WBR continuing to grow, F.K., who had become a close friend of Neiswander while on a safari, asked him to join the nonprofit’s efforts.

“Over a Heineken at the local hotel, I committed to one year. In six weeks I was living in Zambia on a ‘sabbatical’ from my investment bank,” Neiswander said. He was WBR’s first employee in Africa.

The Washington, D.C., investment banker wondered if he would make it.

He’d go days without electricity. After the water company kept turning off his water, he went to the utility’s office to ask why. When they told him he owed a thousand dollars, he was incredulous.

He didn’t take that many showers. After some detective work, he found out he was supplying water to his entire neighborhood.

That was one of those afternoons when he called his boss at 5 o’clock and told him, “Africa won today.”

“Three months was sort of a tipping point, and then I was all in. I realized that I wasn’t going to change Africa Day 1, but I needed to adapt myself.”

Negotiating power WBR adapted as well. The original intent was to give away existing, European-style bicycles, but they didn’t hold up. WBR staffers affectionately call them “bicycle-shaped objects.” At that point, F.K. Day asked the users what they wanted and needed in a bicycle.

As WBR staffers continued to improve the Buffalo Bicycle — they’re probably on generation 20 now — people started knocking on their door, saying, “Hey, I’ve

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Above: Although based in Chicago as World Bicycle Relief’s CEO, Dave Neiswander ’92 loves to return to Africa, where he was the nonprofit’s field director for almost 10 years. “All answers are found in the field,” he said. Inset: Neiswander found investment banking satisfying in many ways, but after 15 years, he began wondering if there was another chapter in his life. Now he could write a book about all the changes he’s experienced because of WBR.

seen this bicycle in the field. It’s very different from anything else. It’s very high quality. How can I buy that bicycle?”

Funded by charitable donations, the philanthropic program expanded.

It trained field mechanics and made sure there was a supply chain for spare parts. It set up assemblers in local factories throughout Zambia, giving them employment and ownership in the social enterprise.

It created a service-to-own contract where the bicycles were handed over to volunteer caregivers. If they stayed in the program for two years, the bicycle became theirs.

That improved the retention of the volunteers because they not only saw the bicycle as a valuable work asset, but as transportation to take their goods to the marketplace and their children to the clinic. It helped strengthen their households’ resiliency.

WBR’s current flagship program provides girls with bicycles so they can attend school.

“ The bicycle by itself does nothing.

It’s only when somebody uses the bicycle to access education, health care, economic opportunities that it is a powerful tool.”

“Every study will tell you, you educate girls, you help break that cycle of poverty,” Neiswander said.

“Also, what we’re finding is that it really improves their sense of empowerment, because in the areas that we’re operating, bicycles are a valuable asset in that household. That bicycle changes her negotiating power within that household,

within that community. Her education becomes more important, so she’s less likely to be married off or kept at home to take care of younger siblings and do household chores.”

Reaching her destination A 68-year-old widow, Georgina supports herself by working her 21-acre farm in Zambia. Her three cows produce milk twice a day, but without a bicycle she could only deliver milk to the Palabana Collection Center once a day, if she was lucky.

Before WBR and the Palabana Dairy Cooperative became partners, dairy farmers carried milk by hand or wheelbarrow to the collection center. It took two people to carry one 30-liter can, and the milk would often spoil before reaching its destination.

For years, Georgina made only one milk delivery a day because she lives nearly 7.5 miles from the collection center and had no reliable transportation. She was milking her cows twice a day, but she was missing out on the income her second milking could bring. Now she straps a large, silver milk canister on the bike’s

rear carrier, and delivers twice a day.

Georgina’s milk stays fresher on the trip, with less spoilage and waste, increasing her income potential substantially.

“To fail to deliver milk even once is a loss,” she said. “Since I got the Buffalo, I never failed to deliver milk. Not even a day.”

Taking a leap After six years in Zambia and three in South Africa, Neiswander returned to the nonprofit’s base in Chicago to become CEO, taking on a broader role of fundraising and overseeing 155 staffers in offices in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. WBR expects to produce 67,000 bicycles this year and have more than half a million in the field by the end of the year.

The need is huge, he said, and WBR’s vision is to eventually produce tens of millions of bicycles.

“It’s not about necessarily the number of bicycles. For our organization, it’s much more about sustainable impact. So I’m more interested in what that bicycle’s doing in a year, two years, three years than I am about just getting a bicycle out the

door. The bicycle by itself does nothing.

It’s only when somebody uses the bicycle to access education, health care, economic opportunities that it is a powerful tool.”

These days, Africa feels as much like home to Neiswander as his native Urbana, Ohio. He makes the 24-hour trip there three or four times annually.

“For me, it’s a thrill to my soul. I just get so excited to be in the field.”

He’s come a long way from his first meeting in Africa where he wore zip-off pants and a safari shirt. Everyone else was wearing khakis, button downs, and polo shirts.

“I’m sitting there in my safari gear looking like an idiot. I did not mean to look like the Man in the Yellow Hat.” But he stayed, and he learned to think differently. He would like to encourage others to do the same.

“Certainly not everybody needs to run off to Africa to start up a nonprofit organization, but sometimes just following those leaps of faith can have pretty remarkable outcomes.”

With a Buffalo Bicycle students improve attendance

28%

and improve academic performance by

59% 45%

more patient visits are made by community health-career volunteers

25%

increase in number of deliveries by dairy farmers

.5 million Buffalo Bicycles this year in 20 countries

To deliver their product, Zambian dairy farmers must travel miles over rough, mostly unpaved roads.

Before the Buffalo Bicycle, they would carry the 30-liter cans by hand or wheelbarrow, and the milk would often spoil along the way.

Base of operation, sub-Saharan Africa, countries of primary operation: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Kenya

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love & honor

‘Miami Really Stepped Up’ Hardships haven’t deterred Jessie Vesco from her dreams

By Josh Chapin ’02 “After all the dad stuff happened, Miami was all I had,” said Jessie Vesco, who is graduating in three years. Fluent in Spanish and studying Chinese and German, she plans to become a translator.

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Jessie Vesco called her dad, Joe, every day of her fresh-

man year to share a joke. Some days, Jessie told the joke. Other days, Joe. When neither had one in mind, they’d visit Google.

It wasn’t uncommon for Jessie to call her father several times a day, sometimes up to eight. If Joe didn’t answer, Jessie left a message. On occasion, those messages would get so long that, when Joe called back, he’d ask her to pick up the story where voice mail cut her off.

Jessie was always close to her father. When she was 5, her mother, Kim, died from a brain aneurysm.

“Losing my mom at such a young age taught me, OK, you don’t know how long you’re going to have these people in your life. You need to make sure they know you’re grateful for them while you can.”

When Joe passed away in June 2018 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis and diabetes, Jessie faced hard questions in the midst of her grief. She already worked 20 hours a week at Oxford’s CVS, but that was no longer enough.

A double major in Spanish and critical languages, Jessie was on track to graduate in three years, which meant taking courses over winter break and during the summer. How would she pay for school?

She’s also lost her No. 1 cheerleader. Even as his health and mobility declined, Joe was there for her. He helped her learn how to drive a stick in her Mitsubishi Lancer, and when he couldn’t attend her graduation from Gahanna Lincoln High School near Columbus, he texted her throughout the ceremony.

love & honor

“He couldn’t see very well, so it would be random emojis and stuff,” Jessie said. “I showed him what emojis were. That was like our thing, jokes and emojis.

“He was the one who co-signed my loans. He was the one who helped me figure out school money stuff.

I’d been on academic scholarship because my grades are good, but I still had a fair amount of loans. I kind of panicked and said, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I spent a month after he died in my room in bed, just kind of like, ‘I don’t want to do anything.’ ” That wasn’t what Joe would have wanted, though.

Her father, Jessie realized, would have encouraged her to find a way to pull herself up and finish school.

So, Jessie contacted Miami’s One Stop, which provides essential information in several areas, including financial aid and billing, and was put in touch with a financial adviser.

She soon started receiving notifications of aid, including an email telling her she’d been awarded one of 36 Armstrong SEAL scholarships for the school year. Started in 2014, the scholarships are for students who run into unforeseen financial challenges, such as family problems or unexpected deaths.

“I was sitting in the car to pick my friend up from her house, and I was checking my email,” Jessie said.

“I actually cried when I saw I had been given the Armstrong SEAL Scholarship. My friend asked what was going on, and I told her, and we both cried. That was when I knew everything was fine. I was going to go back to Miami.”

Fortune allowed Jessie to share her story with Mike Armstrong ’61, whose donations with wife Anne ’61 make the scholarships possible. Mike had to leave Miami as a student after losing his football scholarship because of an injury. He worked a year on the docks of Detroit before returning to finish school.

Mike was on campus for a visit last semester and lunched with Jessie at the Marcum Hotel and Conference Center.

Fluent in Spanish and also studying Chinese and German, Jessie plans to become a translator. Mike noticed memorabilia from different countries lining the walls at Marcum and asked Jessie to translate.

“We were laughing and telling stories, like 5-yearold kids,” she said.

“Jessie is an exceptionally bright student who has gone through enormous hardships but has continued to work hard to meet her goals,” Mike said. “It is

Her father would have encouraged her to find a way to pull herself up and finish school.

gratifying to see the Armstrong SEAL Scholarship help students such as Jessie reach and achieve those goals.”

Jessie is back on track with her plan, including graduating in three years. Using other financial opportunities, she even studied abroad in Peru, a trip she took with her academic adviser, Tamise Ironstrack.

Tamise noticed Jessie’s drive and focus right away.

“She had a zest for life that you don’t always see from first-year students,” Tamise said. “She would always come in with neat stories, and it was evident she was engaged with the experience here and making the most of her time.

“You can see how her perspective has shifted and how she’s matured. I’m proud of the hard work she’s put in, given all of the obstacles. Even though she would never say it, I’m sure her life has been more difficult than a typical Miami student. You would never, ever know that just from having a conversation with her because she just takes it in such stride.”

Still working at CVS and still taking steps toward her dreams, Jessie is grateful for the backing she’s received at Miami.

“After all the dad stuff happened, Miami was all I had,” she said. “Miami really stepped up. You’ve got me going around, without parents, trying to figure things out for myself. I didn’t think anyone would listen to me, but I got the exact opposite. That’s when things kind of clicked. I’m lucky to be here.”

To learn more about how to support Miami, visit GivetoMiamiOH.org/GivetoMU.

To see more about Jessie, visit GivetoMiamiOH.org/ Impact.

Josh Chapin ’02 is manager of editorial services in Miami’s university advancement division.

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Miami University Libraries, Digital Collection

class notes

National Archery Tournament, August 1960. For years, competitors from across the country showed up in Oxford with their bows and arrows for the National Archery Championships on Cook Field.

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class notes

51

Soon after her June graduation, Joanne Waterman Williams was working for the U.S. State Department in Tel Aviv, Israel, a new country not yet on the world map at the time. “As I approach 90, I am sending you the online link to my memoir of sorts, Israel Remembered, (www. joannewatermanwilliams.wordpress. com) with the thought someone is still perking from the Class of 1951 and might be interested.”

at any point in our lives — with a career, with a place, and with another person. ¶ Ed McClanahan, prolific writer and educator, was chosen by the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning as a living inductee into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. His work focuses on autobiographical fiction inspired from his Kentucky childhood.

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Freemason Kenneth Stryker MEd ’53 was honored in a special ceremony at the Greenville, Ohio, Brethren Retirement Home. Part of Masonic Lodge No. 295 in Arcanum, he was presented a 70-year membership pin by Grand Lodge of Ohio Senior Grand Warden Richard Dickerscheid.

At a recent alumni event in Waupaca, Wis., were Dave Baker ’56 MBA ’58, Kay Dickinson Ellis ’64, Jack Rhodes, retired executive director of Miami Hamilton, Frank Koffend ’55, Bob Ellis ’64, Glenda Rhodes, Sue Montgomery Roane ’60, Wilson Roane, Jim Marshall ’62, Cleo Marshall, Henry Veleker ’87, and Diane Baker ’84. They are hoping to hold the event annually and attract others.

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53

Reunion ¶ Samuel Johnson of Phoenix is the author of Gabriel’s Favorite Angel, an Amazon Kindle novella for young readers.

“Donald is a young herald angel with a raspy croak of a voice, so Angel Gabriel never allows him to sing with the other heralds at Christmastime. Donald really wants to become a guardian angel, but again, Gabriel always says no. Will Donald ever get to join the guardian angels or will he drive Gabriel nuts?”

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Tom Bryant, who played basketball at Miami for the late Bill Rohr, was inducted posthumously into his high school’s athletic hall of fame Jan. 26, 2019. ¶ Rebecca Harris Dartt of Sarasota, Fla., has a new book, Sugar on Ice, A Memoir. In her sixth published book and her first autobiographical work, she searches for her own truth and stumbles upon the many heartbreaks that come with being a parent, a spouse, and a woman.

She wants us to know we can fall in love

Jan Adams, a watercolor artist, is a resident artist at Missouri Artists On Main, a shop on historic Main Street in St. Charles, Mo. Her “Boston Memories” was purchased to decorate the set of the CBS TV series The McCarthys.

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Richard Gleick underwent

successful surgery to correct an abdominal aortic aneurysm. ¶ Gil Kessler sent in a photo of ZBT brothers who met in California on the Queen Mary. “The brothers are from the classes ’60, ’61, ’62. Also, our history of friendship goes back for some to 1956. That is what the Miami experience does for people.” At the reunion were Larry Mages ’61, Jeff Marks ’61, Bernie Wilson ’60, Ron Sands ’62, Phil Rothenberg ’60, Terry Saidel ’61, Errol Frank ’60, Gil ’62, Paul Rippner ’60, Chuck Lissauer ’60, Gene Elconin ’61, Marc Eisner ’60, Norm Schiff ’62, David Bernstein ’60, Sandy Norman ’60, and Cliff Bregstone ’60.

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Reunion ¶ Lou Pumphrey, Shaker Heights, Ohio, resident and Vietnam veteran, was mentioned in Sir Max Hastings’ new book, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975.

The award-winning British journalist, author, and broadcaster recounted Lou’s audio recording of a rocket attack the first night of the Tet Offensive in January 1968. ¶ T.P. Schwartz-Barcott (aka Tim Schwartz) has a new book, Violence, Terror, Genocide, and War in the Holy Books and in the Decades Ahead. In it, he presents new psychological and sociological insights about all of the verses that portray or refer to violence, terror, genocide, or war in the most holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

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Dr. Richard Hirsh is being recognized for his years of breast cancer medical missionary work in underserved regions throughout the developing world. He is receiving the ACR Foundation Global Humanitarian Award at the American College of Radiology annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in May 2019.

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Michael Gmoser, Butler

County (Ohio) prosecutor, received the Award of Distinction Walter T. Dartland Prosecutor of the Year Award from the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud for the successful prosecution of Lester Parker and William Tucker for murder and arson in the death of Hamilton firefighter Patrick Wolterman, who lost his life trying to save the person who planned, along with his nephew, the fateful event. The prosecutor also was honored by the coalition for creativity and determination in using pacemaker data to bring an indictment against another accused arsonist. ¶ Robert Mejer has completed 50 years as a

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE Please send news to: Donna Boen, Miamian, 301 S. Campus Ave., Room 22 Campus Avenue Building, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@MiamiOH.edu.

Include your name, class year, address, and your phone number.

For more class news, go online to MiamiAlum.org/ Classnotes. For online Miamian, go to MiamiAlum.org/ Miamian.

Spring 2019

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class notes

72

Robert Aumann of Cincinnati has retired. He sold his business, 3-D Technical Services, in 2016 and consulted until last summer. His acoustic rock musical group, Robert Aumann Band, just released its third album, Love & Memories. He and Elizabeth Stauffer Aumann ’82 have been married 34 years. ¶ Carl Greiner, MD, retired from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha as professor emeritus in psychiatry and started a mediation business with a focus on family succession issues, academic grievances, and divorce.

Michael Kabbaz, Miami’s senior vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Success; Miami trustee Mark Ridenour ’82; former student trustee Graham Bowling ’15; and current trustee John Altman ’60 (l-r) discovered they were all Eagle Scouts, the highest achievement in the Scouts BSA program. Since the organization’s inception in 1911, only approximately 5 percent of Scouts have attained this rank and only after a lengthy review process.

Requirements include earning at least 21 merit badges.

distinguished professor of art and as founding Gray Gallery curator at Quincy (Ill.) University.

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Reunion ¶ Mike “Doc” Emrick MA ’69 will be

inducted into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame during the 60th annual NSMA Awards Weekend June 22-24. Mike has been lead play-by-play voice for National Hockey League telecasts on NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network since 2011. ¶ Roger Welch had a solo exhibition of his works in watercolors and video shown at Gallery Opere Scelte Gallery in Turin, Italy, in February and March.

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Three of Oakland County (Mich.) Circuit Court Business Court Judge James Alexander’s court staff are alums: Julie Weiss Adams ’92, business court case manager; Maureen Hudson Smith ’91, research attorney; and Robert Gross ’09, law clerk. The judge calls them his “Miami Triad.” ¶ Tom McKnight sent in a golf reunion photo. Joining Tom were Lizz Crowley, Mike Leadbetter, Thomas Duck ’69, Bruce Downey ’69, Bonnie Short, Richard Klein, James Boswell ’69, and Gilbert Short ’69.

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73

Eric Arnold’s newest children’s book is out. running with slugs (lower case intended) is a YA novel for middle-schoolers written in an experimental style with humor, poetry, and an original narrative voice.

“Eighth-grader Kro Kandle discovers that Ernest Hemingway wrote that there are four things one must do to become a man. Kro takes that blueprint to heart.” ¶ JoAnn Morgenstern Borovicka of Greenville, S.C., author of Light of the Kingdom — Biblical Topics in the Baha’i Writings and other publications, is faculty in the religion department of the Wilmette Institute.

She presented on interfaith dialogue at the 2018 Parliament of World Religions in Toronto. ¶ Linda Fuller-Cross and her husband, Gregg, met with her ZTA lil’ sis, Dawn Keays-Forry, and her husband, Dan Forry ’72, for lunch in Lexington in December 2018. Having not seen each other since 1975, they had lots to talk about. ¶ Mary Jo Gross received the 2018 Denver Bar Association Award of Merit for outstanding service and contributions to the association and legal profession. ¶ Michael Minton has published his first novel through Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing). “Solid Steel Knife is the

story of Eddie Romano, an ex-gangster who serves his time in prison and then tries to build a new life. He finds himself financially entrapped by his past mistakes and hounded by his new business associates, who demand extravagant financial success. A murder occurs, and Eddie is the prime suspect.”

75

Laurence Hallas has retired after selling AlmostEurope. net (custom handcrafts from the Alps), which he founded in 2003. Before that, he spent 25 years as an environmental scientist, first as a microbiology fellow at Monsanto and then as owner of Wastewater Solutions. He and his wife, Margaret, recently celebrated 40 years of marriage. They are splitting their time between their new home in Belleair Beach, Fla., and Denver, where their daughter, Lorien Hallas Butler ’01, lives with her husband, Eric ’01, and their two children. ¶ Patricia “Trish” Moore Laub has written a three-book series based on everything she and her two sisters learned while caring for their parents during their last years of life. Comfort in their Journey is designed to provide practical guidance for dignified care, including Alzheimer’s. Visit www.TrishLaub. com to learn more. ¶ James Millette MEd ’75 received the Engineering Sciences Section’s Founders Award at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences’ 71st annual meeting in Baltimore Feb. 18-23, 2019. He is a senior scientist at Millette Technical Consulting in Liburn, Ga. ¶ David Polley, U.S. Navy commander (retired), and his wife, of Oviedo, Fla., were visiting their daughter in California last November when she, a Marine Corps captain, invited them to attend her command’s Marine birthday ball in Las Vegas. While there, David met her commanding officer, Marine Col. Kevin

class notes

Keith Seckel ’78 MEd ’82 (left) with the Hearns family, Kerianne ’94 (husband Graham ’94 is taking picture), and children Kelsey and Brendan. Keith, who works at Walt Disney World, writes, “On any given work day, I try to make magic for our guests.

Occasionally, something happens where a guest makes magic for me. I was driving one of our ‘Minnie’ Vans around the property and picked up a family of four. I found out that they were a Miami Merger.

Since I am a Miami grad, it was a special time, and I had the most fun talking with this family from Cleveland as I drove them to their destination.” It’s a small world, after all.

Collins ’95 of Marine Corps Logistics

Operations Group. “We talked and reminisced about our time in Oxford, even though we were 20 years apart.” ¶ Carolyn Cline Rice was elected Montgomery County commissioner (Dayton, Ohio) Nov. 6. Her term began Jan. 1, 2019. She had been Montgomery County treasurer since 2007.

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Darrell West has a new book, Divided Politics, Divided Nations: Hyperconflict During the Trump Era (Brookings Institution Press). In it, he explains why liberals and conservatives hate each other and why this is dangerous for America.

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John Sutter of Lucas, Ohio,

has retired from John’s Hobby Shop in Mansfield, Ohio. After 41 years, he decided it was time to close the store and move on to the “next chapter.”

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Stan Anderson MFA ’78 is

coordinator of graphic design at Young Harris (Ga.) College. He was recruited in 2016 from Georgia State University, where he chaired graphic design for 21 years, to start YHC’s program. He was named professor emeritus at Georgia State upon his departure

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miamian magazine

and promoted to tenured full professor at YHC. Stan was director of broadcast design for 21 years at CNN Headline News while working as a concept sketch artist. He created over 125 theatrical films, TV, and Broadway poster designs, including Edward Scissorhands. ¶ Dorothy Liggett-Pelanda has been appointed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ’69 as the 39th and first woman director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

Prior to her appointment, she served as state representative for Ohio’s 89th District, where she also practiced law. ¶ Peggy Dewey Opatken of Willard, Ohio, taught English for 32 years, from grade 4 through adjunct college. She loved it. She still substitutes and works as an adjunct for Ashland University.

She and her husband, Tim (31 years of marriage), enjoy seeing their grown children and eating dinners out with friends. ¶ William “Bill” Wahoff, an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson in Columbus, was inducted as a Fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, the highest recognition by one’s colleagues of sustained outstanding performance in the profession.

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Reunion ¶ Stark County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court Judge Taryn Stambaugh Heath was elected the 2019 fourth vice president to the board of trustees of the Ohio Common Pleas Judges Association. ¶ David Pence, who oversees one of the largest university research diving programs in the U.S., was inducted to Columbus East High’s Wall of Fame.

The 1975 East graduate is based in Honolulu and supervises a University of Hawaii dive team of 200 in support of ocean science and research. Among the first East athletes to qualify for a state meet, he held a time in the 100 freestyle that remained among East’s all-time top 10 until a few years ago.

80

Mark Jones sent in a note about two Miamian leaders in Ohio’s two school principals organizations. Ken Baker ’78 is in his seventh year as executive director of the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators.

Mark has been the associate executive director of the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators for six years. ¶ Former roommates Carol Schwetschenau Wood, Janet McLaughlin, and Cindy Bowman Brennan didn’t let 40 years and 2,400 miles get in the way of celebrating their lasting friendship, which began on Miami’s beautiful campus. They laughed and shared stories while touring the Sonoma and Napa valleys.

81

Marsha Myers Eldridge writes that this year’s “South Beech/ North Campus Formal” took place in Put-in-Bay, Ohio. The close group has continued this tradition for nearly 40 years. It began senior year when these non-fraternity/sorority students wanted to hold a formal. Since then, they have been through marriage, divorce, death, children, and grandchildren together. Attending this year were Kevin Staton, Dan Kraus, John Novak, Kathy Novak, Cindy Miller Wehrle, Butch Wehrle, Marsha Myers Eldridge, Sue Kimball Staton, Pam Sears, Jeff Core, May Li, Jerry Kunkle, Scott Hall, and Lori Hall. ¶ Kathleen Comparato Kostelnick was inducted into the Baldwin Wallace University Business School Honor Society and earned an executive MBA degree at Baldwin Wallace May 4, 2019. ¶ Rick Reed’s new novel, Sky Full of Mysteries (Dreamspinner Press), was released in English, French, Italian, and German in both paperback and digital editions.

“What if your first love was abducted and presumed dead — but returned

class notes

— 20 years later? That’s the dilemma Cole Weston faces. Now happily married to Tommy D’Amico, he’s suddenly thrown into a surreal world.”

82

Roy Ritter has written about his ancestor, Johan Martin Dostmann, in his new book, The Dustman Family of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties, Ohio. Johan was born in 1730 in Nassig, Germany. Today, his descendants can be found throughout the U.S. Roy traces the origins of his family, which became known as Dustman, in this detailed history.

83

Brad Swope, a certified ath-

letic trainer from Nashville, was inducted into the Tennessee Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame Jan. 19.

Candidates must have held the certified athletic trainer credential for 20 years, been recognized for service to the profession at local and state levels, and attained recognition for distinguished service and for unique contributions to the profession. ¶ Ann Taylor, Kelly Storm ’81, Beth Calderwood, Kristi Milton, and Julie Fotos were at the Chicago Hilton celebrating with their good friend Amy Eshleman ’84 and her wife, Lori Lightfoot, when Lori was elected the first African American female mayor of Chicago.

85

Robert Brown has been elected to Graydon’s partnership. He is a member of the corporate counsel group and works out of the downtown Cincinnati location. ¶ Rich Szabo is working in St. Louis as an infrastructure engineer at State Auto Insurance Cos. of Columbus.

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Bill Beagle of Tipp City, Ohio,

was named senior director of policy and program administration

by Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague.

Previously, he served in the Ohio Senate for eight years representing the 5th District. ¶ Stephanie Flores Hegland is vice president, accountable care operations, west region at UnitedHealthcare. She and her husband, Chris, relocated to Denver in late 2015 and enjoy hiking and skiing. ¶ Judge David Matia, former president of the Ohio Common Pleas Judges Association (OCPJA), was presented the President’s Award of Excellence at the winter meeting of the OCPJA in Columbus. He was recognized for his service to Ohio’s common pleas judges, the OCPJA, and his advocacy work on last November’s ballot Issue 1.

88

Rob Altneu, an attorney with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C., has been named director of the Regulations and Disclosure Law Division. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Bonnie, and their two children. ¶ Paul Davison was appointed office managing partner of the BDO USA, Jacksonville and the North Florida practice. ¶ Andy Keith recently published DumbDumbDaddyO, an attempt to discover who his father was before heart attacks and strokes started to take him away. “In my writing and photography, I try to capture the beauty of life and the world I see.” ¶ Linda Lesny Moss ’88 MBA ’89 received national recognition by the Legal Marketing Association for her work on behalf of Dykema Gossett, leading winning initiatives as chief business development and marketing officer. ¶ Brian Pahnke has joined Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ cabinet as state budget director. ¶ Lisa Pape, deputy chief patient care services officer for care management and social work for the Veterans Health Administration, was awarded the Meritorious Rank, the nation’s highest civilian career

leadership recognition, for her leading the VA’s efforts to prevent and end veterans’ homelessness.

89

Reunion ¶ Richard Ceronie MA ’89 PhD ’93, coach of the

University of New Mexico cross country and track programs, was inducted into the University of New Mexico Athletic Hall of Honor. The Lobos have won two of the last three NCAA Cross Country Championships and have finished in the top 10 nationally each of the nine years he has been at UNM. Additionally, he was inducted as an honorary member of the University of New Mexico Letterman’s Club for his work researching Lobo Athletics. ¶ Todd Corbin has written Mindfulness For Student Athletes to help teen athletes reduce stress and enhance performance. This workbook offers practical ways to cope and improve their performance in any sport. ¶ The Ohio Auctioneers Association recognized Bart Sheridan of Cedarville as one of its 2019 inductees into the Ohio Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame.

90

Terrific 60th birthday present!

Stephanie Creech ’80 gave herself a trip to Nepal. She even climbed to the top of Sarangkot in Pokhara to watch the sun set over the Annapurna Region of the Himalayas. (Extra points for spelling hard words.) A resident of Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills Historic District, Stephanie is the communications/PR manager for confectioner Perfetti Van Melle (makers of Mentos and Airheads), headquartered in Erlanger, Ky.

Jim Horman, a principal at

architecture and engineering firm Progressive AE, was elected

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Spring 2019

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class notes

arts scene; connects artists, audiences, businesses, foundations, and arts and cultural organizations with opportunities to expand central Indiana’s creative vitality; and pursues and promotes programs that catalyze creative growth in central Indiana. ¶ Anne Ehrman Monell is vice president of institutional advancement at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, responsible for stewardship, fundraising, constituent relations, and communications.

93 Enjoying their Sigma Chi fraternity’s mid-winter reunion, which included an insider’s tour of Goggin Ice Center prior to a Miami hockey game, are: (l-r) 1980 classmates L. Dustin Vincent, Robert Hardy, Paul Gore, and Paul Milton.

2019 board chair of the West Michigan Sports Commission, a Grand Rapidsbased nonprofit that fosters economic development and healthy lifestyles by attracting youth and amateur sporting events to West Michigan. ¶ Eugene Lolli is superintendent of Fairborn (Ohio) City Schools. Married to Elizabeth Monce Lolli ’77 PhD ’94, Eugene is completing his 29th year in education, having served as a high school principal in several districts and superintendent in Springboro Community Schools. ¶ Martin Tadlock PhD ’90, chancellor of the University of South Florida St Petersburg, was named one of 25 People to Watch in 2019 by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. ¶ Bob Westover has joined Colliers International Chicago as senior vice president — central market leader in state and government incentives. He works with the real estate services provider’s clients to negotiate and secure local and state economic credits and incentives.

91

Julie York Goodman is president/CEO of the Arts Council of Indianapolis, which advocates for the need and importance of broad community funding and support for a thriving

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In a January feature, the Pioneer Press described Anne Brataas MEn ’93 as “an award-winning science writer, teacher, mentor, and self-publisher of children’s books who has worked with youngsters for 20 years and is continually astonished at their abilities.” She funds her work with children through her “day job” of science writing for research institutions such as the Mayo Clinic in her hometown of Rochester, Minn.

94

Reunion ¶ Kevin Bacon has joined Columbus law firm Isaac Wiles as of counsel. He provides government affairs and consulting services to businesses and organizations in need of representation at the Ohio Statehouse and counsels clients on estate planning and probate matters, including those with special needs.

95

Timothy Dixon is music director and conductor of the American Youth Philharmonic, the premier youth orchestra of the Washington, D.C., area. He is also director of orchestral studies/professor of music at Messiah College and is married to Roxanne Herb Dixon ’97, a music educator in the Camp Hill (Pa.) School District and an editor of the Orff Echo. Tim and Roxanne live in Camp Hill with their children, Delaney,

12, and Alex, 11.

¶ Benjamin White

’95 MAcc ’96, licensed CPA in Ohio,

California, and Nevada, is office managing partner, tax services in the Los Angeles office of BDO USA, an accounting network. He has over 22 years of experience in accounting.

96

Ina Turpen Fried is contributing her smart reporting and sharp analysis to Axios on HBO. Ina is Axios’ chief technology correspondent — bringing the audience in for a deep dive on what’s happening in the tech world and why it matters.

98

A Marshland of His Own is author Gavin Zastow’s firsttime experience with death. Twenty-six years ago, Gavin’s friend committed suicide. One year later, Gavin decided, at the urging of his friends, family, and teachers, to turn that experience from a short story into a book written from the point of view of a high school student.

A Marshland of His Own is divided into mourning, mending, and moving on.

Gavin, known to many as Z, is a teacher at Stone Bank (Wis.) School.

99

Reunion ¶ Nick Reilly has joined Constellation Wealth Advisors in Cincinnati as managing director and adviser partner. ¶ Shelli Rottschafer MA ’99, who teaches at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, has published her text, La Diáspora de un Aztlán norteño (Swimming With Elephants Publications ). It details the “MiChicanidad” experience of life on the border in Michigan. This is another definition of Aztlán, as seen on a northern border between Canada and southwest Detroit’s predominantly Mexican American neighborhood.

Growth of this Spanish-speaking barrio began in the earlier part of the 20th century due to the rise of migrant labor

class notes

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

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class notes

01

Matt Vorell ’01 MA ’03 was promoted to full professor in the communication studies department at St. Cloud State University. He teaches courses in applied leadership and organizational communication.

02

AgriNovus Indiana, the state’s initiative to promote the growth of the agbiosciences sector, has added Alan Tio to its board. Alan is CEO for the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp., leading the community’s efforts to promote economic growth throughout Kosciusko County.

David Dillman ’90 (right) retired as a high school marketing and business teacher and Deca adviser in 2018. To celebrate, he traveled with his brother, Bob ’86, to Spain and Portugal. The two are pictured at a Spain vs. England soccer match in Seville. “It was an honor to work with a generation of youth, helping them develop a passion for life and a career,” writes Dave, who is spending his time with his two boys, ages 13 and 8, while supporting wife Elizabeth’s teaching career and planning his own encore career. They live in Durango, Colo.

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and employment at factories. Later, the area prospered as those immigrants began to choose to stay. ¶ Kathleen Tschantz Unroe, MD, a Regenstrief Institute scientist, was named a Health Care Hero by the Indianapolis Business Journal. She was nominated for her OPTIMISTIC project, which aims to keep people in nursing homes out of the hospital by placing geriatrics-trained nurses in long-term care facilities across Indiana. In its first phase, participating facilities saw a 40 percent reduction in potentially avoidable hospitalizations.

00

Ellie and Jenna, daughters of Alicia Kirk Brombacher and Tracy Siefring Frase ’01, stopped

by Oxford Bagel & Deli in between games at a nearby soccer tournament for bagels with their moms. Alicia says, “They tasted just as good as we remembered them being!” ¶ Veterinarian Jodi Johnson Houser owns Newark (Ohio) Veterinary Hospital, a full-service operation she started in 2013. ¶ Attorney Chad Sizemore is shareholder-in-charge of the Roetzel & Andress Cincinnati office. In his day-to-day practice, he represents commercial drivers, motor carriers, and insurers in the transportation industry.

03

Born: to Erin Herman Eckert and Matthew, Ryan

James, March 17, 2019, joining big sisters Hannah, 9, and Caroline, 4, in Hamilton, Ohio. ¶ Jenni Ellison has been promoted to principal in the Washington, D.C., office of Blank Rome Government Relations, composed of top lobbying and strategic communications professionals with firsthand knowledge of the legislative and administrative process in D.C. She guides commercial entities, defense contractors, and research firms. ¶ Brock Miskimen ’03 MA ’05, former chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, has joined Bricker & Eckler as a member of the law firm’s energy and utilities industry group and government relations team. ¶ Seth Wamelink, an attorney with Tucker Ellis, was named a 2019 Ohio Rising Star. He is an experienced trial attorney who represents businesses in complex civil litigation throughout the U.S. Seth and his wife, Jennifer, live in Bay Village, Ohio, with their children, Kellen, Connor, and Brooklyn.

05

Dr. Nathan Chomilo is the doctor everyone wishes they had as a child and the provider we all

hope for as an adult. With his affable demeanor and obvious love for his work, it’s not hard to figure out why Mpls.St.Paul Magazine featured him in their Top Doctors: Rising Stars edition in 2018. To read the Feb. 12, 2019, article about Nathan on the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights Facebook site, go to https://tinyurl.com/NathanChomilo. ¶ Marco Molina was promoted to partner at national law firm BakerHostetler, where he practices in the firm’s New York office. He concentrates on the international components in litigation matters, particularly those concerning Latin America.

06

Born: to William “Brian” Breedlove and Laura,

William Bradford, July 5, 2018. They live in Birmingham, Ala. ¶ Born: to Steve and Rachel Bachouros Flaherty ’07, Kinsley Grace, Aug. 16, 2018, joining Caylee, Conner, and Kendall.

She will be in Miami’s Class of 2040 if Mommy and Daddy have their way. :) They live in Delaware, Ohio.

07

Internet defamation law firm Minc Law, founded by Aaron Minc, has moved to Pinecrest, the new 58-acre mixed-use project in Orange Village, Ohio. The 5,000-square-foot space accommodates six attorneys, three paralegals, and office staff.

08

Dr. Taylor Babcock, who was honored with Ohio’s Young OD of the Year Award in October, has been nominated for the American Optometric Association’s 2019 Young OD of the Year Award by the Ohio Optometric Association. The winner will be announced in June. Taylor practices in his hometown of Portsmouth, the fourth generation OD in practice at Babcock Eye Care. ¶ Amanda Jack is lead consultant — supply chain,

class notes

operations, and replenishment at 84.51°, a customer engagement firm in Cincinnati, where she lives. ¶ Tristan Kumor, who teaches math at Ridgewood High School in Norridge, Ill., is one of only 32 high school educators selected as finalists for the statewide Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. ¶ Mary Mitton-Sanchez of Big Walnut High School in Sunbury, Ohio, has achieved the certified journalism educator renewal status from the Journalism Education Association. She was honored April 26 at the spring JEA/ NSPA national convention in Anaheim.

09

Reunion ¶ Peyton Stanforth spent five months in South America learning Spanish through total immersion, traveling, hiking, and studying in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica. When he returned, he accepted a position as director of finance for Ticketmaster in Chicago.

10

Olivia Smith is an associate at Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth. Practicing in professional negligence, she has experience conducting depositions, drafting and arguing motions, negotiating settlements, and preparing for trial.

11

Married: Lauren Schwab ’11 MS ’13 and Ryan Eyre ’10, Nov. 3,

2018, at Creekview Barn in Leesburg, Ohio. Lauren works on her family’s pig farm in Somerville and freelance writes for the National FFA. She also interviews country musicians on her blog: farmgirlwithcurls.com. Ryan is a research scientist at Mars Petcare in Eaton, Ohio, and works with scientists from Waltham, England, studying pet food for Royal Canin. They live in Eaton. ¶ Andrew Somich, CPA, a supervisor in Rea & Associates’ Mentor, Ohio, office, took part in the American

Institute of CPA’s Leadership Academy, a rigorous four-day program in Durham, N.C. Rea & Associates is a regional CPA and consulting firm.

12

Born: to Andrew and Jennifer Ressler Martin, Emerson Kate,

March 26, 2019, in Cincinnati.

13

Jacob Harksen MA ’13 is an

associate in Fox Rothschild’s Minneapolis office. He advises businesses on employee benefits and compensation and labor and employment matters. ¶ Frank Schultz has joined Graydon Head & Ritchey, working out of the firm’s Northern Kentucky office.

He primarily practices commercial and intellectual property litigation.

15

Kentaro Inoue PhD ’15, a

research biologist, has joined the conservation research team at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. On the freshwater research team, he is studying the Great Lakes region’s freshwater mussels, which are among the most imperiled organisms in the world.

16

Married: Laura Brandmeier and Jonathan Smeltz ’15, Jan. 26, 2019. Laura is a marketing specialist for The Senator Group. Jonathan is a geologist for National Lime & Stone.

They live in northwest Ohio. ¶ Joey Comisford was inducted into Granville’s Athletic Hall of Fame. A 2012 graduate of Granville, he was a three-sport athlete — football, basketball, and track, helping the Blue Aces to MSL championships in each before competing in track at Miami. ¶ Married: Lauren Tancer and Joshua Yauch, Dec. 29, 2018. Lauren is graduating with an MBA from Case Western Reserve University in May 2019 and has accepted an offer with Root Inc. as an associate consultant. Root is headquartered in Sylvania.

Josh is a senior consultant for Deloitte in the cyber risk practice. He’s in the Cleveland office but will be transferring to the Detroit office in June. ¶ Alexander White was accepted into the June 2019 class of the Chandler Medical Center College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky.

17

Lt. Cmdr. James Ragain ’01, a chaplain with the U.S. Navy, served on the USS DEWEY (DDG 105) out of San Diego last summer. While on board, he connected with Ensign Patrick Kennelly ’16 (holding the RedHawk photo) and Lt. Bryan Wogerman ’11 (holding the “M” logo).

Married: Megan Richardson and Matt Derickson, March 3, 2018, in Columbus. Megan is a registered nurse at UC, cardiovascular unit. Matt is a project engineer for Cincinnati Testing Laboratories. They live in Lebanon, Ohio. ¶ Hoopis Group adviser Janos Von Aulock won MassMutual’s Freshman Five Award.

To qualify, the adviser must rank in the top five out of 2,500 newly recruited advisers in certain criteria. He will receive MassMutual’s most prestigious award for new advisers at the Leaders Conference in Nashville in July.

19

Miami hockey senior defenseman Grant Hutton signed an entry-level deal with the New York Islanders. ¶ Miami hockey teammate, senior forward and co-captain Josh Melnick, signed an entry-level deal with the NHL’s Dallas Stars.

See photo in online class notes, MiamiAlum.org/Classnotes. Online Miamian at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Spring 2019

45

farewells 1930s Vivian Garrison Van Ausdal ’37, Beavercreek, Ohio, March 31, 2019.

Rosayn McCann Mavromates ’51, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 28, 2018.

Lloyd David Ittel ’39 MEd ’49, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 23, 2018.

John B. McKee ’51, Westfield Center, Ohio, Oct. 10, 2018.

Kenneth K. Kegel ’39, Fallbrook, Calif., Feb. 3, 2018.

William C. Rhodenbaugh ’51, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 3, 2019.

1940s Robert J. Lucas ’40, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 30, 2018.

Nancy Reese Ware ’51, Rocky River, Ohio, Dec. 30, 2018.

Reba Parks Hellard ’44, Grove City, Ohio, Nov. 20, 2018.

Helen Albertus Hoffman ’44, Sandusky, Ohio, Sept. 10, 2018.

William J. McCabe III ’45, St. Louis Park, Minn., April 20, 2018.

Olga Byrne Fryer ’46, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 2, 2018.

R. Conrad Leslie Jr. ’47, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 25, 2018.

Ruth Drummond Jones ’48, Ann Arbor, Mich., Jan. 5, 2018.

Violet Marie “Teri” Tatary Ondrey ’48, Chardon, Ohio, Oct. 25, 2018.

George W. Diefenderfer Jr. ’49, Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 31, 2019.

Donald D. McKillop ’49, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 11, 2018.

Robert H. Walters ’49, Lakeland, Fla., Feb. 25, 2019.

1950s Allen G. Bergman ’50, Dana Point, Calif., Jan. 19, 2019.

Ockle E. Johnson Jr. ’50, Neptune, N.J., Jan. 5, 2019.

Harold H. “Hal” Paul ’50 MEd ’52, Findlay, Ohio, Nov. 12, 2018.

Miami trustee, 1985-1994.

Caroline Cockerill Wiese Riethmiller ’50, Fairport, N.Y., Feb. 13, 2018.

Tom U. Wright ’50, Overland Park, Kan., July 10, 2018.

Beverly Bang Fleming ’51, Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 21, 2019.

Jane Wiley Kuckuk ’51, Columbus, Ohio, June 30, 2018.

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miamian magazine

Wilbur L. “Bill” Appel Jr. ’52, Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 11, 2019.

Lois Gallitte Markt ’52, Wilmington, N.C., Dec. 1, 2018.

Robert L. Mullins ’52, Stuart, Fla., Jan. 17, 2019.

George C. Picht ’52, Naples, Fla., Sept. 22, 2018.

H. Stanley Rassler ’52, Boca Raton, Fla., Oct. 19, 2018.

Byron K. Westfall ’52, Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 31, 2018.

Gloria Ciszewski Engle ’53, Menlo Park, Calif., Feb. 7, 2019.

Jo Ann Brouse Fallon ’54, James Island, S.C., Nov. 17, 2018.

William C. Joseph ’57, Westerville, Ohio, Sept. 19, 2018.

Ken C. Carpenter ’62, Beavercreek, Ohio, Jan. 13, 2019.

William H. Rossel ’57 MEd ’59, Fairborn, Ohio, Dec. 31, 2018.

Margaret Moser Hutinger ’62, St. Petersburg, Fla., Oct. 7, 2018.

Martha Waines Swartz ’57, Louisville, Ky., Jan. 10, 2019.

Rod Montgomery ’62, Middletown, Ohio, Nov. 27, 2018.

Nancy Pillichody Wagner ’57, Kettering, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2018.

Kenneth G. Kubes ’58, Parma Heights, Ohio, July 29, 2018.

Robert E. Morrow ’58, Uniontown, Ohio, Dec. 19, 2018.

Phelps M. Wood ’58, San Marino, Calif., Jan. 8, 2019.

James A. Brooks ’59, Richmond, Ind., Oct. 24, 2018.

John M. Drew ’59, Southampton, N.J., Oct. 20, 2018.

John W. English ’59 MEd ’61, Troy, Ohio, Jan. 15, 2019.

Ann Grover Richardson ’59, Laguna Beach, Calif., Oct. 30, 2018.

Edmund P. Thomas MEd ’59, Lakeville, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2019.

Dale E. Schell ’54, Muncie, Ind., Sept. 23, 2018.

1960s James J. Childers ’60, Hamilton, Ohio, Feb. 22, 2018.

Robert L. Williams ’54, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 7, 2018.

Robert A. Fowler ’60, Howey-inthe-Hills, Fla., Oct. 26, 2018.

Gary G. Dillon ’55, Hendersonville, N.C., Oct. 30, 2018.

Deanne “Dee” Wissner Hoaglund ’60, Evergreen, Colo., Oct. 11, 2018.

Sanford Z. Friedman ’55 MA ’57, Michiana Shores, Ind., Dec. 18, 2018.

Edward F. Imwalle ’60, Vandalia, Ohio, Nov. 16, 2018.

John R. “Bob” Tingle Jr. ’55, Cambridge, Ohio, March 13, 2018.

Constance Malone Tamcsin ’60, Mequon, Wis., Feb. 3, 2019.

Douglas E. Davis ’56, West College Corner, Ind., Oct. 11, 2018.

Judith Willard Kinney ’61, Genoa Township, Ohio, Jan. 20, 2019.

Donald L. Durland ’56, Eugene, Ore., Feb. 5, 2019.

Bette Nordstrom Edson ’56, Arlington, Texas, Feb. 25, 2019.

Warren K. “Pete” Parker ’56, Holland, Mich., Dec. 3, 2018.

Charles R. Asher Jr. MAT ’57, Piqua, Ohio, Nov. 9, 2018.

Ronald F. Henke ’57 MBA ’59, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 14, 2018.

David K. Batsche ’63, Mason, Ohio, May 10, 2018.

Ada Vincent Bloom ’63, Delray Beach, Fla., Nov. 26, 2018.

Roger E. Davis ’63, Seattle, Wash., Oct. 20, 2018.

Sara “Sally” Thompson Porter ’63, Lafayette, Calif., Sept. 15, 2018.

Thomas J. Nomina ’64, Estero, Fla., Feb. 17, 2019.

Sandra Kabealo Stouffer ’64, San Marcos, Texas, Jan. 17, 2019.

John H. Carr ’65, Centerville, Ohio, Oct. 8, 2018.

Thomas E. Greenwood MEd ’65, Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 30, 2019.

Jo Ann Miller Russell ’65, Pine Bush, N.Y., Dec. 8, 2018.

Sam Scaffide ’65, Duluth, Ga., Dec. 4, 2018.

Linda Moore Hoover ’67, Hamilton, Ohio, Oct. 16, 2018.

Richard N. Landis ’67, Aurora, Ohio, Nov. 22, 2018.

Charles A. Webster ’67 MEd ’70, Longwood, Fla., Jan. 25, 2019.

James S. Bailey ’68, Middletown, Ohio, Feb. 8, 2019.

Lawrence R. Dolan ’68, South Lyon, Mich., April 24, 2017.

Patricia A. McCandless ’61, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 19, 2018.

Frederick W. “Rick” Roehm ’68, Barrington, Ill., Feb. 1, 2019.

Lawrence G. “Gordon” Olsen ’61, Hudson, Wis., Jan. 19, 2019.

Richard G. Seaman ’68 MS ’72, Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 9, 2018.

Charles B. Pettis ’61, Roswell, Ga., March 21, 2019.

Holly Haefele Fabian ’69, Elyria, Ohio, Jan. 12, 2019.

Harold W. “Skeeter” Storck ’61, Midlothian, Va., Sept. 24, 2018.

Barbara Lawson Hutchinson ’69, Branford, Conn., Sept. 10, 2018.

Roger E. Turvy ’61, Bellbrook, Ohio, Dec. 24, 2018.

Earl Potten Jr. ’69, College Corner, Ohio, Dec. 31, 2018.

farewells

David S. Rohlfing ’69, Longwood, Fla., Feb. 10, 2019.

Dan R. Croswell ’82 MFA ’84, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 7, 2018.

Seth A. Kelling ’12 MAcc ’13, North Olmsted, Ohio, Feb. 22, 2019.

Kathleen Watts Stitsinger ’69, Middletown, Ohio, Dec. 17, 2018.

Gregory Richardson ’82, Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 14, 2018.

Erik D. Finklea ’13, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 17, 2019.

Thomas W. Swinehart MS ’69, Lancaster, Ohio, Dec. 20, 2018.

Joan Igel Dugger ’84, Upper Arlington, Ohio, Feb. 22, 2019.

Elise E. Earley ’17, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28, 2018.

1970s Loraine Day Gent ’71 MEd ’73, Hamilton, Ohio, Jan. 14, 2019.

Pamela S. Gibson ’84, Tipp City, Ohio, Jan. 10, 2019.

FACULTY, STAFF, AND FRIENDS Robert C. Atchley ’61, Lafayette, Colo., Nov. 13, 2018. Professor emeritus of sociology and anthropology, director, Scripps Gerontology Center, 1966–1998.

James F. McDermott Jr. ’71, Wetumpka, Ala., Aug. 30, 2018.

Morris A. “Bud” Ross II ’71, Henderson, Nev., Jan. 22, 2019.

Thomas J. Boyd Jr. ’72, Douglasville, Ga., Jan. 8, 2019.

Carl R. Fossaceca ’72, McDonald, Ohio, June 21, 2018.

William H. Thompson III ’84, Whipple, Ohio, March 25, 2019.

Robert E. Hasselfeld III ’85, West Chester, Ohio, Feb. 11, 2019.

Julie Sayler Green ’87, Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 28, 2018.

David R. Kovalak ’89, St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 8, 2019.

James E. Brown MEd ’73, Sandusky, Ohio, Dec. 4, 2018.

1990s Edmund H. Grant III ’90, Downers Grove, Ill., Dec. 1, 2017.

Larry K. Hufford ’73, Palm Bay, Fla., Dec. 7, 2018.

Douglas M. Thompson ’91, Centennial, Colo., Dec. 7, 2018.

Melinda Cake Brant ’75, Carmel, Ind., Nov. 29, 2018.

Charles S. “Chip” AllmanBurgard ’95, Chicago, Ill., Aug. 25, 2017.

Stephen A. Sanna ’75, Fairport, N.Y., Nov. 5, 2018.

Laurie Lanz Heffner ’77, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 26, 2019.

Kathryn Borg Emery ’78, McLean, Va., Oct. 7, 2018.

William G. Kalman ’78, Paris, France, April 19, 2018.

Clifford B. Hallam PhD ’79, Chantilly, Va., Jan. 15, 2019.

Homer D. Hounshell ’79, Scottsdale, Ariz., Aug. 25, 2018.

Kay Brown Webster ’79, Beavercreek, Ohio, Nov. 27, 2018.

1980s Brenda Arnold-Kennedy ’80 MS ’81, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 7, 2017.

Mark J. Wladecki ’80, Avon Lake, Ohio, Aug. 12, 2018.

Richard “Rick” Tweddell III ’81, Liberty Township, Ohio, Nov. 2, 2018.

Bridget D. Pumphrey ’95, Shaker Heights, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2019.

John H. Chang ’96, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 5, 2018.

Bryan O. Dickerhoof ’96, Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 26, 2018.

Julianne Haubner Currie MA ’97, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 2, 2018.

Erwin Sung ’99, Stamford, Conn., Feb. 21, 2019.

2000s Katherine E. Johnson ’00, Downers Grove, Ill., Jan. 10, 2019.

Christopher E. Seversen ’04, Hamilton, Ohio, Nov. 18, 2018.

Caitlin M. Kurylo ’05, Arlington, Va., Dec. 15, 2018.

Stewart A. Arnet ’07, Sarasota, Fla., Oct. 14, 2018.

Emily E. Hall ’08, Carmel, Ind., Feb. 3, 2019.

Michael J. Talley Jr. ’11, West Carrollton, Ohio, Sept. 25, 2018.

Robert H. Baier, Oxford, Ohio, Jan. 3, 2019. Retired as strategic procurement officer in 2016.

Newell S. Booth Jr., Monroe, Ohio, Dec. 2, 2018. Professor emeritus of religion, 1960–1998; active in campus ministry.

Lottie B. “Bea” Brown, Oxford, Ohio, Jan. 21, 2019. Retired from the libraries after 25 years.

William R. Campbell, Summerville, S.C., Feb. 13, 2019.

Professor emeritus of political science, 1973–1998; director of graduate studies for political science.

Gerald A. “Jerry” DiPalma, Franklin, Mass., March 10, 2019.

Former chair of manufacturing and engineering.

Thomas P. Dunn, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 30, 2018. Professor emeritus of English literature for over 30 years.

Earl D. Folker ’52, Oxford, Ohio, April 28, 2019. Director of business affairs for 25 years, retiring in 1994.

H. Wayne “Gibby” Gibson ’48 MA ’50, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 27, 2018. His career within the football program and administration spanned 62 years.

Ronald E. Hale, Camden, Ohio, Jan. 2, 2019. Retired after 28 years from maintenance.

William F. Hargraves II ’54, Oxford, Ohio, Jan. 21, 2019. Air Force lieutenant commander (retired); former ROTC assistant professor of aerospace.

Phyllis M. Henson, Camden, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2018. Worked at Miami 27 years, retiring in 2003.

Elizabeth “Lizz” Howard MSA ’94, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 21, 2018. Professor of computer and information technology at Miami Regionals, starting in 1995.

James T. “Ted” Kerby, Reil, Ohio, Feb. 13, 2019. Dispatcher, Miami police, for 29 years, retiring in 2000.

Mary C. Lord, Middletown, Ohio, Dec. 18, 2018. On Miami’s board of trustees, 1972-1981.

Peter M. Magolda, Elliston, Va., Jan. 2, 2019. Professor emeritus of educational leadership, 1985–2014.

Gerald M. Miller, Oxford, Ohio, Feb. 16, 2019. Professor emeritus of economics, 1971–2010; faculty adviser to Mu Psi Miami chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu for 44 years.

Darlene Y. Newton, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 6, 2018. Retired after 30 years with Miami.

Daniel Patterson, Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 29, 2018. Miami electrical engineer since 2008.

David M. Scotford, Oxford, Ohio, Jan. 31, 2019. Professor emeritus of geology, 1950–1987.

James P. Sturgeon ’52 MBA ’59, Oxford, Ohio, Feb. 18, 2019. Administrator emeritus, financial affairs, 1954–1999; bursar, 1961–1989.

Yuksel Uckan, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 13, 2018. Professor emeritus, computer science and software engineering, 1983–2014.

Barbara McKaig Urell MEd ’69, Oxford, Ohio, Dec. 12, 2018. Former teacher, Miami’s McGuffey Laboratory School.

In Memory of… If you would like to make a contribution in memory of a classmate, friend, or relative, send your gift to Miami University in care of Charlotte Fedders, Advancement Services Building, Miami University, 926 Chestnut Lane, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or call Charlotte at 513-529-0815.

More classmates are remembered online at MiamiAlum.org/Miamian.

Spring 2019

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days of old

Home Again Next to an inviting park bench behind the Oxford

Walter Havighurst Special Collections and Archives

Caroline Scott Harrison, seen here with her father, daughter, and two of her grandchildren, was astounded at the celebrity she experienced as first lady. She joked that the newspapers revealed more about the Harrisons than they knew about themselves. (Remembering Caroline Scott Harrison, Oxford, Ohio’s First Lady by Marjorie Foster Bowers ’62)

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Community Arts Center stands a new statue of Caroline Scott Harrison that looks out over a lawn she most surely played on as a child.

Created by Jarrett Hawkins of Hawkins & Hawkins Custom in Cincinnati, the life-size monument is a tribute to the Oxford native and wife of Benjamin Harrison, the 1852 Miami alumnus who was U.S. president 1889–1893.

The sculpture depicts Caroline as she was when she attended the Oxford Female Institute. Her father, John Witherspoon Scott, was the institute’s first president. Many Miami alumni likely remember the institute-turned-arts center as Miami’s Oxford College residence hall.

She and Benjamin met in Cincinnati when her father, Miami’s first science professor, moved the family so he could teach at Farmers’ College. One of the professor’s students, Ben wasn’t strong in math, so he visited the Scott House to be tutored. There, he met Caroline. When the Scotts returned to Oxford to start the female college, Ben soon followed and began courting their younger daughter.

“There are very few sculptures of first ladies in the United States,” said Kathleen Stuckey Fox, a retired Miami staff member who worked at the university for 35 years. She led the project to commemorate Caroline. Called Carrie by her family and friends, the first lady was a gregarious woman with a hearty sense of humor.

“I believe we have done our job in creating this beautiful statue of Caroline Scott Harrison so that the people of the city of Oxford will always remember that she was born and raised here, as well as married here in her home, and that she will always have a place in our hearts,” Fox said.

PRETTY AS A PICTURE: Outside Harrison Hall, which was named after the 23rd U.S. president and 1852 Miami alumnus, a student captures the beauty of a magnolia in all its spring glory.

Summer 2018

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Wheels in the Field See page 30