CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

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EAGLES’ NEST Alumni Jenny (’09) and Matt McElligot (’09) broke out their best Eagle Claws at Apogee Stadium to celebrate the Mean Green’s first game — and win — of the season against Northwestern State. Prior to kickoff, UNT alums reconnected at the Alumni Pavilion for a fun-filled GameDay Grille. The event opens two hours before each home game (and is free to Alumni Association members). Learn more at untalumni.com.

CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

CLASS NOTES

keep up with the latest developments in the UNT family and tell your peers what you’ve been up to since leaving the nest. Send your news to the North Texan (see contact information on page 7).

1950 JACK FROST, Los Angeles, California is remaining active at age 94. He served 27 years in the U.S. Navy, including during World War II, and retired as Commander. He taught and coached basketball and football, earned his doctorate at Texas Christian University and served as superintendent of several school districts, including Georgetown ISD for 19 years. He retired in 1988. Georgetown ISD named an elementary school in his honor and hosts the Jack Frost Basketball Tournament. He used to run five miles a day, but he now runs in his pool.

1966 RICHARD FLOURNEY (’67, M.S.), Cypress, was a practicing psychologist for four decades and wrote several books to help adolescent and adult readers understand mental health issues such as bulimia, stress, burnout, sleep disorders, dreams and ultimately peace. Now in retirement, he’s turned to writing a children’s book, Papa Has to … (Christian Faith Publishing), which was inspired by his three grandchildren who frequently told him, “Papa has to come to my birthday party/go to the zoo with the family/come to my recital.”

1969 JIM RUNGE, Eldorado. As a recreation and leisure studies major at North Texas, Jim participated in every intramural sport — becoming a champion in tennis, fencing singles and badminton doubles; qualifying for the national fencing championships in foil, as well as the national Modern Pentathlon Championships in 1967; and establishing his career in recreation. He was the McKinney Parks and Recreation Director in 1971 and founded the Runge Recreation Ranch in Navo in 1973, sponsoring many sport competitions until 1979. He owned and operated the haunted house, Count Dracula’s Quality PreOwned Casket Company, from 1988 to 1994, and operated Texas Promos, Etc. from 1979 until his retirement in 2008. He became involved in National Senior Games in 2020 and was named its Athlete of the Month in 2015 after competing in more events than any other participant. He currently serves as an impersonator of more than 50 personas.

1971 SEAN MCCLENEGHAN (M.A.), Martinez, Georgia, was inducted into the New Mexico Press Association’s Hall of Fame. He retired as Distinguished Achievement Emeritus Professor of New Mexico State University, where he served as the head of the Journalism and Mass Communications Department, now the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, and the Center for Broadcasting for 12 years of his 32year career there. He earned his other

SCHOOL TO BEAR ALUMNA’S NAME

The same day she received her second vaccine shot, Pat Cheek (’65)

received another dose of good news.

Charles Stafford, a family friend, called. He said Denton ISD’s ninth middle school would be named for her: Pat Hagan Cheek Middle School. Her children, who had known the news ahead of time and gathered to watch as Cheek received word, saw their mother react with complete bewilderment.

“I was completely taken aback,” Cheek says. “I’m excited.”

Pat Hagan Cheek Middle School is set to be built by fall 2022, and the distinction honors Cheek’s decades of teaching in Denton schools and volunteering for the Denton community.

“Being named after a middle school is an incredible honor,” Cheek says. — Brittney Dear

Read the full story. northtexan. unt.edu/selfless-hearts

AlUMNI PROfIlE

an act of faith

thouGh theRe was Food on the tinY FishinG Boat, timothY Tran (’21 M.A.) couldn’t eat. For days, the small vessel had played ragdoll to the whims of the Pacific swells, thrashing violently along the outskirts of Indonesia. Seasickness had destroyed the appetites of the nearly 250 people aboard. All they were hungry for, Tran says, was survival.

The men, women and children were there for one reason: an escape to freedom. It was Nov. 20, 1978, and Tran — a native of South Vietnam — had been living under the rule of North Vietnam since the fall of Saigon three years earlier. In the interim, thousands of South Vietnamese had fled the country by boat, seeking asylum from neighboring nations. Nearly half of those who set sail in search of a better life succumbed to the voyage.

So as the oldest son of eight siblings, it was Tran who accepted the risk. His family scraped together all the money they could to aid his departure, and at 17 years old, alone and afraid, he spent seven days and nights stranded at sea. More than 40 years later, the memories remain as crisp as the ocean air.

“It was life and death on that small boat,” he says. “My only thought was, ‘Am I going to survive this?’”

Tran temporarily found dry land at a refugee camp in Pulau Tengah, Malaysia, before the U.S. government offered him permanent asylum. By the time he reached his new home of Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 7, 1979, he weighed only 130 pounds and his hair had grown long. It was dark when he arrived, nearly midnight, and though he knew little English and carried no belongings, his hope burned bright. He had made it.

“I had no clue back then that I would end up where I am today,” says Tran, who earned his master’s degree in international studies from UNT this spring. “I believe God had a plan for my life.”

That plan included a military career, during which Tran served as a chaplain in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, even earning a Bronze Star in 2004 for his service during Operation Freedom.

Though he had spent the past two decades in the U.S. Army, Tran wasn’t ready to kick back following retirement — “I had all the time in the world and no idea what to do with it,” he says. Then in spring 2019, inspiration struck, and he enrolled in UNT’s international studies master’s program — graduating with a 3.9 GPA.

But it’s the school of hard knocks where he learned his most important lesson.

“Coming to the U.S. with nothing was not easy, there were a lot of obstacles I had to overcome,” he says. “But I want people to remember that every setback, no matter how hard, takes you closer to higher ground. There’s always hope.” — Erin Cristales

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AlUMNI PROfIlE

BeautY of chaos

WILLIAM BASINSKI COULD SEE THE TWIN

TOWERS from his Brooklyn loft. After he and his friends watched the World Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, they sat on the roof in shock and disbelief, and he put on his latest composition that he had just completed, The Disintegration Loops.

“When we were on a roof looking at the buildings collapse, I felt like I had been commissioned to soundtrack the end of the world,” he says.

As the world began to process what happened, word spread about his work. It is now considered a masterpiece, with part of the work featured in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

Basinski’s career took root in his time at North Texas from 1976 to 1978. He switched his major to composition and living in Bruce Hall, where his fellow dormmates would go through the charts together, he began to develop his own style. His private composition teacher was the late Larry Austin (’51, ’52 M.M.), the world-renowned composer and director of UNT’s Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia — although Basinski didn’t realize how well-known Austin was at the time.

When Basinski brought his work to Austin, the composer told him, “Do more.”

Basinski not only found his voice in music, but as a person. He met a group of art students who “were fabulous and gay, and I found out I wasn’t the only weirdo.” One of those fabulous artists was James Elaine (’77), who had graduated a year before and was in town for a visit. Elaine lived in San Francisco, and Basinski left North Texas to be with him and follow his dreams. They’ve been together ever since.

Through the years, Basinski recorded music and worked a variety of jobs. The couple moved to New York City in the 1980s and lived in a loft that received transmissions from a radio station at the top of the Empire State Building that played American popular standards. Basinski loved the string sounds, especially the intros and outros, which he made into tape loops and slowed down.

“All of a sudden I realized there were these huge waves of melancholy,” he says.

Mixing the loops in real time, he recorded them to a cassette with short wave radio static. And he earned respect as one of the world’s top composers of ambient and experimental music.

Two decades later, Basinski began archiving the old loops to a digital format. But he knew the 20-year-old tapes were in danger of disintegration. He put on the first loop that eventually became the Disintegration Loop 1.1., with the full six-loop work becoming a four-volume album known as The Disintegration Loops. All six movements have now been transcribed and will be available for performances in the orchestral repertoire when the pandemic permits.

“I realized, even in the bleakest of times, use the time you’ve been given,” he says. “Get in the studio, get back to the work — one never knows what can happen.”

— Jessica DeLeón degrees from Fresno State University and the University of Texas at Austin.

1973 PAUL PEARCE (Ph.D.), Conroe, is the owner and laboratory director of Nova Biologicals, which has provided global microbiological testing services and consultations to businesses and households since 1993. Paul also is the founder of the Pearce Foundation for Scientific Endeavor, and he has developed the Environmental Service Optimization Program, which aims to reduce the effects of health care-associated infections.

1977 RANDY PRUETT, Irving, was promoted to senior vice president and account manager at Cooksey Communications. He has more than 30 years of experience in strategic communications and was previously honored as Dallas Communicator of the Year by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and was president of the IABC’s Dallas chapter.

1983 PAULA MCDONALD, Granbury, released her second book THEOSYNTHESIS, a compilation of obtaining balance in the world through health, spiritual well-being and emotional care. Paula is the owner and broker of Beam & Branch Realty, PLLC. She previously wrote and published Beloved Not Broken, a Bible study program for women. She is a former educator who won the Christa McAuliffe Teaching Excellence Award for the State of Texas.

1989 JAMES PAWELCZYK (Ph.D.), University Park, Pennsylvania, was named a new member of the board of directors for the Center for the Advancement of Science in

in Space (CASIS), which manages the International Space Station. The former astronaut currently serves as an associate professor of physiology and kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University and is the director of the dual-title Ph.D. program in clinical and translational sciences.

1991 MELANIE MARSH, Greenville, was selected as a Distinguished Educator by the Lone Oak ISD Education Foundation and was honored with a Lifetime of Excellence in Teaching award. She teaches algebra and calculus at Lone Oak High School.

1994 ART HAYS, Austin, was one of two music composers on the new Netflix show Izzy’s Koala World. While at UNT, he played tenor sax with the One O’Clock Lab Band. He toured with Matchbox Twenty from 2000-01. Art has written and produced advertising music for Avon, Dodge, Ford, Samsung, Frito-Lay and more, and his songs and scores have appeared on numerous TV shows, such as Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Pinkertons.

1996 LATOSHA HERRONBRUFF, Dallas, was named the first-ever senior vice president for community engagement of the Dallas Regional Chamber, the largest chamber in North Texas. Latosha has 20 years of advocacy work under her belt. Prior to accepting this position, she served as vice president of government and public affairs for Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.

YESIKA HORTON, Denton, is the founder of Spread Happiness Nut Butters, a vegan-based company that provides natural peanut and nut butters. Yesika previously was in recruiting and office management at Snelling Staffing Services. While a freshman at UNT, she was a member of the UNT Green Brigade marching band. She attended UNT from 2002 to 2005.

1999 DEBORAH KEEN, Plano, won the American Lawyers Alliance Teacher of the Year Award at the national level for her innovation in law education. Deborah has taught in the Career and Technical Education Center for Frisco ISD since 2012. She founded the Youth Safety and Civility Alliance (YSCA) in 2018. She also was the Texas Lawyers Auxiliary 2015 Texas Teacher of the Year.

2008 ESTER FLORES, Dallas, was named a 2020 Rising Star by The Bond Buyer, a leading municipal finance publication. She has worked for more than a decade at HilltopSecurities, going from analyst, assistant vice president and vice president for the firm’s public finance division to her current title as director and investment banker.

ERIN PACK (’11 M.Ed.), Salt Lake City, Utah, has written three books: The Washington Journey, Everything You Need to Know About Suicide and Self Harm and Everything You Need to Know About Alcoholism. She is a middle school teacher and new teacher mentor in suburban Salt Lake City and freelance writer of nonfiction young adult books and articles. While at UNT, she was a member of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Phi Alpha Theta and Peer Educators.

TAKING A SHOT

Ever since she was in high school,

Theresa Acosta (’99, ’01 M.S.) wrote down a list of goals in a black-andwhite composition notebook.

One of those goals was to work as a head athletic trainer for a WNBA team.

After years of working in various positions with the Detroit Shock and college teams, she was hired by the New York Liberty in 2019. Acosta is the only Latinx who holds that title in the WNBA.

She is one of the first people to arrive before a game and one of the last to leave. While the season itself runs from mid-April though October, the intensity is non-stop, with travel from the team’s home arena at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, to the other 11 markets in the WNBA.

“Every day, it’s like I get to be around the best in the world,” she says. “For me to be in this arena, watching these women basketball athletes on a daily basis and knowing that I can assist with that, is truly amazing — and I enjoy every bit of it.” — Jessica DeLeón

CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

AlUMNI PROfIlE

maKing a WorLD of Difference

Jhoalmo siBRian (’17) came to the u.s. as an immiGRant FRom el salvadoR. he is now on tRack to Become a u.s. diplomat.

He was awarded the 2021 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship, which will fund his master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University. Sibrian currently works for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Public Policy Fellow and will then transfer to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs as a Rangel Fellow. After completing his master’s and an internship at a U.S. embassy overseas, he will be assigned to a post in a foreign country in 2023.

“It means so much because my mom came to the U.S. seeking refuge from a 12-year civil war and, thanks to her grit and support, this also is her American dream,” Sibrian says. “I am extremely grateful for all her work and sacrifice. I am here because of her, and I am honored to join a cohort that represents the strength and diversity of the United States.”

Sibrian’s path to international diplomacy began as a teenager, when he volunteered with an umbrella group of organizations — including LULAC and the International Rescue Committee — that helped immigrants and he was intrigued by their stories.

“I became invested in learning why they fled,” he says. “At the same time, their stories were very similar to mine, including some of the reasons why they came to the U.S. seeking refuge such as family reunification, danger and dire conditions, political instability, and the lack of educational and professional opportunities in their countries. It sparked that passion to want to be involved in advocating for their rights and making sure their voices are heard.”

Sibrian transferred to UNT from Tarrant County College in 2015, where he earned a Terry Scholarship and a bachelor’s degree in international studies specializing in Europe, Latin America, and security and diplomacy. He absorbed the lessons in his Latin American, sociology and anthropology courses.

After graduation, he served as a fellow in the Fulbright program for two years. He served as an English teaching assistant at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia — and ended up teaching his own classes. Then in 2020, he was selected as one of 14 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Fellows across the U.S. He moved to Washington, D.C., where his tasks included everything from attending meetings to writing legislation and letters to heads of state.

“I thought I already knew about the process of how Congress worked,” he says. “I think being part of it and seeing the kind of impact they can have has really surprised me. Seeing it in action is, “Wow, there’s so much power.’”

He knows he doesn’t have the typical story compared to other colleagues, who come from Ivy League colleges or wealthy families.

“Every day, I am mesmerized by the opportunity of being there,” he says. “Most people don’t come from the background as an immigrant and someone from a low-income family. For example, someone once told me, ‘People like you don’t come around here often.’ I think that says a lot about the people I interact with. I have worked my way to this point.”

This fall, Sibrian moved to Boston to study public policy at Harvard University. In 2022, after the first year of graduate school, he will work an internship at a U.S. Embassy overseas. In 2023, he’ll receive his assignment as a diplomat. Sibrian says he would love to work in Thailand because he is intrigued by its food and culture.

But he is open to working in any country — and his main goal remains helping others.

“I know there will be challenges,” he says. “But I’m a lifelong learner and trust my personal, professional and academic background.” — Jessica DeLeón

Mean Green Pride

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1HAGAN LEE WITHERS is already in the Mean Green spirit, following a proud family tradition. He is the son of Jeff Withers (’10), a realtor in Denton, and Rachel Withers (’10), who takes care of their three children. Withers’ company, Withers Howell Real Estate Group, is a sponsor of Mean Green football. His parents are Johnny (’74), a dentist, and Jayne Howell, who attended North Texas from 1974 to 1978, and runs the company with Jeff.

2FIVE COLLEGE OF MUSIC alumni have gone from Mean Green to Army green as members of the 25th Infantry Division Band in Hawaii. From left to right: Jamie Edwards (’14 M.M.); Stephen Thacker, who attended from 2004 to 2008; Philip Blienberger (’06 M.M.); Ross Shone (’17); and Trevor Duell (’16 D.M.A.).

3WHEN MEMBERS OF Alpha Delta Pi learned that College Inn, where many sororities lived in the 1980s, would be demolished, they knew it was time for a reunion. Nearly 40 members who were part of the 1979 to 1983 classes got together this summer to take one last look. Read memories from College Inn alumni at northtexan.unt.edu/college-inn. 4 MARGAUX OGUNSOLA (’13), likes to spread the Mean Green spirit in her classroom. Ogunsola teaches third grade science at Annie H. Rainwater Elementary School in the CarrolltonFarmers Branch ISD.

5EMET EICHLER was born to Lauren Eichler (’14) and her husband, Joel Eichler, on April 5, 2021. Lauren works for Fort Worth-based social media agency Social Factor on full-time assignment at Toyota’s North American Headquarters in Plano.

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CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

AlUMNI PROfIlE

a Dream impact

WHEN UNT ALUMNA HILLARY SHAH (’21)

FACES BARRIERS IN HER SOCIAL-JUSTICE

work, she finds encouragement in the words of the late American politician Shirley Chisholm: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

“And many times, I’ve had to bring a folding chair,” Shah says. “But I think it’s better to bring a folding chair than not show up at the table.”

The political science and economics major, who graduated in May, has been prolific in her public- and community-service work. She cares deeply about empowering people of color, people living in poverty, felons and others. Her efforts to advocate for marginalized communities earned her the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, the nation’s premier graduate fellowship for college students pursuing careers in public service.

Shah was one of 62 students in the U.S. selected this year for the scholarship, which Congress established as an official federal memorial to the nation’s 33rd president.

Shah, who was a member of the UNT Honors College, was the fourth UNT student to win the Truman Scholarship. Over the years, there have been eight UNT finalists for the award.

As a Truman Scholar, Shah will receive a $30,000 scholarship for her graduate study. In addition, scholars receive priority admission and supplemental financial support at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.

“It feels like a dream. I never did any of the work because I wanted to be thanked for it or get anything in return, but it’s really nice to be seen and be validated that what I’ve been doing has been good and impactful,” Shah says.

While at UNT, Shah served in the Student Government Association as vice president and was a founding member of the Coalition of Civic Empowerment. She was active in expanding student voter registration and voter education on campus. She even helped break a state record during her freshman year in 2018 by registering 752 eligible voters in one day. As a member of the UNT Moot Court Team, she excelled in debate competitions at a national level, including an award-winning argument against the University of Chicago in front of Texas Supreme Court justices.

She served as an intern at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington D.C., as well as in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Commerce through the Washington Leadership Program, a national organization that focuses on fostering the next generation of leaders from the South Asian community.

“I don’t have a dream job. I have a dream impact. I want to uplift marginalized communities,” Shah says. “Maybe that’s through litigation, policy writing or advocacy — whatever that is, I want to raise visibility for those who are disenfranchised and given lesser resources than the majority class. Everything I do will be through that goal.” — Heather Noel 2011 ALEXIS MILLER, Lewisville, was named Region 11’s 2020 Elementary Teacher of the Year. A psychology major at UNT, she earned a master’s degree in health administration from the UNT Health Science Center. She was a member of the Zeta Eta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and vice president of Pan-Hellenic Council. She worked in health care administration before transitioning to education after participating in a summer literacy program. She is currently a student in the College of Education’s principal certification program.

2012 MICHELLE FOLTA (M.M., ’15 Ph.D.), Columbus, Ohio, was one of 10 finalists for the Grammy Music Educator Award, given by the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum. Michelle is an associate professor of choral/general music education at Columbus State University and the artistic director for the Voices of the Valley Children’s Chorus. During the coronavirus pandemic, she fed her college students with a weekly meal called a “porch picnic” after learning some of them were going without nutritious meals.

2019 BRI SMOCKS (M.Ed.), Long Beach, California, is the co-owner and editor-in-chief of Levi & Toonk LLC, which publishes a biographical board book series chronicling the developmental experiences and milestones of an African American toddler as he grows into a young man, based on Bri’s son. She co-founded The Equity Collective, which promotes intersectional environmentalism, and also is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, serving those in need.