CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

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EAGLES’ NEST They painted their faces green. They created noise. They got wild. The Mean Green Maniacs — an enthusiastic group of students who shared their UNT pride in ultimate fashion this winter for the men’s and women’s basketball teams — took charge in the Super Pit, boasting their own section and hosting tailgates before the games with contagious energy that even grabbed attention on national television.

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 ).

1966 FERNANDO PIÑÓN (’71 M.A.), Laredo, wrote a new book during COVID-19 quarantine called A Man Named Fernando, a memoir about his life. Fernando taught at San Antonio College and the University of Texas at San Antonio. He edited the Laredo Morning Times from 1970 to 1974, making him the first Mexican-American to edit a Texas daily newspaper. He also wrote for the San Antonio Express-News and owned and published El Visitante Dominical, a national Catholic newspaper. While at UNT, he was editor of The Campus Chat newspaper and a member of Sigma Delta Chi.

1967 JOEL DUSKIN (M.M.), Bedford, is enjoying retirement after teaching for 32 years at various schools in Arkansas, as well as Temple, HurstEuless-Bedford and Dallas ISDs. His first job was as junior high school band director in Hot Springs, Ark., where one of his saxophone students was future U.S. President Bill Clinton. He later taught at schools in DeQueen, Ark., and Texarkana, Texas, before working as assistant professor at Stephen F. Austin State University. He also studied for his Ph.D. and taught part time at North Texas.

1973 DAVID W. WALLACE (M.A., ’77 Ph.D.), Macon, Ga., wrote his first novel, Paradis Rue, which follows a young woman who models for French Impressionist painters in Paris in the late 1800s. He is a licensed psychologist in Texas who has also served as dean of students at the University of Houston, dean of college affairs at Samuel Merritt University and adjunct professor of psychology at Brandman University. He also owns a media consulting business. He was elected an “Outstanding Alumni” at UNT in 1995.

1982 LIBBY DANIELS, Red Oak, was named chief of communications for Dallas ISD, where she has worked since 2008 in positions that include acting chief and deputy chief of communications, executive director in charge of media relations, digital media, marketing, Dallas Schools Television, special events and customer service.

1985 MARK ZESKE (M.A.), Irving, was elected to the Irving City Council. He is an English teacher in Irving ISD and previously worked as a sportswriter for The Dallas Morning News. He also served on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, the Irving Public Library Board and the City of Irving Cable Board.

2000 JOHN POCH (Ph.D.), Lubbock, has published the book, Gracious: Poems of the 21st Century South, in which he selected poetry

DREAM BLOOMS

Lauren McMinn Clarke (’00) had no doubt about where she wanted to attend school. Going Mean Green was a family tradition. She even knew that she wanted to study in UNT’s College of Music and made many fond memories during her four years of college.

Clarke graduated with her bachelor’s in violin performance and a minor in music theory. But after graduation, she decided to take another direction in her professional career so she could make a difference in the world. She’s launched Turn, a DFW-based composting business that she hopes will help the environment. Turn is a subscription service that collects organic waste from customers and sends it to local farmers to use for planting and growing produce.

“We are passionate about education and encouraging people to compost at home,” Clarke says. “We also help people understand how to grow their own food and compost their household organic waste.” — Danielle Zachariah

Read the full story. northtexan. unt.edu/concerto-compost

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legAcy fAmily

Birds of a feather

From left, top: Susan Nurre, Sara Nurre Tarvin, Whitney Spivey Tarvin, Becky Nurre, Kate Tarvin Winsor

Family time is paramount For the nurres.

Kate Tarvin Winsor (’06) can remember precious Sundays around the dinner table at her grandparents, Jerre (’98) and Ted Nurre’s, house after church. And every Memorial Day, the whole clan would gather to celebrate the anniversary of her grandparents, who married right before Ted shipped out for service in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

The Nurres have another longstanding family tradition that spans four generations, but this one wasn’t made with intention.

Dating back to the early 1900s, eight female members of the Nurre family, along with extended family, have attended UNT.

Jerre’s aunt Lucile Umphress attended the university when it was known as North Texas State Normal College. A 1923 Yucca yearbook lists her as a member of both the Cottage Cousins and Scribes clubs. Later, Jerre, her daughters — Sara, Susan and Becky — and granddaughter Kate all enrolled at the university.

There was never any pressure to become an Eagle, Kate says. One by one though, they found their calling at UNT.

Kate’s mom Sara (’79, ’83 M.Ed.) and aunt Susan (’81) enrolled at North Texas State University in the fall of 1977 as accounting majors. Sara, the oldest of her family, later switched to education in preparation for teaching in the K-12 classroom.

Their little sister, Becky (’84, ’86 M.S.) would make the trek to Denton from the family home in Sherman on the weekends to visit her sisters for sporting events, dinners at Texas Pickup Café and other fun outings. When it came time for Becky to make her own decision on where to go to college, UNT seemed a logical choice. She was interested in helping people with disabilities, which eventually led her to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in speech pathology and audiology followed by a career in speech pathology working with Denton ISD, Denton State School and University of Texas at Dallas, among other places.

“UNT gave me a foundational base to a bunch of different beginnings of knowledge in my field,” Becky says.

As much as the Nurre sisters were proud of their own degrees, they were even more elated when their mom, Jerre, decided to attend UNT. After watching her daughters excel in college, Jerre felt the pull to finally get her own degree in English in 1998. Since her husband, Ted, would drive her to campus, he signed up to audit classes on WWII history. Having served in that war himself, Ted offered unique, primary source perspective for his classmates.

“My mom always instilled in us that education was important,” Becky says. “It wasn’t if you are going to college, but when. So for her to be able to receive a degree herself was significant.” — Heather Noel

Read more about the Nurre family. northtexan.unt.edu/birds-feather

from Southern writers in the last three decades. A professor in Texas Tech University’s creative writing program, he has written five books of poetry.

2003 MELANIE GIBSON (M.S.), Fort Worth, wrote Kicking and Screaming: A Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts about how she overcame her struggles with mental illness through practicing taekwondo. She has worked in the health care industry since 2004, with roles as a hospital librarian, corporate trainer and learning designer.

2005 KARA SCHECTMAN, Dallas, joined the Benchmark Income Group as its marketing director. She was elected to the board of directors for the Dallas chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and recently was awarded the Pegasus Pro of the Year and named to the 40 under 40 list.

2007 SHON JOSEPH (M.Ed.), DeSoto, principal of DeSoto High School, has been named Outstanding Principal of the Year by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals and will vie for the national title that will be announced in July 2022. Shon earned his master’s in educational leadership and administration from UNT through a Southwest Securities Communities Foundation of Texas Superintendent Certification Scholarship.

2013 SEAN MURPHY (M.M. ’19 D.M.A.), Cleveland, Ohio, is the owner of Murphy Music Press, which has published saxophone and wind ensemble compositions since 2012. “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band performed the premiere of one of its publications, Fanfare Politeia by Kimberly K. Archer, during the 2021 Presidential Inauguration Ceremony. Sean is an assistant professor of arts management and entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University.

2014 ARIA BELL, Dallas, is a public relations consultant for AT&T. She also is project manager for ColorComm, an organization for women of color to congregate and network.

2015 KELLY CHERMACK, Frisco, passed the Texas State Bar in May 2020 and accepted a position at Fears Nachawati Law Firm. During law school at Texas Tech, Kelly was director of negotiations for the Board of Barristers and competed in various advocacy competitions. During her final year in law school, Kelly received the American Bankruptcy Institute Medal of Excellence.

2016 LYANNE ALVARADO, St. Louis, joined the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the administrative department as part of its Voices Fund. She previously served as an assistant choir director for Vivian Field Middle School in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.

2019 GERSOM ADU, Dallas, is founder and CEO of the newly formed company Vien Health, which bills itself as the first comprehensive virtual care solution connecting health organizations, doctors and patients across the continent of Africa with an end-to-end electronic health record (EHR) system. While at UNT, Gersom was a Terry Scholar and a computer

SOUP’S ON!

Following her retirement, Lori McLain

(’82) decided to take a chance and enter a recipe contest.

She wasn’t a chef by trade — McLain earned a bachelor’s in journalism with a concentration in advertising from UNT, where she was involved in the advertising club and student advertising competitions. After graduation, she spent her career in the advertising industry.

Still, McLain managed to win that recipe contest, and the free trip that came with it. Since then, she’s been on a competitive — and rather tasty — culinary journey that has taken her to the World Food Championships, the biggest competition in food sport. This year, she won.

“I am a foodie and love to try new fun food while traveling and at festivals,” McLain says. “It’s fun to develop recipes using bits and pieces of great foodie experiences.” — Danielle Zachariah

Read more about McLain, and check out her Mean Green chili recipe. northtexan.unt.edu/soups

CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS

Mean Green Pride

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1QUINN TYLER LILLEY IS ALREADY showing off her Mean Green style. Quinn, pictured at three months, was born May 2021 to Marcy Bishop-Lilley (’16 M.F.A.), who is a career development specialist supporting the College of Visual Arts and Design and the College of Music.

2JACOB FLORES (’14) PROPOSED to Andrea Plum (’16, ’21 M.Ed.) on the downtown square before attending the Homecoming football game last year. They met on Bumble, but Andrea said it was pictures of him traveling to UNT games that caught her eye. “Our first conversation on Bumble involved discussing the football team in great length,” she says. “The first text he ever sent me was ‘North,’ to which I smiled and responded ‘Texas.’”

3MORGAN MCTYRE, 5 — CLASS of 2038 — participated in a clinic with the North Texas Dancers and performed the routine at a men’s basketball game in February. Her mother is Sophilia McTyre (’09), assistant director for the TRIO Talent Search. engineering major. He then went on to work with companies such as Microsoft, CDW, NTT Data and Huntsman.

LINDSAY POPE (D.M.A.), Williamsburg, Mass., won the Julius Herford Dissertation Prize for outstanding doctoral terminal research project in choral music — making her the first UNT student to win the prestigious honor. Her dissertation, “Beyond the Binary: The Intersection of Gender and Cross-Cultural Identity in Reena Esmail’s Life and Choral Works,” also was recognized with the 2019 Toulouse Dissertation Award in the Fine Arts field by UNT’s Toulouse Graduate School. She is visiting director of choral activities at Williams College.

2020 CINTIA ORTIZ, Washington, D.C., is an Environmental Justice Fellow with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), where she assists with the management of LULAC’s environmental justice portfolio. While at UNT, she was active in Future Without Poverty, the We Mean Green Fund Committee, the Geography Student Association and Phi Sigma Pi Honor fraternity.

CLARISSA REDWINE, New York City, has produced a podcast about the first tech union in U.S. history, Kickstarter United. The project was part of her fellowship at the New York University School of Law.