OSU CHES Magazine 2008

College of

Human Environmental Sciences

o k l a h o m a

s t a t e

u n i v e r s i t y

•

2 0 0 8

Strengthening a Strong Heritage

photo / Gary Lawson

Since joining the College of Human Environmental Sciences January 1, I have had the distinct pleasure to meet the people who make the college the wonderful place it is. I appreciate the warm welcome my family and I have received. I have been extremely impressed with the focus and intensity of the faculty staff, students, alumni and friends of the college. They are the reason CHES continues to be a model on campus, around the nation and globally.

The traditions of the college are rich and deep. Enhancing the lives of the citizens of Oklahoma, the nation and the world is a mission that has its roots in the establishment of the college in 1900. On the pages that follow, you will see that this mission is as vibrant as ever. Through education, research and outreach, programs in CHES continue to improve health through nutrition, to advance design and technology and to influence policy that secures social and economic well-being.

These programs attracted me to the position almost a year ago.

As a researcher, I am interested in cross-cultural and cross-national family studies and have had the privilege of teaching in Kenya and China where I collaborated with other family science researchers.

I was honored last year when the International Section of the National Council on Family

Relations recognized my lifetime achievements and international efforts on behalf of families.

Many of the stories in this issue illustrate the college’s influence in today’s global society. CHES has an extensive heritage in international teaching, research and outreach.

Students from all over the world choose CHES to study and conduct research because of the international reputation of its programs. In fact, 29 percent of our doctoral students are internationals who come from two dozen countries.

The Center for Hospitality and Tourism Research located in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration serves the hospitality industry with theoretical and applied research. Design, Housing and Merchandising researchers bring students expertise in international merchandising, while

Nutritional Sciences and Human Development and Family Science faculty study the effects of nutrition on cognitive development.

OSU President Burns Hargis has generated a new level of energy and enthusiasm with an exciting vision for the future of the university and the state. This spring T. Boone Pickens inspired all of us to reach higher with his $100 million matching gift challenge. In 40 days donors responded, and CHES established three new professorships.

The dollar-for-dollar match from Mr. Pickens combined with the state of Oklahoma matching program will increase the college endowment by 217 percent.

We expect that momentum to continue as others see the impact their gifts can make for the future of CHES students and faculty.

In the spring of 2008, a cross section of faculty and staff from all departments and units of the

Dean Stephan Wilson, design, housing and merchandising professor Lynne Richards, OSU First Lady Ann Hargis and design, housing and merchandising students Jenna Mason, Brenton Wimmer and Hui Ju Park announce the OSU tartan design competition. See page 32.

college embarked on developing a new strategic plan that includes a strong commitment to become an international leader in interdisciplinary research, education and outreach. It also outlines specific tasks for achievement.

I would like to extend an invitation to CHES alumni to become partners with us as we plan for the future. Your interest and influence are imperative as we grow CHES with students, structures and programs.

It is my pleasure to be at OSU and affiliated with the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

I look forward to your continued support and invite you to visit us on campus or at the website www. ches.okstate.edu.

Stephan Wilson, Dean

c he s

ma ga zine

•

V O L U ME

1 5,

2 0 0 8

22

About the cover

International students introduce a diversity and depth that broadens the educational experience for all students in the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

Photo by Phil Shockley.

Gary Lawson

Learning to Adjust

International student M una Algharibeh needed the help of her young daughter, Lina A butaweeleh, to adapt to a stressful new culture. Although difficult, the effort to adjust has rewarded Algharibeh with a new understanding of the U.S. and in the process has changed some other people’s preconceived ideas about her culture.

Stephan M. Wilson Dean, College of Human Environmental Sciences Julie Barnard CHES Publications Manager Eileen Mustain Ed i t o r Paul V. Fleming Art Director Gary Lawson Phil Shockley P h o t o g r a ph e r s

8

14

31

Janet Varnum Ass o c i a t e Ed i t o r Kevin Cate Aaron Dickey Ass o c i a t e D e s i g n e r s Kyle Wray Director, University Marketing CHES Magazine is a publication of the ­Oklahoma State University College of ­H uman Environmental Sciences.

Its purpose is to ­connect this college with its many stakeholders, providing information on both ­campus news and pertinent issues in the field of human environmental sciences. © Oklahoma State University 2008

Words Reflect Reality

An Educated Reverence

Put on Your Red Dress, Baby!

As a distinguished lecturer, Ted Drab cautions interior designers to eschew language perpetuating the misconception that anyone can be a designer.

Wine education goes beyond production, discrimination and responsible usage to a richer appreciation of wine’s cultural context and the lessons it teaches about celebration, religion, fellowship and life.

While displaying their apparel production talents, students Su Kyuoung and Pim Kumphai learn that where the heart’s concerned, a smile is worth the effort.

When you join the OSU Alumni Association, a portion of your membership comes back to the college to fund programs such as homecoming and other alumni events.

Contact us for more information ches.okstate.edu 101 Human Environmental Sciences Stillwater, OK 74078-6116 (405) 744-5053 telephone (405) 744-7113 fax Oklahoma State University in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, or status as a vet eran in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This includes but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educational services. Title IX of the Education Amendments and Oklahoma State University policy prohibit discrimination in the provision of services of benefits offered by the University based on gender. Any person (student, faculty or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based upon gender may discuss their concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with the OSU Title IX Coordinator, Dr. Carolyn Hernandez, Director of Affirmative Action, 408 Whitehurst, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, (405)744-5371 or (405)744-5576(fax). This publication, #2351, issued by Oklahoma State University as authorized by the College of Human Environmental Sciences, was printed by OSU Marketing, University Printing Services. at a cost of $12,850.50. 14,550/Oct/08.

15% PCW SOY INK

photo / Phil Shockley

Harrist, associ-

Love

for the.

of

Children Her background in child development

makes Amanda Harrist an easy target for relatives with parenting questions.

A Thanksgiving dinner, for example, might prompt a question about how to get children to sleep through the night.

Amanda Harrist, associate professor and Bryan Close professor in human development and family science, is only the second faculty member in OSU history to win both the Regents Distinguished Teaching Award and the Regents Distinguished Research Award in the same year.

2

Fa ll 20 08

Currently, she is the lead investigator for a $1 million ate professor and Bryan Close interdisciplinary project to professor in the human develstudy childhood obesity by opment and family science targeting the psychological department, and her husband, issues in families and peer OSU educational psychologist groups. The U.S. Department Steve Harrist, learned early of Agriculture is funding on to avoid answering. “It the research, which involves just comes back to haunt you,” 1,200 children. Harris hopes she says. it will lead to program recom“We’ll say, ‘Well, that mendations that will improve sounds good. Keep doing the health of children. that.’ You don’t want the Harrist’s discipline wasn’t blame if something doesn’t her first choice, although she work out, especially with knows it was the right one. people’s kids. It’s very sensiAs a pre-med student, she tive. You don’t want them to graduated with honors from feel like you’re watching and the University of Texas in judging them.”

1984 with a bachelor’s degree Requests for advice may in liberal arts. Studying to increase after Harrist’s recent become a pediatrician, she string of awards honoring spent a year in medical school her work. In addition to the at UT’s Texas Health Science Marguerite Scruggs Award Center in San Antonio. for Meritorious Research, Uninspired by the curricshe received the Regents ulum’s emphasis on memoriDistinguished Research and zation, she withdrew from the the Regents Teaching awards, school. Later, her husband marking only the second time accepted a clinical psychology in OSU’s history that both position at the University of Regents awards went to the Tennessee in Knoxville. same professor.

“I hadn’t taken the GRE “I was excited,” says or anything,” she says. “I Harrist, “and I was honored, knew I liked children. I’d especially to get both at the never had a child developsame time.” ment course either, but when Her research studies we got there, I just asked a the development of social department chair if I could behavior during early and take some courses as a special middle childhood and its student. I came home from connection to family and peer my first course, and I was in interactions. love with it.”

By 1991, Harrist had a photo / Gary Lawson doctoral degree in child development. After seven years of teaching in Texas, both she and her husband took positions at OSU in Stillwater. She says it was a perfect fit for her because her work offered her the chance to study parenting.

“I’m very happy not to be an M.D. I still study children and families, but they’re well.”

M at t E l l i o t t

Shiretta Ownbey, profes-

Ownbey Leadership Institute Selected for

sor and associate dean of academic programs and services for the College of Human Environmental Sciences has a new leadership opportunity.

She is among 23 leaders, including Jonathan Edelson, professor and assistant director of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, selected as fellows of the Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI), a program of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

The FSLI, which includes leaders from 20 states representing 19 universities and two food and nutrition companies, is dedicated to developing individual and institutional leadership for a food system that is becoming increasingly more complex than the traditional model of agriculture production, processing and distribution.

The curriculum focuses on individual leadership, leading change within organizations, and understanding and influencing complex, diverse food systems. The training lays the groundwork for leaders who will transition food systems research, education, and outreach to broader perspectives and approaches.

Ownbey, who began the two-year program in fall 2007, says the FSLI program broadens the leader’s food systems perspective and equips the leader to serve as a change agent in his or her organization and in larger, more complex systems.

“The program truly allows leaders to develop the vision for change and facilitates interaction among current leaders to stimulate new possibilities, new approaches to leadership.”

Julie Barnard

photo / Gary Lawson

M AG A Z INE

3

IPART’s

Walter is no Dummy photo / Gary Lawson

4

Fa ll 20 08

In a big metal chamber at OSU’s Institute for Protective Apparel Research and Technology stands what could be a member of the Blue Man Group, surrounded by blinking lights, wires and electronics.

Except OSU’s “Walter” doesn’t spray his audience of researchers with paint or confetti, nor does he posit an allegory on the ever-widening space between individuals in the digital age. He’s a life-size, bluefabric-covered mannequin designed to mimic several characteristics of the human body, such as circulation, body heat, temperature tolerance, sweating and walking.

Housing and Merchandising research that has recently yielded breakthroughs including cooling vests for first responders and a new, awardwinning body armor, QuadGard™.

Developed with FSTechnology and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the armor protects soldiers’ limbs without hindering movement.

“Before we put a soldier or a firefighter in an environment that’s difficult to control and monitor, we can simulate multiple environments in the laboratory and better predict human response,” Branson says.

Plans for the lab’s future use include perfecting the firefighters’ microchip with a $90,000 grant from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology. Huantian Cao, former assistant professor in design, housing and merchandising and one of the project’s principal investigators, says the chip network system could be in commercial production in five years thanks in part to help from industry partner Fire-Dex. Since its founding in 2006, IPART has grown to include six design, housing and merchandising faculty and about 10 of their underphotoS / Gary Lawson

Walter, says IPART Director Donna Branson, will aid in the development of advanced garment systems and textiles. The only one of his kind in the nation, the mannequin is part of an array of high-tech IPART tools used to develop products such as body armor and firefighters’ “smart” clothing liners that contain microchips monitoring wearers’ stress levels.

Housed at OSU’s Oklahoma Technology & Research Park, IPART is the only lab in the region where most stages of design research, production and evaluation can take place on site, Branson says.

It’s an indispensable part of the College of Human Environmental Sciences Department of Design,

Other IPART technology includes an enclosed hot plate to test fabric swatches and a large full body scanner. Branson says the scanner helps institute researchers such as assistant professor Semra Peksoz, who also works on the body armor project, measure a test subject’s body dimensions as well as how a garment shifts with movement.

Walter’s metal room, about the size of a closet, is a chamber in which researchers can simulate extreme climate conditions so they can observe how a garment works in those climes without endangering a test subject. Next door, a larger version of Walter’s room will house a treadmill for human testing, Branson says.

graduate and graduate students as well as mechanical engineering and computer science faculty and their students.

“IPART has grown from a small group of dedicated professionals to a high-profile center within the university, enjoying significant federal and private support,” says Steve McKeever, OSU’s vice president of research and technology transfer.

“Laser scanning technology, environmental test-chambers and knowledge of materials and their uses and limitations come together to enable the design of the very best protective apparel.”

M at t E l l i o t t

M AG A Z INE

5

a Leader in

Early Childhood photoS / Phil Shockley

Education

The Cleo L. Craig Foundation Child Development Laboratory is one of the nation’s first early childhood programs to earn accreditation under the rigorous new endorsement standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

NAEYC, the nation’s leading organization of early childhood professionals, has set voluntary standards for early childhood education for more than 20 years. To reflect the latest research and best practices in early childhood education and development, the organization revised accreditation requirements in 2006 adding 10 new early childhood program standards and more than 400 related accreditation criteria.

6

Fa ll 20 08

NAEYC accreditation is a sign the program is a leader in a national effort to invest in high quality early childhood education, says Mark Ginsberg, executive director of NAEYC.

Although accredited programs serve more than a million of the nation’s children, only 8 percent of all preschools and other early childhood programs receive NAEYC accreditation.

Part of the College of Human Environmental Sciences Center for Early Childhood Teaching and Learning, the child development laboratory is a premier, two-classroom facility for children ages 2½ years through kindergarten. A recent gift from the Cleo L. Craig Foundation allowed an expansive renovation that upgraded the facilities to meet NAEYC’s revised standards.

To earn the NAEYC accreditation in the new system, the lab went through an extensive self-study process as well as on-site visits

by NAEYC evaluators.

Programs are also subject to unannounced visits during their accreditation period, which lasts for five years.

“We’re proud to have earned the mark of quality from NAEYC, and to be recognized for our commitment to reaching the highest professional standards,” says Sue Williams, head of human development and family science. “NAEYC accreditation lets families in our community know that children in our program are getting the best care and early learning experiences possible.”

Julie Barnard

M AG A Z INE

7

A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures This winter Ted Drab delivered a wake-up call to interior designers in Minnesota and Arizona. His message to these state chapters of the American Society of Interior Designers makes the case for a new professional vocabulary.

Part of the society’s distinguished lecture series, Drab’s presentations expose misleading language that shapes how the public perceives the profession.

The associate professor of interior design has studied usage in periodical literature for more than 10 years.

“… words are magical formulae.

T h e y l e av e f i n g e r m a r k s b e h i n d o n the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye become the footprints o f h i s t o r y. O n e o u g h t t o w a t c h one’s every word.” — Franz Kafka

8

Fa ll 20 08

Drab’s goal is to iden“It’s a vocabulary of “It tends to diminish the tify the problem so others decorating,” he says. intellectual underpinnings can see its magnitude.

“Interior design of interior design,” he says. expertise is often referred “Periodicals want consumers Advocating for professional licensing legislation, to as ‘fun’ or ‘as helping to pretend to be designers, required by other profeshomeowners to design their and consumers think they sions, is a natural by-prodhomes,’ thus relegating the can do it, too. Weekend uct of awareness, he says. designer to a secondary makeovers are a perfect Twenty-seven states, role. The term used most example.” including Oklahoma, now often is ‘create.’ It’s a vague This perception negamandate that individuals generality offering no tively affects the livelispecifics as to what designhoods of interior designers, earn a four-year degree and pass the National ers actually do. It’s a slushy Drab says.

Council for Interior Design word.”

“If you say, ‘I’m a Qualification Examination And it hasn’t changed professional interior in 10 years, Drab says. designer,’ people say, ‘Oh, before they receive certification.

Create continues to be the what fun.’ They wouldn’t “Only people with the number one verb used to say that about orthodonappropriate education describe the work of intetists or architects. People and experience who have rior designers. don’t pay people to have passed the exam can say, The vocabulary fails fun. They pay someone ‘I’m an interior designer.’ to reflect the interior to do something difficult Others who are not designer’s in-depth knowlthat requires training and licensed call themselves edge of design, products expertise. They balk at design consultants or inteand materials, and project paying someone, in their rior decorators,” Drab says. management as well as the view, ‘to pick out colors.’”

Still, nearly half the ability to design attractive states haven’t legislated and affordable spaces to professional standards. meet client needs.

“Legislators are members of the public and share

Anthony Hart

the same perception as the general public,” he says, “and that’s an impediment to getting the law passed.”

The rest of the solution lies within the profession.

Organizations such as the American Society of Interior Designers have made great strides in setting professional standards, but they also have the responsibility to insist that magazines present the profession accurately. Drab says the associations should scold magazines for spreading misinformation just as the medical or bar associations would.

It’s not just the popular press. Professional magazines also make vocabulary choices that undervalue the interior designer’s expertise.

“They’re infected by these same issues,” he says.

“We need to recognize it in ourselves. We need to watch what we say and stop using language that diminishes our value.”

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

WILLIAMS

Selected TO

HEAD HDFS

photo / Gary Lawson

Sue E. Williams is the new head of the Department of Human Development and Family Science, but her faculty standing and professional accomplishments leave her no stranger to the college.

Joining the faculty of the College of Human Environmental Sciences in 1977, Williams has worked as professor and as a cooperative extension specialist with responsibilities for leadership development and family policy programs. She has managed nearly $2 million in research and program grants and contracts and has received the Lela O’Toole Research Award.

Serving as department head offers a new perspective, she says. “I have a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the creative and excellent ways the department meets its teaching mission as well as the breadth of worthwhile research and scholarship conducted throughout the department.

“Supporting and stimulating the work of undergraduate and graduate students and a very competent, dedicated and motivated faculty and staff provide unique opportunities and challenges every day,” she says.

Williams, whose areas of study are family policy and leadership development, earned a doctorate from OSU, a master’s from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State University.

Recently, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Management Development Program selected Williams to participate in a program for university administrators who aspire to enhance their leadership and management skills.

She has worked on public policy development and public deliberation in the state of Oklahoma. She is a member of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals and is the legislative liaison for the Oklahoma

Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, which has honored her with its professional award. Williams has also received the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Leadership Award.

Williams sits on editorial review boards for the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, the Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences from Research to Practice and the Forum for Family and Consumer Issues.

The department’s acquisition of two of the college’s three new professorships signals a bright future, Williams says. “We anticipate that the work done on strategic planning and endowment proposals will result in two or more additional endowed chairs in the near future.

Clearly hard work visioning and planning are paying off for our department.”

Julie Barnard

M AG A Z INE

9

Rebecca Eastham, new manager of the Atherton Hotel and the Ranchers Club, is no stranger to OSU. The Midwest City native graduated in 1988 from the university with her bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management and returned seeking her doctoral degree in 2004.

Before that, she obtained her master’s degree in human relations from the University of Oklahoma while serving as career development coordinator for the Oklahoma Hotel and Lodging Association.

There, she worked in high schools and other state schools with a hospitality program sponsored by the National Restaurant Association and the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

In addition, from 1994 to 2000, Eastham supervised the training of about 1,500 employees at the historic Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“Rebecca combines educational expertise and the professional experiences she had at the Broadmoor and the Oklahoma Restaurant Association,” says Richard Ghiselli, director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration and the Marilynn Thoma Chair.

“That’s the combination you want in a program like this,” he says. “She also has a service mentality and leads by example. These attributes make her a good role model for the managers of the future.”

Eastham says she has the best of both worlds. “To me, working at the Atherton is the perfect blend of industry and

Eastham Joins HES

10

Fa ll 20 08

education. That’s what I enjoy most about the job. I still get to be a business person, but I can also fulfill my passion and love for teaching.”

Richard Ghiselli, director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration, and Rebecca Eastham, manager of the Atherton Hotel and Ranchers Club

M at t E l l i o t t

photo / Gary Lawson

The Atherton Hotel in the Student Union is due a sprucing up, say development director Alane Zannotti and the hotel’s new manager, Rebecca Eastham.

Baby needs New

Clothes

They say the need to update attests to the continuing progress at the 81-room teaching hotel operated by the College of Human Environmental Sciences. The popularity of the Atherton, one of the only businesses of its kind in the nation, calls for an ongoing attention to detail.

Five million dollars in renovations, led by donors Bill and Ann Atherton, made it a must-see hotel with warm decor and a top-notch restaurant. The work, completed four years ago, includes the addition of a wine tasting room from Joullian Vineyards’ owners Jeanette and Richard Sias and the transformation of the Ranchers Club restaurant in 2005.

“The Athertons’ gift was a beginning to secure the future of the hotel restaurant program by providing a way to combine student education and a premiere quality boutique hotel for the public,” Zannotti says. “Maintaining that quality is the new task.”

The renovation established a level of elegance that requires the smaller-scale additions needed today, Eastham says. The updates could include new carpets and linens as well as new furniture, video technology for the conference room and wireless internet access.

“My goal is to provide a unique and rewarding experience for hotel guests while giving students cutting-edge experience in their future careers,” says Eastham, a clinical instructor who became the hotel’s manager in January.

“Great things continue to happen at the Atherton Hotel,” she says. Charged with further integrating the hotel into the curriculum, Eastham came to the Atherton after teaching the college’s service management course and working in Taylor’s Dining Room.

The Atherton Hotel and the Ranchers Club are part of the real-world sheen on the hotel and restaurant administration curriculum. That’s where students gain valuable work experience in every position from housekeeping to administration.

About 80 pupils per semester get hands-on training thanks to the operation, says Eastham, who also oversees the restaurant.

Educational opportunities including an expanded lab experience help students plan and manage aspects such as a turndown service and environmentally friendly practices.

“Such experience is invaluable to students,” says Richard Ghiselli, director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration and the Marilynn Thoma Chair.

“The School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration is one of only a handful of schools in the country that owns and operates its own hotel. The opportunity this affords our students is significant. The classroom comes alive in the lab.”

M at t E l l i o t t

photo / Gary Lawson

M AG A Z INE

11

photo / Phil Shockley

T

he Human

Development and Family Science Department’s Observation and Coding Center, founded in January 2007, is a college resource available to disciplines across OSU. The lab features technology that illustrates a cross-section of human interaction basics from vital signs to conversation tones, facial expressions and body language. Those give researchers insight into subjects’ true beliefs and feelings during studies in which people try to conceal them.

“Sometimes people can cover up their emotions pretty well, so you don’t really know what they’re feeling or what’s going on, but it’s a lot harder to disguise physiological responses,” says Brandt Gardner, assistant professor and coordinator of lab operations.

“It gives us a window into people’s interpretation or perception of what’s going on right now.”

A Rare Campus ....Resource Tucked into the basement of the Human Environmental Sciences building sits a lab, the likes of which you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the countr y. Only a few universities, including Har vard and the University of Seattle, have similar facilities.

The lab looks like the waiting room of a doctor’s posh office. The walls are painted a neutral brown, trimmed in stained wood, and the floors are carpeted. Plush, comfortable chairs line the main room where subjects wait their turn in the interview rooms.

Cameras and researchers behind two-way mirrors monitor subjects’ interactions in the interview rooms. There’s even a tube where subjects spit their saliva, later analyzed for hormones related to stress.

Just next door, researchers sit at flickering monitors showing split-screen video from the rooms and the participants’ heart and perspiration rates.

One of the lab’s first projects is a $500,000 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant for Gardner and Kelly Roberts, clinical instructor and internship coordinator, to study the difficulties of recruiting lowincome couples for marriage and relationship education programs.

Gardner and Roberts’ project partners with the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating’s program to promote healthy marriages. The organization, for which Roberts coordinated educational services from 2002 to 2004, helps researchers screen, schedule and remind participants of appointments.

Their study uses the full gamut of technology at the facility.

“With most marriage research, we collect data and then find results. It’s rare to collect data and actually get a visual picture of what the results look like,” says Roberts, whose research areas include marriage and family policy and marital interventions. Gardner researches the interactions of married couples and the effects of their parents’ relationships on their marriages.

Observation and coding labs aren’t typically made available to other departments on campus, Gardner says. Both he and Roberts would like to see their lab grow in the future as more OSU faculty and students become aware of its possibilities.

“The lab could be used for all different kinds of work because humans interact with everything,” Roberts says.

“I can’t imagine any department that wouldn’t some day be able to take advantage of this facility, and I look forward to seeing what those projects would be.”

M at t E l l i o t t

12

Fa ll 20 08

For He alth’s Sake, Fruit of the Vine Edralina Lucas would like to help reduce and perhaps prevent health problems with the naturally occurring compounds found in food.

Her goal is to promote healthy foods that diminish the effects of chronic diseases and decrease the use of pharmaceuticals due to their side effects. She is particularly interested in compounds that prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and cancer.

Lucas, who holds a doctorate in analytical chemistry, and her research team have investigated how flaxseed modulates cholesterol synthesis and metabolism and the effect of flaxseed on lipid and

photo / Phil Shockley

the most health benefits. in Oklahoma. Her findglucose metabolism. She “Oklahoma had 49 wineries ings could boost sales for has also participated in Oklahoma’s grape industry. in 2005, and each worked research showing dried with a different variety. plums can help prevent and She hopes by spring 2009 Since most grow their to have results for the reverse osteoporosis. study, which the Oklahoma grapes, they could then Currently, the associlook into producing the Agricultural Experiment ate professor of nutritional healthiest variety for their Station is funding. sciences is researching the “We’re testing 33 variet- wine,” she says. efficacy of bitter melon for “Our findings will help diabetes, funded by the U.S. ies of Oklahoma grapes.

Oklahoma grape growers Department of Agriculture. We first determined each market their products by variety’s phenolic content In another project, the promoting them as poten— the compounds that National Mango Board is tially beneficial for the provide health benefits. backing her investigation prevention of inflammation Now we’re using grape into the use of mangoes related diseases,” Lucas says. juice extract to test the to modulate glucose and anti-inflammatory benefits prevent osteoporosis.

“The health benefits at the cellular level. The But it’s yet another will not only be a strong next step is to see how study that has grabbed the promotional tool to market the compounds work in attention of Oklahoma’s wine but could encourhumans,” she says. grape growers and wine age some growers to Lucas believes it would makers. Lucas is researchexpand their businesses benefit growers and winering the anti-inflammato produce a ‘healthier’ ies to determine which tory properties of the grape juice as well.” variety of grapes offers grape varieties grown E i l ee n M u s t a i n

M AG A Z INE

13

No Rough Edges,

A Crisp Finish Philippe Garmy knows wine, how it affects the palate, its texture and color, its bouquet, the foods it complements, how it finishes.

He also knows wine is an ancient and potent cultural force requiring education to understand and fully appreciate its complexity and appropriate use.

As a clinical professor of hotel and restaurant administration, Garmy teaches hospitality industry and international beverages from coffee to tea to wine and spirits. The courses cover production, styles, philosophies, discrimination, responsible service and how all that fits into the cultural context.

14

Fa ll 20 08

“We celebrate culture with food and beverage as well as with art,” he says. “At the university, we examine culture from many different facets whether cuisine or dance or music, literature, history — we learn the lessons about the past that tell us where we are and where we’re headed,” he says.

Garmy did not begin his career as a teacher.

He holds a bachelor’s in humanities, a diploma in arts and letters from the Universite de Paris, La Sorbonne, Paris, France, and a certificate of studies in gastronomy from the Culinary Institute of America. He was a Tulsa chef when participation in OSU’s chef series led him to the classroom and a new career path.

“I fell in love with being in the classroom. I felt it fit me,” he says.

Before joining the College of Human Environmental Sciences faculty in 2007, Garmy earned a master’s in occupational and adult education at OSU; taught beverage classes at OSU on weekends and evenings; and became instructor and later director of culinary arts for the Tri-County Technology Center in Bartlesville, where his students dominated state competitions and competed well nationally.

His beverage classes at OSU teach a professional competence that’s essential in hospitality management, Garmy says.

photo / Gary Lawson

“Wine has exploded into “Wine raises the level the global marketplace with of joy at a table. It invites great charm and depth of friendship and good fellowcharacter. It’s a commodity ship and is a civilized way in our business, and we to share a meal with friends must know how to select and strangers, and who the best products.” doesn’t like a toast,” he For students to become asks, adding that a toast future leaders in hospitality helps sustain the moment management and adminand let hosts know their istration, they also study guests appreciate them. beverage sales techniques, “The story of wine marketing strategies, profit- is sort of a metaphor for ability models and responhumanity,” Garmy says. sible beverage management, “Wine reminds us to enjoy which Garmy teaches in the earth’s bounty and at depth to ensure student the same time to be aware, success in the real world. to take caution and to understand that anything “It’s amazing that we do has limits.” over millenniums of history various cultures have used wine not only to consume with food but also as a means to celebrate and to make religious sacrament and give praise,” he says.

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

FIRST OKLAHOMA

WINE FORUM SCHEDULED The School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration, assisted by volunteer chairs Steven and Sue Gerkin, is planning the inaugural Oklahoma Wine Forum for April 3-4, 2009, on OSU’s Stillwater campus.

The Oklahoma Wine Forum is the brainchild of OSU alumni and vintners Marilynn and Carl Thoma who have also provided the seed money to make it a reality. Their goals for the forum are to promote wine’s role with food and to educate students and the public about wine’s contribution to a healthy lifestyle when used in moderation.

Forum participants, including students, wine professionals and wine enthusiasts, will attend two days of educational seminars, wine tastings and vintner dinners. A celebrity chef dinner and live auction will conclude the activities. Funds raised from the Oklahoma Wine Forum will provide scholarships for students in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration.

“The Oklahoma Wine Forum is in keeping with our mission to educate our students and to extend educational events to the community. The funds the event raises will also expand student opportunities,” says Richard Ghiselli, head of the school. “Education is the premise that distinguishes this forum from other wine events and festivals.”

The keynote speaker will be Tim Hanni, one of the wine industry’s top tier experts, from Napa, Calif. A wine adviser to hotels and restaurants and owner of WineQuest, he will share his popular seminar “Why You Like What You Like” during one of the educational sessions.

Hanni holds the Master of Wine title, considered the highest accolade in the international wine industry. He is one of only two Americans to complete the examination. The professionally trained chef is a certified wine educator and sits on the national board of the American Institute of Wine and Food.

“Our School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration is a leader in undergraduate education, and its graduate program is internationally recognized,” says Ghiselli. “The Oklahoma Wine Forum can further our reputation.”

Julie Barnard

For more information on attending the Oklahoma Wine Forum, please see the website www.ches.okstate.edu/wineforum or call (405) 744-6713.

OF OKLAHOMA logo / Brian Smith

M AG A Z INE

15

Wilson Envisions a Broader VIEW Over thirty years ago, the new dean of OSU’s College of Human Environmental Sciences lived in a small mud house in rural Kenya.

With the Peace Corps, Stephan Wilson was headmaster of the high school where the woman he would marry, Kathleen, also taught. Their area had no running water or electricity, few literate neighbors or English speakers, and virtually no familiar technology such as telephone, cars, washers or dryers.

The couple lived there from 1976 to 1978. Wilson — with the ink barely dry on his Wabash College bachelor’s degree with double majors in biology and philosophy — learned passable languages of Swahili and Kikamba and realized Kenyans’ goals differed little from those of his upbringing in rural Indiana and Ohio.

“It would never have happened for me if I hadn’t gone to Kenya,” he says, looking back on the experience that drew him toward cultural studies.

Wilson, the first male dean of the college in its 108-year history, took over after Patricia Knaub stepped down in 2007 ending 18 years in the position.

He came to OSU from the University of Nevada in Reno where he was a senior associate dean and professor in its health and human sciences college. He also chaired the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, directed the Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy and the Scholars for Aging and Ethics Consortium.

“I’m delighted to be here,” says Wilson, whose research examines adolescent social competence and how poverty affects class mobility and young adult outcomes across cultures as varied as those of Kenya, Mexico, China and Appalachia.

Wilson’s road took a few turns before he arrived at OSU. After he returned from Kenya, the self-described “funny little man with a bowtie” says he and his wife worked in a shelter for abused children in Delaware, Ohio. After that, he enrolled in the University of Tennessee’s child and family studies graduate program.

A master’s degree followed, as did a doctoral degree in human ecology in 1985. Later, he taught at Virginia Tech, Illinois State University, Montana State University and the University of Kentucky. In 2000, he returned with his wife and three children to Kenya, where he spent a year as a Senior Fulbright Professor in Residence at Kenyatta University, Nairobi.

He admires the historic origins and CHES’ growth from an intellectual refuge for women during the institutionalized sexism that characterized so much of higher education early in the last century to what it has become over the last 108 years, a college advancing a variety of disciplines and sciences and attracting both men and women as well as students from around the country and the world.

“I was drawn by the college’s tradition and its faculty’s tendency to tackle complex problems,” he says.

The story of OSU President Henry Bennett, whose vision to expand the university knowledge worldwide, helped establish the Imperial Ethiopian College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, now Alemaya University, also impresses Wilson.

“I’d like to see us return to that heritage. And, I’d like to see our college among the leaders to do that,” he says.

“In addition to connections and programs in Europe and recently emerging countries like China, the College of Human Environmental Sciences is positioned to contribute to advanced education for faculty from developing countries and to partner with colleagues in developing countries around a number of critical issues related to survival, quality of life, and social, economic and environmental concerns — particularly with respect to women and children’s issues.”

Wilson hopes to grow CHES’s international connections and broaden the horizons of its students.

He wants students to be exposed to multicultural issues through study abroad opportunities, and he believes many of these experiences should take place in the developing world. He challenges faculty to evaluate how their courses prepare students for that experience and students to stretch themselves outside of what is most comfortable as internship sites and study abroad settings.

“My plans are to look for international opportunities for faculty and assignments that involve cross-cultural and international elements, such as leading study tours, organizing student exchanges, establishing articulation agreements with universities in other countries, bringing international speakers and participating in international faculty exchanges as well as international research, curricular and outreach collaborations with colleagues in other nations,” he says.

Dean Wilson is a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations and received the Jan Trost Award for Lifetime Contributions to crosscultural and cross-national family study at the council’s national conference in 2007.

He has worked on the editorial board for the journal Marriage & Family Review and Family Relations. His most recent book, published in 2008, is Families in a Global Context. He holds memberships in Phi Kappa Phi, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Research on Adolescence.

M at t E l l i o t t

photo / Gary Lawson

16

Fa ll 20 08

M AG A Z INE

17

Making the

For many years, the

College of Human Environmental Sciences has of fered international experience

the ATTRACTION  FACTOR International students come to the College of Human Environmental Sciences from around the globe for reasons as varied and as spectacular as Oklahoma weather.

through study abroad, internships and research oppor tunities for faculty and graduate students.

Genesee Photo Systems

International

The college embraces

its international students, who comprised more than 4 percent of the student enrollment in fall 2007. That’s a number Dean Stephan Wilson hopes to increase along with expanding cultural exchange for students and faculty.

Connection

Wilson plans to strengthen

and broaden the college’s international connections.

“I am ver y interested in internationalizing our curriculum and introducing our students to cross-cultural and multicultural issues and overseas experience, par ticularly in the developing world,” Wilson says.

“These days, in our shrinking world, our graduates must have the same versatility and open-mindedness possessed by their peers in other nations. It is our responsibility and privilege to provide the educational resources they need.”

18

Fa ll 20 08

Eunice Menja, and her husband Robert, with Dean Stephan Wilson.

Some students find the college of fers just the programs they’re seeking; some base the decision on recommendations from friends or colleagues; and others follow a mentor.

For some, OSU is a family af fair, and at least one student chose OSU because of a user-friendly website.

Sample stories from international students illustrate the multiplicity of interests and skills they bring to the college. Their accounts also show that regardless of the paths these students followed to the OSU campus, their positive experiences leave no cause for regret.

They have found a diversity that fosters multicultural interaction, opportunities to achieve their educational goals and a receptive, supportive environment.

N where

In the

Middle of “I came to OSU after I accidently found the school on the internet,” says Maya Lucia Joray, nutritional sciences doctoral student from Switzerland.

“I was looking at programs for international studies, and the OSU site had an easy internet page. It explained what I needed to do and how to make contact. International studies responded immediately.”

It was only later, after meeting a Texan during a visit to Australia that Joray began to have doubts about the place called Stillwater. “He said it was in the middle of nowhere,” she says. “I expected a large city.”

She admits she was at first disappointed when she arrived at OSU in 2003, but Joray, now a single mother, has grown to appreciate the smaller town’s sense of community.

“It’s a good place for families,” she says.

“People are very friendly and open.

I haven’t found it difficult to form close relationships, and the department has been helpful and supportive of me as a single mother. My boss even helped look after my baby.”

Before coming to OSU, Joray earned a bachelor’s degree in food science and home economics. In Switzerland, she taught home economics and worked on water quality for the government. She also interned at an industrial bakery in Israel and an organic cheese

factory in Holland and worked in an Ecuadorean pharmacy analyzing and rebuilding medicine.

Since arriving at OSU, she has earned a master’s degree in international studies with a specialization in trade and development and worked for another half-year on a project with Patricia Rayas-Duarte, cereal chemist with OSU’s Food and Agricultural Products Center.

Today, working with nutritional sciences Regents Professor Barbara Stoecker, Joray researches a new

method to assess nutritional levels of zinc. “Zinc deficiencies are a problem in undeveloped countries as well as in elderly populations,” she says.

A global traveler who speaks four languages, Joray says she has found an international climate at CHES. “The environment helps us interact and learn how to treat and understand other people,” she says.

“I’ve met a lot of people from different nations. Just in our lab, we have three from America, one from China and one from Malaysia.”

E i l ee n M u s t a i n photo / Gary Lawson

M AG A Z INE

19

An uncommon program drew Annmarie Nicely to OSU. A native of eastern Jamaica, Nicely was a lecturer in hotel and restaurant administration at the University of Technology, Kingston, Jamaica, for 11 years when she decided to pursue a doctorate.

“I wanted to engage in hospitality research. I had worked in the industry but wanted to strengthen the academic aspect of my career,” she says. “I wanted to look at hospitality in global terms, and there were not that many schools that offered a Ph.D. in hospitality.”

One of her friends as well as a college representative at the U.S. embassy in Jamaica recommended the OSU program.

Although she knew no one at OSU, Nicely followed the advice and arrived in 2005. She says the program in the College of Human Environmental Sciences is proving to be a good fit.

“There have been a number of positives,” she says. “The faculty is very supportive. I always have a great sense that people here want to help you achieve your goals. Another thing I really like about OSU is that there is a spirit here — an OSU spirit. You can’t enter and not feel the spirit everywhere you go.”

The diversity on campus at the graduate level, both in and outside class, is appealing to her. “I cherish meeting people from the many countries represented,” she says.

For her doctorate in hotel and restaurant administration, Nicely’s dissertation will focus on learning organization theory. “I am looking at how hotels in Jamaica go about learning.

Very little has been done on learning organization theory in the hospitality industry,” she says.

“My ultimate plan is to engage in more projects that deal with hospitality, particularly in the Caribbean, either working for companies in the region or beginning a consultancy business of my own.”

In the meantime, Nicely wants to

One ofonly aFew

continue building her credentials “with experiences anywhere in the world,” she says.

“Global experience is necessary because the world is becoming one space. Anyone who is just thinking locally is limiting possibilities and committing a professional suicide.

“Experiencing other countries brings the world a little bit closer, and we gain knowledge about how others do their thing,” she says. “It’s also an opportunity to learn vicariously and avoid repeating their mistakes.”

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

photo / Phil Shockley

20

Fa ll 20 08

somewhat like Vadasz has followed her When considering college father’s example in becoming in 2004, 17-year-old Adrianna a resident assistant. However, Vadasz could choose to stay instead of the traditional dorm at home in Venezuela, go to of her father’s experience, her Hungary, since she’s halfassistantship is in the College of Hungarian, or attend OSU. Human Environmental Sciences In choosing OSU, Vadasz, Living Learning Community a junior interior design student, located in the Village suites. knew what she’d find. “My dad Housing CHES students talked to me about it,” she says. together in a suite with indiHer father, who holds a vidual rooms and common areas bachelor’s, master’s and doctor“is much more welcoming than ate in mechanical engineering the dorms,” she says. from OSU, told her Stillwater is Vadasz is a member of the not a large city. In fact, she says Latin Dancing and Cultural the smaller, more rural environClub and the Hispanic Student ment is one of her reasons for Association. “A lot of internachoosing OSU. “It’s calm. I like tional students come to OSU. it here because I can focus more on studying than anything else.” That gives us the opportunity to learn about others and their He also told her about parts of the world,” she says. the campus, the student orga“The student organizations, such nizations and his duties as a as the Hispanic or the Japanese resident assistant in the 1970s.

“Although OSU was not as devel- student groups, help us learn about other cultures.” oped as it is today,” she says, “it is how I expected it to be.”

HOMe

Although she had no other problems adjusting to OSU, Vadasz discovered her English classes in school had not adequately prepared her for spoken English. “At first, language was stressful. Most people knew about as much Spanish as I knew English, which made it difficult to communicate,” she says, adding that she studied English during her first year on campus at OSU’s School of International Studies’ English Language Institute.

“OSU is a good place for

international students to come to learn English,” she says.

“People here speak English slower than most places I’ve been.”

In addition to learning a language, international experience is important for socialization, Vadasz says. “I think it teaches how to understand and

influence other people. It will help me in the future to be more open-minded and to understand why people act the way they do.”

As for what her future will be, Vadasz will face another choice following graduation in May 2010. “I plan to study for a master’s and perhaps a Ph.D. at OSU, or perhaps I’ll go to some other state or go back home or somewhere else. I don’t know yet.”

In the meantime, she’ll continue to enjoy OSU just as her father and her uncle, a hotel and restaurant administration graduate, did before her.

And she’ll have company.

Her brother will graduate from OSU in December 2008 with a degree in graphic design. While he may work on his master’s at OSU, he is considering other options as well.

Of course, by that time, should he leave, Vadasz’ younger sister will be attending OSU. E i l ee n M u s t a i n

photo / Gary Lawson

M AG A Z INE

21

A Fork (or Two) in the Road

“Sometimes I don’t understand how I made these jumps, but they seemed logical at the time,” says Muna Algharibeh, who arrived from Jordan in 2004 to enroll in OSU’s William S. Spears School of Business.

Algharibeh, who holds a bachelor’s in pharmacy, plied her craft for five years then took a marketing job with a pharmaceutical company and returned to school to earn a master’s in business administration.

After graduating with distinction from the University of Jordan, Algharibeh accepted the university’s offer of a one-year position teaching consumer behavior and principals of marketing. “My first teaching experience was wonderful,” she says. “I felt a keen sense of achievement.”

This is why, when colleagues encouraged her to pursue a doctorate in marketing, she leapt again and landed at the Spears School of Business as a doctoral student and teaching assistant. Her advisor in Jordan, Mussen Lakmaksamres, recommended OSU, where he’d spent a semester as a Fulbright Scholar.

“It was a little bit stressful adjusting to a new culture,” she says, noting that language barriers made teaching more difficult. “It took a month to learn how to deal with problems – how to accept others and be accepted and how to approach and resolve problems in this country.”

The arrival of her kindergarten-age daughter, Lina Abutaweeleh, a few months later helped Algharibeh cope with the stress.

“I was worried about her, but she quickly acclimated. Now a third-grader, she speaks English fluently with an American accent.

Her adjustment was a push for me,” Algharibeh says. “I thought if she can manage well, then so can I.” By the end of the first year, realizing her interests lay in health rather than business, Algharibeh readied herself for another move. Her search for a university offering a study in international health issues led her across campus to the College of Human Environmental Sciences and a doctoral program in nutritional sciences guided

by Regents Professor Barbara Stoecker.

“I found an international focus in nutritional sciences.

Dr. Stoecker has many international projects,” Algharibeh says, noting that Stoecker’s work is highly regarded by her peers.

Algharibeh’s research investigates the status of vitamin D and iron and zinc levels in relation to nutrition and cognitive function in Jordanian women of childbearing age and their children.

Her preliminary data show a high instance of vitamin D deficiency among the women. She presented her findings in a paper to the 2008 OSU research symposium, where she won first for biomedical sciences, and to an international experimental biology conference held in San Francisco.

When she finishes her doctorate in 2009, Algharibeh hopes to work in U.S. higher education for a few years before returning to Jordan or another developing country.

“I want to increase awareness of the importance of nutrition education at the community level through planning at the international level,” she says.

“I have a dream to join the United Nations, which would allow for designing projects in a broader context to improve the nutritional status of women and children in a region.”

Even though Stillwater wasn’t the sophisticated city she had expected, Algharibeh would still choose OSU. “I was looking for the finest education, and I think I got that. If I had to do it again, I would do it here. I feel lucky working with Dr. Stoecker, and I will never forget the support I had from the business school,” she says, “especially the kindness of Joshua Wiener, head of the marketing department, who made the move so easy for me.”

Exposure to diverse cultures opens minds and teaches how to accept differences, Algharibeh says. “You need to be inside a culture to understand it. In the

Middle East we judge the U.S. from TV and movies. We see sex, drugs and violence, a loose society and seamy politics. We don’t see this country as it is.

“I’ve also met many people here with a preconceived notion of Mid-Eastern culture, one with oppressed women dominated by men,” she says.

“I often hear from people that I have changed their view of the Middle-Eastern Muslim woman.”

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

photo / Gary Lawson

22

Fa ll 20 08

M AG A Z INE

23

KeepinGOOD THE

Morris continues to advise Mumbe Susanna Kithakye, Kithakye today as she researches Kenyan doctoral student in the social and emotional human development and family functioning of children in science, traveled a circuitous extremely adverse settings, such route to arrive at OSU in 2006. as environments characterized By then she had been in the U.S. long enough to earn a bach- by severe poverty, exposure to natural or man-made disaster or elor’s in biology from Messiah the loss of a parent to AIDS. College, Harrisburg, Penn., Kithakye, who will and a master’s in public health complete her doctorate in May from Tulane University in New 2009, has gathered data in Orleans and to work two years for the Louisiana office of public Kibera, Kenya, a low-income area with the highest levels of health HIV/AIDS program.

HIV/AIDS in the country. She Interested in working has also collected data on child with people and the behaviors functioning in the wake of that negatively affect children, Hurricane Katrina and in the Kithakye began doctoral studaftermath of Kenya’s turbulent ies in applied developmental election in December 2007. psychology at the University of Her research of Katrina’s New Orleans. There she met effect on children indicates that her adviser, assistant professor the worse the hurricane’s impact of psychology, Amanda Morris. on their parents and homes, the Two years later, in the aftermath poorer the children functioned. of Hurricane Katrina, Morris “But even in terrible situajoined the human development and family science faculty at OSU. tions some children do better than others. If caregivers have And Kithakye followed more support, the children her. “It was hard to leave New may function better,” she says.

Orleans, but academically it “I’m hoping to show we can was the right thing to do,” she strengthen the support system says. “I wanted to work with for children in adverse situations Dr. Morris. She encouraged and and thereby help them.” challenged me. She asked me Although Kithakye came questions that made me think.” to OSU to work with Morris, she’s gotten much more from the experience than she anticipated.

“Coming from psychology with its focus on the individual, it has been different to focus on the whole family. But recognizing the role of family has deepened and enriched my research, and my research interests have broadened from being in this program.

“The faculty has given me so much support. They believe in the students and look for ways to give us

opportunities for growth and success. They want to help us do well,” she says.

“As a result of my experience here and the college’s encouragement, I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in leadership activities, which I didn’t have the chance to do when I first started in a doctoral program.”

Kithakye has assumed leadership roles in the Graduate and Professional Student Government Association, first as a representative and now as president.

Even with positive experiences, she says moving to OSU was an adjustment for her initially. Having a husband from Papua, New Guinea, and always being part of a large international community, at first Kithakye felt as if she’d lost her support group moving from New Orleans to the smaller town.

“Previously, I was more in touch with people from my country, and it’s not as easy to make friends. It’s friendly but not at the same level as New Orleans where you know a person’s life story five minutes after you meet,” she says.

Despite the initial challenges, Kithakye and her family feel they have adjusted and settled well in Stillwater.

“Before we came, people kept saying it’s a great place to raise a family, and now I agree. I have adjusted to a new way of meeting people here, and we’ve made some very special friends.

“When I first came to the U.S., my father said, ‘Just watch how other people live, and when you have your own family, you’ll be able to pick and choose what you want for your family and keep the good things,’” she says.

“I’ve been exposed to different people and ways of living from all over the world — some things have been bad, but a lot more have been good. I’m so glad I’ve had a chance to be exposed to so much. There are many good things that we have been able to absorb into our international family. And I look forward to learning even more from those around me.”

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

Amanda Morris and Mumbe Susanna Kithakye photo / Gary Lawson

24

Fa ll 20 08 F

Accolades keep pouring in for Hailin Qu, Regents professor and William E. Davis distinguished chair in OSU’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration.

In August, Qu received the prestigious John Wiley & Sons Lifetime Research Achievement Award honoring his contribution to research in consumer behavior and economic impact in hospitality and tourism from the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education.

“I am so pleased, humbled and honored to receive this award,” he says. “I am deeply grateful to the people who nominated me and to the award committee for selecting me. I am honored to be in the company of those who receive this recognition.”

This year Qu also received the Michael D. Olsen Research Achievement Award from the University of Delaware and a distinguished alumni award from Purdue University’s College of Consumer and Family Sciences, where he earned a master’s and doctorate.

He has published more than 160 refereed articles since he earned his Ph.D. in 1992 and has received 38 grants and contracts totaling more than $1.6 million. His ongoing research projects include grants from the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department analyzing the economic impact of state parks and the gaming industry.

In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, Qu directs the Center for Hospitality and Tourism Research, serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism and is senior international academic advisor to the Tourism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

A native of Shanghai, China, and a graduate of the Shanghai Institute of Tourism, Hotel & Restaurant Management, Qu has held professorial positions at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the celebrated École hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland.

He came to OSU in 1999 from San Francisco State University, drawn by OSU’s community and the school’s resources, which include faculty expertise and the on-campus Atherton Hotel and Ranchers Club restaurant as well as two other training restaurants.

“Nine years of wonderful experiences at OSU have reinforced and informed the principles of being an educator and researcher,” he says.

QUality Work, International Stature

“My OSU experiences have provided the knowledge and skill for me to be competitive in teaching, research and outreach in our diversified and globalized society.”

M at t E l l i o t t

M AG A Z IN INE photo / Phil Shockley

25

finding

Common Alex Bishop has been interested in what happens to people as they age ever since he spent his teenage years assisting numerous older adults with everyday living activities.

photo / Gary Lawson

Today, holding a bachelor’s in sociology, a master’s in gerontology and a doctorate in human development and family studies, he has turned his inquisitiveness to the oldest of the old and asks, “What makes a 100-year-old happy?”

ground

Bishop, assistant professor in human development and family science, researches life satisfaction in extreme old age.

One of his primary interests involves the identification of key resources that link past life experiences to current feelings of happiness.

Through an affiliation with the Georgia Centenarian Study, a 20-year longitudinal study of adaptation and well-being in late and very late life, Bishop presented his work on religious and spiritual connections of

mental and physical well-being at a bi-national conference and research workshop in Tel Aviv, Israel, in late January.

The international experience opened new doors for him.

“The dialogue was unique and stimulated ideas,” he says of the three-day workshop and retreat. “The sharing of ideas was phenomenal. The experience challenged international researchers to think outside the box.”

The exchange helped him broaden a recently proposed and funded study of centenarians through the Oklahoma Agriculture Experiment Station.

This study will investigate how individual, social and economic resources influence the association between early traumatic experiences, such as child abuse, childhood illness or natural disasters, and mental and physical health in extreme old age.

“There is convincing evidence that childhood trauma continues to impact happiness among old and very old adults,” he says.

“It’s much easier to overcome stressors when older adults feel physically and mentally robust, but resiliency becomes a factor as persons live extremely long lives. Adults 85 and older tend to outlive many of their family and friends, which compromises access to a viable support system.”

From the conference discussions, Bishop learned Israelis struggle with how to care for individuals who have endured the Holocaust and displacement. Many of these persons are now losing their support networks of family and friends who shared a similar historical

and catastrophic experience. He realized Americans also have common traumatic experiences.

“I was able to gather some things I haven’t looked at in my research,” he says. “Many of us have directly or indirectly experienced Hurricane Katrina, the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11. The key question for me is how such events continue to shape aging and well-being across the life course.”

By exploring common area in their research, the conference participants, from Israel and the U.S., formed collaborations that have resulted in the submission of a proposed symposium presentation at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. They are in the process of completing a book with each researcher contributing a chapter. The group will present the book to a publisher for printing in 2009.

“I’m working on two chapters — one on the measurement of subjective well-being and another one that details how religious and spirituality coping influences physical and mental well-being among oldold adults,” Bishop says. “The book is significant because we’re trying to frame an international perspective on what it means to live an extremely long life.”

Bishop foresees additional collaboration and teaching exchanges resulting from the conference. “You can’t easily nurture relationships or research ideas with international connections without venturing out of the U.S.,” he says.

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

26

Fa ll 20 08

Relating Global Market to the

When Byoungho Jin travels internationally, it’s not to see the usual tourist attractions. She journeys searching out information to prepare students for business in international markets, particularly those of India and China, the world’s largest producers of consumer goods.

A credentialed traveler, the merchandising professor and graduate program coordinator in the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising holds a bachelor’s, master’s and a Ph.D. in clothing and textiles from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, and has completed a postdoctoral study in international retailing at Michigan State University.

Her research areas include international retailing, cross-cultural consumer behavior and global apparel supply-chain management.

Funded by USDA and U.S. Department of Education grants, Jin researched China and India’s markets to develop education modules. The studies, now incorporated in the merchandising curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate students, include background of the country and culture and consumer behavior as well as guidance on how to negotiate and develop the market.

“We want to increase our students’ understanding of emerging international markets. If we know the markets,” she says, “we can sell more American goods and increase trade.”

Jin’s research took her to New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, India, where she conducted a series of focus group interviews to examine college students’ consumption patterns and attitudes toward U.S. apparel brands. She also developed photographic and video instructional materials.

In China, she conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews examining Chinese business perspectives on U.S. business practice in the four cities she visited.

Besides building education units, Jin sought opportunities for international collaboration. She visited the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and she and Donna Branson, professor in design, housing and merchandising, visited Yonsei and ChungAng Universities in Korea.

She has also established collaborations with three professors in India and recruited four graduate students from Korea. The Beijing Institute of Clothing and Technology has invited Jin to lecture in spring 2009.

Jin also works with Oklahoma small businesses to connect to international markets. Sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Oklahoma State Chamber, she presented workshops for small businesses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa about conducting business with China.

E i l ee n M u s t a i n photo / Gary Lawson

M AG A Z INE

27

Center’s Reach Is Both Global, Local OSU welcomed a new center to its

The University Connection The College of Human

fold in 2007, the Center for Hospitality

Environmental Sciences has

and Tourism Research within the School

entered an agreement with Puerto

of Hotel and Restaurant Administration

Rico’s Universidad del Este

in the College of Human Environmental

(UNE) to provide an off-campus

Sciences.

doctoral program for students

Directed by award-winning Regents professor Hailin Qu, the center provides a one-stop shop for hospitality and tourism expertise on markets throughout Oklahoma, the nation and the world.

The center’s goal is to be the

specializing in hospitality and tourism administration.

The program bridges a higher education gap for Puerto Rico, which lacks the advanced degrees to teach and conduct

pre-eminent research organization

research in hospitality and tourism

to advance theoretical and applied

management.

research for hospitality and tourism.

OSU provides a minimum of 18

It will serve academia, students, the

credit hours of coursework and 15

global hospitality and tourism industry

credit hours of dissertation for the

and the local community.

60-credit program estimated to

With rising inflation and skyrocketing gas prices affecting the travel and tourism industries, Qu says the center will provide information,

take four to five years to complete.

OSU approves applications and transfer credits, oversees the dissertation and issues the degree.

The students, who are

consultation and research for govern-

primarily part-time students

ments, corporations and businesses

working in the hospitality and

to help overcome the challenges.

tourism high education institu-

The center partners with the

tions, take courses taught by the

Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation

School of Hotel and Restaurant

Department to apply its research

Administration faculty during the

toward advancing the state’s third-

summer and winter inter-sessions.

largest industry. State tourism in 2006

Faculty and students also commu-

generated $1.6 billion in revenue,

nicate through email and other

created 72,000 jobs and fattened public

distance learning media.

revenue coffers with $842 million in tax

Professor Sees Program’s Appeal

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

money, Qu says.

True to OSU’s land-grant mission, the center also operates outreach programs in Switzerland, Thailand, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, China. Qu says he’d like to expand the center’s outreach into other Asian countries, so its future looks bright indeed.

M at t E l l i o t t

photo / Gary Lawson

Mona Lane and Adam Baden

28

Fa ll 20 08

Studying to be a teacher, Paula majored in what was then Family Relations and Child Development in the College of Home Economics. There she met Lane, a recent OSU master’s degree graduate who was in her first year of teaching lab and curriculum courses.

“I remember Professor Lane,” says Paula, who later became a teacher with Altus Public Schools.

“I remember her being very soft spoken and wanting to make sure you succeeded. She’d give you help any time you wanted it.”

Through the years as Paula’s younger sister, Jane Bieberdorf Cronin, and her sister-in-law, Pam Baden Holland,

across Generations OSU runs in the family.

So much so that professor Mona Lane, an expert in early childhood and multicultural education, has taught five members of the same family during her career. It all started in 1971 when Gotebo, Okla., native Paula Bieberdorf Baden enrolled at OSU.

attended OSU, the college adjusted the curriculum to suit the needs of the increasing number of women entering the workforce.

By the time Paula’s daughter, Erin Baden, enrolled in 1998, Lane had earned her doctorate, the early childhood education program had grown with new child development labs, new courses and new teaching certifications for nursery to second-grade and pre-kindergarten to third grade, and the college had changed its name to Human Environmental Sciences.

When Paula’s son, Adam Baden, enrolled in Lane’s class in 2007, the department had changed its name to Human Development and Family Science, and Lane had taught

two generations of the family. Adam, a junior majoring in early childhood education, says Lane helped him succeed in everything from taking notes to rating daycare facilities and continues to encourage him.

“Every once in a while, I’ll see her door open, and I’ll stop to talk to her,” he says.

Lane’s open-door policy shows in her teaching philosophy.

The Tecumseh, Okla., native says she takes a student-oriented approach and designs her teaching style to each class’s needs.

She also puts all her course lectures online.

She balances her accessibility among three courses a semester, research and her responsibilities as the state representative to the National Association of Education of Young Children. With a colleague at the University of Central

Oklahoma, she also arranges a two-week study abroad program for students in Europe.

Recently Lane was part of a team of OSU professors who instructed Oklahoma Department of Human Services childcare workers who are earning master’s degrees through the college.

She’s been a part of the university for 37 years, and she knows that the college’s history and its continuing growth in child development are why families such as the Badens send their children to OSU. “OSU has been strong in early childhood education since the ’20s and a lot of people have come to OSU because the program is so wellknown in the state,” Lane says. “That’s why we often get people who have a relative who went through the program here.”

M at t E l l i o t t

Erin Baden

Paula Bieberdorf Baden Jane Bieberdorf Cronin

Pam Baden Holland

M AG A Z INE

29

Alumna Bobbie Nof flet is an exceptional ambassador for the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

The humanitarian’s career not only exemplifies the college credo to solve problems and improve lives but it also demonstrates the employment flexibility that can come with a degree from the college.

Nofflet received a bachelor’s degree in design, housing and merchandising in 1948, but her most rewarding experience came from helping children, saving many, which she did from Mississippi to Vietnam to Thailand.

Before she returned to OSU to earn a master’s degree in fashion design and merchandising in 1960, she spent her early career working with 4-H and youth programs, traveling to all U.S. states to present nutrition information to health care professionals and establishing life improvement programs for children in impoverished areas.

Later as a development officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, she advised the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture on women’s programs, worked in all 44 provinces in Vietnam and taught more than 12,000 women how to improve their families’ lives and villages.

“One of the most meaningful parts of my job was working with orphanages in Vietnam because I was able to relocate enormous numbers of babies who were abandoned or living in extremely difficult situations,” Nofflet says.

At the end of the Vietnam War, she was a catalyst for the orphan lift that saved nearly 500 Vietnamese children in the 48 hours before the fall of Saigon. Afterward she continued with the agency helping to reunite families separated during the communist takeover.

Later Nofflet worked with local government officials in 16 provinces of the Philippines to improve city administrations and then worked in Washington, D.C., to provide support for development programs in Indonesia and Thailand.

As a disaster assistance employee with the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 1985 to 2001, she participated in numerous disaster recovery and relief efforts.

“I was a job jumper. I never looked for a job. New opportunities kept coming up. You just have to be accepting and open,” says Nofflet, a recent inductee into the OSU Alumni Association Hall of Fame.

“My education carried me through all my jobs, and in each I learned more about doing more for people in my next job,” she says.

“I believe every college is important and does prepare you for a career, but there’s a difference. The College of Human Environmental Sciences prepares you for life — more than just a career.”

‘Walking the Walk’

J a n e t Va r n u m

a n d E i l ee n M u s t a i n

photo / Gary Lawson

30

Fa ll 20 08

Julie Barnard

Design

, housing and merchandising students majoring in apparel production recently created garments for heart disease survivors in Tulsa.

The survivors modeled the fashions during the Tulsa American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women event.

After visiting with the survivors who spanned three generations, students designed and created party dresses, business attire and casual outfits for eight survivors.

A Matter Heart

of the

“We felt like this was a wonderful opportunity for our students to showcase their talents while providing beautiful custommade apparel to women and young girls who have survived heart disease,” says Diane Morton. “When the models were ready to take the runway, both the survivors and the student Bobbie Nofflet meets with student designer Haley Hollaway to fit the dress Hollaway designed for Nofflet’s induction ceremony into the OSU Alumni Association Hall of Fame.

Hollaway, who hopes to become a custom designer in the bridal industry, wanted to create a classic and timeless suit for Nofflet because “she is such an amazing woman,” Hollaway says. “She’s a joy, and she represents OSU so admirably.”

designers were beaming with pride.”

Morton, apparel production instructor, says the students spent hours designing and producing each piece. “Even though they were not paid for their work, they were more than rewarded when the survivors were so happy with their individual designs.”

Design, housing and merchandising graduate student Pim Kumphai, who designed for the youngest model, says, “My design incorporated a lot of circles layered on the dress. It was a lot of work, but the smile on that little girl’s face when she put it on was worth all the effort. She loved it.

“It was definitely a win-win for everyone,” she says.

Go Red director Brandy Flewellen arranged the fashion show, while New Directions Foundation and Hancock Fabrics provided the fabric for the designs.

Julie Barnard

M AG A Z INE

31

Follow the OSU Tartan Competition at www.ches.okstate.edu.

Student Libby Wilson, and design, housing and merchandising professors Lynne Richards and Paulette Hebert discuss ideas for the OSU tartan design competition.

32

photo / Gary Lawson

A ‘Wee Bit’ of Fun,Ye Ken When design, housing and merchandising students apply their knowledge of warp and weft, OSU will have its own tartan plaid fabric design.

Competition to design an official tartan for the university began when classes commenced in fall 2008.

Tartan plaids, each unique, are traditionally worn to identify clans or families in Scotland and Ireland. The official OSU tartan will display OSU colors, and its use will signify the members of the OSU clan.

Current graduate and undergraduate students who have completed the textiles class will have a month to create a completely original tartan fabric design using OSU’s colors.

University, community and industry representatives will select four finalists, announced during OSU Homecoming week. The college will use online voting to select a winner among the four.

Fa ll 20 08

Design, housing and merchandising professor Lynne Richards will coordinate the competition. “We think this is a wonderful way students can apply their knowledge and create a tradition for the university,” Richards says. “We see all kinds of opportunities to incorporate the OSU tartan into products that will also represent the quality of students in our program.”

Paulette Hebert, design, housing and merchandising professor, and Judy Barnard, OSU director of trademarks and licensing, have arranged for Pendleton Mills in Portland, Ore., to produce the first blankets and scarves using the OSU tartan.

Julie Barnard

To learn more about the OSU Tartan Project and vote, visit www.ches.okstate.edu/tartan.

Educator Leaves a

LASTING LEGACY Dorothy Blackwell spent most of her career providing information on building financial security as a Cooperative Extension specialist in family resource management for the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

Confirming she “practiced what she preached” is her bequest of $438,000 to the Family and Consumer Sciences Ambassadors, an association of individuals and organizations that support extension’s family and youth programs.

The funds from the endowment will establish the annual Dorothy Blackwell Legacy Award for extension programs educating Oklahomans in family resource management.

“This donation demonstrates the confidence and belief Dorothy had in the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service,” says Glenn Muske, OSU Cooperative Extension Service interim associate dean and assistant director of family and consumer sciences.

“A donation like this will benefit this group for years to come, and we are grateful she believed in this organization.” s t o r i es b y J u l i e B a r n a r d

2008–2009

Outstanding STUDENT Melissa Grace Oliver is the 2008 outstanding undergraduate student in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Oliver is majoring in human development and family science with an option in child and family services and a minor in psychology.

Oliver is currently president of the college ambassadors’ student recruit team; past member of the executive officer team of the OSU Residential Hall Senate; a member of the OSU Foundation’s student stewardship committee; and a charter member of Sigma Phi Lambda where she has served as rush captain, alumni representative and communication chair.

Working as an intern at the Tulsa Ministry Center, she and another intern created and operated a day camp for at-risk children. They developed the Summer Program About Reaching Kids, or S.P.A.R.K., to equip abused and neglected children with tools to increase their selfesteem and expand their worlds beyond their neighborhoods. Applying concepts learned in infant and child development, nutrition and parenting classes, the interns designed programs that effectively reached over 75 children.

Oliver works in OSU’s Center for Family Services and is responsible for the daytime clinic management and evening waiting room assistance. Listed on the President’s and Dean’s Honor Rolls, she maintains a 3.9 grade point average as an honors student and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Iota Kappa honor societies.

David D’Angelo

Schemet Named

NIBLACK SCHOLAR OSU designated nutritional sciences junior Heather Schemet a John Niblack Research Scholar for the academic year 2007-08. Schemet, who is majoring in dietetics and exercise, works with nutritional sciences professor Solo Kuvibidila conducting research on the effects of white button mushrooms and their anti-tumor effects.

Also a Seretean Research Scholar, Schemet hopes their research will benefit many and advance the field of medical nutrition therapy.

The Niblack Research Scholars program is the inspiration of John Niblack, retired vice chair of Pfizer Inc. and president of Global Research and Development at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, who worked in an OSU laboratory as an undergraduate before choosing research as a career. photos / Phil Shockley

M AG A Z INE

33

all photos / Genesee Photo Systems

Seniors of

Excellence

The College of Human Environmental Sciences recognized six students as Seniors of Excellence for their achievements in academics and leadership. Bottom row, from left, Eunice Menja, human development and family science; Margee Edwards, nutritional sciences; and Amy Branham, nutritional sciences; Back row, Courtney Lasater, design, housing and merchandising; Ashley Shelley, human development and family science; and Brandon Fimple, hotel and restaurant administration.

Lea Receives First Ted D. WEBB SCHOLARSHIP When OSU’s College of Human Environmental Sciences recognized scholarship recipients this spring, Ted Webb of Tulsa was as proud of them as any other parent in the audience.

Webb is a charter member of the Tulsa Chapter of the International Facilities Management Association and has been a strong advocate for the OSU student chapter. His fundraising efforts for the association have provided scholarships for students majoring in interior design.

Honoring his efforts, the Tulsa chapter named its scholarship the Ted D. Webb International Facility Management and Design Scholarship. Mazzio’s executive committee later honored Webb, who is director of facilities for Mazzio’s Corporation, with a donation to the scholarship fund.

Bethany Lea of Tulsa is the first recipient of the scholarship honoring Webb. A senior studying interior design, Lea plans a career with an architecture or interior design firm when she graduates.

Julie Barnard

34

Fa ll 20 08

College of Human Environmental Sciences recognized outstanding alumni and welcomed three honorary alumni at the 2007 homecoming celebration.

Ann Mileur Boeckman, senior counsel of food law for Kraft Foods Inc. in Northfield, Ill., graduated with a degree in nutrition and dietetics in 1991 and began her career as a clinical dietitian. She later graduated cum laude from Columbus School of Law at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in 1997 and practiced food law with Washington firms for nearly 10 years advising food industry clients on a broad range of legal, regulatory and policy matters.

Distinguished Alumni

Laura Demaree, a 1988 design, housing and merchandising graduate, opened Eskimo Joe’s f lagship clothing store and has remained part of the company’s rise to worldwide popularity. She is responsible for purchase, production and distribution of all merchandise and oversees the merchandising and displays at all retail locations as well as developing long range forecasting and marketing plans. She also creates floor plans and product placement for as many as eight additional Oklahoma locations for the Christmas shopping season.

Pictured, bottom row from left, are Sarah Snawder, Ann Mileur Boeckman, Laura Demaree, Mary and Mead Ferguson; and top row from left, are Jeremy Joyce Pinkerton and Richard S. Fischer.

Jeremy Joyce Pinkerton graduated with a bachelor’s in hotel and restaurant administration in 1999. She began her career in revenue management at the Hilton Tulsa Southern Hills, followed by the Doubletree Downtown Tulsa. In 2003, she moved to New York City to become associate director of revenue management at the Waldorf-Astoria, where she was responsible for managing revenue for multi-million dollar rooms as well as food, beverage and spa revenue. She earned her MBA from Metropolitan College of New York in 2006 and currently directs revenue management at the Westin New York in Times Square.

Mary and Mead Ferguson of Woodward, Okla., may not have graduated from OSU, but they have certainly had an impact on students in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. The couple established the Mead and Mary Ferguson Nutritional Sciences Scholarship Fund in 1995. Since then, more than 20 students have received significant financial support from the endowment.

Mead is a graduate of Yale and Harvard and a retired ExxonMobil executive. Mary is an alumna of Hollins University in Virginia. The couple and their children lived in many countries during Mead’s career with Exxon. After retirement in 1979, they returned to Woodward where they are involved in ranching and community service.

Rising Stars Honorary Alumni Sarah Snawder earned a bachelor’s in design, housing and merchandising, interior design option, in 2000. She took a position as a space planner in a Salinas, Calif., business interiors firm before moving to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she worked on commercial and government office projects for Interior Showplace, LTD. One of her clients, Hawaiian Airlines, hired her to manage projects at its corporate headquarters and airport operation locations. Currently, as manager of properties and facilities, she is the primary resource for general space planning of corporate real estate. She establishes and leads development and implementation of facility initiatives for airport and non-airport locations.

Richard S. Fischer is a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law School and a retired partner of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans, & Doyle in Rochester, N.Y. He moved to Stillwater in 1995 with his wife, Stillwater native Malinda Berry Fischer. He has been a longtime supporter of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration’s Distinguished Chefs Series and the Ranchers Club.

In addition to extensive community involvement with organizations such as CASA and United Way, among others, he is a member of the college associates executive committee, which serves as the dean’s advisory committee, and the Turning Point Ranch Foundation board. He has also served as a lecturer for the Spears School of Business and past president of OSU Friends of Music.

Julie Barnard

M AG A Z INE

35

of a

OneKind

J. Steven Dick

Nutritional sciences alumna Sloan Taylor added yet another credential to an impressive résumé that already includes master’s degree, licensed dietitian and registered dietitian. She is Oklahoma’s first and only board certified specialist in sports dietetics, the premier professional sports nutrition credential in the U.S. 36

Fa ll 20 08

As a certified specialist in sports dietetics, Sloan helps athletes achieve higher levels of performance through sports nutrition science.

Assessment and counseling, developing and overseeing nutrition policies and procedures, and evaluating dietary supplements and sports foods are only a few of the services a specialist provides.

She has worked with cardiovascular patients at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa for five years and currently teaches sports nutrition as an adjunct professor at the University of Tulsa.

Sloan has provided several sports nutrition clinics for the community and is the sports dietitian for the Health Zone, a St. Francis hospital-based fitness facility.

Crediting the College of Human Environmental Sciences with honing her presentation and teaching skills, Sloan says she is proud to say she can tell a dramatic difference between presentations by OSU dietetic interns compared to interns from other schools.

“OSU interns shine when they give the case study presentations required during the clinical rotation,” she says. “Interns who are booksmart but have great difficulty conveying their recommendations do not succeed easily. CHES was wonderful to prepare us in this area both at the undergraduate and the graduate levels.”

E i l ee n M u s t a i n

It’s all right, alumni. Go ahead and tell your friends and families.

They may not have heard.

Our secret is out.

Programs in the College of Human Environmental Sciences open doors to medical school and other postgraduate studies and careers some might find surprising — international business, education, tourism, management and more.

For more information, call the CHES Prospective Student Office at (405) 744-9058.

photo / Phil Shockley

Thank you donors.

You embraced Your support,

You’ve boosted our national and international reputation 217 percent!

Boone Pickens’ $100 million challenge to double OSU’s endowed chairs and professorships and, in one short month, raised to nine the number of endowed faculty positions in the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

combined with the Pickens’ dollar-for-dollar match and the state’s matching program, increased the college’s endowment for chairs and professorships by more than 217 percent.

Thanks to you, the college has established three new professorships, the Jim and Lynne Williams Professorship in Nutritional Sciences; the Bryan Close Professorship in Adulthood and Aging; and the Endowed Professorship in Parenting. photo / Phil Shockley