Ohio Today fall 2021 by OHIO Today magazine

FALL 2021

OHIO welcomes its 22nd President

Alumnus making history—from sea to space

PRE SI DEN T ’ S M E S S AG E

Together again. Together as One OHIO. Dear OHIO Alumni,

space. He is also poised to become the first ever to accomplish these incredible feats in just one year— and to have also summited our legendary Jeff Hill!

Fall at Ohio University is always special. At OHIO, there is something reinvigorating about welcoming our students back to campus and seeing new Bobcats embark on their college experiences. It is especially meaningful this fall as we return to a more normal school year, filled once again with a wide range of activities on our scenic campuses. You can see the impact of Ohio University every day— on our campuses, in the communities we serve and in the places worldwide that our alumni call home. In this issue of Ohio Today, we celebrate several of our alumni achievements and spotlight alumnus Larry Connor. This amazing OHIO graduate is preparing to make history as only the third person to explore the deepest trenches of the ocean and travel into

Ohio University has always been focused on the student experience, and one way we are strengthening that experience is by investing in state-of-the-art facilities. A new Chemistry Building is supporting student and faculty success and serving as a center for groundbreaking research. Read about this latest addition to the Athens Campus and visit ohiotoday.org to step inside the building’s labs and see the instruments that are making cutting-edge research possible. This year, Ohio University will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its Chillicothe and Zanesville campuses and the 65th anniversary of its Eastern, Lancaster and Southern campuses. We are incredibly proud of the countless ways they serve their students and their

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Bobcat Beacons of Excellence FROM PRESIDENT HUGH SHERMAN

[OPPOSITE PAGE] June saw OHIO’s Class of 2025 on campus for the first in-person Bobcat Student Orientation since 2019. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02 [ABOVE] Students get into the OHIO Giving Day 2021 spirit, donating more than 777 pounds of food to the Cats’ Cupboard food pantry—and getting a little Bobcat spirit, a Forever OHIO T-shirt, in exchange. Photo by Laura Bilson, BSVC ’23

communities. We are also excited to share with you our One OHIO strategic initiative and the new ways we are operating, innovating and partnering to the benefit of students, communities, industries and our state. There is strength in what we can do together, as is illustrated throughout this publication—from One OHIO and the new student-led Vibrancy Theater to the role alumni are playing in helping to recruit future Bobcats and through generous supporters like the Menard Family who invest in our success. It is an exciting time at Ohio University, and I am thrilled that we are together as one Bobcat community, moving into the fall and a new academic year. Thank you and Go Bobcats!

Sincerely,

Hugh Sherman President @OHIO_President

OHIO Giving Day 2021 was a tremendous—and record-breaking—success! Alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff and friends around the world joined together in their love and support for Ohio University, generously giving $479,639 through more than 2,300 gifts to scholarships, programs and initiatives that are moving OHIO forever forward. Six Ohio University students, five alumni and a professor have been selected as recipients for the Fulbright Program, through which they will work to promote international, educational and cultural exchange in host countries across North and South America, Europe and Africa. Dr. Srdjan Nesic, Russ Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, has been named Ohio University’s 2021 Distinguished Professor. An expert in corrosion and fluid mechanics, Dr. Nesic is director of OHIO’s internationally-renowned Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, one of the largest corrosion research facilities in the world. Honors Tutorial College senior Morgan Spehar has been selected as a Udall Scholar for the 2021-22 academic year, highlighting her work in environmental journalism. She is the only student in the state of Ohio to receive this prestigious award this year. OHIO and Kettering Health, a nonprofit network of hospitals and outpatient facilities in Southwest Ohio, have entered into a research collaboration agreement that will help to encourage and streamline medical research projects.

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features 08

In their element

From sea to space

OHIO students and faculty are building chemistry in a new Chemistry Building

1972 graduate Larry Connor is boldly going where no Bobcat has gone before

Called back into service

OHIO Unified

Retired College of Business Dean Hugh Sherman takes the helm as OHIO’s 22nd President

One OHIO initiative is strengthening campus, communities in purpose and partnership

In word and deed

Stage set

Alumni volunteers lend their voices and a personal touch to help recruit future Bobcats

BIPOC student-led campus theater takes root—and prepares for its first production

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Class notes, Bobcat sightings, Future Bobcats, Alumni authors

Green scenes

Bobcat tracks

OHIO making headlines

In memoriam

Celebrating OHIO’s legacy in space

Infographic

The new Chemistry Building (page 8) connects to Clippinger Laboratories, expanding on a center of campus scientific activity constructed in the 1960s.

Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

Last word

OHIO Giving

Ohio University Press

Visit ohiotoday.org for multimedia stories that complement the stories inside this issue.

Table of contents

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L E T T E R S TO T H E E D I TO R

A new era for The Ridges I grew up in Athens. As a child, the “mental hospital,” as it was referred to, was an ominous place that we were supposed to stay away from. Yes, the landscape and ponds were beautiful. So many of us enjoyed ice-skating on the ponds in the winter. That is a very pleasant memory for me. We all wondered what lurked inside the buildings. As a senior at OU, I had the opportunity to work at the State Hospital for a short time. The architecture was very impressive. I am so glad that the University acquired this magnificent, historic property and has kept its beauty in place. —Patricia Crehore, BSHEC ’67, via ohiotoday.org

This is great news to see The Ridges being repurposed. I have always loved taking people here—significant others, friends and family alike— when I bring people back to Athens. There is something for everyone, and its history definitely lends an air of mystique to it, even though the buildings and surroundings are beautiful on their own. Or if you just want to scare your friends taking them up to Radar Hill at dusk! It’s crazy to think that all of us students lived and played so close to the historic and yet somewhat mysterious and elusive grounds— and that they are still undergoing transformation to this day. —Kelly Phillips, BFA ’12, via ohiotoday.org

I graduated in ’93 and used to hike around the buildings and up to Radar Hill when the stress of things got to be too much. I fell in love with the beautiful architecture and the quiet isolation found at

This summer saw The Ridges host the Athena Cinema’s Science on Screen events, pairing expert-led discussions, featuring OHIO faculty, with film screenings. In addition, trailhead and educational signs— designed by students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members—were installed throughout The Ridges’ trail system as part of the OHIO Museum Complex’s Outdoor Museum. Photo courtesy of Athens County CVB

the time. So glad to hear that the grounds are being put to such good use. —Stephanie (Moir) Bair, AB ’93, via ohiotoday.org

50 years of ACRN I am one of many who would not be where I am today without the ACRN experience, even though I have not been in broadcasting for over 20 years now. I, too, started out on a 2-7 a.m. shift in the winter of 1978 and later rose to become program director from spring 1979 to spring 1981. We had some of the greatest experiences, some of the most fun times, and a tremendous group of students with a passion for great radio, and for making ACRN great.

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It is great to know that the Rock Lobsters have adapted as the media landscape has changed. And we thought we were trailblazers “broadcasting” on cable in the ’70s/’80s! —Brian Illes, BSC ’81, via ohiotoday.org

Landing the first real job out of college takes persistence and patience, especially during a recession. In my case, potential employers wanted to see what I accomplished, not just what classes I took. The ACRN Promotions Department offered that opportunity. Project-based learning is key to a well-rounded education, especially when the emphasis is on creativity.

I will always be grateful to ACRN for the fun and freedom to experiment with new ideas. I left Athens with a diploma and a portfolio of my promotions work at the station. It helped start my career at an ad agency in Southern California. Looking back, it was never a dull moment, and it all started at ACRN. —Melissa Field, BSJ ’82, via ohiotoday.org

Grounds for change I thoroughly enjoyed the news about campus upgrades in the spring issue. On the moral of public education, the reformer Horace Mann said it “must bring the practice as nearly as possible to the theory.” In that spirit, the nonpartisan Campaign for Bobcat Voices launched in 2010 to grow

democratic values at OHIO—“social upgrades” with tact. We prioritized student trustee suffrage, a Student Employee Commission, and open Budget Planning Council meetings; advocated against toxic overspending on forcible sports so that more can be said of the classical athlete (which collaboratively resulted in the indoor track at Walter Fieldhouse); and strove to de-monetize college life. The campaign now strategizes OHIO’s national undertakings, like our liberal arts, the search for our first woman president, and our graduation from the MAC into a commensurate national league. Having attended an expensive Ivy League grad school, I’m sick of the misleading sobriquet

“Public Ivy.” The Ohio University is a compeer of the Civic Sages, the ancient representatives of citizenship and virtue in their respective MidAtlantic states, including Penn, UNC, UVA, and the military colleges known as Army and Navy. Together, the Civic Sages can shine as gems of NCAA Division I athletic and academic excellence! I hope all Bobcats keep integrating our collective profile with brave changes that augment OHIO’s vibrant civic heritage! —Christopher Myers, BA ’12 WRITE TO US. Ohio Today welcomes comments from readers. We reserve the right to edit for grammar, space, clarity and civility. Send letters by email to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or by mail to Ohio University, Ohio Today, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701-0869 or join the conversation at ohiotoday.org. We regret that we cannot publish all messages received in print or online.

What’s new at OHIO U. 1 THE RROC IS ROLLING Work on the Russ Research Opportunity Center (RROC) began this summer, transforming the West Union Street Office Center into a 21st-century research and development facility for the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. Renovations are slated for completion in fall 2022.

IN-STATE FOR THE MOUNTAIN STATE

A COOLER CAMPUS

Starting this fall, most residents of West Virginia qualify for in-state tuition for undergraduate courses taken on all of Ohio University’s campuses through a new reciprocity agreement designed to help meet the region’s workforce needs and expand access to an affordable OHIO education.

What’s new

A new chilled water plant (and electrical substation) near South Green is providing consistent, reliable air conditioning service, bringing Morton Hall and Alden Library onto the campus’ cooling system with capacity for more buildings in the future. A wall of windows makes the plant’s inner workings visible for interested students and staff.

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Paying tribute to President Ping “Our greatest need is to recapture the sense of what we are about—a sense of common purpose which gives value and meaning to our work as we commit ourselves to our tasks and the future of the University.” Guided by those words, delivered in his first address to faculty and staff in 1975, Dr. Charles J. Ping led OHIO out of a period of declining enrollment and fiscal crisis and into an era of growth, financial stability and excellence. As Ohio University’s 18th President, he invested 19 years into inspiring, empowering and galvanizing the OHIO community around its educational mission—collaborative efforts that positioned the University among the nation’s best and poised for its third century. Under his leadership, general education requirements were restored, Ohio’s only osteopathic college and what is now the College of Health Sciences and Professions were opened, and a renewed focus on research brought the University a ranking from the Carnegie Institute as one of the nation’s top research universities. Ping co-founded the Cutler Scholars Program, and new international programs in Africa, Southeast Asia and Japan expanded the institution’s global presence and attracted scholars worldwide to OHIO. With a visionary approach and gentlemanly demeanor, Ping steered OHIO to its then-highest enrollment, and a 20 percent increase in student retention, and presided over the awarding of degrees to more than 72,000 graduates. He spearheaded capital campaigns generating more than $150 million, and the Ping era saw the construction of a new Aquatic Center and the groundbreaking on the new Charles J. Ping Student Recreation Center. President Emeritus Ping passed away on July 27, 2021, in Athens—just a few miles from the University that he helped to shape into the life-changing institution it is today, that he continued to serve long after his presidency and where his impact will be felt for generations to come. Ohio Today’s “Time Machine” feature at ohiotoday.org is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Charles J. Ping Student Recreation Center—just one of Dr. Ping’s countless legacies at Ohio University. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

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IN THEIR ELEMENT For Dr. Rebecca Barlag, BS ’98, the OHIO experience has meant the narrow halls and dimly lit basement rooms of Clippinger Laboratories. First as a student and now as a professor of instruction, she’s begun almost every school year in Clippinger 194. But spring semester brought a new tradition—in a new home. In late 2020, the University wrapped up construction on a 34,000-square-foot Chemistry Building, converting a parking lot near Clippinger and Emeriti Park into a center for groundbreaking learning and research for future generations of scientists and scholars. Standing three stories tall, the building’s first floor features undergraduate instructional labs for organic and analytical chemistry surrounded by student collaboration space. Its upper two floors house open-concept research labs—synthetic labs on the second floor and instrumentation-based labs on the third—as well as faculty and graduate student offices.

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Students conduct experiments in the Chemistry Building’s Organic Chemistry Teaching Lab, which is equipped with 16 fume hoods, compared to only six in similar space in Clippinger Laboratories. Photos by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

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The first floor of the Chemistry Building is lined with study spaces—and windows, providing scenic campus views and putting science on display. Photo by Rich-

Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

This new epicenter for cutting-edge research will give students hands-on experience with the latest technologies, says Dr. Stephen Bergmeier, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

“The labs were too crowded in Clippinger,” she says. “We desperately needed this space to accommodate and better serve our students.”

“A lot of new techniques have come out since Clippinger was built and dedicated in 1965,” he says, also noting the more advanced research projects faculty and students have taken on over the years. “The instruments tend to be more specific, so you need more of them.” At the same time, enrollment in OHIO’s chemistry programs has exploded. Barlag, director of the Forensic Chemistry program, recalls having 35 students in her lab during her first year teaching in 2004. In 2020, she had almost 100 students.

The building was designed with this growth in mind—and with the goal of investing in innovative research and bringing it to the forefront of campus. The wall of windows on the building’s north side drenches labs and offices in sunlight while putting science on display. And various configurations of open, communal spaces allow for interaction, collaboration and study. “The non-cramped nature of the building allows students that space to do their studying outside the lab, and that’s something I just love to see because it was impossible in Clippinger,” Bergmeier says.

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Students lift fingerprints during a Criminalistics and Criminal Investigation for Forensic Chemists course taught by Associate Professor of Instruction Sonja Rawn, BS ’81. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

One new space in particular had Adam Hering, BS, BA ’22, eagerly anticipating his senior-year research activities. Greeting visitors as they enter the building’s lobby, the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) lab’s floorto-ceiling windows bring chemical instrumentation, teaching and research out into the open. “The lab is busy all the time,” says Hering, who spends about 10 hours a week in the NMR lab researching how smaller molecules interact with larger ones. “You get to see people working in there and see the instruments actually being used.” Among the instrumentation housed in the NMR lab is a mass spectrometer funded by a 2020 National Science Foundation grant awarded to a group of researchers led by Bergmeier. Faculty will use the mass spectrometer to identify and characterize molecules, but that instrument and others throughout the building will also support research across the University. “That would’ve been incredible” to see on a campus tour, Hering says of the NMR lab. “Let’s just say that I was born four years later, starting my freshman year right now. I would absolutely love what I’m looking at.” Faculty and select students got their first taste of OHIO’s newest research facility earlier this year. Graduate students spent winter break 2020 packing up instrumentation and transferring it from Clippinger to the new building, allowing a limited number of in-person labs during spring semester in line with COVID-19 restrictions.

For all the excitement, the transition is a little bittersweet for those who, like Barlag, spent untold hours in Clippinger. “I enjoyed teaching in the room where I learned,” says Barlag. “It’s funny to say to students, ‘When I was your age, I dropped my beaker at this very lab bench and had to redo the whole experiment.’” But Clippinger, which now connects to the Chemistry Building via a covered walkway, isn’t going anywhere. Renovation of the building’s east wing began this spring, kicking off the next phase of the Clippinger Renovation Project, which started with constructing the new Chemistry Building. When a more modern Clippinger fully reopens in spring 2024, it will continue to house the physics, astronomy, geography and geological sciences departments, and certain chemistry classes could benefit from the updated space as well. Barlag envisions her old Clippinger basement stomping grounds as the perfect spot for her crime scene mockups, which she previously had to repeatedly set up and dismantle in her laboratory classroom. In the meantime, students and faculty are beginning to make new memories and advancing science in the new building. Already, it feels like an integral part of the Athens Campus, Barlag says. “It looks like Clippinger,” she says. “It looks like it belongs.” —Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18

Visit ohiotoday.org for a 360-degree look inside Ohio University’s new Chemistry Building.

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Laying a new foundation for an OHIO education GEN ED SHIFTS FROM ‘TIERS’ TO ‘BRICKS’

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What was your Tier III class? Perhaps you took Gandhi and King, Sustainable Agriculture, or Stories and the Pursuit of Meaning. Tier III, the culmination of Ohio University’s threetiered general education system, was also known as “synthesis.” The fun, interesting and creative nature of the courses was something of an intellectual reward for all of your hard work leading up to it. Today, the tier courses that nearly all OHIO undergraduates have experienced for the past forty years have been reshaped into BRICKS—an acronym defining the learning outcomes of a reimagined general education program and, by no coincidence, a word that speaks to Ohio University’s visual identity. The first major change to general education curriculum since 1979, OHIO BRICKS debuted this fall, updating the University’s liberal arts education to meet the demands of the 21st-century world. In an era when content knowledge and technological developments advance so quickly, an adaptive and learning mindset is critical to employers. “[The National Association of Colleges and Employers] publishes the Job Outlook survey each year, which

surveys employers. Consistently, problem-solving/ critical thinking skills are the number one attribute employers seek on a candidate’s resume regardless of major. Broad attributes like problem-solving, teamwork, analytical/quantitative, and communication skills always rank higher than discipline knowledge,” says Dr. Katie Hartman, BBA ’97, MBA ’98, associate provost for faculty development, professor of marketing and former chair of the University Curriculum Council’s General Education Committee, which oversaw the gen ed overhaul. To that end, OHIO BRICKS builds on the tier curriculum—breadth of knowledge, written communication, quantitative skills and synthesis— by adding other explicit learning outcomes. These include critical thinking, intercultural knowledge and competence, teamwork, ethical reasoning, oral communication and integrative learning. Students may achieve learning outcomes in the form of an entire course on one of these competencies—say, oral communication by way of a public speaking course. Or it might come through infusion into the current curriculum, such as a business course with presentations. With the new focus on learning outcomes in addition to discipline knowledge, OHIO faculty have been implementing “backward design,” using the educational goals spelled out in BRICKS to develop their courses and instructional techniques. Through faculty learning communities, workshops and grants, faculty have been preparing for the gen ed shift for nearly two years, mapping plans not only to teach to learning outcomes, but also to evaluate their effectiveness. And what about those memorable Tier III courses? They’re not going away. What was Tier III has been transformed into Capstones, so students can still take Brewing Science or War and Peace Studies.

[OPPOSITE PAGE] Students enrolled in the Sustainable Agriculture course, which helped meet general education requirements under the tier system, gain experience in growing an organic garden. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02 [ABOVE] Students are seen in a History of Medieval People class in this photo from a 1981 Spectrum Green yearbook article about OHIO’s new general education requirements. Photo courtesy of Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

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“The new capstones include critical thinking and integrative learning, which involves connections between disciplines and experience, reflection and self-assessment … which provides deeper learning opportunities for all OHIO students,” says Hartman. —Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93

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Called back into service Retired Dean Hugh Sherman takes the helm as OHIO’s 22nd President

It was 26 years ago this summer that Dr. Hugh Sherman had that quintessential moment that has defined the Ohio University experience for more than 200 years. “I had the same experience that so many other people have had. When I drove into Athens to visit for the first time, I was so impressed. It’s just the ideal university community,” Sherman says. “I immediately felt comfortable and at home.” Since June 14, Sherman has been settling into a new home at OHIO, taking up residence in Cutler Hall as Ohio University’s 22nd President. In May, Ohio University’s 21st President, Dr. M. Duane Nellis, announced that he would be transitioning back into a teaching role. The Board of Trustees identified the need for an experienced leader who could provide continuity while positioning the University for success during this time of transition. They turned to Sherman. “Hugh Sherman is the perfect choice to lead Ohio University for the next two years,” Board of Trustees Chair Cary Cooper explains. “He is widely respected for his knowledge and experience, and we are confident that he will be an inspiring and strategic leader at this critical time in the University’s history.”

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On June 14, Dr. Hugh Sherman took office as Ohio University’s 22nd President, continuing his 26 years of service to the institution. Photo by Ty Wright, BFA ’02, MA ’13

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Sherman launched his professional career with Swatch Watch (formerly SMH Corporation), a large Swiss watch and electronics manufacturer, in 1974. He served as vice president of marketing until 1986 and, during that time, was responsible for developing and implementing marketing strategies for a $50 million division as well as assisting the North American group president in developing strategic marketing and operational plans in the United States. During his time in the private sector, he also served as a consultant and founded International Footwear, operating eight factory outlet shoe stores throughout the U.S. East Coast. Following a 22-year career in the business world, Sherman moved into academia, joining the Ohio University community in 1995.

“Throughout my academic career at Ohio University, my focus has always been—and continues to be— student success,” Sherman says. “I care deeply about this institution and the communities we serve.” From 2007-2021, Sherman served as dean of Ohio University’s College of Business and as the Corlett Chair of Strategy and Senior Economic Policy Fellow in the Voinovich School for Leadership and Public Service. During his tenure as dean, enrollment more than doubled and the college was consistently ranked as one of the top 50 public undergraduate business colleges in the nation. Individual graduate and undergraduate programs in the college also received national recognition for excellence.

[ABOVE] President Sherman, seen here speaking to students in the 2017 Junior Executive Business Program, has made student success a top priority of his administration, initiating plans to extend a student advising and support system he spearheaded as dean of OHIO’s College of Business throughout the University. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02 [OPPOSITE PAGE] President Sherman welcomes members of the Class of 2025 to the OHIO community during the President’s First Year Convocation held Aug. 22 at Peden Stadium. Photo by Rich Joseph-Facun, BSVC ’01

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PRESIDENT SHERMAN’S TOP FIVE PRIORITIES Academic quality | Recruit and retain a diverse and talented faculty and staff that is committed to our mission of providing all students with an outstanding studentcentered learning experience. We must also provide support to faculty to be engaged in scholarship and creative activities.

In January 2021, Sherman retired as dean with the intention to return to the classroom. While he had had other plans for his retirement, Sherman says it’s an honor to be asked to serve as president. “I take this charge very seriously,” Sherman says. “I am fully committed to partnering with students, faculty, staff and community members to move Ohio University forward in a way that honors our 217-year history but also positions us for future success.” As Ohio University’s 22nd President, Sherman has five main priorities (see sidebar) he will be focused on over the next two years. “My initial focus over the summer months has been on the student experience, which includes in the classroom and opportunities outside of the classes. It is essential that we offer unique learning experiences, which includes opportunities to apply that knowledge in research, internship and leadership development experiences,” Sherman says. “Also this summer, I have been very focused on our enrollment efforts for the fall of 2022.” Over the next two years, he is committed to putting the University in the best possible position for the next president, and then assisting that individual in any way possible. OHIO’s Board of Trustees intends to launch a search for the University’s 23rd President in early fall 2022 with plans for an appointment to begin no later than July 1, 2023. —Nick Claussen, BSJ ’92

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Student success and experience | Ohio University must offer a distinctive and distinctly valuable student learning experience that ensures that the investment students and their families make delivers on our promise. It is essential that we eliminate equity gaps so that all students have the same success outcomes. We achieve this by providing one of the best integrated student learning experiences in the country—a learning experience that takes place inside and outside the classroom. Enrollment | The enrollment strategy will continue to respond to demographic changes and increased competition. We must showcase why Ohio University is so special, and it is crucial that we recruit and serve more adult learners. Financial sustainability | We will continue to adjust our base budget as a response to demographic changes, state funding, rising costs of operations and the need to maintain affordability and access. We also need to generate more investment dollars that can be focused on student recruitment and retention, the development of new academic programs and continuing to improve the overall student experience. Vibrant communities | As a public university with a proud history of service, Ohio University is called to be an excellent partner for the communities in our region. We must ensure that our collaborations are mutually beneficial and that we take the time to learn from our community partners.

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Prospective students and their loved ones enter OHIO’s historic College Green during a campus tour this summer. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

In word and deed Alumni volunteers lending their voices and a personal touch to help recruit the students following in their footsteps Less than ten minutes into move-in day and Tyler White, BSS ’15, MED ’20, was sold. He had found a home and—little did he know then—a calling at Ohio University. After nearly three years recruiting first-year students as an admissions advisor, White’s workdays are now spent enlisting his fellow OHIO graduates to help find the next generation of Bobcats.

“I’ve always been really passionate about education and what Ohio University—and the amazing connections and opportunities that come with being a Bobcat—can do for people,” says White, assistant director of outreach and alumni engagement at the Ohio University Alumni Association. According to White, alumni are one of the top influencers in a prospective student’s college decision.

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“It’s an extremely competitive world out there in college admissions, and those alumni voices are powerful, especially when you’re preparing to make one of the biggest decisions of your life,” White says. “When prospective students see an OHIO graduate volunteering their time to talk about the University, that carries extra weight. Who better to share that OHIO experience than those who lived it?”

students—both those who have confirmed their intention to enroll and those still on the fence—into the OHIO community. Those welcoming efforts include the long-standing Postcard Project and the new Phone Call Project, providing alumni two modes of congratulating, encouraging and engaging the students who will one day join them as OHIO graduates.

Alumni have been involved in student recruitment for years, but a deeper partnership between the Alumni Association and the Offices of Enrollment Management and Undergraduate Admissions has seen those efforts grow in recent years.

Dr. Jordan Romick, BS ’14, DO ’18, signed up for the Postcard Project for the first time last spring, penning messages to eight admitted students immersed in the same life moment he was ten years ago.

Undergraduate Admissions’ Rufus Road Trips bring admitted first-year students together in cities like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh to connect with one another and alumni and prepare for the start of their Ohio University experience. Affiliates of the Ebony Bobcat Network (EBN) host EBN Connects, events where alumni, faculty, staff, students and parents engage admitted Bobcats and their families in conversations aimed at setting these future students up for success. And this fall marks the beginning of a new Bobcat Buddies program, pairing about 80 spring 2021 graduates with incoming first-year students and bringing OHIO alumni into their social and support networks. The heart of OHIO’s alumni-admissions partnership lies in the Volunteer Alumni Admissions Network (VAAN) and the hundreds of graduates who are giving their time to connect with prospective students. VAAN members refer prospective students to the University, attend college fairs in their area and engage in online chats and admissions events. In the months leading up to National College Decision Day, typically May 1, VAAN members and other alumni volunteers rally to welcome admitted first-year

“That transition from high school to college is tough. Everyone is excited but also nervous,” he says. “I felt a need to give back to the University. … The Postcard Project seemed like a good way to reach out to these students, to send them an encouraging message and to reassure them that coming to OU is going to be a life-changing experience.” A physician at Northern California’s David Grant USAF Medical Center, Romick says participating in the Postcard Project allowed him to reflect on his time at Ohio University and how it led to where he is today. “It brings back a lot of old memories—plus, it made me want to reach out to folks that I went to school with and plan my next visit to Athens,” he says. “I got to relive that experience of going back to school and starting a new year in Athens. It’s a great feeling to relive that time. Whatever I can get, I’ll take!” —Kaitlyn Pacheco, BSJ ’17

Alumni activities for student recruitment occur throughout the academic year. Visit ohio.edu/vaan for information and to sign up as a volunteer.

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OHIO making headlines Bobcats make the news—and the OHIO community proud—every day. Read about a few of the Ohio University alumni, students, faculty and staff who have made headlines in recent months.

Photos courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

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The GOAT of MLB draft picks In June 1971, Mike Schmidt, BBA ’72, who helped lead OHIO to the 1970 College Baseball World Series, was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. Fifty years later, The New York Times published “The Greatest Draft Pick Ever,” furthering the legacy of the Baseball Hall of Famer by distinguishing him as the baseball player who did the most for the team that drafted him. From Tiffin Hall to the Shark Tank Kevin Consolo, BBA ’07, and Chris Pavlica, who majored in telecommunications at OHIO, appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank last May, pitching an investment in their SneakERASERS instant sneaker cleaner. The pair scored a deal with Sharks Lori Greiner and Alex Rodriguez and fulfilled an entrepreneurial dream that started blooming as first-year students in Tiffin Hall.

A new chapter for a famed novelist, former faculty member OHIO students from 1965-1978 had the honor of learning from Walter Tevis, a novelist whose books The Hustler, The Man Who Fell from Earth, and The Color of Money were adapted into well-known movies. 2020 saw one of his last novels, The Queen’s Gambit, finally get its just due as one of Netflix’s mostwatched miniseries. In September, WOUB partnered with Ohio University Libraries and the OHIO Alumni Association to hold a virtual screening of the documentary Walter Tevis: A Writer’s Gambit, followed by a panel discussion. Photo by Dom Slike / Alamy Stock Photo

Coming full circle and making history Carrie Boldman, BSHEC ’84, made state and industry news in April when she was named Cedar Point’s vice president and general manager, becoming the first woman to hold that position in the park’s 150-year history. It was a fullcircle moment for the Huron, Ohio native whose first job was collecting tickets at the park.

Chasing tornadoes with the BBC Dr. Jana Houser is used to chasing tornadoes; doing it alongside a BBC film crew was a new twist. In May, the BBC’s The Greatest Show on Earth series joined the OHIO associate professor of geography and University of Oklahoma colleagues as they took to Tornado Alley, studying what tornadoes look like as they are forming and how they move across various landscapes.

A Blue Jay and now a Bobcat Tim Mayza, MSA ’21, celebrated his OHIO graduation surrounded by Blue Jays, not Bobcats. A pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, Mayza earned his OHIO degree while recovering from a torn UCL. As reported by Sportsnet, his teammates and staff brought the pomp and circumstance to Florida, presenting him a cap and gown ahead of a series against the Atlanta Braves.

OHIO students headed to the majors It was a banner summer for two OHIO student-athletes. Former Ohio men’s basketball guard Jason Preston was selected 33rd overall in the 2021 NBA Draft and was acquired by the Los Angeles Clippers. The Colorado Rockies selected Ohio University baseball pitcher Joe Rock in the 2021 MLB First-Year Player Draft.

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For someone who has journeyed to the ends of the Earth—and is preparing for the beyond— Larry Connor remains remarkably grounded.

Photo courtesy of Larry Connor

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From sea to space 1972 graduate boldly going where no Bobcat has gone before

Larry Connor, AB ’72, considers himself a lifelong student of sorts—and he’ll literally travel through space to keep growing and learning, both personally and in service to others. If the next year plays out as planned, Connor is on pace to become the first person to visit both inner Earth and outer space within 12 months—and only the third person in history to do both. In April, Connor traveled to the ocean’s deepest point off the coast of Guam for a hadal exploration mission. This summer, he began training for his role as pilot of the 10-day Axiom Mission 1 (AX-1), which will be led in February 2022 by the first all-civilian crew to visit the International Space Station. It may seem like a leap for someone who is a real estate entrepreneur by day, but the founder of the Dayton-based Connor Group is also an avid aviator, race car driver with 70 wins to his name, and mountain climber who has summited both Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Rainier. Connor relishes these one-of-a-kind experiences, but for him, each success and opportunity is a means to give back and—in the case of his recent and upcoming missions—advance groundbreaking scientific and medical research. “People have asked, ‘Are you fearless? Are you a thrillseeker?’ None of the above,” says Connor. “I want to do things that will make a difference, and I think we will accomplish that.”

AN ABOUT-FACE THAT BEGAN IN ATHENS When Connor first set foot on the bricks of Athens in 1968, few could have predicted his eventual success. He had been far from an exemplary student up until that point, graduating from high school in Dayton with a 2.0 GPA. “I barely graduated from high school,” shares Connor. “When I got to OU, I realized very quickly that the standards and expectations were much higher. If I didn’t get really focused and disciplined, then I would flunk out.” Connor not only went on to pursue a double major in English and history, but he also became a member of OHIO’s J-Club honorary society, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon and treasurer of Student Senate. Looking back, Connor says he was particularly inspired by his economics coursework with Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus Dr. Richard Vedder. “Part of my investing belief, part of my macroeconomics belief, is predicated in the classes he taught,” says Connor, who graduated from OHIO summa cum laude nearly 50 years ago. Connor’s entrepreneurial spirit also began to emerge during his college years. To earn extra money, he began going to Dayton and purchasing damaged cases of wine from a local distributor, then reselling them in Athens. Connor also purchased used cars in both

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International Space Station 250 miles above the Earth (average distance)

Dayton and Cincinnati, using them to transport the wine and then selling the cars in Athens in tandem. “My entrepreneurship during my days at OU provided a valuable non-academic learning experience,” recalls Connor. Considering Connor’s collegiate foray into car sales, it’s hardly surprising that his first job after graduation was at a Dayton-based Volkswagen dealership. It was the first of numerous chapters in Connor’s early professional career, which included working as a travel advisor for E.F. MacDonald—a job that took him to Morocco, Mexico and across Europe; opening a tavern in Dayton; and starting Orlando Computer Corp., which became Florida’s second-largest reseller of IBM microcomputers.

SpaceX Crew Dragon Axiom Mission 1

But it was in 1992 that Connor laid the foundation for his long-term success, founding what, in 2003, would become The Connor Group. The real estate investment firm currently spans luxury apartment communities in 16 U.S. markets and has amassed over $3.7 billion to date—a fortune he readily shares. Connor made headlines nationwide in April 2020 when, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he gifted $1.6 million in stock market returns to his company’s approximately 400 employees. “I believe that if you’ve been fortunate and you’ve done well, you have both the opportunity and the obligation to share the wealth,” he says.

MAKING HISTORY—FROM SEA TO SKY As Connor’s career took flight, so, too, did his interest in aviation. To date, he has flown 16 different types of aircraft, and 2022 will bring a new addition to the list: a SpaceX Crew Dragon. DSV Limiting Factor

“I’ve had a wide range of piloting experiences, flying anything from fighter jets to helicopters,” shares Connor. “Whether it’s systems or communication, there is some carryover, but being a pilot on the Crew Dragon going to outer space is quite different.”

Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench 6.8 miles below sea level FALL 2021

“I’ve always had an interest in research, whether scientific or medical. Based on the three dives we did, apparently there will be a lot of scientific research and writing that will come from that.”

“Microgravity creates a very unique environment to do groundbreaking research—research that is frankly very hard to get access to because there is so much demand to do stuff at the International Space Station,” says Connor. “NASA has done a phenomenal job, but if you really think about space as the next great frontier, it’s going to take the private sector to propel that forward.” The space endeavor comes on the heels of Connor’s oceanic journey. In April, he joined forces with Patrick Lahey, president and co-founder of Triton Submarines, to travel nearly 36,000 feet to the ocean’s deepest point—the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

Indeed, as Connor learned in June when he began 22 weeks of training for the Axiom Mission. Throughout the summer, Connor spent one week per month training and was scheduled to begin full-time training in late September, splitting time between NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His training also took him to the Alaskan backcountry, where he underwent National Outdoor Leadership School wilderness training with three fellow crewmembers. “[The training] is designed for team building and learning to overcome obstacles and adversity,” says Connor. “I guess we got our money’s worth. It rained the entire time, and the weather was below zero. The last day, we got trapped between two rivers and couldn’t cross—we had to be evacuated via helicopter.” According to Connor, his role as pilot on the Axiom Mission won’t include actual flying as much as monitoring systems and communicating with SpaceX. While at the International Space Station, the crew will be conducting medical experiments in microgravity on behalf of the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, medical centers that have benefitted from strategic partnerships with and research funding from Connor.

Together, Lahey and Connor completed three 12-hour dives, during which they captured coveted footage of the elusive Mariana snailfish—the only fish known to survive at that depth—and never-before-seen areas of the ocean floor. They conducted the research under the guidance of chief scientist Alan Jamieson, who called their findings “scientific gold.” “I’ve always had an interest in research, whether scientific or medical,” says Connor. “Based on the three dives we did, apparently there will be a lot of scientific research and writing that will come from that.”

A GREATER GOOD For all his success, Connor remains deeply connected to that young child within who struggled in school growing up. “I have a belief that all kids—not just kids in upscale suburbs—should have the right and access to a great education,” says Connor. “No matter how under-resourced or underserved a child is, they can compete with any kid from any suburb if you level the playing field.” Connor’s set to round out a history-making year by doing just that: founding The Greater Dayton School, Ohio’s first non-denominational private school specifically for underserved students.

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Scheduled to open in fall 2022, the inaugural school year will serve children across four grades, eventually spanning preschool through eighth grade with up to 600 students. Rather than focusing on test scores and other traditional measures of progress, The Greater Dayton School will track its students through age 27 on various mental, emotional, physical and financial outcomes. “We want to create a better socioeconomic path and see if we can permanently alter their long-term trajectory,” Connor explains.

He was inspired to explore the idea of starting a school through his company’s work with local charter school Dayton Early College Academy (DECA), as well as his own experience finding his academic groove at OHIO. “Having been a terrible student in grade school and high school, and then having to pivot 180 degrees to become a good student in college, it was sink or swim,” says Connor. “It was at Ohio University that I really realized why it was so critical to have a good foundation in the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic.” Connor’s passion for empowering youth also translates to The Connor Group’s nonprofit arm, Kids & Community Partners, through which a percentage of the company’s revenue is donated to worthy causes and organizations. In the past five years alone, Kids & Community Partners has directed more than $12 million to recipients such as Dayton Children’s Hospital, DECA and the Mayo Clinic—with a goal to invest over $400 million in the next decade. “I hope I can be a resource or mentor for someone,” says Connor, “so that they don’t have to travel the rocky and bumpy roads that I did.” Whether pioneering unprecedented research or new approaches to philanthropy, it all comes back to Connor’s drive to give back and inspire others to reach new heights. “For people who’ve had some degree of success, you can serve as an inspiration and example for younger kids,” says Connor. “My hope is to show, ‘Here’s an average guy from Dayton, Ohio, who’s been able to do some fairly extraordinary things.’” —Jen Jones Donatelli, BSJ ’98

Larry Connor is pictured on the Triton Hadal Exploration System. In April, he completed three dives in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, exploring the deepest known points of the ocean. Photo courtesy of Larry Connor

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OHIO in space CELEBRATING SOME OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD BOBCATS AND OHIO UNIVERSITY’S LEGACY BEYOND EARTH MILKY WAY GALAXY Diameter: 106,000 light years (estimated)

Larry Connor, AB ’72, will be the first Ohio University graduate to boldly go where no Bobcat has gone before. His giant leap will mark another small step in

Dr. Keith Hawkins, BS ’13 (HTC)

the Ohio University community’s ongoing contributions to space exploration, dating back to the earliest days of the U.S. space program. From Gemini and Apollo to commercial spaceflight, OHIO faculty, students and alumni—more than 600

Assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin who leads the Galactic Archaeology Lab @ UT, a research group studying the structure, formation, evolution and chemical makeup of the Milky Way Galaxy.

of whom identify themselves on Ohio University’s LinkedIn page as contributing to the work of NASA—have advanced our understanding of and ability to explore the great beyond. They’ve conducted research and made discoveries that have implications in the cosmos and here on Earth. And they’ve inspired future generations to reach for the stars, both literally and figuratively. Here we highlight just a few of the many Bobcats who have helped open the doors to the final frontier. T-minus 3, 2, 1…

Aerospace engineer supervisor, serving as deputy chief of the Program and Project Assurance Division at the Glenn Research Center; recipient of NASA Group Achievement Honor Award for exemplary efforts in creation of an innovative, detailed, in-house design of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and NASA Mission Manager’s Flight Commendation for the successful launch and test of the Ares I-X Launch Vehicle.

CREW DRAGON Length: 27 feet

Sohio Satellite Tracking Station

In 1965, OHIO became the owner of the world’s only privately operated satellite tracking station, given by the Standard Oil Company and erected at what was the Radar Hill Laboratory, organized in 1963 for use in moon and satellite tracking programs.

Cynthia Calhoun, BSEE ’88

ARES 1-X Length: 327 feet

Dr. Ronald Moomaw, DO ’80

As a psychiatrist and flight surgeon for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, was a first responder for the May 2020 SpaceX launch, the first time a commercial aerospace company sent NASA astronauts into space.

SOHIO SATELLITE DISH Diameter: 28 feet

GRAPHICS BY JOHN GRIMWADE, EMERT ’20

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James Handley, BSME ’57

Served as system programming and advanced programs manager and second in command for the IBM’ers working at Kennedy Space Center (1964-1975) during the Apollo Program. Led design, programming, installation and maintenance efforts for the Saturn/Apollo checkout and launch system. Received an IBM Outstanding Contribution Award, was inducted into the U.S. Space Workers Hall of Honor for contributions to the Apollo Program, and is featured on the Apollo and Gemini monuments on the U.S. Space Walk of Fame.

MOON Diameter: 2,159 miles

OSIRIS-REx Length: 20 feet

Zoe Zeszut, BSC, BS ’15

Operations engineer who coded and verified science observation commanding for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, launched in 2016, to image and characterize near-Earth asteroid Bennu. As a scientist at the University of Arizona, will analyze the asteroid samples expected to return to Earth in 2023.

Ronald Sicker, BSEE ’83 LUNAR MODULE Length: 23 feet

Project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center; manages the Fluids and Combustion Facility, which allows large facilities to conduct combustion, physical science and biology experiments in the microgravity environment on the International Space Station.

SOLAR SYSTEM SCALE

Jupiter

Mars The Moon

GEMINI Length: 18.5 feet

R. Emmett Boyle, MSISE ’70

Design engineer on Gemini, NASA’s second human spaceflight program; contributed to conceptual designs that included the separation of the spacecraft’s nose cone for deployment of the landing parachute and the ejection seats that protected astronauts during launch and reentry.

Bob Ferguson, BSME ’98

Crewmember on NASA’s 2019 Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) mission XX; spent 45 days living and working inside a mock spacecraft at Johnson Space Center to study the effects of isolation and confinement on the astronaut experience.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION Length: 356 feet BOBCAT-1 Length: 12 inches

Bobcat-1 satellite

Designed by Russ College Assistant Professor Dr. Sabrina Ugazio and students Kevin Croissant, Greg Jenkins, Ryan McKnight and Brian Peters, it was deployed into low-Earth orbit in November 2020 to study Global Navigation Satellite Systems and is one of 11 small spacecrafts developed at American universities selected by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative to be transported into space.

HERA Length: 47 feet

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Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18 Staff writer for Aerospace America,

the flagship publication of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), covering the technology and trends shaping the aviation and space industries. AEROSPACE AMERICA 8.1 inches x 10.9 inches

ORION Length: 24 feet

Bryan Smith, BSISE ’83

Director of facilities, test and manufacturing at Glenn Research Center. As director of Space Flight Systems (2011-2020), oversaw environmental testing and certification of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission, expected to enable human exploration to the moon and Mars.

Dr. Bernard Kokenge, PHD ’66

Working at the Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg, Ohio, helped develop the power sources (and was issued a patent in 1972 for a modified plutonium-238 fuel form) used in the spacecrafts and scientific instruments of several NASA missions, including the Apollo series, the Mars Viking project, the Pioneer program and Galileo.

PERSEVERANCE Length: 10 feet (excluding arm)

GALILEO Length: 17 feet JUPITER Diameter: 86,880 miles

Dr. Fred Calef III, MS ’98 MARS Diameter: 4,212 miles

Science systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; does mapping for the Mars2020 Perseverance rover, has worked on four Mars missions, is a principal investigator for a web-based planetary mapping tool and does landing site analysis for future Mars missions.

Dr. Sarah Wyatt, professor of Environmental and Plant Biology

Dr. Nathaniel Szewczyk, Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O., Endowed Professor in Molecular Medicine

Uses worms to study nerve and muscle health during spaceflight, sending two experiments to the ISS this year. In 2020, NASA published six papers co-authored by Drs. Szewczyk and Sarah Wyatt as part of the largest set of astronaut and space biology data ever produced. CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS (ADULT) Length: .04 inches approx.

Nicole (Little) Rose, BSC ’10

Video producer for ISS research who produced the first 8K ultra-high-definition video from space, a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency.

8K VIDEO 8,192 x 4,320 pixels

International Space University

OHIO hosted International Space University’s 28th Summer Space Studies Program in 2015, bringing the world’s premier space education program and approximately 100 space professionals from 30 countries to Athens for nine weeks of professional development.

STOCKER CENTER Height: 92 feet

Green scenes

LSST Diameter of primary mirror: 27.6 feet

Leads OHIO research lab that, from January 2015 to June 2021, has sent four experiments studying how plants respond to gravity to the ISS; worked with NASA on the development of its GeneLab, providing scientists access to genomics data related to spaceflight and gravity.

ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA Maximum height: 4 to 6 inches approx.

Dr. Douglas Clowe, professor of Astrophysics

Proved the existence of dark matter, deemed by Discovery News in 2010 as the eighth most important discovery of the decade; is contributing to the development of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), capable of imaging the entire southern sky every three nights. Images courtesy NASA, except the following. Milky Way: Nick Risinger (using NASA images) Crew Dragon: NASA/SpaceX Satellite dish, Bobcat-1, Stocker Center: Ohio University Landscape: oliversved/123rf Moon: Lick Observatory/European Space Agency/Hubble International Space Station: NASA/Roscosmos Mars: ESA/MPS for OSIRIS team Caenorhabditis elegans: lostkebab/shutterstock LSST: Rubin Obs/NSF/AURA

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Practical Civility For most, the college experience comes at a time in life full of questions. From the excited “What now?” at that first moment alone on the dorm doorstep to exploring new social issues and ideas with classmates and friends, it’s an experience that spans generations. But in today’s digital age, that experience can look much different. It’s easy to view some of society’s biggest questions as a series of comment threads and 280-character retorts that are judged more on sensationalism than substance—a habit that can bleed into “real-life” conversation in and out of the classroom. For more than a decade, History Professor Robert Ingram has been creating a space for students to break that habit and develop a “practical civility” through OHIO’s Menard Family George Washington Forum (GWF) on American Ideas, Politics, and Institutions. “Aristotle said virtue is a habit. I think civility is a virtue. To develop the habit of civility, you have to practice it,” says Dr. Ingram, founding director of GFW. “And the only way you can practice it is to be around people and ideas with whom you disagree.” The Forum’s dedication to this practice caught the attention of the Menard Family, which this year generously committed more than $1.6 million to The Ohio University Foundation in support of GWF. The funding will add a History of Capitalism focus to the Forum and support a new professorship in economic history. “A seminal part of the college experience is hearing from people who have a diversity of viewpoints and track record of creating value for others,” the Menard Family wrote in an open letter to the OHIO

community. “At Menards, we want to give more students the opportunity to have that experience and to develop a lifelong love of learning as a result.” This gift will also enhance existing GWF programming, including a guest speaker series, conferences, postdoctoral fellowships, and what Ingram calls the “bedrock” of GWF: undergraduate fellowships, complete with a capstone experience in London. This year, ten students from eight majors meet two hours each week to discuss life’s big questions, using readings from Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine and more as a springboard for conversation. “The reading and the discussions that we have in George Washington Forum really help to challenge me and make me think harder about what I believe and why it is,” says Abi Scherer, a junior and second-year GWF fellow studying political science through the Honors Tutorial College. For Ingram, that’s the goal. There aren’t “right answers” to these questions, and no one is there to score points. In fact, the whole experience doesn’t even come with a grade, an intentional aspect of the fellowship designed to push students into ambiguous waters, where a variety of views coexist. “We’re all uncomfortable asking open-ended questions about the fundamental things we need to think about in order to live together in the ‘good life,’” Ingram says. “Most adults are already set in their ways, but for these students, this is one little moment in life where they can ask these questions freely to develop the habits of questioning, seeking and genuine open-mindedness.” —Peter Shooner

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“The whole point of college is to learn other perspectives and not just be limited in your viewpoints,” says George Washington Forum fellow Abi Scherer, seen here conversing with former fellow Jameson Hern, BBA ’21, at the Front Room. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

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LEAVING THE FIELD A LEGEND The fans are back in the Peden Stadium stands, but the coach who shepherded Ohio Football to unparalleled heights over the past 16 years has passed the pigskin. Frank Solich announced in July that he was retiring as head coach to focus on a rare cardiovascular health issue. He leaves the field a legend—not only at OHIO but in college football. Solich led Ohio Football to 11 bowl appearances—and its first five bowl victories—four MAC East titles, and a Top 25 ranking. He holds the title as the winningest head coach in MAC history and was just seven wins shy of Don Peden’s record 121 victories at OHIO. “Not bad for 55 years,” Solich says of his coaching career. “It’s hard to fully capture what Coach Solich has meant to our football program, to our athletic department, to our University,” says OHIO Director of Athletics Julie Cromer, who described Solich as a leader, ambassador, educator and mentor. “But his true legacy is really in the men and the players who he coached who went on to earn their degrees, to pursue their passions, and did so with the lessons of hard work, commitment and integrity that they learned from coach.” The 2021 season kicked off with a familiar face filling Solich’s shoes along the sideline. Tim Albin, who joined the program in 2005 and served as associate head coach and offensive coordinator, signed a four-year contract as Ohio Football’s new head coach. Albin served alongside Solich for 21 years, both at OHIO and the University of Nebraska—a partnership likely to endure as Solich will continue his service to Bobcat Nation as a special advisor to Ohio Athletics. “It’s been amazing,” Solich says of his time at OHIO. “From the first time I stepped on the campus—from the student body to the community to the alumni to former players—they’ve all been great.”

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After 16 seasons, Frank Solich stepped down as Ohio Football’s head coach, leaving a program he rebuilt with a 115-82 record. Photo by Eli Burris, BSJ ’16

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Area residents celebrate Passion Works Studio’s 20th anniversary in October 2018 at The Ridges’ Kennedy Museum of Art, where 20 years earlier the collaborative arts center held its very first exhibition. Photo by Max Catalano, BSVC ’20

OHIO Unified FALL 2021

One OHIO initiative strengthening campus, communities in purpose and partnership

and to opportunity, and to enrich and contribute to our communities, our state and beyond. We do that better when we operate as One OHIO.”

UNIFYING FROM WITHIN

This fall marks the 75th anniversary of Ohio University’s first regional campuses, formally established to serve World War II veterans returning from the front lines with GI Bill benefits in hand and dreams for their post-service lives. It was a milestone in a history of community outreach, dating back to the turn of the century when access to an OHIO education was first extended beyond Athens. In opening its doors to the greater Southeast Ohio region, the University took root in communities that not only welcomed its presence and purpose but were instrumental in building what would become a five-campus regional higher education system. Over the past three years, faculty and staff University-wide have been examining the operations and impact of OHIO’s multi-campus system—an Ohio University pawprint that now also includes two extension campuses, three satellite locations and numerous online programs. What has emerged is the development and first steps of a strategic initiative that is uniting the University in its purpose, in its partnerships with the communities it serves and the industries that call those communities home, and in response to local and regional needs. Aptly named One OHIO, the strategic initiative is ushering in a modern-day approach to collaboration, curricular innovation and workforce development. “At the heart of One OHIO is a belief that we are stronger as one,” says Dr. Nicole Pennington, executive dean of Regional Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, dean of campus and community relations at Ohio University Southern, and co-chair of One OHIO. “Ohio University created this network of campuses to expand access to higher education

Under One OHIO, Ohio University is, for the first time in its history, operating as a unified university system, leveraging the full power of its network and cultivating an ecosystem that better serves its students and mission. Administrative functions essential to every campus—from libraries and facilities to information technology—have been aligned, providing a more consistent, coordinated and efficient level of service University-wide. And regional campus faculty have been integrated into colleges on the Athens Campus, fostering collegiality and creating a larger scholarly community among OHIO’s educators. “One of the neat things that One OHIO did by making regional campus faculty also members of their Athens Campus departments is it brought them into a lot of ongoing discussions—about curriculum, assessment, research, the role we want internships and career- and skill-building experiences to play, and where we want the department, the college, the University to go in the future,” says Dr. Sarah Poggione. “It’s allowed us to engage our colleagues more and more often and broadened our opportunities.” Poggione, professor of political science and the College of Arts and Sciences’ associate dean for students, instruction and curriculum, points to how faculty are increasingly sharing classes, extending the expertise on each campus to more students. She also notes how the college worked in groups of faculty across campuses to develop interdisciplinary courses incorporated into OHIO’s new general education curriculum. “We began working intentionally to share resources and expertise across campuses before One OHIO, but the initiative has helped us formalize mechanisms for collaboration,” she says. “The spirit of One OHIO to me is really enhancing that collaboration, the sharing of information and communication among faculty

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and making sure that we are part of the same team to serve our students.” OHIO’s School of Nursing has been operating as a unified program for years. It’s a system that Dr. Elizabeth Delaney, BSN ’97, associate professor of nursing at Ohio University Southern, believes has made the nursing program stronger in its curriculum and its students stronger in their skillsets. “It makes our students stronger because they benefit from all of this expertise from other locations and from us collaborating to put together a best practices standard for our program,” she says. Delaney acknowledges that developing this unified paradigm didn’t happen overnight or without growing pains, but it has nurtured a student-centered mindset. “It helps you look at the bigger picture. As a group, you have to really think about what’s best for the student,” she says. “Plus, the faculty benefit from all of this expertise, collaboration and innovation. We see where we can help each other.” For John McCarthy, the positive outcomes of One OHIO have been greater connection, communication and understanding of each campus’ resources, strengths and unique identity—and then finding common ground and opportunities to support student and faculty success. “There’s considerable value in being a part of something smaller that’s part of something bigger,” says McCarthy, professor of communication disorders and interim dean of the College of Health Sciences and Professions. “We live in an interconnected world, which is mirrored in this new system of operating. It opens up a lot of opportunities and support.”

TUNING INTO THE COMMUNITY One of the tenets of One OHIO is a renewed focus on community engagement—an acknowledgement of the interdependence of town and gown reflected in everything from presidential priorities to discussions about regional representation on the University’s Board of Trustees. “We seek to be integral partners with the communities where our regional campuses are located—to be

accessible and responsive and for them to know they’ll be heard,” says Dr. Jarrod Tudor. “We continue to build and expand relationships that serve our students and our communities.” Tudor leads the Lancaster Campus as dean of campus and community relations—a new and deliberate leadership title on OHIO’s regional campuses, which have welcomed four new deans over the past year. The deans have been establishing consistent engagement with local government and business leaders, school districts, nonprofits and service organizations, increasing opportunities to support each other’s work and to meet existing and emerging needs. “Each campus has different needs in the community,” notes Dean David Rohall, who leads the Eastern Campus. “Very early on especially, I focused on the economic development leaders in the region because I really wanted to know what kind of programs we could bring to them and fill a need. They were excited that somebody was asking them that question and went out of their way to bring others in the community into the conversation.” According to Rohall and Tudor, having that dialogue and building those relationships is particularly important on regional campuses, which serve a student population more likely to stay in the community after graduation. “We have to make sure that our programs are educating students in a way that allows them to go back into their communities,” says Rohall, adding that means also working with local higher education institutions to ensure that the programming each offers complement one another and broadens access and opportunity. “We’re all working together as a team, as one, to meet the needs.” Those needs go beyond academic programming. “The community really does expect us to be a cultural focal point in our county—to be a central location for activities and fellowship,” says Tudor. In the wake of fewer COVID-19 restrictions, the Lancaster Campus is opening its doors to corporations, nonprofits and others for their meetings

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and activities. And in the spring, the campus became the home of the Lancaster Thunder, a minor league basketball team. At Ohio University Eastern, Rohall envisions bringing in intellectual leaders from the region, nation and the Athens Campus to share their knowledge with town and gown.

extended its largest academic program to its Eastern Campus, meeting a workforce need identified through market analysis and community conversations. This fall, eleven students were admitted into the campus’ new BSN program, complete with new state-of-theart simulation labs.

“If they’re doing a performance on the main campus, can we find a way to bring them here as well—again trying to build on that One OHIO model,” Rohall adds. “Finding opportunities to do that periodically and being more coordinated and planful about those opportunities is just one more way of bringing the resources of the big campus to the small campus in a very tangible way.”

“Our program is all about giving opportunity to those in our area to achieve that traditional four-year degree closer to home and in an affordable way,” says Dr. Susan Dowell, BSN ’92, MSN ’13, DNP ’18.

TYING ACADEMICS TO AREA NEED OHIO has been exploring where it can expand existing degree programs and create new ones that are tied directly to community need—and has developed a Program Innovation Accelerator to speed up the programming development and approval process. With more hospitals wanting a higher accreditation level for nurses and the lack of an in-state Bachelor of Science in Nursing program within 25 miles, OHIO has

An associate professor of nursing at the Zanesville Campus, Dowell spearheaded the development of the Eastern Campus’ BSN program before turning the reins over to one of her former nursing students, Matthew Fox, AAS ’09, BSN ’10. “We envision this to be a well-respected program in the region, attracting top quality students who are likely to serve within the community after graduation,” says Fox, associate professor and associate director of nursing at Ohio University Eastern. “In the field of nursing, opportunities on the job, in advanced practice, in research and more are significantly greater with a bachelor’s degree.”

FROM ATHENS TO ZANESVILLE AND BEYOND

A century of expanding access to an OHIO education

1937

Two “evening divisions” are formed. OHIO opens adult education centers, offering evening college courses at high schools in Portsmouth (1938) and Zanesville (1939).

1909

1946

Driven to serve the region’s returning World War II veterans, OHIO establishes the state’s first branch campuses in Chillicothe, Zanesville and Portsmouth.

1956

OHIO creates an extension department. By 1910, faculty are teaching Ohio University-sanctioned and accredited college-level courses in Jackson, Logan, Nelsonville and Pomeroy.

Branch campuses open in Lancaster and Ironton, with the Ironton branch offering a two-year evening course for cadet teachers.

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At Ohio University Southern, the campus’ undergraduate social work program has seen significant growth. In May, the program celebrated 25 graduates—16 of whom enrolled in the campus’ Master of Social Work program that debuted this summer and will celebrate its first alumni next spring. “I think we’ve had 80 people graduate with bachelor’s in social work degrees in the time I’ve been here—and the majority of them have stayed in this area,” says Dr. Glenn Abraham, assistant professor of social work. “If we had talked to them five years ago, some of them would have never seen themselves going to college. We truly are providing our students an opportunity to excel in their lives.” That opportunity to excel is directly tied to community need. Even with the increased number of social work graduates from the Southern Campus, Abraham says he consistently hears from local agencies that are struggling to find employees and are looking for undergraduate and graduate social work students to complete their field placements at their sites. “Several of the students I’ve talked to who graduated in May are telling me they’ve already had three or four job interviews. They’re getting hired very quickly,” Abraham says. “How good it is to look around at the

service delivery system we have now and see how great this can be for our students and the community.”

FORGING NEW PATHWAYS THROUGH TRAINING & WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT In some industries and communities, what’s desperately needed are workers trained in specific skillsets. It’s a reality that has OHIO broadening access to its curriculum and forging new pathways to career success—with or without a degree. In 2019, the state of Ohio allocated $1.25 million for the Fairfield County Workforce Center (FCWC), investing in a partnership between the Fairfield County Commissioners, Ohio University Lancaster, OHIO’s Russ College of Engineering and Technology, and Hocking College. The immediate goals of the center? Fill a labor shortage in skilled trades, through programming offered by Hocking College, and meet the employment needs of the community’s growing manufacturing industry, leveraging OHIO’s curriculum. “Ten percent of our jobs in Fairfield County are in manufacturing,” explains Rick Szabrak, the county’s director of economic and workforce development. “But manufacturing is a lot different today. It’s more

1960s

Local communities begin acquiring land for the campuses’ first permanent facilities: Bennett Hall/Chillicothe (1966), Shannon Hall/Eastern (1967), and Brasee Hall/Lancaster and Elson Hall/Zanesville (1968).

1957

1975

Portsmouth withdraws from OHIO’s branch system and later becomes Shawnee State University.

1985

Construction is completed on the first building on the Ironton Campus, which is later renamed Ohio University Southern.

Branch campus opens in Martins Ferry. The campus was relocated closer to St. Clairsville in the 1960s and renamed Ohio University Eastern in 1992.

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high-tech and a career that needs ongoing training and education.” Last spring, OHIO taught its first class at the FCWC—a machine repair course embedded in the Lancaster Campus’ Engineering Technology program. That course, along with others, will continue to be offered at the workforce center, where college students will learn alongside area residents pursuing independent study or sent by their employers to acquire new skills. According to Szabrak, that first machine repair class benefitted a local business that enrolled six of its workers. Another business has approached the center about building its employees’ robotics and automation skillset. This fall, OHIO extended its FCWC courses to include basic electronics, basic hydraulics and pneumatics, automation, robotics, and safety management. It has also registered those courses with the state’s TechCred program, which offers reimbursement to employers whose workers complete credentialed coursework. “Our hope is that our residents see the center as a place to get the skills to equip themselves for successful careers locally and where they can ultimately get a

college degree if they so choose,” says Szabrak. “Think of it as an education highway. You get on that highway and learn a little bit. You exit into a career. You get back on as needed, and you keep going until you reach your destination.” The FCWC is just one way OHIO is reimagining the way it educates and partnering with community and industry, explains Dr. Todd Myers, BSIT ’88, MBA ’01, PHD ’07, professor and chair of OHIO’s Engineering Technology and Management department and director of workforce and professional development for the Russ College. “We have opportunities to take a curriculum and break it out into modules, so we’re offering both standalone training and creating stackable certificates that offer multiple pathways to a degree,” he says. Myers notes plans to create standalone certificates in advanced manufacturing and the possibility of developing industrial credentialing programs, training faculty to be certified on specific brands of equipment and then registering OHIO and the FCWC as providers of that training. Earlier this year, Russ College faculty underwent training to be able to offer training in 3D printing, robotics and welding at the Russ Research Center in Beavercreek. And the college is working to

2007

1996

The Southern Campus opens a satellite location, the Proctorville Center.

The College of Business launches OHIO’s first online degree program, MBA Without Boundaries. Today, over 22 percent of OHIO students are enrolled in 60+ online programs.

2000

After offering college classes at Pickerington High School for about 20 years, the Lancaster Campus opens the Pickerington Center.

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bring National Institute for Metalworking Skills credentialing into its coursework in response to a need in Southern Ohio identified by the Appalachian Ohio Manufacturers’ Coalition. “All of this is part of Ohio University’s push to engage industry and grow industry in the state of Ohio,” says Myers. “The Fairfield County Workforce Center is our pilot program in terms of pathways to education and how we’re going to work with industry.” IN SERVICE TO SOUTHEAST OHIO OHIO faculty aren’t just educating the professionals of the future. They’re finding ways to serve those already in the field. A new RHE Workforce Success Initiative is funding six pilot projects developed by regional campus faculty and staff in service to their fields of study and their communities. This summer, up to 25 regional public safety officials enrolled in the Southern Ohio Public Safety Workforce Development Training, spearheaded by Dr. James McKean, AAS ’80, BCJ ’87, associate professor of law enforcement at Ohio University Chillicothe.

“We want to provide the skills and information, so that law enforcement agencies in our communities can construct actionable work plans and restore trust between police and our communities,” says McKean, pointing to research that finds while 60 percent of the public believes there is a need for systemic police reform, two-thirds of law enforcement officers do not. The training uses an existing OHIO capstone course, Police Legitimacy and Community Relations, and is taught by McKean and fellow Chillicothe Campus faculty with expertise in psychology and communication. “In Southern Ohio, many law enforcement agencies lack the resources with which to address contemporary issues,” says McKean. “This initiative provides training to these service region agencies that they probably otherwise wouldn’t get—and at no cost to them.” The program is continuing through the fall with plans to survey the law enforcement participants and the communities they serve next spring to determine the training’s impact and, hopefully, garner future support for such programming.

2011 2008

Fritz and Dolores Russ bequeath a research and commercialization facility Doctoral candidate Kelsey Bryant in Beavercreek to OHIO’s Russ College. prepares to climb a tree at The Today, the Russ Research Center is a Ridges Land Lab, which served as the 75-acre innovation campus serving primary field site for her research. Ohio’s Miami Valley.

A $105 million award from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation paves the way for Heritage College extension campuses in Dublin (opened in 2014 with pre-eminent education partner OhioHealth and the city of Dublin) and Cleveland (opened in 2015 in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic).

2015

The College of Health Sciences and Professions (CHSP) opens the Integrated Education Center on the Dublin extension campus, which now houses programming from CHSP, the College of Business, the Heritage College and the Voinovich School.

All photographs courtesy of Ohio University Photography and the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections. Illustration & timeline by Adonis Durado, MFA ’20

Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

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The regional route to success

Dr. Jacqueline Yahn, EED ’17, assistant professor and program coordinator of Middle Childhood Education at the Eastern Campus, is piloting a Rural Teacher Fellowship.

Stacy Cesa Schindler, BSS ’01, BSC ’02, MA ’14, began her higher education journey as a traditional student—she went away to college, lived in the dorm, made friends. But when her family’s financial situation abruptly changed, she found herself at age 20 moving closer to home, working full time, but still determined to finish her degree.

This academic year, the fellowship is pairing two Eastern Campus-area early-career teachers who are interested in implementing community- and career-oriented learning in their classrooms and districts with two veteran teachers who have extensive experience in this form of teaching and learning.

Ohio University Zanesville made that possible by way of night and weekend courses. “I may have been a traditional student age, but I was working full time and trying to go to school full time,” Schindler recalls. Although her life was no longer tracking with her friends from college, she was far from alone. Her academic advisor shepherded Schindler toward her bachelor’s degree in specialized studies, and OHIO’s regional campuses were ahead of the curve when it came to flexible delivery of education. Schindler was able to take courses at any campus that fit her schedule—and even had classes via video conferencing some 20 years before the word Zoom entered the national lexicon.

For the fellows, it provides personalized professional development often lacking at that stage in their careers. For the mentors, it’s a way to share their work and experience and form a relationship with an educator following in their footsteps. The program is partnering with Building Bridges to Careers, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering student, business and civic relationships to inspire career choice through experience, entrepreneurship and education. It will also include OHIO’s Patton College of Education, with plans for the fellows to work with students and for faculty to lend their expertise to the fellows. The long-term goal is to expand the number of fellowships, to serve all of OHIO’s regional campus communities and, over time, to build a Rural Teacher Fellowship network.

Schindler finished her BSS and—on advice from Communication Studies Professor Candice Thomas-Maddox—earned a communication studies degree with just one additional semester of courses. “Those professors invested in me,” Schindler says from her office adorned with her OHIO diplomas. She had successful stints at iconic Ohio companies including The Longaberger Company and L Brands. When it came time for Schindler to take the next step in her career, ThomasMaddox told her about a new OHIO Online master’s program in communication studies. It was the catalyst Schindler says she needed—and a degree that paid off almost immediately. “I did move to a new level, a director level, at a new company,” she says.

“This is a natural fit for One OHIO,” says Yahn. “To help our students and the region we serve thrive, we need to continuously ask, what can we do for the community that’s meaningful to them. In Southeast Ohio, we’re geographically isolated in a lot of ways, but there are so many ways to make sure we’re not isolated intellectually or in terms of social capital.”

Today, Schindler is a financial advisor at Edward Jones in the Columbus metro area, using her OHIO degrees to help others reach their goals. Conversations often revolve around how to plan and pay for higher education.

—Angela Woodward, BSJ ’98

OHIO’s regional campuses are celebrating special anniversaries this academic year. Check calendar.ohio.edu for event details, including opportunities for alumni to visit the campuses.

OHIO impact

“I’m proud that I went to Zanesville. I’m proud that I went to Lancaster,” says Schindler, who remains active on both campuses. “Not only was I afforded the same quality of education and opportunities to be involved in my campuses and community, but I also had the flexibility to be able to work full time, developing my academic knowledge and my professional and life skills at the same time. Having a top-ranked school available to me where I was in my life was a catalyst to my success.” —Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93

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Stage set BIPOC student-led campus theater takes root— and prepares for its first production Janai Lashon, MFA ’21, is skeptical of the term “safe spaces.” As a Black woman, she says, “I’ve never been in one. But I know how to be courageous and advocate for myself.” Lashon is an actor, cultural competency consultant and founding co-artistic director of Vibrancy Theater, Ohio University’s new student organization dedicated to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) artists. She sees Vibrancy as a space for courageous advocacy, an incubator of authentic, fearless art.

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[OPPOSITE PAGE} Keshawn Mellon, BFA ’21, left Ohio University with a diploma and a legacy—partnering with his peers to create Vibrancy Theater, dedicated to supporting and amplifying BIPOC voices, stories and artistry. To contribute to the Vibrancy Theater Fund, visit give.ohio.edu.

“We are committed to fully producing a Vibrancy Theater show each year as part of our main stage season, to support Vibrancy’s mission of promoting BIPOC stories,” says Merri Biechler, MFA ’07, director of the School of Theater.

Photo by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

Charles Smith, retired distinguish professor of theater, pitched the idea of a BIPOC student-led campus theater in spring 2020—as schools, theaters and companies nationwide hastened to officially respond to police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and so many others. For the student leaders who took it from there, Vibrancy represents actual institutional progress— beyond hashtags and good intentions. Whether publicly addressing systemic racism or directing work by a playwright of color, Lashon maintains that true authenticity comes from lived experience and that Vibrancy Theater not only represents, but also fully belongs to OHIO’s BIPOC students—past, present and future. As she puts it: “There are stories only we can tell.” Not to say Vibrancy is BIPOC-only. “Anyone can join,” says Keshawn Mellon, BFA ’21, founding co-artistic director. However, the work remains BIPOC-centric and led by BIPOC students “knowledgeable about situations and themes involving them.” Vibrancy’s mission includes providing a “sustainable space for student theater artists to support and amplify BIPOC voices, stories and artistry in the spirit of authenticity and excellence.” This means challenging dominant narratives while implementing anti-racist procedures—from “circular leadership” that subverts top-down hierarchy to approaches to hair, makeup and lighting design that serve all artists. Building on seed money donated by Smith, other faculty and staff pitched in, and the College of Fine Arts matched a startup donation from the Miranda Family Fund, started by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family.

OHIO impact

Vibrancy co-executive producer Roberto Di Donato, who is pursuing an MFA in directing, emphasizes that, with the autonomy and resources it affords, “Vibrancy fulfills a need that wasn’t being met before.” He points to other institutional changes adopted after listening to Vibrancy’s student advocates: adding BIPOC students to the main stage season selection committee, restricting theater work hours, and providing counseling to BIPOC students and faculty. During their first year of remote collaboration, these student leaders established Vibrancy’s mission, constitution, bylaws and leadership, as well as the Vibrancy Theater Fund to hire BIPOC guest artists. They even hosted their first teaching artist, playwright travis I. tate. In the spring, Vibrancy announced its inaugural main stage show, the November 2021 premiere of Absentia, a new American play written by Olivia Matthews, MFA ’20, and directed by Vibrancy guest artist Tanisha Lynn Pyron. Matthews developed Absentia for her thesis production, canceled in spring 2020 due to pandemic restrictions. She describes the work as a family drama about a young Black woman who escapes prolonged captivity and abuse to confront and redefine notions of home and family. “Absentia speaks to what motivates me as a writer, somebody young who is figuring themself out in the context of family dynamics,” Matthews says. “Now here’s this group who is figuring themselves out in the context of a broader theater program.” Notably, the play does not explicitly deal with issues of race. As Mellon points out, “We can tell stories of racism any day, without a play. Our goal at Vibrancy is to show the broader community that we are here, and we have stories to tell about being human.” —Anita Martin, BSJ ’05

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Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

In this moment It’s not just about what we need to do, but who we need to become. The drive toward a more diverse and inclusive OHIO community now has a University-wide roadmap. In April, the Board of Trustees affirmed OHIO’s inclusive excellence strategic plan. Developed in partnership with students, faculty, staff and alumni, it provides guidance and a course of action for a community where all feel welcome, supported and respected and where—in uplifting our individual identities, cultures, experiences and perspectives— we broaden our collective understanding. “Inclusive excellence means greater student access, achievement and success on campus and after graduation, faculty and staff satisfaction and retention, and lifelong connections with our alumni,” Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Gigi Secuban says of the plan born out of University-wide conversations, experience and research.

The plan’s strategic goals—recruit and retain a diverse campus community, create a sense of belonging for all, reimagine teaching and learning with inclusivity as a core design principle, and cultivate a commitment to data collection and continuous improvement—are supported by yearly action items. “This is about a culture shift that is going to happen in phases, stages and steps,” explains Dr. Duane Bruce, interim assistant director of OHIO’s Multicultural Center. “If we’re going to see real transformative change in our campus community, it’s going to roll out over time and in ways that make sense for the community at any given time.” Visit ohiotoday.org to read about how the OHIO community is implementing the inclusive excellence strategic plan through a new campus-wide campaign, student and faculty support, and opportunities for education and conversation. “From John Newton Templeton to Margaret Boyd, many have helped pave the road to a more diverse, inclusive and, therefore, transformational OHIO community,” Secuban says. “The steps we are taking together are a continuation of their and our journeys.”

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Bobcats in the wild NEW BOOK OFFERS A CLOSER LOOK AT THE REAL CAT BEHIND OHIO’S MASCOT It was fifteen years ago this fall that OHIO’s beloved mascot finally got a name: Rufus. First introduced in 2006, Rufus descends from Bobcats going back to 1925, when the University first adopted the mascot to reflect the wild cat’s hardiness and hunting prowess. The moniker Rufus comes from the scientific name for the bobcat, Lynx rufus, but also echoes that of Rufus Putnam, a cofounder of the Ohio Company of Associates instrumental in establishing Ohio University. But how much do you know about the actual animal known as the bobcat?

eliminated Ohio’s bobcats by 1850. It would be nearly a century before the next confirmed sighting of an Ohio bobcat in 1946, the authors state. Environmental conservation and restoration efforts led to increased sightings from the 1960s to the 2000s, and, in 2014, bobcats were removed from the Ohio endangered species list. The most widely distributed wild cat in North America, bobcats— both the actual and the OHIO variety—can be found throughout the contiguous United States. In southern Ohio, their territories can range up to 60 square miles.

Bobcats communicate through scent and vocalization, including hissing, screeching and howling. (Can I get a loud “OU, Oh Yeah?”) They even purr. At fifteen years old, Rufus is a bit long in the tooth compared to his wild cousin, whose lifespan is actually closer to seven years. Happy birthday, Rufus, and welcome home to the Bobcat State, Lynx rufus. Mammals of Ohio will be available in December wherever books are sold. –Laura M. André is the publicity coordinator at the Ohio University Press.

There’s much to learn in a forthcoming guidebook from the Ohio University Press titled Mammals of Ohio, by John D. Harder and Guy N. Cameron. An accessible resource for experts and general readers alike, the book covers 55 mammalian species—from tiny, obscure shrews to the magnificent white-tailed deer—and their habitats, life cycles and protection status across the state. The book also educates readers about conservation and how to join those efforts. While it’s easy to spot Rufus at athletic events, real bobcat sightings in Ohio these days aren’t as common. As the state grew in the early 1800s, rapid deforestation

Image courtesy of Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Ohio University Press

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Class notes

* denotes accolades featured at ohio.edu/news or in the media

1957 Van Gordon Sauter, BSJ ’57, HON ’83, former president of CBS News and Fox News, participated in OHIO Connection to Hemingway in Idaho, a virtual screening and panel discussion hosted in June by WOUB Public Media in partnership with Idaho Public Television. Involved in efforts to preserve Ernest Hemingway’s legacy and home in Idaho, he was joined by panelists Lynn Novick, who directed and produced the Hemingway documentary series with Ken Burns; Jenny Emery Davidson of the Community Library, which owns and manages Hemingway’s Ketchum, Idaho home; and OHIO Professor Gary Holcomb, who published Teaching Hemingway and Race.

1969 Executive career coach Beverly Jones, BSJ ’69, MBA ’75, was the featured expert on a May episode of the CNN series The Game Plan: Building a Strong Financial Future. Last spring, she recorded the 107th episode of Jazzed About Work, the WOUB podcast she hosts.

1971 Dan DeLawder, BSED ’71*, retired from Park National

Corporation in June after 50 years of service. His career included serving as president, CEO and chairman of Park National Bank and Park National Corporation. He will continue serving on Park’s board of directors in his role as director and chairman of the executive and trust committees.

1974 Peter Fine, BGS ’74, was named to Modern Healthcare magazine’s 2020 list of “The 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” for the eighth time and the seventh consecutive year. He has served as president and CEO of Phoenix-based Banner Health for more than 20 years. Rick Meril, BBA ’74, retired after 21 years with Warner Bros. Television, where he served as executive vice president and general sales manager, and 47 years in television sales. He has formed Rick Meril Programming and Media LLC, a consulting firm. He and his wife, Joan, reside in Calabasas, California.

1976 Jeffrey Finkle, BSC ’76, will retire in early 2022 as president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based International Economic Development Council

(IEDC), the world’s largest economic development membership organization. He has led the IEDC for the past 20 years and previously served as president of the Council for Urban Economic Development and as a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Finkle is the Appalachian New Economy Partnership Fellow in OHIO’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service. Matthew Schwartz, BSJ ’76, retired in June 2020 after 40 years as an investigative television news reporter. Over the course of his career, he won more than 200 awards, including four Emmy Awards and four Edward R. Murrow Awards.

1977 Justin Klimko, AB ’77, received the 2021 Association for Corporate Growth Detroit Lifetime Leadership Award. He is the president of Butzel Long and a managing shareholder practicing in the law firm’s Detroit office.

1981 Mike Corbo, BBA ’81*, was promoted to president and chief executive officer of

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Cypress, California-based Mitsubishi Electric US Inc., making him the first U.S.based executive to oversee U.S. operations. A 35-year veteran of the company, he is heading its Americas Corporate Office. Rich Waldron, BSC ’81, helped lead the Ohio launch of Devoted Health, a Medicare Advantage plan business, in October 2020. He serves as president of the company’s Ohio market.

1982 Bruce Buchanan, MSJ ’82, was elected treasurer of the board of trustees for Martin University in Indianapolis. He is the fourth-generation owner and CEO of Flanner Buchanan and the owner of Buchanan Group, Inc. Lydia Swysgood Pizner, BSED ’82, retired in June 2020 after serving 40 years in the field of special education. She resides in Springfield, Ohio.

1984 Carleen Graham, BMUS ’84, was named the inaugural associate dean and director of vocal arts for the Manhattan School of Music’s vocal arts division.

1986 Rex Scott, BA ’86, BSED ’88, was elected to the Pima County (Arizona) Board of Supervisors in November 2020. He was a teacher and administrator in Pima County’s public schools from 1991-2019 and was the first Ohio University student elected to Athens City Council, serving from 1988-1991.

1988 Anna Harvey, AB-POL ’88*, was named the 15th president and CEO of the Social Science Research Council, an independent and international research nonprofit organization. A political scientist, she is an affiliated professor of data science, affiliated professor of law and the founding director of the Public Safety Lab at New York University. She serves as a national trustee on the Ohio University Board of Trustees. David Howenstein, MA, MBA ’88, expanded JAMBO International Inc., the U.S.-based non-governmental organization he co-founded, to include regular Zoom sessions for those interested in “putting environmental ideas into action at the grassroots.” JAMBO facilitates

fun activities that improve the environment and provide support for the less fortunate. He resides in Tokyo, Japan.

BOBC AT SP OT L IGH T Alumnus leading NAACP’s Hollywood endeavors

1991 Scott Balfour, AB ’91, retired after nearly 29 years in federal law enforcement. For the past 15 years, he was the assistant special agent in charge for the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General in Cleveland, supervising criminal investigations of postal employees.

Photo courtesy of NAACP

In February, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) selected Kyle Bowser, BSC ’80, to serve as senior vice president of its Hollywood bureau, leveraging the OHIO graduate’s 30-plus years as an entertainment industry executive.

“[This role] is the perfect nexus between all the entertainment-related work I’ve been doing throughout my career and all of the personal passions that I have about fairness,” Bowser says. At the NAACP, Bowser is charged with advancing the organization’s Hollywood projects and relationships as well as overseeing the production of its annual Image Awards. “I would like the world to have a greater appreciation for the African American experience, and I think television and film are the most impactful way to make an authentic impression,” he notes. “Images travel the globe, and they inform people, create perceptions, and shape hearts and minds.” Visit ohio.edu/news/Kyle-Bowser to read about Bowser’s career with some of the world’s leading television and film enterprises and how his advocacy work began as an OHIO student. —Jalyn Bolyard

1992 Danielle GiddensHodges, AB ’92, retired from the public school system after working in special education for 26 years. She now works with individuals diagnosed with medically fragile conditions and dementia clients in a home environment while pursuing a doctor of education in leadership in behavioral management. She and her husband reside in Rockmart, Georgia.

Timothy Shary, MA ’92, is a professor at Eastern Florida State College and recently published his tenth book in film studies.

Robin Rhodes, BS ’92, earned a doctorate in English pedagogy from Murray State University and is the director of international student academic support at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York.

Mitchell E. Simmons, BSME ’92, MS ’93, was selected to serve on a National Academy of Sciences board committee looking at the suitability of national test ranges for future weapons systems.

Bobcat tracks

1993 Pamela Holschuh, BSHEC ’93, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her business, Copper Leaf Interiors, an interior design and project management firm based in Marietta, Ohio.

1995 Attorney Robin Miller, AB ’95, joined Stites & Harbison, PLLC law firm as a member (partner) at

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its Covington, Kentucky office. Cincy Magazine named George Zamary, BSC ’95, a 2021 Cincy Leading Lawyer, marking the third consecutive year he has made the list. He is the founder of George Zamary Law Firm, LLC.

1996 Andrea Vitner Brunet, BSED ’96, was named director of human resources at Ankrom Moisan design firm in Portland, Oregon. Timothy Kanke, BSC ’96, earned a doctoral degree in information from Florida State University this spring. His dissertation was titled, “Exploring the Knowledge Curation Work of Wikidata.”

1997 In August, J. Malcolm Smith, BSED ’97, MED ’99, joined Michigan’s Kalamazoo College as its new vice president for student development and dean of students.

1999 Kirk Burkley, BSC ’99, managing partner at Bernstein-Burkley, P.C., was named chairman of the American Board of Certification for 2021. Anna Kay Brokaw Rice, BBA ’99, was selected to serve on Ohio University’s College of Business Executive Advisory Board, which provides counsel and support to students, faculty and administration. She is the HR director business partner for the chief network

BOBCAT SIGHTINGS Mandy Miller Clark, BSHSL ’07, MAHSL ’09, and Joe Clark, BS ’05, MASHL ’08, took their family and Bobcat pride to Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve. CALLING ALL BOBCATS: We miss seeing you and sharing your adventures and OHIO spirit! Send “Bobcat Sightings” photos—with names, grad degrees and grad years—to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or to Ohio Today, Ohio University, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701-0869.

organization and chief digital and information organization at Frontier Communications and resides in Dallas, Texas.

2001 Mike Medley, BSEE ’01, and Matt Good, BSME ’02*, teamed up with Russ College of Engineering and Technology senior Daniel Abdelsamed to design, build, program and test a phone system that transcribes conversations in real time. Three patent applications have been filed for the technology designed to help individuals with hearing impairments.

2002 John Sammon, BBA ’02, MA ’10, launched This One Time in College, an e-commerce site that connects alumni with merchandise from their time in college. Sammon is the owner and CEO and fellow OHIO graduate Tristen Phipps, BSJ ’16, is the general manager of both This One Time in College and another e-commerce site, Shop Athens Ohio.

2004 In March, Diana DeCola Siemer, BA ’04, MA ’09, opened Happy Cows Group Share’s first store in Seven Hills, Ohio. Started in 2014,

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the business operates on a small share model, providing customized locally raised meat by the share rather than the cut and at bulk price, and has expanded to include other food and products made locally.

2005 Matthew Farren, BS ’05, moved to Wilmington, Delaware, and started a position as senior research investigator in small molecule pharmacology (oncology drug discovery) at Incyte Pharmaceuticals.

2007 Andrea Duchon Wien, BSJ ’07, is the co-founder of LADDER, a new retail clothing boutique that opened in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in May. The business combines sustainable, slow fashion from independent designers around the globe with locally-driven events featuring artists, musicians, chefs and more.

2010 Ben Ashman, BSEE ’10, was awarded a NASA Early Career Achievement Medal, honoring individuals for “unusual and significant performance” in the first 10 years of their career. He is an aerospace engineer in the Navigation and Mission Design Branch

FUTURE BOBCATS Say hello to third-generation Future Bobcat Aryanna Patel! Born in February 2020, she is the daughter of Akash and Katie Patel, BBA ’07, and the granddaughter of Karen Shorts Jackson, BSED ’69, and Mike Jackson, BSED ’68. The Green and White already runs deep with 3-year-old Isabel Stasko who— Grandfather Michael Stasko, BSED ’74, proudly reports— picks her own books and wardrobe. This Future Bobcat obviously has great taste!

Collins Talty is all geared up to become a Bobcat! The daughter of Morgan Zamary Talty, BSS ’06, and Jeffrey Talty, she was born in July 2020.

Bobcat tracks

Nicole Cvetnic, BSVC ’06, and Adam Nekola welcomed this Bobcat bundle of joy, Ellie K. Cvetnic-Nekola, into their family on June 24, 2020.

Nothing beats fall on OHIO’s picturesque College Green! Just ask Matthew, who took a fall trip to campus with Bobcat parents Jessica Lohner Lewis, BSJ ’12, and Kreg Lewis, BS ’18.

Three-year-old Charlie and 4-month-old Lucie are all ready to follow in the footsteps of parents Alyse Lamparyk, BSJ ’11, and Matt Bixenstine, BSJ ’05, MBA, MSA ’07.

Send your photos with names, grad degrees and grad years to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or to Ohio Today, Ohio University, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701-0869.

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at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

2011 Nicholas Piotrowicz, BSJ ’11, and Samantha Piotrowicz, BSED ’12, welcomed their first child, Jane Florence, into their Bobcat family on June 4, 2020.

2012 Marissa Fitzpatrick, BA ’12, was named an associate attorney at Robison, Curphey and O’Connell law firm in Toledo, Ohio. She joined

the firm in late 2020.

born May 21.

Christopher Myers, BA ’12, completed a 2021 Fellowship with the New Leaders Council, which trains promising millennial leaders across progressive policy, communications and more. He earned a master of science in social policy from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016.

2013

Alumni Amanda (Powell) Irwin, BSED ’12, and James Irwin welcomed another Bobcat into their family. James “JJ” Leonard Irwin Jr. was

JOIN THE BOBCAT NETWORK. Connect with lifelong OHIO friends and get ready to make new ones • Job listings by & for OHIO alumni • Bobcat-owned business directory • Career advice & mentoring

Kyle Ranally, BSJ ’13*, was selected to speak at the 2021 Ad World Conference, a global online gathering of social media and tech companies. He is a vertical insights marketing strategist at Facebook. Michael Rhoa, BSC ’13, was nominated for a 2021 Writers Guild Award for comedy/variety talk series for his work on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. He is an associate producer on the TBS series and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

2015 Jason Garczyk, BSAM, BSC ’15, was elected Belmont County (Ohio) Recorder in November 2020.

2017 Katie Harmon, BSFNS ’17, earned a Registered Dietitian license in August 2020. She is employed in the Columbus area.

2018

Alumni Association

bobcatnetwork.ohio.edu

In December, the Ripon Society and Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange honored Imani Edwards, BSS ’18, as one of the 2020 “Unsung Heroes of Capitol Hill” in her role as the scheduler

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and office manager for then-U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. Edwards is now the executive assistant to U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge. Crissy Nelson, AAS ’18, BCJ ’20, entered the Columbus Police Training Academy in June. Previously, she was a corrections officer.

2019 Allen McCall, AAS ’19, BCJ ’21, entered the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy in July to begin training to become a state trooper. Lucas Stemen, AAS ’19, joined the staff at Fairfield County (Ohio) Job and Family Services as a visitation monitor. Victoria Szafarski, BBA ’19, launched a new website and line of products for the business she founded, Words Wherever, an eco-friendly paper and planner business intent on empowering women to color the life they want. She resides in New York City.

2020 In December, Ohio University’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 650 commissioned Ethan

R. Black, BS ’20, and T. Aidan Pitts, BSA ’20*, as second lieutenants in the U.S. Air Force. Black, recognized as an ROTC Distinguished Graduate, serves as a weather officer. Pitts entered active duty and is serving as an aircraft maintenance officer.

entertainment and media industry-focused podcast called Meg in the Morning. A January episode featured an interview with fellow OHIO graduate Michael Downey, BSC ’99, a producer at 4G Vision. She resides in Los Angeles.

Julie Ciotola, BSJ ’20*, placed in the top 20 in the annual Hearst Audio Competition through the Hearst Journalism Awards Program for a series on journalism and trauma she created while studying journalism in Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College.

Dakota Tackett, BSED ’20, received a Fulbright scholarship grant to serve as an English teaching assistant in the Czech Republic, becoming the second Fulbright recipient in OHIO history to go to the country. He is the great-grandson of Waverly, Ohio residents Shirley and Bill Landman, AA ’83, BCJ ’89, who retired after 27 years with the U.S. Postal Service, including as a postmaster. Landman also served 32 years as a special deputy sheriff in Pike and Ross counties and 38 years in the military.

Five fall 2020 OHIO graduates were commissioned as second lieutenants in the United States Army. Tanner Cobleigh, BBA ’20*, serves with the U.S. Army Reserves Transportation Corps in Columbus. Ben Cohen, BSH ’20, serves with the Aviation Branch of the Washington National Guard at Camp Murray in Tacoma, Washington. Isaac Culbert, BSPEX ’20, and Riley West, BSM ’20, serve with the Aviation Branch at Fort Rucker in Alabama. Matthew Grebinoski, BSISE ’20, serves with the Field Artillery Branch at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

The work of designer, photographer and videographer Yujia Wang, MA ’20, was featured in a solo exhibition titled, In Search of Possibilities, at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens this past spring. —Compiled by Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ’23

Alumni Authors

Ohio University alumni publish books across subjects and genres. Here are releases within the last year. Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion, suspense/romance (Speaking Volumes), by George T. Arnold, PHD ’80 • The American Reality: Being a Black Alien in the White Man’s World, memoir (Independent), by Shaka Bello, MA ’12 • Social Media, Social Justice and the Political Economy of Online Networks, media and politics (University of Cincinnati Press), by Jeffrey Blevins, PHD ’01 • The Man in the Arena: Surviving Multiple Myeloma Since 1992, autobiographical health (Booklocker.com), by James D. Bond, BBA ’70 • The Eagle and The Condor, thriller/suspense (Independent), by Nate Falkoff, BSC ’13 • Unexpected Grace: A Journey of Love, Loss, and Peace, memoir (Independent), Deborah McVay Gilder, BSHSS ’73 • Find Your Happy at Work: 50 Ways to Get Unstuck, Move Past Boredom, and Discover Fulfillment, career and self-improvement (Career Press), by Beverly Jones, BSJ ’69, MBA ’75 • Answering Liberty’s Call: Anna Stone’s Daring Ride to Valley Forge, historical fiction (Fidelis Publishing), by Tracy Lawson, BSC ’88 • Raindrops to Rainbow, children’s picture book (Penguin Workshop), by John Micklos Jr., BSJ ’78 • Shadows and Loyalties, first two books in Scruples on the Line: A Fictional Series Set During the American Civil War (Resource Publications), by Evie Yoder Miller, MA ’94, PHD ’98 • Letters to Karen, memoir (Page Publishing Inc.), by Roger Schockling, BSSE ’60 • ReFocus: The Films of John Hughes, film studies (Edinburgh University Press), by Timothy Shary, MA ’92 • Sleep the Sleep of the Innocent: Three Death Row Men and Moral Lessons of Matthew 25 Parables, biblical exegesis and death row (Emeth Press), by Jim Slack, BA ’75 • The Dead Life, humorous horror (Atmosphere Press), by Matthew Sprosty, BFA ’04 • Rainbow Soup, fairytale for all ages (Von Hatten Publications), by Laura Hanks Stevens, BSJ ’79 • Heart Boss: Trust Your Gut, Shed Your Shoulds, and Create a Life You Love, self-help (Houndstooth Press), by Regan Walsh, BSC ’99 • Fight Sports and the Church: Boxing and Martial Arts Ministries in America, sports and church history (McFarland), by Richard Wolff, PHD ’92 • Bizarre PR and Doozie Newsies: True Stories from a Career in Words, memoir (Yohem Books), by Roger Yohem, BSJ ’77 Send your published work updates to ohiotoday@ohio.edu or Ohio University, Ohio Today, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701-0869.

Megan Shahroozi, BSC ’20, started an

Bobcat tracks

50 51

Remembering fellow alumni

1930s Richard F. Bertke, BSCOM ’38

1940s Kathryn (Halbedel) Ruzzo,

BSHEC ’40

Jeanne W. (Woollard) Chynoweth,

BSED ’41

Marjorie Helen (Smith) Hammond,

BSED ’42, MED ’61

Helen V. Schultheis, BSHEC ’42 Rosamond (Fox) Anderson

Wilson, BSHEC ’43, MED ’79

Elsie L. (Chinnock) Ruszkowski,

BFA ’46

Marjorie J. (Boman) Howell,

BSED ’47

Jane (Wamsley) Quinn, BSS ’47 William V. Szalay, BSED ’47, MED ’50 Harold R. Clark, BSCOM ’48 Harriett J. (Stine) Craven, AB ’48 Glendon Arthur, BSCOM ’49 Robert H. Dugan, BSCOM ’49 Herbert D. Hannum, AB ’49,

BSED ’50

Edgar B. Singleton, BS ’49, MS ’51

1950s Edward J. Chandler, BSIE ’50 Frederick S. English, BFA ’50 Audra J. (Zink) Evert, BSED ’50 Norman Hockman, BSAE ’50 Robert F. Monti, AB ’50 Donald B. Poling, BS ’50 Eugene L. Shaneyfelt, BSEE ’50 Mona Joan (Davis) Williams, AA ’50 Leila B. (Bennett) Alson, MA ’51 David E. Bell, BSCOM ’51 Nancy Jean (Byrd) Smith, BSED ’51 Jack N. Betts, BSCOM ’52 Elizabeth K. (Keating) Emrick,

BSJ ’52

Margaret J. (Marshall) Francis,

BFA ’52

Thaddeus D. McGuire, AB ’52

Richard L. Kirschner, BSJ ’60

Richard R. Duncan, AB ’54, MA ’55

Rosemary Hope (Griesmer) Lance,

William L. Haffner, BSCOM ’54

Rita (Martin) D’Angelo, BSJ ’55

Richard Lewis, BSCOM ’60

Marie (Davidson) Jordan, BFA ’56

James Weeks Jr., BSJ ’60

Richard A. Mariani, BFA ’56

William L. Baxter, BSCOM ’61

Donald Edward Miller, BSED ’56

Nancy E. Kopp, BSED ’61

Jack A. Nemec, BS ’56

Sara K. (Myers) Kottke, BS ’61

Marilyn Helen Paulsen, BA ’56

Edwin D. Kuehn, BS ’61

Earl Stahl, MS ’56

Robert F. Roberts, BS ’61

Richard E. Tanner, BSED ’56

David W. Schmidt, BSME ’61

Jerry L. Vandeveer, BSAGR ’56

Robert Zelvy, BSCOM ’61

Herbert E. Eglie, AB ’57

Irene G. (Wolff) Bandy-Hedden,

Richard L. Farrell, BSED ’57, MED ’58

Nancy J. (Wingo) Garrett, BSED ’57

Sue Ann (Lewis) Cummings,

James K. Reinker, BS ’57

Warren W. Worthley, BSME ’57

C. Dan Driesbach, BFA ’62

Nancy L. (Blackwood) Chubb,

Margaret (Lockeman) Eltzroth,

BFA ’58

BFA ’60

BSED ’62 BSHEC ’62

BSED ’62

Gabriel J. Desantis, BSED ’58

Richard S. Friedberg, BS ’62

Sharon (Belkofer) Farkas, BFA ’58

Gerald E. Kahler, BSCOM ’62

Mary M. Gaydos, BFA ’58

William R. Kirkendall, BSCOM ’62

John F. Kroner, BS ’58

Carl R. Midkiff, BSCOM ’62

Patricia L. (White) Napier, BSED ’58

Donald E. Olds, BBA ’63

Mary (Wolfe) Riley, AB ’58

Linden F. (Fisher) Ranels, AB ’63

Tom R. Shafer, BSEE ’58, MS ’64

Dorothy M. (Reese) Dunkle,

Christine D. (Doggette) Beran,

Philip R. Fawcett, BSED ’64

BSED ’59

BSED ’64

Glenna J. (Fitch) Brooks, BSED ’59

Lois J. (Davis) Reisman, BS ’64

Perry J. Eli, BSJ ’59

William L. Taraschke, BSED ’64

Mary Lou (Wichterman) Green,

Dale E. Wenger, MS ’64

William J. Bellack, BBA ’65

AB ’59

John H. Mueller, BSME ’59

Edward M. Collins, PHD ’65

Sidney Regen, BFA ’59

Paul R. Kistler, BBA ’65

Alfred T. Ruston, BBA ’59

Agnes L. Schubert, MED ’65,

Richard J. Spires, BSEE ’59

PHD ’74

Daryl W. Shumaker, BS ’65

1960s

John L. Alden, BBA ’66, MBA ’67

Charles T. Bole, BS ’60

Alva Dean Cramblett, BSCHE ’66

Robert T. Brinton, BSEE ’60

Roger D. Gerold, BBA ’66

John H. Butler, BS ’60, BSED ’61,

James Ronald Gill, BS ’66

Norman J. Rex, MED ’66

Richard E. Barr, BA ’66

MED ’66

Leroy A. Cranz, BSED ’60, MED ’68

Ron E. Ridinger, AA ’66, BS ’67

Robert G. Culp, BSME ’60

Roger B. Woodbury, BSCE ’66,

Michael Arnold Dickerson, BFA ’60

Carol Sissea Hoge, BSED ’60

Jeffrey R. Beeson, BBA ’67

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MS ’67

C. Kennon Fisher, BS ’67, MED ’72

Vivian Thomas, BSN ’77

Margaret N. Gibelman, AB ’67

Christine C. (Baker) Walter, BSED ’78

Karen (Kurtz) Harper, BA ’67

Mary B. (Stultz) Breiel, BSED ’79

Pegge (Elliott) McHugh, MS ’67

Greta A. Kreuz, BSJ ’79

Polly Ann (Homer) Piggins, BSED ’67 Roger K. Randolph, BSCE ’67

2010s Adam Timothy Bookman, BSH ’10 Ryan Paul Ratajik, BSIT ’10 Eric Braden Williams, BBA ’12 Douglas James Deardourff, MBA ’13

Cromer W. Smith, MED ’67

1980s

Steven J. Weyer, BSED ’67

Mariann Babnis, MA ’80

Wesley Lawrance Thompson,

June C. (Oren) Hahn, BSHEC ’68

Robin D. Braig, MSA ’80

Cheryl A. (Craig) Kennerk,

Bruce T. Heasley, BBA ’80

Kristin R. Hill, BSN ’17

Betty A. (Wilson) McClure, MED ’80

Annabelle Lee Jenkins, AAS ’17

BSED ’68

Andrew Jacob Nolan, BSS ’14 BBA ’16

James E. Gillespie, BSED ’69

Anna V. (Sellers) Gerken, BSN ’81

John O. Norquest, BSED ’69

Duane Morgan Starkey, BBA ’81

Kenneth E. Sinarski, BBA ’69

Gary P. Giovagnoli, DO ’83

2020s

Mark A. Stelzer, MS ’69

Douglas A. Gorsuch, BSC ’83

Amin Samir Baitamouni, BSCHE ’20

Gloria M. McElhaney, BSHSS ’83

Laiken Salyers, BSOHS ’20

1970s

G. Kenner Bush, HON ’84 Kent A. McCown, AS ’84

Paul R. Anderson, BBA ’70

Lynn M. Murray, BFA ’84

Faculty/Staff

Mary E. (Richards) Frantz, BSED ’70

Kenneth R. Joseph, BSC ’85

Kenneth Balch, Millfield, Ohio,

Byron R. McCorkle, BSED ’70

Nancy E. Thomas, BSED ’85

retired carpenter, March 18.

Laird T. Grant, BSCHE ’71

Mark Leonard Trankina, AAS ’86,

Margaret E. Irwin, BSHEC ’71

James C. Bryant, PHD ’69,

BSAS ’89

Lancaster, Ohio, vice provost

Vernon C. Reaves, BS ’71 Calvin E. Devol, BSED ’72 William E. Stanclift, PHD ’72 Sandra N. Starner, BSED ’72 Rose M. Tanoury, AAS ’72 Allyn C. (Smith) Brown, BSED ’73 Carol (Beyer) Dunlop, BSJ ’73 Robert M. Russell, BGS ’73 Gerald E. Adams, BSED ’74 Paul L. Adams, MAIA ’74 Steven R. Belcher, BSIT ’74 Michael D. Neff, BSC ’74 Harry W. Beggs, MED ’75 Deborah Allmandinger Ehler, AA ’75 Thomas A. Fidel, BGS ’75 Gary L. Riddle, BBA ’75

1990s

emeritus of Regional Higher

Bradley Scott Cummings, BBA ’90

dean of Lancaster Campus, April 9.

Steve S. Bodine, AA ’93 Leslie A. Johnson, AB ’93

Susan L. Chesser, Athens, Ohio,

Deborah A. Thomas, BSHCS ’93

retired library associate, Feb. 17.

Tonya Ann Perry-Marvin, AB ’94 Hallie Alicia Willard, BSS ’95

Donald E. Comer, Albany,

Mark Edward Conley, BSS ’96

Ohio, retired heating plant chief

Stephen Andrew Thompson, AA ’96,

engineer, Jan. 25.

AB ’97

Tamnina Scott Vargo, BSED ’96

James E. Davis, Athens, Ohio,

Thomas L. Woltz, AIS ’97

professor emeritus of English,

Linda L. (Goodwin) Cone, BSHCS ’98

Jan. 8.

Barbara D. (DeBord) Ley, BGS ’99 Ginger S. Dowler, The Plains, Ohio,

Harry E. Sowards, PHD ’75 David P. Van Meter, BSJ ’75 Elaine Alban, BSED ’76 Joseph Daniel Carrigan, BFA ’76 Neil S. Clark, BGS ’76, MA ’80 David Michael Sager, AB ’76, MSS ’99 Lawrence G. Wahl, MED ’76 Jason P. Ryan, BGS ’77

Education and former assistant

2000s

retired secretary, March 13.

Gina L. Cummings, MBA ’01

Frank Drews, Athens, Ohio,

Christopher Josef Ditz, AS ’01

assistant professor at the Center

Jessica Lea Embry, BMUS ’03,

for Scientific Computing and

Immersive Technologies, April 9.

MM ’05

Casey L. Junkins, BSS ’03

In memoriam

52 53

Patricia Fraze, Athens, Ohio,

Phyllis J. Knowlton, Albany,

Janice Marilyn Remonko, Granville,

former acting director of

Ohio, retired custodial worker,

Ohio, founder emerita of School of

conferencing and workshops,

Feb. 23.

Music Preparatory Division known today as the Athens Community

Nov. 21. William Kyle, Athens, Ohio, Samuel F. Gianettino, Zanesville,

retired equipment operator,

Ohio, retired maintenance worker,

Nov. 29.

Jerry L. Sloan, BSJ ’59, Davidson, North Carolina, professor emeritus

Dec. 5. Ragy G. Mitias, Athens, Ohio, John Glazer, Athens, Ohio, former

professor emeritus of education,

director of TechGROWTH Ohio

Jan. 3.

of journalism, Dec. 10. James H. Stephens, Statesboro, Georgia, former assistant professor

and senior executive in residence, Nov. 13.

Music School, Dec. 26.

David Moleski, Jacksonville,

of health administration, Feb. 4.

Ohio, retired plumber, Nov. 18. Harold R. Swardson, Fort Collins,

Judith Ann Graffius, The Plains, Ohio, former assistant professor of

Martha Jane Parish, Farmer City,

Colorado, professor emeritus of

botany and retired administrative

Illinois, retired administrative

English, Dec. 22.

assistant, March 23.

assistant, School of Music, Jan. 17. Mary Van Horn, McConnelsville, Ohio,

Joyce (Litton) Hamby, Athens, Ohio,

Edwin Curmie Price, MA ’64,

retired research librarian, Nov. 13.

Cleveland, Ohio, former faculty member in English Department,

Robert George Kappes, MED ’64,

April 23.

Athens, Ohio, assistant football coach emeritus, Nov. 26.

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retired food service supervisor, Dec. 3. —Includes individuals who passed away between Nov. 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021. Information provided by the University’s Office of Advancement Services.

MISSION STATEMENT Ohio Today informs, celebrates, and engages alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends of Ohio University. Publications Editor

Angela Woodward, BSJ ’98 Art Director

Sarah McDowell, BFA ’02 Contributors

Laura M. André Laura Bilson, BSVC ’23 Jalyn Bolyard Eli Burris, BSJ ’16 Nick Claussen, BSJ ’92 Jen Jones Donatelli, BSJ ’98 Adonis Durado, MFA ’20 Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01 John Grimwade, EMERT ’20 Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18 Carly Keeler Leatherwood, BSJ ’96 Kyle Lindner, BFA ’17 Anita Martin, BSJ ’05 Neal Mohr, BSC ’14 Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections Ohio University Press Kaitlyn Pacheco, BSJ ’17 Samantha Pelham, BA, BSJ ’17, MAA ’21 Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93 Jim Sabin, BSJ ’95 Peter Shooner Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02 Akbar Sultanov Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ’23 Ty Wright, BFA ’02, MA ’13

Ohio University President

Hugh Sherman

Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations & Executive Director of the Alumni Association

Erin Essak Kopp

Senior Director, Advancement Marketing Services

Sarah Filipiak, BSJ ’01

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Ohio Today is published two times a year. Its digital companion is ohiotoday.org. Both are produced by University Advancement, with funding from The Ohio University Foundation. Views expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff or University policies. Editorial office address: Ohio Today, Ohio University, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 457010869. Send questions, comments, ideas and submissions (such as Class Notes, photos of future Bobcats and information about books by Bobcats) to the above address, via email to ohiotoday@ohio.edu, or call Ohio Today at 740.593.2684. Make address changes at ohio.edu/alumni or by mail via Ohio University, Advancement Services, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 457010869. Send details for the “In Memoriam” column to the latter or via email to advinfo@ohio.edu. The OHIO switchboard is 740.593.1000.

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Last word Dr. Mario Grijalva, PHD ’97, joined the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine faculty in 1999 and has spent the past 15 years as director of OHIO’s Infectious and Tropical Disease Institute, established in 1987 to improve the health status of underserved populations.

20 million people were affected by the disease, yet I had not heard about it. So, that spiked my curiosity. I started looking into the disease in Ecuador and around the world and found that there was a lot of need for research, information and awareness about the disease.

An internationally recognized expert on the spread of infectious disease, he is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Chagas disease. The potentially lethal disease, transmitted by insects, affects millions primarily in Central and South America, including Grijalva’s native country of Ecuador. —Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ’23

As a child, what did you first want to be when you grew up? One of my earliest memories was wanting to be a superhero scientist. I would, in my imagination, help people through science. My parents encouraged me on that, especially my mom, and I became a biomedical researcher.

What made you want to dedicate so much of your work to combating Chagas disease? When I joined the laboratories at Ohio University, I learned about Chagas disease and the impact that it had on so many people. At the time, it was estimated that about

Visit ohiotoday.org to read about Grijalva, a professor of microbiology and, indeed, a superhero scientist who has built an international coalition, research facility and health initiative aimed at fighting disease while improving lives and communities.

From his Irvine Hall laboratory to Ecuador’s Center for Research on Health in Latin America, Dr. Mario Grijalva has dedicated his career to fighting infectious disease. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

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Ohio’s first university has added some more firsts to its history. Last spring, OHIO hosted the first Commencement ceremonies ever in Peden Stadium and the first outdoor Commencement since 1968, when the pomp and circumstance relocated from College Green to the newly opened Convocation Center. The University welcomed its 2020 graduates back to Athens on Sept. 5 for a long-awaited in-person Commencement and brought the pinnacle of Bobcats’ college journeys back to the College Green. Photo by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

Still more

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In a show of true Bobcat spirit, the Marching 110 leads the Class of 2025 up Richland Avenue—and through a downpour—to Alumni Gateway, marking the official start of their Forever OHIO experience and kicking off a school year we’ve all been waiting for. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC’02

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