Winter 15 - UGAGS Magazine by UGA Grad Studies

The University of Georgia

Graduate School M A G A Z I N E

WINTER 2015

“BE PRESENT IN ALL THINGS AND THANKFUL FOR A L L T H I N G S ” — M AYA A N G E LO U

WINTER 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2 Poetry Boot Camp 10 Jeff Fallis 12 Allen Joines 20 Elizabeth Gleim 30 Karson Brooks 36 Stephanie Bolton ON THE COVER: FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR MOUNAWAR ABBOUCHI, A GRADUATE STUDENT AND POETRY BOOT CAMP VETERAN. PHOTO BY NANCY EVELYN. ©2015 by the University of Georgia. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without the written permission of the editor.

a m e s s a g e f ro m

Julie Coffield, Interim Dean The UGA campus is alive with expectation as students rush to their next class, the library, their favorite café, or the Chapel for one of our signature lectures. It won’t be too long before the trees and flowers begin to bud and the vibrant colors of early spring fill the landscape. The Graduate School is on the move too, both figuratively and literally. We have relocated our offices to historic Terrell Hall on the beautiful North Campus Quad, returning to the setting in which Dean Bocock, our founding dean, held office circa 1910. Although it may seem like we are returning to our roots, make no mistake, the Graduate School continues to surge ahead, leading the way and advancing graduate education for UGA students. We thank all of you who have contributed your financial support to help us endeavor to enhance the UGA graduate experience! The quality and breadth of UGA graduate programs are remarkable and speak to the strong commitment to our mission as a land and sea grant institution, and the first state-chartered university in the country. Today’s graduate students are formidable, a force to be reckoned with, and the next generation of world leaders. They enjoy greater opportunities than ever before. The world is quite literally their classroom and their laboratory. We must challenge them to be critical, transformative thinkers and effective communicators in order to shape the extraordinary future that awaits. There is much to do, and even more could be done with greater resources. More than ever, our students face great difficulty in financing their educational costs and research. Because of limited resources, many will be unable to take advantage of unique opportunities to expand their horizons. As you read through this latest issue and learn more about our students, I hope that their passion and thirst for learning motivates you to consider making a contribution to benefit graduate education at UGA. So, what do poetry, wine, STEM, politics and UGA have in common? That’s easy: Many of those featured in this issue are first generation graduate students who reach across barriers, seize opportunities and push beyond the limits of their personal circumstances to reach their dreams. In this issue of our award-winning magazine, you will meet several amazing individuals. There is no doubt that hearing their stories will fill you with pride and inspiration. Read on....

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“ S O M E M I S U N D E R S TA N D P O E T R Y T O B E A N I N D I V I D U A L ' S E X P R E S S I O N O F P R I VAT E E M O T I O N S . . . , B U T P O E T R Y T H AT PLAITS ITSELF WITH INTERDISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE IS A R I C H A N D N O U R I S H E D S O I L C A PA B L E TO G R OW N E W WAYS O F T H I N K I N G A B O U T T H E S E L F A N D T H E WO R L D.” —MELI SA CA HN MA N N -TAY LOR

Poetry

was on the minds of a disparate group of graduate students and educators arriving one June morning for the first day of Poetry Boot Camp in Athens. Camp would open with a day that was witheringly hot in the shade—and the creative stakes would increase along with the temperatures in the coming week. The students had packed up their poetic devices, along with pen and paper in their rucksacks, and were about to get a move on, even as the Georgia heat did its worst. “Alliteration. Assonance. Consonance. Imagery. Language. Simile. Metaphor. Ma’am, yes, Ma’am!” The band of willing writers—a mix of poetry rookies and well-versed veterans—fell in behind their leader, Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, ready for hardcore creativity. She guides her poetry rookies with intensive training. The boot camp rookie enrollees quickly learned the drill: they were charged with intensive writing by night, then readings and what their word-crafting leader called “craft talks.” In civilian talk, that meant close examination of their writings, guided by the boot camp instructor, Cahnmann-Taylor. It was what these writers had signed on for and if they regretted it, there was no sign whatsoever. The graduate students would write, present, critique, revise, and repeat. Ultimately they would read work publicly at a popular downtown venue. That culminating event was part of the third annual poetry series called Seat in the Shade. The Seat in the Shade series sponsored by the University of Georgia’s College of Education and hosted by Cahnmann-Taylor, featured five noted poets this past summer. The grand finale of the series on June 26, titled “Poetry by and for Educators: Readings from the Collective,” would

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be the first time many of the students had read their poetry publicly. Cahnmann-Taylor explains that the experience of public reading “is to raise the stakes, and to help the revision process.” The collective reading featuring UGA educators and students from the Poetry Boot Camp was slated for Hendershots, an event-oriented Athens bar and coffee spot with a stage and a microphone. A videographer would film them and the reading would be posted online. The days ahead would prove intense for the word crafters. To kick-start their writing, there would also be an experiential component. Boots-on-the-ground field trips included treks to the Classic Center, Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscript Library, and the Georgia Review, designed to invite the poetic muse to visit and inspire. Also in the course of the week, meetings with editors, booksellers, radio commentators, plant biologists, humanitarian workers, and special collections librarians were meant to awaken the creative impulse, inspiring new work as the boot camp heated up. “Some misunderstand poetry to be an individual's expression of private emotions (e.g., love poems to one's girlfriend; rants about parents, etc.), but poetry that plaits itself with interdisciplinary knowledge is a rich and nourished soil capable to grow new ways of thinking about the self and the world,” Cahnmann-Taylor writes after the camp ends. “This is why I think it’s so important to have new poets practice both the craft of poetry as well as the craft of opening our eyes and minds to fields of knowledge that surround us in a university environment. Poetic field trips are the best excuse for us all to enter new worlds of knowing and see how the rich worlds of words and thinking in those fields can enlarge the ways we see our personal stories as well as the stories we tell as educators.”

RTIFICATE E C of Achievement

proudly presented to UGA Graduate School members of

POETRY BOOT CAMP S H A P I N G E D U C AT O R R E C R U I T S I N T O P O E T R Y P R O S

AT H E N S , G E O R G I A

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

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The Power of the Metaphor

AMY INGALLS From the poem, “Thomas Lux Tells It Like It Is or Shut Up and Listen and Maybe Your Poems Won’t Suck” It’s never lightning down my arm — just work, just doggedness. Just show up at the desk and write.

ALLISA ABRAHAM From the poem, “Failing Students” Second chances, retakes galore, a little help after school, that bump from 68 to 70. It’s only two points in the scheme of things. We fix it – so they pass, but we never point the way out.

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At boot camp, allowances and indulgences were made. (Food and creature comforts were considered. Snacks, coffee, and drinks appeared and lunch plans were deliberated.) “What do poets eat?” someone asks. The answers fly: “Coffee!” and, “Energy gummies!” and, “Chocolate!” But boot camp did not tolerate one thing: flabby, inarticulate thoughts. “Poetry is for smart people,” Cahnmann-Taylor says, smiling widely. “Smart people like to accrue more words.” The poets and educators nod agreement—they brought an appetite for language that will not be sated by comfort foods in a Tupperware container or a zip-locking bag.

I L L U M I N AT I N G T H E W O R L D WITH POETIC CRAFT If there is such a thing as a living poetry drill sergeant, Cahnmann-Taylor is that. As a professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, she has led this workshop for the past three years in conjunction with the poetry series. (The workshop concept is based upon a California boot camp/ poetry experience, she explains.) She is a published poet with impressive prize credentials to her credit. Cahnmann-Taylor, colorful and exotic in her dress, wears exuberantly colorful clothes and Mexican-inspired jewelry. In a literal sense, her uniform was poetic. Just returned from a year-long Fulbright experience in Oaxaca, Mexico, she greeted participants with spirited welcomes. “Poetry is the ideal home to exercise interdisciplinarity,” says Cahnmann-Taylor. “By this I mean that great poetry affords the ultimate collision between the self's story and the world of words and knowledge outside the self. Take the field of astronomy, as poet Dorianne Laux does in her poem ‘Facts About the Moon.’ Opening the poem, as she does, with literal facts about the moon, allows her to harness the power of metaphor to speak of love's pull, even in the gravest of circumstances. Take what Rita Dove knows from her life as an African-American woman. Intertwine Dove's lived experience with a knowledge of world history, Black history in diaspora, the history of the Dominican Republic, and an understanding of poetic craft, and you get an illuminating poem such as ‘Parsley’ (be sure to read the poem's footnote) that is a great work of art as well as a work of history.” The first arrivals that summer’s day included a third grade teacher, Julie Carbaugh, who was entering a doctoral program in the fall. Amy Ingalls, who works with online courses on the UGA campus, was also early. Several of the class members

were doctoral students; one has already earned a master’s in comparative literature. Allisa (Lisa) Abraham, a middle school English teacher, has taken frequent writing courses and workshops. Mounawar Abbouchi, a Lebanese student, is currently working on a master’s degree. Sonia Sharmin is a doctoral student from Bangladesh. “Poetry,” Cahnmann-Taylor said as the class settled, “is about the measured word. And each and every word counting.” The silence was measured, too, as the students took stock. “A poetry boot camp means you have to bring and read a poem, and after the reading, it means examination of the words on paper,” Cahnmann-Taylor says. She speaks as she advises others to write: in a measured way, deliberately, expressively, commanding the room. From an oversized rattan chair, Cahnmann-Taylor asked the poetry recruits to begin reading their work aloud, but told them they could choose another student to read for them if they liked. The students reviewed their poems, their eyes brushing over the pages, before raising their eyes to read the faces of their fellow students. The professor directed the student on the reader’s left on the protocol for critique. “Use the language of poetry craft in accessing and responding to the poem read.” This nonjudgmental, deliberative give-and-take was the start of an intensive two weeks exploring artistic craft. As poems are read, she advises them in the skills of exposition, delivery, and clarity. “You must teach your readers how to read you.” Earning its name, at boot camp the students were urged to do more, stretch harder, in order to ply raw talent into firm abilities. In the language of a good-natured drill instructor, Cahnmann-Taylor nudged them with comments like, “you nailed it,” or, “ground the abstraction in real experience,” or, “you let go of the rope” as they critiqued one another’s works. She also nurtured their creative spirits with praise, proffered often and kindly. The student’s poetic subjects were as varied as their own backgrounds; their voices were nervous but firm as they read the resulting work. What was common for them all was admiration for poets who had found their voices and an audience of readers.

WA L K I N G I N T H E F O O T S T E P S O F T H E G R E AT S The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/With your one wild and precious life?” From the first day, one thing was clear. The band of

Boots On the Ground: Camp participants enjoyed the chance to discuss poetry on WUGA campus radio and to find inspiration through a series of outings carrying them beyond their everyday experience.

educators intended to at least allocate a portion of their lives to becoming poets. After a day of reviewing and reading, they heard from a professional poet. The fledgling poets attended a reading by Tom Lux, endowed poet at Georgia Tech. His recent work, God Particles, has been highly praised by critics. Lux took the stage and the filled room hushed. “The main responsibility of a writer is not to be boring—and that begins with the title.” He read a poem about hitting a cow with dirt balls, lobbing the lines. Lux’s subject matter was gritty and visceral, and the poet took an unflinching, deal-with-it stance. Lux did not meet eyes as he read more work; his words grazed the walls, the ceiling, and found their mark. He left the stage like a prize fighter; head bowed. Some of the students were wide-eyed, others making furious notes. Lux, it appeared, was a game changer. “The idea is to tell the truth, but you can change any facts you want,” he said sardonically during the reading. This, Lux presumably meant, is in literary service to the truth, and to the work of never being boring. Cahnmann-Taylor clarified later, “We have changed the details of what ‘actually happened’ (e.g. what was literally ‘true’) to render a more finely crafted poem, as well as to render a human truth (with a capital ‘T’).”

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“POETRY IS ABOUT THE MEASURED WORD. AND EACH AND EVERY WORD COUNTING.”

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—MELI SA CA HN MA N N -TAYLOR

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Live Your Obsessions

SONIA SHARMIN From the Poem, "Getting a PhD" Getting a PhD stands for paranoia —heartbeats like drums. Getting a PhD is indecision, piles of paper roaming around human subjects, Getting a PhD is an accolade when the naked body is adorned, finally, with colorful attire

At right, Cahnmann-Taylor introduces boot camp poets during a public reading at Hendershots. "I also enjoy sharing a dose of stage fright with the students—that tension prior to a public performance can nourish us."

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By the next morning, there were fresh sheaves of student poetry ready for reading and scrutiny. Manila folders were opened and crisp white copies of poems distributed. Today, the reading grew more studious and things were taken up a notch. Lux seemed to have injected a new resolve, and more than a little graphic punch, within the poets. Cahnmann-Taylor cocked her ear as students read poem after poem. She challenged them to “live in their obsessions, and the way they inform their poetry.” She urged them to “use the material they are living and obsessing over.” Ultimately, she says that “all poetry is about love and death. What else is there?” Sharmin, who wears intensely saturated colors and jewelry, confessed to being obsessed with beauty. Cahnmann-Taylor requested she be specific. Sharmin faced the arduous task of writing poetry in a second language. She searched for specificity. “Blue,” she amended. “The bluest eye….” Sharmin then stopped abruptly, apologetically. She paused. “The ocean blue.” Sharmin attempted to describe the colors of the ocean, of mountains, fabrics, and jewelry. Abraham confessed to an obsession with her newly purchased house. She described hardwood floors, claw foot tub, and a garden with rapturous descriptivism. Carbaugh admitted an obsession with decorating and arranging her classroom, and studying online design images on Pinterest. She laughed about teaching six years in a mobile unit. At this, her fellow students laughed with her when she used an old poetic device, the euphemism, calling the mobile unit “a learning cottage.” Ingalls, however, is obsessed with sleep, as online instruction for the College of Education at UGA requires her to be available “24/7…even in the middle of the night,” she yawned. Abbouchi explained how she had been obsessed with preparations for visiting guests from her home in Lebanon. Here, the particulars of their lives not only mattered, but they were crucial to their work and gave it authenticity. “I want you to live in your obsessions,” Cahnmann-Taylor repeated. Abbouchi writes a poem titled, “Papiro Flexia” about

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TRY BOOT CAM P The Measured Word

M O U N AWA R A B B O U C H I From the poem, “Papiro Flexia” Paper friends last longer, Or as long as the paper which we know, From old books you can’t Touch, is at least a thousand years. The dragon whispers “Don’t be afraid.” The cat yawns “Just relax.” The crane tells me “Make a wish.” There’s enough raw material to populate the planet. This says July 2013: a flyer-butterfly for my sister. This class I took three years ago: a syllabus-box for my friend. I won’t be returning to a receipt-flower for my sweetheart. Things would be cleaner, more solid, If everything was made of paper.

origami. Hers is a clean, crisp, repetitive poem, which the professor praises as “yum on the tongue.” The professor describes repetition in poetry, and the term villa nelle. She then describes a “pantoum” structure. A pantoum is normally comprised of four stanzas, and is structured with quatrains in which lines of each repeat as the poem continues. “I like rhymes and slant rhymes,” the professor says. She introduces more structures and methodologies—tools the poets can use in their arsenal of devices. Cahnmann-Taylor reminds them that iambic pentameter mimics the human heart beat. When another poem is read, she cocks her head. “I hear the echo of a sonnet,” she says appreciatively. There are online sites devoted to poetry and the craft of poetry writing, which Cahnmann-Taylor discusses with enthusiasm. The professor muses; poetry has moved into a new age of electronics. “Poets used to use hand-held rhyming dictionaries.” Now, their dictionaries are hand-held electronic devices. She tells them about a gloss—or glossary. She warns: “Clichéd language in poetry means word pairings we want to be cautious of.” At poetry boot camp, the students were challenged to contemplate the large and small themes of their lives, and to discover at least a part of the answer to Oliver’s question. As the professor has explained, “Every good poem has a chronology, biology, and culture.” She elaborates. “Chronology (as in, a sense of time) and geography (a sense of place) and furniture (as in plentiful, sensory details.)” Cahnmann-Taylor says, “This is a quote from my teacher, now passed.” Boot camp was a place to get at the question of whether or not they, too, truly wanted to live a poet’s life. Poet Sandra Meek read from her work on the following evening. Meek is the author of four books of poems, and a winner of the Dorset Prize for her book, Biogeography. She read from recently published Road Scatter, which she said traced the period of her mother’s experience with lung cancer, chemotherapy and death. This work addressed sobering, graphic themes of loss and finality. Meek, though softerspoken than Lux, was equally fearless.

AT L A S T, A T U R N I N T H E S P O T L I G H T : “ J U S T S H O W UP AT THE DESK AND WRI TE.” On the evening of June 26, the class returns to Hendershots, where the poetry recruits moved up the ranks and became poets giving a public reading. First up after their professor opens the event is Carbaugh, who reads an experimental sonnet, “A Teacher’s Summer."

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Next is Abraham, who talks about being a 10th grade teacher as well as doctoral student. Her first poem is, “During a District Walk through Debriefing.” Ingalls, referencing Lux’s reading, reads her poem, “Thomas Lux Tells it Like it Is.” Sharmin reads “Newborn,” a poem she has repeatedly revised. Last on stage is Abbouchi, who begins with reading “Papiro Flexia.” Each takes the microphone and has their moment in the spotlight. They demonstrate remarkable composure as they read—possibly the outcome of such intense preparation preceding that public moment. “I also enjoy sharing a dose of stage fright with the students—that tension prior to a public performance can nourish us—it’s a kind of adrenaline rush! When this rush accompanies deep learning, then all the hard work, the early mornings and late evenings of hard work, feel well worth it,” Cahnmann-Taylor writes afterward. “We honor all that we've learned by sharing it with a small public. With a performance background, I do put some worry and planning into cocreating an event that will feel well-timed and entertaining; I coach students on how to perform the poem rather than mumble it; how to choose the strongest work and a strong order to the poems they read. ” Cahnmann-Taylor reflected, “I am surprised each year by how students rise to the challenge, communicating so effectively with the audience. I am ecstatic to see audience members come up to the poets afterward and express their gratitude and converse with the students about their work. If my students feel the value and ‘kapow!’ of public community sharing as part of their coursework, then my hope is that they may seek to generate this feeling with their own students in their own classrooms.” The students’ body language is telling as they depart the stage, faces wreathed with smiles. They have been anointed in the spotlight as literati and poets. The students are boot camp rookies no longer. n

TRY BOOT CAM E P PO An Appetite for Language

JULIE CARBAUGH From the poem, “Ode to the Mobile Classroom” The white rectangle box that sings, a rhythm of lullabies when it rains. Whose shadow creatures make their presence known, by showing up in desks when you least expect. Oh! to the tin can where learning takes place, where students celebrate, when the smell of dirty furniture, stings eyes, curls toes.

For Further Information: To watch the ﬁnale event for Seat in the Shade 2014, visit: www.youtube. com/user/UGACOE Cahnmann-Taylor is a winner of Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes and a Leeway Poetry Grant. She has co-authored two books: Teachers Act Up! Creating Multicultural Learning Communities Through Theatre and Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice.

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FREUD AND THE HILDA DOOLITTLE CONNECTION INSPIRE A CREATIVE WORK BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

J E F F FA L L I S , A P H D C A N D I D AT E I N T H E

importance of the visionary and the oracular,” Fallis says,

C R E A T I V E W R I T I N G P R O G R A M , found

who also hopes his play will further inspire others to read

inspiration in historic archives concerning the poet known

Doolittle’s work.

as “H.D.” and fodder for a new play about her relationship

In June 2014, through a Graduate Research Award

with Sigmund Freud, the world’s most famous analyst.

from the Wilson Center for the Humanities and Arts and

Fallis mined historic archives at Yale University for

a Summer Doctoral Research Fellowship from the UGA

information concerning Freud and his poet patient, Hilda

Graduate School, Fallis undertook research of Doolittle’s

Doolittle. Doolittle’s relationship with Freud began with her

manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript

psychoanalysis in 1933 in Vienna, Austria.

Library at Yale University.

“One could easily say that H.D. was one of the few

After his planned graduation in 2015, Fallis would like

patients of Freud who was anywhere near his intellectual

to teach creative writing and American Literature at the

equal, and the two didn’t agree on everything, especially

university level.

the role of women in Freud’s psychological system and the

OREAD By Hilda Doolittle Whirl up, sea— Whirl your pointed pines. Splash your great pines On our rocks. Hurl your green over us— Cover us with your pools of fir.

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THE ANATOMY

OF A LEADER: HOW

MAYOR

ALLEN JOINES BY CYNTHIA ADAMS

SKATES TO THE PUCK

PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

WAKE FOREST BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER ARCHIVES

a Friday afternoon in summer, Mayor Allen Joines worked in his courthouse office in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C. The usually quiet town was busy, preparing for an influx of national figures to arrive. It was gearing up to be a long day, preceding an even longer weekend. Joines, who received an MPA from Georgia in 1971, was readying for the memorial of a personal friend, whose given name was Marguerite Annie Johnson. But most Americans knew the very famous poet best by her nom de plume, Maya Angelou. Angelou’s death had cast a long pall over the quiet Southern town where she lived and worked. And it cast Joines, Winston-Salem’s longest-serving mayor, into the public eye as the one who announced her death to the public. Joines had appeared in newscasts and front pages during the past week, discussing the death of a friend who was not a political figure, but a woman of letters who became an ally. The next day, he was in the national spotlight, sharing a stage with President Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and other headliners. The entire city of Winston-Salem was suddenly at the center of the news, and it was, like the mayor, ready for its close up. Joines’ gray pinstripe suit was crisply tailored and polished. A brilliant blue tie was efficiently knotted, his shoes shined, and overall appearance impeccably photo-ready. He was both attentive and in a mood to talk despite coming events, or perhaps, because of them. Angelou’s memorial was to be broadcast nationally the next morning and the city was already clogged with media and arriving notables. But despite the seriousness of the approaching task, Joines smiled about his affection for the University of Georgia. He keeps an irreverently titled book about Georgia Dawgs (Damn Good Dogs!) on his desk, one that he had to cover when school children recently visited him at City Hall. At age 67, Joines is athletically trim and youthful, despite clipped gray hair. And Joines' public admires him, crediting him with revitalizing a town that languished as

A city of reinvention, Winston-Salem is no longer known as the namesake of cigarette makers. The Reynolds family, of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, played a large role in the history and public life of Winston-Salem. By the 1940s, 60 percent of Winston-Salem workers worked either for Reynolds or in the Hanes textile factories. The Reynolds company imported so much French cigarette paper and Turkish tobacco for Camel cigarettes that Winston-Salem was designated by the United States federal government as an official port of entry for the United States, despite the city being 200 miles inland. WinstonSalem was the eighth-largest port of entry in the United States by 1916.

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KEN BEST/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM ROBERT DONOVAN/ SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Top: In 1753, the Moravians, originally from Eastern Europe, settled on more than 100,000 pristine acres in the heart of Winston-Salem. Their pioneering work as fine craftsmen and artisans of pottery, tannery, iron works, cloth and furniture making established the city of Salem as a thriving, sought-after trade center. Above: Winston-Salem continues to build a diverse business base, including leading in nanotechnology research, and has been named the "City of Arts and Innovation."

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tobacco and banking, staples of their economy, died away. “Our downtown area was totally underdeveloped, so far as restaurants, arts, and innovation goes,” says Barbette Dunn, who works as an administrator in the hospitality industry. She has lived in Winston-Salem since 1993. With a population of 236,440, Winston-Salem was built on tobacco (R.J. Reynolds began here in 1875) and banking (Wachovia bank was also started here in 1911). The air was once heavy with the smell of tobacco, wafting from downtown plants rolling out popular Salem and Winston brand cigarettes. It is also a town that gave birth to Piedmont Airlines (now US Airways), and Texas Pete hot sauce. Main Street was home to the first Krispy Kreme donut shop in the nation. In recent years, Winston-Salem has reinvented itself, with a focus upon biotechnologies and medicine. Today, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is the largest employer. Joines led an effort to revitalize the downtown’s core. He also created a $44 million fund to support economic development. He also drove an effort to create a Bio-Tech Research Park, intended to result in 30,000 new jobs in 20 years. There were other recruitment initiatives, entrepreneurial projects, and undertakings intended to re-direct the city’s identity. According to a 2014 study by UNC-Charlotte’s Urban Institute, Winston-Salem is now projected to hit a population of 561,000 by 2030, significantly eclipsing its larger neighbor, Greensboro. “He has put together a fabulous vision. That’s why nobody runs against him, because he is so awesome,” Dunn says. He has given the city a life it didn’t have. I’ve never lived in a city where the mayor cared more about the

people than any agenda. You’ll hear that everywhere you go.” Joines has never had a silver spoon existence, and might have become a farmer. A child of rural farmers and builders in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Joines chose differently when he envisioned his future. He became an Eagle Scout, and once visited a training camp for Scouts in New Jersey. It was an eye-opener for a young boy from the Appalachian foothills. “I had this curiosity about life,” he explains. And a credo of honor was already deeply imprinted. But Joines was more studious than thrill seeking. He remembers telling his mother he might like to become a history teacher. She replied that she would support him in his decision. “And when I cease being mayor,” he muses even now, “I would love to teach.” He attended undergraduate school at Appalachian State University in nearby Boone, N.C. Then, a professor suggested graduate school. The professor was ASU’s Frank Rich. Joines entered the MPA program at UGA in 1969. At first, Joines was intimidated by Georgia’s enormous campus. “UGA was overwhelming,” he says. “I attended Appalachian State University undergrad, and ‘App’ had an enrollment of 9,000.” As a married student, he lived in an Athens trailer park while his wife taught in Barrow County. “There was a restaurant in Athens that served barbecue goat every Friday,” Joines says, his gray eyes nearly crinkling shut as he laughs. “I tried it. I grew up in a meat and potatoes setting, and had a very energetic palate.” When Joines stepped into the much larger environs at Athens, he discovered new mentors. He rattles off names, beginning with Robert T. Golembiewski, then the department chairman of public administration. “He taught me organismic

1969 Joines receives an undergraduate degree

2009 Joines appointed chairman of the NC Economic Development Board by Governor Beverly Perdue.

from Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C.

2012 Joines launches a Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative.

2001 Elected to his first of three terms as mayor, becoming the first in Winston-Salem to hold three terms.

â&#x2DC;&#x2026; 2013 Reelected mayor of Winston-Salem and is now in his fourth mayoral term.

2005 Created a $44 million fund to support economic development and drove an effort to create a Bio-Tech Research Park. 2006 Created a "TenYear Plan to end chronic homelessness in WinstonSalem. 2000-present Joines is president of the nonprofit organization, the WinstonSalem Alliance.

2009 Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree awarded to Joines by Wake Forest University.

1969 Joines, a first-generation college graduate, becomes a first-generation graduate student at UGA. 1971 Master of public administration degree from UGA, with a thesis on the subject of city/county consolidation.

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JOINES CHOSE A DIFFERENT PATH, BECOMING NOT ONLY A FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE GRADUATE, BUT CONTINUING ON TO UGA FOR GRADUATE STUDIES.

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“I’M LOOKING

AT WHAT IT WOULD TAKE

TO BE IN THE TOP

CITIES" theory. I visited him, and he always had a symphony playing, maybe Wagner.” UGA “did a good job of establishing a strong basis,” he says. Joines already knew he wanted to work in government following graduate studies. Joines quickly plugged into the Institute of Government at Georgia. “Vince Marino—he was working on a book and allowed me to write a chapter. He was such a mentor, and taught his great writing skills.” He also drew upon lectures in real life scenarios. “I remember a class on collective bargaining, and learned a lot about issues there,” he says. Joines recalls the research and writing for his thesis on the subject of city/county consolidation, which was instructive for him in years to come. He credits UGA for underpinning his career, providing him “a strong foundation.” The theory learned at Georgia, he says, helped him in “avoiding the traps” when he eventually negotiated a sanitation worker’s strike as an administrator. Joines completed his master of public administration degree in 1971.

After graduation, he was hired by former city manager John Gold in Winston-Salem, who put him to work on the city’s budget. Joines served in various positions from 1971-2000, including assistant city manager. Gold’s influence as a mentor was also important to him. On November 6, 2001, Joines was elected mayor. He has since served three terms, and has become an almost unbeatable candidate, with strong grassroots appeal. After 14 years as a civic leader, Joines is mentioned in political circles as a possible senatorial or gubernatorial candidate. He admittedly considered higher office in 2006. But for the record, he says there is still work he wants to do in Winston-Salem. Plus, there is his work as the president of the nonprofit organization, the Winston-Salem Alliance. The nonprofit’s office is directly across the street from City Hall in the Wells Fargo building, and he divides his time between those two. The alliance was created in 2002 to, among other things, stimulate economic development and improve the vitality of corporate leadership, Joines explains. “There is an advantage to the city that I do both,” he says. “So much of the work dovetails. But I have to be absolutely transparent.” He was also appointed chairman of the NC Economic Development Board by Governor Beverly Perdue in 2009. Transparency has emerged as a theme in Joines’ civic life. It may explain his political resilience and appeal, and why Angelou’s eventual counsel made such good sense to him.

“LAY EVERYTHING ON THE TABLE…” In public comments to the local press, Joines said about Angelou: “Our city is mourning. It’s mourning the loss of that

strong voice that spoke of social justice, spoke of equality, spoke of domestic violence…. But the good news is that voice lives on in her poems, in her plays, and in her books and in her songs.” Privately, Joines discusses how he met Angelou in the 1970s, when the City hired her to work with a summertime cultural program. A life in government led Joines down unexpected pathways, such as that of finding advice from a writer and poet who happened to work for nearby Wake Forest University, or WFU. (Like Angelou, Joines was awarded an honorary doctorate by WFU. He received his honorary degree from WFU in 2009.) The mayor and the poet came to know one another early on in his career. Angelou advised him during a tense period in Winston-Salem’s history when resident Darryl Hunt, falsely convicted of rape and murder, was freed due to incontrovertible DNA evidence. Hunt had already served nearly 20 years. The mishandling of the case ignited deep resentments. “It was early in my mayoral career, in 2003,” Joines recalls. A group of local ministers confronted the mayor, telling him the city was about to explode with tensions. He spoke with Angelou, seeking her opinion. She advised Joines, “Lay everything on the table.” He took her word, and did so, sparing the city race riots. He says thoughtfully, “Maya personified when passion and giftedness meet. I saw that in Maya,” Joines says. Their trust, and resulting friendship, lasted her lifetime. Joines is now in his fourth mayoral term. When he was reelected in 2013, he was resoundingly endorsed by every city paper. “He is the genuine person you see,” Dunn says about Joines. “I’ve never heard a bad word about him.”

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A VISION OF SOMETHING FINER On a Monday evening last September, Joines entered the Council Chambers at the historic City Hall on Main Street. He wore a crisp white shirt, red tie and gray suit. Thirty-seven people had gathered for the meeting and there was a full agenda ahead. As mayor, he called for a moment of silence. Joines says he asks for guidance during those moments. “He’s been a good mayor. Good for Winston-Salem,” says Diane Hampton, who was in the gallery. Hampton is a civil engineer working for the N.C. Department of Transportation. She was on hand due to a consent agenda item, concerning proposed reconstruction and changes to exits on Interstate 40, which dissects the city. Joines was purposeful and efficient, dispatching the business of government. Within 20 minutes, eight agenda items had been resolved. After allocated time for public comments, the mayor and council went into closed session. Later that week, Joines celebrated his birthday. He had a full day planned, which began with a morning work out before hitting his two offices. But there was not a birthday cake, nor even a cupcake, in sight when he arrived at City Hall. He launched a Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative in 2012, and wants children and parents to understand the importance of good nutrition and education. An assistant in the mayor’s office, Jennifer Haydon, says the boss walks the walk. Haydon said her boss avoids sweets so he probably wouldn’t have any. “Maybe fruit, or a muffin," says Haydon. But if he did relent and have a treat, Joines later admitted it would have to

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be banana pudding. Or peanut butter, which he says is a weakness, and eats by the spoon. But there seem to be few weak moments in the life of Allen Joines, as even his hobbies are purposeful. Woodworking and painting are outlets he enjoys, as well as playing bass in a band. He has just finished making wooden planters, and also an art project that will be auctioned off for charity. He keeps pictures of his finished work on his smart phone. He is focused and disciplined, working out three days a week with a trainer and watching his weight. “My daughter says I’m anal,” he jokes. She also teases him about his mania for organization. “I alphabetize the spices in the kitchen cabinet,” he admits and laughs hard. But focus and hard work only gets you so far; Joines says that perhaps vision is more important. “I’m looking at what it would take to be in the top 50 cities,” he says. He doggedly works at his plans and intentions. In 2006, Joines created a “Ten-Year Plan” to end chronic homelessness in Winston-Salem. Eight years later, chronic homelessness is reduced by 58 percent. He is also an advocate for green and sustainable building. His speeches to that end are “inspiring” says Emily Scofield, who heads the US Green Building Council’s North Carolina Chapter in Charlotte. “Mayor Joines has been a member of the USGBC’s advisory council for the last two years. He offered us valuable advice,” she says. “’Don’t overthink certain things. Take action.’” She says he was an early signer of the Mayor’s Climate Protection Plan and is working to create workable sustainability in WinstonSalem. “Through his leadership, Winston-Salem has been very forwardthinking.” For a city of its size, she finds they are well-respected.

Only a few blocks away from City Hall, citizen Dunn paused from her downtown work to proudly discuss Winston-Salem’s traction. She says she appreciates that the town is revitalized, but is deeply proud of the fact that Winston-Salem is invested in art and innovation. It begs the question, where does this energy and vision for this city’s momentum come from? What is the source? Sitting by a window in the mayor’s office, Joines considers the question. “By being aware of the environment. The trends.” And then he tells an anecdote about a hockey player (one whom Joines physically resembles) named Wayne Gretsky. “Somebody asked Wayne Gretsky about his success,” Joines says, and then paraphrases. “He said, ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be.’” Joines is trying to do this, skating to the puck rather than looking back to where it once was. That evening, Joines will celebrate his birthday with several friends. He will cook the celebratory meal himself, which he has already planned. But for now, his eye is on the moment, and he turns practical. He may give himself the gift of a reasonable workday. “I’ll have to get away from work in time to do the grocery shopping,” Joines says, largely to himself. His assistant, Haydon, gives a little smile, and nods knowingly. No doubt, Joines will be looking forward to the next year, and the next birthday, and the next big goal. Towards something finer. n

“OUR CITY IS MOURNING,” ALLEN JOINES SAID ON

JUNE 5TH LAST SUMMER

WHEN HIS FRIEND,

MAYA ANGELOU, DIED. “IT’S MOURNING THE LOSS

OF THAT STRONG VOICE

THAT SPOKE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE,

SPOKE OF EQUALITY, SPOKE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

PREVENTION, SPOKE OF THE IMPACT OF BLACK THEATER."

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ELIZABETH GLEIM TICKS, A CAR NAMED COLE AND A WOMAN ON FIRE

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

“Liz”

Elizabeth Gleim, or to her friends and colleagues, is an animated green-eyed brunette with shoulder-length curls. She’s a rough and tumble, dauntless researcher who has spent most of her past years either in the field or a lab. Or, more often than not, Gleim was on the open road with J-Ci, Timothy, or Cole—names of her trusty, dusty vehicles. If she weren’t a scientist, Gleim might have considered trucking, the way she has ruggedly logged miles these past few years en route to a doctorate. Her cargo, however, was small but very troublesome for humans: ticks. Fortunately, she was more attached to her research subject than it was attached to her. (Gleim seldom ever discovered a tick on her person—but then, she knows exactly what precautions to take. Read the accompanying article, and so will you.) Gleim may be as well known for her vehicles as she is for her research, which is saying something. In the start of 2013, Gleim moved into a modest office at Emory’s picturesque Oxford campus in Oxford, Ga., while still a University of Georgia doctoral student in the School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “During my graduate work, I was looking at the effects of long-term prescribed burning on ticks and tick-borne pathogen prevalence—ultimately hoping to get at risks to human health,” explains Gleim. Her research is of growing interest, due to a dramatic rise in the incidence of tick-borne diseases in recent years (Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, to name two familiar diseases from a long list). Did prescribed burns work? Did tick populations decrease long-term, or, in non-research terms, were they simply reduced in the short-term? Gleim’s findings showed “that long-term prescribed fire significantly reduces tick populations.” Although she graduated from UGA with her PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Management in May of 2013, Gleim returned to her old stomping grounds this past summer, the Joseph

Gleim’s findings showed “that long-term prescribed fire significantly reduces tick populations.”

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W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway, where she lived for two years performing field work during her graduate work. This past summer she worked with one of her previous graduate school advisors, Mike Conner, to create a computer model to show how tick populations were affected by burns. “The model essentially can account for host habitat preference, tick host preference, tick lifecycle characteristics, and burn cycle intervals,” according to Gleim. They hoped the model would illustrate mechanisms behind the trends observed during her graduate work. Just as the researchers hoped, the model predicts how the burns could reduce tick populations in various land management scenarios. Gleim is also working with an Emory undergraduate, completing pathogen testing of ticks she gathered. She had performed the large majority of testing while a doctoral student, but her student is currently focusing on testing the ticks for Panola Mountain Ehrlichia—which is yet another tickborne pathogen. One, she says, that has emerged in the last 10 years or so. And another of many pathogens transmitted by ticks that is capable of causing disease in humans.

50,000 MILES LATER... En route to her research sites, Gleim’s various vehicles became what she jokingly calls a mobile closet. Or better yet, a mobile office. An F-150 field truck, which was white but more reddish tan due to the Georgia clay and sand roads she travelled, had a name: Timothy. While Gleim lived at Ichauway in Newton, Ga., she zigzagged across southwest Georgia in Timothy. “So much so that the very last slide of my defense, as a ‘ha-ha,’ I (among other things) tallied how many ‘field miles’ I put on my field truck—just shy of 35,000.” The road miles were no big deal, because Gleim was plain driven to succeed. Come weekends, she ditched Timothy for her own car, a gray Mustang named J-Ci, and commuted to Atlanta, due to the double draw of a fiancé there and a horse stabled in Decatur. Sometimes the blues blared on the radio, but most of the time, Gleim tuned into an upbeat song and sang with gusto. She put nearly 20,000 miles on the Mustang before trouble struck. “J-Ci was rear-ended when my now husband and I were headed out of town for our four-year anniversary—it turned out he proposed to me that weekend. I thought he seemed particularly agitated about being rear-ended, and later

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found out it was because the ring was in the trunk!” The engagement ring survived and so did Gleim. But she replaced J-Ci with a sturdier SUV, one that fellow researchers wouldn’t mock. Gleim bought a black Subaru Forester (naming it Cole) and kept on trucking to the tune of another 30,000 miles. Cole was immediately introduced to the cruel vagaries of life on the road. “I promptly put a dent in it on the very first day I owned it when I ran over a stick at Ichauway,” she says ruefully. “I also appreciated the all-wheel drive as I ran through more than a few mud puddles getting to and from my house onsite at Ichauway.” Cole was forever dusty, splattered with mud and pine sap. “And sporting hundreds of gnats and other bugs plastered onto the front grill and windshield at any given time.” It was ironic that Gleim was about to marry a car buff, who quickly gave up on keeping Cole pristine. “During my last semester when commuting back and forth between Oxford and UGA I still had/have the Forester. I didn’t track my miles quite as well back then, but I would estimate it was approximately 700 miles per week. The dust and mud were no longer an issue, but bugs still were.” Cole looked slightly better once Gleim left Ichauway. But, Gleim laughs, “The interior took a hit during my first semester at Oxford as it reflected my nomadic life via acting as a mobile shoe and clothing closet—work shoes/clothes, lab shoes/clothes, barn shoes/clothes, etc. I still had lab work to do, so I was driving to Athens once or twice a week to do my research,” she says matter-of-factly. Gleim actually defended her dissertation on the effects of long-term prescribed burning on tick and tick-borne pathogen dynamics while also responsible for lab management at Oxford College of Emory University and observing the class she would soon be teaching. All of this was achieved “while finishing lab work and writing my dissertation and finally, defending my dissertation.” But Gleim felt the Oxford opportunity was a stroke of sheer good fortune. “I got really lucky,” she marvels. No accident of fate, disagrees Lindsay Boring, who directs the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway. Prior to working as a visiting scientist there last summer, Gleim spent nearly two years at Ichauway as a doctoral student. Boring came to know Gleim well. He also was in the audience observing her performance at a UGA event the prior year. “She had one of the lead finishes at the 3MT competition,” recalls Boring. “She is a

PROTECT YOURSELF

checking yourself frequently while youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re outdoors, performing a full body check immediately upon returning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because at the end of the day there are always ticks that get through those defenses." Gleim stresses prompt, thorough and systematic self-examination. The prolific lone star tick is not associated with Lyme disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

FACT 1

IN ORDER TO AVOID A TICK-BORNE DISEASE, the most important thing is

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PANOLA MOUNTAIN EHRLICHIA

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TESTING

Gleim is also working with a student to complete pathogen testing of ticks she had gathered while a graduate student. She had performed the large majority of testing while a doctoral student, but her student is currently focusing on testing the ticks for Panola Mountain Ehrlichiaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;yet another tick-borne pathogen.

very articulate speaker and had a pretty charismatic doctoral project with that intersecting ecosystem health/human health theme.” The timed competition is a forum for graduate students to pitch their thesis research to a general audience. The idea helps researchers clarify their work, and is a popular way to refine their public presentation skills. But there was more than research for Gleim to manage. Cramming her personal life into the mix, Gleim was also planning her wedding, which was set for spring 2013. A born multi-tasker, Gleim kept pace with a crazily busy calendar. She defended her dissertation on March 28, celebrated her birthday on April 8, and was married April 21. The couple married in Charleston, S.C. where she probably made one of the oddest requests that her caterer had ever received…she wanted a small tick frosted onto her otherwise traditional cake. At the wedding reception, they danced to Jordin Spark’s “Worth the Wait." As she says, “I grew up on rhythm and blues.” A bit sheepishly, she adds, “I like Mariah Carey, Destiny’s Child, and Taylor Swift….and when I was alone doing field work, I used to sing.” After a honeymoon trip to Jamaica, Gleim was back in Georgia to tie up loose ends and pick up a sheepskin on May 10, 2013—her doctoral degree from UGA. She was now a true Georgia Dawg (almost a Double Dawg, given she also earned a Teaching Certificate,) a PhD, and newly married. So it surprises no one that Gleim is a big proponent of controlled burns, as in fire. She herself is on fire to achieve life goals as quickly as possible. All of which is more than a little ironic for a scientist who insists she always had to work hard. “It helps me understand where my students are getting hung up,” she says. A year and a half later, Gleim strides through Oxford hallways taking long, purposeful, coltishly energetic steps. No surprise—she is a horsewoman. Gleim’s an equestrienne who did pre-veterinary undergraduate work at Hollins University, a school chosen as a place where she could also board her horse. “I jumped, and showed in the hunters,” she says. Gleim retains a horsewoman’s physical poise and strong posture. When asked if there’s any material thing she is particularly attached to in her life, she reflects only a minute before answering, “My chaps.” And when asked if there is anything unusual about her interests, she lights up. Gleim was a board member of the Little Creek Farm Conservancy in Decatur from 2011-2013 and remains an active member of the organization. “It is the

only publicly owned and operated horse farm in the metro Atlanta area.” When she spent the summer of 2014 doing visiting research at Ichauway, people there had no idea about her work with the conservancy. Her life is still enhanced by a love of horses. The horses boarded at Little Creek Farm allow contact with the “rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire,” according to the conservancy’s website. Actually, the phrase could easily be applied to Gleim.

LIGHTING INTELLECTUAL AND REAL FIRES Gleim keeps a hunter orange ball cap from her graduate work at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, and a yellow sign emblazoned “Tick Crossing” on the bulletin board in the science building at Oxford. Colleagues pop in and out, saying hello and checking in with Gleim. She loves research, but no more than she loves teaching. We discuss what it was like to teach her first day (“Nervous,” she laughs. “…So nervous…”) Her mom taught briefly, but became a stay-at-home mother. Even so, a love of education is something they shared. What lit her intellectual fire? “It was a professor at Hollins,” says Gleim. She was 20 years old, in pre-veterinary studies at Hollins, and had performed a few veterinary internships. “I loved the (veterinary) work, but didn’t necessarily want the lifestyle. Meanwhile, I had taken a microbiology class and realized I enjoyed public health and disease. Those made me think about the research side of things. I was becoming more interested in research.” That was when a Hollins professor suggested Gleim consider teaching at the college level. “I thought, that does sound neat. This light bulb went off….” So Gleim explains how she knew she would become an educator before she knew what she was going to study. “I decided early on that I was going to take a year off to work and explore what my options were, and took a position at the CDC.” Gleim accepted a year-long fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, in the division of parasitic diseases within the recreational water laboratory. Upon completing her year-long fellowship, Gleim accepted a position in the diagnostic laboratory in the same division at CDC. But she realized that while she enjoyed

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molecular disease work, there was something missing. “During two years off (from studies), I was consciously thinking about whether I was going to do that all my life. But I missed field work and ecology although I had enjoyed the work with the CDC.” Gleim made the ultimate decision to apply to UGA’s ecology program. Then…“I was actually just talking to my boss at the CDC one day, and discussed my dilemma about studying ecology or disease. And she said, ‘Liz, have you ever heard of Michael Yabsley?’” She had not. “Then, my boss said, ‘He studies disease ecology.” The statement provoked a research epiphany for Gleim. “I realized that was what I’d been looking for.” This was the spring of 2008. Gleim’s boss at the CDC put her in touch with Yabsley. But the timing was not the best. “He said, ‘Obviously it’s a little late this year, but I may have an unexpected opening on one project. But if that project doesn’t interest you, I will help you find one in 2009.” Yabsley made good on his offer. Shortly after their chat, he notified Liz that, in fact, the unexpected opening was a go. The project concerned the long-term effects of prescribed burns for ticks. Gleim didn’t hesitate to join the project that fall. “There was a push to re-introduce prescribed burns back into our forests in the 1960s. Around that same time, we were trying to find benefits to burning— maybe it reduced tick populations. In the 70s and 80s, there was a flurry of studies on the topic and even today studies still occur, yet they have had differing results.” There was an immediate decrease in ticks after burns, but sometimes rebounding populations, she explains. “When we started looking at the question, the first was, why these different results? A lot of the studies were not accounting for many variables…and/or they weren’t simulating real world regimes. We basically put our project together to account for all those variables and look at areas already managed by fires and look at what the tick populations were doing.” Gleim says she never had to get past the frequent tick-ick! factor. “Ticks never really bothered me; they have to crawl on you. So, they aren’t as elusive as people might think they are.”

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THE JOYS OF TEACHING Students were once expected to absorb how to become a good teacher by observation and accrued experience. Now there is methodology and there is a training protocol. Gleim credits a UGA teaching certificate earned through the Graduate School, the Interdisciplinary Certificate in University Teaching, for playing a strong role in her teaching skills. “While at UGA, I felt I could see this evolution, from this culture where it was assumed that an intelligent person would just know how to teach, to seeing the pedagogy and the science and methods behind it,” she says. “And it was so exciting to see some importance attached to the art of teaching.” A professor led her to the certificate program. “When I first got to UGA, I randomly got placed to be a teaching assistant with John Maerz. I told him I wanted to teach, and he said, ‘You need to do the teaching certificate that UGA offers.’” During the process, Gleim says the teaching certificate went from “being a program many didn’t know about to one that became well known.” In riding terms, Gleim had cleared all hurdles and was seated comfortably. From the first day in her Oxford classroom, she felt admittedly nervous but oh-so-happy. She was hitting her stride, as a scientist and educator. n

For more information about tick-borne diseases, see the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/ or visit: http://extension.uga.edu/publications/ detail.cfm?number=C937 For more information on prescribed burns, see the website for The Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils at http://www.prescribedfire.net For more information on Michael Yabsley’s work at UGA and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Study: http://yabsleyugalab.weebly.com and http://vet.uga.edu/scwds For more information on the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources: http://www.jonesctr.org and http://www.warnell.uga.edu/ For more information on Elizabeth Gleim’s research: http://sites.google. com/site/elizabethgleim/home

LIFE STAGES OF A TICK

larval stage; then, the nymphal stage and, lastly, the adult stage. A tick can enlarge its size 20-50 fold when engorged with blood, making them hard to identify. Every tick species is capable of vectoring different pathogens. The blacklegged tick shown here, is commonly known as the deer tick.

FACT 2

ALL HUMAN-BITING TICKS HAVE THREE LIFE STAGES; they begin with a

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TICK DISEASES AND REMOVAL DISEASES TRANSMITTED BY TICKS that are most commonly reported in the U.S. are Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis. “Many of these undiagnosed.” Some of the key ones: Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever; human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME); Ehrlichia ewingii ehrlichiosis, Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis; Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI); and, babesiosis. TO REMOVE AN ATTACHED TICK, Gleim advises that you don’t attempt to burn it nor drown it in alcohol or petroleum jelly as these things can do more harm than good. “Instead, use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull directly out without twisting. It is wise to save 21 can preserve the tick for several weeks in case of disease development. One

a tick by storing it in a small amount of rubbing alcohol or alternatively freeze the tick in a Ziploc bag. Should you develop a fever, rash, and/or ﬂu-like

FACTS 3 & 4

start with non-specific ﬂu-like symptoms,” says Gleim. “A lot of them go

symptoms within several weeks of removing the tick, contact your doctor.” The American dog tick

WHAT IS MOST SURPRISING ABOUT TICKS? “I think that most people are surprised to find out that those tiny ticks they find on themselves are not necessarily a different species of tick from the bigger ones but rather, may possibly be a different life stage of the same species.” People are also surprised to learn “… that such a low percentage of ticks are positive for a pathogen,” says Gleim. “And the amount of time it takes to transmit them.”

Pictured on this page: the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center forest at Ichauway, Georgia.

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TICK-BORNE PATHOGENS

ATTACHED FOR 24-48 HOURS FOR TRANSMISSION. Pathogens can be transmitted in eight hours or less. Thus, prompt removal is key. Ticks carry pathogens at a low prevalence. Generally speaking, only 1-5% of ticks carry any particular pathogen, so the chance that a tick attached to you has something is low. The blacklegged tick

FACT 5

MOST HUMAN TICK-BORNE PATHOGENS REQUIRE THAT THE TICK BE

THE LONE STAR TICK

most common in the Southeast and is known for being an extremely aggressive biting tick. It is nondiscriminatory about the host it seeks out and is prolific. Like other ticks, the lone star tick is very cyclical in its activity. Their lifestages are active from spring through the fall, and not only during summer. The lone star tick

FACT 6

A NUMBER OF TICKS CAUSE DISEASE IN HUMANS. The lone star tick is the

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mined

Focused

Beautiful

Superstar

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS

Achiever

Brilliant

PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

KARSON BROOKS O N PAG E A N T RY, WOM E N I N S C I E N C E A N D B ECOM I N G A N O U T L I E R

arson Brooks is an unconventional, brainy beauty who has competed in beauty pageants, but one with solid scholastic credentials who is on her way towards a doctorate in chemistry. Although she just began graduate studies this past summer, Brooks can as readily discuss polymer molecules and nanotechnologies as she can chat about good books, recipes, or Pinterest. Her love affair with science began her senior year of high school in advanced placement chemistry. But it was a rocky start. “I used to cry all the time until I figured it out,” Brooks admits with a laugh. While attending the Dean’s Research Award reception at UGA last summer, she talked about her love of science. “I think my mom had a lot to do with that. She always taught me that I should want to be intelligent over beautiful because beauty eventually fades.” The Montgomery, Ala. native

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joined Alpha Omicron Pi while an undergraduate at the University of Alabama. Brooks speculates that she was possibly the only one among her sorority members who completed a chemistry degree. She was a highachieving undergraduate who made outstanding grades, enabling her to graduate summa cum laude. “I never actually got teased for being smart in school,” she says. “I think I got teased more when someone got a higher grade than me on an assignment, which always drove me crazy. I think I just owned being smart. And if kids thought that was weird or uncool, I didn’t really care because that’s what I needed to be.” At Alabama, she joined research projects and got her work published, soon on her way to becoming a scientist. Brooks had an opportunity to work on a research project at Pennsylvania State University as part of her undergraduate experiences. While there, she visited Dow Chemical

Company. “At Dow, I saw firsthand how an industrial laboratory functioned. The experience was extremely different from my expectations. I was fascinated by the company labs and by the fact that everyday chemists are developing new products and technology to make our lives better.” In 2014, she received the national Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which is based on intellectual merits and grade point average. (She was on the President’s List at Alabama for eight consecutive semesters.) “Of the 14,000 that applied for it, 2,000 got it,” Brooks says with quiet pride. But this future chemist was one who had beauty pageant experiences as well. “I love dressing up and being girly, but I also want women to have the same opportunities as men. I think we can definitely have both.” Whatever she did, Brook proved she was in to win. All of which drew comparisons with Reese Witherspoon’s

PAG E A N T W I N S P ROV I D E D AC A D E M I C S C H O L A R S H I P MO N EY F O R K A R S O N B RO O K S , W H O A LS O H A P P E N E D TO B E A ST E M S C H O L A R . S H E I S A P R E S I D E N T I A L F E L LOW, T H E H I G H E ST F E L LOWS H I P G I V E N TO I N COM I N G G R A D UAT E ST U D E N TS .

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Outliers: The Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell, examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. It is a resolve found again and again in extremely successful people, rather than a single focus upon intelligence and ambition. Gladwell argues that the true story of success is a layered one, and that if we want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking around them—at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. And in revealing that hidden logic, Gladwell presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential.

character, Elle Woods, in the lighthearted comedy Legally Blonde. The film portrays Woods as a stereotypical sorority sister who prizes her fashion sense and privileged lifestyle. But the character proves her abilities as a law student, ultimately shattering the stereotypes. Brook also broke with stereotypes. “I actually did get compared to Elle Woods as a kid,” Brooks says. “I wanted to be a lawyer for the longest time as a kid because of that movie.” Brooks’ pageant experience was confined to merely two competitions, Brooks clarifies. “I was in my high school pageant. But I didn’t win anything.” Yet that didn’t exactly discourage her, either. “I was also in Houston County's Junior Miss (which now is America’s Distinguished Young Women). I didn’t win; however, I did place in scholastic achievement (grades, ACT score, etc.).” Brooks’ pageant talent was a comedic monologue, which placed her in the top eight contestants. Brooks also won the essay contest, and still remembers the topic. “The prompt was, ‘describe a time in which you were your best self.’” Brooks must have been a gracious, congenial loser. “I was named Miss Congeniality, voted on by my fellow 28 contestants.” But the real bonus was that Brooks received $3,200 in a cash scholarship from her pageant experience, “which helped tremendously with buying

books, class fees, etc.” She took the money and headed for the science lab— not another stage. “After that, I hung up my pageant dresses, but I have always been a fan of the Miss America organization since I was a little girl, especially the organization’s platform of empowering women in the STEM fields.” (STEM includes science, technology, engineering and mathematics.) Brooks entered Graduate School at UGA in June of 2013. She is the recipient of several other fellowships from the University of Georgia, and is a Presidential Fellow, which is the highest fellowship given to incoming graduate students. Due to her undergraduate degree in chemistry, a STEM discipline, she was selected for the 2013 UGA bridge program. The summer program, sponsored by the Graduate School, allowed her to begin her research early. She began her UGA research in Jason Locklin’s lab, studying surface-initiated polymerization and post-polymerization modifications of surfaces. Working closely with a mentor, Brooks is learning the methods and protocols of developing polymer brushes. She plans to complete her doctorate in 2018. “Ideally, I want to make consumer products. I want to do something that has a practical application.”

B RO O K S C A N A S R E A D I LY D I S C U S S P O LYM E R MO L EC U L E S A N D N A N OT EC H N O LO G I E S A S S H E C A N C H AT A B O U T G O O D B O O K S , R EC I P E S , O R P I N T E R E ST.

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Brilliant UGA UGAGraduate GraduateSchool SchoolMagazine Magazine W I N T E R 2 015

B RO O K S R EC E N T LY S H A R E D H E R T H O U G H TS W I T H T H E G RA D UAT E S C H O O L M AGA Z I N E O N S U C C E S S A N D WOM E N I N ST E M .

When you imagine yourself 20 years from now, where do you see yourself, and what is your occupation? What about 40 years from now?

In 20 years, I hope to have a job that I’ve had for the last 15 years. I hope to be a research scientist for a large chemical company. I hope to have made a product that resulted in helping someone. I also hope to be married and have at least one child. And I hope I’m doing something that I love and that I’m happy. In 40 years, I hope everything is the same as 20 years (with more science under my belt, of course), and I hope I’m close to retiring! But most of all, I hope I’ve accomplished something great in my lifetime. I don’t care about fame or attention. I just want to be able to leave something great behind for other generations.

Do you think women get equal encouragement and support to enter science and STEM disciplines? Why or why not?

That’s a little tough for me because throughout my career and life, I’ve been told I’m just as good as a boy. I was taught that there’s nothing I can’t do (minus physical strength, of course) that a man can do. (My mom was a big feminist.) I did notice that with my name [Karson], many thought I was a man in situations such as grading my tests in a class or applying to graduate school. Even the press release at UGA

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for the NSF fellowship referred to me as “he.” So, I definitely think a bias exists. Many thought I was boy because I was so successful in my studies and field; however, I never really experienced discouragement or lack of encouragement to pursue a STEM degree. Like I mentioned before, I do feel that I have to work much harder than men in my field for recognition, and I think this hard work pays off. I do think in other, more traditional settings that this definitely occurs, and I think it’s terrible. I think girls and young women should be highly encouraged to follow their dreams and passions. I also think that the gender bias in science is due to older values and traditions. And I think that as my generation and the generation before me becomes employed at institutions and companies that this bias will be no more. I also think that the campaigns by various companies as well as the efforts of the Miss America organization are helping to push women to follow their dreams and pursue careers in the STEM fields.

If you've read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, you have probably already figured out that most high achievers have to be visionaries and anticipate the future. Where do you think your greatest future opportunity lies and why?

I think that the greatest opportunity for my career is in industry. When I started on my

journey in science, I wanted to help create something that can actually help someone in real life. And while academia provides insights and interesting findings, industry creates tangible products that are available to help the population. I think this ability to make a product directly available to consumers will offer me the best opportunity to achieve my overall goals.

Let's just assume you are a potential outlier to have gotten where you are in such record time. Gladwell defines “the 10,000 hour rule”— meaning the time most successful people put in to their endeavors in order to become truly proficient. What do you think about the fact that outstanding success may require this? Is that burdensome, or overwhelming, to contemplate?

I definitely think a large amount of time is required to become successful at something. I was always taught that things aren’t just given to people. You have to work hard to achieve your goals. And I don’t think this is a burden at all. While social norms have progressed significantly, as a young woman, I feel like I have to work twice as hard to prove that I am as good as or better than men in my field. But this isn’t a burden to me. I enjoy proving myself to others and to myself. I knew the challenges I would face going into this field, and I accept them because they make me a better scientist and person in the long run.

Achiever

(It’s interesting that that Gladwell mentions the 10,000 hour rule. I did some math, and working 40 hours a week for five years [the time for a PhD] will ultimately result in 10,000 hours. So, it makes sense that to become an expert in a field, you have to work for so long to become an expert in the field.)

So, if you could change one thing about American society, what would it be?

If I could change one thing about American society, it would be lack of appreciation for chemists. Every time that I tell someone that I am getting a PhD in chemistry, the first thing I hear is “What are you going to do with that degree?” I think chemists and other research scientists are definitely overlooked. If you look around your house, a chemist made an impact all throughout it from the laundry detergent to the paint on the walls. I think scientists are quite underappreciated, and I would love to change that.

And, if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

If I could change one thing about myself, I would like to stop being so hard on myself. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been striving to be the best and trying to be as perfect as possible. And so, when I make mistakes, I always take them quite hard. This has been interesting in grad school, where most experiments fail and mistakes are commonly made. I always have to remind myself that I’m in grad school to learn and that making mistakes and failure are a part of that learning process.

LinkedIn accounts. It’s advantageous to follow these accounts because many job announcements are posted on these accounts, the latest news and publications are commonly posted (allowing a person to easily keep up with the current literature/news in his or her field), and these accounts are a great way to get your name out there. In this age in time, everyone Googles. A young professional should have a positive “brand" on the Internet. By using these social media outlets, you can promote your research, insights, etc. to the right people and hopefully make some strong connections or, even better, get a job! Now, I think young people aren’t always smart with social media, but if used correctly social media can be a great resource.

Q. A.

Are you a day dreamer?

I don’t daydream as much as I used to actually. With grad school, my mind is always running at 100 miles per hour, and it’s hard to let my mind wander. However, when I do day dream, I really like to picture my goals or where I will be in the future. I think these thoughts help keep me on track and help remind me about what I’m working towards. n

Do you think the current role of social media is friendly to academic success, or an impediment?

I think social media is a great asset to academia, and I think everyone should utilize the resources social media provides. All of the major companies, journals, and institutions have Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts, and

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Bolton had a paradigm shift while at a leadership training experience for selected graduate students conducted by the Graduate School in 2014. “I want to be a Wine PhD,” Bolton wrote during the 2014 UGA Emerging Leaders conference in Dillard, Ga. “I will be a wine researcher and a professional wine educator, with a study abroad program for American university students.” She is on her way.

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Stephanie Bolton THE SCIENCE of WINE

BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN

Do you know terms such as “ozone sanitation,” “integrated sensory analysis,” “wine grape cultivers,” “wine aromas and interactions with inoculated yeast,” or, “malolactic fermentation” when it comes to wines? Ever heard of mycotoxin contamination? Many wine aficionados haven’t. But Stephanie Bolton, a doctoral student with degrees in chemistry and food science, does know these terms. These pertain to wine, wine making and wine ﬂaws—not attributes you necessarily want wine in your glass to possess. These terms are all important to the agribusiness of wine and oenology, a better-known term, which are fields of study vast and complex enough to include subfields. It happens that producing a very drinkable wine is not so simple. Vine-growing and harvesting is known as viticulture, and is taken from the Latin word for vine. Oenology—a better known term— considers the science and study of all things pertaining to wine and winemaking but not the actual growing and harvesting of grapes. Aiding in the cause of actual wine making, there are those with an astute, educated, refined “nose”—who teach the nuances of wine characteristics, especially ﬂaws, which wine producers must understand and master. As wine making expands within Georgia and the Southeastern United States, the science and agribusiness of vineyards expands and intensifies. The depth of knowledge for those involved with the sciences of wine is something quite different than the fan of a good vintage. At times it is clinical, difficult, and—if you ever get a whiff of brett— enough to make you pinch your nose firmly closed.

STEPHANIE BOLTON, a doctoral student in plant pathology, sat on the front row at the Southeastern United States Grape and Wine Symposium, leaning intently towards the instructor, Melba Allen. Allen is a French resident and visiting viticulturist who traveled from France to California vineyards and then on to the Southeast to teach wine makers and growers. Allen is also a sommelier and importer, and offers expert wine knowledge to restaurants as well. She is there teaching the students—20 men and women—about the flaws in wine that will render wines undrinkable, and certainly, unsaleable. The potential chemical disorders in wine, Allen explains, are many and serious. Bolton herself, 33, nods seriously. She is deeply passionate about her work, including the hard science of wine. And she loves working in close proximity to all things wine-related. “I love learning,” she says in a lighter moment. One Christmas, she asked her family to give her only wine reference books. A graceful, slightly built young woman with light brown hair which flows down her back, she absorbs Allen’s comments and keeps notes. She has blue eyes, which are squinted in concentration as Allen speaks. If all goes to plan, Bolton will one day be playing a similar role to Allen’s, educating and teaching about the science of wine. In Bolton’s case, she followed an undergraduate degree in chemistry with a stint teaching chemistry and an internship

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"Professor Phil Brannen's excellent reputation with grape growers has greatly aided the research. Both professors, Phil Brannen and Anthony Glenn, are UGA Graduate School alumni themselves," says Bolton, a Double Dawg.

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STEPHANIE BOLTON BILLY DRAMIS

in Columbia Valley in Washington to learn more about wine. She came to UGA in 2010, earning a master’s degree in food science in 2012. She spent five summers at UGA’s campus in Cortona, Italy, teaching a study abroad course on wine to American students in Tuscany. UGA’s Cortona program galvanized Bolton to pursue the ultimate goal, a dream and passion, she says, to become a professor who leads successful study abroad programs focused upon wine. This past fall, Bolton says she had a paradigm shift while attending Emerging Leaders, a leadership training experience for selected graduate students conducted by the Graduate School. “I want to be a Wine PhD,” Bolton wrote on a poster during the 2014 UGA Emerging Leaders conference in Dillard, Ga. “I will be a wine researcher and a professional wine educator, with a study abroad program for American university students.” Bolton is well on her way. Her Italian is good enough to communicate easily concerning food and wine. Her research is nearly complete for her dissertation which will concern potential mycotoxin risk in wines produced from Vitis vinifera grapes in the Southeastern U.S. A few weeks after the symposium where she dove into industry problems alongside vineyard owners, Bolton completed a log of over 200 bottles of wine in a large-scale sampling of Vitis vinfera wines and wine grapes originating in the Southeast. Each will be evaluated for technical problems such as mycotoxigenic fungi, which can create off aromas in bottled wine. She will assess the bottles for the presence or absence of mycotoxins, which are rare but potentially dangerous for humans. “In Europe, everyone is aware of them—in America, not so much,” Bolton explains. In her work, none of the toxins have been found in high levels. To date, there is no legal limit in the U.S. Bolton is also working to identify current beneficial and at-risk practices through producer surveys of viticultural and winemaking techniques Of course, Bolton is diplomatic when conducting research with vineyard owners. She has found the southeastern wine industry to be very cooperative, even eager for research in this challenging environment and seeks their full cooperation with the research she performs under two UGA professors, Phil Brannen and Anthony Glenn. (Bolton and Glenn, an adjunct professor in toxicology and mycology research, are the lead authors of the study.) It isn’t difficult for Bolton to be diplomatic. Given her love of vineyards and all things wine, she views those involved with wine production as extremely positive on many levels. Vineyards and wine sales

Top: Powdery mildew spotted on some grapes in the Blairsville, GA, research vineyard. The mildew can infect all green tissue on the grapevine, including leaves and young berries, and cause crop loss and poor wine quality if untreated. Above: Bolton shown at underground wine cellars in Montepulciano, Italy, during a field trip with the UGA Studies Abroad Program in 2010.

not only produce a valuable product but support new jobs and tourism. On a very human scale, enhanced tourism strengthens economies and has real financial impact. “Vineyards and rebuilding have shaped communities,” she says. In the Southeast, the bigger worries for wine growers are problems such as powdery and downy mildew. The romantic roses often planted in vineyards—these, Bolton explains, are the canary in the mine, tipping wineries off to pathologies before they affect the vines. Bolton writes a weekly Instagram for the American Wine Society Educational Foundation, a new foray into social media for the group who awarded her a two-year scholarship. As she writes in an email later, two scholarships and a USDA assistantship offset some of her financial worries while she continues her final months of doctoral work. But she still keeps a job at an Athens restaurant, squeezing in a shift whenever possible. The Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium has also given

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her research group a grant to fund a portion of the research. “It’s paid for a lot of the travel expense for grape and wine sample collection,” she says. Still, like most graduate students, she worries. The need for research support is a nagging theme. “Perhaps I’ll be able to be so generous one day!”

A Thirst for Knowledge The third annual Southeastern United States Grape and Wine Symposium was not a chatty opportunity for fellow winemakers and vintners to imbibe. It addressed the agribusiness of wine—and technical matters that concerns and most of those gathered are winemakers or vineyard owners. Enology studies like those at the symposium include grape and wine science, winery and vineyard operations, wine production and analysis and grape pests, disease and disorders. The Surry Community College hosting the seminar is set near the Blue Ridge parkway and is itself part of the Yadkin Valley wine region. The winery on the campus is a teaching winery, teaching students crushing technologies, fermentation, and all the steps leading from grape to bottled product. Students learn to produce, bottle, and label and market the wines produced. They have labs, classrooms, a wine resource library, and a climate controlled wine library at the small college. This supports serious agribusiness, and regional wine makers from a variety of states are familiar with the work here. During the seminar, students considered topics in research and field findings. They spent hours learning how to evaluate and pinpoint problems with wine and to conduct what Allen calls a “practical sensory evaluation.” During the evaluation, wines were scrutinized by gathered professionals, many of whom already own vineyards or make wines. The varieties considered during their symposium included, among others, Chardonnay, Traminette, Manseng, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Chambourcin, Syrah, and Petite Verdot. Allen worked methodically through a blind tasting flight of 10 white wines, which were chewed, swished and spat out. In tandem with Allen, the students were asked to identify the wine, different characteristics within the wine, and whether or not they determined it was flawed. If flawed, they must correctly assess exactly how they are flawed. Evaluations by the attendees included comments such as “austere,” or “tight in the mouth,” or “retro nasal,” or “airing off,” or “out of bounds—unbalanced,” or “mineral,” or “reacidifying.”

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It isn’t a short list of possible problems that can assault wine, Allen explained. Wines can have olfactory defects such as cork taint, or “TCA” for short, best known to chemists like Bolton as tricholoranisole. TCA has a geranium smell, or a wet cork, moldy smell. There is also a bacterial attack waged by acetaldehyde. Allen demonstrated the odor hydrogen sulfide produces by proffering a stoppered vial with a foul odor. She discussed the tell-tale cauliflower smell of mercaptan, which can also smell like rotten onion. “Hygiene is the best prevention,” Allen explained. Fungal or yeast deviators, acetic acid, ethyl acetate, lactic acid and tartaric acids were among the many problems she described. But it was the dreaded barnyard smell of Brettonomyces vini, or “brett,” that was the worst, most assaulting smell. Allen says this odor—the distinctive and powerful odor of “brett,” makes her feel ill. Olfactory tests followed, and students sniffed vials and then determined what flaw they were smelling. Students were later put to the test during the blind tasting, during which they were expected to analyze for flaws, including identifying the dreaded “brett.” The evaluation required that if the students detected a flaw they had to become precise detectives. They had to identify precisely what flaw they sensed and pinpoint it further—for example, whether it arose from a hygiene issue or was a flaw owing to sub-threshold levels of reduced sulphur compounds. Bolton, engaged and animated, was actually elated by the exercise. “It can be exciting to find a flawed wine since they are rare,” Bolton said afterward. “It’s good for learning.” Wine problems abounded—making one wonder how a good bottle ever makes it to the store shelf at all. It isn’t enough that a winemaker produces a flawless wine. Even factors outside a bottle can be problematic. Typically dark green in color, wine bottles are dark for a reason. Light may be good for grapes on the vine, but it is murderous for vulnerable wines. Bolton says she feels very privileged to conduct research on wine and wine grapes in the under-studied Southeastern U.S. "We have a unique environment with a plethora of friendly growers, tremendous university cooperation, and a wine community with a thirst for knowledge. I couldn't think of a better place to study wine pathology!" n

For more information see Stephanie Bolton’s Instagram: @bigwinesmallpocket

WINE AGRIBUSINESS in GEORGIA

THE CENTER FOR AGRIBUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, CAED, was commissioned to review survey data and assess the wine industry impact upon the state in September 2013. They found that Georgia’s economy is impacted by the wine industry in three ways: grape production, winery and vineyard operations and visitor expenditures. According to CAED, Georgia wineries and vineyards and visitor spending results in an estimated $81.6 million in output. The industry generates another $4.1 million in tax revenue.

FA ST FAC TS · Grape production alone results in a direct contribution of $3.4 million, with a total state contribution of $6.4 million and 44.5 jobs.

· Winery and vineyard operations contribute $15.1 million in sales directly, with a total of $23.4 million and 95.7 jobs attributed to winery and vineyard operations.

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A D RO N FA R R I S Adron Farris, photographed at Cellar Theatre, is both a doctoral candidate in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, and a graduate certificate holder from the Institute of Native American Studies. He has directed and acted in various productions while at UGA in this very place. His dissertation concerns outdoor Cherokee historical dramas, and future plans include becoming a private researcher working for the Cherokee Nation as well as teaching. Farris is a member of the International Arts Resource, an experimental theater in Kiev, Ukraine. His new child, Grey Farris-Pierce, born December 5, 2014, is nearly as newly minted as his doctorate!

The University of Georgia Foundation is registered to solicit in every state and provides state-speciďŹ c registration information at www.ugafoundation.org/charity.

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