The University of Vermont Magazine, Spring 2023

MAGAZINE UVM

DEPARTMENTS

2 President's Perspective

6 The Green

18 Catamount Sports

20 Research Amplified

22 Student Voice

24 UVM People: Katharine Shepherd, Ed.D. Dean, College of Education and Social Services

26 Faculty Books

58 Class Notes

80 Extra Credit

FEATURES

28 TO SAVE THE FOREST, SHOULD WE MOVE THE TREES?

Trees migrate. But with rapid climate change, some can’t move fast enough. UVM researchers are exploring the potential and peril of helping trees to travel.

| BY JOSHUA BROWN

38 PARASITE INSIGHT

The bites of kissing bugs transmit deadly Chagas disease. Biologist Lori Stevens is part of an international team working to wall it out—with high-tech tools and low-tech solutions.

| BY JOSHUA BROWN

46 WINTER SNAPSHOT

All year, UVM hums with life and meaning. But there’s no denying that most magnificent of seasons: snow season! Here’s a portrait of our place in winter—before sunup to late night.

52 WE, ROBOTS

Three UVM professors, from radically different disciplines, dive into deep conversation about a shared and urgent interest: the meaning of humanity in the era of artificial intelligence.

so fast that “the trees can’t keep pace,” he says. It may be time to help them migrate.

FRONT COVER: On a bluebird day, plant biologist Steve Keller plugs into an iButton data logger on a slope of Camel's Hump. The temperature readings he and his students have been collecting here add to a portrait of the forest begun in 1964 by UVM botanist Hub Vogelmann and his student Tom Siccama. What Keller sees in 2023 makes it clear that the climate is warming

Cover Photo: Joshua Brown

Back Cover: Bailey Beltramo

SPRING 2023

As the sun drops behind the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain puts on a show. When an Arctic blast came through in February, the comparatively warm waters tossed up spectacular columns of sea smoke and steam devils, towering over Burlington.

Photo by Adam Silverman

UVM is Emerging as a Research Powerhouse

As an enthusiastic advocate for American research universities and an active researcher myself, I am especially proud of this spring’s UVM Magazine that highlights some of the exceptional examples of discovery and innovation made possible by my wonderful colleagues at the University of Vermont.

The dividends of university research to society are immense—health, food security, mobility, communication, and many other fields have benefited tremendously. We live in a better world today thanks to the spirit of discovery that has been a critical part of American research universities for over a century.

For students, the appeal of research universities is greater than ever. While few undergraduates may claim research is a top reason for their college choice, they continue flocking to America’s leading research institutions in unprecedented numbers. The reason is clear: students today come to a university to make a difference from their very first day.

That difference is made through research and engagement.

Today’s students recognize that the world needs urgent answers to its most pressing problems—of poverty, new diseases, demographic changes, and climate change. A great classroom education— no matter how engaging—is necessary but not sufficient. Students want to immerse themselves in learning through hands-on research, innovative internships, global engagement, and testing solutions where the problems “live.”

Our undergraduate and graduate students work side by side with groundbreaking scholars who are expanding the boundaries of human knowledge. Their explorations take place in our labs, but as importantly, across the state and around the globe.

With its sometimes purposeful, sometimes serendipitous outcomes, research is a catalyst for fundamental intellectual advances and for growing the economies of our state and nation. We’ve seen remarkable innovations crafted and incubated in UVM labs launch into successful business ventures in recent years—and there are many more to come.

Our faculty invest tremendous effort, creativity, and intellect in expanding UVM’s research enterprise in fields that capitalize on our distinctive strengths –building healthy societies and a healthy environment. Their efforts are being recognized and rewarded more than ever.

Last year, external funding for research at UVM topped a record $250 million and we are on a trajectory to reach even greater heights, cementing our place among the nation’s top public research universities.

While eye-popping numbers capture attention, a subtler improvement is the diversification of research across the disciplines.

The Larner College of Medicine, historically UVM’s top-performer in attracting research awards, continues to win significant new grants for cuttingedge medical research. But over the past several years, the rest of the university has followed Larner College’s lead and achieved even more rapid growth. Today, project funding and awards are in a nearly even split between health sciences and the rest of the university.

Federal agencies, Congress, industry, and the State of Vermont recognize the value of partnering with UVM, and so it’s no surprise that our growth reflects some of the most pressing needs of our generation.

Two new research entities underscore the trend of solving problems through multi-disciplinary research. The Food Systems Research Center and the Institute for Agroecology foster and advance challenges that combine agriculture, economics, sustainability, and international development.

Later this year, we will launch the Institute for Rural Partnerships at UVM, linked closely with the specific characteristics of our state and region, yet capable of finding solutions that can be applied in other parts of the world.

This spring, UVM will recognize the director of the National Science Foundation, computer scientist Sethuraman Panchanathan, with an honorary doctorate when he speaks at our 222nd Commencement. Director Panchanathan’s point of view on the power of “knowledge enterprises” favors the innovation, partnership, and global entrepreneurship culture gaining traction on our campus.

I invite you to share in the pride that accompanies our ascent among the nation’s leading public research universities and to celebrate with us what this means for our students, our state, and our collective future.

—Suresh V. Garimella President, University of Vermont

PUBLISHER

The University of Vermont

Suresh V. Garimella, President

EDITORIAL BOARD

Joel R. Seligman, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, chair

Krista Balogh, Joshua Brown, Ed Neuert, Rebecca Stazi, Barbara Walls, Benjamin Yousey-Hindes

EDITOR

Barbara Walls

ART DIRECTOR

Cody Silfies

CLASS NOTES EDITOR

Cheryl Herrick Carmi

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Joshua Brown, Beverly Belisle, Enrique Corredera, Christina Davenport, Joshua Defibaugh, Doug Gilman, Rachel Leslie, Rhonda Lynn, Rachel Mullis, Stephen Peters-Collaer, Jeff Wakefield, Basil Waugh

PHOTOGRAPHY

Bailey Beltramo, Joshua Brown, Joshua Defibaugh, Andy Duback, David Seaver, Adam Silverman, Mike Newbry, NordicFocus

PROOFREADER

Maria Landry

ADDRESS CHANGES

UVM Foundation

411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-9662, alumni@uvm.edu

CORRESPONDENCE

Editor, UVM Magazine 617 Main Street Burlington, VT 05405 magazine@uvm.edu

CLASS NOTES alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

UVM MAGAZINE Issue No. 92, April 2023

Publishes April 1, November 1

Printed in Vermont

UVM MAGAZINE ONLINE uvm.edu/uvmmag

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twitter.com/uvmvermont

Because the world’s challenges are not simply complex, they’re existential.

YOU SHOULD KNOW

NATIONALLY RANKED SUPER SCIENTISTS

A new ranking of the top female scientists in the United States conducted by Research.com includes three UVM faculty members in the Larner College of Medicine. Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine, was ranked 124th nationally and 193rd in the world. Jane Lian, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, was ranked 194th nationally and 305th in the world. Janet Stein, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, was ranked 265th nationally and 430th in the world. Read more: go.uvm.edu/topscientists

ANNOUNCING UVM'S 5TH CONSECUTIVE TUITION FREEZE AND THE "UVM PROMISE"

This past fall UVM announced freezing tuition and fees for a fifth consecutive academic year, an initiative begun by President Suresh Garimella in 2019 to keep UVM affordable and accessible for students and families from Vermont and across the nation. Also announced—the “UVM Promise,” a new program that guarantees full tuition scholarships to all dependent Vermont students in households with incomes of up to $60,000. Read more: go.uvm.edu/5thfreeze

top 2

TALKING THE TALK WITH THE NEW SCHOOL OF WORLD LANGUAGES

This spring, the UVM Board of Trustees approved the creation of a new School of World Languages and Cultures within the College of Arts and Sciences. Bringing together four departments—Asian Languages and Literatures, Classics, German and Russian, and Romance Languages and Cultures—under the same roof, the new school will open avenues for increased communication and collaboration both within the school and across colleges. Read more at go.uvm.edu/worldlanguages

GROSSMAN'S GREEN MBA GRABS A GOLD STAR, YET AGAIN

For the sixth year in a row, the Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program at UVM's Grossman School of Business was named a Top Green MBA by the Princeton Review’s Best Business Schools rankings— making it the highest ranked green MBA program that is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Read more: go.uvm.edu/top2mba

A WEEK OF WORLD-CLASS RESEARCH

NEWEST FACILITY: THE FIRESTONE MEDICAL RESEARCH BUILDING

President Garimella, Provost Patty Prelock, and Larner College of Medicine Dean Rick Page led the Oct. 29 dedication of UVM’s newest biomedical research facility, the Firestone Medical Research Building. Now occupied by more than 40 principal research investigators, the facility accommodates approximately 250 faculty, students, and staff working in the areas of cardiovascular health, brain health, cancer, and lung disease. Its ground floor houses the UVM Center for Biomedical Shared Resources, whose core facilities provide advanced technology for researchers from educational institutions and businesses throughout the state. Joining the dedication was lead donor Steve Firestone, M.D.’69. Learn more: go.uvm.edu/firestoneopening

In celebration of UVM’s recent historic increase in sponsored research—and to celebrate UVM becoming a Top 100 Public Research University—the campus is preparing for the second annual UVM Research Week, a celebration of research, scholarships, and creative works from across the University held from April 17 to 21. Learn more: go.uvm.edu/researchweek23

EDITOR'S CORRECTION

Our fall 2022 issue featured UVM’s Elliot Ruggles, who we described as the “firstever” Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Coordinator at the university. We’re grateful to Heather Hewitt Main, ‘89 G ’96, for correcting the record. She wrote to say that she held a similar position from 1996 to 2002 and there were others before her. “Until we end violence against women it will never be enough, but let’s not forget the work a generation ago by many people who prevented violence at UVM and beyond,” she writes. We fully agree; thanks, Heather.

The new hybrid electric vessel is the first of its kind for research and teaching, fully equipped to expand UVM's cutting-edge world-class research, deliver hands-on education programs to students of all ages, and welcome the public to learn about the mysteries, wonders, and significance of our great Lake Champlain.

— Jason Stockwell Director of the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory

THE LEAHY LEGACY –UVM'S NEW RESEARCH VESSEL NAMED

At an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, UVM President Suresh Garimella revealed the name of the University’s new lake research vessel recognizing Sen. Patrick Leahy’s championing of the Clean Water Act and the many contributions to the University and region by his wife, Marcelle Leahy. The first-of-itskind research boat, a 64-foot hybrid electric aluminum catamaran that will serve as a floating classroom and laboratory, will be named R/V Marcelle Melosira, honoring the senator’s wife, Marcelle Leahy, and the legacy of R/V Melosira, the boat replaced by the new vessel. The vessel is expected to arrive early this year at UVM’s Rubenstein Ecosystem Sciences Laboratory, located in the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain on the Burlington waterfront. Read more: go.uvm.edu/marcelle

Cultivating Meat for A Sustainable Future

scaffolding for cultivating meat.

If this is successful, then perhaps we would have a world where we don't have to kill an animal to get meat.

To cultivate meat, cells from an animal must be acquired, usually through a muscle biopsy. Tahir takes that biopsy—which includes other elements like connective tissue and extracellular matrices—and isolates the cells, growing and multiplying them until their numbers are in the millions. Once enough cells are grown, they’re applied to a scaffold.

“Scaffolding recreates the microenvironment that cells grow on inside an animal's body,” Tahir

“If we want to produce cultivated meat at scale, we need scalable materials,” Tahir said. “Instead of extracting collagen from millions of animals, we need to turn to more sustainable sources such as seaweed.”

While there are overall ethical benefits to cultivated meat, there are some roadblocks in developing and growing cells for consumption. Once cells have been isolated from a biopsy, they’re fed a liquid media to encourage growth.

“The source for the liquid media is called fetal bovine serum, which comes from a calf. But it works so well because it's a soup of nutrients that allows the baby to grow,” Tahir said. “There's a huge movement in the field to try and replace this.”

Cultivated meat is part of an evolving field called cellular agriculture, and

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that cultured meat was “safe to eat,” which bolstered the field of research around the country and at UVM.

“The announcement cemented the reality of cultivated meat one day appearing on menus nationwide,” Floreani said. “The decision is certainly another motivator for translating our research from the laboratory to cultivated meat producers, and having a real impact on the industry.”

“If this is successful, then perhaps we would have a world where we don't have to kill an animal to get meat,” Tahir said. “We're super far away from that scenario, but doing fundamental research toward that goal is important.”

Transforming Food Systems with UVM's New Institute for Agroecology

FOOD SYSTEMS | Climate change, and longestablished food production practices, have resulted in an unjust and unsustainable system that feeds the world’s population.

“Our food system is in crisis. We can no longer deny that the current model is exploitative of both human and natural resources, and unable to sustain and nourish the world,” UVM Professor of Agroecology and Environmental Studies Ernesto Méndez said. “Agroecology offers an alternative paradigm for food and farming that will build back agricultural biodiversity, confront the climate crisis, address inequity, and activate the power of farmers and citizens through transformations that aim for a thriving society and planet.”

UVM aims to be part of the solution. This spring the University created the Institute for Agroecology (IFA)—based in the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of Engagement. Méndez will serve as the IFA’s inaugural faculty director.

The new institute is an ambitious response to the growing calls to transform the world’s food systems in the pursuit of equity, sustainability, and wellbeing through a globally connected, locally rooted approach. The institute will allow UVM to crystalize its research, learning, and outreach in agroecology and food systems transformations through campus-community partnerships and new signature programs, and by providing resources and support for aligned projects. All of this will add capacity to existing initiatives and facilitate processes that will leverage and expand UVM’s land-grant mission.

The institute will integrate over a decade of research and international partnerships established by the Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC), a community of practice

at UVM that works with partners around the world to co-create new solutions to global food systems challenges. Through the strengthening of its wideranging global networks and programs, the institute will also boost UVM’s international reputation for cutting-edge transdisciplinary and participatory research.

For years, the ALC has partnered with local coffee growers in El Salvador, Mexico, and other nations to study their social, economic, and environmental roles in their respective regions. Agroecologists are drawn to coffee agriculture in large part because these shaded agroforestry systems express many social and ecological agroecological principles.

The IFA will benefit from UVM's newly established Food Systems Research Center (FSRC), a collaboration between UVM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, the first USDA research station designed to study local and regional food systems and the farms and processors that contribute to sustainable, healthy environments and people. The research center provides competitive funding that supports researchers in both the IFA and the Gund Institute for Environment.

“UVM’s Institute for Agroecology will be a national and international lighthouse for agroecology and will further revolutionize our growing research enterprise,” Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski said. “The Institute will forge new connections between researchers, communities, students, and farmers who will work together to push boundaries in impactful research, learning, and action. These new institutes and centers will synergize and strengthen UVM's collective and distinctive expertise in food systems research both here in Vermont and around the globe.”

New Institute Will Help Vermont’s Rural Communities Thrive

VERMONT | The new Institute for Rural Partnerships at the University of Vermont will help the state’s rural communities thrive in the face of big challenges brought on by climate change and population shifts, thanks to a $9.3-million award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with leadership and support from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

“Vermont, like all rural states, faces unique challenges that affect such important issues as transit, economic and workforce development, water quality, food supplies, infrastructure, and broadband connectivity,” Leahy said. “The Institute for Rural Partnerships will enable the university to continue to be a leader in the studies of rural challenges not only within Vermont, but the nation. As chair of Senate Appropriations, I was proud to support UVM and am excited to see the incredible work that will be done through the establishment of the Institute for Rural Partnerships.”

Under the new institute, UVM will bring the resources and expertise of multiple UVM entities to help find solutions to the most pressing problems rural communities are facing—whether it’s a qualified

workforce, broadband access, clean water, sustainable energy, suitable housing, food production, supporting more welcoming and inclusive communities, or mitigating the stresses placed on the region’s lakes, rivers, and forests.

“The Institute for Rural Partnerships is an ideal realization of UVM’s land-grant mission in service to our state,” said University President Suresh Garimella. “Connecting the university’s talented research and innovation experts with promising, motivated groups with big ideas from across the state will deliver valuable impact in all 14 Vermont counties and beyond.”

“Vermont remains one of the most rural states in the country,” said UVM Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski, principal investigator for the project, whose office will house the new institute. “Across the country we have seen significant challenges to rural viability. Part of our land-grant mission is to take what we’ve learned and put it to the service of communities and help meet those challenges.”

Dombrowski said the institute represents a novel approach, a

“spin-in” concept, where partnerships with community-based groups looking for academic expertise will be seeded and fully supported by the University so they are in a better position to find community-based solutions to rural challenges.

“People will deal more effectively with the inevitable change that’s coming if they have the knowledge base, better data, and strong partnerships that the institute will facilitate,” said Dombrowski. “It’s a way to make a path forward and be part of a viable future, rather than resisting change at all costs.”

At the heart of the UVM institute will be an Innovation and Research Incubator seed-funding program to allocate funding and technical assistance to teams of collaborators composed of UVM stakeholders to fund research projects, student internships, and more for early-stage startups and nonprofit businesses working to address rural challenges.

The incubator will focus investment in Innovative Opportunity areas where UVM has deep expertise like regenerative agriculture, connected community schools, transit and housing reimagined, and more.

Senator Leahy Helps Secure Millions in Funding to Support UVM

UVM | Late last year, Sen. Leahy capped his support for UVM with the inclusion of $30 million in Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) funding in the form of an endowment dedicated to enhancing the experience of its promising and ambitious students, especially through the university’s Honors College, and an additional $50 million in Vermont-focused research funding in the annual appropriations bills that fund the U.S. government.

University researchers will compete for funding from programs supported by Sen. Leahy to address issues important to Vermont, and for which UVM has a track record of research strength. These include U.S. government programs such as $15 million for Institutes for Rural Partnerships, $13 million for food systems research on small and medium-sized farms, $10 million for Rural Centers of Excellence on Addiction, $2 million for unmanned aircraft systems research, and $4 million to establish a new Climate Impacts Center of Excellence.

“On behalf of everyone at UVM, I must express my deepest gratitude for everything we’ve received in this budget,” University President Suresh Garimella said. “It is critically important for the state of Vermont that our university continues to strengthen the richness and quality of our academic offerings and expand the impact of our research enterprise. This funding will help drive those efforts forward for years to come.”

Garimella said the funding would “develop signature programs, support research excellence, and promote leadership and learning opportunities for our talented

students,” particularly those in its respected Honors College. He praised Sen. Leahy’s commitment to the university as integral to its emergence as a premier research institution focused on sustainable solutions with local, national, and global applications and impact.

“Senator Leahy’s impact on the university is incalculable,” Garimella said. “So much of our success over the years can be attributed to his help in securing the necessary resources for our work here at UVM.”

Garimella said the unflagging support of UVM by Leahy and fellow Vermont delegates Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) remains centrally important to the success of its mission as the state’s public land-grant research university.

“We are so thankful that our delegation has such faith in the university and will continue to help with securing funding in support of UVM into the future,” Garimella said.

In a UVM lab, scientist Ajit Singh uses a specialized instrument for studying “isothermal titration calorimetry,” he says, “the only one in Burlington.”

AJIT SINGH

In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick studied remarkable X-ray images made by Rosalind Franklin—and then put their minds together to unpack what Watson called “the secret of life.” Their study “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,” published in the journal Nature, revealed the geometry of DNA. In the decades since, scientists have discovered many of the details of how DNA works and how genes are turned on and off in both healthy and diseased cells. UVM post doctoral scientist Ajit Singh continues the search. He studies in the laboratory of Professor Karen Glass, a researcher in the UVM Larner College of Medicine’s Pharmacology department and the UVM Cancer Center—part of a team investigating the signals that regulate genes and how alterations in these pathways are involved in cancer and other diseases.

Rhonda Lynn, in UVM's Graduate College, connected with Singh to learn more about his story and his work.

You study DNA and the intricacies of how it works. Where did this interest begin?

AJIT: As an undergraduate, I did some research in human genetics to determine how common features are inherited in humans. I was surprised to see that, although I look physically very similar to my brother, we have many distinct inherited characteristics from our parents and grandparents, such as tongue rolling, straight/curly hair, and so on. This piqued my interest in learning how the information encoded in DNA is controlled.

You grew up in India and are now at the University of Vermont to extend your exploration of DNA. Tell us about that journey.

AJIT: I was born in Uttar Pradesh, a state in India. My father served in the Indian army as a medical officer. He often moved jobs, so I attended seven different schools throughout my studies. Each new home, new place, and the search for new friends made it a typical childhood adventure. This childhood experience has helped me adapt to new environments more quickly. After completing my high school studies, I moved to the southern part of India to attend Bangalore University.

After college, I joined Dileep Vasudevan's team at the Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar, India, to investigate the riddle of how DNA is packed into cells— eukaryotic cells with a nucleus, which includes all animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms. I worked in his lab on the structure and function of what are called “histone chaperones” and discovered their role in DNA packaging.

To deepen my understanding of this part of biology, after I finished my Ph.D., I moved to Karen Glass’s lab at the University of Vermont. My research aims to discover how chemical changes in these histone proteins help manage DNA packing and make DNA accessible for translation of the information in its unique sequence. To understand this, I use various cutting-edge structural biology techniques in her lab, such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and cryo-electron microscopy.

Can you tell us more about your research and its wider goals?

AJIT: Many organisms, including humans, plants, and parasites, have their DNA condensed into chromosomes. Each chromosome is, basically, a bundle of linear DNA looped into a complex called the nucleosome, which is composed of histone proteins and DNA. A wide range of biochemical reactions alter how histones interact with DNA—and control how DNA is compressed into chromosomes. I’m interested in a portion of proteins called “bromodomains.” Proteins that have these domains interact with the nucleosome and are often involved in regulating DNA processes, such as replication and repair.

In Dr. Glass’s laboratory, my research focuses on bromodomain-containing proteins in a parasite, Plasmodium falciparum—the main cause of malaria around the world. According to a WHO estimate, there were 409,000 global malaria fatalities in 2019, with children under five being most impacted. There is a pressing need to define the molecular pathways that lead to disease from P. falciparum—due to this parasite's alarming growth in drug resistance in recent years. It's interesting that this parasite’s genome encodes eight bromodomain-containing proteins and that at least one of them is crucial for the development of malaria. My recent publication on the crystal structure of one of these proteins —called PfBDP1—will aid in the development of drugs to fight malaria.

When you're not in the lab, what do you enjoy doing in Burlington?

AJIT: I like to bike, hike, play cricket and tennis, watch American and Indian movies, spend time in nature, and cook. Over the past year that I've been living in Burlington, I've discovered that it is endowed with a wealth of natural beauty, such as the snowfall in the winter. It seems like someone is showering a flower on me. I tried skiing for the first time this winter! The autumn maple tree leaf color shift is really stunning too. UVM has a really welcoming and supportive atmosphere.

As Winters Warm, The Threat of Nutrient Pollution Grows

CLIMATE | “Winter is changing,” says University of Vermont scientist Carol Adair, who recently revealed a significant new threat to U.S. water quality: as winters warm due to climate change, they are unleashing large amounts of nutrient pollution into lakes, rivers, and streams.

Her team’s landmark national study found that previously frozen winter nutrient pollution—unlocked by rising temperatures and rainfall—is putting water quality at risk in over 40 states across the Northeast, the Midwest and Central Plains, the Pacific Northwest, and the Sierra and Rocky Mountains.

Nutrient runoff—from phosphorus and nitrogen in fertilizers, manure, and more—has affected water quality during growing seasons for decades. But cold temperatures and a strong snowpack traditionally kept nutrients in place until spring thaw, when plants can help absorb excess nutrients.

But winter is now the fastest warming U.S. season. Winter rain and snowmelt are increasingly causing large, devastating floods that carry nutrients and soil through watersheds in winter when dormant vegetation cannot absorb them. As a result, winter runoff has transformed from rare or nonexistent to being far worse than other times of the year.

The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, found that “rainon-snow” events affect 53% of the contiguous United States., putting 50% of U.S. nitrogen and phosphorus pools at risk for export by ground or surface water. Where these factors converge, more than 40% of the contiguous United States is at risk of winter nutrient export and soil loss.

“This study is a wake-up call for government agencies and researchers,” says Adair, an ecologist and biogeochemist. “It reveals the existence of winter pollution over 40 states—but we don’t know how much, where it’s going, or the impacts on water quality and ecosystems.”

She says winter floods delivered a massive pulse of nutrients and sediment into the Mississippi River in 2019—far more than growingseason rainfall—contributing to the Gulf of Mexico’s eighth-largest dead zone on record, causing die-offs of fish and other aquatic animals.

To tackle the issue further, Adair has partnered with UVM engineer Raju Badireddy and others to measure changes to winter runoff with printable microsensors. With startup funds from UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment, they aim to transform our understanding of how watersheds work in a warming world—and strengthen our ability to predict and prepare for changing winters.

Researchers Unpack the Complexity of Snow in Vermont

VERMONT | Last summer, in the Jericho Research Forest, Arne Bomblies and his research team were waiting for snow.

“What we’re after is a better predictive model of snow in Vermont and in the Northeast in general,” said Bomblies, associate professor in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. “The goal is to ultimately understand how things like trees, slope aspect, elevation, rainfall, and cloudiness impact snow and be able to model that.”

“Snow is critically important to the state and the region,” said Beverley Wemple, a professor of geography and geosciences. “Our winter recreation economy depends on our snowpack. Our winters are shifting rapidly and we need more information about these dynamic changes.”

Long-term observations of snow in Vermont come from various sources, including a network of volunteer observers and notably a measurement station near the summit of Mt. Mansfield.

“The Mount Mansfield snow stake is a critical source of high-altitude snow information, but it records only snow depth. We have no idea how much water that corresponds to and what that means for water runoff or how sensitive the snow is to the sun,” Bomblies said. “Compare that to places in the western United States where they have snow-measuring stations monitoring the full range of winter weather dynamics, including the important snow-water equivalent.”

Bomblies and his team installed sensors to measure wind speed, humidity, temperature, snow density, and water equivalent.

“We’ll be able to directly sense all of the

components that make up snow and see how that changes as rain starts to fall or how a particularly sunny stretch affects the snow,” Bomblies said.

The implications of this project are deeply important, not just for snow monitoring but also for snow tourism in Vermont and climate change.

“There’s a growing concern in the Northeast that the warming climate is going to make winter recreation much less available,” Bomblies said. “Vail Resorts has invested money into snowmaking equipment, but sustaining artificial snowmaking in a warming climate will be challenging.”

While overall warming is a worry for snow research, increased weather variability during a winter season has become more drastic and a larger cause for concern.

“It used to be that once it got cold, it stayed cold, with maybe one or two ‘January thaw’ events, commonplace surges in temperature often accompanied with rain,” Bomblies said. “Those have become much more frequent, and it’s one of the features of the changing climate.”

According to the Gund Institute for Environment’s recent Vermont Climate Assessment, the state’s traditional winter season will be shortened by as much as a month in some parts of the state in the future.

“It's certainly a concern around here, what climate change will look like in Vermont, where winter is such an integral component of our identity and livelihood,” Bomblies said. “With data collection starting now, we can improve modeling and follow research projects and help significantly here at UVM.”

Sorry, Celtics. Basketball Star Goes on to Distinguished Medical Career

When Clyde Lord graduated from UVM in 1959, the then men’s basketball all-time scoring leader found himself at a crossroads. He could go to the tryout the Boston Celtics had invited him to. Or he could head to medical school.

It was an easy decision, said his wife of 63 years, Barbara Lord.

“His thinking was that, as a six-feetone center, you’re not going to get that far as a professional,” she said.

His realism about a pro basketball career was only part of the reason Lord opted for med school. From an early age he dreamed of being a doctor. He came to UVM on a full scholarship from Boys High in Brooklyn, at his coach’s advice, because the university had a medical school. Once at the university, he worked as hard at academics as basketball, earning the Wasson Athletic Prize for excellence in the classroom and on the basketball court.

“What sports taught me was discipline,” Lord said in a Vermont Quarterly tribute.

That discipline served him well during his 50-plus-year career.

Lord, who died Jan. 2, made the right call. After choosing historically black Meharry Medical College in Nashville among several schools that accepted him, including UVM, and graduating second in his class, Lord had a long and distinguished medical career.

But not before lighting up Patrick Gym.

Lord might have been small for a center, but he employed “a wide variety of moves, a great deal of speed and unusual rebounding ability,” the Cynic wrote. Those skills enabled him to score 1,308 points over his career, a record that stood for decades. He was elected most valuable player by the student body twice and to the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame in 1974.

After practicing in Okinawa (as a physician with the U.S. Army) and New York, Lord and his family moved to Atlanta, where he started the first anesthesiology group for Southwest Hospital and Medical Center and co-founded the state’s first pain management clinic. He was beloved by his patients, many of whom he called at home after surgery.

Lord never forgot the joy sports gave him. A talented golfer in adulthood, he passed on his love of athletic competition to generations of young people—including his three sons—by coaching youth sports and stressing the importance of academics to all of them. Many of those young people went on to successful professional careers. Three became anesthesiologists.

“They looked up to him and admired him,” Barbara Lord said. “He just prided himself on being a good physician and a caring person.”

They looked up to him and admired him. He just prided himself on being a good physician and a caring person.

Study Shows TikTok Perpetuates Toxic Diet Culture Among Teens and Young Adults

SOCIAL MEDIA | New research from the University of Vermont finds that the most viewed content on TikTok relating to food, nutrition, and weight perpetuates a toxic diet culture among teens and young adults and that expert voices are largely missing from the conversation.

Published in PLOS One, the study found weight-normative messaging—the idea that weight is the most important measure of a person’s health—largely predominates on TikTok, with the most popular videos glorifying weight loss and positioning food as a means to achieve health and thinness. The findings are particularly concerning given existing research indicating social media usage in adolescents and young adults is associated with disordered eating and negative body image.

The study is the first to examine nutrition- and bodyimage-related content at scale on TikTok. The findings are based on a comprehensive analysis of the top 100 videos from 10 popular nutrition, food, and weight-related hashtags, which were then coded for key themes. Each of the 10 hashtags had over a billion views when the study began in 2020; the selected hashtags have grown significantly as TikTok’s user base has expanded.

“We were continuously surprised by how prevalent the topic of weight was on TikTok. The fact that billions of people were viewing content about weight on the internet says a lot about the role diet culture plays in our society,” said co-author Marisa Minadeo ’21, who conducted the research as part of her undergraduate thesis at UVM.

“Each day, millions of teens and young adults are being fed content on TikTok that paints a very unrealistic and inaccurate picture of food, nutrition, and health,” said senior researcher Lizzy Pope, associate professor and director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics at UVM. “Getting stuck in weight loss TikTok can be a really tough environment, especially for the main users of the platform, which are young people.”

Over the past few years, the Nutrition and Food Sciences Department at UVM has shifted away from a weightnormative mindset, adopting a weightinclusive approach to teaching dietetics. The approach centers on using non-weight markers of health and wellbeing to evaluate a person’s health and rejects the idea that there is a “normal” weight that is achievable or realistic for everyone. If society continues to perpetuate weight normativity, says Pope, we’re perpetuating fat bias.

Getting stuck in weight loss TikTok can be a really tough environment, especially for the main users of the platform, which are young people.

“Just like people are different heights, we all have different weights,” said Pope. “Weight-inclusive nutrition is really the only just way to look at humanity.”

Weight-inclusive nutrition is becoming popular as a more holistic evaluation of a person’s health. As TikTok users themselves, UVM health and society major Minadeo and her advisor Pope were interested in better understanding the role of TikTok as a source for information about nutrition and healthy eating behaviors. They were surprised to find that TikTok creators considered to be influencers in the academic nutrition space were not making a dent in the overall landscape of nutrition content.

White, female adolescents and young adults accounted for the majority of creators of content analyzed in the study. Very few creators were considered expert voices, defined by the researchers as someone who self-identified with credentials such as a registered dietitian, doctor, or certified trainer.

“We have to help young people develop critical thinking skills and their own body image outside of social media,” said Pope. “But what we really need is a radical rethinking of how we relate to our bodies, to food, and to health. This is truly about changing the systems around us so that people can live productive, happy, and healthy lives."

“

This is truly about changing the systems around us so that people can live productive, happy, and healthy lives.

Strong Engine, Works Good

By Joshua Brown

In January of 2022, Ben Ogden had a few days back in Vermont. It was his senior year at UVM, and Ogden had been in Europe, ski racing on the World Cup circuit. An engineering major, sometime construction worker, and old car enthusiast who grew up in Landgrove, Vt.—population 177 souls—he’s arguably the most promising American cross-country skier in a generation. Ogden was heading off to China in February to race in the Olympics. So what’s a guy like that going to do with some downtime back on campus? Head up to Sleepy

Hollow Ski Area in Huntington, take a ski—and then get under the hood of a PistenBully snow grooming machine. His friend, the proprietor, Eli Enman, was working to convert the machine from diesel to battery power. “It was in a million different pieces up in his garage and he had the battery pack all assembled. We're talking about thousands of volts, like, this is legit,” Ogden recalls. And he began to wonder how to make this DIY snow groomer work more efficiently. “It's a unique problem—an electric vehicle with a lithium-ion battery pack that’s only

UVM and World Cup skier Ben Ogden ’22 ahead of Norway’s Johannes Klaebo—for the moment—in a 15km race on the sixth leg of the Tour de Ski in Val di Fiemme, Italy. The day before, Ogden blasted ahead of Klaebo—perhaps the greatest skier of all time—in a sprint. In both races, Ogden didn’t beat the Norwegian, but the Vermonter’s gutsy tactics made waves in the world of professional cross-country skiing.

going to be operated when it's cold,” Ogden says. He became so fascinated that “I packed a bunch of these owner’s manuals from all the batteries, that Eli gave me, and I brought 'em to the Olympics,” Ogden says. “I was, like, researching batteries in Beijing”—in addition to leading the United States to a ninth-place finish in the team sprint.

In January of 2023, Ben Ogden ’22—now a UVM graduate student in engineering—stood on the start line of a semi-final sprint in Val di Fiemme, Italy. This was the fifth stage of the World Cup’s grueling Tour De Ski, Nordic skiing’s answer to the Tour de France. (It ends with a ridiculously steep race at an alpine ski area—going uphill.) Between races, Ogden finds slices of time to study the thermal dynamics of electric vehicle batteries. Working, remotely, with Professor Yves Dubief, “I’m modeling how to have them wellinsulated in the cold, without bursting into flame,” he says. Which seems like very useful research, considering that Eli Enman’s homegrown, battery-powered PistenBully met a fiery end. “The controller blew up,” Enman says, ruefully, “and it burned to the ground.”

On this day, to Ogden’s right, was a Norwegian, Johannes Klaebo, perhaps the greatest skier of all time. Winner of five Olympic gold medals, he’s never lost a Tour De Ski sprint. Most World Cup skiers know the conservative thing to do is, um, not try to dust Klaebo. So what’s Ben Ogden—a UVM skier in his final NCAA season, who’s been jetting back and forth between Europe and Vermont to ski for both the Catamounts and the U.S. Ski Team— going to do? “I just took off,” he says. Going into a frenetic overdrive soon after the start, Ogden quickly gapped the field. It was a stunning move that had coaches staring and commentators commenting. Ogden’s goal was to make it through to the finals—using a trick from his youth-skiing days of blasting away suddenly, against faster opponents, in hopes of beating them with surprise. “He was brave,” says Patrick Weaver, the head coach of the UVM Nordic Ski Team, who was watching Ogden on television from Vermont. “I was hoping he was going to go for it—and he did. Ben has this amazing ability to go really fast and hard. He can't do it all day, but when he goes, he’s as quick as anybody in the world.” Finally, Klaebo realized that Ogden was getting away from him and put on the jets. The gamble had failed, Ogden’s engine had burst into flames, and he fell to fifth, one place out of the finals. “Still, that shook Klaebo’s world a little bit; he’s not used to going that hard in the semis,” says Weaver. For Ben Ogden, it was another chance to experiment and look for new ways to succeed. “I’m an entrepreneur of sorts,” he says, pointing to Eli Enman’s exploratory spirit—and the small company his mother and uncle founded, Vermont Maple Sriracha—as inspiration. “They’re not kicking back, waiting for someone else,” Ogden says. “It’s a Vermont thing: get out there and figure it out.”

I was hoping he was going to go for it—and he did. Ben has this amazing ability to go really fast and hard. He can't do it all day, but when he goes, he’s as quick as anybody in the world.

FLOCKING TO WILDFIRE

By Basil Waugh

Are people trading hurricane zones for wildfire areas?

Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves— and moving toward dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, finds one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural hazards.

The 10 year national study reveals troubling public health patterns, with Americans flocking to regions with the greatest risk of wildfires and summer heat. These environmental hazards are already causing significant damage to people and property each year—and projected to worsen with climate change.

“People are moving into harm’s way—towards regions with wildfires and rising temperatures, which are expected to become more extreme with climate change,” says University of Vermont Ph.D. candidate Mahalia Clark, who led the study.

Published by the journal Frontiers in Human Dynamics, the study—titled “Flocking to Fire”— is the largest investigation yet of how natural disasters, climate change, and other factors impacted U.S. migration over the last decade.

“Our goal was to understand how extreme weather is influencing migration as it becomes more severe with climate change,” Clark says.

‘RED-HOT’ REAL ESTATE

The top U.S. migration destinations over the last decade were cities and suburbs in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Southwest (Arizona,

Colorado, Nevada, Utah), Texas, Florida, and a large swath of the Southeast (from Nashville to Atlanta to Washington, D.C.)—locations that face significant wildfire risks and relatively warm annual temperatures. In contrast, people tended to move away from places in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and along the Mississippi River, including many counties hit hardest by hurricanes or frequent heatwaves.

“These findings suggest that, for many Americans, the risks and dangers of living in hurricane zones may be starting to outweigh the benefits of life in those areas,” says UVM study co-author Gillian Galford, who led the recent Vermont Climate Assessment. “That same tipping point has yet to happen for wildfires and rising summer heat, which have emerged as national issues more recently.”

One implication of the study—given how development can worsen risks in fire-prone areas—is that city planners may need to consider discouraging new development where fires are most likely or difficult to fight, researchers say. At a minimum, policymakers must consider fire prevention in high-risk areas with growing populations and work to increase public awareness and preparedness.

Despite climate change’s underlying role in extreme weather, the team was surprised by how little the obvious climate impacts of wildfire and heat seemed to factor in migration. “If you look

where people are moving, these are some of the country’s warmest places—which are only expected to get hotter,” says Clark, a Gund Institute for Environment Graduate Fellow from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

MIGRATION FACTORS

The team analyzed census data from 2010 to 2020 with data on natural disasters, weather, temperature, land cover, and demographic and socioeconomic factors. While the study includes data from the first year of the COVID pandemic, the researchers plan to delve deeper into the impacts of remote work, house prices, and the cost of living.

Beyond the aversion to hurricanes and heatwaves, the study identified several other clear preferences—a mix of environmental, social, and economic factors—that also contributed to U.S. migration decisions.

Top migration destinations shared a set of common qualities: warmer winters, proximity to water, moderate tree cover, moderate population density, better human development

index scores—plus wildfire risks. In contrast, common traits among the counties people left included low employment, higher income inequality, and more summer humidity, heatwaves, and hurricanes.

Researchers note that Florida remained a top migration destination, despite a history of hurricanes—and increasing wildfire. Nationally, people were less attracted to counties hit by hurricanes, but many people— particularly retirees—still moved to Florida, attracted by the warm climate, beaches, and other desirable qualities. Although hurricanes likely factor into people’s choices, the study suggests that, overall, the benefits of Florida’s amenities still outweigh the perceived risks of life there.

“The decision to move is a complicated and personal decision that involves weighing dozens of factors,” says Clark. “Weighing all these factors, we do see a general aversion to hurricane risk, but ultimately—as we see in Florida— it’s one factor in a person’s list of pros and cons, which can be outweighed by other preferences.”

"PEOPLE ARE MOVING INTO HARM’S WAY— TOWARDS REGIONS WITH WILDFIRES AND RISING TEMPERATURES, WHICH ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME MORE EXTREME WITH CLIMATE CHANGE"

To Stay Motivated at Work, I Try to Embrace Curiosity

He didn’t know just how much criticism, science, and communication he was in for. One end product was this essay, published in the journal Science on Jan. 12, 2023, and reprinted here with permission. To get there “took at least eight rounds of edits,” Peters-Collaer recalls. His essay was published in the journal’s “Working Lives” department—a weekly series of strongly personal stories from students and scientists around the world. Bierman’s first assignment for the graduate students in his course was not only modeled on this department—he also invited the department’s editor, Rachel Bernstein, to speak virtually with the students. “After we talked

with Rachel, Paul encouraged us to reach out to her if we felt like we had something worth publishing,” says Peters-Collaer. So, after several rounds of edits of his essay with Bierman— an acclaimed geologist in UVM’s Rubenstein School—and his in-class peers, he sent it in to Science. Bernstein was interested—and she worked with Peters-Collaer “on five more drafts,” he says, asking for better examples, sharper prose, fewer words. “One of the things I learned is that even when a piece of writing needs lot of edits, it doesn't necessarily mean that it’s bad,” he says, “just that it can keep getting better.”

Last fall, Stephen Peters-Collaer signed up for Professor Paul Bierman’s course, Critical Science Communication.

By Stephen Peters-Collaer

“Hot dog! Looks like you’ve got a Mahonia repens,” Sherel exclaimed in his rural Utah twang. I crouched and gently touched the plant with yellow flowers by my feet. “This one here? How can you tell it’s a Mahonia?” Sherel carefully bent down and adjusted his camo hat to block the Sun. The 75-year-old botanist and leader of our field crew paused briefly to admire the plant before launching into an energetic description of its defining features. That evening, watching the Sun fade behind the mountains, I texted my childhood friend. “Day 1 was actually kind of fun,” I started, “but we’ll see how long it takes before I get bored from just identifying plants in the field all day.”

Up to that point, I had avoided fieldwork. To an undergraduate studying ecology, bending over plants for 10 hours a day seemed a lot less interesting than identifying big-picture trends in large data sets. But I knew potential graduate schools would likely view my lack of field experience as a hole in my resume, and my mother thought I should work for a few years to explore my interests before pursuing further education. So, I applied to field-based summer positions after graduation and landed a job assessing sage grouse habitat in Utah. It felt like a necessary evil before I could move on to bigger, more “intellectual” things.

When the summer was over, I found myself in another field job, this time surveying forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One frozen morning a few weeks in, I came across a strange wasp probing the bark of a decaying beech with what looked like an enormous stinger, 10 centimeters long. Our official duties didn’t extend to insects, but my curiosity was piqued. “Hey, come check this out!” I called to the rest of our field crew, instinctively channeling Sherel’s tireless enthusiasm. Despite the cold, we watched transfixed by this otherworldly insect, which my colleague identified as a giant wasp laying eggs, until it slowly pulled back its ovipositor, stretched, and flew off. As we dispersed back to our tasks, I noticed migrating sandhill cranes flying overhead and thought of their cousins in northern Utah. I sent silent thanks to Sherel for teaching me to approach fieldwork with a sense of wonder— excited to learn, even when my hands are numb.

I’m now a third-year Ph.D. student in forest ecology, and the time I spend leading research crews in the woods of New Hampshire every summer is one of my favorite parts of the year. Our crews typically don’t have previous field experience, and I try to bring Sherel’s excitement to our work. By answering questions with enthusiasm, sharing interesting tidbits, and providing the intellectual context behind our efforts, I hope to show that working in the field can be fascinating and fun.

My younger self would have been surprised: It’s when I’m not in the field that it can sometimes be difficult to remain energized about my work. It’s not just being immersed in nature that I miss. Fieldwork may be buggy, wet, and physically taxing, but collaborating with others helps keep spirits high, and the physical activity helps me stay sharp. Much of my Ph.D. work, on the other hand, is solo and sedentary. So I’ve tried to bring aspects of fieldwork to my day-to-day routine. I take breaks to talk to other graduate students to escape intellectual ruts, and I try to get up from my desk and move for a minute or two throughout the day.

But as the weeks of fieldwork rolled by, the boredom I expected never arrived. I came home from the sagebrush each night with sore legs and a sunburned neck, invigorated by the day’s finds. By picking Sherel’s brain about pronghorn antelopes, aspen groves, and every species of sagebrush, I discovered field days are about much more than rote identification. Each day is an opportunity to learn a little bit more.

I also try to recapture fieldwork’s spirit of discovery by reading a journal article that excites me, regardless of the topic, every Monday. If I’m bogged down by the repetition of analyzing another data set, this helps restore my curiosity and enthusiasm for my work. And when I remember that gleam in Sherel’s eye as he responded to my seemingly mundane, random questions, I remind myself that any task can present an opportunity to learn—as long as I am open to it.

Each day is an opportunity to learn a little bit more.

UVM PEOPLE

BUILDING UPON RECORD SUCCESS KATHARINE G. SHEPHERD, ED.D.

Since joining the University of Vermont as a faculty member of the College of Education and Social Services in 1986, Katharine Shepherd has earned a reputation as a values-driven and facilitative leader.

By Doug Gilman

“Katie is a collaborative and servant leader who brings both excellent scholarship and thoughtful leadership to her role,” said UVM Provost Patricia Prelock, who announced Shepherd’s appointment as dean effective Jan. 15. “I look forward to continuing our work together to enhance the success of the college.”

Shepherd is the Levitt Family Green and Gold Professor of Education, who served as interim dean of the college since July of 2021. In addition to her extensive teaching record, she previously held numerous leadership roles including program coordinator of special education, vice chair of the Department of Education, interim associate dean for academic affairs and research, and associate dean for academic affairs.

“I am inspired by the diversity and talent among our faculty, students, staff, and alumni, and the impact of the work that they do within and outside of the college,” Shepherd said. “Together, we prepare outstanding professionals and researchers who engage with our schools, families, and communities to address the most pressing issues of our time. I look forward to advancing the college’s position as a leader in a justiceoriented approach to transforming teaching, scholarship, policy, and service – here in Vermont, across the country, and around the world.”

CESS currently enrolls 720 undergraduate students and 344 graduate students in nationally accredited programs in education, social work, and human services. Strong relationships with school districts, human service organizations, and state agencies yield mutually beneficial partnerships between the college and communities across Vermont. Through their field experiences and internships, CESS students collectively contribute over 190,000 hours annually to the state.

As interim dean, Shepherd supported efforts enhancing the college’s offerings and reputation while contributing to the university’s bid for R1 status. The college's external funding to support research increased by 43% under her leadership. It also established a new Ph.D. in social, emotional, and behavioral health and inclusive education and a new Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision.

During her tenure as associate dean, the college launched an undergraduate certificate in placebased education, certificates of graduate study in education for sustainability and resiliencybased approaches, an undergraduate minor and concentration in computer science education, and a revised individually designed major.

Shepherd’s nationally recognized scholarship focuses on educational leadership and familyprofessional partnerships, collaborative teaming, and state and school-wide implementation of inclusive policies and practices, including Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. She is a recipient of the President’s Distinguished University Citizenship and Service Award, the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education Leadership and Service Award, and the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award, among other accolades.

During her career, Shepherd received over $3.6 million in externally funded research grants. Her publication record includes co-authoring two books and authoring or co-authoring 35 peer-reviewed journal articles, 16 book chapters, and 17 additional publications.

Dying Green: A Journey through End-of-Life Medicine in Search of Sustainable Health Care

Christine Vatovec Rutgers University Press, April 2023

It can cost a lot to die—and not just in money. In Dying Green, UVM scientist Christine Vatovec takes a close look at the care given to terminally ill patients in an acute-care hospice, a cancer ward, and a palliative care unit. Procedures, chemicals, IV tubes, electricity, antibiotics—a vast range of supplies, medical waste, and drugs goes into providing care. Vatovec—an interdisciplinary researcher with faculty appointments in the Larner College of Medicine, the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and a Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment—analyzes the choices made, the resources used, and the complex interplay between individual health and environmental health. At the foundation of this book is the profound tension between an urgent focus on short-term outcomes in standard health-care practices—and the “slow violence,” she writes, being inflicted from carbon emissions, plastic pollution, and toxic waste that contributes to an expanding public health catastrophe from degrading ecosystems. Vatovec invites the reader to ponder the meaning of sustainability in health care. Through a comparative analysis, Dying Green provides insights and options for reducing the ecological impacts of end-of-life medical practices while also improving care for the dying.

A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy: The Life of Clare of Rimini

Jacques Dalarun, Sean L. Field and Valerio Cappozzo University of Pennsylvania Press, October 2022

In the 14th century, Clare of Rimini lived a technicolor life, including two marriages, two exiles, life as a penitent in a roofless cell in the city’s half-ruined walls, founding a community of like-minded women, accusations of demonic possession, “and finally the writing of her ‘life,’ probably by a Franciscan friar and probably when Clare was still alive, on her deathbed, around 1326,” notes UVM historian and researcher Sean Field. He’s co-author of A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy which interprets the ancient Italian text, in English translation for the first time. Each chapter looks into medieval society—politics, sexuality, religious change, pilgrimages, and heresy—opening a dramatic view onto an Italian city seven centuries ago.

A Woman’s Life Is a Human Life: My Mother, Our Neighbor, and the Journey from Reproductive Rights to Reproductive Justice

Felicia Kornbluh

Grove Press, January 2023

As professor of history and of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, Felicia Kornbluh knows a lot about the history of reproductive rights. But when she discovered that her mother drafted a law in 1968 that led to New York State decriminalizing abortion, she was surprised and inspired. This revelation motivated Kornbluh to write A Woman’s Life is a Human Life that recounts the push for safe and legal abortion services—and against sterilization abuse— in the 1960s and 70s. It chronicles the national movement for reproductive rights, including guidance for advocacy today. This book “offers insights into how we can form genuine alliances,” a New York Times reviewer wrote, “in order to continue making changes that align with the feminist values of compassion, fairness and care.”

The Progress Illusion: Reclaiming Our Future from the Fairytale of Economics

Jon D. Erickson Island Press, December 2022

UVM economist Jon Erickson stands at the forefront of a reform effort—to tell a new story about the global economy that recognizes we live on a finite globe. “I’m convinced that economics as currently taught and practiced throughout the world is a planetary path to ruin, but there are obvious cracks in the castle wall,” he writes in The Progress Illusion, an exploration of how traditional economics came to believe in the “fairytale of endless growth” and what an ecologically informed economics could aim for instead: enduring prosperity. His approachable and brave book may help let more sunlight in.

AWARDS + RECOGNITIONS

New Book by Paul Deslandes Receives British History Award

Deslandes, associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, received the prestigious Morris D. Forkosch Award from the American Historical Association for his book The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain: From the First Photographs to David Beckham. The award recognizes the best book written in English on the history of Britain, the British Empire, or the British Commonwealth since 1485.

Cassandra Townshend

Named Vermont Children's Mental Health Champion

Cassandra Townshend, Ed.D.'21 has been named a Vermont Children's Mental Health Champion for the 2022-2023 school year by the Association of University Centers on Disability and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for her work with Vermont Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and the Building Effective Supports for Teaching project. Townshend becomes one of only 10 such awardees nationwide.

Fulbright Recipient Antonio Cepeda-Benito to Study in Chile

Over two decades, Antonio Cepeda-Benito has established close collaborations with Spanish-speaking investigators across the world, resulting in new lines of cross-cultural research in food and drug cravings and in body image and eating disorders. The main objective for Cepeda-Benito’s current Fulbright project, "Explicit and Implicit Assessment of Weight Stigma Across English and Spanish Speaking Countries", with the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI, Chile) at the Centro de Estudios de la Conducta Alimentaria, is to cultivate and nurture ties with CECA faculty and students. In Cepeda-Benito’s words, “The end goal is to establish a relational foundation that would lead to develop and grow an emerging line of cross-cultural research on the intersectionality of self-stigmas and their impact on health.”

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOSHUA BROWN

TO SAVE THE FOREST, SHOULD WE MOVE THE TREES?

AS THE WOODLANDS OF NEW ENGLAND FACE A HOTTER FUTURE, UVM RESEARCHERS ARE EXPLORING THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF “ASSISTED MIGRATION”

In a greenhouse at UVM’s Aiken Forest Sciences Laboratory, scientist Peter Clark and lab technician Miriam Wolpert ’20 plant red oak acorns gathered from all over the East Coast. They’re looking for trees that can thrive in Vermont as the state grows rapidly wetter and warmer.

It’s eight degrees Fahrenheit. Off trail, at 2,042 feet of elevation, on the side of Camel's Hump, Professor Steve Keller takes off his gloves, pulls a Dell tablet out of his backpack, unrolls a wire, and plugs it into a scrawny maple tree. Well, actually, into a tiny sensor hanging under a white plastic funnel hanging off the side of the maple. The winter sunshine feels beautiful and the sky glows with a preternatural blue. The trees stand still, a mix of beech and sugar maple, plus a few yellow birches, all silent, their elbows clothed in new snow.

temperatures here are rising. These warmer conditions are, generally, pushing trees upslope and northward. On Camel's Hump, the ecotone—the complex boundary between the mid-slope hardwood forest and the highelevation spruce/fir forest—seems to be caught in a tug-of-war between the recovery of spruce from decades of damage and the rising heat that pushes trees to migrate toward the summit.

Keller has come here to take the temperature of the forest—and to show me the red spruce trees that he and generations of UVM scientists have been studying on this mountain since 1964. At this elevation there aren’t many spruce. “But there’s one—there,” Keller says, pointing to a brave and solitary evergreen tucked into the understory.

“One of the interesting trends that we're seeing is a bit of a rebound in red spruce at these lower elevations,” Keller says. As this forest has recovered from the ravages of acid rain and a long history of land clearing, “we're seeing some spruce come back in—back down the slope—to where they were missing before.”

Keller waits as the data from the sensor downloads onto his tablet—months of temperature and relative humidity readings. He presses the screen and points to a spiking line running across it. “See, it got down to just below zero on Christmas Eve,” he says, tracing his finger down a steep drop in the graph.

Mostly though, it’s up—for both temperatures and trees. Over recent decades, the average

Trees do migrate. If you stood at the summit of Camel's Hump 13,000 years ago, you would have witnessed a bulldozed landscape of rubble and bedrock, left behind by retreating glaciers. Slowly, a treeless tundra grew. Then, at the same time the first Paleoindian hunters were arriving in the Champlain Valley—12,000 years ago—so were trees, wind-blown pioneer species like paper birch and black spruce. Over centuries, a forest formed, dominated by spruce. White pine and hemlock started to show up about 10,000 years ago. Around 8,000 years ago, beech, chestnut, and Vermont’s beloved sugar maples moved in and began to get a foothold. In a drying period 4,000 years ago, the conditions were favorable for oak, which expanded its range. For millennia, trees have marched up river valleys and climbed mountains—their seeds dropped on the ground, carried by rodents, washed by streams, tossed by storms—generation upon generation, chasing a suitable climate.

Now many tree species are losing the race. Historical research estimates that trees in New England, on average, can disperse about onetenth of a mile per year. If they’re booking it, maybe as fast as three-tenths of a mile. But today the climate is warming much faster than that— shifting at four to six miles per year. Under a business-as-usual scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, the climate of Vermont is projected to warm by five, six, seven or more degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century— becoming like that of, perhaps, West Virginia.

“The trees can’t keep pace,” says Keller, a professor in UVM’s Plant Biology department and an expert on tree genetics. “Climate change is already causing stress. I'm talking about reduced growth, reduced carbon sequestration, more susceptibility to extreme events like drought and heat waves, less ability to fend off pests,” he says. “Our local forests will become more and more maladapted if we don’t do anything. So how do we help?”

"THE TREES CAN'T KEEP PACE. OUR FORESTS WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE MALADAPTED IF WE DON'T DO ANYTHING."

He and other UVM researchers are at the vanguard of a growing number of ecologists, foresters, and land managers who think part of the answer may be “forest assisted migration”—moving the seeds or seedlings of trees from where they live now to where they might have a better shot at thriving in a warmer future. Helping the trees to walk.

Keller tucks the tablet back into his pack and starts his own walk higher up the mountain, kicking up clouds of snow, to look for some more red spruce. The native range for this species stretches from North Carolina to the coast of Newfoundland. Regional modeling suggests that red spruce is especially vulnerable to decline driven by climate change. Isolated “sky islands” at the summit of peaks in the South are at risk of blinking out entirely, and spruce will face stiff competition from hardwood trees in a warmer, wetter Vermont. Plus, they’re especially slow to migrate since they can live 300 years or more.

Keller’s years of research here on Camel’s Hump and all along the eastern United States aims to improve the odds for red spruce. “If you look at red spruce and you assume that all members of the species are alike, you’re missing a lot. The trees differ across their range, across populations,” he says. “There may be unique genetic diversity within the range, pre-adapted to future climates, to future environments. So it becomes a matching problem: if we want to have a healthy spruce forest in New England, where would we look to find the genetic adaptations that will be well matched to the climate of New England in 2100?”

"THE 'LOCAL IS BEST' PARADIGM IS — IF IT ISN'T ALREADY ANTIQUATED FOR A PARTICULAR SPECIES — IT WILL BE WITHIN OUR LIFETIMES. AND CERTAINLY WITHIN THE LIFETIMES OF THE FORESTS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT."

STUDYING SPRUCE

Steve Keller and colleagues collected red spruce seeds along the East Coast. These were germinated in a glasshouse at UVM in spring 2018. A year later, seedlings from all the sources were transplanted to three common gardens—one in Asheville, North Carolina; one in Frostburg Maryland; and one Burlington, Vermont—5100 trees. The seedlings were observed for two growing seasons to see which ones were best adapted to the local climate.

COMMON GARDENS

Experimental outdoor land plots. Into each, 1700 seedlings were transplanted from across the spruce’s native range.

SOURCE POPULATIONS

65 forest sites where red spruce seeds were collected from 340 mother trees.

RED SPRUCE RANGE

The current geographic areas where red spruce trees naturally grow and reproduce.

To find out, Keller and his colleagues and students grew more than 5,000 spruce seedlings with funding from the National Science Foundation. First, they collected seed and genetic information from mother trees at 65 locations throughout the spruce’s range—up the spine of the Appalachians, across New England, and into Canada. Then they germinated the seeds and grew seedlings in a UVM greenhouse for a year. In the spring of 2019, they transplanted the trees to three locations with different climates: Asheville, N.C., Frostburg, Md., and Burlington, V.T.—1,700 seedlings at each place in raised bed gardens.

Then they watched, while the trees went through two growing seasons and one winter, collecting data on survival, growth, bud break and bud set, height, nutrient concentration in their needles, and other measures of whether the seedlings were thriving. They wanted to know how the seedlings were affected by the difference between the climate of their garden site compared to the climate of their mother tree. They discovered that juvenile spruce like to grow in the same climate as their mothers, and their growth trailed off as they got into different climates.

But, of course, the current climate of the mother tree will—very soon—not be its future climate. Using this insight—combined with U.S. Forest Service tree inventories, DNA sequencing, and climate modeling—Keller and his collaborators have developed tools to estimate how far—and from what source—red spruce seed should be moved to give the next generation its best chance of doing well in a warmer future. On a new app that Keller and colleagues created, users can select a period for which they are planting, say the years 2071-2101, dial in moderate or severe greenhouse gas emissions— and then enter a location, say Mount Katahdin in north-central Maine. The app churns away and suggests that red spruce seed with good adaptations for planting might be found on the eastern slopes of Mount Mansfield in Vermont. For Camel's Hump, in 2100, it suggests a spruce forest near the Finger Lakes in New York.

As temperatures rise and Vermont experiences more rain, intense storms, and severe droughts—the conditions will improve for some trees and be worse for others. Forest ecologists expect more southern-adapted trees, like shagbark hickory, black cherry, and red oak, will increasingly find conditions in the state that suit their needs. Other species, including balsam fir, yellow birch, black ash, and sugar maple, “will be negatively impacted,” the 2021 Vermont Climate Assessment reports. But even if the conditions are cozy for a particular species, it must be there to benefit. “The climate might be perfectly suitable for red oak in a given area,” says Professor Tony D’Amato, director of the Forestry program in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, “but it's just not able to get there quick enough to capitalize on that new environment.”

Unlike California or other spots in the West, forests in the eastern United States have the delightful quality of just growing back after they are harvested, or burn, or get knocked down in a hurricane. There is not an extensive tradition of planting trees in the North Woods. Mostly you get whatever trees volunteer to grow—and for areas that are being replanted the adage has been “local is best,” meaning sourcing seed only from nearby. It may become useful, even necessary, for landowners, timber companies, and conservation land trusts to start thinking about how they will introduce genes, trees, and even whole suites of species from farther afield that can keep forests healthy or even forests at all. In some spots, like the invasive-choked, deer-chomped, pest-threatened woods of Chittenden County, there is reason to be concerned that an “alternative stable state”—in the anodyne jargon of scientists— will emerge in the coming decades: the weeds will win and there will be few trees.

“From my perspective as a scientist, the ‘local is best’ paradigm is—if it isn't already antiquated for a particular species—it will be within our lifetimes. And certainly within the lifetimes of the forests we're talking about,” Keller says. “As the climate continues to change, this approach will become less and less viable.”

Peter Clark leads the way with a machete, down a slippery hill, and into a very young, quarter-acre patch of woods at one of UVM’s research forests in Jericho, Vt. He’s already hacked a path through the raspberry underbrush and over a muddy ditch. “Haven’t been down here in a while and thought I’d lay out the red carpet,” he says. Soon, Clark—a UVM post doctoral scientist—and Tony D’Amato are pointing out unusual trees that they planted here as part of an experiment five years ago while Clark was earning his Ph.D. in D’Amato’s lab at the Rubenstein School.

at several spindly trees that tower over the others. “These big screamers right here are black birch. This is a true assisted migration species. It's not found here,” Clark says. Black birch is common in southern New England and makes it into southern Vermont, but not this far north at this elevation. Then Clark and D’Amato turn to look at a much smaller, bedraggled-looking sapling. “And here’s bitternut hickory—another assisted migration species,” he says. “Model projections say that it’ll fare pretty well, but we've had a lot of trouble getting it to succeed in our experiments.”

Forest assisted migration, in some form, has been happening for thousands of years. There is evidence showing that Native Americans, ancestors of today’s Abenaki people, moved and cultivated oaks, chestnuts, butternuts, and other large-seeded trees, valuable for food, moving them north and elsewhere long before Europeans arrived.

“Here’s an American chestnut,” Clark says, pointing to a sapling thinner than my arm.

“It’s a disease-resistant one from the American Chestnut Foundation.” Chestnuts were once a keystone species, with billions of them growing, 10 feet wide, from Maine to Mississippi—until they were almost entirely wiped out by a blight in the first half of the 20th century. Last year, Clark and his colleagues published the results of a study, in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, that showed promise for these hybrid chestnuts to be used in restoring northeastern forests—and for assisted migration outside its historic range, which reached its northern limits in the Champlain and Connecticut River valleys of Vermont.

“This is red oak,” Clark says. “We’re on the northern range limit of red oak here. You see it around here, but not much.” Then they both crane their heads back to look up

Much more recently, in the early 2000s, a group of conservation activists began transporting seeds and seedlings of a critically endangered conifer tree species—Florida Torreya—from its only remaining locations on a river in Florida to land in North Carolina and farther north, even attempting to grow them in New Hampshire. This is a form of assisted migration sometimes called “species rescue” that these conservationists see as a pressing ethical obligation to prevent extinction. In contrast, some ecologists see this as a fool’s errand, taking a species far outside its current range, where it may have little chance of long-term survival or bring havoc to local ecosystems. Monterey pine is endangered in its native habitats in California—but after being introduced and widely cultivated in Australia, it’s become invasive, damaging wildlife habitats.

Assisted migration (sometimes called assisted colonization) has sparked strong controversy and some outlandish ideas. Moving polar bears from the melting Arctic to Antarctica only seems like a good idea if you’re a polar bear, not so much if you’re a penguin. And, conversely, “moving tree species outside of their native range may be a lot harder than people might expect,” says Professor Jane Molofsky, Steve Keller’s colleague in the Plant Biology department and an expert on the evolution of invasiveness. “Trees have a range for a reason. And it often has to do with the soil. There's a lot of interconnections between species, especially

in the mycorrhizal associations that occur under the plants. Unless you're migrating with your fungi, your mutualists, it may not be successful. As you go from a deciduous forest in Vermont up to a Canadian forest, which has a layer of needles, soil conditions may be very different.”

The devil is in the forested details. On one end of a spectrum is what scientists call “assisted population migration”—moving trees, usually from warmer locations to cooler ones, within their existing range. Like transporting red oak from southern Vermont, where it’s plentiful, to northern Vermont, where it’s rare. “That’s low risk,” Carrie Pike, a tree geneticist with the U.S. Forest Service, told me.

occurred historically over hundreds of years of change,” says D’Amato, “which, unfortunately, is now happening over decades—so the trees just can't track it.” Clark and D’Amato have been testing this approach here at the Jericho Forest and, in a much bigger experiment, at three locations in northern New England. “That’s medium risk,” Pike said. And most controversial is “species assisted migration.” Picking up red oak seedlings, say, and plunking them down hundreds of miles north in central Quebec where they would be strangers in a strange boreal land. “High risk,” said Pike.

But what, really, is risky? “Doing nothing is risky,” says D’Amato. Unlike efforts to rescue a beleaguered single species—by moving it to a new home—forest assisted migration aims to keep alive the hyper-complex ecosystems that millions of species call home—roaming moose and flying squirrels, rare mosses and unknown insects. “Trees are great,” says D’Amato, “but get enough trees together to form a forest and, wow, something amazing happens, something spiritual.”

Somewhat more controversial: moving trees outside their current range—but just a little bit. That’s called “assisted range expansion,” where the goal is to plant trees that could have migrated on their own—in less than the time of an ice age—but may not arrive as soon as they’re needed or that might be blocked from dispersing by, say, farmland or cities. “It’s doing what

Globally, many forests are facing catastrophic disturbances and declines. And in the North Woods, “the risk profile may have fundamentally changed too,” Clark says. “In the absence of exploring some radical ideas to adapt our forests we may be putting them at greater risk. Assisted migration is focused on keeping forests as functioning healthy forests.”

A crucial question, then, is: can the functions of a forest be maintained if the trees are replaced by new species? For example, Vermont forests

"TREES ARE GREAT, BUT GET ENOUGH TREES TOGETHER TO FORM A FOREST AND, WOW, SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENS, SOMETHING SPIRITUAL."

ASSISTED POPULATION MIGRATION Movement from one area to another inside their existing range.

ASSISTED RANGE EXPANSION Expanding migration slightly outside their existing range.

ASSISTED SPECIES MIGRATION Movement from existing range to an entirely different, non-native range.

dominated by balsam fir are highly vulnerable to climate change. “If we’re going to lose balsam fir in the Nulhegan Basin in the Northeast Kingdom—it’s a deep-crowned conifer—can we plant species there that would fill a similar ecological niche?” wonders D'Amato. He and colleagues are working on an experiment there, after decades of industrial management, to plant white pine, red spruce, eastern hemlock, and northern white cedar, all of which are found in that landscape but were mostly eliminated by intensive logging. They’re including both local seeds and more southern genotypes—including six sources of spruce from West Virginia.

Models suggest that the Northeast could gain 10 to 20 species of climate-adapted trees—if we just waited, say, 300 years for them to wander in. Vermont forests will likely become more biologically productive for the next 50 or 100 years—even as individual species struggle— before higher summer temperatures, drought, and loss of soil nutrients bring dramatic declines in health. “The goal is to try to get ahead of that,” D’Amato says, “so that when those declines happen, pockets of climate-adapted species are on the landscape—perhaps as refugia, as seed sources, from which a new forest can grow.”

D'Amato’s overall goal is to develop tools to help forests and forest landowners thrive, or at least survive, in the face of climate change. In some places, that might mean improving a woodland’s resistance to change, like fighting to keep sugar maple growing well on a Vermont hillside as long as possible, thinning, selecting, planting, and weeding on behalf of the glory (and market) that is maple syrup. Great while it lasts; tough sledding when maple can no longer hack the heat.

In other forests, it might mean building resilience. “Vermont's forests are pretty simplified,” D’Amato says, so increasing the diversity of conservation land by planting and protecting populations of rare native trees— or increasing the structural complexity of a woodlot by letting old trees remain—can give forests pathways to adapt to rapid change.

And—as part of a project called Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change—D’Amato, Clark, and a large team of colleagues from UVM, Dartmouth College, and the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station have been exploring the promise and peril of helping forests transition into new arrangements of species, adapted for a warmer future. Assisted migration has been a central tool in these experiments.

“In just seven years, the mindset of a lot of scientists and foresters has changed,” D’Amato says. “Foresters have been moving trees around for a long time, white pine, oaks, other species. But a lot of that work has been in aid of commercial forestry. There hasn’t been much research on moving trees in aid of ecosystem function.”

In a thousand years, the North Woods will likely recover its footing, find a new assemblage of trees, build novel natural communities, and get on just fine. But we can’t wait that long. Forests are natural infrastructure that humanity depends on. “We want—and need— mature trees and all the benefits they provide,” D’Amato says, “carbon storage, clean water, wildlife habitat, cool shade, wood products, recreation—I could make a long list.” Letting a rare tree species disappear into the night of extinction may be a tragic failure; letting forests decline is an existential threat.

Within the 27,000-acre Dartmouth Second College Grant in northern New Hampshire—a managed forest dominated by sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech—the team cleared a group of one-acre and quarter-acre plots, harvesting most of the trees to mimic the natural disturbances you might find in these woods: ice storms, wind throws, small fires. At two UVM research forests in Wolcott and Washington, Vt., additional quarter-acre plots were prepared. Then, in the spring of 2018, scientists and land managers planted 4,675 seedlings at the New Hampshire site and more than 400 at each of the UVM forests. The team chose nine species for testing. Six were locally present, but minor, species—red oak, white

"WE JUST HAVE TO LET THE FOREST CHANGE. AND WE NEED A DIVERSITY OF FORESTRY APPROACHES TO SEE IF THEY HELP IT TO ADAPT."

pine, hemlock, black cherry, bigtooth aspen, and red spruce—that the team thought could do well in a warmer future and could replace some of the ecological roles of dominant trees as they get slammed by climate change. Three were the species Clark and D’Amato showed me at the Jericho Forest: chestnut, bitternut hickory, and black birch—more southerly trees not found on these sites.

They tracked the survival and growth of all the seedlings. After three years, just over half of them were still alive. The trees from outside their range didn’t do as well as the local trees. A severe drought, extreme winter cold, and deer and moose browse put stress on all the young trees. And it highlighted a curious reality researchers call “ecological memory,” where the past state of a forest resists efforts to introduce new species, giving locally adapted trees a competitive advantage, in the short run, over the transplants. That’s why D’Amato, Clark, and the team are doing this research: to go beyond computer modeling and greenhouse experiments to understand realworld outcomes in forests at the scale of what commercial landowners encounter. “There may be extra work needed to give assisted migration species a leg up in the early years,” says Clark.

And what else is needed? “Humility,” says D’Amato. “There is so much we don’t know. We have to accept that we can’t build a new forest, that we can’t manage our way out of many of our troubles. Mostly, we just have to let the forest change. And we need a diversity of forestry approaches to see if they help it to adapt.”

This is what Bill Keeton calls “risk spreading.”

“The fundamental problem is the difficulty in predicting the future,” says Keeton, a professor of forestry and forest ecology in the Rubenstein School and a fellow in UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment, “so we should not put all our eggs in one basket.” Like D’Amato, he sees both benefits and risks in assisted migration, but he sees limitations to its wide-spread use. “Novel species assemblages are likely when the climate changes dramatically. We might have completely different natural communities in the future. So where should tree species be moved to be ready for the future? That question makes assisted migration really tricky.” That’s why Keeton recommends pairing it with other approaches, including

an expanded network of protected lands that “encompass more geophysical diversity, like topography and soil—and are better connected,” he says. “This will give species room to move on their own and sort themselves— and will be more adaptive to change.”

On a warm and rainy afternoon, Clark and Miriam Wolpert ’20, a technician in D’Amato’s lab, are sorting through 6,000 red oak acorns at the UVM Aiken Forestry Sciences Lab on Spear Street. Wolpert holds up one Ziploc bag after another while Clark describes where these seeds came from: Newport, Vt., the Massachusetts border, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia. Wolpert picks one acorn out of a bag and places it in a tube of soil. Then another and another. These seeds, from every cold hardiness zone down to North Carolina, will be sprouted and planted out at several UVM research sites in Vermont—looking for oaks that might be well-matched to a warmer future. As Clark and Wolpert carefully cover each acorn with dirt, it seems so hopeful to imagine these seeds, from perhaps Tennessee, growing into sturdy red oaks that bring shade and new life to a corner of a Vermont forest. That will be beautiful—but only if we move fast enough to save ourselves from the heat first.

By Joshua Brown

Sometimes called “silent and silenced,” Chagas is a neglected tropical disease that infects seven million people in Mexico, Central America, and South America—and is spreading to other parts of the world. Most don’t know they’re carrying the parasite that causes Chagas. But, years later, intestinal illnesses, chronic heart problems, and death can result. Researcher Lori Stevens and her students are part of an international team fighting back with high-tech insights from UVM labs—and low-tech solutions in communities in Guatemala and other parts of Central America. They’re succeeding. Their work begins with the recognition that promoting public health must go far beyond studying a parasite or any single disease—to a deep understanding of how people, landscapes, animals, economies, and knowledge weave together. “Really,” says Stevens, “there’s only one health.”

With a curved pair of tweezers, Lori Stevens picks up a miserable bug. The insect itself is not miserable—it’s dead and just came out of a freezer in Stevens' lab on the third floor of Marsh Life Science. In the sunlight, the tanand-black checkered pattern around the edge of its flattened abdomen glints as Stevens turns it upside down. It’s a kissing bug, a member of a blood-sucking group called triatomines. When people sleep, these creatures come out from the darkness and feed, “kissing” them, often with painless bites around the mouth. As the bug’s abdomen fills with blood, it’s obliged to defecate. Sometimes these liquid feces—bug poops—fall into the wound or get into a person’s eye. From there, they can transmit a microscopic parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes Chagas disease. It’s a cryptic and much neglected malady that brings misery and ill-health to millions of people across Latin America—and 12,000 deaths there each year, far more than malaria. A miserable bug.

Stevens—a professor in UVM’s Biology department since 1988—has been part of an international team of scientists and public health workers trying to stomp on Chagas disease. They’re having remarkable success in Guatemala, combining sophisticated laboratory insights about the genetics and ecology of kissing bugs with low-cost, communitybased approaches to making houses “refractory,” as the scientists say: keeping the bugs out of people’s homes.

In the lab, a few minutes later, Daniel Penados holds up a vial with just the abdomen of a kissing bug floating in alcohol. “Should we crush this one?” he asks Stevens. “Crush your heart out!” she says with a laugh. But, actually, he’s going to crush the DNA out. And inside that DNA is a world of information about what the kissing bugs have been eating, which, in turn, has allowed the team to unravel several mysteries about how to break the transmission of Chagas disease.

Chagas is, mostly, a disease of poverty. In Guatemala, many houses are built with adobe bricks or with bajareque, a traditional material made from a lattice of sticks covered with

mud. Dirt floors are common. If they’re not maintained to prevent cracks and openings, these materials make perfect habitat for kissing bugs. Like the forested crevices and caves they naturally inhabit, the bugs can hide there during the day. And many poor people bring their dogs, chickens or other livestock into their homes— which also attracts these blood-feeding insects.

Daniel Penados has seen this up close. He’s from Guatemala—now a UVM Ph.D. student doing research with Stevens and biology professor Bryan Ballif. Penados started working on Chagas with Stevens in 2019 when he was still an undergraduate at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City. (Fun fact: the University of San Carlos was founded in 1676.) His mentor in Guatemala, professor and entomologist Carlota Monroy, has been a pioneer in studying and attacking Chagas disease since the 1980s. She’s part of a trio of senior women scientists leading this research effort, in addition to Stevens and their colleague Patricia Dorn, a distinguished biologist at

Loyola University in New Orleans. It was Monroy who encouraged Penados to come to Vermont, part of an exchange of undergraduate students between the University of San Carlos and UVM that she and Stevens arranged with support from the National Science Foundation. “When I started my undergrad, I pretty much didn’t care about Chagas disease,” Penados says. His family runs a successful laboratory testing business in Guatemala City. “I just wanted to learn molecular techniques in the lab. But I ended up loving learning about Chagas, and the communities, and how you are improving people’s lives with this work.” After he graduated, and the pandemic had passed, Penados came back to UVM in the fall of 2022 to begin his doctoral research in neurobiology. (And to learn how to ski.)

Penados shows Stevens another vial holding a kissing bug abdomen. Stevens examines the label. “This is the one that we did that paper on, right?” she says. “Let’s save it for the mass spec.”

Two technologies have revolutionized biological research over the last few decades— one is called “PCR,” which is shorthand for the mouthful “polyermase chain reaction.” Invented in the 1980s, PCR lets scientists take specific bits of DNA and rapidly reproduce them into billions of identical copies. It’s like a microscopic copier machine on speed. From there scientists can use the amplified DNA to find genes and ask questions about the genetics of many kinds of organisms. The famed Human Genome Project was built on PCR.

The other is mass spectrometry, or “mass spec” as it’s known in scientist slang. These machines, basically—very basically!—are a ray gun for looking at chemicals. In a mass spec, materials—like, say, bits of blood from the abdomen of a kissing bug—are ionized: bombarded with a beam of electrons that breaks them into positively charged fragments. These fragments are whizzed through an electric or magnetic field, which deflects them toward a detector. The amount these tiny pieces deflect

Left: A pair of Trypanosoma cruzi parasites visible in a blood sample at 1200X magnification.

Right: Professor Lori Stevens and UVM doctoral student Daniel Penados—a citizen of Guatemala—work together to extract and study a complex mash of DNA in the abdomen of kissing bugs.

is determined by how much they weigh—by their mass. The pattern they make on the detector—the spectra—can reveal what’s in the sample. Mass spec has been used in a vast array of scientific fields—including fishing out different types of proteins from cells. Like hemoglobin, an animal protein within red blood cells found in the guts of a kissing bug.

Stevens has helped the research team make fundamental breakthroughs in understanding Chagas disease—by developing new approaches with both PCR and mass spectrometry.

But to better understand her innovations, it may be helpful to travel back maybe eight million years to South America. There, the microscopic ancestors of the T. cruzi parasite were probably introduced to ground-dwelling mammals by bats—perhaps when some bat-biting insects started also feeding on some unlucky opossums, according to a review study in Parasites & Vectors. By the time the first people had walked over the Bering land bridge (or did they come by boat?) and down to South America, Chagas disease was already well established in the

Andes. It may have been transmitted to humans when they made their first settlements near the coast of the Atacama Desert in what is now southern Peru and northern Chile. The oldest-known T. cruzi infection in a human was found in a 9,000-year-old mummy made by the Chinchorro people of that region. (Fun fact #2: it was identified using PCR.)

There are more than 130 species of triatomines—kissing bugs—that transmit the T. cruzi parasites to a wide range of wild and domestic mammals. And there are at least seven strains of the parasite itself, each with its own special forms of infection. Taking a deep-time, ecological view makes clear why Chagas disease will never be eradicated. And it makes clear that knowing which species of kissing bug you have on the end of your tweezers—and whether it feeds on people and where in the world (or house, or forest, or neighboring village) it came from—could make a great deal of difference. “You need to know what you're working with,” Patricia Dorn says, “if you want to control it.”

Which bring us back to Lori Stevens in her laboratory. On this winter afternoon, she’s got Daniel Penados working on her right—and another Daniel, Danny Sanchez—UVM Class of 2026, a Yankees-loving freshman intern— helping her sort vials of kissing bug abdomens on her left. She’s involved dozens of graduate and undergraduate students in her Chagas disease research since she was contacted by Dorn in 2007 about helping Monroy in Guatemala. Stevens is an expert on population genetics—and in those years she was studying Chagas in Bolivia. Monroy, an expert field scientist, was trying to distinguish strains of the kissing bug species Triatoma dimidiata—the most important carrier of the T. cruzi parasite in Central America. Based on the bug’s body features, like color and shape, it was very difficult to distinguish the strains. “That's why Lori started to work with me,” Monroy says. “To understand the difference

Professor and entomologist Carlota Monroy (left) talks with Guatemalan villagers as part of her decadeslong quest to help the people of her country understand and fight Chagas. About one-third of people who contract the disease will suffer heart damage that becomes apparent only many years later as progressive heart failure or sudden death.

between one T. dimidiata strain—from the other, the other, and the other. Which ones transmit the disease in the houses, and in the field, and which ones transmit the disease in the forests?” Stevens was able to help distinguish them genetically—using PCR-based lab techniques.

In 1915, some kissing bugs from Venezuela—in the species Rhodnius prolixus—accidentally escaped from a research laboratory in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. They spread through Central America, forming domesticated populations in buildings, often in the palm leaves used as roofing. They were dangerously effective carriers of Chagas, dropping feces down from the roof into people’s food. A massive spraying campaign of insecticides, begun in the 1960s, has been successful in knocking back R. prolixus in many houses in South America. By 2008, insecticides had also successfully stopped transmission of Chagas by R. prolixus in Guatemala and throughout most of Central America.

But the kissing bug native to Guatemala— Triatoma dimidiata—is a different critter. These bugs will frequently reinfest a house soon after pesticide spraying. Repeated applications are too expensive for many communities in Guatemala and throughout the region. More important, pesticides are nasty, causing environmental and human health problems. (Plus they run the risk of triggering the evolution of pesticide-resistant populations, as has been seen in a South American kissing bug species, Triatoma infestans.)

So why do these T. dimidiata kissing bugs keep coming back into people’s houses? Over the last two decades, the research team led by Monroy, Dorn, and Stevens has unraveled the mystery of rapid reinfestation—and what to do about it. The short answer: some of these bugs move—a lot—happily jumping from house to house, or from nearby forests and woodpiles. So it’s better to keep them out—rather than try to kill them in.

In a 2022 review paper, the team describes one of their experiments where houses in a Guatemalan village were treated with pesticides. Less than two years later, a third of these houses were reinfested with kissing bugs. That study—developed in collaboration with UVM professors Sarah Helms Cahan in the Biology Department and Donna Rizzo in

Nymphs (at left) and an adult kissing bug (at right) hide in plain sight in the cracks of a mud wall. At night, both nymphs and adults come out to feed on people as they sleep. Researchers and public health workers search for the insects to collect and study them at LENAP, the Laboratory of Applied Entomology and Parasitology at the University of San Carlos, and in biology labs at the University of Vermont.

the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering—and others like it, relied on advanced PCR techniques looking at sections of DNA with astounding names like single nucleotide polymorphisms, microsatellites, and random amplified polymorphic markers. (Fun fact #3: these are really cool and complicated techniques that you can read about on your own time; we’re moving on with the bug story.) And that story, revealed in the DNA, showed that the kissing bugs in many houses,

and even in villages 60 miles apart, are closely related—meaning they must be highly mobile.

“Pesticide has been effective in South America because there is a species that is only living inside the house,” Monroy says. “But, in Guatemala, Triatoma dimidiata is not only living inside the houses. It’s all over and its movement makes it very difficult to control only with pesticide. That's why I decided to work with non-traditional ways of control many years ago—we needed a new method.”

That method has come to be called an “EcoHealth” approach (or, increasingly, “One Health”). “It begins with the people, my people,” says Monroy, who has been able to build connections between Guatemalan citizens, community leaders, researchers, and Ministry of Health officials and field workers. “Nothing will work without the local community making it work,” she said. So the researchers reached out to two villages in southern Guatemala, La Brea and El Tule—both highly infested with kissing bugs despite regular insecticide spraying by the Ministry of Health. They began working with residents to make improvements—that local people already wanted. “We learned that wall plastering was the most common house improvement undertaken; traditionally, women, using their hands, plaster the walls to beautify the house,” the team writes in Frontiers in Tropical Disease. Mud was customary, but easily cracked, quickly opening places for kissing bugs to hide. So local leaders worked with Monroy, others on the research team, and architects and engineers to formulate an improved plaster using low-cost, local ingredients, including sand and volcanic ash, designed to be resistant to cracking. They also formulated a cement-like material for making poured floors, using volcanic ash and lime at one-tenth the cost of commercial cement.

And then young men from the village were hired to instruct and help residents make their own improvements. “People like having bright, clean walls and solid floors,” says Dorn, so their bug-blocking benefits don’t cut against the culture. With these in place, residents were supplied with chicken wire to make their own chicken coops, getting the birds out of houses. Finally, the householders were provided with fruit trees to replace trees harvested for chicken coops. These trees can provide improved nutrition and

Danny Sanchez, a first-year undergrad from the Bronx, helps in Lori Stevens’ lab. “I’d never heard of Chagas disease or kissing bugs. I’ve never been out of the country and I’m learning a lot here,” says Sanchez, the first in his family to go to college. “I needed an extra credit and I found that research was interesting. So my advisor was like, ‘I know a researcher. She’s really good.’ And that’s how I started working for Lori.”

a market opportunity for selling fruit—and also promote reforestation, since one force pushing Guatemalan kissing bugs into human habitat is destruction of their forest habitat.

Monitoring these changes from 2001 to 2020, the team has proven they have many benefits. For example, “we've documented that by moving the chickens to an outdoor coop, they’re raising a lot more chickens. And women control the chickens and the sale of chickens and the eggs. And so women are better off now,” Dorn says. “And, of course, they cook them for dinner—everybody's eating more protein.”

In the two test villages with house improvements, the levels of kissing bug infestation plummeted, falling below an 8% threshold, where transmission of Chagas becomes unlikely. But to show that the EcoHealth approach actually works—and to convince the Guatemalan Ministry of Health—the scientists needed to prove not only that the houses kept out the kissing bugs over the long term—but also that people were not contracting the parasite.

And that, again, brings us back to Lori Stevens in her laboratory, where, on this winter afternoon, she is patiently explaining to a visiting science reporter what PCR primers are and why they matter—and how they relate to dog chow. Years ago, she had heard that PCR was being used to detect contamination in dog food. “Companies would say it was all pork—but then people would amplify DNA samples to find chicken and beef,” Stevens says. And that got her thinking: “When you take off the end of the bug—you've got DNA of the parasite, DNA of the bug, DNA of any microbiome, and DNA of the blood meals in there,” she says. Stevens put her skills to work and developed tools to extract this jumble of DNA from the abdomen of the kissing bugs and then designed custom primers—specialized short single strands of DNA—that could be used to “amplify human DNA, dog DNA, mouse DNA, chicken DNA, and so on,” Stevens explains, “so that we could look and see what the bugs were feeding on.”

This innovation by Stevens was followed by another that she and Bryan Ballif and others developed with mass spec. Stevens had heard that researchers were studying mosquitoes by looking for a distinctive signature of different species in their hemoglobin. She and Ballif developed a

way to do the same with kissing bugs—finding hemoglobin signals from the many animals they feed on. These proteins are less prone to falling apart than DNA and last longer, so they have been able to provide a highly accurate confirmation of the results from PCR—and a high-resolution picture of a kissing bug’s diet.

With these tools in hand, the Chagas researchers could see that the T. dimidiata kissing bugs were feeding on a range of animals outside the houses (like cows) and people inside the house—as well as moving from house to house. And, critically, they could show that after the EcoHealth improvements, the kissing bugs shifted away from human blood meals, dropping from 40% of bugs found with human DNA to less than 10%.

After launching the EcoHealth approach in these two Guatemalan villages over 20 years ago, the research team took the show on the road, expanding the effort into other landscapes and cultures, surveying villages in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. And in a region-wide EcoHealth project launched in 2018, with 51 villages in two regions of Guatemala, led by the Ministry of Public Health and numerous other organizations, the scientists report, “no child under five years old was found T. cruzi positive”—indicating that the transmission of Chagas disease was blocked for at least five years.

A recent study by Monroy estimates that 85,000 people that live in Central America are now at much reduced risk of Chagas disease because of the approach she pioneered. She’d like to protect millions more. “The science we do here is important for validating the work of people like Carlota in the field,” says Stevens, sliding another box of kissing bugs out of the freezer. “The genetic data that we've generated at UVM shows how much the bugs move over the landscape. I enjoy thinking about that. It puts these tiny things we study in the lab into a bigger perspective.”

In the coldest months of the year, the University of Vermont does not retreat. (Though some of us do enjoy putting up our wooly feet by the fire.) The place is crackling with research and teaching, learning and laughter, mountain adventures and meditative moments. We dropped in on UVM students, staff, and faculty from before sunup to long after dark—to see how winter, as Robert Frost wrote, “lifts existence on a plane of snow.” Here are a few snapshots.

Photos by Bailey Beltramo, Joshua Brown, David Seaver, and Andy Duback

Bacteria growing in a Petri

These are used by medical students to practice bacterial identification testing techniques—including Gram staining. It’s part of a course with the no-nonsense name, Attacks and Defenses. Their instructors: medical student Kali Amoah ’23 (also pursuing a master’s degree in pathology) and Christina Wojewoda, M.D., associate prof. of pathology & laboratory medicine. Later, patients’ symptoms were read out and the students tried to determine which pathogen may be the culprit in an illness.

Maylene Lapress, a second-year graduate student in UVM’s Medical Lab Science Program, transfers test samples in the blood bank unit of the medical center’s testing lab–one of the largest in the Northeast.

2

In a few weeks, the house lights will dim and the seats of UVM’s black box Royall Tyler Theatre will be filled with an audience to watch this spring’s performance of Bat Boy: The Musical. For now, student actors sing their lines to empty seats and rehearse late into the night in preparation for opening night.

3

dish.

4

Year-round, Mount Mansfield forms a spectacular backdrop to daily life on campus. This snowy view of “The Chin,” the northern reach of the peak, calls to winter hikers and backcountry skiers from outside the Gucciardi Fitness & Recreation Center. And the entire ridge is a UVM-owned natural area—meaning the mountain isn’t just visible from campus, it’s part of campus.

For a course on ecological design, Katarina Menice ’23, attends to lettuce (along with pole beans, snap peas, and tilapia fish) in the Aiken Building’s Eco-Design Makerspace where faculty and students study improvements to wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery. Menice, an environmental science major, says: “It all cycles around.”

7

A bit sleepy-eyed, one-weekold Angus calf Rigatoni waits in the early hours for students in the CREAM program to deliver his morning meal. It’ll be his first time eating from a bucket rather than a bottle.

Environment and

Resources, are exploring new ideas for winter boat storage. A series of water circulators, pictured above, can be tethered together and submerged just a few feet underwater. The propellors on these circulators provide enough disturbance on the surface to prevent freezing, which could allow the vessel to be docked at the laboratory year-round.

8

It's all about momentum when doing a “dyno”—or dynamic move—in climbing. A student attending a POCO—People of Color Outdoors—Intro to Bouldering class reaches with both hands to top out on the new bouldering wall in Patrick Gym.

The crew of the Marcelle Melosira, UVM’s new research vessel for the Rubenstein School of

Natural

9

Droplets of blue-dyed water are strained from a fiber-based pulp in Professor Steve Kostell’s biofiber lab. What started as fluffy food packaging—destined for the trash—is, instead, in the process of becoming something useful: paper. Through trial and error, Annika Zimmermann ’23, a community-centered design major, has been exploring how fibers from different waste materials can be "upcycled" through regenerative design.

10

Khadga Thakuri, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, uses steady hands inside a pressure-treated hood in Professor Matthew White’s physics lab. Thakuri and White explore how photonic structures, like opals, can extend energy transfer between molecules. This research could help increase these transfer distances up to 500X farther than what is found in natural processes—like photosynthesis.

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It looks rugged because it is. In deep snow, fourth-year medical students participate in backwoods rescue scenarios with the Stowe Mountain Rescue Squad in the Green Mountain National Forest. White coat not needed. Best to bring hat and mittens for this elective course, Winter Wilderness Medicine.

Fresh snow + a casual Saturday morning + any slope that students can find = a stylish method on Redstone campus.

RANDALL HARP PHILOSOPHER

TINA ESCAJA POET

JOSH BONGARD ROBOTICIST

</WE, ROBOTS

A CONVERSATION WITH A POET, A PHILOSOPHER, AND A ROBOTICIST

This conversation began with garden snails. I was reading a philosophy paper on the conjecture that simple-brained snails might be conscious. In 1974, Thomas Nagel famously asked, “What’s it like to be a bat?”

The philosophy paper followed Nagel’s question, wondering if snails have some dim sense of self. Is there something it’s like to be a snail? Which got me thinking about the explosive development of artificial intelligence. Could AIs become conscious?

I began to wonder if there could be something it’s like to be ... a robot.

And that brought to mind my favorite roboticist, Joshua Bongard, the Veinott Green and Gold Professor in the Department of Computer Science in UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. He’s been building world-leading, category-busting robots for decades, including his most recent collaboration to create Xenobots, the world’s first reproducing robots—custom-built out of living frog cells. He also thinks deeply about technology, artificial intelligence, and cognition—and what this all means for the future of the human experiment. And what this all means is by no means a question that only lives in the halls of engineering. One of the great strengths of the University of Vermont is the way scholars and researchers reach out from their disciplinary homes to ask other scholars in radically different fields: what do you think? I knew that Bongard had had fruitful conversations with professor Randall Harp in UVM’s Department of Philosophy, a researcher who ponders the meaning of free will, teaches courses on dystopias, and asks questions about robots. And with Tina Escaja, University Distinguished Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Cultures, and director of UVM’s program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Escaja is a writer, artist, and pioneer in digital poetry whose category-defying creations include “Robopoem@s,” five insect-like robots whose bodies are engraved with seven parts of a “poem@”—written in both Spanish and English, from the robot’s point of view. I invited them to speak together, prompting them with several questions. When gathered in the gorgeous library of Alumni House, they took these questions and ran, adding many of their own. Here’s a small sample of the freewheeling, two-hour conversation, edited and condensed for clarity. It was a meeting of minds that kept returning to powerful questions, including this opening one: what is a robot?

Arranged and Edited by Josh Brown • Photography by Bailey Beltramo

TINA ESCAJA: This morning I asked Alexa to help me with this (I didn’t have the opportunity to ask ChatGPT, but that would have been nice): what is a human and what is a robot? The answer was predictable; it was probably coming from Wikipedia. Alexa said a human is a species of mammal that comes from “homo sapiens”—which is “wise man.” (Just by itself, there is a problem there because of gender construction!) And a robot is a machine—programmed through a computer and mostly related to functionality—according to Alexa—and less related to aesthetics and emotions. I thought that was interesting: a robot is explained by what it's not, how it’s not like the human. I've been looking at robots that are geared into emotional and aesthetic perspectives, thinking about robots that feel. The problem with binaries is that they're faulty by definition.

RANDALL HARP: Okay, I’ll take a stab at this. I think about robots in the context of what humans do as agents. We make changes in the world. We reach out our limbs to implement changes, but we also plan for those changes—and think about the way we would like the world to be, right? Robots are attempts to artificially do those things. You might want robots to be able to accomplish a task: weld this door onto this car. But you also want them to be able to plan, which means figuring out which actions are needed and in what order. Suppose there are civilians trapped in rubble. “Robot, figure out what you need to do to get them out.” Maybe the robot needs to cut a hole in a wall. We want them to plan autonomously. That's the second step in making robots: are they able to decide what they want the world to be? I would say a robot is an artificial agent, implementing changes in the world—and making plans for how they want the world to be. How they decide the way they want the world to be is where I start to get some concerns! Do we really want robots to decide the way they want the world to be?

JOSH BONGARD : That makes sense to me, Randall. For most people, the intuitive idea of a robot is a machine that acts on the world, that influences the world directly, compared to other machines— computers, airplanes—that indirectly affect the world, or at least affect the world with a human watching closely. But when you start to unpack that, what really does this mean? As a researcher, as a scientist, that's where things start to get interesting. Tina, you mentioned binary distinctions. Those start to fall apart once you dig down into what do we mean by intelligent machines or robots.

Some dictionaries have the historical roots of the word, which comes from the Czech language, “robota,” which comes from a play by Karel Capek. And in that play—I won't give away the plot—the machines, the “robota” are actually slaves. There's a dramatic tension there. Lots of things have changed in the 102 years since that play was published, but these underlying issues remain: What are machines? What are humans? Are we machines? Are we something more? How closely do we want to keep an eye on our machines? Those questions and tensions have remained, but now they've become pressing because the robots are no longer in science fiction or in plays. They're here. And we have to decide: what do we want to do with these things?

ESCAJA : Josh, you said the word “artificial.” I've been considering the question—another binary—what is organic and what is artificial? In your work with Xenobots these limits are being blurred. Even the concept of human/not human— that's a binary I question. We ask: what is a robot? The next question: what is a cyborg? This combination of artificial and organic makes us who we are. Some of us have in our bodies the artificial, machines and devices—and that doesn't make us less human. So that's the blur.

The literary imagination has often considered that technology is here to destroy humanity—when that technology achieves consciousness. I imagine just the opposite. I think of technology and robots as not necessarily only a tool, but as a way of interaction that is positive.

" Robots are no longer in science fiction or in plays. They're here. And we have to decide: what do we want to do with these things?

HARP: Tina, I'm interested in what you said: what is the artificial part doing? On the one hand, I can imagine a biological creature being turned into a robot. I could turn ants into robots if I can ensure that they only do the task that I want them to do when I want them to do it. What's happening to the ant is artificial, it's contrary to the way it would ordinarily act. Usually there's some thought that a robot doesn't have free will to decide what it's doing next. On the other hand, it’s interesting to think about robots as autonomous—autonomous tools. They're not like a crane where someone needs to operate that. A robot is created to act like a human agent—without the human directly involved. That's the artificial part—it's something created for the purpose of independently doing the thing that we want it to do. Autonomous creation is important for being a robot.

BONGARD : In the history of robotics, which goes back to the Second World War, there’s been ongoing debate: what is a robot? I'd like to invite all three of us to pull back and

think about the larger community of machines: robots, AI, Alexa, the stuff running on your phone, the stuff running in the drone. For most folks, it's the combination of all these technologies, and how quickly they're progressing, that is frightening or exciting or some combination of the two. We can talk about definitions of robots and cyborgs—but there are other questions: What can they do? What can't they do? What will they never be able to do? Only humans and animals and biological systems can do X and machines never will be able to do X. And then the deepest question, which moves us into philosophy, is: what is it, this X? What exactly is this thing?

ESCAJA : I could start to answer—as a poet. Alan Turing's famous test tells us what is human and what is a machine. A test could also tell our robot what is not a human! I have a CAPTCHA poem. What is CAPTCHA? It's a tool to tell humans and machines apart—a “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” You

see them on websites. I transformed that—during the Covid-19 pandemic. I created a CAPTCHA poem: which is a “Completely Automated Public test to Tie Computers and Humans as Allies.” A public test to tie computers and humans as allies—it's a capture. It's in the direction that you were mentioning, Josh: what programming makes us human? Go back to the binary. A CAPTCHA could tell a bot what they are not—to recognize themselves as what they are, which is different from a human. In a CAPTCHA test, a human needs to recognize, say, taxi cabs and traffic lights to be recognized as human. So here we are in a test that asks particular bots to recognize what they are not. I transform that into a poem, a poem related to the theme of what makes us human? What makes us machines? Who is the creature, who is the creator? Who creates what? Who makes the decisions about us?

I'm talking about poetry. Is it possible for a machine to write a poem? Is a poem the epitome of humanity? The answer is yes. Yes and no, of course,

because here we are. That's why we have a debate about what is a robot, what is a cyborg—because we don't know the answers, and we want to get closer to the answer, but we're not going to get there, to the truth.

Over centuries, the sonnet developed as a very specific set of rhymes and it's based on skill. In ways, it's a program, it's an algorithm. So can this be replicated? Yes, probably. What are the limits of robots? What is it they cannot do—eventually? Maybe now, robots are primarily labor, and it's scary. The origin of the word “robot”, which is exploitation and labor and slavery, is scary. But in theory, yes, they can write a sonnet. So what is the soul? What else can they do that we can also do? Where are the limits? What do you think, philosopher?

HARP: I'm always daunted by these conversations because you guys know more about philosophy than I know about your fields! It's always humbling to have these conversations with you, but I really enjoy it.

You brought up Turing's paper, Tina. Turing was trying to understand what intelligence means in the first

place. He said if a machine can fool somebody who is intelligent into thinking that it’s another intelligent human being then it’s passed the test. In the 1950s, Turing wondered: is there another test we can have for what it means to be intelligent?

Now comes artificial intelligence. What is our marker for when we think that these systems— robots, AI—have passed a threshold into being

recognizably intelligent? The answer always is going to be measured against who we recognize ourselves to be right now. Look at the “large language models” that underlie technologies like ChatGPT. Essentially, they’re just a way of finding what is, statistically, the most likely word or phrase to follow from a prompt. Obviously there are some concerns there. Do we want our artificial systems to look like the average human being? The average human being might have all sorts of— let's put this delicately ... problems.

BONGARD : Let say peccadillos.

HARP: Peccadillos is probably better! If we look at technologies like ChatGPT, they undergo refining on the backend to make sure that they're not actually producing the statistically most likely thing that might be said, because those are often terrible things. It's like, okay, let's take the statistically likely thing so long as it stays inside certain guardrails. Let's not make it be super racist, even though there's lots of super racist stuff online. And this is going back to that question: do we want robots to start deciding? Right now, given the history of the United States, it might be that there are certain professions

"

The literary imagination has often considered that technology is here to destroy humanity—when that technology achieves consciousness. I imagine just the opposite.

in which, for example, members of racialized minorities, Black people, or women are underrepresented. And so then, if you ask a machine to take the statistical average of saying, “My doctor is a blank,” it might very well say, “Oh, my doctor is a man.”

Do you want the machines to be able to imagine a better world?

Because right now the machines are not really able to imagine a better world. Then the question becomes: are AI's useful tools for us if they can't imagine a better world?

BONGARD : This is really interesting, this idea of asking the machines, or inviting them, to help us imagine and possibly create a better world. This is the big picture, and this is a discussion also about research. As this technology develops—and some of us have a hand in that—what is it that we want these slaves, these machines, these things that are “them,” and we are “us,” what is it exactly that we want them to do? And how much control do we have? Having worked in robotics, one of the first things I teach my students is the concept of “perverse instantiation,” which is that the machines do exactly what we ask them to do.

Train on every word out there on the internet, and use that to hold an intelligent conversation—that's what we asked ChatGPT to do. It did exactly what we asked it to do, but it did it perversely. In retrospect, when we look back, we, as the humans, we're actually the ones that made the mistake. We say, “Oh, that's not quite what we meant.” You mentioned guardrails—“so please do this, but don't do it in this way, and also don't do it in this way.” I tell my students, robots are like teenagers.

ESCAJA: Yes, that’s funny. For ChatGPT, the problem is the “P,” which is “pre-trained.” What is our level of constructing the answer? At the same time, I'm very happy that ChatGPT is providing more than simple combinations. In that sense, it creates its own.

BONGARD: Teenagers and robots will do what you want them to do, but they know how to do it in the way that you didn't want them to do it. You can get on ChatGPT today and play around with it, and you'll see perverse instantiation start to emerge immediately, which is hilarious. But if you're sitting in an autonomous car on a California freeway and the car starts to perversely instantiate, “Get me to my destination as fast as possible”—now it's no longer funny. It’s a matter of life and death. A few weeks ago, there was an autonomous car that slammed on the brakes in a tunnel. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. But that's what's coming. We have machines that actually can do what we want. We are the problems. We can't specify well enough what exactly it is we want them to do— and not do. So how do we move forward with a technology like that? I think there's a lot of research and scholarship that needs to happen and happen quickly, because this is coming whether we want it or not. It cannot be stopped.

"

Do we want our artificial systems to look like the average human being? The average human being might have all sorts of—let's put this delicately ... problems.

Class Notes

Just as we were finishing our edits of our Class Notes we received the news that 1943 Class Secretary Mrs. June Hoffman Dorion had died at 100 years old. Along with our gratitude for her long service to the Catamount community, we send our very warmest wishes to her family here in Vermont and around the world.

43

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

44

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

45 Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

46 Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

47

Send your news to –Mrs. Louise Jordan Harper

573 Northampton Street Holyoke, MA 01040

louisejordanharper@gmail.com

48 Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

49

Marjorie Ann Cohen ’78 has let us know that her mother, Adele Cohen, passed away in December 2022. Lisa Hamilton shared that her mother,  Joan Gearhart Hamilton, died in January 2023.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

53

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

50

CALS alum Wilmot W. Irish passed away in November 2022. Edwin O. Russell and Gloria Magill Russell '49 wrote that they live in an 1800s home on an 1800s farm and spent their working lives as teachers, not as farmers. Their seven children have completed 40 years of college, and they will have been retired 36 years in July 2023. Edwin recalls, “I brought the silk for Gloria's wedding dress from Japan. She and her mother made it.”

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

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51

Elizabeth MacKay wrote to share the news of her mother Ruth W. MacKay’s passing, calling her a proud UVM alumna.

UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

52 Mark Pruneau wrote to let us know that his father Arthur J. Pruneau had passed away.

Send your news to –

UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

54 Class Secretary Tom Gage writes that he's eager for more news from his classmates. “We had a great group of classmates, though sadly many have passed on. However, I believe there is still a large number out there that we would love to hear from. I therefore urge those from our class to send along your own and other classmates’ news. Contact me by phone, text, email or writing and I would be more than happy to forward for future publication. I would personally love to hear from you. Please let’s keep in touch and keep renewing and remembering old friendships.” Charles N. Perkins writes, “My wife, Jann, and I have been married for 66 years, and we are still running strong. We just returned from a 6,800-mile road trip that took us to Florida and a 10-day Caribbean cruise. We then drove from Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada for the National Finals Rodeo. On our way back to Vermont, we stopped in Vail, Colorado to spend a few days in our condo there. Much of my life was spent in the ski retail business as the founder and owner of the Alpine Shop on Williston Road. Jann and I ran it for 30 years, before our daughter and son-in-law took it over. Our son, Chuck III ’86, is a bush pilot working out of Juneau, Alaska. Our daughter, Peg ’89, G‘99, works with her husband, Scott Rieley ’85, in their real estate business in Williston, Vermont. We have four grandchildren, with one of them, Bella Rieley, a current UVM student (editor’s note – see the “Sky’s the Limit” article in the Fall 2022 University of Vermont Magazine about Bella and other students pursuing high-tech opportunities). Looking back, my dad and sister were also UVM graduates, with my father also graduating from the University of Vermont Medical College. (A bit of Burlington trivia: Perkins Pier on the shore of Lake Champlain was named for my dad!) I would like very much to hear from any of my UVM friends. I fondly remem-

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ber being part of Theta Chi fraternity, and the Winter Carnival, our football team, and serving as manager of the basketball team under Coach Fuzzy Evans.”

Send your news to –

Mr. Thomas P. Gage

49 Twilight Road Bay Head, NJ 08742 thomasgage@verizon.net 55

Co-Class Secretary Jane Morrison Battles writes, “Here we are 67 years later, and I am here to share a bit of news to fellow classmates, the number of which, for the obvious reason, has lessened. Marshall Fay writes that Priscilla Libby Fay passed away in November 2022, just after their 65th wedding anniversary. I hope that this finds you in good health, everyone. Perhaps many of you are residing in the warmer areas these days. How about some news from all of you? I need some, please! Stay well and safe as we approach our 90th year, or perhaps some already have reached it? It’s certainly hard to believe it’s been 67 years since those great UVM days. Got news? Send it on.”

Co-Class Secretary Hal Lee Greenfader sent in a picture of himself “surrounded by the enemy” (i.e., his family) prior to a UVM men’s basketball game vs. Cal State Fullerton in California. Hal did not root in UVM garb because he said he “didn’t want to have to to sleep on the couch. Grandsons Mitchel (5) and Theodore (7) want to know what the heck a Catamount is.”

Send your news to –

Mr. Hal Lee Greenfader

Apt. 527

28000 South Western Avenue San Pedro, CA 90732 halisco@att.net or

Ms. Jane Morrison Battles

200 Eagle Road Wayne, PA 19087

janebattles@yahoo.com 56

We were sorry to receive the news that Paul W. Halnon passed away in July 2022. Mary Sue Harkavy went to the December 2022 New York alumni gathering at the Penn Club with Marilyn Stern Dukoff ’55 and says it was “a most enjoyable evening. We were defi-

nitely the oldest people there, chatting with several young people and some of the UVM staff. It brought back many happy memories.”

1955 Class Secretary Jane Morrison Battles also shared some updates for the Class of ’56, “Sadly, I’ve learned that two class of 1956 TriDelts have passed away this past fall: Zoe Steinmetz Johnson Eaton of Denver, Colorado, with her children at her bedside. Zoe was married to Walt Johnson '55, who will be remembered by many and passed away a few years ago in Utah. Just recently learned via Dave Hershberg ’55 that Carol Dan has passed away in Miami. Carol was wife of Dr. Lou Dan ’55, who passed away a few years ago.” Howard Winer let us know that Ralph Winer died in July 2022.

Send your news to –Ms. Jane K. Stickney

32 Hickory Hill Road Williston, VT 05495 stickneyjane@gmail.com

after she graduated, were married for 62 years, had two children and five grandchildren, and lived in Delray Beach, Fla.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

58

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

59

Callie Lavoie ’77 has let us know that her parents, Edwin Leon Bevins, and Janet Cady Bevins passed away in 2021 and September 2022, respectively. They had been living in Wells, Maine. Judy Siegel ’58 shared the sad news that Walter “Wally” Siegel died in February 2022. Mrs. Siegel says he was “something of a Big Man on Campus,” active in the Theater Department and a part of Tau Epsilon fraternity. The Catamount Couple married one year

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Mrs. Barbara Lord let us know that her husband, College of Arts and Sciences alum and UVM Basketball Hall of Famer Clyde O. Lord, M.D., died in January 2023. Diane (Deedee) Mufson (Weiss) writes, “After 45 wonderful years in Huntington, W.V., my husband, Maury, newly retired from the Marshall University School of Medicine, and I moved to Oak Park, Illinois, in April 2022 to be near family. I retired from my psychology practice in 2013 but continue to write weekly op-ed columns for the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.” She would love to hear from alums in the Oak Park area. David H. Reilly writes in to report on the life he shares with wife Jean (Lockwood) Reilly ’60. He has just published his sixth and seventh books, each on a different aspect of the

Just like Catamounts, our UVM banners love to travel!

If you have an upcoming party, trip, event, or wedding, we’d love to send you a UVM banner to become part of your memories! To receive your banner, email Sarah.Lenes@uvm.edu with your gathering details.

And don’t forget to send us photos of your great adventures—we love to share!

effects of climate change, and since retirement, Dave has also published a work of science fiction and a behavioral checklist for identifying emerging signs of dementia. He spent 44 years in academia, 22 as a university dean, and engaged in two Senior Fulbright Professorships, the first to teach and do research in Cyprus, and the second was one of the three inaugural awards in psychology in the former Soviet Union. He and Jean lived in Tbilisi, in the Republic of Georgia, for seven months, and he has returned several times as a consultant to assist the university through transitions. The couple hosted two Georgian teenagers who came to America to escape the effects of the civil war, living with Jean and Dave in Charleston, S.C.. The Reillys later attended each of the women’s weddings in Tbilisi. He and Jean now live in Bermuda Run, N.C., and would enjoy hearing from fellow alumni. David J. York is still enjoying a full and rich life in Chicago. He says, “My longtime partner, Jeffrey Fayerman, and I love to travel both domestically and abroad; we even spent a month on Vermont's Lake Bomoseen last summer. I am still a Vermonter at heart!”

Send your news to –

Mr. Henry Shaw, Jr.

7503 Still Hopes Drive West Columbia, SC 29169

hshaw@sc.rr.com

60Ken Beaulieu wrote to share the news of the passing of his father, Allen Beaulieu, in January 2023. He was a second-generation alumnus and is survived by his wife of 64 years and a large extended family. Emily Schnaper Manders ’74 shared a picture of a group of Catamounts who met up on the UVM Discovery Travel trip “Cruising on the Great Lakes.” You can see the picture that includes Howard Busloff, Pat Reville Ling, and Renate Reimerdes Tilson, as well as Ellie Sikora ’70, Danielle Dykstra ’85, and Emily in online Class Notes. Allison Tassie Srinivasan ’89 wrote to let us know that her father, Stanley Jack Tassie, passed away in November 2022, after living in South Burlington with Allison and son-in-law Sriram Srinivasan. While at UVM, Jack had been a history major and member of Theta Chi fraternity. Allison shared a wonderful photo of him at the 2019 UVM holiday party at the Alumni House, with Allison, Virginia Low Coolidge, and Amy Coolidge ’88, which is in online Class Notes.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

61Class Secretary Steve Berry shares the sad news that Lieutenant Colonel John Andrews (U.S. Army, Retired) passed away in November 2022. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 59 years, Jane Wood Andrews RN ’60, who passed away in November 2021. John was a member of Phi Delta Theta. Jane was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. Both were long-time loyal supporters of UVM Athletics. Penny Fienemann Cox shared that Sally Hale Ashworth passed away in December 2022 from complications of Alzheimer’s. Elaine Margolin Avidon says, “Richard and I just celebrated our 59th anniversary. Since retiring in 2016 from the college where I taught, we’ve been able to spend three months at our camp in the Adirondacks on the north end of Long Lake (10 miles by boat from town/no roads). The rest of the year we are on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and I spend a good bit of my time with poetry. A few of my poems have been published in very small magazines, but for the most part I write for pleasure and co-lead a monthly neighborhood poetry group. Three summers ago we took the ferry across Lake Champlain to spend the day in Burlington. Our kids and grandkids wanted to see where I’d gone to college. A changed school and city. The AEPhi house where I’d lived is now a Champlain College dorm. But most important: so many good memories.” She wishes best to all. Miriam (Mimi) A. Davis says, “Two months ago I moved to an independent retirement community in Simi Valley, Calif., close to my daughter Hilary and her family. I have a spacious two-bedroom apartment, perfect for my son, Garrett (who lives in Tacoma) for when he visits, and for my three grandchildren and one great-grandchild to also visit and sleep over. This has been a difficult upheaval leading to a necessary downsizing and sorting of my 81+-year lifetime: photos, memorabilia, books, clothing, furniture, souvenirs of countless wonderful events and trips, etc. My new home is quite lovely, and I have made a number of new friends. I am still working (very part-time) and now see some clients in person at my office, and continue to do some teletherapy with Zoom. I welcome hearing from any alums from my years at UVM.” Jamie J. Jacobs ’61, M.D.’65 tells us, “2023 promises to be special for us. Jean (Pillsbury) ’62 and I plan to fly-fish the Chimehuin River, Argentina, in late January; float and fish the Green River, Utah, in May; visit Scandinavia in June; fly-fish Henry's Fork, Idaho, in July; visit and fish around Baranof Island, Alaska, in early September.”

Jane Wells Molloy has shared that her husband, J. Paul Molloy, died in June 2022. “He was given a good news obit in the Washington Post that he would have liked,” she says. “We met as debaters at UVM and married in our junior year. He received a UVM Alumni

Achievement Award a few years ago for his work in creating Oxford Houses. I found him a wonderful husband and companion—most of the time—and I miss him.” Ann Ohnmacht had fun heading a committee for the 65th reunion for Burlington High School here in Vermont and says it is always great seeing old friends. Among the high school classmates were Steve Berry, Brianne Eastman ’62 , Lynda Foley, Bob McBride, Ray Pecor, and Judy Truax . She’s also been having fun with Tai Chi and pickleball and trying to learn more French. Fred Rugo checks in to say that after 42 years in Rhode Island he and Deanna have relocated to the “South,” namely Dumfries, Va.. They arrived in September and are keeping busy with their two nearby children and watching their four grandchildren play soccer and football. He’d like to hear from any ’61 Catamounts/Delts in the area. John M. Simonds says, “Like many widowed senior citizens, I live alone— it’s a trend according to The New York Times. I have hunkered down during the pandemic, focusing on my rose garden and weekly reading of the New Yorker Magazine and a few good books. Come spring, I hope to do some fly-fishing in local famous Oregon rivers and attend some writers' workshops, but until then I will be contented with watching the birds visit my bird bath. I live within the orbit of several family members who make it their business to watch over me.” Roger Shepard Zimmerman sends “greetings from Maine” and says, “Covid retired me from backcountry ski guiding in Yellowstone after 30 years. I’ve qualified for the National Senior Games, in both track and cycling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in July 2023. Daughter Heather will be graduating from law school in June 2023 with a focus on human rights. Wife Lynne continues to lead nature walks. Best to UVM—and to classmates.”

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Patricia E. Gitt has just published her sixth novel, What She Didn’t Know 2: Of Widowhood and Murder. It is available on her website at patriciagitt.com. Jules Older continues to write and to publish from New Zealand and to engage in interviews and other public conversations. Look him up on YouTube, on authormagazine.org, vtdigger.com, and in Class Notes online.

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

MAIL YOUR CLASS NOTES: UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

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

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Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

and after 50 years in Monroe, N.Y., have relocated to Ashburn, Va. They are excited about this new chapter of life that brings them near their children. They wish all a safe healthy and happy 2023.

Send your news to –Mrs. Susan Griesenbeck Barber

1 Oak Hill Road Harvard, MA 01451

suebarbersue@gmail.com

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Paula Georges has moved to Portland, Maine. Ilene Hofbinder Rosenthal has been catching up on travel now as well as painting more. She has visited Iceland, the Bordeaux region of France, and countries along the Danube. Morroco is next. And she sends a note to Jules Older ’62, who shared his New Zealand interview on the Class Notes website: “If you have not yet seen it, the Chinese restaurant in Burlington also placed white bread on the table in 1960. Also, as a personal thank you, Jules was the first person who offered to buy one of my paintings... I never sold it, but he offered $75 in 1964. Thanks for the interest and the morale boosting.” Stephen M. Zecher writes that he and Wendi are celebrating 55 years of marriage

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Mark Ira Berson and his wife of 53 years, Ellen, live in Orleans on Cape Cod. They have three children and six grandchildren. He retired from the practice of law, though his interest in government remains. He serves as vice chair of the Orleans Water and Sewer Commission and as a member of the Charter Review Committee. He plays pickleball at least three times a week and is involved in developing renewable energy in their town. James M. Dwinell says, “I split my time between Vermont, Santa Fe, and foreign places, writing and reporting and learning and reading as I go. Very fortunately, I am healthy. In the winter I ski every other day, in the summer I farm and play racquet sports. As with most of us, I visit old friends and reminisce with great joy. And best of all is the wellbeing of my four children and grandchildren, all living nearby in Vermont.” Steven C. Pell reflects, “Like most of my classmates, I will turn 80 this year, and I had an interesting reaction: it happened too

“

I’m so thankful for the money you’ve donated and for the scholarships I’ve received. It is incredibly meaningful to me. The idea that we have people out in the world who are supporting my education and my desire to make the world a better place is amazing. Thank you feels like an understatement. I would not be here without you.

Your UVM Fund gift makes a difference.

The UVM Fund gives you an easy way to directly impact students and know exactly how your money is spent.

Your gift will support: student scholarships, the Career Center, and academic support services.

quickly and I’m not ready for it. Oh, we did all the structural things necessary for quality of life for older folks: I set up retirement funds for my wife, Marcy, and me. I sold my ad agency’s client list in 2011, closed my business, and moved us from a house in New Jersey to a condo in Brookline, Mass., a place ranked highly for aging in place, and half the driving time to our vacation home in southern Vermont, near Mount Snow, where our two sons and three beautiful grandchildren ski. But I hadn't really thought about being 80. I don't feel old. I speed-walk four days a week, 6 miles a day, which I’ve been doing for 25 years, after running for 25 years. Marcy and I walk just about everywhere to go shopping, to the library, the bookstore, banks, etc. We even walk to Fenway Park for Red Sox games. And we try to eat healthfully. We feed our minds with concerts, visits to museums, worthwhile books and movies, and time spent with good friends. I'm sure I have a lot more thinking to do about this being 80 thing, but it certainly makes me count our blessings and want more of the life we’ve carved out for ourselves.”

Edmund Morgan Scheiber writes that he is “living the life in Bolton Landing, New York and Florida.”

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Lillian Meet Lillian

Lillian Bartlett ’23

BACK ON CAMPUS

Richard Barrett ’66 says the early internships he participated in as a student at UVM boosted his career in business—and inspired him to give back.

For more than 20 years, the Barretts have invested in the growth and success of faculty, programs, and hundreds of students at UVM. Encouraged by the power of experiential learning, they created the Barrett Scholars Program in the College of Engineering and Mathematics (CEMS). The program provides prestigious, competitive summer internships to outstanding undergraduate engineers who wish to pursue research with an environmental impact.

Students selected for the program work with a distinguished faculty mentor in a combination of classroom, laboratory, and fieldwork to explore their research areas. Their projects involve the intersection of multiple

disciplines of engineering and the environment, offering students exposure to solving real-world problems to help advance a healthy environment and healthy society.

In October, Richard and Elaine Barrett and Magdalena Paul, director of the Barrett Foundation, joined CEMS Dean Linda Shadler and UVM Foundation President and CEO Monica Delisa at a luncheon to hear presentations from the 2023 cohort of Barrett Summer Research Scholars. Students presented on topics ranging from using 3D particle tracking to improve snowfall estimates, to evaluating farm-based anaerobic food digesters for accepting food waste, to increasing solar power production and solar panel installation capacity.

The event, held in the Keller Room of Ifshin Hall, also brought together UVM faculty members who instruct in the program and more than a dozen alumni who were once Barrett

Richard Barrett ’66

Scholars themselves. This year, the Alumni Association launched a new mentoring program through UVM Connect, in which alumni of the Barrett Scholars program can engage with current students. Many Barrett Scholar alumni—who represent 22 states and four countries—say the program had a big impact on their careers, putting them in a position now to help the students who have taken their place.

Richard Barrett closed the luncheon with sage advice for both students and graduates. His message reinforced the importance of practical experience and handson learning. He advised them to always raise their hands to accept new challenges and opportunities presented in a work environment.

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Leslie E. Grodd was named one of the 2023 Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Tax Law, Trusts, and Estates. After graduating from UVM he went on to earn a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law in 1969 and an MBA from New York University in 1971. Carol Jenne Jones sends an “Update from Down Under,” saying she’s “enjoying life with husband, Peter, and his family in our new home. We are located in Bunbury, Western Australia, where we are currently in summer right here on the Indian Ocean. Days are warm and evenings are balmy.” Richard W. Lamere let us know that Joan Cross Lamere passed away in October 2022 of pancreatic cancer. She and Richard met when they were first-years. She taught elementary school before getting her master’s degree in school counseling and guidance. She held supervisory positions in Vermont state government before retiring early to open her own counseling service. Later, she joined Richard in his retirement business of making strings for folk harps. They became renowned for designing string sets for harp makers. Barry Lee Robertson was happy to spend Thanksgiving 2022 in Denver with kids and four grandchildren. Barry Rock and wife Gerrie (Phillips) Rock ’65 returned from a Regent cruise to western Mexico, where they met fellow passenger Milton Goggans. Barry says, “I was a speaker on the ship and Milt came up to introduce himself when he learned that Gerrie and I were UVM alums. It was great to meet a fellow Catamount on the high seas.” Send your news to –Mrs. Kathleen Nunan McGuckin 1950 Lazy Meadow Lane Prescott, AZ 86303 kathynmcguckin@gmail.com

he was well known by many as a varsity athlete and was active in Greek life. Brenda and Lee Roy received the Alumni Achievement Award for their outstanding achievements as trustees of the Travis Roy Foundation. They too were honored at the Celebrating Excellence event last October.

Send your news to –Ms. Diane Duley Glew

23 Franklin Street, Unit 2 Westerly, RI 02891 ddglew@gmail.com

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

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Class Secretary Diane Duley Glew extends kudos and pride to Jack Rosenberg for his receipt of many awards for his photography from Viewbug and from the Maryland Federation of Art, saying “Jack makes us proud!”

John Hilton received the Distinguished Service Award from the UVM Alumni Association for his loyal, unselfish, and consistent service to the University of Vermont over five decades. The award was presented at the Celebrating Excellence gala event at Alumni House during UVM Weekend in October 2022. We were sorry to learn that Bruce Lombard died in April 2022 in Fort Myers, Fla. where he lived with his wife, Margaret. On campus

James M. Betts ’69, M.D.’73 wrote in “just before Christmas ’22” to say, “Covid, RSV, and the flu are coalescing, and many adults and my pediatric patients are contracting one or more of these viruses. We are all masked in the hospital, and I choose to be masked elsewhere unless I’m in an outside environment. I’m entering my fourth decade of pediatric surgical practice, at UCSF Children’s Hospital Oakland, Ca. Although in California for longer than anywhere else, my true home is Vermont. My 50th medical school reunion is in ’23, our undergrad 55th in ’24, and Bennington High School 60th in ’25, if my math is correct. UVM undergrad and medical school would not have been possible without almost total financial support with working as an RA for three years in the dorms, and needs scholarships. A majority of all students at UVM receive some form of assistance. Over these past decades the campus has grown significantly. For those who have not returned in a while, allocate some time to visit. The Alumni House is magnificent and a great place to begin your personal reunion with our alma mater. If you have not done so in the past, please consider a charitable donation to a program, college, bricks and mortar, athletic team, or an unrestricted gift. I look forward to seeing many of you during our reunions over the next three years.” Burk Mantel has written to let us know that John E. Cole passed away. Stephen Kunken says, “In January 2023 I will have been admitted to the New York State Bar Association for 50 years. Time to retire! I now have my two grandchildren (ages 3 and 21 months) living up the street from our house in Huntington Bay, so we no longer have to make the five-hour trip to visit them in Seattle. They should give me plenty of material for my next act: stand-up comedy! I am working on my routine for our next reunion in 2024. I welcome all suggestions except “go back to CRIMINAL LAW!”

Send your news to –

Ms. Mary Joan Moninger-Elia

1 Templeton Street

West Haven, CT 06516

maryeliawh@gmail.com

70 Class Secretary Doug Arnold

CATAMOUNT NATION

heard from “The Traveling Deltas” and reports, “They were at it again.” Following their terrific two weeks in Israel in 2019, and after a pause due to Covid, Amy (Kahn) Greco, Meg (Cibulskis) Lannon, and Liz (Heyer) Graham spent 12 days in England and Scotland. First London, then with intrepid Liz as their driver, the trio hit all the hot spots between London and Edinburgh before handing the driving over for a private tour through Scotland. They report that Urquhart Castle ruins and Loch Ness were beautiful even in the rain, and a drizzly, dreary day set the perfect mood for Culloden. They say that the drive back to Edinburgh through the Highlands was spectacular.

Send your news to –

Mr. Douglas McDonald Arnold

11608 Quail Village Way

Naples, FL 34119

darnold@arnold-co.com

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Lon Hocker has let us know that his wife, Carol (Liddiard) Hocker, occupational therapist, artist, fiddler, and artist, died on Oct. 24 in Hilo, Hawai’i, where they had made their home.

Send your news to –

UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

72

Class Secretary Debra Stern shares, “Our class had a wonderful 50th Golden Reunion celebration with the classes of '70 and '71 in June. The campus never looked more beautiful. The weather cooperated and it was a lovely summer weekend in Vermont. It was nice to see my AEPhi sorority sister Debbie Lewin Kull, as well as friends from ADPi, Nancy Tabke Ooms, Michele Resnick Cohen, Sally Streeter Zoppo, Ellen Halsted, Sally Watts, and Anne Bennet Snyder. It was also nice to catch up with Kathy Mackin, Margo Witten Johnson, Jennifer Oakes, Barbara Crandall Cochran, Ed and Jane Krasnow, and Jim Keller to name just a few. Some of the reunion activities included a tour of main campus, the new Firestone Medical Research building and the Michele and Martin Cohen Hall for the Integrative Creative Arts. Make sure to see the pictures on the UVM website. Debbie Lewin Kull has established a scholarship in memory of her husband, Lawrence Kull. It was at UVM where Larry met her, the love of his life. Larry was a mensch, guided by his principles, work ethic, and warm heart. Larry will be remembered fondly by all who knew him for his kind and generous spirit. He was an eternal optimist with a big bright personality. He loved golf, birding, karaoke, summers down the shore, and winters in Florida. Larry cared deeply and had much love for his children and grandchildren. Debbie establishes this scholarship in loving memory of her husband,

Larry, to encourage and reward other athletes from New Jersey to achieve their academic and athletic goals at UVM. The Lawrence Kull Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to two athletes each year.” In addition, Debra Stern was recognized by the Community College of Vermont for 20 years of service teaching computer applications. She also got to fit in “a bit of traveling, visiting places I hadn’t been before. I flew to Texas and toured Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Lockhart and San Antonio. Our hotel opened up right on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. The Missions and the Alamo were awesome! The juxtaposition between visiting the Book Depository in Dallas and the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin was an eye-opener. Saw the longhorns in Fort Worth, and ate lots of Texas barbecue. If you’ve never been to Texas, I highly recommend the trip.” Chris Blair continues his work in acoustical consulting with the recent reimagining of David Geffen Hall for the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in New York. He says, “After 60 years of listening difficulty, the orchestra is finally happy.”

Rocky Miller ’72,G’81 says, “UVM Athletics Director  Jeff Schulman ’89,G’03 and the Alumni Association combined to host a marvelous UVM Football reunion in October 2022.  Kevin Lynch,  Frank Prondecki,  Charlie Russo,  Ed Yurica, and  Dan Leber ’73 shared an Italian dinner replete with Sunday sauce, homemade mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, Italian bread, cookies, and cannoli. It was a night to remember! Jane ’72, G’79 and Rocky Miller's home was filled with love and laughter throughout the weekend.  Rick Rostowsky ’73 and  Earl Olsen joined us for a rowdy round of golf. As usual, Kevin bested Rock. Ed Yurica, from Costa Rica, put on quite the golfing exhibition, followed by a post-golf lunch with  Peter Trono as a surprise visitor. On a bittersweet note,  Debbie Kull and her entire family attended a ceremony to honor  Larry Kull's memory and to announce an athletic scholarship in his honor. It was a fitting tribute to a terrific human being.” After biking 40 miles to benefit the Old Spokes Home in Burlington, Joanna Brinckerhoff, daughter of Patricia Quinn Thomas ’72, G’76, went home and donned her hockey jersey to attend a men's hockey game. Patricia says she’s in her 54th season with the Cats, with her daughter is following in her footsteps.

Send your news to –

Debra Koslow Stern

198 Bluebird Drive Colchester, VT 05446 debbie2907@gmail.com

50 th Reunion Celebration

June 9-11, 2023

Jacqueline Glade Alarie has been traveling through the United States, visiting the cliff dwellers in Mesa Verde, Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and with husband Bill also Daytona Beach, Fla. She retired from Quantum Health in May of 2019 and says she has been traveling ever since! Deb Bradley and husband, Steve Hamiliton, are hoping to connect with mutual friends from the Experimental Program at the upcoming reunion. Darcey Ohlin Lacy has written to let us know that Edward Ohlin has passed away. After nearly 32 years, Wadi Sawabini and Mary Sawabini ’73, G’75 have sold their business and are living in Shelburne. Their firm, Sawabini & Associates, provided video camcorder training to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across North America and around the world. The client list included the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the South Korean National Police. Wadi and Mary now live four minutes from their two grandchildren. Barry Skidelsky (“among other things, a jazz musician, broadcaster and attorney”,) sends “greetings from

Lawyersville!” with regrets that he will not be able to attend the 2023 reunion in person due to conflicting professional commitments. He says he’s especially bummed about missing the chance to meet or reconnect face-toface with other UVM alumni, including fellow Experimental Program compadres who also lived in Coolidge Hall 50 years ago, those who also got started in broadcasting at WRUV AM and FM, and those who also attended Vermont Law School. Long-term UVM friends with whom he has stayed in touch over the years include  Bob Murch ’71 (now a retired broadcast engineering executive),  Jeremy Bond ’72 (who, with his ex-wife Nancy Kirby, has for decades owned and operated Champlain Leather in downtown Burlington), and  Dorothy Leysath  (who, with her husband Ed Loedding, runs a fine arts business from their home in Brandon, Vt.)  Barry looks back fondly at his days and nights in Vermont with them and others, including while working part-time as a stick-shift pizza delivery driver and while driving his 3-cylinder 2-cycle Saab 96 to go skiing at Mad River Glen and Stowe, as well as biking, hiking, and camping elsewhere in the beautiful Green Mountain State.

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

Jim Condos shares, “After serving as a South Burlington City Councilor for 18 years, 8 years in the State Senate, and 12 years as Vermont Secretary of State, I am retiring in January 2023. I am humbled and honored by the support of so many Vermonters.” Ed Cymerys and Shelley Handy Cymerys visited Bill (W.J.) Moore ’76 at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz. to catch up on fly-fishing stories and 50+ years of friendships that started at UVM! James Howard ’70, M.D.’74 has taken a part-time (74%; 60-70 hours/week) position within the University of North Carolina School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology to direct the Myasthenia Gravis Clinical Trials and Translational Research Unit. He has two more drugs at the FDA awaiting approval! Paul F. Kenny says, “Sun Valley Ski Resort in Idaho is off to an amazing start to the season. Just had a storm dropping 30” of powder, taking our total snowfall so far to 80”. The skiing and boarding are fantastic! You can hear me giving the ski report on Friday and Saturday mornings at 800-635-4150.” In September, Emily Schnaper Manders, Danielle Dykstra ’85, Ellie Sikora ’70, Pat Reville Ling ’60, Renate Reimerdes Tilson ’60, and Howard Busloff ’60 all went on the UVM Discovery Travel trip: Cruising on the Great Lakes. Keith Clarence Rice is currently tutoring second graders in literacy at Hillan-

dale Elementary School in western North Carolina. His wife, Charlotte, their dog, Buddy, and he are enjoying mountain living near Asheville. He gives a shout-out to his Catamount friends and says he misses Vermont.

Send your news to –Emily Schnaper Manders esmanders@gmail.com

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Send your news to –Christine Dwyer Child dinachild@aol.com

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Andrea Kalisch Casey sent in a picture of herself with a young skiing student at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Ore.. Averill Hamilton Cook says, “Life is great here in Williamstown, Mass., on the farm. My son lives in Shelburne, Vermont, and you are invited to stop in if you’re in the area.” Jan A. D’Angelo has joined ACT Aerospace in Gunnison, Utah, as VP Business Development, specializing in composite structures. The firm has history with prosthetic foot/knee manufacturing (now Proteor). She is pleased that Burlington-based Beta eVTOL (featured in the most recent UVM Magazine) is a customer. Randolph C. Oppenheimer received recognition as one of the Best Lawyers in America for Employment Law, Management, Labor Law, and Litigation, Labor & Employment. Gary T. Wright has recently retired from a 32-year head coaching career at American International College (AIC) in Springfield, Mass.. His new book, Striding Rough Ice: Coaching College Hockey and Growing Up in the Game, was published by Rootstock Publishing in October 2022 and is available anywhere, including rootstockpublishing.com. He now lives in Vermont, and he enjoys golfing, music, and hiking with his dog, Hobey.

Send your news to –

Peter Andrew Beekman

2 Elm Street Canton, NY 13617

pbeekman19@gmail.com

Patricia (Pat) A. Boera continues to be a busy volunteer in addition to her full-time role as a member of the Career Collaborative team at Champlain College. She is volunteering with the Middlebury Summer Festival on the Green, which is bringing a week of great performances to Middlebury July 9 through 15, and. Lyric Theatre’s November presentation of The Prom. Wendy Pearce Nelson is retired with grandkids and trying to travel lots. She says she’s “still living the dream in Colorado Springs!” Ronald James Roberts checked in with a picture in the pool in Key West. Debra Glickenhaus Rubin

and her husband moved to Colorado recently and have reconnected with Jon Morse and his wife, Nancy. The two couples moved to Colorado around the same time and share many similar interests; they are having fun sharing their UVM memories and making new ones. Rob Martin Waxman continues his recovery from the below-the-knee amputation following the return of sarcoma in his leg. He says he’s “back to teaching in person, driving, and playing music with my Allman Brothers tribute band again. We had our first gig December 11 and look forward to three more in 2023, when I’m also hoping to be able to play some tennis. It's not the route I would have chosen, but here it is, and I'm making the best of it.”

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes 78

Barbara Lynn Sean Donahue sent in news and pictures of her life in athletics broadcasting, including Vermont v. USC in men’s basketball in November and an October 2022 visit with Catamount hockey all-star Ross Colton of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jane Dwinell announced the publication of “my/our new book, Alzheimer's Canyon: One Couple's Reflections on Living with Dementia (Rootstock Publishing). My husband did most of the writing when he was able—he died of Lewy Body and Alzheimer’s dementia in 2021. This book is a legacy to his honesty and humor while facing this terminal illness. Ask for it at your local bookstore.” Stan Przybylinski ’78, G’80 had a great visit with Chris Henningsen in Florida, spending time at many of their old haunts from past visits to the Sunshine State. Michael L. Bishop G’78 reports from a busy 2022 year. Since UVM, he taught clinical lab science programs at the University of Illinois Springfield, Duke University Medical Center, and Keiser University, and served as University Department Chair at Keiser University in Florida. He has now retired from active teaching to focus on textbook projects. Last year the ninth edition of his Clinical Chemistry textbook was published by Jones and Bartlett Learning; he has served as the founding and senior editor for all nine editions. Additionally, he served as an editor for two editions of Clinical Correlations for Clinical Laboratory Scientist. He is currently working on a project/textbook on clinical laboratory science for nurses and clinical professionals, and he remains active in the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science at the state, regional, and national levels. He looks back with gratitude to the UVM faculty that got him off to a good start as a laboratory professional, especially Dr. Rene LaChapelle, Anne Sullivan Reed G’71, Dr. Brian Little M.D.’73, G’77, and Dr. Larry McCrory. He would welcome hearing from fellow UVM graduates interested in participating in academic and publishing projects.

A Heart-Pumping Research Ride

Growing up in Shelburne, Vt., Tim Plante ’06, M.D.’11 always had his sights set high. “I've liked science and math since I was a little kid. I always wanted to be either an astronaut or a doctor,” he says. His parents initially dissuaded him from a medical career, going so far as to send him to Space Camp.

“I got to ride on all of these high-tech simulators, and Buzz Aldrin randomly showed up while we were there,” says Plante. “It was fun for a scienceinterested, pretty nerdy kid like myself, but I ultimately couldn’t see a clear path to being an astronaut.”

Luckily, Plante had a good fallback plan. He felt called to a medical career, and he had deep roots at UVM. His Catamount legacy stretched back to his grandfather, Simon Plante ’50, and extended to many family members. So just as his father, Dennis Plante ’75, M.D.’79, had done, he ventured a few miles up the road to study zoology and then earn his medical degree from UVM.

After his residency at Georgetown University and post doctoral research at Johns Hopkins University, he and his wife, Emily Coderre ’06, Ph.D. (a professor in the Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders), were drawn back to Vermont—and their alma mater.

“We asked ourselves, tongue-incheek, where we would want to be in an apocalypse. We didn’t know it

would turn out to be such a relevant question!” says Plante. “Also, I am trained as a cardiovascular disease epidemiologist, but it took going to Johns Hopkins to learn that UVM is actually one of the premier places to be for molecular epidemiology.”

Early on as a physician-scientist at UVM, Plante conducted important clinical research with renowned groups from across the country aimed at identifying the causes of cardiovascular disease. But he still faced a challenge common to all young investigators: the need to support his work with competitive grants. This funding is key to a researcher’s ability to gather data that prove the efficacy of their big ideas.

So you might say the stars aligned in 2020, when Plante was appointed to the Bloomfield Early Career Professorship in Cardiovascular Research, which had been established in 2016 by Martin ’56, M.D.’60 and Judith ’59 Bloomfield, longtime supporters of the Larner College of Medicine.

Bloomfield says he still recalls how difficult it was to find the time and resources necessary to conduct research as a young cardiologist. He was further inspired by the endowed professorship his son earned as a junior faculty member at Columbia University, which allowed his medical research projects to flourish. “I did some research. There are only a handful of places in the country that offer early

career professorships, so I thought this would be a very important resource to have at the University of Vermont.”

“The Bloomfield professorship has been transformational for me,” says Plante, noting that it has paid for expensive preliminary lab tests. “Those results could pave the way to millions of dollars of additional grant funding down the road.”

Plante says he is fortunate that his access to funding—and research that he is passionate about—has accelerated in the past few years. He is a long-term participant in an NIH-funded cohort study to better understand the origins of high blood pressure, particularly in a key minority population.

“Black adults in the U.S. have among the highest burden of cardiovascular disease of any community in the world, and we can't entirely explain why. To move the needle on health equality, we need to understand the cause, and that's a big motivator for me.”

To that end, Plante also helped establish a UVM-Johns Hopkins project, recently awarded a multimillion-dollar grant from the American Heart Association, which aims to increase the participation of Black U.S. adults in cardiovascular disease trials. “Winning that grant shows where we are in the big leagues of research. It's very exciting to see where this is going to take us.”

For Plante, the biostatistical data analysis he does on his laptop gives him the same rush he felt on those simulators at Space Camp.

“To be at a place like UVM, to receive the support I have here, is unbelievable. To have the Bloomfield professorship on top of all that is a catalyst for success. It's really been like getting on a rocket ship.”

Tim Plante ’06

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

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Mary Leadbeater sent in the sad news of the passing of Todd A. Leadbeater. Peter M. Stevens shared the news that “after 40+ years, Mark Coppes ’80, Danny Shapiro ’80, and Peter Buckley ’79, M.D.’84 got together in Rhode Island for a small reunion. Great to be together again to share life experiences and a lot of laughs.” Teressa Marie Valla was honored to be included in the Earthkeepers Handbook with her work “Walking into JOY.” As of this writing, the publication through Ecoartspace, Santa Fe, N.M., was to take place in February 2023.

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celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in June. In spring 2023, during the bicentennial of the College, they plan on celebrating the next generation of graduating physicians who will be walking across the stage at Ira Allen Chapel just as they did 43 years ago, by hooding their niece, Elena Dansky, M.D.’23 Kimberlee Watts Nicksa and Gary Nicksa were thrilled to watch their son Jeffrey get married in Newport R.I., in October 2022. Many UVM alums helped them celebrate their family’s special day. Congratulations to Isabel Routh Reddy, who wrote in as she was awaiting the February 2023 publication of her debut novel, That You Remember

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

rge G’90 are pleased to announce the birth of their granddaughter Maggie, born in July 2022. Katie Donahue Vande Water writes, “After 30+ years living on the North Shore of Boston, we relocated to Shelburne, Vermont. It’s so fun to reconnect with old friends (Martha Beede ’82, Sue Daley, Dawn Archer, Heidi Heller, and Ann Sutphen) here in the area and make new ones in this gorgeous part of the world. Who needs the ocean when you have that gorgeous lake. Please reach out if you are in the area.”

Send your news to –Lisa Greenwood Crozier lcrozier@triad.rr.com 84

Beth

Nutter

Gamache bethgamache@burlingtontelecom.net 80

Mary Therese Cook has let us know that her husband, Mark D. Cook , alum of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, passed away in January 2022. Kristin Nelson Foster writes that “a multi-class group of dear UVM friends gathered for a fall weekend in Weekapaug, Rhode Island. In the mix were: Laurie Caswell Burke ’78, Rick Wastrom ’79, John Foster ’79; Janet Flory ’81, Tim/John Burke, Kristin Nelson Foster, and Jenn Kittredge Wastrom ’82 . We were hosted by Sandy Gordon, who did postgrad premed classwork at UVM in 1978, and friend Caroline Britton Gordon. Robert M. Kershner G’78, M.D.’80 and Jeryl Dansky Kershner, M.D.’80 say, “Retirement? What’s that?” After three decades leading a successful ophthalmology practice, Robert set out to build the nation’s foremost accredited ophthalmic medical technology degree-granting training program. Located in Palm Beach, Fla., it has graduated more than 140 Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technologists (COMTs) who went on to practices throughout the country and around the world. Leaving the program in the capable hands of the faculty that he had recruited, he moved on to the next chapter. He is continuing to consult for his global eye laser practice, and now spends more time with their two daughters and two granddaughters at homes in Florida, Maine, and Virginia. When he can entice Jeryl away from her three practices, they travel, bike, golf, and kayak. Jeryl stays very busy seeing a full schedule of patients in her developmental and behavioral pediatric and child psychiatry practices in West Palm Beach and Virginia with no indication of slowing down. The Doctors Kershner, two of the several medical couples who met at UVM’s College of Medicine,

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Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Jeffrey Dean Alpert and Lisa are still enjoying life in the Bay Area, working, playing in Tahoe, visiting their daughter in Southern California as a freshman at USC, and cheering on Anthony Lamb ’20 at Warriors games! Karen A. Galfetti Zecchinelli was part of a wonderful get-together at Lake Seymour (Vermont) of Sindi Bowens Brown ’83, Stefanie Kleinfeld Marko, Karen Gonnella Stein, and Mary Reilly Pinard

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Irene Frances Newsham and family moved back to Vermont after 40 years away. She has joined the faculty of Norwich University and is looking forward to being able to spend the holidays with her extended family in the area. Rob Brennan ’83 and Carolyn (Curry) Brennan were awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the UVM Alumni Association for their service and philanthropy on behalf of UVM’s students. The award was presented at the Celebrating Excellence gala event at Alumni House during UVM Weekend in October 2022. Daniel Colby is retiring in April 2023 after 34 years in community banking. He was most recently a senior vice president and the senior business banker and market manager for Maine Community Bank located in southern Maine.

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

Send your news to –Abby Goldberg Kelley kelleyabbyvt@gmail.com or Kelly Marie McDonald jasna-vt@hotmail.com or Shelley Carpenter Spillane scspillane@aol.com 85

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Rob Brennan and Carolyn (Curry) Brennan ’82 were awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the UVM Alumni Association for their service and philanthropy on behalf of UVM’s students. The award was presented at the Celebrating Excellence gala event at Alumni House during UVM Weekend in October 2022. Don Whitney let us know that we lost Rob Darefsky in May 2022; he had been living in Westport, Conn. Claudette Thibault Delorge and Kenneth Delo -

Kelly Nugent Austin has shared the sad news that Jay (John) Clark died in June 2022 from pancreatic cancer. Jo Brunini (Joanne Brunini Congdon) published her debut novel, Never a Cloud, in November 2022. Called “heartfelt, entertaining, and hauntingly beautiful,” the book has been featured in the Pacific Book Review and Kirkus Reviews. Jeffrey Cousins announces the publication of The Right Thing to Do, a science-fiction adventure in which a captured alien reveals that aliens created humans: humans are just robots. Humanity has mixed reactions to the news. Jeffrey welcomes feedback and online reviews. Jennifer Curtin wrote to let us know that Andrew Warren Elvin passed on in October 2021. Tony Fong sent in news and a picture of Paul Poulin ’84, Jim Groome ’84, Dave Hood ’84, Ted Grussing, and good friend Jim Vitanos, who all got together at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut in October to celebrate the 60th birthday of Chuck Alexander ’84. But, he says, really it was really a celebration of everyone's 60th and was a fun weekend of golf, gambling, and lots of laughs about our unforgettable UVM memories. Joshua Powers sent in news and a pic-

ture of friends from the “Class of 1985-ish” all wearing a vintage item from their time at UVM. They rented a house on Vermont’s Grand Isle in August 2022 and enjoyed a great bike ride, meals, laughter, tears, and memories. He says, “Love ya Carol Barnicle Bushee, Amy Sieger Daniels, Jerry Gilbert, Kerrie Bucher Gilbert ’86, Dave Grose, Lisa Atkinson Grose, Annette Iafrate Harton, Craig Mabie, Ross Nayduch, Peter Novak , and Tim Olean. Our mutual friendship and support bonds us all. Catamounts forever!” Sue St. Miklossy-Thoens recently accepted the position of vice president of business development at Nealy Pierce in Bend, Ore.

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Barbara A. Roth roth_barb@yahoo.com 86

Christopher A. Guido reports that on Nov. 6, 2022, he, Chris Holmes ’85, Scott Wood, Tom Hall ’85, Marilyn Kraft Hall, and friend Carl Wimble met in Burlington with a mission: to recover the Pink Torpedoes band bus. The bus had been missing since 1987 and was located at Rathe's Salvage in Colchester. With the bus secured, the group celebrated at the St. Johns Club with Ruth Henry ’90. The bus is now safely returned to the band's headquarters. Pol Klein is still enjoying living in Washington, D.C., and is starting a new position as creative director for HIAS, an international organization serving refugees from around the world. He welcomes any friends from school to say hello. David Pann celebrated some big milestones in 2022. He says, “After 35 years of working in technology, I’m loving my vocational freedom (semi-retirement). It’s giving me time to mentor and volunteer, consult with some interesting companies, and do a lot of travel. Phyllis and I celebrated 35 years of marriage and we’ve been living in the San Francisco area for over 32 years. I keep in touch with Bryan Ducharme from our class, but would love to hear from others.”

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Lawrence Gorkun

vtlfg@msn.com

Class Secretary Sarah Reynolds shares, “The boys from 235 S. Winooski Avenue—Jim

Glover, Thor Magnus, Mick McLaud, Drew Raphael, Jordan Savitch, Lane Simon ’88, and Rich Weiler —got together in fall 2022 on Lake Naomi in the Poconos. It was a perfect sunny weekend for pickleball, kayaking, bass fishing, cornhole, and of course good food. We figured after a 35-year hiatus we had better get together, and we all had a great time just seeing each other, talking about our days at UVM, and just getting reconnected. No TV or cell phones made it that much better and we all decided we won’t let another 35 years go by before the next time we get together.” Roger Crandall was awarded the UVM Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award for his outstanding leadership at the helm of MassMutual. He was honored at the Celebrating Excellence gala event at Alumni House during UVM Weekend in October 2022. In 2022, Philip Victor Kaszuba was inducted as a fellow for ASM International, the world’s largest association of materials-centric engineers and scientists. Beth Weintraub Liberman writes, “My husband Moni and I are proud to share that our daughter Celia Liberman ’22 graduated from UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and after interning with NASA is now a software engineer with Beta Technologies, the electric aircraft startup in Burlington where she is also learning to fly. On other notes, I recently had fun getting together with Liz Anklow in NYC and meeting up with Dora Sudarsky in Burlington.”

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Sarah Vaden Reynolds sarahreynolds10708@gmail.com

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JoAnne Carilli Stevenson became senior director of membership engagement and strategy at the Outdoor Industry Association in July 2022 and was appointed to the Wasatch Mountain Film Festival Board of Directors in fall 2022. We were sadly informed that Jennifer Alicia Goulart-Amero died on Dec. 31, 2021. Martine Larocque Gulick was voted into the Vermont State Senate, representing Chittenden Central (Burlington, Winooski, Essex, and a portion of Colchester). Todd Sean Tyrrell lives in Denver, Colo., with his wife, Kim, and son, Ethan, who turned 17 in January 2023. Todd coaches basketball and still plays every weekend! He says he works hard as business manager for Zonda and has fond memories of UVM!

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

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Louis N. Bickford says, “After 20 years in the international human rights field, I recently launched a new social enterprise (memria. org) to help organizations collect and share personal stories. We are working with hundreds of libraries, museums, businesses, and community organizations around the world.” Suzanne Sullivan McGillicuddy joined

Darcy (Weber) Gibson ’88 for a reunion on Lake Champlain with their families that featured a house concert with Vermont treasure Jon Gailmor. They “highly recommend that UVMers book Jon for a wonderful night of music, fun, and nostalgia!”

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Maureen Kelly Gonsalves moe.dave@verizon.net

Andrea Croot Banyas shares the story of a bittersweet reunion for alums who gathered to remember their dear friend Greg Barlage, who died in November after a long and courageous battle with acute myeloid leukemia. Greg lived in Wellesley, Mass. with his wife, Jennifer, and two sons, Wyatt and Brennan. He was an avid skier and “an amazing husband, father and friend.” UVMers attending the memorial service included Andrea, as well as Nancy (Boll) Beckerman, Wendy (Miller) Eggen, Sharon (Kass) Higgins, Jim Kelly ’88, Joe Pawlaczyk , Keith Puffer ’91, Wendy (Hoffman) Schoenfeld, Mark Van Dyke, and Alan Warner Kenneth D. Delorge and Claudette Thibault Delorge ’83 announce the birth of their granddaughter Maggie, born in July 2022. Janice Caroline Easton-Epner proudly announces her son will be attending Savannah College of Art and Design for animation in the class of 2027. She says, “Looking at colleges really brought back some

great memories. Many thanks to all who were involved in my experience at UVM—particularly the brilliant and understanding professors of the Classics Department!” Brad Lichtenstein proudly shares that the documentary he directed, When Claude Got Shot, won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. The film was produced by 371 Productions, which he founded in 2003. Tracie Nicole Spingarn and family live near Sacramento and enjoy all that life in Northern California has to offer. She works as an ASL interpreter and in her free time she sometimes hangs out with former Tupper roommate, Terri Walsh. Last summer, she visited with fellow alums Mark Bergeron ’89, Karen Smith-Bergeron, Tom Rodd ’89, Leanne Prevo-Rodd ’89, and Brian Kaminer and wife Alka in New York. She also has monthly Zoom dates with pals Angie Scott and Arline Duffy.

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

READ CLASS NOTES

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Carl Brody and Rebecca Krieger Brody ’92 are excited that their Catamount daughters Jill Brody and Robin Brody are currently students together at UVM! Matthew Conway wrote to share the sad news that Amos Tevelow passed away. Matthew says, “We were roommates at the Living/Learning Center our first year, as part of the Holistic Wellness

program, and soon became the best of friends. Amos was active with WRUV FM and the Lawrence Debate Union, and graduated with a B.A. in political science and philosophy. He later went on to earn a Ph.D. in political communication. If you knew him, you no doubt remember him, as he was one of a kind—a wonderful combination of quick wit, intelligence, curiosity, and absurd silliness. Amos was an essential part of what made UVM such a memorable and meaningful experience for me. May he rest in peace—and playfulness.” (Visit the 1991 Class Notes online for a photo of Amos and Matthew dressed as trash heaps for Halloween 1987 in an effort to raise awareness about waste, as well as a quick and cheap way to throw a costume together last minute.) Eric Patel traveled to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, this fall to visit with the students of Shela Primary School who recently formed Boy and Girl scout troops thanks to a generous donation from BostonExO. Gavin Raphael was part of a reunion of the five roommates who lived together at 56 North Willard in 1989-90. The group met for the first time in 31 years in New

York in September 2022 and included Dave Moylan ’90, David Leers, Gavin, Scott Dingman ’90, and Marcos Shayo ’90. (See a picture of the group at brunch in the online 1991 Class Notes.)

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

Ms. Valeri Susan Pappas vpappas@davisandceriani.com

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Benjamin Hayes is the chief privacy officer for Zeta Global, a marketing technology firm based in New York City. He works remotely and lives in Lawrence, Kan., with his kids, ages 11 and 13. Debbi Dameshek Francl sent in a picture of a get-together with Debbie Carlson Sabato, Kristen Cosentino Rodgers, Julie Kim Thaler, Laurie Raezer Blakely, Megan Thomas Robinson, Amy Vallis Largy, and Shelly Grossman Ota in Whitewater, Wis., celebrating the 30+ years of friendship that started at UVM. The group says they missed Kristin Mitchell —and they can’t wait to get together again soon.

Send your news to –Lisa Aserkoff Kanter jslbk@mac.com

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Send your news to –Gretchen Haffermehl Brainard gretchenbrainard@gmail.com

Pete Nardi has been named a trustee of the American Water Works Association’s Water Conservation Division. The division provides research and solutions on water efficiency and conservation for the North American water sector. Pete continues to serve as general manager of Hilton Head Public Service District, the public water, sewer, wastewater treatment, and recycled water utility on Hilton Head Island, S.C.. Meredith Sweet says, “Hello from north of Pittsburgh, Pennnsylvania! The last time I was in Burlington was in 2015 when my husband and I brought our two kids to UVM campus and stayed at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. Amazingly, we are now doing the college search with my 17-year-old daughter, and 15-year-old son in tow. Time whips by. My husband’s job brought us from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania in 2008. When we came to Pennsylvania I left my career in non profit fundraiser event planning for the Doug Flutie Foundation for Autism, Storybook Ball at MassGeneral for Children, and others. Now, I spend time volunteering in our church, the kids’ school, and the community. Oh! And being mom to our 2+-yr shih tzu poodle!! Many memories of UVM!”

social Behavior.” Constance “KiKi” Cannon announced that she is now dual-licensed in realty in California and Colorado. She has joined the team of professionals at LIV Sotheby’s International Realty in the Ojai, Calif., and Cherry Creek/Denver, Colo., offices.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Alex Chaykin was named partner at APA Talent Agency where he represents such clients as Lindsay Lohan, CeeLo Green, Tyga, En Vogue, and many more across film, television, and music. Keri Evjy announces the release of her Regenerative Life Design Playbook. She says that “the multimedia project is an earth-based toolkit to help readers design a life of joy, healthy growth and the fulfillment of their greater purpose.” More information—and the book!—are available at regenerativetraining.com. Leah Gesoff Gozhansky shares, “After graduating from UVM, I spent 15 years in education, first as a Teach for America teacher and then as a school counselor. Last year Gwen Sheinfeld Merkin ’97 and I started a non profit: Wayfinders on the Hudson. Wayfinders is a nature-connection social-emotional learning program for youth in the Hudson Valley of New York.”

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Ethan Nelson has been named the new head of Court TV. The legal news network has been covering some of the nation's most prominent live trials since 1991, including the recent State of Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin and the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard civil case. Jay O'Kieffe shares that “friends from the classes of ’92, ’93, and ’94 gathered in North Pomfret, Vermont, in October to pay tribute to our departed brother, Jeff “JJ” McNulty Jeff was the key organizer of our annual UVM retreat in past years and we’re certain he would have approved of, and smiled at, the weekend of bad golf, great beer, roaring fire pits, laughter, and remembrance.” Beth Zimmerman and her husband, Tony Voellm ’93, got to meet up with Beth’s Living/ Learning roommate, Holly Buckland while Holly was in Seattle presenting at a higher education conference.

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Mrs. Cynthia Bohlin Abbott

cyndiabbott@hotmail.com 95

Wade M. Johnson was invited to teach Issues in Contemporary Policing as an adjunct professor at St. Michael's College for the fall semester 2022. Send your news to –

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

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Send your news to –Elizabeth Carstensen Genung leegenung@me.com

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes 02

Jennifer Scibelli Vellano and her husband added a third addition to their business group this past year, the Bedford Candy Bar. They reside in Bedford, N.Y. and also own G.E. Brown and Maison Prive, with children at Rippowam Cisqua.

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Send your news to –Ben Stockman bestockman@gmail.com

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Send your news to –Sarah Pitlak Tiber spitlak@hotmail.com

Jo Deyanira Pina checks in to say, “It was great to visit UVM during Alumni Weekend in 2022. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since we graduated!! Loved seeing the beautiful campus and enjoying Lake Champlain!"

Send your news to –Jennifer Khouri Godin

jenniferkhouri@yahoo.com

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Félix Alonso is a 2022 graduate of the Ph.D. Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University. His dissertation was titled “Education for Citizenship: A Study of the Effects of Cocurricular Student Philanthropy Education on Pro -

In May 2022, Bryan Carnahan travelled to Bavaria, Germany, to see the Oberammergau Passionspiele, which has been presented every 10 years for more than 400 years (this edition was originally scheduled for 2020 but got postponed). He visited several Bavarian cities and towns as well as the countryside and even visited family that he had not seen in about 20 years. As if that was not enough, he flew directly from there to Brasil to attend a friend’s wedding, then after returning to New Hampshire, he attended another friend’s wedding just a week later. In July and August, Bryan

CATAMOUNT NATION

The Art of Making a Difference

Sasha Fisher ’10 (right) has a keen sense for turning raw material into something meaningful and enduring. As a UVM undergraduate with a self-designed double major in human security and studio art, Fisher spent much of her time painting and building sculptures—and studying how to create a world in which people everywhere can meet their basic needs and live with dignity. Today, as the executive director and co-founder of Spark Microgrants, a non profit organization that enables communities to launch self-designed social impact projects, she is providing the resources to help those facing poverty sculpt a better future for themselves.

Fisher’s novel approach to communitydriven development was inspired by her work as a student with the New Sudan Education Initiative, and an eye-opening trip to South Sudan in her junior year.

“I got to see first-hand some of the

challenges embedded in historical foreign aid, which reinforces colonial models of command and control. I saw a lot of money pouring into South Sudan but not a lot of that money being controlled by South Sudanese, who had just fought for over two decades to gain independence and to have control over their own future.”

She had gone on the trip to help build schools for girls, which she says seemed like an obvious way to provide better access to education. But she arrived to find several school buildings sitting empty, even in a region with some of the lowest education rates in the world. Asked why, families responded that the schools had been built by outsiders. It became clear to Fisher that well-intentioned development programs often fail to ask communities what they need or give them the resources to achieve it themselves. Frustrated by this, Fisher wanted to see if there was a better approach.

Wasting no time after graduation, and equipped with both the knowledge from her self-designed major in human security and the practical know-how to apply it, she co-founded Spark Microgrants. Her mission was to enable the world’s most under-resourced populations to take local action toward local goals, like securing access to food, health care, shelter, and clean water. With modest initial funding in hand, she moved to Africa and began testing a small grants program.

“We started Spark because, all too often, communities facing poverty sit on the sidelines of the change initiatives that are meant to uplift them,” says Fisher. “I went to Rwanda with a oneway ticket and ten thousand dollars. I had never been to Rwanda before. I wanted to go somewhere where I would not feel like an expert in what was happening and therefore would have to delegate decision-making power to community members.”

The model is simple but also groundbreaking. Spark offers a small seed grant (currently $8,000) and supports community members in identifying their goals and drafting a proposal for a sustainable project to achieve them. Community members—young and old, women and men—sit together, dream together, and develop project ideas together. Focused primarily on East Africa, this unique village action process equips impoverished communities to launch a social enterprise of their own choosing, such as an incomegenerating goat-rearing project, a produce business, or even a school.

One benefit of the model is that communities continue to create change over the long term. According to Fisher, 85 percent of communities continue meeting and taking collective action to improve their communities over time. Families who engage in the process increase productive assets by

about 80 percent in the first year.

“At Spark, we believe that every family, every community should have the right to determine their own positive future. We provide the spark, but the community keeps the fire going.”

To date, Spark Microgrants has supported more than 500,000 people in 500 communities across seven African countries. They have achieved a two-fold increase in families eating at least two meals per day.

“It reminds me what hope there is in the generation of young folks all over our world. If we listen to young leaders—if there is space for young leaders to emerge and put their ideas forward—we will have a much more inclusive and supportive world for all.”

gave “trail magic” to Appalachian Trail trekkers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, just 1.5 hours from his house, providing fresh food and drink to help hikers stay strong. Clayton Trutor’s book Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta— and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports was named one of the best baseball books of 2022 by Sports Collectors Digest and a “Best Book of 2022” by Public Books

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

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

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The Reverend Darrell Lee Goodwin married Mr. Kentavis Brice in October 2022 at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Conn. The couple celebrated their union with a few hundred of their friends and wedding guests including many UVM alums. The couple opened their nuptials up to the public to help them celebrate African-American, LGBTQ love in the context of faith. Their wedding was featured in the Hartford Courant and will appear in an upcoming documentary about the continued need for marriage equality. Lydia Jordan St. Onge says that in fall 2022, she “traveled north for a weekend in Burlington to celebrate my birthday with fellow 2005 alums Kathryn Wrigley, Rose Pfeiffer, and Lindsey (Blumenfeld) Cox . We toasted to 40th birthdays and over 20 years of friendship while enjoying one last brunch at Penny Cluse.” Justin White-Chandler and wife Jennifer White-Chandler of Bedford, N.Y. welcomed Larsen Arne White-Chandler, born into this world in February 2022. They note that “‘Larsen’ is in honor of Scandinavian heritage, and we also liked the nickname ‘Lars.’ ‘Arne’ was after Jen’s grandfather’s name (Arne Torbjorn Tveter) and Justin’s grandfather's name Arnold (Arnie) White, which we thought was a clever assimilation of names. We hope to raise him to understand and experience nature and the outdoors often, enjoy skiing, appreciate adventures of all kinds, music, art, sport, have a philosophical as well as spiritual outlook on life, and love Vermont!”

Send your news to –Kristen Dobbs Schulman

kristin.schulman@gmail.com

Gregg Pauletti and Heidi (Treich) Pauletti raised over $150,000 for pediatric cancer research via the Golden Lights Foundation, the non profit they founded after

their daughter Willa (now 7) was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma three years ago. Heidi ran in the foundation’s premiere event, a 2022 half-marathon in Greenwich, Conn. Held annually in September, and the half-marathon will next be on Sept. 25, 2023. In addition to awareness raised, the proceeds of the event are allocated to specific, cutting-edge pediatric cancer research. This year, the money raised was allocated to a project at MSK Kids (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's pediatric program), and CHOP’s (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) Maris Mossè Translational Research Program.

Send your news to –

Katherine Kasarjian Murphy

kateandbri@gmail.com

After a career in teaching, administration, and managing political campaigns, Cameron Holmes Russell has started his own photography and videography business focused on supporting people, candidates, causes, and organizations. Alli Shapiro has been living in California’s Bay Area for the last 15 years, playing ukulele, surfing, and traveling—when not swimming the deep seas of psyches as a clinical psychologist. She continues to be grateful for her years at UVM and sweet friendships and connections to Vermont that have since continued! Dr. Jennifer Granger Sullivan G’07 has accepted the position of director of experiential learning for the Office of Experiential Learning at Elms College in Chicopee, Mass. Jenny has served as the associate director since October 2021, and she brings a wealth of leadership and knowledge in higher education to the new position. And in more good news, Jenny and her husband, Ben Sullivan, welcomed Graham Benjamin Sullivan in May 2022 at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. His parents report that Graham is a joy and loves to cheer on UVM. Jonathan Webb and Evelyn of Boston Mass., are happy to announce the birth of their second son, Alexander, in September 2022.

Send your news to –Mrs. Elizabeth DiPietrantonio ekolodner@gmail.com

Congratulations to Rebekah (Besaw) Clement , who gave birth to William (her fourth child) in November 2022. Ryan Thomas Guthrie says, “I set the gear shift in my soul to high gear this year and played 52 shows with my original band Cold Hill and my Allman Brothers Tribute Band (The Mountain Jam Band). Thanks to Tim Holmes for helping both bands play at Ommegang Brewery Events. Check out Cold Hill on Spotify or iTunes and visitryanguthriemusic.com for a calendar of show dates.” He says they could

really use a booking agent or a band manager and thanks the UVM community for helping spread the word!

Send your news to –Elizabeth S. Bearese ebearese@gmail.com or Emma Maria Grady gradyemma@gmail.com

Erica Bruno-Martin reports, “Another move! After eight wonderful months at Constellation, I had the opportunity to join Experian in their automotive division. I am so excited to be a part of this amazing organization that brings their motto of ‘data for good’ to life. This role allows me to bring all of my prior experience together in a beautiful way and I am very happy.” Emily Lahteine and Nilsen Schilling were married in October 2020 and welcomed their daughter, Barbara, in January 2022. John Lazzaro announced the publication of A Vanishing New York: Ruins Across the Empire State, a photography book exploring over 40 of the most evocative abandoned sites in the Empire State, and puting their individual stories in the larger context of New York’s historical legacy.

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

MAIL YOUR CLASS NOTES: UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

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

11 in August 2022 Karia Young-Eagle and Daniel Riley welcomed baby boy Maxwell, who they call a “future Catamount in the making!”

Send your news to –Ms. Troy Elizabeth McNamara troy.mcnamara4@gmail.com

12

Berklee College of Music has appointed College of Education and Social Services alum Dr. Lacretia Johnson Flash G’10 as the inaugural senior vice president for DEI, community, campus culture, and climate. Flash brings vision, expertise in multicultural organizational change, and a passion for the arts to this cabinet-level position, which reports to Berklee President Erica Muhl. Prior to this new role, she served as the college’s vice president of diversity and inclusion. Alyssa (Martin) Franford has been promoted to the position of nutritional performance manager at Wellness Pet. She has been with the natural pet food company for 10 years. Tonya Loveday Merrem ’10, G’12 and Gerrit Merrem ’11 welcomed daughter (“and future Catamount”) Lara Loveday Merrem in November 2022. The couple recently purchased their first home, in Miami. Gerrit is a vice president for an asset management firm in Miami and Tonya works remotely as a preservation planner for Epsilon Associates.

10

Latimer Hoke married Kari Schnaars on July 4, 2022, at the highest point of the Great Divide mountain bike route. After seven years in Montana, a 2,500-mile bike ride, a road trip to Alaska, and a road trip around the southwest, Latimer and Kari have moved back to Vermont. Sarah Robinson G’12 was a winner of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, presented by the UVM Alumni Association at the Celebrating Excellence gala event at Alumni House during the October 2022 UVM Weekend. Kristina Miele Rogers is now a senior associate in Thornton Tomasetti’s Portland, Maine, office to help expand the firm’s mass timber capabilities. Kristina has more than 10 years of professional experience, with an extensive background in mass timber design and analysis and embodied carbon reduction strategies.

Send your news to –Patrick Wayne Dowd patrickdowd2012@gmail.com

Send your news to –Daron Lynn Raleigh raleighdaron@gmail.com

13

Ben Huelskamp launched “The Christian Bear” podcast to explore the intersections of faith, theology, and social justice. He had the pleasure of having fellow UVM alums Sara Blair-Medeiros G’13 and Sonia David ’14 as guests. Jason Katz is living and working as a psychiatric nurse in New Haven, Conn., while pursuing a doctorate to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. He still keeps in touch with some fellow alumni almost daily, and would love to connect with more, especially, he says, “if they live near some pretty mountains on the Ikon Pass”. Nicole Francis Lund (formerly Ovregaard) shares the lovely news that Juniper Ovregaard Lund (a.k.a. our turkey baby) was born on Thanksgiving 2022. She is healthy and happy, and her parents are madly in love with her already!

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Class Secretary Grace L. B. Eaton shared the happy news that  Jennifer Arpin married  Jimmy Davis (who also attended UVM before transferring to University of Washington), in Leavenworth, Wash. on Oct. 8, 2022. She says, “Jen was lucky enough to have  Olivia Hart ’15 as one of her bridesmaids as well as a few other UVMers in attendance:  Jessica (Radin) Brennan and Jack Brennan and Kristina (Lafferty) Abramowicz ’13 Skyler Bailey published Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division 1943-1945. Grace also let us know that Alyssa (Ravech) Charles and Kleckner Charles ’13, G’15 welcomed their daughter Ella in August 2022. Hallie Gamboa (Gremlitz) says, “Shortly after graduation I moved to California to pursue my career in radiation therapy. Now, eight years later my husband and I bought a small winery in Sonoma County, which makes our literal roots out here pretty permanent. We’re a boutique operation with excellent wines from the surrounding Alexander, Russian River, and Dry Creek Valleys. This new project for us would not be possible without my degree and career from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, so many thanks to Jane, Maryse, and Erica for all their trust and wisdom. To all UVM alum—come visit any time! We love to host Catamounts. Cheers! @sapphirehillwinery.” Ashley Michelle Moore was recently hired as chief of staff to the Vermont Senate president pro tempore. Jess Slayton G’18 and Mark Bower got married in August 2022 in Proctorsville, Vt. The couple met through an Honors College seminar and were on the same debate team. They currently live in NYC but had lived in Burlington's Old North End while Jess got her master’s degree. The couple say they were thrilled to celebrate with friends and family in Vermont. Daniel St. Pierre and Sarah (Perda) St. Pierre celebrated their wedding in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, on Sept. 10 with lots of fellow Catamounts in attendance!

Send your news to –

Mrs. Grace Louise Buckles Eaton glbuckles@gmail.com

Now entering her fourth year as a staff member in the Rubenstein School, Chelsea L. Davidson married Middlebury College alum Kevin Chu in Middlebury surrounded by family and other UVM and Midd alumni. Just before the academic year began, they road-tripped north to Nova Scotia and PEI in their orange pop-top Honda Element and say they had a blast. Matthew Goguen and Kassandra

Laprade-Seuthe were married in Amherst, Mass. in October 2022. Rachel Markey and Jack Birmingham were married on Sept. 30, 2022, in Bomoseen, Vt. while surrounded by family and friends that included over 30 Catamount alumni, including Andy Lundgren ’68 Arealles Ortiz won the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, presented by the UVM Alumni Association during the Celebrating Excellence gala event at Alumni House during UVM Weekend in October. Hannah Merle Rosen reports, “This past spring/summer, I dusted off my road bike and participated in five triathlons! It was great to see collegiate teams at these events as well, reminding me of my UVM Triathlon team days. Go Cats!”

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

cation and Social Services.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

19

Hailey Elizabeth Nelson is excited to share that she started a new role as a middle school social worker at East Harlem Scholars Academies! Alexandra Julian Shaffer shared the news that Brandon Aguiar graduated from University of Illinois’s Master in Social Work program in August 2022 and has started working at a private practice in Champaign, Ill..

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

16

Eliza Dodge married Nick Usen ’15 in Boston, Mass. on Dec. 17, 2022. The Usens met at UVM in January of 2015. Megan Yeigh married William Strehlow ’09 on Oct. 1, 2022, on Lake George in upstate New York. The couple resides in Portsmouth, N.H. with their two dogs, Rally and Cliff. They both sailed for the UVM Sailing Team and are still supporters.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

20

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

17

Ursula Casey wrote in as she was looking forward to graduating with a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Montana in May 2023 after completing her final clinical rotation in Seattle. In January 2023, we learned that Andrew Driscoll would be among the first Peace Corps volunteers to return to overseas service since the agency’s global evacuation in March 2020. He will be serving as an environment volunteer in Zambia. Aleksey Jordick has been named assistant business manager and part of the Glowaesthetics management team in their South Burlington spa.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

21 Clayton Cafiero G’21 shares the great news that “after completing my degree last year (at age 60!), I've landed my dream job... teaching at UVM. Now I'm a full-time member of the faculty in the Department of Computer Science. Eli Lewis is working in forest policy in Washington, D.C.

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

22

Send your news to –UVM Alumni Association

61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Email: alumni@uvm.edu

Online: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

18

After four years in the sport industry, Katharine Arend has begun a new position in the Office of Institutional Advancement at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass. She is also a part-time lecturer for UVM's College of Edu-

1942 Dorothy Dickinson Darling

1943 Elizabeth Jenks Lane

1944 Emily Howe Dashner

Shirley Buckingham Hendrick

Chester Charles McCabe

1945 Marjorie Rubin Abramson

Thelma Jacobs Wayler

Earlene Webber Westcott

1946 Nancy Hall Baldwin

Mary Backer Hubbard

Harriet Bristol Saville

1947 Mary Laramie Harriman

1948 Audrey Gutterson Batchelder

Julia Hurley Goelz

Stanley Harold Goldman

Sarah Andrews Hackett

Barbara Beattie Hurlbut

1949

Betty Branch Dzelzitis

Roger William Holmes

Mark I. Jurras

Carol Leavitt Levine

Ruth Mason Lord G’53

Rita Bolognani Marchegiani

Ellen Page Reid G’76

1950 Joanne Mollica Babic

Joseph Bennett Dalton

Joseph T. Di Matteo

Rolland G. Duval G’50

Robert H. Gervais

Christian M. Gianola G’50

Wilmot W. Irish

Barbara Greene Jary

Alfred I. Larosa

Mary Schweyer Nostrand

Joseph Papandrea G’51

Earle Darwood Randall

Pincus Peyser G’50

Anthony Trono G’57

Douglas I. Tudhope G’68

1951 Stanley F. Chmielowiec

Roger John Ciufo

Frances Phillips Conklin M.D.’51

Lucien Joseph Cote M.D.’54

David Anthony Dodge

Alan R. Elrick

Raymond G. Harlow

Patricia Greenup Hill

G. Eric Pucher

Erich H. Rutscheidt

William Frederick Schacht, Sr.

Esther Thomas Scharfman

1952 Carolyn Wallace Barnum

Samuel Barrera, M.D.’55

Joseph R. Beauregard, M.D.’66

Bonnie Warner Borton

Nancy Stell Creighton

James Albert Edgerton, Sr. G’65

George A. Krug, Jr.

Gloria Peck MacDonald

Joan Weiss Mines

Joyce Nichols Morale

Arthur J. Pruneau

Walter G. Rockwood

Natalie Little Urban

1953 Bertrand P. Bisson, M.D.’53

Lewis C. Blowers

Patricia Hoilman Brown, M.D.’57

Betty Johnson Buttell

Bryce Bludevich, M.D.’17 passed away in June 2022. A surgeon, researcher, friend, daughter, and sister, she is remembered for her inquisitiveness, rambunctious spirit and competitive nature, a deep interest in Chinese medicine and culture, and the home-baked goods she shared with co-workers. As a student, she participated in the College of Medicine’s Global Health Initiative (studying and serving in Russia and Uganda), and after graduation she worked to maintain the connection between her classmates and UVM as a Class Agent.

Stephen J. Chant, who managed UVM’s Print & Mail Center for many years, passed away in November 2022. Upon retiring from UVM, he was able to devote more of himself to travel, reading, and art (some of which was on display through Burlington’s South End Art Hop event). His colleagues describe him as “like a brother to everyone, and a devoted husband, father, grandfather, family member, and friend.”

Lucien J. Côté ’51, M.D.’54 died in December 2022. He was revered as one of the most respected Parkinson’s disease physicians in the

John W. Carswell

Juanita Barcomb Casey

Clarence E. Fagan, Jr.

Janet Stewart Geer

Ernestine Genine

E. Peter Griffin

Ann Johnson Hartzell

Wayne S. Limber, M.D.’53

Shirley Kime McAneny

Janice Dykhuizen Mudgett

R. Allan Paul

Charlotte Elizabeth Phillips

Jocelyn Gobeille Shaffer

Ruth S. Shaw

Alice Ells Splaine

John Joseph Vatral

George D. Vernimb

Carlene Taft Weaver

1954

Patricia Ely Austin

Karl Greenman

Culver F. Hayes

Barbara Drury Mercer

Janice M. Nelson

Barbara Bach Paskow

Pauline Wescott Schumann

Albert G. Story

Harriet Nicholson Suo

James I. Walsh

1955 Robert Theodore Silvery, M.D.’55

John J. Corskie

George R. Plender

Everett J. Dargie

Clyde B. Doolittle, Jr.

Robert Barstow Abell

United States. For more than 60 years, Dr. Côté served among neurology faculty at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is survived by his wife, Joanne; children Paul Andrew Coté and Gabrielle Côté Crandall ’85; and many other family, friends, and appreciative colleagues. He is the namesake of the Lucien J. Côté, M.D.’54 Endowed Scholarship Fund in the Larner College of Medicine.

Gilman Dedrick ’56 passed away in November 2022. A native of Staten Island, N.Y., he spent summers in Vermont working on farms and developing a deep love for agriculture. A local farmer introduced him to UVM, where he played football, was a proud member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, and, as beloved wife Pat told us, “somehow managed to graduate in 1956 with a degree in agricultural economics and a minor in poultry, despite having what always sounded like way too much fun.” He received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the UVM Alumni Association in 2013 and remained committed to farmers and to agriculture throughout his life.

Richard Louis Gamelli, M.D.’74 died in May 2022. His long and illustrious surgical career included both many years with Loyola Univer-

Beth Elrick Kittel G’71

Betty Kidder McCormack

Marlene Goodenough Carr

Mary Ireland MacCarty

Joan LeViness Szendrey

1956 Lynne Stevens Chase

Carol Coen Dan

Gilman T. Dedrick

J. Ronald Fishbein G’56

Lois Marvin Garvey

George Hughes Hansen, M.D.’61

Richard Jerome Kennedy

Eva Wehtje Lundin

John Louis Noe

Herbert William Simons

Thomas Andrew Woodard

1957

Janice Christie Bailey

Janet Cady Bevins

Nancy Catlin

Helen Minier Clark

K. Putnam Clayton

Robert E. Dempsey, Jr.

Archie S. Golden, M.D.’57

Roger H. Grice

Paul P. Harasimowicz, Jr.

Stuart E. Jacobs G’64

Victor Edward Kendall

Brian F. King

Donald Sanders Luce

Alan Curtis McLam

Donald K. Sherwood

Walter H. Siegel

1958 David Stuart Chase, M.D.’62

John David Egner

Martha D. Fitzgerald G’69

Sandra Phippen Klein

Anita Miller Nathan

Suzanne Hinchey Schmer

Ruth Andrea Seeler, M.D.’62

Lewis M. Slater, M.D.’62

L. Michael Zacchilli

1959 Roger Vail Allen

Linda Nitschke Carstens

Shirley Nichols Christlieb

Charles Robert Dart ’70

Galen Norton Hill

Marylou Armstrong Langdell

Clement C. Looby

Clyde Ormond Lord

Barbara Dunn Lucas

James S. Meyer

John P. Olmstead, D.O., M.P.H.

Peter I. Rabinovitch, M.D.’63

Paul Charles Silver

Harley Tomlinson G’61, ’65

Grace Alele Williams G’59

Nancy Dana Wilson

1960

Jane Wood Andrews

Harold R. Bennett

Flora Tretter Bortner

Paul A. Dye

Arthur P. Marin

Catherine Buggiani May

Robert Adams Mitchell

Hon. Harvey W. Moskowitz

Donald I. Murray

Frederic A. Norton

Stephen G. Pappas, M.D.’60

sity Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and a steadfast connection with the University of Vermont. He offered distinguished service as a member of UVM’s Board of Trustees, and in 2017 he was named the inaugural recipient of the Larner College of Medicine’s Catamount Surgeon Award. In that award ceremony, UVM Professor of Surgery Frank Ittleman, M.D. said, “Dr. Gamelli was given so very much by those who came before him, and he spent the better part of three decades giving back to young surgeons all that he had learned.” He is survived by his wife, Mary, and daughters Liza Gamelli ’06, Amy Gamelli, and Andrea Couture.

Barbara Ann Berg Lewis G’76 died in July 2022. Barbara worked as a chemist to support the family while her husband attended medical school. Following the births of her children, she returned to earn her own graduate degree from UVM in teaching. She went on to teach chemistry to high school and college students (including at UVM) for many years and was honored as the Vermont State Teacher of the Year and recipient of the 1990 Timm Award from the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers. She was a volunteer, a traveler,

Donald Bailey Safford G’74

Richard S. Sagendorph, Jr.

Phillip Schreiber

Frederick S. Sharff

Susan Ramsey Sprigg

1961 William R. Eckhardt

Adele M. Kahwajy

Frederick G. Lippert, III, M.D.’65

David F. Maunsell

J. Paul Molloy

David J. Pallin

1962 Austin C. Cleaves

Carol Billhardt Crafts

George D. H. Hertzberg

M. Joseph Levin

Nancy Streit Sheeler

Robert W. Stone

George S. Talbot

Janet Arthur Toussaint

1963 Ira Robert Adelman

Lawrence P. Cohen

Loren R. Disque

Thomas Joseph Halligan, Jr., M.D.’63

Thomas J. Neapolitano

Helen Williams Newton G’68, ’81

Richard P. Squires

Joan Hindson Towse

1964 Kenneth Wells Burton

Taylor I. Cook, M.D.’64

Edward J. Gallagher

Theodore James Hallee, M.D.’64

Alan H. Lipkin

Joan Mandels Roche

Vaughn H. Selby G’66

and an avid participant in the many activities of her grandchildren. She is survived by a large, loving family, including her husband, John D. Lewis, and daughters Judy Lewis Pugliese, M.D.’89 and Jacquie Lewis-Wang ’89.

J. Paul Molloy ’61 died in June 2022. A dedicated Republican, he lived a long life of civic service, as legislative assistant to Vermont Senator Winston Prouty and as counsel and staff associated with legislation around energy and transportation policy. Colleagues note his personal dedication to bipartisanship; when legislation passed with bipartisan support, Paul would insist that both parties celebrate together. As years passed, alcoholism came to dominate his life. After resistance, he found his way into treatment, eventually joining with other residents to take over the management of their halfway house. From there, Oxford House was born and grew to become an organization of more than 3,000 resident-controlled residences for recovery. He received the 2017 UVM Alumni Achievement Award in recognition of this work. He is survived by his wife, Jane Wells Molloy ’61, their five children, and a large extended family.

Robert H. Wheelock, M.D.’64

1965 James F. Butler, III, M.D.’65

Thomas J. Locke

Bonnie Griesbeck Miscavage

Marcia Saxby Mitchell

Wallace Shakun G’65

Carolyn Heiser Smith

Barbara Grimes Staats

1966 Wallace Leifer

Elizabeth Dragoin Lemmon

Irving A. Salkovitz

Robert George Sellig, M.D.’66

Jeffrey R. Simons, M.D.’66

Marilyn Linsley Stone

Michael L. Winn

1967 John H. Arthur, M.D.’67

Charles Edward Bayha G’67

Richard D. Berk

Joan M. Carter

Titus A. Hale

Mark A. Oliver

Elizabeth Wilson Slayton

Joseph D. Soldano

1968 Elizabeth Prince Allen G’68

Theodore Henry Ansbacher G’65, G‘68

James Paul Durochia

Joseph E. Godard, M.D.’68

Bruce R. Lombard

Bob Mitchell

Libby Kaplan Serota

1969 Michael T. Alexander

John E. Cole, Jr.

John T. Ivers G’71

Susan Stevens Lemmon

Edward Frank McLure

Norman V. Peatman, Jr.

Thomas J. Sandretto

Jack B. Stroker

Roland L. Viens

Elizabeth Lacillade Welch

Ronald N. White, M.D.’69

1970 Jane Greenlaw Fox G’70

George F. Kuntz, Jr.

Brian Ford Lloyd G’70

Joan Solomon London

Richard James Mable ’70, G’77, G’84

Thomas F. MacKin

James M. Norton G’72

David A. Simundson, M.D.’70

Bruce B. Woods

Lois Osgood Zambon

1971 Stanley James Amadon G’71

Robert D. Bates

Richard W. Burgess

Marilyn Roberts Duke G’71

Jean Hardacre Fergus

Carol D. Foley

Harold E. Harvey

Carol Liddiard Hocker

Wallace N. Hubbard, M.D.’71

Donna Drews Laszewski

James Barr McGinniss

Sue Comstock Menard

Nina Joy Nadworny

Thomas Albert Narwid G’71

Lynn F. Sander

Elsie Ries Skolfield

Charles William Stratton, M.D.’71

Helen Williams Newton ’63, G’67 died in March 2022. A lifelong learner and teacher, she was the head of the English Department at Vermont’s Bellows Free Academy and was especially devoted to supporting college-bound students. She remembered UVM in her will, designating funds to create a scholarship to support Vermont students. She and husband John traveled around the world and further built connections with other cultures by hosting exchange students here in Vermont.

Chris Lee Owen died in June 2022. Chris was part of UVM’s Physical Plant department for 18 years and is remembered as a dedicated outdoorsman, a skilled carpenter, a “car guy,” a devoted friend, and a loving parent of Samantha Owen ’19

Ellen Page Read ’49, G’76 died in September 2022. Ellen was a champion of adult literacy who returned to UVM mid-career for her graduate degree in order to serve adult learners with all the skill and passion she could find. She also delivered breech lambs, tended to friends and family with strength and generosity, served as a UVM

Robert George Suhr G’71

Vernon W. Tuxbury, Jr. G’71

1972 Leslee Ann Becker G’72

Marcia Joan Blanchard G’72

John Raymond Catozzi

Gerald V. Clarke G’72

Stephen Cosgrove

Michael D. Folsom

Richard Steven Fraser G’72

Albert O. Green G’72

Raymond A. McConnell, III G’72

James Stewart Robinson

Curlee Washington

Marshall C. Webb

1973 Wendell Floyd Capron G’73

Marilyn Braman Johnson

Roselle Flynn Johnson

Douglas Allan Marsceill

Ann Denise Taylor

1974 Christine Barnes G’74

Joan Leonard Chadbourne

Richard Louis Gamelli, M.D.’74

Ann Craven Lapham

Paula Jean Livingston

Mary C. Mallon

Paul E. Ralston

Lee Raymond Willett, M.D.’74

1975 James Wilder Cummins G’73, M.D.’75

Ann Bissonette Curran G’75

Roxane W. Isbey, Jr.

William Dean Lunna

James E. Royer

1976

Edwin Elijah Alexander

Roy Steven Emrick

Alumni Association volunteer, and downhill skied until she was in her late 80s. She is especially remembered for her love of family, as a kind and welcoming friend, and as an adventurous traveler.

Ruth Andrea Seeler ’58, M.D.’62, known by some as “the other Dr. Ruth,” passed away in October 2022. She was reputedly the first girl to hit a softball over the centerfield fence in the Ardsley, N.Y., public school system, and she went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa with honors from UVM, and from the College of Medicine in 1962, the only woman in her graduating class. She was an extraordinarily dedicated UVM volunteer and donor, and she was legendary for her impact on students, colleagues, and patients of all ages. Dr. Seeler was at the forefront of women physicians who helped change the perception of women in medicine for those who came after.

Richard Willey Simpson, designer of the ceremonial mace carried by the University Marshal at UVM Commencement each year, died in December 2022. Born during a 1934 blizzard to Carl Gilbert Simpson ’27 and Doris Griffith Simpson ’27, he attended

Edward Alexander English G’76

Marjorie Gallup Fitzgerald

James Patrick Hanley, Sr. G’76

Barbara B. Lewis G’76

Jane Tudhope Shearer

Frances Cushman Simpson

Richard F. Thodal

1977 Stephen Edward Bove

William George Hann

Andrew Leonard Major G’77

Lisa Jane Massaro

Mary Lou Perin G’77

Lynn Breitmaier Peixotto

David Bruce Robitille

1978

Debra Thomas Callner

Geoffrey Albrecht Currier

James Robert Dawson

Theodore R. Hatcher, Jr. G’78

George Webb Lawrence

Elinor Bowes Morency G’78

Carl David Powden

Anthony Joseph Racaniello

Robert Douglas Shaw, M.D.’78

McHardy M. Smith

Steven Robert Sweitzer

1979 Lisa Dalessandro

Richard Norman Lavalley

Todd Anthony Leadbeater

Mary Dixon Wittke

1980

Mark Daniel Cook

James Francis Cross

Betty Alberico Durkin

Barbara S. Elsbeth G’80

Jane Rogers Mole G’80

Catherine A. Murphy G’80

1981 Mark Wickwire Knight

John Logan Matkin G’81

1982 Stephanie Ines Pazienza, M.D.’82

Penelope S. Robie

Carl Brennan Russell

1983 Paul Joseph Collins

Robert Jay Darefsky

Vicki Godin Sayarath

William Sands Silsby, III

Robert Marino Vozar

1984 James Duncan McPherson G’84

1985 Rosalie Mogan Angell G’85

John Trowbridge Clark

Deborah Remar Petrovsky

1986 Earlene Gail Demar G’86

Deborah T. Steinberg

Elizabeth Naatz Urbano

1987 S. Lynn Langdon

Douglas Jay Underhill

Eric Magram Weiner

1988 Neal Philip Bunde

Amy S. Ryan-Day

1990 Bernice R. Aber G’90

Colleen Anne Pixley

Timothy David Spitzer G’90

1991 Lynn W. Coddington G’91

1992 Linda Joyce Henzel G’92

Dean Stevan Hinton

Carolyn Elizabeth Vaughan

1993 Sharon C. Goodman G’95

Christopher Michael Reiner

1995 Catherine Marie Yates, M.D.’95

1996 Benjamin Jude Brower

UVM briefly in the 1950s. His rich life was filled with family, a love of history and community, and a long career in graphic and building design that included 30 years of creating hotels that expressed the character of the cities in which they are located. He is survived by Deborah, his wife of 33 years, and his children Karin Cohen-Black and Christopher Simpson.

Neil R. Stout, professor emeritus of history, died on Feb. 3, 2023. He came to teach at UVM in 1964. He specialized in colonial America but ranged widely in his academic work, helping to found UVM’s historic preservation program, directing the university’s program in cultural history and museology, and teaching interdisciplinary courses. After retirement he continued to write, publish, and learn across interests and disciplines; his final piece of published writing appeared in November 2022 in the journal Commonplace, “The Curious Affair of the Horsewhipped Senator: A Diplomatic Crisis That Didn't Happen.” He is survived by many friends and family, including daughter Hilary and companion Elizabeth (Wiz) Dow, G’85.

Jody Utton Burns

Donald Ellis Sharp, Jr.

1997 Stephen Rouech Wagner

1999 Tonya Michelle Cheek

Karen A. Fortner G’99

William Franklin Gladhill

Jennifer Alicia Goulart-Amero

2000 Adam Clifford Brassard

2001 Andrew Scott McKinney

2002 Jennifer Sarah Kendall

2004 Elizabeth Sicard Fabara

2005 Karen M. Geiger

2006 John Spencer Morton

2007 Evan Philip Kamin

2011 Andrew Ian Gagnon, M.D.’11

Jonathan Michael Hausrath G’11

2013 Christopher Bryant Fulton

2014 Stephen James Kling

2016 Thomas Anthony Farrell, Jr.

Adam David Cooperstein

Caitlin J. McFarland M.D.16

2017 Bryce M. Bludevich, M.D.’17

2019 Jesse Dallam Nesbitt

2020 Michael Robert Linton

Nahren-Gherel Ubushin

2021 Peter Gordon Carpe

2022 Anthony Victor Vieriu

Jack Stroker ’69 passed away in November 2022. He is remembered as a star quarterback in his days with UVM Football, a dedicated swimmer and surfer, and a devoted father and grandfather who had the talent for making each person he spoke to feel like they were the most important person in the room. Last year, he turned his talents to helping organize a successful reunion of UVM Football players. He is survived by his wife, Lynne Stroker; their children Ryan, Robby, and Chelsea; an extended family; and many close friends.

Growing Each Other Up

My team and I at the Mosaic Center for Students of Color call ourselves a work family. A new teammate described our staff meetings as a “banquet feast of rich reflection.” I see them as a centered space for personal connection—even as we focus on our work. And once, a lunchtime event was themed a “Rice Throwdown” because all our foods that day revolved around the humble grain—our work family, sharing a meal together, while honoring the global cultures that rely on rice. This kinship model extends to the way we work with students and campus partners. We are professional with a twist, exhibiting a culturally different way of doing our job that allows us to infuse humor, play, and yes, love, into the way we labor. Our students invite us to their community events, weddings, and funerals. Regularly they tell us they wish they could live at the Mosaic Center because they feel seen, cared for, and safe—just what you’d hope for in a family.

Grounded in this supportive work community, I’ve been able to show up at UVM as my authentic self. There have been occasional challenges, but the successes (which have surprised me sometimes) spur me on. This is what I’ve worked for: the right of each of us to be fully present at UVM. The Mosaic Center is a powerful place for students and staff, together, to construct an on-campus environment that moves us toward that goal.

As I prepare to “retire” at the end of this academic year, I am letting go of more than a job or a mere place of employment. I am leaving the village in which I’ve grown up over the last 22 years. I see now that all my relationships have mattered, even those that were brief or difficult. I can appreciate the administrator who insisted on holding a budget bottom line as I advocated for breaking it. The tensions in our dialogue, coupled with mutual respect, led to a better outcome that supported access but didn’t break the bank. I have been a part of the action, mixing it up with my colleagues as we strive for a UVM shaped by all of our voices. In

recent years, this institution heard our students who activated for change. Having the will to progress led to a new name for our library—a place of learning that now more authentically reflects our common value of uniting against injustice. I am proud of UVM when we choose to stay vibrantly alive, wrestling with the call to move forward differently.

I’m excited to pass the work into the hands of the next generation who will move us forward. Because of the young adults I know, I have faith. They have raised me as much as I’ve raised them. From them I have learned that I am Afro-Latina; that I do have a critical relationship with Mother Earth; that I can lead the way a mother does and have professional impact. Rooted in my many families, I am ready for a new way to give myself to the world. As I leave UVM, I will rely on what I have learned: that all of us, young and old, are “growing each other up.”

Beverly Belisle, Director UVM Mosaic Center for Students of Color

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FOR WELL OVER TWO HUNDR ED YEAR S, the University of Vermont has provided students the opportunity to improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the lives of their communities.

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</WE, ROBOTS

Tina Escaja, University Distinguished Professor of Spanish and director of UVM’s program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, discusses what it means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence, along with philosophy professor Randall Harp and roboticist Joshua Bongard. Follow their conversation at length on Pg. 52.