Scarab Fall 2015

The magazine of the MCV Alumni Association of Virginia Commonwealth University Spring Fall 2015 2015

ROAD MAP for

SUCCESS

VCU explores new avenues for connecting job-seeking students with A-list employers

Vol. 63, No. 21

Remote Rx Medical mission trips broaden students’ clinical, procedural and cultural skills

“Dai Food,” by alumna Colette Fu (B.G.S.’99/H&S), is a multilayered, visual love song to the cuisine of the Dai people, which Fu describes as “similar to Thai food in that it combines sour, spicy, salty and sweet flavors but with its own distinctive style.”

The Dai people reside in the Yunnan province, home to 25 of the 55 minority tribes in China. Fu began photographing the lives of the people there in 1995 when she traveled to her ancestral homeland and discovered an ethnically diverse China she had not known growing up in the U.S. In 2008, Fu received a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, returned to Yunnan and started to transform flat photos into 3-D pop-up books, a form she uses to “eliminate the boundaries between book, installation, photography, craft and sculpture.” Fu’s 17-by-25-by-12.74-inch “Dai Food” and a second pop-up, “Yi Costume Festival,” can be found in Special Collections and Archives in VCU’s James Branch Cabell Library.

Photos Tom Kojcsich, VCU Marketing

BIGPICTURE

Fall 2015

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Greetings from RVA and VCU!

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In this issue of Scarab, we look at the many ways Virginia Commonwealth University solves problems through innovation and creativity. VCU and our alumni and friends are making investments that match the university’s lofty aspirations, whether it’s providing support to bolster student success, advancing research discoveries or strengthening our communities.

This issue also reflects the enthusiasm and energy contributed by alumni through Alumni Month, Reunion Weekend and the many other programs and events supported by VCU Alumni, the MCV Alumni Association of VCU and other members of the alliance of alumni constituent organizations. Their photos and stories, which you’ll find starting on Page 30, capture the love and pride so many alumni feel for our alma mater.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue and are encouraged and inspired to engage with your alma mater. The MCV Alumni Association of VCU, as part of VCU Alumni and in partnership with its alumni constituent organizations — academic, geographic and shared interest, strives to provide alumni with a menu of value-added engagement opportunities in support of the university’s strategic plan, Quest for Distinction. VCU Alumni is a dues-driven organization that offers a full spectrum of benefits and services, and I invite you to learn more at vcualumni.org.

It is my pleasure and honor to serve as president of the MCV Alumni Association of VCU for the next two years, and I thank you and thousands of your fellow alumni for being actively engaged with your alma mater!

Yours for VCU and in the tradition of MCV,

Michelle R. Peace, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’05/M) President, MCV Alumni Association of VCU

Fall 2015 Volume 63, Number 2 vcualumni.org Associate vice president, University Alumni Relations Gordon A. McDougall Senior director, finance and services Judy Frederick Interim senior director, outreach and engagement Amy Gray Senior director, development and alumni communications Melanie Irvin Seiler (B.S.’96/MC) Senior director, VCU Alumni Diane Stout-Brown (B.S.W.’80/SW) Associate director, development and alumni marketing and communications Kristen Caldwell (B.S.’94/MC) Associate director, creative content Mitchell Moore (B.S.’07/MC; M.S.’08/E)

Editorial, design and photography VCU Development and Alumni Communications The alumni magazine is published semiannually by the Virginia Commonwealth University Office of Alumni Relations. The views and opinions expressed in the alumni magazine do not necessarily represent those of the alumni office or university.

Send address changes or comments to: Office of Alumni Relations Virginia Commonwealth University 924 West Franklin Street P.O. Box 843044 Richmond, Virginia 23284-3044 Phone: (804) 828-2586 Email: alumni@vcu.edu vcualumni.org © 2015, Virginia Commonwealth University an equal opportunity, affirmative action university

On the cover At Match Day 2015, VCU School of Medicine students plot the locations of their residencies on a map. Turn to Page 14 to learn how the school helps med students choose a specialty path and navigate the residency-match process. Photo Nancy Parker, Cabay Photography

Correction The spring 2015 alumni magazine incorrectly published an obituary for F. Stanford Massie Jr., M.D. (M.D.’94/M). We apologize for the error.

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VCU Alumni

CONTENTS

10 Features 10 Windows of opportunity Gifts invested in key areas, such as scholarships, research and outreach, can make a powerful, and lasting impact.

14 A new spin Innovative tweaks to the tried-and-true career fair produce meaningful connections between job-seeking students and A-list employers.

18 Jeanology

Donwan Harrell (B.F.A.’92/A), founder of the $20 million international denim business PRPS, returns to campus to share secrets of his success.

20 Food for thought VCU’s RamPantry joins a growing list of food pantries on university campuses that help students stay in school.

Departments 24 Child’s play Students create art supplies, books and communication tools to make a local children’s museum more accessible for children of all abilities.

26 Paying it forward VCU’s last capital campaign ended in 2007, but the benefits of the eight-year fundraising effort are still being felt.

28 A 118-year legacy A love of medicine runs strong in the Ray family, whose connections to the School of Medicine date back four generations to 1897.

4 University news 9 Presidential perspective 30 Alumni connections 37 Alumni support: Jack Cullather

38 Class notes 41 Alumni profile: Matt Ramsey

4 4 Alumni profile: Crystal Hayes, D.D.S.

53 Datebook

Fall 2015

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UNIVERSITYNEWS

Virginia Commonwealth University news and research.

For the latest updates, visit VCU News at news.vcu.edu.

RESEARCH

Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D.

Photo Lindy Rodman, VCU University Marketing

Breakthrough: depression linked to genetics

For the first time in scientific history, researchers have identified specific genetic clues to the underlying etiology of clinical depression. The findings are the result of an international collaboration among researchers from VCU, the University of Oxford and throughout China to localize risk genes for major depressive disorder.

Until now, researchers have had a difficult time finding genetic markers that can be linked to the disease, but the international research team, in which VCU’s Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics was a key participant, successfully isolated individual changes in DNA that increase a person’s risk for major depression.

“This report shows for the first time that genomewide association studies — a method that has found risk genes from many important complex human disorders — can work for major depression,” says joint-senior author Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., the Rachel Brown Banks Distinguished Professor in Psychiatry and professor of human and molecular genetics at the VCU School of Medicine. “With these genomewide studies, as you identify more markers, your ability to identify specific biological pathways to illness substantially improves.”

According to the World Health Organization, clinical depression carries the second-heaviest burden of disability among all medical conditions worldwide and accounts for more than 8 percent of all U.S. years lived with disability. The findings from this study could potentially lead to new ways to predict risk for depression and treatments for the disease.

Kendler attributes the research’s success to the carefully designed study sample, which consisted of 5,303 Chinese women with recurrent major depression from 58 hospitals throughout China and 5,337 Chinese women in the control group. The study was limited to women because about 45 percent of the genetic liability to major depressive disorder is not shared between sexes. Researchers hope to return to China in the near future to collect another 48,000 samples, which they expect will replicate and substantially extend the study’s findings, further improving the understanding of the underlying biology that predisposes people to major depression.

RESEARCH

Decoding human height

An interdisciplinary research team led by the deans of VCU’s schools of Medicine and Engineering has for the first time explained the association between human height and a specific protein-coding gene that is found in sperm.

Although the sperm-associated antigen 17 (SPAG17) gene has been linked to human height in previous studies, it was not clear how the gene influences linear growth and skeletal development until now. VCU researchers found that a targeted mutation in the gene leads to skeletal malformations in mice, such as a shortened hind limb length, fused segments of the sternum and defects in bone mineralization.

Researchers in the lab of Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, first encountered the SPAG17 gene while investigating genes that affect

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VCU Alumni

male infertility and found that mice born without the gene exhibited shorter tibia and femurs and had skeletal malformations.

That was when Strauss, also a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, enlisted help from Barbara D. Boyan, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Engineering, who specializes in musculoskeletal biology.

Researchers at her lab analyzed the shapes of the bones and the way they developed in the embryos and conducted cell culture studies.

Ultimately, researchers from labs at both schools concluded that the bone malformations in the mice resulted from the targeted mutation of the SPAG17 gene and that bone-forming cells also express this gene.

Researchers emphasize that more studies are needed to fully understand how SPAG17 affects bone and bone structure.

ACCOLADES Photo William Gilbert

The expanded Cabell Library provides VCU’s more than 31,000 students with vastly more space to study, collaborate, discover, create and conduct research.

FACILITIES

New academic library building

VCU’s greatly expanded and renovated James Branch Cabell Library opened in November, providing more than 1,000 new seats, more computers and far more academic workspace for students.

The $50.8 million project adds 93,000 square feet of new construction and 63,000 square feet of improvements to the existing library, with 90 percent of the space designed specifically for student use. The first two floors of the new building opened this fall. Floors three and four will be open for the spring semester with a state-of-the-art innovative media studio in the lower level coming online later in the spring.

Built in 1970, Cabell Library is among the busiest academic libraries in Virginia. Over the past decade, use of the library has doubled to serve more than 2 million visitors annually.

“The new building is filled with features, innovations and architectural beauty that I think capture and express the immense pride we all have in our university,” says University Librarian John Ulmschneider. “It reflects the maturation of VCU over the past 20 years — a building that almost shouts out to everyone who enters it: VCU has arrived.”

GRANT

Focused support for college students with ADHD

Researchers at VCU and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro have received a nearly $3.2 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education to study how colleges and universities can better support students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The four-year study began this fall and provides services, such as group sessions and mentoring, to a randomized sample of 120 students at VCU and 120 students at UNCG. “More and more students diagnosed with ADHD are attending college, which is great,” says co-principal investigator Joshua Langberg, Ph.D., associate professor in VCU’s Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences. “But unfortunately many college students with ADHD struggle academically, and dropout rates are quite high.”

Colleges and universities across the country are seeking to assist students with ADHD, yet little research has been done to show whether support services are working. This study will be the first large randomized trial of any nonmedication intervention for college students with ADHD.

FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS

Two professors in the College of Humanities and Sciences received Fulbright Scholar awards. George Munro, Ph.D., professor in the Department of History, received a grant, his third, to travel to Russia to study the history of Kirovsk, a small mining town that was once populated primarily by Soviet Union exiles. Scott Gronert, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Chemistry, will use his award to work with researchers in France on a new process using mass spectrometry that could help surgeons more accurately remove cancerous cells.

GLOBAL SCHOLAR

Asya Wilson received a David L. Boren Scholarship to study in the United Arab Emirates during the 2016-17 academic year. A business major enrolled in VCU Globe, the university’s global education living-learning program, Wilson will use the award to become proficient in Arabic while also taking international business courses at the American University of Sharjah.

TEACHER OF THE YEAR

Melanie Buffington, Ph.D., was named the 2015 National Higher Education Teacher of the Year by the National Art Education Association.

Buffington, assistant professor and graduate programs coordinator in the School of the Arts’ Department of Art Education, also received the 2015 Kathy Connors Teaching Award from the NAEA Women’s Caucus.

NO. 1 IN VA

VCU Medical Center has been recognized as the No. 1 hospital in Virginia and the Richmond metro area by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals rankings. It also ranks in the top 50 in the country for orthopaedics (No. 34), nephrology (No. 48), and cardiology and heart surgery (No. 49).

NSF FELLOW

Michael Trujillo, a doctoral student in VCU’s Health Psychology Program in VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences, received a three-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to study discrimination faced by gays, lesbians and bisexuals and to determine whether that discrimination leads to greater risk-taking.

1ST D.N.P. IN VA This fall, VCU’s School of Nursing began offering the state’s first post-master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The D.N.P. program will have a unique partnership with the Langston Center for Quality, Safety and Innovation, which was funded by a $1.25 million investment from VCU Health System and opened at the school this fall to disseminate innovative practices leading to enhanced quality and safety in health care.

STATE SCIENTIST

Puru Jena, Ph.D., professor in the College of Humanities and Sciences’ Department of Physics, was named one of Virginia’s Outstanding Scientists of 2015. Jena, who pioneered the concept of “superatoms,” was honored for his contributions to the theoretical understanding of nanomaterials with potential applications in clean energy, medicine and information technology.

BEST PRESS

The Commonwealth Times, VCU’s independent, student-run newspaper, won 10 awards for journalistic excellence at the 2015 Virginia Press Association’s annual journalism awards. The paper’s awards included four first-places and a sweep in the illustrations category.

Fall 2015

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UNIVERSITYNEWS LEADERSHIP FACILITIES

Building a better environment

« Akel I. Kahera, Ph.D., has been appointed dean of the

Inger Rice recently made a $2.3 million gift to support the VCU Rice Rivers Center to fund a multibuilding overnight lodge and to contribute to the construction of a research laboratory on the property.

A $1.8 million portion of the gift will finance the construction of the overnight facility, which will have up to 30 beds where students and researchers will stay while they work at the living laboratory in Charles City County, Virginia. The other $500,000 will go toward the $6.7 million campaign to fund construction of a state-of-the-science building that will enable the scientists at the center to conduct all of their research and analysis on-site. Both buildings will be funded entirely by private resources.

“You can see it in a dream, but sometimes dreams don’t come true,” Rice says. “Now I will see the reality.”

For more than a decade, Rice has been turning her dream of housing a premier environmental research center at VCU into a reality. In 2000, she gave 342 acres of land along the lower James River to VCU as a location for the university to build an environmental research and education center. In the subsequent 15 years, she has continued to financially support the center.

“The internationally recognized environmental research conducted at the VCU Rice Rivers Center would not be possible without the continuous generous support from Mrs. Rice,” says VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “This latest gift will allow for VCU to continue to attract the country’s best scientists to our state-of-the-art facility, which will further enhance the quality of research and education at the center.”

VCU School of the Arts in Qatar. Kahera joins VCUQatar from Clemson University, where he was associate dean in the College of Architecture, Arts & Humanities and served as director of the Pennell Center for Research in Design and Building. Kahera sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture.

« John A. Luke Jr. was elected by the VCU Board of

Visitors to serve as rector for the 2015-16 academic year.

Luke joined the board in 2012 and has chaired the Audit, Integrity and Compliance Committee. Luke, chairman of WestRock Co. in Richmond, Virginia, also is a trustee of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the VCU School of Engineering Foundation.

« Gerard Moeller, M.D., was named director of the Center

for Clinical and Translational Research and associate vice president for clinical research. Moeller came to VCU in 2013 and served as professor and division chair of addiction psychiatry. He holds appointments as professor in the departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Neurology in the School of Medicine and serves as director of the VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies.

Church in Richmond, Virginia, was appointed in October to VCU’s Board of Visitors. Nelson also is vice chairman of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors, serves on a number of government and community organizations, including the Baptist General Convention of Virginia and is concluding service on the VCU Health System Authority board.

« Marsha D. Rappley, M.D., joined the university in August

as vice president for health sciences and CEO of VCU Health System. She previously served as dean of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. During her 10 years as dean, research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other federal entities doubled, endowments grew by 80 percent in the past four years, and the medical school expanded to serve virtually every corner of Michigan.

Rappley is chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ board and serves on its Research Advisory Panel, advocating for support of NIH and anchor academic institutions like VCU. She’s also a tenured professor of pediatrics and human development.

Photo Allen Jones (B.F.A.’82/A; M.F.A.’92/A), VCU University Marketing

« Rev. Tyrone E. Nelson, pastor of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist

« Jacquelyn E. Stone, a partner at McGuireWoods, was

elected vice rector of the VCU Board of Visitors for the 2015-16 academic year. Stone joined VCU’s board in 2011 and has chaired the Academic and Health Affairs Committee. At McGuireWoods, she chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is a former member of the firm’s board of partners.

The overnight lodge and research laboratory will join the Rice Rivers Center’s LEED-certified Walter L. Rice Education Building, which houses lecture and laboratory rooms, a conference room and administrative offices.

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VCU Alumni

UNIVERSITYNEWS RESEARCH

3-D color mapping

All VCU arts professor Robert Meganck wanted was a better technique to teach color theory to his students. Three years later, what he ended up with is a 3-D infinite color map that can be used for myriad applications, from determining the deterioration rate of priceless art to identifying the size and extent of a tumor.

Color Gamut — the 3-D color map that Meganck developed with communication arts professor Matt Wallin and physics affiliate professor Peter Martin — eliminates the guesswork in determining a color as well as the visual perceptual differences that cause us to see color differently.

“When you were in kindergarten, your teacher held up a crayon and said, ‘This is red,’” says Meganck, chair of the Department of Communication Arts in the

VCU School of the Arts. “What you saw, you associated with the word red. What the person next to you saw, they associated with the word red. But you did not necessarily see and register the same color.”

The interactive, Web-based Color Gamut plots a color’s location in three dimensions in relation to all other colors so that differences in light, viewer or monitor screen no longer matter.

The map’s value to the art world is apparent, but the real-world applications could truly be life-changing, such as use for an instant diagnosis by medical professionals. A quick scan of a blood sample could reveal exactly how much oxygen it contains, or doctors could determine the extent of a malignant tumor by analyzing its color data.

The color map has both a theoretical cylindrical model of the visible spectrum as well as this unusually shaped model of color in RGB space.

Different values of different hues can be represented with greater chromaticity than some others.

GRANT

CLINICAL TRIAL

VCU has received a three-year, $10 million grant to establish a statewide consortium that will help small- to medium-sized primary care practices in Virginia deliver better care, shepherd better patient experiences and improve satisfaction among clinicians.

Led by Anton Kuzel, M.D., professor and the Harris-Mayo Chair in Family Medicine and Population Health in the School of Medicine, the project will serve up to 300 practices in the commonwealth and will focus on improving heart health. VCU is one of seven grantees across the nation awarded as part of EvidenceNOW – Advancing Heart Health in Primary Care, an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality initiative.

“The goal of the EvidenceNOW initiative is to give primary care practices the support they need to help patients live healthier and longer,” says Sylvia M. Burwell, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “By targeting smaller practices, we have a unique opportunity to reduce cardiovascular risk factors for hundreds of thousands of patients and learn what kind of support results in better patient outcomes.”

The Virginia consortium, called the Heart of Virginia Healthcare, is composed of the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, four of Virginia’s schools of medicine, the Virginia Health Quality Center and evaluation specialists at George Mason University. The group will work with primary care practices to improve the percentage of patients successfully managing health issues, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and to provide support, including on-site coaching, expert consultation, collaborative learning events, an online support center, feedback and benchmarking.

VCU Massey Cancer Center physician-scientist Andrew Poklepovic, M.D. (H.S.’07/M; H.S.’11/M), has been selected as a national co-primary investigator for a large-scale clinical trial led by the National Cancer Institute.

Known as the National Cancer Institute Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH) Trial, the study consists of numerous small, phase 2 trials that will examine solid tumors and lymphomas that no longer respond to standard treatment and have begun to grow. Next-generation DNA sequencing will be administered on tumor biopsies from as many as 3,000 patients nationwide to determine the cell’s “broken” mechanism and, therefore, what is causing the cancer growth. Once the mutation is identified, the appropriate PI will be contacted and protocol will Andrew Poklepovic, M.D. be directed.

Poklepovic serves as co-PI for the arm of NCI-MATCH that examines the use of the drug sunitinib for c-Kit mutated cancers, which include gastrointestinal stromal tumors, melanoma and other systemic diseases, though all options of the trial are available at Massey.

“This trial is an important step toward personalized cancer treatments for patients,” says Poklepovic, a medical oncologist, a member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at Massey and assistant professor in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care in the School of Medicine. “It is assessing cancer pathways and how a broken pathway can lead to a cell being able to continue to grow forever and make new cells. If you can target that pathway, you can target what is driving the cancer.”

Support for primary care physicians

Targeted cancer treatments

Fall 2015

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UNIVERSITYNEWS RESEARCH

More fruits and veggies, please

Rachel Boutte, a counseling psychology graduate student, records how much fruit and vegetables remain on students’ plates in a Chesterfield County elementary school.

Under new federal school lunch regulations championed by first lady Michelle Obama, school cafeterias across the country must now offer more whole grains, vegetables and fruits, and foods with less fat and sodium. But the new guidelines have sparked widespread criticism that children hated the healthier lunches and were choosing to simply toss out the fruits and vegetables.

As it turns out, that is likely not the case. A study led by Suzanne Mazzeo, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences, found that the majority of schoolchildren are choosing to eat the school lunches’ fruits and vegetables.

“I feel really hopeful about this study because when you talk to people about school lunches their first reaction is usually like, gross, the kids don’t want to eat that,” says Mazzeo, a leading expert in healthy eating and exercise, particularly for children and families.

The study, which was conducted at two elementary schools in Chesterfield County, Virginia, is funded by a two-year $100,000 grant by the National Institutes of Health. The study’s results are among the first empirical evidence to show that the overhaul of the National School Lunch Program is working.

AWARDS

Alumni Fulbright recipients

Six VCU alumni received prestigious Fulbright awards, giving them the populations to use film as a way to share their stories of integration. opportunity to conduct research or serve as English teaching assistants Simultaneously, she will research and interview Virginia Onorato, a filmabroad during the 2015-16 academic year. This latest group of winners maker whose work with factory workers in northern Italy in the 1960s brings VCU’s total to 34 students and alumni who have received Fulbright inspired Lawhorne’s project. These two research initiatives will come together in the summer of 2016, when a film fesawards since the university’s National Scholarship tival in Messina will be held in Onorato’s honor.

Office was created in 2005.

As a Fulbright English teaching assistant, Wade Chris Rories (B.A.’12/H&S) will teach English Angeli (B.F.A.’14/A) will draw on his academic in Malaysia as a Fulbright English teaching assisand study-abroad experiences to teach English to tant. Outside the classroom, he will create and facilitate a Model U.N. Club for his students so secondary school students in Andora.

Mary Beth Bird (B.S.’10/En) will conduct that they learn how global issues connect directly anthropological research in Lesotho, where she to their lives and communities.

Mary Beth Bird Lindsey FitzGerald previously spent two years as a Peace Corps volun- Wade Angeli Ghatul Abdul Qayum (B.A.’11/H&S; teer. Her research will examine the experiences of B.S.’11/H&S), who was offered a Fulbright English teaching assistantship to Malaysia, declined maternity in the remote highlands of northern Lesotho, in the award to attend law school. She hopes in the future collaboration with the National University of Lesotho and to reapply for a Fulbright research award to pursue her the Botha-Bothe District Health Management Team.

As a Fulbright English teaching assistant, Lindsey interest in international law.

FitzGerald (B.A.’14/H&S) will travel to Morocco. Outside VCU’s National Scholarship Office is based in The the classroom, she will work with a local high school teacher Honors College and assists students and alumni in comJennifer Lawhorne Chris Rories to establish a pen pal system between Moroccan students peting for national and international scholarships such as the Fulbright. For more information about applying for the Fulbright or and high school students in rural Virginia.

Jennifer Lawhorne (B.S.’01/MC; M.I.S.’13/H&S) will conduct other nationally or internationally competitive scholarships, contact the community-based research in Messina, Italy, working with immigrant NSO at (804) 828-1803 or honors.vcu.edu/nationalscholar.

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VCU Alumni

PRESIDENTIALPERSPECTIVE

Best destinations Connecting with alumni in their hometowns

By Michael Rao, Ph.D., President, VCU and VCU Health System

S

itting in an airport recently, I read something interesting. It was a study about how much leaders benefit from engaging with, and listening to, constituents wherever they are.

This increases trust, candor and engagement, allowing leaders to truly understand perceptions of their organization.

This idea has been our practice at Virginia Commonwealth University for some time, particularly with our alumni. Of course, the invitation always stands for alumni to return to VCU, to revisit memories and to see firsthand the changes taking place at their alma mater. But we realize it is just as important that we visit alumni.

Getting off campus gives us a new perspective, the VCU alumni perspective, which helps to shape the vision of this great university.

For me, visiting alumni in their hometowns is a distinct pleasure. I love to listen to the stories about their VCU experiences and about where their life as leaders and innovators has taken them.

These visits also provide a sense of history and identity — an understanding that we are a part of something bigger. Each of us, in our own environment, is part of a larger world that needs strong leaders dedicated to transforming lives around us. Our strongest sense of satisfaction comes in using our leadership and knowledge, wherever we might be, to help others. The benefits that come back to us are undeniable and unending, but what matters most is the ways in which we lift one another.

I have traveled to some wonderful places — as far as Qatar and China and as near as a block away from campus. But wherever I go, I

can honestly say that the best destinations are the ones where I get to visit VCU alumni. The itinerary most recently has included areas where VCU has large networks of alumni, which includes Richmond as well as Southern California, Atlanta, New York, Washington, D.C., Hampton Roads in Michael Rao, Ph.D. southeastern Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina.

What does my team do when we go on the road? A variety of activities. For example, in New York, home of the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship, we hold watch parties and bond over the excitement of each game. We organize meet-and-greet events where alumni in that area come together to network, and visioning events where we lay out the plans for the university and gather feedback from various groups.

Some events are focused on corporate relations — how VCU students and faculty can help find solutions or how businesses can provide internships or career opportunities for fellow alumni. Other events focus on engaging alumni through chapters. What every one of these activities does is strengthen the VCU connection and boost the overall VCU experience.

Wherever I go and whatever I do, I want to help alumni connect with today’s VCU. It’s a wonderful destination to visit both in person and in spirit.

Fall 2015

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Windows of opportunity INVESTING IN VCU GIVES THE UNIVERSITY NEEDED RESOURCES TO BOLSTER STUDENT SUCCESS, ADVANCE RESEARCH AND STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES

By Erin Peterson A DESIRE TO DREAM BIG seems etched into Virginia Commonwealth University’s genetic code. From its ambitious slate of research initiatives, to its outreach to vulnerable populations in the community, to its unwavering commitment to help lower-income and first-generation college students succeed academically, VCU has focused on critical areas where it can make a meaningful impact.

The university has done so on a relatively modest budget. VCU does not have the financial might of many major research universities with multibillion-dollar endowments. Nonetheless, the university’s disciplined financial approach has long allowed it to compete with better-funded institutions. VCU’s 3.5 percent tuition increase for 2014-15 was comparable to other public universities, and the university made the most of that money, including channeling more than $1 million of the increase back into financial aid.

But VCU’s goal is not to do more with less. It is to do its most important work at the highest levels. That’s why the university is placing an increasing emphasis on philanthropic support in key areas, such as student scholarship, faculty recruitment and community partnerships, where gifts have the opportunity to make a powerful and lasting impact.

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VCU Alumni

Diploma President, VCU and VCU Health System

ity Opportun

No. 1

and tuition rises.

The path forward: Increase scholarships so students can maximize

their time and graduate in four years.

What’s next: Like hundreds of public institutions across the country,

VCU has had to fight the twin battles of rising tuition costs and decreasing state support. Undergraduate tuition and fees for 2015 are $12,398, which is roughly in line with similar research institutions.

But the university must do a better job of providing scholarships and aid to students who need it most, says Gail Hackett, Ph.D., VCU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs.

“We have an incredibly heterogeneous student body, with more lowincome students than any similar institution in the state,” she says. “We want to provide not just an excellent education but access to that education, too.”

The stakes are high: the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia shows that 30 percent of VCU students are from lower-income families and are supported by federal Pell Grants; institutional research indicates that another 28 percent are first-generation college students. For these students in particular, a VCU degree is transformational. It can improve their job and economic prospects for a lifetime.

Right now, that dream remains financially out of reach for too many.

VCU has about $96 million annually in unmet student need, a gap that students fill through part-time jobs and loans, says Luke Schultheis, VCU’s vice provost for strategic enrollment management. He hopes the university can slice that number in half. “Scholarships allow students

$

$ $ Opportunity No. 1: Support excellent students as state support declines

to focus on their studies and take part in programming opportunities, internships and leadership roles at the university,” Schultheis says. “These are experiences that help them develop not just as students but as people.”

Even a scholarship of a few thousand dollars has a domino effect that can end up saving a student tens of thousands of dollars over the course of his or her education. A student who has enough scholarship support to work 10 hours a week at a part-time job instead of 30, for example, will have the time to devote to his or her classes and progress efficiently toward graduation. The university’s “Do the Math” campaign illustrates how an in-state student who takes 15 credits per semester and graduates in four years can save up to $50,000 in tuition, room, board and other expenses compared with a student who takes six years to graduate.

Scholarships aren’t the only way that philanthropic support makes a difference. To help all students meet the rigorous demands of university academics, VCU has strengthened its tutoring and advising programs.

New alert systems identify students who might have slipping grades or attendance, allowing professors and advisers to step in before it’s too late and help the student get back on track. Programs like these are part of the reason VCU’s six-year graduation rate has skyrocketed over the past decade. Its current expected six-year graduation rate of 62 percent is well above the national average of 49 percent, according to College Factual, an online data-based tool for prospective college students.

Thanks to the systems already in place, scholarships provided today will have an even bigger impact on students, who are more likely than ever to graduate and succeed, Schultheis says. “When you see what we’ve been able to do with the limited funds we have, it’s easy to imagine the way that additional gifts could allow us to have an even bigger impact,” he says.

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ity Opportun

No. 2

Opportunity No. 2: Attract outstanding faculty and pursue cuttingedge and interdisciplinary research.

The path forward: Endowed positions and research support will attract

and retain faculty conducting the best and most innovative work.

What’s next: The beating heart of any successful university is its

faculty who teach students, propel research and serve the campus and surrounding community.

With the help of private philanthropy, VCU has attracted a larger and more prestigious group of faculty than ever before. Additional private support will create even bigger opportunities. Exceptional faculty members help build nation-leading status in important research niches, cement the university’s strong reputation and educate the next generation of leaders.

Over time, hiring the nation’s best faculty is a financially winning proposition. Top faculty pay for themselves and then some when they land multimillion-dollar private or federal grants to pursue their work.

VCU’s addiction studies researchers are known as some of the world’s best, for example, serving as advisers to U.S. presidents and the World Health Organization. And their work has brought in millions in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations.

With the help of VCU’s Innovation Gateway, these and other researchers create new tools that are spun off into private companies and rev the community’s economic engine.

But before researchers can pursue their work, VCU must offer competitive salaries and benefits including lab space, staff and other support, explains Francis Macrina, Ph.D., VCU’s vice president for research and innovation.

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VCU Alumni

“To recruit an entry-level professor in medical disciplines, one-time costs can be up to $1 million,” he says. “That funding helps get them going before they get outside grants.”

To woo established researchers, VCU relies on even more robust startup funds and prestigious endowed professorships. These named professorships, funded through donor gifts, are a signifier that a researcher has reached the highest levels of the field.

“These kinds of positions are magnets that attract faculty members who have exceptional talent,” explains Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. Funding can also pay for “protected time” that allows researchers to focus on their most promising research.

Indeed, philanthropic support is typically what launches innovative and valuable research at a university. Donor gifts frequently serve as the seed funding that allow researchers to pursue high-risk, high-reward research that has the potential to cure a disease or transform a field.

Private donors, who are not beholden to voters or certain types of peerreview processes, can fund researchers who pursue unconventional hypotheses. “These are the investments that lead to groundbreaking, paradigm-changing research,” Strauss says.

And while six- and seven-figure gifts can land a top faculty member and fund a transformational research project, smaller gifts — both pooled and individually — can be the lever that pushes a researcher to the next level.

“Maybe a researcher has run out of funding on a grant, but an extra $10,000 would provide the bridge support that they need to get the right data to write and publish a paper that helps them land a $250,000 grant,” Macrina says. “When we pool smaller gifts, it’s amazing what we can do.”

ity Opportun

No. 3

Welcome to ASPiRE

Opportunity No. 3: Bolster partnerships to increase the impact of

VCU’s work and expertise in the community.

The path forward: Gifts supporting individual programs, combined

with VCU’s expertise and resources, will help local organizations expand and improve the good work they already do.

What’s next: VCU often does some of its best work beyond its doors.

Students and faculty bring energy, expertise and resources to local organizations in a way that helps them increase their impact, but that work can be significantly expanded with the help of donor gifts.

VCU’s many education-linked initiatives are an obvious place for the university to build and grow. For example, students can apply to be part of VCU ASPiRE, a two-year program focused on community engagement in which students live together in a residence hall and do coursework related to the community throughout the school year. Catherine W. Howard, Ph.D., VCU’s vice provost for community engagement, says funding could make the program even more cohesive and powerful. “We’d love to provide scholarships for students who might not be able to afford to live in the residence hall,” she says. “We could also build out a summer component where students could do community-based, paid internships that allow them to contribute in an even deeper way while learning valuable lessons that prepare them to be successful in the workforce.”

Philanthropy can also help VCU and outside organizations coordinate services to solve complex problems more effectively. For example, VCU partners with The Healing Place, a recovery program for men struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, and CrossOver Healthcare Ministry, which provides health care for uninsured individuals.

Sheryl Garland (M.H.A.’88/AHP), vice president of health policy and community relations for VCU Health System, says philanthropy can help make these partnerships work smoothly. “There are so many great organizations and services across the community, which means we don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” she says. “We can just find ways to partner with those organizations and focus on what we do best.”

A third area ready for explosive growth is business partnerships and venture creation. A recent university survey found that 51 percent of VCU students were interested in starting a company, but their options to pursue the work were limited. Now, according to VCU’s Enterprise and Economic Development Executive Nicole Colomb (M.B.A.’02/B), the university is rapidly expanding its entrepreneurial pathway. In 2002, VCU offered just two entrepreneurship programs that served 125 participants. Today, those numbers have jumped to 15 programs serving more than 1,500 students.

Donor support can dramatically increase those numbers, Colomb says.

“Whether we’re leveraging our alumni as mentors, using them as advisers as we develop additional programs or partnering to fund new programs, donor activity is resulting in a real, tangible impact,” she says. “Just to give one example, our latest entrepreneurial stipend program provided seven student teams with an entrepreneurial stipend of $5,000 each. The teams were required to participate in a three-month pre-acceleration program and to spend a minimum of 20 hours a week on their new ventures. Over the course of this summer program, these students used their stipends to generate over $185,000 in revenue and investments. That’s real impact, and it’s all thanks to our donors.”

– Erin Peterson is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

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A NEW

SPIN

VCU reinvents career fairs by developing novel ways to bring college job seekers and employers together

By Julie Young

Brittany Heit (B.S.’13/MC; M.S.’15/B) hopes to catch the eye of potential employers with a creative table display at the Brandcenter’s annual “reverse career fair.”

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VCU Alumni

Photo Hillary Kuhn (B.F.A.’13/A)

I

t was a loud, crowded, chaotic gathering of Virginia Commonwealth University students, but there wasn’t a basketball in sight. The event was a job fair, of all things — traditionally a black-and-white event where recruiters and employment seekers exchange papers and quick hellos in their best business attire.

But this was the uber-creative Brandcenter career fair, a two-day annual event that recent art direction graduate Katie Willis (M.S.’15/B) describes as “speed dating with ad agencies.”

More than 200 employers — including powerhouses such as IBM, Facebook, General Mills and Walt Disney Imagineering — traveled to Richmond in late April to network with the school’s highly sought-after graduate students and enjoy a post-recruitment cocktail hour.

Willis had pocketed 40 business cards at the end of the two days and had landed a job with Droga5 on Wall Street.

“I didn’t expect things to move so quickly at a recruiter session,” she says. “Maybe I would land a job a few days after the madness? Maybe it would happen after graduation? I really didn’t know.”

In an era of tweet-ups, virtual job fairs, student hackathons and other millennial networking events just short of holograms, a traditional career day would seem to be as dated as print ads. Why jostle with throngs of fellow students in an employer meat market when you can curl up with a laptop and scan job boards and aggregators in your pajamas?

The reason is that job fairs still yield results, according to career counselors at VCU. Getting out of the apartment and engaging employers face to face is a valuable exercise in the job-hunting process. In social media lingo, it’s meeting “IRL” – in real life.

The key to keeping old-school job fairs relevant is tweaking the model. VCU has reinvented the events in different ways, with a common goal of making them real-world experiences that create meaningful and productive connections between job-seeking students and A-list employers. The modern career-day experience involves immersive technology, with students using social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn,

Representatives from more than 70 companies attend the School of Engineering’s spring 2015 career fair to engage with students for internships and permanent placements.

engaging event-specific online portals to brand themselves, and attending pre-fair classes or webinars on resume writing and interview skills. Videoconferencing via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime and Google Hangout allows students to do follow-up interviews remotely, if necessary, before traveling to a company’s headquarters for on-site grilling.

Another element that almost guarantees the success of VCU schools’ career days is the return of alumni from recruiting companies.

“Our graduates have been out there for a number of years now, and they’re reaching back, recruiting students for internships, co-ops, jobs,” says Anita Taylor, director of VCU Engineering Career Services.

Selling their brand When Ashley Sommardahl (M.S.’98/MC) began working for the VCU Brandcenter 10 years ago, 33 employers signed up for the annual recruitment session. The 2015 event drew a record 250 representatives from more than 160 companies and agencies.

The Brandcenter’s spin is what Sommardahl refers to as a “reverse career fair,” with students marketing themselves at tables laden with props, artwork and laptops and employers doing the walk-around. It isn’t a cold call for recruiters.

Two weeks before the event, companies receive links to students’ portfolio websites “so they can prescreen, make notes and decide who they want to see when they get here,” she says.

Tom Wilson (B.S.’94/MC; M.S.’98/MC), creative director at J. Walter Thompson in Atlanta, was one of the VCU graduates who returned for the 2015 event. He was awed by the size of the fair, a far cry from his own experience in the Brandcenter’s inaugural Class of 1998.

“It was just 20 students going down to a room,” he says. “There were about 15 recruiters, and we were the ones going table to table.

Now the recruiters come to them. It’s good to see where we were 17 years ago, to what it is now, which is absolutely amazing.”

About 60 percent of the 2015 class graduated with a firm job offer, with many coming from the career fair, Sommardahl says. The portfolios are crucial, but the personal encounter seals the deal.

“Cultural fit and chemistry are a huge part of it,” she adds. “[Recruiters] get to chat with them, talk about what they want to do and get a glimpse of their personality.”

Even students who had job offers came to the event for the networking opportunity.

“This industry is really small, so your relationships in your network are really important,” says Nicole Weaver (M.S.’15/B), a creative brand management major who had a job with IBM Interactive Experience in New York but came to gather future contacts. “[The fair] is really, really great because it’s an opportunity to meet people who work at all the agencies that we see great creative work coming from.”

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Photo Nancy Parker, Cabay Photography

Above: Match Day brings good news for the School of Medicine’s Class of 2015 who gather for the annual event to learn where they will go for training in their chosen specialties.

Left: David Spradlin (M.S.’15/B) meets with a recruiter at the Brandcenter’s two-day career fair.

Writing a prescription for success “Pharmacy is a people profession. Students and employers are looking for face-to-face contact,” says Thomas Reinders, Pharm.D., associate dean for admissions and student services in the VCU School of Pharmacy. If you’ve ever had a prescription filled, you’ll understand the philosophy of career planning in the school. It’s difficult to shortcut the interview process with gimmicks when your future success is based on personal contact, Reinders says.

For 20 years, the school has set up an Employment and Residency Fair that brings together fourth-year Pharm.D. students and representatives of hospitals, pharmacy chains, big-box stores, independent pharmacies and other entities. Before the event, students can sign up with employers of their choice and schedule a time during the daylong fair to meet for a screening interview. In the afternoon, representatives from hospitals and health systems that offer residencies are also available to talk with students who are interested in going that route.

“If they like each other, they’ll probably arrange a more in-depth interview in the corporate environment later,” Reinders says.

Many of the corporate interviewers and residents are VCU alumni, Reinders says. That common bond and the in-person meeting are

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VCU Alumni

crucial, he adds, and would be lost or diminished by an online interview. Pharmacy students are on board with the campus career event.

“Virtual spaces are great for advertising or passing along information, but there is no substitute for handshakes, smiles and conversation,” says recent graduate Ryan Templeton, Pharm.D. (Pharm.D.’15/P), who opted for a residency with Realo Discount Drugs in New Bern, North Carolina. “I’m shopping for a worthwhile employer just as much as they are shopping for a worthwhile employee. I would never work for someone who sees me as a digital footprint.”

Engineering exposure for grads If you Google VCU engineering alumna Beata Strack, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’13/En), you’ll end up right back at Google. The software engineer’s route to the Internet search engine’s New York headquarters began with a job fair.

“Attending a career fair helped me land my first internship, which was incredibly important to my career development,” Strack says.

“Instead of being just a name in a pile of resumes, I had a chance to speak about how my experience and training are related to the particular project I was interested in.”

VCU’s School of Engineering has large-scale career fairs in September and February that

typically unite about 450 students with 80 or more employers. In addition, the school stages 30 recruiting days with individual employers throughout the year.

“Engineering firms are very specific with their recruiting goals and find the most success with attending the traditional career fairs and hosting their own exclusive recruiting events,” Taylor says.

Strack returned to VCU in April for a Google Recruitment Day that included a career workshop for students, faculty and staff and one-on-one meetings with select students to polish their resume-writing and interview skills.

“I strongly believe in events where students and industry representatives can meet, where students can understand the culture, profile and needs of the company that they are applying to,” Strack says. “Such events also give students an opportunity to present themselves in a moderately stress-free environment and show what sets them apart from other candidates.”

At the large fairs, the school sets up a LinkedIn photo booth so students can pose for a portfolio picture in their professional attire.

The alumni who return to recruit are gathered for a group photo. There are opportunities for students who attended professional development seminars prior to the fair to earn a VIP

Photo Hillary Kuhn (B.F.A.’13/A)

Right: The School of Engineering career fair offers opportunities for students to talk with recruiters for both internships and post-graduation jobs.

Below: School of Pharmacy fourth-year Pharm.D. students meet with various organizations to learn more about potential employment opportunities and postgraduate residency programs.

Katie Willis (M.S.’15/B) (left) shares her portfolio with one of the many national recruiters who attended the Brandcenter’s career fair.

ribbon, a status that admits them to the event a half-hour early.

VCU School of Engineering alumni welcome the opportunity to come full circle and return to campus for career-building events, Taylor says. “We started out with 50 students in 2000 and now approximately 350 students graduate each year. Our graduates are very proud of how far the school has come. There’s a sense of pride in watching us grow.”

Diagnosing the right medical career path As a student almost two decades ago in the VCU School of Medicine, Chris Woleben, M.D. (M.D.’97/M; H.S.’01/M), was overwhelmed by the demands of choosing a specialty and preparing to be matched into a residency program. “I felt I could have benefited from more guidance,” he says.

Woleben, now associate professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics and associate dean for student affairs at the VCU School of Medicine, wants today’s students to have more of a helping hand. He designed a program that helps med students choose a specialty path, navigate the residency-match process and develop career-planning skills.

“I took my own experiences and thought about what I would have wanted as a student,” he says.

“I tried to identify critical points where current

students might need information that would be helpful to them in the matching process.”

The Careers in Medicine program spans the full four years of med school. During first-year orientation, students take a Myers-Briggs test to determine how their personality traits might mesh with particular specialties. They’re introduced to the national matching program and are advised about the demands and competitiveness of various medical fields.

During the second year, students attend a careers-in-medicine day, which covers practical matters such as finances and writing the crucial curriculum vitae, the first contact prospective residents have with a program director. The CV is critiqued by a faculty member to be sure the document presents a positive, professional image of the student and is written with clarity, consistency and organization.

In the third and fourth years, the program gives students step-by-step details on, for example, meeting residency application deadlines, preparing for interviews and reviewing personal statements on their CV. Every few weeks, students complete a survey that can reveal how many are at risk for not matching.

The career-advising program, now in its sixth year, has been well-received on all fronts. In 2013, the Association of American Medical Colleges asked Woleben to share his process

with medical schools around the country. He is a frequent speaker at medical conferences and meetings.

“It’s not just designed to put you into a residency spot,” says Stephanie Marshall, M.D. (M.D.’15/M), an obstetrics and gynecology resident at VCU Medical Center. “It’s designed to help you figure out what parts of medicine you enjoy before you get to the hospital and get an idea of what life would be like in each of the different specialties.”

Marshall’s case was particularly complicated. Her residency choice was tied to fellow VCU medical student Glenn Lee, M.D. (M.D.’15/M), who became her husband on April 4, 2015. “If you want to do a couples match, your applications are linked,” she says.

The couple must decide how far apart they’re willing to live, and their preferences, or rank list, must be drawn up together. VCU was the first choice for Marshall and Lee, an orthopaedics resident.

Surveys reveal that VCU’s future doctors “are very glad to have these resources available to them,” Woleben says.

Marshall puts it a bit more bluntly: “I don’t know what we would do without it, honestly.”

– Julie Young is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

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JEANOLOGY Alumnus returns to share secrets of his success with students

BY SAMIEH SHALASH

A

sk Donwan Harrell (B.F.A.’92/A) what sparked his $20 million international denim business, PRPS, and he’ll start talking cars.

The two aren’t as disparate as they might seem.

A lot of his friends were diesel mechanics, and the oil that splattered all over their jeans served as inspiration. “That’s what I try to replicate when working with chemicals and washes for my denim business,” says Harrell, 44. “I’m a huge fan of the vintage look.”

His line is sold at high-end retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Barney’s for up to $1,200 a pair and has been worn by celebrities including Brad Pitt, Pink and David Beckham.

Harrell traces his success to Virginia Commonwealth University, where fashion design professor Henry Swartz (M.F.A.’78/A) urged him not to give up, even though he considered himself “the worst sewer in the class.”

Harrell says he learned that succinctly communicating your ideas to factories is what really matters.

Harrell returned to his alma mater this past summer to pay it forward by teaching the new denim course Jeanology, a four-week certificate program housed in the Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising in the School of the Arts. In general, most fashion design students, he says, don’t actually know how to finish a garment by the time they graduate.

His intense four-week curriculum was designed to change that.

“The fact is, I’m in the industry because of Mr. Swartz,” Harrell says.

“Because the program led to my success, I wanted to do what I could for the department to make its graduates that much more valuable to the industry.”

For the first two weeks of his inaugural course, 10 students gathered for lecture-style classes about the history of denim, lessons about the machines required to make an authentic, five-pocket jean and statistics about denim’s market share today.

Then students relocated to New York City for a week to study at Harrell’s headquarters, followed by a week in Portugal to produce their own pair of jeans in one of Harrell’s factories.

Bri O’Shea, a senior, says the on-campus lessons included poring over a giant book of threads, examining buttons to learn about finishing methods and looking at Pantone chips to figure out paints used in the denim process.

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VCU Alumni

“He was incredible,” she says about Harrell’s teaching style. “He’s so passionate about denim, and he’s really good at showing that when he’s teaching us. It was a lot of work, but I learned so much from him.”

In New York, Harrell split the class into teams and sent them to canvass denim merchandise at stores including Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. The assignment: Examine every denim brand and note wash styles, characteristics and sales displays, then create and present a trend forecast.

So, what trends did the class determine are on the horizon? O’Shea’s group forecast a shift to more lightweight, comfort denim. The other group predicted that the wide-leg look will make a comeback soon and, it turns out, Harrell does, too. He told the class that’s a trend he recently saw in Japan, where he travels to work with factories that produce his highest-end line, Noir.

The Japanese factories are too small for a class trip, so Harrell chose Portugal, where another PRPS line is produced, for the last part of the course. Once there, each student received a raw pair of men’s size 32 jeans to style on their own. By then, O’Shea says, they were all familiar with the machines, chemicals, methods and processes used to create denim.

“I did an enzyme stone wash on mine to lighten up the jean a little, painted it with a muddy color, did a lot of hand sanding on the leg, then ripped it on the knee,” she says. “Donwan wanted us to go through the whole process of creating the jean, so we also packed it, tagged it and shipped it (to Richmond).”

Before the course, O’Shea was interested in designing women’s wear.

Denim was on her radar, but she hadn’t realized that denim is a staggering $14 billion industry in the U.S. alone. That fact along with everything she learned from Harrell added up to a shift in career plans for her.

Now, she wants to take everything she learned in Jeanology and move toward a future in the denim industry. That’s an outcome Harrell can’t help but smile about.

“That’s why I wanted to create a denim school,” he says. “When you actually understand how to finish a pair of jeans, how to do the chemical process and use machines to complete a garment, it gives you a huge advantage over other graduates.”

– Samieh Shalash is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

Photo Allen Jones (B.F.A.’82/A; M.F.A.’92/A), VCU University Marketing

Donwan Harrell, founder and designer at denim label PRPS, introduces VCU students to the $14 billion denim industry through his course, aptly titled Jeanology.

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FOODfor THOUGHT RamPantry provides nutritious meals for students in need B Y J A N E T S H OWA LT E R

K

yle Aspegren was never a big fan of ramen noodles, but there she was, stocking up on the sodium-infused bricks because of their affordability.

It was better than going hungry, which she had done on occasion since entering Virginia Commonwealth University as a transfer student two years ago.

“Tuition is expensive, and I lost my financial aid for a while, so things were pretty tight,” she says. “It was hard to concentrate on my studies.

When you are hungry, that’s all you think about.”

Now a senior, Aspegren no longer stresses about her next meal, and she eats less ramen. Thanks to the RamPantry, she can once again concentrate on her classes.

Started in January 2014, the pantry serves about 100 students each week.

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VCU Alumni

Photos Scott K. Brown Photography

“This makes so much sense, especially today because of the economy and rising tuition rates,” says Terrence Walker, administrative assistant for University Counseling Services who helped organize the pantry as a student organization and continues to serve as a faculty adviser. “For a long time, I think people have assumed there isn’t a need for something like this, but when you really think about it, of course there is a need.”

That need became obvious a few years ago, Walker says, when more and more students who were seeking counseling services admitted they sometimes went without food because they could not afford it. A universitywide survey followed, revealing that 57 percent of students who took the survey sometimes went hungry.

“We can’t have that many hungry students,” says Beth Ward (B.S.’77/B), VCU’s volunteer services coordinator and RamPantry adviser. “Many people, like myself, are surprised there is such a need.

Walker worked with others throughout the university to secure space in the University Student Commons on the Monroe Park Campus and equipment to establish RamPantry. About 200 student volunteers, faculty, staff and faith-based ministries work at the pantry and assist with food drives.

“I’ve always had a passion for community service,” Walker says. “I just really enjoy serving and helping others solve problems. It’s incredible to be part of something like this.”

Within months of its creation, RamPantry secured a partner in Food Lion, which to date has contributed about $20,000 worth of food, including a 2,500-pound donation in August to help stock the pantry as students returned to campus. Other local businesses are helping, including Shalom Farms, which is providing organic fruits and vegetables, Panera Bread, SoapBox Soaps, the VCU School of Dentistry and the local food bank. Relay Foods has also become a corporate supporter, providing up to 1,000 pounds of food each week.

“When we started this, I had no idea the support would be this great,” Walker says. “People have just been awesome. They see this need and have responded. It’s very heartwarming.”

Students can access the pantry 11 a.m.-5 p.m. every Wednesday and Thursday and can choose five items per week. The pantry not only supplies healthy foods but also toiletries and other basic supplies.

Most students who use the pantry are located on the Monroe Park Campus, with just 11 percent of pantry users coming from the MCV Campus last year. To make it more convenient for students who live and study on the MCV Campus, this fall the pantry started offering an online ordering and delivery service from its website, rampantry.com.

Sophomore Deja Spratley, a social work major, volunteers at the RamPantry, stocking the shelves with donated boxes of tea.

“I had no idea some of my classmates were faced with such challenges,” says Crystal Rawls, a mass communications major who interns with the pantry. “It is satisfying to help. It’s something we can all do together to wipe out hunger.”

A GROWING TREND

Food pantries began popping up on campuses across the country after the recession hit in 2007. Today, more than 200 colleges, mostly public institutions, operate pantries. More are on the way, even as the economy improves. One of the main reasons is that, on average, tuition rates and fees have skyrocketed 1,120 percent nationwide since records began in 1978, according to Bloomberg, far outpacing inflation.

In addition, more students from lower-income families are now attending college.

“The public’s perceptions that students who are off to school have someone at home writing them checks whenever they need them are simply out of synch with reality,” Ward says.

Aspegren, for example, is working as many hours as she can to help pay the bills.

“I know my family would help if they could,” she says. “But everything is just so expensive. I work retail, but I don’t make enough to pay for tuition, books and three square meals a day. For me, RamPantry makes a huge difference.”

Some students, however, are too embarrassed to ask for help.

“I was at first,” admitted Aspegren, a psychology and marketing double major. “I felt ashamed. You always feel that people will judge you. But they didn’t judge me at all.”

The pantry is open to all students who need it. The only requirements are showing a student ID and filling out a confidential survey.

“Our biggest challenge is making sure students know we exist, so we are working on our marketing,” Walker says. “We also wrestle with the stigma attached to asking for help. I think the stigma is still there but not nearly like it was when we opened. We live in a world of social media and selfies. People are more comfortable with themselves and sharing their needs.”

Walker can relate to today’s students and their financial woes. When he was a student at the University of Maryland, he pawned his stereo to pay for books. He would make copies of the pages he needed, sell his books and go back to the pawn shop to get his stereo back.

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For Aspegren, healthy food means better grades. “I am so thankful for the food pantry,” she says. “I can now concentrate on what I’m here for: school. I’ve told a friend about it and now he is going, too. It’s made a huge difference in my life.”

MEETING A NEED

Myles Boyd, a senior chemical engineering major, and Shaniqua Thorpe, a sophomore studying early and elementary education, pair up to replenish the pantry.

“I would do that over and over again,” he says. “You do whatever you need to in pursuit of a better life while working with limited resources.

You do what you need to survive.”

For many students, that has meant going without a meal or eating junk food because it is relatively inexpensive. Part of the RamPantry’s mission is not only providing students with fresh food but also educating them about proper nutrition. The pantry organizes regular cooking demonstrations, and volunteers are working to create a cookbook.

“We feel like we are helping to keep students in school and healthy,” Ward says. “The entire VCU community has come together to make this a reality. And so much of the Richmond community has reached out to us to help. It brings a smile to my face.”

Ward recalls a student using the pantry for the first time and how appreciative he was to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

“He was so happy that we had oranges and bananas,” she says. “He said to me, ‘I don’t know when I had a banana last.’”

RamPantry is a member of the College and University Food Bank Alliance, which was established in 2012 to support both existing and emerging campus food banks. It has grown from 13 to 183 members nationwide.

“Unfortunately, food banks on college campuses is a growing movement,” Walker says. “It’s amazing the number of schools coming on board.”

Volunteers with the RamPantry hope it can become an accredited nonprofit organization. This would open the door for grants and more corporate sponsorships.

“The support must be ongoing,” Ward says. “That’s the big goal — to continue to grow so we can help more people.”

Education is key.

“Our hope is to link up with other schools to spread the word that this is a need in our communities,” Walker says. “We need to bring this to the attention of policymakers so we can address the need nationally.”

Closer to home, RamPantry is already making a name for itself.

VCU recognized Walker in October with the President’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and earlier in the year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe honored Walker with the Governor’s Public Service Award for Workplace Health, Wellness and Safety for his role in creating RamPantry.

“I thought it was a prank phone call when the governor’s office called and told me about it,” Walker says. “But it was real! I was so honored.

But it’s not about awards. It’s about meeting a need in our community.

It’s about helping others.”

– Janet Showalter is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

Want to help?

When RamPantry was established in January 2014, organizers were dependent on donations to serve students in need. Almost two years later, that has not changed.

“We can’t do this on our own,” says Terrence Walker, administrative assistant for University Counseling Services and RamPantry adviser. “We need the community’s support to be sustainable and to grow.”

The Richmond area has been more than generous, with large corporate sponsors such as Food Lion stepping forward. But to help lower-income students and students with food insecurities remain in school, more help is needed.

“We are seeking more corporate sponsors and more donations,” Walker says. “It’s crucial for us.”

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RamPantry is located in the University Student Commons. Donations are accepted anytime the Commons is open, with donation bins located by the entrance to the pantry. Staples such as cereal, rice, pasta, peanut butter and bread are always needed. But toiletries, including deodorant, laundry detergent and feminine products, are also high on the needs list. These types of donations are more important than checks, Walker says.

“It’s amazing how far we’ve come,” he adds. “It’s heartwarming, really.

But this need isn’t going anywhere. We are so appreciative for the support this community continues to show.”

For more details on how to help, contact Terrence Walker at (804) 828-3964 or twalker2@vcu.edu.

A cleaner future.

When Joe Morina (B.S.’13/H&S) walked through Virginia Commonwealth University’s doors in 2009, he thought psychology was the key to his future. But a summer fellowship in wetlands research opened another door, and he never looked back. Now, not only is Morina on the right path personally, he’s working to correct the course of the environment, too – with research that will help improve air and water quality for the next generation.

That’s what a gift to the Fund for VCU does – opens doors for students to focus on their goals, achieve their potential and be the version of themselves that they truly were supposed to be.

Visit support.vcu.edu/throughthesedoors to learn how you can open doors for the students and faculty of VCU today.

support.vcu.edu/throughthesedoors Fall 2015

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Child’s Play Unique partnership brings museum accessibility to all

By Janet Showalter

T

he class assignment did little to pique Gordon Dever’s interest.

It seemed routine at best.

How quickly perceptions can change.

“At first, it was just one more task to complete,” he says. “But when I saw it come to fruition, it was very rewarding.”

Dever and his classmates in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Allied Health Professions were charged with making adaptive books for children with disabilities visiting the Children’s Museum of Richmond. He saw firsthand the importance of his work when he visited the museum in March.

“There was a 5-year-old in a wheelchair holding this book on his lap,” says Dever, who plans to graduate in December with a master’s degree in occupational therapy. “He was so excited that he could flip through the pages on his own. He had this big smile on his face because usually his parents have to turn the pages for him. It made us all feel so good.”

Dever’s efforts are just one small piece of an interdisciplinary project striving to make CMoR an inclusive environment for all children. Led

by Carole Ivey, Ph.D. (B.S.’93/AHP; Ph.D.’11/E), assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy in the School of Allied Health Professions, the venture is bringing joy to children who otherwise would be unable to paint or draw, cut and paste, or read their favorite book.

“Children learn best when they are out having fun and participating,” Ivey says. “I think sometimes children with disabilities aren’t out there participating. The tendency is to keep them safe at home. That’s a problem we definitely need to solve.”

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And so a partnership was born. Evelyn Reed, Ph.D., who retired earlier this year from the School of Education’s Department of Special Education and Disability Policy, served on CMoR’s educational advisory board and opened the door for the project. Ivey then secured a 2012-13 VCU Community Engagement Grant. The first year of the partnership, in 2013, 57 students from the schools of Education and Allied Health Professions participated.

They met with parents to learn about the specific needs and worked with museum staff to assess and adapt the physical and learning environment of the museum to meet those needs. They helped train museum employees so they could better interact and engage with children with disabilities.

The grant was extended for a second year during which six occupational therapy students fabricated adaptive materials and another 42 created educational materials.

“Prior to this partnership, our work with the special-needs community was not well organized,” says Liz Pearce, director of parent engagement at CMoR. “We’ve had an influx of ideas from VCU that has now made this an integral part of the museum.”

Although the community engagement grant expired in 2014, the partnership has continued as class projects funded by the Department of Occupational Therapy. Students from multiple classes in the OT curriculum have designed and fabricated art supplies, books and communication tools. Children who have difficulty verbalizing, for example, can now push buttons or point to pictures, while wheelchair-accessible outdoor playhouses and equipment await children who cannot walk independently.

Eli uses markers that VCU students modified for children with special needs but that appeal to all. Students turned other household items, such as the duck scrubber (left) that offers a large grip, into art supplies.

In CMoR’s art room, Ivey’s students made paintbrushes with Velcro straps, markers with mitts, art supplies with sound, adjustable easels and books with page turners. For their adaptive book project, Dever and his classmates took the binding off books, laminated the pages to make them more durable and re-bound the books. They attached Popsicle sticks to the pages to make them easier to turn.

“We showed parents how to modify their books at home,” Dever says.

“It was so satisfying to help. A lot of us take so much for granted. You don’t think about the difficulty others face.”

Ashley Beckner’s daughter, Madison, faces challenges every day because of a chromosome disorder and autism.

“She has a hard time socializing with other people,” Beckner says.

“She usually just stays by my side. But at the Children’s Museum,

they’ve made it possible for her to interact with other children and participate in activities.”

CMoR holds Special Needs Nights once a month, with VCU students on hand to support the families and lead activities for the children. Ivey also teaches a class on-site for her OT students and has set up a research lab, where she and her team are studying the outcomes of the adaptive projects and conducting research on praxis, or the ability to plan and carry out unfamiliar motor actions.

“I saw this great opportunity to engage our students in a real learning environment,” Ivey says. “By being here, students see the difference they are making.”

– Janet Showalter is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

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Paying it forward RICE RIVERS CENTER A gift of land from Inger Rice in 2000 becomes the VCU Rice Rivers Center.

The center fosters collaborative research and community partnerships.

VCU Rice Rivers Center receives a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant.

The grant allows Stephen McIninch, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Center for Environmental Studies, VCU Life Sciences, to identify the best locations to restore oyster reefs, resulting in economic and recreational benefits.

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS $9 million in private donations establishes 60 endowed professorships.

The professorship provides support for Daniel Riddle, PT, Ph.D. (M.S.’86/AHP; Ph.D.’97/E), as he researches the appropriateness of knee replacement surgery, suggesting one-third were inappropriate and arguing for new guidelines.

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VCU Alumni

A $250,000 gift creates the Otto D. Payton Professorship in Physical Therapy.

V

irginia Commonwealth University’s last capital campaign ended in 2007, but the benefits of the eight-year effort, which raised $410,341,216 for the university as a whole, are still being felt. Gifts, pledges and planned commitments from more than 67,000 alumni, friend, corporate and foundation donors gave financially challenged students the ability to get through college, helped realize breakthroughs that allow us to live longer and better, and built signature facilities that enable education, research and outreach to flourish. Here’s a look at just a few of those ripple effects of the Campaign for VCU.

MASSEY CANCER CENTER $41 million in private philanthropy supports the construction of VCU Massey Cancer Center’s Goodwin Research Laboratory.

Andrew Poklepovic, M.D. (H.S.’07/M; H.S.’11/M), joins the team and leads the translation of a Massey discovery into a Phase 1 clinical trial of a new drug combination, which shows promising results in treating triple negative breast cancer.

The laboratory fosters greater collaboration among researchers and provides better infrastructure for investigator-initiated early phase trials.

SCHOLARSHIPS $20 million in scholarship donations creates more than 250 endowed scholarships.

More scholarships enable VCU to attract a talented and diverse student body.

The average GPA of incoming freshmen increases from 2.99 in fall 1997 to an estimated 3.60 in fall 2015.

Seven National Merit semifinalists enroll at VCU in fall 2015.

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Legacy

A 1 1 8-Y E A R

A love of medicine runs through four generations

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lthough his father, Ed Ray, M.D. (H.S.’44/M), never pressured him to go into medicine, all the signs pointed Gaylord Ray, M.D. (B.S.’73/P; M.D.’76; H.S.’79/M), toward his future career.

In addition to his father, the founding chair of the Medical College of Virginia Division of Pulmonary Disease, his uncle and grandfather were town physicians in Ashland, Virginia. When Gaylord Ray attended nearby Randolph-Macon College as an undergraduate, his fraternity bought the house that his uncle and grandfather had used as their homes and offices.

“My first year there, I stayed in his operatory room, where the floors were slanted toward the center,” Gaylord Ray recalls.

On one scouting expedition in the house, he uncovered the 1897 medical school diploma of his grandfather, A. Chambers Ray, who graduated from the University College of Medicine, a predecessor to MCV. “Sometimes you have things happen along the way and you wonder if it’s a sign,” he says.

He eventually followed in his forefathers’ footsteps but not by a direct path. After earning his bachelor’s, he spent two years in the Army and then enrolled in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, followed by the VCU School of Medicine.

His son, Chris Ray, M.D. (Cert.’10/M; M.S.’11/M; M.D.’15/M), took a similarly circuitous route, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology and then working in the financial

planning industry before arriving at the VCU School of Medicine to earn his master’s and his medical degree.

Gaylord Ray, who worked as an emergency medicine physician for nearly three decades before retiring, says the path to medicine wasn’t a straight shot for either of them, but they couldn’t ignore the pull of a profession — and a school — that has called to their family for more than 100 years.

One of MCV’s first bronchoscopists, Ed Ray was known across Virginia for his use of the Jackson rigid bronchoscope to examine patients’ airways for foreign objects, bleeding or inflammation. Based on the tools and the techniques he pioneered at MCV, Ed Ray was by all accounts what today is referred to as an interventional pulmonologist.

“My grandfather has a name at MCV that stands out as one who did a lot of wonderful things for the community and school,” Chris Ray says, adding that the School of Medicine was “absolutely” his first choice. “There is a pride in that legacy and to be following in his footsteps, but at the same time paving my own path.”

That path for him is med-peds, or the combined specialty of internal medicine and pediatrics. And, in another family, tradition, Chris Ray is completing his residency at VCU Medical Center. “MCV has given so much to my family and it means so much to grow up and continue that same tradition,” he says.

Like his father, Gaylord Ray never pressured his son to pursue medicine. Yet, he admits, “every father would like to see his son go into whatever profession they are in.”

BY KRISTEN CALDWELL

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VCU Alumni

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Photos 3, 4 Lindy Rodman, VCU University Marketing

Photo Allen Jones (B.F.A.’82/A; M.F.A.’92/A), VCU University Marketing

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1 Chris and Gaylord Ray hold the 1897 diploma awarded to Gaylord’s grandfather, A. Chambers Ray, by the University College of Medicine. 2 Ed Ray completes his residency at MCV; he would later serves as the founding chair of the Division of Pulmonary Disease. 3 Kaitlin Ray, Chris Ray, Gaylord Ray and Cindy Ray enjoy the School of Medicine’s Legacy Graduation Lunch in May. 4 Gaylord congratulates his son, Chris, at the School of Medicine’s graduation ceremony.

Gaylord Ray says he’s proud of his son’s accomplishments, including his serving as class president for each of his four years of medical school, and of how hard he’s worked. It reminds him, he says, of the dedication he witnessed in his own father.

“I don’t think I ever remember him on a consistent basis not going into the hospital seven days a week,” he says. “He had five kids and he’d pay us a quarter to answer the phones in the office while he made rounds or went to see patients. And on Sunday, he’d take us to church and then drop us off at home and go to the hospital. I realize it was a real commitment that he made.”

Following a trip back to the MCV Campus in 2012, where he met with Alpha A. “Berry” Fowler, M.D. (H.S.’76/M; H.S.’79/M), chair of the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, and toured the division’s facilities, Gaylord Ray honored his father’s contributions and commitment by establishing an endowed fund to benefit the division’s Interventional Pulmonology Service, one of only 12 interventional pulmonology fellowship programs in the U.S. “The department is in good hands, and my father would be quite proud to see the training but, in particular, the quality of the division,” Gaylord Ray says. “I have the utmost respect for my dad because, as a student, I saw how much respect he was given at the school. I feel very fortunate that I was able to walk the same path he did.”

– Kristen Caldwell (B.S.’94/MC) is associate director of development and alumni marketing and communications.

Chris Ray, president of the School of Medicine Class of 2015, delivers his farewell remarks at graduation.

Photo Lindy Rodman, VCU University Marketing

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ALUMNICONNECTIONS

News, highlights and event photos from VCU Alumni. Stay connected at vcualumni.org.

VCU Alumni Month VCU celebrated Alumni Month in April with more than 30 events organized for alumni and friends. In addition to lectures, performances and programs held on campus, participants were treated to various outings to enjoy their time back in RVA. Alumni and friends traveled by motor coach April 4 to visit Barboursville, Keswick and Horton vineyards during the third annual Alumni Winery Tour.

The fifth annual Monroe Scholars Book and Author Luncheon, held April 15, featured Nancy Wright Beasley (M.S.’00/MC), author of “Izzy’s Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust.” The book documents the courage of an impoverished Catholic farm family who risked their lives to save 13 Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust, and as a result, were named “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem of the World Center for Holocaust Research in Jerusalem.

The luncheon raised funds to support the VCU Alumni Monroe Scholars Book Award program, which provides $1,000 scholarships to high school students who meet the criteria of leadership and scholarship and who enroll at VCU. Ram fans came out April 24 for Alumni Night at The Diamond, where they enjoyed a pregame reception with Nutzy before the Flying Squirrels took on the New Britain Rock Cats.

Although just outside of Alumni Month, the celebration continued for May 2’s Alumni and Community Bike Ride, which took riders on a 29-mile route that started at the University Student Commons and traveled through Varina on Osborne Turnpike (Route 5) before returning to campus.

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VCU Alumni

Kenny Gamble (left), Kevin Ferguson Jr. and Stewart Street Jr. (B.S.’81/B) prepare to cycle the 29-mile route planned for the Alumni and Community Bike Ride.

Alumni line up to have Nancy Wright Beasley sign cop of “Izzy’s Fire” at the Monroe Scholars Book and Author Luncheon.

Michael Huband, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’93/D), and Ida Yoeun enjoy a tour of the barrel room at Barboursville Vineyards on the Alumni Winery Tour.

Mel Sandlin (B.S.’61/B) pals around with Nutzy the Flying Squirrel during the pregame reception at Alumni Night at The Diamond.

ALUMNICONNECTIONS

Reunion

2015 April 17-19

Reunion-goers enjoy the MCV Campus Block Party, where they joined their former classmates for lunch and music in front of the MCV Alumni House.

Photo 1 Skip Rowland Photography; Photos 2, 4 Doug Buerlin Photography; Photo 3 Rob Burnham, Burnham Photography

Reunion Weekend – MCV Campus Reunion More than 1,200 alumni and guests returned to campus April 17-19 to connect, celebrate and reflect. Along with general events such as the MCV Campus Block Party and the Southern Seasons Cooking Demo, individual schools filled out the weekend with a variety of activities for their respective alumni.

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1 School of Medicine alumni gather for a party in honor of the Class of 1975.

2 Members of the School of Dentistry’s Class of 1995 return to campus to reconnect.

3 School of Pharmacy alumni from the classes of 1975, 1980 and 1985 enjoy a multi-class party.

4 Katherine Bobbitt, Ed.D (B.S.’56/N), and Corinne Dorsey (Dipl.’54/N; B.S.’65/N) enjoy the School of Nursing’s Reunion events.

See more Reunion photos online!

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mcvaareunion2015.shutterfly.com/pictures 2015aaacreunion.shutterfly.com 2015rpireunion.shutterfly.com

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ALUMNICONNECTIONS Save the date!

Reunion 2016

Photos Jay Paul

April 15-17

Richmond Professional Institute alumni return to campus for a special dinner recognizing the 50-year Class of 1965 and honoring longtime alumni volunteers Gene and Honey Hunt, who died this past year. Alumni and family and friends of the Hunts also gathered outside the Scott House for a special tree planting ceremony in memory of the couple.

Alumni dance the night away at the Hippodrome Theater, host to the AAAC’s annual Reunion Weekend Dance.

Reunion Weekend – RPI Reunion Richmond Professional Institute alumni returned to campus for the annual RPI Reunion, which included Theatre VCU’s production of “Frankenstein: Dawn of a Monster”; a special tree planting in memory of Eugene “Gene” Hunt, Ph.D. (B.S.’59/B; M.S.’61/B), a proud Ram and past chair of the RPI Alumni Council, and his wife, Honey, both of whom passed away in 2014; and a dinner at the Scott House where alumni from the Class of 1965 were honored with their 50-year pins.

Reunion Weekend – AAAC Reunion The annual reunion for VCU’s African-American Alumni Council attracted alumni and guests to various activities held throughout the weekend, including a Friday morning golf outing and a Saturday afternoon park visit complete with flag football followed by a night of dancing. The weekend also included the second annual Distinguished Scholar Reception and Lecture Series featuring world-renowned geneticist Rick Kittles, Ph.D.

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ALUMNICONNECTIONS

Reunion Weekend – MCVAA Awards Each year during Reunion Weekend, the MCV Alumni Association presents awards to alumni who have made outstanding contributions of their time and talents to the university or to their community. Congratulations to this year’s recipients.

1 James Jenkins (B.S.’07/N) (left), vice president, Nursing, MCV Alumni Association; Outstanding Nurse Practice Award winner D. Fay Parpart (B.S.’87/N; M.S.’90/N; Cert.’95/N); Outstanding Nurse Service Award winner Susan Lindner (B.S.’04/N); and School of Nursing Dean Jean Giddens, Ph.D., RN, FAAN. Not pictured: Shelly Buck (B.S.’96/N), winner of the Outstanding Nurse Alumna Award.

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2 Lindsey Forte (B.S.’14/D) (left) accepting for her father, Steven G. Forte, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’95/D), the Dr. James H. Revere, Jr. Outstanding Service Award; Outstanding D.D.S. Graduate of the Last Decade Award winner Cerina W. Fairfax, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’05/D); and Dr. Harry Lyons Outstanding Alumnus Award winner Kit Tucker Sullivan, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’83/D)

3 Pharmacy Alumnus Service Award winner Patricia W. Slattum, Ph.D. (B.S.’85/P; Ph.D.’93/P; Cert.’92/AHP), and School of Pharmacy Dean Joseph T. DiPiro, Pharm.D.

4 Outstanding Medical Alumnus Award winner David A. Lanning, M.D., Ph.D. (M.D.’95/M; Ph.D.’00/M; H.S.’02/M) (left), and Caravati Service Award winner Pinkney “Pete” Sowers III, M.D. (M.D.’70/M; H.S.’73/M)

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5 School of Allied Health Professions Dean Cecil Drain, Ph.D., and Martha Clendenin, Ph.D. (B.S.’65/AHP; M.S.’70/AHP; Ph.D.’72/M), recipient of the Department of Physical Therapy Lifetime Achievement Award

6 Dr. Franci Stavropoulos Outstanding Dental Hygiene Alumnus Award recipient Deborah A. Southall (B.S.’95/D) (left); associate professor Joan M. Pellegrini, R.D.H., Ph.D. (Ph.D.’08/E); and Dental Hygiene Program Outstanding Young Alumnus Award recipient Shelly G. Caudill, B.S. (B.S.’05/D)

7 Tana Kaefer, Pharm.D. (Pharm.D.’04/P) (left), vice president, Pharmacy, MCV Alumni Association; Distinguished Pharmacy Alumnus Award winner Gary C. Cupit (B.S.’70/P); and School of Pharmacy Dean Joseph T. DiPiro, Pharm.D.

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Photo 1 Lindy Rodman, VCU University Marketing; Photo 2 Doug Buerlin Photography; Photos 3, 7 Rob Burnham, Burnham Photography; Photo 4 Skip Rowland Photography; Photo 5 Tom Kojcsich, VCU University Marketing; Photo 6 Ruth Compton

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Photo Tom Kojcsich, VCU University Marketing

ALUMNICONNECTIONS

Golden anniversaries Reunion Weekend 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the Class of 1965. The schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy and the Department of Physical Therapy in the School of Allied Health Professions held special celebrations for their golden alumni to stroll down memory lane, share stories and reconnect with classmates.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for alumni to come back to campus and celebrate this milestone anniversary celebration.

School of Allied Health Professions’ Department of Physical Therapy

Photo Doug Buerlin Photography

Photo Skip Rowland Photography

School of Medicine

School of Nursing

School of Pharmacy

Photo Rob Burnham, Burnham Photography

Photo Doug Buerlin Photography

School of Dentistry

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ALUMNICONNECTIONS

Photo Terry Brown Photography

DID YOU KNOW ...

VCU Alumni offers Legacy scholarships Incoming students who are legal children, grandchildren or dependents of current members of VCU Alumni are eligible to apply for legacy scholarships, which honor a family tradition while helping students achieve their educational goals. To apply or to make a gift to these scholarships, visit vcualumni.org/students/scholarships.

VCU Libraries houses Bulletin archives Alumni and former students who need to check course numbers and titles as they move forward in their academic and professional careers can now access all archives of the Bulletins via VCU Libraries’ Scholars Compass at scholarscompass.vcu.edu.

VCU Alumni’s 10 Under 10 winners Micah Risk (left), Derick Rivers, Timmy Nguyen, M. Lori Thomas, Elizabeth Parker and Mark Strandquist celebrate at the reception.

VCU Alumni celebrates its GOLD stars

Students Today Alumni Tomorrow, VCU Alumni’s student association, won two top awards at the August 2015 CASE Conference for Student Advancement. STAT’s Ram Spirit Walk was named the best college tradition in the country, and its end-of-the-year recognition banquet, the Rammys, won Outstanding Internal Program.

Photo Doug Buerlin Photography

VCU Alumni honored 10 graduates of the last decade in May at the inaugural 10 Under 10 awards celebration. The awards celebrate alumni who earned their first VCU degree within the past 10 years and who have enjoyed remarkable professional success, made important contributions to their community and/or loyally supported the university.

“These 10 GOLD alumni are exemplary from both an inspirational and an aspirational perspective,” says Gordon McDougall, associate vice president for alumni relations. “VCU President Michael Rao often calls upon the VCU community to commit ourselves to making our world a better place by doing for others, and these alumni have heeded that call.”

The following alumni are the inaugural 10 Under 10 recipients: • Adeeb Barqawi (B.S.’10/H&S; B.S.’10/LS), a Teach for America corps member and founder of the nonprofit ProUnitas • Grant P. Garmezy (B.F.A.’09/A), owner of Grant Garmezy Glass • Elizabeth Hoettels, CCRN, CEN (B.S.’05/N), critical care nurse and major in the U.S. Air Force • Michael Karnjanaprakorn (M.S.’06/MC), co-founder of the online learning platform Skillshare • Timmy Nguyen (B.S.’11/B), a VCU ambassador and volunteer leader with VCU Alumni and its RVA GOLD chapter • Elizabeth Woodall Parker (M.Ed.’08/E), an elementary school counselor and child advocate • Micah Risk (B.S.’07/E), founder of the online plant-based meal planning and grocery delivery service Lighter • Derick L. Rivers, Ph.D. (M.S.’09/H&S; Ph.D.’14/H&S), a mathematical statistician for the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco division • Mark Strandquist (B.F.A.’13/A), an artist, activist and educator • M. Lori Thomas, Ph.D. (M.S.W.’06/SW; Ph.D.’08/SW), a professor who implemented Virginia’s first “housing first” program Read more about these alumni, or nominate a GOLD graduate for the 2016 10 Under 10 awards, at vcualumni.org/Events/10-Under-10.

STAT brings home two national awards

Linda M. Warren (left), Gordon McDougall, Mary Ann Steiner, Timmy Nguyen and Jon B. Hill hold paintings by Baxter Perkinson, D.D.S. (back).

Reception recognizes volunteer leaders VCU Alumni’s inaugural president, Baxter Perkinson, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’70/D), welcomed current and emeriti directors of the alumni boards to his home in May for a reception. During the event, he presented original watercolors he painted to key alumni leaders Linda M. Warren (B.S.’75/B), Audit Committee chair; Gordon McDougall, secretary for VCU Alumni and associate vice president, University Alumni Relations; Mary Ann Steiner (B.S.’98/B), Outreach and Engagement Committee chair; Timmy Nguyen (B.S.’11/B), Student and Young Alumni Engagement chair; and Jon B. Hill (B.S.’85/B; M.B.A.’99/B; M.S.’12/B), treasurer, for their service.

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Membership has its benefits. +

+

+

As a member of VCU Alumni, you gain access to members-only benefits, including: Publications • You’ll stay up-to-date on campus and alumni happenings through your free subscription to the alumni magazine. Plus, regular e-newsletters deliver university and VCU Alumni news and important event information directly to your inbox.

Online resources • Members can reconnect with old friends, find former classmates and network with more than 170,000 alumni through our online alumni directory. You also receive exclusive access to online academic and business publications through Online Journals.

Events • VCU Alumni sponsors several signature, not-to-miss events, including Reunion Weekend, Alumni Month and Homecoming, where you can renew friendships with former classmates and create new connections.

Discounts • Members receive discounts on alumni gifts and apparel, insurance, on-campus gym membership, VCU Athletics events, hotels, rental cars and more.

Are you taking advantage of your membership benefits?

Find information about these great benefits and more at vcualumni.org/Benefits.

Not yet a member?

Join now and receive immediate access to all member benefits (you don’t need to be an alumnus to join). Members drive the growth and development of VCU Alumni and support programs and services for alumni, students and the university. Learn more at vcualumni.org.

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VCU Alumni

ALUMNISUPPORT Jack Cullather (left) and Melvin Johnson

Gift supports student-athlete stipends

By Nan Johnson

Photo Allen Jones (B.F.A.’82/A; M.F.A.’92/A), VCU University Marketing

W

hen Jack Cullather (B.S.’66/B) followed the Rams on the road years ago, he noticed that many of the men’s basketball players wore sweat clothes while traveling to and from the away games. He later learned that they didn’t have the money to outfit themselves in coats and ties.

Knowing that the players’ hectic schedules didn’t afford them the opportunity to earn extra money by working while in school, Cullather says he “always thought that the time they spent preparing themselves for performance on the court should have been compensated.”

Years later, member institutions in the NCAA’s Division I agreed with Cullather’s reasoning and, in January 2015, passed legislation allowing student-athletes to receive stipends to help them with living expenses not covered by athletic scholarships.

Not long after the NCAA announcement, the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics launched the StudentAthlete Experience Initiative to raise the estimated $500,000 to cover the costs of the annual stipend awards.

Beginning this fall, VCU scholarship student-athletes will receive stipends, paid from donor gifts, to help ease the financial burden of expenses for trips home, groceries, toiletries and other basic necessities that many students work part time to afford. The award amounts will be calculated by the Office of Financial Aid and will vary from student to student.

When existing VCU Athletics donors were asked to increase their support by 15 percent to fund the initiative, Cullather didn’t hesitate and gave $50,000.

“He immediately said yes,” says Ed McLaughlin, VCU’s director of athletics. “His gift is truly significant. For someone of Jack’s stature to be the first to come on board sets the tone that this is an important project. It suggests

to others in the community that our student-athlete focus is an important component of our core values. His philanthropy goes way beyond the gift.”

Cullather, owner of Cullather Realty in Richmond, Virginia, is a longtime benefactor with multiple ties to the university. One of his two daughters, Maribeth Cullather Carr (B.S.’89/B), followed his footsteps into the School of Business. His son, John C. “Chris” Cullather, was a sophomore at VCU when he died in 1992 of brain cancer. He lost his wife, Jean, to the same cancer 11 years later. The family organized the annual Chris Cullather Basketball Classic in 1992 to raise funds for brain tumor research at VCU. Cullather supports not only the Massey Cancer Center but also the School of Business and the VCU Autism Center for Excellence. He’s also generously given his time to the university, having served on the boards of the MCV Foundation, the Business Alumni Society and the Real Estate Circle of Excellence in the business school’s Kornblau Real Estate Program.

Basketball player Melvin Johnson, a senior guard from the Bronx, New York, says he and his fellow athletes were overwhelmed when they heard about Cullather’s gift. “The room erupted when they told us. We’ve been to college three and four years now, and it’s been a struggle sometimes as far as being able to have the things you need when you need them,” he says. “We’re thankful. It’s a heck of an opportunity.”

Though Johnson is about to graduate with a B.S. in Criminal Justice, he looks forward to more time in the new basketball practice facility and is happy that his teammates will benefit from the new stipends after he’s gone.

“As long as the guys coming up have the opportunity I didn’t have, I don’t mind,” he says. “It’s going to help VCU in the long run.”

– Nan Johnson is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

Fall 2015

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CLASSNOTES UPDATES

1960s Grace E. Harris, Ph.D. (M.S.W.’60/SW), former provost and vice president for academic affairs at VCU, was awarded an honorary degree from The College of William & Mary during the college’s 2015 Charter Day ceremony in February 2015.

Gail Johnson (B.S.’67/N; M.S.’76/N) received the 2015 March of Dimes Virginia Nightingale Award and served as the honorary chair of the 2015 March of Dimes Virginia Nurse of the Year Awards Gala. The annual award recognizes a Virginia nurse who is also a successful business leader in the commonwealth.

Johnson is the founder and owner of Rainbow Station, a national provider of early education, schoolage recreation, emergency backup care and leadership development as well as its franchising firm, PRISM LLC, and Rainbow Station International. She is also chair of the MCV Foundation board of trustees. L Preston D. Miller Jr., D.D.S. (D.D.S.’63/D), received the American Academy of Periodontology’s Clinical Research Award for his article, “An evidence-based scoring index to determine the periodontal prognosis on molars,” published in the February 2014 Journal of Periodontology. The award is presented to the most outstanding published article with direct clinical relevance in periodontics.

1970s Robert Comunale, M.D. (M.D.’71/M; H.S.’72/M; H.S.’74/M), keeps a busy schedule as an aviation medical examiner in McLean, Va., medically clearing pilots for flight. The McLean Connection newspaper featured the physician in its Jan. 14, 2015, edition.

Comunale also has written six novels and uses the many personalities and stories that he has come across during his years of practicing medicine as inspiration for his characters and plots. L Margaret Grimes, M.D. (H.S.’76/M; H.S.’80/M; M.Ed.’08/E), professor and vice chair for education in the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology, was elected in January 2015 as president of the American Board of Pathology. She will serve a one-year term. Grimes has been involved in graduate medical education at the national level for many years and received the Association of Pathology Chairs’ Distinguished Achievement Award in Graduate Medical Education in 2013.

Michael King, FACHE (M.H.A.’78/AHP), who recently retired from Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg, W.Va., was recognized for his successful career in the health care industry at the VCU Department of Health Administration’s Paul A. Gross Landmarks in Leadership Alumni event held April 2, 2015. King serves on the board of governors of the American College of

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VCU Alumni

Can’t wait to see what’s happening with your fellow alumni? View archived and expanded class notes online at vcualumni.org/classnotes.

Healthcare Executives and on the VCU Department of Health Administration’s Alumni Advisory Committee.

John Smalley (M.H.A.’77/AHP) M and Christopher Durrer (B.S.’73/H&S; M.H.A.’77/AHP) L also were recognized at the event for their loyal and consistent 30 years of giving to the department, part of the VCU School of Allied Health Professions.

Jack Pellock, M.D. (H.S.’73/M), professor in the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology, accepted the Epilepsy Foundation’s 2015 Champion of Epilepsy Award on April 23 for his pioneering work and commitment to serving the epilepsy community.

An internationally recognized expert in epilepsy drug therapy and clinical care, he’s served as a principal investigator for more than 100 trials and has been involved in antiepileptic drug development and studying epilepsy in children for more than 30 years. L W. Baxter Perkinson Jr., D.D.S. (D.D.S.’70/D), past-president of VCU Alumni, was honored by the Richmond Times-Dispatch for creating a “Top Workplace” in Richmond, Va. At 70, Perkinson still keeps hours at the dental practice he started in 1973, Dr. Baxter Perkinson and Associates, now called Virginia Family Dentistry. In four decades, the practice has grown to include 11 offices in the Richmond area with more than 300 employees, including 52 dentists. L Richard P. “Pete” Sowers III, M.D. (M.D.’70/M), was honored by the Richmond Times-Dispatch for creating a “Top Workplace” in Richmond, Va. He founded the first Patient First urgent care center more than 30 years ago in Chesterfield County, Va. Today, there are 56 Patient First locations in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., and the company is still growing, with more than a dozen new locations planned to open in 2015 and 2016. L

1980s David Baldacci, J.D. (B.A.’83/H&S), best-selling author, introduced “Wish You Well,” a film based on his coming-of-age drama of the same title, on opening night of the Richmond International Film Festival in February 2015. A departure from his customary thrillers, the story is set in the 1940s and was inspired by his mother’s childhood in the mountains of Southwest Virginia.

Gerald L. “Jerry” Feldman, M.D., Ph.D. (Ph.D.’82/M; M.D.’84/M), was named in March 2015 as president of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. During his two-year term, Feldman plans to embrace new technologies and treatments and improve organizational structure as the field of medical genetics continues to expand.

Donna Mitchell (M.S.’88/N), a nurse practitioner at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, was among the 2014 Best Bedside Manner honorees presented by OurHealth magazine, a publication for the Richmond, Va., area. She tied for third place in the awards, which honor medical providers who

were voted by the local community for their kindness, empathy and attentiveness.

Celeste N. Powers, M.D. (H.S.’89/M), accepted the L.C. Tao Educator of the Year Award from the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology in March 2015. The award is presented to a pathologist in recognition of meritorious service and contributions to the field of cytopathology education. Powers is the Saul Kay Professor in Diagnostic Pathology and chair of the Division of Anatomic Pathology in the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology.

H. Joel Schmidt, M.D. (M.D.’84/M), was elected to the board of directors of the MCV Physicians Practice Group in June 2014, promoted to professor of pediatrics at the VCU School of Medicine in May 2015 and named to the national Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Center Committee, the governing body for the national network of accredited CF care centers, in June 2015. L Marilyn Tavenner (B.S.’83/N; M.H.A.’89/AHP) was appointed to the board of directors for Lifepoint Hospitals based in Brentwood, Tenn. She previously served as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. L

1990s Matthew Bartholomew, M.D. (B.S.’92/H&S; M.D.’97/M), an emergency room physician at St. Francis Medical Center in Midlothian, Va., spoke with the Richmond Times-Dispatch about jumping into an icy pond in February 2015 to save a woman whose car was sinking.

Robert J. Feezor, M.D. (M.D.’99/M), assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine, served as the Lee Lecturer at the 2015 H.M. “Hyung Mo” Lee Memorial Lectureship, held in March 2015. In 1964, his father, Bill Feezor, became the 40th kidney transplant patient of H.M. Lee, M.D. (H.S.’61/M), and David Hume, M.D., the pioneering surgeons for whom the VCU Hume-Lee Transplant Center is named. Feezor’s father went on to become one of Lee and Hume’s longest-living kidney recipients.

Teresita Fernandez (M.F.A.’92/A) was featured on the June 7, 2015, edition of CBS’ “Sunday Morning.”

The show highlighted the Cuban-American artist and her more than three dozen solo shows in nine countries. In 2005, Fernandez received a MacArthur “genius grant” and was later appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

Martin Green, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’95/H&S), joined ColbySawyer College in New London, N.H., as an associate professor and chair of the Business Administration Department. Green brings nearly three decades of teaching and administrative experience in higher education to Colby-Sawyer. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in business administration at Keene State College and the University of Virginia as well as at Franklin Pierce University, where he served as interim director of the M.B.A. program.

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

CLASSNOTES

Sterling Hundley (B.F.A.’98/A), associate professor in the Department of Communication Arts in the VCU School of the Arts, was named the 2015 Victoria & Albert Museum Illustrator of the Year by the Londonbased Folio Society and is the first artist to receive more than one nomination in any category. His work on Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” received both Best Illustrated Book and Best Overall awards.

The V&A Illustration Awards are given annually to the best book or magazine illustration published in the United Kingdom during the previous year.

What’s new?

Send us your news — promotion, relocation, wedding, baby or other good tidings — and we’ll share it in the alumni magazine and online. Drop us a line at classnotes@vcu.edu. Or, update your information and view archived and expanded class notes from your fellow alumni at vcualumni.org/classnotes.

Beth Marshall, M.D. (B.S.’91/MET; M.D.’97/M; H.S.’03/M), director of the VCU Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, was honored in January 2015 with the VCU/VCUHS Leadership in Graduate Medical Education “LGME” Award. She has been an instrumental part of implementing the School of Medicine’s new curriculum through her work as physician coordinator for the Practice of Clinical Medicine.

Kenneth D. McArthur Jr. (B.A.’90/H&S) joined the national business and commercial litigation law firm Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti LLP and will run the practice’s Richmond, Va., office. He practices in the areas of health care, complex litigation, business/corporate, and federal and state qui tam litigation. During the past 20 years, McArthur has worked primarily in the health care space as an attorney, a consulting expert, a graduate school professor and a lobbyist.

Melissa Byrne Nelson, M.D. (M.D.’98/M), was honored by the Richmond, Va., YWCA as one of its Outstanding Women of 2015. Nelson, who practices with Pediatric Associates of Richmond, was recognized for her efforts in the health and science field. L Jonathan Perlin, M.D., Ph.D. (M.D.’90/M; Ph.D.’91/M; H.S.’96/M; M.S.H.A.’97/AHP), was invested as the 2015 chairman of the American Hospital Association’s board of trustees. Perlin is president, Clinical Services, and chief medical officer of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA. L

2000s Robert Louis Caldwell (B.F.A.’00/A) showed work in two museum exhibits. “On Tap (White-crowned Sparrow),” an oil painting, is hanging in the 2015 “Birds in Art” exhibit through Nov. 29, 2015, at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisc.

His graphite drawing “Kutokua Na Hatia (Columbus Monkey)” was selected for the “Art of the Animal Kingdom XX” exhibit, which ran June 13-Aug. 2, 2015, at the Bennington Center for the Arts in Bennington, Vt. Audrey Church, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’07/E), associate professor and graduate program coordinator at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., has been elected as the 201617 American Association of School Librarians president.

She will serve as president-elect during 2015-16. L

M Member of the alumni association

Brian Cruse (B.M.’08/A), jazz bassist; Brendan Schnabel (B.M.’13/A), saxophonist; and Justin Smith (B.A.’14/A), guitarist, members of the band B-Snaptet, released a new CD in March 2015.

quality assurance for Humana’s Community Resource Directory and provides phone support to Humana staff and members across the country in navigating community resources at the local, state and national level.

David L. Davis (M.Envs.’04/LS) received the 2015 National Wetlands Award for State, Local, and Tribal Program Development. Davis has played an essential leadership role in the evolution of Virginia’s wetland program. In 2000, he was appointed to the Technical Advisory Committee for Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, where he was tasked with drafting the commonwealth’s new wetland regulations. A year later, he joined DEQ as a wetland ecologist and, in 2007, became director of DEQ’s Office of Wetlands and Stream Protection. In June 2015, Virginia launched its Wetland Condition Assessment Tool. Under Davis’ leadership, Virginia has become a flagship state when it comes to wetlands monitoring and assessment, being one of only three states in the Mid-Atlantic region to have completed this effort. L

Ali M. Khan, M.D. (M.D.’09/M), became chair of the American College of Physicians’ National Council of Resident/Fellow Members in May 2015. ACP is the nation’s second-largest physician group. Kahn has served on the national council that represents the interests of more than 22,000 residents and fellows-in-training since his intern year at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In his senior year of residency, Khan was elected by the 11-member council to serve as its chair-elect, representing the voices and interests of the resident and fellow members on ACP’s board of governors.

Angela Duncan, Ph.D. (M.S.’04/AHP; Ph.D.’11/AHP; Cert.’11/AHP), assistant professor and assistant chair of the Department of Patient Counseling in the VCU School of Allied Health Professions, was honored in March 2015 with the Union Presbyterian Seminary Trailblazers Award.

Kim Van Eck, CT, CDP (M.S.’09/AHP), serves as community resource specialist for Humana Inc. on the Life Assistance Line of the Humana at Home division.

In her role, she conducts research, creates and provides

L Life member of the alumni association

Pamela DiSalvo Lepley (Cert.’08/H&S; M.P.A.’09/H&S), vice president of VCU’s Division of University Relations, was inducted into the 2015 Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. The hall of fame recognizes communication professionals with exceptional careers in advertising, journalism, public relations and other media fields.

Lepley serves as the chief communications officer for VCU and VCU Medical Center. Before joining VCU, she was vice president at Siddall Inc., a Richmond, Va.-based advertising and public relations firm, where she developed and directed award-winning strategic marketing programs for a variety of national business and government clients. She also worked for more than a decade in broadcast journalism. L

Fall 2015

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CLASSNOTES

Sarah Rebekah Byrd Mizer (M.F.A.’07/A) and Nanda Soderberg (M.F.A.’07/A) exhibited work in the May 2015 show “Dining and Discourse: A Discussion in Three Courses” at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

Kevin Powers (B.S.’08/H&S), an author and poet, has been named a 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in support of his forthcoming second work of fiction. Powers, an Iraq War veteran, received widespread recognition for his 2012 debut novel, “The Yellow Birds,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award, named one of The New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books of 2012 and received the 2012 The Guardian First Book Award and the 2013 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The Guggenheim Fellowship is awarded each year to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Roughly 200 are awarded each year, selected from between 3,500 and 4,000 applications. The fellowship will support Powers as he continues to work on his second novel, which will tell the story of a young woman married to a plantation owner ruined by the end of the Civil War. L Julie Shotwell (M.S.’05/N; Cert.’05/N), a nurse practitioner at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, and George Proffitt (B.S.’02/N; M.S.‘05/N; Cert.’05/N), a nurse practitioner at Colonial Heights Medical Center, were among the 2014 Best Bedside Manner honorees presented by OurHealth magazine, a publication for the Richmond, Va., area. Shotwell tied for third place and Proffitt earned an honorable mention in the awards, which honor medical providers who were voted by the local community for their kindness, empathy and attentiveness.

Clint Smith, Ph.D. (M.I.S.’01/H&S), was promoted to the DB-V level at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Geospatial Research Laboratory.

Smith, whose expertise is in geospatial distributed sensors, works as a research biologist in GRL’s Data and Signatures Analysis Branch. He also is the founder and principal investigator of an ERDC satellite laboratory on the western campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where he serves as affiliate faculty in the Department of Environmental Science and Public Policy. One of Smith’s significant projects included research for a wireless networked geospatial sensor for monitoring and detecting contaminated threats in the landscape. The technology was explored to evaluate ultra-filtration filters to create potable water for use by soldiers in the field and in response to natural disasters.

Kazue Taguchi (M.F.A.’07/A) was in the December 2015 Parallax show at the Flux Factory in Long Island City, N.Y., showing her video “Baby Sky Mountain.”

Travis Townsend (M.F.A.’00 /A) has a new website, travistownsendart.com , showcasing his sculptures.

Townsend, who lives in Lexington, Ky., teaches drawing, concepts and art criticism at Eastern Kentucky University.

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VCU Alumni

2010s Adeeb Barqawi (B.S.’10/H&S; B.S.’10/LS), a Teach for America corps member teaching high school in Houston, founded the nonprofit ProUnitas. The local nonprofit, which identifies resource gaps among his underprivileged students, was featured in the May 21, 2015, edition of Politico Magazine.

Alex Beatty (M.U.R.P.’14/GPA; Cert.’14/GPA), Kaila McClead (M.U.R.P.’14/GPA), Ken Shannon (M.U.R.P.’14/GPA; Cert.’14/GPA), Naomi Siodmok (M.U.R.P.’14/GPA; Cert.’14/GPA), Josh Son (M.U.R.P.’14/GPA), Geoff Urda (B.S.’12/GPA; M.U.R.P.’14/GPA) and Shawn Winter (M.U.R.P.’14/ GPA; Cert.’14/GPA) presented at the 2014 Virginia Governor’s Transportation Conference held Nov. 14, 2014, in Roanoke, Va. The alumni each presented a condensed version of a professional plan designed to solve a real-world planning, public policy or management problem.

Enid Walker Butler, CT (M.S.’14/AHP), instructor in the Department of Gerontology in the VCU School of Allied Health Professions, received her Certification of Thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling.

Erika Diamond (M.F.A.’14/A) received an Arts and Science Council Regional Project Artist grant.

Andrea Donnelly (M.F.A.’10/A) exhibited work at Quirk Gallery in Richmond, Va., in the winter 2015 show “The Garden, the Library and the Labyrinth.” She also had work acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Art. M Julia Gabriel (B.F.A.’11/A) launched her accessory design spring collection in March 2015.

Monique Johnson, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’14/GPA), vice president and senior loan officer at Virginia Community Capital in Christiansburg, Va., was selected for a prestigious Marshall Memorial Fellowship by the German Marshall Memorial Fund. The program educates emerging American and European leaders on the importance of trans-Atlantic relations and encourages them to collaborate on a range of international and domestic policy challenges.

Malorie Mackey (B.F.A.’10/A) is working on “Chocolate Milk,” an over-the-top sketch comedy Web series on YouTube. It focuses on the lives of 2013 Playmate of the Year Raquel Pomplun and her best friend, Mackey, both models who embark on ridiculous adventures.

Aaron McIntosh (M.F.A.’10/A) was interviewed

by L.A. Weekly about his work in the Craft and Folk Art Museum’s spring 2015 show “Man-Made: Contemporary Male Quilters.” He also served on a panel at this year’s NYC for CAA conference titled “Queer Threads Unraveled.”

Lauren Brooke Miller (M.F.A.’13/A) was a visiting resident in November 2015 at Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, N.Y. M

Gina Pido (B.S.’14/MC; B.S.’14/H&S) was chosen for a summer Multicultural Advertising Internship Program.

Offered by the American Association of Advertising Agencies to students from diverse backgrounds, the program links its interns to high-profile advertising agencies for a chance to gain real-world experience.

James Politi (B.S.’14/MC), a graphic designer, explored a world in which NBA teams wore football helmets. As an exercise, he and partner Luke Daly re-imagined NBA logos for his hypothetical scenario.

The Washington Post published an article April 28, 2015, about Politi’s design challenge.

Matt Reamer (B.S.’12/MC; M.S.’14/B) created the Dustin’s Words device, which allows individuals who can’t speak to communicate via long distance. Most augmentative and alternative communication devices on the market allow communication between the caregiver and individual only when they are within a few feet of each other. Reamer was inspired to create the device by his older brother, Dustin, who has autism and is nonverbal. The device is about the size of a box of sandwich bags and displays six buttons on its top, each one communicating a different want or need.

When the user pushes a button, the device sends a text message to the caregiver’s phone. Reamer has started a nonprofit to create and give free devices to those in need, to further his research and to continue testing new functionality and interaction patterns. He and his team of designers and technologists launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to build 100 devices.

Eboni Russell (B.S.’12/H&S), membership director for the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, has been selected as a 40-Under-Forty Top Achiever by The Network Journal magazine, the premier magazine for black American business professionals serving the tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The journal’s 40-Under-Forty Achievement Awards honor men and women, younger than 40, whose executive accomplishments have significantly impacted their profession or industry and who have made an important contribution to their community.

Benjamin Sack (B.F.A.’11/A), an exhibiting artist, created an artist-in-residence program for Holland American Line and has since voyaged around the world twice. Through the program, Sack taught a beginner-to-intermediate-level drawing class each day at sea, accompanied by a series of lectures throughout the four-month cruise. In addition, he created a series of drawings commemorating the tour.

Dan Uphoff (B.A.’11/A), drummer, opened his own recording studio, Full Circle Recording, in Chester, Va.

Births Mitchell Moore (B.S.‘07/MC; M.S.‘08/E) L and Alexandra Fotiou Moore (M.S.‘09/E) L welcomed son Gavin James Moore on June 12, 2015.

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

Photo David McClister Photography LLC

ALUMNIPROFILE

Old Dominion band members Whit Sellers (left), Trevor Rosen, Matthew Ramsey, Brad Tursi and Geoff Sprung

A new Nashville sound Old Dominion creates its own brand of country rock

By Erica Jackson Curran

M

atthew Ramsey (B.F.A.’00/A) is living proof that you can find inspiration just about anywhere. As an illustration major at Virginia Commonwealth University, Ramsey worked at the School of the Arts’ recycling plant when he got the idea to pursue a career as a musician. “I was literally sorting trash,” says Ramsey, who’s been writing and playing music since he was 14. “There was a country station playing on the radio, and I remember thinking, ‘I could do this.’”

Today, Ramsey is touring the country as the lead singer of Old Dominion, a band that Rolling Stone magazine named one of its 10 Artists You Need to Know last year.

Now having toured with country mega-star Kenny Chesney this past summer, Ramsey’s trash-sorting days are firmly behind him, but his rise to fame took more time and hard work than fans might realize.

“We’ve been a band for eight years and playing together in other ways for longer than that,” Ramsey says. “We’ve toured the country in a little van a few times, truly building a grass-roots following. To the general public it may seem out of nowhere, but we’ve been working a long time.”

As the band’s name suggests, most of the members are Virginia born and bred (lead guitarist Trevor Rosen, of Woodhaven, Michigan, is the sole exception). Ramsey grew up with drummer Whit Sellers in Botetourt County, and Sellers met lead guitarist Brad Tursi and bassist Geoff Sprung at James Madison University. “When the time came to pick a name, we wanted something that was Virginia-related,” Ramsey says.

The young band spent its early days playing clubs in Richmond, Charlottesville and Harrisonburg. Eventually, they all migrated to Nashville, Tennessee, where they polished their songwriting skills on the Music City circuit. Before long, their hard work

was paying off, with high-profile musicians such as The Band Perry (“Chainsaw,” “Better Dig Two”), Craig Morgan (“Wake Up Lovin’ You”) and Dierks Bentley (“Say You Do”) singing their songs. The group also has cuts with Jake Owen, Keith Urban and Luke Bryan.

“The songwriting process is very collaborative,” Ramsey says. “Inspiration is everywhere. The more you write, the more you learn to allow yourself to be open to it at all times. It could be [while you’re] in a movie or just in a conversation. People’s lives make the best songs, and if you are listening, they will tell you what to write about.”

Old Dominion’s debut self-titled EP, released in 2014, gave listeners a taste of their energetic live shows, from the rollicking radio hit “Shut Me Up” to the R&B-tinged ballad “Break Up With Him,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

They followed up on the EP’s success in November with the release of their first studio album, “Meat and Candy.”

As the band’s fan base grows, audiences are responding more enthusiastically than ever to Old Dominion’s songs, and Ramsey says he’s loving the feeling.

“For me, it’s the ultimate reward as a songwriter,” he says. “It’s amazing to have another artist record your song, especially iconic artists that you have been listening to forever, like Kenny Chesney or Dierks Bentley. But when you’re the artist on the stage singing the song, you can see and feel how that song is connecting with people. You see it on their faces and feel the excitement when they hear that first chord. There is no feeling like it.”

– Erica Jackson Curran is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

Fall 2015

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CLASSNOTES

New Releases

Faculty and alumni books

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A textbook case

Photography as philosophy

LATHAM WINFREE, PH.D.

HIL SCOTT

The third edition of “Introduction to Criminal Justice: The Essentials,” co-authored by Winfree (M.S.’74/H&S), G. Larry Mays and Leanne Fiftal Alarid, introduces readers to the history, sources and concepts of criminal law in a clear and concise style that is ideal for undergraduate students. By engaging with realistic hypothetical exercises, students learn how to identify the elements of substantive criminal offenses. Winfree, who retired from teaching in 2014 after a career spanning five decades, was most recently a visiting professor in Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Scott (B.A.’72/H&S), who retired in 2013 from the University of Richmond as a media production coordinator and technology liaison to the arts, published “Anomaly is Nuance.”

The book’s 115 digital images with original text bring together his background in English, philosophy and photography in a way that encourages artists to seek a better understanding of the cognitive process of making images.

As Scott says, “The images deal with color and with space, but they also present ambiguities and contradictions. I mean them to be both substantial and ephemeral. The questions, in a sense, are also the answers.”

A play on Oscar Wilde

No holds barred

NICHOLAS FRANKEL, PH.D.

TERRICINIA ST. CLAIR

Frankel, professor of English in the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences, edited “The Annotated Importance of Being Earnest.” The book provides running commentary on Oscar Wilde’s farcical comedy and, through the introductory essay and notes, illuminates literary, biographical and historical allusions, tying the play closely to its author’s personal life and sexual identity. Frankel, editor of the award-winning, uncensored edition of “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” draws on his extensive research to illustrate the complexities of Wilde’s life and the culture of Victorian England that have made the play an entertaining classic of English literature.

There’s no holding back in “Conversing with the Elephant: 25 Things Our Girlfriends Don’t Have the Balls to Tell Us,” which offers hard-hitting lessons for women of all ages. Author St. Clair (B.F.A.’98/A) tackles the tough issues affecting female friendships and offers her unique perspective on how to adopt honest, frank discourse. At its core, the principles included are true and will help to build enduring, lifelong friendships.

VCU Alumni

On women’s writing

to Women’s Writing in Britain, 1660-1789.”

The book explores the significant role that female writers had in Britain between 1660 and 1789 and features 15 original essays that speak in-depth about the importance of female writers, cross-examination of key genres that women excelled in at the time and a chronological guide to the period. Ingrassia and Rivka Swenson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the English department, are among the contributors.

Ghost hunter CLIFFORD EDWARDS, PH.D.

Vincent Van Gogh created roughly 2,000 paintings, yet one artwork in particular apparently caused him such consternation that he painted and destroyed it twice. In a new book, VCU religious studies professor Edwards solves the mystery surrounding these so-called “ghost paintings.” In “Van Gogh’s Ghost Paintings: Art and Spirit in Gethsemane,” Edwards takes the reader on a journey that begins in a Zen master’s room in Japan and ends at a ruined monastery in southern France as he investigates the lost paintings and why Van Gogh felt he had to destroy them.

Youth sports advice WENDY LEBOLT, PH.D.

CATHERINE INGRASSIA, PH.D.

Professor in the Department of English in the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences, Ingrassia edited “The Cambridge Companion

In “Fit 2 Finish: Keeping Your Soccer Players in the Game,” LeBolt (Ph.D.’90/M) offers practical advice to young athletes as well as to their parents and their coaches on how to

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

CLASSNOTES

Faculty and staff Rahul Anand, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Surgery in the School of Medicine, has been awarded certification as a fellow in the Association of Surgical Education’s Academy of Clerkship Directors.

He was one of six members of the charter group of surgeons recognized at the organization’s April 2015 meeting in Seattle. Anand is a general, trauma and critical care surgeon and serves as director of the surgical clerkship for third-year medical students and as assistant medical director for surgical education at VCU. ASE certification recognizes expertise in, and ongoing commitment toward, medical student surgical education through service as a clerkship director, scholarly activity and participation in ASE research and faculty development.

improve fitness and skills while being healthy, avoiding injuries and staying motivated. The book is a compilation of the advice LeBolt has provided for years via her organization Fit 2 Finish, which offers seminars, videos and blogs on how to support and train children who compete in sports.

A story untold EMILIE RAYMOND, PH.D.

Raymond, associate professor in the Department of History in the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences, published a new book that reveals the little-known story of how black actors and entertainers in Hollywood worked both behind the scenes and in front of the footlights to contribute their money, connections and fame to the civil rights movement.

“Stars for Freedom: Hollywood, Black Celebrities, and the Civil Rights Movement” explains how a handful of celebrities, both black and white, risked their careers by fighting for racial equality.

Finding your sweet spot KATYBETH LEE

In her new book, Lee, a VCU career adviser, explores why so many people are dissatisfied with their jobs and provides a roadmap for those seeking career satisfaction. “Sweet Spot: Finding Your Career at Any Age,” which Lee wrote with her father, Bruce Dreisbach, a former Crayola Crayon and Mars Inc. executive, guides new graduates and experienced professionals through the process of reflecting on their careers and offers possibilities and resources to help individuals find their true purpose.

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

Faye Belgrave, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences, has been named co-recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Charles and Shirley Thomas Award. The award is given by APA’s Division 45, the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race and recognizes significant contributions in the areas of student mentoring and development as well as contributions toward making psychology responsive and relevant to the needs of the AfricanAmerican community.

Leslie A. Bozeman, Ph.D., associate director of global engagement at VCU Globe, a global education living-learning program, participated in the Fulbright International Education Administrators program in South Korea in June 2015. Fulbright’s IEA program helps international education professionals and senior higher education officials from the U.S. create connections with the societal, cultural and higher education systems of other countries.

Bozeman and grantees from seven other American institutions of higher education spent two weeks in South Korea attending meetings with representatives from Korean universities, private-sector agencies and organizations, and selected government agencies; visiting university international offices; and responding to questions about U.S. higher education.

Bruce H. Curran has been inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Radiology. Curran is associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology in the School of Medicine and chief of radiation oncology physics at Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va. One of the highest honors

ACR can bestow on a radiologist, radiation oncologist or medical physicist is recognition as a fellow. ACR Fellows demonstrate a history of service to the college, organized radiology, teaching or research. About 10 percent of ACR members achieve this distinction.

Adam Ewing, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences, received the Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for his first book, “The Age of Garvey.” Ewing’s book examines the history of Garveyism, the movement started by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey in the early 20th century. Offering a “cinematic account of the thinking and acts of millions,” Ewing connects multinational sources to expand on the age of Garvey.

Linda Fernandez, associate professor with joint appointments in the Department of Economics in the School of Business and the Center for Environmental Studies in VCU Life Sciences, received a large, multiyear grant from the Belmont Forum to study the sustainable use of arctic resources. Fernandez is one of the principal investigators of the Bioeconomic Analysis for Arctic Marine Resource Governance and Policy project. Her research focuses on providing insights to develop tools that will help manage marine resources — resulting in better resource conservation, reduced invasive species and marine pollution — and allow policymakers to specify sustainable harvesting policies. The grant is funded through the National Science Foundation.

Paul B. Fisher, Ph.D., and Steven Grant, M.D., were appointed to the editorial board of the Cancer Research Journal, reported to be the most frequently cited cancer journal in the world. Fisher is professor and chair of the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Thelma Newmeyer Corman Endowed Chair in Oncology Research at Massey Cancer Center. Grant is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, the Shirley Carter Olsson and Sture Gordon Olsson Chair in Oncology Research, associate director for translational research, co-leader and member of the Developmental Therapeutics program and a member of the Cancer Cell Signaling program at VCU Massey Cancer Center.

Rev. Angela Flack, assistant professor and ACPE supervisor in the Department of Patient Counseling in the School of Allied Health Professions, received the 2015 Emerging Leader award from the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education.

Fall 2015

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ALUMNIPROFILE

C

Healthy outlook Dentist crowns her career with teaching and service

By Emily Phillips

rystal Hayes, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’12/D), planned to pursue a career as a general dentist when she first entered Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Dentistry.

Those plans changed during her senior rotations when she worked with pediatric patients in Boydton, Virginia, and discovered her gift for treating children. It wasn’t long after her time in the clinic that Hayes switched her focus to specialize in pediatric dentistry. “Were it not for that experience, I probably would have been a general dentist,” Hayes says.

As a first-generation college student, Hayes says she leaned heavily on her family for support as she completed her undergraduate studies in clinical laboratory sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That circle of support expanded when she enrolled at VCU to include professors who encouraged her and pushed her toward excellence throughout the rigorous years of dental school.

“There are times during the pursuit of higher education where you just get tired. You get weak, and you have to push yourself,” she says. “Just the mere effort of someone else caring gave me that push when I wanted to quit.”

Randy Adams, D.D.S. (H.S.’80/D), Leonard Jackson, D.D.S., Paul Wiley, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’76/D), and Francis Robertello, D.M.D., all guided Hayes in different ways as professors and mentors. Whether it was through high expectations and tough love, writing recommendations and allowing her to shadow at their practices, or calling to check on her after graduation, all these professors, Hayes believes, genuinely cared about her education. “I owe them much appreciation,” she says.

Hayes, who works in a Burlington, North Carolina, private practice that sees mostly Medicaid patients, completed her residency in pediatric dentistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She then earned her master’s in public health at the University of Texas at Houston, during which time she taught pediatric dentistry to dental residents and students as an associate professor at UT Health Science Center. Hayes recognized that she enjoyed teaching and says she hopes to teach pediatric dentistry one day and to mentor students in the way that her VCU professors encouraged her.

Hayes has already served as an inspiration to predental students by speaking at the American Dental Education Association’s GoDental Workshop and Recruitment Fair in San Antonio and at churches in Richmond, Virginia, and North Carolina to teens interested in entering the dentistry field and pursuing higher education. She’s especially interested in recruiting more minorities to dentistry. At VCU, Hayes volunteered with the Student National Dental Association, which recruited underrepresented minorities. Hayes, the only African-American in her dental class, worked with many different demographics and ethnicities during her residency and continues to do so at her current practice.

During her residency and graduate studies, she also organized free dental screenings at health fairs, provided dental anticipatory guidance to parents at the San Antonio Battered Women’s and Children’s Shelter, taught continuing-education classes and conducted research on health literacy through the First Dental Home program, which provides preventive care to children between 6 months and 36 months and direction to their parents.

Looking toward the future, Hayes plans to combine her passion for dentistry, teaching and service. “After my work in private practice, I hope to work as faculty at a teaching facility and to be an active member of a child advocacy board. My hope is also to engage in community outreach programs, especially those in underrepresented communities.”

– Emily Phillips is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.

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VCU Alumni

CLASSNOTES

Antonio Garcia, associate professor and director of Jazz Studies in the Department of Music in the School of the Arts, had his commission “Three for Two (or One or Three)” premiered in June 2015 at the International Fellowship of Conductors, Composers, and Collaborators at the University of Oregon. Garcia also served as the inaugural jazz clinician for the ConnSelmer Institute in Mishawaka, Ind., in June 2015 and spent the summer scoring music for an independent animated film. He’s also in the process of scoring original music for the Illinois All-State Honors Jazz Band to be published in fall 2016 by Kendor/Doug Beach Music.

Lawrence B. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., the Charles and Evelyn Thomas Professor of Medicine and chair of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology in the Department of Internal Medicine, received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Schwartz, who also serves as program director of allergy and immunology, was unanimously selected by the AAAAI board of directors and recognized for his advanced treatment of allergic disease through his groundbreaking contributions to understanding the mechanisms and significance of mast cells.

David Holdford, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science in the School of Pharmacy, received the 2015 Rufus A. Lyman Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. The award is presented annually to the author of the best paper published in the previous year in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. Holdford’s paper, “Is a Pharmacy Student the Customer or the Product?” explores the relationship between students and institutions, asserting that the ultimate customer of pharmacy education is the patient. Nominated papers are judged by utility and significance to pharmacy education, originality, research methodology and writing style.

Jay Shapiro, M.D., professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, received the VCU/VCUHS Leadership in Graduate Medical Education “LGME” Award in January 2015. In 1999, he was named program director for the anesthesiology department at a time when the program had seen the departure of key staff members. Through hard work, dedication and leadership he’s improved the program, and it is now nationally recognized for its quality.

Alexander H. Krist, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health in the School of Medicine, was appointed to a four-year term on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The independent group of national experts makes preventive care recommendations based on peer-reviewed research intended to help primary care clinicians and patients decide whether a preventive service is right for the patient’s needs.

Anton Kuzel, M.D., was installed as president of the Association of Departments of Family Medicine during the organization’s 2015 winter meeting. Kuzel is professor and the Harris-Mayo Chair in Family Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health in the School of Medicine.

Rex Richardson, professor of trumpet in the School of the Arts’ Department of Music, received a VCU Presidential Research Quest Fund Award, the top research award at the university, for the publishing and recording of four new trumpet concerti. Richardson is the first music faculty member to receive this award.

Lauren J. Ross, curator of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, curated the “New Dominion” exhibit at New York’s Mixed Greens gallery in July 2015. The exhibit presented works from a selection of artists living and working in Richmond, Va., that touch on tensions between the past and the future, independence and loyalty, individuality and community.

VCU School of the Arts faculty who participated in the exhibit include Sonya Clark, chair of the Department of Craft and Material Studies; Susie Ganch, associate professor of crafts; John Freyer, assistant professor of photography; Hope Ginsburg, associate professor of art foundation; Arnold Joseph Kemp, chair of the Department of Painting and Printmaking; and painting and printmaking professor Richard Roth.

M Member of the alumni association

Jerome F. Strauss, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the School of Medicine, has been appointed to chair the Institute of Medicine’s State of the Science in Ovarian Cancer Research ad-hoc committee. With a goal of reducing the incidence of and mortality from ovarian cancer, committee members will evaluate research in the field, identify key gaps in the evidence base and recommend next steps. The committee will prepare a consensus study that is expected by the end of 2015.

Strauss has been an IOM member since 1994.

Peter Uetz, Ph.D., associate professor in VCU Life Sciences’ Center for the Study of Biological Complexity, has been invited by the American Society for Microbiology to teach a class on protein interaction research in fall 2015 at the DBT-ICT Centre of Energy Biosciences in Mumbai, India. Uetz’s research focuses on developing improved versions of the yeast two-hybrid system, a method that allows researchers to study the interactions among proteins. Such interactions are critical for virtually every process in a cell, both healthy and diseased, ranging from metabolism to cancer. Uetz’s research team has published a large fraction of microbial interaction data, including protein interaction maps for bacteria that cause syphilis and gastric ulcers.

1940s Thomas J. Bell Jr., D.D.S. (D.D.S.’46/D), of Columbia, S.C., Dec. 21, 2014, at age 94.

Sarah A. Bruch (Cert.’45), of Henrico, Va., Feb. 15, 2015, at age 92.

Mattie P. Carnegie (B.S.’49), of Branford, Conn., Dec. 29, 2014, at age 86.

Kathryn M. Clendenen (Cert.’49/N), of Bristol, Va., Feb. 15, 2015, at age 92.

William E. Cline, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’49/D), of Abingdon, Va., Jan. 5, 2015, at age 89.

Frank S. Flanary, M.D. (M.D.’48/M), of Kingsport, Tenn., Nov. 15, 2013, at age 90.

Herbert Gershberg, M.D. (M.D.’41/M), of Westport, Conn., Jan. 11, 2015.

M. David Grandis, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’44/D), of Glen Allen, Va., Jan. 4, 2015, at age 95.

Malcolm E. Hunter Jr., M.D. (M.D.’46/M), of Redmond, Wash., June 13, 2014, at age 91.

Robert W. Irvin Jr., M.D. (M.D.’48/M), of Moneta, Va., Jan. 9, 2015. M James E. John Jr., D.D.S. (D.D.S.’43/D), of King George, Va., March 25, 2015, at age 96.

Arthur A. Kirk, M.D. (M.D.’41/M; H.S.’47/M; H.S.’51/M), of Portsmouth, Va., Jan. 26, 2015, at age 99. L Ulric J. Laquer, M.D. (M.D.’49/M), of East Fairfield, Vt., Feb. 20, 2014.

Farrell S. Laughlin (B.S.’43/B), of Danville, Vt., March 4, 2015, at age 93.

Marjorie G. Layne (B.S.’48/H&S), of Mechanicsville, Va., Feb. 13, 2015, at age 89.

Richard E. Marshall (B.S.’49/P), of Urbanna, Va., April 10, 2015, at age 86. L Madge D. May, M.D. (M.D.’49/M; H.S.’59/M; H.S.’60/M), of Pungoteague, Va., Feb. 13, 2015.

IN MEMORIAM

M.A. Ray Paret, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’45/D), of Marco Island, Fla., May 16, 2015, at age 93.

1930s

James W. Phillips, M.D. (M.D.’47/M; H.S.’49/M), of Virginia Beach, Va., May 8, 2013, at age 94.

Elizabeth Purnell Hodges (SW), of Spartanburg, S.C., March 25, 2015, at age 92.

Nelson K. Reid (Cert.’48/E), of Burlington, N.C., April 19, 2015.

Sarah G. Edmondson (B.S.’39/N), of Midlothian, Va., Dec. 12, 2014, at age 97.

Elizabeth W. Sale (B.S.’48/AHP), of Hampton, Va., Jan. 7, 2015. L

Beverley H. Howarth (M.S.W.’37/SW), of Richmond, Va., Feb. 16, 2015, at age 101.

C. Lester Salmon Jr., M.D. (M.D.’43/M), of Bremerton, Wash., April 5, 2015, at age 96.

Lenora B. Humphries (B.S.’34/N), of Cleveland, Tenn., Sept. 14, 2012, at age 92.

Jenaro G. Scarano, M.D. (M.D.’44/M), of Ponce, Puerto Rico, May 11, 2012, at age 93.

L Life member of the alumni association

Fall 2015

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THEWORLD

brought to you by VCU Alumni

Take an adventure with your fellow Rams!

“This was a trip of a lifetime! The Oceania offered A+ accommodations with excellent restaurants. I loved the country club casual dressing at dinner and the ability to pick and choose guided tours or to explore on my own at each port of call. The best part was getting to know other VCU alumni and socializing together.”

– VCU ALUMNI TRAVELER STEPHANIE L. HOLT (B.S. ’74/E) ON HER OCEANIA ITALY CRUISE

As a VCU Alumni traveler, you can discover fascinating places around the world while enjoying exclusive perks, such as preferred access to popular attractions, specially arranged cultural experiences and perspectives from faculty experts and knowledgeable local guides.

Let VCU Alumni make your next journey one to remember. Learn more at (804) 828-2586 or vcualumni.org/travel.

2016 TRIPS JAN. 20-FEB. 7 ���������������������Bridge of the Americas (Luxury cruise from Miami to Lima, Peru) FEB. 6-13 �����������������������������Sailing the Windward Islands (Chartered sailing yacht) FEB. 21-MARCH 9 ����������������Tasman Treasures (Luxury cruise from Sydney to Auckland) FEB. 28-MARCH 8 ����������������Voyage of Discovery: Wonders of the Galapagos Islands (Galapagos cruise) MARCH 25-APRIL 4 ��������������Atolls and Islands (Luxury cruise highlighting French Polynesia) APRIL 23-MAY 1 ������������������Italian Riviera (Alumni Campus Abroad in Sestri Levante, Italy) MAY 4-12 ����������������������������Sultans and Palaces (Luxury cruise from Istanbul to Athens) JUNE 13-24 ��������������������������Regal Routes of Northern Europe (Luxury cruise from London to Copenhagen) JULY 9-16 ����������������������������Alaska’s Glaciers and the Inside Passage (Cruise from Juneau

through the magnificent Inside Passage to Vancouver) AUG. 5-27 ���������������������������International Explorations-Tuscany (Authentic, customizable

three-week introduction to living abroad) AUG. 22-31 ��������������������������Magnificent Great Lakes (Voyage from Montreal to Chicago)

46

VCU Alumni

Martin Sheintoch, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’45/D), of Petersburg, Va., Jan. 25, 2015, at age 93.

Faye E. Sherrill (B.S.’41/N), of Salisbury, N.C., May 17, 2006, at age 89.

W. Thomas Spain, Ph.D., M.D. (B.S.’40/P), of Newburgh, Ind., Dec. 25, 2014, at age 96.

John H. Sproles, M.D. (M.D.’43/M; H.S.’44/M; H.S.’57/M), of Daleville, Va., Feb. 19, 2015, at age 95. L Mildred M. Stephens (B.S.’48/N), of Kannapolis, N.C., Jan. 19, 2015, at age 87.

Want to join the more than 7,000 alumni who call themselves Rams for Life?

Upgrade your membership to Life today at vcualumni.org/join.

The following alumni and friends have recently made a lifetime commitment to VCU by becoming new Life members of VCU Alumni. Thank you!

Ann W. Stitzer (B.S.’48/AHP), of Chesterfield, Va., Dec. 26, 2014. L Marjorie L. Thornton (B.S.’48/AHP), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 6, 2015, at age 89. L

1950s W. Edward Anderson, M.D. (M.D.’55/M), of Leesburg, Va., Jan. 7, 2015, at age 88.

Frances H. Aron (B.S.’50/E), of Richmond, Va., Dec. 23, 2014, at age 51.

Richard E. Athey (B.F.A.’57/A), of Richmond, Va., Feb. 13, 2015.

M. Lee Baker (B.S.’50/P), of Gate City, Va., Oct. 17, 2008, at age 81.

Nancy D. Blake (B.S.’55/AHP), of Leesburg, Fla., May 9, 2015.

Margie A. Boschert (’50/AHP), of Linthicum Heights, Md., Feb. 21, 2015, at age 96.

Leigh C. Budwell, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’50/D), of Cobbs Creek, Va., Jan. 8, 2015, at age 90. L Hall G. Canter, M.D. (M.D.’54/M; H.S.’55/M), of Midlothian, Va., Feb. 3, 2015, at age 85.

Helen M. Coleman (Cert.’51), of Provo, Utah, May 5, 2015, at age 89.

Kathryn S. Collins (B.S.’55/H&S), of Lynchburg, Va., Oct. 20, 2006, at age 74.

Robert L. Couch, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’55/D), of Virginia Beach, Va., Nov. 27, 2014, at age 83.

Mitchell L. Easter (B.S.’56/B), of Cumming, Ga., May 7, 2015.

Hugh L. Farrior, M.D. (M.D.’53/M; H.S.’55/M), of Black Mountain, N.C., Jan. 2, 2015, at age 88.

Jean Nelson Gibbons (B.F.A.’56/A), of Richmond, Va., May 27, 2015. L Betty F. Goyings (M.S.W.’54/SW), of Winter Park, Fla., April 18, 2015, at age 85.

Jerome S. Gross, M.D. (M.D.’52/M), of Virginia Beach, Va., April 21, 2015, at age 90.

Dr. Gregory S. Akers Elizabeth W. Anderson Bryan D. Andrews Jr. Taryn E. Anthony Dr. Advait A. Apte Gwynn Epps August Cameron W. Ayers Forrest E. Baber Patricia D. Bartholomew Elaine Belber Ann Bellemore Joan Bellman April M. Benza Billy J. Biberstein Jr. Rosa Marina Bilbao Y. Leon Juli Blanton Karen A. Bogensberger Kathy Branch Mary Breen Brazier Yvonne M. Briley-Wilson Rodrick O. Brooks Judson D. Brown Lois B. Brown Rodney D. Brown Dr. Willis E. Brownstein Jeff Burks Khanh Burks Kristen E. Caldwell Dr. Joseph Casey Suzanne W. Casey Danielle Cauthorne Jarrod D. Chaplin Linda C. Charity Latonia M. Chavis Linda L. Cheek Dr. Jianping Chen Dr. Linwood L. Childress Debra Chilton Belloni Hannah Rae Foreman Clinger Dr. Charles C. Conyers

Dr. Joice E. Conyers Geoffrey A. Cooper Dr. Anne M. Cooper-Chen Dr. Cynthia S. Cors Jacqueline L. Crouch Julia Crowder Dr. William J. Crowder Jr. Col. John E. Cunningham Sr. Jeffrey V. Dale Dr. Steven E. Daniels Bonnie Page Danner Mildred L. Davis Sue L. Davis Joseph L. DeLuca David R. Derkits Dr. William A. Deyerle Dr. Francis J. Diskin III Maria J. Dubon Mary H. Edmonds Dr. Robert M. Edmonds Lou G. Edwards Dr. Hany Elazab Karen S. Emroch Eugene I. Erb Matthew C. Erickson Dr. Salvatore J. Florio Dr. Carmen F. Foster Jane R. Frazier Glenda Jeffries Frisby Leslie C. Gaines Dr. Eileen Garza Dr. Samuel E. Gaskins Susan W. Gaskins Stephanie A. Gausby Julian D. Gilman Kayleigh A. Glass Katina T. Goodwyn Blake E. Gordon Jaime S. Gordon L. Michael Gracik Jr.

Susan A. Gracik Eric J. Gracyalny Verna L. Graff Jeffrey C. Green Rashad L. Gresham Wayne B. Griffith Geraldine E. Gross Teresa A. Grupp Dr. William A. Grupp II Dr. Lynda W. Hagman Elsie Silva Handy Jenny A. Hansen Dr. Michelle M. Harrison Todd M. Harrison Patrick J. Hebert Pamela B. Hefele Dr. William J. Hefele Dr. Karen Lee Hermansen George E. Hierholzer Brendan P. Hood Juanita S. Hopkins Richard N. Horwitz Dr. Tammy Teng Huang Jerry W. Hullett Harvey E. Hutchinson IV Kathy Hutchinson Fawn D. Ishom Dr. Thomas J. Ishom Patricia C. Janes Jerry Johnson John W. Johnson II Dr. Susan C. Johnson Hector R. Jones James P. Jones Lee C. Jones Monica W. Jones Tamara N. Jones Dr. Tracey N. Jones Jess N. Judy Dr. Craig T. Kerins

Fall 2015

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Photo courtesy of the Ferrera family

Why I became a Ram for Life “We joined VCU Alumni as Life members because as a military family, regardless of where we are stationed, our membership keeps us connected to the global VCU community. We take pride in our degrees, and membership is a great way for us to show that. On the rare occasion that our work takes us back through Richmond, we love to use our membership discount at the bookstore to stock up on VCU gear so that we can show the world that we’re Ram Proud.”

Laura Moyer Debra Alvis Napier Charles F. Neurohr James Richard O’Brien Dr. David O’Connor Marilyn Olney Franklin G. Owen Steven G. Pacyna Kushal B. Patel Linda E. Pearson Brent A. Penny Dr. Scott Pickett Lynette R. Plummer Dorothy A. Powell Tara N. Powell Kelly Feole Powers Kevin C. Powers Nadezhda M. Prousalis Dr. Chad W.M. Ritenour Lenore M. Roach Dr. Bruce T. Roberts Susan B. Robertson Kelley C. Rumsey Elizabeth E. Saunders Lauren A. Saunders Justin M. Sawyer John Edgar Schartzer Dr. Scott A. Sell Dr. John G. Sellers Jr. Dr. Felix Eugene Shepard Jr. Christine C. Shriver David A. Shuber Stephen K. Smith Jr. Linda Lynch Spinelli Dr. Sudharshana Srinivasan

Annie W. Harrison (Dipl.’54/N), of Richmond, Va., April 23, 2015, at age 84.

Joan C. Hartman, OTR (Cert.’51/AHP), of St. Louis, Mo., April 23, 1997, at age 91.

D. Ewell Hendricks, M.D. (M.D.’57/M; H.S.’62/M), of Inwood, W.Va., May 22, 2010, at age 76. L Glenn James, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’56/D), of Southport, N.C., May 11, 2015, at age 87. L Mildred M. Jones (B.S.’55/N), of Midlothian, Va., Jan. 27, 2015, at age 83.

Linda J. Knupple (B.S.’59/N), of Kountze, Texas, May 19, 2014, at age 76.

Eugene B. Linton, M.D. (M.D.’51/M), of WinstonSalem, N.C., Jan. 10, 2015.

– Michelle Ferrera (B.S.’01/E; M.S.’01/AHP) and Marc Ferrera, M.D. (B.S.’99/H&S; M.D.’03/M)

Miles E. King Wanda King Dr. Barclay Kirkland Dr. Judith A. Korpics Dr. Alexander D. Korzyk Kelly J. Korzyk Dr. Timothy C. Lampe Patricia Wessel Lavach Ashleigh N. Lemaster Elizabeth Betty Barnes Lettshek Dr. Janice Levin Steven A. Little Marian E. Littleton Dr. Roy T. Littleton IV Rocki L. Luksan Brittney T. Marcellus Dr. Steven C. Martin Dr. Francis J. Martorano Chad L. Mason Stacy Mason Katherine S. Mattes Dr. Godwin O. Mbagwu Dr. Jennifer M. McCall Carol A. McCoy Thomas R. Mckinless Jennifer L. McLamb Dr. Charles A. Miller Jennifer L. Miller William J. Miller Trula E. Minton Dr. Bassem M. Mohammed Bronte Montgomery Patricia S. Morris Patrick V. Morris Rebecca J. Morrissette

Warren Cleaton Hagood, M.D. (M.D.’53/M), of South Boston, Va., April 6, 2015, at age 88.

William Bruce Lundeen, M.D. (M.D.’55/M; H.S.’58/M), of Arlington, Va., July 22, 2014, at age 86.

Dr. Randolph W. Stark Carmel A. Steindam Jane Owen Stringer Dr. Llewellyn W. Stringer Jr. Darlene W. Temple Anne Terry June O. Thomas Dr. Rachelle E. Toman Mary B. Tombes Bettie W. Tussey Patsy S. Underwood Catherine French Van Pelt Michelle Vermillion Carol Josephine Vick Katherine A. Wagner Joshua Davis Walker Dr. Kenneth W. Waller Dr. Susan J. Waller Dan Walsh Albert Wang Zara Warren Dana Renee Watkins Daniel R. Webster Dr. George C. Weeks III Dr. Kathryn A. Weesner David L. Williams Richard E. Williams Shana L. Williams Xavier D. Williamson Dr. Judy W. Wood Linda K. Wood Dr. William C. Wood Sasha R. Yazdgerdi

Berkley S. Martin (B.S.’59/E), of Midlothian, Va., March 26, 2015, at age 82.

George A. Mathews Sr. (B.S.’58/B; M.H.A.’60/AHP), of Knoxville, Tenn., May 4, 2015, at age 83.

Arnold H. Meckley, M.D. (M.D.’55/M; H.S.’56/M), of Junction, Texas, Nov. 14, 2009, at age 79.

Melvin C. Morelock (B.S.’57/P), of Dayton, Ohio, March 7, 2010, at age 74.

Frances G. Moore (B.S.’50/N), of Gainesville, Va., Feb. 14, 2015, at age 86.

P. Franklin Mullinax Jr., M.D. (M.D.’55/M), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 11, 2015, at age 83. L Ross M. Orr Jr., M.D. (M.D.’53/M), of Bethlehem, Pa., Jan. 30, 2015, at age 87. L Charles T. Perkins Sr. (B.S.’57/H&S; M.S.’61/AHP), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 13, 2015, at age 81.

Ellen Barbara Hart Peters (B.F.A.’54/A), of Longmont, Colo., April 26, 2015, at age 82.

F. Gordon Peters (B.F.A.’53/A), of Longmont, Colo., Jan. 1, 2006.

Mary W. Rebman (B.S.’51/N), of Richmond, Va., May 20, 2015.

Jane Carswell Roberts, M.D. (M.D.’58/M; H.S.’60/M), of Patterson, N.C., March 25, 2015, at age 83.

William R. Smouse, M.D. (M.D.’55/M), of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., May 19, 2015, at age 85.

E. Wayne Titmus (B.S.’58/B), of Henrico, Va., Jan. 22, 2015, at age 78.

Marian M. Warren (B.F.A.’58/A), of Mechanicsville, Va., Jan. 27, 2015, at age 77.

Donald S. Wilkinson (B.S.’56/H&S), of Harrisonburg, Va., Jan. 7, 2015, at age 81.

Joan Williams (A.S.’54/AHP), of Charlotte, N.C., Nov. 6, 2013, at age 79.

48

VCU Alumni

CLASSNOTES

1960s Joan A. Ambrose (B.S.’69/N), of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jan. 27, 2015.

Carl G. Anderson (B.S.’63/H&S), of Rocky Mount, Va., Feb. 23, 2015, at age 78. M Jeannette Ford Baggs (B.S.’68/H&S), of Williamsburg, Va., Jan. 9, 2015, at age 77.

Rev. John C. Barr (Cert.’65/AHP), of Lake City, S.C., March 22, 2015, at age 85.

Horton P. Beirne (B.S.’69/H&S), of Covington, Va., Jan. 10, 2015, at age 67.

Charles J. Blair III, M.D. (M.D.’62/M), of Richmond, Va., May 22, 2015.

Marlin B. Brown-Gordon (B.S.’61/AHP), of Sparta, N.J., Feb. 1, 2015, at age 75.

Edalleen M. Brush (M.S.’69/E), of Richmond, Va., May 8, 2015, at age 87.

Michael T. Carter (B.S.’63/H&S), of Glen Allen, Va., Oct. 12, 2014, at age 77.

Mary Cannada Caskie (B.S.’65/H&S; M.Ed.’74/E), of Fairport, N.Y., April 17, 2015, at age 87.

Linwood W. Custalow, M.D. (M.D.’64/M; H.S.’69/M), of Williamsburg, Va., Dec. 19, 2014, at age 77.

John B. Curry II, J.D. (B.S.’66/B), of Waynesboro, Va., Feb. 1, 2015, at age 70.

Judith A. Doyle (B.S.’66/SW), of Lakeland, Fla., Dec. 23, 2014, at age 70.

Martin L. Giles (A.A.’65/En), of Manakin-Sabot, Va., May 5, 2015, at age 70.

Robert G. Lawson, Ph.D. (M.S.’65/AHP; Ph.D.’99/ GPA), of Henrico, Va., April 8, 2015, at age 74.

James E. Dillard, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’75/D), of Brooksville, Fla., April 17, 2015, at age 72.

Claudette E. Limbrick (’69/H&S), of Richmond, Va., Dec. 25, 2014.

William H. Downing (M.H.A.’71/AHP), of Exmore, Va., March 28, 2015, at age 69.

Garland C. Llewellyn Jr. (M.H.A.’62/AHP), of The Villages, Fla., Feb. 17, 2012, at age 76.

Elaine Davis Dunn (M.Ed.’74/E), of Richmond, Va., Nov. 18, 2007.

John I. Lynch Jr., M.D. (M.D.’60/M), of Seattle, April 30, 2015, at age 80.

Roy John Ferry (B.S.’73/H&S), of Colonial Heights, Va., Dec. 28, 2014, at age 82.

William E. Middleton, Ph.D. (M.S.’67/AHP), of Anderson, S.C., Jan. 12, 2015, at age 71.

Norman B. Fizette, M.D. (M.D.’71/M) of Hermann, Mo., Jan. 22, 2014, at age 75.

Ann W. Mountcastle (B.S.’69/H&S), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 15, 2015.

Kelly A. Fogle, M.D. (M.D.’74/M), of Richmond, Va., Aug. 31, 2014, at age 66.

Jack M. Neal (M.S.’63/H&S), of South Boston, Va., March 31, 2015, at age 81.

Susan G. Gamble (B.F.A.’78/A), of New Braunfels, Texas, Jan. 14, 2015, at age 57. L

Lewis H. Newell Jr. (B.S.’62/B), of Mechanicsville, Va., April 10, 2015, at age 76.

Thomas A. Olivieri (M.S.W.’63/SW), of Mechanicsville, Va., April 4, 2015, at age 63.

William R. Parks, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’69/D), of Newport News, Va., May 21, 2015. L Amelia J. Pearce (B.F.A.’62/A), of Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 12, 2015, at age 74.

Daniel G. Thomas Jr., D.D.S. (D.D.S.’69/D), of Fernandina Beach, Fla., May 2, 2015, at age 72.

Stuart G. Thomas (A.S.’66/En), of Mechanicsville, Va., March 29, 2015.

Elizabeth L. Thompson (B.S.’64/AHP), of Fredericksburg, Va., Jan. 17, 2015.

William G. Waters (M.S.’65/SW), of Roanoke, Va., Jan. 31, 2015, at age 77.

Linda K. Garver (B.S.’73/N), of Stuarts Draft, Va., Aug. 22, 2006, at age 55.

Charles D. Higgins (B.S.’73/B) of Farmville, Va., April 23, 2015, at age 66.

Mary M. Lancaster (M.Ed.’74/E), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 17, 2015, at age 93.

Gail H. Levine (M.S.’73/M), of Water Mill, N.Y., April 11, 2015, at age 66.

Robert E. Mansell (M.S.’77/AHP), of Alexandria, Va., July 21, 2014, at age 69.

Janet D. McFadden (B.S.’72/B), of Colonial Heights, Va., Jan. 20, 2015, at age 70. L John R. Middleton (B.S.’75/H&S), of Winston-Salem, N.C., Feb. 16, 2015, at age 62.

Chester J. Minarcik Jr., M.D. (M.D.’74/M), of Moorestown, N.J., April 24, 2015, at age 68.

1970s

Wesley C. Morck Jr. (B.S.’74/B), of Richmond, Va., Dec. 23, 2014.

Jennifer Gail Aldridge (B.S.’78/N), of Roanoke, Va., May 15, 2015, at age 60.

Frank C. Murray (B.S.’72/H&S), of Marietta, Ga., March 24, 2015, at age 64.

Linda Price Baker (B.S.’76/N; M.S.’88/N), of Midlothian, Va., May 11, 2015, at age 62.

Jerome L. Null (M.S.’77/AHP), of Cornelius, N.C., Jan. 15, 2015.

James B. Biggers (B.S.’75/MC), of Richmond, Va., May 15, 2014, at age 67.

Christine L. Saum (B.F.A.’79/A), of Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2015, at age 63.

Warren E. Harrell (B.S.’60/P), of Williamsburg, Va., Feb. 1, 2015, at age 81.

McEva R. Bowser (M.Ed.’70/E), of Richmond, Va., Feb. 10, 2015, at age 92. M

Sadie R. Smethers (M.Ed.’72/E), of Salem, Va., Jan. 4, 2015, at age 93.

Raymond D. Hollingsworth (M.S.W.’67/SW), of Brandon, Fla., April 15, 2015, at age 72.

Edward F. Carpenter (B.S.’76/GPA), of Carlisle, Pa., Feb. 10, 2015, at age 61.

Jane Catherine Staton (B.S.’73/E), of Gloucester, Va., April 11, 2015, at age 91.

Thomas M. Howes, M.D. (M.D.’60/M), of Potomac, Md., Oct. 1, 1978.

Gary N. Chandler (B.S.’76/B), of Hopewell, Va., Jan. 24, 2015, at age 62.

Patricia B. Stewart (M.S.’70/H&S), of Richmond, Va., April 3, 2015, at age 72.

Richard E. Hughes (B.S.’67/H&S), of Lanexa, Va., Aug. 29, 2014.

Larry S. Childers (B.S.’72/SW), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 18, 2015.

John M. Templeton Jr., M.D. (H.S.’73/M; H.L.D.’00), of Bryn Mawr, Pa., May 16, 2015, at age 75. L

Betty F. James (B.S.’60/E), of Glen Allen, Va., April 1, 2015, at age 78.

Dawnelle D. Cruze (M.S.W.’76/SW), of Portsmouth, Va., Dec. 17, 2014, at age 61.

Howard W. Vogt Jr. (B.S.’70/H&S), of Osprey, Fla., Nov. 24, 2014, at age 76.

Rev. Jack A. Kyle (Cert.’62/AHP), of Franklin, Pa., April 6, 2015, at age 82. M

Dawn C. Desmond (B.S.’78/MC), of Richmond, Va., Nov. 14, 2014, at age 60.

Phillip D. Ward, M.D. (M.D.’73/M), of St. Marys, Ga., April 16, 2013, at age 65.

Janet L. Gilliam (A.S.’65/N), of Hermitage, Pa., July 16, 2009, at age 74.

William S. Grabeel, M.D. (M.D.’60/M; H.S.’62/M), of Gordonsville, Va., April 23, 2015, at age 84.

Lawrence D. Hanback Jr., M.D. (M.D.’61/M; H.S.’62/M; H.S.’66/M; H.S.’68/M), of Winchester, Va., April 25, 2015, at age 83. L

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

Fall 2015

49

CLASSNOTES

Donald R. Yeatts (B.F.A.’70/A), of Sanford, Fla., Nov. 22, 2014, at age 69.

Rosanne J. Hooks, M.D. (M.D.’81/M), of Nichols, S.C., April 30, 2013.

Marguerite J. Young (M.S.W.’74/SW), of Virginia Beach, Va., Jan. 4, 2015, at age 80.

Christopher C. Johnson (B.S.’87/AHP), of New Port Richey, Fla., April 29, 2015, at age 57.

Robert A. Young Jr. (Cert.’76/AHP), of Richmond, Va., Feb. 14, 2015, at age 72.

Elizabeth A. Kaplan (M.I.S.’83/H&S), of Richmond, Va., March 23, 2014, at age 65.

Ernest W. Von Kauffmann (B.S.’72/E), of Portsmouth, Va., April 4, 2015, at age 70.

Anna M. Larkin (B.G.S.’80/H&S), of Oil City, Pa., Dec. 29, 2014, at age 73.

1990s David H. Bland (M.B.A.’92/B), of Wilmington, N.C., Jan. 16, 2015, at age 52.

Lawrence Bosworth (Cert.’96/B), of Saint Charles, Mo., Sept. 27, 2014, at age 70.

R. Blair Craig Jr. (B.A.’91/H&S; M.S.’94/AHP), of Richmond, Va., Feb. 16, 2015, at age 48.

Anne C. Miller (M.A.E.’81/A), of Glen Allen, Va., April 26, 2015, at age 88.

Audrey G. Eggleston (B.A.’92/H&S), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 31, 2015, at age 73. M

Gilbert G. Olsen II (B.S.’80/H&S), of Hartfield, Va., March 25, 2015, at age 56.

Carole E. Harris (M.S.’95/N), of Rocky Mount, N.C., March 29, 2015, at age 73. M

Richard Owen (B.M.E.’87/A), of Rockville, Va., June 2, 2003, at age 56.

Samuel P. Hoyt (B.F.A.’90/A), of Philadelphia, Nov. 22, 2014, at age 46.

Grace P. Rhinesmith (M.Ed.’87/E), of Walkerton, Va., Jan. 4, 2015.

Marsha Primus Jackson (B.S.’91/B), of Durham, N.C., July 23, 2010.

Gerald J. Robbins, M.D. (M.D.’83/M), of New Port Richey, Fla., May 16, 2015, at age 63. L

Sherida L. Jiggetts (B.S.’94/H&S), of Dinwiddie, Va., April 6, 2015, at age 43.

John F. Coogle (B.S.’85/B), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 16, 2015.

Basil E. Smith, M.D. (M.D.’82/M), of Uniontown, Ohio, April 8, 2014, at age 57.

Peggy J. Lawson (B.S.’91/E), of Henrico, Va., Dec. 31, 2002, at age 63.

William T. Desmond, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’84/H&S), of Richmond, Va., March 27, 2015, at age 68.

Lisa S. Storm (B.S.’81/N), of Spotsylvania, Va., Feb. 25, 2015, at age 57. L

John W. Maloney (M.S.’92/MC), of Richmond, Va., April 26, 2015.

Linda L. Eastman (M.S.W.’81/SW), of Poquoson, Va., Jan. 14, 2015, at age 71.

Irene T. Stuart (B.S.’81/AHP), of Lumberton, N.C., April 30, 2013, at age 54.

Kristine L. Massey-Clifford (B.M.’92/A), of Spotsylvania, Va., Feb. 12, 2015, at age 44.

Frank G. Greiner, M.D. (M.D.’84/M), of Mobile, Ala., April 30, 2015, at age 60. L

Mark K. Tyndall (B.A.’81/H&S), of Richmond, Va., March 18, 2015, at age 61.

Jeffrey S. Prosser (B.F.A.’94/A), of Ashland, Va., April 3, 2015, at age 47.

Cynthia L. Hembrough (B.S.’89/E), of Glenarm, Ill., March 23, 2015, at age 49.

Frances T. Whitaker (B.S.’88/B), of Chesterfield, Va., Jan. 19, 2007.

Daniel R. Rhodes, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’95/D), of Chesterfield, Va., May 9, 2015.

1980s Joseph H. Bogdan (B.S.’82/B), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 2, 2015, at age 75.

Douglas T. Boynton (M.S.’80/B), of Richmond, Va., Feb. 12, 2015, at age 77.

Lori E. Bryant (B.S.’83/E), of Midlothian, Va., Jan. 6, 2015, at age 62.

David L. Coflin (B.S.’84/B), of Telluride, Colo., Jan. 5, 2015, at age 54.

ABBREVIATION KEY College and schools

Degrees

H&S A AHP B D E En GPA

GS LS M MC

N P RI St.P SW WS

A.A., A.S. Associate degree Cert.

Certificate B.A. Bachelor of Arts B.F.A. Bachelor of Fine Arts B.G.S. Bachelor of General Studies B.I.S. Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies B.M. Bachelor of Music B.M.E. Bachelor of Music Education B.S. Bachelor of Science B.S.W. Bachelor of Social Work D.D.S. Doctor of Dental Surgery Dipl. Diploma D.N.A.P. Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice D.P.A. Doctor of Public Administration D.P.T. Doctor of Physical Therapy H.L.D. Doctor of Humane Letters H.S. House Staff M.A. Master of Arts M.Acc. Master of Accountancy M.A.E. Master of Art Education M.B.A. Master of Business Administration M.Bin. Master of Bioinformatics M.D. Doctor of Medicine

College of Humanities and Sciences School of the Arts School of Allied Health Professions School of Business School of Dentistry School of Education School of Engineering L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs Graduate School VCU Life Sciences School of Medicine Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture School of Nursing School of Pharmacy Office of Research and Innovation St. Philip School of Nursing School of Social Work School of World Studies

Alumni are identified by degree, graduation year and college or school.

50

VCU Alumni

M.Ed. M.Envs.

M.F.A. M.H.A. M.I.S. M.M. M.M.E. M.P.A. M.P.H. M.P.I. M.P.S. M.S. M.S.A.T. M.S.C.M. M.S.D. M.S.H.A. M.S.N.A. M.S.O.T. M.S.W. M.T. M.Tax. M.U.R.P. O.T.D. Pharm.D. Ph.D.

Master of Education Master of Environmental Studies Master of Fine Arts Master of Health Administration Master of Interdisciplinary Studies Master of Music Master of Music Education Master of Public Administration Master of Public Health Master of Product Innovation Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences Master of Science Master of Science in Athletic Training Master of Supply Chain Management Master of Science in Dentistry Master of Science in Health Administration Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia Master of Science in Occupational Therapy Master of Social Work Master of Teaching Master of Taxation Master of Urban and Regional Planning Post-professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate Doctor of Pharmacy Doctor of Philosophy

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

CLASSNOTES

Officers of the MCV Alumni Association of VCU PRESIDENT Michelle R. Peace, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’05/M) PRESIDENT-ELECT Ellen Byrne, D.D.S., Ph.D. (B.S.’77/P; D.D.S.’83/D; H.S.’91/D; Ph.D.’91/M) IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Kenneth W. Kolb, Pharm.D. (Pharm.D.’82/P)

MCV Alumni House An ideal location for all types of gatherings!

Are you looking for a great location to host a private party or reception? Do you need a room for your next meeting or event? Why not rent a room in the MCV Alumni House and Paul A. Gross Conference Center?

This great facility, located at the corner of 11th and Clay streets, includes formal parlors with vintage fireplaces and chandeliers, large multipurpose meeting rooms, a formal board room and small meeting rooms.

SECRETARY Tammy K. Swecker (B.S.’93/D; M.Ed.’05/E) TREASURER Rhonda L. Bishop (A.S.’88/AHP; B.I.S.’02/H&S; M.B.A.’06/B) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Gordon A. McDougall VICE PRESIDENTS Allied Health Professions Elizabeth Howell (M.S.N.A.’04/AHP) Dentistry Vacant Medicine Kelsey Salley, M.D. (M.D.’03/M; H.S.’06/M; H.S.’09/M) Nursing James Jenkins Jr. (B.S.’07/N) Pharmacy Bronwyn M. Burnham (B.A.’89/P)

Book your room today!

Active, dues-paying members receive a 25 percent discount on rental fees.

Call (804) 828-3900 or check out the virtual tour of the facility at vcualumni .org/about/mcvalumnihouse.

TRUSTEES Allied Health Professions Peter Kennedy (M.H.A.’10/AHP) Rebecca T. Perdue (B.S.’62/AHP) Basic Health Quynh Do (B.S.’01/H&S; M.P.H.’05/AHP) Jenica L. Harrison, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’09/M) Diane C. McKinney, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’00/M) Dentistry Renita W. Randolph, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’91/D) James H. Revere, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’65/D; H.S.’89/D) J. Neil Turnage, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’97/D) Medicine Clifford L. Deal III, M.D. (M.S.’95/M; M.D.’00/M; H.S.’05/M) Nursing Kristin Filler (B.S.’09/N) Trula E. Minton (B.S.’79/N; M.S.’88/N) Pharmacy Joseph E. Hopper (B.S.’89/P) J. Tyler Stevens, Pharm.D. (Pharm.D.’06/P) MCV CAMPUS SGA PRESIDENT Keith Zirkle

Fall 2015

51

CLASSNOTES

Ralph K. Slusher, D.D.S. (D.D.S.’91/D), of Altavista, Va., Feb. 14, 2015.

David L. Smith, Ph.D. (B.A.’98/H&S), of Lakeland, Fla., Dec. 11, 2014, at age 50.

Betty L. Tyler (B.S.’92/AHP), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 11, 2015.

Carla J. Urquhart (B.S.’90/MC), of Alexandria, Va., March 29, 2015.

2000s Peter E. Imhof (M.F.A.’05/H&S), of Richmond, Va., Jan. 5, 2015, at age 76. L Morgan L. Keller (B.S.’09/H&S), of Herndon, Va., May 18, 2013.

Elizabeth B. Kirkland (M.S.W.’00/SW; Cert.’00/ AHP), of Goochland, Va., April 3, 2015.

Connie B. Madison (B.I.S.’06/H&S), of Sandston, Va., Feb. 5, 2015.

2010s Joy A. Bruce, Ph.D. (Ph.D.’11/AHP), of Dahlonega, Ga., April 25, 2015, at age 43.

Katie J. Tripp (B.S.’11/AHP), of Prince George, Va., April 29, 2015, at age 28.

Faculty and staff James W. Bailey, of Springfield, Va., Feb. 11, 2015, at age 95. Bailey was a retired professor and administrator in the School of Education.

Pearl E. Banian, of Richmond, Va., Jan. 5, 2015, at age 85. She was a retired maintenance employee of MCV Hospitals.

Laurence E. Capen, of Richmond, Va., Jan. 5, 2015.

He served in the Navy for 20 years and then worked for VCU Facilities Management until his retirement from the university in 1995.

Clifton E. Dixon, of Russellville, Ky., Dec. 6, 2014, at age 82. He retired in 1996 as a professor of film and cinematography at the School of the Arts.

Melissa E. Exum, Ph.D., former vice provost for student affairs, April 22, 2015, at age 54. Exum joined the VCU community in summer 2014. She brought to VCU more than 25 years of universitylevel experience in a variety of student affairs leadership roles, having served as vice president of student affairs at Purdue University from August 2010 until her arrival. She also served in student affairs leadership positions at the University of North Carolina and Ohio University. Exum earned her doctorate degree in higher education administration at Ohio University, her master’s degree in medical sociology from University of Maryland-Baltimore County and her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Wake Forest University.

52

VCU Alumni

Richard C. Hard Jr., M.D., of Sandy Hook, Va., Feb. 16, 2015, at age 81. He served as a research pathologist and professor of medicine.

Linda H. Johnson, of Richmond, Va., Dec. 31, 2014, at age 66. She retired as secretary to the dean of the VCU School of Nursing.

F. Stanford Massie Sr., M.D., of Midlothian, Va., June 26, 2014, at age 79. He taught general pediatrics from 1967-77 and developed the first board-approved training program in pediatric allergy in Virginia. In 1977, he entered private practice and maintained that practice for 37 years, first in solo practice, then for 12 years with Richmond Allergy and Asthma Specialists. While in practice, he returned to VCU in 1983 to serve as a clinical professor of pediatrics. He was a co-founder of the Virginia Allergy and Asthma Society and served as president twice.

Kathleen C. Morris, of Mechanicsville, Va., Jan. 12, 2015, at age 64. She retired from the university as an administrative assistant at VCU Libraries.

Richard L. Newdick, of Sarasota, Fla., March 20, 2015, at age 83. He came to Richmond Professional Institute in 1966, which two years later became VCU. Over the next 30 years, he transformed the university’s Department of Theatre in the School of the Arts into one of the most highly regarded academic theater departments in Virginia and across the country. At VCU, he taught acting, directing, theater administration and dramatic literature. He directed a number of productions for TheatreVCU and its summer theater, FanFare. As he rose to professor of theater, he served in positions including assistant chair of the department from 1984-88 and chair from 1989-96. A tireless and generous supporter of VCU and TheatreVCU, he gave VCU an initial gift in 2009 to establish the Richard and William Newdick Theatre Scholarship, also named for his deceased brother. It is awarded to an undergraduate who has exhibited outstanding engagement in and commitment to theater. At the rededication of the Shafer Street Playhouse, the Richard Newdick Theatre was named in his honor.

Betsy Rossi, of Lawrence Township, N.J., Jan. 2, 2015, at age 61. She taught music at Chesterfield Elementary School for 18 years before pursuing a position in planned giving at the Deborah Heart and Lung Foundation. She also served as the planned giving and major gifts officer at the College of New Jersey and as the director of development for the VCU School of Education. L David Shipp, of Richmond, Va., April 9, 2015, at age 62. Shipp joined VCU’s English Language Program as faculty in 1993, teaching English speaking, reading, writing and listening skills to language learners from around the globe. He was devoted to his students outside the classroom as well, actively participat-

ing in monthly outings and cultural excursions for international students for the past 10 years. Shipp earned an M.A. in speech communication, an M.S. in recreation and parks and a B.A. in psychology, all from the Pennsylvania State University.

Harold L. Smith, Ph.D. (B.S.’56/P; Ph.D.’62/P), of Richmond, Va., April 17, 2015, at age 87. An emeritus faculty member in the School of Pharmacy, he served in the Virginia Air National Guard during the Korean War. After military service, he attended the University of Richmond and the Medical College of Virginia. He completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Michigan, worked for Lederle Laboratories and then returned to Richmond and joined the faculty of the MCV School of Pharmacy, where he taught until his retirement in 1996. He also served as an assistant director in the Department of Pharmaceutics’ clinical studies unit for many years and continued to consult with that unit in retirement.

Mary A. Stukes, of Richmond, Va., Jan. 14, 2015, at age 83. She was on the housekeeping staff.

Friends of VCU Franklin P. Hall, of Richmond, Va., May 26, 2015, at age 76. A leading attorney in the region for more than four decades, he was a principal with the firm of Hall & Hall Family Law and helped lead the Richmond Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. He was appointed in 2014 by Gov. Terry McAuliffe to the VCU Board of Visitors and he served as a member of the VCU Health System Authority board. His unwavering commitment to ethics and vast knowledge of the law helped make him a prominent and skilled legislator. He worked alongside then-U.S. Senate Majority Whip Hubert H. Humphrey and remained on Humphrey’s staff when he served as vice president to Lyndon Johnson. Most of Hall’s life and political career, however, were dedicated to the people of Virginia. He represented the 69th District (Richmond City, Chesterfield County) in the Virginia House of Delegates for nearly 25 years, including a stint as House Democratic Leader. He was also a member of the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control commission; served on the board of directors of First Community Bank; and served on the leadership boards of the Richmond and Virginia Metro Jaycees and the Richmond Area Young Democrats.

Ann P. Maust, Ph.D., of Richmond, Va., Feb. 19, 2015. Maust was a member of the VCU Virginia Treatment Center for Children advisory board.

In 1998, she began efforts to create a nonprofit organization, New Visions, New Ventures, dedicated to developing entrepreneurial opportunities for disadvantaged individuals, particularly women. NVNV raised millions of dollars over 15 years and served thousands of individuals.

M Member of the alumni association

L Life member of the alumni association

Check out more university and alumni events at vcualumni.org and events.vcu.edu.

DATEBOOK Rams on the Road Join VCU Alumni as we travel around the country to catch the men’s basketball team in action this season. Come hang out with us at a pregame reception and then join us for the game as we cheer on the Rams. More details are available at vcualumni.org/Events/Rams-on-the-Road.

Jan. 5 at St. Joseph’s Pregame social 5 p.m., Game 7 p.m.

Jan. 10 at Saint Louis Pregame social 2 p.m. CST, Game 4 p.m. CST Jan. 29 at Davidson Pregame social 4 p.m., Game 6 p.m.

Feb. 3 at LaSalle Pregame social and game time TBA Feb. 24 at George Mason Pregame social and game time TBA Feb. 27 at George Washington Pregame social 10:30 a.m., Game 12:30 p.m.

March 9 in New York City A-10 Alumni and Friends Reception 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Fall 2015

53

Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage Paid RICHMOND, VA Permit No. 869

Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Alumni 1016 East Clay Street P.O. Box 980156 Richmond, Virginia 23298-0156

Alumni ID number:

“I enjoy many of the benefits of membership. One of the greatest values has been the exclusive savings I receive on auto insurance from Nationwide. I save about $150 each year with Nationwide over my previous auto plan. It’s personalized coverage that meets my needs, at a discount.”

– James Jenkins Jr. (B.S.’07/N)

Life membership has its benefits.

Join James and the more than 7,000 other Rams for Life who have demonstrated their lifelong loyalty to VCU. Become a Life member or upgrade today at vcualumni.org.