Carolina Arts & Sciences Spring 2016 by UNC College of Arts and Sciences

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IGNITING CREATIVITY How we reimagine research, scholarship... and ourselves

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FROM THE DEAN

Chemistry and Creativity

College of Arts and Sciences

I’m enjoying my first semester as dean of the

• Kevin Guskiewicz, Dean

College of Arts and Sciences, and I’m delighted that this issue is devoted to exploring how to spark creativity across the disciplines. Thinking in new ways to solve old problems has been critical to my own neuroscience research. In these pages, you’ll read about how guest artists in our long-running Process Series share their works-in-progress and benefit from audience feedback. You’ll learn about BeAM and our makerspace network that encourages students Kevin Guskiewicz to pick up tools and apply knowledge learned in the classroom. You’ll experience the work of two faculty in the social sciences and a student entrepreneur who thought outside the box to tackle problems of poverty, disease and child welfare. You’ll meet PlayMakers’ new producing artistic director and hear about her creative approach to her job. Don’t miss the stories of three alumni who reinvented themselves and their careers thanks to a Carolina education that was both broad and deep. We continue our coverage of UNC’s academic food theme with profiles of a student and three alumni who are doing creative work in the food world while giving back to their communities. We also take you on a journey to the beautiful Galápagos to learn how UNC marine scientists are examining the impact of El Niño on the islands. Be sure to check out additional magazine content, including videos and expanded stories, online at magazine.college.unc.edu. I concur with my colleague, UNC chemist and award-winning teacher Brian Hogan, who said this about creativity: “I am constantly dreaming up new and creative ways to connect scientific material to art, cinema or music. Describing the complex chemical reactions that take place in the cell is similar to describing how an orchestra works. I continuously strive to generate new and creative ways of improving teaching and learning.” I hope this issue will inspire you to reflect on the value of creativity to your work. Best,

• Chris Clemens, Senior Associate Dean, Natural Sciences • Jonathan Hartlyn, Senior Associate Dean, Social Sciences and Global Programs • Tammy J. McHale, Senior Associate Dean, Finance and Planning • Abigail Panter, Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education • Robert J. Parker, Jr., Senior Associate Dean, Development, and Executive Director, Arts and Sciences Foundation • Terry Rhodes, Senior Associate Dean, Fine Arts and Humanities

Arts & Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, Spring 2016 • G. Munroe Cobey ’74, Chapel Hill, NC, Chair • R. Duke Buchan III ’85, Palm Beach, FL, Vice Chair • Kevin Guskiewicz, Chapel Hill, NC, President • Jonathan Hartlyn, Chapel Hill, NC, Vice President • Tammy J. McHale, Chapel Hill, NC, Treasurer • Robert J. Parker, Jr., Chapel Hill, NC, Executive Director and Secretary • Amy Berry Barry ’91, Naples, FL • Eileen Pollart Brumback ’82, New York, NY • Sunny H. Burrows ’84, Atlanta, GA • Courtney Miller Cavatoni ’93, Atlanta, GA • Thomas C. Chubb III ’86, Atlanta, GA • Mark P. Clein ’81, Chevy Chase, MD • Luke E. Fichthorn IV ’92, Brooklyn, NY • Druscilla French ’71, ’78, Chapel Hill, NC • J. Henry Froelich III ’81, MBA ’84, Charlotte, NC • Cosby Wiley George ’83, Greenwich, CT • John C. Glover ’85, Raleigh, NC • Henry H. Hamilton III ’81, Katy, TX • Steven H. Kapp ’81, MBA ’90, Philadelphia, PA • Heavenly Johnson ’05, Chicago, IL • M. Steven Langman ’83, New York, NY • Wendell A. McCain ’92, Chapel Hill, NC • Aurelia Stafford Monk ’85, Greenville, NC • Andrea Ponti ’85, London, England

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES | SPRING 2016 | magazine.college.unc.edu Director of Communications: Geneva Collins Editor: Kim Weaver Spurr ’88, Associate Director of Communications Staff Multimedia Specialist: Kristen Chavez ’13 Designer: Linda Noble

Carolina Arts & Sciences is published semi-annually by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and made possible with the support of private funds. Copyright 2016. | If you wish to receive Carolina Arts & Sciences News, our periodic e-newsletter, please send your name and email address to college-news@unc.edu. | College of Arts and Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3100, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3100, 919-962-1165

• R. Alexander Rankin ’77, Goshen, KY • Catherine Craig Rollins ’84, Atlanta, GA • David S. Routh ’82, Chapel Hill, NC • Tready Arthur Smith ’92 BSBA, Tampa, FL • Karen L. Stevenson ’79, Los Angeles, CA • Benjamin J. Sullivan, Jr. ’75, Rye, NY • Marree Shore Townsend ’77, Greenwich, CT • Thomas M. Uhlman ’71, ’75, Murray Hill, NJ • Elijah White Jr. ’84, Houston, TX • J. Spencer Whitman ’90, Charlotte, NC • Cecil W. Wooten III ’68, ’72, Chapel Hill, NC

TAB L E OF CONT E NTS

Igniting Creativity Whether it’s showcasing unfinished works to create a dialogue between artist and audience, using a traditional discipline like geography in an unexpected way or providing campus makerspaces for students to invent and explore, we are inspired by the ingenuity infused into the culture of the College of Arts and Sciences. Our cover illustration reminds us of these words from Dr. Seuss: “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” We hope you’ll enjoy our stories about the value of creative thinking to faculty, students and alumni. 4

Honoring the Unfinished Work

Students Learn to ‘BeAM’ in TelescopeBuilding Class

A Report Card for Poverty

Mapping Infectious Disease

PlayMakers’ Vivienne Benesch: Creating ‘Richer and Deeper Art’

Entrepreneurial Opportunities Inspire Comic Book Nonprofit

27-35 The Scoop

Reveling in Reinvention

36 Chapter & Verse

Plus feature stories on food ventures, a trip to the Galápagos, psychology and neuroscience research, a profile of our new dean and more.

Departments 24-26 Alumni Up Close and Senior Up Close

inside back cover Finale

Stay Connected to the College via Web, social media Magazine: magazine.college.unc.edu News/Events: college.unc.edu Facebook: www.facebook.com/UNC.College YouTube: youtube.com/user/UNCCollege Instagram: instagram.com/unccollege Twitter: twitter.com/unccollege

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Cover and feature illustrations by Nathan Golub

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IGNITING CREATIVITY Imagine. Inspire. Think. Create. Engineer. Ignite. Innovate. In the College, those words make up the fabric of what we do every day, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s showcasing unfinished works to create a dialogue between artist and audience, using a traditional discipline like geography in an unexpected way or providing campus makerspaces for students to invent and explore. The following stories show how creativity gets our gears going â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how the art of making and creating is valuable to the work of faculty, students and alumni across the arts, humanities and sciences. (Illustrations by Nathan Golub)

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Kristen Chavez

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The Process Series puts works-in-progress in front of audiences. Its founding director is Joseph Megel, above, in the department of communication.

Honoring the Unfinished Work BY KIM WEAVER SPURR ’88

Playwright Howard Craft’s connection with UNC’s Process Series led to an off-off Broadway production of his play Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green that won rave reviews from The New York Times. Freight tells the story of an African-American man who exists in five dimensions of the same universe at different points in American history. The Process Series, now in its eighth season, is a very different kind of performance series. Think of it as an arts laboratory, an incubator where works-in-progress are shown to an audience, often for the first time. The audience is invited to give feedback on the production in the midst of the artist’s sometimes messy creative process.

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Photos by Kristen Chavez

Craft calls it a “really cool trajectory of her career. receive her M.A. in communication dynamic,” a wonderful opportunity to Garlock received her undergraduate studies in 2012 and is wrapping up her make something stronger through an degree in global studies in 2008. Her Ph.D. in performance studies. intellectual conversation between artist project, It is In You: Health Justice It is In You has since been featured and audience. Performance in Tanzania, was the first at four national and international “Writing, in my opinion, is done student work selected for the series. conferences, and Garlock has had in the revision process,” he said. “I tell Her fusion of theater, storytelling, artistic residencies at eight universities my students that playwriting is about dance and health justice was based on and community history centers. She problem-solving.” also traveled back to If you love DVD Tanzania with Megel extras that feature the and other collaborators making of a movie, the to perform the piece Process Series gives you there. Her latest project, a behind-the-scenes look Flipping Cancer, focuses that viewers of finished on people who face works may not see. advanced stages of The Process Series cancer. is the brainchild of “Through the Joseph Megel, a director Process Series you see and artist-in-residence how live performance in the department of can spark creative communication. It thinking and the features work by guest possibilities for creative artists from around the action toward the world, but also UNC pressing issues of our faculty and students. time,” she said. Performances have Both Garlock and involved dance, theater, Craft praise the work of music, art, poetry, oral Megel, who they say has history, storytelling and a real gift for cultivating hybrid productions with diverse new works and digital arts and media. supporting artists in The series benefits their exploration. from partnerships Megel, in with interdisciplinary turn, notes that the departments across collaboration with the College, including artists is what really art, dramatic art, gets his creative juices communication, English flowing. He also leads and comparative the audience feedback literature, music and sessions. African, African “There’s something American and diaspora ABOVE: Gregory DeCandia performs his piece Silhouettes of Service, featuring about being able to studies. true stories of soldiers from World War II to current cadets. work with really, “What’s different really talented writers about having this at a research-focused study abroad work she did with leaders and performers and musicians and university is connecting the artists in Tanzania “who were engaging having us all bring our best work into a to the scholars. These relationships in the politics of HIV, the body and room together — it really engages and become critical to what happens on the international development.” challenges you,” Megel said. stage,” Megel said. Participation in the Process Series For Marie Garlock, being a part helped her realize she could be both ➤ Learn more at processseries. of the Process Series changed the an artist and a scholar. She went on to unc.edu.

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Students Learn to ‘BeAM’ in Telescope-Building Class

BY KRISTEN CHAVEZ ’13

start in the basement. Students from different majors gathered in the basement of the Hanes Art Center last fall to build a telescope as part of the Maker-in-Residence program. Amateur astronomer Jim Pressley kicked off the project to launch the new Hanes Art Makerspace. The Telescope Build Project was the first of the Maker-in-Residence series, sponsored by the department of applied physical sciences in the College, UNC Library, Be a Maker (BeAM) and Innovate Carolina, and funded through a Carolina Parents Council grant and BeAM. With majors that included biology, art and Russian, the eclectic group of students tackled optics and mirrors, woodworking and power tools, design and painting. “At the core of the makerspace movement, there is this idea of beginnerfriendly spaces where everyone feels included and welcome and empowered to make things,” said Michelle Garst, project manager for BeAM. Chris Jadelis, a biomedical engineering major and equipment manager for the student group MakNet, believes the makerspace is beneficial to students. “You can learn a lot from textbooks, you can learn a lot from classes, but having a space where you can just work with your hands and unleash creativity is ever so much more important,” said Jadelis. On a cold night last November, you could find students painting a tube or sanding the edges of the telescope's chassis as a laser cutter whirred, etching their names onto a piece of wood that would hold the telescope. Michaela DeGuzman is a communication studies and studio art double major who has always loved astronomy and was part of the team that

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Kristen Chavez

To see the stars, sometimes you have to

“You can learn a lot from classes, but having a space where you can just work with your hands and unleash creativity” is important, said one student.

designed and painted the telescope. “At first, they just wanted to paint the telescope Carolina blue, but since we do have painters on the team, we thought we could do something more creative.” They were inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night and added UNC’s MoreheadPatterson Bell Tower for a Tar Heel twist. The project culminated in a skywatching party outside Morehead Planetarium. Astronomers from the Chapel Hill Astronomical and Observational Society, of which Pressley is also a member, joined the makers to give the public a chance to view the moon and stars. Aashka Patel, a biology major, had always enjoyed astronomy but never had the chance to explore it until she took the course her first semester at UNC. Getting involved with the telescope project wasn’t just a chance to learn more in the field. “I would never have even come into the arts building if I had not been part of BeAM,” Patel said. “It gave me the opportunity to do something outside

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of my major that I really like, and I’m just really happy that I managed to incorporate it somehow.” To Garst, the makerspace lends itself to ingenuity born from collaborations among students and staff with different backgrounds. “It creates this environment and atmosphere for interdisciplinary collaborations, which is very unique and very special.” The telescope is now housed in the Kenan Science Library, available for students to check out for stargazing. The Hanes Art Makerspace, equipped with power tools, drill press, soldering kits and more, is one of three in the BeAM network. The Kenan Science Library Makerspace, home to 3-D printers and other equipment, is run by Danianne Mizzy, who also conceived of the Maker-in-Residence Program. The largest of the three, in Murray Hall, will have a soft opening this spring and a grand opening in the fall. ➤ Online Extra: Watch a video of the project at magazine.college.unc.edu.

Michelle Mills

IGNITING CREATIVITY

Public policy professor Ashu Handa (second from left) with UNICEF researchers based in Italy.

A Report Card for Poverty UNC public policy professor Ashu Handa learned an early lesson about poverty that inspires his research and field work around the world. The son of an engineer from India, Handa was born and spent most of his childhood in Ghana. His family lived comfortably in Africa, but they were surrounded by staggering poverty. That was an eye-opener. “I saw the impact of bad economic policies, and it shaped my worldview,” Handa said. He decided to study economics to analyze the impact of policymaking on poverty. He received a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Toronto in 1993 and joined UNC’s faculty in 2003. Now Handa is completing a research leave assignment in Florence,

Italy, where he has been working for UNICEF, the world’s largest children’s rights organization. He led the team that researched and produced two major “report cards” on the growth of childhood poverty since the global economic crisis of 2008. The reports measure the change in the numbers and rates of children living in poverty in 41 affluent countries, including the United States. The most recent findings, to be published in April, show how growing socioeconomic disparity affects the poorest children. Handa has especially enjoyed the opportunity to work with UNICEF’s professional communicators to distribute report card findings through the news media. “We use rigorous academic

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BY DEE REID

standards to collect and analyze data,” Handa said. “But we have had to be really creative in boiling down the message in a way that would resonate with the press and the public, and raise awareness among policymakers.” “Sometimes the communication specialists see news angles that we would have missed,” Handa said. “I have really enjoyed this creative collaboration.” Handa has spent more than two decades highlighting policy problems and solutions associated with global poverty. He previously served as regional policy adviser for UNICEF in Eastern Africa. He also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington and the International Food Policy Research Institute in Mexico City.

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Mapping Infectious Disease BY DEE REID

spatial epidemiologist, Michael Emch creates amazing multilayered maps. But instead of depicting towns, roads, rivers and mountains, they show the complex human and environmental factors crowding the path to infectious disease in the developing world. He discovers what variables are converging on the disease highway, so that public health policymakers and practitioners can make informed decisions about treating or preventing deadly illnesses. Emch, professor and chair of geography in the College of Arts and Sciences, recalls when he first understood the power of maps for public health. It was nearly three decades ago. As an undergraduate biology major at Alfred University in New York, Emch encountered a now-famous 1854 cholera map of London. The map, made by English physician John Snow, shows cholera cases clustering around a public water pump in Soho. When city officials closed the pump, the cholera outbreak decreased — groundbreaking evidence that the epidemic disease was borne by polluted water, not sooty air. “I knew then what I wanted to do,” said Emch. He would combine his interest in biology and infectious disease prevention to map a creative interdisciplinary career. He started by doing a modern version of Snow’s map for his Ph.D. in geography at Michigan State University, mapping cholera patterns and risk in rural Bangladesh. At UNC since 2006, Emch

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As an expert health geographer and

Health geographer Michael Emch uses maps to track infectious diseases in the developing world. Behind him is a map of malaria vectors.

collaborates with colleagues and students across health sciences and social sciences to collect information in the field as well as from giant data sets. Their work has contributed to new policies and practices for using cholera vaccines more effectively in Bangladesh and Haiti. Most recently, he has been helping to map malaria in Malawi. He has mapped locations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nicaragua and many other places where infectious diseases have taken a human toll. Emch also enjoys teaching undergraduate and graduate students about the power of mapping disease. He is the co-author of Health Geography, a major textbook in which he shares the Snow cholera map that first inspired him.

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PlayMakers’ Vivienne Benesch: Creating ‘Richer and Deeper Art’

Alison Sheehy

being a great listener and then being brave in experimentation. You have to be incredibly well-prepared, but you also have to be responsive in the moment. There are great directors who come in and know everything. They tell you how your wrist and finger should be, (and) there is freedom in that structure … but your boundaries have to be such that you can also continue to create within them. Q: How do you engender creativity in actors? A: Much of it has to do with encouraging and identifying what already lives within them that relates to any given character. If you have cast [a production] well, you have already chosen people for whom a lot of what is necessary exists. Then it's really a process of encouraging and getting other things out of the way so that the essence of why you cast them can come forward. Acting is a combination of rigor, bravery and imagination. Each person needs something different to do their best work. Q: Do the performing arts inspire creativity in audience members? A: I hope so. In live performing arts, the chemical reaction between the observed and the observer is entirely unique to each person, whether it's about learning something that you had no idea about before or … whether it makes you angry, or even if you’ve decided that it wasn't worthwhile … you're still engaged in the crafting of your own aesthetic, in the constitution of who you are. So the most important thing is walking in the door. It doesn’t have to result in someone going out and creating a painting — no, no, no. It’s engaging your mind. — Interview by L.J. Toler ’76

“My creativity is at its best in being a great listener and then being brave in experimentation,” says Benesch, who already feels at home at PlayMakers.

On Jan. 1, Vivienne Benesch became producing artistic director of PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theater in residence in the College of Arts and Sciences. Recently, she shared her views on creativity.

Q: Why are you excited about joining PlayMakers? A: I already felt at home at PlayMakers. I have the great joy of having directed three productions here. And coming to a community with this kind of engaged audience is really the thrilling part. At my previous position [the Chautauqua Theater Company in New York], there was a commitment to lifelong learning and true value placed on the arts as part of the fabric of what it is to be human, so it feels like a natural

fit to come here, where those things are equally valued. Q: What is your vision for PlayMakers? A: Intersectionality … is one of my personal loves — discovering the roads of connectivity in the quest for creating richer and deeper art. It’s something that this place does so well already. I’m eager to learn and be part of that interconnectivity because I do think that is what keeps us creative and relevant. One of the ways in which we can stay relevant is by partnering with the many other resources of the University … It’s very important to me that the conversation not stop in this building. Q: How do you engage creativity in directing? A: My creativity is at its best in

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➤ Read more about Benesch at www. playmakersrep.org/meet-vivienne-benesch.

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Kristen Chavez

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Will Jarvis in the 1789 Venture Lab, a student startup incubator on Franklin Street, where he launched SuperkidCARE.

Entrepreneurial Opportunities Inspire Comic Book Nonprofit BY CYNDY FALGOUT

Will Jarvis ’16 knew two things from an early age: He wanted to attend Carolina, and he wanted to work in venture capital. He counted on UNC and a liberal arts education to help him develop a life path and the skills to walk it. As Jarvis approaches May graduation with a bachelor’s degree in English, minors in entrepreneurship and the program in philosophy, politics and economics — plus a nonprofit startup he founded that is operating on two continents — Jarvis says UNC delivered. “Humanities and a liberal arts education are really valuable if you use them correctly,” he said.

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Jarvis chose to major in English, inspired by his father, a successful Rocky Mount dentist and UNC English major, and by a biography of John Adams, who said, “If you understand literature and business, you’ll be a great man.” He then began “reading about philosophy, politics and economics and searching about working with the poor and public policy, trying to figure out how do you make the world a better place?” Meanwhile, Jarvis’ sister, Faith, then a high school student (now a UNC sophomore), undertook an innovative project for her Girl Scout Gold Award. “She went to the hospital and asked

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what they needed to improve kids’ experiences,” Jarvis said. “They said they needed patient education materials … that kids could connect with. So she created these comic books that informed kids about what goes on in the hospital. They were a huge hit.” Faith moved on to other things, but Jarvis recognized the value of her idea and got involved with Carolina’s entrepreneurial community to learn how to develop it. He participated in the Carolina Challenge Pitch Party, a competition to help students develop entrepreneurial skills. Jarvis snagged a spot in UNC alumnus and entrepreneur Jim Kitchen’s 1789 Venture Lab, a student startup incubator on Franklin Street. With space, support and connections, Jarvis formed a nonprofit, SuperkidCARE, developed a business plan and secured a grant that paid for his sister’s original comic book to be redrawn by a former Marvel comic book artist. He also learned about the College’s entrepreneurship minor. In the e-minor’s social venture course, James H. Johnson Jr., the

William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, taught Jarvis how to develop a sustainable nonprofit model and not “depend on the kindness of strangers,” Jarvis said. The minor also sent Jarvis to China for the Summer Internship in Shanghai program on a Phillips Ambassador Scholarship, where he helped a biotech scientist develop a revenue model for her technology company. She returned the favor, investing in Jarvis’ nonprofit and recruiting others to fund its comic book printing and distribution in China. Jarvis is now following the advice of UNC chemist-serial entrepreneur Joe DeSimone to “find a rocket ship before it takes off,” searching UNC’s Office of Technology Development files to identify just the right biotech startup to jump on board and help it soar. His takeaways from UNC? Knowledge, critical-thinking skills and a powerful network of connections. “When I decide to do something, I figure out how to get it done,” Jarvis

“Mighty Molly” helps children understand their hospital experience.

said. “Carolina has given me the basis in theory, critical-thinking skills and connections to do that. It’s like pouring gas on a fire.”

CREATIVITY, IN QUOTES “I think failure is what engenders creativity in science. When trying to solve a problem, I tend to go for the most obvious solutions first. … When they fail, I’m forced to think of a more unprecedented approach, and these avenues are the ones that lead to advances in science.” — Jillian Dempsey, assistant professor of chemistry “Creativity is essential to entrepreneurs. A great entrepreneur uses dead ends as a creative opportunity to change direction or focus in a positive way that results in a better outcome.” — Callie Brauel (business/economics ’09), co-founder, A Ban Against Neglect

“First, I need to be inspired. Then, I need time. I can’t be rushed in between emails and household responsibilities. I need to carve out time for creative thinking.” — Kelly Hogan, director of instructional innovation for the College

Describing the complex chemical reactions that take place in the cell is similar to describing how an orchestra works.” — Brian Hogan, research assistant professor of chemistry

“I believe failure is more crucial to a writer’s eventual success than any initial triumph. Fear of failure for the tried and true writer isn’t an option. Resilience separates the genuine artist from the dabbler.” — Marianne Gingher, author, creative writing professor

“I am always electrified after witnessing any fits of passion: a play, a poem, paintings, graffiti art, television, a YouTube post, the complexities of an argument, the infectious beat of a song ...” — Gregory DeCandia (M.F.A. ’16), PlayMakers Repertory Company actor

“I am constantly dreaming up new and creative ways to connect scientific material to art, cinema or music.

➤ Read Q&A interviews with these sources on creativity at magazine.college. unc.edu.

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Jerry Wolford and Scott Muthersbaugh

Weaver Street Market in Carrboro is one of 700 retail locations nationwide selling Neal McTighe’s Nello’s Sauce.

Reveling in Reinvention Three alumni forge unconventional career paths BY KIM WEAVER SPURR ’88

graduate with a Ph.D. in Italian studies who founded a premium tomato sauce company. A marketing consultant who became England’s first black High Sheriff. An NPR lawyer-turnedinternational photographer. Read on for tales of three Carolina alumni who share this in common: a well-rounded liberal arts education that led them to become masters of reinvention.

A love letter to Italy in a jar Neal McTighe (Ph.D. Italian studies ’07) When you taste a spoonful of Nello’s premium tomato sauce, Neal McTighe wants you to be transported to his Italian great-grandmother Angelina’s kitchen, where she prepared her beloved “gravy” for family members so often that she “wore out the linoleum in front of the stove.” It’s more than just a “soulless jar of

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sauce;” it’s about the story in the jar. McTighe’s own story involves a nontraditional path toward becoming a successful entrepreneur. Armed with a Ph.D. from UNC in 2007 and a dissertation on Italian Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno, he had set his path on academia. But the economy was tanking, job openings at universities were tight, and he ended up taking a job at Duke University Press.

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Sitting behind a desk, not using his Italian at all. “I thought, ‘What do I really love about Italy?’ It was the people and the food and the history,” McTighe said. “That gave me a chance to reinvent myself.” He started out with a website and a Facebook page, writing about Italian food and travel in a “really authentic way because I was using my ability to understand the language and to vet

sources and to do research.” McTighe began to dig deep into his family background, realizing that he had a genuine product he could sell. He started out making sauce in his kitchen. Today Nello’s Sauce (so named because his Italian friends call him “Nello”) is manufactured at a facility in North Carolina, sold online and shipped out by the tractor-trailer load to about 700 retail locations nationwide. It has received great press in publications from Southern Living to The New York Times. How is this connected to his dissertation on Bruno? To McTighe, it’s all perfectly logical. “The humanities teach expansiveness of thought,” he told a Gettysburg College audience a couple of years ago. “Having the intellectual freedom to explore and expand my mind allowed me to envision, to create a business.” But going back to that idea of story — McTighe wanted Nello’s to be more than just a business. Nello’s Sauce supports the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. He hopes to see Nello’s contributions to the Food Bank grow from hundreds of jars of sauce a year to thousands. And the heart of a teacher still lives within McTighe, who advises students today to “be inquisitive and develop a thirst for knowledge.” “I tell them to do both: Major in the humanities and a pre-professional program. You’ll enrich your soul.”

Colombian families as part of a high school exchange program, and her family traveled to Canada and Mexico for vacations. Still, even she couldn’t envision the twists and turns her career path would take after graduation from Carolina in 1976 — from a job in the biology labs of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria to becoming England’s first black High Sheriff. Golding’s resume reveals a passion for reinventing herself. A partial snapshot: Marketing Cotswold Wildlife Park in Burford, Oxfordshire, while her husband served as park director. Serving as communications manager for a consortium of aluminum manufacturers. Founding a marketing business. “My studies at Carolina enabled me to enjoy an informed and enlightened existence,” said Golding. One day Golding was invited to a reception for business and religious leaders at St. James’s Palace. That led to a long-term role working for Charles, the Prince of

Wales, to develop more minorityowned businesses in the British supply chain. In 2009, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2010, the queen asked her to serve a one-year appointment as the first black High Sheriff in England, representing the city and county of Bristol. A High Sheriff represents the monarch and participates in civic, religious, royal, judicial and other activities within one’s ceremonial county area, Golding explained. Today she remains busy, from serving on the board of a mental health partnership to trustee of one of Britain’s best-loved ships and tourist attractions to principal consultant for an executive search and recruitment firm. “As I approach 40 years since my graduation, I see that my career path was totally unpredictable and all the more enjoyable as I was stretched molded, squeezed and burnished along the way,” she said. continued

From her earliest childhood, Peaches Golding had both a love of science and an international outlook. She enjoyed an aquarium full of breeding guppies, a colony of ants that lived on the dining room windowsill and a series of scientific educational kits at her disposal. She and her sister lived with

Photos courtesy of Peaches Golding

England’s first black High Sheriff Peaches Golding (biology ’76)

LEFT: Peaches Golding is appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. RIGHT: In her role as High Sheriff with the Prince of Wales during his visit to Bristol.

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You’ll find this quote from French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson on Neal Jackson’s website: “Photography is nothing — it’s life that interests me.” Indeed photography, and the quest for an interesting life, have propelled Jackson down a road well traveled (literally), from print journalist to vice president/general counsel of NPR to teaching photojournalists around the world how to cope in dangerous situations. At Carolina, he began his academic career as a chemistry major but later developed a love for and majored in political science with an additional concentration in economics. He worked for The Daily Tar Heel, chaired a campus political party and began developing a passion for photography. “The whole atmosphere at Carolina when I was there was constantly intellectually stimulating me, both inside and outside the classroom,” he said. He took a job after graduation in 1965 at The News & Observer in Raleigh, then worked at The Washington Post while attending law school at Georgetown University. He began working in regulatory law and corporate litigation and eventually joined NPR as chief legal officer in 1996. “I spent the next 11 years working there through a key period of expansion of NPR into a multimedia operation,” Jackson said. But his love of photography was always present, and Jackson decided it was time to leave NPR and head down a different road. For five years, he served as chairman of VII Photo Agency, which specializes in coverage of conflicts around the world. Still, he wanted to do something more, to give back. In 2014, he founded Trauma Training for Journalists, which teaches

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Photos courtesy of Neal Jackson

From NPR lawyer to international photographer Neal Jackson (political science ’65)

ABOVE: Neal Jackson says his Carolina education “intellectually stimulated me, both inside and outside the classroom.” BELOW: Jackson works to get the perfect shot at a camel market in Doha, Qatar.

local journalists, photographers, translators and others in hazardous reporting environments how to deal with physical and mental traumas. Today, he lives on a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and maintains an apartment in Washington, within easy access of airports for international travel. Jackson is a champion of a well-

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rounded liberal arts education, which has led him to a well-rounded life full of discovery and reinvention. “Being exposed to the broader base of humanities and arts exposes you to the heart of the world.” ➤ Read more in-depth profiles of McTighe, Golding and Jackson at magazine.college.unc.edu.

Brain Activity Psychology department’s name change, new lab space reflect growing emphasis on neuroscience, collaborative research

Donn Young

BY DIANNE SHAW

From left, Kelly Giovanello and Charlotte Boettiger will have lab space in the renovated Howell Hall.

hen people hear the word “psychology,” they may think of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, or a patient lying on a couch revealing his deepest fears and phobias. Donald Lysle, UNC psychology and neuroscience department chair, envisions this: Brain studies using leadingedge technology to help people understand the neurological processes underlying behaviors such as addiction and diseases such as Alzheimer’s or schizophrenia. “To understand any disorder, you have to understand both the science of behaviors as well as the physical basis for those behaviors, the neurobiological underpinnings,” said Lysle, a Kenan Distinguished Professor. “One discipline informs the other, giving us the potential to create novel treatments that we hadn’t previously considered.” In July 2015, the department formally changed its name to psychology and neuroscience and added a neuroscience minor to the College curriculum, with course offerings that integrate a number of disciplines, including biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, physics and biomedical engineering. Over 100 undergraduates already have declared the new minor, and the department’s next goal is to create a neuroscience major. At the graduate level, the department trains doctoral students in a wide array of neuroscientific techniques to address both basic and clinical translational research questions.

Also in spring 2016, the newly renovated Howell Hall will reopen across the courtyard from the department’s home in Davie Hall, outfitted with state-of-the-art laboratory space for pre-clinical studies, an interventional brain stimulation suite and other facilities that will allow further collaboration between the department, other units in the College and the UNC School of Medicine. The name change and new facilities “reflect the diverse teaching and research in our department,” Lysle explained. “More than half of our current faculty engage in neuroscience research and receive neuroscience-specific funding.” Associate professor Charlotte Boettiger’s training is in neuroscience and biology, not psychology. She studies alcoholism and drug addiction. “I’m collaborating with clinicians to determine if we can find a biomarker indicating treatment recovery. We conduct brain-imaging studies of clinical trial patients before treatment begins and after treatment has been underway for several weeks. We can then determine what changes have occurred in their brain activity that may predict the ultimate treatment outcome.” Howell Hall, originally built in 1906, previously housed UNC’s chemistry and journalism departments and its first school of pharmacy. In addition to labs, the new lightfilled, technology-enhanced space will include facilities for behavioral observation studies. Among the new equipment is a confocal microscope that provides two- and three-dimensional high resolution images to study proteins involved in conditions that include alcoholism, drug abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. Associate professor Kelly Giovanello’s research focuses on very early Alzheimer’s disease. She and Boettiger will have new lab space in Howell Hall. “We explore the cognitive and neural processes mediating memory in young adults and examine how these processes change with healthy aging and neurodegenerative disease,” Giovanello said. Just as the Howell Hall renovations are being completed, the department is undertaking a feasibility study to renovate Davie Hall, its home since 1967. “We want our facilities and our name change to mirror the greater interdisciplinary partnerships taking place among our faculty and programs,” Lysle said.

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Jerry Wolford and Scott Muthersbaugh

Gini Bell collects donations for Farmer Foodshare.

From Farms to Food Banks Gini Bell ’08 forges new links for a healthier community BY DEE REID

orth Carolina’s Triangle area has cultivated a foodie paradise of sustainable farms, growers’ markets and seasonal cuisine. But there’s a gap in the local food chain: Low-income households often lack fresh, healthy produce. And nearly one in five residents statewide sometimes go hungry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. UNC College alumna Gini Bell (Spanish/linguistics ’08) is helping to narrow the nutrition gap by forging new links from farm to food bank. As executive director of Farmer Foodshare (farmerfoodshare.org), a Durham-based nonprofit, she oversees a network of community partnerships “connecting people who grow food with people who need food.” Farmer Foodshare buys produce from local farmers and delivers it to food organizations that provide groceries and meals to those in need. Bell’s interest in fresh local food sprouted when she was an undergraduate. She read up on environmental and health concerns associated with commodity farming and junk-food diets. She explored alternatives, including the student-run community vegetable garden on campus. After graduating from UNC, she took courses on sustainable farming and food justice at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro. She worked with two local

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foodshed pioneers: farmer Ken Dawson, who co-founded Maple Spring Gardens in 1972, and Lex Alexander, who in 1981 co-founded Durham’s Wellspring Grocery, now part of the Whole Foods Market chain. “I learned a lot about fresh local food, including who has access to it and who doesn’t,” Bell said. “I began thinking more about how food moves from where it grows to where it is consumed.” The critical thinking skills Bell honed at Carolina kept her digging for solutions. She found bold initiatives sprouting at Farmer Foodshare. The nonprofit was established in 2009 by Margaret Gifford, a shopper at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market who began gathering surplus food from growers and donating it to local food banks. Soon Gifford realized she could collect contributions from other shoppers to pay the farmers for their food. That effort evolved into the unique model that now partners with a network of local farms and food agencies across the region to take a whole-systems approach to food access. Bell started working for Farmer Foodshare in January 2013 and became executive director a year and a half later. In 2015, Farmer Foodshare spent over $182,000 on local food purchases and donated 60,000 pounds of fresh produce from more than 300 farms, supplementing more than 600,000 meals for some 20,000 hungry adults and children. “It’s a joy to find innovative ways to address big issues by tapping into the strengths of so many smart people working together across our community,” she said. Bell collaborates with four staffers, including two other UNC alumnae: Katy Phillips (psychology ’99) and Karla Capacetti (environmental studies ’11). With the help of Carolina student interns and dozens of volunteers, they provide a series of programs, including: Donation Stations: Volunteers collect cash contributions at farmers markets and use the funds to purchase food from the growers. Last year, donation stations at 31 farmers markets provided food to about three dozen community programs. POP (Pennies on the Pound) Market: To respond to increasing demand, Farmer Foodshare created a centralized hub to buy fresh food in bulk. Each week, farmers list what they have available, and about 36 food relief organizations place orders. A Farmer Foodshare van transports the produce from the farms to the warehouse for filling orders. Food Ambassadors: Farmer Foodshare volunteers give cooking demonstrations to show consumers how to prepare produce in new ways. ➤ We continue our coverage of UNC’s “Food for All” theme in this issue. Learn more at foodforall.web.unc.edu.

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Kristen Chavez

So Good Pupusas Cecilia Polanco ’16 hopes to aid undocumented students through her food truck business BY KRISTEN CHAVEZ ’13

Photo courtesy of Cecilia Polanco

ABOVE: Cecilia Polanco. RIGHT: Pupusas, thick tortillas filled with beans, meat or cheese, cook on a griddle.

f you come hungry to the Polanco family home, you’ll leave with your stomach full. And there’s a good chance pupusas will be served. The traditional Salvadoran dish consists of a handmade thick tortilla typically filled with beans, meat or cheese and served with curtido, a cabbage salad similar to coleslaw. It’s also the basis for a food truck and catering business, So Good Pupusas, founded by senior global studies major Cecilia Polanco. At first, it was a fanciful idea between Polanco and her sisters. Their mother is an expert pupusa maker, and they thought they had a product they could sell. But Polanco saw it as something more. Whenever she brought friends to her parents’ house, she found that something special, but unintentional, happened: She was able to share stories about her family and culture. “Food is a really great way to do that, to bridge different groups of people, to encourage understanding — not just tolerance but also appreciation and celebration of the different ways we prepare food and eat food,” said Polanco, who is also pursuing a geography minor. “It’s definitely a family endeavor,” she added. Her mother,

sisters and aunt make the pupusas, her dad maintains the equipment, and her older sisters provide legal, insurance and tax help via their own business expertise. “What I like to take away from that is I have a lot of cultural capital,” she said. “My sisters and my mom and dad really are at the heart of making it possible and teaching me things like working hard and dreaming big.” Polanco wouldn’t call herself a businessperson or even a food person. Yet outside of class, she’s running a food truck business that mixes a Salvadoran staple with service and scholarship. With the money earned from selling the pupusas, Polanco hopes to create college scholarships for local undocumented high school students. “The business is our means to do service,” said Polanco, a Morehead-Cain Scholar. “I want to invest in people the way I’ve been invested in.” That program covered her tuition for four years, easing the financial burden on her parents and allowing her to spend more time developing So Good Pupusas during the summer. Now, funding a scholarship through her business “is really what we want to focus on. I wanted to help more undocumented students because I think that they have it much harder when it comes to pursuing higher education.” Polanco is happy with the progress the business has made. The goal isn’t to make a huge profit — if it can be sustainable enough to provide money for scholarships, she said she will be happy. UNC students, organizations and departments were early supporters before So Good Pupusas even had a food truck, withstanding long lines in the Pit during Hispanic Heritage Month. But now that they have a truck, freshly painted and fitted with a generator (“It was a fixer-upper when we got it”), Polanco hopes to debut it in the spring and bring pupusas to more people. To have that authenticity, it’s got to be homemade, she advised. “That’s where you’re going to get good pupusas: when it’s made for the family.” ➤ For more information, visit sogoodpupusas.com.

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At Home on the Edge of the Earth STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARY LIDE PARKER ’10 18 | COLLEGE.U N C . E D U

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hree flights. A bus, a ferry, a pickup truck, a Zodiac boat, a ship, and now, on a 40-foot sport fisherman vessel, I’m cruising into the harbor of San Cristóbal Island as the sun dips down to the horizon. Welcome to the Galápagos. Next to me is Steve Walsh, a geographer in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Right over there is Playa Mann,” he says, pointing to a picturesque sandy beach, flanked by lava rocks. “And see that building on the right? That’s GAIAS — the Galápagos Institute for the Arts and Sciences.” “Yep,” I say, recognizing it instantly. “I’ve spent a lot of time there.” It’s been six years, but it all looks the same. The coral-colored building glows in the early evening light. A sandy cobblestone road separates the academic building from the beach where sea lions play in the surf and sunbathe on the lava rocks. Tourists and locals alike gather every evening to watch the sunset. A friendly man named Carlos runs a little hut where you can buy ice cream and cold beer for $2.

“And that building to the right is the Galápagos Science Center,” Walsh says. There is a note of pride in his voice as he points to the gleaming facility — he is the co-director of the center. The Galápagos Science Center, a collaboration between UNC-Chapel Hill and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, is the only thing I don’t recognize. Construction began in 2010, about a year after I was last here. Our boat pulls up to the dock. I thank the crew members in Spanish, grab my duffel bag and backpack full of camera gear, and make my way to the boardwalk. I spot a fat sea lion asleep on one of the benches and smile at the familiar site. Here I am, at the edge of the earth, and it’s familiar. In 2009, as a junior at Carolina, I traveled to the Galápagos Islands with a group of students from the UNC School of Media and Journalism — the inception of the continued

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

ABOVE LEFT: Adrian Marchetti (foreground) and Scott Gifford run water samples in their makeshift lab aboard the Sierra Negra, a research vessel owned by the Galápagos National Park. ABOVE RIGHT: Mary Lide Parker basks in the sun in Puerto Chino, a beach on the east side of San Cristóbal Island. BELOW: A baby sea lion cuddles with its mother on the rocks of Plaza Sur Island. Sea lions are one of the species adversely affected by a severe El Niño.

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Living Galápagos project. We spent a month on the islands, documenting the lives of people who live there. Now I’m back in the islands as a UNC communications specialist to film and photograph a research expedition with oceanographers from our department of marine sciences. The opportunity to travel to a place like the Galápagos is special, but I feel particularly lucky that I’m here for work. I get to go behind the scenes — to film on a research vessel in the open ocean, to take photos on a remote island uninhabited by people and to learn about the forces that influence our oceans, most notably El Niño. Adrian Marchetti, a UNC oceanographer, explains how the effects of El Niño are felt most strongly in equatorial places. “These islands are really the front lines,” he says. “By figuring out the impact El Niño is having here, we can make predictions for how it will affect other parts of this world.” At the end of the expedition, the researchers haul everything back to the

Galápagos Science Center. They hose down their equipment and begin packing an entire marine science lab into containers that will fly with us back to Chapel Hill. A short taxi ride, a flight, a ride in an old rusty pickup truck at the Guayaquil airport, a long flight, a drawn-out conversation with a customs agent in Miami, another flight, and finally we arrive at RDU, where a marine sciences grad student picks us up in a van to drive us back to campus. I sit down in the van and briefly close my eyes. Despite being sunburned and sleep deprived, I am very happy. Documenting research in action is a great gig. Mary Lide Parker ’10, a former intern for the College of Arts and Sciences, is a writer, videographer and photographer for UNC Research. She was able to put her Spanish to use in the Galápagos, thanks to a minor in Spanish for the Professions from the department of romance studies. Read more and watch a video about the Galápagos research expedition at endeavors.unc.edu.

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ABOVE: A Pacific green sea turtle swims in Darwin Bay, located a little over a mile from the Galรกpagos Science Center. BELOW: A sea lion lounges in the surf on Playa Mann as the sun sets over Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. This beach is just steps away from the Galรกpagos Science Center. C AROL IN A ART S & SC IEN C ES | SP RIN G 2016 | CO LLEGE.U N C.EDU | 21

Kevin Seifert Photography

“Be strategic, bold and student focused” is Dean Kevin M. Guskiewicz’s plan for the College in broad strokes.

Game Changer New dean signals new era of big and bold for the College BY GENEVA COLLINS

all Kevin Guskiewicz the shirtsleeves dean — with all the literal and figurative associations the term evokes. He has occasionally been known to borrow a sports jacket from colleagues when an unexpected request for a TV interview surfaces and he’s dressed a little too casually for the camera. The neuroscientist is one of the world’s leading experts on concussions, and the media regularly come calling for a sit-down or a sound bite. And he has quickly established himself as a let’s-roll-upour-shirtsleeves-and-get-going leader, throwing himself into his work since taking office on Jan. 1. He has spent his first few months as dean visiting academic departments on what he calls a “learning and listening tour” and to share his ambitious agenda. Reduced to one sentence, that agenda is to be strategic, bold and student focused. “Being strategic” means using a hypothesis-driven

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approach to establish the brands that distinguish Carolina from its peers. “Being bold” means encouraging outside-thebox ideas, such as the way the school has pioneered highstructure active learning techniques to reinvent the classroom experience. Being “student focused” means remembering that although UNC-Chapel Hill is one of the world’s great research universities, educating students is the College’s No. 1 responsibility. “We have a 220-year history and embrace our rich traditions, but at the same time we need to be a forwardthinking College of Arts and Sciences,” said Guskiewicz. “We need to be providing our students with a liberal arts education that provides both breadth and depth so that they are the leading idea generators, data synthesizers and effective communicators of the next generation.” Before being named Dean Karen Gil’s successor late last fall, Guskiewicz had served as senior associate dean for natural sciences since 2013. A 20-plus year faculty member of Carolina, he is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Exercise and Sport Science and a former chair of that department. In 2011, he was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship — commonly referred to as a “Genius” award — for his innovative work on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of sport-related concussions. In 2013, Time

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UNC Communications

Kevin Seifert Photography Kevin Seifert Photography

TOP LEFT: Guskiewicz is no stranger to national media coverage. TOP RIGHT: At the dean announcement ceremony in October. LEFT: Guskiewicz shows off Carolina’s helmet sensors to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in 2013.

magazine named him a Game Changer, one of 18 “innovators and problem-solvers that are inspiring change in America.” Those who have worked with him over the years paint him as driven, focused, humble and a high achiever who effectively balances work and family life. (He and his wife, Amy, have four children.) “He taught me to be visionary, and that while logistics are important, the 30,000-foot view is very valuable — not to let obstacles get in the way of achieving your objectives,” said Jason Mihalik, assistant professor of exercise and sport science and co-director of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, which Guskiewicz founded in 2010. Guskiewicz is continuing his concussion research as dean and remains co-director of the Gfeller center. “You think you’ve got it all figured out and Kevin will ask you a question and give you a whole new perspective,” said Rob Lynall, a Ph.D. student in the Human Movement Science curriculum who is being advised by Guskiewicz. “He has high expectations and leads by example.”

Mark Katz, director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities in the College, describes Guskiewicz’s leadership style as “bold and thoughtful. He’s unafraid to dream big and has ambitions for the College. But his ambitions are guided by his consultations with a broad array of stakeholders. “At a time when so much attention and funding is given to STEM disciplines, it’s refreshing to see a scientist who understands the value of humanities scholarship and creative work in art, drama and music.” One of Guskiewicz’s first acts as dean was to create a Dean’s Faculty Diversity Advisory Committee. Its mission is to provide advice on all matters of diversity and inclusiveness and help him develop a five-year plan for key initiatives. “I think this committee will be an important way to get faculty input into the College’s plans for issues of diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Kia Caldwell, director of faculty diversity initiatives in the College. “Dean Karen Gil initiated important work around diversity several years ago, and it’s something that we need to continue to talk about and take action on in the College.” Caldwell served on the search committee that interviewed the dean candidates and recommended Guskiewicz, who was among five finalists for the position, to Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “I appreciate Kevin’s proactive and creative approach to problem solving. He’s willing to think outside of the box.”

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Photo courtesy of Riana Lynn

ALUMNI UP CLOSE

“I learned that tons of entrepreneurs were bred out of the Harlem Renaissance,” Lynn recalled. “I was fascinated by that. I was really interested in figuring out how to bridge my passions with my beliefs.” Lynn attended graduate school at Northwestern University, where she earned a master’s degree in public policy and administration. While there, she cofounded a food company, built outreach websites on minority-targeted health and human services programs, and conducted research on nutrigenomics — the study of how people respond to nutrients based on their genetic makeup. She also spent five months as a White House intern, supporting initiatives for women, girls, jobs and small business. In 2012, Lynn moved full speed into Riana Lynn in the Kitchen Garden of the White House, where she interned. food research and entrepreneurship. She founded Rivive Consulting Group (later acquired), which developed websites with integrated research capabilities for local food companies. “I realized you can be a scientific Riana Lynn ’08: ‘I want to try to impact my community and get more researcher or you can be a policymaker, minority entrepreneurs doing well.’ but it’s really the entrepreneurs that get BY CYNDY FALGOUT things moving along the fastest,” she said. The CODE2040 Residency program Food tech entrepreneur Riana to try to impact my community and get aims to increase the number of minorities Lynn ’08 has chalked up more more minority entrepreneurs doing well,” in the tech community by helping minority high-powered experiences she said. entrepreneurs take their companies to the at age 30 than most people Lynn grew up in Evanston, Ill., but next level and cultivate diversity in their accumulate in a lifetime. North Carolina schools were always on own communities. So Lynn has spent the Since graduating from UNC, she her radar, due in large measure to Michael past year developing FoodTrace while has founded three startups, managed Jordan and N.C. college sports. helping diversify the talent, network and high-profile projects at the White House “I was just a nerdy little girl who loved entrepreneurial ecosystem in Chicago. and secured a coveted spot as a Googlebasketball and science,” she said. As she pushes FoodTrace into a largCODE240 entrepreneur-in-residence. UNC’s track coaches recruited her to er market through an acquisition, she is Lynn is now negotiating the sale Chapel Hill, where she excelled in discus, already developing her next food venture. of her third food-related venture — javelin and shotput, ranking at that time She also serves on the Dean’s FoodTrace, a software platform and among the top 10 female discus throwers Working Group for the Minor in suite of services for food suppliers — and in University history. Entrepreneurship, where she is lending planning the launch of a fourth. Lynn initially jumped on the preher knowledge to support the next The net result of her breathless past med track, pursuing a biology major and generation of UNC entrepreneurs. decade? A laser focus on what she cares chemistry minor. But she took an elective “If you go to a great university about most deeply — creating impact, class on the Harlem Renaissance taught like Carolina, you can tap into its many transforming the nation’s food system by professor Kenneth Janken that proved resources and develop a set of skills you and changing the face of the nation’s tech so transformative she added African, can apply to your personal brand, and community. African American and diaspora studies as you can continue to find a new marker of “I really just want to continue to build, a second major. success year after year.”

Three Food Tech Startups, No Stopping, for Alumna

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Photos courtesy of Richard Grausman

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ABOVE: Richard Grausman with students in C-CAP. RIGHT: Grausman receives the President’s Service Award from Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Transforming Lives Through the Culinary Arts Richard Grausman ’59 inspires a love of cooking in underserved high school students BY PAMELA BABCOCK

When Richard Grausman (economics ’59) took a career assessment test in high school, it suggested he should become a social worker. Grausman read a list of job descriptions and thought that was nuts. Decades later, he has become a social worker of sorts by transforming the lives of underserved students through the culinary arts. Grausman, a graduate of the acclaimed Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, cookbook author and educator, is founder and chairman emeritus of the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (www. ccapinc.org). Based in his hometown of New York City, the nonprofit helps high school seniors get scholarships to culinary school. In 1990 he set up the program, which has since spread across the country. “What I’m doing is social work, but I had to come to it through my own travels and by finding a way I could give back,” Grausman said. “Young people need help. They need mentorship. They need doors opened for them.” Since C-CAP’s inception, the program has provided $46 million to nearly 5,000 students and has benefited more than 200,000 students, Grausman said. Star alumni include Amar Santana, a Top Chef competitor and executive chef and partner at Broadway by Amar Santana

and Vaca Restaurant in Orange County, Calif.; Lasheeda Perry, executive pastry chef for LinkedIn; and Carlton McCoy, wine director at The Little Nell in Aspen, Colo. After graduating from Carolina, Grausman spent six years traveling the globe for an Asian products import business. The flavors of Taiwan, Japan and India were exciting. But the gratification from work wasn’t there. Cooking was always a hobby, so Grausman enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu. He went on to represent and teach cooking classes for the school in the United States and Canada and authored a cookbook, French Classics Made Easy. Grausman loved teaching but soon realized Americans were increasingly turning to fast food. He wanted to get schoolchildren interested in cooking and eating healthy. “In high school, if a student has the palate and the passion, I knew it wouldn’t be hard to train them for the food service industry,” Grausman said. When he first began interviewing students for scholarships, many said they got their love of cooking by watching family members. A few years later, many began reporting they were fixated on TV cooking shows. “All of a sudden people like Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay took the place of the family,” Grausman said, adding that for kids who don’t have family members who cook, such shows have been “a great inspiration.” In 1997, Grausman won the President’s Service Award from Bill and Hillary Clinton for his work with C-CAP. In 2008, he and C-CAP were the inspiration for Pressure Cooker, a documentary directed by Grausman’s daughter, Jennifer. The film follows three inner-city kids at Philadelphia’s Frankford High School who compete for scholarships under the direction of Wilma Stephenson, a tough-love culinary arts teacher. C-CAP is now piloting an after-school job-training program to reach even more students. Grausman is on Facebook often, connecting with former scholarship winners, helping them advance their careers or just to hear how they are doing. When he was teaching for Le Cordon Bleu, Grausman loved it when students would say things like, “Thank you Mr. Grausman for teaching me about carrots — my kids ate carrots for the first time,” or “My husband loves me more because of the tarte tatin I made last night.” “Now that I am changing lives through our work at C-CAP, my work is much more meaningful,” Grausman said. “That’s the key to life: Finding that little spark that gives you the direction and the joy in your life and your work.”

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Kristen Chavez

SENIOR UP CLOSE

In her honors thesis, Sara Khan is examining developmental economics and intervention programs related to empowering women in the developing world.

A Passion for Medicine, Global Health and Complex Issues Sara Khan ’16: ‘Unpacking the grayness is what I really love to do.’ BY PAMELA BABCOCK

When Sara Khan ’16 was a teenager, her grandfather told her a story that planted the seeds for her passion for medicine and global health. An obstetrics/gynecologist friend had treated a Pakistani woman who had experienced multiple miscarriages. The doctor said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” He gave her what she thought was “medicine,” with instructions to take one pill a day with a cup of lassi, a yogurt drink. “If your family says, ‘No, you can’t do this,’ tell them I told you to do this.” Before long, the woman carried her baby to full term. The pills? Simple prenatal vitamins. “When he told me about this woman’s story, I said, ‘I need to be a part of this,’” recalled Khan, a senior with a double major in global studies and biology and a minor in chemistry. Medicine runs in the family for the

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Burlington, N.C., native, whose parents are of Pakistani descent. Her father is a cardiologist and her mother an internal medicine physician. Khan has applied to medical school and masters programs in public health and medical anthropology. Growing up, Khan went to Pakistan almost every summer and spent a lot of time in South Asia. In 2015, she was named a Phillips Ambassador and studied abroad through the UNC Summer in India program. Her original goal was to document border conflicts and animosity in India and Pakistan. Khan began to get footage for a documentary about people’s experiences on each side during the daily ceremonial flag raising and lowering at the Wagah border. But her time there was limited, so she hopes to continue the project in the future. Instead, she helped to organize a workshop at the FedEx Global Education Center for students, particularly women of color, who are

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interested in studying abroad in Asia. For Khan, global studies’ interdisciplinary programs have been the perfect place to better understand topics like structural violence, accessibility to health care programs and social determinants of health. “UNC’s global studies department has really nurtured me and given me the tools, motivation and encouragement to pursue all of my passions,” Khan said. Khan is publicity chair for the UNC Muslim Students Association, co-editor of Monsoon, a South Asian student magazine, and a volunteer at the Women’s Health Information Center at UNC Women’s Hospital. In her honor’s thesis she’s studying the framework by which intervention programs are developed and established, specifically those related to empowering women in the developing world. She is trying to understand the interactions between feminist theory, development programs and women on the ground. “It’s all about understanding development economics — how do we decide what a viable intervention program is, and who gets to decide that?” Khan explained. Last summer, Khan was in Pakistan to interview administrators of lowincome government and private schools in Lahore about obstacles to menstrual health education (MHE). MHE is a complex example of a program that could empower young girls and improve school enrollment or dropout rates. Khan is using MHE as a case study in a broader narrative on successful intervention programs. Khan said there’s nothing more intriguing than tackling complex issues like this. “That’s one of the reasons I love global studies so much,” Khan said. “Because it’s an interdisciplinary degree, you learn about issues from multiple perspectives. You realize nothing is black or white — everything is gray. And unpacking the grayness is what I really love to do.”

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Illustration by Daniel Hedglin

ABOVE: Friends are raising money to support graduate students in honor of Stu Chapin’s 100th birthday. RIGHT: New East, pictured in this illustration, is the home of the department of city and regional planning.

Honoring a legend, marking a milestone BY JOANNA CARDWELL (M.A. ’06)

When faculty, alumni and students gather in April to mark the 70th anniversary of the department of city and regional planning, they will also celebrate the 100th birthday of one of the department’s founding members, F. Stuart Chapin Jr. Chapin joined the faculty in 1949 and retired in 1978. Author of the pioneering textbook Urban Land Use Planning, now in its fifth edition, he is credited with leading the integration of social science into city and regional planning. To commemorate his birthday on April 1, the department launched a campaign to raise $100,000 in Chapin’s honor to support graduate students in city and regional planning. As of early March, more than 130 alumni, faculty and friends had contributed nearly $120,000. “Gifts made in Stu’s honor will strengthen our ongoing leadership in areas dear to him, such as sustainability, climate change, and land use and the environment,” said Roberto Quercia, professor and department chair. After he retired in 1978, Chapin

moved to White Salmon, Wash., to serve as the governor’s appointee on the Columbia River Gorge Commission. At 99, he continues to be active, taking hikes and focusing on the importance of natural resource planning. His legacy lives on in Chapel Hill and beyond. At Carolina, he and his wife established the F. Stuart Chapin Jr. and Mildred L. Chapin Endowment Fund, which supports natural resource planning and management in the department. Richard Brail earned his Ph.D. in planning in 1969 and had a distinguished academic career at Rutgers University. Chapin was his mentor and thesis adviser. He recalled that Chapin invited him to join a small group class on urban spatial structure in his second year of the master’s program, which ultimately led him to join the doctoral program. “He was very instrumental in my career,” Brail said. “He was very warm, respectful, very professional and very organized. I think the word to describe him would be integrity — he is a man of gentle integrity.” Frank Skrivanek, who earned his master’s degree in planning under Chapin in 1954 and enjoyed a distinguished career in city planning in

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Honolulu, says he owes his career to Stu Chapin. “Professor Chapin taught me that if I’m taking a job, I’ve got to know something about the economics of that area,” Skrivanek recalled. “Is it a city that has enough jobs to support its people, or is it a satellite community where they are dependent on other cities? He always said that you’ve got to know if the community is growing. When you do landuse planning, you have to accommodate those growth possibilities.” David Godschalk (’64 MRP, ’71 Ph.D.), who studied under Chapin and later co-wrote an updated edition of Urban Land Use Planning with him, attributed much of Chapin’s success to his dual identity as a planner and a scholar. “He really understood what the two big questions were for city planners: ‘How do cities grow and develop?’ and ‘How can planners guide that growth toward community goals?’ ” said Godschalk, Stephen Baxter professor emeritus. “That’s what’s given his work such staying power.” To make a gift in Chapin’s honor, visit planning.unc.edu/giving. Watch a 2010 video featuring Chapin’s memories of the department at vimeo.com/10728059.

70th Anniversary Celebration City and regional planning will celebrate its 70th anniversary during a reunion weekend April 15-16. The department is one of the largest, oldest and best-known programs of graduate planning education and research in North America. ➤ For more, visit planning.unc.edu.

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dean of the College. “It is a wonderful tribute to Dean Gil and her leadership of the College, as well as to her achievements as a clinical psychologist.” More than 40 students have held Gil internships since the pilot program launched in fall 2014, said Steve Buzinski, faculty director of the program. “The Gil Internships have been revolutionary,” said Buzinski. “They expose interns to the collaborative nature of science as a whole. … We are thrilled that the program will now inspire many more students.” After a competitive Kirsten Consing is a clinical psychology intern who is working with Mother Infant Research Studies at application process, students UNC Hospitals. The internship has received permanent funding. earn internships in labs, correctional institutes, $3.7 million gift endows programs in which she can focus on corporations, mental health centers, public the Karen M. Gil Internship improving the diagnosis, understanding schools or programs for the learningProgram in Psychology and treatment of mental illnesses and disabled, a list that continues to grow. BY DEL HELTON neurodegenerative diseases. Workshops on professionalism, best Generations of Carolina students will practices for writing CVs, resumes and n the fall of her senior year, Liz Bailey now have similar opportunities. other job- or graduate school-related ’15 of Raleigh had job offers in sales and A Carolina alumna and her husband, materials are part of the Gil internship consulting, but she didn’t think they’d who wish to be anonymous, are endowing program. make the best use of her psychology and the Karen M. Gil Internship Fund in Rowan Hunt ’16, a psychology and chemistry majors. Psychology, a program the College economics double major from Mullica Hill, “I didn’t see myself thriving in these of Arts and Sciences piloted in 2014 N.J., was a Gil intern in fall 2015 at Veritas positions,” she said. “I had never been in the department of psychology and Collaborative, an eating disorder treatment exposed to what a career in psychology neuroscience with startup funding from center in Durham. or research would look like prior to my the same donors. The effort has been so “The internship really deepened my internship experience.” successful that the couple has committed understanding of eating disorders and That changed last spring when Bailey $3.1 million in permanent funding for clinical psychology as a whole. Between earned a Karen M. Gil Internship, working student stipends and program support, volunteering in the lab for the past four at UNC’s Neurocognition and Imaging plus $600,000 in funding to continue the semesters and taking psychology classes, Research Lab. program while the endowment builds. I’ve amassed a broad understanding of “Research is what excites and The gift honors Gil, dean of the mental illness, but understanding these empowers me. I feel like I am contributing College from 2009 to 2015 and the Lee things on an academic level is completely to the greater goal of finding effective G. Pedersen Distinguished Professor of different from having tangible, clinical treatments for people suffering from Psychology. experience with the population,” said Hunt. schizophrenia and PTSD,” said Bailey, “This generous gift is not only “I’ve also learned how much business now a research fellow at Tennessee’s Oak transforming the lives of our students, but goes into sustaining a successful private Ridge Institute for Science and Education it has enormous societal benefits through treatment center like Veritas. I didn’t think at the Centers for Disease Control and the work that the program’s alumni will that my economics degree would be Prevention. She is applying to Ph.D. accomplish,” said Kevin M. Guskiewicz, helpful in my role as an intern, but I learned

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a surprising amount about business in my time in the program.” After she graduates this spring, Hunt hopes to work for a couple of years before pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She is working as a parttime therapeutic assistant at Veritas and

considering research assistant positions. For Bailey, the Gil internship opened a whole new world. “The internship stipend gave me the financial freedom to spend my time working in the lab rather than waiting tables, and opened my eyes to my calling

as a researcher,” said Bailey. “Without the internship, I never would have known how truly passionate I am about neuroscience and clinical psychology research. I feel as if I have made a flawless transition from an undergraduate to an influential careeroriented adult.”

➤ For more information about the Gil Internship, contact Steve Buzinski, faculty director of the program, gilinternship@email. unc.edu, 919-962-4155. To read more about the interns and their experiences, go to gilinternshipblog.web.unc.edu. Watch a video at go.unc.edu/d9NCt.

Celebrating 40 years On Oct. 16, 1975, Frank Borden Hanes Sr. oversaw a resolution recommending the creation of the Arts and Sciences Foundation. This feature is one of 40 stories published by the foundation to celebrate four decades of private giving to the College of Arts and Sciences. Read more at college.unc.edu/foundation.

In this remarkable photo taken in September 1949 aboard the French Liner SS De Grasse, a young Carolina graduate at the beginning of his distinguished academic career sits in the front row. Roy C. Moose '49, Ph.D. ’65 is third from the right in the light-colored suit, and was on

his way to study English and comparative literature at Oxford University on a Rotary International Fellowship. After earning two more degrees in England, Moose returned to Carolina, where he earned his Ph.D. His beginnings were humble. Born in Catawba County, he was the son of millworkers and never even thought of attending a university. Moose entered Carolina on the G.I. Bill after serving in World War II in the Army Air Corps and as first lieutenant in the Army Intelligence division. He taught at Florida State University for many years before returning to North Carolina to teach at UNC-Charlotte, where he received an

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award for excellence in teaching and was dubbed “Mr. Shakespeare” by students. He died in 2003. Moose funded the Roy C. Moose Distinguished Professorship in Renaissance Studies and the Roy C. Moose Graduate Student Travel Fund. Darryl Gless, a renowned scholar and beloved teacher, was the first Moose Professor, from 2009 until his death in 2014. Reid Barbour was named the second Roy C. Moose Distinguished Professor in 2015. “I’m very honored to be the Roy Moose Professor. Darryl was not just my colleague, but my teacher and honors thesis adviser when I was an undergraduate at Carolina in the early 1980s. He meant the world to me,” said Barbour. Because of the Moose Graduate Student Travel Fund, dozens of graduate students have been able to travel and present research at academic conferences, a critical activity for professional growth. We thank Naomi Levine of New Jersey, a passenger on the De Grasse, who was sorting through her personal photos and sent this to the Arts and Sciences Foundation. “During that wonderful crossing, 10 days of calm seas, I took some candid photos with my Brownie Box camera of other passengers. We were all students on our way to study in France or England. May Roy’s legacy produce much fruit.”

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TWO INDUCTED INTO ORDER OF THE LONG LEAF PINE

Two College of Arts and Sciences professors — Richard “Pete” Andrews and J. Steven Reznick — have been inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. The honor, created in 1963, is among the most prestigious awards presented by the governor of North Carolina for extraordinary public service to the state.

BOTTOM: Mark Terry TOP: Kristen Chavez

Andrews is professor emeritus in the department of public policy, and Reznick is a professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience. Both are also Carolina alumni. TOP: From left, public policy chair Dan Gitterman, Pete Andrews and former Dean Karen Gil. BOTTOM: From left, Steve Reznick, his wife, Donna Kaye, and Chancellor Carol L. Folt.

Relationships as important to health as exercise, eating well an early age, the better their health is at the beginning and end of their lives, according to a new study from UNC sociologists. The study is the first to definitively link social relationships with concrete measures of physical well-being such as abdominal obesity, inflammation and high blood pressure, all of which can lead to long-term health problems. “Based on these findings, it should be as important to encourage adolescents and young adults to build broad social relationships and social skills for interacting with others as it is to eat healthy and be physically active,” said Kathleen Mullan Harris, James Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology and faculty fellow at the Carolina Population Center. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, builds on previous research that shows that aging adults live longer if

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Donn Young

The more social ties people have at

Research by sociologist Kathleen Mullan Harris and others shows the value of social networks and personal interactions to health.

they have more social connections. Specifically, the team found that the sheer size of a person’s social network was important for health in early and late adulthood. In middle adulthood, it wasn’t the number of social connections that mattered, but what those connections provided in terms of social support or strain.

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“Our analysis makes it clear that doctors, clinicians and other health workers should redouble their efforts to help the public understand how important strong social bonds are throughout the course of all of our lives,” said Yang Claire Yang, a sociology professor, CPC fellow and a member of Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Parr Center for Ethics facilitates conversations

UNC, West Point to study changing concussion culture

UNC researchers have received a $400,000 award to partner with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to study changing the culture of concussion disclosure among military personnel and college athletes. They will develop an online interactive platform that provides a series of immersive training vignettes for those populations. UNC was among eight winners of the inaugural Mind Matters Challenge, sponsored by the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Defense. Johna Register-Mihalik, assistant professor of exercise and sport science in the College of Arts and Sciences and a faculty member of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, is co-principal investigator on the project. “While we work hard to prevent

Philosophy in action is new Parr Center director Russ Shafer-Landau’s mantra.

owiecki spoke on “When Self-Regulation Doesn’t Work: Bankers Behaving Badly and What to Do About It.” The Parr Center is also the founding home and headquarters of the National High School Ethics Bowl. The Ethics Bowl serves more than 2,000 students and teachers across the country. In partnership with the philosophy department, the center also sponsors the Philosophy Outreach Program, which held more than 200

concussions, not every concussion will be prevented,” Register-Mihalik said. “We are proposing an innovative strategy aimed at targeting organizational norms and individual beliefs to help improve concussion disclosure.” This is important because many concussions go unreported in young and physically active populations, she added. The project will target incoming service academy cadets and NCAA student-athletes at West Point and UNC. It will focus on: • Building a large database of key drivers of concussion disclosure. What makes people tell or not tell someone about a potential concussion? • Developing an interactive and immersive online platform using gaming technologies aimed at changing attitudes, behaviors and norms to improve concussion disclosure. • Forming a network of access to make this Web-based training tool freely

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events across North Carolina last year. “What we do is facilitate conversations that help people think on their own through life’s difficult questions,” Shafer-Landau said. “What thinking critically about ethics helps you do is think about what the right values are to live your life by.” ➤ Read a longer story by Gary Moss and watch a video at magazine.college. unc.edu.

Kevin Seifert Photography

of the Parr Center for Ethics in the College of Arts and Sciences, takes a rock ’n’ roll approach to philosophy, wanting to reach — and energize — a larger, broader audience. “We philosophers, on the whole, have been quite bad about explaining the value that we can offer,” said ShaferLandau, a leading scholar in metaethics who was recruited from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “What we need to do to overcome these perceptions is to show philosophy in action — and we do that by sharing it with people who are not philosophers.” The Parr Center Presents series brings nationally recognized experts to campus to talk about current issues of moral importance. Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, came to campus to discuss “An Ethical Framework for College Sports,” and New Yorker financial writer James Sur-

UNC Communications

Russ Shafer-Landau, the new director

Johna Register-Mihalik

available to NCAA colleges and military installations. • Creating a research infrastructure to study how this approach works to change cultural norms, attitudes and behaviors around concussion disclosure.

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Celebrating 100 years of Latin American studies anniversary of Latin American studies on campus during the 2015-16 academic year. “This is a remarkable anniversary,” said Jonathan Hartlyn, senior associate dean for social sciences and global programs in the College and a scholar of Latin American political science. “It helps explain why Carolina has long been at the forefront of Latin American scholarship — helping the University build extensive and deep relations with universities and colleagues in the United States and throughout Latin America.” In conjunction with the anniversary, the UNC Institute for the Study of the Americas published One Hundred Years of Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1915-2015, prepared by the institute’s director, Louis A. Pérez, and associate director Beatriz Riefkohl Muñiz. The book examines the history of Latin American courses and curricula at the University and offers tribute to leaders

Kristen Chavez

UNC is celebrating the 100th

Students discuss the Colombian peace process in “Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America,” taught by Miguel La Serna.

who have supported the area of study. The first course with Latin American content at UNC was introduced in 1915. Professor William W. Pierson offered “Spanish-American History” in what was then the department of history and government. Today more than 80 faculty members at UNC devote a large chunk of their research and teaching to the

study of Latin America. Many of their efforts are brought together through the institute, one of 20 National Resource Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education to advance the study of Latin America. ➤ Read a longer story by Katie Bowler Young at magazine.college. unc.edu.

Alyssa LaFaro

Exploring ‘home’ in African diaspora communities Endowment for the Humanities. The project kicks off March 31-April 2 and April 6-8 with a festival featuring national and international scholars, activists and performers offering critical and artistic approaches to A festival organized by Tanya Shields (left) and Kathy discourses on home. Perkins will feature a reading of a play based on the Most events take place at book Help Me to Find My People. the Sonja Haynes Stone Center. yearlong UNC project, “Telling The project is led by Kathy Perkins, our Stories of Home: Exploring and professor of dramatic art, and Tanya Celebrating Changing African and Shields, associate professor of women’s African Diaspora Communities,” was and gender studies. awarded a Humanities in the Public War, globalization, gentrification, Square grant from the National environmental catastrophe and

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incarceration offer layered meanings of “home” for women across the globe. Telling Our Stories of Home provides a platform for these women to engage in storytelling across national boundaries. Activities include panel discussions, workshops, films and performances. Participants will address the following questions: • What is home in the lives of these women? • How is home shaped by exile, incarceration, war, stress, anxiety or climate change? • How do we belong to our homes, if our experiences have been erased, marginalized or misrepresented? ➤ For more information, visit tellingourstories.web.unc.edu.

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News analyst Zakaria speaks on the value of the liberal arts to press, CNN host and Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria appeared on campus March 8 as the Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor to discuss In Defense of a Liberal Education, his New York Times best-selling book. The Frey Foundation Professorship was established in 1989 in the College to bring distinguished leaders from government, public policy, international affairs and the arts to campus. UNC alumnus David Gardner Frey (B.A. ’64, J.D. ’67) chairs the foundation. In his book, Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to the world’s most valuable educational tradition. A well-rounded education teaches one how to write, speak and learn — immensely valuable tools for any profession, he notes. Technology and globalization are actually making these skills even more valuable as routine mechanical and even computing tasks can be done by machines or workers in low-wage countries. More than just a path to a career, Zakaria says, a liberal arts education is an exercise in freedom. Zakaria is the Emmy-nominated host of CNN’s flagship international affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS, a Washington Post columnist and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Read coverage of the talk at go.unc. edu/Ra8r2.

Photo courtesy of Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program

As Carolina Arts & Sciences went

The Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program encourages underrepresented students to pursue graduate degrees in science or mathematics.

Helping undergrads pursue careers in scientific research

Like her peers in the Chancellor’s Science Scholars program, sophomore Diana Lopez hopes to pursue a career in scientific research. The program, which began in 2013 and moved into the College of Arts and Sciences last August, provides financial and academic support to encourage talented students who are dedicated to advancing diversity in the sciences to pursue Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. degrees in science or mathematics. Ninety scholars in the program make up three cohort classes (students who entered the university in 2013, 2014 and 2015). They are encouraged to bond with students in their cohort as they begin their Carolina education with an intensive sixweek summer program. Students receive high-level advising support throughout their four years, both as a group and individually. “We have to find a way to get more students of diverse backgrounds into doctorate programs,” said Mike Crimmins, executive director of the program and the Mary Ann Smith Professor of Chemistry. “This intensive academic start to their undergraduate studies, along with continuous support, will allow them to succeed at their full potential both now and in graduate school.” Lopez, who hopes to earn an M.D./Ph.D. in neuroscience, said, “Being involved in research as an undergrad has opened so many doors for me.” ➤ Read more about the program at magazine.college.unc.edu.

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#THROWBACK

Members of the Carolina Playmakers load a bus with props before leaving on a tour in fall 1941. (Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library). Do you recognize anyone in this photo? Do you have fond memories of being involved in theater or music at Carolina? Share your stories by emailing collegenews@unc.edu.

Studying the invisibility of transgender people holding public office Reynolds, director of the UNC LGBTQ Representation and Rights Initiative, has published the first worldwide comprehensive report on transgender people serving in elected office. Reynolds maintains a list of LGBTQ elected officials, around the world, and he updates it constantly. While the list contains hundreds of openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people, it includes only a handful of transgender people. The grand total of openly transgender people who have ever been elected to public office is 52. “When you hear that number, it may sound like a lot,” Reynolds said. “But it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of hundreds of thousands of people who run in electoral races around the world every year.” After combing through every country and over 40 years of history, Reynolds and co-author Logan Casey — a doctoral candidate at

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Photo courtesy of Andrew Reynolds

UNC political scientist Andrew

Political scientist Andrew Reynolds presented findings on transgender people in electoral politics to the British Parliament.

the University of Michigan — found that 126 transgender individuals from 30 countries have run in 209 races and been elected 72 times. The first time a community elected an openly transgender person happened in 1986 — Rachael Webb served on the London City Council for eight years. Tamara Adrián recently became the first transgender

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person elected to office in Venezuela. Reynolds and Casey traveled to London last fall to present their findings to the British Parliament. ➤ Read a longer story by Mary Lide Parker ’10 at magazine. college.unc.edu and visit lgbtqrepresentationandrights.org.

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Large percentage of a tardigrade’s genome comes from foreign DNA

UNC researchers have

Sinclair Stammers

sequenced the genome of the nearly indestructible tardigrade, the only animal known to survive the extreme environment of outer space, and found something they never expected: that they get a huge chunk of their genome — nearly one-sixth — from foreign DNA. “We had no idea that an animal genome could be composed of so much foreign DNA,” said co-author Bob Goldstein, professor in the biology department. “We knew many animals acquire foreign genes, but we had no idea that it happens to this degree.” The work, published in the New tardigrade findings raise questions about the connection between foreign DNA and the Proceeding of the National Acadeability to survive extreme environments. my of Sciences, not only raises the question of whether there is a connection between foreign DNA and the from bacteria, but also plants, fungi their genome from foreign DNA. ability to survive extreme environments, and single-cell organisms known as “Animals that can survive extreme but further stretches conventional views Archaea, through a process called stresses may be particularly prone of how DNA is inherited. horizontal gene transfer — the swapping to acquiring foreign genes — and First author Thomas Boothby, of genetic material between species, as bacterial genes might be better able to Goldstein and their collaborators opposed to inheriting DNA exclusively withstand stresses than animal ones,” revealed that tardigrades acquire from mom and dad. For comparison, said Boothby, a postdoctoral fellow in about 6,000 foreign genes primarily most animals have less than 1 percent of Goldstein’s lab.

Clemens named senior associate dean for natural sciences

Dan Sears

Chris Clemens, chair of the department of physics and astronomy, became

Chris Clemens

senior associate dean for natural sciences on March 1. Clemens’ research interests include stellar seismology, interacting binaries, time-resolved photometry and spectroscopy, and astronomical instrumentation. He is a recipient of UNC’s Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement (2005) and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring (2012). As senior associate dean, Clemens will oversee the departments/curricula in applied physical sciences, biology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, computer science, environment and ecology, exercise and sport science, geological sciences, marine sciences, mathematical decision sciences, mathematics, physics and astronomy, psychology and neuroscience, statistics and operations research and the Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program. The appointment fills a position left vacant when Kevin Guskiewicz became dean of the College on Jan. 1.

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Oklahoma, from the Oklahoma Series by Ronald Lockett, 1995.

CHAPTER & VERSE

FEVER WITHIN: The Art of Ronald Lockett by Bernard L. Herman Ronald Lockett, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his dark slacks, studies the artwork he’s tilted against the corner of his garage studio in Bessemer, Ala. His composition, roughly four feet square, consists entirely of found materials: rusted roofing and siding tin nailed to a weathered board backing. A small vertical rectangle of metal painted white brightens and anchors the hand-cut oxidized metal panels, some crumpled, others bearing traces of worn and abraded paint. Always thoughtful in his responses, he speaks away from the camera even as he assesses the work he has made. “This is called Oklahoma,” he begins, “this is the idea I came up with to express my idea about the Oklahoma bombing. It’s sort of abstract, with cut out different shapes and stuff, with wire and

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old tin, and barbed wire.” He remembers, “I wanted to come up with the best idea I could without offending any of those people that had families that got killed in this federal building.” Ronald Lockett was born in 1965 and lived the entirety of his life in the Pipe Shop neighborhood of the old manufacturing city of Bessemer, Ala., southwest of Birmingham. His home on Fifteenth Street stood in a row of modest working class bungalows owned and occupied by his extended family, including two of the most influential people in his artistic life — his great aunt Sarah Dial Lockett (whom he memorialized in Sara Lockett’s Roses (1997)) and his cousin, the much revered Thornton Dial, who passed away in 2016. His cousin Richard Dial remembered Lockett, “Ronald was one of the most

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easy-going fellows that you would ever run across. … He was just a calm fellow and that was his life. He just wanted to live and try to get along with everybody … and he got along with everybody.” His art came to the attention of Thornton Dial’s friend and patron William (Bill) Arnett in the late 1980s. His early efforts developed in the context of his relationship with Dial, whose studio stood in the “junk house” just down the street. Lockett worked as an artist until his death from HIV/AIDS in 1998. His total known production numbers roughly between 350 and 400 works. In the end, however, much about Ronald Lockett’s life and art remains a mystery. Several series of works that Lockett undertook from the late 1980s through 1997 provide a richer biographical understanding of his artistic growth, his influences and the continuing concerns that ran through all of his work. Although Lockett devoted the major share of his energies to more serious themes reflected in series such as Oklahoma, and a late collection of works on women, in particular Princess Diana and Sarah Dial Lockett, he could at times be playful, as seen in his sculptures of horses and an elephant. At the same time he developed these continuing themes, Lockett produced a variety of additional works through which he examined parallel issues and perfected his techniques through experimentation and practice. The Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill has organized a traveling exhibition that is the first solo show of Lockett’s work, with shows at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City (June 21-Sept. 18, 2016), High Museum of Art in Atlanta (Oct. 9, 2016-Jan. 8, 2017) and the Ackland (Jan. 27-April 9, 2017). Excerpt from Fever Within: The Art of Ronald Lockett, edited by Bernard L. Herman (UNC Press, June 2016) www.uncpress.org. Herman is George B. Tindall Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies and chair of the department of American studies. ➤ Find more books by Carolina alumni and faculty at magazine.college.unc.edu.

FINALE

Michelle and Jimmy from Removed (by Eric Pickersgill, MFA ’15) Artist and photographer Eric Pickersgill’s photo project Removed captures people absorbed in their mobile devices. The only catch? The devices have been removed. | The idea for the series came to him when he was sitting at a café in New York and observed a family of four immersed in their cellphones, oblivious to one another. The photos became his thesis work. | Pickersgill said about the series: “The joining of people to devices has been rapid and unalterable. … Despite the obvious benefits that these advances in technology

have contributed to society, the social and physical implications are slowly revealing themselves.” | Removed has been featured in media outlets including CNN, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Forbes, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Wired, the BBC and more. | Pickersgill is now a visiting lecturer in UNC’s art department. He is represented by Rick Wester Fine Art in New York, where he will have a solo exhibition this spring. | See more photographs at www. removed.social.

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