UGA Columns Oct. 8, 2018

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UGA physician develops way to track tuberculosis using cellphone records RESEARCH NEWS

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Faculty Artist Series concert promotes family ties and musicianship Vol. 46, No. 11

October 8, 2018

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4&5

Former CDC director slated to give keynote address at conference

By Lauren Baggett lbaggett@uga.edu

Student ambassadors from several schools and colleges across campus joined UGA President Jere W. Morehead to thank donors at the 2018 Presidents Club Reception.

‘Key motivators’ University honors leadership-level donors at 2018 Presidents Club Reception

By Clarke Schwabe ccschwabe@uga.edu

The university hosted a reception on Sept. 28 to recognize fiscal year 2018 Presidents Club members. These leadershiplevel donors collectively contributed over $130 million to the Commit to Georgia Campaign in FY18. Over 900 members attended the event, which was held in the Tate Student Center Grand Hall.

“With the dedication and support of the Presidents Club, the University of Georgia is expanding its positive impact on lives

and communities all across this great state and around the world,” said President Jere W. Morehead.

“It is a special time at a special place, and the future of our beloved university has never looked brighter.”

Established in 1973, the Presidents Club includes donors who give at least $1,500 each fiscal year.

Members’ annual gifts are put to immediate use in areas that matter most to the donors.

Presidents Club members are playing a leading role in advancing the university’s strategic priorities of increasing scholarship support for students, enhancing the

learning environment and solving grand challenges.

Many faculty and staff choose to give at the annual leadership level.

In fiscal year 2018, 394 Presidents Club members were current or retired faculty and staff.

“Presidents Club members are key motivators behind the efforts that have set UGA on the upward trajectory we enjoy today,” said Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Kelly Kerner.

“The leadership demonstrated by these individuals is inspiring, and University of Georgia students will benefit from their giving for years to come.”

HONORS PROGRAM

Foundation Fellowships awarded to 20 students

By Stephanie Schupska schupska@uga.edu

This fall, the University of Georgia welcomed 20 of the top students from around the nation into its incoming class for 20182019 through the Foundation Fellowship, the highest academic scholarship the university awards.

These new Foundation Fellows had an average SAT of 1555, an average ACT of 35.2 and an average high school GPA of 4.34 on a 4.0 scale—extra points indicate advanced placement courses.

Administered by the UGA Honors Program, the Foundation Fellowship was created in 1972 by trustees of the UGA Foundation to enrich the educational experience of outstanding undergraduates.

This year’s recipients were selected from 1,200-plus applicants.

Through the Fellowship, instate students receive an annual

stipend of $12,300 and the Zell Miller Scholarship. Out-of-state students receive an annual stipend of $20,300 and out-of-state tuition waivers. In addition to group travel-study experiences, including a Maymester study abroad at Oxford University and three spring trips, Fellows also receive $9,000 in individual travel grants and up to $1,750 to fund research and academic conference attendance.

The 20 new Foundation Fellows, listed below with their high school, hometown and major, bring the number of current recipients to 88: • Robyn Evelyn Anzulis; South Carroll High School; Woodbine, Maryland; applied mathematics and economics.

• Luke Joseph Armao; Archbishop Hoban High School; Fairlawn, Ohio; biology (neuroscience concentration) and computer science.

• Eva-Michelle Belikova;

Woodstock High School; Woodstock; biology.

• Claire E. Bunn; Marion Senior High School; Marion, Arkansas; biochemistry and statistics.

• Keaton Patrick Coletti; North Oconee High School; Bogart; business, economics and engineering.

• Emma Calhoun Ellis; Lovett School; Atlanta; genetics and Romance languages.

• Elizabeth Ann Esser; Cedarburg High School; Cedarburg, Wisconsin; genetics.

• Emma Chandler Innes Hale; Charlottesville High School; Charlottesville, Virginia; criminal justice and history.

• Edward Tatum Hunda; Wheeler High School; Acworth; animal science.

• Jena M. Jibreen; Collins Hill High School; Lawrenceville; ­international affairs.

• Jamil Fayazali Kassam; G ­ winnett See FELLOWS on page 8

Public health luminary Dr. William Foege will give a special keynote address at the 2018 State of the Public’s Health conference on Oct. 18 at the UGA Center for Continuing Education and Hotel. The presentation begins at 3:30 p.m., and a book signing will follow at 4:30 p.m. All members of the public and the UGA community are invited to attend.

Foege’s talk will trace the history of modern public health and his contributions to the field to deliver “essentials for good public health programs.”

Foege directed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1977-1983, going on to co-found the Task Force for Global Health in 1984. He is credited with developing the global strategy leading to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s and improving immunization rates in developing countries in the 1980s.

Foege was an original consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and currently serves as a Senior Fellow. He also served as the executive director of The Carter Center from 1986-1992.

His many awards and honors

See HEALTH on page 8

CAES, SOCIAL WORK, FACS

Rural stress roundtable to lay groundwork for healthier America

By J. Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu

The challenges facing rural America today are diverse, and the answers to rural issues won’t come from a single expert or institution.

That’s why the University of Georgia is convening its first forum on rural stress, bringing together experts from across the nation to unpack the underlying causes of the challenges facing rural Americans—economic stagnation, opioid dependence, population migration, increasing suicide rates—and help build an interdisciplinary framework for finding solutions.

“Rural Stress: Promising Practices and Future Directions” will be held in Atlanta Dec. 10-11 at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta-Airport.

Interested stakeholders, local officials, business leaders and academic

researchers studying rural issues are welcome to attend. Faculty of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the UGA School of Social Work are hosting the forum.

The hope is to leverage the existing organizational and outreach structure of land-grant universities and the Cooperative Extension System to find solutions.

“The role of land-grant institutions has always been to connect the needs of people with the research-based resources that come from our universities,” said Sam Pardue, dean and director of CAES. “Since before the Great Depression and the farm crisis of the 1980s—when rural communities were in trouble—land-grant See RURAL on page 8

FRANKLIN COLLEGE

Researcher receives award to study stress exposure in children

By Alan Flurry

aflurry@uga.edu

Stressful life experiences, whether it is poverty, exposure to trauma or other adversities, can get under the skin and influence health. Though the field of social determinants of health is relatively new, abundant evidence now links exposure to social and environmental stress with physical health in adulthood.

A new University of Georgia research project funded by the National Institutes of Health seeks to determine whether stressful life experiences have a more immediate effect on children’s health. The

$2.3 million D i r e c t o r ’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research proKatherine Ehrlich gram will implement a new approach to examine how stress exposure is linked to children’s antibody response to vaccination.

Because the means of analysis used to measure health in adults— blood pressure, inflammation, predisease markers, cardio-metabolic

See AWARD on page 8

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HONORS PROGRAM

GRADY COLLEGE

Journalism professor named to Morris Chair

Nine undergraduate students named Ramsey Honors Scholars

By Stephanie Schupska schupska@uga.edu

File photo

Keith Herndon has been named to the William S. Morris Chair in News Strategy and Management in Grady College.

By Sarah E. Freeman freemans@uga.edu

Keith Herndon, a professor of practice in journalism, has been named to the William S. Morris Chair in News Strategy and Management by the dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

“Keith Herndon is an innovator, an academic entrepreneur who works tirelessly on behalf of Grady students,” said Charles N. Davis, dean of Grady College. “I am delighted to see him uphold the proud legacy of the Morris Chair, which traces its roots to the legendary Conrad Fink. This is an important time for building leadership in journalism, as we work with our colleagues in the profession to help create new ways of producing and monetizing the work we do—and I can’t think of a better person to spearhead these efforts at Grady College.”

Herndon is the third professor to hold the Morris Chair.

The late Conrad Fink, a legendary Grady professor, was the initial Morris Chair. He was followed by Professor Kent Middleton, who was head of the journalism department and is now professor emeritus. The program began in 1995 as a named professorship and was elevated to an endowed chair in 2005.

William S. Morris III established the chair in memory of his late father, William S. Morris Jr., who joined the Augusta Chronicle as a bookkeeper in 1929 and rose through the ranks to publisher. He became the controlling partner in 1945 and developed the company into one of Georgia’s leading communications organizations.

“We honor the legacy of those represented by this chair—its namesake, its creator and the professors who held it—by moving forward with the challenge of training a next generation of news leaders who are prepared to defend the news media’s vital role in our democracy,” Herndon said.

Funding provided by the endowment will be used to expand graduate education in the area of news strategy and management through new academic and applied research initiatives. These plans include a new doctoral research fellowship and a new master’s level graduate assistantship. Plans also include expanding Herndon’s collaborations and projects with UGA’s Fanning Institute for Leadership Development in the areas of strategic and ethical leadership.

Herndon will continue as director of the James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Journalism Innovation, Management and Leadership where he leads the Cox Institute Leaders program and the Grady Mobile News Lab. Herndon, a Grady alumnus from the class of 1982, taught at Grady as a lecturer in fall 2011. He returned the following year as a visiting professor and held that position until joining the full-time faculty in 2016. Herndon earned a Master of Liberal Studies from the University of Oklahoma in 1997 and completed a doctorate in media and information from Australia’s Curtin University in 2011. Prior to teaching at Grady, he ran his own media and technology consulting firm and taught part time at Kennesaw State University.

Previously, he worked at Cox Enterprises’ Internet division, serving as vice president of operations and vice president for planning and product development. He managed strategic partnerships and led technical diligence on Cox’s new media investments, serving on the board of directors of an investment recipient. He was also director of operations at Cox Radio Interactive, a pioneer in streaming media.

Herndon began his career while at Grady, working as a reporter for his hometown paper in Elberton, and then as a sportswriter for the Anderson Independent in South Carolina and the Athens Banner-Herald. After graduation, he was a Pulliam Journalism Fellow with The Indianapolis News. He was a business reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before becoming assistant business editor, deputy business editor and administrative editor.

Herndon is the author of The Decline of the Daily Newspaper: How an American Institution Lost the Online Revolution, which was published by Peter Lang in 2012. He also has published two books about entrepreneurship and innovation.

Nine undergraduates for the incoming class of 2018-2019 are attending the University of Georgia through the Ramsey Honors Scholarship, one of the highest awards the university grants its students.

These new Ramsey Honors Scholars had an average SAT of 1586, an average ACT of 34.5 and an average high school GPA of 4.22 on a 4.0 scale—extra points indicate advanced placement courses.

Administered by the UGA Honors Program, the Ramsey Honors Scholars program was created by UGA Foundation trustees in 2000 and recognizes the university’s most generous individual benefactor to date, Bernard Ramsey, the former chairman of Merrill Lynch and a 1937 graduate of UGA’s Terry College of Business.

The scholarship awards in-state students an annual stipend of $6,160 and the Zell Miller Scholarship, while out-of-state students receive an annual stipend of $10,160 and an out-of-state tuition waiver. Ramsey Scholars also receive $3,000 in travel-study grants for additional academic opportunities and four funded spring servicelearning trips.

The nine incoming Ramsey Scholars, listed below with their high school, hometown and major, bring the current number on campus to 36: • Yehia Abdelsamad; Baker Early College; Wilsonville, Oregon; biology.

Nine undergraduates have been named Ramsey Honors Scholars. They had an average SAT of 1586, an average ACT of 34.5 and an average high school GPA of 4.22 on a 4.0 scale.

• Marshall Dean Berton; North Springs Charter High School; Sandy Springs; business and international affairs.

• Rosasharn Lilly Brown; Weber School; Marietta; political science.

• Alex Joshua Eldridge; Dunwoody High School; Dunwoody; mathematics.

• Rachel Aubrey Mattson; Hampton High School; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; biochemistry.

• Eric Nathan Miller; North Springs Charter High School; Sandy Springs; computer science and mathematics.

PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

• Austin Michael Stack; Research Triangle High School; Morrisville, North Carolina; biochemical engineering.

• William Frank Swenton III; Cambridge High School; Milton; genetics.

• Garrett H. Williams; Liberty North High School; Kansas City, Missouri; finance.

The Ramsey Honors Scholars are enrolled in the UGA Honors Program, which had 745 new students this fall.

Overall, these new Honors students had an average high school GPA of 4.11, an average SAT of 1510 and an average ACT of 33.7.

OFFICE OF RESEARCH

Speaker details conflicts that Principal deputy director of NIH discusses research created America’s identity

By Shelby R. Steuart

Shelby.Steuart@uga.edu

On Sept. 17, the School of Public and International Affairs and the American Founding Group hosted a Constitution Day observance that culminated with a lecture by Carol Berkin.

Berkin’s lecture, “Born in Crisis: The Emergence in the 1790s of an American Identity,” highlights Constitution Day’s relevance by illuminating how the Constitution guided the U.S. through conflicts in the past, just as it guides the country today. By outlining the first four American crises, all of which happened after the Constitution was signed, Berkin argued that the Constitution provided the framework for a nation, but it was the conflicts afterward that created an American identity.

Berkin said that people often believe that once the Constitution was signed, America instantly had the money, power and legitimacy of an established nation.

However, Berkin said, “It is a deeper appreciation of the contingency, the uncertainty and the sheer fragility of our grand experiment in nation-building that in the beginning I hope to create and re-create in my book A Sovereign People.”

During the 1790s, there were four major crises: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Genet Affair, the XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France. Berkin discussed how the four conflicts brought 13 sovereign nations together to call themselves a union.

“Each [conflict] posed a unique challenge either to the authority of the federal government itself or to American sovereignty and independence from foreign control or to the legitimacy of the Constitution itself,” she said.

Berkin’s work also is a reminder of the power and charisma of the executive branch. According to her, the executive branch isn’t inherently compelling but rather it depends on the president for charm. She explained this by outlining how George Washington’s skill and composure during the Genet Affair was what first brought influence to the executive branch.

Berkin has won numerous awards for her research in American history and women’s roles in early Colonial history. She’s contributed to the History Channel, PBS and television documentaries.

By Allyson Mann tiny@uga.edu

The importance of basic research should not be forgotten, according to Larry Tabak, principal deputy director at the National Institutes of Health.

“We sometimes overlook that in our quest for the next cure,” he said. “We sometimes forget that that next cure came from work that was probably done 10, 20, 30, 40 or more years ago.”

Visiting campus Sept. 21, Tabak spoke to a standingroom-only crowd of more than 100 faculty and students, giving the audience an insider’s view of NIH. He touched on a number of topics, including funding, changes driven by technology and issues affecting the practice of science.

Currently the NIH has a $37 billion budget, and a proposed spending bill would add another $11 billion.

“We have this extraordinary moment in time where the only thing that the Congress seems to agree on is their support for NIH,” Tabak said.

Eighty-nine percent of the agency’s budget goes to universities for research and research training, where discoveries stemming from basic research—like the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9—can be revolutionary.

When Tabak was trained, individual cancers like colon, breast and lung were approached differently. Now, access to molecular signatures reveals that sometimes a colonic cancer is more like ovarian cancer than other colonic cancers.

“It really is about the individual cancer,” he said.

And genome sequencing, with pricing and turnaround time driven down by technology, allows physicians to plan treatments based on a cancer’s molecular signature.

NIH will take this idea one step further by the end of the year, beginning human trials in which patients’ diseased cells will be extracted, corrected with gene editing and reinserted.

Tabak also shared concerns about issues essential to maintaining the health and viability of the research enterprise. He emphasized the importance of rigor and reproducibility, concepts that are sometimes compromised by reliance on small sample sizes, a lack of randomization and cell lines that are contaminated or misidentified.

“People think of this in a linear way—basic research begets translational begets cures,” he said. “In fact, looking at patients who are undergoing curative therapy very often gives you the next basic science question. It’s a circle.”

RESEARCH NEWS

columns.uga.edu Oct. 8, 2018

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Digest Tickets on sale for 2019 Freedom Breakfast scheduled for Jan. 18

Andrew Davis Tucker

Christopher Whalen, right, professor of infectious disease epidemiology in UGA’s College of Public Health, discusses his research involving tuberculosis with epidemiology doctoral candidate Leonardo Martinez.

‘Hot spots’

UGA physician tracks tuberculosis using cellphone records

By Lauren Baggett lbaggett@uga.edu

Tuberculosis is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide, and though the World Health Organization has said the average global burden of disease is on the decline, some areas of the world continue to feel its impact.

Researchers at the University of Georgia have received a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to understand the local epidemiology of TB in African urban settings and help these communities develop targeted interventions to reduce transmission.

Led by physician and epidemiologist Christopher Whalen at UGA’s College of Public Health, the team will estimate where TB is being transmitted by combining information about patient movement with genetic information from the bacteria itself. Understanding where transmission is happening is the key to effective control, said Whalen.

The standard approach to tuberculosis control today relies on detection and treatment of tuberculosis disease, but this approach doesn’t work in areas where the disease burden is high.

“By the time a case is diagnosed and treated, the next generation of cases has already been newly infected,” he said.

Whalen has been working with colleagues at Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda, for years trying to discover better ways to limit TB transmission.

From 2012 to 2017, Whalen conducted a study to track how TB moves within communities, but his findings were perplexing. The infection didn’t seem to spread within known social networks. That begged the question, where is transmission occurring?

“Then it dawned on me,” said Whalen. “Everyone is carrying a cellphone.

By using archived cellphone records, we would be able to map where TB cases move and measure how much time they spent in different places.”

Whalen’s team collected preliminary data using cellphone records from 15 TB patients, and they found that these patients tended to go to the same spots.

“There are hot spots, or places where TB patients spend a lot of time.

With this information, you can target areas with the usual community control strategies, such as TB screening, active case finding and education. If you collect this cellphone information going forward, you’ll be able to see if your control strategies worked,” said Whalen.

The new project will expand Whalen’s previous work to include genomic information about the organisms that will reveal the order and timing of TB infection among the cases. When this information is combined with the mobility data, the team will be able to map where transmission is occurring at different levels within Kampala.

Whalen hopes this approach will provide an actionable prevention tool for tuberculosis control programs in communities facing a high disease burden.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Zeist Foundation gift supports graduate program

By Kathryn Kao kath1@uga.edu

The University of Georgia has received a $200,000 gift from The Zeist Foundation that will help educators receive the training they need to better serve children with dyslexia.The gift will support two cohorts of teachers from the Purpose Built Schools network as they pursue the UGA College of Education’s online Graduate Certificate in Dyslexia.

In 2016, the foundation provided a $25,000 gift to launch the certificate program, which has since moved online to serve a wider audience of working educators, clinicians and specialists.

The program helps these practitioners provide more timely and effective interventions for students with reading disabilities like dyslexia, which is a neurobiological, language-based learning disorder characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word reading and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

In addition to providing tuition assistance for certificate candidates, funding

from The Zeist Foundation supports mentorship and professional training from The Schenck School and the Dyslexia Resource Trust, institutions that specialize in serving dyslexic students and have been integral in expanding access to this program for teachers in the Atlanta area.

“We are excited to partner with the University of Georgia and The Schenck School in addressing this critical need,” said Kappy deButts, executive director of The Zeist Foundation. “UGA is leading an important effort to increase access to essential knowledge and training, and in turn, increase the number of young people who get the support they need.”

The Graduate Certificate in Dyslexia, which is co-directed by associate professors Jennifer Lindstrom and Kristin Sayeski, is a two-year program that provides educators with specific knowledge and skills related to reading difficulties, including assessment, instruction and remediation. No other institution of higher education in Georgia offers focused training in dyslexia as part of its graduate degree programs

or as a stand-alone graduate certificate program.

“The Zeist gift allowed us to partner with Purpose Built Schools of Atlanta, which serves students in some of Atlanta Public Schools’ lowest-income communities. This mutually beneficial partnership will enhance training for the Purpose Built teachers and give UGA faculty and our partners at Schenck the opportunity to engage directly in the aim that drives our work—unlocking literacy for vulnerable populations,” said Sayeski.

The program’s online coursework accommodates the schedules of working educators. An intensive practicum experience focused on delivering reading interventions to children ensures that candidates receive hands-on training.

This gift aligns with The Zeist Foundation’s mission to embrace a holistic approach to addressing the needs of underserved children in the areas of human services, education and arts and culture, and specifically with their efforts to address critical deficits in the area of diagnosing and addressing dyslexia.

The 16th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast will be held Jan. 18 at 8 a.m. in the Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center.

Recipients of the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Awards will be announced at the breakfast, which is open to the public.

The awards recognize individuals from UGA, the Athens area and surrounding counties who have made significant efforts to carry on King’s work. (See Bulletin Board, page 8.)

Tickets are $25 each or $200 for a table of eight. They may be purchased online at https://bit.ly/2QbcH9S. Tickets will not be sold the day of the event, and initial ticket sales are limited to one table.

To request more than one table, email Sonya Sinkfield-Dixon at diverse@uga.edu.

College of Environment and Design to hold discussion on affordable housing

Each year the design firm of HGOR in Atlanta funds a lecture or panel at the UGA College of Environment and Design, a presentation meant to engage practitioners and students in cutting edge environmental design discussion.

HGOR’s founding partner and principal, Robert Hughes, who is a 1977 UGA alumnus, will moderate this year’s panel discussion on Oct. 17. Open free to the public, the panel discussion will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Room 123 of the Jackson Street Building.

The topic will be affordable housing in the 21st century. Included on the panel will be Casey Dawkins, John Goff, Cecil Phillips, Matt Samuelson and Denise Starling. Using Atlanta as a case study, the panel will explore local and national implications for affordable housing in challenging urban growth areas.

Dawkins is a professor at the University of Maryland and a research associate at the National Center for Smart Growth there. Goff is chair of Atlanta’s Urban Land Institute, Livable Communities Council, and his focus will be on transit-oriented design. Phillips, who has a housing development background and is former chair of the Atlanta Housing Authority, will provide current thinking about changing needs and how affordability is approached from a design, construction and a demographic standpoint. Starling is currently head of Livable Buckhead, which is undergoing a study focused on affordability versus mobility in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. She will speak to the challenges of tackling affordability in a part of the city with great wealth and one of the largest concentrations of employment.

Samuelson has a development and construction background in public-private mixed use. He will address challenges he has encountered across the country, including financing and construction of affordable housing.

Georgia Debate Union finishes second at season-opening tournament

The Georgia Debate Union finished in second place at the season-opening college debate tournament held at Georgia State University.

The Georgia State tournament featured 140 teams from around the country, including teams from Harvard, Georgetown, Northwestern, Cornell, Vanderbilt, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Michigan, among many others.

UGA seniors Advait Ramanan and Swapnil Agrawal lost a 2-1 decision to a team from Harvard University in the final round. On their way to the finals, Ramanan and Agrawal defeated teams from the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, Emory University and Wake Forest University.

PERIODICALS POSTAGE STATEMENT Columns (USPS 020-024) is published weekly during the academic year and

biweekly during the summer for the faculty and staff of the University of Georgia by the Division of Marketing & Communications. Periodicals postage is paid in Athens, Georgia. Postmaster: Send off-campus address changes to Columns, UGA Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-1999.

For a complete listing of events at the University of Georgia, check the Master Calendar on the web (calendar.uga.edu/­).

The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified.

Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.

UGAGUIDE

EXHIBITIONS

For Home and Country: World War I Posters from the Blum Collection. Through Nov. 18. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Vernacular Modernism: The Photography of Doris Ulmann.

Through Nov. 18. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Nature Speaks: Artworks by Katherine Mitchell and Diane Kempler. Through Dec. 7. Jackson Street Building. mtufts@uga.edu.

Poppies: Women, War, Peace. Through Dec. 14. Special collections libraries. 706-542-7123. jclevela@uga.edu.

War of Words: Propaganda of World War I. Through Dec. 14.

Special collections libraries. 706-542-7123. jclevela@uga.edu.

One Heart, One Way: The Journey of a Princely Art Collection.

Through Jan. 6. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Fighting Spirit: Wally Butts and UGA Football, 1939-1950.

Through May 10. Rotunda, special collections libraries.

706-542-8079. jclevela@uga.edu.

MONDAY, OCT. 8 COLUMBUS DAY Classes in session; offices open.

SMALL GROUP TRAINING WEEK Through Oct. 14. Try any of the Small Group Training classes for free. 6 a.m. Ramsey Student Center. 706-542-50560. lisawilliamson@uga.edu.

FACULTY CONCERT “Pardon My French,” a faculty recital of French bassoon music, featuring Amy Pollard, bassoon, and Greg Hankins, piano.

7:30 p.m. Ramsey Hall, Performing Arts Center.

TUESDAY, OCT. 9 ONE HEALTH SEMINAR “The United Nations and its One Health approach,” Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. 11 a.m. S175 Coverdell Center.

706-542-5568. ssanchez@uga.edu.

ECOLOGY SEMINAR “Limits to Predictability in Community Ecology,” Benjamin Blonder, assistant professor, Macrosystems Ecology Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. Host: John Drake. Reception follows seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the ecology building lobby. 3:30 p.m. Auditorium, ecology building.

706-542-2968. bethgav@uga.edu.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10

DISEASE ECOLOGY SEMINAR “Dengue since Zika: Characterizing Potential Impacts of Zika Emergence on Endemic Dengue Transmission,” Rebecca Borchering, postdoctoral associate, University of Florida. In this seminar, participants examine dengue incidence data from Brazil and Colombia from before, during and after the Zika epidemic. 12:20 p.m. Conference room, Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases. 706-542-1930. tross312@uga.edu.

ARTFUL CONVERSATION Callan Steinmann, curator of education, will lead a group conversation on Gerald Brockhurst’s painting “Portrait of Jeanne Laib (Levin).” 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

ALL-ACCESS PASS SERIES Join the UGA Libraries and WUOG for a screening of Sonita (2015, 1 hour, 30 minutes). After her family attempts to sell her into marriage, a young Afghan refugee in Iran channels her frustrations and seizes her destiny through music. 7 p.m. Instruction Lab, Main Library. 706-542-1114. amywatts@uga.edu.

CONCERT Julie Fowlis, who sings the theme song to Brave, Disney-Pixar’s Academy Award-winning animated film set in the medieval highlands of Scotland, performs Music of the Scottish Isles, sharing traditions of her homeland. Tickets start at $25.

7:30 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center.

706-542-4400. ugaarts@uga.edu.

THURSDAY, OCT. 11 CONNECT TO PROTECT NATIVE PLANT SALE Also Oct. 12. Join the staff and volunteers of the Mimsie Lanier Center for plant-shopping among 100 Georgia native plant species. Native plant experts can guide selections. All of the plants are grown at the garden, the majority from locally collected seeds, and all without harmful chemicals. All sales benefit the center’s conservation efforts and the “Connect to Protect” community outreach program. 4 p.m. Mimsie Lanier Center, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6132.

FACULTY/STAFF GOLF CLINIC The University of Georgia Golf Course will host a free golf clinic at the driving range for UGA staff and faculty. Players from all skill levels are welcome to participate. Topics include driving and chipping. To reserve a space, email PGA Golf Instructor Clint Udell at cudell96@uga.edu and indicate if you would like to borrow golf clubs for the clinic. 6 p.m. Driving range, UGA Golf Course. 706-369-5739. (See Bulletin Board, Page 8.)

FILM SCREENING In O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) is having difficulty adjusting to his hard-labor sentence in Mississippi. He scams his way off the chain gang with simple Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and maladjusted Pete (John

ARCO Chamber Orchestra set to perform Russian romantic music at Oct. 9 concert

By Yeasol Kang

yeasol89@uga.edu

The ARCO Chamber Orchestra’s first concert of the season will take place in Hodgson Concert Hall Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

The ensemble will perform chamber works by Alexander Arensky and Mikhail Glinka as well as Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, arranged by award winning composer Igor Kholopov.

“The concert program includes rarely performed masterpieces as well as a foreign premiere,” said Levon Ambartsumian, conductor and Franklin Professor of Violin.“Glinka’s chamber music rarely gets performed.

There are no commercial recordings. And Mussorgsky’s arrangement is a foreign premiere. I believe this version is more stylistically and emotionally closer to the original than Ravel’s version.”

For the first part of the program, the ensemble will perform Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky Op.35a, composed in 1894 by Arensky as a tribute to Tchaikovsky’s death. The set of variations are based on a theme from Tchaikovsky’s children’s song “A Legend, Op. 54/5.”

Featuring Hodgson piano professor Evgeny Rivkin, ARCO will perform Grand Sextet in E Flat Major, one of the few chamber music pieces composed by Glinka.

The second half of the concert will feature Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.This work was originally a piano suite, transformed into an orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel. However, the ensemble will perform an arrangement by Kholopov, the winner of the International Antonin Dvorak Composers Competition.

His orchestration unveils the variety of timbre and texture of the string orchestra.

The ARCO Chamber Orchestra was originally founded in Russia in 1989 at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory by Ambartsumian. When he joined the School of Music faculty in 1995, he remained the artistic director and conductor of the orchestra, moving its home base to the Hodgson School, where the ensemble is now an international blend of talented musicians.

Tickets to the concert are $12 each or $6 with a UGA student ID and can be purchased at pac.uga.edu or the PAC box office. Those unable to attend can watch the concert live on the Hodgson School’s website at music.uga.edu/live-streaming.

Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Marketing & Communications. Notices are published here as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available at calendar.uga.edu/.

4&5

Sculptor Richard Hunt fuses diverse influences

By Ashlyn Davis

ashlyn.davis25@uga.edu

Art and experimental zoology aren’t the most obvious of pairings, but sculptor Richard Hunt worked in an animal lab at the University of Chicago as a teenager, earning money to pay for college. The result was an influence that has spanned his six-decades-long career, which will be on view in Richard Hunt: Synthesis. This exhibition, organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, will be on view from Oct. 20 through Feb. 3.

Hunt has created more than 130 large-scale public commissions and helped change the role of public sculpture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

He got his start in Chicago, where he was born.

His father was a barber from rural Georgia and his mother a librarian, who encouraged his early interest in the arts by taking him to museums. When he was 13, Hunt began attending the Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where his teachers shaped his interest in different working materials. His high school yearbook lists him as a painter and sculptor.

Nelli Bar, a German-born sculptor, inspired him to pursue a career as an artist and continued to be a mentor to him for years. He tended animals in the lab from 1951 to 1957 and enrolled in college at the Art Institute in 1953, where he taught himself to weld.

Hunt’s interest in biology (both animal and plant forms) can be seen in his early sculptures, mostly made from found objects. He had early success, with the Museum of Modern Art in New York buying one of his sculptures in 1957 and Life magazine naming him one of its “Red Hot Hundred” young leaders in 1962. His career in public sculpture began in 1967, Turturro). With nothing to lose and still in shackles, their hasty run takes them on an incredible journey of awesome experiences and colorful characters. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. 2000, PG-13, runtime 108 min. Sponsored by UGA Parents Leadership Council. 7 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

GUEST ARTIST CONCERT Chris Combest, tuba, performs. 7:30 p.m. Edge Hall, Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

FRIDAY, OCT. 12 WOMEN’S STUDIES FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES “Cultivating Land and Community: Using an Ecowomanist

with “Play,” created for the John J. Madden Mental Health Center. This work marked the beginning of what Hunt called his “second career,” in which he made works that responded both to architectural specifics and the personality of the communities surrounding them.

In 1971, a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art gave his career even more momentum and recognition. Some works from that exhibition will be in included in Richard Hunt: Synthesis.

Of particular interest for Georgians, Hunt created “Wisdom Bridge” for the downtown branch of the Atlanta Public Library and a pair of sculptures (“Tower of Aspirations” and “And They Went Down Both into the Water”) for Augusta’s Springfield Park. In addition to public works, Hunt maintained a studio career, constantly experimenting with a variety of media.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will publish a 120-page hardcover book by Shawnya Harris, the museum’s Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art, that analyzes Hunt’s career, including both public commissions and studio sculpture. It will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop, from Avid Bookshop or online from Amazon.com.

The exhibition, publication and related programs are sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Irwin and Hannah Harvey Family Fund, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art. Events include a public conversation with Hunt on Oct. 19 at 4:30 p.m. (in the museum’s M. Smith Griffith Auditorium); 90 Carlton: Autumn, the museum’s quarterly reception ($5, free for museum members), on Oct. 19 at 5:30 p.m.; a public tour with Harris on

Works by Richard Hunt, pictured above in 1962, will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art from Oct. 20 through Feb. 3.

Oct. 31 at 2 p.m.; a Family Day as part of UGA’s 2019 Spotlight on the Arts festival on Nov. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon; Toddler Tuesday on Nov. 13 at 10 a.m. (register via sagekincaid@uga.edu or 706-542-0448); a screening of Charlie Ahearn’s documentary Richard Hunt: Sculptor on Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.; an Artful Conversation on Dec. 5 at 2 p.m.; and a Teen Studio on Jan. 17 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. (email sagekincaid@uga.edu or call 706-542-8863 to reserve a spot).

All programs are open free to the public unless otherwise indicated. The exhibition also serves as the focus of the museum’s fifth-grade tours as part of Experience UGA, allowing all fifth-grade students in the Clarke County School District to experience his works.

Methodology,” Christina Hylton, educational theory and practice.

12:20 p.m. 214 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-0066. tlhat@uga.edu.

LECTURE “Soft Focus Ethnography and Vernacular Modernism,” Ellen Handy, associate professor of art history at City College of New York, CUNY. Her talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Vernacular Modernism: The Photography of Doris Ulmann. 3 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

PHILOSOPHY COLLOQUIUM “Four Kinds of Invisibility from Euromodernity,” Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut. 3:30 p.m. 115 Peabody Hall.

706-542-2823. nhines@uga.edu.

The Faculty Artist Series continues with D. Ray McClellan on Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall.

UGA Theatre examines gender and language with Alice Birch’s play

CELEBRATION GALA The celebration gala in support of the Georgia Museum of Natural History includes cocktails and silent auction followed by dinner from home.made with guest speaker Craig McClain on “Biological Wonders of the Deep Sea.” $125 per person; $900 for a table of eight. 6 p.m. Visitor Center and Conservatory, State Botanical Garden of Georgia. 706-542-3905. cjahern@uga.edu.

Faculty Artist Series concert promotes family ties and musicianship

By Amy Cole

SOCCER vs. Tennessee. 7 p.m. Turner Soccer Complex.

ceh822@uga.edu

amy.cole25@uga.edu

The ARCO Chamber Orchestra is set to perform works by Alexander Arensky, Mikhail Glinka and Modest Mussorgsky.

columns.uga.edu Oct. 8, 2018

UGA Theatre presents Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., directed by Elise Robinson, on Oct. 9-13 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 13 and 14 at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $12 or $7 for UGA students.Tickets can be purchased online at ugatheatre.com/revolt, via phone at 706-542-4400 or in person at the Performing Arts Center or Tate Center box offices.

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. was commissioned in 2014 for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s summer season, taking its inspiration from American historian Laurel Ulrich’s quote, “well-behaved women seldom make history.” Birch’s play went on to receive critical acclaim as a part of the RSC’s “Midsummer Mischief” season, featured alongside the work of other women playwrights.

It is, as Slate reviewer Katy Waldman describes it, “a scalding cascade of interconnected vignettes exploring words and their limits” that challenges the deeply-rooted assumptions and attitudes about sex and gender in modern society.

Robinson, a doctoral candidate, was drawn to the play’s relevance to tumultuous times. “On the 100th anniversary of women’s admission to the university, we can look around to find inspirational women all over: in our classrooms, on our playing fields and in our performance spaces,” said Robinson.

For undergraduate and Revolt dramaturg Lukas Woodyard, much of this play’s strength can be found in its experimental structure, which eschews traditional narrative in order to spotlight specific issues. “This play does not have a conventional plot, conventional scenes or conventional characters. But it uses language itself to address the issues of facing women today while extending the conversation to include men and others who are stymied by patriarchal oppression, whether they realize it or not,” said Woodyard.

The emphasis on the power of language factored heavily into Robinson’s decisions to hold a special American Sign Language-interpreted performance during the run of the show. The ASL-interpreted performance will be held Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m. and will feature two separate interpreters to account for the fast-paced dialogue of the show.

SATURDAY, OCT. 13 WORKSHOP “Plants We Love to Hate: Identifying and Controlling Exotic Pest Plants,” is an introduction to invasive, non-native pest plants in the Georgia Piedmont. Students will learn to identify the major offenders, their current ranges and habitats and how these pest plants impact natural plant communities. The second part of the workshop is on Oct. 14. $50, general admission; $45, Friends of the Garden. 9 a.m. Visitor Center, classroom 2, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156. cscamero@uga.edu.

SUNDAY, OCT. 14 BASEBALL Exhibition game vs. UNC Asheville. 2 p.m. Foley Field.

VOLLEYBALL vs. Texas A&M. 2 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

COMING UP READING Oct. 16. The doctoral students in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Georgia will present a reading by poet Ronaldo Wilson. This event is made possible with support from The Georgia Review. Wilson is the author of the cross-genre collection Farther Traveler (Counterpath Press, 2015), Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books, 2009) and Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man (University of Pittsburgh, 2008). 7 p.m. Cine. 706-542-2659. cwp@uga.edu.

WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE Oct. 17. For fall semester.

TERRY LEADERSHIP SPEAKER SERIES Oct. 17. Speaker Maria Taylor is in her sixth season as an analyst, host and reporter for ESPN. A trailblazer in sports broadcasting, she has worked as a sideline reporter for programs such as ABC Saturday Night Football, helped launch the SEC Network and was the first black woman to co-host ESPN’s College GameDay Built by the Home Depot. She earned both her bachelor’s degree in broadcast news in 2009 and her MBA in 2013 from the University of Georgia. The Terry Leadership Speaker Series presented by the Institute for Leadership Advancement brings well-known leaders to share their unique leadership styles and experiences with students. 10:10 a.m.

Chapel. 706-542-7990. leadership@terry.uga.edu.

TO SUBMIT A LISTING FOR THE MASTER CALENDAR AND COLUMNS Post event information first to the Master Calendar website (calendar.uga.edu/). Listings for Columns are taken from the Master Calendar 12 days before the publication date.

Events not posted by then may not be printed in Columns.

Any additional information about the event may be sent directly to Columns. Email is preferred (columns@uga.edu), but materials can be mailed to Columns, Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.

By Camille Hayes Join D. Ray McClellan, Hugh Hodgson School of Music professor of clarinet, as he brings clarinet and strings music, along with friends and family, to the Ramsey Concert Hall stage Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. for the next Faculty Artist Series concert.

The evening opens with an aria by J.S. Bach arranged for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, titled Bete aber auch dabei, which translates as “But you should also pray” from Cantata, BWV 115. The other two pieces, both by British composers, are for clarinet and string quartet.

“The two British works are delightful, playful and beautiful, and of course, the J.S. Bach is sublime,” McClellan said.

One of the latter pieces is by Charles Villiers Stanford and the other by Samuel ColeridgeTaylor. In 1887, The Times in London said that Stanford’s music is “dramatically significant, as well as beautiful in itself” because it had “style.”

Coleridge-Taylor, another celebrated British composer, collaborated with the composer Edward Elgar and sought to draw from African American folk music and work them into beautifully fullscale classical works. It is significant to note, for this “concert of connections,” that Villiers Stanford conducted a premier of one of Coleridge-Taylor’s works and each of these composers wrote music for the church.

Adding to the program will be several other musicians, including several family members, as well as friends who aren’t strangers to campus.

Performers will include husband-and-wife team Michael Heald, violin; Maggie Snyder, viola; and cellist Andrew Reynish. McClellan’s wife Erica McClellan will play piano, and their daughter Rachel McClellan will make her Performing Arts Center debut on the violin during the opening Bach piece. Violinist Rachael Fischer, assistant professor of violin at Georgia Gwinnett College, is a UGA graduate and former student of Heald.

Tickets for the concert are $12 for adults; $6 for students and children. All proceeds directly support student scholarships at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. The concert also can be streamed live on the music school website at music.uga.edu/live-streaming.

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Oct. 10 (for Oct. 22 issue) Oct. 17 (for Oct. 29 issue) Oct. 24 (for Nov. 5 issue)

6 Oct. 8, 2018 columns.uga.edu

Rob Branch, professor and head of the career and information studies department in the College of Education, was recently selected to join the inaugural group of the University System of Georgia Chancellor’s Learning Scholars.

The Chancellor’s Learning Scholars act as facilitators of USG Faculty Learning Communities, which provide faculty and staff the opportunity to enhance their understanding of topics related to teaching and learning.

Scholars receive extensive support and training with teams of experts from USG’s Centers for Teaching and Learning. These workshops allow participants to focus on course enrichment stratRob Branch egies, such as interactive lectures, inclusive pedagogies and integrated course designs.

The ultimate measure of success is the impact of course enrichment strategies on the learning of Georgia students, according to Jeffery Galle, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs of the Board of Regents. Resources provided by CTL have been proven to help increase student engagement in the classroom.

Branch’s areas of expertise include instructional design, visual literacy, project management and strategic planning.

In 2017, Branch received the Special Service Award from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology for his significant contributions to improving instruction and learning through technology.

Dorothy Fragaszy, professor of psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, recently received the Distinguished Primatologist Award.

Given by the American Society of Primatologists, the award was presented to Fragaszy at the society’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

The award is given annually to one primatologist who has had an outstanding career and made significant contributions to the field.

Fragaszy is one of two people who both earned the award and served as president of the American Society of Primatologists and the International Primatological Society. The other is W. A. Mason, Fragaszy’s doctoral advisor at the University of California, Davis. Irwin Bernstein, UGA professor emeritus of psychology, also received the Distinguished Primatologist Award in 2001.

Susan Sanchez, professor of infectious diseases, assistant director of the UGA Biomedical Health Science Institute and chair of One Health, was recently appointed to the National Institute of Health’s Council of Councils.

She began serving a five-year term on Oct. 1 with her first meeting in January. Membership includes professionals at the top of the research, academic and corporate entities involved in public health and medicine.

The 27-member Council of Councils advises the NIH director on matters related to the policies and activities of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives. The council also acts as an external advisory panel for the NIH Institutes and center directors during their “concept approval” stage of the NIH Roadmap Initiative review process. Roadmap Initiatives foster high-risk/highreward research, enable the development of transformative tools and methodologies, fill fundamental knowledge gaps and/or change academic culture to foster collaboration. These initiatives are designed to pursue major opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that no single NIH institute could tackle alone, but which the agency as a whole can address to make the biggest impact possible on the progress of biomedical research.

Kudos recognizes special contributions of staff, faculty and administrators in teaching, research and service. News items are limited to election into office of state, regional, national and international societies; major awards and prizes; and similarly notable accomplishments.

CAMPUS CLOSEUP

Hope Thomas leads the Facilities Management Division’s occupational safety and environmental compliance programs.

Dorothy Kozlowski

FMD safety coordinator handles compliance, day-to-day operations

By Emily Webb

sew30274@uga.edu

The hardest part of Hope Thomas’ job is specifically telling people what she does as a safety coordinator for the university.

“Even my parents used to ask, ‘What exactly is it that you do?’ because it’s such a diverse field,” Thomas said. “Every day is different.”

A 1996 UGA alumna, Thomas manages the Facilities Management Division’s occupational safety and environmental compliance programs for the campus. She uses her environmental health science degree every day for policymaking, decision-making or supervising campus asbestos, lead or mold remediation work. Between the federal government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, UGA is responsible for complying with 53 separate programs. The university’s Environmental Safety Division takes care of the overall environmental compliance side, while FMD handles the day-to-day operations.

“In addition to compliance issues, we have created new sustainable practices on campus through the FMD safety program, the Green Lab program and industrial hygiene programs,” Thomas said. “We spent about a year where we went through all the FMD trades shops and the custodial divisions. We ‘cleaned up’ the chemicals that we were using on campus, either using greener products or safer products for our frontline employees. It definitely benefits campus occupants as far as indoor air quality and personal health is concerned.”

Thomas grew up on a farm in

Watkinsville. At a young age, she knew how to drive tractors and use tools to make repairs. This proved helpful after she graduated from UGA and worked with a consulting firm in Atlanta that did EPA remediation sites all over the country. While visiting her parents one day, she saw the job posting for UGA’s safety coordinator and applied for the job, which is based in FMD. As the largest of seven divisions reporting to the vice president for finance and administration, FMD includes more than 400 buildings, 2,000 labs and 700 acres on campus. Thomas’ job as safety coordinator is to facilitate the management of regulatory compliance, safety equipment, personal protective equipment and engineering controls for FMD’s 800 employees and various others on campus.

“I have 800 of the best friends,” Thomas said of the FMD team. “I can call at a moment’s notice, and they’ll drop what they’re doing, redirect and take care of an issue on campus. It’s amazing to have that kind of support.”

Thomas helped to create new programs that directly benefit UGA faculty, staff and students. In 2016, the Green Lab program began after a task force meeting with the Office of Research, ESD and the Office of Sustainability.

The Green Lab program was established to improve safety measures in labs on campus. The program, in conjunction with Lab Safety, will monitor labs, helping them comply with state and federal laws, to be more energy efficient and sustainable, and to recycle products.

The formal Green Lab program will roll out in 2019.

In her free time, Thomas works at her horse farm and helps train horses for

FACTS Hope Thomas

Safety Coordinator Facilities Management Division B.S., Environmental Health Science, University of Georgia, 1996 At UGA: 12 years

competition in two disciplines: eventing and dressage. Two horses are competing at an international level. There is also a veterinary practice on the farm, and she helps do veterinary technician work.

“I do that 100 percent for fun,” she said of her farm. In addition to her 12 horses, Thomas has seven dogs— three rescues and four border terriers.

Thomas also enjoys traveling. With her first job, she traveled all over the U.S., including Puerto Rico. Since then, she has traveled to England, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Holland and France.

She even had two horses that competed in England for a year, saying “flying with my competition horses was an incredible experience.”

At the moment, Thomas is working with John Lambeth in ESD to create a campus-wide occupational safety program aimed at teaching people how to be safe and reduce workers’ comp claims.

“I’m everywhere from manholes to rooftops,” she said. “I love getting dirty.

I’d rather be running around with a shovel than a pencil. I just enjoy working here. Growing up in the shadow of UGA’s backyard, you become embedded in the culture and diversity of our town.

I’m really proud to be part of that.”

RETIREES October

Eleven UGA employees retired Sept. 30.

Retirees, their job classification, department and years of service are: Donna C. Arrowood, veterinary assistant, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, 29 years, 1 month; Julia F. Browner, building services worker II, Facilities Management Division-Outlying Building Services, 22 years, 11 months; Mattie L. Curry, building services worker II, Facilities Management Division-Building Services-South Campus,

22 years, 6 months; Ivey W. Griner, senior agricultural specialist, Stripling Irrigation Research Park-Coastal Plain Station, 16 years, 5 months; Stanley C. Johnson, logistical support manager, Terry College of Business-Dean’s Office, 35 years, 4 months; Angela B. Ledford, county secretary, UGA Cooperative Extension-Northwest District, 31 years, 3 months; Susan K. Maxwell, program coordinator III, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, 10 years, 4 months; Cheryl Lynn Patton, county

secretary, UGA Cooperative ExtensionNortheast District, 28 years, 5 months; Marena F. Smith, senior accountant, University of Georgia Press, 20 years, 11 months; Patricia A.Westbrooks, building services worker I, Facilities Management Division-Building Services-North Campus, 11 years, 9 months; and Terry L. Whitlock, building services worker II, Facilities Management DivisionBuilding Services-South Campus, 24 years, 1 month.

Source: Human Resources

PUBLIC SERVICE AND OUTREACH

columns.uga.edu Oct. 8, 2018

7

COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN

Shannah Montgomery

State Botanical Garden supporters include Geoffrey P. Cole, Jennifer L. Frum, Libby V. Morris, Brenda Magill, Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, Sissie Morris, James B. Miller, Kathy Young, Billy Morris and Neely Young.

State Botanical Garden celebrates donors at Giving Tree Tribute

By Leah Moss

leahmoss@uga.edu

Six longtime supporters of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia were honored recently during the biennial “Giving Tree” celebration that recognizes patrons who have given their time and money to the garden.

“We are fortunate to have a strong group of supporters who are so generous with their time and financial resources,” said Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, director of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, a unit of UGA Public Service and Outreach. “They recognize the importance of the garden and its contribution to education, conservation and research for the university and across the state.”

James B. Miller Jr., a charter member of the State Botanical Garden board of advisors, was the 2018 Distinguished Honoree, the garden’s highest honor bestowed on donors.

Miller, who helped establish the board, has shown generosity to the garden personally and through Fidelity Southern Corporation, where he serves as chairman and CEO. Miller lives in Atlanta.

In addition to supporting the International Garden, Heritage Garden, Flower Garden and Alice H. Richards Children’s Garden and the annual balls, Miller was one of the first to contribute to the accessibility initiative at the garden. He co-chaired the 1989 Gardens of the World Ball with former UGA Vice President for Services S. Eugene Younts, who recently passed away.

Three board members received the 2018 Southern Magnolia Award, which honors philanthropic contributions of more than $100,000 and continued service to the garden.The 2018 honorees are Martha Brumley Ellis, Brenda Magill and Sissie Morris.

Ellis has been on the garden’s board of advisors for 17 years, supporting the Gardens of the World Ball each of those years in addition to the Flower Garden and children’s

garden campaigns. Ellis lives in Sea Island, Georgia, and Highlands, North Carolina.

Magill has served on the board for 21 years, championing Orchid Madness, the Gardens of the World Balls, the children’s garden campaign, the Heritage Garden campaign, as well as the horticulture and conservation funds. She co-chaired the 2011 ball with Betsy Ellison. Magill lives in Athens.

Morris has been active on the board for 29 years. Her support includes the International Garden, Heritage Garden, Flower Garden and children’s garden campaigns, as well as the conservation funds and Gardens of the World Balls.Along with Charlotte Merry, Morris co-chaired the 1990 Gardens of the World Ball. Morris lives in Augusta, Georgia.

Kathy and Neely Young received the Garden of Georgia medal, the highest award for service and support. Kathy Young previously served as chair of the board and spearheaded the development committee of the garden’s most recent campaign, the Alice H. Richards Children’s Garden. In addition, Kathy Young co-chaired the 2009 Gardens of the World Ball with Betty Sponcler, celebrating the ball’s 25th anniversary with a book chronicling its history. Kathy Young and her husband Neely Young have also demonstrated support of the garden through the voice of Georgia Trend, a statewide business publication they owned and managed until 2017. The Youngs live in Marietta, Georgia, and Cashiers, North Carolina.

The Giving Tree event recognizes individuals committed to outstanding philanthropic contributions and dedicated service supporting the mission of the State Botanical Garden. This year, the Giving Tree Tribute is part of the yearlong 50th anniversary celebration of the State Botanical Garden. The 50th anniversary celebration also includes a signature plant, the native Southern flame azalea, known for its pleasant fragrance and fiery colors.

WEEKLY READER

Among the students from UGA’s College of Environment and Design who worked on the winning design are Megan Daniel, Halle Salisbury, Matthew Cartledge and Jack Cherry.

CED students win competition to redesign Atlanta’s Ted Turner Drive

By Melissa Tufts mtufts@uga.edu

The swath that Ted Turner Drive cuts through the heart of downtown Atlanta is a Blade Runner landscape: no soul, unrelenting high-speed traffic on four lanes, and no pedestrians or much in the way of signs of life in general. People take their lives in their hands just crossing the multi-lane in-town throughway.

“It has no spirit, no personality,” said Jack Cherry, a fourth-year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture student at the UGA College of Environment and Design. “Or at least that’s what it seems like at first.”

In fact, once his studio class immersed itself in the neighborhood, under the direction of associate professor Doug Pardue, he and his fellow classmates discovered that Ted Turner Drive is actually a nexus of several historic neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods could remain threatened by continued automobile traffic and gentrification, or they could be enhanced and empowered with some interesting urban planning devices.

“What we discovered is that there are actually a lot of different urban conditions happening simultaneously on that street, which was once a hub of black commerce in Atlanta,” Cherry said. “Yes, there is a lot of homelessness, a lot of areas where it’s impossible to walk, but once we hung out there and visited small businesses and talked to people, we started seeing this as maybe a place that could guide change rather than just be a dangerous thoroughfare. There are already little gems of burger joints and coffee shops; we envisioned flex spaces where people can engage in the

gig economy.”

The Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Resilience offered up a competition for students of planning and design in 2017. In spring 2018, students from Georgia Tech, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College and the University of Georgia took up the challenge, which was won by UGA’s College of Environment and Design.

Pardue thinks a team of his students won because of the complementary skill sets of its members. In addition to Cherry, the team included Katie Boucek, Sarah Franklin, Luke Gregory, Sophia Kim, Layla Lord, Kiet Nguyen, Charles Quinn, Halle Salisbury and Brittany Thompson.

In addition to conducting research about the history of the area, students spoke with pedestrians and business owners.

Using on-the-street “guerilla” design tactics and design games for three weeks, the students tried to get Atlantans to explore their own city and become more aware of their surroundings. In the process, they also tried to teach ideas about resiliency, not in a science-heavy way, but in an engaging way that people on the street could comprehend.

Pardue’s class used the extensive work that a studio class earlier in the year completed under the direction of Alfie Vick, also an associate professor at the college. The team won $2,500 and a lot of satisfaction in beating the urban colleges and universities in Atlanta.

The Mayor’s Office of Resilience sponsored the competition; implementation partners included Renew Atlanta and city’s the Department of Parks and Recreation; and funding came from Turner Enterprises, Rebuild by Design and T-SPLOST.

CYBERSIGHTS

ABOUT COLUMNS

Book details exploits of Caribbean pirates

The Golden Age of Piracy: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Popularity of Pirates Edited by David Head University of Georgia Press Hardcover: $84.95 Paperback: $29.95

Shrouded by myth and hidden by Hollywood, the real pirates of the Caribbean come to life in The Golden Age of Piracy.

Published by the University of Georgia Press, the collection of essays is edited by David Head, a lecturer of history at the University of Central Florida.

In The Golden Age of Piracy, 12 scholars of piracy show why pirates thrived in the New World seas of 17th- and 18thcentury empires, how pirates operated their plundering ventures, how governments battled piracy and when and why piracy declined. The essays presented take the study of piracy, which can easily lapse into rousing, romanticized stories, to new heights of rigor and insight.

The Golden Age of Piracy also delves into the enduring status of pirates as pop culture icons. By looking at the ideas of gender and sexuality surrounding pirate stories, the fad for hunting pirate treasure and the construction of pirate myths, the book’s contributors tell a new story about the dangerous men, and a few dangerous women, who terrorized the high seas.

Columns is available to the community by ­subscription for an annual fee of $20 (second-class delivery) or $40 (first-class delivery). Faculty and staff members with a disability may call 706-542-8017 for assistance in obtaining this publication in an alternate format.

Columns staff can be reached at 706-542-8017 or columns@uga.edu

Editor Juliett Dinkins

Franklin College launches redesigned website franklin.uga.edu The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences launched a redesigned website, updating access to information about UGA’s largest college for faculty, students, staff and the public.

The redesign of the principal Franklin site was predicated on presenting a cohesive brand experience that flows from the college

through dozens of departmental sites that have also been redesigned over the last two years.

New features include an improved incorporation of news and events and revolving spotlight features of individual staff members.

It also includes a new home page section geared toward prospective students.

Communications Coordinator Krista Richmond Art Director Jackie Baxter Roberts Photo Editor Dorothy Kozlowski Writers Kellyn Amodeo Leigh Beeson The University of Georgia is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

The University of Georgia is a unit of the University System of Georgia.

8 Oct. 8, 2018 columns.uga.edu

OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

2018 Kassinger Scholarship awarded to two police department staff members

FELLOWS from page 1

By Steve Harris sharris@uga.edu

The Edward T. and Sarah Laurent Kassinger Scholarship board has awarded the 2018 Kassinger Scholarship to Sgt. Sophie Raboud and Assistant Communications Coordinator Renee Epps with the UGA police department in recognition of their academic achievements and work pursuits.

The scholarship is provided to graduate and undergraduate students who complete academic degrees while employed full time as a UGA police officer or as a working student in the criminal justice studies program at UGA. Named for Edward Kassinger, director of the UGA Public Safety Division from 1969-1983, and his late wife, Sarah, the award was established in 1984 by former employees and friends of the Kassingers who believe that students who work to help pay educational expenses should be recognized.

Raboud has been employed by the police department since 2010. In July 2017, she

UGA welcomed 20 new Foundation Fellows this fall. They had had an average SAT of 1555, an average ACT of 35.2 and an average high school GPA of 4.34 on a 4.0 scale.

School of Mathematics, Science and Technology; Suwanee; computer science and genetics.

• Aparna Pateria; Northview High School; Johns Creek; biology and genetics.

• William Goins Ross; Marist School; Atlanta; finance and business analytics (master’s degree).

• Nathan Samuel Safir; American School of The Hague; Wassenaar, Netherlands; computer science and mathematics.

• Anna Samsonov; Lafayette High School; Wildwood, Missouri; anthropology and biochemistry.

• Oleksandra Stogniy; Woodstock High School; Acworth; biochemistry and molecular biology.

• Emma Joanna Traynor; Savannah Arts Academy; Savannah; international affairs.

• Jaaie Upkar Varshney; Rome High School; Rome; biochemistry and molecular biology.

• Margaret Elizabeth Warren; George C. Marshall High School; Dunn Loring, Virginia; actuarial science and Spanish.

• Himani Yadav; Lambert High School; Suwanee; cognitive science and computer science.

The Foundation Fellows are enrolled in the UGA Honors Program, which had 745 new students this fall. Overall, these new Honors students had an average high school GPA of 4.11, an average SAT of 1510 and an average ACT of 33.7.

Bulletin Board Free golf clinic

The UGA Golf Course will host a free golf clinic for UGA staff and faculty Oct. 11 at the UGA driving range. Players from all skill levels are welcome to participate. Session topics include driving and chipping. To reserve a space, email Clint Udell, PGA golf instructor, at cudell96@uga.edu and indicate if you would like to borrow golf clubs for the clinic.

Dream Award nominations

Nominations are being sought for the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award, which recognizes individuals in the UGA and Athens-Clarke County communities who have worked to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of equality and justice a reality. Nominations are due Oct. 21.

Recipients of the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award are recognized at the annual MLK Freedom Breakfast, which will be held Jan. 18 at UGA. The breakfast, which is sponsored by UGA, the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government and the Clarke County School District, commemorates King’s life and legacy. (See Digest, page 3.)

The award highlights the work of local community members and UGA faculty, staff and students who have made significant contributions to social justice, race relations, justice or human rights. Award winners demonstrate commitment to volunteerism and civic engagement in addressing

critical community issues; utilize King’s philosophy to reduce tensions, resolve conflict and foster goodwill; and apply King’s teachings to build bridges of understanding and unity.

Nominations can be made at https://bit.ly/2R3FXAk. If you have any questions, contact UGA’s Office of Institutional Diversity at 706-583-8195 or diverse@uga.edu.

Service-learning awards

Nominations for the 2019 ServiceLearning Teaching Excellence and Service-Learning Research Excellence Awards are due Nov. 28. All full-time, permanent UGA faculty members are eligible for nomination. The awards recognize faculty for innovative service-learning course design as well as scholarship that stems from academic service-learning work. Award recipients receive a $2,500 faculty development award and will be recognized at the annual faculty awards banquet. Self-nominations and nominations by deans, department heads and faculty colleagues will be accepted.

To view nomination packets and award guidelines and to view previous award winners, visit https://bit.ly/2PY8wOz. For questions, contact Shannon Wilder, director of the Office of Service-Learning at 706-542-0535 or swilder@uga.edu.

Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.

RURAL

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universities and the Cooperative Extension System have worked hand in hand with local officials and local families to improve the communities’ prospects. That’s what we’re doing here.”

To develop collaborative solutions, experts in mental and physical public health, rural development, economic development and substance abuse prevention from more than a dozen states will present and participate in roundtable discussions.

“The stresses faced by rural communities are complex and multifaceted—financial strain, lack of access to health and behavioral health care, social isolation, the opioid epidemic,” said Anna Scheyett, dean of the UGA School of Social Work. “We need an interdisciplinary approach if we are going to provide them with the support they need to face these challenges.

Having CAES come together with the School of Social Work and other social sciences, in the context of a land-grant university, to tackle these issues has the potential for meaningful impact in rural communities.”

Each school or college involved in the forum has experience working in rural development, and that history will better enable them to make the connections that could lead to solutions.

“Families are at the core of helping address the complexity of the stresses communities are facing,” said Linda Kirk Fox, dean of FACS. “The multidisciplinary approaches we apply in our Family and Consumer Sciences Extension program have been an integral part of Extension work at the local level for more than 100 years working with farm, rural and urban families.”

For more information and to see the forum agenda, go to ruralstress.uga.edu.

HEALTH

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include receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Foege has authored three influential books: House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox; The Fears of the Rich, the Needs of the Poor: My Years at the CDC; and Task Force for Child Survival: Secrets of Successful Coalitions.

A review by the American Journal of Public Health predicts that Foege’s three books, which serve as part autobiography and part history of modern public health, “will likely become classics in the public health literature—analogous to publications by such 19th century giants of the field as Farr, Semmelweis, Snow and Virchow.”

All three books will be available for purchase at the book signing.

The State of the Public’s Health conference is presented by the Office for Outreach and Engagement at UGA’s College of Public Health.

Sophie Raboud

Renee Epps

received a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of North Georgia. Epps has been employed by the police department since 2007. In May 2018, she received a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership with a minor in public administration from Valdosta State University.

Awarded on an annual basis to candidates, the Kassinger Scholarship is administered by the UGA Office of Emergency Preparedness.

AWARD

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function—often show little variability in children, the research team adopted a paradigm used primarily in adult samples to look at how children’s immune systems respond to vaccination. As a marker of immune function with clinical relevance, the approach is designed to establish a better understanding of the nearer term effects of stress on the health of children.

“Fortunately, most kids are pretty healthy, but one challenge this raises is that it’s difficult to study how social experiences are linked to physical health during childhood,” said Katherine Ehrlich, assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department and principal investigator on the project. “This paradigm will allow us to evaluate the extent to which children’s social worlds ‘get under the skin’ and influence their bodies’ response to vaccination.”

In the first study of the project, the research team will administer the influenza vaccine to 150 youths from the community. Across two visits, participants will undergo a blood draw, assessments of chronic and acute stress, and will receive the standard flu vaccine. Participants will return for a second lab visit 28 days later, where they will undergo a blood draw to examine antibody levels.

“We will look at their baseline antibodies before they get the vaccine, and then a month later we’ll look at how many antibodies they have produced,” Ehrlich said. “Most kids will have a robust antibody response because they have a healthy immune system, but there are indications that some of the stressors we’re studying—low socio-economic status, social isolation, chronic family conflict—might dampen their body’s response to the vaccine, even though they’re otherwise healthy.”

Ehrlich noted that the project’s plans came together relatively quickly because of unique resources on UGA’s campus. For example, all data collection for the study, including vaccinations, will take place at the Clinical and Translational Research Unit on the UGA Health Sciences Campus. The facility is equipped with patient rooms and a nursing staff, both of which are critical for data collection. In addition, the project relies on two centers on campus—the Center for Family Research (directed by Distinguished Research Professor of Human Development and Family Science Gene Brody) and the Center for Vaccines and Immunology (led by GRA Eminent Scholar of Infectious Disease Ted Ross).

Established in 2007, the NIH Common Fund New Innovator Award supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators who are within 10 years of their final degree or clinical residency and have not yet received a research project grant or equivalent NIH grant.The program catalyzes scientific discovery by supporting exciting, high-risk research proposals that may struggle in the traditional peer review process despite their transformative potential.