UMSL Magazine: Spring 2020 by University of Missouri–St. Louis

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A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S O U R I – S T. L O U I S –

SPRING 2020

In this issue

Vision in the coldest and darkest part of the world PAGE 12

UMSL people join hands to create community, educate the region, improve health, uncover knowledge and better the world.

UMSL responds to COVID-19 Page 10

A high score on social mobility Page 20

Nursing thousands of feet in the air Page 30 1

A new leader University of Missouri System President Mun Choi and the Board of Curators appointed Kristin Sobolik to the top post on April 9, making her the eighth permanent chancellor in University of Missouri–St. Louis history. She first joined UMSL in March 2017 as provost and, since then, has demonstrated unparalleled energy and enthusiasm for the university while working to provide opportunities for students to fulfill their aspirations and to solidify the university’s crucial role in St. Louis and beyond. “My driving passion to serve our students started three years ago when I fell in love with UMSL on my very first visit,” Sobolik says. “With each passing day, my commitment has grown to help these students succeed to graduation and design a better life for themselves and their families. I am so honored to lead this wonderful, dynamic institution that plays a crucial role in the St. Louis region.” Look for a story on the new chancellor’s aspirations and plans for the future in the fall issue of UMSL Magazine.

IN THIS ISSUE IN THIS ISSUE ON CAMPUS

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SPRING 2020

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S O U R I – S T. L O U I S –

FALL 2019

F 2020 LL 2019 SPRING

6............. On Campus

LL 2019

28.......... A Minute With Kevin L. Cox Jr., plant In this issue

Vision in the coldest and darkest part of the world

Gyanpriya Maharaj, butterfly specialist

PAGE 12

UMSL people join hands to create community, educate the region, improve health, uncover knowledge and better the world.

disease researcher

UMSL responds to COVID-19 page 10

A high score on social mobility page 20

Nursing thousands of feet in the air page 30

Jennifer Fletcher-Kelley, helicopter EMS administrator Tyler Haynes, SUCCEED

UMSL College of Optometry alumna Dr. Marcy O’Neil (left) is one of the preceptors in the Norton Sound Regional Hospital eye clinic who supervises fourth year clinicals for students such as George Dowdy (right) in Nome, Alaska. During his eight-week rotation, Dowdy helped care for the vision of Alaskans Natives in Nome and in some of the 15 indigenous villages the eye clinic serves. Photo by Michael Burnett

Chancellor Kristin Sobolik Vice Chancellor for Advancement Paul Herring

32.......... Class Notes

Art Director/ Design Wendy Allison Photographer August Jennewein

Associate Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications and Interim Chief of Staff Bob Samples

Design

Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications Justin Roberts

Burk Krohe

Editor-in-Chief Jessica Rogen

student and advocate

Marty Baragiola Writers Karen Holman Marie Carol Kenney Jessica Rogen Steve Walentik Timothy Wombles Printer Ovid Bell Press, Inc.

The University of Missouri–St. Louis publishes for alumni and friends. The magazine highlights excellence at the university. Circulation is 102,600, and the magazine is released twice a year.

20 Social mobility A focus on student success

and access for all earns UMSL recognition

Address Updates | Office of Alumni Engagement 414 Woods Hall | 1 University Blvd. | St. Louis, MO 63121 umslalumni.org | 314-516-5833

Vision in Alaska

Ancient tattoos

In concert

Optometry students treat

A professor of anthropology

A scholarship for African

native populations while learning

discovers a tradition with

American students pursuing

new skills, culture

insights into Egyptian women

music-related degrees

Scan codes with your phone’s camera for a deeper look.

HOMECOMING brings Triton spirit to 2020

Big dreams from the latest cohort of the Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator Pitch Competition

University Program Board Social Media Chair Cassiana Buehler strode through the Millennium Student Center bridge during the annual Homecoming Window Painting competition. This year’s celebration was themed Timeless Tritons and featured events such as the Homecoming Dinner & Dance, Chili Feed kickoff, Pack the Stands basketball game, CANstruction, the Lip Sync Competition and more.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER? In shock, speechless and pinching herself.

That’s how Emily Haas describes her reaction to taking the top spot at March’s virtual UMSL Accelerate’s Entrepreneur Quest Student competition. The idea for Plan-to-Plate, her meal-planning app that matches recipes with grocery store sales, was born from Haas and her husband’s perpetual indecision about what to make for dinner and her feeling there should be a better way. An undergraduate entrepreneurship class led the now-MBA student to the eight-week program, where Haas brought the app to fruition. “Fall in love with the problem you’re trying to solve, not the solution you think it requires,” she says. “Interview potential customers, dig into the stories behind their pain points, digest their feedback and pivot until the solution is clear.” SUSTAINABLE SHOPPING At first only friends bought Emily Delgado’s curated finds on Thin Thrift, her Instagram business. Next, friends of friends. Then, everyone else got on board.

The online thrift store grew from there, and two years later, the English major hopes to make it into a fulltime job after graduation. So far, she’s sold more than 800 pieces totaling more than $10,000, a figure she’s finally tallied thanks to UMSL Accelerate. That’s just one thing she’s learned from the program. “To be successful, connect with people instead of just selling them an item,” Delgado says. “You want to create lasting relationships.”

A BRAND BUILT AROUND A BRAND Around Christmas, Brian Trull made $10,000 from PokeNerds, his e-commerce and media startup.

That was a significant moment for the College of Business Administration student and his wife, who had been running the business for less than a year; it’d started as a hobby but was turning out to be a scalable business. Trull’s goal with PokeNerds is to give fans of the card game an online community with cheaper products than available in stores while building a brand name. “Pokémon is the largest media franchise ever created,” Trull says. “You can Google that. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry. It’s bigger than Star Wars. It’s bigger than Marvel. It’s bigger than anything.” 6

“What’s spectacular is that this group of young guys got something done that hasn’t been done here for quite a while.” –Coach Bob Sundvold

UMSL gives back during MLK DAY OF SERVICE

MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM snaps 32-year NCAA Tournament qualifying drought

Senior psychology major Demarcos Biggs painted a door frame at Signal Hill United Methodist Church in Belleville, Illinois, during UMSL’s 12th annual MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20.

The Tritons were getting set to board a bus to Indianapolis on March 12 when the announcement came from the NCAA that its championship tournaments would be canceled amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

He was among approximately 120 volunteers that gave up a few hours – more than 380 hours combined – on service projects around the St. Louis region.

It brought an abrupt end to a historic season for the Tritons, who had been poised to make the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1988.

Biggs discovered how satisfying volunteering could be during an alternative spring break trip last year, and he was inspired to give back again.

They will still be remembered for winning a school-record 27 games, winning a share of the Great Lakes Valley Conference regular-season title and advancing to the GLVC Tournament final for the first time in history before being edged by Truman State 53-52 on March 8.

“It felt really rewarding giving back to the community,” he says. “I didn’t think it would. I thought it would feel like I was doing free work or whatever, but when you do it and actually see the lives that you’re changing and the impact, it does something to you.”

“What’s spectacular is that this group of young guys got something done that hasn’t been done here for quite a while,” Coach Bob Sundvold says. “I’ve walked in that gym every day for seven years and saw 1988 up there, and we really talked about doing a better job, getting the right players, getting the team going in the right direction. For this group to do it, we’re really excited, not only for our team but for our school.”

This is

ERICA KOEGLER assistant professor, School of Social Work

UMSL SCIENTISTS FUNDED

BRINGING LIGHT TO SEX AND LABOR TRAFFICKING IN THE MIDWEST By Burk Krohe

What role do social workers or social service agencies play in identifying victims and traffickers?

They are predominantly the ones who are identifying and referring victims to trafficking-specific services more so than community members. They see people who are vulnerable on a regular basis, so they have the opportunity to identify them. What makes the Midwest fertile ground for trafficking?

I think the highway system. Both St. Louis and Kansas City, Highway 70 goes through them. We do have agriculture. We do have major sports and restaurants. There are all sorts of areas that people could be exploited in, and then additionally, there are high rates of poverty that make us vulnerable for being a source of trafficking. You plan to do research with the University of Western Cape in South Africa. What will you be studying?

We’ll be talking to social service providers. In trafficking, you always want the voice of the victims, but they’re vulnerable. You don’t want to potentially retraumatize them if it’s not necessary. That’s why we’re not talking with survivors or victims, and we’re doing it with providers because they can see trends and experiences across their caseloads. We’re going to be specifically asking about substance use among victims and survivors and their legal needs. How do victims start to transition back to normal life?

What do people need to recover from this kind of crazy extreme trauma? Immediately afterward, you need stability. You need housing. There’s not enough housing in St. Louis or Missouri for trafficking survivors. You need to get your physical health better. You need to sleep for a little while because you’ve been so traumatized and alert. You need your physical health; your mental health comes later. The crisis is different than the long-term recovery. If you can help encourage a survivor to stay in recovery long enough, they may need substance use treatment. With foreign-born labor trafficking, there are T visas to keep them here legally. So many things, but the primary things I’m hearing from providers in St. Louis are housing and long-term education. Survivors need a form of income. If they don’t have economic opportunities going forward, they might be revictimized.

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

$1.5M “Energy Reliability and Resiliency of Electrified Transportation Infrastructure” creates a new lab for electric transportation UMSL co-investigator Jianli Pan Missouri S&T primary investigator Mehdi Ferdowsi co-investigators Jonathan Kimball Robert Landers Ruwen Qin University of Missouri–Columbia co-investigator Dan Lin Pan says: “The basic idea is to build a lab for collaborative research and experimentation on electric transportation systems such as light rail, electric ships, renewable energy systems and electric vehicle charging stations. It will support cutting-edge research and create opportunities for underrepresented minorities and benefit many students – undergraduate and graduate – and faculty.”

MAKING MUSIC FOR SCIENCE Missouri Institute of Mental Health staff worked with Brian Owens, the E. Desmond Lee Community Music Artist in Residence, to create a song, “Do Process,” at Shock City Studios through the Scientist Artist Collaborative, a professional development program. St. Louis-area singer and NBC’s “The Voice” contestant Joanna Serenko provided vocals.

“It was amazing,” MIMH Principal Investigator Rachel Kryah says. “A lot of science often can be really focused and conservative. We get a little guarded, which can slow the scientific process and limit the outcome. Hopefully, this program works to break those barriers and encourage our investigators to engage in a creative process in a more impactful and innovative manner.”

THROUGH UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM $20.5M RESEARCH INVESTMENT SEEING CELLS

LIFE-SAVING CARBS

$1M

$375,000 $187,500

“Imaging and Spectroscopy for Biological and Nanosciences” purchases five instruments for the NextGen Center for Spectroscopy and Nanoscience

“Accelerating Development of Glycopharmaceuticals: Establishment of the UMSL Glycoscience Consortium” forms a group for carbohydratebased medicine

“Center for Novel CarbonEfficient Binders for Sustainable Infrastructure” forms a group for energyefficient concrete

primary investigator Alexei Demchenko

Missouri S&T primary investigator Kamal Khayat

primary investigator Cynthia Dupureur co-investigators Michael Nichols Xuemin Wang Lon Chubiz Keith Stine R. Fredrik Inglis

Dupureur says: “We’re buying a lot of very specialized equipment to make scientific measurements. Most of them involve looking at the behavior of cells or molecules using microscopes. Students and faculty will be using this equipment to do experiments. The other thing is that our students get trained so that makes them very competitive for jobs.”

co-investigators Eike Bauer Michael Nichols Christopher Spilling Keith Stine Chung Wong Demchenko says: “I’m trying to bring a group of scientists with common yet complementary expertise to develop new therapeutics, new medicines. These drugs are primarily designed to fight against septic shock but might be beneficial for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and also as an additive to anti-cancer vaccines.”

SUSTAINABLE CEMENT BINDERS

UMSL co-investigator George Zsidisin

co-investigators Sajal Das Aditya Kumar Hongyan Ma Zsidisin says: “Approximately 9 percent of the humangenerated carbon footprint comes from concrete production, which has a significant detrimental effect on the natural environment. If you think about concrete, it is everywhere. We’re looking at the financial benefits, how organizations and government entities such as MoDOT could utilize it and how it could help reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact.”

BRIEFLY In February, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognized how UMSL works to improve lives across the St. Louis region by naming it one of 119 U.S. colleges and universities in 2020 to receive the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, a designation that indicates institutional commitment to community engagement. Jill Bernard Bracy, associate director of the Center for Transportation Studies, leads UMSL’s efforts in the Missouri Center for Transportation Innovation. The project, directed by the Missouri Department of Transportation Central Laboratory, will bring the UM System and MoDOT together to maximize the impact of statefunded transportation research. The National Society of Leadership and Success awarded Distinguished Professor George Gokel and Assistant Teaching Professor Jennifer Nolan with Excellence in Teaching Awards and Director of Career Services Teresa Balestreri with an Excellence in Service to Students Award. Assistant Professor Ho Kim received the Douglas E. Durand Award for Research Excellence.

ith the nursing vacancy rate at 8.1 percent nationally and 10 percent in St. Louis, the shortage was already causing problems for hospitals and health-care providers.

Professor Jeff Sippel guided his students through innovative ways to continue their printmaking classes from home working without a press. Junior Ari Craig (large print below) created interesting textures through objects glued to foam boards using what supplies she had on hand: acrylic paint and thin drawing paper.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “We already don’t have enough nurses to meet the needs of the public,” says Natalie Murphy, interim associate dean for academic programs in the College of Nursing. “Nurses end up working additional hours, having to cover patients, heavier workload. Now there isn’t really anybody to back them up.” Murphy is one of many in the college thinking about and acting on solutions for the shortage in the wake of coronavirus. Part of their answer ties into an existing plan to increase the college’s training capacity through the renovation and expansion of its Nursing Learning Recource and Simulation Center, which will become a 17,000-square-foot, stateof-the-art training ground for the next generation of nurses.

“I normally don’t do abstract stuff,” Craig says. “But I think they turned out OK considering I made them all in my bathroom.”

CONFRONTING CORONAVIRUS

Associate Professor Jennifer McKnight hosted a Zoom image-making class on March 24 to boost morale during social distancing.

through art

College of Nursing increases capacity to help fill national nursing shortage

1 Ari Craig

The simulation lab will allow students to train without further overburdening the college’s clinicals partners while experiencing high-risk situations infrequent in daily practice. The simulation labs are especially critical during the pandemic as no nursing students have done clinicals since March, when the college donated all its personal protective equipment to local hospitals.

| 2 Melinda Scmidt

The new facility will allow the college to increase the number of students it accepts by 20 percent annually. That means more nurses nationally and in the St. Louis region, as UMSL graduates tend to live and work in the area.

| 3 Concepcion Salazaar

The other part of filling the gap is making sure students graduate on time, especially during the pandemic. That’s meant allowing students to check out simulation equipment and switching to remote learning.

4 Jennifer McKnight

“We recognize the need to get nurses into the workforce quickly,” Interim Dean Roxanne Vandermause says. “Our nursing students are learning firsthand what it takes to manage a pandemic of this nature and are getting themselves ready. They are rising to the challenge.”

5 Scott Gericke

UMSL CHARTER SCHOOLS OFFICE FACILITATES DONATION OF LAPTOPS TO 5 CHARTER SCHOOLS The week in-person closures were announced, Bill Mendelsohn, director of Charter Schools and Partnerships, started reaching out to see how UMSL could help. He quickly discovered that their two biggest needs were technological: laptops and broadband access.

Working with UMSL alumna Kathy Osborn, former vice chancellor and president and CEO of the Regional Business Council, Mendelsohn facilitated the donation of approximately 275 laptops from CSI Leasing and Spire, who loaded the computers with software. “The schools that were recipients are deeply appreciative of the donations,” he says. “It’s going to make a huge difference in the ability of the schools to provide remote learning to children.” Scan codes with your phone’s camera for a deeper look.

TRITON EMERGENCY FUND SUPPORTS VULNERABLE STUDENTS DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC UMSL Giving kicked off the fundraiser with an email on March 26.

“It’s a really powerful thing for donors to know that a gift could help one person keep their lights on, pay part of their rent, provide food for their family,” Director of Annual Giving Maura Connors says. “It’s an opportunity for the UMSL community to come together.”

CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING LEADS PIVOT TO REMOTE LEARNING As awareness of COVID-19’s spread grew in late February, Keeta Holmes noticed that instructional continuity was the featured topic in the teaching and learning community nationally. When the message went out on March 9 that faculty should prepare to teach remotely, Holmes and the CTL were ready to help. The Keep Teaching and Keep Learning sites that they built in conjunction with eLearning instructional designers have provided critical resources to support faculty and students during the pivot to remote learning.

“We are committed to keeping students on track toward their degree completion,” Holmes says. “We know that it’s stressful to move from an in-person learning experience to online, and we’re supporting them together with other academic support units without sacrificing any of the quality UMSL is known for. It is critical for students to finish strong and have a successful semester.”

Photo of volunteer courtesy of Mayank Jain

‘COPING WITH COVID’ GROUP THERAPY SESSIONS AID COMMUNITY MEMBERS WITH ANXIETY The Community Psychological Service works to help people manage the increased anxiety related to the pandemic.

In April, it launched “Coping with COVID” therapy groups to provide community members an outlet to talk about the issues impacting them. The weekly sessions provided tools to help people confront their restlessness and apprehension. “This can be beneficial for anyone who’s having any uptick in mental health issues or distress,” says John Nanney, director of the Community Psychological Service and a clinical assistant professor in UMSL’s Department of Psychological Sciences. “Because of the group and short-term format, I think it’s particularly good for people who are experiencing significant anxiety, depression or other symptoms for the first time.”

MAYANK JAIN LAUNCHES EFFORT TO PROVIDE MASKS FOR HEALTH-CARE WORKERS When his wife needed an N95 mask for her job as a physician, Professional MBA student Mayank Jain encountered a problem. He couldn’t find one.

The College of Business Administration student enlisted the help of two friends, Lalit Bist and Priti Jain, and the trio landed on an idea to make and distribute fabric masks to health-care workers. The project began as an initiative of HindiUSA, an organization that teaches Hindi, and quickly expanded to 22 volunteers. The group completed more than 1,000 masks and distributed more than 850 in the first few weeks. “It’s been an amazing experience to bring people together and meet like-minded people,” Jain says. “I can see that energy and enthusiasm. I would recommend that everybody come forward and help with what they can to support our community.” Jain and his team have also raised $2,000 and placed orders for 1,000 gloves, 900 shoe covers, cleaning wipes and limited supplies of N95 masks to be donated to hospitals as well as organized a webinar on best practices during the pandemic.

UMSL HOSTS WEBINAR TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to give financial assistance to small businesses suffering from a crippling loss of revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UMSL and community partners held a free webinar to provide small business owners information on how to take advantage of those resources, and more than 350 registered for the event. “One of the key commitments UMSL has made in anchor efforts is to support the local economy,” says Karl Guenther, the director of UMSL’s Anchor Institution Initiative. “This was a great chance to work with local community organizations, other expertise in the UM System and some regional partners to try to put out concrete tangible resources to help our small businesses make it through this tough time.”

Little Diomede

Wales

Nome

A clinical rotation in Nome, Alaska, fosters cultural

exchange, cutting-edge practice

By Jessica Rogen

Photo by Michael Burnett

WITHIN MINUTES of stepping off the bush plane, George Dowdy’s goggles fog. The condensation freezes into two large cataracts until all he can see is white instead of the lone airstrip in the village of Wales, Alaska. When he removes his eyewear, cold strikes the nowexposed skin, but it’s nothing compared to what’s seeping through the soles of his boots from the frozen ground. Wind whips snow from the ground around him, and the sky is the cloudless blue that Dowdy has come to associate with extreme cold.

At minus 54 degrees with wind chill, today is the lowest temperature that the University of Missouri–St. Louis optometry student has experienced since arriving in neighboring Nome four weeks earlier for a clinical rotation in the eye clinic at Norton Sound Regional Hospital. Standing there waiting for a snowmobile pickup –George Dowdy with his preceptor, alumna Dr. Marcy O’Neil, and 10 suitcases of equipment, might have been painful if Dowdy hadn’t deliberately chosen to visit during the coldest, darkest part of the year.

“It’s the most different thing you’ll ever experience.”

“It’s the most different thing you’ll ever experience,” Dowdy says. “From the hospital we get quite a view of the town and the Bering Sea, but now it’s all frozen. One of my preceptors and I walked out there probably about a half mile. That was something else. I’ve never stood on an ocean before.” For all the delight Dowdy feels about the weather, it has presented some logistical problems. O’Neil and Dowdy had intended to set off for Wales and Little Diomede – two of 15 indigenous villages that the eye clinic serves – the previous Sunday for a six-day trip, but snow and crosswinds kept them grounded. “We’re expected to at least try to get out to each village once a year,” O’Neil says. “Little Diomede has been very difficult. I tried three times in the last six months, but weather has socked us in, and we have not been out there in a year and a half.” This trip would be no different. Travel to the village, an island in the Bering Strait that lies just 2 1/2 miles from the Russian Big Diomede, has become increasingly challenging with climate change.

Photo by George Dowdy

The two had finally received clearance to fly four days later, arrive at 2:30 p.m. and start seeing patients within a half hour in Wales’ school. It is the only building with running water after a burst pipe. When they leave 24 hours later, they’ll have surpassed their goal of 20 by six patients.

Photos by Marcy O'Neil (top) and Michael Burnett (bottom)

Opposite page: Marcy O’Neil kneels amid the skeleton of a whale in the northern Alaska village Wales, where she and optometry student George Dowdy flew in via bush plane to treat the vision of its residents. Top: George Dowdy steps off the bush plane onto Wales' one airstrip. Bottom: Marcy O’Neil (left) and George Dowdy stand in front of the eye clinic at Norton Sound Regional Hospital in Nome, Alaska.

Thanks to a Norton Sound Health Corporation community health aide practitioner who uses a robust telemedicine program to stay in communication with the Nome clinic, O’Neil and Dowdy start with known patients with serious, ongoing conditions such as glaucoma or diabetes. Then they move on to vision checks. 15

Photo by Reba Lean

“I’ve learned each village is known for a craft, whether it’s carving or making mittens or boots out of different furs.” –George Dowdy THROUGHOUT THE DAY,

Dowdy learns to move efficiently and effectively. Treating family groups adds a new challenge as does learning about common Native Alaskan nonverbal communication, where a raised brow means yes and a furrowed one no. Even more than new knowledge and skills, the biggest takeaway for both practitioners is cross-cultural exchange. “They love to tell their stories and their adventures,” Dowdy says. “There’s the utmost respect to the Native Alaskan elders, the older population. I’ve learned each village is known for a craft, whether it’s carving or making mittens or boots out of different furs. With Nome being a small town, everyone is so connected and knows each other.”

Marcy O’Neil observes as George Dowdy checks the vision of local elder Aggie Pagel at the eye clinic in Nome, Alaska.

NSHC, a tribally owned and operated health consortium, consists of 15 village clinics and the Nome regional hospital, which houses an eye clinic with more technology than the main hospital in Anchorage. The hospital serves approximately 10,000 Inupiat, Siberian Yupik, Yup’ik peoples and others from Nome and the surrounding areas. That all makes it an excellent training ground for UMSL students. Fourth year optometry students do six eight-week clinical rotations with the goal of working with a variety of doctors and patients in diverse settings, which range from on campus to hospitals to private practices. The hope is that students gain on-the-job knowledge while figuring out what their future practices should be like. That proved especially true for O’Neil. After school, she joined the U.S. Air Force but worked as a contractor in the Nome eye clinic before starting officer training school the following spring. After leaving active duty, O’Neil would return to Nome as a fill-in optometrist. When a full-time position opened up two years ago, O’Neil happily took the spot.

O’Neil can speak to the draw of Nome more than most transplants.

“When students get to see, ‘Oh, there’s stuff going on within the United States that doesn’t impact me on a daily basis back at home,’ that’s more world knowledge,” she says. “It helps them understand different viewpoints and have a better understanding of where other people are coming from.

For her last rotation before graduating in 2010, O’Neil reached out to Dr. Kamey Kapp, director of eye services, and asked if she’d take a student. That was the start of an ongoing relationship between UMSL and Norton Sound.

“You’re working with people who live on the edge of the earth. It’s a normal day when a patient will come in and say, ‘I was chopping up a whale, and I got some bone in my eye.’ We’re getting to see things that you would never get to in the Lower 48, and we become close to the patients. They become our family, and it’s very family oriented up here. Nome is a special place.” 16

D I G G I N G F O TRUTH

Anne Austin uncovers tattoos and more in Egypt By Burk Krohe

Anne Austin was holding an iPad rigged with an infrared camera over a mummified torso. It was a long shot she didn’t expect to work. But the camera revealed what she was looking for, something the naked eye could not see: a swath of ancient tattoos. “This unexpected discovery, you could feel it in your heart,” she recalls. “It leaps to see something that you know no one has seen for thousands of years, to find something that is otherwise invisible and then becomes visible.” Austin, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, had found some of the earliest physical evidence of tattooing in ancient Egyptian society. Since then, her research has gone on to challenge previous understandings of the subject and garner interest from news outlets around the world. That scene unfolded at Deir el-Medina in 2014, an Egyptian archaeological site Austin has been visiting since 2012 with the French Institute for Oriental Archeology.

3 0

Photos on these two pages courtesy of Anne Austin

T A T T O O S

“I normally focus on bones, studying

human skeletal remains and using that to reconstruct things like health, disease and demography,” she says. Deir el-Medina especially interested Austin because the remains at the site had never been studied before. It was home to artisans who crafted royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and was originally excavated in the 1920s to 1950s. However, studying human remains was not prioritized, leaving much of daily life at Deir el-Medina unexamined. It turns out researchers could learn a lot. Austin was examining remains in 2014 when she made her initial discovery. An unmistakably bold tattoo on the throat of that first mummy caught her eye. “I pulled back to look at the rest of her body,” Austin says. “Things that at first glance you would dismiss as maybe just irregular patterning from mummification – because there are all these resins they used that leave lines on the body – I looked more closely and realized they were tattoos.”

“This unexpected discovery, you could feel it in your heart. It leaps to see something that you know no one has seen for thousands of years.” –Anne Austin

In total, she identified about 30 distinct tattoos on the mummy, many of which are known hieroglyphs and symbols. Unfortunately, her research expedition was nearly finished. “I didn’t really fully study that mummy until 2015 and 2016,” Austin says. “Then I thought, ‘Well, I should reevaluate whether tattoos are present elsewhere.’” Return trips in 2016 and 2019 confirmed her hunch when more infrared scans revealed tattoos on the remains of six more female bodies. Austin presented her updated findings at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in September 2019. An international media blitz ensued, and outlets such as Smithsonian Magazine and The Sun ran stories. While Austin is happy for the attention, she’s more excited about the story the tattoos are starting to tell. Prevailing notions about tattooing in ancient Egypt were shaped by early scholarship written primarily by men. Tattooed female bodies were often eroticized as a result. Antiquity wasn’t much different. For a site with a rich textual record, it’s striking that there are no references to tattooing at Deir el-Medina. “In ancient Egypt, the majority of people who are literate were men,” Austin says. “That means that we’re missing a lot of women, a lot of children.”

Opposite page: Anne Austin uses an iPad with an infrared camera to reveal previously unseen tattoos on a mummy discovered in Deir el-Medina. Top: The tattoo on the neck of this mummy means “to do good” in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and might have symbolically given its power to her voice when she sang or spoke. Bottom: Human remains at the Egyptian site Deir el-Medina weren’t heavily studied after the 1950s.

Tattoos say what the texts don’t. The first body Austin examined contained many depictions of animals, such as baboons, and floral imagery. More importantly, there were several symbols in very visible locations related to the goddess Hathor, a sky deity. To Austin, that public connection to the goddess indicates the mummy might have had an important religious role. It’s possible she was a priestess or healer.

“We have tattoos on her body that make this phrase ‘to do good’ in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,” Austin says. “They’re placed on her neck as well as her arms. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think it’s quite intentional. The ones on her neck cover her voice box, and so when she spoke or sang, those vibrations would have touched the tattoo and would have gotten the benefit of this ability to do good.” This is related to an ancient Egyptian concept called “contagious magic.” According to this belief, her voice would have been imbued with special gifts by coming into contact with the hieroglyphs. In her more recent research, Austin found a tattoo associated with Bes, a god linked to the household, on one of the other mummies. Tattoos of the deity had previously been depicted in artwork, but this was the first physical evidence. Austin says there are other familiar symbols, too, but she’s not quite sure what they mean yet. “Of all the recent tattoos that we found and of all the ones from the mummy that we first identified, we have no exact match across two individuals with the same symbol in the same location,” Austin says. The lack of a pattern points to the practice potentially being more individualistic than researchers previously assumed. Austin is gradually starting to fill in the gaps to paint a more complete picture of life in ancient Egypt. “Scholars dismissed tattoos as something that’s just about eroticizing female bodies,” Austin says. “That’s one way of explaining why they only show up on women’s bodies. But the evidence that we’re getting suggests that it’s probably more complicated than that.” 19

Social mobility is doing better than the generation â&#x20AC;&#x153;before me, but it is also setting an example for the generation behind me. â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Aaron Ezell

Doing better than your parents:

Access and student success drive social mobility at UMSL By Jessica Rogen

Two years after Aaron Ezell dropped out of Purdue University to tour as a musician, he’d had enough of the music business. He knew he had to find another direction and looked to his family for inspiration. Most relatives had working class jobs, but then there was his aunt. She’d graduated college, become a principal and was not only comfortable but also able to help the family out financially. “I decided she was the person I wanted to be,” he says. “If college was the way that she got that done, I needed to go.” He enrolled in the University of Missouri–St. Louis College of Business Administration and joined Delta Sigma Phi business fraternity, making a connection that led to his first job at Edward Jones where he’s now a financial advisor – a long way from college dropout. Ezell’s rise demonstrates the power of an UMSL education to empower intragenerational change by lifting one’s socioeconomic status. “Social mobility is doing better than the generation before me, but it is also setting an example for the generation behind me,” Ezell says. “I’ve got plenty of folks that are watching me and seeing me do things that nobody in my family has done before: traveling

internationally, spending what they might consider crazy amounts of money or making investments.” Increasingly, college is necessary for building financial security and wealth. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment, people with only a high school diploma and no college degree lose out on $24,336 annually on average. But attending college isn’t enough if students don’t graduate, preferably without much debt, and not every institution is equally equipped. In September, U.S. News & World Report released its first-ever “Top Performers on Social Mobility” based on how well universities graduate Pell Grant recipients. UMSL ranked No. 96 nationally, second in Missouri and well ahead of many universities that score high on traditional rankings based on prestige factors such as admissions rates or endowment size. The rankings giant isn’t the first to notice that exclusive universities don’t always do right by those from lower-income backgrounds. In 2014, Harvard’s Opportunity Insights group rated how well institutions move students from the lowest fifth of the economic spectrum to the top fifth, finding that within universities mobility rates vary by access and not economic status. UMSL succeeds in measures of social mobility partly because of who the university serves. The median family income at UMSL was $34,093 in 2017-18. But more than population, it’s because people at UMSL work hard and care deeply about creating an environment rich in access, student success and favorable outcomes.

Like Ezell, ArchCity Defenders lawyer Rudy Angulo took a break from school after a year and worked. When he decided to finish, he opted to save money by living at home and enrolled at UMSL.

“If there were no four-year colleges here in St. Louis, I don’t think I would have had the resources to either apply to college in Edwardsville or go back to Mizzou,” he says. “It wasn’t going to happen. I can only think of how many have taken advantage of having a four-year university here, in such a great area, that is so accessible by so many people.” Angulo has witnessed the transformative power of education firsthand: his father immigrated from Mexico before rising through the ranks at Anheuser-Busch via hard work and a master’s degree.

Photo by Javier Angulo

“In the St. Louis area, there has been a concentration of systematic injustice,” Angulo says. “Having that level of education, being accessible by public transportation, being affordable and offering scholarships to people in the area is something that is beneficial to St. Louis.” Access for the community is something on the minds of UMSL administrators and educators. Take the Bridge Program, which provides free college preparation for high school students and their families in the greater St. Louis area and impacts more than 4,000 individuals annually. The effect: 100 percent of Bridge attendees enroll in college. “They are exposed to obstacles and challenges found on a college campus, so when they hit their senior years, they’re coming out with a definitive plan, and then we connect them with support at their colleges,” says Natissia Small, the assistant provost for access and academic support who oversees Student Academic Support Services. “We’re allowing students in the St. Louis community to have a fair playing field when it comes to resources.” Support is key for even the most-driven students. Alumna Nesmira Muratovic, retail risk and supervision oversight manager at TD Ameritrade, took advantage of the Center for Teaching and Learning’s peer-led Supplemental Instruction program for difficult classes and navigated decisions with the help of her academic advisor. A Bosnian immigrant who came to the U.S. as a child with little, Muratovic says the thing that made her most successful was being open to opportunities. A connection from her sorority helped Muratovic land an internship and then a job at Scottrade. “Whether it was for joining clubs or studying abroad, my goal was not, ‘I need to get a degree and to get out,’” Muratovic says. “It’s using resources and being flexible.” Muratovic’s experience highlights what Associate Provost for Student Success Beth Eckelkamp calls cultural capital – those competencies, skills and

Opposite page: Aaron Ezell, Edward Jones financial advisor Top: Rudy Angulo, ArchCity Defenders staff attorney Bottom: Nesmira Muratovic, TD Ameritrade retail risk and supervision oversight manager

through faculty development programs that encompass everything from designing courses to faculty learning communities.

connections that can be acquired both in or out of the classroom through experiences such as research, internships and study abroad, student organizations, leadership development opportunities, health and wellness programming and more. She thinks holistically about how to retain students and ensure they graduate within a four-to-six-year period and looks for trends among student groups, colleges, Pell-eligible students and more.

Whitteck’s specialty is inclusive teaching practices. With no change to classroom rigor, instructors focus on ways to support students, which includes establishing and fostering a course climate that promotes belonging, setting student expectations, selecting course content that recognizes diversity and barriers to inclusion, designing courses for accessibility and reflecting on one’s own beliefs about teaching. “We’ve all heard that some tough professors might say ‘Look to your left, look to your right, only one of you is going to be successful in this class,’” she says. “At UMSL,

“One of the biggest stressors for low-income “ We’re allowing students in the St. Louis students is finances,” Eckelkamp says, community to have a fair playing field pointing out UMSL’s efforts to create when it comes to resources.” –Natissia Small funded programs such as the Senior Degree Completion Scholarship, for students instead, we say, ‘We want all of you to be successful in the who have exhausted all financial aid options, class, and these are the ways we have provided to you to and the Finish Your Degree Scholarship, which be successful.’ Even signaling that you want students assists students who encounter an unanticipated to be successful, that they belong in that class, is huge.” roadblock in their finances. There’s also UMSL’s tuition costs and automatic merit scholarships for first-time freshmen and transfers as well as donor- and departmentfunded scholarships. The university provides flexible pathways to degrees, including online or evening courses, which allow students to work while in school. Eckelkamp and others, such as CTL Director Keeta Holmes, are thinking about how to decrease time and cost to graduation, including through a Curriculum Alignment Process that is streamlining degrees and ensuring courses are consistently offered. “The first things that you look at are financial stress and academic support, but then you have to look broadly beyond that to campus climate, sense of belonging – all those things that impact learning,” Eckelkamp says. “We try to support students’ physiological needs. In response to food insecurity among students, Student Affairs led the efforts to run a food pantry. We have great safety officers and a comfortable campus environment, but students are still probably not going to learn to their greatest potential if they don’t feel like they belong or are valued.”

The average starting salary of UMSL graduates – $47,000 – or the number employed full time or heading for more education – 93 percent – don’t tell the whole story of how the university fosters social mobility. There’s also the fact that more than 73 percent of UMSL graduates stay and work in the St. Louis region.

That makes a sizable network for connections, both among alumni and within the university. Take, for example, Ezell, who serves as an Alumni Association board member. “We have a big population, a big footprint here in St. Louis and a reputation for being great workers and people,” he says. “UMSL got me prepared for real life. The education was great, and I was able to build some transferable skills for the workforce. I will be forever indebted to UMSL for giving me everything that I needed to be successful. I’m trying to pay it forward.”

One of the people working to close the opportunity gap for all at UMSL, especially firstgeneration, low-income or underrepresented minority students, is CTL Assistant Director Erin Whitteck. The CTL promotes student success

IN UNISON Scholars program helps students find their way in

world

music

By Steve Walentik

David Brown remembers sitting in his bedroom as a high school senior, putting in his earphones and hitting the play button.

Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 filled his ears, and Brown closed his eyes and began directing the orchestra. That was the first time the McCluer North graduate thought about becoming a conductor, though he had no idea how he might make it happen. Last fall, thanks to the IN UNISON Scholars program, Brown, now a junior music major at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, found himself sitting across a table from someone who had all those answers: Stéphane Denève, the famed music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Brussels Philharmonic. Brown was trying not to miss a word flowing from Denève’s mouth as they and the other IN UNISON Scholars talked over dinner at Triumph Grill in Midtown St. Louis.

director of orchestral studies at UMSL. Brown has practiced leading the same ensemble in which he usually performs. It’s only made him want to be in that role even more. “It’s the closest you can get to being in music when you’re standing up there with this giant orchestra in front of you playing a piece that you love and that you feel really attached to,” he says. “You are so close to the sound, and they're waiting for your instruction. They're watching you. They’re responding, hopefully. It is the most fulfilling feeling.” Being an IN UNISON Scholar has expanded the network he can tap for help pursuing that future. The IN UNISON Chorus – created by longtime UMSL Professor Robert Ray and administered by the symphony – aims to encourage diversity in the arts. The scholarship program became an extension of it and supports young African American students pursuing undergraduate degrees in musicrelated fields at UMSL.

“He was spouting knowledge and wisdom so fast,” Brown says. “I was too embarrassed to have a notebook, but I so badly wanted to write everything down.”

IN UNISON Coordinator Michelle Byrd works in consultation with faculty and administrators in the Department of Music as well as with high school music teachers to identify students and invite them to apply. The symphony provides renewable $1,000 annual scholarships, which UMSL matches.

Since coming to UMSL to study the cello, he’s also had the opportunity to work with conductor and composer Darwin Aquino, the

“I have visited high schools to clinic choirs and met with band and orchestra directors to get a feel for their students and to see who they

may have,” Byrd says. “I think one of the biggest things is to let them know that there is a school here that can not only fit what they need as music students but financially can be of assistance to them.” Students typically remain part of the program through graduation. The scholars receive group and one-on-one mentoring from Byrd, tailored to their individual needs, and coaching sessions from professional musicians from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. There are also performance opportunities that come with being part of the program, including the annual IN UNISON Chorus Community Concert, held each spring at one of 35 partner churches. Byrd spent three years as a scholar in the IN UNISON program before earning her degree in music education from UMSL in 2018. She also served as a graduate fellow in the program and worked with the SLSO Holiday Festival Chorus, so she had a range of opportunities available after graduation. “It gave me an opportunity to be in front of all of the high school choral directors,” Byrd says. “When I began to prepare for graduation, I already knew about positions that I could take on because I had already built those networking connections.” The chance to take over as IN UNISON coordinator from another UMSL graduate, soul singer Brian Owens, was too good to pass up, and she relishes helping connect others with similar opportunities. IN UNISON Scholars follow a variety of career paths in music. Senior Alayna Epps, a vocalist who has performed with Stevie Wonder and at Carnegie Hall, wants to go into music therapy, and IN UNISON introduced her to a network of people who could help her get accepted into a top master’s program in that specialized field. IN UNISON also has given Epps confidence and people she can turn to for support to overcome challenges she’s had as an undergraduate. Growing up in Florissant and attending Hazelwood Central High School, Epps didn’t have as many opportunities or receive the same training as students from more affluent schools. She initially struggled with sight-reading and music theory.

“There is a school here that can not only fit what they need as music students but financially can be of assistance to them.” –Michelle Byrd

Opposite page: IN UNISON Coordinator Michelle Byrd spent three years as an IN UNISON scholar and then served as a graduate fellow in the program before taking over from soul singer Brian Owens. Above: The IN UNISON program gives students such as David Brown (left) and Alayna Epps both financial and networking support.

Epps has seen other African American students from similar backgrounds end up changing to different majors, but she’s persisted. “It’s provided me a foundation to pursue my career,” Epps says. “If they’re willing to pour this much into me, I know I can get through this program.” 27

A $1.4 million award helps plant researcher

KEVIN L. COX JR. help the world By Jessica Rogen

Please see attachment. That was all the email said. “Just like last year,” University of Missouri– St. Louis alumnus Kevin L. Cox Jr. recalls thinking. A year earlier, he’d been a finalist for a place in the Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program only to receive a “we regret to inform you” attachment. But it wasn’t like last year. “I opened it, and I got it,” he says. “I let out a yell and ran across the lab.” A postdoctoral fellow at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Cox had good reason for his exuberant reaction last September. The Hanna H. Gray Fellowship, issued by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, came with $1.4 million to support up to four years of Cox’s postdoctoral research and then an additional four years of funding as an independent faculty member. The award is given annually to 15 exceptional and diverse early career scientists. Cox is grateful for how the fellowship will facilitate his long-term dream of starting his own lab and support his research at the Danforth Center, where he studies plant pathology. He’s studying what plant genes are activated or deactivated by different pathogens in the hopes of making them more resistant to diseases. This has implications for the global food supply, including reducing dependence on herbicides and pesticides. A Florissant native, Cox finds meaning in receiving the fellowship in St. Louis, the place he discovered his professional path while an undergraduate at UMSL. He’d grown up wanting to be a pediatrician. “I have a passion for helping others,” he says. “I did well in science courses, but I never saw that as a career because I didn’t know that was something that you could do.” As a sophomore, Cox took a microbiology course and knew he’d found his career. That led to a part-time job at the Danforth Center as a junior. He remained there until graduating in 2013 with a BS in biology and a minor in chemistry before starting graduate studies at Texas A&M University. “That was my first exposure to plants,” Cox says. “I took my passion with plants and my passion with microbes, and I said, ‘I want to study plant diseases.’ It’s cool because I’m still helping others, still helping children. But I’m also helping the world on a larger scale.”

Photo courtesy of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Cox also credits his time as an UMSL Ambassador, which helped him break out of his shell and learn skills such as networking and public speaking. Those bore fruit for Cox when he attended the 5th International Conference on Biotic-Plant Interactions in China during graduate school. There he recognized Danforth Center Principal Investigator Blake Meyers, whom Cox admired but had never met. He introduced himself. A few months later, Meyers invited Cox to the Danforth Center to give a talk and interview, which turned into a job offer. As he continues to get established in his own career, Cox is making sure children, many of them underrepresented minorities, know that they also can grow up to be scientists. He can regularly be found giving science lessons or career advice in area primary schools. “I’m a real advocate for outreach,” he says. “It gives the students a chance to see that this is possible for anybody.” 28

Photo courtesy of Gyanpriya Maharaj

GYANPRIYA MAHARAJ By Karen Holman

When Gyanpriya Maharaj spies multicolored butterfly wings flitting atop a flower, it’s more than an Instagram opportunity for her. It’s a chance to study life. Her passion for biology can be traced to ecotourism trips throughout the world during her childhood that sparked a fascination with how humans interact with nature. Butterflies hold a special place in Maharaj’s heart and in her research. Her doctoral work in biology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis focused on the pollinators’ feeding behaviors, movement patterns and which colors attract them, with the goal of gleaning information to guide habitat restoration. Now back in her native Guyana, Maharaj still works with butterflies. But her role as a faculty member and director of the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity at the University of Guyana also includes research on the behavior of mammals, reptiles and other wildlife. “It’s a very interesting country to work in,” Maharaj says. “In addition to finding the unknown, it’s exciting to see everything I’ve learned in the classroom and the lab working from a genetic level all the way to an ecosystem level.” She’s researching opportunities for forest restoration within a select mining area in Guyana with an eye toward informing policy and restoration strategies. With about 70 percent primary forests, which have not been disturbed by human activities, the South American nation serves as an ideal space to study biodiversity. Every year, new species are discovered, and Maharaj works with her students and local researchers to observe behaviors and changes over time.

studies Guyana‘s biodiversity, ecology and butterflies

“Biodiversity is, simply put, the variety of life present on Earth,” she says. “It involves identifying species, studying their biology and looking at their behavior. There are so many lessons that can be applied to everyday life, like how to interact with nature in a sustainable way. When we study biodiversity, it isn’t just about finding that information but sharing it globally.” Maharaj’s position at the CSBD connects her with scientists who travel to Guyana from around the world to examine specimens in the center’s museums and herbarium. The CSBD works with agencies such as the World Wildlife Fund Guianas to educate students and natural resources personnel about Guyana’s biodiversity and conservation efforts. She credits her success to a support system that includes faculty members Godfrey Bourne and Aimee Dunlap, who served as mentors, as well as friends who made her feel welcome in a new country. Above all, she stresses the paramount importance of keeping a goal in mind. “Having a plan makes life so much easier,” she says. “That plan will undoubtedly change, and you will have setbacks. But having passion and a love for what you do will guide your journey and get you through the bad days.” 29

JENNIFER FLETCHERKELLEY brings care to rural medical Midwest and South through role at Air Evac

By Karen Holman

Jennifer Fletcher-Kelley knows what it’s like to have one decision make the difference between life or death. She’s started IVs, used defibrillators and performed life-saving procedures at patients’ bedsides while thousands of feet in the air. The College of Nursing alumna’s career took her soaring through the sky as a flight nurse before landing her current position as vice president of patient care services for Air Evac Lifeteam, a company that offers emergency medical care to the Midwest and South via helicopter. Fletcher-Kelley oversees a department of 26 employees who are responsible for patient safety, clinical quality, nurse and paramedic training and meeting accreditation standards. For her, it’s a labor of love. “I grew up in a very rural part of Missouri,” she says. “The closest hospitals were at least an hour’s drive away. My lack of timely access to health care could have negatively impacted my health. Air Evac Lifeteam has always been devoted to putting resources where people need them – in the rural communities where they live.”

Like her devotion to rural Missouri, a health-care career was in her DNA. Her grandmother worked as the first official home health aide in the state, and FletcherKelley was inspired by her service to others. Fletcher-Kelley was already pursuing a bachelor of science in nursing when her program merged with UMSL. The integration offered access to courses that trained her to look at patients’ symptoms holistically. After completing her degree, she began her career as a burn care ICU nurse before exploring other specialties. She moved to a position in an emergency department then joined Air Evac as a flight nurse a year later. The blend of bedside nursing, emergency medical services and aviation proved to be an ideal combination. “There are no X-ray machines or laboratory services to help you diagnose your patient,” she says. “It’s just you, your partner, your cumulative experience, skills and training. I loved the variety and critical thinking.” Fletcher-Kelley was instrumental in opening an Air Evac base in St. Clair, Missouri, and her role in the company continued to grow. As a VP, she pursues the same mission she had as a flight nurse but on a broader scale: provide the care patients need. “There is no greater feeling than to see your work positively impact another human being,” she says. “Not everyone gets to leave their office at the end of the day knowing they made a difference. That’s a gift.”

SUCCEED student

TYLER HAYNES

makes a home at UMSL By Timothy Wombles

Tyler Haynes found his groove during opening night of the University of Missouri–St. Louis’s intramural basketball leagues. He let loose a long 3-pointer, so high it almost grazed the ceiling. Wrist angled, he leaned into the follow-through as the ball flicked through the net. Raising both arms in victory, Haynes backpedaled down the court, stopping to celebrate with a gleeful shimmy. A few years ago, it wasn’t certain that Haynes would be here celebrating a shot from downtown on a university court. That’s because the first-year SUCCEED student has been diagnosed with moderate autism since age 2. Haynes heard about SUCCEED when he told his mother, Tonya Haynes, that he wanted to go to college after high school. Tonya, who is a professor in UMSL’s College of Nursing, started looking around. UMSL and SUCCEED turned out to be a perfect fit, and Haynes is taking advantage of all the academic and social experiences that the university has to offer. He’s done so well that he’s already started giving back. In December, Haynes and Tonya presented about SUCCEED at TASH’s disability advocacy conference along with the program’s team. “I like to tell people about SUCCEED,” Haynes says. “It’s very good. I love college.” SUCCEED is a comprehensive transition and postsecondary program approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Its mission is to help

intellectually and developmentally disabled students develop into participating members of their community through inclusion in university life. Through the program, Haynes is taking a full load of five courses this semester. Subjects include vocational issues and healthy relationships, as well as his favorite so far, art history. SUCCEED encourages and develops pathways toward student independence, so Haynes lives on campus in Oak Hall, a student residence. “With the right support, he can be very successful,” Tonya says. “Tyler is learning to advocate for himself, and he’s making his own decisions every day. To watch him grow in the program has been amazing.” Haynes has taken advantage of the student social experience, and people know him wherever he goes. “They all say, ‘Hey Tyler,’” Haynes says, grinning. Lining the walls virtually everywhere at UMSL are event posters and flyers, advertising hundreds of activities. Haynes, a social butterfly, doesn’t want to miss any of them. “He’ll text or send a picture of something he’s interested in,” Tonya says. “He reads his email. The forms of communication here are great. He’s just come so far – when he was young he was nonverbal. Elementary school was really hard. Now, here he is singing karaoke.” 31

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ALUMNI

1970s

1980s

Thomasina Hassler, MEd 1972, PhD

Marilyn Ratkin, MBA 1980, was

2010, was appointed to the St. Louis

honored with the Jewish Federation

County Police Department Board of

of St. Louis’s JProStl Partnership

Police Commissioners. Thomasina

Award, which recognizes a volunteer

is an adjunct assistant professor at

leader who exemplifies the lay-staff

Harris-Stowe State University and a

relationship through commitments

scholar-in-residence at UMSL.

to the Jewish community and the

William Brown, BGS 1976, was

metro area.

Q&A

BEING BORN WITHOUT ARMS INSPIRED

LETISHA WEXSTTEN

inducted into the 2019 class of the

Carla Cooper, BSBA 1985, joined

National Academy of Construction.

Bluebird Network as chief

William is chairman emeritus of

financial officer.

TO CREATE HIREME, AN

John Nations, BSPA 1985, was

ONLINE EMPLOYMENT

Ben Hur Construction Company and co-chair of Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust.

named to the St. Louis County Board of Freeholders by St. Louis County Executive Sam Page. John

Tom Minogue, BA 1976, was

is practice group chair at the Evans

honored by the St. Louis Business

& Dixon law firm.

Journal with a legacy award during the inaugural C-Suite Awards of 2019. The awards recognize top executives for their contributions to the local business community. Tom is chairman of Thompson Coburn LLP. W. Keith Weldon, BA 1979, MBA 1982, joined CBIZ as senior compensation consultant.

Kimberly Fallert, BSEd 1987, received an Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the

SERVICE PLATFORM DESIGNED TO HELP PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES GAIN EMPLOYMENT

St. Louis metropolitan area who are examples of excellence in their fields. Kevin O’Mara, BSBA 1987, was appointed to the State Technical College of Missouri Board of Regents by Governor Mike Parson. Kevin is director of training and an instructor for the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 562 Training Center.

What is your UMSL story? After finishing my associate degree in graphic design at St. Louis Community College, I started pursuing jobs, but I wasn’t getting many callbacks. The ones I did hear from went well, but I couldn’t land anything. I was incentivized to go back to school and complete a bachelor’s. In the meantime, I had started a YouTube channel about my life without arms. I wanted to answer some of the questions employers wanted to ask me: how I drive, how I get dressed in the morning. After those videos were uploaded, I got six job offers. I was changing the way people see someone with a disability. I was able to show employers how capable I was. When I got to UMSL and began pursuing my bachelor’s, my YouTube career and my past experience of no job offers inspired me. I decided to use my senior thesis to solve the problem of why people with disabilities have a hard time getting jobs. That’s how I created my business, HireMe. I was encouraged by my professor and mentor, Jennifer McKnight, to submit it to the Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator. I didn’t have any expectations, but I won first place. What have you done since graduation that you are most proud of ? My mentors Chris Miller and Micheal Kehoe encouraged me to apply for the big kahuna, Arch Grants. Again, I didn’t think I would get it, but I did! I was awarded $50,000 of equity-free grant money to help fund my business and get started. What book is currently on your nightstand? A murder mystery, “Into the Water” by Paula Hawkins. I started it on vacation. I haven’t finished it yet because I haven’t been on another vacation. What is one word you would use to describe UMSL alumni? Resilient.

Hey alumni! In the last issue, we kicked off a new series, the Alumni Question. Look throughout the class notes section to see some of our favorite responses. Turn to page 38 for the current question and to find out how to send in your answer or share your idea for a question.

Health Systems. Christopher Fox, BSBA 1993,

—Katherine Weikart Kelley, BSEd 1990

Mary McCray, BA 1991, published a

was appointed to the Connections

second poetry collection, “Cowboy

to Success board of directors.

Meditation Primer,” which took silver

Elizabeth is vice president of

in the 2018 Nautilus Book Awards

finance at BJC HealthCare.

and was named finalist

elected vice president of investor

in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards.

relations and corporate secretary

Teresa Balestreri, MEd 1992,

for ExxonMobil.

received an Excellence in Service

Patricia Boyd, BSBA 1989, was named chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Spellman Brady & Company. Thomas Lloyd, BSBA 1989, was named vice president of commercial lending at First State Bank of St. Charles.

to Students Award from the National Society of Leadership and Success. Teresa is director of UMSL Career Services. James Wallis, BS 1992, spoke at an UMSL commencement ceremony on Dec. 14 as one of the alumni keynotes. James is corporate director of business development and public affairs at Chestnut

1990s

What’s your favorite memory about getting distracted from studying at UMSL?

The best memory of having fun at UMSL was my very first Mirth Day. It must have been 1986. There was a truck just west of the library entrance where students could temporarily trade their student IDs for a pair of roller skates. It was the ’80s, and skating was a favorite activity of mine as a child. My now-husband, then-boyfriend, and I spent several carefree hours that afternoon gliding around campus, including a few laps around the smooth lobby of the J.C. Penney Building, as if it were a roller rink.

Elizabeth Lawson, BSBA 1988,

Stephen Littleton, BSBA 1988, was

ALUMNI

QUESTION

Dennis Jenkins, BA 1990, was

was named president and chief

honored by the St. Louis Business

executive officer at Gershman

Journal with one of its inaugural

Commercial Real Estate.

C-Suite Awards of 2019. The

James Lally, MBA 1993, was

awards recognize top executives

honored by the St. Louis Business

for their contributions to the local

Journal with one of its inaugural

business community. Dennis is chief

C-Suite Awards of 2019. The awards

operating officer at Caritas Family

recognize top executives for their

Solutions.

contributions to the local business

Brian Rennick, BSBA 1990, was

community. James is president and

named interim university librarian

chief executive officer of Enterprise

at Brigham Young University in Utah.

Financial Services Corp.

Daniel Graney, BA 1991, joined

Jan Vitale-Lott, MA 1994, joined

Dovetail as creative director.

Armstrong Teasdale LLP as vice president of human resources.

I was a chem major who had kids, no money and usually no time. I could self-justify time spent away from the books if I went to the Red Cross blood bank on South Florissant to donate when I was stuck on campus for several hours. That is when you really have to get away for an hour! —Joan Twillman, BA 1981 34

Michelle Wirick, BSEd 1994, received an Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the St. Louis metropolitan area who are examples of excellence in their fields. Katherine Pallarito, BA 1995, joined POWERS Insurance & Risk Management as personal lines manager. Timothy Branson, BSEd 1996, received an Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the St. Louis metropolitan area who

On Jan. 25, the Pierre Laclede Honors College Alumni Network hosted its 10th annual trivia night at St. Ann Catholic Church in Normandy, Missouri, just down the street from UMSL. Boasting a Roaring 20s theme, the signature event attracted a packed house of students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators and friends. All proceeds benefited the Robert and Paulette Bliss Study Abroad Scholarship Fund. The evening featured nine rounds of trivia, mini-games, a silent auction and a 50-50 raffle. The evening was the midpoint in a yearlong celebration of the Honors College’s 30th anniversary. Other events included the annual Drinks with the Deans, the 20th anniversary celebration of the college’s undergraduate literary magazine, Bellerive, and will conclude with the 30th anniversary celebration at Glen Echo Country Club.

are examples of excellence in their fields. Eileen Vehige, BSEd 1997, received an Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the St. Louis metropolitan area who are examples of excellence in their fields.

2000s Opal Jones, BSBA 2000, MBA 2017, received a 2019 Spirit of Justice Award from the Bar Association of

2004, PhD 2012, received an

Education and Training as chief executive officer.

the Questrom School of Business at Boston University as executive

who are examples of excellence

director of the MS in business

Cheryl Penning, BSEd 2000,

in their fields. Laura was also

analytics program.

received an Emerson Excellence

appointed to the Committee for

in Teaching Award, which

Professional Counselors.

Board of Freeholders by St. Louis

officer of DOORWAYS.

Christi Swick, BA 1998, was named

recognizes educators in the

a partner at Sandberg Phoenix.

St. Louis metropolitan area who

2002, received a 2019 Missouri

Laura Rauscher, BA 2001, MEd

in the St. Louis metropolitan area

as president and chief executive

Arteveld McCoy II, MEd 1999, PhD

Association for Continuing

Francois Charvet, MSIS 2003, joined

named to the St. Louis County

& Kaemmerer.

was appointed to the International

human resources manager.

Award, which recognizes educators

Metropolitan St. Louis. Opal serves

is a partner at McCarthy, Leonard

Casandra Blassingame, MEd 2003,

Geotechnology, Inc. as corporate

Emerson Excellence in Teaching

Joe Blanner, BSPA 1998, was

County Executive Sam Page. Joe

Erica O’Connor, BA 2001, joined

are examples of excellence in their fields.

Business Award for Education

Eric Ebeling, BSBA 2001, was

Innovator. The Missouri Business

promoted to assistant vice

Awards honor the state’s leaders in

president of commercial lending at

industry, education and government.

First State Bank.

Deitra Colquitt, BSEd 2003, MEd 2010, MEd 2019, was named

Tanika Busch, BSMIS 2002,

co-principal of Pershing Elementary

MBA 2008, was named UMSL

School by the School District of

interim vice chancellor for Finance

University City.

and Administration and chief financial officer.

Children’s Division.

A dozen Edward Jones employees – all of them University of Missouri–St. Louis alumni – spent a day in February volunteering to make snack packs for the Triton Pantry. These grab-and-go bags, full of healthy snacks, are an integral part of the food pantry and help students experiencing food insecurity while attending school.

Nathan Hoven, MEd 2003, was

After learning about who the pantry serves and the services it provides, the alumni met with Associate

named superintendent of the

Dean of the College of Business Administration Michael Elliott for a tour of the college’s home base,

Francis Howell School District.

Anheuser-Busch Hall, which opened its doors in the fall of 2017. Does your business employ a number

Dayna Stock, MPPA 2003, PhD 2012,

of UMSL alumni? Contact the Office of Alumni Engagement to find out how you and your coworkers can

was named chief executive officer

participate in alumni activities and events.

Annette House, MSW 2003, received the Impact Player Award from the Annie Malone Children and Family Services Center. Annette is the regional director for the Missouri Department of Social Services

at The Rome Group. Shannon Favazza, MBA 2005, was promoted to principal of firm

Outside of St. Louis? Interested in advocacy? Want to get more involved? Contact alumni@umsl.edu.

analytics at Edward Jones. Rebecca Cornatzer, MEd 2006, was promoted to chief human resources officer at S.M. Wilson. Matthew Fisher, BSBA 2006, was promoted to managing director at Mariner Wealth Advisors in St. Louis.

Linda Dawkins, PhD 2007, received

David Gipson, MPPA 2007, was

Miranda Ming, BSEd 2008, MEd

an Emerson Excellence in Teaching

named city manager by the Clayton

2010, EdSP 2011, PhD 2015, spoke

Award, which recognizes educators

Board of Aldermen.

at an UMSL commencement

in the St. Louis metropolitan area

Lynne Hilliard, BA 2006, BSEd 2006,

who are examples of excellence in

MEd 2012, received an Emerson

their fields.

Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the St. Louis metropolitan area who are examples of excellence in their fields.

Tracy Hinds, EdSP 2007, PhD 2016, was named deputy commissioner of the Division of Learning

Darryl Diggs Jr., BSEd 2007,

Services for the Missouri

co-founded Black Males in

Department of Elementary and

Education – St. Louis in 2019 with

Secondary Education.

Howard Fields, BSEd 2007, MEd 2009, EdSP 2012, PhD 2017. The

Angie Leahy, BSAcc 2007, MAcc 2008, was named associate vice

Donald Raymond Jr., BSEE 2006,

group’s purpose is to support

joined Armstrong Teasdale LLP as

black educators through social

an attorney specializing in patent

and career networking events and

and trademark law.

encourage more black students

Elizabeth Pickard, MA 2007, joined

to pursue careers in education.

The Rome Group as a consultant.

Kimberly Allen, PhD 2007, was

chancellor for finance and controller at Washington University in St. Louis.

ceremony on Dec. 14 as one of the alumni keynotes. Miranda is associate principal at Jennings Senior High School & College Prep Academy. T. Christopher Peoples, BSCiE 2008, joined Frontenac Engineering Group as a civil engineering design consultant. Mike Swanson, BSEE 2008, was promoted to vice president and director of healthcare at Ross & Baruzzini.

named vice president for academic affairs at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska. 36

ALUMNI QUESTION continued

Every year on the day before Halloween, the Pierre Laclede Honors College Student Association and other student groups transform the Provincial House into Haunted Honors, a haunted house that generates proceeds for an area charity.

Antionette Carroll, BS 2009, MA

Molly Dalton, BSAcc 2011, MAcc

2012, was honored with a 2020

2012, was promoted to tax manager

SXSW Community Service Award

at Lopata, Flegel & Company.

for her dedication to creating positive and lasting change in her community. Antionette is president and chief executive officer of Creative Reaction Lab. Ekaterina Loginicheva, BS 2009, MS 2012, was promoted to associate manager of research and development for Benson Hill.

2010s

joined ArchCity Defenders as staff attorney. Justin Cano, MBA 2012, joined Pfizer as finance manager. Emily Ingalls, MA 2012, PhD 2016, was appointed Emmaus Homes Board of Directors chairperson. Emily is vice president of organizational consulting for Psychological Associates in St. Louis. Kevin L. Cox Jr., BS 2013, was

Southern Illinois University

awarded a $1.4 million fellowship

Edwardsville as assistant

from the Howard Hughes Medical

director and instructor for the

Institute to support his research

college student personnel

at the Donald Danforth Plant

administration program.

Science Center.

Marcel Scaife, BLS 2010, was

Denis Mehmedspahic, BSAcc 2013,

honored by the St. Louis American

MBA 2016, spoke at an UMSL

Foundation as one of its 2020

commencement ceremony on

Salute to Young Leaders awardees.

Dec. 14 as one of the alumni

Marcel is manager of Safe and

keynotes. Denis is a technical

Thriving Communities Ready by

generalist at Edward Jones.

Greater St. Louis.

Nargis Sajid, BS 2013, BA 2013, joined Epworth Children & Family

Michael Wolpert, BSAcc 2010,

Services as treatment foster care

joined Cushman & Wakefield

clinical case manager.

as senior manager of accounts receivable - Americas.

—Jeremy Loscheider, MA 2007

Rudy Angulo, BA 2012,

Candace Hall, BA 2010, joined

21 at the United Way of

My favorite distraction was probably hanging out at the Newman Center when the Econ Resource Center got to be too loud. Father Kempf always made me feel at home, and silly memories like our haunted house or our crazy cleaning days make me smile.

Christan Shelton, MEd 2013, was honored by the St. Louis American

Anthony D’Agostino, MPPA 2011,

Foundation as one of its 2020

joined St. Patrick Center as chief

Salute to Young Leaders awardees.

executive officer. Anthony was

Christan is an instructional

named a 2020 St. Louis Business

coach in the Riverview Gardens

Journal 40 Under 40 honoree.

school district.

While I was in graduate school, country music legend Charlie Louvin came to St. Louis and scheduled an informal concert at Vintage Vinyl. I was supposed to be studying economics that evening. It was not a subject I enjoyed or mastered and, in fact, had to hire a tutor to navigate successfully. The responsible thing to do would have been to stay home and study and maybe play my Louvin Brothers vinyl for consolation. Who needs responsibility? Charlie Louvin put on a great show for us at Vintage Vinyl! And don’t worry; I ultimately did fine on the econ test. —Laura Schmidt, BA 2002, MPPA 2008 37

Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge, MBA 2013, was appointed to the State Board of Education by Missouri Governor Mike Parson. Pamela is information systems audit director for Edward Jones. Linda Wood, BSEd 2013, received an Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes educators in the St. Louis metropolitan area who are examples of excellence in their fields.

Bliss ALUMNI

QUESTION

hey alumni!

What was your most fly fashion moment while at UMSL? Email your answer and a photo or your idea for

Nykea Watts, BS 2004, to Jermaine Edwards on Nov. 2, 2019 Jordan Ullom, BSBA 2010, BSIS 2010, to Jennifer Davis on Oct. 26, 2019 Zachery Campbell, BA 2012, to Shannon Lampkin on Oct. 19, 2019 Joshua Risch, BSAcc 2013, to Jenna Conway on April 24, 2020

Melanie Adams, PhD 2014, was honored as a Pioneer in Education by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for her service on the

our next question to magazine@umsl.edu.

Special Administrative Board for

We'll run some of our favorites in the next issue.

St. Louis Public Schools. Melanie is director of the Smithsonianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C. Jamillah Boyd, BIS 2014, MEd 2016, was appointed to the board of trustees at AnitaB.org, which brings together women from over 50 countries with an annual conference, networking, careerbuilding resources and more. 38

Hope Gassier, BSBA 2014, was

Nicholas O’Hanlon, BSPPA 2018,

Joel Sjerven, MSW 2019, joined

Margaret Dougherty, BSEd 1976,

promoted to assistant vice

joined the American Red Cross as

Family Care Health Centers as a

MEd 1980, on Aug. 22, 2019

president of social media at Stifel.

disaster program specialist for

behavioral health consultant.

Jacqueline Dugger, BA 1976,

Brittae Gray Ross, BLS 2014, was

St. Louis City and County.

Letisha Wexstten, BFA 2019, was

on Sept. 9, 2019

William Musick, BSEd 1976,

honored by the St. Louis American

Jill Roth, BSAcc 2018, joined

awarded one of 20 Arch Grants.

Foundation as one of its 2020

Schowalter & Jabouri in its

The organization provides $50,000

Salute to Young Leaders awardees.

tax department.

equity-free grants and pro bono

M. Renee Damron, BSEd 1977,

support services to entrepreneurs

MEd 1978, EdD 1987, on

who build their early stage

Nov. 17, 2019

businesses in St. Louis.

Ronald Thenhaus, BA 1977,

Brittae is an application developer at the Washington University School of Medicine.

Curlinda Blacksheep, EdD 2019, a park ranger at Navajo National Monument, is leading a project

MEd 1988, on Sept. 12, 2019

MPPA 1987, on Sept. 25, 2019

Maria Miley, BSBA 2014, was

with Arizona schools to integrate

promoted to manager of global

indigenous culture in the K-12

William Rosenthal, EdD 1978, on

financial planning and analysis at

curriculum through growing native

May 16, 2019

Emerson in Austin, Texas.

plants. The students learn about the

Marcia Meyers, BSW 1979, on

plants’ cultural uses that range from

Nov. 15, 2019

Kathleen Riddler, BA 2014, MA 2016, MBA 2018, was honored by

food to medicine.

In Memoriam

Joel Royalty, MA 1979, PhD 1985, on Feb. 13, 2019

StreetScape Magazine as one of its

Kelcee Burton, BES 2019, joined

Beyond the Best of 2019. Kathleen

Hip Hop for Change, a nonprofit

1980s —

is a business communications

that educates and empowers all

Judith Young, MS 1980, on

specialist at Express Scripts.

people with a platform to express

Sept. 28, 2019

themselves through the arts while

Paul Zachritz, BSBA 1981, on

Ryan Vandermus, MAcc 2014, joined Argos Family Office as manager of

teaching society about the power

March 31, 2019

of hip hop culture.

1960s —

Nicholas Harper, BSBA 2019,

Sally Phelps, BSEd 1968, on

joined the Greater St. Louis

Oct. 18, 2019

Fellowship of Christian Athletes

Marion Stroup, BSEd 1968, on

as an area representative.

Oct. 7, 2019

member of the American Institute

Danielle Kimbrel, MSW 2019,

Clarence Seckel Jr., BSEd 1969,

of Graphic Arts.

joined Places for People as an

on Oct. 26, 2019

outpatient therapist.

1970s —

Veratrak as head of product

Luke Maichel, BSME 2019, joined

Phyllis Harris, BA 1970, MEd 1975,

in London.

Ameren as a turbine engineer.

on Oct. 28, 2019

Maria A. Ellis, BA 2017, formed a

Elise McMindes, BFA 2019, joined

children’s choir at UMSL for third to

DialogTech as a graphic designer.

financial services. Tim Hykes, BFA 2015, was named a 2019 Adobe UX Designer to Watch. He works as a UX consultant at World Wide Technology and is a

Colin Tierney, BLS 2015, joined

sixth grade students living in north St. Louis. Maria works as community engagement manager at St. Louis Children’s Choirs.

Madsy Richards, BSBA 2019, was accepted into the business skills rotation program at Boeing. Over the next three years, she will work in

Jacob Lewis, BFA 2017, raised

three different positions, beginning

nearly $10,000 through a Kickstarter

with financial operations.

Dennis Schorp, MEd 1970, on Aug. 7, 2019

Richard Collins, BSBA 1972, on Sept. 30, 2019

David Murnin, BS 1972, on Oct. 24, 2019

Robert Piper, BSBA 1972, on July 29, 2019

campaign to fund the production of

Lloyd Meyer, BSBA 1974, on

his product, Rasa Easel, a portable,

Jan. 4, 2020

Eric Stein, OD 1988, on Jan. 11, 2020 John Tackes, JD BA 1988, on Oct. 15, 2019 1990s —

Le Anne Dunn, BSW 1992, on Feb. 13, 2019

Charlean Leake, MEd 1992, on July 17, 2019

Francis Wolinski, BSBA 1993, on Nov. 30, 2019

Susan Fiehler, BSEd 1998, on Nov. 18, 2019

Andrew George, BA 1998, on Oct. 3, 2019 2010s —

Kimberly Perry, PhD MA 2008, PhD 2013, on Jan. 24, 2019

Alexander Limpert, BS 2017, on Sept. 25, 2019

adjustable hardboard easel small enough to use in tight spaces. Aunya McElroy, MEd 2018, was honored by the St. Louis American Foundation as one of its 2020 Salute to Young Leaders awardees. Aunya is a school counselor at Jury

In memory of perinatal clinical nurse specialist and DNP student Judy Wilson-Griffin, who passed on March 20, 2020, becoming the first St. Louis County resident to die as a result of the pandemic.

Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District.

University of Missouri–St. Louis

nonprofit org. U.S. postage

60 J.C. Penney Building

paid

1 University Blvd.

St. Louis, MO

St. Louis, MO 63121-4400

permit no. 3

Scan code with your phone's camera to support UMSL students now.

2020027.102.6M.5/20.wa/mb-ovid bell press

The Triton Emergency Fund provides critical financial support for University of Missouri–St. Louis students. Demand is particularly high now during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s food. That’s baby formula. That’s emergency housing, utilities, transportation and more. That’s what students need to be successful and continue their educations. Students are struggling. Will you help one of them?

We lift our community when we support each other. That’s what makes us strong. It’s what makes us Tritons Together. Give to the Triton Emergency Fund today. giving.umsl.edu/covid19relief For more information or to set up a matching program, please contact UMSL Giving. 314-516-4744 crowdfund@umsl.edu