Nebraska Magazine Fall 2015 Issue by Nebraska Alumni Association

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BOUND & DETERMINED / MALAWI / TOXIN WARRIOR / WRITING CONTEST

NEBRASKA Magazine EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEMBERS OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN

Champions of

INNOVATION Harvey Perlman (’63, ’66)

Dan Duncan (’80, ’97)

Volume 111 / No. 3 / Fall 2015 huskeralum.org

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INSIDEFALL 5 Alumni Voices 6 University

Update - NIC

16 Campus Briefs 18 Alumni Authors 42 Alumni News 44 Chapters & Affiliates

47 Class Notes 49 Alumni Profiles Todd Glissman, ’81 Dustin Lukasiewicz, ’07 James McKinney, ’83 Monica Sucha Vickers, ’76

Cover photo by Craig Chandler.

A new sign on the Holling Garden wall lights the way to the Nebraska Alumni Association.

20 27 32 36 38 40

An Epiphany in Malawi

A visit to a children’s hospital in Malawi changed UNL grad and award-winning bioengineering professor/researcher Rebecca RichardsKortum’s approach to both scientific research and higher education.

The Toxin Warrior

Once a bronco-busting Texas cowgirl, UNL grad and responding toxicologist Kelly Scribner now helps protect us from potentially fatal chemical accidents.

Q&A With Dr. Hank Bounds Read what the new University of Nebraska system president has to say about the school and the state.

The Bugman Cometh

Steven B. Robertson was much more excited about going to a Djiboutian dump than his driver was, according to Marcia Robertson’s winning writing contest profile.

How ‘Bout a Tune?

Joel Schnoor recounts the hijinks of a former UNL Pep Band when they campaigned for ASUN offices in this writing contest nostalgia winner on student activities.

The Impact of Larry Andrews Writing Contest professorial nostalgia winner Vivian Hecht Eucker recalls the continuing impact Professor Larry Andrews has had on her teaching career.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 3

alumnivoices NEBRASKA Magazine For alumni and friends of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Shelley Zaborowski, ’96, ’00 Executive Director, Nebraska Alumni Association Andrea Wood Cranford, ’71 Editor Move Creative Design Kevin Wright, ’78 Layout and Photography; Class Notes Editor Nebraska Magazine (USPS 10970) is published quarterly by the Nebraska Alumni Association, the known office of publication is 1520 R St., Lincoln NE 68508-1651. Alumni association dues are $50.00 annually of which $10.00 is for a subscription to Nebraska Magazine. Periodicals postage is paid at Lincoln Nebraska 68501 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster send address corrections to: Nebraska Magazine in care of the Nebraska Alumni Association, 1520 R St., Lincoln, NE 68508-1651. Requests for permission to reprint materials and reader comments are welcome. Send mail to: Nebraska Magazine Wick Alumni Center / 1520 R Street Lincoln, NE 68508-1651 Phone: 402-472-2841 Toll-free: 888-353-1874 E-mail: nebmag@huskeralum.org Website: huskeralum.org Views expressed in Nebraska Magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Nebraska Alumni Association. The alumni association does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, veteran’s status, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.

Alumni Association Staff Shelley Zaborowski, ’96, ’00, Executive Dir. Alex Cerveny, ’13, Alum/Student Relations Coord. Jenny Chapin, Dir., Venues Andrea Cranford, ’71, Sr. Dir., Publications Charles Dorse, Custodian Derek Engelbart, Assoc. Exec. Dir., Alum Relations Brooke Goedert, ’14, Venues Mgmt. Spec. Paul Goedert, ’14, Venues Coord. Jordan Gonzales, Asst. Dir., Student Programs Sarah Haskell, ’09, Dir., Alum Engagement/ Outreach Ryan Janousek, Venues Mgmt./Oper. Spec. Wendy Kempcke, Admin. Asst. Jessica Marshall, ’11, Dir., Written Comm. Charley Morris, Creative Graphics Spec. Carrie Myers, ’03, ’11, Dir., Alumni Engagement Heather Rempe, ’03, Asst. Dir., Digital Comm. Larry Routh, Alum Career Spec. Viann Schroeder, Alum Campus Tours Deb Schwab, Assoc. Dir., Venues Andy Washburn, ’00, ’07, Assoc. Exec. Dir., Oper./Mbr. Judy Weaver, Projects Asst. Sara Werner, ’14, Exec. Asst. Katie Williams, ’03, Sr. Dir., Marketing Comm. Hilary Winter, ’11, Asst. Dir., Digital Strategy/PR Kevin Wright, ’78, Dir., Design

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Fall 2015 n Vol. 111, No. 3

A Note from Shelley I recently attended a conference with advancement professionals (that’s the fancy term for those of us who make a career of alumni relations, development and higher education marketing) from across the country. Almost without exception, when I introduced myself as being from Nebraska, the response was highly complimentary. While I would expect a polite response from my peers and the vendors at the conference, I was frankly a little overwhelmed with the depth and warmth about which people spoke of their Nebraska experiences. Some had visited UNL for a conference, and one for their own child’s college visit. They commented on the beauty of the campus, the warmth of the welcome they received from the faculty and staff, and how pleasantly surprised they were about the progressive dynamic of the downtown Lincoln community. Some people asked me about the concussion studies being conducted in our Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior and about our Water for Food Institute and the progress of Nebraska Innovation Campus. The word is out on our cutting-edge research and the collaborative nature of our partnerships, and people are looking to Nebraska as a leader in these areas. To no surprise, many people’s experience with Nebraska was visiting for a football game. These people commented on how impressive our athletic facilities are, and above all, how warm and friendly the alumni and fans were on game day. Opposing fans were wished words of welcome by Husker passers-by, invited to stop at tailgate parties, and applauded for good performance on the field. In describing their reaction to their treatment on game day, my peers used words like “impressed,” “amazed” and “blown away.” As a native Nebraskan myself, I found myself swelling with pride as I accepted these compliments on behalf of my fellow alumni, friends and fans. We have so much of which to be proud at Nebraska. I’ve known that for a long time, as I’m sure you have, but it was very assuring to hear it from so many people whose connection to our university is tangential. What makes you most proud of UNL? Take a moment to drop us note, send an email, or chime in on one of our social channels. We’d love to hear what makes you most proud to be part of the Nebraska family. Sincerely,

Shelley Zaborowski

alumnivoices @NebraskaAlumni tweets and retweets

2015-2016 NAA EXECUTIVE BOARD Bill Mueller, ’77, ’80, President, Lincoln

Erleen Hatfield, ’91, ’96, New York, N.Y. Bill Nunez, UNL L.G. Searcy, ’82, ’91, Lincoln Joe Selig, ’80, ’87, NU Foundation Judy Terwilliger, ’95, ’98, Lincoln

September 3 – All set for the season! Thank you @NebraskaAlumni for the spirit box goodies #Huskers #GBR Bay Area Huskers @BayAreaHuskers

Steve Toomey, ’85, ’89, Lenexa, Kan.

2015-2016 Alumni advisory council

August 11 – Thanks for the fun watch. @NebraskaAlumni #futurehusker Jill Kruger Brown @jillbrownhusker

Damon Barry, ’00, Denver, Colo. Stephanie Bolli, ’89, Omaha Jennifer Christo, ’97, ’99, Omaha John Clarke, ’74, Mitchell, S.D. Daniel Dawes, ’06, Mableton, Ga. Lynn DiDonato Canavan, ’86, McKinney, Texas

September 2 – If you guessed that #LoveNebraska was at the Sheldon Museum of Art today, you are correct! #UNL Nebraska Alumni @NebraskaAlumni

Megan Dreyer, ’03, Lincoln Kendra Eberhart, ’79, Peoria, Ariz. Rick Grady, ’98, ’98, ’04, New Albany, Ohio Betsy Hardin, Current Student, McCook Pam Hemann, ’70, Pasadena, Calif. Troy Heuermann, ’92, Saint Paul, Minn. Jane Hirt, ’89, Chicago, Ill. Greg Johnson, ’89, ’93, Denver, Colo. Ka’Ron Johnson, ’00, Houston, Texas

August 8 – So excited for #HuskerNight at @Royals tonight with @NebraskaAlumni ! Charise Adams @ChariseA1

August 7– Had a great night for our Student Sendoff and loved having an @NebraskaAlumni representative @GoBigCerveny #GBR Iowans For Nebraska @iowans4nebraska

Lauren Kintner, ’92, Papillion Jeffrey Kratz, ’03, Washington, D.C. Duane Kristensen, ’76, ’78, Minden Desi Luckey-Rohling, ’81, Edgerton, Wis.

Steven Miller, ’81, Lincoln Bill Mueller, ’77, ’80, Lincoln Gregory Newport, ’76, Lincoln Jamie Reimer, ’03, ’08, Papillion Russ Ripa, ’99, Lincoln Kevin Scheider, ’85, Raymond Robert Scott, ’94, Lincoln Christine Scudder Kemper, ’87, Kansas City, Mo.

September 2 – My best advice for @UNLincoln students? Get involved with the @NebraskaAlumni Association. Well, that and free food. Linsey Armstrong @MyLifeAsLinsey

August 4 – Thanks @NebraskaAlumni for featuring @m_sheils in ’15 summer issue! She’s currently 14th on #VolvikRace for @LPGA! Symetra Tour @ROAD2LPGA

July 31 – We’re glad you enjoyed it! MSUAA @MSUAA

July 30 – Thanks to @MSUAA for the sweet treat today! #B1G Nebraska Alumni @NebraskaAlumni

July 11 – @Huskers Nation is taking over @RoxRooftop today! #GBR The Rooftop @RoxRooftop

L.G. Searcey, ’82, ’91, Lincoln Dale Tutt, ’88, Wichita, Kan.

September 1 – Thanks to the @NebraskaAlumni for the first #happybirthday message! #ProudtobeaHusker s.j.b. @SarahJeanBarg

Renee Wessels, ’82, Omaha

CONNECTION BOX huskeralum.org

twitter.com/NebraskaAlumni facebook.com/UNLalumni

vimeo huskeralum.org/linkedin alumni@huskeralum.org

August 18 – The @NebraskaAlumni YAA experience is better than butter on toast at breakfast. #HighlyRecommended #GBR Elliott Bottorf @ebottorf

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 5

UNIVERSITY UPDATE NIC Layout: Marcelo Plioplis, ’05 NIC Photos: Craig Chandler Contributing Writer: Meg Lauerman, ’73, ’00

NEBRASKA INNOVATION CAMPUS PROVIDES SPACES AND CULTURE THAT INSPIRE The year was 2006 when a group of community leaders in Lincoln brought forward a proposal to build a new research and development campus to ignite Nebraska’s economic potential – a place that would connect private businesses with the research engine of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. How and where remained to be figured out. What was clear was that linking UNL’s faculty research expertise with private partners could help innovative businesses in Nebraska succeed. State and university funding, along with funding from the NIC development partner, Tetrad Property

Champions of Innovation: UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman & NIC Executive Director Dan Duncan have played key roles in the development of Nebraska Innovation Campus.

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Group, fueled the quick development of NIC’s core facilities. Flash forward to today, and just three years after the 2012 groundbreaking, Nebraska Innovation Campus is clearly up and running, brought to life by vibrant creativity fueled by both innovation and determination. Its mission is to connect private partners with the university to develop marketable discoveries that feed the economy. NIC’s partners already include household names from the big business sector – ConAgra Foods – as well as several small start-ups with huge potential for growth. The shared objective of joining forces to imagine, create and innovate opens new possibilities for UNL students, faculty and staff as well as for the private partner businesses who have joined the NIC family. Innovation Commons is a state-ofthe art office complex and the hub of Nebraska Innovation Campus. The 100-year-old 4-H building on the

former State Fairgrounds was radically updated and significantly expanded to create a conference center with a capacity of 400, including a banquet room and breakout rooms. Innovation Commons now houses the NIC offices, and is also home to the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska, NUtech Ventures, UNL Industry Relations, Nebraska Innovation Studio and Tetrad Property Group. Nebraska Innovation Studio, a new maker space, occupies part of the first floor of the commons. Attached to Nebraska Innovation Commons is the new Food Innovation Center. A new Greenhouse Innovation Center rounds out the array of buildings on the NIC campus to date, with more to come. At full build-out, NIC will be a 2.2-million square-foot sustainable campus with uniquely designed buildings and amenities that inspire creative activity and engagement, transforming ideas into global innovation. n

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

Nebraska Innovation Studio invites makers to unleash creativity

Housed within the Innovation Commons Building is the new Nebraska Innovation Studio – a maker space with manufacturing-grade equipment, including tools for 3D printing and prototyping, woodworking, metal working, welding, sewing, screen printing, electronics, robotics and more. The 16,000-square-foot studio

provides membership access for UNL students, faculty, staff and members of the community to the equipment as well as workshops and training sessions on how to make in a variety of interests and how to operate all of the machinery. “Nebraska Innovation Studio focuses on innovation and creativity,” said Shane Farritor, professor of mechanical and materials engineering and faculty adviser to the UNL Maker Club. “Creativity is not a linear process, but rather a series of trialand-error experiences that can lead to innovation. Involving individuals from many different backgrounds increases the level of creativity we see in our growing maker community,” said Farritor. The UNL Makers Club is one of the largest clubs on campus with approximately 750 members. “Innovation Studio will enable students and the community to unleash their creativity, which will go

a long way in helping us develop the type of culture we want for all of NIC,” said Dan Duncan, executive director of Nebraska Innovation Campus. Maker spaces are a growing trend, but Nebraska Innovation Studio is unique. No other maker space incorporates the full range of making disciplines, an in-house business accelerator, and close proximity of tenant companies and research labs offered by the NIC community. A $200,000 gift last April from the Cooper Foundation of Lincoln made a significant difference in being able to equip the studio. The University of Nebraska Foundation is partnering with Nebraska Innovation Studio to raise a total of $4.5 million in private donations to develop and equip the studio. n

For information on becoming a partner with NIC, contact Ann Willet, director of strategic alliances, awillet2@unl.edu or 402-472-5535.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 7

Food Innovation Center positions Nebraska as a leader in ‘all things food’

High tech classrooms at the Food Innovation Center accommodate global interactions.

Adjoining Innovation Commons is a new building that, from the outside, might be mistaken for an office complex. But step inside and it’s clear right away that this is something very different. The labs and classrooms, and concepts that drive them, are astonishing – in their technicality and clarity of mission. The entire 178,000-square-foot structure is all about food, and how human beings interact with food on every dimension, from taste and texture, to human health and digestion. And because of the way

in which the building is designed – with labs that relate to ingredients, processing, taste testing, food safety, gut health and nutrition to name a few – the future is very bright for UNL to assert national, if not global, leadership in “all things food.” Central to all activities conducted within the building is a clear focus on human health, the “north star” for its director. “The possibility to impact human health through food has increased exponentially with the new facility and new faculty,” said Rolando Flores, who chairs UNL’s Food Science and Technology Department and serves as director of the Food Processing Center. At the heart of the concept for the Food Innovation Center is Nebraska’s deep roots in agriculture. With the world’s population rising rapidly, feeding billions more people with the same resources is a problem well suited to Nebraska ingenuity. The Institute of Agriculture

and Natural Resources, under the leadership of Sr. Vice Chancellor and Vice President Ronnie Green, set the stage for Nebraska to take a leadership position in all areas of food production and food science at Nebraska Innovation Campus. It was Green’s vision to create a Food Innovation Center, and to move the Food Science Department into the new center to accommodate more world-class research and attract a growing number of private partnerships. IANR’s significant financial support of the Food Innovation Center and the Greenhouse Innovation Center is an important investment in Nebraska’s future. “We have the faculty talent, and now the physical resources to position Nebraska as a world leader in food innovation and food security,” said Green. The Food Processing Center alone works with approximately 250 clients

NEBRASKA INNOVATION CAMPUS - A TIMELINE 2006 2003 The university, governmental entities and private citizens worked together to assist the State Fair in solving the Fair’s financial problems and to secure its future. Options included co-location with the Lancaster County Fair at 84th and Havelock, re-investing $30 million in the existing infrastructure, or building a new State Fair at a new site for approximately $175 million. 8 FALL 2015

Vision 2015 and UNL leaders develop concept of a new R&D campus to foster economic growth

SPRING 2007 Legislature considers the concept of a new research campus adjacent to UNL on the current State Fair grounds

a year – private businesses that come to the center for help in producing food from a variety of ingredients. The businesses pay a fee to access the expertise and facilities that can help them increase the marketability of their products. A sensory lab is part of the Food Processing operation, where food producers can run taste tests in which participants react to the food’s taste and texture. From there, the Food Physical Chemistry Lab can help balance ingredients, such as oils and suspensions, to make foods more appealing, and therefore more likely to find their way to kitchens across America. Close by, the Value Added Processing Lab works with commodities and food producers to create new food products. The Production Development Lab is equipped with several full kitchens with top-of-the-line appliances and equipment. This facility is used for students in food science and Culinology® to develop new food products. Also linked to the Food Processing Center is a specialized Food Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, where raw

materials are evaluated for their contents of nutraceuticals – components that have health benefits. One example of the work done in this lab is determining the antioxidant value of underutilized commodities such as dried beans, a common Nebraska crop. n

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

THE FOOD INNOVATION CENTER ALSO HOUSES • The Food Allergy Outreach Lab that works with more than 80 private industry partners who pay a fee to have foods tested for allergens. The lab meets the criteria for the highest international ranking. •A pplied Food Safety Microbiology Lab, linked to the Food Processing Center to evaluate food pathogens and conduct shelf-life studies • A new clinical facility set up to study human responses to foods, and how foods impact certain diseases such as diabetes. •T he Alliance for Advanced Food Sanitation, a new UNL-industry consortium working on new sanitation technologies to improve food safety and reduce water in food cleaning operations. •T he Gastro Intestinal Biology Lab, focused on human digestion. Some areas of study include obesity, food safety and scientific evaluation of the real health benefits of specific foods.

FOOD INNOVATION CENTER BY THE NUMBERS: 178,000 square feet

90 undergraduate students

27 faculty members

68 graduate students

250 clients per year work with the Food Processing Center

90 staff members/ lab managers

6 Pilot Plants

More than 40,000 square feet of space for private partners

DECEMBER 2007 A proposal to move the State Fair to Grand Island is presented to the Legislature’s Agricultural Committee.

NOVEMBER 2007 UNL introduces the concept plan for Nebraska Innovation Campus

2008 Legislature calls for State Fair to move to Grand Island and for State Fair Park to be transferred to the university by 2010. Along with other financial contributions, the university also contributed $21.5 million to help move the State Fair to Grand Island. NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 9

Greenhouse Innovation Center houses rare plant phenotyping facility would have to destroy the plant to find out. And to follow a crop through an entire growth cycle – examining tassel and ear development at every point in development – meant destroying many plants. No more. Now plants can be scanned using technology similar to an X-ray or MRI. High tech phenotyping systems now allow researchers to gather useful information about individual plants throughout their growth cycle. The new Greenhouse Innovation Center is home to one of the world’s only publicly available high-tech systems that can scan plants as large as a corn plant, gathering data

Corn production is studied using the multi-million-dollar LemnaTec High Throughput Phenotyping system at NIC’s Greenhouse Innovation Center.

For centuries, what happened inside a growing plant was a mystery, and finding the key to developing plants that were most suited to a particular climate was a hit-and-miss proposition. Until recently, if plant researchers needed to know what was happening inside a maturing stalk of corn, they

through the entire growing cycle. The LemnaTec High Throughput Plant Phenotyping system in conjunction with an Argus control system regulates light, temperature, soil and water and logs accurate data about multiple characteristics of a plant as it matures. The information is used to figure out how to grow corn that is more droughttolerant, or how specific chemical compounds affect a plant at various stages of growth, for example. There will be opportunities for rice, wheat, soybean and corn production, as well as production of many other crops, to be optimized thanks to the work going on in the new center, which opened in late spring of this year. Two hybrids of corn can be studied sideby-side under drought conditions, measuring everything from stem diameter to the distance between leaves to biomass development. Such drought stress testing will help producers in Nebraska as well as in

NEBRASKA INNOVATION CAMPUS - A TIMELINE 2010

2009 Nebraska Innovation Campus master and business plan submitted to the Legislature

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University takes possession of the land for NIC and begins site preparation. Board of Regents approves governance structure for NIC, establishing the Nebraska Innovation Campus Development Corporation. Board of Regents formally designates the land as Nebraska Innovation Campus.

2011 Legislature designates $25 million to be invested in NIC – $10M for renovation of the 4-H Building and $15M for a new research building.

other parts of the world in drought conditions. The phenotyping system can accurately weigh plants to see how much biomass they are gaining day by day. Because the system controls light, air and water within a greenhouse, researchers can obtain very accurate data about optimum water use and can study multiple characteristics of a plant.

UNL’s Greenhouse Director Amy Hilske earned a Master’s degree in Horticulture from UNL in 2000, and oversees all of UNL’s greenhouses at the Beadle Center, on East Campus, and now at NIC’s Greenhouse Innovation Center. Plant Phenotyping Facilities Manager Vincent Stoerger, who holds a Ph.D. in plant biology, oversees the rare facility within the center.

UNIVERSITY UPDATE Private partners will represent an important use of the facility to gather data for optimizing plant growth and food production. n

Innovative heating and cooling system uses waste water Nebraska Innovation Campus has deployed one of the newest and most creative technologies for heating and cooling. The Centralized Renewable Energy System (CRES), uses reclaimed, non-drinkable water from the nearby water treatment plant to heat and cool the 1.8 million square feet of offices and labs at NIC. The award-winning closed-loop system transfers thermal energy in underground piping to the entire NIC campus. This system is more efficient

than a geothermal system because of the consistent water temperatures provided by Lincoln’s wastewater treatment facility. Today there are fewer than a dozen similar projects in the nation. The system at NIC is one of the largest and most innovative of its type. Thanks to the CRES, the greenhouse gas emissions from the buildings on Innovation Campus are half of what they would be using conventional heating and cooling systems.

The $12 million CRES is a joint project of the city and UNL. Olsson Associates of Lincoln is the engineering firm that worked on the project. n

JUNE 2011 Developer Nebraska Nova LLC unveils $80M in building plans for the first phase of NIC development.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 11

Quantified Ag monitors cattle health remotely Imagine wearable tech for cattle – an ear tag that can simplify life for cattle producers who run large scale feeding operations. Vishal Singh, CEO of Quantified Ag did just that, and he and his partners are transforming the concept into a business that is about to transform the cattle industry. Until now, cattle health had to be done one-on-one, with human observation as the main method. Making the task even more complex is the fact that cattle don’t like to be singled out of the herd, so even when they are feeling “off,” they will try to act OK in front of a human being. A new start-up company at Nebraska Innovation Campus, Quantified Ag, is launching a high-tech solution to the age-old problem of trying to assess the health of animals only by looking at them. “You can’t see a high temperature or scar tissue on lungs by looking at a calf,” explained Brian Schupbach, chief

technical officer of Quantified Ag. “So it’s easy to miss animals that are sick. You have to watch for behavioral tics, such as a calf with its head down.” About two years ago Singh started to tackle the cattle health monitoring problem using drones to capture thermal images of cattle from above, knowing that a “hot spot” could indicate illness, much as an elevated temperature in a human being can indicate illness. That idea evolved into a whole new concept – placing a sensor on each animal could provide even more accurate, individualized data. If this could be done, then cattle producers could monitor individual animals accurately and remotely, saving a lot of time and guesswork, and catching problems early, rather than two to three days into an illness. Singh applied to the NMotion Accelerator program, a boot camp for entrepreneurs with an early stage company. Singh, who considers himself

a builder, says the program helped him focus on validating his idea by verifying the ‘pain points’ for potential customers and coming up with a solution. The solution is an ear tag that transmits data about each head of cattle to a dashboard on a cattle producer’s computer. The data coming from the tags is focused on the biometrics and behavior of the animals and tells a producer when a specific calf or cow is trending toward illness. One receiver can potentially monitor thousands of animals, and the system is being designed to scale to herds of hundreds of thousands. Since many producers carry a smartphone, there are mobile apps and alerts in the works to provide instantaneous updates for producers on the move. Quantified Ag moved to Nebraska Innovation Campus in July in order to better collaborate with researchers with specific areas of knowledge.

NEBRASKA INNOVATION CAMPUS - A TIMELINE

MARCH 2014 Construction begins on Food Innovation Center and Greenhouse Innovation Center.

OCTOBER 2011

NOVEMBER 2012

Daniel J. Duncan named Executive Director of NIC

Groundbreaking marks the start of NIC construction. ConAgra Foods, Inc. is named as first private partner.

12 FALL 2015

“The Big Data Initiative going on at NIC under Dr. Jennifer Clarke can help us in handling the data we get from multiple herds,” said Andrew Uden, Quantified Ag’s chief operating officer. “At NIC you’re interacting with smart people at the normal office water cooler. That’s a big advantage.” The vision to collect and process data from multiple herds will take expertise in handling huge amounts of data, and the results could provide better information about cattle health in general to help producers. With 22.5

million cattle on feed in the U.S., the opportunity for expansion is enormous. For now, every Nebraska producer visited by Uden is enthusiastic about the concept, willing to participate in trials and proud that the product, with its global potential, has its roots in the Beef State. “We don’t know yet what problems big data can solve, but this should be a lot of fun,” said Schupbach. Being at NIC puts them in the right place to find out. n

UNIVERSITY UPDATE Celebrate the Grand Opening at Football Friday The Nebraska Alumni Association’s Football Friday will move to Innovation Commons, 2021 Transformation Drive, for the Oct. 9 Nebraska-Wisconsin pregame party from 5:30-7 p.m. The event is open to the public and tours of the NIC campus will be available from 4-5:30 p.m.

NEBRASKA INNOVATION CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION GOVERNING BOARD Hank Bounds, president, University of Nebraska system Dana Bradford, executive chairman, CEO, Waitt Brands, Omaha Daniel Duncan, executive director, Nebraska Innovation Campus Ronnie Green, UNL senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Nebraska vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources, and UNL Harlan Vice Chancellor, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Thomas E. Henning, Chairman, president and CEO, Assurity Life Insurance Co., Lincoln Christine Jackson, board treasurer, NICDC JoAnn Martin, president and CEO, Ameritas Holding Company and Ameritas Mutual Holding Company, Lincoln Larry Miller, president, Phibro Animal Health, Teaneck, New Jersey

Tonn Ostergard, president and CEO, Crete Carrier Corporation Prem Paul, vice chancellor of Research & Economic Development, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Joel Pedersen, board legal counsel, NICDC Harvey Perlman, chancellor, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Matt Williams, president and chairman, Gothenburg State Bank

William Nunez, board secretary, NICDC

OCTOBER 2015 Grand Opening of Nebraska Innovation Campus

JULY 2014 NIC Conference Center opens

MARCH 2015 Greenhouse Innovation Center opens

JULY 2015 Food Innovation Center opens

Research Parks have often taken 20+ years to develop. Nebraska Innovation Campus is on a fast track, and is already beginning to realize productive private partnerships. Nebraska’s economy has much to gain as a result of NIC’s development. NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 13

INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT

UNL Expands Help for International Students Walking up a Lincoln airport jetway – having traveled nearly 15,000 miles, spending 42 hours in planes and airports, and just five hours late after a missed flight – Raihanah Hassim had a single wish. “I really hoped for a welcome sign,” Hassim said. Instead, she found fellow University of Nebraska-Lincoln undergraduates stationed at a table, ready with big smiles, warm greetings and information about the start of her first semester studying in the United States. “That was so cool,” Hassim said. “The welcome made CONNECTION BOX me feel so safe international.unl.edu and part of a new community. This is a great way to start at UNL.” The agronomy major from Malaysia was among the first flight of UNL undergraduates to be greeted by an international student welcome team stationed at Lincoln and Omaha airports, Aug. 16-18. The pilot program, organized by New Student

Enrollment and funded by International Engagement, was created to help international students with immediate concerns as they transition to life in the United States and at UNL. “We want these students to know, as soon as they get off the plane, that UNL is their new home and there are people here who genuinely care for them,” said Pat McBride, director of New Student Enrollment. “Our goal is to step out and say ‘Welcome,’ help them with immediate needs and put them on a path toward success at UNL.” The welcome teams are an extension of a campus-wide shift in programming that supports UNL’s international student population. The shift, which started in 2011, redeployed international student support programs from a centralized office into a coordinated effort between campus units. Support and funding for programming is provided by Academic Affairs. To coordinate the effort, an

Shanon Al-Badry (left) helps Raihanah Hassim register her arrival at UNL in the Lincoln airport on Aug. 17. Al-Badry, a sophomore chemical engineering major from Lincoln, is part of UNL’s new international student welcome team. Photo by Troy Fedderson/University Communications

14 FALL 2015

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

international student support working group – which has representatives from across campus – holds monthly meetings to share information, discuss programming and work through issues. “This new model has resulted in increased activity and buy-in from across campus,” said David Wilson, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. “We now have more support for our international students in more places across campus than ever before. And our new International Student Guide provides a one-stop directory for all of that support.” University housing was among the first to offer expanded support for international students three years ago, creating a residential international student coordinator position. The coordinator leads a team of student aides who were once first-year international undergraduates. Other campus units that have created programming or dedicated staff expertise to support international students include: First-Year Experience and Transition Programs, Student Accounts, Student Legal Services, University Police, Student Involvement, Graduate Studies and Campus Recreation. To measure the success of the support programs and to shape future initiatives, UNL participates in the International Student Barometer. The assessment, conducted by the independent International Graduate Insight Group, tracks satisfaction of a university’s international student body in five key areas. – Troy Fedderson, University Communications

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

Jason Vargas

Bill McKibben

Wes Moore

Sheryl WuDunn

E.N. THOMPSON FORUM ON WORLD ISSUES

2015-16 Forum Focuses on Activism The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues at the University of NebraskaLincoln will welcome four well-known activists to its 2015-16 lecture series, “Activism.” Jose Antonio Vargas, Bill McKibben, Wes Moore and Sheryl WuDunn all champion different causes, with a compelling fusion of courage, intelligence and charisma that allows them to share messages of transformation with the world. “Activism” will examine the origins of activists and the characteristics of effective social and political movements, narrated with candor by men and women who have inspired generations. “This year’s theme was chosen in light of many local, national and international efforts to provoke social, cultural and political change,” said David Wilson, UNL associate vice

chancellor for academic affairs and academic administrator of the E.N. Thompson Forum. “The forum committee selected these four speakers to help us better understand four current issues and the people and movements that are working to advance them.” Jose Antonio Vargas, journalist, filmmaker and founder of Define American, a media and culture campaign that seeks to elevate the conversation around immigration and citizenship, kicked off this year’s lectures with “Define American: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” on Sept. 15. The lecture was sponsored by the University Program Council. The remaining lectures, all to be held at the Lied Center for Performing Arts:

Oct. 6, 7 p.m. – Bill McKibben, scholar, writer, environmentalist and founder of 350.org, the first global grassroots climate change movement, will present “The Climate Fight at Its Peak.” The lecture is sponsored by the Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources, the UNL Environmental Studies Program and the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program. Jan. 19, 7 p.m. – Wes Moore, youth advocate, author, Army combat veteran, former White House fellow and social entrepreneur, will present “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates.” The lecture is sponsored by the Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services. Feb. 2, 7 p.m. – Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author, will present “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.” The lecture is sponsored by the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, the UNL Women’s Center, the Center for Civic Engagement and the UNL Study of the U.S. Institute on Civic Engagement. Free tickets are available from the Lied Center for Performing Arts. To order tickets, go to http://liedcenter. org/enthompsonforum or call the Lied Center ticket office at 402-472-4747. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Lectures are streamed at the Thompson Forum’s website and are available live on Lincoln cable TV channel 80 and 5 CONNECTION BOX or channels 71.16 enthompson.unl.edu or 71.14 without a cable box, and UNL KRNU radio 90.3 FM. All lectures are interpreted for the deaf and hard of hearing. – Steve Smith, University Communications

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 15

CAMPUS BRIEFS APPOINTMENTS n Susan J. Weller, executive director and curator at the J.F. Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, has been named director of the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History, effective Oct. 1. She succeeds Priscilla Grew, who has directed the museum since 2003. n 1961 UNL grad Scott Killinger has been appointed interim dean of the College of Architecture. An Susan J. Weller executive-committee member of the UNL College of Architecture’s Professional Advisory Council, he is a sponsor of the Killinger China Program, an annual fall semester studyabroad opportunity in Tianjin made up Scott Killinger of Tianjin and UNL students. Killinger succeeds Kim Wilson, who recently ended a three-year appointment as interim dean. n The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has selected Stephen C. Cooper as the executive director of the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management. Cooper is an associate professor teaching in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in the university’s School of Education. He will start work at UNL in January, succeeding David Keck, who has served as the school’s director since 2001. n William Charlton 16 FALL 2015

has joined UNL as associate vice chancellor for research and professor of mechanical and materials engineering. He will divide his time between UNL and the University of Nebraska’s National Strategic Research Institute. n Alisa Plant is the new editor in chief of the University of Nebraska Press. She comes to UNP from Louisiana State University Press, where she was a senior acquisitions editor. n In support of the University of Nebraska’s Rural Futures Institute and its work in helping to address the challenges and opportunities facing rural communities, the University of Nebraska Foundation has appointed Darla R. Heggem as the institute’s first director of development. From her base in Scottsbluff, Heggem will plan and implement major gift fundraising strategies on behalf of the Rural Futures Institute.

KUDOS n The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications finished fourth in the nation in the 2014-2015 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. UNL was the top Big Ten finisher (Indiana was fifth and Penn State eighth in the overall standings). In addition, UNL finished fourth in the multimedia competition and fifth in both the writing and photojournalism competitions for the year. n John Janovy, Jr., Varner Professor of Biology Emeritus at UNL and immediate past president of the American Society of Parasitologists, received the society’s Distinguished Service Award in June. n Susan Sheridan, director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, has received the Senior Scientist in School Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division of School Psychology. n Kathy Krone, professor of communication

studies, has won the National Communication Association’s Charles H. Woolbert Research Award. n For the impact his anthropological research has had on public education policy in Mexico, UNL professor Ted Hamann has been honored with the 2015 Anthropology in Public Policy Award from the American Anthropological Association. n Bill Seiler, UNL professor of communication studies, has won the National Communication Association’s Wallace A. Bacon Lifetime Teaching Excellence Award. n UNL’s website has again been honored as one of the top sites in higher education, with recognition by Hubspot in the article “14 of the Best College Websites (And Why They’re So Awesome).” The acknowledgment, based primarily on the design of UNL’s homepage, adds to recent accolades for the site, which include top national awards for the College of Fine and Performing Arts site, and distinction as 2014’s “Best Overall Website” in eduStyle magazine’s annual juried competition of higher-ed website design. n The White House has recognized Kim Morrow, climate change resource specialist in UNL’s School of Natural Resources, and 11 others as “Champions of Change” for their efforts in protecting the environment and communities from the effects of climate change. n Glenn Nierman, Steinhart Professor of Music Education in UNL’s Glenn Korff School of Music, was inducted as a Lowell Mason Fellow by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). n Stephen Baenziger, a professor of agronomy and horticulture, was awarded the National Association of Plant Breeders lifetime achievement award at its 2015 annual meeting in Pullman, Washington. n UNL geologist Tracy Frank has been elected to the 2015 class of Geological Society of America Fellows.

GRANTS AND GIFTS n UNL sociologist Les Whitbeck will evaluate the effectiveness of a popular substance abuse prevention program for Ojibwe children and their families with a nearly $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. n With the support of a new five-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, a UNL training program will prepare 30 additional doctoral students for careers spent researching molecular catalysts for disease over the next five years. Initiated as a pilot program in 2013, the Molecular Mechanisms of Disease program enlists the expertise of 28 faculty mentors who span seven departments. Nebraska also becomes the first among nine neighboring Midwestern states to offer an NIHfunded training program in the cellular, biochemical and molecular sciences. n The University of Nebraska Foundation and the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts announced a major gift from James and Rhonda Seacrest, of Lincoln to the University of Nebraska Foundation for the Glenn Korff School of Music to create the James C. and Rhonda Seacrest Tour Nebraska Opera Fund. n A UNL chemist is using his breakthrough graphene production technique to put the promising nanomaterial to

the test. Alexander Sinitskii, assistant professor of chemistry, has earned a five-year, $538,477 Faculty Early Career Development Program Award from the National Science Foundation to investigate graphene’s properties. These prestigious grants, known as CAREER awards, support pre-tenure faculty Alexander Sinitskii who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. n The Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools’ Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics recently received a $225,000 grant from the National 4-H Council to review and revise the 4-H Common Measures, a set of surveys used to identify and measure youth outcomes.

BOOKS

n By becoming tough we preserve those physical and mental capacities that are degenerated by stress and by aging,” according to Richard A. Dienstbier, professor emeritus and past chair of the UNL Psychology Department in his new book, “Building Resistance to Stress and Aging, The Toughness Model” published this year by Palgrave MacMillan. The toughness model proposed in his book incorporates psychological research and neuroscience to explain how a variety of toughening A UNL research team from the Nebraska Center for activities – ranging from Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools recently received a grant to refine the 4-H Common confronting mental and Measures. The research team includes (from left) physical challenges to Leslie Hawley, research assistant professor; Andrew

White, graduate student in school psychology; Ann Arthur, graduate student in educational psychology; Michelle Howell Smith, research assistant professor; and Natalie Koziol, postdoctoral research associate.

meditation and even giving and receiving nurturance – sustain our brains and bodies. These activities affect genetic processes that build neurochemical capacities and rebuild degraded brain structures. The physiological toughness leads, in turn, to improved mental/psychological faculties ranging from emotional stability to fluid intelligence and the preservation of our capacity to form memories. n Gender relations in Muslim-majority countries have been subject to intense debate in recent decades. In some cases, Muslim women have fought for and won new rights to political participation, reproductive health and education. In others, their agendas have been stymied. Yet missing from this discussion, until now, has been a systematic examination of how civil society groups mobilize to promote women’s rights and how multiple components of the state negotiate such legislation. In “Bargaining for Women’s Rights,” Alice J. Kang, UNL assistant professor of political science and ethnic studies, argues that reform is more likely to happen when the struggle arises from within. Focusing on how a law on gender quotas and a United Nations treaty on ending discrimination against women passed in Niger while family law reform and an African Union protocol on women’s rights did not, Kang shows how local women’s associations are uniquely positioned to translate global concepts of democracy and human rights into concrete policy proposals.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 17

MAD’s Greatest Writers – Frank Jacobs Frank Jacobs ’51

Five Decades of His Greatest Works Foreward by “Weird Al” Yankovic, Running Press, 2015, (cloth), $30 www.runningpress.com

Beginning with 1957’s “Why I Left the Army and Became a Civilian” through the new millennium’s “MAD’s Deck of LeastWanted Americans,” writer Frank Jacobs’ skewering of popular culture, politics, advertising, the comics, human nature and especially poetry and song lyrics have appeared in hundreds of issues of MAD. This career-spanning collection presents his most hilarious pieces, with special emphasis on his parodies of classic poetry and children’s rhymes, as well as Broadway, film and popular song lyrics, along with his own imaginative and original verse. The book also includes an exclusive interview with Jacobs discussing the art of parodying verse.

ALUMNI AUTHORS 18 FALL 2015

Fertile Ground A Novel

Willa Cather Scholarly Edition

Knox Robinson Publishing,

University of Nebraska Press,

2014, (cloth) $27.99

2015, (cloth), $90

www.amazon.com

nebraskapress.unl.edu

Penn “Fertile Ground” Steward addresses the German ’12

Lucy Gayheart

internment experience in the United States as it details the story of a German American family living in upstate New York during the first few months of World War II. The FBI arrests Hans, the father, and interns him in Camp Lincoln, located in North Dakota. Meanwhile, his wife, Lucy, and his two sons, Richard and Robert, struggle to survive in his absence. The split narrative allows readers to experience camp life and the travails of the family left behind as they tend to a farm, experience the suspicions of folks they have known for years, and fight against the U.S. legal system that has taken their father and husband away.

Willa Willa Cather’s 1935 Cather novel, “Lucy Gayheart,”

1895 drew on her lifelong interest in music, which played a transformative role in the lives of her characters. This Willa Cather Scholarly Edition includes a historical essay providing fresh insight into the novel, the role of music and Cather’s writing process. It also features photographs, maps and explanatory notes with a full range of biographical, historical and cultural information. The textual editing of the novel, approved by the Committee on Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association, draws on corrected typescripts and proofs and presents a clean, authoritative text of the first edition.

My Extraordinary Life

Hit ’em with Your Handbag How four friends helped change Husker football

Xlibris Corp., 2013, (paper) $19.99 www.amazon.com

Monica Sucha Vickers

This book describes the life of a congenital triple amputee who overcomes incredible odds and finds happiness. Monica Sucha Vickers’ life was quite ordinary and yet, the more one reads into the story, it was nothing short of extraordinary.

INFUSIONMEDIA, 2015, (paper), $13.95 www.amazon.com

Challenged to be macho enough in a very

Jim macho sport, four well-known Husker football Schaffer players from the Devaney era formed a lasting ’71

’76

Invest with the Fed Maximizing Portfolio Performance by Following Federal Reserve Policy McGraw-Hill Education, 2015, (cloth), $28 www.amazon.com

The result of three decades of research, “Invest

bond due, in part, to their feminine-sounding names. Lynn Senkbeil, LaVern Allers, Carel Stith and Kaye Carstens were members of the 1965 team that went undefeated in the regular season and played Alabama in the Orange Bowl. Assistant Coach George Kelly would yell, “Hit ’em with your handbag, Carel,” as if sarcasm would make someone play harder. In reality, friendship was the magic that made a football team special.

By Robert R. with the Fed” reveals how the nation’s reserve Johnson, bank routinely signals important clues about ’88;

Silver Dolphins

its future policy – and it explains how the

Gerald R. Jensen, ’88; reader can use these clues to enhance portfolio and Luis performance. Garcia-Feijoo

The Emblem of the Enlisted Submariner 2015, (paper), $9.99 www.amazon.com

Enlisted Submariners make up 90 percent of

Richard every submarine crew that has ever put to sea, Hansher but almost nothing has been written about ’73

their lives as Sub Sailers. “Silver Dolphins” unveils the good, the bad, the hilarious and the just plain ridiculousness of life in the Submarine Service.

Show US YOUR TALENT Featured books are not sold or distributed through the Nebraska Alumni Association. Publishing information is provided to help consumers locate the title through local booksellers or online retailers unless otherwise noted. To be considered for inclusion in Alumni Authors, send a complimentary copy of a book published in the last year and a description of its contents to: Alumni Authors Editor, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651 Please include the author’s full name, class year, current mailing and e-mail addresses and telephone number. The author must have attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 19

Rebecca Richards-Kortum demonstrates student-designed technologies to health care workers in Haiti.Â Photo by Janet Wheeler.

20 FALL 2015

EPIPHANY IN

MALAWI By Tom Nugent

When the award-winning bioengineering professor and researcher Rebecca Richards-Kortum (B.S. ’85) decided in 2005 to visit a children’s hospital in one of southeast Africa’s poorest countries, Malawi, she never dreamed that the experience would change her approach to both scientific research and higher education. But it did. After two weeks of watching newborn infants suffer and sometimes die from lack of high-tech treatment tools, the Grand Island, Nebraska, native decided to radically challenge her traditional methods of classroom-based college teaching ... by inspiring students to join her in an effort to partner with the Malawi hospital and begin developing and implementing some badly needed but low-cost medical devices in the neonatal intensive-care unit.

t was an experience that Rebecca Richards-Kortum never forgot. During a two-week observation of a critical-care nursery at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, the former UNL physics and mathematics major got an up-close look at the struggle to keep infants alive in a setting where lack of high-tech resources presented a difficult challenge. At the Malawi hospital – where “a truly dedicated staff of physicians and nurses was doing a terrific job of caring for preterm infants in spite of the shortage of state-of-the-art treatment tools” – Richards-Kortum saw how newborn infants had to share cribs and exhausted mothers sometimes had to sleep on the floor. She said that experience helped her to confront a challenging question: Why are infants in the low-

resource countries of sub-Saharan Africa seven times more likely to die within a few days of birth than newborn babies in the industrialized world? Remembering that galvanizing visit 10 years later, during an interview in her laboratory office at Rice University, Richards-Kortum described the shock she felt when she stepped into the Malawi NICU. “I’d read a lot about sub-Saharan [healthcare] clinics before I went there,” she recalled. “I’d learned as much as I could about their needs and their problems, so I thought I knew what it was going to be like. But then I got there and I realized that I really had no idea what these challenges are like. And I think it was important that I visited that clinic [in Malawi] as a scientist, but also as a mother [of six children]. “When you go into a pediatric ward and you see

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 21

Expanded neonatal ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Malawi. Photo by Rebecca Richards-Kortum.

moms there with their kids dying because the hospital is out of antibiotics, and because they don’t have access to simple healthcare technology ... well, that visit had a huge impact on me. And as soon as I came back to Houston, I said: ‘I really want to change the focus of how I teach and the focus of how I do research.’ And I began to ask myself how I could use my [teaching] skills and bring students into the effort to partner with economically stressed hospitals by helping them to develop high-tech medical tools at a much lower cost. “So I came back and met with my group [of bioengineering researchers at Rice University], and we made a very deliberate decision in which we said, ‘We’re going to change the focus of what we do’!” EARLY SUCCESS ... AND THEN A SUDDEN ‘SHIFT IN FOCUS’ What followed that epiphany in Malawi – an economically stressed and mostly agricultural country of 16 million, which had been a British colony until 1964 – was a transformation that the science-minded Nebraskan could never have predicted. Until her 2005 visit to the starkly low-resource world of Malawi pediatric healthcare, Rebecca Richards-Kortum had worked primarily as an electrical and biological engineer who researched and then invented high-tech optical screening devices aimed at protecting women from cervical cancer. She had also been astonishingly successful in that grueling endeavor. While working relentlessly at the cutting edge of nanotechnology and molecule-based optics, Richards-Kortum had enjoyed a glittering, 15-year career as a nationally recognized bioengineer (her 1990 MIT Ph.D. is in medical physics). A research leader whose Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging Laboratory at the University of Texas in Austin soon became a nationally renowned center for inventing new tools with which to sniff out both cancerous and precancerous cells, by the mid-2000s Professor Richards-Kortum was at the top of her game. With more than 20 patents under her belt and more than 200 published journal articles in her field, the fiercely driven scientist was an academic star at U-T and an internationally recognized pioneer at building powerful new micro-technology for the fast-evolving world of cancer detection and treatment. By 2005, when she made her dramatic journey to Malawi at the invitation of a veteran pediatric physician – Dr. Elizabeth Molyneux – who was by then running the neonatal intensive care unit at the local pediatric hospital in Blantyre (Pop. 660,000), Richards-Kortum had reached the pinnacle of her profession ... as a teacher and researcher who had won numerous academic awards. 22 FALL 2015

Of course, she’d also been hugely successful at attracting generous cash-grants from most of the major research-funding acronyms, including the NSF (National Science Foundation), the NIH (National Institutes of Health), the DOD (Department of Defense), the NCI (National Cancer Institute) and last but certainly not least, the supremely prestigious HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute). Make no mistake: At this point in her storied career, the celebrated U-T scientist had it all. And yet something seemed to be missing. Something seemed to be ... lacking. Increasingly, the indefatigable bioengineer had begun to wonder if she was really taking her undergraduate students to the risky frontiers of biomedical research. Was she truly leading the way into the unknown ... or too often falling back on predictable abstractions and pious generalizations, as a teacher who wanted her charges to experience the real thing – while working on daring science projects that could open new doors and point the way to thrilling new discoveries? As the 1990s drew to a close and the new century got underway, she found herself driven to design new kinds of academic courses and internships that brought university undergrads more deeply into the process of creating scientific tools for fighting cancer and other diseases. It was no accident, she later realized, that the awarding of her HHMI research funds had been based on her promise to begin developing a highly creative and tradition-challenging institute ... a paradigm-busting academic enterprise that would bring undergrads and bioengineering innovators together in an internship program offering the students direct participation and wide autonomy in the creation of new micro-tools for medical imaging. Although she had begun to push the envelope with her new HHMI-funded program of student-involved bioengineering research at Texas, Richards-Kortum was still part of the standard higher-ed success track. And then the paradigm-challenging event happened. Just as she was entertaining an offer to chair the Bioengineering Department at Rice University – located next door to the largest university linked medical center in the world – she got the call from her friend Elizabeth Molyneux in Malawi. Would she and her colleague Maria Oden (also a nationally recognized bioengineer now teaching at Rice) be interested in making a two-week visit to the African country ... where they could witness for themselves just how devastatingly the chronic shortage of medical resources was affecting the health of babies in the intensive-care nursery? They were interested. And they went. And the results were nothing less than spectacular. After

The Day One Project

Providing Badly Needed Medical Assistance to Some of World’s Most Vulnerable Babies

It began back in the spring of 2013, soon after Bioengineering Professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum and a colleague at Rice University received the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation. Within a few days of being given the award, the two engineering researchers announced that they would donate the money to a pediatric hospital in the African nation of Malawi. And soon after that, the two scientists founded the “Day One Project,” which seeks to develop and then install lowcost medical equipment in Malawi and other low-resource countries and has often been described as “a technology innovative hub for newborn health in Africa.” As Richards-Kortum pointed out on the front of the Day One website, while describing the huge money-gift to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Malawi: “The Day One Project [is] a neonatal unit that provides excellent care to the world’s most vulnerable babies, while serving as an innovative hub for affordable high-performance technologies that can improve care for newborns throughout the region.” The inspiring Day One saga began with a 2006 visit in which the two engineering researchers – RichardsKortum and Maria Oden – spent several days as observers at the struggling

Babies in Malawi undergo treatment using the CPAP respirator.

hospital in Malawi. During that visit, the two Americans noted that “the hospital saw Malawi’s sickest babies, but it lacked basic equipment that was standard in hospitals in the United States.” After assembling a list of badly needed medical devices for the hospital, the women returned to the U.S. and immediately began engaging Rice engineering students “in designing innovative, inexpensive and effective technologies to meet those needs.” During the past few years, the project has grown rapidly – and now includes several physicians from the Houstonarea medical community. Assisted by a platoon of enthusiastic university undergraduates, the Day One team has invented a series of “simple, lowcost technologies that tackle the most common challenges to newborn care in low-resource settings.” Among the inexpensive new technologies that are now making a difference for Malawi’s struggling premature infants: an ingeniously designed $150 air pump to help preterm newborns survive the negative effects of

incomplete lung-development during the first few weeks of their difficult lives. The Rice University-based program has already begun to improve outcomes in the Malawi hospital’s ICU Nursery, said Richards Kortum – while also noting that the low-cost pumps are currently being supplied to every public hospital in the country. Another “huge benefit,” she said, is the way the project “expands the horizons” of the undergraduate students who help to design the inexpensive hospital gear ... and sometimes even travel to Africa to help install and monitor it at local hospitals. “Quite often the students who have an opportunity to travel and take along the technologies they’ve worked on have a ‘transformative’ experience,” she said. “They develop friends and relationships and collaborations with nurses and fellow engineering students [in Africa]. “In many cases, they come back home different people.” To learn more about the Day One Project and how to contribute, visit: http://rice360.rice.edu/projectoverview.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 23

Richards-Kortum (far right) poses with Professors Maria Oden (center) and Deb Niemeier and students from Jacaranda School for Orphans in Limbe, Malawi. Photo by Marie Da Silva.

returning to Houston, the two scientists went to work creating new courses and recruiting new students for “Beyond Traditional Boundaries” (BTB) – a highly flexible program that sought to push the undergraduate education envelope by connecting science, business and liberal arts majors to innovative, low-cost (and portable) bioengineering projects that could be implemented in low-resource settings in order to provide affordable medical technology for clinicians. One of those innovative “solutions” – designed and implemented in large part by a team of gung-ho BTB Rice undergrads – was the now-famous “bubble CPAP” ... a low-cost neonatal breathing system that was built around an ordinary home-aquarium bubblepump of the kind you can buy any day of the week at the Walmart. Because many premature babies struggle with lungs that aren’t fully developed, they often develop RDS, or Respiratory Distress Syndrome, which is a major killer of low-weight preterm children. To solve that problem, hospital nurseries in the developed world rely on Constant Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) pumps that gently push oxygen and air into the preterm baby’s lungs, 24/7. Unfortunately, however, the standard-of-care high-tech CPAPs used in places like New York City and Geneva, Switzerland, and Lincoln, Nebraska, typically cost around $6,000 ... a price tag far too high for hospitals in low-resource countries such as Malawi. The ingenious solution: by linking a fish-tank bubble pump to a simple air-delivery system, the Rice student-engineers and their academic advisers were able to provide the life-saving nursery tools to the Malawi hospital for the amazingly low cost of only about $200 each! And the results? After the bubble CPAPs went online at the African hospital, the mortality rate among premature babies there fell from 71 percent to 44 percent among the children who were treated with the new, super-inexpensive technology. As a later-published scientific journal study (co-authored by Drs. Richards-Kortum, Oden, Molyneux and several African researchers: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/ journal.pone.0086327) made thrillingly clear: “Neonatal deaths account for 41 percent of global child 24 FALL 2015

mortality; the neonatal mortality rate has changed little in the last decade. If our results are generalizable, we estimate that on the African continent, where nearly one million babies die each year within a week of birth, providing low-cost bCPAP in central and district hospitals could prevent 178,000 neonatal deaths.” An amazing finding? It certainly was, said Richards-Kortum, while waxing euphoric over the impact her “new focus” is already having on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: “This is all very exciting and hopeful, to say the least, and we’re already scaling up production and beginning to supply the devices to hospital nurseries in several other low-resource countries in Africa.” For the latest update on the project, visit https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=38bJ-IHYfSI

GETTING HER FEET WET AS A RESEARCHER Ask Richards-Kortum where she learned the “ethos” that led her to begin the process of inventing and then supplying low-cost medical technology to the developing world, and she remains characteristically low-key and self-effacing while describing her childhood in Grand Island. “I do think I learned a very strong work ethic from my parents. My two brothers and I were taught that hard work was the key to success in anything you do. “My mother [Linda] was a nurse, and then later she and my father [Larry] opened a furniture-refinishing business, and so I got to watch them start it from the beginning, and I saw everything they went through to make that happen. And I think I learned from that how important it is to set a goal and then never lose sight of that goal, in spite of the disappointments and failures that are bound to happen along the way.” Richards-Kortum also gives credit for her bioengineering success to a series of “terrific teachers and mentors” with whom she studied at UNL. “I took freshman physics from [Professor Emeritus] Paul Burrow,” she remembered, “and he was an amazing teacher. He cared about students doing well ... and I didn’t realize at the time how special that was. Really, I feel so fortunate to have benefited from that, and when I’m teaching, myself, I often ask myself: Am I living up to that great example?” Along with Professor Burrow, two other UNL scientists played key roles in Rebecca’s decision to go on to graduate school at MIT. “Professor David Sellmeyer asked me if I was involved in research, and at the time I didn’t even know what that was. And he said, why don’t you come and work in my lab? And that was an

x o

CPAP Program: youtube.com/watch?v=38bJ-IHYfSI CPAP Journal Article: journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0086327 Day One Project: rice360.rice.edu/projectoverview

amazing opportunity. And I also benefited greatly from working in [Professor] Sheldon Schuster’s biochemistry lab, where I did my senior thesis [on a very interesting mitochondrial enzyme].” Perhaps the greatest gift that the then-Rebecca Richards received at UNL arrived during her freshman year in Sandoz Hall, however, when she met another freshman – a 19-year-old engineering student named Philip Kortum – and instantly felt a special connection to him. “We were married the day after graduation,” she remembered with a smile, “and the ceremony took place right there in Hazel Abel Park.” Today the parents of six children ranging in age from 5 to 23 (two are adoptees from Ethiopia), Rebecca and Philip – now an assistant professor in the Rice University Psychology Department – say they’re able to achieve a healthy life-work balance by “taking it one day at a time and enjoying the process of child-raising, rather

than seeing it as work.” For her part, Richards-Kortum also likes to point out that her groundbreaking research on low-cost healthcare technologies actually emerged as much from her role as a mother as it did from her professional career as a scientist. “I really love being a mom,” she said with a big smile. “Being around my kids and watching them grow up – they’re such interesting people, and I feel so fortunate to be able to learn from them each time we’re together!” v EDITOR’S NOTE: In April, Rice University bioengineer Rebecca Richards-Kortum was named to the National Academy of Sciences, joining the elite group of scientists elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering (where she has been a member since 2008).

For Newborn Babies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Surviving into Childhood is Major Challenge It’s a tragic but little-known fact: the often politically chaotic and chronically lowresource world of sub-Saharan Africa is an extremely dangerous place in which to take your first breath. For infants who happen to be born in one of the 44 countries located on the African continent and below the great Sahara Desert, the odds against making it to their first birthday are depressingly high.Even a quick glance at the latest sub-Saharan infant-mortality data from the World Health Organization and the non-profit global consulting health agency Maternity Worldwide is enough to show the alarming scope of the problem in 2015. While most global healthcare analysts agree that these infant mortality disparities are unacceptable, finding solutions for the complex geopolitical problems involved continues to be difficult. Said former UNL physics and mathematics major Rebecca Richards-Kortum, whose award-winning “Day One Project” is now working 24/7 to reduce infant mortality rates in half a dozen African countries: “I really think we need to do a much better job of educating our college and university students about the harsh realities of healthcare in other parts of the world. “How can we inspire our students to reach out and help with such critically important health problems as preterm birth and infant mortality in places like Malawi and Rwanda and Mozambique? As an educator, I really believe it’s an important part of our job to make these kinds of [international] challenges increasingly visible to students in the classroom.” NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 25

Tradition and Quality SINCE 1917

Ninety-eight years. That kind of tradition does not happen by chance. The Dairy Store at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is extremely proud to serve alumni, family and friends our very best ice creams, cheeses

and confections – always made with premium ingredients. The next time you’re on East Campus, stop by to discover or perhaps rediscover the best way to get a taste of Husker pride.

Department of Food Science and Technology I The Food Processing Center Located at 38th & Holdrege on East Campus I 402.472.2828 I marketplace.unl.edu/dairystore UNL does not discriminate based upon any protected status. Please see go.unl.edu/nondiscrimination. ©2015 The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved.

? Willa Cather

Loren Eiseley

You

WORDSMITHS

WANTED!

Enter the 2016 Nebraska Magazine Writing Contest and compete for a byline! The Categories • Alumni Profiles: Write about a Nebraska grad with an interesting hobby or career. • Nostalgia Pieces: Tell us about a memorable student activity you participated in at UNL, or write about a favorite professor.

The Prizes Three prizes will be awarded in each category, and the winning articles will be published in Nebraska Magazine. • 1st Prize: $500 • 2nd Prize: $250 • 3rd Prize: $100

The Details Articles must be 750 to 1,000 words in length, typewritten. Entry deadline is April 15, 2016. Submit entries, along with the author’s name, address and phone number. • By mail: Magazine Writing Contest, Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651. • By e-mail: nebmag@huskeralum.org • Online: huskeralum.org/writing-submission

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THE

TOXIN WARRIOR By Tom Nugent Before “falling in love with toxicology” at UNL, she was a heifer-branding, broncobusting cowgirl from the wilds of the Texas Panhandle. And that was actually very good preparation, she said, for her “enormously challenging and rewarding” job today – as a “responding toxicologist” who’s determined to help protect the rest of us from potentially fatal chemical accidents.

Stained soil and vegetation are the result of a recent oil spill requiring cleanup.

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elly Scribner (B.S. ’08) picked up the telephone and said hello. She listened to the caller for a few seconds. Then she sat up straight in her chair and took a very deep breath. More than 600 children had just been hit with a potentially dangerous toxic exposure. Only a few hours before, liquid mercury had contaminated their junior high school in Odessa, Texas. “Can you get to the airport right away?” asked Alan Nye, a principal toxicologist at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) in Little Rock, Arkansas. As it turned out, Nye had just taken a “hotline” call from Allied International Emergency, a HazMat response company in the West Texas city of 110,000. Scribner, a youthful toxicologist who’d signed on as a staffer at CTEH only ten months before, was already rising from her chair. “I’m on my way,” she told Nye. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I have my feet on the ground in Odessa.” Less than two hours later, after making a few preliminary phone calls, she was hurrying aboard a Southwest Airlines jet at Little Rock’s Clinton International Airport.

THE BIGGEST DANGER: TOXIC FUMES

for identification. After eyeballing its contents, that principal confiscated the bottle and notified the local fire department. Within a matter of minutes, the school’s top administrator was on the horn to Odessa Fire and Rescue and Allied International Emergency: “We’ve had an exposure in the school to liquid mercury, and there are now traces of it in several classrooms and the cafeteria.” In the end, more than 60 children were examined for possible toxic injury at area hospitals, with all of them eventually receiving clean bills of health. As a trained toxicologist, of course, Scribner understood that the “quicksilver” substance in the bottle could not seriously injury any children who touched for only a few minutes. No, the real danger lay in the fumes that were leaking steadily out of the toxic substance – and in the possibility of long-term inhalation of those fumes by the school kids or their family members. “The real safety risk we faced was long-term inhalation exposure,” Scribner recalled, about a year after the incident. “For example, let’s say a child carried some of the mercury home from school on a piece of clothing, or maybe on a pair of shoes. And let’s also say that there happened to be a newborn baby in that house. “The mercury incident at the school took place in March,” she continued, “when the ambient temperatures were still pretty low. But what if a heater in the baby’s room increased the amount of vapor coming off the mercury traces in the closet, and then the warm summer months also contributed to the vaporization [of the toxic metal]. “In that kind of scenario, the infant’s fragile and developing central nervous system could be adversely affected.” Because inhaled mercury fumes can be especially potent attackers of developing brain and nervous system tissues in children, an infant’s exposure to even low levels of the toxin will usually prove to be far more destructive than a similar exposure in an adult. In the specialized language of toxicology, the mercury

Mercury is a highly toxic “heavy metal” element that can cause devastating injury to the human central nervous system when inhaled in large quantities – or even in small quantities, if the inhalation continues for lengthy periods of time. Having earned a toxicology Ph.D. at Texas A&M University after graduating from UNL, Kelly Scribner was thoroughly familiar with the potentially destructive effects of mercury poisoning. Perched on her jetliner seat and with an open folder on the tray-table before her, she spent the short flight to Odessa reviewing the on-the-ground situation at the John B. Hood Junior High School. The crisis at the beige-brick schoolhouse on East 38th Street had begun around eight (Continued on page 36) o’clock that morning ... when a curious schoolboy brought in a plastic water bottle containing liquid mercury that he had found in an alley near his home the previous day. Without realizing that the strange, glittery substance in the bottle contained a potential health threat, the excited kid had carried it into the building – and had then entertained his classmates by passing the bottle around freely and letting them play with the liquid metal to their hearts’ content. In the middle of the second period, however, the student Mercury contamination cleanup in Odessa was extensive. Courtesy Photo. brought the bottle to the principal 28 FALL 2015

TOXIC NIGHTMARE 1984 Chemical Accident at Bhopal Killed Thousands, Triggered Strict New Laws Regulating U.S. Industry It was the most tragic – and horrific – chemical spill in the history of the industrialized world, and it led to sweeping new federal legislation aimed at preventing such catastrophic accidents in the United States. At least 15,000 people eventually died from the effects of a massive spill of deadly methyl isocyanate (MIC) at a Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) insecticide plant in Bhopal, India, on the evening of December 2-3, 1984, according to later studies of the accident. Frequently described as “the world’s worst industrial disaster,” the Bhopal spill occurred after water accidentally gushed into a tank of lethal MIC and other toxic gases and caused a release of poisonous chemicals that wreaked havoc on several shanty towns located near the busy plant. In addition to the deaths, hundreds of thousands of other area residents were injured by the noxious chemicals. Although UCC officials later contended that the massive disaster was actually caused by sabotage, the company eventually paid nearly $1 billion (in 2014 dollars) in a settlement of claims filed by those who were severely injured or lost loved ones as a result of the spillage. Deeply affected by the staggering casualties at Bhopal (and by another chemical spill at a Union Carbide facility that injured more than 100 West Virginia residents a year later), the U.S. Congress in 1986 passed major new legislation designed to prevent such toxic spillages. Known as the “Emergency Planning and Community Victims of Bhopal disaster march in September 2006 demanding Right-to-Know Act” (EPCRA), the new federal the extradition of American Warren Anderson from the United regulations called for meticulous advance planning States. Photo by Obi from Roma,London (CC). of responses to chemical accidents ... along with procedures meant to ensure public awareness of chemical safety hazards in communities where industry stores and uses any substances that are potentially toxic. the USCG and EPA, in conjunction with first responders, are So how effective are the detailed federal and state regulations constantly adapting and evolving.” that supposedly protect all Americans from the dangers of Describing the numerous regulatory toxin-safeguards now chemical accidents in 2015? enforced daily by local, regional and federal governments, the According to professional toxicologist Kelly Scribner in Little vigilant Scribner also said she’s “not alarmed” by the widespread Rock, Arkansas, who has in recent years responded to several use of potentially toxic substances in U.S. industry, transportation incidents involving potential toxic injury from spilled industrialand agriculture today. use chemicals, the odds against a Bhopal-like catastrophe “As a toxicologist, I work day in and day out with this issue,” occurring in the U.S. in 2015 are actually quite high. she said, “and I know the rigor the government applies to testing “There’s always room for improvement,” said Scribner, “but chemicals and procedures before they can be used in business and all in all, I’d say that the U.S. system for monitoring hazardous industry. substances is pretty effective. I do think the federal agencies “We always have to remain vigilant, of course, and we have that play a role in monitoring toxic chemicals in this country – to continue to work hard at monitoring these substances and including the EPA, the USDA, the FDA and several others – do preparing first responders and communities. But at the same time, a good job of being overprotective of human health when it I don’t think people should feel frightened that a chemical disaster comes to both the naturally occurring and man-made chemicals. might one day cause a tragedy in the community where they live.” Likewise, the response capabilities of the organizations such as

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(Continued on from page 30)

situation at the junior high school required “rapid remediation” – a thorough clean-up of every speck of the offending metal, whether located on children’s desks, in student lockers or even on the tiled floor of the school cafeteria (which was soon torn up and replaced). By the time the jet wheels hit the tarmac in Odessa, the fast-moving Scribner had already drawn up a battle plan for the struggle that she knew lay ahead. What she didn’t know right then, however, was that she would spend the next 30 days working almost non-stop. Scribner talks to the media during a toxic contamination incident at a junior Holed up in an Odessa motel room, she high school in Odessa, Texas. would rise at about six a.m. each day and work until late in the evening, seven days everywhere: The Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease a week – which was “just fine,” as far as Registry (ATSDR) Medical Management Guide for she was concerned. Mercury. “Responding to a chemical spill or other accident When the situation was finally declared under control involving potentially toxic substances is always and she returned to the Odessa airport for the flight challenging,” she recalled later. “But when children are home to Little Rock, the stressed toxicologist heaved an involved, you don’t think about anything other than their enormous sigh of relief. safety. No children, teachers or family members had been “From the beginning of those 30 days until long injured ... and life at the John B. Hood Junior High after the ‘all clear’ was sounded and the kids were School had finally returned to normal. safely back in their classrooms, we kept our eyes on For Scribner, helping to lead the month-long campaign our most important goal: making sure that none of the to achieve that outcome was “extremely satisfying and schoolchildren or their family members were potentially rewarding. injured by the potentially toxic exposure.” “Working as a toxicologist can be very demanding at For the superbly conditioned Scribner – an avid times,” she said with a quiet smile. “When you have a runner who’s now in training for her first-ever 13-mile train derailment or an overturned tanker-truck on the “half-marathon” – the grueling workdays in Odessa were expressway, you don’t always know what you’re going to no problem. But she readily admits that “managing the confront at the scene. daily calendar and attending all the meetings” was a “We put safety first, and we have a lot of equipment daunting challenge. During the first couple of weeks after her arrival on the – things like HazMat suits and high-tech respirators – designed to keep us as safe as possible, whatever the scene, she spent endless hours talking to school officials, circumstances. The safety of the public and of first hospital administrators, alarmed parents, distracted responders always comes first. And when you’re able to children and police and fire managers about the toxinachieve that, as we did at the school in Odessa ... well, exposure findings that she and her team of experts that’s just a very gratifying feeling. rapidly assembled at the school observed. “Really, I think that’s what being an effective Indeed, the easiest part of her job during those long toxicologist is all about!” days in March and April of 2014 was monitoring the air quality in the classrooms and the cafeteria. Armed with RAISED BY AN OLD-FASHIONED COWBOY a high-tech arsenal of hand-held air-sampling devices – Born and raised in the Texas Panhandle town of including the mercury-detecting Lumex 915-RA+ and a Perryton (aka “The Wheatheart of the Nation”), Scribner stack of Gastec colorimetric detection tubes – Scribner and her sister Sandy (who also attended UNL, although and her colleagues soon made certain that the ongoing she later graduated from West Texas A&M and also mercury-removal had removed the risk of poisonous works at CTEH as a part-time responder) were the vaporization while keeping workers safe during the daughters of Johnny and Penny Scribner ... a gung-ho process. ranch hand and feedlot entrepreneur and his wife who As the complex remediation (total cost: more than taught their daughters to never use the word “quit.” $900,000) went forward, Scribner also met frequently “Both of my parents were very smart and they with Odessa Fire and Rescue officials and the local wanted us to get a good education and become wellcounty school board ... in order to report on her latest rounded,” said Kelly, whose “incredibly hard-working” findings and also to familiarize them with the toxin maternal grandmother had lived in a sod-house and guidelines contained in a key document she carried

Were the ‘Salem Witches’ Actually the Victims of a 17th-Century Toxic-Chemical Event? When Kelly Scribner decided to take Pharmacology and Toxicology 101 with UNL Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Assistant Professor Michael Carlson back in the fall of 2007, she didn’t imagine that she was about to launch her own career as a scientist. For Scribner, now a 32-year-old toxicologist who works for a national company that specializes in monitoring and understanding chemical hazards spawned by business and industry, the realization came early in the semester ... when Carlson suddenly began to shed new light on the notorious “Salem Witch Trials” in colonial Massachusetts. As Carlson noted during that day’s lecture, more than a few modern-day scientific researchers are now convinced that the true cause of the “witch hysteria” among the panicked Puritans was a toxic chemical that had crept into the moldy bread they were all eating. “I took Professor Carlson’s course in my senior year, and I fell in love with toxicology,” Scribner recalled during a recent interview in her office at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health LLC in Little Rock, Arkansas. “I think my fascination with it began one day in class when he told us there was some evidence to show that a lot of the people who were claiming to have been ‘bewitched’ were actually reacting to a poison – ergot – that they’d ingested while eating moldy bread.” According to the “Ergot Theory,” the real culprit in the witch hunts was a nasty fungus that can sneak into aging bread and wreak havoc there. Scientifically known as Claviceps purpurea (or “rye ergot fungus”), this parasitic invader often attacks grasses and cereals (such as the rye grain that was a staple of Puritan bread-making) ... where it can produce toxic alkaloids that can interfere with neurotransmission and thus cause a variety of severe psychological ailments such as hallucinations and convulsions. Although some researchers have questioned the theory that ergot-poisoning actually caused the hysteria in Salem, Scribner said she was far more interested in what it could teach her about “scientific inquiry” than in its historical accuracy. “As Dr. Carlson pointed out that day,” she recalled, “many of the [psychological] symptoms associated with that kind of toxin were the same symptoms that these [Puritan] people were experiencing. And that insight raised some fascinating questions about the links between the chemicals we eat and our own behavior.” For Scribner, Carlson’s startling explanation – the idea that raging paranoia and shrieking anxiety could be caused by dietary toxins rather than sinister witchcraft – was a total mind-bender. “I sat there in class,” she remembered, “and I told myself: this is fantastic. This is really cool. And pretty soon I found myself thinking: I want to spend the rest of my [professional] life looking at these kinds of issues related to toxicology. “All at once I could see the power of science to help us better understand the world around us, and I really liked that. And I realized that I wanted to be a scientist, and to do research. Trying to figure out the relationships between our world and the chemicals we come into contact with each day ... for me, having a chance to work in that arena just seemed awesome.”

endured the rigors of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl before migrating to West Texas in search of opportunity. “They were interested in ideas and in history,” she added, “and they were also very tough. My dad is one of the few remaining old-fashioned cowboys in Texas – and I grew up going to brandings and riding horses and helping to feed cattle at four o’clock in the morning.” Interestingly enough, it was Scribner’s parttime job on a Perryton feed lot operated by a UNL grad – veteran agribusiness entrepreneur Paul Engler (B.S. ’51) – that inspired her eventual decision to attend UNL. “He told me what a great education he’d gotten there,” she recalled, “and so I went up to visit on a long weekend. I liked what I saw, and in 2003 we loaded up a horse trailer with all my belongings and I headed for Lincoln.” Intent on a career in agribusiness, she studied veterinary science for several years ... before becoming fascinated by the rigors of toxicology during an intro-course taught by Assistant Professor Michael Carlson. That growing interest eventually led her to full-time graduate study in the toxicology program at Texas A&M University, where her Ph.D. dissertation focused in large part on genetic research aimed at exploring genetic links between Down Syndrome and breast cancer. Soon after nailing down her doctorate, Scribner signed on as a toxicologist at the Little Rock branch of CTEH, and her career as a toxin-analyst quickly took off. Still only 32, the tireless toxicologist is already gaining a company-wide reputation for discipline and coolness under fire in her chosen profession. “She’s wise beyond her years,” said CTEH Senior Toxicologist Paul Nony, her supervisor, who has worked with her on several complex assignments. “She’s cool under fire, and in our business, that’s really important. She knows how to think on her feet in an emergency, and her professionalism is beyond her experience. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that Kelly Scribner has a bright future ahead of her as both a practicing toxicologist and a researcher.” An enthusiastic bicyclist who loves to take off on 50-mile rides, Scribner said she’s having a ball these days as a dedicated scientist whose ongoing ambition is to find better ways to protect the public from potentially dangerous toxin spills and to educate the citizenry on what those potential hazards really are. “I’m grateful to UNL for helping me figure out what I really wanted to do with my life and preparing me for it,” she said just the other day in Little Rock. “Doing my very best on the job each day is my way of giving back.” v

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Q&A

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Photos by elayne woods

Bound

& Determined

Hank Bounds, New University of Nebraska system president, believes UNL Plays a Vital Role in Making NU a ‘Giant in Higher Ed’ When Dr. Hank Bounds was first asked to become a finalist for the University of Nebraska presidency, he admits he was looking for a reason to say no. Bounds already had a great job as commissioner of higher education in Mississippi, where he was working to change students’ lives in the way education had shaped his own life and career. He had built a reputation over his 25 years in education for his skills in expanding opportunities for students, improving outcomes, and building successful partnerships with key constituents. A native Mississippian, Bounds and his wife, Susie, and their children, Will and Caroline, had family and friends close by. But the more Bounds learned about the University of Nebraska – the diversity and strengths of its four campuses; the talents of its faculty, staff and students; the deep connection Nebraskans feel to their university – the more he and his family felt this could be the place for them. “All my life, I’ve wanted to be in a position where I could help change the world,” Bounds said. “The University of Nebraska presidency is that position. In Nebraska, I found a university that can be a giant in higher education, doing more than ever to impact the lives of Nebraskans and people around the world. And I wanted to be a part of it.” Bounds got his wish – and on April 13, following a national search by the Board of Regents, he began his tenure as the seventh president of the University of Nebraska. Bounds has spent his initial months on the job listening and learning, immersing himself in the university’s campuses and communities. He has traveled the length of the state and met as many constituents – faculty, staff, current and prospective students, alumni, donors, leaders in education, business and agriculture, policymakers and other Nebraskans – as possible. And he says everything he’s learned has only strengthened his conviction that the University of Nebraska can become one of America’s great universities. We talked with President Bounds about his hopes and dreams for the university, and the vital role UNL will play in achieving them. NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 33

Q&A What about UNL has most impressed you so far? Bounds: The momentum and energy here is contagious. Chancellor Perlman and his team have done an incredible job of building UNL into a Big Ten university that is providing excellent education to students for a terrific value. From important research that is improving crop yields and human health … to new facilities like the future home of the College of Business Administration that will expand capacity and attract talent … to the groundbreaking work being done at the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources to feed a growing population … to innovative programs that expand access to students and help them graduate on time – and I could go on – there’s lots to be excited about at UNL. Most of all, I’m impressed by the students and faculty I’ve

NU President hank bounds Feeding a population that is expected to grow from 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050 is one of the great global challenges of the day. Through our universitywide Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, the University of Nebraska is well-positioned to lead the way in addressing the challenge.” gotten to meet. You can’t tour a professor’s lab without getting excited about the work being done there. You can’t talk with a student without feeling optimistic about the next generation. The talents and passion in our university community are inspiring. What about UNL’s role in growing the state’s economy? Bounds: All our campuses are major economic drivers in their region and across the state and UNL is no exception. Local companies are hiring our students; many UNL graduates are staying in the state to live and work; and our faculty are doing more to take their research breakthroughs from the lab to the marketplace. And we’re capitalizing on that momentum with the development of Nebraska Innovation Campus, a public-private venture that is leveraging our work in areas like food science and agriculture, water, energy and biotechnology to attract companies, create jobs and retain talent. With the Department of Food Science and Technology settling into its new home there and the addition of several multinational food companies, Innovation Campus is beginning to bustle with activity. We’re confident in its long-

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term potential to connect UNL and private-sector expertise for economic growth. I’m grateful to our private collaborators as well as our public partners, including the Legislature, without whose support our early momentum would not be possible. You have a vision for the University of Nebraska to be a “giant in higher education.” What is UNL’s role in achieving that goal? Bounds: The University of Nebraska’s best days are ahead of us. We have momentum, talented employees and students, and incredible support from the public and private sectors. If we want to become truly great, we need to pick a few areas where we think we can be the best in the world and then go own those conversations. Take water and agriculture. Feeding a population that is expected to grow from 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050 is one of the great global challenges of the day. This is both a quality of life and international security issue – one that has urgent implications for the kind of world we will pass on to our children. Through our university-wide Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, the University of Nebraska is well-positioned to lead the way in addressing the challenge. UNL, with many faculty engaged in the Water for Food Institute, is a key player. Early childhood education, rural development, national security and defense, and engineering and information science are other examples of areas where we can make a difference in Nebraska and globally by engaging multiple University of Nebraska campuses. We’ll need the talents of UNL faculty, staff and students to be successful in each. To me, that’s one of the great strengths of the University of Nebraska. Each campus has unique strengths and a distinct mission. But we also have an opportunity to be better together – one university working to serve Nebraskans. Anything else you’d like to add? Bounds: UNL’s future is bright. Alumni and other friends, who provide valuable support and guidance, are an important part of that. I’m grateful for their continued engagement. Finally, I can’t wait to spend more time at UNL this fall and attend some athletic events. Coming from SEC country, I know what it means to be passionate about sports – or at least I thought I did until I joined 70,000 of my closest friends at a spring football practice! Coach Riley is a great addition to the University of Nebraska family and, most importantly, the accomplishments of all our student-athletes never fail to amaze me. It’s a great time to be a Husker! v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 35

PROFILE WINNER, THIRD PLACE 2015 Writing Contest Marcia Robertson has been married to Steve for almost 30 years. While his expertise with insects has come in handy when eradicating annoying household pests, she has had to endure bee larvae in the freezer, drying beetles in the oven and a colony of Madagascar hissing roaches in the upstairs room. Fortunately, the bed bug colony died and, while she had nothing to do with their demise, she does not mourn their passing.

The Bugman Cometh By Marcia Robertson Steven B. Robertson, UNL Class of 2005, was excited about going to a Djiboutian dump. His driver – not so much. “He wouldn’t get out of the vehicle,” Robertson recalled. “He just sat in there and tried not to vomit.” Who could blame him? Few people venture to Djibouti. No one has a Djiboutian dump on a list of vacation destinations. It is a barren place, Gehenna-like with a desolate landscape, smoldering fires and rotting animal carcasses strewn about. But for Robertson, the Djiboutian dump was an ideal location for his purpose. Robertson is an entomologist and nothing attracts insects like garbage. With collection kit in hand, he happily went about turning over decaying goat and camel remains, gathering prized specimens such as beetles and flies into vials. “The dump was pretty bad,” Robertson admitted. “The guy with me tried using some menthol gel under his nose to help filter out the smell.” Questions of safety and health aside, the Djiboutian dump field trip provides clear evidence of Robertson’s passion for the subject matter. His degree from the University of NebraskaLincoln is in entomology. He regularly teaches on the subject, both for UNL and for the Department of Defense. But his interest in insects began years ago. Growing up in rural Virginia, Robertson helped his father, Bruce, with his exterminating business. On weekends and during the summer, Robertson learned the mechanics of eradicating termites, cockroaches, ants and spiders. The money was good and there’s a certain amount of excitement crawling around under houses – you never know what you’re going to find. Robertson decided to join the United States Air Force after high school. His recruiter wanted him to choose an open career field meaning that the military would assign him a job of their

36 FALL 2015

choosing after basic training. And he almost did. But at the last minute, Robertson had second thoughts and told the recruiter so. “He got mad,” Robertson remembered. “He threw down the book with all the career fields in it and told me to look through it until I found something.” And there it was – Pest Management. Just what he had been doing with his dad. Robertson spent 12 years in the Air Force as a pest management technician. After earning his commission, he was

transferred from that work to Communications and Information Resources. But he was not ready to put aside his interest in insects. His attention turned to earning a Master’s Degree in entomology from UNL through the online study program. By enrolling part time between 2000 and 2005, he reached his goal without ever being physically present at the university. “The online program is great,” Robertson said. “It let me get my master’s which I probably couldn’t have done if I had had to actually be on the campus.” Today, Robertson works to help others achieve similar academic goals by teaching an online course in Medical Entomology for UNL. His students are scattered across the globe, from the United States to Europe. Robertson knows many of them personally from his work in the entomology field. “I like teaching the Medical Entomology course,” Robertson said. “To me, that is the most interesting area of entomology because it affects people. It’s all about protecting health and saving lives.” While teaching provides an opportunity to discuss how insects impact health, Robertson’s full-time job is with the Department of Defense as an entomologist for the Navy. He has held a similar position with the Air Force. Many are surprised to learn that both the Navy and Air Force employ entomologists.

“One of the things I do in my job is base inspections,” Robertson said. “I make sure that the base folks are using pesticides properly, storing them correctly, and keeping accurate records.” Another problem is with invasive species. “Invasive species are a particular concern with the Navy,” Robertson said. “When a ship comes back into port, there are protocols such as washdowns that need to be followed to ensure a potentially dangerous non-native species doesn’t end up here in the United States.” Known by friends and colleagues as “The Bugman,” Robertson regularly gets questions about the insect world. “A lot of people are afraid of bugs,” Robertson said, “but they also want to know about them. They want to know what’s dangerous and what’s not, what they should kill and what they shouldn’t.” And his reputation? It precedes him. On another overseas trip, he was introduced to a Department of Defense contractor whom he had never met. After exchanging small talk, the person asked, “Are you the same Steve Robertson who went out to the dump in Djibouti?” Robertson admitted that he was. Apparently, only another entomologist would understand. v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 37

NOSTALGIA WINNER, third place-Student Days 2015 Writing Contest Joel Schnoor, ’84, and his wife, Michelle, live in Apex, North Carolina, where they have raised their four children. Joel played tuba in the Cornhusker Marching Band for five years. He and his family are heavily involved with church activities, homeschooling, beekeeping, raising chickens, and gardening. Joel developed software for 25 years at GE, Data General, EMC and SAS before retiring due to Parkinson’s Disease. He enjoys freelance writing and has published three books, with a fourth in progress.

How ‘Bout a Tune?

Joel Schnoor (center, on the tuba) and other Pep Band members serenade Schnoor’s uncle for his birthday in 1983.

By Joel Schnoor, ’84 I pulled my red ’75 Dodge Dart over to the side of the highway and rolled to a stop. The flashing lights from the police car behind me had sent my heart rate skyrocketing, and I was nervous. Glumly, I saw the car ahead of me – the car I had been following, trying to keep up with – disappear down I-80 into the western horizon. The police officer walked to my car. He must have thought it unusual when he saw no one in the front passenger seat and two large men asleep in the back seat, one leaning against the left back door and one against the right. “Come back to the police car, please,” said the officer. I walked 38 FALL 2015

to his car and he motioned for me to get in the front seat, passenger side. I complied with his request. “Going pretty fast there,” he said. This was the first time I had ever been stopped for speeding, but I knew enough not to argue or try to make excuses. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how fast I had been going. The speedometer in my car was broken and had been for quite some time. I didn’t volunteer that information to the officer. “Yes sir, I was. I’m sorry. I was just in too much of a hurry.” That’s true. We were late, very late, and I had used bad judgment. “Were you trying to stay with the car in front of you?” he asked me. “Well, yes sir, I was trying to keep up with them. I don’t know

the directions to where we’re going, so I was following them.” Tod Barnard and Scott Messler were the two percussionists in the lead car. “Where are you going?” “Grand Island, sir. That car and my car – we’re in the Cornhusker Marching Band – are meeting four other guys from the band in Grand Island. One of the guys has a dad who owns a Winnebago, and we’re driving the Winnebago out to Scottsbluff for the weekend. The nine of us are in the KLIN Pep Band, and we’re running for student body government offices. This is the start of our campaign across the state to get some publicity and drum up support.” “Really? You’re the guys who play on the radio at 6 a.m. on Thursday mornings, aren’t you? The whole pep band is running for student government?” He smiled at me. “Yes sir. I have a copy of the Daily Nebraskan – just came out this morning – that shows us on the front page.” “Who are the two guys in your back seat?” “One is our trombone player. His name is Willie. The other is our baritone player. His name also is Willie.” Willie Kearney and Willie Watkins were the two guys asleep in my car. I didn’t tell the officer that the reason my fellow bandsmen were both in the back seat was because my front passenger door had the nasty habit of opening – even with the door locked – when I rounded sharp corners. “I’ll just give you a warning this time,” said the officer. “Now, I need you to slow down. Be sure to drive within the posted speed limits.” “Yes sir. Thank you, sir.” “And son?” “Yes sir?” “Good luck with your student government campaign.” The previous day, on a cold Thursday morning in late January, 1983, the KLIN Pep Band had announced its candidacy for the ASUN (student body) offices by storming the Nebraska Union and playing a barrage of songs at 8:30 in the morning. Realistically, we knew there was never really a chance that the entire pep band would be elected, but our purpose (we thought at the time) was to increase awareness on campus of the upcoming student government elections. Student voter turnout had been abysmally low for several years, and though we certainly weren’t revolutionaries or anarchists, we hoped that a boisterous, in-your-face

type of campaign by our pep band might propel higher turnout. Looking back on it, I think the primary motivation for campaigning was to provide more excuses for performing together as an ensemble. After all, many of us in the pep band were not music majors, and the spring semester was normally one in which we went different ways until we met again in the fall for marching band. This pep band, though, had camaraderie, a chemistry and rapport that I look back on fondly. We made movies and performed skits for the whole band on Saturday mornings before games; we played as often as possible at the union, at country clubs, at pep rallies, at bars, and even for my uncle’s (Lincoln attorney J.S. Berry’s) 40th birthday. Our fearless leader and stalwart trumpeter, Jeff Rushall, hailed from Scottsbluff. Another pep band member had access to a Winnebago. Thus, it made sense when we decided to take the pep band to Scottsbluff with the Winnebago, ostensibly for an election campaign but, more certainly, to continue performing as a group. Jeff lined up several places in Scottsbluff where we performed, always to enthusiastic crowds. I still recall some of the details of that weekend. Jeff’s former high school band director housed us in a well-stocked A-frame cabin out on a lake somewhere on the edge of town. I remember taking the Winnegabo to the drive-thru window at a burger joint and ordering 40 cheeseburgers, 20 large fries, and a small diet coke. On the return trip, we drove through a snow storm from Scottsbluff to Grand Island, stopping somewhere to get buffalo burgers along the way. But most of all, we played our songs. We weren’t on the final ballot when the ASUN elections came around, but still the voter turnout improved. And we had fun. Mission accomplished. v

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 39

NOSTALGIA WINNER, Third place-Memorable Professor 2015 Writing Contest Vivian Hecht Eucker graduated from UNL in 1972 and went on to teach English at Scribner High School for one year and Norris High School for two years. Moving to rural Nebraska, she took an 18-year sabbatical as a stay-at-home mother to three children. Vivian’s husband, Carmen, was a patient teacher as she learned about farm life. Returning to teaching, she taught and coached drama at Petersburg Public School and, later, Newman Grove Public School, retiring in 2013. Vivian has created children’s books for her six grandchildren and still enjoys lighting the literary fire initiated by Professor Larry Andrews.

The Impact of Larry Andrews

By Vivian Hecht Eucker, ’72

40 FALL 2015

He could light up a tennis ball, he could light a cigarette, and he could light a fire for adolescent literature. Of course, this was back in the day when a professor could smoke in the classroom. Even though Larry Andrews’ one arm was shorter than the other, no one in the class would have challenged him on the tennis court. Nor did we challenge his expertise in knowing what a teenage boy would like to read. “Go, Team, Go!” by John Robert Tunis, also a tennis player, was at the top of our reading list. Professor Andrews had us create informational cards on

every book we read that session and encouraged us to use them when we got into the classroom. I not only used those cards; I had my students create ones as well. When I taught a Sports Literature class my second year of teaching, I used “Go, Team, Go!”. After seeing the benefits of this adolescent literature class, I was a convert and signed up for as many of Professor Andrews’ classes as possible. When I was assigned the task of helping struggling readers, I still had my notes from one of Larry Andrews’ classes. Still relevant, the information gave me direction. Frustrated readers won’t read. Finding the motivational literature on a reading level a student can handle underlies reading improvement. Andrews knew that lesson years ago. I had the groundwork for my task. Andrews, as my adviser, guided me in the right direction. I still believe he impacted my designated teacher for my student teaching experience, Mary Commers. An outstanding teacher at Southeast High School, Commers demonstrated knowledge and how to work a classroom. Her command of British literature astounded me. Under her mentoring, I helped teach mini-courses before the Christmas break. This experience eventually helped me get a job at Norris High School in the early ’70s. My path crossed with Andrews again when he evaluated the literature system at Norris. I was teaching

numerous classes throughout the day because Norris had nineweek class options similar to mini-courses. Students had a wide variety of choices that made my exposure to adolescent literature even more important. Our literature team at Norris trusted Andrews’ assessment. If you want a student to read the assignment, you need to provide literature that touches them. I believed the classics could do that, but I also had my students reading books that I call “page turners.” “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton would be classified as a page turner. It was effective in the 1970s and in 2014. I like a story that carries a message for students. I know this dates back to my time with Andrews. It’s why I taught John Neihardt’s “When the Tree Flowered” to junior high students. “Maniac Magee” by Jerry Spinelli entered my classroom and ran away with a junior high student’s heart with those memorable similes and metaphors. Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” and “Number the Stars” rang loud and clear with messages for kids. Andrews’ obvious joy in literature carried over into my classroom. You might walk past and see shipmates acting out a scene from “The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle” by Avi or modern Elizabethans acting in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Even in my 60s, I could still relate to Scout in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and my students needed to know Atticus. Every summer I prepared new books to teach; I was never satisfied with what was in the cupboard. This drive dates back to my days with Larry Andrews and the “hooked on books” philosophy. After 9/11, the message in “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers needed to be read. We studied the Vietnam Conflict, which impacted my generation, even down to “A Song a Day” which included the music lyrics from that time period. I hope the joy for literature I saw in my professor was reflected in my own classroom. I hold fond memories of my time on campus. I was a synchronized swimmer in Aquaquettes. I bowled in the basement of the Student Union and sat in the rain to watch the football team. I even took a tennis class during a summer session. And I met my future husband while attending UNL. I had many excellent professors at the university, especially in my content area. Yet, Professor Larry Andrews impacted who I became in the classroom. Thank you! I took that enthusiasm for literature to rural Nebraska. I’m the lady who will save a book doomed to the recycling bin. I’m reading one right now; it’s entitled “The Brave” by Robert Lipsyte. It’s the story of a Native American boxer who discovers his roots in order to become a boxer with control. It’s a novel about sports with a message. I wonder if Larry ever read Lipsyte. v NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 41

New Staff Members Announced Late this summer, we welcomed two more people to the Nebraska Alumni Association staff. Jenny Chapin is Jenny Chapin our new director of venues. She comes to us from The Late Show with David Letterman/Worldwide Pants Inc., where she worked from 2007 to 2014, including the last two years as talent coordinator. Chapin will oversee marketing efforts, efficiency, productivity and maintenance of NAA facilities, including the Wick Alumni Center, Nebraska Champions Club

and Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center. She also will work closely with clients, internal programmers and Charley Morris campus partners to plan and execute events. She replaces Carrie Myers who is now our director of alumni engagement (2015 GoodNUz tabloid). As our new graphic design specialist, Charley Morris will produce print and multimedia content, including print collateral, event coverage, videos, photography and more. He will also

assist the communications team with daily tasks, planning and communications strategy. A graduate of Southeast Community College, Morris formerly worked for Omaha Media Group and Maly Marketing and GIS Workshop in Lincoln. He replaces Sarah Smith Reitz who has accepted a teaching assistantship at the University of Washington.

NEWS

NEW MEMBER BENEFIT: Husker Deals Now Huskers living anywhere nationwide can enjoy membersonly discounts at your favorite restaurants, retailers, theme parks and more. • 300,000 web-based “print- and-save” coupons. • 175,000 “show-your-phone” mobile coupons. • Travel Engine with Guaranteed Savings on Hotels & Car Rentals. • Popular National Brands & Local Favorites Go to HuskerAlum.access development.com, click on “register” and complete the form using the code “nuloyalty.” Questions? Contact Husker Alumni Customer Service at 1-888-272-6779.

CONNECTION BOX huskeralum.accessdevelopment.com

42 FALL 2015

Huskers at Rockies and Royals Husker fans came out in full force to watch the Colorado Rockies take on the Atlanta Braves on Saturday, July 11. Husker fans were treated to a walk-off bloop single from Carlos Gonzalez in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Rockies the 3-2 win. A month later, it was the Kansas City

Royals who rolled out the red carpet. The third annual Husker Night at the K took place Aug. 8, with the Royals defeating the Chicago White Sox, 7-6. The first 6,500 fans with Huskers Night tickets received Husker-themed Royals ball caps. And Herbie Husker threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Shelley Zaborowski presents an August UNL graduate with an N pin from the Nebraska Alumni Association. All graduates who participate in UNL commencement ceremonies in May, August and December receive pins.

NEWS

Scarlet Guard welcomed its members to campus Aug. 29 with a Meet and Greet party.

Online Events Connect Far-flung Alumni Technology has opened up new opportunities to connect with alumni and friends remotely. This past year, the Nebraska Alumni Association piloted three events using an online connection tool that allowed people to network with one another from the comfort of their homes or offices through a series of timed chats. The first event was a follow-up to the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network fall meeting. Members had the opportunity to reconnect and discuss how they applied tips from the meeting’s speakers to their own lives and careers. The event also gave members who were unable to attend the meeting in Lincoln the chance to catch up with one another. “The Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network is all about professional growth and making connections,” said Sarah Haskell, Director for Alumni Engagement and the staff liaison for

the Network. “It is not always possible or practical for all our members to gather in Lincoln twice a year. Our online event offered an alternative for those who couldn’t make the meeting to get a flavor of the meeting’s content and connect with fellow members.” The second event was specific to young alumni from the College of Education and Human Sciences. Alumni were able to join the online gathering and be matched with a member of the faculty or CEHS Student Advisory Board. “Participating in the College of Education and Human Sciences online networking event was a very positive experience for me’” said Allysa Diehl, ‘09. “I felt that I was able to be a resource for current undergraduate students in sharing with them my experiences as a CEHS student and as a practicing teacher, and I was also able to connect with current

UNL faculty and staff, who offered me advice as I seek to continue my education.” The third and final event was a general networking activity for alumni in Chicago and Indianapolis, providing the opportunity for them to meet one another virtually, and share information about local efforts to be engaged with Nebraska through their chapters. “Each of the events were experimental in nature, and gave us the opportunity to explore how to best use the technology available to us,” said NAA Executive Director Shelley Zaborowski, who played a role in planning each. “We received some very positive feedback, and also some good suggestions about how to improve this type of event moving forward.” The association hopes to host additional online networking activities in the year ahead.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 43

ALUMNI

CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES

Husker fans of all ages gathered at the 22nd annual Alabama Nebraskans summer picnic in August.

Bay Area Event Features Ron Kellogg III The Bay Area Huskers drew 70 Husker fans to their annual barbecue July 19 at Lakewood Park in Sunnyvale, California. Special guest was former Husker quarterback, Ron Kellogg III. Prior to the event, Kellogg was treated to a tour of NAPA Wine Country, San Francisco sites, including the chapterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watch site at Final Final, and a meet and greet at Buffalo Wild Wings. 44 FALL 2015

ALUMNI

CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES OLLI Set to Explore the Changing Face of Lincoln The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UNL launched the 20152016 academic year with the theme “The Face of Lincoln: History, Culture and Change.” Lincoln, Nebraska, is now a city of 273,000 people that encompasses a variety of communities, cultures, economic levels, beliefs and races. The theme celebrates and explores the many groups that make up Lincoln today. OLLI at UNL is one 119 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes across the United States dedicated to providing courses, events and travel specifically designed for those 50 years and over.

Chicago area Huskers joined alumni of other Big Ten schools to compete in the BTN 10K in Chicago in July.

OLLI offers more than 150 noncredit courses per year. There are two, six-week terms in the fall and spring semesters and a summer term. Most courses are offered during the day, Monday through Saturday, with some courses and special events offered in the evenings. Throughout this next year, OLLI will provide opportunities for members to learn from people who have different cultural experiences and encourage engagement with multicultural communities. Theme courses will examine a range of diversity issues including challenges for community leaders, social justice issues and other issues arising from culture and language. OLLI members will also be advised of the many multicultural events, holiday celebrations, lectures, concerts and exhibits that will occur in Lincoln. Upcoming courses and special events include topics on the cultural influence of Native Americans, AfricanAmericans, Latinos/Hispanics, Germans from Russia, Middle Eastern, Asian and African peoples; an exploration of a variety of cultural cuisines; and an examination of issues and challenges related to a growing diverse community. “Our goal with this year’s theme is to focus on understanding and learning to negotiate cultural diversity by becoming aware of our own perspectives, as well as becoming conscious of other cultural perspectives,” said Marvin Almy, chair of the OLLI Advisory Board. “It’s important that we acknowledge the historical and contemporary contributions of the diverse communities that make up Lincoln.”

OLLI formed a Diversity Committee last year. The dual purpose of the overall diversity initiative is first to acquaint OLLI members with the cultural riches of Lincoln; and second to welcome new lifelong learners into OLLI who bring different cultural backgrounds and perspectives. An important offshoot of the Diversity Committee is called “Let’s Talk” – a series of community conversations related to diversity issues. Dick Vautravers, OLLI Membership Committee chair, said the diversity conversations grew out of a special initiative in OLLI to attract members from a broader audience. “OLLI is a great group of people, but we’re all similar,” he observed. “We believe that OLLI is already a rich experience, but it can be richer if we have broader participation from Lincoln’s cultural communities.” To learn more about OLLI, become a member and/or register for courses, visit the OLLI Website at olli.unl.edu. There you will find CONNECTION a current course catalog, publications, olli.unl.edu and a list of special events and travel opportunities. – Kathleen Rutledge, ’70 and Patricia Saldaña, ’99 (EDITOR’S NOTE: Nebraska Alumni Association members who join OLLI for the first time can receive a $10 discount on member dues.)

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 45

BOX

ALUMNI

CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES

Special treats awaited the Californians for Nebraska at Mason Regional Park in Irvine where they gathered for their annual summer picnic Aug. 1.

Panhandle Recognizes Alum of the Year John Stinner of Gering was honored as 2015 Alum of the Year by the University of Nebraska Panhandle Alumni Chapter. The award recognizes individuals in the Panhandle who have supported NU with their attendance at various university activities, promoted UNL in their communities and been actively involved in their communities and successful in their careers. Stinner represents the 48th Legislative District in the Nebraska Legislature, serves as CEO of Valley Bank and Trust Co., and was the 2013-14 chairman of the Nebraska

IA4NU Holds Senior Send-0ff The Urbandale Chicken Coop was the site of the Aug. 6 Senior Send-off sponsored by the Iowans For Nebraska Alumni Chapter. Four UNL Students attended: freshmen Stephanie Graham of Johnston and Ethan Plock of Southeast Polk, and sophomores Derek Groathouse and Taylor Gehring, both of Waukee. Alex Cerveny, Nebraska Alumni Association representative, gave a short presentation. The best part of the evening was the connections made between new and returning UNL students, as well as the NAA. The students received goodie bags and chapter members tweeted pictures following the event. v

The NAA’s Alex Cerveny visits with students in Iowa who attend UNL.

46 FALL 2015

John Stinner (right) receives the 2015 Panhandle Alumni of the Year Award from Sandy Massey, 2014 winner.

Bankers Association. He has dedicated his time to more than 20 civic organizations, including as president of Gering School Board, Twin Cities Development and others. A native of the Pittsburgh area, Stinner played football for NU as a member of the 1970 and 1971 national championship teams. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and earned dual master’s degrees in economics and accounting from UNL. Also at the annual dinner, recipients of Panhandle Alumni Scholarships were announced, including Jasie Beam of Gering High School, Jordan Burgener of Gering High School, Aubrey Ford of Scottsbluff High School, Jake Johnson of Potter Dix High School and Kyra Willats of Scottsbluff High School. Officers for 2015 are president, John Marshall; vice president Leslie Shaver; secretary, Karen Helberg; treasurer, John Flint; past president Mark Schlothauer; and finance committee members Bryan Barrett and John Schmall. v

CLASSNOTES 1938

n Dorothy Matson of Lincoln enjoyed her 99th birthday on July 31.

1939

n Howard Wiegers, a long-time

professor of wildlife studies at the University of NebraskaLincoln, marked his 100th birthday on July 20.

1945

n Earl Lampshire of Lincoln celebrated birthday number 93 on June 22.

1946

Don Wagner of Brock turned 90 in May.

News/Weddings/Births/Deaths

1952

n William E. Keeney, retired vice president of engineering of Kollmorgan Corporation’s Industrial Drives Division and first president of the Southwest Virginians for Nebraska, recently retired as the editor of the local Military Officers Association Chapter newsletter, The Intercom. He lives in Satellite Beach, Florida.

1955

n Ralph and n Martha Heuer-

mann Knobel, ’55, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary June 12. The Knobels live in Fairbury.

1956

1947

n Andrew C. “Skip” Hove Jr., Lincoln, has been appointed chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Board of Directors.

1949

■ James E. and ■ Nancy Mayborn Peterson noted their 60th wedding anniversary on June 12. The couple lives in Centennial, Colorado.

Ardyce Welch of Lincoln celebrated her 90th birthday Aug. 2.

Earl Hieronymus of Lincoln marked 90 years of life June 21. Robert V. Struebing was inducted into the Kansas Oil and Gas Legacy Gallery. Struebing, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, retired as vice president of manufacturing for Getty Oil and was the senior executive responsible for all Getty refineries in the United States. n Harry H. and n Gloria Axelson

1957

Bill and Joyce Fobair of Cottonwood, Arizona, marked their 65th wedding anniversary July 5. Fobair, a World War II and Korean War veteran celebrated his 90th birthday Sept. 27.

1961

Jerry and Merle Oldenburg Gruber of Lincoln marked their 50th wedding anniversary Aug. 21.

■ Indicates Alumni Association Life Member

■

1967

n Dianne Corneer of Belgrade, Montana, has retired after 13 years as a school counselor at Bozeman High School. She had served the 30 years prior to Bozeman as a counselor at several middle and high schools in Nebraska.

Steve and Carolyn Merritt Nickel, ’66, of Lincoln observed 50 years of marriage Aug. 30.

John and Mary Anne Linscott of Lincoln noted their 50th wedding anniversary Aug. 15. Dale and Rosalyn Vanderford of Murdock celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 7.

Bob and Alice Wiechert of Lincoln marked 50 years of marriage July 16.

■ Gary

and ■ Jacquelyn Flick Peterson, ’65, marked their 50th wedding anniversary June 18. The Petersons, who live in Fort Collins, Colorado, met at UNL in the fall of 1962 in Burr Hall on East Campus.

Isaacs, ’65, of Great Falls, Virginia marked 50 years of marriage on Dec. 21, 2014.

Ken and Deanna Lytle of Lincoln observed 55 years of marriage in August.

Unadilla marked their golden wedding anniversary June 19.

Larry and Pat Vonderfecht of Pawnee City celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary July 2.

1958

1960

n Phil and n Glenda Willnerd of

1963

1964

Louie and Evelyn Buller of Lincoln noted their 60th wedding anniversary June 19.

■

Henry “Mick” Tingelhoff of Lakeville, Minnesota, former Husker gridiron star and 17year starter as a lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, was inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame in July.

Ronald Massie of Lincoln noted his 85th birthday June 28.

1950

1951

Jack and Sharron Nagel of Davey celebrated 50 years of marriage Aug. 7

n Chuck and n Jan Wahl, ’65,

Don and Joan Hobbs of Lincoln marked 60 years of marriage July 31.

Robert Mohlman, Lincoln, turned 90 on Aug. 23.

Lloyd and Rita Fiala of Lincoln celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary July 26.

Wayne and Janice Ruliffson of Lincoln celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary June 28.

Wagner, ’51, of Kerrville, Texas, observed their 65th wedding anniversary June 10.

n Bud Gerhart, former president and CEO of the Bank of Newman Grove, continues to enjoy his hobby of 80 years, bicycling, on the trails of Lincoln.

1962

of Lincoln marked a half century of marriage June 26.

1968

n Alva and Lois Wondra Basler, Georgetown, Texas, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Sept. 3. To mark the occasion, the Baslers were joined on a Caribbean cruise by their daughter and son-in-law.

Larry and Carolyn Hennerberg of Beatrice celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 28.

n Phillip and n Sandra Fasse

Robert “Fritz” Kluge and Judith Lynnette Conway of Denton noted 50 years of marriage July 26.

1965

n Charles R. Sass retired after 18 years as the managing editor of academic publications for the Close Up Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia. He and wife, Sharon Olson Sass, live in Silver Spring, Maryland.

n Dale Andersen was elected national vice president, Naval Services of Reserve Officers Association, which comprises members of the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, NOAA and Public Health Service. Andersen lives in Omaha. n Larry and n Janee Benda

Dlugosh of Lincoln noted a half century of marriage June 27. Franklin and Phyllis Hronik of Seward celebrated wedding anniversary number 50 June 27.

Indicates Alumni Association Annual Member

Bill and Bernie Skrivan of Lincoln noted 50 years of marriage June 26.

1969

n Mary Butler has retired after 40 years of teaching math at Lincoln East High School.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 47

CLASSNOTES Larry and Janis Lundquist Johnson, ’89, of Lincoln celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 5. Don Leuenberger stepped down in July as the vice chancellor for business and finance at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Jerry Obrist has retired as head of the Lincoln Water System.

1970

Victor and Alvera Wallman Bade of Beatrice noted their 50th wedding anniversary June 6. Douglas and Barbara Thompson of Clarkston, Washington, marked 50 years of marriage on Aug. 14.

1971

■ Reuben

Schleifer was honored with a “special day” for his notable 41-year teaching/ coaching career at Chester, as well as three decades of promoting quality health care in the area. As a result of leading two highly successful capital campaigns, he was presented the Nebraska Rural Health Association Outstanding Achievement Award. At the conclusion of the program, the still volunteering 93 year old was inducted into the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska as an admiral.

1972

n Tom Broad, Humble, Texas,

has retired after 21 years as the community relations manager at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital. n Janet Reich Rhodus retired

from the Redlands (California) Unified School District in July after 24 years, the past seven spent as principal of special education for the district.

1973

Tom and Sara Boatman noted a half century of marriage June 27. n Linda Burt, vice president

and chief financial officer at Nebraska Methodist Health 48 FALL 2015

System, was the only CFO from Nebraska to make the list of Becker’s Hospital Review 2015 “150 Hospital and Health System CFOs to Know.” Albert Maxey, Sr. of Lincoln created the cover artwork for “A Tree Grows in Lincoln: A History of Christ Temple Mission Church” by Arthur L. Lindsay. n Steve Pella of Omaha, retired as vice president of corporate affairs for Black Hills Corp. in June.

Bill Silk retired from Gross Catholic High School in Omaha after 33 years as the computer science instructor. Jim and Pam Walter of Lincoln celebrated 50 years of marriage Aug. 14.

1974

n Kennard Britton, staff assistant at Bedford (Texas) Heights Elementary School, was the recipient of the 2015 Hurst Euless Bedford ISD Spirit of V.I.P.S. Award for helping the Volunteers in Public Schools program.

Jon Gruett, Lincoln, is the director of the Southeast Community College chorus, After the Storm, for the 2015-16 academic year.

1975

n Thomas Henning, president and CEO of Assurity Group Inc. of Lincoln, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. n Tim Wentz, an associate

professor of construction management in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was installed as president-elect of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers) at its 2015 annual conference.

1977

Dirk Greene of Imperial has retired as game warden with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission after 38 years.

n John Kelly Korky, Long Valley, New Jersey, retired as professor emeritus at Montclair State University, where he published numerous reviewed articles on amphibian field studies conducted in the United States, Mexico and Europe. n William J. Mueller and n Kim

M. Robak, founders of Mueller Robak LLC, a lobbying and governmental relations firm in Lincoln, have again been selected to the Great Plains Super Lawyers list.

1979

Glenn Baumert was promoted to first vice president and head of the ag lending division of Union Bank & Trust of Lincoln. Dick Placzek has been named executive vice president/group account director at the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell. Jeffrey Ross recently published a life history text, “Silent Sonora,” which describes a family’s life in two canvas tents in Depression-era Scottsdale, Arizona. Ross is a resident of Gilbert, Arizona.

1980

n William T. Fleming, Groveland, Illinois, graduated from the Institute for Organization Management, the professional development program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. He has served as the executive director of the Pekin (Illinois) Area Chamber of Commerce for 14 years. n Jeffery T. Peetz, an attorney with the Lincoln law firm of Endacott, Peetz and Timmer, has been named one of “The Best Lawyers in America,” a distinguished acknowledgement by national peers after extensive survey review. n Sharon Olson Sass retired after 17 years as the vice president for academic affairs at Palm Beach State College, Lake Worth, Florida. She and husband, Charles Sass, live in Silver Spring, Maryland.

1981

Dan and Jenice Bigbee of Stillwater, Oklahoma, celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary Aug. 7. Susan I. Strong of Lincoln has been appointed judge of the 3rd Judicial District by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

1982

Tom Hansen, a Lincoln retiree, is the proprietor of Rolling Fire Catering, which specializes in wood-fired pizza. Lisa Leonard was a guest of Field’s Family Outreach Ministries “Reaching Out Radio,” where she discussed homelessness. Leonard is a member of the board of directors at Care Corps Family Services in Fremont.

1983

Martin Krohn has been named vice president of commercial and agribusiness banking for First National Bank Fremont. n Lisa Lunz, a Wakefield farmer and longtime volunteer, was honored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the Outstanding Contributions to Northeast Nebraska Agriculture and Families Award in August.

Duane E. Reese, retired animal science faculty member at UNL, graduated with distinction on June 12, 2015, from Southeast Community College of Lincoln with an A.A.S. degree in culinary arts.

1984

Dave Amen is director, trust services in the wealth management division of the Lincoln office (South Pointe) of First National Bank. Mike Babel was named senior vice president/director of finance in the Lincoln office of marketing communications agency Swanson Russell.

BY TERRI HAHN, ’81

Alumni Profile ’81

A Career with The Fed Todd Glissman

It wasn’t supposed to turn out this there from Kansas City in 1989. way. While in Kansas City, he worked When Todd Glissman took a job for the Banking Supervision and with the Federal Reserve in Kansas Structure Division, serving as both an City after earning his degree from analyst and examiner for the region’s Todd Glissman the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in banks. 1981, his plan was to stay a couple After transferring to Washington, of years then move on to the banking D.C., he moved into banking policy industry in Denver. development while working with the “But then the Colorado economy Board of Governors until 1995 when made, to commemorate the 100th anfell apart,” Glissman said, “and life he took a position as assistant vice niversary of the Federal Reserve Act,” at the Fed was so interesting, I felt president of banking supervision at he said. “The event was televised live compelled to stay. I have never been the Federal Reserve Bank of San nationally and featured Janet Yellen, bored and have typically changed Francisco. A promotion to vice presiBen Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and positions every two to three years to dent, and later group vice president, Paul Volcker.” keep it interesting.” expanded his role to include oversight It was Greenspan who provided one Those 34 years have taken Glissman of the bank’s public website, annual of the funniest moments of Glissman’s from Kansas City to Washington, public report and one of the largest career when he was summoned to D.C., to San Francisco and back to corporate video production studios Greenspan’s office after a summer Washington where he serves as chief in the city, before being asked to picnic for Fed employees because of staff for the management division reorganize human resources among Greenspan’s wife, Andrea Mitchell, – the board’s largest – among other the bank’s six offices in the western wanted the recipe for the dessert bars duties. the Glissman “After family had Glissman’s career hasn’t been all work and no play. He’s taken administering provided. implementation two sabbaticals, the first in 1987-88 when he spent a year “It happened to of the Doddbe my grandma’s traveling through the Middle East and Africa, and the second Frank Act, and favorite recipe, coordinating the in 2005 when he arranged to return to southern Africa with his used at all of our Federal Reserve’s family to deliver food, and school and medical supplies for AIDS family reunions,” centennial for he said. “Who the Board of orphans in the region. would have Governors, I have guessed the been coordinatFed Chairman and NBC White House ing the International Monetary Fund’s U.S. While in San Francisco he correspondent would want the recipe second review of the U.S. financial coordinated the hiring of Janet Yellen for Grandma Helen’s bars? I wrote it sector for the Federal Reserve,” as president and CEO with the board out by hand and brought it promptly Glissman said. of directors. He moved back to D.C. in to him the next day.” Five years ago, the Fed “lent” 2006 to become chief human capital But Glissman’s career hasn’t been Glissman to the Treasury Department officer for the Board of Governors. all work and no play. He’s taken two for a year to coordinate the IMF’s “The most memorable moment sabbaticals, the first in 1987-88 when first-ever review of the U.S. financial in my Fed career was on Dec. 16, he spent a year traveling through sector, including banking, insurance, 2013, when I coordinated the the Middle East and Africa, and the securities, payment systems, etc. The largest gathering of Federal Reserve second in 2005 when he arranged current project is similar to that first officials (past and present governors to return to southern Africa with his one. and Reserve Bank presidents) in our family to deliver food, and school and This is Glissman’s second stint in history in our D.C. Board Room, where medical supplies for AIDS orphans in the nation’s capital, having first moved all the key decisions at the Fed are

Continued on Page 50

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 49

CLASSNOTES aContinued career with the fed from Page 49 the region. Looking back at that first trip, Glissman said, “I took all the money I saved to buy a new car and spent a year traveling overland through the Middle East and Africa, from Cairo to CapeTown and back to Morocco, spending nearly every night in a sleeping bag – with endless adventures to talk about!” Those adventures included exploring the ancient streets of Damascus and climbing the largest pyramid in Egypt. But some of his adventures were a little more exciting than others. “Sneaking into Israel through the back door from Jordan” was one of those. “The State Department issued me two passports,” Glissman said, “as I was subject to punishment of death in several countries if it was discovered I had been in Israel or South Africa at the time … and I was in both.” He also spent a week in a mud hut in Sudan being nursed back to health by a local family after being injured on the trip there. He explored Ethiopia under the watchful eye of communist leaders, and while traveling by bus along the Mozambique border, was either strip-searched or interrogated at every checkpoint to make sure he wasn’t a spy. “As you can tell, I could go on and on,” Glissman said. “I could really write a book.” But any book will have to wait until after his planned retirement in several years. “Life has taken me through 65 countries, always with marvelous experiences, and all 50 states,” he said. “The part of the world I have visited the least is Asia, though I enjoyed four missions to South Korea with the World Bank a few years ago, helping improve their banking supervision. “I look forward to exploring Burma, Cambodia and Thailand when I retire, and returning to Africa to give back to the people in ways to be determined.” He’s hoping his family, including his wife, Sue, and their children, twins Alex and Emily, and Zach, are game for more adventures. That appears to be a given. “Zach has already told me that he wants to go to Antarctica with me,” he said. But in the meantime, Glissman is coordinating new projects for the Fed. “It is surprising to me how far I’ve managed to go as a UNL graduate,” he said, “as I have never taken the time to get an advanced degree. I seldom take time to look back in life, always keeping my eye to the future.”

n John Heineman has left Lincoln High School after 30 years of teaching theater there and now is a theater teacher at Bryan High School in Omaha. n Stuart Pospisil of Omaha received the 2014 Dr. Herbert H. Davis and Herbert H. Davis Jr. Award from the Nebraska Golf Hall of Fame.

Bill and Mary Ann Rowe of Beatrice celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 25. Susan J. Spahn, a shareholder and officer with the law firm of Endacott Peetz and Timmer, is the head of its recently opened Omaha office. n Jill S. Reel, Arlington, is a pediatrician at the Blair Clinic and Memorial Community Hospital System in Blair. n Larry Sparks is an editor with Strategic Health Solutions in Omaha and is the youth director at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Papillion.

1985

Mike Everley was elected vice president – information technology in the Lincoln office of Ameritas Life and Ameritas Life of New York. n Randy Klein, Wahoo, was hired as assistant vice president of Oak Creek Valley Bank in Valparaiso.

Eugene Radosevich, a Roman Catholic priest in Eureka, Illinois, celebrated his silver jubilee marking 25 years in the priesthood this summer. Scott Williamson has joined Union Bank & Trust of Lincoln as senior mortgage loan officer.

1986

Wendy Guillies of Overland Park, Kansas, has been appointed president and chief executive of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. Jeff Kloster, Elkhorn, was the recipient of a special recognition award presented by the Omaha

50 FALL 2015

chapter of the Association of Perioperative Nurses. Kloster is president of the Rhino Group, a firm that sells and services hospital equipment. He was honored in part for putting on a free continuing-education program for nurses on proper positioning of surgical patients. Mark Ritchie has been selected as head coach of the Peru State women’s golf team. Ritchie lives in Pawnee City. Greg Smith of La Vista was promoted to vice president, supervision, at Securities America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc.

1987

Robb D. Bunde of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, was recently named a 2015 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Magazine, an honor bestowed upon him for the eighth time. n Edward Kirklin has been named executive vice president of Holmes Murphy & Associates’ fraternal business. The Omaha insurance agency provides property and casualty programs for college-based student organizations, honor societies and alumni associations nationwide.

Robert and Janet Krugman Stamper of Lincoln noted 50 years of marriage May 29. Scott Yank has assumed the role of executive vice president at the Nebraska Bankers Insurance & Services Co. in Lincoln.

1988

Mick McGill has been named vice president-client advocacy of the fraternal business at Holmes Murphy & Associates, an Omaha-based insurance agency. Keith and Sharon Chatfield Sawyers of Lincoln celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary June 12.

BY SUZANNA STAGEMEYER, ’05 AND LEVI ADAM, ’07

Alumni Profiles ’07

A Life of Dreams and Duty

Dustin Lukasiewicz Dustin Lukasiewicz, better known as Dusty, grew up like many rural Nebraska boys, with a youth full of hunting, fishing, farming and football. But one interest set him apart. From early on, his room was crammed with model airplanes, and he knew each one by heart. When he wasn’t dreaming about farming, he was dreaming about flying in famous historical air battles. In May 2015, at age 29, he gave his life pursuing that dream, weeks before his namesake son was born. A captain in the Marine Corps, Lukasiewicz’s helicopter crashed in the mountains of earthquake-ravaged Nepal on a rescue mission. But even though his military career took him across the world, Lukasiewicz’s heart — and plans — remained firmly planted in the rich Nebraska soil. Lukasiewicz grew up in rural, southcentral Nebraska. He was raised south of Wilcox and spent time working on his grandparents’ farm near Farwell. He graduated from high school in the same building where he started kindergarten. High school brought out Lukasiewicz’s gift for leadership and love for discussing current issues – especially if he could bait teachers into test-delaying debates. Friends jokingly dubbed him “Sen. Lukasiewicz.” Ken Meyers, WilcoxHildreth High School social studies teacher who also coached Lukasiewicz in football and track, said he held strong convictions and never quit.

Dustin Lukasiewicz

“Dusty is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever coached,” Meyers said. “From the time he was a freshman, he pushed himself in his athletic ability.” Years ago, after an elementary school field trip, Lukasiewicz brought home a tiny tree and planted it in his yard. The tree was stagnant for years, but around Lukasiewicz’s senior year of college, it just thrived – much like Lukasiewicz, said his mother, Cheryl Schepker. “He got his roots planted where they needed to be,” she said. “I think he knew that school was going to be done, and he knew the path that he needed to take. … That was when he just dug in and started after it.” Lukasiewicz started at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2003, majoring in political science. He spent fall semesters waiting for football Saturdays and spring semesters waiting for football season to start again. During the summers, he returned to work on the family farm. “Things like international issues and current events interested him,” said college friend Andrew Soneson, who was a captain in the Marine Corps and now teaches in Springfield, Nebraska. “He thought it was his duty to play his part to influence those events.” When his senior year in college arrived, he caught a vision for his future and what he needed to do to get there. And that vision routed him through Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia.

OCS was the tough route to becoming an officer. Lukasiewicz’s stint there was during the winter, adding intense cold to an already daunting assignment. During obstacle and endurance courses, he and his peers often had to break ice with rifles while low-crawling through water. Despite high attrition at OCS, Lukasiewicz was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in March 2008. Before long, he went from operating hundred-thousand-dollar farm equipment to piloting multimilliondollar aircraft. After OCS, Lukasiewicz attended The Basic School, a sixmonth course for newly commissioned officers, then went on to flight school in Pensacola, Florida. He received his wings in September 2010 as a UH-1Y Huey pilot. “He was in the top third of graduates, so he got his choice of platform,” recalled Cpt. Dave View, who attended The Basic School and flight school with Lukasiewicz and also escorted his body back to Nebraska. Lukasiewicz didn’t need a lot to be happy, and he didn’t need to be a crowd pleaser, View said. But everyone knew he was from Nebraska – and a Husker football fan. One Thanksgiving, Lukasiewicz came over to celebrate with View and was noticeably happier than even his usual cheerful self. The day before, he had met Ashley, whom he later married in Old Town San Diego after getting orders to Camp Pendleton, California. They have two children:

Continued on Page 52 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 51

CLASSNOTES AContinued LIFEfrom OFPageDUTY AND DREAMS 51 2-year-old Isabelle and Dustin, who was serve Nebraskans. born on June 10. In spring 2015, after devastating From that point, Lukasiewicz’s focus earthquakes in Nepal, Lukasiewicz was shifted. He wanted to do his job well, then among the pilots sent to provide food and go home to his family. “Family became his help. new priority in life,” Soneson said. When he called on Mother’s Day, Lukasiewicz served in Afghanistan from Schepker said, Lukasiewicz described May until November 2012. In November how wonderful the people were – friendly 2014, he was deployed to the Western and appreciative. “I think he loved doing Pacific, where he conducted training in it – he had never done anything like that Okinawa, Thailand, South Korea and the before,” she said. Philippines. Two days later, Lukasiewicz flew his When he was stateside, Lukasiewicz last mission. Braving difficult flight had a half-acre in California to call home conditions, he helped rescue several, then – complete with a shed, chicken coop and headed back up the mountain for more. summer garden. He had found a house as The helicopter went missing; a few days far out in the country as possible. later, search teams found the wreckage on Whenever he crossed the Nebraska the rugged terrain, with the bodies of six state line for a visit home, Lukasiewicz Marines and two Nepali soldiers. would dial up a fellow Nebraskan just “I think the way it happened, it speaks to announce that he was back in “God’s to his selflessness – his realization that country.” what he was doing was not about Dusty With a year left in the Marine Corps, Lukasiewicz; it was about the mission,” Lukasiewicz envisioned an upbringing for Soneson said. “It was about taking care of his children much like his own. He used a other people and his Marines.” first-time farmers’ loan In the end, the state to buy a 317-acre farm Lukasiewicz loved so north of St. Paul, near dearly loved him well in his family’s farm. He return. and Ashley planned to During the 150farm and possibly fly in mile drive from where an agricultural capacity. his body landed in “He really wanted Omaha to his final to build a house on a resting place in St. hill,” Schepker said. Paul, Lukasiewicz’s “He spent a lot of hours entourage found looking at house plans.” people waiting every Lukasiewicz came up mile along the journey with a helicopter crop– young people, old dusting scheme and was couples, Boy Scouts, Four generations – Dusty, his grandfather, his father casually shopping for a small-town emergency and his daughter. helicopter – though the vehicles bedecked with lofty price tag made that flags. In Omaha, traffic a long-term goal, View didn’t just stop for the said. procession – people got out of their cars. And Lukasiewicz had not forgotten his “It was overwhelming,” Schepker said. penchant for politics. He was pursuing The unassuming Lukasiewicz probably a master’s degree from the University of would have been a bit embarrassed. Nebraska at Omaha and loved it, Schepker “Dusty never would have cared if he said. He tossed around the idea of getting received recognition or not,” Soneson a doctorate in political science and even said. “He was just there to do his teaching. And he considered someday job. Maybe that came from his farm getting involved with politics, using his upbringing, his small-town upbringing. If military and leadership experience to you’ve got a job to do, go do it.” 52 FALL 2015

1989

n Daniel Edwards retired from the United States Air Force as a colonel after 25 years of active duty service. He moved his family back to Nebraska and is now a dedicated logistics manager with Werner Enterprises in Omaha. n Scott S. Moore, a partner and member of Omaha law firm Baird Holm’s executive committee, has been named council chair, labor relations and board member for the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Brent Schott has been named executive vice president/group account director in the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell.

1990

n Troy Brockmeier is a registered investment adviser with Oldfather Financial Services LLC in Kearney.

Cecil Hicks Jr. has been promoted to assistant vice chancellor for human resources at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. n Marsha Lommel is retiring in January after four years as president and CEO of Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln.

Selina Shultz, a managing partner in the Pittsburgh law firm The Alternative Group, was chosen to co-teach the course, “Selected Issues in Dispute Resolution: Decision Making Under Conflict,” as part of Pepperdine University’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution Fall 2015 Program in Malibu, California.

1991

Bryce Bunde, an account executive at UnitedHealthcare, has been named “Underwriter of the Year” for 2014-15, by the Omaha Association of Health Underwriters.

BY JOANN GRECO

Alumni Profile ’88

Puppies not punishment

James McKinney When James McKinney, ’88, started driving a van as a way to earn extra money while in college, he had no idea how impactful the part-time gig would be. As he soon learned, the chauffeuring job involved delivering inmates at a Nebraska work-release facility to their places of employment in the morning and picking them up at night. Any hesitation he might have felt disappeared, though, once he got to know his passengers. “I didn’t have the greatest family life – I was abused by my stepdad – and when we talked about how rough they had had it, it got me thinking,” he said. “I would look at them and say – you know, my experience wasn’t so different, and look at me, I’m in college. I’m going to make something of myself.” The experience would not only set him on a career path in prison management – it would encourage him to reexamine old questions about incarceration and its goals. He began working as a correctional officer while still in school, then rose through the ranks to increasingly challenging supervisory roles in the Nebraska and Iowa penitentiary systems. (He’s currently Warden of Fort Dodge Correctional Facility in Iowa, mediumsecurity with a population of 1,300 offenders.) “I was one of those people who believed that if you were hard on inmates, they wouldn’t want to come back,” McKinney, 58, said. “But about ten years into my career, I started thinking about my own youth and how all of the harsh treatment I had suffered hadn’t made me a better person. It was when someone praised me or gave me a challenging task that

McKinney and the trainers put the dogs through their paces for an appreciative audience.

I wanted to strive harder and make them proud of me.” He thought about Chris Eskridge, his criminal justice professor. “I’m rather competitive, and he didn’t like to give A’s,” McKinney said. “I took that as a personal challenge. I got that A – and I still think about my choice to push myself.” And he thought about the three boys he was raising with his high school sweetheart, and how each had an individual personality and responded to different punishments and rewards. Finally, he said, he thought about the dogs he and his family had owned through the years. “When you have a puppy you have to wake up in the middle of the night, you have to make sure you’re home in time to feed them,” McKinney recalled. “I thought an inmate could certainly learn a lot of responsibilities in training a dog.” And so, McKinney took a leap: from control to canines. Then warden of Iowa’s North Central Correctional Facility, a minimumsecurity campus with about 500 inmates, McKinney did some research and approached Leader Dogs for the Blind, a Michigan-based nonprofit that teams with a national network of volunteers to raise puppies who will eventually become service animals for the visually impaired. “I think they were just humoring me,” McKinney said of Leader Dogs’ response when he suggested they try the program on his inmates. But when the official saw how inmates were

treated and how they talked about wanting to give back to others, she ended the tour and said McKinney could start whenever he was ready. The first match paired a puppy with a lifer inmate, and since then hundreds of dogs have passed through, staying at the prisons for about a year. “I can’t even describe how rewarding it’s been to watch how the dogs have changed the lives of these men,” McKinney said. It’s a win-win. Since the inmates have nothing but time to lavish on the animals in their care, Leader Dogs has found that the dogs that emerge from the program make the best students when it comes to further training. McKinney arrived at Fort Dodge Correctional Facility in 2010, where he runs a safe and secure prison with just 30 staffers per shift. “I’ve learned that if you emphasize respect and reward, you end up with a great culture that makes for a pretty easy prison,” he said. “I’ve got it to where I worry more about the inmates after they leave than while they are still inside.” With about 70 percent of inmates volunteering in the Leader Dog program at some point (and 30 percent repeatedly doing so), Fort Dodge has primed hundreds of inmates for reentry as productive members of society. Overall, according to McKinney, the recidivism rate at Ft. Dodge is about 13 percent, as compared to a 50 percent national rate. Some success stories stand out. There was the individual imprisoned on a second-degree murder charge who

Continued on Page 54 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 53

CLASSNOTES puppies not punishment Continued from Page 53 volunteered to raise one puppy, then eventually took on four more. Once released, he became president of a local Lion’s Club. Another offender, served seven years for robbing a pizza place, then put his newfound skills into starting a dog-walking business. Because the program receives no state funding, the prisons rely on private donations and fundraising events such as theatrical reviews. “Imagine 50 guys in for major crimes turning in unison and wearing silly hats as they do numbers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’,” laughed McKinney. “They take this effort very seriously.” Some inmates even sacrifice their own pay — which is just 47-cents an hour — to buy extra leashes and chew toys. “Before, it’s alJim and his wife, Judith, hold two ways been all about of the puppies to be trained. them,” McKinney commented. “This program teaches them the responsibility of taking care of something.” When the time comes for volunteers to relinquish their charges to Leader Dogs for additional training, McKinney notices many a teary eye. “I remind them that they took something away from someone — maybe even a life — and it was for evil. Now, something is being taken from them, but it’s for good.” McKinney has incorporated these experiences into leadership courses he teaches for the National Institute of Corrections. “My philosophy is a little different than your traditional wardens,” he said. “For instance, we hold banquets — with a guest speaker, tablecloths, dinner service — for all of the inmates that have gone a year without any discipline. This year, we will host close to 600 inmates.” McKinney has also instituted other volunteer programs at the facility, such as having inmates raise money for cancer and domestic abuse nonprofits. “I find such joy when inmates and staff realize that life is much bigger than each one of us,” he said. “There is a lot of talk about that in our prison and I know when I retire I will miss these conversations and relationships.”

54 FALL 2015

n Michael Miller was named the senior associate dean of the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Daniel Shipp is the vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at the University of Nebraska at Omaha as the result of a promotion. Stephanie F. Stacy, a Lancaster County District judge, was appointed to the Nebraska Supreme Court by Gov. Pete Ricketts in August. Greg Wiley has been named executive vice president/director of creative development in the Lincoln office of marketing communications company Swanson Russell.

1992

Janelle Marcotte Gress was appointed market president for Premier Bank of Nebraska City. n Randy Hawthorne is the new director for Lincoln-based Volunteer Partners, a nonprofit organization that connects people, businesses and nonprofits with volunteer opportunities.

Lori Saale has been promoted to vice president of people resources at Lincoln Industries, a metal finishing company based in Lincoln. David Turner, account manager at Infogroup in Omaha has received the John Ganly Excellence in Sales Award

1993

Kay Kudlacek is the chief financial officer with Collaborative Industries Inc. of Lincoln. Will Shields III of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, former Husker lineman, Outland Trophy winner and All-American, was inducted into the 2015 National Football League Hall of Fame in July. The perennial All-Pro spent his entire career with the Kansas City Chiefs.

1994

Wayne Kreikemeier was named senior vice president, residential mortgage management at West Gate Bank in Lincoln.

1995

John Sibley has been promoted to senior vice president of the Kiewit Building Group. ■ John

L. Sweeney is a mathematics teacher at Lincoln Lutheran Middle/High School in Lincoln, instructing seventhgraders in math, geometry and algebra II.

1996

Katie Bell has joined the Atlanta office of Heidrick & Struggles, a provider of executive search and leadership consulting, as a partner. Michael Quinn, a managing director/financial adviser with Ameriprise Financial in Omaha, qualified for the company’s 2014 Circle of Success recognition and was honored in June.

1997

Tim Carpenter was promoted to senior director of organizational development for Lincoln Industries, a Lincoln-based metal finishing company. Jonathan Ulmer of Lubbock, Texas, was named to the Future Farmers of America Board of Directors. Ulmer is an associate professor at Texas Tech University.

1998

Amber Herrick is an attorney in the Lincoln office of Endacott Peetz and Timmer, practicing in the areas of estate planning, probate and trust administration, guardianships and civil litigation. Brandon Nyffeler is the service team manager at P&L Technology, which provides Internet technology solutions for businesses in Lincoln and Omaha.

CLASSNOTES n Alisa Rosales has joined Equal Justice Wyoming in Cheyenne as staff attorney/IT project manager.

Todd Seawall has a new role as director, portfolio management, for First National Bank Fremont. Meghan Millea was named the interim administrative dean for the Meridian Campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville, where she is a finance and economics professor.

1999

Johna Jablonski, a closing specialist with Farm Credit Services of America in Imperial, was appointed the newest member of the city council in that town in August. John Vogel is the senior writer/ producer as the result of a recent promotion in the Lincoln office of the marketing com-

munications agency Swanson Russell.

2000

Jason Hardy is a digital designer and executive design director at Nurun San Francisco. n Sean Lewis, a major in the

United States Air Force, has assumed command of the 727th Air Mobility Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom. Lewis was selected for promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel as well. Tyson Stevenson was appointed senior vice president, real estate industry specialty practice, at JLT Specialty Insurance Services Inc. in San Francisco.

2001

Jay H. Buckley, an assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University in Orem, Utah, recently co-authored the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Historical Dictionary of

the American Frontier,â&#x20AC;? which traces early Euro-American exploration and development of several North American frontiers and the roles of indigenous peoples in those processes. Jeff Kulhanek is manager, mechanical engineering in the Lincoln office of The Schemmer Associates Inc., an architecture, engineering and planning firm. Spencer Stock has been appointed president of Lester Electrical in Lincoln, where he was previously product marketing manager. Randa Zalman, chief strategy officer at the Omaha marketing and communications firm, Redstone, has joined the executive management team as a partner.

2002

Benin Lee was the 2014 Leadership Award winner, presented at the national Veterans Affairs Physician Assistant Association conference. Lee is a PA in the Department of Veterans Affairs in Chillicothe, Ohio. Darryl Tonemah, Lewiston, New York, provided a presentation and workshop at the Bismarck (North Dakota) Heritage Center in July. A Native American cognitive behavior psychologist, Tonemah travels around the world teaching behavioral methods of change, and health and wellness in Native communities. Chad Vogel is a new member of the Davis Design team, serving as a construction administrator for the full service design firm located in Lincoln.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 55

CLASSNOTES 2004

Jennifer Bromm is a judge advocate with the United States Army, serving as a CPT and assigned as a prosecutor with the 21st Sustainment Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Beth Frerichs is a sales and marketing associate with Chief Construction of Grand Island. Greta Leach of the Nebraska Community Foundation in Lincoln has been promoted from affiliated fund development coordinator to director of community development philanthropy.

2005

Richard W. Harper of Amherst, Massachusetts, is the winner of the 2015 International Society of Arboriculture’s Award of Achievement. He works in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst as an extension assistant professor in the arboriculture/urban forestry program. Timothy Hiatt has joined the Lincoln law firm Kinsey Rowe Becker & Kistler LLP as an attorney concentrating on estate planning, probate, real estate, criminal and business law. Sarah Minarick is a physician assistant certified with the Sutton Ryan Dermatology and Aesthetic Center in Lincoln. Sara Ross was honored as the 2015 Midwest Farm Mom of the Year at a ceremony at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Ross, mother of two, helps husband Kevin run a sixth-generation farm near Minden. Jason P. Weber is a surgeon specializing in foot and ankle care with the Lincoln Orthopaedic Center. Anna Schrad Zajicek completed her diagnostic radiology residency and musculoskeletal radiology fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and has accepted a position at UNMC as an assistant professor of radiology. 56 FALL 2015

2006

Amanda Chaviva-Bennett is working as the Judaism expert at About.com and also serves as the community and content manager for Teforia in Denver.

2008

Todd Ogden is deputy director for the Downtown Lincoln Association.

Avery Meyers is an account manager in the Lincoln office of Five Nines, which provides IT management services.

2009

2011

n Claire Abelbeck has joined

Jessica Janssen was hired as vice president of development at Midland University in Fremont.

the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell as an interactive producer.

Brian Kujath, a financial planner with Professional Financial Advisors LLC in Lincoln, has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards to use the certified financial planner and CFP certification marks in accordance with CFP Board requirements.

Derrick Ceder was named the men’s golf coach for Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.

Dan Morris, a certified public accountant with accounting firm Frankel Zacharia LLC of Omaha, has been accredited in business valuation by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Jacki Jacox has joined the accounting and consulting firm of Seim Johnson in Omaha as a healthcare consulting manager.

Laura Parn, Foristell, Missouri, was hired as assistant principal for Jefferson Intermediate School in St. Charles. Brenden W. Rensink, an assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University in Orem, Utah, recently co-authored the “Historical Dictionary of the American Frontier,” which traces early Euro-American exploration and development of several North American frontiers and the roles of indigenous peoples in those processes. Andrea Tremayne has joined the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell, where she is the database marketing manager. Amber Wolff, director of marketing and digital strategy at the University of Nebraska College of Law, was selected president of the Lincoln American Marketing Association.

2007

Tim Linke has been appointed the interim fire chief of Lincoln Fire and Rescue by Mayor Chris Beutler.

Erin Healy is a consumer insights specialist at Lawrence & Schiller, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based advertising agency.

Zach Potter was promoted to Omaha area account executive for CCS Presentation Systems, a national audio video integration solutions company. ■ Dan Weins is a sales executive in the Lincoln office of Alliance Technologies, a fullservice information technology provider.

Jody Woodworth is the vice president of academic affairs for Nebraska Methodist College in Omaha. Peter Worth is a graphic designer with marketing communications agency Swanson Russell, and works in the Lincoln office.

2010

Melissa Dohmen is the senior public relations counsel in the Lincoln office of the marketing communications firm Swanson Russell. Noah Greenwald was named the vice president of the Lincoln office of the Nebraska-based insurance agency INSPRO. Katie Jo Huckins is a junior creative at the Omaha branding and design firm DAAKE.

Lance Bachman has joined Chief Construction of Grand Island as a project manager. Jared Hixson was hired by Chief Construction of Grand Island as assistant project superintendent. Cady Hubbard, Scottsbluff, has completed the doctor of optometry degree at the Arizona College of Optometry of Midwestern University in Phoenix. Andrew K. Joyce is an associate attorney in the Lincoln law firm of Morrow, Poppe, Watermeier & Lonowski PC. Kelci Kilthau was presented her doctorate degree in audiology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May and is currently employed with Professional Hearing Services in Williston, North Dakota. Jeff Mihulka, a member of the water resources team in the Omaha office of engineering and design company Olsson & Associates, has passed his professional engineering exam and has been promoted to associate engineer.

2012

Brooke Behrendt serves as a public relations associate in the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell. John Schulze is an assistant professor of English at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he teaches creative writing and literature.

2013

■ Paige Ahart has entered the doctorate of physical therapy program, class of 2018, at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.

BY ANTHONY FLOTT

Alumni Profile ’76

Busy Livin’

Monica Sucha Vickers Monica Sucha Vickers isn’t sure exactly what her mother, Agnes, was told upon her birth Sept. 8, 1954, in Salina, Kansas. But whatever hospital staff said to her … however it was said to her … the news was devastating. Either Agnes was told that her daughter had died … or soon would. She was sent home to grieve, childless. “It was a very different world then,” Vickers said. Vickers’ father, Alvin, knew the truth. Monica was born without legs and with just one arm. Each day, he went to the hospital to visit the newborn. Agnes saw him come and go and guessed at the truth. She went back to the hospital and saw her daughter. Staff told her Monica’s organs likely were jumbled and that she was deaf and blind. Agnes took a rattle to the hospital and shook it over her daughter’s head. My daughter can see, she told them. She can hear. She will live. Live she did, and in such inspiring fashion that the University of Nebraska graduate wrote “My Extraordinary Life,” a memoir recounting the challenges – and triumphs – living as a triple congenital amputee. All 194 pages were typed onehanded. “As I think about it now, as I fully grasp what I accomplished, it is both frightening and exhilarating,” Vickers wrote. “Frightening because I wonder how exactly did I do that, and exhilarating because, yes, it really happened.” It happened the way it did, Vickers said, because of Thalidomide, a drug initially administered as a sedative or hypnotic and later issued to alleviate morning sickness. It never was ap-

proved for use in the United States but was abroad. In Germany, where it was developed, up to 7,000 infants were born with malformation of the limbs soon after the drug was made available for sale in 1957. “How it got into the U.S., I don’t know,” Vickers said. And no one can say for sure that Agnes took Thalidomide. “She took one pill when she was pregnant with me at 3 months,” Vickers said. “She had a kidney infection. Everybody I talked to, all the doctors, are pretty sure it’s Thalidomide.” She can find only a few of the hospital records. “A lot of those records were destroyed when the lawsuits started,” she said. Agnes would have six more children — all born healthy and whole. Vickers eventually was fitted with artificial limbs. By the time she was in the sixth grade the family had moved to Syracuse, Nebraska. For the most part, they treated her no differently than any able-bodied child. “Their overriding theory was I was just to be like everybody else,” Vickers said. “If I ever asked for help the answer would be, ‘Try it first and if you need help, then we’ll help you.’ “It came to a point of, ‘Alright, then, I’m not going to ask.’” Vickers spent summers at her grandmother’s house in Leigh, Nebraska. While instructors taught her siblings to swim, Vickers’s grandmother taught her to sew. “Whatever I touched turned to gold for her,” Vickers said of her grandmother. “She was just thrilled out of her mind with anything I did. That was a positive environment.” At Syracuse High School, she learned to type one-handed. By the

Monica Sucha Vickers

time she graduated in 1972, she could type 110 words per minute – professional typists hit 50 to 80 words per minute. “It was something I could definitely do and I just loved it. I took all the typing classes a person could take in high school and all the typing classes a person could take in college – even 10-key stuff.” Attending Nebraska where her beloved Cornhuskers played football, she said, was “a foregone conclusion.” But it was in Lincoln when she first realized how challenging life could be. “I knew I was disabled and different from other people, but it didn’t affect anything,” she said. “The first time it really affected something was when I was in college.” She lived in centrally located Selleck Hall but had to schedule classes so she had enough time to get from one to another on crutches. “I still had to walk a long ways; still had to carry books. Those were very big challenges.” Many of her classes were on the top floor of Teachers College Hall (now Canfield Administration Building north). There was no elevator. She averaged two hours getting to and from classes in the building with “seemingly endless steps.” Watching the Huskers play was a blast, but Memorial Stadium’s long, steep ramps

Continued on Page 58 NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 57

CLASSNOTES Busy livin’ Continued from Page 57

required “intense stamina, balance, strength and courage.” Bad weather made it worse. Navigating snow could be a nightmare. And Vickers recalls emerging from one building when a gust of wind blew her artificial legs backward at the knee. “That was a scary moment.” She graduated in four years with a degree in business administration. Then, to cop a line from “Shawshank Redemption,” she got busy livin’. So busy, in fact, that she skipped her May 1976 commencement ceremony. That morning, Vickers and Pat Schoenfelder, her best friend and UNL roommate, stuffed everything Vickers owned into a U-Haul, hopped into her hand-controlled car and headed west, destination unknown. “Wherever it never snowed … I just couldn’t be house-bound for the winter months.” They wound up in Oceanside, California. Vickers recalled stopping at a Burger King. She could see the freeway with signs pointing one way to Los Angeles, the other to San Diego. “We thought we had arrived.” Within six weeks she had an apartment and a job as a medical transcriptionist for Scripps. Later, she would operate her own transcription business before finishing her career with industry giant M*Modal. She’s been married for 25 years. She met her husband, Mike, when he drove a group of amputees to a dance in Los Angeles. Both are retired and now live in Florence, Arizona.

58 FALL 2015

n Alexandria Cerveny of Lincoln is the national pageant director for the Miss Czech-Slovak U.S. Pageant.

Eventually, Vickers turned to an idea her grandmother had urged her to tackle – to write a book about her life. She started in 2011 with help from Schoenfelder, who would ask Vickers questions about her life and take notes. “We talked every Sunday,” Vickers said. “She was the one who could open you up with a lot of questions – things I wouldn’t even remember to think about. Sometimes she’d say … you need to go deeper.” When they were done, Schoenfelder handed over her notes and Vickers began writing. “My Extraordinary Life” was published in 2013 and is available on Amazon.com and through Vicker’s website, http://myextraordinaryamputeelife.com It has won more than a dozen awards, including the Reader’s Favorite Book Contest and the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. “At first I was surprised, even amazed, that my life story had captured such interest and elicited such great reviews from perfect strangers,” Vickers wrote. Vickers sees herself differently than do others. Sometimes she’ll go to Walmart and just wander its aisles, “finding things I can’t live without.” People often approach and ask if they can help her. “I know they have good intentions, and I can’t hardly be mad at that,” Vickers said. “But on the other hand, they’re going by what they see and that’s not always the case. What you see is not what it is.” That’s something her mother knew long ago.

■ Jack Christie has been promoted to designer in the Lincoln office of marketing/ communications firm Swanson Russell.

Tyler Spahn is an associate attorney in the office of Sattler & Bogen, LLP, a Lincoln-based law firm. ■ Dan Stous was promoted to investment officer in the Union Investment Management Group of Union Bank & Trust of Lincoln.

Allison Young made a presentation this summer at the McCook Community College concerning the history of the Indianola Prisoner of War Camp as part of the “History’s Mystery” tour. Young is the park archaeologist at Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southeast Missouri.

2014

Alex Adams is the founder and CEO of Rodeo Analytics, a Lincoln-based business that provides video technical analysis of rodeo events. ■ Kelsey Dawson has joined the Lincoln law firm Kinsey Row Becker & Kistler LLP. ■ Dennis Henry was the director for the Chicago production of the play “Monkeys,” in August. He lives in Elmwood Park, Illinois.

Patrick Jackman has been welcomed to the Lincoln-based healthcare technology company, Together+Clinic, where he is the director of user interface/ user experience. Liana Owad, coordinator of Innovation Studio at the Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln, had an exhibition of her sculpture, “Everything, All the Time” at the Lux Center for the Arts.

CLASSNOTES Quentin Orr is an interactive production artist in the Lincoln office of Swanson Russell, a marketing communications firm. Will Sailors is a credit analyst for the Nebraska Economic Development Corporation, examining Small Business Administration projects as well as existing portfolio credit reviews. Neale Stadler is in the Lincoln office of marketing communications firm Swanson Russell, where she is a project manager. Jackson Thomas of Kansas City, Missouri, is the director of KC VITAx Chamber Choir.

2015

Taylor Brooks of Lincoln was selected as one of four Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellows at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.

Brady Foreman of Gering has accepted a graduate assistantship as a resident community director with Michigan State University where he will pursue his Master of Student Affairs degree. Angel Iverson has become a part of the Homestead National Monument of America team in Beatrice, where she will focus on education and interpretation.

Craig Hollman, ’05, and Jennifer Black, March 14. The couple lives in Quincy, Illinois. Michael Reed Luckey, ’09 and Shyla Jessica Kemp, Oct. 18, 2014. The couple lives in Columbus. Brett Helgenberger and ■ Sheena Kennedy, ’10, May 30. The couple lives in Elkhorn. Michael Arens, ’11, and Jessica Dalton, ’10, May 21. The couple lives in Lincoln. ■

Liz Maloley has joined the Lincoln branding agency KidGlov as a project manager. Steve Severson was hired by Berggren Architects of Lincoln as an intern architect.

WEDDINGS

Jason Bromm and Jennifer Arbaugh, ’04, Dec. 31, 2014. The couple lives in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Omaha.

As an alumnus of The University of Nebraska, you could receive exclusive savings on home insurance from

Todd Vlieger and Melinda Rathman, ’11, April 15. The couple lives in Central City. Derek Hartman and Sarah Vaggalis, ’14, June 20. The couple lives in Lincoln.

BIRTHS

n Matthew, ’00, and Elaine Klaege Cranford, ’03, their fifth child, second daughter, Misha Isabelle, July 1. The family lives in Lincoln. n Andrew, ’01, and n Sara

McDevitt Clegg, ’01, their second child, second son, Samuel Patrick, June 10. The family lives in Indianapolis.

n Andrew, ’06, and n Brooke

Spath Clements, ’06, their first child, a son, Miles Roger, July 10. The family lives in La Vista.

n Steven, ’14, and n Jill Bartels

Cohen, ’05, their first child, a son, Rory Marc, July 5. The family lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Nick Sharon, ’15, and Megan Jenks, May 31. The couple lives in Montana.

Along with valuable savings, you’ll enjoy access to benefits like 24-Hour Claims Assistance.

Liberty Mutual.1

For a free quote, call 877-477-4342 or visit www.libertymutual.com/nebraska Client # 6713

This organization receives financial support for offering this home benefits program Discounts and savings are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. To the extent permitted by law, applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 59

CLASSNOTES DEATHS

Vera Schnieder Beebe, ’37, Minden, Iowa, May 16. Doris Buell Brownson, ’38, Owensboro, Kentucky, June 28. Richard K. Decker, ’38, Burr Ridge, Illinois, May 6. F. Genevieve Hoff Schmidt, ’38, Lincoln, Jan. 30. Ronald C. Douglas, ’39, Crete, June 7. Jerome J. Milder, ’39, Sarasota, Florida, July 27. Howard C. Johnson, ’40, Lenexa, Kansas, March 9. Bettye Eubank McCracken, ’40, Chesterfield, Missouri, March 13, 2014. Stanley H. Schonberger, ’40, Oakland, California, Jan. 6. George H. Splittgerber, ’40, Fort Collins, Colorado, July 18. Betty Baker McDermott, ’41, Kansas City, Missouri, June 12. Charles W. Haynes, ’41, Glendale, Arizona, May 1. Delore L. Kouba, ’41, Wilmington, Delaware, June 16. Eleanor Elliott Ganz, ’42, Lincoln, June 2. Ruth Walker Schmidt, ’42, Lincoln, July 25. James E. Tillma, ’42, Schenectady, New York, April 30. Harold R. Vifquain, ’42, Lincoln, June 24.

Raymond F. Jorgensen, ’44, Clinton, Iowa, Aug. 9.

Homer C. Johansen, ’49, Arvada, Colorado, April 19, 2014.

Richard M. Hock, ’51, Kearney, June 18.

Frances Webster Lawrence, ’44, Tucson, Arizona, Jan. 11.

George W. Lyberis, ’49, Lincoln, May 15, 2014.

Donald L. Hovendick, ’51, Osage Beach, Missouri, June 29.

George E. Thornburgh, ’44, Corvallis, Oregon, Aug. 5, 2014.

Beverly Jackson Mosher, ’49, Gretna, June 13.

Nolan T. Jones, ’51, Sacramento, California, July 14.

Elaine Christensen Appleby, ’45, Lincoln, June 2.

Joan Shaw Waterbury, ’49, Lincoln, July 3.

Lewis Klink, ’51, Orangevale, California, Aug. 18, 2014.

Anne Wodder Birdsall, ’45, Floyd, Iowa, May 6.

Eugene A. Deeter, ’50, Lincoln, June 26.

Ralph R. Koch, ’51, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Aug. 24, 2014.

Dorothy Gallup Mills, ’46, Osceola, April 19, 2014.

Dorothy Worden Hagge, ’50, Ogallala, April 28.

Harry Norval, ’51, Lincoln, Jan. 12.

Bernadine Bishop Taplin, ’46, Salem, Oregon, March 9.

Fred H. Hawkins, ’50, Omaha, July 24.

Jim N. Peters, ’51, De Witt, Dec. 8, 2014.

Bernard D. Urich, ’46, Lincoln, Oct. 9, 2014.

Carl A. Lohrenz, ’50, Asheville, North Carolina, Sept. 18, 2014.

Rodson L. Riggs, ’51, Los Angeles, March 10.

Dewayne E. Bourne, ’47, Stillwater, Oklahoma, Aug. 12, 2014. John A. Goodding, ’47, Saint Paul, Minnesota, May 18.

Mary Garrison Nutzman, ’50, Louisville, Aug. 2.

Paul S. Johrde, ’47, Bedford, New Hampshire, April 17.

Richard D. Saladen, ’50, Elkton, Oregon, Nov. 17, 2014.

Neil L. Munson, ’47, Lincoln, July 29.

Sheldon S. Seidel, ’50, Lincoln, June 12.

Patricia Raun Samuelson, ’47, Pender, May 11.

Max A. Sherwood, ’50, Carroll, Iowa, May 14, 2014.

Dwight C. Baier, ’48, Woodland, California, Feb. 10.

Marion J. Spidalieri, ’50, Port Orange, Florida, Feb. 25, 2014.

Lewis B. Berggren, ’48, Stromsburg, July 30. John F. Bergstrom, ’48, Dunnellon, Florida, May 10. Henry K. Kanazawa, ’48, Madison, Wisconsin, July 13. Paul T. Kuhlman, ’48, Minneapolis, July 27, 2014.

Gerald Weinstein, ’42, Thousand Oaks, California, March 31, 2014.

Robert C. McBroom, ’48, Waukesha, Wisconsin, Jan. 15.

Willis K. Harding, ’43, Lincoln, March 28.

Helen Sloan McClain, ’48, Woodstock, Illinois, May 16.

Virginia Van Patten Wahlstrom, ’43, Chadron, May 18.

Robert A. Wenke, ’48, Long Beach, California, Aug. 14.

Marvin S. Johnsen, ’44, Friendswood, Texas, July 3, 2014.

Raymond M. Hauser, ’49, Grand Island, Aug. 5.

60 FALL 2015

Lee T. Magee, ’50, Prairie Village, Kansas, April 20.

James O. Tokheim, ’50, Strawberry Point, Iowa, May 6. Monica Gnaster Waters, ’50, Des Moines, Iowa, July 12. George L. Alexander, ’51, Lincoln, June 25. Martin J. Burris, ’51, Bozeman, Montana, May 25. Soralee Sokolof Cohn, ’51, Phoenix, July 21. John W. Curnias, ’51, Wethersfield, Connecticut, June 23. Jean Anderson Eberhart, ’51, Phoenix, July 6. Harlan H. Harrington, ’51, Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 29.

Margaret Kuhl Schoonen, ’51, Butte, Montana, July 18. Muriel Softley Anderson, ’52, Minneapolis, March 17. Muriel James Beardslee, ’52, Lincoln, Dec. 21, 2014. Robert V. Craft, ’52, Pierce, May 24. John J. Fuller, ’52, Hilton Head, South Carolina, May 31. Gene A. Gessner, ’52, Fernandina Beach, Florida, Nov. 3, 2014. Russell H. Laird, ’52, Urbandale, Iowa, June 5. Dwaine W. Van Pelt, ’52, Archer, Aug. 8. Marcia Behling Warwick, ’52, Rockwall, Texas, April 24. William F. Wenke, ’52, Arlington, Virginia, May 28. Donald D. Dischner, ’54, Lincoln, June 11. Clinton B. Gass, ’54, Logan, Utah, July 27. Buford M. Grosscup, ’54, Lincoln, Aug. 2. Dwaine N. Hoffman, ’54, Keokuk, Iowa, July 17.

CLASSNOTES L. Palmer Johnson, ’56, Lincoln, Aug. 1.

Allen L. Beyer, ’58, Green Valley, Arizona, Feb. 26.

Dorothy L. Landon, ’61, Loup City, July 2.

Richard A. Moore, ’56, Mount Vernon, Iowa, June 30.

John D. Bunger, ’58, Camden, Maine, July 9.

Robert D. Luke, ’61, Coupland, Texas, June 28.

Warren J. Bell, ’55, Lawrence, Kansas, July 6.

Donald H. Bahm, ’57, Grandview, Missouri, Feb. 18, 2014.

Harry J. Rooney, ’58, Anoka, Minnesota, April 27.

Avre D. Papst, ’61, Fullerton, July 21.

Verlyn H. Clausen, ’55, Concord, California, May 14.

Dean R. Brittenham, ’57, Lyons, Colorado, June 25.

Sara Alexander Smith, ’58, Surprise, Arizona, May 18.

Phebe E. Randles, ’61, Albion, July 1.

Edna Reece Hazen, ’55, Custer, South Dakota, Jan. 14, 2014.

Allen D. Hartley, ’57, Lincoln, July 24.

Dallas H. Stoltenberg, ’59, Orland, California, May 17, 2014.

John A. Anderson, ’62, Bloomington, Minnesota, May 12, 2014.

Jane Spencer Koester, ’57, Sun City Center, Florida, June 23.

Stanley J. Widman, ’59, Omaha, July 9.

Carl C. Brenneman, ’62, Dallas, Oct. 26, 2014.

Donald L. Pohlman, ’57, Sun City West, Arizona, April 14.

Joseph H. Carter, ’60, Omaha, June 19.

Gary D. Jensen, ’62, Liberty, Missouri, Jan. 8, 2014.

Glenn C. Rosenquist, ’57, Chevy Chase, Maryland, May 23.

Romas A. Korsakas, ’60, Wixom, Michigan, June 9, 2014.

Charles O. Johnson, ’62, Selma, Texas, Oct. 8, 2014.

Stephen M. Sawtell, ’57, Omaha, July 6.

Judith Gardner Hoffman, ’61, Champaign, Illinois, July 15.

Helen Bishop Asche, ’58, Chandler, Arizona, Aug. 3.

William J. Koester, ’61, Fort Collins, Colorado, April 12.

Archie L. McPherran, ’54, Sacramento, California, Dec. 7, 2014. Duane C. Schulz, ’54, Lincoln, June 30.

William H. Hein, ’55, Scottsdale, Arizona, March 1. William F. Holloran, ’55, Omaha, May 29. Darrell D. Zimmer, ’55, Sulphur, Louisiana, Oct. 8, 2014. Ellsworth F. Benson, ’56, Stamford, Connecticut, Aug. 20, 2014.

John J. Kucera, ’62, Herriman, Utah, May 10. Theodore F. Marx, ’62, Vestal, New York, Jan. 8, 2014.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 61

CLASSNOTES Twyla Hemphill Roberts, ’62, Irvine, California, Feb. 27.

Robert M. Cothren, ’68, Tracy, California, May 10.

Rex J. Scott, ’72, Lincoln, Aug. 3.

Morton A. Stelling, ’78, Mukilteo, Washington, July 2.

Elaine Gibbs Usher, ’62, Lincoln, June 3.

Michael J. Flynn, ’68, Omaha, July 7.

Loyd L. Young, ’72, Lincoln, June 13.

Ruth A. Concannon, ’79, Omaha, May 28.

Jerry S. Cloyd, ’63, Lincoln, June 9.

Dwain G. Haines, ’68, Cameron Park, California, March 21, 2014.

Evelyn Buldhaupt Damrow, ’73, San Antonio, July 30.

Kenneth L. Sieckmeyer, ’79, Lincoln, July 30.

Jerry L. Hietbrink, ’73, San Antonio, June 1.

Paul A. Canaday, ’80, Columbus, July 8.

Andrew C. Rott, ’73, Spalding, May 25.

Steve A. Equall, ’80, Lincoln, July 10.

Frances Hindley Schlichting, ’73, Beatrice, June 25.

David M. Hadenfeldt, ’80, Denton, Aug. 11.

Norma Thompson Wood, ’73, Beatrice, July 7.

Kent E. Kitt, ’80, Wauneta, Sept. 25, 2014.

Charlynn D. Danielson, ’74, Lincoln, July 20.

Carl R. Tarlowski, ’80, Lincoln, Aug. 7.

M. Douglas Zoerb, ’74, Omaha, May 27.

Daryl W. Wacker, ’80, Potwin, Kansas, July 3.

Richard L. Deforge, ’75, Scottsbluff, July 25.

James A. Witkowski, ’81, Lincoln, July 9.

Aivars Keruzis, ’75, Plattsmouth, Nov. 2, 2014.

Daniel M. Linn, ’82, Hackensack, Minnesota, Aug. 3.

Thomas A. Lane, ’75, Platte City, Missouri, Sept. 28, 2014.

Michael L. McDonnell, ’82, Archie, Missouri, May 11.

Karen Edeal Kander, ’63, Stanton, Feb. 15. William N. Kenny, ’63, Cedar Falls, Iowa, Feb. 4. Lee R. Parks, ’63, Lambertville, New Jersey, June 16. Donald R. Grimm, ’64, Omaha, Oct. 8, 2014. Gerald C. Miller, ’64, Omaha, Feb. 21. Margaret Dreier Plock, ’64, Harvard, June 29. Kieth W. Skogman, ’64, Seguin, Texas, Feb. 12, 2014. Paul C. Larsen, ’65, Fremont, June 4. Harold N. Andresen, ’66, Bellevue, Washington, May 15, 2014. Gary M. Closner, ’66, Lincoln, March 2, 2014. Norman F. Kobza, ’66, Mesa, Arizona, March 3, 2014. Robert J. Murphy, ’66, Apollo Beach, Florida, Aug. 1. Arthur C. Nicolai, ’66, Lincoln, June 9. Monty L. Allgood, ’67, Omaha, Dec. 21, 2014. Betty Douglass Newhouse, ’67, Lincoln, June 1. Velma McNitt Paxson, ’67, Lincoln, Aug. 9. Robert R. Rogge, ’67, Lincoln, Aug. 2. Madeline Schmieding Ahlschwede, ’68, Lincoln, July 13.

62 FALL 2015

George M. Herron, ’68, Hugo, Oklahoma, Jan. 4. Clayton D. Hoke, ’68, Ewing, May 17. Arliena Collins Olmsted, ’68, Selah, Washington, May 20. Darrell R. Shepard, ’68, Columbus, Ohio, July 26. Claude M. Bolton, ’69, Chantilly, Virginia, July 28. Gary B. Heinicke, ’69, Lincoln, July 13. Bernard J. McGinn, ’69, Lincoln, Aug. 5. Joseph A. Ponseigo, ’69, Omaha, July 14. Robert A. Rhodus, ’69, Loma Linda, California, Sept. 4, 2014. Raymond J. Rundus, ’69, Hope Mills, North Carolina, April 16, 2014. Roy L. Abbott, ’70, Brainerd, Minnesota, June 16, 2014. Michael P. Cartwright, ’70, Lincoln, May 22. Robert A. Auerbach, ’71, Urbandale, Iowa, July 2. Anita Mueller Hansen, ’71, Grand Island, July 4. Dudley C. Oltmans, ’71, North Platte, June 29. Dale C. Seebach, ’71, Bettendorf, Iowa, Aug. 1. Michael S. Smith, ’71, Wilsonville, July 6. Dale J. Beals, ’72, Cambridge, May 5.

Gale D. Muller, ’75, Lincoln, June 10. Lee R. Pohlenz, ’75, Lincoln, July 10. Douglas A. Samuelson, ’75, Lincoln, June 3. Theodore J. Tingelhoff, ’75, Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, March 28, 2014. William P. Beatty, ’77, Avon, Colorado, June 4. Janet L. Rice, ’77, Crete, July 13. Clifford E. Chase, ’78, Seattle, Feb. 17, 2014. Nancy Facinelli Russell, ’78, Buffalo, New York, May 6. Jeffrey A. Schmahl, ’78, West New York, New Jersey, July 14.

Vincent M. Okwumuo, ’82, Lincoln, July 13. Joseph W. Stoll, ’82, Fremont, May 22. R. Ann Lacasse Trinkle, ’82, Bellevue, July 1. Michael R. Bird, ’83, Millis, Massachusetts, July 16, 2014. James L. Dimon, ’84, Axtell, July 4. Mary Kay Pechar Kreikemeier, ’85, Lincoln, July 25. Joseph H. Stewart, ’85, Westminster, Colorado, June 8. David L. Hoffman, ’86, Lincoln, May 2. Jane Rausch Sandoz, ’87, Omaha, May 28.

CLASSNOTES Curtis R. Liesveld, ’88, Lincoln, May 16.

Noel D. Kassebaum, ’99, Hebron, April 18, 2014.

Gretchen Smith McCarthy, ’88, Bella Vista, Arkansas, July 4.

Thomas A. Kusek, ’99, Lincoln, July 5.

Barbara Wright Rippey, ’89, Omaha, July 28.

Todd M. Schlueter, ’00, Lincoln, May 17.

Richard L. Roll, ’91, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, July 29.

Benjamin J. Nelson, ’01, Chardon, Ohio, Aug. 2.

Elaine M. Davis, ’92, Saint Cloud, Minnesota, July 31.

Travis M. Knott, ’05, Kansas City, Missouri, June 5.

Darin J. Gress, ’94, Hebron, May 15.

Dustin R. Lukasiewicz, ’07, Fallbrook, California, May 18.

Therese M. Rosse, ’94, Omaha, July 6.

Crystal Vinderslev Major, ’08, Kearney, June 4.

Jennifer Rauert Willman, ’95, Mesa, Arizona, June 4.

Adam C. Potthoff, ’10, Lincoln, June 29.

Dina Townsend Luthans, ’97, Kearney, June 26.

Vithanha Xayarath, ’97, Grand Island, June 25.

R U O Y ENJOY A K S A R NEB ASSOCIATION

2016

FACULTY DEATHS

Edward N. Wilson, professor emeritus of engineering, Richardson, Texas, July 6.

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CLASS NOTEPAD Tell us what’s happening! Send news about yourself or fellow Nebraska alumni to: Mail:

Class Notes Editor, Nebraska Magazine, Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-1651

E-mail: kwright@huskeralum.org Online: huskeralum.org All notes received will be considered for publication according to the following schedule: Spring Issue: January 15

Summer Issue: April 15

Fall Issue:

Winter Issue:

July 15

October 15

Items submitted after these dates will be published in later issues.

NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 63

N E B R A S K A

A lu m n i A s s o c i at i o n

Wick Alumni Center 1520 R Street Lincoln, NE 68508-1651

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

Give your favorite accomplished alum, student or retired faculty member a chance to bask in the limelight. Nominate them for a Nebraska Alumni Association Award.

But don’t dawdle. Nominations for the 2016 Awards Program are due Nov. 1, 2015. We’re looking for nominees for:

• Alumni Achievement Award • Distinguished Service Award • Doc Elliott Award • Family Tree Award • Outstanding International Alumnus Award • Howard and Judy Vann Student Leadership Award/Scholarship • Shane Osborn Student Leadership Award/Scholarship

For more details on each award and an online nomination form (or a downloadable form) visit: huskeralum.org/alumni-awards