The University of Vermont Magazine, Fall 2021

Fixing Phosphorus

In the Lake Champlain Basin, UVM scientists seek solutions to a global paradox

Vermont’s New Americans• Trees of Knowledge

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Olfactory Virtual Reality Tales from Twitter FA L L 2021

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President's Perspective The Green Catamount Sports New Knowledge UVM People: Randall F. Holcombe, MD Director, UVM Cancer Center

Class Notes Extra Credit

FEATURES

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RESETTLED IN VERMONT

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FIXING PHOSPHORUS

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How an unlikely corner of the world is taking holistic approaches to resettlement efforts, welcoming New Americans and refugees into opportunities in New England. | BY KAITIE CATANIA

A blessing and a burden, phosphorus takes UVM researchers from land to lake in search of better ways to balance one of life’s essential elements. | BY JOSHUA BROWN

STORY CORES

A good story goes a long way, but the stories within trees can tell a good deal about a long way back— and inform our future under a changing climate. | BY JOSHUA BROWN

WHAT THE NOSE KNOWS From cocktail aromas to breathy bowls of dirt, Sarah Socia ’17 taps the powerful properties of scent to create more immersive and mindful olfactory virtual realties. | BY KAITIE CATANIA

COVER: Don’t be fooled by these choppy waters. On hot, still summer days, Lake Champlain’s Missisquoi Bay can grow thick with algae blooms, triggered by a layer of phosphorus that coats the bottom of the bay. Research technician Saul Blocher comes out here every week to check water samples and clean equipment helping scores of Vermont researchers improve water quality. Today, he’s brought PhD student Katelynn Warner and one seasick photographer with him.

Photo by Joshua Brown

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The best show in Vermont returned for another season, dotting the Green Mountains with bright bursts of gold, red, and orange foliage this fall. If peak color seemed to arrive later and last longer this year, it’s because it did. According to the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, “This year’s foliage season was deliciously slow and made more gradual in part because of a lack of frost, but the lengthened growing season caused by climate change also contributes to these extended foliage conditions.”

Photo by Sam Yang

| PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

Fulfilling Our Land-Grant Mission Like most of our state, UVM resumed on-site operations earlier this fall. I am proud of our students who stepped up to reach 100% compliance with UVM’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement.

Together with Vermont’s highest-in-the-nation vaccination rate, and indoor masking, I am confident our campus will remain one of the safest and healthiest anywhere.

The pandemic continues to test our resilience. Fortunately, the ingenuity of people at UVM and throughout the state made sure that our important land-grant mission of supporting the citizens, businesses, entrepreneurs, and communities across the Green Mountain State not only continued over the past year, but also gained momentum. As one of our three strategic imperatives, our service to Vermont is visible in more ways than ever before.

Stronger Connections, Deeper Roots UVM is forming stronger connections with employers and entrepreneurs through our Office of Engagement—a one-stop shop for all things UVM. The engagement team has connected with more than 365 businesses in its inaugural year. Many have formed partnerships with the university centered on research, internships, and hiring our grads.

UVM has projects with enterprises from all over the state including Seventh Generation, Global Foundries, Casella, Cabot/ AgriMark, Agilent, National Life, Benchmark Space Systems, and Ben & Jerry’s. In the nonprofit sector, the Office of Engagement helped leverage air purification upgrades in 22 of Vermont’s public libraries, making them safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’m particularly proud of a UVM partnership launched last summer with the state, Upskill Vermont. The program provided Vermonters with $1 million worth of UVM professional development courses and workshops focused on rapidly growing professions in health care, digital marketing, management, and community support. Classes filled up in 24 hours, a sure sign that Vermonters are eager to master new skills and brush up on old ones.

Talent Magnet A complementary need for economic growth is a talented, highly educated workforce. UVM’s innovative, creative, and ambitious grads—in high demand throughout the US—already constitute a major part of Vermont’s workforce and they are poised to become the leaders and business owners of the next generation.

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Each year more than one thousand UVM graduates choose to stay in the state to begin their careers, families, and lives. Over half come to UVM from other states. During their time on campus, they learn about opportunities through internships and summer jobs, grow fond of Vermont’s exciting outdoor lifestyle, and can’t imagine starting their career anywhere else.

Perpetual Stimulus Finally, there is the overall economic activity of the university’s operations. This “ongoing stimulus” comes in the form of direct spending on employees, programs, and buildings in addition to the indirect economic impact of 13,500-plus UVM students who make Burlington their home for four years or more.

Our commitment to Vermont is even part of our diet. The Vermont First program, with its emphasis on locally sourced food, buys between $1 million and $2 million worth of produce, meat, dairy, and other ingredients from ninety-five Vermont farms and producers every year.

UVM simply couldn’t achieve its mission without the help of Vermont’s farmers, manufacturers, suppliers, skilled craftspeople, and many other entrepreneurs. A 2016 external study found the total financial impact of UVM in Vermont is more than $1.3 billion each year, a significant figure for our state and region.

What’s Old Is New I talk frequently with Vermonters from across the state and beyond who ask: what’s new at UVM? What’s new is our students are back and more excited than ever. Our university is reaching out in powerful new ways to help Vermont’s citizens and businesses. We are enthusiastically leaning into our heritage as Vermont’s land-grant university, recognizing that the success of the state is inextricably linked to the success of UVM. In many ways, we are more committed to Vermont than ever before in our 230-year history.

We’re always looking for new ways to engage with Vermont and Vermonters. Please share your ideas with us at engageUVM@uvm.edu.

—Suresh V. Garimella President, University of Vermont

ANDY DUBACK

UVM MAGAZINE

PUBLISHER The University of Vermont Suresh V. Garimella, President

EDITORIAL BOARD Joel R. Seligman, Chief Communications Officer, chair Krista Balogh, Joshua Brown, Ed Neuert, Rebecca Stazi, Ben Yousey-Hindes EDITORS Joshua Brown Kaitie Catania ART DIRECTOR Cody Silfies CLASS NOTES EDITOR Benjamin Yousey-Hindes PROOFREADER Rita Daley CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joshua Brown, Kaitie Catania, Kevin Coburn, Christina Davenport, Nich Hall, Ed Neuert, Katherine Strotmeyer, Thomas Weaver, Benjamin Yousey-Hindes PHOTOGRAPHY Joshua Brown, Ned Castle, Ben DeFlorio, Chris Dissinger, Andy Duback, Sally McCay, Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist ’09, Glenn Russell, James Stukenberg, Sam Yang CORRESPONDENCE Editor, UVM Magazine 617 Main Street Burlington, VT 05405 (802) 656-2005, magazine@uvm.edu ADDRESS CHANGES UVM Foundation 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-9662, alumni@uvm.edu CLASS NOTES alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes UVM MAGAZINE Publishes May 1, November 1 PRINTED IN VERMONT Issue No. 90, November 2021 UVM MAGAZINE ONLINE uvm.edu/uvmmag instagram.com/universityofvermont twitter.com/uvmvermont facebook.com/universityofvermont youtube.com/universityofvermont

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YOU SHOULD KNOW

Those eyes are actually owl eyes—that’s why it looks so freaky.”

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— Sonia DeYoung G’17 Curatorial associate for the University of Vermont Natural History Museum

Having fascinated generations of students, this catamount has been part of UVM’s natural history collections since at least 1898. Art history and museum studies major Sabi Ward ’24 and professional conservator Lisa Goldberg take it out of a cabinet in Marsh Life Science to be x-rayed and cleaned—part of a major restoration of UVM’s historic taxidermy collection. See page 8.

FOURTH FREEZE The UVM Board of Trustees approved President Garimella’s proposal to freeze tuition for a fourth consecutive year, cumulatively saving in-state four-year graduates of the Class of 2023 $4,500 and $8,900 for out-of-state students. Also approved: frozen room and board charges for a third consecutive year and undergraduate comprehensive fees, and a $250 reduction of graduate comprehensive fees.

366 DAYS LATER Work on Larner College of Medicine’s new state-of-the-art biomedical research center may have unceremoniously begun on September 29, 2020, but there’s always been a watchful eye on it. A timelapse video catches the seasons change over a growing Firestone Medical Research Building. See page 7.

BEST EVER

RESEARCH ON THE RISE

A special thirtieth edition of the Princeton Review identifies UVM among the nation’s top 387 colleges, naming it to two of their twenty-six “Great Lists”—Most Loved Colleges and Great College City—comprised of institutions with historically impressive appearances on the annual rankings over time.

University of Vermont faculty attracted $227 million in total extramural support for research over the last fiscal year—a new all-time high in UVM’s history, helping build a healthy world and sustainable future. The total number of awards faculty received rose significantly, from 680 the year prior to 906.

TANGO TOWERS ON CAMPUS At 14 feet high, 10 feet wide, and 24 feet long, David Stromeyer’s “Tango” comes from Cold Hollow Sculpture Park to campus as the university’s latest addition of public art. Settled on the green outside UVM’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Complex, “This is a place to stop and ponder the intersection of art, nature, and science,” President Suresh Garimella said at the ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony to former President Thomas Sullivan this summer.

LEFT: JOSHUA BROWN; ABOVE: IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST

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Back-to-Back Commencements Bring us back to fall traditions CAMPUS LIFE | An unprecedented thirteen different commencement ceremonies were held on campus between May and August to celebrate students of not just one, but two UVM classes that graduated in the face of a pandemic. COVID-19 precautions spread the Class of 2021’s commencement out across eleven different ceremonies, while another two welcomed back graduates of the Class of 2020 to return and to cross the stage.

“Our emphasis is on celebrating our students,” said UVM President Suresh Garimella to the Class of 2021. “They have been through a trying fourteen months and met the challenge with flying colors.

We are very proud of each and every one of them and salute their accomplishment.”

In total, 3,347 degrees were conferred upon graduates of the Class of 2021— including 2,685 bachelors, 435 masters, 117 doctoral, and 110 medical degrees— who hail from 41 states and 131 foreign countries. An estimated 800 alumni from the Class of 2020 returned to campus mid-August to take part in the pomp and

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circumstance alongside their classmates and families at two commencement ceremonies that signaled a sense of closure.

“This virus has taken everything from us. I am just so proud that the administration and the alumni house came through and gave the Class of 2020 what they deserve,” said Riri Nyria Stuart Thompson ’20 of Philadelphia in an interview with WCAX-TV. Back to Fall Traditions And just days later—after a not-so-typical year—the happily chaotic stream of students and families, lines of cars, and clusters of bins and boxes strewn across campus were a sight for sore eyes on what’s known as Move-in Day for the incoming class.

The newest Catamounts that make up the Class of 2025 are the most academically talented and the largest class in UVM’s history. Increased interest in UVM, coupled with a strong yield rate (the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll), helps account for the growth. Total under-

graduate applications increased by 38 percent this year compared to last year, making these 2,932 first-time, first-year undergraduate students also among the most selective admits in more than thirty years.

For Honors College student and London native Jamie Dixon, an early arrival for International Student Orientation offered him the chance to get acquainted with campus before the rest of his classmates descended for Move-in Day. “Last night we went to get creemees by the lake which was really nice—the name was a weird one, but I really liked it.”

On the eve of the first day classes, UVM’s newest Catamounts convened on the Andrew Harris Commons for a special Convocation ceremony alongside the Class of 2024. Led by President Suresh Garimella, the ceremony (above) welcomed students to the UVM community and officially ushered in a new academic year while the Green twinkled with the candlelight of thousands of eager students for the first time since 2019.

ANDY DUBACK

Fast Forward for Firestone Research A groundbreaking like no other for UVM’s latest biomedical facility

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5% Retention rate among public institutions in the US

25.5K+ Undergraduate applications received this year

93% Of grads between 2017-19 employed or continuing their education six months after graduating

BEN DEFLORIO

MEDICINE | The pandemic put most large Vermont construction projects in a sudden deep-freeze in the spring and summer of 2020 and, for a brief period of time, it seemed the university’s plans for the new Firestone Medical Research Building would also be delayed.

But the value of biomedical research, paired with the vast pool of local construction talent suddenly idled, made finding a path forward for the project more imperative than ever.

Which is why, with many activities at UVM originating remotely in the fall of 2020, one corner of the campus on the southern end of the medical complex came alive with in-person activity, as South Burlington-based PC Construction began digging Firestone’s foundations and erecting its steel frame. The outdoor nature of the first phase of construction fit well with pandemic precautions, and gave a muchneeded lift to the local construction trades at a time when such jobs were scarce. All told, over 90 percent of the work on the Firestone building will be performed by Vermonters.

The building will be equipped with approximately 150 laboratory bench stations, with the capacity to house 225 personnel, in addition to the numerous graduate and undergraduate students who will participate in research and learning in its labs.

Besides “wet” benches, Firestone will contain a significant amount of “dry lab” space for analysis and bioinformatic research.

The ground floor of the four-story structure will house the UVM Center for Biomedical Shared Resources, a core facility that supports researchers from across UVM and other state institutions and businesses. That cen-

ter is supported by a $5.47 million National Institutes of Health grant.

The Firestone building is named in honor of the parents of the lead philanthropic donor to the project, Steve Firestone, MD, a graduate of the Larner College of Medicine Class of 1969. Dr. Firestone’s gift is part of the $10.7 million already pledged toward the $20 million fundraising goal for the building, whose total cost is estimated at $45 million in total.

On September 30, nearly one year to the day since the first bulldozer rolled into place, the UVM community came together—masked— adjacent to the construction site in Larner’s Hoehl Gallery, to hold an out-of-sequence ceremonial groundbreaking. Participants witnessed the ritual of shiny shovels turning over earth, and heard UVM leaders and faculty celebrate the opportunity for research growth that the already half-finished structure will provide.

The Larner College of Medicine garnered over $99 million of UVM’s record-breaking $227 million in total extramural research funding for fiscal year 2021.

“In one fell swoop you have helped us satisfy our strategic imperatives,” said President Garimella while addressing Dr. Firestone directly during the event.

“This beautiful building has taken shape,” added Larner Dean Richard L. Page, MD, “And, thanks to biomedical research leading to vaccines, we are able celebrate this construction—finally—here together.”

The Firestone Medical Research Building is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2022 and fully occupied in early 2023.

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Timeless Taxidermy Collection Breathes in New Life

Under a portable x-ray machine, a stuffed nineteenthcentury catamount reveals a complete skull and the hidden wires and wood that hold the specimen together.

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LIFE SCIENCES | Sophie Feldman ’22 gently reaches out with a soft brush and dabs the tail feathers of a magnificent duck. It sits perfectly still. In fact, it’s been sitting still for decades, collecting dust in the lobby of Benedict Auditorium alongside other remarkable, but neglected, taxidermy creatures and birds that extend back to at least the 1850s.

The specimens include an extinct passenger pigeon, a poached Canadian polar bear seized at US Customs in the 1970s, and a mountain lion held by UVM since the nineteenth century—all getting dusted off.

“This is a king eider,” Feldman says.

“We’re working our way through this entire cabinet, cleaning all these birds.” Feldman spent much of the summer vacuuming feathers, reglueing feet, and examining mounts under an x-ray machine—to restore this display and other parts of the UVM Natural History Museum’s collection.

The project is a labor of love co-led by UVM staffer and alumna of UVM’s Field Naturalist Program Sonia DeYoung ’17, who admires the collection. In collaboration with UVM faculty, she successfully applied for a restoration grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Under the careful hands of conservator Lisa Goldberg and Shelburne Museum expert

Nancie Ravenel, the pieces have been examined, catalogued, cleaned, and fixed.

“This is a complex and important collection,” says Feldman, who is aiming for a career in museums. “We’d like it to be around for hundreds of years to come.”

In an era of unstable ecosystems and declining biodiversity, there is a growing recognition that natural history collections provide an irreplaceable record of the past that helps scientists better understand the present.

A few days later, Goldberg climbs into one of the glass cabinets and picks up the collection’s slightly bedraggled-looking mountain lion. It’s carefully eased under a portable x-ray machine, operated by UVM cardiology research technician Steve Bell, for a look inside.

This catamount has been an object of fascination for generations of students. “Those eyes are actually owl eyes—that’s why it looks so freaky,” explains DeYoung. It’s also historically and scientifically important. Records show it was part of UVM’s collections at Torrey Hall before 1898.

“This is an extinct animal,” Lisa Goldberg says, referring to the 2018 declaration extirpating the mountain lion (or catamount) from the northeastern US. When asked what she finds most gratifying about doing taxidermy restoration, she pauses a moment. “Bringing things back to life,” she says.

JOSHUA BROWN

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Q U E S T I O N S

families. If we don’t do that, if we don’t give them those tools, then we give them every reason in the world to choose not to be here. It’s not about just talking, it’s about doing and I think that opportunity is here, which is why I’m excited to be here.

This work isn’t for the faint of heart—how did you get into this field?

What keeps you going?

AMER: I grew up in Ohio with Muslim parents who were immigrants from India. I went to a public high school where most people didn’t go to college, in an environment that was either white or black, and I was neither. I studied abroad in South Africa on a campus in Durban, which has the largest Indian population outside of India, during the Truth and Reconciliation process when Nelson Mandela was president. I suddenly had a racial place between this dynamic of white and black University of Vermont welcomed its new Vice Provost for Diversity, where people had grown up in complete racial segregation.

They didn’t know how to socialize with one another, didn’t Equity, and Inclusion Amer Ahmed to campus this summer. With an EdD know how to talk to one another, didn’t know how to interact. in Adult and Higher Education from the University of South Dakota, he It was incredibly foreign to them, and I was there with three brings nearly 20 years of experience developing strategies and support other Americans—two were black and one was white—and we for diverse constituencies at institutions including Dickinson College; would walk around together looking like a diversity advertiseUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst; and University of Michigan. ment for the new South Africa.

That shaped me, inspired me, and motivated me as I continued with cultural anthropology Use the and Black studies and became an administrator. camera on Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in instiyour phone or tablet to read a vice provost for diversity, tutions was kind of my method, my outlet, to conlonger version of nect more broadly with students while working to equity, and inclusion this interview. show them ways we can learn and understand one another, how that can shape us, influence us, and impact and define what we do with our lives— What excites you about the work to be done at UVM? What because I was one of those students. tangible changes are you looking forward to seeing on campus?

Word on campus is that you’re also pretty talented with spoken AMER: For as many challenges as I see, I also see progress. I word poetry and hip-hop. Is that true? was from a generation of apathy where most people around me didn’t care about social issues, didn’t care about what was going AMER: I first started writing when I was in South Africa where on in other parts of the world, didn’t care about people’s expe- I was just experiencing so much, processing so much, and I had riences that were very different from their own. With this gen- no other outlet. There was, in my generation, a climate of peoeration, generally they do care, and that creates a completely ple who were starting to express themselves in those ways. I was different opportunity for the change we can make in the world. shaped and influenced by the time, when suddenly this slam I think higher education is a unique vehicle for us to be able to poetry scene was emerging. Part of what I started to think about do that and, at the University of Vermont, there are opportuni- was how do I support voices but also, practically, how do we ties for us to cultivate students and alumni to enact it. We have translate these messages into action? As I engaged the hip-hop a lot of good intentions, we have a lot of things we’d like to do, activist community, I heard a lot of people with great messages and I don’t think we have fully harnessed what we have. but they weren’t always walking the walk in what they were One of the things that we’re going to do is create a cultural doing, or it wasn’t translating into anything concrete or opporresource guide for prospective and current faculty, staff, and tunities for people who were doing that work to make concrete students to know what’s here in this community and what’s change. It was through the hip-hop activist movement that I available to them. Most people don’t expect an entire com- started speaking to my generation about creating change. Once munity to be oriented around them, but they do look for the I started working on these campuses, what could be more effecthings they need to make it work for themselves and for their tive than using hip-hop in getting students engaged or active?

Amer F. Ahmed

IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST

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Assistant Professor Terry Bradshaw leads representatives visiting from USDA/ARS on a tour of the University of Vermont’s Horticulture Research 10 | U V M M A G A Z I N E and Education Center in South Burlington.

Tag-teaming Vermont’s Food Systems and Small Farms Together under one roof on campus, UVM researchers and USDA scientists will explore state agriculture FOOD SYSTEMS | This fall, leaders from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) toured the new home of the Food Systems Research Center at the University of Vermont. In collaboration with UVM, the center will bring together UVM researchers and USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) scientists to explore all facets of Vermont’s food systems—from production agriculture to food security—with a focus on small- and medium-sized farms, all under one roof.

This is the first and only ARS research unit designed specifically to study diversified food systems and small farms’ contributions to those systems, says Leslie Parise, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“We are proud to be leading this work at UVM and believe there is much the rest of the world can learn from the successful small and medium sized farms that characterize Vermont agriculture,” Parise said.

The tour follows a June announcement from US Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and UVM leaders that $11 million of federal funding would support the Food Systems Research Center, established in 2019 with help from Leahy. “We’ve always relied on our local food systems in our state. Farms are an economic driver for our rural communities and local food is a defining feature of Vermont. We must continue to cultivate our food systems so our state can thrive and weather future emergencies. We must also ensure that it is equitable and accessible to all,” Leahy said at the time.

“I am excited to see that this important collaboration continues to take shape,” said UVM President Suresh Garimella. “This partnership with ARS builds on UVM’s emphasis on sustainability, health and environment, and it illustrates the positive and lasting impact that research and collaboration can have on our society.

Having dedicated space on our central campus to promote that collaboration is an important element.”

The UVM/ARS Food Systems Research Center will be located in the Joseph L. Hills Agricultural Science Building, following a transformative 18-month renovation project beginning January 2022.

GLENN RUSSELL

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A Reimagined Fleming Museum

The morning of September 21, Honors College students in professor Abigail McGowan’s sophomore seminar “Visualizing History: India” were among the first to fill the Fleming’s hallways once again upon its reopening.

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ART | Staff at the Fleming Museum greeted guests and visitors to its collection this fall for the first time in months, signaling a return to normalcy following a global lockdown. But for the Fleming, it was also an opportunity to show how the institution is reimagining itself in light of events over the past eighteen months, including the death of George Floyd and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We’ve used the time to present work, most of it already in the museum’s collection, in ways that we hope will create conversations about important issues,” said Assistant Director Chris Dissinger.

The result: “The Fleming Reimagined: Confronting Institutional Racism and Historical Oppression,” on view until December 10.

Today, Dissinger says, many art and history

museums are in the process of squarely facing their colonial pasts. “What’s commonplace is that a lot of museums will host an exhibition of a BIPOC artist.

We felt like we could do that, but it would only be a temporary and superficial response.”

Now, the first-floor East Gallery’s “Learning Studio” introduces visitors to works of BIPOC artists, labeled with commentary by museum staff or artists themselves that lean into gut reactions.

It also includes seldom-seen works from the museum’s collection, as well as space for visitors to engage in conversation about the work.

In the European and American gallery, guests may notice a missing portrait by Thomas Hudson.

Dissinger points to the original label extolling its subject, Anne Isted, as a self-made woman in the mid-1700s wealthy enough to have her portrait CHRIS DISSINGER

Grossman Challenge Moves the Needle with $18.8 Million in Support for Business Students

The Family, 1975 (detail) Romare Bearden (American, 1911–1988) Color etching and aquatint on paper, 20 x 26 ‘‘ © 2021 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

painted. “What the label didn’t point out was that her fortune came from enslavement,” he said.

“Absence” represents a historical reckoning for the museum, featuring new labels that occupy the empty spaces where problematic portraits once hung.

Eventually, paintings by a wider diversity of artists will replace them.

In the Wolcott Gallery, “The Storytelling Salon” shares staff reflections on their year of learning, accompanied by fresh works from BIPOC artists and a ring of comfortable chairs that invite open discussion.

“Building trust by acknowledging those past failures, and making space for true collaboration with new voices, is the first building block to a reimagined Fleming Museum,” he said.

SALLY MCCAY

BUSINESS | If the Grossman School of Business were a publicly traded company, right now would be a great time to add some of its stock to your portfolio. There has been a sharp uptick in national and international recognition for the school in recent years as it has continued to enhance and expand academic programs, thanks in no small part to philanthropic investment.

Since 2013, the Grossman Family Foundation, founded by alumnus Steven Grossman ’61, has contributed $25 million to the UVM school that now bears the Grossman name. The commitments include two matching gift challenges totaling $15 million to support endowed funds at the Grossman School and the construction of Ifshin Hall, a 30,000-square-foot expansion to the school that opened in 2018. More than 350 donors stepped forward, committing $18.8 million to complete the most recent challenge ahead of the June 30, 2021 deadline.

Donors supported a range of key areas, including the Ifshin Hall project (below), four endowed faculty positions, twenty-seven endowed scholarship funds for undergraduate and graduate students, and academic programs and student services endowments.

Philanthropic investment has enabled the Grossman School to put an emphasis on experiential learning opportunities like internships, networking events, case competitions, business pitch competitions, industry panels, speaker series, and study abroad. Perhaps most importantly, donor support has affected students’ bottom line, helping to make the Grossman School a viable option for more families and allowing students to graduate with less debt.

“I have always said that I have a soft spot in my heart for UVM, for the education I received at the business school,” said Steven Grossman. “And now I am witnessing its ascent, with the extraordinary support of fellow alumni and friends, toward the upper echelons of world-class business programs. I look forward to seeing the school reach new heights year after year.”

The Grossman School is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a mark of excellence attained by only 5 percent of business programs worldwide. Princeton Review has repeatedly ranked the school among the top 50 business schools for graduate entrepreneurship studies and a top “green MBA” program in the US.

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Slip Slide Hillside At a Waterbury landslide, scientists build knowledge to better predict the next big one

In a warming world, more rain will hit Vermont.

And that means bigger landslides.

Undergrad Grant Long ’22 and Professor Keith Klepeis are part of a team hunting for hazards.

Use the camera on your phone or tablet to watch a video with Professor Keith Klepeis.

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ENVIRONMENT | One day at the end of May, in 2019, in the Mount Mansfield State Forest outside of Waterbury, twelve acres of hillside gave way and fell into Cotton Brook. This landslide, three hundred feet high, wiped out the Foster Trail, and dumped tons of silt into the brook. In turn, the silt washed down into Waterbury Reservoir, clogging it with a large muddy delta. Two years later, on a grey August morning, UVM geologist Keith Klepeis stands at the bottom of the still-raw slope amidst a vertiginous web of destroyed trees, bent and snapped into piles like gigantic splinters.

“Landslides happen all the time. But this is a big slip,” he says, probably the largest in Vermont in forty years.

And, Klepeis’s research shows, they’re becoming more common and more powerful as the climate changes.

“We’re seeing more rainfall and bigger storms,” he says.

“We want to know more about how this kind of slide happens; it’s not well understood.” This collapse caught people by surprise and it was only by luck that no hikers went down with the trees.

He’s there with a team including Grant Long ’22, one his undergraduate students; Vermont state geologist Jonathan Kim; Julia Boyles of the Vermont Geological Survey; Norwich University researcher George Springston; three drone pilots from the state’s Agency of Transportation; and Julie Moore, Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources. They’d all like to know how likely it is that this slide will slide again—and where else in the state to watch out for rocks, or whole hillsides, that might tumble. To

help, the scientists, with funding from FEMA, are studying the complex layers, and forces at work— and developing maps and models of how this landslide happened. “We want to measure the exact geometry here, which points toward the mechanisms. And that will help land managers understand the risks. Then we go onto the next place,” Klepeis says, building toward a comprehensive understanding across the state. “What aspects of this event are transferable?” wonders Klepeis, a professor for twenty-one years in UVM’s geology department, soon to join the newly proposed Department of Geography and Geosciences. He and his colleagues know that part of what happened here was a bit like the top of a tipped-over layer cake sliding on icing underneath.

Fourteen thousand years ago, around the time the vast Laurentide ice sheet melted northward, this site was under water, near the shores of Glacial Lake Winooski. It left behind fine-grained lake-bottom silt and clay. On this 28-degree forested slope, this layer under the topsoil creates what the geologists call a “vulnerable slide surface.”

“It might have happened in seconds,” says Klepeis, “you wouldn’t haven’t wanted to be here when it came thundering down.” Which is why he and the rest of the researchers have, cautiously, come back here, collaborating with the State of Vermont, to build the knowledge and advanced tools needed to better predict where the earth will move and when to get out of the way.

JOSHUA BROWN

| BOOKS + MEDIA

A History of ALA Policy on Intellectual Freedom ALA Edition, 2021 Co-Edited by Trina Haji Have you ever wondered how or why a particular book made its way to the stacks at your local library? It turns out, the American Library Association has worked for decades to safeguard free and equal access to information for all via its Intellectual Freedom Manual.

Supplemental to the manual’s new tenth edition, co-edited by Howe Library Professor Trina Haji, “A History of ALA Policy on Intellectual Freedom”—also co-edited by Haji—explores the rich history of the fight against censorship and protection of the right to read by libraries as far back as World War I. It covers topics including library advocacy on social and political issues, the complicated past of libraries’ history with race and discrimination, and the new frontier of digital information.

Vermont’s Ebenezer Allen: Patriot, Commando and Emancipator Arcadia, The History Press, 2021

By Glenn Fay ’76, G’98 Born in a time of political instability, Ebenezer Allen matured during the tipping point of the American Revolution. Unlike his better-known cousins Ethan or Ira, Ebenezer was a skilled commando and combat veteran, a leader who personified patriotism.

Historian and Vermont native Glenn Fay ’76 G’98 recounts how Colonel Allen went on to become the forefather and elected legislator of two towns, and one of the most prominent men in Vermont in his latest Vermont’s Ebenezer Allen: Patriot, Commando and Emancipator.

How to Be a Farmer: An Ancient Guide to Life on the Land Princeton University Press, 2021

By M. D. Usher ’92

Thirty-seven Guernica Editions, 2021

By Joy Cohen G’03 In her debut fiction novel, award-winning playwright and non-fiction author Joy Cohen G’03 revisits a seemingly underrated year and uncovers events and developments that made it a quite interesting time. The book follows a small-town reporter ready for a change as she “sets out on an unintended journey, stumbling upon story after story that for some reason—coincidence? fate?—all occurred in 1937.”

“Think Cloud Atlas meets Eat Pray Love,” the publisher says. From the Green Mountains to the remote islands of Papua New Guinea, 37 comprises nine short stories “written” by the main character, all based in historically accurate events, true and inspired, from around the world in 1937.

But why the year 1937? “That’s when Amelia Earhart disappeared. That’s when the Golden Gate Bridge was started in San Francisco. It was the year of the first Tibetan soccer team—there are just so many random, but amazing stories that happened in 1937,” Cohen says.

Whether you farm or garden, live in the country or long to move there, or simply enjoy an occasional rural retreat, M. D. Usher ’92, Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and faculty of the geography department, offers a delightful cornucopia of writings about living and working on the land, harvested from the fertile fields of ancient Greek and Roman literature. An inspiring antidote to the digital age, How to Be a Farmer evokes the beauty and bounty of nature with a rich mixture of philosophy, practical advice, history, and humor. Together, these timeless reflections on what the Greeks called boukolika and the Romans res rusticae provide an entertaining and enlightening guide to a more meaningful and sustainable way of life.

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| C ATA M O U N T S P O R T S

Vermont Hockey Showcased on the World Stage Catamounts from near and far skate on to the Stanley Cup Final and Women’s World Championships

Story by Nich Hall In game five of the Stanley Cup Final, Ross Colton ’18 of the Tampa Bay Lightning became the first in the history of Vermont’s men’s hockey to score the winning goal and clinch the cup.

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In the untraditional times of COVID-19, Vermont’s hockey program found a silver lining in the summer of 2021, with coaching staffs watching, current and former Catamounts took to the world’s stage to face off in premier sporting events. For men’s hockey, the start of their summer success story begins back on one special day in February, when alumnus Dominique Ducharme ’95 was named Interim Head Coach of the Montreal Canadiens—and later that night, alumnus Ross Colton ’18 became the 18th player in Vermont’s program history to play with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He scored a goal less than seven minutes into his first game. A sign of good things to come.

And it doesn’t get much better or bigger than the Stanley Cup Final for hockey players. The 2021 championship between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning brought the two alumni together around the ice. Under Ducharme’s tutelage, the Canadiens advanced to the Stanley Cup Final by defeating Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vegas as the underdog in each series. With Colton on the ice, the Tampa Bay Lightning advanced to

the championship series with five points in the playoffs. The battle of Catamount alumni was settled in game five of the best-of-seven series by Colton scoring the Stanley Cup clinching goal— something no rookie had done since 1927 in the championship final.

“While I have only spent brief time with each of these two gentlemen, I can tell you that their own pride in the green and gold is apparent,” said men’s hockey head coach Todd Woodcroft. “Of course, I will use their names when recruiting alongside all the other accomplished players that have worn our jersey.”

“For a player, the National Hockey League is the ultimate dream, it is the one thing that every young player around the world aspires to,” continued Woodcroft. “And then for Ross to score the game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Final? That is what every young girl and boy hockey player has desired since they first started skating.”

The women’s hockey program kept the momentum going in August when—at the 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championships in Alberta, Canada—four current GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY NHL

U V M AT H L E T I C S . C O M | T H E L AT E S T N E W S and former student-athletes battled it out on the ice wearing international jerseys.

For the Czech Republic: Sammy Kolowrat ’19, Natálie Mlynková ’24, and Tynka Pátková ’24 (shown in photo below from left to right) and for Finland: Sini Karjalainen ’22. And for the current coaching staffs back in Vermont, there couldn’t have been a better advertisement for coming to Vermont and playing hockey as a Catamount.

The Czech Republic went undefeated in the preliminary round action, including a goal from Pátková, the first World Championship goal of her career. All four stepped up to the world’s stage together for another Catamount showdown in the quarterfinals, where Finland eked out a 1-0 win over the Czechs. In the end, it was Finland and Karjalainen taking home a bronze medal at the World Championship, the first medal for Karjalainen and the first for Catamounts since Amanda Pelkey ’15 took home backto-back gold for the United States in 2016 and 2017.

“Player development is such a crucial part of our program and it shows that not only can we attract players who aspire to play at the World Championships and Olympics, but help them improve and achieve their dreams,” said women’s head hockey coach Jim Plumer. “It is an amazing feeling to see our players and alums play for their national teams.”

“Since I arrived at UVM, we have made a concerted effort to recruit in Europe and that investment in overseas recruiting trips and in developing contacts with key coaches and federations has really paid off over the past few years,” said Plumer. “Those players have really impacted our culture in a positive way and it is helping us continue to attract top international players.”

The international approach is embraced by the men’s and women’s hockey programs at UVM. A glance at their 2021-22 rosters reveals nine different nations that have sent a student-athlete to Vermont’s program—Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, and Sweden.

“It truly is an international game now, long gone are the days that only certain parts of North America were producing college hockey players,” explained Woodcroft.

“The growth and popularity of the game now affords us the chance to find players from California or Kazakhstan. We will use our connections to unearth players anywhere in the world and try to recruit them to this university if they fit the identity we are aspiring to create.”

At this year’s NHL Draft, the Vermont men’s hockey program had two first-years on the current roster selected in the third round. Luca Münzenberger from Düsseldorf, Germany, was taken 90th overall by the Edmonton Oilers and Andrei Buyalsky from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, was taken 92nd overall by the Colorado Avalanche. It was the first time in program history that two players were selected in the first three rounds of the same draft.

The growing international pedigree brings in more quality international recruits to Vermont’s men and women’s programs.

“When we are recruiting international players, it really helps to have well-known alumni to talk about,” mentioned Plumer.

“Playing university sports is not common in Europe, so it is a nice way to show how important hockey is at UVM. We absolutely emphasize the success that our players are having on the international stage, and that this is a place where players can develop and be part of a truly family atmosphere.”

Vermont hockey will once again take to the international stage this winter at the 2022 Olympics. Men’s hockey head coach Todd Woodcroft will be an assistant coach with Sweden during the men’s hockey com-

“

Player development is such a crucial part of our program and it shows that not only can we attract players who aspire to play at the World Championships and Olympics, but help them improve and achieve their dreams.”

- Jim Plumer

Women’s Head Hockey Coach

petition and several Catamounts will be competing in the women’s tournament. Sini Karjalainen should be back on defense for Finland and three Catamounts qualified for the Olympics in a qualifying tournament November 11-14. Sammy Kolowrat ’19, Natálie Mlynková and Tynka Pátková finished in first place in their qualifying group in Chomutov, Czech Republic, to advance to the Olympics. It will be the Czech Republic’s first-ever Olympic appearance on the women’s side. The wave of Vermont hockey success all over the map in 2021 is set to carry one into the new year and beyond. UVM

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| NEW KNOWLEDGE

Invention: The Storywrangler How billions of tweets in the Twitterverse could forecast the future The Storywrangler visualizes the use of billions of terms posted on Twitter. In the graph above, from the tool’s online viewer, the use of the word “coronavirus” and the virus emoji rise during the spring of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe. Then, in late May of 2020, the hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” spikes dramatically in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

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For thousands of years, people looked into the night sky and told stories about the few visible stars. Then we invented telescopes. In 1840, the philosopher Thomas Carlyle claimed that “the history of the world is but the biography of great men.” Then we started posting on Twitter.

Now scientists have invented an instrument to peer deeply into the billions and billions of posts made on Twitter since 2008—and have begun to uncover the vast galaxy of stories that they contain.

“We call it the Storywrangler,” says Thayer Alshaabi, a then-doctoral student at the University of Vermont who co-led the research and is now a post-doctoral scientist at University of California, Berkley. “It’s like a telescope to look—in real time—at all this data that people share on social media. We hope people will use it themselves, in the same way you might look up at the stars and ask your own questions.”

The new tool can give an unprecedented, minute-by-minute view of popularity, from rising

political movements to box office flops; from the staggering success of K-pop to the first signs of new diseases emerging.

The story of the Storywrangler—a curation and analysis of over 150 billion tweets and some key findings—was published on July 16 in the journal Science Advances.

“

It’s important because it shows major discourses as they’re happening. It’s quantifying collective attention.”

- Jane Adams Co-author of Science Advances study on Storywrangler

Expressions of the many

Researchers from UVM, Charles River Analytics, and MassMutual Data Science gather about 10 percent of daily tweets from around the globe to power the Storywrangler.

“This is the first visualization tool that allows you to look at one-, two-, and threeword phrases, across 150 different languages, from the inception of Twitter to the present,” says Jane Adams, a co-author of the study who recently finished a three-year position as a data-visualization artist-in-residence at UVM’s Complex Systems Center.

Powered by UVM’s supercomputer at the Vermont Advanced Computing Core, the online tool provides a powerful lens for viewing and analyzing trends of words, ideas, and stories each day among people around the world. “It’s important because it shows major discourses as they’re happening,” Adams says. “It’s quantifying collective attention.”

Though Twitter does not represent all of humanity, it is used by a large and diverse group of people, which means that it “encodes popularity and spreading,” the

scientists write, giving a novel view of discourse not just of famous people, like political figures and celebrities, but also the daily “expressions of the many.”

How much a few powerful people shape the course of events has been debated for centuries. But if we knew what every peasant, soldier, shopkeeper, nurse, and teenager was saying during the French Revolution, we’d have a richly different set of stories about the rise and reign of Napoleon.

The UVM team, with support from the National Science Foundation, is using Twitter to demonstrate how chatter on distributed social media can act as a kind of global sensor system—identifying what happened, how people reacted, and what might come next.

“There’s a hashtag that’s being invented while I’m talking right now,” says UVM mathematician Chris Danforth, who co-led the creation of Storywrangler with his colleague Peter Dodds.

“We didn’t know to look for that yesterday, but it will show up in the data and become part of the story.” UVM

THE STORY ON TWITTER Storywrangler @storywrangling

Computational Story Lab @CompStoryLab

Professor Chris Danforth @ChrisDanforth

Professor Peter Dodds @PeterDodds

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UVM PEOPLE TREATING CANCER

BY COMMUNITY RANDALL F. HOLCOMBE, MD

By Katherine Strotmeyer

In August, Randall Holcombe, MD, began his tenure as the director of the UVM Cancer Center and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine and J. Walter Juckett Chair in Cancer Research.

What do 9/11 first responders, Native Hawai'ians, and Vermont’s rural populations have in common? When they get cancer, they suffer worse outcomes than the average American. Serving these kinds of communities by eliminating cancer disparities and building equity is what drives Dr. Randall Holcombe, the new Director of the University of Vermont Cancer Center.

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Dr. Holcombe— the then-newly appointed Deputy Director of New York City’s Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai—understood a troubling consequence: first responders and rescue workers would be at a higher risk of cancer, and it would be critical to think long-term about their care.

Holcombe knew Mount Sinai was the coordinating center for medical care for first responders. And yet, his proposal to the Tisch leadership team would be unconventional. Rather than focusing on geographic areas, Holcombe and researchers looked at the experiences of first responders and rescue workers, such as exposure to environmental toxins, to track the development of cancer and examine the epigenetic factors responsible. Not only was it the right thing to do from a treatment and research perspective, but it was a novel achievement. Redefining the causal area was a key factor in the cancer center’s recognition as a top center by the National Cancer Institute.

Holcombe applied similar thinking in 2016 at the University of Hawai’i, where he led a cancer center with extensive epidemiologic research focused on the local community, including Native Hawai'ians who suffer and

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succumb to cancer at markedly higher rates than others.

During his five years as director in Hawai’i, his paramount mission for the institution was eliminating cancer disparities at their root causes and with culturally appropriate interventions. This emphasis on achieving cancer equity contributed the University of Hawai’i Cancer Center’s renewed status as a National Cancer Institute designated cancer center.

Now, having arrived at the helm of the University of Vermont Cancer Center in August, Holcombe once again sees this as a moment to anticipate and respond to the needs of a unique population.

“There are great opportunities at UVM to address those cancer issues that are most important for our population,” he says. “For instance, we already know that cancer patients from rural areas have worse outcomes, and I want to address that. I’m very concerned about the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 and, similar to the 9/11 responders, we need to track this and understand the underlying causes.”

Holcombe envisions a cancer center at UVM rooted in innovative research, best-in-class education for students and clinicians, cutting-edge patient care, and community outreach. He was drawn to potential to build upon Vermont’s strong foundation: engaged leadership; long-standing donor support that makes advancements, such as the J. Walter Juckett Cancer Research Foundation, possible; talented researchers and skilled clinicians. But even so, few seem to know what a cancer center is, let alone its value to Vermont.

Which is why catering to the unique cancer care needs of Vermonters and Northern New Yorkers is at the top of Holcombe’s to-do list. This winter, he will convene a newly formed advisory group of regional advocates, non-profits, and state health organizations to inform a research profile for the Cancer Center.

And Holcombe will be one of those researchers. In addition to seeing patients as a medical oncologist and Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine, he will continue his work on cancer patient care, focusing on rural caregivers.

Understanding that cancer science demands time, patience, rigor, and problem-solving—and that it takes years for discovery to become treatment—Holcombe plans to make clinical trials a prime focus of the UVM Cancer Center.

“Trials offer the highest quality of care for patients,” he explains. “Today’s standard treatments were clinical trials ten years ago, and today’s clinical trials will be the standard treatment ten years from now. We’ve made great advances in treatment of some cancers—breast cancer, for example— but more needs to be done for many others.” UVM

ANDY DUBACK

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Resettled in

Vermont O

n September 16, about a month after harrowing images circulated from Afghanistan documenting the collapse of its government under the Taliban, Governor Phil Scott announced that Vermont would welcome one hundred Afghan refugees to resettle in the Green Mountain State. Since then, that number has grown to upwards of 175.

Depending on your relationship to Vermont, this news may surprise you. The second least populated state behind Wyoming and the second whitest state behind Maine—not to mention its notorious winters—Vermont may not seem like an obvious place to resettle families and individuals fleeing from diverse conflicts around the world.

But it’s part of a long tradition—or rather, it’s a return to a long tradition by the state. In the past forty years, an estimated 8,000 refugees have resettled in Vermont—particularly in the seventeen square miles that surround the University of Vermont and comprise the cities of Burlington and Winooski within Chittenden County.

To put that number into context of current times, 386 refugees resettled in Vermont in 2016—no small feat for a little state like ours.

But before the pandemic hit in 2019, only 114 people were resettled. In 2020, that number plummeted to 23. “What had happened between 2016 and 2020 had been a pretty brutal evisceration of the existing refugee program,” says Pablo Bose, director of the University’s Global and Regional Studies Program, Gund Institute Fellow, and expert on refugees and migration.

The wave of Afghans coming now to Vermont—which will be at least four times the size of last years’ refugees—signals not only a sea change in global migration policy, but also that the “Welcome” sign in the Green Mountain State is still up, and its doors still open to the new voices and experiences of our neighbors around the world.

—

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Story by Kaitie Catania • Photos by Andy Duback

—

From her family’s garden plot at AALV’s New Farms for New Americans, Mon Moti Rai harvests caigua and hyacinth beans. In keeping with agrarian traditions, the farm’s plots allow New American families like Rai’s to farm with friends and other family members throughout the growing season.

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"You have to be able to resettle people into opportunity,” Bose says. Regardless of citizenship or legal status, the foundation for the kinds of opportunities he’s referring to typically requires access to housing, transportation, medical care, education, food, and social services— the basics, Bose says. “Resettling people in a way that’s not going to ensure their success is not a good recipe for anyone—first and foremost, not for the refugees—and it’s not a good recipe for the places that receive them.”

In a coolly quaint town across the river from Burlington, the residents of Winooski have been perfecting their own recipe for decades. Celebrated by Vermonters as the state’s most diverse town, the 1.5 square miles of Winooski are home to everyone from lifetime Vermonters and transplants to refugees and immigrants from Bhutan, Somalia, and Iraq—to name a few countries of origin. In fact, in 2018 the Winooski School District educated students from twenty-five different countries, speaking nineteen different languages— known as multilingual learners, or ML students, by faculty and staff at Winooski Middle and High School.

Pablo Bose

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“The term ‘ML’ has come from some conversation and deep reflection on the deficit of calling students ‘English language learners.’ We really want to acknowledge that—in many cases—these students are speaking more than one language when they come to us; it just may not be English,” explains Thomas Payeur ’10, G’12, a math teacher at the school and the 2019 Vermont Teacher of the Year.

UVM MAGAZINE

His school has translators and interpreters on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, “speaking many different languages,” Payeur says, “I couldn’t even name them all.” Winooski Middle and High School also has an intake coordinator on staff dedicated to solely working with parents, teachers, translators, and interpreters to place ML students in classes appropriate for their learning levels. They communicate with teachers about potential absences and appointments—including medical and legal—that can often disrupt ML students’ learning or class time.

If Winooski Middle and High School doesn’t sound like the average American public school, it’s because it’s the product of an increasingly popular educational framework known as a community school, Payeur explains, which supports not only academic success and education, but also essential needs and holistic development of its student. Community schools like this one in Winooski are designed with the kinds of opportunities in mind that Bose described earlier. “It’s getting a lot of traction in the State House and at the federal level,” Payeur says.

And back across the river in Burlington—a bigger, slightly less diverse town that’s welcomed twice as many refugees over the past twenty years as their northern neighbors across the river to an area seven times larger—public schools share a similar framework. But where the school district’s capacity to bring New American and refugee services in-house like Winooski Middle and High School maxes out, community partners step in to meet those students and families where they are. Leading that charge is the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV)—the state’s largest nonprofit agency serving refugees and migrants.

“To be honest, we do everything,” says AALV youth program coordinator and case manager Samuel Dingba ’19, G’20. Working alongside Vermont’s federal agency for acute support, AALV serves refugees and migrants, regardless of their country of origin (not just Africans, as the acronym suggests), with long-term resettlement efforts. “If there’s a family that needs to move, guess who’s helping them? AALV is helping them. If there’s a family that needs food, needs to go to the hospital, or to immigration services, guess who’s taking them? AALV is taking them,” says Dingba, an immigrant himself.

At age 16, the former Catamount basketball player came to the United States from Cameroon on a scholarship to an all-boys boarding school in Connecticut. It was an otherworldly experience for the young Dingba, coming to a small town in New England from a big city across the Atlantic. “It was completely different. A different vibe, different environment, different food and climate. When I came, it was already cold, I thought, ‘wow, I am not prepared for this’. But I did it and I managed that,” he says.

SALLY MCCAY

Burundian farmers examine blue sesame seeds, planted this summer in the Teacher’s Demonstration Garden—part of a three-year grant from the USDA to grow culturally significant crops and explore urban agriculture.

The blue sesame did very well, but yielded a relatively small harvest compared to other crops—not the best use of real estate in a small 25-foot by 100-foot household plot.

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Intern Evie Wolfe ’21 tends to a trellis of caigua fruit, a thumb-sized vegetable with spiky flesh that tastes like cucumber and is either eaten raw or prepared in a curry. Because caigua grows upwards of 30 feet, farmers gather downed trees from surrounding forests to repurpose into stakes for the plants to climb.

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Now in his capacity as a youth program coordinator for AALV, he gets to be the mentor he wishes he had not too long ago as a New American teenager in New England himself. Having earned a BA in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from UVM, Dingba emphasizes to students in his program, as well as their parents and families, the importance of academic excellence at this stage in their lives.

And in true “we do everything” fashion, Dingba really does do all he can to serve the adolescents he works with.

From tutoring, CPR training, and fostering comfortable environments where learning can happen, to offering workshops on skill development, career readiness, mental and sexual health, navigating the US education system, and even hygiene—whatever they need, Dingba is there to help. That includes the occasional show of support and tapping into his Catamount basketball roots at their own sporting events where he’s there to rally behind them. “I’m trying to make them leaders in our community by trying to empower them in all aspects," he says. “I want to be sure that, one: they know they have a safe place to go to; and two: that they can always come to me or AALV and get the help they need to succeed— because we all went through it at AALV.” Meanwhile, at the combined middle and high school where Payeur teaches math, construction is underway to expand upon the school’s existing onsite services, such as a health clinic that can accommodate those medical appointments for students, “so they don’t become major disruptions to learning,” Payeur says. “As soon as this construction is finished next year, there’s going to be an onsite free store where people can go through the process of ‘purchasing’ things, like clothing and possibly food, without using actual money.”

While these initiatives and efforts are major points of pride for the Winooski community, they were (and continue to be) major pain points of the pandemic, especially for families in this community. When the school pivoted to online learning, Payeur says the amazing resiliency and accomplishments of his students were met equally with “soul crushing experiences” and worry.

The pandemic revealed just how disproportionately New Americans are affected by the limitations or complete elimination of basic needs and services like transportation and employment. For Professor Bose, one of the most glaring issues was food insecurity.

Tapped by the Vermont Foodbank to evaluate a boxed delivery system they implemented in response to the pandemic, Bose confirmed what the foodbank had noticed: a substantial amount of food was not being taken or used by this community.

“It became clear that some of what was being delivered to people were not their preferred foods or foods that they were familiar with—that was a bigger issue

than preference, stuff that they didn’t know how to cook or how to prepare,” he says.

The foodbank course-corrected its operation by delivering food boxes filled with fresh vegetables and produce, and “people loved it,” Bose says. “That was one of the things we found—that people were interested in these food boxes, but weren’t really interested in the kinds of foods being delivered to them.”

Up in the New North End’s Ethan Allen Homestead, a modest farm just over seven acres and a small team of dedicated staff and volunteers, including a couple UVM interns, are digging—literally—much deeper into the root issues of food insecurity. New Farms for New Americans (NFNA) is a community-based gardening and agriculture program by AALV that provides refugee and immigrant farmers with plots, training, and the necessary education to sustain their agrarian traditions in Vermont—all while growing healthy, nutritious foods for their families and neighbors.

“

Humility comes with a lot of listening and trying to understand. I think that’s the importance of what is happening here. When students come here, they spend time listening to what’s happening in the lives of the clients we have.”

- Alisha Laramee Manager, New Farms for New Americans AALV

Intern Evie Wolfe ’23 is among the many UVM-affiliated hands helping to sustain roughly ninety plots—each one-sixteenth an acre—leased seasonally and affordably to New Americans to grow what they wish: flowers, fruits, vegetables. “There are a lot of different Nepali crops that I hadn’t heard of and crops that I’m used to seeing, but in different varieties. Like different heads of eggplant, different cucumbers, different squash I’d never seen,” says the global studies and religion double major.

Wolfe’s supervisor and farm manager Alisha Laramee estimates that there are at least twenty-five culturally significant crops being grown at NFNA, the kind “that you can’t buy locally or, if you can, many people we work with are not used to buying vegetables on a shelf in a store. AALV’s clients are much more used to growing food for themselves or buying from vendors

similar to a farmers’ market,” Laramee says.

Turns out, it’s also more affordable to grow them in the garden rather than grab them off the shelf—a lot more affordable. Some 300 farmers harvest an average of 700 pounds of food at NFNA to feed their families or to store through the winter. “If we were to put a monetary value on how much food was harvested, it would be over $250,000 worth of produce being harvested off our small seven acres of land. It’s amazing,” she says.

For as much as it provides access to land and the resources required to farm on their own, NFNA also provides farmers a place for community building. Over the years, a network of seed sharing between farmers has brought them together around best practices for growing in Vermont and culturally significant produce that improves crop diversity for the farm. For Wolfe—who sees herself becoming a professor one day or developing a career in food security or refugee resettlement—this has been an interesting topic to research.

“I really love seeing the communal structure of seed sharing. It’s so important for access to culturally significant crops and how people acclimate to a new place—how they have foods that they know how to eat, prepare, and feed to their families. There are a lot of really important communal implications for Burlington’s refugee community,” Wolfe says.

Today, NFNA supports subsistence farming only, but the model AALV began with in 2008 looked slightly different when the farm first launched. Laramee recalls the program being much more business-focused back then, offering plots as well as classes on farming, sales, insurance, and business that farmers could take to “graduate” from the program.

But those “graduations” just weren’t happening, Laramee noticed, so she asked the farmers what they wanted instead—and she listened. Their own plots; the freedom to farm whatever they wanted; and most importantly, the ability to farm for themselves, not for profit or as a small business. AALV made it happen. Now Wolfe supports Laramee and staff from the Vermont Community Garden Network facilitate weekly educational classes about topics like how to grow in Vermont’s short season and what pests and diseases to look out for.

“Humility comes with a lot of listening and trying to understand. I think that’s the importance of what is happening here. When students come here, they spend time listening to what’s happening in the lives of the clients we have,” she says.

Listening. This is the key to a successful, supportive partnership with Vermont’s refugee community, according to Laramee. Having been with AALV at the farm for more than a decade, she says it’s also a strength she’s come to notice across the UVM community—students and faculty alike—that she’s worked with in that time.

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“We see this amazing connection between the University that is not necessarily just extractive, focused on what this does for the university—but what it does for a population of people. There’s real partnership and collaboration with people like Pablo Bose and Karen Fondacaro, for example. People who are on the ground with us and know what’s happening, not just in the theoretical sense, but in our clients’ lives—people who are invested in our clients.”

Intern Evie Wolfe and farm manager Alisha Laramee check-in with a farmer who recently completed a 28-week urban agriculture program funded by a grant from the Department of Agriculture and offered in partnership with Vermont Community Garden Network.

Among hundreds of applicants nationwide, AALV was one of only seven grant recipients.

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And when it comes to listening and hearing about the lives and experiences of Vermont’s refugees, few do it better than Karen Fondacaro G’88 and her team at the Connecting Cultures clinic. Under the umbrella of UVM’s Vermont Psychological Services, the clinic provides mental health support and services to resettled survivors of torture and trauma. Like Bose, Fondacaro was tapped for her expertise working with victims of domestic violence and abuse to help address a growing need identified by the state with the influx of more and more refugees.

“At the time in 2007, the refugee population was not seeking out mental health services at all, but we knew they had gone through political atrocities and horrible trauma. I think we realized early on that we had to go to them; they weren’t going to come to mental health centers,” recalls Fondacaro, a professor of clinical psychology and director of Connecting Cultures.

“We didn’t even know what their view of mental health and well-being was at the time, so I started by going to weddings and funerals, just getting to know the communities with a number of graduate students.”

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It was tough in the beginning, but Fondacaro echoes Laramee and emphasizes the importance of listening.

It took interpreters, time, and trust—not to mention an incredible amount of cultural competency and patience—to develop a program with ten modules of care centered around health, safety, values, and acceptance that can be understood as healing rather than “fixing” across cultures and backgrounds.

“We really try to take a different approach, which is asking, ‘What’s important to you? And despite all the horrific things that you’ve gone through, how do you want to move through this world?’ Because if someone is telling me they lost a child, they may be sad about this loss for the rest of their life—and I don’t think that’s ever going to change. But do they want to give up their life also?” Today, the clinic has served hundreds of clients and has grown to incorporate legal services, social services, and even physical therapy.

“We realized quickly that psychology is not the only answer; it’s too unidimensional. The services or assistance required for success are beyond that,” she says.

The clinic even has a satellite office at AALV, where it may be more comfortable, understandably, for patients to discuss the kinds of personal tragedies, grief, loss, violence, and torture they’ve experienced.

Their next frontier: patients’ pockets—or at least their phones and tablets. Fondacaro and colleagues at the New England Survivors of Torture and Trauma, along with a team of software developers and cultural consultants, are working on a language-free app that follows Connecting Cultures’ ten modules of evidence-based treatment, making access to mental health resources for refugees and immigrants more accessible between clinic sessions. A pilot study of the app found that the use of a mobile mental health app, in combination with in-person therapy, was effective in reducing mental health symptomology and in increasing the use of coping skills among participants.

But it’s the language-free component that sets the app apart from other mindfulness apps currently available. It prompts users to customize their own avatar with skin color, hair styles, and culturally or religiously significant identifiers such as hijabs or bindis that visually reflect who they are and how they see themselves. The app helps users track their emotions using facial expressions, and offers mindfulness activities and guided exercises such as breathing and relaxation.

However the greatest innovation here isn’t a feature on the app, but rather it’s the cost of the app: free.

It’s been created to address barriers like transportation, affordable health care, and English proficiency that account for much of the disparity among mental health services for refugees. “We’ll meet people wherever the heck they are, because that’s part of being more culturally responsive,” Fondacaro says.

And soon, the Connecting Cultures team may be finding themselves meeting people in Brattleboro more often. About 130 miles south of Burlington, Brattleboro is home to Vermont’s new refugee resettlement field office, the second in the state that opened this fall. Of the Afghan refugees coming to Vermont, some twenty-five to seventy-five will be resettled in Brattleboro.

“In many cases, places like Brattleboro are aging and their youth are migrating out of the state, and they’re losing workers.

They have, for a long time, seen the success and benefits of resettlement in places like Burlington and said, ‘Okay, well, how could we make this happen here?’” says Bose, whose been an integral part of getting the office up and running while taking a step back from teaching this semester to oversee implementation of a new curricula, UVM’s Catamount Core Curriculum.

And as the Brattleboro community and the field office find their footing, Bose looks forward to focusing some of his research attention to how the “success” of resettlements is evaluated. Right now, the standard metric is employment over time—for example, 90 days after resettlement, 180 days, etc., what does their employment status look like?

“What I have been advocating for in my research is understanding resettlement in a more holistic way, looking at other factors like transportation, education, employment, housing, and civic integration,” he says. The Brattleboro office will pilot Bose’s new evaluation, which measures whether or not hopes and expectation are met over time by New Americans—and if so, how.

“In the first three months of arrival, I asked people what it was that they were hoping for: how large a house, how many bedrooms, and how much they’d hoped to pay in rent versus how much they’d hope

to earn?” A year later, they will be asked those same questions to find out what happened. The idea being that a more individualized definition of success will likely produce more comprehensive evaluations and meaningful feedback to improve upon.

The 2021 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award-winner for excellence in teaching, Bose is also very much looking forward to returning to his classroom this spring—and so are his colleagues and students. “He is a hero,” says Dingba, the youth program coordinator at AALV, despite not having taken any classes of Bose’s while at UVM. It was a conversation with Chris Koliba, director of UVM’s Office of Engagement and Master Public Administration graduate program, that led the former political science student to Bose early on in his graduate studies.

“I said, ‘Well, I actually want to work with immigrants one day, because I am also an immigrant myself,’” Dingba recalls, with no knowledge at the time about AALV or its services. “And he said, ‘Yeah, go talk to Pablo.’” It was this relationship that pivoted his trajectory entirely. Now Dingba hopes to work someday with the United Nations—a privilege Bose has had on multiple occasions as well-respected expert on migration, resettlement, and displacement—to tackle pressing issues that can cause migration and displacement: climate change, political persecution, genocide, and war to name a few.

“There is a much more urgent sense especially among youth and younger people in general, that these issues aren’t something that can be forever put off and that they ought not to be put off,” Bose says. “We’ve seen youth across the country, K through 12, to the university systems, push for changes to be made rather than waiting for things to come around—and that’s something that gives me hope.” UVM

Over in the demonstration garden, alumna Quinn DiFalco ’21 (third from left) discusses the process, varieties, and importance of planting cover crops.

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We use phosphorus to grow food, make medicines, manufacture electronics.

It’s also a finite resource that comes from mining. “How can we not waste it?” asks Professor Rory Waterman. In his lab at UVM’s Discovery Hall, Waterman and his students are exploring the fundamental chemistry of phosphorus— uncovering new, greener ways to use this element more efficiently. Here, he works with a red solution of diphenyl phosphide, an anion of phosphorus.

“When phosphorus runs off the land, or gets thrown away, it ends up in the | UV 30 M M A G Asays.

Z I N“And E ocean,” Waterman then we can’t get it back.”

FIXING

PHOSPHORUS Story & photographs by Joshua Brown

In the b e ginning, there was no phosphorus.

The young universe was quiet and dark, awash in nothing but gigantic clouds of gas. Only after gravity had crushed together clumps of this hydrogen and helium, 100 million years after the Big Bang, did the first stars ignite. Burning through the end of their fuel, stars fall in upon them themselves—some exploding with the mind-boggling force needed to ram particles together into larger nuclei. The death of stars gave birth to the elements essential for life: carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen—and, most rare of these, phosphorus with its fifteen protons.

Phosphorus swirled in the dust that formed our planet and it may have been in the primordial soup from which life arose. “No phosphorus, no biology,” says University of Vermont chemist Rory Waterman (at left). Like superglue in RNA and DNA, phosphorus with sugar forms a backbone, holding together these essential genetic molecules. A triple dose of the stuff is at the heart of all life, by way of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the chemical compound every organism uses to store energy. “It’s so heavily utilized in agriculture because plants need it to grow,” says Waterman.

It’s in each of your cells; it forms your bones.

But phosphorus also can wreck your day at the beach or turn a blue lake into a “nasty spinach smoothie,” says UVM doctoral student Katelynn Warner. That’s because phosphorus—when scarce—limits the growth of plants and cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae that Warner studies.

It’s this ancient, primitive, photosynthetic bacteria that fouls beaches with gunk, poisons dogs, and drives out the oxygen that fish require. Excess phosphorus is almost always the cause of this damage to freshwater—including to Lake Champlain.

Each year, some fifteen thousand miles of rivers and streams deposit more than two trillion gallons of water into Lake Champlain. This input has, for millennia, carried phosphorus and other nutrients. But in the recent era of people—with our farms, lawns, sewage, soap, pavement, earth-moving, stream-changing, tree-cutting, house-building, and mining of phosphate rocks for fertilizer—the rate of phosphorus running into Champlain, and waters around the world, has skyrocketed. By one estimate, this flow off the land has tripled since pre-industrial times.

All water, eventually, flows to the sea, where phosphorus and other fertilizers have created numerous dead zones along the coasts of North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia—thousands of miles of once-teeming waters now starved of oxygen. While vital for the super-productive farming used to feed our planet’s nearly eight billion people, phosphorus also is a worldwide water pollutant, devastating ecosystems, wildlife, and water quality. In short, phosphorus is both devil and angel.

Across the University of Vermont, dozens of professors and students are probing the complexities of phosphorus, discovering how to get it to stay where it’s wanted and out where it’s not. To learn more, I took a series of short trips from campus late this summer and into the fall—dropping in on scientists in the field (and wetland, garden, sewage plant, and, yes, bay of Lake Champlain).

Here are five snapshots of UVM researchers—working to fix phosphorus.

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CORN FIELD Panton, VT

In a corn field, just off Panton Road, outside Vergennes, Vt., it’s a bloody hot afternoon and Joshua Faulkner, a professor in UVM Extension, is down in a water-filled manhole in rubber boots.

“It looks like this hose pulled out,” he says, and begins to feed a piece of clear tubing out of the hole while Ryan Ruggiero, a graduate student in plant and soil science, reconnects it through the sidewall of a fiberglass hut and into a water-sampling machine inside. Through a hedge on one side of the hole, we can see Dead Creek flowing, like too-milky coffee, toward Otter Creek and Lake Champlain beyond. On the other side, the tasseled corn forms a green wall.

They’re here to study phosphorus, how to keep it on this field and out of the water.

“A lot of this phosphorus comes into Vermont in the form of feed from the Midwest,” says Faulkner, pointing down in a row of corn to reveal large cracks spidering out through the soil. “We feed that grain to our cattle, and that gets in their manure.” Nutrients in a cow’s waste lets the corn here grow above our heads. “But if you apply manure to meet the nitrogen needs of the corn, you’re inadvertently applying more phosphorus than the crop needs,” Faulkner says. “So a lot of the phosphorus we bring in is not used by our crops, which means it doesn’t leave the state in milk and dairy products. It stays on the farms or in the waterways.”

Under this field, a network of drainage tiles keeps the soil from getting too waterlogged to work or from washing away during heavy rains now more common with a warming climate. Faulk-

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ner and Ruggiero’s study here aims to find out which conservation techniques—like reduced tillage and cover crops between rows—will do the best job of keeping the phosphorus on the land.

Drainage may help too, but Faulkner—who runs the Farming and Climate Change Program in UVM’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture—is concerned the cracks in the soil could represent leakage points, where rainwater rushes down, carrying phosphorus underground and out to Dead Creek. Studies from the Midwest indicate that the effects of drainage are different than what Faulkner sees happening in the Champlain Basin. “We need local data, Vermont science to make Vermont policy,” he says.

Faulkner’s studies extend from this field to comparisons of whole watersheds. “There’s a lot of energy behind improving soil health on farms, but the assumption that improved soil health leads to improved water quality is not well established,” he says.

“If we put all of these conservation practices to work on farms across a watershed, how much of an impact will we have at reducing phosphorus at the mouth of the Dead Creek or Little Otter Creek? We’re going to find out.”

Joshua Faulkner walks through the shimmering corn toward his truck. “I grew up on a farm. I love the natural world. I want to see those two co-exist and agriculture not adversely impact the other,” he says. “We all eat three meals a day. Where’s that food coming from? I want to still be able to produce food for a food system here in Vermont.”

WETLAND

Charlotte, VT

It’s early on a September morning, one of those days where the sun paints everything summer-gold, but the trees are dressing for fall.

Eric Roy walks slowly over a hayfield near Spear Street in Charlotte, then down through a wooded hillside which suddenly opens onto a glittering wetland, a network of blue water under tall reeds and purple flowers. Two ducks touch down at the same moment that a heron lifts off. Roy is tired but smiles into the sunshine. He ran a long way yesterday, a 35-mile adventure from Mount Mansfield to Camel’s Hump on Vermont’s Long Trail. “There’s something magical about wetlands,” he says, describing a beaver-made swamp, near Taylor Lodge, that he stopped at on his run. “I don’t think tons of people organize their weekend around visiting obscure wetlands, but they’re really nice—and important.”

“This one is beautiful too,” he says. “There’s a beaver dam down there,” he says, pointing to where the meandering water disappears into the forest. Roy, a professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources with a secondary appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has five research plots here. He and his students in UVM’s Nutrient Cycling and Ecological Design Lab know that phosphorus washes into this wetland from upstream. They’re collecting data to estimate how much of it gets soaked up by soils and plants. It’s not news to scientists that wetlands improve water quality. But what is remarkable: this wild wetland, just a few years ago, was a hayfield. “Yeah, there was an agricultural ditch here—water would shoot right through and into Lewis Creek,” he says. A few minutes ago, we chatted with Sheila Burley, a farmer, whose family sold 150 acres of this land to The Nature Conservancy. “Dad used to clear that meadow, brushhogging, keeping everything down, getting stuck on his tractor,” she said. “Then the Conservancy come in and plug the river and plant trees all over, bring it back to its natural state. It’s ironic how things go around,” she said, laughing. “Still, it’s nice to not have fifty-five houses over back, taking another piece of Vermont.”

“

The beavers came in and finished the job.”

- Eric Roy Professor of environmental sciences and Gund Institute Fellow

Eric Roy reaches down near the water and snaps off a piece of grass. “These plants grow each year; they’re taking phosphorus up into their biomass and then they deposit it,” he says. And the decaying plant matter holds phosphorus in an organic form less likely to escape back into the water when it floods. Across Vermont, numerous wetlands have been restored on former farmland. In many of these, Roy and his colleagues observe that the soil becomes more organic over time—including in this recovering wetland in Charlotte, where work to increase flooding has led to a buildup of organic wetland soils. And, as an ecological engineer,

Roy appreciates the real water experts restoring this landscape.

“The beavers came in and finished the job,” he says.

Except the job takes time. In 2016, the US Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with the State of Vermont, released a new ruling, with stricter limits, about how much phosphorus could flow into Lake Champlain under the Clean Water Act. For decades, the shallow bays of the lake have been receiving far more phosphorus than experts have deemed healthy—and more than allowed under the law. Numerous projects, regulations, and incentives seek to slow this flow. “The state is interested in what we’re learning out here,” Roy says, because officials would like to create a crediting system where landowners could be rewarded for restoring wetlands—based on the mass of phosphorus taken up by each acre.

“Wetlands can be great at capturing phosphorus, but we have to be in this for the long run,” Roy explains. “Say you have a former corn field that’s been heavily fertilized for years. If you flood that soil, reconnect it to the river, there’s legacy phosphorus there that could escape.” In other words, some places may get worse before they get better. Eric Roy’s work in wetlands across the state is building a clearer picture of where investments might best be made. With the state’s Functioning Floodplains project, his team is creating maps of risks and opportunities for river corridors in Vermont. “We want to help guide restoration so that we maximize phosphorus capture in restored wetlands and minimize the release of legacy phosphorus,” Roy says. “Lots of phosphorus is out there from decades of land management. It’s going to take decades to fix.”

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WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Essex Junction, VT

While phosphorus began in the explosion of stars, our understanding of it began in a bucket of urine. In 1669, the story goes, a German alchemist named Hennig Brand boiled down samples that had been kindly volunteered by his neighbors at the tavern.

He was hoping this would help him create gold. It did not. Instead, he was left with a strange waxy paste that glowed in the dark. He had discovered the 13th element, phosphorus.

Three-hundred-fifty-two years later, environmental engineering graduate student Kamruzzaman Khan (at right) climbs a stepladder inside a large shed at the Village of Essex Junction’s Wastewater Treatment Facility, and reaches his hand down into a 150-gallon plastic reactor tank. Inside are powdery white crystals. Extracted from human waste that passes through this plant, this powder is pure struvite, a mineral made from phosphorus.

“We’re able to recover lots of phosphorus from a side-stream in the wastewater,” says Raju Badireddy, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, climbing up the ladder after Khan. “It’s clean, fertilizer-grade phosphorus,” he says, and a local farmer is eager to use it on his fields.

In recent years, towns and cities in Vermont have made major investments in improving their wastewater treatment plants. And

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the newest edition of the “State of the Lake” report from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, issued in June of 2021, shows that these facilities do a good job. Of the more than two million pounds of phosphorus that flow into the lake each year, the report shows, about 6 percent of it comes from wastewater facilities, far less than farms (38%), forestland (20%), streambank erosion (18%) or developed land (16%).

Still, a lot of phosphorus comes into the state’s 92 wastewater plants. “Everyone poops,” says James Jutras, the Essex plant’s manager. The two million gallons of wastewater that move through this plant in Essex each day are treated with microbes and some chemicals, and then discharged—with less than 0.00000267 ounces of phosphorus per gallon—back into the Winooski River. The microbial sludge that remains, however, is high in phosphorus. “When we process the sludge, we release a lot of those nutrients that we just captured,” Jutras says. “So we have to re-capture that phosphorus in a side-stream and treat it over and over again. It’s expensive.”

To extract this high-strength phosphorus, Badireddy and Khan, in partnership with Essex Junction, have invented a low-cost technology—using start-up funds from the Governor of Vermont’s Phosphorus Innovation Challenge. They call it Pe-Phlo (pronounced “pee-flow”) and they’re working to scale it from their lab bench tests, up to these demonstration-scale reactor tanks, to a permanent installation here. “That’s what that big tank is for,” Badireddy says, pointing to a 1500-gallon

tank that reaches near the ceiling on the other side of the shop. “That’s enough quantity that we can bag it and send it to the farm.”

The Pe-Phlo project aims to create a portable and affordable device that can work on Vermont-scale wastewater treatment plants—and on farms too. First, the scientists repurposed a commercially available device normally used to prevent pipes from getting clogged. With its oscillating electrical fields, they precipitate crystals of phosphorus as struvite. At the same time, they apply another electrical field to the water in front of a customized membrane preventing it from clogging with these crystals. Out pours phosphorus-free water ready to be released—while, inside, fertilizer piles up. “Our approach takes a few minutes, versus the current standard which takes a few days,” says Badireddy, who directs UVM’s Water Treatment and Environmental Nanotechnology Lab. Khan again climbs the stepladder and begins to adjust the mixer motor on the top of the tank. “Phosphorus is, right now, a non-renewable product. We collect it from mining,” he says. About 70 percent of the planet’s extractable phosphorus lies under the ground in Morocco where huge mines supply the raw material for fertilizer, and livestock feed, to many parts of the world. “The thing is, we’re going to run out of phosphate rocks,” Khan says. “If we can use it more efficiently, if we can recycle it, if we can get to net-zero phosphorus—that would be good,” he says. But, over the loud machinery, it sounds like, “that would be gold.”

A homemade downpour washes across the asphalt South Burlington, VT of a big city parking lot— under a blue sky at the pavement-free fields of the UVM Horticulture Research and Education Center. “You’re looking at the storm, right here,” Professor Stephanie Hurley says, smiling. She points at a hose streaming water from five holes into a low plastic basin full of flowering plants. The plants are half-submerged by this kneehigh rain burst. Behind her, Bryce Carleton ’22 adjusts the hose where it connects to a tall Rubbermaid tub raised on cinder blocks.

“We filled this tank with a stormwater cocktail we developed in the lab,” explains Samantha Brewer (at left), a graduate student in plant and soil science. “There’s a predetermined concentration of four pollutants: nitrate, zinc, copper—and phosphate.”

Rain gardens and their fancy cousins—bioretention systems with underground pipes, like these here at the research station— have been increasingly used since the 1990s to catch stormwater runoff from rooftops, roadways, and the many impervious surfaces found in cities around the world. They use plants, layers of rocks, and engineered soil mixes to mimic nature—slowing and filtering the pulses of water and sediment (plus heavy metals and oils from cars, and those ubiquitous bags of dog waste) on their journey to the nearest stream, lake, or sea. “Basically, they create pockets in the landscape to soak up water the way it would have been before people paved the world,” says Hurley, who runs UVM’s Ecological Landscape Design Laboratory.

For this miniature rain garden, and eleven others just like it in a row, this is the first of twenty simulated storms they’ll have to endure over the next two years. Each will dump into the plastic basins the equivalent of one inch of rain sluicing across a parking lot. So far, the handsome-looking native plants—Joe-Pye weed,

RAIN GARDEN

purple coneflower, and butterfly milkweed—look in fine form.

“We know Lake Champlain has a problem: too much effluent reaches the lake with phosphorus in it. Lots of rain gardens have been installed to try to help,” Hurley says. “We also know the sponge effect is happening; they’re soaking up the stormwater. But there’s a question we must figure out: are these rain gardens really solving the phosphorus problem?”

Hurley has good reason to think that many rain gardens may, actually, be adding to the problem. “One of the reasons is that people have been focused on the garden component of rain gardens,” she says, “and most gardeners, including me at home, use a lot of compost.” This compost is great for plant growth and beautiful flowers. “But most composts available, especially in Vermont, are manure-based. So they’re super-rich in nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen.” Hurley’s research shows that rain gardens do, indeed, trap phosphorus particles attached to sediment. But then, without careful design, the water filtering through can pick up phosphorus from the rich soil and send a large dollop of dissolved pollution downstream. “The liquid phosphorus, that’s in soluble form, is very readily available for algae growth,” Hurley says.

That’s why she and post-doctoral scientist Paliza Shrestha G’17 are recommending revisions to the state’s stormwater manual—and are running this experiment to test different materials for rain garden plants to grow in: sand, a low-phosphorus top soil, wood chips, and an aluminum-rich material left over from drinking water treatment that binds well with phosphorus. “We’re looking for the least nutritious soil mix we can have for the plants, and still get them to grow and be healthy,” Hurley says, as she and Shrestha climb down into a trench where pipes collect the water that has flowed down through the rain gardens. “We’ll be able to see how much phosphorus comes out,” Shrestha says, “versus what we put in.”

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EPSCOR RESEARCH BUOY Missisquoi Bay, Lake Champlain In the middle of Missisquoi Bay, an aluminum motorboat, a floating yellow platform covered with monitoring equipment, a research technician named Saul Blocher, a doctoral student named Katelynn Warner, and a seasick photographer—all bob up and down in rough chop. Perched starboard on the front of the boat, Blocher lowers a long blue tube on a cable into the lake. On the port side, Warner fills tiny bottles from a hose siphoning out of the water.

“Yep, that’s the algae,” Warner says, looking down into the blackish, pea-colored waves. Last week, this thick, green soup of life—largely made of cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton— was in full bloom during some hot days. “There were these speckled patterns and blobs everywhere. It was really cool, but really gross at the same time,” Warner says. “It’s too wavy for that today, but, still, I wouldn’t want to swim in there.”

She and Blocher are part of an extensive research effort, involving dozens of UVM faculty and partner organizations—with support from the National Science Foundation, Senator Patrick Leahy and others—that all aim to improve the water quality here in Missisquoi Bay, in Saint Albans Bay, and other impaired parts of Lake Champlain. And that means taking a deep dive to better understand how phosphorus works in these shallow bays.

Blocher (below) lowers the blue tube, a sophisticated probe called a sonde, under the waves. It takes readings of many aspects of water quality, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, total algae, and phosphorus. Blocher comes out here once a week to collect data—and to calibrate and clean the identical sonde that dangles underneath the research platform. That one lowers itself on a cable, moving through the water column, then sends data by satellite back to a lab on campus. When conditions are right for explosive growth of algae—or for

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pulses of phosphorus-laden sediment washing into the bay during Vermont’s increasingly common “monster storms,” as Warner calls them—these sondes can collect data every few minutes.

“This high-frequency data we’re collecting in the lake and rivers allow us to capture dynamics—like changing phosphorus concentration—that we would miss if we had to run around in a truck to collect samples,” says UVM geoscientist Andrew Schroth, one of the science leaders for Vermont EPSCoR (the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) that operates this floating research station. The results that he and others have uncovered in this bay point toward solutions to the troubles on Lake Champlain and in algae-plagued waters around the world. The core fact is that phosphorus doesn’t just pour into Missisquoi Bay—it stays in Missisquoi Bay, cycling for decades. This accumulated phosphorus lies in sediment at the bottom of the bay, bound to iron or manganese minerals—“like rust on your car,” Schroth says— as long as there is oxygen. But on hot, windless summer days, the water stratifies into layers, and no fresh oxygen reaches the bottom. Then those minerals can dissolve, releasing their phosphorus into the warm water. “And that can feed a cyanobacteria bloom,” Schroth says. This algae consumes more oxygen as it grows and then more as the overgrowth dies and sinks to the bottom, killing fish and, sometimes, releasing dangerous toxins.

Warner—working with Professor Mindy Morales-Williams in UVM’s Rubenstein School—is out here to discover which cyanobacteria species are the culprits. “That’s why we’re gathering DNA from the water,” she says, carefully labelling the tiny bottles before they get flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. “We’re dealing with an organism that is one of the oldest on earth, that’s survived mass extinctions; it’s a formidable foe,” says Schroth. It may be that running air hoses to the bottom of the bay will help in the fight; Schroth is part of a project doing that now on Vermont’s Lake Carmi. It may be that letting aluminum powder settle to the bottom will help, “so that it’s right there, scavenging, when the phosphorus is released, catching it like a net,” he says. It may even be worth dredging the bay—a multi-million-dollar proposition. But to hit the EPA’s requirement—that phosphorus coming into Missisquoi Bay decrease by 64 percent over the next thirty years—will require more than any of these interventions. “We have to make hard decisions across the landscape and the economy, looking where phosphorus comes from—and investing not just in the lake, but in the whole watershed,” Schroth says. “And then we have to be patient.” UVM

Doctoral student Katelynn Warner collects an algae sample from the shallow waters of Lake Champlain’s Missisquoi Bay.

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STORY C RES Story & photographs by Joshua Brown

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In Professor Shelly Rayback’s lab, these tree cores— extracted from a forest on the side of Camel’s Hump—tell a tale in each ring, a story going back centuries.

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With a specialized drill called an increment borer, UVM geographer—and expert reader of tree rings—Shelly Rayback samples the heart of a large spruce on the side of Camel’s Hump. It’s hard work, but harmless to the tree.

A

t first, the noise coming out of the tree sounds like a slo-mo woodpecker, “thack…thack…thack.” Every few seconds, Professor Shelly Rayback twists the drill another turn, her forearm muscles flexing visibly, teeth gritted in determination, rain and sweat mixing on her forehead and running down her jacket onto the forest floor. “You gotta be in shape to do this,” she says, laughing. “This spruce is pretty easy. But you spend a day doing maple and it’s a workout.”

As the threads bite deeper into the wood, the metal auger squawks more loudly, now like a distressed bird, reverberating through this dripping stand of hardwoods—and a few large spruce—on the lower slopes of Camel’s Hump. “Sometimes it makes a much louder noise,” says research technician Chris Hansen ’04, G’15, turning his own drill on the opposite side the trunk, “like a moose.”

Some storytellers stare into the campfire.

Shelly Rayback cores trees. Inside, written in annual rings of new wood, she and her students read a complicated tale that carries them back hundreds of years, revealing the rise and fall of temperatures, pollution, rainfall, drought. “Trees are archives on the landscape,” she says. “They’re recording what's going on around them in their environment.” And, Rayback’s research shows,

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what’s written in these rings may help us glimpse our climate-changed future too.

She gently pulls a half-round extractor tray out of the hollow auger, now almost wholly embedded in the tree. Resting on top is a glowing, pale-yellow tube of wood, more than a foot long and thinner than a pencil. “That’s a good one,” she says, as Hansen fishes in his pack for a plastic drinking straw to store this core in, to take back to the lab. Then Rayback holds the tray up close to her eye. “You can see the sapwood,” she says, pointing to a translucent section of the core, just in from the deep-brown spruce bark. This is the wet, diaphanous soul of the tree that carries water and minerals to the leaves and lays down a layer of new cells each year that will age and die and darken into heartwood.

Many people have squinted at a tree stump, counting the rings back in time.

“Sometimes you look at an individual ring and say, ‘Oh my God, this was the year we signed the armistice for World War I—and the tree had already been living here for 300 years,’” Rayback says. She and Hansen may look at this core under a microscope back on campus and discover this muscular spruce was a quivering sapling in, say, 1776.

“Well, it doesn’t look particularly old,” says Hansen, peering at the rings. Some-

times a huge tree is less than a hundred years old, growing on a fine site after it was cleared; they’ve also tapped a scrawny spruce, in Vermont, no thicker than your leg, that was growing before George Washington was born. Hansen and Rayback examine their two cores more closely, looking to see if either of the lines they picked into the spruce hit the pith, the very heart of the tree when it first began to grow.

“Pretty close this time,” Hansen says.

“We’re looking for the curvature of the rings,” Rayback explains. As the rings get wider and more curved, the closer they are to center.

Rayback needs to know exactly how old this tree is and what year corresponds to each ring. But that data just calibrates the clock, really, for the richer story that she reads in the rings. Rayback, a professor in UVM’s geography department since 2005, is digging into these mountainside trees today—and hundreds of the oldest spruce trees she can find across the region. (Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt the spruces any more than does tapping maples for syrup.) “Most everywhere was logged,” she says, “but we have found spruce that go back into the 1600s.” Her goal: uncover the story of past temperatures across Vermont, and the whole of eastern North America, stretching back five hundred years.

Rayback tucks her tools away, pulls on her pack, and then cranks her head back to look up into branches. They extend outward in jagged dark lines, a green lacy pattern that softens away into bright, low-hanging mountain mist. “It’s not too hot today,” she says. But she knows that summer temperatures in Vermont will soon reach levels never experienced during the last century— bringing huge changes to the North Woods and the people that live here.

Instrument records of these past temperatures only go back into the late-1800s. “Earlier, we don’t have much of a clue,” Rayback says. That’s why the National Science Foundation has funded her work, with collaborators across New England and as far away as Indiana and Idaho. “If we want to understand climate change, this work helps us get a better grip on how unusual today’s temperature are over a longer timeline,” she says.

Rayback calls herself a dendrochronologist—a measurer of time in trees. But she’s a geographer first, which means she explores the world through patterns across the land too. “Trees are all over the place,” she says, and in great densities, making them an abundant source of data. Past temperatures and conditions greatly varied from a Connecticut River Valley hollow to a Northeast Kingdom upland bog to a brave wave of stunted fir and spruce near treeline on the side of Camel’s Hump. Trees everywhere respond to their environment. “The rings are like their memory,” Rayback says.

And the collective memory of these

hundreds of trees can show, on a precise annual basis, how temperatures rose and fell over centuries, from coastlines to mountaintops—a complex pattern driven by many forces from local topography to regional ocean conditions to the swirling chaos of the global atmosphere. For Rayback, this view of the past, this basic science, is a fascinating end in itself—just as any good story provides its own justification. “But I’m not content to rest there,” she says. “Because of the urgency of needing to understand what is going on now with climate change, our work has to be a continuous thread from past to future.”

If she and other paleo-scientists can tease out the effects of climate on these temperature-sensitive trees before the industrial age of humans, Rayback thinks, then we’ll be better able to understand the impact of our recent decades of dumping vast amounts heat-trapping carbon into the air.

How does a tree ring—a pattern of summer growth and winter slumber—laid down in layers of cellulose and lignin, record the summer temperature, when, say, Samuel Champlain, in 1609, paddled into the huge lake the local Abenaki people called Pe-tonbowk? Each spring, a tree’s early growth tends to be made of larger cells with thinner walls. As summer progresses, the growth gets denser. A robust body of research shows that the maximum density of this summer growth—so-called “latewood”—reflects the summer average temperature in some tree species, including red spruce like those grow-

ing here on Camel’s Hump. Denser latewood, hotter summer. It used to be that this density could only be examined by expensive and laborious X-ray techniques. But Rayback has employed a new, faster, and cheaper technique using blue light and an off-the-shelf scanner. When Rayback and Hansen get the wet cores, now in their backpacks, back to UVM, they’ll be dried, mounted, and polished with hyperfine 800-grit sandpaper.

Then they’ll measure blue light bouncing off this carefully prepared surface; the denser wood reflects less of the light.

A few hours and nine spruces later, in a tangled riot of soaking hobblebush and upstart maple, Rayback and Hansen circle around their last tree of the day, rising in a ponderous, three-foot-thick tower. They line up their augers at breast height and, again, begin drilling into the cracked plates of a spruce’s bark. “OK, in the most coarse view, we know it’s going to get hotter,” Rayback says a few minutes later, crossing her hands, taking a deep breath, and turning the blue handle one final turn. Then she quietly takes out another core, eases it into a straw, labels it with a sharpie, and packs it away—before finishing her thought: “But if modelers are going to build more accurate predictions of summer temperatures across the East and in Vermont—over the next decades and centuries—they need better understandings of historic variability.” The kind of historic variability written in ten thin tubes of wood she and Chris Hansen will soon carry down the side of Camel’s Hump. UVM

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PHOTOS COURTESY OVR TECHNOLOGY

WHAT THE NOSE

KNOWS Story by Kaitie Catania

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reshly mowed grass. Warm white toast. Crumpled up wrapping paper that’s been ripped off a gift. The return of old clothes stored away for the season.

Whether or not these smells elicit a reaction from you, chances are you’ve experienced that quick waft of something so specific that it triggers a memory or emotion, or even brings you back to a place from your past.

For the narrator in French author Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (1913), it was a tea-soaked madeleine cake that sparked such a sensory overload, earning the phenomenon its nickname “the Proust effect.” For Sarah Socia ’17, vice president of scentware at Burlington-based OVR Technology, it’s not a madeleine cake, but a deep breath of crisp, fall morning air that takes her mind to a place of calm and comfort.

And it’s likely a sensation she’s already bottled up for others to smell and experience, no matter where they are. She’s contributing to a new Proustian-like form of virtual reality (VR) that targets mental health and wellness through the power of the olfactory system—responsible for scent—that’s where the “O” in “OVR” comes from.

“Without overextending the science here, in layman’s terms, smell does have a very powerful effect on memory and emotion. The sense of smell is the only sense directly connected to the limbic system, which means it has a direct neural pathway to the parts of the brain involved in memory, behavior, and emotion,” she explains.

OVR Technology combines hardware, software, and

The ION device from OVR Technology is designed to fit any head-mounted VR display

scentware to create fully immersive, relaxing virtual environments based in nature—a forest or a campsite, for example—that users can physically navigate and interact with. Using a device they developed, the ION, that attaches to VR headsets and houses scents in refillable chambers, up to nine different scents can be incorporated into OVR Technology’s virtual worlds.

“We have certain capabilities for interaction with different objects,” Socia says. “In our demo vignette, people are pretty amazed when they're able to pick a rose, bring it to their nose and smell it. At the bottom of the rose, there are roots and you can actually smell dirt.”

Their software places digital borders around objects in the virtual world both stationery and moveable, which inform the ION what scent to release and how much as the user moves about their surroundings. “At a campfire, for example, there’s an invisible geometry around the virtual campfire that makes it so that as you get closer to it, you actually smell it more—and as you get further away, you'll smell less,” Socia says.

on the market, attaching an interchangeable cartridge to the headset that houses up to nine unique scents at a time.

OVR Technology is changing the way we experience virtual reality with cutting-edge scent technology. Getting those scents as close to real as possible sometimes requires getting VP of Scentware Sarah Socia '17 out of the lab and into the real world. Here, she and a colleague travel to Mount Mansfield to sniff out the aroma of fern that will be used in combination with other scents like campfire, pine, and leaf to enhance a virtual campsite.

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OVR Technology creates complex scent environments in the virtual world by mapping out invisible scent geometries using their software plugin.

Left, the blue lines depict the scent geometries, directing the scent of smoke to waft from the box of matches in the virtual world, while the bouquet of flowers emits the smell of roses in a static cone shape around the flowers.

Right, a demo avatar introduces users to virtual worlds created by OVR Technology and guides them through vignettes that prompt users to engage with their surroundings by picking a rose, assembling a pizza, or roasting a marshmallow, for example, while experiencing tasks’ associated smells.

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Though she can’t reveal precisely how she sources and creates these realistic scents, she can say that they’re water—rather than alcohol—based solutions, which is how perfumes are made. The alcohol can be irritating and water helps with aerosolization. “Since our device creates microbursts of scent, your breath naturally clears away the smell. So, the scent appears and dissipates very quickly, which is what our device does very well.”

Aside from the obvious distinction between OVR and traditional VR experiences, the other major differences are its intent and availability. While traditional, commercially available VR headsets and experiences are largely designed for entertainment, OVR Technology was born in part to address a growing demand for cognitive therapies and stress management. The brainchild of a team of scientists, olfactory evangelists, engineers, and entrepreneurs—Aaron Wisniewski, Matt Flego, Sam Wisniewski, Erik Cooper, and Dave Stiller—guests of their OVR worlds tend to be individuals in need of a powerful tool to support mental health and well-being, usually in consultation with practitioners or researchers.

Though its primary purpose is overall wellness, OVR Technology has also been used in training and simulation for the military as well as for climate change education—which is a lot different than, say, a peaceful picnic by a babbling brook. When Socia designs scents for virtual environments, it’s critical she knows the desired outcomes, content, physical space, and context of how the client will use it.

“For example, smoke can elicit a certain feeling and is really dependent on the environment a person is in.

The smell of smoke in a campfire would be very different from the smell of smoke in a building,” she explains.

“It's very personal and subjective, and there are a lot

UVM MAGAZINE

of context clues that go into it. It's really about figuring out what smells would naturally be in the environment, and then just trying to add a layer of authenticity by adding in scents that may stand out for a particular reason, or that add to the level of what is called ‘presence and immersion’ in virtual reality."

And when that level of authenticity is achieved in intentional, natural environments, the product really does make a difference on mood and anxiety. In fact, a study by the UVM Medical Center builds on previous research affirming VR’s effectiveness as a “distraction for pain and medical procedures, relaxation and calming, and immersion therapy for trauma, PTSD and phobias” by testing it in a clinical psychiatry setting.

Led by integrative health expert and clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the medical center David Tomasi, the study offered weekly OVR sessions to voluntary participants of an inpatient psychiatry unit, in addition to their standard clinical care. Published by the Journal of Medical Research and Health Sciences, the study required Socia and the team to develop a relaxing virtual forest and campsite that patients could visit in eight- to twelve-minute sessions each week. The virtual environment came complete with a virtual tent, picnic table, fire pit, logs, and aromas of fresh bacon and toasted marshmallows.

“The OVR environment is an immersive, three dimensional, 6 DoF (Six Degrees of Freedom) environment in which the subject can freely move and interact with the virtual items presented therein,” the study explains.

Tomasi’s patients reported immediate and significant improvements to their anxiety, stress, and pain levels that lasted up to three hours after a session. In fact, when asked to rate their anxiety levels on a scale of one to ten—with one being the lowest and ten the highest—half of participants rated their levels as

either a two or three at the end of their sessions. In all, participants’ anxiety dropped a median of five levels after visiting the virtual forest.

“OVR allowed patients whose circumstances excluded them from physical activity and exposure to nature, to virtually experience physical activity in nature with similar sounds, sights, and smells to a real-world scenario,” Tomasi says. “Those similar sensations evoked memories and responses that reduced anxiety and improved mood, just as the real experience would.”

While the study was years in the making, it reflects data collected over a four-month span between September and December 2020, a critical point in the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing certainly was not ideal, Tomasi says, but the unlikely circumstance brought new understanding to the potential for OVR within the context of forced social isolation.

“The added COVID-19 restrictions, on top of an already very limiting situation for many individuals suffering with mental health disorders, presented a very difficult challenge to the research,” he says.

“However, we can say that precisely because of this situation, we were able to see how important this approach is to help mental health in general.”

Ultimately, Tomasi hopes to explore how OVR might be effective or retooled to aid those with mobility constraints or other physical disabilities with stress, anxiety, or other mood disorder symptoms.

So, how exactly does one become a vice president of scentware at an olfactory virtual realty company? “To be completely honest, I didn’t have a specific outcome in mind,” Socia says. For as unconventional as her job is, so too is the career path she took to it, first by entering UVM with a biological sciences major. “I ended up finding I was a lot more interested in the brain itself, PHOTOS COURTESY OVR TECHNOLOGY

how it functions, and how it’s part of our lives. I ended up quickly changing my major to neuroscience.”

It was in Professor Eugene Delay’s lab as a research assistant that she became familiar with chemoreception sciences—the way we understand the chemical world, including by smell and taste— while exploring how a chemotherapy drug affects the taste system. “Olfaction is actually around 90 percent of what you perceive as flavor,” she says of the close connection between taste and smell.

After UVM, she spent some time on the taste side of things, immersed in the Burlington restaurant scene as a sous chef when she first crossed paths with the self-proclaimed “olfactory evangelist” Aaron Wisniewski, with whom she helped make cocktail aromatics, beverage elixirs and mists by the likes of chocolate cake, English cucumber, bonfire smoke, and even tomato at his other olfactory-based business, Alice and the Magician.

“Everyone will always feel a certain way towards a smell and associate it with something,” she says.

Take Tide, for example. “Tide wasn't originally scented, but then they ended up rebranding it with scent in mind. Now when people smell Tide, they think clean and start associating that smell with something that's clean.”

And while OVR might not be something consumers can buy off the shelf as easily as Tide today, Socia is hopeful that the adoption and proliferation of virtual reality will become more ubiquitous and applied in innovative ways in the near future.

“Personally, I find a lot of value in this work because it really is interdisciplinary. And with the emerging technologies, it's really exciting to work on these projects and be part of it in a way that taps into the mix of both art and science.” UVM

Back on Mount Mansfield, Socia and OVR Technology CEO Aaron Wisniewski are capturing wildflower aromas for a new scent they’re developing in the lab.

Use the camera on your phone or tablet to watch Socia’s smells being put to the test.

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CLASS NOTES Life beyond graduation

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Send your news to— June Hoffman Dorion 16 Elmwood Drive, Rutland, VT 05701 junedorion@gmail.com Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Send your news to— Harriet Bristol Saville 1510 Williston Road, Apt. 11, South Burlington, VT 05403 hattiesaville@comcast.net

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Send your news to— Louise Jordan Harper 573 Northampton Street, Holyoke, MA 01040 louisejordanharper@gmail.com

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Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes Robert Green and his wife Barbara attended the graduation of their grandson Zachary Green ’21, a third-generation Catamount. Other family members attending were Amy Sue Green Gorodetsky ’82, Douglas Green ’85, and Zachary’s father, Michael Green ’86. Shirley Grice Pominville and Lindy Lindeman Millington, roommates at UVM for three years, continue to celebrate their seventy-two-year-old friendship, one that blossomed with their marriages and combined nine children. They are honorary aunts and uncles to each other's offspring, and during this past COVID year, Lindy and Shirley spent a fun, happy day together every other week. Between visits, they correspond with one another.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Matthew Baigell was recognized in the inaugural nationwide “16 Over 61” awards for exemplifying the values of the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan, New York, and of the digital newspaper, The Forward.

Over the last three decades, he has written seven books on aspects of Jewish-themed art by American artists, many articles, and co-edited two anthologies on modern Jewish art. Chuck Perkins and his wife Jann celebrated their 65th anniversary with a big party held on August 21 at their Burlington home. Chuck writes, “We are both in good health, and life is good. Our days are full of taking care of our 42 properties and traveling around the world.

This virus has slowed us down a bit, but we are still traveling by car as much as we can. We own properties in Florida, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as Vermont, so we keep on the go.” Alan Epstein lives in Demarest, New Jersey, where he has resided for over 50 years. He and his wife raised four children, one of whom is a UVM graduate.

Alan was a member of Phi Sigma Delta and spent his entire business career in finance. Class Secretary Thomas Gage had a friendly telephone conversation with Bev Chase Burke, who has lived in Hilton Head, South Carolina for the past 35 years.

Her husband, Jack Burke, passed away in May

2019. They raised two boys and have three grandchildren. Bev was a member of Tri Delta and wants to be remembered by all of her classmates.

Send your news to— Thomas Gage 49 Twilight Road, Bay Head, NJ 08742 thomasgage@verizon.net

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Class Secretary Jane Battles writes, “hoping all is A-Okay with all you, fellow ’55ers... At our age, not much we haven’t seen and endured as the world turns.

Where have the years gone? I’ve been the class secretary for 70 years. It simply cannot be! Stay well; keep moving! Enjoy each day! Hope to see some of you soon, and please send along your news.”

Send your news to— Hal Lee Greenfader 805 South Le Doux Road, Apt. 1, Los Angeles, CA 90035 halisco@att.net Jane Morrison Battles 200 Eagle Road, Wayne, PA 19087 janebattles@yahoo.com

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Send your news to— Jane K. Stickney 32 Hickory Hill Road, Williston, VT 05495 stickneyjane@gmail.com

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Susan Cochran still lives in Edgewater, Maryland, close to her family, including three great-grandchildren who delight her and her husband Carter as they grow. She is active in the League of Women Voters as an action chair and promotes action for the environment as much as possible. Susan was back in beautiful Vermont in early July at the home of her sister, Ann Wakefield Ohnmacht ’61, in Colchester. In August, her Burlington High School reunion was organized by classmates, including UVM Class of 1957 members John Adams, Rhoda Rosenberg Beningson, Joan Bugbee Boardman, and Suzanne Gurney Day. Ernest Sartelle is in good health and enjoys living with his granddaughter.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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| CLASS NOTES

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Ronald Downer is happy to report he and his wife survived the pandemic, and finally, their local bands have started rehearsing again. He plays trumpet and performs in three local bands. Ronald sends a shout-out to “keep happy” to all his classmates.

Arthur Tauber would love to hear from TEP classmates of 1958. He saw Stu Zeitzer in Boca Raton, Florida. Arthur runs a large business, Avanti Linens, and would like to hear from fellow alumni in the textile industry.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Send your news to— Henry Shaw, Jr. 7503 Still Hopes Drive, West Columbia, SC 29169 David E. Gregory, Sr. writes with recollections of the late Jack Ovitt, a friend from his UVM days with whom he had lost touch. David recalled that Jack was in Mr. Pooley’s first and second year Greek classes with him in 1956-57 and 1957-58 and was a marvelous organist. He remembers that Jack played the Hallelujah Chorus on the Ira Allen Chapel full pipe organ while he was talking with him. David adds, “I am presently 83 years old in excellent health, am a widower after having survived three marriages (two of them very good ones) and my 8 children have produced 23 grandchildren. I continue to practice my electrical trade, and live comfortably in West Columbia, South Carolina.”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Class President Louise Magram Weiner writes, “Greetings to all from usually sunny southwest Florida! Hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th, so we are paying close attention to the Weather Channel. Memories of Irma make us vigilant, but we know that sunny skies always return. I hope that, as the pandemic weakened, you have returned to doing the things you missed. It’s hard to believe that it has been 60 years since our graduation!” She looks forward to the next time classmates can gather at UVM. Steve Berry and Bob Murphy met last spring at the Black Cap café in Stowe. Both fully vaccinated against COVID-19, it was a celebration of “renewed freedom” after a year of essential lockdown. Despite having grown up about seven miles from one another in Vermont back in the 1940s and spending four years at UVM as engineering students (Steve in electrical, Bob in civil), this was their first face-to-face meeting. It was an enjoyable time, and both shared stories of their military, work, and social experiences, as well as their volunteer work since retiring. Steve was in Stowe to take advantage of a last week of skiing. Bob is looking forward to future get-togeth-

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UVM MAGAZINE

MAIL YOUR CLASS NOTES:

ers. The next day, Bob reported an 8.5 mile run with his running group, and Steve completed his 55th day on the ski slopes for the season. Liz Elkavich Wester and Bill Wester celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary in Maui with their family in early July. All had a great time. Cindy Beilig Bendelac and Kay Marino Strappiano enjoyed connecting with each other by phone during the COVID-19 lockdown. Julia Cass Kullberg is sad to report that her husband Eric passed away in October 2020 after a long battle with COPD. Since his death, she has sold their condo on Irondequoit Bay in Rochester, New York. She now lives in their condo in Clearwater, Florida. Julia shares that it’s a pleasure to take advantage of the diverse restaurants there again. Over the last year, Kathe Brother Allen and her Theta sisters Judy Morse Baxter, Caroline Tyler Nordquist, and Carol Suhr Gator have been staying in touch once a month via Zoom. They also included Rolly Allen.

After a year with no family celebrations, Kathe was together with the whole family, including David Allen ’90 and Tina Allen ’03, for a very festive Fourth of July week. Over the summer, she had many good times with new UVM friends who also have homes on the northern shores of Lake George.

Kay Frances Mingolla Wardrope shares that she’s survived COVID-19, but the aging process is giving her a challenge. She plans to spend at least part of the summer in Vermont, introducing her grandchildren to Lake Champlain and UVM. In Stowe, she visited her sister, Mary Ann Mingolla ’63, and her husband, Jim Whitney ’65.

Kay shares that “They are both doing well. For the time being, I am in Hollywood, Florida.” Woolson Doane reports that Pat M. Doane resides in The Harbor View Cottage, the Memory Unit of the Lincoln Home in Newcastle, Maine. This a consequence of progressive Alzheimer's dementia.

The home is a happy place for her. Class Secretary Steve Berry has a request: “If you are not getting the occasional email from me, it means I don’t have your current email address. Please send an update to me at: steveberrydhs@gmail.com. And thanks in advance for doing so!”

Send your news to— Steve Berry 8 Oakmount Circle, Lexington, MA 02420 steveberrydhs@gmail.com

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Patricia Gitt’s fifth novel was just released. It is a marital drama entitled What She Didn’t Know. Dave Irish graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked for GM in Rochester, New York, for three years on the Design and Development of the Quadra-Jet Carburetor. He then transferred to Ford Motor Co. in Detroit, where he worked for the next 33 years on carburetor design and development. In addition, Dave spent time in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with AutoLatino, on fuel injection systems.

He has been married for 46 years to his second wife, Cathie, a registered nurse. Dave has five children and seven grandchildren. He still loves tractors, country living, and cats. They live in Highland, Michigan. Jules and Ethelyn Lawes Older

UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES: alumni.uvm.edu/notes

’64 moved from San Francisco to New Zealand last year.

Send your news to— Patricia Hoskiewicz Allen 14 Stony Brook Drive, Rexford, NY 12148 traileka@aol.com

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Kae Dakin has been spending the COVID year in the little town of Oxford, Maryland taking a break from our nation’s capitol. She continues to consult with nonprofits on mission-driven fundraising and management. After over a year of not traveling, she is planning to take the whole family on a cooking vacation in Tuscany in 2022. She writes, “Hope all are well.” Allen Jenkins reports that he is still living in Braintree, Massachusetts (with a second home in Lovell, Maine) with his wife of 48 years.

They have two sons and three grandchildren. One son works for a large consulting company and the other is a professor of linguistics at Rhode Island College. He says, “We are still very active gym-wise, and travel-wise, and friendship-wise.” Phoebe Rodbart Kurtz has hopefully settled in her last house in Livingston, New Jersey. She spends her winters in Juno Beach, Florida. Her time is busy with oil painting, stone and wood sculpture, all things creative—and best of all her four grandchildren. Her daughter Alison, is a doctor and her son Andrew owns a trenching company. Although the last year-and-a-half has been “pretty much a lock down,” her art and classical music has kept her thankful and happy. Class Secretary Toni Mullins writes, “Greetings Class of 1963! While you’ll be reading your Class Notes in the beauty of all that is autumn, and it is certainly one of the more exciting and nostalgic seasons, in my opinion, I’m writing to you in the heat of the summer here on the coastline of Highlands, New Jersey. I grew up in this area. We went to the beach, yes, the beach, not the shore, every day, weather permitting. I continue to enjoy all that is Nature in this area, as well as teach Pilates, and dance in Pro/AM International Latin Ballroom competitions. Wishing you all happy, healthy days with lots of love and laughter.”

Send your news to— Toni Citarella Mullins 27 Lighthouse Point Road, Highlands, NJ 7732 tonicmullins@verizon.net

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Alan Brown writes, “In May this year I was honored to become the first recipient of the Distinguished Devil Award from my high school in Flemington, New Jersey (Hunterdon Central High School), as part of the wrestling Hall of Fame. We were the Red Devils and the Distinguished Devil Award is the highest level of achievement the Hunterdon Central Hall of Fame can provide. Needless

to say, being the very first recipient of this prestigious award was very humbling and flattering!”

Richard McLenithan recently spent a a wonderful family weekend in Stowe. A good time was had by all. Judy Ruskay Rabinor is publishing her third book, a memoir titled The Girl in the Red Boots: Making Peace with My Mother, that weaves together tales from her life and her psychotherapy practice, helping readers appreciate how painful childhood experiences can linger and leave emotional scars. She writes, “I woke up today thinking about a creative writing class I took with Betty Bandel, who was not only my writing professor but an incredibly memorable Shakespeare teacher. She and I stayed in touch for many years after I graduated, and it is with fondness I remember her today. My experience at UVM has played an important role in shaping my love of writing, which is why I am writing today.” Marilyn Rivero shares that she, “finally retired from the UVM Medical Center as a vascular access nurse in December 2019. During 2020 my family and I escaped serious COVID-19 illness due to the vaccine. We had many graduations this year. My granddaughter Maile finished high school in Colorado Springs and has a music scholarship at the Hawaii Pacific University. Another granddaughter Jasmine completed her classes at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. A third granddaughter Kristie finished at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I am very proud of them all. Just recently many in my family enjoyed time together at our annual Florida vacation on the beach. We also had a delicious food and wine tour in St. Augustine. I am looking forward to our next UVM Reunion.” Class Secretary Susan Barber writes that, “Fall has come to Vermont. It is beautiful, but time to close up ‘camp’ and go back to Massachusetts. The sadness of the summer was the death of our dear friend Norman Bohn. We have been friends for over 60 years and have spent fun summers in Addison, Vermont, on the Lake. We had many travels to tropical climates in winter and to Europe to visit Susan Weatherby Engbrecht and her husband, Ron. Summer in Vermont was not the same. Norman was predeceased by his wife Roxie Bohn, and their children Jessica and Christopher have worked with the UVM Foundation to place a bench near the Fleming Museum by the tree that was dedicated to Roxie upon her death.

If you were a friend, you can go and visit these two reminders. A celebration of life was held on September 18 at the Davis Center and was attended by family and friends.”

Send your news to— Susan Barber 1 Oak Hill Road, Harvard, MA 01451 suebarbersue@gmail.com

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Rose Beranbaum’s thirteenth cookbook—The Cookie Bible—is due to be published on November

16, 2021!

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Working together with the Emergency Physician staff at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Philip Buttaravoli recently completed the fourth edition of his medical textbook Minor Emergencies.

He is now fully retired and enjoying boating on the Chesapeake Bay with his partner Jennifer Berger Stanley ’68. Bob and Anne Ostrom have moved into a new home in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. They report that they often see Richard Tinervin ’68 and his wife, Gail, and that the four of them had a chance to visit with Jeff Hider ’66 when he visited the state.

Send your news to— Kathleen Nunan McGuckin 416 San Nicolas Way, St. Augustine, FL 32080 kkmcguckin@comcast.net

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David Modzelewski reports that Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers from 1964-1969 are working on plans for a reunion in Florida in late 2021. If you are interested in more information, please email Dave at davidmodz@gmail.com and you will be kept informed.

Send your news to— Jane Kleinberg Carroll 44 Halsey Street, Apt. 3, Providence, RI 02906 jane.carroll@cox.net

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Jeffrey Freeman reports that, “life in northeastern Tennessee is great; much like Vermont but without the extreme winters.” His tenth novel is now available: The Latina and The Drunken Guru. Coul-

man Trip Westcott recently retired after 42 years teaching math and science and coaching wrestling and skiing. He lives with his wife and a big black dog on a Vermont lake. He enjoys spending time with middle school age kids at sailing camp and helping them raise trout and salmon in their local classrooms. Congratulations to Jack Rosenberg, who was recently chosen by the Marquis Research Committee to receive the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Additionally, Jack was selected for the Maryland Fine Arts Street Scenes exhibition. Jack received the “Top Shot 21 Award” for the single photo that was viewed the most times. Anyone wanting to view Jack’s work can find it at my-2nd-life.com. William Schubart’s ninth book of fiction has just been released nationally. It’s titled The Correctional Facility and is illustrated by Jeff Danziger, G’74.

William descibes the book as, “a modern journey into Dante's Inferno and an exploration of the ensuing metastasis of evil.”

Send your news to— Diane Duley Glew 23 Franklin Street, Unit 2, Westerly, RI 02891 ddglew@gmail.com

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James Betts, MD’73 writes, “As I pen this note, we have just celebrated a glorious Fourth of July. California continues to bake as we are in a severe drought with this season's fires just beginning. I serve as a volunteer firefighter with the Big Sur Fire Department on my weekends away from the hospital. As our 55th Reunion (!) approaches in 2024,

It’s all about connections.

UVM is a special place that many alumni and students have a deep connection to. UVM Connect is your way to maintain and strengthen your ties to the University and its community.

Give back by mentoring others, stay up-to-date on UVM news and events, and gain access to unique career opportunities,

Explore. Expand. Experience.

www.uvmconnect.org FA L L 2 0 2 1 |

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| CLASS NOTES we can all reflect on the challenges and tragedies of the past 19 months. Although restrictions may be lifted, we all must be vigilant as the COVID-19 variants begin to spread throughout the country.

UVM has returned to in-class/on-campus sessions.

Hopefully many of us will be returning to campus for not only our reunion, but perhaps a social visit if we are in the area. New construction is rapidly progressing at the College of Medicine, as well as the athletic arena. There are a number of giving opportunities in scholarship, sponsored lectures, and general support. A UVM education prepared us well for the many varied careers we have pursued over the half century since our graduation. I would urge everyone to consider contacting the UVM Foundation to see what area might benefit from your philanthropy, at whatever level you choose. I hope to see an even better turnout for our 55th as we had for the 50th. When you read this, the glorious fall foliage will herald the passing of summer and anticipation of winter snows to come. Stay well everyone.”

Send your news to— Mary Moninger-Elia 1 Templeton Street, West Haven, CT 06516 maryeliawh@gmail.com

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Golden 50th Reunion Celebration June 10-12, 2022

Bruce Levine reports that he, “popped in for a delightful visit with Jon Schechtman at his Meeting House Restoration craft furniture shop

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in Quechee, Vermont. Prior to the pandemic, I had some interactions with Jeff Barnes ’69, another Phi Sig friend. My psychology practice in Hanover, New Hampshire, goes on, thanks to Zoom. I also have served as the clinical and quality officer for Counseling Associates, a large practice with mulitple offices. And yet... I am also slowing down and spending more time enjoying life with my wife Mary (ombuds emerita at Dartmouth College). My first wife, Ellen Freese Levine, died in 2016.” Lorraine Parent Racusen, MD’75 has received the Robert H. Heptinstall Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Renal Pathology Society. She is an emerita professor on the medical faculty of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she did her internship training in pathology and spent her professional career as a renal pathologist. She and her husband Richard Racusen, PhD’75 divide their time between their home in Maryland and a family home on Lake Champlain, with occasional visits to children and grandchildren in California. Paul Trono is happy to announce that the Class of 1970 will be holding its 50th Reunion the weekend of June 10-12 in 2022. “We will be celebrating with the classes of 1971 and 1972. More information to follow. Be sure to mark your calendars!” Barbara West was featured as a “Woman Who Runs Orlando” in the June 2021 issue of Orlando Magazine. Barbara is the co-founder of the American Fundraising Foundation (AmFund).

Send your news to— Douglas Arnold

11608 Quail Village Way, Naples, FL 34119 darnold@arnold-co.com

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Golden 50th Reunion Celebration June 10-12, 2022

Ed Borden shares that, “Barbara (Middlebury ’72) and our girls Emily and Meg spent lots more time at our cottage on Echo Lake in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom this year, an unexpected Covid upside for all of us. Some of the judges I appeared before by Zoom were quite jealous. Barbara retired last year after an early career as a banker and then 25 years as a special ed teacher. Meg is a nurse at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami and Emily was admitted to Ohio State Vet School in the fall after many years of hard work! I continue to enjoy the practice of law in my 20-lawyer firm, so I think I’ll keep that up until my young colleagues tell me to move on.” At the wedding of her son, Nick Pestone ’05, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Susan Campbell caught up with Mags Caney Conant’s daughter and her husband Eric. Due to pandemic delays, this was the fourth iteration of this event. Susan also notes that her younger son Evan and his wife had a son last September, “and I am beyond thrilled to finally be a grandmother. I am lucky to have both sons live within a short drive.” Deborah Standard Cook writes to share a “little summary” about herself and Tom Cook ’72 (who started as a member of the Class of 1971 but spent an extra year studying engineering and graduated in 1972). “Tom

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CLASS NOTES ONLINE

alumni.uvm.edu/notes tried to retire from being a water resources engineer during COVID-19 pandemic, but he actually took on more work, so retirement seems further away than ever. I spent the pandemic finishing my first novel, Parted Waters. It’s a political thriller and a cautionary tale set in a fictional town in New Hampshire. We have two children, Trevor and Whitney, and three granddaughters who keep them running from one soccer game to the next. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were avid travelers, and had just completed my bucket list item of visiting every continent. We can’t wait to get back on the road again as soon as things start opening up, but in the meantime we keep busy with the two preschools we co-own with our son and daughter-in-law. An ardent conservationist, I am working on several international biochar projects, and creating the Go Electric Project to encourage and incentivize residents in three South Shore Massachusetts towns to switch from fossil fuels to the all-electric home. Tom tends our vegetable garden, paints landscapes, and plays his trombone whenever he can.” Catherine Beinhauer Foss retired and closed her association management business in December 2020 after 40 years, most of them spent managing several international medical societies. She is now working with a colleague in Milan, editing a book on the history of plastic surgery, due out by the end of the year, and heading up a new PR/marketing division of a Swiss aquaculture company. “So much for retirement!” She also thanks Owen Jenkins for taking on the UVM Magazine co-secretary job for the class. Eugene Heiman writes, “I hope all our classmates and all alumni are well and have survived all the ramifications of the pandemic. I retired from my practice of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine in 2017 after 37 years—working and living in Houston, Texas and the surrounding area since 1980. My wife, Guyanne and I have started traveling again after a year and a half of being sheltered in place. We acquired a new motor home and enjoy hitting the road visiting kids, grandkids and friends. We intend to go to the 50th Reunion in June 2022. Stay well, and hope to see y’all there.” Leslie Carlson Warren, the Founder and CEO of CoSignCt has been recognized by Forbes on their “50>50 List” which spotlights women over 50 who are leaving a positive and lasting impact on the world. Leslie’s husband, Greg Warren (a member of SAE fraternity), passed away several years ago after a long illness. Leslie and Greg were married for 40 years and had two children. Class Secretary Sarah Sprayregen writes, “Greetings from Burlington and thanks to so many of you who sent in notes following the spring UVM Magazine issue!

Nancy Heckman Blasberg has moved across the street from me. I just learned this great news

when I was about to host our 50th Reunion Committee meeting, so Nancy was quickly invited to serve on the planning committee with Mags Caney Conant, Liz Mead Foster, Annie Viets, Maypo Milowsky, Richard Cate, and me. As you have heard from UVM’s recent emails to our class, our BIG BASH will be held with ’70 and ’72 classmates on June 10-12, 2022. This weekend is set aside for just us to really celebrate our 50-year anniversary! Please send notes to Owen Jenkins and me, and check out the 50th Reunion website where you/we can document memories of our days at UVM.” Send your news to— Sarah Wilbur Sprayregen 145 Cliff Street, Burlington, VT 05401 sarahsprayvt@gmail.com Owen Jenkins 98 Wally’s Point Road, South Hero, VT 05486 wojenkins22@gmail.com

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Golden 50th Reunion Celebration June 10-12, 2022

Jacquie Hall Mitchell writes, “After an insane year of isolation, we consider ourselves lucky and can now be together again with friends and family. My daughter has a house in Cornwall, Vermont and we are there a lot.” Sarah Sprayregen ’71 received a note from her UVM roommate Mimi Polisner Lipson saying, “2020 was not a good year as I lost my husband, Al. We, and now I, have been living in Fort Myers, Flordia since November 2015. I am now getting close to moving back to Portland, Maine to be near family.” David Holton and his wife Michele have made a $1 million estate gift that will be split evenly to establish two new endowed funds in the Department of Athletics. The first will support the general purposes of the department, and the second will provide annual scholarships to varsity student-athletes from Vermont who have demonstrated both financial need and academic merit, with preference for members of the men’s basketball team.

David and Michele have been steadfast supporters of UVM Athletics for decades and are regulars at home basketball and hockey games. David played shortstop for the UVM baseball team from 19681972 and earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He now serves as president of The Essex Agency, a firm specializing in commercial insurance. He started the business shortly after graduation with two fellow student-athletes, George Kreiner ’70 and John Hynes ’69.

Philip Lahar says, “I just got back from a 10-day visit to Los Angeles to see our son and his wife, Nick and Saba, and their 2 year old, Vesper, and her one-year old brother, Chase. We went on a odyssey to see mid- and coastal California. We saw many diverse agricultural regions, the Sequoia National Park, the General Sherman (the world’s largest tree), Yosemite Park, Monterey, Carmel, Pismo Beach and the Coastal Highway, which presented us with spectacular views of steep inclines down to the Pacific Ocean.” After a 30-year hiatus,

Paula Reeder returned to Vermont for a two-day fly fishing course at Orvis and a hawk walk at the Green Mountain Falconry School (both in Manchester). She highly recommends both experiences and loved being back in Vermont!

Send your news to— Debra Koslow Stern 198 Bluebird Drive, Colchester, VT 05446 debbie2907@gmail.com

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Cindy Schwingel Nelson would love to hear from members of UVM’s Experimental College Program. Judy Strong Peterson shares that she, “finally retired in January 2021! I loved my job as President of UVM Home Health and Hospice (the VNA) but I decided to retire while I’m well and active. It’s an adjustment, but I’ve discovered two new loves: pickle ball and golf!” After sporadic contact throughout the decades, 10 of the 13 freshmen women of the Class of 1973 who lived on the fourth floor of Mason Hall reunited by Zoom in early 2020. The gathering was such a hit that they have held monthly zooms ever since, reinforcing and deepening the strong bonds of friendship that they initiated 52 years ago. They are eagerly awaiting an in-person reunion. Sadly, their beloved friend, Dr. Linda Rubin, passed away in 2016 in Orlando, Florida where she owned and operated a veterinary practice. The group would love to hear from their other freshman-year floormates, Chris Post and Sandy Corey. Here is a quick rundown of what the Mason 4 gang has been up to over the past 48 years. After a 34-year Federal Government career in aviation, Terri Brown Smith Bingham and her husband are happily retired in New London, New Hampshire.

She volunteers with numerous local organizations and enjoys cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, kayaking, gardening and travelling with her husband.

After starting her career in audiology in Houston, Texas, Sharron Smith Close earned a PhD and became an assistant professor at Emory University’s Woodruff School of Nursing where she has a practice in pediatric genetics. Sharron and her husband Lanny live in Atlanta where she maintains her interest in theater and the arts, and enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren and goldendoodle, Willoughby, named after beautiful Lake Willoughby in Orleans, Vermont. Nancy Cooke worked in international development for 31 years at the World Bank. After retirement, she took up assignments in Beijing with the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the start-up team for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland and enjoys spending time with her sons, travelling, and taking advantage of Washington DC’s arts and educational resources. Heather Hitchcock Gabso married Gary Gasbo ’71 right after graduation. Gary’s job with IBM sent them to New York City; Austin, Texas; Colorado Springs; and finally, Boca Raton, Florida—where she taught elementary school for 29 years until her retirement in 2016. They have two children and five grandchildren. Regrettably, Gary passed away in 2020. Leslie Greenhalgh is retired from the Cleveland Clinic Reproductive FA L L 2 0 2 1 |

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| CLASS NOTES Endocrinology Section, where she was a women’s nurse practitioner. She lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio with her husband, Kurt, and enjoys spending time with her children, grandchildren, and the local arts community, as well as volunteering, hiking, biking, and travelling. Susan Greenhalgh began her career at UVM in the Controller’s Office and the Continuing Education Department before transitioning to a 30-year consulting career specializing in finance and management analysis. Now retired, Susan and her partner John Page ’72 divide their time between South Burlington, Vermont and Englewood, Florida where they enjoy windsurfing, biking, rowing, sailing, and gardening. Susan Conant Greenlee and her husband Bob Greenlee ’71 raised their two sons and daughter in City Island, New York, where Susie designed children’s clothing, co-owned and operated an educational toy and bookstore, and, in 1994, took over fulltime management of Bob’s medical practice. They moved to Block Island, Rhode Island in 2015 where two of their three children and a grandchild live nearby. Susie works part time at Block Island Medical Center and in an art gallery. Leanne Greene Jezerski is enjoying her retirement after a 43-year career in the medical technology field. She loves gardening, reading, and being able to go on spontaneous adventures. She and her husband, Jim, live in Dudley, Massachusetts. Barbara Levine earned an MSW in 1975 and worked in the field of organ transplant and organ donation for most of her career before retiring in 2017. She and her husband live in Lexington Massachusetts, and she has three stepchildren and seven grandchildren. She is actively involved in folk music and dance, playing the hammered dulcimer and other instruments.

After 48 years of corporate moves and assorted teaching positions, Linda Hoban Smith and her husband Gary have settled into the art community of Santa Fe, New Mexico. They enjoy frequent visits from their two sons and their families while enjoying the “Land of Enchantment.”

Send your news to— Deborah Layne Mesce 2227 Observatory Place N.W., Washington, DC 20007 dmesce@icloud.com

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Catherine Wood Brooks writes to say how misguided she believes the discontinuation of the UVM Historic Preservation Program is. As former director of the Rokeby Museum, and prior to that, Cultural Heritage Tourism Coordinator for the Vermont Department of Tourism, she has, “experienced first-hand the many remarkable contributions this program has had on Vermont’s historic built environment” and its residents. Melanie Choukas-Bradley continues to lead nature, history, and forest bathing walks for Smithsonian Associates and many other organizations based on her books, including Finding Solace at Theodore Roosevelt Island, A Year in Rock Creek Park and The Joy of Forest Bathing.

Jeri Golovin Gillin shares that she has retired from Providence College, where she was a member of the elementary/special education depart-

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ment. “I was a teacher for 47 years, having taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. I know that it will be an odd experience to not be going back to school in September for the first time since I was five years old! I am looking forward to spending more time with our family and friends. We continue to reside in Worcester, Massachusetts and to summer in Deer Isle, Maine.”

Paul Kenny sold his Engel & Volkers Luxury Residential Real Estate franchise in Sun Valley, Idaho and will now concentrate solely on his commercial real estate business. Steve Rice G’77 is enjoying his retirement in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

He and his wife of 41 years, Anna, enjoy walking the nearby beaches. Steve also is writing again. He would love to hear from former classmates at swinner123@aol.com. William Spina MD’78 reports that he is, “Still working part time, living off the grid in the Northeast Kingdom on 150 acres. Have a granddaughter now, age two.” He says he would love to hear from Nancy Howard Baker ’73 and Pam Howell.

Send your news to— Emily Schnaper Manders 104 Walnut Street, Framingham, MA 01702 esmanders@gmail.com

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Susan Blum now offers physical therapy both in Arizona and her second home in West Philadelphia. She treats infants and children with all diagnoses as well as adults with complex musculoskeletal conditions. Paula Cope G’83 writes to say that UVM Rescue will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. “I’m calling on all Rescue alums to come back for the celebration. The original crews are still in touch and we hope to all be there. Stay tuned for official information.” During their annual gathering in New Hampshire, Chikago International completed plans for their eighth European excursion, including the original 1975 post-graduation trip.

The itinerary, laid out meticulously on the inside of a pizza box, will include Amsterdam and Belgium, and will take place in September 2022. Present at the planning session were Scott Baldwin ’76, Fred Bussone, Alan Dimick, Bill Dillon, Fred “Chico” Lager, Bert Anderson, James Thomas, Mike Cronin ’74, and Steve Gendren. Heather Logan shares that after retiring from the field of education, she has returned to Maine. “I am the director of a small community library in Cundy’s Harbor. Living on an island salt marsh is quite the departure from life among southern Utah’s remote canyons and mesas.”

Send your news to— Dina Dwyer Child 102 North Jefferson Road South Burlington, VT 05403 dinachild@aol.com

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Andrea Casey reports that her daughter got married last July on Catalina Island in a private ceremony due to the pandemic and her son is getting married on Oahu in August. “There are some positive things about COVID,” she notes. Averill Cook is “enjoy-

CLASS NOTES ONLINE

alumni.uvm.edu/notes ing life here on the farm in Williamstown, Massachusetts,” and would, “welcome anyone who would like to come visit.” Glenn Fay recently published Vermont’s Ebenezer Allen: Patriot, Commando and Emancipator. The book chronicles the polarized climate in the colonies between Loyalists, Natives, and Patriots, and the hardships of settling in unceded wilderness. Ruth Feldman writes that, “It may be a tad earlier than we had originally planned, but I’m delighted to let folks know that my wife and I have relocated from Connecticut to our home on Cape Cod. Finally living at the beach full-time.” Andrea Mastrocinque-Martone shares, “May 20, 1976, was graduation day for UVM’s Class of ’76. That was the last time we would all be together as students and friends, but far from the last time we’d be together at countless Reunions. So here we stand, 45 years removed from the yearbook photo version of ourselves. ‘We can never go home again,’ wrote famous American novelist Thomas Wolfe. Not so. True, we may not be the same people today as we were when we roomed at Harris-Millis, Redstone Campus, or when we wore denim bell bottoms, cute appliques and flared sleeve tops and clogs. Not surprising, we’ve all moved on. But speaking as a class reunion organizer, I know from experience that we can go home again in another sense, just as we have been doing every five years since our UVM graduation of yesteryear.” Andrea, Skip Beitzel, and Margie Stern-Hackett are trying to keep a mailing list of class members up-to-date, so drop them a line at uvmclassof76@gmail.com. Mark Soufleris is enjoying life in Vero Beach, Florida where we spends lots of time golfing and hanging out with his grandchildren. “Life is great,” he says.

Send your news to— Pete Beekman 2 Elm Street, Canton, NY 13617 pbeekman19@gmail.com

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Andrea shares that she and her husband, Peter Bonnar ’76, celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary with a trip to Vermont that included a walk around the “much-expanded UVM campus” during the first week of June. They met in the hallway of Waterman Building in 1973. After being in his own private practice of hematology-oncology in the Atlanta, Georgia area for more than 38 years, Allan Freedman MD’77 has retired. “Many factors went into the decision, but the most important was input from my wife, Paula, who reminded me that at nearly 70 years old I was in good health and I shouldn’t wait until I was 80 years old and in bad health. I truly loved medicine, and these years were deeply fulfilling and rewarding. However, there are many interests and projects which will keep me occupied, including spending more time with our daughter, Mindy, who lives in New York and works

at Kleinfeld Bridal where she appears on their TV show Say Yes to the Dress. I look forward to re-visiting Vermont and rekindling many fond memories.” Kurt Haigis spent the summer solstice with Paul Low III ’80 and Jane Low ’80, G’90, Sam Cutting ’80 and family on Sam’s Tartan 34 sailboat. They were celebrating Summer Sailstice, an event created 21 years ago by UVM alumnus John Arndt ’79. Susan Jewell is the injurious wildlife listing coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She regulates invasive wildlife as federally injurious to prohibit their importation. She has been with the Department of the Interior since 1990. Her extraordinary commitment to herpetofaunal conservation was recognized recently with the 2021 National Award for Excellence in Herpetofaunal Conservation by Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation. Su lives in northern Virginia. Barbara Burdett Parton reports that, “The COVID-19 pandemic pushed me to retire from a 20-year career as an acupuncturist for people with cancer and terminal illnesses. Although I still occasionally treat friends, I am enjoying being retired. My partner and I are in our house on the coast of Maine this summer enjoying golf, kayaking and gardening. We look forward to traveling when it is safe to do so.” William Shakespeare reports, “Tina Willette Shakespeare ’75, G’81 and I have become grandparents to two boys with the birth of Raoul MacIntyre Shakespeare and Oliver Enzel Shakespeare-Sarlin in December and January, respectively. Our kids, Nick and Justine, are happy and healthy with their boys. I finished hiking the long trail this spring and had a safe winter teaching skiing in a mask. Still running Shakespeare’s Folly Side Farm and AirBnB.” Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Carl Barnett retired from Fidelity Investments to reflect and renew old friendships. He says, “Let’s get in touch.” Elizabeth Feidner Boepple writes, “I am delighted to share news about my move to the law firm Murray, Plumb & Murray in Portland, Maine, where I will continue my environmental, energy and land use practice for clients in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. And on another note: a big shout out to all my fellow UVM theatre alumni who I’ve loved seeing via our Zoom play readings throughout the pandemic!” Judy Cram enjoyed getting together in Vermont this past July with music alumni from the Class of 1980: Alan Rowe, Judy Tomasik Cramb, Deedee Gould Burritt, Janis Throckmorton Berg, Bob MacWilliams, and Issac Patch III. “It was fun to reminisce, catching up on the last 41 years of life!” In January 2021, Peter Murphy was named planning and design coordinator for the Commission de la capitale nationale du Québec in Québec City, Canada, where he and his wife Carole have been living for over 30 years and where they raised their two boys Xavier and Adrien. As such, he will be working with a multidisciplinary team on the design and restoration of historic parks, buildings, public spaces and monuments which are tied to Québec City’s identity as the provincial capital.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Residents of Buckham Hall third floor 1977-1978 congregated on July 24 at Emerald Lake State Park in East Dorset, Vermont. Present were Matthew Beck and JoAnne Silver Beck; Brenda Burnham ’83 and Dave Fay; Jan Crawford Hennessy and Dave Hennessy; Bill Karbon and Melanie Call; Maureen McLaughlin ’80 and Gary Gaines; and Gretchen Gannon Paulsen ’83 and Marshall Paulsen ’82. Dave Hennessy reports that, “All decamped for a mid-summer night in the sumptuous gardens at Joanne and Matthew’s home. A wonderful dinner was reinforcement by conversation, comradery, and conviviality.”

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Jamie Fagan shares that he and his wife Katie now have three grandchildren. “Two were born during COVID lockdown and all are healthy. We see John Carter ’81 and his wife Annie Carter often.” Jamie still works at J. P. Morgan. Paul Leventhal says that he’s, “very proud to have watched my son graduate from UVM in the Class of 2020. He loved Burlington, made loads of friends and got a great job after graduation. Congratulations to the 2020 grads.”

Send your news to— John Peter Scambos pteron@verizon.net

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While visiting her mother Adele Kaye Cohen ’49, Marjorie Cohen got to spend time with “very great” old friends Stan Przybylinski, Chris Angell ’79, Sue Spies, and FaceTime with Libby Carney Manahan. “It felt like we were all back at UVM. Such a pleasure to see old friends. Facebook also lets us see more people and stay in touch. Our reunion was such a gift to the soul!” Bill MayoSmith writes that when his son Andrew ’12 was married earlier this year, two generations of UVM graduates were present, including Ben Barash ’11, Lisa Ritchie Brown ’78, Lynn Black ’74, Colin McIntosh ’09, and Carson Lemieux ’13.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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John (Jake) Bedford reports that he has moved to Naples, Florida.

Send your news to— Beth Gamache bethgamache@burlingtontelecom.net

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| CLASS NOTES

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Elise Swicegood Brown has recently relocated from Philadelphia to Tucson, Arizona, where she continues working as a public relations consultant and is thrilled to be nearer to fellow WRUV alumna Dena Yasner ’86. Gabby and Don McCree hosted a gathering for classmates and friends in Sunapee, New Hampshire in July. Among the guests were Paul Butler, Andy Goodman, Steve Reinecke G’89, Ken Oasis, and David Spector. As Larry Miller (aka “Young Lawrence”) emerges from the pandemic and stares down six decades of life from his suburban New Jersey enclave, he is comforted by his Paterson Hall and 28 Church St. roommates, his frequent Vermont ski trips, and occasional Decentz and Jon Gailmor tunes gracing his Spotify playlists.

Send your news to— Lisa Greenwood Crozier lcrozier@triad.rr.com

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John Bartlett ’82 laments the discontinuation of UVM’s varsity baseball and softball programs in 2009, and sends congratulations to his teammate and friend Bill Currier ’84, head baseball coach at Fairfield University and Metro Athletic Association Conference Baseball Coach of the Year. Bill was UVM’s coach when the program ended, and this year led Fairfield to a 39-5 season and NCAA Tournament bid. Samuel and Laurel Jung are pleased to announce the birth of their first grandson, Daniel Burton Jung, who was born in November 2020. The two proud UVM alumni are looking forward to eventually spending some quality time with him. They wonder, “could there be a future Catamount?” Derek Bellin and Colleen Wise report that they “stuck the landing” and moved to Boulder, Colorado three years ago with three dogs and a horse when daughter Eleanor went off to the University of Rochester. Derek is associate vice chancellor for academic affairs in the Office of Advancement and was recently appointed interim vice chancellor for advancement at the University of Colorado Boulder; Colleen is director of heart and vascular interventional services at University of Colorado Health on the medical campus of the University. “Pandemic aside, we’re still hiking, skiing and living large in the west. Peace.” Andrea Van Liew is a partner and core consultant with Global Learning Partners whose mission is to bring research-based best practices to adult learning.

Send your news to— Abby Goldberg Kelley kelleyabbyvt@gmail.com Kelly Marie McDonald 10 Lapointe Street, Winooski, VT 05404 Shelley Carpenter Spillane scspillane@aol.com

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Charlie Greeff writes that he’s, “loving life in Portland, Oregon with wife Eva and daughter Bethany (21

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years). Still running distance and loving wilderness trips; hoping to reconnect with any UVM alums from the mid-1980s who may be in my neck of the woods.” Michele Frostick Lapp and Philip Lapp MD’90 report that they are thrilled that their daughter Caroline Elizabeth has just started her third year of medical school at Netter School of Medicine in North Haven, Connecticut. Laura Moylan and Brooke Janney ’87 met at UVM 34 years ago, and have been married for 20 years.

Mitchell Stone, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, has been awarded the G. Kirk Haas Humanitarian Award by the Florida Bar for his work to safely reopen the court system to ensure for the fair administration of justice during the COVID-19 pandemic. After getting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing last fall, John Sullivan accepted a new job at Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego as an operating room nurse this past June.

Send your news to— Barbara Roth roth_barb@yahoo.com

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Helen Condry writes to say, “I am excited to move to South Carolina to begin a new position at Charleston Southern University teaching nursing. I am also anxiously awaiting the publication of two research articles, one in Clinical Simulation in Nursing and another in American Nurse. In the next year or two, I will be Dr. Condry after completing a PhD!” As a member of Cazimi, a creative collaborative, Emily O’Hara and two other artists wove a mural for an interactive public art project that was displayed this past summer called Andover Weaving: Rebirth and Renewal. She is an artist, holistic nurse entrepreneur, and a master’s degree candidate in integrative health and healing at the Graduate Institute for Holistic Studies. Steven Meyers MD’86 and Barbara Weber MD’87 took part in a Backroads Bicycle Tour through Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket with group leader Sean Kopetz ’17.

Send your news to— Lawrence Gorkun vtlfg@msn.com

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Dara Hillis sends the following message. “Hello Class of 1987. It’s hard to believe that 34 years have gone by!

My wish is for rebuilding this year: for you, family, work, environment, health, and happiness. Living in New York City—with the past two summers on the Oregon coast—I have been focusing on building my ceramic footprint (museummileart.com) and hopefully will be venturing into a private studio in the next six months. Enjoying time with my husband (Brad) and dog (Abby). Hope to be visiting UVM in the fall/winter!” Julie Sussman Izsak and her husband Len have been living in Bedford, New Hampshire since 2006 with their two boys. Their oldest son, Sam, will be a Catamount this Fall in the Class of 2025 and she is excited to visit Burlington frequently. Julie’s father-in-law Dr. John Izsak

’58, MD’63 is also a proud UVM graduate. Bruce Klein writes, “This past week I was hanging with UVMers in Burlington, with my good friend Steve Burt on Church Street and with my fine long-time friend Rich Woodward on the golf course (he beat me—chips like a pro). Great fun—first time back since college (better late than never).” Jennifer Mongeon and her sister Rebecca Mongeon ’88 own and operate Ginger & Ginger Tours. This small tour company takes people on casual and fun tours of Ireland, Iceland, and Scotland. They invite all Catamounts to check out their upcoming trips.

Send your news to— Sarah Reynolds sarahreynolds10708@gmail.com

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Frank Goudsmit sends the following update: “As I was preparing to graduate from UVM 33 years ago, a letter offering me an insurance underwriting trainee position at Chubb arrived. To a greater extent than I could have ever imagined, it changed my life. I will retire from Chubb on June 1, 2021. The past 33 years have been an incredible journey. My immediate goals are to spend post-pandemic time with my 90-year old mom, volunteer with organizations I’m passionate about, invest in commercial real estate, audit college courses, camp and hike state parks across the Midwest, and enjoy family, friends, theater and travel.” Edward Kim has been living in Connecticut for the past 20 years with his wife and two kids, and has kept in touch with most Sig Ep brothers.

Send your news to— Cathy Selinka Levison crlevison@comcast.net

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Nathalie Ames and Meg Terry McGovern met up in Gloucester, Massachusetts and went fishing. Meg caught a huge 47” striped bass. Nathalie is currently living on a ranch in Mesa, Colorado.

She has been selling real estate for over 25 years and looks forward to eventually spending more time “out East.” Living/Learning suitemates Jennifer Laden Carpenter of Fairfield, Vermont, Deirdre Hayes of Dalton, Massachusetts, Bonnie Greaves Bellavance ’88 of Cabot, Vermont, and Janette Chicoine Roberts ’88 of Jericho, Vermont recently got together in Jericho to catch up and enjoy some laughs and memories. Donald Fox is “super excited” to report that his daughter, Caroline, will be attending UVM beginning this fall, and that he “can't wait for visits to Burlington to see her.” Judith Oestreicher has been an instrumental part of the success of the Moderna COVID19 vaccine as a director of BioMarker Operations.

In this role, she manages the strategic communications between Moderna COVID-19 vaccine testing sites and the labs where the results are tested worldwide. From here, Judith is in charge of interpreting this data to determine whether the vaccine is effective or not. Robert Shire is expanding his chiropractic practice in Westchester, New York by joining the Blum Center for Health in

BACK ON C AMPUS Alexander Nemerov ’85, Author In his latest book, Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York, Alexander Nemerov ’85 examines the life and work of the twentieth-century painter across the decade when her art was emergent and at its most vibrant. But long before he put pen to paper for this book, the author and his subject crossed paths in Vermont. Born in the state in 1963, Nemerov was the son of poet and professor Howard Nemerov, who taught Frankenthaler at Bennington College.

Beyond that distant connection, Nemerov, chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University, did not dive deeply into her work until 2016, when he stood before her 1958 painting “Hotel Cro-Magnon” at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

ROB RICHMAN

He recalls gazing at it longer than all of the other works in the museum combined. Soon after, he wrote a piece that attempted to capture what had transfixed him.

Noting that Frankenthaler’s work is often celebrated for its freshness, Nemerov says, “What I understand that freshness to represent is the experience of life unfolding, what we call lived experience—seeing Lake Champlain change color, feeling our feet on the grass as we look at it. She was portraying life as lived and turning it into representation before it could become fossilized, petrified as a kind of semblance of itself.”

In the introduction to Fierce Poise, considering not just Helen Frankenthaler’s life but all of our lives, Nemerov proposes: “The

moments of a day’s existence are often a homely combination: a pigeon waddling on the sidewalk, an overflowing trash can, the bright white shirt and black glossy hair of a passerby. Focused on bigger things, larger goals, we learn to ignore such ephemeral experiences. But who is to say that fragile sensations do not carry their own weight, that they do not amount to a rich record of who we are, who, indeed, we will have been?”

On April 6, Nemerov sat down with Fleming Museum Director Janie Cohen for a virtual discussion of his book and the life and art of Helen Frankenthaler.

To see a recording of this event, hosted by the UVM Alumni Association, visit go.uvm.edu/nemerovtalk.

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Rye Brook part time. He has also has launched a keynote/motivational speaking program about “how to transform your stress using Mother Nature’s tool book to become a happy healthy human.” Learn more at drrobshire.com.

Send your news to— Maureen Kelly Gonsalves moe.dave@verizon.net

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Dan Beaupré recently launched One Giant Leap, a production and consulting company that creates transformative educational experiences, memorable events, and new media to empower and inspire children, ages 5-95. Dan and family are thrilled to be back in Middlebury, Vermont after living in Washington, DC for seven years. Kathryn Morse spent the Fourth of July weekend with Laura Molony Chevalier and Tim Chevalier who have “realized their dream to become Vermonters again!” They moved to Ferrisburgh last November after living in Massachusettes since they graduated from UVM. Stephen Parento reports that, “after spending a post-graduation night in Burlington with my nephew Joe Parento ’21 and his fellow graduates, I can attest the UVM party spirit is still very much alive and kicking. And now with my niece Bella Parento ’24 on the team, I’ve turned into a complete UVM Women’s Hockey team junkie. Follow the team on twitter at @UVMwhockey. Go Cats Go!!”

Send your news to— Tessa Donohoe Fontaine tessafontaine@gmail.com

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Robin Beers and her husband Gary took a magical trip to Athens and Santorini, Greece in July. She says, “It was heavenly to travel, meet new people and enjoy the gorgeous Aegean Sea.” Joe Bellavance is proud to announce that Bellavance Beverage recently completed construction of a new 142,000 square-foot distribution facility in Londonderry, New Hampshire that is 100% powered by the state’s largest rooftop solar array—AND his daughter Grace is a freshman at UVM this fall!

Carl Brody ’91 and Rebecca Krieger Brody ’92 are excited that their daughter Jill Brody ’24 is at UVM. Matthew Conway has moved with his wife and two daughters to Dublin, where he has begun a new job with Children's Health Ireland, which oversees the pediatric hospitals in the country’s capital. Anya Boyd Koutras is an associate professor and physician of family medicine at the Larner College of Medicine and the University of Vermont Medical Center. Keeping the family tradition at UVM strong, her daughter Grace Koutras ’25 started in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences this fall, joining her older sister Lydia Koutras ’22 who is in the College of Arts and Sciences. Susan Langenheim writes that she enjoyed a lovely couple of evenings catching up with UVM roommates in the Berkshires. Eric Patel has been recognized by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, Archdiocese of Boston with the St. George Award for outstanding con-

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tributions to the spiritual development of Catholic youth with the Boy Scouts of America. Kevin and Stacey Spillane are thrilled to announce the arrival of their first grandchild, Beckett Davis Conroy. Beckett, son of Taylor and Will Conroy, was born in July 2021. Shaunda Wenger writes, “I’m so excited to share news of the publication of my debut children’s book: Chicken Frank, Dinosaur!

Full of humor and packing a few surprises, this story explores evolution, extinction, and the scientific method as Chicken Frank tries to convince his barnyard friends that he really is a dinosaur. And a special shout-out to Ian A. Worley, professor emeritus of environmental studies and plant biology, for encouraging me to pursue both of my passions as I graduated from UVM: science and writing for children. My dream of publication is finally happening!”

Send your news to— Karen Heller Lightman khlightman@gmail.com

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John Niles reports that he is enjoying his second summer back in Vermont, visiting family, friends, and secret swimming holes—and eating maple creamees. Anne Phyfe Palmer and her family plan to sail a Pacific circuit on their 42’ Wauqiuez Centurion named “Sweet Adeline.” They hope to sail down the West Coast to Mexico, then cross to the French Polynesian Islands (if borders open), and return to Seattle via Hawaii, Alaska, and British Columbia. Anne’s second book, This Family of Ours: A Keepsake Journal, was published in September. Learn more at annephyfepalmer.com. Anne Lamb and Courtlandt Pennell write to say that that they are “spending the summer back in Vermont this year, enjoying this amazing state. Colorado has been where we have been calling home the last nine years, but the Green Mountain State is never far from our minds. Our daughter Cece Pennell is a member of the Class of 2022 and her sister Marin will also be graduating in 2022 from Dartmouth. Oldest sister Claire (Montana State University, Class of 2021) has been converted to a Rocky Mountain Kid. Have seen lots of UVMers this summer—Timothy Waite, Christopher Robbins, Anne Lamb, Adam ’92 and Allison Hubbard ’95, Andy Kahn, Deb Tauber, Dede Drouet, to name a few. Looking forward to a good reunion next fall. If you are a ’92 and reading this, you should come back!” Josh Peters is switching state agencies out west. After seven years as steward of state-owned aquatic lands with the Washington Department of Natural Resources, he will manage the Habitat Protection Division of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He says that his environmental studies degree from UVM is “the gift that keeps on giving!” Josh has called the Pacific Northwest home for over two decades, yet he still pines on occasion for the Green Mountains of Vermont. His oldest daughter got accepted this year to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, so it is possible that regular visits to New England will be on his itinerary over the next few years.

Send your news to— Lisa Kanter jslbk@mac.com

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Send your news to— Gretchen Haffermehl Brainard gretchenbrainard@gmail.com Send your news to— Cynthia Bohlin Abbott cyndiabbott@hotmail.com

Christopher Sargent writes that he graduated from the University of Maryland Global Campus in December 2020 with a Doctor of Management in Community College Policy and Administration. His dissertation focused on addressing student performance gaps in online courses. He currently works as a program manager and instructor in workforce development at Lake-Sumter State College in Florida. Class Secretary Valeri Pappas shares that Edward Boettcher was visited by Jonathan Pullis ’94 and Zachary Lipman ’94 at his home in Bend, Oregon, where they skied epic powder at Mount Bachelor by day and enjoyed wonderful fine dining, champagne, and wine at night.

Send your news to— Valeri Susan Pappas vpappas@davisandceriani.com

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Grey Lee, who got married in December to Emily Rideout, a professional violist, recently visited with Adam Hyde ’97 and his wife Kaye Jones to check out his old barn to see if it would be a good reception venue (since social events have been delayed these past many months). Grey works at S&P Global managing ESG business development for the northeast US and is teaching two courses on sustainability at the Harvard Extension School this fall. Kaye is editing a book by UVM professor emerita of environmental studies Stephanie Kaza.

Christopher Muir writes, “After losing my job in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am now crushing it after joining the Crushr team in Edison, New Jersey and now help save customers money and meet their carbon emission reduction targets by reducing the frequency that a business’s open top dumpster waste is hauled to the landfill.”

Send your news to— Jill Cohen Gent jcgent@roadrunner.com Michelle Richards Peters mpeters@eagleeyes.biz

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Send your news to— Elizabeth Carstensen Genung leegenung@me.com Send your news to— Ben Stockman bestockman@gmail.com Send your news to— Sarah Pitlak Tiber spitlak@hotmail.com

C ATAMOUNT NATION

Fashion Able Mindy Scheier ’93 Have you ever peered cheerlessly into your closet, packed so full of clothing and exclaimed in exasperation, “I have nothing to wear”? This complaint is no hyperbole for people with disabilities, for whom the struggle goes beyond merely keeping up with the latest trends. That’s where Mindy Scheier ’93, founder of the Runway of Dreams Foundation, is hoping to effect a sea change. She’s making inroads in convincing the fashion industry to pay more attention to the disabled community, the largest minority population in the world, and help make adaptive clothing as commonplace as plus- and petite-sizes.

Scheier (third from left) says that even as a little girl she had a penchant for everything chic, but her real sortie into style began 32 years ago, when she came to UVM to major in fashion design. She spent more than 20 years in the industry, working on the design team for the INC collection and as a stylist for Saks Fifth Avenue, without ever being exposed to adaptive design.

Until the day her son Oliver, who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, asked for a pair of jeans just like his friends’.

As Scheier sat at her kitchen table ripping apart and retooling a pair of jeans

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that would fit over her son’s leg braces and allow him to use the restroom independently, she had an epiphany: there are many others like Oliver who struggle with zippers, snaps, buttons, and constricting fabrics.

“I felt that I was in a unique position to take my background and have a small goal—and I say that with a lot of sarcasm—of changing the fashion industry to be inclusive of people with disabilities,” she says.

Scheier embarked on a year of intensive research on modifications that would meet the disparate needs of the differently-abled, from those in wheelchairs to those with autism or limb differences.

“I had focus groups and surveys. I spoke to anybody that would talk to me. I went to facilities and hospitals and got a very good understanding of the commonalities between vastly different disabilities and clothing challenges,” she says. “So by the time I approached the industry, I really knew what I was talking about and had some solid data behind me.”

And the fashion gods listened. Following its launch, Runway of Dreams partnered with Tommy Hilfiger on the first mainstream adaptive clothing line for kids. Other major brands like Nike, Kohl’s, Target, and JCPenney have since added an adaptive category to their offerings.

Runway of Dreams now awards scholarships and summer internships

to students who are advancing adaptive design and to those with disabilities who wish to pursue careers in fashion. The foundation also offers organizations serving people with disabilities wardrobe grants for the purchase of adaptive apparel. In 2019, Scheier created her second venture, Gamut Talent Management, to provide individualized talent management representation to people with disabilities for television, film, or commercial appearances, as well as product development consultation. Scheier says she hopes these endeavors help to give more visibility to the disabled community, whether it’s in the entertainment industry, on runways, or living everyday life in clothing that’s both functional and fashionable.

“I really feel that we are rebranding who people with disabilities are in the public eye,” she says. “Between the two entities, I hope that within the next five years, people with disabilities will just be considered people! People who have different abilities, different-shaped bodies, but are considered the same as everyone else.”

Scheier is the 2021 recipient of the UVM Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award, given annually to alumni with outstanding achievements recognized at the local, state, or national level. If you would like to make a nomination for the 2022 award, please visit alumni.uvm.edu/awards22.

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Stay Home, Stay Safe Lyndia Downie ’82 As government leaders began to issue “stay-at-home” orders to stop the spread of COVID-19, Lyndia Downie ’82 knew that the population she serves—those experiencing homelessness in Boston—would have no such luxury. As president and executive director of Pine Street Inn, the largest homeless services provider in New England, Downie was accustomed to managing minor crises every day. But facing the challenges posed by the pandemic, including high rates of infection among the homeless community and decreased shelter capacity in Boston, proved to be the darkest days in her 30 years with the organization.

But Downie and her dedicated staff persisted. And with more threats looming, like the fallout from lost unemployment benefits and the potential end of eviction moratoriums, they are forging ahead. In January, Pine Street brought on about 200 additional beds for the winter and instituted universal testing and mitigation strategies across their four locations in Boston, which brought the infection rate from an alarming 36 percent down to 2 percent, well below the rate of the general public.

They’re also working with partner organizations to expand permanent housing to homeless individuals, including creative solutions like converting former hotels and nursing homes into studio apartments.

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“Housing is the answer to homelessness. Everything else is temporary,” says Downie. “We are going to put our resources and our execution into finding, developing, building, whatever it takes to find more housing. And then supporting people so they can hold on to that housing.”

Pine Street continues to offer a comprehensive range of services to thousands of homeless men and women each day, with a goal of helping them achieve stability and permanent supportive housing as quickly as possible. Downie has led a paradigm shift away from short-term sheltering and toward affordable, permanent supportive housing. Her strategic approach in coupling housing with other support services—like access to medical doctors and mental health professionals, job training and skills development, and substance use treatment and recovery services—has been the key to her success in not only reducing homelessness in Boston, but sustaining it over time.

“I am so inspired by our guests and tenants who have been through so much,” says Downie. “And when I get a chance to sit down and talk to someone and hear the story of how they ended up here and how badly they want to get out of shelter and off the street, it’s inspiring. And it’s what keeps me coming back.”

Downie is the 2020 recipient of the UVM Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award, given annually to alumni with outstanding achievements recognized at the local, state, or national level. If you would like to make a nomination for the 2022 award, please visit alumni.uvm.edu/awards22.

COURTESY PINE STREET INN

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Kirsten Fox G’00 has been named the executive director of Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society, an organization that recognizes college seniors for their exemplary scholarship, leadership, and service. Boston law firm Casner & Edwards, LLP announces that Brian Haney has joined the firm as a partner in its Litigation and Employment Groups. Brian earned his JD from Suffolk University Law School. Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, Vermont has recognized Larissa Hebert as its “Teacher of the Year,” especially for her work with the school’s student-run school paper, The Mercury—the longest continuously running school newspaper in the state of Vermont (since 1930).

Maggie Macdonald and brother McKee Macdonald accepted the coveted Eagle’s Ridge Statuette from Coldwell Banker on behalf of their company Coldwell Banker Carlson Real Estate in Stowe.

The award recognized the agency’s 2020 achievement as the top Coldwell Banker office in North America with ten or fewer sales associates.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Alicia Kozma’s most recent book— ReFocus: The Films of Doris Wishman—was recently published

by University of Edinburgh Press. Alicia is chair and assistant professor of communication and media studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Vermont playwright and author Joy Cohen G’02 has stayed very connected to the UVM community throughout the years, as a grad student, mother to Dylana Dillon ’06, and as an adjunct professor. She is pleased to share that her debut novel, 37, has recently been published.

She describes the book as a, “genre-blending novel that combines contemporary fiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, short stories, and magical realism” that centers around a strong female protagonist from Vermont who is on a journey of self-discovery. Eric Smith and Amanda Starbuck have reunited and are now neighbors in the great town of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Eric recently met up in New York City with Alex Thibadeau for a night of bar-hopping and dancing.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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David Chappelle G’09, Ian Eirdosh ’01, Ryan Loso ’01, David Parsons, and Lowell Thompson ’03 gathered at the Chittenden Brook Hut in the Green Mountain National Forest in May for an unofficial 20-year reunion. They report that, “songs were sung, walks were walked, experiences were had, and laughter and love were shared.”

Send your news to— Jennifer Khouri Godin jenniferkhouri@yahoo.com

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Liam Murphy has accepted the role of director of people technology at Illumina, a biotechnology company in La Jolla, California.

Send your news to— Korinne Moore Berenson korinne.d.moore@gmail.com

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Brittany Maschal has released her first book with co-author Emma Wood: The Complete College Essay Handbook. She describes it as, “a no-frills, practical guide that will give students the confidence and know-how they need to craft the best college admissions essays for every single school on their list—in less time and with less stress.” It is available on Amazon. Matt McGrath writes, “I have spent the last 15 years building labor and community organizations in Vermont. Most recently, I was the lead union organizer supporting the 1,350 UVM staff who voted overwhelmingly for their union.

Very proud to give back to the University community (particularly the staff) in this way.”

Send your news to— Kelly Kisiday kelly.kisiday@gmail.com

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Brian Leaman encourages any UVM alumnus struggling with alcohol or drug addiction to email him at brian.leaman@gmail.com. He writes, “I have, and know, resources from my own experience. I’m not a paid rep nor do I recieve remuneration in any way, shape, or form. I’m just a grateful alum willing to give back. Just know you’re not the only one.”

Send your news to— Kristen Dobbs Schulman kristin.schulman@gmail.com

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Amanda Broder’s children’s book publishing company, Ripple Grove Press, was acquired by Chicago Review Press in May 2021. Elizabeth Delsignore earned a master’s degree in nursing education and has accepted a position teaching full-time in the nursing department at Worcester State University in Massachusetts. Andrew Root G’06 graduated from UVM with an MS in Mental Health Counseling and now lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two children. Aside from his extensive work in community mental health, he has written two picture books: Hamsters Don’t Fight Fires!

(Harper Collins) and Nerdycorn (Simon & Schuster). For more information about Andrew, visit andrewrootbooks.com.

Send your news to— Katherine Murphy kateandbri@gmail.com

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Amanda Sanfilippo Long and husband Justin Long of Miami, Florida welcomed daughter Pearl Margherite Long in June 2021. Amanda graduated with a BA in Art History and English and is currently the curator and artist manager for Miami-Dade County’s Art in Public Places Program. Clyde McGraw

CLASS NOTES | and Alexis Penkoff McGraw welcomed daughter Riley Laura this past spring. Big brother Trip is excited to have a little sister to play with. The family of four resides in Washington, DC where Clyde is the senior director of real estate investments and development for Sunrise Senior Living, an international developer and operator of senior living communities. They say, “It would be great to see you in DC or Burlington sometime soon!” Luella Strattner was named as an “Emerging Leader of Southern Vermont” for 2021 by Southern Vermont Young Professionals and the Shires Young Professionals. She has also launched her consulting business, Facilitating Emergent Realities Now (F.E.R.N.).

Jennifer Sullivan G’07 graduated from UVM’s Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration Master of Education program. In April, she completed her EdD at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Her dissertation is titled, “The Impact of Orientation Programs on New Student Engagement and Transition.”

Send your news to— Elizabeth Bitterman bittermane@jgua.com

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Steve Aimi and Janelle Dawson Aimi ’09 welcomed twin girls in June 2020: Harper and Elizabeth.

They join older sisters Siena and Sloan. Steve is a practicing veterinarian and purchased the Spencerport Country Vet (in the Rochester, New York area) in January 2020. Abby Frazier joined the faculty at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts as a geography professor this fall. She earned her MA (2012) and PhD (2016) in Geography from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa studying climate variability in the Pacific Islands. She is originally from Vermont and looks forward to being back in the Northeast. As the executive director of CONNECT, Lydia Morin is leading a local government regional climate action planning process for southwest Pennsylvania, including the City of Pittsburgh and more than 40 other municipalities.

She would love to hear from alumni, students, staff, and faculty doing similar work with local governments at lydiamorin@pitt.edu. Benjamin Porter graduated from the Marquette Trinity Fellowship at Marquette University with an MA in Political Science. This graduate fellowship program is dedicated to developing urban leaders with a commitment to social and economic justice. After graduating, he was hired as a health equity program officer at the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Chelsea Wessberg writes, “my wife Chrystal Wessberg and I wish to announce the birth of Norah Joan Wessberg born in July 2020.” Norah joins a brother who was born in the spring of 2018.

Send your news to— Elizabeth Bearese ebearese@gmail.com Emma Grady gradyemma@gmail.com

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Katie Krawitz has now been working for Yale University for 10 years in their Animal Resource Center as an animal technician. She has worked hands-on with many different animal species over the years, including non-human primates, mice, rats and armadillos. Alex Young, his wife Lynsey, and their first child Payton Rae, welcomed home a second child, Mackenzie Leigh, in early July in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Send your news to— David Volain david.volain@gmail.com

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Megan Beck Bates and Dennis Bates were married on July 17 at Megan’s parents home in Poestenkill, New York. Samuél Lopez-Barrantes is an author and professor of creative writing at the Sorbonne, and has recently started his own company of literary and intellectual history tours of Paris. Covering subjects ranging from the Enlightenment to Hemingway to James Baldwin to the May 1968 student protests, Samuél is also an online lecturer at Context Travel. Find out more at samuellopezbarrantes.com. Alex Robbins was hired as director of community relations by the 2019 World Series Champion Washington Nationals in January of 2020. This followed four years as the community outreach director for Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly. In his new job with the Nationals, Alex is responsible for overseeing the team’s educational initiatives, as well as assisting with government relations in the DC metro region.

Send your news to— Daron Raleigh raleighdaron@gmail.com

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Casey Cullen-Woods has joined Mace Group, a global consultancy and construction firm, as head of North American sustainability, headquartered in New York City. Robin Donovan Bocchiaro and husband Chris welcomed baby boy Calvin into the family in February. Shawna Rambur Iula reports that she recently earned a PhD in Education, with a focus on motivation in foreign language studies. “I am still teaching German at the University of Rhode Island and have a one-year-old boy named Mikey!” After meeting at UVM 11 years ago, Brett Silverstein and Caitlin Chapman of Colorado were married on June 27, 2021 in Vermont surrounded by close family and friends. UVM attendees included Mike Prevoznik G’12, Jessa Donnelly Prevoznik G’12, Melissa Croteau Long, Dani Tompkins, Dylan Fitzsimmons, Dan Guttman, and Seth Weiland.

Send your news to— Troy McNamara troy.mcnamara4@gmail.com

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Jireh Billings, Jr. of Woodstock, Vermont married Micaela Keane at the Church of the Resurrection, with a reception at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, on June 25. Jireh’s brothers, Nathan-

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iel ’13 and Calder ’15 were the best men. Emily Meltzer and Philip Bruno were married on June 12, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. They were surrounded by close friends and family including Norah Foley, who officiated the wedding, Karah Lothian ’11, Meaghan Veysey ’11, Nathan Tirk, and Emily Bradshaw ’13. After completing her MEd through the North Cascades Institutes immersive graduate program, Kay Gallagher has moved back to Vermont with Ben Ardel after four years of exploring Washington state. After quite a year of big changes, they were also excited to get married in August. Brittney Haynes has lived in Connecticut since graduation. She operates five businesses with her family, including Haynes Communications, LLP. She has also shown art in five galleries. Troy Norman published a children’s book entitled Pull Yourself Up by Your Booty Boot Straps? The story follows a young boy and his sister as they explore the phrase “pull yourself up by your booty boot straps.” They eventually discover that the only way to “pull yourself up” is with family and friends who are always there to lend a helping hand. The book is available in both eBook and print formats.

Send your news to— Patrick Dowd patrickdowd2012@gmail.com

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Joe Siebert and Sarah Bryan were married on September 11 in Lyons, Colorado. Amy Falcao has been working in the environmental health and safety industry and was recently promoted to an EHS consultant at Triumvirate Environmental, a company UVM has partnered with in the past. Amy works with a variety of clients, mostly colleges and universities, to ensure the safety of workers and environmental compliance in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She also leads a committee on developing and supporting women at the company. After living for 6 years on-and-off in Paris and Russia, Rebeka Foley is now living in the Austrian Alps, working remotely as an energy analyst. She is planning to move to Edinburgh, Scotland to work in renewable energy. Emma Cappello Henderson graduated with her MS in leadership with a focus in human resources leadership from Norwich University in June 2021. Jason Katz recently moved to New Haven, Connecticut from Philadelphia for a new job as a psychiatric nurse at Yale New Haven Health. He’s still in near-daily contact with fellow Catamounts Benedict Duffy, Rafi Stevens, Josh Hammond, and Julian Smith, and is looking forward to reconnecting with old UVM friends. Morgan Gray Ledo married Nicolas Ledo on June 12, 2021 in Danville, Vermont. After meeting 10 years ago in Wright Hall, Hailey Stern and Jesse Wiener eloped in Sedona, Arizona on April 6, 2021. They live in Philadelphia, where Hailey works as a city planner and Jesse is pursuing his PhD in Chemistry at Temple University.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Melanie Schwed and Mateo Melendy met on the third floor of McAuley Hall their freshman year, and after ten years together they returned to Vermont to tie the knot on the top of Mount Mansfield in July. Julia Dwyer married Chris Crane on June 12, 2021 in Falmouth, Massachusetts accompanied by loved ones, family, and—of course—UVM friends!

Stephanie Nelb writes, “I’ve moved forward with a passion of mine and have launched a life coaching business to help millennials create happier, more fulfilled lives! You can learn more at uplevelwithsteph.com” Send your news to— Grace Buckles Eaton glbuckles@gmail.com

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Kaitlyn Vitez has started a new position as government relations officer for the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in Washington, DC. The AAUP is the national affiliate of United Academics, the UVM faculty union.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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On April 23, 2021, Aaron Early married Caitlin Beaudet ’18, G’19 at the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden, Vermont. Molly Falkowski graduated from William James College with her doctorate in clinical psychology in May 2021. Molly will be pursuing her post-doctoral studies at Salem Hosptial in Salem, Massachusetts. Akshar Patel G’16 has been promoted to managing director of the Kaplan Family Institute For Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at Illinois Tech in Chicago, Illinois. Stan Walden writes, “In a moment of clarity in late 2019, I realized it was time to give my dream of becoming an architect a real chance. I am thrilled to being starting a Master of Architecture program at The New School’s Parsons School of Design in August 2021.

Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Evan Leonard is starting his third year teaching at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Ian McHale has started a new job as a COVID-19 data analyst for the New York City Department of Health. Antonia Nichols is the service learning coordinator at Antigua International School in Guatemala. She says, “This position has brought lots of sunshine and volcano views!” Several alumni attended the wedding of Nikole Szentkuti and Kurt Steidl in Dripping Springs, Texas in May. They included Melissa Cooper Steidl ’83, Earle Brown ’20, David Urso ’18, Derryk O’Grady, Drew Urquhart ’18, Ethan O’Day ’16, Everett Duncan ’19, Kristina Payne ’19, Darren Payen, Cara Broderick ’20, Ernie Duncan ’19, Cam Ward ’18, Caleb Breslin, Dre Wills, Josh

Speidel ’20, Katie Lavelle ’18, Emily McCormack ’19, Dani Rocheleau ’18, Nate Rohrer ’18, Kristina Keiran G’21, Tricia Kinns ’16, Lauren Keiran ’16.

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that she was recently promoted to assistant store manager at Kohl’s in South Burlington, Vermont.

Alice Matthews was awarded a Fulbright study/ research award to Vienna, Austria for 2021-2022.

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In July, Felix Torres finished his oneyear tenure at the New York Times and began his role as a fellow in the Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program, where he hopes to write as he studies and works in Germany.

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Lilac Blau Shapiro and Carter Shapiro ’20 were married on March 1, 2021 at the town offices and library in Vernon, Vermont. They were joined by their two closest friends, Annie Hutchings and Greg Doyle, as witnesses, wedding party, photographer, and stylist (respectively). The couple met as undergraduates and hold a very dear place in their hearts for UVM and Burlington, where their love began. They are extremely excited to be moving back to Vermont in early September. Mallory Curtis shares

Hannah Antonellis shares that after graduating in the pandemic, she was fortunate enough to start working at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Research as a clinical research assistant. She says, “I work with children who have congenital upper limb differences which has proved to be inspiring and rewarding.” Camille Evans spent July 2021 in Roncesvalles, Spain with Aditu Arkeologia excavating an ossuary believed to have been built in the 12th century or earlier. Camille hopes to pursue a master’s degree in forensic archaeology in the coming years. Madeline Glow has been working at the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) as a rotating environmental engineer since June 2020. Gretchen Groves has been a systems engineer at HighRes Biosolutions since October 2020.

Other UVM alumni at HighRes include CEO Ira Hoffman ’99 and Director of Human Resources Lee Merrill ’71. Kyle Kratochvil is working

at RegentAtlantic in Morristown, New Jersey.

RegentAtlantic is an registered investment advisor, and Kyle helps high net worth clients secure their financial future and work through complex issues such as estate and tax planning. Ashley Ladue graduated from UVM after completing an internship with Easterseals VT in the spring of 2020 and then was hired as a full time family engagement specialist in June 2020. Kate Paterson has been selected as the 2021 “State Star” of the Vermont Small Business Development Center. The annual award celebrates a member of the organization’s team for exceptional commitment to small business success. Paterson was honored at the America’s Small Business Development Center national conference in September.

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| IN MEMORIAM 1942

1943

1945

1947

1948

1949

1950

Carol Bell Locke Frederick H. Webster Dorothy Franklin Cole Elizabeth Bacon Oberg Marian Stoughton Perky Harry G. Twitchell Jean MacKenzie Campana Doris Rindler Wolfe Crystal Malone Brown Joyce Flynn Douglas Phyllis Hogel Elizabeth Pierson Barret Theodore Battles Florence Davis Beard Marion Belville Hazelton Glennon B. Hill Joan Sheehey Pfeifer Betsey Alexander Zane Arthur Adelbert Heald Jane Smith Long Betty Comstock Prevost Novello E. Ruggiero MD’52 Edward S. Sherwood MD’49 Allen James Greenough Jack K. Hinman G’56

1951

1952

Morton I. Kaufman Frederick William King Loretta Howrigan Magnan William W. Marsa Manuel A. Piro Barbara Perry Wood George Nichols Andrews Joan Banghart Buck Donald P. Clark Leo F. Johnson Lorraine Bushey Johnson Paul J. Klimm Joan Chapman Martin William Harry McCarthy, Jr. Marilyn Ormsbee Piro Robert Kenneth Schryer, Sr. Raymond B. Vescovi Mervyn F. Willey Bernard W. Belsky Clark Bothfeld Maurice Dean Caswell Ruth Huntsman Cozzens Virginia Yankowski Gurdak Robert K. Nelson Erma Roy Parker

1953

1954

1955

Irving Edgar Pulsifer, Jr. Lawrence Hugh Reilly Saul M. Spiro MD’56 Netta Engel Tudhope Phyllis Gillman Wittner Josephine Norton Berger Maurice Charles Dastous Susan Atwood Day Ronald S. Duncan William S. Finberg David B. Gaylord Charles Francis Gross Edward William Handley Lawrence B. Perry MD’53 Constance Carpenter Reilly Warren Smith Virginia Moffatt Zahner Bruce G. Bailey Donald M. Crofut Donald Bush Cutler Clement P. Nadeau Susan Hoag Nolan Joan Allaire O’Brien Veneta Proctor Roebuck Elaine Kurz Brooks FA L L 2 0 2 1 |

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| IN MEMORIAM

1956

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Nancy Nott Covell Adrianne Elliott Cowles Richard W. Cowles Janet Lawson Hutchins Richard Allen Lewis Marjorie Rowell Norcross Olin D. Samson MD’58 Nancy Collins Schmidt Evan A. Sweetser Nancy Ehrhardt White Gordon C. Blanchard G’58 Patricia Clements Brown James Howard Burbo G’58 Margaret Purinton Crouter Lee D. Hitchcock Shirley Swingler Kouba Atty. John T. Manning Marie Desranleau Medlin John B. Wilder MD’56 Edwin Leon Bevins Clifford G. Cole Gayla Schildhaus Halbrecht William G. Lee Berkeley J. McLaughlin Gardena Davison Paquette Frances Howes Paris John Kenneth Prushko Chester M. Smith Jr. Anne H. Wilson Edith Bell Baker Demetrios Balderes Cheryl Hemenway Cook Patricia Doherty Denmead Donald S. Edmunds Marcella Webbe Elliot Carol Bremer Ferland C. Scott Gilman Thomas F. Lovett G’63 Judith Graves Mace G’83 Charles J. Murphy Marilyn Cozzi Murray William Pickens, III Joyce Slade Strom Judith Umpa Zingg John C. Bacon Deborah Serotte Berson Peggy Williams Cardwell Everett Walter Coffey Shirley Long Demetrules William F. Hartigan Leroy G. Meshel MD’63 Donald J. Nimphius Mary Arnold Peabody G’89 Richard F. Stockel Donald E. Adams Charles R. Brinkman, III MD’60

UVM MAGAZINE

1961

1962

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1966

Theresa Benoit Carman Susan Herman Case Allyn J. Foss Frank E. Giordano Richard H. Gottlieb Paul D. Marble Jane Olive Page Patricia Elaine Seaver G’73 Helen Mason Trieb Robert C. Coleman Neil E. Cross David H. Garbutt, Sr. Raymond P. Gendron John A. Myers John A. Vaillancourt MD’61 Stephenson S. Youngerman, Jr. Valerie Foster Bucher James E. Buswell Emily Heil Conway Barbara Beattie Hunter Mary Ramaccia Knox Peter J. Lakis Virginia Johnson McMains Lance P. Meade Dominic Peter Parlato Stanley L. Teeter, Jr. John J. Tomasi, Jr. June G. Vecchiolla William D. Burke Barbara Brunjes Creaser Abraham N. Daudelin, Jr. Gerald L. Evans MD’63 Frederick P. Hobin MD’63 John B. Morse John R. Pratt Joan Sandfort Swartz James Francis Agan Sandra White Alexander Michael P. Benway, PhD Norman W. Bohn William M. Burke MD’64 John P. Centonze Linda Cummings Deliduka Norman L. Duby, Jr. Roger C. Ingoldsby Karen Levinson Mindich Janet Rousse Watson Chester J. Bogacz, Jr. John A. M. Hinsman, Jr. MD’65 Helen Amsden Loverin William Thomas McGrath G’71 Andre R. Nadeau James W. Roche Margaret M. Thompson Sue Smith Aiken Robert P. Cronin

1967

1968

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Hon. Sandra Elstein Feuerstein Lawrence P. Meacham, Jr. George R. Bedell Allen F. Blaine Lynn H. Bottum William Richard Comstock Maria C. Cunningham-Genier Clement Louis Deforge Doris Champine Hoare Tomas R. E. Landmann John Edmund McCullough, Jr. Edwin M. Norse Marion Robinson Paris Mary Lamb Crowe Herman R. Hoops, Jr. Jeanne Wile Merrill Marjorie Morton Morton Lawrence B. Myott G’92 Ruth Monteith Padgett Joan Kistler Senecal Robert Bradley Stewart Nicholas P. Rumsey G’77 Patrick Jerome Sheeran K. Edward Balentine Craig L. Bensen Thomas L. Bickmore Peter L. Danziger Jon B. Elwell Michael A. Lanoue Andrea Lisle Miller George T. Taylor Frederick W. Brown John D. Clewley G’66, G’71 Gary V. Cole Bernice Prager Edelstein G’75 George Richard Eisele Charlotte Ely MacLeay Cheryl Ann McDonough Judith Cochones Nardelli John Charles Phillips Fulton Mills Gregg Lawrence W. Kull Bruce Alan Martell Robert Francis McNergney Malcolm Pope G’72 Linda Robinson Unger Terrence Dinnan Norman Douglas Fajans Sandra Quimby Menard Susan Williams Parmer George Carl Roberts Patricia Curd Sudek Deborah Mary Taft Celeste Truskolawski Denis Raymond Vaillancourt Douglas Jay Wolinsky

1974

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John Howard Cahill Mary Jane Giardi James Edward Little Susan Elizabeth May Leon Alan Perkins, Jr. CPT Albert Joseph Bernasconi Michael W. Brace Shirley Perkins Bullard Mary Page Hatstat Marilyn Cook Hyde Ronald Thomas Laszewski Joseph W. Moore Nancy Witt Mulick Ruth Ellen Gans Douglas S. Jefferson Nancy Heymann Jones Gail Preston Knope Lucille C. Leamon Richard H. Leff Susan Lee Maywood Marian Helen Merchant Betty Taylor Peck Margaret I. Phillips Kenneth A. Russell Warren A. Williams Nancy Virginia Stone Lynn Marguerite Granger Sharon O’Leary O’Laoghaire Ann Crittenden Livingston G’78 David Anthony Ugalde Elan Van Ness

1979

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Bonnie Lee Carpenter Steven Paul Kirkbaumer Judith Bennett Leffler David Bartlett Lindsay Barbara Anne Smigiel Bret Crawford Arnesen Janet P. Brown-Wolff Craig Anton Hampl G’83 Dolores V.E. Scanlon John Thomas Snyder Lynn Surprenant Rachel Pivin Thibault G’86 Edwin A. Rudd Alan David Knapton John Stephen Mascatello John Henry Ronan Bruce Roger Bonner James Brooks Porter Patricia Carole Barberi Edward Fredrickson Farmer James R. Haven John Louis Spaulding Amy Joan Staples William Patrick Hovey David Keith Lloyd Tracey Lynch Meaney Terrence William Sehr Joanne Skinner Brickley Sandra Shiroky MacGillivray Rose Bullock Morgan Lise Currier Key

1989

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2010 2015 2017

Wendy Smiley Lewis Joseph A. Murray Renee Isabella Vukas Kevin Raymond Hannon James Allan Hickey Melanie Sue Joslin Tammy Ann Strauss Katy Berard Leonard Paul Francis Allaire Vera S. Gaetano Joseph Garofalo, III John Dwight Bradway Susan Lukasiewicz Bolster Lora Phillips Gray Jeffrey John McNulty John Madison Perry, III Michael John Burrage Stephen Todd Bowden Sharon Jones Decoste Lea Kilvadyova James McGarry Maureen Agnes Elliott Amy Elizabeth Sobel Scott T. Fusare Michelle Ann Miles Sarah Emily Goddard Christopher Adam Hugo Andrew Brendan Jennings

| UVM COMMUNITY Henry Livingston ’80 sends the sad news that Ann Crittenden Livingston G’78 died in April 2021. Ann was hired in August 1972 as an administrative assistant to the dean of the UVM College of Engineering, Mathematics and Business Administration. She rose to the position of Assistant Dean of Student Affairs for the College, a role which she filled until her retirement in 1993. During her time at UVM she participated in a local section of the National Association of Women in Education, as well as Vermont Women in Higher Education. She also chaired a task force on “Campus Community” focused on improving the student experience at UVM.

Kathryn Thorndycraft-Pope shared the sad news that Professor Malcolm Pope G’72, “died in January 2020 very suddenly and peacefully at our winter home in La Cala de Mijas, Spain and was buried in the cemetery of our main hometown of Stonehaven, Scotland.” A native of London, England, Malcolm came to UVM to earn a doctorate in biomechanics, then joined the faculty. He was Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UVM from 1972 to 1994, and for the last six years of that time was the McClure Professor of Musculoskeletal Research.

As a student at UVM in the late 1950s, William “Bill” Pickens ’58 gained experiences that would serve him well throughout his successful career as an Air Force officer, businessman, and influential volunteer with numerous regional and national non-profit organizations. Bill, who died in September, was recognized by UVM in 2009 with an honorary degree and was featured in a 2021 Davis Center display as one of the University’s most prominent African-American graduates. His legacy at UVM includes the Pickens African American Collection in the Silver Special Collections Library.

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| EXTRA CREDIT

The Scoop on Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Use the camera on your phone or tablet to read more about Ted and Rhino Foods.

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UVM MAGAZINE

The tale of Ben & Jerry’s humble beginnings in a converted gas station on the corner of St. Paul and College Street in Burlington is a Vermont classic. Laughably large chunks of brownies, chocolate fudge, cookies, and the like set them apart from other scoop shops of the time. But what put them on the map was a customer’s anonymous flavor suggestion that came to fruition: chocolate chip cookie dough.

Since then, every bite of cookie dough that’s ever been used in any of their ice creams has come from Rhino Foods, a Burlington-based frozen sweets manufacturing business owned by wife Anne ’74 and husband Ted Castle ’74, the creator of the famous edible cookie dough. And much like the iconic duo behind the three-part-mission ice cream company, Castle operates Rhino with a bigger picture in mind than just the bottom line.

What began as Chessy's Frozen Custard—a mom-and-pop custard shop in Winooski—has transformed and pivoted again and again with Castle at the helm, eventually supplying Ben & Jerry’s

with the brownie batter and cookie dough that would be baked and incorporated into their ice creams at the shop. But it was luck that put him at the right place at the right time during a delivery to the Ben & Jerry’s research and design lab, where he saw a box of his cookie dough cut up into little pieces.

As it was explained to him, “The Ben & Jerry's scoop shop in Burlington...takes your cookie dough and they chop it up and put it in the ice cream and make this flavor called cookie dough ice cream,” Castle recalls. “Whenever they do, it sells right out. We're thinking about starting a pint flavor called cookie dough ice cream.” It took two years and a lot of trial and error, but Castle got the recipe, chip and dough distribution, and consistency figured out and perfected.

Today Rhino Foods is a certified B Corporation with a distinct purpose to “impact the manner in which business is done,” he says. And while cookie dough swirls and sweet frozen treats might sound like a good enough gig already, what Castle loves most is the ability to contribute to his community and employees. “I actually think business is where the most social good can come from, and also the most social harm,” he says.

It’s the impetus for what he may consider his greatest accomplishment in business—after the creation of edible cookie dough that is. The Rhino Foods Income Advance Program is a no-questions-asked benefit that gives employees access to up to $1,000 of emergency funds, borrowed from a financial institution, delivered as quickly as that same day, and repaid through automatic, affordable payroll deductions with interest. It makes it possible, for example, for an employee to borrow $1,000 for an unplanned emergency and pay it back in six months, with $50 in interest.

“When somebody doesn't have any access to credit, this allows them to take care of an emergency—or even if it's not an emergency, we don’t ask.” He says one of the best uses he’s heard is for an employee to buy an engagement ring.

“When you start to understand people and their relationship to the company, you realize that you want them bringing their best selves to work every day, so that they can perform their best. It’s really where my passion is,” Castle says. “I'm more interested in that—in the type of company—than how big we are.” UVM

NED CASTLE

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