Ohio Today fall 2022

ohiotoday

For ALUMNI and FRIENDS of OHIO UNIVERSITY

train tracks

Bobcat path

A new season—and many reasons—to celebrate

Dear OHIO Alumni,

As this issue of Ohio Today reaches alumni and friends around the globe, we are enjoying another memorable fall semester at Ohio University. Each fall, our campuses burst with energy, enthusiasm and events, accentuated by the scenic colors of the season.

This fall, we also have much to celebrate, and I am excited to share a few items with you today.

In January, Ohio University was designated as an R1 Research Institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (see page 5). This is a significant milestone for our University, placing OHIO as one of only 141 higher education institutions in the country to receive this recognition.

We also are celebrating tremendous enrollment growth. Our class of first-year students is among our largest ever, and it is a very strong class academically, too. After the many challenges of the past few years, it is rewarding to see so many students choosing Ohio University for their education. They are joining a strong, supportive community and will be making lifelong memories at OHIO, just as so many of you did.

We have made it easier to attend Ohio University through the OHIO Guarantee+ Program and the new OHIO Regional Promise for Fall 2022. As part of our commitment to the region, the OHIO Regional Promise for Fall 2022 allows qualifying regional campus applicants to earn an OHIO degree for free.

[ABOVE] The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Dublin hosted high school students from throughout Ohio at its annual Medical Academy Discovery Series, a four-day camp where students explore health care career opportunities. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02 [OPPOSITE] A big Bobcat welcome to OHIO’s Class of 2026, expected to be one of the largest first-year classes in the University’s history. Photo by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

This year, we are also celebrating the 50th anniversary of our Honors Tutorial College, which continues to receive national recognition for the many ways it serves our students. You can read more about the history and impact of the Honors Tutorial College on page 28.

I am now in my second year as president of Ohio University, and I am honored to be leading this unique institution that holds a special place in our hearts, our minds and the communities we serve. I am proud of all we are accomplishing together, and I am enthusiastic about our future.

Thanks to each of you for supporting and contributing to our University community. No matter when you graduated or where you may be living today, you are always a Bobcat. I hope that you will celebrate our good news with us, share your own good news with Ohio Today and enjoy this wonderful time of the year.

Proudly Forever OHIO,

Hugh Sherman President

@OHIO_President

Bobcat Beacons of Excellence

FROM PRESIDENT HUGH SHERMAN

OHIO’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as first in Ohio and 14th in the nation for the most graduates practicing primary care and is now the largest public medical school in the state with an enrollment of nearly 1,000 at campuses in Athens, Dublin and Cleveland.

And the health care programs at OHIO are growing to meet the needs of today’s students and communities. Nearly 30 percent of OHIO students are majoring in subjects related to health care.

Four OHIO alumni won 2022 Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of major news, continuing the long history Scripps College of Communication graduates have of winning journalism awards at the highest level. Since 1976, 84 alumni, students and faculty have won or contributed to teams that have won at least 55 Pulitzer Prizes.

Eight OHIO students and alumni have been selected as recipients for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and one OHIO alumnus was selected for a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant. Through the Fulbright program, these Bobcats will work to promote international, educational and cultural exchange in countries across the world.

The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame have placed former OHIO head football Coach Frank Solich on the 2023 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. It is a tremendous honor to be nominated, and we are proud to see Coach Solich’s name on the ballot.

05 A major mark of distinction

Ohio University rates among top research institutions in the nation

features

32 Born of Bobcat spirit

100 years of alumni support— from Memorial Auditorium to a record-breaking Giving Day

22

Sending in the Climate Sentinels

Alumna goes to the extremes in the name of exploration, education and the environment

40

Off the beaten track

Unprecedented career takes Bobcat around the world as a guardian of the rails

28

Still the first and only in the nation

Honors Tutorial College marks 50 years of nurturing a createyour-own-destiny experience

59

Still more 85 years in the waiting, Scott Quad time capsule and OHIO history are unearthed

ON THE COVER

In April 2021, three-time OHIO graduate Nina Adanin embarked on the first allfemale, first carbon-neutral research expedition in the High Arctic, traveling only by foot and ski across 300 miles of glaciers, fjords and snowy peaks.

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

Thirty years after the last train rolled through campus, Bobcats travel the same route as the steam and diesel engines of a bygone era (page 34).

by

Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

History meets artistry

The article “History meets artistry” (Spring 2022 issue) stirred memories of my first part-time job in high school on a weekly paper using both hand-set type and a Linotype machine. That’s when I got “printer’s ink” in my blood.

The journey continued in the basement of Copeland Hall where California job cases filled with hand-set type challenged us to learn fonts, faces, picas, etc. An internship on a daily paper and my first job after college on a weekly paper also demanded knowledge and ability to handset type, etc.

It was not until I was assigned to a psychological operations unit in the U.S. Army that I came face

to face with offset. While it was exciting, it did not have the magic of hand-set. But I found myself in charge of an offset printing detachment “armed” with [a range of] presses.

More recently, I have volunteered at a local museum to do some limited hand-set type and print postcards on an aging Chandler & Price press made in Cleveland. It’s fun to pull out a job case filled with individual letters and tell youngsters it’s a version of a keyboard filled with all the characters but only in one face, size, etc. Then I show them how it is transformed on to the press and, with great pressure on the foot pedal, hand them a printed card.

—Gordon L. Jones, BSJ ’63

In the late 1960s, Karen Nulf was brand new to the graphic design department at Seigfred Hall. She brought a giant steamer chock-full of wood block type she had secured. I still have five of those pieces of history. I also cherish the thousands of hours I spent on that magnificent side hill.

I want to thank Professors Smith, Nulf, Eldridge, Hostetler and all other professors who directed me to a future. —Christopher Newell, BFA ’68, via ohiotoday.org

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 Today, Ohio University, 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.

1 2 What’s new at OHIO U.

UPDATING OHIO’S HOUSING MASTER PLAN

OHIO is updating its Housing Master Plan, a financial and physical roadmap that will guide future investments in the Athens on-campus residence hall living experience. The plan, developed with input from students and parents and last updated about 10 years ago, is expected to be finalized this fall.

NEW UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DEAN

Dr. David Nguyen is the new dean of University College. He previously served as associate professor of higher education and student affairs in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, interim associate dean for research and graduate studies in the Patton College of Education and the provost’s faculty fellow for student success.

3

NEW PLAZA ON COLLEGE GREEN

A new plaza honoring the National Pan-Hellenic Council— composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities, which have had a presence at OHIO for over a century—is being installed near the Wilhelm Amphitheater outside Scripps Hall on College Green. A ribbon-cutting is being planned for the spring.

‘A major mark of distinction’

In January, Ohio University was named an R1 institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing OHIO in the top tier of research universities nationally.

Institutions holding the Carnegie R1 designation—141 in the nation and only five in Ohio—are recognized for “very high research activity” as measured by expenditures supporting research and development, conferral of research doctoral degrees and employment of Ph.D.-level personnel engaged in research.

[ABOVE] As a first-year student, Emily Marino, BS ’22 (HTC), joined Dr. Ronan Carroll’s lab, researching the bacterial pathogen that causes staph infections. Marino’s work earned funding from OHIO, a 2021 Goldwater Scholarship and a 2022 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant, allowing her to conduct research in Germany this year.

Photo by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

“This distinction further increases the value of a degree from Ohio University, serves as an impressive recruiting tool and builds upon the extraordinary sense of pride felt by OHIO’s students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends,” President Hugh Sherman says. “This recognition also helps OHIO to attract additional outstanding faculty and more research dollars, which will ultimately lead to innovation and discovery to the benefit of our students and the global society.”

Ohio University rates among top research institutions in the nation

In addition to placing OHIO in a position to receive larger research grants, Carnegie R1 status has a significantly positive impact on the overall perception of the University.

“Designation as an R1 institution is a major mark of distinction for Ohio University,” Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Sayrs says. “We are proud that OHIO’s long-standing commitment to excellence in advancing knowledge for the benefit of society at large is now recognized through the Carnegie Classification.”

This is a truly remarkable accomplishment that affirms OHIO’s status as a high-quality institution of higher learning and exemplifies its commitment to excellence in research and discovery as well as the broader student experience.

OHIO’s efforts to expand the frontiers of knowledge are deeply intertwined with the opportunities it provides to students at all levels through their academic programs. The success of those efforts is reflected in record-setting undergraduate participation in research experiences and in graduates of master’s and doctoral programs who have achieved international recognition, including a Nobel Prize.

The University is investing in new programs and initiatives to ensure that the institution remains at the forefront of discovery and innovative academic programs. Examples include hiring new faculty across multiple colleges in focused areas related to diabetes, pain, aging and health disparities while also creating new interdisciplinary degree programs in environmental science and sustainability and in data science and analytics. —Carly Keeler Leatherwood, BSJ ’96

From campus to communities and industries near and far, OHIO research and creative activity is advancing global knowledge and inventiveness, allowing Bobcats to transcend from learners to originators and positioning them to leave their mark on the world.

Dr. Bekka Brodie and OHIO Honors Program student and actuarial science major Claire Keiser examine mosquito pupae developing inside tires awaiting disposal at an Athens County site. Brodie brought Keiser, an aspiring statistician looking to broaden her studies from theoretical statistics to applied statistics, into her lab to develop models and predictions based on mosquito data collected by health departments across Ohio, several of which employ OHIO students to conduct their summer surveillance programs.

Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

scenes

Whether behind or in front of the camera, OHIO students are creating visual experiences that benefit campus, community and their future careers while bridging the gap between theory and practice. [BELOW] Student filmmakers put their production skills, resourcefulness and teamwork to the test to produce the best short video—under an extreme deadline—during the 48-Hour Shootout. Photo by

Laura Bilson, BSVC ’23 [TOP RIGHT] Matt Love, MFA ’18, immersive media production manager at the Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Lab, captures the sights and sounds at a local nature preserve that is part of the OHIO Museum Complex. The GRID Lab and researchers in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine partnered with OhioHealth on a tranquil virtual reality simulation

designed to relieve the stress levels of health care workers, the positive results of which were published in PLOS ONE journal and featured on CBS News.

Photo by Carrie Love, MFA ’18 [BOTTOM RIGHT] College of Fine Arts student Lexie Tillery puts her acting skills in action for a GRID Lab student-produced virtual reality training video for OHIO faculty, staff and graduate students. Photo by Laura Bilson, BSVC ’23

“We track the number of undergraduates who do research and creative activity, and over the last 10 years, that number has tripled.”

—Dr. Roxanne Malé-Brune, director of grant development and projects

Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Willem Roosenburg has been studying and spearheading conservation efforts for diamondback terrapins for decades. Each summer, he takes a research team of OHIO students to a Chesapeake Bay island—a living laboratory where they learn about and engage in ecosystem monitoring and restoration.

Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC

Ohio University houses more than 1,000 research lab spaces on the Athens Campus and resides in communities that offer place-based research experiences. Its University Libraries is a long-standing member of the Association of Research Libraries, the top 120-plus research libraries in North America.

[LEFT] Undergraduates in OHIO’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers tackle what may seem like an engineering impossibility: designing, building and racing a concrete canoe. The competition builds skills in design, innovation, fabrication, teamwork and project management, but it all starts with research. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

[CENTER] Researchers in Dr. Dustin Grooms’ lab, including [FROM LEFT] doctoral student Amber Schnittjer and research associate Byrnadeen Farraye, are using 3D motion capture to better understand how the body moves and how the brain activates those movements—all as a means of preventing non-contact injuries. Grooms, an associate professor of physical therapy, was awarded more than $1 million in National Institutes of Health funding for this research.

by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

[RIGHT] University Libraries’ collection spans more than 3 million print and electronic volumes and world-renowned special collections, offering physical and digital access to unique primary research sources.

by Laura Bilson, BSVC ’23

[ABOVE]

Students in The Principles of Brewing Science capstone course integrate fundamental concepts of biochemistry, physiology, microbiology and plant biology—by designing craft beer recipes.

Local brewer Jackie O’s decided to put “Sun Tea,” an English IPA Francesca Carney, BSCHE ’22, crafted for the course, into production. [OPPOSITE] In Angela Sprunger’s ART 4960 capstone course, students met with a committee of Genesis HealthCare System

employees to design—and then painted—a mural for a privacy fence outside Genesis Hospital’s pediatric unit in Zanesville. The activity received support from an OHIO Undergraduate Experiential Learning Stewardship Grant, and the students presented their work at the University’s 20 th Student Research and Creative Activity Expo (see page 42).

by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

OHIO’s capstone general education requirement immerses students in research, synthesizing the knowledge gained over the course of their studies and—often—an opportunity to contribute to life outside of campus.

Trails blazed, legacies paved

Elmore “Mo” A. Banton and George E. Reid, BGS ’90, MSPE ’91, made their marks at OHIO and beyond, helping teams to victory and paving the way for future generations of Bobcats. In September, each was awarded the Ebony Bobcat Network’s Trailblazer Award at Ohio University’s 2022 Black Alumni Reunion.

ELMORE “MO” A. BANTON

Elmore “Mo” A. Banton first made Ohio University history in 1964, winning the NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country Championship—50 yards ahead of his closest rival—and becoming OHIO’s first NCAA cross country champion.

He went on to coach the OHIO cross country and track and field teams for 23 years, earning 20 Coach of the Year honors and guiding the Bobcats to 10 MAC titles, 14 All-Ohio championships and six Central Collegiate crowns.

Elmore “Mo” A. Banton outpaces 180 of the country’s top runners to win the 1964 NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country Championship, making OHIO history for the first—but not last—time. Photo courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives

Special Collections

Banton’s hire marked another historic moment for Ohio University: the first African-American head coach of any sport.

“I was so scared when I first took that job because, being the first Black coach at Ohio University, I didn’t want to flub it. This was 1980,” he explains. “The second time I was scared was when I took over the women’s program [in 1986]. I was really scared! I decided, I’m going to coach them just like I do the men.”

He says his coaching mantra revolved around three words: “MAGIC: Making A Greater Individual Commitment. TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More. And PRIDE: Positive mental attitude, Respect, Intensity, Discipline, Enthusiasm.”

An Akron native, Banton had been eyeing another state university or considering enlisting in the Army. Former OHIO Track & Field Head Coach Stan Huntsman, MS ’56, “one of the greatest coaches of all time,” Banton says, called him and persuaded him to come to OHIO.

Huntsman proved to be more than just a coach in Banton’s eyes. “I admired Coach Stan Huntsman. He was a tremendous mentor for me. That’s what made me want to coach.”

As an OHIO student, George E. Reid [RIGHT] excelled on the court, playing basketball for the Bobcats from 1985-89. As a graduate, he was a champion for higher education, including at his alma mater. Photo courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

GEORGE E. REID

George E. Reid’s early days at Ohio University, including his successful career playing men’s basketball for OHIO 1985-89, “laid the foundation for his entire life,” says Karla Reid, BSJ ’93, of her husband, who died in 2015. “That’s why he was determined to give back in big and small ways wherever he was and with whomever he met.”

In July 1991, Reid was hired by the Ohio University Alumni Association to oversee major alumni initiatives. He is credited with transforming the Black Alumni Reunion into a signature event that welcomes thousands of Black Bobcats back to campus every three years.

“George understood that it’s the people in your life who can make an enormous difference, inspiring you to take on a new challenge, overcome adversity

or make a different choice,” Karla says. “He wanted to be that person who made a difference in people’s lives, and he was."

His efforts on behalf of higher education continued at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he was named Fundraiser of the Year in 1998. From there, his career as a fundraiser supporting students, faculty and programs took him to American University, Syracuse University, and the University of Southern California, where he served as assistant vice president for campus initiatives.

“George and I met at Ohio U, and our love took root and blossomed in Athens …,” Karla remembers. “Everything he did was about our sons, Quinn and Devin—now 17 and 15, respectively. Every single day was about teaching our sons how to grow up to be confident, caring and intelligent Black men.”

—Sarah Filipiak, BSJ ’01

World culture and the arts collide during Ohio University’s second Global Arts Festival, which brought guests from around the world to campus for six days of workshops, lectures, exhibitions, a symposium and performances, culminating in the 10th World Music and Dance Concert on March 26. Photo by Joe Timmerman, BSVC ’23

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.

Mission accomplished. History made. Larry Connor, AB ’72, has made Ohio University and world history—and hundreds of headlines around the Earth he spent 17 days orbiting. In April, Connor piloted Axiom Mission 1, the first fully-private mission to the International Space Station, where he conducted experiments in collaboration with the Mayo and Cleveland Clinics and engaged in live broadcasts with schoolchildren. He is the first Bobcat to travel to space and the first person to travel to the deepest points of the ocean and to space within a single year.

A tough act to follow Chuck Cooper, BFA ’76, made big news in the theater world, receiving his second Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play. Nominated for his role as Sheldon Forrester in the decades-in-the-making Broadway debut of Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind, Cooper won a 1997 Tony Award for his performance in The Life.

From Ukraine to Athens—and back

Just three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, as millions started fleeing the country, OHIO MFA candidates Oleksandr (Les) Yakymchuk and Olena Zenchenko returned to their home city of Kyiv to support their families and country. Their story, captured in a short documentary by fellow MFA candidate Akash Pamarthy, was shared by numerous media outlets, including CNN.

OHIO at the heart of Ohio tourism ad

Ohio University—its historic College Green and heartwarming Cutler Hall chimes—took center stage in a TourismOhio commercial, dubbed “Big Moments,” that debuted in April. OHIO graduates Doug Edwards, BSC ’73, Roth Foth Jr., BFA ’88, and Ron Foth III, BSC ’21—members of the creative team at Ron Foth Advertising—created, directed and produced the video.

A front-page ending to a successful career

The retirement of Dr. Joyce Dorsey Kenner, BSED ’78, was front-page news in The Chicago Tribune. In an article headlined, “An academic legacy, and prominent

Larry Connor, AB ’72, looks back at planet Earth from the cupola of the International Space Station during April’s history-making Axiom Mission 1. Photo courtesy of Michael López-Alegría

post,” the newspaper highlighted Kenner’s nearly 27 years of service as principal of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, described as one of the top high schools in the country.

OHIO research takes aim at fertilizer crisis

In May, The Washington Post highlighted Russ College of Engineering and Technology faculty Jason Trembly, BSCHE ’03, MS ’05, PHD ’07, director of OHIO’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (ISEE), and Damilola Daramola, BSCHE ’04, PHD ’11, ISEE assistant director for research. They are leading U.S. Department of Energy-funded research exploring

the converting of wastewater into fertilizer, which could help address the rising cost of synthetic fertilizers that have become key to global food production.

A federal advisor and champion for inclusivity

As an OHIO student, Jordyn Zimmerman, BSS ’20, was an advocate for inclusivity on campus. In March, President Joe Biden appointed Zimmerman, who has autism and uses technology to communicate, to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, serving as a federal advisor to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on matters related to persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sending in the sentinels

Alumna goes to the extremes in the name of exploration, education & the environment

The most memorable of great communicators all have one thing in common: passion. This essential ingredient helps bring even the most commonplace of topics to life, lending a surge of energy to the speaker’s words and moving the listener to take action. For Nina Adanin, MSRSS ’18, MED ’20, PHD ’20, that topic—and her passion— is climate change and protecting endangered environments.

Three-time OHIO graduate Nina Adanin served as “the bridge between science and the general public” on a history-making 300mile research expedition in the High Arctic.

Photo by Heidi Sevestre

“No one is perfect, of course, but what we can do is try—for nature, for flora, for oceans, for mountains— because we need to protect it as much as we can,” says Adanin, a three-time Ohio University Patton College of Education graduate.

Adanin has the credentials—and the experiences—to back up her words.

In April 2021, after dozens of trips to extreme environments as a high-altitude mountain guide and later as a researcher, Adanin embarked on a fiveweek expedition in the High Arctic as part of the first all-female research expedition in Svalbard, halfway between Norway and the North Pole. And if the 300mile trek wasn’t already extreme enough, the expedition was carefully conceived to be the first that was carbonneutral, requiring the researchers—four women from four countries—to travel only by foot and ski.

Designated the “Climate Sentinels,” the expedition’s mission was twofold. The first was gathering samples of snow, so scientists could measure concentrations of black carbon, or soot, emitted from sources around the world. Wind currents sweep black carbon toward the poles, contributing to a cycle of increased temperatures and severe weather events that, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned earlier this year, requires “urgent action” to stop irreversible damage.

That need for action inspired the second part of the Climate Sentinels’ mission: documenting the expedition in a way that people could see the effects of climate change on this harsh environment few will ever experience firsthand. That’s where Adanin—and the expertise she began developing at OHIO as a communicator and educator skilled in immersive experiences—came into play.

[OPPOSITE] Nina Adanin and her fellow “Climate Sentinels” collect snow samples in one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. [RIGHT] A member of the first carbon-neutral research expedition to the polar regions, Adanin still managed to pack a little Bobcat pride, posing with an OHIO flag that made the journey with her. Photos by Heidi Sevestre

“I was the bridge between science and the general public and how we can use technology to tell the story of what is happening,” Adanin explains of her role in the Climate Sentinels.

Adanin and her fellow scientists and explorers relied on immersive technology like small drones and 360-degree cameras, stored near their bodies to be kept warm as they skied for hundreds of miles in temperatures that, at their warmest, only reached about 6 degrees Fahrenheit. When pausing to gather snow samples, they would deploy the drone for five precious minutes at a time, the longest the electronics could function in the near-zero temperatures.

“Any picture is great, but through the use of technology, you are present there,” says Adanin. “And maybe you can understand better how small you are compared with glaciers or polar bears.”

The journey was extreme by any metric, but in many ways, Adanin had been preparing for it her entire life.

Born in Germany, she moved in early childhood to live with her grandparents in Bosnia, where the plentiful mountain ranges sparked a love of nature. That grew into a love of mountain climbing in Serbia, where her family relocated when Adanin was 10 years old because of ongoing wars in the region.

The hobby blossomed into a career of sorts, leading Adanin to become a high-altitude mountain guide,

shepherding expeditions up some of the world’s tallest peaks, including Mount Everest and the greater Himalayas. It was during one of those trips that she saw something shocking—or rather, the lack of something.

“There was no snow. I mean it was dry; it was pure rock.” And if that was the case here, Adanin wondered, “What is happening with the rest of the world? That’s when something triggered in my mind that something is happening with nature.”

If only everyone could see what she saw, Adanin thought. She decided the answer was to pursue degrees in higher education, and nine years after completing her bachelor’s degree in Serbia, she enrolled in OHIO’s Patton College of Education. She started out in outdoor and recreational studies, then decided a doctorate in instructional technology was the best way to “share that story with the world.” At the same time, her passion for statistics led her to pursue a second master’s degree in educational research and evaluation.

It was a two-week trip to the Arctic that Adanin took during her first year as a doctoral student that showed her just how powerful technology could be. Using time-lapse and 360 cameras provided by OHIO’s Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Lab, Adanin was able to record glacier movement.

“You look in one direction, and you can hear the sound of a moving glacier. Then you turn, and you can see it,”

she says. “But it’s really dangerous for most people to be there in person, so this allows them to be there in a safe way.”

After returning from their expedition, Adanin and the other Climate Sentinels have shared their experience with dozens of elementary schools around the world, including students in Athens.

“They always ask about the polar bears,” Adanin says with a laugh, but the goal of this outreach is to inspire the students to be agents of change and to do things that will make a difference in the world. In moments she’s overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge, it’s these discussions that give Adanin hope.

“It’s unbelievable how great some of their ideas are,” Adanin says of her interactions with young students.

“Sometimes I believe they have better ideas than us, and that’s why we should allow them to be

more creative and think about these big problems because the future is in their hands.”

But before handing the baton off to the next generation of scientists and communicators, Adanin has more work to do. An assistant professor at Northwest Missouri State University, she is already planning her next research endeavor: a December trip to Indonesia to study tropical glaciers, whose high-altitude peaks are a vital source of water for local communities. The team Adanin is working with is coordinating its efforts with local scientists who can continue the work after they have departed, empowering communities to protect the forces of nature that sustain them and the greater world.

“We want more people to be the voice of glaciers and nature,” Adanin says. “If something is your passion, it’s easy to do.” –Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18

INSIDE ADANIN’S ADVENTURES

Her 2021 expedition to the High Arctic may have been one of the most extreme journeys of her life, but it certainly wasn’t Nina Adanin’s first time in uncharted territory.

Breadth of her travel and work: “Of the continents, I’m just missing Australia. And I’m just missing three U.S. states.” Trip she’d most like to repeat: Climate Sentinels because it was so different—there are other people going to the Himalayas, for example, she says—and had such potential for impact. “It was just us in the Arctic.”

Most challenging trip: 2013 expedition in Pakistan. The Taliban attacked the group she was traveling with, killing 11 of the climbers. Adanin escaped by hiding behind a rock. “The biggest dangers and threats on mountains are humans.”

Most educational trip: Her upcoming December trip to Puncak Jaya in East Indonesia to study one of the last tropical glaciers. “I’ve been climbing mountains for 20 years. Two years ago I learned about tropical glaciers, and they are all almost gone.”

Nina Adanin has conquered the tallest mountains on Earth, but her 2013 expedition up Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat was cut short by a deadly Taliban attack.

POET, MENTOR, LEADER, BOBCAT

Alumna Kari Gunter-Seymour holds Athens & Appalachia close to her heart

Each year the Ohio University Press and its literary imprint, Swallow Press, publish around 40 titles, but it’s rare when a book’s author and subject are as close to home as they are with Kari Gunter-Seymour’s second book of poems, Alone in the House of My Heart.

Gunter-Seymour, BFA ’94, MA ’16, hails from a family rooted nine generations deep in Appalachia. Hers is the third generation to call Athens County home. Her award-winning poetry sings of local culture, family and community.

Currently in her second term as Ohio’s poet laureate, GunterSeymour is the author or editor of several books and has won numerous awards and fellowships. Her photographs have garnered nationwide acclaim, too.

Gunter-Seymour gives back as a community leader. She is the founder and executive director of the Women of Appalachia Project, founder and host of the Spoken & Heard series at Stuart’s Opera House, and she helms writing workshops for incarcerated people and for those in recovery.

Her generosity shows in a poem from her latest book. Its details might sound familiar to those who have called Athens home:

“THE WHOLE SHEBANG UP FOR DEBATE”

Today I gave a guy a ride, caught in a cloudburst jogging down East Mill Street. Skinny, backpacked, newspaper a makeshift shield, unsafe under any circumstances. I don’t know what possessed me.

I make bad decisions, am forgetful, cling to structure and routine like static electricity to polyester, a predicament of living under the facade I always add to myself.

Said he needed to catch a GoBus, shaking off droplets before climbing in. He gabbed about Thanksgiving plans, his mom’s cider basted turkey, grandma’s pecan crusted pumpkin pie.

It was a quick masked ride. Bless you, he said, unfolding himself from the car. No awkward goodbyes, no what do I owe you? Just Bless you and a backward wave.

At the stop sign, my fingers stroked the dampness where he sat minutes before. Sometimes life embraces you so unconditionally, it shifts your body from shadow into a full flung lotus of light.

—Laura M. André is the publicity coordinator at the Ohio University Press.

Image courtesy of the Ohio University Press

Illustrations by Andrea Ucini

Still the first & only

The Honors Tutorial College marks 50 years of nurturing a create-your-own-destiny experience

“Extremely brilliant.”

That’s how Dr. Jairo Sinova, BS ’94, describes the fellow Honors Tutorial College students and professors who surrounded him as an Ohio University undergraduate. It’s high praise coming from an OHIO graduate and theoretical physicist who is one of the world’s leading experts in spintronics, an emerging field that is driving the next generation of electronics memory and processing.

Sinova is the founding director of the Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center at Johannes Gutenberg University, where he also serves as an Alexander von Humboldt Professor, the most highly endowed research award in Germany. Among his accolades, Sinova has earned a National Science Foundation Career Award, and his work has been cited in peerreviewed literature more than 20,000 times. But, he will tell you, it all traces back to OHIO’s Honors Tutorial College (HTC).

“That’s what defined my career. The undergraduate experience is just beyond belief,” says Sinova, who, as an HTC student, tackled increasingly complex physics problems, engaged in one-on-one tutorials with many professors, taught an astronomy course and conducted summer research at other universities.

Now that he is a professor, Sinova has a renewed appreciation for HTC’s signature tutorials. “It’s not just beneficial for the students; it really energizes the professors,” he says. “How [Ohio University] pulled it off, I have no idea.”

Fifty years ago, Ohio University did pull it off, establishing HTC, which remains the first and only

degree-granting, tutorial-based, public honors college of its kind in the U.S. Based largely on the tutorial model at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England, HTC’s hallmark feature is the faculty-student tutorial, conducted one on one or in small groups. Students often take the lead in creating the tutorial curriculum, which allows for independent study in areas in which no current ‘on the books’ course is offered. In addition to participating in tutorials, HTC students have fewer prerequisites, opening the doors for them to direct their own education on a larger scale.

After HTC’s inception in 1972, the first class of 32 students arrived in fall 1973. Since then, more than 2,000 alumni have each gone on to make their mark on the world. They include Laura Brege, AB, BBA ’78, whose career spans C-suite positions and advisory roles to several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies; NBA sideline reporter Allie LaForce, BSJ ’11; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joe Mahr, BSJ ’94; Golden Globe-nominated actress Piper Perabo, BFA ’98; and former NASA lead scientist and current Dean of the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology Lori Ploutz-Snyder, BS, MS ’89, PHD ’94. Dr. Keith Hawkins, BS ’13, went directly from HTC to Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar and then became an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin while still in his twenties.

“They want to be the difference,” Dean Dr. Donal Skinner, who himself taught tutorials at Cambridge while completing his doctorate in biology, says of HTC’s students and graduates. That character trait, Skinner says, hasn’t changed over the past 50 years, and neither has the college’s tried-and-true tutorial method.

“This notion of a student or small group of students learning alongside a committed faculty member who is

doing this work because they want to—that learning journey and that process has been very timeless,” says Cary Roberts Frith, BSJ ’92, MS ’98. An HTC graduate, Frith has also served the college as a tutor, thesis advisor, chief administrative and financial officer, associate dean and interim dean and says the rigor and self-directness of the tutorial system is not for everyone. “It’s a particular learner who wants to work in collaboration with the faculty and to do original research and creative activity.”

A few things have changed over the years. While HTC initially offered 10 programs of study, today students have access to more than 30 programs. And, along the line, HTC introduced a thesis requirement in which students complete a thesis or comparable professional project. Theses have covered everything from antibiotic resistance to LGBTQ and environmental movements. Another change is that today students take a first-year seminar together, preparing and empowering them for the rigors of a tutorial education.

Yet the heart of HTC is the same. “I’ve never seen another program that gives students as much agency over their own education,” Skinner says. “I think that model of education is so powerful that this is the major draw for those individuals to come here.”

As an undergraduate, Bruce Burtch, BGS ’72, was a student in OHIO’s Honors College, which debuted in fall 1964, contributing to honors programming at the University that dates back as far as the 1940s. In 1970, he participated in an English literature summer session at Oxford’s Trinity College and returned to Athens, acclaiming the institution’s tutorial system, particularly to one of his professors, the late Ellery Golos.

Golos helped secure a scholarship for Burtch to return to England in fall 1971 to study the Oxford and Cambridge tutorial system. In 1972, Golos submitted a proposal to President Claude Sowle for a “tutorial system” at OHIO, crediting Burtch for investigating the system of Oxford and Cambridge and suggesting adaptations for implementation at Ohio University. In his proposal, Golos

postulated that a tutorial system at OHIO could “provide the best education for the highly gifted, highly motivated undergraduate student, and, strangely enough, can do so at less cost than the best alternatives.”

“Ellery shared my enthusiasm,” Burtch says, giving Golos credit for “all the heavy lifting” required to launch HTC, which built on previous honors programming to add the tutorial component. Golos became HTC’s first director, serving from 1972-77.

After a long career in marketing, Burtch today is executive director of Social Impact Productions, a nonprofit he founded, but one of his proudest accomplishments is the hand he played in inspiring HTC. “To see it 50 years later, I feel so deeply honored to know that I played a role in that.”

As for the next 50 years, administrators hope to see more diversity, and Skinner is committed to growing the Honors Tutorial College Study Abroad Endowment, established in 2021 by K. Ann Shafer Cousins, BSED ’71, and Jack Cousins, so that every HTC student can access funding to study, research or volunteer abroad.

As an HTC student, Taylor Mirfendereski, BSJ ’14, received University funding to pursue her capstone professional project, Glass Half Empty: An American Water War, a documentary that aired on WOUB Public Media. To report the documentary, she spent more than a year following six Northeast Pennsylvania families dealing with the fallout from fracking and its impact on drinking water. Prior to this project, Mirfendereski pitched a tutorial in which she analyzed two network documentaries about Southeast Ohio.

“That helped me think about what makes a journalism documentary work, (to) think about the material in a different way,” she says. “It was something I was interested in that wasn’t in a normal journalism curriculum.”

Today, Mirfendereski is an investigative multimedia journalist for KING 5 News in Seattle, where she has won two Peabody Awards and nine Emmy Awards.

“The untraditional side of HTC helped me land untraditional roles in my professional career, which is how I found success,” she says. “You create your own destiny. Honestly, that’s the thing HTC is all about.”

—Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93

A GROWING OHIO HONORS & SCHOLARS

COMMUNITY

Alongside Ohio University’s highly selective Honors Tutorial College—which boasted record enrollment last fall—is a growing OHIO Honors Program, providing high-promise students four years of academic enrichment inside and outside of the classroom.

Fully launched in fall 2019, today nearly 8 percent of undergraduates on the Athens Campus are enrolled in the OHIO Honors Program, which is open to all majors and being extended to the University’s regional campuses.

Working with dedicated honors advisors, students in the program participate in honors courses and small group seminars or honors projects in traditional courses while supplementing their studies through community engagement, research and creative activity, and leadership experiences. The four-year program culminates with a capstone portfolio, in which students showcase and share the skills and knowledge they acquired. Students who complete the program earn honors designations on their OHIO transcripts and diplomas.

For senior nutrition science major Eunice Prasojo, it was the program’s required first-year Engagement Lab that allowed her to expand her horizons and establish a legacy on campus.

“My peers and I were able to create the Global Buddies Program that focuses on creating a welcoming environment for international students,” says Prasojo, an international student from Indonesia. “The creation of this program has opened many doors to various opportunities for me.”

This fall, the University is launching the 1804 Scholars Program, a new residential scholars program focused on university engagement and personal well-being.

Born of Bobcat spirit

100 YEARS OF ALUMNI SUPPORT—FROM MEMAUD TO GIVING DAY

On May 16, 1922, thousands of Ohio University alumni across the country gathered in small groups for dinner, and to mark a landmark occasion. Dubbed “Ohio University Day,” this event 100 years ago kicked off OHIO’s fundraising campaign to build what is now TempletonBlackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium—the first alumni campaign of its kind in the University’s history.

The desperately needed auditorium would require the University to raise $300,000, or $104 from every graduate. And that’s what happened: Gifts from more than 3,100 alumni brought the campaign over the finish line, and in 1928, “MemAud” forever became part of College Green and the OHIO experience.

This April, almost exactly one century later, Bobcats around the world celebrated OHIO Giving Day and another first, raising a record $865,877

From hosting

dignitaries

Commencement ceremonies [ABOVE] and today’s

Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium

Visit give.ohio.edu to support the Ohio University experience, and join your fellow Bobcats in celebrating Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29 and OHIO Giving Day 2023 on April 18.

from 2,041 donors in just 24 hours. These generous gifts will go on to fund experiential learning programs, research, internships, co-curricular activities and more for the next generation of Bobcats, experiences that will endure long after their time at OHIO.

In this way, today’s gifts will have an impact as permanent as the walls of Memorial Auditorium, named in honor of John Templeton and Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn, OHIO’s first Black male and female graduates, respectively. It is not just the shared halls, brick pathways or even the buildings that connect us. It is the shared OHIO experience that every Bobcat knows forever bonds us to each other and to OHIO’s past, present and future.

As OHIO President Elmer Burritt Bryan wrote in the May 1922 Ohio University Bulletin:

“The University is a spiritual thing, born of the spirit and nurtured by the spirit. If the buildings of Ohio University should be destroyed in an hour by fire or earthquake, the University would live on. It dwells in the hearts of men and women in the form of ideals, loyalty, and the spirit of sacrifice. Without this spirit, an institution may exist as a temporal thing; with it, it becomes immortal.”

—Peter Shooner

The B & O at OHIO

A

Much has been written about the Hocking River that ran, and sometimes raged, through Ohio University’s Athens Campus. But for 135 years there was another mode of transportation that was as much a part of the OHIO landscape and experience.

What began as the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad changed names and ownership several times over the decades, but to most OHIO students it was the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad.

Starting in 1856, the rail line opened town and gown to the greater nation, bringing students, employees and visitors to Athens. “How well I remember my arrival in Athens on the 1 p.m. B&O from the West!” Irma E. Voigt recounted of her 1913 landing at OHIO. “I was hot, dusty, and tired, but most of all utterly strange, for not only was I entering upon my first position as dean of women, but I was about to become Ohio University’s first dean of women.”

A

e B&O skirted OHIO’s College Green and what would become East Green. For the rail line’s first 100-plus years, only the University’s athletic facilities and a few buildings lay on the other side of the tracks.

A

As the campus expanded in the 1960s and ’70s with the construction of West Green, Clippinger Laboratories and South Green, so, too, did the B&O’s role in the lives of Ohio University students—forced to navigate the tracks that transported goods and people from, to and through the community.

“

e railway affects not only the South Green, but almost all students on campus in some way; usually it’s the noise …,” a student wrote in the 1985 Athena Yearbook. “ e train can make you late for class or simply put you behind schedule if you have to wait for it. So, it’s not unusual to see students bolt as soon as they hear its shrill whistle.”

A

Students were known to crawl over and under stopped trains on campus—and even “ride the rails,” clinging to train cars across campus and train-hopping for jaunts out of town. Sadly, some students lost their lives on the tracks.

e last train rolled through campus in December 1991. But, with the closing of one chapter in OHIO history, University leaders had already started penning a new one.

19O7 Athens B&O Train Depot, complete with central tower.

Courtesy of the Southeast Ohio History Center

Photo by John Halley, MFA

Courtesy of the Southeast Ohio History Center

train

River

Bridge, now known as

Avenue

1845 Plans for what would become the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad begin.

1856 First train arrives in Athens from Cincinnati, making the trip between the two communities just a few hours rather than three days. Three years later, the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad was complete.

1870 The Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad, later merged into the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, reaches Athens in the summer of 1870, allowing one-day, roundtrip excursions to Columbus. The railway, whose depot was located on Shafer Street where University Commons apartments are today, was discontinued in the early 1970s, but you can still ride the rails with Nelsonville’s Hocking Valley Scenic Railway.

1889 The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad is fully absorbed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which eventually spanned from Baltimore, Maryland, to St. Louis, Missouri, with spurs reaching north and south of its main line.

1933

1900 By the turn of the century, two other railroads had entered Athens County: the Kanawha and Michigan (K&M) and the Toledo and Ohio Central (T&OC). The K&M connected Athens to Pomeroy and Charleston, West Virginia. The T&OC later became part of the New York Central System.*

1915 to 1932 An electric railway, known as the Hocking-Sunday Creek Traction Co., the Athens-Nelsonville Electric Railway Co. and the “Interurban,” transported passengers between Athens and Nelsonville. Trips on the railway took 50 minutes with the Athens terminus located at Central Avenue and Second Street, the former site of Frank’s Bait Shop.

Professor Emeritus of History Robert L. Daniel’s book, Athens, Ohio: The Village Years

1938 The first regularly scheduled diesel train,“The National Limited,” rolls through Athens.

1976 The railroad tracks that ran through campus served as a makeshift walkway for students. Courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections / 1976 Spectrum Green Yearbook

1975 Students hitch a ride across campus on a freight train in this photo in the Feb. 7, 1975 Post.

Courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

Courtesy of the Southeast Ohio History Center / Photos by John Halley, MFA ’87

Courtesy of the Southeast Ohio History Center

1976 After more than five years with no passenger train service in Athens, town and gown celebrate the arrival of Amtrak’s Shenandoah line.

All photographs on this page are courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

1985 The Athena Yearbook features a spread on “The tribulations of life across the tracks.”

1976 Amtrak begins daily, regularly scheduled runs from Athens to points west as far as Cincinnati and points east as far as Washington, D.C. Passengers accessed the trains from what a Sept. 27, 1979 Post article described as “a blue-and-white, plexiglas-plated Amtrak station” that resembled “a gigantic phone booth,” located 50 yards from the Athens depot.

1947 to 1950

“The Cincinnatian,” a pair of B&O specially built streamliners that cut the 580-mile trip from Washington, D.C., to Cincinnati down to a then record-breaking 12.5 hours, makes daily stops in Athens.

1971 The B&O’s “Metropolitan” makes its last stop in Athens, marking the first end of railway passenger service in the city. Two years later, the B&O became part of the Chessie System, which merged into CSX Corp. in 1980.

1991 A little over a year after the Interstate Commerce Commission gave CSX permission to abandon the line between Athens and Belpre, the last train passes by Morton Hall and East Green, ending a 135-year era of trains on campus.

1981 Amtrak’s Shenandoah line between Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati makes its last stop in Athens, ending all passenger service to the city.

1985 Track removal begins between Greenfield, Ohio, (to the west) and Athens. The line from Athens east to Parkersburg remains intact.

1991 In October, OHIO’s Board of Trustees approves the purchase of abandoned CSX land running from Depot Street on the west side of campus to the east end of campus near the Athens Mall, with plans for recreational space and possibly a bike path. In December, the last train runs through campus, carrying a string of cars laden with quarter-mile sections of CSX track.

Above: B&O passenger trains were once a common sight on the Athens Campus.

Innovation Center

Where the tracks ran

Heritage Hall

Russ Research Opportunity Center (RROC)

What was Ohio University’s West Union Street O ce Center is being transformed into the Russ College of Engineering and Technology’s new Russ Research Opportunity Center, scheduled to open in early 2023. It is located in the building originally constructed—right along the B&O Railroad bed—for the McBee Binder Co., which was incorporated in Athens in 1906 to manufacture machines for the filing and binding of railroad freight bills.

Athens Train Depot

UNION STREET GREEN

ATHENS STATION PROJECT

Athens Station Project, named in honor of the B&O’s former Athens depot, includes the depot, the Athens Station Apartments and Athens Station Plaza, which over the years has housed various restaurants and businesses.

W. UNION ST. DEPOT ST.FACTORY ST. Convocation Center

Today houses the o ces of Athens Station Apartments.

Hockhocking Adena Bikeway and Moonville Rail Trail

To the east and west of the Athens Campus, portions of the former B&O rail bed have been transformed into transportation and recreation opportunities. The now 22-mile Hockhocking Adena Bikeway, which began with OHIO building a bike path along the levee of the re-routed Hocking River, connects Athens to Nelsonville, traversing the former railroad beds of two rail lines. Further to the west, nine miles of a planned 16-mile Moonville Rail Trail have been constructed along the former B&O Railroad bed. Future plans call for it to connect to the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway in Athens.

Richland Avenue Bridge Garage

Bentley Annex

S. COURT ST.

Baker University Center, opened in January 2007, on the old railroad bed, a sort of modern-day station transporting people upper to lower campus.

RICHLAND AVENUE

Peden Stadium

Route of Hocking River (before 1970)

Clippinger Laboratories

Clippinger Research Chemistry Building

Cutler Hall Alden Library

Life Sciences Building

Old Heating Plant

Bird Arena Grover Center

Porter Hall Emeriti Park

WEST GREEN

COLLEGE GREEN

A relief mural installed on an abutment beneath the Richland Avenue Bridge during a rehabilitation project completed in 2013 pays tribute to the original Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad that ran under the bridge. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

EAST GREEN

Center, which 2007, sits right bed, serving as grand central people from campus.

E. MULBERRY ST. STEWART ST.

SOUTH GREEN

MILL ST.

Pedestrian path runs from Baker University Center to South Green along the old railroad bed, connecting campus greens and o ering green and recreational space along the way.

STIMSON AVE.

Visit ohiotoday.org for an interactive version of this content and to share your memories of the trains that once ran through campus.

A RAILROAD REPURPOSED

In October 1991, the Ohio University Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the aban doned railroad bed that crossed campus. As Alan Geiger, MBA ’82, PHD ’84, then-assistant to President Charles Ping, put it: It presented an opportunity to “knit the campus together.” A

Land that once carried trains through campus now carries people. Bobcats today traverse a pedestrian path that runs from South Green to Baker University Center—chugging along the same route as the steam and diesel engines of a bygone era.

A

Future plans call for the expansion of this corridor, creating a multimodal pathway that extends from Stimson Avenue to OHIO’s Innovation Center and beyond and serving the new Union Street Green and forthcoming Russ Research Opportunity Center—a building whose roots trace back to a once thriving hub of the railroad industry. —Angela Woodward, BSJ ’98

Morton Hall

Ti n Hall

Je erson Hall Nelson Commons

Pickering Hall Carr Hall

Clippinger Research Annex

Washington Hall

Chilled Water Plant

Mill Street Village River Park apartments

E. UNION ST.

Courtesy of the Southeast Ohio History Center

Graphics by John Grimwade, EMERT ’20 1950s N 500 FEET

Gary Wolf, BSEE ’71, visits the old Athens train depot—a pleasant distraction for him as an OHIO undergraduate and an unexpected foreshadower of a career like no other. Photo by Ty Wright, BFA ’02, MA ’13

Off the beaten track

UNPRECEDENTED CAREER TAKES BOBCAT AROUND THE WORLD AS A GUARDIAN OF THE RAILS

As a first-year Ohio University student, Gary Wolf, BSEE ’71, sat in his mechanical drafting class in the Industrial Technology Building on West Union Street—his attention often captivated by what was occurring outside the classroom: passengers boarding the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad trains at the Athens Depot.

“I sat there looking wistfully out the window, wishing I was on the train and not in the drafting class,” he recalls.

Little did Wolf know that in just a couple years—and before even graduating from OHIO—he would embark on an unprecedented and distinguished career in the rail industry that would take him from the coal mines of West Virginia to the jungles of Colombia and the sands of the Sahara Desert.

Over the course of his 52-year railroad career, Wolf, who resides in Atlanta, has investigated nearly 4,000 train incidents and derailments on six continents—first with Southern Railway and then as the founder of a first-of-its-kind engineering consultant firm, aimed at helping the rail industry determine the cause of train accidents.

“I wouldn’t call it a privilege, but I have worked on most of the high-profile derailments in the last 30 or something years in the U.S. and Canada,” says Wolf. That work ranges from an investigation he

conducted on the deadliest train accident in Amtrak history to ongoing work on a 2013 disaster in Quebec.

His expertise has taken him from North and South America to Africa and Australia, logging more than 5 million airline miles globally and, at times, working in dangerous situations. He’s trained 7,000-plus railway professionals on the art of accident prevention and investigation, and a textbook he published last year, The Complete Field Guide to Modern Derailment Investigation, is already a bestseller in the global railroad community.

Wolf has earned numerous awards for his contributions to the rail industry and is one of the foremost authorities on train accidents and derailments, appearing on news outlets that include CNN and NBC and in court when litigation occurs.

But it all started at OHIO—with lessons learned in the classroom and on the court as a four-year member of the men’s basketball team that took the Bobcats to the 1970 MAC Championship— and with a professor who opened Wolf’s eyes to a future he never imagined.

Visit ohiotoday.org for Wolf’s full story—one of a Bobcat who created a career path where none previously existed—and to read the book he wrote about the magical years (1966-1971) of Ohio University basketball. —Isaac Miller, BSJ ’22

20 years of OHIO’s Student Expo

“Research and creative activity are like test-driving your career choice, taking what you learn in the classroom and applying it to a real-world problem,” says Dr. Roxanne Malé-Brune.

For the past 20 years, Malé-Brune has been coordinating an annual event that nurtures and celebrates Ohio University student innovation, discovery and imagination.

In 2002, OHIO debuted its Student Research and Creativity Activity Expo—hosted in the original Baker

Center and featuring about 14 Student Enhancement Award winners. Two years later, the event was opened to all students, and, Malé-Brune says, “It just exploded from there,” peaking in 2018 at 905 presentations and ranked among the nation’s largest student showcases.

The Expo has grown to include student presenters from nearly all disciplines and OHIO campuses and welcomes members of the community, including local middle and high school students. Event support comes from faculty and staff, who mentor and prepare students

and serve as judges. Recently, efforts have focused on engaging alumni to also serve as judges and even attend the event to recruit students for jobs and internships.

“We track the number of undergraduates who do research and creative activity, and over the last 10 years, that number has tripled,” Malé-Brune notes, adding that engaging in research can jump-start amazing careers.

Take Lily Gelfand, BFA ’18 (HTC), and Pengfei “Phil” Duan, MS ’11, PHD ’18, for example.

Gelfand is a core dancer at New York City’s David Dorfman Dance and dance accompanist at The Juilliard School, using some of the same equipment she demonstrated—and won a first-place award for— at the Expo.

Across the country in California’s Silicon Valley, Duan is a software engineer at Tesla, leading one of the company’s autopilot teams. All three of his awardwinning Expo entries involved autonomous systems.

“Now, I’m working on fully autonomous vehicles,” he says, crediting the Expo with helping him develop “transferable skills and technical details” that would prove so vital to his career.

Visit ohiotoday.org to read more about the history and impact of OHIO’s Student Expo. —Anita Martin, BSJ ’05

[OPPOSITE] Pengfei “Phil” Duan, MS ’11, PHD ’18, [SECOND FROM LEFT] and a team of fellow engineering students show off their robotic snowplow at the 2012 Student Expo. Photo by Wayne Thomas, MA ’12 [ABOVE] Lily Gelfand, BFA ’18 (HTC), demonstrates how to use a looper pedal system at the 2016 Student Expo. Photo by Emily Matthews, BSVC ’18

Class notes

* denotes accolades featured at ohio.edu/new

1950

The Combined Arms Cen ter and Army University dedicated the atrium area of Fort Leavenworth’s Lewis and Clark Center, home of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), in honor of (Ret.) Lt. Gen. Robert Arter, BSCOM ’50, and Lois (Sayles) Arter, BSED ’50. Among his years of service, Robert Arter was the CGSC deputy commandant. He embarked on a second career in the banking in dustry with Armed Forces Bank in Leavenworth, Kansas, while also serving in numerous military and philanthropic organiza tions. He is a founding chair emeritus of the CGSC Foundation and civilian aide emeritus to the Secretary of the Army for Kansas. Arter Atri um honors the couple’s contributions to the Fort Leavenworth community, U.S. Army and nation.

1968

Fred Whissel, BSJ ’68, will be featured in an upcoming issue of Marquis’ “Who’s Who in America” as a represen tative of Idaho’s profes sional journalists. His career spanned civilian and military journalism, including The Athens Messenger, the U.S. Army Security Agency, and the Ohio Power Company,

where he served as senior staff writer and then public affairs manager. Whissel spent 31 years as the owner/operator of Audio Video Country Inc. in Jackson Hole, Wyo ming. In 2021, National Geographic selected one of his aerial photos of Yellowstone Lake’s delta to promote a national ed ucational program, “Our Interconnected Ocean,” for middle schoolers. He is retired and resides in Idaho.

1969

James Edward Carlos, PHD ’69, is depicted in Carlos: Being of Light, a documentary that pre miered in October 2021 and is now available for streaming. The film show cases Carlos’ creativity and the close encounters he experienced through out his lifetime. Carlos’ art exhibition, Biblical Proportions, was on display at Firefly Gallery in Cowan, Tennessee, and he has published at least 15 essays since 2021, including a three-install ment essay in Alternative Perceptions Magazine. He continues to create daily at his studio and art cen ter, IONA: Art Sanctuary, in Sewanee, Tennessee.

1970 Morris/Essex Health & Life magazine named Brian Amery, BBA ’70,

BOBCAT SPOTLIGHT

On the grounds of the West Virginia Capitol stand two tributes to the state’s heroes— its female veterans and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to country. The individual behind those monuments? Ohio University graduate P. Joseph “Joe” Mullins, MFA ’78, whose own

military service changed the course of his life, leading him to college and a Bobcat who opened his eyes to the world of sculpture.

“Sculpture picked me. I didn’t really pick sculpture,” Mullins says.

In 1987, Mullins’ home state picked him. Mullins’ design—one of 180 submitted—was selected for the West Virginia Veterans Memorial, giving him another opportunity to serve, this time through sculpture. The masterpiece that Mullins will forever be remembered for ensures that his fellow West Virginian service members will never be forgotten.

Visit ohio.edu/news/alumnus-veterans-memorial to read about Mullins’ journey—from Ohio University to the artist behind Charleston’s largest and smallest works of public art. — Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ’22

MBA ’71, one of the 2022 Morris County Top Lawyers, selecting him as a Top Lawyer in the secu rities law category. He is a co-founder of Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C., where he is CFO and a principal based in the law firm’s New York office.

James D. Bond, BBA ’70, is donating proceeds from The Man in the Arena:

Surviving Multiple Myelo ma Since 1992 to char ities supporting those diagnosed with cancer, including the Ameri can Cancer Society, the International Myeloma Foundation, the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which has placed his book on its recommend ed reading list. He and his

Alumnus’ legacy sculpted by service

Photo by Roger May

wife, Kathleen Mercer Bond, AA ’70, reside in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

George Mooradian, BFA ’70, won a Primetime Emmy Award for Out standing Cinematography in a Multi-Camera Series for his work as director of photography on the Netflix series Country Comfort. He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and has received eight other Emmy nominations since 2006.

1971

Georges Fauriol, AB ’71, retired in 2020 from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), where he served a decade as vice president for grants, operations and evaluation and spent the previous decade as vice president of strategic planning and senior vice president of a NED implementing institute, the Internation al Republican Institute. He continues to teach in Georgetown University’s Democracy and Gover nance Graduate Program, is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a fellow with Global Amer icans, co-director of the Caribbean Policy Con sortium and a steering group member with Think Tank Haiti. He continues to write about Haiti, an

interest he first explored as an OHIO student.

1974

After 20-plus years and more than 100 videos, Dale Leslie, MED ’74, has concluded his YouTube series, Watchman of the Tracks, featuring the history of and individuals in Washtenaw County, Michigan. He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1976

William Groves, AB ’76, celebrated five years as chancellor of Antioch University. Previously he served as vice chancellor and general counsel for the university, which has campuses in four states.

1977

Justin Klimko, AB ’77 (HTC), was named to Michigan Lawyers Week ly’s Hall of Fame Class of 2022. He is president and CEO of Butzel Long and a shareholder practicing out of the law firm’s De troit office.

1979

Jeffrey Marrotte, BSC ’79, retired in December with plans to visit the na tional parks in the West with his girlfriend, play more golf and live in Ar izona during the winter. He resides in Cleveland, Ohio.

Alumni Authors

OHIO alumni publish books across subjects and genres. Here are releases within the last year.

Odyssey in Progress, poetry (BookBaby), by Sandra Pittman Brown, BSS ’12 • Doyli to the Rescue: Saving Baby Monkeys in the Amazon, children’s book (Crick hollow Books), by Cathleen Morgan Burnham, BSC ’88 •

Incidental Moments: New and Selected Poems, poetry (Mercury HeartLink Publishing), by Mark Fleisher, BSJ ’64 • Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains, transportation history (White River Productions), by Bruce Goldberg, BSC ’71 • You Are a Filmmaker, interactive novel (Codex Arcanum Press), by Matt Harry, BSC ’98 • Dr. Deanna’s Healing Handbook: A Guide to Disease Prevention and Natural Aging Through a Whole Foods Diet, Hormone Balance, Total Body Detox and Exercise, health (First Principles Press), by Dr. Deanna Holdren, BSED ’90, DO ’96 • Some of My Best Friends are Labs, children’s book (Velcro Dog Press), by Gloria Orlando Ives, BSC ’88, designed by CJ Herr, BFA ’22 • Barlett, teen and young adult fiction (Gatekeeper Press), by James Janson, BFA ’69 • The Goodbye Book, children’s book (BookBaby), by Ruby Martinez Kalyani, BSRS ’99 • The Media Offen sive: How the Press and Public Opinion Shaped Allied Strategy during World War II, military history (University Press of Kansas), by Alex Lovelace, PHD ’20 • Stupid Mistakes People Make Which Result in Bodily Harm and Suggestions as to How to Avoid Becoming One of the Statistics, health (RoseDog Books), by Dr. George Lucas, BA ’57 • Journeys: Finding Joy on Horseback, memoir/adventure (Monday Creek Publishing), by Joy Ream MillerUpton, BSJ ’73 • Cyber Storm: How to Pro tect Your Business from a Data Breach and the Result ing Cyber Storm of Fines, Lawsuits and Customer Loss, cybersecurity (TechnologyPress), by Trent Milliron, BBA ’03 • Evolution of Hummingbird, narrative nonfiction (self-published), by Latrice Rogers, AB ’91 • Benny “B” and Willy “W,” children’s book (self-published), by Mar gery Long Stoodt, BSED ’68 • Meme Life: The Social, Cultural, and Psychological Aspects of Memetic Com munication, digital culture and social sciences (Leyline Publishing), by Shane Tilton, AAS ’98, MA ’04, PHD ’12 •

The Immigrant’s Grandson, historical romance (Savant Books and Publishing), by Vernon Turner, BS ’66 • Soul Licensed: Tips and Tales, spirituality (Fulton Books), by David Tuttle, BSJ ’72

Send your published work updates to ohiotoday@ohio. edu or to Ohio Today, Ohio University, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701-0869.

1981

John Carey, AB ’81*, was awarded the Develop ment District Association of Appalachia’s John Whisman “Vision” Award for his efforts to make Appalachian Ohio a better place to live and experi ence. He is the director of the Governor’s Office of Appalachia and previ ously served in the Ohio House and Senate and as chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education.

1982

Nita Buddelmeyer Sweeney, BSJ ’82, was awarded the Dog Writers Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion for the Human Animal Bond for her first book, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. Her latest book, Make Every Move a Meditation: Mindful Movement for Mental Health, Well-Being, and Insight, was featured in The Wall Street Journal in January and received a professional artist grant from the Greater Colum bus Arts Council.

1984

Edwina Blackwell Clark, BSJ ’84*, was named executive director of The Columbus Dispatch, becoming the first woman and person of color to

lead the 151-year-old institution. Her career includes serving as editor and publisher of newspa pers in southwest Ohio and in public relations, marketing and college relations at two institu tions of higher education in Ohio. Most recently, she was the communi cations director for the Alzheimer’s Association of Ohio.

1985

After a successful career in journalism, Linda De itch, BSJ ’85, has joined the Ohio Attorney Gener al’s Office in Columbus as an executive assistant.

1986

Steve Browne, BSC ’86, was promoted to chief people officer at LaRosa’s Inc., a Cincinnati-based restaurant company. He has been with the company for 15 years, previously serving as ex ecutive director and then vice president of human resources.

Gregory Hill, DO ’86, was named the 79th president of the American Osteo pathic Academy of Ortho pedics last October. He is an orthopedic surgeon at Summa Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Marlon Primes, BSJ ’86, joined the Cleveland office of law firm Bren

nan, Manna & Diamond as a partner. He serves as a co-chair of the firm’s busi ness and tort litigation practice and is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

1987

The New Jersey School Public Relations Associ ation presented Barbara Alden Wilson, BSJ ’87, its 2022 Communicator of the Year Award. She is the public informa tion officer for Cherry Hill Public Schools, the state’s 12th largest public school district.

1989

In 2021, Kathy Johnson Bowles, MFA ’89, had her artwork published in more than 20 art and literary magazines, was interviewed about her art for five publications and exhibited her art at five venues. She also authored several articles about higher education, includ ing a weekly column, “Just Explain It to Me!,” for Inside Higher Ed.

Patrick Stewart, BSC, BSPE ’89, joined the Michigan Primary Care Association in Lansing as communications manager after retiring from a 28-year career in athletic communications and event management, most recently at Adrian College. Over the course

of his career, he received 21 national citations in writing and publications excellence from the Col lege Sports Information Directors of America.

1992

Bill James II, BBA ’92, founding partner of UBS’ James, Hull & Ford Wealth Management, was pro moted to branch manager at UBS Financial Services Inc., in New Albany, Ohio. He was named to Forbes Magazine’s 2021 Best-inState Wealth Advisors list.

David Raterman, BSJ ’92, produced a true crime podcast limited series, The Pink Moon Murders, about the 2016 killings of eight members of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio. The podcast reached the top 1 percent of all podcasts globally.

1993

Jennifer Lapina Reece, BSJ ’93, was named man ager of communications and alumni outreach for the Hudson (Ohio) City School District.

1995

Barb Gallagher, BSJ ’95, was presented the Media Association of Pitts burgh’s 2019 Outstanding Achievement in Media Award in the television category. After more than 20 years as an account ex ecutive at WXPI, the NBC

BOBCAT SIGHTINGS

OHIO alumni go on adventures hither and yon!

These Bobcats’ “Great American Road Trip 1.0” included a stop at South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Pictured [FROM LEFT] are Jeff Chaddock, BSC ’88, John Sole, BBA ’71, Luke Boyd, MFA ’19, and David Johnson, MED ’14

[FROM LEFT] Susan Rosenberger Doudican, AB ’75, Marilyn Jasin Wills, BSHSS ’76, Andrea Porter Humphries, BSJ ’76, Sandra Fanslow LaForce, BSHEC ’75, Mary Zouhary Labbe, BFA ’75, Cathy White Bennett, BSED ’74, and Francine Czerwony Fraundorf, BSED ’74, bask in Bobcat friendships that date back to the 1970s.

Bobcats [FROM LEFT]

Matthew Cahill, BBA ’04, MBA ’05, Amy McElroy Cacchione, BSHCS ’04, Tyler Kolkmeyer, BBA ’04, Julie Musick Conrad, BA ’04, and Jennifer Young Stevens, BBA ’04, raise the Green and White at Makai Golf Club on an April trip to Hawaii to celebrate their 40 th birthdays.

The Ohio University Industrial and Systems Engineering StudentAlumni Golf Outing provides a father-daughter Bobcat moment for Randy McGuire, BS ’81, MSISE ’83, and daughter Colleen.

[LEFT] Tom Kochheiser, BSJ ’78, and [RIGHT] Patrick Stewart , BSC, BSPE ’89,

capture a post-game photo with Ohio University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jeff Boals, BS ’95, following a February Bobcat win over Central Michigan.

Lori Black Coppola,

BSHEC ’85, Debbie Swank Domeck, BBA ’85, and Patti Sircus Bender, BSJ ’86, took their OHIO friendship and spirit to Edisto Beach, South Carolina.

It was a homecoming 40 years in the making for [FROM LEFT] Frank Graff, BSJ ’82, MA ’83, Len Wagner, BSJ ’82, Jeff Grabmeier, BSJ ’82, and Russ Grycza, pictured outside their old home in Crawford 112.

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.

affiliate in Pittsburgh, she joined Comcast Spotlight and is now a regional account executive at Effectv, a division of Com cast headquartered in New York City.

Robert Munz, BFA ’95, was named vice president of sales at Honour Capi tal. He is based out of the capital finance company’s regional office in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

1996

Carly Keeler Leath erwood, BSJ ’96, Tim Epley, BFA ’06, MPA ’14, and Kimberly Castor

Rouse, BA ’11, MSW ’12, PHD ’21*, were presented Ohio University’s 2022 Outstanding Administra tor Awards, the highest honor bestowed upon administrative employ ees. Leatherwood is associate vice president of communications for University Communi cations and Marketing. Epley is associate director of operations for Event Services. Rouse is director of the Survivor Advocacy Program and interim dean of students.

1997

Jessica Raney, BS ’97,

co-founded LDM Publish ing, a charity publishing house. Its first anthol ogy, Open Your Mouth, includes the short story “Some Ghosts Are Just Assholes” by Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, BSED ’97, MED ’99, MA ’09. All proceeds from the anthol ogy, released in April and featuring stories about strong female-identifying protagonists, benefit the National Women’s Law Center.

Christie Zielinski, BSJ ’97, was promoted from vice president to senior vice president of Kemper Lesnik, a Chicago-based public relations, brand activation and events agency. She is the imme diate past president of the Public Relations So ciety of America Chicago Chapter.

1998

Dawn Wicks Hicks, BSC ’98, left a career in human resources and opened SoBol, an acai bowl and smoothie café, in Duxbury, Massachusetts, this spring. She earned a Master of Liberal Arts, psychology, from Harvard University, Extension School, in November 2020 and participated in commencement in May.

1999

Karen Boltz Gorretta, BMUS ’99, was named the 2022 Theater Direc

tor of the Year by the Miami Valley High School Theatre Awards. She is the choir director at Fairborn (Ohio) City Schools, where her husband, John Gorretta, BMUS ’01, serves as band director.

Washington, D.C.-based Meridian International Center named Carlton McLellan, BA ’99, one of 10 next generation of Black diplomatic leaders. A senior diplomacy and foreign affairs professional and researcher, McLellan’s positions include senior fellow at the Association of Black American Ambas sadors (ABAA) and senior associate and founding director of Global Ties South Africa. At ABAA, he oversees The American Ambassadors Project, which is compiling, organizing and reporting on the lives and contribu tions of Black Americans who have held the title and rank of U.S. ambassa dor. He recently complet ed a two-year assignment as a senior advisor to the International Labor Or ganization’s Office for the United States and Canada.

2000

Aaron Comstock, BMUS ’00, was awarded the Rev. DePayne Middle ton-Doctor Award at the 2021 Spot Light Awards in Charleston, South Car olina, for his community work with his nonprofit

Uplift Charleston that assists and advocates for homeless individu als in the Lowcountry region. Comstock was one of nine individuals to receive Spot Light Awards, named in honor of the victims of the 2015 Emanuel AME Church tragedy.

2001

SFC Christopher Barn hart, BSS ’01, retired from the Army after 21 years as a combat docu mentation and produc tion specialist. He is now the director of video pro duction at West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

2003

The Rev. Lucas Lindon, BSJ ’03, earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in leadership for transfor mational change from Methodist Theological School in Ohio in May and completed an original re search project and thesis, titled “Belonging at the End of the Aberrant Time: Adaptive Leadership as Discernment for the Church.” He is senior pas tor of the United Church of Christ Congregational in Medina, Ohio.

Brody Richter, BA ’03*, was inducted as a fellow of the Wisconsin Law Foundation in 2020. He is a partner and co-chair of the business law practice group at DeWitt LLP and

works out of the firm’s Madison, Wisconsin office.

2004

The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation Inc. recog nized Lindsay Neary Cathers, BSJ ’04, with a Paul Broyhill Future Leader Award. She is a senior behavioral marketing and consumer data activation manager at La-Z-Boy Inc., in Monroe, Michigan, and has been with the compa ny since 2012.

Dr. Shane Foster, BA ’04, of Athens is serving as the 2022 president of the Ohio Optometric Association (OOA) Board of Directors. Foster and Keith Kerns, AB ’96, OOA executive director, both serve on the Ohio Optometric Foundation (OOF) Board of Directors. The OOA, OOF and the Foundation for Appala chian Ohio, under the leadership of CEO and President Cara Dingus Brook, AB ’02 (HTC), MPA ’06, have partnered with Vision To Learn to develop a charitable mobile eye exam program to provide free eye exams and glasses to children in Appalachian Ohio. The program has received $1.2 million in state govern ment funding.

2005

Alex Anastas, BFA ’05, joined The Scots College,

BOBCAT SPOTLIGHT

Opening home, heart to Ukrainian refugees

“I will forever be changed.”

That’s how Amy Browns-Taylor, BSJ ’98, MA ’02, describes opening her home and heart to those forced from their homes and country and building an intercontinental community of support for Ukrainian

refugee families.

Just 10 days after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine and roughly six months after relocating from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Katowice, Poland, Browns-Taylor and her family welcomed a Ukrainian woman and her 15-year-old twins into their home.

They were the first of two Ukrainian refugee families who have taken up residence with Browns-Taylor. And they were the first of 15 families and counting who have found extreme generosity and kindness from this two-time OHIO graduate and family, friends and strangers back in the United States who have contributed to her humanitarian aid efforts.

Visit ohio.edu/news/graduate-opens-home to read about what has been a life-changing experience for Browns-Taylor and a life-saving experience for those enduring unimaginable loss and uncertainty. —Macklin Caruso

a private, preparatory boys’ school in Sydney, Australia, as the head of art and design, supervising a staff of 15 instructors teaching painting, graphic design, photography, videography, CAD and woodworking. He resides in the Sydney suburb of North Bondi Beach with his 6-year-old daughter, Juliet.

Matt Bixenstine, BSJ ’05, MBA/MSA ’07, and a fellow stay-at-home dad and friend launched the podcast Better Off Dad in

summer 2021 and in the first six months produced 10 episodes garnering more than 1,000 streams. The podcast offers dad jokes, learning moments and fresh takes on topics ranging from parenting and childhood develop ment to progressive fami ly issues. He and his wife, Alyse Lamparyk, BSJ ’11, reside in Lakewood, Ohio, with their two children.

Andrea Stein Fuelleman, BSJ ’05, was promoted to partner at Chicago-based

FUTURE BOBCATS

Grandpa George Mooradian, BFA ’70, soaks up a family moment with his seven future Bobcats, [FROM LEFT] Michael, Molly, Lila, Landon, Mason, Finn and Emma, on a trip to Port St. Joe, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico.

Ohio Today received this heart-warming message for Mom in May: “Happy Mother’s Day, Gretchen Heil, BBA ’97, from your son,

Chloe and Collin Bruce, the children of Rebecca Kalla Bruce, BSAT ’09, and Corey Bruce, are filled with sibling and Bobcat love.

Neal Gerber Eisenberg’s intellectual property practice group. Her practice focuses on brand protection and intellectu al property enforcement.

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, MA ’05, MFA ’06, was awarded a Wind ham-Campbell Prize, administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University for literary achievement. A Zimbabwean filmmaker and scholar, she is the author of two critically acclaimed interconnected novels, The Theory of Flight (2021) and The History of Man (2022), that explore colonialism in a Southern African country.

The Ohio University AECOM Center for Sports Administration present ed Dr. Daniel J. White, MBA/MSA ’05*, the 2022 Charles R. Higgins Distin guished Alumni Award. He is the vice chancellor/ director of athletics for the University of Tennessee.

2006

Amy Bernath, BSED ’06, AB, MA ’07, and Amaris

Ifedi Mohammed, BSED ’13, are using their skills and experience as alumnae of the Patton College’s Teach in Ghana program at Washington, D.C.-based International Research and Exchang es Board, a nonprofit specializing in global

education and develop ment. Bernath is acting director of the organiza tion’s education practice. Mohammed joined the organization in Decem ber as a senior program officer, managing the National Science Foun dation-funded virtual ex change program between high school students in the U.S. and Ghana.

Greta Oliver, PHD ’06, has launched a podcast, Educate U, for col lege-bound students and their families, and her book, College Roadmap: Essential Tips for FirstTime College Students and Their Families, made nine of Amazon’s best-seller lists on its launch date in August 2021. A former student development profes sional and educator who worked at the high school and college level for 25-plus years, she founded Greta Oliver Consulting, providing consulting and training courses to those facing a transition in education and career. She resides in Chapel Hill, North Caro lina, with her husband, Terence Oliver, MA ’04 They have four children, three of whom are OHIO graduates.

Justin Scarbro, BSED ’06, was presented a 2021-22 Milken Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation in honor of

his excellence and inno vation in education. He is a social studies teacher at Walter Hines Page High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, and was praised for using creativity and real-world scenarios to bring history and social studies to life in his classroom.

2009

The Terre Haute (Indiana) Chamber of Commerce and The Tribune-Star selected Dianne de Guzman Powell, MA ’09, for a 2022 12 Under 40 Award, honoring indi viduals who are “making valuable contributions at work and/or through volunteerism in the community.” Powell’s community contributions include chairing the board of directors for Wabash Valley Art Spaces. She is the associate director of university communi cation at Indiana State University and is married to Scott Powell, MA ’05, PHD ’08.

2012

Sandra Pittman Brown, BSS ’12, has joined the Women’s Justice Insti tute, a nonprofit dedicat ed to ending criminalized survival and supporting justice-impacted women, as a senior advisor. She relocated to Los Angeles, where she is reconnecting with her son and work ing to implement policy

changes that impact justice-involved women.

John Connors, BMUS ’12, was promoted to senior noncommissioned officer (NCO), sergeant first class, in the Ohio Army National Guard in January. He con tinues to serve as read iness NCO for the 122nd Army Band and resides in Columbus, Ohio.

The National Center for American Indian En terprise Development named Alex Wesaw, BSC ’12, MPA ’14, to its 2022 class of Native Ameri can 40 Under 40 award recipients, recognizing “the best and brightest emerging Indian Country leaders.” He is the director of the American Indian Relations Division for the Ohio History Connection, a Tribal Council Member At-Large for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and was appoint ed as a national at-large delegate on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Sec retary’s Tribal Advisory Committee. He resides in Clintonville, Ohio.

2013

Alison Stine, PHD ’13, was a finalist for an Ohioana Book Award in the fiction category for her second novel, Trash lands, published in 2021. The awards are the sec ond-oldest state literary

prizes in the nation and are given in recognition of outstanding literary achievements by Ohio authors and about Ohio subjects. Stine resides in Colorado.

2018

1st Lt. Kevin Spellacy, BA ’18, and his teammate placed seventh out of 51 teams at the 60-hour U.S. Army’s 38th Annual Best Ranger Competition, held in April at Fort Benning, Georgia. He is assigned to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado.

2019

Mia Barnes, BSVC ’19* , directed her first music video, for Camila Cabel lo’s single “Bam Bam,” this year. She resides in Los Angeles.

2020

Hannah Kopp, BSS ’20, joined Rural Action, an Appalachian Ohio nonprofit, as a watershed program manager after previously serving as an Appalachian Ohio Restore Corps member with the program.

Rachel Martin, AB-EN VIR ’20 (HTC)*, is a research associate at Conservation X Labs in Washington, D.C., quan tifying solutions to the extinction crisis based on impact, scalability and cost effectiveness—all

with a planetary health lens. She is helping to lead Drawdown for Extinc tion, a complex program to rank, evaluate and compare solutions to biodiversity loss that will guide future conservation efforts.

Alie Skowronski, BS, BSVC ’20, won first place in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s 2021 National Photojournalism Championship and was awarded a $10,000 schol arship to help start her photojournalism career. She is a photojournalist at The Miami Herald.

2021

In May, Sir’Quora Carroll, BBA ’21*, was crowned Miss Ohio USA 2022, competing against 52 other contestants and in her first-ever pageant. She resides in Canal Win chester, Ohio.

Ryan Hiser, BSS ’21*, was hired as an account executive at NASCAR in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Cymon Rooker, AAS ’21, joined the Hocking Coun ty (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office, where he is serving as a deputy.

—Compiled by Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ’22

1930s

Maralee E. Gruey, ELED ’39, BSED ’49

1940s

J. David Carr, BSIE ’42

Mildred (Dean) Hattersley, AB ’42

Doris B. (Bach) Roosevelt, BSS ’42

Lillian M. Gallichio, BSED ’43, MA ’53

Dorothy (Nething) Griffith, BSED ’43

Carol M. (James) Scranton, BSJ ’43

Mary E. (Overholt) Cipra, BSSS ’47

Bertalan L. Szabo, BSAGR ’47, MS ’48

Martha E. (Reed) Bash, BSED ’48

Richard H. Blair, BSCE ’48

Margaret H. (Huck) Bowen, B SHEC ’48

Betty L. (Brown) Shields, AB ’48

Thad Cooke, BSCOM ’49

Albert C. Doane, BSEE ’49

John S. Evans, BSCOM ’49

Madelyn S. (Schneider) Gratop, B SCOM ’49

Dale A. Schonmeyer, BSCOM ’49

Alice (Romak) Stanton, BSED ’49

Joan S. (Sherman) Sutton, BSED ’49

Leo C. Thurber, BSIE ’49

Carlo A. Tomino, BSCOM ’49

1950s

Guy R. Francy, BS ’50

Robert Ott, BSED ’50

John E. Donaldson, BSED ’51

Donovan S. Duvall, BS ’51

Robert R. Grimm, BSJ ’51

J. R. Hanlin, BSCOM ’51

James T. Laubach, BS ’51

Mary F. (Burson) Marsalka, BSED ’51

Dale R. Miller, BFA ’51

Betty J. (Hronek) Schleimer, B SED ’51

Nancy (Packard) Evans, BSS ’52

Janet C. (Courtright) Graham, B SED ’52

Marilyn (Glass) Lusa, BSED ’52

Ruth (Osterfeld) Munger, AA ’52

Janet L. (Pobst) Tyler, BSED ’52

John H. Allen, BSED ’53

Marie Hindman, AB ’53

David B. Pfaff, BSCOM ’53

James W. Sackett, BSCOM ’53

Sally M. Buesch, AB ’54

David R. Evans, BSED ’54

Shirley J. (Todd) Portteus, B SCOM ’54

Wayne R. Krause, BSME ’55

Hugh B. Mercer, BSCOM ’55

Marion E. (Stinchecum) Schaefer, BFA ’55

Donna M. Daniel, BSED ’56

David B. Harrison, BSJ ’56

Donald D. Horward, MA ’56

Martha L. (Gottschling) Jirik, B SED ’56

Richard L. Williams, BSCOM ’56

Martin B. Gray, BSEE ’57

Ted R. Newsome, BSCE ’57

Harold D. Robinson, AB ’57

Dawn D. (Palmer) Stout, BSED ’57, MED ’79, PHD ’86 Edward R. Walton, BS ’57

John T. Wyand, BSCOM ’57, MBA ’58

Beverly (Orndorff) Fleming, BSED ’58 William E. Hobzek, BSCE ’58

Marilyn J. (Kurtz) Kellman, BSED ’58 Jack L. Sleek, BSIT ’58, MED ’68

Ronald E. Sterrett, BSME ’58

Lloyd D. Christensen, BSCOM ’59 William R. Cuckler, AB ’59

Omar Dickson, BSED ’59

Robert L. Nelson, BSCOM ’59 Paul Dave Stricklin, BSED ’59 David C. Swartz, BS ’59

1960s

Judson B. Cooper, BSED ’60

Arthur R. Harding, BSJ ’60

Robert L. Imboden, BSED ’60, MED ’67

William L. McNickle, BSED ’60, MED ’71

Lee A. Seabeck, BSEE ’60 Joyce (Thompson) See, BSED ’60

Connie J. (Bumpas) Speakman, B SED ’60

Madeleine M. (Kenz) Tagg, BSED ’60

H. Bruce Throckmorton, MBA ’60

Michael C. Turoff, MA ’60

Eleanor B. (Daiber) Weatherbee, B SJ ’60

Constance (Burns) Ackerman, B SED ’61, MED ’62

Virgil E. Grandy, BSED ’61

Patricia L. (Hall) Huge, BSJ ’61

Jacob F. Leonhardt, BSME ’61

Donald P. Lomax, BSME ’61, MS ’63

Jerry N. Mix, BSJ ’61

Gustalo Nunez, BSEE ’61

Ronald L. Roth, BSED ’61

Beatriz (Canter) Smith, BFA ’61

James J. Billcheck, BSME ’62

Larry G. Colbert, AB ’62

Peter R. Eichele, BSCOM ’62

James F. Ellas, BSCOM ’62

Mitchell Gillam, BSED ’62

Jack J. Groom, BSME ’62

Janet C. (Goff) Jenkins, BSED ’62

Carol A. (Schriner) Jones, BSED ’62

James C. Kuehn, BSEE ’62

Thomas A. Norman, BSEE ’62, MBA ’81

Charles E. Page, BSED ’62

Joan A. (Shively) Pelich, BSJ ’62

Howard L. Brown, BSCE ’63

James L. Campbell, MA ’63

Jack J. Carmichael, PHD ’63

Paul E. Hudson, BFA ’63

Ted T. Leung, BSEE ’63, MS ’65, PHD ’71

John J. Mamon, BFA ’63

W. Vincent Rakestraw, BSJ ’63

Gary D. Sinck, AB ’63

Keith B. Stump, BSEE ’63

Theodore E. Stute, BSED ’63

Jay R. Wannamaker, AB ’63

Harold P. Winkler, BS ’63

Bonnie J. (Sunkle) Bartlett, BSED ’64

Karen Blizzard (Hansen) Garmon, B SED ’64

Paul R. Hoopes, MS ’64

Herbert H. Moore, MED ’64

Remembering fellow alumni

Rita L. (Harvit) Nearman, BSED ’64

Thomas E. Warner, MED ’64, PHD ’69

Carol A. (Wendler) Andrews, BFA ’65

Ruth Elaine (Harris) Mather, BS ’65

Robert Steven Mendel, BBA ’65

Richard E. Miller, MBA ’65

David C. Regester, MS ’65

Gena M. (Williams) Boley, BFA ’66, MED ’75

James M. Burt, BBA ’66

Stanley P. Champer, BA ’66

David A. Cook, BBA ’66

John W. McMurray, BSIT ’66

Dennis D. Scouler, BA ’66

Sherrey A. Welch, BSED ’66

Ronald C. Boley, AB ’67

James E. Cooney, BSED ’67

Gregory G. Kirsch, BFA ’67

Edward J. Lieberth, BSED ’67

Donald D. Balloon, BSED ’68

Stephen C. Cabell, AB ’68

Manfred W. Hopfe, PHD ’68

Ernest D. Minichello, AB ’68

Pamela J. (Boyer) Whitlock, B SED ’68

James Lynn Dean, BSC ’69

Michael F. Lyons, BBA ’69

Betty C. Neal, BSED ’69

Keith L. Skivington, BBA ’69, MBA ’71

Charles E. Steiner, BSCHE ’69, D O ’94

Gary L. Warren, BS ’69

Christine G. (Fuller) Weyer, AB ’69

1970s

David J. Clinton, BSEE ’70

C. William Harkins, BSCE ’70

Charles R. Lewis, BSCE ’70

Phyllis (Sharp) Meeks, BS ’70

Daryl R. Reichelderfer, BSCHE ’70

William H. Stone, BARCH ’70

Tracy (Hegamaster) Bieser, BSJ ’71

Jayne A. (Reik) Cluggish, BFA ’71

Marie T. (Martilotta) Hildebrandt, B SJ ’71

Robert S. Jordan, BSIT ’71

Barry D. Lieberman, AB ’71, MHSA ’84

Peter W. Lovrak, BS ’71, MS ’74 William G. Pendry, AA ’71, BSJ ’72

Victor J. St. Vincent, AB ’71

Robert D. Stambaugh, BSC ’71

Emery C. Stewart, BSED ’71

Edward B. Tokar, MED ’71, PHD ’73 John W. Allen, BBA ’72

Edgar R. Bennett, MS ’72

Dwight Cal Burleson, BBA ’72, MED ’74

Mark J. Dosch, BSED ’72 Cynthia L. (Lane) Huffman, B SED ’72

Jon P. Kinney, BSJ ’72

Dale G. Onderak, PHD ’72 Michael R. Thompson, BBA ’72, MBA ’79

Phyllis R. Wolf, BSHSS ’72 Suzanne M. (Stankey) Brickey, A B ’73

Robert J. Bruno, BSED ’73

Robert A. Kuzmiak, BBA ’73

Janice L. McClaflin, BSED ’73 Cindy (Cottrill) McCoy, BSED ’73 Michael E. Plaks, AB ’73 Edward L. Robinson, MS ’73

Timothy W. Waller, BSED ’73

Jeffrey Thomas Beams, AB ’74, D O ’88

Jeffrey K. Eckert, BFA ’74

John T. Edwards, BBA ’74 Stasia I. Hargis, AB ’74 Michael P. Nowakowski, BSC ’74 Robyn L. (Ridinger) Pesicek, B SHSS ’75

Vivian I. (Vidmar) Pocek, BS ’75 Terrance M. Curtain, BBA ’76 Sue (Seifert) Kitzler, BSED ’76

Anna M. (Sweeney) Smith, BSN ’76

Carol G. (Alexander) Baker, B SED ’77

Joyce J. Brown, BSHEC ’77, MSHEC ’81

Joseph M. Ruman, BGS ’77

James O. Tope, BBA ’77

Joseph Winnenberg, BSED ’77

John W. Haskins, BFA ’78

Mary S. (Stanton) Reeves, BSN ’78

Leah Marlene (Miller) Moody, B SED ’79

Stanley A. Williams, MBA ’79

Anne W. Winfield, MA ’79

1980s

Rose E. Blackwood, MED ’80

David E. Harriott, MBA ’80

Rita K. Skaggs, AAS ’80

Jewel M. (Troyer) Johnson, BFA ’81, MFA ’83

Jeffery K. Myers, BSED ’81

Nena Annette (Thames) Dorsey, B SHSS ’82

Lester Albert Green, BSED ’82

Daniel E. Robbins, MFA ’82

Jeffrey P. Cullum, BSED ’83, MSPE ’88, MED ’93

Gary Edward Krisher, BSED ’83, MED ’88, DO ’00

Thomas E. Stapleton, BSED ’83

Kim A. Bengoechea, BSPE ’84

Jon D. Miles, BSC ’84

David E. Israels, BGS ’85

Anthony G. Romano, PHD ’85

Timothy W. Jacobs, AB ’86

J. Bruce Horner, MFA ’87

Nancy R. Ogren, BFA ’87

Francis Xavier Burns, AB ’89, M A ’94

Daniel Labozetta, BGS ’89

Garth Paul Swanson, MA ’89

Retraction: An error in the University’s Office of Advancement Services records resulted in Anthony A. Laudano, BBA ’82, being incorrectly listed among the deceased in the spring 2022 issue. Ohio Today deeply regrets this egregious error and apologizes to Mr. Laudano’s family, friends and our readers.

1990s

Susan Michelle (Fleming) Cross, B SED ’90

Gregg Alan Emde, BGS ’90

Kathryn Jane Kelly, BSJ ’91

Anthony Gene Gwin, BSPT ’92

Phyllis J. Milem, BBA ’92

Lawrence Hudson Chinn, BSED ’93

Russell Wayne Schuchman, MSPE ’93

Sandra Kaye (Smith) Smart, BSH ’95

Jennifer Vanessa Stephens, B SPT ’95

Tonia Michelle (Skiver) Lindsay, B SED ’96

Carla Sue Mavis, MED ’97

Kristin Anne (Gorski) Obarski, B SH ’97

2000s

Jack Darrell Corder, BSS ’01

Michelle A. Ewald, BSH ’01

Marsha Marie Storts-Wike, BSED ’01

James Keith Birdsong, BSC ’02

Charles Manard Orr, AAB ’06

Laura D. Hollingshead Sanford, AS ’06, BSS ’09

Sean Michael Connelly, BA ’07

Andrew Ralph Dilullo, BS ’07, PHD ’13

Patrick Wesley McFadden, BSC ’08

Natalie Lourdes Ebner, BSHCS ’09

2010s

Grant Alexander Pettrie, BBA ’10

Aaron Nathaniel Miller, BSED ’13

Erica Suzann Springer, BSN ’14

Samantha Lynn Cunningham, A AS ’15, AAS ’17

Louis Harry Demetriades, MSRSS ’16

Jonathan R. Sites, BSS ’17

Justin J. Kerby, BSAM ’18, MBA ’20

2020s

Terry F. Wise, AAS ’20

Faculty/Staff

Meta Ackley, Nelsonville, Ohio, retired food services employee, Nov. 5.

James Franklin Barnes, Albuquerque, New Mexico, professor emeritus of political science and former chair and dean of Afro-American Studies, March 2.

Lowell D. Barry, Logan, Ohio, retired building maintenance supervisor, Jan. 5.

Joseph H. Berman, MA ’66, PHD ’68, Athens, Ohio, dean emeritus of Honors Tutorial College and former professor, Scripps College of Communication, and director at WOUB, Dec. 12.

William R. Butler, BSED ’50, MA ’51, Miami, Florida, former dean of students, Dec. 30.

Tisha Jane Carr, The Plains, Ohio, retired data control technician, Dec. 19.

Anthony G. Chila , Athens, Ohio, professor emeritus of family medicine, April 1.

Charles D’Augustine, Boynton Beach, Florida, professor emeritus of education, Nov. 18.

James M. DeWine, Bellingham, Washington, and Naples, Florida, former educational specialist, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Nov. 28.

Judy M. Dunlap, Malta, Ohio, retired food services employee, Dec. 1.

Thomas W. Dunlap, BSED ’66, BSC ’80, MED ’82 , Athens, Ohio, professor emeritus of journalism and former associate dean, Scripps College of Communication, March 21.

Amanda Fisher, Parkersburg, West Virginia, contract services coordinator, March 26.

Sylvia J. Gilders, Athens, Ohio, retired nurse, March 29.

Sharon Ilene Jeffers, Stewart, Ohio, retired custodial worker, Nov. 29.

Bill R. Jones, AB ’63, Washington Township, Ohio, registrar emeritus and former assistant vice president for academic services, Dec. 5.

Wendy S. Jones, Nelsonville, Ohio, accounting support senior specialist, March 3.

Joan (Jerman) Kappes, MED ’76, Athens, Ohio, former physical education instructor, April 12.

Dennis A. Lupher, MA ’69, PHD ’73, Lancaster, Ohio, associate professor emeritus of economics, Jan. 3.

Joan Elizabeth (Rodrian) Mace, AA ’73, BGS ’78, Columbus, Ohio, chair emerita of Department of Aviation, Dec. 28.

Eleanor McLead, Albany, Ohio, retired custodial supervisor, April 8.

John T. McQuate, The Plains, Ohio, professor emeritus of zoology, Nov. 7.

Allan Miller, Toledo, Ohio, former dean of students, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Jan. 28.

William F. Mingus, Bishopville, Ohio, retired custodial worker, Dec. 17.

Wanda J. Morris, Millfield, Ohio, retired administrative assistant, Feb. 21.

Adrie H. Nab, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, retired vice president for University Communications and Marketing and former vice president for University Relations, April 15.

Michael M. Patterson, Dublin, Ohio, former director of research, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Feb. 16.

Nicolai H. Pavel, Athens, Ohio, professor emeritus of mathematics, Jan. 19.

Valerie S. Perotti, PHD ’87, Rochester, New York, professor emerita of management systems, Jan. 10.

Robert A. Rider, BS ’59, Zanesville, Ohio, associate professor emeritus of mathematics, Oct. 26.

T. Richard Robe, BSCE ’55, MS ’62, Peachtree City, Georgia, dean emeritus of Russ College of Engineering and Technology and Cruse W. Moss Professor Emeritus, Jan. 7.

Lance Edward Russell, Millfield, Ohio, former maintenance worker, March 13.

Donald V. Stuchell, BSCOM ’60, Pinehurst, North Carolina, professor emeritus of accounting, Jan. 7.

Michael Steven Sweeney, PHD ’96, Athens, Ohio, professor emeritus of journalism, Jan. 15.

Lian H. The-Mulliner, Waverly, Ohio, director emerita of international collections, April 20.

Patricia A. Thompson, Canal Winchester, Ohio, retired accounting specialist, March 10.

Carolyn Sue Wemer, Millfield, Ohio, retired stationary engineer, Nov. 24.

June P. (Patterson) Wieman, Athens, Ohio, nurse emerita, Dec. 9.

Donald David Wilson, North Canton, Ohio, retired farmer, Jan. 24.

—Includes individuals who passed away between Nov. 1, 2021, and April 30, 2022. 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

Advancement Services Operations Team

Laura M. André

Laura Bilson, BSVC ’23

Macklin Caruso

Nick Claussen, BSJ ’92

Adonis Durado, MFA ’20

Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

Sarah Filipiak, BSJ ’01

John Grimwade, EMERT ’20

John Halley, MFA ’87

Cat Hofacker, BSJ ’18

Darian Knapp

Carly Keeler Leatherwood, BSJ ’96

Michael López-Alegría

Anita Martin, BSJ ’05

Emily Matthews, BSVC ’18

Roger May

Isaac Miller, BSJ ’22

Paige Musselman, BA ’13

Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

Ohio University Press

Samantha Pelham, BA, BSJ ’17, MAA ’21

Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93

Jim Sabin, BSJ ’95

Heidi Sevestre

Peter Shooner

Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02

Southeast Ohio History Center

Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ’22

Wayne Thomas, MA ’12

Joe Timmerman, BSVC ’23

Andrea Ucini

Ty Wright, BFA ’02, MA ’13

Errata for the spring 2022 issue follows.

Ohio Today regrets the error. Page 46:

The semi-autobiographical, creative dissertation project completed by Daryl Malarry Davidson, AA ’96, BSS ’97, PHD ’20, is the first and only scriptment catalogued by the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK). It has not yet been catalogued by ProQuest.

Ohio University President Hugh Sherman

Vice President for University Advancement and President and CEO of The Ohio University Foundation Nico Karagosian

Vice President for University Communications and Marketing Robin Oliver

Printer

The Watkins Printing Co

RELIVE BRICKS(

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 45701-0869. 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 740.566.0344. Make address changes at ohio.edu/ alumni or by mail via Ohio University, Advancement Services, P.O. Box 869, Athens, OH 45701-0869. Send details for the “In Memoriam” column to the latter or via email to advinfo@ ohio.edu. The OHIO switchboard is 740.593.1000.

Copyright © 2022 by Ohio University. Ohio University is an equal access, equal opportunity, and affirmative action institution.

@OHIOAlumni

LAST WORD

As a distinguished music producer and DJ, Dr. Jason Rawls, EDD ’17, has been mixing beats for more than 25 years. Today, he is mixing his passions—music and teaching—and revolutionizing teacher education.

Rawls serves as an associate professor of instruction in OHIO’s Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education, where he is also a coordinator of the Brothers RISE initiative and creator and coordinator of the Hip-Hop OHIO Patton Education (HOPE) program— the first hip-hop based education program incorporated into a college of education’s curriculum.

“It’s about teaching students from where they are,” Rawls explains of the program that brings culturally relevant pedagogy into the curriculum as a means of building relationships with students, better engaging them in the classroom and achieving greater academic success.

Rawls has been building the HOPE program over the course of his professional life—drawing on his dual careers in the music business and education.

“We’re still teaching students the way we were in the ’60s,” he says.

“We’ve got to change that.”

What are your hopes for the future and impact of the HOPE program?

I really want this to change the face of teacher education and spread throughout the state. The most important thing for me is the longevity of the program. … Hiphop is not a Black thing. Hip-hop is global. It’s a cultural phenomenon. It has changed everything.

What song best describes your life story? “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” by Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth. I do a lot of reminiscing and pondering on the past to ensure that the future is right.

—Kirsten Thomas, BSJ ‘22

Visit ohiotoday.org for the full Q&A with Rawls, who talks about his journey to discovering his two loves, a music career that has taken him around the world and his newly released album. Photo by Rich-Joseph Facun, BSVC ’01

This spring, Facilities Management employees unearthed a hidden piece of OHIO history—a time capsule placed in the cornerstone of Scott Quad during construction in 1937.

The preservation of its historical treasures comes as Ohio University embarks on a transformation of the Scott Quad site. The University has deemed the property that housed Scott Quad, which was razed over the summer, a premier site on campus with opportunities to enhance OHIO’s engagement and academic corridors and meet accessibility and student needs. While future development plans are made, the property has been converted to green space, with landscaping featuring the nameplates that adorned each of Scott Quad’s entrances.

Among the contents of the Scott Quad cornerstone is this 1934 issue of The Ohio Alumnus. Visit ohiotoday.org to see the time capsule’s contents in their entirety and to share your memories of this campus building.

Photo by Laura Bilson,

Photo by Darian Knapp

University

Ohio University

Ohio

Exploration meets education in OHIO’s Outdoor Leadership course, where students backpack on the Pisgah National Forest, kayak along Cape Lookout National Seashore, bikepack in the Alleghany Highlands and—in true work hard, play hard Bobcat fashion—have fun. “The bonds built allowed the class to work together and face significant challenges as a group,” says Kevin Osborne, MSRSS ’22, who helped lead the 28-day summer course. Photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02